We have little time to enter on the varied topics connected with these "good old paths." We principally adduce them with a view to shew the similarity we have before spoken of in the Church of England, and the Episcopal church in the United States, in reference to points of order and discipline, as well as of general doctrine and morality brought forward by their several members. We cannot say that an undue length has been given to these topics, seeing they occupy the space but of a single sermon in the two volumes; and the lamentation contained in the following paragraph, will shew at once the necessity for some at least of these observations, and afford a further confirmation of our remark on the similar experience of the two churches.

"Alas! how have we wandered from 'the good way! We, of a church who, preserving in this as in other respects the characteristics of her primitive origin, hath provided for the devotions of her members daily morning and evening prayer, can with difficulty assemble on the morning of two days in the week a few scattered worshippers, whom to exhort to confess and lament their sins and wickedness, and to whom to address the animating callO come, let us sing unto the Lord, let us heartily rejoice in the strength of our salvation."" vol. I. p. 393.

The uniformity of experience on both sides of the water, in this particular point, might lead to reflections beyond all measure melancholy, did we not suspect there was something, even beyond the corruption of man, something inherent in his very constitution, that asks for the aid, not only of sympathy by the aggregation of numbers, but, also, some effect on the imagination by the excitements of novelty. Were the numbers of true worshippers confined to those lamentably "few and scattered worshippers" above described, or even were these the purest specimen of earthly devotion which we are to expect here to witness, we must acknowledge the exhibition of a church, chapel, or even cathedral on a prayer day" would afford one of the most meCHRIST. OBSERV. No. 289.

lancholy spectacles upon earth. The real fact is, that, constituted as there must be

something of variety to congregate together large assemblies of human beings. The Catholics find that music must be added to masses; and Protestants, that sermons must be added to prayers.

Those Dissenters who sustain alone, and with more effect, their prayer-meetings, have recourse to extempore prayer. And we much doubt if the most ancient Christians were wholly confined in any of their magnificent assemblies, and loud Amens to the simple recitation of prescribed, though, so to speak, half inspired forms of devotion, without something of variety in their services. We throw out these remarks, merely as hints for consideration, and with a view to state things as they are; although readily allowing that they are not as they ought to be indeed, we quite agree with the general principle in the following paragraph, and condemn in toto that other extreme, always hearing or telling some new thing, to which, in this Athenian age, so many are disposed to run, and which is thus exposed :

"As a mean, indeed, divinely constituted, of explaining, defending, and enforcing divine truth and Christian duty, preaching ought to be most highly valued. But it the praises of God's temple-those sacred should not be preferred to the prayers and

acts which exalt the soul to those heavenly courts for which they prepare her, and unite us in blissful employment with that angelic company who cease not, day nor night, to worship before the throne of God-those elevating and cheering exercises, which made the Psalmist exclaim concerning God's house, One day in thy courts is better than a thousand.'

"In accordance with these views, we

need not wonder that in the primitive church, while social prayers distinguished every assemblage of Christians, preaching was not considered at all times an indispensable exercise; and that in the

church from which we are descended, and even in our own, no order is made but for a sermon at Morning Prayer-the occurrence of more than one being merely usage a usage indeed which circumstances render expedient, and which is highly edifying, but which the church

G

does not rank among her essential institutions." vol. I. pp. 390, 391.

We have no doubt much of Bishop Hobart's enlargement on the other topics of this sermon will be anticipated by our readers of every class. His definition of " the appointed mode of salvation," in his fifth proposition, appears to us, to say the least, both ambiguous and pleonastic. It is man's inference rather than God's declaration. How much more simple the language of the Apostle, "Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved!"

We can only further answer, with respect to the definition and censure of the sin of schism, that we fear it is contracted within limits too narrow to answer the effect intended, or to rescue that "unity of the spirit in the bond of peace" which is so essential to the harmony, we might say to the very character and vitality, of a truly Christian church.

"If," says the Bishop," in those apostolical days, even that lower species of this sin, which consisted in forming parties in the church under a ministry acting with Apostolic authority, was pronounced a 'carnal' sin, how much more deserving of this censure must be that higher species of this offence, which consists in the exercise of the ministerial office without being invested with Apostolic authority for the purpose; and in attending on the official acts of those who thus exercise it. From schism,' as well as from all heresy and false doctrine,' we pray in the Litany to be delivered. Surely then it is of importance that we inquire in what this sin consists. And for this purpose we should 'seek for the old paths;' and we shall be satisfied, that, while we continue in communion with those orders of the ministry which have been from the Apostles' times,' and through God's good providence preserved to the church of which we are members and devoutly and regularly attend on their ministrations, the guilt of the sin of schism will not rest upon our conscience, nor appear in judgment against us at the day of account." vol. I. pp. 403, 404.

