and we believe some other works; and he is well known in connection with the Christian Knowledge Society, and some other church institutions. Mr. Charles Bowdler, a third brother, the author of the pamphlet in our hands, is also highly esteemed for many deeds of piety and philanthropy, and is not unknown as a writer, by his memoir of Mr. Howells, and other works. Assuredly then Mr. Bowdler, thus nurtured in ecclesiastical precincts, could not have addressed himself to an examination of the present controversy in a spirit unfriendly to episcopacy, or church-order; yet having examined the matter, he thinks himself compelled to come to the following conclusions. "1. There is, in Scripture, no absolute appointment of any system of church government. "2. Nor any example of such a system as is contended for by the advocates of apostolical prelatical succession. whose work is marred. His atonement is incomplete, his righteousness insufficient. His intercession and the office of the Holy Spirit are both put aside. "4. Spirituality is buried in the grave of forms. "5. The sacraments are surrounded with superstition, and changed in their nature and use. 6. And the Scriptures being put aside as an imperfect revelation, new doctrines are taught, new sacraments instituted, new observances are required, on the alleged foundation of the Catholic Church, as being the authoritative interpreter of all that is written, and the equally authoritative revealer of the mind of the Spirit. "7. Ceremonies are multiplied, and the kingdom of God is no longer righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Ghost. The office of the ministers of the Gospel is of course entirely changed, and their true character lost. Their assumed prerogative is to offer sacrifice to God, and intercede with him for the people, instead of being faithful stewards, dispensing his word, and pointing out the only path through faith to salvation. They are supposed to be alone initiated in the mysteries of the faith; to be in immediate communication with its Divine Founder, and to influence, if not "3. There is no sufficient proof of actually administer, the judgments of any descent from the apostles. 4. The line has been broken repeatedly. "5. There has been a flood of intervening corruption. "6. The initiatory rite itself has been wanting in its valid administration. "7. There was an abandonment of the whole system and scheme at the Reformation, when the Church of England became a distinct church. "It remains only that a little be said on the consequences and results of that with which the Jews were intoxicated of old, and many like-minded Christians are intoxicated still. "This at least is no matter of speculation or conjecture: it is already on record in the history of the Church of Rome. And if much that is corrupt in the faith and practice of that church has not yet been avowed and adopted, sufficient indications have been afforded of the length to which some of the leading advocates of the system under consideration are willing to go. "1. Tradition with all its infirmity is substituted for the truth of God. "2. There is a reservation of the leading truths of the Gospel. "3. The character of the church of Christ is changed. She is made to stand in the place of the Redeemer, heaven.' "Thunders more awful than those of Sinai are heard. All is discouragement : the object of the Christian ministry in their hands being apparently to try how difficult, how painful, how uncertain the Christian's course can be made with that ministry, and how impossible without it ! In a word, their steps are dark, their ministrations mysterious; suited rather to the office of a priest of some heathen mythology than of ambassadors from Christ, ministers of the everlasting Gospel, whose feet are beautiful upon the mountains, as those that bring glad tidings, that publish peace. "The aspect which it wears towards those of other communions is fearful in the extreme. No purity of faith, no labour of love, no personal piety, no manifestation of the fruits of the Spirit, will avail anything. Though stedfast in faith, joyful through hope, and rooted in charity, they pass not through the eye of this needle, and shall not see the kingdom of God. 66 Nevertheless, what saith the Scripture? The Lord knoweth them that are his. Under whatever form of ecclesiastical polity a man may live, it still holds good, and is an infallible truth, that if he believe and obey the Gospel dered the matter so clear, that they could not believe that any person who carefully weighed the proofs could doubt about it. They say, "It is evident unto all men, diligently reading Holy Scripture and ancient authors, that from the Apostles' time there have been these three orders of ministers in Christ's church; bishops, priests, and deacons." Evi Mr. Bowdler had previously dence, however, strikes men differemarked: : “To avoid the possibility of mistake, however unimportant such a mistake might be, I desire to express my hope that nothing may be found in the following pages to indicate an undervaluing of episcopacy, as being now beyond comparison preferable to any other form of ecclesiastical polity; or of the Church of England itself as a blessing to the dominions in which it is established. All that I desire to combat is the alleged necessity of Apostolical Succession to that Episcopacy, leading as it does to an undue exaltation of the priesthood, and to the evils that follow in its train." Now seeing how highly Mr. Bowdler values episcopacy practically, we can scarcely doubt that if it had not been for the overwrought statements of which we have lately heard so much, he would have been well content to allow himself and his neighbours the happy enjoyment of that form of ecclesiastical polity which he esteems to be " beyond comparison preferable to any other," without thinking it necessary to publish a pamphlet to shew why he does not