with the hydra heresies, superstitions, and abominations of that corrupt church from which we have been happily delivered, and with whose worse than beggarly elements,' some who call themselves Protestants, have recently become so much enamoured." Bishop Meade discusses, in nineteen chapters appended to his Charge, various topics connected with Tractarian matters. We will note a few points. Speaking of the reason why the ancient Doctors and Fathers are often cited in the Homilies, he gives the following conclusive declaration from the Homily on Idolatry.

"Although our Saviour Christ taketh not, or needeth not, any testimony of man, and that which is once confirmed by the testimony of his eternal truth, hath no more need of the confirmation of man's doctrine or writings, than the bright sun at noontide hath need of a little candle to put away darkness and increase his light, yet appeal is made as confirmatory evidence of the true exposition to what was believed and taught of the old holy Fathers and most ancient learned Doctors, and received in the old primitive church, which was most uncorrupt and pure."

From Tract 85 he cites various passages, adding a running confutation. The passages carry their own confutation to every scripturally enlightened mind. As we do not happen to have particularly noticed this pestiferous Tract, we will give a sample of its

doctrines :

"Tract 85 treats of the difficulty in the Scripture proof of the doctrines of the Church. In p. 33, it is said as to the Bible, Both the history of its composition and its internal structure are against its being a complete history of the Divine will, unless the early Church says it is. Now the early Church does not tell us this. It does not seem to have considered that a complete code of morals or of Church government, or of rites or of discipline, is in Scripture, and therefore the original improbability remains in force. Again, this antecedent improbability tells even in the case of the doctrines of faith, as far as this, that it reconciles us to the necessity of gaining them indirectly from Scripture, for it is a near

thing (if I may so speak) that they are in Scripture at all; humanly judging, they would not be there but for God's interposition; and, therefore, since they are there by a sort of accident, it is not strange that they should be bat latent there, and only indirectly produceable thence."

"Again, p. 68. I have been arguing that Scripture is a deep book, and that peculiar doctrines concerning the Church, contained in the prayer-book, are in its depths. Now let it be re

marked in corroboration; first-that the early Church always did consider Scripture to be what I have been arguing from the structure of it—viz: -a book with very recondite meanings; this they considered not merely with reference to its teaching the particular class of doctrines in question, but as it regards its entire teaching.' Secondly, 'it is also certain that the early Church did herself conceal these same church doctrines. I am not determining whether or not all her writers did, or all her teachers, or at all times, but merely that viewing all that period as a whole, there is on the whole a great secrecy observed in it concerning such doctrines as the Trinity and Eucharist.' Again, 'if the early Church had reasons for concealment, perchance Scripture has the same; especially if we supposewhat at the very least is no improbable idea that the system of the early of those inspired men who wrote the Church is a continuation of the system

New Testament.'

"At p. 106, it is said The creed is a document the same in kind as the

Scripture, though the wording be not fixed and invariable, or its language. It admits of being appealed to, and is appealed to by the early Fathers as Scripture is. If Scripture was written by the Apostles, because the Fathers say so (as it is) why was not the creed taught by the Apostles, because the Fathers say so? The creed is no opinion of the mind, but a form of words pronounced many times a day, at every baptism, at every communion, by every member of the Church; is it not common property as much as Scripture.

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On the obscurity of Scripture and the difficulty attendant upon the canon of Scripture which rests upon history, we have these words in Tract 85, p. 108, We have reason to believe that God our Maker and Governor, has spoken to us by revelation, yet why has he not spoken more clearly? He has given us doctrines which are but obscurely gathered from Scripture, and a Scripture which is but obscurely gathered from history. It is not a

single fact, but a double fact; it is a coincidence. We have two informants, and both leave room for doubt. God's ways are surely not as our ways.'"

Can any thing be more irreverent, preposterous, and, motive excepted, profane, than the declaration that "it is a near thing," like the cast of a die or the toss of a halfpenny, that "the doctrines of faith are in Scripture at all :" they are there only "by a sort of accident"!!! Man's writings are actually made of equal authority with the Bible. "The creed is a document the same in kind as the Scripture," and "admits of being appealed to" as Scripture is." And this is said not of one creed, but of several, for it is added, that the wording is "not fixed and invariable;'

we sup

pose with a view to take in the Nicene and Athanasian creed, with the shorter one popularly called "the Apostles';" and all these are documents "the same in kind as Scripture," and to be appealed to as Scripture is." Why does not the individual who wrote thus follow honest Mr. Sibthorp? It is a base thing to write thus, and yet to retain office, and accept emolument, in the Church of England.

