FRAGMENTS.

DEFENCE OF VILLAGE PREACHING.

HINTS ON TOLERATION,

THE RIGHT OF WORSHIP, &c.

[WRITTEN IN 1801, 1802, AND 1811.]

NOTE BY THE EDITOR.

THE disquisition of which the interesting Fragments now presented to the public are alone preserved was commenced in 1801. About that time the late Bishop Horsley advanced the opinion in various charges and sermons (extracts from one of which are subjoined in a note)* that the dissenters and Methodists, in their attempts to introduce the preaching of the gospel in villages where the evangelical doctrines were not taught in the established church, were actuated by what were then termed "jacobinical" motives, and by a desire to overthrow the episcopalian form of church government. This opinion, repeatedly announced in the oracular tone too often assumed by that learned prelate, obtained an extraordinary

* Extracts from Bishop Horsley's Charge, published in 1800.

After observing that the laity of England have as little relish for socinianism as for atheism, and that they think much alike of him who openly disowns the Son and of him who denies the Father, insomuch that the advocates of this blasphemy have preached themselves out of all credit with the people, he proceeds as follows:

"Still the operations of the enemy are going on-still going on by stratagem. The stratagem still a pretence of reformation. But the reformation the very reverse of what was before attempted. Instead of divesting religion of its mysteries, and reducing it to a mere philosophy in speculation and a mere morality in practice, the plan is now to affect a great zeal for orthodoxy-to make great pretensions to an extraordinary measure of the Holy Spirit's influence-to alienate the minds of the people from the established clergy by representing them as sordid worldlings, without any concern about the souls of men, indifferent to the religion which they ought to teach, and to which the laity are attached, and destitute of the Spirit of God. In many parts of the kingdom conventicles have been opened in great numbers, and congregations formed of one knows not what denomination. The pastor is often, in appearance at least, an illiterate peasant or mechanic. The congregation is visited occasionally by preachers from a distance. Sunday-schools are opened in connexion with these conventicles. There is much reason to suspect that the expenses of these schools and conventicles are defrayed by associations formed in different places: for the preachers and schoolmasters are observed to engage in expenses for the support and advancement of their institutions to which, if we may judge from appearances, their own means must be altogether inadequate. The poor are even bribed, by small pecuniary gifts from time to time, to send their children to these schools of they know not what, rather than to those connected with the established church, in which they would be bred in the principles of true religion and loyalty. It is very remarkable that these new congregations of nondescripts have been mostly formed since the jacobins have been laid under the restraints of those two most salutary statutes commonly known by the names of the Sedition and Treason bills,-a circumstance which gives much ground for suspicion that sedition and atheism are the real objects of these institutions rather than religion. Indeed, in some places this is known to be the case. In one topic the teachers of all these congregations agree,-abuse of the established clergy, as negligent of their flocks, cold in their preaching, and destitute of the Spirit. In this they are joined by persons of a very different cast, whom a candour of which they on their part set but a poor example is unwilling to suspect of any ill design, though it is difficult to acquit them of the imputation of an indiscretion in their zeal, which in its consequences may be productive of mischief very remote, I believe, from their intention. It is a dreadful aggravation of the dangers of the present crisis in this country, that persons of real piety should, without knowing it, be lending their aid to the common enemy, and making themselves in effect accomplices in a conspiracy against the Lord and against his Christ. The jacobins of this country, I very much fear, are at this moment making a tool of Methodism, just as the illuminées of Bavaria made a tool of freemasonry; while the real Methodist, like the real freemason, is kept in utter ignorance of the wicked enterprise the counterfeit has in hand."-P. 18-20.

In page 25, &c. the bishop corrects a misrepresentation of a speech delivered by him in the House of Lords, and gives the following as a faithful statement of it. "I said," says he, "that schools of jacobinical religion and jacobinical politics, that is to say, schools of atheism and disloyalty, abound. in this country-schools in the shape and disguise of charity-schools and Sunday-schools in which the minds of the children of the very lowest orders are enlightened, that is to say, taught to despise religion, and the laws, and all subordination. This I know to be the fact. But the proper antidote for the poison of the jacobinical schools will be schools for children of the same class, under the management of the parochial clergy-Sunday-schools therefore under your own inspection I would advise you to encourage."-P. 26.

currency; and there was every reason to fear that some strong legislative measures for the prevention of these encroachments (as they were regarded) upon the functions of a parish minister would be adopted. The necessity of such measures was urged again and again with the utmost violence and intolerance in several of the daily and other periodical publications; so that considerable apprehensions were naturally entertained that these exertions of Christian benevolence would be altogether checked or greatly restricted.

