dered. The props on which she had so long leaned being withdrawn, she hardly knew for a while how to use her own limbs. But by degrees she recovered herself. She learned to feel her own strength, and to look to her own resources. She became sensible that, however desirous to act in unison with the state, however gratified for any kindness rendered her by the state, she could boast of an independent origin, and could, as she had before done, exist in a state of independence.

This change of feeling, this mighty movement in the minds of Churchmen, was the natural and spontaneous effect of the altered circumstances in which they were placed. I should be sorry to connect it, even in idea, with any particular publications of the day, because this would mix us up with all the doctrines and opinions therein maintained. On many of those questions we may entertain sentiments variously modified; and yet there shall remain certain cardinal truths, on which, as Churchmen, we now can hardly differ, although they have arisen, of late, almost as novelties to our consideration. We have learned to look more steadily to the Divine Head of the Church, and to its foundation on a rock from which it shall never be dislodged. We have learned to look more closely to the origin of our own branch of the Catholic Church, and finding that it was founded on primitive usage, before the corruptions of Romanism had taken effect, we assert more boldly its independence and its antiquity, as well as its purity and its consonance with Scripture. We have learned better to value and more firmly maintain the dignity of our orders derived from the bishops, who are themselves descended in an unbroken and uninterrupted succession from the Apostles; and we have learned to insist more strenuously on the virtue and efficacy of the holy sacraments, administered by those to whom the office of imparting them has been duly communicated.

These are grand, fundamental, essential points, common to us with every other true branch of the Holy Catholic Church of Christ; and to any who will assist in resuscitating them in our minds, and fixing them in our attention, we owe our grateful thanks. But together with these more universal truths, there seems also to have been a considerable revival of some others of a more national and local character, and I may say, more immediately and visibly practical in their nature. Among other things, it has been brought more forcibly than heretofore to our recollection, that there are certain rites and ordinances of our Church, which we are bound to keep,-certain rubrics, which we are sworn to observe,certain canons, which if they want the sanction of parliamentary authority to bind the people at large, are obligatory, at least upon the clergy. Now, if I admit that there is such a thing as virtual legislation, and that regulations, which have long fallen into disuse, and ceased to be enforced by those to whom that authority is committed, may be considered as tacitly abrogated, I must add that this doctrine should be propounded and received with extreme caution, and with serious misgivings as to the dangerous consequences to which it may lead. On the other hand, I am ready, without the slightest hesitation or reservation, to admit that usages, which have long ceased to be practised, should not be revived without a due consideration of the feelings of our people. Still there are many points which no desuetude can justify us in considering as altogether obsolete, and with respect to which there can be no reason why they should not again be brought into practice. I will specify a few; and when I mention, first, a strict adherence to the rubrical directions of our Prayer Book, I mention a point that may be urged without any qualification, without any allowance of caution or delay, where it is not already in use. Let me next remind you that our Church has a Morning and Evening Service, which she requires to be performed in every one of her holy temples; and, although it may be true that this daily repetition of prayer might impose on the clergy a burden little likely to be repaid by the number of persons who would attend, (particularly where there is a cathedral

* Dr. Chandler has published, (John W. Parker, West Strand,) in a cheap form, a Sermon preached in Chichester Cathedral, urging attendance on "the Daily Service," which we beg to recommend most warmly to our readers.

in which the service is duly performed,) I still cannot see why it may not be given once or twice in the intervals between Sunday and Sunday, for the sake of those to whom the Choral Service is less acceptable; and, at all events, there can be no reason why the ancient usage of observing the days set apart for the commemoration of the Saints and Martyrs should not be maintained, or, if neglected, revived. With respect also to the Sacrament, I am satisfied that the most beneficial results would be visible if the parochial clergy, especially in the smaller parishes, where it may be more conveniently done, would administer baptism in the face of the congregation, after the Second Lesson; and as little am I doubtful that the best consequences would ensue if the Sacrament of the Lord's Supper were, if not every Sunday, yet more frequently administered."-Pp.23-27. The importance of one other passage pleads hard for its insertion. It refers to the best course to be adopted under the Church's trials.