consider it of divine right. For ourselves, notwithstanding all the difficulties which he urges, and most of which are familiar to those who have carefully examined the question, the arguments in favour of the divine appointment of episcopacy appear to us not only to preponderate, but to be solid and satisfactory. The compilers of the preface to the Ordination offices in our Prayer-book, consiCHRIST. OBSERV. No. 49. rently; and perhaps the writers of the Ordination preface intended tacitly to include what Wheatly on another occasion has expressed by the words "without prejudice." He says: "Now it is plain to any one who will read the Scripture without prejudice, that there were three distinct orders of ministers in the Christian Church in the Apostles' days, which were designed to continue to the end of the world." Wheatly and the compilers of the Ordination preface thought the point so lucid that if any man failed to arrive at their conclusion, it must be for want of reading "diligently," or from reading with "prejudice.' And we confess that when we look at the bearings of the whole matter, or take only two or three leading points, such as the case of Timothy and Titus, and the Angels of the Apocalyptic churches, the question as to its essential characters seems to us so well settled, that, we repeat, we are not shaken by the objections which have been urged, and many of which are condensed and presented with great ability by Mr. Bowdler, with whom however we will not now debate the question; first, because it is quite beside our present subject; secondly, because a volume would not suffice for it; and thirdly, because even if we wrote one, we could only say what has been already said in many, and better than we could say it, but Mr. Bowdler thinks not satisfac I " torily. That he has read "diligently as a considerate Christian, though a layman, is not questioned; and and "prejudice prejudice" against episcopacy he could have none, for he was educated in it, and says that he loves it, and believes it to be not only lawful, but the best system of church government; so that we the more lament that so careful and conscientious a man has not been able to work his way a step higher. But our chief object, in this cursory notice of his pamphlet, was only to shew the reaction caused by the Trac tarian system; the results of which are so monstrous, that a calmlyjudging and scripturally-enlightened mind must instantly feel there is something wrong somewhere ; and though to us it seems clear that the fault is in an intermediate part of the chain, many, like Mr. Bowdler, will trace it back to the very first link-the divine appointment of episcopacy; and such men will not be silenced by the authoritative brow-beating of the Tractators, who, instead of calmly reasoning the matter upon scriptural grounds, speaking "as to wise men," and, like St. Paul himself, adding, "Judge ye what I say;" superciliously place themselves on a popish elevation of infallibility, and tell the laity that their duty is to listen and obey, and not to argue. But men will argue; and, where concerns of high import are involved, it is not only their privilege, but their duty, to examine for themselves; and they will not be, and ought not to be, silenced by the Hildebrandian, Tridentine, Smithfieldian, and Inquisitional argument, that the voice of the clergy for the time being (even if it could be collected, which it cannot; or were unanimous, which it is not ;) is the voice of the Church, and the voice of the Church is the voice of God. The pamphlet of Mr. Bowdler is perhaps but the firstfruits of a harvest of controversy upon the first principles of church governn.ent; and though for ourselves we are prepared to maintain, not only as Mr. Bowdler admits and contends for, that episcopacy is lawful, expedient, and the best form, but also that it is of divine sanction, we do not disguise from ourselves the fact that an able Presbyterian, or even a Congregationalist, may place the facts of the case in such a light, that not a few nominal Episcopalians, unacquainted with the real merits of the question, and unwilling, or unable, to follow out a course of inferential reasoning, may be dazzled and led astray by the glare of what they consider lucid argument. It so happens, as every well-informed friend of episcopacy knows, that the most weighty considerations by which its apostolic claims are supported, are not those which appear loose upon the surface; so that the first step of a person who believes prescriptively, ignorant of the real facts, may be backward, in order that he may recede from untenable ground, and tread on that which is solid. For instance, an unlettered man educated as an episcopalian, not meeting with the word "priest" in the New Testament, as applied to an order in the Christian ministry; further, not knowing that the word is only a corruption of Presbyter,* and that Presbyter is the Greek for Elder, with an English termina tion; and again, not knowing but then they ought to take care, that no part of the real question so far as they are concerned, that hinges upon the word "bishop," it shall be conducted in a fair and as used in the New Testament, even friendly spirit. But it will becomes puzzled, and seems to not be so if it is to be in opposihave lost ground when a non- tion to a spirit of priestly domiepiscopalian (whether Presby- neering, and lording it over God's terian or Congregational) begins heritage. Men will in this case with some fragmentary small be glad to find a flaw in the title; Greek to shew him that bishop does the wish will be father to the not mean bishop, or priest priest. thought; and the advocate for He is not aware that episcopa- episcopacy as a divinely appointed lians build nothing upon the use order, will not have to commence of convertible and interchange. with a friendly, candid, able obble words, either in the original jector, like