lence of his productions, and has the merit of giving the true meaning of a text which Dr. Hook had made subservient to a party purpose.

"Let us hear the conclusion of the whole matter." Our readers who have followed us in the subject we have thus sketched, and who will have the goodness to retrace the course of argument and illustration pursued in this and the preceding article, will not fail to perceive the weight and variety of the interests suspended upon this controversy. We shall think little of the labour it has cost us to wade through these and other publications, if we have succeeded in giving them an available key to this question. They will have seen the anxiety of the Tractists to establish their views, and also how urgently this claim is contested by other writers in the same church, for we have permitted both parties fairly to speak for themselves, that the public might judge without prejudice between them.

But the question returns, will the new system answer the ends for which it is designed, and effectually sustain the establishment in the conflicts which it dreads, or support it in the estimation of wise, devout, and influential men? We think not; but regard it as more likely to introduce another schism in the body," another crack in the walls." But should we be thought interested witnesses, we could refer, as we have already done, to others, who must be deemed unexceptionable. Bishop Sumner, as might have been expected, denounces the doctrines of the Tractists. The Archdeacon of Ely, has published a charge, strongly deprecating the mooting of these questions, and opposing many of their opinions.* Mr. Blunt, Margaret Professor of Divinity in Cambridge, and the author, if we mistake not, of some able articles in the Quarterly, upon the writings of Butler and Paley, though strongly sympathising with the Oxford writers in some points, would appear to suspect them of going too far. In his Introductory Lecture, on the Fathers, he cautions the under-graduates against any innovations in the church system, and would have them slow to disturb that which is good by any attempt at a second Reformation,”—a favourite expression, by the way, of the Tractists, who speak of " a second Reformation" to be achieved by their own worthy selves, which those who know them can little doubt would be constructed on principles wholly subversive of all that was good in the first. The Rev. C. Benson ‡ has published three Lectures, addressed to the Benchers of the Temple, ably contravening the opinions of the Tractists. Dr. Godfrey Faussett, also, worthily condemns them in many particulars, in a sermon expressly directed against their heresy, which we were not sorry to see entitled, THE REVIVAL OF POPERY! §

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Strictures on some parts of the Oxford Tracts. A Charge delivered to the Clergy of the Archdeaconry of Ely at St. Michael's Church, Cambridge, June, 1838. By Rev. J. H. Browne, M. A.

† An Introduction to a Course of Lectures of the Early Fathers, now in Delivery in the University of Cambridge, by Rev. J. J. Blunt, B. D., Margaret Professor of Divinity.

Episcopacy and Tradition. By Rev. C. Benson.

The Revival of Popery. A Sermon preached before the University of Oxford, at St. Mary's, on Sunday, May 20, 1838. By Godfrey Fausset, D. D., of Magdalen College, The Lady Margarets Professor of Divinity. Third Edition.

It is plain, therefore, that according to the opinion of men most competent to judge of the bearing and aspect of the case upon the position of their own church, the project of these ecclesiastical agitators is to a certain extent viewed with apprehension and alarm. But, we fear, only to a certain extent. For there is much in the Oxford system that commends itself, as we have seen, to the feelings and predilections of most churchmen, especially as tending to advance their own supremacy, and build up their sense of personal importance. Strange to say, many who oppose it, in some respects, incline towards it in others, and satisfy themselves with condemning its details as going a little too far, rather than denouncing the principles on which the whole assumption is built.

Upon serious consideration, therefore, and placing ourselves in the attitude of impartial spectators, we are of opinion that the opposers of the Tractists within the church itself will find it extremely difficult, not to say impossible, to dislodge their antagonists from the ground they have taken, without giving up some opinions which, as churchmen, they have tenaciously professed. We find that most, if not all, of the writers just enumerated, admit far too much, unless they are prepared to go farther. If, for instance, they admit the really popish notion of apostolical succession as imparting a peculiar and exclusive virtue to their ministrations; if they admit the doctrine of baptismal regeneration, and the necessary virtue of the sacraments as administered only by themselves; if they admit the authority of tradition and the writings of the Fathers as determining the sense of Scripture; or, lastly, if they admit any human authority in matters of faith, we do not see how they can escape from the general conclusions to which the Tractists would conduct them. They may object to minor points, such as celibacy, refraining" from snuff in Lent," " laborious postures in prayer," the glimmering of candles upon the altar, or what not, but the Tractists will be likely to win upon the main points of the argument. The clergy will not be able, as many of them obviously wish to do, to take a little of the Oxford theory, and not go all lengths with it; but they will find the whole system, as Burke said of the penal code, characterized by "a vicious perfection;" it must be maintained in its entirety or wholly swept away. Give the Tractists these principles, and they can deduce their own conclusions; and you can only escape from the conclusions by denying the premises. Were we churchmen, we should say, WE MUST DISSENT from the Oxford doctrines. The petty and vacillating men who go one mile with them, will be compelled to go twain; and they who give the cloak, must be prepared to surrender the coat also!

