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 BV 600 .F115 
 
 Faber^ Frederick William, 
 
 1814-1863. 
 Tracts on the church and her 
 
 offices 
 
TRACTS 
 
 ON THE 
 
 CHURCH AND HER OFFICES. 
 
TRACTS 
 
 THE CHURCH 
 
 HER OFFICES. 
 
 BY THE REV. 
 
 FREDERICK W/^^ABER, M.A 
 
 FELLOW OF UNIVERSITY COLLEGE, OXFORD. 
 
 I am the Mother of fair love, and fear, and knowledge, and 
 holy hope : I therefore, being eternal, am given to all my chil- 
 dren which are named of Him. — Ecclus. xxiv. 18. 
 
 LONDON: 
 PRINTED FOR J. G. F. & J. RIVINGTON, 
 
 ST. PAUL'S CHURCH YARD, AND WATERLOO PLACE, PALL MALL; 
 
 & J. H. PARKER, OXFORD. 
 1840. 
 
LONDON : 
 GILBERT &: RIVINGTON, PRINTERS, 
 
 ST. John's square. 
 
TO THE 
 
 REV. THOMAS WHYTEHEAD, M.A. 
 
 FELLOW OF ST. JOHn's COLLEGE, 
 CAMBRIDGE, 
 
 THIS VOLUME 
 
 IS INSCRIBED, 
 
 BY HIS 
 
 VERY AFFECTIONATE FRIEND, 
 
 • THE AUTHOR, 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 1 . I believe in one Catholic and Apostolic Church. 
 
 2.. The ancient Things of the Catholic Church in England. 
 
 3. The Church, a Safeguard against Modern Selfishness. 
 
 4. Church Doctrine, a Witness against Worldly Times. 
 
 5. The Unfulfilled Glory of the Church. 
 
 6. A Churchman's Politics in Disturbed Times. 
 
 7. The Prayer-book, a Safeguard against Religious Ex- 
 
 citement. 
 
 8. The Church Calendar, a Help against Time. 
 
 9. The Church Catechism, a Model of Church Education. 
 
 10. Confirmation, a Witness for Obedience and Unity. 
 
 1 1 . The Burial Service, its Doctrine and Consolations. 
 
 12. The Dignity of Little Children. 
 
I BELIEVE IN ONE 
 
 CATHOLIC AND APOSTOLIC 
 CHURCH. 
 
 NicENE Creed. 
 
 BY THE REV. 
 
 FREDERICK W. FABER, M.A, 
 
 FELLOW OF UNIVERSITY COLLEGE, OXFORD. 
 
 That thou mayest know how thou oughtest to behave thyself in the house 
 of God, which is the Church of the living God, the pillar and ground of the 
 truth.— 1 Tim. iii. 15. 
 
 FOURTH EDITION, ENLARGED. 
 
 LONDON: 
 
 PRINTED FOR J. G. F. & J. RIVINGTON, 
 
 ST. pall's church yard, 
 
 AND WATERLOO PLACE, PALL MALL. 
 
 1840. 
 
 \Price S'ljcpence?^ 
 
Gilbert & Rivington, Printers, St. John's Square, London. 
 
1 BELIEVE IN ONE CATHOLIC AND 
 APOSTOLIC CHURCH. 
 
 NiCENE Creed. 
 
 There was once a time, though alas ! it is many 
 hundred years since, when the Holy Cathohc 
 Church was a glorious building, all one, like 
 the seamless vest of her Master, Christ. The 
 remote cities of Egypt and Syria, Greece and 
 Rome, Gaul and Britain, were all one body, 
 in one Lord, one faith, one baptism ^ The 
 voice of discord was scarcely heard within her. 
 Heresy found no resting-place within the sanc- 
 tuary. The Church was like the New Jeru- 
 salem above, which is the mother of us all. 
 East and west, north and south, continued 
 steadfastly in the Apostles' doctrine and fellow- 
 ship, and in breaking of bread, and in prayers ^ 
 These were happy times, a great deal too 
 
 ^ Eph. iv. 4, 5. ^ Acts ii. 42. 
 
 A 2 
 
4 / believe in one Catholic 
 
 happy to last. It was a state of things too 
 unhke this world ; and it was easy to see, that 
 as soon as ever the Church and the world 
 became friends, one or other of the two must 
 become very much altered : and as we all know 
 that the world is very pliable, and has a way 
 of seeming to give up a great deal, while in 
 fact it gives up nothing at all, it was most 
 probable that the Church would be the suf- 
 ferer. Thus it turned out. She left her first 
 love, and so the glories of her candlestick were 
 dimmed. It is not necessary for my purpose, 
 as practical to ourselves, to follow her course 
 as she journeyed from east to west. Long 
 time abode we in Rome, doing as Rome bid 
 us, albeit she was a hard task-mistress. 
 
 At last it came about from a variety of cir- 
 cumstances that there was a rehglous move- 
 ment all over Europe, in some places tumul- 
 tuous, in other places under authority. Kings 
 and princes joined it to serve their own ends, 
 and the people followed one side or other, and 
 called themselves by party names which they 
 did not understand. This was in the sixteenth 
 century. England was affected by the move- 
 ment. The king and his nobles were impure, 
 
and Apostolic Church, 5 
 
 greedy, tyrannical, and did not care for reli- 
 gion, but only for. the gratification of their 
 lusts, and the unholy plunder of Church lands. 
 But out of it all God brought some bless- 
 ings, even through the means of these bad 
 men. The Enghsh Church made changes in 
 her doctrine, and her ritual ; because of which 
 the Roman Church separated from her. Divi- 
 sion brought with it its usual evils, and sad 
 excesses. Other men fell off from the Church 
 of England on the other side. Every man 
 thought he was to be a Church to himself. 
 One party thought this the most important 
 doctrine of Christianity, another party thought 
 another, and a third party chose a third. And 
 so they separated, always in anger, and each 
 took his own path ; a most unblessed strife, 
 and, like the parting of Lot from Abraham, 
 full of danger and of trouble. The Church of 
 England, too, was quite unable to remedy this. 
 The kings and rulers of the times would not 
 let her have her discipline back again. She 
 had trusted too much to them. She had let 
 them take matters too much into their own 
 hands. She had not had faith enough in her 
 own powers and titles. And this was what 
 A 3 
 
6 / believe in one Catholic 
 
 came of it ; this was the way she was punished. 
 She has never ceased to regret it. She hum- 
 bles herself for it, and deplores her weakness 
 in the commination on Ash- Wednesday year 
 by year. 
 
 Meanwhile she did not seek to invent a new 
 system for herself ; but to reform her old one. 
 With all teachableness and much meek wis- 
 dom she turned herself to the purest, youngest 
 days of Christ's virgin Church : and in her 
 doctrine and her discipline, as well as in her 
 solemn and decent ceremonial, she took care 
 to fashion most things " according to the pat- 
 tern God had showed her in the primitive 
 Church." And she was blessed in her deed. 
 Sect rose after sect, and fell ; while she moved 
 calmly and steadily along, holding up on high 
 the clear lamp of truth ; and thus will she 
 move on, be the world never so unquiet, if 
 only her own sons do not turn their arms one 
 against another in unhallowed strife. Now 
 this is the state of things we find ourselves in 
 at present. The Church keeps on in her old 
 way. But almost numberless sects have risen 
 up along side of her, some having forsworn the 
 Apostles' fellowship, and some, alas that it 
 
and Apostolic Church, % 
 
 should be so ! the Apostles' doctrine, and some 
 even denying the Lord that bought them. 
 They have pitched their tents all about the 
 holy camp, like the mixed multitude that fol- 
 lowed the true Israel of God from out of the 
 land of Egypt. 
 
 There was a time, as I said, when the Church 
 and the world were visibly different bodies : 
 and so long as it was so the Church did well. 
 When they met it was ever in blood, the blood 
 of the saints, and the Church was strengthened 
 by it. But now they are mingled together, 
 so far as ever they can mingle, and we have 
 suffered from it. A sort of sleepiness has 
 come over the world, as if it were growing old 
 and waxing to its decay. Its activity has be- 
 come restless, feverish, and intermittent, like 
 that of an aged man : and if love is to wax 
 cold, and faith to be rare in the earth, when 
 the Son of Man shall come, may He not now 
 be at hand ? It is not for us to know the 
 times and seasons which the Father hath put 
 in His Own power ; but what we may discern 
 in the signs of the times that we are bidden 
 to discern. Therefore let each man be thought- 
 ful, and ponder all the strange things he is now 
 
 A 4 
 
8 / believe in one Catholic 
 
 seeing, and commune with his own heart, and 
 be still. There shall no divination prosper 
 against Israel. 
 
 However in this state of things we ?}tat/ be 
 asked by others, we 7nust sometimes ask our- 
 selves, Why are we members of the Church 
 of England rather than of any other of the 
 religious societies about us ? A very common, 
 and for plain men a very sufficient answer is, 
 that we belong to the Church because our 
 forefathers for generations and generations 
 have done so. 
 
 All change is bad from its very nature. It 
 is full of evil ; it unsettles and disturbs ; it is 
 full of the w^orld ; it is the very spirit of the 
 world ; and nothing worse can be said of it. 
 Whenever we are tempted to change any thing, 
 we must not only be quite sure that the old 
 system contained evils, but also that those evils 
 were more numerous and more important than 
 the ones we must inevitably bring in by change. 
 So cautious, so slow, so meek must we be ; so 
 different from those rash and headstrong men 
 who are for changing every thing, though they 
 are not certain that they know all the hidden 
 uses of that which they attack. But change 
 
and Apostolic Church. 9 
 
 In religion is of all things most perilous. We 
 all of us feel how intimately our spiritual life 
 is bound up in little things, and how change 
 of time and place and company is always 
 putting us wrong. It dislocates our religious 
 habits ; our religious ways of thinking, and 
 acting, and speaking. This is the great reason 
 why we should oppose all changes in our an- 
 cient Liturgy. It would disturb and unsettle 
 the people. The Prayer-Book is their own 
 Book : it is their own inheritance, which the 
 Church has given them ; and many a time 
 in the hour of trouble, of sickness, and even 
 of death, has a fragment of some one of the 
 Church prayers rested on the sufferer's me- 
 mory, full of gentlest power to sanctify and 
 calm his soul. 
 
 In this way, therefore, we naturally cling 
 to the Church of our Fathers ; but more than 
 this. It is here in the Church, and here only, 
 that we meet with them. We sit upon the 
 seats whereon they sat to listen to the accents 
 of the everlasting Word ; and they are in 
 their graves about us. There their bodies rest 
 till the day of judgment ; and the spirits of 
 many, very many of them are, we trust, in 
 A 5 
 
10 / believe in one Catholic 
 
 Abraham's bosom. We come here to worship 
 among the dead, to worship w'here we rest 
 ourselves, where w^e ourselves shall rise once 
 more to meet the Master at His coming. 
 This is a very solemn thought : and, when St. 
 Paul tells us that we have already *' come to 
 the spirits of just men made perfect \" w^e may 
 well feel that there is a sense in which the 
 Dead form part of every Christian congrega- 
 tion. The dust beneath our feet is full of life, 
 and very precious in the sight of God : and 
 shall w^e lightly leave a place of such holy sad- 
 ness to go we know not where, to follow we 
 know not w'hom ? Surely not ; and this is the 
 reason w^hy I said that for plain men it was 
 quite a sufficient answer to say that w^e belong 
 to the Church because our forefathers did. 
 
 But now-a-days this is not enough to silence 
 questioners, not always enough to silence our- 
 selves. Why did our forefathers belong to 
 the Church, for there were plenty of sects 
 even in their times? They could not have 
 belonged to it because their forefathers liad 
 done ; for the?/ had been sons of Rome. This 
 
 ' Heb. xii. 23. 
 
and Apostolic Church. 1 1 
 
 is what men say ; and the answer is very 
 plain, and we must take heed to it. Though 
 our forefathers were sons of Rome, yet were 
 they still more sons of the Church of England, 
 just as much so as we are, and we no more 
 than they were. Romanists have said so often, 
 and with so much noise, that we are schisma- 
 tics, that ignorant and indolent people think it 
 is the easiest way to believe it, and to argue 
 about it no more. Our forefathers did belong 
 to the Church of England. We will not leave 
 them : we will not have them taken from us ; 
 we will not be cut off from communion with 
 them, those fathers of the old English Church. 
 Our forefathers in Henry the Eighth's time 
 did continue to belong to the Church, because 
 their forefathers also, in the days of the 
 Henries, Richards, and Edwards, before that, 
 had belonged to it. But we may find also a 
 further answer in the Church herself, some 
 excellence in her, some attraction in her ; 
 something or other, in short, which was to 
 be had in the Church, and was not to be 
 had out of it. The Church has many such 
 things as these, but there are three in parti- 
 cular which would come strongly home to 
 
 A 6 
 
12 / believe in one Catholic 
 
 plain pious people in all times, but in troubled 
 times particularly ; and on each of these I 
 would make a few plain remarks, by way of 
 furnishing you with a ready and I trust a com- 
 plete answer to the insidious questions of our 
 enemies. These three gifts are — the lauful 
 administration of the Word and Sacraments — a 
 ])rimitive and set form of Prayer — and stability. 
 — The time is now come when these matters 
 must cease to be merely the business of the 
 scholar. They have a practical usefulness to 
 ourselves as humble but affectionate children 
 of the Church within whose quiet walls we 
 have grown up. But there is still another 
 point to clear up before we begin — " What 
 is the Church ? We hear this word on all 
 sides of us now. What does it mean ? What 
 ideas are we to attach to it ? What clear 
 meaning are we to give it ?" First I will tell 
 you what it does not mean. It does not 
 mean the invisible company of the really 
 pious, the elect, the predestinated, and so on. 
 It does not mean any congregation gathered 
 together any how, and worshipping any how, 
 and governed any how, professing to believe 
 the Bible, and interpreting it any how. It does 
 13 
 
and Apostolic Church. 13 
 
 not mean the established Church of England — 
 that is only part of it, and its being established 
 has nothing to do with making it a church- 
 It would be just as much a Church, just as 
 much to be obeyed, just as much to be ho- 
 noured, if the establishment were destroyed in 
 the next session of parliament. Now 1 will 
 tell you what the Church is. It is a visible 
 society, called in Scripture the Body of Christ. 
 It is a visible institution governed by bishops, 
 priests, and deacons, baptizing all nations, 
 explaining the Bible in creeds, giving the 
 seven-fold gifts of the Holy Ghost in Con- 
 firmation, absolving the penitent from sins, 
 feeding the faithful with the Body and Blood 
 of Christ in the Holy Communion, and con- 
 tinuing itself by creating new bishops, and 
 priests, and deacons, by the laying on of hands 
 in apostolical succession. It is the outward 
 visible form of Christ's religion, which exists in 
 it only and not out of it. It is a vessel which all 
 men can see and touch, a vessel filled, in- 
 formed, lighted up, by the true faith. If any 
 break it or spill any of the truth out of it, that 
 truth, so spilled, loses its fragrance and its 
 virtue ; and they who carry it away are here- 
 
14 / believe in one Catholic 
 
 tics and schismatics, and in the end make no 
 profit of their sacrilege. In the Apostles' creed 
 we call the Church holy and Catholic : in the 
 Nicene creed we say it is one, and apostolic. 
 It is one because it is built on the one faith 
 once delivered to the saints, getting life from 
 the one Incarnate Lord, directed by the one 
 Spirit, washing us with the one Baptism, and 
 leading us all to the one God and Father of 
 all. Who is above all, and through all, and 
 in us all. It is Catliolic, which is a Greek 
 word meaning universal, because it is not in 
 England only, or in France only, or at Rome 
 only, but over all the world, differing in lan- 
 guage, in dress, in ceremonies, in pomps, in 
 ways and customs, in learning, and wealth, 
 and grandeur, and the number of bishops, 
 and the beauty of cathedrals, and the orna- 
 menting of churches, sometimes in more error, 
 sometimes in less error, yet still over all the 
 broad earth holding and teaching, as the 
 Church universal cannot fail to hold and 
 teach, the one Lord and one faith, directed by 
 the one Spirit, washing with the one Baptism, 
 and leading to the one God and Father of all. 
 It is holy^ because He who founded it and is 
 
and Apostolic Church, 15 
 
 with it is holy, even Christ the Lord ; be- 
 cause the end of it is a holy end, the salvation 
 of souls, whereunto it calleth us with a holy 
 calling ; because the institutions of it, its gifts 
 and graces, its prayers and praises, its powers 
 and absolutions and sacraments, are holy ; 
 because holy angels minister to the heirs of 
 salvation within it, and the spirits of just men 
 made perfect are in it, and good and holy men 
 on earth are its children. It is ajoostolk, be- 
 cause the bishops are the successors of the 
 Apostles ; because it is under the form of 
 government instituted by the Apostles through 
 the leading of the Holy Ghost ; and because 
 it keeps to the Apostles' doctrine as well as 
 fellowship. This is the Church, One, Holy 
 Cathohc, Apostolic. 
 
 Having now made this matter plain, we 
 will speak of the lawful administration of 
 THE Word and Sacraments. When our Lord 
 and Saviour had broken the portals of the 
 grave. He stayed awhile upon earth to cheer 
 and support His Disciples in the doubtful and 
 dangerous circumstances in which they found 
 themselves. It was this very solemn time 
 which He selected for investing them with 
 
16 / believe i?i one Catholic 
 
 that high and awful commission to preach the 
 Gospel, and to baptize all nations hi the name 
 of the ever blessed Trinity. It was in the even- 
 ing of the first day of the week that the little 
 band of faithful ones were met together with 
 doors shut for fear of the Jews \ *^ Suddenly 
 Jesus stood in the midst of them, and said. 
 Peace be unto you : as my Father hath sent 
 Me, even so send I you. And when He had said 
 this, He breathed on them, and saith unto them. 
 Receive ye the Holy Ghost : Whosesoever sins 
 ye remit, they are remitted unto them ; and 
 whosesoever sins ye retain, they are retained." 
 Such was the evening of the first Sunday ever 
 observed in the world. And when the Master 
 ascended up on high. He repeated this com- 
 mission, and added, " Lo, I am with you alway, 
 even unto the end of the world." Such w^as 
 the beginning of the Christian Priesthood. 
 By this divine ordination all grace had been 
 given to the Apostles ; they were the rightful 
 fountains from whence all Church authority 
 was to flow. By virtue of this power they 
 added to their own number St. Matthias ; and 
 
 * St. John XX. 21. 
 
and Apostolic Church. 17 
 
 afterwards, as the needs of the Church in- 
 creased, they consecrated St. James, a rela- 
 tion of our Lord's, hishop of Jerusalem : St. 
 Paul consecrated Timothy and Titus, bishops 
 of Ephesus and Crete, and St. Peter conse- 
 crated St, Mark, Bishop of Alexandria. None 
 were to preach who were not sent, none had 
 the gift in them, save by the laying on of 
 hands. When the visiting of the sick, the 
 distribution of alms, and baptizing, multiplied 
 in the hands of the Apostles, they constituted 
 the Order of Deacons ; of whom St. Stephen 
 and St. Philip were chief ornaments ; and 
 lastly, we read of their ordaining elders, or, 
 as it is in the Greek, presbyters ^ in every 
 church, praying with fasting, and commending 
 them to the Lord on whom they believed. 
 These three Holy Orders of Apostles or 
 Bishops, Priests, and Deacons, were thus es- 
 tablished. From the earliest times down to 
 the present have they been by God's good 
 Providence preserved in the Church. 
 
 The Church of England, in the preface to 
 the Ordination Services, has these express 
 
 ^ Acts xiv. 23. 
 
18 / believe hi one Catholic 
 
 words : " It is evident unto all men diligently 
 reading the Holy Scripture and ancient au- 
 thors, that from the Apostles' time there have 
 been these orders of Ministers in Christ's 
 Church — Bishops^ Priests, and Deacons — which 
 offices were evermore had in such reverend 
 estimation, that no man might presume to 
 execute any of them, except he were first 
 called, tried, examined, and known to have 
 such qualities as are requisite for the same ; 
 and also by publick Prayer, with Imposition 
 of Hands, were approved and admitted there- 
 unto by lawful authority. And therefore, to 
 the intent that these orders may be continued, 
 and reverently used and esteemed, in the 
 united Church of England and Ireland ; no 
 man shall be accounted or taken to be a 
 lawful Bishop, Priest, or Deacon, in the united 
 Church of England and Ireland, or suffered to 
 execute any of the said functions, except he 
 be called, tried, examined, and admitted there- 
 unto, according to the form hereafter follow- 
 ing, or hath had formerly Episcopal Consecra- 
 tion, or Ordination." And it is on this ac- 
 count that, if a clergyman of the Roman Com- 
 munion does in this country join himself to 
 
and Apostolic Church, 19 
 
 the English Church, his ordination is ac- 
 counted good and vahd, because the Roman 
 Church has episcopal ordination and an apos- 
 tolical ministry. He is not ordained over 
 again, but simply licensed by a Bishop to teach 
 and preach in his diocese. Whereas, if a 
 Protestant dissenter, who has been accustomed 
 to call himself a minister of the Gospel, re- 
 pents of his schism, and is anxious to become 
 a clergyman, the English Church considers 
 him merely as a layman, and not as a minister 
 of the Gospel ; and makes him a clergyman 
 by episcopal ordination. Furthermore, in or- 
 daining priests, the Church, by the Bishop, 
 uses these grave words, the " Receivers hum- 
 bly kneehng upon their knees," the Bishop 
 " with the priests present laying their hands 
 severally upon the head of every one that re- 
 ceiveth the Order of Priesthood" — the Bishop 
 saying to each — " Receive the Holy Ghost for 
 the office and work of a priest in the Church 
 of God, now committed unto thee by the im- 
 position of our hands. Whose sins thou dost 
 forgive, they are forgiven ; and whose sins 
 thou dost retain, they are retained. And be thou 
 a faithful dispenser of the word of God, and of 
 His Holy Sacraments ; in the name of the 
 
20 / believe in one Catholic 
 
 Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost. 
 Amen." 
 
 The laying on of hands can be traced from 
 the Apostles downwards in a long succession 
 of bishops throughout the whole world ; and 
 so absohitely necessary was Apostolical Ordi- 
 nation considered in primitive times, that St. 
 Ignatius, a contemporary of the Apostles, dis- 
 tinctly says, " Without a Bishop, Priests, and 
 Deacons, there is no Church !'' Indeed I can- 
 not give you a better or clearer view of this 
 than by quoting a passage from this same 
 holy Father, the friend of St. Peter and St. 
 John. He thus writes to the Churches of 
 Ephesus and Smyrna : — " On this account it 
 is fit ye should obey your Bishop, which thing 
 also ye do. For your deservedly blessed pres- 
 bytery, which is worthy of God, is so fitted into 
 your Bishop, as strings in a harp ; wherefore in 
 your unity and musical love Jesus Christ is sung; 
 and be ye all and each of the Chorus, that being 
 in tune and of one spirit, ye may lift up the song 
 of God in unity, and sing with one voice through 
 Jesus Christ to the Father, that He may hear 
 you, and know you by the things which ye do 
 to be very members of His Son. Let no man 
 be deceived ; if any one is not within the Altar, 
 
and Apostolic Church, 21 
 
 that man falleth short of the Bread of God ; 
 for if the prayer of one or two hath such 
 power, how rnuch more that of the Bishop 
 and the Church ? Ye are the stones of the 
 Father's temple, prepared for the building of 
 God the Father, lifted up on high by the scaf- 
 folding of Jesus Christ, which is His cross, 
 using for a rope the Holy Ghost : and your 
 faith is that which bears you upward, it is that 
 good way which leadeth unto God. Obey 
 your Bishop, as Jesus Christ obeys the Father, 
 and the presbytery as the Apostles ; and re- 
 verence the Deacons as the commandment of 
 God. No one shall baptize or offer the feast 
 of love, but the Bishop, or those whom he 
 shall approve." 
 
 I have thus compressed, into as brief a space 
 as I possibly could, the doctrine of what is 
 commonly called the Apostolical Succession. 
 
 But as it is a most essential doctrine, and 
 lightly gainsayed in these days, it may be as 
 well to leave the statement of it to three of as 
 holy and learned Bishops as God has vouch- 
 safed to the modern Enghsh Church, Bishops 
 Sanderson, Taylor, and Bevcridge. 
 
 Bishop Sanderson says : — '' My opinion is. 
 
22 / believe in one Catholic 
 
 that Episcopal Government is not to be derived 
 merely from Apostolical practice or institution, 
 but that it is originally founded in the Person 
 and Office of the Messias, our blessed Lord 
 Jesus Christ ; who, being sent by our Heavenly 
 Father to be the Great Apostle ^ Bishop, and 
 Pastor^ of his Church, and anointed to that 
 office immediately after His baptism by John, 
 with power and the Holy Ghost ^ descending 
 then upon Him in a bodily shape ^ did after- 
 wards, before His ascension into heaven, send 
 and empower His holy Apostles, in like man- 
 ner as His Father had before sent Him ^ to 
 execute the same Apostolical, Episcopal, and 
 Pastoral office, for the ordering and governing 
 of His Church, until His coming again ; and 
 so the same office to continue in them and 
 their successors unto the end of the world ^ 
 This I take to be so clear, from these and 
 other like texts of Scripture, that if they shall 
 be diligently compared together, both between 
 themselves and with the following practice of 
 the Churches of Christ, as well in the Apos- 
 
 ^ Heb. iii. 1. ' 1 Pet. ii. 25. 
 
 ' Acts X. 37, 38. ' Luke iii. 22. 
 
 ' John XX. 21. ° Matt, xxviii. 18—20. 
 
and Apostolic Church. 23 
 
 ties' times as in the purest and primitive times 
 nearest thereunto, there will be left little cause 
 why any man should doubt thereof." 
 
 Bishop Taylor's words are as express : " This 
 government was by immediate substitution 
 delegated to the Apostles, by Christ Himself, 
 ^in the giving of the keys, in the breathing 
 of the Spirit, in the mission of Pentecost/ . . . 
 This power so delegated, was not to expire 
 with their persons ; for when the great Shep- 
 herd had reduced His wandering sheep into 
 a fold. He would not leave them without 
 ' guides to govern' them, so long as the wolf 
 might possibly prey upon them, and that is, 
 till the last separation of the sheep from the 
 goats. And this Christ intimates in that pro- 
 mise, ' I will be with you (the Apostles) even 
 unto the end of the world.' ' With you ;' not 
 with your persons, for they died long ago : but 
 ' with you and the like to you,' with Apostles 
 to the end of the world. And, therefore, that 
 the Apostolate might be successive and per- 
 petual, Christ gave them a power of Ordina- 
 tion, that by imposing hands on others, they 
 might impart that power which they received 
 from Christ." 
 
24 / believe in o?ie Catholic 
 
 Lastly, the pious Bishop Beveridge says : 
 '' In the first place, I observe, how much we 
 are all bound to acknowledge the goodness, 
 to praise, magnify, and adore the name of the 
 most high God, in that we were born and 
 bred, and still hve in a Church, wherein the 
 Apostolical line hath, through all ages, been 
 preserved entire, there having been a constant 
 succession of such Bishops in it, as were truly 
 and properly successors to the Apostles, by 
 virtue of that Apostolical imposition of hands, 
 which being begun by the Apostles, hath been 
 continued from one to another, ever since their 
 time, down to ours. By which means, the 
 same Spirit which was breathed by our Lord 
 into His Apostles is, together with their office, 
 transmitted to their lawful successors, the 
 pastors and governors of our Church at this 
 time ; and acts, moves, and assists at the ad- 
 ministration of the several parts of the Apos- 
 tolical office in our days, as much as ever. 
 From whence it follows, that the means of 
 grace which we now enjoy are in themselves 
 as powerful and effectual as they were in the 
 Apostles' days. 
 
 As for schism, they certainly hazard their 
 
and Apostolic Church, 25 
 
 salvation at a strange rate, who separate them- 
 selves from such a Church as ours is, wherein 
 the Apostolical succession, the root of all 
 Christian communion, hath been so entirely 
 preserved, and the word and sacraments are 
 so effectually administered ; and all to go into 
 such assemblies and meetings, as can have no 
 pretence to the great promise in my text. 
 For it is manifest, that this promise was made 
 only to the Apostles and their successors to 
 the end of the world. Whereas, in the 
 private meetings, where their teachers have 
 no Apostolical or Episcopal imposition of 
 hands, they have no ground to succeed the 
 Apostles, nor by consequence any right to 
 the Spirit which our Lord hath ; without 
 which, although they preach their heart out, 
 I do not see what spiritual advantage can 
 accrue to their hearers by it." 
 
 The importance which was attached to this 
 doctrine in the best and purest ages contrasts 
 strongly with the neglect into which it has 
 now been cast. It was then one of the main 
 reasons which might well attach our fore- 
 fathers to the Church. Without this ministry 
 how could they be sure of the blessed sacra- 
 
 B 
 
26 / believe ifi one Catholic 
 
 ments ? For fifteen hundred years the whole 
 Church had held that out of this ministry 
 there was no legitimate Priesthood — what 
 were they that they should da?'e to set up a 
 new priesthood for themselves ? All this they 
 doubtless felt ; and therefore, with singleness 
 of heart, they continued steadfastly in the 
 Apostles' doctrine and fellowship. It is not 
 my intention to dwell longer upon this sub- 
 ject. I have said enough for my present pur- 
 pose ; it was to show you that when men are 
 inclined to think lightly of change in the 
 Church, when they are disposed to refashion 
 it after their own imaginations, they should 
 remember that they are meddling with an 
 ordinance of God, and not with an institution 
 of man. 
 
 Let us pass, in the second place, to the pri- 
 mitive AND SET FORM OF PRAYER, which WC, aS 
 
 members of the Church, possess. It is not my 
 intention now to prove either the reasonable- 
 ness or the advantages of a set form of prayer. 
 The example of the Jewish Church, and of 
 our Lord Himself, Who gave His disciples that 
 perfect Form which we daily use, the constant 
 practice of the Apostles, and the invariable 
 
and Apostolic Church. 27 
 
 usage of the Catholic Churchy for centuries 
 and centuries, are abundant arguments against 
 pubUc extempore prayer, if any such were 
 needed. But I wish rather to point out to 
 you how completely the Prayer Book is your 
 own book, your own inheritance, as sons of 
 the Church. In a series of services of pure 
 and solemn beauty it accompanies you from 
 the cradle to the grave. It meets you at the 
 baptismal font, it furnishes you with a Cate- 
 chism for your younger years ; it goes with 
 you when you seek the Bishop to take upon 
 yourselves your baptismal vow. When you 
 enter into the estate of holy Matrimony, there 
 again the Prayer Book meets you, and sends 
 you out into the world with blessing and with 
 prayer : you see it still with the same un- 
 wearied care and assiduous love receiving your 
 children at the Font, as it received yourselves 
 before ; and going from the Font to the Altar 
 to join the thankful mother in her praises to 
 Almighty God for her deliverance from the 
 great pain and peril of child-birth. Then, 
 when illness comes upon you, and lays you 
 low upon the bed of suffering, the Prayer 
 B 2 
 
28 / believe in one Catholic 
 
 Book brings the priest to your side, bids him 
 soothe your aching heart, fill you with the 
 hopes of the Gospel, and pour upon you, by 
 his effectual blessing, and grave absolution, a 
 peace which this world can neither give nor 
 take away. Nay, it leaves you not, even 
 when your eyes are closed in death ; it waits 
 for you by the side of the opened tomb, and 
 gravely and affectionately commits your spirit 
 to Almighty God, reminding the dull earth that 
 it must give your body up again at the resurrec- 
 tion of the Dead. Again : are there any of my 
 readers who are mothers — whose affections 
 are far away with sons who are serving their 
 country on the great deep ? How blessed for 
 them to feel that there, on the wide sea, the 
 Prayer Book, perhaps the very one they gave 
 them at parting, is with them still ; that its 
 calm and untroubled voice is lifted up above 
 the swelhng of the storm ; and that should 
 death come to any one among them, the 
 Prayer Book speaks as much of hope and rest 
 on the tossing waters as if it were still in a 
 quiet country churchyard at home. 
 
and Apostolic Church, 29 
 
 " Thou too art here with thy soft inland tones, 
 
 Mother of our new birth ; 
 The lonely ocean learns thy orisons. 
 
 And loves thy sacred mirth \" 
 
 Now there is something so simple, so touch- 
 ing, so gentle, in this domestic character of 
 our Church services, that a person who had 
 weighed them well, a person who bore in mind 
 how, for generations and generations, the 
 Prayer Book, like a ministering angel, had 
 walked side by side with his fathers, would 
 surely feel as if he were wronging their sacred 
 memory, lightly to leave the inheritance they 
 had left him, and to seek for a home in some 
 far land among aHens and strangers. It is 
 only in the bosom of the Church that you 
 can realize that strong feeling of home, which 
 is so grateful to a mind weary with the endless 
 tossings of this unquiet generation. It is the 
 Church only, which, full of life and power 
 within herself, can afford to discountenance 
 that feverish excitement, on which unsatisfy- 
 ing food so many of the poor sheep of Christ 
 are content to feed ; that can say to her chil- 
 dren, in all her staid, and grave, and beautiful 
 
 ^ Christian Year. 
 
 b3 
 
30 / believe in one Catholic 
 
 solemnities, '' In returning and rest shall ye be 
 saved ; in quietness and confidence shall be 
 your strength ^" It is the Church only, who 
 from her lofty seat will not stoop to allure you 
 onwards by dangerous novelties in doctrine, or 
 in disciphne ; that turns neither to the right 
 hand nor the left, but walks meekly upon the 
 old ways whereon the Lord hath placed her, 
 and where His gracious hand will keep her 
 steady for evermore. It is the Church only 
 who dares lift up her voice to reprove all 
 heresy and schism, who will not, and does 
 not, respect persons ; and who, strong in the 
 confidence of her most holy faith, that faith 
 once for all delivered to the saints, dares 
 openly to pronounce the threatenings of God 
 against those who deny the Divinity of His 
 blessed Son, and bring another doctrine than 
 that which hath been delivered to us from the 
 beginning. Shall it be for us, then, to leave 
 this loving mother ? Shall it be for us to hew 
 out cisterns for ourselves, to leave those green 
 pastures and fresh watercourses, wherein we 
 now may live so peaceably ? I pray God most 
 fervently that He will keep us stedfast in 
 
 ^ Isaiah xxx. 15. 
 2 
 
and Apostolic Church. 31 
 
 this faith, that He will not let us be " blown 
 about by every wind and blast of vain doc- 
 trine;" ^'for he that is unstable as water, shall 
 not excel." I pray God, that in the ancient 
 Church wherein we were all of us born, we 
 may calmly and soberly live, and that in her 
 enfolding arms we may, one by one, drop off 
 to sleep, like innocent children, till the bright 
 and Morning Star arises in perfect beauty, 
 and we go to dwell with Him in the New Jeru- 
 salem. 
 
 And here I must warn you against crafty and 
 treacherous proposals which are often being 
 made, of *' slight alterations" in the Prayer 
 Book, and of concession in things of little 
 moment. The situation the Church of England 
 holds is a very peculiar one. She is like Jeru- 
 salem in her rebuilding. " Every one with 
 one of his hands wrought in the work, and 
 with the other hand held a weapon. For the 
 builders, every one had his sword girded by his 
 side, and so builded \" We have been all along 
 opposed to two classes of enemies, Romanists 
 and Dissenters. But they used to attack us 
 
 *Neh. iv. 18. 
 
32 / believe in one Catholic 
 
 in different ways. They hated each other 
 more than they hated us. Their principles 
 were directly opposite. In learning and piety, 
 and in the affections of her sons, in steadiness 
 to her own principles and confidence in her 
 own primitive belief, the Church has vanquished 
 them hitherto. But now they have joined 
 together in an unholy alHance against us. 
 There has never been so complete a union 
 before, though King James did all he could to 
 bring it about in a dishonourable underhand 
 way. They court the world's favour that they 
 may have the power to do us an injury. There 
 is not a point in our doctrine, discipline, govern- 
 ment, education, or services, where an enemy 
 is not lying in wait. If therefore it were really 
 desirable to make any changes, this is not a 
 safe time to do it in. It is wrong to attempt 
 it, so wrong that no well-meaning views or 
 policy will serve to excuse it. We are keep- 
 ing a jealous guard, and the enemy is wakeful. 
 If we relax one moment, if we open one en- 
 trance, however small, we cannot tell what 
 evil may befall us. Concession is as much a 
 sign of weakness in times of difficulty, as it is 
 of power in times of peace. Besides, what 
 
and Apostolic Church, 33 
 
 have we to concede? and who are those to 
 whom we should concede it ? Our treasures 
 are not our own to give up : they are the gifts 
 of the Church of God. We received them 
 from our fathers : we must hand on the pre- 
 cious deposit to our children. This is a sacred 
 duty. The world would fain be thought our 
 friend ; and it is the world which advises us to 
 concede. It bade our forefathers concede to 
 the Puritans. But they were wiser with an 
 evangelical wisdom, and heeded not the admo- 
 nition. It is well for the world to concede. 
 All it has is variable, and earthly, and it is its 
 own. Temporal good, which is but a choice 
 of evils at the best, is all it looks to. There- 
 fore it is not the Church's friend, and cannot 
 be, for it does not understand her spiritual 
 rules of action. Besides, the friendship of the 
 world is enmity with God. 
 
 Much that I have already said might have 
 come more properly under the third and last 
 head, the stability of the Church. " Wis- 
 dom and knowledge," saith Isaiah, ^' shall be 
 the stability of thy times ' :" and doubtless the 
 
 ^ Isaiah xxxiii. 6. 
 
34} / believe in one Catholic 
 
 stability of the Church arises, in a great de- 
 gree, from that deposit of pure and uncorrupt 
 doctrine which she has kept with most jealous 
 faithfulness. But, however this may be, as a 
 matter of fact, obvious to all men, the Church 
 has a stabihty which other religious bodies do 
 not possess. Read the names of the early 
 sects and heresies : Where are all these now ? 
 Departed, as if they never had been ; forgot- 
 ten, unknown, save to the scholar, who seeks 
 them out in the records of antiquity. Nay, 
 look even at far later periods in our own 
 history. The names of nearly a hundred 
 sects flourishing in the days of king Charles 
 the Martyr, of blessed memory, are duly re- 
 corded by historians : of these all but two or 
 three are passed away, and those live only in 
 name, differing widely from their predecessors. 
 The reason of all this is, that sects adapt them- 
 selves to an ever-changing world ; which the 
 Church, blessed be God ! does not. Sects, 
 from this very cause, seem often to have more 
 success than the Church. They make more 
 noise about it. But ^'growth is slow when 
 roots are deep ;" and the Church, like her 
 Master, lifteth not up her voice in the streets. 
 
and Apostolic Church. 35 
 
 The world goes its way ; and the Church hers. 
 They get further apart every day ; and now 
 they will never meet again till that day when 
 too late the world shall discover its mistake, 
 "when the kings of the earth, and the great 
 men, and the rich men, and the chief captains, 
 and the mighty men, and every bond man, and 
 every free man, shall hide themselves in the 
 dens and in the rocks of the mountains, and 
 shall say to the mountains and rocks. Fall on 
 us, and hide us from the face of Him that sit- 
 teth on the throne, and from the wrath of the 
 Lamb : for the great day of His wrath is come ; 
 and who is able to stand ^ ?" We all of us 
 feel that one of the strongest wants of our 
 nature is rest. There is no end to our weari- 
 ness and trouble, to our vexation and harass- 
 ment of spirit. We would fain have the wings 
 of a dove, that we might flee away and be at 
 rest ; and where in this broad earth shall we 
 find a resting-place for the sole of our feet, if 
 we once desert the ark of Christ's Church ? 
 The w^aters are still out upon the land ; there 
 is not so much as a twig of green olive for us 
 
 ' Rev. vi. 15. 
 
36 / believe in one Catholic 
 
 to gather and refresh ourselves withal. The 
 world is very tempestuous without : but our 
 vessel rides safely. She is full of living energy 
 within herself. She has One on board, who, 
 though He may seem to sleep, can rise when 
 He will, and bid the wind and the sea be 
 still ; and when we have Him with us, imme- 
 diately we are '^ at the haven where we would 
 be!" 
 
 Our history is thickening, and getting more 
 confused every day. But a churchman does 
 not view history as a literary or worldly man 
 does. For history is the record of God's provi- 
 dence getting Himself honour out of man's sin. 
 It is so in little things as well as great, though 
 we do not see it so plainly. We never get to 
 see quite clearly in spiritual matters. We 
 judge things by their outward seeming. But 
 we know that, if by any means the scales 
 could fall from our eyes, we should behold a 
 scene no less wonderful and cheering than that 
 which was revealed to the servant of Elisha. 
 We see the host of the enemy and are afraid ; 
 and, because we cannot see, we scarcely 
 will believe of the horses and chariots of fire, 
 wherewith the mountain is full, the host of 
 
and Apostolic Chirch, 37 
 
 heaven which encampeth round about the 
 righteous. The way of the world and its his- 
 tory are very perplexing ; and we get confused 
 when we look for any length of time upon it. 
 It seems to be travelling its own reckless way 
 with fearful swiftness ; and our eyes cannot 
 see in what all this will end. But we know 
 that in its most furious tides, its most capri- 
 cious changings, there is a hand keeping it 
 under all the while, that it is compelled against 
 its own will and against its own thought to 
 accomplish day by day in all its wild workings 
 His purposes of mercy and of judgment, and 
 that whatever and whenever the end of all 
 shall be, it must of necessity work together 
 for good to them that love God, and wait for 
 His appearing. We see this every now and 
 then when great providences happen amongst 
 us, and startle us for a moment into religion. 
 It is then that God puts forth His Hand 
 visibly, as it were, from underneath the veil 
 of the holy Place, and we fall back to wor- 
 ship. 
 
 The history of the Church of England is 
 rife in great providences. Since the Reforma- 
 c 
 
38 / believe in one Catholic 
 
 tion the land has been thrown into confusion 
 by a most fearful rebellion. An Archbishop 
 and a king have been martyred by the lawless 
 people. The government has been changed 
 for many years. The Church has been forcibly 
 put down, so far as the hand of man and the 
 power of law could put down the ordinance of 
 God. Since then two kings have sat upon 
 the throne of England, who were ahens from 
 our faith, members of the Church of Rome, 
 our bitter and cruel enemy : and by the latter 
 of them, King James, the Church was perse- 
 cuted, her Bishops committed to prison because 
 they opposed his unprincipled conduct, and no 
 means, honest or dishonest, left untried to w^ork 
 her ruin. Then another violent change took 
 place. The succession was altered, and the 
 crown assumed by another branch of the family. 
 Wilham was a foreigner, and knew absolutely 
 nothing of the Enghsh Church. Besides he 
 was surrounded by worldly and irreligious 
 men, and cowardly money-loving, self-seeking 
 Bishops, and, being himself a latitudinarian, 
 as from the sin and bloodguiltiness of his early 
 years he might well be, the Church cannot be 
 
and Apostolic Clmrclu 39 
 
 said to have been fostered and encouraged by 
 him. Neither has it owed anything to the 
 state since then except an abundant measure 
 of forgiveness. Truly the movements of the 
 world are very troublesome : yet we are the 
 same. Our Cathedrals and Churches, our 
 Sacraments and Prayers, our Government and 
 Ministers still remain as of old, while everything 
 else around us has changed, and changed many 
 times since then. The laws and constitution 
 have never done changing. Religious sects only 
 live by change and false excitement. The 
 very external face of the country is changed 
 by the springing up of large and populous cities. 
 The Church has not changed. She has indeed 
 silently and gradually extended herself, so far 
 as she had the means, and so far as political 
 jealousy would allow her, with the growing 
 population. She has quietly raised her towers, 
 and spires, and altars, among the new towns, 
 and given the bread of life to her new sons. 
 But to them she has brought the old laws and 
 ministers and services. She stands among us 
 as a type, and the only one, of that eternal and 
 unchanging home, where she would fain bring 
 
40 / believe in one Catholic, Sf'c, 
 
 us all at the last, and for which end she has 
 been placed here by her Lord. Why will men 
 struggle against her ? They will not come off 
 conquerors. 
 
 THE END. 
 
 Gilbert & Rivington, Printers, St. John's Square, London. 
 
THE 
 
 ANCIENT THINGS 
 
 OF 
 
 THE CATHOLIC CHURCH 
 IN ENGLAND. 
 
 BY THE REV. 
 
 FREDERICK W. FABER, M.A, 
 
 FELLOW OF UNIVERSITY COLLEGE, OXFORD. 
 
 And these are ancient things. — 1 Chron. iv. 22. 
 
 V 
 
 THIRD EDITION. 
 
 LONDON: 
 PRINTED FOR J. G. F. & J. RIVINGTON, 
 
 ST. PAUL'S CHURCH YARD, 
 AND WATERLOO PLACE, FALL MALL. 
 
 1840. 
 
 Price Fourpence. 
 
Gilbert and Rivington, Printers, St. John's Square, London. 
 
ANCIENT THINGS 
 
 CATHOLIC CHURCH IN ENGLAND. 
 
 Prejudices are not necessarily bad things ; al- 
 though they may often do a great deal of harm. 
 There are good prejudices as well as evil ones. 
 There are prejudices which it is good for men to 
 have, which good men always have, which a man 
 could scarcely be good if he had not. This is 
 only another way of saying that there are certain 
 things which men are bound to believe in, and 
 to love before they can give any reason for it. 
 They have a natural feeling of jealousy about 
 every thing which they respect or admire. They 
 look with fear and suspicion upon whatever seems 
 really to detract from that admiration. For ex- 
 ample ; if a man has a friend, who excels in any 
 particular attainment, he listens with distrust, 
 often with dislike, to any thing which takes from 
 
the merit or the worth of that attainment. He 
 feels that his friend is concerned in the matter. 
 This, of course, is neither more nor less than a 
 prejudice. Yet it is a prejudice which we love, 
 and which we ought to treat with delicacy, kind- 
 ness, and gentleness, all the while thinking better 
 of a man for being actuated by it. 
 
 Now there is a prejudice of precisely the same 
 sort as this against the doctrine of the One Ca- 
 tholic and Apostolic Church — that it leads its 
 away from Christ! 
 
 It is quite strange to see how widely this is 
 spread, even among serious thinking people. It 
 shows us the danger of dwelling only on portions 
 of the Bible, of picking and choosing, and assort- 
 ing and systematizing certain favourite doctrines 
 of Holy Scripture. It has really come to pass 
 that Churchmen are afraid of the Church, and 
 that too for the strangest and newest of all rea- 
 sons, because it leads them from Christ. Surely 
 on the very first view of the matter we should 
 say it could not be true. It must be a prejudice ; 
 a prejudice doing a great deal of harm, yet to be 
 respected because of the good things out of which 
 it comes. 
 
 A person unaccustomed to what are popularly 
 called High Church opinions, is not unfrequently 
 
struck at the perpetual recurrence of the word 
 " Church'' in the sermons, the writings, and even 
 the conversation of those who differ from him, 
 or at least think they differ. But he soon gets 
 a step further than this. He sees that not only- 
 does this word " Church'' come in very frequently, 
 but that it com.es in, in most cases, where he 
 would have used one or other of our Saviour's 
 Names. If he is a hasty, proud, or uncandid 
 man, he dismisses the matter at once ; and rests, 
 where shallow and uncharitable religionists de- 
 light to rest, in an apposite, pithy misquotation 
 of Holy Scripture. For instance, confounding, 
 as is not uncommon, Jewish things and Christian 
 things, such a man would imagine that he had 
 at once accounted for, answered, and condemned 
 this language by the words of Jeremiah — " The 
 Temple of the Lord, the Temple of the Lord, 
 the Temple of the Lord are these ;" as if one 
 might not just as well say on the other side — 
 *' Not every one that saith unto me. Lord, Lord, 
 shall enter into the kingdom of heaven." Yet 
 such is the use to which Christians now-a-days 
 put the Word of Almighty God ! They make 
 epigrams out of it. With these men we have 
 nothing to do. There are others who are pained 
 at the frequency of the word " Church," and, as 
 
 A 3 
 
6 
 
 it seems to them, the infrequency of the most 
 sacred of our Saviour's Names. There is just 
 this prejudice standing between them and 
 Church views. A jealousy of the Church lest 
 it should lead us, our thoughts, our hopes, 
 and our affections from Christ. Now this 
 shows that these love their Master truly, sin- 
 cerely, and fervently. They are holy people ; 
 and, although another man may think their love 
 is not according to knowledge, yet he must have 
 a cold, dull, ungenerous heart, who does not feel 
 drawn towards them, seeing that they do really 
 love their Saviour with so much warmth and 
 simplicity. They, like Mary, have chosen the 
 good part. They have seated themselves at the 
 foot of Jesus ; and they look upon this doctrine 
 of Church as a something to allure them from 
 that one spot where alone grace is ever dropping 
 from the anointed Son of God, something of hu- 
 man invention with the marks of man's wisdom 
 and man's intellect about it, something which if 
 admitted will distract the evangelical singleness 
 of their hearts. Alas! that people should think 
 so : yet to speak harshly or bitterly, to say high 
 and scornful things, to argue them down, would 
 be to treat Christ's children as the world treats 
 them. We are bound rather to shew them with 
 
all meekness, softness, and constancy, that our 
 love for Christ is as strong and fresh, as jealous 
 and as vigorous as theirs : but that we express it 
 in a different way, and that our reason for doing 
 so is only because we think the different way the 
 most reverent way ; and, as such, more free from 
 error, more full and satisfying and spiritual, and, 
 as springing from obedience, more acceptable in 
 the sight of Him Whom we adore and love. 
 Surely, if a man would take the Bible, and pa- 
 tiently unfold all this, many who now start back 
 from the Church, as if it were a substitute for 
 Christ, would come in gladly to the old and 
 apostolic view of it, when they found that Christ 
 was ever there, clearer, brighter, more full of 
 promises, more abounding in gifts than else- 
 where ; and enabhng us to get closer to Him 
 than we otherwise could do. Such persons are 
 hke St. Philip, " Lord, show us the Father and 
 it sufficeth us :'* and surely Christ may answer 
 from out His Church, ''Have I been so long 
 time with you, and do ye not know Me ?" 
 
 Unhappily the Church of Rome, our old 
 enemy, remains our enemy still. She has done 
 us as much harm almost since the Reformation 
 as she did before it. Where she is really most 
 unlike Scripture, there she tries to look most 
 
 a4 
 
8 
 
 like it : and the consequence has been that she 
 has all along endeavoured to keep back from us 
 certain high and primitive truths, by having her 
 name, now a justly odious one, affixed to them. 
 In this matter she has had more or less success 
 at different times ; to the great discomfort of all 
 true and loyal sons of the Church of England. 
 It may be as well then, old and trite as the 
 subject is, to say a few words on some of those 
 features of our Church, which bear at once a 
 double witness against Rome on the one hand, or 
 mere Protestant Congregations on the other. It 
 will help to show that the only real preservative 
 against Popery, because the only real preserva- 
 tive against perpetual change, is to be found in 
 the views of the Church, from which many 
 shrink back because of the latent Romanism sup- 
 posed to be contained therein. The end of all 
 religious change is Romanism or Socinian infi] 
 delity. To be safe from Rome, we must have 
 doctrines older than Rome; and such we profess 
 to have. We refuse to have our inheritance 
 taken away from us, because an unfaithful 
 Church has brought wild beasts into it, and left 
 wreck and devastation all over its rich and happy 
 fields. All this fortunately is matter of history, 
 matter of fact ; not a thing whereon to build 
 
9 
 
 theories or abstract reasonings of our own. At 
 all events, enough may be said to shew men, as 
 well the cruelty, as the ignorance, of throwing 
 big and fearful words of reproach up and down, 
 without knowing exactly what they mean by 
 them, and when perchance the hearts they wound 
 are in the sight of God as deeply and intensely 
 set upon the promotion of the pure and simple 
 truths of the Gospel as themselves. 
 
