❝and been evidently designed to favour one party, though it "carried the aspect of a perfect neutrality, it might have been "looked upon as a wise and provident measure to secure the "tranquility of the church: for, in the tenor of this declaration, "precision was sacrificed to prudence, and ambiguity-nay, even contradictions were preferred before consistent, clear, " and positive decisions, that might have fomented dissentions and discord."

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It is a curious fact that shortly after this period, when Laud was in the meridian of his power, and when, on the arrival of Frederick, the Prince Elector of Palatine, in England, the prayer for the royal family was altered-with the view of omitting, for political reasons, the names of Frederick and Lady Elizabeth his wife, and their princely issue the occasion was seized on, in order to retract an expression supposed to savour too strongly of calvinistic election; for the following words, with which the prayer originally commenced, were omitted: "Almighty God which hast promised to be a father of THINE ELECT, and of their seed." What a scene of political management, and of religious statecraft, does this historical sketch of our church creed exhibit to our view! How truly does it prove "church of "Englandism" to be a religion of this world; and how forcibly does it illustrate the truth of the well-known observation of the Earl of Chatham: "We have a popish liturgy, calvin"istical articles, and an arminian clergy." Whilst what Robinson, of Cambridge, has so happily observed, upon a view of one of the periods we have been noticing, strictly applies to the whole, "Statesmen sacrificed religion, to save "the nation-prelates were chosen for secular purposes" and all persons, and events, were directed to crown uses.'

One authority, and we might quote many to the purpose, will be sufficient to justify the view we have exhibited of the church policy. "The church of England" (says Dr. Sherlock) "has left a latitude of sense, to prevent schisms "and breaches upon every different opinion. It is evident “the church of England has so done in some articles which "are most liable to the hottest disputes; which yet are "penned with that temper as to be willingly subscribed by "men of different apprehensions in those matters."-Defence of Stilling fleet's Unreasonableness of Separation.

From what we have advanced upon this subject it may be inferred that the conduct of Bishop Marsh is wholly inconsistent with the former policy of the church, and we are clearly of opinion that it is so; for the very essence of

that policy was to admit, rather than to exclude. But new circumstances may dictate to our hierarchy a new course of policy; and though driven to the shift of acting in the very teeth of the former policy of the church, the bishop appears to us to be pursuing a prudent part, in availing himself of every lawful means to prevent the church from being successfully besieged by the dissenters, whose sappers and miners have already made entry into her outworks. The bishop understands full well the blessings of an established religion; and, however contrary to all former precedent, and to the spirit in which the national creed was planned, he appears determined to "keep that good thing which is "committed to his charge." He is invested by law with the authority of examining the qualifications of all who aspire to participate in these advantages in his diocese; and the strictness and ingenuity with which his lordship has performed this part of his duty is beyond all praise. The sagacity of the bishop is evinced, not only in the number and nature of the questions proposed, but in the shortness of the answers to which he restricts the applicants. A Mr. Thurtell, who applied for holy orders, replied to the bishop's eighty-seven questions, in ten pages of lengthy reasoning, and was very properly rejected. The bishop does not want reasoning-aye or no is all that can be permitted from one who aspires to teach a religion as by law established: it is not a reasoner that is required, but an automaton—a machine—

"A piece of mere church furniture at best."

-The bishop has recourse, it appears, to a printed form, and his eighty-seven questions are so nicely constructed as to admit only of two answers; the one admitting, the other excluding the candidate. Spaces are left against each of the questions in the printed form, to which limit the answers must be confined; and thus the most abstruse and complicated points of theology and metaphysics are dispatched with admirable brevity. In order to leave no room for quibbling, shuffling, or floundering on these points, the bishop, it appears, "assigns two inches of space only for the "answer on original sin; an inch and a half to justification; "three quarters to predestination; and half an inch to freewill!" This is a sufficient proof how seriously resolved

Sce the Edinburgh Review, Nov. 1822.

this prelate is to guard the church from all encroachment. We heartily congratulate him on his undertaking. Those who wish to pluck the golden fruit of the church may complain, but the right of his lordship to propose these, or any other interrogatories, cannot be questioned, and we hope to see all the twenty-four bishops act upon the same principle; and if each of these pious and learned personages content themselves with only eighty-seven questions, which, of course, they may vary as they please, this will give to the church a protection of upwards of two thousand questions, which, like " a flaming sword," may be made to "TURN “EVERY WAY, to keep the way of the tree of life!"

