wish to build a church, parsonage-house, or school, a mixed committee of the district should be holden, to ascertain the sufficiency of the proposed means, and the landlord should then fix upon the spot; that no protestants should be compelled to attend mass, witness catholic processions, or pay dues to the Romish priests; that they might form consistories and hold synods, but that no laws or ordinances framed at those meetings should be operative without the royal confirmation; that their authority over their own schools should also be subject to their sovereign's control; and that they might publish religious books, under the inspection of censors of their own appointment, who should, however, be responsible to the government for their official conduct. It was also decreed that they should be eligible to public offices, and even to a seat in the diet, equally with the Romanists.*

||ercise of particular worship had been allowed by a wise and liberal parliament to those protestants who dissented from the general religion of the state, the defeat and depression of the catholics, and the removal of anxiety from the minds both of the orthodox and the sectaries, produced a degree of tranquillity which the church had not enjoyed from the time of the Reformation. The schism of the nonjurors, indeed, still subsisted at the beginning of the eighteenth century; the legality of the ecclesiastical government was boldly disputed by many zealots; and a spirited contest was carried on between the high-church and lowchurch factions, or the Tories and Whigs of the hierarchy. But the collisions of party were less vehement, and the animosity of disputants less bitter and malignant.

If Anne had reigned immediately after the Revolution, she would not have been so ready These grants were deemed, by the catholics, as king William to grant toleration to dissengreat favours and liberal concessions; but, by ters. She suspected them of aiming at the the protestants, they were considered as no ruin of the church, while they professed only more than natural rights. The Romish bigots, a wish for an unmolested indulgence of their in some instances, counteracted the new ordi- peculiar opinions. But, as the legislature had nances, and prevented the immediate accom- thought proper to gratify them with the freeplishment of the patriotic intentions of the diet: dom to which they had long aspired, she rebut the court, and the catholics in general, were solved not to encroach upon their admitted disposed to permit the execution of the decree. claims, or offer the least violence to what she The protestants of Bohemia were, at the called their tender consciences. She wished, same time, freed from all persecution and mo- however, to prevent the practice of occasional lestation, on the subject of religion. During conformity, by which not a few presbyterians a great part of the century, the Jews in that and other dissenters procured employments inkingdom were more favoured by its catholic tended only for the orthodox. They took the rulers, than were even the Christian sects: but sacrament according to the established forms, the latter, at length, found an opportunity of to qualify themselves by law for particular ofemerging from their difficulties and depression. fices, and then frequented the meeting-houses When the revolution had broken out in of non-conformists. The Tories frequently France, the spirit of irreligion was more open-introduced a bill to restrain this interested duly manifested in Germany, among the three denominations of Christians, than it had been at any time from the first establishment of the religion of Jesus in that country; and, being mingled with the desire of enjoying a greater portion of civil liberty, it prompted the people, in several states of the empire, to submit to the arms of France, soon after the war began In the convocation, or clerical senate, the to rage. When French fraternity had lost the two parties occasionally disputed with eagercharm of novelty, many repented of the blindness; but the queen's ministers rather checked forwardness with which they had accepted it: but, when the yoke was fixed upon their necks, it was too late to retract. In the ecclesiastical electorates, capricious varieties of opinion were substituted for the catholic creed; and, although religion was not absolutely neglected by all classes of people, either in the protes-couragement of debates in that assembly: but tant or catholic states, the worship became less decorous and regular: the public service of God ceased, in a great measure, to be an object of devout attention.

CHAPTER IV.

History of the Church of England and its Dependencies, and also of the Protestant Sects in the

British Dominions.

