of belief, this third is a necessary consequent, that God hath not bestowed such privileges upon any visible church or ecclesiastical society whatsoever upon the face of the whole earth, as divers founders of colleges in our universities have done upon some grammar-schools founded likewise by them. Many have been chosen and admitted for perpetual fellows of the celestial academy, which never were trained up in the doctrine or discipline of the Grecian, English, or Romish Church. God is the sole founder of the universal church, and of every particular true church. As for particular visible churches, all are alike free, all their sons alike capable of admission into the holy Catholic Church; or if any odds there be, it is in the different measure of their observance of the laws prescribed to all, especially the law of loving God above all in Christ, and of loving others as ourselves for Christ's sake."

Bishop Sanderson is no less decided on the relative points. "Corruptions," says he, "in doctrine and worship, as they are greater or lesser, so they make a church more or less false comparatively: and as they are imposed upon men with greater or lesser exaction, they do more or less justify either a separation from or an opposition against such a false church, and in some cases enforce it.

"1. When betwixt two churches, differing in doctrine or worship, question is made, Whether of them is the true church? it must be understood not in the first sense and absolutely, (for so both are true, and (ergo) equally true churches, for vero nihil verius) but respectively and comparatively, and in the second sense; viz., Whether of them maintains the doctrine, together with the worship, taught by Christ and his apostles, in the greater measure of purity, and freer from error and superstition?" Again, "The Church in the first and most proper signification-viz., the Church of God's elect-is wholly and altogether invisible. But of this the present question is not. “2. The universal Christian Church upon earth hath never failed from the whole faith, nor ever shall fail to the world's end, in such sort but that still in some part or other of it hath been, is, and shall be, visible more or less; and that externally in the first or second degree of visibility, both in the first and second respects.

"3. Whence it follows, that, understanding truth in the first sense, there never hath wanted, doth or shall want, upon earth, a true and distinct particular church, in some place or other externally visible, more or less in the degrees and respects above specified. 4. Every particular visible church may fail, not only from the purity of faith, but also from the whole faith itself; and so may cease to be a true Christian Church, even so much as in the first sense; and may become no church.

5. The universal Christian Church (consisting of all particular visible churches together and at once) may, by the prevailing of heresy and idolatry, be brought to such a general defection in the outward face of it, though not from the whole faith, yet from the purity of faith both in doctrine and worship, that for a long time together there may not be found upon earth (taking Church in the second sense) any true particular church visibly distinct from the rest, by their outward freedom from their common corruptions; so much as in the second, much less in the first degree of visibility; either in the third or fourth respects. And this is that part of the church especially under Anti-Christ.

6. That even in the times of the greatest and most general defection there have been always particular men (and those eminent either for number, place, learning, or Godliness) who, though living in the midst of corrupt churches, and in the communion and visible profession thereof, have yet, according to the measures of their grace and knowledge, and the exigencies of the times and occasions, either—

First, Openly resisted the errors, superstitions, and corruptions of their times; or secondly, Noted the corruptions as they grew, and complained of them, and desired reformation; or thirdly, In private dissented from them in the explication of the most dangerous doctrines, and kept themselves free from the foulest corruptions, though carried with the stream of the common apostasy to embrace the rest. Whereof we are to presume they repented either, explicitly, if God gave them to see their errors; or at leastwise implicitly, in the mass of their ignorant and unknown sins.

7. Although such particular men were not always so locally and generally separated from the rest, as to make a visible distinct particular church by themselves in the first degree of visibility; yet in these men did the succession of the true church (taking it

comparatively and in the second sense) especially consist, and the visibility of it continue in the time of universal defection. In which men the true church continues visible always, and perpetually, without interruption; and that ever in the fourth respect-viz., in regard of the acknowledged truth of their doctrine; in the third degree of visibility-viz., in an inward estate and to themselves; and sometimes also, (though perhaps not always,) visible externally, and to their very enemies more or less, in the second degree of visibility, and in the three first respects."

