the Act of Uniformity, while it was a measure in contemplation? Many hundreds of the most pious and best qualified of the clergy are on the point of being excluded from the useful stations which they occupy as Christian teachers! What a subject for the serious consideration of real Christians! And it is one, not of hypothesis-not of possibility, but of fact. 6 The state of the Episcopal Church after this expulsion of its purest and most faithful ministers, gradually deteriorated, till Evangelical preaching became almost annihilated within its pale, and heretical pravity overspread the land. The Act of Uniformity, therefore, if the visible means of saving mankind be of primary consideration to a Christian, cannot fail of receiving his condemnation, as a measure fraught with incalculable mischief, and directly tending to accomplish the everlasting ruin of souls. If there are those who do not view it in this light, can their eye be single? Other interests than those of truth, and other fears than those which the apprehension of men's perishing in ignorance and sin awakens, must predominate in their minds. Forbidding the Apostles to speak to the Gentiles that they might be saved,' was the circumstance of guilt which filled up the measure of Jewish criminality, and prepared the Jewish people for the day of Divine vengeance. The Act of Uniformity and the proceedings of its advisers and enactors towards the Nonconformist ministers, were directed to a purpose precisely similar: "Forbidding them to speak to men, that they might be saved." The conduct of the patronisers of this Act, is utterly incapable of defence in the judgement of those who identify all that constitutes salvation with the preaching of the Gospel. If there be circumstances which prevent any class of persons from bearing down the full tide of their reprobation on this infamous Act, they are clearly those which have no connexion with the simplicity of Christian truth. The contrast which the Established Church' presents to the primitive Church of Christ, is prominently striking? The spirit and the principles of the former bear no resemblance to those of the latter. The primitive Church was spiritual; the Church of England is a temporal institute, an establishment formed of a political basis, and governed by political laws. Its Constitution and Acts convey, we apprehend, no very incorrect notion of what was not in our Lord's mind, when he asserted that his kingdom was not of this world, and all candid discerning men may easily perceive, that laws which could not be executed without silencing and ruining Christian Ministers, who were exemplary in their office, and blameless in their lives, could not originate in the acknowledgement of Christ's authority, nor be intended for the furtherance of spiritual objects. The ejectment of the two thousand divines, could not have occurred in a purely spiritual Church; and while this infamous transaction stands recorded in ecclesiastical history, it will be a prominent proof that the Church Establishment is a secular and a political institute. These discourses exhibit nothing which indicates indifference towards the truth, or betrays the neglect of spiritual interests. They abound with forcible inculcations to Christians of a proper attention to their religious duties. The preachers strenuously exhort their hearers to attend a ministry calculated to promote their spiritual welfare. And this conduct, it may be remarked, is the very reverse of what some Evangelical clergymen of the present day have recommended. More than one instance might be produced, where stated attendance in the parish Church has been inculcated as the duty of the people from whom their evangelical Pastor was about to remove, and his successor might be a deceiver of the people,' a preacher of error, not of truth. Attendance on a preacher of damnable doctrine,' doctrine which the evangelical pastor has denounced as destructive to the souls of men, has been indirectly urged as a duty, in preference to attendance on the ministrations of a pastor, out of the Church, whose doctrine and manner of life accord with the doctrine and practice of the clerical adviser. On what principles acknowledged by the Gospel can such advice be founded? Ought a minister of Christ to be accessary to the diffusion of error? Can he be acquitted of the charge of aiding in the administration of death, by taking part with those who present to the lips of men the poisoned chalice' instead of the water of life? There are clergymen, we well know, who are honourable exceptions, whose counsels better accord with their professions: but it is painful to remark that any man bearing the name of a Christian Teacher, and occupying no mean place as an Evangelical clergyman in the Church, should symbolize with error that involves eternal death, as he assuredly does who aids its operations by giving, in any circumstances, and for any reasons whatever, his sanction to a practice which infallibly exposes to such a peril. The depreciation of truth in any case is one of the highest of moral offences. We should fail in our duty in reviewing the Sermons before us, were we not to notice the truly Christian temper which pervades them. They were delivered under circumstances of the most painful kind. Their Authors had received harsh and unmerited treatment, and experienced the sharpest provocations. They had wives and children for whom they wished to provide; they had friends among whom they would have fondly remained; they had homes to the attractions of which they were feelingly alive; but all these they were compelled for conscience' sake to abandon! Yet, such was their patience under injuries, so well did they support their Christian character, that in these their last public addresses, no bitter invective, no imprecations, no improper expressions, escape their lips. Do not,' says Dr. Jacomb, add affliction to affliction; be not uncharitable in judging of us, as if through pride, faction, obstinacy, or devotedness to a party, or which is worse than all, in opposition to authority, we do dissent. The Judge of all hearts knows it is not so: but it is merely from those apprehensions which after prayer, and the use of all means do yet continue that doing thus and thus, we should displease God; therefore deal charitably with us in this day of our affliction. If we be mistaken, I pray God to convince us; if others be mistaken, whether in a public or private capacity, I pray God in mercy to convince them.' p. 156. I know you expect I should say something as to my non-conformity. I shall only say thus much. It is neither fancy, faction, or humour, that makes me not to comply, but merely for fear of offending God. And if after the best means used for my illumination; as prayer to God, discourse, study, I am not able to be satisfied concerning the lawfulness of what is required: if it be my unhappiness to be in error, surely men will have no reason to be angry with me in this world, and I hope God will pardon me in the next." Dr. Bates's Sermon, p. 181. Seeing this is like to be the last opportunity that I shall have to speak to you from this place, being prohibited to preach unless upon such terms as I confess my conscience dares not submit unto.