&c. &c. By the Rev. RICHARD YATES, B.D. and F.S.A. Chaplain to his Majesty's Royal Hospital Chelsea, Rector of Ashen, and Alternate Preacher to the Philanthropic Society. 8vo. pp. 226. London. Rivington. 1815.

THE work which we are about to notice, possesses a peculiar claim to the attention of the public. We have perused it with a mixture of pleasure and regret,-pleasure at seeing an excellent remedy proposed for a great evil, and regret at perceiving the extent of that evil. Mr. Yates's exposition of it is one for which we were not fully prepared. We had indeed been accustomed to apprehend some danger to our establishment, and from the quarters to which our attention is directed. But we certainly had not felt that the danger was so overwhelming as it is now represented; that the assailants were so nearly at our doors; and that the call for resistance had become so loud and urgent. Respectable characters had occasionally desired us to beware of this, or that Society-of this or that Sectas inimical to our religious institutions. But none of them, it seems, embraced the whole of the question; in their eagerness to expose one source of danger, they overlooked that which is the greatest of all.

This important publication is an address to the Earl of Liverpool, enforcing the necessity of an immediate interference on the part of the Legislature in favor of the Church established in this country, which Mr. Yates states to be in great and imminent danger; and showing the means through which such interference may be rendered practicable and effectual.

It bears the title of The Church in Danger, for the triteness and suspicious nature of which the author thinks it necessary to offer an apology. He confesses that the cry-The Church is in Danger has often been set up by interested men to serve the purpose of a political party and to "conceal the real tendency of proceedings inimical to the public welfare:" yet he insists that it is possible a patriotic or useful purpose may be developed in an address under that title. Of his purpose we hasten to observe, that nothing but patriotism and philanthropy of the purest kind could either have dictated it, or have guided him in the execution of it. His apology is continued thus: "That I "have upon this occasion ventured to make use of a phrase which "has borne a dubious import, and been employed for sinister "purposes, originates solely in a strong conviction of its literal "truth and deep importance, in the application intended to be "given to it in the following pages." p. 1.

No subject indeed can be more important, or more interesting to every lover of his country, to every friend of virtue and religion, than the one thus brought under consideration. It is not to the feelings of Churchmen alone that the author appeals. The facts recorded in his statement are calculated to interest every good and benevolent man, whatever be his religious opinions. The object in view is not to assert the cause of the Church of England, as distinguished from, or opposed to, any other religious society; but to assert the cause of morality and religion, as they may be affected by the prosperity or decay of that Church. And it is obvious, that if the assertion, that the interests of religion and morality are so connected with those of the national Church that they must prosper or suffer together, can be made out; every friend of religion and morality would be interested in upholding the Church.

Mr. Yates's endeavour being to state the necessity of a Legislative-not to propose a Doctrinal Defence of the Church of England, he has carefully abstained from all those disputed points not immediately and necessarily connected with his subject.

"I beg therefore," he observes, " to take it for granted that the end and purposes of the Social Union are promoted,-obedience to human Laws enforced, and the consequent domestic peace, harmony, and prosperity of the State secured, by an established Religion.

"And by your Lordship, and all who admire, respect, and venerate the British Constitution, it will also be readily admitted, that the Established Church of England is admirably adapted to attain all these important purposes. That its pious, doctrinal, and scriptural Liturgy is second to no merely human composition. And that its tolerant principles, as developed in the practical administration of its policy during the last two hundred years, are the best demonstration of the friendly aspect it bears towards the just liberties and rational happiness of mankind." pp. 9, 10.

"From these remarks it is not intended to infer, that the general excellence of our Church Establishment should lead us to plead for the absolute and permanent perfection of every particular part; but, that it is one of the most important duties of the Legislature, in affording to the Church the just and adequate support of Law, to supply the means of correcting those weaknesses and imperfections which the lapse of ages may occasion; and to provide that its powers and capacities of conferring its advantages may be assimilated to the discoveries of experience, to the augmenting population of the country,-to the progressive improvements of Society,--and to that increasing intelligence, and surely I may add, that more rational piety, which its own judicious institutions have so largely contributed to disseminate and call into action.

"From the numerous incidental notices that have been in various ways for some time past occasionally thrown before the public, I have long hoped that some more powerful and energetic statement might have called the observation of the government to the impending and increasing

danger of our Ecclesiastical Establishment. But as nothing sufficiently distinct and particular has, to my knowledge, yet appeared, and as the humblest instrument is sometimes permitted under the blessing of Providence to be productive of good; I have thought I could not better express that deep sense of filial and devoted attachment, which I shall ever rejoice in an opportunity of evincing for our truly venerable and apostolic Church, than by entreating your Lordship's attention to a circumstance, originating in the defective Legislation, and the rash and intemperate measures, that unhappily dim:ned the lustre and lessened the benefits of the blessed and glorious Reformation. A circumstance which from the operation of the causes just noted has now increased to an extent, and assumed an appearance, so threatening and dangerous to the Established Church, that an adequate and effectual remedy can only be supplied by the wisdom of Parliament, which hath hitherto not been efficiently directed to the subject, either from an imperfect perception of the growing evil, or perhaps from a reluctance to touch even with the finger of supposed innovation so august and venerable a fabric." pp.

11-13.

The alarm respecting the safety of the establishment which has so generally prevailed, has been kept up by the writings of well-meaning men, by whom various causes of danger have been assigned. The chief of these are Bible Societies, Lancasterian Schools, the active exertions of Sectaries, and the increase of Methodism; and, in consequence of these, the daily defection from the Establishment. Let us state at once, in an abridged form, what the author shall presently express at length, that he does not believe, either that any, or all of these taken together are the cause of the growing evil, or that the suppression of them all would remove it.

