Many persons who frequent the Cathedral worship of this country, having never had a glimpse of former glories, and only heard of such solemn scenes as I have described, through a distorted medium, tending to mislead them, both as to their intention and effect, regard what they see merely with reference to other objects which surround them, and compare their worship only with presbyterian meanness and fanatic extravagance. It is not surprising, therefore, that they should consider their Liturgy as the beauty of holiness. To such persons as these, (and to this class I formerly belonged,) I now must earnestly address myself. I entreat them to examine narrowly all they admire, and they will find that every thing which savours of dignity or sanctity in worship,—and every thing sublime and devotional in prayer, orthodox in doctrine, or fine in art, has either been taken from the ancient religion of the country, or are relics of its by-gone splendour. But they will at the same time discover, that they only hold the shell; the kernel,-the essence has been extracted. Let them seriously reflect that the edifices in which they assemble for worship, and which they profess so greatly to admire, are not the result of the faith which they profess, nor productions of the Church to which they belong they existed centuries before their modern faith was dreamt of, and they then existed ten times more glorious than they now behold them. Let them search into the ancient Missals and Breviaries of the Church, and they will find, verbatim, the very creeds and prayers, which they so justly extol as most sublime and appropriate. The very tones, which their organs send forth, are played, for the most part, from the works of Catholic composers: they are in truth the Kyrie,' the 'Gloria,' the 'Credo,' and the 'Sanctus' of the Mass. Above all, I conjure them to learn the real tenets of the religion, which they profess, by examining the Canon Law of their Church, and the ordinances and rubrics contained in their prayer-books. They will then find, that they lie under the obligation of performing the very ordinances for which they unknowingly condemn and ridicule Catholics. Then will they also perceive the great

Church of England-men, in these days seem to be perfectly unacquainted with the discipline that is laid down by their Church for the observance of its members. They will be astonished to find that the same days set appart by the Catholic Church for fasting and abstinence are also commanded to be observed by them: a list of which is printed in every Common Prayer Book, immediately after the Calendar, and is as follows:

The Forty Days of Lent.

The Ember-days, at the four seasons, being the Wednesdays, Fridays, and Saturdays, after the first Sunday in Lent, the feast of Pentecost, September 14th, and December 13th.

The three Rogation-days, being the Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday before Holy Thursday, or Ascension of our Lord.

All the Fridays in the year, except Christmas Day.

There are numerous Homilies appointed to be read to the people, setting forth the neces sity Christians lie under of fasting and dilating largely on the advantages accruing to the soul from the continual practice of mortification. Moreover, Nelson, in his 'Festivals and Fasts of the Church of England,' has actually devoted nearly two hundred pages to the illustration of this very subject; and he declares, that this fasting was not only rigorously observed in the primitive Church, but it was a duty always observed by devout men, and acceptable to God. More need not be adduced, though volumes might be quoted to prove that fasting and abstinence form an integral part of the discipline set forth by the Church of Eng

inconsistency of their clergy, who, so far from acting up to what they have sworn to profess, both preach and write against the observances and even doctrines of their Church. The truth is, the Established Church of this country will die a natural death, that is to say, it will fall by the wretched working of its own system. It is an affair of purely human invention,-a Church got up for political motives,—a great state engine by which the nobility usurped the possessions of ecclesiastics, and provided for their relations and adherents at the expense of the poor and the nation. It owes its very existence to acts of parliament, and it will, in all probability, be put down by similar means. Its clergy know this and tremble. What ministers are in power is their principal consideration; a general election throws them into a feverish state of excitement; they are well aware that the promise of Christ to support his Church was made to the Apostles and their successors, not to Cranmer and his associates in villainy; and perceiving that they no longer possess their former temporal. power, and knowing that they have no right to hope for spiritual help, they are in a dreadful state of consternation. Did they not richly deserve all that may befal them, I could almost pity these Law-churchmen. Never were men

land, yet do its clergy not only live in open violation of this precept, but, in many of their works, have ventured to ridicule the observance as a part of, what they are pleased to term, popish superstition.

I think it proper, in this place, to say a few words respecting auricular confession and absolution. I dare say there are few Protestants, who do not consider this practice (which they are pleased to term as blasphemous assumption of God's power in forgiving sins) as belonging axclusively to the Romish Church.' Without entering upon any defence of the doctrine, I will simply extract certain passages from the Book of Common Prayer, which will soon shew the error of such an opinion.

