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the correspondence. She had doubtless heard of Mr. Spencer's religious tendencies, which certainly were no secret; and having heard also that this amiable ecclesiastic was not endowed with a very logical mind, she calculated, and was not mistaken in her calculation, that she should be able to entangle him in a friendly controversy. Mr. Spencer" does not entirely approve of her stratagem," but he has no doubt that she is now interceding for him in heaven-together with all the other saints of the Popish calendar.

The interview with Father Caastrich serves only to display Mr. Spencer's pliability and lack of information. The arguments which " overpowered" Mr. Spencer were of the most ordinary and superficial nature, such as "convince" the uninstructed and degraded peasantry of the Irish bogs. "To submit implicitly to the authority of those to whom Christ has committed the charge of his flock," i. e. the Pope and his clergy, is, in other words, to surrender the judgment and all the faculties of cognition in the most important of all subjects, the relations existing between God and man, to a state of torpid bondage and inefficacy, that represents the brutal more than the human nature. In all matters of religion, the real Roman Catholic has no mind; he is reduced to a servile state, in which the priest is to think for him, and to act as the representative of his reason and his wishes at the throne of grace. The whole scope of his religion is mechanical: that which the priest directs him to believe or to do, he must believe and do. The priest is authorised by the Pope; the Pope is god upon earth; and therefore there must be no question raised of the propriety of any injunction or doctrine proceeding from the sacerdotal class. With such a system, the "wonderful fact of the agreement of the Catholic Church all over the world in one faith, under one head,"

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is nothing strange. Man that has surrendered his reason in divine things to a particular corporation of priests, must everywhere be the same animal where that corporation exists. All true Papists have the same superstitions everywhere, not because they can be said to agree with one another all over the world, but because their priests have been educated in the same school, and have been indoctrinated into the same discipline in all places. The Papist is an imitative, not a thinking creature; and it would be far more wonderful, if in a dominion of such entire slavery, there were any difference of opinion. "Tranquillity reigns in Warsaw," said M. Casimir Perrier in the Chamber of Deputies, when Warsaw fell before the Russian tyrant. True," exclaimed the Deputies, "but it is the tranquillity of the grave." The strong man armed keeps his goods in peace in all the Papal dominions. The reasonable soul, the intellectual faculties, the healthy exercise of the understanding in religious matters, is not to be sought for anywhere but in the Pope and his Council. The reason of all Roman Catholics on the whole face of the earth is not within that corporeal frame which God has given them, but in the conclave that sits in the Vatican. The "one faith" of the Papacy is therefore no wonder. "The wonderful unbroken chain of the Roman Pontiffs," and the power that the church, under their guidance, had always exercised, of "cutting off from her communion all who opposed her faith, or disobeyed her discipline," might, if Mr. Spencer had studied ecclesiastical history, have enlightened him in the mystery of the unity of thought which prevails in the Papacy. The " power of cutting off" was a gentle expression selected by Father Caestrich, for all the frightful murders and atrocities, the plunders, massacres and devastations with which the Man of Sin has upheld his throne; and the "wonderful unbroken chain"

of the Popes is indeed wonderful, as exhibiting so long a catalogue of murderers, who either directly by their own wars of persecution, or indirectly by the canon law and the Inquisition, have endeavoured, though without success, to suppress the principles of the Albigenses, the Waldenses, the Lollards, and the Reformation; but through the effectual working and strong right hand of the invisible Head of the Church, the chain of iniquity will at last be broken, and cast for ever into the bottomless pit. In our next Number we shall offer a few additional remarks on the 66 unbroken chain of the Roman Pontiffs." In the mean time, it is instructive to notice the identity of the arguments employed by the Roman Catholic teachers and the Oxford Tractators. Dr. Hook and the Oxford divines differ in nothing from their Popish brethren, except in the conclusions they draw. That the Scripture is not of itself a sufficient guide in the faith; that tradition must assist and direct the interpretation of Scripture; that the church dogmatises on matters of faith, and then requires her children to believe (Dr. Hook's Sermons, p. 43); that the clergy are the successors of the apostles, and teach, ex officio, the truth-this is the doctrine of the Oxford Tracts. The Papists advance only one step further. They declare, that they can prove as early as Irenæus, that the Roman See was considered the principal church of the universal body of believers; and that all the Fathers, from Clemens Alexandrinus downwards, paid respect to this See-that multitudes of great names referred to as authorities by the Oxford tractators, were notoriously of the Papal communion; that the canon law comes from Rome; that the Anglican orders of the clergy are derived through Rome; and that, therefore, it is the height of presumption, in appealing to tradition to reject that which is the foun

tain of all tradition. To this the Oxford tractators have nothing to reply, excepting that they are in possession of benefices held on a tenure, which would be forfeited by open adhesion to the Bishop of Rome.

THE CHURCH MAGAZINE.

