vilized world, while we protract our own downfall and dishonour. The Continent too may refpire and recover, in no finall degree, from the prefent panic and aftonishment which betrav and deliver it handbound to France, while we engage her whole attention, and employ her consentered forces: hereafter the great powers of Europe may al ternate with us in refiftance; and defeat, by divided but constant ef forts, thofe mighty projects which have triumphed over the general but fhort-lived endeavour." P. 62. If thefe are not the fentiments and expreffions of a juft and high-minded statesman, we are at a lofs to diftinguish how they can be characterized. Having at large, and with great clearnefs, explained the true nature of our prefent pofition, the author comes at length to this decifive conclufion. "The prefent moment and circumftances, therefore, are inaufpici ous and unfit for peace; and it is either weak or perfidious to invoke it. Look at the state of all thofe countries which have purchased peace, and fee if there be any thing there to envy or approve? throw your eyes over the whole of Europe, and fay, if war be not the natural ftate and order for all thofe nations who will defend their constitutions, their independence and their property? If you will pull down the throne, the altars, and the laws, and confent to abandon the care and govern ment of the country to whatever is base, and corrupt, and treacherous amongst us, I think you may have peace.-France alks this before all other terms; this is her first and true preliminary; inftitute a government which I fhall govern, and a conftitution in which I will daily interfere and interpret for you; let felons rule you whom I fhall rule, and who will lean upon me for impunity; who will confifcate and forfeit every thing for my exchequer, and put your fleets and armies under my command and inftructions; change your parliament for a club, and your king for a directory, and your religion for fchools of atheism, and I will no longer dread you; be factious; be criminal; be bloody; be licentious; be idle; be poor; and then I will dare to truft to you. Is not this the language the has held ? Is it not the law he has given? Is it not the practice she has enforced wherever The has granted peace? And is not war then the right and natural ftate of our nation in particular, whofe wealth and conftitution, whofe industry and morals, he is refolved to corrupt and deftroy? She thinks there is no peace between right and wrong, hetween laws and murderers, between juftice and ufurpation; and until our government fhall become like hers, fhe will never trutt it. War then is our fate, our true and wife pofition, and economy alone can enable us to hold it; an enemy like ours, is to be tired and difappointed; the rapidity of his motion keeps him from his fall; he spins but cannot stand; suspend the fcourge and he Hes upon the earth." P. 82. The political fituation of our country, thus ascertained, this writer does not confider as any cause for defpondency. ૬૮ "I do not," he fays, " for one, defpair of the public fortune; the reign of wickedness was never long; bat fuppofing it eternal, World' would not a state of war with it become eternal also? Let us accuftom our eye to our fiation'; let us dare to tell our own hearts there is as yet no profpect nor overture of peace; that the ftate of the world forbids it; that to defend our country is our poft, and that our fathers have ac quitted themselves for us, of more than is required of us for our children." P. 85. It will be a recommendation to fome readers, that this able politician writes evidently without connection with any party in this country. He abhors the French and their wickednefs, yet he is not a minifterial writer; he difapproves fome measures of administration, yet he neither feeks to degrade their general character, nor impede their efforts for the public fervice. With this independence of mind, and an eye that penetrates every angle and diftinguishes every relation of the political world, it is impoffible that he fhould not produce fuch tracts as are well deferving of attention from his country. ART. XV. A Guide to the Church, in feveral Difcourfes; to which are added, Two Poffcripts; the First, to thofe Members of the Church who occafionally frequent other Places of Public Worship; the Second, to the Clergy, addressed to William Wilberforce, Efq. M. P. By the Rev. Charles Daubeny, LL. B. a Prefbyter of the Church of England. 488 pp. 75. Cadell and Davies. 1798. 