The form and manner of Ordaining of Priests. (Book of Common Prayer.) RUBRICK.) The bishop, with the priests present, shall lay their hands severally upon the head of every one that receiveth the order of priesthood; the receivers humbly kneeling upon their knees, and the bishop saying:

"Receive the Holy Ghost for the office and work of a priest in the Church of God, now committed unto thee by the imposition of our hands: whose sins thou dost forgive, they are forgiven; and whose sins thou dost retain, they are retained," &c.

Visitation of the Sick. (Book of Common Prayer.) (1)

RUBRICK.) Here shall the sick person be moved to make a special confession of his sins, if he feel his conscience troubled with any weighty matter: after which confession, the priest shall absolve him (if he humbly and heartily desire it) after this sort: "Our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath left power to his Church to absolve all sinners, who truly repent and believe in him, of his great mercy forgive thee thine offences; and by his authority committed to me, I absolve thee from all thy sins, in the name of the Father, of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost," which are verbatim the words used by the Catholic Church. It is worthy of remark, that even the absolution after the general confession in the Morning Prayer is not suffered to be read by any but in priest's orders. If the officiating minister be only a deacon, he reads a prayer instead. If my limits permitted, I could bring much forward to shew modern Church of England-men how little they know of the real tenets of their religion. The fact is, all unity being lost, every one judges and legislates for himself in ecclesiastical matters, so that doctrines and observances are alike become obsolete, and are regarded with the utmost indifference by those who, by their profession of faith, ought implicitly to believe and obey them. I can truly assert that the greatest stride I made in my conversion to the Catholic faith was, in endeavouring to become a strict Church of England-man, by studying its system; and I feel confident that a similar attempt in others would be followed by a sim ilar result.

(1) These references are to the English Edition.

THE CISTERCIAN SAINTS OF ENGLAND. ST. STEPHEN HARDING. 97

placed in a more humiliating position. When contending with the numerous bodies of dissenters, who have been produced out of their own principles, they are compelled to urge 'church authority',-an argument with which the Catholic overwhelms them in a moment. On the other hand, when attacking the Catholic faith, they employ the same line of reasoning which the dissenters direct against them;-such is their gross inconsistency. The whole system. totters to its very base, and though private interest and temporal motives will do their utmost in propping it up, it must eventually go. Its religious observances are utterly neglected; its spiritual authority is become a mere farce; its ecclesiastics are detested by the people; and they, for the most part, disbelieve the very doctrines which they have subscribed. The high-church party are determined to uphold the system of corruption to the last; while the lowchurch, or evangelical set, as they are termed are rank Calvinists, disguised under the surplices of the Establishment; waiting only for a favourable opportunity to throw off the mask and act the Puritan to the very letter. There is, in truth, no positive medium between the Catholic and the free-thinker,between implicit reliance on church authority, or the wildest outbreaks of private judgment. Once separated from the pale of the Catholic Church, in vain. does the deluded wanderer seek a resting place; no boundary is extensive enough to circumscribe him,-no yoke light enough for him to bear. The principle that first instigated his departure still urges him on to fresh deviations, till at length he is completely lost in a wilderness of doubts and perplexities. A dispassionate examination into the history of those sects which have separated from the communion of the Catholic Church would convince reasonable mind of the truth of these assertions. With what eagerness, then, ought every Christian to hail the restoration of faith, so long in this distracted country,-the greatest blessing that can fall to the lot of man to possess, the great source of all the glorious works performed by our Catholic. ancestors, and without the divine influence of which, we, in vain, hope to rival their efforts or achieve similar results.

any

From the Tablet.
REVIEW.

The Cistercian Saints of England. St. Stephen Harding. London: Toovey. 1844.

The origin of this work will be best explained by the following paragraph, taken from the "Advertisement" prefixed to it.

The following pages were printed with the view of forming one of a series. of Lives of English Saints, according to a prospectus which appeared in the

course of last autumn, but which has since, for private reasons, been superseded. As it is not the only work undertaken in pursuance of the plan then in contemplation, it is probable, that, should it meet with success, other Lives, now partly written, will be published in a similar form by their respective authors on their own responsibility.

This advertisement is signed with the initials "I. H. N.," and dated “Littlemore, January, 1844." Our readers will, of course, understand that this life of St. Stephen, the founder of the Cistercian Order, and the spiritual father of St. Bernard, is from the pen of Mr. Newman.