Does not this contravene the Bishop's own notion of a lesser schism, that of forming parties in the church, as being the very schism intended by the Apostle and, on this shewing, has the Bishop a

liberty of exposition allowed him different from the Apostle? That a departure from "lawful authorities," either in preaching or hearing the word, is one main branch of schism, no one who reflects can for a moment doubt. But even in that case the question will be vehemently disputed, What is lawful authority? a question on which our own church has remarkably abstained from giving a distinct and definite answer, so far as respects the point of apostolical succession. If apostolical succession be indeed that one only condition of the Christian ministry with which we may be satisfied while we remain in communion, why should not we be satisfied with the popish communion, which is in full possession of those orders of the ministry which "have been from the Apostles' times?" No enlightened and charitably minded Christian, however fully he may believe that a ministry derived from apostolical succession is indispensable to complete and true ministerial authority where it can be had, would leave those who have it not, or who erroneously deem it unnecessary where it may be had, to the uncovenanted mercies of God. And we must be permitted to add, that a quiet submission to ministerial instruction and Christian unity, under what a man deems lawful authority; or a faithful adherence to a settled ministry, and an affectionate union of the several members of the body amongst each other, with a firm and united resistance to the inroads of a worldly, ambitious, selfish disputatious, and independent spirit, whether in discipline, doctrine, or morals, is to our mind more accordant to a truly anti-schismatical spirit than even an adherence to apostolical succession, for its own sake merely, should that adherence be, as in centuries past, and often, even in our own times, both in popish and protestant communions, marked with a turbulent spirit of party, an exclusive and domineering dogmatism, or an admitted immorality

and worldliness of life. With such adjuncts, we are quite sure that the amiable and pious Bishop Hobart, for one, would shudder to see it united, nay, would deem his own orthodoxy itself in such company as the very grossest schism. A bad life, said the old father, is the worst heresy.

But we hasten to the last series in this volume, the titles of which are as follow:-" Christ's Sufferings predicted;"-" The Passion of Christ;"" Christ preaching to the Spirits in Prison;"-" The Evidences of the Resurrection of Christ;"" The Effects of the Resurrection of Christ;"-" The Resurrection of the Body."

In this interesting series the Bishop takes his positive stand as a preacher of the Gospel, or, to use his own expression, of the " distinguishing doctrines of the Gospel;" as far as those doctrines involve the clear predictions, the distinct accomplishments, and the glorious result of the great mystery of our redemption, in the sufferings, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ. How readily do we bound from the arena of what we would fain call, but for some consequences, controversy upon minor points, alluded to before, to expatiate with our evangelical bishop in all the breadth, and length, and depth, and height of the great mystery of godliness, God manifest in the flesh. To use our preacher's own words,

"God forbid, that we should glory, save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ. But for his sufferings, we should have lost the excellence of his character, and the benefit of his example; the consolations of his sympathy, and his powerful testimony to the vanity of the world; the exhibition in his own life of the spiritual nature of his kingdom and the glory of his Divine character, when contrasted with human weakness and sorrows; the pledge of our finally triumphing with him over the sorrows of the world; and, above all, we should have lost that assurance which is the only foundation of all our hopes, that the penalty of our transgression is paid in the sufferings of him who bare our sins, and that God now can be just, and yet justify us sinners.'" Vol. I. Pp. 408, 409,"

We trace, with our preacher, the types which preshadowed this mystery. We follow the same strains in describing the actual sufferings of the Immaculate Redeemer, whether enduring every kind of bodily pain, every species of mental sorrow; or, bowing under his agony, a vicarious sacrifice for the sins of the whole world. But our decreasing limits warn us to abstain from the pleasing task of citation.

The descent of Christ in his human soul to hell, and his preaching in Hades to the spirits in prison, explained according to the theory of Bishop Horsley; " of him whose various and profound erudition and useful theological researches," our author says, "will secure to the latest ages the veneration of the church; we cannot now undertake to explore.