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What the men of sound religious principle in the church, who still cling to that institution as the object of their decided preference, ought to do, is for them rather than for us to determine; but we respectfully submit that they could lose nothing, in the approaching controversies by abandoning all transcendental views of church power, as many distinguished men in their communion have done, and taking the Bible as their own rule and standard of faith, as freely give to others the liberty they take themselves. This was, after all, the true principle of the Reformation. Every pretension, opposed to this, has

come to them through the channel of Popery, and naturally tends to Popery again.

For ourselves, we agree with those who think that the intrusion of the Oxford doctrines is not favourable to the permanent interests of the church, whatever momentary impulse it may give in certain directions, and that it will prove inevitably injurious to the cause of personal religion. Our reason for giving prominence to these remarks is our long-cherished conviction that the dogmas assumed in these Tracts do not terminate, as some might suppose, in matters of mere ecclesiastical rule and discipline, but tend to neutralize and destroy the essential principles of the gospel of Christ. They tend to increase attachment to outward forms instead of promoting the inward power of godliness; to put ceremonies and observances in the place of important truths; to bind the conscience of the laity to the will of the priest; to increase the spirit of sectarian bigotry within the bosom of the church itself against those who are without her pale, (a serpent that certainly required no additional warming into life and venom;) and to minister to that disposition to rest in a visible connection with an ecclesiastical system, which numbers will willingly substitute for the life of religion in the soul. So it was at Rome; and as the same causes produce the same effects, so it must be in Oxford, however the poison may be, for a season, tempered and disguised.

Instead of fighting against Popery, as the Oxford Doctors would have their votaries fondly believe, their scheme will infallibly prepare the way for it, by breaking down the salutary abhorrence in the public mind against some of its most pernicious tenets; and they who embrace the doctrines of the tracts will not remain in the pretended via media of Anglicanism, but will go on consistently towards Rome, for which final step the Honourable Mr. Spencer has duly prepared the way. The Oxford bubble will stand no chance of a separate existence, in the vicinity of the great Romish vortex, and the Papists are quite right in anticipating its rapid absorption. On the contrary, the tractists only invite towards these shores the flow of a tide by which their feeble mounds and bulwarks will be remorselessly swept away, like those mimic towers and castles, of shells and pebbles, erected by infant hands upon the beach, which the first returning wave annihilates for ever. Popery is not to be cast out by Popery, any more than Satan can be cast out by Satan. The great leviathan is not to be bound by these silken threads. The war-horse of the Vatican will laugh at the shaking of the Oxford spear. In a word, we view these schemes, however warily concocted, and deeply laid, as wholly injurious and dangerous in their tendency, much resembling those counsels reprobated by the Roman historian as crafty in their character, specious in their appearance, replete with insuperable difficulties throughout their whole course, and absolutely disastrous in their issue.*

We cannot doubt that the whole of this discussion will do incalculable good, and will probably end in the complete establishment of the great principles for which the early Nonconformists so wisely contended, and for which they were compelled to leave the establish

* Consilia callida, primâ specie læta, tractatu dura, eventu tristia.- Livy.

ment. Accepting the statement of Dr. Pusey, that the Church of England never professed to be a new church, but only to have modified the practices and opinions of a former one, and perceiving a tendency amongst her divines to revive some of the worst errors and pretensions of darker ages, we find additional motives for holding back from her communion, and exclaim, with Mr. Ely, whatever the avowal may cost us, WE MUST DISSENT. If the Oxford scheme be nothing more than a modern Anglican modification of the old Roman imposture, a pious fraud of the thirteenth, or of the third century, sought to be skilfully passed off upon the credulity of the nineteenth century; and if the principles upon which it rests be as unsound and antichristian as Bishop Sumner, Dr. Fausset, Mr. Townsend, and Mr. Hare, declare them to be, then we think it follows, that the despised Nonconformists have been right all along, and have witnessed a good confession, in this realm, contending" earnestly for the faith once delivered to the saints." If the church be, by many degrees, more Popish than moderate men had anticipated, so much the more need is there for a continued protest against errors so dangerous, for a more vigorous maintenance of the fundamental doctrines of the New Testament, and for a strenuous vindication, on our part, of the great principles recognised at the Reformation. The course of events, the defection of others from the support of christian truth, and the dangerous sentiments avowed by the hierarchy, our enemies themselves being judges, would appear to devolve upon the abused Dissenters, the task of upholding THE PROTESTANTISM OF EURope.

