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cure the compliance of Hooper: for nine months was this absurd point urged upon the patriarch of the Puritans, but without effect. They then procured an order of council to confine him to his own house, till at last the king, whose views were always puritanical, interfered, and sent a royal order, dispensing with all the ceremonies and garments required in the episcopal consecration; but the bishops contrived to postpone the consecration for eight months longer, when a compromise was made, Hooper agreeing to appear in the prelatical garb only at his consecration, or in the presence of the king; the robes to be dispensed with on other occasions. This indeed was a miserable controversy for the morning of the reformation; and poor Ridley himself afterwards saw and acknowledged his error, when bloody Mary began to darken the kingdom with the smoke of her torments. His letter of recantation to Hooper should never be forgotten: My dearly beloved brother and fellow elder, whom I reverence in the Lord, pardon me, I beseech you, that hitherto, since your captivity and mine, I have not saluted you by my letters; whereas I do indeed confess I have received from (such was your gentleness) two letters at sundry times, but yet at such times as I could not be suffered to write unto you again; or if I might have written, yet was I greatly in doubt, lest my letters should not safely come unto your hands. But now, my dear brother, forasmuch as I understand by your works, which I have yet but superficially seen, that we thoroughly agree, and wholly consent together in those things which are the grounds and substantial points of our religion, against which the world so furiously rageth in these our days; howsoever in time past, in smaller matters and circumstances of religion, your wisdom and my simplicity (I indeed confess it) have in some points varied: now I say, be you assured, that even

VOL. I.

you

with my whole heart, God is my witness, in the bowels of Christ I love you, and in truth, for the truth's sake which abideth in us, and, as I am persuaded shall, by the grace of God, abide with us for evermore" (Letters of the Martyrs, page 32).

In erecting therefore a memorial at Oxford to the three martyrs, let not these facts of history be forgotten: those good men were indeed servants of the Lord, and according to their measure of light, they pursued that policy which they supposed was wisest and safest in changing the national religion; but that policy was based on incomplete views of the word of God; and the reformation would, humanly speaking, have been matured into something much better but for the interruption by the Marian persecution. If Edward VI. had lived ten years longer, it seems highly probable that the national religion would have assumed a Presbyterian form. Bu all things are for the best. The Marian persecution taught England what Popery really is; and the Elizabethan Church, which is, in fact, the avowedly incomplete system of Edward VI. untouched and unimproved in any single item, has also been necessary to teach us, by long and painful experience, the great evils of semi-papal ideas, and the sad effects of the union of Church and state.

For the rest, it is certain that the Martyrs believed in baptismal regeneration and consubstantiation; and therefore it would seem a just but melancholy conclusion, that priests of the Oxford-Tract school ought to be chosen to officiate in the new church that is to be erected to the memory of the three prelates who bore witness to the truth of the Protestant religion in the parish of St. Ebbe.

The British Review triumphs in the article of baptism over its opponent the Christian Observer. We make the following extract:- Equally plain are the indications of heresy afforded in a review (in the Christian

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Observer) of the recent life of Mr, Wilberforce. Its writers, it seems, employ the term baptismal seed,' whether intending to express the ordinary church doctrine of baptismal regeneration does not appear, but implying that some blessing accompanies the baptismal waters. Now what meaning can be attached to the baptismal service by a reviewer who censures even such a notion as this? What can be the meaning of praying that God would 'give his Holy Spirit to this infant,' if even when the infant displays early marks of that Spirit, we may suppose it not given? It has been objected unfairly to the church doctrine of baptism, that many who are washed with its waters display no outward signs of the renewing of the Holy Spirit. But what a solemn mockery is the church's ordinance, if we may not attribute to it any benefit, even when it is followed, as in this case (Mr. Wilberforce's), by a religious childhood!

"Those who reason thus are not

likely to be very warmly attached to the letter of our service. No wonder that there should be the anxiety, of which we learn from the following oftrepeated advertisement in the Record newspaper, to strengthen themselves by concert in the rejection of its obvious meaning:

"A clergyman would suggest, that, under God's blessing, good might result from an united protest against the doctrine of the regeneration of all infants in baptism, and against the practice of applying the services of the church to all persons indiscriminately. He is induced by the encouragement he has already met with, to repeat this advertisement, and will be glad to receive communications on the subject from clergymen and lay members of the Church of England, who are interested about it, to whom he will immediately communicate his name. Address, post-paid, R. C. 21, Rockingham-row, New Kent-road.' (Record, Nov. 5)."

SACERDOTAL VESTMENTS. THE BRITISH MAGAZINE.

