interspersed in various parts of the Correspondence, from the year 1788 to the conclusion, are marked by deep thought and very sound and just views of general politics. It is impossible for us, however, to do more than barely refer to them at present, and to lament that the Correspondence necessarily closes just at the period when, could it have continued, it would (at least in a political sense,) have become most interesting and valuable.

ART. V. 1. History of Dissenters, from the Revolution in 1688, to the year 1808. By David Bogue and James Bennett. 4 vols. Svo. London; Ogle, Duncan and Co. 1812.

2. Wilson's History and Antiquities of Dissenting Churches. 4 vols. Svo. London.

3. Neal's History of the Puritans. Abridged in Two Volumes by Edward Parsons. 8vo. London and Leeds. 1812.

ECCLESIASTICAL history has rarely been written in an enlightened spirit; rarely, indeed, in a good one. We too often find in it whatever is most monstrous in romance, whatever is most impudent in falsehood; perverse ingenuity, microscopic dulness, bigotry, envy, and uncharitableness. The falsehood belongs more peculiarly to the Romanists, the latter ingredients have been plentifully used by writers of almost every communion. Few studies are so mournful: but to him who reads with understanding and with the mind of a Christian philosopher, perhaps none can be more instructive.

The two new works before us are perhaps as free from the vices which usually pervade books of this description, as is compatible with the spirit of sectarianism. An antiquary indeed, as well as a Roman Catholic, would wonder at the title of Mr. Wilson's volumes, and smile at the Antiquities of the Dissenting Churches! The book, however, is praiseworthy in its kind; it is of the nature of our topographical histories; and, though uninviting and unimportant to the general reader, must be interesting to those for whom it is peculiarly designed. The other work is of higher pretensions. Messrs. Bogue and Bennett are indeed any thing rather than impartial writers; nor is it enough to say that their history is somewhat the more attractive on this account, since what is gained in life and character is more than balanced by the loss of candour. We willingly take the opportunity which these writers afford us, of offering some remarks upon the subject of their labours, bringing to the task opinions which are avowedly as decided as their own, and feelings which we trust are not less charitable.

'The

'The history of the Church, during the reign of Elizabeth, presents a melancholy picture of discord, bigotry and intolerance.' So says Mr. Wilson, though it will hardly be expected that his readers of every description will agree with him. The Reformation," he adds, as then established in England, was materially defective and came far short of what was designed by those who had the chief hand in promoting it; for the bishops and the Queen were infinitely more concerned to preserve a few unprofitable rites and ceremonies, thau to promote the instruction of the people.' That Elizabeth and her bishops acted sometimes erroneously, and sometimes culpably, will be admitted by those who are most grateful to them for the general tenor of their conduct: but this same writer explains, and in no slight degree justifies, the conduct which he condemns, when he relates how the earliest dissenters held that the constitution of the hierarchy was too bad to be mended; that the very pillars of it were rotten; that the structure ought to be raised anew, and that they were resolved to lay a new foundation, though it were at the hazard of all that was dear to them in the world.' Their chief error,' he says, 'seems to have been their uncharitableness in unchurching the whole Christian world except themselves.' But the Queen and the bishops might not unreasonably think that an error of some magnitude in its consequences was included in the resolution of laying a new foundation for the church, inasmuch as the first business must have been to clear the ground by pulling down that which was already

erected.

But it is not our purpose to enter upon an exposure of the fallacies into which these writers have fallen. To write history as it ought to be written, requires a power of intellectual transmigration with which few persons are gifted. The author, if he would deal` justly toward those whose actions he professes to record, should go back to their times, and, standing where they stood, endeavour, as far as is possible, to see things as they appeared within their scope of vision, in the same light, and from the same point of view, and through the same medium. It is commonly remarked of private disputes, that both parties are in the wrong, but it is not less true that both may be, to a certain degree, right: and by him who is capable of thus entering into the life of others, it will be found that individuals, sects, and factions who, in ages of political or religious discord, have taken the most opposite parts and acted with the most inveterate hostility to each other, may yet have been equally sincere, equally conscientious, and therefore equally selfjustified. This conclusion does not lead to that miserable state of Pyrrhonism which in these days assumes the name of liberality, and is in its consequences scarcely less pernicious than the fiercest bigotry.

gotry. It carries with it comfort as well as humiliation; for when it shews how much of error has been mingled with the virtues of good men, it shews also how many virtues have coexisted with errors of conduct as well as of opinion; and that, mournful as human history is, there has always been more goodness among mankind, than historians have given it credit for.

Uncharitableness is the general fault of history, and of ecclesiastical history most of all. In Bernino's Historia di Tutte l'Heresie, there is as regular a machinery as the most approved receipts enjoin for an epic poem; Satan raises a heresy for him just as he raises a storm for Sir Richard Blackmore; and no doubt Bernino wrote as he believed, without the slightest intention of deceiving the reader. Even in authors who abstain from the language of metaphor and mythology, it is amusing to observe how the founder of a sect is usually described as a monster of iniquity. This want of sense as well as of charity has extended almost to our own days. Count Zinzendorf and Wesley did not escape such charges, and Cowper's Leuconomus will be recollected by every one. It is a fact that when Priestley was in his worst odour of heresy, a barber, who was shaving him at an inn, happened, during the operation, to discover who the personage was upon whom he was employed, on which he threw down his razor, and ran out of the room, declaring that he had seen a cloven foot! Messrs. Bogue and Bennett, when they speak of the death of Priestley, are not less bigotted than the barber, and far less excusable. They say of him, when he bids his family good night, and speaks of death as a good long sleep, we almost fancy ourselves transported to Paris at the era of the infidel and revolutionary fury; for alas! Priestley speaks only of sleeping in the grave, and not, like Paul, of sleeping in Jesus!' Whatever Priestley might have been, this is a wicked misrepresentation of him: these writers know that when he spoke of a long sleep, he alluded to his belief in the sleep of the soul till the resurrection, a notion not peculiar to him; and they know that his belief in the resurrection was as sincere as their own, founded upon the same premises, and producing the same consolations. Bigotry makes as dismal an effect upon the understanding as upon the heart.

