name he speaks; let us pray to Him whom he represents, to Him who only can forgive sins, that He would speak peace unto His people, and unto His saints, that they turn not again." This is pretty well-rather more than enough for a gentleman having the superior youth of the metropolis passing by thousands through his hands in a course of years.

Notwithstanding a little voluntary humility here and there, a tone of authority and mastership runs through Mr. Cooke's book. The author, brandishing the ecclesiastical sword, and bearing aloft his banner of Absolution, Confession, and Direction, rushes boldly on the unarmed host of orthodox and evangelical Churchmen, crying, "Give peace in our time, O LORD!"-for so ends, by way of motto, (given in old English blackletter type, and at a stately distance,) a very meek preface; and thus is heralded the onslaught of this famous champion,-" The Priest's Power in Absolution. Chapter I." After dealing hard blows at his gentle adversaries through one hundred and nineteen pages, he takes breath, and again, in black letter, draws up with, "THANKS BE TO GOD"-for the deed of battle, we presume, which he has accomplished. And once more, (black letter again,) after raising from the dead, and incorporating with his embattled array, a long list of Protestant English divines from Cranmer downwards, and seizing on a living Doctor,-representative, probably, of the existing succession of Anglican "Directors,"-he thus retires from the fray :

“Of strife and of dissention

Dissolve, O Lord, the bands,
And knit the knots of peace and love
Throughout all Christian lands.”

Thus do men ask for peace whilst they hound-on war, and refuse all quiet on any terms but those of absolute and universal submission.

The late Bishop Blomfield was a great mystery. Who, to this day, can divine what were his real sentiments in respect to the questions which have been in controversy for nearly thirty years? He has gone before THE JUDGE OF ALL, under a great responsibility for having declined to nip whilst in the bud the mighty heresy that now threatens either to rend or to Romanize the Established Church. He was settled in authority in the chief diocese when this heresy began to show face. What had no patronage, no place of action, in LONDON, could succeed on no scale anywhere. Bishop Blomfield, more than any other man, had the opportunity of giving it an effectual blow. It was in his hands while yet unfledged. But he played with it, caressed it, allowed it to grow, till at length it escaped from his power, and, vigorous in wing and limb, bid him defiance. He was loth to deal with the recreant, for he loved it; and it knew that, and imposed accordingly. Mr. Bennett of Knightsbridge, long connived at, would never have been taken in hand but for public notoriety and clamour. When dealt with at length, it was in the tenderest and most respectful manner. What savour of authority there was, was indispensable to the maintenance

of the episcopal dignity, which had been rather roughly handled. Yet what was the issue more than a change of cards? What was the difference between the "Priest " displaced and the "Priest" appointed, but that the former produced his Popery a little too far for the public endurance; whilst the latter, instructed by the error, kept his under his cassock, just so far, and no further, than was needful to meet the emergency? But what now is the difference between the former and the present Perpetual Curate of Knightsbridge? The late Bishop, compelled to yield to general opinion, at once reproved and defied it by his mode of yielding. He substituted (the appointment being his own) one Anglo-Catholic for another, and, as time has shown, with great advantage to the heretical sect. The Honourable Mr. Liddell has shown himself quite as bold as Mr. Bennett, and, perhaps, more prudent and more crafty; and the pamphlet before us shows that he is as able and as ready to do battle with Bishop Tait, as his predecessor with Bishop Blomfield. And we doubt not, that if the late Bishop had interfered with him, as the present has done, no considerations of gratitude would have restrained him from dealing as faithfully, perhaps as saucily, with his late patron as with his present Ordinary. "For the greater glory of God," (a phrase with which the Jesuits cover a deal of wickedness,)—that is, for the Romanizing of a Protestant congregation,he would have shivered a lance even with Bishop Blomfield himself. Meanwhile, did not the Bishop know, or had he not the means of knowing, what kind of man he was introducing? Indeed one would like to know whether Mr. Bennett's retirement was with any understanding, direct or indirect, as to the person or character of his successor. The effect of the whole movement was, that Mr. Bennett gained the living of Frome,-a new sphere for his Anglicanism; and his old congregation was put into the hands of one likely to build them up in all his ways. For this, with its consequences as now, the late Bishop must ever be held responsible. He did everything with his eyes open, and all England looking on. Mr. Bennett quarrelled with the last Bishop; in pursuing the same course, the Honourable and Rev. Mr. Liddell quarrels with this.

