his own person, both convocation and council, and to issue, in his own name, an order and appointment for the whole Anglican Church, under the form of an invitation to united prayer for the outpouring of the Holy Spirit.'

Is there no 'innovation' here? Is there not something infinitely more intolerable, because more audacious and more mischievous? And had any High Church clergyman taken upon him to make such an appointment, what an outcry would there not have been against the pride and presumption of Puseyism!

But no High Churchman would have done such a thing. His principles involve too deep a sense of duty to the Church, to allow him to assume an authority which is the Church's exclusive privilege.

The rule laid down in the Prayer-Book, by which every clergyman is solemnly bound, is this, that although the keeping or omitting of a ceremony, in itself considered, is but a small thing, yet the wilful and contemptuous transgression and breaking of a common order and discipline is no small offence before God. Let all things be done among you,' saith St. Paul, 'in a seemly and due order:' the appointment of the which order pertaineth not to private men, therefore no man ought to take in hand, nor presume to appoint or alter any public or common order in Christ's Church, except he be lawfully called and authorized there unto.* The seventy-second canon of our Church is even more decisive: No minister or ministers shall, without the licence and direction of the Bishop of the diocese first obtained and had under his hand and seal, appoint or keep any solemn fasts, either publicly or in any private houses, other than such as by law are, or by public authority shall be, appointed; nor shall be wittingly present at any of them, under pain of suspension for the first offence, of excommunication for the second, and of deposition from the ministry for the third.' +

How would it be possible, indeed, ever to do things in any 'seemly and due order,' were there no such regulations as these? Fifty ministers might take upon them to issue invitations to united prayer,' for as many different objects on the same day. The confusions, the distractions, sure to arise from such a course, would be incalculable and deplorable. It is a disorderliness that is on every account most baneful to the peace and unity of the Church; and the very fact that such an instance has occurred, not only justifies the enactment of the canon we have quoted, but proves the necessity of a much stricter discipline being enforced in the Church, than anything that has been attempted in modern times.

Under any circumstances it would be most censurable, because * Order concerning the Services and Communion of the Church. † Constitutions and Canons Ecclesiastical.

presumptuous and indecorous; but in the case before us it is aggravated, both by the occasion pitched upon, and the subject selected.

The day appointed is the Feast of the Circumcision, the next great event after the Nativity.

This festival was in many liturgies merged in the octaves of the Nativity; but there was always in the services of the eighth day after Christmas, an especial reference to the circumcision and naming of our blessed Redeemer. In later times the eighth day in the liturgy of the Anglican and other Churches, was known as the day of the circumcision, and was honoured by peculiar service suited to the just commemoration of that event. This festival falls on New Year's Day; or the old calends of January. The Church of England celebrates it with due religious services, as an anniversary commemoration of a most important event in the life of our blessed Redeemer.' *

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But the author of the Invitation' referred to sets all this at defiance. The Church's appointment of so important a festival as the Circumcision has no favour in his eyes. His address to the Church directly implies, indeed, an utter disregard of it all. He directs that, where it is convenient, there should be morning service in the church, and suitable prayers used-suitable, that is, not to the Circumcision, to which there is not the most distant allusion, but to the object in view, that of invoking the outpouring of the Holy Spirit;' or, where this is not convenient, he prescribes that evening service should be substituted. The collect, epistle, and gospel, as well as the proper lessons for the day, are altogether set aside. That the Son of God was made to be circumcised, and obedient to the law for man,' that we, as his disciples, might have the true circumcision of the spirit,' that 'our hearts, and all our members being mortified from all worldly and carnal lusts, we may in all things obey His blessed will,† all these seasonable and solemn considerations are despised, simply, we suppose, because attention to them is enjoined by the Church; and another object altogether, and that one for which no special occasion has arisen, is to take its place, at the instance of an arrogant and unauthorised party.

Equally objectionable is it as respects the subject selected. 'An invitation to united prayer for the outpouring of the Holy Spirit.' Why, the Church orders this to be the subject of 'united prayer,' day by day. Did these pseudo 'evangelicals' pay any respect to the Church's rule of a daily service, they would carry their object into effect, not on one day in particular, but every day alike. Prayer for the outpouring of the Holy Spirit,' holds a prominent place in the service prescribed for

* Townsend's Churchman's Year. VOL. IV.

+ Collect for the Circumcision.

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every day. The healthful spirit of God's grace,' is supplicated to be sent down upon our Bishops and Curates, and all congregations committed to their charge. And for the Catholic Church, as composed of all sorts and conditions of men, God is besought that all who profess and call themselves Christians, may be led into the way of truth, and hold the faith in unity of spirit, in the bond of peace, and in righteousness of life.' In the Litany the same prayer is again put up. And in many of the collects used throughout the year, it is emphatically repeated. The subject is never lost sight of. It pervades all the services of the Church. So that not only, if we are so disposed, may we engage in united prayer for the outpouring of the Holy Spirit' every day, but the Church herself directs and enjoins us to engage in it-and to do so with every security for unity, as thinking the same thing, by minding the same rule.

'Linked in one sacred feeling, at one hour,

In the same language, the same prayer to heaven."

