220

QUARTERLY REPORT OF FACTS AND PROGRESS.

for the purpose of founding a Reformatory School for Yorkshire, under their own management. Thus it becomes probable that two institutions will be carrying on the same work, each after its own idea of criminal reformation. Our sympathies are entirely in accordance with the Church of England Protestant Establishment, and from the zeal and activity of its chief managers we anticipate the most beneficial results. Ample subscriptions and donations are entrusted to the committee, who seek the active co-operation of the local clergy, and offer to distant friends the results of their experience by correspondence with their honorary secretaries.

Literature of the Quarter Classified and Reviewed.

I. THEOLOGY.

The Principles of the English Reformation. A Sermon preached on Monday, Nov. 5, 1855, before the University, at St. Mary's Church, Oxford. By Samuel Lord Bishop of Oxford. Published by request. Oxford: J. H. Parker. 1855.

The

WE are among those who have always given the Bishop of Oxford credit for sound Protestantism, just as we have always given the Bishop of Exeter credit for genuine sincerity. pamphlet before us, and which, contrary to our usual practice, we have regarded not merely as a sermon, but as an important theological work, amply justifies us in holding this opinion. We can understand with no difficulty, the virulence with which many who call themselves evangelical, assail Bishop Wilberforce; they are utterly incapable of comprehending that breadth and liberality of view which characterises him. Their charity-unlike his-hopeth nothing, and believeth nothing; and they are ever ready to condemn those who do not at all times avow a like narrow-minded and uncharitable spirit. It is with deep regret that we have seen so many exhibitions of this spirit and temper. Evangelical truth has no enemy so bitter as the odium theologicum. That many of the class to which we allude, willingly symbolise with Non-conformists, and call them "brethren in the Lord” is no disproof of what we assert-for even this is less a symptom of Christian love, than the badge of a particular party. We do not yield even to the extremest of these in the regard which we extend towards the excellent among Dissenters; most gladly do we recognize them as brethren in Christ; and there are among them not a few at whose feet we could be proud to sit, to learn the deeper mysteries of our common faith. But we would treat those of our communion, from whom we may in some points differ, with the same feeling of affection: we would, in fact, be broad churchmen, like the Bishop of Oxford; we would make allowances for the erring; we would be reluctant to condemn, even though fiery zealots should call our own orthodoxy in question. The sermon before us is an anniversary sermon. It gave the speaker an opportunity of speaking on the subject of Popery, and its corruptions; and, if he were so inclined, to utter as much Tractarian nonsense as he pleased: nor would there

999

have been wanting a tolerably numerous party to applaud him to the echo, had he done so. The Bishop evidently felt the advantage of his position and the importance of the opportunity, and he consequently delivered an address, which for calm deliberate wisdom, Christian moderation, and real charity, has rarely been surpassed; and the effects of which will, we trust, be long felt among those to whom it was preached. The topic selected was "the Principles of the English Reformation," and he chose for his text the striking words: "And it came to pass, when the King had heard the words of the book of the Law, that he rent his clothes." After a few words on anniversaries in general, the Bishop alluded more particularly to the causes for which we keep up our observance of the fifth of November, and disavowing any remaining asperity or feelings of resentment against Romanists, he proceeded in the following bold and uncompromising words:

"We would observe it, above all, as a thanksgiving to God, the memory of whose mercies should never pass away. First, therefore, we make mention year by year of the attempted crime, to quicken in our hearts a true and living sense of the goodness of the Lord our God, for which we offer up to Him our humble praises. Next, we keep the record of this great deliverance because we dare not forget that, in spite of all the softening influences of civilization, there still survives around us a powerful system, in which are mingled with the Christian truth, to which it owes its vitality, errors which of old stirred men well nurtured and of gentle natures to this vile attempt, in the belief that in making it they were doing God service. And since it is the special boast of the most zealous upholders of that system, that it is unaltered and unalterable, next, after humbly praising God for His special mercies, we on this day pledge ourselves anew to resist by all lawful means, as Englishmen and as Christians, the spread amongst us of corruptions, the bitter fruits of which we once so nearly tested."

An allusion to the history of the ancient Jewish Church, brings us to the circumstances of the text; and the sermon gives a brief sketch of the corruptions, which beginning with the worship of the brazen serpent, had gradually crept into the public worship of the Lord's chosen people :

"Somewhat more openly, but under a similar cloak, apparently, of pious intention, did King Ahaz and Urijah the priest introduce the uncommanded altar after the pattern of Damascus ; and from these beginnings it is not difficult to trace the onward course of evil through the worship in the high places, and the weaving of hangings for the grove, to the introduction into the very chambers of God's house of the chariots of the sun; and then, to all the pomp and circumstance of that idol-worship wherein Judah was defiled

CLASSIFIED AND REVIEWED.

