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subject which has already so much occupied the ear of the religious world.

The venerable author of the Address which we now introduce to the notice of our readers, is the only survivor of the two Bishops originally consecrated in this country by the Archbishop of Canterbury, in the year 1787, and whom we may be allowed to call the English Fathers of the American Church. He must now be quite an old man; but age does not seem to have impaired his exertions in the holy cause to which he has devoted himself. Having been a principal mover in the measures adopted for the planting and settling of the Church in the United States, and establishing the General Theological Seminary in union with it, he is not content to rest with satisfaction on his former useful exertions, but is still to be found actively discharging the duties of his station, and willing to spend and be spent for the good of the Church.

The Address was delivered by him in his capacity as President of the Board of Trustees of the Theological Institution. The point exclusively considered in it is, the heavy responsibility which the Church imposes on her ministers in the Ordination Service, when the candidate is asked whether he trusts that he is inwardly moved by the Holy Ghost to take upon him his office and ministration? The Bishop opens his observations on the subject with the following passage:

"The subject is made a matter of trust, very justly; because if it were a state of mind of a higher grade, the candidate will have done wrong in committing the issue of his admission to the result of an examination by frail and fallible men. His having done so, must have been in consequence of views, not in harmony with the institutions of our Church, and therefore not consistent with godly sincerity. The trust is of an inward moving of the Holy Ghost; to be distinguished from the belief of the suggestion of immediate revelation; which belief, if it be demon

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strative of a divine source in the present case, must be the same in other instances, persons moved-as they think-to teach in direct contrariety to our consti. tuted ministry, to our doctrines, and to our Sacraments. How then are the motions of the Holy Spirit to be distinguished from the ordinary operations of our mind? The answer may be gathered from various places of our institutions. One place only shall be mentioned. It is in the first part of the homily for Whit-Sunday. The question is distinctly put, not with a special view to the ministry, but doubtless admitting application to that subject. The answer is in the words of St. Paul in the

5th chapter of the Epistle to the Galatians, enumerating the religious graces of

the Christian character. Accordingly, whatever emotions come under any of these heads, designate the Spirit of grace to be their source. To this belongs what follows in the question before us to serve God for the promoting of his glory and the edifying of his people.' The desire is holy in itself, however cherished, as it ought to be, in submission to the authority that is to judge an evident difference between the question of the sufficiency of the party: there being of the worthiness of the object, and that of the necessary requisites of the person in pursuit of it; who, with the best intentious may misjudge.

"That the trust expected in the candi. date, and to be declared by him, is not of such a cast, as to justify his committing of himself to the impulse of his own persuasion, let loose from ecclesiastical restraint, is evident from other parts of the service; particularly in the limitation annexed to his being authorized to preach, which he may not do, except by permission of the Bishop; and by his promise of obedience to the same obedience under a government of law, not authority; doubtless meaning canonical of will: but improperly promised, if the agent were under another authority with which the former may interfere." P. 4.

Bishop White afterwards mentions some cases of evident absence of that trust in the moving of the Spirit which is required of candidates for the ministry-such as that of persons who are influenced by pecuniary inducements-or by the vanity of display of talents or who even subsequently to their admission to the sapursue their just claims in a worldly spirit, or by a course of conduct producing "envy, strife,

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railings, and evil murmurings,"-or in any way contrary to that saying of the apostle: "I seek not yours, but you." He then states the positive qualifications which are required, in order to justify the declaration exacted by the Church.

