himself open to the light on other questions as well as this, which had been reckoned vital to the interests of his party, and we are not without hope that by and by he will become a downright voluntary.

PROGRESS OF THE HAMPDEN CONTROVERSY.

DEFEATED in the Archbishop's court by the refusal of his commissioners to hear the objections they had called for against Dr Hampden, the opposers of his election applied to the civil authority, the Court of Queen's Bench, for an order compelling the primate, or his vicar-general, "to permit and admit" the objectors to appear. The object of the application was chiefly to secure an open and full discussion of the question concerning the power of the Crown in the process of making bishops. The question, accordingly, was debated for four successive days, exclusive of the day occupied in the delivery of the court's judg ment, and afforded a discussion which is probably without a parallel in any court of justice in England since the era of the Reformation. In the dreamy imagination that the canons which ruled the proceedings of the English Church ere it threw off allegiance to the Bishop of Rome, must regulate them still when that allegiance has been transferred to the sovereign, the counsel for the opposers produced such an inundation of authorities from the dark ages, as must have carried away the minds of the judges, had they been disposed to listen to it for a moment. It would seem as if some of the learned bench had a disrelish for the dry husks of canonistic lore which the case was likely to serve up to them, and that the fear of being treated to it led one or more of the ordinary judges, in the division where the case came on, to absent themselves on the occasion. We find, at least, the Oxford party complaining that a change, quite unaccountable by the usual practice in such interchanges, was made in the composition of the bench; and that Mr Justice Erle, once Dr Hampden's leading counsel in the famous M'Mullan case, and who gave his judgment very decidedly against the application, ought not to have been there. The explanation of this departure from the ordinary practice, 'we presume to be, that Mr Justice Erle, probably from his study of the case referred to, found himself competent to enter fully and distinctly on this new question; while the judge he displaced might probably have had to give his opinion in the vague, seesaw manner so remarkable in the two judges who were favourable to the application. The order to compel the receiving of objections was ultimately refused-two judges having voted on each side, which, by the constitution of the court, has the same effect

in an application of this kind as if a majority had decided against it.

The grounds of this decision, as stated by the judges supporting it, display what it is surprising should have been doubted, the utter bondage under which the English church is held by the state, its master. According to Mr Justice Erle, while the right of nominating to a vacant bishopric belongs exclusively to the sovereign, the archbishop has no authority to judge whether the sovereign has properly exercised this right, and must proceed to consecrate, whether approving or not of the person presented. And as for the admitted inconsistency of calling for objections, and then refusing to hear them, "many words still prevail in law at variance with the fact to which they purport to relate." Of this class, according to the same authority, must be reckoned the words of the crier calling for objections to the confirmation of a bishop's election. The continuance of this absurd form, Lord Denman allowed, to be strange and scandalous, and needing amendment by the legislature; but mean time the archbishop's duty in the matter of a bishop's election, was simply to confirm it; and the word confirm, whatever it might mean in old canon law, implied, as used in the statute, no power of examining or judging qualifications. the archbishop found a presentee unfit, all he could do was to petition the sovereign to withdraw him and present another; and, if that petition were refused, he had no relief for his conscience but by himself resigning office.

If

To this issue must come every contest between a state church and the state that creates it. The state will not object to a little talk about freedom, provided there be no risk of its coming to earnest. Indeed, an established church serves the purposes of government all the better that the people imagine themselves free; and, so long as she keeps within the limits prescribed, the government will cheerfully lend a hand to keep up the popular delusion. The "call" of the people in the case of ministers in the Scotch establishment, and the sham of calling for objections against the election of bishops in England, are both sanctioned by Act of Parliament, and, doubtless, were both designed to gratify, by allowing the church a guise of liberty; but, let her begin to act as if her liberty were more than a guise, and she will soon be taught her true position.

