that no man could be a holy and useful minister without it. Let it appear that peace and happiness, truth and justice, religion and piety are necessarily co-existent with the succession, then to resist it would be highly criminal : for it would be to resist christianity, or to fight against God.

Now supposing for the sake of argument, that the doctrine is admitted, and that it is as the Tractarians say, "too notorious to require proof." Then we ask, of what use is it? should it be urged that it is a fine thing to know what the apostles said of Christ, and what they said in the name of Christ. Be it so we cannot deny it; but we want no apostolic successors to give us this information, because we have the apostles themselves. They are dead; but the truth inseparably connected with their own greatness, and with their relationship to us is not dead, and cannot die, and cannot fail of exerting a salutary influence on the human soul till the end of the world. But can the successors of the apostles know more of Christ and of the will of God, than the apostles themselves? And if these men, as to every useful and holy purpose are still with us, to be a lamp unto our feet and a light to our path, if what they wrote and all that they wrote is accessible to all; and if the poor and the rich-the learned and the rude-the peasant and the

prince-the clergy and the laity are in this respect placed on a footing of perfect equality, then of what use are apostolic successors, and what information can they impart which is not already known, or which is not already contained in the revealed will of God?

It is not intended to repudiate the office of the teacher or preacher, or to speak in disparagement of its glory and importance. On the contrary it is freely admitted that for men to resemble the apostles, or to succeed the apostles in their useful labours and holy lives, is most honorable; that crowns, or sceptres, or kingdoms are not to be compared with a dignity like this: and that the nobility of this country, and the nobility of any other country can never surpass, or even equal in splendour and importance, the servants of the most high God, and the nobility of the kingdom of heaven.

But can no man be a holy or efficient preacher out of the succession?* Is it not true that the most eminent ministers and missionaries of all denominations lay no claim to the succession, and have no faith in its virtues or even in its existence. Then if a minister can be holy and useful, and approved of God without it, and if with it many are found to be unholy, and useless, and worse than useless,

* Dissenters have a greater number of able preachers than the Church of England.-T. Spencer, Curate of Hinton.

then what good is it? And if without it, John Bunyan could write the Pilgrim's Progress, and Dr. Watts the psalms and hymns; and if the venerable William Carey could unlock by his translations the sacred scriptures to millions of Hindoos:-If Dr. Harris could write the "Great Commission," and Dr. Campbell could write "Jethro;"-if in one word not only the greatest preachers, but the greatest divines, and the greatest Philanthropists have had nothing to do with the succession, then of what use is it?

What has it done for Canterbury,* where it exists in all its glory, and where it has existed from immemorial time; where is seen that splendid edifice so costly in masonry, in sculpture and architecture as to command the admiration of the world; where is an archbishop, and a dean, and deacons, and archdeacons, and canons, preachers, choristers, and all the sovereign and subaltern officers of the corps ecclesiastique: where twice every day prayers are read, and music is performed; where, likewise is such enormous wealth, that tens of thousands per annum are paid for mere nominal services, or for services which any one might be easily qualified to perform: yea, where the annual income of one of its functionaries is

* When John Wesley unfolded a map of England to pitch upon the darkest spot, where he should hold his first conference, he quietly observed that it must be a Cathedral town.-Matt. Bridges, Esq.

more than three times the amount of what is required to defray the whole of the expenses of the government of the United States of America!*

Besides all this, in a city whose population is scarcely 18,000, are nearly twenty churches crowded together, † all of which are, and for centuries have been regularly supplied with successional clergymen. But rudely or inviduously to speak of their names, their incomes, or their religious exercises I have no desire ; yet if virtue that is unspeakable and full of glory is attributed to apostolic succession, it is only fair to ask what has been its practical working in the ecclesiastical metropolis of the empire, where it has been in existence for

* I pass the magnificent church which crowns the metropolis, and is consecrated to the noblest object,—the glory of God, and I ask myself in what degree it answers that object. I see there a dean, and three residentiaries, with incomes amounting in the aggregate, to between ten and twelve thousand pounds a year; I see too, connected with the cathedral, twenty-nine clergymen, whose offices are all but sinecures, with an annual income of twelve thousand pounds, and likely to be very much larger after the lapse of a few years. I proceed a mile or two to the E. and N. E., and find myself in the midst of an immense population in the most wretched destitution and neglect: artizans, mechanics, labourers, beggars, thieves, to the number of three hundred thousand.

Speech of Bishop of London, in the House of Lords.

The number of persons who attend no place of worship, is upwards of 8,000; amounting to far more than half the adult population of the city.

The madman Courtney or Thom, found many persons here, ready to believe that he was a fit person to represent them in parliament, and at Boughton, in the neighbourhood of Canterbury, many believed him to be the Saviour of the world. After he was shot and many lives were sacrifised through the folly of those who encouraged him, some good people had an additional church erected in that place, that the inhabitants might become more civilized and more christianized, but this benevolent object is not likely to be very soon realized; for the minister of that church has lately issued a paper to inform the parishioners, that an act of parliament called the registration act, can never

more than a thousand years, and where it has been associated with wealth, and pomp, and power, and all other adventitious circumstances, and meretricious ornaments which are generally but erroneously supposed to confer dignity, and glory, and importance on the christian religion.

Before this question is answered, let it be premised, that christianity (of which this succession is supposed to be an essential part), is not a system of idle forms and unmeaning ceremonies, but a system of exalted philanthropy, proclaiming glory to God in the highest and on earth peace, and good will among men. Now the fact is, that in all the country there is scarcely any town, perhaps there is no town that has attained to a more unenviable distinction for immorality and vice than the city of Canterbury. Intemperance, prostitution,* gambling, and desecration of the sabbath prevail to a frightful extent: and what is more, these vices generally, if not entirely, prevail among that part of the population who are never suspected of any leaning towards methodism or dissent. †

make them Christians; but that baptism can. These poor people therefore have only exchanged one madness for another; for to say they are to be saved by Sir Wm. Courtney, is not more inconsistent with scripture and with reason. than to say that they are to be saved by the sprinkling of a few drops of water!

*Between two and three hundred females live on the wages of prostitution.

+In Canterbury the number of beer shops is 25, and the number of public houses 121, making a total of 146, in many of which dreadful scenes of drunkenness and debauchery may be daily witnessed, but more especially on the evenings of the Lord's-day.