effusions, half-precatory, half-remonstrant, half-imperative, half-colloquial, required to fill up a certain time, instead of being limited to the wants and feelings of the suppliants; which one, who professed to be a follower and minister of that same Christ, taught in this place.

And then he reflected whether the prayer which our Saviour taught on that occasion, and which is called after his name, might not be considered a sufficient authority for praying by a set-form, and using the same form on different occasions, both private and public; since this form, given at the particular request of one disciple, is the same with that which he delivered to the multitude in his sermon on the mount, about a year previously. And yet, the set-form of prayer contained in the liturgy, had been one principal reason for his leaving the Church. Was this (he thought within himself—and when he relapsed into old thoughts, he always relapsed into his old mode of expressing them, insensibly casting aside the Shibboleth of cant)-was this a proper reason? Was I not precipitate in concluding that the extemporaneous devotional fluency of dissenting ministers, must be the result of inspiration? If it were, it would surely be as perfect in the case of such inexperience as mine, as after years of practice! And then he thought of the sublime and child-like simplicity of the prayers which he used to hear offered, and join in offering, at the parish-church; and a portion of which his father used to offer up nightly in the once happy family circle at home. And then he thought of the inconsistency of dissenters publishing so many set-forms of prayer as he had lately seen, at the very time they nauseated and decried the liturgy, simply because it was a set-form: it appeared to him something very much like jealousy or obstinacy, for they could never excel it.

It had been a standing joke at Idleby to call the liturgy the lethargy of the Church of England, and he had laughed at the joke as a very good one: but, he thought, might not the lethargy be on the side of insincere worshippers, rather than in the form of worship? Mr. Jedediah Beverley too used to describe the liturgy to him as stopping the course of the Lord's Spirit, and muzzling the mouth of prayer. But, in the momentary soberness of his midnight reflections, he could not help asking himself, Can I have any wants to be supplied, which these prayers do not embrace? Can I clothe them in better language? and, if I could, would the words of my lips be any substitute for the meditations of my heart, and render me a more acceptable suppliant unto Him who searcheth it? and was not my mind occupied more than my heart, when I attempted this evening to offer prayer? and am I not generally in the same situation when I listen to these extempore prayers, offered up by others? Was I not more like a pupil reading his theme to an earthly preceptor, and seeking his praise of the composition? Was not my mind more intent upon obtaining the praise of men, than upon offering a devout and humble sacrifice of prayer and praise to Almighty God? Can I discern in all this, any symptoms of what I have often heard dissenters say, and what I so readily-perhaps rashly -believed even of myself, about their ministers having a call to the sacred office? Surely that cannot be the true gospel-church, after all, in which ministers have no better warrant for taking upon themselves the office of apostles than the mere circumstance of their being able to acquire an art. In fact, this little retrospect of what had passed, so distressed and shook his mind-for his mind had not yet become too hackneyed and callous to be incapable of receiving such impressions-that he well-nigh determined to return, the very next day, to his father's roof, taught the same lesson of wisdom as the prodigal, and sure of as glad a welcome. However, the bright light of a June morning, which dispelled the darkness of the night, dispelled also the yet deeper gloom of his recollections: he returned to the society of his fellow-students, and soon forgot, amid the stimulants of the heated devotion of the place, and in the busy round of their occupations and amusements-which were combined in their preaching frequently in the neighbouring villages-all the bitterness resulting from his late ailure custom, which reconciles us, indeed, to most things, if we once suffer

ourselves to be drawn into its vortex, reconciled him before long to similar occasional failures, both in himself and others: in a few months, the tutor's frequent interruption of prayer, to correct a figure of speech, or an ungraceful elocution, ceased to appear a desecration of an act lying so strictly and exclusively between the suppliant and his God: a student might break down in the midst, forgetting and repeating all that he had said before; and even a laugh might circulate around the class of worshippers; and cause, at last, little or no uneasiness in his bosom. He saw that, in time, the art, or knack, or whatever else the reader may please to call it, might be acquired; and he quieted his conscience as to the means employed for this purpose, by reflecting on the good-yes, it was by this time, the good-which was sure to result therefrom hereafter to their respective congregations.-Pp. 61-66.

