it as "protesting against the errors of Rome." In this sense, our Church is strictly and sternly Protestant; and so is every one of her loyal sons, however he may, from peculiar feelings often highly laudable-peculiar circumstances over which he has no control-or peculiar prejudices which are very excusable, repudiate the term. The phrase, however, "protesting against the errors of Rome," is not comprehensive enough to express the protest of the Church of England. Her protest is against all corruptions of the faith of Christ, all interpolations of the law of God. Her protest is an appeal from medieval to primitive Christianity-from the word of man to that of God.

If it be objected, that this sense of the word Protestant produces a generic term which classes us with various sects, and puts them on the same footing with ourselves, it may be answered, that the same objection would apply to the word animal, which classes us with beasts and reptiles, but which does not thereby lower us to their level or raise them The same objection may be raised against the term Catholic. For our own part, we shall not desist from using the term Protestant for fear of being identified with schism, or the term Catholic, lest we should be charged with idolatry.

to ours.

There is, however, another, fuller, deeper, more essential sense in which we would use and defend the term Protestant-a sense in which our Church is, and her children ought to be, Protestant. Let us endeavour to explain ourselves. In the sense which we mean, the Catholic and Protestant principles resemble, and morally represent, the centripetal and centrifugal forces. The one treats men as parts of a whole, the other as whole in themselves; the one as members of Christ's body the Church, the fulness of Him that filleth all in all; the other as individuals for each of whom, separately considered, Christ died. The one looks on men in their corporate, the other in their individual, capacity.

The tendency of the centripetal force, if unrestrained by the centrifugal, would be to crush the universe; the tendency of the centrifugal, unrestrained by the centripetal, would be to dissolve it. Yet both were created by the same God, and both, as regulated by his decree, preserve the order of the universe, which either, if alone, would destroy. And thus in some sort is it with Catholicity and Protestantism, with the truths, the principles, and the tendencies which belong to each. Nay we assert more than this, that in any given case where two antagonist principles exist, both of divine origin, the unlimited development of either, without the proportional development of the other, must and will issue, not only in the absence of the benefits derivable from that other, but in the corruption, and even dereliction of itself.* In physics, in politics, in all things, this is the case. We ought not then to be satisfied because all that we believe is true, but endeavour to believe all that is

* A singular instance occurs in the case of private Judgment and Church Authority. The exclusive votary of the first is frequently enslaved to the mere dictum of his favourite Preacher, whilst there are found amongst the most zealous advocates of the latter, men who sadly forget the deference which they owe to their spiritual Mother.

true. We ought not to be satisfied with being either Catholic or Protestant, but we should aim at being BOTH.

Let us illustrate our position by politics: we find there the conservative and liberal principles, the one the principle of order, the other of independence; the one appealing to the duties, the other to the rights of man; the one recurring to the past, the other passing onward to the future; the one relying on our fears, the other appealing to our hopes. Now both these principles are in themselves good; both are of divine origin; both, taken separately or together, are capable of producing great benefits. But both are liable to abuse; each requires the correction and counterpoise of the other to prevent its producing evil, nay, each requires the legitimate action of the other to enable it to fulfil its own appointed task, and attain that perfection of which it is capable. And, what is more strange, the excess of either of them issues in a dereliction of the principle from which they set out, for passive obedience is incompatible with virtue, and anarchy inconsistent with freedom; and yet these are the natural, the necessary results of the conservative and liberal principles, if carried out to their full extent, and uncontrolled by the action of their opposites.

But let us return to our subject. There is at the present time a loud and increasing cry for Catholic principles. Well, it is a very praiseworthy cry, and we fully sympathize with it. But this is answered by a cry for Protestant principles, and that too is a praiseworthy cry, and one in which we heartily join. But we maintain that though both good, they are both defective; that we have no more right to have a favourite truth than a favourite error. Such a course reminds us painfully of the custom of the Pharisees in our Lord's time, who selected the precepts which they chose to keep, and treated the rest as a dead letter; and we cannot avoid quoting the words of St. James, called forth by the prevalence of this practice. "For whosoever shall keep the whole law, and yet offend in one point, he is guilty of all. For He that said, Do not commit adultery, said also, Do not kill. Now if thou commit no adultery, yet if thou kill thou art become a transgressor of the law." (James ii. 10, 11.)

We consider the defective views which we mention as perfectly distinct in their origin from the tendencies to Rome and to Geneva, of which we have before spoken. They are caused in a totally different manner. Men lean to Rome from a hatred of Geneva, to Geneva from a hatred of Rome. But men become exclusively Catholic from a love of Catholicity, exclusively Protestant from a love of Protestantism. The errors of Rome form no part of Catholicity, nor need a good Protestant have any regard for Geneva, since antiquity refutes the errors of the one, and reason rejects the errors of the other; yet it must be allowed by any one who has dispassionately considered the subject, that Catholicity is a safeguard against Geneva, and Protestantism a security against Rome.

For example, the doctrine of Transubstantiation forms no part of Catholicity. It is at variance with Catholic truth, yet it must be evident to every man that Protestantism forms a safeguard against this doctrine;

in other words, that no true Protestant can believe it. On the other hand, the denial of the real, though spiritual presence of our Lord in the Eucharist, is no part of Protestantism, and involves a dereliction of its original principles; yet none can deny but that Catholicity is a safeguard against this error-in other words, that no true Catholic could entertain such an opinion. This instance fully bears us out in our assertion, that Catholicity and Protestantism each require the aid of the other to ensure the true development of even their own principles. The unprotestant Catholic runs the risk of embracing an error which is at variance with that Primitive tradition which he so dearly loves; the uncatholic Protestant is in danger of denying a truth which is plainly and undoubtedly revealed in the written word of God.

