m:smmmimmmmm^m 


 
 
 ^^
 
 i>k
 
 
 SCRIPTURE AND THE CHURCH ' 
 IN HARMONY, 
 THE STRONGHOLDS OF TRUTH AND PEACE 
 
 A SERMON, 
 
 PREACHED IN THE CHURCH OF ST. LAWRENCE, LUDLOW, 
 ON TUESDAY, MAY 5, 1846, 
 
 at tte ^Jisitation 
 
 OF THE 
 
 VENERABLE WILLIAM VICKERS, M.A. 
 
 ARCHDEACON OF SALOP, IN THE DIOCESE OF HEREFORD. 
 
 JOHN MILLER, M.A. 
 
 OF WORCESTER COLLEGE, OXFORD. 
 
 LONDON: 
 
 FRANCIS & JOHN RIVINGTON, 
 
 ST. Paul's church yard, and waterlog place. 
 
 1846.
 
 LONDON: 
 GILBERT & RIVINGTON, PRINTERS, 
 
 ST. John's square.
 
 
 TO THE VENERABLE 
 
 WILLIAM VICKERS, M.A. 
 
 ARCHDEACON OF SALOP, IN THE DIOCESE OF HEREFORD, 
 
 AND TO THE 
 
 EEVEREND THE CLERGY 
 
 OF THE DEANERIES MEETING AT LUDLOW, 
 
 %Y\i Sermon, 
 
 PREACHED BEFORE THEM, 
 
 AND NOW PRINTED IN ACCORDANCE WITH THEIR KIND DESIRE, 
 
 IS RESPECTFULLY INSCRIBED. 
 
 BOCKLETON, 
 MAK XI, MDCCCXLVI.
 
 - ujuc !
 
 Many reasons would have forbidden the writer 
 of this Sermon to re-appear so soon in print (and 
 particularly on the present subject), but for the ex- 
 pression of wishes to which he would have felt it 
 ungracious not to defer. But as it is always pos- 
 sible there may be Reverend Brethren who, in listen- 
 ing to a Sermon on such occasions, feel themselves 
 unable to assent to all its positions, the Author does 
 not mean to imply, in the Dedication, any thing 
 which should unduly implicate them in a suj^posed 
 approval of sentiments, which delicacy alone may 
 have prevented them from openly excepting against.
 
 SERMON, 
 
 Hebrews xiii. 8 and part of 9. 
 
 " Jesus Christ the same yesterday, and to-day, and for ever. 
 Be not carried about with divers and strange doctrines." 
 
 We find this affirmation — " Jesus Christ the same 
 yesterday, and to-day, and for ever" — between an 
 exhortation given to the Hebrew disciples to "re- 
 member those who had spoken unto them the word 
 of God," and an emphatic charge " not to be carried 
 about with divers and strange doctrines." I do not 
 see how we can construe words so placed, in any 
 natural way, without acknowledging that (with 
 whatever sense besides) they must at least imply the 
 sameness, as well as perpetuity, of all essential 
 Christian doctrine. 
 
 But it is no part of my purpose to enter into any 
 sort of critical disquisition. The words are taken 
 for a text to-day merely as laying good foundation 
 for certain general thoughts about to be proposed, 
 with reference to a specific snare and evil of the
 
 8 
 
 times. And in employing them to this effect, I 
 would desire to speak only and altogether in the 
 spirit of " taking counsel here together in the house 
 of God as frjends ;" not in the needless tone of one 
 who would presume to school his fellow-labourers, 
 but rather for " comparison of notes," to use a familiar 
 phrase, if haply there may be response found within 
 the minds of sympathising brethren. " I speak as to 
 wise men — judge ye what I say." 
 
 AVhere patience must to some extent be un- 
 avoidably intreated, it would be an unwarrantable 
 trespass on it to enter here, by way of introduction, 
 on any large detail of those abundant evidences 
 which manifest a restless and uneasy state of things 
 among us. Such are assuredly at hand, in too great 
 plenty ; but let them (in the greater part) be taken 
 for granted. It may suffice here to remark, that if 
 there be one feature of our days more prominent 
 than all besides, it is, perhaps, a general departure 
 from every manner of simplicity. In lesser and in 
 greater things alike, simpUcity is out of date and 
 fashion, in an age dwindling in faith, but growing 
 rapidly in self-reliance, and much enervated withal 
 by the advance of luxury on every hand. Nor is 
 this ruinous departure more apparent any where 
 than in the writings of the day ; there reaching 
 with unhappy influence, to no small portion of 
 our current theology, and still more largely visible 
 in other popular statements bearing, and meant to 
 bear, upon our tone of Christianity. From very
 
 9 
 
 many indications to be seen, it might not only be a 
 natural question, but one not easily to be avoided, 
 " Is, then, the simple truth which Jesus Christ and 
 His Apostles taught, no longer tlie same ? is the old 
 revelation worn out ? are we reduced to an imper- 
 vious strait, without the aid of new developments? 
 are such the only satisfying food for man's enlarged 
 intellect ' ?" 
 
 My aim will be to show that we are not in such 
 condition. But while in doing this I do not mean 
 to speak controversially, there is an absolute need of 
 setting forth some single illustration, to make the 
 line of our inquiry plain before us. Wherefore, 
 since some one sample must be fixed upon, observe 
 the following, which is within the reach of all to 
 verify. It will combine palpable j^roof of an exist- 
 ing restless disposition, and of that wide departure 
 from simplicity in men's prevailing manner of writ- 
 ing, which has been just now mentioned. 
 
 Listen to words, then, of a foreign writer^, pro- 
 nounced to be " of great ability," and his work of a 
 "very high order." "It is often said that Chris- 
 tianity has civilized us. Perhaps it would not be 
 less just, or less exact, to say, that civilization has 
 purified our Christianity. If the letter of the Gos- 
 
 ' See Appendix. 
 
 " " We quote from a recent French writer, of great ability, 
 Charles Dunoyer, Liberte cki Travail, i. Tit. Tliis work, which 
 by its title might seem a cold dry treatise on political economy, 
 is of a very high order." — Quartcrlij Review, No. div. p. 459.
 
 pels lilts not cluiiiged, we have clmnged Jiiiich in our 
 iiuiuiier of iinderstaiuliug and applying the evangeli- 
 cal law. Our religious sentiments and principles 
 have followed the march of all our sentiments and 
 principles; they are become more pure and more 
 reasonable, in such proportion as we have become 
 more cultivated. The Christians of to-day are not 
 after the pattern of those of two hundred and fifty 
 years ^ ago." How is an inference to be avoided 
 here — that then, if this be the true way of putting 
 the question, not God's revelation, with its accom- 
 panying means of grace, has civilised man, but man's 
 advances in refinement have improved upon the 
 counsels of God ? But let that pass. 
 
