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excited and curious thoughts. It has been observed how much the blessings and privileges which are peculiarly those of the Gospel, and especially those of the highest value, are connected with temporal calamities, and, in many cases, depend upon them; as, for instance, the joy and exaltation, and "the manifold more "in this present life," attached to persecution, necessarily imply persons who will persecute the comfort of them that mourn, and the inheritance of the meek, imply cause of grief, and occasion of anger. Poverty and an ill name have the blessings of the Kingdom. Above all, we have the worldly condition of the Author and Finisher of our faith, and the cloud of witnesses which attend Him and partake of His sufferings. Now all these things create a difficulty in conceiving the existence of a high state of external prosperity, and of internal well-being coincident with it, in the Church; not sufficient to do away entirely with those expectations which good men have entertained', but such as to still any unquiet anticipations respecting them. And more than this, to keep us from having our minds too much riveted and engaged in sanguine views of the Church realizing, in external appearance, the greatness of the promises made to her: the grandeur of such, the riches of the kingdom, may be throughout entirely of an internal and spiritual nature, ascertained and possessed mostly under afflictions and privations; so that she may have to the end, like her Divine Author, "no form nor comeliness," nor, to the worldly eye, symmetry or beauty, "that we should "desire her;" but still, under this external humiliation and contempt, her children may see her glory;" as St. John did that of CHRIST, or the inspired Psalmist, when he said, "Thou art "fairer than the children of men: full of grace are thy lips."

And indeed the highest expressions by which Scripture represents the blessings of God's presence in His Church, are rather those of refreshment and relief, under existing and pressing evils, than positive enjoyment independent of them, and which therefore imply the pressure of those evils, e. g. "For thou hast been a "strength to the poor, a strength to the needy in his distress, a refuge

I See Bishop Wilson's Sacra Privata. Friday. Penitence, ad finem.

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"from the storm, a shadow from the heat, when the blast of the "terrible ones is as a storm against the wall." (Isa. xxv. 4.) It is not usually observed how much the most glowing descriptions, prophetic of the Christian blessings, consist in figures of this kind, which represent good as arising out of, and perhaps existing together with, temporal evil; as, "I will make the "wilderness a pool of water, and the dry land springs of water; "I will plant in the wilderness the cedar." (Isa. xli. 18, 19.) And so also with regard to all those expressions of "the wolf "dwelling with the lamb," "the leopard lying down with the kid," "and the little child leading them;" "and the sucking child playing on the hole of the asp ;"-may they not be fulfilled, not in the absence of temporal evils, but in this, that temporal evils will be rich in spiritual blessings, when accompanied by a child-like temper? It is by similar expressions out of number, that our SAVIOUR designates Himself through the Prophets. "I give "waters in the wilderness, and rivers in the desert ;" and in another place," When thou passest through the waters, I will be "with thee; and through the rivers, they shall not overflow thee: "when thou walkest through the fire, thou shalt not be burned." (Isa. xliii.) Such also are the typical figures of the Christian state, such as the Three Children singing in the fire, and Daniel alive in the den of lions. The same seems to be inferred by the numerous prophetical expressions, as in the Psalms, which speak of our SAVIOUR as suffering, not only in His own person, but likewise in His members. Those good things, therefore, which are in store for the Church, may be like most, if not all, other prophecies before they are fulfilled, entirely of a nature defying our previous suppositions; only we can see thus much, that the enjoyment of high spiritual privileges, together with temporal prosperity, appears incompatible.

It is moreover remarkable how often the word "witness" is applied in Scripture, either to the Church, or to the HOLY SPIRIT as within her, or to those sent by Him; as if in this point of view alone, i. e., as a witness, it had a great office to fulfil. And if the history of the ancient Church, at any place or period we take it after the earliest days, creates a feeling of disappointment,

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such a sense of things ought in no way to paralyze endeavours in behalf of the holy cause of the Catholic" faith once delivered "to the saints;" but should have the effect of sobering and strengthening, and, I may add, of spiritualizing our views, as looking forward rather in the hope of being ourselves with GOD, than of what may happen here: above all things as motives to Christian courage and Christian compassion, with respect to ourselves and the rest of mankind, and Christian reverence with respect to God. With these for our watchwords, if we act up to them, we shall never fail.

15. The voice of warning.

The conclusion to be deduced from the whole subject may be this. Now that we are called upon, from every quarter, to prepare ourselves for something coming on, and all things appears to portend an approaching struggle of the powers of good and evil, it appears highly desirable that, under the excitement of the day, we should not mistake the matter, but consider in what our true strength lies, namely, in repentance and obedience; and from thence, having made our peace with God, in possessing our souls in patience.

On the other hand, that we do not set too high a value on the temporal advantages of the Church, or allow them to come into competition with sacred and high principles, remembering that at such times especially, "the Refiner sits" to "purify the sons "of Levi." It is He who hath told us to buy of Him "gold "tried in the fire ;" in distinction, we may suppose, from false worldly principles, which will not abide the day of proof; for during our prosperity, it has been indeed the case, that we have been "lukewarm, neither cold nor hot." Now through the foregoing Treatise it has been often found necessary to refer to our blessed SAVIOUR's awful warning to the Churches, in the vision of the evangelical Prophet, inasmuch as we there have His own words addressed to particular Churches, which had been brought up like our own, and established in the faith; and our object has been to ascertain, as far as we reverently may, His voice to our

own Church. It so happens that His warning to one of those Churches is very much the same as we have supposed it to be to ourselves. It were indeed presumptuous to say that the whole argument herein deduced, if true, becomes equivalent and parallel to any thing so divine and holy as those sacred words of our LORD Himself; yet we may, I think, venture to say, that our LORD does in those words of Scripture speak to us, and that the subject which has been pursued, points our attention to those His words, and has the effect of laying an emphatic stress and particular application to each verse and part of it, as having a reference, in our own case, to some of the points which have been commented on. The warning is this:

"These things saith the Amen, the faithful and true "Witness, the beginning of the creation of GOD; I know "thy works, that thou art neither cold nor hot: I would "thou wert cold or hot. So then, because thou art luke66 warm, and neither cold nor hot, I will spue thee out of 66 my mouth. Because thou sayest, I am rich, and increased "with goods, and have need of nothing; and knowest not "that thou art wretched, and miserable, and poor, and “blind, and naked: I counsel thee to buy of me gold tried "in the fire, that thou mayest be rich; and white raiment, "that thou mayest be clothed, and that the shame of thy "nakedness do not appear; and anoint thine eyes with "eyesalve, that thou mayest see. As many as I love, I "rebuke and chasten: be zealous, therefore, and repent. "Behold, I stand at the door, and knock: if any man "hear my voice, and open the door, I will come in to him, "and will sup with him, and he with me. To him that "overcometh will I grant to sit with me in my throne, even as I also overcame, and am set down with my "FATHER in His throne. He that hath an ear, let him "hear what the SPIRIT saith unto the Churches '

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1 Rev. iii. 14-22.

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NOTE. Some things in the foregoing pages may have been spoken of as new, of which it would be more correct to say, that original forms, to which they can be traced, are not known to the writer, but there may possibly be such; e.g. the Collect for Quinquagesima Sunday has been thus spoken of, but some have observed that the language and spirit of that Collect savour of antiquity, more than of later religion. So also with regard to the appointed Sunday Lessons, it may be that their selection is not so recent as we have supposed, but that reasons for their appointment may be found in former Liturgies: see, for instance, the Sundays in Lent and the previous season in the Roman Breviary.

[THIRD EDITION.]

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