I know of no means by which the press can better contribute to the support of the Protestant cause, than by the republication of the London Christian Observer in this country. With the Divine blessing, it will help to check the growing disposition of many of our countrymen to regard Popery as a harmless delusion. C. WEBSTER, Pastor of the First As. Pres. Ch., Philadelphia. It must give pleasure to every true Protestant, that the London Christian Observer is about to be republished in this country. WILLIS LORD, Pastor of the Seventh Pres. Ch., Philadelphia. It is scarcely necessary to add our testimony to the above reiterated assurances in behalf of the republication of the London Christian Observer in this country. THOMAS T. WATERMAN, Pastor of the Fifth Pres. Ch., Philadelphia. J. HELFENSTEIN, Pastor of the Ger. Ref. Ch., Germantown. We cordially approve of the object contemplated in the republication of the London Christian Observer, and believe that it will promote, at the present time, the interests of truth and godliness. THOMAS HOGE, Treasurer of the Gen. As. B. Mis. We fully concur in the above recommendations. GEORGE B. IDE, Pastor of the First Bap. Ch.. Philadelphia. JOSEPH H. KENNARD, Pastor of the Tenth Bap. Ch., Philadelphia. We, the undersigned, do most cordially approve of the republication of the London Christian Observer in the United States, and hope that it may be the means of doing much good. JOHN BEAR, Pres. Eld. of the M. E. Ch., Baltimore. The London Christian Observer is the organ of the Evangelical party in the English Establishment, and has long been conducted with vigour and ability. I am myself a decided opponent both of Prelacy and Church Establishments, in all their forms; but between the Evangelical party and the High-Church party among English and American Protestants, I heartily desire the success of the former, whom I consider true followers of my Divine Master. To this extent I concur in recommending the proposed republication of a periodical which may arrest, in some degree, the melancholy tendency to Popish doctrines and practices, which is so manifest among the followers of the Oxford Tractarians. ROBERT J. BRECKINRIDGE, Pastor of the Second Pres. Ch., Baltimore. I fully concur in the views expressed by Dr. Breckinridge; and to the same extent and on the same grounds, cordially unite with others in recommending the London Christian Observer to the Christian public. G. W. MUSGRAVE, Pastor of the Third Pres. Ch., Baltimore. I cordially concur in recommending the London Christian Observer, as one of the ablest religious periodicals in the world. JOHN C. BACKUS, Pastor of the First Pres. Ch., Baltimore. The preceding testimonial of Dr. Breckinridge exactly declares our opinion; and to its expressed approbation of the London Christian Observer we assent. BENJAMIN KURTZ, Pastor of the Luth. Ch., Baltimore. J. G. MORRIS, Pastor of the First Luth. Ch., Baltimore. JOHN HEALY, Pastor of the Second Bap. Ch., Baltimore. I am happy to unite with the foregoing recommendations of the London Christian Observer, with which I have been acquainted for the last seventeen years. STEPHEN P. HILL, Pastor of the First Bap. Ch., Baltimore. I cordially concur in the above recommendations of the London Christian Observer, and believe its republication in this country will aid the cause of Protestantism. George Dugan PURVIANCE, Pastor of the Fourth Pres. Ch., Baltimore. We fully concur in the foregoing recommendations of the London Christian Observer; and trust its republication in this country will be eminently blessed in aid of the cause of evangelical religion and true Protestantism. ELIAS HEINER, Pastor of the Ger. Ref. Ch., Baltimore. JOHN HAESBAERT, Pastor of the Second Ger. Luth. Ch., Baltimore. We rejoice in the publication of anything calculated to diffuse light and truth among the citizens of this country. Such, we believe, will be the effect of the reprint of the London Christian Observer. May God bless the effort to save us from the delusions of Popery! GEORGE F. ADAMs, late Bishop of the Calvert St. Bap. Ch., Baltimore. JOSEPH MITTAM, Pastor of the Bap. Ch., Pikesville, Md. I can scarcely conceive that there is any need for me to add my cordial approbation of the republication of the London Christian Observer in this country. The names already collected are ample vouchers that it is admirably fitted for the great work of increasing the knowledge of the Gospel of our common Lord. JAMES G. HAMNER, Pastor of the Fifth Pres. Ch., Baltimore. We heartily concur in the recommendations favourable to the republication of the London Christian Observer in this country, as it is a work eminently calculated to advance the cause of Christian