We request our readers to pause over the above extract. We do not think it at all too highly coloured; and we ask whether sober, practical views of religion can be expected from such a training school?

The next point that strikes us is the able and practical exposure of the voluntary system. Our preacher appears to have been able and conscientious-but what are these qualifications to an audience, who, like the Athenians of old, are ever craving for novelty?

The seats of Bethel chapel were all let, and so attractive did Mr. Langdale's eloquence prove, that they were able to turn to account the greater part of whit had been hitherto free-sittings for the poor. At the end of twelve months, he received rather more than 601.; and a similar sum was left for contingent expenses. From this time, however, his popularity was evidently on the

wane.

A Baptist chapel had been lately opened in an adjoining street, and a minister appointed to it, who, to all the ability of Mr. Langdale, had the good fortune to add a total want of his simple-minded honesty; habitually and coarsely indulging in that keen hatred and round abuse of the Church, which is absolutely necessary to permanent popularity among dissenters, but which, as we have already seen, Mr. Langdale had, shortly after leaving Idleby, made a solemn resolution never to introduce into his discourses. The want of this admixture of the passing events of the day, especially such of them as affected what is technically called the "dissenting interest," had rendered Mr. Langdale's preaching, earnest and impressive as it was, for it came warm from his heart, destitute of that fervour and excitement which his hearers were now beginning to think essential to the successful preaching of the "Gospel." That well-known, but perverted expression of Chillingworth's, "the Bible, the whole Bible, and nothing but the Bible," was the principle by which they chose to fancy themselves distinguished from churchmen; who, they said, did not refer to it as their rule of faith, but to the Thirty-nine Articles; but they soon made it too apparent to Mr. Langdale, that “nothing but the Bible," however popular among their hearers in the abstract, was a very bad motto for preachers to adopt in practice. It occurred to him, that the strict meaning of the word minister is a servant; and he was daily making the discovery that the dissenting heresiocracy use the word in this sense: he congratulated himself upon having, at all events, obtained this piece of information from experience.

"The Bible, the whole Bible, and nothing but the Bible," was soon found to be much better taught by the Baptist minister, who interlarded every sermon with useful practical instruction in reference to the borough and county elections, church-rates, corporation and test acts, subscription to the articles, a state-church, and all the other leading questions connected with civil and religious liberty, than by Mr. Langdale, who chose rather to attempt to convince his hearers that they were not spiritual perfection, than that dissent was; accordingly to the Baptist chapel a great portion of his hearers transferred their subscriptions; for,

when once people have passed the Rubicon from church to dissent, any further transition is easy. So long as congregational independency, or the people's supremacy in church government, is preserved, difference of doctrine iş a matter of comparatively small importance; though, as separate bodies, they refuse to hold communion of sacraments with one another.

To return coming events cast their shadow before; a crisis was evidently approaching; it was daily becoming more manifest, that Mr. Langdale had nearly preached out his popularity; sundry hints and threats were conveyed both to the deacons and himself in anonymous letters; so, at last, he determined to vacate his pulpit,—a resolution which he had far less difficulty in coming to than many in his situation, who may be involuntarily compelled to swim with the stream, from depending for subsistence upon the caprices of their congregation, whom they too often find it more necessary to study than their Bible.— Pp. 83-86.

This is certainly a strong inducement to desert the Established Church, and rest upon the piety and good faith of a sect! But even suppose the minister were of such an easy, and at the same time adroit temperament, as to be able thus to progress with the absurdities of his self-interpreting, and politico-religious flock, a question remains-Are the doctrines of the everlasting and unchangeable gospel to be twisted about, and perverted to meet the shifting gales of popular approbation? Is the Douay Bible to be read in the morning-the Unitarian Testament at noon-and no Bible at night? Poh!