THE EDITOR'S TABLE.

Lectures on the Fourteenth, Fifteenth, and Sixteenth Chapters of St. John's Gospel. By the late Rev. John B. Patterson, M.A., Minister of Falkirk. 12mo. Glasgow: Fullarton and Co.

The New Testament, translated from the Text of J. J. Griesbach. By Samuel Sharp. 12mo. London: J. Green.

The Ministerial Commission. Two Sermons by John Davies, B.D. Rector of Gateshead. 8vo. Hatchard and Sons.

The Life and Times of Martin Luther. Reprinted from the American edition. Royal 8vo. London: J. Green,

The Boy and the Birds. By Emily Taylor. With designs by Thomas Landseer. London: Harvey and Darton.

The Colonial Magazine and Commercial Maritime Journal. Edited by Robert Montgomery Martin, Esq. No. II. London: Fisher and Co.

A Dictionary of Greek and Roman Antiquities. 8vo. Part 4. London : Taylor and Walton.

N. S. VOL. IV.

Y Y

TRANSACTIONS OF THE CONGREGATIONAL CHURCHES, AT HOME AND ABROAD.

ANNUAL ASSEMBLY OF THE CONGREGATIONAL UNION OF ENGLAND AND WALES.

The Gommittee repeat the announcement that the Annual Assembly of the Union will be held at the Library, Blomfield Street, on Tuesday morning, May the 12th. Breakfast will be provided as usual at eight o'clock.

The Rev. JAMES BENNETT, D.D, of London, will take the chair at nine o'clock precisely, and an early and full attendance of brethren is earnestly desired.

The regulations at the doors will be similar to those of preceding years, and every gentleman will be expected to comply therewith in order to ad

mission.

As the proposed Union for Home Missionary labours between the Home Missionary Society and the Congregational Union has rendered unnecessary the public meeting for originating a separate Home Mission by the Union, which stood appointed for the evening of Monday, May the 11th, the Committee respectfully invite the attendance at the Library, at four o'clock in the afternoon of that day, of all delegates and other brethren from the country, for conference on that important subject preparatory to the proceedings of the Assembly in reference to it on the following day. It has been most gratifying to the Committee to receive numerous communications from their brethren in every part of the country, unanimously and cordially approving of their measures for attaining this union in the great work of Home Missions. And they are anxious for the most unreserved communications of their brethren on all points connected with it, that they may move on in that harmony with the general sentiment and feeling, which can alone secure co-operation in such efforts as our cause and our country require.

Annual meeting of the Colonial Missionary Society. - The Fourth Annual Meeting of this Society will be held in Finsbury Chapel, Finsbury Circus, on Friday morning, May the 15th. John Remington Mills, Esq., the Treasurer, will take the chair at eleven o'clock precisely. The growing interest of the public in this important Society will, it is hoped, be evinced by a numerous attendance. REV. J. ROAF'S LETTER ON THE CANADIAN CLERGY RESERVES BILL.

At the moment when the clergy of the established churches of England and Scotland are quarrelling with each other and with the Government upon this long litigated and vexatious question, it affords us much pleasure to publish the opinions of our Congregational brethren in Canada upon it. The Rev. Egerton Ryerson, & Wesleyan minister, and editor of The Christian Guardian, in one of his articles, advocated the plan of dividing the proceeds of the clergy reserves amongst the different denominations, by which the Wesleyan Methodists would have a large share, and concluded that as the minor denominations in the province were silent, they acquiesced in the arrangement. This occasioned the Committee of the Congregational Union of Upper Canada, to pass the Resolution which is embodied in the following letter, addressed by Mr. Roaf to that gentleman, to explains their silence and gives their reasons for not approving of the measure, reasons which have the greater weight, as they disclaim the principle of receiving aid for religion from the government under any form.

"TO THE REV. EGERTON RYERSON.

"Toronto, 10th Feb. 1840. “Rev. and dear Sir,-At a meeting of the Committee of the Congregational