to increase our labour in one respect, diminishes it in another; and, whether it be from indolence, or from a regard to the superior rectitude of the course, we shall adopt that method which will give us the least trouble. The title of these volumes does not appear to have been selected with the strictest propriety, nor indeed with the most scrupulous fairness, as it professes nothing more than a History of Dissenters; and yet the authors evidently intended to include in their work a general history of the state of religion in these dominions. They profess as much in their Preface, where they observe

"Our volumes will form a compendious history of religion in Britain, as we have devoted, under each of the periods into which our work is divided, a distinct chapter to the state of religion in the British Empire at large." p. xxiii.

to forestall the judgment of the reader in favour of the hilarity and ironical style which they have occasionally, and indeed pretty plentifully, adopted. Nor indeed should we be disposed to deny them the indulgence of their taste, did not simple history, much more religious history, seem to forbid at least an excess in that way of writing; and did we not find it uniformly and exclusively indulged at the expense of the principles or feelings of their opponents. But we shall find it necessary to revert to this subject.

In the Introduction, which is intended to give a succinct history of Christianity in Britain up to the period which the history before us professedly undertakes to record, we find, of course, some representations, accompanied with such reflections as pleased the writers, of the conduct of the first reformers in this nation; and we are sorry likewise to find, As, we hope, it will be perceived, that our dissenting historians, in too that we have been actuated by no much of the spirit of dissent, beunfair principles of hostility in our tray a manifest reluctance to admit general remarks on the work before the merits, and as manifest an incliu, we will omit some sentiments of nation to expose and aggravate the censure which were roused in pur- faults, of those illustrious individuals; suing our course through the Pre-men, who were martyrs, not in face, to produce a passage honour- profession or spirit only, but in deed able to the candour, which we wish and in truth; inartyrs too, not in the were more uniform, of the writers. slighter sufferings implied by the *Yet we are far from thinking, either term, by taking joyfully the spoiling that every member of the established re- of their goods and the imprisonment ligion was transported with the furious lust of their persons, but by resisting of domination, which her rulers have, in unto blood, and not counting their former times, displayed; or that none of her life dear to them, so that they might clergy have, since then, received any im- finish their own course with joy, provement from the lapse of time, and the and transmit the truth, unimpaired, discipline of events. On the contrary, we and confirmed by their testimony, have the happiness to be acquainted with to the posterities which shall be dergyraen whose enlightened minds, liberal blessed through them. They were panciples, virtuous lives, and benevolent lahours, would do honour to any communion men, we may likewise affirm, to of Christians which now exists, and would whose exertions and sacrifices Disave reflected no disgrace on the first and senters themselves owe half their porest churches of Christ on earth. There light and half their privileges. The re those who minister in the church from first and principal agent in the Reforwhich we dissent, whose generous hearts mation, Archbishop Cranmer, "my ectio to the severest sentence we could pro- Lord of Canterbury," whose dignity pounce on the arbitrary measures which drove does not appear to be the least of his the Puritans from the established pale." faults in the eyes of our historians, ¡p. xxxiv, xxxv. is dismissed with the following reflection, which we will not attempt

The authors, in p. xliii. endeavour

to characterize: "If any part of his history decisively proves the reality of his religion, it is his death." p. 53. We are at a loss to account for this treatment of persons, who, we apprehended, were placed beyond the reach of party-feeling, in times and under circumstances, where all real Christians have the same friends and the same enemies, till, in our progressive perusal of this history, it was involuntarily suggested to us, that there existed a sentiment of jealousy on the subject; and that, as the ejected ministers were obviously the heroes of the present writers, and accounted by them the great parents of the modern body of Dissenters, they stood in direct rivalry with those whom we esteem the fathers of the English church.

