to do such things there, rather than in any other place, by way of overcoming the world in its stronghold; as he raised up Moses in Egypt, and Daniel in Babylon; for Rome was indeed the Babylon of that time." Mrs. H. “But I thought St. John's great suffering had been in banishment, not in martyrdom." B. "It was so. Upon this miraculous deliverance the Emperor ordered the Saint to Patmos." H." I know. It is a small island, and very desolate, though not so very far from Ephesus. One of the children was showing it to me in the map the other day." Mrs. H. "And there he saw his wonderful Revelations, like Elijah and Moses, who had such great visions in the desert." H. "How long did he stay there?" B. "Not a great many months; for in the September of this same year, (96) Domitian was slain; and Nerva, who came in his place, having put an end to the persecution, St. John returned to Asia, and to his work." Mrs. H. "How awful it must have seemed to the people, to see him come among them again, fresh, as it were, from those wonderful visions, like Moses when he came down from the mount." B. "Yes, indeed. When one thinks of that, it throws such a light as nothing else could, upon his ordinary sayings and doings the specimens of them which are reported to us." Mrs. H. "Is there not a very touching history of his converting a sort of foster-son of his own, who had gone off like the prodigal son." B. "There is. It stands upon very high and very ancient authority; and I have got it here, Englished and published as a Tract. It was given me some years ago, by Mr. Jones, when he was quite a young clergyman, fresh from Oxford; and I have always taken great delight in looking at it." As Butler spoke, he was rummaging among a heap of loose pamphlets; and presently he drew one out, and said, Here it is. Would you like to have it home, and read it at your leisure ?" Both husband and wife cried out at once, "Indeed we should; and should be very much obliged to you." B." Take it, then, and welcome; and when you have read it, I shall be very curious to find out whether it sets you upon the same way of thinking as it did me." H. "Depend upon it, Master Butler, one of us will have plenty of thoughts upon it. I won't say which it will be: but I expect that you will hear a good deal of it, and soon." But Mrs. Hyde, playfully shaking her head at him, said, "Since we are come to personal talk,' and it is growing very late besides, we will say good night' now, and thank you very much, Master Butler." So saying, she went off with the little pamphlet in her hand. It was an hour after bed time, but you may guess whether or no she had read it through before she lay down that night. Here it is, if our readers would like to see it : THE APOSTLE ST. JOHN, AND THE ROBBER. From a discourse by St. Clement of Alexandria. "LISTEN to a tale, which is no mere tale, but a true story, which has been handed down and kept in memory, of John the Apostle. For when the Roman Emperor was dead, and St. John had returned to Ephesus from his banishment in the island of Patmos, he departed again, by invitation, to the neighbouring districts, in some places to appoint Bishops, in some to establish new Churches, in others to separate to the Ministry some one of those whom the Spirit pointed out to him. At length he arrived at a city not very far from Ephesus, of which some also give the name; and after he had in all other ways refreshed the brethren, he ended by turning to the Bishop, whom he had appointed, and having observed a youth of goodly stature, comely appearance, and of an ardent spirit, 'Here,' he said, 'is a deposit which I earnestly commend to your care, in the sight of Christ and the Church.' And after the Bishop had accepted the charge, and had promised all that was required of him, he repeated the same request, and with the same solemn form of words. And so the Apostle went to Ephesus; but the Elder, taking to his home the youth intrusted to him, bred, controlled, fostered, and at last admitted him to baptism. After this he relaxed somewhat of his especial care and watchfulness, as having placed upon him the seal of the Lord, that last and best preservative from evil. But the other, having thus obtained his liberty too early, was taken hold of by certain idle and profligate youths of his own age. At first they lure him on by expensive revellings; next they carry him along with them on a thieving expedition by night, and then they beg him to join them in some still greater crime. By little and little he became habituated to vice, and then through the hotness of his nature, starting like a hardmouthed and spirited horse out of the right path, and taking as it were the bit into his mouth, rushed so much the more violently down the precipice. Finally, despairing of the salvation which is by God, he was no longer contented with mere petty offences, but, as he was now altogether lost, would