most inviolable, of all laws? *** But these are subjects for him who shall, at no distant period, sit down amongst our ruined churches, palaces, and legal courts, to narrate "the Decline and Fall of the British Empire!"-In saying this, I am uttering the conviction of at least an unbiassed mind; for I have neither living to gain nor to lose my pangs are for my country;-my regrets, that so few, from the learned, the talented, the powerful, have gone up into the gaps, or made up the hedge for the House of Israel, to stand in the battle, in the day of our danger!" Thus, while the foe is taking courage from every instance of silence, cowardice, concession, and tergiversation, the true sons of the church, amongst the laity, are all mortified and astounded; and the quiet, zealous, but secluded, or too much occupied, of their clerical brethren, feel degraded and deserted, and the whole community of the church of England, at home and abroad, continue to ask in vain Μέχρις του κατάκεισθε; κοτ ̓ ἄλκιμον έξετε θυμον ; TARPA. SIR, In the Record newspaper, for Thursday, October 3rd, 1833, I observed the following singular advertisement, which I copy, with its capitals, just as it stands : "CHAPEL WANTED. "A Gentleman of the Established Church, who, though not in orders, has, by appointment, been accustomed to take one full service every Sunday of a Chapel connected with a public Institution, for many years, in conjunction with two clergymen, in a provincial town, would be happy to have the ENTIRE DUTY of a respectable CHAPEL, where the Liturgy of the Established Church is either used, or would be admitted, in any part of the kingdom; or, if episcopal, he has no doubt of procuring orders. (!!) The Advertiser was some time a member of the University of Oxford; and his sentiments are in unison with the Evangelical Clergy, as set forth in the Christian Observer. His style of preaching is extemporaneous, and it is an exercise in which he has great delight, as well as other Christian duties. References can be given to many ministers, both in the Church and among the Dissenters." To make any comment on this very peculiar piece of theology would be altogether superfluous; but I should like this most accommodating gentleman, who "has no doubt of procuring orders," to consider seriously the following difficulty:-Suppose the bishop, to whom he applies for holy orders, should happen to ask him to declare his assent and consent, (not to the Christian Observer,) but to certain old-fashioned doctrines, set forth in the Thirty-nine Articles of Religion, could he solemnly, and in the presence of God, declare to that bishop, that he believes that "IT IS NOT LAWFUL for any man to take upon him the office of public preaching, or ministering the sacraments in the congregation, before he be lawfully called, and sent to execute the same; and, that those we ought to judge lawfully called and sent, which be chosen and called to this work by men who have public authority given unto them in the congregation to call and send ministers into the Lord's vineyard"? * Art. xxiii. T. CHURCH-BUILDING SOCIETY. SIR,-Amongst the evident causes which have operated in the promotion of dissent, the increase of the population upon the resources of the established church must hold a prominent place. It is not the greater zeal, piety, or usefulness of the sectarian teacher, or the vaunted simplicity of his independent model which, in all thickly-peopled districts, has drawn away so many from the communion of their fathers; it is, that the meeting has received the overflow of the church; whilst the deformed simplicity and unendowed foundation of such edifices has allowed of their multiplication with a mushroom rapidity of growth, more commensurate with the religious wants of our increasing population, than our own churches could ever attain. After this beginning, it too often happens, from the agreement of all the peculiarities of dissent with the conceptions of our fallen nature, that those who at first attended the meeting through necessity, become estranged from the church in feeling. The remedy, then, for this great evil, is to be round in the erection of many new churches throughout our land. Something has been done of late in this way-enough to shew the great importance of doing more; but absolutely nothing towards a remedy of the defect, for we are not as yet, with all our present efforts, keeping a-head of the rising tide of population, and fixing matters on their present scale of inadequate provision for our people.