fition, even to the moft wife and virtuous measures, fhould never engender anger, enmity, or refentment, in the breafts of thofe by whom fuch measures are recommended.

It is, indeed, highly important for both the parties to be fuitably impreffed with a conviction, that the rights of private judgment conftitute the main pillar and the first principle of every religious Proteftant fociety; and that the exercise of these rights should therefore be, not only preserved inviolate, but invariably refpected, and even cherished in the mind of every individual. Hence would refult mutual condefcenfion, the offspring of an habitual temper and difpofition to "be kindly affectioned one to another, with brotherly "love; in honor preferring one another." In the abfence of a temper and difpofition like this, convulfions and fchifm naturally take place. Old focieties are weakened and new ones formed, and this, it is to be feared, without any advantages equal to thofe which might have been obtained by the continuance of an unbroken connexion between their members, under the cementing influence of mutual deference, affection, and eftéem.

But the peace of religious focieties has been frequently broken, and the facred character, even of religion itself, unjustly traduced, from another cause, viz.

AN

ERRONEOUS JUDGMENT IN APPRECIATING THE REAL VALUE OF CEREMONIAL FORMS AND

OBSERVANCES. Thefe, under certain modifications, and to a certain extent, are doubtlefs effential to the economy of every religious fociety. Should we, how

ever, felect thofe forms and obfervances which are of acknowledged excellence, is it not ftill obvious that the real value, even of them, has frequently been overrated ? And have they not been fondly regarded and depended upon, as calculated to afford a greater degree of affistance in the discharge of religious duties, than any inftitutions, however perfect, are, from the very nature of the Chriftian religion, capable of fupplying? The effential requifites for that worship which the gospel enjoins are thus clearly ftated by our Saviour: "God is a fpirit, and they that worship "him muft worship him in fpirit and in truth."

So fupremely excellent and invaluable is the spirit of true religion, that it gives a kind of fanction to every thing connected with it in the minds of its votaries ; and this extends to things which are in their own nature indifferent, and of which fome may be even abfurd.

Hence, the edifice for public worship, which a pious man has long frequented, and the altar which he has been accustomed to approach, may be regarded by him with fentiments bordering on fuperftition. The ceremonies and ordinances of his church, the "meats' and the drinks, and the set-days," the peculiar forms of drefs and demeanour, in the obfervance of which he has been educated, and which he has regarded as modes of expreffing the devotion of his foul to the Supreme Being:-thefe become venerable in his eftimation; to his eyes they appear covered with a veil of fanctity, which does not properly belong to them. To this caufe not only charity, but an accurate knowledge

knowledge of human nature, require us to impute a very large portion of that undue zeal which has been. fhewn for fuperftitious practices by many men of acknowledged piety and virtue.

But there is also another description of men, concerning whom it may be said, in the language of the fcriptures, that they have left their firft love,"

having a form of godliness but denying the power "thereof." They are fenfible that they have become cold and languid in the effentials of religion, but they ftill hope this will not always continue to be their cafe; and in the mean time they deceive themselves into a belief, that they may, in some degree, conciliate the favor of the Almighty, by commuting their indifference to the fubftance, for a zealous attachment to the forms of religion. Hence they devote to God their attendance on public worship, their compliance with the ceremonies and ordinances of the church, their obfervance "of meats, and drinks, and set-days," and of their peculiar forms of dress and demeanour, whilst at the fame time, their hearts are devoted to the world.

When therefore a third clafs of men appears, in whose characters the pious and virtuous affections are united with liberal and enlightened views-their attention is naturally directed to those institutions and prac tices, the real use and value of which are misunderstood and overrated by one class, whilft to another clafs they become the means of felf-deception, and motives to the exercise of unprofitable zeal. When these impreffons induce a still more close examination, and it fur

ther

ther appears that fome of the exifting inftitutions and practices are not merely abused, but that from the very nature and origin of them, their effects must neceffarily be pernicious; and that even fome of the articles of the received creed are demonftrably erroneous; it is natural that benevolent minds fhould be excited by these discoveries to vigorous and perfevering efforts for the removal of fuch evils.

Thefe virtuous efforts have however, in almost every age, met with fevere oppofition.

On the one hand, the SINCERE, though in fome degree SUPERSTITIOUS FRIENDS OF REAL RELIGION, being unaccustomed to diftinguish its effence from its appendages, perceive that hoftile views are directed against the latter, and under a full, though erroneous conviction that both muft ftand or fall together, they naturally take the alarm.

On the other hand, when the fandy foundations of formality are thus fhaken by the powerful operations of truth, the FORMALISTS are, for obvious reasons, foremost to found an alarm that "the church is in danger," and by them the charges of "herefy and "fchifm" are refounded with a loud cry.

Thus the fincere, though superstitious, friends of real religion unite themselves to the formalifts, and become ONE PARTY. The efforts of this unnatural alliance are opposed to the views and the labers of the vir tuous friends of reform, who are thus marked out as the ⚫bjects of obloquy, unkindness, and perfecution. Under

fuch

fuch circumftances, their feparation from that religious fociety of which they had perhaps long been members, is either infifted upon, or if protracted by vain explanations, conceffions and accommodations, is at length rendered unavoidable. New focieties are in confequence formed, and the virtuous few, who remain in the former ones, are taught by time and fubfequent events how greatly they have failed in wisdom, by not appreciating more juftly thofe important points on which they were agreed with their pious, but diffenting brethren, and the fubordinate and comparatively trifling value of those points on which they differed.

There are doubtlefs various caufes to which the convulfions, feparations, and fchifms that have, at different periods, taken place among focieties of profeffing Chriftians, may be traced. But in the prefent curfory and imperfect sketch, TWO only of these causes have been selected, as having their foundation in principles common to human nature in every age of the world, and as being alfo those which appear to be immediately connected with the fubject of the following narrative. It is scarcely neceffary to remark, that no part of what has been stated on the fubject of Reform, is intended to imply, either that profeffing Reformers have been, at all times, wife and virtuous; or that the advocates of exifting fystems and inftitutions, have been, at all times, more fuperftitious or less enlightened than their contemporaries.

It will probably be admitted, that the leading features in this fketch have been unhappily realized in

the