have bended it. We cannot confidently regard it as the token of peace, or a pledge that the fountains of the great deep shall be no more broken up, and that the deluge of religious confusion shall not rise again above the summits of our mountains.

Let us, however, quit the region of beautiful metaphors, and return to a sober prosaic view of Richard Watson's Methodism. It was, we are told,

"Of a purely Wesleyan character. He was no theoretic Dissenter. He cherished no feelings of hostility to the religious establishment of his country. An Established Church, recognizing the grand principles of Evangelical truth, and accompanied by a legal protection to all who prefer a different creed and mode of worship, he declared to be, in his view, the most likely means of promoting true religion and morality, and, by consequence, the national welfare. He was far, indeed, from thinking that the Church of England had done all that she ought to have done for the instruction and spiritual benefit of the people. But her formularies embody all the vital truths of Christianity. Her services keep the subject of religion continually before the public mind. Not a few of her Clergy have been, and still are, among the most useful and exemplary of the ministers of Christ and her general influence is therefore great and salutary. In his writings he speaks of her as the mother of us all; and he describes the sanctified and profound erudition embodied in the works of her Divines, as the light of Christendom.' It was not, indeed, either his wish or his hope, that the Church should sanction all the functionaries and machinery of Methodism; or that the Methodists should abandon any of the peculiarities of their discipline, which had been of such great utility in promoting the interests of religion for this, he thought, would be beneficial to neither party, and would require from both such a sacrifice of principle as they ought not to make. But he was desirous that the Methodists should always stand in a friendly relation to the Church, aiming not at party purposes, but simply at the advancement of true religion. His admiration of the Liturgy was unbounded: and he greatly enjoyed the use of it in the Wesleyan chapels on the Sunday morning. Its beauties as a literary composition recommended it to his fine taste but it was more strongly endeared to him by the spirit of pure and elevated devotion which it breathes. When he was confined to the house, he read it with his family, as a substitute for public worship and he said to the writer of these pages, about a year before his death, that if he were a private individual, and there were no Methodist Congregation with whom he could meet in Divine worship, he should attend the religious services of the Established Church in preference to any others, because of the solemnity and order which are secured by the use of the Liturgy. To the public reading of so large a portion of the Holy Scriptures, in the services of the Church of England, he also referred as a peculiar excellence. These sentiments were not the result of prejudice and early habit, but of observation and deep thought." pp. 660, 661.

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With regard to the opening words of the above extract, we must confess that we feel ourselves in a hopeless state of puzzle

ment! Watson was no theoretic Dissenter. Now, what can this mean? That he was a Dissenter in practice, is beyond all question. Are we then to understand that his practice and his theory were at variance with each other?-or do the words merely import that he did not consider Nonconformity as among the first duties of a good citizen or a good Christian? The theory of dissent, if we rightly understand it, is simply this: that every man may, consistently with the mind of Christ, chuse whether he will, or will not, obey the Bishop of his Diocese; whether he will worship in the Church or the Conventicle; whether he will adhere to a ministry episcopally ordained, or whether he will follow the spiritual guidance of any individual who takes from the civil magistrate a licence to preach, or whether he will sometimes do the one, and sometimes the other, as may best suit the convenience, or the fancy, of the moment. Whether this theory be right or wrong, we are not now considering. But that such actually is the theory of dissent, can hardly be a matter of dispute. And if any man acts and speaks, advisedly and deliberately, according to this theory, we are quite unable to divine what can be in his brain, when he tells us that, in spite of all this, he is no theoretic Dissenter.

The rest of the above manifesto-for such we are willing to consider it is, so far as it goes, extremely important, and highly satisfactory. It not only disclaims hostility to the Church, as one of many denominations; but it expresses something like a filial attachment to her; and it acknowledges her influence to be great and salutary; and it professes a conviction that, as a National Establishment, the Church of England is a mighty instrument for the preservation of sound morality, and religion pure and undefiled; and consequently, that she is the best guardian of the national welfare. All this is undoubtedly excellent. It cannot, indeed, be fairly considered as amounting to any thing like a disclaimer of the theory of Dissent. But it does exhibit Dissent in its least forbidding form; as divested of its bristling defiance, and its malignant scowl: and for this, among other reasons, we cordially deplore that Richard Watson was not spared for a longer time. Were he still among us, he would hear a very different language from his own, among the furious utterances of discontent and nonconformity; he would hear something more than curses not loud but deep." The outcry would reach him from the open gathering together of the froward; and it would tell him that the Establishment, which still had a place in his heart, was utterly unworthy of one spark of his attachment,-that the Church of England has destroyed more souls than it has saved,that what is called her union with the State is unnatural, pernicious, and abominable; that National Religious Establishments are without the sanction of God's revealed will,-nay, in

direct opposition to the spirit of his Gospel. And, we must add, that the clamour would reach his ears, swelled by the voices of some who call themselves after the name of Wesley. And, from another quarter, he would be astounded with the tidings that the Christian Universities of our land, the places which he venerated as the nurseries of profound and sanctified erudition-are menaced with an invasion, not only from every region of Nonconformity, but from every corner of Doctrinal dissent, or it may be, from every limbo of scepticism, and every depth of infidelity;—that the honour of academic degrees, and the administration of academic interests, is confidently demanded by men, who spurn aside every test whereby their religious profession, or no-profession, may be made known. Whether such things are just, or honest, or lovely, or of good report, we leave to the judgment of thoughtful, conscientious, and religious men. But, be this as it may, such are the things which Richard Watson would be doomed to hear, if he were now in the flesh. And we ask, if he had any such regard for the Church of England, as his biographer ascribes to him, and as his writings testify,-with this outcry echoing around him, could he be silent? If he really loved the seminaries dedicated to sound learning and religious education-could he be silent? If he had any care of his own reputation for consistency-could he be silent? And we ask, too, of his devoted followers,-we ask of them who profess to honour his memory, and to revere his virtues, and to speak his words, and to think his thoughts,-can they be silent?

