and ever will beset the subject of our present inquiry, we should remember with thankfulness how much has been effected in the Church of England during the past five and twenty years. The light which amid the darkness of the last unbelieving century, flickered so often and appeared at times utterly gone, is now burning brightly once again. The Catholic School in the English Church alone has real any either to influence the masses, or power, to grapple with the infidel spirit of the age. Everywhere, too, is this influence felt. No diocese-notwithstanding the dictum of his lordship of Carlisle, is uninfluenced by its truths-no village, from Land's End to Berwick, but knows something of renewed energy and quickened life. In the Colonies, too, as well as at home, is the good work going on, so that the eyes of foreign churchmen are directed with intense anxiety to the shores of Britain and to the National Church of our little island. No one will, from any point of view, accuse us of ever regarding, or pretending to regard the system of the English Church as perfection, but it does nevertheless appear as if some great and glorious object was in store for her in the womb of the future. Is it for nothing that the distant islands of the Pacific have learnt the glad tidings of salvation through her instrumentality, and that forty sees, in so many years have been planted in colonial dependencies ? Is it for nothing that the differences between the Anglican and Oriental Churches are so unquestionably trifling as compared with those of Rome and Greece? Was it even permitted us to treat with the Orientals, surely there is the absence of many stumbling-blocks which appear almost insurmountable in the eyes of the Eastern, when Rome comes forward with her claims; and therefore let us thank GOD and take courage. And whatever may be our "line," whatever our "views," whatever position we may occupy, or policy adopt, let us remember that as yet the Church has not taught all nations, and that while therefore we labour in our several spheres, we should not fail to supplicate GOD, that the various schisms may be healed, and that Rome, England, and Greece, may present at some glorious future an unbroken front to infidel, heretic, and heathen, and so accomplish the mission bestowed by CHRIST. Dona pacem, Domine, in diebus nostris.

CONFESSION A MEANS OF SPIRITUAL HEALTH.

A Letter to the Lord Bishop of London on Confession, and also with special reference to the case of the Rev. A. Poole. By the Hon. and Rev. ROBERT LIDDELL, M.A. Hayes, Lyall Place. The Power of the Priesthood in Absolution, and a few Remarks on Confession, with an Appendix, containing Quotations from the most eminent English Divines. By the Rev. W. COOKE, M.A. J. H. Parker, Oxford.

Two Sermons on Confession, preached in Quebec Chapel. By the Rev. E. M. GOULBURN, D.D. Rivingtons, Waterloo Place.

We shall content ourselves with recommending our readers if they have not yet got Mr. Liddell's letter to procure it at once, for it is really beyond praise. Yet we must go one step further. We cannot but urge all those who have read it to cause it to be as widely circulated as possible amongst their friends and acquaintance. A cheap edition is said to be shortly forthcoming which should by all means be extensively disseminated. Mr. Cooke's pamphlet is not unworthy to stand side by side with it. He sets forth with great ability the doctrine of Scripture, and has collected a valuable mass of evidence respecting the various shades of teaching in Church of England Divines who have handled the subject. Very different, we are sorry to say, is the little effusion of Dr. Goulburn. His two Sermons were doubtless very pleasant hearing for the congregation of Quebec Chapel. Probably the argumentative capacity of the congregation is not greatly a-head of the Divine who instructs them, and he is so satisfied with what he has written that he says "if an argumentative treatment of the subject were all that was required, he should have little more to add to his first discourse." Now this argumentative treatment extends to nothing more than the Rev. Doctor's own common-sense view of the subject quite irrespective of the Christian Faith. He does not even touch upon the Scriptural argument, except in a brief and poetical description of the rationale of Confession and Absolution in the public service. The only passage really bearing upon the exegesis of Holy Scripture is this:

"The tendency of the system of regular and stated confession to a human spiritual adviser, is to throw the soul upon man, upon man's wisdom, upon man's counsel, upon man's prayers, upon man's help. It is to enthrone the chosen confessor in the place which CHRIST alone should hold in the heart, and so to set up an Anti-Christ; for be it remarked that according to its true etymology the word Anti-Christ signifies not-one set up IN OPPOSITION TO Christ, but-one set up IN THE STEAD OR PLACE OF Christ.”

