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66 HIERARCHICAL." ." The Christian ministry, so important and essential a part of Christianity itself, as it evidently appears to be in the New Testament, is, notwithstanding, in these theories perfectly misplaced. We give the following as a sample of the opinions of the Tractarians on the subject of the succession :—“ Had Sancroft truly apprehended what is meant by apostolic succession, that it is the transmission of the grace of the Holy Spirit, derived originally from the Apostles, and perpetuated in the church through a succession of faithful men, to whom it has been handed down, and is transmitted onwards by the imposition of hands, he never could have entertained the idea of transmitting this grace in writing; nor would the other nonjurors, had their divinity been sound, have expected thus to receive the blessing which is attached by Episcopalians to apostolic succession." (The Church-of-England Quarterly Review, April, 1845, p. 463.) In case these notions in question were true, there could be no Christian church at all, that is, no visible Christianity, without a Bishop in the line of the succession, and there could be no true and legitimate Presbyters without this Bishop's ordination. From this it follows, that the very existence of Christianity in the world, in any particular time or place, will altogether hang on the fact, not of there being a Bishop, but of this officer receiving his vocation in a straight line from the Apostles.

We are not placing the subject in a more extreme light than these parties place it themselves: neither are we deducing consequences from the assumed fact which they are not prepared to maintain; and, indeed, are constantly, with courage, not to say effrontery, pushing to extremities. Hence the bitterness against all whom they choose to consider sectaries. Certainly it will be allowed by all thoughtful persons, that the spirit of these parties to their fellow-countrymen, not to say fellow-Christians, is anything but charitable. The hauteur, the assumptions of dignity and power, the lordly scorn with which they speak and write of all who differ from them, the assumed superiority as to their knowledge of the true genius and character of the dispensation of Christ, and their contemptuous imputation of ignorance to all who cannot swallow their nostrums, the claim to deference to their dictum, and the denial of anything like the rights of private judgment to the poor laity, their arrogant claim to a non-responsible commission, and defiance of all other rights and power, are characteristics which everybody must have observed, and no doubt all grow out of the new, at least revived, hierarchical principle which has been adopted. Well, indeed, may these airs of importance and loud assumptions be exhibited, if the claim in question be well formed. We are not surprised that those who have wrought themselves into the belief of this figment, should indulge in a corresponding inflation. Is it not most astonishing that these hardy polemics can look the consequences of their own doctrine in the face? It would not be quite so violent an outrage, at least in appearance, if this principle only went to condemn the Nonconformist bodies in this part of the empire. But when John Knox, and the whole Presbyterian body in Scotland and Ireland, are unchurched, the matter assumes a more grave or ludicrous appearance. The Reformer of Scotland, according to this doctrine, had no calling; the work he achieved was anything rather than Christian; and the body he organized, giving it, as he did, both a parochial and national form, sanctioned and acknowledged by the State, yet was not a church of Christ, but a schismatical and heretical community. Poor Luther, too, must, by this theory, be placed in the same category. The Church, founded by the labours of that inimitable Reformer and his coadjutors, can have no reality,

no saving relation to Christ, cannot, in a word, be Christian. So of the Reformed Churches of Switzerland, the Low Countries, France, and America. These bodies, on the new Anglican principle, are not churches, and their Ministers are thieves and robbers. In this scheme, the Bishop is the centre of the church; and without his office, derived in regular succession, it can have no existence, the Presbyters no authority, sacraments no validity, and the union of professed believers no vitality. Thus the Christian religion is made to repose on an office, instead of a great and immutable provision, or rather on Christ, its only foundation and Head. We, on the other hand, have been long accustomed to view the Christian system as immediately divine; that its executive power is in the hands of Christ, its glorious Head; that its efficacy arises out of the presence and operations of the Holy Spirit; that the only rule of faith and life is the holy Scriptures; that the primitive churches were built on the one foundation in faith, unity, and love; and that, moreover, every believer in Christ, in virtue of his faith, had a right to the fellowship of the church; that this, in fact, constituted the privilege, and not the presidency of a Bishop. We are no advocates for anarchy in the church, any more than in civil society; but we must be permitted to express our belief, that the working of an extreme hierarchical principle was the ruin of primitive Christianity; that the infinite corruptions, doctrinal blasphemies, tyrannic usurpations and exactions, and, in fine, all the dreary and blighting effects of the whole Papal system, originated in this one evil; and we can have no more hope that an Anglican Catholicism, meaning by this an exclusive church system, founded on the priesthood, and worked out by them, will be productive of any other results than such as have appeared in the history of the same thing in the old forms.

