not in the return of Arianism or Socinianism; not in that of Deism or Infidelity; not even in that of Popery and all-confounding liberalism; but in that distinction of malignant ingratitude, which would not only dash the cup of proffered reformation into the faces of those who present it, but would even fix them again to the stake of public reproach, and stigmatize them rather as corrupters than restorers of the truth. This eminency of evil was reserved for the Puseyism of our day, a professed Protestant communion uniting with the papacy to reproach the reformation. There remains but another step; and when all the machinery of salvation by works, now so largely and efficiently worked by churchmen themselves in the very centre of our establishment, shall have had sufficient season to produce its effect, like a vessel from the stocks, our once gallant establishment shall be easily launched into the bosom of popery. All things, reverend fathers in God, are in preparation for this event. We cannot remain as we are; one of two results must happen: our corruption must be either corrected or avenged. God in mercy open your eyes and the eyes of the church to our real condition, before these things come to pass! "And who is sanguine enough to hope, under present appearances, measuring the probabilities of the future with the certainties of the past, that, if the principles and practices of our Protestant reformation be not speedily resorted to, the next ten years shall not witness our constituted Protestant state and our established Protestant church arrive at the same termination? It is a necessary and the only safe conclusion, therefore, that nothing but returning to the sound evangelism of our pure Protestant reformation can, under God, preserve us. state. "Two centuries and a half of declining Protestantism have gone over us, and we are now arriving at its issue. Causes have necessarily produced their effects. An unprotestantized church is producing a rapidly unprotestantizing And is there no remedy? There is. Let the church go back to her reformation,* and the state may go back to reform. For a purely Protestant church must necessarily, under God, produce a purely Protestant state. Shall I sum up the remedy, then, in one word? "REFORMATION OR RUIN!" The Bishop of Calcutta, (Wilson,) in his " Sermon on the Sufficiency of Holy Scripture as the Rule of Faith," observes "Tradition will end once more, if not arrested in its progress, in an open apostasy from Christ. I say once more; for the apostasy of the Church of Rome began from the very point which it is the object of this discourse to oppose, the admixture of human tradition with inspired Scripture in the rule of faith. Al essential article of it. . . . It is plain, that the great apostasy of the latter times was to prevail through the hypocrisy of liars having their consciences seared with a hot iron; and hath not the great idolatry of Christians and the worship of the dead particularly been diffused and advanced in the world by such instruments and agents, who have changed the truth of God into a lie, and worshipped and served the creature more than the Creator, who is blessed for ever?" The Rev. G. S. Faber, in his "Dissertation on the Prophecies," observes-“ A religious apostasy is simply a departure from the purity of the faith; and may be to a greater or to a smaller extent. It by no means necessarily involves a formal abjuration of Christianity. Accordingly, St. Paul considers the giving heed to seducing spirits, and doctrines concerning demons, as sufficient to constitute men apostates, though they should not go the length of renouncing the whole of the faith.' * It would be well if the church went still farther, and that she endeavoured to get rid of every vestige of popery. We are but deceiving ourselves, if we lay the flattering unction to our souls that our church is free from many remnants of popery. It is these remnants, which, being pertinaciously clung to by her clergy, (who, by the way, ought to know better,) that are likely to prove a mill-stone about her neck, and sink her at the last. The language of Archbishop Usher upon this subject is almost prophetic of the present times, when popery is coming in upon us like a ready are the foundations of this apostasy laid in the tenets I have just enumerated. If we once admit another gospel, Antichrist is at the door. Already the chief Romish doctors are hailing the advances of our new divines, and are straining every nerve to regain their footing in the heart of our Protestant country. Rome conceives, and, perhaps, justly, that if she can resume her sway in England, her ascendancy throughout Christendom is secure. Already the method of argument adopted by the Romish schoolmen, and especially the Jesuits, is too exactly reproduced, as we have seen; and the bulwarks reared by our reformers against the Roman idolatries and superstitions are now found, by a subtle assailant, to be not inconsistent with a belief in every one of the corruptions which they were drawn up to condemn. The apostasy is thus at hand. These are pregnant symptoms. Two or three steps more, and it has accomplished its work..... Public recognition and establishment, resembling the proceedings of the Council of Trent, and of the popish sovereigns throughout Europe soon after the Reformation, would accomplish and finish the apostasy. This recognition, be