ART. HII.-The Christian's Duty in Times of National Degeneracy. A Sermon preached in the Parish Church of Whalley, before the Whalley District Committee of the Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge, &c. &c. By SAMUEL JAMES ALLEN, M. A. Perpetual Curate of Salesbury, and Chaplain to the Right Honourable the Lord De Tabley. Blackburn: R. Wood. 1830.

AMONG the many good arguments, which were used to justify and recommend the late "breaking in on the constitution," for such it was, even on the acknowledgment of the shameless invaders of our rights, themselves; and never let Englishmen forget the concession,was that of the benefits resulting from the increased energy and vigilance, which would become necessary on the part of the Clergy of the Established Church, in putting forth the strength of her internal resources, and in building up around her an impregnable bulwark, in the knowledge, the piety, the zeal, and the stedfastness of her affectionate children. That the exertions of the Clergy would be proportioned to the coming exigency, whatever it might be, was indeed to be expected. History had already recorded, in the reign of James the Second, the intrepidity of the Ecclesiastical body in defence of the civil and religious liberties of the country; and the recent election at Oxford afforded an earnest of the spirit which pervaded the national Clergy, and which they would undoubtedly bring into action, in the manner and degree which circumstances might seem to require. But every one must perceive, that the principle of the proposed measure was left wholly untouched by any consideration of these accidental advantages, which might be consequent upon it. "Let us do evil that good may come," though it may be an allowed maxim in the modern school of political expediency, is good neither in morals nor in religion; and we must confess, that it would require a web of more ingenious sophistry than any which has been hitherto woven, to bind us to the destructiveness of a measure conducted in direct contradiction to these sacred and immutable principles. Although, therefore, we acknowledge, with gratitude, that the consequences which were predicted, as far as relates to the point immediately before us, have already partially taken place, and, we fervently trust, will still be more fully experienced, yet we know, that we are not indebted either to the act or the intention of the promoters of the revolution of 1829, for the happy effects which have thus sprung up, and which we devoutly ascribe only unto Him, who overruleth the devices of man to the establishment of his own counsels.

Among the many indications of this revived attention to the security of our national faith, the Sermon before us affords one of the most gratifying instances. It was preached, as will be seen from the title

page, in the immediate neighbourhood of one of the great Romish establishments in this country; and where, we happen to know that the sentiments of the Clergy, on the measure to which we have adverted, are, as they have been frequently expressed to the legislature, almost unanimous. The occasion of the discourse was one, on which the great body of the Clergy, and a large majority of the influential gentry of an extensive and populous district, are usually assembled ; and we have reason to receive the publication before us, as conveying the general sentiment of the respectable and numerous committee to whom it is inscribed, and at whose request it is sent forth into the world.

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The text is from 1 Sam. iv. 13-" Lo, Eli sat upon a seat by the way-side, watching for his heart trembled for the ark of God." After a few introductory remarks on the history of Eli, and the circumstances which had led to that jeopardy of the ark of God, on account of which he was thus filled with anxiety,—the relation of the subject to the present crisis of our national affairs is thus described:

The application of this history to the purpose for which we are now assembled is not difficult, or liable, I trust, to the imputation of fanciful and overstrained accommodation. What the Ark was to the Israelites, the Gospel, in that pure and primitive profession of it which we have long acknowledged, is now to us; the depositary of the mysteries of our Redemption, into which the angels desire to look; the sanctuary wherein God's pure and holy law is laid up, and from whence it is promulgated to his creatures; the treasure-house wherein are contained those glorious promises, those gracious pledges of fatherly affection in Christ Jesus, whereby alone the repentant offender against the law can have hope of forgiveness and restoration; the mercy-seat on which alone his prayers can be heard with acceptance, where alone his offerings of gratitude can be received, and from whence alone the light of God's countenance beams forth upon him, regenerating, renewing, consoling, instructing, and constituting him now a partaker of the divine nature, that he may hereafter be a partaker of the inheritance of the saints in light.