The opposition to Dr Hampden has been directed throughout by the Tractarian party, and the manner in which it has been conducted is in harmony with their system. They want us to take our religion from the musty folios of the fathers, and they would have us seek our laws, too, from volumes of canonistical lore, from which the cob

webs have not been brushed for centuries. The Bible for religion, and Acts of Parliament for the government of national affairs, yield too clear a light for their purpose; and they would decoy us where the peering eyes of cloistered Oxford divines, accustomed only to the dim twilight, might give them an advantage, of which the use they would make, it needs no prophet to foretel.

NEW PRIMATE OF ALL ENGLAND.

By the death of the Archbishop of Canterbury, who was suffering under his mortal sickness while the proceedings we have mentioned above were going on, and who just survived their close, a further delay is thrown in the way of Dr Hampden's consecration. By the same event another windfall of church patronage, and that the highest which the Church of England affords, has come into the hands of the Whig administration. The presentation to the two archbishoprics within a few months of each other, and the vacancies thereby created in the episcopal bench, together with the appointment to the new see of Manchester, have yielded to Lord John Russell's ministry rather an extraordinary share of the higher sort of ecclesiastical patronage, and should strengthen the Liberal party in Parliament. The appointment of Dr John Bird Sumner, formerly Bishop of Chester, to the vacant primacy, affords further assurance of the good feeling which exists in her Majesty's Cabinet toward the Protestant party in the English church. This feeling is again put to the test by the vacancy created at Chester; and we have no doubt the election in this case will prove equally creditable to the ministry.

REVIVING PROTESTANTISM IN THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND.

EVANGELICAL Christendom had almost ceased to look to the Church of England as among the defences of Protestant truth. The grievous defection which, for many years back, had been going on among the clergy, had so ruined her good name as one of the daughters of the Reformation, that we had begun to regard her as the most vigorous nurse of Popery to be found beyond the walls of the college de propaganda. We are greedily on the look-out for every thing likely to upset or qualify this opinion, and we have pleasure in noting, for the comfort of others, whatever of such a character presents itself to our view. The manner in which her Majesty's present ministers have disposed of the higher ecclesiastical offices which have fallen within their gift, is fitted, we think, to furnish hope for

the Protestantism of the English church. Already it has proved a check to the Tractarian party, as is sufficiently shown by the opposition which the party raised against the elevation of Dr Lee and Dr Hampden. The promotion of Dr Bird Sumner to the primacy is a highly satisfactory extension of the same line of policy. In our last Retrospect we quoted from a letter, by the prime minister, a passage, in which he administered a highly seasonable caution against the dangers arising from the growing influence of the Anglo-Romanists in this country-a caution which cannot but have weight with a large section of the English church. The proceedings connected with the consecration of Dr Lee to the see of Manchester, are beautifully in keeping with the Protestant zeal which we are willing to think led to his appointment. The consecration sermon was preached by the rural Dean of Birmingham, Mr Garbett, and contained a manifesto for evangelical and Protestant doctrines, most refreshing and hopeful. The text was Acts ii. 47, "The Lord added to the church daily such as should be saved." But before proceeding with his illustration, the preacher stated the correct rendering of the verse "The Lord added them that were saved daily to the church." As will be seen on a moment's reflection, this, the correct translation, goes to destroy the chief heresies of the Romanists and Tractarians. "The statement is not," said the preacher, "that they were added to the church in order to be saved, but that, being saved, they were added to the church. Their salvation was not the consequence of their union with the church; but their union with the church was the consequence of their salvation. The baptism that saved, is the answer of a good conscience toward God. He alone is in a state of salvation whose individual faith unites him with the Saviour. That salvation consists, not in union with the church, but in union with Christ." How could language express more distinctly the absurdity of baptismal regeneration, or of salvation by sacraments of any kind? It is satisfactory to find that Dr Hampden and Dr Lee will have associates on the episcopal bench willing to give effect to the Protestantism of the Church of England creed. We observe that the Bishop of Chichester has refused to grant ordination to a young disciple of the Oxford school who had applied for it; the ground of the refusal being, that the applicant held and professed the doctrines of the Tractarians. Were it not that the rejected candidate can so easily obtain his object by applying to another bishop, as the one in the present instance did, by applying to a prelate of congenial disposition, the Bishop of Lon

don, a few such cases of faithful adherence to a reformed creed might prove of great consequence in arresting the spread of the spurious popery of Oxford.

