mined stand, upon the principle, which, mutatis mutandis, may be expressed in the words of our Lord: "The Church was made for man, not man for the Church."

The Romanists would not probably openly proclaim the principle, and would by their casuistry explain away its evil consequences. And those who follow the practices of Rome generally do it blindly, without being aware of the evil principles which they involve, and the evil consequences which will ensue. And this error of trying to escape from the world before the time, of making the Church the kingdom of heaven, and none of the Church but those who are separated from the world, is an error the principle of which is found working evil in men of all denominations, in the Plymouth sect as much as in the Church of Rome.

The baptized are the Church; to the whole body the clergy minister, gathering all the members and preparing them for the kingdom of heaven. "For we preach not ourselves (saith St. Paul), but Christ Jesus the Lord, and ourselves your servants for Jesus' sake. For though I be free from all, yet have I made myself servant unto all, that I might gain the more." To accomplish this they must needs be in the world, as those to whom they minister are there; and the last prayer put up by our Lord demonstrates it: "I pray not that thou shouldest take them out of the world, but that thou shouldest keep them from the evil." (John xvii.) The right discharge of the offices of life is as much the duty of a Christian towards the world, as the diligent waiting on the offices of religion is his duty towards God. Indeed, the two are inseparably connected; for right principles and strength to fulfil the duties of life can only be acquired through religion; and the diligent and faithful discharge of these duties is practical religion. "Let your light so shine before men that they may see your good works." "If any man provide not for his own, he hath denied the faith, and is worse than an infidel." And the exhortations to faithful practice of the relative duties, between husbands and wives, parents and children, masters and servants, rich and poor, kings and subjects-rendering, in short, honour wherever honour is due, make up the bulk of the apostolic epistles; while the opposite practices of forbidding to marry, abstaining from meats, separating themselves, becoming heady and high-minded, are spoken of as the evil characteristics of the last times.

God, who foresaw the evils, provided the true counterpoise in the Sabbath, or the Lord's day; and the right use of that day consists, not in shutting our eyes for twelve hours to the evils it was meant to counteract, but in acknowledging the evils, and

applying God's remedy. The world is still under the curse; the kingdom of heaven is not yet come on the Lord's day we gain strength to overcome the world, and may enjoy a foretaste of that heavenly kingdom to which we are pressing forward. And above all other means of strength, above every other foretaste of heaven, on that day we partake together, as one body, of the highest ordinance in the Church-we feed on the heavenly food of the body and blood of the Lord. Which special distinction of the day gave occasion to the early fathers of calling the Lord's day "the day of bread," as we find in Chrysostom. (Hom. v., De Resur.) It is into union with our risen Lord that we enter through this sacrament; deriving strength from Him, who hath all power in heaven and earth, as Head of the Church; and showing forth the efficacy of his death by overcoming sin in our mortal bodies, until he shall come to raise our vile bodies, and fashion them according to his own glorious body, and the head and members of the Church shall be in all respects conformable. "We shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is" (1 John iii. 2).

The Lord's day, as set apart from worldly occupations, is the only opportunity we have of anticipating at all that meeting which all Christians expect, "the general assembly and church of the first-born, whose names are written in heaven." And the sacrament is that act of worship which brings those thus assembling into unity. "The cup of blessing which we bless, is it not the communion of the blood of Christ? The bread which we break, is it not the communion of the body of Christ? For we being many are one bread and one body; for we are all partakers of that one bread." It is broken for distribution, that thereby faith in each member may lay hold of a real sacramental unity; recognizing one common fall, and one common redemption; entering by faith into one common hope of the Churchthe resurrection and glory to be revealed in the coming and kingdom of the Lord. The Roman practice of withholding the cup from the laity is tantamount to saying that they need not, or have no part in, the redemption by the blood of Christ. Their solitary mass, by the priest alone, is a still greater offence, as putting him in the place of Christ, and making him engaged in a vicarious and propitiatory work. And their raising the whole clergy to such a place, in reference to the laity, might by parity of reasoning apply to the relation of the Church to the world-might sustain the monstrous absurdity, that the Church can, by its faith and works, save others who are not in the Church -save the heathen-save the whole world, without any faith on

their part, without their personal knowledge of Christ, without their actual participation of the means of grace within the bosom of the Church. "How shall they call on Him in whom they have not believed? and how shall they believe in Him of whom they have not heard? and how shall they hear without a preacher? So then faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God."

Puritanical austerity, and copying the Jews, and regarding the Sabbath as only a day of rest after toil, have tended to degrade the Lord's day in the estimation of some, and made it appear to be a day of gloom, and weariness, and ennui; while the opposite mistakes in others, of making the relaxation from secular engagements to be a relaxation of all restraint, and an abandonment to the fuller gratification of their natural tastes and propensities, which a day of leisure allows them to indulge in, is a still greater abuse of the day. Formalism, whether in the Puritanical or Papal garb, cannot satisfy the mind of man; we require something better than restraint, we seek an object strong enough to attract and render the restraint unnecessary; and if this be not presented the strong mind will vindicate its own nobility, will burst the restraint at any hazard, and seek its own objects, and pursue them with the more eagerness, whether they be good or evil.

