THE VOICE OF THE ANGLICAN CHURCH; being the Declared Opinions of her Bishops on the Doctrines of the Oxford Tract Writers. Collected, with an Introductory Essay, by the Rev. HENRY HUGHES, M.A., Perpetual Curate of All Saints, Gordon-square. London: Seeleys. 1843.

WE can perceive, by the complainings of British Critics and Christian Remembrancers, even before this little volume had appeared, that few things have more seriously annoyed them than the announcement of such a collection. In truth, it is a blow which cannot be parried. What! have they not made it a first principle, that "the Bishop stands in the place of the Apostles; and is the shepherd of our souls on earth, while Christ is away?" Have they not told us that "this is faith, to look at things not as seen, but as unseen; to be as sure that the Bishop is Christ's appointed representative, as if we actually saw upon his head a cloven tongue like as of fire?" Well, then, here are, collected together, the ex cathedra decisions of no fewer than eighteen of our bishops, on all the great questions raised by Mr. Newman, Dr. Pusey, and their coadjutors. Nor is it an unfair or partial selection, for Mr. Hughes copies also, in a distinct part of the volume, the laudations of the Oxford Tractarians, in which three or four prelates have indulged. In short, this little volume furnishes a manual of episcopal decisions; giving, not their conclusions only, but their premises and reasonings also, and the whole in their own words.

Obviously this is not a volume which we can review. Having announced it, we shall merely take the opportunity of inviting more attention than it has yet received, to one of the best Charges of the whole eighteen-the Bishop of Hereford's; from which we shall give one or two extracts, the more freely, as we understand that the original Charge is now out of print, and cannot be purchased in London. The following passages, then, are really worth our readers' acceptance :

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"Much of the comparative leisure which it is your lot to enjoy, should be devoted to professional study; and in addition to the sacred writings themselves, you will not fail to bestow some care on those of the earliest ages the Christian Church. To entertain no respect for the authority of past ages savours of vanity and self-esteem. But antiquity must not be lifted out of its place-it must ever be subordinate to Scripture; nor must every claim to it be too easily credited, nor our veneration extended too far. If we except the inspired pages of the New Testament, very scanty are the genuine remains of the first century of the Christian era-and they may soon be read. But in perusing them, and some of the best of the more voluminous authors of the three following centuries, your labour will be profitably recompensed.

Tracts for the Times, No. 10, p. 3.

You must read them, however, warily, as Cardinal Bellarmine speaks, and with caution, exercising your own judgment on their interpretation of Scripture, and not be led away by their fondness for allegory; nor by their fanciful habit of spiritualizing every thing. You need not pin your faith upon their writings, as if they were the work of inspired men; for it does not appear either that they possessed or claimed any miraculous powers, or extraordinary spiritual gifts; or that they were aided any further than by those ordinary operations of the Spirit of God, which are vouchsafed, in our day as well as in theirs, to every sincere and devout enquirer after divine truth. They were doubtless influenced by their own education and habits of life, by their situation, by the learning, philosophy and circumstances of their times. Even when orthodox, they were not always precise enough in their language, nor sufficiently guarded. In disputing with heretics, they were often hasty and wrong. They frequently contradict themselves, or each other, and when supposed to express the sentiments of the Church at large, are but delivering their own. Yet with all these and other abatements, their testimony has been of utmost importance in deciding on some high points of controversy which from time to time have arisen. As witnesses to facts, to the events of Ecclesiastical History, to the form of Church-government, to ritual injunctions, to ceremonial observances; to the practice of their respective localities, and to the canonicity of the Scriptures, they are invaluable. But we do them, as well as ourselves, grievous wrong, if we carry our admiration so far as to imagine that we ought to receive their statements of doctrine as of divine and apostolical authority, and therefore almost, or every whit as binding on our belief and conscience as the Scriptures themselves; for, except in so far as the same doctrines can be proved from Scripture, no testimony of any number of these early writers can be binding upon us. To the testimony of Scripture, and to that alone, they were themselves in the constant habit of appealing for decision of controversy during several of the first centuries; little dreaming of the use that after ages would make of their incidental notices, and of the unreasonable claims that would be set up in their behalf. Read these authors, and you will soon discover into what egregious errors many of them fell-a thing not much to be wondered at, seeing that very many of them had been but newly converted from heathenism, and were endowed with no greater spiritual help than any of you may attain, if with lowliness of mind, and with sincerity of heart and purpose, you apply to the fountain of all spiritual light and energy; or take as many of these writers as have come down to our times, and you will find that there is scarcely any one traditive interpretation of Scripture-or any one article of belief essentially necessary to salvation, in which they afford an unanimous and consistent testimony, except where the same can be ascertained without their aid from the inspired word of God; nor, except in some essential, and among ourselves undisputed points, is there that harmony and agreement which will justify any rational man in considering their authority in such matters as supreme, or their judgment decisively binding on our consciences; so that in estimating the value of their testimony, the noted rule of Vincent of Lirins, 'quod semper, ubique, et ab omnibus,' may be safely adopted; for if honestly enquired into and authenticated, it will not greatly encumber your minds by multiplying articles of belief.”—(pp. 178—182.)

