1821.] Review of D'Oyly's Life And again: "The glory of God descends not visibly now a-days upon our palaces, as of old upon the Tabernacle of the Congregation, to rescue our Moses and Aaron from being massacred by a desperate knot of mutineers: nor doth the earth open her mouth any longer, to swallow up our rebels and traitors alive. It is a sceptre of ordinary justice, not a rod of wonders, that fills the hand of our governors. We must not expect that a good cause should work alone of itself by way of miracle: believe it, it must be prudently, and industriously managed too, or it must at last miscarry. "For instance, (the instance of the present time :) the devils of sedition and faction, of treason and rebellion, those familiars of Rome, and Rheims, and St. Omers, (the Jesuits I mean, that have so long possessed and agitated a wretched part of this nation) will never go out from hence, and leave ns at quiet, no, not by prayer and fasting only. Nay, the best laws we have, the best you can make, (if they be not steadily, and severely executed) will prove too slight a conjuration for these sturdy evil spirits of disobedience. There is another and a better Flagellum Dæmonum, than that of Hieronimus Mengis, and his fellow-exorcists. Holy water is a trifle; and holy words will not do it. There is no such thing as Medicina per verba: words and talk will never cure the distempers of a nation. Deaf adders refuse all the voice of the charmer, charm he never so wisely. If, in good earnest, we would be rid of this legion, and say, as our Lord to the deaf and dumb spirit, Go out, and enter no more; (what shall I say?-in short.) Solomon's rod for the back of fools that grow troublesome or dangerous (as it may be prepared and managed) is a very powerful and ef CHRIST. OBSERV. No.239. 705 of Archbishop Sancroft. fectual exorcism. Untamed horses, and skittish mules, that will have no understanding, are not edified at all by calm reasonings, and instructions and meek remonstrances; nor in any other method so well as by David's expedient; in frano et como; their mouths must be kept in with bit and bridle, that it may not be possible for them to fall upon you; and so ye may be secure of them." Vol. II. pp. 426, 427. For the change which speedily took place in pulpit compositions, we are indebted to Tillotson and his contemporaries, who may be considered as of the next generation. Before them, as Burnet observes, the way of preaching among the English divines, 66 was overrun with pedantry, a great mixture of quotations from fathers and ancient writers, a long opening of a text, with the concordances of every word in it, and a giving all grounds of them, and the entering the different expositions with the into some parts of controversy, and all concluding in some, but very short, practical applications, according to the subject or the occasion. This was both long and heavy, where all was pye-balled, full of many sayings of different languages." The mention of Bishop Burnet suggests the propriety of a few additional observations; especially as and is evidently no favourite with he was a contemporary of Sancroft, Dr. D'Oyley. In writing the history of a period, when it was almost impossible for any man to avoid falling into errors, it must doubtless be conceded that he was not infallible, and prejudice would operate upon his mind, as upon the minds of others. He was conscious of something of this sort, specially warns the reader to take and in the preface to his history he what he says on some points with certain grains of allowance; but he appeals at the same time "to the great God of truth," that " be tells the truth, on all occasions, as fully and freely us upon his best Ꮌ Ꭺ inquiry he was able to find it out." To make statements of this nature, and then to act in direct opposition to them, is to be guilty not of injustice alone, but of injustice heightened by gross hypocrisy. "He may in some things," observes the Marquis of Halifax, " require grains of allowance; which those only can deny him, who are unknown or unjust to him." "I will tell you," says Horace Walpole, to Mr. Cole, "what was said of Burnet's History, by one whose testimony you yourself will not dispute-at least you would not in any thing else. That confessor said, 'He has told a great deal of truth, but--where did he learn it?? That was Saint Atterbury." Between Burnet and Sancroft there existed no great mutual regard; and the Archbishop is certainly not represented by the historian in very attractive colours. Dr. D'Oyly, with a feeling which is very natural, takes up the cause of the Primate, and shews in some instances that Burnet was mistaken. There are others, however, in which the anwer appears to us by no means complete and we cannot be surprized if a prelate who refused to attend service when prayers were offered up for William and Mary, who was associated with persons that corresponded with the abdicated Kingt, and who with his dying breath prayed that God "would bless the King, the Queen, and the Prince, and in his due time restore them to their just and undoubted rights," were considered by zealous friends of the Revolution, as a man likely to act, when occasion served ‡, in conformity with his principles and his prayers. The charge, which seems to us to press most heavily upon Burnet, is grounded on his assertion, that Sancroft raised a large estate out of the Archiepiscopal revenues. The fact appears to be satisfacto • Vol. I. p. 457. + Ib. p. 461. rily disproved by Dr. D'Oyly. Burnet, however, was not singular in the statement; and he probably spoke according to the prevailing opinion of the day. It is likewise by no means improbable that a sum, comparatively moderate in these times, would have been regarded by Burnet as large, especially if raised out of the revenues of the church. It is in favour of the historian's view of the case, or at least of his belief in the correctness of this and of his other remarks upon Sancroft that, on revising his work at a late period of life, he allowed these obnoxious passages to remain. His resentments must have died many years before the revision; and it is scarcely to be conceived, that he would deliberately have left a stigma upon his own