We doubt the

firmness of the footing, and the facility of return from these dark topics to the more useful day-light discussion of points of faith and practice, before ordinary congregations; especially if, as the great Barrow assures us, we may readily fall into uttering, on this topic, "that which hath very weak or no reasons to maintain, very strong and plain objections to assail it." At least, we, with our own limits and, we fear, our reader's patience already exhausted, must contentedly shut up our present allusion with that great master's quotation from St. Austin, "Melius est dubitare de occultis, quam litigare de incertis." Our investigating bishop does not give us his own opinion, though we must conclude it is one of approbation. Respecting a similar instance of "moderation," shewn both by our own, and by the American Episcopal Church, in omitting a clause from her ancient Article on this subject, (the very clause which would have so certainly sanctioned his own use of this text in St. Peter,) his information may not be unacceptable to our readers.

"In the Third Article of the Church of England, set forth in the time of Edward the Sixth, it is stated, that as Christ

died and was buried for us, so also it is believed that he went down into hell; for the body lay in the sepulchre until the resurrection; but his ghost, departing from him, was with the ghosts that were in prison or in hell, as the place of St. Peter doth testify. With that moderation with which she has ever been distinguished, she omitted in the last setting forth of the Articles this latter clause, which assigned a definite meaning to a passage of Scripture, concerning which there was a diversity of opinion. But the American Church, in her Prayer-book, permits the substitution of the words, he went into the place of departed spirits, for the words, he descended into hell;' which, she says, are considered as words of the same meaning in the Creed.'" Vol. I. p. 450.

The reasoning of our preacher on the subject of the resurrection, although offering no claim to novelty, after all that West, Paley, and others have so fully and conclusively urged upon it, is still, like all his arguments or "oratious" for the evidences of Christianity, entitled to great praise for the clearness of enunciation, and entire adaptation to the purposes of general congregational instruction. Indeed, we consider these as amongst the most valuable portions of Bishop Hobart's volumes. He shews himself well versed in the complexities of moral evidence; and both in his sixteenth sermon, on Miracles, and the twenty-ninth, on the Evidences for the Resurrection of Christ, we consider him as greatly entitled to the thanks of the Christian world, confirming much that we have said upon the value of such compositions, mainly recognizing the essential truth, reality, and substance of the Christan dispensation in the face of an unbelieving world, and in the heart of a rising and yet but imperfectly constituted community.

The next series brings us to the remaining season of Easter, with which the second volume commences, in five sermons, entitled, "Jesus crucified, buried, rising from the Dead;-The Victory through Christ;-Justification;-Man can

have no Merit before God;-Walking by Faith, not by Sight."-We know not why these should not have been all named as the others, from the respective Sundays; for they bear the same character of appropriateness with all the rest; and most properly follow the resurrection of our blessed Lord; our victory over the law, over sin, and over death; our justification, as respects its nature, agents, meritorious cause, conditions, external means of conveyance; also our unprofitableness as to merit explained, proved against us as creatures, as sinners, as redeemed, as debtors to grace, and at the best imperfect; and, further traced to its practical results, humility, patience, and continual dependence on our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ for his intercession and grace: and lastly, our walking by faith contrasted with walking by sight, with regard to the end of our being, its character, its condition, and its destination. Were we to select from these numerous heads, all that is of sterling excellence, we should indeed most profitably, but most unduly, overcharge our pages; and more especially if we selected from the last two sermons, which contain much of the marrow of Christian doctrine and Christian experience. From the first, bowever, of these two, we offer the following specimen.

"The absurdity of the claim to merit appears still stronger, if we consider that man is a sinner, obnoxious to God's justice.

"He has wilfully transgressed; he has incurred the penalty of wilful transgression; and is subject to God's just displea

sure.

A sinner talk of merit! A criminal at the bar of eternal Justice-the sentence of wrath issuing against him, lay claim to reward! O God! it is of thy mercy that he is not consumed.

"Man's claim to merit is destroyed by the fact, that his redemption is only through the blood of Christ.

