claim the protection of the state for its civil rights, it might still be left to legislate for itself in matters relating to its internal discipline, and its ministers, under episcopal jurisdiction, might be made amenable only to ecclesiastical law. Convocations or synods might institute canons, from which there should be no appeal; and the clergy would, of course, obey them, "not only for wrath, but also for conscience' sake." The advocates of this plan might certainly plead antiquity in its favour; but unfortunately its enemies would say, and say with truth, that the experiment had been already tried in the church of England and had failed. It is well known that the canons of 1603, and some other more ancient, are of paramount authority in our ecclesiastical courts. But laymen, to whom the majority of them refer, are very loth to admit it; and I shall shew in the three following cases, which I have selected only for their importance, that they have often been set at nought, and are daily disregarded by the highest as well as the lowest among the clergy themselves. The first I shall mention is canon sixty-two, which was not always observed with the same conscientious respect and scrupulous obedience as it is now; for all its provisions were so grossly neglected, that the legislature was driven to the necessity of passing the Clandestine Marriage Act in 1754, "to prevent in future the great mischief and inconvenience that had arisen," as it is stated in the preamble. The cause was, that its legal authority was despised; for no change whatever was made in the rules which it prescribed, but the severity of the civil penalty then incurred by the violation of them has effected its purpose, and no occasion for inflicting it has ever happened. The next point relates to pluralities, which are not to be defended by authority or tradition. They are, indeed, the greatest blot on this or any other Christian church, and one of those corruptions of the church of Rome which more than any other excited the indignation of the early reformers. I need scarcely say, that by the 21 Hen. VIII., a living of 87. value in the king's books becomes void, ipso facto, on taking any other; and so precise and definite is this enactment, that it cannot be contravened. But other cases depend upon an ancient canon, whose authority is not disputed, and the first living becomes voidable only. The process of retaining both is so familiar to the clergy, that I shall not describe it; but it cannot take place without the connivance of the bishop, who might prevent what the canon has forbidden. Pluralities held by dispensation deserve to be equally condemned; for whoever will examine the instrument by which it is granted will find that the ostensible reasons are seldom or ever founded in truth, and that the stipulations imposed are never performed. I speak under correction, when I assert that the archbishops and bishops might engage to prevent all pluralities by the power they already possess, and thus supersede the necessity of the bill that is now before parliament, but I run no hazard in saying that such a pledge will neither be given nor accepted. The last canon I would bring to light is the thirty-fifth, which directs that the examination of the candidates for holy orders should take place "before three or more ministers of the cathedral, or other sufficient preachers of the same diocese, who shall also assist at the imposition of hands;" and if this admirable regulation were complied with, it would surely be attended with many advantages. It would put an end to private ordinations, as well as to that great abuse of holding them in the metropolis, at a distance from the cathedral church; the improper questions, which are too often put by young chaplains, of peculiar views in religion, would be checked by the presence of men older and more discreet than themselves; the very suspicion of partiality would be removed, and the bishop would no longer be exposed to the odium of rejection when a sense of duty demanded it; while the whole of the sacred ordinance would be conducted in a manner more congenial with the practice of primitive times. Whether these were the reasons or not for which the canon was framed, I cannot determine; but this I know, that the archbishop is directed to suspend every bishop who neglects to observe it, "from ordaining priests and deacons for the space of two years;" and yet it is still broken with impunity. I have thus shewn, not by idle declamation, but by a plain statement of facts, that the clergy are not to be trusted with their own government; and I may add, without fear of contradiction, that the lay members of the church are generally of opinion that they ought to be placed under some more stringent authority, under a law which would make itself respected. S. B. REMAINS OF THE LATE REV. R. H. FROUDE. 2 vols. 8vo. London: Rivingtons. THE Contents of these volumes are, as might be expected from their title, miscellaneous. They ought, however, to be viewed as a whole, in order to obtain a correct estimate of the character, thoughts, and feelings which they represent. The character, indeed, is one that must be equally misunderstood, to become the subject of light and hasty criticism, or of superficial and inconsiderate imitation. There is something fascinating in ardent feeling, strong expression of thought, and decided action, which renders every example of them dangerous to those who can at all concur with it, unless accompanied with an equally strong example of reverence and self-control. In the present instance, both are combined, and if any of those, (and many there are,) who are awake to the deficiencies of our age and the wrongs of our church, should be inclined to adopt the energetic practice and stringent language of the writer, they would do well to observe at least as carefully his checks and cautions. The journal, with which the book commences, exhibits a course of severe penitence, and a remarkable instance of self-examination and self-discipline. While the writer seems scarcely to dare to speak of perfection and holiness, his manner of marking his faults shews how The Editor is much indebted to the gentleman who has been so kind as to send him a notice of a book which ought to have been reviewed long ere this. He has frequently, on previous occasions, said how gladly he should receive similar notices, and insert them in this part of the Magazine. VOL. XIV.-July, 1838. H high he aimed. The following extract, however, will shew that he did not allow himself to overvalue his acts of humiliation and confession, however necessary he may have deemed them, and however intense they may have been :— “Nov. 30, 1826. On reading over this, it struck me, that, for the future, it will be a better way merely to state my faults, without expressing indignation at them, as it is difficult on looking back to keep in mind the degree of feeling in which these expressions originated; all they prove is, a consciousness of my shame; and yet they are as strong as I could express, if my shame was ever so intense. They are, therefore, no guide to me to shew the state of my mind afterwards: and at the time, they are so far from being exercises of humility, that they lessen the shame of what I record, just as professions and good-will to other people reconcile us to our neglects of them."