raised before them, from which they must be on their guard not to depart, might each, according to their different habits of thought and study, be far misled from the genuine walk of Christian belief and duty. And no doubt they frequently are so misled in all churches, but less, I believe, in ours than in any other; because they have here constantly a faithful monitor in view, which recals them within the bounds which they may have transgressed, and with a soothing but authoritative maternal voice shews them that there are better things than those upon which their minds are too exclusively bent.

1. There is a class of men, for instance, the natural production of an age of light and enquiry-with great powers of mind it may be, and extensive learning, who, if left entirely to their own guidance, and without the language and sentiments of their church kept impressively before them, might easily slide into the support of opinions really unscriptural; but which they might persuade themselves were the true exponents of scripturedoctrine, when divested of the misapprehensions which ignorance or prejudice may have attached to it; and there would insensibly, amidst thinkers of this order, be formed what is called a neological system, which is ever in danger of proceeding to such an extreme as scarcely to leave to revelation any thing to distinguish it from the mere discoveries of philosophy and reason.

thing in the spirit or character of the church of England which discouraged the exercise of elevated powers, or the application of extensive knowledge, it is possible that among these, the lights with which her firmament is now beautified, some "certain stars might have shot madly from their spheres;" but they ever found something in her creed and forms of devotion, their daily and perpetual fare, which, so far from seeming to confine or darken, expanded their faculties and supplied them with their noblest and most luminous employment.

2. There is another class of men who naturally form a great body in every church— those who are apt to test the importance of religion chiefly by its practical results, and consider it to be then only performing its office in the world when it renders men more holy and virtuous. The great preachers to whom I have already adverted, though very far from being mere moralists, and deeply imbued with gospel truth, are still never satisfied without the constant application of that truth to moral ends; and, if they find they can strengthen their conclusions by the aid of Plato, Aristotle, or Cicero, they are not at all backward in applying to these mere human authorities. There were some circumstances in the history of the church which made the tide of theology set somewhat too much in this direction: the puritanism, which had overwhelmed it, became, on the restoration of the church and the monarchy, an object of disgust, beyond what was quite wise or candid; and that religion, chiefly, which was least involved in theory, and came forward most in the universally intelligible shape of conduct, became the favourite theme of the pulpit, and could no doubt plead powerfully in its support the practical spirit of the liturgy and no less of the gospel. The result has been, that there has been embodied in the writings of the divines of several successive reigns, from the restoration downward, the completest system of Christian ethics which the world ever saw; running up, particularly in the hands of bishop Butler, into the most profound deductions from the nature and constitution of man.

Now, shortly after the reformation in England, there was a class of men, most of them ecclesiastics, who, in point of power and comprehension of intellect, the most profound and discursive learning, and the most glowing and masculine eloquence, were equal, if not superior, to any description of thinkers and reasoners whom the world either before or since has seen. But, in their incomparable writings, is there any inlet given to an unscriptural boldness of opinion, or any disposition apparent to substitute their own unauthorised conceptions on divine things, for the declarations of the pure and unadulterated word of God? No; for it is among these that we find our Jewells, our Hookers, our Halls, our Taylors, and our Barrowsmen gifted with capacities and acquirements, and a delight in using them, which the greatest poets, orators, or philosophers have never gone beyond; but who are ever seen, not only with their eyes undeviatingly fixed on the Polar Star of the divine word, but reverently seated at the feet of their own apostolical and scriptural church, and draw-ments of the church of Rome; and, to their ing in the music of her prayers with as much of the humility of little children as when the simple truths of her catechism were first unfolded to them. Now, had there been any

Another favourite topic of the preachers of those times was the important one of the evidences of religion, including not only those of Christianity, but of natural religion; and they have left little to be supplied on those great subjects. For then it fell to their lot to combat the insidious encroach

other high endowments as teachers of virtue and defenders of the faith, Tillotson, Clarke, and others of that powerful phalanx, added the noble reputation of having for ever put

advantages, which cannot be too much reprobated and deplored, the thoughtful and decent among them have imbibed the spirit of Christian humility and of a productive faith.

