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    and of rigid ecclesiastical government and unyielding ecclesiastical ascendancy . The " British Critic" and the " Christian Remembrancer" are the journals of this party : the " Gentleman's Magazine" is on the same side ,

    as far as it is theological ; but we apprehend that the more intelligent highchurchmen do not think their cause much served by the oracular and proverbial folly and inanity of the religious articles of Review in this antiquated journal . These periodicals assume the Arminian sense of the Articles and Liturgy of the Church of England , and are in a state of declared war with Calvinism , especially within the pale of the Churcb .

    The Low-Church party embraces nearly all the Whigs ( there are some exceptions ) , many of the novi homines amongst the country gentlemen , a very few prelates , some scores of ecclesiastical dignitaries , many of the clergy who from rank or obscurity , from wealth or poverty , are independent of preferment , and the bulk of merchants and manufacturers , officers of the army and navy , professional men , and generally the middle ranks of society . These again may be distinguished , as believers in the doctrine of the Church upon the whole , or as conformists from habit and for the sake of

    convenience . —The former class disavow all faith in the infallibility of the Church . They claim no more for her than that she is nearer to truth and perfection than any other church ; they value her because she is a reformed church ; they admit that further reformation is desirable if it were , practicable , and that reformation wisely planned , temperately pursued and generally approved , would tend to her own permanence and popularity ; and they plead with the present noble-minded and truly Christian Bishop of Norwich , that jthe excellence of the English Church is her mild and tolerant spirit , and that in

    proportion as she manifests this spirit she establishes a rightful claim to the strengthened attachment of her own members and to the respect and forbearance of conscientious seceders . Of these persons almost all are friends Of the most unqualified religious liberty that is consistent with the safety of the existing establishment . * Their voices have been raised with equal firmness

    and in equal eloquence on behalf of the R 6 man Catholics and the Unitarians : and they have ever protested against the Corporation and Test Acts , not only as a political blunder , injurious to the interests of the whole community , arid as a violation of all the sound principles of the best statesmen and wisest philosophers , but also as a degradation and profane abuse of the most solemn and holy ordinance of the Christian religioruf—The latter class , or the mere

    * In one particular these praiseworthy politicians have not gone so far as might have been expected—they have not generally admitted the right of unbelievers to complete toleration , by which is meant total exemption from disabilities as well as penalties . The Petition to the two Houses of Parliament from certain declared Christians on this subject in the year 1823 , though respectful in its language , argumentative in its form and modest in its prayer , [ see Mon . Hepos . O . S . Vol . XVIII . p . 362 , ] was supported by very few , and was known to be offensive to some of this

    respectable party . The late Lord Erskine , never to be mentioned by an Englishman without honour , as the champion of constitutional liberty at a feverish period when its existence was endangered , had strong prejudices on this matter , and at one time avowed his purpose of writing a pamphlet in answer to the Petition . It were to have been wished that he had accomplished the design ; for the question requires only to be understood to be settled for ever , and on paper every one would see the inconsistency of an argument for the punishment of unbelief with every argument for the liberty of faith . f A flagrant instance occurred not long ago of the nullity , not to say wickedness , of the sacramental test . An avowed and zealous Athefat was heard to boast , with

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    4 On the State of Religious Parties in England .

• Citation
  • Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Jan. 2, 1827, page 4, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1792/page/4/