or less than a conventional hypocrisy. In one place he speaks of the very general indifference that is really felt towards Christianity; of the little hold it has upon men's inmost thoughts and affections: in another place, he says, with a particular reference to America, "In our country, if I am not deceived by feelings of private friendship, true Christianity has found some of its best defenders. But the forms in which it is presented throughout a great part of our land, and the feelings and character of many who have pretended to be its exclusive disciples, are little adapted to procure it the respect of intelligent men. They are producing infidelity, and preparing the way for its extensive spread. They are giving to many a distaste for the very name of religion, and leading them to regard all appearance of a religious character with distrust or aversion. In no other country is the grossest and most illiberal bigiotry so broadly exhibited as among ourselves. Nowhere else, at the present day, have so many partisans of a low order of intellect risen into notice, through a spurious zeal, not for doctrines, for these are changed as convenience may require, but for the triumph of a sect; and no other region has of late been ravaged by such a moral pestilence as, under the name of religion, has prevailed in some part of our land; an insane fanaticism, degrading equally the feelings and intellect of those affected by it."*-Pref. p. xvi. xvii. If such be the state of things, our wonder is less than our regret, when we find Mr. Norton hoping and anticipating that Unitarianism will prevail. In England it is not hitherto making much way. Its snows are only lying under the shelter of hedges, or upon the barren hills, instead of spreading their chilling influences over the surface of the land. In England it is confined as yet principally to half-learned mechanics, infected with a rage for novel simplifications; or politicians of the new Utilitarian school; or men who use it as a cloak for infidelity, and are in fact but Deists in disguise. Nor is Unitarianism likely to gain ascendency among us, unless a state-education, by omitting all the mysteries and peculiarities of Christianity, shall inoculate with Socinian tenets the whole rising generation, under the pretence of avoiding disputes. In England there may be too much of latent or couchant irreligion, but it is felt that the establishment of Unitarianism would soon cause it to be rampant. In England it is still felt, that when men leave the port and landing-place of sober, rational investigation, they are either tossed for ever upon the open sea of scepticism, and can no more repose upon its tumbling billows than Peter could find a steadfast footing upon the waves; or else, dissatisfied at last with their own private judgment, and sick of the liberty which they have abused, they turn for the sake of quiet "If any one should think these expressions too strong, let him make himself acquainted with the transactions which not long since were taking place in the western part of the state of New York. Authentic documents respecting them exist; but such scenes have not been confined to that part of our country." to an infallible church; and Catholicism may acquire votaries from the very wildness of schismatical dissent. In England it is still felt, that if the Unitarian could lay prostrate the Established Creed, the triumph, in all human probability, would be fatal to his own since he would be encumbered and overbalanced with difficulties which would then have become scarcely worthy of defence; it would be almost a matter of taste whether a man should attach himself to natural religion or revealed; and thus, if it could ever happen that Unitarianism should flourish upon the fall of Orthodoxy, the next step would be that unbelief would flourish upon the fall of Unitarianism. In America, it appears, the case is very different. different. In America-strange to say-Dr. Priestley is still a "Magnus Apollo" upon points of doctrine. In America, Mr. Norton tells us, 66 some degree of attention to the fact is necessary, to be aware of the general and gross ignorance that exists concerning almost every subject connected with our faith." But his more detailed description has been already given. We turn, then, from a spectacle which it is painful to contemplate. Only, if the difference is in our favour, let us guard the blessings out of which it springs. Oh, let not the example, the warning be lost! We have now an Established Church! Let us uphold it with veneration and gratitude. That Church is the most scriptural and most liberal of all churches, distinguished alike for its learning and its moderation. Let us study to preserve it in the integrity of these distinctions, not giving way to latitudinarian innovations, and yet not divorcing religion from reason, nor thinking a man to be a worse divine, because also he aspires to be a philosopher. Yes, it is our happiness, and should be our pride, that amidst conflicting extremes and errors, our Church has hitherto pursued its even path, untainted either by fanaticism or libertinism of opinion. On the one side, reason is set at nought, under the pretence of maintaining its supremacy; and in the hope of preserving abstract and à priori truths, the greatest of metaphysical absurdities has been indulged; and from this primary and fundamental mistake have flowed the hundred streams of delusion and extravagance. On the other side, men have exhibited a fondness for multiplying mysteries, because they could not remove them; have been unwilling ever to descend from the region of the intangible, the mystic, the incomprehensible; and would have reason attempt nothing, because it cannot achieve all. Between these opposite excesses the Church of England has stood secure upon the rock of the everlasting Gospel, holding the balance equal in her hand, encouraging the erudition as well as the piety of her sons, and assigning their legitimate province both to intellectual scrutiny and implicit faith, both to ecclesiastical authority and individual judgment. It is with no cold or formal lips that we pray for perpetuity both to her benignant empire and her characteristic lineaments. There is much in the annexed extract-the last which we can afford from Mr. Norton-which may command our assent; there is not one word which does not deserve our attention. "In the present state of opinion in the world, it is evident that he is assuming a responsibility for which he is wholly unfit, who comes forward as a teacher or defender of Christianity, without having prepared himself by serious thought and patient study. The traditionary believer, if he have taken this responsibility upon himself, should stop in his course till he has ascertained whether he is doing good or evil. A conflict between religion and irreligion has begun, which may not soon be ended; and in this conflict Christianity must look for aid, not to zealots, but to scholars and philosophers. Our age is not one in which there can be an esoteric doctrine for the intelligent, and an exoteric for the uninformed. The public profession of systems of faith