 The writer who has quoted these vain words with 
 warm approval, goes on to say not many pages after 
 — that " what is wanted is a Christianity, not for a 
 few monks or monk-like men ; not for a small 
 imaginative past-worshipping aristocracy ; no, nor 
 for a })ious, unreasoning peasantry ; but for men of 
 the world. Not of this world, as we may be taunt- 
 ingly asserted to mean — but men who ever feel that 
 their present sphere of duty, of virtue, of usefulness 
 to mankind, lies in this world on their way to a 
 higher and better — men of intelligence, activity, of 
 exemplary and wide-working goodness — men of faith. 
 
 ' In the original, " du temps de la Ligue" meaning, I presume, 
 the League of 1577. The reason for avoiding abrupt introduc- 
 tion of such an expression as " the League," and for speaking 
 onlv in round numbers, will be obvious.
 
 11 
 
 yet men of truth, to whom truth is of" God, and to 
 whom nothing is of God that is not true ; men 
 whose religion is not sadly and vainly retrospective, 
 but present and hopefully prospective. It is our 
 fixed persuasion that .... human intelligence will 
 pursue its onward way. The word of God is alone 
 immutable, and that part of Christianity (however 
 it may have been developed) which is the word of 
 God, that alone has the power of endurance to the 
 end of the world. The in-dwelling Spirit of Christ, 
 not confined to one narrow discipline, to one visible 
 polity, is still to be developed in more abundant 
 power, to exalt, to purify the primal idea of Christi- 
 anity, the true, the eternal, the immutable, the real 
 ' Dominus nobiscum,' which is commingled with our 
 humanity." 
 
 It will be obvious that language such as this is 
 not selected for its intelligibleness ; for of a truth 
 it might pretend to almost any characteristic rather 
 than that. But it is thus adduced for illustration's 
 sake, and just to give sufficient present insight into 
 the sort of dreamy visions now abounding upon the 
 question of " development," partly from the posi- 
 tion which it occupies in that which still, perhaps, 
 retains the highest place among our periodicals ; 
 (where — seeing that it forms the peroration of a cen- 
 sure on a well-known extravagant hypothesis, per- 
 haps less really dangerous than its own — it may 
 pass current even with applause from many;) and 
 in another part, because a reference to speculations
 
 12 
 
 of an unknown writer cannot be fairly liable to 
 charge of personal or party feeling. Add yet a 
 third consideration — that it displays the manner of 
 appliance now addressed more specially to the 
 refined and (if the word may be excused) cosmo- 
 polite classes of society. On other grounds it might 
 be little worthy of attention. 
 
 Keeping such specimen in mind, let us remem- 
 ber also — that, while it is impossible to doubt the 
 tendency of all such speculations (namely, to change 
 or supersede all hitherto received landmarks) they 
 yet are not to be accounted of as utterly unmixed 
 with truth, or to be set aside effectually by any rude 
 or peremptory impatience. It is a plausible entan- 
 glement of truth with florid sophistry that gives them 
 currency. For instance, it is true that Christianity 
 has power to adapt its lessons, and its supplies of 
 strength and grace, to all our wants, and to the 
 wants of each successive age ; how could it reason- 
 ably claim to be a final revelation, and be with- 
 out such power ? The question is not of the fact, 
 but of the way of its accomplishment. Neither are 
 such rash theories deliberate suggestions of an 
 adversary ; but, for the most part, they wear Chris- 
 tian colours, and are advanced under a Christian 
 banner. And that man's confidence is hardly to be 
 envied, who never is in any way perplexed by such 
 delusions ; seeing that it may rest too probably in 
 such a case, more on determined stubbornness of 
 resolution, than on a calm, well-weighed, and well-
 
 13 
 
 assured ooiivietioii of heart. For it would be uo 
 easy task to even the most subtle intellect, to give 
 a logical and perfect answer to any one of many 
 such ]ier verse questionings. To see that none of 
 them are safe is very easy ; but that is quite another 
 thing from being able to confute them formally. We 
 may be rightly confident there is pernicious en-or 
 lurking in all ; but for all that they are disquieting. 
 We do not for the moment see our way through 
 them ; and we have need of anchorage, and of a 
 quiet haven for shelter of our faith accordingly, 
 where we may " wait for the day." 
 
 To understand this need at once — turn from these 
 reveries of what men choose to fancy, or to call, an 
 intellectual Christianity (such as would seem, at very 
 least, to speak a need of two Gospels : one for the 
 more refined and civilized, and another for the less 
 instructed portions of the Good Shepherd's one 
 flock) to what we know to be realities; namely, 
 the circumstances of our own actual position, the 
 daily sights of own eyes, and hearing of our own 
 ears. 
 
 And first, as to ourselves. Doubtless it is both 
 fit and right that we should be alive, in fair pro- 
 portion, to man's intellectual progress, and to his 
 schemes and goings on, that we may learn the more 
 to judge and discipline ourselves, and to stand more 
 on guard against existing or impending snares. 
 And it perhaps may be the very blindness of a self- 
 deceiving indolence to shrink from all such know-
 
 14 
 
 ledge, as if mc coukl thereby secure ourselves 
 against the inroads of the gaiiisayer. Yet, all the 
 while, how vain it were for most of us even to think 
 of entering at large into the multitude of strifes 
 and questionings, engendered of a wilful generation, 
 " seeking, " as it might seem, " for signs, where none 
 will be given ! " It is, indeed, our bounden duty 
 not to meddle with them; for does not Scripture 
 give express warnings upon this very head ? And 
 if it were a right and wise thing for one in the 
 Apostle's own days, to keep himself aloof from 
 " doubtful disputations," how much increased must 
 be our own need of taking care that neither through 
 perplexity, nor false shame, nor wish of humouring 
 the people, nor yet through any other snare which 
 may beset us, we let ourselves become entangled in 
 such hopeless labyrinth ! Of sheer necessity we 
 must confine our views to something much more 
 simple, more truly suited to the common wants of 
 men, and level to their common apprehension, than 
 any of these crude imaginings of a diseased intellect. 
 From these it is the only reasonable inference, that 
 7iothmg is settled. And then, if that be so — at 
 once the question comes upon us, " Whence have 
 we our commission of so high a sort, and where is 
 our authority to teach at all?" So that we plainly 
 need (as just now said) some haven of more (juiet 
 thought, wherein to keep our minds at peace ; and 
 some abiding reasonable confidence, nowise akin to 
 blind presumption, in strength of which to labour
 
 15 
 
 on, and figlit onr way, while "■ militant licre on 
 earth." 
 
