gOrtrnfulto - .

The Bishop of London delivered his quadrennial charge to the clergy of his diocese on Saturday morning ; and the natural expeotation that he would refer to the recent "Papal aggression" ía this country, drew together a large attendance of the laity, ,in addition to the full assemblage of diocesan clergy. In its full proportions the charge occupies eight long columns of the daily broad sheets, small type. Two-thirds of it are devoted to a review of the Gorham case, and to an expression of Bishop Blomfield'e views on the decision and its proper effect on the conduct of the Church: the remainder of the charge currently adverts to the subjects of the Bishop of Rome's recent assertion of spiritual dominion in this country, and the proper attitude of the English clergy in reference to his aggressions; the instruments of Popish propagandism employed in this country, and advice to the -clergy in reference to controversial theology, and the rationalistic and latitudinarian tendencies of the day ; Sisterhoods of Mercy ; national education ; and the Great Rvhibition of 1851.

The Bishop treats the Gorham case first in order, as "the most important of the questions on which it would be hie duty to touch." When first consMended by the Queen to attend the Judicial ,Committee, he expected to find that Mr. Gorham had not exceeded that latitude which has been allowed or tolerated over since the Reformation : but after reading his work, he found it contained assertions wholly irreconcileable with the plain teaching of the Church of England, and of the Church Universal in all ages. The Judicial Committee state Mr. Gorham's belief to be, in effect—that in the sacrament of baptism regeneration does not so necessarily accompany the act of baptism as to take place in it; but that the grace may be granted before, or in, or after it ; that, in the case of infant baptism, it has been granted before—it has been prevenient ; and that thus the child is made, as he must necessarily be made, a worthy object. But Mr. Gorhara's assertions are inadequately expressed by the Judicial Committee. He goes much further than this, and "advances positions from which it follows as a necessary inference, not only that there are cases in which infants are not regenerated in and by baptism, but that they are in sic case so regenerated" ; that when the rite is performed they are already regenerated by the prevenient grace : thus he utterly evacuates holy baptism of its sacramental character of an effectual sign, and makes it act only as strengthening and confirming the prevenient grace. This view cannot be reconciled with the plain and unmistakeable deductions which the ()lurch of England has drawn from the Word of God, the one infallible source of truth. Bishop Blomfield proceeds to show this by quotations from the Liturgy, and from the writings of great luminaries of the Church ; taking particular care at the outset to deny that the Articles contain the whole doctrine of the Church of England, and to assert the guiding principle that if the Articles be anywhere deficient, or anywhere inconeistent with the Liturgy, the latter is the canonical and most reeent expression of the Church's faith. The result of his authorities is, that Mr. Gorham follows Cartwright in holding that grace "could make a man a Christian before he came to receive baptism in the Church" ; and that he goes "much greater lengths than in depreciating the sacramental character of baptism than any writer of our Church except the opponents of Hooker." The Bishop repudiates Mr. Gorham's tenets by quoting an opposed passage from Bishop Beveridge, as correctly stating the real doctrine of our Church on the effect of baptism. Proceeding to remark on the consequences that may be expected to flow from the decision of the Judicial Committee, he observes that the error of Mr. Gorham has not been sanctioned by it, for it was overlooked ; "they have passed it by without notice " ; the decision "leaves untouched the sacramental doctrine of the Church." But suppose it were otherwise—that the Judicial Committee had gone the length of sanctioning so grave an error as this—he thinks that the "character of our Church as a teacher of God's saving truth and a dispenser of his sacraments" would not have been affected. For "it is not the Church's act ; it does not alter a single sentence or word of her creeds or formularies ; it does not exempt any one of her ministers from the necessity of subeeribing to her Articles in their 'plain, literal, and grammatical sense,' nor give them liberty to change or omit a single word of those offices in winch her orthodox doctrines are embodied, and enumerated, and applied to practice." "As long as we retain unaltered our Book of Common Prayer, I do not think that we have much to fear from the diversity of opinions which may hem time to time arise in the Church. . . . Until 4-06creca,arkd canons in which that has been embodied are altered—until ersoteinna ±bi of the truth in her Liturgy is silenced by her own act, a-by virtue of her own synodical moyement—the Church cannot be said

to have given up any one feature of heeionteen sof doctrinal truth, nor to have ceased from asserting it."

lZleaLever, tbeAkehop does mitpt congdwirtba0a-e stand in need of any fresh spioclicOlitaration en the subjeetnebvtism." The Church's Ian guage-ie alreadpaifficiently. pkin : if asp aft? were made to obtain a new de.,¢nn, it wpalkopen the door for aystte 46-X,amper with the Book of Common Prayare and then it-would " nails. 'g .before our venerable and Scriptural Liturgy is replaced for the second time by a Directory for the Worship of God." Nevertheless, he is not. unfavourable to the removal of all those restrictions which hinder the *Church from deliberating in her collective capacity upon questions of doctrine or discipline. On the desirableness of substituting anew court'of appeal in suits involving questions of heresy for the Judicial Committee of Privy Council, he thinks it unnecessary to say more than he has already said in Parliamentary advocacy of -such a inessur.e.