fain do some great thing, and so suffer with the rest. He took, therefore, with him these same companions, and having got together a band of robbers, became their ready leader, and of all the most violent, the most bloody, the most cruel. "An interval elapsed; and upon some need falling out in the Church, the men of the city again called upon John to visit them. After he had set in order the things for which he came, 'Come,' said he to the Bishop, give me back the deposit which I and Christ committed to thee in the sight of the Church over which you preside.' The Bishop was at first amazed; for he thought that John was unjustly charging him with money which had not been really given him, and knew not either how to credit a demand for what he had never received, or how to discredit the Apostle. But when he said plainly, It is the youth I demand of thee, the soul of a brother,' the old man groaned from the bottom of his heart, and shedding a few tears at the thought, answered him, 'He is dead.' 'How then did he die, and by what death?' 'He is dead,' he said, 'to God, for he has ended in becoming wicked and abandoned, and to sum up all-a robber; and now instead of the Church, he has taken to the hills with an armed band of robbers like himself.' Then the Apostle tore his garment, and uttering a loud wail, beat his head, and said, 'A careful guardian, truly, I left of the soul of my brother: but bring me a horse, and let me have some one to guide me on my way.' So he rode away from the Church, just as he was, and when he came to the place, being taken by the outposts of the robbers, he neither fled from them, nor asked for mercy, but cried out, 'For this purpose came I, bring me to your chief.' He in the mean time, in the armour he wore, waited for his approach. When, however, he recognised St. John, as he drew near, he was filled with shame, and turned and fled. But the Apostle followed after him with all his strength, forgetful of his years, and calling out, 'Why do you fly from me, my son, me your father, unarmed and stricken in years? pity me, my son, and fear me not. Thou hast yet hope of life. I will give account for thee to Christ; yea, if it be needful, I will willingly undergo the death for thee, even as our Lord the death for us. For thee will I render up my breath. Stay and believe; Christ hath sent me.' But the young man, when he heard his words, first stood still, with eyes cast down to the ground; next threw away his arms, and then trembling, wept bitterly. And when the old man drew nigh to him, he threw his arms around him, and besought pardon, as best he could, with his groans, and was baptized as it were a second time, with tears, hiding only his bloodstained hand. But John, with promises and solemn protestations of his having obtained his pardon from the Saviour, besought him, nay, knelt to him, and kissed the very right hand he had withheld from him, as already cleansed by penitency; and so brought him back to the Church. Finally, interceding for him sometimes in frequent prayers, sometimes striving together with him in long-continued fasts, and sometimes soothing his spirit with various holy texts, he departed not, so they tell us, till he had fully reinstated him in the Church, and had thus set forth a mighty example of true penitency, and a mighty proof of regeneration, a trophy of the visible resurrection." COMMON QUESTIONS ANSWERED. WHAT ARE YOU? We have received three friendly letters upon the answer given to this question in our last number; the writers (D. T—; T. L. K—; and Oxoniensis,) together suggest two points in which they think it objectionable, or of doubtful orthodoxy. We are not surprised at this, as we felt at the time that we were perhaps stating the subject in a new way, (and therefore well weighed our words), though we believed then, as now, that we were not maintaining any new doctrine. The particular view put forth in the article had been long in our mind; it seems to us to be the Church's view, if so, the true one, and therefore important not to be lost sight of; moreover, we think that forgetfulness of it has been a main cause of what we believe to have been a wrong treatment of dissenting bodies among ourselves. They have been too commonly regarded as persons wholly separate from the Body of Christ, rather than as being ignorant, or careless, or wilful neglecters or opponents, as the case may be, of the teaching and authority of the Church, whereof they became members by Holy Baptism. D. T. asks, "Are your readers to understand that the Sacra ments administered by the selfappointed officers of the various religious societies which exist in these kingdoms, confer the same benefits as those of the Church? Are they to regard those, who in their infancy where brought to the Meeting House Font, as members of that Divine Body in which the Apostles of our Lord, and their successors to the end of the