"In the following pages it will be attempted not only to trace out the real cause of this Detection, but also to prove that a controuling power is possessed by the Government, and that upon the due exercise of that power the safety of the Church may depend." p. 16.

"To remove these prevalent apprehensions from the theoretical and inefficient causes to which they have been assigned; and to ascertain, and fix the attention upon a more real and more decidedly operative source of danger: it is now proposed as a most satisfactory and decisive method, to appeal to the direct evidence of Fact, as deduced from a document of allowed and indisputable authority-the last Parochial Returns of Population, as laid before the House of Commons, and published by order of Parliament.

"To give the extracts from this work their intended bearing upon the question, in ascertaining the chief ground, and indicating the probable means of averting the apprehended danger, it will be necessary that they should be preceded and accompanied by some illustrative observations, comprizing the following chief Points, to be considered in elucidation of this subject.

"The Mode in which the benefits of the Established Church are educed and communicated.

"The Provisions appropriated for that purpose.

"The Legislative Defect which is supposed to have occasioned the present danger of the Church.

"An induction of particulars from the Parliamentary Reports, showing the injurious effects which appear to have resulted from that Defect.

"The Inferences from this statement of Facts,-tending to prove "That Bible Societies not being the chief cause of injury, their restraint or suppression would not remove the danger.

"That the increase of Sectarian Methodism is not the cause, but a Consequence of the present state of the Church.

"That the Society for promoting Christian Knowledge, and the Society for the establishment of National Schools, though admirable auxiliaries, are not, and cannot of themselves be equal to the task of averting the threatening danger.

"That the recent Acts relating to the residence of the Clergy, and the employment of Curates, have not reached or even tonched open the source and cause of Danger.

That the proposal for erecting one large Farochial Church in each of the present Parishes must be found a very inadequate remedy.

"And that a Legislative enaɛtment prescribing a Distribution of the Population into appropriate Divisions,-supplying the means of publis worship, and providing for the useful and efficient discharge of the Pastoral offices, in districts not hitherto so provided,—is the most certain and only probable means of securing the stability and prosperity of the Established Church." pp. 17-19.

The means by which the benefits of the Established Church are to be communicated are, religious instruction, which must be received by the mass of the People chiefly through the medium of Public Worship. But "to give Public Worship its *full and beneficial effect, the necessary Duty devolves upon "the State, of providing for a proper Division of the Country "into Parishes,, a regular Ministry appointed and supported by "Law, and the Erection of sufficient and convenient Structures "for the celebration of Divine Service."

A ministry appointed and supported by law. What does this mean? Mr. Yates's usual perspicuity seems here to have failed him. The English clergy are appointed according to law

not by law. But the expression supported by law, is still more ambiguous. Does it not mean protected rather than maintained? If the former, the new clergy will be precisely on a footing with the ministers of private Chapels: if the latter, they must be beneficed; and who can afford to do this? The consideration of this alternative leads to another consideration, which is of supreme importance, and to which we shall direct our at tention before we close this article. It is this: Supposing a great accession to be made to the number of the officiating clergy, will it be advantageous to the cause of sound religion that they should subsist on permanent incomes granted by the state, rather

than on such as may annually be derived from those who com pose their auditories?-We go on with our author, whose geneneral object, and whose personal worth, give him a claim to a full hearing.

"Under the ascendancy of the Roman Catholic form of Religion in this Country, no deficiency in these respects appeared; so far otherwise, that it became necessary to the welfare of the Community to restrain the misguided piety and zeal of those ages, and rescue the industry and productive exertions of the country from the torpid and benumbing effects of a superstitious and ignorant devotion, displayed in Expensive and External Forms.

"But it is much to be lamented that, in applying a remedy to these evident and injurious abuses, an avaricious and sacrilegious violence was suffered to usurp the offices of justice, wisdom, and temperate reform. The possessions of the Church were torn from it with such an unsparing and indiscriminating hand, that many extensive Parishes were left totally destitute of the allotted maintenance and support of Persons and Places necessary for Public Worship.

"And what is still more to be lamented, the Legislators of that day-in their haste to cast the mantle of legal authority over the atrocious excesses of plundering cupidity, and to sanction the spoliation and demolition of what was then thought the too numerous structures of Religion, totally neglected to make any proper provision to supply the necessities consequent upon any change in the situation, or future increase in the Population." pp. 21, 22.

"An Act was passed in the ninth year of Queen Anne to provide for the building of fifty new churches. But this wise and benevolent law, from some deficiency in the enactments, or rather perhaps from the building being conducted on too expensive a scale, failed of its intended effect, and only about one fifth of the number, even then thought neces sary, were completed. Since that period this defect in the original formation of the national church has been daily becoming more apparent.

"An increase of habitations and an augmentation of population have been gradually accumulating around the metropolis, and in many other districts, without any corresponding arrangements to secune for the established church the due administration of its offices. The parishes Ammediately surrounding the City of London, long after their original boundaries had been given to them, though of considerable extent, contained only a village population of one or two hundred souls, with a village church of sufficient capacity to accommodate the whole, under the care of a rector or vicar, whose personal knowledge of his flock rendered the discharge of his official duties advantageous both to them and to the state; his instructions beneficial, and his residence a blessing.

"These parishes remaining for the most part the same in superficial extent, have increased in population to the almost incredible amount of thirty, forty, fifty, and in one instance upwards of seventy thousand souls, and no concomitant alteration has been made to provide for the instruction and superintendance of the established church." pp. 29–31.

This last paragraph contains a truth every way worthy the attention of the legislature. And here we think that we see much of the cause of that danger which has been ascribed to so many