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CERTAINTY UNATTAINABLE IN THE ROMAN CHURCH.

mind deeply imbued with that sacred truth which is from above, and richly stored with that learning and philosophy which ever attend profound study and patient research; and the work powerfully commends itself alike to the attentive perusal and thoughtful consideration of the scholar, the philosopher, and the Christian. The learned author has himself penetrated the deepest abysses of Heathenism, and, while he has contrasted with a master - mind the brightness and beauty of the truth of Christianity, with the darkness and deformities of Paganism, he leads us, independently of other and higher considerations, by an irresistible chain of evidence and argument, to the inevitable conclusion, that the efforts of christianizing the world cannot fail to be crowned with the most abundant and triumph

ant success.

"If at any time it may be said of genuine Religion, that, like the path of the just, it'shineth more and more until the perfect day,' it will be upon being contrasted with the several caricatures of spurious systems of belief. Each system of spurious Religion will call forth in genuine Religion such a multiplicity of Divine excellences, as to create surprise, and command the admiration of every unprejudiced mind. Like a diamond, which, by each turn, emnits fresh lustre and a fresh variety of hues and aspects, so peculiarly striking in that gem, so each turn of the pearl of great price' is fraught with fresh glory, which comforts and rejoices the very heart, and transports the mind of the beholder; each monster of a mythology eliciting fresh and uncreated beauty in the Religion of Jesus."

The Heathen world is yearning and panting for "the truth," and it is the high privilege of the Christian Church to publish the glad tidings of the Gospel to the nations that yet sit in darkness and under the shadow of death.

Go forth, we say to the illustrious army of christian missionaries, with the assured conviction that your labours shall not be in vain, and that in due time all the inhabitants of the earth shall worship the only true and living God. Nor can we conclude these few remarks without adding,

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ROMAN CHURCH. A Consideration bearing upon Secession to Rome. By the REV. M. HOBART SEYMOUR, M.A. 8vo. pp. 109. Seeleys.

We have again to welcome a Work from the pen of Mr. Seymour, affording, at this most important juncture, no slight opposition to the notion that some disordered minds have cherished, that all in Rome is absolute distinctness and infallible perfection.

We cannot imagine the man, who, desiring in the earnest sincerity of his heart to realize the Saviour's precious promise, "Ye shall find rest for your souls,"-rejects the easy yoke and light burden of such a blessed Master, to wander in the dreamy mazes and to become hopelessly entangled in the grievous yoke of bondage which he must experience in the apostate Church of Rome.

Mr. Seymour's book has reached us at too late a period for such a notice as we could wish to give of its most opportune contents.

Mr. Seymour invites "the straggler in the direction of Rome," to accompany him into a short but most satisfactory examination of the claims which Rome presents to those who seek a Church which shall be "the most definite and certain in all her teaching of all the Churches of Christendom." Throughout the Work, the author strictly confines himself to this one question,-Does the Church of Rome teach with unshrouded explicitness, and unvarying certainty and agreement upon all or any of the great topics upon which she builds her claim to catholicity and apostclicity? He examines,-1. Her claim to infallibility. 2. The seat of infallibility. 3. The decrees and canons of general councils. 4. The Bulls of the Popes. 5. The supremacy of the See of Rome. 6. Whether Peter was the rock. 7. Whether Peter was Bishop

of Rome. 8. Whether he gave infallible certainty to the See of Rome. 9. The rule of faith. 10. Tradition. 11. The ancient Fathers. 12. The catholic rule. 13. The invocation of saints. 14. The doctrine of intention. 15. The sacramental system. 16. The dogma of transubstantiation.

In all these sixteen points, involving matters, on the assumption of which the whole fabric of the Romish super`stition is built, Mr. Seymour has most thoroughly proved, that the Church of Rome, so far from being clear, indisputable, and conclusive, in her teaching, is at perfect variance in all her recognized authorities,-while in many doctrines and degrees she is utterly self-contradictory and self-condemning. It were much to be desired that wavering Protestants would study this exposition of the doctrines they must embrace, if they fall away to Kome; it were equally to be wished, that Romanists could be permitted to read this calm, clear, and judicious examination of the actual value to be attached to the authority of doctrines, which their priesthood compel them to receive as of unanimous catholic agreement and infallibility.

