HERBERT. Admirable sentiments, if rightly understood and applied; but, in the mouths of many persons, implying only an indifference to religious truth or utter ignorance of the duty of maintaining it. There is no point more strongly insisted on in the inspired Epistles than the necessity of maintaining the truth; and I think it may be considered as an axiom, that as the soundest doctrine conduces to the most godly practice, so every error has a tendency to evil. RIDLEY. How do you account, then, for the fact, that we often see honest, neighbourly, good sort of men who are Dissenters, and sometimes even quiet, inoffensive Romanists? HERBERT. The cause is simply this. Every system of heresy or sectarianism contains, besides its own peculiar errors, much that is sound and true, and which it holds in common with the true Church. Now, with the individual members of sectarian or heretical communities the good may predominate over the evil; so that it is very possible for persons nominally sectarians not to act upon the erroneous principles which are characteristic of the sect, but upon the sound Christian principles which they hold in common with the Church catholic. RIDLEY. This explains to me what I have sometimes looked upon as a difficulty; namely, the case of our Romanist forefathers, and indeed of the multitudes who live in communion with the church of Rome or the Greek church, in countries where those churches are established. I see very plainly that many good Christians may have lived and died amongst them, notwithstanding the lamentable heresies of their church. HERBERT. And so with Dissenters.-Many, from ignorance or early prejudice, remain nominally separatists; while their habits and feelings approximate to those of Churchmen. With such men we have many views and sentiments in common, and only regret that anything should stand in the way of our union. Still while our respective opinions on Church principles remain unchanged, union is out of the question. In religious matters it is impossible to terminate disputes by com promise. Revealed truth admits of no compact. Men who have no fixed and serious opinions on religion may talk of sinking differences, for the sake of peace: but all serious Christians. know full well that unity in religion is not to be obtained except by real consent. Still it is very possible for men differing in opinion to "live peaceably" together. Such is the state of feeling between our own Church and the Presbyterians of Scotland. "Ephraim no longer grieveth Judah, neither doth Judah vex Ephraim." Our political differences were terminated by the Act of Union; but on theological grounds we are as much opposed as ever. We can never cease to hold, that, in rejecting Episcopacy, they rejected an institution which was established by the Apostles, and caused a schism in the Church which ought to be one and undivided; and that in forcibly driving out the Episcopal clergy, they were guilty of a very great national sin. Still we need not be always flinging their schism in their teeth. On the contrary we may admire and even imitate much in their conduct,-their love of scriptural truth, the zeal of their pastors. We may gladly accept their co-operation in the great cause of the political establishment of religion. We may pray, and even believe, that in God's appointed time our differences may cease; and that they may return to the unity of the Church by the simple act of obtaining Episcopal ordination. Meanwhile we may live with them in peace. And so also might we with Dissenters, if they would let us. There are many peaceable, well-disposed persons, amongst them, who do not interfere with us, nor we with them. The Christian cause owes much to the zeal with which they have spread religious instruction in places where, through the niggard policy of the state, the Gospel was unknown. All this we may remember with thankfulness. But there is a broad mark of distinction as to our duty to the quiet peaceable man of religion who differs from us, and the contentious political dissenter, and the intriguing Papist, who actively oppose us. With them we stand on a very different footing. Instead of being mere separatists from the Church, they have become assailants. "We hesitate not to declare," says one of their writers, "that we wish to pull down the Establishment. We long and sigh for its overthrow, and shall do all in our power to hasten such a consummation. We contend for nothing more; we will be satisfied with nothing less." RIDLEY. May not this be the language of some excited political partisan, rather than the sentiments of the dissenting body? HERBERT. I wish I could think so. The rest may not be so rash and unguarded in avowing their hostility; but I fear the views of the large majority of Dissenters are too much like those expressed by the writer whom I have quoted. "Delenda est Ecclesia" is their motto; or, to use their own words, "Down with the old hag." These were the expressions used by the chairman of a large meeting of Dissenters in the metropolis, and responded to by every Dissenter present. No; I cannot but express my sorrowful conviction that, amongst the large majority of Dissenters, there is a deep hatred of the Church-an hostility which cannot be appeased by concession, and therefore must be opposed by firmness and vigilance. Coleridge has too truly described their character. "I sometimes think it just possible," he says, "that the Dissenters may once more be animated by a wiser and nobler spirit, and see their dearest interest in the Church of England, as the bulwark and glory 66 L |