One might as well complain of the centripetal and centrifugal forces in astronomy, without which, in combined action we know there would be no revolution of the planets round their central orb. And need we add, that in OUR CHURCH there is an ample provision both for the element of Protestantism and the element of Catholicity to act, in their conjunct and correlative order? In our creeds, articles, litany, and sacraments, man, both in his individual responsibility, and in his collective capacity, is perpetually supplied with motive, and instructed by doctrine. And we may further add, that the Romanizing party in their rancour against a term which the noblest and the most accomplished of English Churchmen have adopted,-are as ignorant of man's real constitution, as of the Church's true perfection. For look at man when under the principle of INDIVIDUAL LIFE alone, -and see how selfish, isolate, morbid, and uncharitable he becomes! His own taste, pleasure, enjoyment, and aggrandizement, form the pivot on which his exclusive heart revolves. On the other hand, regard man when absorbed altogether into the COLLECTIVE LIFE of an ecclesiastical corporation,-and mark how the spirit of a manful independence wanes within him; how soon all mental energy and moral force begin to languish; till at length he terminates in becoming little more than a minute portion of PASSIVE EXISTENCE, in the vast mechanism of an ecclesiastical constitution. Thus then, whether you look at the nature of man or the constitution of the Church, the blended action and harmonizing presence of both Protestantism and Catholicism are alike required for the perfection of either. Protestantism is not therefore the mere CONTRADICTION of the Pope's lie, but the ASSERTION of God's truth also.

V.

ON THE IDEAL OF THE CHURCH AS TO INDIVIDUAL AND CORPORATE LIFE.

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THE Redeemer is the "HEAD OF EVERY. MAN." But is that ALL we intend by believers in Christ? Are we only to select that part of his revelation which leads to PERSONAL EXPERIENCE, and neglect all the rest which authorizes and endows SOCIAL COMMUNION, as an essential element in apostolical religion? And it is precisely at this point so many of our brethren break down; and are utterly incompetent to contend with those who not only believe that Jesus Christ founded a RELIGION for man, but also organized an EXPRESS SOCIETY, to be administered by POSITIVE LAWS, and expressed by FIXED RITES, DEFINITE SACRAMENTS, and CEREMONIAL ACTS,-THROUGH WHICH HIS revealed system of faith and doctrine should act itself out upon the hearts and consciences of men. Christianity therefore of Christ is not simply a spiritual INFLUENCE felt by the individual believer; but it is also an INCORPORATED MEMBERSHIP with an UNIVERSAL BODY, or KINGDOM of fellow-partakers in this influence; and which influence is itself a life dispensed over the whole body from ONE HEAD, Jesus Christ. It seems therefore that it is not according "to the mind of Christ" that our religion should be nothing more than personal experience, or individual life, however spiritual, holy, and rapt it may be thought; but that we should be "joint heirs" of Him, and be compacted into ONE BODY of communing hearts and minds, where the selfishness of THE INDIVIDUAL will be counterpoised by the corrective law of THE SOCIAL life of Jesus. Now we fear the root of all secta

rian errors lies in this: namely, that although Christ leaves man no choice for his religious system,—he does permit him to choose ANY FORM by which that system can be DEVELOPED. In other words, Sectarians think the external and the formal in Christianity are nothing; and that the internal and spiritual are all. Hence as a natural consequence, they practically deny that Jesus Christ established a VISIBLE CORPORATION, or EXTERNALLY ORGANIZED CHURCH on earth; and conclude that if a man belong to that ecclesiastical invention, that anomalous ideal, and imaginary home of all the sects and schisms under the sun, yclept some INVISIBLE CHURCH!-why he believes all which the Gospel requires. Now we enter our protest against this; we solemnly and in the name of Zion's crucified and crowned King, appeal against this theory, as equally opposed to the GLORY OF the RedeemER and the WELFARE OF THE REDEEMED. On the contrary, so far from believing that a man may choose what he calls "his Church,” even as he may select his residence; or from thinking that the visible Church is nothing more than a voluntary adherence of separate and independent units into any ecclesiastical organization they choose ;-we are convinced that as certainly as Christ revealed a system of DIVINE TRUTH, SO certainly did He authorize personally and by His apostles, a POSITIVE INSTITUTION through which that truth might be applied. To enter on this at full, is here out of the question; but inasmuch as our Lord's allusion KINGDOM" in his sermon to Nicodemus involves this; and as the great controversy of the day turns on this very point,-we shall just intimate the heads of an argument, for a reply against those sectarian dispositions which deny the social, in order to protect the individual life, of the Church.

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1. The SIGNS of God intending Humanity to exist under the mode of a spiritual constitution are not confined to Scripture; but may be evidenced by the fact that every human being who comes into the world, enters it under the LAW of RELATIONSHIP; hence the family constitution is an eloquent symptom of God's intention that man should not exist for himself alone. In like manner, we may reason from the fact that NATIONAL COMMUNIONS exist; which are also signs of some universal and positive institutes, designed to limit the indulgence of individuality; and which institutes moreover do exist whether man wills it or not.

2. A Church absolutely invisible on earth, would seem to be a mere creation of the intellect, which can have no objective reality in this coarse and actual world. Even the sect called the Quakers,-who more than any body have desired to live upon THE IDEA of an internal or unseen Church,-have been compelled to use some visible tokens and outward signs wherewith to CONNECT themselves with the world and with one another.

3. We demand where the visible Church, as essentially distinct from the invisible, is recognised by the Bible? Indeed, so far as we have read the Scripture, we can only detect ONE CHURCH OF THE LIVING GOD FROM THE BEGINNING," the ground and pillar of the truth." When Churches are spoken of in particular, the distinction is geographical, and the plurality altogether a thing of local definition.

4. Although it be manifest that, when we compare the magnificent privileges and mysterious endowments which Scripture attributes to the "Body of Christ," with its present characteristics, we are appalled by the hideous and unholy contrasts which present themselves; yet does

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the same Scripture prepare us for this. A blended condition of light and darkness; of sin and holiness; of chaff and wheat; of branches which bear fruit and those which bear none; of nets which hold good fish and bad;—such is the description which our Lord himself gives of His gospel kingdom on earth, till the grand hour of final separation before His throne arrives. And we may ask, is not this sad inconsistency in the experience of the universal" Body," illustrated by a resembling experience as to every "member in particular?" If the CORPORATE LIFE of the Church be so lamentably deficient, is not the INDIVIDUAL LIFE of the believer continually marred by a like defection from holiness and truth?

5. We have before endeavoured to prove, that if religion only provided for man's welfare as a spiritual unit, it would be a defective system; and altogether out of analogy with those relations which every human being bears to the settled constitution of a family and a nation. Indeed SPIRITUAL EGOTISM would be all which such an isolation of religious principle would produce. A law of positive restraint to act upon our faculties from without, is just as requisite to the perfection of our nature as a spiritual principle to operate on our moral springs within.

6. The whole doctrine of the Church, as laid down in the Bible, confirms this view of the Church as designed not to be only an UNSEEN INFLUENCE for the individual, but an embodied constitution, a visible framework, or sacramental Ark, for containing and preserving THE

TRUTH.

7. Both the religious wants and the very nature of man require something outward and visible, as well as the inward and invisible, in religion. And this is true, because, 1st, Body and soul were BOTH brought under