ORATIONS BY FATHER GAVAZZI. Fcap.

8vo. pp. 64. David Bogue.

We can scarcely tell what to gather from these singular productions. The Father Gavazzi appears before his Italian and English Romanist and Protestant audience, in the character of a Romish monk, eloquently protesting against the upheaped errors, crimes, and enormities of Papal Rome. He represents himself as clinging to the principles and simplicity of that Church of which Gregory the Great was Pontiff; but he utterly dissuades Englishmen from all thoughts of a reconciliation or the slightest connexion with a Church, for which, in its present degraded and apostate state, he has the greatest contempt; and for whose ambitious and impotent Sovereign, and arrogant hierarchy, he can hardly find words burning and withering enough to express his scorn.

Can nothing be done to divert the eloquent denunciations of this Father Gavazzi into a channel more definite and profitable as well to his Italian countrymen, as to the general cause of Protestantism, than this transient outburst of indignant oratory against the accumulated sins of the Papacy? Cannot our own Church, through its heads, or rather through its faithful band of true-hearted clergy and laity, -cannot we get hold of this Italian monk and assure him that he follows but an idle phantom, if he dreams of cleansing and reforming that Church, which, pure as it was in apostolic times, so that its "faith was spoken of throughout the world," has become the seat of Antichrist, and the realization of the foretold "mystery of iniquity?" Gavazzi must read and study the Word of God, and he will find there, under the soul-enlightening teaching of God's Holy Spirit, such an exact description of the very enormities he inveighs against, and so brought home to the Church of which he appears still to be a member and a priest, that to effect any great and important good for his priest-bound country, he must obey the call in the Apocalypse, and, like Luther, "come out" from the communion which is the enemy of God and the direst foe the Church of

Christ ever had.

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REVIEWS RYLE ON REGENERATION.

cond and an extended edition has been demanded. Mr. Davies is no impetuous and sweeping reformer in Church matters; his Work is based upon that wise consideration, that it "Becomes those who are most attached to their Church to consider whether they may not, by a little timely change, stem the tide of opposition, and prevent the ultimate accomplishment of still greater and more serious changes in our time. honoured formularies."

We have not space to follow in detail all the changes which Mr. Davies modestly, and as we think, correctly, suggests in the rubrics, the lessons, and in some of the services of the Church. It would not be fair to Mr. Davies' Work, merely to extract a portion of the alterations he proposes, without giving it greater length than our pages can at present afford the arguments and facts he abundantly supplies, as well in the text of the Work, as also in the valuable appendices attached to it. We particularly call attention to Appendix A, "On the difficulties of the technical term, 'Regeneration,'illustrated by its seven different theological meanings; and the five different principles of interpretation applied to the Office of Infant Baptism." We also wish our readers to weigh well the contents of Appendix B, "Respecting the indiscriminate use of the Burial Service."

We turn now to Mr. Ryle's recent Tract on Regeneration, the first portion of which we read with unmixed gratification; but we were sadly disappointed with the closing part, in which he labours, as we humbly think, unsuccessfully and unprofitably, to reconcile his high and accurate theory of Regeneration, with the terms and use of the Baptismal Service. In the use of that term in the prayer and thanksgiving of the above rite, he, with Mr.Goode, adopts it in the highest spiritual sense; and, with Mr. Goode, he does so on the hypothetical principle of the presence of faith and its promised result. Where that is absent, notwithstanding that the declaration of bestowal has been made, Mr. Ryle unequivocally asserts the absence of

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the gift, and supports his views by quotations from Usher, from Davenant, the Scotch Confession, and other authorities. It is strange that men who hold such correct doctrinal views as Mr. Ryle, Mr. Goode, and our evangelical brethren generally, should not see, or if they do see, should not at once acknowledge, that two things prevent their explanations from being a satisfactory settlement of the question:

1. The repeated and unanswerable argument that in a national Establishment, it is impossible to secure that discipline, either in the clergy or laity, which shall afford any wide or tolerable security, that those who minister or those receiving the baptismal rite, shall do so in the possession of the required article of faith.

