tion, or rather application of Holy Scripture which is to be found in the accredited and authorized Formularies of the Anglican Church; her liturgy, her creeds, her articles, her homilies;-the two last, peculiar to herself-the two first, common to her with the ancient Catholic Church throughout the world. But it would be unreasonable in theory, as well as false in fact, to require further that in the majority of instances at least, this adoption should be the result of actual scrutiny and investigation. Ordinarily this process is reversed-the adoption of church principles, as a consequence of education, comes first, and the comparison or examination follows and confirms it. But that man is no less a genuine Churchman, who receives these formularies in youth on the authority which he is accustomed to respect, and whose faith is subsequently strengthened and ratified by the results of his own experience, and the perceptions of his own mind; than he who has been trained in hostility to the Church through ignorance of her real character, but who, when his faculties are matured by age, and sharpened by exercise-or, what is no unfrequent case, when his suspicions are excited by the bitter and gratuitous malignity of the adversaries of the Church, enters into the controversy for himselfapplies to her articles, her liturgy, her ritual, the standard of scriptural truth; is surprised and attracted by her exact conformity with this only unerring test; and in the ardour of unexpected conviction; with the generous candour of one who confesses that he has done a wrong, and the honest zeal of one who hastens to repair it; throws himself into her willing embrace, and declares himself all her own. For in either case, the reason of adherence in the child whom she hath nourished, the principle of attachment in the convert whom she hath won, is the same. Both find, in proportion as they examine, that the Anglican Church, being in very deed a true branch and portion of Christ's church catholic-does not, in all that she imposes as essential to her membership, draw from any broken cisterns hewn out by man's invention, but from the very source and spring of truth, the fountain of living waters; that she goes beyond patristical to apostolical antiquity; that she first embodies, in forms and symbols as comprehensive as concise, the dictates of the mind of God; and then adopts and incorporates, from the traditions or observances of the primitive Church, as transmitted to us by the Fathers, whatever she judges to be useful, impressive, or expedientlimiting the exercise of this authority by two important reservationsfirst, that nothing be repugnant to the word of God:' secondly, that all things be done to edifying.' Accordingly, there is, even to the least instructed and intelligent of her members, a prompt and decisive answer to the question: Why are you a Churchman?'

'We trust the Church,' will be the rejoinder, because we trust the word of God-we follow her, because she is a follower of Christher path, so far as we can trace it, is all in light- and if for an instant it seems dubious or intricate, we still follow it with confidence-for we know that it will emerge into a healthy place.'

"It is because I feel deeply (observes Bp. Shuttleworth) how much mischief has already been done in past ages to the cause of Christianity by tampering with the revealed word, and by engrafting human refinements and human speculations upon the clear, definite, and simple law of life: it is from a strong anxiety to see the stream of revelation continue to flow as pure and unadulterated to the last as when it first emanated from the fountain-head, that I would exhort every individual whatever to seek for his religious faith at its very source, carefully excluding the introduction of all extraneous matter whatever, however respectable may appear to be the quarter from which it may be derived. I urge this at once earnestly and confidently, for two reasons. In the first place, I cannot doubt that every really unprejudiced mind, taking the revealed and unsophisticated Scriptures in their plain and obvious acceptation, must, if it admit the whole ungarbled truth, necessarily arrive at all the orthodox views maintained by our church; and, secondly, I own myself at a loss to imagine at what possible point or limit we are to check the discursiveness of our speculations, if we once transgress this definite line, and call in the suggestions of human ingenuity as necessary for the development of the entire counsel of God."-(p. 101.)

The former of the reasons thus forcibly assigned by the Bishop of Chichester, seems to us to constitute what ought to be, and is, the principle of all genuine orthodox churchmanship; and the latter, the most or rather the only effectual preservative from almost every species of heresy or dissent. The truth, the whole truth, is comprehended by our church under the distinct, explicit, and unapproachable classification of Divine Revelation-to which nothing can be added, and from which nothing can be subtracted by any Power secondary to that from which they originally came forth. "All Scripture" is alike, "given by inspiration of God," whether it be communicated in the historical, the didactic, the narrative, the exhortatory, or the prophetic form-whether it be "profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness;" and that which is not contained in the Scripture can have no claim to be received by man, excepting as it is deduced from or conformed to, the word of God. "I am not aware," observes Bishop Shuttleworth," of any one flagrant corruption of evangelical truth, from the deep-seated superstition of popery down to the unchristian latitudinarianism of the Socinian, which has not, in fact, been the result of some attempt to improve upon what he finds revealed in the introduction of his own pre-conceived fancies and unauthorized glosses." Herein therefore consists the distinguishing feature, the characteristic excellence of that portion of Christ's church which we call the Anglican she is in the

strictest sense a faithful witness and keeper of holy writ;' she does not presume to improve upon what God has revealed, to mutilate it by a system, to expound it by a tradition, to pervert it by a comment, or to mystify it by a gloss;-her liturgy is the concentration of precatory Scripture-her articles are the concentration of doctrinal and declaratory Scripture-her homilies, the standard in substance if not in style-in material if not in method-of all discourses delivered by her ministers, are explicit statements of substantial truths, or simple but energetic applications of Scriptural precepts. Her aim is, to "make the man of God perfect, thoroughly furnished unto all good works"--but by the teaching of the word of God alone. The mode of teaching indeed-the accessorial, adventitious circumstances of worship-the rites and ceremonies which are conducive if not essential to the decency and order of congregational assemblage;-over these the Anglican Church asserts and exercises power, but still with a protest, a reservation against herself; yet so as she ought not to decree anything contrary to Holy Writ'-and the power which she claims not to herself, as an integral portion of the Catholic Church of Christneither will she concede to General Councils, which are, if anything can be, the voice of the universal church. She will not admit that whatever is ordained by them can have any strength or authority, unless it be declared' (and demonstrated, if demonstration were needed,) that it is taken out of Holy Scripture.' The variety of opinions and sentiments and modes of worship among us may be traced, for the most part, to the impatient desire to improve our substantial knowledge, by engrafting our own gratuitous theories upon it; and he who will not find anchorage in the supremacy of Scripture may be driven to and fro by every wind of doctrine, until he make shipwreck of faith and of a good

conscience.