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**

It has ever been the characteristic of puritanism to be disrepectful and disorderly. It opposes all authority, except what is of its own choosing; and it resists every restriction, save that which its own domineering influence imposes. Fuller quaintly describes its votaries as those who are desiring most ease and liberty for their own sides when bound with episcopacy, yet gird their own garment the closest about the consciences of others. And that the author of the Invitation to united prayer' is a puritan, there is internal evidence in abundance. No Roundhead of the Commonwealth could have expressed himself with more puritanical precision, than he does in the very opening of his epistle ;

'Dearly beloved in the Lord-Since I had the privilege of addressing you, the Lord in his gracious providence has changed my sphere of duty to this part of his vineyard. Whilst I review with feelings of grateful remembrance his manifold mercies during my pastoral charge in Liverpool, the sweet seasons of Christian communion with my beloved friends and brethren, and especially with that dear flock for whom I earnestly pray that grace, mercy, and peace may be multiplied unto them—whilst these past tokens of Divine goodness are fresh in my memory, I may, when speaking of my present charge, say with the Psalmist, "The lines are fallen unto me in pleasant places." Oh, that "the good Shepherd" may lead many of his own sheep into these green pastures, overruling this providential change to the advancement of his cause, and the good of his people.'

Far be it from us to slight the outpouring of a pious heart. Nor would we forget that while charity doth not behave itself unseemly,' it thinketh no evil.' But the rhapsody of the puritan * Southey.

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is too palpable to be mistaken in the passage just quoted; and a similar strain pervades the address throughout. That the lines are fallen unto him in pleasant places' we have no manner of doubt, and we rejoice with him that it is so. But why, for such an object, he forsook his 'pastoral charge in Liverpool,' we cannot, under such circumstances, for the life of us comprehend; any more than that any of the dear flock' should be expected to follow him into those green pastures,' for which he forsook them. This may be the language of modern evangelicalism-they are certainly not the words of truth and soberness.'

We should have thought less of this affair had we not found that it is no mere casual matter. It has become, we learn, an established practice. This is avowed in the present Invitation;' for the author tells us, it is a sense of his unmerited goodness which leads to this desire, and especially inclines me to repeat the invitation which, for the last ten years, I have been permitted to give to all who love the Lord Jesus Christ in sincerity,' to unite on the first day in the new year, Friday, January 1st, 1847, in a general concert for prayer for the outpouring of the Holy Spirit.'

It is a solemn subject. God forbid that we should regard it with any feeling of irreverence! It is far too solemn to be trifled with for a moment. It is one of the very last things which a priest of the Church, above all, should think of making the medium of any slight upon the Church. And yet a slight is cast upon the Church, when not only, as in this case, her rule is disregarded, and her discipline invaded, but she is insulted by the imputation of gross neglect, where every care and consideration have been manifested in her ordinances.

It may sound harshly to call it Puritanical Presumption; yet such it is, in deed and in truth; and that in a form most obnoxious to all legitimate authority in the Church. Let the object in view be never so desirable, we must not do evil that good may come; and evil it undoubtedly is, when all things are not done in the Church, as the apostle, hath enjoined upon us,' 'in a seemly and due order.'

DECEMBER 15, 1841.

BY CAPTAIN KNOX.

1.

ONCE spake a sonless father, 'Give me my Ossory dead,
Sooner than any living son in Christendom!' he said.

Thus thought the princely Ormonde, and those high words yet remain,
Still honoured in his country, the majestic pride of pain.

And Pride, and Pain, and Majesty, mixed in the glance of gloom
That France cast on that island, made immortal by a tomb.

A tomb, watched, girt and guarded by a jealous foe.

A foe? some asked in France,- -a foe? is it yet even so?
True eight centuries of the banner, the war-steed, and the sword,
Have taught us to each other's might due honour to accord,
But now to both comes dawning a brighter, holier day,
Before whose light old Angers wither, old Hates fade away,
Sword salutes sword in high respect, flag vails to flag, and they,
The unanointed prophets, who first point, then hew the way
To the dimly looming Future, the Princes of the mind,

Every day in one another's ranks some undreamed brother find.
The voice of a young giant, young but swift of growth, is heard.
Commerce says 'PEACE,' Power bows and smiles, and echoes back the
word.

From sovereign unto sovereign is royal greeting sent ;

From senate unto senate echoes lofty compliment.

And capital with capital hath hospitably vied.

How swiftly, yet how gracefully, the stately nations glide

From courtesy to conrtesy, till France confiding said,

With the frankness of a noble race, 'Give back my mighty dead."

11.

Then with a rushing gladness was the hearty answer given :

Too long, fair sister, two such lands in impious wrath have striven,
Take back thy champion's ashes! Take back his conquering glaive,
And let it sleep the sleep that knows no waking in his grave;
Meet comrade for the Emperor, meet burial for the sword;
Sharing his tomb of glory with its last, its mightiest lord;
The bands of peace betwixt us twain no more again to sever;
Be that imperial cenotaph its sepulchre for ever!

*In the beginning of May, 1841, an application was made by the French to the British government on the subject of the removal of the body of Napoleon, and the following answer was returned:-The government of her Britannic Majesty hopes that the promptness of its answer may be considered in France as a proof of its desire to blot out the last trace of those national animosities which, during the life of the Emperor, armed England and France against one another. The British government hopes that, if such sentiments survive anywhere, they may be buried in the tomb about to receive the remains of Napoleon.' On the 15th of December, 1841, they were deposited in the Hotel des Invalides at Paris.