legislature whatever its purport, can per se affect the ecclesiastical situation. The power that created has thus not the power to destroy!

But this latter position if such really be the contention, no constitutional lawyer can we think honestly accept.

It seems to us, however right or erroneous that party may be in their assumption, the only question to be decided, and in this they have assuredly a strong case,-is what were the ornaments in being on and after the 22nd of January, 1549? and for this reason, namely, that in the order for morning and evening prayer now existing, it is specifically provided not only that in churches 'the chancels shall remain as they have done in times past' but that such ornaments of the church and of the ministers thereof at all times of their ministration shall be retained and be in use as were in this Church of England by the authority of Parliament in the second year of the reign of King Edward the Sixth!'

An Act of Parliament must be repealed by an Act of Parliament and yet the question, what were the ornaments, the equipments and furniture of the Church and its Ministry in those days does not seem capable of satisfactory solution in these.

The lex scripta on the subject is indefinite and the custom is obscure.

There are landmarks left, but whether seeing that the Reformed Church has its foundation on the

Roman Catholic, the peculiar vestments now sought to be worn by the clergy on the authority of those land marks, are in fact the vesture of the Papacy, or the vesture of the Reformation is a very nice point and more particularly so, as in many respects the two in these days are clearly identical.

There can however be no question but that practices closely resembling those which, under the authority of the Pope, or of Henry the Eighth as Head of the Church, prevailed prior to to the Restoration, have of late years been made use of in this Country, but after a long dissuetude be it remembered, which had SO far rendered them obsolete as to lead to surprise on their renewal.

The diffusing of incense-the use of wafer bread in the Holy Communion and of wine mingled with water, the setting up of setting up of crosses, figures, and ornaments, the wearing of vestments by the minister, and his posture and position during certain portions of the service, the almost enforced privilege of confessional, these are all questions which have engrossed the attention of the public-and some of the practices enumerated have received the condemnation of the courts of law,-recently to the extent of imprisonment of certain of the clergy who contumaciously resisted the authority of those courts, and who notwithstanding the judgment against them persisted in those practices on the alleged ground that the power controlling the clergy is not a temporal but a spiritual one

What depth of importance may exist in the observance or non-observance of these proceedings depends we think very much if not entirely on the personal feelings of individuals, assuming such individuals, the congregational portion,-really to comprehend the subject.

Although not 'broad church' which is 'no man's land,' we confess that we take a broad view of the case, and discarding the appellations high church' and low church' would prefer if possible to arrive at a common sense conclusion.

As the greatest lawyers say 'yea' and the greatest lawyers say 'nay' on the question we must undertake its consideration unaided and intact.

If in so doing and in expressing our conscientious opinion we tread upon the toes of those who differ from us, we can offer no apology further than our regret, and for this reason, that it is a matter of too grave importance, and because upon it every one is entitled to form his own conviction without being under the ban of any mortal who may assume an authority he does not possess.

CHAPTER XXIII.

"The attire which the minister of God is by order to use at times of divine service is but a matter of mere formality, yet such as for comeliness sake hath hitherto been judged not unnecessary.”

HOOKER.

"Nor was his attendance on divine offices a matter of formality and custom but of conscience."

"This meddling priest longs to be found a fool."

ATTERBURY.

ROWE.

Of transubstantiation, incense and the like, not being up in Romish theology, we can say nothing further than that we very decidedly have no sympathy with any such doctrines, and therefore feel relieved from a discussion of them.

Wafer bread. A question arises as to the quality of the bread to be used.

If this matter is to be properly dealt with, it becomes necessary to consider so far as possible the nature and quality of the bread made use of by our Lord at the last supper.

So far as history serves us bread in the old time was baked in the form of cake.

says the bread is to eaten, but the best

The Common Prayer Book be such as is usual to be and purest wheat bread that conveniently may be gotten, and it ought certainly to be the best, for the scriptures figuratively describe the Saviour's Body as bread, and therefore we cannot but desire that the symbolic element should in every sense be pure and wholesome.

We have heard and believe it to be perfectly true that in a parish church in a rural district we well know, the minister and churchwardens were constantly in the habit of providing bread for the use of the communicants that was not only stale but covered with green mildew-what a grotesque argument against the theory of perfection and actuality, and how offensive too in its emblematic simplicity to those who who were to receive it!

Under such circumstances indeed bread of the purest quality, such as was usually gotten in the time of Edward the 6th or even in the present reign, in the form of a small thin cake, as thin it may be, as a wafer, which will keep good any reasonable time, might not be such a very objectionable thing-more especially so when the exact nature or appearance of the bread used in the remote original is from the fact of such remoteness scarcely capable of being now defined. Yet after all that may be said upon the subject, where a congregation have for a century or so been accustomed to the use of what they know to be good plain wholesome bread such as that they partake of in their own dwellings, it seems to us a pity to disturb the arrangement. In one case we have heard of-a case in point-the old communicants disliking the recent introduction of wafer bread take the wafer and do not eat it, but avail themselves of the earliest opportunity of throwing it aside-now this cannot be right!