certainly to a very different meaning. He has most strongly recommended the observance of the great duty of christian charity, as "a more excellent way "than to be solicitous for the attainment of spiritual gifts even of the highest order. I believe, indeed, that it is the duty of a Christian to be prepared to relinquish the dearest connexions of life, should they be found to interfere with a sincere profession of religion; but I have nowhere found that he is directed to embrace such conduct, merely as constituting in itself a life of superior excellence, or as affording an opportunity of enjoying “one of the triumphs of faith."

2

On this subject I have still to learn that the title, ever-virgin, which you, without any hesitation, have attributed to the mother of our Lord, in your seemingly reluctant commendation of marriage, is indeed warranted by the facts of her brief history, and not even contradicted by the very language of the scripture. One thing, indeed, is manifest in regard to the mother of our Lord, that the evangelic narratives have, as it may seem purposely, left her history in deep obscurity, except where it was connected with his mission and office.

You tell us, indeed, that "the preference of celibacy, as the higher state, is scriptural, and, as being such, is primitive ;" and that "the corruption of Rome was not its preference, but its tyrannical, and ensnaring, and avaricious enforcement.

I answer that we find, even in the narrative of the first christian council, which surely must be admitted to represent to us that primitive church, so much the object of your veneration, that one measure of enforcement had been already adopted in it, for it had even then been an ancient usage, that if a married priest became a widower, he should not be permitted to enter into a second engagement; and, so natural is the progress in asceticism, it was proposed in the council, that the married priests should be required to separate themselves from the wives, with whom they were already united. This extreme resolution was, indeed, opposed and defeated by the remonstrance of Paphnutius, himself a celibatist and renowned for chastity. A middle course was accordingly taken, the married clergy being left at liberty to separate themselves, if they should so choose, from their wives, and thus to attain a higher excellence of life. At this step, however, the church stopped

not.

The admonition of Paphnutius was subsequently disregarded; the clergy were, after many struggles, torn from their wives, and "the more excellent way" of celibacy was rendered imperative throughout the western church. This was, indeed, the natural progress in departing from the simplicity of the Gospel. That which is at first voluntary becomes a usage, claiming the character of a

4 Socratis Hist. Eccles. lib. i. c. 11.

F

tradition;

and the usage so sanctioned is transformed into a law.

5

You tell us also that, "while the peaceful duties of the country-pastor can often be even better discharged perhaps by a married priest, ruling well his own house and having his children in subjection in all gravity, a pattern of domestic charities, yet," you add, "if the degraded population of many of our great towns are to be recovered from the state of heathenism in which they are sunk, it must be by such preaching of the cross, wherein it shall be forced upon man's dull senses, that they who preach it have forsaken all, to take it up, and bear it after their Lord." To this I reply that the apostles, when they undertook to preach the religion of the cross amidst the heathenism of the ancient world, do not appear from their own practice to have been sensible that they must give this proof, that they had indeed forsaken all; nor have the Methodists of modern times, who are sufficiently wise in their generation, found this sacrifice of domestic relations to be a necessary part of their system; nor yet have the Moravians deemed it expedient to send forth unmarried missionaries, in their adventurous efforts to propagate among pagan nations the truths of the gospel. If, indeed, your appeal is to be made to "man's dull senses," if you are seeking to aid the

simple impressions of religion by picturesque effect, the principle will carry you far; for it is the very principle of the whole ritual of the church of Rome, in which the appeal is so constantly made to "man's dull senses," that the vital sentiment of religion is overlaid and stifled. Genuine christianity is not a religion of the senses, but of the heart; and in seeking to gain the former, we must more or less lose our hold of the latter.

Nor are you disposed to refer this question, of the expediency of celibacy in the cause of religion, wholly to the separate consideration of individuals, choosing each for himself his peculiar plan of action, for you have recommended monastic institutions for either sex, voluntary indeed, and to be relinquished at their own choice, but still in their spirit and character monastic. And can you imagine that such institutions could be permitted, without biassing and controlling the free choice of individuals? Is there nothing in the ostensible form of associations professedly devoted to the especial service of God, which would act upon the ardent imaginations of young persons, particularly females, beholding too your sœurs de la charité walking in pairs on their missions of mercy, their eyes upon the earth, as abstracted from all the concerns of society? And when the decided

fixed

step of joining one of these associations had been

7 Page 208, note; and

page 216.

taken, and the individual had been once presented to his fellow-men as one who had voluntarily withdrawn from the world, that he might prosecute his salvation "by a more excellent way," where is the freedom to separate from it, and mix again with ordinary mortals, though no irrevocable engagement had bound him to persevere ? Is there no difficulty in returning after an interval to that world, which had been quitted, and seeking a renewal of its connexions after a formal disruption of them all? Is the world's dread laugh no restraint upon his choice; and would he not find himself compelled by the fear of it to adhere to that which he has once made, even though he should have discovered how vain had been the sacrifice of the social relations of life?

8

So long as the choice is really left with individuals, as it is left by the scriptures and by our church, to marry or to live in celibacy, "as they shall judge the same to serve better to godliness,” so long it may be expected that the clergy will be best qualified to serve the cause of religion, neither seduced into an indulgence of spiritual pride by a tempting profession of superior sanctity, nor restrained by the apprehension of public ridicule from endeavouring to resume their former connexions and habits. Nor do I perceive how the character of our unmarried females would be more

8 Article 32.