He says:

After complaining of the unfairness with which Mr. Poole has been treated both by the Bishop and the Archbishop, and of the severity of his sentence, Mr. Liddell proceeds, on the general principle and usage of Auricular Confession, to identify himself with his Curate. "But if, on the other hand, your Lordship and His Grace the Archbishop intend to condemn a Priest of the Church of England, simply for the act or the system of receiving private Confessions from such of our people, be they many or few, as come to us with burdened consciences, and desire of their own accord 'to open their grief' to us; then I must with great respect, yet without compromise, assert, that I humbly consider such a practice to be a Priest's positive duty, enjoined by the Church's law; and, so far as that goes, I do without hesitation identify myself with the cause of my condemned Curate. Neither do I wish to shelter myself behind the protection which the law, on mere secular grounds, affords to a beneficed

Clergyman, beyond what it does to a stipendiary Curate; but I am ready to defend my principles and my practice in the courts of law, and to abide by the consequences, be they what they may.

"I admit my own incompetency to do full justice to so difficult a question as the one under discussion-would that I were more competent! But finding myself placed, without any seeking on my own part, in a position of much prominence at the present crisis, I owe it to your Lordship, to my Reverend brethren of the priesthood, and to the faithful laity of the Church, to state honestly what I believe to be our duty, in this matter of private Confession and Absolution.

"First, I will venture to trace what I may call the theological rationale of the doctrine. Secondly, I will quote the authority for the exercise of this priestly function in the Church of England's Book of Common Prayer. And thirdly, I will state how I endeavour to carry out, in my own practice, what I gather to be her real principles in this matter.

•

"I. The theological rationale of the doctrine, which I throw into the form of the following propositions :—

"1. Our blessed Lord Jesus Christ, in His humanity, is the one true Priest of the new dispensation.

"2. The essential functions of the Christian priesthood are, first, to offer sacrifice; secondly, to remit and retain sin; thirdly, to bless the people.

"3. As Christ's priesthood is an unchangeable priesthood, He being a 'Priest for ever,' the exercise of His office is continually going on now. All worship of the church in heaven and earth is acceptable worship, only as it is united to the worship He is ever offering-presenting Himself, in His glorified body, as the Lamb slain,' before the throne of grace, and by that act ever making intercession for us.' All absolution is remission, only inasmuch as it is the power of the Son of Man on earth to forgive sins. All blessing in the Church is but the virtue going out from Him; whether it emanate, as now, through a living ministry, or, as of old, through the mere hem of His garment.

"4. The first priestly function, namely, sacrifice, is the appointed remedy for all sin. And as sin is ever continuing, so sacrifice must be continually applied to it, for remission; and to each sin, in order to its remission, such sacrifice-the one sacrifice of Christ-is, as a matter of fact, so applied.

"5. This sacrifice, once made for all, must ordinarily be applied to each, through an earthly visible ministration, which is none other than the priesthood of the church of God-that church, in conformity with her incarnate Lord, consisting, if I may so say, of a Divine and human nature, united in one mystical Body.

"6. This earthly visible ministration receives its powers from the LORD, according to the words addressed to His Apostles, As My Father hath sent Me, even so send I you-receive ye the Holy Ghost;' to which must be added the special commission, Whosesoever sins ye remit, they

are remitted unto them, and whosesoever sins ye retain, they are retained.'

“7. This commission, by the very nature of the case, could never have been intended to end with those Apostles, to whom it was first given. For if Christ came as the sacrifice for sin, and this was the appointed way of applying that sacrifice, it was unworthy of the coming of Christ to stint its effect (in the great office of putting away sin by the offering of Himself) to the sins then present of the contemporaries of the holy Apostles: and, if the commission did not cease with the Apostles, it must be continued through their successors to this day.

"8. It does, in fact, so continue in the exercise of the Christian priesthood, which is commanded and empowered, by Almighty God, not only to declare and pronounce, but also to be the authorized channel for conveying, absolution.

"9. This remission of sin implies the confession of it; the remission being not vague and general, but judicial and particular."

