delight in a railing accufation, whether brought as a direct charge, or by covert infinuation.

In the great body of the beneficed clergy, about 10,000 men, we muft expect a great variety of characters; the curates, lecturers, and unbeneficed, amount to about as many more: take 20,000 of any fet of men, lawyers, foldiers, failors, &c. &c. and in fo large a number you will find good, bad, and indifferent: fome very worthy characters, and others the reverse.

Is this then a true and accurate account of the clergy of the establishment, to fay that they are either non-residents totally neglecting their duty, or gamefters, or Arians or Socinians, degrading their Mafter's character by denying his divinity; or fighting and quarrelling among themfelves.Could not Mr. Newton's fair fame, and I allow him to have been very fincere, and very affable, and social, could not his fair fame be fupported without degrading and infulting the great and refpectable body of the established clergy? I allow that Mr. Newton was fincerely perfuaded of the truths of the Calviniftic fyftem, but his friend muft allow that other clergymen more learned and equally confcientious, fee in the peculiar opinions of Calvin, much dangerous tendency and a grievous departure from the benevolent gospel of Jefus Chrift.-If fo, is it not their bounden duty to oppofe thefe fentiments, to found the alarm, and to prove the danger of the Church from opinions, which when acted upon, overturned the throne and the altar together. One uniform part of this fyftem, has been to vilify the established clergy, and to degrade them in the eyes of their congregations; to dif folve as much as poffible the connection between minister and people, and to make a few favourite notions, very abftract or very doubtful, the Shibboleth of a party.

March 19, 1808.

Z. Z.

ON DREAMS.

TO THE EDITOR OF THE ORTHODOX CHURCHMAN'S

SIR,

MAGAZINE.

HOUGH I have little refpect for vulgar errors, an and TH popular fuperftitions, I cannot but think that too many things are fo denominated without a proper confideration, and without a due diftin&tion between the ufe and abuse of them. Thus for inftance, because weak perfons in all ages have given an importance to the wild vagaries and incongruities prefented to the imagination in fleep, too many have been led to defpife dreams altogether, and contrary to the concurrent evidence of men of different periods, countries and perfuafions, have pertinaciously maintained that no real impreffion can be made upon the mind in that ftate, nor any communication be given to it whereby it may know what is paffing in the world, or be warned of fome approaching event.

The metaphyficks and theology of the day, I am conscious are not favourable to the belief that there is a connection between the visible and invifible world, or that there are fpiritual beings continually furrounding us who take an intereft, according to their natures, in our affairs. Yet this doctrine was clearly believed in the antient Jewish church, and it continued to be fo in the Chriftian, till Saddueism infected the one, and Materialism the other,

How wifely men have acted in rejecting a doctrine which gives a fublime idea of God's univerfal kingdom, and is calculated to keep the mind in a conftant ftate of watchfulness and attention, may be worth inquiry. All that I mean to observe at present is, that as there is an analogy through the whole vifible creation, and as we have no reason to think that the space beyond us and which we cannot at present explore, is empty of creatures, but the contrary; there muft ftill be the fame analogy through the whole extent and range of beings above us. Man is only a link in this chain, poffeffing it is true fuperior powers to all the creatures with which he is acquainted, particularly the faculty of reason; but man is weak, comparatively ignorant, and of momentary

duration.

duration. Man, therefore, is not at the head of created beings; confequently the fcale muft afcend in quality as well as in quantity and variety, I mean in the intellectual powers of the beings with whom we can have no natural affociation in our prefent ftate, but who may notwithflanding have an unknown influence over us.

That influence, I take it, is fometimes exercifed in fleep, in reprefentations to the minds of men of what particularly concerns them, of the illness and death of friends, the danger of adventures in which they are engaged, and a variety of other occurrences in human life.

Many inftances are upon record of fuch manifeftations in dreams, and which cannot be denied without flatly contradicting the fcriptures, and the evidence of fome of the wifeft and moft virtuous men of all nations. To thofe fcepticks who will believe neither, nothing can be faid; but they who will admit hiftorical evidence muft allow that there have been fupernatural dreams, or they muft account upon phyfical principles for the coincidence between the reprefentations which have been exhibited to fome perfons in fleep and the events which afterwards happened. This laft, I apprehend, will be not a little difficult; for though it is readily allowed that what a man apprehends when he is awake, will very naturally exercife his faculties after he falls afleep, yet when a man dreams of a remote event with which he has no connection, and of which he could not poffibly have any apprehenfion, the concatenation of natural cause and effect becomes too fubtile for human fagacity to discover and ex-' plain.