We wish, most heartily, that we could lay before our readers the minutiæ of detail, by which Mr. Langdale was seduced from the Church. We wish that others, who have been similarly misled, would ponder over his misgivings on the subject; and we wish, above all, that the means by which he was reclaimed were, by a kind Providence, placed within the reach of all. Then, indeed, might we hope to see purity and peace in the christian world. Then the dissenting Ephraim would no longer desire to vex our Judah, and Judah would open her arms to receive the repentant Ephraim. Then our weapons of spiritual warfare would be converted into means of establishing an everlasting covenant of christian peace. But to use their own words, our opponents must first become pure in principle, pure in faith, pure in practice, before we can ratify a peace with them, that we can hope or wish to be permanent.

The letter of the apostolic vicar of Somerton, by which Mr. Langdale's" doubts and difficulties" were removed, and the wanderer restored to his family and his God, ought to be read by every individual who desires to understand the constitution of the ministry of Christ. A few extracts, however, is all our limits will admit. After ably protesting against the assumption of the title of Reverend by dissenting teachers, Mr. Palin enters upon the question whether they "really are, or are not, lawful ambassadors of Christ;" upon which he observes,—

"I will begin by considering the sole grounds upon which you consider yourselves divinely commissioned; viz. an inward call, and an outward call: and I

think you will be brought to admit, that the Almighty, in his wisdom, could never design these to be the sole warrant for taking upon ourselves the office, since fallible beings like ourselves are so apt to mistake the one, and be misled by the other; If the trumpet give an uncertain sound, who shall prepare himself for the battle?' We will briefly consider one out of many instances, in which the former has been mistaken-that of Korah-for Korah's was to all intents and purposes an inward call. His argument was, that Aaron took too much upon himself, seeing that all the congregation was holy.' Now Korah was himself a Levite; but as the Levites were above the people, so were the priests above the Levites. Korah, however, was dissatisfied with his subordinate situation; and endeavoured to get, and succeeded in getting, followers, by persuading the people that holiness was not confined to Aaron, for himself and all the congregation were holy;' and that Aaron consequently took too much upon himself,' in confining to his own family the offices of the priesthood; which could just as well, or better, be performed by himself and all the congregation.' Now we have no proof of Aaron taking too much upon himself; for, as to confining the priesthood to his own family, he was only obeying therein a plain command of God, it was nothing of his own devising or seeking, any more than our limitation of the priesthood to those duly ordained in apostolical succession and, as to Aaron claiming to himself any personal holiness, he did no such thing; he only magnified his office, not himself, by claiming for himself and the priests an official superiority over the Levites and congregation, with all the privileges and dignities attached thereto-just as we of the Church of England or rather of the church catholic, for this is less capable of misconstructionclaim an official superiority over dissenting teachers, and other lay people, claim to be exclusively the clergy; claim to be exclusively designated as reverend.' But, Korah did think proper to consider himself personally holy; in other words, that he had a call' to the priesthood. And upon this plea, weak and presumptuous as it was, he and his company gathered themselves together against Moses and against Aaron,' (against the head of the government, that is, and the head of the church, for the same principle of self-will has always, in the long run, rebelled against both,) and the 16th chapter of the Book of Numbers records the awful event which terminated the contest. Now, in what respect does Korah's case differ from a dissenting minister's? The latter says in effect, that the ministers of the church take too much upon themselves, seeing that they and all the congregation are equally holy; thus, disingenuously imputing to us an arrogant claim of superiority on the ground of personal holiness and wisdom, which we should tremble to put forward for ourselves, aware, as we are, that if any man think that he knoweth anything, he knoweth nothing yet as he ought to know; and, at the same time, contrary to christian humility, and in opposition to the knowledge which every teacher, at least, ought to possess, of our unworthiness even when we have done all, unhesitatingly putting in a claim of personal holiness and wisdom for themselves and all the congregation,' as a ground for their considering themselves to be called of God to be the dispensers of his word and sacraments, as well as ministers of the church. However, the only point I wish to insist upon in this matter, is, that Korah was mistaken, in what he considered as an inward call, as the Almighty, who considered (as he always does) the outrage committed against his lawful ministers, as committed against himself, soon fearfully convinced him and one case of a mistaken call is as decisive of the question as a hundred. But dissenters claim infallibility in judging of their emotions in such matters: What part of Scripture shows them to be in possession of any such gift, more than other people? They ignorantly accuse us of retaining too many popish peculiarities: Do we retain that, at all events, the infallibility of our own wayward fancies? I would remind you of the words of Ezekiel, spoken of the dissenting teachers of his day, at least of persons who pretended to divine authority upon the ground of an inward call: They have seen vanity, and lying divination, saying, The Lord saith: and the Lord hath not sent them: and they have made others to hope that they would confirm the word. Have ye