We entreat all those of our readers who may wish to be puzzled as to the state of the Puseyite movement, to beg, borrow, or buy, and read this little. volume. We promise them infinite entertainment, instruction, and even edification in its perusal; and when they have persued it we also promise them, if they can manage to forget the author's name, and one or two doubtful phrases— the doubtfulness of which seems to be intentional and for a purpose-that they will either have the impression on their minds that the writer is a Catholic, or else lift their hands and eyes to Heaven in speechless amazement that the writer still remains a Protestant. In a word, if they call to mind that Mr. Newman still remains in strict communion and participation with the sins of Heresy and Schism, they will feel a horror at the mental blindness which resists the entrance of so much light. Oh God, they will say to themselves, what can have been this man's sin that Thou shouldst permit him so close an approach, so clear an insight, and yet shouldst debar him from all effective possession of those spiritual treasures which he seems so formed to appreciate? What judgment is this that Thou holdest suspended over his head! To what infinite delusions hast Thou allowed him to become a victim? For what mysterious end dost Thou allow this man to teach and preach to others the truths of Thy gospel and the way of salvation, while for himself Thou leavest him powerless and helpless, a beggar at the outer gate? It is a very mournful and shocking spectacle-worse than that of princes and heroes in ragged garments asking an alms of the passer by.

For Mr. Newman-in the absence of all personal knowledge-we have ever entertained a most profound and sincere respect; mingled, too, with a feeling of gratitude, for causes to which we shall not allude more distinctly. We have with all our hearts rejoiced over every symptom he has exhibited of nearer approach to the gates of the heavenly city; and we have sorrowed deeply over every instance of his apparently unaccountable backwardness. We need hardly add that both these feelings are immeasurably increased by the perusal of the beautiful little work before us. But still the question recurs to us, Why does this man, seemingly and by repute so full of piety, humility, and spiritual discernment, still hug to his breast the ignominious fetters of that false practice and belief? We cannot say. Rumours, indeed, have reached us-we hardly like to allude to them-from which it would appear that he is

overpowered by the delusion of visions from above confirming him in his present course. God knows if this be true; but if it be, it is, indeed, most lamentable. Other rumours attribute his holding his position to a mere feeling of policy; a policy of which it is reported-but we do not believe the rumour -that even some Catholics approve it. He thinks, forsooth, that he can do more service to God by remaining as he is, and thus holding out his hand to the weaker Anglicans to help them on their way. That any Catholic in his senses can approve of such a policy we do not believe, inasmuch as to approve it would be to approve the most awful sins, for the sake of some rotten calculations of prospective benefit. Of course Heresy and Schism are sins, let those who are without say what they will; and it is, of course, impossible that any Catholic can seriously approve a continuance in them for an instant of time, even to secure the brightest and most brilliant results. Nay, we do not understand how any one, even on the borders of conversion can for any length of time nourish so insane a thought. Either the Church of Rome is the true Church; is a Church which the waverer intends to enter, or it is not. If it is not, any such policy as that we have alluded to can have no place. In this event Mr. Newman cannot have the notion of remaining for a time longer in the Anglican Establishment, in order, when he leaves it for Rome, to draw a mighty train after him. On the other hand, if the Church of Rome be the true Church, which he intends to enter he can only enter it by condemning his present course; by repenting of his "policy"! as a sin; by acknowledging that to remain out of communion with Rome willingly for a moment, and upon any pretext, is, pro tanto, a rejection of the grace of God, a renunciation of the hopes of salvation. Surely, even such a waverer must understand that his first duty is to his own soul; and that nothing, however specious, can excuse him for neglecting or postponing, even for the twinkling of an eye, that great primary obligation. It is not for him to save sinners, but to save himself. The first he cannot do; he can only plant and water, while God giveth the increase. The second he can do; he must do; nor can any pretence excuse the guilt of his neglect. How does such a one know that this very moment may not be his last-the last moment of mercy given him by the Almighty to redeem his life from the hand of the spoiler? And how will it be with him if he deliberately throws away this last moment? declares, on system, that he will not avail himself of this gracious opportunity? but, as if "the supper of the Lamb" was a common human banquet, resolves that he will accept an invitation to it at a "more convenient season?" We need hardly ask how he knows that this more convenient season will ever arrive to him.

Of course, in making these remarks we cannot pretend to know that they, or any of them, are, in point of fact, applicable to Mr. Newman. We speak only from rumour in the first instance; but we cannot help feeling that the book before us supplies an instance elaborately described by Mr. Newman,

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