"It cannot be a mistake to affirm, that to warrant the trust spoken of, the party must be conscious of his being, as to inward character and outward conduct, an approved subject of that dispensation of grace, of which it will be his duty to invite others to be partakers. He may have been brought within the Christian covenant by the pious care of those who had the guardianship of his infancy, under the same, he may have received a religious education; and by the grace of God he may have improved it. Having been thus called to a state of salvation,' as is recognized by the Catechism of our Church, he may have continued in the same,' as is expressed in the same instrument; doubtless, not without errors arising from frailty, yet not in subjection to known and habitual sin, cutting off from the mercy of God in Christ. Or, having incurred such apostasy, he may have been restored through the merits of the Mediator, at the cost of humiliation and sincere repentance. In either case, he must be in the state which warrants the approaching of God as a reconciled Father in Christ. To use the words of our Church in the Article of the xxxix, which has been more misrepresented than any other (xviith) he must feel in himself the Spirit of Christ' - not in any sensations which can be brought under the head of enthusiasm ; but, as the Article proceeds to define, by the mortifying of the works of the flesh, and the earthly members, and the drawing up of the mind to high and heavenly things: this being manifested by what is said in another of the Articles, (xiith) which requires good works as springing necessarily out of a true and lively faith; insomuch, that by them a lively faith may be as evidently known, as a tree discerned by the fruit.' Our Church knows no other ground of assurance than that defined. In this she faithfully follows the Scriptures: since, in them, certainly the important concern is never rested on a persuasion in the mind, or on a reve lation to it; but always on some such test, as when we read ye are my friends, if ye do whatsoever I command you ;'-and this is the love of God, that we keep his commandments,'-and the fruit of the Spirit is in all goodness, and righteousness,

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and truth,'—and that ye put off, con cerning the former conversation the old man, which is corrupt according to the deceitful lusts, and be renewed in the Spirit of your mind; and that ye put on the

new man, which is created in righteousness and true holiness.' If the candidate have no evidence of a state of acceptance with God resting on the grounds set forth, it may be said to him, in reference to the ministry: thou hast neither part nor lot in this matter.' Thou art not likely to sustain its duties, or to have a relish for its occupations; and thou canst not betake thyself to any occupation, which may either be begun or continued in by thee, with so much hazard to thy soul.'

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"Next in importance to the settling of the mind of the candidate on the only sure foundation, as the subject regards himself, is a deeply rooted desire of being instrumental to the bringing of others to be partakers with him of the benefits of the Gospel dispensation. It is not more certain that the Christian Church was established by the arm of Omnipotence, than that there was grafted on it a divinely instituted ministry, for the purpose of making known its glad tidings, in every way in which there may be ability and opportunity for the work. Accordingly, if the candidate have not at heart the conversion of sinners, the edification of the godly, and the extending of the prospects of all from the transitory things of time to the life and immortality' which has been brought to light' to them by the Gospel; if this weighty work be not felt in a pressure on his conscience and his affections; if it be not habitually with him a subject of prayer; and if he be not prepared to prefer it to his personal ease and gratification, he cannot be under the holy influence in question. There must be some measure of the unction of the same Spirit, in Christian men of every grade; who, however, have their respective callings, which cause the salvation of their fellowmen to be matter only of occasional concern; but it is the occupation of the minister of the Gospel; and if he be not prepared to enter on his profession with this understanding of its end and aim, he prevaricates in saying that he trusts-for he has no warrant to trust-that he does it to promote the glory of God, and the edification of his people.

"To the two grounds of trust stated, we may reasonably add a third-that of being possessed of the requisite qualifications. This must be confessed a matter of peculiar delicacy; especially if the party feel the weight of that saying of an Apostle, under a sense of the magnitude of the work

who is sufficient for these things?'-The same Apostie, however, has spoken of the treasure of the Gospel' as committed to earthen vessels, for the express purpose, that the excellency of the power may be of God, and not of us.' Accordingly it having pleased him to appoint, as his agents, men with their infirmities and their imperfections; we ought not to entertain such ideas of Christian humility, as would repel from the ministry all besides the arrogant and the vain. Where personal piety is unequivocal; and where it exists in unity with zeal for the inculcating of the truths and the holy morality of the Gospel; qualification as to other points may, consistently with modesty, be a subject of trust, provided there be submission to the determination of those, who, as one of our Articles (xxiiid) speaks, have public authority given them, in the congregation, to call and send ministers into the Lord's vineyard.' Under disregard of this, the party is so far from being authorized to entertain the trust in question, that he manifests unfitness for the sphere, into which, contrary to Gospel order, he would intrude. If, after admission to the ministry, there should be disregard of the constituted authority, and of the appointed order of the Church; it is the matter concerning which there has been an admonition from the beginning, in that intimation of St. Paul,- God is not the author of confusion, but of peace.' The contrary to this may wear the garb of religious zeal; but it is one of the ways, and there are many of them, in which we find verified the saying of the same Apostle, that Satan is transformed into an angel of light.'"

