published their views of Christianity-is a clear perception of sin, and of the means of justification. Nowhere do we remember to have seen either in Mr. Smith's volume, or in any German publication, that they allude even with a word to that key-stone of all evangelical Christianity, justification by faith!

Perhaps twenty or thirty priests, and as many thousands or more of the laity, have seceded from the Church of Rome; communities have been formed in from eighty to one hundred places in all parts of Germany, except Bavaria and Austria, where the people are restrained by the arm of power. Deputies have met in council at Leipzic, and have adopted the general title of German Catholics, together with a creed and other regulations for the formation of congregations, the terms of communion, the conduct of public worship, &c. Yet all that has been issued by them has the same negative character on these vital points. Nay, more; the creed which they have adopted at their meeting at Leipzic, is so bare and undecided, that at Berlin seven families have already been induced to return to the bosom of their old Church, declaring that, in leaving that Church, they did not intend to cease to be Catholic Christians. The creed of Schneidemühl is nearly that of the apostles; but that of Leipzic is merely deistical, with a slight Christian colouring. Let the reader judge for himself:

"I believe in God the Father, who, by His Almighty Word, created "the world, and rules it with wisdom, equity, and love. I believe in "Jesus Christ, our Lord and Saviour. I believe in the Holy Ghost, in "a holy, universal Christian Church, in the forgiveness of sins, and in "' life everlasting. Amen.'"

If we state, moreover, that no difference of interpretation of this creed is declared to be a bar to membership, we hope we shall be excused if we express some misgivings as to the result of this movement. It is already ominous that among the Protestants of Germany the orthodox look upon it with doubt, if not with alarm; while the ultrarationalists, "the friends of light," the violent opponents of all creeds and symbols, hail it with ecstasy. Nay, several clergymen of this party have even forsaken their Church, and joined this new sect, in which they expect to be free from the "constraint of symbols."

There is also to be observed (except in the memorial of Schneidemühl) in all the publications of these people a constant appeal to reason, or rather to common sense, as the final arbiter in the controversy. Yet, although we readily admit that Romanism presents many things in her doctrine and practice which are as obnoxious to common sense as to scripture; it is only by the latter that the Church of Rome ought to be assailed, and to which alone she will ultimately succumb. Of

what use is it to tell a conscientious person, who is firmly persuaded that the Romish priesthood is the Church to which Christ has said, "Behold, I am with you alway," to which He has promised His holy spirit to guide her into all truth, that such and such things which she believes or does are contrary to common sense? He will answer, and in his point of view answer justly, In religious matters I know of no guide but the Church.

The excuse has been made for the new reformers, that Luther also had to grope his way through a labyrinth of darkness, perplexity, and doubt, before the whole truth flashed on his astonished sight; that he, too, did not immediately perceive the vivifying doctrine of justification by faith, although it is, at least, as old as David, and was set before the world in all its effulgence by our Saviour and His Apostles. But this doctrine has been recovered by that great man, and has for these 300 years been the real point of controversy between all really evangelical Christians on one side, and Romanists and Romanisers on the other. We have, therefore, a right to ask the Ronges and Czerskis, what are your views on these matters? and their silence leads us to apprehend that they labour under the general malady of rationalists, the worst of all-that of not knowing that they are sick, poor, and needy; and therefore they do not fly heartily to that only Physician who could effectually cure them. Oh for a new Luther, a man of faith, who, in the power of the Holy Spirit, would again convict the world of sin-especially that "world" which hides itself under the specious title of the sole saving Church! Till then we entertain but little hope that the man of sin will be effectually overthrown. Nay, this movement, even if it should extend much farther, will, unless it materially changes its character, do but little in shaking the Church of Rome. It may even, if it serves to make her more cautious, lead to a prolongation of her sway; for if many of the seceders should become infidels and deists, it will supply her with a new argument as to the danger of separating from what she terms the centre of unity. Indeed, to us both prophecy and the aspect of things seem to proclaim that her time is not yet full. It seems to us that God intends once more to let her rise to power; in order finally to convince the world that it was not the ignorance of former ages that made her what she was, the destroyer of all spirituality, the tyrant of faith; but that a Church founded on worldly policy and the devices of man, will be the same under all circumstances. Nevertheless, as we said in the outset, the movement in question is highly remarkable—nay, momentous. It shows the world, at all events, that, although Rome is ever boasting of her unity and inward peace, there are volcanoes slumbering within her bosom, which only require to be set in motion, in

order to rend her whole frame-work to pieces. Our younger men, too, who have been led by the false representations of our Newmans and Oakleys, to look upon Rome as being all fair within, may learn from the present outbreak, how corrupt, rotten, and oppressive, this "dear "mother" is found by those who live under her sway, and know her by experience. To such in particular we recommend this excellent narrative, so replete in instructive facts. One of these is worth mentioning before we conclude. Drs. Gildemeister and Sybel, professors in Bonn, have proved in a recent publication, not only that the coat at Treves is spurious, but that there exist twenty coats in the Romish world, which all are claimed to be the seamless vesture of our Saviour for which the soldiers cast lots. Several of these have been acknowledged as genuine by various popes. But the present pontiff has had the imprudence or audacity, after he had issued a declaration in favour of a coat preserved at Argenteuil, in France, to approve of the exhibition of the one at Treves, and to attach those indulgences to it, which were to be one of the chief attractions to its votaries!

