they rendered many frequent and spontaneous tributes of respect.

Nonconformity could once boast of a BAXTER, who was so moderate in respect to forms of church government, that he loved Episcopalians as his brethren; of a FLAVEL, whose last efforts were directed to restrain the enemies of the Church of England from acts of hostility, and to seek to unite Separatists from the Establishment by forming a union of Presbyterians and Independents; of a BATES, who declared that it was neither faction, fancy, nor humour, which made him a Nonconformist; of a HENRY, who, if he had lived in 1841, would have been a clergyman of the Church of England; of a Howe, who would never have preached at Silver Street Chapel, had he not been driven by the Act of Uniformity from his church at Torrington, and who delighted to preach and to read the prayers of the Church of England at Utrecht, whilst he resided on the Continent; of a WARREN, who was so moderate a Presbyterian, that when King Charles was restored, he proceeded to Scotland, and was ordained both Deacon and Presbyter by the Bishop of Withern; of a JOHN BUNYAN, who never allowed his Nonconformity to lead him to attack the church with which he desired to remain in friendly alliance; and of a MATTHEW HENRY, who hesitated some time as to

whether he should not seek for episcopal ordination, and decided at last to be ordained by Presbyters, because there was some doubt as to whether he could obtain the former, without submitting to the oaths and declarations to which he objected. Nor can there be any objection on the part of an Episcopalian, well instructed in the history of his own church, and of the sects which have risen up to oppose it, to speak with respect and reverence of the piety and worth of Daniel Williams, John Gale, Samuel Pomfret, Matthew Clarke, Edmund Calamy, and Dr. Foster. But are the Dissenters of 1841 the real descendants of the Nonconformists whose names we have recorded, and to whose purity of intentions, though mistaken opinions, we bear a willing testimony? We have no hesitation in answering in the negative. There are a few places of public worship in London, and some half-dozen in the English counties, where the quiet and calm piety of mistaken, but respected Nonconformity, still exists, and where in the deep and highbuilt pews of former times, some pious, heartfelt prayers still rise to the God of the Sabbath, and the Saviour of his people. But with these few exceptions, all the old symbols of pure, modest, and genuine Nonconformity, have disappeared, and such men as Burnett, Knibb, Fox, and Binney, lead on the mixed and discordant throng to a joint attack on that church

of their forefathers, which has withstood the far different controversies of the HowES, HENRYS, OWENS, and CALAMYS of days never to return.

Take the report of the Dissenting Missionary Society, called The London Missionary Society, and look at the names of the provincial directors of that association; and what do you see? The students from the Hackney Seminary have now become Dissenting teachers. The founder, JOHN EYRE, a clergyman of the Church of England, would be astounded at the offspring of his seminary. It can be no matter of astonishment that the residuary legatee of one of the first friends to the institution (Charles Townsend, Esq.) should hesitate as to paying to so nondescript a society as the Village Itinerancy and Hackney Seminary the enormous sum of ten thousand pounds, since the institutions in question have now become a modern Dissenting association.

Where are the Franklands, the Jollies, the Mathew Warrens, the Stephen James's, the Tallents, the Bryans, the Benions, the John Reynolds's, and even the Spademans of former times? These were tutors worthy of the titles they bore; who, instead of lecturing their students in divinity "on the duties of opposing tithes and church rates," directed their minds to the attainment of Latin, Greek, and Hebrew, and of studying the Fathers of the English Church,

who were the founders in England of sound theology. And who that has visited Mr. Thomas Wilson's academy for Dissenting students at Highbury, notwithstanding the admitted talent of the teacher of Oriental languages in that establishment, and is acquainted with the foundation, character, and progress of similar institutions among Dissenters, in the 17th and 18th centuries, can refrain from comparisons lamentably unfavourable to the present epoch? Take the list of Dissenting ministers of the present day: and what do we see? Not five learned men, not ten profound scholars; but talking men, business men, platform men, public meeting men, pamphlet-writing men, debating and discussing men, not about the weightier matters of the law, but about personal controversies, Dissenting marriages, Episcopal church rates, tithes, and "compelling" clergymen to read over the bodies of Socinians and Arians, in the Protestant churchyards of our Trinitarian ancestors, the solemn declaration that the departed "Un" believers "knew that their Redeemer lived, and that he should stand at the latter day upon the earth;" though, alas! the defunct believed in no Redeemer at all, and died in avowed hostility to that church which is now to be" compelled" to receive and honour them. And while the earth is being cast upon the coffin, the Dissenters of 1841 require, that the clergy

of the Established Church shall be compelled to pronounce over the dead body of the deceased Socinian:

We therefore commit his body to the ground, earth to earth, ashes to ashes, dust to dust, in sure and certain hope of the resurrection to eternal life through our Lord Jesus Christ," in whom he has not believed, and from whose blessed sacrifice, sufferings, death, and blood, he expected neither salvation nor resurrection. The Nonconformity of past ages never dreamt of making such requirements. The Dissenterism of 1841 "jokes at the intrigue," whilst the ministers at their quarterly associations rub their hands with glee at the progress of "the movement against the Church of England," and toast, in old port and brown sherry, "SUCCESS TO THE VOLUNTARY PRINCIPLE!!"

If we compare the learning and piety of the conductors of the Dissenting seminaries of former times, when such men as David Jennings and Philip Doddridge were at their head, with the present tutors at Cheshunt, Newport Pagnel, Homerton, Highbury, Coward College, Gosport, Exeter, Airedale, Blackburn, York, Birmingham, Stepney, Bristol, Horton, Loughborough, Newtown, Neuaddlwyd, Bala, Ponty-Pool, Dublin, and even Rotherham, though one of the best of this motley group, we may easily understand the difference which exists between the theo