"It is no part of a Christian mind, either to withhold from the Church her titles of honour and exaltation, or to un dervalue the offices which she is called upon to discharge. Our own spiritual hopes are too much bound up with her to do either. But we apply them to the Church with this restriction that they exist in it solely by reason of our divine Head, and that inherency in Him from which they are derived, and without which they cannot for a moment continue to subsist. When separated, by apostacy or otherwise, from the source of all their efficacy, they become either shadows or an unholy usurpation." This is true, for glorious things are spoken in Scripture of the Church of Christ; but even Romanists will say, that whatever powers they claim for the Church, they claim in virtue of its inherency in Christ; so that we come to no definite conclusion. Mr. Garbett, however, specifies, in the following passage, what he considers to be the "actual powers' of the Church; but he employs a sort of mystical language which resembles rather that of the Tracts which he objects to, than the simplicity and sobriety of scriptural statement. "The Church is wonderful too, in the actual powers, which, however inaccessible to the outward senses, and inconceivable by the carnal mind, are always working, more or less, within her-never wholly dormant-never utterly forfeited -and witnessing, by the certain testimony of the fruits they bear, to the presence of her Lord. There is the laver of regeneration, signing and sealing our adoption as the sons of God, and washing the soul with the promised purification of the Spirit: there is the sustaining of the supernatural life, whose rudiments are thus implanted, by food equally supernatural, even the body and blood of its divine Lord, the very bread from heaven and the true manna! There is the power of the keys, the binding and the loosing of sins, and a final conquest, not only over death, but principalities and powers, and spiritual wickedness in high places, which have the power of it. All this is covenanted to the Church." What, does Mr. Garbett here intend to say that the Church-that is (Article xix.) "a congregation of faithful men, in which the pure CHRIST. OBSERV. No. 66. "inac word of God is preached and the sacraments be duly administered" is enabled to perform, through certain "actual powers,' cessible to the outward senses?" Whatever may be the operation of either of the sacraments, "rightly administered and duly received". even if we believed all that the Romanist himself affirms on this subject-we should still assert, that it was through the power of the Holy Ghost, and not by some latent power entrusted to the "congregation of faithful men," that " supernatural life" is either communicated or preserved. And Mr. Garbett himself, when he is referring to another branch of his subject, argues to the same effect; so that we find difficulty in reconciling his several propositions. For example, compare-shall we say contrast?the following with the passage last quoted. "Christ will, indeed, still have his ministers set apart from the great body of His people, bearing forth his commission to teach, and with the anointing Spirit from on high to capacitate them for their office, if they present the moral conditions which alone can fit them for its reception. But He will have no substitutes, no authorities whatsoever with unconditional powers, vested in their handsnone to stand between Him and the soul, as He stands, in His glorious mediatorship, between the soul and God! They will be His witnesses indeed, and lead the souls of which the Holy Ghost has made them overseers; but only in companionship with the word which contains their warrant of office, and at once confers and limits the authority which they exercise. 66 They will call sinners to repentance and remission of sins through the blood of Christ, but as they cannot produce the one so they do not confer the other, save by conducting their flock to Him, who, after dissolving the heart of stone by His Spirit, hath, in His own right, the authority to bestow rest upon the soul, as in his great love He assuredly has the will to do it. "They minister in the great congregation, and conduct the penitent, through the sacraments which they dispense, to an immediate and ineffable union with the source of life, through faith, but not ex opere operato, as the Romanists pro3 A fanely fable, not absolutely or irrespectively of those moral conditions in the recipient, which may fit a rational soul for such a privilege, not otherwise than as bringing the believer, by an act of faith, to the Redeemer whom it appropriates, and whose pleasure it is, in these Divine mysteries, to manifest a peculiar presence, and to