 The Christian world since the Reformation 
 has presented a scene as painful as it is singular. 
 No matter whether we turn our eyes to the old 
 corrupt Church of Rome, or to the infinitely 
 various and contradictory bodies which separated 
 from her, we see something in them all, some 
 features, some characteristics, which are not to 
 be found in the Holy Scriptures. Now in this 
 respect, as opposed at once to Romanists on the 
 one hand, and to Protestants on the other, stands 
 the Church of England. Let us see how the 
 case is with her. The ancient ceremonies of the 
 Catholic Church, as well as its doctrines, were, 
 in the west, in the keeping of the Church of 
 Rome. She was not entirely faithful in her 
 stewardship. She mingled up a good deal of 
 error and novelty with most of them, rites as 
 well as doctrines. She linked to many beautiful 
 
 a5 
 
10 
 
 ceremonies new notions of her own, having as 
 Httle countenance from primitive usage as from 
 Holy Scripture. Indeed, all really primitive 
 usages, if not explicitly taught in Scripture, are 
 indicated therein : and that is enough for faith 
 and love. She went on doing this till she 
 had rendered many practices, in themselves 
 not merely innocent but catholic, quite unsafe. 
 This was the state of things when our Formula- 
 ries were drawn up. The theory of the Church 
 of England, as set forth in them, was, that she 
 was to be in her services, ceremonies, creeds, 
 and manner of dealing with the Bible, pure, 
 primitive, catholic, and evangehcal. In her arches 
 and her aisles, her towers and her foundations, 
 every thing in her and about her was to be 
 of Apostolic building, fashioned after Apostolic 
 models, filled with the true and hberal hght of 
 Apostohc teaching. Such is the Church of 
 England in theory. But in her endeavour to 
 carry this fully out she was very much interfered 
 with. " Without were fightings, within were 
 fears." There ,were many of the accessories of 
 devotion, which the Church of Christ in the 
 single-hearted innocence of early times, might 
 enjoy without fear. It was not so now. Various 
 rites, and forms, and ornaments, had the taint 
 
11 
 
 of corruption in them. Another meaning than 
 their own had passed unto them. They could 
 not perhaps in the people's mind be divorced 
 from the error to which they had so long been 
 wedded. The Church therefore was compelled 
 to forego them. So far she did lose something 
 at the Reformation. It was nothing in compa- 
 rison of what she gained. All changes are full 
 of evil. The Reformation was not without evil, 
 because it was a change. It had marvellously 
 little evil in it, considering what a change it was. 
 Only, not they who wrought the change, but 
 they who made it necessary, are to be blamed. 
 The fault, the heavy portion of the sin of that, 
 rests with the Church of Rome. But after all, con- 
 fessing that we are poorer in these things than 
 our forefathers of antiquity were, still how rich 
 are we even in primitive riches ! If no western 
 Church now-a-days is quite what its Mother 
 used to be, England surely comes nearest to her; 
 nay, so near that they, who have well scanned 
 the IVIother's lineaments, can be at no loss to 
 trace her features in the child. She did give up 
 some things. It is granted. But what did she 
 refuse to give up ? In what she did give up she 
 witnessed against Rome. She witnessed just as 
 much against modern sectarians in what she did 
 
 a6 
 
12 
 
 not give up. Some Christian bodies have sacri- 
 ficed old primitive ceremonies to purity of doc- 
 trine, as if both could not be had together. 
 Some have given up old Apostolical forms of 
 Church government to what they deemed Gospel 
 freedom, as if one were incompatible with the 
 other, and not, as is the real truth, that the one 
 only exists under the other. Some to avoid 
 licentiousness have grown cold. Others to escape 
 coldness have waxed licentious. The Church of 
 England gave up none of these things. She has 
 them still. They are her ancient things. 
 
 More or less perfect, more or less pure, more 
 or less beautiful, still almost all the Christian 
 congregations in the West, with the exception 
 of the English Churches, have somewhat in them 
 unscriptural, somewhat in them of man's devi- 
 sing, somewhat which rests neither upon the 
 foundations of Apostles and Prophets nor on the 
 corner-stone Christ Jesus. If we look deeper 
 into the matter, we shall get a step farther. 
 Whatever in them is unscriptural, is also new ; 
 and indeed, the Holy Scriptures being old, what- 
 ever is new must therefore and on that account 
 be unscriptural also. 
 
 Now placed as we are, among various and 
 conflicting bodies of Sectarians, among number- 
 
13 
 
 less and contradictory forms of doctrine, a plain 
 statement of the free evangelical principles of 
 our own mother Church cannot be an unpracti- 
 cal subject for us to consider. 
 
 I. — That then which our Church has, and 
 others have not, is first and plainly shewn in its 
 reverence for antiquity. This is stamped upon 
 all its services and formularies of doctrine. 
 First in its old form of government. " It is 
 evident," says the Preface to the Ordination 
 Service, '' unto all men diligently reading Holy 
 Scripture and ancient authors, that from the 
 Apostles' time there have been these Orders of 
 Ministers in Christ's Church ; Bishops, Priests, 
 and Deacons.'* Again, as to its doctrine, the 
 Convocation of 1571, instructs preachers to take 
 the Catholic doctors and ancient Bishops as 
 guides in collecting doctrine from the Old 
 and New Testament; and in the 34th Arti- 
 cle, the Church forbids any one to break 
 the traditions and ceremonies of the Church. 
 So again in the Preface to the Prayer Book, 
 concerning the Service of the Church, we are 
 bid to search out the grounds thereof by the 
 ancient Fathers; they give as a reason for re- 
 arranging the liturgy, that the godly and decent 
 order of the ancient Fathers hath been so altered, 
 broken and neglected ; then, a few lines further 
 
14 
 
 on, the division of the Psalms is authorized by 
 the example of the ancient Fathers ; and lastly it 
 says, here you have an order for prayer and for 
 the reading of the Holy Scripture much agree- 
 able to the mind and purpose of the old Fatliers : 
 and all this in a preface only one page and a 
 few lines long. Then in the next short preface 
 on ceremonies, St. Augustine is twice quoted 
 and referred to. Lastly, as if to show how 
 natural this reverence came to the Church, if we 
 look into her service, we have the prayer of St. 
 Chrysostom, the creed of St. Athanasius, the 
 Nicene creed. The 6th Article quotes St. 
 Jerome, and the 29th St. Augustine. From this 
 then, and from the strong and invariable teaching 
 of our Reformers, we may draw the inference 
 that the great characteristic of our branch of the 
 Cathohc Church of Christ is a reverence for 
 antiquity. It is needless here to trace out the 
 effect of this standing in the old paths, and look- 
 ing out for the old ways and walking therein ; 
 how it has given a firmness and stability to our 
 Church, how it has enabled it to flourish, and is 
 still enabhng it even under the most adverse 
 circumstances : how its Three Creeds, for exam- 
 ple, have been like so many bundles of myrrh in 
 the Church's bosom, preserving it from the taint 
 and the decay of heresy, of novelty, of human 
 
15 
 
 systems, of unsoundness and degeneracy. Let 
 us look rather, — it is the more instructive, be- 
 cause the darker, side of the picture, — at the 
 effect which other Christian communities have 
 experienced from their neglect of antiquity, their 
 high and lofty and disrespectful handling of it. 
 For example : the Protestant bodies on the Con- 
 tinent and dissenting communities among our- 
 selves. The latter indeed have fared less evilly 
 than their foreign brethren. The presence of 
 the Holy Catholic Church amongst them has 
 blessed them indirectly and as it were by acci- 
 dent. It has been to them like the body of the 
 Prophet, touching the cold and lifeless corpse. 
 It has given them a sort of energy, a borrowed, 
 unnatural, awkward kind of life. Yet even 
 amongst ourselves many communities are exist- 
 ing which deny what we believe to be the 
 fundamentals of the Gospel of Christ. Some 
 which began in difference of discipline and 
 government, soon came to differ in doctrine also. 
 They grew from bad to worse. From slighting 
 the ministry which alone could administer the 
 ever blessed Sacraments, they came to deny the 
 grace of the Sacraments : some to disuse them 
 altogether. Some deny the proper and eternal 
 Godhead of our Saviour. So of course these 
 
16 
 
 have ceased to be Christians at all. So it ever 
 has been in Church History. Schism drops 
 down into heresy, and heresy falls away at last 
 into apostasy. Some openly teach that we should 
 sin, that grace may abound. Others talk slight- 
 ingly and blasphemously of the insufficiency of 
 the Written Word, and set up above it I know 
 not what extravagant, indecent, and wretched 
 tumults of their own base passions, which they 
 attribute — most horrible to think, and which one 
 almost shrinks from saying — to the Third Person 
 of the adorable Trinity. The community founded 
 by Calvin, though once it did hold the founda- 
 tions of the faith amid the impure and turbulent 
 notions wherewith he obscured the truth, is now 
 the nest of infidehty and the favoured home of 
 the Socinian apostasy. This is a fearful and 
 appalling picture ; and how unlike the calm, 
 sober, bright, and fervent piety of the Church of 
 England ! 
 
 But now turn the other way, to that miserable 
 and forlorn Church that once was Queen among 
 the nations. With all her professions, the false- 
 hood of which her own history sets forth, no 
 Church has shown less reverence for antiquity 
 than the Church of Rome ; no Church has kept 
 less faithfully that deposit of sound faith once for 
 
17 
 
 all delivered to the Saints. The lineaments of a 
 true Church of Christ are scarcely visible upon 
 her, distorted, disfigured, buried beneath the load 
 of utterly abominable and corrupt novelties 
 wherewith she has overwhelmed them. The old 
 doctors, to whom our Church refers us, could 
 find, no more than ourselves, the doctrines of 
 modern Rome in the Holy Scripture. Has she 
 not made the Commandment of God almost of 
 none effect by her traditions ? Has she not 
 destroyed the power of Bishops and the freedom 
 of Churches by the unscriptural domination of 
 the Archbishop of Rome ? Has she not added 
 falsehood to the Sacraments, and brought ia 
 purgatory, and other dark notions too dis- 
 tressing to be enumerated, perhaps even idol- 
 atry ? And all this because she has neglected 
 the single and pure voice of Christian anti- 
 quity. Look at the Church of Rome, as 
 she was in ancient times, when she was called 
 the virgin Church, because she was so free 
 from all taint of heresy and unsoundness. 
 She was then bright and glorious as a sunset 
 sky, gleaming all over richly with the light of 
 truth, kindled within her from the pure fountains 
 of Apostles and Evangehsts, a marvel to the 
 nations, the bravest jewel that hung about the 
 Cross of Christ. Then watch her as years rolled 
 
18 
 
 on, watch her with rude and indelicate hand 
 touching here and there her spotless heavenly- 
 creed. Where she touched she marred, where 
 she marred there she left a stain. The light 
 began to fade within ; one by one the lamps that 
 hung there went out : the glorious thing grew 
 paler and paler, emptied more and more of its 
 splendour and its loveliness, its gifts, its graces, 
 and its unearthly powers : till now the lines have 
 melted away into the dull, cold, evening gray of 
 the world around, and we scarce may tell whe- 
 ther she still is or is not a Christian Church. 
 May God have mercy upon her, and upon all 
 those gentle hearts within her who may, per- 
 chance, in her dark dim gloom be feeling after 
 Christ! This picture is as instructive as it is 
 painful ; painful to us who, in early times, owed 
 so much to Rome, painful to all who have the 
 purity of evangelical doctrine deeply and solemn- 
 ly at heart She was our mother Church ; and 
 we may almost hear the voice of God speaking 
 to us in the words of Hosea : — " Plead with your 
 mother, plead : for she is not my wife, neither 
 am I her husband : let her therefore put away 
 her whoredoms out of her sight, and her adulte- 
 ries from between her breasts ; lest I strip her 
 naked, and set her as in the day that she was 
 born, and make her as a wilderness, and set her 
 
19 
 
 like a dry land, and slay her with thirst. And I 
 will not have mercy upon her children ; for they 
 be the children of whoredoms. For their mother 
 has played the harlot : she that conceived them 
 hath done shamefully." 
 
 Such, then, on both sides of us, have been the 
 consequences of being neglectful of Christian 
 antiquity. May the lesson sink deep into our 
 hearts, may we be so jealous of our inheritance, 
 the fulness and the beauty of Catholic truth, 
 that we may not be beguiled of our remnants of 
 it, by any system which the pride or the inge- 
 nuity, the reasoning or the imagination of men 
 may devise in these active and uneasy times ! 
 
 11. — Now let us say somewhat on another 
 characteristic of the English Church as opposed 
 both to Romanists and to Protestants, — Its fear- 
 lessness of Scripture. Now this is a matter very 
 practical to all of us. A narrow way of looking 
 upon and reading the Word of God is common, 
 is invariable outside the Church ; and as evil is 
 always catching, we may become tainted with it 
 ourselves, and thus depart from the purity of 
 our own Church. So much is clear. No merely 
 human system of doctrine dare trust itself with 
 Scripture. It is afraid of it. It must be afraid 
 of it from the very nature of things. The reve- 
 
20 
 
 lation of an Infinite Being to finite and ignorant 
 sinners cannot be systematic. It must be dark- 
 ness and light mixed up together, mystery and 
 glory running in and out of each other perpe- 
 tually. The lines of the Christian scheme are 
 in one place deep and darkly graven, in another 
 faintly sketched, not unfrequently disappearing 
 altogether, and beginning again in broken and 
 fragmentary brightnesses up and down; in the 
 Apostle's words, " We see in a glass darkly." 
 But the pride of man will not be content with 
 this. It will have clear, rounded, logical state- 
 ments, critical accuracy, philosophical precision, 
 literary propriety. This brokenness, this rugged- 
 ness, unevenness, indefiniteness in which the 
 Gospel is put and left with mankind, is irksome 
 to the weak, arguing, positive, cavilling intellect 
 of man. They will have knowledge, not love. 
 They do not see that practice is as clear as a 
 sunbeam in the Bible. They are not content 
 with knowing that doctrines are so and so, but 
 they will know the how. They will have myste- 
 ries clear^ as if they would not cease to be 
 mysteries if they were so. There is not the 
 holiest, deepest cavern in the Revelation of God, 
 on which the Holy Trinity hath set the seal and 
 sight of fearfuUest mystery, whether it concern 
 
21 
 
 the decrees of Jehovah, or the adorable dark 
 things of the Threefold God we fear, adore, and 
 love, but these rude men will break the seal, 
 and think it wisdom, glory, and greatness to 
 violate the Sanctuary. Faith knows not of, it 
 shrinks back in horror from such philosophical 
 sacrilege as this. It thinks only of obeying out 
 of a childish heart. " Mine eyes gush out with 
 tears because men keep not Thy Law." These 
 men are Christian Infidels. 
 
 Of course, one need not take long to show 
 how Rome's coward heart trembles at Scripture. 
 She will not let her sons have it. She could not 
 stand if the Gospels be the touchstone of a 
 Gospel Church. Many reformed Congregations, 
 though they have not shown it in this way, have 
 sufficiently shown themselves to be human sys- 
 tems, because they are afraid of Scripture in its 
 full length, and breadth, and depth. They take 
 partial and contracted views of it. For example : 
 Luther invented a new theory of justification : 
 what was the consequence ? He could not 
 manage the Epistle of St. James ; it refused to 
 be crushed np into his arbitrary and tyrannical 
 system ; so, being a rough and violent man, he 
 called it " an epistle of straw." These scornful 
 words he absolutely applied to a portion of the 
 
22 
 
 living Word of God, written, as he and we 
 believe, by the Inspiration of the Holy Ghost. 
 So his opponent Calvin could not conceal how 
 different his systematizing of Scripture was from 
 the teaching of the purest antiquity. We read 
 that he called the Nicene Creed " a childish 
 sing-song," and that he objected to the use of 
 the word " Trinity." These httle things are 
 very instructive. It would be easy, if it were not 
 invidious, to multiply strange examples of this 
 sort, taken, as the above are, out of books now 
 in every body's hands. These, found in the two 
 opposite and hostile bodies of Foreign Protest- 
 ants, are enough for our purpose. Let us look 
 to ourselves. Perhaps we are not utterly with- 
 out fault in this matter. 
 
 First let us look at the theory and practice of 
 our Church. The Articles and Homilies not 
 only invite us, but drive us to the Scripture. In 
 her services, the Calendar is so arranged that, 
 with the exception of some Chapters, the Song 
 of Solomon, and the Books of Chronicles, which 
 are mainly repetition, the Old Testament is 
 publicly read through entire every year, the 
 New Testament three times, except the Revela- 
 tion, the Psalms twelve times, beside the ninety- 
 four Epistles and Gospels for Sundays, Saints' 
 
23 
 
 days, and other holy days, throughout the 
 year. This shows pretty clearly how fearless 
 of Holy Scripture the English Church is ; how 
 free. Catholic, and really evangelical she is in 
 her treatment of it. Now, let us look at our 
 own practice, for it is much to be feared a 
 sectarian and puritanical spirit, which is Po- 
 pery under another name, has crept in among 
 us in our handling of the Word of God. The 
 sons of the Church have not heart enough to 
 be as Catholic as their mother. For example : 
 we may have known cold men who took low, 
 unworthy views of free grace, justification, and 
 the Cross of Christ. Those men, when they met 
 with the words of St. Paul in such passages as, 
 ** By grace are ye saved through faith ; and that 
 not of yourselves : it is the gift of God :" and 
 many similar passages which burn like torches up 
 and down his writings, always guarded them with 
 some cold and wretched caution about good 
 works, and the necessity of hohness, and the 
 danger of Antinomian views, and so forth. Now, 
 all this is very true, but does the Holy Ghost 
 say a word about it in those places ? Are they 
 not all the while distorting Scripture ? Are they 
 receiving teachably what is said in the place 
 before them ? Are they not doggedly fixing 
 their thoughts on one part of the Gospel when 
 
24 
 
 the Holy Ghost by the mouth of St. Paul is 
 bidding them look at another ? Is this to look 
 Scripture in the face like men who are not 
 afraid of it whatever it says ? who are ready 
 to be led by it, hke Abraham, who went out 
 not knowing whither he went ? Surely there is 
 a want of faith here. 
 
 Now take the other side. We may have 
 known others, who, when they meet with such 
 -expressions as, ''By thy words shalt thou be 
 justified, and by thy words shalt thou be con- 
 demned," and many like passages which speak 
 of reward and our own w^orks, of not being justi- 
 fied by faith only, of Abraham being justified by 
 works, flew off from them as if they were stung; 
 and would begin to gather up all the texts which 
 spoke of free grace, and dwell doggedly on them. 
 If a man, and not the Holy Ghost in St. Peter 
 said, " Baptism saves us," w^e should be told it 
 was very wrong language, highly unevangelical, 
 leading people away from Christ, and so forth. 
 Now is not this to be wise above what is written ? 
 Is this to look Scripture in the face ? To follow 
 it quietly and peaceably in all its windings ? Is 
 it not all popery, the popery of the heart ? 
 Picking and choosing in Scripture ? Is it to be 
 sons of a Church whose Articles men fight about, 
 some saying they are Calvinistical, others Armi- 
 
25 
 
 iiian while the Church is neither one nor the 
 other, but follows Scripture wherever it leads 
 her, and so to argumentative men, for faith never 
 argues, seems to be inconsistent ; they never 
 seeing that she knows nothing of Calvin or of 
 Arminius, except to dislike and reject both as 
 mere human teachers. So, forsooth, she is 
 Popish in her Bishops and her ordinations ; semi- 
 popish in her high view of the Sacraments ; Cal- 
 vinistic in one Article ; Arminian in another ; 
 Lutheran in a great many ; all three together in 
 some ; while all the while she travels on in much 
 meekness and much quietness, like a holy mother 
 journeying with her child through the wilderness 
 to meet the Master ; and ever and anon she 
 meets first with one petulant wayfaring man and 
 then another, who make new roads for them- 
 selves, sometimes running alongside her own, 
 sometimes diverging far away, and ending, alas ! 
 we know not where : and while they mock her 
 and provoke her to argument, she has an answer 
 ready for all. If her old and beautiful ceremo- 
 nies are attacked, she is ready; "If any be con- 
 tentious, I have no such custom, neither the 
 Churches of God." If Calvin, Luther, Arminius, 
 and the like, be thrown in her teeth, and she be 
 told to obey them, her answer is, " Jesus I 
 Anc. Th, B 
 
26 
 
 know, and Paul I know ; but who are these ?" 
 Oh ! may Almighty God bless her evermore in 
 this ApostoHc moderation, and suffer her to be 
 clothed still in the austere gracefulness of her 
 primitive robes. The fashions of the world may 
 change* The old garment of the Church may 
 seem quaint and awkward and ill adjusted to 
 new and modern doctors. But her work will 
 stand the fire, and theirs will not. In one hour 
 shall they be made desolate, because they were 
 wiser than the ancients, and purer than Apos- 
 tles, and keener-eyed than prophets. *^ Rejoice 
 over them, thou heaven, and ye holy Apostles 
 and Prophets ; for God hath revenged you upon 
 them." 
 
 In conclusion. If what I have said has been 
 enough to give you some faint and imperfect 
 outline of the system of your Church, and the 
 peculiar position which she occupies : if it has 
 been enough to show you how the outward 
 resemblance of some matters of faith or practice 
 to popery only sets off the more strikingly their 
 inward and essential difference, — it may be well 
 to say somewhat now on Church authority ; for 
 this is the way in which these points come prac- 
 tically home to ourselves. The Church can do 
 no more than profess a theory. She cannot 
 
27 
 
 force her members to carry it out into practice. 
 She is without disciphne. Her hands are tied. 
 It is melancholy it should be so. Still, the 
 question with ourselves, as humble and quiet 
 Christians, is, — What is the best use we can 
 make of an unfortunate state of things ? Surely 
 to do that generously and affectionately, which 
 our mother cannot compel us to do. It may be 
 our lot to see her civil importance in the coun- 
 try diminished, by attacks on her Cathedral 
 Establishments, because men at prayer seem to 
 the world to be but men in idleness. We may 
 see the hierarchy shorn of its strength, and 
 beauty, and efficiency in Ireland, that a pure and 
 evangelical Church may be more at the mercy 
 of political agitators and seditious Romanists. 
 The Church Catholic in the forlorn and injured 
 Colonies may be stripped of her rights, and 
 made over in mockery to the Providence of God; 
 more sure and firm in that, than ever she could 
 have been in the niggard bounty and unblessed 
 protection of evil men. We may, perchance, 
 behold the liberties of our venerable Universi- 
 ties, those perpetual fountains of the Church, 
 which may God in His power and mercy bless 
 and keep ! grievously disturbed, because men, 
 who act on high, and noble, and Christian prin- 
 
 b2 
 
28 
 
 ciples are likely to be troublesome to those who 
 act on low, and worldly, and unworthy ones. 
 All this it may fall to us to witness. All this 
 our duty to God may lead us to protest against, 
 and, each in his appointed place, most seriously 
 to condemn. Still, these are not our chief arms 
 as Churchmen. We may talk, and write, and 
 argue. It may be our duty so to do. But if 
 this be all, w^e do not love our mother as we 
 should do. We are not kind-hearted sons and 
 dutiful. She appointed her fasts. Do we fast 
 thereupon ? Are those days marked by any 
 acts of self-denial, done for our mother's sake, 
 and to her good, or are they lost in the common 
 undistinguished mass of worldly days ? Are they 
 times of deepest prostration of heart, of spirit- 
 searchinor melancholy, of mournful confession of 
 our sins, — our sins as a Church, as a nation, as 
 a diocese, as a parish, as individual members of 
 the Body Mystical ? Are her Festivals days of 
 quiet and subdued spiritual joys ? Do we sit, 
 like children, first at the feet of this Apostle, 
 then of that, as she leads us round the blessed 
 company to be taught, and bids us at such times 
 live among the dead, our hands clasped in theirs, 
 with a mysterious love, that we may so sit more 
 lightly to the world when we go back to our 
 
29 
 
 work and care therein ? We see the clergy 
 ahnost fainting, the harvest plentiful, and the 
 labourers few. Dissent, and violence, and wrong, 
 and party-spirit, and cruel opposition, making 
 them slow, and weary, and sick at heart. Do 
 we diligently watch for the Four Holy Seasons 
 of the Ember Weeks to come round, when all 
 the loyal Churchmen in the land are at prayer, 
 and fast, and watching for their Bishops, Priests, 
 and Deacons ? We are bidden to be Catholic. 
 The Church is one Body. She is the only Body 
 we have to do with. Are we given to make 
 arbitrary bodies for ourselves, parties, little sects, 
 selfish distinctions. Churches within the Church ? 
 Our hearts then are not large enough. We know 
 not how high, how glorious, how angel-like a 
 thing a Churchman's charity is, or ought to be. 
 
 My brethren, it is in these things that the 
 strength of our Church consists. It is not in 
 the wealth of her laity. It is not in the learning 
 of her priests. It is still less in the secular 
 uneasiness of those who think themselves her 
 friends, and would fain help her zealously, but 
 whose zeal is not according to knowledge. And, 
 moreover, it is in these things that she cannot 
 avenge herself; and we are mean enough to 
 take advantage of our mother's weakness. " My 
 son," saith the Wise Man, ''despise not thy 
 
80 
 
 mother when she is old." To thoughtful men 
 the Church is only the more terrible for her 
 meekness. Vengeance is more sure because it 
 lingereth. She hath made her cause over to her 
 Lord. Thus she is like God Himself. His laws 
 do not, in ordinary cases, avenge themselves 
 here, as they were wont of old. They wait their 
 time and His coming. To faithful men she is 
 all gleaming with the gifts and graces of the 
 seven-fold Spirit Who abides within her. ^' The 
 King's daughter is all glorious within." The 
 blessed Trinity is setup in her holy place, though 
 it be not manifestly yet ; the Glory that was to 
 be her dower when her Spouse ascended up on 
 high. But surely she is not a mother to be 
 feared by her true and loyal sons. 
 
 If, then, we believe her to be in danger, if we 
 believe her to be worthy of our love, why have 
 w'e not the manliness to rise up into our places ? 
 Why do we stop, and hesitate, and question, and 
 prove, and cavil, and dispute, when it is our 
 mother whose voice is calling from the dust ? 
 Oh ! let us cast off this bad and slavish spirit ; 
 let us knock away those cold chains we have 
 bound about ourselves ; let us rise like freemen 
 in the freedom wherewith Christ hath made us 
 free ; let us be daring Christians, ancient Chris- 
 tians, ready, in the Name of God and of His 
 
31 
 
 Christ, to walk on the waves with St. Peter, or 
 drink the bitter cup with St. James and St. John, 
 or to die, if need so be, with St. Paul. Prayer, 
 and watch, and fast, with the mercy of our God, 
 may yet save the Church on earth ; and there- 
 after Cometh praise, and rest, and the Supper of 
 the Lamb with the Church in Heaven. 
 
 ARCHBISHOP LAUD'S PRAYER FOR 
 THE CHURCH. 
 
 O ETERNAL God and merciful Father, I humbly 
 beseech Thee bless Thy holy Catholic Church, 
 wheresoever spread upon the face of the whole 
 earth. Good Lord, purge it from all atheism, 
 heresy, schism, superstition, factious maintenance 
 of groundless opinions ; that one faith, one Lord, 
 one Baptism, may in all places be uniformly pro- 
 fessed, as Thy Church is, and can be but one. 
 And grant, good Lord, that I may be, and con- 
 tinue, a faithful, living, and a working member 
 under Christ the Head, in that Church the Body, 
 all the days of my life, and through the hour of 
 my death, through the merits, and by the grace, 
 of the same Jesus Christ, our Lord, and only 
 Saviour. Amen. 
 
 Gilbert & Rivinqton, Printers, St. John's Square, London. 
 
Latehj Published, 
 BY THE SAME AUTHOR. 
 
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THE CHURCH, 
 
 A SAFEGUARD 
 
 AGAINST MODERN SELFISHNESS. 
 
 BY THE REV. 
 
 FREDERICK W. FABER, M.A. 
 
 FELLOW OF UNIVERSITY COLLEGE, OXFORD. 
 
 Tell ye your children of it, and let your children tell their children, and 
 their children another generation. — Joel i. 3. 
 
 LONDON: 
 PRINTED FOR J. G. F. & J. RIVINGTON, 
 
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LONDON : 
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THE CHURCH, 
 
 SAFEGUARD AGAINST MODERN SELFISHNESS. 
 
 We are being continually called upon now-a- 
 days to exercise the most blessed privilege and 
 highest happiness, which falls to us as sons of 
 God and heirs of heaven, — self-denial for 
 Chrisfs sake. We are continually having put 
 before us the cause of the growing population 
 of this but half-Christian country, the genera- 
 tion who are now rising up about us, and who 
 are to hand forward the Memory of Christ, 
 and witness to His Gospel, and pass on His 
 Cross to others in new Churches and upon new 
 Altars, when we have been drawn into the 
 inner world by the quiet hand of death. Now, 
 I am anxious you should not be taken by sur- 
 prise when such occasions comq, that you 
 should, while at your leisure, have taken some 
 a2 
 
4 The Church, a Safeguard 
 
 account of the claims at such times brought 
 before you, the claims of those vast English 
 multitudes, among whom the Church is still 
 to be set up, multitudes too often lawless and 
 disturbed, because not enough beneath the 
 Church's hand, but who are our brethren and 
 our countrymen, with like cares and sorrows, 
 like need of Sacraments, and Priests, and 
 Churches, like souls to save. By being pre- 
 pared with great and anxious thought on this 
 subject, the suddenness or frequency of the 
 claim will be less likely to stand in the way of 
 the largeness of your self-denial. I propose, 
 therefore, in these few pages, to lay before you 
 in the general the claims of church building 
 and church extension schemes, when brought 
 before you by authority and in a church way, 
 how urgent they are, why you should be 
 called upon in the matter, and how blessed a 
 thing it is for you to be able to put trust in 
 God, and make sacrifices for Christ's sake. 
 For this purpose it may be well to consider, 
 how we are placed in this world, how we are 
 connected with our neighbours, how the 
 Church brings us close to Christ, as being our 
 spiritual mother, and what Christ expects us 
 
against Modern Selfishness, 5 
 
 to do for His Church in return for all the 
 great things she has done for us, and how that 
 Church is now to one and all of us, a refuge 
 from modern selfishness. 
 
 Different persons, different stations in life, 
 different circumstances, tempers, and affec- 
 tions, are all liable to different sins. A rich 
 man, for example, is tempted to be proud and 
 careless about his soul : a poor man, to be 
 discontented, and envious of those who are 
 above him. So prosperity, which ought to 
 make a man thankful, and to put him in mind 
 of God at every turn, often makes him forget 
 God altogether ; and affliction, which ought to 
 soften the heart, seeing it is the pressure of the 
 Cross, sometimes hardens it ; and hard beyond 
 all hope is that heart whose fountains have 
 been stopped by affliction and adversity. But 
 there is one sin which besets all people, rich 
 and poor, prosperous and afflicted, learned 
 and ignorant ; one which clings to all persons, 
 cold-hearted men, or men of quick feelings ; 
 though of course not in like manner, nor in an 
 equal degree. A sin it is which begins in their 
 childhood, makes them disliked and unhappy, 
 grows with their growth, stands in the way of 
 
6 The Church, a Safeguard 
 
 every good feeling, and makes many fall short 
 of heaven. This is selfishness : a habit of 
 looking at ourselves, thinking of ourselves, 
 acting for ourselves in every thing, rather than 
 for others, even our friends and neighbours : 
 a dislike to put ourselves out of the way to do 
 them good, to sacrifice our own pleasure and 
 comfort for their sake. But more than this^ 
 strange as it may seem, considering what we 
 are, we are selfish towards God. Though all 
 we have, health and life, and the strength of 
 youth and cheerful spirits, food and clothing, 
 the blue heaven and the green earth, and the 
 year with its seasons and its harvests, are 
 from Him and are His, yet we grudge to give 
 Him back the slightest portion of that which 
 He has given us. Though our three thousand 
 sheep ^ and a thousand goats were safe and none 
 missing all the while they were in the open 
 fields, though God's Providence hath been, 
 like David's men, a wall unto our fortunes 
 both by night and day, and though the 
 Church come unto us in a good day for the 
 portion of God and of the poor, yet, like 
 
 ^ \ Sam. xxy. 
 
against Modern Selfishness. 1- 
 
 Nabal, the man of Maon, whose possessions 
 were in Carmel, our hearts are cold towards 
 God in the midst of our merriment, and at 
 the sound of giving, die within us hke a stone. 
 We lay out money, we make sacrifices, we are 
 uneasy, we run risks, we rise early and take 
 late rest, and eat the bread of carefulness, in 
 order to make ourselves rich in this life, to 
 get on in the world, to be above our neigh- 
 bours, and to be thought well of Or, if our 
 ambition lies another way, to be wise and 
 learned, a thing in the world's sight more high 
 and pure, and yet all the while as selfish and 
 as little worth as the other, apart from Christ, 
 still there is no sacrifice we will not make, no 
 hardship we will not endure. We will practise 
 mortification and self-denial for learning's 
 sake, but not for Christ's. We will abstain 
 from joys, and pleasures, and company, and 
 numberless indulgences, and put restraint 
 even on our loves, when ambition calls, but 
 not at the bidding of the Church. We will 
 neglect our health and rest, and become worn 
 and pale, and weary, and weak, to gain earthly 
 wisdom and power of intellect, and shorten 
 our lives to leave our names among posterity 
 a4 
 
8 The Church, a Safeguard 
 
 lifted some very little, it may be, above the 
 obscurity of the unnumbered dead. But to 
 smooth down the severity of discipline, to 
 have an easy Lent, or go softly through a fast, 
 we are ready to talk of our health, and habits, 
 and way of living, and the hardness of our 
 duty, and the weakness of our flesh, and, in a 
 light way, of the mercy of our God. We are 
 strong to do all things for ourselves, our own 
 ambition strengthening us. We are weak for 
 Christ, even though He be ready to give us 
 strength. It seems quite natural to us that 
 we should take all this pains for worldly good, 
 because we see and feel that it is good ; we 
 see how it does us good, we see that others 
 think it good, and think good ourselves of 
 those who have it. We certainly have great 
 faith in the world. Would we had as great 
 faith in Christ ! We make bold enterprises 
 and run wonderful chances, but then we see 
 it comes back to us again. But we do not see 
 our own souls. We do not see how the seeds 
 of Heaven are putting forth within them, or 
 whether they are dead or dying, or at the 
 least unshapely and unhealthy. 
 
 We do not see how the prayers of those to 
 
Ugainst Modern Selfishness. 9 
 
 whom we give alms are doing us good, on 
 -high in Heaven, or in the depth of our own 
 souls. We give our money to the Church of 
 Christ, and we do not see it come back again ; 
 and why ? Because it comes back in spiritual 
 riches, and spiritual things can only be spiri- 
 tually discerned. Therefore, because we have 
 little or no faith we are very much dissatisfied 
 about it ; and give away as Httle in charity as 
 we possibly can. We are selfish towards God. 
 The prayers of the poor on our behalf, we do 
 not see them. Like all good things, they are 
 invisible. Who sees the clouds rise from the 
 earth, that are afterwards to fall in summer 
 showers ? The Sun of righteousness has ridden 
 up on high into the middle heavens, and by a 
 sweet compulsion draws thither to Himself the 
 prayers of all the saints. Day and night the 
 steam and odour go from the face of the earth. 
 It is gathered up by Angels into precious clouds^ 
 and falls in dews and showers of grateful 
 freshness, oftentimes on fields far away from 
 those whence it first ascended. Why, then, 
 are our affections set on things we see ? Who 
 
 ' Rev. V. 8. 
 A 5 
 
10 The Church, a Safeguard 
 
 remembers to have seen an Angel ? Who has 
 seen the Spouse of Christ in her marriage 
 jewels ? Who has seen the Dead when once 
 they went away ? We only linger about their 
 green graves. The best thing we of earth can 
 see, is but the outside of Heaven, and that far 
 off. If our hopes and fears, our joys and 
 wishes and feelings, are not set, and set stead- 
 fastly, on things we have not seen but shall 
 see one day, if we are not waiting and trem- 
 bling for their desirable manifestation at the 
 last, we Christians are of all men in the world 
 the most beguiled and miserable. We are 
 Hke the forlorn and poor of this hfe, who fall 
 asleep from weariness and crying, and then 
 dream bright things and golden fortunes all 
 night long, and awake doubly wretched in the 
 morning to their real and substantial misery. 
 The things which are seen are temporal ; and 
 it is because they are but temporal that we 
 see them ; and the things which are not seen 
 are eternal, and it is their eternity which hides 
 them from our view. 
 
 There is nothing we dislike so much in 
 other people as selfishness; and, if we are 
 honest with ourselves, there is nothing to 
 
against Modern Selfishness. 11 
 
 which we ourselves are more liable. Every 
 body will acknowledge this ; so I will not 
 waste time in proving it, nor in showing, what 
 must be obvious, how it keeps us back in our 
 way to Heaven, and does us all manner of 
 harm here as well as hereafter, on earth as 
 well as elsewhere. Let us rather look at what 
 God has done for us, and how He has placed 
 us, so as to protect us from this miserable sin. 
 We are not set down in the world by our- 
 selves. We cannot move about independent 
 of our neighbour. We cannot live alone. 
 We cannot love ourselves, except as we are 
 reflected in the love of others. We do not 
 like to think of dying alone. Our peace and 
 health and happiness, all depend upon our 
 neighbour. They are more in his power than 
 they are in our own. We see this in many 
 ways. Our neighbour can vex and annoy us 
 every day : he can stand in the way of our 
 getting on : he can say illnatured things of us; 
 and, in a word, if he chooses to act wickedly 
 and maliciously towards us, he can make the 
 world very wretched and miserable to us. 
 Nay more than this, we cannot even keep 
 our souls safe from the harm which our neigh- 
 a6 
 
12 The Church, a Safeguard 
 
 bour may do them. Our very souls are put 
 in one another's power. He may do harm to 
 us by not praying for us, by setting an evil 
 example to our children, by frightening us 
 from confessing Christ bravely and openly before 
 men, and the like. His sin may hinder many 
 a blessing which would otherwise have fallen 
 on the city or parish where he dwells. Thus 
 do all we can to keep to ourselves and by our- 
 selves, and to get to Heaven of ourselves and 
 alone, it is impossible. God has so mixed us 
 up with our neighbours. He has so entangled 
 our concerns with their concerns, that we 
 cannot act and live and feel alone. Thus 
 selfishness is made difficult by the law of the 
 world, and by God's arrangement of it. He 
 has so ordered the world that our natural 
 conscience might tell us how unnatural selfish- 
 ness was ; and not the world only, for this is 
 the point I have been all along bringing you 
 to, but He has put down among us the Church 
 of Christ to help us in this very thing, to be 
 a refuge to us from our own selfishness, to be 
 a protection to us against the selfishness of 
 others, to destroy selfishness from one end of 
 the world to the other. 
 
against Modeim Selfishness. 13 
 
 This is a most wonderful blessing if we only 
 thought about it seriously, and like earnest 
 men. Now look at the Prayer Book and the 
 common service of the Church, how little 
 there is in it about ourselves. It is like the 
 Lord's Prayer, the only prayer which Christ 
 Himself taught us to use, and which is in the 
 plural number throughout. For example : 
 what matter, so we might say, does it make to 
 us at this distance and in our humble stations, 
 whether the Queen is religious or not ? It is 
 not hkely, so we think when we think selfishly, 
 it is not likely she could do us much harm, or 
 interfere with our being religious. Yet the 
 Church makes us pray for her twice in the 
 Morning Prayer, once in the Litany, once in 
 the Communion Service, twice when there 
 is the Holy Communion ; and twice in the 
 evening prayer. So at the least the Church 
 makes us pray four times a day for the Queen, 
 which we should never have thought of doing 
 ourselves. This is one way in which the 
 Church prevents our being selfish in our 
 prayers ; because to the Church at large it is a 
 matter of immense importance that the Lord's 
 anointed should be religious, and have reli- 
 
14« The Church, a Safeguard 
 
 gious people about her. So in our private 
 prayers we should never have thought of 
 praying for the nobility and the magistrates, 
 perhaps not even for our fathers the Bishops. 
 We should often have neglected the sick and 
 afflicted, in far off countries as well as at home : 
 prisoners, captives, travellers, young children 
 and the like. We should not have given up 
 so much of our time to praising God in psalms, 
 as we do in Church. Thus the Church is 
 continually leading our thoughts to any body 
 rather than ourselves. She is continually 
 trying to make us unselfish. Indeed the whole 
 of religion is a looking out of ourselves unto 
 Christ, whether as He is ascended to the Right 
 Hand of the Father, or as He is reflected in 
 the feeble shinings of His saints, or represented 
 to us by the poor and desolate. Still it is a 
 looking out of ourselves. 
 
 So for the same great end, among others, 
 we have festivals in honour of the Dead : the 
 blessed Virgin, the holy Apostles and other 
 saints, yea, all the saints of God. The thought 
 of the dead makes us gentle and childlike, and 
 leads us to forget ourselves, as well it may. 
 For we know that, according to St. Paul's 
 
against Modern Selfishness, 15 
 
 teaching, the spirits of just men made perfect 
 are not far from us. We are come to them 
 and they are come to us. They can touch us 
 and we can touch them : perchance do touch 
 them when we know it not ; they are ghding 
 by every hour. The spirit has but ceased to 
 act upon and through the body, and so we do 
 not see them in their places. They keep 
 threading in and out among us, going up and 
 down, and moving round about us : especially, 
 so we believe from St. John, in holy Churches 
 where their bodies rest in hope ^ They are 
 the first ranks of the Church who have gone 
 before us in the Lord, so far as to be out of 
 sight. They are beyond our view. They 
 may see us : we cannot see them. This 
 should make us speak very little and surely 
 very cautiously of the Dead, and not without 
 the warrant of the Church : whether they 
 be our own kindred, or saints of old, or 
 holy men of later times. All the dead are 
 our kindred now; for there is no marrying 
 or giving in marriage in the Church invisible. 
 We cannot feel selfish among the Dead ; and 
 
 ^ Rev. vi. 
 
16 The Churchy a Safeguard 
 
 in the Church of Christ we are among the 
 Dead. 
 
 Then again the blessed Sacrament of the 
 Body and Blood of Christ kills selfishness with- 
 in us, because it keeps drawing us further and 
 further into the communion of saints. It is 
 a hand put forth, and taking us back into the 
 ark from time to time continually. It makes 
 us every one members one of another in the 
 mystical body ; for we, St. Paul teaches us, 
 " We being many are one bread and one body ; 
 for we are all partakers of that one bread'." 
 Thus the Church sets herself against all selfish 
 views, all narrow opinions, all vanity, conceit, 
 childishness, self-praise, uncharitableness, little- 
 mindedness ; it gives us great thoughts ; it 
 opens out views of heaven ; it promises glo- 
 rious and magnificent things which shall be 
 hereafter ; it leads us to the throne of God ; 
 it joins with Angels and Archangels and all the 
 company of Heaven about the Altar ; it feeds 
 us with the Body of our Lord : and what 
 have they to do with selfishness who feed 
 thereon ? 
 
 In like manner the holy doctrines on which 
 
 ^ 1 Cor. X. 17. 
 
against Moder^n Selfishness, 17 
 
 the Church is founded, and the history of the 
 heresies by which those doctrines have been 
 assailed, warn us very fearfully against selfish- 
 ness and selfish times. The great and fore- 
 most doctrine of Church teaching is the In- 
 carnation of our Lord and Saviour Jesus 
 Christ. This comes uppermost in her Creeds; 
 this comes uppermost in her best and soundest 
 doctors. The Church does, as it were, in all 
 her gifts and offices set forth and embody after 
 a living way the Incarnation of the Lord. It 
 is in the Church, says one, that Jesus Christ 
 is re-appearing always, and is living eternally. 
 The Church is, as it were, the abiding, con- 
 tinuing, and going on of the Incarnation of 
 the Son of God. Christ is one and the same 
 and always unchanging ; and so He has made 
 His Church one. He is made fiesh, and has 
 taken an outward form ; and so He has made 
 His Church visible. He, as our Mediator, is 
 God ; and so He has made His Church inde- 
 fectible. He is an eternal Priest ; and so He 
 has made His Church to have no end. But, 
 if we look at some of the schools of theology 
 which sprung up abroad in the sixteenth cen- 
 tury, we find quite other doctrines coming 
 uppermost ; not that the doctrine of the In- 
 
18 The Churchy a Safeguard 
 
 carnation of the Lord is denied (God forbid !), 
 only it does not occupy the place it did in the 
 harmonious teaching of ancient times. Ori- 
 ginal sin, grace, free-will, election, assurance, 
 come in Lutheran and Zwinglian writers, 
 where in the Fathers we should find references 
 to the Incarnation, and the Sacraments by 
 which it is conveyed to us and given us, 
 as St. Leo expresses it, "as a step for us 
 to tread upon, that we by It may ascend 
 to Him \" The effect of this difference, 
 of this distortion of the analogy of faith, is, 
 that by putting over-prominently and exclu- 
 sively forward questions concerning our own 
 soul, and the effects wrought in it, it leads to 
 excessive self- contemplation, and so lowers 
 the standard of holiness by weakening the 
 temper of faith. Thus even in this Catholic 
 country, some have been found of late years, 
 who have drawn up what they deemed a full 
 confession of their faith ; in which, notwith- 
 standing, no statement whatever was made 
 regarding the Divinity of the Three Persons 
 of the most Holy Trinity, or the union of the 
 divine and human Natures in our blessed 
 
 ^ Serm. v. de Nativ. 
 
against Modern Selfishness, 19 
 
 Lord. This is an awful warning. The same 
 lesson may be learnt even from the course 
 which heresy pursued in early times. While 
 the primitive fires burnt hottest and clearest, 
 the Church had power and health to eject 
 all heresy from out of her, and leave it to rage 
 and spend itself beyond the consecrated pre- 
 cincts. But afterwards, while she was still 
 adorned by gifts, and graces, and eminent 
 lights, heresy began assailing what was upper- 
 most in men's thoughts, the Trinity and the 
 Person of our Lord. Thus Arianism, the 
 greatest of these, was condemned at Nice, a. d. 
 325, which was not far from a hundred years 
 before Pelagius began in the West to teach 
 his heresy about grace and original sin\ 
 The class of controversies which afflicted the 
 Church in the fourth century, concerned mys- 
 teries out of men's selves ; those which con- 
 cerned mysteries within themselves did not 
 begin till the fifth century. One began in the 
 Eastern Church, the other in the Western ; 
 both probably were raised on questions upper- 
 most in men's minds at the time ; and thus it 
 took four centuries to bring down the lofty 
 
 ^ About A.D. 405. 
 
20 The Church, a Safeguard 
 
 minds of Christians to question and cavil, 
 and go wrong about themselves, their nature, 
 and the operations of their souls. This 
 rather, as we find it in St. Hilary ', would 
 be the way an ancient Christian would 
 have looked at human nature, always in the 
 incarnate Word, never apart from Him ; as 
 " human nature, in Christ, advancing towards 
 God, going onwards to eternity, and through 
 eternity about to abide the consummate image 
 of the Creator." So long was selfishness 
 in breaking into and disturbing Church doc- 
 trine. 
 
 Selfishness, too, is effectually warred against 
 and cast out by the temper, which it is the 
 Church's office to give birth to and bring 
 about within us, — the Catholic temper. It 
 is by this temper which God has given her, 
 and which she would fain communicate to her 
 sons, that the Church Universal has been 
 '' exalted like a palm tree in Engaddi, and as 
 a rose plant in Jericho, as a fair olive tree in 
 a pleasant field, and as a plane tree by the 
 water V* and filled with God's wisdom, '^ as 
 
 ^ De Trin. xi, 49. " Ecclus. xxiv. 
 
against Modern Selfishness. 21 
 
 Phison and as Tigris in the time of the new 
 fruits." This is the temper by which partition 
 walls are broken down, and the earth made 
 one and of one speech, and the curse of Babel 
 turned aside, and the miracle of Pentecost 
 made abiding. The narrow views of politi- 
 cians, and their still narrower jealousies, lite- 
 rary theories of national characters, and at- 
 tempts after union, such as conquerors or men 
 of science weakly strive to gain, are all broken 
 through and swept away, and set at nought by 
 this temper, of which we speak. The world 
 at times has seen this temper living and work- 
 ing, and it has feared it and obeyed it. But 
 now the Body of Christ is torn asunder, and 
 the members war against each other, and 
 endeavour to be by themselves ; and thereof 
 has come weakness, disease, slumbering, and 
 fearful dejection in men's souls. Time was in 
 Europe when the Church was free to have the 
 same rites, and pray the same prayers all over. 
 It may not be so now. Time was when 
 foreigners, travellers, and merchants went 
 here and there, and found in every place his 
 own Church, priest. Altar, home. It is not 
 so now. Let us see this well illustrated.. 
 
22 The Church, a Safeguard 
 
 " There was nothing new, or strange, or sin- 
 gular, about the burial procession particularly 
 calculated to excite the attention of Marco 
 Polo. The 'De Profundis' of the stoled 
 priest spake the universal language adopted 
 by the most sublime of human compositions, 
 the Liturgy of Western Christendom. Yet, 
 though no objects appeared which could 
 awaken any lively curiosity in the traveller, 
 there was much in their very familiarity to 
 excite the sympathy of the wanderer in a 
 foreign land. With an altered tone he said 
 to the friar, ' Saddened is the spirit of the pil- 
 grim, by the dying twilight and the plaining 
 vesper bell. But he who braves every danger 
 for himself, may feel his heart sink within him 
 when the pageant of triumphant death brings 
 to his mind the thought, that those from 
 whom, as he weened, he parted for a little 
 while only, may have been already borne to 
 the sepulchre. Yet there is also a great and 
 enduring comfort to the traveller in Christen- 
 dom. However uncouth may be the speech 
 of the races amongst whom the pilgrim 
 sojourns, however diversified may be the cus- 
 toms of the regions which he visits, let him 
 
 10 
 
against Modern Selfishness. 23 
 
 enter the portal of the Church, or hear, as 
 I do now, the voice of the minister of the 
 Gospel, and he is present with his own, 
 though alps and oceans may sever them 
 asunder. There is one spot where the pil- 
 grim always finds his home. We are all one 
 people when we come before the Altar of the 
 Lord ^' " Now this is what we have lost ; 
 this is what all good men are sickening for 
 the want of, what all good men must in their 
 measure strive to bring back again, by culti- 
 vating in his own heart, and carrying out in 
 his own modest practice, the Catholic temper. 
 He must not look at his particular Church, as 
 if, like his country, it were an island. He 
 must not let his sympathy, or love, or admi- 
 ration be confined within any bounds short 
 of the Church Universal. He must feel as the 
 Church Universal feels. He must teach as 
 the Church Universal teaches, and ever has 
 taught. He must pray God for the time when 
 he may worship as the Church Universal wor- 
 shipped. He must guard the faith jealously, 
 as the salutary deposit handed on to him ; but 
 
 ^ Palgrave, Merchant and Friar, p. 138. 
 
