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however, is utterly worthless for the purposes of those who would recommend iconolatry, and invocation of invisible created intelligences as divine or apostolical traditions.-Serm. IV. p. 208.

He who wishes to trace the connexion between the penitential discipline of the primitive Christians, and the peculiar dogmata of the Platonic philosophy in the regions of southern Europe; or would see how little progress that system made among the Christians of ancient Britain, who were converted, not by the Roman missionaries, but by heralds "trained in native schools of theology;"—he who would learn how attractive is the papal tenet of attrition, and yet how utterly at variance it is with the faith of our Anglo-Saxon fathers,-what was the leading principle of their penitential discipline,-what were the ceremonies attendant upon their penitential ordinances,-how auricular confession introduced itself among their usages, and yet was not deemed "sacramental in its nature,"-how the forms of absolution adopted by our ancient Church during the first Christian millenary, were "entirely precatory," no forms of indicative absolution being found among Anglo-Saxon ecclesiastical antiquities, the most solemn absolutions of our Ante-Norman progenitors amounting to nothing more than public readmission to church-membership;—he who would know how fruitless the Saxon Church considered a mere wish for absolution, or what was her doctrine relative to the power of absolution; he who wishes for instruction conveyed in clear terms, and urged with energetic argument upon these momentous topics, may profitably consult the fifth of Mr. Soames's admirable Lectures.

Nor will the sixth of these Sermons disappoint him, if he search for information relative to the doctrine of purgatory:-a doctrine, he will be taught, which was never recognized by the Ante-Norman Church. The dream of Manes, indeed, and the fanciful hypothesis of Pythagoras and Plato, and the fascinating refinements of Origen, and the speculations of Tertullian, and the reveries of the Fathers, "allowed men a pernicious licence in speculating upon the posthumous prospects of mankind;" yet they secured no place in the articles of Ante-Norman faith, and were held to be barely credible by such men as Gregory and Bede. The Saxon Homilies altogether disregard the purgatorial hypothesis.

We are concerned to ask (says Mr. S.) whether a belief in a state of punishment and purgation for the disembodied soul was entertained, among the spiritual guides of ancient England, from the first, uninterruptedly and definitely, as an article of faith? To such questions must undoubtedly be returned a negative reply, &c. &c.-Serm. VI. p. 330.

Reminding our readers that the peroration of the sixth Sermon in the series before us is singularly happy, and well deserving a perusal, we hasten to the seventh Sermon, which treats of transubstantiation. The absurd notion of our Lord's corporal presence in the Eucharist

has no vestige whereby it can be traced in the records of ecclesiastical antiquity and yet it is asserted that the Church has holden this tenet in every age. Let us then search for evidence in its favour. "Let the case be tried by such remains as the theological school of ancient England has left behind." (Serm. VII. p. 370.)

The case is so tried by Mr. Soames in his Bampton Lecture, and the result completely negatives the idea that transubstantiation was recognized as an article of faith by our Ante-Norman fathers, whether reliance be placed upon the Sacramentary of Gregory, wherein the eucharist is designated "a pledge of eternal life," and "a sacramental image," or whether an appeal be made to Bede, who teaches expressly that "the sacramental bread has a mystical reference to the body of our Lord, the wine to his blood" (Serm. VII. p. 372); and assures us, moreover, "that Jesus gave to his disciples at the last Supper, the FIGURE of his holy body and blood." (Ib. p. 373.) The testimony of Alcuin is equally strong to the same point; and his imperial friend is proved to assert "the mystical and sacramental, i. e. figurative character of the Holy Supper." (Ib. p. 375.) So, too, the learned Moguntine Metropolitan is decisive in his evidence against the "great burning article of the Romish creed." This eminent Prelate, (Raban Maur) " whom papal authors are so anxious to claim as their own, is convicted of an utter disbelief in the principal distinctive doctrine of the modern papal church." (Ib. p. $76.) Haymo of Halberstadt, and Druthmar of Corbey, speak the same language, and bear the most decided testimony against a belief in transubstantiation. As soon as Paschasius Radbert broached his famous assertion of the corporal presence, Raban Maur did not fail to brand it as an erroneous novelty!!!