IN opposing the popish spirit, it of necessity falls within the compass of our duty to detect the workings of superstition, in whatever quarter they may be exhibited. This is an era of superstition, the cycle of deisidæmony has come round to us in its course, and after having passed through the age of clerical indifference, we are now once again in the age of clerical superstition. The puerile follies which now find numerous advocates in the Oxford school, would not have been tolerated twenty years ago. The minds of the clergy were at that period adverse to any movement that diverged from the old beat of mechanical conformity, or was in any way calculated to attract attention; but now both bishops and priests are on the advance towards Rome, and have eagerly entered into that path, down which Archbishop Laud was dragging the church, till stopped by "that two-handed engine at the door," which "stood ready to strike one and strike no more." The old routine of dull and noiseless ceremonies bequeathed to the church does not now satisfy the clergy; and in every way they are endeavouring to restore as much of the papal furniture as the age will bear. The tenor of the correspondence which from time to time appears in the British Magazine, remarkably indicates the superstitious state of the clerical mind. Every number of that periodical more or less supplies us with proofs, and in some instances to a degree scarcely credible. The following extracts from the December number may be taken as an average sample of these absurdities, and it will scarcely be possible to peruse them without reflecting on the extraordinary phenomenon of a grave and learned editor, seriously publishing as matters of great importance, these deplorable puerilities, which would excite pity if discovered even in the Talmud or the ritual books

of the Bonzes. The writers are gentlemen, and scholars, and members of learned universities, but so stupified are they with the nepenthe of the Romish dispensary, that they can, without any sense of the ridiculous, without any hesitation or feeling of shame, enter con amore, into these subjects, and with a reality of feeling, which, if witnessed in any non-ecclesiastical topic, would even to themselves appear extremely ridiculous. Suppose, for instance, that learned correspondents in the Gentleman's Magazine were to write solemn letters about the proper, ancient, and orthodox tie of a neckcloth; the proper number of buttons to a dress coat; the proper name of a waistcoat, whether it should be entitled vest, doublet, or waistcoat; the proper colour for a gentleman's cane, and the proper sort of canes for the different grades of society. Why, even the Oxford Tract Clergy would burst forth into merriment, and shake Olympus with inextinguishable laughter. But for their own absurdities of this sort, absurdities infinitely more striking when viewed in connexion with the Christian religion, they have no eyes, no feeling, no sense. They cannot deliver themselves and say, there not a lie in my right hand."

"Ecclesiastical Vestments."

"is

"Sir, I have been surprised at the ignorance which generally prevails upon the subject of one of the most decent and unostentatious parts of the clerical dress—the scarf, having myself been often asked whether I was a chaplain to a nobleman or a bishop, because I wore over my surplice, in addition to my M. A.'s hood, a black silk scarf, which by the canon is recommended to be worn by those who are not graduates, with this restriction, 'so it be not silk'-implying, as I conceive, that graduates are alone permitted to wear the scarf made of that material. It is, indeed true, that what we now call the scarf, is in the canon termed the tippet; but by referring

both to Bingham and Palmer, it will be found that the terms are synonymous-authorities which are confirmed by Bishop Jebb, who, in his primary charge, mentions the tippet as being the same thing as the scarf. The scarf is well known to be the stole of the primitive church, and from a very early period has been considered a part of the clerical dress. Latterly, except in large towns, it has been in general worn by chaplains and dignitaries alone; but I think that every person who will read the canons, and consult the authorities I have named on the subject, will readily grant that every presbyter of the Church of England is entitled, and in conformity, or rather obedience to canonical order, ought to wear, during the performance of divine service, the tippet or scarf. 'Believe me,' says Bishop Jebb, 'my reverend brethren, it is in your power to do incalculable good by attention to particulars which at the first view may appear unimportant, but which, by the wisest men, most deeply versed in human nature, have been pronounced of the utmost moment. . . . the senses and imagination are constituent parts of our nature; these, no less than the reason and affections, are to be enlisted in the service of religion; and if, through any neglect of ours, they fail to become the auxiliaries, it is but too probable they will become the active and successful foes of our most holy faith!'"'

A Second Letter, entitled, "On the Ornaments of the Ministers of the Church."

"Sir, I shall be glad to elicit from some of your correspondents, information on the following points :— 1. What is the dress proper to be worn by ministers saying the public prayers, and by preachers; 2. What is the origin of the full-sleeved gown? According the 58th canon, and Palmer's Origines Liturgica, I apprehend that when reading divine service, and administering the sacraments, the

minister should wear a surplice, over which, if a graduate, his hood; and if a priest, the scarf over both shoulders (as is usual); but if a deacon, over the left shoulder only. In the pulpit, some wear the gown of their degree; others, the full-sleeved gown. Again, some wear the hood over the gown, others do not. I am not speaking of the practices in the University, for Oxford and Cambridge differ on this point, but in parish churches. My own practice is to wear the gown of my degree, without the hood; but I know that some who are great sticklers for all things being done in a seemly and due order, maintain that the hood should be worn over the gown. Who shall decide?"

