firming and expressing more accurately the doctrine held before. (Ibid. p. 385, and note p.)

Again, "Forasmuch as the Rubric (before the Morning Prayer,) seemeth to bring back the cope, albe, &c., and other vestments forbidden by King Edward's Second Book, we desire it may be wholly left out," (p. 314.) was the Puritan request. The request was not granted, neither was the inference denied. (Ibid. § 2. Rub. 2, p. 351.)

It would be altogether beyond our present work to go further into details; but thus much may be said generally, that there is scarcely any point in which the expressions of the Prayer-book are held to be ambiguous, on which the Church did not then decide, determining the Catholic sense to be the true one, and that on grounds which maintained also the doctrine implied in that

sense.

This was the Prayer-book which the Convocation passed,* which was accepted by the whole Church, which became the formal expression of her views at that time, when she threw out of her body (how much we may regret the circumstances under which it was done, is not now the question,) that leaven which had been working in it from the time of the Reformation. Thus was the Prayerbook finally settled as we have it. It is this Prayer-book which we usc, to which we subscribe our assent, and that on the authority of the convocation of this era. Later struggles there have been, but they have served only to confirm it.

The influence of the new occupant of the throne in 1689, of Bishops and dignitaries recently nominated from among his adherents, was exerted with the view of removing (at least the obligation of using) those Catholic words and practices which have ever been a stumbling-block to those who had not a Catholic spirit. But it was found that even after the Nonjurors had been thrown out of our Communion, the adherence of the body of the Clergy and people to these points of the Church's teaching was too strong to allow of their being altered. Similar schemes have been suggested from time to time, but they have only tended to show that the Church, viewed in the great body of her devoted children, has retained her ancient faith; and we may thankfully acknowledge the rich inheritance which we have thus received.

The other branch of our argument is one which does not admit of being so exactly traced out within the limits of such a paper as the present; but the inquiry it leads to is one of a most interesting kind, which might be followed up by individuals, and afford not only information, but the most edifying suggestions, examples, and

*The Prayer-book had not previously since King Edward's First Book, received the approbation of Convocation. See the " Christian Remembrancer," No. lv., p. 105. January, 1847.

instruction. It may be sufficient now to suggest the topics of the argument, and to show their force and bearing.

It may be said; The formal decisions of the assemblies of the Church are, after all, only formal, in the worse sense of the word. They have been made in words and written on parchment, but they have never really been taken up into the practical system of the Church. They have remained as a testimony set over against, and, if you will, condemning our actual practice; but does not this very circumstance seem to show that they are alien from the spirit of our Church, and that, if after nearly three hundred years' experience, the Church has practically rejected them, they may fairly be set aside as wanting in authority; though they be put down in our Prayer-books, though we declare our consent to them, though we are bound by duty and express pledge to observe them.

Where, it may be said, looking to the whole course of our Church's history-where is the Daily Service of the Church? where the observance of Holy Days? Who, as it has been said in simplicity or in mockery, "Who ever fasts"? Or, to turn to more sacred observances, Does a Clergyman really say the Morning and Evening Service every day by himself, if not in public? does he really hear confessions and give absolution? We need not say to many of our readers what the answer is. These things have ever been, as they still are, observed by the devout members of our Church, have ever been heartily embraced by some at least of her children, and, which is the important point, at each successive development of earnest religion within the Church, we have moved nearer to a complete acceptance of them. Of course no one could say that there has been an uniform external observance of them; but let it be noticed that this is a characteristic of our Church, not to enforce external rules, but to leave them to the willing acceptance of her children; and then let it be questioned whether, things being as they are, and the people of the world being indiscriminately included in the Church, and "the evil having sometimes," as the Article says, "the chief authority in the ministration of the Word and Sacraments," a different result could be expected. The Church might be a small and strict body, as in the primitive ages, and then her rules would be generally, perhaps heartily obeyed: she might enforce the external observance of her rules on all, as the later Church did, and then there would be the appearance of observance. But she has not done so. We admit our humiliating position; but this is not the question: we would appeal to the heart and conscience of a Clergyman who desires to act the part of a true son of the Church, whether there are not sufficient indications from the lives of her most saintly children, that her spirit, considered as the spirit of the Church which CHRIST guides,-not of the world which has overrun her, is not really in accordance with her formularies.

It is, we believe, suggested somewhere by Alexander Knox, that these testimonies have yet a purpose to effect, that they were not destined to be for ever mere dead letters, but that the time would come when the practice and views of the Church would altogether harmonize with this her original draft. And certainly, which we wish especially to impress, the successive religious movements of the Church have gradually brought her religious children nearer to such a conformity. And each movement has left its impression on the Church even when its immediate and strongest influences had died away.

The evidence of these facts would be found in the indications of the practices of the Church at different periods, in the devotional works which have been in general use; and in that most interesting storehouse, the biographies of pious Church people. The three chief movements which we refer to are, those of the Laudian Period; that which preceded 1688; and lastly, that of our own day. Each has hitherto had its respective check; the first, in the Rebellion, and the great unsettledness and consequent laxity and irreligion which succeeded; the second, in the Revolution, the ejection of the nonjurors, and the systematic discountenancing of men of earnest and decided Church views, from which resulted the cold and heartless period of the last century; cheered as it still was by instances of individual piety, and the remains of religious practices, which, we believe, an examination into the personal history of unobtrusive Church people would show still more: the last, by causes still at work. Yet these very circumstances show what the tendency of the Church's mind and principles is, what it would have become in effect, had it not been for these accidental hindrances. And the fact that on each occasion an advance has been made on the previous movements shows that there is a life in our principles, which not only re-exerts itself, but does so with increasing vigour, and a fuller embracing of the truth.