No doubt there is much truth involved in this somewhat misty phraseology. No doubt it is seeking to an Antichrist when persons betake themselves for spiritual relief to any who come in their own name, and not in the Name of CHRIST and of the FATHER. No doubt it is a form of Antichrist when persons come forward as sufficient for the work of the Christian Ministry because of gifts personally made over to themselves, as if this personal fitness supplied the place of official authority received from CHRIST to speak in His Name. Dr. Goulburn, however, denies that our LORD had power to send any with that fulness of authority with which the FATHER sent Him Himself. When any priest professes to come forward and absolve the penitent in the stead or place of CHRIST, he becomes therefore an Antichrist too. How early did this AntiChristian tendency begin? We find it in the New Testament itself. Even the great Apostle S. Paul is found inculcating this antichristian notion, and that too upon principle, in the Church of Corinth. Dr. Goulburn must tremble while he reads how S. Paul places the Church and its officers in the stead or place of CHRIST, both for the purpose of condemnation and for reconciliation. "I have judged," says he, "in the Name of our LORD JESUS CHRIST to deliver such an one to Satan. (1 Cor. v. 4, 5.) And on the other hand, "To whom ye forgive anything, I forgive also; for if I forgave anything, to whom I forgave it, for your sakes forgave I it in the person of CHRIST." (2 Cor. ii. 10.) Certainly we must all see that it is Anti-Christian to resort now and then in special emergencies of difficulty to human counsellors for comfort or absolution, as if they could then do for us what CHRIST could not do by Himself. We can fancy a person ignorant of the Christian ministry and its authoritative position speaking of his daily minor difficulties to his friend and keeping his chief griefs as a secret between himself and GOD; but if it is right to recognize the power of our LORD JESUS CHRIST, the Name of our LORD JESUS CHRIST, the Person of CHRIST, as operating upon special occasions by the intervention of the Christian ministry, it must be a want of faith to doubt that that power is always ready so to operate. CHRIST did not send His ministers to carry out the more difficult parts of His ministry of reconciliation, as though He in Heaven could only carry on the general government of His Church, but He sent them as "His ambassadors" to carry out as "fellow workers with GOD" that work in all its parts which He had received from the FATHER as the object of His Incarnation, of which He laid the foundation by the gift of His own Self, and to which He is ever giving the increase by the communicated virtue of His Intercession upon the Mediatorial Throne. To seek for the sympathy of mere human friendship as supplemental to the doctrine of CHRIST'S Redemption, this is indeed Anti-Christian, for it supposes the power of CHRIST to be insufficient, and this is what Dr. Goulburn practically advocates in

his second sermon; but to recognize the power and authority of CHRIST in those whom He has sent in His Name,-to receive them in spite of their human infirmities "as angels of GOD even as CHRIST JESUS" (Gal. iv. 14),—to look upon the Christian Priesthood not merely as "instructors in CHRIST," but as "fathers by whom we have been begotten in CHRIST JESUS through the gospel" (1 Cor. iv. 15),—to repair to them not merely for their own wisdom, and with diffident awe, but with confiding love, with an expression of all the inmost struggles of the soul, as to a "nursing mother gently cherishing her own children” (1 Thess. ii. 7),—to look upon them not merely as the first imparters of Christian life to us, but as still "travailing in birth again until CHRIST be formed in us" (Gal. iv. 19),-this is to believe CHRIST present always even unto the end of the world. It is no setting aside of CHRIST to believe that "if any man be overtaken in a fault" there are yet upon earth persons entrusted with "spiritual" power who are to "restore such an one in the spirit of meekness, considering themselves lest they also be tempted." (Gal. vi. 1.) The healing power of authoritative absolution is indeed necessary if the practice of Confession to man is to be other than a snare leading us away from CHRIST. Inasmuch however as CHRIST has instituted this ministry, we may be sure that "if any have committed sins, absolution is to be given him," (for this is the meaning of S. James's words,) and "if we confess our faults one to another" we may look to this gift as "effectually wrought" for us by the "prayer of the Just One, Whose mediatorial intercession gives power to the human ministrations of "the elders of the Church," man praying for man, "that we may be healed." The Christian minister thus standing in the place of CHRIST must exercise the severity of a judge, the wisdom of a physician, the loving authority of a father, the tender compassion of a mother, well may we say, "Who is sufficient for these things?" (2 Cor. ii. 16.) It would be an idle pretence, a blasphemous conceit, thus to pretend to act in the stead of CHRIST, if the sufficiency were not " of GOD, Who also hath made men indeed able as ministers of the New Testament, not of the letter but of the Spirit." (2 Cor. iii. 6.) It is the presence of the HOLY GHOST which supplies the place of CHRIST, so that " we are not left orphans because CHRIST thus comes to us." (S. John xiv. 18.)