Extremes are always mischievous. It may be very true, that some time ago the spiritual and ecclesiastical functions of the Clergy were enfeebled by opposing influences: but is this any good reason for re-asserting the antichristian claims of the Popish priesthood? If this tendency be not checked by every one possessing any sort of influence, and if these high claims be not manfully resisted, we are deeply persuaded that a leaven will be spread through this country which will do more to endanger personal freedom and the rights of private judgment, the just liberties so long enjoyed by Dissenting and Nonconforming bodies, as well as political franchises, than has ever appeared since the settlement of our constitutional rights. We say, If the claims of this new Popery be not checked, we are in the utmost peril; and it is not impossible for this great country again to be brought under the dominion of an ecclesiastical despotism, the more rife and grinding, because indigenous and new. True it is, that, in our time, there are many counteracting influences abroad; but the tendency of the unspiritual mind is to superstition: the truth being rejected, a false system of some sort must be adopted. Rome, Constantinople, and Antioch, were once the seats of evangelical churches; but have long since degenerated into fearful apostasy and corruption. The old adage, that "truth is mighty, and must prevail," may be just as to the final issue; but the history of the Popish and Mahometan apostasies clearly shows that a lie may be successfully upheld, ramified, protected, and adored. It is now to be demonstrated, whether Protestant England is to be made the instrument of embodying a third antichristian system of falsehood; and of giving it power, extension, and perpetuity. The position of this country is fearfully favourable for the accomplishment of a

new and great moral demonstration of some kind, for good or for evil. Her intellectual vigour, her prodigious wealth, her active commerce, her great variety of creed and opinion, her mighty colonial empire, and the restless and enterprising character of her people ;-all seem to indicate that she is destined to build up some gigantic fabric. Her dominion cannot possibly be simply political, her empire cannot be merely material, her sceptre cannot be confined to the enforcement of law. The body will have a soul; the worldly elements will be blended, cemented, and made vital by an inspiring spirit from above or below; and the truth of God will gain one of its most noble and glorious victories, or the arch-deceiver will revel in one of the greatest ruins he was ever permitted to accomplish. We cannot but look on the state of things, at present, as constituting a doubtful probation for the nation. In case the Tractarian sentiments predominate, another fearful apostate power will be organized, and, from the extent of our possessions, organized on a scale as wide as that of Popery or Mahomedanism in their most palmy and triumphant days. On the other hand, if the evangelical church gain the ascendant, the empire of truth will be equally great. We confess that our fears predominate over our hopes. Taking the mental character of the anti-evangelical party into consideration, their acuteness, untiring industry, the favour their sentiments meet with from the high and dignified of the land in Church and State,— though they may discountenance some of the fripperies of the Oxford system, the weight of monetary and official influence thrown into the scale, and the adaptation of an external religion to the vulgar tastes of mankind ;— looking at all these things, we say we cannot but indulge in painful auguries. And, we confess it with sorrow, that this feeling is heightened when we reflect on the indefinite purpose, the scattered position, the divided interests, the little jealousies, and, we add with grief, the declining influence of evangelical Christians. The issue is with God; but the contest of principle must be long and arduous.

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The publication of the extreme opinions that we have adverted to, has produced some re-action. It may be useful to call the attention of our readers to the nature and order of the rival theological literature of the day, as put forth by the several societies. The joint stock principle has found its way, it must be observed, into the department of knowledge and religion, as in other things: we have companies, centralized bodies, with their Committees and officials, established for the purpose extending the opinions and the influence of the various parties. Let us just glance at the most important of these Societies, for the purpose of founding a remark or two afterwards as to the probable results of their operation. 1. The well-known "Tracts for the Times" were the first in order. 2. "A Library of Fathers of the Holy Catholic Church, anterior to the Division of the East and the West. Translated by Members of the English Church."

3. "A Library of the Anglican Fathers."

4. The Parker Society. Instituted for the Publication of the Works of the Fathers, and early Writers of the English Church.

5. The Wycliffe Society.

6. The Society instituted by the Free Church of Scotland.

It would occupy too much of our space either to go into the history of these several Societies; and, from their numbers, a review of their publications is out of the question. It will answer our purpose to specify the classes to which they belong. The first three of this series are under the

management of, and give expression to, the views of the Tractarian party. The Parker Society is supported by the anti-Puseyite members of the Church, and is republishing many of the most valuable writings of her Fathers and Martyrs. The Wycliffe Society is the organ of the Dissenting body, and is reprinting such writings as are considered the best exponents of their views and opinions. The Society belonging to the Free Church of Scotland is designed to raise to life again the venerated Fathers of the Presbyterian body in that country.

Reflective persons have, for some time, thought we were entering on a war of principle: our own belief is, that we are in it. If it be inquired where the array of this polemical contest is to be seen, we at once point to these associations. A war of principle may be waged without fire-arms, and the dead can be made to fight as well as the living. The republication of a man's writings causes him to live over again, opens his lips, unseals his testimony, gives wing to his fiery thoughts, pours upon the world his wisdom or his folly, and places him once more in collision with all his old antagonists. Here then we see on earth again, and in a smart and modern costume, men whom we were accustomed to look upon as lying entombed in literary glory, something after the fashion of our chivalrous chiefs, who repose in cold and massive marble in our national mausoleums. But let us look at what this indicates, and what it probably portends.

