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son must not be pressed too far. Such fountains, we fear, send forth more than one kind of water; " and malice and uncharitableness " do not less belong to the "bitter" water, for being found in him one part of whose duty it was, even while a scholar, to pray to be delivered from them.

A few specimens of the Curate of Wrington's opinions and feelings we now proceed to lay before the reader. We regret to be obliged to do this. We regret the publication of the book. Could it be possible to conceive of Mr. Thompson as acquiring something of the talent and zeal of Mrs. More, yet he has done more mischief by putting forth this single volume than years of very different labour could undo. He will not misunderstand us. We attribute to him no particular talent even for mischief-making. To throw the spark into the midst of combustible matter calls for no very extraordinary ability; to extinguish the flame when once kindled, is a very different task. The publication_itself was altogether needless. Mr. Roberts had done all that was necessary to illustrate the history and character of Mrs. More; and there appears no reason why Mr. Thompson should write on the subject, unless it were to ease his own mind by the declaration of his strong antipathy against all Dissenters and Methodists.

We have another reason for regretting to be obliged to notice the volume. We had hoped that some respectable portions of the Church of England press would have come forward before now, to free themselves from the obloquy which books like these bring upon their whole community. There is a growing opinion that not merely a section of the Church, a mere party within its pale, but that the Church itself, the general body of its Ministers and members, considers the established Church of England as the only true church of Christ in the country; thus unchurching and unchristianizing all who are not agreed with them in ecclesiastical discipline, however sound they may be in doc

trine, or however consistent in holy obedience :-that, contrary to the solemn decision of the Apostle, Galatians i. 8, 9, they make a personal, lineal, purely genealogical succession, the distinguishing characteristic of the catholic church:

that, contrary to the express declaration of Christ, in his sermon on the Mount, that false prophets are to be known by their fruits, they say that the difference between a false and a true prophet is, that the former is one who exercises the ministerial office without Episcopal appointment; the latter, one who has regularly received it; and that we are to beware of the first, and attend the ministrations of the second, whatever their respective fruits may be. These are Oxford-tract doctrines; and there is a growing opinion that the writers of those tracts express the prevailing feeling of the Ministers and members of the Church at large. We hope the opinion is incorrect. We sometimes believe that it is. But the time is fully come for an explicit avowal of dissent from the semiPopery which assumes such high ground, if dissent there be. That there is ground on which the Episcopal regimen may be defended, without excluding all who do not embrace it, Mr. Faber, in his learned work on the Waldenses, has fully proved; and we repeat it, the time is fully come when either the ultrasuccession scheme must be avowedly acknowledged as the principle of the whole Church; or explicitly renounced, and a moderate position taken on the ground marked out by Jerome, on an extract from whom Mr. Faber's argument rests. Ground, this, which will, on the one hand, allow to the Church its favourite Episcopacy, and yet permit the acknowledgment of the validity of a non-Episcopal ministry. Now, the publication of Mr. Thompson's book afforded the opportunity, at all events, of repudiating the exclusiveness and intolerance on which it is based throughout; and we have postponed our notice, in the hope that it might be rendered needless by rebukes from his own brethren.

As these, however, see no reason for undertaking the task,-no pleasant one, we admit, it becomes our duty now to engage in it, and to show Mr. Thompson that, in writing books like the one before us, he not only confers no benefit upon the Church, but none upon himself.

Mr. Thompson is compelled, by the force of facts, to acknowledge the negligence of a former age, as well as the fearful state of moral destitution in which Mrs. More found the parish of Cheddar and its neighbourhood, and which she and her sisters laboured so diligently to supply.

"While the forms of religion were regularly observed in schools, little care was taken to imbue the youthful heart with its practical and vital principles. And it is, perhaps, no extravagantly violent supposition, that our teeth may at this moment be set on edge by that sour grape eaten by our fathers; and the ignorance of the Scriptures, and of ecclesiastical antiquity,—the rash conclusions carried into precipitate practice, --the wild vagaries of opinion, the heresy, schism, infidelity, and folly, which characterize an age unrivalled no less in these things, than in its arrogant selfsufficiency and intellectual pretension, may be partly traced, without any excessive improbability, to the cold and formal inculcation, in our schools, some half century ago, of the vital and energetic Christianity of the Church of England." (Page 75.)

