As Ministers of the Gospel accordingly are to be considered equally with St. Paul "stewards of the mysteries," they are reminded by Mr. Hale, that "the account which shall be required of their stewardship at the last great day will be as severe as that demanded of the great Apostle himself," and that an omission of their duties, whether it arise from ignorance or from indifference, will equally subject them to the heaviest guilt. But while the Ministers of the Gospel are encouraged to take to themselves the appellation of "ministers of Christ and stewards of the mysteries of God," they are cautioned against any indiscreet adoption of the dignity of the title, and directed rather to rest their claims to public attention on their own personal character and the evidence of their useful labours.

"It may then be allowed the Minister of the Gospel to address his flock in the language of the text, and to require that they esteem him as a 'minister of Christ and steward of the mysteries of God.' But if he ask all the honour due to his office, let him remember, that however it may be due to him as a Christian pastor, empowered to teach, it is, in fact, never paid to any, but those who earn it by the faithful discharge of their duties. I grant that there is respect due to the office itself; and that, according to the principle of the Apostle 'the elders that rule well are worthy a double honour;' but of what value to any man is a respect paid merely on account of his office, and because men have too much regard for the Clergy not to reverence in some degree even the unworthy members of so high and sacred an order? No reproach is more bitter, no censure more severe, than that cast upon the formal and careless dispenser of God's word and sacraments by those, who wait upon his ministry lest they should appear to despise the lawfully appointed minister of Christ, and who pay that outward respect to the pastor, which in their hearts they withhold from the man.

Again, if we would have men 'so account of us as of the ministers of Christ,' we must not always be asserting the dignity of our office. When our lot is thrown among persons who have heen habitually indifferent to the excellence of our Church in doctrine and discipline, and who are inclined at the first offence wholly to desert it, we shall find it of little use to display our authority and to threaten them with the guilt of heresy and schism. If with St. Paul we claim to be ministers of Christ, we must be able to show how much we labour for the good of those committed to our care: our own life and deportment must testify that we are inwardly, and in very deed, what by the authority of the Church, we have a title to be.

"When the Corinthians had affected to treat with contempt the power of St. Paul, we find him not only asserting that he was not in rank and privilege a whit behind the chiefest of the Apostles, but also appealing to the 'hunger and thirst, the cold and nakedness, the journeyings and imprisonments,' which he had endured in preaching the word of life: and in them he possessed arguments of his authority, if not more solid, yet more touching, than in his miraculous conversion, or the visions which he had seen, and the revelations which were made to him of the Lord." P. 12.

The remainder of the Sermon is addressed more pointedly to the Candidates for Ordination, and contains such excellent directions for the pious and prudent administration of the sacred office, that we cannot deny ourselves the pleasure of transcribing them at length.

"I have endeavoured to give you exalted notions of the ministerial office by shewing that we are, as St. Paul was, 'ministers of Christ, and stewards of the mysteries of God.' Whilst, however, for our encouragement, we love to trace a resemblance between his labours and our own, let us beware of placing ourselves on a level with the Apostle, either as regards our call to the ministry or our authority in the Church. There is enough of likeness between our office and that of the Apostle Paul to make us hope, that the same blessing which prospered his ministry among the Gentiles, will accompany our preaching of the word of life amongst a people who already confess the name of Christ : and if we share, in some degree, the Apostle's labours, we may hope also to partake of the glory of an Apostle's reward. But the difference between our station and that of St. Paul is also great, and, if duly considered, it will keep us humble, and make us mindful, that an inspired Apostle in the exercise of plenary authority might be justified in doing many things which would be now incompatible with the duties of a subordinate minister of the Church. His call was miraculous; ours has been through the ordinary influence of the Spirit blessing the use of human means. His commission was universal, Lo I send thee to the Gentiles; ours is particular, and confined to a part of Christ's flock. He was answerable to no man, but only to the Lord; we both to the Lord and also to men, to those his servants who have the rule over us. It was his province to govern the Church; it is ours to submit to her laws, and to make a conscience of preferring her public judgment before our own.

