clergy had been contending with the difficulties of their position, and every day the struggle appeared more difficult and critical. It is to this intellectual and moral strife that the movement owes its origin. "Puseyism" was only a feature of the movement; and whilst that is passing away, the movement itself is progressing, deep and full, to its consummation. It is, in reality, a war of opinion-a struggle between contending principles; whether there is a Church owing its origin to a divine institution-or whether man, as a religious being, is left to his own resources, and thrown on the wild ocean of doubt and uncertainty? Have the Tractarians decided this question? Long before they commenced their labours it was in agitation, and they have increased the difficulty of its solution. We consider the movement to have begun with the Evangelical clergy. At the period of their rise a religious stupor had seized the public mind, and a death-like apathy brooded over the Church. Mourning over this sad defection, and taking their stand on the fundamental doctrines of the Gospel, as expounded in the Articles of the Church, they sounded the trumpet of alarm in the mountain of Zion. It was at first unheeded; but it blew so loud and long that universal attention was at length excited. The high places of the earth heard and trembled, and the valleys beneath received and prolonged the sound. The Church was roused from its slumbers, and her temples were filled with multitudes of ardent and holy worshippers.

But there was something wanting.-The Clergy had created a sympathy in favour of religion, which they knew not how to guide. They did not carry out the system of the Church; perhaps they could not. We bear them witness how intensely they loved the Church; and we are inclined to think that if they had been duly supported-if they had been provided with the means of obtaining the necessary aid in their arduous enterprise, the Church would have inconceivably benefited by their labours. As it was, they were the foremost to oppose the inrcads of sectarianism. They saw and lamented the evils of Dissent; they suggested and adopted various methods to check its alarming progress; concession was tried to its utmost limits, but in vain. Dissent became more overbearing, and at length, emboldened by the patronage of the State, declared that it would be content with nothing but the downfall of the Church! The Clergy resorted to new methods, they began to assert the fundamental privileges of the Church as a divine institution. Witness their writings in almost every country, especially during the agitation of the Reform Bill. The letters of "Brittanicus," in Leicestershire, were prior to and independent of the Tracts of the Times, and have since been published under the title of "The Church its own Witness."-We remember also, with gratitude, the Rev. Mr. Foy's successful exertions in Birmingham, and his bold assertions of the antiquity of the English Church. We might notice other champions who entered the field of controvesy besides the writers of the Oxford Tracts. These last were actuated by the same motives, and, taking their rise out of the same necessity, it was their purpose to withstand the growing latitudinarianism of the day. But their peculiar temperament urged them too far; and, searching into the past ages of the Church, they carried their reverence for antiquity into an admiration of what, although it might be even termed Catholic, was not Apostolic. They broke away from the moorings of the Church, and lost sight of the rock on which she is anchored, and of the royal banner which she has unfurled as the standard of her authority. "It is not lawful for the Church to ordain anything that is con

X

trary to God's word written; neither may it expound one place of Scripture that it be repugnant to another." The Tractarians have signally failed in their attempt to establish ancient usages and doctrines which the Fathers of the Reformation had solemnly rejected. Indeed, their extreme opinions have been a serious check to the legitimate movement which preceded them. But we shall not be deterred from following it up, and endeavouring to establish the Church of England as the centre of unity-"the pillar and ground of the truth,"-holding the Apostolic discipline in conjunction with the Apostolic doctrine.

A SERMON IN BEHALF OF A DIOCESAN CHURCH BUILDING SOCIETY. 1. TIMOTHY, III. AND PART XV. VERSE.

"The house of God, which is the church of the living God, the pillar and ground of the truth."

In times like these, there is much to occupy the thoughts and attract the attention of the devout and humble Churchman. As a Christian, and heir to a crown of immortal bliss, occasions are not wanting to him, when his manliness and Christian courage are called forth into active operation to contend for the "faith which was once delivered to the saints;" and to defend his Church against the combined efforts of her enemies to uproot her, and to render her less dear and beloved to the bosoms of her faithful sons and daughters. As he steadily, yet securely sails in this vessel of his Maker's own providing, towards the delightful shores of eternal happiness, the Churchman, looking around him upon this truly ruffled and tempestuous world, contemplates in silent grief and fearful alarm, how stormy and frightful is the ocean of this world, with its various and ever-varying breezes of human opinion and human folly.

Yet, with a heart full of thankfulness to the great pilot, even Jesus Christ, he also remembers the care and anxiety manifested for his security against the swellings of God's wrath. An ark has been provided, on which to rest the soles of his feet, and in which he can safely ride above the storms and dangerous quicksands and rocks, which are concealed deeply, though dangerously, beneath the tide of heresy and schism.