piety. E. YEATES REESE, Editor of the Meth. Protestant. SAMUEL K. JENNINGS, DAVID E. REESE, JOSIAH VARDEN, JAMES We cordially concur in the opinion above expressed by many brethren concerning the London Christian Observer, and moreover trust that there is vitality enough in the Church of England to prevent her from being swept away by the floods of error. STEPHEN CHAPIN, late Pres. of Columbia Col., Washington. JOHN C. SMITH, Pastor of the Fourth Pres. Ch., Washington. It affords me unfeigned gratification to add my testimony in favour of the London Christian Observer, which is a publication eminently calculated to advance that blessed cause which eventually must triumph. SEPTIMUS TUSTON, Chaplain of the U. S. Senate. The republication of the London Christian Observer in this country is calculated to do much good. A work of that character is greatly needed at this time; and it gives me great pleasure to learn that it is about to be reprinted. I hope that it will receive the patronage it so richly merits. 0. B. BROWN, Pastor of the First Bap. Ch., Washington. I feel deeply interested in the truths of the glorious Gospel of the ever blessed God. I hope it will ever be kept unmutilated before the minds of the people; and as I believe that the republication of the London Christian Observer in this country will subserve its interests, it has my warm approbation. JAMES H. BROWN, Pastor of the Ebenezer M. E. Ch., Washington. I rejoice sincerely in the prospect of the republication in this country of the London Christian Observer, and from an intimate acquaintance with its character, with great cordiality can recommend it to the Christian public. ELIAS HARRISON, Pastor of the First Pres. Ch., Alexandria. I heartily concur in the foregoing expressions of good will to the projected republication of the London Christian Observer in this country. EDWARD KINGSFORD, Pastor of the Bap. Ch., Alexandria. The republication in this country of the London Christian Observer, meets with our cordial approbation. JOHN DAVIS, W. B. EDWARDS, IRA HANSON, Ministers of the M. E. Ch., Washington. From what I know of the character of the London Christian Observer, I consider its republication in this country, especially at the present time, as calculated to do much good. R. T. BERRY, Pastor of the Pres. Ch., George Town. Most cheerfully do we concur with the sentiments of our brethren who have testified to the excellence of the London Christian Observer, and the propriety of its republication. LEVI R. REESE, Pastor of the M. P. Ch., George Town. S. B. SOUTHERLAND, Pastor of the M. P. Ch., Washington, WILLIAM W. BALL, Pastor of the M. P. Ch., Alexandria, It is my fervent desire that the Christian Observer may circulate throughout the land, that as the North has given up, so the South may not keep back. JOSHUA N. DANFORTH, Bishop of the Second Pres. Ch., Alexandria. The republication of the London Christian Observer in this country, I hail as a token for good to the Church of God and to the world. The republication of such a work, at such a time, and for such an object, must meet with the hearty approbation of every friend of religion throughout our land. EDMUND C. BITTINGER, Pres. Min., Warrenton, Va. When, years ago, I was intimately acquainted with the character of the Christian Observer, there was no periodical that I more highly esteemed for its truly sound and evangelical sentiments. If its character is now anything like it was then, I shall indeed rejoice at its republication in this country. JAMES M'VEAN, Pres. Min., George Town. We cordially recommend the republication of the London Christian Observer. EDWARD R. VALCH, THOMAS C. HAYES, J PLOTNER, Ministers of the M. E. Ch., Alexandria. I cheerfully add my recommendation to that of my brethren, in behalf of the London Christian Observer, and hope that the republication of it in the United States will meet with deserved encouragement. JAMES LAURIE, Pastor of the First Pres. Ch., Washington. I am acquainted with the well established reputation of the London Christian Observer, and was formerly a regular reader of the work. I esteem it a highly valuable periodical, and cannot doubt that its republication here will prove highly useful. STEPHEN OLIN, Pres. of the Wesleyan University. REVIEW OF NEW PUBLICATIONS. BISHOPS OF CHESTER AND LLANDAFF, AND THE Bishop of Chester's Practical Exposition of the Epistle of St. Paul to the Romans:-A Charge to the Clergy of Llandaff. By the Bishop of Llandaff:-A Charge to the Clergy of the Deanery of Sarum. By HUGH PEARSON, D.D., Dean of Salisbury. (Continued from page 191.) In pursuance of our plan of adducing from time to time a series of episcopal testimonies against the Tractarian