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vernment, be it what kind soever, but especially if it be of such 'kind of government as prelates have over the Church, there is not one thing publicly more hurtful, than that a hard opinion should be conceived of governors at the first: and a good opinion, how should the world ever conceive of them for their after proceedings in regiment, whose first access and entrance thereunto giveth just occasion to think them corrupt men, which fear not that God in whose name they are to rule? Wherefore a * scandalous thing it is to the Church of God, and to the actors 'themselves dangerous, to have aspired unto rooms (places) of Prelacy by wicked means. Woe worth such impious and 'irreligious profanations. The Church of Christ hath been 'hereby made not "a den of thieves,” but in a manner the very dwelling-place of foul spirits; for undoubtedly such a number ' of them have been in all ages who thus have climbed into the seat of Episcopal Regiment. Men may by orderly means be invested with spiritual authority, and yet do harm, by reason of 'ignorance how to use it to the good of the Church. . . . . But 'the hurt is more manifestly seen which doth grow to the Church ' of God by faults inherent in their several actions: as, when they carelessly ordain; when they institute negligently *; when corruptly they bestow church-livings, benefices, prebends, and rooms especially of jurisdiction; when they visit for gain' sake, ' rather than with serious intent to do good; when their courts ' erected for the maintenance of good order are disordered; when they regard not the clergy under them; when neither clergy 'nor laity are kept in that awe for which this authority should serve; when any thing appeareth in them rather than a fatherly 'affection towards the flock of Christ; when they have no respect to posterity; and finally, when they neglect the true and requisite means whereby their authority should be upheld. . . . . A bishop in whom there did plainly appear the marks and 'tokens of a fatherly affection towards them that are under his 'charge, what good might he do ten thousand ways more than any man knows how to set down! But the souls of men are 6 not loved; that which Christ shed his blood for is not esteemed precious. This is the very root, the fountain of all negligence in Church government.' (Book VIII. § 24. Vol. III. pp. 231-3: 236.

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This is plain speaking; but the boldest passage, perhaps, in the whole work, and one which for its caustic severity and patriotic freedom might seem worthy of Knox himself, occurs in the

* I doubt not,' he adds, in the next paragraph, that even con'scienceless and wicked patrons, of which sort the swarms are too great in the Church of England, are the more imboldened to present unto Bishops any refuse, by finding so easy acceptation thereof.'

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next paragraph but one. 'Herod and Archelaus are noted to ' have sought out purposely the dullest and most ignoble that ' could be found amongst the people, preferring such to the Highpriests' office, thereby to abate the great opinion which the multitude had of that Order, and to procure a more expedite course for their own wicked counsels, whereunto they saw the High-priests were no small impediment, as long as the common sort did much depend upon them. It may be there hath been 'partly some show and just suspicion of like practice in some, in procuring the undeserved preferments of some unworthy persons, the very cause of whose advancement hath been principally 'their unworthiness to be advanced.' 'Somewhat it is that the malice of their cunning adversaries, but much more which (bishops) themselves have effected against themselves.' And he closes these biting remarks with the interrogation: If there still continue in that most reverend order such as by so many engines work day and night to pull down the whole frame of their own estimation amongst men, some of the rest secretly also permitting others their industrious opposites every day more to se'duce the multitudes, how should the Church of God hope for ⚫ great good at their hands?' (Vol. III. pp. 237–239.)*

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Such, according to the unimpeachable testimony of Hooker, were the causes that had wrought that extremity of disgrace into which, in his own day, Prelacy had fallen. And although he takes care to add, that malicious accusers' were no more justified by those confessed abuses, 'than Shimei was by his sovereign's most humble and meek acknowledgment even of that very crime which so impudent a caitiff's tongue upbraided him 'withal;' yet, most persons in the present day will be very apt to think, that those who quarrelled with Prelacy altogether, under such a state of things, were not wholly inexcusable.

