more evident than that Rome was their proper haven, that all the while they have been tending thither, and that now they have gone to their own place, to which in honesty they ought to have gone at the beginning.

In that secession to the Church of Rome, there are two or three features, prominent and instructive, upon which I would venture to fix the attention of this Meeting for a few moments.

One is, the benumbing influence in a moral sense, which Rome and all contact with Rome invariably exerts upon minds, however gentlemanly, honourable, or honest they might have been supposed before; so that a man no sooner begins to take Romanism into his heart, than truth goes out of it, and he becomes the dupe of falsehood and the slave of error. In illustration of this I need only remind you of the mode of reasoning and of self-vindication which Mr. Newman adopted while he was in the Church of England,-of the way in which he advocated the signing of our Articles in a non-natural sense, which is a Popish sense, for the word non-natural never came from an honest English heart. And if we want another illustration, we have it in the course of conduct pursued by that unhappy man of genius, Mr. Frederick Faber, who has shown that poesy is a dangerous thing, if it be allowed to invest with its own false colouring, and gloss over with its own varnish the hideous features of Romanism, and make them lovely and beautiful, because its own fancy reflects a light upon it, which does not belong to it, in the correspondence which appeared in the public newspapers respecting the two young boys that he kidnapped-I hesitate not to say it-in order to win them over to the ravening wolf of Rome. And I ask any honest member of the Church of England, if he does not think Mr. Frederick Faber, before he tampered with Romanism, would have cut off his right hand, ere he had been guilty of any such disingenuous and dishonourable conduct, as to try to filch away these two children from their father? After all the explanations which appeared in the public papers, I hesitate not to say, that my mind was still quite dissatisfied, and I am sure yours were likewise. Now, my Christian friends, it is not Protestantism, which would lead a man so to act. Did you ever hear of a clergyman of the Church of England trying to win the sons of a Romish father from the Church of Rome, without his knowing anything about it, and then trying to win them over to the Church of England, or ever the father was aware of what he was about? And if there had been such an instance, would not the public have held him out to contempt? would not the public have cried "Shame" upor such conduct? And yet, alas! the public press is so benumbed by its contact with the liberalism of the age, that there is often no outburst of righteous indignation against such acts, when committed by members of the Church of Rome, except by a few religious papers, whose outcry is set at nought, as the outcry of a set of dark bigots who are always crying out about what they do not understand.

But there is another feature in the secessions from the Church of England, which has struck my mind, and has, no doubt, struck yours the kind of semi-infidel influence of Romanism over those minds which have come under its effect. Let any man read with carefulness VOL. VIII.-June, 1846. New Series, No. 6.

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Mr. Newman's "Treatise on the Doctrine of Development," and agree with his principles, however darkly and jesuitically they are introduced; and what is the drift of the whole of it? You must either accept the infallibility of the Church of Rome, or be utter infidels and sceptics. He drives you to the alternative; and his work seems as much fitted to make an infidel on the one hand, as a Romanist on the other. I hesitate not to say, that I know not a work of modern days more dangerous for young men's minds than this, not so much for its leading them to the darkness of the Church of Rome, as to sceptical unbelief. And these are the fruits of Romanism. We shall, indeed, be amply repaid for these sad secessions, if such beacons only serve as warnings to the Christian Church-to put Protestant parents, Protestant university tutors, Protestant heads of houses, and every young man in our universities, on their guard.

I hesitate not to say, that if the University of Oxford does not proceed as she began, with endeavouring to root out the heresy from her borders, and put every means in her power into play in order to get rid of the poison, she will lose the confidence of the Protestant parents of England. I speak feelingly, for I am a father; I have two dear boys, whom I am looking forward at no distant day to send to the University. Oxford, as my own university, I should prefer; but if Oxford is not in a more wholesome and healthy state than she is at present, I should tremble to send them into such a state of peril. Let me, however, do justice to the heads of houses. They have stood faithful in many instances already; for when they were charged with undue haste with respect to Mr. Ward, how little was it anticipated, that he was within a few months of his departure to the Church of Rome! And, let me say, that if Dr. Pusey, and those who go along with him in all the lengths he goes, do not very soon go over to the Church of Rome, the brand of dishonesty upon them will be greater than upon Mr. Newman himself. I do not hesitate to say, that if Rome is the place for Mr. Newman, Rome is the place for Dr. Pusey also; that as they went together to the verge, they ought to have gone together over the precipice, and into the dark abyss. And I fear very much, lest there should be a great deal of compact and of mutual understanding in their movements, unless it should be intended that we are to have a bridge across the gulf which used to separate us from Rome, and that one learned professor is to be the foundation of the arch on the Protestant side, and another on the Romish side; and that thus we are to have a kind of bridge between Oxford and Oscottthe Church of England and the Church of Rome-over which the poor dupes and victims who have been won over and captivated by designing men, should associate in passing, that they might readily join the ranks of the unfaithful.

