The unaffected piety profound, That thy whole life as with a halo crown'd: Who unto thee, as to a father, clung. The earnestness with which thou wouldest plead, With those it was thy chief delight to feed, Till thy own warmth pervaded all around: Ah! what afford our longing hearts relief? THE HON. AND REV. BAPTIST W. NOEL AND THE ESTABLISHED CHURCH. SECESSIONS from the Establishment, in our day, have ceased to be matters of notoriety. The Romish Calendar will prove their number to have been very considerable; but we verily believe that they must be multiplied as ten to one, if the plague-spot of Tractarianism is to be removed from the English Episcopate. Like a secret leaven, it is working itself into the heart of English Society. With the rich (see Mr. Bennett's church, Knightsbridge and the worldly,) it is every day becoming more fashionable. And among the poor it is gaining golden opinions, by the wonder-working power of the Offertory. Secession will be no more heard of among this class, if their ritualism should become palatable, and the Bishops should wink at the enormous abuse. Ignorance of spiritual religion will secure the one result, and worldly ecclesiastical policy will produce the other. It is vain to dream of spiritual discipline where none exists. The men least tending to Romanism will be more hardly dealt with than those who never have imbibed the true spirit of the Reformation. Much, indeed, will depend on the particular Diocese in which a clergyman ministers; but in too many, alas! of the Dioceses formalism will have a better chance of preferment, than a pure and ardent zeal for apostolic truth. Meanwhile, earnest men in the Establishment are pondering the great lessons of the age, and are looking with a full and throbbing heart at what is passing around them. It comes within the scope of our personal knowledge to be assured that not a few, at the present moment, are profoundly exercised as to the path of duty in reference to their ecclesiastical position. Their language is: "Lord, what wilt thou have me to do?" and "the meek will he guide in judgment,the meek will he teach his way." Our prayer is, that no worldly motives or considerations may be suffered to supplant the decisions of conscience enlightened by the word of God. Men of the greatest power will become feeble the moment they cease to " 'obey God rather than man." These are not times when feeble and divided purposes will enable Christian men to meet the crisis which is coming upon them. We want a Luther or a Knox to realize those great reformations, which it was in their hearts to accomplish, but which the times in which they lived forbade. It is verily health to our bones to meet with an earnest-fearless man. We rank him instinctively with the heroes of his age. He lives not only for his own day, but for all time coming. He will be "had in everlasting remembrance." Such a man," by the grace of God," is Baptist Noel. Born to rank and fortune, educated with nobles and aristocrats, bred originally to the highest branch of the law; we find him, while yet the dew of youth was upon him, sacrificing all "the pride of life" at the shrine of humble piety, and treading with holy zeal in the footsteps of his honoured and sainted mother, who did more for the cause of evangelical religion than most of the Christian women of her age. We watch his progress for a few years, and find him counting all the honours of the legal profession, in which, from his talents and connections he bid fair to rise to the first rank, but " 'loss," that he might "spend and be spent," in proclaiming to perishing sinners "the unsearchable riches of Christ." That he did not quit the laborious profession of the law, to seek ease and indulgence in his clerical vocation is demonstrated by an appeal to the entire course of his ministry in the Establishment. Few public men have made more laborious preparation for the pulpit; few have exercised a more watchful care over their flocks; few have devoted more of their time and energy to the cause of general philanthropy. And if popularity, if the favour of the great, if the most tempting offers of preferment, if the smile of courts, and the most hearty good-will of his beloved Sovereign, could have swayed a mind of the order to which his belongs, we should not have had to record the fact-the unpalatable fact to many-of his NoNCONFORMITY, as the result of a process of inductive examination which no secondary considerations could arrest at any stage of the momentous inquiry. To every candid mind, it will readily occur, that all the prejudices of education and early training, all his former associations and habits, and all his worldly interests, stood in the way of the position he has reached. But he entered the Establishment with a good conscience, and he could no longer abide in that Establishment when conscience told him to retire. liberal Press, so called, is attempting to write down by the most silly and contemptuous abuse? Is this the man whose elaborate and catholic volume on "the Union of Church and State," has been pronounced, by an anonymous scribbler, as "a compilation of false logic and intemperate invective?" Is it not an infinite discredit to the advocates of the Establishment thus to slander and misrepresent a man who has lived only to bless his fellow-creatures? whose motives and character are above suspicion? whose course of reasoning in defence of the position he has taken is deserving, and will receive, the grave consideration of all enlightened and unprejudiced men? Who does not know that sweeping indiscriminate condemnation is an easy manufacture, as compared with a pains-taking— convincing reply to an author's arguments? Many who are now making light of Mr. Noel's train of reasoning against Church Establishments, would quail before such a mind as his, were they compelled to encounter his masculine intellect in any fair arena. Some of the writers to whom we refer would have lauded Mr. Noel to the skies, had he come forth from the press with some masterly scheme for Ecclesiastical Reform; but when, as the result of a most painful