quiries which may be proposed by different classes of readers.

1. Since the members of the Protestant Episcopal Church are expected, or rather required, to believe heartily, and confess publicly, only one of the creeds, the Apostles', and that the most concise and the most general and Scriptural in its terms, what is the benefit of these creeds?

We reply: These creeds, as they exist from time to time, are the religious faith of the whole Church. On all matters contained in them, therefore, the members of the Church learn to be kind and tolerant toward each other.

Furthermore and chiefly, these creeds, next to the Scriptures, and helping to interpret them as authoritative and most impressive witnesses, serve as standards of religious faith and duty, and are powerful agents to instruct the ignorant, to confirm the wavering, to restrain the rash, and to guide the inquiring.

2. Since only the Apostles' Creed is made the test of religious (intellectual) opinion for admission to the sacraments, why does the Church require any creed for this purpose?

We reply: Because the confession of religious faith on these occasions is Scriptural, and has been practised by the universal Church in all ages; and the form on these occasions in the apostolical and primitive Church was substantially the same with that contained in the Apostles' Creed. We contend, moreover, that there is nothing oppressive in requiring the confession of this creed, inasmuch as all Christians accept it as containing the essential articles of the Christian faith.

As to the abstract propriety of standards of faith or doctrine in a Church (not as articles of faith or terms of communion or requisites for the sacraments), we contend that there always must and will be such from the very nature of things. Even in those cases where it is supposed that no creeds exist, the prayers and sermons of the minister or preacher, the Psalms and the Hymns in use, etc., are the exponents and representatives of the religious opinions, that is, they are the creeds, of the congregation which adopts and approves them as its own.

3. Since none other than the Apostles' Creed is obligatory (that is, under the penalty of a refusal of the sacraments except it be confessed) upon the members of the Church, and since all persons who believe the Scriptures and are not infidels will acknowledge this creed, whatever may be their differences in interpreting and explaining the Scriptures, is there not, therefore, danger to the doctrines of the Church from such liberality and ought not another and more minute and explicit creed to be substituted?

We reply: The Church has no right to require any further intellectual qualifications for the sacraments than a belief in the plain and indisputable facts and teachings of the Scripture, such as is expressed, substantially, in the Apostles' Creed. When it goes beyond this, it sets up human reasonings, the doctrines of men, as the terms upon which men are to receive the privileges of Christ's Church-a usurpation which cannot be justified. It is not for the Church, in the execution of its trust, to say what is danger on the one hand, or what is expediency on the other. It is simply to admin

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ister the ordinances of Christ upon His own terms, and as He himself would to all His true disciples, and leave the protection of its doctrines to the gracious and mighty providence of its great Head.

We grant that the standards of doctrine in the Church, as they exist from time to time, are, possibly or theoretically, liable to be changed or modified; but we contend there is no danger to Christian truth under the regulations objected to. The object of the Church is not to perpetuate the thousand peculiar interpretations of Scripture and the many other opinions which happen at any one time to be generally maintained. Its object is to perpetuate the Scriptures, and to develop and extend Christian truth. It is secured completely against any hasty or immature change of its standards; while, at the same time, it keeps itself ready and willing to allow any change in them, whensoever the cautious. judgment and mature deliberation of the whole Church has prepared it for such a change, and the lawful decision of the true majority demands it.

Under the existing regulations of the Protestant Episcopal Church, there is room for the most free enjoyment of honest private opinion, and liberty for the most unreserved discussion; there are no penalties nor restraints upon opinion or discussion. And whensoever any opinion, at variance with any other at present embodied in its standards, shall become the opinion of a majority of the whole Church, if a case so improbable may be supposed, it may then, in a quiet and regular way, be acknowledged, and the public standards and teachings of the Church be made to conform to it. In the mean time it must be thoroughly tested, and truth

will be promoted by the discussion. If the opinion be not so manifestly truth as to commend itself in the discussion to the majority of the whole Church, it certainly is not worthy of being publicly or formally acknowledged. If, on the other hand, it be so manifestly truth, there surely ought not to be any hindrance to its public and formal acknowledgment.

Let the minority then, if there be such on any question, while they have unrestrained access to all the privileges of the Church of Christ, and while there is no bar to the utmost freedom of discussion, and none therefore to the eventual triumph of truth (and the opinions of any hypothetical minority are supposed by them to be truth), be wisely satisfied with their assured liberty of opinion and discussion, so long as their access to the sacraments is not hampered by any wrong tests or unscriptural conditions. Let them labor on for truth. If they have it with them, they will ultimately and certainly carry the whole Church by the truth. Let them labor in faith; for their efforts as brethren, and within the Church, will be vastly more effective than their efforts as opponents or adversaries without it.

It appears to us that a Church having such regulations as those of the Protestant Episcopal Church is constituted, better than all others, for the elucidation, the extension, and the perpetuity of Christian truth; and therefore for the union of all those who love our Lord with supreme devotion, and who love each other with brotherly kindness and affectionate forbearance.

SECTION X.

DOCTRINE.

The doctrine of the Protestant Episcopal Church Scriptural and practical-enumeration of some prominent doctrines-reference to standards the position of the Protestant Episcopal Church in relation to doctrines connected with the philosophy of religion-the thirty-nine Articles-especially the seventeenth article-controversies concerning them-formerly-now ceased-benefit of the controversy-history of the Articles-their sense in the English Church-to be literally and liberally interpreted-quotations from Bishop Burnet and Bishop White-both Calvinists and Arminians always in the English Church -subscriptions of the clergy-history of the Articles of the Protestant Episcopal Church in the United States-established in 1801-are articles of peace-both Calvinists and Arminiaus in the Protestant Episcopal Church-members of this Church free to be either, and to discuss their opinions—both clergy and laity-but the pulpit is protected from both-the clergy to preach only Scripture-these, if they please, as Scripture, but not as a system-neither Calvinism nor Arminianism, as such, may be advocated or be condemned in the pulpit -only the Word of God to be preached-proved-the Protestant Episcopal Church well arranged to unite all Christians of all opposing views on these subjects.

THE doctrine of the Protestant Episcopal Church, as taught in its various formularies and standards, is strictly Scriptural and practical, rather than philosophical and abstract; and this is generally, we believe, as it ought to be universally, the doctrine taught by its living ministry from the pulpit.

That man is by nature very far gone from original righteousness, and utterly unable to do anything good of himself; that the Lord Jesus Christ made, by his one oblation of Himself once offered, a full, perfect,