Bishop Cosin is also against the Tractarians, on the question of Foreign Churches; for he conceived "that the power of ordination was restrained to bishops rather by apostolical practice and the perpetual custom and canons of the Church, than by any absolute precept that either Christ or his apostles gave about it. Nor can I," he proceeds, "yet meet with any convincing argument to set it upon a more high and divine institution. From which customs and laws of the universal Church (therein following the example of the apostles), though I reckon it to be a great presumption and fault for any particular church to recede, and may truly say that fieri non oportuit, (when the college of mere presbyters shall ordain and make a priest,) yet I cannot so peremptorily say, that factum non valet, and pronounce the ordination to be utterly void: for, as in the case of baptism we take just exception against a layman or a woman that presumes to give it, and may as justly punish them by the censures of the Church wherein they live, for taking upon them to do that office, which was never committed unto them, yet, if once they have done it, we make not their act and administration of baptism void, nor presume we to iterate the sacrament after them, so may it well be in the case of ordination, and the ministers of the Reformed Congregations in France, who are liable to give an account both to God and his Church in general, for taking upon them to exercise that power which, by the perpetual practice and laws of his Church, they were never permitted to exercise, and may justly be faulted for it, both by the verdict of all others who are members of the Catholic Church, (as we are that adhere to the laws of it more strictly and peaceably than they do,) and by the censures of a lawful meeting or general council in that Church, which at any time shall come to have authority over them. And yet all this while, the act which they do, though it be disorderly done, and the ordinations which they make, though they make them unlawfully, shall not be altogether null and invalid, no more than the act of baptising before mentioned, or the act of consecrating and administering the eucharist by a priest that is suspended, and restrained from exercising his power and office in the Church. Therefore, if at any time a minister so ordained in these French churches came to incorporate himself in ours, and to receive a public charge or cure of souls among us in the Church of England, (as I have known some of them to have so done of late, and can instance in many other before my time,) our bishops did not re-ordain him before they admitted him to his charge, as they must have done if his former ordination here in France had been void. Nor did our laws require more of him than to declare his public consent to the religion received amongst us, and to subscribe the Articles established. And I love not to be herein more wise or harder than our Church is."

This little book, take it for all in all, is very valuable and seasonable.

A Course of Lectures, suitable to the Times, on the Contents of the Book of Common Prayer. By the Rev. FREDERIC DUSAUTOY, A.M., formerly Fellow of Queen's College, Cambridge. Vol. I., Part I. London: Nisbet.

This author is of opinion, that, though the body of the Prayer-book requires no revision, yet that the Rubric requires much. As," he says, "there existed many rules for the order and discipline of the Primitive Church, which are now wholly unsuited to its present state; so, in the infancy of our reformed Protestant Church, many things were deemed expedient, which have long since ceased to be so, on her attaining maturer years. When I was a child,' says St. Paul, I spake as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child; but, when I became a man, I put away childish things.'

"The chapter from which my text is taken," (1 Cor. xiv., 40,)" abounds in rubrical

directions for the order and regulation of the Primitive Church, which are useless and inapplicable in its present state. The same may be said of the rule for anointing the sick with oil, and for community of goods. The last direction has been tried by a modern sect, and abandoned by them as impracticable. The same may, I apprehend, be said of the rubrical directions in the Book of Common Prayer. Some have become obsolete in consequence of their inexpediency and legal bondage; while it must be acknowledged that others have fallen into disuse, without having any such excuse for their neglect. Gladly would I see the Rubrics of the latter character generally observed, and enforced by the proper authorities. In absence, however, of Episcopal directions, the Ministers of our Church doubtless have power, according to the duly regulated exercise of private judgement, to return to their observance. Still, for my

part, I regard it as more judicious to introduce such changes so gradually, as to be almost imperceptible. Common sense and common judgement, under spiritual control, are alone necessary to determine what is expedient from what is inexpedient, that all things may be done decently and in order. And each individual Minister, if not otherwise instructed by Authority, has full power for the exercise of this judgement; inasmuch as long and general disuse, among all degrees in the Sacred Ministry, and the absence of any formal restoration, may well be regarded as equivalent to an abrogation of those obsolete rubrical laws, should any be inclined to act on that silent repeal.

"In the present day, there is peculiar difficulty besetting the path of the Christian Minister; and therefore he has a claim on those over whom the Holy Ghost has made him Overseer, to be considerate in their judgement on what he may deem expedient. The Church is composed of laity as well as of clergy; and to both there is a loud call to prepare for fighting the good fight of faith. In our national state, God has blessed us with universal peace; but, in our Church, He has punished us with the scourge of war. The trumpet has long sounded, and vain is the supposition that any will be allowed to remain neuter. We must take our stand in this ecclesiastical war, on the one side or on the other. To wish to take a neutral position would be cowardice in the extreme; and any such concealment of our conviction, as to the right side, would doubtless bring us under the guilt of that fearfulness and unbelief which are classed, in the Word of God, among those sins which exclude from the Kingdom of Heaven. Still, we are responsible for the exercise of a sound judgement, in earnestly contending for the faith once delivered to the Saints.'"

