she having separated from the to the protection afforded them by church of Rome. It was not till the commencement of the 17th century, that the class of English Christians which have been described formed themselves into the distinct and separate denominations of Independents and Baptists. Great numbers of churches of both these denominations existed at the time when Presbyterianism was the established religion. the princes of the royal house of Brunswick. Each of the four monarchs of that illustrious line has declared, on his accession to the throne, "I WILL PRESERVE THE TOLERATION ACT INVIOLABLE:" nor has either of these patriotic kings acted inconsistently with that solemn pledge. There were several attempts made a few years since to deprive Protestant Dissenters of their pri Lords by Lord Sidmouth, the provisions of which were to prevent ministers from preaching any where but in the congregations to which they respectively belonged, and to At the Restoration in 1660, many vileges, by some country magisministers and others united them-trates putting new constructions on selves to the dissenters, who had the act of toleration. In 1811, a been compelled to leave the na-bill was brought into the House of tional and parish churches. The Act of Uniformity in 1662, drove upwards of 2000 more ministers to unite with them: these were most excellent and conscientious men, but they were not, properly speak-require from young ministers, being, Dissenters; they had no objection to a national establishment, nor to a prescribed liturgy, nor to parish congregations, nor to the tithes as the means of their support. fore they were brought under the protection of law, that they should obtain a licence from a justice of the peace, at the quarter sessions for the county. These regulations, whether so intended or not, would Nor are the great body of Me- have most grievously harassed thodists, whether Calvinistic or them, and most effectually preArminian, Dissenters. Most of vented their increase. The vast them, indeed, especially the latter, number of petitions presented to affect to be members of the esta- the Peers against this detested and blished church. Genuine Protes-persecuting measure proved suctant Dissenters adopt for their cessful. His Majesty's prime mimotto, No IMPOSITION. They nister, Lord Liverpool, refused to dare not submit to any thing as sanction it, and even the Archbinding upon their consciences, bishop of Canterbury, Dr. Sutton, which is not plainly stated, or opposed the bill, and spoke in the fairly to be deduced from the New most respectful manner of the DisTestament; and for these opinions senters. their forefathers suffered persecution in every dreadful form, from each national endowed sect, whether popish, episcopalian, or presbyterian; until the glorious Revolution in 1688, when the liberties of Protestant Dissenters were secured by law. And for the unrestricted exercise of their religious liberty, they are chiefly indebted Soon after the total failure of this measure, the Judges, to whom the Dissenters had appealed, gave their decision in favour of the construction of the magistrates. This high legal decision made it necessary that they should appeal to the Legislature, for some enactment which should explain and amend the act of toleration, which had been found sufficient for their protection for more than a century. His Majesty's ministers undertook to prepare a bill for those purposes, which having passed into a law, the Dissenters were perfectly satisfied. This new toleration act protected them from the caprice of some magistrates, and the malice of others, and also repealed those persecuting statutes, the Corporation and Five-mile acts, and altered the Conventicle act in their favour. An unjust penal statute, the Test Act, still remains, which deprives them of their equal rights in the state, and is also a most awful profanation of the divine ordinance of the Lord's supper. It is not probable that this act, however unjust, will be repealed whilst there is an established sect, the principle of which must be necessarily exclusive, the members securing all the good things to themselves. At present there is no apparent hostility against Dissenters, either from the government or the bench of bishops. They most scrupulously "refrain from these men, and let them alone;" and excepting occasionally a volley of abuse from some high churchman, when on his road to Canterbury, they seem to have come to an agreement to "say nothing at all about them." case, where the son of a dissenting minister has become a dignitary of the national hierarchy, a dissenting periodical has spoken of the circumstance, if not with approbation, yet certainly not with reprobation. Many reasons could be adduced, were it necessary, to account for this latitudinarian state of feeling. But, however some dissenters may have changed their sentiments, the principles on which dissent is founded remain unaltered and unalterable; being all resolvable into this one divine direction "Call no man master on earth: one is your master, even Christ." are The spirit which prevails among Protestant Dissenters is less acrimonious than at some former periods. Their controversies conducted (with some few exceptions) with more courteousness and respect: the time may perhaps arrive, if it has not already arrived, when it will be said, "And e'en the dipt and sprinkled live in peace. Happy will it be for the cause of dissent when this disposition shall universally prevail. Surely orthodox evangelical dissenters