* The resources of the church are notoriously unequal to the supply of this necessity. What she might have been able to effect, had the pious liberality of our forefathers never been violated by the grasping hand of accursed sacrilege, it is useless for us now to inquire. It would be, perhaps, a somewhat invidious task to estimate the number of churches which might be provided from the well-furnished rent-rolls of the houses of Russell or Cavendish; we may just notice, however, in passing, that this state of things is a strong argument against impairing the resources of any national church, and thereby destroying that elasticity with which it would have risen up to the measure of our children's need. But the question with us is, how to remedy the existing evil. Now, Sir, we see the noble efforts which our fathers made in this cause; we see the zeal with which they laboured to provide temples for God's service; every parish bears testimony to their piety. We see, too, at the present day, very large sums of money bestowed from pious motives. It cannot, moreover, be doubted, whatever the radicals may say, that the church has a very strong hold on the affections of the bulk of the holders of property in the country. What is there, then, to prevent the making of some really great effort to people the land with churches through its length and breadth? Nothing, I firmly believe, is wanting, but vigour in attempting it. If the real wants of the church were to be brought forward, the present facilities for the erection of churches displayed, the just claims of the See the Appendix to the Bishop of Chester's last Charge, where this is established with painful clearness. Church-building Society enforced, is it possible but what we should have every year large contributions raised for this purpose? My object in writing to you is to press this upon my clerical brethren. Let them be active in forming district associations, in thus bringing the matter before the laity, and shewing an example of liberality themselves, and we shall not see those painful advertisements which now meet our eyes of churches lingering on to their tardy completion, nor know of numbers whom the want of church-room has made frequenters of the meeting, till the craft of others, or their own infirmity, has carried them on into sectaries. There cannot, surely, be a louder call for Christian liberality than this; there can be no charity so sure of effecting an equal amount of good thus may we best with silver and gold repair the breaches of our Zion, and build the walls of Jerusalem. SIR, The Supplement to your last volume contains some judicious remarks on the spirit which at present so laudably animates the public to assist in repairing and restoring our ancient buildings; and after noticing with satisfaction the subscription now in progress for the restoration of CROSBY HALL, your correspondent very truly observes, "that the first value of every specimen of ancient art is its genuine originality, as being an authentic link, more or less important, in the history of the progress of human skill." With a true antiquarian feeling, in which I most cordially join him, he enters his protest against such a reparation of the venerable fabric as would "make the building new. He may be assured, that it is by no means the intention of the committee to "perpetrate such mischief." Every fragment of the original structure will be held sacred. The trustees in their contracts for the perfect re-instatement of the Great Hall, have expressly stipulated, that the character of antiquity which distinguishes the building shall be preserved in the performance of the repairs, and that the new work shall be assimilated to the old work, so that there may be perfect harmony of appearance between the two, the form and character of the old work being on all occasions taken as the authority for the new. The contractors have succeeded in screwing up the roof, which was in a dangerous condition from the decayed state of the timbers; and the modern floors having been partially removed, the Hall may now be seen in its original proportions. It will be the next care of the Committee to repair the beautiful oak ceiling, to replace such portions of the ornamental carving as have been purloined or lost, and to complete such external repairs as may be absolutely necessary to preserve the building from further injury and dilapidation. CORRESPONDENCE. The Proprietor of the estate, having lately attained his majority, has granted a lease, on very liberal conditions, for ninety-nine years, to the Trustees appointed by the General Committee, namely, W. T. Copeland, Esq. M.P., Alderman of Bishopsgate, W. Cotton, Esq. F.S.A., O. Wigram, Esq., S. J. Capper, Esq., and W. Jones, Esq., who will no doubt be happy to receive any contributions that your correspondent may take the trouble to collect in aid of the undertaking. It is estimated that the whole expense will not exceed £3000, which will include the restoration of the Council Chamber, with handsome and appropriate entrances from St. Helen's church-yard, and from I am, &c. Bishopsgate-street. A SUBSCRIBER, Not on the Committee. October 4th, 1833. TRAVELS OF AN IRISH GENTLEMAN IN SEARCH OF A RELIGION. [ERRATA IN LAST LETTER :-P. 519, 1. 9, for sensibly, read servilely.-P. 520, 1, 30, for hear, read leave; 1. 36, for our, read one.-P. 525, 1. penult., for discerned, read devoured.-P. 526, 1. 5, for sense, read mean; 1.5 from the bottom, for portable, read potable.-P. 528, 1. 7 from the bottom, for found, read forced.-P. 529, 1. 