Mr. Liddell's findings in the Book of Common Prayer, and amongst the Homilies, with the arguments founded thereon, are much the same as those of his brethren already noticed. As to the seventh commandment, he insists on the propriety and necessity of examination into sins against it, but with certain restrictions never likely to be regarded by those who enter on the subject at all. He also asserts an analogy between the physician of the soul and the physician of the body; insists that the former is privileged, as well as the latter; and says that "the medical man is exposed to far greater risk of evil imputations than the priesthood, in the pursuit of his profession." The reader is invited to note this and to mark the ingenuity of these men, and the lengths they are prepared to go. They boldly refuse silence on the seventh commandment, and that, too, even in private interviews with women. He will form his own opinion of the analogy; and perhaps be ready to say to the Reverend physician, "But does the physician of the body turn the key on his patient, and in that seclusion spend one, two, or three hours, as the case may be ?"-Thus Mr. Liddell: "Your Lordship has stated, in your condemnation of Mr. Poole, that you consider the questioning, especially of females, on the subject of violations of the seventh commandment, to be of very dangerous tendency. Putting aside, as denied by Mr. Poole, and not yet proven, the particular questions with which he was charged, I most readily admit the difficulty of this part of our duty, the need of much prayer and selfdiscipline, and the great impropriety, nay, sin, on the part of the Confessor, of asking any questions on this commandment which do not strictly arise out of matters confessed, or out of the circumstances of the penitent, otherwise known to him; because his duty is simply to aid the penitent in an unreserved confession of past acts of sin, not to suggest fresh evil.

"I hope I may be permitted to consider that this is your Lordship's general meaning; for I cannot conceive your Lordship to imply, that God's Ministers are to be more silent upon one part of IIis holy law than upon

another; or that sinners' consciences are to be least probed upon that commandment which, in spirit and in letter, is, by general admission, most violated."

"His duty is simply to aid the penitent,"-and any Priest, even of Rome, will tell you that this is all that he does. He cannot know that the "evil" he suggests is "fresh." He thinks it probable that it has been practised, and his suggestions are to "aid the penitent" in recovering the recollection of it. So do these men repudiate a thing, and hold it fast, in the very same sentence !

The Honourable Mr. Liddell's letter to the Bishop draws to a close with these remarks on the general question and its prospects :"For my part,

I have a strong conviction that truth will always bear sifting; and I have no doubt that God will, in His great mercy, bring out the true doctrine of our Church upon this controverted point, by the instrumentality of its very adversaries. Satan is very crafty-but he generally overreaches himself.

"The doctrine of the two blessed sacraments of Christ our Lord has, each in its turn, been vehemently assailed of late years. And what is the result? They are both far better understood and more deeply reverenced by the mass of English Churchmen than they were before.

"Another link in the great chain of sacramental truth is now passing through the fire. Thanks be to God, who does not put upon us trials more or greater than we can bear! He will doubtless in His good time fulfil the promise, If any man will do His will, he shall know of the doctrine whether it be of God.' He will purge away the dross, and leave the gold refined. If this counsel or this work be of men, it will come to nought,' said Gamaliel to the Jewish council of rulers; but if it be of God, ye cannot overthrow it: lest haply ye be found even to fight against GOD.'"

The foregoing quotations will probably satisfy the reader that Confession, Absolution, and Direction are openly and avowedly taught, recommended, and excused in the Church of England; and that, with slight and indifferent modifications, they are taught after the Roman fashion, and sustained with Roman arguments and Jesuitical sophistry. Transubstantiation is also taught; and the terms priest and sacrifice (freely used) derive their propriety entirely from the recognition that the bread and wine after consecration are the actual body and blood of the Lord Christ, and are "offered up" by the officiating Priest as a sacrifice" for sins. All the severe stickling for the word "Priest" is a contention, more or less avowed, for the Romish dogma of Transubstantiation. By these writers it is said that the word was substituted for that of "Minister," in several places, at the last revision of the Book of Common Prayer in 1661. If so, there is no great cause of wonder; for it is now known, that at that very time Charles and James were both Papists, shamming to be Protestants; and they were likely enough to encourage anything tending Rome-ward.

(To be continued.)