ever hear those bishops whose sympathies are with Tractarianism, speak of the Church of Rome as an idolatrous Church? Never! They studiously and systematically avoid the use of a term which is decisive against a Church being a Christian Church, and which militates against their mistaken notions respecting the real character of the Church of Rome. They would fain have us believe, that when their friends abjure Protestantism as a heresy, secede from the Church of England, and go over to the Church of Rome, they have joined a Christian, not an idolatrous, Church. What is apostasy, if this be not? By so doing, the Reformation is ignored and Protestantism repudiated. What rational hope can we entertain of the salvation of such men? They were brought up in the light of Protestantism; but they loved the darkness of Popery better..

If there be one thing which God hates more intensely than another, or punishes more severely than another, it is idolatry. This sin excites His hottest displeasure, and calls down His heaviest judgments. The true Christian keeps at the greatest possible distance from this sin, and avoids all incentives to it. Not so the Romanist, the Tractarian, and the man of the world. They trifle with idolatry, and treat it as if it were no sin at all. They wilfully shut their eyes, and are determined to see no idolatry, even where it most abounds and exists in its grossest form, as in the Church of Rome.

Robert Southey, in his Book of the Church, p. 191, calls the Church of Rome "a prodigious structure of imposture and wickedness" and well he may, for all history attests the truth and justifies the severity of the accusation. What are the mock miracles of that Church but impious frauds and daring impostures? Do the Newmans, the Mannings, and the Wilberforces really believe in the liquefaction of the blood of St. Januarius; or do they look upon this pretended miracle as a juggling trick, invented by knaves to impose upon fools, whom they fleece out of their money ?

The Rev. Philip Skelton, an able writer on the side of Protestantism, who was born in 1707, thus writes:-"We insist that every Church, setting herself forth as empowered to work miracles, when she knows she is not, is a fallacious Church, and must be held responsible for all the juggling pranks of her party. Now, the heads of a Church cannot possibly be ignorant, whether they are entrusted with the miraculous powers or not; and therefore if, knowing their own inability herein, they actually set up for these powers, they are infinitely worse than a gang of banditti, because they attempt to spoil us of somewhat, in comparison of which our worldly possessions are nothing, and that not without a design on our purses as well as our minds; they rob on the road to heaven, and commit the vilest

sort of crime in the name of God. A sanctified impostor, a holy villain, are of all others the most detestable appellations; and he that deserves them may dispute precedency with the grand deceiver.

But can it be possible that this most enormous crime is chargeable on any church presuming to call itself by the name of Christ? Yes; the Church of Rome universally lays claim to the power of working miracles; and Cardinal Bellarmine makes it the eleventh note, whereby that church may be proved to be the true Church.

Heresy in the Church, and treason in the State, ought to be nipped in the bud; instead of which, they have been allowed to proceed a great deal too far, owing to those in authority shrinking from their duty, instead of faithfully and fearlessly performing it. There can be no doubt that a Christ-dishonouring soul-destroying heresy has long been raging in our Church; while no efficient measures have been adopted for its suppression. We are now reaping the bitter fruit of such grievous remissness. The heads of our Church are at last beginning to bestir themselves, but the mischief may be done. It is of little use to shut the stable-door after the steed is stolen.

Our political rulers are also beginning to bestir themselves, now that treason has assumed such a formidable character, that it may be no easy matter to put it down.

But little confidence is to be placed in our leading statesmen of either side. They have all been charged with truckling to Popery for the sake of place; and judging from their policy towards Romanists, it is to be feared that there is too much truth in the charge. They cannot, or rather will not, see any material difference between Protestantism and Popery. They vainly imagine that the Churches of England and Rome are based on the same foundation, and believe in the same Mediator. They never speak of the Church of Rome without betraying profound ignorance as to her blasphemous, idolatrous, and antichristian character. They set up their judgments against the most pious and learned divines that ever adorned a church, who were unanimously of opinion that the Church of Rome was a grossly idolatrous Church. And to crown all, they lay the flattering unction to their soul, that they know better than these divines what constitutes idolatry. The barriers which our Protestant forefathers in their wisdom raised up against the encroachments of Popery, these degenerate statesmen are in their folly and recklessness for throwing down. Thus we see presumption and folly going hand in hand together, destroying all confidence in those to whom we ought to be able to look up with reliance and respect. Lastly, they are for placing Romanists in this country, who acknowledge an alle

giance to a foreign and hostile power, on precisely the same footing as those who acknowledge no such foreign allegiance; than which nothing can be more unjust or unreasonable.

Under these adverse and distressing circumstances, it is a great consolation to feel that "the Lord reigneth," and that He will shortly put all enemies under His feet. Among these enemies, the blood-stained harlot of Rome or Apocalyptic Babylon, will occupy a prominent place, "whom the Lord shall consume with the spirit of His mouth and destroy with the brightness of His coming." G. POYNDER.

[P.S.-Mr. Poynder might have strengthened his position by quoting a very significant letter, addressed to himself, and by him kindly communicated to the Christian Observer, p. 142, 1863

"Lambeth, February 10th, 1852. "SIR, I have to thank you for sending me the memorial which accompanied your letter. I agree with the opinions expressed in it, that it is a mistake to admit Roman Catholic orders as entitling to minister in our Church. For this there exists no authority, though certainly the practice has prevailed, but I believe to a very small extent; and I also believe, where it has prevailed, that the result has been disappointment.-I have the honour to remain, Sir, your obedient and faithful servant, "J. B. CANTAUR."

"G. Poynder, Esq.”

