striking picture of the tendency to infidelity in those days. He laments" that it was then taken for granted, that Christianity was not so much as a subject of inquiry even; and accordingly they treat it as if, in the present age, this were an agreed point among all people of discernment, and nothing remained but to set it up as a principal subject of mirth and ridicule, as it were by way of reprisal, for having so long interrupted the pleasure of the world."

Such was the awful state of the nation! - having now for twenty years been deprived of her ancient establishment, and prejudiced against the truths of revelation, from the extravagancies and hypocrisy of some who assumed the teacher's office during the usurpation, corrupted by the profligacy of the court of Charles II., - having suffered an irreparable loss by the expulsion of nearly two thousand ministers, who were generally attached to the doctrines of the reformation- and since the restoration having been placed under a new mode of religious instruction, which, if not avowedly semi-Pelagian, laid very little stress upon the doctrines of grace, as these truths are exhibited in the Articles and Homilies, but attempted, by the charms of human eloquence and the preaching of moral duties, to supply the want of the Gospel of Christ.

In the track of Arminianism followed revivals of the ancient heresies of Arianism, and close in their footsteps, some who held and taught the doctrines of Socinus. Whiston, professor of mathematics in the university of Cambridge, and Dr. Samuel Clarke, appeared among the former; Mr. Firman, an intimate friend of archbishop Tillotson, among the latter. Their converts in private seem to have been not a few; and the very stirring of these controversies in an irreligious age, aided the triumphs of infidelity and Epicurean indifference.

Among the Dissenters, we may naturally expect to find, from the very circumstances of their congregations, an attachment to the doctrines of the reformation subsisting to a longer period, and which appears to have been the case. Indeed, in some congregations of Independents and Particular Baptists, these doctrines were never renounced; so that a cause of dissent which sometimes operated, was, not a dislike to a few ceremonies, a liturgy, or a mode of government, but that the pulpit in the parish churches was found at variance with that liturgy; and what was understood to be the Gospel of Christ, was heard only at the meeting-house. The main body of the Dissenters, however, and more especially the Presbyterians, soon followed the

leading teachers of the church in the descending scale; and, unsustained by articles of subscription, and the use of a prescribed form of evangelical devotion, they sunk still lower from the standard of the reformation—until the successors of the old Puritans pitched their tabernacles among the tents of Arius and Socinus.

The Crispian controversy, as we have seen, had a bad effect upon those who were hailed as victors. If it was a victory, it was dearly bought, and seems to have awakened the powers of defence against a more dangerous foe that was preparing an attack in an opposite quarter. As the old Nonconformists, and those who had been formed by the teachers of that generation, died off, the effects became more and more apparent. The Goodwins, Owens, and Howes, had not equal successors as divines, although a Watts, a Doddridge, and a Gill arose.

"It could not be said," say the modern historians of the Dissenters, speaking of what soon followed upon the accession of the house of Hanover," that the doctrine of the preacher was contrary to the truth, but he did not breathe his soul into his sermons; his words appeared to freeze upon his lips; the people felt the chilling impulse, and on their faces might be read cold insensibility and frozen indifference." "But during this period, (from 1714 to 1760,) error was the destroying angel of dissenting congregations. Instances might be produced, in which a preacher of superior talents has attracted or retained a numerous congregation in the metropolis or other populous cities, though his sentiments have been far from the orthodox creed; but, in the ordinary course of things- whenever they have departed from what is called Calvinism, the congregation has evidently felt the change; it has been arrested in its growth, and, after a time, visibly decayed. "Arminianism" was, almost without exception, the first stage of congregational decline; Arianism may be called the second stage of the disease." "Where Socinianism found an entrance, its operations were still quicker, and more effectual." "A shrewd observer who drew up an account of the dissenting congregations in London, from 1696 to 1730, though rather high in Calvinism himself, does not charge any of the Presbyterian ministers with preaching the Arian doctrine. In a threefold list of Calvinists, Baxterians, and Arminians, he includes the whole; and that of the Calvinists is the largest of the three. The Independents and Particular Baptists were all strenuous for this system. He accuses none of going further than Arminianism, except some of the

66

:

General Baptists-among whom not only Arianism, but
Socinianism was already professed. But before the conclusion
of this period (1760), a more melancholy scene was presented
to view in every part of England, Arianism was not only
embraced, but openly acknowledged, by not a few of the Pres-
byterian ministers. The heresy polluted some of the London
pulpits; in Lancashire it was prevalent, and in the counties to
the south it gained ground also in the west, whence it first
sprang. The generation of ministers who contended so zealously
for the orthodox faith had finished their labours." "Among
those who succeeded them were too many who embraced the
Arian creed those champions among the laity who, at the be-
ginning of the controversy, stood up so firmly for the truth, had
entered into the joy of their Lord. Though their children con-
tinued Dissenters, too many of them did not possess the same
sentiments or spirit; but with a liberal education and little
religion, the Arian opinions gratified their literary pride, as being
remote from the creed of the vulgar, and were less hostile to the
depravity of the human heart than that which they renounced.
To this unhappy change the example and conversation of many
of the younger Presbyterian ministers did but too much contri-
bute. In one or two of the seminaries, the tutors were accused
of giving countenance to the heresy among the students. In
consequence of these exertions, before the end of the period
(A.D. 1760), Arianism spread far and wide in the Presbyterian
congregations, both among the ministers and the people in a
few places a Socinian preacher appeared." What strikes us as
very remarkable, is, that before this apostasy became total, in
some dissenting congregations the reputed orthodox and Arians
would worship together, or never discovered the real sentiments
of their teachers; and that sometimes they admitted as co-
pastors, one of the old, and another of the new faith!