-Could I see a sufficient warrant from the word of God for those ceremonies and other things that are enjoined, I should readily submit unto them; for I can take the great God to witness with my conscience that nothing in the world grieveth me a hundredth part so much as to be hindered from the work of the ministry, and to be disabled from serving my great master Christ in that employment. But seeing I cannot find my warrant thence, I dare not go against my conscience and do evil that good may come.-I dare not give my assent or consent to any thing in God's worship, which is not warranted from his word; but I think it the lesser evil of the two to expose myself to sufferings in the world, rather than to undergo the checks and reproaches of a wounded and grieved conscience.' Mr. Gaspine's Sermon, p. 392. This volume contains the farewell discourses of Calamy, Manton, Caryl, Case, Jenkin, Baxter, Jacomb, Bates, Watson, Lye, Mede, Newcomen, Brookes, Collins, Gaspine, Seaman, and Evanke. The names of these divines are so well known, and most readers of theological works are so well acquainted with the character of their writings, that we need not extend our observations on this republication of their valedictory discourses. We shall transcribe a paragraph from Mr. Gaspine's Sermon, as that of an Author who is less known by his writings than most of his associates. "Is not the kingdom of heaven that thou art entitled to, enough to make thee amends for all thy trouble and calamities in the end? Art thou troubled by the profane world, and vexed up and down by thy enemies, and not suffered to rest in quiet? And is it not enough for thee that the kingdom of heaven is the place of thine eternal rest and happiness, where thou shalt be for ever advanced above their reach? Art thou exposed to the loss of thy place and estate in the world, and will not an incorrupted crown of glory and an eternal inheritance among them that are sanctified, make thee amends for those petty losses that thou sustainest here? Art thou the offscouring of the world here? And is it not enough that thou shalt be glorified in the presence of saints and angels hereafter? Art thou slandered and reproached by the world? And is not this enough to support thee that thou shalt be acquitted at the bar of Christ? Dost thou suffer the loss of liberty? And art thou under restraint and imprisonment, and is not this enough to comfort thee, that thou art free from the captivity and fetters by which so many thousands in the world are led captive by Satan at his pleasure, and that thou art free from the prison of hell? Put the case (which is the greatest trouble that a godly man can undergo in the world) thou art to lose thy life for the sake of Christ, and of a good conscience, however a believer's interest in the kingdom of heaven should keep him from being dismayed at that loss; an eternal life of happiness and glory will be enough to recompence thee a thousand fold for loss of this frail life.' p. 377. We hope every person, especially every Protestant Dissenting Minister, to whom the principles of religious liberty are, or ought to be, dear, and the memories of the Nonconformist divines, venerable, and who may not possess the original publication, will avail himself of the opportunity of adding it to his collection of books. To inspire an enlightened regard for the men who ventured life and all its endearing objects to obtain the freedom of man as the worshipper of his Creator, and the subject of religion, and for the principles which they asserted, it is only necessary for every man to put this question to his own mind: What would or might have been the state of this country, and the condition of its inhabitants, at the present day, had no resistance been offered to the measures of ecclesiastical rulers combined with the powers of civil government? That inquiry is worthy of the minds of all rational creatures, and we recommend it to all our readers. Art. IX. The Poetic Mirror, or the Living Bards of Great Britain. 12mo. pp. 275. MR. (Concluded from Page 512.) R. WORDSWORTH is the third on the list of contributors, and we have no fewer than three poems, entitled, "The Stranger," "The Flying Tailor," and "James "Rigg," purporting to be further portions of "The Recluse.' The Author has evidently taken his estimate of Mr. Wordsworth's genius, from the Edinburgh Review, and he appears to deem his poetry the finest subject for broad burlesque. So far as his aim is to afford diversion, he completely succeeds; and he could not have succeeded by any other mode of imitation. Wordsworth, in his more elevated moods, in his matchless descriptions of natural scenery, in his exquisitely pathetic touches of feeling and character, may defy alike imitation and ridicule ; but when misled by system he ventures to be prosaic and colloquial, or falls into a strain of mysticism peculiar to himself, or attempts to dress out sage Philosophy in a slouched hat, threadbare coat and gaiters, then Mr. Wordsworth comes fully within reach of mimicry. And if mimicry could but laugh him out of some of his eccentricities, this Poetic Mirror would be of essential service in shewing him his gait and gesture. That poetry must have some vice of style attached to it, which is susceptible of any imitation like the following, that should have the power of forcibly recalling the original. It boots not here to tell all that was said. And drink the souls of things-of living things |