they grow with each other's growth, they strengthen with each other's strength; it is the State which protects, honours, and che rishes the Church; it is the Church which defends, adorns, and consecrates that political body with which she is so intimately connected.

"Nor is this union accomplished for the sake of rendering the Church political, but the government religious. To infuse into every order of the State a holy zeal in the cause of that Christianity which is a constituent part even of the body politic, to point out a path of religious faith to the multitude of every rank, who have no power to select or to choose for themselves, and to present that uniform appearance of religion, which is so essential to its general and easy reception, is the first grand design of a CHURCH ESTABLISHMENT." Vol. I. P. 178.

In the first part of the second volume are contained those publications which display the character and the pretensions of the Church of England. We think that the Editors have shewn great judgment in selecting, Is'. Swift's Sentiments of a Church of England Man with respect to religion and government; a treatise which, for practical simplicity, soundness, and moderation, cannot at any time, but particularly in these dangerous and slippery times, be sufficiently read or admired. Qd. Archbishop Synge's True Churchman is also a sound and useful work; and Sdly, Bishop Ellys on the Nature of that Supremacy, which in ecclesiastical matters is vested in the crown, is a book to which the student may apply for much valuable information upon this difficult and delicate subject. These three are the only tracts in this department; a fourth however is mentioned in the Preface, "An Apology for the Church of England," by the present Dean of Winchester. We know not for what reason this is omitted, as it was clearly the intention of the Editors to have inserted it. We hope in the second edition that it will be presented to the readers, as it is a Sermon which is peculiarly distinguished for that original conception, and affectionate eloquence, which are the characteristics of its learned author. The views taken of the Church of England in the Preface to this part of the work will afford much satisfaction to the reader:

"Of all ecclesiastical establishments, and of all the various forms of Christian government, known under the name of national churches, we may without fear assert that the Church of England is among the purest, the holiest, and most perfect. And this we believe, not from any inherent claims in herself to a higher share of Christian perfection, nor in detriment to the excellence of esta blished churches in any other nation, but from her strict conformity with the commands of her great Master, and her close resemblance, both in constitution and in form, to the primitive and apostolical Churches.

Churches. Though "her foundations are upon the holy hills," she vindicates to herself no share of innate authority, or necessary infallibility. All the power which is assumed by her, over the wills and the affecions of her children, is derived from a higher source. Every article in the faith, every law in the constitution, every ordinance in the discipline of the Church of England, is binding only upon the consciences of her sons as it is immediately derived from the authority of Scripture. Scripture is the test by which the validity of her claims are to be tried, and is the only criterion by which she can be judged. But here a material point arises; it is not upon Scripture, as interpreted by herself, that she relies, but upon Scripture as interpreted by the laws of sound reason and of common sense. There are parts of the Church of Christ which rest their claims nominally upon Scripture, but then it is upon Scripture interpreted by themselves. They acknowledge, indeed, the existence of the law by which they are to be judged, as did the Scribes and Pharisees of old, but at the same time they reserve to themselves the sole and paramount authority of their own interpretation; thus reasoning, if reason it can be called, as it were in a circle, first taking for granted their authority in the interpretation of Scripture, and then proving it from itself. The Church of England, on the contrary, when she submits herself to this test, resigns every inherent claim of interpretation, and calls in sound and unprejudiced reason as the judge, either to confirm or to reject, her claims. Whatever cannot be drawn by the deduction of clear and unsophisticated argumentation, from the pure fountain of the Holy Scriptures, forms no article, either of her constitution or of her creed." Vol. II. P. 2.

The tracts upon the subject of POPERY are selected with peculiar discrimination and judgment: I. Popery Destructive of the Evidences of Christianity, by N. Foster, B.D. is a Sermon, which was preached before the University of Oxford in 1746, and peculiarly demanding the attention of the reader at the present time, when attempts are made even from the highest quarters to confound all religious opinions and doctrines in one amalgamation of ignorance and indifference. The Author of this important discourse was the learned Editor of Plato, and a man distinguished alike for powers of intellect and depth of research. II. Bishop Bull's answer to the Queries of the Bishop of Meaux respecting the corruptions of the Church of Rome, in relation to Ecclesiastical Government, the Rule of Faith, and the Forin of Divine Worship, a treatise which for its acuteness and learning should be in the hands of every theological student. II. Dr. Kipling's (the present Dean of Peterborough) Examination of Certain Accusations brought recently by the Irish Papists against British and Irish Protestants of every denomination. This was occasioned by the republication of Ward's Errats a few years

since, and has become exceedingly scarce: it is a happy specimen of vigorous and convincing precision both in statement and in reasoning. IV. Christ, not St. Peter, the Rock of the Christian Church by the present learned Bishop of St. David's. V. A Second Letter on the Independence of the Ancient British Church, upon any Foreign Jurisdiction, by the same author; a publication which does credit both to his ingenuity and to his discernment. VI. The Case stated between the Church of England and the Church of Rome, by C. Leslie, A.M. This is by the celebrated author of "The Rehearsal," "A Short and Easy Method with a Deist," &c. and is given in the form of a dialogue between an English Roman Catholic nobleman, and a gentleman of the Church of England, and successfully demonstrates the doubt and danger attending the communion of the former, and the satisfaction and certainty to be found within the latter. The reader who shall have thoroughly acquainted him self with the six treatises which form this department of the work, will have gained all the knowledge upon this important subject, which may be necessary upon all common occasions, on which a question may arise respecting the genius and the tendency of the two religious. He will also learn that whatever is the genius of Popery, it can admit neither of alteration nor improvement; but that what its professors were in the darkest and most bloody ages of persecution, such they both would and must be now, were they endued with power and invested with authority. With the following passage in the Preface, we were much pleased:

