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REVIEW.

THOUGHTS ON THE ANGLICAN AND AMERICAN-ANGLO CHURCHES. By
John Bristed, Counsellor at Law, uthor of the Resources of the
New-York: John P. Haven. Bos-
United States of America, &c.

ton: Samuel T. Armstrong. 1822. 8vo. pp. 500.

(Concluded from page 397.)

Ir is a fault of some consequence, that the author should have avoided all reference; and also that he should have dispensed, in his numerous extracts, with the usual marks of quotation. As reviewers, perhaps, we ought not to intimate that the former fault were of any consequence to us, but from the latter we felt many times a serious inconvenience for instance; our hearts were in full and glowing sympathy with our author, while reading the eloquent passages in pages 327 and 329, instead of Rev. Dr. Mason, to whom the whole is fairly attributed, though without the distinct marks which generally We must also distinctly make and properly run through an extract. complaint against the arrangement, or rather the nonarrangement, of these "Thoughts." They are exceedingly interesting; exceedingly well worth perusing over and over again; but after having become familiar with every page, we feel utterly unable to give any regular analysis. The author may have thought, that a work which one could never open amiss, and which might as well be read from the middle as from the beginning, would be the most interesting and Reviewers have indeed some special useful. We think otherwise. reasons for desiring regularity of arrangement, and we confess that in searching regularly for needful illustrations, we were at length compelled to give up in despair. We then determined, more sagaciously, to open the book at a venture, and one hour's labour, at hap-hazard, showed us that we had at length got the best clue to all the scattered stores of this richly furnished labyrinth. We beg our readers to buy the book, and if they do not justify all our strictures, we feel quite sure that they will agree with us that they have obtained one of the most characteristic, interesting and efficient works which has lately issued from the American press :-a work which may have a dull sale in America, but of which a third English edition may arrive in this country, while there may be a large pile of this first edition in showy array on the shelves of its publisher.

We are perfectly ready to admit, that a church establishment is not at all necessary to preserve a nation from irreligion and heathenism, or to secure the entire diffusion of Christianity in a nation. If the contrary position were correct, our author fairly asks: "How VOL.

IX.

54

did Christianity gain ground, and maintain itself, during the first three centuries of its rise and progress ;-not only without, but in direct opposition to the power and force of the state? In the fourth century, Constantine, a mere politician, was some time balancing in his own mind, whether he should establish Paganism or Christianity as the state religion; and finally determined in favour of Christianity, because he thought it, on the whole, at that time, to be the stronger of the two rival candidates for imperial favour."

He does not, however, fully express, or even seem to admit another proposition, which, however, finds ample proof in his own pages; viz. that a church establishment, which maintains the main doctrines of Christianity, cannot prevent, though it may obstruct their diffusion among its own proper subjects. He admits that the leaven of Christianity is powerful enough to pervade a lump of heathenism, but seems somewhat to doubt its energy when it enters the mass of formal Christianity. He glories in the triumph of the Gospel over established paganism, but doubts its power to subdue the contempt, and the opposition, of its worldly minded friends. We, on the other hand, agreeably to our remarks in the last number, believe, that it will work its successful way in a corrupt establishment; that its triumphs will be even more glorious over the dignified enemies of its own household, and that in the progress of so grand a victory, it will subserve itself of that powerful machinery which has been worked so long and so efficiently in the service of the enemy.

The greater part of our author's statements casts much darkness, we know, over this prospect. Turn, for instance, to the following spirited statement :

"The doors of the Anglican Church establishment are always open for the admission of ministers, who are entire strangers to the grace of Christ; devoid of Christian knowledge; lovers of pleasure, more than lovers of God; profane, caring for no man's soul; companions of the unholy; making a gain of godliness, and entering the state church from the most degrading motives, that they may revel and fatten upon its revenues; while their hearts are radically hostile to the sacred function which they assume; and to the evangelical doctrines of the church, which they plunder and disgrace.

