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Church System in this country, and possibly in every other country, may perhaps be well regarded as "crumbs from the Apostles' Table:" which it becomes us to take and use with all thankfulness, under a deep conviction that they are far better than we deserve, yet deeply to regret and strive against the unworthiness which has been punished by the loss of their first grace, coherence, and perfection. The changes themselves, examined in minute detail, point to this as the frame of mind with which it was intended we should acquiesce in them; as the dissertation, just referred to, shows at large.

Here it will be said, "Well, suppose we grant that our conformity to the Church of England, and acquiescence in her ritual, is not endangered by the view of which we are speaking; yet what becomes of the singleness of trust, the undoubting affection, with which we have been taught and accustomed to cling to the English Prayer Book without misgiving, as containing all that the Church can give, or the devout Churchman desire ?" This sort of question will be asked, sometimes in reproach, sometimes only in sadness. How is it to be met?

Indeed we must own that we are intruding upon that first happy childlike feeling: even as the realities of life intrude on the visions of perfection in familiar things and persons, which youth so unwillingly parts with. But is nothing offered in exchange or compensation? The notion we dispel is, that the English Liturgy is faultless in its kind faultless, that is, as a work of man may be: the notion we substitute, leaving untouched whatever excellence it really possesses of that sort, lifts it, in parts, and important parts, to a higher kind of excellency: higher beyond expression or measure: as much higher, as words and rites truly apostolical and divine transcend the best and wisest inventions of man. The dreams of childhood are

delightful, and it is painful to be roused from them; yet who would not consent to take in exchange for them the "sober certainty" of great and eternal truths, and of hopes thereupon depending, which manhood well employed, for all its drawbacks, secures to us? Even so, what mind, that has learned true faith and reverence, would not think it gain to be convinced that our service is a fragment of a work which came down from heaven, rather than a fabric, ever so perfect, wrought out by the piety and charity of Christians in successive ages?

If we had reason to think the Bible was mutilated, would our longing after the lost books imply any kind of irreverence to the books which remained, or to such human writings, as our instructors had used to supply the deficiency as well as they could?

Surely that view of the ancient Liturgies, which makes us regret certain changes in our own Prayer-Book, does yet enable us, on the whole, to use it with a higher and holier satisfaction than we could have had in any other way. It is in some good measure like pointing out the difference between the Lord's Prayer and other prayers: I between His Sacraments and other ceremonies. It brings closer to us the promise, 66 If two (and still more, if all) of you shall agree on earth touching any thing ye shall ask, it shall be done for them of My Father which is in Heaven." But this great, and awful, and transporting conviction we cannot have, and yet retain undisturbed our old notions about the perfection of the Liturgy. The regret we feel in some particulars is a price which must be paid for the unspeakable consciousness of the blessing yet vouchsafed to us in those which are most essential.

Such is the feeling which pervades these Remains, wherever they touch on the subject of the Liturgies: and it is not perhaps carrying the matter too far, if we add that

in no other feeling could a reverential mind possibly contemplate the facts, supposing them fairly brought before it, and proved. If then it be a wrong or inexpedient feeling, let the blame of it at least be divided with those learned men, whose recent labours have contributed so widely to diffuse the knowledge of those facts and of their evidence. But if the Origines Liturgicæ, the Remains of Cranmer, the reprint of King Edward's two Liturgies, and other like works, are rightly accounted seasonable boons to the Church: then let not the Author of these Remains be unsparingly censured, for thoughts and feelings which are the natural and necessary result of the unprejudiced study of those publications. What is the use of taking pains to acquaint men so thoroughly with the premisses, if they are not to be allowed to go on and draw the conclusion ?

Neither can it be justly alleged that this mode of reasoning takes away the use of our Formularies, as a guide to the simple and unlearned in their religious perplexities. As far as they are concerned, it leaves those Formularies where they were; the form, namely, wherein by God's Providence the teaching of the Catholic Church, in all essential points, is laid before them, and brought home to them. They are told that some part is positively divine, some part merely human; and they do not exactly know which is which. What matters it, if practically and humbly they receive all? It is but the same kind of difficulty, as is created by the knowledge that the Scriptures they read are not originals but translations, and that there is always a chance of what strikes them in any text being due to the translator, and not the pure mind of the Spirit. If this consideration does not interfere with the practical use and comfort of the Scriptures, neither need the other with that of the Prayer-Book. The passage in the Re

mains which may seem at first contrary to this (vol. i. p. 401-3), will be found on examination not to bear on the practical sufficiency of our Formularies to an unlearned Englishman, but rather on their exclusive competency to decide, among all Englishmen, concerning all controverted points; exclusive, i. e. of all other documents, which may reasonably be considered vehicles of the Mind of Christ, as manifested in Ancient Consent.

We should not perhaps be duly thankful for so much of the Apostolical Ritual, preserved to us by a gracious Providence, if we were not sometimes called on to take notice how narrowly we have escaped losing the whole: neither again can our escape be rightly appreciated, without taking into the account the tendency of the school to which our Reformers had joined themselves, and the little dependence that could be placed on their love of Antiquity, as a safeguard against that evil tendency.

All this of course implies, that whatever praise and admiration may be due to individuals, both some of the principles of the movement which is called the Reformation, in the several countries of Europe, and in parts also the tone of character which it encouraged, were materially opposed to those of the early Church. At the risk of prolonging these remarks, already much longer than is desirable in a preface, a few heads shall be mentioned, to which the Author would probably have referred as mainly accounting for his feelings on this matter.

First of all, he would have complained of their tone with regard to the Apostolical Succession; not this or that writer only, but the general body who favoured that cause, treating it as no better than a politic invention, to secure the influence of Church governors, in the absence of true doctrine, and visible spiritual gifts. Nor would he probably have thought this charge answered by any number of quotations

from their writings, apparently tending the contrary way: because, where opposite sets of quotations may be adduced from the same writer, and from compositions of the same date, either his opinions are so far neutralized, or we must ascertain by his conduct, his connexions, the cast of his sentiments generally, and such other evidence as we can get, in which of the two statements he was overruled, and in which left to the free expression of his own mind.

By the same mode of inquiry, he would come to judge unfavourably of their tenets about Sacramental Grace, especially in the Holy Eucharist; about the Power of the Keys, and the sacredness of the ancient discipline; and about state interference in matters spiritual; although in this latter point especially, their conduct spoke out for them too plainly to admit of any construction but one.

Any one who pleases, may verify or contradict the impressions of the Author on these and similar points, by simply examining the remains of the principal Reformers, with such cautions as are above indicated. Until he has done so, and satisfied himself that those impressions were not merely erroneous, but such as no student of tolerable fairness could adopt, it may be questioned whether he has much right broadly and positively to condemn the Author, for wishing to have nothing to do with such a set."

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And this more especially, if he take into consideration likewise certain less palpable but not less substantial differences in the way of thinking and moral sentiment, which separate the Reformers from the Fathers, more widely, perhaps, than any definite statements of doctrine. Compare the sayings and manner of the two schools on the subjects of Fasting, Celibacy, religious Vows, voluntary Retirement and Contemplation, the memory of the Saints, Rites and Ceremonies recommended by Antiquity, and involving any sort of self-denial, and especially on the

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