and well-known passage of his early history. "My father was a Yeoman, and had no lands of his own, only he had a farm of three or four pounds by the year at the utmost; and hereupon he tilled so much as kept half-a-dozen men. He had walk for a hundred sheep, and my mother milked thirty kine. He was able, and did find the king a harness, with himself and his horse, whilst he came to the place that he should receive the king's wages. I can remember that I buckled his harness when he went to Blackheath field. He kept me to school, or else I had not been able to preach before the king's majesty now. He married my sisters with five pounds, or twenty nobles, a piece; so that he brought them up in godliness and fear of God. He kept hospitality to his poor neighbours, and some alms he gave to the poor. And all this he did of the same farm whereas he that now hath it pays sixteen pounds by the year, or more, and is not able to do any thing for his prince, for himself, nor for his children, or give a cup of drink to the poor."* Such is the manner in which Latimer was wont to recommend virtue, tenderness, and brotherly love to his congregations. : And here, for the present, we terminate this discursive and introductory survey of the Character and Progress of Pulpit Eloquence; to be resumed, we trust, and carried forward in a subsequent Number. The tomb of Latimer affords a fit spot for meditation. Whether we contemplate him in the character of a preacher, a Christian, or a martyr, delivering with a majestic independence, the Oracles of Truth, or attesting and confirming them by his blood; under every aspect he stands forth, equally lofty and imposing, as the Apostle of England. Nor will any thoughtful reader indulge in the belief that we have stretched too far our imaginary qualifications of the preacher, or suppose that the gentler lineaments of the "Good Parson" are forgotten in the portrait. Religion will certainly not make fewer converts because she is attired by the Graces, and her garments bathed in the dews of Imagination. While the Minister of Christ will smile at the vanity of Demosthenes, who could be gratified by the admiration and recognition of the passer-by, he will, nevertheless, love and commend, with Cowley, a true and a good fame, as being the shadow of virtue; not because it confers any benefit upon the body which it accompanies, but that, like the shadow of St. Peter, it may, by the grace and mercy of God, alleviate and remove the diseases of others.† * Sixth Sermon before King Edward the Sixth. ART. III.-The Refutation of Nonconformity. By the Rev. E. KEMP. London: Whitaker and Co. 1837. (4th Notice.) IN our observations in our last Number upon the prelatic institution, we should by rights have strongly insisted upon the divine design of Episcopacy, as a means of the establishment and conservation of unity in truth, spirit, and society. We wish that it had consisted with the limits of our article to have enlarged upon that argument, strengthened more particularly by the considerations, that it is the will of God according to reason and Scripture, that his ministers should receive external calls to their office, that ordination is a call of that nature, and (as we trust we sufficiently proved) the only scriptural one in existence. We might have added, that the Reformers of the sixteenth century were solely indebted (humanly speaking) to the operation of Episcopacy (however ineffective under the papal bondage) for having preserved in the Church of Rome very many important religious truths, for which, amongst other purposes, it was designed by God. The earliest Reformers might have justly ascribed their own belief in some of the most vital doctrines of Scripture, or even in Scripture itself, to the providential fact that, notwithstanding the corruption of our faith, there had been from the time of the Apostles a visible witness and keeper of the sacred books. This it is, that has preserved the world in unity of apostolic truth, despite all the corruptions to which it had been exposed. Episcopacy, in short, has been instrumental towards effecting a unity of doctrine in the Church; besides which, to express a most important truth in the words of Mr. Kemp,"it was calculated and ought to have preserved the two other unities in spirit and in society, as well after the interregnum of popish errors, as before it. And what is not less to be noted and remembered is this, that succession of Ministers by Episcopal ordination is the only mode of appointment which has come to us from inspiration. This is the only order of Ministry which is divinely instituted; and for that reason, also, is of course to be the only one instrumental in recovering the world from any lapses of ignorance or superstition, and is that which is to be alone supported." Our argument of Episcopacy having been a means of transmitting and delivering the vital truths of Christianity to the Reformed Churches, seems to us so conclusive in favour of the divine origin and appointment of that institution, that we would willingly, were there any necessity, take our stand upon it. It is very ably elucidated in the treatise we have under our notice, which once for all we would remark, in the hope that our imprimatur will induce every reader to possess himself of the work, as original in design as it is well executed. In closing our remarks upon the Prelacy we would merely add, that the existence of such an order in the Church has a direct tendency to remove dissensions, whencesoever they may approach us. That they do notwithstanding exist, and that they have even risen to the height of schism, only serves to show, that the divine principle which tends to unity in truth has not been carried out in practice by the Ministry of the Church of England to that extent which is desirable and attainable. There have been many counteracting causes at work. The roots of the authority of the Church were shaken during the rebellion; and she could not wholly re-establish her discipline without exciting greater difficulties than there was any disposition to encounter. Perhaps the most formidable obstacle to the recovery of her power, is that spurious private judgment so cultivated and affected by Dissenters. This is not only the main-spring of Unitarianism, and of every other species of infidelity; it is not only liable to the charge of all the heterodoxy of discordant sects, but is the root of more evil and mischief than they who have not thought upon the subject would easily believe. The poison of the principle has infected nominal adherents of the Establishment. And really it is not so much any independent sect, as the spirit of independence in the members of the Church, that alarms us. It is this presumption and vanity acting upon ignorance-this proud conceited antichristian habit of determining off-hand, however slender and perverse the materials of decision. It is this self-sufficient rule of every man being entitled to rest upon his own judgment,-to follow his own crude