favourer of the doctrines of Calvin, thus describes the chief characteristic of the Church of England. "The whole world is to know that the Church of England is not changed or variable like the moon; nor affecteth novelty or new lessons, but holdeth stedfastly and conscionably that truth which by the martyrs and other ministers in this last age of the world, hath been restored unto this kingdom, and is grounded on God's written word, the only foundation of our faith. And being the same, all men may see that we are still at unity, both among ourselves at home, and with the neighbour churches abroad, in all matters of chiefest importance and fundamental points of religion, though our adverries, the Papists, would fain beat the contrary into the common people's heads."

In addition to the unfair inferences drawn by the Bishop of Lincoln, from what he considered to be characteristics of evangelical preaching, his charge contained equally wrong deductions from the doctrine of justification by faith, and misrepresentations of what he called sensible impulses. He asserted that in our Book of Common Prayer, "good works are never represented as unnecessary to salvation; and sensible impulses of the Spirit are no where acknowledged in our liturgy." With regard to the former of these assertions, Sir Richard Hill inquired-" And pray, my Lord, who ever said

1 Rogers, Chaplain to Archbishops Whitgift and Bancroft. 2 I have in a former part of this volume, endeavoured to shew that the opinions of this class of theologians and the modern semiRomanists, both end in the same disparagement of the doctrine of justification by faith. For an admirable elucidation of the principles of our establishment, and of the dangers of the views of the Tracts for the Times, I refer the reader to " Essays on the Church, by a Layman," 4th Edition.

486

REMARKS OF SIR R. HILL.

that they were so?" He assured the Bishop that he was positive that no evangelical preacher whatever would affirm any such thing. "That," continued he, they have no part in procuring the pardon of sin and acceptance with God, which is by faith only, as apprehending the righteousness of Christ, every faithful minister will constantly maintain; but that good works are the necessary fruits and evidences of lively faith, and that they follow after justification, every sound divine will not only admit but will earnestly contend for them in that view. This sort of general charge, however, seldom wants the effect which misrepresentation is calculated to produce; but it is grievous to see how frequently these stale cavils are brought up, though as often contradicted and replied to."

The remark on sensible impulses he called "a gentle blast of odium by a side wind." "Yet the expression,' he said, " may certainly be used both in a good and in a bad sense. So far as it means that the Holy Spirit operates on the heart by powerful incitements and persuasive motions, drawing up the mind to high and heavenly things, and conveying a feeling sense of divine consolation to the soul; so far, I say, the expression sensible impulse is perfectly warrantable. And I should humbly suppose your Lordship admitted at least thus much, when you declared yourself inwardly moved by the Holy Ghost to take upon you the sacred office of a minister of Christ; as also when you subscribed to the seventeenth article, which affirms that they who are predestinated to salvation, do feel in themselves the working of the Spirit of Christ, and not less when you join in prayer with the Church every Whit-Sunday, that you may evermore rejoice in the Spirit's holy comfort." "There

is also," he observed, "a bad sense in which the words

sensible impulses may be used, or rather abused, which is, when made the pretence for enthusiastic raptures or imaginations that have no warrant in Scripture, but proceed from a heated brain, leading the unhappy persons who give way to such impulses, into all sorts of extravagancies, and swelling them up to the highest pitch of delusion and spiritual pride." The good sense of these remarks will be obvious to every pious reader, and will vindicate the memory of their author from the unmerited aspersion of enthusiasm. They were followed by some strictures not less pointed, on the Bishop's lamentations at seeing the increase of sectarians. "Your Lordship laments the growth of sectaries, and that many leave the communion of the Established Church. Yet who is to blame for this, but those who by their false doctrine and carnal lives, drive the flock away from their parochial churches, to seek among the dissenters what they cannot find at home? Whilst this is the case, no harangues, either to clergy or people, will be of any avail to prevent the defection. Nay, all cautions and prohibitions will only increase what they are meant to put a stop to. It is not so much the character of the people of this nation, as is often supposed, that they will not attend public worship; for they certainly will and do attend in great numbers, and with the utmost solemnity, where they are sensible they can profit by what they hear; where they know the minister is in earnest to save their souls, and speaks warmly from his own heart to theirs. Whilst thus it is, we do not see the Church communions at all deserted; so far from it, that they increase exceedingly, and many dissenters relinquish their meetings to attend the ordinances of the establishment." That these were the true causes of a great deal of dissent no candid churchman may deny; and it was this which helped to

give to such nonconformity, though it cannot be defended upon principle, the evangelical character which is so widely different from that exhibited by men who are made dissenters, not by zeal for spirituality, but by a most carnal policy, which has awfully shrouded, where it has not quite extinguished, the former.

There can be no doubt that numerous departures from the Church were caused at the beginning of this century, by the flagrant discrepancy between the sermons of many of the clergy and the liturgy of the Church. Persons who entered into the spirit of our devotional formulæ, found that spirit damped by the cold morality of the pulpit. But if such men were truly attached to the Church, as the majority of them were, they ought to have well weighed the step they took in seeking the doctrines of the reformation elsewhere, before they made the hazardous experiment, especially as they had them in the prayers and in the portions of Scripture appointed to be read. These remarks are intended to apply to the educated and enlightened; for such a sacrifice was hardly to be expected from others, who had never been duly instructed in the value of those services which such multitudes are now taught to appreciate. The former constantly professed their intention of confining themselves entirely to the established mode of worship, the instant they could find in their parish churches the profitable teaching they desired; but they too often forgot that this intention would not be discovered by numbers, whom the example of their forsaken seats in the sanctuary might lead to neglect worship altogether. Christian self-denial extends farther than many seem to imagine, and there is such a thing as religious as well as worldly selfishness. The personal feeling, I cannot profit under such and such a ministry, has led more than one

good man to the dereliction of a principle, so that his individual comfort has been purchased at too dear a price.

Sir Richard Hill conceived that the increase of dissenting congregations might have been greatly prevented by opening a wider door of admission into orders, of men who became ministers of conventicles, because they could not obtain entrance into the Church, on account of their not having had the advantage of a University education. How far such a course of proceeding might have been advisable in his times, when candidates for ordination were less numerous than now, it may not be easy to determine; but if the line were not in these days drawn pretty distinctly, it is easy to see the inconvenience which would follow. Besides, there is an abundant field for labour in the present times for all zealous persons. District-visiting, Sunday-school teaching, and their kindred occupations, may employ zealous and devoted young men, whose advantages of education have not been such as to warrant their being placed in the situation of ministers, at a moment in which learning, and that of the soundest description, is truly needed to defend our institutions, and to escape the perilous speciousness with which error is invested, in this the most trying period the Church has ever witnessed since the Reformation. We have, however, much to hope from the rapid increase of those temples which are every where rising to adorn and bless our beauteous and enlightened island, from the increased piety and Scriptural knowledge of the clergy, and from the affection for the establishment which their zeal has elicited. The Church has only to determine to outdo dissent in every thing; in accommodation, in union, in kindness, in education, in doctrine, and at the same time to resist the introduc