spirituality. Wherever this disease is caught, it seems incurable, and wherever those who are infected with it go, they fling firebrands into the churches, which have in some instances been consumed by the unhallowed flames. Among all but Mr. Wesley's followers this is the most prevailing evil of the day. The erection of antinomian chapels too frequently proclaims its triumph. The essential rectitude of the divine nature, government, and law, which rendered the redemption of Christ necessary to our salvation, is here blasphemed by prostituting the Gospel to the purpose of abrogating the law and giving license to sin. It is this perversion of calvinism which has hardened both socinians and arminians in their hatred to some of the most important truths, and furnished them with arms to maintain their warfare. It should however be noticed that this poison has been swallowed by evangelical churchmen, and even by some of the clergy, as well as by dissenters.

An antidote to the poison was furnished by the works of some of the most eminent divines of the past and preceding ages, which now rose greatly in estimation and request. Besides the republication of many single pieces, new editions of the whole or the larger works of Howe and Owen, Baxter and Flavel, Watts and Doddridge, Henry and Edwards, attested the demand, and honoured the taste of those who succeeded to the privileges procured by the labours of these eminent men. Such, indeed, is the disposition for the most instructive and edifying productions, that it is manifest, the religious magazines and other ephemeral works have rather increased, than diminished a taste for the ponderous folios of valuable theology published by the old divines.

The exact estimate of the religion of any individual, who but the Searcher of hearts can supply? How much more difficult then to say what is the clear sum of truth and holiness among a whole body, composed of such different members as are ranked under the name of dissenters! Without, however, pretending to any thing further than a rough estimate, such a judgment may be formed as may answer inquiries, suggest instruction, and afford delight. That there is now more religion among dissenters from the establishment than at any former period, may be confidently asserted. It would be easy to give a long list of churches, formed of genuine Christians, called out of the world, where it cannot be discovered that the Gospel of Christ was ever before preached. To this might be added another list, still longer, of churches which contain not only a greater number of devout persons, but some of them many times more than ever composed the societies from their earliest commencement. If many congregations have been annihilated by error, their deserted places are now re-opening, and prove again that the preaching of the cross is " the power of God to salvation." The zeal for the formation of new congregations, and for the erection and enlargement of places of worship, is not, indeed, confined to those in whose success every liberal Christian would rejoice, but extends to those who are actuated by errors fatal to the hopes of men, or passions dishonourable to the name of Christian. But still the good principle so decidedly predominates, that the number of real Christians must be greatly increased. In this respect, also, the religion of individuals is improved; for zeal to diffuse the knowledge of divine

truth, and to make the most costly sacrifices to win the souls of men from death, tends to nourish and improve all the other graces of the Christian character. To borrow a simile from the Scriptures, the present religion of dissenters compared with former periods, may be pronounced "like to a tree planted by the river of waters," which increases in height rather than in girth; while it throws out more numerous and extensive, but not more vigorous branches, and bears fruit in greater quantity as well as of more inviting bloom, though in many instances of less exquisite flavour, and in some reduced by a blight to mere apples of Sodom; nor is the growth of the root, though considerable, equal to the extent of the tree and the appearance of the fruit; so that, upon the whole, there is much to excite gratitude and hope, and something to demand sorrow and fear.

CHAPTER VIII.

LIVES OF EMINENT DISSENTERS.

THE chapter devoted to biography under this period will, probably, disappoint many, who will expect to find a distinct memoir of every faithful minister who may be still fresh in their remembrance and dear to their hearts. But our limits will suffer us to give no more than a selection of such as will furnish by their excellencies, or their faults, some special instruction to the world. The presbyterians, as they are of the oldest denomination, claim the precedence, and it will be seen by the following memoirs that they have not ceased to be distinguished by eminent men.

GEORGE BENSON, D. D.

His parents, who lived at Great Salkeld, in Cumberland, were eminently pious, and had the pleasure to see several of their children walk in their steps. George was born in 1699, and discovering early a serious spirit and a love of learning, was designed for the ministry. After attending the grammar school, in 1716 he went for a year to an academy kept by Dr. Dixon, at Whitehaven, and from thence to the university of Glasgow, where he prosecuted his studies till 1721. Determining to exercise his ministry among the dissenters in England, and being approved by some of the most eminent

presbyterians there, he began to preach in that communion. Dr. Calamy, in whose house he resided for a time, recommended him to a congregation at Abington; he was invited to become their pastor, and he continued with them seven years. Here he began to swerve from the orthodox doctrine which he had till this time professed, and being on this account less agreeable to the people, in 1729 he accepted a call to a society of dissenters in St. John's-court, Southwark. From this situation he removed in 1740, in consequence of an invitation from the congregation in Crutched-friars, to succeed Dr. Harris as their pastor, and to be colleague to Dr. Lardner; and this was the last field of his labours. The infirmities of age having, in 1751, compelled Dr. Lardner to relinquish his office, the whole of the service devolved on Dr. Benson, who continued to officiate till his constitution, impaired by his studies and by years, could no longer endure the labour, and he was obliged, though reluctantly, to retire from his public station. Soon afterwards his remaining health rapidly declined, and he was removed by death on the sixth of April, 1762, in the sixty-third year of his age. He was twice married but had no children.

In the first years of his ministry, he was a calvinist, and while at Abington published three practical discourses to youth on orthodox principles: these discourses he afterwards suppressed. Dr. Priestley is reported to have said, that there is no safe dwelling place between the house of Calvin and that of Soeinus. The observation was verified in the case of Dr. Benson; for after leaving Geneva he could find no rest for the sole of his foot, in the intermediate stations through which he passed, till he came into