To say the least, these efforts manifest great restlessness of spirit, agitation of the public mind, dissatisfaction with things as they are, and anxiety to prepare for a new developement of religion. This deep and extended feeling is, of itself, important; but in its effects, will probably prove much more so. It seems to indicate the breaking-up of the great deep of the national mind, the repudiation of our revered and settled notions on theology and church polity, and the deliberate abandonment of the actual landmarks left by our fathers. But when the mind of man is once set afloat, as on a wide sea, who can tell to what point of space it will drift? This, we conceive, is something like the case before us: for the republication of the writings of the olden time, and especially by the class first mentioned, is not to be understood as designed to strengthen the foundations and bulwarks of an existing church-system; but to confront it, to grapple with it, to undermine it, in fact, to subvert it, and thus to make way for something else. The theology of the Articles and Homilies; of Jackson, Beveridge, Hopkins, Barrow, and Pearson; the constitution of the Church as found in actual being, or as defined by law and usage, or as vindicated by the writings of her most sober, moderate, and orthodox champions, all on the principles of the Reformation; are deemed unsatisfactory. It is evident enough that the design of the Tractarians, in their republication of the Catholic and English Fathers of their selection, is to sweep all these away. But why sweep them away? Evidently to make room for a new theological and religious system, as well as a new basis of operations. The recognised authorities, whether in the form of divinity or law, stood in the path of an ulterior purpose; and, as rubbish is removed for the foundations of a new building, so the real authorities on which the Church of England existed are set aside, and a catena of Fathers and authors marshalled in imposing array, for the evident purpose of beating those out of the field who had long been in possession. But, by the by, many of these Fathers are sadly dealt with in the Tracts. Passages from such authors as Hooker, Hammond, Hall, Jackson, Mede, Usher, Stillingfleet, Pearson, Barrow, and many others, by being torn from their context, are made to

give a meaning which was never in the mind of these eminent men; and, indeed, which is clearly refuted by their well-known and their published sentiments. Let any one advert to the fact, that the names just mentioned are amongst the men who are brought forward in triumphant array, to do what? to unprotestantize the Church of England. This is no calumny, it is sober truth. In the "Tracts for the Times," No. 78, headed, “Testimony of Writers in the later English Church to the Duty of maintaining quod semper, quod ubique, quod ab omnibus traditum est," we find the following dogma laid down, and then a long list of English Fathers introduced to back that and similar sentiments :-" Considering the copiousness and value of the following extracts, the doctrine maintained in them need not be here discussed. With relation to the supreme authority of inspired Scripture, it stands thus: Catholic tradition teaches revealed truth, Scripture proves it; Scripture is the document of faith, tradition the witness of it; the true Creed is the Catholic interpretation of Scripture, or scripturally proved tradition; Scripture by itself teaches mediately and proves decisively; tradition by itself proves negatively and teaches positively; Scripture and tradition, taken together, are the joint rule of faith." And then, in support of this, we have a list of forty-two names, with quotations from their writings. Besides those already given, we find the names of Jewel, Overall, Mortón, Bramhall, Bull, Taylor, Patrick, Potter, Waterland, Bingham, Jebb, Van Mildert, &c. These authorities are brought forward, amongst other things, to support the sentiment given in the above quotation. Can anything be more monstrously unfair? Every man in England, who is in the slightest degree acquainted with the great controversy betwixt Protestantism and Popery, knows that the very men who are brought forward to support the proposition, that "Scripture and tradition taken together are the joint rule of faith," are the most decided, able, and orthodox advocates of Protestantism which have ever appeared on the theatre of this great controversy. But the design has succeeded: these partial, one-sided exhibitions of the opinions of great men have been adopted as their real views; whereas, when examined with their context as one grain in the midst of the heaps and mountains of gold found in their works, or as one stone in the fabric they built,-it will be discovered that the sentiment produced had a perfectly different meaning. As the matter stands, indeed, the selected passages, in many instances, do little towards supporting the notions of the Tractarians, except as a decoy to mislead the inexperienced dupes of their opinions.

One of the most striking evidences of the success of this mode of teaching their doctrines, is discovered in the altered style, tone, and, in fact, ideas, now universally found in all writers belonging to the Church party, with the exception of the evangelical Clergy; and, even amongst them, the transmutation has partially taken place. Let any one give himself the trouble to compare the publications of any party of the Church of England, at any period since the Reformation, with those of the past ten or a dozen years, and he will discover an entire and total change of sentiment and idiom too. In reading the periodical literature of the day, for instance, to say nothing of the writings of such men as Pusey, Newman, Ward, and Oakley, we feel as if we had left English and Protestant ground, and got into the very centre and heart of Popery; as if we had been suddenly transplanted from our native soil and bracing atmosphere, to live, and move, and think in Italy, the very home of the dialectics of the Man of Sin. The proficiency of these adepts is most astonishing, and the