To us however, as to the Israelites, there are enemies of various kinds from whose hands our Ark may be in peril; and with us, as with them, its preservation unharmed and unpolluted must ever be an object of the most intense anxiety to every true servant of God. From whatever quarter assailed, the heart of such an one cannot but tremble, above every other subject of apprehension-for the Ark of God;-for the gospel which he hath sealed, the Church which he hath cemented with his own most precious blood; not indeed for its existence and continuance on earth, for he who is himself the rock on which it is built, hath assured us that the gates of hell shall not prevail against it; but for its continuance in that particular spot or region where he has partaken of the benefit, where his fathers have trusted in it and been holpen, and to which, for his brethren, his companions, his children's sake, he is bound to wish prosperity. When we recollect, that though the promise to God's universal church abideth immovable as the everlasting hills, there is no promise that England, that our own immediate neighbourhoods, that ourselves as individuals, may not, for our sins, be exposed to a diminution or destitution of gospel light;-that the enemies of the Ark may not, in any particular place or time, be allowed to prevail against it, as was the case in the instance before us with the host of Israel, and has since been still more lamentably and permanently exemplified in the Asiatic churches, in the wide vassalage of Roman superstition, in Jerusalem

itself, the city in which God chose to place his name there,-who does not tremble lest the sins of this highly-favoured, but highly-offending nation, should draw down this last infliction of Divine indignation?

Am I not then justified, in recommending to all who hear me, the imitation, with respect to our own Ark, and with reference to its more immediate dangers, of Eli's anxiety and watchfulness as set before us in the text, and the avoidance of such parts of his previous conduct as had contributed so materially to augment the dangers he dreaded?

Our perils, I apprehend, have arisen from much the same source as did his; -a neglect of the firm and decided administration of Christian discipline and instruction; a criminal compliance with the dictates of sloth, indifference or timidity; a shrinking from duties requiring self-denial and sacrifices painful to the flesh; an indulgence to the evil propensities of our corrupt nature. We have been content too long with publicly setting before the people, especially the rising generation, the doctrines, precepts, and formularies of a pure faith; and when they spurned them, have contented ourselves with saying gently, "Why do ye such things? Nay, my sons, it is no good report that I hear of you; but have shrunk from the laborious and practical enforcement of these truths in the manner most calculated to impress them on the mind; or at least have failed to allow them that prominence which their paramount import on our welfare, temporal and eternal, demanded at our hands.

The result has been as might have been expected. The bearing of the Ark, at least as far as regards its external supports and appendages, has fallen to the hands of men, too philosophical to stoop to the examination of distinctions between doctrine and doctrine, creed and creed, the war-cries of contending sects; too busy to find time for acquiring even the first principles of the faith they themselves profess; yet not too modest to pronounce authoritatively on things which they have never learned, or too discreet to deride, and that even in places where they are called to consult for "the advancement of God's glory, the good of his church, the safety, honour, and welfare of our sovereign and his dominions," the most sacred institutions and solemn declarations of Him "by whom kings reign and princes decree justice.”—Pp. 6—9.

After describing, "among the many impediments to the advancement of religion, which have resulted from this unhappy degree of apathy or levity in the minds of our public men,-the altered position in which it has placed the Established Church, hitherto regarded as the chief agent in the promotion of Christian knowledge amongst us, with respect to its alliance with the State:" and showing the lamentable perversion of the principles of our constitution, upon which this change had been effected, we have the following excellent remarks:

A declaration is indeed required that no such power shall be exerted to the weakening or disturbance of existing institutions; but, should this be most scrupulously observed, is it possible that existing institutions can be otherwise than weakened and disturbed in their operations, by the introduction of a mass of suppressed hostility or undisguised indifference, where before the obligation was to zeal and activity in their cause? And can it be regarded as improbable that from such a substitution the most serious changes may result, both as to the doctrine, discipline, and general immunities of our church? With every possible respect for the conscientious opinions of those who differ from us, and whom, by that difference, we take to be self-excluded from all reasonable title to interfere in our affairs; with all becoming deference to the sanction of public authority, which is now set on the opposite principle, as well as for the characters and motives of many who have assisted in its admission; and with every disposition to hope that their warmest anticipations of good may be realized; I can regard the act itself, and the steps by which it has advanced, no otherwise than as the

triumph of evil principles over good, the prevalence of worldly policy over irresolution and apathy in the advocacy of the cause of Christ, and the abandonment of something more than the outworks which surrounded our national Establishment, to its avowed and inveterate assailants.—Pp. 10, 11.

We are next admonished of the important lesson which the history contains, that it was not from the power or malice of external enemies, but because "its professed supporters were irreligious, unholy men, sons of Belial, who knew not God,' that danger was apprehended to the ark; and, then, the demand which is made upon all who are interested in the support and preservation of religion amongst us, is thus powerfully and eloquently urged.

