them, except to get rid of their dominion as soon as possible. We have found out a new system, founded on a principle so simple, so intelligible, and so unexceptionable, that persons of every description may cordially and conscientiously unite in it, and, in the spirit of true Christian charity, harmoniously blend their common endeavours *."-Now, according to the rules of punctuation, the whole of this passage, under inverted commas, would seem to belong to the Sixth Report of the Bible Society, and such would be the impression conveyed to the mind of the reader; while the fact is, that the Bible Society is accountable for only so much as commences with the word "founded," and which ought therefore to have been distinguished from the rest. If such a statement had been made by an advocate for the Bible, the Jews', the Missionary, the Tract, the Sunday School, or any other Society, one alone excepted, I can imagine how you would have expressed yourself on the subject.

6. My next remark is of considerable importance. I make it after much thought and due deliberation. It appears to me then, that you and I greatly differ about the relative value of forms and doctrines, or, at least, about their necessary connection.

If I were to express the condition of salvation in the shortest terms, I should say, "Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved." This belief, however, must be understood to produce its genuine fruits; and a man who has a sound faith, and consequently holy practice, whether he be on

* "Sixth Report of Bible Society, p. 25.”

the coast of Labrador, or in the vicinity of Bartlett's Buildings, is undoubtedly a child of God. Now the impression which accompanies me through the whole of your pamphlet, is this; that you do not lay sufficient stress on the great, essential, and operative doctrines of the Gospel: and some of your fellow-labourers evidently attach more importance to the circumstance of belonging to the Church of England, than they do to purity of heart, and holiness of life. The "Country Clergyman," and the author of "An Enquiry, &c." make no secret of the matter. To these notions I cannot accede. It is not absolutely necessary to salvation that a man should be a member of this or that particular church. I belong to the Church of England, because I think it the most pure church in the world; because I think it possesses all the requisites of a church; because I think it contains better helps, and more excellent directions, than any other; because it is established, and wanton separation cannot be vindicated on any good principle. But if I am required to believe that my salvation has little connection with my faith and practice, and that it derives its security from the circumstance of my being a churchman; I say, that the man who makes this demand, betrays a most incorrect opinion of the nature of Christianity, and perverts the Scriptures *, by fixing upon doctrines which are essential to salvation, a value by no means adequate to their worth and importance. Cowper

*The Anti-Jacobin Review, March 1802, p. 346, asserts, that the foundation of all the present schisms in the Church has been laid in the disbelief of the Divine appointment of ministers; "a doctrine which is as necessary to salvation as any other article of the creed of Christians!"-I quote from the Letter of Peter O'Leary, Appendix K.

has so well delineated the characters of those who contend more for the forms than for the substance of religion, that I must be permitted to borrow his language. When the peculiar doctrines of the Gospel have lost their estimation,

"Then ceremony leads her bigots forth,
Prepar'd to fight for shadows of no worth;
While truths on which eternal things depend,
Find not, or hardly find, a single friend.
As soldiers watch the signal of command,
They learn to bow, to kneel, to sit, to stand:
Happy to fill religion's vacant place

With hollow form, and gesture, and grimace.
Such, when the Teacher of his Church was there,
People and Priest, the sons of Israel were:
Stiff in the letter, lax in the design

And import of their oracles divine :

Their learning legendary, false, absurd,

And yet exalted above God's own word."

7. I cannot but admire the novelty of one principle, which runs through the whole of your letter, and which I consider as singularly unfortunate for your cause. You complain that the Society in Bartlett's Buildings was miserably poor; you admit that its distresses were never made public by itself, and that it took little pains to obtain relief: and then you censure and condemn those who did not fly to its assistance. The censure, as it appears to me, should take another direction.

If a hospital is in want of support, the first step adopted by its governors is to state the want and to solicit subscriptions. If, instead of this conduct, they should positively make it matter of self-congratulation that their very best friends knew not even of

their existence; and when charged with their inefficiency, should say, "The fault is not ours, but yours: why did not you come to help us? Why did you subscribe to other hospitals in preference? Is it not because of your shallow, superficial spirit of self-called candour and liberality, characterized by an unworthy craving and pursuit of self-pleasing, and of vulgar applause,' &c.*?" Would you not be very much inclined to suspect that these good gentlemen had lost their wits? How can any Society expect that other persons will take care of them, when they will shew no care for themselves? It is not the business of a stranger to pry into the wants and to awaken the exertions of charitable institutions: the business is their own; and the fault is theirs, if, through pride, or inertness, they lose the advantage of public support,

8. You observe much bustle in what is called "the religious public," and you are angry or dismayed. And do you really in your conscience believe, that all this activity originates in the paltry desire to change the form of the visible church; or that there is so much sour leaven of ecclesiastical sedition in the mass as to portend the change of our Establishment? Do you see nothing in it which marks the finger of God? Amidst these awful signs of the times, is there nothing in this prodigious and increasing activity, which holds forth the promise of those better days, when discord and wrangling shall cease from among us, and their place be supplied by harmony and peace? Not

* Dr. Wordsworth, p. 102.

withstanding your jest about "the golden age*," you must surely believe that a period will arrive, when the wolf shall dwell with the lamb, and the leopard shall lie down with the kid, and the calf and the young lion and the fatling together, and a little child shall lead them. And is it not in the order of Divine Providence to bring about this desirable era by a concurrence of efforts on the part of divided Christians; and by some such approximation as the putting away of bitterness, and wrath, and anger, and clamour, and the cultivation of a spirit of meekness, and gentleness, and brotherly love? Is any thing so likely to accomplish this as the diffusion of the Scriptures; and that by the allied exertions of Christians of every denomination? And is it not a remarkable coincidence, that at the very time when Popery has received a fatal wound, when the seat of Mahometanism in Europe is tottering to its fall, and the tomb of the Impostor himself is in the hands of his enemies, the Bible Society should rise to carry "the everlasting Gospel to every nation, and kindred, and tongue, and people?" We seem, indeed, to be upon the eve of glorious times; and the days appear to be fast approaching, when the earth shall be filled with the knowledge of the Lord as the waters cover the sea.

9. The basis of all the arguments which are produced against the Bible Society, however disguised, is an assumption, that all who dissent from the

* "It seems, as if the golden age at length were to be restored and the lion were to lie down with the lamb !"-Dr. Wordsworth p. 96.

+ Revelation xiv.6.