DAUBENY’S VINDICIZ ECCLESIZ ANGLICAN. 
 thodists of Great Britain, have increased 
above 38,000 in number, within ten 
years, according to their own popula- 
. tion returns ; and the Calvinistic branch 
is equally active, and probably equally 
numerous. Many of them have already 
entered the church, so many as to form 
a loud and powerful faction ; and, it is 
said, that they have funds among them 
to strengthen their party, by purchasing 
presentations. “Meantime the conduct 
of the church has been such, as leads to 
her own destruction; if she persish, it 
will be by suicide. Infidelity and atheism 
have been her bug-bears ; she has been 
acting like an ideot, who cracks a flea 
in triumph, while he suffers a viper to 
erawl into his bosom. Infidels and 
atheists will always be the minority ; 
their opinions will die with them un- 
transmitted, and their children fall into 
the ordinary course of society. Nature 
-will not suffer her instincts to be per- 
verted; blindness of heart is no more 
hereditary than blindness of eye; these 
defects are forbidden to be perpetuated 
by the same unerring wisdom which 
renders mules and monsters incapable 
of propagation. Some miserable indi- 
vidual may occasionally raise his voice, 
but they never form a sect; and like 
stage players, every new blasphemer ef- 
faces the notoriety of his predecessor. 
They have no common object ; their 
very speculations differ; and, if in any 
one point they are united, it is in pre- 
_ ferring, to all others, that establishment 
& under which they are secure of tolera- 
| tion. Infidelity and atheism are excel- 
lent man-targets to fire at from the pul- 
pit; they are enemies of straw, whom 
their antagonists may place in what at- 
titude they please, and beat them at 
pleasure; but our clergy are called upon 
to a more sericus conflict. There are, 
in Great Britain, 110,000 united metho- 
dists, there are as many more united ealvi- 
213 
nists; they differ concerning uncondi- 
tional election and irresistible grace, but 
they agree in hostility to the establish- 
ment, and will not dispute upon the par- 
aie treaty till they have won the bat- 
tle. 
The church of England is in danger! Is 
she then to resort to coercive measures 
for defence? God forbid! better means 
are in her own power, better and more 
effectual than these, which are neither 
justifiable by policy, nor reason, nor re- 
ligion. We are attached to the esta- 
blishment ; and the advice which we 
offer will prove the sincerity of our at- 
tachment, because it is salutary and un- 
welcome. The thirty-nine articles must 
either be enforced or abolished; it is 
an insult to the understanding: and the 
feelings of the people, that their articles 
should be calvinistic, and their clergy 
arminian. It is degrading and hurttul 
to the clergy, that they should subscribe 
one set of opinions, and preach another, 
It is upon this weak point that the schis- 
matics bring their artillery to bear; it 
is this which excludes from the estab- 
lishment, those who would be its best 
and most ardent defenders, from the 
very strength of feeling which occasions 
their exclusion. Away with the African 
and Genevan interpolations of Christi- 
anity; let us have the religion of Christ 
Jesus, and not.of Calvin ; let that which 
the scriptures have left indefinite, remain 
undefined! Open the doors of the 
church, that they who feel and love the 
gospel may enter in, that zeal may be 
opposed by zeal, ignorance by know- 
ledge, enthusiasm by virtue. It is idle 
to object, that this would effectually: 
change the establishment ; the establish- 
ment must undergo a change, “ if it do 
not reform itself from withm, it will be 
reformed from without with a venge- 
ance.”? There is yet time for it to make 
its choice between reformation and ruin. 
Art. LXIV. Vindicie Ecclesie Anglicane : in which some of the false Reasonings, in- 
correct Statements, and palpable Misrepresentations, in a Publication, entitled, * The 
True Churchman, ascertained by John Overton, A. B.” are pointed out. By the Rev. 
Cuaries Daupeny. 68vo. pp. 471. 
THE controversy which in this work 
is continued, has now, for some time, 
been before the public, who, with us, 
will probably conceive that all has been 
long since advanced that the subject 
deserves or requires. ‘ Much more in- 
deed,”” as Mr. Daubeny himself remarks 
cOficerning one part of it, “has been 
written than appears necessary to its 
perfect illustration. The real merits of 
it lie in a narrow compass, and, by a 
writer in the habit of aanexing clear and 
Pes 
