rejection of that form and constitution has always been the prelude to some dangerous heresy. The churches which have preserved that form and constitution, have, at the same time, generally preserved all the essential truths of the Gospel, even when they have mixed it up with numerous errors. The Protestant Churches of the Continent (I speak from personal experience) are mostly deluded (with fewer exceptions among the Clergy than you would easily believe) with a false philosophy; and, melancholy as the confession is, we can be secure of finding the whole truths of the Gospel only among the errors of Popery, or mixed up with much enthusiasm in the simple establishments of the Episcopal Moravians. How extensively the various classes of anti-episcopal Dissenters at home have been subjected to dangerous errors in their faith, and how liable they are to change with every blast that blows, I need not remind you. A hundred and twenty years have passed over our humble society, in which we have suffered the deepest depression; exposed on every hand to ridicule, malevolence, persecution, contempt, and neglect ; but our faith, and our practice, and our hopes in our Divine Head, remain the same at this hour as they did when our predecessors were in the plenitude of their power, and as they did at every interval from that time to the present. Our brethren in England, men of illustrious names and distinguished virtue, with a spirit becoming their sacred office, and adding lustre to their temporal dignity, acknowledged this when we were in our lowest state, and they acknowledge it still with unceasing kindness, when we are allowed to breathe the air of toleration.' The foregoing sentences, which I have marked as a quotation, I have copied from a sermon which I preached in August, 1809, at the primary visitation of our present Primus; and I have copied them that I may prove to you that the interest which I take in your present pursuits is not new. I have been, alas! a very inefficient minister of Christ, and of late my health has interposed great impediments. But I have long and much wished for a more intimate union among the different Churches which are subject to the primitive rule and were such a happy union, by God's blessing, happily effected, I doubt not but that it would influence, not only the Dissenters, but portions at least, and ultimately perhaps large portions, of the Greek and Roman Churches. From the life of De Ricci, Bishop of Pistoia, we may perceive how easily, in happier circumstances, a reformation may be accomplished, in portions, at least, of the Roman Church. Are you acquainted with the case of the Jansenist Bishops of the Low Countries? They long held to the see of Rome by a thread; but having consecrated a Bishop of Utrecht, as they were wont, without a bull, they were some years ago formally excommunicated. It appeared to me that this was a fine opportunity for the Church of England to come forward, with Christian charity, and propose a union. But nothing has been done. I applied to Bishop Luscombe, but received no further information than appeared in the newspapers. But my paper warns me that I must conclude.

I willingly trust that there is a visible progress towards that which constitutes the glory of a Church. Within my own experience, now extending to forty years, as a minister of Christ, happy, very happy changes have been effected among us,

12

which no man could then have anticipated. In America, in 1784, there was in fact no Church; a small and defeated party, almost without hope. Now there are fourteen bishops, and about seven hundred clergy, with a very remarkable promise of progress on the soundest principles, both as respects the constitution, the faith, and the worship of the Church. I wish we had a more intimate union with that rising community, of which the clergy whom I have seen, including the late Bishop Hobart, four Presbyters, and one Deacon, were men who would have done honour to any Church. My best prayers and wishes attend your present labours, of which I shall hope in due time to see the happy result.

"I ever remain, dear Sir,

"Your faithful brother in Christ,
"JAMES WALker.”

The postscript to this letter contains such a remarkable testimony to the value of one to whose memory I have presumed to dedicate this Collection, that no excuse need be made for subjoining it.

"P.S. I saw our aged Primus last week; but he was unable to go on to Aberdeen as he intended, and was obliged to return home. . . . . . Another admirable man of our number, my oldest clerical friend, Bishop Jolly, is in his seventy-ninth year, and falling off, I fear, rapidly. Bishop Hobart saw this venerable man at Aberdeen, and when he returned, I asked him, if what he had seen had rewarded him for his long journey in the middle of winter? 'Sir,' he replied, with animation, 'you go from the extremity of Britain to America to see the falls of Niagara, and think yourselves amply rewarded by the sight of this singular scene in nature. If I had gone from America to Aberdeen, and seen nothing but Bishop Jolly, as I saw him for two days, I should hold myself greatly rewarded. In our new country we have no such men; and I could not have imagined such without seeing him. The race, I fear, is expired or expiring even among you.' Let us hope (Bishop Walker adds) that in every part of the Church it will have a happy resurrection.”

Soon after the receipt of this letter, the Conference at Hadleigh took place, lasting, if I recollect right, from 25th to the 29th July. All the parties there were perfect strangers to me, except as known by letter or by name. As this Conference has now become a matter of history, to which people are pleased to attach importance, I think it right to add the communications which I received, inviting me to it; that by thus laying open the whole that I know concerning it, no room may be left for mystery or suspicion. "He that doeth truth cometh to the light, that his deeds may be made manifest that they are wrought in God."

I received only two letters concerning it; one from Mr. Rose, dated Hadleigh, [July 6, 1833,] in which all that he says about it is as follows:

"Now let me say how gladly I should meet you in London, but I fear I cannot at the time you mention; for I have a public sermon at Ipswich on the 18th. But can I not tempt you here? I am in great hopes that

and two or three more will come expressly to talk over such matters. It would give me great delight if you would join them."

The other was from one whose name I need not give; dated

Oxford, July 10, 1833.

"I assure you that I am very far from thinking that such things should be slept over, or that private individuals can do nothing towards their removal. Perseverance, prudence, and zeal will accomplish anything. It seems to me, however, and in this you will I am sure agree, that there should be some plan for combined and vigorous exertion, so that all should not vanish in smoke.

