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ling agency may have inserted prophetical cautions in the teaching of a particular Church against those peculiar evils which should afterwards assail it? Does not the very promise of our SAVIOUR'S unfailing Presence in His Church against which the gates of Hell shall not prevail, lead a meek and obedient spirit to feel after such guidance, and to rest assured that such a meek obedience to CHRIST'S Church would somehow or other afford him refuge and safety? "The LORD is a tower of strength; the righteous run "into it and are safe." For it is through matters of this nature that a spirit of affectionate submission speaks among the generality of Christians; not through inquiry and investigation into the principles and intentions of the Church, so much as by imbibing day by day its devotional and practical character; not so much by a definite act of acknowledged obedience, and a reflex consideration of that act, as by a tacit and almost unconscious participation of its spirit. If security is to be found in the Church, it must be in great measure by means of these indirect channels. If the Church be the robe of CHRIST, woven throughout without seam, he who prizes and cherishes as full of virtue, even the hem of His garment, though accused by the world of superstition, (as we must be when we make forms of so much importance,) yet shall he derive thereby the full benefit of his piety. Yea, though such be but touching the hem of CHRIST's garment in the spirit of charity, yet shall he partake, even in these days, of that anointing, which came of old on the Head of the Church, and went down to the skirts of His clothing.

It is necessary to call our attention again and again to considerations of this kind, as the proof necessarily depends so much on words, and sentences, and short prayers, which, humanly speaking, might not appear worthy of that importance which this argument attaches to them; and the combination of which, as a whole, contains so valuable a principle.

The difficulty of obtaining a fair hearing for this mode of inquiry, arises from the temptation we are under of allowing our thoughts to turn to the secondary causes. But surely, whatever the agents were, it is right to consider them merely as instruments in the hands of God, raised up for some particular design relating to His Church. For instance, that one of the Gospels

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should abound very peculiarly with consolations to the Penitent, and that that Gospel should have been intended especially for the Gentiles, indicates a merciful purpose of GOD. Nor is the force of that indication lessened, when we find that it was "the "beloved Physician" who selected these lessons of comfort, as perhaps most congenial to his own temper of mercy; or that, when the world had been prepared for it, and rising heresies required it, another Gospel should have come forth replete with the higher mysteries of Wisdom and Charity, is the purpose of GOD to be less admired therein, because it was 66 the beloved Disciple" who wrote that Gospel, and who, in doing so, was but following the bent of a holy frame of mind, which is ever dwelling upon heavenly things? And now, though it is not by the instrumentality of miracles, or a miraculous voice, that we receive the intimations of the Divine agency, yet they are not, in themselves, the less certain. The hand that bears it may appear human, but the lesson of humiliation which it bears is divine: "When I looked, behold, an hand was sent unto me; and, lo, a "roll of a book was therein. And it was written within and 66 without; and there was written therein lamentations, and "mourning, and woe." (Ezek. ii.)

3. Warnings introduced against the "lawlessness" of the last days.

Having said thus much on the general nature of the subject, we may again return to the particular inquiry. The second train of thought, suggested by a review of these changes in our Liturgy, is singularly coincident with, and in itself no less remarkable than the former. It is this; that there is providentially introduced, and inserted throughout, in some shape or other, the mention of obedience.

This is, I say, remarkable, and that in two points of view. First, because it perfectly agrees with, and confirms, the former argument, inasmuch as it is in accordance with reason and Scripture, that if the ALMIGHTY is pleased to put into our minds the language of penitence, He should accompany this also with calls to obedience, as the test of that repentance. Such is the general argument. And in the second place, this lesson, in all the various

tones and forms of language and expression in which it is unfolded, and in the many different subjects which it embraces, derives a striking signification, and assumes the character of more than human purpose, in its wonderful adaptation to meet the forms of evil which have since arisen and prevailed. For surely it could be no other wisdom than that to which times and seasons are known, which devised the pattern of the Ark, found so well suited for the storms through which it was to pass. And here again, though our attention may be arrested by the human instruments or incidental occasions which have served to produce the effects noticed, still a variety of contingencies, looking now one way, then another, now behind, and then before, yet all leading to one great end; may be considered to indicate, as in the mysterious figure, and in the language of the Prophet before referred to, that though "the face and the hand of a man" might appear, yet there was something within them wholly Divine, for "the SPIRIT was in the wheels ;" "whithersoever the SPIRIT was to go, they went, thither was their Spirit to go." And again, "They "turned not as they went, but to the place whither the head "looked they followed it!" and every part of their multiform and varied shape was "full of eyes round about." (Ezek. ii. and x.)