2. Supposing the first argument to be put aside, by urging that it is the duty of the Church to aim at what might be accomplished,- -a more perfect state of discipline,-even then it is impossible to defend the instantaneous thanksgiving for a spiritual regeneration which God may never have seen fit to bestow. To use the language of a layman writing upon this subject, "It is ours to pray, to watch, and wait. Let us act here as we do in other matters where faith and its exercise are equally concerned-give thanks when we have the evidence of the bestowal of the blessing sought." The alteration of this thanksgiving prayer, according to the suggestion of Mr. Davies, would save our evangelical brethren from the sad necessity of addressing in the pulpits, as "baptized infidels," those for whom in infancy they have thanked God for the bestowal of regenerating grace. It is true they may have their hypothetical doctrines, -the world does not accept them: and the vast majority of those who bring their children to the font, hear plain words of unconditional grace bestowed, and they are satisfied. They cannot, if they would, do as Mr. Ryle has done

explain and understand this declaration in the hypothetical sense, and as harmonized with the other documents of the framers of the service; they hear, accept, and but

too mournfully rest upon what Mr. Ryle calls isolated portions. Surely, it is the part of those who would have unconverted men to know and feel that they must be "born again," to see that our ritual does not give them too much ground to believe that that change passed upon them at their baptism.

Who can wonder at a Church Reform Association in the diocese of Exeter? Were we not thoroughly persuaded that the people of England are ardently attached to that Church which the Reformation gave or rather restored to them, we could not have marvelled if our west-country brethren had long ago burst the bonds in which Romanizing teaching has been enthralling them; and in a desire to escape from such pestilent evils, rushed into others that they knew not of. The formation of a Church Reform Association is infinitely prefer able to the attempt to establish a Free Church. The body of Christ's Church is quite rent enough with endless divisions and strife, for us not to beseech our brethren fervently to pray for and heartily to strive after "the peace of Jerusalem." Those who love the Church which God has blessed, and is blessing, notwithstanding that His chastening hand is npon it, and we doubt not for its purification, such, we say, will not abandon her for a more fancied perfection elsewhere; but, they must, they will, if they value its stability, labour to remove from her those blemishes and abuses which have caused the fiery trials which it is enduring.

nett's lecture is especially valuable, as it gives a remarkably interesting history of our present Book of Common Prayer, with a complete tabular statement of the alterations the first book of Edward VI. has received in the four revisions of 1552, 1559, 1604, 1662; and the lecturer has, as we think, made out a sufficient case for the necessity and safety of a fifth revision in our own times. For the tone of Mr. Bennett's lecture, and indeed as a specimen of the temper of the three, we will just give the following passage :

"It may be felt that the very virulence of the disease may paralyze all effort to cure it; that consistently with our sense of the evils already wrought, and of others still impending, we can contemplate nothing short of a sweeping measure of radical reformation. Let us at once abate apprehensions on this head. We are earnestly desirous to build up and not to destroy; and though not insensible to the defects of our general ecclesiasti cal system, it is our sincere belief, which we hold in common, that the refuges of superstition in the Book of Common Prayer are but few, and that the changes sought may be mainly resolved into cases of mere omission. We do desire to see expunged, a form, a ceremony, or an order, in itself indifferent, but become a snare and an occasion of falling to many. We would also desire here and there that

the tone of assumption should be exchanged for the prayer of faith, or the mysteries are handled, with which tradibreathings of hope; especially when tion has more to do than the Scriptures. We do wish to see certain ambiguities solved by a Protestant interpretation. We would wish to see obsolete and anathematizing canons exchanged for rules more intelligible, and less damnatory.