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The northern journal just referred to, attempts to throw this plan into ridicule, by suggesting that the differences of opinion among the bishops themselves may occasion great inconvenience to the candidates for holy orders. "By this new system of interrogation" (says the Reviewer) a man may be admitted into orders at Barnet; rejected at Steven"age; re-admitted at Brogden; kicked out as Calvinist at Witham Common, and hailed as an ardent Arminian on his arrival at York." Again, Mr. Greenough, say the "same Reviewers, has made a map of England, according to "its geological varieties: blue for the chalk, green for the "clay, red for the sand, and so forth. Under this system "of Bishop Marsh we must petition for the assistance of "the geologist, in the fabrication of an ecclesiastical map. "All the Arminian districts must-be purple. Green for one theological extremity, sky-blue for another, as many colours as there are bishops; as many shades of these "colours as there are archdeacons-a tailor's pattern card, "the picture of vanity, fashion, and caprice!" Now these northern critics, supporters too of the establishment, must suppose ORTHODOXY to be a pretty cheat indeed, if they imagine that even the bishops can not agree among themselves, as to what this orthodoxy consists of. Here is a parliamentary religion, which the prelates are sworn to maintain; and yet it seems, according to the shewing of its advocates, no two of them can agree together, as to its dogmas and creeds. Here are men, the spiritual guides of the nation-the pillars of the church-appointed by the king" moved by the Holy Ghost"-" desiring to be "teachers of the law-understanding neither what they say, nor whereof they affirm." Our readers will hold us guiltless of any affection for the bishops, but we have never put forth any thing against the sacred bench half so

cutting as is this insinuation! But, as touching the inconvenience of the questions of Bishop Marsh to the candidates for orders, conscientious persons only can have a difficulty in answering such questions satisfactorily; the number of such persons, candidates for holy orders in the church, may be supposed not to be very large. We have it on the authority of Bishop Marsh in the house of lords, that two individuals only in his diocese had been rejected by means of his eighty-seven interrogatories. Now these, and such like individuals, have a remedy at hand; instead of raising a cry against the good bishop for adopting a measure necessary to the security of the establishment, they will do better to seek consolation in the advice of an apostle“study to be quiet, and to do your own business, and to work with your own hands, as we commanded you, that ye may "walk HONESTLY towards them that are without, and that ye "may have lack of nothing." (1 Thess. iv. 11, 12.)

That we are not at all mistaken in the worldly, secular motives and principles by which we have represented both the church party and the dissenting interest to be actuated, will be corroborated by a very candid admission made by a respectable critical journal, the organ of the high church party. The last number of the Quarterly Review, in a critique on the Bampton Lectures, delivered before the University of Oxford, 1822, in correcting the too liberal mode of treating the dissenters, which the lecturer had incautiously recommended, holds this language:

"It is seldom that we disagree with Mr. Whately, but in this passage he goes rather farther than we are disposed to follow him. Certainly we would not treat dissenters with any degree of harshness, or abridge their civil rights; but there are many instances in which we think it by no means inexpedient quietly to seek to influence them by SECULAR MOTIVES to appeal, in short, to their SELF INTEREST. We would not do any dissenter the least wrong; we would treat him with all courtesy, and would not withhold from him the assistance which his necessities may demand. But in the conferring of many benefits and advantanges which are purely optional, we think that we not only may, but that we ought, to show a decided preference to members of our own communion. We apprehend that self interest and secular motives of various descriptions-a preference in commercial intercourse especiallyare made great use of by many of the dissenters, for the purpose of keeping up their numbers. Perhaps it would not be illiberal to express our opinion that a very large portion of them are what they are from the operatiom of such motives alone."

It will be perceived that, as far as the church is concerned, we have considered the controversy between Bishop Marsh and his opponents as one of interest merely; a question of pounds, shillings, and pence, and of importance

to the clergy alone, as it can be of no consequence to the laity, to whom they pay the imposts for the support of the established religion; and hence, in such disputes between the clergy and their opponents, church people feel little interest. This truth is, at once, happily expressed, and honestly admitted by the Bampton lecturer himself, a gentleman of excellent talent and acute observation, as his admirable defence of Christianity--" Historic Doubts concerning Napoleon Bonaparte, must attest. This gentleman then, in his recent discourses before the Oxford University, confesses to that learned body that

"Laymen are too apt to consider themselves as little more than bystanders in the dispute between the church and her opponents; they give her the preference, indeed, but rather as a matter of taste than of conscience; or at least, rather as umpires between two contending parties, than as making the cause their own. And many a one may be found who would allow, and even expect, in the clergy, some zeal in that cause, yet would seem to regard it as altogether their concern—not as one in which he himself has a common interest."

We have been tempted into this long analysis of the controversy between Bishop Marsh and his opponents, in order to exhibit our views of the comparative situation and merits of the church party and the dissenters. As Christians we are enemies to every state religion that passes under the name of Christian;-but we are open, honest, avowed enemies; and we detest an hostility which is conducted under the mask of friendship, or which is instigated by any sinister motive. Our opposition to the church is one of religious principle and of duty-not of personal feeling. We regard the great body of churchmen to be quite as estimable in character as any other party; and we would not exchange the clergy of the church for the priests of any class of dissenters with which we are acquainted, It is not a change of men; it is not a modification of some principles; it is not a correction of some abuses; it is not a rejection of some dogmas that will satisfy the interests of truth, if it shall appear that the system is vicious throughout-and that, from the crown of the head to the sole of the foot, there is no sound part about it! The truth is that every sect and party, in which priestcaft is tolerated, possesses the elements of all the evil with which the church itself is afflicted; the evil is only heightened in the latter because

* The Use and Abuse of Party Feeling in Matters of Religion Considered; in Eight Sermons, preached before the University of Oxford, 1822.