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witnessed. Objects which, before they were accomplished, seemed to be too desirable and too difficult ever to be attained, having been at last secured, seem as we pass on, and leave them behind, to become insignificant, and the feelings of interest, despondency, hope, ardour, with which we once regarded them, have faded away, and we have forgotten them. Oh, proof of the vanity of all things public or private, that are but mundane and temporal! Oh, admonition that the kingdom of grace, not of this world, can be, in its essential vitalities, but little affected, but little retarded or advanced, by the struggles and revolutions of terrene monarchies ! Oh, teaching lesson that we 66 receiving a kingdom that cannot be moved," should fix our highest expectations for its grace and increase on earth, its glory and triumph in heaven, on the presence and spirit of our risen Lord!

At this juncture, as if the spirit of change and progress had full possession of the entire nation, and must display itself in every form of activity and improvement, the citizens of the metropolis were busily employed in effecting as thorough a reformation in the capital of the country, as the legislature had accomplished in its constitution. The houses in which their fathers had dwelt; the streets and lanes they had traversed; the sanctuaries of their worship; their resorts for business, amusement, conviviality-all must be pulled down and rebuilt, all altered and improved.

The renovated, enlarged, improved city, must be the visible symbol of the extended and purified national constitution-the character of the age must be made apparent in its architecture, which holds this striking analogy with the genius of our institutions, that whereas they diffuse liberty, wealth, intelligence, political power, through extended classes of the community, the analagous result is observed in numberless structures for trade, for worship, for splendour, a diffused magnificence bespeaking wide-spread political immunities, while in despotic states the genius of arbitrary, concentrated power is visible in the squalid abodes of the people, and the vast, the costly, the useless monuments that attest the pride and pomp of imperial ambition.

Amidst these civic improvements, the Old King's Weigh-house was doomed to removal; and the congregation of Protestant Dissenters that had long worshipped there, having shared in the general advance in wealth and numbers, and caught the spirit of the times for improvement and enterprise, proceeded to rear, for their future use, a more spacious chapel in a central position. On laying the first stone of this building, on the sixteenth day of October, 1833, the pastor of the people whose future worship was to be conducted there, delivered an appropriate and animated address. The character of the times, and the character of the man combined to preserve this production from being common place and tame. What were the complexion and spirit of the times at this precise juncture, we have already in general seen. It will suffice here to add, that the great ecclesiastical controversy was now just beginning to succeed to the political struggle recently decided. This still pending question in every view the more momentous and vital; in which men have a

deeper, and heaven a more immediate interest; in which the contending parties are, humanly speaking, as much more unequal than in the other, as the issue will be more momentous to the world and the church, could not at such a time fail to move the lowest deeps of feeling in every mind which, on religious grounds and principles, engaged in the struggle on either side.

What was the character of the author of this address must, in justice, be set down to inform many who, in ignorance of it, revile a most estimable man, if they possess the candour, or will take the trouble necessary for the correction of their mistakes: nor less that those who read the history of this remarkable affair, for our children will inquire what was the crime, and who was the man that committed the crime, which occasioned the odium theologicum to reach the unsurpassable summit of exasperation, and the English vocabulary of abuse to receive its ultimate perfection of bitter and contemptuous epithets,-may know how blind rage may become, and how undeserved party hatred and censure may be.

The Rev. Thomas Binney, then, let it be known to all who in ignorance revile him, as it will be confirmed by all who knowing love him, is of a manly and candid, a vigorous and an ardent mind; of sentiments less decided than those of most of his brethren on the peculiarities of his denomination, whether theological or ecclesiastical; open to views most impartial and just on the difficulties attending the system he has adopted, and on such advantages as may seem to attend those he repudiates; greatly more concerned about the spiritual realities of religion than its modes and accidents; anxiously looking for times of refreshing from above, and for days of repose and charity in the church below; ready at any hour when the system and the temper of those who revile him shall admit of it, for catholic and endeared fellowship with all who receive the grand truths and hopes of the gospel. Let it be added that to this honourable spirit, indignation at the mean, the false, the shuffling, is spontaneous and irrepressible. In few men of this divided, angry age, will there be found less of the bigot, the sectarian, the partizan, than in Mr. Binney.

