and those who sit in the Reformers' seat are traducing the Reformation. It is again becoming matter of question whether the Bible is sufficient to make men wise unto salvation; the main article of our national confession, justification by faith, is both openly and covertly assailed; and the stewards of the mysteries of God are instructed to reserve the truths which they have been ordained to dispense, and to hide under a bushel those doctrines which the apostles were commanded to preach to every creature." (Charge, 1838.)

Three years after this, in another Charge, referring to their mistaken view of the Church and ministry, he thus speaks:

"Had an enemy devised a plan for marring our usefulness, he could not have formed a scheme more likely to effect his purpose." (Charge, 1841.)

The Bishop of Winchester is equally faithful and unequivocal in his animadversions. He says,

"I cannot but fear the consequences for the character, the efficiency, and the very truth of our Church, if a system of teaching should become extensively popular which dwells upon the external and ritual parts of religious service, whilst it loses sight of their inner meaning and spiritual life; which defaces the brightest glory of the Church, by forgetting the continual presence of her Lord, seeming in effect to depose him from his rightful pre-eminence; which speaks of the sacraments, not as seals and pledges, but instruments of salvation in a justificatory and causal sense; not as eminent means of grace, inasmuch as faith is confirmed and grace in

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creased' in them, as our Article speaks; not as that they be not only badges or tokens of Christian men's profession, but rather certain sure witnesses and effectual signs of grace,' as our Article speaks again, but as if they were the only sources of divine grace, to the exclusion of any other; the means, the keys of the kingdom; deprecating, as superstitious, an apprehension of resting in them,' and investing them with a saving intrinsic efficacy, not distinguishable by ordinary understandings, from the opus operatum; which tends to substitute, at least in unholy minds, for the worship, in spirit and in truth, the observance of days, and months, and times, and years." (Charge, 1841.)

Just at this particular moment, the following testimony against the Tractarian system will be read with peculiar interest. It is from a Charge delivered by the present Archbishop of York, as Bishop of Hereford. His Lordship thus deprecates the disparagement of the Reformers and the Reformation:

"Among other marvels of the present day may be accounted the irreverent and unbecoming language applied to the chief promoters of the Reformation in this land. If ever men had a catholic spirit and deserved well of their country and of mankind; if ever men in such circumstances did good service to the Church of Christ, and to the cause of vital godliness, such were these men. And they ought ever to be, as, indeed, till of late they have ever been, regarded with grateful respect and veneration."

And having exhorted his clergy to preach unreservedly the doctrines of the cross, Dr. Musgrave, with a view of defending the doctrine of justification by faith, alluding to the compilers of the Articles and their contemporaries, thus represents them as scripturally

"Setting forth, in language too accurate and precise to be misunderstood by any candid and ingenuous inquirer, that faith in the righteousness of Jesus Christ is the sole and simple instrument of justification; that this faith must not be dead, barren, and unfruitful; that if real, it must and will be a living faith-a faith zealous and productive of good works-but that these works contribute not as instruments of merit to justification; else it would imply a reliance to be placed on something inherent in ourselves, some personal quality of our own, and not on the perfect righteousness of Jesus Christ." [Italics by the author.]

In short, there is scarcely a feature in that delusive system that his Lordship does not most faithfully unmask; and thus concludes his stric

tures:

"I have spoken, because I deem the patrons of the system to be in grievous and dangerous error; seeming to innovate, where innovation would be mischievous and full of peril; and betraying withal, by scarcely disguised panegyric, or by half-blushing blame, an undue attachment to the doctrine and discipline of Papal Rome."

The Bishop of London has also expressed his decided disapprobation of certain parts of the

system. With reference to the frivolous custom of decorating the communion-table with flowers, his Lordship observes, (and it would be well if certain individuals in his Lordship's diocese, who affect to be such zealous contenders for episcopal authority, would endeavour to reconcile their own practice with his Lordship's recorded sentiments on this head).* He says.

*

"I strongly disapprove of the practice, which, as I am informed, has been adopted by a few of the clergy, of decorating the communion-table with flowers; and especially when that decoration is varied from day to day, so as to have some fanciful analogy to the history of the saint who is commemorated. This appears to me to be something worse than frivolous, and to approach very nearly to the honours paid by the Church of Rome to deified sinners. Such practices as these, which are neither prescribed, nor recommended, nor even noticed by our Church, nor sanctioned by general custom, throw discredit upon those decent ceremonies, and expressive forms, which are intended to enliven the devotion of those who are engaged in the service of God, and to do honour to his holy name."

* Dr. Wiseman was quite right when, in his letter to Mr. Chirol, he says, with reference to the Tractarians, "With a ready cry on the authority of the Episcopacy, on apostolical succession, and the sin of schism, never were the true rights of bishops more completely despised and set at nought, and never was dogmatism more boldly assumed than by the leaders of this party."

Thus far, I am indebted for my quotations to a publication, entitled, "The Voice of the Anglican Church," by the Rev. Henry Hughes, M.A. I now avail myself of other authorities, borrowed from a useful little work, entitled, "A Real Tract for the Times," by the Rev. James Sutcliffe, M.A., 3rd edition. The first I shall notice is that of the Bishop of Cashel. He observes,

"The Tractarian views have been taken up, with very few exceptions, only by those who have, in the midst, perhaps, of much external decorum, exhibited no signs of spiritual life, and have never seen clearly the great scriptural trnth of justification by faith. They have proved themselves to be blind leaders of the blind, entirely in the dark as to God's plan for the justification of a sinner like the Jews of old, they have a zeal of God, but not according to knowledge."

The next is equally strong and decisive-that of the Bishop of Ohio. He says,

"The old root of Rome, dead at the top, has thrown up in the midst of us a youthful sapling, vigorous, aspiring, full of life, heady, high-minded. It is already a great tree. I believe most solemnly, that, under this new shape, we have a revival of anti-christian heresy and opposition to the truth as it is in Jesus,' which cannot be dreaded too seriously, or resisted too earnestly. There is no controversy of these times comparable with this. We have important controversies about the polity of the Church,--this is about the very life of the Gospel."

C