notions of right and wrong, truth and error, that invalidates the authority of the pulpit, and paralyzes the government of the Church. This avowed principle of dissenting believers,* is answerable not only for the spurious doctrines, but for much of the profaneness, the heathenism, crime, and vice, which afflicts this country. The blindness, perverseness, and evil disposition of men, in seeking out their own inventions, and refusing to attend to the wholesome counsels of the Church, may be attributed to this dissenting propensity of depending entirely upon the conscience, however unenlightened. So that when we find the Establishment reproached with her inefficiency, by dissenting teachers, they in fact proclaim their own shame, and exemplify the dire consequence of their beloved principle. "We object to all Ecclesiastical establishments on the ground * 6 Episcopacy is inconsistent with the fundamental principle of Protestantism, in accordance with which one man, or one body of men, have just as good a right as others to say what was or what was not the primitive institution."-Binney's Dissent not Schism. If this be true there is an end of the institution of a Ministry of the Word, which our Saviour in his wisdom deemed it right to establish. of their utter inefficiency,"* is the arrogant sentence of a dissenting writer. No matter for its excellent fitnesses and tendencies, counteracted indeed by the interposition of the warped principle we have spoken of, these people would condemn the Ecclesiastical institution, because, greatly owing to the effects of their own doctrines, it has failed of producing the utmost service to mankind; but we deny in the words of our authority, "that it follows from that circumstance, that the Establishment of the Church of England must be an evil, and is not deserving of universal, though not unqualified approbation." We lay no stress upon the fact, that the beneficial effects produced by the Church had been considerably more extensive if the perverted judgment and the pernicious doctrines, which are the fruits of the licentiousness of independence, had not unfortunately disconnected the people from the Established Ministry; but we assert on higher grounds, that the objection started, of "inefficiency," is most absurd. The Rev. J. Davies might object to our blessed system of religion upon the like grounds. We know that God devised a plan to raise men to happiness and glory; his regard to this plan, and the object of it, appear in all the doctrines of revelation, in all the miracles by which they are supported, and in all the prophecies and glorious things that are spoken concerning the Church, by which our expectations have been so greatly raised. But will the Dissenters in this case blasphemously rejoin, how small a part of the world is enlightened by the beams of the "Sun of Righteousness;" how narrow are the limits of the Gospel; how little has been done by Christianity compared with what might have been anticipated had the principle been divine. The Gospel must be objectionable and evil by reason of its inefficiency; it has as yet wrought almost no deliverance in the earth. Paganism yet strikes deep its roots in various lands; Mahometanism has plucked up the "good seed of the kingdom," in countries where that seed brought forth fruit abundantly; even in what is called Christendom, how little have the known and blessed effects of the Gospel been manifested! how small a proportion of the people of any one nation which has heard the good tidings, are probably converted truly to the Christian faith! The diffusion of the Gospel, proceeds the blaspheming Dissenter, upon the same principle, and nearly in the same words that he objects to establishments, is not only inefficient, but " positively subversive of its own professed objects." Jesus Christ came to reconcile all who receive him into one family; to make of many one body, * J. Davies's Address on Ecclesiastical Establishments, p. 36. Is not this the precise argument of Mr. James? "What has an Establishment done for Ireland? How much has it left undone for England and Wales !"-James, p. 36. to compose discords, to allay violent passions and animosities, to make wars to cease, and to give peace, and love, and harmony, to his followers; but we ourselves, albeit we are called Christians, are inflamed, and armed against our brethren. From the beginning dangerous errors have produced noxious effects; the "mystery of iniquity" began to work; those who "named the name of Christ" have inflicted greater barbarities upon one another, under the influence of superstition and bigotry, than their fathers had suffered from their pagan persecutors. The woman that " sat upon the scarlet coloured beast," is indeed "full of names of blasphemy, having seven heads, and ten horns." She is still arrayed in "purple and scarlet, and decked with gold and precious stones, and pearls, having a golden cup in her hand, full of abomination, and filthiness, and fornication." Therefore, continues the Dissenter, on precisely analogous grounds to those on which he impugns the value of an Establishment, it is not possible that the true religion should occasion the discovery of so much vileness. "I object to" Christianity, "because of its want of success. How small, how slow has been its progress; how few seem to be converted to God, compared with those who are enemies in heart to him, and to the kingdom to which they profess to belong. I myself, relying upon the dissenting principle, militate with the operation of genuine Christianity, by the same acts which contravene the counsels of the Anglican Church. I cause, as far as in me lies, the inefficiency I complain of, and turning round on the empire, demand, "To speak of Protestant countries, what have establishments done for them? for Germany, Switzerland, Russia, Denmark, Sweden, Norway, and Finland? To say nothing of impiety, have they kept out infidelity?" (James, p. 37.) And might I not, (proceeds our dissenting caviller,) argue against our blessed system of religion on the ground of its having been the occasion of more feuds and strife among its professors than any other interest has produced since the world began? I have said, that "the Church of England on this account is not the Church of Christ."* Might I not go further, and assert that the Church of Christ on this account is not the Church of God? If the argument be valid as respects the establishment, it must be so when brought to bear on our holy faith. And really, were it not for the sure word of prophecy, we might be ready to imagine, when we hear such language as the following from the mouth of his ambassador, that "God had made all things in vain." "I wish to God that I had this evening to preach the funeral sermon of that hoary harlot, Mother Church, which is a blast and nuisance upon earth, both black, bloody, and useless; and I will say, blessed be those hands that shall first hurl her to dark perdi *Tombs of the Prophets, by Mr. R. M. Beverley. |