At such a time, on such an occasion, by such a speaker, it can excite no wonder that a discourse of unusual vigour and spirit was produced. The topics handled are as appropriate as the ability with which they are discussed is distinguished. In vigorous, idiomatic English, most justly expressive of the thoughts and spirit of the speaker, he descants on the dedication of the commenced structure to the worship of the true God, under the christian economy, in the purity and freedom of the Protestant faith, amidst the conceded rights of conscience and secure toleration of Protestant Dissenters, with the unimpaired integrity of the form of sound words received from puritan ancestors, sustained alone by the voluntary contributions of faithful and obedient disciples of the Saviour. Here was a train of considerations calculated to call forth not indeed a foolishness of boasting, but a just satisfaction, a modest confidence, a heartfelt gratitude, a cheering hope; which, not to have indulged, not to have expressed, would have shown the speaker at once insensible of

the claims of his forefathers on his admiration and thankfulness, and of posterity on his fidelity to truth and liberty, which he who is not careful to bequeath never deserved to inherit. And at this trying hour, amidst all the obloquy and opposition with which Protestant Dissenters are assailed, they may with equal satisfaction and courage survey the results of past controversies and struggles, and anticipate those of the present. If the stage of our great and prolonged testimony for scriptural Christianity, through which we are now passing, be stormy, so were many of those that preceded, but they issued in enlarged boundaries of truth, liberty, and charity, and so will this.

In an explanatory appendix to this address when published, appeared the too" celebrated sentence," never to be forgotten, never to be forgiven. The production would have forced itself on the reluctant notice even of adversaries, had it not carried this sting in its tail. It is, indeed, a curious incident, that the British Critic for January, 1834, in an extended review of Mr. Binney's address, actually quotes the entire passage in which the "sentence" occurs, with the following commendatory introduction: "We like him for the honest explicitness of the following avowals," adding no distinct observation on this since far-famed expression. But before the index for the volume, of "remarkable passages in the criticisms, extracts," &c., was prepared, the storm had burst; on every hand the "sentence" was proclaimed with sound of trumpet in notes of execration; and the editor of the British Critic, now aware of his negligent and culpable oversight, found a place in this convenient index for a distinct notice of this "remarkable passage." But oh! the tempest of abuse, that fell on the devoted head of Mr. Binney! that falls, indeed, upon it still. Modern controversy has no parallel to present to it. We must go back to the period when all the rage of a previous hierarchy was hurled at the daring Saxon assailant of venerated and profitable usurpations, for any thing comparable to this furious, universal onslaught. We have before us, in type, a selection, as curious as it is copious, of the terms of reproach with which at this juncture our author was assailed. Forbearance alone has forbidden its publication. We doubt the propriety of its suppression. Such offences against all candour, all decency, as are there exhibited, require to be reproved, and those who are guilty of them to be, if possible, abashed, unless courtesy and charity are no longer worthy of preservation. For our own part, till we saw this precious collection, we were equally ignorant that our mother English supplied such terms of hatred and contempt, or that men boasting of an apostolic succession could be found to employ them.

Shall we record the melancholy truth that foremost in this clamorous crowd, their voices heard distinct above and before all the rest, were found our episcopalian brethren in evangelical faith and hope? We might expostulate with indignation. It will be better to intreat with gentleness. It cannot be right altogether to forbear complaint and reproof. Considerations, neither personal, nor of party-far higher than either-require that the truth be spoken in love. We state then with sorrow our decided conviction, that of all parties of religious men acting together for common objects, in this

