off their narrative at the Revolution, leaving all between that date and modern days a blank. But that there is very much to tell of the religious life of England in that century, recent writers have abundantly shown. The volumes which represent the joint labours of Messrs. Abbey and Overton are a welcome and valuable contribution towards the history of the period. They do not, indeed, in themselves constitute a history. The essay form into which they are cast involves gaps and omissions in the narrative, while it often produces repetition and undue prolixity. We cannot think the form of the book judicious. But the Essays are ably written, and replete with valuable information. Still higher praise may be given to Mr. Overton's 'Life of William Law.' This is an admirable biography up to the period when the subject of it gets lost in a cloud of mysticism, into which the writer is unfortunately tempted to follow him. Aided by these helps, and by others which it is not necessary to particularize, we propose now to attempt to indicate some of the chief points of interest in the religious life of England during the eighteenth century.

The century opens in a storm. Convocation, silenced since the Revolution, had at last met. A controversy had been raised as to its right to meet concurrently with the Parliament, and the clergy had become so excited, that King William's last ministry made it a condition of their taking office that it should be allowed to meet and deliberate. Its deliberations consisted in a series of squabbles and recriminations between the Upper and Lower Houses. The Bishops were Whigs, the Presbyters were Tories. Atterbury, whose book had been the chief exciting cause of the movement, was the ruling spirit in the Lower House, and was never tired of thwarting and decrying the House of Bishops. Throughout the whole of the succeeding reign the bitterness between the two Houses prevailed. An enquiry into the cause of this may furnish us with a clue to many false notions which have prevailed as to the English Church at this period.

At the Revolution it is unquestionable that the hearts of the great majority of the clergy were with the expelled King. A momentary exasperation against him had prevailed among them -due to his tyranny and proselytizing-but this was not enough to induce them to accept the principle of a change of dynasty. They would have acquiesced in a Regency, but they would not go further. Hence the same bishops who went to the Tower became nonjurors. The four hundred clergy who refused to take the oaths to King William were not a tithe of those who disliked his accession. They were simply the men who had the Vol. 157.-No. 313. D

courage of their opinions; but the great mass of clergy, holding the same opinions, remained grumbling and discontented on their cures. They were Tories and Jacobites in heart, and the measures taken by William's government did not tend to make them less so. For it was the policy of William's government to select carefully for bishops men who were known to be thoroughly Whig and upholders of the Revolution. This was done after Queen Mary's death by a committee of Whig bishops appointed for this purpose, among whom Burnet was the ruling spirit. Tory Presbyters, however distinguished for learning or devotion, knew well that promotion was absolutely impossible for them. Thus the bishops became, as it were, a class hostile to the clergy, and hence when bishops and presbyters met face to face came the explosions of ill-will and bitterness. It follows from this, that it is utterly unfair to judge the clergy of that day by the bishops-which, it is believed, is what is ordinarily done. The bishops were courtiers, fine gentlemen, of liberal and latitudinarian views. They were to be seen at St. James's, or at 'the Bath,' or occasionally in a stately procession through their dioceses. The clergy were altogether of a different class-with different habits, tastes, principles. And if the clergy of the eighteenth century are not to be judged fairly by the bishops, neither is their character and value to be estimated by the controversialists. It was indeed a controversial age, and a large number of clergy took part in the various controversies which were rife, displaying no inconsiderable amount of learning in their writings. But the great mass of the clergy were not controversialists. They were living quiet unobtrusive lives in the midst of their flocks; men indeed often of the type of the rector sketched by George Eliot, 'who had no lofty aims, no theological enthusiasm'-content to give practical lessons on the duties of life-but men also in many cases with much of earnestness and spiritual-mindedness. The preservation of these good qualities among the lower clergy, qualities which were conspicuously absent in some of the most prominent of their order, was in a great measure due to the Religious Societies, which were established at the end of the seventeenth century, and which gradually extended their organization through the land. The history of these societies has never been adequately written, and their importance has been greately overlooked. When the subject is fully investigated, it will be found that not only were these organizations the means of preserving spiritual religion in the land, but that the revival movement of the Wesleys was entirely founded on them, and would not have been possible but for their co-operation. We look in vain in Messrs. Abbey

and Overton's volumes for any account of these societies. We must endeavour to supply the omission from other sources.

It was in the year 1678, when the most appalling profligacy was rife, that certain young men who had been impressed by the sermons of Dr. Anthony Horneck, Mr. Smithies, and Dr. Beveridge, formed themselves into an Association or Guild for religious purposes. They had weekly meetings for prayer, singing hymns, and religious conference. They gave alms for the poor on a fixed ratio, undertook to attend daily service at the church, and the Holy Communion weekly and on all festivals. They procured also the establishment of preparation lectures. The clergy and some of the bishops supported this association, and the scheme of organization spread rapidly. Forty-two of these societies were soon in existence in London and Westminster. Similar associations were quickly to be found in every town of England and Ireland. In all of them the greatest loyalty to the Church was a fundamental rule. Every church service was to be attended, while 'counsels of perfection' were given, that the members should use prayers seven times a day, and exert themselves to the utmost in good works. The great effect produced by these organizations is witnessed to by a Dissenting writer. 'They so improved their finances by collections, that they were able to remunerate the attendance of many clergymen to read prayers: these aids to devotion were in a short time afforded at so many different hours, and extended to so many places, as to include every hour of the day. On every Lord's day there were constant sacraments in many churches. Greater numbers attended at prayers and sacraments, and greater appearances of devotion were diffused through the City, than had been observed in the memory of man.'* It will be seen that, when John and Charles Wesley established their religious coterie at Oxford, they were doing nothing more than starting among the undergraduates one of these religious societies, which were then everywhere well-known. The practices of the 'Methodist Club' were exactly identical with those of the other kindred bodies. The success of these religious societies led, about the beginning of the eighteenth century, to the formation of another class of societies, called 'Societies for Reformation of Manners.' These were intended to be aggressive, and to enforce the laws which then existed against profanity and immorality. To these societies the clergy generally belonged, and they met here on common ground not only with laymen but also with

* Toulmin, History of Dissenters,' p. 416.