Yes, my Christian friends, he blesses his Maker for that Church, wherein is to be found everything necessary for his everlasting salvation, and which he feels convinced is emphatically, "the house of God, which is the church of the living God, the pillar and ground of the truth." In an age like the present, the Christian's ear is offended at every turn, with the cry that every man has a right to worship Jehovah as he pleases, and agreeably to the dictates of his own conscience; that religion is a private affair between man and God only; that every person has an undoubted right to exercise his own free and unlimited private judgment in matters pertaining to religion; that it is of no consequence how a person worships his Maker, having full liberty to invent and contrive forms of worship which may appear most agreeable to his depraved heart, or which may be required to

accord more with his preconceived notions. The Churchman has only one course to pursue, when he beholds such a spirit of restlessness and dissatisfaction, which has taken possession of the minds of too many,—such a spirit of liberalism, falsely so called, and latitudinarianism-such a thirst for novelty and change-such a manifest dislike of, such a determined hostility to, customs and institutions, on which alone hang the peace and security of our nation, and which have been admired and beloved by the most learned and pious of those who have gone before us. When, I say, he contemplates this state of things, and the miserable effects which such a spirit, if allowed to have its full and free course, would most certainly and inevitably entail upon us, the Christian appeals to his Bible and his Church in this perplexity and doubt; and there he receives strength and additional courage. There he is taught to practise what the Bible teaches, and to the judgment of his Church he as willingly submits, as an inquiring child does to the answers of its parent; for he is fully persuaded that she is the "pillar and ground of the truth," and that "unto her are committed the oracles of God.", He laments, and deeply laments, the confused and warlike state in which society has been placed by wicked and unscriptural divisions, not only of a political, but also of a religious nature. The Churchman, in this state of anarchy and confusion, earnestly desires that all those who have strayed from the true fold of God, may be brought back again into the fold of the Almighty's own providing the ark of his own building; that the bond of union and peace and concord may be repaired again; and that as there is but one body in Christ, one Lord, one faith, and not many faiths, one spirit, one baptism, and not many baptisms, one God and father of us all, the devout Churchman would endeavour, as far as his influence and power extends, to reclaim those wandering sheep, and to bring them back again to the Church, which they have forsaken for the slippery and shifting sands of dissent. Contemplating this unscriptural and wicked state of things, every friend to peace and order gladly embraces every occasion which may present itself for assisting to remedy the approaching evil, to apply an antidote to the poison which so subtilly has found its way into the social body. Yes, convinced as he is that every word the Bible teaches is true, for the Bible is truth itself, he thinks and speaks accordingly; and all his actions tend to promote the glory of his Maker; which he thinks can no way be done better than by endeavouring to establish his fellow creatures around him in sound, scriptural, primitive principles, confidently trusting, that under the blessing of God, it will be productive of proper and corresponding conduct. The devout, humble Churchman reads his Bible; and that Bible tells him that there is a God who is a God of order, and not of disorder and confusion. It tells him to mark those who cause divisions and differences contrary to the doctrines which he has learned, and avoid them; for they that are such, serve not our Lord Jesus Christ, but their own belly, and by good words and fair speech deceive the hearts of the simple." It exhorts him to "contend for the faith which was once delivered to the saints." It bids him ask for the old paths, where is the good way, and requests him to walk therein, and he shall find rest to his soul.

Now, comparing the state of society with the precepts of the Bible, he must confess that it is not such as God is well pleased with. The devout Churchman looks around him upon the face of society; and lo! what does he behold? Peace ? No. One unbroken bond of Christian fellowship ?

Alas, no! far from that. Does society exhibit the fruits and fair flowers, which the Bible, and the God of the Bible, show to be most pleasing to him, and such as he designed it should produce? The contrary is the fact! An enemy hath been at work, and sown tares in God's vineyard; and scattered nothing but the seeds of envy, hatred, malice, and all uncharitableness, false doctrine, heresy, and schism; from all which grievous sins the Churchman humbly implores his Maker, in the beautiful service of his Church, to be delivered. Little do we see in the world but strife and animosity, divisions and contentions, anarchy and confusion,-society cut up into a thousand different and differing sects and parties of professed Christians, till it would be almost impossible to find room or a name for more; each sect or party marshalling itself under the banner of some worldly captain, to the degradation of him who is the grand captain of their salvation, even Jesus Christ. The peaceable Christian Churchman asks himself the question, "Can all this confusion and disorder which he witnesses, be right? Is it such a state as the Bible warrants, and as the Church sanctions, as "the pillar and ground of the truth?" In the beginning it was not so! In order, then, to have this point brought before us more clearly, we must go back to the church of God under the Gospel dispensation, as it was fashioned, or reframed by our blessed Saviour and his Apostles, who were ordained the first ministers of his Church under the Christian dispensation.