SCOTTISH PARISH SCHOOLS.

NOTICE has been given of a motion in the House of Commons by Mr Bailie Cochrane, for a select committee to inquire into the duties, emoluments, and present condition of the schoolmasters in Scotland. The purpose of the motion being, as is understood, not only to perpetuate the present sectarian character of the parish schools, but also to increase, by public aid, the salaries of the schoolmasters, the member for Orkney, Mr Anderson, has duly intimated that, when the motion is brought on, he will propose that the object of the committee be enlarged, by adding the following words:" Also to inquire into the expediency and practicability of so far altering the plan and principle of the management of the Scottish parochial schools, as to render them more efficient and available for the education of the children generally of each parish, whatever may be the religious preference or denomination of the parents." Mr Anderson, in a communication to his constituents, requesting the expression of their wishes on the subject, in the form of petitions to parliament, states, that having had a conference with the proper authority, he finds that "the government do not in tend to concur in any addition being made by public aid to the endowments of the parochial schoolmasters, except on condition that the schools shall be open to all denominations." There is good reason to believe that this attempt to open up the constitution of parish schools, so as to remove them from the control of the established church presbyteries and admit into the office of teacher, the best qualified men, without regard to the relation in which they may stand to the state church, will be well supported in the legislature. Now, therefore, is the time for action. If the mind of the community at large were to determine the matter, the present exclusive system could not last a day. We trust the honourable member for Orkney, whose promptitude and decision in this matter augur well for the usefulness and success of the public political career on which he has just entered, will find his hands supported by the friends of unsectarian education throughout the country. We observe that, in the United Pres

bytery of Glasgow, Dr Eadie has given notice of a motion for petitioning parliament on the subject.

DEPRESSION IN MISSIONARY FUNDS.

THE depression which has been experienced in the commerce and manufactures of

Great Britain, within the last twelve months has, we deeply regret to observe, over taken some of the schemes of Christian benevolence, which are the glory and safety, "decus et tutamen," of our country. The Wesleyan Missionary Society has issued a circular calling for extraordinary effort to supplement the deficiency which their annual income has sustained in consequence of the commercial distress. The London Missionary Society, having suffered deeply from the same cause, has published a similar appeal, addressed specially to the more wealthy among its friends and supporters. With a deficiency of L.4000 in the ordinary income, derived from churches and auxiliary societies, and a falling off to an equal amount in the legacies left in its favour within the year, together with an extraordinary expenditure, amounting to an additional L.4000, on the mission to the South Sea islands, the directors require L.12,000 additional, to the receipts of the last year, to save them from falling behind in their pecuniary affairs. We are truly glad to find that nearly L.4000 has already been subscribed in response to this appeal, though the movement has scarcely, as yet, extended beyond the metropolis; and we have no doubt that, ere long, the directors will be entirely extricated from the difficulties which the pressure of the times has created. The fact, that such appeals have been found necessary, is fitted to awaken deep concern in the minds of Christians. Our missionary brethren, far hence among the Gentiles, doing the church's work, fighting the Lord's battles in the distant field of warfare, deserve to occupy a first place in our regards; and, whatever department of our expenditure shall be affected by the straitened times, it is demanded, by common honour and good faith, as well as by the supreme importance of the missionary cause, that they who are bearing the heat and burden of the day should not be allowed to suffer. At such a crisis as the present, our missions present a peculiarly strong appeal to Christians whom God may have blessed with

the abundance of this world.

THE passage in the gospel history to which these words belong, is the only record which is preserved of an encounter between the Saviour and the Sadducees. Probably their general indifference to religion made them much less attentive to his progress than the rival sect, till his growing popularity forced on a coalition between them, to crush him by argument, or by force. The difficulty which they proposed to him, arising out of the case of the seven brethren who had married in succession the same wife, is not fitted to give us an exalted idea of the Sadducean dialectics, or of the skill of the Pharisees in defending a doctrine, against which so frivolous a cavil could pass for a formidable objection.