Mr. Thompson's remarks on the spiritual condition of Cheddar when first visited by Hannah More, though referring to so melancholy a subject, have in them an amusing specimen of that cunning which is one of the regular attributes of weak minds, and by which the possessor thinks he can evade the force of an attack upon himself, by an artful retaliation upon his opponent. would expect to find, in the neglected state of Cheddar, an argument. against voluntaryism, and in favour of an Establishment ? Yet this is the principal use which Mr. Thompson makes of the fact :

Who

"On revisiting Cheddar, Mrs. More's first inquiry regarded the spiritual superintendence of the people; which was,

undoubtedly, lamentably defective. The Vicar, an aged man, was not in residence, nor was there any resident Curate; no Clergyman had resided in the Two weekly serparish for forty years.

vices and one sermon Iwas the whole amount of pastoral care enjoyed by the inhabitants of Cheddar; and the attendance of twenty persons at these was a

full congregation. It can scarcely be necessary to inform the reader, that the laws of the Church of England, if properly enforced, would have remedied this grievous abuse; but the parishioners were too deeply sunk in ignorance and profligacy to be sensible of any existing grievance, and were well contented to remain undisturbed by the topics of 'righteousness, temperance, and judgment to come." They did not, it seems, according to the theory advocated by the patrons of a voluntary church,' go in quest of those religious privileges which a little exertion and scarcely any expense would have infallibly enabled them to realize. Instances like these are the best arguments against visionary projects. The evidence of experiment is irresistible the weight of one fact is enough to crush a host of pismire hypotheses. The provisions of an established Church were suspended at Cheddar, and the consequence was barbarism and Paganism. Nor is there any thing so distinct in the moral constitution of the Somersetshire people, as to make us conclude that the experiment would produce in other places a different result. The destruction of the Church establishment for the substitution of the voluntary system,' would only make a Cheddar of the entire kingdom.' (Page 88.)

How much more honourable it would have been to acknowledge and to regret the fact, and to express the hope that such a state of things existed no longer, than thus splenetically to engage in censuring others! As, however, the Curate of Wrington chooses to refer to Cheddar, he must abide a little cross-examination. No doubt, when the above sentence was penned, he thought he had done wonders. We fancy we see him at his desk: "There; what will the voluntaries say to that? They will in future be quiet about Cheddar, I think." Mr. Thompson, had he wished to be triumphant in facts as well as in words, should have been more guarded in

his language. In his haste he has allowed some very curious expressions to occur; and to these our attention must be directed.

Let it, first, then, be observed, that when Mrs. More visited Cheddar, and voluntarily commenced her career of successful labour, seeking, and at last obtaining, the cooperation of the inhabitants, the place was in a state of "barbarism and Paganism." They are Mr. Thompson's own words. Now where was Cheddar? Eight miles from Wells;-eight miles, that is to say, from an Episcopal see. In the cathedral of Wells was the mitred throne; and Cheddar, a parish with in little more than two hours' walk; -Cheddar, whose natural beauties attracted numerous parties of pleasure, and which was not, therefore, like some remote, sequestered place, whose existence might easily be forgotten,-Cheddar was in a state of barbarism and Paganism," till the voluntary efforts of Mrs. More and her sister produced an important reformation among the people, and brought their spiritual overseers to something like attention to their duty.

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"But," says Mr. Thompson, "the provisions of an established Church were suspended at Cheddar." He would be glad to go on with his argument; but he must stop here, and allow a question or two to be asked. Where, then, were the provisions of an established Church suspended? Where was the place where Vicar and Curate were nonresident, and where for forty years no Clergyman had resided in the parish?" Where? Why, at Cheddar; eight miles from Wells, the seat of a Bishop; a little more than twenty miles from Bristol, another Episcopal see! Here is a parish forty years without a resident Clergyman, and its inhabitants barbarised and paganised, in the immediate neighbourhood of Bath, Bristol, and Wells, and only about a couple of miles distant from Axbridge, a corporate town! And to this case, Mr. Thompson, Master of Arts, of St. John's College, Cambridge, wishes us to look as proving the

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superiority of an Establishment to the voluntary system! Mr. Thomp son may be a wrangler at Wrington, and if he goes on thus, he may by and by be a senior wrangler; but we should think he never had a chance of being senior wrangler any where else.