The word Church occurs in numerous places in the sacred writings; in a large majority of which it is applied to a religious community, existing upon earth, and discharging all the functions of a visible society. But there are other and more confined acceptations of the term Church, upon which we need not here dwell. We read, for instance, of the Church of Rome, Colosse, and Phillippi, of the Church in a house; "Greet the Church in the house of Nymphas." Suffice it to say, that although they might be independent, yet they were not congregational. The Church at Rome and Colosse, although they were independent of each other, yet were not congregational, that is, consisting of only one congregation. And although the Church in Nymphas' house was congregational, yet it was not independent, but formed a part of the Church of the Laodiceans, and therefore not independent, as is evident from the manner the Apostle expressed himself, and the orders he gave respecting the reading of his espistles.

There is also mention made of the invisible Church, or the Church triumphant in heaven, composed of the saints and just men made perfect. But, as is evident to any superficial observer, this perfect and triumphant Church is not that of which the Scriptures generally speak. It cannot be that Church, at least that condition of the Church, which is liable to persecution and vexation, and which is to be to us the pillar and ground of the truth, which we are bidden and warned not to despise nor to vex by schism.

But the visible Church of Christ upon earth will be best discerned by viewing its origin and history. The foundation of the Christian Church and its progress, down to to the present time, are plain historical facts. Oûr blessed Lord commissioned his apostles to preach the gospel to all mankind, baptism being the ordained rite, by which persons were admitted to the Church; and being thus admitted, they then became entitled to all those high and glorious principles, upon the right use of which their eternal sal

See Letters on Dissent by L.S.E. Letter 2nd, page 44.

vation depended. "By one spirit," says St. Paul, "are we all baptized into one body." The first mention that we have of the Church, as an organized society of men, formed by the apostles, and all agreeing together, and "continuing steadfastly in the apostles' doctrine and fellowship, and in breaking of bread, and in prayers," is found in the few last verses the of 2nd chap. of the Acts of the Apostles. And in order to admit new members to the Church, and to administer to them in holy things, the apostles instituted a threefold order of ministration in the christian body. And this threefold order is made up in the Catholic and Apostolic Church, of Bishops, the highest or ruling order; Priests, or Presbysters, the middle order; and Deacons, the lowest or probationary order. Such was the simple construction of the Apostolic Church of Christ. It was an organized society or brotherhood, endowed with great and glorious privileges, consisting of duly baptized christians, and duly ordained Ministers. Such it has continued from the times of the Apostles to the present, in defiance of the united attacks of the infidel and heretic and revolutionist to destroy her; and such, we doubt not, it will continue (for we have God's own promise) even to the end of the world. Little then need our beautiful and timehonoured Zion fear the threats and attacks of her foes; for when the enemy shall come in like a flood, the spirit of the Lord will lift up a standard against her. And as christianity spread over the earth, Churches were formed and built and endowed by our forefathers in different parts of the then known world, and Ministers ordained by the Apostles and others, to whom the power of ordaining was committed, to preside over those Churches. This was the case with Timothy and Titus. Timothy was ordained Bishop of Ephesus, and Titus Bishop of Crete, by the Apostle Paul, with power to ordain others; and thus has been preserved and handed down, from the Apostles to our present time, an unbroken chain and succession of duly ordained Ministers, with power given to the highest, or third, order to ordain others also. From the days of the Apostles down to the present time, ecclesiastical history abundantly shows that no Church existed without its duly and appointed Ministers. And in less than thirty years after Christ had founded his Church at Jerusalem, a branch of his Church was sent forth and took root in this country; where it flourished and became, what it has ever since been called, the Church of England, or the Church of Christ in England.

Probably christianity was first preached in Britain by the Apostle Paul himself about the year of our Lord 68, and he at least ordained Aristobulus as first Bishop in the British Church. The Church of Christ planted here has existed ever since, a branch of the Catholic Church.

For several hundred years, it remained pure and perfectly independent of domination on the part of the Church of Rome, or any other branch of the Catholic Church. But in the course of time, the Church of Rome grew powerful and corrupt, and usurped authority over the Church of England, and thus polluted her with the defilements and abominations of popery. In the course of time, however, the Church resumed her ancient independence, and was led by the all-wise providence of God, to the glorious work of reformation, when she shook off the galling yoke of the pope of Rome, and swept away the corruptions which had crept in; and our ancient Church, by the assistance of her valiant champions, her Ridleys and Latimers, and Cranmers, was restored to her primitive purity. Since then, by the bless