Mr. Dusautoy is very and justly severe on those Schismatics in the Church, "who assent to the superstructure, while they dissent from her fundamental doctrines." Against these, he points the denunciations of St. Paul: "Now I beseech you, brethren, mark them which cause divisions and offences contrary to the doctrine which ye have 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 speeches, deceive the hearts of the simple,' by speaking evil of that way before the multitude,' from the influence of a 'hardened' heart. These are the Schismatics of whom St. Paul so frequently warned the Corinthian Church. And, indeed, strictly speaking, the sin of Schism can be committed by those only who are nominally, by profession, and by baptismal privilege, members of that Church in which they cause divisions; since the Scriptural use of word applies exclusively to the rending of one body, to an internal and subsistent, and not to an external and superficial rending, and was frequently used by our Lord to express a division among the multitude or among His disciples; and he further applies the word Schism to a rent in one's garment. And every rent in a garment has a dependance on the web or threads of which that garment is composed, inasmuch as some integral parts of the garment are thereby injuriously affected. St. Paul uses the word in the same sense when addressing the Corinthian Church: he says, "Now I beseech you, brethren, by the Name of the Lord Jesus Christ, that ye all speak the same thing, and that there be no divisions (Schisms, or divisions in judgement,) among you; but that ye be perfectly joined together in the same mind and in the same judgement.' And again, he says, in another place: For, first of all, when ye come together in the Church, I hear that there be divisions (Schisms, or divisions into sects and parties,) among you; and I partly believe it. For there must be also heresies (sects) among you, that they which are approved may be made manifest

among you.' 'God hath tempered the body together, having given more abundant honour to that part which lacked: that there should be no Schism in the body; but that the members should have the same care one for another. And whether one member suffer, all the members suffer with it; or one member be honoured, all the members rejoice with it. Now ye are the body of Christ, and members in particular.'

"From these passages there can be no doubt that the sin of Schism applies to a division within either a visible Church, or among true believers. Indeed, more strictly speaking, this sin, like the 'damnation' or judgement incurred by unworthy communicants, and like the sin unto a temporal death, can be committed by those only who are the children of God, and have been renewed by the Holy Ghost. In this last sense it may well be compared to the rending' of the vail of the temple; or to the rending of the heavens' at the time of the baptism of our Lord. Still, since there is an external adoption, and an external membership, spoken of in the Scriptures; an external or ecclesiatical regeneration assumed by our Church; so also, I think, we are justified in using the word Schism in respect to the divisions caused by such as are external members only of our Church, and even in reference to the separation of individuals and sects from that body; although these last cannot be guilty of this sin in the same sense as the former; inasmuch as many of that latter class have been trained up to dissent from their infancy, and have never enjoyed the privilege of Church-membership, have never been in that body, and therefore can never have caused, strictly and literally, an embedded rent in our Church. Hence I am led to adopt a threefold distinction in speaking of the sin of Schism. But my subject leads me more especially to condemn those Schismatics who dissent from the doctrines of our Church, while they continue nominal members of her external communion, and partakers of her ecclesiastical privileges. The affectionate address of our Church, in her introductory Exhortation, cannot be considered as embracing such dishonest professors."

The Via Media, an Ecclesiastical Chart, showing that the Church of England holds the Middle place of Truth between the Two Extremes of Sectarian Error and Popish Heresy.

The mid-point is exceedingly well struck in this Chart; but it cannot be expected that any one individual would be found holding it in all particulars; or that the two opposite extremes are not both to be found in the Anglican Church. But on this point we have already said enough in our opening paper.

Essays for Family Reading; intended to counteract the Errors of the "Tracts for the Times." By the Rev. JAMES GRAHAM, M.A., Curate of Templemore. Baisler. 1843.