The account of the times of what is called the Great Rebellion, and of the Interregnum or Commonwealth, is, in our view, singularly partial. The tyranny of the presbyterian and independent party, both in their progress towards the supreme power, and during their enjoyment of it, with respect to the episcopalians, and more especially the clergy, is acknowledged in a degree very far below the truth. The authors do not appear at all ambitious of the praise of impar tiality in this part of their history. They must certainly have heard of a work entitled," An Attempt towards recovering an Account of the Numbers and Sufferings of the Clergy of the Church of England," &c. by John Walker. And yet there is no reference whatever to the performance, that we can remember. Our historians need not alarm themselves or others with the notion, that we adopt, or would defend, the entire contents, or the reigning spirit, of the "Attempt." It is an illiberal work, breathing out the bitterness and secularity of the Sacheverellian phrensy, and depraved with large mixtures of puerile scandal. And yet there is so great a mass of real and important information hidden under the rubbish, that no historian

of the time and subject can, with safe credit, overlook it. The work was provoked by the first edition of Calamy's Abridgment of Baxter's Life, &c. and the short account which was appended of the sufferings of the non-conformists. Great preparations were made for its ap pearance. Calamy considered himself and his cause sufficiently concerned to reply in a tract, which appears at the end of the last volume of his Continuation of the Account of the Ejected Ministers, under the title, "The Church and the Dissenters compared, as to Persecution in some Remarks on Dr. Walker's Attempt," &c. Except with respect to the instances, in which we freely give up the Churchman, his opponent, we think, has defended himself but feebly; and we were not sorry, either for his sake or ours, to read in his work the following concession:

"I readily acknowledge many of his suf ferers mentioned here, to have been men of great worth and eminence. I am sincerely sorry they met with such usage; and can as heartily as any man lament the rigorous treatment of such excellent persons, as Bishop Morton, Bishop Hall, Bishop Prideaux, Bishop Brownrigg, &c. Ihave not the least word to say in vindication of it.

Bishop Hall's Hard Measure, written by himself, added to his account of the Specialties of his Life, and dated May 29, 1647, would make any man's heart bleed that reads it." p. 65.

In p. 88, our authors, after affirming, that a part of the money raised by the sale of the cathedral Jands was appropriated to the sup port of the deprived clergy,-a very small part, if any; for, if our recollection be correct, the money was applied to the use of the state,observe, that " a fifth of the income of livings was afterwards devoted to the relief of the ejected incumbents." We believe this assersion to be ma terially incorrect, inasmuch as, not the ejected incumbents, but their wives and families, were the objects of this partial clemency in the intention of the parliament. But al though the parliament should have

lie upon us, or upon the church of which we are members, to vindicate the conduct of the government and the clergy, in their treatment of the non-conformists. The church of England is no more implicated in this act of her ruling members, and those who influenced her proceed ings at the time, than the civil part of the constitution is accountable for the conduct of such a judge as Jeffries. There were, however, Home extenuating circumstances in the affair, which our historians have

Faller, in his way, says, the fifths were paid at sixes and sevens.

wise, not singly, or in a small body, a fair and able record is still a desibut, as the authors of this work deratum-still, we say; for the preanxiously point out for a different sent work has by no means supplied purpose, in a large body and to it. The first subject of importance, gether. It is well known, that, at in the reign of king William, and the time, it was suspected, particu- peculiarly so to Dissenters, is the tolarly by the Independents, that the leration which was granted by act rigour of the act of uniformity of parliament to such Protestants as was intended to throw out of the dissented from the Establishment; church so large a number of her and the Act, as the Magna Charta of existing pastors, that a general act the Dissenters, is given at length. of toleration should appear neces- We may excuse our historians for sary and be called for; an act so not being perfectly satisfied with it, general as to include, what was the since it has appeared reasonable to principal object of the court, the the wisdom of parliament, even in Papists. It is not quite clear, there the present reign, to extend its infore, whether the unanimity and dulgences. P. 199, however, prenumber of these confessors, at least sents us with a view of the subject, with respect to many, may not have altogether novel. proceeded from an intention to perform their part in the plan, which, when the plan failed, they would not be over-anxious to acknowledge. It deserves further to be considered, that they had committed themselves by so decisive a declaration of their hostility to the submissions proposed, that they would have been knaves confessed, had they conformed: an advantage over them in which one of the bishops is said to have exulted. We have mentioned these circumstances, not for the purpose of derogating from the merit of these men, but to shew with what qualifications their present encomiasts should be read, and more particularly to point out their comparative merit, as concerns the first agents in the English Reformation, at whose expense they have been so inconsiderately exalted.