bestow a special blessing." If Mr. Garbett intends only that the Church is by covenant made the depositary of the means of grace, but not of the power of imparting grace, he speaks scripturally; and the passage last quoted points this way, as does the following; but we cannot make this cohere with the loftier pretensions above noticed. men. "In the other scheme, (the Romanist) or in any approximation to it, the Redeemer is invested with attributes, which be they theoretically what they may, are practically transferred into the hands of He is only in the background Himself. Supreme, indeed, and perfectly good and glorious, but removed from the immediate perception of the individual believer, and, to the eye of the peof the penitent, overshadowed by the Church. The visible body, having an inherent, and not a conditional authority, sufficient to absolve or to condemn, to enact or to abrogate, at its own discretion, the soul, naturally, and almost necessarily is arrested there, without rising beyond it or above it; signs and symbols assume a substantive value, irrespective of moral conditions, and a spiritual meaning the simplicity of the Gospel is lost, and the power of its fundamental and soulsearching verities neutralized under a difficult and complicated system. Higher intellects may discern the main truths in the midst of this obscurity, and a soul here and there has vigour enough or purity enough to grow in spite of it, for faith may hold fast the clue in the midst of the most tortuous labyrinth; but in the great mass of those who are subject to its influence, the freedom and joy of the evangelical state is exchanged for doubts and hesitancies, a grievous bondage to unprofitable forms, or a superstitious externality, and a degeneracy of the whole soul." We will quote yet another passage from this Lecture, to the same effect; and the rather as it expresses in few words the purport of the Lectures. "It is to the offices of our blessed Sa viour in His Church, the 'fulness of Him that filleth all in all,' that I shall solicit your attention the offices of Prophet, Priest, and King. It will be my purpose to shew in the course of these lectures, that he exercises them Himself, and dispenses actually, though invisibly, the inestimable blessings which result from them, to the soul which is prepared for their reception-making the Church indeed His fulness, not because He has conferred His offices upon it, but because He who is thus inexhaustible in power and goodness is Himself conjoined with it, and dwells in it, animating its services, giving efficacy to the means of grace, and communicating His treasures to us, in proportion to the capacity of our souls to receive them, and our disposition to improve them !" Mr. Without dwelling further on those sublimated notions respectthese points, we will only say that ing the church and its powers which Mr. Garbett so zealously and ably refutes, have influenced the views of many who do not go the whole length of the Romanist or Tractarian hypothesis. Garbett himself, in speaking upon these points, seems unwilling wholly to lose the alleged tenderness, sublimity, and mystery of this artificial economy. But the "glorious things," which, as we said, are spoken of "the church" in Scripture, refer to her union with Christ, and the benefits and privileges which she thereby enjoys; and not to the " 'powers" with which human schemes endow her. In the forty-fifth Psalm, which exhibits her in her highest grandeur, she is represented throughout as a recipient, and not a bestower, of grace. Nothing can be more sober in our Articles and Homilies or scriptural than the statements this subject. The twentieth Article defines "the authority of the church." And in what does it make that authority to consist? It may set forth a ritual and decide controversies of faith, only keeping close to Holy Writ, of which it is a witness and a keeper; but there is nothing said of its possessing the "wonderful" “ upon ac tual powers, for England, with full liberty to act Our limits forbid our extending the full outline which we have given of the first discourse to the others; but as we are desirous of doing justice to the author, whose plenitude of matter makes our task difficult, we will transcribe the whole of his own syllabus of contents. Few readers care to wade through dry headings; but those who wish to know what the book holds out for their consideration will thank us for them. They are not, however, so lucid as we could wish, as they frequently state the topic without conveying to the reader the writer's conclusion upon it. They would have been more satisfactory as a key to the volume, if the author had embodied in them the substance of the marginal indications which accompany the text. We will, however, give them in the author's own words. We have not room for the contents of the preliminary remarks to the Lectures. "Lecture II.