But even in matters to which we thus generally advert, we disclaim dictation, or any minute enumeration of particulars. We confess frankly that we are not the men to revise the Liturgy; we would decline the task on the broad ground of

Amongst the fruits of the Plymouth Reform Association, we have received three lectures, delivered we believe by laymen, on three important topics, -1st, by Mr. Soltau, on Tractarianism,-2nd, by Mr. Bennett, on the Revision of the Liturgy, and 3rd, by incompetency; but sir, although we seek

Mr. Bellamy, on the Priest of the Rubric. If these lectures be correct indications of the working of the Association, we cannot be sufficiently thankful that our brethren in Plymouth should have such faithful and able leaders in the cause of our Church's truest welfare. Mr. Ben

not, ourselves, to do the work or to nominate the workmen, we do claim, without presumption, I conceive, to be, jointly with our fellow subjects, the constituents of those who may in Parliament express to the Crown our fears and our wants; and this right we mean to exercise."

INTELLIGENCE-LORD JOHN RUSSELL'S MEASURE.

We can only say in conclusion, that our Protestant Defence Committee would do well to turn its most serious attention, not simply to the preservation of the doctrines and practices of the Church of England, as they were before the springing up of the Tractarian heresy, but also to enquire what ought to be done in the way of a further re formation, to make our Church a still stronger barrier against such attacks for the future.

THE FOLDED LAMB: Memorials of an
Infant Son. With Hints on Early
Education. By his Mother, with a
Preface by his Father, the REV.
GEORGE A. ROGERS, M.A., Vicar of
Leominster. Post 8vo.
pp. 192.
Wertheim.

We are unwilling to let another month pass away without noticing, although it must be but briefly, this interesting memoir, in which a mother's love has preserved and cherished the undoubted evidences of Divine grace manifested by her infant child, now a partaker of heaven's glory. Out of the mouth of babes and sucklings God hath perfected praise. But we know of instances in which there has been so clearly exhibited the mighty and mysterious workings of God the Holy Ghost, in the heart of a mere babe, as that unfolded to us in the short-lived history of little Henry Rogers.

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This child appears to have been made very early the subject of affectionate and prayerful parental solicitude and discipline; and to have been received as a gift from the Lord, to be nursed and trained for a future inheritance of glory.

The dear "infant of days," whose brief yet sunny existence is recorded in the volume before us, was a striking instance of what may be accomplished by earthly parents, God working through and by them, in implanting those early seeds of Divine truth, and those affectionate lessons of obe

dience and subjugation even of a childish will, which yield a rich harvest in after days. In little Henry's case, the great reaper, Death,—who,

to

sion,

use Longfellow's sweet expres

"Cuts down the bearded grain at a breath,

And the flowers that grow between." -was soon commissioned to remove a flower which appeared too bright and lovely for the wild and chilling wilderness of earth, that it might bloom for ever in the paradise of God.

We do most affectionately commend this touching and highly instructive memorial of an infant saint to the prayerful perusal of fond mothers. "Children are an heritage of the Lord." Like the babe, Moses, they are committed as nurslings to the tender and watchful care of their earthly parents, that they become for ever the sons and daughters of the Lord God Almighty.

Entelligence.

LORD JOHN RUSSELL'S MEASURE. At the moment we write, Lord John Russell's measure against Papal Aggression has been carried through its second reading by a majority of 343, in a full house of 533 members. The bill now awaits the next stage of parliamentary progression, the ordeal of a committee of the whole House.

We take it that the House has decided, by this large majority, that it is absolutely necessary to pass some measure, if it be only to exhibit some

thing like deference to the unanimous and loudly-expressed sentiments of the best portion of its constituents. How this bill will be treated in committee is a very different question. It is probable that two courses will be attempted to be adopted: First,-A large party, in addition to the Irish representatives, entertain a strong opinion that the measure ought never to have been extended to Ireland; and it is far from improbable that that priest-ridden and pope-governed country will be omitted from its provisions.

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