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PART III.

EXTERNAL CIRCUMSTANCES OF THE CHURCH COINCIDING WITH

INTERNAL CHANGES.

1. Such mutual adaptation and concurrence the mark of design.

If there is any truth in the position already maintained, that the changes in our Ritual and Forms of Prayer are so much of one prevailing character as to indicate something of a Divine purpose, it appears highly probable that the peculiarities of our external condition also should coincide and harmonize with these alterations within. For such independent co-operation of unconnected means, combining to produce one effect, is considered the indication of design in an intelligent author. And if Natural Theology is wont to trace out, in things physical, such internal adaptation to meet external circumstances of life, and to dwell on such as the proofs of an over-ruling Providence, may we not venture to do the same in the Church of God, provided that we conduct the inquiry with that fear and reverential mistrust with which we must ever speak of the ways of the ALMIGHTY? And surely it were not unreasonable to expect such indications of His presence; for if He who made "the plant of the field, before it was in the "earth," and "the herb of the field, before it grew," yet continues to vary its mould and texture to meet the varying influence of clime and sky, it is natural to suppose that He would do the same in that Living Tree which He has deigned to call by His own name, and of which He has represented His Father as the husbandman.

The first point which it was the object of this treatise to show, was that the services of our Church are characterized by a peculiar tone of sadness and humiliation; and that we are throughout made thereby to use the language of those who have fallen away from the richer inheritance and the privileges of sons. In order to point out the accommodation and harmony alluded to, it will be necessary to show that the temporal condition of the Church has been that, to which Scripture has not promised such

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gladness of heart, or, as a Latin Collect, which our Church has omitted to retain, expresses it, "in præsenti sæculo degustare cœlestium dulcedinem gaudiorum;" on the contrary, that our external state has been that, to which it ever preaches penitential humiliation.

The second principle, which our line of argument went to. establish, was, that lessons of obedience have peculiarly pervaded all the alterations in our Prayer Book. Here therefore it will be requisite to show that, according to the analogy of GOD's dealings with mankind, as they are manifested by Scripture and experience, the external circumstances of the Church have been those to which the lesson of obedience is more particularly addressed, and which more especially require such admonitions.

CONSIDERED WITH REGARD TO THE FIRST POINT, OF REPENTANCE.

2. Apparent objections to our being supposed in a state of servitude.

Let us consider, in the first place, the former of these two subjects. On a cursory view, it might appear difficult to reconcile this supposition with the known history of our Church and nation. For so far from our having been in a state which would be accounted one of servitude, we are met with the fact that our condition has been one, for the most part, of great apparent prosperity. It would be difficult to find a Church, where, for so long a space of time, the course of this world has been " so peace"ably ordered," that its members have been allowed "to serve "the LORD in all godly quietness." The aspect which the Church bears in any country village is, in general, that of ease and respectability. Our position, as Christians and as Churchmen, has become such as to require no self-denial on our part to acknowledge our being so: indeed to such a degree is this the case, that some are almost at a loss to explain as compatible with our experience others would explain away-that essential opposition to the Gospel which Scripture declares will exist in the world: "Ye shall be hated of all men for My name's sake" (Matt. x. 22); and "because ye are not of the world, but I have chosen you out "of the world, therefore the world hateth you" (St. John xv. 19);

"if they have persecuted me, they will also persecute you" (v. 20). If, therefore, our circumstances have been, for the most part, thus signally prosperous, how then, it might be asked at first sight, can we be considered as having fallen into a less favoured condition? But, in answer to this, it will be sufficient to call to mind, that the highest privileges and richest gifts of the New Covenant are connected with sufferings from without. Such are the very mark of the true sonship; "if ye endure chastening, GoD dealeth with. "you as with sons ;" "if ye be without chastisement, then are ye “bastards, and not sons." (Heb. xii. 7, 8.)

3. Suffering, the privilege of Sons.

It will not be attempted to explain the very mysterious subject of the connexion of outward circumstances with our internal spiritual condition; as serving together to make up our course of probation in the hand of our great Disposer. It may be the case after some incomprehensible manner, the bearings and extent of which our very position, as living in the world, prevents our discerning,—that as the Jewish promises, consisting in temporal blessings, were in one point of view essentially opposed to the Christian, so also the state of captivity of a Christian Church may consist of circumstances the very opposite to those of which that of the Jew consisted, as far as regards the personal comfort and well-being of its members.