character by statements, of which the falsehood was so notorious that he could not believe them. We had proposed to illustrate our opinion on the subject by an examination of all the passages in the History which animadvert upon Sancroft, and which are noticed by Dr. D'Oyly: the length of this article renders it necessary to omit so extended an inquiry; and we confine ourselves therefore to those general remarks. The amount of our observations, so far as the author of these volumes is concerned, is simply this: That as Bishop Burnet was much prejudiced against Sancroft, Dr. D'Oyly appears in some measure to be prejudiced against Buruet. The biographer of the Archbishop could scarcely be otherwise; and we are convinced, from the candour usually displayed in this work, that he will take what we have said upon the subject in good part. To the ability and general fairness with which he has executed his task, we are happy to bear testimony. The * The same reason obliges us to omit the observations we had meditated on the alterations made in the Liturgy in 1661. 707 life of Sancroft is necessarily in- the sovereign himself wields only teresting, from the remarkable scenes in which he was so much to sway his people only by tema temporal sceptre, can hope engaged; and it has lost none of poral sanctions, and can take cogits interest in the hands of Dr. nizance of merely a small division D'Oyly. If his character have of the crimes or virtues which conhitherto suffered under unmerited stitute the whole character of the reproach, the vindication of it has individual. The minister of relibeen undertaken by a writer well gion, on the contrary, even while qualified to do it justice. There he acts for this world, takes his are some points (for reviewers are stand in another. He wields the not easily satisfied) upon which we might have wished for a longer and appeals, from the errors and resources of heaven as well as earth, discussion; but Dr. D'Oyly, on the incapacity of man, to the simple whole, has executed his task well, but authoritative language," Thus and we shall have great pleasure saith the Lord God."-On these, to meet him again in the same walk and on other like grounds, it is of literature. scarcely possible to estimate too highly the influence of the clergy. We firmly believe, that since the establishment of Christianity, both The Christian and Civic Economy of Large Towns. By THOMAS CHALMERS, D.D. Minister of St. John's Church, Glasgow.Nos. V. and VI. On Church Patronage. Glasgow: Chalmers and Collins. 1821. Price 2s. "A HOLY minister," says Massillon, "is the most important gift which God can confer upon the world. What, for example, were the benefits which He promised by his prophet to the Israelites if they would renounce their offences? The rule of nations, the conquest of the world, the utter destruction of their enemies, the cessation of all their calamities, a land which flow. ed with milk and honey? All these magnificent promises had again and again been made to them without securing their observance of the law, or checking their idolatry. Passing by these promises...He makes them another a thousand times more precious- Turn, O backsliding children...and I will give you pastors according to mine heart, which shall feed you with knowledge and understanding." This passage is both eloquent and just. Wherever the true religion is known, perhaps no individual can occupy a more important post than its accredited minister. Even the excellencies and defects of national character are to a considerable extent to be traced to their influence. It may be considered, in fact, as supplying a sort of pulse by which our hopes of national pulated. He who has been called the rity and improvement may be regupoet of "common-sense," never delivered a maxim more worthy of his so many admit in theory, and viohonourable title, than that which late in practice. 66 I say the pulpit (in the sober use It is to the consideration of and feelingly in the various disquisitions of the author, have their origin in the defective exercise of church patronage. Institutions for the education of the young, for the moral improvement of adults, or even the mitigation of human suffering and disease, as well as those dedicated expressly to the promotion of religion, can scarcely fail to suffer in proportion to the negligence or incompetency of their natural advocates and directors, the ministers of the Gospel. The first of these papers opens with a statement designed to prove, from the facility with which schools have been brought to maintain themselves, that places of worship could also be made to pay their own expenses, and could therefore be multiplied in a degree proportionate to the wants of the popula tion. In the case of the Dissenters, among whom the apparatus for public worship is of a less costly nature than in the Establishment at least of this country, we can see no ground for doubting the general accuracy of the author's reasonings. But in the Established Church, where, we need scarcely say, we should prefer, beyond all comparison, to witness this multiplication of places of worship, the difficulties are, without some great change in the state of the law, almost insuperable. can hardly be hoped that Government will agree to erect a sufficient number of chapels. Still less can it be expected that individuals will incur this expense, if denied the right of selecting the ministers of the chapels they may join in building. But we pass on to the main argument of Dr. Chalmers, which we shall give, for the most part, in his own powerful words. Having briefly insisted on the great superiority, as an engine of moral and religious improvement, of an established church over a system of Dissenterism-a topic to which he returns again and again-he pro ceeds to expose what he conceives to be the main cause by which the efficiency of our ecclesiastical Establishment is impeded-namely, the use which is made of church patronage by those to whom it is entrusted. "Instead of a respectful deference to the popular opinion,” in the appointment of ministers, "there is often a haughty, intolerant, and avowed de. fiance to it; and we then see the longings of the public sorely thwarted by the