 For what, in such a region as our own, is our 
 position and our work ? Among whom is our lot 
 oast, and whom is it our high commission to instruct 
 and guide in what we either rightly do believe to 
 be the way of life, or there is no such way ? Chiefly 
 (beyond dispute or doubt) those most remote from 
 speculative fancies, or intellectual pretensions ; the 
 brethren born to actual toil on humbler or on some- 
 what more advanced scale — the busy and the un- 
 learned — the poor — and those who minister to our 
 own daily wants, or to the wants of others. And 
 Avhat is it we have to teach to these, and what to 
 do as best we may among them ? Is it not, in the 
 first place, to convince our disciples of sin ; to make 
 them feel that they have souls to save ; to call on 
 them to use, with persevering faith, Christ's own 
 appointed means of grace ; and in the strength of 
 these, to lead them in the path of bounden duty, 
 in the familiar lelations of life ; in short, both to 
 instruct and guide them in ways, and upon subjects, 
 altogether practical ? And tliis for the hope's sake 
 of an eternal recompence, and on the ground of 
 certain acts of infinite love, which have been done, 
 for their and our sakcs, " once for all ; " each of a 
 kind to stir the best affections of the heart, in such 
 wise as to quicken and sup})ly, from time to time, 
 the most effectual motives to obedience. 
 
 If, then, we truly mean and seek — and if our duty
 
 10 
 
 be — to guide and to persuade men, not merely to 
 amuse or to cajole tliem, the very nature of the ease 
 requires some plain and simple form and substance 
 of instruction ; to be restrained within prescribed 
 and manageable bounds, and offered with some 
 credible warrant of authority, under appeal to an 
 acknowledged permanent standard. Not that we 
 need, or ought, at any time to fall into that vulgar 
 error, of speaking or of writing doivn to an imagined 
 lower level of capacity. That error springs, as I 
 believe, from a mistaken estimate of human nature, 
 and has its root, too often, in an unhealthy pride of 
 some presumed superiority. Nor do I know that 
 there is any thing less welcome, or less entitled to 
 approval of a thoughtful spirit, than all that virtual 
 exclusion of the humbler classes, as objects of per- 
 petual Christian interest, respect, and care, which, 
 though perhaps it may not be intended, is unavoid- 
 ably involved in many of our more refined visions 
 of an improved, or, as so many would appear to 
 dream, improveable Christianity. Have not the 
 poor, and those of every humbler grade of intel- 
 lectual accomplishment, " one Lord, one faith, one 
 baptism," in common with ourselves ? As to the 
 prize before us, are we not looking for the same 
 heaven? As to the elements, apart from the mere 
 accidents of our condition, to borrow language very 
 fit for a more sacred use, "have they not eyes, 
 organs, senses, affections, passions ? are they not fed 
 with the same food, hurt with the same weapons.
 
 17 
 
 subject to the same diseases, healed by the same 
 means, warmed and cooled by the same summer 
 and winter " as ourselves ? Where we have unso- 
 phisticated, and at the same time Christianly- 
 minded flocks, let us be well assured we have to 
 deal with very sound essential capacities. 
 
 Yet still, our ordinary hearers are obviously such 
 as have no sympathy (and God forl^id they should !) 
 with laboured or capricious flights of intellect, or of 
 fantastical imagination ; and therefore, neither is it 
 wise (upon the other hand) to seek, or to attempt, 
 to feed them with food " not convenient ;" with 
 high conceits or views beyond their natural and 
 wholesome range of moral apprehension. The teach- 
 ing suitable for them — and is it not in substance so 
 for all men ? — is pointed out for us by an unerring 
 authority ; "sound speech that cannot be condemned" 
 — "wholesome words" — "doctrine according to god- 
 liness." Our work is, with all pains and patience to 
 open, not " put out the eyes" of such ; and while we 
 strive to reconcile them to their unequal worldly lot, 
 to raise them to their just equality as fellow Chris- 
 tians, and members of the one same body. What 
 is it, then, of which all these, and such as they, may 
 rightly be believed capable? And what is a sure 
 ground on which, and the safe limits within which, 
 we best may settle our own deep convictions, and 
 have the fairest hope of teaching rightly, and as our 
 Lord would have us teach in His name ? 
 
 I am persuaded that increased reflection upon 
 
 B
 
 18 
 
 such simple facts as these, will lead to an increased 
 conviction that it must always, and inevitably, be a 
 source of danger, to handle Christianity too intel- 
 lectually. Exclusive (it is true) in one sad sense, 
 the Gospel needs must be ; seeing how many shut 
 themselves out of its pale and blessings, and "judge 
 themselves unworthy of everlasting life." But it is 
 not for us to make it so. Truth's best and strongest 
 evidences must after all be found, not of a rarer and 
 more logical kind, but open, or at least accessible to 
 all " of honest and good heart," using in faithfulness 
 those faculties which God bestows on all, as human 
 creatures, with little (it may be) of any but intuitive 
 knowled()e. 
 
 Now here — what is it, let us ask, which men of 
 average capacity, with less of what is called acquire- 
 ment — may be conceived to want, in the depart- 
 ment of evidence ; and what is it, which such may 
 fairly judge of ? Perhaps it were not prudent to 
 insist, in any case, on the sufficiency of mere internal 
 witness; or to maintain that what is often so ob- 
 scurely termed the " subjective" view of Christi- 
 anity, may be entirely rested in. Yet in a thousand 
 cases, and in tens of thousands, a very simple out- 
 ward prop to this may be sufficient, and prove a 
 surer strength than could be found in the most 
 subtle form of laboured argument. And such plain 
 help is constantly at hand in certain actual pheno- 
 mena (Scripture itself being one of them), the 
 force of which, if honestly borne out bv ultimate
 
 19 
 
 appeal to that Supreme Authority, in respect of an 
 account to be rationally given of them, may then 
 put on, in combination, the strength of an irre- 
 fragable testimony. And that, withal, of such a 
 kind as may be judged of adequately by any man's 
 fair, conscientious exercise of sober reason. 
 
