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at work." I quite agree with him; I believe, there is in it the agency of Satan, as an angel of light," corrupting men's hearts, perverting men's principles, unhinging men's hopes, and leading them, while Protestants in name, to be thorough Papists in principle, the victims and the asserters of a soul-destroying superstition.

"It ought not to be for nothing," says one of these writers, in Sermons for the Times, "nor for any thing short of some vital truth, some truth not to be rejected without fatal error, that persons of name and influence should venture on the part of ecclesiastical agitators, intrude upon the peace of the contented, and raise doubts in the minds of the uncomplaining. All this has been done, and all this is worth hazarding again in a matter of life and death; and this matter we believe to be, (to use an offensive, but forcible expression,) the unprotestantising of the National Church. As we go on, we must recede more and more from the principles of the English Reformation."

And now hear what is said of their movements by an individual, one would suppose to be a very fair judge. You are aware that there is in England a clever and active bishop of the Roman Catholic Church, called (I believe) coadjutor-bishop of the Midland district; a consummate Jesuit for the wisdom which he exhibits, and very unscrupulous in the remarks he makes. Dr. Wiseman thus writes to the Earl of Shrewsbury, in reference to the Tractarians of Oxford: "It seems to me," says the wily Jesuit, "impossible to read the works of the Oxford divines, and especially to follow them chronologically, without discovering a daily approach towards our holy Church, both in doctrine and in affectionate feeling. Our saints, our popes, have become dear to them by little and little; our rites, our ceremonies, our offices, yea, our rubrics are precious in their eyes-far, alas! beyond what many of us consider them. Our monastic institutions, our charitable and educational provisions, have become more and more objects with them of earnest study; and every thing, in fine, that concerns our religion, deeply interests their attention. I need not ask you, whether they ought to be met with any other feeling than sympathy, kindness, and offers of co-operation. Ought we to sit down coldly while such sentiments are breathed in our hearing, and not rise up to bid the mourner have hope? Are we, who sit in the full light, to see our friends feeling their way towards us through the gloom that surrounds them, faltering for want of an outstretched hand, or turning astray for want of a directing voice, and sit on and keep silent, amusing ourselves at their painful efforts?" Thus Oscott and Oxford, Wiseman and Newman, pull all in one direction.

6

Let nie quote one or two passages more, illustrative of their principles, for I desire to make them well known. "We may be sure," says one of them in Tract 10, "that the bishop is Christ's representative, as if we actually saw upon the bishop's head a cloven tongue like as of fire.' In the act of confirmation, the bishop is our Lord's figure and likeness, when he laid his hands on children; and whatever we ought to do, had we lived when the apostles were alive, the same ought we to do for the bishops. He that despiseth the bishop, despiseth the apostles. This is faith, to look at things not as seen, but as unseen.' "It is from the bishop, that the news of redemption and the means of grace, are all come to us."

The

"Once more," says Professor Sewell, in his Morals, p. 27, a book of great talent, but of the most dangerous description,- once more, these powers of the Church are very great; they are even awful; if not conferred by God, they are blasphemously assumed by man. power of communicating to man the divine nature itself, of bringing down the Deity from heaven, and infusing his Spirit into the souls of miserable mortals-this, which is nothing more than the every-day promise of the Church, proclaimed and administered by every minister of the Church, every time he stands at the font, or ministers at the altar, is so awful and so tremendous, that we scarcely dare to read it, except in familiar words which scarcely touch the ear."

You will find their principles carried, not to the verge, but beyond the verge, of persecution. In speaking of other Churches, whether the Dissenting Churches in England, or Reformed Churches, Scotch and Continental, Frowde says "To dispense with episcopal ordination is to be regarded as a surrender of the Christian priesthood; and the attempt to substitute any other form of ordination for it, or to seek communion with Christ through any non-episcopal Association, is to be regarded, not as a schism merely, but as an impossibility." "Christ," says

Tract 51, 66 appointed the Church as the only way to heaven.' Strange and unscriptural announcement! for the Son of God has said, "I am the way, and the truth, and the life; no man cometh to the Father, but by ME." Again, Mr. Palmer says, "We readily admit, or rather most firmly maintain, that all sects or denominations, even supposing them to hold what are called fundamental doctrines, are not included in the Church of Christ; all the temporal enactments and powers of the whole world, could not cure this fault, nor render the Presbyterians of Scotland a portion of the Church of Christ. It is a most indubitable doctrine, that schismatics, even though they hold no error of faith, are, by the fact alone of their schism, out of the Church, and beyond the pale of salvation." By way of showing unity, we quote a Romish Professor's views: "We must, of necessity, hold that no heretics, whom the Church has rejected from her bosom, belong to her body; and for that very reason, must hope for no salvation."-Delahogue.