it remembered, will not be the commencement, but the awful, but too natural, termination of previous declines.” After pointing out the blighting influence of a zeal for forms and traditions, the Bishop of Calcutta proceeds to observe— "I am an alarmist. I believe our church was never in the danger she now is, except, perhaps, immediately before the great rebellion. Not the high church party, of which Archbishop Laud was then the head, nor the nonjurors who condemned the glorious revolution of 1688, carried out so many of the main principles of the Church of Rome, and professed them so formally, fully, and systematically, within the Church of England, as is now openly done." Dr. Merle D'Aubigné, in a discourse delivered at the opening meeting of the Theological School at Geneva, in October, 1842, says 66 England owes all to the Reformation. . . . The Reformation developed, in a remarkable manner, that Christian spirit, those liberties, that fear of God, that loyal affection for princes, that love of country, those generous sacrifices, that genius, that force, that activity, which form the prosperity and the glory of England. "Let England be unfaithful to the gospel, and God will humble her in those powerful isles on which she bases her throne, and in those far countries where she extends her empire. flood:-" Those" (he says)" whom God hath freed from the bondage of Popery, should strive to free themselves from all the remnants thereof; but if they cleave still to any of them, God in judgment may bring the whole upon them again." Dr. G. Benson, in his "Dissertation of the Man of Sin," says " It is the duty of all Protestants to give up whatever absurd doctrines or imposing principles they may have hitherto mixed with what is truly reasonable and Christian. Till then, it must be expected that Popery will always get footing among us." A writer in the "Protestant Journal for October, 1834," says "Judgment must begin at the house of God. Christians, and especially Christian ministers, must purge out' the minuter parts, as they have already done the lump' of 'the old leaven' of popish error from their creed. They will do this, indeed, by simply returning to the Bible as the only rule of faith, and learning every article of Christianity from it de novo.' The Rev. T. Scott says-"Perhaps no denomination is quite free from the guilt of rendering religious profession and sacred functions subservient to worldly interest, credit, ease, and indulgence. These are the remains of the antichristianity derived from Rome, which must need protesting against and removing; in these things we ought to come out and separate from Babylon,' if we would not partake of her plagues." (See "Scott's Bible;" Rev. xviii. 9-19.) 346 SPIRITUAL DECLENSION IN THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND. “The moment that England abandons the faith of the Bible, the crown will fall from her head. Ah! and we also, Christians of the continent and Christians of the universal world,-we should clothe ourselves in mourning, if her power was broken. We love her because of Jesus Christ, we pray for her because of Jesus Christ. But if the apostasy begins to be accomplished, we shall no longer have for her but cries, and groans, and tears. What are the bishops doing? What is the church doing? This is the universal question. If the Church of England was well ordered, she would put into her pulpits teachers submissive to the word of God, conformably to her Thirty-nine Articles, and she would remove those who violate her laws, who poison youth, who trouble souls, and who would destroy the gospel of Jesus Christ.' The question may fairly be asked-" What are the bishops doing?" Are they true to the solemn vows made at their consecration, when they promised, "to banish and drive away all erroneous and strange doctrine contrary to God's word," and to "be faithful in ordaining, sending, or laying hands upon others?" How is the present state of our unhappy church to be reconciled with the due performance of the solemn obligations? erroneous and strange doctrines prevail to an alarming extent, and that unfit persons are ordained to serve in the ministry, there can be no doubt. The question is-Where lies the fault? Either our church is badly constituted, or those at the helm sadly neglect their duty. That There is nothing, perhaps, more likely to bring down God's judgments on our church and country, than the lengths which the Tractarians are permitted to go in their unholy crusade against Protestantism. Well may Mr. Budd, like a faithful watchman, sound the alarm, and cry, "REFORMATION OR RUIN!" Let us strive to free our church from every remnant of popery. On the other hand, if we allow an hereditary affection, an overweening attachment to mother church, to blind our eyes to her defects, and we set our faces against all reform, we shall, by such suicidal conduct, contribute our share towards effecting her ruin. Our reformers, who laboured under great disadvantages, commenced a noble, a glorious work! be it ours to carry out and complete that work; and never to rest till we have got rid of every remnant, every vestige, of that accursed thing called POPERY. PROTESTANTISM AN AGGRESSIVE SYSTEM. To the Editor of the Protestant Magazine. MY DEAR FRIEND,-The importance of awakening my Protestant brethren to a more full and earnest discharge of their duties, as