And first of all, let it be observed, that it is not merely the Christian disposition and character which has received the stamp of the blessings of the Gospel. It is often the external state and circumstances of life which are spoken of, when we should rather have expected it would be a certain temper of mind, which such circumstances might tend to foster; as, for instance, "Blessed are "Blessed are "ye poor, for yours is the kingdom of heaven."

they that mourn:" it is the very condition of mourning which is here blessed, not as persons would now confine and explain it, they that mourn for their sins, though, of course, they more especially. "Woe unto you that are rich;" not merely ye who trust in riches. It is to certain external contingencies that the

blessing or the woe is attached, as if a resemblance to the "Man "of Sorrows," though it be but in outward circumstances, brought us nearer unto Him, and was blessed on His account; as if such were modes of approach to Him, which were pervaded with that healing virtue that went out from Him.

And it may be as well to remark a little more at length, that among the privileges and blessings which the Gospel holds out to its faithful followers, those of the highest kind which speak of joy (the expression which is dropped in our Prayers), are connected with sufferings from without. Perhaps there is no place where spiritual rejoicing and gladness is spoken of but in implied or expressed connexion with them. That one, for instance, of the Beatitudes, which arises as it were into the mention of "rejoicing and being exceeding glad," is, "when men shall "revile you and persecute, and shall say all manner of evil "against you falsely." And "rejoice and leap for joy," in St. Luke, "is when men shall hate you and separate you, and cast

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out your name as evil." Persecution, and losing house and kindred, is made the very condition of receiving "manifold more "in this present time;" a promise literally fulfilled in the early Christians, when in one verse it is said, they "sold their posses"sions and goods," and in the next that they eat their meat "with gladness," and being beaten, that "they rejoiced that they were counted worthy to suffer shame." And in accordance with these accounts are expressions in St. Paul's Epistles, either of rejoicing himself, or of calling others to rejoice, which are more particularly on occasions of his own or their sufferings. If he "takes pleasure," it is in infirmities; if he is "exceeding 'joyful," it is in all his tribulations for them; if he rejoices, it is "in all my sufferings for you;" and again, "if I be offered up, "I joy and rejoice with you all." He deprecates the thought that he "should glory, save in that Cross by which the world

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was crucified to him, and he unto the world." It is the very condition requisite, "If we suffer with Him, we shall also reign "with Him." St. Peter also makes it the very subject of their rejoicing, that they are made "partakers of CHRIST's sufferings." These are not mentioned to prove the point, but as casual

indications on the surface of a great principle lying in the depths of Scripture. Indeed it requires a high degree of that purity of heart which is privileged to see GOD, consistently to keep in mind what a favoured state in God's sight that of suffering is, the last gift and dying legacy of our SAVIOUR to those who attended Him on earth. (St. John xvi. 33.) The remark that those who were afflicted with bodily maladies derived the greatest benefits from our SAVIOUR'S Presence, refers to but one manifestation of this great principle. Those who were most favoured by Him, and approached most nearly to His adorable Person, received the largest share of this His benediction of suffering; and were made "conformable unto His death," to be brought more fully to "the power of His resurrection." Their sufferings are spoken of under sacramental figures of being baptized with a Baptism; and drinking of a cup; as if from a mysterious connexion with Himself, they partook of something like a Sacramental efficacy, and which, therefore, had annexed to them the promise of spiritual joy, as it was to drink of His cup, who is Himself "the well of joy." And not only the sufferings of the martyr, but even the common self-denials of daily life, are dignified and hallowed by some secret approximation to Him, and spoken of under the awful name of "bearing a cross ;" as if they too were parts of that tree whose leaves are for the healing of the nations; as if, wherever the bitter waters of the desert were to be found, they partook of the virtue of that restoring and healing wood. The power of suffering even the heathen often bears witness to, in proverbs and precepts out of number, though he knew not its connexion with CHRIST crucified. On the contrary, worldly prosperity narrows, we are told, the otherwise strait gate of life, even to a "needle's eye." Wonder not, therefore, that from such a state the voice of joy should be withdrawn, and the warning call to humiliation be annexed to it in the moral Providence of God: that circumstances which have the peculiar effect of blinding the eyes, should be made co-extensive with monitory appeals on all sides, to walk warily and near the ground.

At all events, enough has been said to prove that if that perfect freedom which is to be found in the service of God, the