 Such actual phenomena, presented to ourselves 
 continually, are to be seen in the coincident exist- 
 ence of the New Testament, and of a visible Church 
 — possessing Creeds and Sacraments, and an ap- 
 pointed lawful Ministry, and purporting to be a 
 true branch of the one visible Church of Christ on 
 earth, by rightful descent. Of course I mean, 
 without invidious opposition of terms, the Church 
 in essence, as separable from the accidents of the 
 Establishment. That we have each of these, the 
 Scriptures and the Church, among us, is some- 
 thing not to be denied. 
 
 Together with remembrance, then, of these, let 
 thought be taken also of two undoubted dispositions 
 of our connnon nature ; on one hand, its impatience 
 of restraint, and eagerness to follow every bent of 
 individual inclination : upon the other, its not less 
 certain tendency to overstrain the exercise of any 
 intrusted authority. None, I presume, will think of 
 questioning man's absolute need of the correlative 
 and countervailing principles of "submission" and 
 "authority." All will acknowledge it to be impos- 
 sible to do without these. Wherefore the problem 
 to be solved for man's best welfare — in civil and 
 
 b2
 
 20 
 
 in spiritual things alike, in their respective propor- 
 tions — is how, and where, to fix a just balance be- 
 tween too little and too much of either. 
 
 With such remembrances, bring the two actual 
 phenomena just spoken of, which are before our 
 eyes continually, to the plain test proposed. " How 
 came we in possession of these two? Whence, or 
 why, is it that we have been instructed by and 
 through them all along, and that we look to them, 
 without misgiving, for our direction in the most im- 
 portant of all concerns — those of the soul ?" Our 
 supposition, bear in mind, is of a plain and honest man, 
 of humble and believing spirit, weighing these things. 
 
 And here let us observe a third collateral circum- 
 stance, of no small moment to a right determining 
 of these questions ; namely, that all who differ from 
 us, being believers, with one consent admit the 
 power of one of these two instruments of God — 
 the Holy Scriptures ; nor can they be content (un- 
 less with very small exception) or able to conduct 
 the ministrations of religion, without so far approach- 
 ing toward a recognition of the other — the Church, 
 as to set up a Ministry, and rules, and constitution 
 of their own, each sect according to its own notions. 
 When, therefore, certainly these two — the " Holy 
 Scripture," and " some especial form of government 
 and ministration" — seem absolutely indispensable to 
 maintenance and propagation of the truth on earth, 
 how is it that the Church, visibly constituted as we 
 ourselves find it, has gained and kept its high pre-
 
 21 
 
 eminence ? Nat its pre-eminence in worldly wealth 
 or influence, but in Divine authority ; its power of 
 showing a commission, where others are unable so to 
 do, and of manifesting itself as the receiver and 
 keeper of "the deposit" from the beginning. At 
 all events, this is a fact to be accounted for : and 
 surely it is capable of being so explained and under- 
 stood — without distortion or exaggeration — as that 
 both faith and common sense may join in lead- 
 ing reasonable men — learned, or unlearned — to be 
 content with that safe evidence which it so palpably 
 supplies. 
 
 Neither, however, would the time permit, nor is 
 it necessary to pursue the chain of argument here 
 needed, link by link. What more concerns our pre- 
 sent purpose, is to discern the bearing of such argu- 
 ment upon our own existing case ; that we ourselves 
 may find an anchor sure and stedfast — a place of 
 shelter for our heart-convictions under whatever 
 pressure of perplexing difficulties. Which that we 
 may attain to, both " with the spirit and the under- 
 standing" — and neither blindly, nor through wilful 
 imposition on our own reason — let me propose a sum- 
 mary criterion that we possess the real truth, in this 
 manner. 
 
 Has Christian truth ever been held in purity, and 
 unity of spirit? We cannot rationally doubt that 
 it was pure, as held by earnest, humble-souled dis- 
 ciples, up to the end of that generation, many of 
 whom, either in their own persons, or with the inter-
 
 22 
 
 ventioii of the Apostles alone — "had heard, had 
 seen with their eyes, had looked upon, or with their 
 hands had handled the Word of life." Surely the 
 "honest and good hearts" of that generation both 
 knew what the Apostles taught, and how it had 
 been understood both by themselves and others. A 
 startling heresy, or bold hypothesis, might have 
 excited a sensation and proved a cause of some im- 
 mediate perplexity, as surely then as it does now ; 
 but faithful men would instantly have known it to 
 be a new or strange thing, and would have treated 
 it accordingly. And thus in point of fact it was, 
 that, as the nature of the case required, heresies 
 were sifted and judged, and the true Apostolic sense 
 of that which was from the beginning fixed and 
 maintained. But this by the way : our present work 
 is but to weigh our own case. 
 
 Here then, for end of illustration, take the days 
 quickly following the death of the Apostle St. John, 
 as being an indisputable point of time at which the 
 true faith must have been known, and all the books 
 of the New Testament written, whether as yet uni- 
 versally received or not ; and, on this groundwork, 
 let us imagine the instance of some individual 
 Christian, who had arrived at an acquaintance with 
 the whole of those books, such as we now possess 
 them. Let us suppose that it were possible for 
 such a Christian now to appear among ourselves ; to 
 have our book of Common Prayer submitted to 
 him ; to take a place in the assembling of ourselves
 
 23 
 
 together, where "all things should be done decently 
 and in order ;" to hear the truths which our Church 
 teaches, and as it teaches them ; to learn its consti- 
 tution and existing form of government; and, in a 
 word, to " prove" our own communion every way. 
 Keeping an eye, then, fixed upon the test of " what 
 is either obviously read in Holy Scripture, or may 
 be surely proved, or fairly warranted thereby"- — 
 what shall we judge that the result might be ? 
 