by Christian nations and churches, which are not the faith of the more enlightened classes of society, has produced a state of things that it would seem cannot long continue. We may hope that in Protestant countries its result will not be, as it was in France, general infidelity. We may hope that it will not end in a mere struggle between fanaticism and irreligion, as seems to be the tendency of things in some parts of our own country." --Pref. pp. xxxv. xxxvi. Absit omen! Oh, whatever we are doomed to lose, may we keep inviolate our moral strength, based upon our sound religion! Oh, may the opposite mischiefs not be permitted by Providence to degrade our population, and shatter our institutions into fragments. These, although the mightiest elements of good and evil -these are the things which statesmen too often overlook, and noisy orators think beneath their notice. These things they can arrogantly neglect, or ignorantly depreciate, although ten thousand times more important to the welfare of communities and the improvement of mankind than the ordinary objects for which they intrigue in closets and bluster in debate-for which kings send forth ambassadors, and nations fit out fleets and armies. If these things are disregarded, we must, indeed, begin to weep and tremble for the coming destinies of our species; if they are kept steadily in view, all other misfortunes must be in themselves comparatively light, and will fall upon heads and hearts tempered and fitted by Christianity to endure them. ART. IV.-Remarks on Clerical Education. By the Rev. H. Raikes, A. M. Chancellor of the Diocese of Chester. London. Hatchard. 1831. It certainly is a most remarkable circumstance that, of all the flourishing churches under heaven, the Church of England should be the most heinously unprovided with any thing like a systematic professional education for her ministers. Almost every other church that can be named, insists upon some express and specific course of theological preparation. What this course may be in Germany, we are not in a condition very accurately to point out. But, as the author of the work before us observes, the present state of divinity in that country is quite sufficient to show that there is no defect of theological erudition there. The learning of the German divines may indeed be most grievously perverted; but it is, at all events, various and abundant; so abundant, that it is to them their Urim and Thummim, the glory of their excellency; so abundant, that it seems to have well nigh supplanted the power and illumination of the Spirit among them! In the Swiss churches, a stated period of two years, immediately subsequent to the academical course, is regularly devoted to the study of theology; so that every candidate for holy orders is expected to come prepared to read the Scriptures in the original languages wherever the volume may be opened. In the American Episcopal Church, the preparation is still more rigorous and more complete: for there full three years are dedicated to biblical literature. The following is the scheme of study and discipline which, as Mr. Raikes informs us, is required in the Seminary at New York: "1. Oriental and Greek literature, comprising the knowledge necessary to the critical study of the Scriptures in the original languages, "2. Biblical learning, i. e. every thing relating to the criticism of the sacred text. "3. Interpretation of Scripture, comprising the principles of interpretation, and the meaning and practical application of the Bible. "4. The evidences of revealed religion, external and internal; including a review and refutation of infidel objections, and also a view of moral science in its relations to theology. "5. Systematic divinity in all its branches, including a particular view and defence of the system of faith professed by the Protestant Episcopal Church. 6. Ecclesiastical history in general, and the history in particular of the Church of England, and of the North American Episcopal Church. "7. The nature, ministry, and polity of the Church, particularly of the Protestant Episcopal Church, its liturgy, rites and ceremonies. "8. Pastoral theology and pulpit eloquence, explaining and enforcing the qualifications and duties of the clerical office, and also including the performance of the service of the Church, and the composition and delivery of sermons. This last branch of study was for years under the direction of the late Bishop Hobart. He informed the friend, by whose kindness I am furnished with these particulars, that the students attended him every Saturday during each term or session, when they were engaged for several hours in recitation, and in the delivery of sermons composed by themselves; and on certain days they read in turns, as a devotional exercise, the service of the Church. These sermons, as well as the mode of reading the liturgy, and of preaching, were made the subject of the professor's remarks. The students assemble daily in morning and evening prayer; divine service is regularly celebrated, and the sacrament statedly administered in their chapel every Sunday. The students also have charge of a large and flourishing Sunday school."pp. 24, 25. So much for the Protestant Churches of Christendom. In Roman Catholic countries, it is perfectly well known, the training of the priesthood is a matter of anxious concern. We are, it is true, in the habit of hearing a vast deal of the ignorance of the Papal clergy: and ignorant enough a great portion of them undoubtedly may be of the things which it is most needful for a minister of the Gospel to be acquainted with. But we believe it would be a great mistake to imagine that they are left without a regular and painful course of preparatory labour. Even in Spain, a country most deeply immersed in Romish superstition, the candidates for the priesthood, if we are rightly informed, are subjected to a course of several years. And though a large portion of this time may be wretchedly wasted on canon law, and Romish hagiology, still the system is, to all intents and purposes, a system which recognizes the necessity of some appropriate education for the men who are destined to minister at the national altars. In Ireland, the case is similar. We little think of the elaborate scheme of discipline by which many of her clergy are girded up for their duties. Whether their training is what, in our judgment, it ought to be, is a totally distinct question. But it is, undoubtedly, such as the Romish Church deems best fitted for the perpetuation of a body of faithful and devoted ministers. It is a scheme which may keep them in ignorance of many things which a Christian man should know for his soul's health; a scheme, too, which hides from them the triumphant labours of them who toiled and suffered for the extirpation of Romish artifice and corruption. But it is, nevertheless, a scheme which is fitted to make them very formidable adversaries. It puts the pupil in full possession of the strength of his cause, while it carefully conceals from him its weakness and its defects. It covers him, from the head to the heel, with a panoply of prejudice, moulded into the |