But if the old stumbling-block is not removed, a new one is created, at which we confess ourselves to be greatly aggrieved. Two classes of saved ones are to fill heaven's courts, the first, having been saved, irrespective of any merits of their own, but solely "by the good pleasure of His grace," are to be exalted to sovereign dignity. But there is a second class, to whom God has merely granted the power to save themselves, and these, having, according to Mr. Mansford's plan, a far larger share in the work of their redemption than the former class, are to be "rewarded" by being allowed to sit at the feet of the favoured few, as subjects and servants! These, when asked, "Who hath made you to differ?"-may answer, " Our own energies, efforts, and faithfulness to the grace given." Yet these, instead of being raised above those who were saved by mere sovereign grace, are actually placed very far indeed below them!

It is impossible to help wondering at the temerity of such systemmakers as Mr. Mansford! Here is a vast and incomprehensible question, which has baffled the intellects of the mightiest minds for centuries, and respecting which their greatest wisdom has been to confess, that it was "higher than heaven, what canst thou know? deeper than hell, what canst thou do?"—and yet, a new and almost unknown writer starts up, at this time of day, and offers, in a pamphlet of 72 pages, to make the doctrine of Election "intelligible and harmonious."

Intelligible and harmonious, indeed, we are well assured that it is, to those higher intelligences whose mind can grasp its limits and trace its foundations. But we have no expectation that, after such men as Calvin and Jonathan Edwards have left it still a matter of faith, it will be given to any pamphleteer of our day to make it a matter of sight!

THE DIVINE WARNING OF THE CHURCH; of our Enemies, Dangers, and Duties; and as to our future Prospects. By the Rev. EDWARD BICKERSTETH. enlarged. Foolscap 8vo. pp. 418.

Fourth Edition, much London: Seeleys. 1846.

THIS greatly enlarged edition of a most important and useful tract, comes forth very opportunely. Its subject is, the advances making by Popery; and surely the present is a moment at which it is most needful for us to cast an eye behind and before, and to seek to know whither we are going.

Of the Sermon which formed the basis of the present work, nine thousand copies were quickly sold. But the topic deserved a fuller consideration than could be given in a tract, or even in a small volume. In the work now before us it is fully developed, and will furnish matter for many an hour of painful ponderings, to those "who sigh for the iniquities of their times."

Mr. Bickersteth has also been driven,-like most other thoughtful men,-to inquire whether, amidst the dangers that surround us, there may not be a call of duty to try once more to heal the breaches of Zion, and to bring together the scattered bands which are, alas, as often turning their arms against each other, as against the enemies of the Church of Christ. Hence he has added a distinct section, on the duty of Union among real Christians. He opens the subject in the following terms :

"It is a solemn warning given by St. Paul, Gal. v. 15, If ye bite and devour one another, take heed that ye be not consumed one of another.' Christians have suffered much from the neglect of this warning. Our Lord has plainly and strongly charged us; A new commandment I give you, that ye love another: as I have loved you, that ye also love one another; and he has assured us, 'By this shall all men know that ye are my disciples, if ye have love one to another.'

"It is an affecting truth that Rome stands chiefly by the divisions of Protestants. She ever points to our disagreements, though they be about minor things and outward forms, and we agree in the great and vital essentials of Gospel truth; and glories in her unity, though it be merely a formal agreement in outward things, and a bare profession of Catholic truths, joined with most anti-scriptural and fatal errors.

"The Church will not always be thus disunited. The prophecies are clear. 'There shall be one Lord, and his name one-I will give them one heart and one way- Ephraim shall not envy Judah, and Judah shall not vex Ephraim.' To wait on God, in the way of duty, effort, and prayer, for the accomplishing of these blessed prophecies, is our happy privilege at this time.

"It has appeared to me exceedingly desirable, in the present earnest struggle for great principles, to direct the attention of the members of the Church of Christ, and especially of my own Church, to the great duty of cultivating Christian union with all who truly love our Saviour. Would that I and my readers might attain one of the last beatitudes, Blessed are the peace-makers.'

"There have been so many valuable works on this subject in late years, that it is unnecessary to dwell on the general importance of Christian union. It is the test of real love; it is founded on the command of our Lord Christ; it is a mighty means of influence on the world, which ever finds its chief stumbling-block in the divisions of Christians.

"Its special seasonableness at this time arises from the vast field of duty now opened to the Church of Christ, and specially requiring combined action that we may enter in and fully cultivate it; from the mighty enemies, now rising everywhere in their full strength to oppose the Gospel of our Lord; from the manifest disposition which God has largely given to his true people to desire union, and all their yearnings of heart after it; and from the approach of that blessed period, when the union of all the true servants of our Lord of every name will be perfected and completed for ever to the final blessedness of the whole world.

"This subject has also peculiar importance in its bearing on the clergy of our own Church. Their station calls them to be leaders in every work bearing on the true wants and need of the Church of Christ. Their conduct and example is of peculiar weight either as a help or as a hindrance in this matter, and if they make one solemn promise at their ordination to banish and drive away all erroneous and strange doctrines contrary to God's word,-they make another, to maintain and set forwards, as much as lieth in them, quietness, peace, and love among all Christian people, and especially among those committed to their charge.

"How then may the clergy of the Church of England promote at this time the great object of Christian union?

We must cherish right views of the true source of this union. Only truth, drawn from the word of God and tried in living experience, can unite the souls of Christians. The more truth they thus receive and hold, the more entire and complete their union. It becomes all who believe that they have the fullest truth, to be specially tolerant of their brethren in those things in which they think they fail of the truth (Rom. xv. 1). The more error mingles with their minds, from whatever source that error is derived, the more there will be of strife and division. Thus to pray for the Spirit of truth, and for growth in the knowledge of God and his word, is the only secret of Christian union. A spurious union, without truth, is but a confederacy of evil; this cannot stand in the conflict, but will soon be broken up like the camp of Midian at the sound of Gideon's trumpets. Thus the first step towards Christian union is to gain more truth in the heart and in the understanding, and for this we need a much more diligent and prayerful study of the word of God, apart from all human writings.