Whatever view is taken either of the general prospects of Christ's church in our day, or of the anomalous condition of our own ecclesiastical polity, to which last our attention is now more immediately directed, the call, I conceive, is alike loud for activity and energy, on the part of all who wish well to the interests of pure and undefiled religion. Those who do not tremble for the establishment under these perilous circumstances, who regard the Ark as safe, nay strong in its internal and spiritual securities, though in the very hands of the Philistines, in the very house of Dagon, must of course feel themselves bound to use all diligence for the maintenance and increase of those defences in reliance whereon they abandon all others; and the like course is urged by the same consideration, on those who either regard the alliance between the church and state as at all times a matter of little moment, nay, injurious to the spiritual interests of Christ's kingdom, or who, whatever general advantages may result to the cause of religion from such a connexion, consider the present terms of the alliance so manifestly unfavourable to that sacred cause, as to render its speedy and complete dissolution an object of desire rather than dread.

But is not the same course urged by every imaginable motive, on those (and they are still, I trust, the many) who cannot receive the assertion that Christ's kingdom is not of this world, as discountenancing the acknowledgment, protection, and establishment, by earthly rulers, of an apostolic branch of that kingdom; and who consider such a recognition of our own communion by the rulers of the nation, with the permanent provision thus made for the instruction of the people in the great truths of the gospel, so valuable and important to the advancement of the gospel itself, at least in their own times and country, as to render them tremblingly apprehensive as to the remotest possibility that these mutual relations, so long and beneficially retained, may at length be weakened or dissolved.

Is it for them to sit still while the battle is fighting, in speechless and stupified amazement; or to lift up their voices, and proclaim their apprehensions aloud, yet indulge the same supine inaction which has brought on the crisis;—to tremble as the peril approaches, yet stir neither hand nor foot in defence of the Ark of God? No, if this were all which Eli did, it were all he could do in the present emergence. His time of action was over. But those whom the Almighty blesses with ability and opportunity for exertion (and these are in some measure bestowed on us all) are traitors if they be not active; if they put not forth their utmost energies in so sacred a cause. They must not loiter by the way-side; they must fight manfully in the contest; must labour to the utmost of their power to repair the injuries of former neglect, and to strengthen the things which remain.-Pp. 12, 13.

An able exposition of the means which are to be employed for this purpose, particularly as to the duty of parents "who destine their

offspring to the service of the sanctuary," not to allow "even parental partiality to connive at the intrusion into the priesthood, of persons whose habits and inclinations incapacitate them for the discharge of its duties,"is concluded with the following passage :

And thus, in an age when the claim of apostolic authority would be received but with a smile or a sneer; when the assertion of ancient and prescriptive right could serve but as a signal for attack; when the appeal to taste, to early attachment, or even to the recollection of former services, would be dismissed amongst the puerilities of prejudice or superstition, unworthy to be opposed for an instant, to the pressing demands of political expedience, we may be enabled to make good the exposed and contracted position which is left us; and prove, to the apprehension of even worldly wisdom, that it is not expedient to intermeddle with institutions which are deep-rooted in the affections of the people, from the magnitude of the blessings they confer.-P. 15.

The preacher then proceeds with an enumeration of the instruments which are at work, "labouring in a variety of ways for the promotion of Christian knowledge;" and among the rest, and chiefly, specifies the admirable Institution in whose cause they are then assembled, whose claims upon the support of the public are thus summarily exhibited:

We have now beheld the Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge in all the diversities of its operation, sometimes acting as a Bible Society, sometimes as a Missionary Society; now as an institution for the circulation of Prayerbooks and Homilies; now for the dissemination of scriptural tracts; now for the religious education of the poor; uniting by these means almost all the opportunities of exertion and grounds of support which are separately offered by other associations, and especially commending itself on this account, to the attention of those who have little to distribute, while the applicants for their bounty are many.-P. 20.

We have given these extracts from Mr. Allen's Sermon,-not only from our high opinion of its deserts, and our entire coincidence in the sentiments which it contains; but from a fear, lest the omission to place the name of some London publisher in the titlepage should have the effect of limiting its circulation, and of depriving many of our readers of the gratification which, we are sure, they would experience from a perusal of the entire discourse. We shall be glad to see this omission supplied; and we hope the notice of it, will serve as a hint to authors and printers in the country, through whose negligence in this respect, many valuable sermons lie for a long time a dead weight upon their hands, and at last find their way, sheet by sheet, into the world, through the medium of the grocer or cheese

monger.