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    honourable exceptions , ) are exposed in fall day-light . The profligacy of the universities is told to the world f ( and Mr . Beverley is good authority ) ; the vices of a large class of clergy are castigated with merited severity , their fopperies indignantly ridiculed , and the credit politely intended for the gospel , by the devotion of men of rank and fashion to the sacred emoluments , respectfully disclaimed . The Lay Sermon enlarges on these topics ; exposing , in all its most important bearings , as the grand corruption of religion , the connexion of Church and State ; whether " at Jerusalem before the coming of the Lord , " or as established " by Constantine , and cherished by kings and

    queens in all Christian lands , " or as " enthroned now in England in high pomp and glory . " The author declares cruelty and hypocrisy to be essentially connected with every established religion ; and concludes with contemplating the approaching fall of English Episcopacy , which in his opinion

    cannot be long delayed . Much may be said to excuse what we cannot but wish had been somewhat different in some parts of Mr . Beverley ' s pamphlets . His boldness in the execution of his attempt sometimes borders on vituperation and abuse ; his honest indignation sometimes kindles into passion ; and his powers of irony and sarcasm are too unsparingly used . These last are terrible weapons , and need great discretion in the using . They commit

    wide havoc , but are apt to fly beside or beyond their destination . They may wound the cause they were designed to defend . In religious controversy , most especially , it were well that every thing irritating or galling to the adversary , in the manner of saying what in itself may perhaps be unpleasant enough to hear , should be carefully avoided . The suaviter in modo is not incompatible with the fortiter in re : and , we think , the

    impression on the more reflecting classes of Mr . Beverley's readers would have been one of more complete unison with his sentiments and objects , had a little more mildness of tone characterized his pamphlets . As they are , however , the statements speak for themselves ; and those who have most to say in reprobation of Mr . Beverley ' s attempt to overthrow the Church , can , in no material point , impugn his statements , but only inveigh against his mode of attack . The public have not , however , refused him a hearing , and the Letter to the Archbishop has passed through twelve editions

    ( amounting to 30 , 000 copies ) in five months' time : a sufficient intimation U > the author , that his " mortar has by itself done no small damage to the main wall of the fortress ; " and not a little to his own surprise ; for , as he says in the preface to the Lay Sermon , " a shilling pamphlet against five millions sterling ( annually received by the clergy for not preaching the gospel ) are great odds . " "The high honour of an answer" to his Letter , the author " neither desired nor expected . " For some little time he seemed to have shamed all clerical antagonists to silence by his anticipation thai * ' other hands , less

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    630 On the Corrupt State of the Church of England .

• Citation
  • Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Sept. 2, 1831, page 630, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2601/page/54/