 No doubt there might be very much, in all the 
 accidents of our existing state, that must, and would 
 seem very strange to one of Rome, or Ephesus, or 
 Corinth, whose lot had fallen at a date so far apart 
 from ours in either of such different heritages. No 
 doubt, there might and would be seen by him, in 
 closer search, many a painful breach between our 
 better theory and more imperfect practices. Again, 
 there might be usages met with, not altogether 
 welcome, upon the scores of choice or individual 
 judgment; or he might miss some secondary things 
 M'hich he had been accustomed to. All this, and 
 more to like effect, is probable enough. But look- 
 ing only to the spirit and the substance of the 
 matter — when such a visitant should hear the doc- 
 trines of our Church ; should find us teaching the 
 new birth in Baptism, and strengthening of the soul 
 through the Communion of the Body and Blood of 
 Christ ; when he should listen to our Creeds ; 
 should see our several ranks of ministers ; should 
 find us, not consenting merely, but wishing nothing
 
 24 
 
 else than to make Holy Scripture, interpreted 
 by that presumed accordance with the preceding 
 oral teaching of the Apostles, wherein he needs 
 must recognize at once the only right and true 
 mode of interpretation; can we believe, or for a 
 moment think that such an one would hear or feel 
 any thing insisted on as necessary to salvation, from 
 which he must recoil ; or any thing omitted, on the 
 other hand, of vital necessity? Would he not 
 rather be prepared to own, with joy, that even such 
 had ever been, and were, his own substantial belief 
 and principles? There would be found no novelties, 
 clinging with parasitic power of damage to the 
 sound stock of truth, brought in to meet some fan- 
 cied crisis, or some distempered humour of the 
 people ; nor any rash, or forced, or over-strained 
 developments. There would be little, I conceive, 
 to startle, nothing to shock ; but all would probably 
 be felt to be essentially primitive. 
 
 Of course, in speaking thus I take it for granted, 
 that the imagined visitant should thus be present, 
 where adequate means of judgment were supplied ; 
 i. e. where all true privileges, claims, and primary 
 doctrines of the Church were modestly, but health- 
 fully, maintained. For instance ; if either through 
 mistaken notions of conciliation, or from whatever 
 cause besides, we wave our title by descent as minis- 
 ters of Christ, how could we answer such supposed 
 examiner, should he pronounce that we had thereby 
 severed our omii branch from the one parent stem of
 
 25 
 
 Truth ? Again ; if we deny, or otherwise forego 
 traditional construction of Christ's own t\vo Sacra- 
 ments ; especially, if we disclaim, or virtually under- 
 mine the doctrine of regeneration in Baptism 
 (for, possibly, it is on that that every other insuffi- 
 cient estimate ensues) I do not see how we could 
 answer to a charge of having brought in funda- 
 mental innovation. Again ; should we too surely 
 show ourselves usurpers, or ambitious overmuch, 
 how could we stand the challenge, should it be 
 asked, " How is it, then, that ye have sought do- 
 minion over your disciples' faith," not satisfied with 
 being " helpers of their joy ?" or, " Who, then, hath 
 made you lords over your lots*, rather than examples 
 to the flock ? " (a thought deserving of the more 
 remembrance, by reason of its source in an Epistle 
 of St. Peter). But, being liable to none of these 
 reproofs, should we be found tempering a needful 
 firmness with a true Christian moderation ; more 
 careful of the truth than of ourselves ; abiding by 
 our own pledges ; and neither seeking to usurp, nor 
 daring to compromise ; " eschewing whatsoever things 
 are contrary to our profession," alike in doctrine and 
 
 * ^TjS' (i)Q KarriKvpievovTec Twy ^X»/pu»^, dWo rviroi yivcfxtioi rov 
 iroifxviov. 1 Pet, V. 3. 
 
 KaraK. tcXt'iptor, in the simple diction of tlie sacred writer, can 
 only refer to persons. And the best commentators are in general 
 agreed that it means the Churches or congregations called God's 
 heritages, in allusion to the division of Canaan, KXijfwi, lots, which 
 formed separate heritages. — Bloomfield.
 
 26 
 
 in discipline ; avoiding vain disputes, but exercising 
 more and more a sound self-judgment ; and while 
 we cling fast to the Church, doing so only in full 
 readiness to abide appeal to Scripture ; then might 
 we not with confidence endure the scrutiny of such 
 an arbiter, as to the soundness and security of our 
 position ? 
 
 Here, then, in Holy Scripture and the Church 
 in HARMONY, is a safe anchorage of thought, wherein 
 we may possess our souls in patience, as ministers of 
 that pure and Apostolical branch of it to which we 
 belong, under whatever prevalence of restless specu- 
 lation round about us. And not only an anchor for 
 ourselves, but safety for our flocks also. For, what 
 can answer more exactly, according to the possibili- 
 ties of things within our own heritage, to that which 
 the Apostle charges ^ : — " Take heed unto thyself, 
 and unto the doctrine; continue in them; for in 
 doing thus thou shalt both save thyself and them 
 that hear thee ? " What can we hope for more than 
 this? what could we do more? Experience of 
 eighteen hundred years forbids the thought of 
 silencing perverse men ; but we ourselves may find 
 supporting strength " in quietness and confidence.' 
 With the authority of Holy Writ to sanction every 
 thing the Church teaches, and with the guidance of 
 the Church to limit and direct our use of Scripture, 
 we may attain that far more precious end just quoted 
 from St. Paul.
 
 27 
 
 And let not any fear that they will crijiple, or 
 wrongfully confine, the truth by using it within 
 such limitation ; nor yet that there may be injurious 
 stint thereby imposed upon men's intellectual facul- 
 ties. Think of the verities contained within the 
 Creeds, and of the high and solemn spheres of con- 
 templation into which these alone might open, con- 
 sistently with the prescribed restraint of testing all 
 things by the Word of God : again, of all collateral 
 research, not only not forbidden, but commended, 
 for the more full elucidation of the Scripture itself; 
 of all the lawful range of critical inquiry : again, 
 of the exhaustless harmonies of Scripture with 
 itself; of adaptations of the things which have been, 
 to the things which are, to be discovered and applied 
 mthin the range of due remembrance of the analogy 
 of faith, thence yielding a perennial supply of hea- 
 ven-born principles, fairly deducible for positive use : 
 — is there not ample field for man's best powers of 
 mind herein afforded? Not here to speak of the 
 permitted range of merely human knowledge coinci- 
 dent with this, but looking only now to the peculiar 
 department of divine truth, may it not righteously be 
 asked. Where is the real need of perilously humour- 
 ing an age of over-strained and pampered intellect, 
 by entering on theories of fresh developments, which 
 in effect amount to new revelations ? Will these, 
 invented as they surely are to serve some temporary 
 end ; perhaps, to satisfy some favourite scheme of 
 doctrine ; perhaps, to gratify some yearning after 
 this world's power ; perhaps, through some deceit of
 
 28 
 
 self-idolatry — abide the test of Holy Scripture ? They 
 may, it is too true, reject, or mutilate, or over- 
 ride the word of truth ; but if the truth in Jesus 
 Christ be verily (as He Himself is) " the same 
 yesterday, and to day, and for ever," it cannot, in 
 its hitherto received shape, be wrested into an 
 authority for such delusions. 
 