From this main topic Bishop Blomfield passes to the next subject with th,e remark that the recent decision'of the Judicial Committee cannot have been the cause, though it were the pretext, of the late secessions to the Roman Church.

A supposed misinterpretation of the Church's mind upon a particular point of doctrine by a court of law can hardly be regarded, by the commonest understanding, as sufficient reason for renouncing her communion, and embracing all the errors both of doctrine and practice which the Church of Rome imposes upon the reason and conscience,of her members It is not easy to say what the members of that Church are required to believe now; it is impossible for men to foresee what they may be called upon to admit as an article of faith next year or in any future year. For instance,' till of late it was open to a Roman Catholic to believe or not, as he might use reason, the fanciful notion of the immaculate conception of the Blessed Virgin ; but the present Bishop of Rome has seen fit to make it an article of their faith, and no member of iris Church can henceforth question it without ddnying the infallibility of his spiritual sovereign, and so hazarding, as it is asserted, his own salvationSupposing that the teaching of our own Church as tothe effects of baptism were le,sis clear and definite than it is, leaving to her ministers a greater latitude than is actually left to them by the reeentjudgment. would thatjustatY any one of her members in throwing himself into the arms of a Church which teaches, and now more openly than ever insists upon his paying divine honour to a creature? Is Mariolatry a less sin, or less a departure from the truth, than a low view of the baptismal regeneration ? Is a belief that the grace of God is not tied to the outward and visible sign of a sacrament a more pernicious error than the assertion that the priest's intention is necessary to the efficacy of a sacrament / If theformer notion be calculated to raise a doubt whether this or that infant be made by baptism a Christian, is not the other much more so ? NO man in the Church of Rome,who is bound to admit its doctrine respecting the priest's intention, can be sure whether he is a Christian or not.", An important consideration suggested by these secessions is the question, how far the way may have been paved for them by the growth of opinions and practices in our own Reformed Church, at variance, if not with the letter, yet with the spirit, of its teaching and ordinances. Extending to the intentions of those who have used such practices a Christianlike and affectionate interpretation, he passes a grave and formal condemnation on their conduct.

,,These innovations have, in some instances, been carried to such a length as to render the Church service almost histrionic. I really cannot characterize by a gentler term the continual changes of posture, the frequent genuflexions, the crossing, the peculiarities of dress, and some of the tiecorations of churches to which I allude. They are, after all, a poor imitation of the Roman ceremonial, and furnish. I have no doubt, to the observant members of that Church, a subject on the one hand of ridicule, as being a faint and meagre copy of their own gaudy ritual, and on the other hand of exultation, as preparing those who take delight in them to seek a fuller gratification of their taste in the Roman communion. I am by no means insensi• We to the value of the resthetic principle in the externals of religion; but great caution is requisite not to lay such stress upon that which is material and ,emblematic as to detract from the importance of that which is purely spiritual—to-substitute, in fact, the mere machinery of religion for the effects which it is intended teproduce."

Be condemned these practices eight years ago, and again in 1846 he com

plained of their advance : hut neither his public exhortations nor his private • admonitions have had the desired effect; and his authority even has been, questioned. "Once more," he concludes, "I declare my entire disapproval of -such practices; and my earnest wish that, while every direction of the rubric and canons is observed where it is possible' no form should be intro.. diced into the celebration of public worship which is not expressly prescribed by them, or sanctioned by long-established usage."