-Christ as High Priest and Sacrifice. Titus i. 5. "I. No Priesthood in the Christian Church-1. From its abrogation in the Jewish law without any re-enactment in thing in the higher dispensation-2. the Gospel-and from the reason of the From its contrariety to the tone of the Apostolic writings-the absence of mysteries, and all other sacerdotal elements -3. St. Paul's pastoral directions-alike to ministers and flock-4. The removal of the name from the Church-and its incongruity with the Supreme Priesthood of Christ. "II. The gradual corruption of the Church-hand-in-hand with_false_views of the ministry. "III. The Reformation. "Lecture III.--Christ as High Priest and Sacrifice. Matt. xxvi. 26, "I. State of the sacramental question at the period of the Reformation.-The commemorative character of the rite strongly marked by the Church of England-being the commemoration of a sacrifice. "II. The theory of material sacrifice advocated by Mede-the practice of the ancient church on this point-why not adopted by the Church of England-the Christian system not favourable to symbolism. "III. The elements after consecration and the unscriptural representation of their sacrificial efficacy. "IV. The true nature of the sacrifice which is presented to Almighty God in the Eucharist. "V. The real presence of Christ in the blessed eucharist-any corporeal presence inadmissible-important consequence which would follow a contradiction to God's natural laws in the sacraments-decided declaration of the Church of England against a corporeal presence. "VI. The true mysteries which are inseparable from the sacrament of the Lord's supper. "Lecture IV.-Justification by Faith. Romans v. 1. "I. 1. Justification by faith of all doctrines the most ancient-opposed to carnal reason. 2. The effects, entirely revolutionary of the existing system, produced by its announcement at the Reformation. "II. 1. It has always been the vital point in all controversies with Rome. 2. So felt at Trent. 3. So felt by the English reformers, and fortified with every imaginable precaution in the Homilies and Articles-danger to the Church in dissenting from their literal interpretation. "III. Reply to the objection that it is opposed to Christian holiness. 66 IV. 1. Doctrine of the Church of England on the sinfulness remaining even in the most advanced Christians. 2. Consideration of the theory of justification by an inherent righteousness, not as a quality—inherent righteousness the essence of Romanism." "Lecture V.-Christ as Teacher and Illuminator. Mark vii. 13. "I. 1. The whole counsel of God in Scripture, which is a perfect rule of faith and practice. 2. The Church to be tried by it-and the full perusal of it the right and duty of all Christians. "II. Traditions. 1. Of ceremonies over which the Church has power. 2. The tradition of teaching, always accompanying the word--but not authoritative. 3. The primitive tradition co-extensive with Scripture, and not supplemental or complementary to it-the Scripture acknowledged from the first as a perfect rule, and as such adopted by the Church of England, and its interpretation confirmed by primitive antiquity. 4. Objections answered. "III. Evidence from the formularies of the Church of England, that Scripture is the sole rule of faith. "Lecture VI.-Scripture the Instrument of National Education. Mark vii. 13. "I. The Church useless for education unless the salvation of souls through Christ be her great aim. Inseparable from the free use of the written word. Great sin and error of Rome in withholding it from the people. "II. Comparative power of the Churches of England and Rome for the education of a nation. "Lecture VII.-The Kingdom of Christ. John xviii. 36. "I. The Reformation first distinctly distinguishes between the power temporal and spiritual-the dangers in a union with the State of forgetting, in any way, the spiritual characteristics of the Church-on Christ's kingdom. "II. No sufficient ground for the Millenarian hypothesis of a personal reign of Christ upon earth. "III. The restoration of the Jews, and the future prospects of the Church upon earth. "Lecture VIII.-Part I.-Kingdom of Christ-and Summary of the whole against Papal Rome. Matt. xxviii. 18. "I. The regal power of Christ—as exercised in protecting His Church against its external enemies, spiritual and temporal. A spiritual power opposed to Christianity-not merely with a deadly hatred and violent oppositionbut with a super-human intellectual power. That power manifested, 1. In the old idolatry and philosophizing. 2. In Mohammedanism. 