But we have not done with him. "At Cheddar, the provisions of an established Church were suspended." Its duties evidently were. But there was the Vicar, though he did not reside, nor insist on the residence of his Curate,-did he agree to suspend his claims? We will venture to say, there was no suspension of this sort. The parish had to pay for an established Church. That part of its provisions was not suspended. And now Mr. Thompson intimates that it was their own fault that they did not exert themselves, and go to a little more expense. As soon as they saw their wants, it seems, they did exert themselves. But in the mean time, as the case is proved by Mr. Thompson, eight miles from the Bishop's seat was a parish which had to pay, es usual, for the services of an established Church, and whose inhabitants, by the suspension of the duties of an Establishment, were deeply sunk in "ignorance and profligacy, barbarism and Paganism!

In Mr. Thompson's volunteered evidence there is another point to be noticed. He says that "the provisions of an established Church were suspended;" perhaps forgetting that he had just before said, "Two weekly services and one sermon was the whole amount of pastoral care enjoyed by the inhabitants.” We suppose he does not mean to exclude weddings, christenings, and burials. Besides these occasional services, then, there were two, in which the much-lauded Liturgy was read every week, and in one of them, a sermon was preached. This suspension of the provisions of an established Church, it seems, means, that above a hundred religious ser vices were annually held, and above fifty sermons preached, in the parishchurch. How then were these services conducted? What kind of

sermons

were these that were preached? Such were they, that at a time when John Wesley was preach ing to his thousands and tens of thousands; at Cheddar "the attendance of twenty persons was a full congregation;" and even these twenty were so little affected by what they heard, that the state of the entire parish became what Hannah More found it, and what Mr. Thompson describes it. No judicious advocate of the principle of an Establishment would ever refer to the case of Cheddar as Mr. Thomp son has done. He, indeed, may call this "backing his friends:" his friends, we rather think, will scarcely thank him for a defence which, translated into plain language, amounts to this; that the provisions of moral honesty were suspended at Cheddar. The Church, under Episcopal superintendence, took the stipulated price for doing a certain work; and so did the work,-the work of Christian evangelization, that the parish was deeply sunk so says Mr. Thompson-"in ignorance and profligacy, barbarism and Paganism." And yet, well-knowing this terrible state of things, and well-knowing the breach of vows, the criminality to God and man, which it implied, he can only advert to it for the purpose of saying, (for to this do his various observations amount,) that certainly he does not defend it, but that the voluntary system is as bad or worse! It is not we who have thus dragged into light the case of Cheddar; but now that it is brought forward, and brought forward in a way so little honourable to Mr. Thompson, we are bound to say that the state of the district was disgraceful to the whole Church, but especially to the diocess to which it belonged. During these years of ignorance, barbarism, profligacy, and Paganism, what sins had been committed, what souls had perished! And this, under the eye of one who called himself a Christian Bishop,-in that part, and for that time, the exclusive successor of the Apostles! Of such sins we will only say, that the effect of them cannot be put away

without deep repentance, and very honest acknowledgment.

Mr. Thompson tells us,

"The Dissenters now became alarmed at her bold encroachments on the territory of ignorance. They had witnessed the brutal barbarism of neglected parishes without one attempt to enlighten or convert; but when Mrs. More-went into the mountains to seek that which was gone astray,-the consciences of the opponents of the Church became suddenly revolted, and every nerve was braced to resist her innovations." (Page 105.)