In reference to the Pope's recent measures he thus expressed himeelf

" The assertion now first made of the Pope's right to erect episcopal sees in this country appears to me to be, not only an intentional insult to the Episcopate and clergy of England, but a daring though powerless invasion of the supremacy of the Crown. The act of Parliament which restored that supremacy provides that 'No foreign prince, person, prelate, state, or potentate, spiritual or temporal, shall use, enjoy, or exercise, any manner of power, jurisdiction, superiority, authority, preeminence, or privilege, spiritual or ecclesiastical, within this realm ': and although, while the law in this respect remains unchanged, the pretended erection of a Bishop's see in England, by the Pope's authority, can have no legal effect, it is manifestly the assertion, on his part, of a right to do that which the laws of England have forbidden. I cannot, therefore, but regard it as a measure against which not only the Church but the Government of this country is bound emphatically to protest. . . . I believe that the very boldness of the pretensions now put forth by the Bishop of Rome and his agents will prevent their success. They may dazzle and confound a few weak minds, or captivate some ardent imaginations, but they will be instinctively repelled by the common sense and right feeling of the people at large." Referring to the different agencies and instriunents employed bythe Church of Rome to move different classes of men, he expressly cautions those whose education, and habits of mind require something like argument and evidence, against her Bubble dialecticians and persuasive orators ; who do not fetter themselves with a very strict adherence to the canon of -doctrine laid down by the Council of Trent., but insinuate modifications of it suited to meet the "prejudices of their Protestant hearers." "You will readily understand me to allude to the Omtorians, as they are celled; and I name them principally for the sake of expressing my earnest hope that none of you will give the least countenance to thew proceedings, nor run the risk of impairing the strength of your own convictions, and of weakening your attachment to the Church of which you are members, by attending any of their services or listening to their lectures." From the presumed infallibility of Roman theology he passed to the rationalistic theology of Germany. There is more to fear "from that which deifies human reason than from that which seeks to blind-or stifle it ; from a school which labours to reconcile Christianity with its .own.philosophy, by stripping, the Gospel of all its characteristic features, and reducing it to the level of human systems, than from a Church which rejects and condemns even the soundest conclusions of true philosophy, when they are at variance with the determinations of its own presumed infallibility." There are those who think they may safely go a certain length with thine bold adventurers in theology ; but "to deny the inspiration of Scripture is one step towards the rejection of the Gospel as a revelation from God." If the Creeds, the Liturgy, and the Articles be cast aside,—" or if while they are subscribed to in the letter, they are understood and interpreted in a non-natural sense, so as to explain away, on one side the fundamental truths of Christianity, or on the other, the distinctive doctrine of Protestantism,—we shall soon be afloat in a sea of error, drifting helplessly amongst the shoals and euickaands of heresy, old and new. The Church will no longer be an ark of safety ; its ministry will be a ministry not of peace but of confusion ; and what the results will be, we may learn from the example of the Continental churches, which are now reaping the bitter fruits of their defection from Catholic truth and order, and of thew separation of religions from secular education." Prom these warnings he proceeded to some consolatory reflections on the lesson which the actual position of our own Church is calculated to teach us,—gratitude to God in permitting within the last fifteen years fifteen additional bishops to preside over long-neglected breathe% and the foundation of churches and schoole, which are so many centres of light and holiness in regions where the powers of darkness long held sway.

On the question of establishing Sisterhoods of Mercy, opinions in our Reformed Church are divided. Bishop Blom&ld thinks that it is possible to conduct them on Protestant priueiples : he points to the admirable example in Paris under the truly wise and paternal care, of M. Vermeil, pastor of the Reformed Churehthere. With deprecatory cautions against all vows of celibacy, or any other engagements binding the conscience, he hails the institenon of Protestant Sisterhoods, as calculated to increase the efficiency Of the Church, and to strengthen it against the machinations of Name.

National education, he believes, mu be taken.out of the hands of the clergy only by their own fault "They stand on a vantageLground from which, if they are vigilant and active, it will hardly be possible to dislodge them. But they must take care that the education which they offer is one which deserves the name, one adapted to the present stete of human knowledge and of human society." In reference to the Great Exhibition, which will cause an unprecedented influx of strangers into this Metropolis next year, he impresses on his clergy the duty of devising, if possible, some made of furnishing the means of warshying God— "Let us not incur tho guilt of Heseklah, who diaplayed to the Chaldean messeugess the house of his precious things, the silver and the geld, and the spices and the precious ointment, and all the house of his armour, and all that wits found in his treasures; but forgot, as it seems, to set before them the glory of the true God, and the beauty of holiness in His law, and in His worship and the history of His won

• derful works."

Admitting the difficulty of marking out a precise line of duty in this regard, he suggests that they should endeavour to provide for the strangers the means of common worship, and to distribute amongst those who may be willing to receive it, the Bible, and, where it may be done, the Book of CA:4111110R

• Prayer, translated into the languages of their respective countries. In conclusion, he affectionately urged his clergy to soften the asperity of religious controversy, and to cultivate mutual candour and kindness, and a cheerful obedience to legitimate authority. With God's blessing on our Church, the gates of Hell shall not prevail against it.