"Our valued friend Rose has proposed a conference of friends on the state of affairs, and to consider of the line we ought to adopt. I think this most highly desirable. He has asked me to go to Hadleigh, and gives me hopes of meeting you, which would indeed be an exceeding pleasure. Froude has also expressed his intention of coming, and he says Keble will also. Newman we expect every day from the Continent, and I hope he will also be there. I would think of being at Hadleigh about this day fortnight, if our other friends were then disengaged.

"Now I hope you will be able to join in this little plan and conspiracy; and when we are all met, it will be easy for us to consider and explain all things which might not be conveniently discussed in letters."

The Conference began on a Thursday, and broke up on the Monday following: a Sunday, therefore, occurred during it. As one of the Sermons preached on that day had reference to the then existing state of things, a copy of it is subjoined. I have also given that which was preached at the Chapel Royal, on the Sunday preceding the Conference. They may be of interest to many, as serving to show, better than any description could do, the spirit and temper by which the parties were actuated. Before either of these is condemned as extravagant, let the reader call to mind what was then actually the condition as well as prospect of the Church and nation :-An agrarian and civic insurrection against the bishops and clergy, and all who desired to adhere to the existing institutions of the country;-the populace, goaded on openly by the speeches, covertly (as it was fully believed at the time) by the paid emissaries of the ministers of the Crown; the chief of those ministers in his place in Parliament bidding the bishops set their houses in order; the mob taking him at his word, and burning to the ground the palace of the Bishop of Bristol, with the public buildings of that city, while they shouted the Premier's name in triumph over the ruins ;-a measure relating to the Church in Ireland having passed the Commons, and then before the Lords, which was denounced by the bishops of that Church" as deeply injurious to the spiritual privileges, rights, and interests of the Church, as totally opposed to their system of ecclesiastical polity; inconsistent with the spiritual authority of the prelates; calculated to impede the extension of the principles of their Church among the people; and highly injurious to the progress of true religion in that country ;”—measures for altering our Liturgy and Rituals “to meet the spirit of the age;" that is, to please the Dissenters and sceptics who

were then in the ascendant, openly proclaimed in both houses of Parliament; -the King, who had found by experience that it was easier to let loose the spirit of reform, than to restrain the spirit of revolution, having to deal, outside of his palace with mobs, who, by the most brutal gestures to his face, declared themselves to be thirsting for his blood, and that of his royal consort, and who were headed by the descendants of the regicides of the seventeenth century, who stalked forth from their hiding-places, boasted in open day of their (base) descent, and declared their readiness to repeat the deed of their ancestors; while, within his palace, he had for his only counsellor, one, who, according to uncontradicted report, had been the only member of the English House of Commons who refused to appear in mourning on the murder of Louis XVI., and who, at the very time of which we are speaking, when the English mob and the descendants of English regicides were demanding his master's life, had declared in his place in the House of Lords, that "in this free country he did not like to use the term monarchy 1;"-and the House of Lords, meanwhile, the last earthly prop of the constitution, through fear, not for themselves, indeed, of which their great leader was incapable, but for the king's crown and person, yielding to the storm like a reed that bends. Such was the state, and such the prospects of our Church and nation, when the Conference at Hadleigh was held; and a few insignificant clergymen determined to endeavour, by the foolishness of Church principles, to stem the torrent of ruin before which all other defences had proved powerless. The Bishop of Chester (Dr. Sumner) seems disposed to ascribe our movement to Satan; the head master of Rugby (Dr. Arnold) to Antichrist. But when the feebleness of the instruments employed is contrasted with the effect produced, it seems more reasonable to ascribe it to that great Head of the Church who chooseth the foolish things of the world to confound the things that are mighty. Certainly, as one concerned, I can say this: that belief in His promises to His Church was the one and only source of our confidence and courage.

1 This memorable speech was made on May 7, 1832. I was in the House myself, and heard it.

CHAPTER IV.

THE SERMON PREACHED AT THE CHAPEL ROYAL, ST. JAMES'S, ON THE

SUNDAY PRECEDING THE CONFERENCE AT HADLEIGH.

High Christian principle the only safeguard; and the Church of Christ invulnerable.

"Seek ye first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added unto you."-MATTHEW vi. 33.

THESE words were spoken by our blessed Lord with a view to encourage all men to cast their care upon God, who careth for them'; and as an assurance that they may safely follow the advice which He had given them just before. For in the verses immediately preceding the text, He had cautioned men not to seek too eagerly any of the things of this world; not to make them the chief object of their lives; nor to be careful and anxious, even about the necessaries of this life, as though they distrusted God's providence: but, in the fullest confidence and reliance upon His succour, who has chosen them to be his servants, to set their eyes stedfastly upon the goal placed before them; and then, through evil report or good report, in peace or war, amidst plenty or scarcity, to march on their heavenward way; conscious of the presence of Him who is invisible; of the support of Him without whom not a sparrow falleth to the ground; and of the supply of Him "who stills the wailing sea-bird on the hungry shore 2.”

This is that practical faith, without which it is impossible to please God, and by which a man believes not only that there is a God,-for the devils do that and tremble,—but that He is a rewarder and protector of them who diligently seek Him3. Such faith as Abraham had, when, at God's bidding, he left his house and country to do God better service in a foreign land; such faith as Daniel had, when he cheerfully consented to be thrown into the den of lions, sooner than dishonour Him whom he owned for his God; such

1 1 Pet. v. 7.

2 Christian Year.

3 Heb. xi. 6.