as those which were passed in Babylon of old, nor such monarchs as Nebuchadnezzar, to decree a prescribed, unauthorised worship to their subjects, with the penalty of death to such as should refuse to embrace it: but, at the same time, it is a law which is no less natural than just, that the Established Religion of a State or Nation, if not imposed as an obligatory duty upon every subject, is so far to be reverenced, that none may wantonly charge falsehood upon its doctrines with impunity, when those doctrines are thought by the wise and good to have a heavenly sanction; and none can attempt to subvert these, without incurring the risk of a just degree of punishment. If any there be, who from tenderness of conscience scruple to receive this religion, they are at perfect liberty to dissent from it; they are at liberty to state and publish the reasons of their secession; provided, in so doing, they do not shock the feelings, nor attempt to shake the public faith, by offensive and impious statements, or by throwing ridicule upon what the country at large holds sacred. I will even go further than this; I will admit that any sect may lawfully promulgate, in a rational and serious manner, their objections even to the established, authorised Religion of the Nation: our laws permit every individual et sentire quæ velit, et quæ sentiat, dicere; and that they may advance any reasonable arguments against the

truth of it, if such be the unfeigned and conscientious belief of the party in question, and if their objections be stated with that decorum and feeling which is due to the sensibility of all who as conscientiously differ from them: for if the National Religion be not strictly conformable to Holy Writ; if its doctrines be the mere phantoms and hallucinations of the brain, and not the teachings of God's Holy word and Spirit; then let those doctrines and that religion fall, and fall under the weapons of those, who shall succeed in proving their spuriousness; then let another system be substituted, which has higher and better evidences of truth: but, until this be actually and satisfactorily done, we cannot quietly submit to the dictum of those who set up a mode of interpretation peculiar to themselves, and which has not the sanction of legitimate and critical learning to support it. For such persons as these to publish protests against our faith, to impugn its evidences, and to deny as true those portions of Holy Writ which they cannot prove false, and who only brand as spurious, those parts and passages of Scripture which clash with their pre-conceived opinions; amounts, in my humble opinion, to direct blasphemy, inasmuch as they unblushingly assert portions of that sacred volume, which no one has ever yet shown to be other than the word of God, to be a cheat and invention of designing

men; and denounce those as no better than dupes to the delusion- dupes in the awful matter of their eternal salvation, who ground their faith on such a foundation.

Gentlemen, I am well aware that the present age lays claim to the acquisition of deeper and a more general knowledge, and to a liberality more extensive than has, at any previous time, marked the intellectual advancement of any people; but before we admit the truth of this, it becomes us to distinguish between liberality and innovation; and with respect to knowledge, it is proper to enter into the distinction between learning and science. The progress of the arts and sciences has carried with it a curiosity and an enterprise, which lead their votaries to see blemishes in every thing long established, and to betray a nervous impatience to move rapidly onwards in the course which restless men are hurrying on whatever has hitherto been fixed. I will not, for it is impossible that I should, deny that the world, and the things of the world, cannot always remain stationary, or that experience and insight do not produce knowledge and sagacity, and that this increase of mental power and energy leads to improvement in all things; but it is, at the same time, essential to guard against the precipitation into which a presumption of great intellectual advancement is apt to carry the minds of men. He that hasteth to

be wise, is almost as liable to overshoot the mark, as he who hasteth to become rich." Great and permanent improvement is the result of cool deliberation and persevering industry, not of a feverish and impatient excitement. I am ready to admit that the rapid progress of intellect, of which we now hear so much, is justly the boast of the scientific world; but I have never yet seen the connection pointed out between any modern improvements in science, and the new doctrines of reformers in theology. We are certainly much improved, for instance, in the art of making timekeepers, above those who lived a hundred years ago; but no man will say, that we thence derive any advantage for numbering our days more wisely, or that we have any clearer ideas of eternity than we had before. An eminent artist in this way may doubt of the Apostles' Creed; but there is no visible relation between his art and his unbelief. The conceit of superior learning has always had an ill effect upon Christianity; and is frequently found in those who have no great parts upon which to pride themselves. We may be as learned as we can make ourselves, and yet continue good Christians; because true learning and true religion were never yet at variance; but the moment we are vain of our learning, we begin to be in danger, and some folly or other is not far off. The Greeks were unfit to receive the Gos

pel, because they boasted of a sort of wisdom, between which and the wisdom of the Gospel there is no affinity. They delighted to speak of little things in great words; while they who first published the Christian faith, propounded to the world the highest objects in the plainest language. Hence it has been observed, that persons in the same state of life with the Apostles of Jesus Christ have attained to a great understanding of sacred things, while some scholars of high pretensions have betrayed great dulness and misconception in respect to the same: for our religion ever had, and ever will have, some things which are hidden from those who are wise and prudent in their own estimation, and are revealed to persons of teachable, child-like dispositions. The natural and adequate effect of all knowledge, when rightly used, is to make men wiser; but the affectation and abuse of learning have a contrary effect.1

Gentlemen,―There is no subject on which mankind are properly more tenacious, than that of their religious faith. There is nothing which they bear with less patience than the sarcasms which unfeeling, or the levities which trifling, minds throw out against their religious sentiments; for, of all subjects, it is indisputably the most important, because the concerns of it not only mainly affect us

1 Bishop Horne's Charge to the Clergy of Norwich.