Why not, and as much as there was in Eden? Why may not the serpent find his way into the phalanx, and a new Eve, moved by curiosity or wantonness, put forth her hand and pluck the forbidden fruit? More than all this, is it certain that no man can sin without an external temptation or solicitation to sin? Nay, do our Fourierists need to be told, that the very prosperity they promise would be itself a source of sin, that man under it would wax proud, rebellious, and therefore sinful? "Jeshuron waxed fat and kicked." When men grow fat, we must expect them to kick, and against all laws, human and divine.

We say, then, that you cannot find in human nature the organic principle you need, nor the necessary guaranties of harmony, even if once introduced. This organic principle and these guaranties can be found only in religion, in the life of the Gospel. If this life, which is the life of love and sacrifice, be suffered to die out, and men become indifferent to all spiritual matters, with their thoughts and affections confined to this life and to this planet, with all their appetites and passions gratified, they become too near akin to the brutes that perish, to be able to maintain any thing like social order, or a communal arrangement. The phalanx would have no bond, no principle which would hold it together, even as to its form.

But, on the other hand, suppose the members to be deeply interested in religious matters, but belonging to different and hostile sects, would there be harmony in the phalanx? O, they would tolerate each other's differences! Toleration is, however, the very thing which is impossible to a sincere and earnest mind for any thing which is not held to be indifferent. Now, you must either make the members more interested in something else than they are in religion, so much so, that they become indifferent to religion, and then the phalanx fails through religious indifference; or you must suffer them to hold religion to be the paramount. consideration, the one thing needful, and then toleration is out of the question. Sincere, earnest individuals, members of different communions, will not, cannot, have that warm, cordial fellow-feeling without which the Fourier phalanx cannot operate. So again, differences of faith and worship would alienate one phalanx from another. The Protestant phalanx will hold no intercourse with the Catholic, and the Calvinistic phalanx and the Unitarian will be merely two phalanxes drawn up for battle. The same remarks are

applicable to all other divisions. If, then, we are to have association at all, under any circumstances which can promise any thing, we must get rid of sectarianism, and have one only catholic church.

In our view, contrary to the views of the associationists, the church is the highest, the paramount association; and without unity, harmony, in that, it is in vain to look for it in any thing below it. We can never consent to an order of things which would raise industrial associations above the church, or render our interest in what concerns our industrial relations superior to our interest in what pertains to our relations to the eternal God, and to the world to come. The religious interests, represented by the church, must always be, in every normal state of society, the great and engrossing interests; if they are so, you can effect nothing in subordinate interests, while in relation to these religious interests you are divided, separated, alienated, and hostile. Our first duty, then, is, if we would effect any thing by way of association, to return to the unity of the church, through which we may come to one faith, one baptism, one calling, one spirit. Having, thus, unity in that which is highest, we may easily obtain it in that which is lowest. We pray our associationists to consider this, and learn that the church question is the first and paramount question. Return to the unity and catholicity of the church,--and then?

And then, what? Perhaps then it will be found that the phalansterian organization of society will not be necessary; perhaps then it will be found that to organize society, with a special view to wealth and enjoyment, is not, after all, either the Christian method, or that which man's highest good here or hereafter demands. But be this as it may, we shall have then an authority competent to resolve our doubts and to direct our labors.

It is strange how slow we are to believe him who rebuked us for being troubled about many things, and declared that "one thing only is needful." If we would diminish the poverty and suffering of the world, we should not labor to multiply material riches, or to facilitate the acquisition of this world's goods, but to restrict men's bodily wants, and turn their activity in a moral and spiritual direction. St. Bernard, living on the water in which pulse had been boiled, laboring at the head of his monks, is more to be_envied than Apicius at his feast; and far better was it for Lazarus, who begged the crumbs that fell from the rich man's table,

than for the rich man who fared sumptuously every day. On wishes, wishes grow; one desire gratified, a stronger takes its place; one demand answered, another and a greater is made. The richest man in this world's goods has more wants he cannot satisfy, than has the poorest beggar himself; and to die of starvation is not more terrible, view the matter rightly, than to die of a surfeit. You must once more make voluntary poverty honorable, and canonize anew, not your rich old sinner, gorged with the spoils of the widow and orphan,-whose eyes stand out with fatness, whose heart vaunts itself against the Lord,-but the man who voluntarily submits to poverty, that he may lay up riches in heaven, where neither moth nor rust doth corrupt, nor thieves break through and steal. You cannot serve God and Mammon; and the Fourier attempt to reconcile the service of the one with that of the other will turn out a miserable failure, and cover with merited disgrace all concerned in making it.

