quoting that in which Becket lays his commands on Idonea, to deliver the sentences against the prelates, for their share in the coronation of the young king:

"God hath chosen the weak things of this world to confound the strong. The pride of Holophernes, which exalted itself against God, when the warriors and priests failed, was extinguished by the valour of a woman. When the apostles fled and denied their Lord, women attended him in his sufferings, followed him after his death, and received the firstfruits of the resurrection. You, my daughter, are animated with their zeal ; God grant that you may pass into their society. The spirit of love hath cast out fear from your heart, and will bring it to pass that the things which the necessity of the Church demands of you, arduous though they be, shall appear not only possible but easy. Having this hope of your zeal in the Lord, I command you, and for the remission of your sins enjoin on you, that you deliver the letters which I send you from his Holiness the Pope to our venerable brother Roger, Archbishop of York, in the presence, if possible, of our brethren and fellow-bishops. My daughter, a great prize is offered for your toil, remission of sins-a fruit that perisheth not-the crown of glory, which, in spite of all the sins of their past lives, the blessed sinners of Magdala and Egypt have received from Christ their Lord. The Lady of Mercies will attend on you, and will entreat her Son, whom she bore for the sins of the world, God and man, to be the guide, guard, and companion of your steps. He who burst the bonds of death and curbed the violence of devils, is not unable to restrain the impious hand that will be raised against you. Farewell, bride of Christ, and ever think on his presence with you." (Epist. v. 72; Froude, 54).

It will be seen that all our proofs of bad taste and unchristian feeling are from the letters of Becket and his friends, and that not one instance has been produced from the correspondence of the king and his party. Let it not be supposed, however, that the former faction alone are guilty of this fault. Those who are in the slightest degree acquainted with the letters of the eleventh and twelfth centuries, and know aught of the anathemas of Cardinal Damiain, and the foul abuse which one of Henry's most intimate friends, Peter of Blois, lavishes on princes, popes, and prelates, when thwarted in the slightest matters, will readily believe, that had we the private correspondence of the king's party as we have of the Becket party, and were not confined, in the former case, to public remonstrances and diplomatic correspondence, where every word is carefully weighed, and every sentence wrought into a decent and respectable form, we should have quite as many specimens of bad taste and bad feeling in the letters of the monarchical as we have in those of the archiepiscopal party.

As we hope ere long to develope the resources which the letters of the eleventh and twelfth centuries afford for a history

of the moral and intellectual state of the Church, not only in England, but in the whole world, in those times, let us now conclude our account of this most important and interesting dispute a dispute that, had it not been for the jealous enmity of the King of France, might have gone far to ante-date the Reformation by many centuries.

ART. V.-Church Principles Considered in their Results. By W. E. GLADSTONE, Esq., late Student of Christ Church, and M.P. for Newark. London: Murray and Hatchard. 1840. 2. The Sermons of the Rev. Robert Sanderson, D.D., Bishop of Lincoln. With a Life, by ISAAC WALTON; and an Introduction, by the Rev. ROBERT MONTGOMERY, M.A., of Lincoln College, Oxford. London: Ball and Arnold. 1841.

"THERE is nothing contrary to God in the whole world (said Cudworth, in a sermon before the House of Commons); nothing that fights against him but self-will. This is the strong castle that we all keep garrisoned against Heaven in every one of our hearts, which God continually layeth siege unto and it must be conquered and demolished before we can conquer Heaven. It was by reason of this self-will that Adam fell in Paradise; that those glorious angels, those morning stars, kept not their first station, but dropped down from Heaven like falling stars, and sunk into that condition of bitterness, anxiety, and wretchedness, in which they now are. They all entangled themselves with the length of their own wings; they would needs will more and otherwise than God would will in them; and going about to make their wills wider, and to enlarge them into greater amplitude, the more they struggled they found themselves the faster pinioned; insomuch that now they are not able to use any wings at all, but, inheriting the serpent's curse, can only creep with their bellies upon the earth. Now our only way to recover God and happiness is, not to soar up with our understandings, but to destroy this self-will of ours; and then we shall find our wings to grow again, our plumes fairly spread, and ourselves raised aloft into the free air of perfect liberty, which is perfect happiness." If the members of the legislature needed such an admonition from the lips of Cudworth, much more is it required in this age of lawlessness, when every argument that sophistry can invent is directed against all authority, and the highest felicity is thought

