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 unfortunately happened that the same ingredients, prepared by very inferior artists for the ignorant and untaught masses of the people, supplied them with but scanty and unsubstantial 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 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. 3. Happily, however, in every Christian church, a large body of the clergy must be impressed deeply with the vital truths of the gospel-chiefly those which relate to the fatal corruption of sin, and the merciful means of 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 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 expres sion 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 which belongs to it. What can be more 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 independent 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 unhallowed 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 contraction of thought or ringing changes upon words: and, when the foundation is laid, they must see that she encourages the widest ex-venerable men who have wished to go much 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 importance, which have a powerful tendency to withdraw the minds of her people from perpetually dwelling upon their inward emotions of faith as a test of their spiritual state, and to throw them with a more infantine dependance 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 important consideration; in which occupation 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 to such an extent, these views may inspire with much true sanctity and devotion. But, when they are brought out to change the position of churches, either in their bearings upon secular affairs and state concerns, or on the charitable courtesies due to other churches, or in their internal regulations and opinions, then, I say, the church of England gives them no encouragement; and those, who are for pushing these things beyond the limited sphere in which they ought to work, are by no means true sons of that church. I am very far indeed from wishing to trammel human enquiries in any walk whatever; and, if the students of ecclesiastical antiquity, who are now for moving the world by a lever elevated from the distance of St. Clement or St. Ignatius, choose to persist in their researches, I have certainly no inclination to oppose them. My only recommendation to them is, to take the present times as they find them, and be satisfied with the prospect of bringing their lever into play, it may be perhaps, an hundred years hence. By that time, the Christian world may perceive that it requires a new reformation, and one conducted on very different principles from that on which it has prided itself so long. All sects may then have come to repent them of their schisms-all churches may see clearly that they ought to be under episcopal government-and the church of Rome may be so thoroughly cleansed from its impurities, that our Anglican church may again merge into it with advantage and without jeopardy*. Admirer as I am of the church of England, I am not going to affirm that she has reached the finality of perfection. There are grand prophetic intimations of something far better in the Christian church than we have yet seen, or can possibly imagine; and it would be much more inspiring to fill our minds with those high conceptions in the magnificent obscurity in which they are presented to us, than to attempt to bring into light our own bungling representations of them. When they really break upon the world, it will scarcely be in the shape of albs, or copes, or crosses, or candles. In the mean time the walk before churchmen is quite clear. They must be very zealous and very charitable. Perhaps the idea of a true churchman is best to be delineated by the supposed union of all the classes I have above enumerated. He must be very evangelicalfix the foundations of his character and doctrine in the purity and simplicity of Christian faith, and feel, in all his walk among men, that he is not his own, but bought with a This may, indeed, take place; but we see, and we fancy our respected correspondent quite agrees with us, little likelihood of it.-ED. price. He must be very practical-carry the principles of the gospel morality into every department of human conduct, and think no actions too minute and insignificant to have that sacred rule applied to them. He must be anxious to exercise, to their full extent and to their best and holiest ends, all the faculties which God has given him : he ought to keep before him, as his models in this particular, the eminent men, with whom no church abounds more than our own; and, if the direction which knowledge has taken in the present age is somewhat different than in theirs, he will do well to add that of the works of God to that of the words and languages of men. With his mind thus built up in faith, "moving in charity, and turning upon the poles of truth," he may further "rest in Providence" when he contemplates the origin, the history, and the prospects of the church of Christ, and the intermediate position of his own in its eventful course. He may well magnify his office, if its grand design and object be to promote the purity of the faith of the gospel, and its practical influences within the bosom of his own primitive and catholic church-a bosom wide and maternal enough to embrace the world, would it enter within its arms; but he will think it no desecration of that office, to rejoice in all the good which other sects or churches perform, in whatever points he may differ from them, and in all godly sincerity to grieve over their errors, and sympathize with their disasters. There is a doctrine supported in the present day by the class of churchmen to whom I have last alluded-the doctrine, I mean, of religious reserve. Now this is a true doctrine, if the points to which it ought to be applied be duly weighed and distinguished. Our Saviour practised it when he did not condemn as nugatory the Jewish ordinances, which, though soon to vanish, were yet useful and valuable till the full establishment of his religion could dispense with the use of them; nay, he himself set the example of piously conforming to them. The apostles followed their Lord in the same track, but, having less light on several occasions to guide them, they seemed to be more perplexed as to how far they were to carry, or where they were to limit, their compliances. The church of England practises reserve, not certainly on the great points of Christian belief. She has no reserves on her Good Friday, or her Easter-day, in regard to the doctrines then to be brought forward to the lowest of the people, or on the hold which they ought to possess of the humblest soul which contemplates them. But she does practise some reserve on the awful subject of the secret decrees of God-as to the precise effect of the holy sacraments as to the divine origin of her own ecclesiastical 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 religious discussion and controversy, which cannot be supposed to appear of equal importance 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 people, 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 1942. year THE CHURCH AND THE WORLD. BY THE AUTHOR OF "TALES OF THE MARTYRS." 