found a place in the second Book of Edward,) that in our devotions we are to look to the people and not to the altar. What does this imply but that even in our religious worship we are to turn not to the East, the place where God has shown His countenance, but to the West; not to the light of the ancient Church, but to the eyes of the world; not to Angels assembled round the altar, but to the great men of our congregation; not to the place of Paradise, our lost inheritance, but to the flock in whose hands our interest lies! not to the Cross of Christ, but to that supposed utility which worldly wisdom suggests; not to our Judge coming from thence, but to the judgment of the world. It is agreeable to this that if there is any thing unbecoming or negligent in the conduct of a chief or inferior Pastor, the remedy is at hand in an appeal to the public. This is considered the

1. Things commanded and commonly observed: Sunday Service.

2. Things commanded, and not commonly observed:

Daily Service. Reading the Prayer for the Church militant. Baptisms before the Congregation. Keeping of Fasts and Festivals.

3. Things not commanded, but implied:

Weekly Communion. Turning to the East.

4. Things not implied, but allowed :

Daily Communion.

e.g.

On the Circumcision in Edward's Second Book, the direction was, If there be a Sunday before the Epiphany, the same Collect, Epistle, and Gospel, shall be used. It now stands, "shall serve for every day after," &c.

5. Things not prohibited, but discouraged for fear of abuse;

Prayers for the Dead.

6. Things prohibited:

Now those

Prayers for souls in Purgatory. The Mass. Unauthorized Communion. In the observation of these the world interferes with the Church. things commanded of course a good Churchman would observe, if possible. He would also wish to restore what it implies, though it be not commanded, if fallen into disuse; and to carry out as far as possible the spirit and intention of the Church. Catholic usages and principles he will aim at, as a Christian and a Churchman; but in doing so will be guided by that spirit of meek wisdom and unobtrusive reserve, which is the marked characteristic of his own Church; and will regulate his zeal by charity, remembering the terrible woe denounced on him who shall offend one of CHRIST's little ones.

great corrector of abuses.

And doubtless it is, and a very ex

tensive and powerful one; but still it implies a very inferior condition that such should be requisite, not our singular advantage and happiness, but the sign of our captivity. "Because "thou servedst not the LORD with joyfulness and gladness of "heart, thou shalt serve thine enemies, and he will put a yoke of "iron on thy neck." And indeed may not the popular cry for freedom from the nation at large be considered as indicative of the state of servitude, of spiritual slavery and bondage to the world? For people subjected to worldly influences feel they are not free, and conscious of this their malady, and knowing not its only remedy, which consists in the "service of GoD, which is "perfect freedom," they loudly demand liberty. The Apostle alludes to this when he speaks of those promising liberty who are themselves the servants of sin. In like manner, forgetting the real equality of all as God's children, under the same pressure of their passions, men eagerly demand equality. Both are intimations that they want, though they know it not, the true freedom of sons of GOD.

The effect of a principle is for the most part subtle and imperceptible in its operations, but exceedingly powerful. A proof of this may be seen in the circumstance that in times of any great excitement, when systems are broken up and principles set afloat, the animosity and zeal in behalf of opinions becomes such as to counterbalance every other consideration whatever; and forms bonds of union or causes of difference the most violent, from an instinctive sense which nature has given us of the power and value of principle. Slight and unimportant as the point in dispute may be, it is often of more weight than the closest external connexions or apparent advantages. At the First Book of Edward, Catholic consent and doctrine were the basis of the changes, on the consideration of a vital inherent power in the Church itself, to preserve truth according to the promise of its Divine Founder. There appears at the Second a great distrust of these internal promised resources; other principles were admitted. How far the admission of them has been the cause of the subsequent evils of insubordination which have been deve

loped it may be impossible to say, or how far external control may have been necessary in consequence1.

7. That states of servitude are Divine appointments.

But in the former agreement respecting the alterations made in the Prayers, the object was to drop all consideration of the human agents in those changes, and to turn our attention to their providential character, as implying a Divine control and purpose. It will be necessary to do the same in the present case also, though it is a matter of great difficulty, as secular influence and intrusion is of so much more palpable a nature as to awaken passions and feelings respecting persons, by reason of which we are less clearly able to discern the more than human Hand which is dealing with ourselves. That persons, at first, from a want of faith in the promised resources of the Church, and a dread of the power of Rome, courted the protection of the secular arm; and that others have since increased such an alliance from influences of worldly policy, by acquiescence, by com

This sort of compromise with the world, by which the Church has lost the greatness of her religious privileges, has of course been more fully developed şince the time of the Non-jurors, but they from the first speak of the indications of it.

