SURPLICES.

To many, and perhaps the majority of the members of the Established Church of England, an order to preach in Surplices may appear of little moment: and, as to any importance in the thing itself, such an opinion is well grounded; there are however, some who see and think and feel differently. We are living in that period of the world which has been called by Him who is truth itself, "Perilous times;" and there is not an inch of neutral ground for any one to stand upon. I appeal to Matt. xii. 30.

As a member of the Church of England, to which I am deeply attached, and that class too, namely of the Laity, who, by the highest authority are designated "the Church," I feel that duty enjoins me, and that I am privileged, as fully as any member within her pale, to lift up my voice and enter my "protest "against any thing tending to her injury, no matter by whom suggested; and God willing, I shall exercise my privilege. I know that much, which our highly-talented Diocesan has set forth in his late charge, has the word of God for its basis; and I know also that much thereof, not only has no such basis, but its tendency on the contrary, is to assimilate our Protestant Church with the Romish Apostasy. The root of the evil in the establishment, is not even touched upon in that charge, while there is a great parade about matters as little calculated to

edify, as the stir elsewhere made at this time, about a bone of St. Augustine. All this springs from the same fountain, "Can the Ethiopian change his skin?" Apply as much soap as you please, put on him garments as white as the driven snow, his colour remains the same-and similar to this, is the shifting from a black gown to a white one to preach in.

There is now a wide and rapidly-spreading "heresy " in the Established Church of this nation, call it "Tractarianism" or any thing else, which in canonical language, (vide Canon on dress) is no other than a new-fangled name for Popery. The direction given to the Clergy in our Diocesan's charge, to turn due north or south whilst reading, the sanctioning obeisance to a plain deal table, (though by the refractory ones designated an altar) and the wearing of a Surplice to preach in, all, all tend to foster the "heresy," and to help forward the work of the "Man of Sin." There are, I believe, hundreds of New Zealanders able to discern the more than folly of all this nonsense, so fully in accordance with the "washing of cups and pots." Vide Mark vii. Any one in his senses must know, that there can be no inherent efficacy in the putting-on of a Surplice; but I have heard from a Clergyman of our Church, that a certain Tractarian preacher is known to put on his Surplice when he engages in private devotions in his closet! I really have not patience with such things -and I cannot rest satisfied, though I candidly own I do not anticipate any change for the better, without imploring every member of the Established Church to ponder well his individual responsibility at this momentous period.

I have said, the root of the evil has not been

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touched upon. I can point out its source, together with the only hope of its cure. To the nation as well as to individuals, to the Jew as well as to the Gentile, the following command applies: Return, thou backsliding Israel!" (Jer. xii, 13.) And, here it becomes me in all consistency, candour and faithfulness to avow, that I am an inflexible upholder of Established Church principles, in the true and pure sense I mean; and while I hope ever to entertain a love to all men, but especially" to those of the household of faith," whether Dissenters or not, I am as inflexibly opposed to Dissent. I say not this hastily, nor without having examined the point. Nay, I will leave it to the "inner man of all those gentlemen who have entered the sheepfold, whether what I advance be well-founded or no.

Popery in the Established Church is but an infant as yet carry out Baptismal Regeneration and the suggested idolatrous mummery, and the Monster will soon arrive at manhood. The upholders of this Heresy are, not contented with climbing over into the sheepfold, but they are endeavouring with all the subtlety of Satan himself, to make out our book of Common Prayer, (the second best book in print,) and our Church, to be liars; while with respect to themselves they cry "the Temple of the Lord, the Temple of the Lord are we!" To be taken to task by a Layman will not, peradventure, harmonize with such exalted feelings, though I trust nothing savouring of an unbecoming spirit will escape me in the remarks which duty prompts me to dwell upon. I think it high time the Laity should well consider their position, and exert all the privileges which they legitimately possess.

First, I suggest their turning to their bibles, to learn the station which God in his good Providence has assigned them. I would earnestly request them in the second place, to learn what “Hear the Church" means. Custom, somehow or other, and I must frankly own, I am not inclined to think very highly of its origin, has given an unauthorized meaning to the term "Church." How common the saying, Mr. So and So is studying for the " Church!" This is nothing less than detracting from the station of the Laity, who being more numerous than the Clergy, I presume as regards membership both of Church visible and invisible, have an equal claim to the title of "Church," independently of any higher grounds. I appeal to Acts xx. 28., where the "Overseers are commanded to feed the "Church." Who are here meant, I ask? I say the Congregation; leaving the reader to draw his own conclusions, and to lift up his voice against this unsound notion, and long-continued usurpation.

The source of all the evil, is in the fact, that, so many inconsiderately assume the sacred office upon no higher warrant for doing so, than that they have been fitted by "the laying on of hands" for their holy functions-upon the ground of so imperfect a passport, do the majority most solemnly aver, that, they have been called by the Holy Spirit into the Ministry. I do especially invite the attention of the clerical disciples of Tractarianism,' to what I am now dwelling upon; for, I do assert, that their unskilfulness in the word of God, and their upholding the Heresy of Baptismal Regeneration, is a full confirmation of the fact, that, they did not enter the sheepfold by the door. May the Lord, "to whom

all hearts be open and from whom no secrets are hid," have mercy upon them!

The cure of the evil, I verily believe, can be effected by nothing short of a Theocracy. Can the mere putting on a blue jacket and trousers make a landsman an able seaman? In all ages the most bitter enemies of the Lord have been found among Ecclesiastics. It was so when they cried, "Away with him, crucify him;" and it is so now. It is a fearful thing to incur the awful responsibility of assum. ing the office of the ministry, uncalled of God; and if the recipients have so much to answer for, those who commit authority to them are no less answerable--a responsibility also attaches to all who in the course of God's providence have patronage to bestow, and they will surely be amenable to God for their exercise of it, be they whom they may. If the laity would study their Bibles, they would clearly see the fearful position into which this ungrateful nation has plunged herself; the fruits of that act of apostasy, consented to by the nation in 1829, are now fast ripening-it placed us upon the inclined plane to Popery-the country fell in love with the monster, and she will pay for it. Oxford, now become a cesspool of iniquity, has been, and is, the tender, zealous, and treacherous mother of a school of successionists, the unhappy successors of him who "ate bread with his Lord, and lifted up his heel against Him;" against whom this sentence went forth-" Let his habitation be desolate, and let no man dwell

*

* An Author and defender of the Romish system, says, in a work published by him. "We Catholics, look on these Oxford Divines as nothing, more or less, than the light troops of Catholicity, and clearing the way for us."-Letters to Dr. Hook, by Verax, 1840, p. 145.