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224

Vendean Maiden's Lament, the, 233

Vows, 772

Wales, a Sabbath Evening in, 10
Winchester Cathedral, on Visiting,
697

Winter Storm, 169

Zeist, an Evening Sketch at, 88.

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ECCLESIASTICAL INTELLIGENCE.

Bangor and St. Asaph, the Bishoprics

of, 136, 416, 486

Bath and Wells, the Bishop of, 735
Bishops', Archdeacons', and Chan-
cellors' Charges, 606

Blasphemous Publications, 71

Cambridge, St. Sepulchre's Church, 71

Charge of the Bishop of Down, Con-

nor, and Dromore, 609

Charge of the Bishop of Lincoln, 607
Charge of the Bishop of Ossory, Ferns,
and Leighlin, 613

Charges of the Bishop of Calcutta
and of the Bishop of Lincoln, 488
Chester, the Bishop of, and the

"Tracts for the Times," 671
Church Affairs, Dissenting Views of,
134

Church Extension and Clergy En-
dowment Bill, 421, 487, 544

Church Government, 545

Church of Scotland Schism, the, 423

Church, Progress of the, 211

Church, the Prospects of the, 210

Colonial Bishoprics, the, 67, 137, 284

Conversions, Recent, 139

Convocation, the, 132

Co-operative Society for Building

Churches, &c., 72

Dublin, the Archbishop of, Annual
Visitation of, 547

Ecclesiastical Courts, the Proposed

Changes in the, 286, 413, 486

Ecclesiastical Report, 67, 132, 210,

284, 353, 413, 484, 544, 606, 675

Foxe's Acts and Monuments, 143

Incorporated Society for Enlarging

and Building Churches, &c., 71

Lichfield, Death of the Bishop of, 736

Lincoln, the Bishop of, and the Not-

tingham National Schools, 734

THE CHURCHMAN,

A MAGAZINE IN SUPPORT OF THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND.

[NEW AND ENLARGED SERIES.]

JANUARY, 1843.

SELF-SUFFICIENCY OF NONCONFORMITY.

DR. WARDLAW'S SOPHISTRIES.

THE fourth lecture, which is an outrageously prosy one, opens upon this wise :

"In the discussion of the question committed to me, it is not required that I should enter into peculiarities of different establishments, except in as far as occasional reference may serve the purpose of illustrating those general principles that are essential to them. all, or to throw light on their common operations and results."

It may be all very well for Dr. Wardlaw thus to throw dust into people's eyes, that the web of his sophistries may not be seen through; but, dust and all into the bargain, we really do not believe that people are so blind or stupid as these Nonconformists seem to suppose them to be. The leaders in Dissenting affairs have a strange propensity and talent for taking men's ignorance for granted, and conceiving it to be much greater than it is, or they would not attempt to address them as they do. What a depth of low cunning is manifested in the generalship of such journals as the Patriot, Nonconformist, and Dispatch! Does not every editorial line of writing in them betray a profound contempt for the person to, and for whom, the weekly tissue of inflammatory stuff is served up? Does not each paragraph palpably set forth the impression of the scribe, that he is catering for a set of numskulls; that whatever he may pen down, be it true or false, abusive or respectful, profane or serious, vile or commendable, it will every atom of it be digested with avidity; that his patrons are wretched noodles; and that all he has to do, from week to week, is to play the fool before them? The quantity of garbled history, miserably inconclusive reasoning, and defective representation, with which these papers are crammed is truly amazing; and it can only be accounted for upon the supposition that the conductors of them take the ignorance of their readers for granted (not without sufficient data, we venture to say), and secretly laugh at the same. And, to do the author of these lectures justice, he presumes largely on people's mental darkness.

B

In his own opinion, he was not required, in these lectures, to enter into "the peculiarities of different establishments;" that is, if we understand the expression, the peculiarities of the different things established, or that had been, or that are now, established. A very easy method of lessening his own labour, certainly, not to use harsher terms; but certainly not the method of conciliating or satisfying the public mind.

"Not required to enter into the peculiarities of different establishments!" Why, in our humble estimation, nothing was more imperatively required of him than this; nay, we might, in one sense, cast the whole of the controversy upon this enquiry into peculiarities. The Doctor admits that peculiarities exist in various things that are established-we, as in duty bound, admit the same; but then, if, instead of dismissing these peculiarities without entering into them, we do enter into them, we may find, that while the peculiarities of one thing may be so many cogent arguments why that thing ought not to be established, the peculiarities of another thing may, with any reasonable man (we do not say any reasonable Dissenter; for, as at all times, so particularly at this, Dissenters, though men, are very unreasonable), be as many cogent arguments why that thing ought to be established. The Doctor might have spared some of his sweeping denunciations, had he condescended to enter into peculiarities. As it is, however, the diffusion of error demands, above all things, that he who diffuses it should study the art of making proper distinctions as little as possible; indeed, the secret of the success of error depends upon a thorough confounding of distinctions. The lecturer set out with confounding the most manifest distinctions, and he resolutely adheres to his precedent; and we are bound to say it, and we say it deliberately, that the sentence at the opening of this lecture betrays one of these three things-though each of them is equally discreditable to the author: it betrays either great notional confusedness, deplorable misinformation, or supercilious contempt. The former two it would be tantamount to impugning our own credit to impute to the Doctor; the last, therefore, is what we must look to: and we ask any sensible person, whether it does not wear the aspect of supercilious contempt, when we see Dr. Wardlaw, more than once, twice, or thrice, in these lectures, expressing no better an opinion of our national Church than to place it upon a level with any and every system of religion, true or false, which may have been set up in the world? If this be not supercilious contempt, what is it?

The Doctor goes on to ridicule the argument which has been drawn from the analogy of the relation which a king bears to his subjects, and the relation which a parent bears to his children; and here it is that the clever sophist's ill-disguised disesteem, not only of the Church, but of the monarchy, peeps out. It used to be a favourite notion, with men quite as wise as this speechifier, that the king is the father of the people, and that it was his duty to act as a father to them in every respect; but they never supposed, that in acting as a father to the people, the king was to cast off every ves

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