42

REV. DR. CHALMERS.

dimensions of a giant were visible;-disjecti membra gigantis. He was completely master of his own theological system, that of full-blooded Calvinism, or Supralapsarianism; in the warfare of which, both offensive and defensive, he proved himself a most pointed and powerful writer.

The very few sermons which he has published, his Letters on frequent Communion, his Voice of Warning, his Oration on the death of Hamilton, some splendid fragments in the Christian's Magazine, and his noble Plea for Catholic Communion, all, in very deed, Scriptural, able, eloquent, are, I believe, the only scanty remains of a truly evangelical divine, who might, if his industry, perseverance and energy had been commensurate with his genius, talents and eloquence, have brightened the remotest recesses of Christendom with the blaze of his intellectual glory; might have been, what Chalmers is.

I

When the breach between Dr. Mason and myself had been rendered sufficiently deep and deadly to admit of no possible cure on this side of the grave, returned into the bosom of that mother-church, which had nourished me, and my brethren, and my father, and my father's fathers for many preceding genera

tions.

It is my wish, not to be understood as in any way designing to reflect upon the study or the practice of the law, by occasionally escaping from the toil and dust, and litigation of the forum, into the city of refuge. I have, elsewhere, undertaken to show, in opposition to very high authority, that the study of law, properly directed, invigorates, sharpens, expands and elevates the nobler faculties of the mind; and have borne testimony to the vast aggregate of talent, learning and efficiency, which at once support and adorn the American bar, throughout the various states in the Union; and have the honour of a personal acquaintance with some of the distinguished ornaments of the New-York bench and bar, who, in forensic power, in public estimation, in private worth,

AMERICAN LAWYERS.

43

need not turn their backs to any jurists, ancient or modern; no, not even in the best days, the high and palmy state of England, Rome or Greece.

But the heart, when once effectually led to direct its gaze towards the eternal world, is like an animal that has tasted the blood of its prey, and can no longer be restrained. To a soul, thoroughly impressed with the importance of sacred truth, the wealth of Ormus and of Ind, the dominion of the Cesars, the fascinations of the entire world; are all as nothing, and less than nothing, in comparison of the yearning of the heart to escape from the jaws of that second death, which are, for ever, yawning wide to receive the unrepentant, unregenerate, unconverted myriads of mankind.

CHAPTER I.

On the Anglican Church Establishment.

In the year 1821, the Rev. S. C. Wilks published a work, entitled, "Correlative claims and duties; or, an Essay on the necessity of a church establishment in a Christian country, for the preservation of Christianity among the people of all ranks and denominations."

This work is written with great ability and candour; and a strain of genuine piety pervades all its pages. The remarks and exhortations, as to the means of exciting and maintaining among the members of the Anglican Church, a spirit of devotion, together with zeal for the honour, stability, and influence of the establishment, are beyond praise. To this book the Society for promoting Christian knowledge and church union in the diocese of St. David's, adjudged a premium of £50, in December, 1820.

The main position taken and enforced by Mr. Wilks, is, that where there is no church establishment, a nation necessarily tends to irreligion and heathenism.

In this opinion Mr. Wilks is not singular. Dr. Chalmers maintains a similar notion in his "Christian and civic economy of large towns;" and the same track is beaten by the British and Quarterly Reviewers; together with many other most respectable and able writers in England.

An inquiry, however brief and cursory, into the soundness of this position, may be deemed of some moment in these United States, where no church establishment can be instituted, without violating an express provision in the federal or national compact,

CHURCH ESTABLISHMENT.

45

which binds together the whole union. For if this doctrine be sound, America has reason to apprehend the most portentous national evils, in consequence of not having linked the civil government and some one dominant Christian sect in the bonds of inseparable alliance.

If this position be correct, how did Christianity gain ground, and maintain itself, during the first three centuries of its rise and progress;-not only with- · out, 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.

Many able and pious writers, besides Mr. Wilks, have entered the lists on both sides, in support and in reprobation of the civil establishment of Christianity. Its defenders hail the secular government as the stanch champion of the church; while its impugners, seeing the church, from that day in which Constantine wedded it to the state, amalgamated with the world, have represented this politico-clerical alliance as tending directly to stifle evangelical piety amidst the fire, and smoke, and darkness of intolerance, persecution, and formalism.

A brief outline of the leading historical facts of. national churches, particularly the Greek, the Latin, the English, the Irish, and the Scottish, under every various form and mode of civil government, would, probably, supersede the necessity of any abstract discussion upon this point.

Dr. Burgess, bishop of St. David's, in his Letter to Mr. Wix, cites the following observations from Dr. Hickes's apologetical vindication of the church of England; in which the sum and substance seem to be, that the protestant rulers of England have intruded their secular arm into the ecclesiastical establish

ment, somewhat more sparingly than popish sovereigns have been wont. But this is no conclusive proof, that either popish or protestant governments ought to cement themselves with, and direct the movements of any portion of the Christian Church.

Dr. Hickes says "the gentlemen of the Roman communion are so apt to miscal our church a parliament church, and our religion a parliament religion, because our laws confirm and establish the doctrine and sanctions of the Church of England. But let them know, as bishop Jewel saith, that we hold not God's eternal truths by parliament, but by God; parliaments being uncertain, and often contrary, but God's truth is one, certain, and never changeth. However, we are thankful to God, and religious kings and parliaments, when they give legal establishments to the truth; as the imperial laws and edicts did to the decrees of the general councils; particularly, as Constantine, who sate in the Nicene council, confirmed the Nicene creed, and all other things ordained by that council, when he was but a catechumen, or learner of the Christian religion.

"He called himself rwy w ETIXOTO, the external bishop of the church; and after his death, the fathers surnamed him Isasroos, equal to the apostles; and the Novels of Justinian, the Nomocanons, and Basiliks, the Capitularia of the old French, and the laws of the ancient Saxon kings, show, that religious princes have always thought it their duty to defend the faith and rights of the church, and by wholesome laws establish its peace and good order. King Canute, in parliament, made laws concerning the faith, about keeping of holydays, public prayers, learning the Lord's prayer, receiving the eucharist thrice a year, the form of baptism, fasting days, and other such matters of religion; and the popish religion owes its establishment in all popish countries to acts of sovereign princes and states; without which it would not long subsist.