 Let it be granted — we shall not be in the sure 
 way of "judging righteous judgment," without 
 remembering always in a believing spirit of humi- 
 lity, that, as our flocks, so we ourselves also are men 
 of many differing shades, both of capacity and of 
 taste. There are diversities of gifts under the same 
 Spirit. Some, doubtless, both teachers and hearers, 
 by constitution of their minds require more intel- 
 lectual liberty, or even luxury, than others; and 
 what forbids it to them within the boundaries 
 assigned ? Yet not the less is a just limitation of 
 our common work required for common benefit of 
 all. For, even with respect to these more gifted 
 brethren, if they be " faithful men, " as often as 
 they reach a point of speculation, at which man's 
 ina))ility to see a further way, with his existing 
 powers, is forced upon them as a fact, by their 
 whole consciousness and whole experience alike; is 
 it not obviously for their great benefit, to fall in 
 with a monitory voice, which they may listen to 
 without the slightest sense of degradation, which 
 does but in effect remind them that they are not 
 Gods — bidding them (as it were) to " go their way, 
 for the words are closed up and sealed," in that
 
 29 
 
 direction, " till the time of the end ? " Here may 
 mfallihility be found, with title to be reverenced 
 and submitted to. While for all minds of narrower 
 grasp, still greater consolation it must ever be to 
 know, that after all there is but one thing com- 
 mon to us all of indispensable necessity; namely, 
 for each and every one to seek, with a believing 
 heart, to learn and do the will of God. 
 
 Let us be satisfied, in patience, with looking to 
 the signs which are given ; and teaching earnestly 
 the truths to which it is quite sure " salvation" must 
 belong — if we have not been " following cunningly 
 devised fables" altogether — and though the world may 
 scorn us, or we should be accounted men " behind 
 the age," or dull and wearisome, or whatsoever else 
 may be our burthen of reproach, we still may prove 
 ourselves, abundantly, " workmen that need not be 
 ashamed." There may be much yet wanting in our 
 individual selves ; much closer exercise of self-know- 
 ledge ; much proving of our own faith ; or much 
 advancement in the way of personal holiness; but 
 of our teaching — if it be verily according to the 
 vows that are upon us — let us believe and trust we 
 need have no misgivings. If the criterion just now 
 imagined be not rejected as chimerical, or contrary 
 to sound reason, it follows that we must have safe 
 possession of " the simplicity that is in Christ," as 
 nearly in a genuine and almost-native state as now 
 is possible. And can that be a wrong or dangerous 
 way, which there is every ground, both Scriptural 
 and reasonable, for thinking that a Cliristian of the
 
 30 
 
 Apostolic day might well approve and give consent 
 to, if on earth ; and which so fairly meets the facul- 
 ties and needs of all disciples ? Whereas that can- 
 not be THE way, which unavoidably must make itself 
 exclusive, or, in a phrase now much in use, but not 
 very intelligible, eclectic. There must be something 
 faulty in such way, whether it Avork its partial effect 
 by an unwarranted appeal to inward impressions ; 
 or by a theory at variance both with the general 
 drift of Holy Writ and God's eternal attributes ; or 
 through a tyranny which virtually makes the Gospel 
 a system of bondage ; or by demanding an extrava- 
 gant amount of deep learning, such as can never be 
 the share of more than few ; or by insisting on high 
 fancied claims of intellectuality ; or by excess of 
 critical refinement, of tendency to treat the Book 
 of Life as mere literature; or, worst of all, per- 
 haps, by an inversion of the order of Scripture, 
 making' material or secondarv thinofs the measure 
 and the arbiters of things heavenly. The way must 
 surely be a way open to all, how few soever may 
 pursue it, or attain unto it. It must be conversant 
 with primary truths, affecting men's habitual faith 
 and daily practice ; seeing these are the truths which 
 Scripture most insists upon, and which (not any 
 form of inward fancies or assurances, or any intel- 
 lectual conceits) stand out in bold relief throughout 
 that whole interpretation of the Bible by the Church, 
 which we may well accept as Apostolical and true. 
 
 This simple partnership of Scripture and 
 The Church, as Law and Commentary, when
 
 31 
 
 honestly and calmly weighed, withont regard to 
 donbtful disputation, appears to meet all healthy 
 workings of the human mind, with a security resid- 
 ing in itself against all dangerous excess. And let 
 it not be lost sight of, that the interpretation thus 
 provided is not that of an individual, however high 
 his name, or title to be held in reverence. For the 
 more weighty part, it is assuredly the judgment of 
 the collective body of Christians, as entertained and 
 understood not only in the days next following the 
 introduction of the New Testament, but even ante- 
 cedently to its existence. It is not, therefore, alto- 
 gether based on mere reasoning and process of 
 deduction ; but, in some measure, on the evidence 
 of the interpreters' own senses ; a point which surely 
 gives to primitive interpretation a separate and rare 
 advantage over any other, and must accord best with 
 the doctrine of " Jesus Christ the same yesterday, 
 and to-day, and for ever." 
 
 And how will this same view of Scripture and 
 the Church in harmony, work its effects ? In the 
 most natural and easy manner ; and with no feeling 
 of constraint at all to reverent minds, except where 
 it is absolutely needed. Are any of ourselves (for 
 I am speaking to none others) inclined to fall into 
 the peril of over-straining, or perverting Holy Scrip- 
 ture by some uncertain, or, it may be, rash con- 
 struction or wilfulness of private interpretation ? 
 Let such consult and hear the Church ; particularly 
 as speaking through the plain and long-acknow-
 
 32 
 
 ledged sense of its more primitive devotions. They 
 will see that assuredly borne out by the unerring 
 standard ; while such will not be found the case in 
 any thing like equal measure with their own doubt- 
 ful speculation. If by such reference, and con- 
 sequent submission to so dispassionate, and high, 
 and safe an authority, they be kept back from 
 ruinous error — or, at the least, from error to be 
 afterwards repented of — where is the room for any 
 other feeling than a devout thankfulness ? Must it 
 not presently be felt to have been good for them to 
 be restrained ? Does our temptation, on the other 
 hand, lie rather to the opposite excess, and towards 
 an exalting of the Church beyond the warranty of 
 Holy Scripture ? Let any new, or seemingly ex- 
 travagant pretence of power or ascendancy be 
 brought into the balance of " the law and of the 
 testimony." If so it shall be found to lead us into 
 a strait demanding fresh " development," and there 
 be no safe ground discernible on which to look for 
 such ; a point for calm submission is arrived at there 
 also, and is to be accepted with a like thankfulness. 
 In all our ordinary practice, the joint result of the two 
 counterpoising forces may be summed up as giving 
 us a safe possession of the truth " rightly divided," 
 and with it, of all healthful spiritual liberty. 
 