time of the breaking up and confusion of old opinions and interests, not ne so much as the Evangelical clergy of the Established Church, mistakes its real position, interests, and spirit. Many a time have we in vain endeavoured to account for the course pursued by these our brethren, by reference to any of the principles and objects which we could suppose a truly evangelical heart would cherish. That their hearts are truly evangelical we, nothwithstanding, steadfastly believe, and that belief occasions our wonder; but their conduct remains to us unaccountable, an unsolved enigma. They cleave to a body in their own church, an overwhelming majority, whom they themselves represent as preaching doctrine which leads their hearers down to darkness; who just employ the labours and reputation of these evangelical brethren to promote purposes of their own; and in return repudiate their doctrines, despise their religion, prevent their advancement in their own profession and church; and work the almost undivided patronage, influence, and power of the Establishment to advance doctrines in the estimation of the evangelical clergyman destructive of truth, and pestilent to souls. They assail with monthly and weekly obloquy the evangelical dissenters, the only body of Christians in these realms that truly loves and fully sympathises with themselves in faith, purpose, doctrine, manner of life, making the difference of opinion on the question of an establishment more potent to divide and embitter, than all the agreement between us in evangelical doctrine and spiritual religion to unite and harmonize. They accuse evangelical dissenters as political, restless agitators, because of their testimony against political influences and power in the church, apparently quite unconscious that their own efforts are just as unwearied, energetic, and political to preserve within the affairs of religion, political influence in every pervading form of legislation, patronage, taxation, and party, that it can possibly assume. They rebuke our spirit, temper, language, in terms equally acrimonious and assuming, while as between us and them on this matter of asperity, our full conviction is, that we are far more "sinned against than sinning." They incessantly accuse Dissenters of uniting for political objects with papists, infidels, and socinians, forgetful apparently altogether of the fact that they themselves are both in political alliance and in church communion with men of every character and every creed.

And shall this state of things have no termination? Shall the sword destroy for ever? Is this matter of state establishments of Christianity never to be received into the number of those points upon which difference of judgment shall be mutually tolerated in the spirit of charity? Cannot the conception enter the mind of a churchman that his defence of an establishment must be as grievous, and justly, to a dissenter, as the dissenter's opposition to an establishment can, or ought to be, to him? Are we not equally lovers of truth, disciples of Christ, interpreters of Scripture? Have we not an equal interest in the cause of religion, and an equal responsibility to the Great Judge? To Him we appeal. "The Lord judge between" us and them. He will impartially determine who have taken the justest views of his will concerning his own kingdom; who have pursued

N. S. VOL. III.

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his interests by the most scriptural measures, and in the most christian spirit, and they may most calmly await his adjudication who now are most solicitous to approve themselves in his sight, however they may suffer from the mistakes and reproaches of their brethren.

And what is the position, what are the avowed objects of Dissenters in respect to the episcopalian body, and the church catholic of Jesus Christ? Are they aiming at the ruin of any denomination of Christians, or the advancement of their own above others, or the introduction of causes of strife and discord into their Master's kingdom? Do they either wish or fear that such results would follow the success of their most cherished purposes? Do they not avow that the direct contrary is their aim, and their unshaken belief that the result of success, in their present efforts, would be to true religion most triumphant and happy? Let Mr. Binney, even Mr. Binney, fierce and bitter as they describe him, let him be the expounder and advocate of the ultimate object of Protestant Dissenters. We have placed, in justice to that gentleman, in justice to our entire denomination, second in the list of publications at the head of this article, his sermon, entitled, "The Ultimate object of the Evangelical Dissenters avowed and advocated," published in 1834. Will our episcopalian brethren do Mr. Binney and his brethren, or rather themselves, the justice to read that discourse? And having read it, will they respond to its catholic views, its pacific spirit, its cheering anticipations? Will they, too, avow, that in the defence of their establishment, they meditate the harmony of the Church Catholic, the enlarged occasional church fellowship of Christians of various creeds and politics, who hold the head? Do they too sigh for the time when the episcopalian minister might occupy the pulpit of his Congregational brethren, and the members of their respective flocks meet at the same table or altar? When did they propound such articles of peace, or make like professions of amity? Our hearts are open to these fraternal sentiments. They rise, and glow, and expand, within us as we write. They take spontaneously the form of devout aspiration. Hasten it, Great Lord and Common Master, in thy time! Is the fault our's, if our episcopalian brethren cannot, or if they will not meet desire with corresponding desire, even if the actual consummation be far remote? These blendid wishes and sympathies would hallow and sweeten our spirits. It would be well that it was in our hearts. Be the fault where, or with whomsoever it may, the grief is ours. It is to us a lamentation, and shall be for a lamentation.

Thus we pursue our way through these seemng digressions, that are nevertheless part and parcel of the great topic on which we are anxious at once for all to record our views and feelings. It is material to consider from what point of observation Mr. Binney was regarding the national establishment of a form of Christianity in this land when he uttered, neither in levity, nor in bitterness, but in sorrow, this fearful conviction, "that it destroys more souls than it saves," what were the general views and principles which might guide him to that conclusion, or to one at all similar, however guarded and softened the language employed to announce it. Can it be doubted that it was as an evangelical Christian that Mr. Binney thought, and

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