PLAN OF THE WORK.

II. PLAN of the Work.

To the end that, from the first, not only the design of this work, but the connexion between the several parts of it, may be plainly understood. a brief sketch, explanatory of the plan pursued in the course of it, may be not without its use.

I. As to the Introduction:-It is divided into five parts.

I. Part I. In this part will be maintained that, as applied to the purpose of instruction, the Church of England Catechism, in so far as it is substituted to the Bible, is a bad substitute: and that, in the National Society's Schools, in effect it actually is substituted to it :-substituted, not simply added. What will thereupon be shewn isthat Church of Englandism is a religion different from the religion of Jesus, and that in these Schools, principally by means of that Catechism, this spurious religion actually is substituted to the religion

of Jesus.

Short title-The Catechism-a bad sub

stitute to the Bible-is substituted to it.

II. Part II. In this part will be shewn that, by express provision anxiously made, by the persons, whoever they are, by whom, in the name of the Society, self-styled The National Society,-as if in the whole nation there were no other Society,-the system of instruction carried on in these Schools is directed, the children of all members of the nation. who are not Church-of-Englandists stand excluded from the benefits of it. For the designation of the system by which the accomplishment of this object is aimed at, the appellation of The Exclusionary System, will, in the course of this work, be all along applied. Antecedently to the proofs afforded of the establishment of this exclusionary system, the true nature and tendency of this system will be developed and held up to view.

Short title The Exclusionary System-its bad effects-its establishment.

III. Part III. If, in the majority of the English nation, the spirit of antichristian hostility thus manifested towards 1,500,000 of their fellow subjects, were universal, the spectacle so exhibited would be still more melancholy than it is believed to be. Evidence has been noted, by which the contrary hope has been produced. To bring to view the grounds on which this hope rests, is exclusively the

Of these two remedies, for form sake, the first mentioned is indeed held up to view: but, of course, with scarce a ray of hope to gild it with.

The other will be seen presented for adoption : presented in the character of a lawful, safe, effectual,—and, when well considered, an unobjectionable one.

Short title. Remedies to the mischiefs of the Exclusionary System as applied to Instruction.

X. Appendix, No. IV. Throughout the whole field of morals, dissocial and social affection afford a test, by which, in so far as circumstances admit of the application of it, they may be distinguished from each other. Dissocial, finds in the exposure of abuses and other imperfections, its ultimate gratification: social affection, whether operating upon a private or a public scale, puts, and keeps itself upon the look out for a remedy: and, howsoever remote and uncertain, it is only by the cheering prospect of a remedy in the back ground, that it can bring itself to face and dwell upon the afflicting spectacle, of the stream of sufferings so generally flowing from the abuse.

It is thus that, where the mischief produced by the injection of the matter of this Catechism has been brought to view, a remedy-and that such as it is, one which it is in the power of all fathers and guardians to administer-has been sought for, found, and just now referred to.-It is thus that,

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where the mischief, produced by subscription to articles of faith, was, though but incidentally, brought to view,-a remedy to that mischief was, with like care, pointed out. But, of every abuse and every imperfection, which has place in the field of religion,-not to speak of the field of government, the main root-not to say the only root-has all along been seen to lie in that remnant of Popery, the Excellent Church, as viewed in its present state. For the application of a radical remedy to this radical evil, the times, éven by the confession, or rather proclamation, of those by whom it is most cherished, seem ripening space.

On this subject, and on this state of things, remediation, the object thus all along looked to as a first principle of direction requires that something should be said: were it only in the view of giving some intimation, how slight so ever, of the course necessary, to be pursued, for reducing to its minimum the mass of evil inseparable from so great a change.

At the same time, consideration being had of the scattered state, in which the grounds of the demand for this change, such as in the course of this work will have presented themselves, will have been brought to view, a task, which could not

See Preface, p. xxiv..

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wholly be put by, has been the giving a sort of compressed recapitulation of those grounds; together with a few additions, to give roundness to the whole.

Short title-Remedy to all religious, and much political mischief-Euthanasia of the Church.

XI. Appendix, No. V. Conscious-if not of the primeval, at any rate of the present, rottenness of the whole fabric-alarmed by the symptoms of dissolution which have been continually pressing themselves upon observation,-men in power have, of late years, betaken themselves to several expedients for warding off the impending catastrophe. Of these expedients, the adoption thus given to the new system of instruction, with the exclusionary system grafted upon it, may be stated as being by far the one best adapted to the purpose. Of the

others, a short view will form the fifth and last article of this Appendix.

Short title-Measures recently instituted or proposed for meliorating the state of the Church-efficient to bad, inefficient to good purposes.

END OF THE PLAN OF THE WORK.