God has told us what is the kingdom of heaven, in what it consists, and how we may enter therein. He has not left us to the dim, uncertain light of our own unillumined minds, but has himself pointed out the way; has himself given us the law which is a lamp to our feet and a light to our path. We must follow his law, walk in his way, or all our efforts, however well meant, however sincere and earnest, will be worse than vain. O, why can we not consent to believe that God is wiser than man, and that his thoughts are above our thoughts, and his ways better than our ways? Believe us, dear friends, we show more wisdom in adhering to God's word, in following his church, than we do in leaving the fountain of living waters, and hewing out cisterns for ourselves, broken cisterns that can hold no water. Raise man above the world, if you would make him blessed while in the world.

BISHOP HOPKINS ON NOVELTIES.*

[From Brownson's Quarterly Review for July, 1844.]

THE Anglican church, from which the Protestant Epis copal church in this country derives, appears to have been founded on compromise. In organizing it, and settling its articles, canons, homilies, and liturgy, there were two tendencies to be consulted and conciliated: One, the Catholie tendency, which would retain as much of the Catholic church, and separate as little from Rome, as possible, with the rejec tion of the papal supremacy; the other, the Protestant tendency, which would retain as little of Catholicism, and depart as far from Rome, as possible, without resigning the Christian name altogether.

The internal history of Anglicanism is the history of the struggles and alternate victories and defeats of these two tendencies. Henry VIII., the first to break with Rome, was a Catholic, saving so far as concerned the papal supremacy, and making the monarch the head of the church. He wrote in defence of the Catholic faith against Luther, and made the profession of Protestantism a capital offence. Under his reign, the Catholic tendency was sustained in the church, and very few changes were made at the demand of Protestantism or in accordance with its spirit.

Under Edward VI., the son and successor of Henry, the Protestant spirit gained the ascendency, and the church of England was made a Protestant church, and conformed, substantially, save in outward organization, to the model of the Protestant and reformed churches of the Continent. Important changes were introduced into its doctrines, discipline, and ceremonies. Severe denunciations of the doctrines, discipline, and usages of the Roman church were pronounced, and the greater part of religious antiquity was disowned. Mary followed, reopened communion with Rome, and did what she could to restore the ancient Catholic order. The daughter of Katharine of Aragon inherited many of

*The Novelties which disturb our Peace. Four letters addressed to the Bishops, Clergy, and Laity of the Protestant Episcopal Church. By JOHN HENRY HOPKINS, Bishop of the Diocese of Vermont. Philadelphia: 1844.

the better qualities of her mother, and deserves a more honorable mention in history than she receives. She was devout, sincerely attached to the church, but her injudicious zeal weakened her own cause, and strengthened the Protestant tendency of the country.

Elizabeth, daughter of Henry and Anne Boleyn, had strong Catholic tendencies, and would, most likely, have continued the Anglican church in communion with Rome, if she could, on Catholic principles, have maintained her right to the crown. But, in the eyes of the Holy See, and of all good Catholics, her birth was illegitimate. She was, therefore, obliged to be a Protestant, in order to secure her seat on the throne; and, in return, compounded with her conscience by being in all other respects as Catholic as possible. Under her reign, the Anglican church received its definite form, and was finally settled. It was less Catholic than under Henry, and more so than under Edward. The Catholic tendency, in reality, predominated, though the Protestant tendency was strong, and powerfully resisted it. Neither, however, could entirely suppress the other; and the principle seems to have been finally adopted, and acted upon, of making the basis of the church so broad, and of expressing its faith in terms so general and indefinite, that the great body of those affected by either tendency might come within its pale. The thirty-nine articles have been said to be "articles of peace," and they seem to us to have been drawn up, not for the purpose of defining the faith of the church, but of leaving it so equivocal that either of the two parties might conscientiously interpret it in its own favor.

The Catholic tendency, though powerfully resisted, maintained, however, under Elizabeth and the Stuarts, the predominance in the church, if not in the kingdom; and for a moment, under Archbishop Laud,-a much calumniated prelate, it appeared not improbable that the Anglican church herself might return to the communion of the Holy See. But in the Revolution of 1688, Protestantism gained the victory, and, with the accession of the House of Hanover, was firmly, and, we fear, permanently, established. During the whole of the eighteenth century, the most inglorious period of the Anglican church, it reigned without a rival; the Catholic tendency seemed to have wholly died out; and scarcely a sign of life was discernible, if we except the