EVILS IN THE CHURCH, AND THEIR REMEDIES.

PART V.

*Sermons bearing on Subjects of the Day." By John Henry Newman, B.D., &c. 1843.

In the conclusion of our last paper, we brought our examination of the eighteenth century down to the most remarkable epoch of its religious excitements. These, we said, constituted the most important crisis in the history of the Church, and one which is not yet passed; and we proposed to enquire into the manner in which it was met by the Church. This crisis may briefly be described as one in which the spiritualism of true religion was developed in opposition to formalism.

Dr.

Chalmers, we believe, has said of Methodism, that it was "Christianity "in earnest," and in the same way the whole of the religious excitements which distinguished the close of the last century may be generally described. It must not be forgotten that the first important movements were within the Church; and that the separations they produced, were the natural results of the same state of things in which they had their origin. This shows that the crisis was not one of opposition to the Church in which it was thrown upon the defence of its fundamental principles and essential institutions. Neither was it treason in the camp; for whatever were their mistakes, the man whose labours produced this crisis were anxious for nothing more than to make the establishment what they sincerely believed the Church of Christ ought always to prove. In this respect it was different from the Puritanism of a former age, or the Nonconformity of the previous century; for though all these divisions in the religion of Protestant England, may in some manner be resolved into the spirituality of Christianity, they were very different phases of the same principle. The early Puritans were ecclesiastical Reformers; but the humble aims of these men chiefly regarded the introduction into the preaching of the Church of the most simple and naked evangelicalism which can be conceived; and where, as among certain ministers of our Church, their opinions were cast in a Calvinistic mould, it was the doctrine rather than the discipline of Geneva upon which they set their hearts. The Nonconformists so effectually befriended by William the Third, soon became anxious for ittle more than that degree of religious liberty which would enable them to worship God according to the dictates of their own conscience, and thus to proceed in forming into their different societies men of devout lives, or at least of decidedly pious professions. There was scarcely anything to connect them originally with the movement of which we speak, and, indeed, at the epoch of this crisis they were fast falling into a languid and inefficient condition themselves. The crisis, therefore, which followed such a state of the Church as we have described, was far more simply than any other in our history the opposition of spiritualism and formality.

Where parties are formed for the sake of visible results, which combine a religious end with civil or social advantages, principles intelligible to all will be distinctly asserted, intellect will be vigorously developed, learning will lend her assistance, and all which is imposing in the pomp and circumstance of a state will give interest and dignity to the strife. This was seen in the contest which followed the Reformation, and may be traced in the growth of the great dissenting bodies in the land. The recent formation of the Free Church of Scotland is

another illustration; and should a similar calamity in the train of present excitements befall the English Church, the truth will be seen in a more impressive form than ever. But the crisis of which we now speak was remarkable for a great indefiniteness. Its movements partook too exclusively of the spirituality of religion to be generally understood, or even respected. Besides, there was little of the efflorescence of true genius in the land-such as among the intellectual excitements of the present day is leading us at length to a due appreciation of the pastthere was therefore a want of these general sympathies in educated minds, which are always necessary to save any great moral movement from injury and perversion. In these circumstances intellectual superiority and profound learning were naturally wanting to the movement, and it ought not to perplex us if piety alone took the place which the world willingly yields to commanding intellect only; and that thus many crudities of doctrine, many irregularities and inconsistencies of conduct, and many deviations on the side of undisciplined feelings, or what are fastidiously called vulgar excitements, appear to discredit its progress. This is the course of Providence: closely examined, this must appear to the philosopher the natural sequency of mighty events, incalculably beneficial in their results. The morning sun, which after a dreary night comes to usher in a day of glory, first raises the mists in the valley, through which objects are seen in fragments and disproportions, inconsistent with the beauty of the scene to be afterwards revealed. For a long time the religious movement which now commenced was regarded with contempt, so sovereign and bitter as to be unqualified by any of those considerations with which religious parties ought always to regard each other. It was, on one side at least, the most perfect theological hatred, exasperated by the pride of professional superiority, and the alarm of formality for the continuance of its peace. We have said that this opposition of spiritualism and formalism was, in a certain sense, indefinite. We refer to the relation this movement sustained to the doctrine and discipline of the Church. Aiming to produce a moral more than an instrumental change, the parties it created seemed often at a loss to define their hostile interests. Without being an opposition to the Church, and existing originally within its pale, it was a general opposition to the low religious views of the day. It realised all that was irreligious in the state of the community, and therefore insisted on the primary obligations of the Gospel to repentance and faith in the conversion of men; or, dwelling on the privileges of true Christians in all that regarded their acceptance with God, it laboured to produce the most elevated state of the Christian character in its separation from the world. In this way the doctrines of the Reformation