24 The Clmrch, a Safeguard 
 
 he must shun the close, bitter, schismatical 
 spirit of controversy, that spirit which is no- 
 thing but " the disquieting of good men, and 
 the forgetfulness of good turns." He must 
 throw himself out of systems, sects, schools, 
 parties, into the free, capacious teaching and 
 temper of the Church Universal. Thus by 
 God's grace may the sundered members of His 
 Church begin to stir, and move, and come one 
 to another, and join themselves, and live anew ; 
 and the shape and outline and attitude, which 
 long past centuries had known, shall gradually 
 grow clearer, more forcible, and more distinct 
 before men's eyes, lovely and venerable. Then 
 shall the Church be again informed by the 
 Catholic temper, '' the understanding spirit, 
 holy, one only, manifold, subtil, lively, clear, 
 undefiled, plain, not subject to hurt, loving the 
 thing that is good, quick, which cannot be 
 letted, ready to do good, kind to man, stedfast, 
 sure, free from care, having all power, over- 
 seeing all things, and going through all under- 
 standing, pure, and most subtil, spirits \" This 
 is the Catholic temper, the temper of the 
 
 ^ Wisdom vii. viii. 
 
against Modern Selfishness. 25 
 
 Church, who is " more moving than any 
 motion : she passeth and goeth through all 
 things by reason of her pureness. She is a 
 pure influence flowing from the glory of the 
 Almighty ; therefore can no defiled thing fall 
 into her. And being but one, she can do all 
 things : and remaining in herself, she maketh 
 all things new : and in all ages entering into 
 holy souls, she maketh them friends of God 
 and prophets : and in that she is conversant 
 with God, she magnifieth her nobility." Such 
 is the Church Cathohc, the Bride of Christ. 
 Such shall she one day be seen to be. 
 
 Lastly the Church itself, the way it is left 
 with us and trusted to us, teaches us very 
 forcibly how hateful selfishness is in God's 
 sight. Christ gave His Name, the only one 
 under heaven whereby men can be saved. 
 But He did not leave it to every man's judg- 
 ment what to think of His great Name, how 
 to believe in Him, with what rites He was to 
 be worshipped, and the like. He did not leave 
 the faith with this man or that man, or any 
 set of men. He left it with the Church, with 
 the Church only, the Church Catholic, one and 
 entire ; and made it impossible it should be 
 
 B 
 
26 The Church, a Safeguard 
 
 pure and whole anywhere out of the Church, 
 or any where short of the Church. In Scrip- 
 ture language the Church was to be the pillar 
 and ground of the truth : the pillar, as bearing 
 it up and witnessing to it and keeping it safe 
 and not letting the world reach it to lower it 
 or do it violence ; the ground, as being the 
 authority on which the truth rests, the lawful 
 and very sufficient evidence upon which men 
 are to receive it. Now in this view it is clear 
 the Church is of immense importance ; the 
 salvation of all generations depends upon it. 
 What means then did our Saviour ordain for 
 handing the Church on from one generation 
 to another, for preserving it amid storms and 
 persecutions, for enabling it by its own inward 
 purity to overcome the world and to save alive 
 the souls of those within its gates? Visible 
 miracles gradually ceased, that is to say, they 
 were not put forward in the same way they 
 were before. God did not visibly interfere ; 
 heretics and blasphemers were not always 
 struck dead as by a miracle, though here 
 and there God did interpose, and the world 
 wondered. Still as a general rule, it was left 
 to men, to our fathers, to us, to hand on the 
 
against Modern Selfishness, 27 
 
 Church, to leave the old faith as we received 
 it. This was the law : " Tell ye your chil- 
 dren of it; and let your children tell their 
 children, and their children another genera- 
 tion." Thus the Church was made to depend 
 on us, the salvation of all generations was 
 made to depend on us. This is a fearful 
 thought, almost too fearful to bear. The 
 salvation of all after generations depends on 
 us. And yet we are careless about it, unge- 
 nerous, Httle-minded, sparing, selfish in saving 
 souls. 
 
 Yet still we have among us the Church, 
 which is a refuge from our selfishness : and 
 she is from time to time calling upon us to 
 exercise this privilege of taking refuge with 
 her by our alms. We are for ever being called 
 upon to aid in handing on the Gospel, the one 
 sound faith, the wisdom hidden from of old, to 
 our posterity. We are invited to be fellow- 
 workmen with Apostles, primitive confessors, 
 martyrs, bishops, saints, men who raised dead 
 bodies, workers of miracles, lords over evil 
 spirits, mighty teachers, masters in Israel. This 
 was their office to hand on the faith, to teach 
 it to those who came after them, to feed the 
 
 b3 
 
28 The Church, a Safeguard 
 
 little ones of Christ. Such was the task which 
 they were foremost in ; and to this day we make 
 mention of their names with reverence, because 
 of their faithfulness in their generation. Surely 
 this is a great privilege for such unloving 
 Christians as we are, full of ourselves, full of 
 the world's taint, full of earth and all that is 
 therein. Yet there is no danger of selfishness 
 intruding here. We do not come out from 
 others in this. We are not singular. We 
 are not ostentatious. We are but a few of 
 many, of whom God taketh count, and watcheth 
 their hands and hearts as they go by to the 
 treasury of the temple. The brightest saint 
 in God's kingdom has no temptation to selfish- 
 ness. He is but one, one little one, among 
 the thousand stars that are thickly sown, 
 like seeds of light, all over the dark skies, 
 waiting for a still more glorious brightness, 
 when they shall grow and shine in the kingdom 
 of their Father, when the heavens shall be 
 new, and the face of the earth covered with 
 another freshness, being baptized with fire. 
 We are not to ask ourselves where our self- 
 denial is to end, when we have done enough, 
 when the measure of our sacrifice is full. This 
 
against Modern Selfishness, 29 
 
 is the spirit of a slave rather than a son. It is 
 never full. There is never self-denial enough ; 
 all is self-denial in the school of Christ. We 
 have a life in our veins, we have not laid that 
 down yet beneath the Cross. The blood of 
 martyrdom would not fill the cup. The mar- 
 tyrs themselves are but unprofitable servants, 
 though they are as Angels in our eyes. Why 
 are we clinging to these perishable things ? 
 Surely we do not love them. Our home is 
 not here. It is very far away, we are pining 
 for it. We are athirst for God. 
 
 But perchance it may be said, this is an 
 unnatural state. We do love these things ; 
 '' we have set our hearts, it cannot be con- 
 cealed, we have set them fondly on earth, 
 and the gi'een things and the bright things that 
 are upon the earth." It cannot be. You 
 cannot love the world nor the world you. 
 The Cross has been planted in your hearts. 
 You and the world, you and your affections, 
 you and your idols must part for ever, part in 
 the blood that flowed where the stern Cross 
 went deepest in. You and all your dreams 
 must part, O ye of the Christian Circumcision ! 
 
 The kingdom of Heaven is within you. 
 B 3 
 
30 The Church, a Safeguard 
 
 You are not your own. You are lifted above 
 yourselves. You are washed with a heavenly 
 w^ashing. You have the gift, which is above 
 all other gifts, the gift of the justified, the 
 Presence of God within you. Ever since the 
 time that you were fearfully and wonderfully 
 made into sons of God and heirs of heaven, 
 this inward kingdom has been unfolding itself 
 in your souls. First one and then another of 
 your lusts and affections have been mastered. 
 Sacraments, providences, ordinances, disci- 
 pline, ascetic habits, sometimes slowly, some- 
 times swiftly, all have been drawing your 
 natural infirmities more and more within the 
 power of this supernatural kingdom. The 
 heart is like a tract of barren country, hardly 
 recovered to fertility. Still, year after year, 
 every prayer and act of faith^ every self- 
 denial and suffering, has been taking in some 
 little portion from the wilderness. Angry 
 tempers, idleness, childish sins, bad habits 
 clinging about us and hindering us, are by 
 degrees brought under the dominion of our 
 new nature. The kingdom of Satan grows 
 narrower day by day, though here and there 
 the waste brown sand again encroaches on 
 
agahist Modern Selfishness. 31 
 
 the green. Our very sins themselves alter, 
 and evil as they are and impure, still disclose 
 to us the presence of virtue in the soil. They 
 witness to our being more or less religious. 
 We are being transformed into Angels, and 
 more than Angels, though suffering here. Yea, 
 more than Angels, for when we wake up at 
 the last to sleep no more for ever, we shall be 
 satisfied with His likeness Who was Man, and 
 and is Man, and Who has our nature upon 
 Him where He is. We shall be in some high 
 sense like Him, else could not we endure to 
 see Him as He is. How fearful to think of 
 what unknown operations our regenerate but 
 still striving souls are now the scene and the 
 place. That inward kingdom is unfolding itself 
 there. But selfishness is hindering it. Self 
 is keeping back its glory and its power. Self 
 is making it jealous of opening out and dis- 
 closing itself. Self is struggling against the 
 Spirit and the Sacraments. Therefore deny 
 that self, and the empire of Christ will stretch 
 forth from the river even unto the great sea, 
 from Baptism until eternity begins. Therefore 
 mortify, treat hardly, and bring under that 
 evil self, and then will that inward kingdom be 
 
32 The Churchy a Safeguard 
 
 like the rising of the sun behind the hills. The 
 morning will sweetly invade the night. The 
 lines of darkness will fade off and be overrun 
 with light. " It shall be/' in the words of ' him 
 who was raised up on high V '" as the hght of the 
 morning when the sun riseth, even a morning 
 without clouds ; as the tender grass springing 
 out of the earth by clear shining after rain." 
 
 Clear on all of us, and clearly shining was 
 our baptismal rain. But the spirit of selfish- 
 ness has passed upon us since. We are stained 
 with sad impurities. We are beaten back in 
 our upward flight by weakness and self-indul- 
 gence. We are laden with our sins. The 
 burden of them is intolerable. Self has taken 
 such hold upon us that we are not able to look 
 up. We think holy thoughts ; and then un- 
 hallow them by telling them to others, that 
 they may see how great our thoughts are. 
 We watch and fast, and are fain our faces 
 should grow pale, that men may see how 
 austere our watching and our fasting are. We 
 give alms, alms after the fashion of these 
 latter times, in public and with our names, 
 
 * 1 Sam. xxiii. 4. 
 
against Modern Selfishness. 33 
 
 that men may wonder we can give so much, 
 and think of all the self-denial it must cost us. 
 Self is in every thing. The hundred gates of 
 the heart may be shut against open sins, but 
 self goes in and out thereat unquestioned day 
 and night. Thus it is that self becomes hate- 
 ful to us. We are weary of our own littleness 
 and meanness. We are contemptible to our- 
 selves. We groan, being burdened, and are 
 miserable ; yet we have not courage to throw 
 ourselves away from ourselves. O what a poor 
 and miserable Christianity is this ! How often 
 do we think, when self intrudes, of our early 
 Baptism, and its innocent liberty, and its self- 
 forgetting quietness ; we think of the Font that 
 is by the entering in of the Church, and long 
 with a holy longing, and cry with David, " O 
 that one would give me drink of the water 
 of the well of Bethlehem, which is by the gate! 
 And the three mighty men brake through the 
 host of the Philistines, and drew water out of 
 the well of Bethlehem, that was by the gate, 
 and took it and brought it to David \" And 
 we have three, mightier than men, unto Whom 
 
 ^ 2 Sam xxiii. 15. 
 
34 The Church, a Safeguard, ^c. 
 
 we were baptized, to break through the hosts 
 and bring us water from the consecrated Well. 
 Let us leave our selfishness behind, and go and 
 take refuge there. Alms, said an old martyr, 
 are the imitation of our baptism, and win the 
 indulgence of God. Alms repair its freshness. 
 By alms do we absolve ourselves from sin. 
 Alms, as one of the ancients teaches, are a 
 second baptism. " Give alms," said our Lord ; 
 " Give alms of such things as ye have, and be- 
 hold, all things are clean unto you ^" Let us 
 come continually out of a free heart, to pass 
 the watchword, the Cross of Christ, along the 
 invisible lines of after generations. We have 
 a right to deny ourselves for Christ ; a right 
 to suffer with the Incarnate Son, and purify 
 selfishness away by suffering. In the quiet 
 courts of the alms-giving Church we may take 
 sanctuary from ourselves. 
 
 * St. Luke xi. 41. 
 
 THE END. 
 
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CHURCH DOCTRINE, 
 
 A WITNESS 
 
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 BY THE REV. 
 
 FREDERICK W. FABER, M.A 
 
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CHURCH DOCTRINE, 
 
 WITNESS AGAINST WORLDLY TIMES. 
 
 We live in very worldly times. No one can 
 doubt this who hears or reads ever so little oi 
 what is going on around him. The times are 
 very worldly. We are wiser than our fore- 
 fathers, but only in the ways of getting riches. 
 Trade and noise, ships, railways, roads, changes 
 here and changes there, all sorts of wild plans 
 and dreams, we hear of continually, we hear of 
 nothing else. The world speaks of nothing else, 
 thinks of nothing else. Men of business, from 
 sunrise to sunset, are making money. Their 
 hours are all spent in writing letters, in keeping 
 accounts, in going to public meetings and so on. 
 Men in power are struggling to keep their ene- 
 mies out of power ; planning, scheming, debat- 
 ing, toihng continually. Then for people who 
 have less to do, there are theatres, races, balls, 
 
 A 2 
 
4 Church Doctrine, 
 
 gambling-houses, and a hundred other sinful 
 pleasures. k\\ these are the sort of things news- 
 papers are so full of. We might almost think 
 the world was going to last for ever, and that 
 people never died : only we read there the 
 names of people wdio have just died, and thus 
 the w^orld in its own newspapers witnesses 
 against itself. Now when we read or hear of 
 all these things, of all this early rising and 
 taking late rest, and eating the bread of care- 
 fulness, it must sometimes come across us, 
 " When do these people find time to save 
 their souls ? when do they pray ? when do 
 they repent ? when do they hate the world ? 
 when do they despise its honours ? when do 
 they neglect its gold and silver, or sell all they 
 have and give unto the poor ? when do they 
 find time to be Christians ? How strange to 
 be sure it all seems — I wonder what the end 
 of it all will be !'' — Or in another way, we may 
 fancy an Angel looking down upon London or 
 one of our great cities, and seeing the ways 
 of living among the people, their greediness 
 and avarice, and worldHness and sin, would he 
 be easily brought to believe that all those men 
 were in the middle of a hot battle, of a deadly 
 
a Witness against Worldly Times. 5 
 
 fight against the world, the flesh, and the 
 devil ? Really it is fearful to see how the 
 world goes on, so high, so careless, so 
 proud, so antichristian, as if were there no 
 Holy Trinity, no Heaven, no Cross, no Angels, 
 no Dead Men, no Churches. It is fearful. But 
 there will be an end of it all ; and that end 
 will be more fearful still. — God give us grace 
 to hate it with deep and perfect hatred ! It is 
 His enemy. 
 
 This is the world then, which we see. 
 It wishes to be seen. It does not hide 
 itself. It is proud of itself. It thinks itself 
 fair and beautiful, and glorious and wise, 
 like Jezebel with her painted face. But 
 there are other people, a few at any rate, 
 perhaps many, God only knoweth, who do 
 not live in this world, in the devil's world, 
 but in Christ's Church : people who cluster 
 quietly around the Cross of Christ in prayer 
 and repentance. They go to their daily labour 
 in the fields, or in the counting-house, or at 
 the manufactory, just as other people do, 
 nay, more regularly, more industriously, more 
 soberly than others. But their hearts are not 
 there. They are set on things above. They 
 
 A3 
 
6 Church Doctrine , 
 
 live in heaven. They are being with Christ, 
 they are one with Him and He with them, 
 their Ufe is hid with Him in God. Their 
 souls are swelling with immortal hopes, and 
 what are this world's brightest things to them ? 
 The loud and merry noises of the world are 
 as little to them as the running of a stream, 
 for the song of angels is ever in their ears. 
 They have a different sun and moon from 
 other men. For the Lamb of God is Himself 
 their bright and shining Sun, and the Church, 
 through which He shines and sheds His beauty, 
 is their faithful and perpetual Moon. 
 
 Now it is clear we must all grant that the 
 times are very worldly. . We must all see that 
 people who live the sort of life we read of in 
 the newspapers, cannot think much about their 
 souls. But then some of us who have neither 
 honours nor riches nor business, may not 
 exactly see how all this concerns us or what 
 we have to do with it. The times are worldly 
 it is true. But what is that to us ? We did 
 not make them so. We cannot help it. They 
 can do us no harm. They cannot make us 
 worldly.. Now this is just the very thing 1 
 wish you to see. The times being worldly 
 
a Witness against Worldly Times. 7 
 
 does very much concern us. They can do us 
 harm. They do make us worldly. We are 
 concerned in it many ways ; it makes God 
 angry with us as a nation, it may make Him 
 punish our children for it — it tempts us to be 
 worldly, it tempts our friends and relations 
 and makes them worldly, and does a great 
 deal of mischief to our bodies and souls which 
 we cannot now see or understand. So then, 
 though we may have neither honours nor 
 wealth, nor business, yet are we very much 
 concerned in the times being worldly : and a 
 very great duty it is for all of us to protect 
 ourselves against their worldliness, and keep 
 it at a distance ; which God, blessed be His 
 Holy Name, gives us the means of doing in 
 His Son's Church. 
 
 When we say the times are worldly, we 
 mean that people are always thinking of and 
 loving things they see, things seen, things 
 temporal, things that profit them here and are 
 not much set by in heaven : times when people 
 think of riches, honour, power, happiness and 
 mirth, of life and health and good spirits, of 
 elegance and comfort, and beauty, and love, 
 and prosperity, of eating and drinking,marrying 
 a4 
 
8 Church Doctrine, 
 
 and giving in marriage ; times when people do 
 not think of death, of judgment, of Baptism, 
 of Bibles, of Churches, of Holy Communions, 
 of constant prayer, of fastings and watchings, 
 of self-denial and hard penance. Worldly 
 times are times when all the world, but a few, 
 seem to have agreed with each other to forget 
 all these things, and to say nothing about 
 them ; not to take the trouble to deny them, but 
 simply to forget them. This is worldliness. 
 
 Now all the doctrines of the Church are 
 opposed to worldHness. The Church herself 
 is the world's enemy. She is set down in the 
 earth by Christ to fight with the world and to 
 get the better of it : which she will do because 
 of the Holy Ghost Who is with her and in her. 
 But there are some particular portions of 
 Christian truth, which recommend themselves 
 to us, as leading us from the world, lifting us 
 above it, making us humble with great thoughts 
 and cheerful with great hopes : doctrines which 
 carry us off from ourselves, and save us from 
 selfishness, which is meanness. Among these 
 are the doctrines of Angels and communion 
 with the Dead. The Church calls us on St. 
 Michael's day to meditate on the wonderful 
 
a Witness against Worldly Times, 9 
 
 order of Angels ; and if we have made right 
 use of that day year by year, doubtless we 
 have been saved from many bad thoughts and 
 evil wishes ; for all God's truth has a blessing 
 along with it to do us good and make us pure. 
 Again, the Feast of All Saints, leads us to the 
 solemn consideration of communion with the 
 Dead; and to think of it in this light as a 
 safeguard against worldhness. 
 
 These two subjects of sacred thought, the 
 holy Angels and the Dead, are great safe- 
 guards to us in these days. The noise of the 
 world, the bustle of commerce, the pride of 
 science, our self-praise, our flattery of one 
 another, our foohsh complacency in our 
 national greatness, our idolatrous worship of 
 success in life ; all these are so many humours 
 of an age that has forgotten the Invisible 
 World which surrounds us, and is among us. 
 We treat God's works lightly, and give profane 
 judgments upon them, and even venture to 
 praise them for their adaptation to man's 
 moral or mental being. We have forgotten 
 our own place in God's sight, as grievously 
 corrupt and very far departed from original 
 righteousness. We do not remember that our 
 a5 
 
10 Church Doctrine, 
 
 only dignity is in our being knit up with the 
 invisible world of spirit, and joined to a spiritual 
 brotherhood, through Christ our Head ; and 
 that our greatness is in our contempt of earth, 
 and all it has to give or show. It is an age 
 of intellect-worship, of gross material views, 
 of money-making, and of a poor, heaven-for- 
 getting science. For science, surely, if it were 
 true and right, should deepen our humility, 
 seeing that its discoveries keep adding to the 
 number of half-truths and natural mysteries 
 far beyond what they contribute to the stock 
 of definite knowledge. The fear or love of 
 beings and things invisible is counted either 
 poetry and so harmless, or superstition and so 
 contemptible. And we are thus led by the 
 cold and rigid temper of the age to lower the 
 mystery of our Lord's Person, His Church, 
 and His gifts, the Sacraments ; and, as to the 
 Angels and the Dead, we do not deem it worth 
 while to think much about them. They do 
 us no good, and they are beyond our doing 
 them good. So we say. We are angry if 
 people try to make more of them. Ease and 
 luxury and literary self- congratulation want to 
 have as little of a spiritual world interfering 
 
a Witness against Worldli/ Times. 11 
 
 with them in this life as possible. Now as 
 one instance of the way in which Church 
 doctrine witnesses against worldly times, let 
 us take the Church's giving us two feast-days, 
 one in which to think about the Angels, 
 another in which to meditate upon the Dead. 
 
 I. The holy Angels, I will not bring to- 
 gether here the teaching of Scripture regarding 
 the order and offices of Angels ; although it 
 is now-a-days little attended to, and would 
 astonish many people if fairly drawn out. Yet 
 one is not certain that it might not provoke 
 ridicule, and so give occasion to grievous sin 
 in such as are light-minded. Those who wish 
 to gain deeply practical, consoling, and ele- 
 vating views on the subject, may be drawn 
 thereto by the services and lessons appointed 
 by the Church for the Feast of St. Michael. 
 In this place I rather wish to treat the doctrine 
 as a witness against worldly times, to set forth 
 the way in which our thoughts should be 
 influenced by it in privacy, at our prayers or 
 our readings, on our beds by night, in our 
 walks, in the company of those we love, on 
 our journeys, in churches, or at times in mixed 
 society, when the conversation becomes any 
 
 a6 
 
12 Church Doctrine, 
 
 way unchaste, or runs into inexpedient jesting 
 or light words about the Church and her 
 customs, when God's Name falls unthinkingly 
 from any one, when low views are put for- 
 ward, or worldly perplexing arguments are 
 forced uncourteously upon religious people. 
 In all such cases the thought of the Angels 
 may keep us safe from taint, where one 
 would be backward to invite thoughts more 
 high and awful still. Now for fear any- 
 thing which might be said should seem what 
 people call poetical, by which they mean 
 unreal and not binding, the doctrine, viewed 
 as a witness against worldly times, shall be 
 stated in the language of Bishop Bull, one of 
 the gravest Doctors of the modern English 
 Church, and of all men, from the frame of his 
 mind as well as his deep learning, least likely 
 to be carried away by poetry, or drawn un- 
 awares into beautiful but untheological lan- 
 guage. 
 
 " It is true indeed," says the Bishop \ " the 
 good Angels do not now ordinarily appear in 
 visible forms, or speak by audible voices to 
 
 ' I 293. Oxford Edition. 
 
a Witness against Worldly Times, 13 
 
 men, as in ancient times they did. After God 
 had once spoken unto men by His Own Son, 
 manifested in the flesh, and by Him fully 
 revealed His will to the world, and confirmed 
 that revelation by a long succession of un- 
 questionable miracles, there was no such need 
 of angelical appearances, for the instruction, 
 consolation, and confirmation of the faithful. 
 The succeeding ages do indeed afford us very 
 credible relations of some such apparitions 
 now and then ; but ordinarily, I say, the 
 government of Angels over us is now admi- 
 nistered in a secret and invisible manner. Hence 
 too many have been inclined either flatly to 
 deny, or at least to call in question, the truth 
 of the docrtine we are now upon. But they 
 have souls very much immersed in flesh, who 
 can apprehend nothing but what touches and 
 affects their senses ; and they that follow this 
 gross and sensual way of procedure, must at 
 last necessarily fall into downright epicurism, 
 to deny all particular Providence of God over 
 the sons of men, and to ascribe all events to 
 those causes that are next to them. 
 
 " But besides, although the ministry of 
 Angels be now for the most part invisible, yet 
 
14? Church Doctrine, 
 
 to the observant it is not altogether indis- 
 cernible. 
 
 " We may trace the footsteps of this secret 
 Providence over us in many instances, of 
 which I shall note a few. How often may we 
 have observed strong, lasting, and irresistible 
 impulses upon our minds to do certain things 
 we can scarce for the present tell why or 
 wherefore, the reason and good success of 
 which we afterwards plainly see ? So, on the 
 contrary, there are oftentimes sudden and un- 
 expected accidents, as we call them, cast in 
 our way, to divert us from certain enterprises 
 we are just ready to engage in, the ill con- 
 sequences whereof we do afterwards, but not 
 till then, apprehend. Again, How strange 
 many times are our present thoughts and sug- 
 gestions in sudden and surprising dangers ! 
 We then upon the spot resolve and determine 
 as well as if we had a long time deliberated, 
 and taken the best advice and counsel ; and 
 we ourselves afterwards wonder how such 
 thouofhts came into our minds. Hither also 
 we may refer that lucky conspiracy of circum- 
 stances, which we sometimes experience in 
 our affairs and business, otherwise of great 
 
a Witness against Worldly Times, 15 
 
 difficulty ; when we light upon the nick of 
 opportunity ; when the persons, whose counsel 
 or assistance we most need, strangely occur, 
 and all things fall out according to our desire, 
 but beyond our expectation. What strange 
 ominous bodings and fears do many times on 
 a sudden seize upon men of certain approach- 
 ing evils, whereof at present there is no visible 
 appearance ! And have we not had some un- 
 questionable instances of men not inclined to 
 melancholy, strongly and unalterably per- 
 suaded of the near approach of their death, 
 so as to be able punctually to tell the very 
 day of it, when they have been in good health, 
 and neither themselves nor their friends could 
 discern any present natural cause for such a 
 persuasion, and yet the event proved, that 
 they were not mistaken ? And although I 
 am no doter on dreams, yet I verily believe, 
 that some dreams iare monitory, above the 
 power of fancy, and impressed upon us by 
 some superior influence. For of such dreams, 
 we have plain and undeniable instances in 
 history, both sacred and profane, and in our 
 own age and observation. Nor shall I so 
 value the laughter of sceptics, and the scoffs 
 
16 Church Doctrine, 
 
 of the Epicureans, as to be ashamed to pro- 
 fess, that I myself have had some convincing 
 experiments of such impressions. Now it is 
 no enthusiasm, but the best account that can 
 be given of them, to ascribe these things to 
 the ministry of those invisible instruments of 
 God's Providence, that guide and govern our 
 affairs and concerns, namely, the Angels of 
 God. 
 
 '' However it is most certain, that the holy 
 Angels are appointed by Divine Providence as 
 the guardians of good men (as, and whilst 
 they are such) in all their ways, and through- 
 out the whole course of their lives. For of 
 this, as you have heard, the Holy Scriptures 
 (to which we have all the reason in the world 
 to give credit) often and most expressly speak ; 
 and the wiser heathens themselves acknow- 
 ledged as much, though they called those 
 blessed instruments of God's Providence over 
 the virtuous by other names than we do, as 
 by that of ' good geniuses,' and the like, as 
 hath been before observed. 
 
 " This theme of Angelical Ministry is indeed 
 very pregnant, and hath administered abun- 
 dant matter to exercise the more curious wits. 
 
a Witness against Worldly Times, 17 
 
 who have raised very many questions about 
 it of more subtlety than profit. 
 
 *' But for my own part, being truly conscious 
 to myself of my infirmity, and believing that 
 what I discourse at this time of the ministry 
 of the holy Angels, I deliver in the presence 
 of some of those heavenly Ministers, I shall 
 be very careful to keep myself within the 
 bounds of modesty and sobriety." 
 
 II. Fellowship with the Dead. This is 
 the doctrine of All Saints' Day, as that of 
 the holy Angels ' is of St. Michael's.' It 
 is not a doctrine the world likes to think 
 upon. It leads our thoughts to a place and 
 a time, where all the world values most, has 
 vanished away. It is continually drawing our 
 affections heavenwards ; and making us so 
 cheerful and contented in ourselves that we 
 stand in no need of the world's noisy mirth 
 and loud happiness. We are not alone in 
 our Christian course. We on earth do not 
 make up the whole of Christ's Church. We 
 are but a small part of it. All the holy men 
 who ever lived since Christ ascended up on 
 high, in Europe, Asia, and Africa, belong to 
 it still in that place of rest where now they 
 
18 Church Doctrine, 
 
 are, in Abraham's bosom. All those who, like 
 their Lord, were crucified, or beheaded, or 
 broken on wheels, or eaten by lions, or frozen 
 in ice, or consumed in cruel fires, all these 
 belong to it, belong to us, hold communion 
 with us, and we with them. All the good and 
 holy men of England are in it likewise ; and 
 England in old time was proverbially the " land 
 of saints." Europe called it so. Many kings 
 and queens have been born and reigned and 
 died ; years have rolled away, great changes 
 have been made all over the island ; but all 
 the holy bishops, lords, doctors, priests, and 
 poor people, w^ho there are equal to the highest, 
 for none are poor in Christ, Who is Himself 
 unsearchable riches, all these, though they 
 are dead, may hold communion with us and 
 we with them. When the Churches we wor- 
 ship in are as full as they will hold, how little 
 is the company within, compared with the 
 silent and invisible congregation of dead men. 
 They all hold communion with us, and we 
 with them. The world has got a bad, cold 
 heart. It is sometimes very kind to people 
 while it sees them, but when they go away it 
 forgets them. It cannot remember anything 
 
a Witness against Worldly Times, 19 
 
 out of sight. It forgets the dead. But surely 
 it must be an unafFectionate thing, yea, a 
 great sin, to forget the dead. They have gone 
 nearer Christ than we are. They see greater 
 things than we see. They are safe from the 
 world, which we are not. Surely the memories 
 of the holy dead are greatly to be honoured 
 and had in remembrance among us. You would 
 not like to be told, if any of you had lost a 
 very dear friend, that you would soon forget 
 him, and be as happy as ever you were, and 
 not be sad when you saw his grave, nor think 
 of him every year when the day of his death 
 came round. It would not seem affectionate. 
 Yet surely we all do something of this sort 
 when we forget our brethren departed in the 
 Lord. Now let us see what sort of feelings 
 Holy Scripture expects us to have towards the 
 Dead. A few passages will be enough to show 
 that we ought to think a good deal about 
 them ; and that is all I wish to show just 
 now; I shall say nothing of their state; of what 
 we owe them, or what they may do for us. This 
 will be enough to teach us how the continual 
 quiet thought of them would keep the world 
 out of our hearts. 
 
20 Church Doctrine y 
 
 St. Paul, in contrasting the Christian with 
 the Jewish Church, gives us a Hst of all the 
 great and glorious things to which the Church 
 brings us, as members of the Body of Christ. 
 Ye are come, he saith not, ye shall come, or 
 ye may come if ye are holy, but '^ Ye are 
 comes" come already, " to Mount Sion and the 
 heavenly Jerusalem, to an innumerable com- 
 pany of angels, and to the spirits of just men 
 made perfect." This is a very plain passage. 
 Then again we are taught, if one member of 
 Christ's Body' suffer, then all the members 
 suffer with it, or one member be joyful, all 
 the members rejoice with it. Thus the in- 
 visible Church, the Dead in the Lord, who 
 are more honourable members of His Body 
 than we are, suffer and rejoice with the Church 
 on earth, and hold communion with it. We 
 on earth are or ought to be anxious with a 
 holy impatience for the end of this world and 
 the filling of the thrones, and the coming of 
 Christ's kingdom. We pray every day in the 
 Lord's Prayer, Thy kingdom come, and we 
 ought to live up to what we pray, or any-how 
 
 ^ Heb. xii. 2:2. ' 1 Cor. xii. 26. 
 
a Witness against Worldly Times, 21 
 
 try to make our words real. Now the Dead 
 also as well as ourselves are impatient for the 
 coming of Christ's kingdom ; for from under- 
 neath the Altar they cry, How long ' ? So again 
 Holy Scripture leads our thoughts towards 
 the Dead in another way, for two opposite 
 reasons. The Dead leave their sins behind 
 them, and the living are punished for them. 
 Diligent, hard-working sons are often punished 
 for the sins of drunken fathers, long after their 
 death. Their property is spent and lost, or 
 their good name gone, or diseases inherited, 
 or a hundred other miserable consequences 
 of sin and chambering and wantonness. So^ 
 for example, we are all of us punished for 
 Adam's sin. His sin, because it was the first 
 sin, never dies. It has lived all along. We 
 are conceived in it, and born in it, and were it 
 not for Holy Baptism, we should all be lost in 
 it, as many still are wilfully in spite of Baptism. 
 Therefore it is, because of what is said in the 
 second commandment, 1 will visit the sins of 
 the fathers upon the children, that in the 
 Litany we say, Remember not. Lord, our 
 
 1 Rev. vi. 10. 
 
22 Church Doctrine, 
 
 offences nor the offences of our forefathers. 
 This then is a very good reason why we should 
 think much and often of the Dead : we are 
 concerned in their sins and the punishment 
 thereof. But we should think of the Dead too 
 for a quite opposite reason : that we often 
 reap the blessings of their piety and goodness. 
 All things, good words, good works, good 
 thoughts, all things which have Christ in them 
 are fruitful and multiply. They are never 
 done multiplying. God will " keep the good 
 deeds of man as the apple of the eye, and 
 give repentance to his sons and daughters ^" 
 Thus many a time was Judah spared the 
 punishment of sin, for David's sake, for My 
 servant David's sake, saith the Almighty. God 
 loved David, and David's goodness was graci- 
 ously and mercifully allowed by God to stand 
 as a reason why Judah should be spared yet 
 awhile. So too in the Christian Church there 
 was a time when the wicked Roman emperor 
 Dioclesian tried to burn all the Bibles in the 
 world. He ruled almost in every country, and 
 he gave orders that on a certain day all the 
 bishops and priests should bring the Bibles 
 
 ^ Ecclus. xvii. 22. 
 
a Witness against Worldly Times, 23 
 
 of their Churches to the heathen magistrates 
 to be destroyed. Now in those days there 
 was no printing, and so books were very scarce 
 indeed ; so that it would not have been at all 
 hard for a Roman emperor to have got them 
 all into his power and made away with them. 
 But God put it into the heart of most of His 
 servants, the bishops and priests, to hide the 
 copies of the Holy Bible, and to bury them or 
 send them away to be kept by people who 
 would never be suspected of having them. 
 The emperor had the bishops and priests 
 tortured and imprisoned, and put many to 
 death to frighten them. But Christ was with 
 them and strengthened them. They would not 
 reveal the secret, and the Bibles were preserved. 
 Now what would have been our religious con- 
 dition, if the emperor had had his will, if the 
 bishops and priests had been cowardly men, 
 or counted their lives dear unto themselves, 
 and had not suffered sharp pains and long 
 tortures for Christ's sake ? We are now enjoy- 
 ing the fruits of their courage and holy deaths. 
 In low spirits, in affliction, in sickness, we can 
 turn to our Bibles, and get new hope con- 
 tinually and fresh light springing up in our 
 
24 Church Doctrine, 
 
 hearts from them. It is so easy we never 
 hnagine it could have been otherwise. Yet it 
 might have been so, had it not been for the 
 holy piety and strong zeal of those bishops and 
 priests hundreds of years ago. Now is it right, 
 is it gentle, is it affectionate, to forget these 
 holy Dead ? ought we not, as soon as we hear 
 of their goodness, to praise God for it, and to 
 think, affectionately of them ? So too, to come 
 nearer home to ourselves, people often derive 
 great blessings in this life from religious fathers 
 and grandfathers : not only from their good 
 example or good teaching, but after their 
 deaths. Other men respect us and do us good, 
 and help us in difficulties and are kind to us, 
 because of the religiousness of our dead rela- 
 tions. Surely then it is a cold-hearted and un- 
 grateful thing to forget them, or to think little 
 and seldom about them. Here then is another 
 very good reason for thinking much about the 
 Dead : their goodness lives after them, and we 
 are concerned in it, and in the reward thereof. 
 Now, of course, if any one wants to know 
 what Scripture means and wishes about any 
 thing, he would naturally and at once go to the 
 Church to learn. This is what our Saviour ap- 
 
 10 
 
a Witness against Worldltj Times. 25 
 
 pointed as the Church's office, to be '' the pillar 
 and ground of the truth :" to lead His members 
 and her children into His truth. The Church 
 does not teach anything contrary to Scripture, 
 and we also may not interpret Scripture con- 
 trary to her. So then we think that if Scrip- 
 ture intended us to think often and much about 
 the Dead, our Church in the Prayer Book will 
 teach us to do so. And this is the case. At 
 the Holy Communion we bless God's " holy 
 Name for all His servants departed this Hfe 
 in His faith and fear ; beseeching Him to give 
 us grace so to follow their good examples, 
 that with them we may be partakers of His 
 heavenly kingdom ;" and then again we pray, 
 " most humbly beseeching Thee to grant that 
 by the merits and passion of Thy Son Jesus 
 Christ, and through faith in His Blood, we 
 and all Thy whole Church (of which of course 
 the Dead are the largest and most important 
 part) may obtain remission of our sins and all 
 other benefits of His Passion :" and in the 
 Burial Service we pray God to hasten His 
 kingdom, '' that we, with all those that are 
 departed in the true faith of Thy holy Name, 
 may have our perfect consummation and bliss, 
 
 B 
 
26 Church Doctrine, 
 
 both in body and soul, in Thine eternal and 
 everlasting glory." 
 
 This then is the way in which Holy Scripture 
 and the Church teach us to regard the Dead and 
 think about them, and hold communion with 
 them, and long after them, and follow their 
 good examples. Now let us see the holy fruits 
 which this duty, rightly performed, would pro- 
 duce in our life and conversation. 
 
 Thinking of the Dead would keep us from 
 worldHness and selfishness. While our thoughts 
 and affections are set steadily on the things of an 
 unseen world, we shall be safe from the dangers 
 and temptations of things seen and temporal. 
 We should be gradually drawn from the love 
 of money and of honours, and too great at- 
 tention to business, drawn from these and 
 led to Christ crucified, by Whom and through 
 Whom alone, the holy Dead have fought the 
 good fight, and are now passed further into 
 the bosom of the Church, and the hopes of 
 heaven. Thinking of the Dead will keep us 
 from bad thoughts, from impure thoughts and 
 unclean sins, which this age is full of and 
 cares little about and treats as venial, though 
 they are deadly sins. Who among us, if he 
 
a Witness against Worldly Times. 27 
 
 were left alone with a dead body, could feel 
 the risings of lust or anger or pride ? Would 
 not the calm, white, motionless face of the 
 dead keep down the risings of sin ? Would 
 it not have power to make us full of thoughts 
 as quiet and solemn, as its own solemn self ? 
 When any of us lose a father or mother, a 
 brother or sister, or a dear friend, do we not 
 for a long while after feel that sadness keeps 
 us from sin ? We are not proud, we are not 
 angry, we are not lustful when we are sad. 
 Sorrow is better than laughter. Sorrow keeps 
 us from sin. Immediately after the death of one 
 we love, we feel, if we may say so reverently, 
 as we feel after we have been at the Holy 
 Communion : silent and thoughtful, quiet, 
 gentle and full of good-will to everybody who 
 comes near us, and inchned to prayer. The 
 devil seems to depart from us for a season, and 
 not to trouble us with temptation ; as knowing 
 that we have been with Christ, and that now 
 even our weak sinful bodies are too holy a 
 place for him. Thinking of the Dead will 
 make us kindhearted, meek, and forgiving. 
 Rudeness, anger, spite, ridicule, noisiness, we 
 have no room for all these when our hearts are 
 B 2 
 
28 Church Doctrine, 
 
 filled with thoughts of the quiet and peaceful 
 Dead. We move softly about a room where a 
 dead body lies ; not as though our footsteps 
 could awaken it or disturb it, but still it comes 
 natural to us to move softly ; it would seem 
 rude to make a noise. It is the strong power 
 the dead body has over us. So it is in our 
 souls when we are thinking of the Dead. 
 
 Thinking of the Dead sets forth the power 
 of the Cross of Christ, the power to heal, to 
 save, to make the dead alive. What was there 
 the Cross of Christ did not constrain their 
 love to do ? Did it not drive them from one 
 end of this broad earth unto the other ? Was 
 not the Gospel heard, as the sound of good 
 church bells, in every coast of the poor dark 
 heathen^ in our coast, the heathen Enghsh ? 
 In sun and frost, in wind and rain, in the 
 scorning cities and colleges of the rich and 
 wise, as well as in the rude huts and mud-built 
 villages of the cruel savage, did they not bear 
 the Cross, and lift it up on high, and plant it 
 in the earth, and water it with prayer, and oft- 
 time feed it with their blood ? The Cross then 
 is no word, no name, no sweet imagination. 
 People do not die for names. The Cross was 
 
a Witness against Worldly Times. 29 
 
 unto the dead, the Cross is unto us, the 
 power, the very mighty power of God. Deep 
 wood, high hill, cold sea and sandy desert, all 
 have seen and heard the Cross. The Dead 
 took it there, the great, brave-hearted Dead. 
 And then shall we forget them, as if they 
 cared not how the Cross fared now on earth ? 
 Christ is the head of all of us, the dead and 
 living, the Holy Ghost knits dead and living 
 into one fellowship and holy communion, He 
 joins us to our Head by joints and bands, full 
 of heavenly nourishment, poured in and out 
 of each other, like veins in our bodies, which 
 are a shadow of Christ's Body ; increase flows 
 out from Christ into the dead and living ; we 
 increase together, while we increase in Him. 
 Let not one member say or think it can in- 
 crease without another. Let not the living 
 think that they can live and grow without 
 the Dead ; the Dead in Christ ; nay, though 
 they be absent in the flesh, yet are they with 
 us in the Spirit, even the Holy Ghost, joying 
 and beholding our order, and the steadfastness 
 of our faith in Christ. 
 
 Thinking of the Dead brings other blessings 
 yet. It leads us by God's grace to follow their 
 examples. We see nothing but strife and 
 
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THE 
 
 UNFULFILLED GLORY 
 
 OF 
 
 THE CHURCH. 
 
 When a man is celebrating his birth-day, 
 if he is a religious man^ his thoughts run 
 mainly in one direction, upon the trials and 
 blessings he has already received from God, 
 together with an anxious yet not uneasy or 
 fretful looking on into futurity, which he is 
 not able at such seasons altogether to repress. 
 A man's past life does in a measure prophesy 
 of his future life. He cannot indeed see his 
 own immortal soul. He cannot tell where it 
 resides, or how it is gifted, or what shall be- 
 come of it in the end. He is to a very great 
 degree a mystery to himself. But his own 
 nature, his own powers, and the peculiar bent 
 of his disposition, are disclosed to him in his 
 sins. Where he has failed once, he may fail 
 a2 
 
4 The Unfulfilled Glory of the Li*^rch. 
 
 again ; and where he has conquered once, he 
 may, by God's grace, still go on to conquer. 
 Thus his religious experience, and more espe- 
 cially his sins, are year by year getting toge- 
 ther fresh materials, out of which he may in 
 part discern his future life, his life, that is, as 
 a religious man, as being a spirit in a state of 
 growth and progress, as having a good begin- 
 ning in himself, which will be carried on through 
 good and evil, in hght and darkness, without 
 intermission, till the day of the Lord Jesus. 
 Thus the anniversary of a man's birth, or still 
 more of his Baptism, his true birth, is a time 
 of thought and silence, of gladness yet full of 
 fear, of rejoicing unto the Lord and yet re- 
 joicing with reverence. Now what we thus 
 naturally do for ourselves on our birthdays, 
 we are called, on the Festival of the Epiphany, 
 to do for the Church, making her past history 
 prophesy of that which is yet to come. It is 
 the birthday of the Gentile Church : the day 
 at which a hundred prophecies touched and 
 met and were fulfilled, and yet went on pro- 
 phesying, as waiting for a more complete and 
 glorious fulfilment. Thus both the past and 
 the future are presented to our view ; and the 
 
The Unfulfilled Glory of the Church. 5 
 
 present is the ground from which we are to 
 view them. The past filling us with thoughts 
 of joy, not unmixed with sadder and more 
 penitential feelings ; and the future being 
 matter of faith, and hope, and prayer, and a 
 loud call to a stricter and more obedient life. 
 The Church, in the lessons which she has 
 selected from Isaiah, puts before us the weight 
 of prophecy which rests upon the Gentile 
 Church ; and of which, lying as it does so 
 plentifully up and down the Bible, these two 
 chapters are, so to speak, rich specimens, like 
 the grapes of Eshcol, proofs sent on before- 
 hand, of plenty and abundance yet to be ful- 
 filled. Something therefore may be said of 
 these prophecies, as they concern the Church, 
 and as we ourselves, being Churchmen, are 
 practically concerned therein. 
 
 It must be obvious to any one reading the 
 prophecies about the Gentile Church with 
 common devoutness, and who has too much 
 reverence and too much lowly-mindedness to 
 put them aside after the summary fashion in 
 which many do, on the score of allegory, 
 eastern figures, or poetical expression, it must 
 be obvious either that they are yet unfulfilled, 
 
 A3 
 
6 The Unfulfilled Glory of the Church, 
 
 except in part, or that the sins of the Church 
 and the httleness of her faith have so interfered 
 with and disfigured the fulfilment that we are 
 not able to recognise it: not able, by comparing 
 the present state of the Church with the lines 
 and pictures of prophecy, to ascertain where- 
 abouts the Church is, to what point she has 
 arrived on that path of mingled suffering and 
 glory which is allotted her in prophecy. 
 Whichever view we take, it renders the past 
 history of the Church Catholic, and hier pros- 
 pects for the future, a subject of lively and 
 indeed of fearful interest. Looking at her 
 present condition, either as regards the resto- 
 ration of the Jews, or the conversion of the 
 heathen, or the bringing to obedience the 
 powers of the world, or as regards the purity 
 of her ancient faith or the outward unity of her 
 sons, it is such and so sad, that we should have 
 imagined men would have been very jealous 
 of accounting any prophecy quite and for ever 
 fulfilled ; that they would have been anxious 
 to think that as much as possible yet remained 
 to be fulfilled ; because then there would be 
 so much the more glory yet behind, which 
 might fall out even in the days of their flesh ; 
 
The Unfulfilled Glory of the Church, 7 
 
 by which, at all events, whether among those 
 who are alive on earth or those who are alive 
 elsewhere, they would be very greatly and 
 very sensibly affected. Now the case is so 
 far otherwise, that men do every thing they 
 can to make themselves believe that almost all 
 is accomplished, and nothing to come except 
 those great things which will be the immediate 
 precm'sors of the second advent of our Lord. 
 
 Thus men have, for the most part, treated 
 prophecy in one or other of two ways. Some 
 have been offended at the wild and heretical 
 speculations which have too much character- 
 ized later writers on unfulfilled prophecy ; and 
 so have been led to regard that whole province 
 of theology as dangerous and unpractical. 
 They have thus, in great measure, failed to 
 keep alive within themselves that affectionate 
 solicitude and eagerness about the Church and 
 her prospects which were so strikingly upper- 
 most in the mind of the ancient Christians, 
 and contributed in no slight degree to their 
 elevation and heavenliness of character. By 
 this too they have weakened that temper of 
 readiness and expectation, which the perpetual 
 belief and waiting for the speedy coming of 
 
 A 4 
 
8 The Unfulfilled Glory of the Church. 
 
 the Lord could not but form within the soul ; 
 a belief which, however lightly spoken of in 
 these times, was as prominent in apostolic 
 teaching as it was influential in apostolic prac- 
 tice. They have come imperceptibly to sub- 
 stitute death in their minds for this more kin- 
 dling hope, and to urge it on their followers 
 where St. Peter or St. Paul would have urged 
 the immediate advent of our Lord. Death 
 indeed, in their view, was as it were practically 
 and to each of them the second advent. For 
 they had built a wilful wall between the dead, 
 the world of spirits, and themselves ; and, 
 their allegiance to the Church having long sat 
 loosely upon them, they had become absorbed 
 in themselves, and had lost all keen and 
 anxious sympathy with the Church at large, 
 or pious expectation of those glories, which, 
 for so many centuries, have been delayed. 
 Thus prophecy was degraded to a mere evi- 
 dence, to be coldly weighed and accurately 
 fitted to actual facts, and to be commented 
 upon with much applause out of infidel histo- 
 rians ; and texts were picked up here and 
 there out of the Bible to be clothed with 
 effective parallels and striking fulfilments, which 
 
The Unfulfilled Glory of the Church, 9 
 
 should carry conviction to the doubtful, and 
 transmute, by a poor intellectual process, un- 
 believers into Christians. 
 
 Then again there were others, of quicker 
 devotional feelings, who threw themselves into 
 the field of unfulfilled prophecy, and, not 
 carrying along with them the guidance of the 
 early Church, ran into wanton speculations, 
 not always agreeable to the analogy of faith. 
 Their tendency has generally been to find the 
 great bulk of prophecy accomplished and 
 accomplishing in their own times. Thus the 
 Roman Church, the English Church, the infidel 
 schools of the eighteenth century, and finally 
 Napoleon, have been brought into uncouth 
 coUision as the respective antichrists, each of 
 a numerous and influential body of expositors. 
 In like manner, the apostacy predicted by St. 
 Paul long remained in the quiet possession of 
 Protestant controversiahsts, as an undoubted 
 weapon against Rome ; but it has been in this 
 day transferred, in the miserable dialect of a 
 late confused and impure writer, to the " Ni- 
 cene asceticism," and " rehgion of the Sacra- 
 ments" of '' ancient Christianity." To serve 
 their successive purposes, the Hteral and alle- 
 A 5 
 
10 The Unfulfilled Glory of the Church. 
 
 gorical interpretation of prophecy have been 
 run together in the most uncritical confu- 
 sion. It has not uncommonly happened, 
 that half a passage of Scripture has been, by 
 one school, taken literally and the other half 
 figuratively; which literal and figurative halves 
 have simply changed places one with another 
 in the succeeding school of exposition. This 
 anxiety to find a great body of predictions 
 meeting and fulfilling themselves in their own 
 days, has not arisen from any sympathy or 
 strong feeling with the fortunes of the Church 
 Catholic, but rather from the necessity of 
 some high imaginative excitement for them- 
 selves and their adherents, or to escape by 
 means of their theology from the dulness of 
 their own uneventful times, or not unfrequently 
 for the base end of serving some coarse con- 
 troversial purpose. 
 
 It is unnecessary to show what discredit all 
 this profane handhng of Holy Scripture has 
 brought upon the study of unfulfilled prophecy, 
 in the minds of too many sober and modest 
 Christians. All history, its little and least 
 events, as well as its greater ones, are doubt- 
 less fulfilments of prophecy, and advances to 
 
The Unfulfilled Glory of the Church, 11 
 
 that complete fulfilment which is the glory of 
 the Church ; and the only deep Christian way 
 of studying history is as the reflected face of 
 prophecy. And so far the schemes of inter- 
 pretation above alluded to are not without a 
 portion of truth in them : each may have some 
 little. But what is to be observed as the 
 characteristic mark of both these schools is 
 this, that the Church is dropped out of view : 
 they seem to have forgotten almost throughout 
 that the Church and the Church only, one 
 and catholic, is the object of nearly all this 
 prophecy ; the person, as it were, round which 
 prophecy revolves, the form which prophecy 
 clothes, and from which it takes its shape ; 
 that these several predictions are, so to speak, 
 the Church's garments, garments smelling of 
 myrrh, aloes, and cassia, out of the ivory 
 palaces whereby her Spouse hath made her 
 glad. 
 
 It troubles worldly men and frightens faith- 
 less men to think that they are living in a 
 state of miracles, that a miraculous dispensa- 
 tion is going on all round them, and that dis- 
 closures and appearances of it may be expected 
 at any moment. It disturbs their peace and 
 A 6 
 
12 The Unfulfilled Glory of the Church. 
 
 comfort to imagine that they are so near such 
 great things, from the presence and, it may 
 so happen, from the sight of which they can- 
 not escape. They are hke the Gadarenes, 
 whose hearts failed them when they besought 
 Jesus that He would depart out of their coast^. 
 They have not the cause of the Church at 
 heart ; except where it does not interfere with 
 themselves, where it does not call on them to 
 labour and suffer hardness, to make sacrifices, 
 and go heavily as one that mourneth for his 
 mother. They are not anxious to see all 
 nations and kingdoms, who will not serve the 
 Church, perish, because they know the victory 
 involves trouble and unquietness in which they 
 themselves will be concerned ; and so they 
 " see that rest is good, and the land that it is 
 pleasant; and bow their shoulders to bear, 
 and become servants unto tribute ^ ." They do 
 not see any miracles ; and it is not likely they 
 will believe what they do not see, when they 
 are so anxious to disbeheve ; and thus, how- 
 ever unconsciously to themselves, they use the 
 very language of unbelief ; " since the fathers 
 fell asleep, all things continue as they were 
 
 ^ Gen. xlix. 15. 
 