investigation, he has felt himself constrained to assail the very principle of an Establishment, believing it to be incompatible with the freedom and life of the Christian Church, how could he, with any show of consistency, have proposed to prop up an edifice which he regards as rotten and corrupt at its very base? The man who occupies the point of vision which Mr. Noel now does, can no longer dream of the work of repairing Establishments. In his deliberate conviction, "the Union of Church and State" is at variance with the distinctly expressed will of the Church's Head, with the laws which bind the consciences and the conduct of his Disciples, with the form and order of the Apostolic Churches, and with that visible and palpable separation between the And is this the man that even the Church and the world, so essential to the final triumph of the Christian cause. If the class of writers referred to will but follow Mr. Noel through his laborious and well-sustained train of thought, they will be at no loss to discover the prolific source of all those fearful abuses which prompt their continual cuckoo-note of Church Reform. They will see, as in the light of day, that they are fruits of the Establishment principle; and that nine-tenths of them could never have existed if "the Union of Church and State" had not been created. But if intolerant liberals, High Church bigots, and Puseyite Priests, are disposed to treat Mr. Noel with but little of the courtesy due to his character and manly virtues, simply because he has written a book against "the Union of Church and State," in what spirit is his present position to be regarded by his Evangelical Brethren, whom he has left behind him in the Establishment? The Church articles which we have read on Mr. Noel's book are pitiable exhibitions of ill-temper and splenetic vituperation. His book is "one-sided," " narrow-viewed," "illreasoned," "most illogical," "puritanical," "full of tiresome repetitions," "uncharitable in the highest degree," and all such things. Now we really believe if Mr. Noel's argument had been less vexatious, if his book had been less thorough-going in its character, there would have been less of this fault-finding. We have seen no article as yet written by any one capable of grappling with the great question. Contempt and scorn are the only weapons resorted to. But will it serve the interests of the Establishment thus to treat Mr. Noel's Secession, or his book? Can it be that his Evangelical Brethren will resort to such modes of warfare? Do they not owe to a man so amiable and enlightened a calm and respectful review of his opinions? We shall look very earnestly at the course which may be taken by them. How will the Biekersteths, the Stowells, the M'Neils, the Birks, and others, act towards their friend and Brother? He is no Puseyite, he is no High Churchman, he is no Romanist. He has not lost his character, nor abandoned his spirituality. But in the solemn review of a great question, as in the sight of God, he has come to the conclusion that the Church-and-State connexion is opposed to Holy Scripture, the authority of Christ, and the spiritual interests of the Christian Church. They may argue with him, they may refute his positions, they may expostulate with him for quitting his post; but if they do not deal with him as "a Brother beloved," we shall say to them, without scruple, "Ye know not what spirit ye are of." Let them read as much, reflect as much, and pray as much, as Mr. Noel has done in reference to the step he has just taken, and then treat him otherwise, if they can, than in the spirit of love and meekness. To the honoured Minister of Jesus Christ who is the subject of these remarks, we should say, with affectionate earnestness, "Fear not the judgments or the censures of your fellow-men,-be not dismayed even if ancient Friends should forsake you, and some of your own converts should become your censors. You have acted for God, and he will sustain you in the mighty conflict. A good conscience is the noblest of all possessions. Pardon us, if we say, Be as watchful of your future steps, as we have reason to believe you have been of those already taken by you. Whether you are to be a Free-Church Episcopalian, or a FreeChurch Presbyterian, or a Congregational Independent or Baptist, is with us a matter of minor consideration. All we wish to see is, that you should take your ground firmly and promptly, in accordance with the great principle of the Spirituality of Christ's kingdom which you have so nobly advocated. We shall hail you as a faithful witness for Christ, in whatever section of the voluntary Church you feel called upon to exercise your future ministry. Our only hope is that you will not impose silence on yourself for any lengthened period. Christ sent you to preach the gospel; and that duty ought not to be suspended upon the settlement of any Ecclesiastical question. May the pillar and cloud guide and attend your steps!"-(See first article of Review.) EDITOR. TRACTARIAN NOVELS. A VERY seasonable article under this a sinister purpose is, in our view, highly title appeared in the British Quarterly | objectionable. for August in the last year; and another, entitled "Tractarian Teachings for Ladies," in the Eclectic Review for September. To Protestants they abound in marvellous revelations, which we think ought not to be confined to the readers of those publications; but to be diffused through the whole empire by our cheaper and more easily come-at-able periodicals. If our people are to be Romanized and once more plunged into the dark and horrible abyss of Popery, let them not be taken by surprise or ensnared without being warned, by the cunning craftiness of men who lie in wait to deceive. Tractarianism, in our view, is the nearest approximation to this "prodigious structure of imposture and wickedness" -standing in immediate affinity with the Apocalyptic Harlot the impure offspring of the Man of Sin. All other existing churches must be estimated as they approximate to, or recede from, the constitution, tenets, discipline, and spirit of the Church of Rome;-For