"Let us then refrain from applying to ourselves and to our flocks, either in the letter or in the spirit, the verse succeeding the text: With me it is a very small thing that I should be judged of by you or by man's judgment.' The Apostle had good grounds in his authority as an Apostle, and in his inspiration, to refuse the judgment of the Corinthian Church. Like him we should be able to appeal to the great Searcher of hearts, to testify the sincerity of our intentions and the uprightness of our conduct; but our authority being different from his, both in kind and degree, it would be presumptuous in us to despise the judgment which our people will form of us, or to contemn the advice and counsel of those who are the Governors of the Church. The congregation must not, however, direct us what or how we are to teach, nor must we suit our doctrine to their love of error or caprice. We must declare to them the whole counsel of God;' and if we so temper our exhortations to holiness with sound doctrine, as to shew that right belief is always accompanied by a sincere love of God and an obedient heart, we need not fear that the words we speak will be spoken in vain.' In matters of faith and doctrine, we must take our rule of preaching from the contents of the scriptures, and avail ourselves of the experience of those who have gone before us in the great and

holy calling of an Evangelist; but in matters of conduct, in things indifferent in themselves, and the propriety of which depends upon the opinion entertained by those committed to our care, we are bound on every occasion to consult the feelings of our people. It is our duty to be cautious lest our manner, our habits of life, and not least our amusements, prove a stumbling-block in their way, and hinder them from coming to the truth. We may at times, from mere thoughtlessness, appear to forget that we are men engaged in the serious work of saving souls from death; but the laity, however careless they may be of their own duty, never forget what we are. They know that as stewards of God's mysteries we ought always to show by our grave deportment, that the awful doctrines which we teach are deeply impressed on our own hearts. Our mirth must always be innocent-it must have in it no wanton levity, nothing that savours of irreverence towards God, or of disregard to the most perfect purity. Our amusements should be fitting men who are busily engaged in preaching the word of life, and who know how unequal they are to convince the sinner, and to resist temptation, unless fortified by daily study and continual prayer. He must be indeed an insincere and unworthy servant of Christ, who will not cheerfully sacrifice to the service of his Lord his indulgence in amusements which are wasteful of his time, which dissipate his thoughts, and bring also scandal upon himself and upon the sacred order to which he belongs.

"Lastly, let me intreat you to strive earnestly, that the dedication of yourselves which you are now in the presence of the Church about to make, may be altogether perfect and sincere. What you are here to devote and consecrate to God, is not some few hours of your time, such as will suffice for the public ministrations of religion, but your life, your thoughts, your words, your actions. You promise to give attendance to reading, to exhortation, to doctrine,'-to meditate on the things of God, to give yourselves wholly to them,' to bend all your cares and studies this way*.' If you have any regard for your own souls, any compassion for the perishing souls of others, the character of your life from this day forward will be that of a perfect dedication to the service of God. And if in such a temper of mind both undertake and persevere in the duties of your sacred office, you will find, by experience, what every faithful minister of Christ has found, that no manner of life on earth is so blessed as that of the laborious servant of God. You will exclaim, in the spirit of holy David, 'How amiable are thy tabernacles, O Lord of Hosts!' 'One day in thy courts is better than a thousand.'-'I had rather be a door-keeper in the house of my God than to dwell in the tents of wickedness.'-' O Lord of Hosts, blessed is the man that trusteth in thee."" P. 14.

you

We make no apology for the length of this extract; and we are persuaded that to the generality of our readers none will be necessary. We wish that it were read by every clergyman of the Church of England. It would convey a needful hint to many; it should give offence to none.

* Ordination Service,

Though the course of his argument, and the verse following his text, has led Mr. Hale to insist on the points of difference as well as of correspondence, between the station of St. Paul, and that of the subordinate ministers of the Church at this day; the example of the Apostle might even here be adduced to confirm his position relative to the deference due from the Clergy to the conscientious scruples of the laity;-the Apostle having in the 8th chapter of this same Epistle, given us a plain rule for our behaviour in things indifferent. "If" says he, "meat make my brother to offend"-i. e. if, even by an allowed use of my Christian liberty in this matter of meats offered to idols, I put an offence-a stumbling-block, in the way of those who are more scrupulous than myself, and cause them to fall into sin, or desert or disgrace the faith-"I will eat no flesh while the world standeth, lest I make my brother to offend."

