American Churches.

inevitably assume a persecuting character. In fact, this ignorance of
the imprescriptible claims of conscience was not their fault in particular;
it was the common fault of all, and of the time. Humanity on the
one hand, and restriction or persecution on the other, were the only
forms in which religion appeared: and although the principles of liberty
were to be developed by the searching hand of intolerance, it was not
to be expected that they should be appreciated, adopted, and matured,
without a considerable lapse of time and experiment. The efforts
made, in these youthful settlements, in favour of prescription and
endowment, and the counter efforts peacefully made in favour of
perfect religious freedom, supply evidence, which is so interesting, that
it cannot be neglected; and so strong, that prejudice itself cannot put
it down.

"While in every case the results have been the same, the methods of This makes it somewhat difficult to reaching them have been various.

treat them, but it necessarily increases the power of the testimony. "In Virginia, the Episcopal Church was established by law; the law was tried in both its forms: without the toleration, and afterwards with For nearly a century it was the excluthe toleration, of other sects. sive religion of the State; it was endowed, and all parties were compelled to contribute to its support. The consequence was, any thing but what a good Episcopalian would desire. Unworthy and incompetent men, in search of respectability or emolument, made the Church a prey. Having nothing to apprehend from the people, or the rivalry of sects, they became careless and indolent, and frequently dissolute. The statements abound, and are most painful: the pastors generally neglected the people, and the people despised and forsook the pastors; so that the system was dead, even while it retained the visible forms of existence.

"It was then tried with toleration. This alteration admitted the other sects to enter the State; and, without direct hinderance, to labour for the instruction and salvation of the people. The privileged Clergy, however, despised their rivals; and all sects were still taxed for their benefit,-it concerned them little by what name they were called; and they continued to repose on their supplies, in indolence and security. If they slept, the oppressed sectarians did not sleep. Their efforts were not in vain and these, with the reckless negligence of the endowed party, and the changes effected by the Revolution, prepared the State for an improved method.

"It was felt that all could no longer be made to support one; and it was proposed that all should be assessed for the benefit of all the denominations. This, however, was declined; the Dissenting bodies protesting most nobly against any participation in the benefit of such a tax. Finding them firm in the rejection of all State allowance, an act was passed in 1775, to relieve them from all contributions towards the support of the Established religion; and eventually the whole question was disposed of, and the whole country satisfied, by placing all denominations on one footing; by knowing them only as civil corporations, and withholding all allowance.

"As quickly after this as the circumstances would allow, the Epis copal Church revived, and placed itself on equal terms with its com

peers. To this time it has continued to advance. It has now fifty-five clergymen devoted to their work, who are superintending affectionate and thriving flocks; and it is spreading itself on every hand, having good report among the people."--Vol. II. pp. 132–135.

Was this the cause really?

A FEW WORDS TO THE YEOMEN OF ENGLAND UPON THEIR ESTABLISHED CHURCH.

BY PIERCE PLOUGHMAN.

It is, gentlemen, a fact too notorious for dispute, that the Established Church of England has been attacked of late years with great rancour and violence. In this labour the dissenter, the infidel, and the papist, have formed a coalition equally unnatural and impious. The one has hoped she was wrong, the other has feared lest she was right. The infidel, imagining that all religion is, to say the best of it, a splendid chimera, has found her standing a perpetual witness against his unbelief, and every where neutralizing its pernicious influence. Hence, he has uninterruptedly agitated for the overthrow of the Establishment; eagerly uniting with persons who denounce him as a reprobate, and whom he would designate the veriest votaries of abject superstition. The dissenter, on the other hand, attempts to neutralize her influence, if not to annihilate her existence, upon two grounds;-professedly, because he contends that her form of ecclesiastical government is erroneous-really, because she directly interferes with his scheme for aggrandizement and political power. That numerous and prolific class, who are indifferent to all religion, oppose the Church, not because she holds certain opinions, but because she exists to form them at all; not because she is mistaken, but because they do not want any to be right. While, finally, the papist,-yearning for a renewal of that unlimited supremacy, which the English Church first and most successfully denounced, anxious to see her monastic institutions on every hill, and, by a necessary consequence, martyrdoms in every vale,-moves heaven and earth, employs the arts of persuasion and of force alike, and enlists the machinations of the cabinet, the midnight murder, or the softest tones of jesuitical courtesy, with equal frequency and complaisance, to destroy the great bulwark and stronghold of protestantism.