 Let it not be forgotten (in conclusion) that, as 
 there is abundant scope allowed for intellectual ex- 
 ercise within the bounds prescribed to us, so there 
 is obviously not less ample room for personal ex-
 
 33 
 
 ertion. Nothiug has now been said of that. But 
 duties and responsibihties are best spoken of by 
 voices of authority. All that has been attempted 
 now, has been to show a place of shelter for our 
 thoughts amidst besetting trials, through a familiar 
 argument, which, trite as it may have appeared in 
 separate details, may yet be found of useful power 
 in its continuity ; especially, perhaps, to those among 
 us who have to labour in the loneliest fields, with 
 fewest means and least immediate encouragements. 
 Its greatest general usefulness, however — if it be 
 sound, as I should hope, in its material points—may 
 lie in helping towards just discernment between 
 permanent principles, and variable (and so far 
 comparatively unimportant) practices ; in other 
 words, between the vital elements of an enduring 
 Church, and usages which, however excellent, do 
 not affect its sure foundations. And not a little 
 need does there appear to be, of our becoming 
 fortified with carefully-considered judgment upon 
 this head, before the hour of trial comes upon us. 
 If, in the righteous and unerring counsels of our 
 Supreme Head, there shall be darker times in store 
 for our own Church, such as will perilously try the 
 spirits of many — it must be an advisable thing that 
 we should not allow such evil day to take us by 
 surprise. Yet, as things are, so many seem to look 
 for danger with so partial a fear, and so exclusively 
 from a single quarter, as to allow themselves but 
 little power of observing from whence the cloud is 
 
 c
 
 34 
 
 really arising. Our Church has shaken oft* before, 
 and could shake off" again, concrescences of super- 
 stition or deceit ; but " if the foundations be de- 
 stroyed, what can the righteous do?" Let us 
 beware alike of folse alarms and of unworthy 
 compromises ; and may the grace and mercy of 
 the Lord be with us, that in the day of proof we 
 may be found faithful !
 
 APPENDIX. 
 
 [See p. 9.] 
 
 The illustrations which follow may serve sufficiently to evidence 
 the speculative temper of the times in theological matters, and 
 also to exhibit different patterns of development, with their re- 
 spective tendencies or ascertained results. They are left to 
 speak for themselves, with very little of remark. 
 
 No. I. 
 
 " Perhaps I ought more distinctly to have stated what I mean 
 by this growing school, whose theology derives much of its 
 character from the works — especially the critical and exegetical 
 works — of the great Protestant writers on the Continent. This 
 school, though distinctly Protestant, by no means confines its 
 sympathies to Protestantism. Its theological predilections are 
 Catholic enough to appreciate all symptoms of intellectual vigour 
 and earnest thought, wherever they are to be found. My belief 
 is, that this school contains by far the greatest amount of the 
 talent of the rising generation. Now there can be no doubt that 
 it is a most essential characteristic of this school, to promote free 
 discussion and patient inquiry on all subjects, as the only sure 
 method of arriving at truth ; and that its members generally look 
 with no very friendly eyes even on the easy bonds })y which our 
 existing tests confine the range of our intellects. This school, 
 I suspect, will soon be found to contain the best scholars, 
 
 c 2
 
 36 
 
 metaphysicians, and poets, of the rising age. It contains men 
 of very various characters, who differ in many matters of opinion, 
 and who, perhaps, often fancy themselves to belong to opposing 
 parties ; but they are all united by the same eclectic-philoso- 
 phical spirit, and the same admiration of intellect, wherever it 
 develops itself — an admiration which seems sometimes in danger 
 of leading them astray from the simplicity of the Gospel. 
 
 If the men of this school can be saved from too 
 
 latitudinarian and rationalizing a spirit — if their eclecticism does 
 not degenerate into indifference or scepticism — if they can be 
 made really to appreciate the vital importance of evangelical 
 truth maintained in all its distinctive features, while they protest 
 against the narrow-mindedness which would divorce it from the 
 pursuits of intellect — if they can be made to sympathize with 
 moral, as much as they now do with intellectual vigour — it is 
 to this school that we must look as the best hope of the genera- 
 tion that is to stand in our place when we are dead." — Letter to 
 the Vice-Chancellor of Oxford. By A. C. Tait. D.C.L. pp. 16, 
 17. (Note.) Blackwood and Son, 1845. 
 
 No. II. 
 
 Since the introduction of the Gospel, "human nature has 
 made great progress, and society experienced great changes ; 
 and in this advanced condition of the world, Christianity, instead 
 of losing its application and importance, is found to be more and 
 more congenial and adapted to man's nature and wants. Men 
 have outgrown the other institutions of that period when Chris- 
 tianity appeared — its philosophy, its modes of warfare, its policy, 
 its public and private economy ; but Christianity has never 
 shrunk as intellect has opened, but has always kept in advance 
 of men's faculties, and unfolded nobler views in proportion as 
 they have ascended. The highest powers and affections which 
 our nature has developed, find more than adequate objects in 
 this religion. Christianity is, indeed, peculiarly fitted to the 
 more improved stages of society, to the more delicate sensibi-
 
 37 
 
 lities of refined minds, and especially to that dissatisfaction with 
 the present state, which always grows with the growth of our 
 moral powers and affections. As men advance in civilization, 
 they become susceptible of mental sufferings to which ruder 
 ages are strangers ; and these Christianity is fitted to assuage. 
 Imagination and intellect become more restless, and Christianity 
 brings them tranquillity by the eternal and magnificent truths, 
 the solemn and unbounded prospects which it unfolds. The 
 fitness of our religion to more advanced stages of society than 
 those in which it was introduced, to wants of human nature not 
 then developed, seems to me very striking. The religion bears 
 the marks of having come from a Being who perfectly understood 
 the human mind, and liad power to provide for its progress. 
 This feature of Christianity is of the nature of prophecy. It was 
 an anticipation of future and distant ages ; and when we con- 
 sider among whom our religion sprung, where, but in God, can 
 we find an explanation of this peculiarity ? '* — Dr. Channing's 
 Discourse, March 21st, 1821. 
 
 The comparatively early date of this extract gives it the 
 greater value, as being more illustrative of the quality of leaven 
 which has been fermenting. The writer of it has been 
 since immeasurably ovit-stripped by some of his transatlantic 
 countrymen ; but a later declaration of his own will abun- 
 dantly suffice to show the natural tendency of such develop- 
 ments. 
 