"Popish authority here was obtained by murder, preserved by the promotion of continual dissentions between the prince and his subjects, reluctantly submitted to at all times, and finally thrown off with the unanimous consent of the monarch aud the people. After the objections made by Luther, to Popery, had induced all serious men to examine for themselves, with what cautious prudence a reform was made in this country, the general approbation of all foreign churches abundantly proves. So evidently indeed did we retain all the essentials of Christianity, in the opinion of even Papists themselves, that Pope Pius the IVth is said to have offered Queen Elizabeth a confirmation of all she had done, provided his supremacy was acknowledged. (See Camden's Elizabeth, and Baker's Chron. An. 1560.) This being refused, a spirit of animosity arose, which the lapse of three centuries has not extinguished. But Popery remains the same in its tenets and its practices. Nor to prove this truth should we refer to the histories of the Reformation, nor of the times immediately preceding that event, but to the rebellion and murders, which, during the last twenty years, have been perpetrated in Ireland, and which no impartial observer can suppose to have arisen from any other source

than

than the rancour of papists against their fellow subjects, and the hope of success while our country was engaged with its inveterate foe, who at that time, had under his command nearly the whole of the continent. At that time, I repeat, when subjects of any loyalty would patiently have submitted to most grievances, rather than embarrass government, then, and how much less have agitated the whole kingdom for claims, which, if granted, would according to their own avowal, have conferred the bare possibility only, of enjoying places of honour and profit on a few. Against Popery therefore, such as it has been, such as, from its constituent principles, it ever must be, the Church of England remains the great bulwark of the Reformation, and to impress her sons with the nature of the errors she opposes, the following tracts are republished." Vol. II. P. 124.

On the subject of TOLERATION we find but two Treatises, both however of considerable merit: I. True Moderation, by T. Brett, LL.D. in which, among much excellent matter, the distinction to be made between the opinions and the persons of dissentients from our establishment is well pointed out: II. Stebbing's Essay on Civil Government; in which will be found an able answer to the impractical speculations of Locke and Boyle. Some additions might have been made with considerable effect to this part of the work, particularly from the Sermons and Charges of Balguy, where this intricate and difficult subject is placed in a clearer light than by any writer with whom we are acquainted, Warburton perhaps only excepted. We are the more surprised at seeing no work of Balguy in this or in other department of the work, as his name is mentioned in the General Preface as one of those, which would do honour to the publication. The Preface to this part also is executed with much ability, as the following extract will shew:

any

"Whoever would now be regarded as liberal, must actually encourage principles which he believes to be false, and practices which he dreads as injurious. Hence a deference to the experience and wisdom of our ancestors is a barbarous superstition: to support a primitive and national Church, gothic bigotry; but to educate our children in the truths we revere ourselves, has roused to active opposition, deists, dissenters, socinians, quakers, and hoc genus omne. Christians must therefore be recalled to a more sober contemplation of things. They must learn not to seek the praise of men by a disparagement of their zeal towards God. Enchanted by a meretricious liberality, they have hitherto treated truth and error alike, or rather, the latter has experienced a kind of affectionate pity, while the former has been received with cold acknowledgements, little better than a repulse. Yet, however we may pity the person, no countenance should ever be shewn to error: for what each individual deems to be error, that ought he to suppress it is his duty, considered as a member of religious, or civil

society.

society. On the contrary, what he deems truth, it is equally his duty to support. For genuine charity seeks the real welfare, not the present ease of mankind; and, with such charity, Christian Toleration necessarily coincides, which it well may do, since Toleration signifies, or at least used to signify, patiently bearing with something wrong. Therefore, whatever a state promises to tolerate, that at the same time it avows to be against her laws, yet, abstaining from the punishment thereof, for certain causes assigned or not. With respect to religious errors, the cause is, man's inability to punish them justly. But what the state deems to be truth, and therefore productive of happiness to its subjects, she is bound for, therefore invested with power, to support and encourage. By such means at least are the ruling powers warranted to curb opi nions adverse to their own. To care for none of these things, and treat all religious sects alike, is an heathenish indifference, a policy arising from a total disregard of all religion, or a latent desire of promoting some particular sect, rather than from enlightened views, and a just estimate of human nature. For every experienced politician must acknowledge how advantageous it would be that an whole kingdom should, as much as possible, be of one mind, and the great danger of contests when the opposing parties are of equal number and strength. The difficulty of adjusting measures so as to inflame none, the different ideas each are apt to form of politics, the extreme jealousy observed towards government by those whose opinions it does not profess, are all so many sources of embarrassment, which must frequently paralyze or prevent extended plans. And such a government would necessarily fall in any serious internal convulsion. Parties so equally balanced as to admit no superior, or by a temporary union of discordant parts, enabled to match the otherwise predominant division, are ready on all occasions to wrestle for the rod of power. Should it fall a prize to the associates, they again would contend for its possession, and the land sink under anarchy and misrule. This is no visionary theory, but the history of our own great rebellion. Therefore to inform the public mind on this subject, and guard against the fatal consequences of the present immoderate moderation, the following tracts are republished, in which the subject is considered on different grounds." Vol. III. P. 2.

From the view which we have thus given our readers of " The Churchman Armed," they will be convinced of the utility and the importance of such a publication at the present time. The student will find embodied in these three volumes the opinions of the most eminent writers upon those subjects to which the state of our Ecclesiastical Constitution, in these times, appears peculiarly to command his attention. He will be directed to the fountains themselves of all that is sound in principle, or valuable in practice; and from tirese masterly treatises thus arranged and concent ated before him, he will also be cuabled to form with

precision,