"The world cannot understand the irresistible might of Vocation.'"

Religious Toleration" and "Latitudinarianism," go naturally together; but they should by no means be confounded, as, popularly, they often are. Toleration means either that the authorities in the State will allow or license any form of religion not decidedly immoral, or that the authorities in the Church will not molest the members of religious bodies who have separated from her, in their religious observances. Latitudinarianism connotes a great deal more, it implies an indifference to truth, an hostility to dogma, an allowance of every kind of opinion. Religious toleration says, I believe you to be wrong, but I do not mean to interfere with you, excepting by fair argument. Latitudinarianism says, I think all religious opinions to be right, provided a man holds them conscientiously. Mr. Blacker does not always keep in view this distinction.

In the Primitive Church both Toleration and Latitudinarianism were unknown. The story of S. John flying from a bath in which Cerinthus happened to be, illustrates the one; S. Paul's excommunication of Hymenæus and Alexander proves the other. Later times witnessed the long and desperate struggle between the Catholic faith and the various heresies which called together the Six General Councils, which ended in the secession of the heretics, and, in some cases, excommunication of their teachers. It is commonly thought that toleration was born in the great Protestant disruption in the sixteenth century; but this is wholly a mistake; Protestants were as intolerant and as persecuting as Catholics. In our own country, whichever party got the power, persecuted all those that differed from its decrees. Chillingworth and Jeremy Taylor were the first to advocate toleration; Charles II., the first monarch who licensed it; it was the House of Commons, composed wholly of laymen, that passed the Act of Uniformity, the Test and Corporation Acts, and that which required an oath against Transubstantiation-some of these Non-toleration Acts are yet unrepealed.

But were all such statutes-including the Act of Uniformityrepealed, it would not secure toleration; nay, we say, without fear of contradiction, it would inculcate intoleration. No persons are so intolerant as your Latitudinarians. The man who has no definite faith, will not endure the man who has; to him creeds and formularies are hateful, because they assert dogmatically what is the truth and what is not. The Archbishop of York allows complacently a rector in his diocese to preach sermons, and to scatter tracts throughout the land, denying the Catholic faith about the person of our LORD; but he refuses to license a curate who believes in the sacramental doctrine of the Real Presence, and the priesthood. But Latitudinarian Archbishops and Bishops are far out

run in intolerance by another power much more Latitudinarian than themselves, and far more intolerant :

"There is one self-ordained umpire on the toleranda of the Church, which, though its importance is of modern growth, in a short time has attained extravagant power. Public Opinion' is supposed by many to have more right to criticize and limit the variations of religious belief and practice, than Church or State Every self-constituted echo of the whims of the day, declares to us what the imperial will of the many is not going to stand,' and what it is pleased to legalize."-P. 250.

It was the Pall Mall Gazette, the most Latitudinarian journal we have, which recommended, as the shortest and easiest mode of putting down the Ritualists, that powers should be given to the judges in county courts to fine, suspend, and deprive those who obeyed the Church's law, rather than "Public Opinion."

This Latitudinarian spirit shows itself equally intolerant of all moral and religious control, as far as regards the Church, at least:

"For instance, it seems monstrous to many old-fashioned people, that the Clergy should arrogate to themselves the title of priests, with the powers of absolving, consecrating, and blessing. They deem it an impertinence if a steward of the mysteries of the Gospel should rebuke a number [member?] of his flock for neglect or misapprehension of these mysteries. They resent any assertion of the right of the shepherd to warn his flock against schismatical acts and heretical opinions."-P. 251.

Still more, if the priest celebrates the worship of GOD in the way ordered by the Church, and in accordance with Catholic custom, he is denounced and abused, and ordered to leave the Church and resign his cure. If a Bishop has the moral courage to support his faithful priest, he, too, must be flagellated by the lash of public opinion. All this is done by men who are tolerating every kind of Protestant heresy, perhaps occasionally attending a Dissenting place of worship, and subscribing to its support!

