referred, in a preceding article. How has the voice of the Church of England, how has the voice of religion been stifled by this fatal mixture, during the present contest! Who would think that the religious part of the Protestant clergy of England could be kept silent as they have been? Or, if it were possible to conceive this, who would think that a pro-Catholic party was to be found in the Protestant clergy of Ireland; and there, there, on the very arena of the conflict, exercising a baleful influence on the religious press? Who would believe, what was publicly stated at one of the late religious anniversaries, that a great wish, to restrict the exertions of a devoted lay-apostle of the Gospel in that land, was manifested by the evangelical clergy of Dublin? Thus all was distrust, and uncertainty, when all should have been decision: and even among professors of religion who still seem true, such is the present state of things, that the least word of favour towards Popery, the least expression of a mitigated feeling, produces instant, and, we may say, just suspicion. We begin to think, "Surely this is only a decoy-bird, left amongst us by the other party.' He did not go over with them in the common flight. He does not at once take wing and join them. He is lingering for a while behind, to try whether, by all the arts and antics that decoy-birds use, he cannot persuade a few to go with him. Only put him to the test-speak of Popery in plain rough terms, such as its true character and the times require-lo, he is off-he is gone-with perhaps one or two more in companycackling something, in his flight, about altered circumstances, undue violence, and the march of intellect :-and mark! there he lights, with the rest of the flock. We have now seen him home.

But a change to Popery, or to the support of Popish claims, (for we intentionally confound the two things, deeming them one,) on the part of any individual who has maintained a religious profession, must ever be regarded with the deepest and most serious concern. The process, we conceive, by which the change takes place, is neither more nor less than a process of spiritual intoxication. There arises a confusion of ideas. A man begins to lose the power of distinguishing between truth and falsehood in religion, between right and wrong. This soon affects his speech. He begins not only to see double, but to talk double. He drops ambiguous expressions that fill us with profound alarm. Thus he goes on from bad to worse. He has long had the truth before him: perhaps he has played with it: perhaps he is beginning to renounce some part of it that he never cordially received:-till at length he comes to believe a lie! Thus his mind undergoes a process of intoxication. Behold, he is drunk! The great whore has made him drunk with the

the

cup of the wine of the wrath of her fornication! This is what is now going on. Some are already deep in the delirious cup : but many have taken the first sip; Christian brethren among number. Let us beware, then, of the beginnings of this fatal intoxication. How do we strive to preserve a man from drunkenness? We strive to check the earlier stages, the first cup: knowing that, when this is swallowed, there will be the less power to check another, and another, and another. Beware, then, of the BEGINNINGS of Popery.

And now, from the present aspect of affairs, let us pass on to consider the COURSE TO BE PURSUED by us. And here, of many things that might be urged, we purpose to dwell but upon two; namely, separation, and union.

With regard to separation, we have already seen the evils of a mixture. Through this mixture, Popery triumphed. Through this mixture, the church of Christ, in opposing Popery, is now kept, to a great degree, in a state of inefficiency. This must ever be the case, while the mixture lasts. The moral characteristic of Papal Rome is laxity of principle, mental obliquity: and with this, more or less, she infects and taints all who in any degree favour her, hold communication, or maintain a good understanding with her. Such communication is adulterous in every case, and this infection is its accursed mark. Hence we must be separate. We know that we are in danger of giving offence, and startling some, by avowing this our conviction; but such it is. Ere there can be any just or decided success, to those who profess themselves the opponents of Popery on religious grounds, our conviction is that our principles must be much purified, and therefore our number much reduced.

Our theory is sweeping. We except none. It includes all who have favoured the Catholics, be they bishops.-We are not speaking now of bishops in general merely; but of religious bishops, of evangelical bishops. However pious, we deem that their conduct has brought their piety in question. However high, the standard of their religion is now lowered. We see them in a new position. As to their ecclesiastical character, as guardians of the English Church, they stand divested of it, by their own acts. If they persevere, they destroy themselves. But even should they in good time repent and recant, it still remains a question whether they can ever recover that stability, and personal authority, which shall again entitle them to the church's confidence. But we dwell, also, on their peculiar character, as religious bishops; standing apart, as such, from the majority of the bench. This also they have brought in question. They have relieved us, indeed, from the painful duty, of urging a separation from them; for they have separated

themselves. In a word, they have so totally departed, with others of the body, from the true primitive character, both spiritual and ecclesiastical, of a bishop of the English church, that they will have no reason to be surprised at any thing that, in the coming troubles, may shortly befal them, even to the loss of that charge which they have accepted but not fulfilled.

Nor do we except other orders of the clergy. We are confident that it would be a kindness to some individuals that we could name, to let them know what by many is now said and thought of them; of which, therefore, we give them a hint. Perhaps it might yet serve to awaken them, were they to know the feelings of which they are the objects: standing as they do on the ground of plausible principles; but principles that an instant discovers to be false, when we see, in those who hold them, a new race, so different from the race of the Reformers, the fathers of a new style and order in the Presbytery of the Church of England. On the whole, our feeling certainly is, that a line ought to be drawn somewhere. The man opposed to the Popish interests, who lets into his pulpit a man who favours them, is answerable for the consequences to his people. And if, upon the opportunity thus offered, an attempt is made, directly or indirectly, as very likely it will be, to poison their minds by influencing them upon the question, on what principle can he complain ?-It may now be deemed presumptuous in us, that we object to this mixture: it may be thought extraordinary hereafter, that it ever was so long endured.