to flight the worst illusions of error and superstition. While these mighty and useful enterprisers found hands well worthy of them, and were admirably adapted to strengthen and purify the faith and conduct of men of thought and education, it still un- 3. Happily, however, in every Christian fortunately happened that the same ingre- church, a large body of the clergy must be dients, prepared by very inferior artists for the impressed deeply with the vital truths of the ignorant and untaught masses of the people, gospel-chiefly those which relate to the fatal supplied them with but scanty and unsub-corruption of sin, and the merciful means of stantial fare; and it is commonly stated, that the church in general throughout this period sunk into a low state of zeal and efficiency; that vapid moral essays, without point or application, came to be substituted for such overpowering appeals to individual conscience as could alone bring down the strongholds of sin, and that the affecting and fundamental truths of the gospel, relating to human corruption and the great atonement, were but too little felt and insisted on. If this accusation be just-and it has been so often urged that we can scarcely deny there must be grounds for the charge-how much more heavily would it have fallen, had the religious character of the people been left solely to the formation of a clergy, in many respects imperfectly trained, and with numerous temptations to indolence and carelessness prevailing amongst them! But here again the services of the church supplied in no mean degree the deficiencies of its ministers, and even constrained them to expound to the people, on fit occasions, what they might otherwise have neglected-the great leading truths of salvation. Although, as I have repeatedly affirmed, of a most decidedly practical tendency in all its offices and ministrations, discouraging every thing like enthusiastic reverie upon spiritual thoughts and affections, but setting them instantly to work by love in the formation of a life of piety and charity; yet how firmly are the foundations of faith laid in these ministrations, from the first preparations for the commemoration of the entrance of the Son of God into a sinful and suffering world, to that of the redemption which he effected on the cross, and of the glorious hopes inspired by his resurrection! How beautifully and affectingly are these fundamental truths unfolded in the simple narrative of facts, and in apostolical exhortation; and with what unforced but emphatic power does almost every prayer or ejaculation refer to them! So much has this influence effected, that, even where the people have been most left in a state of barbarous ignorance, and to glean for themselves such religious knowledge as their attendance on holy ordinances could furnish, many of them yet possess sound perceptions of divine truth; and under all these neglects and dis

its removal; and must feel that all moral training is vain and ineffectual which does not set out from this commencement. It is principally, indeed, after some wide-spread corruption, consequent on the neglect of these heart-searching truths, that ministers of this kind arise in greatest numbers; as at the time of the reformation, when the preachers of justification by faith broke in, in torrents, upon the dead works which rotted in foul abomination upon the stagnant pool of Romish superstition; and as again took place, when Wesley and his followers sprung up, to rouse the church of England from the slumbers to which I have just adverted. In such clear and uncompromising evangelical annunciations, no doubt the root of the matter is to be found; but it is no less evident that prudence is required in their management, lest they run into errors which in their turn may end in a corruption little less destructive than that which they were called in to dispel. They may lead, as in the case of the Wesleyan proceedings, to an unhappy rent and schism in the body of the church. When such an evil does not ensue, they may still contract the expansive spirit of the gospel by fixing the minds of men solely on a few truths-fundamental, indeed, and which go far to purify the corrupt and deadened soul; but which will not, as is erroneously supposed, of themselves, and by a kind of spiritual infusion, without a continued application of mind to the suggestions of conscience, and to the lights of reason and scripture, open it to the love and the comprehension of all good. Thus there may be introduced into the style of religious thinking and of pulpit ministrations, a continued circle of the same limited ideas, without any considerable moral fruits arising from them; and a kind of mystical phraseology always recurring, though often out of place, and almost hypocritical, because unnaturally applied.

Now I will venture to assert that the perfect system of our English services, upon this delicate ground, has had a wonderful effect both upon those without and those within the church, in restraining the errors of what is called evangelism wherever it is apt to run into error, and eliciting every thing that is good from the fruitful fund of good

which belongs to it.
evangelical than themselves? Do they not
throughout keep constantly an eye on the
peculiar revelations of the gospel, and ever
breathe its genuine spirit? And is not all
this done in plain and simple phraseology,
the most remote possible from any thing like
presumptuous familiarity with holy persons or
things, but expressive, at the same time, of the
most child-like confidence and dependance?
Thus, even of those who have broken the
bonds of church communion, all have not had
the heart to forsake her prayers, but have
carried them along with them. Nor is it
easy for conscientious men, trained in the
communion of the church, to bring their
minds to desert it: her formularies and
language inspire an holy awe, and an uneasy
apprehension of the consequences of schism.
It was long before Wesley-although he almost
thought he had a divine commission inde-
pendent of church authority-could prevail
upon himself to pass the fatal Rubicon; and
many other godly men, as much alive as he
to the dead inertness around them, still
stopped at the threshold, nor would quit the
temple, however it might seem to them un-
hallowed and profaned. Now, for those of
this sacred band who have remained to
purify her interior, and who are now a most
numerous and effective body, in what aspect
does the church to which they have clung
present herself to them? While they cannot
but perceive the most thorough-going gospel
faith in all that she teaches, and see it indeed
to be the foundation-stone of whatever she
professes to maintain; yet they must be
aware that this is done without any contrac-
tion of thought or ringing changes upon
words: and, when the foundation is laid, they
must see that she encourages the widest ex-
cursion into all the realm of practical duty
and calls upon her ministers to follow her
into the minute exposition of "whatsoever
things are true, honest, just, pure, lovely, and
of good report-if there be any virtue, and
if there be any praise.' There are some
particulars too which she brings prominently
forward, of great though mysterious impor.
tance, which have a powerful tendency to
withdraw the minds of her people from per-
petually dwelling upon their inward emotions
of faith as a test of their spiritual state, and
to throw them with a more infantine depen-
dance upon God's covenanted mercies. There
are virtues attributed to the sacraments, in
which the divine Spirit operates upon the
soul without its immediate consciousness, and
which are only to be discovered by their fruits.
Finally, the conscientious churchman is called
upon to contemplate church union as an im-
portant consideration; in which occupation