world' were appointed to minister?" Now, if D. T. will look again at the article, he will see that we did not speak of the Sacraments but of * In saying this we are not declaring that members of dissenting bodies among ourselves for instance, are totally deprived of the blessings of the Holy Eucharist: we should be very unwilling to assert this. Indeed it seems to us that the view of Holy Baptism for which we are contending, suggests a way in which they may derive some grace from that other Sacrament. Who shall say that, considering how much dissent is the Church's fault, God has not in mercy suspended the Church's discipline, and thus such persons, providentially not having been formally cut off from her communion are still benefitted in some degree, by her celebrations of the Lord's Supper: just as some defective member of the human body may derive some nourishment from the food which both sustains and invigorates the sound and healthy members, May it not be that, little as they think it, the life and holiness which we see to exist in separatists around us, spring from even that feeble communion which by their Baptism they still have with the Church-the Body of Christ-they thereby continuing to have an interest in her prayers and her Eucharistic sacrifice? that which is administered, whether | justifies their unauthorized acts :- at "the Meeting-house Font," or in private, or in any other way, be TRUE Baptism, then it does unite to that "Divine Body" of which Christ is the Head. But to be true Baptism, it must, at least, have been administered with Water "IN THE NAME OF THE FATHER, AND OF THE SON, AND OF THE HOLY GHOST." Unitarian Baptism the Church would account invalid as well as irregular, because it is administered, usually, in some other form of words. Indeed, there were cases in which the Ancient Church disallowed Baptism even when the right matter (Water) and the right form (In the Name, &c.) had been used, because it had been administered by heretics who denied the true doctrine of the Holy Trinity. The Church's great care from the first has been, not to repeat Baptism, because there can be but " ONE Baptism; ;" and therefore, she has always allowed the validity of lay, nay, even of schismatical and of some heretical Baptisms, where it was clear that the right matter and form had been employed. * But then this is no excuse whatever for those who, not being in Holy Orders, take upon themselves to administer Baptism, where no real necessity obliges them; it in no way "Baptism," says Hooker, "is not void in regard of heresy, and therefore much less through any other moral defect in the minister thereof." (Book V.62.7.) Again: "All that belongeth to the mystical perfection of Baptism, outwardly, is the Element, the Word, and the serious application of both unto him which receiveth both." (Book V. 62. 15.) And once more: "the Church of God hath hitherto always constantly maintained, that to re-baptize them which are known to have received true baptism is unlawful; that if baptism seriously be administered in the same element and with the same form of words which Christ's institution teacheth, there is no other defect in the world that can make it frustrate, or deprive it of the nature of a true Sacrament." (Book V. 62. 12.) of such we can but say with Hooker-" that evil ministers of good things are as torches, a light to others, a waste to none but themselves only, and that the foulness of their hands can neither any whit impair the virtue nor stain the glory of the mysteries of Christ."(Book V. 62. 10.) We suppose too, that, as a fact, comparatively few Baptisms are administered by Dissenting bodies in this country; custom at least leads most people to have their children baptized at Church. The objections of our two other correspondents are alike. They think it a contradiction to say, "If you are rightly baptized, you are a member of the Church;" whereas many of these very persons may have been " excommunicated," or may be "in formal schism." Before we go into the matter, let us say first to T. L. K. that we purposely avoided as much as possible "theological phraselogy," considering for whom we were mainly writing: and next, to both, that we foresaw and considered their objections. Now, probably, there is no real difference between us and our correspondents; and that any seeming diversity arises from different modes of stating the same truth. We do not see any greater apparent contradiction in the expression, 66 excommunicated member of the Church," than in the expression, "sinful Christian ;" and yet we fancy our correspondents would allow the latter. It seems to us, that all depends upon the view we take of the precise effect of excommunication. We venture to submit this question to our correspondents "Does excommunication absolutely cut off the person from union with the Body of Christ, during his life-time; or does it not rather |