What, then, becomes of those assurances which have left so many bloodstained pages upon the annals of western Europe, that a belief in the corporal presence is a divine and apostolical tradition? Here is an individual, extolled by the most eminent assertors of that alleged tradition, in terms approaching even extravagance and hyperbole, who testifies expressly that it was a novelty so lately as the ninth century!-Serm. VII. p. 380.

With a similar issue our author cites the authorities of Erigena and Elfric to the signal defeat of those hardy assertors who would number transubstantiation among traditions taught by the Anglo-Saxon Church. They are hereby convicted of understanding neither what they say, nor whereof they affirm.

The religious monuments of the Anglo-Saxon Church afford no support to a creed incapable of scriptural proof, nor countenance to dogmatic traditions; and an impartial consideration of the evidence adduced, in the Sermons which we have thus, in some measure abridged, cannot fail "to induce a conviction that God's

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good providence guarded the sacred writers from overpassing any religious principle which human beings are concerned to know." (Serm. VII. p. 394.)

Before we close our review of this interesting volume we must not forget our Author's eighth Sermon, wherein he treats of "the Church of England before the conquest and since the reformation," in both which stages of her existence our spiritual nursing mother affords an unequivocal testimony against papal errors. In both, her polity has been uniform, her doctrines homogeneous, her independence undoubted; and where there appears any difference it will be found to be but in appearance, or upon topics of inconsiderable moment. are persuaded that we shall gratify our readers by concluding our article with the eloquent and manly peroration that shuts up the admirable volume, of which we take leave with sincere respect for the learned Lecturer's talents, and hearty thanks to him for his welltimed inquiry.

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Shall we not acknowledge with lively gratitude the goodness of a merciful God in calling us to the profession of a faith established firmly upon the rock of Scripture, connected with the most venerable of our national antiquities, adorned by some of the noblest examples of self-devotion displayed in the records of our native land? Our spiritual nursing-mother, we should ever bear in mind, is no creature of the Reformation. Her ministerial commissions and her polity notoriously and undeniably flow upwards, in one regular, unbroken stream, to that unsuspected period, when Apostles and apostolic men prescribed rules for ordering Christ's inheritance upon earth. Her doctrines, not only regarding the eucharist, but also other leading and distinctive principles of belief, are in perfect unison with those traditions which were taught by all the earliest luminaries of our distant ancestry. The reformers did little more than expel from her bosom the gradual accumulation of medieval novelties, and abolish various observances dependent upon ecclesiastical tradition, and convicted by long experience of inutility and danger. In other respects, the renovation of our religious system restored the ascendency of those doctrines which had been originally established in the land, and which had long been holden "whole and undefiled." Cranmer had attained the summit of professional eminence when he embarked in the work of Reformation. Nor were his fellow-labourers very far behind him. Rarely, therefore, have important changes been effected by individuals less likely to have acted from considerations merely personal and worldly. These eminent ministers of God's holy word and sacraments were, however, utterly unable to "find rest for their souls" in the doctrines which had gained possession of society. They diligently, therefore," asked for the old paths," among the Fathers of the Church. By this wary course they happily reached "the good way" in which their own Christian ancestry had originally trodden. Succeeding times, following their direction, have been hence enabled to repel triumphantly the charge of innovation. They have indeed shaken off the trammels of pontifical and scholastic authority. They have even discarded many of those usages and ceremonies which their earlier forefathers undoubtedly admitted. In doctrinal profession they will be found, however, to display a gratifying conformity with the most ancient of their country's theological authorities.-Serm. VIII. pp. 472-474.

We need not add, that the documentary evidence appended to each Sermon is equally interesting, ample, and convincing.

ART. II.-1. The Guilt of forbearing to deliver our British Colonial Slaves. A Sermon, preached at the Parish Church of Cheltenham, Gloucestershire, on Wednesday, October 7; at the Parish Church of St. Mary, Islington, on Wednesday, October 28; and at St. John's Chapel, Bedford Row, London, on Sunday, October 31, 1830. By the Rev. DANIEL WILSON, M. A. Vicar of Islington. London: Wilson. Pp. 22. 1830.