When, therefore, we review the state of religion in the former part of the last century, both in the general church and among the Dissenters, we are led to reflect, that except in some few churches and congregations, the doctrines of the reformation were in a manner lost, and the effect of that glorious visitation of mercy seemed to be almost at an end. The Dissenters who continued orthodox were driven into the corners; their insulated societies had but little effect upon the nation at large, as witnesses for the truth; and it is acknowledged, that in some cases a very narrow and selfish spirit was harboured among them, which gave religion herself a sour and forbidding aspect to

those who were strangers to her genuine influence. In the general church, though there never were wanting individuals, both among the clergy and laity, who gave evidence that they were "led by the Spirit of God," and though--with some deficiency of religious knowledge, and poor notions of the liberty of Christ repentance towards God, and faith towards our Lord Jesus Christ, were still preached, and blessed to the souls of the hearers; yet, generally speaking, there was truly “a famine of the Word of the Lord." The most admired preaching, and which almost universally prevailed, insisted chiefly upon the practice of moral virtues; it was remarkable for the absence of all mention of the name of Christ, and of every allusion to his work, and to the influences of his heavenly grace.

The desk, indeed, held another language; and on this very" account, a parish church could not be so destitute of all evangelical light, as an Arianised presbyterian meeting-house- because all did not depend upon the officiating minister. The church, in regard of her liturgy, was still " a pillar of the truth ;" and a congregation in the church of England, could not attend at morning and evening prayer, and at the communion service, without hearing and rehearsing a full declaration of Gospel truth, in all its most essential points. But still, it is remarkable how little this was understood or perceived. The multitude both of priests and people, too often "drew near to God with their lips, when their hearts were far from him," and offered indeed "the sacrifice of fools." This state of things, not yet every where gone past, and never altogether unknown, as to some parts of the most enlightened congregations, illustrates that great truth of revelation, the necessity of a spiritual illumination: “the things of God are foolishness to the natural man, neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned."

It also seems to shew, that the raising up of faithful preachers of the Gospel, is still the usual method which the great Head of the church is pleased to employ, in saving them that believe. Instances of conversion and of spiritual edification have not been wanting in the worst of times, from the using of the Liturgy, and from reading the Book of Common Prayer; but, judging from all appearance, the instances have been very rare, in comparison of the blessing which has generally attended the poorest efforts of the weakest of Christ's ministers, who have been truly taught by him, and have been raised up as heralds of his mercies. We can assign no reason for this, but that such is the sovereign pleasure of God. Appearances may perhaps deceive us, and in some measure they probably do, in this mat

Q Q

ter; but hitherto, if we include all other means of instruction, even the reading of the Holy Scriptures themselves, except in connexion with a preached Gospel, it seems, that in all ages, from the times of the apostles, the great public work of divine grace has been carried on by sending messengers, according to our Lord's representation, "to open the dark eyes, to turn men from darkness to light, from the power of Satan unto God, that they may receive remission of sins, and an inheritance among them who are sanctified through faith in Christ." This we certainly know, that in those congregations in the church of England, where the pulpit contradicts the desk, or is silent on those "mysteries of the faith" on the foundation of which our public services are constructed, -the state of religious knowledge is deplorably low; worship is for the most part mere formality, or much tinctured with superstition. Some go about to establish their own righteousness, and are outwardly moral and charitable to the poor; but for the most part, a cold indifference, and sometimes an absolute pagan ignorance of Christianity prevails.

From all the accounts that we have of those days, this, it is to be feared, was very much the state of the English church, in the former part of the last century, and that at a time when some very eminent men, both as scholars and as moral instructers, were advanced to high stations in the church and in the public esteem; when their discourses-the best of their kind that had ever been penned-were read or echoed from almost all the pulpits of the kingdom. Barrow, Tillotson, and Atterbury preached, and The Whole Duty of Man' excellently laid down the wished-for standard of morals; but very faint and powerless were the exhibitions of original sin and human depravity, and of the utter helplessness of man; and, in proportion, cold and lifeless was the preaching of the cross of Christ! The powers of the human will were magnified, and of course the entire necessity of the work of the Spirit of grace was less insisted on. Though the major part were sound in the fundamental doctrines of the Trinity and the Incarnation, which were brought forth at festivals; yet these, and all the doctrines of grace in the Articles, seemed an expensive and complicated apparatus, for which there was, practically, little use. Morality was considered as all in all.

But it should be particularly observed, that as the peculiar doctrines of the Gospel were lost sight of, vice, profligacy, and immorality increased! It is said, indeed, that some of the more gross features of the debauchery prevalent in the reign of Charles II. had been somewhat amended by the moral periodical