WHEN the church of England had been rescued from danger by the seasonable exertions of the prince of Orange, and the free ex

• Travels in Hungary, by Robert Townson, LL. D.

plicity. Thrice their views were baffled by the influence of the Whigs; but when, upon a renewed attempt, clauses were inserted for the security of the protestant succession and the confirmation of the act which tolerated nonconformity, the low church party suffered the bill to pass.

than promoted these debates, because they deemed it sufficient that the parliament should be the scene of contest. The literary war, on the subject of the claims and rights of the convocation, which had been carried on in the reign of William, did not cease amidst the dis

it gradually declined; and the able work of Dr. Wake, archbishop of Canterbury, seemed triumphantly to close the controversy in favour of the Whigs. The Tories had maintained, that it was the indisputable right of the clergy, not only to meet in ordinary synods, but (as in convocation; and that in this assembly they often as a new parliament met) to sit and vote might deliberate upon ecclesiastical affairs, and agree to various resolutions, without the formality of a previous license. The opposite party referred all the acts of the church to the pleasure of the sovereign, without whose permission the clergy could not lawfully meet, debate, or enact.

It is remarkable that the former of these fac- || not be surprised at his habitual regard for the tions, while they disputed the power of the Whigs, as they were the only cordial promotemporal prince in religious affairs, recom-ters of those statues and arrangements which mended passive obedience on the part of the paved his way to the throne. He encouraged people, as what the governing power of the those divines who recommended the principles state might justly claim; and that the Whigs, of civil liberty, and who at the same time on the other hand, while they promoted the wished to subject the church to the state, and authoritative interference of the crown in the give the temporal prince a commanding height government of the church, professed a desire of religious authority; not such, however, as of clipping, on other occasions, the wings of would enable him to oppress the church, but royalty. only to secure its welfare and tranquillity, in the midst of general toleration.

The predications of the maxims and doctrines of Toryism by Sacheverel, a hot-headed divine, excited in parliament a flame which diffused itself through the kingdom. The Whig leaders insprudently fanned it, and, by impeaching a zealot, whose effusions might safely have been neglected, seriously injured their own interests. The sentence of the high court of peers seemed rather to be a triumph than a punishment; and the high-church party obtained a decisive advantage in the cabinet. The queen then indulged the clergy with a greater latitude of debate in convocation, than she had allowed them in the former part of her reign.

After the suppression of the rebellion, while the nation enjoyed general repose, the church was disturbed by the warm prosecution of a literary controversy. This dispute was occasioned by a sermon which the king (who heard it) ordered to be printed. Dr. Benjamin Hoadley, who had been honoured with a vote of the house of commons, requesting the crown to reward his services, as a friend of liberty and of the protestant settlement, was the preacher of this discourse, in which he delivered his sentiments on the subject of Christ's kingdom or church. He endeavoured to prove, that the true church did not require any other than spiritual sanctions; that it was not intended by its divine founder to be supported by political en

The church of Ireland was also agitated by the distinctions of Whig and Tory; but its tranquillity was not disturbed in any remarka-couragements, or checked by political discourble degree. The catholics still formed the great bulk of the nation: but power was in the hands of their adversaries, who, from principles of policy, and in the spirit of self defence, were determined to hold it with a vigorous grasp. The holders of benefices, however, in the wild and unfrequented parts of that island, found it difficult and even dangerous to collect tithes from the papists, who sometimes were guilty of acts of violence and outrage.

The presbyterian establishment in Scotland remained unimpaired under the sway of Anne: and its preservation was an essential article of the legislative union which dignified her reign. The episcopalians, however, were tolerated in that country; and a bill was enacted, in 1712, by the united parliament, in confirmation of the unrestrained freedom of their worship. Public chapels, which had not been allowed to them in the preceding reign, were now erected in many parts of North Britain; and the people, confiding in the protection of the court, were not afraid to dissent from the kirk.