8vo. THE nature of the Chriftian Church, by what its unity is conftituted, and in what the offence of Schifm confilts, are fubjects, by long neglect, rendered fo obfcure, to perhaps the majority of perfons in this country, that acknowledgments are julily due to a writer, who, at the prefent period, under takes to elucidate them. This laudable effort of Mr. Daubeny, appears to have been occafioned by the late publication of Mr. Wilberforce, to whom the prefent work is addreffed. Giving that author the fame credit as we gave for the fincerity of his zeal, and the useful tendency of his book in general, Mr. D. here attempts to correct that laxity of notions which leads him to confound Separatifts with the Church itself, and to think bimself at liberty to unite occafionally with thofe whom the regular fon of the church confiders as Schifmatics. The plan of the book is thus laid down by the author, who informs us, that he propofes to treat, 1ft, on the nature, defign, and conftitution of the Chriftian Church; 2dly, on the fin of Schifm, or wilful feparation from it; 3dly, on the reafons commonly advanced to justify that feparation; 4thly, on the advantages at 64 tendant tendant upon a confcientious communion with the church, together with the disadvantages confequent upon a feparation from it." This is performed in thirteen difcourfes, of which the fubjects are refpectivelyshefe; 1. introductory difcourfe; 2. on the nature, defign, and conftitution of the Chriftian Church, confidered as a vifible fociety; 3. on the fin of Schifm; 4, 5, 6. on the reafons generally advanced to justify a feparation from the Church; 7. on liberty of confcience, in reference to the fame fubject; 8. on toleration; 9. on the right of private judg ment, both with the fame reference; 10. on the advantages attendant upon a confcientious communion with the Church, &c.; 11. concluding difcourfe, containing general reflections on the preceding fubjects. To thefe are fubjoined two long poftfcripts, on the topics mentioned in the title-page. The occafion of the whole is fo well ftated by the author, in the opening of his firft difcourfe, that it is adviseable to let him fpeak for himself. "No wife man makes the practice of the world a rule for his government in religious matters; being fatisfied that no practice, however general, can make that right which the word of God has determined to be wrong. Cuftom may indeed reconcile us to any thing. But cuftom is not the law of the wife man; because, being at times no lefs an advocate for error than for truth, it can furnish no reasonable fatisfaction to the party governed by it. Men, as men, are liable to error. Nevertheless, error and truth are two things effentially different from each other; and it will always conftitute the beft employment of the reasoning faculty, properly to discriminate between them. "To enable the thinking man fo to do, that he may thereby become proof against the various delufions upon the fubject of Religion, which have at different period's prevailed in the world; his appeal must be made to the ftandard of judgment fet up in the word of God. "Time was, when Schifm, or the fin of dividing the Church by a feparation from it, was confidered to be a fin of the most heinous nature, It cannot be, because opinions on this fubject have changed with the times, that the nature of this fin is alfo changed. For fo long as the Church continues to be what it originally was, a fociety of Chrift's forming, a wilful feparation from it must be at all times equally finful; it being not lefs an oppofition to a divine inftitution in one age of the Church than in another. Confequently what was faid upon this fubject in the first days of Christianity, muft apply to it with the fame force and propriety in the times in which we live." P. 1. With refpect to that which constitutes the effence of the Chriftian Church, this author lays down, in conformity with 'the ableft divines of our communion, "That it is not merely a number of people agreeing in the fame articles of Faith, or in the fame acts of religious worship; but it is more over a fociety holding one visible communion under the fame divinely instituted government; which government is that of Bishops, Priefts and Deacons; infomuch, that "where we find the order of bifhops, pricfts, and deacons, regularly appointed, there we find the Church of Chrift; and without thefe, it is not called a church" (p. 34): as is exprefsly affirmed by St. Ignatius, the difciple of St. John. Under this notion, he confiders the Church of Rome, and that of Eaft, as independent parts of the Chriftian Church, notwithstanding the corruptions of the one, and the peculiarities of the other. This, however, is a matter of fome difficulty; for that the order of Church Government, though proved to have been originally conftituted by the Apoftles themfelves, can be more important to Chriftian unity, than thofe great points on which we feparated from the Romish church, does not, at first fight, feem