I was led to these reflections, which I have neither time nor ability to expand, by a melancholy circumstance which happened the other day in my neighbourhood.

A woman far gone with child, in flooping at the breakfast table, approached fo close to the grate, that her gown took fire, and fhe was prefently enveloped in flames. In this fituation fhe ran down flairs, and though the master of the house fucceeded in extinguishing the fire, the poor woman was fo dreadfully burnt, that after lingering in exquifite torment fome days, fhe died. My reafon for this relation is, that on the night preceding the accident, the brother of the woman dreamed he faw his fifter running wildly up and down the freet without her clothes. This dream was repeated and made fuch an impreffion upon his mind that in the morning he haftened to his fifter's lodgings, which were at a confiderable distance from his refidence, to see if any accident

accident had happened to her. He arrived there nearly about the fame time with the furgeon, and after the firft paroxyfm of grief had fubfided, he related the caufe of his coming as here mentioned. This circumstance I can youch for a truth; and as there could be no collufion, or deception, nor any previous apprehenfion in the mind of this perfon, I cannot but adduce this remarkable instance as one out of many evidences, in proof of the pofition, that dreams are not always illufory, but are fometimes real impreffions made upon the mind by a fuperior agent.

་་

In Fox's Martyrology is the following remarkable anecdote, which fhews that dreams are fometimes communicated for providential purposes.

When the perfecution against the proteftants was at its height in the reign of Queen Mary, there was only one congregation left in London, to which one Mr. Rough belonged, who had in his keeping a roll wherein all the names were entered. It happened one night that Mr. Cuthbert Simpson dreamed, that Rough was taken and the roll in his pocket. Simpfon awoke and afterwards falling afleep, had the fame dream again. In the morning he related the circumftance to Rough who reproved him for his weakness, telling him that dreams were but fancies, and that Chriftians ought not to regard them; but Simpfon whofe mind was ftrongly impreffed with what had happened, adjured him folemnly to give up the roll, left his obftinacy might endanger the lives of many innocent perfons. Upon this Rough confented, and within two or three days he was apprehended, and had the list been found upon him the whole congregation would have probably loft their lives. This fubject is curious, and I think would be of fome utility, efpecially if it were pursued, as it might be, into the proper cofideration of the right ufe, feparated from the abuse of dreams.

I am, &c.

IOTA.

A RITUAL PROFESSORSHIP.

TO THE EDITOR OF THE ORTHODOX CHURCHMAN'S

SIR,

MAGAZINE.

AM extremely happy to find that you have called the attention of your numerous readers, in your last number for February 1808, pp. 89, 90, to an object which has been

fo warmly recommended to the confideration of the Univerfity of Cambridge, and that in fo very handfome and difintereffed a manner, by one of the brightest ornaments of the orthodox faith, in the pages of fome of your former numbers. I mean the establishment of a ritual Profefforfhip in Cambridge, for the interefting and truly ufeful purposes which have already been fo amply detailed in the pages of your Mifcellany. I am decidedly of opinion that it would be productive of all the advantages which have been proposed by it, and particularly if the worthy and able perfon who fuggefted it, fhould be appointed to it. After faying thus much, you will give me credit for adding, that I lament exceedingly that the fubje&t has not met with that encouragement, from thofe who have the power of promoting it, which I think it deferves.

It is truly lamentable to hear, in some of our largest and moft refpectable congregations, both in town and very many parts of the country, the numerous errors and mifconceptions into which many pious and good men fall, in reading the Liturgy of the Eftablifhed Church. To enumerate one half of thefe would exceed the limits of a letter, and they require a very fpeedy and effectual reformation; which could only be accomplished by fuch an inftitution as is mentioned above. I fhall therefore, at prefent content myself with recommending in general terms the utility of the thing, without attempting to enter into the minutiae of it.

The eulogium, fo well deferved, which has been passed by my ancestor, on our incomparable Liturgy, has already appeared in the pages of your Magazine; and it is a woeful confideration that many of its beauties fhould be loft, and much of its effect deftroyed, by the unfkilfulness of those who are appointed to adminifter it in the church. Still more fo is it to reflect, that this unfkilfulness arifes from the want of fuch an inflitution in our universities as is now hinted; and from a regular attendance upon it, when established, being made an indifpenfable qualification for admitting any candidate into holy orders.

:

Ás an individual, Mr. Editor, (and I doubt not, many hundreds of my brethren are in the fame predicament,) I have deeply felt the want of this necessary inftruction, which I fo

Which example it is to be hoped would be soon followed by the sister university of Oxford.

+ Dr. Thomas Comber, sometime Dean of Durham, in his work on the Common Prayer.