When we

"The word toleration, when used in mat ters of religion, has but an ungracious sound. The subject presents itself in two points of view. Man renders homage to God:-and God receives homage from man.' say man renders homage to God; that another man, or body of men, should tolerate me to perform my duty to my Creator seems strange, though from custom we can' bear to hear it. But when we view the sub

ject in the other light, that God receives homage from man, then for the legislature of a country, or for any human being, to permit or tolerate God to receive homage from me, according to my conscience, is an expression which shocks the feelings, and the impropriety is too glaring to be borne." Voli. p.199.

This is a description of argument, to which, in politics, we were much exposed some years ago. The worst of it is, that it will apply with its whole force to every depravation of religion, and load with all the horrible consequence just expressed, Our having dwelt so long on the every restraint on the most absurd, Introduction of this work, which, licentious, sanguinary, and pernihowever, is pretty extended, might cious superstitions. Indeed, many require some apology, were not the dissenting writers, in the unqualified subjects treated of considerable im- manner in which they inculcate and portance, and the manner of our recommend toleration, seem hardly authors in treating them such as to to be aware, that, by this conduct, afford a specimen, peculiarly lumi- they establish the most absolute innous and decisive, of the general tolerance. For, if all religions which spirit and fidelity of their represen- individuals can be supposed contations. The work itself begins scientiously to hold (and even this with the ecclesiastical history of supposition need not be made), England, from the Revolution; an are entitled to toleration, then cerimportant period, and one of which tainly is not his to be excluded from

the benefit, who maintains the most intolerant principles. And as it is a mere mockery of toleration to allow liberty to principles, and with hold it from the practice which naturally flows from these principles, or indeed constitutes a part of them, no acts, however intolerant, can consistently be condemned. This observation is sufficient to prove, that a point must be fixed somewhere. And here is the great, the only true, difficulty: a difficulty so great, that some candour-shall we say tolera tion?-ought reciprocally to be allowed between those who differ on the subject. Most authors, indeed, however sanguine, seem at times, that is, when their necessities press them, to be aware that some limita tions are necessary. But as soon as they have proceeded sufficiently out of sight of these, they return without any apology to their unqualified universalities. Our authors afford an instance of the occasional sobriety just mentioned, when, with a previons sarcasm, it is observed, that "it is recognized as a principle by the legislative body of the nation, that Christians living peaceably under the government of their country, and holding no principle contrary to its welfare, ought to be allowed to worship God in a manner agreeable to the dictates of their conscience." pp. 203, 204. We would not, however, undertake to defend these limitations against the reasonings which the present authors might consistently enough employ. While we are on this subject of absolute or limited toleration, a subject on which we have entered so fully, in an article in our last Number, as to make it unnecessary to say much in this; we think it not at all stepping out of our province to observe, how decisively the limitations have been asserted and insisted apon, on an occasion which called for them, by a religious society, of The affair of Sacheverell, p. 244, which the historian of the present &c., is detailed at considerable work, whose name stands first, length, and affords to the writers is a manager, we mean the Mis- matter of triumph, which would be sionary Society. In Mr. Frey's just, were the cause of Sacheverell

Narrative, published last year, we find certain" restrictions and limitations" imposed, by an express resolution of the society, on the ministry of the Jewish preacher, (p. 164); and the want of a correct submission to them is chastised by an epistle from Mr. Bogue, which, in the spirit and the letter, would not materially disgrace the Vatican. See pp. 169, &e. We are there taught, that there may be cases of non-conformity to a dissenting society, in which a minister will find every other minister warned against him, and every place of worship shut, with few exceptions; that a self-constituted teacher is worthy of inexpressible blame; and that no project, originating with a particular class of Dissenters, can prosper conducted in separation from their communion. These, and some other circumstances, relative in particular to the schismatic London Society for the conversion of the Jews, as developed in this curious publication, would shelter from the imputation of absurdity the proposal of a toleration act among the Dissenters themselves.

CHRIST. OBSERV. No. 110.

That very interesting part of the ecclesiastical history of these times, the scheme for a comprehension of the Dissenters within the pale of the national church, is detailed in a strange manner. The best part of the information is contained in some disproportionate notes, and all from Calamy. We say, all from Calamy; for although the note, pp. 212, 213, adduces no other author than Nichols, we are persuaded, that the writers under review saw that divine's work neither in Latin, nor in English; and the terrible errata, in the references at the end, convince us, that the acquaintance of Messrs. Bogue and Bennett, with the early Christian writers is almost the slightest that can be conceived.