The Unfulfilled Glory of the Church, 13 
 
 from the beginning^" But St. Peter warns us 
 distinctly that the "Lord is not slack concern- 
 ing His promise, as some men count slackness ^" 
 We know then that He has made the Church 
 great promises of glory ; we see that those 
 promises are not yet fulfilled, and so we be- 
 lieve they will be fulfilled very soon ; because 
 St. Peter tells us "the Lord is not slack con- 
 cerning His promise." But worldly men have 
 not set their hearts upon this glory. They 
 are not earnest about it. They do not feel at 
 all unhappy about the Church. They have 
 forgotten Jerusalem in their mirth. They 
 have not remembered her captivity. They 
 are afraid of the trouble and noise which may 
 accompany the bringing in of this glory : and 
 so they do not like to be told that they are 
 living under a dispensation of miracles. 
 
 But is not this the only true and reasonable 
 account of the state of things under which we 
 find ourselves as Churchmen ? The time of 
 miracles is said to have ended, that is to say, 
 of visible miracles. But there may be invisible 
 miracles, and visible miracles may return any 
 day. The Conception of our Lord was a 
 
 ^ 2 Pet. iii. 4. ' 2 Pet. iii. 9. 
 
14 The Unfulfilled Glory of the Church. 
 
 miracle ; and a miracle without a witness. 
 The Resm-rection was a miracle ; yet no one 
 saw it, except perhaps the Angels, as it is 
 written, ^' He was seen of Angels^ ." His 
 chosen Apostles did not see it. They were 
 only witnesses of it, by having seen Him after 
 He was risen. No one saw Him rise. The 
 time of visible miracles then is over ; it is 
 suspended for a while, but not for ever. It 
 seems from Scripture, that the end of the 
 Church will come to pass among far greater 
 and more universal and more terrible wonders 
 than those which stood round about her cradle. 
 But are there to be no miracles meanwhile ; 
 that is to say, if the prophecies are ever to 
 find their fulfilment ? Will not the restoration 
 of the Jews be a miracle ? Will not the con- 
 version of the Gentiles be a miracle ? Will 
 not the breaking in pieces of the images of 
 the powers of this world be a miracle ? The 
 extinction of heresy, the recovery of unity — 
 will not these be miracles ? And some of 
 these things at all events will come to pass, 
 unless God is utterly displeased with His 
 Church. Yet He has told us this very day 
 
 ' 1 Tim iii. 16. 
 
The Uiifulfilled Glory of the Church, 15 
 
 that He cannot forget her : ^' Behold I have 
 graven thee upon the palms of my hands ; thy 
 walls are continually before me. As I live, 
 saith the Lord, thou shalt surely clothe thee 
 with all the nations, as with an ornament, and 
 bind them on thee, as a bride doeth^" 
 
 Of course one effect of our sins is this, that 
 we do not know what hold they have taken 
 on the accomplishment of prophecy, what they 
 have interfered with and what they have not ; 
 what will be kept back from us because of our 
 sins, and what will still be given us in spite of 
 them. For example : whether God will ever 
 give Kis Church unity and outward commu- 
 nion again, in which her strength and dignity 
 so much consist, and upon which so many of 
 the promises evidently depend, seeing that 
 man's sin and wantonness made hght of break- 
 ing the body of Christ while it was yet entire ; 
 and that since then, v/hen from time to time 
 in particular Churches God has restored par- 
 tial unity, as it were, to try man's heart and 
 see what was in it, man's sin destroyed it all 
 again. It ruffled the waters, and the image 
 of heaven that was reflected there passed away. 
 
 ' Isaiah xlix. 16. 
 
16 The Unfulfilled Glory of the Church. 
 
 We are left in doubt. Doubt is the necessary 
 consequence of sin. But, blessed be God ! 
 whatever is matter of doubt is matter of faith 
 and prayer also. Complete unity then may 
 never be given us again ; but so far as the 
 restoration of the Jews and their reconciliation 
 with the Gentile Church, there seems ground 
 for supposing that it will be granted to us. 
 
 Now let us look at the restoration of the 
 Jews, as giving interest to the future prospects 
 of the Church, the thought of which the Fes- 
 tival of the Epiphany almost forces upon us. 
 The Gentile Church, it is true, has a glory 
 of her own, quite independent of the Jews. 
 " Though Israel be not gathered, yet shall I 
 be glorious in the eyes of the Lord, and my 
 God shall be my strength ^" Yet how much 
 more glorious if Israel be gathered. Indeed 
 the gathering of Israel seems to be, from 
 many places of Scripture, the office of the 
 Gentile Church ; and the verse above quoted 
 may be rendered, though not so well, as we 
 read it in the margin : " The Lord formed me 
 from the womb to be his servant, to bring 
 Jacob again to him, that Israel may be 
 
 ' Isaiah xlix. 5. 
 
The Unfulfilled Glory of the Church. 17 
 
 gathered, and I may be glorious in the eyes 
 of the Lord, and my God may be my strength." 
 This gives still further interest to the Church, 
 as having not only the conversion of the 
 heathen entrusted to her, but in an especial 
 manner the restoration of the Jews. And " if 
 the casting away of them was the reconciling 
 of the world, what shall the receiving of them 
 be, but life from the dead ^ ?" There is yet a 
 more solemn thought connected with this sub- 
 ject. The Jewish Church of old imagined 
 themselves as secure in the favour of God as 
 we the Gentile and the Christian Church think 
 ourselves now. They were cut off. Obedi- 
 ence was the condition on which their exist- 
 ence as a Church depended, and obedience is 
 the condition on which our existence as a 
 particular Church depends also. " Boast not 
 against the branches. Thou wilt say then, 
 The branches were broken off, that I might 
 be grafFed in. Well : because of unbelief they 
 were broken off, and thou standest by faith. 
 Be not highminded, but fear. God is able to 
 graft them in again. Bhndness in part is 
 happened unto Israel, only until the fulness of 
 
 ^ Rom. xi. 15. 
 
18 The Unfulfilled Glory of the Church. 
 
 the Gentiles be come in. All Israel shall be 
 saved ^" Thus, so far as the restoration of 
 Israel is concerned, which is only one of many 
 promised glories, there is enough to quicken 
 our hopes and feelings about the prospects 
 of the Church, and make us look on with 
 eagerness to the time when it shall please 
 God to put such great faith into the hearts 
 of the Gentiles, that they may bring Jacob 
 back again. The Jews have all along been 
 a miraculous people : God hath not dealt so 
 with any nation. They were miraculously 
 distinguished from the rest of the world by 
 God's favour ; and they are no less miracu- 
 lously distinguished now by His displeasure. 
 Their present condition is a living proof of the 
 fulfilment of prophecy, of which our very 
 bodily senses can assure us. Now, with what- 
 ever other circumstances of pomp and grandeur 
 the restoration of Israel may be accompanied, 
 the mere ending of their present state would be 
 an open miracle ; a visible putting forth of 
 God's Hand on behalf of His Church ; a bring- 
 ing about a wonderful change on the outward 
 face of things. When it took place we could 
 
 ^ Rom. xa. 18. 
 
The Unfulfilled Glory of the Church. 19 
 
 not but see, our enemies could not but see, 
 that God was with us of a truth. 
 
 The restoration of the Jews leads us entirely 
 into the future — the prospects of the Church. 
 Let us look at one more prophecy, which leads 
 us into the past as w^ell as the future : the one 
 contained in Isaiah Ix. 12 : *' The nation and 
 kingdom that will not serve thee shall perish." 
 This is a promise made by God to the Church, 
 that all heathen kingdoms should be brought 
 into subjection to her. It is made in a still 
 more special manner by the prophet Zechariah^ 
 where it is said, that whatever nation refuses 
 to come up to Jerusalem to keep a Feast of 
 Tabernacles to the Lord, shall have no rain ; 
 and of Egypt, where from natural causes there 
 is seldom rain, and the inundation of the Nile 
 serves instead, it is said that there shall be the 
 plague. The Church of God was then with 
 the Jews, and the promise made to them. 
 When, however, through unbelief the Church 
 passed from them to the Gentiles, all the pro- 
 mises were transferred with her as her own 
 inheritance, as our Lord teaches ; and this one 
 in particular is renewed and repeated by Him, 
 
 ^ Zech. xiv. 17, 18. 
 
20 The Unfulfilled Glory of the Church. 
 
 lest it should have been thought something 
 peculiar to the Jews. " Therefore say I unto 
 you, the kingdom of God shall be taken from 
 you, and given to a nation bringing forth the 
 fruits thereof. And whosoever shall fall on 
 this stone shall be broken ; but on whomsoever 
 it shall fall, it will grind him to powder ^" 
 Where we may observe, that by the word stone 
 we are at once recalled to the prophecy of 
 Daniel ^ where the Messiah's kingdom is also 
 represented under the simiUtude of a stone, as 
 well as to the passage in the Psalms quoted by 
 our Lord in the same chapter ^ Now surely, 
 no one can say that this prophecy is yet ful- 
 filled. Let us look into the history of the 
 past — there it has been partially fulfilled 
 more than once. I will take one instance 
 familiar to almost every body : the mortal 
 struggle of the early Church with the Roman 
 empire, according to Daniel's interpretation of 
 the dream. The infant Church grew up, in 
 spite of persecution, in the very middle of the 
 empire, gradually, slowly, silently, as our Lord 
 said it would, like a grain of mustard seed. 
 It grew more hardily for being in the shade. 
 ' Matt. xxi. 43, 44. ^ d^q. n. 34. 3 pg^ cxviii. 22. 
 
The Unfulfilled Glory of the Church. 21 
 
 In time it had eaten away the heart of the old 
 Roman empire, which at last thought fit to 
 adopt Christianity as its state religion. But it 
 was too late. Repentance had been deferred 
 too long. It was like putting new wine into 
 an old bottle. The full and quick spirit that 
 was in it tore its w^ay through the old vessels 
 that would fain have held it in. But they 
 were of man's making, and therefore could not 
 do so. The Church was the destruction of 
 the empire. She killed it at its heart. She 
 was a jealous power, and would not infuse 
 fresh life and vigour into an outworn system 
 which she had not herself created : so she 
 broke it. Now in this she asserted her birth- 
 right over earthly powers, and the prophecy 
 was in a measure fulfilled. Yet surely not 
 completely fulfilled. It was but one instance. 
 If it fulfilled the particular prophecy of Daniel, 
 yet it does not come up to the fulness of the 
 general prophecy in the text : and if we look 
 attentively into the prophecy in Daniel, we 
 shall find that even that does not seem quite 
 fulfilled. The iron, the clay, the brass, the 
 silver, and the gold, are indeed broken to 
 pieces together ; yet are they become like the 
 
22 The Unfulfilled Glory of the Church. 
 
 chaff of the summer threshing-floors, and has 
 the wind carried them away so that no place is 
 found for them^ ? It does not seem that this is 
 Vulfilled. 
 
 Now I have selected these two instances, 
 the restoration of the Jews, and the breaking 
 in pieces the powers of the world, for this 
 reason ; that it is a great comfort to us, and a 
 great incentive to labour, to know how much 
 is yet behind of the Church's glory ; and these 
 two promises in particular, can scarcely be 
 brought about without making much noise, and 
 disorder, and fear, in their fulfilment. No 
 vague notions of a spiritual fulfilment, spi- 
 ritual, that is, in the sense of hidden and un- 
 seen, can satisfy the plain words of Inspiration, 
 on these two points at all events. God will be 
 visibly with His Church, she will be exalted 
 visibly in the eyes of men, she that is great 
 among the nations, and princess among the 
 princes, will visibly cease to be tributary ^ ; the 
 solitary city will visibly be full of people ^ ; they 
 that despised her shall bow themselves down 
 at the soles of her feet, and men shall speak 
 out loud and call her, the City of the Lord, the 
 ' Dan. ii. 35. ^ Lam. i. 1. ' Is. Ix. 14. 
 
The Unfulfilled Glory of the Church, 23 
 
 Zion of the holy One of Israel ; the singers 
 shall sing aloud, so that the joy of Jerusalem 
 will be heard even afar ofFM 
 
 Now this fact, that we are living under a 
 state of miracles, and that most of the miracu- 
 lous glory of the Church is yet unfulfilled, 
 teaches us one lesson : and the hkelihood that 
 man's sin may in some way or other have hin- 
 dered, and may yet still further hinder the 
 coming of that glory, teaches us another. 
 From the first we learn to be cheerful about 
 the Church ; and from the second, to be watch- 
 ful of ourselves. We are not to despond. We 
 are not to give ourselves up to mere feehng, 
 and waste our soul's best health and strength 
 in holding mere opinions, and giving way to 
 the indulgence of vain excitement and useless 
 regret. We are not to be weary at fast and 
 feast, in sacraments and prayer. Our faith 
 must grow with our difficulties. We must 
 hope even against hope, courageously and like 
 men. There is much glory to be wrought out 
 yet for and within the Church. Many persons 
 are inclined to disbelieve this ; because it seems 
 so unlikelv from the state of the world. To 
 
 ^ Neh. xii. 43. 
 
24 The Unfulfilled Glorij of the Church, 
 
 them it is an oppressive and melancholy thing, 
 that all nations, one after another, should have 
 fallen to decay ; that man's intellect should no 
 where have reared an enduring structure ; that 
 civilization should have moved from east to 
 west, and no trace be left of her presence, ex- 
 cept perhaps here and there a half-ruined 
 temple leaning on the mound its own decay 
 has heaped about it. Still more melancholy 
 that it should have been so with the Church 
 in those countries. This fact in her history is 
 a scandal to them; just as our Saviour's life 
 was a scandal to the Jews. They did not 
 think there was enough of glory in it. They 
 did not know His glory was in suffering. And 
 the Church's glory is in suffering also. Her 
 career was not to be always one of victory and 
 triumph, as we may see from that vision of St. 
 John in Patmos, when he saw the holy Church 
 pass on from east to west, like the moon, which 
 is her figure and her type, walking among the 
 manifold shadows of the night. Surely they 
 do not remember that the kingdoms and em- 
 pires of the world with all their systems and 
 governments, that all the intricate and tyran- 
 nical state in which we hve, is unreal ; that it 
 
 10 
 
The Unfulfilled Glory of the Church. 25 
 
 is merely the divinely ordered apparatus of 
 probation, surrounded by which, single and 
 immortal souls are to move, and be disciphned 
 for heaven. The fall of an old empire, which 
 at far distant intervals sounds an alarm through- 
 out the world, possesses no interest for the 
 Church, except so far as it may aid her in de- 
 cyphering the handwriting of prophecy, graven 
 on the walls of the visible world, and furnish 
 another type, perchance a presage, of the final 
 destiny of man. 
 
 But, if the world's history weighs oppres- 
 sively on mere literary historians and worldly- 
 minded men, there are others, to whom the 
 Church's history brings only despondency and 
 cheerlessness. There is indeed much in it to 
 make us humble ourselves deeply for our sins ; 
 yet it is not so dark and so disheartening as 
 some make it out to be ; neither may we, as 
 reverent and earnest men, betake ourselves to 
 any of the rude and faithless theories men have 
 dreamed, in order to get rid of our difficulty. 
 Some have so little had the glory of the Church 
 at heart, that they have depressed the primi- 
 tive Christians to our own level, as well in the 
 gifts, as in the graces of the Spirit : and, for 
 
26 The Unfulfilled Glory of the Church. 
 
 want of being scribes well instructed unto the 
 Kingdom of heaven, have fearfully misinter- 
 preted the history of that Kingdom all along. 
 They deny that Scripture promises any powers 
 to the early Church which are not equally 
 promised to the Church through all time. 
 Surely men forget that many passages of holy 
 Scripture imply that these powers are to depend 
 greatly upon agreement and unity ^ ; which 
 unity the ancient Church had, and we have 
 not. Again, the Epistles mention spiritual 
 gifts as being very plentiful in the Churches, 
 especially in Corinth, the most disordered of 
 all the apostolic communities ; and the conti- 
 nuance of these miraculous gifts may be traced 
 for some while in well attested histories, till 
 the Church and the world are too much toge- 
 ther, and many lights go out or burn dim 
 within the sanctuary. These gifts are not 
 
 ^ For example, St. John xvii. 20, 21, 22, 23 ; where our 
 Lord first makes what he is about to say belong to the 
 Church of all ages, as well as the Apostles ; and then makes 
 the power of the Church to convert the world — her glory — 
 her perfection — to consist in her having a unity, myste- 
 riously like the circuminsession of the Father and the 
 Son. 
 
 10 
 
The Unfulfilled Glory of the Church. 27 
 
 visibly continued to our times, and so far as we 
 can naake out, do not show themselves actively 
 working in the separated particular Churches 
 into which the Catholic body has been so 
 wretchedly sundered. Still there are great 
 promises of mighty gifts made in the Gospels 
 to the Church, and those promises stand to 
 these days unrevoked. It may be partly, as 
 these men say, that we have the same gifts 
 with the Church of old. Surely, in the Church 
 Catholic there doth still abide this miracu- 
 lous hfe, and power, and energy, latent be- 
 <*ause of separation, enfeebled because of sin, 
 in abeyance because of want of faith. Are we 
 then to render the recovery of the Church's 
 vigour still more improbable, by holding off 
 from and multiplying causes of^ealousy with 
 other communities ? Are we to separate our- 
 selves more and more from the ancient Church 
 in doctrine, in morals, and in tone of thought 
 and feeling, and make it too a foreign Church, 
 as these men would have us do ? Should we, 
 as they do, in profane pride, too much forget 
 our own sins and self-indulgences, our un- 
 godly literatures and fearful separations, and 
 rife heresies, and lightly regarded schisms, and 
 b2 
 
28 The Unfulfilled Glory of the Church. 
 
 rude handlings of Scripture, and endeavour to 
 render the ancient Church contemptible and 
 hateful in men's eyes, throwing upon it all that 
 is evil in our present state, and arrogating to 
 ourselves all the light that is still left within 
 us ? Surely, were that true, our light would 
 be a very Egyptian darkness. It may be well 
 for us, politically speaking, to be an island : 
 but woe be unto us if we be insulated from 
 the continent either of ancient or later Christ- 
 ianity. Again, there are some few who would 
 have their theology thought enlarged and phi- 
 losophical, when they maintain that Christ- 
 ianity, like science, or literature, or civiliza- 
 tion, has been continually improving ; which, 
 to be consistent, must mean either that the 
 world of thi^day is getting beyond the Bible, 
 (which is not at all unhkely,) or that it now 
 understands the Bible better than the disciples, 
 friends, or episcopal successors of the Apostles 
 did (which is most unlikely) : or, as this view 
 is modestly worded by one writer ^ that "po* 
 
 * The author of some tracts called Ancient Christianity. 
 His view, so far as we can gather it, from the confused 
 arrangement and ambiguous oracular style of his book, may 
 be stated thus : — That Christianity was never less Christ- 
 
The Unfulfilled Glory of the Church. 29 
 
 pery is a corrected expression of the Christ- 
 ianity of the Nicene age." 
 
 It is unnecessary here to enter into a refuta- 
 tion of this view, which makes the Church de- 
 pend upon the world, instead of the world de- 
 pending upon the Church. To reply to a line 
 of argument, which at every turn contradicts 
 the Articles, the Homihes, and the Prefaces to 
 the Book of Common Prayer, would almost 
 «eem a patronizing of the Church rather than 
 receiving instruction from her. We are only 
 speaking here to humble Churchmen, who 
 may have been disappointed and discomforted 
 by the study of Church history. Humble 
 
 dan tban when it was ancient (p. 99) ; that Nicene Christ- 
 ianity was the apostasy predicted by St. Paul (p. 299) ; 
 that Romanism is an improvement upon it, and has done 
 the best it could with it (pp. 78, 79) ; that, however, the 
 Church did not cast off the slough of Gnosticism and apos- 
 tasy till the Reformation (passim) ; that up to that time 
 oriental Christianity was mainly Sooffeeism and occidental 
 Christianity mainly Brahminism (p. 147, et al.) ; that the 
 Reformers themselves were too much addicted to " demo- 
 nology ;^' that the English Church is " untowardly'^ Nicene 
 in her formularies ; finally, that we must emancipate our- 
 selves forthwith, the means of doing which the author has 
 not yet published. 
 
 b3 
 
30 The Unfulfilled Glory of the Church, 
 
 minds need no caution against such a view of 
 things. It may be let alone, and left to its 
 fate, with that constant esteem for antiquity 
 and steady reference to the primitive cen- 
 turies, which has been so long and so deeply 
 worn by political trial and distressing contro- 
 versy into the very heart of the Enghsh branch 
 of the Church Catholic. Let as many, then, 
 as feel a deep and anxious interest in those 
 glories of prophecy, which are yet to be ful- 
 filled, labour rather to bring them on, by unit- 
 ing themselves more and more closely with 
 the ancient Church. Let them be ancient 
 Christians in doctrine, in customs, but, above 
 all, in habits of thought. Let us fix our 
 gaze with such affectionate steadiness upon 
 the austere beauty of their features, that their 
 expression may imprint itself on us, their linea- 
 ments transfer themselves upon ours, their 
 eyes be kindled again in our eyes, their voices 
 wake and speak in ours. 
 
 For ourselves and our own practice, how- 
 ever, we must remember that God withdraws 
 Himself, and removes the candlestick where 
 there is unfaithfulness. The life of the 
 Church is in the faith of her children, her 
 
The Unfulfilled Glory of the Church. 31 
 
 strength is in their purity, and her hope in 
 their obedience. We must not attempt 
 great things. We must neither dream nor 
 do for ourselves, in thought or deed, it 
 were better not even in our secret imagina- 
 tions, what we ought rather to leave for God 
 to do for us. We must not talk too much of 
 the evils of the Church, lest perchance we cease 
 to feel for them. We must remember, that 
 from mere mortals we have been by baptism 
 marvellously made into sons of God : and we 
 must live as beseems our heavenly nobility. 
 By discipline and hardness, by constancy 
 and self-denial, by meekness and gentleness, 
 by doing our plain duty just as it comes before 
 us, by prayer and watching, and above all by 
 frequent sacraments, we shall build up the 
 waste places of Jerusalem. The whole Church 
 is bettered by each single man's obedience. 
 This is beyond a doubt. Only we must not 
 look to see our own work. Great works are 
 slow, and the foundation stones of God's works 
 are laid in depth and silence : the feast of the 
 Epiphany teaches us this. The proud Romans 
 and the other nations of the world httle thought, 
 when the wise men were at the Lord's feet at 
 
32 The Unfulfilled Glory of the Church. 
 
 Bethlehem, that homage had been paid in 
 their name to a King they did not know, and 
 when they knew Him, despised Him, and 
 made light of His Cross. The first-fruits of the 
 Gentile Church, which we commemorate on 
 the Epiphany, were offered in secrecy and 
 silence. So every little thing we do, every 
 hearty sacrifice for the sake of the Church, no 
 matter how humble, may be a beginning of the 
 fulfilment of some glorious prophecy. Never 
 forget that we are living among miracles. We 
 may not reap the fruits of our labours, any 
 more than we shall enjoy the shade of the 
 forest- trees we plant for our posterity. Our 
 fathers laboured for us in many ways ; for in- 
 stance, in settling the canon of Scripture, and 
 in determining the true faith respecting the 
 most Holy Trinity, and the two Natures in 
 Christ. So they laboured for us ; and so we 
 have entered into their labours. We may be 
 called to different sorts of labour ; as for ex- 
 ample, to the vindication of the Old Testament 
 from profane criticisms, or to the recovery of 
 ritual communion in the Church Catholic ; 
 but whatever it be, if we are holy in it, and 
 self-denying in it, it will endure, and those 
 
The Unfulfilled Glory of the Church. 33 
 
 that come after us will enter into it. Let not 
 this be a discouragement to us ; else we may 
 have reason to fear that we are labouring not 
 for Christ's sake, but for our own : not for the 
 Church, but for our own reward, our own repu- 
 tation, our own greatness ; forgetting that love 
 has no reward, but in the happiness of its beloved. 
 If we love the Church, we shall keep the least of 
 her commandments ; and by keeping her com- 
 mandments bring about her glory. We may 
 die before all these things come to pass. But 
 we are not separated from the Church by 
 death. We shall only enter deeper into it. 
 The souls beneath the altar are as earnest for 
 the future as we can be. The spirits are still 
 alive, still alive in the Church, still feeling with 
 the Church, still waiting for her glory. Thus 
 then we must live and work steadily and 
 quietly, just as if nothing was wrong, as if every 
 thing about us was as it ought to be ; for in 
 that is the only hope that it ever will become 
 so. We must never suffer ourselves to be un- 
 settled by appearances of evil, or to be ruffled 
 by the power and tyranny of wickedness. We 
 must not always be gazing up into heaven, 
 lest perchance we stumble upon earth ; or be 
 
34 The Unfulfilled Glory of the Church, 
 
 looking out fretfully and feverishly for the 
 changeable and unsafe symptoms of the times. 
 Faith is deep, and keeps her own secrets, and 
 is difficult to disturb. " He that observeth the 
 wind shall not sow ; and he that regardeth the 
 clouds shall not reap. As thou knowest not 
 what is the way of the Spirit, nor how the 
 bones do grow in the womb of her that is with 
 child ; even so thou knowest not the works of 
 God who maketh all. In the morning sow thy 
 seed, and in the evening withhold not thine 
 hand: for thou knowest not whether shall 
 prosper, either this or that, or whether they 
 both shall be alike good^" 
 
 1 Eccl. xi. 4. 
 
 THE END. 
 
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CHURCHMAN'S POLITICS 
 
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CHURCHMAN'S POLITICS 
 
 IN DISTURBED TIMES. 
 
 Every nation under the sun contains within 
 itself two societies, and two only — the world, 
 as Holy Scripture calls it, and the Church : 
 and two faiths, and two only — the faith of Baal, 
 and the faith of Christ. It is difficult to bring 
 this home to ourselves in these times ; and 
 yet, in the bringing it home to ourselves in 
 little things, almost the whole of practical re- 
 ligion consists. It is difficult, educated as 
 most of us have been, to discover these two 
 societies ; to trace the faint outhnes which 
 bound them ; to feel with keen sense of touch 
 the invisible fences which divide the one off 
 A 2 
 
4 A Churchman s Politics 
 
 from the other; to detect the points where the 
 one finally melts away and fades into the 
 other ; or to estimate the disorder and misrule 
 which have arisen from the ties and mutual 
 subjections of these societies to each other, in 
 things where such ties and subjections ought 
 not to be. The worshippers of Baal and of 
 Christ are in one throng, travelling along the 
 same road, and too much minding the same 
 things. The world and the Church are en- 
 tangled together ; and religious living, difficult 
 at all seasons, is now ten times more difficult 
 from the entanglement. One advantage, how- 
 ever, springs out of this otherwise unhappy 
 state of things. They, who are really and 
 honestly striving after heaven, are forced to 
 carry out their religion into things, and sea- 
 sons, and places, where otherwise perhaps it 
 would not have come. It strikes at the root 
 of the notion that religion is a separate thing 
 of itself, instead of being, as it is, simply the 
 attitude into which a good man throws him- 
 self to do every thing, the natural shape which 
 all his actions take, as naturally as the cloud 
 takes shapes from the wind, which is a type 
 of the Spirit. Thus the very confused state 
 
in Disturbed Times, 5 
 
 of the world brings it about that in these days 
 a man's politics and literature are not, if he 
 be a thinking man, mere views or theories, 
 constructed without fear or responsibility, and 
 upon the shortest notice, views or theories, 
 which he can hold or not hold, and yet be all 
 the while as good or as bad a man as ever. 
 They are parts of his practical religion : if he 
 moves, they move ; if they move, he moves ; 
 the whole man moves together. There are 
 still men left here and there, in some places, 
 whose pohtics and literature, are views, theo- 
 ries, and mere intellectual systems. But the 
 time is most happily gone by when such men 
 can be influential. The state of things, whe- 
 ther out in the open and active world, or 
 among the retired and deeply practical thinkers 
 of mankind, has got beyond them. They are 
 left upon the shore, and the stream can re- 
 turn no more to such unrealities yet awhile. 
 Disease has spread too widely among us, and 
 is already too near the very fountains of our 
 health and stability, for our imaginations to be 
 successfully acted on by the coloured remedies 
 of such men as these. 
 
 Neither on the other hand — and this too 
 
6 A Churchman's Politics 
 
 we owe to our present difficulties — can good 
 and earnest men betake themselves, each in 
 his little way and proper place, to the work of 
 healing, by endeavouring to bring back the 
 colour and the blood into systems or states of 
 things, which, though beautiful in death, or 
 skilfully embalmed, have yet been long since 
 borne out to burial. They may borrow from 
 chivalry, or the romantic days of English 
 honour and loyalty, their stern enthusiasm,, 
 deep stedfastness, and calmest fidelity ; these 
 may serve them well for their present toil ; but 
 their way of working and the things for which 
 they work, cannot and must not be the same. 
 In a word, neither the churches nor the em- 
 pires of the middle ages are to be rebuilt, 
 however lovely many things about them were, 
 nor the forms of that warlike Christianity to 
 be wished back again in place of the better 
 forms of a more primitive pattern. They were 
 forms which primitive truths put on, and in 
 which they then saved the world : forms which 
 were real for awhile. And the present state 
 of things must surely teach the ardent and the 
 hopeful disciples of old times, that it is the 
 primitive truths for which they have to strive. 
 
in Disturbed Times. 7 
 
 and not to do battle for the chivalrous, middle- 
 age accessories of them, however gorgeous or 
 picturesque. 
 
 Now of course it is a great thing in a 
 country which, for whatever reason, is sup- 
 posed to be free — that is, to be slave to none 
 but its own passion, selfishness, or strange 
 proneness to self-praise — that politics should 
 be a matter of practical religion. It is a great 
 thing among a people whose constitution is 
 such as to allow, for the sake of other advan- 
 tages, of excitement, party fierceness, perilous 
 freedom of tongue, and divers malignant and 
 unchristian feelings, that all, but especially the 
 poor and unlearned, should have something 
 above and beyond their opinions to guide, to 
 inform, and to steady them, in the exercise of 
 their political duties. 
 
 Let us dwell then on this matter more at 
 length. We must have long seen the grow- 
 ing bewilderment of all simple men, in the at- 
 tempt to arrange, if we may thus speak, their 
 Christianity so as to meet the continual cases 
 of conscience, arising out of the now manifold 
 duties belonging to that station of life in which 
 it has pleased God's Providence to place them : 
 a4 
 
8 A Churchman's Politics 
 
 duties to the world and to the Church, which 
 are now beginning even in common life to 
 interfere with and intersect one another. In 
 political questions it cannot have escaped us 
 at this day, in the midst of political disturb- 
 ances, not arising here and there only from pre- 
 sent pressure of hardship, but striking root all 
 over, and winning to themselves a kind of unity, 
 through theories and principles utterly opposed 
 to the Bible, — when we are made to feel that 
 there is some meaning in our prayer, " from 
 all sedition, privy conspiracy and rebellion, 
 good Lord deliver us" — it cannot have escaped 
 us how necessary it is for all of us, poor and 
 rich, ignorant and learned, and the poor rather 
 than the rich, the ignorant rather than the 
 learned, to set clearly before ourselves the few 
 plain rules of Holy Scripture about political 
 rights and duties. Neither let any one say 
 this is not a meet subject to be spoken of in 
 church. It is the meetest of all subjects to 
 be spoken of in church now — for it is great 
 part of our practical religion, and in England 
 it is so seldom that it is spoken of with quiet- 
 ness, that it is well it should be spoken of in 
 church, where God is, and, as before Him, 
 
in Disturbed Times, 9 
 
 with gentleness and awe, not with insignificant 
 boastings about rights, not with childish vaunt- 
 ings about Enghsh greatness, but with deep, 
 severe, broken-hearted self-abasement. 
 
 We are living in a proud and very exclu- 
 sively intellectual age. We make knowledge 
 and intellect the test and standard of all ex- 
 cellence. We are so much accustom<^d to it; 
 that we propose no better remedy for the suf- 
 ferings and troubles of the poor but more 
 knowledge, more intelligence, more secular 
 education ; and the rich do not mean to mock 
 the poor when they propose it, and the poor 
 have not discovered yet that it is after all a 
 mockery ; a cruel falsehood at which they will 
 one day be fearfully indignant, indignant even 
 to sin and tumult. Let us begin, however, by 
 bearing this in mind, that Scripture no where 
 recognizes any rights as belonging to any man, 
 except those which we have in right of our 
 baptism, which made us members of Christ, 
 children of God, and inheritors of the kingdom 
 of heaven. It is well to recollect this. Scrip- 
 ture says no where that any man has any 
 right to anything but his hfe. This does away 
 with many difficulties : for example, we know 
 a5 
 
10 A Churchman's Politics 
 
 that many of the early Christians were slaves, 
 even under Christian emperors, up to Justi- 
 nian^s day, and yet, that in the long run, 
 Christianity went far to abohsh slavery. Now 
 Scripture condemns man-stealing, but it is so 
 far from recognizing any right of slaves to be 
 free, that it gives them rules for their beha- 
 viour, and enjoins obedience to the unthank- 
 ful and cruel, giving sanctity to that obedience 
 by coupling it with the obedience of the 
 Incarnate Son Himself. Christianity does 
 many things for men in the long run which it 
 would be actual sin for them to attempt or 
 dream of for themselves. In whatever rank 
 or state of life Christ calls us, in that it tells 
 us to abide. It seems to fear change, and 
 nothing but change. "As the Lord hath 
 called every one, so let him walk ; and so 
 ordain I in all Churches \" The Gospel in- 
 deed is mighty to the pulling down of strong 
 holds ; but it does so either by God's arm or 
 through men's sins : on its disciples it enjoins 
 quietness and obedience. The obedience of 
 saints never pulls down strong holds visibly 
 
 ^ 1 Cor. vii. 17. 
 
in Disturbed Times. 1 1 
 
 or with noise. Scripture makes no exception 
 to their obedience. It contemplates hard 
 cases of bad kings or graceless masters, and 
 straightway enjoins the same conscientious 
 submission to them also, where prior duty 
 to God is not concerned. It no where recog- 
 nizes any right to disobey — any right, in the 
 most profane language of some, to rise in in- 
 surrection. Men have no rights as men, so 
 far as the Bible confers them : what rights 
 they have they have as Christians, and those 
 are not of any of the four earthly kingdoms, 
 but of that new monarchy which Daniel saw 
 of old \ for whose perfect stablishing we have 
 so long been impatiently waiting, and whose 
 foundation-stones are even now settling down 
 on earth from heaven. The world builds 
 up earthly strongholds, world-wisdoms, litera- 
 tures, governments : Christianity pulls them 
 down again. It treads every thing under foot 
 as it goes. It has done so all along. We 
 think much of wise men, learned men, clever 
 men : nay, we make gods of them, and images 
 of their wisdom. Scripture on the other hand 
 
 * Dan. vii. 
 
 a6 
 
12 A Churchman s Politics 
 
 never mentions them except as likely to 
 oppose the Gospel; and then it speaks of 
 them in quiet words of shght and scorn. It 
 recognizes all sorts of distinctions, high and 
 low, rich and poor, bond and free, of wealth 
 and blood, and the like. It no where recog- 
 nizes any distinction between clever men and 
 men less gifted. It gives many and minute 
 rules for the guidance of our bodies and souls, 
 our passions and appetites, and affections. It 
 gives none for the guidance of our intellect. 
 It speaks of many sorts of talents, wealth, 
 time, and knowledge of the truth : it no where 
 specifies that to which we have almost exclu- 
 sively assigned the name of talent. It is 
 quite mysteriously silent about intellectual 
 gifts, and the strange gulfs they make between 
 man and man, country and country, nay, even 
 between church and church. It seldom al- 
 ludes to wisdom, except to tell us that the 
 foolishness of God is wiser than it : nay, it 
 scarcely seems in any place to allude to the 
 existence of intellect at all, as a distinct part 
 of our being. Surely, there is deep meaning 
 in this silence, a silence almost inexplicable to 
 our modern habits of thought. 
 
in Disturbed Times. 13 
 
 Now let us bear these things in mind : and 
 more than this. Most of us, in times of na- 
 tional rejoicing or other public excitements, 
 have doubtless formed part of the great crowds 
 usual on such occasions. We may have seen 
 the way in which others have been affected 
 by them, and experienced their wonderful in- 
 fluence upon ourselves ; how they transport 
 people beyond themselves, make them insen- 
 sible to time, to pain, to weariness, to incon- 
 venience of many sorts. It is a kind of 
 drunkenness. The senses report to us un- 
 truly of what is done before our eyes or said 
 within our hearing. Without any attempt to 
 deceive or even any conscious exaggeration, 
 it is almost impossible from any number of 
 witnesses to ascertain correctly what has been 
 done or said in a crowd. Thought has been 
 almost extino-uished. The crowd has acted 
 as one man, a man beside himself, swayed and 
 set in wild motion by evil impulses not from 
 himself, and beyond his control. Now let us 
 bear in mind that these large masses and 
 multitudes of men — which are hke persons 
 possessed, and whose limbs move one way 
 when they would have them move another — 
 are made up of single, solitary souls : each to 
 
14 A Churchmaris Politics 
 
 be saved separately and by itself; each to be 
 condemned separately and by itself; each with 
 its own particular weight of sin, its own re- 
 pentances, its own opportunities of grace, its 
 own circle of sorrows, cares, fears, joys, affec- 
 tions, its own Christian distinctness ; each 
 having to stand by itself at the judgment-seat 
 of Christ, lonely, unexcited, uncheered by 
 shouts, unsheltered by a crowd ; as answerable 
 for all the sins committed when it ran with a 
 multitude to do evil, as a drunken man is 
 answerable for murder. This is the Christian 
 view of large meetings of men. Let us think 
 of this and beware. 
 
 We are thrown upon unsteady times, times 
 made unsteady by feverish choosing, and try- 
 ing and rejecting all manner of experiments 
 after stability, full of blind movement, of 
 change, of uncertainty, of discontentment. 
 Yet, if we may say so reverently in His house 
 to whom the future belongeth, full, yea preg- 
 nant with great hopes to be won through 
 great strifes. Rich and poor, high and low, 
 learned and ignorant, are all unsettled. They 
 do not join well together. They fancy there 
 is some difference or other between them 
 about which they must quarrel. They do not 
 
171 Disturbed Thnes. 15 
 
 feel, as to be safe they must feel, one bond of 
 union, one tie of brotherly kindness remaining 
 amongst them, keeping them united and mak- 
 ing them happy. Pride of wealth is greater 
 than pride of blood, and less to be endured : 
 and pride of knowledge throws a still more 
 heartless barrier between itself and the hewers 
 of wood and drawers of water, who are yet 
 members of Christ, and are spirits precious to 
 Him Who made them. Amongst the poor 
 there is a base pride that feels almost offence 
 against such as give them alms, and an envy 
 of those who, scarcely above them in political 
 rights, are unequally removed in wealth and 
 outward happiness : and withal a yearning for 
 community of heart and kindliness of de- 
 meanour, which the cold, stiff, systematic 
 arrangements of modern charity are little 
 likely to suply. On the other hand, among 
 the rich there surely is a very wrong hght- 
 ness of speech, a light manner of behaving, 
 a careless and rude neglect of form, an 
 indifferent and slighting treatment of inferiors 
 in httle things, which can spring only from a 
 miserable coldness or a wicked levity of heart, 
 and which, if traditions are true, was not the 
 old English character. Now, what is the 
 
16 A Churchman* s Politics 
 
 remedy for all this ? It is not to be found in 
 political wisdom, in political rights, in political 
 tumult, in noise, and disturbance, and great 
 sin. This cannot better our condition ; this 
 cannot increase our happiness ; this cannot be 
 the stability of our times. It is not to be 
 found in wealth, in prosperity, in great ad- 
 vancements, in comforts, in luxuries, in the 
 greatness of our nation. This cannot be the 
 stability of our times. 
 
 The remedy can alone be found in some 
 strong chain, not of earthly forging, which 
 shall bind the rich and poor, the noble and 
 the cottager, the scholar and the simple one, 
 into one whole firm body, each leaning on 
 each, each supporting each, each loving each ; 
 and that bond neither is nor can be other than 
 '*the one Body, and the one Spirit, the one 
 hope, one Lord, one faith, one Baptism, one 
 God and Father of all. Who is above all, and 
 through all, and in us all \" It is only in the 
 Church of God on earth that a people can be 
 at one together, as in a city that is at unity 
 with itself. Thus, then, men who deeply and 
 sincerely labour for the good of their country, 
 
 ' Eph. iv. 4, 5, 6. 
 
in Disturbed Times. 17 
 
 and for the happiness of the poor, must strive 
 mainly after one thing — to make the Church 
 of Christ felt every where throughout the land, 
 to bring it home to all, to dig deep among the 
 people, and lay the foundations of it there. 
 The Church is not to be reduced, as some 
 would fain make out, to a cold, inactive ab- 
 straction, to a generally diffused system of 
 religion, to a school of theology, to a purifying 
 literature. It is an active, living, positive in- 
 stitution, with external ordinances and autho- 
 ritative ritual, and a succession of teachers, 
 and proper mysteries of its own. It is visible, 
 and visibly represents the Saviour. It is a 
 person, and has offices like a person, the same 
 offices its Master had on earth — to teach, to 
 feed, to judge, to punish, to heal, to save : 
 and all these it has, because it is not by itself, 
 but is His body. Who is both God and Man. 
 So long as the world lasts, there must be rich 
 and poor ; so long as the moon endureth, there 
 must be high and low. These are God's ways. 
 His rules and orders, and mysterious ministry 
 of the world. But, if these earthly ranks and 
 distinctions seem a bar to our all feeling to- 
 gether, and for each other, then in the Church 
 of Christ, and within hearing of the everlasting 
 
18 A Churchman s Politics 
 
 Gospel, there are no differences, no bars, no 
 hindrances to love. All are Christ's, because 
 Christ died for all. All have a high and most 
 surpassing dignity as sons of God, and heirs 
 of heaven. All have a v^onderful secret Hfe 
 hidden with Christ in God. There are the 
 same rich sacraments for all. 
 
 Thus, then, while we feel that we are truly 
 living in most worldly and unsteady times, we 
 have a holy place where we may take sweet re- 
 fuge from our own unsteadiness ; a place of 
 prayer, and praise, and sacraments, and Gospel 
 sounds. The world, indeed, is waxing stronger 
 every day. Its pride rises with its riches ; and 
 with its pride, its lust, and wantonness, and 
 tyranny. But, though the whole wide earth, and 
 its thick, populous multitudes, bore down ever 
 so furiously, they cannot snap one of the slight- 
 est links of that holy chain which binds all 
 Christian hearts together. Hearts so bound 
 are safe. Hearts not so bound are already 
 well nigh lost and perished. The nation not 
 so bound together hath almost ceased to be a 
 nation now. 
 
 Fifty years ago, the great mass of people in 
 country towns and villages were but very little 
 and indirectly influenced by the government of 
 
in Disturbed Times. 19 
 
 the country. Men came into power, and went 
 out of it, whose names they scarcely knew, or 
 had no interest in. Government, pohtics, and 
 the hke, were things far off from them : words 
 they had little knowledge of. Great changes 
 took place, which changed not the condition 
 of the poor ; great improvements were made, 
 which were no improvements to the poor ; 
 great glory was gained, which shed no sun- 
 shine round the poor man's hearth ; great 
 happiness was earned, which made the poor 
 no happier. In one respect, then, they were 
 blessed in this their quiet lot, — they had less 
 to distract them from the saving of their souls. 
 Yet was it not a good lot,, but altogether most 
 undesirable, most unfortunate in every way. 
 It is not to be regretted now. To dream of 
 recalling it were not only the vainest of all 
 dreams, but a sort of treason to our best hopes 
 and struggles. It was an unhealthy slumber, 
 from which the nation rose unrefreshed. It 
 was a dead, low, stagnant time, poorly ani- 
 mated now and then with a miserable infidel 
 activity. It was the hard winter of all high 
 principles in Church and State ; a season of 
 corrupt statesmen, of soft-living churchmen, 
 and of an impure people. The land was not 
 
20 A Churchman's Politics 
 
 even lying fallow for the sake of after crops ; 
 but its moisture and nourishment were eaten 
 out by tares and trailing weeds, and poisonous 
 herbs. Many a generation must be sown, and 
 come to ear, and be gathered into the barns, 
 before the fields can bring forth as, by God's 
 blessing, they brought forth of yore. It were 
 treason to wish such a state back again. 
 
 But now we have different evils to meet. 
 All things are altered ; all things turned the 
 other way. There is scarcely a poor man in 
 the land who does not know the names and 
 somewhat of the characters of men in power, 
 who does not either hke or dislike them, who 
 does not call them strange, worldly-sounding 
 names he does not know the meaning of, who 
 does not feel for sorrow or for joy the changes, 
 the constant changes of the country, as though 
 they had been changes in the beating of his 
 own living heart. Yet still our eyes see no 
 further than they did. Most men see no 
 further than themselves. So that with all this 
 new knowledge, which has been given us, we 
 have got no new happiness ; rather have lost 
 somewhat of our old happiness, by losing all 
 our quietness, which, though not happiness, 
 is most near of kin unto it. Whatever else 
 
in Disturbed Times, 21 
 
 they may be — and it is useless giving them 
 hard names unless we strive to amend them 
 by amending ourselves — ours are not happy 
 times. They have driven us from those abodes 
 of quiet hearts, " where self-disturbance hath 
 no place." They have made us all to toss 
 upon unquiet thoughts, and to be restless. 
 Every body wishes for a change ; no two per- 
 sons wish for the same change ; and yet all 
 changes cannot be made : and who is to be 
 heard first ? We all feel, except some few, 
 perhaps, who have become gross-hearted from 
 wealth and easy self-indulgence, that we are 
 in a very imperfect and undesirable condition ; 
 and that it certainly will not be a lasting one, 
 whether that which follows be better or worse, 
 which God only knoweth. Men feel, especi- 
 ally if they are poor and humble in hfe, that 
 they are not happy ; they feel that they are 
 not satisfied ; they feel that they are capable 
 of being far higher, and nobler, and happier 
 than they are, in some other state of things. 
 So it seems it is only the present state of 
 things which keeps them back from their na- 
 tural rights of being free, and happy, and 
 noble. Therefore they must destroy all they 
 
22 A Churchman's Politics 
 
 have now, throw it over the deep sea, and 
 begin afresh, and see what they can gain. 
 
 Thus there have been hundreds of plans for 
 beginning afresh, hundreds of human happi- 
 nesses to make us happy. They have been 
 tried not in England only, but the world over. 
 They have been Christian, half-Christian, un- 
 christian. There is nothing which has not 
 been tried. Some have been quite indepen- 
 dent of God ; some less bold, but not a whit 
 less profane, have borrowed from His holy 
 Word what they liked best, have praised it, 
 patronised it, set about improving it, and re- 
 lieving it of its once useful but worn-out 
 notions, alien to modern states and churches. 
 But the end of all has been the same, — a brief 
 excitement, and more unhappiness than ever. 
 All they have done has been to lead us further 
 away from the one only remedy, the one only 
 wisdom, the one only stabihty of our times. 
 
 At this day rumours, and gatherings, and 
 tumults, have brought the question nearer 
 home, and made it yet more practical. Many 
 projects, of more or less sagacity and fore- 
 thought, have been put out by anxious, think- 
 ing men. All seem to have agreed that our 
 
in Disturbed Times. 23 
 
 state is deeply diseased ; and that it would be 
 imposture only that would venture to predict 
 immediate recovery, or prescribe speedy reme- 
 dies. Local changes, and the power of govern- 
 ment, and the existing laws, can alone keep 
 down the present strugglings, and meet the 
 clamours as they rise. But after all that has 
 been said, the processes which are to heal us 
 in the long run, the remedies in which are 
 bound up hope, deliverance, and safety for 
 the future, gather themselves, in the ablest 
 scheme which has been proposed, into two 
 — emigration and secular education. The 
 great results in a political way of these mea- 
 sures, carried out on a very vast scale, would 
 probably be far short of what is expected of 
 them. But that is not the question here. To 
 us Churchmen it is quite clear they are most 
 insufficient. The ground on which we stand, 
 and the truths by which we live, force this 
 conviction upon us. Most of our present evil 
 comes of want of unity, of our not having 
 centres of unity, lawful, tried, strong, pure, 
 ready at our hands. The evil has begun to 
 work out in irregular unions, irregular seekings 
 after unity, irregular and very unchristian ways 
 of making great collections of souls feel and 
 
24 A Churchman's Politics 
 
 act as one soul. We, as Churchmen, of course 
 believe the Church to be a centre of unity, 
 orderly, and appointed of heaven. We, as 
 Churchmen, say, that the history of many cen- 
 turies plainly shows that nothing on earth 
 beside the Church can be a centre of unity, 
 truly and lastingly, whether it be government, 
 or literature, or what else soever. None of 
 these things have ever made even a show of 
 being centres of unity, except in proportion as 
 they had anchored themselves alongside, and 
 come in contact with the Church. Virtue 
 sometimes went out of her into them : but 
 sooner or later they let it escape. They were 
 not framed for retaining it, or being its home. 
 As Churchmen, then, without disparaging 
 either of them as wise or politic measures, we 
 should probably think of emigration and edu- 
 cation in some such way as this, — that to do 
 good they must be carried out not on secular, 
 but on Church principles, and that even thus 
 they are, and must be, quite inadequate to our 
 present straits. 
 
 To propose emigration as a remedy, implies 
 a belief that a too abounding population is in 
 great measure the cause of our distress, which 
 is not a deep, and surely is an irreligious, view 
 
in Disturbed Times. 25 
 
 of the case. It is much more the unequal 
 distribution of the population, than the pres- 
 sure of its arithmetical weight, which is the 
 inevitable misfortune. The congregating of 
 multitudes upon particular districts, to an ex- 
 tent which puts them almost beyond the reach 
 of rehgious civilization, causes temporary and, 
 in some sense, fictitious distresses according to 
 the variations of trade, and keeps up in many 
 ways a state of thirsty excitement, which 
 makes it difficult for ordinary fears or hopes 
 to assail them or bring them under. But what 
 if we do keep throwing off swarm after swarm 
 upon the continents of the New World ? Are 
 we, as heretofore, to our everlasting shame, 
 and, doubtless, one day to our own deserved 
 inglory and discomfort, to colonize as heathen, 
 and not as Christians ? Are we to people fair 
 portions of God's earth, as we have done, 
 almost without the Gospel, and so leave our 
 children's children to become under other suns 
 little better than wealthy, powerful, pagans ? 
 Are we to make emigration a compulsory 
 measure, which seems necessary in order to 
 unburden the country, more in one place and 
 less in another, so as to distribute the benefit 
 
 B 
 
26 A Churchman s Politics 
 
 of such a measure, as we want ? Will mere 
 local pressure drive people to emigrate volun- 
 tarily where it would be wanted ? Would not 
 compulsory emigration be dangerous politi- 
 cally, and, as sundering ties of an intensely 
 sacred nature, be irreligious also ? And sup- 
 posing all these difficulties got over, which it 
 is difficult to suppose, for emigration on a vast 
 scale must include some of the wealthy and 
 the great, must have leaders, and priests, and 
 teachers ; and will the wealthy and the great 
 in these selfish times make sacrifices and go ? 
 And, if they will not go, can you without 
 manifest sin compel them ? — But, supposing 
 all these difficulties got over, one very serious 
 consideration still remains. It is scarcely pos- 
 sible to exaggerate the excitement, the fever, 
 the discontent, the unsettlement which would 
 prevail for a long while among those left be- 
 hind. Like the famihes of Egypt, there would 
 scarcely be a house where there would not be 
 a loss and a vacancy. Sorrow for the absence 
 of friends, and numerous relations, the keen 
 pangs of a separation for this life, continually 
 fresh sadness imparted by the news of neces- 
 sary trial, disease and disappointment among 
 
 9 
 
in Disturbed Times. 27 
 
 the emigrants, would mingle turbulently with 
 the golden pictures and dreams realized, and 
 loud calls to come and join, which would on 
 the other hand assail them. The whole face 
 of the land would be rudely and unseasonably 
 ploughed up. Granting however that, not- 
 withstanding all this, emigration is well and 
 necessary, and would at the last bring great 
 relief, yet it must, as population grows, be 
 continually renewed, and such renewals of it 
 would obviously in a few generations uproot 
 the present national character, and create a 
 different one, and we should run great risk 
 therein. And so, balancing one thing against 
 another, we may fear that all would be lost, 
 and the tree die before it brought forth its 
 good fruit ; and any how we may scarcely 
 venture to look upon it as a great, sure, or 
 safe remedy for our present evils, in the way 
 and to the degree it has been put forward. 
 