as primitive discipline, a popular union of fraternal freedom, is one extreme, and the papal system of unmixed despotism is the other; among the intermediate lines, the nearest to one extreme are the most pure, the nearest to the other are the most corrupt. To Religious Novels, we feel almost instinctive repugnance. In this description we do not include the poetry, the sentiment, and the beautiful creations of which religion may be the subject. We do not deny that as the works of sanctified genius and within their proper limits, they may subserve the interests of immortal truth. But the novel, with A perilous heap of such works is now upon our table; all intended to effect the same object; by similar means. The Tracts were the spawn-and these are the progeny. They have a winning and attractive appearance; and at the same moment they fascinate,-they destroy. They begin with the nursery, and end with the college. Their chief arts, however, are employed to awaken female zeal, and to convert the daughters of England into the emissaries of Rome. As subordinate to their principal aim and end their authors incessantly labour to debase and enslave the human mind. The right of private judgment they assail with a most inconsistent show of argument; but more frequently with supercilious scorn and unreasoning contempt. Hence, too, they insist upon implicit faith in the most monstrous, absurd, and impossible dogmas-all of Romish origin or adoption; and descend to the most puerile forms and ceremonies-the merest trifles - insisting on minutiæ which are utterly incompatible with a scriptural and healthy piety; and draw down the mind from the greatest Being in the universe to a toy which a child might play with for a day and be thoroughly ashamed of in a week. This is strong language. It is thoroughly borne out by the publications before us. Speaking of the Bible Society, that most oracular and self-complacent personage, the writer of "Rest in the Church," asks, "Can any one point out to us that it has been other than a great, if not a ruinous mistake?"-"It was not thus," she goes on to say, "as it is with these possessors and not doers of the its heros and heroines, drest up as pup- word, when Chrysostom and Augustine pets of a religious drama to accomplish preached, when Xavier baptized, when 1 this writer exclaims, "Who that has abided for a time in the desolate places of German, English, or Parisian reasoning-religion, and then in his utmost need been gathered to the shelter of the Catholic Church, does not feel a sadness steal over his present joy, because of the heavy remembrance of the still-unblessed companions of his past." The following passage is remarkable. It seems, accord Francis of Assisi bade to penance.' The priesthood who are to wield the tyrant rod over the popular mind it seems may study as much as they please, and we are presented with a few of the indispensable accomplishments of the student - theologian: but which are followed by an attack on the laity who presume to think for themselves: "One smiles, remembering these things, when one hears the frequenting to this, that the impiety which some flippant injunction from the platform to a popular assembly, from the press to the poorest and most occupied, 'Let your own minds be the judges! study the claims we have set before you! never: yield a blind assent! be guided by the decision of your understanding! One sighs, too, reflecting that "His FOOLISH THINGS WILL CONFOUND THE WISE. Much more is added of the same kind, intended to deprecate the exercise of the understanding on any subject which the church has taken into her exclusive and holy keeping. Blind assent, implicit obedience, must be yielded to an unintelligible something, called a church, and assuming Divine authority, on grounds which the writers well know cannot stand the test of reason or of Scripture. We contend for obedience to authority as strenuously as the most implicit believer of them all. But let us be satisfied that that authority be Divine. We say,-let reason bow to Scripture, and faith believe a speaking God;-but it will not do to tell us that there is any visible institution upon earth, however sacred, that has a right to contravene the apostolic injunctions: "Prove your own selves"-" Prove all things" "Stand fast in the liberty wherewith Christ hath made you free""Let every man be fully persuaded in his own mind." When we hear any man oppose reason to faith and declare that they are irreconcileable, we look upon him as the enemy of spiritual and scriptural religion. Is not the following worthy of a cisalpine shaveling? Purposely confounding the legitimate exercise and the abuse of the understanding, "Rest in the Church," pp. 18, 19. Roman Catholics disavowt is, by the Tractarians, transferred from the pontiff to the church: "Surely it is equally in mercy as in wisdom, that ALMIGHTY GoD, and his vicarious representative on earth · HIS CHURCH, have placed the opposing finger of displeasure on this FACULTY (the understanding) so fearfully abused.""For the masses"—that is, the common people, to whose reason and understanding the Gospel was propounded as a faithful saying and worthy of all acceptation,—and of the truth and value of which they were called upon to decide according to each man's individual judgment, "For the masses," we are assured that "Almighty God has provided the authoritative voice of his holy church,-the simplicity and the sublime mystery of salvation, through a creed and sacraments"-which they are to receive as babes receive their food §-yet such is "the bereaved and beleaguered state of the English Church," and so little able is she to accomplish her apostolic mission, in her corporate capacity, that the bewildered layman is directed to choose his own pope, till he can be conducted into a safer communion. "Alas!" (how pathetic!) "alas! in the Church of England at the present, what should any do if not trust themselves to 'some living teacher or model of sanctity, who may seem especially commended to their confidence.' What should the tried truthseeker in ordinary ways of life do, but |