NIV 'Be ye not unwise, but understanding what the will of the LORD is.' ALTFOR HIS EPH. V. 17. LONDON: LONGMANS, GREEN, AND CO. 'I could not in Church matters feel confidence to alter a straw, if I did not stand firm on a scriptural basis, and had not the conviction that the alteration or reform proposed was a higher development of the Divine religion of Christ, and therefore also a calling to a higher life than that which it might seem to abrogate or modify; and finally, if I was not convinced that the time is come when that institution or Church must either be reformed or perish, by that same Divine right which it justly claims for its existence. But is the time come (for reform of Liturgy and Articles)? I believe the time is come, in so far as that the necessity is urgent, to consider the matter above and before anything else. This consideration will show that, independently of all expediency, there are internal reasons and arguments enough at hand to prove that the Liturgy may be more perfect, and that it must now be revised, because it offers the only means of bringing about a more glorious manifestation of Christian spirit and the reign of Christ than before. . . . . Let me state explicitly, that a union with the Dissenters who worship Christ is what I bear in mind these fifteen years as to iny own country and the Church in general. We must come to that if God will save us and our countries. It will take place once and somewhere on earth. Blessed the land and Church who effect it, who throw off the yoke of doctrine and ritual tyranny too long exercised by those who should be united in Christ, and who ought to believe in facts revealed and transmitted, not in words and abstractions and formulæ substituted or annexed to them.' BUNSEN to ARNOLD, 1834. |