This principle may, no doubt, be carried too far. Were they to have regard to the scruples of all who choose to be scrupulous, the Clergy might renounce the world entirely, and deprive themselves of the means of being useful, which they now possess ; but (may we be permitted to say so?) the more frequent error is in not carrying it far enough. We could wish to see the Clergy more careful, than they always are, in the exercise of their liberty, especially in their amusements. The common excuse is, that the indulgence is innocent in itself.-It may be so; but it ceases to be so in a Clergyman, if it unfits him for the serious consideration of the duties of his calling, and exposes him to the censure of his parishioners. And must we not say, that such is the consequence of an ardent pursuit of field sports? Are not both mind and body disabled for whole days together by these things from attending to professional studies? Is it likely, that a man, who has devoted the mornings of two or three days of the week to the pleasures of the chase, will devote the evenings of those days to the study of Divinity, or the composition of sermons? Even if he wished to do so, he will seldom find his spirits sufficiently calm and settled for so holy a contemplation. Hence is much of that ignorance and indifference, which Mr. H. so justly reprehends in the earlier part of his discourse.

But, though no such consequences followed, we yet are bound to have regard to the opinion of our people; who, as Mr. H, says, "however they may neglect their own duties, never forget what we are.

But it is time to stay our hand, lest we superadd a sermon of our own to our review of Mr. Hale's.

to strengthen each other, as well by argument, as by the spectacle of pious and courageous resignation which each presented to the other.

When they had been imprisoned already some months, a little before Easter, in the course of March, 1554, they were all removed to Oxford, to undergo the solemn mockery of a disputation and trial, before the Convocation assembled there for the purpose of debating points relative to the doctrine of the Corporal Presence. On their reaching Oxford, their persecutors, with a malice which spoke their sentence to be predetermined before they had been heard, increased the rigour of their confinement-they were deprived of every thing but the garments which they wore;-their own servants were removed from them, strangers being appointed to attend them, and they were kept severally apart from each other.

The Commissioners having met on the 14th of April, and opened the Convocation in great state, with the celebration of a mass of the Holy Ghost,-in the afternoon of the same day, the three Prelates were separately brought before them, and interrogated as to the articles proposed, from which having expressed their dissent, they were re-committed to their prison, each having his day of disputation appointed for him to answer for himself. Ridley signified his perfect readiness to defend the cause in which he had engaged; answering that " as long as God gave him life, he should not only have his heart, but also his mouth and pen, to defend his truth." He only required time and books. The Tuesday following being the day on which he was appointed to appear before them, they conceded to him the use of his books until that time.

On Tuesday accordingly Ridley came before the Commissioners, and defended the true doctrine of the Real Presence against the gross interpretation of his Papist adversaries-fourteen of whom advanced to support each other against him. With great learning and dexterity, he turned the very authorities to which they appealed against themselves, shewing that even the Fathers*, on whom they rested so much, were clearly against their erroneous views. The proceedings were conducted, as in the case of the two other illustrious disputants, with great tumult and uproar from the prejudiced assembly, and in the absence of sound reason to parry his arguments, he was silenced by the clamour of his dogmatic and sophistical assailants.

On Friday, April 20th, the three Prelates were again brought toge ther before the Commissioners, and required peremptorily to say whether they would subscribe the articles proposed, and, on their refusing, to subscribe, sentence was pronounced, that they were no members of the Church. They were then condemned as heretics. During the reading of their sentence they were asked, whether they would turn or

* Gloucester Ridley very justly censures the opinion of Gilpin, that Cranmer and Ridley were wrong in appealing to the fathers and schoolmen for confutation of the Papists, for surely no argument could be more effectual with such men, than that which exposed the futility of those authorities, under which they took refuge from the cogency of arguments derived from the Scriptures alone.