could anyone deny that throughout the country it did an immense deal of quiet but not unrecognised good.  There were few places where the general level would not have been lower without it.  It had fought a good battle against Rome, and against the Deists; and the hold which, since the middle of the century, had been gained in it by the Evangelical revival proved it not incapable of kindling with a zeal which some had begun to think was foreign to its nature.  The Church, therefore, as a great national institution, was perfectly safe.  Circumstances had no doubt forced a good deal of attention to its relation with the State.  But these discussions had few direct practical bearings.  Hence the theoretical and abstract character which they wear in the writings of Warburton and others.

In casting a general glance over the history of the English Church in the eighteenth century, it will be at once seen that there is a greater variety of incident in its earlier years than in any subsequent portion of the period.  There were controversies with Rome, with Dissenters, with Nonjurors, with Arians, and above all, with Deists.  There was correspondence and negotiation with the French and Swiss Reformed Churches, with German Lutherans, with French Gallicans.  Schemes of comprehension, though no longer likely to be carried out, were discussed with strong feeling on either side.  There was much to be said about occasional conformity, about toleration, about the relation between Church and State.  There was the exciting subject of ’danger to the Church’ from Rome, or from Presbyterianism, or from treason within.  For there was vehement party feeling and hot discussion in ecclesiastical matters.  Some looked upon the Low or Broad Church bishops as the most distinguished ornaments of the English Church; others thought that if they had their way, they would break down all the barriers of the Church, and speedily bring it to ruin.  With some, High Churchmen were the only orthodox representatives of the English Church; in the eyes of others they were firebrands, Jacobites, if not Jesuits, in disguise, a greater danger to the ecclesiastical establishment than any peril from without.  No doubt party feeling ran mischievously high.  There was much bigotry, and much virulence.  Such times, however, were more favourable to religious activity than the dull and heavy stormless days that followed.  In the earlier part of the eighteenth century there were very many men worthy to be spoken of with the utmost honour, both in the High and Low Church parties.  A great deal of active Christian work was set on foot about this time.  Thus the Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge was founded, and gathered round the table of its committee-room men of very different opinions, but all filled with the same earnest desire to promote God’s glory, and to make an earnest effort to stem the irreligion of the times.  From its infancy, this society did a vast deal to promote the object for which it had