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, | demned them, and taught that God's judgment was 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, prepared an ark" (Heb. xi. 7). They, "every imagination of whose hearts was only evil continually," laughed at the work by which he practically conabout 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 not one dead" (xii. 29, 30). The haughty king yielded 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 of voluntarily partaking of and encouraging the very schism they have deprecated, by attending the meetings to which it has given rise. from her communion admitting that, in every doctrine necessary to salvation, she is not only in our own land, but throughout Christendom, the great "pillar and stay of the truth." Her articles, founded upon an Is this conduct agreeable to the truth, that truth explicit declaration "of the sufficiency of the holy which emanates from him "with whom is no variscriptures for salvation" (Art. 6), asserting the church ableness, neither shadow of turning?" Is it reveto have "authority in controversies of faith," to "berential to the God who heareth prayer? a witness and a keeper of holy writ" (20), contain a summary of the Christian faith, and a concise and clear explanation of many points of doctrine, especially those which had just been purified from the corruptions of the Romish church. These articles are too generally regarded rather as a test for the clergy than as they really are, a well-spring of sound doctrine"the true doctrine of the church of England agreeable to God's word" (declaration prefixed to articles); to which it would be good for every member occasionally to repair for the renovation and refreshment of faith. The 8th article declares that "the three creeds-Nicene creed, Athanasius's creed, and that commonly called the apostles' creed-ought thoroughly to be received and believed; for they may be proved by most certain warrants of holy scripture." The apostles' creed, the most concise and simple, is used as the profession of belief required in candidates for baptism, and is, by the provision of the church, to be taught to every child so baptized, so soon as it shall be able to learn. The creeds are employed not merely to instruct the young members of the church in the principles of our holy faith, they are so interwoven into her services that none can, with sincerity, take part in them unless they do believe the truth; the congregation is never assembled without being called upon to repeat one, or in the morning of Sundays and holydays two, of these creeds-creeds precisely the same in substance, but rendered more explicit as the growth of heresy made such amplification needful. Is there no reason to fear that this one deliberate hypocrisy, of asking deliverance from what we are at the very time intending to run into, may render all our prayers odious in his sight? Place it in the most favourable light in which such a habit can be placed, does it not accord better with the duplicity of the world than with the sincerity and simple truth of the church? To those who err through ignorance may our divine Saviour's supplication amid the agonies of the cross extend in saving efficacy-we trust it does extend to all our unknown sins-" Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do." Still more numerous are they who, without going so far as actually to join dissenters in their worship, yet assist the spread of dissent by giving it pecuniary assistance and the sanction of their names. If we believe schism to be the baneful work of the great enemy of truth, one of the fiery darts with which the wicked one is permitted to harass and wound and weaken the church-and surely none of any party who think seriously upon religion can consider a state of division desirable in itself, or favourable to the spread of real Christianity - is it meet that her own children should lend their aid to the assailant? We know not how the term "charity" may be defined by those who employ it as leading to conduct like this; but we are left in no doubt as to the meaning of the charity which is taught by the church, nor to the practice which in this particular also it induces. The charity she inculcates is that which St. Paul so fully describes in Cor. xiii.; a charity proving itself genuine by "rejoicing in the truth." The charity which is not thus based upon truth, however specious in appearance or loud in pretension, is not the charity of the bible and the prayer-book; is not, while it leads us to encourage error, cannot be a fruit of the Spirit, even the Spirit of truth (St. John xiv. 17). Charity, as set forth in the prayer-book of our church, is a lowly imitation of the perfect charity exhibited in the character of her Lord; a charity not less conspicuous for its hatred of sin than for its love of sinners. Clearly she states, that "Whosoever will be saved, before all things it is necessary that he hold the catholic faith" (Creed of St. Athanasius); clearly she propounds the articles of that faith. Amongst the other evils by which her members are assailed from inward disposition and outward temptation, she teaches us to implore deliverance "from all false doctrine, heresy, and schism:" a little onward and we find her, in the spirit of that same charity which "hopeth all things," beseeching God "that it may please him to bring into the way of truth all such as have erred and are deceived." We are taught to The truth of the church is a truth that admits of no compromise with falsehood. It stood in calm serenity, unmoved amid the rage of persecution: it stands now with the same quiet fervour testifying against the contemptuous indifference with which it is regarded by the world in our own day. Infidelity and heresy and schism assail, as they ever have assailed, the one true church; but, in addition to these, she has now to contend with a more insidious foe-a foe combining something of the essence of all three, and the suitable offspring of an age so dazzled by a sudden influx of secular knowledge, as to seem for awhile blinded to the clear, steady light of truth. This foe, whose attack upon truth consists in a systematic attempt to place it upon a level with falsehood, is of all our adversaries the most dangerous to the individual members of the church. It assumes the title of liberality; it dares to lay claim to the sacred name of charity; and many, who would shrink from its real principles if openly avowed, are misled by this assumption to fall into the snare, and to countenance and encourage errors condemned by the church to which they profess allegiance, and thus, by their inconsis-pray "that, being not as children carried away with tency, to give unto her enemies occasion of reproach. We cannot but grieve over schism, believing it as we do to be sinful-sinful for the very same reason that any other sin against God and our own souls is sobecause it is condemned in his holy word; but even more grievous is the extent to which a schismatic spirit prevails amongst those who still profess themselves members of the church. The effects of this spirit-a spirit which discerns no difference between the church and the innumerable sects around, and which holds with the opinion that every individual has a right to choose and invent his mode of worship for himself-may be most easily discerned in the conduct of the lower classes of society; they carry it out into practice, and it leads them to the inconsistency of praying with the church in one part of the day to be delivered from schism, and before that day is over every blast of vain doctrine, we may be established in the truth of the holy gospel" (Col. for St. Mark's day); and again, "that all who profess and call themselves Christians, may be led into the way of truth" (Col. for all conditions of men). On Good Friday-that most sacred of our commemorative days after beseeching God" for all estates of men in his holy Church," a prayer is immediately added for those without. "Have mercy upon all Jews, Turks, infidels, and heretics." Are we members of the church? let us remember that as such we are individually, as well as collectively, witnesses of the truth "Ye are my witnesses, saith the Lord" (Isaiah xliii. 10). Do we repeat her creeds, and, week by week, and as the year circles round, join in these holy prayers? let us endeavour to make our practice conformable thereto. Let no fear of the charge of |