223

and Jehovah provoked to anger. All was the natural course of human corruption, developing itself in wider and yet wider deviations from the prescribed rule, when once the principle of unauthorized additions to commanded rites had been fully established. But to this otherwise universal law of CORRUPTION BY ADDITION, there was, as I have said, one signal exception, without which indeed the evil could not have become thus inveterate and rank. God's written Word had been neglected and forgotten; so that of that book of which it had been appointed by God as a fundamental law of the monarchy of Israel, that its king when he sitteth upon the throne of his kingdom, shall write him a copy of this Law in a book," and it shall be with him, and he shall read therein all the days of his life,'-of that same book there was so entire a forgetful ignorance, that when one copy of it was found in Josiah's day, it was treated as a great discovery, and read by Shaphan the scribe before the King; and so utterly forgotten were its contents, that 'it came to pass, that when the King heard the words of the book of the Law, he rent his clothes,'- -so lively and overwhelming was the new sense which it awakened in him of the transgressions of his people.

Here, then, we have before us the whole picture of the fall of the elder Church. God's written Law was cast aside, and His appointed service was utterly disfigured by a vast and polluting series of additions to its early purity, many of which originated in pious intentions, but which finally subverted utterly His true worship."

The nature of the reformation under Josiah is next treated on, and shown to consist entirely in the restoration of the Divine Law, and the removal of all that was clearly contrary thereto. The evils had multiplied when the Law was out of sight, and it was necessary that the Law should therefore be ever before the minds, both of those who were about to reform, and those who were to continue the Reformed Church in purity. The Bishop draws a clear parallel between this reformation and our own; he points out that the corruptions increased with the diminishing light of God's word; that they required but to be brought to that light in order that their deformity should be exposed and that the sole divine rule of faith and practice is the written Word. Mr. Goode himself could not more strongly insist on this principle than does our author. The following passage is no more than from a Bishop of a Church like our own we are bound to expect:—

"First, there was its age of primitive purity, when under the original afflatus of the Divine Spirit, she was full of love and purity; when the Word of Christ, as it was delivered by the mouth and by the pen of Apostles, dwelt in her richly, and was her true

and only law; when, under the apostolical ministry, God the Father was worshipped in spirit and in truth, through the alone mediation of the Son in the power of the Holy Ghost. This period, like some holy and blessed childhood, was the time of docile hearts, of unquestioning faith, and of simple worship. There was then the outward organization which the Lord had created for His Church's rule, and for ministering to her the gifts of the Holy Ghost; the universal apostolate resolving itself into the fixed episcopate, and unfolded, under the teaching of the Spirit, into the further ministry of priests and deacons. There were the two Sacraments of Baptism and the Supper of the Lord. There were all these based upon the revelation of the wonderful mystery of the Trinity in Unity, and producing a simple love to Christ, entire trust in Him, the hanging of the whole soul upon Him, the approach of every contrite spirit through Him alone to the Everlasting Father."

We might perhaps have wished to see an admission that the bishop was a presbyter, placed, disciplinæ causâ, over his brethren, but not of a distinct order; but we admit that the general belief among the ministers of our Church is in favour of the doctrine, that presbyters and bishops do form distinct orders. We have next a very powerful passage, in which the Bishop traces the growing corruption of the Church under Roman influences, and the withdrawal of the light of Scrip

ture.

·

"First, in its outward organization, instead of the college of Apostles, equal in spiritual authority, because all had been equally commissioned by the Lord, they found one bishop putting himself into the place of that Lord; claiming, in right of an alleged succession from St Peter, monstrous powers, which there is the clearest proof that the apostle himself never possessed or claimed; asserting that all the apostles received the power to execute their office of preaching, baptizing, and the like, from St. Peter,' and not from Christ; and that in like manner he now, and not the Lord, was the source of all ministerial authority and spiritual office, and the dispenser of all sacramental grace to the Church.' That he was, to use the words of one of the usurping line, the Vicar of Jesus Christ, the successor of Peter, the anointed of the Lord, the God of Pharaoh; short of God, but beyond man; less than God, but greater than man; who judges all men, and is judged of no man.' They found him declaring that all the kingdoms of the earth were delivered up to him; that he could depose princes from their thrones, release subjects from their obedience and their oaths; require kings to extirpate those whom he pronounced heretical, and deprive them of their kingdoms, and give them to others, on their disobedience; whilst, as to spiritual things, they found him asserting that the general councils of the Church could have authority only from his confirmation; that all bishops and clergy had from him alone autho