church establishment, and your Grace's diocese perhaps reckons more persons who feel this nausea, than any other in England. It is, therefore, surprising, that, from so large a mass of discontent, no one should have come forth to express the feelings of what, I am persuaded, is a large majority of the population. The great spell that keeps all men silent on this topic, is the fear of that dreadful weapon, the accusation of atheism—a weapon always liberally used, by the clergy, when their strong holds are attacked. The popular indignation is so easily excited by this awful accusation, and the feeling of society in general is so decidedly against the crime included in the charge, that no one dares to enter a war where such a weapon is used.-Is this prudence, however, or is it cowardice? The man who is sincerely attached to the Christian religion, and who thinks that its nominal guardians are in reality its worst enemies, should encounter even worse slander than this, in doing a service to a cause which might have even less claim to sincerity than the cause of religion.

'On some weak minds, perhaps, the unceasing assurances from the pulpit, that the church of England is synonymous with the Christian religion, may have made a little impression; and I know some few persons who agree with the majority of the clergy in their definition of religion. Our reverend pastors present us a strange picture of christianity in their sermons, their charges, and their tracts. According to their notions, the Apostles, or at least the immediate disciples of the Apostles, were reverend gentlemen, residing on wealthy livings, preaching fifty-two written, printed, or lithographed sermons in the course of the year, and securing livings for their clerical, or commissions in the Roman army for their military, sons. In that golden age, according to their system, all the world was not only taxed by Cæsar, but tithed by Cæsar, for the benefit of the primitive clergy; and the priests of the first three centuries amused themselves with card-playing, fox-hunting, horse-racing, shooting, fishing, and dancing, as they do at present. Pluralities were multiplied, and translations were frequent. St. Paul had a golden prebend of Philippi, a large living at Rome, another at Thessalonica, and was besides the very reverend' the Dean of Corinth. St. Peter was translated from the bishoprick of Babylon to that of Rome; and St. James was enthroned* at Jerusalem, with great pomp and large lawn sleeves, after having subscribed the thirty-nine articles, according to act of parliament. St. Bartholomew was pressed to take the see of Jericho, but he preferred holding the deanery of Napthali, with the great living of Succoth, which last was of the clear yearly value of £8,000, and besides was encumbered with very little duty, as there were only seven hundred persons in the parish, five hundred of whom did not believe in the Christian religion. St. Clement died worth twelve hundred

6

* 666 Enthroned," and "enthronization," are strange words for placing a bishop in the chair of Christ; so preposterous, however, are we in our pomp and pride, that the newspapers assure us, at the last making of an Archbishop of Canterbury, it would have cost his Grace £30,000 if he had been enthroned with the full ritual in the chair of his own Cathedral! His Grace, therefore, very wisely avoided so heavy a mulct, by sending a deputy to act the farce of " Nolo," or by some other contrivance, which I do not exactly remember, escaped the fees, fines, and foppery, of that most stupid and frivolous rite.'

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thousand pounds in the three per cent. consols, the careful savings of forty years' episcopacy and Ireneus, having been a tutor to a consul's son, had the primacy of Rome offered him, which, however, he refused, being content with the bishoprick of Lyons.'-pp. 4, 5.

The argument conveyed in this forcible irony, it would be difficult to answer. The object of the "Reformation" was to restore

the Christian church to the state in which it was found in the three first centuries of its existence, and that object, it is contended, has been fully accomplished by the establishment of Protestantism in this country. But the pages of Ecclesiastical history demonstrate that no such system ever prevailed, in the primitive ages, as that which now upholds the church of England. Let us for instance consider what were supposed to be the character and duties of the bishops in those days. Having ourselves made some inquiries upon this subject, we can attest the correctness of Mr. Beverley's statement.

