The Sun.
London, England, 1840-03-19 00:00:00

EVEN,NG EDITION.

CHURCH ESTABLISIEVIENTS.

The Rev. H. M`NETLE delivered yesterday his
fourth lecture. The Reverend Gentlemandiscussed the
question of the duty of the civil ruler ir, matters of re-
ligions Dr. Wardlaw had argued that this duty was to
have no authority at all in religion -yet the Reverend
Doctor had also stated it to be the duty of the Magis-
trate to perform all his official functions with Christian
motives and on Christian grin ciples. Now, said the
Reverend Lecturer, how we lig Dr. Wardlaw distin-
guish between the discharge wAt the Magistrrees official
duties and his ruthority ? 'Pie civil ruler ought to act
upon the standard of the Bible. Whate,ver a Govern-
ment makes its chief aim, the n'Aple would learn
to regard as their ciiirif goe.a.—(Cheers.) Now
the Bible inculcate a !subordination of the temporal
and the present, to the •spiritvial and eternal. Hence,
a Government ghoul]. iriar"ifest a deep regard for the
religious education r f people, and not merely for
their secular educati o A.—(l-It,ar, hear.) But the Rev.
Lecturer said he ca .ild afford to descend from the high
ground of scriptural zeithAty to that of practical utility.
And lie declared the Established Church to be of greater
benefit than an' other—nay, than all other institutions
of the country —by promoting the peace, happiness,
safety. and ir npiehvernent of the people, ever in the
present world. Regulations of police could only reach
to the Puvals} .ment or prevention of crime ; but the
Church elm. Anted principles which tender to virtue—
and ce ri'ious conscientious clergyman, teaching
the ',aux; and the adult within his parish,
and sisiti' ig the sick, would confer greater benefit on
the tour ,try than a hundred or a thousand policemen.—
Ghee rs.) But Dissenters said that a National Church
was. • anti-Scriptural ; that there ought to be no eompul-
"l7 exactions for the support of religion ; and that it
s'ec uld be left to voluntary contributions. This would
be all very proper if the support of religion were con-
ed to the truly pious ; but then it could not be so
cc ofined—the whole country must be instructed—there
oat be the voluntary principle on a national scale.—
(h [ear, hear.) The injunction of the Bible was to
" baptize " and " teach " all nations ; and the moment
the Sovereign of a country was enrolled among
the believers of Christianity, there was a basis
for the establishment of a National Church, to diffuse
Christianity through the country ; and that Church
Establishment was not the religion itself—let it be recol-
lected—but the instrumentality for diffusing that reli-
gion. The Rev. Gentleman went on to argue from
the Old Testament—the history of which, be said, the
Apostles had declared was left as our " ensamples "
and " instructor," that there was a compulsory support of
the Jewish Church. He said Mr. Burnet in his lecture
at Hertford had defied the proof of any penalty for
the refusal of any offering to the Jewish Church. " I
accept the challenge," (exclaimed Mr. M'Ncile,) and
forthwith referred to a passage in 17th Leviticus, in
which it was declared that any person who refused the
offering should be " cut off" from his people, and be
said the word translated here " cut off" was else.
where (in 3I st Exodus) used, for " surely put
to death," which had been by Jehovah himself
(Numbers, chap. xv.) declared to bo " stoning to death
by the congregation."—(Hear, hear.) If, said the
Rev. Lecturer, it should be stated that this argument
-would go to uphold penal laws for the refusal of Church
dues, he replied, the principle of compulsory support
might be adopted without the extreme punishments
the penalty should be on property, not person.—(Hear,
Ihear.) He proceeded to argue that there was no force
in the declaration of a conscientious objectien to the
Payment of Church-rates, for it would be absurd to say
that any person paying taxes was responsible for all
the acts of the Government—(Loud cheers)—else it
might be said that he participated in what be consi-
dered the guilt—the suicidal guilt—of supporting such
a place as Maynooth.—(Loud cheers.) The Rev.
Gentleman said, however, he had no objection to
Dissenters, if they sincerely believed the Church
anti-Scriptural, using all constitutional methods to re-
move it, al he himself felt at liberty to take the same
course against Maynooth, only let them not take the
law into their own bands,—(Cheers.) He, in conclu-
sion, contended that the doctrines of the Church were
essentially Scriptural, and that on points non-essential
she did not rigidly insist.