But there is another circumstance in the past year, at which I cannot but glance, which to my mind is fraught with a great deal that is hopeful and encouraging, as those to which I have adverted are fraught with discouragement and alarm. I allude to the large and increasing number of conversions in Ireland from the Church of Rome to the Churches of England and of Ireland. If we want a witness of this fact, we have it in the venerable Dean of Ardagh, who can give evi

dence, that we are not exaggerating or overstating it. I am not going to enlarge upon the fact, because it has already been adverted to over and over again, but I am anxious to call your attention to this peculiarity in it, as connected with the state of things in England: how strange it is, that on one side of the Channel the Church of England should be losing members and ministers to the Church of Rome, while on the other side of the Channel, the Church of Rome is daily losing her members and ministers in numbers to the Church of England! Why the difference? I wish the bench of bishops would meet together in solemn conclave, and ask, Why the difference? I do not hesitate to say, that a nobler and a more worthy question could not occupy the attention of a bench, in which Cranmer sat as primate, and Ridley and Latimer and Hooper sat as bishops. And if they were to weigh it with that candour and liberality, with which I am sure they would consider it, I see no conclusion to which they could come but thisthat the Church of Ireland maintains her Protestant tone and character, while the Church of England, to a great extent, has lost it. The clergy of the Church of England have been taught, by those in high places, indirectly, at least, that they should not introduce what is deemed controversial into the pulpit, and that allusions to the errors of Rome are out of place in these days of charity and lovingkindness, I only wish that the bishops, in order to get rid of this false impression, would enjoin that the wholesome, sterling, honest, homilies of the Church of England should be preached, at least once a year, in every pulpit in their respective dioceses. I would venture to say, that if these homilies were preached in some of our Cathedrals at the present day, and it was not known from what source they emanated, the persons who preached them would be deemed very uncharitable. But after all, give me the honest, rough-spun decision and determination of those days, rather than all the silken phraseology, and the squeamish, mawkish liberalism, which is no more charity, than the meteor of the marsh is the sun of the heavens. Give me the good old honest English of those Saxon works, rather than all the circumlocution of the present day, that will not call things by their proper names, lest they should give offence to somebody or other.

There is another fact that is worthy of notice; in the Church of Ireland, so far as I have heard, Tractarianism is almost unknown. As the good Bishop of Cashel is reported to have said—and it is so like the man, for he is a fine, honest-hearted, plain-speaking man, that I could almost answer for its truth--" We do not want the seeming thing in Ireland: we have got the real thing there." And consequently, my Christian friends, I believe that Tractarianism has been able to make little or no progress in Ireland; and therefore not having the inclined plane to the Church of Rome, they have had no secessions to Romanism, that I am aware of, but have had abundant conversions from Romanism to the Church of England. Would it not be well, then, if the clergy and the bishops of the Church of England were to learn the wholesome lesson, that if we are to maintain the principles of the Reformation, and withstand the encroachments of Romanism and keep our people Protestant in principle and in heart, we must

renew the Protestantism of our ministrations, and every Church pulpit must be Protestant to its heart's core.

Are we to be told that it is a thing uncharitable and unkind, to teach men why they are Protestants ? If they do not know why they are Protestants, they might just as well be Romanists. An ignorant Protestant who does not know what he protests against, is a mere creature of prejudice, a Protestant by chance, a Protestant by accident; he would just as readily be a Romanist, were customs and circumstances to change. Do you think such Protestants would ever have borne the pining of the dungeon, the torments of the rack, or the fires of Smithfield? Oh! never. There must be the Protestantism of the heart, the Protestantism of the Bible and the life, the Protestantism of the Spirit of God working truth through the man's whole constitution, so that he will sooner die, than give up the truth which he loves.