"The true notion," says Leslie, "of a Church and of a Priesthood has been "utterly lost amongst those where Erastianism has prevailed, and consequently, the reverence due to religion and to GOD has sunk with it, and also "the benefits annexed to the holy offices of the Church, as means of grace ap"pointed by CHRIST our LORD, on which are grounded our hopes of mercy." (Regal. and Pontific. vol. iii. p. 425.).

What does this infer but that we fall thereby from the inheritance of sons? In another place he says:

"This principle of the Regale begets a secular spirit in the Clergy,―eats out "the Evangelical spirit of Christian simplicity, the rappηoía, the open and "fearless, but modest, zeal and courage in asserting the truths of the Gospel." "This and the Court air are two elements-the Evangelical spirit must be very deeply rooted, if the secular do not get the ascendency." (p. 372.) "Erastianism," says the same writer, "has run down like a torrent from the "Reformation; the Regale being then made (though very unjustly) the cha"racteristic against Popery and fanaticism, that being supposed the only barrier "against both." (p. 447.)

promise, by conciliation, and even by worse means and motives: all these explain the mode, humanly speaking, by which these chains, laid on our spiritual strength, were formed and riveted. And the same may be said of these things, as of some of the changes in the Liturgy, that, as they arose from a want of faith, so they brought with them judicial visitations in the withdrawal of higher means of grace. But what is to be observed is, that even these judicial punishments are, in the manifold ways of Divine wisdom, the best correctives of the evil, from which they proceed, and serve also as merciful protections in that lower state out of which they arise. For, although sins are visited on children's children in a temporal point of view, (Exod. xx. 5.) yet even those visitations may become beneficial to those children, in a spiritual sense, (Ezek. xviii. 3.) working for good to those that love Gon. This may be explained by a parallel instance in the Jewish history. From want of a high faith they did not cast out the old inhabitants of Canaan, and not consulting GOD (while His guiding voice was among them) they made a league with the Gibeonites. These Canaanites therefore continued to be "thorns in their side;" but still such scourges were benefits to them, for they served, thus remaining, to try and prove them; to show "what was in their heart, whether they would serve God or no." It was the oppression of their enemies that made them from time to time feel where their only strength was, and served to raise them up a deliverer.

But, without presuming to point out any thing so mysterious as the designs of the ALMIGHTY, whose ways are as much above our ways, and His thoughts, we are told, above our thoughts, as Heaven is above earth; yet I suppose that, looking to temporal governments only, without respect to the Church, it may be considered that there is some invariable rule of Providence in affording persons more or less liberty as they are able to bear it; that a tyrannical monarch, or any severe form of government is, in fact, nothing else but a certain necessary result of a people requiring such severity for their chastisement or protection. In the plague which was sent in consequence of David numbering the people, we see only, at first sight, the people visited for the

sin of the monarch, but on turning to the account in 2 Samuel xxiv. 1. we read "The anger of the LORD was kindled against Israel, and He moved David against them to say, Go, number Israel and Judah." We may conclude therefore, that the proverbial expression, contained in the words "delirant reges plectuntur Achivi," embraces but half the truth. For that both of these are in fact only certain effects, that the "delirant reges" is itself but a mode by which the "Achivi” are punished for their offences, or restrained from their lawlessness. That harsh rulers are set over others, humanly speaking, for their punishment, divinely, for their protection and cure; "which," says St. Basil, speaking of heavenly-imposed subjection, "a just estimator of "things would not call a judgment upon them, but their benefit. "For what can be more profitable for him, who, from want of "wisdom bath not in himself the power of governing, than that "he should be in the power of another: that, being directed by "the reason of a master, he may be like a chariot that hath "obtained a charioteer, or a vessel that hath a pilot sitting at the "helm." Thus, he says, was Esau made subject to Jacob; and Canaan to his brethren. And may not the same be the case with all states of worldly subjection and captivity, though we cannot ascertain its modification or extent? The effect may be as certain and invariable as the remedies which in natural things arise out of the evils that require them 1.

8. Such best suited to the condition of the Church.

Now, if this be the case with the kingdoms of the world, may it not be so in the kingdom of CHRIST also? Are there not in

Homer seems to allude to severe monarchs being thus a retributive mode of Providence. A tyrannical governor is imprecated as the natural consequence upon those who were wanting in affectionate loyalty to the paternal sway of Ulysses:

Μήτις ἔτι πρόφρων, ἀγανὸς, καὶ ἤπιος ἔστω

Σκηπτούχος βασιλεὺς, μηδὲ φρεσὶν αἴσιμα εἰδὼς,

̓Αλλ' αἰεὶ χαλεπός τ ̓ εἴη, καὶ αἴσυλα ῥέζοι.

Ὣς οὔτις μέμνηται Οδυσσῆος θείοιο

Λαῶν, οἷσιν ἄνασσε, πατήρ δ ̓ ὡς ἤπιος ἦεν.—Hom. Odyss. b. ii. 230.