Dean Alford spent a winter at Rome, and denies that the religion of that city is Christianity in any sense. Their God is not the God of the Bible. Their worship is not that which God enjoins, nor their doctrines those which the Bible teaches. Just what the Homily for Whitsunday teaches, "The Church of Rome is so far wide from the nature of a true church, that nothing can be more;" or Bishop Newton, when he writes, "The Popish worship is more the worship of demons than of God or Christ."-EDITOR.]

SERMONS BY THE LATE REV. H. V. ELLIOTT.

Sermons preached before the University of Cambridge, in 1850, 1853, and 1854. By the late Rev. Henry Venn Elliott, M.A., sometime Fellow of Trinity College, Cambridge, and Perpetual Curate of St. Mary's, Brighton. Rivingtons, London, Oxford, and Cambridge; H. and C. Treacher, and G. Wakeling, Brighton. 1865.

BEFORE us lies a choice volume of Sermons, such as might have been expected from one whose ministerial ability equalled

his personal worth, while both these were the companions of a highly-educated mind and purified taste. No ambition of style appears in these discourses-no effort to produce what might attract, by its adaptation to those who are unwilling to be put to any pains of thought, and whose attention must be kept up by an exciting strain of address. Indeed, eloquence, or any attempt at it, does not properly characterize these Sermons; by which no disparagement is intended, for they possess far deeper excellences than are often found in discourses which aim at oratory. We believe that no writer was ever truly eloquent who set it before himself as an end to be such. Style is, properly, the dress of thought; though it is not unfre quently made the substitute for it. True eloquence is when deep convictions clothe themselves in language which fitly represents them; when, the "heart being" already "hot within" upon a momentous subject, while the man is "musing, the fire burns," and so his tongue speaks. To this standard Mr. Elliott rose in his preaching, his strong understanding and cultivated taste always regulating and chastening his diction. These are delightful Sermons, abounding in fresh thoughts, which sprang up in the mind of the author as the result of a habit of close study of the text of Holy Scripture, and matured reflection on its meaning and spirit. He was an incessant student of the Bible, in its originals: his practice, in this respect, was with him as much a matter of conscience as of delight, and was the foundation of that acceptableness with which it pleased the Head of the Church to honour his long ministry.

Our object being to give an idea of the characteristics which won for that ministry so great admiration, and led so many visitors and residents at Brighton to be constant attendants upon it, the space allowed for this notice will be largely occupied by extracts from the volume.

The First Sermon, on "Zacchæus," replete with "life-giving lessons," concludes with the selection of two specially commended to his younger hearers in the University :

"1st. Let the Name of Jesus, the Name of Jesus, the Name which is above every name, be honoured and glorified in this conversion of Zacchæus. It is a specimen of His infinite power and love; of the free and sovereign grace with which He visits those who seek Him not, arrests sinners in their career to destruction, opens the door of its prison to the close heart, and quickens into spiritual life, those who were dead in trespasses and sins.

"I feel it a great privilege, my brethren, and a solemn delight, to be permitted to speak good of the Name of Jesus in such an assembly as this, the school of many future scholars in Divinity, and ministers, and of many high influences that will shortly give their tone and stamp to the age in which they are to act.

"2ndly. If there are here those who feel that their characters are selfish, low, and unworthy, requiring the same utter transformation which Zacchæus experienced (and let me say that such persons are not the least hopeful in a congregation, if only they desire to get rid of their earthly and carnal mind), to all such persons let me, from this history, proclaim that the grace which changed Zacchaeus' whole nature can change you. The love of money is not, indeed, the temptation of the young. But there may be equal selfishness and heartlessness in extravagance and gambling (only the victims are not strangers); equal debasement in gluttony and drunkenness ; an equally reckless disregard of the welfare of others, and equal cruelty" in sins of unchastity "(only that there your own ruin is also involved). Nay, all sin is selfish and degrading; and even the student whose one ambition it is to achieve for himself, without any respect to the glory of God, a literary reputation, is guilty of equal malappropriation of what has been entrusted to his hands."

The Second is a heart-searching discourse on "Godly Sorrow, and its work, Repentance." The difference between it and the sorrow of the world is set forth in striking contrast, especially in these two points—the latter "has not its face turned toward God; nor has it any sure remedy or well-grounded hope of relief."

"If you inquire, you will scarcely fail to find some parent, husband, wife, or friend who cannot recover from the stunning blow of God's bereaving hand. Or a grosser form of the world's sorrow, and therefore less affecting, may fall within your notice, in one who droops under the failure of his speculations, or the loss of his fortune..... The soul refuses to be comforted, and refuses to be moved. . . . . It is the sorrow of the world, that worketh death. . . . . Godly sorrow, on the contrary, has hope in the midst of evil; and, with hope, it immediately addresses itself, under affliction, to prayer, and to humiliation and amendment."

Pointing out that genuine repentance will "investigate all the hidden corners of the heart," the author assists in such investigation by adding that

"Repentance of the right quality will not be satisfied by confessing, We are all sinners, all frail and weak; we all need the blood of Christ to cleanse us from sin. True repentance has very little to do with the plural 'we,' and a great deal to do with the singular 'I.' 'I have sinned, and done wickedly.' 'I am unclean.' 'My sins are more in number than the hairs of my head.' I abhor myself, and repent in dust and ashes.' Read the fifty-first Psalm; and when a man really repents, mark how personal his prayers and confessions become."

Of this sort, with greater or less degrees of intensity, but with equal fidelity of application to the conscience and heart, are all the Sermons which compose this volume. A single and strong desire to fulfil "the ministry which he had received of the Lord Jesus, and to testify the Gospel of the grace of God,"