delusions, we quoted largely in our last Number from the Preface to the Bishop of Chester's Exposition of the Epistle to the Romans; and we shall now proceed to extract some passages from the Bishop of Llandaff's Charge. We have added the Dean of Salisbury's Charge to our list for its merits and value; and, though not episcopal, it stands to the clergy of that deanery in the place of an episcopal monition; for, by the peculiar constitution of the bishopric of Sarum, the Dean (Dr. Pearson states) exercises, with regard to everything except that which belongs exclusively to the highest order of the Christian ministry, a jurisdiction and authority "not delegated or archidiaconal, but of episcopal nature and character." Since we commenced our review we have seen a publication entitled "The Voice of the Anglican Church; being the declared Opinions of her Bishops on the Doctrines of the Tract Writers; collected, with an introductory essay, by the Rev. Henry Hughes, M.A., Perpetual Curate of All-Saints, Gordon Square." This book contains a syllabus of the points at issue, with illustrative proofs from Tractarian writers; and the opinions delivered upon them by the Archbishops of Canterbury, Armagh, Dublin, and Cashel; and the Bishops of Winchester, Durham, London, Exeter, Gloucester and Bristol, Chester, Hereford, Ripon, Worcester, Salisbury, Oxford, Llandaff, Down and Connor, and Calcutta. A considerable portion of these have appeared in our pages; but Mr. Hughes's digest will be found convenient for reference; but we must add, as a matter of ecclesiastical principle, that even had our whole fifty-six prelates (27 English; 14 Irish, and 15 Colonial), instead of only eighteen of them, severally expressed their opinions; nay, had they met in solemn conclave, and had all their opinions been consentient, which is very far from being the case; this would not have been officially "The voice of the Anglican Church." That voice can be collected only by the decision of the Church in its two houses of Convocation; and this decision we already have in our Articles, Homilies, and Liturgy. Still we are not the less thankful to those prelates who have warned their clergy and the people against the pernicious doctrines set forth in the Ninety Tracts and congenial publications; and the moral weight of their monitions ought to be, and has been, very great; though unhappily it has failed with the Tractators, who considered "the lightest word of a Bishop" heavy till it pressed upon themselves; and who, though they write "The Bishop rules the whole Church here below, as Christ rules it above;" "Christ is the true Mediator above, the Bishop his earthly likeness;" Support the Bishop, and strive to move altogether with him as our tr bond of union and head;" yet in practice seems mentally to reserve "That is, when he approves of the Oxford Tracts, not otherwise.' We now turn to the Charge of the Bishop of Llandaff; whose protest must carry considerable weight in the University of Oxford, of which he was during a long series of years, till his elevation to the episcopate, a very active and influential resident officer. He had a prominent share in introducing the improved modern system of examination; he defended its studies against the attacks of his present facetious neighbour at St. Paul's, Sidney Smith, and other writers in the Edinburgh Review; he filled its chair of Poetry with good reputation; and he brought into a state of high efficiency and renown the College over which he presided; and those of his old friends and fellow-collegians who may regret that he decides against them, cannot affect to say that he is perverted by what some persons are pleased to call Calvinistic or Puritanical predilections. If however the Scriptural doctrine of justification by faith be a Calvinistic or Puritanical figment, Bishop Copleston stands convicted of it; for we happened not very long since to hear him deliver a dis course, in which he spoke convincingly and Scripturally on that "Article of a standing or falling Church." But Luther is now as much disparaged as Calvin and the Puritans were wont to be; for whereas it was formerly considered the climax of reprobation to say of any doctrine or practice, "I call that Calvinism or Puritanism," it is now regarded as a good pungent Tractarian argument to say, "I call that downright Lutheranism." Thus the "British Critic" sneeringly prates of "the Lutheran doctrine of Justification," as if the Epistles to the Romans, the Galatians, the Hebrews, and the whole say tenour of Sacred writ, went for nothing; and it is declared in that publication-we declared, though the declaration is prefaced by "Whether," so as to carry the conclusion, yet not to