My Christian friends, there is another interesting fact in the history of the past year, at which I must glance-the progress of the Reformation on the Continent. I wish that our dear friends would give their attention and interest and heart and prayer to that great work upon the Continent. Not merely in Germany, to which we are apt to turn our attention exclusively, but in France, in some of the Swiss Cantons, and in various other parts of the Continent, we find that there is a mighty movement against Romanism. Let us not begin too soon in casting suspicions and reflections on our brethren on the Continent. True it is, that Ronge and others have taken a rather doubtful course; but we must not expect men to see truth clearly at first; they must first " see men as trees walking." Let us not forget, that in the great movement, in the days of Luther, in Germany and Prussia, there were ways and works sprung up to hinder it, but it was of God, aud prospered. Let us not look resentfully or coldly upon our brethren on the Continent, but let us rather give them our hearts, our prayers, our sympathies, our succour; let us give them the Bible-for that is the book to set them right,—and next to the Bible, the Prayer Book of the Church of England, to teach them what true reformed worship is. My Christian friends, take up the Prayer Book of the Church of England, and compare it with the Missal and Breviary of the Church of Rome, where you have the Virgin and the saints filling up two-thirds of her worship, and saying not a word of all the honour and grace that is magnified in them in the Prayer Book of the Church of England. Therefore I think that you could not do better than give Prayer Books enough for all the Churches on the Continent; I believe it would be a safeguard against neologisms on the one hand, and the superstitions of Rome on the other.

And this, Mr. Chairman, reminds me of another high feature of encouragement in the past year-for, as you said, we are to encourage one another, as well as feel with concern the dangers and difficulties that surround us. That feature of encouragement is, the growing and unprecedented demand for the Word of God. For when the Bible is spread, the seed is cast into the ground, and it springs up, man knows not how, because "the kingdom of God cometh not of observation." No less than 87,000 copies of the Word of God have been asked for

by the poor working classes in Manchester and its neighbourhood; and this holy spirit of inquiry has spread from Manchester to Stockport, from Stockport to Oldham, from Oldham to Bolton, and from Bolton to Wigan, and through the whole of our manufacturing districts. There is also a simultaneous demand for the Bible on the Continent-in France, and in several parts of Germany expressly, which is increasing in Canada, and in different dependencies in North America and India; England, with her mighty press, and all her powers for multiplying books, is unable to meet the demand, although printers and bookbinders are working night and day-and some of them to an extent that it is not fit for human beings to work, were they so disposed. "Give us the Bible!" comes from north, east, west, and south. My Christian friends, I doubt not but that cry meets with an echo in your hearts, and sounds like the knell of the approaching doom of the Vatican. As that great and good and venerable man, the primate of India, recently told the assembled congregation in St. Bride's, we must overcome antichrist, and every other enemy, by the breath of His mouth and the blood of the Lamb. Oh! I believe it is the breath of His mouth-His own Word of inspiration—that will be the first great destroyer of Antichrist; and then, with His own glorious arm, will He crown His work, and Babylon shall be "fallen, fallen, fallen."

It will add to the interest of this account, when I tell you,-but perhaps I am hardly right in doing this, but I do not know; we will leave caution and reserve and concealment of things to the Church of Rome; they suit her best; and therefore I look at things honestly and fearlessly, there are a great many Romanists, who have caught the hallowed infection, and have bought the Bible for themselves. I was told recently by an honest Protestant operative-who, like our Protestant friends in London, are the strength and the sinew of our Protestant principles-that it did his heart good sometimes to see two or three Romish factory girls, stealing down, for fear the priest or some other Roman Catholic should see them, with a new gilt pretty little Bible, and get into some place, where they might read it unchecked and unbetrayed. You will say, perhaps, "And where are the fruits?" I answer, It is "not for us to know the times and the seasons;" we are not to expect results all at once. Great results are always slow in their development, and gradual in their progress; and I have far more hope when a work goes on slowly, than when it goes on too rapidly; it looks more like the mighty operation of God in nature; for while the brook makes a noise and flows for a few hours, the deep, flowing river, that flows on from beginning to end, goes slowly and majestically and silently along. Now I do not anticipate that we shall have any very sudden results; but what then? "God's Word shall not return unto Him void;" the incorruptible seed may lie long in the ground, but it will spring up after a season and bear abundant fruit. I saw recently a beautiful crop, which had sprung from a single grain of wheat, that had been taken from the case of a mummy, and had probably been there for a thousand years; but it retained the imperishable germ of vitality, and when