It remains then to consider, whether the habitual recognition of CHRIST'S Presence by the HOLY GHOST in His Ministers is likely to cause spiritual strength or weakness; whether the things which should be to our wealth may not rather prove an occasion of falling. No doubt the presence of CHRIST in the world is the very cause of its overthrow. He is a stone of stumbling and a rock of offence to them that are disobedient. It is no new discovery of the nineteenth century, that the Christian ministry is encompassed with snares by reason of its eminent dignity. A Priest, having

the cure of souls, is to be "not a novice, lest being lifted up with pride he fall into the condemnation of the devil." (1 Tim. iii. 6.) S. Paul was well aware of the danger, in a position which needed continual self-discipline, lest, instead of being "helpers of the joy" of the disciples, he and his fellow ministers, should act as "lords over God's heritage.' "The authority which GOD had given" to him and them "was given for edification, and not for destruction." (2 Cor. x. 8.) But S. Paul was well aware that a great power, by its very greatness and reality, was capable of being used both ways, either for good or for evil. There were those in his own days who put themselves at the head of parties, and flattered the disciples with the idea that the abundance of their spiritual gifts lifted them beyond the need of Apostolical discipline and government. He would gladly, indeed, have hailed the time when the authority to bind or loose in the Church of GoD should be no longer necessary, all being triumphant in the manifestation of CHRIST. To them he writes, "Ye have reigned as kings without us, and I would to GOD ye did reign that we also might reign with you." (1 Cor. iv. 8.) He knew well the danger, and he felt the burden of his high authoritative position, and spiritual powers; but he could not divest himself thereof. To those who became puffed up with their capacity for understanding mysteries he wrote, that he must come either with a rod, or with the spirit of meekness, according as he found them submissive or still rebellious; for "the kingdom of GOD," (says he,) "is not in word but in power." (1 Cor. iv. 20.) There was, therefore, he well knew, a danger within himself, and a danger upon their part also. So he writes: "To the one we are the savour of death unto death; and to the other the savour of life unto life." (2 Cor. ii. 16.) There was a danger arising from the scorn and opposition of self-willed men, who were fulfilling, in their opposition to Apostolic discipline, the prophecy, wherein they are introduced as crying out, "Let us break their bands asunder, and cast away their cords from us." (Ps. ii. 3.) There was also a danger, when any thought they might have fellowship with the Apostles and with CHRIST whilst they themselves were walking in darkness. As S. James urges men to confess their sins, with trust in the prayer of a righteous man, evidently meaning the authoritative prayer or absolution by which the Elders of the Church might apply to individuals the efficacy of CHRIST's intercession; so S. John urges men not to continue in sin, but to confess their sins, because of the promise of forgiveness which is derived to all the members of the Church from the intercession of CHRIST, an intercession which is limited, though His propitiation is universal. To partake of this intercession, and its consequent pardon, is the special blessing of fellowship in Apostolic ordinances. S. John wrote his Epistles that the brethren might abide in fellowship with him, and