agements; that such interferences, on the part of the state, tended to give to the church a worldly character, not altogether consistent with genuine piety, and not favourable to pure or sublime devotion; and that the ecclesiastical establishment would flourish more under its own guidance, than under temporal direction. The kingdoms of this world, he said, could not suggest proper ideas of that government which ought to prevail, in a visible and sensible manner, in Christ's kingdom. The sanctions of Christ's laws, appointed by himself, were not the rewards of this world, not the offices or glories of this state, not the pains of imprisonment or of exile, or the smaller discouragements that belong to human society; these could not be the instruments of such a persuasion as would be acceptable to God. To

teach Christians that they must either profess, or be silent, against their own consciences, because of the authority of others over them, was to found that authority upon the ruins of sincerity and common honesty; to teach a doctrine which would have prevented the ReforThese episcopalians, in general, were un- mation, and even the existence of the church friendly to the Revolution, and to the succes- of England." No power, repugnant to the sion of the house of Hanover; and, therefore, supreme authority of Christ, could be justly fell under the general suspicion of favouring claimed over the church by Christians, even the views of the queen's brother, the catholic of the highest rank. His supremacy, as legisclaimant of the crown. When the elector of lator and judge, no temporal or human power Hanover had ascended the British throne, this ought to infringe or invalidate. These opinsuspicion became stronger; and, during the re-ions were censured in convocation, as tending bellion that arose in the year 1715, those who had no concern in it were closely watched, and the ministers of their communion were restricted in their functions; with the full exercise of which, however, they were soon re-indulged.

to produce disorder and anarchy in the church, and to prevent the due subserviency of that body to the state; and they were combated in print by the celebrated Sherlock and other divines. The dispute was denominated the Bangorian controversy; and, when it ceased, the same diversity of sentiment remained, which had before prevailed on the subject. Such is the frequent result of a literary dispute!

During the reign of that monarch, the church of England continued to flourish. The king, indeed, supported that party which did not bear the character of being particularly zealous for the ecclesiastical establishment; and we need.

While the controversy was at its height, the

They

could be deemed correct, except that of the they complained were not redressed, they re Hebrew Scriptures. With regard to the doc-fused to re-join the establishment. trine of the Trinity, he advanced a fanciful strengthened their interest by considerable adopinion, importing that the idea of three per- junctions of force, drawn from the ranks both sons of one and the same essence, answered of the clergy and laity, particularly after they to fire, light, and spirit, the three grand agents had published a second testimony of the grounds in nature, or the three modifications of the of their secession. Being cited to appear besame substance, namely, air. His opinions fore the assembly, and refusing to acknowledge were eagerly espoused, and warmly recom- its jurisdiction, they were debarred, in 1740, mended, by Mr. Julius Bate, whose zeal he re- from all clerical functions in the kirk, and exwarded by procuring him a benefice. Sixteen cluded from all emoluments connected with years after his death, his system was defended that church. It may be proper to mention, by Mr. George Horne, a young clergyman, that Ebenezer Erskine, who had acted as miwhose merit afterwards elevated him to the nister at Stirling, was the chief of these seepiscopal dignity. Forbes, the Scottish judge, ceders.* also wrote in its vindication; Mr. Romaine, the popular preacher, gave his assent to it; Dr. Wetherell, William Jones, and other divines not destitute of learning, regarded it as worthy of adoption and support. Bate and Spear-ed in their testimony. It was the ordinary oath man, the editors of Hutchinson's works, maintained, not (as some have interpreted the author's meaning) that the sun moves and the earth stands still, but that no scriptural passages, properly construed, are repugnant to the Copernican hypothesis respecting those parts of the universe.