resolute and impregnable determiconceived, therefore, how wide the nation of the patron. It may be easily disruption is between the ruling and the subject party, when a spirit altoge ther adverse to the prevailing taste is seen to preside over the great bulk of our ecclesiastical nominations. If power and popularity shall ever stand in hos tile array against each other, we are not to wonder though the result should be, a church, on the one hand, frowning hierarchy upon our population, and a aloof in all the pride and distance of people, on the other, revolted into utter distaste for establishments, and mingling with this a very general alienation of heart from all that carries the stamp of authority in the land. "We should like, even for the cause of public tranquillity and good order, that there were a more respectful accommodation to the popular taste in Christianity than the dominant spirit of ecclesiastical patronage in our day is disposed to render it. We conceive the two main ingredients of this taste to be, in the first place, that esteem which is felt by human nature for what is believed to be religious honesty ; and, in the second place, the appetite of human nature, when made, in any degree, alive to a sense of its spiritual wants, for that true and Scriptural ministration which alone can relieve them. Now, if these be indeed the principles of the popular taste, we know not how a deeper injury can be inflicted, than when all its likings and demands, on the subject of religion, are scorned disdainfully away. There is a very quick and strong dis crimination between that which it relishes and that which it dislikes, in the ministrations of a religious teacher; justice of this discrimination, it must and, previous to all inquiry into the be obvious, that if, instead of being gratified by the compliances of patronage, it is subjected to an increasing and systematic annoyance, this must gender a brooding indignancy at power among the people, or, at least, a heartless indifference to all that is associated with the government of the country, or with the matters of public administration. "In every matter that is seen intensely to affect the popular mind-that mind which is so loud in its discontent, and so formidable in its violence. that mind, the ebulitions of which have raised many a wasting storm in our day, and which, still heaving, and dissatisfied, and restless, seems as if it would roll back the burden of its felt or its fancied wrongs on the institutions from which they have germinated-it surely is the part of political wisdom to allay rather than infuriate the disorder, by according all which it can, and all which it ought, to the general wish of society. And the obligation were still more imperious, should it be made out that the thing wished for would add to the public tranquillity, by adding to the public virtue-that what is granted would not merely appease a present desire, but would shed a pure as well as a pacifying influence over the future habits of our population-that, instead of a bribe which corrupted, it were a boon to exalt and to moralize them; thus combining what is rarely to be met with in one ministration, the property of calling forth a grateful emotion now, and the property of yielding the precious fruit both of national worth and loyalty hereafter. "We believe that there is no one subject on which our statesmen are more woefully in the dark, than the right exercise of church patronage. They ap prehend not its true bearings on the political welfare of the country. The whole question is blended with theo logy; and this has shaded it with such a mystery to their eyes, as one profession holds forth to the eye and the discernment of another. They have not, in fact, steadily looked to the matter, with their own understanding; and acting, as they often do, in the hurry of their manifold occupations, on the guidance and information of others, they have very naturally reposed this part of their policy on the advice of mere ecclesiastics. It is true, that, in many a single instance, the nomination may be so overruled by family interest and connection, as to bring patronage and popularity into one. But, with this abatement, there is a leading policy which presides over this department of public affairs; and we repeat it, that representations and the authority of it is a policy mainly derived from the churchmen. It is far more the interest wrong; and we think, that in this, as of a government to be right than in every other branch of their operations, they do what is honestly believed well-being of the state. But, just as to be most for the civil and political misled by lending their ear to the poin questions of commerce, they may be litical science of party and interested merchants; so, in questions of church be misled by lending their ear to the countenance and preferment, they may oracles of a spiritual partizanship. It is thus that the main force of their patronage may be directed to one kind of theology; aud that may be the very theology which unpeoples the Esta blishment of its hearers. It is thus that their honours and rewards may, in the set of ecclesiastics, and these may be great bulk of them, be lavished on one the very ecclesiastics who alienate the population from the church, and so widen the unfortunate distance that obtains between the holders of power in a country, and the subjects of it." pp. 176-179. what he believes to be a very preHaving thus forcibly delineated vailing evil, Dr. Chalmers proceeds to point out some of the causes to which this disinclination in the rulers of the state to gratify the wishes of the community may be traced. states to be a conception on the The first of these causes he part of the governors, that the taste of the people for a peculiar class of ministers or doctrines, is low, grovelling, and capricious, - 66 surdity and error."And here he a perverse appetite for abis ready to admit that, especially in things in themselves indifferent and frivolous, the taste of a part of the public is often whimsical and absurd; and he contends that, in such cases, the minister, far from degrading himself to the fantastic and childish conceits of the popular taste, is bound to raise their |