To whatever causes it may be owing, Prelacy, at this time, is by no means held in honour by the people of England. Although its rule is unquestionably mild, and the character of the Episcopal Bench far more worthy of honour than, perhaps, at any former period, still, the opinion seems to be very fast gaining ground, that Prelacy is one of those excrescent abuses which demand the knife of reform, in order to save the constitution of the Church itself. To change the metaphor, it seems to have been discovered, that that purple thread which Hooker mistook

* It is with no view of retaliating upon our contemporary, the British Magazine, for his not very fair citations from our own pages and other documents, of Dissenting confessions, that we have copied out this passage ;-but it may serve to admonish him that he has commenced a very dangerous game.

for a twine of the second wreath of the cable, might be gently removed without injuring a fibre of the main texture of the constitution. And with whom does the proposal originate, of releasing the bishops of the Established Church from the weight of their baronial honours and duties? With sour Puritans or malignant sectaries ? No such thing. With pious and zealous Churchmen, of orthodox creed and unimpeachable loyalty. Lord Henley wishes to emancipate the Church from its unnatural alliance with the State, from its fatal subjection to the Crown, in order that the hierarchy may be cleansed from the pollution of politics. His plan of equalizing the bishoprics, includes the erection of two new sees. Mr. Sims's plan of subdividing the dioceses would require seventy new ones, making the total number ninety-four, besides suffragan bishops. The first announcement of such a multiplication of an unpopular order, may startle some, and excite derision in others. But, if twenty-four bishops were thought an insufficient number three hundred years ago, when the population of England and Wales was probably not above four millions, surely, now that it has risen to fourteen millions, ninetyfour might not seem a disproportionate number. Besides, the increase in the number of dignitaries, upon Mr. Sims's model, would not be so great as appears at the first view. He proposes in the first place, to abolish the archiepiscopal dignity,-undismayed at the empty sneer which Hooker throws out against those who 'quarrel at syllables, and take so poor exceptions at the first four letters in the name of an archbishop.' (Vol. III. p. 207.) Next, it is proposed to do away with the office of dean, as being 'virtually a sinecure, absorbing funds that might support many active bishops, or relieve many aged incumbents. Thirdly,, Mr. Sims would have no chancellors, the title and office being alike unsanctioned by early Christian antiquity. The duties of a chancellor as 'official principal,' belong to lawyers, not to churchmen; and his duties, as vicar-general,' should be discharged by the diocesan. The archdeacon is an imperfect bishop: the proposed plan would give him his proper title and functions, by converting archdeaconries into dioceses. At present, Mr. Sims remarks, the office, which is of popish origin, and has an 'exor'bitant power' attached to it, presents an obstacle to the cre'ation of new dioceses, and to the full discharge of episcopal 'functions in accordance with the wants of the people.' Now if archbishops, deans, chancellors, and archdeacons cease to exist, no reasonable man will think a hundred bishops too many, unless he has an implacable quarrel against the name and the order itself.

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We do not feel ourselves called upon to offer any opinion as to the details of Mr. Sims's model; but it is certainly deserving of the serious attention of all the friends of Church Reform.

VOL. VIII.-N.S.

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has been evidently drawn up with great care, and upon the basis of official statistical details. Some of the episcopal sees which it is proposed to create, existed in former times; for instance, the sees of Westminster, Southampton, Wells, Taunton, Dorchester, Shrewsbury, Coventry, Leicester, Huntingdon, Bedford, Cambridge, Hull, and Nottingham; most of which were constituted episcopal sees by 26 Henry VIII. c. 14. Three of these have been extinguished by unions. The whole of Hertfordshire would be included in the new diocese (now archdeaconry) of St. Albans; the whole of Dorsetshire, in that of Dorchester; and the whole of Cumberland and Westmoreland would be divided between the sees of Carlisle and Kendal. These dioceses would surely be of sufficient territorial dimensions. But, without entering further into the details of the model,' we shall lay before our readers the general reasons which are adduced by the amiable and much respected Author, for proposing so extensive a reform in the ecclesiastical polity of the Establishment.

