Faith necessary to Salvation-Believing with the Heart and believing The Impossibility of performing our Promises without Assistance- The meaning of the words "Steward" and "Mysteries"-The Neglect of Ordinances indicates a low state of Religion-Asking not the same as receiving-We receive through the Outward Sign-Illustrations of this-Why it should be so ordained-The Ordinances of CHRIST'S Church-Not all of equal necessity-Those which are generally" necessary to Salvation-The word "Sacrament"-The Romanist and The Emsworth Anabaptists-Their Zeal in proselytizing-A Zeal not according to Honesty-The use to which a Heterodox Tract may be put -Adult Baptism a Church Doctrine-The Real Point of Difference be- tween the Church and the Anabaptists-How it happens that a thing of importance may occupy but little space in the Bible-The Similarity between the Old Covenant of Circumcision, to which Children were admitted, and the New Covenant of Baptism-The Jewish Child, could not be put out of Covenant-What "Households" were in those Days- The Council of Carthage-Baptizing, "Rhantizing," and Dipping-Spon- sors not necessary to Baptism-The use of reading the Prayer Book and understanding the Bible-The Dangers of Private Judgment.-(Pp. I. GOD'S SPIRIT guides-We are to go forward-The Setting out of Error of the Romanist and Protestant Dissenter lies in taking one only of these two sets of duties-Illustrations of this from the Church Services- Confirmation, Baptism, the Communion-Grace prayed for collectively -Received individually - The Christian fully armed, and bid to set II. Elijah the Type of CHRIST-Elisha the Type of His faithful fol- lower-The hidden meaning of the history-The Teaching of the Church between Christmas and Easter connected with that of the Great Forty Days-The First Sunday after Easter: the Commission given to CHRIST'S Ministers-The Second Sunday: the Warning against un- authorised Ministers-The Third Sunday: the Perpetual Presence of CHRIST the Comfort of His Church-The Fourth Sunday: the Mantle of Elijah the Type of the HOLY GHOST-The Fifth Sunday: the Effect of the HOLY GHOST resting on the Church-Ascension Day-Why our Prayers will be heard-The Sixth Sunday: the Church's Widowhood- Whit-Sunday the Christening Day of the Church.-(Pp. 370-380.) THE CATECHUMEN SET FORTH ON HIS PILGRIMAGE.-BP. Franzen. The Church warranted in Authorising an Act of Discipline-The Analogy between bodily ailments and spiritual ailments, and bodily physicians and spiritual physicians-Confession Authorised in the Bible -Received by the Church universally S. Clement's Epistle-Origen, Gregory, S. Basil, S. Augustine-All these Authorities interpret the Passage as the Church of England holds it now-Daillé-Unanimity of the Reformers on the subject of Confession-Confession of Augsberg- Melancthon-The Swedish Church-The Calvinist Bodies-Calvin-The English Reformers, Cranmer, Ridley, Latimer-Inference drawn from the Unanimity of the Reformers-The Points of Difference between the English and Romish Doctrine-Small in Theory-The Puritan tendency is towards Unitarianism-Dishonesty ascribed to the Reformers-Jewel -Why his testimony is valuable-Hall-Usher-Chillingworth-Sharp -The Quotation from Calvin-The testimony carried down to the year 1744-How the Witnesses have been selected-The Value of Tradition is Testimony rather than Opinion-The Romish Doctrine of Confession- The Anglican Doctrine of Confession-The Voluntary Character of the latter-The effect of interfering with this in the Scandinavian Church- Things committed to the Discretion of the Priest-Periodical Confession not the Rule of the English Church-Cases of this must be exceptional- Instances, where Periodical Confession might be advisable-The Meaning of the word" Minister"-Duty of a Minister-Prejudices in England against Confession-Reason of this-Proof of Negligence in the Clergy- How Negligence may become Faithlessness-The Private Churchman has a greater latitude of Opinion allowed him than the Priest-Why-The Minister a Servant of the Church, and bound by his Service.-(Pp. 381 GRUNDTVIG'S HYMN OF PRAISE TO THE HOLY TRINITY.-(Pp. CONFIRMATION AND FIRST COMMUNION. ON CONFIRMATION. AMBASSADORS OF CHRIST AND STEWARDS OF THE MrsTERIES OF GOD. It is thus that S. Paul defines the office and character of the Clergy; and therefore it is in proportion as we are or are not able to realise this definition, and to present it to the minds of our people, that we hold our influence over them as the Ministers of CHRIST'S Church, or as the Ministers of a State Establishment. Now, whether it be from our own ignorance, or from negligence, or from accidents in our temporal position over which we have no control, or from the combined result of all these causes, the fact is, that in almost all our intercourse with our people, this definition is practically lost sight of; if we have any influence over their minds, it is in our own individual character, not in our office of Ambassadors, that we possess it: we may owe it to our learning, to our benevolence, to our comparative wealth, to our position in society, to our personal talent in preaching, but we do not owe it to the simple fact that we are representatives of Him who saves, and that we are entrusted by Him with the means of salvation. This fact people are unable to realise. Once, indeed, they did, but the idea is in a great measure lost,—not by B 2 ૭ ON CONFIRMATION. any sudden revolution, not by any process of reasoning, not by any definite conviction, but by the mere force of habit. The commissioned Minister of CHRIST ceased gradually to present himself before the eyes of the people in his character of Ambassador, gradually therefore did the idea fade from their minds,-slowly it faded, but it did fade. Their conception of the character had been produced, not by inductions of reasoning, which they were incapable of appreciating,-not by the words of the Bible, which they might or might not comprehend,—but by the facts before their eyes. Their parish Priest felt as one having authority, and taught as one having authority. They also felt it; they did not reason about it—that most of them were incapable of doing-but took it for granted, and therefore could not regard him as one of the Scribes. Of the Apostolic Succession in so many words they pro.. bably had not even heard, but so long as the Priest comported himself among them as if he himself felt that he was unquestionably and undeniably the Steward of God's mysteries, that is to say, the authorised dispenser of His means of grace; the unreasoning many received him as such, while the reasoning few would hail the Apostolical definition, when they met with it in the Bible, not as a new light to which, for the first time, they were to accustom their eyes, but as a simple and satisfactory confirmation of an idea already preconceived. The doctrine was and is the true doctrine of the Bible. Rubrical niceties were the means by which that doctrine was presented to the minds of the vulgar, and therefore, when these niceties were neglected, the doctrine itself, though in reality unchanged, in practice became unfamiliar, obsolete, and forgotten. For instance, it might or might not have been of im portance, in any one given instance, that the people should do as they were directed by the Prayer Book-should present themselves to their parish Priest before receiving the Holy Communion, in order that he might determine whether they were or were not in a fit state to receive it; but when habitually they ceased to do so, and he still continued to admit them to the LORD's Table indiscriminately, they |