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Dr. Pusey says, "Thus the power of expounding, decreeing, ordaining, implies that the Church's children are to receive her exposition, and obey her decrees, and accept her authority in controversies of the faith. And the appeal lies not to their private judgment; they are not the arbiters, whether she pronounce rightly or no; for what sort of decree or authority were that, of which every one were first to judge, and then, if his judgment coincided with the law, to obey?" "If I be a Father,' ,"continues Dr. Pusey-applying the text in Malachi to the Church-" if I be a Father, where is mine honour? and if I be a master, where is my fear?" Then The British Critic remarks, "Let every man abide in the same calling, wherein he was called.' We consider, that when private judgment moves in the direction of innovation, it may be regarded with suspicion, and treated with severity. We repeat it; if persons have strong feelings, they ought to pay for them; if they think it a duty to unsettle things established, they should show their earnestness, by being willing to suffer." You see how the spirit of Popery necessarily generates

the spirit of persecution. "Not only is the Church catholic," says Mr. Newman," she is indefectible in it; and, therefore, not only has she authority to enforce it, but is of authority in declaring it."

I trust-I believe the Christian people of this England of ours are not to be cajoled or frightened into Popery. The experience of ancient days lifts up its voice, and with tears adjures them to be faithful to God, loyal to conscience. History with its thousand tongues, and Holy Scripture with its one, unite in proclaiming that no greater curse can light upon our shores than Romish superstition, and no more dangerous enemies appear in our ranks than Popish Jesuits. Chartism is open brute force, and may be avoided or crushed; but Tractarianism, or Puseyism, is a pestiferous malaria that infects and kills, a canker-worm at the very root of England's faith,—a dry-rot devastating England's Church.

You may have heard, that when the Tracts for the Times were frowned on by the bishop of the diocese in which they appeared,— not because he seemed to object to their principles, but because of the confusion and disturbance they generated, these Tractarian priests showed their submission to their superior by instantly starting the very same series of works under a new nomenclature, christening them Sermons for the Times. From Jesuits this might have been looked for, but certainly not from those whose subjection to superiors seemed entire. In the first of these Sermons we read, that the church (that is, the sacred edifice) is not for the preaching of the Gospel at all; that unconverted men have no business within its four walls; that it is solely for the worship of God, and administration of the sacraments and rites of the Church.

"The time was," we read in the first of these, "when the distorted visages on the outer walls of God's house, spoke of the misery of those who were excluded from saintly privileges; and the unclean beasts" (that is, Roman cement beasts) "raging without, showed their fruitless attempt to find a place within. The ancient churches were built up from the foundation in the form of a cross, to teach the important lesson, that it was by the way of sorrow and suffering that we could come to that joy which was lasting and divine. The arched door said, I am the way, pointing upwards to him. The arched window said, 'I am the light of life,' pointing also to him; while the painted glass, giving representations of the saints, subdued, but did not obstruct the light, and taught the spiritualists to see him in his variously manifested likenesses, and to follow them as they followed Christ, as lights in the way to glory. The baptismal font in the porch, or at the entrance, reminded the presumptuous sinner, that even the child of days must be washed before he could be received into the sacred courts; and the prominent yet half-concealed altar, spoke of mercy and of holiness, of majesty and of condescension, of a crucified Saviour and of a risen and reigning Lord; inviting approach, but saying at the same time,' How sacred is the banqueting place of his love, and how fearful in holiness is even the mercy-seat of God!' The body of the church was called the nave (from navis, a ship), as the antitype of the ark; tossed about on the sea of this world, and exposed to many a storm and blast, but still the only place of safety. The upper part was called the choir, and shadowed forth the heavenly mansions,

where the praises of God are sung without ceasing; and the carved work, in stall and canopy, loft and shrine, window and door, within and without, represented the workmanship of the Holy Ghost in the new creation, whose hand fashions into varied forms of surpassing beauty the rude material of nature. Every ornament was wrought into the form of a cross; while the crocketted spire, pinnacle, and point, great and little, stood like so many fingers silently pointing out the path to the heavenlies, whither Jesus our forerunner has gone before."