probable. Yet this, it must be acknowledged, has been the opinion of our beft and foundest theologians. Charles Leffie defines the Church as "a fociety under government, with governors appointed by Chrift, invefted with power and authority to admit into and exclude out of the fociety, and govern the affairs of the body. This power," he adds, "was delegated by Chrift to his Apoffles and their fucceffors, to the end of the world: accordingly the Apoftles did ordain Bishops in all the churches which they planted throughout the world, as the fupreme governors and center of unity, each in his own church." He then fays, "Thefe were obliged to keep unity and communion with one another, which is therefore called Christian Communion; and all thefe churches together is (are) the Catholic Church." Yet he afterwards confiders epifcopal fucceffion as the effential point which continues the authority of the Apoftles in the Church, and argues that even the idolatry of the Church of Rome (with which Proteftants could not hold communion) did not unchurch that focietyt, or break the fucceffion of Bishops. To admit this, we must think with the great Hooker (cited by Mr. Daubeny, p. 30) that this order of Church government was "even of God; the Holy Ghoft was the author of it." The great force of the argument leading to this conclufion is, that as the Apoftles appear, by the facred records, not to have done things of far inferior moment without the fanction of the Holy Spirit, fo they cannot be fuppofed without that authority to have conftituted that ecclefiaftical order of things, which their own writings prove them to have appointed in all their churches; namely, that of Bithops, Priefts, and Deacons. * See his Letter: Scholar Armed, vol. i, p. 60. + Ibid, p. 85. This foundation being laid, it becomes eafy to comprehend the nature of the fin of Schifm, on which Mr. Daubeny thus expatiates. "Indeed as the word church, through the modern confufion of lan guage, is understood to be applicable to all focieties of profeffing Chriftians, by what authority, and under what teachers foever they may be affembled, there can be no fuch fin as that of fchifm in the world. For the fin of fchifm pre-fuppofes the establishment of a certain fociety by divine authority, with which all Chriftians are obliged to communicate. Now if the church, instead of being a fociety eftablished under a particular government for the purpose of Chriftians living in communion with it, is any thing and every thing that men pleafe to make it, a feparation from it becomes impracticable; becaufe a fociety must have acquired fome regular and collected form, before a feparation from it can take place. But upon the fuppofition that every fociety of profeffing Chriftians is the church of Chrift; the church, in that cafe, confifts of as many feparate focieties under different forms, as there are fanciful men to make them; and, confequently, is no longer in that collected ftate in which it is poffible to live in communion with it. For before the members of the church can live in communion with each other, the church, as a society, must be at unity in itself." P. 43. The advantages and difadvantages confequent upon a com, munion with, or feparation from, the Church, are thus comprehenfively and forcibly expreffed by this author. "Communion with the Church, is conformity to the divine plan for our falvation: feparation from it, is fetting up a plan of our own; if not in oppofition to, at least in fome degree independent of the former. The one, is putting ourselves under God's training; by becoming difciples in his school; conforming to those rules, and making ufe of thofe means, which have been appointed by him, for the advancement of our spiritual concerns. The other is, in a degree at leaft, taking the work of falvation into our own hands; by fetting up a fyftem of Chriftian education for ourselves. In the one cafe, we fubmit, as in humility we ought, to the wisdom of God; in the other, we make ourselves wifer than God; by an attempt to travel to heaven in a road different from that which he has gracioufly marked out for us a conduct which leads to fomething like the following impious conclufion; that in the great work of redemption, God was not the beft judge of the manner in which it was to be carried into the moft complete effect." P. 174. Again: "From the authority of the facred writings we conclude, that where the Christian facraments are duly administered by perfons regularly appointed to that facred office, according to the plan originally laid down by the Apoftles, there we find the church of Chrift. From the fame authority we learn, that this church is to continue to the end of the world. The unity eonfequently of the Chriftian church, |