The inward religious movement of the Laudian period may be seen in the popularity of such writers as Christopher Sutton and George Herbert, and in the publication of the best devotional writings of foreign Catholics; it produced the beautifying and adorning of our churches, altars, and sacred vessels. Then came the series of our Caroline Divines, and books such as the Whole Duty of Man, which were in every churchman's house, and modelled their practice. The lives of people of this period are in this respect most interesting, as Nicolas Ferrer, Hammond and his Friends, and "The English Churchwomen of the Seventeenth Century." The second movement (or in the revival of the first) brought out the works of Ken, the "Practical Christian" by Richard Sherlock, and those writings of Nelson and the other Nonjurors which took their place beside the "Whole Duty of Man ;" whilst Bishop Wilson, the nephew of Sherlock, and formed by him, carried on the sacred line of teaching and of abiding influence. At this period

was the great revival of daily services and frequent communions, and bequests left to sustain them; and the founding of numerous hospitals and schools; as the Pietas Londinensis and the histories of the Religious Societies indicate; the building of the Queen Anne's churches, and the division of the London parishes, a plan suggested by Nonjurors. This movement on the whole was a great advance in the Catholic tone of Church practice and opinion; yet still, as it were, checked and partly frozen. In our own day it has flowed more freely, though it has had but little time to work, and many and great have been the hindrances to its progress; but they have been rather external than internal; rather the natural opposition to the arising from so many combining causes, than any holding back or unwillingness among good churchmen to receive the truth fully and heartily. So the views of this last movement have gone in advance of any others, and the teaching of the Church has been received more simply, and the practices enjoined by the Prayer-book more readily accepted. Catechizing, after which endeavours had been so often vainly made, seems now in a fair way of permanently taking its place as an established part of our system. The Public Baptism of Infants, frequent prayers and communions, the due observance of rubrics in essential points, the general restoration of ordination at the Ember weeks; all these are adopted with a general recognition on the part of our people that the practices are right and good. The most prominent feature, of course, is the improvement in the style and arrangements of our churches. Other still more hopeful signs there are, which we can but hint at, in the character of the earnest personal religion which has marked the movement. The Christian. tone of controversy, at least among the chief writers; the growth of habitual self-discipline and spontaneous secking of the gifts which the Church dispenses. That the opposition should be proportionably violent might be expected. The issue remains to be seen.

REVIEWS AND NOTICES.

A Short Account of Organs built in England from the Reign of King Charles the Second to the present time. (London: Masters.)

THIS little work will certainly be grateful to all who are anxious to hear our Services well performed. For in addition to its historical sketch of the various Organs and Organ-builders, connected with the

A Clergyman in Queen Anne's time says that he never heard but of two or three clergymen who observed the rubric which orders the Priest to place the bread and wine on the altar.

principal churches in England, it gives a few practical hints which will not allow clergymen or churchwardens to be quite so much, as they now are, at the mercy of organists or builders, as to the kind of organ that they will set up in their churches. The author considers the main superiority in the old organs to consist in the careful selection of wood free from any knot or flaw; in the general preference of wood to metal when it can be employed, and in the equal force of every note. At the same time, he acknowledges how great and important are the modern improvements of pedals, reed-stops, valves, &c.

It contains a list of the stops and a general description of the organ which is best suited for the accompaniment of real ecclesiastical music. Mr. Pugin has also furnished three or four noble designs for organ cases. On the whole we may say, that the advocates for the grave old hymns and chants have here gained an ally from the quarter which mostly sends forth their bitterest enemies; the profession, that is, of an organist. The book is beautifully printed.

Sermons on Holy Joy, the Spiritual Affections, and the Saintly Character. By ARTHUR BAKER, B.A., of Wadham College, Oxford; Curate of Aylesbury, Bucks. Rivingtons. 1847. 8vo. pp. 312.

THESE Sermons sustain with great consistency the character which the title-page claims for them; and, upon the whole, we are disposed to think that they are the best sermons, which it has yet fallen to our lot to notice. In saying this, we would caution our readers against expecting what are called striking passages, original ideas, or philosophic views. These must be sought elsewhere. But if we were asked how a Christian Priest should address his people, we know not any better example to point to than the present volume. Nor are we acquainted with any better suited for private devotional reading. It is the production of a warm heart and ardent spirit; but the language never degenerates into rhapsody, or unreality, or mysticism.

The sermons with which we were most disappointed are those for the great Festivals of Easter, Whitsunday, &c. The English Church, it is not too much to say, has never yet produced any adequate examples of Sermons of this class. Instead of warm, earnest benedictions, such as one whose heart was penetrated with a sense of the blessings he was privileged to announce might be expected to utter on such high occasions, we more commonly have cold, critical demonstrations of doctrine, well suited it may be for the conviction of the unbeliever, but utterly unfit for the edification of the Faithful. As a specimen of the class referred to, we would instance Dr. Townson's Sermon for Easter Day, which is wholly occupied with detailing the evidences for the fact of the Resurrection. Mr. Baker's, of course, are not of this kind; but they do not rise sufficiently above the ordinary standard of his preaching.

MR. GRESLEY, we are happy to see, is prosecuting his exposure of the base and insidious machinations of the Evangelical Party, (so called),