A "bishop" of the apostolical days, was some person of the lower orders, a man of mean birth, but of fair character and upright conduct: he was selected to his office for his piety, constancy, and courage-in short, he was a man whom the early Christians could trust; and whether he was a fisherman, a money-changer, a tent-maker, a day-labourer, a common soldier, or a slave, (for all these were "bishops,") he was expected to give up every thing in this world, to renounce his family, to travel whithersoever the elders of the church ordered him, to encounter all the danger and difficulties attending the character of one who was a chief of a forbidden religion, and, in fine, to die for the faith, if circumstances called him to martyrdom. The bishop, being thus selected, began his mission with fear and trembling; he commenced his visitations to the various congregations of Christians by stealth, for fear of being arrested by the police; he travelled on foot without money, he had neither scrip nor purse, nor house, nor home. God was his friend, and all good men his family. Beyond this he had nothing. In the darkness of night he visited the congregations, and there exhorted his flock to continue in the fear and worship of God, not dreading the face of man. His time was taken up in clandestine preaching, in comforting the sick and afflicted, consoling the weakhearted, praying with the sinners, and teaching the ignorant. Presently the governors of the place ordered him to be arrested with the other bishops; he was thrown into prison, roughly treated, ill fed, exposed to cold and hunger, and after a long and rigorous durance, publicly beat in the market-place by the rods of the lictors. After this, he was, perhaps, banished from the city, and forbidden ever to return again on pain of death. In another city he was again taken up, and after several severe punishments by beating with rods, he was condemned to be thrown to the lions: but, perhaps, he escaped from prison by the assistance of his friends, and after terrible perils, by land and water, succeeded at last in eluding research in the depths of Syria, or the burning wildernesses of Ethiopia. But even there, after a time, the malice of persecutors hunted him out, and sent him, with other christians, to be judged and punished at Rome. At Rome, after another long and painful imprisonment, he is again condemned to be thrown to the wild beasts, and at last his mortal sufferings

are ended in the jaws of lions or under the feet of elephants, amidst the applauding shouts of twenty thousand spectators. This is a faithful picture of an apostolical bishoprick, and hence we see the full force of the words of St. Paul-"Are they the ministers of Christ? I am more; in labours more abundant, in stripes above measure; in prisons more frequent, in deaths oft; of the Jews five times received I forty stripes save one: thrice was I beaten with rods; once was I stoned, thrice I suffered shipwreck ; a night and a day have I been in the deep. In journeyings often, in perils of waters, in perils of robbers, in perils by mine own countrymen, in perils by the heathen, in perils in the city, in perils in the wilderness, in perils in the sea, in perils among false brethren. In weariness and painfulness, in watchings often, in hunger and thirst, in fastings often, in cold and naked

'But what are the labours, watchings, fastings, perils and difficulties of our baron-bishops? These holy men, perhaps, pass many a sleepless night in the first stage of their exaltation, to discover by what possible means they may escape the persecution of Llandaff or Bristol, or some other poor see, with which they find them themselves disagreeably saddled. To be rid of this meagre martyrdom, they have sundry struggles with Satan, many a wrestling in prayer, many a score of groans and tears. By dint of voting and jobbing in the House of Lords, the successor of the Apostles finds his prospects brighten a little, for, after infinite exertions of soul and body, he is translated to Exeter, peradventure whereby his apostolical pocket is replenished with a greater number of orthodox guineas. But not in Exeter is the godly man at ease: he is smit with a love of multiplication, and letter after letter is written to his patron and the minister, urging the necessity of a more advantageous translation. In the course of time, Winchester or Durham is vacant-then do all the eagles gather together to the carcase: loud are the screams of the apostolical vultures, and sad the dismay of the First Lord of the Treasury, to know how to satisfy so much pious voracity; at last, after undergoing the threats of a dozen great lords, each eager for his own client, the Premier makes selection of the hero of this picture, and crowns his hopes with twenty-five thousand pounds a year, and all the gorgeous dignities of the Durham episcopacy. After this, surely, the man of God is contented at last? By no means; he has sons and daughters not a few, and nephews very numerous. For all these there must be accumulated a store of good things full of marrow: the eldest son, perhaps, will condescend to gather up the dainties of the state as a layman, he is to be the head of the family; for him therefore, the parliament, and the regular course of parliamentary jobbing, is open; but for his younger brothers, the church must open her nurse-like arms, and pour upon them a shower of benefices. My Lord Bishop is not slow to act the character of Jupiter Pluvius, and speedily sends forth from his liberal urn a deluge of golden prebends, large livings, archdeaconries, residentiaries, precentorships, chanceries, sub-deaneries, perpetual curacies, fellowships, masterships, vicarages, and all the other thousand varieties of dew concocted by the bounty of cloud-compelling Jove. The young gentlemen who find themselves thus gilded from above, are probably the very worst sons of Belial that ever fornicated in the porch of the temple. I do not say this of the real Durhamn, for luckily for me the present bishop has no children: neither do I say it of York; but I do mean it for some bishop that either

is or was on the bench, and I know it as a positive fact, that so gross and scandalous was the conduct of one of the sons of this prelate, that even he revolted at the idea of going into the church, and long resisted the importunities, and at last the commands, of his Right Reverend Father on this very infamous plan of aggrandizement. Threats, however, were at last employed, and the profligate was compelled to yield, though he did yield at last with a deep sense of shame and disgust. Circumstances have made me intimately acquainted with this transaction; but when it took place, or where, whether in the north or in the south, whether last year, or twelve years ago, I pray your Grace never to ask of me. I know it, and can vouch for it, and let that be sufficient.'-pp. 10—12.

