the followers of Christ out of that Babylon. But to all others the command applies, to restore them that are overtaken in a fault, in the spirit of meekness. Some of them it may please God, even as churches, to raise up and recover. In all of them, and we speak especially of the Greek churches, there are doubtless some pious Bishops and clergy to be found, who need and even desire our aid; who long for more light and knowledge; and will thankfully hail, from the English Church, the language of Christian kindness, and the proffer of spiritual aid. And thus, in proportion as any community retains more or less fully the elements of truth, whether in pure doctrine, or primitive discipline; in the same proportion should we seek, as a Church, to enter with it into relations of amity, and to draw closer the bonds of visible fellowship.

If it please God that such counsels prevail,--and we think that signs exist to encourage that hope,-what a blessed prospect will open before us! The final struggle, with infidelity and superstition combined in their mightiest and last assault, is evidently approaching, and the hour of temptation is coming upon the earth; but if we pursue this course as a church, that hour will find us a strong and united phalanx. Our ranks will be closed to resist the enemy. Each visible act of obedience to the great law of love by the several churches of Christ, will re-act, with a blessed influence, upon their inward life, and their mutual charity will glow and burn with a brighter flame. Our own Church will be released from the uneasy and ambiguous attitude, in which the blind and ignorant zeal of some of her children would now place her; too proud and exclusive to unite with her fellow-Protestants; too conscience-smitten by the memory of her martyrs to lapse totally into the harlot embraces of Rome; and therefore oscillating from pole to pole, in unnatural isolation. She would then stand out, foremost and most primitive amidst the band of sister-churches; honoured as the main champion of God's pure truth against the grand apostasy, and as the centre light in that sevenfold candlestick, which sends forth, in missionary labours, its streams of radiance to enlighten the dark places of our desolate world. May it please the most high God, who has blessed our country so greatly even to the present day, to give us this crowning token of his goodness! We fervently pray that the baptism of the heir to the British crown may become, so to speak, a further sacrament and pledge of Christian union. "Minds heated by the study of prophecy," Mr. Hope tells us, "into a pious desire of anticipating the designs of Providence, may look to the earthly instead of the heavenly Jerusalem, and think Christian unity to be one of con

cession instead of consent." We plead guilty to neither of these charges. At a time like the present, when the wheels of Divine Providence seem almost to glow with the speed of their own revolution, the Church is in far more danger of lagging behind them in selfish indifference, than of anticipating their progress. Still less do we, and the thousands of Churchmen who think with us, look for any union worth the name from concession without consent. But neither are we so blind as to expect it in this fallen world, by consent alone without concession. This is not the

spirit of Christ, nor the language of the gospel. The same Apostle, who on the great doctrines of the faith, gave place by subjection, no not for an hour; on secondary points of outward observance, became all things to all men, that by all means he might save some. After his blessed example, with a firm consent in the great truths of God's holy word, let us combine a wise consideration of our own weakness and that of our brethren, and an earnest desire for the reunion of the family of Christ; and the way will be made plain before us for a deeper and wider range of Christian fellowship than has ever yet been exhibited to a fallen world. Then will the mighty intercession of our Lord begin to reveal its effectual power and hidden glory;-"That they all may be one, as thou, Father, art in me, and I in thee; that they also may be one in us, that the world may believe that thou hast sent me." May God himself, of his infinite mercy, overrule these recent events, towards the fulfilment of this prayer of our adorable Redeemer!

THE SEVEN SERMONS preached at the Consecration and Re-opening of the Leeds Parish Church. 8vo. Leeds: Green.

1841.

A LETTER TO THE RIGHT REV. THE BISHOP OF CHESTER, with Remarks on his late Charge. By the Hon. and Rev. A. P. PERCEVAL, B.C.L., &c., &c. London. 1841. THE MODERATION OF THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND: a Sermon. By W. F. Hook, D.D., Vicar of Leeds. London. 1841.

A LETTER TO THE REV. C. P. GOLIGHTLY. By WILLIAM PALMER, M.A., Fellow and Tutor of Magdalen College. Oxford: Parker. 1841.

ONE of the most prevalent fancies by which the modern school of ultra-Laudians impose on the credulity of the thoughtless and ill

informed, is that of their peculiar love and veneration for the Church, and more especially for "the Apostolic Episcopate." Constant and reiterated are their boastings on these heads, and never is an opportunity allowed to escape, of describing themselves, on the one hand, as "those who wish to obey their Church: "*"sound Anglican divines"-" those who are faithful to the English Prayer Book," those who "have revivified the Church," + &c.; and, on the other, as the chief and almost sole maintainers of the episcopal form of Church government. Now it has frequently appeared to us that the clearest proofs have been afforded, from time to time, of the hollowness and insincerity of these professions; and that it might even be a duty to place on record some of these proofs, in order both that the credit and influence derived from this assumed character might be stripped away; and also that a just and proper degree of doubt might be suggested, as to the truth and honesty of many other of their professions. We propose, therefore, now to examine the claims of the ultra-Laudian party, to be considered either good and earnest Churchmen, or true and obedient children of what they term " the Catholic Episcopate." And, on each of these points, we shall strictly confine the enquiry to their own writings and proceedings.

First, then, we have to enquire, What claims can these gentleman advance, we will not say to the title of the soundest and best of Churchmen,-but even to be reckoned among loyal and sincere Churchmen at all? Are not their most conspicuous words and actions, at this moment, of a hostile, rather than of a friendly character?