3. In the Papacy. -Against all and each of which power is given to Christ to protect His Church. "II. Practical results in the Christian life, and mode of viewing God's earthly providence. "III. Finally, the judging and avenging power of Christ. "Lecture VIII.-Part II.-Summary of the whole against the Tractarian Theology. Galatians iv. 9, 10. "I. Distinction to be observed between Romanism and the Papacy. "II. State of the Church of England from the Reformation to the nineteenth century. "III. Services of the Tractarian Divines. The essential Romanism of their doctrines as a system." Over this large field we cannot expatiate; but we will glean some characteristic extracts. 1843.] Review of Garbett's Bampton Lectures. Of the continental Churches, Mr. Garbett says with truth and charity: "It was not the will of the leading continental reformers, but the stern necessity of the times, that compelled them to that, which, had their will been free, they would have abhorred as a breach of Christ's unity, and shunned as mutilation of the Church! It is therefore more consistent with Christian charity, and that truth which cannot be disjoined from it, to lament those calamities which, in stormy times, baffled men's best calculations, and, overruling their hopes and wishes, denied to our brethren, in whose griefs we grieved, in the persons of our forefathers, and in whose joys we rejoiced, that apostolic polity, the absence of which, though it mars the perfection, is not inconsistent with the essence of the Church of Christ!" The writer of these remarks does not, it will be well inferred, partake of the new-fangled horror of some of his Oxford brethren at the very name of the Protestant Reformation. "We must seal up the incomparable works of our old theologians; we must revolutionize the meaning of language; we must not only denationalize but unchurch ourselves, before the name of 'Reformation' or of 'Protestant' can bring other than heartstirring associations to Englishmen for the greatest deliverance which God has ever given to this nation. They are titles of honour; they are vindications of our Christian purity; yet are they not willingly assumed by us, but by compulsion; not sectarian therefore, but truly Catholic; a memorial of the emancipation of the Church from the usurpation of a section of it, and her restoration to the church universal-not merely negative, but, by necessary and acknowledged connection implying, in the mind of our old divines, the pure truth of Scripture, and the supremacy of the word, the old Apostolical Church, restored, as far as the times permitted, to its primitive condition." Upon the doctrine of justification by faith, Mr. Garbett is explicit and scriptural. He discusses the subject at great length; and to extract a few disconnected shreds of remark would not do justice to his disquisition. He also rejects "the whole system of sacramental justi 365 ap fication ex opere operato," and pears to regard the declarations in our Prayer-book respecting the effects of baptism as having respect to the faith of the recipient, so that in the case of infants they are conBut he tingent and prospective. does not write quite lucidly on these points; for when he speaks of justifying faith being either "actual or representative;" of there being in the case of an infant "no positive impediment to the reception of Divine grace, so that faith " representative" takes the place of faith "actual;" and that "the seeds of spiritual life are sown in the infant," though it may never have "actual" faith, its "regeneration" differing widely "from the regeneration of the adult;" there is a vagueness of statement which we cannot reduce to any clear notion. We must always protest against any explication of the Baptismal service which separates regeneration from justification. The Bible does not separate them. A regenerate adult or infant is not unjustified; a justified adult or infant is not unregenerate. Nor do our Church formularies separate them. We think, therefore, that Mr. Garbett must either go farther, or not so far. He denies sacramental justification; and yet he seems to attach to Baptism what essentially involves it; and also without "actual" faith. But we will quote a few passages which illustrate his argument; not being willing that any difficulty on our part, in understanding or reconciling some portions of it, should prevent our readers doing so. We are not sure that there does not argulurk in the background of his ment something to the effect of a distinction between grace ex opere operato, and by Divine appointment; but if so, both the Romanist and the Tractarian will reply that they never asserted that the Sacraments produce their effects ex opere operato, independently of God's appointment, or of faith. But we |