But we will turn to the next Tract, No. 86, and give a few samples from Bishop Meade's citations. We are glad to "touch pitch" only at second hand and by proxy.

"The ground taken in Tract 86 is, that certain changes made when the Roman liturgies were reformed into the English prayer-book, and which the Tract writers lament, were judgments from God for sins, (not specified) and like all God's judgments in this world, intended for some wise purpose. As they are, however, such judgments as may be removed by the Church, whenever she chooses to alter the prayerbook, the reader will judge for himself whether the Oxford writers and their approvers would not, if allowed, remove them by replacing the ancient inheritCHRIST. OBSERV. APP.

ance which they say has been lost to us,' but may still be found in the sacred books of Rome, though mingled with

some error.

"The first change to which the Tract writer alludes (of which I shall speak) as evidence of God's judgment upon us for our unworthiness, is that of the sentences of Scripture, address and confession in the opening of the service, in place of the Lord's prayer and creed with which the older liturgies com• mence. The Lord's prayer is well known to have been especially the prayer of the faithful-the peculiar inheritance of sons. So much so, that in primitive liturgies it is supposed not to have been used openly, as their assemblies were resorted to by the catechumens and others unbaptized, who not having received the adoption, could not of course approach God as a Father.'

"The texts of Scripture in our prayerbook are followed by the exhortation which it is needless to observe is of the same character, viz. :-that of a call to repentance. Indeed, how much exhortations, and such appeals, indicate a low and decayed state, as the natural remedies for it, will appear from the great tendency to sermons, since the Reformation. At the same time it should he observed, in the words of one (the late Mr. Froude) whose sentiments are ever to be remembered with affectionate esteem, that such passionate appeals to the feelings, as these often are, would not be so objectionable in themselves, if they were given outside the church, and not allowed to occupy the place of religious worship.'

Again, We cannot look into Breviaries and Missals, without observing their high choral tone in distinction from our own.' A number of instances are

mentioned. Instead of these he says, 'but we have a penitentiary responsory for having broken each of the commandments, and a peculiar prayer of humiliation as unworthy to gather up the crumbs under the table.'

"After speaking of changes permitted by Providence from thanksgiving to penitential hymns and prayers, he says, 'the roll put into our hands has lamentation written on it. Praise, says the son of Sirach, is not seemly in the mouth of a sinner, for it was not sent him of the Lord.'

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Again ; 'from the prayer for the church militant we have excluded the more solemn commendation of the dead. This is a moving thought, for may we not venture to consider it in this light, that we are by this exclusion, as it were, in some degree disunited from the purer 5 L

communion of those departed saints who are now with Christ, as if scarce worthy to profess ourselves one with them. For the dead who are the objects of prayer are such as are considered in a state of comparative if not complete blessedness: to pray for such in any condition is the privilege of saints rather than the office of servants. And in the prayer of oblation the beautiful mention of angelic ministries, as bearing our supplications into the presence of the Divine Majesty, is lost. Moreover other churches have had their litanies in times of public calamity, when God's wrath lieth hard upon them; but to us, our own is given us as our weekly, nay, our almost daily food. And not only so, but it has come to be that of our Sundays also, for it is remarkable that it was at first appointed only for the Wednesday and Friday.'

"Speaking of the change of position from the altar to the desk as the place of reading prayers, he says,

That we

seem thereby gently thrust aside as it were, and put off from a nearer approach to the altar; bid to stand off for a while, and take the lower place, the position of suppliants, at the entrance of the Chancel, and to 'weep between the porch and the altar.' It may be noticed that this proceeding typifies, as it were by external act, another circumstance of our spiritual condition. The mystical interpretations of Holy Scripture are spoken of by the Fathers, as the peculiar privileges of sons, as the inner temple of sacred writ-the holier place. In the breviaries such spiritual and deep meanings are much brought before us, by the verses which are -made to answer each other in the responses, and in the lessons from the Fathers. But by our own church they seem scarcely at all openly taught or recognized.'

"There is another circumstance now to be observed, of more importance than any which have been considered, the entire omission of oil at baptism and at confirmation. The practice on both these occasions appears to have been primitive, universal, and possibly apostolical.' In Christianity there is no such thing as a merely external and sig nificative rite, without being in some degree sacramental also.' Speaking of the use of the cross in baptism they This retaining of the sanctifying

say:

and perhaps half sacramental use of the cross, is itself very significative.'

"The last change to which the writer of this Tract alludes, is the anomalous introduction of the commandinents into the communion service.' The only authority which Mr. Palmer mentions for the introduction of the Decalogue itself at all, is the use of a portion of it in the Anglican church during Lent, so that here again that which was peculiar to a penitential season has become our appointed admonition for our festivals- and Eucharistic service, and throughout the year. This change however, as well as others, is to be regarded as judicial, and suited to the church in her state of penitence.'