Touching the recommendation of "reserve in preaching Christ crucified," the Bishop thus speaks:

"If in the midst of heathenism the apostle 'shunned not to declare the whole counsel of God"-if, in the perverse synagogue at Antioch, he unveiled the grand mystery of the Atonement, and justification through the blood of Christ-if the youthful Timothy, through early 'knowledge of the Holy Scriptures, could be made wise unto salvation'-if these same Scriptures are so 'profitable for instruction in righteousness' that even the man of God;

-he who has to minister in sacred things, much more the ordinary Christian, may be thereby 'perfected, thoroughly furnished unto all good works'-in a Christian land, where these scriptures, which were written for our learning, that we, through patience and comfort of the same, might have hope,' are in every one's hands, and their essential and holy principles are by the church commanded to be taught to every child of her communion, how shall it be endured that any part should be kept back? When even the great and awful mysteries of our religion are not only not concealed from, but ordered to be taught to our infant catechumens, as under the old dispensation the law was taught to the children, you will not feel justified in setting at naught this example, and the authority of the Church, whose parental care has thus provided spiritual food and nourishment for the lambs of the flock. When the sublime doctrines of religion are to be inculcated on the young and inexperienced, it would be the highest pitch of absurdity to think of concealing them from those of maturer age. This would be a practical denial of the use and value of the Scriptures, more in accordance with the usage and sentiments of another church, which long ago we have disowned and rejected, partly on this very account, because she forbade, as she still forbids, the free circulation of the word of life.

"It has been remarked with truth, that it is little less than an impeachment of the wisdom of God, to say that when he purposed to reveal to mankind the conditions of eternal life, he could not, or did not, deliver his will plainly enough to be understood, without recourse to some unerring human interpreter: and it is an impeachment of his goodness, to say that although this revelation is conveyed obscurely, he will finally judge men for not believing and obeying that which he placed purposely, if at all, beyond their comprehension. However dark and confused the rule of faith and practice may appear, seen through any other medium; seen through the Scriptures, it will be as clear as the day, in all essential points. Hence the great divines of our church, with few exceptions, have all appealed to them as the test and criterion of truth, submitting her doctrines and pretensions to be tried by that infallible standard alone. In things of less moment they have been willing to be led by the opinions and practice of primitive times, but they take the oracles of God' alone for the ground and pillar of truth' and faith. Herein they are supported by the earlier Greek and Latin fathers, as before stated, who all, with one exception, (in no wise pertinent to the matter in hand) reject the notion of any mysterious reserve in the communication of religious knowledge.

"To recommend reserve in preaching the Atonement to any but to those who have made some progress in grace,' is to take an unwarrantable liberty with the word and purposes of God. The apostles were bidden to 'go into all the world, and to preach the gospel to every creature.' But what sort of gospel will that be, in which the Atonement, through faith in a crucified and risen Saviour, is not to be at all, or but seldom heard of, or not 'explicitly and prominently brought forward?' True, it was preached by St. Paul to the Jews, and it became a stumbling-block' to them-' to the Greeks,' and they esteemed it 'foolishness.' And if, unhappily, any of our people should labour under like delusions, so far from concealing this 'great secret' from men, standing, as it were, on the brink of a dangerous precipice, let us speak the louder, and more plainly, and warn them straightway of their peril, by pointing at once to the cross of Christ as their only refuge, and stay, and safety." (pp. 182-186.)

Generally speaking, we should have feared to occupy our pages with so many extracts from a local address, of temporary character. But such is the truth, and beauty, and value, of the passages we have just given, that we feel certain of the thanks of every one of our readers who will devote a few moments to their perusal.