INTRODUCTION.

THE attention which has lately been paid to Church Discipline is one of the most encouraging signs of the times, as regards our religious prosperity. Its origin may be briefly traced as follows:-The Reformers of the Anglican communion proceeded, as has been well observed, on a refined and catholic principle of ecclecticism, not taking what seemed best to their own private judgment, and most expedient for the circumstances of the times, but what was most in accordance with the teaching and usages of the primitive Church. This principle they exhibited in all the authorized and corporate acts of that branch of the Church Catholic over which they were called to preside. But the great work of the Reformation required and found instruments of all kinds. The poor labourer was to be awakened from the delusive lethargy in which the combined doctrines of purgatory and Roman absolution had plunged him; the mendicant friar and the itinerant preacher were to be combated with popular weapons; the learned Papist was to be met with the volumes of the Fathers and the early records of the Church; and the bold but untrue statements of Papal champions were to be refuted by an appeal to the facts of history. But the frailty of human nature will rarely allow the man successful in one department to abstain from meddling with others with which he is less acquainted: the qualifications which carried him triumphantly through one dispute, or one course of exhortation, will, he hopes, stand him in stead in another; and the motto "Non omnia possumus omnes" is practically forgotten. Hence we find that among those whose names we reverence for their faith and zeal, are many whose writings are little in unison with the accredited doctrines and discipline of our Church. Holding to the one true and great foundation, they not only built, in some instances, an incorrect superstructure thereon; but, venturing on subjects unconnected with doctrine, they promulgated grievous errors: the consequence is, that there is scarcely. a sect (save those enthusiastic ones which find favour chiefly, if not wholly, with the vulgar, and save also the various grades

Church had disfranchised and unchurched her, considered that the perpetuity of the Church could only be maintained by admitting and defending the apostolicity of the Piedmontese Churches. Hence arose the controversy.

We may be permitted to say, that, taking the principles developed into consideration, the truth appears to lie partly on each side; for we are perfectly satisfied with the arguments adduced, by Mr. Faber and others, as to the apostolicity of the Albigenses and the Valdenses; and, on the other hand, we believe that the Churches, both of Rome and of the Greeks, are, though awfully corrupted, branches of the one Catholic and Apostolic Church, and as such, therefore, offer to their communicants the means of salvation. We allude here to the controversy only to show that it was supposed, and we think rightly supposed, by these Christians, that they had preserved the episcopal succession: and they still do so in office, though not in name. We must, then, look to the Lutheran Reformation for the establishment of a presbyterian discipline; and we shall find various sentiments obtaining among the continental Reformers, according as they thought it practicable or impracticable to introduce the episcopate. Calvin admitted, in the earlier part of his career, that he thought it most apostolical where it might be obtained; but, despairing of founding National Churches, he and his brethren seem to have been careless as to episcopacy: for it is undoubt edly true, that when he proposed to Elizabeth, among other persons, a synod to establish an uniformity of discipline and worship, he and others might have obtained consecration at the hands of the Reformed Anglican bishops, who would have been but too happy to confer on their continental fellow-labourers the advantages they enjoyed, and of the importance of which they were fully sensible. The reply of Elizabeth to this notable proposition was, that "the Church of England would retain her episcopacy"-a reply, from which we learn, at least, the opinions of the Queen and her advisers, that Calvin intended to establish, or rather wished to establish, an universal presbyterianism among the Reformed Churches. There are those to whom the fable of the fox who had lost his tail would be suggested, by the appearance of this transaction; but it would be

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From this consideration we must turn to the actual state of the Genevan polity at the time, and we shall see that Calvin would have greatly extended his own power and indience by making presbyterianism aniversal among the Reformed Churches. He, together with Beza and others, had made Geneva a sort of Protestant Rome; it was to be the nursing mother of all Fresbyterian Churches, the model from which such Churches were to frame their discipline, and the authority from which they were to take their doctrines. It cannot be doubted that the retic abilities of Calvin, aided by such men as Beza and the others who concurred with him in his project, were well capable of carrying it into execution; and, moreover, it is not to be forgotten that over this Protestant Rome, Calvin, by creating and accepting the office of perpetual president, had constituted himself the Profestant Pope. The more, therefore, his scheme of Church government extended, the greater world his own power and personal influence become; and we see this exemplied by the hold which his doctrines and personal opinions maintained in so remote a country as Scotland. On the other hand, by overthrowing the Papal supremacy, the Church of England established the principle that all bishops were equal, save as to priority; precedence might be yielded, but superiority could not be claimed: and hence, by acceding to the episcopal discipline,

Calvin, though he might take a higher order in the Church than that of presbyter, would have lost his real supremacy: those who, as it was, were subordinate to the president, could not have been, by the very constitutions of the Church, subordinate to their fellow bishop. We are not, it is true, justified, from these facts, in asserting that Calvin was only prevented by a spiritual pride of place from acquiescing in and acceding to the episcopal discipline; but we cannot help very strongly suspecting that such was the case. The character and attainments of such men as those to whom we have alluded could not fail to make a strong impression on their age; and we find the Genevan doctrines soon. silently spreading within the pale of the Anglican Church, and bringing with them, in no slight degree, ideas favourable to the Genevan discipline also. Hence we are not to be surprised if we find many of the early Reformers predestinarians and low Churchmen. Some stronger minds separated the two errors; some were strong enough to see and reject the dangerous laxity, but not acute enough to detect the doctrinal metaphysical error. This latter was the case with Grindall and Whitgift; the former with Hooper and Bradford. Moreover, the excitement of progressive change had not passed away in the earlier part of Elizabeth's reign, when the final stand was made; and it was said to the Reformers that enough had been done-to the Reformation.

"Hitherto shalt thou go, but no farther."

The Church had now, by the blessing of God, been purified from every Roman error; she had preserved every element of Catholicity; and had the movement been allowed to make further progress, the results must have been unfavourable: but it was not to be expected that, after so many years of progressive changes, the love of change, for its own sake, would not have arisen in many minds. Such persons identified reformation, naturally enough, with alteration; many others really preferred the Genevan discipline, and entertained the hope that further changes would be introduced, till the framework of the Anglican Church would assume a Genevan character; others, struck with horror at the depths of Roman corruption which had been so lately, so boldly, and so constantly laid bare before them, and mistaking re