2. The Duty of Prompt and Complete Abolition of Colonial Slavery. A Sermon, preached at Bentinck Chapel, St. Mary-le-bone, on Sunday, September 26, 1830, with a Letter to his Grace the Archbishop of Canterbury, and an Appendix of Episcopal Testimonies. By the Rev. SAMUEL CHARLES WILKS, A. M. Author of "Christian Essays,' "Essay on the Signs of Conversion in Clergymen," "Correlative Claims and Duties of the Church," &c. &c. &c. The proceeds will be given to the Mary-le-bone Anti-slavery Association. London : Hatchard and Sons. Pp. 52. 1830.

To the above discourses we might add many more, which, at this period, and indeed for many previous months, have inundated the country with a tissue of misrepresentation never before equalled even by the Anti-slaveryReporter. We, however, deprecate the idea of being advocates of the continuation of slavery. On the contrary, our abhorrence of the abstract principle equals that of the reverend pamphleteers themselves; but still we do not feel authorised to dismiss a question of such vital importance by a dash of the pen, or to increase the unjust obloquy which has been raised against the present West India proprietors, by circulating from the pulpit untruths, or, at all events, highly embellished statements. Mr. Wilson's Sermon, it will be perceived, has been so great a favourite with him, that not only has it been delivered from three several pulpits, but a large impression has been struck off, and, as is the case with most of his productions, the circulation has been extensive. How far it has merited such distinction will be perhaps better understood when the reader has seen the counter-statements put forth in this article, to the truth of every one of which we pledge ourselves.

We cannot for a moment suppose that the reverend gentleman has wilfully misrepresented his case; but we are, at the same time, at a loss to imagine how he could possibly believe that every tale of forgotten horror, every crime committed by the worst characters in the worst period of the slave-trade, were matters of common occurrence at this day in our colonies. We can tell Mr. Wilson that cases

of gross barbarity have always been the exception, not the rule; and that the character of the British planter stands as high throughout the world as either his own, or any of the party to whom he is so closely attached.

We shall not meet this controversy upon the usual ground, but, leaving the question of abstract right to the politician and statesman, our observations will tend to shew that the clamour raised against the West Indian for cruelty and oppression, for neglect of the moral improvement and religious instruction of the negro, is unfounded; and that every thing compatible with the interest and immediate welfare, if not the very existence of the slave, has either been already adopted, or is in gradual progress. Before we commence this task, however, which will embrace a complete refutation of the works at the head of this paper, we feel it to be a duty incumbent upon us to take a short view of the question as connected with the law and gospel; for no small portion of the ignorant are misled by the unfounded assertions of the pseudo-philanthropists and ultraabolitionists, that both the law of Moses and of Christ prohibit bondage.

Any individual at all in the habit of hearing the Scriptures read, much more a constant peruser of the Sacred Volume, which the antislavery gentlemen profess themselves to be, ought to be aware that the existence of slavery from the very earliest periods of human society is better authenticated than almost any other historical fact. In the enumeration of the household of Abraham, who is emphatically termed the father of the faithful, we find servants bought with money specifically named and in the Levitical law, embodied by Moses at a subsequent period, the following distinct terms appear to us at least authority:-" Both thy bondmen, and thy bondmaids, which thou shalt have, shall be of the heathen that are round about you; of them shall ye buy bondmen and bondmaids. Moreover of the children of the strangers that do sojourn among you, of them shall ye buy, and of their families that are with you, which they begat in your land: and they shall be your possession. And ye shall take them as an inheritance for your children after you, to inherit them for a possession ; they shall be your bondmen for ever: but over your brethren the children of Israel, ye shall not rule one over another with rigour." Lev. xxv. 44-46.

The Rev. D. Wilson, and many others, are labouring under no inconsiderable delusion, if, as it appears to us, they conceive the bondage which existed amongst the Jews was of a temporary description. A casual observer might be led into the error; but we cannot allow such a plea to avail in the case of a practised divine;

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