“ment not so much for retaining the present form "of the Prayer-book" [for which he had been contending] "as for resorting to what is older. To my 66 66 own mind, it is an argument for something different "from either, for diffidence. I very much doubt, "whether in these days the spirit of true devotion is "at all understood, and whether an attempt to go for“ward or backward, may not lead our innovations to "the same result. If the blind lead the blind, shall they not both fall into the ditch ?" I at least, my Lord, must own that I felt impressed and reproved by this deep and self-restraining feeling of a young and ardent mind, mingling self-abasement with aspirations after something higher, and acknowledging himself unworthy to "unloose" even "the shoelatchet" of that form of worship which in our own devotions we so imperfectly realize. The feeling of our friend in this passage, and our own, is briefly this, we must have acted up more to the theory of our Church as she is, before we attempt to alter any ritual belonging to her. We must amend ourselves before we amend any thing of her's. When the body of our Clergy shall have acted up to her injunctions, by performing for years, day by day, her daily service, then may they be judges whether any improvements may be introduced into that service; when our service shall have become daily so also it is implied, they are "crumbs" which we are not worthy to gather up. The expression is abasement of self, not derogation of our service, which is but too good for most of us. B instead of weekly, then may we judge whether any additions should be made to that of the LORD's day; when people, by the daily devotional use of the Psalms, shall have come to learn some portion of their depth, then they will see whether they are not in truth Christian hymns, and how much more of Christian truth they contain than the popular modern hymns, now often in use among us; when we have learnt and taught our congregations the blessedness of infant Baptism, and to be gladdened instead of wearied by seeing our little ones, one by one, made members of CHRIST, or have realized the blessings of our own engraffing into CHRIST, then may they perhaps judge of the language of the Baptismal service; when we have become alive to the importance of a true confession of the Holy Trinity, how much belongs to it, how manifold and subtle the temptations to deviate from it, have jealously observed our own inherent tendencies, and to what heresies our own frame of mind was inclined, or from which we have, perhaps, on the very road, been snatched, then may men judge fitly whether "our Church" at this day needeth" not, in the Athanasian Creed, "those ancient preservatives, which ages before us were so glad to use;" or rather, when our whole selves shall have been disciplined by her solemn rounds of prayers, thanksgivings, fastings, festivals, Communions, shall we be formed in her model and 1 Hooker, Eccl. Pol. V. xlii. 13. ed. Keble. so shall understand her, and may supply any thing lacking to her. Till then, our only safe course is to abide as we are, fitting ourselves to receive any enlargement of our treasures, by learning gratefully to appreciate and to use those which we have. What is good in itself might not be good to us, until we are other than we are. It is then, my Lord, by judging of us according to their own habits of mind, and inferring that we should feel, act, and think as they would, were they in our stead, that they have come to these strange notions about us. They, with the impatience of modern habits, could not see a fancied defect, without at once casting about how they might remove it; they cannot understand that men should think it their duty to sit still, should not have a wish to remove it, if they could; should think that it had been better otherwise, that hereafter what they think best in the abstract, may be best for our Church; may even speak of these things in the hopes of preparing for their ultimate restoration, if it may be, in the days of our sons' sons; but meanwhile would not, if they might, restore them. I mean not in so saying to claim any superiority for ourselves over others; we are, each as we have been trained to be; the difference is in the systems, wherein we have been formed; I would only account for the mistakes which must arise, if those who act upon one set of principles are judged upon by the other. Thus, we would freely express, as have many of the Bishops of our Church', our conviction that the revisers of our Liturgy did unadvisedly in yielding some more explicit statements of doctrine to the suggestions of foreign reformers, whose tone of mind was different from that of our Church; yet could we adopt the words of one, with whose views probably we do not coincide; "Happy is it "for the Church, that there has always between these opposite parties [who would reform the Prayer-book in opposite ways]" a much larger body of worshippers, "who have used their book of Common Prayer "with undisturbed devotion, offering thanks to GOD "continually for His unspeakable gift 2." 66 These sentiments we have often expressed; and I may extract here a statement made in a periodical, expressing for the most part our sentiments, and which was quoted with pleasure at the time, as a declaration of our practical views, by one, whose valued life was devoted to the maintenance of our Church as she is, and the uniform opposer of whatever threatened her with organic change. "If Anglo-Catholics did but understand their posi 1 Such as Bishop Overall, Abp. Sancroft, and Sharp, Bp. Hickes and Horsley. Tract No. 81. ed. 2. 2 Pref. to two books of Edward VI. compared. Oxford, 1838. d. xxxv. 3 See Appendix, Nos. 24. 54. 5 British Critic, vol. 24. p. 69. Rev. H. J. Rose. British Magazine, vol. xiv. p. 219, 20. ❝tion, it would be no despicable one. For ourselves, "we find enough of satisfaction in it, not to be eager "for any of those changes in the relation of Church "to State, which late political events and constitu"tional reforms make abstractedly fitting. What 66 66 may be the duty of persons in high stations in the Church, is another matter, or what might be the Church's duty if her members one and all were of "one mind and one judgment in all things, or what 66 66 66 66 66 may be the duty of individuals as a matter of con"science in the event of certain contingencies; but "at this moment, we conceive that Catholic truth "will spread and flourish more satisfactorily under the existing state of things than on any alteration which "could be devised. We feel no desire for the meeting of convocation; we are not even earnest in "behalf of a repeal of the Statute of Præmunire, though it would certainly be becoming and just. We want changes of no kind, whether in the Prayer Book, or Articles, or Homilies, or Government, except anything can be shewn to us in our present state to be literally and directly sinful. We "are content to take things as we have received them, and are quite sure that that system which was sufficient for the expansive minds of Andrews or "Laud, has not been so circumscribed by subsequent political events, but it will hold us pigmies, however large we grow. We may like some parts of 66 66 66 66 66 66 66 "it less than others; we may conceive that some 66 parts might be more primitive, other parts more |