P. 9.

In the remainder of the discourse the Bishop addresses himself to the Trustees and Professors of the Institution, recommending, that in the course of their government and instruction, attention should be paid also to the excitement of devout af- fections in the students" to the cultivation of the graces of the Christian character in the hidden man of the heart:" guarding at the same time the religious sensibility, which he suggests as a requisite in the candidate for holy orders, from being construed into " any species of devout exercise alien from the services of the Church." In conclusion, adverting briefly to the necessity of active support to the Institution on the

part especially of members of the Church in the Diocese which is the seat of it, he thus feelingly touches on the absence of their revered Diocesan, (Bishop Hobart :) a Prelate, to whom the American Church is greatly indebted, not only on the high ground of his ministerial labours, but for the favour and affection which he has conciliated to her cause on this side of the Atlantic, by the engaging view which he has presented of her in his own person.

"In this remark, he who makes it may reasonably consider himself as the organ of a Right Reverend Brother, whose concurrence in what has been delivered would not have been wanting, it is thought, had he been present; and whose absence on this occasion has been felt, in anxiety for his preservation and safe action.

"To one who has been a witness of his merits in his boybood, in his youth, and in his maturity, there could not but be caused sympathy, by the sickness which has carried him from his family, from this seminary, and from his Church. To all these relations we hope in a gracious Providence for his

restoration and in no one is this desire more sincere, than in him, who, in consequence of the request of the learned Professors of the Institution, has been delivering an Address on this occasion." P. 14.

We have thus extracted the chief part of this excellent Address of Bishop White, and it has been highly gratifying to us to find in it so much that we could not bring ourselves to omit. Nothing indeed can be more just than the views which it presents of the ministerial character.

We sincerely congratulate the American members of our Communion on possessing such faithful expositors of the truth as it is in Jesus; who not only preserve the form of the Church of England, but inculcate her doctrines in all their purity. An infant Church reared under such auspices promises indeed a vigorous maturity.

Among the measures calculated, at once for her preservation in the integrity of the faith and her more extensive diffusion, the Theological Seminary is particularly deserving

of notice. The fundamental regulations of this institution, and the order and propriety with which its proceedings are conducted, will ensure to it a learned and orthodox and pious ministry, by whose active exertion, under the blessing of God, the plant which has now so effectually taken root downward, shall "bear fruit upward"-shall hereafter "fill the land, sending out its boughs to the sea and its branches to the river," and "covering the hills with its shadow."

A Remonstrance, in a third Letter, addressed to Charles Abel Moysey, D.D. Archdeacon of Bath, on his renewal of his former Attacks upon the Catholics in his late Charge to the Clergy of the Deanery of Bedminster, July 29th, 1824. By the Right Rev. Peter Augustine Baines, D.D. &c. &c. 8vo. pp. 48. Wood, Cunningham, and Smith, Bath. Gospel Truth opposed to Error and Superstition, in an Address to his Protestant Brethren. By a Layman. 8vo. pp. 60. London.

1824.

THE growing confidence of the Papal Dissenters from our National Church Communion, can have escaped no one's observation. The kind and conciliatory spirit which has been manifested towards them, (and we do not mention this to ob. ject to it so far as it does not tend to curtail the prerogative of the Church) has had the effect of stirring them to action and provoking aggression on their part. Witness the scandalous publication Stoneyhurst, so grossly calumniating that Church, under whose tolerant ascendancy they have enjoyed the utmost liberty of opinion and of worship; their shameless pretences to miraculous agency-their prose

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* The John Bull of October 10th and 17th, may be consulted with advantage on this document.

lyting endeavours. There is evidently a vigour in the doings of the party, which bespeaks the hope of better days and the prospect of a future triumph. Among those whom the warmth of popular sunshine bas thus kindled into animation, is the Author of the pamphlet to which we now invite attention-an Author of no ordinary dimensions, but no less than a Bishop in partibus-and who, in his present separation from his Mauritanian flock, devotes his episcopal cares to the edification of some more civilized members of his Communion at Bath. We must confess we feel some diffidence in approaching in any attitude of hostility, one to whose official character all our strongest prepossessions of respect prompt us to defer; but when we find the dignity of the Bishop sunk in the partizan, and the