not seen a vain vision, and have ye not spoken a lying divination, whereas ye say, The Lord saith it; albeit I have not spoken? Therefore thus saith the Lord God; Because ye have spoken vanity, and seen lies, therefore, behold I am against you, saith the Lord God.'"-Pp. 110–113.

The subject of the outward call of the congregation is admirably handled; and the priest-makers, we think, will find some difficulties in disposing of the following extracts, with which we take our leave of this admirable little volume.

"It is monstrous for a man to profess such implicit obedience to the example and precepts of Christ, and then, the next moment, to talk of his own holiness as his sole warrant of office as ambassador of Christ,-as if the chief element of holiness were not humility. But, granting him to be really and entirely holy, surely he will allow that his Saviour was, at all events, equally holy.

"And yet we find that He 'glorified not himself to be made an high-priest;' but he which said unto him, 'Thou art my Son,' appointed him by the outward call to the priesthood, and afterwards ratified it by the words heard of the apostles, when he was glorified before them in the mount, Hear ye him.' The apostle also says, 'This honour taketh no man upon himself, but he that is called of God, as was Aaron.' So, the appointment of Aaron is to be the model of all ministerial appointments, to the end of time. And how was Aaron called to it? By an outward call from God; not by anything which he chose to take for an inward call; but a call delivered to him externally, through God's recognised human agent, Moses. And what did Christ himself do? He said on one occasion, I appoint unto you a kingdom, as my Father hath appointed unto me.' To whom was this 'kingdom,' or rule in Christ's church, under Christ, delivered? To all the disciples? No, to the twelve only, as they sat with him at supper. He afterwards said, 'As my Father hath sent me, even so send I you. Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature.' When did he say this? after his resurrection, when we know that above five hundred brethren or disciples saw him at once. And did he deliver this commission to them all? No, only to the eleven, as they sat at meat.' When he was about to ascend into heaven, his valedictory words were, Ye shall receive power, after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you, and ye shall be witnesses unto me both in Jerusalem and in Judea, and in Samaria, and to the uttermost parts of the earth.' And to whom were these words addressed? To all the disciples indiscriminately? No, we are expressly told, 'to the apostles (only) whom he had chosen; to whom also he showed himself alive after his passion by many infallible proofs, being seen of them above forty days, and speaking of the things pertaining to the kingdom of God,'-that is, his church."-Pp. 127-129.

And again,

6

"We have seen, that as Jesus Christ was appointed (in his human capacity) by the Father, so he appointed subordinate ministers under him, viz., the twelve apostles; and so we find these, as chief ministers of the church, when Christ had left it to ascend into heaven, appointing subordinate ministers under them, viz., presbyters and deacons. We do not find St. Paul writing to the Roman, Ephesian, Galatian, Colossian, or Philippian churches, instructing them how to choose, appoint, or call their ministers. All the instructions of this nature to be met with were addressed to two individuals only, appointed by him over certain districts or dioceses, and exercising all the rights and powers of the episcopal office, instructing them in what way they should admit persons to the priesthood. We never find him telling any of the churches, that if any of their members should feel what they imagined to be an inward call, they were to take upon themselves, if more or fewer persons chose to hear them, the pastoral office. On the contrary, we find that Paul and Barnabas, instead of allowing members of