should cautiously avoid every thing which would divide their energies or check their zeal in promoting their common Christianity; and if a difference of sentiment on some practical points, as in reference to foreign missions, make it necessary they should fight against the enemy in different detachments, they may yet, as being under the same Commander, make one united effort in spreading the victories, and celebrating the triumphs of the Prince of Peace. The principles on which the necessity of dissenting from the establishment is founded, are, I am of opinion, more imperfectly understood than at any former period of the dissenting history: certainly the high tone of rigid separation is greatly lowered. It is now no uncommon thing for educated dissenting youths to be allured into the precincts of an university, and from thence into the pulpit of the church of England. In some of When the secession from the those instances, it is feared, they Establishment, in 1662, took place, have received encouragement and it was confidently predicted that support from their parents. In one the dissenting interest would not survive the lives of those minis- | part received its accomplishment ters. More than 160 years have at the day of Pentecost, and it will passed since, and the Dissenters be fully accomplished in the latter are much more numerous than ever. day; when the glory of the Lord And judging from the large annual shall be revealed, and all flesh sums contributed in support of shall see it together. In considertheir ministers and their numerous ing the text, we may notice the institutions (in addition to their following things: The blessing paying, in common with others, to promised-the manner and extent support the established church,) of its effusion-the effects which it is fair to conclude, notwithstand- will follow; and the means to be ing there are but few very rich used to obtain the desired end. persons among them, yet that their 1. The blessing promised is the aggregate wealth is not diminished. holy Spirit: who is of the same Considering, too, the large number essence with the Father and the of zealous and evangelical minis- Son, and is equal with them in ters constantly employed in pro- power and glory. Each of the pagating and diffusing the liberal sacred three is concerned in the sentiments of dissent, and the nu- great work of redemption; and merous accessions which have each performs in the peculiar chabeen, and doubtless will be made, racter he sustains, a distinct work from the tens of thousands of their of grace for the salvation of all Sunday-school scholars, I feel who believe. The salvation of a confident persuasion that the sinners must be traced up to the cause of dissent is built upon an love of God as its source. Love immoveable rock. Knowing, too, influenced God to appoint his Son how beneficial the influence of to the work of mediation, and to these liberal sentiments has been chuse his people in him to salvaupon our national industry and tion. The first promise of God's commerce, so that even Hume has love, was the gift of his Son, and been compelled to acknowledge then for the sake of his Son, he that they were the germ from promised to give the Holy Spirit. whence the English tree of liberty The promise of God relative to has grown; and believing they have subserved the cause of godliness and serious piety most essentially in the nation, I adopt, with most impassioned ardour, the devout wish of Father Paul for his country, and say of the dissenting interest in Britain, Esto perpepetua. IOTA. ADDRESS, ON THE WORK OF THE STREET, JUNE 21, 1827. BY THE POOL. Joel, ii. 28. I will pour out my Spirit upon all flesh. THE promise in the text refers to the Gospel dispensation, and in the gift of his Son, has already been fulfilled-and the promise relating to the gift of the Holy Spirit shall assuredly be accomplished-we had a pledge of this on the day of Pentecost. This is the blessing promised, and it is of unspeakable importance; for without it, we cannot enjoy the blessings of the Father's love, nor the benefits of the Son's redemption— and without it all attempts to spread the Gospel will be ineffectual. We notice, 2. The manner and extent of the effusion of the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit shall be poured out. This denotes the freeness of his influences. They shall be im parted as freely as water flows | the sins of our country, and for from a fountain, or as the showers the sins of the whole Church. We that water the earth. It also de- should also cultivate brotherly love notes the efficacy of his opera- with all who bear the image of tions; they shall cure the barren- Christ, and be careful not to grieve ness which sin has brought upon the Holy Spirit. the soul of man, and shall make the wilderness and the solitary place glad for them, and the desert ESSAYS ON DIVINE REVELATION. and a Future State, as suggested by Natural Reason. shall rejoice and blossom as the The doctrine of Moral Responsibility rose. These influences shall become very extensive, yea, universal; for the Spirit shall be poured out upon all flesh-i. e. upon all sorts of persons: not only upon Jews, but upon Gentiles also; so that the earth shall be full of the knowledge of the Lord, as the waters cover the sea. IF the existence and government of the Supreme Being can be clearly established by the light of nature, the accountability of human conduct, and a state of future retribution, would seem to arise from it as a necessary conse3. The effects