Latitudinarianism itself Mr. Oldknow traces to the condemnation of the Arminians at the Synod of Dort, and the formation of the sect under Episcopius. Later on these opinions were introduced into England, and became popular with some of those

1 An instance of this occurred lately in the case of the Clerical Journal, a paper conducted by a learned doctor, whom we should have expected to be above such disgraceful intolerance. When a very general indignation was expressed at the intolerant conduct of the Bishop of Manchester in withdrawing the licence of Mr. Nihill, the Clerical Journal was loud in its condemnation of those who spoke evil of dignities, and preached submission to Bishops in a very edifying way. But, on the appearance of the Bishop of Salisbury's charge, the tone of the Journal suddenly changed; not only was the Bishop charged with unfaithfulness, but something very like rebellion against his authority was recommended as a duty!

divines, who accepted the Revolution of 1688. Certain divines of the Anglican Church, says Bishop Burnet,

"declared against superstition on the one hand, and enthusiasm on the other. They loved the constitution of the Church and the Liturgy, and could well live under them; but they did not think it unlawful to live under another form. They . . . . allowed a great freedom both in philosophy and in divinity, from whence they were called 'Men of Latitude,' and upon that men of narrower thoughts and fiercer tempers fastened upon them the name of Latitudinarians.' They read Episcopius much; and the making out the reasons of things being a main part of their studies, their enemies called them Socinians." P. 473.

The whole matter may be summed up in a few words. What the world, or public opinion, or whatever we may like to call it, rebels against, is the divine institution and commission of the priesthood, and the divine grace of the Sacraments. What it loves, holds to, and believes in, is the supremacy of human intellect over divine grace and revelation, or rather, the authority and infallibility of each man's intellect, to judge of divine truth. It is the oldest form of antagonism in the world, the Tree of Knowledge, and the Tree of Life.

From the Essay on Church Music, we shall make one extract, very suggestive for practical men.

"Few things are so injurious to Church Music as a constant sameness in the manner of singing or saying the Church's services. If, day after day, and month after month, the picture be of one unvaried hue and tint, unrelieved by light or shade, then, sooner or later, the true outlines will disappear. The consequence of an unbroken uniformity of outward expression will ultimately be, that public worship will degenerate either into an irreverent perfunctory gabble, or into a confused and indistinct murmur.

"The observance of the seasons of the Christian year, and of the greater and lesser Holy Days, is the appointed preventive of such evils. The Church's year, like the natural year, owes its life and beauty to its varied seasons. The great Holy Days, with their proper psalms, proper prefaces, and attendant seasons, vary the entire period from Advent to Trinity, with their alternation of light and shadow, and, throughout the other half of the year, the routine of daily matins and evensong is broken by the fourth Ember season, and the occasional Holy Day, [we might add Harvest Festival.] Let the manner of service be ever so simple, those days and seasons must, of necessity, if observed in a proper spirit, powerfully and evidently affect the character of that manner. The greater the development of Church Music, the more vivid will be the change of character; and thus, from the very fact of its varied expression, the music of the Church will display a vigour and beauty, which it could not exhibit if chained down to the level of a dull uniformity. But let holy seasons and holy days become obsolete through neglect, and sameness will engender weariness. Robbed of its brighter

jewels the string of daily pearls will be carelessly worn, then thrown aside, and, when that is done, the Church's song will not even be a witness to the weekly Feast of the Resurrection, but be lost in the low murmur of the gloomy observances of a Puritan Sabbath."-Pp. 278, 279.

Nothing can be more true; but there is a practical difficulty which ordinary parish priests are unable to get over, and that is, we have not got the music! The writer of this article has been trying, for three years past, since he has had a choral service, to procure real Church Music, i.e., Gregorian, for the Canticles, adapted to the Church's seasons and days; and he has been hitherto unable to do so! Service-forms for the Canticles, in harmony or in unison, differing, by a greater elaboration, from the simple Gregorian chant of the Psalms, yet not running into fugue and part music, like "Cathedral Services," adapted for the various seasons, are what is wanted, but are not to be obtained; still more do we want Festival and Lenten forms of the Eucharistic office. These, with proper hymns, would not only mark more distinctly the Church's seasons, but would change a dull uniformity into an expressive act of worship. We hear that there are three new Gregorian Psalters in the press, which will probably be published before next Easter. Will no one undertake a Book of Canticles?