 Education, indeed, goes nearer to touching 
 our evils than emigration. But not if secular 
 education only be intended. Reading and 
 writing, and diffused knowledge, will not affect 
 the disease, except in the way of aggravation. 
 All religious bodies, it is said, confess the need 
 
28 A Churchman's Politics 
 
 of education, but all quarrel as to the religious 
 form which it shall take. Meanwhile then, 
 so they say, while the contest about this 
 matter is going on, do not let us be losing 
 time, let us be teaching the people to read, 
 let them not any how go without secular edu- 
 cation, while the Church and the Dissenters 
 are quarrelling about religious education. If 
 religion were merely literary, if it were only a 
 separate element of education, an accomplish- 
 ment, like music, or sketching, there might 
 be some truth in this, however oddly it is 
 stated. But it is not so. The Church claims 
 the right to educate her members, and to edu- 
 cate them by her own doctrines, and out of 
 her own creeds, and through the means of her 
 own priests. The Church claims the right to 
 prevent her members from receiving any other 
 sort of education than this. But not to press 
 that here : — what, after all, would a very con- 
 siderable spread of secular education effect for 
 us ? If its effects were to be good, at least 
 three generations must elapse before it begins 
 to tell at all upon the people. And even then 
 what more should we have gained, but a new 
 illustration of the few, lowly, words of St. 
 
in Disturbed Times, 29 
 
 Paul, " Knowledge puffeth up ^ ?" We cannot 
 all be made rich, we cannot all be made wise, 
 we cannot all be made happy. In our minds, 
 much more than in our bodies, it is impossible 
 we can all be in equal strong health. There 
 must be differences and divisions, ranks and 
 bars. Misery will make them where wealth 
 does not : weakness will make them where 
 wisdom does not. Let us suppose for a mo- 
 ment the intellectual powers of the lower 
 orders, and the mass of the people generally, 
 to be called out as much as may be. All at 
 once a new set of distinctions are made among 
 them. New fences are run here and there in 
 every direction ; fences far more galling than 
 the old ones, for rank and power conferred by 
 talent is of all rank and power least readily 
 acquiesced in. A new sort of inequality be- 
 gins to appear in that part of society. There 
 is as much or more unevenness than before, 
 only the shape of it is altered and shifted. 
 Persons brought up together, inhabitants of 
 the same neighbourhood, of equal industry, 
 and generally (as would be likely from human 
 
 ^ 1 Cor. viii. 8. 
 
 b3 
 
30 A Churchman's Politics 
 
 nature) of greater soberness and purity, would 
 suddenly find what to them would seem a 
 very wide separation made between themselves 
 and their old equals, in many ways ; and all 
 because they were less clever and acute. Well, 
 supposing this were thought advisable, and 
 really a better state of things than the present, 
 (and if a man thinks of it for half an hour he 
 will see to what a great extent, and in what 
 curious ways it would bring in a new state of 
 things,) it must be remembered further, that 
 all the moulds and shapes of our present 
 society and government would by no means 
 hold the fresh order of things ; that it would 
 be unsafe to alter these moulds and shapes till 
 the new state of things were ready ; that yet 
 if the new state of things did not find new 
 moulds and shapes ready before itself, it would 
 inevitably do us a mischief, and that violently ; 
 that the consent of many privileged classes 
 and bodies must be had to alter the present 
 moulds and shapes ; that to force such consent 
 would be iniquitous, and moreover would have 
 to be done through bloodshedding ; that in 
 the end the whole habits of thought of a popu- 
 lous nation must be found to have altered 
 
in Disturbed Times. 31 
 
 themselves ; and that there is no instance on 
 record of a nation foregoing the character its 
 history has once worn into it, not even when 
 almost all its old blood has been spilled upon 
 its own fair fields in the madness of civil strife. 
 Now one or more of these considerations will 
 be thought to carry some weight along with 
 it ; and what safeguard, what counteracting 
 force has secular education got to offer us, to 
 make it worth our while to run any one or 
 more of these risks ? But what if there is a 
 wisdom, which tells us happiness, and know- 
 ledge, and greatness, are not our only ends on 
 earth ; that we have higher, nobler, ends, and 
 aims, and hopes, than these ; that by leading 
 us from following after happiness and great- 
 ness, does in reality make us happy by giving 
 us contentedness, and makes us great by lifting 
 us above this world's httleness, and surpasses all 
 earthly knowledge by opening to us the world 
 of spirit, and imparting to us somewhat of 
 the intelhgence of angels ? Surely this wisdom 
 is what we want, a wisdom above the wisdoms 
 of all wise men, a wisdom which may be the 
 stabihty of our times. The poor man can be 
 made no higher and no happier by powers 
 B 4 
 
32 A Churchman's Politics 
 
 and rights. His unhappiness is nearer home 
 and deeper in his heart than that pohtics 
 should hft it off. They cannot make him rich ; 
 they cannot make him great ; and yet they 
 tell him wealth and greatness are happiness : 
 and is not all this mockery ? The poor man 
 can be made no wiser by earthly wisdom. 
 What better is he if he knows the number of 
 the stars, and the pathway of the moon, and 
 the customs of the sun ? What better is he 
 if he knows why the sea keeps months and 
 tides, and the winds blow this way rather 
 than that, and the comet comes after his ap- 
 pointed journey of years ? What better is he 
 if he knows where corn-fields have been red 
 with blood, and green trees scorched with 
 battle, for the vanities of kings or the unruli- 
 ness of peoples ? Still may the vainest of 
 world-wisdoms open out philosophy, history, 
 and science, for his unhappiness, which is the 
 cause of his turbulence, is nearer home and 
 deeper in his heart, than that world-wisdom 
 should lift it oif : and yet they tell him world- 
 wisdom is happiness ; and is not this, too, 
 mockery ? But tell him, on the other side, that 
 his ploughing, and his toiling, and his trading. 
 
in Disturbed Times, 33 
 
 cannot keep his soul from being immortal ; 
 tell him he is the son of God ; that heaven is 
 waiting for him ; that angels are ministering 
 to him, yea, and evil spirits troubling them- 
 selves to fight against him : tell him the eye, 
 the unsleeping eye of heaven, is open upon 
 his cottage on the moor-edge, by the mouth 
 of the mine, or in the dull, close, sunless town, 
 as widely and as wakefully as on the great 
 queen upon her golden throne : tell him this 
 in early life, let it grow with his growth, and 
 increase with his increase ; let it bring him to 
 the common church, the common prayers, the 
 common Altar, and hold him by the hand as 
 he faints softly and wearily away into the 
 common grave : and how little then will 
 earthly ranks, and bars, and distinctions, and 
 unhappinesses, disturb or ruffle the peace of 
 his soul ! Do not let him awake to all this 
 after a youth of impurity, or a manhood of 
 pride ; in the hurry of repentance, when his 
 soul's eye, long used to darkness, cannot bear 
 the light ; but let it sink gradually into him 
 by early church education, as the white snow 
 melts into the field and makes the corn spring 
 greenly. There might indeed be some result, 
 b5 
 
34 A Churchman s Politics 
 
 some cure, some assuaging of our fret and 
 fever, if a fair part of the population were thus 
 filled with great Christian thoughts, and their 
 hearts lifted heavenward by faith, and hope, 
 and love. It might bring quietness, sober- 
 mindedness, contentedness, submission to the 
 will of God, readiness to do the good which 
 comes to our hands to do, carelessness for the 
 future, knowing it to be in the hand of God, 
 sorrow for the past, knowing it to be our ac- 
 cuser before the judgment seat of Christ, and, 
 for temporal reward, if it were then of any 
 account among us, it might bring to this par- 
 ticular nation, the empire of the West. Then 
 would there be far less noise and clamour, 
 evil will, strife, sedition, political hatreds. Of 
 course man's deeply corrupt nature would 
 always hinder much of this ; yet a good mea- 
 sure of such blessing would be the natural 
 fruit of education if done in a church way, and 
 so with a church blessing, if it were part and 
 parcel of a gathering round a spiritual autho- 
 rity, of riveting again our ties of allegiance to 
 the throne let down among us, whereon He 
 only sitteth Who is man of the substance of 
 His mother, and Very God before all worlds. 
 
in Disturbed Times. 35 
 
 This, then, is the remedy up to which we 
 have been working our way all along ; an ac- 
 knowledgment of a spiritual power, a hearty 
 adherence to a centre of unity which is ap- 
 pointed and gifted of heaven and in spite of 
 our sins continued among us still, a submission 
 to Church authority, in the full, complete, and 
 most practical sense of those words. The 
 form and attitude which pohtical uneasiness 
 has of late begun to take, and the manner in 
 which it has expressed itself, has been in a 
 strong, blind, lawless seeking after unity, a 
 turbulent yearning after oneness of feeling and 
 oneness of action K This desire has been ern- 
 
 ^ By way of a single specimen of the manner in which 
 this feeling is working now, we may take a casual notice 
 out of a newspaper (Newcastle Journal, February 29, 1840.) 
 — " A society, having for its object, by family gatherings 
 in all parts of the world, by publication of facts and argu- 
 ments, &c., to collect the Christian world into one body, 
 and remove the jarring of sects, has just issued its first 
 prospectus." To a certain degree temperance societies evi- 
 dence the same, and free-masonry, so far as it is any thing 
 more than a club : and when it is any thing more, it is pro- 
 fane and against the Gospel. See, for instance, Preston's 
 Lodge, Oliver's edition, 1829, p. 6, where it is said to be 
 confined to no particular countries, nor, p. 7, to any parti- 
 
 b6 
 
36 A Churchman's Politics 
 
 bodied very strikingly in all that has been 
 happening these few years past. It is, at least 
 
 cular religion, but to " tame the spirit of fulminating 
 priests :" where the editor seems to consider that it may 
 embrace, so " wise" is it, *' Christians 240 millions^ Ma- 
 hometans 120 millions f Brahminists 115, Lamaites 58, Con- 
 fucians 5, Jews 8, Fetichees 124, Buddhists 170, Nanknists 
 4, Zoroastrians three-quarters of a. million!^ See also the 
 prayer at p. 32, the charge at p. 57, where the name of 
 Christ is not mentioned, p. 56, on the building of Solomon's 
 Temple, the ceremonies at p. 87, (compare with which 
 Robespierre's public worship of the First Cause at Paris) 
 p. 92, the prayer at the burial service, claiming to enjoy in 
 heaven the " just reward of a virtuous life," the name of 
 Christ left out all through — (the editor, a clergyman, thinks 
 this service can scarcely be performed consistently) — p. 110, 
 where a " cheerful compliance with the established religion 
 of the country in which they live, is earnestly recommended" 
 to Masons : " the tenets of the institution interfere with no 
 particular faith, but are alike reconcilable to all." See also 
 the collection of odes ending the book, many of which are 
 too objectionable, on religious grounds, to quote here. 
 Free-masonry was condemned by the Roman Church in 1 738 
 or 39 ; and implicitly by the English Church in the 18th 
 article, which contains an anathema, and is nevertheless con- 
 tradicted in letter as well as in spirit by several passages in 
 masonic books. As to Holy Scripture, it may be well to 
 make one quotation ; in the charge at initiation into the 
 first degree, occur these words, " As a Mason you are to 
 study the sacred law ; to consider it as the unerring stand- 
 
in Disturbed Times. 37 
 
 to the degree in which it has lately prevailed, 
 a new feature in popular disturbances, and 
 one claiming infinitely more respect than is 
 usually accorded to popular grievances, and 
 not to be crushed down, even if that were 
 possible, by the mere weight of martial law. 
 Further, — in the new and more recent forms 
 which rehgious fanaticism has taken, as for 
 instance in Irvingism, or among the Plymouth 
 brethren, somewhat of a new feature, new at 
 least in modern times though well known of 
 old, has displayed itself: one main doctrine 
 has been that the true Church is one, and 
 that they, and they only, constitute that one 
 Church, and that it has been revealed to them 
 that for unfaithfulness the Church of England, 
 hitherto the true Church, has had her candle- 
 stick removed into their congregations. Now 
 here again we may discover the same feehng 
 at work : a felt want of a centre of unity, and 
 
 ard of truth and justice, &c. :" on which the clerical editor 
 remarks: — "In England, the Bible; but in countries 
 where that book is unknown, whatever is understood to con- 
 tain the will or law of God." These references may be use- 
 ful to some, who might be attracted, as light minds na- 
 turally are, by the secrecy and mystery of this Pythagorean 
 (Preston, p. 105) institution, without knowing or imagin- 
 ing that it involved irreverence and sin. 
 
38 A Churchman s Politics 
 
 an intense desire to find or to create one. 
 The shape then both of political and religious 
 movement among the people indicates the 
 sort of remedy needed, and almost points to 
 it. Some have already discerned the kind of 
 remedy to be applied, but have been some- 
 what at a loss where to find it ; and have 
 imagined that we must create some new centre 
 of unity for ourselves, all that lie round us 
 being either rusted or unreal. Neither is such 
 a view^ as this at all surprising. From a num- 
 ber of causes, which have been a very long 
 time in operation, Christianity has been de- 
 graded into a system of truths, a collection of 
 dogmas, a literary purification, a store-house 
 of high motives, a code of pure laws, a philo- 
 sophical influence : these are the sort of ideas 
 men have of the Gospel. Its theology and 
 morals have been separated from each other, 
 which is a great evil : and both have been de- 
 tached from that hving person, that heavenly 
 bride, the Church, to VN^hom they had been 
 joined, and apart from whom they had but a 
 half life, with variable, inharmonious power 
 and motion. True, indeed, it is that Christian 
 teaching, detached from its divfnely appointed 
 Teacher upon earth, is a system such as earth 
 
i?t Disturbed Times. 39 
 
 never yet saw or has conceived; and, con- 
 sidering how long it has been for all practical 
 purposes detached from the person of the 
 Church, it is little less than marvellous it 
 should have retained its heat and blood so 
 long. But it has been growing weaker in its 
 virtue, while our disease has been yearly be- 
 coming more desperate ; and now systems and 
 schools, even of Christian teaching, cannot 
 bring it under. They have not life enough, 
 or reality enough in them, to be centres of 
 unity ; for they contain within themselves, as 
 their own proper inheritance, the seeds of in- 
 finite division. To Christian doctrines, apart 
 from the one living Church, there was not 
 given any power of working moral miracles, 
 of casting devils out of nations, or raising to 
 life again peoples, whose hearts have died 
 within them like a stone, because of wealth, 
 and luxury, and low principles, and abandoned 
 literatures, and civilized unbeliefs. No won- 
 der then that they, who knew not of the 
 Church, should be unable to see in Christ- 
 ianity, considered as a system of theology, 
 any thing beyond an old centre of unity, which 
 was become outworn, and had ceased to be 
 authentic. 
 
40 A Churchman's Politics 
 
 But the Church Catholic, a living person, 
 penetrated in every limb with an awful and 
 heavenly life, powerful, strong, indestructible, 
 unchanging, yet infinitely pliable ; intelhgent, 
 transcending in gifts, in teaching, in unity, in 
 glory ; mighty, to draw to herself dread, reve- 
 rence, and love ; capacious to receive into her- 
 self all fears, hopes, joys, charities, and souls 
 of men ; living in two worlds, communicating 
 with both by mysteries, lifting the lower 
 into the higher, and bringing down spirit and 
 light from the one into the matter and gloom 
 of the other : the Church Catholic, perfect in 
 every nation, yet including all nations, wise 
 and giving wisdom, free and giving freedom, 
 large-hearted and making men's hearts large, 
 poor and making abundantly wealthy, — this, 
 rightly understood and submissively obeyed, 
 is a centre of unity which cannot fail, a medi- 
 cine when men's hopes of recovery are past. 
 We may borrow, and alter, and apply to her 
 what a foreign writer with beautiful untruth 
 has said of literature. Look at worldly men, 
 how they struggle after happiness and satis- 
 faction : their wishes, their toil, their gold, are 
 ever hunting restlessly, and after what ? After 
 that which the Churchman has received al- 
 
hi Disturbed Times. 41 
 
 ready with his new nature ; the right enjoy- 
 ment of two worlds, here and hereafter : the 
 feehng of himself in others ; the union of many 
 things which this world can never make to go 
 together. 
 
 Church authority, as a centre of unity, has 
 some peculiar claims to be heard and reflected 
 on at present. It seems probable that the 
 time is not far distant when society, in no 
 small portion of Europe, will have to be re- 
 fused and run into quite other moulds from 
 those which keep and define it now. Perhaps 
 it is necessary it should be so ; and well it 
 should be so : any way it seems inevitable. 
 Now, when things begin to break up and to 
 be loosened from the old fastenings, and set 
 in quick and perilous motion, one fixed and 
 steady principle, such as obedience to Church 
 authority, will be of an importance not to be 
 calculated. It will be a warrant of safety at 
 the last. It will be a power of moral attrac- 
 tion sufficient to keep things from wandering 
 too far from their proper places while the 
 change is going on. It will give soberness to 
 disturbed times, and inteUigence to confused 
 times, and be a help to all ranks and classes 
 in perplexity. It will carry a state over rough 
 
42 A Churchman's Politics 
 
 places ; and infallibly hinder it from breaking 
 into pieces, even in the most deep-seated 
 commotions. It will not interfere in any- 
 way with political arrangements, forms of 
 government, framing of laws, or distributions 
 of power, except so far as they may be wicked 
 arrangements ; and then, it would be well for 
 the happiness of the people, as well as their 
 spiritual well-being, that there should be a moral 
 check. Further than this there could be no 
 check. The Church is bound to no forms 
 but her own. She believes no other to be 
 divine. She is a disciple of no school of poh- 
 tical thought. She is seen in none, leagues 
 with none, interferes with none. Churchmen, 
 who do so in her name, have not her warrant 
 for it. They make her uncatholic for the 
 time and in the place where they do plead her 
 authority for such things. 
 
 This is of course not the place to enter at 
 length upon the subject of the Church being 
 considered as a centre of unity, how it is her 
 proper office to be so, how she has been 
 gifted for that office, how she discharges it, 
 under what conditions, with what sort of hmi- 
 tations, with what expansions, with what 
 pecuharities and adaptations. This is an ex- 
 
in Disturbed Times, 43 
 
 tensive field, and cannot be traversed now. 
 Meanwhile, at the risk of provoking ridicule 
 and appearing to trifle in a grave matter, I 
 will mention a few little ways in which a re- 
 cognition of Church authority would tell upon 
 the people now ; and little ways rather than 
 large ones, both because they are more prac- 
 tical, and illustrate the matter more plainly, 
 and also show us that in order to this recog- 
 nition we have little or nothing to import, or to 
 create, but much to revive, much to take into 
 our hands which is lying disused by our sides. 
 I need not do more than allude to them : any 
 one by a little steady thinking may see how 
 they would soothe and soften the condition of 
 the lower orders, and, which is of far higher 
 moment, throw themselves upon the side and 
 strengthen the hands of the better and well- 
 ordered part of those classes. If then, as a 
 general rule, the labour of the field and the 
 wheels of the factory were still on the few 
 Saints' days and holydays, which we keep, very 
 trifling pecuniary loss or idle time would be 
 the result ; but a character of cheerfulness, a 
 feeling of equality in religious thoughts and 
 privileges with their masters, would be dif- 
 fused among the people, as well as an example 
 
44 A Churchman's Politics 
 
 of self-denial set by them to their workmen 
 as taking the loss upon themselves and not 
 suffering it to weigh upon their servants. If, 
 again, baptisms always took place on Sundays 
 or holydays, and in the public service, and at 
 every poor child's baptism the rich did not 
 sit in their pews as if it did not concern them 
 and were a weariness, but rose, and knelt, and 
 joined in the service with readiness and fer- 
 vency ; experience in certain places has shown 
 that a good feeling has been generated among 
 the poor far beyond what seemed likely from 
 such a trifle ; and of course a more right feel- 
 ing would be produced among the rich, who 
 in such cases are far more deficient in it than 
 the poor. Again, it were well the whole in- 
 decent system of pews were done away, and 
 the shameful distinctions allowed in Church 
 between the rich and the poor were abohshed, 
 being contrary to the express words of St. 
 James (ii. 2, 3, 4). And it is not a little 
 striking that in several places of late the 
 people have come in bodies to occupy the 
 Churches and Cathedrals, and assert their 
 equal right to them. This shows that even 
 this trifle has created a soreness, and there- 
 fore to a thinking person has ceased to be a 
 
i?i Disturbed Times. 45 
 
 trifle. Again, supposing the political arrange- 
 ments regarding the poor could be made to 
 connect themselves with the parish Church 
 and the parish Altar, and be put under Church 
 officers, and reference be made to character, 
 and to sober and communicant paupers, much 
 ill-feeling, harshness, cruelty, and discontent 
 would be done away ; and the fearful sin 
 avoided, which is no otherwise avoidable, of 
 making poverty a crime, of not reverencing 
 old age, and of separating the poor from full 
 communion with their fellow-members and 
 the Body of Christ. Then again, if bishops' 
 powers over the clergy and the rich laity of 
 their dioceses were made larger and more 
 summary, much relief might be in many ways 
 given to the people at large. Priests, who 
 neglected their cures, or gave up their time to 
 unseemly pleasures, or did not take sufficient 
 heed to the poor, or broke their oaths in not 
 following in all things the ritual of the Church, 
 might be reached at once by the poorest and 
 humblest members of Christ's Body. Again, 
 the punishment of excommunication might be 
 brought back into use, which would take 
 away many scandals, and stop all that dissent, 
 which is founded upon displeasure at the lax 
 
46 A Churchmairs Politics 
 
 discipline of the Church. The rich also, 
 whose sins, and impurities, and unseemly in- 
 dulgences do not so generally come within 
 reach of the penal laws of the land as those of 
 the poor, might be struck by excommunication 
 and made pubhc examples of, and disgraced, 
 and removed as unworthy of the company of 
 the steady poor; and the sense of justice 
 would be strengthened, which is now weak, 
 from the shameless and sheltered way in 
 which the wealthy sin. Again, there are 
 many rural festivals observed up and down 
 the land in which the higher orders take little 
 or no part, and which are consequently de- 
 graded among the poor into times of riot and 
 drunkenness, and the sober poor not able to 
 have any enjoyment of them at all. These 
 might be made Church festivals. The cus- 
 tomary processions might be encouraged, and 
 attended by the higher orders. There might 
 be a celebration of the Holy Communion, a 
 collection among the rich for the poor, and 
 a cessation from work. These things will of 
 course seem to many very trifling ; and just 
 in proportion as they have not been among 
 the poor. But it must be remembered that 
 these least things have been selected pur- 
 
i?i Disturbed Times. 47 
 
 posely ; and that even these put together and 
 acting over a wide space — a single diocese 
 suppose — would very much alter the inward 
 tone as well as outward face of English society. 
 Surely it is a strangely bold untruth to say, that 
 the modern English Church is the poor man's 
 Church ; that is just what it is not, just what it 
 must become forthwith. Thus, so long as the 
 rich and well-born were what they ought not 
 to be, but what their gold and title give them 
 means to be, the Church would throw herself 
 upon the side of the poor, would defend, and 
 shelter, and dignify them. They would look 
 up to her with affection. They would chngto 
 her, and stand by her. And thus, in case of 
 any revolution, from her deep seat and hold 
 among the poor, she would be able to defend 
 and shelter the rich, and prevent noise, tumult, 
 and bloodshed. There would be less anxiety, 
 and fever, and hidden working of diseased feel- 
 ings among all classes. The Church would sa- 
 tisfy them with the plenteousness of her housed 
 and give them drink of her pleasures as out of 
 the river. Thus, should it ever please God 
 to restore outward communion to the Church 
 
 * Ps. xxxvi. 8. 
 
48 A Churchman s Politics 
 
 Catholic, and Christendom to be made what 
 it once was before, or better than it was, 
 England, for all her perilous commerce and 
 thirst for gold, might not be backward among 
 the nations. '^ The daughter of Tyre shall 
 be there with a gift : like as the rich also 
 among the people shall make their supplica- 
 tion before Thee \" 
 
 Great also would be the change wrought in 
 our politicians and public men by this recog- 
 nition of Church authority. They would be 
 as much characterized by humility then as 
 they are by pride, and coldness, and intense 
 self-admiration now. They would be more 
 afraid to treat their fellow'-countrymen as 
 huge masses to make experiments on, with 
 crude theories or general views imported from 
 abroad, than they are now. They would re- 
 member, and practically act upon, what 
 Bishop Taylor says of the strict righteousness 
 the Christian covenant exacts of us all ^ 
 " This great rule that Christ gives us, does also, 
 and that principally too, concern Churches 
 and commonwealths, as well as every single 
 Christian. Christian parliaments must exceed 
 
 ' Ps. xlv. 13. ' Works, vi. 244. 
 
iji Disturbed Times. 49 
 
 the religion and government of the Sanhe- 
 drim. Your laws must be more holy, the 
 condition of the subjects made more tolerable, 
 the laws of Christ must be strictly enforced ; 
 you must not suffer your great Master to be 
 dishonoured, nor His religion dismembered 
 by sects, or disgraced by impiety : you must 
 give no impunity to vicious persons, and you 
 must take care that no great example be 
 greatly corrupted ; you must make better pro- 
 visions for your poor than they did, and take 
 more care even of the external advantages of 
 Christ's religion and His ministers, than they 
 did of the priests and Levites ; that is, in all 
 things you must be more zealous to promote 
 the kingdom of Christ, than they were for the 
 ministries of Moses." They would remember, 
 what they have too much forgotten, that they 
 have to battle with the world and not with the 
 Church, as they have done. The Church has 
 to overthrow the world for her Master, and it 
 were more politic and crafty to be on her side. 
 For hers is the only successful battle. Men 
 lay wise plans and schemes ; they work mighty 
 changes, fight battles, overrun kingdoms, dis- 
 cover continents, plant colonies, and invent 
 
 c 
 
50 A Churchman's Politics 
 
 deep laws : and the world with profane com- 
 placency calls them the "saviours and regenera- 
 tors of nations." Yet are they but a name, a 
 shadow, a dream, a sound. Heaven takes no 
 count of them : only notes their sins like other 
 men's. Saints make prayers upon their beds ; 
 and angels see that a nation's punishment is 
 stayed otherwise than as people think, and 
 weep and wonder that blind men will call 
 the staying of punishment their nation's 
 greatness. 
 
 What then is the conclusion of the whole 
 matter ? It is simply this. There have been 
 many forms of government in the world, many 
 institutions, many inventions, to make a nation 
 at unity with itself. They were but ropes of 
 sand. They had power to keep nations toge- 
 ther so long as men beheved them something 
 more than sand. Men's faith gives them 
 power. But, when that faith is gone, false 
 faith as it was, they drop off like cords of 
 vanity, as '' the seven green withs" of the 
 strong man Samson. Yet, could we once 
 believe the Church of God to be what indeed 
 she is, the setter up of the Cross and the place 
 where it is set up, then would religion be no 
 
i7i Disturbed Times, 51 
 
 longer one of many wisdoms claiming man's 
 heart, belief, and practice, but the fountain 
 into which and out of which all wisdoms ebbed 
 and flowed ; then would pohtics and literature 
 be run into new shapes and melted down into 
 fresh moulds; shapes and moulds they have 
 not seen for many centuries ; then would the 
 bars and fences which divide us from one 
 another be broken down, the fretting and 
 beating against which is the cause of all poli- 
 tical soreness and disease in nations ; then 
 would our faith make powers visible, which 
 now work invisibly or not at all. For faith 
 brings miracles to light hourly in every heart 
 wherein she dwells. Her office is to lay bare 
 miracles. How have all the forms of the 
 earth been shattered asunder in men's attempt 
 to make them hold what they will not hold : 
 forms of lifeless literature, — they have passed 
 and are now, one and all, pale ghosts that 
 amuse the few and make not the many afraid ; 
 they have passed off because they belonged to 
 the learned and not to the simple also, to the 
 colleges of the wise and not to the pauper 
 sons of God ; — forms of broken governments, 
 — they are thrown aside as being what, one 
 
52 A Churchman's Politics. 
 
 and all they are, systems worn out, machines 
 superseded ; and why ? because they were for 
 the rich and not for the poor also, for the 
 high-born and the soft-living, and not for those 
 who stooped and toiled in God's earth and sea. 
 There is but one Vessel that will hold the 
 quick new wine of things heavenly, a Vessel 
 hardened in a furnace such as never was for 
 other cause heated upon earth. It is the 
 Church of Christ. They, who would put a 
 nation's life into another vessel, are a vanity, 
 a mockery, yea, the poorest and emptiest by- 
 word that ever was spoken in the hearing of 
 the world. They have false vessels that make 
 a show of holding. By these many will be 
 deceived. Others there are who cannot be 
 deceived, they in Heaven ; and on earth, by 
 God's grace, some few. 
 
 THE END. 
 
 Gilbert & Rivington, Printers, St. John's Square, London. 
 
THE 
 
 PRAYER-BOOK, 
 
 SAFEGUARD AGAINST RELIGIOUS EXCITEMENT. 
 
 BY THE REV. 
 
 FREDERICK W. FABER, M.A. 
 
 FELLOW OF UNIVERSITY COLLEGE, OXFORD. 
 
 Ill returning and rest shall ye be saved ; in quietness and confidence 
 shall be your strength. — Isaiah xxx. 15. 
 
 THIRD EDITION. 
 
 LONDON: 
 
 PRINTED FOR J. G. F. & J. RIVINGTON, 
 
 ST. Paul's chuuch yard, 
 
 AND WATERLOO PLACE, PALL MALL. 
 
 1840. 
 
 Price Threepence. 
 
London: 
 
 cilbert & rivington, printers, 
 
 ST. John's square. 
 
THE 
 
 PRAYER-BOOK, 
 
 SAFEGUARD AGAINST RELIGIOUS EXCITEMENT. 
 
 The Jews of old time, it mattered not how far 
 distant they might be, though seas and moun- 
 tains were between themselves and their native 
 land, never prayed without turning their faces 
 towards Jerusalem, the holy city of the great 
 King. It was a centre of unity, in which the 
 tribes met yearly at their solemn festivals, and 
 to which their affections went up always, where- 
 ever in the wide world their lot was thrown. So 
 we, in like manner, are furnished with a similar 
 point of unity in our Baptism. There was the 
 beginning of our spiritual life, there was the source 
 and fountain of all our spiritual dignities and 
 titles. All we are and all we have of what is good 
 and pure and heavenly within us, we have from 
 the Spirit Who brooded over the face of those 
 mighty waters. What is called religious expe- 
 
 a2 
 
4 The Prayer-hooh a Safeguard 
 
 rience is made up of endless changes and fluctua- 
 tions. Occasional fervors of piety, succeeded by 
 seasons of coldness and of deadness ; high and 
 holy vows made, and kept awhile, and broken, 
 and renewed again ; victory and defeat, defeat 
 and victory, sinning and repenting, repenting and 
 sinning : this, alas ! is but too true a description 
 of the religious state of good men among our- 
 selves. Of course so long as the taint of origi- 
 nal sin remains even in them that are regenerate, 
 it is not possible to arrive at a state of perfection 
 in this world. There must be falls, there must 
 be infirmities, clinging about us, and keeping us 
 back in our way to Heaven. Man's best estate 
 has still the spot of sin upon it, and his strength 
 is after all in the confession of his weakness. But 
 still, granting most fully all which Holy Scrip- 
 ture and our own consciences bid us grant, 
 we cannot acquiesce in that state of changing 
 and backsliding and continual beginning again, 
 which many are glad to look upon as a sad but 
 necessary evil. When we seriously and thought- 
 fully read the Holy Scriptures, and are content 
 modestly to receive the teaching therein con- 
 tained, in its plain, natural, grammatical sense, 
 we cannot but acknowledge that a height of 
 Christian attainment is there put before us as 
 
against Religious Excitement. 5 
 
 possible, which is far beyond the present standard 
 of holiness. Whosoever is born of God doth not 
 commit sin ; for his seed remaineth in him : and he 
 cannot sin, because he is born of God \ These are 
 plain words, yet it is difficult to see what meaning 
 we are to attach to them in these most worldly 
 times, without explaining them away, so as not 
 to condemn ourselves. 
 
 And, when we read the records of the early 
 Church, we find truly that the holiness of those 
 primitive Saints was something very different 
 from ours. We have degenerated from them in 
 all things. Seven times a day, after the exam- 
 ple of holy David, were they at their prayers : 
 we think it much to attend Church regularly 
 twice a week. The Word of God was seldom 
 out of their hands ; some of them knew the 
 whole of it by heart : alas ! how many are there 
 among us who allow a day to pass away without 
 opening that blessed Book ! In self-denial, they 
 could say with St. Paul, that they were in watch- 
 ings and in fastings often, and, with the bold 
 Apostle, could protest that they died daily, and 
 that they kept under their bodies and brought 
 them into subjection. We, on the contrary, gather 
 our comforts, our luxuries, and elegances about 
 
 ' 1 John iii. 9. 
 
6 The Prayer-hook a Safeguard 
 
 us, dwell in the midst of softness and self-indul- 
 gence, and would fain flatter ourselves all the 
 while that we are treading in the steps of the Son 
 of God, Who for our sakes, yet not surely that 
 we should wax wanton in our liberty, led a life 
 of toil and suffering, poverty and contempt, mor- 
 tification and austerity. Such too, in their mea- 
 sure like their Master, were the bright lights of 
 primitive antiquity. The time would fail me to 
 tell of Martyrs and Confessors, Bishops and Doc- 
 tors, who, through the might of early piety and 
 in the freshness of early faith, subdued kingdoms, 
 wrought righteousness, obtained promises, re- 
 ceived in torture the bright red crown of Mar- 
 tyrdom, not accepting deliverance, that they 
 might obtain a better resurrection. There was a 
 healthy vigour and hardiness, a zeal and a rough- 
 ness, chaste, severe, and uncompromising, that 
 contrasts strangely with the feeble and effeminate 
 piety of modern times. 
 
 If it is easy for the reader of church history 
 to institute this comparison, it is as easy to 
 discover the causes of the difference. They are 
 mainly three. First, the less frequent solemnization 
 of the Holy Eucharist, The early Christians re- 
 ceived that great Sacrament once every Sunday 
 at least. We think it much to receive it once a 
 
against Religious Excite^neiit, 7 
 
 month. Man did eat Angels' Food. It was their 
 daily nourishment. How strong then must they 
 have been who went forth to battle sustained by 
 the Body of their Lord and Saviour, the ever- 
 lasting Son of God ; and with what cheerfulness 
 and alacrity did they brace themselves up to meet 
 danger, whose hearts were gladdened continually 
 with the spiritual Wine of His most precious 
 Blood I The grace they received had not time 
 to wear out in its contact with the world before 
 it was refreshed again. They lived always in the 
 same earnest and affectionate piety which we 
 perchance may feel for the first few days after we 
 have received that blessed Sacrament, when all 
 the world seems dull and uninviting, and our 
 hearts are burning within us because of the felt 
 presence of the Son of God. 
 
 The second cause of the decay of piety is our 
 forgetfulness of Holy Baptism, In ancient times 
 men had it continually in their thoughts. They 
 could scarcely speak or write on any religious 
 subject without the discourse turning on Bap- 
 tism at last. Children were educated simply as 
 baptized children. They were taught that things 
 were right or wrong in proportion as they affect- 
 ed the Baptismal vow. Sins were considered 
 more or less heinous as they were supposed to 
 A 4 
 
8 The Prayer-book a Safeguard 
 
 stain Baptismal purity. Baptism was to them 
 all in all ; because it was there they found the 
 Cross of Christ set up. It was in the Font that 
 the unspeakable riches of Christ were poured out 
 most freely, most mightily, most abundantly. 
 They thought no words too great, no names too 
 magnificent to express its transcendent dignity. 
 They called it " the new birth, the regeneration, 
 the chariot carrying us to God, the great circum- 
 cision, the key of the kingdom, the robe of light, 
 the sacrament of eternal salvation :" and an old 
 Bishop^ of the African Church expressly says 
 that in Baptism *' the faith and profession of the 
 behevers meets with the ever-blessed Trinity, and 
 is recorded in the register of Angels, where hea- 
 venly and spiritual seeds are mingled ; that from 
 so holy a spring may be produced a new nature 
 of the regeneration, that, while the Trinity meets 
 with the faith of the baptized, he that was born 
 to the world may be born spiritually to God. 
 So God is made a Father to the man, and the 
 holy Church a Mother." Now how like all this 
 is to the way in which St. Paul talks of Baptism; 
 his frequent use of the words, washed, sprinkled, 
 sealed, laver of regeneration, and the like ; and 
 St. Peter's express words that by Baptism are we 
 
 ^ St. Optatus cont. Donatist. 
 
against Religious Excitement, 9 
 
 saved, answering to that of St. Paul, buried zmth 
 Christ in Baptism, wherein also ye are risen witJt 
 Him through the faith of the operation of God, 
 And how unHke all this is to the few cold, thank- 
 less, and occasional allusions we make to our own 
 new birth, and the heavenly privileges in which 
 we were then and there arrayed ! 
 
 A third reason of our degeneracy is to be 
 found in the absence of Church discipline, to pu- 
 nish with spiritual censures and public penitences 
 gross and notorious immorality. At the Ptefor- 
 mation men's minds were in a constant tumult 
 and distraction, and, before the Discipline of the 
 Church was finally settled in convocation. King 
 Edward died, and the fierce and bloody triumph 
 of Popery under Queen Mary threw all things 
 back into confusion. Therefore it is that once a 
 year, on Ash Wednesday, when the Commina- 
 tion is read, the Church reminds us of the godly 
 Discipline there was in the Primitive Church, 
 and utters a mournful complaint that the said 
 Discipline is not restored again, '' which is much 
 to be wished." The world has proved too strong 
 for her, and that is still kept back which can 
 alone restore us to the high and loyal-hearted 
 piety of our Christian ancestors. It will be 
 enough on this head to leave the subject with the 
 
 a5 
 
10 The Prayer-book a Safeguard 
 
 eloquent and weighty judgment of the vene- 
 rable Hooker ^ " No doubt/ says he, " but 
 penitency is a prayer, a thing acceptable unto 
 God, be it in publike or in secret. Howbeit 
 as in the one, if men were wholly left to their 
 own voluntary meditations in their closets, and 
 not drawn by laws and orders unto the open as- 
 semblies of the Church, that there they may join 
 with others in prayer, it may be soon conjectured 
 what Christian devotion that way would come 
 unto in a short time. Even so in the other we 
 are by sufficient experience taught how little it 
 booteth to tell men of washing away their sins 
 with tears of repentance, and so to leave them 
 altogether to themselves. O Lord, what heaps 
 of grievous transgressions have we committed, the 
 best and perfectest, the most righteous amongst 
 us all, and yet clean pass them over unsorrowed 
 for and unrepented of, only because the Church 
 hath forgotten utterly to bestow her wonted times 
 of Discipline, wherein the pubhc example of all 
 was unto every particular person a most effectual 
 means to put them often in mind, and even in a 
 manner to draw them to that which we now alto- 
 gether and utterly forget, as if penitency was no 
 part of a Christian man's duty." 
 
 ' Book V. 
 
 13 
 
against Religious Excitement. 11 
 
 Thus it is that what is in the present day called 
 the religious world is very different from the 
 Church of old time. The spiritual condition of 
 its members is different, and consequently the 
 spiritual remedies to be applied must be different 
 also. Persons have been brought up without 
 any reference to their Baptism ; and very many 
 have come to years of discretion without any 
 thing like an abiding sense of religion. Such 
 they are to outward appearance. But a new life 
 is yet hid within them. The seed may from neg- 
 ligent education or other untoward circumstances 
 have lain dormant, as the spring-time of the natu- 
 ral year is often unseasonably late. It is not dead, 
 but sleepeth. The power of God is still folded 
 up within it, to be put forth at His good plea- 
 sure. Hence it is we sometimes see young chil- 
 dren who on their death-beds evince a thoughtful- 
 ness, a spiritual growth, and an intelligent appre- 
 hension of things heavenly, almost beyond belief. 
 It is because the young plant is forced, as it were, 
 by the circumstances among which it is placed. 
 It does not wait the slow and tardy process of 
 ordinary blossoming ; but springs all at once to 
 its full bloom. The light of heaven is shed for 
 a short while about it, and it is forthwith trans- 
 planted to a quieter and purer home than this. 
 
 a6 
 
12 The 'Prayer-hook a Safeguard 
 
 And it is the same with older persons. That 
 which is now called conversion is but the waken- 
 ing of Baptismal hfe, more or less sudden as the 
 case may be. Some sharp sickness or bereave- 
 ment, some narrow escape, some unexpected good 
 fortune, or other special Providence shocks a man 
 into a consciousness of his Baptismal powers. He 
 is all at once aroused from the sleep of sin. The 
 scales fall from the eyes, and he finds that he has 
 unconsciously been living in a world of spirit and 
 of spiritual things, while he thought of nothing 
 but the base and empty pleasures of sense. 
 
 Now here is the danger. The zeal of new 
 converts is proverbial. They are but children in 
 rehgion ; yet unfortunately men in powers and 
 passions and affections. The feelings are very 
 much heated and excited, and the judgment 
 shaken for a while, as well it may be, both by a 
 view of the horrible dangers it has escaped, and 
 the unspeakable mercies that are open to it. Men 
 in this state of mind are not content to be quiet. 
 Quietness in religion is only the fruit of a ma- 
 ture faith. The Jordan may seem but small and 
 insignificant in comparison with the rivers they 
 themselves would choose. They cannot bring 
 themselves to believe in its healing powers ; and to 
 wash therein seems too poor a return for the exu- 
 
against Religious Excitement. 18 
 
 berant warmth of their zeal. They forget God has 
 chosen that Httle stream : and that His choice is 
 all we have to do with ; and so they hurry self- 
 willed to the mightier, but ungifted, rivers of 
 Damascus. Men are wayward in every thing. 
 They will have their own way even in rehgion. 
 This is a fertile source of Dissent. The Church 
 gives no room for singularity. She is the net of 
 which our Lord spake, full of fishes both bad and 
 good : and the day of separation is not come yet. 
 Whatever she does she does as every body else 
 does it, as her Master did while He was on earth, 
 when He sat at meat with pubhcans and sinners. 
 The Saints of God are hid within her bosom, 
 scarcely seen by the world except in the faint 
 shinings of their good w^orks, which are so many 
 reflections of the glory of the Lord. She bids 
 new converts come to Church, and to Sacra- 
 ments, and to pray, and to read the Holy Scrip- 
 tures ; things which many worldly men do from 
 habit, from hypocrisy, from early association, 
 from glimmerings of good feeling. She bids them 
 come out from the world, and be separate ; but 
 it must be in their own hearts and within her 
 bosom. There must be no bustle, no changing 
 about, no ostentation, no singularity, no excite- 
 ment ; all of which are worldly and belong to 
 worldly things. 
 
14 The Prayer-book a Safeguard 
 
 Now if a person leaves the Church professing 
 religious grounds, such as that it is not strict 
 enough or pure enough for him, and that he is 
 called upon to do some great thing for the Lord, 
 he at once becomes a marked character. He has 
 committed himself to that of which he does not 
 in the least understand the importance. He has 
 entered upon a track, which will lead him he 
 knows not where. However, at the first, he is a 
 person of consideration and importance in the 
 party to which he attaches himself, which no in- 
 dividual ever is in the Church. And so he sepa- 
 rates from the Body of Christ, which St. Paul 
 tells us is the Church, the one Catholic and 
 Apostolic Church. Alas! all this is a miserable 
 and desperate delusion, to say no worse of it. 
 Many and many a man has so left the Church, 
 and, as the excitement of novelty went down, got 
 tired of his new friends, and thus has gone from 
 sect to sect, finding no rest for the sole of his 
 foot ; like a poor dove that flies farther and far- 
 ther from home, and then, when she would fain 
 return, has not strength of wing to carry her, but 
 sinks to earth in a waste and dreary place. And 
 so he goes on till at length he has settled down 
 into the cold and repulsive creed which denies the 
 Divinity of the Son of Man ; and even that too, 
 naked, barren, and comfortless as it is, even that 
 
against Religious Excitement. 15 
 
 fails him at last, it has failed, and must fail all 
 its followers, in the chill and desolate and hope- 
 less hour of death. 
 
 Men soon find that the excitement of their 
 first feelings gradually subsides : and then they 
 fancy their love is waxing cold. But this is not 
 necessarily the case. Do we not find the same 
 with our parents ? We do not always feel our 
 love to them so sensibly as to others ; but is not 
 our love to them stronger and deeper all the 
 while ? The thing is, that custom prevents our 
 feeling it. So it is in religion : and if we once get 
 safely through the dangerous excitement of our 
 earliest penitent feelings, we shall go on calmly 
 and religiously, treading a path of pleasantness 
 and peace unutterable. Now it is the Pray er-Book, 
 and that mainly, which is a Churchman's safe- 
 guard against religious excitement. There is a 
 calm fulness of devotional feeling breathing, like 
 the low notes of music, through all its services, a 
 high and elevated chastity, coupled with an affec- 
 tionate reverence, which gives to its prayers a 
 power, such as accompanies the language of in- 
 spiration. When a man is first awakened to a 
 sense of religion, and the waters of Baptism begin 
 to stir within him, he finds himself in some such 
 state as this. He is surrounded by duties to do. 
 
16 The Prayer-hook a Safeguard 
 
 evil things to be left undone. He has all his old 
 habits to unlearn, and new ones to learn in their 
 place. His soul is overwhelmed with a flood of 
 thoughts and feelings, torn different ways with 
 hopes and fears, and wishes and anxieties, dis- 
 tracted with perplexed and contradictory views of 
 things. He does not know where to turn him- 
 self, or what to begin upon first. The Holy Bible 
 itself only adds to his confusion. It is like a 
 wilderness to him. He is at a loss where to find 
 what is applicable to his own case. He is daz- 
 zled and lost in the number and the brightness of 
 the glories which lie about him. A multitude of 
 doctrines, of precepts, of characters demand his 
 attention, and all of them at once. Now to save 
 himself from settling into imperfect notions or 
 contracted views of the truth as it is in Jesus, his 
 only way is to fall in with the system of the Prayer 
 Book, at whatever time of the year it may be that 
 the Holy Spirit unlocks the fountains of his heart. 
 What that system is, I propose now to show you. 
 The Christian Year is regulated, as you well 
 know, by the life of our most blessed Lord and 
 Saviour. We are here in this world with our 
 loins girded and our lamps burning, waiting for 
 the bridegroom. The Church, therefore, on the 
 four first Sundays of the ecclesiastical year, calls 
 
against Religious Excitement. 17 
 
 upon us to prepare for the joyous festival of our 
 Saviour's Advent. Christmas Day, The Massa- 
 cre of the Holy Innocents, the Circumcision of 
 Christ, and His Epiphany, which is the birthday 
 of the Gentile Church, follow in quick succession. 
 On this last great event the Church in the ful- 
 ness of her joy dwells for five or six Sundays, 
 when she abruptly breaks off on Septuagesima 
 Sunday, three Sundays before Lent, that we may 
 not pass too quickly and too unpreparedly from 
 a season of joy and festive thoughts to one of 
 dimness and penitential tears. By this time we 
 are sobered and subdued, and saddened by the 
 recollection of our sins ; and, as our Saviour passed 
 away from the world by the leading of the Spirit, 
 for forty days of fasting and temptation and spiri- 
 tual conflict in the wilderness, so the Church, hke 
 the moon going behind a cloud, enters the solemn 
 season of Lent. The five Sundays which intervene 
 are still festivals ; but the collects are of a more 
 humble and pensive nature. As w^e approach 
 Easter the gloom of Passion week gets thicker and 
 deeper until Good Friday, the day of shame when 
 our sins crucified the Lord of hfe, and which we 
 yet call Good for the precious gift it gave us, re- 
 demption from everlasting slavery. Through 
 Easter Eve we wait in silence while our Lord is 
 
18 The Prayer-hook a Safeguard 
 
 laid in His Sepulchre of stone ; till the Easter sun 
 begins to rise, and the Sun of Righteousness rises 
 with it with healing on His wings ; and the Lord 
 appears to us in the Holy Sacrament, as He did to 
 Simon, when He first arose, and when He was 
 made known at Emmaus in the breaking of bread. 
 For three whole days this high Festival is pro- 
 longed, till on the Wednesday in Easter week 
 we return to our worldly occupations. For five 
 Sundays more the Church is with her risen Lord, 
 till on Ascension Day she sees Him received up 
 to glory. And, as she may not be with Him yet, 
 but must remain on earth both a widow and a 
 bride, she prays that we may in heart and mind 
 thither ascend and with Him continually dwell. 
 One Sunday more, and we arrive at the Feast of 
 Pentecost, Whitsunday, and celebrate the out- 
 pouring of the Holy Ghost when the Church was 
 endued with that power from on high, which 
 shall not fail her until time shall be no more. 
 This festival also for its greatness is prolonged 
 three days, there being a service both for Monday 
 and Tuesday in Whitsun week. Lastly, as in the 
 Name of the Trinity we were first baptized and 
 by that mysterious Name we must be saved, the 
 Church calls upon us, by the confession of a 
 true faith, to acknowledge the glory of the eternal 
 
against Religious Excitement, 19 
 
 Trinity, and in the power of the Divine Majesty 
 to worship the Unity. For, knowing our weak- 
 ness and our want of faith, and our irreverent 
 boldness in prying too curiously into things which 
 Angels only desire to look into, she in her wis- 
 dom had prayed for us the Sunday and all the 
 week before, that we might have a right judgment 
 in all things. After this follow four or five and 
 twenty Sundays, which, as they celebrate nothing, 
 are simply called the Sundays after Trinity. These 
 are times of stillness and retirement. The first 
 half of the year the Church by mighty and spirit- 
 stirring festivals kept raising our love to Christ to 
 its very height. Now she bids us act out in com- 
 mon life those feelings we have gained. She bids 
 us modestly and meekly live holy lives as the only 
 worthy fruits of those high and noble affections. 
 Thus the shining pathway of her year keeps 
 mounting higher and higher till it touches the 
 adorable Trinity, when it again sinks silently down 
 in awe till Advent comes round once more. 
 