The Saviour commenced his reply to the Sadducees by the twofold charge of limiting the power of God, and betraying ignorance of the Scriptures. "Ye do err, not knowing the Scriptures, nor the power of God." They limited the power of God by supposing that the present state of society, down to the minutest arrangements of the law of Moses, must be faith

NO. IV. VOL. II.

fully reproduced in a future life-and modern Sadducees have gone uniformly in the same tract, making this world the measure of the universe, and denying the existence of any thing in higher or future worlds which rises above our earthly experience. They also betrayed ignorance of the Old Testament Scriptures, which might have taught them the doctrine of immortality; and it is our Saviour's proof of this charge that we are now to consider.

The Saviour quotes Moses, and not the prophets; for, while the language of the latter is plainer on the subject of immortality, they were regarded by the Sadducees in a somewhat apocryphal light; and perhaps it was the design of the Saviour to show that Moses, whose institution had been perverted into an argument against a future life, had taught it in his writings. It is to be noticed that the Saviour, by his quotation of Moses, attests at once the genuineness and the authenticity of the Pentateuch, a testimony which no scepticism of professedly Christian divines can overturn; and it is to be remarked

G

farther that he quotes in the usual Jewish manner, by referring not to a section or paragraph by number, but to the most important or striking word in it, Moses at the bush, Moses in the bush; that section of the Pentateuch called "The Bush." [The critical reader will find other examples of this style of quotation, Mark iii. 26; Rom. xi. 2.]

The passage in question is Exod. iii. 6. The important question is, what is the argument for the continued existence of the patriarchs, founded on the words, "I am the God of Abraham, of Isaac, and of Jacob?" Some have supposed that it is founded on the word am. "I am the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob," not "I was, or I have been." This, however, proceeds on ignorance of the original Hebrew, in which there is no verb at all, and which reads thus, "I, the God," &c. Others again suppose that, from the very idea of a relation, it logically follows, that if the one being live, the other lives also at the time when the relation is asserted to exist. This, however, by no means follows. Even beings the most closely related may be spoken of under the relative designations when they are no more. Thus David might, without impropriety, have said, "I am the father of Absalom ; if any purpose of designation to those who did not know him would have been served thereby, even after the death of his son. The words would only imply that the relation, having once existed, could not be destroyed; but would not at all imply, that both the related parties continued in life.

Our Lord's argument, I apprehend, rests on a quite different basis. It is not founded on such grammatical or metaphysical considerations, but on moral and spiritual ones. The nerve of the argument is brought to light by the Saviour himself, when he adds, "God is not a God of the dead, but of the living." The name of God is too high and awful to be thus ut

وو

tered in union with the names of beings wholly mortal. He is too grand and venerable a being to connect his eternal existence in this appropriating manner with creatures of a day. Hence he would not have called himself, could not have called himself, the God of the Patriarchs ages after their death, had they wholly died. There would be a manifest incongruity in his admitting into covenant with himself beings so devoid of his image as the Living One. The relation of grace between God and man, is one in which God pledges himself to be all to his creatures that a God can be-and hence, because he lives, they must live also. He could not be the God of those whom he suffered to die; he could not lower himself to the level of men, who must see the grave devour all, and survive themselves the wreck of all that were once called by their name. Nothing could invalidate this conclusion but the physical impossibility of making men immortal. But their God would not assume the name when he could not verify it; would not enter into the relation when he could not develop its appropriate results. The Saviour's argument is parallel to the sublime and bold assertion of the apostle Paul on the same subject-the immortality of the patriarchs, "God is not ashamed to be called their God, for he hath provided for them a city." Could he suffer them to perish, the honour of his name would be gone; their death would be a stain on the glory of his own eternal life. may bury his dead out of his sight, and be still the brother of the departed, acting a brother's part; the land that bore us may cover us, and be still our country; our mother earth that nursed us may take us to a last embrace, and be our common mother still; but let it not be said that God has done all when he has provided for us a grave, or that he can still be the God of those who, after bearing his name, and being marked with the

Man