These parties clamorously invite you to join their ranks. They say you are oppressed with vexatious tithes; laden with the incubus of an uscless and even pernicious institution; and that you cannot anticipate any ultimate prosperity or happiness, until you have thrown off that national curse, the Church of England. Before, however, you yield assent to these sweeping charges, it will be but fair and right for you to weigh the consequences of what you would do, and not to decide, at least hastily, against an institution, around which your forefathers so often rallied, and for which so many of them joyfully shed their blood. It becomes a bounden duty you owe to them and your children, accurately to inquire into the causes for which your ancestors founded

the Church, and you have hitherto so nobly supported it. You must ask whether it be not the richest legacy you can transmit unimpaired to posterity. In the pursuit of this important inquiry, allow me to offer you some thoughts that have greatly influenced my own mind; so greatly, indeed, that I have solemnly determined not to desert the venerable fabric of my fathers as long as I live. On the contrary, I will stand by it through evil and through good report, striving only to increase its purity, and extend its usefulness.

In making my observations, I shall not enter into any elaborate account of the most exclusively theological points of the general argument in defence of the Establishment. I shall not say whether or not it represents in its great leading features the early Christian Church; or whether or not its form of government is strictly apostolical. But because I pass over these subjects,-on each of which a volume might be written, it must not be supposed that I am indifferent to their value. I believe them fully borne out by testimony of the clearest and most satisfactory kind; and only do not plead them now, because I want to confine myself to a practical view of the question,-one that comes home directly to our own individual wishes and wants,-one that does not require long time, and close attention, and involved reasoning, (as is the case with all strictly theological argument,) but a view we can understand and appreciate at all times and under all circumstances.

I am sure, that whatever may be the peculiarities of your individual opinions, you are generally believers in a future state; and not only in one where all will live for ever, but where the good will be rewarded and the wicked punished. And you believe that all must thus be finally separated; poor as well as rich, unwise as well as wise, small as well as great. On this point most of you are agreed; and whether you trust yourselves to be living godly lives or not,-whether you are solemnly endeavouring to do the will of your divine Creator, and striving to gain everlasting happiness in the way he has commanded,or whether you know you are at once acting contrary to his entreaties and the voice of your own conscience, one thing at least is certain, that you feel a wish TO GO TO HEAVEN. You earnestly desire also that your children and your dependents, your families and friends, may reach that delightful and peaceful place, there to live for ever in the enjoyment of something, whatever it may be, which you call happiness.

If this be your belief, then I think you must feel sincerely anxious HOW TO GET THERE. Though many of you are very much engrossed in business and the cares of this life,-cares which may have been increased by the depression of your interests, there are moments when this thought will, unasked and uncalled, force itself upon your notice; and the fact, that you have so long supported the Established Church, proves incontestably that you think Christianity is the only way by which you can reach heaven.

You must, however, have perceived, in your intercourse with mankind, that this Christianity not only gives men a sure and well-founded hope of heaven, but it renders them invaluable to their neighbours here upon earth. Show me, gentlemen, one who proves himself to be a real Christian, and you will show me a faithful friend, a good and

obedient servant, a dutiful child, an excellent citizen;-noble, though he lives in a hovel ;-above any thing mean and dishonourable, though he has not more than a shilling he can ever call his own. If you tell me you have met with many who professed to be very religious, and were not of this character, I reply, "do not mistake cant for religion, and appearance for piety; more especially, do not take an exception for a rule." I think you cannot help granting me one position; namely, that a religious man, a man who endeavours by God's help to be a sincere Christian, is better for the present, because he has higher hopes of the future. And of this I am sure,-if all were Christians, we might take the locks from our doors, the defences from our property ;-bonds and prisons would be done away with; and that heaven, to which we look forward, would be realized here on the earth. To come to some particular and familiar instances in illustration of the good of religion,— and I mean by that, Christianity,-did you ever know a truly religious man, or one you had thought very religious, ever set fire to your ricks? Did you ever know such an one disturbing the peace of your village by drunkenness and brawling? or injuring you by stealing your sheep, your fences, your agricultural produce?

