stantiation; and therefore, perhaps, Mr. Faber considers it as virtually involved in the general assertion that transubstantiation is incompatible with the certainty of any thing. By bringing forward Tillotson and Bennet's general argument in this limited form, Mr. Faber has weakened the impression it is calculated to make. It seems as though they were not aware of its leading to the hypothetical denial of the truth of Christianity, and as though Mr. Faber had discovered this tremendous consequence. Hence a doubt would arise whether they would have urged their argument if such a consequence had presented itself to their minds. In truth, however, the awful dilemma, that if we cannot trust our senses in the material of the blessed Sacrament of the Lord's Supper the truth of Christianity itself is incapable of demonstration, is the very pith of their argument *; and it is strange, therefore, that Mr. Faber should deem that he has logically overthrown it. His intended demonstration of the unsoundness of their argument begins thus: "It will not be denied, that the existence of the doctrine in the modern Church of Rome, may be demonstrated by sufficient his "What certainty can we have of the truth of the Christian religion, if our senses may generally deceive us?...... How can a man know that any miracle is wrought, if his senses may not generally be trusted?"-Bennet's Confutation of Popery, p. 88. I ask, whether it be reasonable to imagine that God should make that a part of the Christian religion which shakes the main external evidence and confirmation of the whole?"-Tillotson's Discourse against Transubstantiation, vol. i. 314; folio edition of 1714. In the preceding paragraph is a passage which approximates to Mr. Faber's statement of his argument; but yet is very distinct from it. "Supposing that the Bible contained the very same words as the Decree of the Council of Trent, how could any man prove to me that the words are in the Bible, by clearer evidence or stronger argument than I can prove to him that bread and wine after consecration are bread and wine still ?" torical testimony.". Now, suppose CLERICAL FIDELITY AND INFI- Tothe Editorofthe Christian Observer. A SUBJECT of pressing importance has been briefly opened, in your Number for April (pp. 217, 218), by a writer who states that there exists a widely-spread idea that the two classes of our clergy, currently known by the epithets Orthodox and Evangelical, " have of late, by mutual concessions, approximated towards each other." So far from feeling consoled by this widelyspread idea, I am depressed and alarmed by the intelligence; fearing, as I do, that such a treaty of peace could be formed only by concessions all on one side, as seems also to be the suspicion of your former correspondent. The compilers of our Articles and Homilies, recurring to the pollutions and perils of the earliest days of the Christian church, when St. Paul complained of the intrusion of "false prophets, deceitful workers, transforming themselves into the Apostles of Christ;" and referring also to the declaration of the Son of God, Many will say to me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in thy name? and then I will profess unto them, I never knew you: depart from me, ye that work iniquity;" and being conscious how awfully these spiritual accounts of the corruptions of the church had been verified in the Papal communion; warned their own rising institution of what might be expected under the purest forms of Christianity; declaring, in their Twenty-sixth Article, that "In the visible church the evil be ever mingled with the good, and sometimes the evil have chief authority in the ministration of the word and sacraments;" and, that "It appertaineth to the discipline of the church that inquiry be made of evil ministers, and that they be accused of those that have knowledge of their offences; and finally, being found guilty, by just judgment be deposed." Neither were the Reformers satisfied without strengthening this their position, by saying in the Homilies, that "Sincere preachers ever were, and ever shall be, but a few, in respect of the multitude to be taught for our Saviour Christ saith, 'The harvest is plentiful, but the workmen be but few;' which hath been hitherto continually true, and will be to the world's end....It appear eth not by any story of credit, that true and sincere preaching hath endured in any one place above one hundred years *." An inquisitor, be his intentions good or evil, into the claims of the Christian priesthood, I could not wish for a more secure shelter,, than is here afforded by the fathers of the church, from the imputation of unmeet severity. My only wish is, to ascertain the fact that the clergy of any church, and our own among them, are a mingled body; where the faithful and the unfaithful assemble under one standard; some to fight and conquer for their Prince; others, either to fly in the hour of conflict, or to desert to the enemy's camp. There may be a third party, collected under the same banner, harnessed with armour unusually bright and compact, and brandishing in the sun their glittering weapons; but it is uncertain what these will do, when the foe actually appears in * Third Part of the Homily against Peril of Idolatry. There is much more to the same effect. sight. There is an excellent tract by Mrs. H. More, called "The Servant-man turned Soldier, or the Fair-weather Christian; " the moral of which is, that a warrior's courage is put to the test, not on the parade, but on the field of battle. It is quite immaterial by what name the world chooses to mark out an obnoxious class of Christian pastors. The opprobrious term Evangelical, being only an adjective form of the word Gospel, conveys an accurate definition of a faithful minister of Christ: but any definition, when applied to a large body, will always be used indiscriminately; and the consequence in the present case will be, that