We must take in this world the evil with the good, and happy are they who perceive how greatly the good preponderates. Of all the blessings which have been vouchsafed to England, abundantly as England has been blessed, the Reformation is the greatest. It rid us of Catholic idolatry, Catholic polytheism, the celibacy of the clergy, and the abomination of auricular confession—an evil, compared with which the monstrous fables and other anti-christian institutions of the Romish church, shrink into insignificance. The price we paid for the deliverance was a religious struggle which,

after

after more than a century, broke out into a civil war, which the termination of that war mitigated, but could not quell, and which has continued till the present day. In the barbarous kingdoms of Africa and the East, revolutions are like hurricanes; they come as suddenly, and subside as soon; and when the immediate havoc is repaired, things go on as before, till another storm brings with it a similar devastation. But in civilized states where these convulsions affect the minds of men, long series of melancholy causes must bring them on, and longer and more melancholy consequences follow in their train. The price which we have paid has not been too great for the benefit,-for it is to the Reformation that England is indebted for that moral and intellectual eminence which she has so long enjoyed. But woe be to us and our posterity, if the Church Establishment should again be overthrown; if the principles and feelings of men should again be loosened; if the cables of their faith should be cut, and they should be left to drive about at the mercy of the winds and tides! A new age of moral and religious anarchy would ensue, the happiest termination of which would be that which should bring us nearest to our present state, and all the intermediate sum of misery would be only the bitter price which folly pays for repentance.

The Dissenting writers in their representations of Elizabeth seem always to forget that the question was, which church was to be established theirs or hers. Never had any sovereign a more difficult task to perform: to frame a system which should comprehend all parties was manifestly impossible; that therefore was the best, which, without making any improper concession, should include the greatest number. Messrs. Bogue and Bennett find matter for reproach against the Church in her success. When the oath of supremacy was to be taken, they say that only two hundred and forty-three persons were found among the clergy who had sufficient regard for truth and conscience to give up their preferment. As these,' they add,' were in all probability the best of the party, what can we think of those who retained their livings, and of the establishment which contained so many thousand weathercocks, who after having been reconciled to the Holy See under Mary, now relapsed again to Protestantism at the beck of Elizabeth? For the men themselves, who are thus reproached for not having had courage enough to endure the flames, (this is the whole of the charge against them,) it will be sufficient to repeat what Fuller,says upon a like occasion, O there is more required to make a man valiant, than only to call another coward!' And for the slur at the establishment, it must be left for these logicians to shew in what manmer any establishment could be so devised as to exclude those who chose to conform to it. But in reality here it is that the wisdom of the founders of our Church appears most conspicuous. They

purified

purified religion of all the gross corruptions with which Rome had polluted it, and retaining only that which, as they thought, could allowably be retained, offered so little violence to old feelings, that more outcry was raised against them by the zealots of the Reformation than by the Catholics themselves.

Even Milton has joined in this ill-deserved reproach. 'I persuade myself,' says he, if our zeal to true religion, and the brotherly usage of our truest friends were as notorious to the world as our Prelatical schism, and captivity to Rochet apophthegms, we had ere this seen our old conquerors, and afterwards liegemen, the Normans, together with the Britains, our proper colony, and all the Gascoins that are the rightful dowry of our ancient kings, come with cap and knee, desiring the shadow of the English sceptre to defend them from the hot persecutions and taxes of the French. But when they come hither and see a tympany of Spaniolized bishops swaggering in the foretop of the state, and meddling to turn and dandle the royal ball with unskilful and pedantic palms, no marvel though they think it as unsafe to commit religion and liberty to their arbitrating as to a synagogue of Jesuits.' But against the opinion of those who think that we ought to have departed as widely as possible from all the forms and institutions of the Romish church, and that the general cause of Protestantism was injured because the change was not sufficiently broad and striking, there is the weighty testimony of Sully. When that distinguished statesman came over to congratulate James upon his accession, and saw our church service, he remarked that if the French Protestants had retained the same advantages of order and decency, there would at that time have been many thousand more Protestants in France. In reality, the effect of the outward and visible forms which were retained was such, that during the first years of Elizabeth the Catholics very generally frequented the English service; and of what advantage this must have been to the new establishment will be apparent to all who know how much more we are the creatures of habit than of reason. Many of the clergy also, who were hostile to the Reformation, took the oath of supremacy and conformed, in order to keep the Protestants out of the churches, and retain them as strong holds from whence they might support their secret cause whenever opportunity should offer. That opportunity was never given them; and they served the church which it was their hope and desire to see subverted; for they performed its offices at a time when, small as the number of the ejected clergy was, qualified persons enough could not be found to succeed them. In this, in the commencement of the English reformation, and in the manner in which Popish lands made Protestant landlords,' we see how evil was inade, subservient to good.

A greater