But it is not alone in defining the limits of doctrine, and ascertaining the objects of faith, that we perceive the benefits resulting from the cooperation and counterpoise of Catholic and Protestant principles. Those benefits are equally great, that co-operation and counterpoise are equally necessary to form the character and regulate the conduct of the individual Christian.

As members of that pure branch of Christ's Church to which we belong, we are bound to receive her doctrines with submission, to fulfil her commands with readiness, to attend her services with alacrity, to take part in her services with devotion, and partake in her ordinances with a full reliance on their efficacy. To feel that in her and through her we are members of that body of which Christ is the head, we are bound to preserve the unity of the spirit in the bond of peace, recollecting that there is one Lord, one faith, one Baptism, one God and Father of us all, and that by one spirit we are all baptized into one body, the fulness of Him that fulfilleth all in all-This is Catholicity.

As heirs of the salvation of God, elect according to His foreknowledge, as men who shall have each to give an account of his deeds at the last day, when neither prince nor priest can shield us from the wrath of God, and when the first question will be, Hast thou believed, loved, obeyed God, as moral, rational, and responsible beings, we are bound to search the Scriptures for the authority of that faith which we are taught to believe for the sanction of those regulations we are called on to obey; we are bound to search for the truth with our whole heart and soul, to recollect that every word of God's book is addressed to us, all and each of us, not only collectively but individually; we are bound to recollect that neither the sacraments of the Gospel, nor the ordinances of the Church, have any value save in the case of those that receive and use them rightly; that each man is directly responsible to God for every opinion he holds, every thought he entertains, every feeling he cherishes, every word he utters, every act which he performs; that although the guilt of sin is increased by its being committed in opposition to authority, yet the guilt of sin is not removed by its being committed in obedience to authority; that if either a temporal or spiritual superior command us to do wrong, such command does not absolve us from our primary duty to God-This is Protestantism.

The union of these two in practice of difference and independence, reverence and enlightenment, faith and reason, of love for the Church of Christ with greater love for Him, of respect for God's Ministers with devotion to Himself, of communion with him in our public as well as private capacity, in our private as well as our public, the readiness to sacrifice our own will with firmness in maintaining His, a love of all truth and a hatred of all error, the deep sense of duty with the fearful sense of responsibility developing themselves at once in humility and watchfulness-this is indeed a religion which calls forth our highest admiration, for this is Christianity; the Christianity of our Church; true, full, pure Christianity, which combines in itself both Catholicity and

Protestantism.

God is the Author of both; He planted them in the mind of man. He made them both essential to his well-being and united them in His Religion. Shame and woe to those who would sever the one from the other.

"What God hath joined together, let no man put asunder.”

STANZAS.

BY MISS PARDOE.

YESTERDAY! where is it,
With all its hopes and fears?
It is buried in the mighty grave
Of lost and vanished years.
Its roses have all faded

Beneath time's biting blast;
And when we sometimes speak of it,
We talk but of the past.

To-day! we call it ours,

The all that we can claim;
Our arena of love and strife,
Our race of praise or blame.
With every breath it passes:
We chit-chit, and 'tis gone;
And yet we proudly dare to think
The present is our own.

To-morrow! who shall tell
What his next dawn may be?
Or who shall boldly pledge himself
That coming light to see?
We can remember by-past suns,
And waste the passing hours ;
But, ah! we know not if indeed
A morrow will be ours.

47

WINSTONE COURT.

A TALE CONCERNING CHURCH AND DISSENT-THE CORN-LAW LEAGUE AND POOR LAWS AND GENERAL ELECTIONS.

CHAPTER II.

Ar the neatest cottage in Barstone resided Miss Jenkins, the daughter of an old Baptist minister, who, twenty years before, had officiated in that village. Since his death, no stated teacher had ever resided among the congregation till the coming of Mr. Howard, and Miss Jenkins had been sometimes reduced to the heart-rending alternative of either attending Church, or absenting herself altogether from public worship. She supported herself by teaching the children of the neighbourhood; and this resource, added to a small annuity, produced a sum sufficient for her few wants. She, like all around, was materially benefitted by her proximity to the Winstones. Both Isabel and her mother delighted to pay their less favoured neighbour those attentions which, without humiliating her, rendered her situation much more pleasant. Books, periodicals, and occasionally presents of other kinds, found their way to the cottage of the schoolmistress, and not unfrequent invitations were given her to join the circle at Halton. Here she felt at home; for though her education had been narrow in the first instance, she had much improved it by desultory reading, and by a spirit of observation. On the death of her father, she had engaged herself as governess in a dissenting family, in London, and with them she had afterwards resided in Ireland; but after remaining with them ten years, she found her services no longer required, and, having unsuccessfully endeavoured to obtain another engagement, she withdrew to her native village, where she occupied herself as has been mentioned above. Between her and Miss Winstone there had subsisted for some time a considerable degree of intimacy, and in return for the books which had been lent to her from the Halton library, Miss Jenkins had furnished her friend with some works not very likely to be found there. Among these were some of a decidedly controversial character, and some written for the very purpose of bringing the Established Church into disrepute, and celebrating the virtues and sufferings of the persecuted Nonconformists. The fruits of this kind of reading were slow but enduring. The bombastic style and absurd phraseology of many of these books excited, at first, Isabel's laughter; and while she was occasionally horrified with their irreverence and disgusted with their grossness, her mind was far too unsophisticated to suppose that men, with the name of God in their mouths, would deliberately sit down to write dishonest works, and to falsify history. Hence she beieved, for the most part, the facts which she read, though she was not