When the seceders had formed three presbyteries, a division arose among them, in 1747, in consequence of an oath which some of them deemed inconsistent with the sentiments avow

of a burgess, in support of the true religion established by law. We cannot, said one party, conscientiously honour with that appellation the establishment from which we have seceded; while the other members of the synod contended, that the oath might safely be taken, as the religion of the state was still the true faith, A secession from the established church of though many of its ostensible votaries had deScotland took place in the year 1727, in con- parted from its principles, or loosely professed sequence of the independent spirit of John it. The former, who were called Anti-burghers, Glas, who, disapproving every establishment prevailed on this occasion, and voted, that the of a national church, maintained that all oath was incompatible with the testimony: churches ought only to be congregational; in they even excommunicated the members by other words, that no general church ought to whom it was vindicated. This idle dispute be formed for a nation, but that each religious long continued to keep the seceders in distinct scriety in a kingdom or state should be self-synods: and, at the close of the century, the constituted and controlled only by itself. For this and other opinions, he was suspended from his ministerial functions, and, for continued contumacy, he was deposed from the rank of minister, first by a provincial synod, and afterwards (in 1730) by the general assembly of the Scottish church. He persisted, however, in the propagation of his sentiments, both by preaching and writing, and formed several congregations, of which the most numerous was that of Dundee.*

schism was not entirely healed, though the two parties were less hostile than they had been.

The secession of Mr. Glas was continued by Robert Sandeman, who, in 1757, published his opinions in a series of letters, which led to the establishment of several congregations in England, as well as in Scotland. The sect also extended itself to North America, particularly to New England. Its members were of opinion, that all who found the apostolic report concerning the death and resurrection of While Mr. Glas, and those who adopted his Christ true in their minds, possessed that faith opinions, were employed in strengthening their from which justification resulted, even if they secession, some other divines, on different were the most sinful of mankind; that, though grounds, were meditating a retreat from the good works be not essential to justification, it establishment. These ministers wished to is proper to observe the moral precepts which maintain the national church in its original were inculcated in the times of the apostles; strictness; and, as they could not accomplish that brotherly love and social kindness ought that object, they resolved to form new congrega-strikingly to mark the demeanour of Christions. Supposed infringements of the constitution of the kirk had excited their strong disgust. They complained of the laws of patron-an offending brother; and that, in this and age, and wished for a popular election of ministers: they alleged that the right of protest against the proceedings of the assembly had been invaded, and that the rulers of the kirk, beside acting arbitrarily, suffered its doctrines to be corrupted. Four ministers were suspended from their parochial functions, in 1733, for the freedom of their animadversions on these points; but the assembly reinstated them in the following year: yet, as the grievances of which

tians; that such love however, ought not to preclude the excommunication and disgrace of

other cases of deliberation, not merely a majority, but the whole congregation, ought to decide. They required the sacrament of the eucharist to be taken every week; and they encouraged a great frequency of prayer. They had love-feasts, or meetings of mutual hospitality, which were terminated with hymns and the kiss of charity; and, in the same spirit of fraternal affection, they inculcated the maxim of a community of goods.†

*Adams' Religious World Displayed, vol. iii. p 193-6. Adam, vol. iii. p. 177-90.

In the same reign, a sect, which soon became || tions and reflections which occupied the mind far more numerous and flourishing than those of the latter, while he acted as a preacher benow mentioned, arose in England, and spread yond the Atlantic. He became more inclined over the British dominions. We have already to Calvinism than to Arminianism, to which remarked, that the animosities between the the former was well affected. This difference, orthodox and the dissenters had gradually sub- however, did not produce in their minds the sided after the Revolution; and we may add, bitterness of animosity. Each spoke favourathat this diminution of rancour was more par- bly of the Christian piety of his quandam asticularly observable after the accession of the sociate; and, if not cordial friends, they were Hanoverian family to the throne, when the not enemies to each other. principles of toleration were more fully established amidst the progress of free inquiry. At the same time, the clergy of the establishment seemed in general to sink into a lukewarmness and indifference which disgusted all but the worldly-minded pursuers of immediate interest. Infidelity also gained ground among the laity, and sneers at religion were beginning to be a part of the fashionable system.

