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    others are rigid in tfieir observance of the discipline / of the Church , and axe as fearful of schism and of the displeasure of their diocesans as any minister of the old Orthodox party . The Dissenters who take the name of " Evangelical" frequently complain of the hostility of their brethren in the Church who

    wear the kindred title ; verifying the old remark , that they who are nearest to each other in opinion are most impatient of each other ' s errors . Jealousy between these two bodies has been strengthened of late by the frequent instances of conformity to the Church under a " Gospel ministry . " There may be cases of conversion on the other side ; but we apprehend that the Evangelical Church is gaining upon Evangelical Dissenters .

    At one period , certain opulent men amongst the Evangelical Churchmen set themselves , we know not whether as a society or as individuals merely , to purchase presentations to livings for the sake of planting the gospel in the Church of England ; in the same manner as the Calvinistic party in the Churph of Scotland are now clubbing their means to buy up " Church Patronage . ' ^ The tide of public feeling has set in so strong in favour of Evangelical preaching , that there is probably less occasion for this consecration to the Church of " the mammon of unrighteousness . " A curious question has been sometimes raised as to the ultimate effect of the operations of this new party upon the constitution of the Church of

    England . Should they once imbue the Court with their own mystical notions , they might obtain a majority on the Episcopal bench and a consequent ascendancy throughout the kingdom . In this event , Churchmen of the old school prognosticate the downfal of the Establishment , or , which is the same thing in their view , its conversion into a school for Methodism ; and certain Dissenters foresee a more offensive use of ecclesiastical power , a more determined resistance to liberal opinions , and perhaps the revival of intolerant measures against heretics . But we need not distress ourselves with

    gloomy predictions . The world ( in the innocent sense of the word ) overmatches the Church . Public opinion acts upon ^ bclesiastics as well as others , though they may be the last to feel and shew its influence ; and public opinion is growingly in favour of peace and charity . It were the fanaticism of despondency , to fear that the mmd of a community , like that of England , can be put back to the state of past centuries . All the tendencies of opinion are forwards . If the Evangelical Church were to become , The

    Church , it would presently be what the Establishment is now ; the possession of power would satiate the desire of change ; the value of peace would be felt , and would be testified by quietness ; and at any rate , the Government , in whatever custody the reins might be placed , would still see the necessity of a curb upon the Church . There is little danger , however , of ecclesiastical power passing into very different hands from those by which it is now firmly and jealously held . Religious opinions and practices would seem almost to be determined by the degree of civil and official rank . An

    poor missionaries seem to have been astounded at this exercise of episcopal authority in a barbarous and Heathen island , and to have congratulated themselves , as upon an escape , in the Bishop ' s hesitating , doubtful permission of their continuing to hold religious conference with American missionaries and pious laymen of their own country , in this strange and " weary land . " ( See Missionary Register , Nov . 1826 ,

    pp . 557 , et seq . ) It is not without reason , therefore , that the " Society for promoting Christian Knowledge" have resolved at a special meeting , the report of which has fallen under our notice while we are writing , to memorialize His Majesty ' s Ministers , the Board of Control and the Directors of the Honourable East India Company , on the expediency of erecting two new episcopal sees in the East Indies , making one for each presidency !

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    8 On the-Siate of Religious Parties in England .

• Citation
  • Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Jan. 2, 1827, page 8, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1792/page/8/