After separation comes union: which hitherto we have not had, and, under existing circumstances, cannot have: union in heart, union in action; union in spirit, union in prayer ; union in antipathies, union in protests, against legislative iniquities, and spiritual abominations, that threaten to overwhelm us. Once let us be able to trust each other, then may we also begin to understand each other, and to act together.

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But this," it may be said, " is your professed object. You have already on a former occasion urged the necessity of union. Why, then, do you now plead for separation?"-Because it is by separation alone that union is to be maintained. Whenever those, of whom we now complain, recover themselves, let them with all joy be once more acknowledged. At present, our numbering them amongst us hinders our acting in union: they have prevented harmony and co-operation. They stand indeed like a regiment that has lost its colours: nor can they be restored to their former credit, till demonstrations have been made, and deeds have been done, that shall wipe away the blot. And let all be cautious. A small stain needs much labour to remove it. The slightest taint of Popery, once shewn, will take a great deal

to rub it out. Let our union be on the largest scale: but let us know that it is real, and that there is no delusion.

Such union, then, we cordially desire; but some have thought that they see farther, and that it is not to be. It seems as if our present condition were peculiar; and, whereas the Lord usually conquers by a united army, as if he designed to win his final triumphs by a broken host. For there are reasons, which lead us to apprehend that separation must continue. As the shades of night draw on, the conflict still proceeds, for the enemy continues his assaults. The hosts of the Lord still hold their ground: but by extraordinary violence, and infernal tactics, the foe has broken and pierced their ranks at every point, till what was once a well ordered line, is now severed into detached masses, each standing for its own defence, amidst the shocks of cavalry that make streets among their battalions, and the plunging of balls that rake the field. Thus must it be for not a corps of the whole line dares trust its neighbour: if two regiments form a square together, one may be broken, and then both are lost: therefore each prefers to fight alone. If the square next our own stands the enemy's charge, three hearty cheers from us, but we cannot join them; nor, when our turn comes, can they join

us.

:

In this state of the battle, the enemy says that we are already beaten; and, by all the rules of war, ought to quit the field. Even now he prepares his grand attack, that is to finish all, upon our broken line; and how can we stand it?But stand we will. To these weary, these shattered, these detached battalions, the victory is decreed: and as, from our solitary and unsupported station, we cast our eye along the indented but not bending line, who shall describe the secret joy with which we tell the foe, that his defeat is yet foredoomed! Soon shall these broken bands wheel once more into front: the order of battle again be formed and the whole advance together, one host, under one Captain, with shouts of victory!

FIELD PREACHING.

As, when the devils were about to be cast out of the man, they begged permission to enter into the herd of swine, so now, when Satan sees himself in danger of losing ground in one way, he tries to keep it in another. By irreverence, levity, or lip-worship in congregations, by false doctrine in teachers, he has long held possession in many of our churches. But seeing that, in some of them, he is now losing ground, he strives to hold it in the neighbourhood. Often he maintains himself by the abomi

nable public-house system: as De Foe observes, unless our memory mislead us,

"Wherere the Lord erects a house of prayer,

The devil is sure to build an alehouse there."

In and about London his arts are various. In the immediate vicinity of the metropolis, we sometimes have the preaching of the truth, and the ministry of God's ordinances, going on in church or chapel; and vice, tumult, sabbath-breaking, fighting, and blasphemy, in the fields hard by. In the city itself, we have wisdom crying in the pulpit, and folly and drunkenness close at hand in the street. Hence some pastors have been deluded into a kind of compact with Satan. They go on preaching on their own ground, but let the devil and his strong holds alone. Thus the minister and Satan take each his own course: and, if not able to retain all, our great enemy seems very willing thus to compound, and keep the greater part. All will he keep if he can but if not, then, " Let us each go on his own way. You keep your flock in the church or chapel; and leave the worthless thousands, that stroll about the fields and streets and roads, to me. Do you let me alone, and I will let you alone." The proposition is on a liberal basis ;-in these days we love liberality ;--and many accept it.

Thus Satan gains his end. But we denounce this system as bad, as fatal: and moreover we hold that one way of assailing it is by street-preaching and field-preaching. If ministers wish to do any good, they must begin to go out into the fields and streets, and preach there. And we are happy to know, that a beginning has been made. We are not speaking of those excellent men, who are expressly sent forth on this work. We allude to the minister of a dissenting chapel, with a regular congregation and extensive duties. He, as we understand, passing on a Sunday morning through a large space of ground to the left of the Hackney road, called The London Fields, had his spirit stirred within him by seeing the wickedness there prevailing; and determined in the Lord to go forth regularly into the throng on the Sabbath, (at an early hour, that his chapel duties might still proceed,) and preach Jesus Christ. A quarter before seven is the time: the chapel is at hand, should the weather prove unfavourable: and the audience, we hear, is numerous, orderly, and attentive. Our word of encouragement to all such, is, "We wish you good luck in the name of the Lord:" and to every minister besides, be he Dissenter, be he Churchman, "Go, and do thou likewise."

We regret that the series of letters on Holland is suspended for the present.