In such a state of things Mr. Hall commenced this essay, but the public ebullition subsiding, he relinquished his design of publication, and indeed destroyed a portion of what he had written.

In the years 1810 and 1811 the friends of village preaching by dissenters, and of Sunday-schools under their superintendence, were again alarmed by a fresh attempt to restrain their operations, though not undertaken in a hostile spirit, in an act brought into parliament by Lord Sidmouth. His lordship proposed some new restrictions upon persons who wished to qualify as dissenting teachers and others, either by separate license or by some other method thought to be appropriate, on itinerant preaching. He also proposed to deprive lay-preachers of certain exemptions which had hitherto been granted. Against these measures petitions were sent to parliament from all parts of the kingdom; and the bill, being opposed by Lords Grey, Holland, Erskine, Liverpool, Moira, Stanhope, by Dr. Manners Sutton, then Archbishop of Canterbury, and by Lord Chancellor Eldon, was lost May 21st, 1811, on the motion of Lord Erskine, which was agreed to without a division. The minds of those classes of the public that were interested in the diffusion of evangelical knowledge among the poor were, however, agitated by this question for several months. In such a state of things, Mr. Hall determined to revise and complete what he had formerly begun; but the failure of Lord Sidmouth's plan induced him again to lay aside his pen, and again to destroy great part of the manuscript. The portions which escaped destruction have been found since Mr. Hall's death. They want the advantage of entire continuity, as well as of the author's finishing touch; and being composed at distant periods, and in part evidently rewritten to suit the modification of the general purpose occasioned by the later attempts at restriction, they exhibit a slight repetition of sentiment. It has, however, been thought right to preserve the whole of them, as they unfold and place in different lights some valuable principles of general application.

For a full account of the proceedings on Lord Sidmouth's bill, the reader may advantageously consult "A Sketch of the History and Proceedings of the Deputies appointed to protect the Civil Rights of the Protestant Dissenters."

FRAGMENT ON VILLAGE PREACHING.

WHERE they beheld the papal power overturned, they were ready to imagine the season was approaching, so clearly foretold, when true religion should emerge from the clouds of superstition which environed her, and enlighten the world. Who will say that these hopes indicated depravity in the minds of those who cherished them too fondly? It was surely not very criminal to rejoice at the prospect of the extinction of evil, and the universal prevalence of justice, peace, and happiness; or to mistake "the times and seasons which the Father has put into his own power." Good men were, of all others, least likely to suspect that their hopes would be blasted by a wickedness of which the world afforded no example. Whatever of this delusion, however, might have prevailed heretofore, the virtuous part of the public are completely recovered from it; nor has it had the smallest influence in stimulating the exertions which it is the purpose of this publication to defend.

The only shadow of argument on which Bishop Horsley founds his accusation that village preaching has a political object is, that it has been chiefly prevalent since the Pitt and Grenville bills, as they are styled, were passed; which put a stop to political meetings. Hence he infers that it is only a new channel into which the old stream is directed. Here, however, he is entirely mistaken. The true source of this increased activity is to be found in the missions, the first of which was established some years before the Grenville bills were passed. The attention of the religious public was strongly excited on that occasion to the indispensable necessity of "preaching the gospel to every creature," and the result was, a resolution to exert more zealous and extensive efforts to diffuse the knowledge of saving truth at home than had before been employed. Agreeable to this it will be found, on inquiry, that those who most distinguished themselves in political debates have had the least share (if they have had any) in promoting these measures; and that the invariable effect of engaging in these plans has been to diminish the attention bestowed on political objects. This indeed could not fail to be the consequence: for as the mind is too limited to be very deeply impressed with more than one object at a time, a solicitude to promote the interests of piety must insensibly diminish the ardour for every thing that is not necessarily involved in it; not to say, that the spirit of devotion which such designs imply and promote is peculiarly incompatible with the violence and acrimony of political passions. He who is truly intent on promoting the eternal