Mr. Beverley cites with great effect a passage from the code of Justinian, in which it is enacted that no priests should be consecrated bishops, who had either children or nephews to provide for; since “it is almost impossible," says the law," that those who give themselves up to the cares of life, which arise between children and parent, and which are of the very greatest importance, should spend all their thoughts and all their zeal on the service of God." The remainder of the passage, if adopted in an act of parliament, would undoubtedly be considered as tending to overthrow the church of England, although no man of common sense and moderate information can doubt, that it is conceived in the true and pure spirit of Christianity. "For since some pious persons with the greatest hope in God, from an ardent desire of saving their souls, hasten to the churches and bequeath to them all their worldly goods, to the use of the poor and indigent, and for other pious purposes; it is highly improper that the bishops should profit by them, or spend them on their own children and relations for a bishop should be entirely free from all affections for children according to the flesh, that he may be the spiritual father of all the faithful. On these accounts, therefore, we strictly forbid that any one, having sons or nephews, should be ordained bishop. Concerning those bishops, however, who now are, or who shall be hereafter, we command that they should on no account have the power of leaving by will, or giving away, (or by any other means that can be thought of) any thing of their own property that they may have come in possession of, or acquired, after they became bishops, either by will, or by donation, or any other manner, excepting only those things which they had before they were bishops." [Codicis, 1. tit. 3. 42.] Had such a law as this existed upon our statute book, Dr. Tomline never would have been a bishop; or if he had been, the 700,000l. of which he is reported to have died possessed, instead of being divided amongst his already sufficiently opulent family, would have been applied to the endowment of an hospital, or a school, or have been distributed for the benefit of the church, and the relief of the poor. The case of Dr. Warburton, Bishop of Cloyne, is another striking instance of Episcopal wealth. He was originally the son of an Irish piper, was educated for the Catholic church, but having been thrown by

accident upon the continent, into the society of Earl Moira, who induced him to conform to Protestantism, he was rapidly exalted to the see of Limerick, whence he was translated to Cloyne. In that retired place he died, in the year 1826, in the possession of 70007. a year, and 120,000l. in ready money, all the fruits of the church in Ireland! But the fact of the excessive wealth of the bishops and of a portion of the clergy, is so notorious, that no man will attempt to deny it. Of its effect upon the stability of the church, as little doubt can be entertained, according to Mr. Beverley's opinion.

'I am thoroughly impressed with the truth as paramount to all other truths, excepting the high mysteries of our religion, that the church of England, as it is now constituted, is a machine of anti-Christ, greatly surpassing, in the grossness of its abuses, all other jobs or systems of corruption that ever have afflicted the kingdom; and so much mischief has it done to religion, besides all the political enormities with which it may be charged, that all pious persons should hail with shouts of joy, that high and holy day, now not far distant, when the church of England will be abolished by act of Parliament, deprived entirely of all its revenues, and put on an equality with the other Christian sects tolerated in this country. This is speaking the truth without circumlocution; but it is a truth acknowledged more and more every day, and the more the clergy in this diocese are accustomed to hear this truth, the less will the evil day surprise them, when it comes upon them with thunder and an earthquake. I have said much of the injuries that religion suffers by the church of England, and this is the most important view of the subject, (though there are others also well worth attention,) for when the people see the teachers of righteousness, and "the successors of the Apostles" practically confuting all the doctrines of the gospel, they naturally think that the scheme of Christianity is a formal ceremony of the state, invented for the decorum and civilities of the body politic. The machinery of a church united to the state, must of necessity tend to solemn deceptions, and in all other religions, but that of pure Christianity, solemn deceptions are the principal object.'-pp. 16, 17. The following picture is frightful, and, conscientiously speaking, we do not think it at all overcharged.

With the church of England and with true piety there is but a slight connexion. Some pious persons there are, undoubtedly, in the church; but the great mass of religion is to be found with the dissenters, or with those whom the rulers of the church are pleased to nick-name Methodists, though they never went near a methodist chapel in their lives. The favored sons of the church, whom she delighteth to honor, are men in dignities and honors, men violent in their politics, jobbers in every department of the state, and all persons who are decorous church-goers, however scandalous their lives, or however base their principles. Decorum and outward shew are essentials in all things relating to the church of England; and twothirds of the clergy, as well as two-thirds of their flocks, seem to think that religion is a theatrical ceremony that can by no means be omitted, but which, when once performed, is an indulgence general for any thing else that the heart may desire. Hence the nervous anxiety exhibited by the