Ireland, though, in reality, they constitute but one Church. And what right has the House of Commons to entertain any projects on the property of this Church? Just as much (and not one iota more) as it has to determine what house we shall live in, or whether we shall live in a house at all! just as much (and not one iota more) as it has to confiscate the estates of our gentry, or to insist on a more equable distribution of the landed property of the kingdom. What then has emboldened this branch of the legislature not positively to repudiate an act of the most unwarrantable tyranny? Would they have dared to offer a similar insult to the Scottish ecclesiastical establishment? No! THAT HAD ITS CONSERVATIVE COUNCIL ! Few nations, European at least, however despotically governed, have been always without a legislative assembly. Successful tyranny has gradually weakened, and ultimately extinguished this salutary power but has this weakened the obligations of the patriot? Far otherwise. It has the rather excited him to maintain that balance which is now wholly intrusted to private hands; or to regain the object which has been thus unjustly withheld. So should it be in the Church. The absence of discipline, and the impotence of a Convocation, are not reasons for dissent, but for union, for zeal, for all Christian, lawful, constitutional exertions to recover the ground we have lost. The laws against witchcraft were in existence until a very late period in their full extent, and are not, even now, wholly abolished. They were practically a dead letter; but was their existence in the statute-book ever urged by any one who desired to escape a commission of lunacy, as a reason for disobedience to the legislature? And yet such an objection would be more reasonable than those drawn against the Church from disused canons. For Parliament was an existing authority, by which the objectionable laws might, at any time, have been repealed: while the Convocation, the only authority which could alter the canons, was virtually nonexistent. It is a melancholy reflection, that canons, and even rubricks, should be habitually violated, and that, too, with the necessary approval of almost the whole Clergy. There are, in many instances, not to say in most, reasons of the highest validity why baptisms should not take place immediately after the Second Lesson. The Rubrick, therefore, on this point, is constantly violated, even by men of the warmest attachment to our Church. This is what, no doubt, would be rectified by a Convocation; now it can only derive the semblance of legality from the countenance of the Bishop, who, in reality, has no more constitutional power in the matter than a deacon. And this is one of many cases, when unauthorized persons are almost compelled to act, till a fearful principle of deviation becomes admitted and sanctioned. And such must ever be the case. Matters intrinsically indifferent can only derive importance from extrinsic alterations; and unless these alterations can be met by a corresponding policy, they must often become inconvenient and injurious. We have lately perused a pamphlet, entitled, The Constitutional Assemblies of the Clergy the proper and only effectual Security of the Established Church; by a Presbyter of the Reformed Catholic Church in England. It contains much good sense and well-timed observation. a Bishop, as a Christian, or as a man, although he remained a churchman; and thousands felt and thought with him, and remained sincere churchmen too. How was it then that Mr. Towgood alone could discover a reason for dissent, where so many, equally acute, could not? Nay, Mr. Towgood himself, when he calls Bishop Crofts "a great prelate," implicitly admits that a man might hold strong opinions on the abuses of ecclesiastical chancellors, and yet honourably remain a churchman. Thus does Mr. Towgood withdraw the foundation of his own argument, which, as a necessity, consequently crumbles into ruins. If any reply were requisite, we would say, that we think it has already been sufficiently proved, that matters of discipline, or any other matters not affecting salvation, are not lawful grounds of separation. How far the relative jurisdiction of bishops and chancellors in episcopal courts can affect the salvation of a spiritual community, we leave to Mr. Towgood's friends to shew. Our own are, probably, contented with the hint. But, alas! although no legitimate ground of secession, it is too true that there is a great prostration of discipline in our Church, and perhaps we may be allowed to offer a few words on this alarmingly interesting subject. Many causes are assigned, and they may all be real, but we are satisfied that one is primary to all. How is it possible that the salutary, insensible reform, which can scarcely be called innovation, and which repairs the decays of the body ecclesiastic, as the constant circulation of the humours restores and preserves the body natural, can be maintained in a frame which possesses NO HEART? Our readers will see that we allude to the virtual extinction of the Convocation. A visible church has a temporal as well as a spiritual character to sustain; and however pure in its creed and worship, must, so far as it is temporal, partake the character of all temporal things, be subject to corruption, to detriment, and to decay. These results may, from time to time, be averted or remedied, by the judicious measures of properly constituted functionaries, the vis medicatrix by which the healthy equilibrium of the church constitution is constantly maintained. From the corruption of this salutary action, Rome, whose faith was spoken of through the whole world, and whose obedience was come abroad unto all men, is now "the mother of harlots and abominations of the earth." From the careful and judicious superintendence of a National Assembly, the Church of Scotland, though radically defective in an important point of