Now let me ask is not this the principal cause of modern infidelity and dissent? Is not this the way in which the Scriptures are too often read now; not with 'all readiness of mind' to see whether the doctrines propounded by the Holy Catholic Church, and her lawfully ordained ministers, are according to the Scriptures; but to find and pervert passages, which may uphold men blinded by infidel or schismatic prejudice, in deluding themselves and others in a belief that those things are not so.

In her 20th Article the Church clearly lays down the limits of her authority:

The Church hath power to decree Rites or Ceremonies, and authority in Controversies of Faith: And yet it is not lawful for the Church to ordain any thing that is contrary to God's Word written, neither may it so expound one place of Scripture, that it be repugnant to another. Wherefore, although the Church be a witness and a keeper of holy Writ, yet, as it ought not to decree any thing against the same, so besides the same ought it not to enforce any thing to be believed for necessity of Salvation.'

You will observe in this Article the Church does claim authority both to decree rites and ceremonies, and also in controversies of faith. And it is right, nay absolutely necessary, that she should be invested with such authority. This necessity is proclaimed not only by the dictates of common sense, but by Divine wisdom manifested in the history of the Church under both the Old and the New Testament, by its positive ordinances, as well as by repeated prohibitions of schism and disobedience. There must be authority. If the order of a religious society and the maintenance of a standard of truth, to which amidst the various heresies the bulk of mankind may refer for the purpose of distinguishing pretence from reality, falsehood from truth, be of any importance, we must have an authority somewhere; and an authority bearing some token of the source from which it is derived. . . .

We ought always to desire affectionately to find the authority of a church so venerable and directors so holy confirmed by the Word of God. It is for the want of this desire, it is from the contrary desire that the infidel and the dissenter find difficulties and struggles in coming to her blessed communion, to enjoy unity of faith and the bond of peace.

But then arises the question,-Are we to make the decrees of the Church superior to the precepts of the Bible? Are we to receive implicitly what the Church teaches or ordains? May we not search the Scriptures to see whether those things are so? Undoubtedly you may. No sound divine would deny it, no man will maintain anything so absurd; unless it be one grossly ignorant of the Church, which he calumniates, or one who would, from envy, deceive you, and prevent your entrance or weaken your attachment to it. Instead of taking the assertions of such, turn to her own authentic declarations, and you will perceive that there is not the slightest foundation for these calumnies. She states in the Article already quoted that it is not lawful to the Church to ordain anything that is contrary to God's Word written, neither may it so expound one place of Scripture, that it may be repugnant to another.

This is sound reason. It accords with the tenor of God's Word and the constant stream of ecclesiastical history. The Church is, at least in the first instance, in all cases to be heard with all willingness of mind,-with a heart prepared to reverence and believe.

The Church does not decry reason, but assigns to it its proper province. Use your reason to ascertain what God has revealed, not to dictate what He ought to reveal; neither to deny that He has made a revelation, because we cannot with our limited faculties comprehend how that, which is revealed, is possible to the Almighty.

If, in the declarations of the Church, and in passages of Scripture, we find Jesus set forth sometimes as God, and sometimes as man, we are not therefore to deny that He is both God and man.

Having found these truths, to receive only one, and to pervert from its plain meaning every passage, which asserts the other, will not be searching the Scriptures to see whether those things are so, but distorting them to support a prejudiced determination, that they are not so. Take, as our Church demands, the Scriptures in the sense in which she interprets them in her creeds; hear her with all readiness of mind; and, if doubts of her interpretation arise, then search the Scriptures, whether those things are so. But fairly and faithfully search them. Make not one passage contradict another, to reconcile matters in your own fancied wisdom. Set not reason above faith; nor venture to dispute

what God has spoken because man cannot comprehend the manner, though he knows the fact.

Brethren, one has this day stood before the congregation, courageously, faithfully, and nobly renouncing that, which on searching the Scriptures in the spirit of the Bereans, he is convinced to have been error.