What can be more | the mind of the individual Christian is in some measure taken out of itself, and is taught to regard itself as forming a part of the great body of which Christ is the head. All these considerations, appearing either in the light of truths which can be distinctly touched, or as sentiments to be felt, encircle those whom the church encloses in her bosom, and prevent them from running into those extremes of individual feelings and experiences, which, carried to an excess, may lead to as great corruptions as any other, and, before now, have not only vitiated the spirit, but have sapped the very foundations of churches. 4. I shall only advert at present to one other respectable body of churchmen, to be found perhaps in all churches, but more in ours, I think, than in any other, excepting only the church of Rome. These are they to whom the disorders now mentioned, arising from church disunion, appear particularly revolting, and whose imaginations are impressed with the imposing dignity of a church, continuing unbroken and entire from the apostolic ages to the present. Now I have said that the encouragement given by our church to these views, to the extent in which it is given-the solemn language which she holds upon the subject-is productive of admirable effects, and has its foundation undoubtedly in truth; but it is a truth not quite tangible, and which is rather to be felt and surmised than formally proved: and there is great wisdom, and, if I may use the expression on such an occasion, excellent tact shewn by the church of England in keeping back from the proof, and being satisfied with throwing in only some hints and suggestions, and referring to a few irrefragable facts. There have always, indeed, been within its body venerable men who have wished to go much further-such as archbishop Laud, and other divines of the same stamp in early times; and to a still greater degree the divines who have lately arisen among us, and whose singular views have occasioned so much ill blood and angry discussion. I am myself far from thinking that they have been actuated by any other than pure and elevated conceptions of a beau ideal of church perfection, such as are apt to fall upon secluded men, who, with great learning confined to a certain range of enquiry, and with some imagination and poetry, body out to themselves the image of a church almost as an existing person, and acquire a kind of enthusiasm for its beauty and purity— "O Dea certe !" much like that of the Roman catholics for the holy Virgin. While the thing goes little beyond poetry, it is all very well: it is a fine embellishment to such a volume as the "Christian Year"; and there may be many very refined and pious spirits, whom

as to the divine origin of her own ecclesi- |
astical constitution, and some other points;
of which she says nothing that can bear
harshly on the feelings of any, either within
or without her pale. So far I would carry
this reserve doctrine; and I would apply it
too, perhaps, to several other points of reli-
gious discussion and controversy, which
cannot be supposed to appear of equal im-
portance to every one. For instance, I might
not think it necessary to settle the exact value
of the opinions of the fathers, and whether
the red thread thrown from Rahab's window
in Jericho, was a type of a very sacred kind,
or nothing more than a red thread. I may
believe that in the present day, things of
much more importance-such as a thorough
system of education for a very ignorant peo-
ple, or the best means of reforming a very
vicious one-may well occupy the cares of
our clergy, both in country parishes and in
towns; and I should be much disposed to
defer the above knotty controversies, with
many others of equal consequence, as well
as the erection of crosses upon the walls of
our churches, or candlesticks upon their
altars, with projected improvements in the
dress of the clergy, at least to the year 1942.