"The next step to union is to hold truth in its due proportion. All truth is not equally vital. Some things in the Gospel as well as in the Law are weightier, some lighter. This distinction is explicitly made by our Lord himself.

"We should then first gain deeper and deeper impressions of those truths which most real Christians feel to be the most weighty, and bave receivedsuch as the greatness and power, the righteousness and love of God, the reality of his Providence, the grace and glory of Christ our Divine Saviour, the promise of the Holy Spirit, the work of Christ the only foundation of every hope, simple faith the only means of salvation, the need of holiness and its heart-reality, the duty of mutual love, of forbearance to believers, and of compassion to those dead in sins; with the resurrection, the judgment to come, and the life everlasting.

"We should prize every truth as given of God for our use; but subordinate truth should have a subordinate place in our estimate of its importance. If we entirely give up even lesser truths for union, we poison the very fountain of union, which is reverence for all the truth of God. If we distort minor truths and wrest them into undue importance, all union is impossible till Christians are perfect in knowledge. Truth is a sacred trust from our hea

venly Lord, and a faithful and wise servant will give the household this food in due season; guarding equally against folly and unfaithfulness. Everything we believe to be God's truth must be mentioned in its season, but tempered by regard to its own place in the volume of truth, and the clearness, depth, and ripeness of our own convictions. Error can never really have the evidence of truth; but hasty, dim, and rash conclusions may be confidently held and recklessly maintained, even when union in greater things is at stake and in danger of being sacrificed.

"It is a great help to Christian union to view things in the light of eternity. This would most materially tend to abate those prejudices under which we are all so apt to regard everything, and which arise from the petty circle in which, while in the flesh, we necessarily move. If we could but look at things more, and estimate them all, in their bearing on the salvation of the precious and never-dying soul, it would mightily diminish in our minds the importance of things for which, losing sight of this as the great end, we often so eagerly contend."-(pp. 133-137.)

There is a painful interest in this part of the subject, arising from the conviction, that if England shall be,-as appears extremely probable,-entirely unprotestantized, and changed into a State maintaining, indifferently, truth and falsehood,-the visible cause of that sad and fearful declension will be-the dissensions existing among Protestants.

way,

The impression is hourly becoming more universal, and more confirmed, that the attempt to establish a Romish Church in Ireland, out of crown-lands, land-tax, or some similar fund, will shortly be made. And whenever the question shall once be mooted in the House of Commons, it will, in a very few weeks, be carried into effect. The three great parties in Parliament, the Liberals, the Conservatives, and the followers of Sir Robert Peel, being quite of one mind in this matter,-all that at present stands in the is, a vague apprehension of the anger of the people. But whenever this dread shall have been overcome, and the proposal shall have been made, it will be warmly pressed, and must, to all appearance, be quickly carried. Of course there would be many of the Conservatives who would oppose it, from their ancient hatred to Popery, and some also of the Liberals, from dislike to the Establishment-principle. But allowing for 150 of the former class, and 50 of the latter, there would still remain more than two-thirds of the House of Commons, including all the leaders of the three main sections, who would be eager to push forward the measure.

Most men are beginning to see this approaching danger; and to talk of ways and means by which the peril may be averted. Yet, strange to say, the only mode of operation which can prove effectual, is just that which all parties seem indisposed to adopt. By one method, and by only one, might the proposition be defeated: and yet, up to the present moment, no disposition has been shown, on either side, to adopt that method.

A cordial union of all the Protestants of the realm,-Churchmen, Methodists, and Dissenters, for the purpose of demanding of all candidates at the ensuing General Election, a satisfactory assurance that no plan of the kind shall receive their support,-would in all probability succeed in preventing the Government from bringing forward the measure. As yet, however, there seems no prospect of the formation of such an union.

Churchmen are everywhere saying, at the present moment,"We can never act with Dissenters in this matter; for they will "want us to sign petitions declaring against all Church Establish"ments whatever.”

Dissenters are in like manner repeating, "We must assert Non"Establishment principles ;—hence it seems impossible for us to "operate with Churchmen."

And thus both parties are sitting down contentedly, resolving that they must act independently of each other;-such independent action being certain to terminate in the success of the measure which they both profess to dread!

The difficulty no doubt is a formidable one, of reconciling the opposing views just stated:-but look at the inevitable result of this separate action. The fact of the disunion of Protestants gives such courage to the Pro-Popish party, and such an advantage, also, in the struggle, that this, and this alone, will be ultimately the main cause of the success of the scheme. And thus each party,— Churchmen and Dissenters, will have kept its shell, its theory; and the Papist, between the two, will have gained the oyster,-the practical result.

Even on the part of Churchmen there is a great practical miscalculation. They object to two things,-the overthrow of the Church Establishment, which the Dissenters advocate: and the erection of a new Romish establishment in Ireland, which all our statesmen desire and purpose. Of the first of these two obnoxious plans, there is no prospect whatever. It has not fifty supporters in Parliament, and a Bill to annihilate the monarchy would be almost as feasible a proposition as one to uproot the Church.

But the second of these two plans is very likely to be attempted, and to succeed. It requires the greatest energy and the greatest union, to avert it. Yet Churchmen, from fear of the mere name of the first of these two perils,-which is far distant, and will probably never be more than a name, are allowing the second of the two to become very imminent, and indeed, almost certain. Can there be a more unpractical line of action?

The Dissenters are still more irrational in their mode of proceeding. They dislike all national establishments of religion. A