"Are such ministers calculated to promote piety, and prevent paganism, in a nation? calculated to bring man into a covenant of grace with his offended Maker, when they are themselves enemies to God by wicked works? Are the mere, careless repetitions of a form of prayer, and the hurried, heartless reading of a printed, or a borrowed sermon, to manifest the presence, and call down the grace of God, upon the attendants in a parish church? What an awful proportion of these episcopally ordained clerks still remain in the gall of bitterness, and in the bond of iniquity; and go forth to take possession of the church benefices and dignities; procured for them, either by money, in the way of purchase and barter, or by family connexions and interest, or by political influence and exertion; for what? only to counteract and destroy the beneficial tendencies of the Gospel, with whose precepts and principles, their whole secular lives are at variance; to swell the triumphs of infidel and wicked men; and to tread in the foot tracks of that primitive bishop, who, after he had swallowed the sop, went out and betrayed the Lord of life.”—pp. 258, 259. Also:

"In England, as a necessary consequence of the intimate alliance between church and state, the established clergy are, for the most part, trained up to their holy vocation, in the same manner as to any secular calling; and generally

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live, as laymen do, hunting, shooting, card playing, frequenting theatres, dancing at, and conducting, as masters of the ceremonies, balls and assemblies, eating, drinking, cursing, swearing, electioneering, and so forth, according to their means, ability, and inclination; being distinguished from other mere worldlings, only by their exterior apparel, and not always even by that.

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“One of these jolly, buckskin, rosy parsons, duly accoutered in jockey cap and hunting jacket, eagerly asked an elderly Obadiah, whom he met, if he had seen the fox, or knew which way he went; The fox,' replied honest broadbrim, 'is in a place where thou never goest:' where-where is that? rejoined the clerical Nimrod, tell me instantly, that I may find him. To the which old drab-colour answered, in thy study, friend.'"-pp. 374, 375.

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"The British government systematically abstains from making evangelical bishops; and formal bishops invariably discountenance and persecute evangelical clerks. What proportion do the evangelical bear to the whole clergy in the Anglican establishment at this time. In all probability, not two to eleven thousand; not so many, positively, as were ejected by Sheldon on the Bartholomew day; and, relatively, much fewer, because then the population of England and Wales did not reach four, whereas now it exceeds twelve millions."-p. 406.

Also:

"The revivals of religion, which have taken place in England, during the last eighty years, are not owing to the establishment. For the national church establishment, as such, has always endeavoured, and does now labour, to the full extent of its power, to crush all revivals of religion. The treatment which Whitfield and Wesley received from the state clergy, and their compulsory separation from the national church, is well known. And it is equally notorious, that the civil government of England most scrupulously abstains, to this hour, from promoting evangelical ministers to the high places of the national church. A certain recent appointment to the episcopate does not invalidate this statement; for that appointment was carried, altogether, by family influence, against the general sense of the cabinet; and in direct opposition to a formidable petition from the assembled hierarchy, that such a promotion might not be made.

"The bishops and high clergy generally, strive to extinguish evangelism in the state church, by discouraging the ordination of pious youth, by suspending curates, by refusing their countersignatures to presentees, and by discountenancing and harassing actual incumbents, if guilty of preaching the Gospel faithfully and zealously. Indeed now, the British government and its hierarchy unite in their efforts to destroy the evangelicals, more cordially, and more strenuously than has been done before, since the reign of the most execrable of the Stuarts."―pp. 63, 64.

This is sufficiently discouraging. Let us hear, however, what encouragement we can gather from the pages of our author.

"Doubtless, there are honourable exceptions to the general rule; doubtless, besides

'These whipping clerks, that drive amain,

Through sermons, services, and dirty roads,'

there are in that vast body of established ecclesiastics, many men of great capacity, intense industry, and extensive learning; and above all, some evangelical ministers, who faithfully discharge the high duties of their sacred office; and may the Great Head of the church, not the king of England, nor the archbishop of Canterbury, nor the whole hierarchy in the house of Lords assembled, nor the cabinet ministry, seeing that they all seem bent upon any thing, rather than the promotion of evangelsim, but the Lord Jesus Christ, in the benignity of his Almighty providence, augment the number of those faithful pastors, that his flock may be fed, and nourished, and enlarged.”—p. 375.