THE Church Magazine, which in April had reached its fourth Number, is intended apparently to coincide with the sentiments of almost any section of the clergy. It occasionally says a kind word for Puseyism, and anon for the evangelical party. A few specimens will suffice:-Puseyism." Hear the Church, &c. by Dr. Hook. It is quite unnecessary to recommend this able sermon, now that it has reached, we believe, its fortieth edition in less than six months:" success in the market being the criterion of excellence in matters of faith with the editor.- -"Romanism successfully opposed on Catholic Principles. A Sermon by the Rev. W. Dodsworth; a sound, timely, and excellent sermon, in illustration of the truth contained in the title." It is needless to observe, that this sermon is of the highest order of Puseyism, and that its purport is to shew that Romanism cannot, without tradition, be successfully opposed by the Scriptures. See the April Number of the Christian Observer. The language of the Church Magazine is frequently commendatory of evangelical publications, but for the most part in a mercantile style. Evangelical sentiments come not from the editor on any occasion.

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Miscellaneous.-"Tradition. much is now said about tradition by almost all parties, that surely we shall be excused if we also make a few observations thereto. We frankly confess that we have not given the matter any very deep consideration, chiefly because we do not think it

necessary." Very profound, therefore, must be the remarks of a writer, who, by his own account, approaches a most difficult subject without preparation, reading, or consideration. The fruits of this his extemporaneous examination of the subject may be seen in the following paragraph :

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The question then seems to resolve itself into this: What traditions are most worthy of credit ?—the traditions of St. Ignatius, who was many years intimate with the apostles, and was made a bishop of Antioch by them [a dubious tradition of the fifth century], with priests and deacons under him; or the traditions of Emanuel Swedenborg?—the traditions of St. Augustine, the celebrated bishop of Hippo [many of them grossly absurd]; or the traditions of John Wesley?-the traditions of Polycarp, the disciples of St. John; or the traditions of Johanna Southcote ? -the traditions of Tertullian [many of them notoriously condemned by the Church Catholic]; or the traditions of Edward Irving?-the traditions of Chrysostom [who preached up pilgrimages to Job's dunghill, amongst innumerable other superstitions]; or the traditions of Micaiah Towgood, Dr. Pye Smith, Mr. James, Mr. Binney, or any other of the moderns?" (III. 81). This will give some idea of the editor's reading, judgment, moderation, and courteous disposition.

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"Doctrinal truth, and every other excellency, would be of but little or no avail without a regular valid apostolic ministry; for this is essential in the existence of the whole, or a portion of the Christian church. in this respect also the Church of England is perfectly right and safe. Her ministers have received their commission and authority through a direct uninterrupted line of regular ordination from the apostles and Christ. The bishops of the church are here, in England and in Ireland, the legitimate and the sole successors of the apostles, and of all the bishops

and clergy of England and Ireland in all past ages and we must be in communion with the bishops and clergy; in other words, we must be in this country members of the Church of England, if we would be in communion with the glorious company of the apostles, the goodly fellowship of the prophets, the noble army of martyrs, and with the holy church throughout all the world." (37.) So ignorant, however, is the editor of the subjects he has to handle, that, contrary to the notorious opinion of his own church, he makes the following assertion :-"We think that the orders of the Romish bishops and priests are not valid, and that the Popish priests are mere laymen, and the Papists consequently without a church, a minister, or sacraments” (72.) Dr. Hook, and the Oxford tract divines, would not thank the editor of the Church Magazine for this discovery, who ought to have known that a Popish priest has no need of a second ordination, when he wishes to enter into the ministry of the Church of England. Simple abjuration of Popery is all that is required in such a case.

There is an article on sacrilege (37), of which the purport is to insist on the necessity of restoring to the church all church property held by laymen; a very dangerous proposal for the Church of England, after the decision of Sir Herbert Jenner in the case of Widow Wolfrey. "As the nation, by the Parliament, has committed the sin, so by the same means let it restore that which it has taken away. Let it give compensation to the present holders of church property, as it did to the slave-owners to obtain the liberty of the slaves, and return the property to the church, and we doubt not that God would fulfil to us the promise implied in the language delivered to the prophet by the Jews, Bring ye all the tithes to the store-house,' &c. Mal. iii. 8. May God grant us

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faith to trust him for the fulfilment of his word."