The spirit of man has to be satisfied; forms cannot satisfy this-nothing short of God himself can satisfy godlike man. But man instinctively feels that he is a sinner, and instinctively dreads appearing in the immediate presence of the pure and holy God. Therefore, as long as he can make a compromise between his godlike cravings and his instinctive dread, and get any person, or any thing, to stand between him and God, telling him something about God, without bringing him into contact with God, he will go on in any round of formalism, however burdensome. Το put an end to this-to break down the barrier between God and man, to satisfy our instinctive cravings and allay our instinctive fears, Christ came. He was man, but he was also God; he came to reveal God and satisfy our cravings-he came to die for man, and put an end to our fears. In coming to Christ we come to God, for he and the Father are one; and in coming to Christ we come to a brother, touched with a fellow feeling for all our infirmities, to one who was tempted in all points like as we are, yet without sin; and to one who hath already made atonement for all our sins.

And this is the test of the Christianity of all forms-do they reveal God, or do they hide him? Do they bring us into contact

with God, or are they interposed between us and him? In short, is Christ recognized in the form? And so especially of the sacraments in the Church, and of the Christian Sabbath is it Christ alone that we are thinking of him alone we are honouring; following the footsteps and obeying the commandments of Him who is seated at the right hand of God, in the glory which he had with the Father before the foundation of the world, and who is God over all blessed for ever?

If true Christian principles be first implanted and diligently inculcated, together with the introduction of religious forms, and no forms be introduced but such as embody right principles, all will be well. But if forms be mimicked, or carelessly adopted, without considering the principles they involve, or whereto they obviously tend, our folly may perpetrate mischiefs which all the wisdom and power of the Church may be unable to remedy. The religion of nature is, in a certain sense, true; and in the philosophic contemplation of the works of God the Christian may be engaged even on the Lord's day; yet this must not interfere or mingle with Christian worship. The forms of the Roman service are, many of them, decent in themselves, and all of them imposing, and conducive to the end they had in view; but our objection to them is, that the glory of God, the exalting Christ Jesus, is not the end, but that they turn men aside from God to occupy their thoughts with man, or some creature form, any of which, substituted for God, becomes essentially an idol.

But if the people of England should become infected with foreign manners, or if the affectation and imitation of foreign customs should be carried so far as to forget the Lord on his own day, and, after going through a few forms, called religious, the rest of the day should be habitually devoted to mere amusement and recreation, as it is called, we foresee, from the character of the English people, that a scene of riot would ensue, of which nothing ever witnessed on the continent can afford sufficient warning. Religion itself would be subverted thereby ; all the bonds of society would be loosed or snapped asunder; and England, which has long been the admiration of mankind for its social order, would become a gazing stock, a wonder, and a proverb for its immorality of every kind; which may God, in his infinite mercy, avert from us, and from our children, and our children's children, to the latest posterity.

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ART. III.-The Principles of Gothic Ecclesiastical Architecture, elucidated by Question and Answer. By MATTHEW HOLBECK BLOXAM. Fourth Edition. Oxford: Parker. 1841. 2. A Few Words to Churchwardens on Churches and Church Ornaments. Published by the Cambridge Camden Society. Cambridge at the University Press. 1841.

3. A Few Hints on the Practical Study of Ecclesiastical Antiquities. For the Use of the Cambridge Camden Society. Second Edition. Cambridge. 1840.

WITHIN the last few years a change has come over the spirits of our countrymen generally, respecting those interesting structures of a former age, which are to be found in all parts of England-the monuments of the piety of our forefathers, and the evidences of their acquaintance with the fine arts. We allude to our ecclesiastical edifices, whether cathedrals, the remains of monastic establishments now known under the name of abbeys, or parochial churches. Our cathedrals are the glory of the land; our abbey churches are scarcely inferior; and many of our parish churches are, in some respects, superior to all. What, for instance, can be more magnificent than St. Mary Redcliffe Church, in the city of Bristol; the Church of the Holy Trinity, in the city of Coventry; the Temple Church, in the city of London; and many other similar buildings, which still are the admiration of the age? Not many years since, few persons only regarded our churches in any other light than as places for public worship; and, provided the people could be accommodated, no hesitation was manifested in destroying any portion of the interior of these structures, which, in the opinion of a parish vestry, might prevent a few persons from obtaining seats in a crowded church. Happily large numbers of enlightened and active individuals now make it their business to watch over these ancient edifices, with the most scrupulous care; and the result already has been the rescue of many beautiful specimens of the skill of our forefathers from destruction.

Knowing that the public mind has recently been greatly influenced in favour of that desire to preserve our ancient edifices, which has of late years been manifested, we hail with the most unfeigned satisfaction every new work on architecture, or upon any of those collateral subjects which bear upon our older churches. On this account we rejoice to find, that Mr. Bloxam has put forth a new edition of his little work, one of the most delightful books of the day, and which cannot fail to cherish a