I. The grand necessity of the Church, at this moment, is that of Extension. Upon this being speedily and effectually achieved, her very existence must depend. At present she is rapidly falling into the condition of the old corporations in our borough-towns, which were possessed and valued by the few, but which excluded and were hated by the many; and whose destruction consequently became a thing by which a "popularity-hunting administration hoped to gain public favour and support. Only let the Church fall entirely into the same position in our great towns, and the very same sentence of abolition and dissolution will be passed upon her by some future House of Commons. To be preserved as a national institution, she must really be one. The higher classes alone, or even the higher classes in coalition with a portion of the middle classes, will never be able to preserve a national establishment for their own particular use and behoof. The question, then, whether the present moment, to all appearance a favourable one, shall be * Newman to Faussett, p. 97. Morning Post, Dec. 11, 1841; Jan. 21, 1842.

used by the Church to induce the State to "lengthen her cords and strengthen her stakes,"-is, in fact, the one question upon which the very existence of the establishment hinges. And now let us observe, for a moment, the present position of the question, and the conduct of various parties with reference to it.

It is now about five years since, by various official reports and statements, the appalling facts of the case became generally known; and by the noble example set by the Bishop of London, a way was pointed out for immediate action. Ever since that period a continual effort has been going on, both in town and country, to overtake and remove the evil; but each successive year, and almost each successive month, has made it increasingly evident, that the work was far beyond any amount of power which voluntary efforts could bring to bear upon it.

Entirely convinced of this fact, a movement commenced, about two years since, towards a general and public call on the legislature and the government,-to come forward and take up the matter as essentially and necessarily a public affair, and a national obligation. No sooner was the subject named than petitions began to flow in, and in the course of 1840 and 1841 no fewer than 4457 were laid upon the table of the House of Commons; the universities of Oxford and Cambridge taking the lead in the application.

Thus supported, Sir Robert H. Inglis brought the matter to a vote in June, 1840; and, although opposed by the ministry then in office, lost his motion by a majority of 19 only,-the numbers being, ayes 149, noes 168.

In 1841 the session was almost wholly occupied with the great effort, which proved at last successful, to dislodge the ministry of Lord Melbourne. These struggles left no opportunity for the reproposal of the question; but the friends of the Church felt that no time was really lost,-inasmuch as a government was now obtained touching whose friendly disposition the most confident hopes might be entertained.

Thus stood the question in the autumn of 1841, when up-sprung a new opposition, in a quarter whence it was least of all expected. The most powerful of all the London newspapers, professing, too, the strongest attachment to the Church, entered the field, declaring against any aid being asked from, or granted by, the nation! Whence arose this strange and unlooked-for opposition! Simply and solely from an influence recently obtained over that paper by some of the leading members of the ultra-Laudian party. It is to this inspiration alone that we owe the following piece of bad logic and worse churchmanship:-

(1.) "It is urged by those who recommend Sir Robert Inglis's plan of Church

Extension, that the very principle of an Established Church involves an acknowledgment on the part of the State of the duty of bringing home the ministrations of the Church, so far as temporal endowments can bring them, to every individual citizen;-that the Church is (in the language of an able and excellent writer) made by its establishment' the national organ of religion,' and, as such, ought to have a machinery co-extensive with the nation itself, maintained at the public expense. We are far from saying that in a perfect state of society, this might not be the form which the religious duty of those who govern the nation would assume;-but, as applied to the actual circumstances of Great Britain, we have no hesitation in repudiating it, as a mere theory, destitute of foundation in fact, and resting upon an arbitrary definition of the vague and ill-understood word 'Establish

ment.'

(2.) "When an argument is grounded upon a phrase, it is important to attend to its history. If we look to the history of the phrase Established Church,' we shall find that the thing which those words originally signified no longer exists. From the time of Queen Elizabeth to that of Charles II., the laws of the Church were to all intents and purposes the laws of the land; they were temporally imposed upon every citizen by act of Parliament: dissent and non-conformity from them were no more tolerated than dissent from the practice of the Court of King's Bench, or non-conformity with the statutes against robbery and murder. In this manner the Church was literally and absolutely established by law,' and so the phrase arose, under a state of circumstances which adequately corresponded with its plain grammatical meaning. That state of circumstances has now passed away; no relics of it are left, except in the necessity that the Sovereign should profess the religion of the Church of England, and in the exclusive recognition, upon occasions of public ceremony, of her ministers and form of worship. Some other anomalies there may, perhaps, remain (chiefly felt as grievances to the Church), of which it is hard to say whether they belong to the old or to the new condition of society; but the main idea, formerly expressed by the phrase Established Church,' has been long since displaced by the esta blishment of the opposite principle of Toleration. The phrase has continued in use, but with a different meaning; and it now signifies that religious body which is recognized by the State as possessing an exclusive title, in virtue of its religion, to the confidence, co-operation, and respect of the civil power.

(3.) "We are aware that there are persons who will except against this statement, and quote the possession of the endowments which the Church now enjoys, and the sanctions by which her laws are enforced and administered against her own refractory members, as advantages for which she is indebted to her temporal establishment. But this is far from being the fact. The Church enjoys all her property, with the doubtful exception of Church-rates, merely under the general protection of the law, which is extended to all other property, in whomsoever vested, when once legally acquired. She no more holds her tithe-rent-charge by the favour of the State, than the Duke of Bedford does his; and, in like manner, the property vested in her colleges and cathedrals belongs to them by as independent titles as any dissenting college or meeting-house can boast for its own. The circumstance that modifications have been made in that property by Parliament, with the consent of the Church, expressed through her chief rulers, no more implies the doctrine that she has received it as a gift from Parliament, than the passing of the Thellusson Act implied the same thing in the case of the Thellusson estates. We need scarcely observe that we are here speaking exclusively of the Church of England.

(4.) "Church-rates we admit to be an apparent exception, but more apparent than real. They are a permanent charge upon the land, anciently established by the common law, and subject to which all landed property has been acquired. They may be compared to the right of levying tolls and duties