The opinions and the piety of Mr. Whitefield recommended him to the notice of a devout peeress, who appointed him her chaplain, and patronized him through life. This lady was Selina, countess dowager of Huntingdon, who liberally promoted the erection of meetinghouses for the Calvinistic Methodists, and erected a college at Treveka (in Monmouthshire) for the instruction of future preachers. Happy in the idea and prospect of drawing sinners from the error of their way, and of diffusing an acquaintance with the Scriptures, as understood and explained by Mr. Whitefield and his associates, she disregarded the ridicule to which she was exposed by a taste so unusual among persons of rank, and prosecuted her religious career with inflexible perseverance.*

The proselytes of Whitefield were less numerous than those of Wesley, and their association was less compact. Their ministers and places of worship were respectively supported by the different congregations, not (like those of the Wesleyan sect) by a general fund. The former had not an annual court for the government of the whole body: but the latter had a regular session, under the name of a Confer

This degeneracy was observed with sensations of horror by John and Charles Wesley, who were then students at the university of Oxford, and had contracted a serious_turn of mind from the writings of William Law, the celebrated mystic. These devout brothers passed a great part of their time in religious conversation, in reflecting on the interesting contents of the Holy Scriptures, and in private prayer. They were joined by some other academics who were religiously disposed; and a sect which afterwards made an extraordinary progress, took its rise in the year 1729, deriving the appellation of Methodists from the regular distribution of their time, their orderly and composed demeanour, and the supposed purity of their religious principles. Mr. Hervey, the author of the Meditations, occasionally attend-ence, in which the affairs and circumstances of ed their meetings; and, in 1735, they were gladdened with the adjunction of a young and eloquent orator, named George Whitefield. In that year, the two Wesleys undertook a voyage to Georgia, to impart to the colonists the doctrine of saving grace: but their mission did not produce any extraordinary effect. When they had left the province, Mr. White-limited to one hundred of the senior itinerant field undertook the task of chief missionary.

the confederacy were examined, funds provided, abuses corrected, and grievances redressed. This meeting was composed of preachers chosen by the assemblies of preachers of different districts, as representatives of the Methodist connexion, and of the superintendents of the circuits (or inferior divisions:) it was at first

predicators; but, in the sequel, all the preachers were permitted to assist, if they were so inclined, or had an opportunity of attending. At first, laymen were allowed to preach; but ministers were afterwards ordained for that purpose by the clerical heads of the society. It may here be observed, that Wesley and some of his associates had taken orders regularly in the church of England.

Pure, genuine, evangelical religion, or that which Mr. John Wesley considered as such, was at length publicly preached by him, after his return to Great Britain, not in the churches of the metropolis or of the different counties, (for the incumbents would not suffer hin to enter their pulpits,) but in the open air and in the fields. As souls might be saved even in this seemingly irregular way, it was far better, he The same pious and indefatigable preacher, said, so to preach, than not to preach at all. to counteract the misconceptions of the characHe soon drew many into his opinions, and pro- ter of a Methodist, fully stated the "distinpagated, with great success, the doctrine of guishing marks" of his followers. Those marks, salvation by faith. For his new society he in- || he said, were not to be found in "their opinions stituted rules, not inexpedient or injudicious, of any sort," in their words and phrases, or in recommending an orderly behaviour and an any desire of being "distinguished by actions, avoidance of dissipation and licentiousness. customs, or usages, of an indifferent nature, Meeting-houses were gradually erected by his followers, and, in defiance of the insults of the populace, and the sneers of the higher orders, methodism extended itself into all parts of England and Wales, made some progress in Scotland, and crossed the sea into Ireland.

A division of sentiment, between Wesley
and Whitefield, resulted from those delibera-
In the year 1738.
VOL. II.-50

Between the sects thus formed, the chief points of difference are the following. The Whitefieldian or Calvinistic Methodists do not admit the possibility of attaining perfection in this life; but the followers of Wesley believe that it may be attained. The latter substitute imputed faith for imputed righteousness. They reject the doctrine of predestination, and also that of irresistible grace; both of which are maintained by the disciples of Whitefield and the followers of lady Huntingdon.