which will follow quence. The institution of a law the effusion of the Holy Spirit. presupposes the authority of the Then the preaching of the Gos- lawgiver, and indicates a state of pel will be accompanied with the subjection and responsibility on the most beneficial effects. The plain part of those for whom the law and humble doctrines of the cross is instituted. It is therefore obshall triumph, and reduce all na-viously assumed in every part of tions to the obedience of the faith. the divine economy, as revealed Then union of sentiment and affec-in Scripture, that the human race tion shall prevail among all the are endowed with rational and disciples of Christ, and the Redeemer's intercessory prayer will be accomplished, "that they all may be one." Then animosities and discord shall cease, the nations shall learn war no more, and all the kingdoms of this world shall become the kingdoms of our Lord and of his Christ. Prayer and it moral power, and placed in a state of trial, improvement, and accountableness, preparatory to the rewards and punishments of the world to come. If this were not the case, but if mankind stood in the same relation to God as inferior animals, who follow the instinct of nature, and cease to exist at death, the 4. The means to be used to ob- whole system of divine revelation, tain the needed blessing. with all the precepts and sanctions We should pray for it. of religion, would be not only inis the appointed means, conceivably mysterious, but inpleases God to bestow his bless- effably absurd. No design can ings in answer to prayer. Our be imagined in any degree adeprayers should be fervent and un-quate to the amazing apparatus ceasing, and should be presented of Divine Providence, in reference to God with a believing regard to to the moral world, if the doctrine the atonement of Christ. Our prayers should be accompanied with a deep conviction of our need of divine influence, and with true humiliation for our own sins, for of human accountability and future retribution be denied. And though the sanctions of a pure morality might have been deemed desirable, even supposing this life to be the whole of our existence, in the absence of divine revelathe services of religion might have tion, have believed, with Socrates, been dispensed with as superflu- that the virtuous are received into ous, and the cultivation of a spiri- heaven in the presence of God, tual frame of mind, or an elevated while the vicious are sent down devotion, regarded as the height of into Tartarus, out of which they vanity and weakness, and not the will never come. true glory and happiness of man. This doctrine, therefore, we conceive, lies at the foundation of all religion, and is taken for granted, as well as expressed, in every part of the Sacred Volume, as the grand and exclusive circumstance which rendered the different parts of the Christian economy expedient and necessary. That God has rendered man accountable for his conduct, and designed to reward or punish us in › a future state, seems to be an inference naturally deducible from the powers and operations of the human mind-its capability of perpetual improvement, the feelings excited by a consciousness of good or evil, its dread of annihilation, and the deep rooted desire of immortal life. If in the economy of nature we perceive innumerable proofs of sufficiency, adaptation and utility, in which things and beings are all made subservient to some purpose, and supplied with resources suitable to their capacity, it is reasonable to conclude man for a destiny suitable to his powers, and provided for him sources of enjoyment commensurate to his feelings. But is it not a fact that a perception of the divine existence, has uniformly coupled with it some idea of the obligations men were under to worship him, and of the good or evil that may flow from his influence, either in this world or in one to come? A desire and expectation of immortality, though in many cases faint and uninfluen- that the same wisdom has formed tial, may be deemed an inseparable associate of human reason, even in the worst stages of a barbarous and savage life. Whether it arise from the feeble whisper of tradition, or an instructive desire of perpetuity, it is certain that the dying Indian, and the oppressed negro, are soothed by the thought of passing into some world, where the friendships of this life will be renewed, and the pleasures which most gratified them, realized in perfection. In all ages and communities, the clearness of man's ideas, and the strength of their persuasions in reference to a future state, have in general risen in proportion to their mental cultivation and moral virtue. While many have thought only of a sensual Paradise, and had little or no idea that vice and virtue would be followed by different states, some have approached nearer to the truth, and The difference which exists between good and evil, morally considered, and the feelings of selfapprobation or self-reproach, resulting from it, seem to arise from the earliest perceptions of human reason, and are in some measure recognised by the most ignorant and depraved. For when the Gentiles, which have not the revealed law, do by nature the things contained in the law, these, saith the apostle, "having not the law, are a law unto themselves, which shows the work of the law written in their hearts, their conscience also bearing witness, and their thoughts the meanwhile accusing or else excusing one another." Nor can the feelings thus excited by a consciousness of vice or vir |