I would repeat my conviction, that even with the single view of winning the respect and support of the country, our wisest and surest course is to avoid any thing like a surrender, whether of our principles or of our rights;-a course by no means incompatible with personal courtesy, and gentleness, and charity. But, I must add, if we would act thus firmly, we must also act with united force, and with force regularly applied. Internal divisions and irregular action are the two surest processes to bring any society, sacred or secular, to ruin. On a calm review of the general state of our Church, I must express my hope and belief that some differences of opinion, which have too long prevailed among the Clergy, are now much on the decline. I am sure that they exhibit a greater disposition to conform themselves to the proper laws and regulations of our ecclesiastical system. I would then, as my most deliberate, most solemn, piece of advice, say, Persevere in this course; act with united and concentrated efforts; and that you may be able to proceed thus in concert, act conformably to rule and discipline. It has formerly been remarked, that there never probably was a religious body less in the habit of pursuing a regular and combined plan, than the Clergy of the Church of England. While the Romanists are under the strictest regulations; while the Protestant Dissenters of every denomination have their conferences and meetings, in which they have the opportunity of interchanging their ideas and combining their movements; we have been too apt to act in small platoons, in unsupported divisions: and to this unwise course of proceeding we may look, Leyond almost any other cause, as a source of our past weakness. But although, in order to produce combined action, it seems desirable that the Clergy shall hold frequent and confidential intercourse among one another, I would, on the other hand, remark, that such intercourse should be properly ecclesiastical. The practice of particular individuals meeting together, merely because they may be attracted by the sympathy of personal habits and common opinions, seems to be calculated chiefly to rivet them in their prepossessions, to estrange them from the rest of their brethren, and to form them rather into religious partisans, than into Churchmen united by the profession of a common faith in one fellowship and communion. Whereas, if they meet together, according to ecclesiastical principles,—as Clergymen, for instance, of the same archdeaconry, of the same rural deanery, of the same city or other congeries of parishes, then, independently of the general advantages of observing order and rule, they all come together into friendly contact and communication, they learn better to understand and appreciate each other; they find that the differences which may once have seemed to separate them are less serious than was supposed; each may receive and communicate useful suggestions; and all these varying shades of opinion and practice are blended together into harmony, and beauty, and usefulness. And with this view, I cannot but rejoice that our Bishop has revived, in this diocese, the ancient office of the Rural Deans, as being calculated to afford advantages in many ways, but in none more than in bringing the Clergy together, in an authorized manner, to concert measures for their common advantage, in the discharge of the pastoral duties severally committed to their hands.-Pp. 29-31.

ART. IV.-Strictures on "An Address delivered on occasion of Laying the First Stone of East Parade Chapel, Leeds, on Monday, Sept. 2, 1839, by the Rev. John Ely." By GEO. AYLIFFE POOLE, M.A., Incumbent of St. James's Church, Leeds. London: Burns. T. Harrison, Cross, Leeds. 1839. 8vo. Pp. 76.

THE name of the writer of these "Strictures" is sufficient to procure for this pamphlet an extended circulation among churchmen, and to ensure their attentive consideration by such. Mr. Poole is well known to the theological world by several previous works; and the present publication, though called forth by an occasion almost beneath the notice of the reverend gentleman, is every way worthy of his wellearned fame. It appears that Mr. Ely is a minister of the sect of the Independents, and that being concerned in laying the foundation stone of an edifice to be raised in honour of the Diana of modern idolaters of systems, he took occasion to heap censures on the Anglican Church. We can recollect the time when the teachers of heresy were content to talk in the strain of apology when adding to the number of their schools and meeting-houses; but now times are altered, and such persons no longer seek to convince the credulous that they only claim, and only seek, to be pares inter paribus. The sermon preached in Liverpool this year, by the ex-president of the Wesleyan Conference, is an instructive document on this point; and we purpose, in a future number, to lay bare the hollowness, and Popish pharisaism of this sect, whose pride it is to be a hundred years old! For the present, however, we must direct our attention to Mr. Poole, and the poor fly he has broken on his powerful wheel. We have reason to believe that Mr. Ely is a well-intentioned man; but the arrogance, and ignorance of his address is beyond conception. That address is, however, very roughly handled by Mr. Poole, and the impertinence of his assumptions is well exposed. When we read of the doings of dissenters now-a-days, we are involuntarily taken back to the days of the founders of the several schisms which now compete for mastery among themselves, while they, for political purposes, are banded against the integrity of that branch of the holy church, universal and true, which is, by God's grace, planted in this kingdom. We cannot but recollect the solemn protests under which many of the dissenters of other days entered upon their venturesome course. They appeared to be actuated by a holy though misguided impulse--would we could transfer the praise from them to their followers! * But this we are forbidden to do alike by honesty and

We are aware that it is unfair to include the Wesleyans in this censure; for they are not joined to the ranks of other seceders in a crusade against the Church. No; they are more formidable because more covert foes, as our review of the ex-president's sermon will show; but they depart most grievously from the express injunc tion of the man they have this year canonized as their founder!

candour. We are fallen upon evil days, and the chief pride of certain spiritualists seems to be the defence of the sin of schism, and an infatuated disregard of the apostolic denunciation uttered against those who dismember the body of Christ. There is, however, one redeeming feature in the aspect of the present controversy. The various dissenting bodies are beginning to feel their want of spiritual authority, and they do not conceal their uneasiness at its absence. They manifest great impatience at the "usurpation of dominant authority," and the "assertion of apostolical privileges," and the "conformity to the primitive model," which the true-hearted sons of the English Church are everywhere claiming for their spiritual mother. This drives them to an appeal to history, and antiquity; and before this tribunal the schismatic community are brought, only to fall. The sect to which Mr. Ely belongs can least of all abide the test of the past.* And yet Mr. Ely strives to affect to court the testimony of history-with what success, and what fidelity, let the following verbatim statement of Mr. Ely testify :