Mr. Bowdler, who or as translated. Even if Timothy upholds and loves the institution, had been distinctly called in the though not on exclusive grounds, New Testament Bishop of Ephe- but with hard, cavilling, levelling, sus or Titus of Crete, episcopa- and scornful opponents, who will lians would build nothing merely feel delight in treading episcoupon that nomenclature as re- pacy to the ground, with all its gards episcopacy being a distinct appendages, as in the days of the order from presbytery; for pres- Commonwealth. byters are admitted to have been called bishops; the disparity is proved by other considerations. But this the unlearned do not understand; when they read of a bishop in the New Testament they think of a distinct order; and when set right upon this point by a litigant against episcopacy, instead of an advocate for it who wishes them to comprehend the real facts, they are prepared for the conclusion that having mistaken the sense of a word they are wrong altogether, and that "there is not one word about bishops, as a distinct order, in the New Testament." Now the right way to prevent this consequence is to shew even the most ignorant of our flocks, as may be done, the substantial grounds upon which episcopacy rests; and not to tell them that the laity, especially the unlearned, are to believe what the Church believes and that each man's own parish priest is to him, in effect, the church. The Anglican clergy ought to be prepared for, nay to court, strict investigation; And here we mark with much concern the conduct of some among us, especially of the sect of the Tractators, who are doing all that in them lies, motive only excepted, to raze the foundations of the Anglican Church. We are still more grieved to see the Tractarian spirit which has gone abroad among our fellow-churchmen in Scotland, where Laudism is so rife and rampant, that it is actually courting persecution by Popish assumptions. Even the bishops of that church, though more discreet than some of their younger clergy, have discarded the word "Episcopal " from their documents, in order to assert that there is not, and cannot be, any church which is not episcopal; and instead of saying, as heretofore, "the Episcopal Church in Scotland." they call themselves "the Reformed Catholic Church in Scotland;" and so describe and sign themselves officially in the circular by which they apply for aid for the erection of a college. The people of Scotland are in a flame of indignation at this do cument, by which they are in effect told that the Established Church of Scotland is no part of Christ's Catholic Church, and that it is not Reformed; that it is only Samaria, Rome being our true "home," though unhappily it is rather bitter at present against its penitent children. The Archbishop of Canterbury and the Bishop of London have stedfastly opposed this spirit in the Christian Knowledge Society; and many English clergymen and laymen who wished to befriend our sister Episcopal Church in Scotland, will decline responding to an appeal which makes them declare that there are no Christians in Scotland who are not of that church. We have included in our list the absurd, and not very seemly, book, entitled 'On Sex in the World to Come," for the purpose of shewing how perseveringly the disciples of the Tractarian school are interweaving their notions with all subjects and discussions. The Reverend writer argues that "there issex in souls;" that therefore angels and glorified spirits are male and female; that "the die in which our (human) bodies are cast is the one universal die used throughout the creation of God for all spiritual beings;" that there is Platonic love in heaven; that heaven would not be heaven without it; that it is "a paradise of sense though not of sensuality;" that it were absurd to suppose that a woman on whom love and homage have always waited; whose pure but impassioned nature has never been without its counterpart objects, to whom friendship however noble would be but an insipid exchange for those keener and more exquisite feelings which are to her as the breath of life. . exchanging the caresses of parents for the adoring fondness of a husband; to whom the tones of love have become a want; . . . in whose gay halls neither mirth, nor song, nor dance have ever failed . whose heaviest sin it was to look askance upon her pretty self reflected in some crystal brook.. that the heroine of this sentence' would be happy in heaven if there were not sex, or dance, or impassioned nature, or adoring fondness; that we shall have "personal loves" in heaven, not a "placid and equal good-will for that raptured love we prize here so dearly;" that "the Almighty has made woman the chief depositary of his most godlike attributes;' nevertheless that when he willed to transfuse into mankind his own likeness, "two sexes" were necessary, for "either alone would have formed a most mutilated and defective image of the divine qualities;" that there are the heroic virtues and the gentle graces; and that the actions ascribed to angels are so "dissimilar and uncongenial," that "they evidently require for their performance opposite, if not incompatible, moods of mind and temperament," so that it is incredible "they could both be executed by the same beings;" that the difference is such as implies "a difference of sex to account for," as for example that female angels watch over infants, and male angels execute martial deeds; for surely, says Mr. Haughton, "they to whom it was given to wield the brandished sword of God, and to hasten our lingering parents out of Eden, could not have been beings of a kindred mould with those who bear especial favour to children, and love the innocent brightness of their countenances, and haunt them night and day, and cause a crysome child to smile;" that it is "a baseless fancy that the bliss of angels is ever full and unvarying," for that they |