SUMMARY OF MR. RURNET'S LECTURE
AT H.ERTFORII, ON CHURCH
tSTABLVSHMENTS.

While publishing con•leosed reports of Mr. M'Neil's
Lectures, (and: also slf.etches of Mr. Burnet) it seems
fair to give a short account of the Dissenting side of
the controversy.

Mr. Burnet do:livered this lecture, at the Town Hall,
Hertford, to a highly respectable audience, Sir Culling
Eardley Smitb, in the chair, and the propositions he laid
down were--ikat Christianity was a great moral sys-
tem, revealed, front Heaven, and capable of universal
application, diffusing its principles by the force
of their cram evidence, and maintaining them by their
moral power, over the minds and conduct of those
whofeel its influence. These propositions he support-
ed 'ay Scriptural authority, and then he defined and
Proved, by Ecclesiastical law, a Xational Church Es-
'tablishment to be an institution dictated by the votes
of the ma,ority of the community ; diffusing its prin-
ciples by legal sanction, and maintaining them by force
of law. And in conclusion, he plainly and simply con-
trasted the two systems, and argued that they were
irrecroncileable, and directly opposed to each other.

SKETCHES OF OUR CONTROVERSIALISTS.

Mr. BURNET,
The Apostle of Voluntaryism, the Achilles of Dis-
sent,—of Nonconformist Ministers the most able, most
eloquent, and most active ; of anti-Churchmen the most
zealous, the most uncompromising and most persever-
ing ; amsng. platform orators against establishments
unequalled and ,unrivalled ; in deputations to Downing
Street alike unanswerable and immovable ; the Lon-
d.on Tavern has trembled to his triumphs, and Exeter
Hall acknowledges him a hero.
Nature designed him for a controversialist. He was
born to be a leader of the Nonconformists. Above his
brethren of the Dissenting Ministry he towers high in
all the attributes of authority. Every quality of his
Physical or mental constitution mark him as
their champion. He seems built to stand be-
fore thousands. There is a massy breadth of
figure ; a reflective solidity of countenance—a mild
gravity. of expression—a calm contemplation about his
ample" o'er-Averer forehead—a weight of determined
energy i n the lower portion of his features—a quiet
simplicity in his whole appearance, which are thoroughly
apropriate in the representative of the descendants of
Owen and Baxter.

If ever a man was born for an audience he was. He
addresses them with the easy confidence of a master in
music, about to play on his accustomed instrument, and
the chords he touches never fail to vibrate in deep res-
ponse. Other men attempt public speaking as an ef-
fort--a study—an achievement ;to hint it is a recrea-
tion—a positive pleasure.
We never knew a speaker who in his delivery united
with so much natural ease so much sustained power.
His voice is without exception, of all we ever heard,
the most admirably adapted for platform oratory. Its
Power is not what would be characterized by the terms
16uditess or force, yet it is a voice which never fails to
send its lowest tones into every corner of the largest of
halls. It is the power (so to speak) of breadth, not
elevation. It is exicentrative, not diffusive. It has a
level, sustained energy—a peculiar continuity and
massiveness—which, without the slightest exertion—
with the most perfect ease—keeps up, through asto-
nishingly lengthened periods, a uniform, uninterrupted,
mellow distinctness of utterance, commencing with
Calm, equable tranquillity, only diversified, perhaps, for
a time, by the fine tones of an exquisitely cutting sar-
casm, or amusing irony, with which he often sharpens
to a point the closes of his sentences. And when
awakened into energy by some fitting subject, or
aroused into eloquence in some forcible illustration,
swelling out into an imposing grandeur of declamation,
all the while never losing the calmness of his concen-
rltion his energy rising rather with his sulject than
his excitement, and his voice ascending gradually and
lieliherately, with still unbroken continuity—more like
the solemn sound of many waves, slowly rising, and
itnultaneously breaking along au extended shore, than