bind the writer-that no "heresy has ever infected the Church so hateful and unchristian as this doctrine;" Protestantism being "a false religion," and most of all false in this, that it repudiates "the great doctrine of justification by works." We will now, without further preface, give a series of extracts from Bishop Copleston's Charge. "Again, another writer, who has not glossed over the Papal corruptions, and who, moreover, justly observes that Rome is worse now than formerly, inasmuch as she has imposed those very corruptions as terms of communion, which before the Council of Trent were only taught, or tolerated, under her sanction; and who declares that the Pope has no just supremacy over the whole Church, yet calls his usurpation the Ordinance of God.' Why all this tenderness for the very centre and core of corruption? Why all this hankering after her ritual and her formularies, even if they can be proved not altogether antiscriptural and idolatrous? for it cannot be denied that they border close upon the worst errors, and tend to mislead the ignorant into gross idolatry. "It is true, that in these Tracts the falsehoods of Popery are occasionally held up undisguised for rejection, and even abhorrence. But this, so far from being a justification of the tone in which at other times her faults are palliated and her pretensions respected, rather strikes me as carrying with it a self-condemning evidence. If she be guilty to the extent described, it is inexcusable to hold communion with her, or to court her favour. Whatever may be our opinion of the Apocalyptic prophecies, as specially directed against the Church of Rome, yet if those corruptions be inherent in her, which they themselves admit, surely the spirit of that warning voice, 'Come out of her, my people, that ye be not partakers of her sins,' applies as forcibly to them as to any enormities of vice and cruelty that have ever prevailed in any seat of empire. Can any man believe that the curse and the warning relate only to the profligacy of a Babylon, or of any other great licentious city? and that they are not applicable, even in a superior degree, to a power practising all this fraud and iniquity in the name of our Holy Redeemer ? "To say of such a tyranny, that it is 'ordained of God,' is a rash and irreverent speech. The mere possession of power resting on no earthly right, does not entitle it to the submission of men, as being the ordinance of God; much less when Divine authority is claimed without a shadow of right, and is vindicated by corrupting God's Word, and perverting his best gift to man; much less can it be allowed to a Christian to throw around it the protection of God's law. For the support of lawful government, we are taught that much evil must be quietly endured. The evil is the work of the devil, engrafted upon God's institution. But when the institution itself is evil, when it is originally and entirely a profane assumption of God's name, it is not merely the abuse of the power which we regard as the act of our spiritual adversary, but the very claim and exercise of it is not protected from rebellion, like the governments of this world, by respect for God's ordinance, but it becomes a sacred duty, as part of our allegiance to a higher power, to resist and to abjure it. “There is undoubtedly in these Tracts an admission of various corruptions, sanctioned and enforced by the Romish Church; but they are commonly introduced as a kind of set-off and counterpoise to the defects alleged to exist among Protestant communions. When, however, we examine in detail the matters of complaint, even as regards continental churches less perfect in their constitution than our own, how weak in comparison of Romish corruptions are they found to be! The absence of Episcopal government, the interruption, lamented often by themselves, of Episcopal ordination, the disuse of ancient Liturgies, the disputes concerning the form of administering the Holy Communion, much more than any real difference as to its nature-these are the sum and substance of defects, which seem to create a greater aversion than all the enormities, which it is needless again to enumerate, of the Romish see-its gross superstitions and idolatries, its creature-worship, its withholding of the Scriptures, its exaltation of the power of the priest, and its load of ceremonies, all contrived to rivet that power, and to hold its votaries in blind subjection. "Still more, when we examine their strictures on what they find wrong or defective in our own Church, so slight are the points which call for animadversion, so little are they involved in our own formularies, or even authorized by them, that were we to grant all they seem |