Christian Officer of the Church obscured in the Schoolman and the Sophist, we are not a little divested of our scruples, and more readily join issue with this mitred champion of the old religion." He comes indeed against our Church, like the giant of Gath, with a sword and with a spear and with a shield; but happily we need not such arms ;our cause requires not that talent and that ingenuity, which he is called on to exert to make good his. The Faith of the Protestant, plex munditiis," rests on Scripture

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We have been credibly informed, that the late lamentable conversion of a clergyman in London, was brought about by the agency of a Roman Catholic Jesuit Priest, sojourning at an inu in the city for the space of three months: who, as soon as he found some impression made upon the weak mind of his dupe, called in two other Priests as his coadjutors in the work of proselytism; and the three accordingly then made their daily visits to their waver ing convert, now entrapped in the snare of the fowler, until at length they made him entirely their own. This same Jesuit also, we have heard, converted the waiter at the inn. Can it possibly be true, that after these good deeds, he left his landlord minus, by a debt of 12 or 15l. ?

as its defender, and will not be impugned though we may fail to do justice to it.

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At the same time it must be allowed, there is not a little difficulty in opposing such an antagonist of the Church as Dr. Baines. His theology is of so evanescent a nature, that there are scarcely any means of grasping it and presenting it to view in any visible form. Every thing with him is so sublimated and refined, that (according to his own phraseology,) his the ological tenets are present as to substance or essence only, and not as to their usual qualities or properties." We want some friendly magician who shall seize on his disembodied doctrines, and confine them to some palpable shape. Dogmas of the Romish Church, which it can be proved from ecclesiastical history-from her own rituals,-and the writings of her theologians, she maintains in their gross and obvious sense, this subtle expositor of Papal orthodoxy attenuates and exhibits as perfectly harmless and nugatory. Under his plastic hands they assume any features to which he would mould them.

But this compromising theology of Dr. Baines is no new device. He has not even the merit of being its inventor. His great predecessor in this line of interpretation was the celebrated Bossuet, Bishop of Meaux, who first undertook to make the harsh and repulsive creed of Papal Rome square with the opis nions of more enlightened times. How skilfully M. de Meaux applied the Lesbian rule in thus rebuilding the edifice of the Pontifical Faith, already shaken to its base by the Reformation, will readily appear to every one who casts an eye over his work. His work indeed, such an innovation was it on the reigning belief of the Roman Catholic world, was at first viewed with some suspicion by the body itself, in favour of whom it was written. Nor did it receive the apREMEMBRANCER, No. 71.

probation of the Pope until after eight years powerful solicitation. It is well known too, that the first edition of it which was submitted to the Doctors of the Sorbonne, was considered by them too great a palliation of the Romish doctrines, and exceptions were accordingly made to some passages contained in it— upon which that whole edition was suppressed, and another put forth with considerable alterations. And even in this form it did not pass without objection-as one of that Communion itself which it professed to defend, is said to have written an' answer to it before any notice had been taken of it on the part of the Protestants. But the policy of possessing a refined exposition of their doctrines, adapted to the more fastidious taste of the inquisitive religionist, recommended it as a valuable subsidy against defection among their own members, as well as for gaining proselytes to their party. The sword and the faggot, it had been found, were but ineffectual vindicators of the Apostate Churchthe blood of martyrdom had only served to write their abominations in legible characters of horror-and the gentler expedient accordingly, now provided to their hands by this Apologist of their Church, was adopted; which instead of com pelling, gently decoyed the unwary into the toils of Popery. What could be more specious than to complain of misrepresentation of their creed as set forth by Protestants ?——that is, nominally to recede from the untenable ground on which they had before made their stand, and to pretend that they were not in fact so very remote from Protestantism as Protestants themselves had sup posed. When the mind cannot be bent to conformity, the next course is to bend the opinion to the mind.

The success with which this ruse de guerre was attended, has probably induced Dr. Baines to revive it in these days. He has already sig

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