The ancient Britons worshipped, with servility and terror, gods of ferocious attributes, groaned beneath the yoke of Druidical superstition, and performed rites of cruelty, making every streamlet that flows into the Aire, red with the blood of human sacrifice. Subsequent races yielded successively to the superstitions of Pagan Rome, and to the authority of Papal Rome; and under the latter, a nominally Christian people delegated to the priesthood the services of religion, and bowed conscience to the dictation of that priesthood. The Reformation was speedily followed by the Puritan and Nonconformist conflict; and, in the days of the second Charles, several clergymen of the neighbourhood were silenced, among whom may be distinguished Robert Todd, who, after having heroically discharged his offices during the horrors and perils of the plague, was expelled from his pulpit at St. John's, and died broken-hearted in the space of two years. The first regular Nonconformist congregation was gathered not far from this spot, under the pastorate of Stretton, the friend of Manton; and the first Congregationalists erected a house of prayer shortly afterwards on the opposite side of the town, and enjoyed the ministry of the pious Whitaker during a period of more than thirty years. In the days of Britain's religious declension, it pleased God to raise up Whitefield and the Wesleys, who visited Leeds with their evangelical and stirring ministrations. The work commenced in this vicinity by their instrumentality, was carried forward by the zeal of Nelson and Edwards. The latter was a convert of Whitefield's ministry, an laboured for a time among the Methodists; but he became eventually the pastor of the first congregation of modern Independents, for whom White Chapel was erected in the middle of the last century. A second Independent chapel was erected towards the close of the century,-a structure whose ample and stately proportions, and whose handsome elevation do honour at once to the taste and enlargement of the men that projected the undertaking. I speak of Salem Chapel, for many years the blessed sanctuary and home where that community has worshipped, for whom these foundations are now laid. Since Salem Chapel was built, several sister churches have been formed, and several spacious sanctuaries have been erected for their use: six Independent congregations now assemble regularly within the precincts of the town.-P. 3.

The reader is here recommended to consult the decisive statements of chapter ii. in "The Doctrine of the Apostolical Succession," an invaluable work from the pen of the Hon. and Rev. A. B. Perceval.

We wish we could find space for Mr. Poole's most overwhelmingly convincing counter historic statement. We must content ourselves with the following passages.

The Church of England, or that branch of the Catholic Church established in this realm, was still farther tried, purified, and established, by the persecutions which she suffered under Queen Mary, and under the Protectorate, with the long preceding and subsequent influence of various sectaries. During the great rebellion, while treason and murder, and every licence that can be imagined, were sanctioned by the name and pretence of religion, the same authority that spilt the blood of a royal martyr, deprived seven thousand clergymen of the Catholic Church of their cures, and obtruded upon the people certain [so called] clergy of a new sect. The faith and patience of the saints were thus greatly exercised, and the principles of the Catholic Church found many to maintain their soundness and divine authority with unanswerable arguments; and many to exemplify their effects upon the heart and actions of christian men, in a holy life devoted to the offices of piety and of beneficence. This very town affords a remarkable instance in John Harrison, the munificent founder of St. John's Church, and of a hospital and school. This noble benefactor to the town of Leeds, and to his nation and people, suffered, under the merciless Presbyterians of the Commonwealth, the sequestration of the honourable profits of forty years' business as a clothier. His loyalty to his prince, and his devotion to the Church, marking him out as one of the fittest objects of their ungodly and irreligious rage. "His last years were oppressed at once by bodily weakness, by anguish of heart, and by loss of fortune;" and he who had expended £6,000 in works of public beneficence, was left to die in penury and neglect.

It was the most simple justice that a plain man can conceive, that the in

truders into the ecclesiastical benefices of churchmen under the Protectorate, should be forced to resign their usurped positions, when the State was again able to hold the scales of justice between man and man, with a firm and even hand. This is so, even putting aside the question, Which is the true church? even supposing that the Anglican Church, and its Presbyterian or Independent opponents, were all equally right, or all equally wrong. But forasmuch as we cannot admit this, since it would go to prove that no Christian that ever lived before the fifteenth century, ever was right, to imagine that the Presbyterians or the Independents could be right; it became not merely a matter of simple distributive justice to the deprived ecclesiastics, to put them again in possession of their usurped rights; but a sacred duty to the Divine Head of the Church, to restore to the people the doctrine and the sacraments, which had been taken from them.

This was done, however, with a mild and gentle hand, comparatively: I mean in comparison with the exercise of an usurpation of the same authority by the Presbyterians: for the number of ejected churchmen had been seven thousand, the number of these intruders who were afterwards put out of their benefices, was but two thousand!-Pp. 7-9.

I again repeat, that I deny not to some of these men good intentions, and personal purity of life, always excepting that they were involved in the sin of schism. But whatever was their good they were originators of separation, and "The evil that men do lives after them;

The good is oft interred with their bones." a truth exemplified with melancholy force by the case of John Wesley, who

• As, for instance, the royal martyr King Charles. See his most interesting Correspondence with Henderson, a Presbyterian divine, just republished in "The Voice of the Church."