discipline, is well ordered and respectable. The Church of England, it is worthy of remark, is the only church in all Christendom which has no supreme council. The guardians of her rights can never act in the only really effective manner, in concert. Her abuses must be unreformed, or suddenly and violently reformed, or reformed by no hallowed, no lawful hand. A desperate profligate petitions the legislature to confiscate, or redivide (we forget which, and it matters not in the slightest degree to the argument) the property of the Church of Ireland. The petition is not scouted as absurd, or expelled as infamous, but ordered to lie on the table, and be printed! It is the fashion to talk of a Church of England, and a Church of If a national church is to be maintained, about which doubts can be held only by the infidel and enthusiast; the only means left are by the clergy assuming that power, which it has been shewn belongs to them by the constitution, in their corporate capacity; in which by having long ceased to appear, they have lost their general influence. While that philosophy, which is the declared and active enemy of all religion, has incorporated itself; and succeeded in attaining a position, where it has placed its power upon that fulcrum, which whoever are in possession of are enabled to move the world-the education of the people. Such signs of the times and others (in which the increasing influence of this philosophy appears, not confined as heretofore to the learned, but spreading among the people, relaxing their religious faith, and moral obligations, and bringing into danger our institutions) should remind the clergy, that they have not been, as a body, overlooked in the constitution, but enabled to make an united effort for the preservation of the religion and virtue of the community. The church is now left to its unsupported exertions in these great causes; and therefore, more especially called upon, to exercise its general functions in its lawful assembly, as the only mode of securing its existence, since all human protection has been withdrawn from it. And in the maintenance of their independence which has been restored to them, the clergy will learn to use their own strength, which is the only source of all real security, personal, national, or of peculiar societies. We have slept long enough under the protection of test laws, and of a system of exclusion; that has been withdrawn, and our church will now receive a new and more decisive character, if we be true to the position which we really occupy in the country, and trust for our maintenance in it to our knowledge, and a prudent exercise, of those laws which have secured such a blessing to this country and to the world, as a reformed Catholic church. This is the contitutional mode appointed, for the clergy exercising their sacred duty in a general body; these are the human means provided for the maintenance of our church; which however can be made effectual only by the care with which all its ministers and members conduct themselves, in their several stations, in the spirit of those terms in which the church daily seeks the continuance of the protection (now all that is extended over it) of the Creator and Preserver of all mankind; "that it may be so guided and governed by his good Spirit, that all who profess and call themselves Christians, may be led into the way of truth, and hold the faith in unity of spirit, in the bond of peace, and in righteousness of life.”—Pp. 53–55. After these powerful and comprehensive remarks, we shall only observe, in reference to the present state of things, that we most sincerely hope that every attempt on the part of the ministry or legislature to commit further inroads on the Church, will be instantly met by a resolute declaration and exercise of the dormant rights of the Convocation. We have now analysed Mr. Towgood's work, and the public must judge between the parties. We shall only request the indulgence of the reader for one more paper on this subject, the great importance of which renders it necessary not altogether to abandon it, without some short summary of the state in which the argument is left. THE BISHOP OF WINCHESTER'S CHARGE. MR. EDITOR,An official publication of the Lord Bishop of Winchester's primary Charge having been put forth, in which there is a very important omission, I send you the clause as it appeared in the Hampshire Chronicle of the 17th of August last, that a docu A few extracts here, as not inapplicable, may not be unacceptable to our readers. While the church reposed with confidence under a government entirely and exclusively in communion with her, there might be no benefit resulting from such parliamentary attendance, to overbalance the inconveniences of it. But when the protection, which had been extended to the church by the civil power since the disuse of these assemblies, has been withdrawn, the church must now stand up in its own defence. That societies of whatever kind can be preserved only by general meetings, is a truth which universal experience and daily observation prove. We have only to look abroad at the general practice of mankind; and whether national governments, constituted members of the state with peculiar functions, or private societies collected with whatever object, or of whatever extent, all retain the principle of their life, only while they continue to exercise their functions in a general assembly. The strength of the principle of association has just been shewn with tremendous force in the union of the Roman Catholics, who by the mere exercise of it within the bounds of law, were able to overpower the constitution. Were the clergy of the Established Church not recognized by the State as a general body, they would be criminal in their public duties of delivering unimpaired to their successors, those means which our ancestors provided for the preservation of true religion, if they did not now