mysterious entity called the Church, or whether they derive their sanction from some more special source, does not truly matter."-(P. 7). Again, "The Church, in a specific sense, as representing not the community of believing people, but a supposed sacred order of teaching and discipline, is the watchword of this movement, (Anglo-Catholicism) as it is, in this case, the formal expression of the traditionary principle."(P. 8.) These sentences would seem to indicate an intelligent apprehension of the value which Protestant theology attaches to the authority of the "mysterious entity," and a discrimination of the fatal error of Tractarians in their specific, illegitimate, and unscriptural acceptation of title "the Church." But the next page of the lecture takes us rudely by surprise. In awarding a tribute of admiration to some qualities of the Tractarian school, he says, we must acknowledge the consummate scholarship, the range and subtlety of intellect, the fine and beautiful comprehension often of the real import of the Church's history, and the deeper significance of certain aspects of her doctrine," &c. &c.-(P. 9.) What does Dr Tulloch mean by this, or rather does he mean anything? But again he says, "They who would arbitrarily separate themselves from any of the noble expressions of the Church's past life, seem to us utterly and hopelessly wrong."-(P. 12) What Dr Tulloch intends by the Church in one of these quotations cannot be the same with what he means in another. We do not profess to be able to reconcile the passages, or even to recognize, in their discrepancy, any thing very creditable to the sagacity and logical attainments of their author. 66 Let us turn from the inflated emptiness, the contradictory and uncertain teaching, the pompous, vague, and often unmeaning technicalities of this inaugural lecture, to enjoy for a moment the manly discoursing of a truly philosophical mind. In thought, in language, in spirit, we feel as if emerging from the terrors and confusion of the night-mare into the enjoyment of waking intelligence, when we read the following paragraph as a counterpart and antidote to the lecture. It is from Robert Hall's sermon from Proverbs xix. 2, on the advantage of knowledge to the lower classes. "Scriptural knowledge is of inestimable value on account of its supplying an infallible rule of life. To the most untutored mind, the information it affords on this subject is far more full and precise than the highest efforts of reason could attain. In the best moral precepts issuing from human wisdom, there is an incurable defect in that want of authority which robs them of their power over the conscience; they are obligatory no farther than their reason is perceived; a deduction of proofs is necessary more or less intricate and uncertain," (we suppose these may represent the product of Dr Tulloch,) "and even when clearest, it is still but the language of man to man, respectable as sage advice, but wanting the force and authority of law. In a wellattested revelation, it is the Judge speaking from the Tribunal, the Supreme Legislator promulgating and interpreting His own Laws. With what force and conviction do those Apostles and Prophets address us, whose miraculous powers attest them to be the servants of the Most High, the immediate organs of the Deity! As the morality of the Gospel is more pure and comprehensive than was ever inculcated before, so the consideration of its Divine origination invests it with an energy of which every system, not expressly founded on it, is entirely devoid. We turn at our peril from Him who speaketh to us from heaven." Reason has its own important function and calling in theology. These concern the accuracy of the transcription of the Bible, and the authority on which we receive the record. But reason is no factor-it has merely to decypher and implicitly receive what the hand of God has written. It has humbly to seek for the guidance of the Spirit of Truth whom our Redeemer promised to send to abide with His people for ever, and who would guide them into all the truth. In any delineation, therefore, of the proper method of theological inquiry, the office of the Holy Spirit, the necessity of His influence, the frailty of reason, ought to occupy a place of prominence; and the teacher should impress most solemnly on the minds of his students, the insufficiency of any human factor, and the countless errors which sprung from such a source. An infallible director has told us that, ere now, the world by wisdom knew not God. The promise and the teaching of the Holy Spirit are thus of infinitely too high account in proper theological study, to be merely introduced as an after-thought in the concluding paragraph of a lecture which avowedly professes to announce the tone and spirit which are to characterize the teacher's labours. Should Dr Tulloch repudiate those doctrines which we have thought it our bounden duty to expose and censure as plainly involved in his lecture, we are quite aware, as we have already stated, that there are other passages in it which seem of unexceptionable orthodoxy. This, however, only demonstrates in the lecturer a total want of that definite accuracy of thought and expression which, in a teacher of theology, is an essentially necessary qualification. If he insist on the employment of reason in one way or other, let him know that its province is to withstand such "oppositions of science falsely so called," as have been engaging our attention. And though we cannot accuse the lecture of following the classical elegance of the ancients, or avoiding the erroneous tendencies of the moderns, we think, in taking leave of it, that we have exposed views and qualities, the absence of which would have been its best commendation. LINES ON THE BLACK SEA STORM. 