This is his constant spirit. Instead of coming forward with a candid confession of criminality, which it would be difficult to find appro priate language to describe, he seems angry that he is compelled to acknowledge the fact, and delighted when he thinks he can recriminate. He ought, however, either to have said more, or to have been silent on the subject of this Dissenting opposition. He refers to it, but does not inform us in what it originated, or of what it consisted. Were it, indeed, exactly as it is here put, were Mrs. More's efforts to remove darkness opposed, simply because they were efforts to remove darkness,such conduct would have been almost as bad as that of the Vicar of Cheddar, and the Bishop of the diocess; both of whom were paid for keeping the people from barbarism and Paganism. But did not Mrs. More often connect with her efforts to do good, much that could not be otherwise than offensive, not merely to Dissenters, but (for instance) to pious Wesleyans? To conciliate the men by whose unchristian and immoral neglect things had been brought to this pass, every thing bordering not only upon secession from the Church, but on such activity in it as might be termed Methodistical, was to be denounced; and thus her language and conduct frequently amounted to a declaration of hostility against the very mildest forms of secession. And was it to be wondered at that she who attacked Dissent, should, for that reason, be attacked by it? Are we to stand still while the Mores of one

day, and the Thompsons of another, charge us with fanaticism, schism, and every thing but vital godliness, and say nothing in our own defence? Or is a defence against ill-natured hostility, to be represented as opposition to a Christian attempt to remove barbarism and Paganism from a shamefully neglected parish? Till evidence is adduced to the contrary, we shall believe that if Mrs. More had let the Dissenters alone, they would have let her alone. No attempt has been made to detract from the usefulness of her labours in the Cheddar district; but if men like the Curate of Wrington will force the subject forward, it ought to be examined on both sides. If the "obnoxious schoolmaster of Wedmore" were examined, and his testimony put on record, perhaps the facts which Mr. Thompson makes the subject of such slanderous insinuations, might be so explained as to show that if Hannah More appeared generally in the greatness of the Christian character, she sometimes fell into the littleness of sectarian exclusiveness and bigotry.

The reader will perhaps be amused by a specimen of Mr. Thompson's mode of philosophizing. The low state of religion during the early and middle part of the last century he acknowledges; but he endeavours to prove that it was the fault of the people rather than of the Clergy.

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"The duties of Minister and people are correlative; and if the people will not do their part, the Minister cannot perform his. If they flinch at unpalata ble truths; if they say, with self-deceiving Israel, to the seers, See not; and to the prophets, Prophesy not unto us right things, speak unto us smooth things, prophesy deceits;' the consequence is obvious; the Minister lowers the requirements of the Gospel, or they leave him. In the former case, he is justly stigmatized as a time-server and a traitor; in the latter, he is most unjustly, but not the less certainly, reproached with his empty pews. Thus, in every instance, the Clergyman bears the blame." (Page 109.) The ignorance which this displays

is only equalled by its obstinate determination to make out a good case for the Clergy. But what is the fact? Can Mr. Thompson show an instance in which the Clergyman filled his church by "lowering the requirements of the Gospel?" Can he show another in which the Clergyman preached an unlowered Gospel, and preached it as though he believed it himself, and had to complain of empty pews? Did Whitefield, did Wesley, attract their teas of thousands by preaching a Gospel whose requirements were lowered? According to Mr. Thompson, the case of the Clergy was indeed a hard one. They earnestly desired, it seems, faithfully to preach the Gospel; but they felt that if they did, they must preach to "e "empty pews." Was it, then, by a faithfully preached Gospel that the people of Cheddar, except about twenty, were driven out of the church? Was itbut we will not pursue the subject The facts of the case are utterly against Mr. Thompson's view of it; and his fine-spun theory proves nothing but that even a Master of Arts, from an English University, may be completely ignorant both of facts and principles which it is his duty thoroughly to understand.

It is well known that on the subject of the stage, Mrs. More's sentiments underwent a thorough revolution, which she openly avowed. Mr. Thompson regrets that

"Instead of condemning the stage as irreclaimable, she did not apply the high advantages which she possessed for such an object, to the purification and improvement of the national drama." (Page 228.)

Had she done so, he thinks that—

"Every night might now be working, in the minds of hundreds, effects no less salutary than those which have been known to be produced by the Gamester' and George Barnwell.'"

He adds,

(Page 229.)

"Nor is it only the non-improvement of the stage which we have to deplore. The character of Hannah More gave her

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