"Most wisely, then, did the founders and advocates of our reformed church lay down the fundamental principle of making Scripture, and Scripture only, the rule and standard of our faith. They knew the strong tendency of every thoughtful mind to run astray after its own favourite speculations. They knew, accordingly, that as certainly as a polished plate of metal will become soiled and tarnished by exposure to a moist atmosphere, so surely will the religious opinions of mankind become obscured and adulterated by the mere contact with each other, unless continually renewed and set right by an appeal to the one unchangeable standard of revelation." (p. 106.)

He

Now it is manifest, on the most cursory reflection, that to every conscientious and devout attendant on the services of our Church, this appeal to Scripture will be of constant and habitual recurrence. cannot mingle with the supplications of the great congregationhe cannot uplift the voice of joy or thanksgiving with the few, too

few, who are accustomed to keep holy day-he cannot enter into the hallowed precincts of the House of Prayer, whether to bear his part in the sacred ordinance of baptism, to plight his faith, or witness that of others in the presence of that God, who 'in the beginning made them male and female,' or to deposit in the home appointed for all men living, the relics of some kinsman, friend, or associate of past years, without being met by this appeal, whenever the utterance of the Church is heard. The language of the Holy Scripture is, so to speak, her native language; and she employs it as a language intelligible to all her children, of every condition, and of every class at least in respect of the purposes of salvation. Nothing is needed to the right apprehension of it beyond a pure heart and a willing mind-and these are imparted from above, without respect of persons, which cannot exist with God. "If any man lack wisdom, let him ask of God, which giveth to all men liberally and upbraideth not"-and the equality which is in all things beside a vision, a delusion, a chimera, will be realized in the brotherhood of Christ, so long as the attainment of wisdom and the exercise of prayer are one. The wisdom which the humble Christian seeks will be given; and he will be no less enlightened than his teachers,' of no less understanding than 'the ancients,' because his meditation is upon the testimonies of his God.'

Thus then we elicit a third and a very important feature in the character of the true Churchman. With him, we have seen, the Bible is first the standard and the basis of the Church; next, the Church is the witness and keeper of Holy Writ, diffusing its spirit through her formularies, and embodying its utterance in her prayers -what we have now developed is the consciousness of an entire and exclusive dependance, in the use of all appointed means, upon the promised influences of the Spirit of God. It is not in the character of learned men and philosophers, but in that of little children, that we are to seek for admission into the kingdom of heaven; and the very same process which giveth light to them that are in darkness,' and understanding to the simple, is that which makes manifest the weakness of human strength;-the shallowness of human philosophy, the emptiness of human acquirements, and the foolishness of human wisdom. That process is "the entrance of God's word"-and the entrance of God's word is only through the instrumentality of God's Spirit. From the associated body of worshippers, though combining the extremes of an intellect little lower than the angels, and a perception scarcely superior to the brutes, ascends the same appeal to One who seeth" that we have no power of ourselves to help ourselves,"

and of whom we intreat that "His Holy Spirit may in all things direct and rule our hearts." All rest upon the level of the same lowliness-the same necessity-the same corruption; all are cast upon the same divine provision alike for the cancelling of past offences, and the prevention or correction of future frailties and errors. He who feels this at all is, we may believe, a true and acceptable worshipper; he who feels it in association with the services of our Church is, we may safely pronounce, the genuine and consistent Churchman. And though from these central and fundamental doctrines of our faith may issue and expand an almost infinite series of truths to be developed, doctrines to be explained, mysteries to be adored, affording scope and range for the most exalted and expansive powers which can exist in the earth-born heir of immortality;-yet there must be in the feeblest a tenacious grasp of, and in the most intellectual a constant recognition of, and recurrence to, FIRST PRINCIPLES. These principles, based upon facts, are few in number, and easy of apprehension-but of measureless expansion, of most grave and momentous import. These the Church guards, as a peculiar trust and deposit, from all mixture and adulteration whatever. She fixes our attention, severally and prominently, on the incarnation, the ministry, and the sufferings of our divine Redeemer for the expiation of the sins of a lost world; sanctification through the aid of the Holy Spirit; holiness of life, its legitimate and natural consequence; and a final judgment to come, whether unto eternal life, or eternal condemnation; and doing this, she knows no distinction of high or low, rich or poor, learned or unlearned: each who has been admitted by baptism into her sacred pale is in her view, a sworn soldier and servant of Christ unto his life's end-to each she extends the sign of the cross, with the silent yet eloquent pledge, IN HOC SIGNO VINCES; to each she applies with impartial and maternal encouragement the promise of the Saviour, "Be thou faithful unto death, and I will give thee a crown of life."

To those then who are, or who desire to be, Churchmen such as we have described; accepting the Holy Scriptures as the supreme and unappealable standard both of practice and belief; recognizing what Bishop Shuttleworth (with a noble disregard to the affectation of a fictitious obsolescence, so fashionable in the present age, but exhibiting only the rust of antiquity without its mellowness) terms "The GREAT PROTESTANT PRINCIPLE of the entire sufficiency of the Scriptures as a summary of divine truth to them that believe;" to all such, this little volume will be a most seasonable and acceptable present. Avoiding the perilous ground of controversy, in which it is much easier to compromise charity than to communi