a name, which ought to be confined to consistent and tried ministers, will be thrown away, as it were at random, among numbers who are neither consistent nor tried; but who gain the appellation, either from domestic affinities, or mere knowledge of religious truth; or from a verbal acknowledgement and defence of it in the pulpit; or because they support a certain class of societies; or from other causes, not one of which indicates any thing better than a speculative and accidental acquaintance with practical Christianity. If, therefore, there really is the approximation now announced, I am afraid that we must find it, not among the sound and vigorous portion of our public instructors, but among more dubious charactersthe recruits, not the veterans; the officers on parade, and not those who are leading a charge. It is not, in these days, needless to repeat the assertion, that nothing delights a careless and voluptuous world more, than to see those who are professedly anti-secular hovering on the borders of temptation and compromise. It is the enchanted ground of the Pilgrim's Progress; where the atmosphere disposes to sleep; and where steals in the flatterer, and entangles his victims during their balmy and delicious slumbers. From these perils a clergyman is not in the least more secure than a layman; and amidst the innumerable delusions of a deceivable mind may be this: "I am classed among religious persons; I am admitted within a select circle; and therefore all is well with me." It, in fact, is only another form of the plea, "We have eaten and drunken in thy presence, and thou hast taught in our streets." It is idle to suppose that the consistent portion of a national clergy can escape the censures and slanders of those who are offended by a pure example. What is there in the complexion of the present times so fair and promising, as to seduce any thoughtful observer into the opinion that a golden age is dawning upon the Christian world, when the lion shall lie down with the lamb? If such a glimmering of millennial day be at hand, its faint lustre will surely not be darkened by an endeavour to warn too sanguine expectants of the danger of worldly coalitions. Approximation is a thing of glorious promise, when we are quite sure that, after-long and cruel strife, the armies of both powers are in motion towards each other, marching under white banners, having laid down their arms within their respective lines. But we must be certified of the facts of the whole case; or we may find, when perhaps the disco very is too late, that it was but a hollow neutrality. A man may consent to circulate the Bible, if he is not to be embarrassed by its rules of life; he may assist a missionary, if the doctrines of the mission be not preached to himself; and he may consent to meet on the boards of a philanthropic institution a man whose life and principles utterly condemn his own, if he encounter him no where else. "So far I will advance, but no farther," is his meaning expressed, or unexpressed; but it will always be audible to those who listen to manner, and overt acts. There is much more of calculation and system in the world's apparent coalition with good men, than the majority of good men are willing or able to detect. Having quoted in an early part of this paper the views of the Reformers, in the Homilies, of the degeneracy of preaching, and by consequence the spiritual decay of preachers, as indicating what we may look for in the history of the church, I may add, in confirmation of their sentiments, the fact, that villages and towns in our own country, which have been privileged by the ministration of zealous and able clergymen, have in many instances afterwards lost the blessing, or retained it without benefit; while, in other examples, both the pastor and his flock have departed from the fervour attendant upon the first years of their connection, and sunk into a kind of lethargy, or into the state of the Laodicean church,-neither cold nor hot; neither openly hostile to religion, nor actually befriending it; but buried in indifference, and soothed into self-satisfaction by the absence of obvious wickedness. As our most flourishing congregations of the present day have no inherent power to protect themselves and their pastors from a similar degradation, and as there is not now any direct persecution in action against the church of Christ, it becomes us to look well to ourselves; to beware of the flatterer, who may introduce himself with smiles and golden promises; and bid us liberalize what he may call too exclusive a system, by admitting a flag of truce from the enemy's camp, embroidered with pacific emblems, and ciphered with the pass-word Approximation. PROCUL. ON THE COMMUNION OF SAINTS, AND CHURCH DISCIPLINE. Tothe Editorofthe Christian Observer. THE Gospel, while it sanctions degrees of rank, and requires subjection to authority and respect to dignities, softens, at the same time, the asperity of caste, and receives all believers into one happy family of adopted children. Of this family there are no masters upon earth; no lords over this heritage; no exclusive privileges, no uninitiated servants; but all are brethren, having common access to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, "of whom the whole family in heaven and earth is named." This household is no creature of romance, no Utopian kingdom: it is a real family; a kingdom; invisible indeed, yet existing among us; and which cannot be moved by the shaking and overthrow of parties, churches, or nations. The badge and characteristic of this family is mutual affection. "These things I command you," said our Saviour, "that ye love one another:""As I have loved you, so do ye love one another." "We know that we have passed from death unto life, because we love the brethren:" "We ought to lay down our lives for the brethren." "I am surprised," said a simplehearted Burman, "to find this religion has such an