"There is one thing we could have wished in the Tract from which the above extracts are taken, and that is, that it would have told us what are these sins for which such judgments have been sent on the English church.”

Bishop Meade must surely know that the crying sin alluded to is the Protestant Reformation; the coming out from Rome. We do not wonder that Mr. Sibthorp was disgusted with such hypocrisy. We may remark, by the way, in vindication of ourselves, how completely the latter Tracts have justified our early remarks and anticipations. We asked, how can Mr. Newman and his friends, after their assertion of possessing that which is "most like angel's nature," so that they are able to live without sin, and their teaching by implication, that they have never committed a second sin after baptism, except perhaps "venial" sins, use the General Confession, or any penitential prayers? It is now seen that they do it grudgingly, and that the great sin to be confessed is the miserable state of our church in having lapsed from what we must take leave to call Popery.

WE heartily concur in the national rejoicing at the birth of a prince, who if spared will succeed to the throne of his illustrious ancestors; and we humbly bless God for his mercy to our gracious queen, her royal consort, and her attached and loyal subjects. Yes; in spite of the base radicalism, the heartless philosophism, the socialism, the chartism, and the grovelling utilitarianism, which have combined to ridicule that antiquated fealty which Scripture sanctions, and the warm impulses of national attachment cherish; in spite of the scoffing interrogation whether in default of an hereditary prince there is much cause for fear that no person could be found, no cousin's cousin of some royal house, willing to sway a sceptre and wear a crown;-in spite of the affected cant about the useful classes, as if nothing were useful but ploughing fallows, shoeing horses, working looms, projecting rail-roads, concocting democratical and blasphe mous newspapers, and the like;-in spite of the Benthams and Owens, the Dispatches and Westminster Reviews, which in these enlightened days have burst upon mankind with lurid effulgence, to shew the benighted world that patriotism as well as piety is a vulgar error, a virtue fit only for a horde of savage Indians;-in spite of all pretended religion which is newer than the Bible, and all cosmopolitanism which scorns to regard England, its constitution, or its queen, any more, mere selfish interest excepted, than an island in the planet Jupiter;-in spite of all such discoveries, we repeat that we heartily concur in the public rejoicing at the birth of a prince, destined, as we trust, in the course of God's providence, to rule over this great nation, when the present generation of its inhabitants shall have been gathered to their fathers.

It is urged that the popular interest manifested upon such occasions is either affected or senseless; for what is it to the weaver or the farmer, to the labourer in the field, or the philosopher in his closet, that Victoria the wife of Albert has a son to gladden her as a mother, and, if spared, to adorn her court, and afterwards succeed to her honours, as a sovereign? Now it may be that there is not much of calculation in such national impulses; the multitudes who shout at a public rejoicing do so for the most part from social instinct; they experience pleasure in

And why should it not be so? May it not be that He who knew what was in man, has allied human beings together by generous instincts, which even the base selfishness engendered by the fall of Adam has not been able to obliterate, except as aided by freezing philosophism? We should not therefore think it needful to affect to be too wise to take pleasure in any public event which innocently gratifies patriotic feeling, even if we could not point out with precision its Benthamite utilitarianism. But the birth of a prince, the heir apparent to a throne, is not a matter of national indifference. could shew, even to the most grovelling economist, that if instead of having kings and queens of flesh and blood, we could invent cast-iron substitutes, and work drawing-rooms by steam, we should not be a wiser, or happier, or perhaps even a richer nation.

We

Our historians have noticed, and many of us have heard our parents describe, the joy felt by the nation in 1760, at the accession of George the Third; and every loyal subject felt afterwards a sort of personal interest in the affairs of his large and blooming family. The succeeding generation devoted its affections to the Princess Charlotte; ard when she was "cut down like a flower," there seemed a blank in every household. The long and lamented seclusion of George the Third, and the appointment of a regency, tended to break the associations of intercourse between the throne and the people; and when in somewhat advanced life George the Fourth, and afterwards William the Fourth, succeeded to the crown, there was not that exulting outburst of popular enthusiasm which would have been witnessed in the case of the accession of a younger monarch, who had grown up among the people within the memory of the great majority of the adult living generation, and had been regarded by them as their future ruler. In the case of Queen Victoria, this loyal excitement was renewed; and to it we are indebted, under Divine Providence, for great blessings; for amidst the many differences of political opinion which have distracted her Majesty's reign, all parties