One would suppose this was a representation of the Temple of Solomon, or referred to some type or shadow, and had no connection with that perfect and glorious dispensation, the grand and distinguishing characteristic of which was announced by our Lord, when upon the cross he said, "It is finished. All types have met their antitype, all symbols and shadows have been submerged in the substance; Levi, Moses, and their ritual, have for ever passed away; 'GOD IS A SPIRIT, AND THEY THAT WORSHIP HIM MUST WORSHIP

This writer goes on to describe "the house of God in the present day," and to deplore some points which we thought praiseworthy.— "It is without defence. By the law of the land its doors must stand open as a licensed thoroughfare for the uncircumcised and the unclean." [I thought this was its beauty," without money and without price."] "Who, of this generation, imagines that clean hands and a pure heart are God's stipulated qualifications for ascending the hill of the Lord, and standing in his holy place?" [Where can these be made clean if not in "the fountain" preached and pointed out in the Church ?] "Alas! alas! the penitent is no longer to be found kneeling in the porch, conscious of his unworthiness to make a nearer approach to the place where God's name is recorded, and where his honour dwelleth; nor the publican to be seen afar off, smiting upon his breast and crying, ‘God be merciful to me a sinner.' The wall of the holy place has been trodden down; and without a sacrifice, and without a washing, and without a change of vestment, the Gentiles have entered in and taken possession, as if it were their proper appointed court. Who may not come and take a seat in the presence of the King of kings? and what is more fearful still, who is not invited to take part in a form of worship which cannot be used without blasphemy by other than a pious soul and hallowed lips? The very purpose of God's house is perverted, and its proper work can hardly be said to be done in it. Instead of the fire upon the altar, and the lights of the sanctuary continually burning, and the ministers waiting upon their ministry in their courses, and watching unto prayer, as God's elect, crying day and night unto him, we have a deserted and shut-up house, as if it were an honour little to be desired to wait upon the Lord. The service of worship, when it is performed, what is it? The reading of a beautiful composition; the uttering of words by a congregation of sinners which they do not understand, or (with an occasional exception) a lifeless form irreverently gone through; and to consummate the whole, the sermon, instead of having for its purpose the edification and perfecting of God's saints, is an address to sinners, thereby sanctioning their unholy intrusion into the house of God."

Such are some of the views and sentiments of the Tractarians.

Suffer me now to draw your attention to some proofs of the progress of these deadly principles-for deadly they are-in the age in which we live.

Direct Romanism is unquestionably making rapid and extensive progress partly by Protestants being unable to meet the sophisms of confraternity emissaries, or to give a reason for the faith that is in them; partly by the peculiar atmosphere generated by the Tractarianism of Oxford; and partly by the prospect (I fear, not far distant,) of complete reunion between the Vatican and Oxford, the Tiber and the Isis, Pope Gregory XVI. and Messrs. Newman, Pusey and Keble, with their numerous and increasing followers. And, with respect to what I have called Popery in the bud, or in embryo, I conceive (and I say it with profound reverence for the doctrines, discipline, and service of the Church of England), that the principles of the Tractarians of Oxford are as deadly, and more dangerous, than the openly avowed Popery of the Council of Trent; under the assumption of Protestant names, they are introducing the worst principles of the Church of Rome; "the voice is the voice of Jacob, but the hands are the hands of Esau;" the coin is, in its substance, the base metal of the Vatican, but upon it they have struck and stamped the superscription of a Protestant Church, and the image of the Son of God. Let us now see, what indications there are of the progress they are making,

If I refer to the pulpits of the Protestant Church of England, I grieve beyond measure to state what I know to be, in too many of these, the painful and disastrous exhibition, which its occupant makes. The name Church, instead of being the lofty hill on which the cross shall appear in all its moral and impressive glory, is made the sepulchre in which truth is almost utterly entombed; and those members of the priesthood who subscribe to the Tractarian sentiments, become the screens that conceal the Saviour, not the bright and beautiful apocalypse, that makes known "the Light of the Gentiles, and the glory of his people Israel." Endless genealogies, and changes of vestments, and forms and ceremonies are preached and paraded; while souls perish for want of living bread, and spirits that never die, pass to the judgment-seat unrefreshed by those living streams, which can alone satiate the cravings of the thirsty, and give peace to the troubled, and happiness and hope to the despondent.

These principles appear, not only in the pulpit, but also in the desks and services of a large section of the Church. Those of you who belong to this chapel enjoy a beautiful and impressive service; I say it as an impartial person, not being permitted or privileged to use it; you hear that venerable liturgy in its simple and majestic grandeur. But I am sure, if after worshipping here, or after worshipping with Romaine, or Newton, or Cecil, you were to go into some of the churches that are performing the new ceremonial, you would feel yourselves utterly at sea. At one time the priest is seen turning, like a Mufti, to the east; or like a Heliotrope, to the sun, as if the progress of that luminary was the regulator of worship; anon, passing from place to place, making varied genuflections, prostrations, &c. &c., and