effect on my mind, as to make me love the disciples of Christ more than my dearest natural relations." No hindrance should exist, no limit be assigned, to such pure and blissful communion; and if we have greatly fallen from our first love, if wolves have grievously scattered the sheep, it is a cause of deep sorrow, and for in vestigation into the causes of decay. Among those things which Christians allow to be destructive to this communion, I might especially mention, Conformity to the world, and adopting its manners and sentiments; and not less, The loss of church discipline, which has taken away the hedge of Christ's fold, so that his sheep are scattered on the dark mountains, and Christians, who ought to be a compact and united body, keep at a repulsive distance from each other, from ignorance of character, or the want of a bridle to maintain order and prevent encroachment. Our mer ciful Saviour gathered his flock together in one; by his prayers and exhortations he wished them to be one; and for this purpose he placed them under pastors, whom he charged, for the love they bore to him, to feed his sheep. If a brother should violate this golden rule of Christian affection, and prove incorrigible by private admonition and church censures, he directs that the offender be excommunicated; affirming, that He will ratify in heaven what is so done on earth. This power of binding and loosing was vested in the church for the purpose of maintaining godly discipline; and is doubtless to be exercised with the utmost tenderness and prudence, for edification, and not for destruction. The Apostle blames the Corinthians for not exercising it to put away the wicked person, and purge out the old leaven, that they might be a new lump; and appeals to their authority: "Do not ye judge them that are within, as God judges them that are without," the church? Our Saviour himself, also, blames or commends the seven churches according as they had relaxed or maintained this discipline. But, unhappily, this discipline is now practically unknown among us. The direction, "Tell it to the church," cannot be attended to; for where is the church to take cognisance of the offence? The private admonitions of a faithful clergyman may, by the Divine blessing, and the power of the Holy Spirit, effect much; but without the power of the keys, and the support of the church to enforce his censures, he will be like a general without soldiers, and find himself too weak to effect obedience by his individual influence. We have, indeed, courts of ecclesiastical discipline; but in reference to real pastoral and spiritual discipline, they have long been practically defunct, even if they had ever been adapted for the purpose. One of the strongest holds which we have on our fellow-creatures, is the opinion of their associates: against this, no person can act with comfort; and our Lord, who knew our nature, gave us this key by which to controul it. This discipline, which the church has dropped, the world has taken up, and made it a mighty engine to enforce compliance with its manners and fashions. The world, then, has its discipline; the Jewish church put offenders out of the synagogue; our Dissenting brethren all more or less enforce good conduct among their members; and why should not our venerable church, which by its inward excellence has no occasion to be ashamed or afraid of the light, purge out her old leaven, and main tain, so far as practicable, unspotted purity? Might not power be vested in every congregation to inspect the conduct of its members; and to admonish with authority, and if necessary to exclude offenders from church communion? Some ministers maintain a species of discipline among the religious members of their flock, who gather round them, and enjoy their countenance and esteem; but this, being a private arrangement, is at best imperfect, and may be undone by a successor: so that, when that shepherd is smitten, the sheep are scattered abroad. This discipline should be an acknowledged part of church order, and the sacraments should serve as keys. Perhaps some experienced correspondent will say how this may be effected, or its deficiency, in the present state of things, remedied in the church, "until such discipline be restored again, which is much to be wished." N. MISCELLANEOUS. LUTHER'S ALLEGED CONFERENCE WITH THE DEVIL. Tothe Editorofthe Christian Observer. IF you think the following remarks likely to set at rest a controversy which the Papists have again raised, with no charitable feeling towards Protestantism, I shall be happy to see them inserted in your pages. C. A little tract has been lately presented to the public, from the pen of a staunch member of the Church of Rome, entitled, " Martin Luther's Conference with the Devil." The conference is given in what are professed to be Luther's own words; and he is made to say that the devil appeared to him, and taught him that the Mass, or sacrament of the Lord's Supper, was no sacrifice." Thus the well-known Protestant doctrine, that the Mass is not a real sacrifice-or, in other words, that the bread and wine in the Lord's Supper are not changed into the actual body and blood of Christ-is made to rest upon the authority of the devil. The use made of the statement by the Popish advocate is sufficiently dexterous, and not a little important to the cause of Popery. "If," says the writer, "Luther only pretended to receive this information from the devil, then what sort of a man was Luther? If he really did receive it, what sort of a doctrine is Protestantism? For," as the author continues to argue, “the same teacher who thus disproved the authority of the Mass, no doubt proceeded to remove five sacraments from the church; to reject, as is the practice in the Protestant communities, prayers for the dead, confession, purgatory, the celibacy of the priests, the Pope's supremacy, the infallibility of the church," &c. &c. To what extent is this reasoning |