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the Temple Church. Other disputants against the Puritans had been content simply to deny that Scripture is the only rule of Churchpolity, claiming for the civil power, or the pro tempore governors of the Church, both right and liberty for legislating according to their discretion. Hooker lifted the discussion into a higher region. He maintained in his first book that all laws, whether natural-made known through reason and life: or supernatural-revealed in Scripture; are equally of Divine origin, and are therefore of valid authority and obligation. "They," he says, "rightly maintain that God must be glorified in all things, and that the actions of men cannot tend unto his glory, unless they be framed after His law; but it is their error to think that the only law which God hath appointed unto men in that behalf is in the sacred Scripture." Upon this foundation he then, in the second, third, and fourth books, deals with the main arguments of the Puritans, denying first, that Scripture is the only rule of all things which in this life may be done by men; and then, that it must of necessity contain a form of Church-polity, the laws whereof may in no wise be altered. The fourth book more directly meets the assertion that "our form of Churchpolity is corrupted with Popish orders, rites, and ceremonies, banished out of certain Reformed Churches, whose example therein we ought to have followed." But it is in the fifth book that Hooker girds himself for a hand-to-hand fight over every inch of the "debateable land." Here, the goodly frame of his beloved Church with its holy places, holy days, holy garments, holy postures, holy rites, and the substantial endowments of consecrated revenues, is elaborately set forth, and

defended with all the strength which logic, and eloquence, and learning, could lend to his cause. The remaining three books were not published in his lifetime, and were supposed to have been tampered with, before publication.

Dr. Arnold, with his wonted energy once said, "I long to see something which should solve what is to me the great problem of Hooker's mind. He is the only man that I know, who, holding with his whole mind and soul, the idea of the eternal distinction between moral and positive laws, holds with it the love for a priestly and ceremonial religion, such as appears in the fifth book." And this problem seems still the harder to solve when we light upon the rich vein of Gospel truth which runs through his discourses upon Justification, the perpetuity of Faith in the Elect, and other subjects. Hooker's HighChurchism was a different thing from Laud's. He had no serious differences with his Puritan brethren touching" sound doctrine, although he did not cherish such ardent affection as they did, for the great Presbyter of Geneva. It was by a perfectly independent course of study, that he arrived with them at the same doctrinal conclusions; and, while his range of view was ampler than theirs, his heart too, rested placidly in the "gospel of the grace of God." In the discourse upon Justification, having exposed the errors of the Church of Rome concerning the doctrine, he says, "Let it be counted folly, or frenzy, or fury whatsoever; it is our comfort and our wisdom; we care for no knowledge in the world but this-That man hath sinned, and God hath suffered; that God hath made himself the Son of Man, and that men are made the righteousness of God." Again, in the second

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sermon upon part of St. Jude's Epistle, he bears a strong testimony against Romish doctrine, which needs only conversion of its terms to suit Sacramentalism also. "A strange and strong delusion it is wherewith the Man of Sin hath bewitched the world; a forcible spirit it must needs be, which hath brought men to such a senseless and immeasurable persuasion as this is, not only that men clothed with mortality and sin, as we ourselves are, can do God so much service as shall be able to make a full and perfect satisfaction before the tribunal seat of God for their own sins, yea, a great deal more than is sufficient for themselves; but also that a man at the hands of a Bishop or a Pope, for such or such a price, may buy the overplus of other men's merits, purchase the fruit of other men's labours, and build his soul by another man's faith. Is not this man drowned in the gall of bitterness? Is his heart right in the sight of God? Can he have any part or fellowship with Peter, and with the successors of Peter, who thinketh so vilely of building the precious temples of the Holy Ghost. Let his money perish with him, and he with it, because he judgeth that the gift of God may be sold for money. But, beloved in the Lord, deceive not yourselves, neither suffer ye yourselves to be deceived: ye can receive no more ease nor comfort for your souls by another man's faith, than warmth for your bodies by another man's clothes, or sustenance by the bread which another doth eat. The just shall live by his own faith."

Another extract from the discourse upon the certainty and perpetuity of Faith in the Elect, may suffice to exhibit the teaching of Hooker respecting this distinguished doctrine of Puritan theo

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logy:-" Simon, Simon, Satan hath desired to winnow thee as wheat; here is our toil: but I have prayed for thee that thy faith fail not; this is our safety. No man's condition so sure as ours; the prayer of Christ is more than sufficient both to strengthen us-be we weak, and to overthrow all adversary power-be it never so strong and potent. His prayer must not exclude our labour; their thoughts are vain, who think that their watching can preserve the city which God Himself is not willing to keep. And are not theirs as vain, who think that God will keep the city for which they themselves are not careful to watch? The husbandman may not therefore burn his plough, nor the merchant forsake his trade, because God hath promised I will not forsake thee. And do the promises of God concerning our stability, think you, make it a matter indifferent for us to use, or not to use the meaus whereby, to attend, or not to attend to reading, to pray, or not to pray that we fall not into temptation? It was not the meaning of our Lord and Saviour in saying," Father, keep them in thy name," that we should be careless to keep ourselves. To our own safety, our own sedulity is required. And then blessed for ever and ever, be that mother's child, whose faith hath made him the child of God. The earth may shake, the pillars of the world may tremble under us; the countenance of the heaven may be appalled, the sun may lose his light, the moon her beauty, the stars their glory: but concerning the man that trusteth in God, if the fire have proclaimed itself unable as much as to singe a hair of his head; if lions,-beasts ravenous by nature and keen with hunger, being set to devour, have as it