This first effort of authorship is very creditable to Mr. Graham's talents. He has piety and learning, with a strong perception of the sufficiency of Scripture, and the truth of the doctrine of our Homilies, as advocating salvation by Christ alone, and justification, not by works, but by faith. He gives no quarter to the principle of the Council of Trent, that "Justification is by the Sacraments only." He insists much on the great fact, that the principles opposed by the Tractarians are the same as those for which the Reformers contended, and to which the Church of Eugland is bound. The "Tracts for the Times," he rightly says, are unconnected with the University of Oxford, and that their authors are but private members of the Church, and not to be taken as representing the Church of England. His Essay on the Christian Ministry deserves attentive perusal. "Hear the Church," in his sense, means, Hear the laity rather than the clergy. Clear enough it is that those who exercise the office of the ministry, do not alone constitute the Church. Highly important, too, is the condition of the laity, to the efficiency of the clergy; for "such as the people, such are the priests." The influence is an ascending one. The history of all religion has proved this.

Some Difficulties in the late Charge of the Lord Bishop of Oxford, respectfully pointed out in a Letter to his Lordship. By WILLIAM GOODE, M.A., of Trinity College, Cambridge; Rector of St. Antholin, London. Second Edition. London: J. Hatchard & Son, Piccadilly. 1843.

The Case as it is; or, A Reply to the Letter of Dr. Pusey to his Grace the Archbishop of Canterbury: including a Compendious Statement of the Doctrines and Views of the Tractators, as expressed by themselves. By WILLIAM GOODE, M.A., of Trinity College, Cambridge; Rector of St. Antholin, London. Third Edition. London: J. Hatchard & Son, Piccadilly. 1843.

These are, indeed, excellent and indispensable manuals. The Bishop of Oxford declares that the Tractarians have adopted a mode of interpretation "so subtle, that by it the Articles may be made to mean anything or nothing."

A Plea for the Weekly Observance of the Lord's Supper. Ward & Co. 1813. The author confounds the expedient with the necessary.

Conversational Cards on Ecclesiastical Biography. By ELIZABETH PIERCE.

George Bell.

1843.

The questions are separately given on one set of cards, and the answers on another, distinguished by numbers and letters, for the correct adaptation of which a key is added. For instance, card 17 asks, "Who was Savonaola ?" and card n replies, "He was the Father of the Reformation in Italy, born at Ferrara, in 1452. He entered the Dominican Monastery at Bologna, where he passed many years in teaching metaphysics and natural philosophy. So little reverence had he for the Roman priesthood, that he was wont to say, "Would you have your son a wicked man, make him a priest; oh, how much poison will he swallow!" He preached with great zeal against the corruptions of the Romish Church, for which he was excommunicated by the Pope, and ultimately condemned to the flames in 1498." The design and execution of these cards are equally excellent; and we would recommend them as an appropriate present in which amusement and information are judiciously blened.

The Moderation of the Church of England. By THOMAS PULLER, D.D. A New Edition, thoroughly revised; the References being verified and corrected, and the Passages cited printed at length. With an Introductory Preface, by the Rev. Robert Eden, M.A., F.S.A., Minister of St. Mary's Chapel, Lambeth; late Fellow of Corpus Christi College, Oxford. London: Pigott; and Hamilton. 1843.

The motto to Dr. Puller's very interesting volume, now reprinted, is taken from the Book of Common Prayer-thus: "It hath been the wisdom of the Church of England, ever since the first compiling her public liturgy, to keep the MEAN between the two EXTREMES. In which review we have endeavoured to observe the like MODERATION." Would that those who have so much insisted on obsolete rubrics had, before they ventured on so desperate and disorderly an experiment, considered with unbiassed spirit the sentiments embodied in that preface. Dr. Puller was a Fellow of Jesus College, Cambridge; his name occurs in the list of New Fellows instituted by Bishop Wren, in 1660. He took the degree of A.M. in the following year, and that of B.D. in 1667. In the year 1671 he was presented to the rectory of Sacomb (or Sawcombe), in Hertfordshire; and two years afterwards, in 1673, took the degree of D.D. Dr. Puller became Rector of St. Mary-le-Bow, in London, in 1679-the same year in which his work, "The Moderation of the Church of England," was published, and which Mr. Eden has now edited in a very worthy manner, and preceded with some introductory remarks, deserving of much attention. justly feels that in Moderation there is something more to be considered than the mere avoidance of extremes-namely, that nothing of essential truth should be omitted. This is the chief point; every other is subordinate.

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