It is scarcely credible, that any thing so foolish could have been written in sober earnest. Even in the days of Queen Mary, certainly not any bigot of her reign ventured to make the proposal in Parliament. The apostolical succession is thus propounded:" According to this doctrine, the validity of the ministerial office, and, by consequence, the good effects produced by the exercise of it, depend not in the slightest degree upon the piety and goodness of the man himself, but solely and entirely upon this;-that the office is of God's appointment, and that the minister has received it from God, by delegation or succession from Christ and his apostles; and, consequently, every atom of good which a minister, who has been invested with the miinsterial office by Christ, in the way of delegation through the apostles and their successors, performs, and all the honour, and praise, and glory of that good, belong not at all to the man, but wholly to God, whose office he holds, whose representative he is, and in whose most holy name he performs every one of his ministerial acts. According to my views of the matter, I entertain feelings of the most exalted, satisfactory, and comfortable nature. I enter the house of God with feelings of the most confident assurance, founded upon positive facts which no man can gainsay, that I am a real and true minister of the Lord Jesus Christ; and that all the acts which I perform in my ministerial capacity are as perfectly valid, to all intents and purposes, as though performed by St. John, St. James, St. Peter, St. Paul, or any other of the first twelve (Paul one of the twelve !) apostles of Christ. Having received authority and commission from God himself to execute the priestly office, and to act in his name and stead, I rest not on my own goodness, but upon the blessed and encouraging

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So much for the conduit. the internal evidence of the style, the coarse language, the illiterate bluster, and the abusive phraseology, there can be little doubt that the editor of the Church Magazine is none other than the author of the Letters of L.S.E., Michael Augustus Gathercole. The clerical mind must indeed be in an unhealthy state, to listen with patience to any thing coming from a writer of this stamp ; but the editor of the Church Magazine, who is acquainted with the feelings of the clergy, knows that if he unceasingly rings the changes on one theme, he shall not be wanting in readers, who though themselves gentlemen and scholars, can tolerate ill-breeding and ignorance, if united with violence and pertinacity in support of the prerogatives of the sacerdotal order.

DR. LEIFCHILD'S COUNSELS TO A YOUNG MINISTER.

Counsels to a Young Minister in relation to his Studies, Preaching, and Pastoral Duties, &c. By the Rev. J. LEIFCHILD, D. D.

WE take the extracts from this work as they are given in the Congregational Magazine for April, that we may offer a few remarks both on the extracts, and the review of them in that periodical. These "Counsels" purport to be the enlargement of a discourse delivered at the " recogni

tion," i. e. appointment, of a new minister to a chapel of the Independents in Liverpool, and may be considered as the type of all addresses of this description. Taken in connection with the remarks of the reviewer in the Congregational Magazine, they fully express all that can well be urged in behalf of that system which the Congregationalists would persuade themselves is their strength and glory, but which is visibly the cause of their internal decline. After some sentences commendatory of "habits of holiness and devotion," and the necessity of preaching "Christ crucified," the reviewer introduces the scholastic theory.— "We believe in the times that are coming, a marked preference will be given to those ministers of the gospel, who, to unquestioned experimental godliness, are enabled to unite a sound and extensive knowledge upon other subjects also. Men of the world know very well, that there can be no earthly occasion to divorce religion from science, or to separate literary attainments from the most devoted spirituality of mind; since our greatest divines have usually been the greatest scholars. know the affinity that subsists between the sciences; and when they find a man ill furnished upon other topics, they will not be disposed to give him credit for any great supremacy of wisdom in his own profession; or, at all events, will be ready to say, These things oughtest thou to have done, and not to have left the other undone.' However it may be in the pulpit, we are sure that the rising ministry will not be able to maintain their respectability and usefulness in society, unless they are known to be in advance of the intelligence of the age, and are prepared to meet the philosophical unbeliever on his own ground." This is preparatory to the sentiments of Dr. Leifchild, who says, addressing the minister, "knowledge is not the gift

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of nature, which furnishes us only with the faculties for obtaining it, but leaves the attainment to our own assiduity. It is the result of the mind's exercise of its own powers in acquiring the ideas of others, and increasing and maturing its own. These operations of its powers must be untiring and incessant. You have already made respectable acquisitions of this kind, but these must be looked upon rather as having formed the habit, and given you the power of making further and greater accessions. than as constituting in themselves a sufficient stock of material. They are the vantage-ground from which you must advance. Once intermit this habit, and suspend the process of acquisition, and the respectability of your ministry is undermined. You will become a borrower from yourself, and be esteemed stationary, while all the world around you is on the advance. You will be looked upon as a man of a bygone age. What, in that case, can preserve the charm of your ministry to any worthy class of hearers? What can be a

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substitute in laudable attractiveness for new thought, and new arrangement, and new illustration, the result of new acquisitions, new developments of truth, and new modes of conception. Assuredly nothing. None but the dull and idle can be expected contentedly to sleep in the stagnant pool of such a ministry." ideas, phrases, idioms, and illustrations are almost all of a theological cast. I readily grant that sound theological knowledge is essential to ministerial acceptableness and usefulness.. mighty as a minister you cannot be, unless you are mighty in the Scriptures. But the essential points of faith and practice in the Scriptures, about which we must be perpetually conversant, are comparatively few. Nor are they to be altered or augmented with additions from any other quarter; the only form in which they admit of novelty is in their illustra

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