 Beside this, she has sprinkled lesser festivals all 
 over the year, like fragrant flowers to refresh us, 
 in which she celebrates the Blessed Virgin, the 
 Baptist, and the Holy Apostles and Evangehsts. 
 One she has set apart in honour of St. Michael 
 and all Angels, that we may duly reverence those 
 
20 The Prayer-book a Safeguard 
 
 bright guardians who are ministering spirits to 
 the heirs of salvation : and another to the com- 
 memoration of All Saints, the multitude that no 
 man can number, that we may not forget the 
 Dead, knit together with us in one communion 
 and fellowship, in the mystical Body of Christ our 
 Lord. In the course of this holy year, the Psalms 
 are read through twelve times in her daily services, 
 the Old Testament once through with parts of the 
 Apocrypha, and the New Testament three times 
 except the Revelations. Thus in a calm and clear 
 order the life of our blessed Saviour and all He 
 did for us, the doctrines of our most Holy Faith, 
 and the examples of the most eminent Saints, are 
 brought before us one after the other without 
 any confusion ; and with services so wonderfully 
 adapted as to stir the heart of the coldest, and 
 win the admiration of the worldly man, even 
 where they cannot interest his affections. 
 
 Here then is our remedy, here our safeguard 
 against religious excitement — in the Prayer- 
 book. It is handed down to us by the wisdom 
 and the piety of ancient days, and consecrated 
 by the memory of the Dead, whom it has guided 
 so faithfully through the tossing world to their 
 eternal rest. Its daily psalms and lessons, and 
 its simple collects, form a manual of private or 
 
against Religious Excitement, 21 
 
 family devotion, where the public service is un- 
 happily disused, such as the most affectionate 
 fervours of a sober-minded piety could desire. 
 Thus the Church, like a wise Mother, keeps feed- 
 ing us with the bread of hfe with an unsparing 
 hand : and as the Apostles gave the bread to the 
 people, which the Master first had blessed, so 
 does she from Him rightly divide the word of 
 truth to those that seek it : and yet, when all are 
 satisfied, her treasure is not less. Each day and 
 week^ each season of the year is furnished with 
 its own peculiar subject for rehgious meditation. 
 We know that what may be done at any time is 
 for the most part left undone altogether. Were 
 we left to ourselves, there would be doubtless 
 many times when we should not meditate on 
 holy things, simply because no thought was ready 
 to our hands ; and many subjects would probably 
 be entirely omitted, or not dwelt upon sufficiently. 
 But now we have always matter for pious reflec- 
 tion. Some one heavenly thought is given us by 
 the Church to carry in our hearts day by day into 
 the throng of toil and business; and there it dwells 
 ready at any time to come to our aid against 
 temptation, to put impure and wandering thoughts 
 to flight, to fill up idle minutes which Satan else 
 would occupy, and to be as it were a sanctifying 
 leaven to all our worldly schemes and cares. But 
 
22 The Prayer-hooTc a Safeguard 
 
 there is another blessing yet which comes to us 
 by the use of the Prayer-book. There are in the 
 land many vast and reverend Cathedrals, many 
 Churches and Chapels, where the voice of the 
 Church is still lifted up in her daily Services. 
 There are many Christian families, whose day 
 begins and ends with the Prayer-book in their 
 domestic worship ; and many private Christians 
 also who use its prayers to the joy and consola- 
 tion of their hearts. Thus the poor in their lone- 
 ly cottages, scattered through the land, may turn 
 their eyes to the village Church as to their httle 
 Jerusalem where their fathers worshipped ; and, 
 as they use the Church prayers, may feel that 
 many loyal hearts are that day, and every day, 
 joining with them in the same devotions. The 
 smoke of the incense goes up from a hundred 
 altars, but it rises to the throne of grace as one 
 people's one offering, their daily sacrifice of prayer 
 and praise, the smell of a sweet savour to the 
 Lord, because of which, xvhile the earth remaineth, 
 seed time and harvest, and cold and heat, and sum- 
 mer and winter^ and day and night shall not ceaseK 
 Thus the Prayer-book reahzes in a way the glo- 
 rious Communion of Saints. The humblest mem- 
 ber of the Church need not, cannot feel solitary 
 in his religious course. His path may be rugged, 
 
 ' Gen. viii. 22. 
 
against Religious Excitement, 23 
 
 but it cannot be dreary. We all of us have sure- 
 ly had seasons of trial and weariness when our 
 spirits would have fainted within us, had we not 
 known of a certainty how many brothers there 
 were treading the same path, using the same 
 prayers, and thinking the same holy thoughts as 
 ourselves. 
 
 We have at best but little spiritual strength : 
 and excitement wastes in occasional and vehe- 
 ment outbreaks that healthy vigour which the 
 duty of unceasing vigilance calls for every day. 
 Satan it may be retires for a season, when the fit 
 of elevation is upon us, well knowing that the 
 weary spirit must soon sink down into a helpless 
 lassitude, a prey to his wily and destructive arts ; 
 and that then the time for his attack is come. We 
 cannot always live in that unnatural state. The 
 fever must be followed by exhaustion sooner or 
 later, as our temperament may be. The very 
 largeness of a penitent's heart, the very genero- 
 sity of his zeal is oftentimes a snare to him. And 
 he cannot be too frequently reminded, that the 
 most ordinary duties are hard enough for him to 
 perform at first. 
 
 The daily round, the common task 
 Will give us all we ought to ask, 
 Room to deny ourselves, a road 
 To bring us daily nearer God, 
 
24 The Prayer-hook a Safeguard 
 
 If we rise every morning with a firm resolve to 
 make some self-denial that day, to do something, 
 however trifling, for the honour and service of 
 God, we need not go out of our way to find it. My 
 son, the Lord will provide a ram for a burnt offer- 
 ing^. Some chance victim or other will be caught in 
 the thicket by our own wayside, that will serve for 
 a reasonable and acceptable sacrifice. In worldly 
 pleasures we all know how transient and unsatis- 
 fying excitement is, how jaded and spiritless it 
 leaves the mind afterwards, and how it untunes 
 us for duty or for serious things. So it is in Re- 
 ligion. It is easy for persons of quick tempera- 
 ment to keep up a false, though it must be an 
 intermittent, heat by some means or other through 
 life. It is possible to feed the dying lamp with the 
 same unhallowed fire. But, oh ! how awful the 
 thought that a spirit should leave this world, not 
 calm and reverent and self-collected, but passing 
 rudely into the presence of Almighty God, sus- 
 tained by the false and feverish delusion of over- 
 wrought and unsound feelings. Let us rather 
 go on leaning on the arm of the Church all the 
 year through ; and, by God's blessing, we may 
 die as calmly as we have hved, at the foot of the 
 Cross ; and our souls may pass with a gentle 
 
 ^ Gen. xxii. 8. 
 
against Religious. Excitement. 25 
 
 shock, as He sees best for us, to that happy and 
 tranquil Paradise, where, with Patriarchs, Pro- 
 phets and Apostles, the spirits of just men abide, 
 waiting for the Lord ; whose portion is, where 
 God grant ours may be also, among glorious 
 hopes and visions and mysterious joys. 
 
 The Collect for Easter Even, 
 
 Grant, O Lord, that as we are baptized into the 
 death of Thy blessed Son our Saviour Jesus Christ ; 
 so by continual mortifying our corrupt affections, we 
 may be buried with Him ; and that through the grave 
 and gate of death, we may pass to our joyful resurrec- 
 tion, for His merits Who died and was buried, and rose 
 again for us. Thy Son Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen. 
 
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THE CHURCH CALENDAR, 
 
 A HELP AGAINST TIME. 
 
 There are many days in a year ; and in every 
 one of them we are all of us thinking and say- 
 ing either how quick the time passes or how 
 slow. Those who are engaged in business, 
 and have almost more to do every day than 
 one day will hold, are continually complaining 
 how quick the time passes : those who are idle, 
 languid, useless people, who are weak enough 
 and ignorant enough to believe they have 
 nothing to do but to amuse themselves, are 
 continually complaining how slow the time 
 passes. Again : those vvho are in strong bodily 
 health, and are from that in good spirits and 
 cheerfulness, wonder at the quiet way in which 
 time runs past them, like a summer stream 
 that makes no noise in its going ; but those 
 a2 
 
4 The Church Calendar, 
 
 whom age or sickness has confined to their 
 weary chambers, who he awake all night, in 
 pain and fretfulness, Hstening to the different 
 hours as they come heavily one after another, 
 and murmuring for the day, — these are mise- 
 rable because time goes so sluggishly. When 
 we are looking forward to any pleasure or 
 enjoyment, we are eager for the time to pass 
 away quickly ; and, in like manner, when we 
 are in sorrow and suffering, we are equally 
 anxious for the rapid flight of time. So, too, 
 there is scarcely a day in which parents do not 
 teach their children, and masters their scho- 
 lars, and friends warn their friends, and the 
 Church warns all men, not to lose their time, 
 because it passes away. Thus we are for ever 
 thinking about time, speaking about time, and 
 acting with reference to time. And as the 
 Church calendar was invented of old to help 
 us against time, it may not be unpractical to 
 ask ourselves a question — simple, indeed, to all 
 appearance, yet by no means easy to answer — 
 What is time ? What is the meaning of this 
 word that is always in our mouths ? What is 
 this strange power, or economy, or tyrant, 
 or whatsoever it be, which, like the air we 
 
a Help against Time, 5 
 
 breathe, insinuates itself into all our thoughts 
 and actions, makes itself felt every where, and 
 felt as a hard master over us ? What is time ? 
 Think of it as we will, place it in whatever 
 light we will, there is but one answer to the 
 question — It is a mysterij. 
 
 Now, let no one think that this is a mere 
 matter of speculation, a question, curious and 
 interesting, but not affecting our practice. If 
 it be true that time is so continually in our 
 thought, it must be practical to get some true 
 notions about it, and to give it a religious 
 meaning. We shall then be more strongly 
 impressed with the recollection that it is one 
 of the most fearful of those talents for which 
 we shall have to give account at the judgment- 
 seat of Christ ; and also when we begin to see 
 what time is, we shall be more anxious to take 
 refuge from its tyranny, its unreality, and its 
 chano:in2s in the fulness and the substance of 
 eternity. 
 
 Time is not a reality, because it is not and 
 it cannot be eternal. It would be a contradic- 
 tion to say it was. We may talk of past, pre- 
 sent, and future. To us they may seem widely 
 different things, though they are not really so: 
 
 A 3 
 
6 The Church Calendar, 
 
 they are but the outsides of things ; the out- 
 side of eternity, under which is the eternal on- 
 flowing of all things and spirits, whether of 
 earth or heaven ; a flowing which has no 
 motion, fast or slow, no colour, dark or light, 
 no sound, or tide, or change, or resting ; part 
 of the unseen, unheard Will of God, not to be 
 comprehended or spoken of. Past, present, 
 and future, are men's names for the outside of 
 all this ; different names, because they have 
 different colours. The past has a dark and 
 gentle hght upon it, and the future is in 
 sunny, shifting mist, and the present is colour- 
 less ; for we are yet too near to see how me- 
 mory will paint it, and too much busied with 
 it to remember how w^e once saw it wdth the 
 Hght of hope upon it. There is but one past ; 
 and that is all we leave behind when we are 
 judged ; and what else is that but sin ? *' That 
 which hath been is now ; and that which is to 
 be hath already been ;" — this is the nature of 
 time; — "and God requireth that which is 
 past;" and this is the meaning of time to our- 
 selves ^ 
 
 Now let us think of some of the ways in 
 
 ' Eccl. iii. 15. 
 
a Help against Time. 7 
 
 which we are influenced and affected by time. 
 We see that the whole external world is regu- 
 lated by it. The sun rises and sets within his 
 proper limits ; and the moon is a faithful wit- 
 ness in heaven. The great sea keeps its own 
 calendar by its tides ; the earth by her seasons, 
 spring and autumn, summer and winter, seed- 
 time and harvest. Now all these are so 
 many ways of marking time ; for when twelve 
 months are over, all things begin again as be- 
 fore. We are compelled, whether we will or 
 not, to follow these changes, to obey them, 
 and adapt ourselves to them. Our toil, our 
 business, our pleasures, our dress, our way of 
 living, are all forced to accommodate them- 
 selves to the changes of the year. We cannot 
 help ourselves. Time is a law of God, and 
 therefore it is too strong for us. We should 
 often be glad to shorten one season or lengthen 
 another ; but it may not be. So here is one 
 way in which we are affected by time. 
 
 But it is not only the natural world which is 
 regulated and governed by time. The world 
 which we make for ourselves, — the world of 
 sin and sorrow, the world of trouble and plea- 
 sure, — this is also most completely beneath 
 A 4 
 
8 The Church Calendar, 
 
 the hand of time. We have fixed days and 
 hours, and weeks and months, for doing all 
 things. We contrive instruments for telling 
 us how our very minutes are passing. We 
 divide time into the smallest portions ; and in 
 every one of those portions we have something 
 to do or suffer. So here is another way in 
 which we are put beneath the dominion of 
 time. 
 
 But more than this^ time possesses an al- 
 most irresistible authority over our feelings, 
 our affections, and our happiness. It is a sad 
 thing to be in sorrow ; yet there are many 
 of us who have lost parents, or children, or 
 friends, who would fain have kept alive within 
 our hearts the same keen and Hvely memory 
 of them, as we had when first they died. But 
 time will not let us : it hurries us along ; and 
 our impressions grow fainter and fainter, till 
 at last they almost die away. Then in our 
 friendships and our loves time grievously in- 
 terferes with us. It will not allow the glow of 
 our affection to continue. We cease to love 
 friends we have loved before, for no other 
 reason than that the lapse of time has cooled 
 our love, and we were not able to withstand 
 
a Help against Time, 9 
 
 its power. And as it interferes with our affec- 
 tions so does it with our happiness. Time is 
 so unsatisfactory a thing when it is with us, 
 that we are always discontented with the pre- 
 sent. Young men are always wishing to be old, 
 and old men to be young. Men can love the 
 future, and they can love the past : scarcely 
 any can rest contented in the present. Besides 
 which, it often comes across us as a melan- 
 choly thought, that all this will go on just as 
 well, just as happily, w^hen we are dead and 
 gone. Men will have our houses and our 
 gardens, and will be glad and happy therein. 
 They will walk about the same streets, and 
 have the same joyous meetings, when we shall 
 be slowly and neglectedly falling back into the 
 cold earth out of which we came ; and they 
 who loved us will have laid us therein, shed a 
 few slight tears upon our coffin, gone to their 
 pleasure or their toil, and straightway forgot- 
 ten all about us. And yet they are not un- 
 faithful or unaffectionate. It is time's fault, 
 not theirs. 
 
 Surely these thoughts about time are very 
 profitable to us ; or at any rate they may be 
 made so : for they show us what a tyrant time 
 A 5 
 
10 The Chirch Calendar, 
 
 is ; how it bears us onward with an unfeeKng 
 violence, not allowing us one hour*s respite for 
 the quiet indulgence of our holiest and most 
 natural affections. They show us, too, which 
 is a great thing, that time is something quite 
 distinct from ourselves ; they point out that 
 there is something within us which is con- 
 tinually craving for rest, which is weary of fol- 
 lowing time up and down in all its changes, 
 and is miserable in that perpetual agitation 
 and hurry and motion into which it is thrown 
 by time. Nothing can prove to man more 
 strongly his own immortality, than his dislike 
 of time and his unhappiness while beneath its 
 power. 
 
 Thus a thoughtful mind might have got so 
 far towards seeing what a mystery time is, 
 independent of the Bible. He might have seen 
 that it was something which influenced all his 
 thoughts and actions ; something from which 
 he could not escape, and which would leave 
 him in the end he knew not where, only it 
 would be helpless, and hopeless also. Thus it 
 was, to get rid of this mystery, that the hea- 
 then of old days made time into a god ; that 
 is, they believed, or tried to make themselves 
 
a Help against Time, 11 
 
 believe, that time was eternal. Yet we, who 
 are made heirs of heaven and partakers of the 
 divine natm-e, who can die no more, because 
 Christ has once died for us all ; who have 
 bread from heaven, even the Flesh of the In- 
 carnate Word, whereon we feed, whereby w-e 
 receive fullest remission of sins, and take into 
 ourselves the seed and the earnest of a blessed 
 resurrection ; — we who are thus from mere 
 mortals made by holy Baptism into sons of 
 God, think far less about time, about what it 
 is, and what it means, and what we have to do 
 with it, than the heathen did. They wondered 
 at it : we let hour after hour slip by, and take 
 no account of the mystery. They were uneasy 
 and unhappy about it : it never disturbs us in 
 our business or our pleasure; it never disturbs 
 us even in our sins. They made a god of it, 
 and worshipped it, and did all they could to 
 propitiate its awful power : we never remem- 
 ber that it is a messenger of the one true God, 
 that it tells us that the world's end keeps has- 
 tening, and that the fire of judgment draweth 
 nearer and nearer to us day by day, and night 
 by night. So far, tlien, independent of the 
 Bible, we could see that time was a mystery. 
 A 6 
 
12 The Church Calendar, 
 
 Now in the Bible no explanation is given at 
 all : but mystery is made far deeper. We know 
 that the world was 4000 years old when God 
 gave His only begotten Son to take upon Him 
 our nature and to be miraculously born of a 
 pure Virgin. Yet the Bible calls Him the Lamb 
 slain before the foundation of the world. 
 Abraham had been long dead and buried, and 
 his sepulchre was in the Holy Land in the days 
 of Christ's humiHation. Yet the Lord tells 
 us that Abraham rejoiced to see His day and 
 was glad. Nay, more than this, we are taught 
 that Christ could not come before He did, that 
 it was not well He should come before He did, 
 because it was not yet the fulness of time. 
 So you see time had power to keep back our 
 blessed Lord from coming. And when He was 
 on earth. He speaks of His time not being yet 
 come ; so that time had something to do with 
 His death. Moreover, in the Scriptures we 
 learn that time has nothing to do with God ; 
 that His power and wisdom are not bounded 
 by what men call past, present, and future ; 
 that He is the first and the last. Who was and 
 is, and is to be, in Whom and by Whom, and 
 through Whom do all things consist, from 
 
 13 
 
a Help against Time, 13 
 
 Whom they spring, and upon Whona they most 
 entirely and utterly depend. But the Bible 
 not only deepens the mystery of time, but ex- 
 tends its power. The dead, that is, our friends 
 and relations and forefathers who liave left this 
 world — the spirits, are under the influence of 
 time. For their souls beneath the altar cry unto 
 God, and say, "How long ! O Lord, how long!" 
 Lastly, we learn from the Bible also, that there 
 shall be a very great day, whereon an Angel ^ 
 shall go forth and swear by the God Who made 
 all things and liveth for ever, that there shall 
 be time no longer. 
 
 These things are very mysterious. But they 
 are written for our instruction. We live in 
 time, we shall be judged for what we do in 
 time ; we shall still live on, we shall still be 
 aUve, when time shall be no longer. With 
 us eternity depends on time. Now then, if the 
 Bible tells us all these mysteries about time, 
 and many more which I have not mentioned, 
 what does it tell us of time as connected with 
 ourselves — as practical to ourselves? First of all 
 these mysteries themselves are very practical ; 
 
 ' Rev. X. 6. 
 
14 The Church Calendar, 
 
 they make us afraid of time, of letting it slip away 
 from us unseen, of misspending it. Secondly, 
 God puts time before us as a witness, for or 
 against us, as the case may be. The years go 
 round and round. They make no noise as 
 they go. Night steals quietly upon the day ; 
 and morning light breaks in the east in beauty 
 and in silence. But every year, as it passes 
 away from us, goes to lay its long and sad ac- 
 count at the foot of the throne of God. That 
 throne is set up in its own place somewhere 
 in the world. We cannot tell where it is ; 
 perhaps nearer ourselves than we imagine, 
 perhaps in the midst of us. To this throne 
 does each year come to testify of all things 
 which it has seen, all the sins, no matter how 
 secret, which all the men in all the nations of 
 the earth have committed : that God mav note 
 them in His Book. It is a faithful witness : it 
 forgets nothing, it conceals nothing ; it is God's 
 minister going up and down among men to spy 
 out all their actions. We cannot hide ourselves 
 from time. It is like the eye of Him Who 
 made it. It does not close : it does not sleep : 
 it does not weary of its task : it is awake for 
 evermore. 
 
a Help against Time, 15 
 
 But time is more than a witness against us, 
 it is our enemy. It cuts off the wicked, very 
 treacherously giving them no warning. It 
 shortens our repentance ; it will not wait, or 
 give us respite, while we try to repair whatever 
 we have done amiss. But the Church of Christ 
 gives us protection against the enmity of time. 
 It disarms it. It sanctifies it. It takes us 
 beneath its wing, and teaches us, if only we 
 are obedient, how to make time witness for us, 
 instead of against us, at the throne of God. 
 
 Let us think of some of the ways in which 
 the Church does this. Time is the property 
 of the world : at least it seems so ; for the 
 world takes it, and fills it quite full, full even 
 to wearying us, full even beyond what it will 
 hold of business, schemes, cares, toils, labours, 
 trades, vanities, pleasures, politics, literatures, 
 sciences, sins of its own. The Church will 
 not allow of this. She insists upon all time 
 being hers. She takes every morning for her 
 own, and every evening for her own ; and calls 
 them hours of prayer. In old times, when 
 her faith was stronger, and her sons more loyal 
 and less mingled up with a literary or money- 
 making world, she had seven hours of prayer 
 
16 The Church Calendar, 
 
 a day, the seven canonical hours. Alas ! we 
 need not wish for her old seven : we do not 
 keep her modern two ! She takes the first day 
 of every week, and will not allow the world to 
 have any share in it. She will not think of 
 poor people being made to work, or rich people 
 left to their own vain employments ; on the 
 day when her Spouse rose from the dead, and 
 finished our redemption. More than this, she 
 gives every year days to the Blessed Virgin, 
 days to each of the Apostles, and other saints 
 of God, whereon their memories shall be kept 
 holy, and her children shall be glad of heart. 
 So too does she remember the Holy Angels, 
 and above all, the great and marvellous acts of 
 her dearest Lord while He was yet on earth. 
 These are her own days. She calls them holy- 
 days. She has made them for our sakes, for 
 her children's sake, to help them in redeeming 
 the time, because the days are so very evil 
 and profane. Further she is so very jealous 
 of the world, that she will not leave it quiet 
 even on its own working-days. She establishes 
 days of fasting, painful mortification, hardness, 
 self-denial, and great weeping for sin. She kills 
 the world in all our hearts year after year by 
 
a Help against Time. 17 
 
 her long, hard, forty days of Lent. And all 
 this for the love she bears us. Now, this is 
 one way in which the Church helps us against 
 time: and how are we obedient to her authority? 
 Remember she has her authority, not of man, 
 but of God : the Holy Ghost is with her and 
 within her ; her words are not to be regarded 
 lightly. She is the Bride of Christ, and the 
 Bride, as well as the Spirit, say " Come." She 
 is the representative of Christ. How have 
 we used the helps she gives us against the 
 tyranny of time ? Did you, for example, during 
 last year, during 1839, in a humble and child- 
 like spirit observe her fasts and festivals, Sun- 
 days and great feasts — such as Easter and 
 Christmas, Ascension Day, and Whitsuntide — 
 I do not say strictly, but as well as you could, 
 and with much grief that you have not observed 
 them better? Have you always when you 
 could — I know it is not always possible, — but 
 have you when you could, come to church on 
 Saints' days ; and at least marked fasts by some 
 self-denial for Christ's sake ? Have you not 
 preferred the world ; and with the church-bells 
 sounding in your ears, have closed them against 
 the charmer, and gone rather to business than 
 
18 The Churclt Calendar, 
 
 to religion, to folly, sin, mirth and levity, than 
 with a solemn heart of prayer to the foot of 
 the Cross of Christ ? How many a one is there 
 in our foreign colonies, in far-off lands, serving 
 their country amid dangers and disease, hard- 
 ship and solitude, who would give worlds to 
 hear that sound which they remember in their 
 childhood, or to see the decent and beautiful 
 solemnities of their mother Church again I 
 How many a missionary is there in lonely places, 
 who sinks to his bed with no one to join his 
 evening prayer, but the stars in the heavens 
 above him, and the wind of night sounding 
 about him on some far Indian shore ; and he 
 too w^ould weep for joy if he might join the 
 godly company of worshippers in his own land, 
 to keep the holy days, and the joyful festivals 
 of the saints. The Church has done what she 
 could. Her holy years pass one by one from 
 us to the throne of God. Have they no evil 
 tale to tell of you, of broken fasts and the 
 memories of the Saints of Jesus neglected and 
 despised, and Jesus neglected too ? 
 
 The Church is of course a help against time 
 in other ways beside her calendar. Let us 
 note one or tvvo of them. The Christian 
 
a Help aga'mst Time. 19 
 
 Priesthood with its Apostolical succession is one 
 of the chief ways in which the Church defends 
 herself and us against time. That very high and 
 holy institution keeps the deposit of sound doc- 
 trine, and the right and due administration of 
 the justifying Sacraments, from the harm which 
 time might do them. Generation after gene- 
 ration from the Apostles, and with a perpetual 
 Apostolate in the order of Bishops, the Priest- 
 hood has kept descending, guarding the pure 
 Word of God, and teaching out of the ancient 
 creeds, founding churches, baptizing nations, 
 and showing forth the worship of God in the 
 beauty of holiness. The Sacraments, again, 
 are a still higher way in which the church 
 helps us against time ; not so much by seizing 
 upon it, hallowing it, driving the world out of 
 it, and making it her own, as by bringing 
 heaven forward upon earth, by fetching eternity 
 out into time, by bringing great gifts from far 
 and by them, in the midst of time, substantially 
 anticipating eternity. Thus the weak element 
 of water is sanctified by Christ's pure Flesh in 
 " the river Jordan, to the mystical washing 
 away of sin ^/' in order to cure the wound and 
 
 ^ Baptismal Service. 
 
20 The Church Calendar , 
 
 hide the scar our race has had ahnost since 
 time began, even since Adam fell. Time is 
 indeed a mystery. We cannot hear it flowing. 
 It will make no noise, lest we should hear it 
 and be afraid, and it should be a summon to us. 
 Time is a wonderful and fearful thing, stealing 
 swiftly over us and drawing us along. We can- 
 not swim against it. We are at the bottom of 
 the river. It is flowing above our heads and we 
 do not feel it. We are going down with sad 
 speed, little time to save our souls, little time 
 to cry for help. This is our mortal life. But 
 the Church arrests it. The Sacraments arrest 
 it. In the Sacrament of the Eucharist, the 
 Body and Blood of Christ " are verily and 
 indeed taken and received by the faithful ^" 
 They save our bodies and souls from time, 
 and preserve both of them " unto everlasting 
 life '." They make us one with Him, who is 
 not subject unto time, and make Him myste- 
 riously one with us. Who wears our nature 
 on Him now. That Body and Blood are 
 through faith, '' by the operation of the Holy 
 Ghost," so '' wrought in the souls of the faith- 
 ful," that '' their souls live to eternal life," and 
 
 ^ Catechism. ' Communion Service. 
 
a Help against Time. 21 
 
 their " bodies win a resurrection to immor- 
 tality ^" Thus then, by her priestly succession, 
 and her two chief mysteries of Baptism and 
 the Eucharist, is the Church Catholic con- 
 tinually helping us against time, staying its 
 plague, and putting limits to its wasting. 
 
 The observation of the Church Calendar, 
 and the putting our lives under it, will con- 
 tinually disclose to us meanings and uses and 
 singular fitnesses for our spiritual wants, which 
 we should never have conceived before, and 
 which it is scarcely possible to overvalue. It 
 is the growth of ages, of religious ages, ages of 
 faith and obedience, and eminent heights of 
 sanctity. It grew together under the hands of 
 men who lived when the Church "dwelt at 
 large ;" men '' who praised the Holy One Most 
 High with words of glory, and with their whole 
 heart sang songs ; who set singers before the 
 altar, and beautified their feasts, and set in order 
 the solemn times until the end, that they might 
 praise His holy name, and that the temple might 
 sound from morning." It contains the old wis- 
 dom of western Christendom. It keeps some- 
 what of the spirit of her magnificent ritual. 
 
 * Homily on the right receiving of the Lord's Supper. 
 
22 The Church Calendar, 
 
 It both embodies and imparts the catholic 
 temper. Its being a help to us against time, 
 and the world which is the dwelHng-place of 
 time, is only one of its offices; but it is an 
 important one. Its alternations of vigil, fast, 
 abstinence, and feast ; its ordering of days, and 
 seasons, and commemorations, take from time 
 the power, alluded to before, of blunting our 
 affections and making our feelings dull. The 
 Birth, the Resurrection, or the Ascension of 
 the Lord might indeed be, as they ought to be, 
 famiHar to us ; but, if we celebrated them 
 equally at all times, or specially at such times 
 only as accident or the wayward movements 
 of our own thoughts brought them uppermost, 
 it is too probable we should think of them 
 coldly and dully, or occasionally with too 
 much excitement. The calm, stirring way in 
 which they are brought round by the Church 
 calendar, after due intervals and ritual prepa- 
 rations, affects us very differently, and much 
 more deeply. Holy seasons are then like so 
 many low, invisible, but strong pulsations upon 
 the spirit, re-awakening, prolonging, and car- 
 rying forward the distinct note of joy and sor- 
 row proper to each, without hurry, without 
 
a Help against Time. 23 
 
 intermingling of sounds, making the heart as 
 it were the dwelling-place of a perpetual echo 
 from voices sounding in heaven : " There are, 
 it may be, so many kinds of voices in the world, 
 and none of them is without signification \" 
 
 Besides which, the modest, dutiful observ- 
 ance of the Church calendar has more to do 
 with the soundness and harmony of our belief 
 than would at first sight appear. Many a doc- 
 trine and holy truth has too much faded out 
 of men's minds from neglecting the seasons 
 when the Church calls us to meditate upon 
 them, and praise God for them. Many a doc- 
 trine, where it has not faded in the mind, has 
 lost its proper place, and been disadjusted, 
 from the same neglect ; and so a wrong 
 been done to the uncorrupt creed of the 
 Church. The Christian Sunday has with 
 many lost its free, joyous, evangelical cha- 
 racter, and passed into the dull, solemnity of 
 the Jewish Sabbath, because humiliation and 
 deep sorrow for sin must come some time, and 
 they have forgotten that the Church has ap- 
 pointed Friday for it. Thus men, in trying to 
 be over-spiritual, have come to Judaize. The 
 ' 1 Cor. xiv. 10. 
 
24 TJie Church Calendar, Sfc, 
 
 doctrine of angels and communion with the 
 dead, the awfulness of the priestly office, and 
 the like, are not in that place, in many minds, 
 where they would be, if they observed, as it is 
 really binding upon their consciences to do, 
 St. Michael's and all Saints' Day, and the fasts 
 of the Four Holy Seasons. The joy of Easter, 
 and the doctrines connected therewith, would 
 be both raised and deepened in us, did that 
 queen of festivals come to all of us really, and 
 not in almanacs only, at the end of the puri- 
 fying days of Lent. But it is enough to point 
 this out. To be catholic in faith, we must be 
 ritual catholics : there is no other way. 
 
 THE END. 
 
 Gilbert & Rivington, Printers, St. John's Square, London. 
 
THE CHURCH-CATECHISM 
 
 MODEL 
 
 CHURCH EDUCATION. 
 
 BY THE REV. 
 
 FREDERIC W. FABER, B.A. 
 
 FELLOW OF UNIVERSITY COLLEGE, OXFORD. 
 
 " For this child I prayed; and the Lord hath given me my petition which I 
 have asked of Him : therefore also I have lent him to the Lord : as long as he 
 liveth he shall be lent to the Lord." — 1 Sam. i. 27, 28. 
 
 LONDON: 
 
 PRINTED FOR J. G. & F. RIVINGTON, 
 
 ST. Paul's church yard, 
 
 AND WATERLOO PLACE, PALL MALL. 
 
 1838. 
 Price Fourpence. 
 
Gilbert & Rivington, Printers, St. John's Square, London. 
 
THE 
 
 CHURCH-CATECHISM, 
 
 A 
 
 MODEL OF CHURCH-EDUCATION. 
 
 It is well to mark, where we are able, the differ- 
 ences between the Church of God and the insti- 
 tutions of man. These grow up out of particular 
 circumstances. They are adapted to those cir- 
 cumstances. They live in them. They die with 
 them, or become useless ; and when useless, they 
 are and must be mischievous. They have their 
 day : and must give place to others called forth 
 by new wants and fresh emergencies. But it is 
 far otherwise with the Church of Christ. She is 
 gifted with a power of fitting herself to all changes 
 which may come in her way, and meeting every 
 difficulty which can arise. This phability is one 
 of her most marvellous gifts. It is not conde- 
 scension to the prejudices or humours of an age : 
 but rather a healing of its evil tendencies. Much 
 less is it change. Every thing changes but the 
 
 A 2 
 
4 
 
 Church ; and it is because she cannot change 
 that she has such power over all things else. 
 She is like a cloud in the sky, taking readily every 
 shape which the wdnds may imprint upon it, yet 
 still remaining the same. Every age is possessed 
 by some evil spirit ; and carried away by some 
 false notions. It is here the Church steps for- 
 ward, bringing forth out of her treasures just that 
 portion of Catholic truth which is most fitted to 
 meet the wants of the times. This pliabihty 
 arises partly because the Church is no human 
 system, but alive wdth the Spirit, Who abides 
 within her ; and partly because all truth belongs 
 to her, is embraced within her pale, and freely 
 imparted by her. This is one great meaning of 
 the word catholic, — jiUahiUty without change : an 
 adaptation to man's heart, to his best and most 
 natural affections, and yearnings, and faculties, and 
 aspirations, without any regard to time, or place, or 
 climate, or civilization, or pohtical form of govern- 
 ment, or any other of the temporal circumstances 
 in and among which mankind are set down. The 
 Church is entirely occupied with what is infinite, 
 cherishing every thing, however humble, which 
 points heavenward, and giving their only value to 
 things temporal by linking them with and work- 
 ing them up into things eternal. 
 
Now, of course^ there are many ways in which 
 the Church is called upon to interfere with the 
 tendencies of an age. Let us say a few words 
 on one most dangerous tendency of our own age 
 which it now falls to the Church to thwart. 
 There is a notion very prevalent among us of a 
 vast and extended benevolence, which is some" 
 thing widely different from evangelical charity : 
 a tendency to neglect the humbler ties and circles 
 which come more closely to us, in order, so we 
 deceive ourselves, to attain a more diffusive and 
 imaginary good. In Scripture language, we are 
 apt to neglect what comes to our hands to do ; 
 and choose to do good in our own way, and after 
 our own wisdom, and not as God's Providence 
 keeps bringing it before us in our appointed 
 place. Now our nature is such that affections 
 which have not at first been disciplined in a nar- 
 row sphere, are not able to occupy a large one 
 with any thing like efficiency. The broader the 
 limits are which we may assign to our feelings, the 
 more languid, and intermittent, and short-lived 
 is their play. States are held together by the 
 lesser duties of society being religiously fulfilled. 
 A man's family, friends, parish, neighbourhood, 
 county, or diocese, are all to be preferred to the 
 larger and higher connections which he may have 
 
 A3 
 
as a citizen. They need not hinder him from 
 extending his care or his benevolence to the 
 wider circles, but they must come first in order 
 of time. However, many think this a narrow 
 and low view to take. It certainly is a humbler 
 and lowlier one. Perhaps on that very account 
 the more true. At all events it is the more prac- 
 tical, and founded upon our nature, which does 
 not seem in general fitted to do great things, ex- 
 cept through little ones. Now the spirit of our 
 Church and her services goes quite counter to 
 the tendency of the present age in this respect. 
 She endeavours to make men realize as much as 
 possible all those private loves and household en- 
 dearments which are the first natural elements of 
 human society. She takes to herself almost 
 every common action of our lives, and makes it 
 her own by giving it a religious turn, a church- 
 meaning. She keeps meddhng with us in every 
 stage of our lives. She comes among us in our 
 Baptism, Education, Confirmation, Marriage, 
 Sickness, and Death. She calls upon us to con- 
 secrate our worldly goods by yielding a portion 
 up to her. She bids us make our time minister 
 to eternity by calling us away from a worldly use 
 of it on her Sundays and Saints' days. She makes 
 us put a limit even upon our natural appetites. 
 
that she may teach us through her Fasts obe- 
 dience and self-denial, and bountiful giving of 
 alms. Thus she strives to interweave herself 
 with our most secret and common thoughts, our 
 every day actions, our domestic griefs and joys. 
 She would put something spiritual into them 
 all. She is diligent, unwearying, ungrudging 
 as her Master, always going about doing good. 
 This will be plain to us, and the blessing of it 
 more clearly perceived, and more readily acknow- 
 ledged if we examine her services with this view. 
 For example ; let us look for awhile upon the 
 Catechism as putting before Church-parents a 
 model of Church education. 
 
 Many persons, when the meaning and depth 
 of the Prayer-Book is unfolded to them, are apt 
 to think there is much ingenuity and imagination 
 in what they hear, but little truth. They think 
 so because they are ignorant of the history of our 
 Liturgy. They imagine it was made by one par- 
 ticular set of men at one particular time, and 
 that too a time not the best fitted for the com- 
 position of devotional Formularies. This was far 
 from being the case. The people of a nation 
 never could have received and grafted in upon 
 themselves a new Liturgy. It would have been 
 nothing short of a miracle if they had. The 
 
 a4 
 
Prayer-Book is a very old book. It grew up out 
 of the religious wants of many generations. It 
 was put together by time, and, as it were, natu- 
 rally ; not by men. Like every thing else in our 
 Church, it is not new, but it has got its ancient 
 form, though not fully, yet in a measure given 
 back to it again. The few additions which there 
 are grew up, like its older parts, out of spiritual 
 wants. As the Church is, so are her Forms and 
 Ceremonies; pliable without changing. By being 
 pliable I do not mean that she bends about in any 
 way that men would have her; but that her nature 
 is to fill up every place that is left unoccupied, 
 to insinuate a new meaning and new spirit into all 
 we do. Only the Church is very reserved. She has 
 within her what will satisfy all changes of life and 
 all vicissitudes of feehng. But she will not put it 
 forward except to the right-minded. Her plia- 
 bility is not in any alteration of herself, but in 
 her fitting every age, every country, and every 
 man, with equal propriety : which nothing but 
 the Church can do ; except the air we breathe, 
 the atmosphere wherein we live, which is itself a 
 type of the Spirit, Who is in the Church. How- 
 ever the question with humble minds is rather, 
 what can we make of the treasures we possess ? 
 Time and circumstances only help to show us the 
 
9 
 
 richness of truth. It serves many ends and meets 
 many wants which we should never have ima- 
 gined came wdthin its original commission. This 
 is a weighty argument against all change. 
 
 Now the peculiarity of the Prayer-Book at 
 present before us is this — that its Services hang 
 one upon another like a chain, and are intended 
 to run alongside of us the whole of our lives, 
 and that there is a danger of our losing our way 
 the moment we let go our hold of this heavenly 
 chain. Men think the Church did not intend 
 this to the degree many of us suppose. This is 
 not a matter of much moment. Enough is left 
 to shew it was her intention in the main : and 
 above all in the Catechism and the Formularies 
 connected with it. The Baptismal Service ends 
 with the mention of Confirmation ; and the 
 knowledge of the Creed, the Lord's Prayer, the 
 Ten Commandments, and the further instruction 
 of the Church Catechism, as the needful prepa- 
 ration for that Confirmation. Thus the one 
 Service hands us over, as it were, to the other 
 Service ; and more than this, what we are to be 
 doing meanwhile is clearly pointed out. The 
 Church Catechism is to be the employment of 
 our years from the first ability to learn and un- 
 derstand till the day we take upon ourselves our 
 
 A 5 
 
10 
 
 Baptismal Vow, and are established and con- 
 firmed therein by the Bishop's hands. So the 
 Order of Confirmation, mindful of the Baptismal 
 Service, opens with a repetition of what "the 
 Church hath thought good to order," that is, 
 the injunction with which the Baptismal Service 
 ended about the child's instruction. And, still 
 looking back to Baptism as Baptism looked for- 
 ward to it, the Bishop begins his prayer, '' Al- 
 mighty and everlasting God, who has vouchsafed 
 to regenerate these Thy servants by Water and 
 the Holy Ghost, and hast given unto them for- 
 giveness of all their sins" — a tolerably clear inti- 
 mation of the Church's opinion upon Baptismal 
 Ptegeneration. In like manner, the Order of 
 Confirmation, when it is finished, hands us on in 
 its concluding Rubric to the Order of the Holy 
 Communion. Between Baptism and Confirma- 
 tion intervenes the Catechism, the very title of 
 which sufficiently explains its meaning ; — " An 
 instruction to be learned of every person, before 
 he be brought to be confirmed by the Bishop." 
 It is this Catechism which we are now to explain 
 as a model of Church education. 
 
 It consists of five parts. A distinct statement 
 of the Baptismal Vow, and what great things that 
 Sacrament effects for us and within us — the 
 
11 
 
 Apostles' Creed, with the questions arising out of 
 it — the Ten Commandments, with similar ques- 
 tions — the Lord's Prayer, with an answer ex- 
 plaining it — and, lastly, the doctrine of the Holy 
 Sacraments of Christ's Church. 
 
 1. We have first, then, a distinct statement of 
 the Baptismal Vow, and xohat great things that 
 Sacrament effects for us and within us. Thus one 
 entire division of the Catechism is taken up by 
 Holy Baptism : and, if we look more nearly into 
 it, we shall be struck to find that its influence 
 pervades the whole. The second division, the 
 Creed, is only that form of sound words into 
 which we were baptized. The third and fourth 
 parts, the Ten Commandments, and the Lord's 
 Prayer, are two of the things enjoined to be learnt 
 by the Baptismal Service ; and of the fifth part, 
 the doctrine of the Sacraments, of course Bap- 
 tism, occupies one half. Thus you see the whole 
 Formulary is penetrated by the memory of Bap- 
 tism. It is the life, the meaning, the unity, the 
 religion of the whole : though faith and practice. 
 Creed, Precept, Prayer, and theological Defini- 
 tions be included therein. A great region may 
 consist of mountains, moors, woodlands, mighty 
 towns and cultivated fields : and yet have a unity, 
 often be called by a single name, because of the 
 
 A 6 
 
12 
 
 one river which winds over its plains and within 
 its valleys to bless them and do them good. So 
 is the memory of Baptism in a Churchman's 
 education. Its waters appear everywhere : and 
 green things, the graces of the Spirit and the 
 fruits of the Cross, blossom and ripen on its banks. 
 It is the sacred stream Ezekiel saw in his Vision 
 of the Holy Waters (xlvii. 8, 9.). " These waters 
 issue towards the east country, and go down into 
 the desert, and go into the sea : which being 
 brought forth into the sea, the waters shall be 
 healed. And it shall come to pass, that every 
 thing that liveth, which moveth, whithersoever 
 the rivers shall come, shall live : and there shall 
 be a very great multitude of fish, because these 
 waters shall come thither ; for they shall be 
 healed ; and everything shall Hve whither the 
 river cometh." 
 
 Thus we gain one great principle in Christian 
 education. It is all made to depend upon Bap- 
 tism. It is the education of a baptized soul. 
 Now it is not too much to say that there are 
 very few of us who give this prominence to Bap- 
 tism in the education of our children. The little 
 ones tell us that they were made in their Bap- 
 tism '' members of Christ, children of God, and 
 inheritors of the kingdom of Heaven ;" and more- 
 
13 
 
 over they ''heartily thank God then* heavenly 
 Father, that He hath called them to this state of 
 salvation." Yet we educate them as if we did 
 not believe a word of all this. Alas ! many 
 among us do not believe it. We bring them up 
 as if they were one day to be Christians, not as 
 if they were so already ; as much as we our- 
 selves are. A jewel of great price, even the Cross 
 of Christ, has been given into their charge : a 
 jewel which there is a fearful chance of our losing 
 from the evil, the inherited evil, of our nature ; 
 a jewel which, when once lost, is well nigh irre- 
 trievable. Yet we do not tell them of all this. 
 They grow up : and in many cases they know 
 nothing about Baptism, neither what it is, nor 
 that they have received it, till the near approach 
 of Confirmation obhges us to give them views 
 and notions of some sort or other about it. 
 The Church, when she educates her children in 
 the Catechism, is ever teaching them to look 
 back. We, on the contrary, are always making 
 them look forward. She gives them great 
 thoughts, and tries to make them careful, jealous, 
 and obedient, because they are Christians. We 
 educate their minds and inform them with high 
 principles of action, because they may be Chris- 
 tians and ought to be Christians. In a word. 
 
14 
 
 with the Church Baptism is a gift and a power : 
 with us it is a theory and a notion. If, then, 
 what is called religious education keeps failing 
 and turning out ill on all sides of us, it might not 
 be amiss if we return to the guidance of our 
 Church in this matter. Her rule ought at least 
 to have the benefit of a trial. The primitive 
 Christians seem in the main to have beer) far 
 holier men than ourselves : and one very striking 
 difference between us and them is their frequent 
 reference to their Baptism. The Church is the 
 prodigal's home. Christ may be there, waiting 
 to bless, while we have sought Him sorrowing 
 among the waysides leading from Jerusalem. 
 
 2. The second division of the Catechism is the 
 Apostles' Creed, with the question arising out of it. 
 This was our Baptismal Faith, the good confes- 
 sion which we witnessed at the Font. Here, 
 again, we perceive some slight difference in the 
 Church's method of education and our own. 
 Faith comes before precept, the Apostles' Creed 
 before the Ten Commandments. Not that know- 
 ledge and obedience can ever be, strictly speak- 
 ing, distinct. Obedience springs out of know- 
 ledge ; and knowledge comes by obedience. But 
 we are backward in believing that little children 
 can understand such things, as are contained in 
 
15 
 
 the Creed, or that it will do them any good to be 
 taught them. In fact there is nothing in which 
 the duty of walking by faith and not by sight is 
 more required of us than in the education of 
 children. Yet if we will only look carefully into 
 ourselves we shall find that much of our most 
 valuable knowledge, many of our most precious 
 habits, were acquired in early childhood. Me- 
 mory goes back as far as she can. But even she 
 often stops short of the very early days during 
 which these things were effected in us. Even 
 lessons got off by rote, and which children can- 
 not understand, are most useful. They lie ready 
 in the mind. They are beforehand with false- 
 hood and sin. The child's heart is preoccupied. 
 No sooner does the poison begin to work, than 
 the plant, which is to sweeten the waters, is ready, 
 planted long since, before we knew what service 
 God might find for it in His temple, the body of 
 the little child. Yet we are apt to think that 
 doctrinal knowledge is, to a child, but a bare and 
 profitless catalogue of facts. So we try rather 
 to store their minds with feelings. We teach 
 them the narrative parts of Holy Scripture, the 
 history of Abraham and Joseph, the Passion of 
 the Son of God. This, doubtless, we ought to 
 do, but not to leave the other undone. But we 
 
16 
 
 will do nothing unless we can see some fruit 
 come of it visibly. This is want of faith. Never- 
 theless, if we look attentively at what happens 
 when children leave the parental roof for a 
 more extended sphere of education, we may see 
 some fruits of neglecting the rule of the Church 
 in this matter. When boys go to great schools, 
 or enter upon a College life, or the several pro- 
 fessions to which they are destined, how often do 
 they fall victims to the doubts, and cavils, and 
 objections, which the wicked ingenuity of their 
 clever companions has suggested ! How often, 
 to the distress of their friends and their own great 
 peril, do they become ensnared in the toils of 
 some wrongheaded religionist, not unfrequently 
 deserting the Church wherein they were baptized ! 
 The plants the mother planted— how often, how 
 sadly often have they closed their flowers and 
 died, because there was no soil deep enough for 
 their increasing roots ! And is not all this, in 
 many cases, because we have not given them 
 doctrinal knowledge ? Religion is to be learnt as 
 all things else are. It follows general rules. If 
 the child must learn grammar that the man may 
 be a scholar, he must also learn articles of faith 
 that he may be an orthodox Christian ; and learn 
 them too as he learnt grammar, by memory. We 
 
are bound to this by the Baptismal Service. We 
 are bound to teach him " all things which a 
 Christian ought to know and believe to his soul's 
 health/' *^ remembering always that Baptism doth 
 represent unto us our profession." We believe 
 children capable of understanding that there is a 
 right and a wrong in matters of practice. Why 
 are they less capable of understanding that there 
 is a right and a wrong in matters of faith also ? 
 Orthodox children would make orthodox men. 
 And one among other advantages, which would 
 in all probability result to the Church from our 
 following her example in this, would be a greater 
 and a happier uniformity of religious opinion in 
 the country, than there ever can be while chil- 
 dren are not taught to be Churchmen as well as 
 Christians, but are left to pick up a religious 
 belief as best they may, when they attain to riper 
 years. A boat, that has slipped her moorings 
 and has no compass on board, must be drawn by 
 a miracle if ever it is to reach the harbour. 
 
 3. We come next to the Ten Commandmefits, 
 with the Duty to God and our neighbour drawn 
 out of them. This also is one of the things which 
 children were to learn, according to the Baptismal 
 Service. It is not necessary to say much on this 
 point. Only it were well for many reasons that 
 
18 
 
 we made the Ten Commandments the basis of 
 our moral instructions more than we do. Partly 
 because the Church has put them before us, and 
 obedience always brings a blessing along with it : 
 and partly because the Ten Commandments seem 
 in themselves to form the fittest manual for the 
 purposes of education. Many persons have won- 
 dered at the prominent place given in the Prayer- 
 Book to what they consider merely part of the 
 Jewish Law. For independent of the stress laid 
 upon the Commandments in the Baptismal 
 Service, the Catechism and the Order of Con- 
 firmation, they are repeated every Sunday from 
 the Altar in the Communion Service. It is quite 
 clear the Church must have done this with fore- 
 thought and intention. Therefore by adhering 
 to her rule we may derive some benefit above 
 and beyond what we expected. Then in them- 
 selves the Commandments are the fittest manual 
 for the young. They are simple and easily re- 
 membered. The child gains a few great general 
 principles, received with all the fear which the 
 sanction of God confers : and round these general 
 principles particular cases gather very speedily, 
 and an entire code of morals is acquired before 
 the child can understand or appreciate the value 
 of its acquisition. Besides which the Fifth Com- 
 
19 
 
 mandment, which more especially concerns chil- 
 dren, comes to them distinguished by a promise : 
 and the Third, which relates to a sin fearfully 
 common among the young, receives a dreadful 
 sanctity from the threat appended to it. When 
 a child has to learn the distinction between right 
 and wrong merely by experience, and by being 
 told that this or that particular thing is wrong or 
 right, the process is almost endless. But, if there 
 is some brief collection of rules, and that, as it 
 ought to be, from inspiration, a reference to them 
 becomes as easy and natural as their authority is 
 clear and undoubted. The labour of the teacher 
 is lightened. The conscience of the child is 
 aided in unfolding itself. 
 
 4. The fourth division of the Catechism is, the 
 Lord's Prayer, and the Answer explaining it at 
 length. This part of the Catechism is distin- 
 guished from the rest by having a charge prefixed 
 to it, warning the child of his inabihty to " do 
 these things of himself, or to walk in the Com- 
 mandments of God without His special grace :" 
 and of the necessity of prayer in order to attain 
 that grace. Here again reference is made to 
 Holy Baptism. The Lord's Prayer was one of 
 those things which were particularly enjoined 
 upon the child. And more than this, in the 
 
20 
 
 primitive Church none but the faithful or bap- 
 tized were allowed to use this Prayer. The right 
 to call God our Father was supposed to be one 
 of the gifts received at our Baptism. 
 