 " He next gave us an account" (says Capt. Basil Hall, 
 Travels in North America, vol. i. p. 115-16), " of his share in 
 the progress of the controversies to which he alluded, and ex- 
 plained again and again to us, in a variety of different shapes, that 
 his great end in advocating the Unitarian, or Liberal doctrines, 
 was to set the human mind entirely free on religious subjects, 
 without any reference — he earnestly assured us — to one sect more 
 than another, but purely to the end that there might be, in the 
 world at large, the fullest measure of intellectual independence of 
 which our nature is capable. He spoke a good deal of the 
 Christian dispensation, to which, however, he ascribed no especial
 
 38 
 
 illuminating powers, but constantly implied that every man was 
 to judge for himself as to the degree and value of the light shed 
 by Revelation. Reason and conscience, according to his view of 
 the matter, ought to be our sole guides through life ; and the 
 efficacy of our Saviour's atonement was not, as far as I could 
 discover, even once alluded to, except for the purpose of setting 
 it aside." ..." The Christian religion, he told us, as first 
 preached by the Apostles, was well suited to those early times ; 
 but, according to him, it soon became corrupted, and was never 
 afterwards purified, even at the Reformation. Much, therefore, 
 still remained to be done ; and one step in this great work, he led 
 us to infer, was actually in progress before us, in the extension of 
 Unitarianism." 
 
 No. III. 
 
 " The increase and expansion of the Christian Creed and 
 Ritual, and the variations which have attended the process in the 
 case of individual writers and Churches, are the necessary at- 
 tendants on any philosophy or polity which takes possession of 
 die intellect and heart, and has any wide or extended dominion. 
 From the nature of the human mind, time is necessary 
 for the full comprehension and perfection of great ideas. 
 The highest and most wonderful truths, though communicated to 
 the world once for all by inspired teachers, could not be compre- 
 hended all at once by the recipients — but, as received and trans- 
 mitted by minds not inspired and through media which were 
 human, have required only the longer time and deeper thought 
 for their full elucidation. This may be called The Theory of 
 Developments." — Newman, Essay on Development, p. 27. 
 (As quoted in Quarterly Review, No. cliv. p. 414.) We know 
 too well where this theory has found a present end.
 
 39 
 
 No. IV. 
 
 But every School would seem to have its own theory on this 
 subject. Most widely different from that of the preceding writer 
 (so different, indeed, as to declare itself opposed to it, as true to 
 false) is that which an eloquent, and pious, and highly imagin- 
 ative champion of " the fitness of Holy Scripture for upholding 
 the spiritual life of men," contends for as " a true idea of Scrip- 
 tural developments." But here it is extremely difficult to state 
 a view so overlaid with gorgeous imagery and poetical diction, so 
 as to be surely clear of misrepresenting it. But let an extract, 
 meant to be taken fairly, present the notion of this writer as it 
 best may. It is abridged, but I would hope not garbled: — 
 
 "Shall we determine, (he asks,) to know no other theology, 
 no other results of Scripture, save those of the Church of the 
 first ages ?" . . . " Or again, were it not as great a mistake, 
 as partial a view upon the other side, to require that the theology 
 of the Reformation should be an ultimate term and law to us — to 
 say that we would know nothing further, and to look, respectfully 
 it may be, but still coldly, on any truths which were not at that 
 day counted vital ?" . . . " We may purpose, indeed, to 
 live on what others have done, the mighty men of the days which 
 are past, the fathers or revivers of our faith ; and we may count 
 that their gains will as much enrich us as they enriched them. 
 But this will not prove so indeed ; for it is a just law of our being, 
 one of the righteous compensations of toil, that what a man wins 
 by his labour — be it inward truth, or only some outward sup- 
 pliance of his need — is ever far more really his own, makes him 
 far more truly rich, than aught which he receives or inherits ready 
 made, at tlie hands and from the toils of others. And they of 
 uliom we speak earned their truth, by toil and by struggle, by 
 mighty wrestlings till the day broke ; watering witli the sweat of 
 their brow, oftentimes with tears as of blood — yea, with the life- 
 blood of their own hearts — the soil which yielded them in return 
 a harvest so large. So was it, and so only, that they came again 
 with joy, bearing their sheaves with them. And would we do
 
 40 
 
 the same — let us first indeed see that we let nothing go — that we 
 forfeit no part of that which we inherit at their hands : but also 
 with a just confidence in that Blessed Spirit who is ever with His 
 Church, who is ever leading it into the truth which it needs — let 
 us labour, that through prayer and through study, through earnest 
 knocking, through holy living, that inexhausted and inexhaustible 
 word may render up unto us our truth — the truth by which ive 
 must live — the truth, whatsoever that be, which, more than any 
 other, will deliver us from the lies with which we in our time are 
 beset, which will make us strong where we are weak, and heal us 
 where we are divided, and enable us most effectually to do that 
 work which our God would have done by us in this our day 
 of toil." — Trench, Hulsean Lectures, 1845, pp. 106-8. 
 
 In this we have undoubtedly the mind of a devout believer ; and 
 there is much in it to which both heart and judgment may consent. 
 Yet does it not too much appear, in some respects, to indicate a 
 hope of something more like new revelations, than only fresh and 
 lawful applications of the old — and, still more certainly, to open 
 into possible results, such as would surely make the fancy of 
 some, and the fanatical zeal of others, the judges and expositors 
 of Scripture doctrine ? 
 
 None of these passages, however, are quoted with the slightest 
 view of controversy ; but, as before said, simply for purposes of 
 illustration. If they may serve that turn, it is enough. The 
 reader who may wish to watch more daring flights, may find 
 some in an article on " Pantheistic Tendencies," in the last num- 
 ber (lii.) of the Christian Remembrancer. Those who agree with 
 the present writer in fearing that there is more or less of error 
 and danger in all, will probably agree also, that their worst danger 
 lies in that confusion and intermixture of truth which is traceable 
 in all; and their error, in too much substitution o^ intellectual and 
 theoretical, for simply dutiful and practical views of our abiding 
 Revelation. 
 
 Gilbert & Rivington, Printers, St. John's Square, London.
 
 LONDON: 
 
 Printed hy Geougk E. Eyre and 'Wili.iaii Spottiswoode, 
 
 Printers to the Queen's most Excellent Majesty. 
 
 For Her Majesty's Stationery Office.