THE CHURCH AND THE WORLD.

with destruction.

and still in every state and under every dispensation
its most distinguishing characteristic is witnessing of
the truth. Great, doubtless, was the derision with
which Noah was assailed when he, "being warned of
God of things not seen as yet, moved with fear, pre-
pared an ark" (Heb. xi. 7). They," every imagina-
tion of whose hearts was only evil continually,"
laughed at the work by which he practically con-
demned them, and taught that God's judgment was
about to overwhelm their race
When that judgment really came when Noah and
his family had entered into the ark, and the Lord
had "shut them in"-when the swelling waters
began to prevail upon the earth, and there was no
place of refuge, then the wretched infidel without,
and the trembling, trusting believer within, were
alike monuments of his truth who will finally, as
in that symbolic flood, be justified by the world as
well as the church-by the condemnation of the
wicked as well as by the salvation of the righteous.

The Israelitish church, from its deliverance out of Egypt to its establishment in the promised land, was a witness unto all nations of the omnipotence and truth of God. The Egyptians saw their wise men and magicians-men initiated into all the mysteries of that learning for which they, in ancient times, were renowned throughout the world-quail before the messenger of the Lord; they heard them acknowledge, "This is the finger of God" (Exod. viii. 19); they beheld when they could not stand before Moses" (ix. 11), and "their vaunting in wisdom was reproved with disgrace" (Wisd. of Solomon xvii. 7). They saw their king still refusing to listen to the demand of the God of the Hebrews, "Let my people go, that they may serve me" (Exod. x. iii.); they endured plagues-loathsome, grievous, terrifying, till that fearful midnight when "the Lord smote all the first-born in the land, and there was a great cry in Egypt; for there was not a house where there was

BY THE AUTHOR OF "TALES OF THE MARTYRS." not one dead" (xii. 29, 30). The haughty king yielded

No. X.

TRUTH AND FALSEHOOD.

OF Satan, the prince of this world, we are told that "there is no truth in him; he is a liar, and the father of it" (John x. 44). From the first temptation, the first assurance to Eve, "Ye shall not surely die" (Gen. iii. 4), down to the present hour, his work has been to deceive. Conspicuous upon the surface of every generation we trace the effects of this deceit in the various systems of false worship invented amongst men; from the simpler idolatry of the Persian to the complicated machinery of Grecian mythology-from the first misguided being who, having forsaken the one true God, was tempted, when he beheld the sun shining in his strength, the moon and the stars lighting up the heavens with their beauty, to fall down and worship them, to the thousands, tens of thousands of human souls, at this very day bowing before stocks and stones, suffering the pure revelation of the gospel to be superseded by the incoherent rhapsody of the koran, and in ways innumerable and devious, "a maze without an end," still following "lying divinations"-we behold how easily the boasted reason of man falls a prey to the most absurd and revolting devices of Satan, when it is once estranged from the guidance of divine truth. Opposed to these deceptions, in every generation the church of God has stood forth to bear witness of this truth: we see it, according to human estimation, reduced at times to the very verge of extinction: we see it confined to a single family, to one people; we see even that chosen people, so to all appearance wholly given to idolatry, that the zealous though mistaken prophet thought he alone was left: we see it wandering as an outcast in the wilderness, taking a lofty rank amongst the nations of the earth,

for awhile, the people trembled at the presence of
the heretofore despised bondmen, and the Israelites,
according to the promise of their God, were thrust
out of the land of Egypt (xi. 1, 12, 39). One more
trial, and, confessing the irresistible might of the one
true God, Pharaoh and his host were overwhelmed
(xiv. 25-28). "And Israel saw that great work which
the Lord did upon the Egyptians; and the people
feared the Lord, and believed the Lord, and his ser-
vant Moses" (31). The idolatrous Canaanites heard
of all that the Lord had done, and "their hearts
melted, and there was no more courage in any man;"
for they knew that the God, who had brought his
people forth with such "a mighty hand," was indeed
"God in heaven above and in earth beneath" (Josh.
ii. 11).

The queen of Sheba "heard of the fame of Solomon," and "she came from the uttermost parts of the earth" to prove him "with hard questions;" and, when she had seen his works and the greatness of his wisdom, "there was no more spirit in her ;" and, while acknowledging how far the reality exceeded even her high expectation, she blessed the Lord his God (2 Chron. ix. 1-8). Elijah upon mount Carmelthe sole prophet of the Lord opposed to the four hundred and fifty prophets of Baal, exclaiming to the assembled tribes of Israel," How long halt ye between two opinions? If the Lord be God, follow him; but if Baal, then follow him" (1 Kings xviii. 21)-is a type of the conflict carried on in every age between the church and the world, between truth and the multiplied inventions of falsehood.

Under the gospel dispensation we find St. Paul characterizing the church as "the pillar and ground (or stay) of the truth" (1 Tim. iii. 15). By the blessing of God, the church of England strikingly displays that characteristic; many even who have separated