 Parents not unfrequently put a question to 
 Clergymen connected with this subject : a ques- 
 tion very difficult to answer, but on which it may 
 be well to say something. *' How early should a 
 child be taught to pray, or be taken to Church ? 
 Is it right that a child should be made to address 
 God, when it does not know the meaning of its 
 words, or scarcely of the action it is doing ?" It 
 is of course impossible to lay down any general 
 rules which shall hold universally. The differ- 
 ences in children are almost infinite. Persons 
 therefore must be left to their own judgment in 
 the matter. Still much may be said which may 
 considerably aid parents in coming to their de- 
 cision, if they only regard thoughtfully, not mo- 
 dern theories of rational education, but the will of 
 Christ as carried out by the Church. A child's not 
 understanding his prayers seems no objection to 
 his being taught to pray. '' Suffer little children 
 to come unto Me, and forbid them not." How 
 can they better come than in prayer ? Again, 
 when the little children had caught the cry of 
 the people and sang Hosannas in the Temple, 
 
21 
 
 Christ taught us from the Old Scriptures that 
 '^ out of the mouths of babes and suckhngs God 
 had perfected praise." And here we must observe, 
 that it is because their strength is perfect that 
 their j^raise is perfect too. Otherwise the Psalm 
 and the New Testament would not agree. Much 
 religious dignity too is conferred upon children 
 in the Gospel by that saying of our Saviour, 
 " Their Angels do always behold the face of their 
 Father Which is in heaven." When the Word 
 of the Lord was scarce in the land and His visions 
 very precious, it came to little Samuel sleeping 
 on his bed. He did not know the meaninsj of it. 
 He thought it was the voice of Eli. And indeed, 
 if children are fit recipients of that '' better thing 
 reserved for us," the high gift of the Sacrament 
 of Regeneration, and God " favourably alloweth 
 this charitable work of ours in bringing infants to 
 His Holy Baptism," we may fairly suppose the 
 prayer and praise of little hearts and infant lips 
 will be as a sweet smelling savour before Him." 
 In like manner the will of the Church in this, as 
 in all other things, follows that of her Master and 
 carries it out. This is her most sufficient warrant 
 for Infant Baptism. The Church indeed does 
 not specify any particular age at which a child's 
 religious education is to begin : but she points 
 
22 
 
 out her wish most plainly when she bids us teach 
 the Child '' so soon as he shall be able to learn" 
 the meaning and solemnity of his vow, with which 
 in consequence the Catechism begins. Moreover 
 we cannot tell what spiritual work God may be 
 carrying on in the heart of the youngest child. 
 There are strange instances on record of what 
 men call religious precocity. Most of us may 
 have witnessed some. This should make us 
 respect our children more than we are apt to do. 
 Perchance they can often understand things we 
 think too hard for them : and, if they cannot, 
 they may derive good from learning them, and 
 they can derive no harm. In most cases Satan 
 begins before we do : and infants have a sad 
 aptitude at learning sin. The good George 
 Herbert, whom every Churchman regards almost 
 with an affectionate familiarity, extends this even 
 to the reception of the Eucharist. " The time 
 of every one's first receiving is not so much by 
 years, as by understanding : particularly the rule 
 may be this : when any one can distinguish the 
 sacramental from common bread, knowing the in- 
 stitution and the difference, he ought to receive, 
 of what age soever. Children and youths are 
 usually deferred too long, under pretence of devo- 
 tion to the Sacrament : but it is for want of in- 
 
^ 23 
 
 struction ; their understandings being ripe enough 
 for ill things, and why not then for better ?" 
 
 The same principles will apply to a child's 
 being taken to Church. Of course when they are 
 so young as to disturb the congregation, or are 
 taken there so often as to connect Church with 
 the idea of pain and weariness, the matter is car- 
 ried too far. But the error is oftener on the 
 other side. It is true we cannot exactly see how 
 a child will derive good from it. We know 
 nothing of the mysterious powers that are bound 
 up in a child's heart. People, who are for having 
 everything plain and easy, that is in other words, 
 emptied of every high spiritual meaning which is 
 above their dulness and their grossness, are apt to 
 look upon such language as poetry and rhetoric. 
 But they would do well to ponder what is said in 
 the Bible of the child Abijah, the little son of 
 Jeroboam. '' Arise thou therefore, get thee to 
 thine own house : and when thy feet enter into 
 the city, the child shall die. And all Israel shall 
 mourn for him, and bury him ; for he only of 
 Jeroboam shall come to the grave, because in him 
 there is found some good thing toward the Lord 
 God of Israel in the house of Jeroboam." How- 
 ever we see as a general rule that children 
 brought up in a Church way receive impressions 
 
24 
 
 which often remain unfaded through an idle boy- 
 hood and a reckless youth, and are God's angels 
 to bring the wanderer home at last. There are 
 many Christians whose lives are like an autumn 
 day. In the beginning it is all mist and fog, 
 doubt and peril, but the sun struggles through 
 at mid-day ; and, though the hours that remain 
 be few, it shines as brightly and as hotly as in 
 summer. Yet very often, as in autumn, it has 
 an early setting, as if the sins of youth might be 
 forgiven and yet not left unvisited. Now in most 
 of these cases we should probably find that the 
 very early instructions of a mother had been the 
 means of the prodigal's return. Yet we are not 
 left altogether in the dark as to the way in which 
 a child's mind is affected by being early taken 
 to Church. It is compelled to be silent far longer 
 than at any other time, to remain in a similar pos- 
 ture, to look upon a scene the meaning of which 
 it does not understand. All things round it, the 
 faces of its parents, the dress of the clergy, the 
 demeanour of the congregation, the unusual 
 shape and ornaments of the building, have an 
 air of solemn earnestness to which it is not 
 accustomed. Its soul is taken by surprise. The 
 avenues of its heart are open to many new and 
 stirring emotions. It feels that something of a 
 
25 
 
 fearful nature is going on about it. It is im- 
 pressed with the religiousness of the Church 
 Service. Thus the feeling of reverence, of sacred 
 fear, is growing up in its mind : a feeling which 
 can never be acquired in after life, and which is 
 the best preservative against rude familiarity and 
 empty levity in holy things. The fear of God is 
 the beginning of wisdom ; and this beginning, 
 this foundation-stone of true religion, is laid well 
 and deeply, far down in a child's heart below the 
 world's reach, during its early attendance upon 
 the Service of the Church. 
 
 5. The Catechism ends Vvith the doctrine of the 
 Sacraments of Chrisfs Church, As it began with 
 one Sacrament, nothing now remains but that it 
 should hand us over to the other. It has all 
 along been looking backward and forward at 
 once. Baptism has been to it as a memory : and 
 its hope has been in the prospect of the Lord's 
 Supper. This is a very serious lesson to us, if 
 we are teachable sons of the Church. We see 
 the immense importance of the Blessed Sacra- 
 ments in her estimation. She gives them a most 
 prominent position in all her Formularies ; even 
 in her manual of instruction. And we know well 
 how completely a man's religious views depend 
 upon the estimation in which he holds the Sacra- 
 
 Ch, Catm, b 
 
26 
 
 ments. If then we acted upon Church principles 
 with our children, we should draw all our sanc- 
 tions and our terrors from their Baptismal Vow. 
 We should make it the standard and the test of 
 all they did. We should make the Lord's Sup- 
 per to them what Heaven is to all of us ; a prize, 
 and a reward, and a glory to which they may look 
 forward : something far beyond and infinitely 
 above the means of grace which are at present 
 open to them. Their being obliged to leave 
 Church while their parents stay for the Holy 
 Communion, the great festivals being marked in 
 some way or other so as to impress them on their 
 memories, and their seeing that such days are 
 very honourably distinguished by the celebration 
 of the Eucharist, are all so many ways which 
 Church parents might make use of to give a 
 more sacramental character to their children's 
 education. It may be greatness of mind, strength 
 of reason, and so forth, to be above rehgious 
 prejudices. But, blessed be God ! there are few 
 men who can ever disentangle themselves from 
 their childish associations with the parish Church 
 and home Sundays. They cling to their memo- 
 ries, and linger there, hke the perpetual ringing 
 of Church-bells, going on when the bells them- 
 selves have long since been silenced. A child 
 
27 
 
 has generally a keener and stronger perception 
 of mystery than a man. This would make the 
 Sacraments still more powerful instruments in 
 education. For children are by nature curious 
 and inquisitive ; and the knowledge that the 
 Sacraments are at once put out of the reach of 
 their understanding, that their full meaning can- 
 not be explained to them, and that age will not 
 give them much new light about them, would 
 invest those reverend ordinances with a dignity 
 and an interest which would at once attract and 
 overawe a child. To him, wholly ignorant of 
 irreverent definitions, and controversies no less 
 irreverent, the blessed Sacraments would be 
 purely heavenly things ; just as they are in 
 themselves ; gifts in which the Son of God gives 
 Himself with power unto the Church. Thus 
 might the Sun of Righteousness be the centre of 
 their religion. Children so brought up would 
 never in after life make wayward impulses and 
 mixed feelings, sentiments, opinions, experiences 
 and the like, the tests of their spiritual state. 
 They would look to nothing within themselves ; 
 but to Christ without, in His Church and in His 
 Sacraments. Their lives would be like an even- 
 ing sky. The holy Sacraments would set forth 
 the sun which is the golden heart of all the 
 
 B 2 
 
28 
 
 scene ; and their duties, their actions, and 
 opinions, Hke the flocks of little clouds, would 
 catch light and colour and beauty from the cen- 
 tre, fuller or fainter according to their distance. 
 
 Certainly this is not the sort of education 
 popular at the present day. With us knowledge 
 is made the great moving instrument. We are 
 afraid of a child's natural faith and natural pre- 
 judices. We strive to correct the one and to 
 destroy the other. The Church on the other 
 hand knows that faith is a plant from another 
 land, and must have nourishment from its home. 
 She knows that there lies within it that seed, 
 which is the victory that overcometh the world; 
 and she would have it grow and increase till it 
 fills the whole heart ; like the bough of Joseph, 
 the fruitful bough by a well, even the well of 
 Baptism, whose branches run over the wall. But 
 thus it is that one error in religion brings in 
 seven others worse than itself. When once men 
 could bring themselves to beheve that baptized 
 children would have to be converted after they 
 grew up, it was natural to look upon any system 
 of education founded upon the Sacraments as 
 improper and absurd. But if we would only re- 
 turn to taste of our mother's wisdom, if we only 
 had the courage to trust ourselves with God, if 
 
29 
 
 we would make the Sacraments to be in our 
 children's education what mere knowledge has 
 too often been, if we would cease to interfere 
 with Heaven as it unfolds itself in a child's heart, 
 then would our children be taught of God, and 
 great would be the peace of our children : greater 
 far than that of their fathers has been, for they 
 would dwell in a city at unity with itself. 
 
 A PRAYER, 
 
 TO BE USED BY PARENTS AND TEACHERS. 
 
 Out of the Order of Confirmation. 
 
 Almighty and everliving God, Who hast vouch- 
 safed to regenerate these Thy servants by Water 
 and the Holy Ghost, and hast given unto them 
 forgiveness of all their sins ; strengthen them, 
 we beseech Thee, O Lord, with the Holy Ghost 
 the Comforter, and daily increase in them Thy 
 manifold gifts of grace ; the spirit of wisdom and 
 
30 
 
 understanding ; the spirit of counsel and ghostly 
 strength ; the spirit of knowledge and true god- 
 liness ; and fill them, O Lord, with the spirit of 
 Thy holy fear, now and for ever. Amen, 
 
 THE END. 
 
 Gilbert & Riyington, Printers, St. John's-square, London. 
 
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CONFIRMATION 
 
 A WITNESS FOR OBEDIENCE AND UNITY. 
 
 When the providence of God was pleased to 
 interpose among tlie judgments and miseries 
 which came upon England, after the martyrdom 
 of King Charles, of blessed memory, and the 
 plague of rebellion and civil strife was stayed for 
 a while, the Church was left in a distracted and 
 unsettled condition. It is scarcely possible to 
 exaggerate the evils under which she laboured. 
 Men's minds were loosened from every principle 
 of allegiance and obedience to authority as a di- 
 vine ordinance. All true and Christian notions 
 of political and religious liberty were lost sight of. 
 Faith had given way to mere opinion : the creed 
 of the Church to the novel doctrines of schis- 
 matical teachers. Antiquity was regarded ivith 
 suspicion, as the representative to the popular 
 mind of an old and oppressive state of things. 
 During the troubles, the nation had become 
 almost infinitely divided and broken up into 
 sects and factions, among which m.any of the 
 old heresies had revived, and new extravagan- 
 cies, no less heretical, were spread abroad. At 
 
 A 2 
 
4 
 
 such a season, it seemed almost mockery to talk 
 of a rule of faith and a Church with full autho- 
 rity from God to divide the Word of Truth. 
 She might have complained with Ezekiel, *' Ah 
 Lord God ! they say of me. Doth he not speak 
 parables ? " Now it was just at this crisis, that 
 Bishop Taylor, one of the great hghts which 
 God set to shine in His Church during her af- 
 fliction, called the attention of the country to 
 the holy and ancient rite of Confirmation. It 
 was not merely accidental, that he selected that 
 particular time for such a subject. He was a 
 Bishop of the Irish Church, and he addressed his 
 treatise to the good duke of Ormonde, the king's 
 representative in that land, very solemnly, and 
 with an express declaration, that Confirmation 
 was the pearl which the Church was now called 
 upon to bring out of her treasures, in order to 
 meet the wants and evils of those days. The 
 primitive unction of Confirmation was the oil 
 Avhich was to be poured upon the uneasy waters, 
 as though it were gifted with a heavenly power to 
 quiet and allay the anger and tossing of the storm. 
 Now, it may very easily be, that one period of 
 a nation's history may outwardly, and in its great 
 historical features, be very unlike another period ; 
 and yet, all the while, be in reality very similar. 
 Opposite things may have brought about the 
 same results. Indifference may affect a Church 
 6 
 
just as violence would affect it ; only it would 
 be longer in doing its work. The want of an 
 even and uniform activity or warmth or disci- 
 pline, on the one side, and, on the other, occa- 
 sional, partial, irregular, and not always obedient 
 endeavours after a right state of things, may 
 divide a Church, may loosen its bands, and make 
 it feeble, just as effectually as wrong and robbery 
 and violence. In the one case, the end is 
 brought about by the sacrilege of her enemies, 
 in the other, by the undutiful coldness of her sons. 
 It may be well, therefore, to consider whether the 
 evils, which, in Bishop Taylor's day. Confirma- 
 tion was to remedy, do not exist in a measure 
 now\ If they do, a right view of Confirmation 
 may afford us the help which he expected to 
 derive from it then. It is true, that in his time 
 the regular administration of this rite had been 
 sadly interrupted ; whereas, in our days, it is 
 performed with all decent solemnity in every 
 diocese throughout the land. But religious 
 truths, as well rites as doctrines, have many 
 meanings and many gifts, which they keep un- 
 folding as they are wanted in the Church. She 
 never shifts her ground in combating the world ; 
 but she is perpetually varying her attitude. And, 
 as she turns, the sun falls here and there upon 
 the precious stones, that are set so thickly in her 
 priestly dress, and causes them to give a diffe- 
 
 a3 
 
6 
 
 rent colour, and to be seen under new aspects, 
 while the depth and strength of their colours is, 
 to our eyes, altering continually. Thus, the 
 importance of particular portions of her Creed 
 and Ritual keeps rising and falling, according as 
 her warfare assumes a new character. 
 
 One striking feature of the Church, in those 
 days, was the want of obedience to spiritual 
 pastors and teachers. The same evil is apparent 
 now. It is as actively pernicious as it was then. 
 The '^people are as they that strive with the 
 priest." (Hos. iv. 4.) Now Confirmation was 
 looked upon by Bishop Taylor as a means of 
 '* greatly endearing the episcopal ordei^ to which 
 (that I may use St. Jerome's words) if there be 
 not attributed a more than common power and 
 authority, there will be as many schisms as 
 priests : " and secondly, " as a means of endear- 
 ing the persons of the prelates to their flocks, 
 when the people shall be convinced that there 
 is, or may be, if they please, a perpetual inter- 
 course of blessings and love between them ; 
 when God by their holy hands refuses not to 
 give to the people the earnest of an eternal 
 inheritance, when by them He blesses : and that 
 the grace of our Lord Jesus and the love of 
 God, and the communication of His Spirit, is 
 conveyed to all persons capable of the grace, 
 by the conduct, and on the hands and prayers 
 
of their Bishops." So high and so intense was 
 the faith of this man of God, that he did not 
 hesitate to beUeve, that these great marvels 
 might be wrought by one plain Catholic rite ; 
 albeit he saw around him a scene as dismal and 
 dreary, as could well meet the eyes of a Chris- 
 tian Bishop : " Churches demolished, much of 
 the revenues irrecoverably swallowed by sacri- 
 lege, and digested by an unavoidable impunity ; 
 religion infinitely divided, and parted into for- 
 midable sects ; the people extremely ignorant, 
 and wilful by inheritance ; superstitiously irre- 
 ligious, and incapable of reproof." So firm was 
 his belief in the powers and graces of the Church 
 of Christ, and so mighty in operation did he 
 think the least of her ceremonies, as carrying 
 the blessing of God along with it, and the very 
 presence of the Spirit, Who is with the Church 
 to comfort her ! 
 
 To these two blessings, which Bishop Taylor 
 looked for in Confirmation, we may add two 
 others, rising out of the former, and forced upon 
 our notice by the wants of the times. The ex- 
 istence of different schools of rehgious opinion 
 is, of course, a great evil. The truth can only be 
 partially in any one of them. At least, it is un- 
 likely it should exist entire anywhere short of the 
 Church Cathohc. Thus unity, as well of feehng 
 as of acting, is grievously interfered with. It 
 
8 
 
 becomes nothing beyond a mere word, a phrase, 
 full of history, but without any reahty at present 
 answering to it. Now Confirmation, by God's 
 blessing, gives us a Catholic way, not of our own 
 devising, of restoring unity. In some measure, 
 it may be considered as embodying the principle 
 of unity. It brings every son and daughter of 
 the Church in immediate contact with their 
 Bishop, who is the type and symbol of Church 
 unity, and the very representative of Christ. It 
 refers to him as the proper fountain of all minis- 
 terial power, just as the ministers at Baptism 
 admonish the sponsors that the child must be 
 brought to be confirmed by the Bishop, as though 
 their ministration were imperfect without him. 
 
 Secondly, as the rite of Confirmation is, 
 amongst us, practised only in the CathoHc 
 Church, it multiplies the signs and badges which 
 distinguish her from the Protestant sectarian 
 bodies. This is of immense importance in these 
 days. The lines that run between the Church 
 and the world have grown, in many places, so 
 faint, that they can scarcely be distinguished. 
 If the visible character of the Church, as a po- 
 sitive institution, were more drawn out, if her 
 pecuharities were more deeply worn into her, so 
 that the marks of the Lord Jesus which she 
 bears in her body could be easily recognized, 
 she would be enabled to keep her sons more 
 closely to her side ; and, from her beauty and 
 
9 
 
 her grandeur, would be more likely to allure the 
 wayward back into the fold. People want to 
 see and to feel that there is a substantial diffe- 
 rence between the Church of God and the 
 motley multitude who follow her. It should be 
 made to meet them at every turn. It is a judg- 
 ment on us, that we have so far lost our first 
 faith, as to require so much proof and so much 
 convincing. But it is a mercy that we have 
 that left amongst us, which can satisfy our needs, 
 and witness against ourselves. 
 
 Let us consider Confirmation then, mainly in 
 this point of view : its fitness for us just now, 
 its ability to give us what we want ; being, as it 
 is, a primitive and legitimate channel, by which 
 we may receive those blessings which a zealous 
 but faithless generation might otherwise strive to 
 attain, by means and ways which have not the 
 blessing of God, and the sanction of His Church 
 upon them. Catholic rites only become forms, 
 when men have ceased to believe there is any- 
 thing divine about them. They only become 
 merely external, when men have killed their 
 internal power by disbelieving that it is there. 
 If we only dared to have faith, and of course it 
 requires courage, the Church would be all acti- 
 vity and spirit ; her very ceremonies would be 
 alive and full of gifts, and sharper than any two- 
 
 edged sword. 
 
 A O 
 
10 
 
 There are four points to be considered ; the 
 origin and antiquity of Confirmation, its con- 
 nection with holy Baptism, the blessing which 
 it conveys, and the ministers by whose hands 
 that blessing is conveyed ^ 
 
 1. The origin and antiquity of Confirmation, 
 The Fathers of the Church were accustomed to 
 look on the descent of the Holy Ghost upon our 
 Lord at His baptism, to be the type of Confir- 
 mation. His custom also of blessing little chil- 
 dren by the imposition of Hands, was regarded 
 by the early Christians as a warrant for this rite. 
 But the main passages of Holy Scripture upon 
 which they rested, were the account of the 
 Samaritan converts, in the Acts of the Apostles, 
 whom St. Philip the Deacon had baptized, but 
 who w^ere confirmed by St Peter and St. John ; 
 and the passage in the sixth chapter of the 
 Epistle to the Hebrews, where St. Paul enume- 
 rates *' the doctrine of baptisms and of laying 
 on of hands" among the foundations and prin- 
 ciples of the doctrine of Christ. Confirmation 
 was at the very least of apostolic institution, if 
 it was not ordained by Christ himself. It ob- 
 
 ^ As Confirmation is a subject on which, for many reasons, 
 a disclaimer of originality is requisite, it is as well to say that 
 this tract is entirely put together from Bishop Taylor's treatise 
 on Confirmation, the xii. book of Bingham's Antiquities, 
 Wheatly on the Common Prayer, and the second volume of 
 Palmer's Origines Liturgicae. 
 
11 
 
 tained universally in every branch of the Church, 
 a Catholic custom founded upon a Catholic tra- 
 dition. St. Cyprian says, *' this custom is also 
 descended to us, that they who are baptized, 
 might be brought by the rulers of the Church, 
 and by our prayer and the imposition of hands 
 may obtain the Holy Ghost, and be consum- 
 mated with the signature of the Lord.'' Tertul- 
 lian also, who was earlier still, says, " the flesh 
 is sealed that the soul may be guarded or de- 
 fended, and the body is overshadowed by the 
 imposition of hands, that the soul may be 
 enhghtened by the Holy Ghost." Indeed, in 
 St. Jerome's account of this rite, we might 
 almost imagine, we saw a description of the 
 custom of modern times. " I do not deny that 
 this is the custom of the Church, that when 
 persons are baptized in lesser cities by priests 
 and deacons, the Bishop uses to travel far, that 
 he may lay hands on them for the invocation of 
 the Holy Spirit." Thus, then, we see this rite 
 of Confirmation to claim for itself the example 
 of our Saviour Christ, to be administered by the 
 holy Apostles, and after them by their succes- 
 sors, the Bishops, throughout all ages of the 
 world. This should lead us to respect it, and 
 to make much of the Church, whose very rites 
 derive a sacred character from their antiquity, 
 far beyond what any political institution in the 
 
 A 6 
 
12 
 
 world can claim ; rising, as this rite does, like an 
 angel from our Saviour's feet, and coming among 
 us with some portion of His unsearchable riches. 
 We are too apt to forget that the treasures of 
 the Church are often of this sort, showing us, 
 by their origin, their antiquity, and their preva- 
 lence, which considering what they are, is no- 
 thing short of a miracle, that a Power mightier 
 than themselves is linked with them, because 
 of Whose presence they themselves should be 
 revered. Each particular Church has undoubted 
 right to decree its own ceremonies. But this does 
 not extend to all which may be properly called 
 ritual. There are some portions of her inherit- 
 ance which she may not stir, some rites which 
 it would be unsafe, if not unfaithful, to alter or 
 remove on any ground ; such, in short, as are in 
 the fullest sense Catholic, and not merely parts 
 of the ceremonial of particular Churches and 
 liturgies, such as are of divine and apostolic 
 institution, not the later additions of provincial 
 councils or holy Bishops ; such as Confirma- 
 tion, for example, the covering of women in the 
 Churches because of the angel, and the like. 
 Otherwise would Church ceremonies be like 
 man's fashions. There would be an endless 
 succession, an endless changing, old things fad- 
 ing away, and new ones rising in their place. 
 But it is not so with the Church, even in her 
 
13 
 
 Ritual, and therefore that Ritual should be, to 
 a thoughtful and serious mind, full of holy fear- 
 fulness and glory half-unveiled, leading men to 
 " praise the Lord for His goodness, and declare 
 the wonders that he doeth for the children of 
 men." 
 
 2. Its connection with Holy Baptism. This is 
 a difficult and intricate question. So far, how- 
 ever, as the teaching of antiquity goes, it seems 
 that Confirmation is on the one hand distinct 
 from Baptism, but not a separate sacrament, in 
 the sense, at least, in which we call Baptism and 
 the Holy Communion sacraments ; while, on 
 the other hand, it has a necessary and indisso- 
 luble connection with Baptism, though it is by 
 no means to be regarded merely as a ceremony 
 appended to that sacrament, a part of the Ritual 
 of Baptism. It certainly presupposes Baptism. 
 It has no meaning without it. Still it has gifts 
 of its own to convey, quite apart from those 
 received at the Font. When the ancients 
 speak of Baptism and Confirmation together, 
 they seem to consider the one as giving inno- 
 cence, the other as giving strength. Of course, 
 innocence itself is strength, a safeguard and a 
 power ; and strength too strives to work its way 
 into innocence. The gifts of God never lie far 
 from each other. We cannot move one without 
 disturbing several others. So it is in these rites. 
 
14 
 
 we cannot definitely divide them, as men would 
 have us do in controversy, any more than 
 we can separate justification and sanctification, 
 though they may really be separable. So we 
 cannot altogether exclude strength from the 
 purity of Baptism, or innocence from the might 
 of Confirmation. Still, with this caution, we 
 may safely teach, with the Fathers, that Baptism 
 confers innocence, and that strength comes of 
 Confirmation. It may be well to quote some 
 of the authorities adduced by Bishop Taylor. 
 They are all from old writers, " It is true. Bap- 
 tism is suflScient to them that are to die pre- 
 sently : but it is not enough for them that are 
 still to live and to fight against their spiritual 
 enemies." Another says, " In Baptism, the 
 Holy Ghost giveth us his fulness, in order to 
 innocence, but in Confirmation He yieldeth in- 
 crease unto grace." A third says, "Although 
 to them that die presently, the benefits of rege- 
 neration are suflScient, yet to them that live, 
 the auxiliaries of Confirmation are necessary." 
 Lastly, a fourth writer uses the following lan- 
 guage ; '^ The Baptism of water profits us, be- 
 cause it washes away the sins we have formally 
 committed, if we repent of them. But it does 
 not sanctify the soul, or precede the concupis- 
 cences of the heart and our evil thoughts, nor 
 drive them back, nor repress our carnal desires. 
 
15 
 
 But he therefore who is (only) so baptized, that 
 he does not also receive the Holy Spirit, is bap- 
 tized in his body, and his sins are pardoned ; 
 but in his mind, he is yet but a catechumen, for 
 so it is written, ' He that hath not the Spirit of 
 Christ is none of His ; ' and therefore, afterward 
 out of his flesh will germinate worse sins, be- 
 cause he hath not received the Holy Spirit con- 
 serving him (in his baptismal grace), but the 
 house of his body is empty ; wherefore that 
 wicked spirit finding it swept with the doctrines 
 of faith, as with besoms, enters in, and in a seven- 
 fold manner dwells there." The language of 
 the Church of England is very similar. In the 
 order of Confirmation, the Bishop, in his first 
 prayer, describes Baptism as a regeneration by 
 water and the Holy Ghost, and a forgiveness of 
 all sins ; whereas, he prays that Confirmation 
 may be a strengthening with the Holy Ghost the 
 comforter, an increase of the manifold gifts of 
 grace, such as the spirit of ghostly strength, and 
 a filling the heart with the spirit of holy fear. 
 In like manner, the first Prayer Book of King 
 Edward VI. having said that Baptism is suf- 
 ficient to salvation for such " as depart out of 
 this life in their infancy," goes on to say that, 
 " when children come to that age, that partly 
 by the frailty of their own flesh, partly by the 
 assaults of the world and the devil, they begin 
 to be in danger to fall into sundry kinds of sin. 
 
16 
 
 it is most meet that Confirmation be ministered 
 to those that be baptized, that, by imposition 
 of hands and prayer, they may receive strength 
 and defence against all temptations to sin, and 
 the assaults of the world and the devil." Thus 
 Bishop Taylor calls Baptism "a regeneration 
 unto life," and Confirmation " a strengthening 
 unto battle." 
 
 " So should thy champions, ere the strife, 
 By holy hands o'ershadowed kneel, 
 So, fearless for their charmed life. 
 Bear, to the end, thy Spirit's seal." 
 
 Surely, when we see Confirmation thus wedded 
 to Holy Baptism, thus raised into high dignity 
 in the Church of Christ, and growing up out of 
 a sacrament, it should make us jealous of the 
 gift we received therein. It should make us 
 diligent in teaching those beneath our care how 
 solemn a thing it is, how easily its grace is lost 
 amid the temptings of the world, and that it 
 is hard to be regained. They would think more 
 of Confirmation, if we taught them to think 
 more of holy Baptism. 
 
 3. But the connection of Confirmation with 
 Baptism, leads us to the third point we were to 
 consider — the blessing which it conveys. If we 
 look into Church sacraments and rites, we 
 shall find that they contain within them a sort 
 of covenant, an unequal and imperfect one, 
 yet, nevertheless, a covenant ; something to be 
 
17 
 
 done on our part, as well as something on the 
 part of God. Thus, faith and repentance, and 
 especially the giving of thanks, are our oblation 
 at the Altar, as well as the gifts of Bread and 
 Wine ; there is a vow in Ordination, and peni- 
 tence must make room in our hearts for the grace 
 of Absolution. Not that these things give their 
 virtue to the rites. They are required as a pre- 
 paration. The consecrating power is with Christ, 
 and is imparted by the Holy Ghost through the 
 ministers of the Church. This is the meaning of 
 the word *' spiritual" in theology. It denotes 
 the fulness, and presence, and benediction of the 
 Spirit of God. It is not, as some think, opposed 
 to real ; rather it is that which puts religious 
 things far above every thing else in the way of 
 reality. In the modern sense it refers, as we 
 make almost all things do, to ourselves ; to our 
 way of receiving or apprehending a divine truth. 
 In the mouths of the fathers it refers to God's 
 way of being in and with that truth, so as to fill 
 it with the power and blessing of the Godhead. 
 It means that the Holy Spirit is there with the 
 consecrating power. He being, in the old hturs^y, 
 " the Witness of the Lord Jesus' Passion.*' Thus 
 the spiritual presence of our Lord, in the Sacri- 
 fice of the Altar, is His real presence, Christ 
 being made effectually there by the Holy 
 Ghost, Who is the Comforter of the Church 
 
18 
 
 on earth, and through Whom she has access to 
 the Father and the Son. This is one of the 
 privileges which we have as members of the 
 Body Mystical, as being looked at by God in 
 and through His dear Son, that we are enabled 
 to do anything which shall be worthy of being 
 an offering unto the Holy Trinity. God puts it 
 into our hearts to wish good wishes, and He 
 gives us power to do what we wish to do, and 
 yet when done, little as our part has been in the 
 matter. He accepts it as our oblation, a faint and 
 feeble shadow of the oblation on the Cross. 
 
 Now, if we look at the order of Confirmation 
 according to the Church of England, the same 
 thing is visible. We have a duty to do, as well 
 as a grace to receive. We have to take upon 
 ourselves our baptismal vow, with all solemnity 
 in the presence of God and His congregation. 
 This vow relates entirely to our Christian warfare 
 against the world, the flesh, and the devil ; and 
 therefore is not absolutely essential as a condi- 
 tion in order to our receiving the gift of inno- 
 cence in Baptism. So the Church does not deem 
 it necessary to the Sacrament, seeing that in the 
 private baptism of infants, wherein she would 
 endeavour to render the service as short as pos- 
 sible, without, of course, omitting any one thing 
 requisite to the Sacrament, we have only the 
 naming of the child, the act of pouring water 
 
19 
 
 with the invocation of the Trinity, and a single 
 prayer afterwards. But Christ has, in mercy, 
 permitted His Church to " antedate our faith " 
 in us. And this vow it is which we are called 
 upon in Confirmation to ratify in our own per- 
 sons, as well as to make profession of our faith. 
 Thus, Confirmation finishes and consummates 
 our Baptism. It gives completeness to what 
 was done at our Baptism, but was waiting and 
 looking out for a further fulfilment. What it 
 wanted it meets with in Confirmation. It is 
 satisfied there. ^ Now it is scarcely necessary 
 to prove, that we are very much confirmed and 
 settled in this vow, and our faith much quickened 
 by the Bishop's prayers, and the laying on of 
 his hands. So here is one blessing of Confirma- 
 tion. We take a vow, which we know ourselves 
 unable to fulfil ; but we do it in faith. Blessing 
 is waiting at the door : it has come a long way 
 to meet us. The words of our promise are 
 scarcely uttered, before, for our faith's sake, 
 God gives us power to fulfil it. 
 
 Yet this is far from being all. It is not, pro- 
 perly speaking, the gift of Confirmation. We 
 receive therein the Holy Ghost, the " signature 
 of the Lord." We are sealed with the Spirit of 
 promise. Now this will require a little explana- 
 tion. That it is the doctrine of the Church we 
 shall see at once, if we read the Bishop's prayer ; 
 and here, as in so many other places, the Church 
 
20 
 
 Catholic in England is but the echo of antiquity. 
 For it is curious to find the very words of that 
 prayer used in an exhortation upon those words 
 " He which stablisheth us with you in Christ, 
 is God," in a work which goes under the name 
 of St. Ambrose, " Remember that thou hast 
 received the spiritual signature ; the spirit of wis- 
 dom and understanding, the spirit of counsel and 
 strength, the spirit of knowledge and godliness, 
 the spirit of holy fear ; and do thou keep what 
 thou hast received. God the Father hath sealed 
 thee, Christ the Lord hath confirmed thee." 
 These words may very probably be taken from 
 an old liturgy of the time, and well known to 
 his hearers. It would be very interesting to find 
 that it was so ; for, if it were, and the work in 
 which it occurs were really by St. Ambrose, this 
 prayer would be much older than it has been 
 generally supposed. It has been called '' at least 
 as old as 494, but probably much more ancient." 
 At all events, a similar prayer, pronounced while 
 the Bishop held his hands aloft over the heads 
 of those to be confirmed, is found in every ritual 
 over the world ; and the one in our Prayer-book 
 has been used by English Bishops for above 
 twelve hundred years. The language of St. 
 Gregory is nearly the same : " We therefore call 
 it a seal or signature, as being a guard and cus- 
 tody to us, and a sign of the Lord's dominion 
 over us." Again, another Father says, " Call to 
 
21 
 
 thy remembrance the initiation in the holy mys- 
 teries, wherein the initiated, after renouncing 
 the tyrant and confessing (Christ) the king, do 
 receive the unction of the spiritual ointment, as 
 it were a royal signature, perceiving by that 
 unction, as in a shadow, the invisible grace of 
 the Holy Ghost." It was called in old time, " the 
 seal of the gift of the Spirit." Let us see what 
 is said of this seal in Scripture : " Now He which 
 stablisheth, or confirmeth us with you in Christ, 
 and hath anointed us, is God, Who hath also 
 sealed us, and given the earnest of the Spirit in 
 our hearts." Again, " In Whom, also, after that ye 
 believed, ye were sealed with that Holy Spirit of 
 promise. Which is the earnest of our inheritance 
 until the redemption of the purchased posses- 
 sion, unto the praise of His glory." Again: 
 " Grieve not the Holy Spirit of God, whereby 
 ye are sealed unto the day of redemption." 
 Again : " The foundation of God standeth sure, 
 having this seal, The Lord knoweth them that 
 are His." What the foundation was, we have 
 seen out of the epistle to the Hebrews, and ''the 
 doctrine of baptisms and of laying on of hands " 
 were part of it : and that the Lord knoweth them 
 that are His by the seal in their foreheads, we 
 read both in Ezekiel and the Revelation. 
 
 This is the seal which is the gift of Confirma- 
 tion. The treasures we received in our Baptism 
 are now in danger. Hitherto, we have been 
 
22 
 
 children ; careless and happy, for we were inno- 
 cent. Our fountain was not sealed. Our garden 
 was not closed. God has put us into the ark, but 
 He has not shut us in. We have a liberty now, 
 which we cannot have when the waters riseupon 
 the earth, and prevail greatly. Thoughts and 
 feelings, sights and sounds, went in and out day 
 and night. It was a time of peace. Where dan- 
 ger is not looked for, there is no suspicion. But 
 things are altered now. The world is opening 
 upon us, and war is being proclaimed. We do 
 not see heaven so clearly as we did. It is fading 
 off to a distance and deserting us. It is cloud- 
 ing over. Our old way of living is an unsafe 
 w^ay of living now. The Church set up within our 
 bodies, the temple of the Holy Ghost of which 
 St. Paul speaks, must be fashioned in all things 
 after the model of the Church Universal. It 
 must have gates and barriers, inclosures, vaults, 
 and secret places, seals and signs, whose meaning 
 none can read but they who have the cypher 
 in their hearts, handwritings on its walls, whose 
 hidden warnings are, to passers by, as myste- 
 rious as the Hand that wrote them was invisible. 
 We must have all this in our bodies, souls, and 
 spirits, or we shall fail in the day of battle. The 
 kingdom of heaven must be within us. It will 
 unfold itself there against the world, till it ex- 
 cludes it and thrusts it forth, and fills the whole 
 man. This it is now beginning to do. We are 
 
23 
 
 henceforth to be hke jealous householders. We 
 come to distrust our own powers, our intellec- 
 tual powers especially. Our enemy has many 
 treacherous friends in that quarter of the city. 
 Openly or covertly, the violence of a noisy 
 anger or the stratagem of a disguised lust, are 
 eager to rifle our treasures ; and, if we are be- 
 reaved of them, we are indeed bereaved. We 
 must have a strong man armed ; and that strong 
 man must be stronger than the world, the flesh, 
 and the devil. His seal they cannot break. It 
 may seem a little one and a frail one, for " weak- 
 ness is aye heaven's might.'' But it has a mys- 
 tery in it. None have power to break it but 
 ourselves, and for us alas ! nothing is more easy. 
 So long as we do not touch it we are safe. No 
 one else can touch it to harm it. For the strong 
 man armed, is even the most Holy Comforter, 
 the third Person of the blessed Trinity, and His 
 Seal is set in Confirmation. 
 
 We cannot tell all which this Seal does for us. 
 What we do know is that God's gifts have a 
 depth and fulness, inexhaustible, without repen- 
 tance, and to the bottom of which we can never 
 come. It is not good to say too much on things 
 of this sort. Only, strange as they may seem to 
 many, it is w^ell to carry the thoughts of Bishop 
 Taylor with us to a reverent and silent adoration 
 of God's mercies in this matter. He is talking 
 
24 
 
 of the excellency of the Lord's Seal. He seems 
 as if he would have said something more. But 
 apparently he checks himself, and concludes 
 thus : " I will not be so curious as to enter into 
 a discourse of the philosophy of this, but I shall 
 say, that they who are curious in the secrets of 
 nature, and observe external signatures in stones, 
 plants, fruits, and shells, of which naturalists 
 make many observations and observe strange 
 effects, and the more internal signatures in mi- 
 nerals and living bodies, of which chemists dis- 
 course strange secrets, may easily, if they please, 
 consider that it is infinitely credible, that in 
 higher essences, even in spirits, there may be 
 signatures proportionable, wrought more imme- 
 diately and to greater purposes by a Divine 
 Hand. I only point at this, and so pass it over, 
 as, it may be, fit for every man's consideration." 
 4. Lastly, we come to the Ministers by whose 
 hands this blessing is conveyed. Hitherto we have 
 been considering what Confirmation really is, 
 and what it really does for us, in short, the 
 theology of Confirmation. We have now to 
 say a little of what we may make of it if we 
 choose, namely, a witness for obedience and 
 unity. It is needless to multiply authorities to 
 show that this gift was only to be conveyed 
 through the Bishops, the highest order in the 
 Church. It will be enough to quote from a 
 
25 
 
 letter of Pope Innocent the First, who hved a.d. 
 402, and is called by St. Augustin the " blessed 
 Innocent." *' Concerning Confirmation of in- 
 fants, it is clear, it is not lawful to be done by 
 any other than by the Bishop : for the presby- 
 ters, although they be priests, yet have not the 
 summit of episcopacy. But that these things 
 are due to the Bishops, is shown, as well by 
 ecclesiastical custom, as by what we read in the 
 Acts of the Apostles, which says that Peter and 
 John were sent to give the Holy Ghost to those 
 already baptized." 
 
 The Bishops are the divinely appointed foun- 
 tains of all spiritual grace and spiritual power. 
 We are to reverence them with no common 
 reverence as the true representatives of Christ, 
 the visible heads of the churches upon earth, 
 as He is the head of the Church, visible and 
 invisible whether in heaven or on earth. They 
 are put before us as symbols of unity. They 
 keep the Church together. It is by their office 
 that it is not scattered and dispersed over hill 
 and dale, like sheep that have no shepherds. 
 The clergy see their Bishop in Ordinations and 
 Visitations, and they, as well as the people, 
 meet him at the Consecration of churches. They 
 are bound, as a matter of law and discipline, to 
 acknowledge his authority, and, in proportion 
 to their humility, they seek from him ghostly 
 
 Confirm, b 
 
26 
 
 counsel and friendly guidance in doubt and per- 
 plexity, ready to submit in many things to which 
 they are not obliged, as being their elder brother 
 in the Lord. But in Confirmation he is brought 
 home to all the people. He is their father in 
 Christ. Many a remote parish beholds him 
 coming among them, rich in gifts and most like 
 his Master, going about doing good. He is the 
 successor of those Apostles whom Pope Gregory 
 compares to the thick clouds in which God 
 "bindeth up the waters, and the cloud is not 
 rent under them." They, like clouds, " are sent 
 forth here and there over the world, and they 
 give rain with their words, and they send forth 
 bright sparkles of light from their marvels." For 
 a Bishop never travels in his diocese, but to 
 scatter blessings over all, and to leave the peace 
 of God and the benediction of the Trinity be- 
 hind him. He cannot move about, but some of 
 the precious ointment from his head is left upon 
 the spot where he trod, fragrant with the sweet- 
 ness of the Cross. Thus he enables us to realize 
 Church unity, to bring it home to ourselves, to 
 make it a natural and practical feeling, not a 
 mere notion to hear of or talk about. A people 
 without a Bishop are all the same as a family 
 without a father. So long as the father lives, 
 his hearth is a point of union ; if not continually, 
 yet at great Church festivals, such as Christmas 
 
27 
 and Easter, when sons and grandsons are wont 
 to flock around their old sire, and learn all 
 gentle lessons among the scenes of childhood, 
 and go to their old parish church again, as if 
 it were their Jerusalem, and receive the holy 
 Communion all together at the same old altar, 
 where, perchance, they knelt trembling by their 
 mother's side, for the first time partakers of 
 those holy mysteries. But when all this has 
 passed away into the father's grave, then one 
 brother is settled here and another there, with 
 different cares and different pursuits. Each is 
 becoming the head of a family himself, and is 
 left to himself in the world. A churchman is 
 never without a father so long as he has a 
 Bishop ; and Confirmation is continually bring- 
 ing this home to our very door, and endearing 
 our spiritual father to us. 
 
 Then again. Confirmation is a witness to us 
 of the authority of Bishops, as showing that 
 certain great rites are reserved for them. And 
 we may learn obedience to them from this. It 
 is a valuable lesson to us, more valuable almost 
 than we can imagine. We obey laws and poli- 
 tical authorities from fear, at least in most cases. 
 When we know that a broken law can avenge 
 itself we avoid breaking it. Human enactments 
 rely almost as much on the natural cowardice of 
 man, by acting upon which they prevent crime. 
 
28 
 
 as they do upon their abiHty to punish it when 
 committed. Even if we try, we cannot be sure 
 that vve obey laws from love to the authority 
 imposing them. Civil authority is a hard and 
 dry thing to love. Yet there are feelings in the 
 heart, high and gentle ones, which are eager to 
 obey from love ; like new friends, impatient for 
 some opportunity to make sacrifices for each other 
 and show the strength of their loyalty. These 
 feelings are of God. They have somewhat of 
 heaven in their character. It is sad they should 
 be shut up within ourselves. Now a spiritual au- 
 thority has no power to avenge itself in this life, 
 and what it may do hereafter is too uncertain 
 and too far off to have much weight now. Ex- 
 cept a Church should arm herself with tremen- 
 dous secular power, as Rome did for example, 
 she can only secure obedience out of the affec- 
 tion and docihty of her children, and their deep 
 persuasion that the presence of the Lord shines 
 round about her. Moreover, the right of Bishops 
 to be regarded as standing in the place of Christ 
 can only be proved by much learning and diffi- 
 cult research. This most men cannot of course 
 pretend to ; so, if they receive it at all, they 
 must receive it, as in reality they receive all other 
 truth, on trust : and, if they refuse to receive it 
 because they have not proved it, they must by 
 the same rule reject all other religious doctrines 
 
29 
 
 which they have not proved for themselves; and 
 this would inchide almost all their faith. For 
 instance, the doctrines of the Trinity and the 
 Incarnation are proveable from holy Scripture ; 
 yet, if you put them to it, there are few who 
 can so prove them, none who could have found 
 them out if the Church had not showed the 
 w^ay ; and they must believe them, if they would 
 be saved. Therefore, in honouring, obeying, and 
 loving our Bishops, we are finding satisfaction for 
 some of the most amiable feelings of our nature, 
 tracing out the will of our Master in all His 
 ordinances, and gradually forming within us the 
 habit of obedience, one of the bravest as well 
 as hardest of the Gospel virtues. 
 
 It is through the Bishop then that the gift of 
 Confirmation is conveyed, and the Ritual of it 
 is the laying on of hands. In patriarchal times 
 a father's blessing used to be conveyed thereby, 
 and even the right of inheritance to divine pro- 
 mises was altered and transferred by it. And 
 fathers are a natural type of Bishops. The old 
 patriarchs with their blessings have gone away, 
 and Christian Bishops have come in their room. 
 " Instead of thy fathers shall be thy children, 
 whom thou mayest make princes in all the earth." 
 So in antiquity Tertullian talks of our *' being 
 cleansed by Baptismal Water, and disposed for 
 the Holy Spirit, under the hand of the angel of 
 
30 
 
 the Church/' the title given to Bishops in the 
 Revelation of St. John. " Is it not lawful," he 
 goes on, '' for God by an instrument of His own, 
 under holy hands to accord the heights and 
 sublimity of the Spirit ? " The sacredness of 
 this Ritual will be at once acknowledged by a 
 reader of the Bible. Whether it is natural (as 
 men speak) to us, or is a remnant of what God 
 may have taught us at the first, w^e cannot pre- 
 tend to know. Still so it is, that all through 
 holy Scripture among the patriarchs of old time, 
 the priests of the house of Aaron, our Saviour 
 Christ himself, and his Apostles after Him, this 
 *^ overshadowing of hands " was practised as a 
 solemn rite. So Moses was to stretch forth his 
 hand over the sea to divide it. So Christ blessed 
 little children, and oftentimes healed the sick. 
 So the Apostles used it in Confirmation, Ordi- 
 nation, and the Unction of the Sick, spoken 
 of by St. James. But innumerable passages 
 will occur to every one, especially the one 
 already quoted from the Epistle to the Hebrews, 
 where laying on of hands is part of what the 
 Apostle calls the '^ foundation." Frivolous and 
 trifling persons have thought hght of this Ritual. 
 When things are very common, we are inclined 
 to think them not very deep. But, perhaps, 
 such men would find it hard to say why it was 
 so common in Scripture ; and why they them- 
 
31 
 
 selves, by a sort of natural inspiration, connect 
 the idea of power and blessing with the act; 
 why in courts and pageantries honour is con- 
 ferred and homage paid by the hand ; why in 
 daily greetings, or reconciliations, men use their 
 right hand, as a ritual, whereby to confer in a type 
 the inward feelings of kindness and forgiveness. 
 There is nothing in the nature of things why all this 
 should be so ; yet it is so. Let not men, therefore, 
 ridicule the external rite, lest, perchance, in their 
 worldly wisdom and cleverness, they grieve Him 
 Who may have linked His inward grace thereto. 
 All men fear where God is : let them at least be 
 silent w^here He may be. We may conclude as 
 we began, with Bishop Taylor : '' It is easy for 
 profane persons to deride these things, as they 
 do all rehgion which is not conveyed to them by 
 sense or natural demonstrations ; but the eco^ 
 nomy of the Spirit and * the things of God are 
 spiritually discerned.' ' The Spirit bloweth where 
 it listeth, and no man knows whence it comes, 
 and whither it goes,' and the operations are 
 discerned by faith, and received by love and by 
 obedience. ' Give me a Christian, and he will 
 understand what I say.' But of this we are 
 sure, that in all the times of Moses' law, while 
 the synagogue was standing, and in all the days 
 of Christianity, so long as men loved religion, and 
 walked in the spirit, and minded the affairs of 
 
 8 
 
32 
 
 their souls, to have the prayers and the blessings 
 of the fathers of the synagogue and the fathers 
 of the Church, was esteemed no small part of 
 their religion, and so they went to heaven." 
 
 A PRAYER, 
 
 TO BE USED BY ALL MEN FOR THEIR BISHOPS. 
 
 (Out of the Order of Consecrating Bishops.) 
 
 Most merciful Father, we beseech Thee to send 
 down upon this Thy servant Thy heavenly bles- 
 sing; and so endue him with Thy holy Spirit, 
 that he, preaching Thy word, may not only be 
 earnest to reprove, beseech, and rebuke with all 
 patience and doctrine ; but also may be to such as 
 believe a wholesome example, in word, in con- 
 versation, in love, in faith, in chastity, and in 
 purity ; that, faithfully fulfilling his course, at the 
 latter day he may receive the crown of righteous- 
 ness laid up by the Lord the righteous Judge, 
 Who liveth and reigneth one God with the Father 
 and the Holy Ghost, world without end. Amen. 
 
 THE end. 
 
 Gilbert & Rivington, Printers, St. John's Square, London. 
 
THE 
 
 BURIAL SERVICE, 
 
 DOCTRINE AND CONSOLATIONS. 
 
 BY THE REV 
 
 FREDERICK W. FABER, M.A 
 
 FELLOW OF UNIVERSITY COLLEGE, OXFORD. 
 
 This corruptible must put on incoriuption, and this mortal must put on 
 immortality, — 1 CoR. xv. 53. 
 
 SECOND EDITION, ENLARGED. 
 
 LONDON: 
 PRINTED FOR J. G. F. & J. RIVINGTON, 
 
 ST. Paul's church yard, 
 
 AND WATERLOO PLACE, PALL MALL. 
 
 1840. 
 
 \_Price Fourpence.'] 
 
Gilbert & Rivington, Printers, St. John's Square, London. 
 
ON THE 
 
 BURIAL SERVICE. 
 