to be only attainable by securing to human will uncontrolled dominion. Under the specious, but profane, adaptation to religious objects of the Reform cry, "the Bible, the whole Bible, and nothing but the Bible," "doctrines are diffused that directly contravene the verities of God's word. Human choice is in these days made the basis of religion; man is to be his own standard; and by his debased and perverted judgment are all things in heaven and in earth to be tried. Truly the spirit of lawlessness now walks the earth, το μυςήριον ἤδη ἐνεργείται τῆς ávouías. Amidst much, however, to make us mourn, we are thoroughly convinced that a deep sense of religion has somehow or other reached the heart's core of this nation, and abides there with power and practical energy. The production of a book like the one before us, not from the pen of a recluse student or grave divine, but of a legislator; a man moving in the world of action, and still young in years; the favour this volume is winning to the principles it promulges-nay, the very animosity it awakens in some quarters-are so many proofs to us that the deadly reign of indifference is ended, and that warfare is begun which shall be accomplished in the triumph of truth. Mr. Gladstone feels no surprise, we are quite sure, at the charges brought against him of propagating Romish doctrines; and is imbued, we believe, with too Catholic a spirit to be wroth with those who cannot discern between what is papal and what is apostolical.

For ourselves we are persuaded, without professing a concurrence with every single proposition advanced by Mr. Gladstone, that, substantially, the principles he advocates are those of apostolical antiquity, and those most opposed to the modern errors of Popery. The Church of England has far more to fear from Geneva and its rationalistic spirit, than from Rome and her traditions; and should she ever fall, which may the Most High forbid, will be thrown down by those who would weed her communion of all that is ancient, and primitive, and apostolic. But, although she may be depressed, she shall not be utterly cast down, for we firmly believe the Church of England has to perform an important part in the regeneration of the world; that ATоKATASάGIS TÁνTwv which St. Peter preached, and affirmed that all the holy prophets had predicted. It appears to us most probable that the Church of England, properly understood, cordially adhered to, knowingly valued, and adequately expanded, will be fitted to draw to itself, as a delightful centre of unity, all that is great and good, all that is wise, and pure, and holy, and of good report, and be the city of habitation, not only for such as escape from Babylon, but also for those who have long been wandering in the wilderness. The English Church is the only

one which has been equally mindful, at the same time, to bring out of the divine treasury things new and old. The English Church is the only one which does not shock good sense on the one hand, or good taste on the other.

With what graphic and truthful force George Herbert describes this intermediate position of the British Church :

"I joy, dear mother, when I view
Thy perfect lineaments, and hue,
Both sweet and bright:

Beauty in thee takes up her place,
And dates her letters from thy face
When she doth write.

"But, dearest mother, (what those miss)
The mean thy praise and glory is,
And long may be.

Blessed be God, whose love it was
To double-moat thee with his grace,
And none but thee."

The English Church is the only one opposed to novelty, and yet open to advancement. The English Church is the only one which has fully imbibed the truly Catholic and Apostolic spirit. But we speak less of what she at this moment actually is, than what we humbly hope she will be; at present, she is trampled down and trodden under foot

VOL. IX.-C C

by those who pretend to defend her by their secular arm. The wild boar out of the wood doth waste, and the beast of the field doth devour her. Still we cannot but think, in her invaluable and matchless liturgy, there is such a manifest improvement and advancement, on what has been done before in the Church Catholic, as to give something more than an earnest of what, in a fit time and under fit hands, she will be, when all in every place shall lift up their voices, in accordant harmony, to the great King of heaven and earth. It is not only incomplete, and consequently imperfect, but admirably accords with the spirit and feeling breathed by Catholic antiquity, while that which is new so harmonizes with the old as scarcely to be distinguished from it. What an approach, then, has there not been made to the whole Church speaking the same thing, and with the same mouth glorifying God, which must eventually take place, or our Lord's prayer will be unfulfilled. By taking care to drink into His Spirit from day to day, through His ordained means of grace, we only can escape the changeable, fluctuating, unsettled, and versatile religion of the times, and hope to keep ourselves unspotted from the world. We say the world, for what is the mass of persons making a profession of religion but the world, seeing the desire of the flesh, the desire of the eyes, and the pride of life, have never been eschewed by them in deed and in truth? Among the classes which, in the arrogant phraseology of Exeter Hall, are designated the religious public, a proud, uncharitable, condemnatory spirit is but too prevalent. Man cannot brook a superior; he would be as God; he hates to submit himself to those in authority; he is not afraid to speak evil of dignities; he abhorreth not to sit in the seat of the scornful; he trembles not at the word of God. This is being wise overmuch and righteous overmuch with a vengeance, but it is the tone and temper of a large portion of the "religious public." But it seems to us quite plain, that when men's minds come to be disabused, and their hearts raised to feel the value of spiritual and eternal realities, they will find, where they have too long neglected to look for it, a centre of unity in the body of Catholic truth, handed down from age to age, and in a most wonderful manner preserved to our day. All who know anything of its transmission from the earliest times will see and admire therein the wisdom, and power, and goodness of God. Our Lord has not left his Church at any season to carry on her warfare with the powers of darkness alone; and although her garments have been rent and torn, and her children made to go into bondage, or driven into exile, yet is she still dear to Him who holdeth her up by His right hand. Her's is the