were, religiously adored the very flesh of the faithful man, what is there in the world that shall change his heart, overthrow his faith, alter his affection towards God, or the affection of God to him? If I be of this note, who shall make a separation between me and my God? "Shall tribulation, or anguish, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword?" No; "I am persuaded that neither these, nor death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature" shall ever prevail so far over me. "I know in whom I have believed;" I am not ignorant whose precious blood hath been shed for me; I have a shepherd full of kindness, full of care, and full of power: unto him I commit myself; his own. finger hath engraven this sentence on the tables of my heart" Satan hath desired to winnow thee as wheat, but I have prayed for thee that thy faith fail not." Therefore, the assurance of my hope I will labour to keep as a jewel unto the end, and by labour, through the gracious mediation of his prayer, I shall keep it."

It is truly difficult to expound the mysterious conjunction of opposite religious systems in Hooker's mind. Antagonism to Rome, and inclination towards Rome, are alike manifest in his works. His eloquent and philosophical vindication of the obnoxious ritual of the English Church rallied the waverers of his party in his own day, and has been a bulwark against church reformers and so-called latitudinarians ever since; and yet no evangelical could forge a keener weapon against Rome, or smite with stronger hand on behalf of the Articles of Faith. The Sacramentalism of Laud, which contributed in no small measure to

hasten the downfall of Charles the First, was but a logical deduction from Hooker's fundamental propositions in his fifth book. And every revival of medieval rites and ceremonies in our own, or preceding times more or less owes its development to the countenance given to them by the logic and genius of Hooker.

Perhaps the best solution of the problem is, that the very greatness of his mind and the breadth of his view rendered him incapable of perceiving the practical inconsistency of a Scriptural faith and a Romish ritual. The Apostle Paul found no difficulty in conforming to the Jewish ceremonial worship when Christian charity required it, but both the Jewish and Gentile Christians were ill-able to follow his example, or to applaud the true ground of his behaviour. The Apostle, however, knew that Christian truth was particularly incompatible with Jewish forms, although he charitably yielded compliance to Jewish prejudices whenever his conscience suffered him. But Hooker had no similar conviction. Because he himself could hold the doctrines of free grace, and yet zealously observe the orders of the Rubric, he deemed it equally easy for others to do the same. His system is but a splendid theory, and the history of the Church of England since his time has proved its impracticability.

The judgment of posterity has approved the demand of the Puritans that the Reformation of the Church of England should embrace the ritual as well as the creed of the Church, and that the Scripture must be regarded as the supreme and sufficient rule of reformation. A Scriptural church-polity is the necessary practical complement of a Scriptural creed. The logic of Hooker, aided as it was by his ample knowledge and splendid genius,

has failed to disprove the Puritan's assertion that Anglicanism tends to Rome. It may be, and doubtless is, hard to hit the flaw in his reasoning; but it is a true spiritual instinct which prompts us to suspect it. By all the rules of the art of war, it was said, the English army was beaten at Waterloo, but nevertheless they drove the enemy from

the field. And by all the rules of intellectual conflict perhaps the Puritans were beaten in the ecclesiastical battle of the 16th century, but the subsequent events of our national history, and the indications of the present time, predict the ultimate completion of that Church Reform which the book of the Laws of Ecclesiastical Polity was written to withstand.

THE NEW YEAR.

What deepening sound falls on the listless ear,
As if an angel's whisper spoke to man.
Hark! 'tis the knell of time,-the dying year
Breathes its last sigh, and measures out its span;
And new-born time its solemn message tells,
Of sorrow's tears, and pleasure's transient gleam,
And wakes new joy, as when the happy bells
Ring out their merry bridal peals, or seem,

In muffled notes, to say-" this life is but a dream."

There rise the heights of Providence sublime,

Casting dark shadows on this vale below

Heights which an angel's footsteps must not climb—

Above the range of mortal ken to know;
Hid in the Infinite, save where the light
Of burning prophecy its brightness throws,
Reveals the future to our wondering sight,
Prescribes the medicine for creation's woes,
And tells the weary troubled earth of sweet repose.

Lo sits in grandeur Gaul's imperial King,
Subtle in councils, terrible in fight,
Or peace, or war, his double speeches bring
His honour sullied, but his sabres bright.
Lo, Russian hordes in their embattled ire,
Trample from Polish soil and Freedom's day,
The spark of liberty's most holy fire;
Remorseless as the vulture, bears away

To her high rock the fluttering and defenceless prey.

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