For our own part, we are well pleased that certain of the sons of Nonconformity have recently spoken out; and this so plainly, that all who value the Establishment, must now be in full possession of the mind of their adversaries,-unless, indeed, a judicial dulness hath stopped their ears, and a judicial infatuation descended upon their hearts. We say that we are well pleased at this. And we say it, not in a spirit of insolent challenge and defiance; but, simply, because we think it best that they should speak out; because we are anxious to get at the true state of the public mind; because we conceive, that, if there be a rancorous malignity fermenting, it will be far less dangerous that it should break forth into an angry eruption, than that it should be "mining all within, and infect unseen," while a film of outward courtesy and moderation skins over "the ulcerous place." We are sometimes assured, with respect to the vociferous remonstrants in question, that these be only the men of Belial; but that there be many others of the brotherhood far more moderate in speech, and "in act more graceful and humane ;" men whose hearts are sounder, and whose words are not so stout. How this may be, we know not. But this we know,-that the men of Belial-(if such they be)→

have the voice of a Boanerges; and that their number, (even though it should eventually turn out to be comparatively small), is enough, in positive amount, to invest them, in the public eye, with the name and attributes of Legion. We should, therefore, be well satisfied that the men of moderation should speak out likewise. If it be true, that there is still among the numerous tribes and families of dissent, a large body of wise, and charitable, and sober-minded men, who have no hard thoughts, or sinister designs, against the National Establishment, and who rather deprecate than invoke the powers at work for its downfal→ if this, in truth, be so,-why, then we could wish that they would even give the world the benefit of their wisdom, and their charity, and their sobriety of mind. And this they can do, only by assembling themselves together, and lifting up their voice, and manifesting their strength, until the enemy and the avenger shall be stripped of all pretence for boasting his concentration of power and unanimity of purpose. How else is the Church to know her friends from her enemies, in the multitude of them that stand looking upon her afar off? How, otherwise, is the Legislature to know, whether the petitions, which load its table, speak the general sense of the great fraternity of separation; or whether they merely represent and express the superior energy and zeal of a destructive faction? Above all--we call upon the Wesleyans to be open and free-spoken. If they are ready to join the destructive faction,-even let them say so. If, on the contrary, they think and feel, for the most part, with Richard Watson, and with men like him, again we cry-even let them come forward, and say so. If they are a divided body, as touching this question,-if they are halting between two opinions, so that their tongue cleaves to the roof of their mouth, and their right hand forgets its cunning, and cannot trace their signature to resolution, remonstrance, or petition, either way,-what will the public conclude, but that their occasional expressions of respect for the Church, are nothing more than the "faint praise" which, virtually, speaketh of condemnation; and that, at best, they are resolved upon a sort of armed neutrality?

We repeat, that we say not these things in a spirit of challenge, or of petulance, or of ill humour, or of arrogance. We know that, in this glorious land of freedom, all men, and women, and children, have a full right to entertain their opinions, and their designs and, on this most important question, our only wish is to ascertain what their designs and their opinions may be. And, for this reason it is, that we desire nothing so much, as that all sorts and conditions of men should speak out. The intemperate, and the turbulent, and the revolutionary, have already spoken out, with a vengeance. Let those of a different stamp follow their

example, and do likewise. And most urgently do we exhort the laity, who are in communion with the Establishment not to keep still silence, in the crisis of this fierce arbitrement. If they really have one spark of love and veneration for the Church of their fathers-if they would not see a vast machinery, which has been at work, through many a generation, for the best and holiest of purposes, broken up, and hewn in pieces, and cast into the fire,-if it would pity them to behold our Zion sinking into ruins, and to hear the savage yell, down with her even to the ground,then, let them up and be doing, and quit themselves like men on her behalf. For let the laity consider,-if few or none but the clergy are heard to speak, in this hour of peril, what will the adversary say?-why, truly, that the parsons are in sore alarm, for their stalls, and their rectories, and their glebe, and their tenth sheaf, and their tenth haycock; and that, therefore, their remonstrances are nothing more than the cry of sordid hirelings, who, while they talk of our ancient and venerable Church, are thinking of nothing under heaven but her fat emoluments. This, most infallibly, will be the commentary of the destructive party, on the testimony of the clergy, if that testimony be not loudly and vigorously echoed by those who value and love their ministry. That the majority who honour the Church, and wish her preservation, is overwhelming, we have very little doubt. But what is the worth of a majority which speaketh not, and voteth not, when the question is put,

as it has been lately put; and put, at the instance of men who are ready to speak, and vote, and act, and to call forth all their faculties and resources in order to carry the question their own way? Something, indeed, has already been done to bring out the sentiments and the energies of the Great Congregation. But much more must still be done, and that promptly, or the cause will be in danger to be lost and betrayed, through very sluggishness. There must be no muttering out of the dust. There must be the shout, as it were of a mighty host. There must be a general xeλevoμòs, which may speak in the enemy's ear of confidence and of victory. They who are quiet in the land, may, perchance, think it enough to assist the cause with their prayers. And too instant in prayer such persons cannot be; and too high an estimate cannot be placed on this resource, in the season of peril and adversity, provided always, that it be attended with a befitting course of visible exertion. But will Providence answer the prayers of them who, in times like these, are fervent only in their closets? Will God prosper the vows of men, whose hands are folded, while their eyes and their hearts are lifted up towards heaven?

Of course there are many who will listen with incredulous