fly together at the frightful portents that surround us, and cover the ark of God with their defenceless bodies, or clothed with that "armour on the right hand, and on the left,' *which is from above. The most timid of the creatures of nature, the unarmed sheep, that favourite image of our Lord in expressing the character of his disciples, seek refuge in a general union when danger seems to approach. And the very instinct of selfpreservation should now unite the clergy into one general body for their own protection. But they are not left by our wisely-provident constitution to be impelled together fortuitously by imminent necessity; their convocation is provided for by our most ancient and venerable laws. And our whole code must be torn to pieces before the church, in all its branches, can cease to be a constituent part of the realm. To see the public resolutions (they cannot be called laws) which are enacted directly affecting the church, a forgetfulness seems to have taken place of our most ancient and fundamental laws; or that they are laid aside as rusty armour, or ancient weapons curious in their shape, but no longer useful since the improvements of modern warfare; our legislators, engaged in the study and display of eloquence, and the memories of our lawyers filled with the regulations of the minute details of modern society, have left these laws to the study of the antiquary. "Agricola, incurvo terram molitus aratro, Aut gravibus rastris galeas pulsabit inanes, The posterity of these gigantic founders of our constitution, building their sheds of temporary convenience amidst the deep and sublime foundations of former times, behold the ruins of that constitution with as much indifference, with as much ignorance of its beauty, of the principles of its construction, and of the wisdom of its design, as the Arab, who, insensible of the grandeur and beauty which surround him, pitches his tent and pastures his flock within the walls of Palmyra.-Pp. 30–33. The * διὰ τῶν ὅπλων τῆς δικαιοσύνης τῶν δεξιῶν καὶ ἀριστερῶν. 2 Cor. vi. 7. Christian is to be provided not only with armour for defence in the shield worn on the left arm, but with weapons in the right hand for resistance. If a national church is to be maintained, about which doubts can be held only by the infidel and enthusiast; the only means left are by the clergy assuming that power, which it has been shewn belongs to them by the constitution, in their corporate capacity; in which by having long ceased to appear, they have lost their general influence. While that philosophy, which is the declared and active enemy of all religion, has incorporated itself; and succeeded in attaining a position, where it has placed its power upon that fulcrum, which whoever are in possession of are enabled to move the world-the education of the people. Such signs of the times and others (in which the increasing influence of this philosophy appears, not confined as heretofore to the learned, but spreading among the people, relaxing their religious faith, and moral obligations, and bringing into danger our institutions) should remind the clergy, that they have not been, as a body, overlooked in the constitution, but enabled to make an united effort for the preservation of the religion and virtue of the community. The church is now left to its unsupported exertions in these great causes; and therefore, more especially called upon, to exercise its general functions in its lawful assembly, as the only mode of securing its existence, since all human protection has been withdrawn from it. And in the maintenance of their independence which has been restored to them, the clergy will learn to use their own strength, which is the only source of all real security, personal, national, or of peculiar societies. We have slept long enough under the protection of test laws, and of a system of exclusion; that has been withdrawn, and our church will now receive a new and more decisive character, if we be true to the position which we really occupy in the country, and trust for our maintenance in it to our knowledge, and a prudent exercise, of those laws which have secured such a blessing to this country and to the world, as a reformed Catholic church. This is the contitutional mode appointed, for the clergy exercising their sacred duty in a general body; these are the human means provided for the maintenance of our church; which however can be made effectual only by the care with which all its ministers and members conduct themselves, in their several stations, in the spirit of those terms in which the church daily seeks the continuance of the protection (now all that is extended over it) of the Creator and Preserver of all mankind; "that it may be so guided and governed by his good Spirit, that all who profess and call themselves Christians, may be led into the way of truth, and hold the faith in unity of spirit, in the bond of peace, and in righteousness of life.”—Pp. 53–55. After these powerful and comprehensive remarks, we shall only observe, in reference to the present state of things, that we most sincerely hope that every attempt on the part of the ministry or legislature to commit further inroads on the Church, will be instantly met by a resolute declaration and exercise of the dormant rights of the Convocation. We have now analysed Mr. Towgood's work, and the public must judge between the parties. We shall only request the indulgence of the reader for one more paper on this subject, the great importance of which renders it necessary not altogether to abandon it, without some short summary of the state in which the argument is left. THE BISHOP OF WINCHESTER'S CHARGE. MR. EDITOR, An official publication of the Lord Bishop of Winchester's primary Charge having been put forth, in which there is a very important omission, I send you the clause as it appeared in the Hampshire Chronicle of the 17th of August last, that a docu |