In the early progress of Christianity, Bishops were established in different cities. As in the seven churches of Proconsular Asia, Ephesus, Smyrna, &c. so in Britain also, York, London, Colchester, Caerleon, &c. were Episcopal Sees. The Episcopal See did not constitute a place a city; but cities in which magistrates presided, were selected to be Sees; and from each of those central spots, religion was diffused amongst the pagans, or villagers of the surrounding district. Christianity had been alloyed by much superstition, when the missionaries sent by Gregory came to instruct the Anglo-Saxons. In the year 668, Theodore brought a new title to England that of ARCH-bishop. William the Conqueror made Bishops Barons of the realm. As Barons they became politicians, and consigned the chief part of their duty as Bishops to Archdeacons, Officials, Vicars-General, &c. The corruptions and abuses of the church were multiplied; the whole body was covered with putrefying sores. Lollards in England, like the Waldenses and Albigenses on the continent, entered their protests against reigning abominations. The dawn of a reform of the National Church at length appeared Henry VIII. persecutes the reformers, yet dissolves the connexion of England with Rome. His son Edward becomes a genuine Reformer. Cranmer, Ridley, Bucer, and others, assist in promoting the Reformation. Before it could be completed according to the designed model, England is deprived of her Monarch by early death, and of her best Bishops, under his sanguinary sister, by martyrdom. Elizabeth restores Protestantism; but the English Church, in her reign, was stamped with a character of secularity which has never been effaced. The time has at length come when it must be effaced;

that infidels may not finally succeed in overthrowing the Church of England through the medium of long-patronised abuses; that religious Dissenters may not deem it right to subvert it on the same ground; and that the members of that Church may stand up in its defence with the more zeal and courage, as those who are not the advocates of errors or corruptions, but the friends of piety, of order, of truth, of morals,

of loyalty, and of civil as well as religious freedom. The great preliminary step to a second reformation of the Church of England, is the reformation of her Episcopacy; an institution not originally designed for the aggrandizement of a few, but for the benefit of many; and the many who require its advantages, are the many millions which England and Wales now contain beyond the few millions of former ages. The evils interwoven with the present system of Episcopacy being removed,-as far as possible without delay, and, where delay may be almost unavoidable, by honest prospective measures,―the reformation of the Church of England, under other aspects, as pluralities, alterations in the Liturgy, &c. may be effectually prosecuted; whilst Episcopacy, unreformed, will furnish a pretext and precedent for abuses in other departments of the Established Church; and, by thus presenting an obstacle and barrier to improvement, not only embarrass Ministers of State, but, perhaps, ultimately involve the Episcopal order, the House of Peers, and even the Throne, in perils unexampled since the period of the Commonwealth.

In the following pages a plan is submitted, by the adoption of which, it is believed, those perils may be averted. A model of Episcopacy is proposed, in defence of which reference can be confidently made to Scripture, and to the practice of the primitive Church. The good sense of the British public may be at the same time appealed to, to determine, whether it is not adapted to meet the actual wants of the people, as well as to consolidate and preserve the fabric of the Established Church in all its most valuable constituent parts. Whatever it is here proposed to abolish, is neither essential to Episcopacy, nor even consistent with its primitive and purest form; but, on the contrary, foreign to its nature, superfluous, and injurious.' pp. 4-6.

The specific reasons for the proposed alterations are interwoven with the plan; and a few additional remarks are given in the Appendix. Upon the subject of canons and prebendaries, Mr. Sims expresses himself in the following explicit language.

Wherever offices in Cathedrals, often of great pecuniary value, are yet virtually sinecures; not bestowed as a reward of laborious efforts or long service, but through political influence and family connexion; not reserved as the retreat of the aged, but for the encouragement of indolence; formed to multiply the number of pluralists, and perpetuate abuses in church patronage; they present a picture that cannot but excite the regret of those members of the Church of England who desire that the great principle of justice, too long outraged, should triumph in ecclesiastical, as well as civil affairs. The day may not be distant, when sinecures shall cease to exist; when due remuneration shall be given to Bishops from a diocesan source, without recourse to other and objectionable sources; when Bishops, aided both statedly and occasionally by clergymen of great eminence as preachers, shall raise cathedrals to their just elevation, as fountains of religious instruction; when the worship within the walls shall be less theatrical, more devotional, less conformed to the Romish model, more worthy of a Reformed Church; when Diocesan Seminaries or Colleges for youth shall be found within Cathedral precincts; or, at least, for training