As nobly has he cast off all his former associations, and then without condition or stipulation embraced the faith of the Church.

The searching of the Scriptures in a proper spirit has brought him to the truth; though like the Bereans he had his prejudices; though these, with his worldly interests, his former friends all set themselves in array against the truth and caused him at every step to struggle against his convictions, yet truth broke in upon him. He found that the system he had supported could not be upheld, but by receiving only the passages on one side in their plain meaning, and explaining away, or denying those on the other.

He perceived that he must give up either Unitarianism or Scripture. The Word of God, in its simple and obvious sense, confirmed the doctrine of the Trinity, according to the creeds of the Church. Against that authority man's fancied wisdom becomes only foolishness.

GO TO CHURCH

BY W. G., FORMERLY A WESLEYAN

THIS tract, published by Dr. Molesworth with the consent of the author, contains the opinions of one who was formerly a Wesleyan minister in Rochdale; and the opinions in it are very similar to those used in the discussion between 'Overbury' and ' Parson Stirling' in the tale of ' Overbury.' Indeed it has been surmised, but not on any actual evidence, that the two characters of Overbury' and 'Parson Stirling' have been to a large extent drawn from W. G. and Dr. Molesworth. W. G., on arriving at years of maturity, was enabled by earnest prayer and a diligent study of the subject, to throw aside the prejudices of early instruction, to adopt the principles and services of the Church of England, and to seek admission into its communion, from a firm and decided conviction that the English Church is the true Apostolic branch of the Church of Christ in this country; that its teaching is the pure Christianity of the Bible; that, in principle and practice, it approaches more nearly to the primitive Church than any other, and that consequently its claim to be received as a correct standard of Faith is superior of that of any other system.

W. G. gives his opinions as follows: Go to Church,—

(1) Because in the authorised principles of the Church we meet with nothing but purely orthodox and evangelical truth. The doctrines of the Holy Trinity; the natural sinfulness of man; the atonement of Christ; the influence of the Holy Spirit; justification by faith; the Sacraments, as means of grace; the necessity of good works, with the happiness of the righteous after death, and the eternal destruction of the finally impenitent, are some of the leading principles the Church has derived from God's Word.

(2) Because of the suitableness and completeness, the scriptural and devotional character of its Liturgy. In spirituality and tendency to assist the devotions, and

promote the edification of the worshipper, it may fairly challenge a comparison with every other uninspired production. And in no other religious service whatever is so large a portion of the sacred Scriptures read. On some occasions nine chapters of the Bible are repeated during one service.

(3) Because it is the only Protestant system which provides efficiently for public worship; that is for the worship of God, in which the whole congregation is required publicly to join. In other systems, the minister alone worships publicly and therefore sustains the part of a theatrical performer, rather than anything else. Whereas in the Church, provision is made for all to unite in prayer and praise.

(4) Because of the Scriptural character of its mode of Church government, which is Episcopacy. No one can read the New Testament attentively, especially the Epistles to Timothy and Titus, without perceiving that the Episcopal form was sanctioned and adopted in primitive times by the Apostles themselves.

(5) Because its ministers possess authority to dispense the Word of God, and to administer the Sacraments, derived in the direct line through the Apostles from Christ himself, Who alone has absolute authority in the Church; and Who has given commission to His Apostles, and through them to their successors alone, to the end of time, to proclaim the glad tidings of salvation to every creature under heaven.

(6) Because, in separating from the Church, you render yourself guilty of the sin St. Paul refers to, when he requires that there shall be no schism in the body.' By schism is meant the separation of one or more members of the Church from the rest, to form a distinct sect or party by themselves; and if separatists repudiate this appellation, on the ground that it refers to division in the Church, not to separation from it, I answer that those who make a division in the universal Church are schismatics,-those who separate from it are apostates. Under one or other of these denominations, those who separate must be classed.

Most of the differences now unhappily existing in the Establishment have arisen from the disposition manifested by some to sympathise with those who have separated from us, the Papist on the one hand, and the dissenters