quired from their lay associates, they can admit him to their table on Sunday, and even refrain from smiling when he says grace. But I can feel with Mr. Knox that all this falls something short of a recognition of his pastoral character, and that any attempt on his part to approach them on a different footing would be received with a "scrupulousness," whether "hesitating," or "nervous," or "bashful," or what Mr. Knox pleases, which would operate as a "repulse;" such a repulse as John the Baptist met with from Herod.

But to go at once to what seems to be Mr. Knox's main point, the palmary argument, by which he would prove the evil tendency of Church Discipline.

He thought that any kind of impediment thrown in the way, even of profligates coming to the participation of Christian ordinances, would operate as a hindrance and repulse to timid though honest votaries. He mentioned the case of Lord Chancellor Clare, who, towards the close of his life, went to a village Church, where he might not be known, to take the Sacrament."

When one reads of timid votaries, the first thing that suggests itself to one is the publican in the parable, "who stood afar off, and would not so much as lift up his eyes to heaven, but smote upon his breast, saying, God, be merciful to me a sinner." Such is the timidity of a broken and contrite heart, and most assuredly such timidity God will not despise. Yet it is worth considering for a moment,

the mere fact of his wishing to
beta proof of fitness for

heated that the absence

iss Mr. Knox has called it, features of the Church of it be understood fairly and

tion is what Mr. Kur
Let not the mind of the
distracted with such irrelevan
the with which Mr. Knox's naked and

eting has been so studiously mixe
m] les bear no more of "hesitating bash
" and "armas delicacy," and timid vo
the truth be spoken out at once
tion enunciated, that Mr. Knop
Discipline a bad thing, not be
might operate prejudicially
it is an evil; mot be

lude worthy commu
worthy one is an ab

communicant, but the mere fact of his wishing to communicate is to be taken as a proof of fitness for it, then indeed it must be admitted that the absence of Church Discipline is, as Mr. Knox has called it, "one of the happy features of the Church of England." But let it be understood fairly and clearly that this assumption is what Mr. Knox's view proceeds upon. Let not the mind of the unwary reader be distracted with such irrelevant phrases as those with which Mr. Knox's naked and unsupported assertion has been so studiously [mixed up.] Let us hear no more of "hesitating bashfulness," and "nervous delicacy," and "timid votaries;" but let the truth be spoken out at once; the naked proposition enunciated, that Mr. Knox considers Church Discipline a bad thing, not because in some cases it might operate prejudicially, but because in its very idea it is an evil; not because it might occasionally exclude worthy communicants, but because an unworthy one is an absurdity.

REMARKS

ON THE

GROUNDS OF ORTHODOX BELIEF;

BEING A

REVIEW OF SOME LATE PUBLICATIONS1.

Or the three small volumes which form the subject of [the following remarks,] only one is acknowledged in the title page as Mr. Blanco White's; but so little trouble is taken by the author to conceal the identity of the source from which they proceed, that there can be no discourtesy in treating them all as his, and using them to throw light (which they frequently do) on one another's meaning.

Their intention is to exhibit the process of thought by which Mr. Blanco White, after he had renounced the errors of the Roman Catholic religion, was prevented, in the first instance, from acquiescing implicitly in any of the established forms of orthodox Protestantism; and then gradu

1

1 [viz. 1. Observations on Heresy and Orthodoxy. By the Rev. Joseph Blanco White. 2. Second Travels of an Irish Gentleman in search of a Religion, with Notes and Illustrations. Not by the Editor of Captain Rock's Memoirs.—These Remarks were written in November, 1835, and appeared in the British Critic for January, 1836.]