24, for as they truly remark, read as Hey truly remarks.-P. 530, 1. 4, for pursue, read peruse; 1. 6, for fervour, read favour ; 1. ult., for pur posely, read profusely.] OUR Traveller, having satisfied himself that, in respect of doctrine, the popery of the nineteenth century exactly resembled the Christianity of the third and fourth, determined, for the first time since he ceased to be a boy, to attend the celebration of Mass, and received the reward of his resuscitated devotion in the satisfactory discovery, that the resemblance was not confined to doctrines, but extended to ceremonies and the outward forms of worship. The use of lights, and incense, and holy water, have, he says, been handed down in the church from the dawn of our faith. He seems to have selected these usages because Dr. Middleton, in his celebrated Letter from Rome, has especially referred to them in illustration of the similitude between popery and paganism; for our Traveller, far from denying the similitude, glories in it. According to him, " the early Christians would have avowed and justified such a policy (the adoption of some pagan customs) as calculated to soften down that appearance of novelty in their faith, which formed one of the most startling objections to its reception with the heathen." He sneers at Middleton's limited and meagre inquiries on the subject. He points out other features of resemblance, and boasts of them as forming one of the countless proofs which the church of Rome can give of the high antiquity of her de It may seem strange that the assailant and defender of popery should both insist on its resemblance to paganism; but we shall cease to be surprised, when we reflect that the real object of both is the same. ""Tis the same rope at different ends they twist." VOL. IV.-Dec. 1833. 4 Q scent. These are hardy assertions. To form a just estimate of their hardihood, let the reader turn to Tertullian's Tracts de Idolalatriâ and de Spectaculis; or, if he is unwilling to encounter the crabbed style of the fiery African, to the fifteenth chapter of Gibbon's History. If the early Christians had been accustomed to hang lamps around the walls of their places of worship, and to keep them burning throughout the day, would Tertullian have condemned,* in terms so unmeasured, the practice of lighting them on days of general festivity in honour of the Emperor? Would he,† who accused the dealer in frankincense of idolatry because it was burned on the altars of the heathen gods, would he, in order to conciliate the heathen, have consented to its introduction into the public worship of the church? The early Christians would have entered into no compromise-would have held no intercourse-with idolatry. The subtle policy which our Traveller ascribes to them was the growth of a later age, when Christianity was established and infected with the pomp of the empire. The church had existed three centuries before we can trace in her those resemblances of paganism which are now brought forward as proofs of the high antiquity of her descent. On the subject of holy water, I find the following note: " According to Tertullian, the sprinkling of the holy water was in memoriam dedicationis Christi." Our Traveller, as is his custom, gives no reference, and I have not been able to find the quotation. In the Tract de Oratione, c. 11, Tertullian says that it was a custom among the Christians to wash their hands, and even their whole body, before prayer. He adds, that, on inquiring into the origin of the custom, he found that it originated in the act of Pilate, who washed his hands before he delivered Christ to the Jews-Id quum scrupulose percontarer et rationem requirerem, comperi commemorationem esse in Domini deditionem (not dedicationem.) In the very next chapter of the same Tract, Tertullian objects to two usages, simply on the ground that they were practised by the heathen. So much for the assertion, that the early Christians would deliberately adopt the customs of paganism, and justify their adoption. Mass being finished, our Traveller returns home from the chapel, lost in admiration of the strict adherence of the Roman Catholic church, through all changes of times and circumstances, not only to the great doctrines bequeathed to her, but to every, even the minutest point of discipline and worship on which the seal of her primitive teachers was set. Nothing, he is satisfied, but the su * Cur die læto non lucernis postes obumbramur; nec lucernis diem infringimus? (Apology, c. 35.) Accendunt igitur quotidie lucernas, quibus lux nulla est.-(De Idololatriâ, c. 15.) + De Idololatriâ, c. 11. In order to judge of the feelings with which he regarded the rites of heathenism, the reader should consult the Tract ad Martyres, c. 2, or de Coronâ, c. 10. I refer the reader to the Postscript to Dr. Middleton's Letter. He and Bishop Warburton-to whose observations the Postscript is an answer-agree in this, that the rise of the superstitious customs in question was many ages later than the conversion of Rome to Christianity. |