"Ye are redeemed by the precious blood of Christ,' is the language of the Apo

stle, and there is salvation in no other.' But if there is merit, why should there be redemption? Redemption implies a state which there is a price paid. But if man of guilt and bondage, for deliverance from could claim reward on the ground of abso

lute merit, he must have been capable of freeing himself from this state of guilt and bondage, of paying himself the price of his redemption. Why then should so great a price have been offered as the sufferings and death of the only-begotten Son of God? Man's utter destitution of merit is written in the blood of the cross. Look to that blood, O man-that blood of infinite value, which flowed as the price of thy redemption, and, humbled in the dust, withdraw every plea of merit.

"Man's redemption by the blood of Christ, in another point of view, establishes the impossibility of his meriting reward. God so loved the world, as to give his only-begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but should have everlasting life.' -Contemplate the value of the gift, and the dignity and glory of the person who thus submitted to sufferings and death. Consider also the guilt and unworthiness of man, for whom these sufferings and death were sustained. What a debt of gratitude is due from him! Shall we then boast of meriting reward, when the devoted services of our whole life, the pure and exalted services of eternity, cannot repay the love of that God, who so loved us as to give for us his only-begotten Son; or the love of him who died for us, and who washed us from our sins in his own blood?'-Unto him, and unto him alone, through the ages of eternity, will the host of the redeemed, casting their crowns at his feet, ascribe all worth, all honour and glory." Vol. II. PP. 58, 59.

From the next we give the following point of admirable contrast be. tween faith and sight.

"In contemplating the condition of man, as subject to temptation, to sorrow, and to death-how great the superiority of him who walks by faith, and not by sight! "To withstand the assaults of temptation, of that 'lust of the flesh,' which kindles unhallowed fires; of that 'lust of the eye,' which allures by innumerable fascinating pleasures; of that pride of life,' which, fixing on the objects of wealth and honour, excites in the soul insatiable cupidity and lawless ambition --to withstand these-these that have mastered their thousands and ten thousands alas, how impotent the resolutions of the stoutest bosom-the efforts of the strongest mind! How ineffectual the exertions of him who walks only by sight, who looks for strength to resist only to reason, to nature, to the world!

But what victories has not faith wrought-what lusts of the flesh have been too violent for faith to quench-what pleasures have been too seducing for faith to resist what temptations of wealth and ambition have been too powerful for faith

to overcome? Walking by faith, animated by the holy principles which it inspires, and aided by the Divine strength which it confers, the Christian has crucified the flesh; has destroyed the body of sin; has renounced pleasures, dear as a right hand or a right eye; has despised the wealth of earth, in comparison with the treasures of heaven; and has counted the highest honours of the world but as dross, in comparison with the honour of being a son of God, and the heir, with Christ, of immortal glory.

"Under the experience of sorrow, what is the consolation of him who walks only by sight? His spirit within him is desolate, and darkness covers the scenes around him. Reason and nature afford no light that unfolds the end to be accomplished by his afflictions; no means of escape from them; no consolations to cheer and support him under them;-he sorrows, and, alas! as one that hath no hope.'

"But walking by faith, how changed his views and feelings, even though unchanged his lot. He regards the world but as a state of trial, and sorrow as the means of fitting him for the rest which is beyond it. Over the troubled scene through which he passes, he beholds his Father and God, ruling in righteousness and mercy; saying to the waves of affliction that threaten to overwhelm him, Thus far shall ye go, and no further; and guiding him, unhurt by their fury, to the haven of rest. Yes-all things,' he believes, 'shall work together for his good.' God is his guide, his protector, his comforter; and therefore, though 'troubled on every side, he is not distressed; though per.. plexed, he is not in despair; though persecuted, he is not forsaken; though cast down, he is not destroyed.' 'He rejoices in the Lord alway;' again and again he calls on his soul to rejoice. For the Lord is his defence, the Holy One of Israel is his King.' And his light afflictions, which are but for a moment, shall work out for him an eternal weight of glory.'

"When death approaches, what must be the views and feelings of him who walks only by sight? Can any human power, in which he has hitherto confided, arrest the march of this resistless foe? Can those worldly principles and hopes on which he has rested, remove the apprehensions which the approach of death inspires? Can any earthly consolations alleviate the pangs of dying-any human arm conduct in safety through the dark valley of the shadow of death? How terrible to be left in this last conflict to the darkness, the doubts, and the weakness of human reason! How terrible to encounter, in this awful moment, the apprehensions and pangs of a guilty conscience, pointing to the tribunal of an offended Judge, to the woes of eternity; and there is no refuge!

"This refuge is enjoyed only by him