P.S. To obviate misapprehension I think it right to state that I write only in an individual and not in a representative capacity; * for (to adopt the Dean of Westminster's expression,) the communion of Christians called Wesleyan Methodists, is, as a church, non-political. "I speak as a man."

[Note. Two expressions in brackets were added after the letter was sent off to Mr. Gladstone.]

*Not but that there are many in the Wesleyan Methodist Connexion who think with me, as the columns of both "The Methodist" and of "The Methodist Recorder" will show.

Priesthood:

THE TRUE AND THE FALSE.

HEBREWS V. 4, 6.

"And no man taketh this honour unto himself, but he that is "called of God, as was Aaron. So also Christ glorified not "himself to be made an high priest; but he that said unto "him, Thou art my Son, to-day have I begotten thee. As he "saith also in another place, [Psalm cx.] Thou art a priest for ever after the order of Melchisedec."

ON a right understanding of priesthood everything in religion depends. To know and to feel the virtue of the blood of Jesus cleansing us from all sin, brings joy and peace. It is the very life of true religion rightly to apprehend, by faith, the everlasting character of the priesthood of the man Christ Jesus, who is also the only begotten Son of God. So, to understand the falseness of the pretence to priesthood made by a mere man is to be delivered from all the darkness and endless incertitude of ceremonial religions; whose ministers and whose followers are but

"Restless wanderers after rest,"

Except in so far as sincere souls among them, (not having received evangelical teaching, and shut out by carefullyinstilled prejudice from seeking it,) being led by the compassionate Spirit of God, rise above a vain trust in works of righteousness which they have done, or in sacramental acts which their priests have done, to a full and hearty and abiding reliance on the all-satisfying propitiation for sin (1 John ii. 2) and the all-prevalent intercession for sinners (Heb. vii. 25) made by our most blessed Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ.

"O thou ETERNAL VICTIM, slain
A sacrifice for guilty man,

By the Eternal Spirit made
An offering in the sinner's stead;

Our EVERLASTING PRIEST art thou,

And plead'st thy death for sinners now."

To true Christians no word is so full of comfort and peace as the word priest when applied to the Messiah; but both to "the children of light" and to "the children of this world" there is no word so odious-none so connected with all deeds of darkness, and tyranny, and deception, as the word priest when applied to a minister of religion. How is this-that the same word when applied to the God-man is "as incense poured forth"; but when applied to ministers of any church it is an abomination to all people? Italy detests the priests. Spain has been ruined by them. They are the hidden cause of all the miseries of France; whose infidelity is but the strong reaction of the mind from the mystified mummeries of the Romish superstition. And now, having blighted the fairest lands, and having overthrown the proudest and most ancient monarchies of the Continent, they are seeking (although once swept off indignantly) again to batten and fatten themselves on our free and happy England. They have, of late years, largely increased Romish organizations in the land. These we do not so much fear. They are the tents of an open enemy to Protestant truth pitched in a fair field, whose manoeuvres we can meet with a watchful and prayerful resistance, "steadfast in the faith," and clad in armour divine. But far more dangerous is the movement commonly called Ritualistic or Tractarian, already so far advanced, and still so swiftly advancing in the established church of this country. Taking a mean advantage of certain expressions in the Common Prayer Book, left there in a time of national commotion and transition, the Ritualists, with a Jesuitical policy, essay to bring back upon this country the dark confessional, (recently petitioned for by upwards of 400 clergymen); to bring back various imposing ceremonies and garbs,and the frequent tinkling of the ritualistic bell-even the dedication of bells, as at Exton church not long ago; on which occasion the preacher of the day (whose text was

*Whereof St. Augustine, in his time complained, that they were grown to such a number, that the estate of Christian people was in worse case concerning that matter than were the Jews. And he counselled that such yoke and burden should be taken away, as time would serve quietly to do it. But what would St. Augustine have said if he had seen the ceremonies of late days used among us; whereunto the multitude used in his time was not to be compared ?" (Of Ceremonies, in preface to Common Prayer Book.)

from the Psalms, Prayer-book version) said that he admired the book of Psalms: it had many excellences; but there was one defect! Every one, at least, I for one, felt curious to know what this defect was. Reader, canst thou guess? No; not if you sat up till midnight trying to find it out. "We wish" continued the preacher emphatically, "O, how we wish it had contained an allusion to a peal of English Church bells!" [sic.] What a pity! And, more ominous still, these men essay to bring back the dogma of transubstantiation in all but the name; (so plain people understand the recent Bennett Judgment :) and all this they do notwithstanding the fact that the Articles of Religion, which they have subscribed, declare that "the sacrifices of masses, in the which it was commonly said that the priest did offer Christ for the quick and the dead, to have remission of pain or guilt, were blasphemous fables and dangerous deceits."

Nor are the people in certain parishes guiltless in this matter. "Sometimes the churchwardens and the laity generally, who frequent such churches as you allude to i.e. High or Ritualistic churches], connive at or openly support the illegal practices of which you complain : sometimes when disapproving of these practices, the parishioners wish to throw all responsibility of opposition on others, appearing to think that they have done enough when they have manifested their discontent, and shrinking from all further action." (Letter of the Archbishops in reply to the recent Memorial of the Church Association, referred to subsequently.)

All these things are matters of profound concern and grief to my soul, arousing an indignation which I do not wish should be tinged with unfairness, and an anger which

* A fact illustrative of this has been told me this day (June 27th), by a credible witness, who had it from the lips of the clergyman concerned. This gentleman is a Low Church curate in a parish not far from Dunster. Under constraint, he is, at great pecuniary loss, about to leave the curacy; 66 Because," said the poor fellow, "I preach a plain sermon; and because it is complained of that I preach too long." The fact is his doctrine is not "high" enough; and so he is politely sent about his business, and some one is sent off to London to get a "priest". What is to be done where the people love to have it so; or, if not the people, some rich and influential patron of a living? Sorrowfully the question is put to all such as are wilfully misled-"What will ye do in the end thereof?"