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Now before we look on the aspect of things around us, Scripture itself points out the quarter from which the danger is to be apprehended in the latter days, as leading to the great Apostasy. "The man of sin," who is to be revealed, is the ò arouos, or rejecter of laws. The "mystery which already worketh" is that of lawlessness, (Tñs avoμías, 2 Thess. ii. 7.) That which is to "abound" as the witness to all nations extends itself, is "law"lessness," (Tǹv åvoμíav, Matt. xxiv. 12.) It is love which is THE KEEPING OF THE COMMANDMENTS," which is to wax cold: the "great delusion" is to be sent on men, because "they have "pleasure in UNRIGHTEOUSNESS :" a "form of godliness is to exist "wherein the power is denied."

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If therefore we only look to the inspired Prophecy, we have the character of the evils which are to assail us; but we have more than this, we have these very evils in a striking manner developed before our eyes. Our times are remarkable for pre

senting living evidences of this tendency: this spirit (under the name of liberty) is the proverbial characteristic of our nation; the irregular forms of religion which prevail must be considered (whatever good may at first find a lodging in them,) as more or less modified shapes of "lawlessness." But more than this, the religion of the day will be apt to derive its colour and complexion from the prevailing tendencies of the world around it; and that peculiar form which now most abounds, so much so as to have formed for itself a system, rejecting the restraints of ancient doctrine, has this for its most marked feature, that it has substituted something else for the keeping of the Commandments. Indeed it is well known how much it has evinced a peculiar shrinking sensitiveness against the very mention of obedience, holiness of life, and the like. It will be curious, therefore, if it can be shown, that throughout the changes which the Church has undergone, by alterations little and great, whether designed or accidental, there is a pervading tendency to introduce, and bring out the mention of the Commandments, in the very way to which this age is so repugnant. Nay, it will be more than curious, in connexion with the errors alluded to; it will indicate a purpose beyond that of man, regulating those alterations which have interfered with the strict pattern of ancient worship; the controlling Presence of that SPIRIT that beareth witness.

Before we enter upon the particular points of Obedience, infused throughout our Services, as the preservative against the spirit of lawlessness, we cannot but notice the great and broad line, the basis itself, upon which our Liturgy is constructed. In our Reformation we differ from other Reformations, and as a Church we differ, I think, from other Churches now existing, in retaining more purely and entirely the threefold cord which is not easily broken, Scripture, Tradition, and the Sacraments. Holy Scripture itself, as well as our own natural wisdom, will assure us that in these three will be our safety against the influences of the great deceiver of the latter days. To the Sacraments our blessed SAVIOUR has attached the promise of His Presence; for "he that believeth and is baptized shall be saved;" and "he that "eateth my flesh and drinketh my blood, dwelleth in Me, and I

"in him." And the voice of GOD, whether oral or written, "the "traditions which we have been taught, whether by word or

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epistle," St. Paul has pointed out as the anchor we are to hold by. These three, the Sacraments" generally necessary to salva"tion," the Word written, and the traditionary system which conveys both of these down to us1, (the Sacraments by Stewards to administer, and the Word by authority to establish it Divine,) are our sacred threefold charge. Now all these we have preserved to us in an Apostolic form of worship, like the Ark of the Covenant, made indeed by the hands of man, but under the direction of God, in the keeping of which this our deposit lies.

4. Scripture and Tradition combined in the Prayer Book.

Now it may be observed at first sight how the Prayer Book has providentially preserved to us this two-fold bond of Tradition and Scripture, thereby supplying us with, or intimating to us, the Rule of Faith, by the insertion of Catholic documents of different ages together with Sacred Scripture. For instance, by the place which the Te Deum occupies, as allowed to be used indiscriminately with the Canticle from the Apocryphal writings, and as a Scriptural Hymn or Psalm; for it is observable that the other six Hymns answering to these are all from the Scripture. The same may be said of the use of the three Creeds. And with regard to the Athanasian Creed, thus considered in the light of a witness, it may be observed, that the frequent use of it is owing to the Second Book of King Edward, which has appointed it thirteen times instead of six. Thus have we the two threads throughout mutually interwoven with each other; not in any way as equivalent in authority, but as combining for our use in instruction and devotion. Add to these the Collects, which are mostly retained as traditional; and the Epistles and Gospels, which also occupy the respective place they hold on each Sunday as traditional. And, moreover, it is to be thankfully remembered

1 If any one doubt the correctness of this assertion, he may be asked, in what way or system are the Word and Sacraments conveyed to us except by Tradition ? Let some other way or system be mentioned which excludes Tradition, and yet brings any persons in these days to the knowledge of the Gospel.

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