The longer we have lived, and the more deeply and prayerfully we have thought upon this subject, the more thoroughly are we convinced that the rule here exhibited is the true one. As the redemption of Christ is effectual for all who turn to Him, as the Holy Spirit works in holiness upon all hearts that open themselves to Him, independently of all intellectual tests or associational conditions, so let the two only sacraments of the Church be open to all His sincere followers who accept the great facts of the Gospel, and who, confessing the Saviour, love Him truly and are led by His Spirit.

It is in our heart to enlarge much upon the subject of this section, and to defend more elaborately these regulations of the Protestant Episcopal Church; but we must leave them to the decision of the reader upon his own investigation of their merits..

The theory of the Protestant Episcopal Church is, that the sacraments of our Lord are as free to all His true disciples as are the benefits of His precious blood. And sin is upon the man, or the Church, that dares to put any bar between the sacraments and the true disciple of our Lord. But, alas! how often in our Protestant land do they "teach for doctrines the commandments of men," and substitute mere human traditions in place of the commandments of God! We hold that the Church may not reject any whom Christ has admitted to His love, and whom Christ will not reject at the last. If the Church of Rome has erred in withholding the cup from the laity, what shall we say of those Protestant Churches which perseveringly withhold both the bread and the wine from all, even true disciples of

Christ, who cannot conscientiously believe, or profess to believe, in certain peculiar and unimportant dogmas? When Christ our Lord has declared, "He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved," and when He has commanded all those who love Him, "Do this, as oft as ye eat this bread and drink of this cup, in remembrance of Me," what right has the Church (the company of His disciples, bound to obey Him, and to fulfil His will in all things) to superadd to His commands the conditions of its frail and unwise humanity? At this moment there are hundreds of Churches, professedly Protestant, in our land, contending with each other, each systematically debarring forever from Christ's sacraments, in the keeping of itself (supposed, in the very theory of its separation from other Churches, to be the "one body," the model of the one universal Church), the thousands and tens of thousands of Christ's beloved disciples who do not conscientiously believe, or declare a belief, in certain tenets or practices which are made and put forward by them as terms of communion—a belief in which is, upon their own acknowledgment, in nowise necessary to either the formation or the proof of the Christian character, a spiritual discipleship of Christ. To take a single illustration, there is a Christian Church in the United States numbering about fifteen hundred thousand members, the Methodist Episcopal Church; and it is a distinctively Arminian Church. Now its members are, upon the acknowledgment of all, in great numbers most devotedly pious and exemplary followers of Christ. Yet not one of these fifteen hundred thousand Christians could be received into regular standing, as a member, of a large proportion of the Churches, profess

edly Calvinistic, of our country. So far as the theory or system of these last named Churches is concerned, every one of these fifteen hundred thousand Christians would be compelled to live and to die without the sacraments of their Lord; not because they do not love Christ, not because they do not wish His sacraments, not because they do not fulfil all His commandments, but simply because they cannot believe in a certain way upon certain topics, purely intellectual and not connected with Christian spirituality-simply because they cannot comply with certain instructions or devices of men. And for aught we know to the contrary, there may be some Arminian Churches in our country as particular in the exclusion of Calvinists from the sacraments of their Lord. No terms of communion should ever be insisted on but such as the Lord has clearly required-faith in Him, and confession of His name, and a Christian heart and life. Matters of mere opinion and interpretation, precepts of external order, rules of expediency however expedient and not of Divine requirement, philosophical or metaphysical dogmas, theories of morals or of political convictions, none of these should be ever made terms of communion. And yet there are religious bodies which repel persons from the Lord's Supper, unless they hold certain views and make certain promises not prescribed by Christ-in one case as to secret societies, in another case as to musical instruments or arrangements, in another case as to modes of missionary effort, in another case as to the pledge of total abstinence, and so on. These lay burdens which the Lord never laid upon His people, and do the very things which the Romanists do, and show how extremes

meet. We speak of Church systems. Acccordingly we say that, if Romanism be the name of a system which sets up unlawful terms of admission to the sacraments, which superadds to Christ's commands merely human traditions, and which therefore oppresses and tyrannizes over Christ's true disciples, and which therein disobeys and dishonors Christ, then there is such a thing in our country as Protestant Romanism, and that on a large scale. And it is necessary that the cry of the great Reformers be continued even in our day and country, "Come out and be separate," until the Reformation of Christ's Church be complete, and her primitive purity be restored, and her members all "stand fast in the liberty wherewith Christ hath made them free.”

We love our Christian brethren in all denominations -all who love our Lord Jesus Christ in sincerity. But we cannot, and ought not to, speak otherwise than solemnly and strongly of errors, especially when they are so widely prevalent, and when the very perfectness of Christ's Church and the Christian liberty of His disciples are so imminently endangered, so systematically violated.

It is the spirit of intolerance which has so divided the Church, and these thoroughly false and unchristian notions of what is required for admission to the sacraments. The Lord's Table has been regarded as belonging to men rather than to the Master; and men have dictated their own terms of communion, in a thousand matters of personal opinion and prejudice, instead of suffering every poor sinner who has confessed his Lord and loves Him, to fulfil that dear Lord's dying commandment, "Do this in remembrance of Me."

There is one Church which may hold all these Christians one in which they shall all be welcome to the sacraments of their common Lord, and in which, while they shall be "all one in Christ Jesus," they shall be at liberty to differ as widely as they may please on the many topics which now divide them, the determination of which is not essential to holiness or to salvation. Being thus united, they will have less to separate them even on these points, and may hope for an honest and an earlier agreement in their intellectual theories.

SECTION IX.

CREEDS.

Enumeration of the creeds of the Protestant Episcopal Church-in what respects the creeds are obligatory upon the members of the Church— the laity the clergy-the Apostles' Creed only to be believed and confessed ex animo-the creeds are adopted by the majority of the whole Church in the General Convention-the benefit of the creeds -why the Church requires any creed-no other, more minute and explicit than the Apostles' Creed, ought to be required for admission to the sacraments-the system of the Protestant Episcopal Church in regard to her creeds favorable to the discovery and the security of Christian truth-the Protestant Episcopal Church fitted for the union of all Christians who love their Lord supremely, and each other affectionately and forbearingly.

THE basis of all religious doctrine and practice in the Protestant Episcopal Church is Holy Scripture. So do all Churches claim, none more decidedly than the Protestant Episcopal Church, as in the sixth article: "Holy Scripture containeth all things necessary to sal