 A Christian congregation would be a strange 
 and affecting sight, if the private histories of 
 those several persons who compose it, were by 
 any means disclosed to us. It would at all events 
 fill us rather with images of sadness, than with 
 thoughts of joy. For, to put out of view 
 awhile all the other innumerable evils of life, 
 where can the household be found in which 
 death has not had his work to do ? Most of 
 my readers, young and middle-aged and old, 
 have met around the open grave. You have 
 seen that little silent congregation that is there 
 assembled round the rows of fresh earth : and 
 did ever any one witness that scene without 
 the power of the calm and affectionate service 
 for the dead going far into his heart, and plant- 
 ing there some few thoughts of tenderer and 
 A 2 
 
4 On the Burial Service, 
 
 more delicate mould than he ever knew 
 before ? So strongly is this impression raised, 
 that the lesson out of St. Paul has, I am sure, 
 to many of us, become not so much a chapter 
 of the Bible as a chapter of the Prayer Book. 
 When we read it in the New Testament in 
 its common order, it seems quite strange to 
 us. We almost wonder how it came there. 
 Its style seems distinct from the rest. It is 
 to us a something quite different from any 
 other chapter. No wonder. It belongs to 
 the dead. Full as it is, oh ! most full of per- 
 fect consolation, falling as it does upon our 
 ears like the soft and soothing tones of church 
 music, still it seems to be the especial inherit- 
 ance of saints departed. And so we, — for we 
 all of us have communion with the dead, and 
 most of us trust we have some dear saints 
 among them, — we read this chapter with a 
 solemn and subdued feeling. Would that we 
 could carry the same holy feeling wnth us all 
 over the rest of Scripture ! for depend upon 
 it we are never so likely to catch the whispers 
 of the still small voice that speaks out of the 
 deep places of the Bible, as when this temper 
 of subduedness comes over us. The world is 
 
On the Burial Service, 5 
 
 hushed within. It is unheard or unheeded 
 without ; and our souls hecome hke httle 
 weaned children. However, do all you can 
 to keep up that solemn awe with which you 
 read this chapter out of the Burial Service. 
 Follow it as it lays open its precious glories, 
 as it puts aside the sensual objections of the 
 world to its doctrine, and then rises and rises 
 steadily and calmly, clear as the angel's 
 trumpet of which it tells, into the noise of 
 triumph and of victory, and sends you back 
 to your desolated homes with its cheering 
 word of blessing, warning, and deep grave 
 love. *' Therefore, my beloved brethren, be 
 ye stedfast, unmoveable, always abounding in 
 the work of the Lord, forasmuch as ye know 
 that your labour is not in vain in the Lord '." 
 Now I am anxious to give you some serious 
 reflections which you may connect with the 
 Order for the Burial of the Dead ; so that 
 when you read it by yourselves in the Prayer 
 Book, or hear it read at a funeral, those high 
 Christian doctrines which it embodies may 
 arise, as it were, naturally in your hearts, and 
 the feeling not die away within you without 
 
 ^ 1 Cor. XV. 58. 
 A3 
 
6 On the Burial Service. 
 
 leaving something durable and solid behind it. 
 It is unnecessary to go through the service, 
 and show you how one part fits in with 
 another, from the moment when the priest 
 comes to meet the body at the entrance of 
 the church-yard till the last prayer has been 
 offered up by the opened grave. Those who 
 have gone as mourners to the church know 
 how the service adapts itself to their feelings, 
 how it meets all their wants, says just what 
 they would wish to say themselves, and in the 
 very same order as they would say it out of 
 the fulness of their hearts. Tlie light in 
 which I want you to view the Burial Service 
 is this ; — as containing a great cathohc truth, 
 which breathes out in all its prayers, as well 
 as in its psalms and lesson, the doctrine of the 
 resurrection of the body, the reverence due to 
 the flesh of Christ's departed members ; for at 
 His '' coming all men shall rise again with 
 their bodies : and shall give account for their 
 own works. And they that have done good 
 shall go into life everlasting : and they that 
 have done evil into everlasting fire^'* This is 
 part of that most holy " Cathohc faith : which 
 
 ^ Athanasian Creed. 
 
On the Burial Service, 7 
 
 except a man believe faithfully, he cannot be 
 saved ;" and it is as the Church's most solemn 
 witness to that faith that I propose now to 
 consider the order for the burial of the dead. 
 
 It might seem at first sight strange we should 
 pay so much honour to the body ; that the 
 committing it to the earth should be accom- 
 panied with so much reverent solemnity ; that 
 it should be buried with psalms and prayers and 
 the holy offices of the Church, in ground which 
 a Bishop has consecrated. It might seem as if 
 all this were only a pardonable allowance to the 
 natural infirmity of human feelings, to soothe 
 the bitterness of grief and sorrow, a last but vain 
 outpouring of our love to the deceased. But 
 though all this may be and is gained by the 
 Burial Service, it is far from being the whole 
 reason of it. It is founded on deeper and more 
 sacred views : it is because our bodies are 
 taken up into Christ's body and are part of 
 Him ; and while we thus honour His members 
 whose spirits have passed away from earth, we 
 manifestly set forth our own firm and unshaken 
 faith in His glorious resurrection, and in our 
 own also which shall follow hereafter. 
 
 The honour paid to the body is one of those 
 A 4 
 
8 On the Burial Service. 
 
 characteristic marks by which Christianity is 
 at once distinguished from every other system 
 of rehgion which has dared to lay claims to her 
 sole and rightful title. With one single and 
 dubious exception ^ all the old false religions 
 trod a directly opposite road. The highest 
 point to which their endeavours tended, was to 
 despise the body because of the greater honour 
 of the soul ; to treat it with contumely and 
 all indignity, as a mere incumbrance to the up- 
 ward soarings of the spirit. However much 
 of truth, and truly there was not a little, the 
 ancient Pagans did embrace in their systems, 
 whether drawn from Hebrew fountains, or 
 stumbled upon by the not unassisted mind in 
 her dark questionings after it, still they had no 
 idea of the glory of the flesh. A great philo- 
 sopher of Rome says that two things only are 
 impossible with God, to gift men with eternity, 
 and to raise the dead : and one of the most 
 famous of the Greek poets makes a god confess 
 that he cannot raise the blood to life which the 
 dust has once drmik in. It entered not, it 
 could not enter into their poor philosophy, that 
 what seems to them a weak frail vessel of clay, 
 
 1 In the case of Egypt, 
 
On the Buried Service, 9 
 
 the unresisting victim of a thousand diseases, 
 ever in the way of danger, could be full of 
 lasting honour, a very shrine of immortahty. 
 This doctrine, however, was known to the 
 Jewish Church, dimly perhaps as were most of 
 her greatest things, seen as it were all lying in 
 a grey and unsteady twilight : yet still it was 
 known, and, as our Saviour's words show, so 
 far clearly as to leave without excuse the sen- 
 sual levity of the Sadducees who denied it. 
 Enoch had ceased to be, for God took him. 
 Samuel had risen in the midnight cave at 
 Endor. The bones of a Prophet had imparted 
 a living virtue to a body which had touched 
 them. The widow of Sarepta had seen how 
 prayer could bring the spirit back to the form 
 of her lifeless son. All these notices pointed 
 one way. A thoughtful and pious Israelite 
 could not mistake them. The resurrection of 
 the dead was the manna on which the patriarch 
 Job had fed in his darkest hour, and it was all 
 accomplished before the eyes of the prophet 
 Ezekiel in the valley of dry bones. We are 
 told in the Old Testament, that when Moses 
 died in the mountain, God buried him ; and 
 the fearful scene disclosed to us, when St. Jude 
 
 a5 
 
10 On the Burial Service, 
 
 puts by the curtain for a while and shows us the 
 Archangel Michael and the devil contending 
 for the body, brings us a comfortable assurance, 
 that very precious in the eyes of the Lord are 
 even the bodies of His saints. But it was not 
 till the full dawning of the day-spring from 
 on high that this momentous doctrine was 
 richly and fully revealed unto the Church. 
 When God dwelt in the body of man, that great 
 mystery of the Incarnate Word, when by the 
 descent of His pure Flesh into the streams of 
 Jordan He had sanctified water to the mystical 
 washing away of sin, when He had given us 
 His Flesh to eat and His Blood to drink that 
 we might have life in us, — the medicine of 
 immortality, as an early Christian called the 
 blessed Eucharist, — then were our bodies made 
 clean by His Body ; yea, as St. Paul saith, we 
 became " members of His Body, of His Flesh, 
 and of His Bones ^ : " — " for we being many are 
 one bread, and one body : for we are all of us 
 partakers of that one Bread ^" The Trinity is 
 imparted to us in our Baptism. Our hearts are 
 now the temples of the Holy Ghost. Except 
 we be reprobate, Jesus Christ dwelleth in us. 
 
 ' Eph. V. 30. ' 1 Cor. x. 17. 
 
On the Burial Service, 11 
 
 We are one with Christ and Christ with us. 
 We have both the Father and the Son. 
 
 I know it is very overwhelming to contem- 
 plate these things, and then to recollect what 
 we ourselves are. But we must not, — woe be 
 unto us if we do ! — speak slightingly of our own 
 privileges, because we do not live up to them. 
 Let us not be partakers in the pitiless spirit of 
 the faithless Gadarenes, who prayed Jesus that 
 He would depart out of their coasts because 
 His mighty works were fearful in their eyes. 
 If we have evil entreated those angels that 
 have come to us, and would fain have dwelt 
 in our hearts and done us good, when we find 
 out who they are and why they came, let us 
 not be like the Roman magistrates at Philippi, 
 who, when they had beaten St. Paul, fell not 
 trembling at his feet as the jailor did, but came 
 and besought him, and brought him forth, and 
 desired him to depart out of the city. 
 
 The way in which this doctrine of the Re- 
 surrection is held by the Catholic Church has 
 been thus stated by one of our own Bishops. 
 " That as it is appointed for all men once to 
 die, so it is determined that all men shall rise 
 from death ; that the souls separated from our 
 a6 
 
12 On the Burial Service. 
 
 bodies are in the hand of God and live ; that 
 the bodies, dissolved into dust or scattered 
 into ashes, shall be re-collected in themselves, 
 and reunited to their souls ; that the same 
 flesh which lived before shall be revived ; that 
 the same numerical bodies which did fall shall 
 rise ; that this resuscitation shall be universal, 
 no man excepted, no flesh left in the grave ; 
 that all the just shall be raised to a resurrec- 
 tion of life, and all the unjust to a resurrection 
 of damnation ; and that this shall be per- 
 formed at the last day when the trump shall 
 sound. This is the doctrine which encourageth 
 all drooping spirits, this sustaineth all fainting 
 hearts, this sweeteneth all present miseries, 
 this lighteneth all heavy burdens, this encou- 
 rageth in all dangers, this supporteth in all 
 calamities ^" 
 
 Nothing need be added to this full and 
 plain statement. This then is that great and 
 glorious doctrine which is a chief part of our 
 Christian inheritance ; a doctrine so great and 
 so glorious, that all nature has been made to 
 tell it as she goes her changing round. The 
 perpetual succession of days and nights, the 
 
 ^ Bishop Pearson. 
 
On the Burial Service. 13 
 
 seasons of the year, rising and setting suns, 
 growing and failing moons, all are natural 
 types of the resurrection of the dead. ** Thou 
 fool, that which thou sowest is not quickened 
 except it die \" So that an Apostle teaches us, 
 that the very harvest which we reap to get 
 our daily bread, is or ought to be full of holy 
 thoughts and spiritual images ; God speaking 
 out with quiet power among the most com- 
 mon things that lie about us. 
 
 There is one point in this doctrine which 
 we must never lose sight of, namely, that the 
 resurrection oF our bodies comes of the resur- 
 rection of the Body of Christ. Throughout 
 the Acts and the Epistles, the fact of the Mas- 
 ter's resurrection is put very prominently for- 
 ward : and in filling up the vacancy caused 
 by the death of the miserable Judas, the rea- 
 son assigned for completing the college of 
 Apostles was, that one must be ordained to be 
 a witness with them of the resurrection. 
 Wherever our resurrection is spoken of, it is 
 in constant connection with Christ's resurrec- 
 tion, and as a consequence of it. *' Now is 
 Christ risen from the dead, and become the 
 ' 1 Cor. XV. 36. 
 
14 On the Burial Service, 
 
 first fruits of them that slept \" " Therefore 
 we are buried with Him by baptism into death : 
 that h*ke as Christ was raised up from the dead 
 by the glory of the Father, even so we also 
 should walk in newness of life. For if we 
 have been planted together in the likeness of 
 His death, we shall be also in the likeness of His 
 resurrection ^" We may see how prominent this 
 doctrine was in St. Paul's mind, by the stress laid 
 upon it in his defence before Agrippa : " And 
 now I stand and am judged for the hope of 
 the promise made of God unto our fathers : 
 unto which promise our twelve tribes, in- 
 stantly serving God day and night, hope to 
 come. For which hope's sake. King Agrippa, 
 I am accused of the Jews. Why should it be 
 thought a thing incredible with you that God 
 should raise the dead ? — King Agrippa, be- 
 lievest thou the Prophets ? I know that thou 
 believest." After a like sort he writes to the 
 Philippians : '' Yea, doubtless, and I count all 
 things but loss for the excellency of the know- 
 ledge of Christ Jesus my Lord, that I may 
 know Him and the power of His resurrection, 
 
 ' 1 Cor. XV. 20. ' Rom. vi. 4, 5. 
 
 'Acts XX vi. 6—8.26. 
 
On the Burial Service, 15 
 
 and the fellowship of His sufferings, being 
 made conformable unto His death : if by any 
 means I might attain unto the resurrection of 
 the dead^" Therefore Jesus Christ is our re- 
 surrection and our life, apart from Whom life 
 is not, and resurrection cannot be, according to 
 that glorious prophecy of Hosea : " Come, and 
 let us return unto the Lord, for He hath torn, 
 and He will heal us : He hath smitten, and He 
 will bind us up. After two days will He re- 
 vive us : in the third day He will raise us up, 
 and we shall live in His sights'* Neither 
 must we omit to meditate reverently on the 
 mysterious connexion put before us by holy 
 Scripture and the Church, between the feeding 
 on the Body of the Lord in the holy Com- 
 munion, and the raising up of our bodies at 
 the last day ; as it is carefully and meetly ex- 
 pressed by George Herbert : — 
 
 By the way of nourishment and strength, 
 
 Thou creep'st into my breast ; 
 
 Making Thy way my rest, 
 And Thy small quantities my length ; 
 Which spread their forces into every part, 
 
 Meeting sin's force and art. 
 
 ' Phil. iii. 8. 10. '' Hosea vi. 1, 2. 
 
16 On the Burial Service. 
 
 Give me my captive soul, or take 
 
 My body also thither, 
 Another lift like this will make 
 
 Them both to be together. 
 
 Thus the priest, when he gives to each one 
 singly the consecrated elements, says to each — 
 *' The Body of our Lord Jesus Christ preserve 
 thy body and soul unto everlasting life/' For 
 which great words, as well as in the prayer 
 immediately preceding the consecration, the 
 Church seems to refer to the language of her 
 Lord, recorded by St. John : " Except ye eat 
 the Flesh of the Son of Man, and drink His 
 Blood, ye have no life in you. Whoso eateth 
 My Flesh, and drinketh My Blood, hath eternal 
 life ; and I will raise him up at the last day \" 
 And immediately afterwards : '' He that eateth 
 My Flesh and drinketh My Blood, dwelleth in 
 Me, and I in him. As the living Father hath 
 sent Me, and I live by the Father ; so he that 
 eateth Me, even he shall live by Me." This 
 is not a subject for angry controversy, light 
 language, or profanely curious speculation ; 
 and, having pointed it out here as a deep and 
 
 ^ John vi. 53, et seq. 
 
On the Burial Service. 17 
 
 fearful truth connected with the honour of our 
 flesh and its resurrection, we may leave it with 
 the words of the Homily of the worthy receiving 
 and reverent esteeming of the Sacrament of the 
 Body and Blood of Christ \ It is well on such a 
 doctrine to use language more authoritative 
 than our own. " Neither need we to think that 
 such exact knowledge is required of every 
 man, that he be able to discuss all high points 
 in the doctrine thereof: but thus much we 
 must be sure to hold, that in the Supper of the 
 Lord there is no vain ceremony, no bare sign, 
 no untrue figure of a thing absent : ' But,* 
 as the Scripture saith, ' the table of the Lord, 
 the bread and cup of the Lord, the memory of 
 Christ, the annunciation of His death, yea, the 
 communion of the body and blood of the Lord, 
 in a marvellous incorporation, which by the 
 operation of the Holy Ghost (the very bond of 
 our conjunction with Christ) is through faith 
 wrought in the souls of the faithful, whereby 
 not only their souls live to eternal life, but they 
 surely trust to win their bodies a resurrection to 
 immortality.* The true understanding of this 
 fruition and union, which is betwixt the Body 
 * Page 412. Oxford Edition. 
 
18 On the Burial Service. 
 
 and the Head, betwixt the true behevers and 
 Christ, the ancient Catholic fathers both per- 
 ceiving themselves, and commending to their 
 people, were not afraid to call this Supper, 
 some of them, the salve of immortality and 
 sovereign preservative against death ; other, a 
 deifical communion ; other, the sweet dainties 
 of our Saviour, the pledge of eternal health, the 
 defence of faith, the hope of the resurrection ; 
 other, the food of immortality, the health- 
 ful grace, and the conservatory to everlasting 
 life. All which sayings both of the Holy 
 Scripture and godly men, truly attributed to 
 this celestial banquet and feast, if we would 
 often call to mind, O how would they inflame 
 our hearts to desire the participation of these 
 mysteries, and oftentimes to covet after this 
 bread, continually to thirst for this food !" 
 
 I. Many are the deep and fresh wells of 
 living water which spring up out of this doctrine. 
 It shows us more clearly, perhaps, than almost 
 any other, the fulness and the perfectness of 
 that salvation which has been wrought for us 
 by the Son of God. It is in this doctrine 
 mainly that He maketh a show^ openly of those 
 powers over which He hath triumphed. For 
 
On the Burial Service. 19 
 
 " if Christ be not risen, then is our preaching 
 vain, and your faith is also vain ^" " If Christ 
 be not raised, ye are yet in your sins ; then they 
 also which are fallen asleep in Christ are pe- 
 rished ^" He then that hath done so much for 
 us, that is so able an Advocate, so earnest an 
 Intercessor, will not leave us nor forsake us. 
 God that hath given us His own Son, will also 
 with Him freely give us all things. And holy 
 Scripture expressly teaches that it is by Christ's 
 resurrection that we are justified : '' He was 
 delivered for our offences, and was raised again 
 for our justification '." But what a light, at the 
 same time, does this shed upon the nature of sin ! 
 How far, how very far must man have travelled 
 onwards in his ruin, when so vast a conquestwas 
 to be achieved for his recovery. I have already 
 told you of all that has been wrought for our 
 nature by Christ's taking it upon Himself; and 
 all that has been wrought in our nature by the 
 participation of Him in the blessed sacrifice. 
 Thus it comes to pass that our members are 
 not our own. They are all members of Christ. 
 This is a truth so great that we can scarcely 
 believe it ; yet it stands written— /or us now ; 
 
 ' 1 Cor. XV. 14. ' lb. 17, 18. ^ Rom. iv. 25. 
 
20 On the Burial Service. 
 
 it may be against us hereafter. Shall we by 
 unclean thoughts pollute and desecrate the 
 temple of the Holy Ghost ; and make it, in- 
 stead of a house of prayer, a den of thieves ? 
 Shall the mouth by which we bless God, and 
 receive His many blessings, yea, even His 
 Body and His Blood,— shall it be defiled by 
 impure language, as it so very often is ? Ra- 
 ther let it be like the gate of the sanctuary, in 
 the vision of Ezekiel : '* This gate shall be 
 shut : it shall not be opened, and no man shall 
 enter in by it ; because the Lord, the God of 
 Israel, hath entered in by it, therefore it shall 
 be shut ^ !'* Shall we again by any lustful and 
 unchaste sins we think so lightly of, which yet 
 are deadly sins, and stain so sadly our baptis- 
 mal purity — shall we by these rend the veil of 
 the temple wherein the holy Jesus dwells, even 
 our own heart ? Men have come to think that 
 fornication and uncleanness are certainly sins, 
 but not such very grievous ones as to throw 
 us out of a state of grace, and cast us down 
 from our Christian standing, and blot out our 
 Baptism for the time. They fancy that the 
 strength of the temptation goes a great way to 
 
 1 Ezek. xliv. 2. 
 
On the Burial Service, 21 
 
 excuse them. It would be well they should 
 remember that the awful separation between 
 deadly sins and venial sins is made and recog- 
 nized by our Church in her article of Sin after 
 Baptism ; and that in the Litany, fornication is 
 named expressly as a deadly sin. It w^ould be 
 well they should remember how^ St. Paul dis- 
 tinguishes fornication from all other sins : 
 "every sin that a man doeth is without the 
 body ; but he that committeth fornication sin- 
 neth against his own body'." The Apostle's doc- 
 trine joins the mention of our resurrection with 
 the condemnation of this most fearful sin. " Ye 
 are washed — ye are sanctified — ye are justified 
 in the name of the Lord Jesus, and by the Spirit 
 of our God . . . Now the body is not for forni- 
 cation, but for the Lord ; and the Lord for the 
 body. And God hath both raised up the Lord, 
 and will also raise up us by His own power. 
 Know ye not that your bodies are the members 
 of Christ? Shall I then take the members of 
 Christ, and make them the members of an 
 harlot ? God forbid. He that is joined unto 
 the Lord is one spirit. Flee fornication ^" 
 Our bodies are mortal now no longer. They 
 
 » 1 Cor. vi. 18. M Cor. vi. 
 
22 On the Burial Service. 
 
 have been gifted with immortality. They are 
 the temples of the most Holy Trinity. Oh ! 
 how pure and chaste should we be. Let us 
 seek that purity and chastity where the old 
 saints found it, in strict and severe discipline. 
 Let us then go on calmly in the road along which 
 the Church is beckoning us, continually mor- 
 tifying our desires, crucifying the flesh in little 
 things, daily lessening our number of wants, 
 using this life but as a tent that may be struck 
 for each of us before to-morrow's sun has 
 risen ; and so gradually loosening ourselves 
 from earth. Thus God visits us with painful 
 diseases, sometimes sharp and violent, some- 
 times lingering and dispiriting, not only as a 
 punishment for our sins, but also as a means of 
 sanctification. That blessed Spirit, Who is the 
 giver of life, oftentimes conveys His best and 
 richest gifts in the sufferings of bodily pain; and 
 this reflection should make us patient and re- 
 signed under disease, because God chastens the 
 children whom He loves. 
 
 n. The Burial Service gives us another se- 
 rious lesson. It bids us think oftener and more 
 reverently of the dead. The times seem to get 
 more and more worldly. The world is all 
 
 8 
 
On the Burial Service. 23 
 
 around us, and open before our eyes. It is a 
 scene of care and fretfulness, full of tears and 
 misery, of business, and of selfishness ; every 
 man making haste to be rich, and one man's 
 fall only making way for another man's ad- 
 vancement. Day by day it is sinking deeper 
 and deeper in that covetousness, which is 
 idolatry in Scripture language, though men may 
 call it by the fairer phrase of commercial pros- 
 perity. It never stops a moment. The sound 
 of its going is perpetual, day and night, like 
 the throng of a crowded city. It is never out 
 of our ears, and the sight of its populous 
 multitudes makes us dizzy, and sick, and con- 
 fused, as we watch them hurrying up and down 
 the various paths of life, hot and weary, jostling 
 and being jostled. What time have they to 
 think about the dead ? how should quiet 
 serious thoughts find their way into hearts so 
 full of worldly things ? But a churchyard is 
 a most unworldly place ; like a cool and shady 
 seat by clear fresh fountains, where all things 
 tell of another world, of death, of heaven, of 
 eternity. We have not lost the dead. Death 
 is but a word. They have not really died. 
 They have only gone to live in another place. 
 
24 On the Burial Sendee, 
 
 And we ourselves never go to the Lord's Altar 
 without blessing God for all those who have 
 departed thither in His faith and fear. Surely, 
 if we thought more about them, if we did 
 not let the world break in upon our serious 
 meditations with its vain and idle fashions, we 
 should realize more than we do the commu- 
 nion of saints. Onr thoughts would be so high 
 and heavenly, that earthly things would seem 
 mean and worthless in comparison of them. 
 They would be like messages to us from an- 
 other and a happier world, all full of peace 
 and spiritual consolations. Indeed, before 
 Christian times we find among the saints of 
 the patriarchal and Levitical dispensations a 
 continual anxiety and reverence both for the 
 remains of their departed friends and for the 
 place or manner of their own burial. It seems 
 as if a strict carefulness for the bodies of the 
 dead were at all times a natural sign of a really 
 religious temper, and a deep feeling of the 
 solemnity of death. Thus we find Abraham 
 refuses to bury his dead in a field for which he 
 had not duly paid ; and, when he himself is 
 laid out in death, Isaac and Ishmael commit 
 his body to the earth by Sarah's side. Again, 
 
 7 
 
On the Burial Service, 25 
 
 Israel entreats his son Joseph and lays him 
 under an oath ; '' Deal kindly and truly with 
 me, and bury me not, I pray thee, in Egypt. 
 But I will lie with my fathers, and thou shalt 
 carry me out of Egypt, and bury me in their 
 burying-place^ :" as if that profane land were 
 unworthy that he should rest there, or that he 
 was fain his bones, at least, might inherit some 
 portion of the earth, even then consecrated by 
 promise. Joseph himself when he died took 
 a hke oath of his brethren, that ' they should 
 carry his bones up with them out of Egypt : 
 " and they embalmed him, and he was put in 
 a coffin in Egypt ^ " To the carrying up of the 
 mortal remains of Joseph a beautiful and affect- 
 ing allusion seems to be made in the eightieth 
 Psalm. " Give ear, O Shepherd of Israel, 
 thou that leadest Joseph like a flock ; thou that 
 dwellest between the cherubims, shine forth. 
 Before Ephraim and Benjamin and Manasseh, 
 stir up thy strength, and come and save us." 
 We read that when God appointed the order 
 of march in the wilderness, the tribes went 
 by threes ; first Judah, Issachar and Zebulun, 
 then Reuben, Simeon and Gad ; after that the 
 
 ' Gen. xlvii. 29. ' Gen. 1. 26. 
 
 B 
 
26 On the Btirial Service. 
 
 ark of God's Strength, and the Levites round 
 it ; then Ephraim, Benjamin, and Manasseh, 
 Joseph's sons and best beloved brother, bear- 
 ing, as is said, and is indeed most natural, the 
 bones of the patriarch ; and finally, Dan, 
 Asher,and Naphtali: and thus, instead of Jacob 
 or Israel, the Psalmist says, " Thou that leadest 
 Josej^h hke a flock." So again when David 
 vainly endeavours to persuade Barzillai to go 
 with him to Jerusalem, the old man answers, 
 " Let thy sei*vant, I pray thee, turn back again, 
 that I may die in mine own city, and be buried 
 by the grave of my father and of my mother^" 
 When the disobedient man of God had been 
 slain by the lion, the prophet, when he had 
 buried him, spake to his sons, saying, " When I 
 am dead, then bury me in the sepulchre wherein 
 the man of God is buried ; lay my bones be- 
 side his bones '\" And thus was his grave left 
 undisturbed when Josiah came to fulfil the 
 prophecy against the altar in Bethel and the 
 high places of Samaria. It was for his piety 
 in burying the dead, cast about the walls of 
 Nineve, that Tobit was commended and re- 
 ceived a blessing. And when Isaiah had taken 
 
 ' 2 Sam. xix. 37. ^ 1 Kings xiii. 31. 
 
On the Burial Service, 27 
 
 up his proverb against the king of Babylon, 
 he said, '' All the kings of the nations, even all 
 of them, lie in glory, every one in his own 
 house. But thou art cast out of thy grave like 
 an abominable branch. Thou shalt not be 
 joined with them in burial \" Lastly, we have 
 the words of our blessed Lord commending the 
 w^aste, as it was deemed, of precious ointment : 
 *' She hath wrought a good work upon Me ; 
 for in that she hath poured this ointment on 
 My Body, she did it for My burial -." 
 
 So intense was the desire among the early 
 Christians of paying honour to the dear mortal 
 remains of the saints, that the Pagans, to add 
 fresh pangs to the bereavement, and (vain igno- 
 rance !) to disappoint them of the hope of re- 
 surrection, threw the bodies of the Lyonnese 
 martyrs into the Rhone. St. Jerome did not 
 dare to enter the churches where the bodies 
 of holy martyrs lay, if he had lately offended 
 by impurity, were it only in his dreams. St. 
 Augustine, in his ' Treatise on the City of God,' 
 speaks honourably of attention paid to the 
 bodies of Christians, as vases which the Holy 
 Ghost has lighted up with good works ; and in 
 
 * Isaiah xiv. 18. ' Matt. xxvi. 12. 
 
 B 2 
 
28 On the Burial Service. 
 
 another place he says, the bodies of the saints 
 are more glorious than if man had not fallen. 
 Indeed, the same great Father wrote a whole 
 book, (which is very striking and beautiful,) to 
 Paulinus on the respect due to dead bodies, 
 the propriety of funeral honours, and other 
 similar questions. These instances out of 
 Scripture and old Christian usage may be of 
 service to us in deepening our views on this 
 matter ; and make us think more sacredly of 
 what seems to us the dull brown mould of 
 churchyards, but which shall one day live and 
 stir, and put on forms, and move towards the 
 judgment-seat of Christ. 
 
 III. There must be some of my readers 
 who have among the dead a parent, or a sis- 
 ter, or a friend. You have stood about the 
 opened grave with a heart too full to weep. 
 You saw the body of the departed slowly low- 
 ered into the damp and dewy earth ; and the 
 green sods closed on the place of his repose. 
 How desolate and dreary is the house of 
 mourning when the funeral is over ; worse, far 
 worse, is that time than the busy and dis- 
 tracting hour of death. So long as the body 
 remains in its accustomed chamber, the full 
 
On the Burial Service. 29 
 
 bitterness of grief is not felt. There is a feel- 
 ing in the mind — it is not hope, it cannot be, 
 for we all know that is past and gone ; but 
 there is a lingering feeling that we have not 
 quite parted yet. The spirit still may hover 
 about its ancient home ; and there is a placid 
 meaning in the calm and smiling fixedness of 
 those familiar features that feeds our grief, and 
 on that account keeps back its worst and 
 sharpest pangs. But when the funeral is over, 
 then all this is torn up from within us. Our 
 poor heart falls back upon itself. We sit down, 
 as in a chill and lonely waste. We are listless 
 and restless also. We can set ourselves to 
 nothing. It seems as if we had nothing to do 
 but to sit down and die ourselves. We have 
 been accustomed to pray often and earnestly 
 for our friend : and oh ! is there one struggle 
 so sharp, one moment in life so dreadful, as 
 when we kneel down to say our prayers the 
 first night after his death, and remember all at 
 once that we must pray for him now other- 
 wise than we did before ? We are stunned by the 
 shock. We scarcely know the words our lips are 
 uttering, till we come to pray for him as before, 
 when the habitual and half begun petition dies 
 
30 On the Burial Service. 
 
 away upon our lips, and we are awakened by 
 a piercing sense of the exceeding burden of 
 our loss. It is almost mockery to whisper con- 
 solation at such an hour as this. But when 
 the fit is over and gone, when you can look 
 collectedly on the quiet face of the departed, 
 or see hira entrusted, a most precious deposit, 
 to the earth, then you may find, you will find, 
 unsearchable riches of comfort in the doctrine 
 of the resurrection of the body. There is a 
 sort of satisfying fulness in the teaching of the 
 Church, as she leads you to the throne of grace 
 with those spirit-stirring prayers of the Burial 
 Service. You go home comforted in spite of 
 yourself. Then, when with tearful eyes you 
 gaze and gaze upon the lines of Holy Scrip- 
 ture, that tell us of the body's honour, they 
 seem to fall upon us with a force we never felt 
 before. Out of them, as from an endless foun- 
 tain, bright hopes keep springing up, till our 
 whole soul is overflowed with quiet thought. 
 We have not seen the last of that beloved 
 body. We have not lost for ever that earthy 
 tabernacle that used to seem so beautiful to us, 
 because we loved the heart that beat within it. 
 No— it shall all come back again even as it 
 
On the Burial Service, 31 
 
 went. Changed as it shall be, transfigured 
 with a new and sunlike glory, still it shall be 
 the same ; and we shall know it to be the 
 same, even as St. Peter did so strangely know 
 Moses and Elias, when they talked with the 
 Master in the Mount. Our vile bodies shall 
 indeed be changed, and oh, blessed mystery ! 
 be fashioned like unto His glorious Body : but 
 still, amid it all, our friends shall say to us, and 
 we to them, as He did before us, " Behold 
 My hands and My feet, that it is I Myself' !" 
 
 ' Luke xxiv. 39. 
 
 THE END. 
 
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THE 
 
 DIGNITY 
 
 LITTLE CHILDREN. 
 
 BY THE REV. 
 
 FREDERICK W. FABER, M.A. 
 
 FELLOW OF UNIVERSITY COLLEGE, OXFORD. 
 
 Thus saith the Lord of hosts ; There shall yet old men and old -women 
 dwell in the sti-eets of Jerusalem, and every man with his staff in his hand 
 for very age. And the streets of the city shall be full of boys and girls play- 
 ing in the streets thereof. — Zech. viii. 4, 5. 
 
 SECOND EDITION. 
 
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*et* This Sermon was originally preached in the North of 
 England, among the Lakes, at a rural festival, called Rush- 
 bearing Sunday, when the churches are decorated withforvers 
 and rushes, about the end of the hay season, most probably in 
 memory of the time when the common earth was the floor of 
 the little churches of that district, and was annually strewn 
 rvith green fags and rushes. Some have carried it back to a 
 pagan origin. 
 
 Gilbert & Rivington, Printers, St. John's Square, London. 
 
THE DIGNITY 
 
 OF 
 
 LITTLE CHILDREN, 
 
 One cannot be much in the habit of reading 
 the Holy Scriptures, without feehng that there 
 is something in them we cannot tell how to 
 express. All we know is, that the Bible is 
 very different from every other book we read : 
 different, not only in its old quaint language, 
 nor even in the subjects of which it treats, but 
 different in the way in which it comes home 
 to us, and opens our hearts, and shows us our- 
 selves, and fills us one while with fears and 
 strange sadnesses, another while with hopes 
 and joys and ghmpses of dim and half-seen 
 glories, which bear us onward far away to a 
 quiet place of pleasantness and rest. If we 
 a2 
 
4 The Dignity of Little Children, 
 
 open it in our mirth, it sobers and subdues 
 us, and melts a proud man's heart to childish 
 tears. Or, if we ask of the Oracle in dark 
 and gloomy seasons of trouble, who does not 
 know how soft and gentle thoughts keep rising 
 up from the holy Book, like fresh water from 
 a spring, and winning us to happiness in spite 
 of ourselves. And all this because it is the 
 Word of that God Who spoke in old time to 
 His Prophet, not in the wind, or the earth- 
 quake, or the fire, but in the still small Voice. 
 Not but that the Bible has its earthquakes 
 and its fires to hard hearts and sinners that 
 will not repent ; but its whispers and its con- 
 soling melodies are ever heard deepest, clear- 
 est, sweetest, when tribulation makes us, like 
 the lonely Elijah, wrap our faces in our man- 
 tles, because we cannot bear to look upon the 
 world, or that the world should look on us. 
 Now the reason of this is, because the Bible 
 is no mere dead book, but a very living thing : 
 " Quick, and powerful, and sharper than any 
 two-edged sword ^" and piercing exceedingly. 
 You recollect what the patriarch Jacob called 
 
 ^Heb. iv. 21. 
 
The Dignity of Little Children, 5 
 
 Bethel^ — "a dreadful place," — and why he 
 called it so : ** Because God was in it and he 
 knew it not." Now, in like manner, and for 
 the same reason, the Bible is a dreadful Book. 
 The Holy Spirit dwells among its sacred mys- 
 teries, and moves up and down the hallowed 
 pages, now lighting up the deep places therein, 
 now carrying to thoughtless hearts with mighty 
 power the hard sayings of it, or letting fall joy 
 and consolation upon the mourner from pas- 
 sages he had often read before and found 
 nothing in them. It is as the appearance of 
 lamps in the vision of Ezekiel : " The fire was 
 bright, and out of the fire went forth lightning. 
 And the living creatures ran and returned as 
 the appearance of a flash of lightning-." Thus 
 it comes about, that the Bible is never tired of 
 giving up the new and rich treasures that are 
 there, the goodly pearls which none can find 
 save those that sell all and buy the field, and 
 dig diligently day and night therein. 
 
 It is never out of place in God's House to 
 speak great things of God's Word. And I 
 have done it now, because many of you per- 
 
 ' Gen. xxviii. 16, 17. ' Ezek. i. 13, 14. 
 
 A 3 
 
6 The Dignity of Little Children. 
 
 haps may never have been struck by a mysteri- 
 ous peculiarity in it, on which I am going to 
 say somewhat at present. During the seventy 
 long years of her sons' captivity, poor Jeru- 
 salem had lain in ruinous heaps. The glory 
 of the Temple was departed. Her palaces 
 were fast falling to decay. Her walls were 
 thrown down about her, and the stranger was 
 lord in her empty halls, for the sins of those 
 that had dwelt therein. *' This is the rejoicing 
 city that dwelt carelessly, that said in her 
 heart, I am, and there is none beside me ^" 
 But now the Prophet Zechariah is come to 
 tell of her new glories, and in order to set 
 forth most strongly the blessing which God 
 would pour upon her, he draws this picture : 
 " There shall yet old men and old women dwell 
 in the streets of Jerusalem, and every man 
 with a staff in his hand for very a^e. And 
 the streets of the city shall be full of boys and 
 girls playing in the streets thereof." Now 
 this prophecy is an example of what I mean. 
 Some of us, in reading the Bible, must have 
 thought it very strange that there should have 
 
 * Zeph. ii. 15, 
 
The Dignity of Little Children. 7 
 
 been so much about children in it. We are al- 
 ways meeting with them in one way or another. 
 They occur over and over again in the histo- 
 rical books. The Psalms are full of them. 
 They furnish the prophets with their com- 
 monest images. And, what is strangest of all, 
 they occupy a very conspicuous place in the 
 doctrine and teaching of our blessed Lord. 
 It seems strange, yet, after all, it is most 
 natural. If we have paid any attention to 
 the characters of our friends, we must have 
 seen that just in proportion to a man's holi- 
 ness, to a man's softness of spirit, gentleness 
 and aifectionateness of heart, was his recur- 
 rence both in thought and in conversation to 
 the days of early childhood. Indeed youth, 
 which is in some sense the most Christian part 
 of life, is always looking back ; and they set 
 most on memory who have least to recollect. 
 And this is strange too, and yet most natural. 
 Now this prophecy of Zechariah leads us 
 on to Gospel times. So let us take the Four 
 Gospels, and see what we can learn from 
 their frequent mention of children. And in- 
 deed a thoughtful man may find there a spi- 
 ritual fulfilment of this prediction. When 
 A 4 
 
8 The Dignity of Little Children. 
 
 our Saviour came, Jerusalem was rebuilt. 
 The new temple, though not as the ancient 
 one had been, was yet ''exceeding magnifi- 
 cal." The city was filled with multitudes of 
 people. Old men and old women there were, 
 waiting for His coming, and boys and girls 
 that sang His praises, as they played about the 
 streets. Simeon was an old man, yea, doubt- 
 less had a staff in his hand for very age. His 
 life had been drawn out from year to year, 
 that he might see the salvation of his God. 
 and then depart in peace, because his loyal 
 spirit could not hold the fulness of his joy. 
 Anna, too, the grey-headed prophetess, she 
 was permitted to see with her bodily eyes, 
 now dim with age, that God Whom she had 
 seen with the eye of faith for many a long 
 year of service in His Temple. The young 
 children, too, as they played, filled the courts 
 of the Temple with their little Hosannas, and 
 knew not what they did. But the Son of God 
 was pleased and glorified by their unconscious 
 praise ; and rebuked those that would have re- 
 buked them, showing that they were, in their 
 measure, fulfilling the sure words of pro- 
 phecy. For it is written, " Out of the mouths 
 
The Dignity of Little Children, 9 
 
 of babes and sucklings hast thou ordained 
 praise \" Still more surely does this prophecy 
 bring before us the Christian Church with all 
 her gifts and graces. She has old men and 
 women in her streets, the streets of the New 
 Jerusalem, the city of our God. She has 
 them kneeling at her altars for the bread of 
 life, there eating angels' food. She filleth 
 " their mouth with good things, making them 
 young and lusty as an eagle." And she has 
 boys and girls, ranged all along her aisles, 
 lisping the name of God and of His Christ, 
 saying solemn prayers, uttering great things 
 out of their childish hearts, and singing lofty 
 praises ; and all the while it is a Spirit work- 
 ing in them mightier than themselves, for they 
 cannot tell as yet what all this holy service 
 means. 
 
 It has not seemed good to the Holy Ghost 
 to record much of our Saviour's infancy ; but 
 what is given is full of teaching to ourselves. 
 It would seem that so intimately was He 
 acquainted with grief, so much was He a 
 Man of sorrows, that none could touch Him 
 
 ' Ps. viii. 2. St. Matt. xi. 25. xxi. 16. 
 A 5 
 
10 The Dignity of Little Children, 
 
 or come near Him^ but they must needs drink 
 the cup which He drank, and be baptized 
 with the baptism wherewith He was baptized. 
 The Httle innocents of Bethlehem were only 
 like Him in age ; yet that, it seems, was reason 
 enough that they should be like Him in suffer- 
 ing too. Therefore, let not weak faith think 
 it strange to see the agony children sometimes 
 suffer when their souls, which Holy Baptism 
 has so lately purified, are called from earth to 
 heaven. It is a seal of their belonging to the 
 family of Christ. It is a family of suffering, 
 and all that are members of it must suffer 
 with their Head. So He Himself began His 
 precious blood-shedding when He was but 
 eight days old, at His circumcision. So 
 He first took upon Himself His power, and 
 reigned and received homage as a King, when 
 He lay in His mother's lap, and those wise 
 Gentiles saw in the East the Star of which 
 Balaam had prophesied, and by the leading 
 of the Holy Ghost came on to Bethlehem 
 to lay their gold and frankincense and myrrh 
 at the young Child's feet. And then, as if 
 to teach us that children were never too 
 young to do Him service. He, being but 
 
The Dignity of Little Children. 11 
 
 twelve years old, began already to be about 
 His Father's business, and was found of His 
 sorrowing mother disputing with the doc- 
 tors in the temple. Then, when His public 
 ministry began, we find Him loving to lay His 
 hands on little children, and to bless them. 
 He rebukes His Disciples, who were so dull- 
 hearted they could see no meaning in what 
 He did. He tells them that if any one offend 
 one of these little ones, it were better for him 
 that he had never been born, or that a mill- 
 stone were hanged about his neck and he cast 
 into the sea. He tells us of children, that 
 their angels do always behold the face of their 
 Father vs'hich is Heaven : and He teaches His 
 disciples, and us among the rest, that *' except 
 we be converted, and become as little children, 
 we shall in no wise enter into the kingdom of 
 Heaven," because, as He said before, *' of such," 
 that is of httle children, " is the kingdom of 
 Heaven." Now who can read these things 
 without being reminded of that God who made 
 His covenant with Abraham, because He knew 
 Him, " that He would command his children 
 and his household after him, that they would 
 keep the way of the Lord, to do justice and 
 
12 The Dignity of Little Children, 
 
 judgment ^ ?" And of the same God Who 
 argued with the angry and petulant Jonah, 
 " Thou hast pity on the gourd, for the which 
 thou hast not laboured, neither madest it grow; 
 which came up in a night and perished in a 
 night : and should not I spare Nineveh, that 
 great city, wherein are more than six score 
 thousand persons that cannot discern between 
 their right hand and their left hand, and also 
 much cattle^?" Lastly, we come to a passage 
 in which all the others seem to meet, and by 
 which we may explain them all : " Whoso shall 
 receive one such little child in My name re- 
 ceiveth Me !" It is then because little children 
 are Christ's brethren, it is because Christ Him- 
 self for their sakes became a little one, that 
 so much is said about them in Scripture. 
 
 And how is it that they are in an especial 
 manner Christ's brethren ? It is because of 
 Holy Baptism. You know they were born 
 under a curse, children of wrath, conceived in 
 sin. But Jesus, for the so great love where- 
 with He loved their souls, took them for His 
 own when they were but a few weeks old. A 
 
 ^ Gen. xviii. 19. * Jonah iv. 10. 
 
The Dignity of Little Children. 13 
 
 few drops of our spiritual Jordan sprinkled 
 upon the unclean, the waters of Holy Baptism, 
 made the flesh of the leper to come again unto 
 the flesh of a little child, better far than all the 
 kingly rivers of Damascus, better far than 
 man's wisdom could have devised, or his cold, 
 dull, stubborn heart even now believe. They 
 were made '^members of Christ, children of 
 God, and inheritors of the kingdom of Heaven." 
 Who shall tell their dignity ? Who shall de- 
 clare their spiritual generation ? Sons of God ! 
 Heirs of Heaven ! Joint heirs with Christ ! 
 The seeds of immortal life are sown very thickly 
 in them. Their hearts are made the temple of 
 the Holy Ghost. Jesus Christ dwelleth in 
 them, except they be reprobate, which they 
 cannot be. All this we were once : and in a 
 measure are so still. We are still Christ's 
 brethren, still God's children, still heirs of 
 Heaven. But not as httle children are. They 
 have not sinned since, as we have done. They 
 have not grieved the Holy Spirit, as we have 
 done. Their coldness and their waywardness 
 have not separated them from their elder 
 Brother, as ours has often done. They have 
 not left their Father's house, as too many of 
 
14 The Dignity of Little Children, 
 
 us have done, for a land of rioting and wanton- 
 ness and pleasure that cannot, will not, satisfy. 
 They walk by faith, and not by sight. They 
 have no wills, no ways of their own. They 
 cannot, and so they wish not, to do anything 
 for themselves. Therefore it is that their 
 angels, not merely in times of earnest prayer, 
 in venerable churches and at solemn sacra- 
 ments, as ours perchance may do, but their 
 angels always behold the face of their Father 
 which is in Heaven. 
 
 This is the great and solemn view of children, 
 as baptized children, which is given us in Holy 
 Scripture. You will be at no loss to see why 
 I have chosen to lay it before you on the pre- 
 sent occasion, so intimately connected as it is 
 with the religious meaning which has now been 
 coupled with this rural festival. The garlands, 
 with which the House of the Most High God 
 is decorated, are full of holy mysteries and 
 meanings. They throw us back into a different 
 state of things. They remind us of a time 
 when the churches, planted among these hills, 
 were lowly, poor, and rude, as buildings, yet 
 bright, most bright with the joy and thankful- 
 ness and loyal-hearted piety of the little flocks 
 
The Dignity of Little Children. 15 
 
 who met therein for prayer and praise and 
 sacraments. They call to memory the feast 
 among the Jews, when water drawn from the 
 sacred wells was borne about the courts of the 
 temple ; while men waved green branches in 
 their hands, and the voices of ten thousand of 
 the sons of Abraham were heard chanting the 
 glorious anthem of Isaiah : " With joy shall ye 
 draw water out of the wells of salvation^:" or 
 that more Christian day, the Sunday of Palms, 
 when Jesus entered into Jerusalem, and His 
 triumphal way was strewn with the soft green 
 shoots of early palms ; the day whereon the 
 little children learnt the Hosannas they sung 
 about the temple, as if to show how meet it 
 was in us to join their cause and interests 
 and happiness with a day of thanksgiving and 
 of prayer. How then shall we best keep alive 
 this simplicity and thankfulness in a part of 
 the land where change comes later and moves 
 more slowly than elsewhere ? How shall we 
 be of one heart with our holy ancestors that 
 sleep around us, but by training up the little 
 ones amongst us in the paths of peace and plea- 
 
 * Isaiah xii. ; and see St. John vii. 37. 
 
16 The Dignity of Little Children, 
 
 santness, by aiding the schools established here 
 for their good, by being all of us priests, in the 
 sense that all Christians are a royal priesthood, 
 by helping to spread the Gospel among all ? 
 It is needless to add more : it is needless to 
 explain the nature and the object and the 
 management of these schools. Their object is 
 the edification of the Church of Christ among 
 His little ones. 
 
 Trouble is out upon the earth, and fear and 
 expectation and restlessness and perplexity. 
 Many run to and fro, and knowledge, that 
 cold and barren and unloving thing, is much 
 increased. All serious men are looking out 
 for some great thing. They, who would fain 
 adhere to ancient landmarks in Church and 
 State, are full of trembling. They that love 
 the old things, yet see that Church and State 
 have altered, whether for better or for worse 
 see also that the old things cannot remain as 
 of old, and that the new things are not good, 
 and they are full of perplexity. They who 
 triumph at man's advance along the road of 
 science and of power, watch the fearful swift- 
 ness of the current, and are not quite at ease 
 as to what the end of all shall be. Oh ! then 
 
The Dignity of Little Children, 17 
 
 by the uneasy thoughts we all have for our 
 dear country, by the lonely prayers we pray, 
 by our wishes and our fears, by our dim hopes 
 and beautiful regrets and sacred memories, let 
 us throng in this day to aid the Church of God, 
 the only power which can bear up against the 
 world. There is much necessity for it. In 
 this matter we have no differences, no diver- 
 sity of opinions, no fatal prejudices, party 
 prepossessions, or cruel misunderstandings of 
 each other. 
 
 Surely to you, my brethren, who are natives 
 of this place, who are so deeply, so intensely, 
 interested in its welfare, it is unnecessary to 
 speak. The heart that feels no yearnings 
 towards the place of its abode, is too cold, too 
 dead, to be moved by words of mine : colder 
 far and deader than the poor pagan shepherds 
 who once trod these hills, and lived among 
 their gloomy woods. For they did beautiful 
 things, yea, and holy things, when they hung 
 their delicate wild flowers and green rushes 
 about the trees and wells ; albeit they darkly 
 worshipped the Unknown God. 
 
 But there are others, who form no inconsi- 
 
18 The Dignity of Little Children, 
 
 derable portion of my congregation, on whom 
 it is needful I should urge my cause. There 
 are many strangers here. They may have 
 come among these hills only for pleasure and 
 amusement. Yet, if they did, they must by 
 this have learnt among their marvels, their 
 lights and shades, their solitudes and strange 
 recesses, some glorious things of the Lord their 
 God, 
 
 Here where He hath built 
 
 For His own glory in the wilderness \ 
 
 My brethren, if this country has been to you 
 a fountain of deep and serious thoughts, of holy 
 and moral impressions, if you have looked upon 
 it as in some sense a pubhc domain wherewith 
 God hath gifted our nation, if you have felt 
 your love drawn to its lakes and rivers and 
 hill-side villages in a way you never felt before, 
 and cannot now explain, if you are carrying 
 II om It a thousand memories that will never 
 desert you, sights and sounds and heavenly 
 images to haunt you evermore, can you turn 
 
 ^ Wordsworth. 
 
The Dignity of Little Children. 19 
 
 away and not leave a gift unto the Lord our 
 God ? Oh ! it shall delight you afterwards to 
 remember that upon these mighty hills, as on 
 a holy altar, and altars green and glorious they 
 are and not of man's building, you have left 
 your full, free, self-denying offering. Let it be 
 as full and free, as open and ungrudging as 
 hath been the tide of joys which the land has 
 poured in upon you from the throne of God 
 that is set up so visibly therein. You may 
 never have seen a Church of God so decorated 
 as this. You may never see this holy rite 
 again. Make, then, these garlands to minister 
 to piety and holiness. Make them to be con- 
 nected with the everlasting covenant, a type, 
 a symbol of the freshness and innocence which 
 the early lessons of the Gospel shall shed upon 
 the little ones that w^ould fain sing Hosannas 
 in this mountain temple. Let this festival 
 wi'ite upon our hearts a lesson deep and grave 
 to bear unto our homes ; and let us leave the 
 Holy Shrine this day with the words where- 
 with the Three Children praised the Lord their 
 God, a deep and silent, yet a thrilling Bene- 
 dicite, filling our souls with thankfulness and 
 love. 
 
20 
 
 The Dignity of Little Children. 
 
 O ye mountains and hills, bless ye the Lord: 
 praise Him and magnify Him for ever. 
 
 O all ye green things upon the earth, bless 
 ye the Lord : praise Him and magnify Him 
 for ever. 
 
 THE END. 
 
 Gilbert & Rivington, Printers, St. John's Square, London. 
 
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