Also:

"But so long as formalism infests the church, and substitutes hebdomadal essays of cold, diluted, semipagan, unsanctioned ethics, and a full reliance upon external

order, forms, ceremonies, and rites, in the place of the essential doctrines of the cross, and earnest, faithful, pastoral visitation; so long will she continue to languish, and decline, and fall fearfully below the level of other Christian denominations. The only possible method of restoring her vitality, strength and beauty, is to bring her back to the great standards of the Reformation; to cause her clergy to tread in the footsteps of Cranmer, Ridley, Latimer, Jewel, aud of their faithful followers and successors, Hall, Hopkins, Pearson, Usher, Beveridge, and a thousand other bright and burning lights, whose labours illumined the church, and gladdened the hearts of all sincere believers in the mysteries of godliness; who, being long since dead and mouldering in the silence of the sepulchre, yet speak with most miraculous organ; and whose works will continue, as a path way of light, to direct all those who in singleness of heart and in humility, seek the truth in Christ, until the tide of time shall be swallowed up in the ocean of eternity."-p. 377.

Again, after quoting some remarks of the Rev. Thomas Scott:

"Mr. Scott is emphatically correct in this statement, that formalism is the deadly plague, which, if not stopped, must infallibly destroy the Anglican Church establishment. The resistless proof of this awful fact is inscribed in large and legible characters upon the face of her whole history. From that fatal hour when Laud first carried her over from the truly Scriptural doctrines of her liturgy, articles, and homilies, into nominal Arminianism, but real formalism, she declined rapidly; and other denominations gained ground upon her, in spite of her borrowing, with close and bloody imitation of papal Rome, the aid of the secular arm, in spite of her persuasive arguments, drawn from the star chamber and from parliament, in the forms of pillory, scourge, dungeon, and gibbet.

"Her declension through so long a period, was portentous of her approaching dissolution, when, in the reign of George the second, a revival of religion took place in England; and some evangelical clergymen appeared in the establishment, preaching the great doctrines of the Reformation, from which Laud, like Jeroboam, the son of Nebat. who mede Israel to sin, had seduced her into the idolatries of popery, and into the blasphemies of Pelagianism. The blessing of God has crowned the labours of these faithful men, who, notwithstanding the efforts of some modern worthy prelatical followers of Laud, to crush all evangelism in the church of England, are increasing; and are, we pray, and hope, the instruments in the hand of Jehovah Jesus, destined to save that venerable church from sinking amidst the ruin and the pollution of formalism.

"These evangelical clergy always fill their churches to the overflowing, and other denominations make no headway in their parishes; while the formalists enjoy the unenviable privilege of preaching to a beggarly account of empty pews; and of railing, long and loud, against all dissenters, who, by these profound divines, are all stigmatized as Calvinists, this being the present fashionable, formal term of reproach against all serious persons, as that of methodists, was, a few years since; however varying from each other in faith and doctrine through all the shades of difference, from supralapsarianism, down to the modern threadbare tissue of infidelity and impiety, cloaked in its multiplicity of names, whether Socinianism, or unitarianism, or humanitarianism, or necessarianism, and I know not how many other isms."-pp. 387, 388.

These remarks on the progress and efficiency of evangelism do not show that the church and state must be separated before the church can prosper, but rather justify the confidence already expressed, that the church will prosper and prevail even in its connexion with the state, in spite of all state patronage to formality and vice, and of all prelatical frowns upon evangelical piety. We believe that the church of England contains in her formularies the essential doctrines of grace -that as a church she does hold forth the true word of God. And we cannot, we will not believe that this word shall return void-but that it has been sent as a dispensation of mercy, not only to the individuals of England, but to the English state, and we expect that it will be found

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