We pass over Mr. Baker's Essay on the "Curate Question," for the subject is receiving sufficient attention in our pages, and pass on to Mr. Le Geyt's, on the "Symbolism of Ritual."

Mr. Le Geyt points out most clearly that the objection to Ritualism is really an objection to the realities of the Catholic Faith; as long as Ritual was perfectly unmeaning, so long it was tolerated; as soon as it is understood that it sets forth the Catholic Faith, then it is opposed and attacked. For instance, two men looking at each other from opposite ends of a table could symbolise nothing, unless, as it has been suggested, somewhat irreverently, from the resemblance to the lion and unicorn in the Royal arms-the subjection of the Church to the State during the Hanoverian period. But a Priest, properly vested, standing in the midst of the altar, and facing it, very clearly symbolised the double office of the Priesthood, Intercession and offering of sacrifice. The "usual and long-sanctioned" custom of "doing the Service," which we remember to have been universal in our younger days, together with galleried and pewed churches, huge reading-desks and pulpits, with slovenly celebrations, symbolised unmistakeably the religious tone of the eighteenth century, when the Atonement was kept out of sight, and grace obscured, the priest lost in the preacher. So long as improvement was confined to matins and even song the Catholic revival was allowed to go on; but when the celebration of the Eucharist brought

out the doctrines of the Real objective Presence, the Priesthood, the Intercession, then came the cry against it.

"In the earlier days of the movement it was common to meet with a choral and ritual celebration of other offices, as matins and evensong, while the Holy Eucharist stood alone in the absence of such outward notes of the care and reverence of the Church. Choral and festal matins and ante-Communion office, followed by the plainest and most meagre celebration of the Holy Mysteries-this was for a time the rule of many churches to which the spirit of restoration and revival had extended. But this, manifestly, could not long continue. The Holy Eucharist had gradually ceased to hold its due position at the head and front of Catholic worship in the Church of England, and for a time the inconsistency seems scarcely to have been perceived. The further development of the movement, however, gradually restored true Catholic views of the Eucharistic Sacrifice as the great act of Christian worship, the position which it claimed since the day of Pentecost... Against no portion of the revival of her life and discipline has more opposition been raised than against this one point, which must of necessity be the chief and ultimate centre of all Ritual restoration."-Pp. 548,

549.

We may say confidently, that we should have had no prosecutions and no persecutions had the symbolism of the Holy Eucharist been unrestored. A choral matins and evensong, with a surpliced choir, reverently rendered, is generally popular; sometimes, as in the case of Mr. Kempe, forced on the priest by the congregation. This has only very distant relation to the Atonement, has in it nothing sacrificial, nay, per se, does not need the presence of a Priest. But introduce a proper Eucharistic Ritual, where the Sacrifice and Priesthood cannot fail to be recognised by even the most ignorant, and immediately the spirit of the world rises against the Spirit of CHRIST, and we have energetic Protestants going in force to Mr. Le Geyt's church to mock and profane It.

There is refinement in the mockery which Protestants employ with respect to this Sacrament, which Mr. Le Geyt well exposes :

"The next point in the Ritual of the Holy Eucharist, is one which forcibly illustrates the extreme unfairness in treatment which the Church of England experiences at the hands of many of her own children. They would impose all manner of restrictions upon her action, pare down her ceremonial to the lowest possible standard, denude her system of life and warmth, and then having bound her hand and foot with the grave-clothes of a lifeless respectability, taunt her, as in mockery, with coldness, and rigidity, and unmeaning formalism. . . . . Having reduced the form of the Church of England to a mere ghastly skeleton of its true self, they then murmur at the dryness, and complain that they have bones for flesh, deadness and coldness for life and warmth. It is small matter for wonder, that in the gaunt, angular, ill-made up 'lay figure,' to which they had reduced the Church's outward frame,