truth of miracles, and brought forward the beauty and consistency of revealed doctrines, have inscribed their deductions on monuments that can fall but with the decay of science, and be buried only in the general ruins of literature and knowledge."

Nor have the members of this Church been more eminent for solid learning, than for true piety and sterling virtue, and all those more valuable qualities, with a view to which the Church of Christ was established upon earth, and which only will retain their value in the Church triumphant in heaven. Fervent piety-Christian zeal-active benevolence, and practical virtue, though less dazzling in the eyes of the world, are so much the more valuable than the highest literary attainments, in that they are more durable; for "whether there be knowledge, it shall vanish away;" and so much the more profitable, in that, though they cannot boast of the same degree of the honour that cometh from man, they have equally the promise of the happiness that now is, and they lead more directly to that which is to come.

In every age, the different branches of the now United Church, have exhibited such "burning and shining lights," as will be had "in everlasting remembrance;" and many, doubtless, multitudes have for a season rejoiced in the light of others, whose names may have never reached beyond the sphere of their own usefulness, whose

virtues have never been recorded, or whose memories are forgotten. And that in this age, and at the present day, she is less favoured in this respect than at any former period, those only will be disposed to maintain, who, having eyes, will not see, or, having ears, will not hear. For notwithstanding many of her sons and servants may have no great pretensions to piety, and some of them as little to learning, she can yet boast of those in all ranks and orders, from the prelate on the bench to the village curate, who are eminently distinguished for both the one and the other. She may also boast of men, neither ignorant nor unlearned, who labour in her service with ardent zeal-with unwearied diligence -with scrupulous fidelity, and with various success:-of men, in short, who preaching the word, are "instant in season, out of season," and whose zeal is according to knowledge, and without inno

vation.

To the professional labours and consistent conduct of some men of this character, had I not myself been an eye witness for years together, I should scarcely have believed that Christianity, as we find it in Scripture, was so justly reflected in the lives of any of its professors, in these days of lukewarmness and indifference, or that there were any at this time who made so near approaches to what the ministers of the Gospel once were, and what they ought at all times to be.

And yet, "tell it not in Gath," publish it not in the ears of the enemies of the Church, or of reli

gion, such men, and many such there doubtless are at this day, besides those whom I have the happiness to know, (classed, if not mixed, with others, I admit, of a less honourable and consistent deportment; but I speak not here of men who can be justly charged with heterodoxy, irregularity, or enthusiasm)-even such men are viewed with contempt, and loaded with opprobrious names by many of their brethren and others;-by those in particular, it is presumed, I will not say, who are the least distinguished by their piety and worth, but rather, who have the misfortune to know them the least.*

It has been remarked, that in every period, from the dawn of the Reformation in the reign of Edward III., as in the ages that preceded that æra, the practical Christian has uniformly been designated by some arbitrary and invidious appellation; that "in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, this character was denominated a Wickliffite, or a Lollard, in the sixteenth, a Lutheran, a Zuinglian, or a Huguenot, in the seventeenth, he was a Precisian, or a Puritan,-in the eighteenth, a Methodist,-in the nineteeth, a Calvinist."-But many of the members of this Church, on whom ignorance or prejudice has freely bestowed this last appellation, do not answer to the name of Calvinist, in any sense; and not a few of those others, who cannot so justly disclaim it, yet reject the most distinguishing point of Calvinism, the doctrine of Particular Redemption.

"It was reported and believed, that Arminius had kissed the Pope's toe, when he had only seen him in a crowd;— that he had contracted an intimacy with Jesuits, whom he had never heard of-that he had introduced himself to Bellarmine, whom he had never seen and that he had abjured the reformed religion, for which he was prepared to die." The disciple is not above his master, and "if they have called the master of the house Beelzebub, how much more,” &c. ?·

I have, however, no hesitation in saying, that I know of no set of men in any church, sect, or country, who have themselves made higher attainments in religion, or, who aim more stedfastly and uniformly to promote the cause of religion in others; and none, of course, who deserve better of their country and of mankind in general. And, however much any may have vainly attempted to obscure the lustre of such characters, I firmly believe, and I believe it on clear Scriptural authority, that not a few of them shall shine hereafter "as the brightness of the firmament—and as the stars for ever and ever."*

Among the men who have been eminent in their day and generation, and have from time to time adorned their respective branches of the now United Church, many of whom have been not less distinguished for piety than for learning, may be ranked+-Archbishops Cranmer, Usher*, Laud, Wake, Tillotson, Secker, &c.;-Bishops Ridley, Latimer, Jewel, Andrews, Taylor*, Hall, Beveridge, Bedell*, Patrick, Burnet, Bull, Pearson, Stillingfleet, Gastrell, Kenn, Kidder, Walton, Gibson, Wilson, Sherlock, Warburton, Newton, Lowth, Hurd, Horne, Horsley, &c. ;-Deans Prideaux, Stanhope, Sherlock, Tucker, &c.;-Drs. Bentley, Barrow, Berriman, Bennet, Cave, Cudworth, Ellis*, Hammond, Heylin, Jackson, Jenkins, Jortin, Kennicott, Lightfoot, Mills, Brett, Pococke, South,

* Daniel, 12, v. 3.

† Those followed by an asterisk were of the Church of Ireland.

Stebbing, Trap, Waterland, Whitby, Paley, &c.;-Messrs Nowel, Hooker, Leslie*, Wheatley, Jones.

And of Laymen-Lords Bacon, Littleton, &c.; --the Honourable Robert Boyle, Sir Isaac Newton, Dr. Samuel Johnson;-Messrs Addison, Dodwell, Nelson, West, Bryant, &c.

Of these have written in defence of the Church of England against that of Rome-Bishop Jewel, in his Apology; Archbishop Usher, in his Answer to a Jesuit; Archbishop Laud, against Fisher; Bishop Bull, in his Vindication of the Church of England from the errors of the Church of Rome; Dr. Heylin, in his Ecclesia Vindicata, or Church of England Justified; Dr. Bennet, in his Confutation of Popery; Dr. Trapp, in his Church of England defended against the Calumnies and False Reasonings of the Church of Rome,* &c.

1

Against the Dissenters-Hooker, in his Ecclesiastical Polity; Dr. Nicholls, in his Defence of the Doctrine and Discipline of the Church of England; Leslie, in his Rehearsals,† &c.; Bishop Sherlock, in his Vindication of the Corporation and Test Act; Bishop Hall, and Dr. Brett, in their Divine Right of Episcopacy; Bishop Taylor, in his Defence of Episcopacy; Archbishop

* See also, among various other works on the subject, several Tracts against Popery, by Archbishop Wake. See also above, p. 41, Note.

+ In 6 vols. 12mo. Or, see his works in 2 vols. folio.