ministers of the everlasting gospel, is a subject which lies so much upon my heart, that I must trespass on your kindness once again, with reference partly to points on which I have already addressed you, and partly on another point-the consideration of which may serve to enforce what I have said in my two former letters. First, then, I must warn my clerical brethren against a way of satisfying their consciences, which (I fear) is not uncommon in the present day, and which I can best illustrate by instances. One clergyman, some few years ago, was frequently saying, from his pulpit-"I will never shrink from the maintenance of church principles." This, with some little variety of phrase, was repeated again and again. Scarcely a fortnight passed, without some such declaration of his steadfast attachment to "church principles." But as for explaining what church principles really are, or what he meant by them, this was looked for, and listened for, in vain. Another was equally earnest and frequent in declaring that he would never shrink from the doctrine of the divine sovereignty. But a scriptural statement of that doctrine was never once heard from his lips, by one who for a long season heard him frequently. Thus men satisfy themselves-and (alas! I fear) too commonly satisfy their hearers too-with mere words and phrases; the meaning of which is never properly explained. And the danger is, lest some who are in a measure awakened to the importance of the great doctrine of justification by faith should salve their consciences in a similar manner. For it is a very easy thing to stand up, and say-" The great doctrine of justification by faith I will always steadfastly maintain-I will never shrink from it." But to give a full, clear, and scriptural statement of that doctrine-such as is suited to give evangelical consolation to a truly awakened, tried and tempted soul-this is a very different thing. And yet, if this be not done, how is it to be expected that the souls committed to our care should ever be enabled to walk in the light and comfort of the gospel? I know not how many of my brethren in the ministry ever read your pages; still less can I form any conception of the number of those who may be disposed to pay any attention to remarks which flow from my pen. The result of my past efforts to maintain the truth of God-to awaken the attention of my brethren, and so to do them good-has been, for the most part, (so far as I have been able to learn,) most painfully discouraging. But if there be but one or two who are disposed to listen to the word of brotherly exhortation and entreaty, to them I would speak, and earnestly beseech them to review their ministry-to inquire wherein it has hitherto been feeble or defective-to confess their ministerial shortcomings and imperfections, with earnest prayer for the pardon of what is past, and for more abundant help and grace for the time to come; and to resolve in the strength of the Lord that, from this time forward, they will more PRAYERFULLY, more fully, more earnestly, more plainly, preach the whole gospel, as those who know that both themselves must give account of what they preach, and their hearers must give account of what they hear, in that great day, when we shall all stand before the judgment-seat of Christ. In short, I commend to their especial consideration the apostolic exhortation, 2 Tim. iv. 1-5. If all the clergymen who read your pages would do this, and set out, as it were, afresh, in the vigorous discharge of their ministerial duties, who can tell what effect their example might have upon others? If only two or three would begin, in good earnest, "To preach as though they ne'er should preach again, To preach as dying unto dying men," and to give distinct, unequivocal statements of the gospel, of Protestant truth, in unflinching opposition to the errors of the day-and in such a manner as is suited, under the blessing of God, to arouse and awaken the careless and the formal, and to comfort and encourage the sinking, the tempted, the alarmed, and desponding soul,-who can tell how far and wide the blessing might extend? But at present, we seem to be half asleep. Our formal, customary way of preaching betrays our hearers into that formal, customary way of hearing, which undoes them; and, besides this, gives strength, and boldness, and opportunity to the enemies of the gospel to beguile increasing multitudes with specious delusions, and to propagate their soul-destroying errors. The very existence of our church is at stake!-the truth of the gospel is at stake!—the welfare and salvation of immortal souls is at stake !—the honour of our Lord and Master is at stake! Events roll on. The clouds are thickening and darkening. Muttering thunders are heard in the distance: "We hear the wheels of an avenging God This is no time to be preaching like men who are but half awake; or telling a smooth tale, for half an hour, to a drowsy congregation; or merely giving our people a little temporary excitement for the moment, by tickling their fancies with novelties; or playing upon their feelings. If ever there was a time when it was needful to preach the gospel with plainness, with faithfulness, with a solemn earnestness, with yearning compassion for souls, now is the time. Oh, that I could say-oh, that some abler and better voice could say, in the ears of every minister who professes to preach |