-vol. i. p. 57. His matured judgment on a still more extensive class of acts may be gathered from a poem written in 1833, vol. i., p. 430, No. 6. 1833. "Be strong, and He shall comfort thine heart." Lord, I have fasted, I have prayed, Sackeloth is a girdle good, O bind it round thee still; And Jesus loved the night-air chill; As well might sun and rain contending On the new fallen seed descending Thinkest thou prayer and fast alone It must be rooted in charity. Thinkest thou art fit for fasting at all yet? The food of saints is not for thee. It is not too much to say that the reason why he does not speak of not resting on his own merits is, that he never dreamed of doing any such thing. His letters, written to intimate friends and persons whom he could not fear to mislead, exhibit his feelings of indignation at presumption and irreverence in all their strength. Even in these, however, a careful observer may trace the marks of caution and unwillingness to overstep the bounds of charity and propriety. And a comparison of * Eph. ii. 8. his strongest expressions of dislike and condemnation, applied to any of the Reformers, when compared with the statement of facts in p. 339, vol. i., &c., will shew that he extended to them the benefit of the same rule which he recommends to another in favour of the Romanists, (p. 422.) "Before I finish this, I must enter another protest against your cursing and swearing at the end of Lagainst the Romanists] as you do. What good can it do?-and I call it uncharitable to an excess. How mistaken we may ourselves be on many points that are only gradually opening on us! Surely you should reserve 'blasphemous,' 'impious,' &c. for denial of the Articles of Faith.' The beautiful letter in which he suggests the propriety of a more frequent communion to a person, whom he addresses with the deepest respect, shews the manner in which he would approach the church herself, if he found it his duty to do so, in the character of an adviser. (p. 370.) The same may be observed in everything that was written with a view to publication or preaching. Even in familiar correspondence his words are measured, and express definite views; he neither praises nor decries, complains nor exults, in random language. In writing for publication, he still applies his principles without fear or compromise, and yet evidently considers not only the precise view to be expressed, but also the probable knowledge and disposition of the general reader, and carefully adapts his language to both. The short essay on the antiquity of existing liturgies is well worthy of notice, and sets one part of the subject in a clearer light than is usually done in more extensive works. It is scarcely possible to read the ancient formularies there collected, (in order to prove their antiquity by the nature of their agreements and differences,) without imbibing a deeper reverence for all that is primitive in the services of our own church. Alas, that men should think of modernizing them to meet the objections of the ignorant! A far different feeling arose in his mind, and one more consistent at once with pious reverence and with practical wisdom. He considers the loss of the apostolic forms and customs, whether by ourselves with respect to the distinct oblation, or by the Romanists in the still greater deficiency of withholding the cup from the laity, to be the consequence of our sins, and regards what is left us with the more affectionate devotion, as being "'crumbs from the apostle's table." (vol. i. p. 140.) His remarks on shortening the services relate immediately to the Daily Service, but much in them is also applicable to that which is properly called the Liturgy. It is to be hoped that these pages will contribute towards the promotion of the study of those precious monuments of ancient piety. Perhaps there are few things from which we may anticipate greater benefit to the church than from the revival of the knowledge of ancient Church Services. They at once help to explain to us those which we have in use, and afford us a kind of communion with Christians who have used the same or analogous forms in distant ages and countries. They shew us the churches throughout the world, not in the history of heresies and abuses, but in the light of Divine love, and the acts of holy adoration. Nay, there is every rea son to suppose that many parts of them still bear strong traces of the work of inspired men, it may be of the actual tradition of our Lord. The sermons are the result of much thought, and seem often drawn from the remembrance of severe self application. Not every one can bear to reason so calmly on such subjects. The propositions contained in them, while disconnected, are generally truisms. But in following this writer through a connected line of them, most persons would find some neglected point in their own practice so forcibly involved as to interrupt the thread of reasoning by suggesting questions of immediate interest too important to be passed by. Their object is generally to illustrate the truth, that the children of this world are wiser in their generation than the children of light, and to enforce the necessity of applying acknowledged truths to the cases which occur in our practice, as men must apply the maxims of worldly wisdom to succeed in temporal matters. Some of them go beyond this province, fertile as it is in matter for profitable reflection, as for instance, that on the character of John the Baptist, and that on the state of innocence. The most striking touches of original thought are, perhaps, to be found in the essays and fragments; at least they are most easily discerned there. Truth was always so much the writer's object, that he often seems to have concealed the depth of his own reflections by referring them to first and acknowledged principles, rather than to intermediate rules. The latter, even when true, shew more originality at first sight, because they are the choice of the individual mind amongst many applications. Such rules and analogies are, however, very often the best means of illustration; and a mind so ready in apprehending and skilful in defining them, cannot fail to supply them when required by the subject. Every branch, indeed, of human knowledge or power, seems to have been viewed by him in its subserviency to sacred purposes. And even when we find him most brought in contact with mere secular pursuits, as such, (whether his own or those of another,) the tone of his observations on his own practice, or his advice, or his remarks on the particular subject, is always the same as that of his sermon on the religious uses of industry. NOTICES AND REVIEWS. The Evangelical Character of Christ, according to the Doctrines and Ordinances of the Established Church, asserted and vindicated in a series of Letters, addressed to a Young Person. By Frederick Nolan, LL.D., &c. &c. London: Pickering. 12mo. 1838. DR. NOLAN states in his preface that he has recently seen several young persons of both sexes who have been most deeply imbued with those peculiar opinions, as to final perseverance, election, experiences, &c., and that, on inquiry, he found that the inculcating these doc |