It

The next question that will naturally excite your attention is, how this Christianity may be most effectually published abroad? If it be the best thing in the world for every man, you must or ought to be desirous that every man should have a knowledge of its benefits. will be necessary also that he not only be informed once, or twice, but constantly. He must have line upon line, and precept upon precept. He must have the joys it offers to the good, and the misery it denounces against the bad, statedly declared. He must, if possible, be educated from his earliest childhood in a knowledge of heaven and hell, and imbibe the fact of his solemn accountability for himself before God, with the very morning of his youth. This is the only way you can possibly expect to reap all the advantages of the system to yourselves in rendering you happy here,-happy, though your cup of misfortune be as full as it is bitter,—and happy beyond the grave. And this is the only way you can apply it to those around you, whom you love and esteem yourself, or whom at least you wish to love and esteem you, in making them holy and useful.

How again is this publication to be made? for I must assume that you wish that the religion alluded to may be universally preached. If you do not, I am thankful you represent a very small minority of British farmers. I thank God such are not the opinions generally of the old yeomen of England. Baptized with many a prayer by their reverend fathers, whose heads are now silvered with age, or sweetly sleep beneath the consecrated turf of the village churchyard,-educated at the ancient and beloved parish grammar-school, and now forming the generation to whom posterity will look,-accustomed from their infancy to say, "Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Ghost;" "We praise thee, O God, we acknowledge thee to be the Lord,"-they wish that their little ones may learn to lisp the same anthems, to "pray" the same prayers," and offer the same thanksgivings. They desire that the beautiful summaries of Christian duty, embodied in the catechism, may be still taught in effect, if not in the same words; and

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with joy do I say it, the only great question at present mooted is, by whom and how shall all this be done?

My reply is, first, that it cannot possibly be done by those who advocate what is invidiously called the voluntary system. Go and converse with any of these persons, and press them on this point;— how far are you immediately prepared to supply England with stated, regular, respectable, and dignified religious worship? Are you ready immediately to meet the wants of our crowded population? I say immediately, because, while I am writing these lines, and while you will be reading them, numbers in the length and breadth of the land are "lacking knowledge,"-numbers, many of whom are just about to exchange this world for another. Tell them we have no time to stop and quietly weigh, in studious leisure and retirement, the comparative value of systems. The world is perishing in wickedness and hopelessness; nay, our next-door neighbours are perishing; and we owe it to God, and to every benefit he has so richly bestowed upon us, to supply them to the best of our power with religious instruction. We cannot wait until you have organized your systems, have built your colleges, and educated your emissaries;—we cannot wait till you have formed your congregations to pay the expense of those who will not. We have tens of thousands of poor, for whom Christianity is more especially desirable, and is the only system that has ever directed itself to them. How are these to be taught the way to heaven? Then we live in scattered hamlets and remote villages. We could not support a minister, except by that tax upon the land, by which he is at present paid. We have no wealth to tempt avarice,* or numbers to flatter ambition. We cannot talk of large chapels and splendid congregations, and all the suffocation both mental and physical, of Dissent. And we must, finally, have those who will devote themselves and their talents, not to the construction of measured periods and stately grandiloquence, but to the study of the most perfect simplicity, that the roughest ploughman may understand and learn. By the time you had stated all this, the Voluntary must have felt, if he did not acknowledge, some little difficulty.

It must be acknowledged, by all not absolutely blinded by prejudice, that the present times are peculiarly alarming. Infidelity has allied itself to liberalism and popery, and all these are acting in concert. You are told to connect freedom with the religion of the rack, free institutions with scepticism and hopelessness, and to expect nothing but goodness and perfect truth from statesmen, who either laugh at all religion, or cling to the grossest fallacies. By this specious connexion we are all liable to be led astray. So much is the love of freedom implanted in every English heart, that it is liable to trust any adventurer who comes forward in the defence of its favourite and cherished

I must confess, that at first, I wrote only "ambition;" but I recollected a passage which occurs in one of Job Orton's letters, and that caused the insertion of the word "avarice." Job Orton says, that he never knew the dissenting teachers of London join UNANIMOUSLY on any project except one. And what was that? The aggrandizement of the voluntary system? The overthrow of the Established Church? No! The momentous object of their union (and a circular letter to their congregations was the consequence), turned out TO BE THE INCREASE OF THEIR SALARIES! On such a point as this; Job Orton is no contemptible authority.