LETTER OF GEORGE III. TO ARCHBISHOP CORNWALLIS. A.D. 1772.

"My good Lord Primate.-I could not delay giving you the notification of the grief and concern with which my breast was affected, at receiving authentic information that routs have made their way into your palace. At the same time, I must signify to you my sentiments on this subject, which hold these levities and vain dissipations as utterly inexpedient, if not unlawful, to pass in a residence for many centuries devoted to Divine studies, religious retirement, and the extensive exercise of charity and benevolence; I add, in a place where so many of your predecessors have led their lives in such sanctity as has thrown lustre on the pure religion they professed and adorned. From the dissatisfaction with which you must perceive I behold these improprieties, not to speak in harsher terms, and in still more pious principles, I trust you will suppress them immediately; so that I may not have occasion to shew any further marks of my displeasure, or to interfere in a differ

ent manner.

This curious epistle ought not to be forgotten in the history of the eighteenth century. Many are the reflections to which it would give rise on many subjects; but here we can only notice the imperious language in which his Majesty did not scruple to address the Primate, on a subject in which courtesy might concede, but the law could not enforce obedience. Taking for granted as just and proper the many data necessary to be conceded in the relation between a Christian monarch and his chief priest, it must be acknowledged that the king's motives were praiseworthy in administering this royal rebuke to the fashionable archbishop. His Majesty's ignorance of ecclesiastical history, or the piety of his imagination, led him to ascribe more sanctity to the archiepiscopal palace than could be verified by reference to the lives of the prelates who have occupied that abode of wealth and power.

The structure of his Majesty's sentences is certainly not the most felicitous; but the art of letter-writing was not the lot of this monarch, or of his successor.

The Record newspaper has been complaining lately of the private theatricals of Evangelical clergymen; of their acting charades "in professedly religious families," in the garb or costume of "a buffoon, or a banditti." Some of the Non-evangelical clergy have been brought before the public by the same newspaper, as "the dancing clergy." Two lists of these tripudiating functionaries have been published, to the no small scandal of the Church of England. "Saltantes Satyros imitabitur Alphesibæus."

-"We will not impeach the sincerity, little as we can respect the consistency of parties who use this language, while, in the pursuit of gain, the love of riches, or the gratification of their own ease, they discover quite as little of the spirit of 'strangers and pilgrims,' as those individuals whom they would denounce as worldly and political.' 'We can respect the mistaken piety of the ascetic, the selfdenying enthusiasm of the anchoret, the spirituality of the man who sells all he has to give to the poor or the cause of Christ; but we can scarcely refrain from indulging a feeling of contempt for those comfortable professors of mortification to the world, who in the intervals between good dinners and religious meetings, find time to declaim against the political spirit of their brethren. Yet these wellconditioned anti-politicians have their politics too-a selfish, truckling, servile, yet insolent Toryism, not honest enough to avow itself under that name, yet equally opposed to all liberal feeling." This certainly is not

The idol Juggernaut equalizes all sects. Brahmin, and Pariah, and Buddhist are all one in the presence of its greatness. In theory this is the case with the General Association; in fact it is only an association of Congregationalists.

a very amiable passage; and if it expresses the style of political argument usual amongst the Dissenting leaders; if it is, in fact, an exact representation of their sentiments and feelings in that political strife, into which they are now rushing with impetuous ardour, we should humbly, without much fear of contradiction from any serious Christian, assert that there is proof sufficient of the moral evil already introduced amongst the Nonconformists by their system of agitation.

As for the allegations contained in this passage, we let them pass, for even if they possessed the merit of truth, they would not the least affect the very serious question of Christian duty involved in this controversy, which must be settled by other arguments than personal insinuations. The Patriot has, for the benefit, we suppose, of the managing committee, thus propounded its dogma of Christian ethics. "We maintain, that the sphere of religion includes every secular interest, and that to divorce trade, politics, or any other affairs whatever, which affect us as individuals, or as members of a community from the aims, motives, and principles which Christianity teaches and inspires, Is PRACTICAL INFIDELITY."

It would be difficult to find a more startling passage than this in all the writings of the Jesuits, or of the schoolmen who set themselves deliberately to the work of "framing iniquity by a law." The canon of the Jesuit Vasquez must surely have been the guide of the Editor of the Patriot, when he gave this opinion to calm the consciences, and meet the wishes of the agitators in "the General Union.”. "When a doctor of morals is consulted," says Vasquez, "he may give that advice which is not only probable in his opinion, but contrary to his opinion, if it is esteemed probable by others, if it should chance to be more favourable or agreeable to those who consult