14th November 1854. Dark was the night :-from steep to steep, Along the Euxine's rock-girt shore, Echoed the raging of the deep, And mingled din of tempest's roar. Loud and yet louder howled the blast, High o'er those cliffs the wild waves lashed, Oh righteous Heaven! a night so wild, This night for many an ocean child When subtile chain thy anchor lost;- Oh! can no power avert thy doom, But think not thou, the heavens assent Britain! though many a tear-dewed cheek, The wild-waves rage that fatal morn; LEITH, January 1855. R. H. SEBASTOPOL. Frown not proud Fortress! nor rely Thy foes will neither turn nor fly, A tyrant reared thee to enslave,- Nought will avert thy certain doom; PASTORAL CHARGE OF BISHOP GILLIS.1 THE IMMACULATE CONCEPTION. A SHORT month or two back there was a tremendous piece of work at Rome. The old city indeed seemed as if revived to its former splendour when the spiritual mistress of Christendom, and when its streets were trodden by hosts of ecclesiastics,-from the Scottish bishop of Dunkeld or the Isles to the Italian cardinal. The pope was proceeding to St Peter's with all the pageantry of his rank, and with vastly more than his usual cortege. There preceded Pius IX. 150 bishops, wearing silver copes and white mitres,-and also 51 cardinals of the three great orders of bishop, priest, and deacon. This imposing ceremonial was meant to give authentication or solemnity to an act of the Pope, or rather of a sort of council headed by the Pope, which declared the immaculate conception of the Virgin Mary to be an article of faith. We daresay many people who saw this very fine turn-out would believe the doctrine, just because such a number of people dressed so magnificently were employed in its promulgation,-and such fine music was sung by the well-trained choir. But there is something rotten in the business. It will start awkward questions about the right of the pontiff to act so authoritatively in matters of faith, even aided by the counsels or opinions of a number of bishops, in the Romish Church often poor theologians indeed. And we daresay the educated minds of the church will continue to think as hitherto, notwithstanding the bustle, and parade, and grandeur, of the scene at St Peter's. However, the new doctrine, or whatever is new about the affair, has a devoted adherent in Bishop Gillis, pastor pastorum of the Romanists of the eastern district of Scotland. He is almost out of the body about what has happened, and while officially called demand obedience to the Pope's decree,-practically that all should believe on the authority of the pontiff what is now a tenet of their religion, he treats them to a flowing harangue,-tickling the fancy if he does not require to command the judgment. The matter of the pastoral indicates that it was carefully considered by the author, and yet with all the pains bestowed on its composition, it holds some sad drivel. The author, however, could not help himself. He is a poor reasoner, Bishop Gillis, but a great reasoner would have dwindled down into sorry dimensions with such a thesis to vindicate. 1 A Pastoral Charge by the Right Rev. Bishop GILLIS, on the recent Dogmatical Definition of the Immaculate Conception of the Most Blessed Virgin Mary. Edinburgh: Marsh & Beattie, 13 South Hanover Street. VOL. XIX. D The doctrine which the theologians at Rome have coined into an article of faith appears to be this, that the soul of Mary had come into being without the taint of original sin. In discussing the views of St Bernard on this point our author makes a curious distinction. He says, "when Catholic theology treats of the immaculate conception of Mary, its intention is not to speak of what in the now sad mystery of man's entry into life, may so far constitute a beginning of mere material existence, but of that moment only in which the Divine omnipotence breathes into man his imperishable soul." We really cannot profess to understand this, and need not at present inquire what is meant by the writer. But we consider that the bishop's authorities do not always support the position they are called upon to justify. First, and rather suspiciously, he cites the fourteenth council of Rome at the end of the fourth century, which appears simply to have declared the perpetual virginity of the Saviour's earthly parent. This is not in point. Nor was the decree of the Council of Ephesus in 481, which opposed the Nestorian heresy, to wit, that there were two persons in Christ, more to the purpose nor even the judgment of the Council of Trent, that she had never actually sinned, any more valid,-for although all born under the sad predicament of our fallen nature will sin,—yet it is not impossible but that by miraculous grace the tendencies of human nature might be so restrained that the favoured individual would be guilty of no transgression against the divine law. We should call this condition, which, so far as we know, has no example in the case of mere man, miraculous. In the case of the Virgin Mary, the Trentine council ascribes this exceptional virtue to a "special privilege from God." Hence we must call the bishop's authorities irrelevant,-although they may be held as going so far with him to countenance the pope's decision. And it may be added, that St Bernard, on whose view of the case Bishop G. lays great stress, had his scruples, although these are explained away by an ingenious theory; and in proclaiming that Mary was " exalted above all the angelic choirs of heaven," the father did not necessarily assume the immaculate conception,-but in all probability proceeded on the grandeur and dignity of her office,-and the electing love of God which distinguished this daughter of the house of David above all women. far we reason about the bishop's authorities. With us they are trifles light as air, and altogether vanity, even were they quite explicit as to the point at issue,- -we mean of course in argument,-for with the bishop a doubt would now be evil and shunned as heresy. So We may give an extract or two from the bishop's pastoral, which is showily written, an enamelled piece of rhetorical composition. And here let us cite a piece of special pleading: "And can it for a moment be imagined, Dear Brethren, that She who from all eternity had been so linked in the thoughts of God with the work in which all His divine affections were centered, should not have been herself from the beginning the object of His most special tenderness?—that angels or archangels could ever have been more dear to Him than MARY? or that She who was to be the Mother of a more perfect creation, that through her Son we might become, as the apostle St James expresses it, |