Dissenting teachers. In his essay on Robert Nelson, Mr. Abbey says:

'He had taken an active interest in the religious operations of young men, which sprang up in London and other towns and villages about 1678. A few years later, when "Societies for the Reformation of Manners " were formed to check the immorality and profaneness which were gaining alarming ground, he gave his hearty co-operation both to Churchmen and Dissenters in a movement which he held essential to the welfare of the country.'-' English Church,' i. 109.

Yet

But the fact that clergy and dissenters were joined in this work
excited the most lively apprehensions in some of the bishops.
In the correspondence of William Nicolson (then Archdeacon,
afterwards Bishop of Carlisle) we have the most vigorous
protests against the clergy taking any part in this work.
in one of his letters he describes the 'articles' subscribed by the
members as 'such as were legal and commendable; obliging
them to reform their own families, to inspect the conversation
of their neighbours, to reprove the vicious, to inform against the
obstinate, and to meet weekly to consult how most effectually to
carry on so good a work.'* It would seem that these societies
were very generally accepted by the clergy. We find them
simultaneously in Cumberland, Cheshire, Bedfordshire, Buck-
inghamshire, as well as in London. Archbishop Sharp, who
could not bring himself altogether to approve of them, says:
'They are on foot everywhere.' † In the market-towns the
clergy preached a lecture on the first market-day of the month,
before which they read the Act against profane cursing and
swearing, with the proclamation against immorality. In some
places the meetings were conducted on strict church principles, t
in others the clergy seem to have fraternized with the Dissenting
teachers. Whether or no the proceedings were always strictly
in order, at any rate the very general establishment and activity
of these societies testifies to a considerable amount of activity
among the country clergy at the beginning of the century. Of
the other class of societies, previously spoken of, in which also
the clergy were engaged, the organization was more enduring
and the effects more important. For a testimony of their close
connection with the revival movement we turn to the latest
historian of John Wesley.

The religious societies formed in the days of Dr. Horneck, and revived in the reign of Queen Mary, were not confined to London and

+Ibid. p. 155.

* Nicolson's 'Correspondence,' p. 147.
Wotton to Nicolson, 'Correspondence,' p. 168.

Westminster, but existed in different towns throughout the kingdom. We find them in Oxford, Nottingham, Gloucester, Bristol, Newcastle, Dublin, Kilkenny, and other places, and all acting substantially according to the same rules and regulations. They met to pray, sing psalms, and read the Scriptures together; and to reprove, exhort, and edify one another by religious conference. They also carried out designs of charity, such as supporting lectures and daily prayers in churches, releasing imprisoned debtors, relieving the poor, and sending their children to school.... Such were the religious societies which existed for more than half a century before the formation of the united societies of the people called Methodists, and in whose rooms and meetings in London, Bristol, and elsewhere, Whitefield and the Wesley brothers, for a few years, were accustomed to read and explain the Scriptures almost every night. On arriving in Bristol, Wesley found such societies as these assembling in Castle Street, in Gloucester Lane, in Weavers' Hall, in Nicholas Street, in the Back Lane, and in Baldwin Street, and at once began expounding to them the Epistle to the Romans and other portions of the New Testament.'-Life and Times of Wesley,' by Rev. L. Tyerman, i. 254.

*

The vigorous vitality exhibited by these religious societies, and the widespread influence exercised by them in preparing the way for what is called the Evangelical revival, invite a closer attention to their constitution and history than they have yet received. Of devout books calculated to be of use to them the eighteenth century was not unfruitful. The 'Private Thoughts on Religion' of one who was almost their founder would no doubt be highly valued. So also, we are quite sure, was Robert Nelson's Fasts and Festivals,' of which 10,000 copies were sold in a very short time. But probably no_books were more frequently in the hands of the members, and none would be more frequently given to their flocks by the clergy, than the devout works of William Law, 'Christian Perfection' and the 'Serious Call.' A very good account of these works, so celebrated in their day, is given by Mr. Overton in his 'Life of Law.' Of the first he writes:

'Intending the work to be exclusively what he termed it, "a practical treatise," Law carefully avoided all nice points of doctrine and defined " 'Christian perfection" at the outset in a way to which no one who accepted Christianity at all could take exception, viz. as the right performance of our necessary duties;" it is " such as men in cloisters and religious retirements cannot add more, and at the same time such as Christians in all states of the world must not be content with less." Of the value of the Serious Call '-one of those books which sets its mark upon an age-we can have no more striking testimony than that of the historian Gibbon. He says of it:

Bishop Beveridge.

"Life of Law,' p. 42.