Изображения страниц
PDF
EPUB

A holy season which, though it is observed by some branches of the Church as a strict fast, is not comprised among the fasts of the Church of England, is that of ADVENT; the season of preparation for celebrating the festival of the Nativity. It begins on the fourth Sunday before Christmas, and continues till Christmas Eve.

OXFORD,

The Feast of the Annunciation.

1834.

[FOURTH EDITION.]

These Tracts are continued in Numbers, and sold at the price of 2d. for each sheet, or 7s. for 50 copies.

LONDON: PRINTED FOR J. G. F. & J. RIVINGTON,

ST. PAUL'S CHURCH YARD, AND WATERLOO PLACE.

1840.

GILBERT & RIVINGTON, Printers, St. John's Square, London.

The following works, all in single volumes, or pamphlets, and recently published, will be found more or less to uphold or elucidate the general doctrines inculcated in these Tracts:

Bp. Taylor on Repentance, by Hale.-Rivingtons.

Bp. Taylor's Golden Grove.-Parker, Oxford.

Vincentii Lirinensis Commonitorium, with translation.-Parker, Oxford.

Pusey on Cathedrals and Clerical Education.-Roake and Varty.
Hook's University Sermons.-Talboys, Oxford.

Pusey on Baptisin (published separately).—Rivingtons.

Newman's Sermons, 4 vols.-Rivingtons.

Newman on Romanism, &c.—Rivingtons.

The Christian Year.-Parker, Oxford.
Lyra Apostolica.-Rivingtons.

Perceval on the Roman Schism.-Leslie.

Bishop Jebb's Pastoral Instructions.—Duncan.
Dodsworth's Lectures on the Church.-Burns.
Cary on the Apostolical Succession.-Rivingtons.
Newman on Suffragan Bishops.-Rivingtons.
Keble's Sermon on National Apostasy.-Rivingtons.
Keble's Sermon on Tradition.-Rivingtons.
Memoir of Ambrose Bonwick.-Parker, Oxford.
Hymns for Children on the Lord's Prayer.-Rivingtons.
Law's first and second Letters to Hoadley.-Rivingtons.

Bp. Andrews' Devotions. Latin and Greek.-Pickering.
Hook's Family Prayers.-Rivingtons.
Herbert's Poems and Country Pastor.

Evans's Scripture Biography-Rivingtons.

Le Bas' Life of Archbishop Laud.-Rivingtons.

Jones (of Nayland) on the Church.

Bp. Bethell on Baptismal Regeneration.-Rivingtons.

Bp. Beveridge's Sermons on the Ministry and Ördinances.-Parker, Oxford.

Bp. Jolly on the Eucharist.

Fulford's Sermons on the Ministry, &c.-Rivingtons.

Rose's Sermons on the Ministry.—Rivingtons.

A Catechism on the Church.-Parker, Oxford.

Russell's Judgment of the Anglican Church.-Baily.
Poole's Sermons on the Creed.-Grant, Edinburgh.
Sutton on the Eucharist.--Parker, Oxford.
Leslie on the Regale and Pontificate.-Leslie.
Pusey's Sermon on November 5.-Rivingtons.
Bishop Wilson's Sacra Privata.-Parker, Oxford.
The Cathedral, a Poem.-Parker, Oxford.
Palmer's Ecclesiastical History.-Burns.

Larger Works which may be profitably studied.
Bishop Bull's Sermons.-Parker, Oxford.
Bishop Bull's Works.-University Press.
Waterland's Works.-Do.

Wall on Infant Baptism.-Do.

Pearson on the Creed.-Do.

Leslie's Works.-Do.

Bingham's Works.-Straker, London.

Palmer on the Liturgy.-University Press.

Palmer on the Church.-Rivingtons.

Hooker, ed. Keble.-Do.

TRACTS FOR THE TIMES.

SERMONS ON SAINTS' DAYS.

(No. 3. ST. MARK'S DAY.)

'That we henceforth be no more children, tossed to and fro, and carried about with every wind of doctrine."-Ephes. iv. 14.

THE Church, in her Collect for this day, directs us how to pray for stability in sound doctrine, as a sign, and indispensable requisite, of something better than mere childhood in religion. She would not have Christians to content themselves with a consciousness of faith, however devout, or with a feeling of love, however fervent, but she wishes every man to prove his faith and love; i. e., to see to it, that he believe the genuine Gospel, and love and adore the true and only SAVIOUR. Daily experience shows that it is very possible for men, and serious men too, forgetting this caution, to think all is right, if only certain. pious impressions are produced, sufficient, apparently, to lead the mind upwards, and, at the same time, to enforce the relative duties of life. If that be done, say they, all is done. Why go on to perplex good people with questions of mere doctrinal accuracy? This is a very common way of speaking and thinking just at present: and it finds ready acceptance, especially among the many who dislike trouble. For in Christian doctrine, as in other things, it is some trouble to be accurate. Common, however, and acceptable as the notion is, that the temper of faith in the heart is every thing, and the substance of faith in the creed comparatively nothing; it is a notion at once proved unscriptural and wrong, were it only by this simple consideration;

VOL. II.

A

very

that so much care has been taken in Scripture, and by God's Providence guiding His Church in all ages, to guard the doctrines once for all delivered to the Saints, and keep men steady and uniform in them. If this were not a principal object in the eye of Divine Wisdom, is it conceivable that the great Apostle should have introduced it, as he has done when speaking to the Ephesians, as one main result of the coming of the HOLY GHOST, the bond between heaven and earth? It is one of the passages, in which he writes like one soaring majestically upward, flight after flight beyond what he had at first intended:-" Unto every one of us is given grace according to the measure of the gift of CHRIST;" i. e., according to that portion of special infused grace which God sees needful for our several callings in His Church. "Wherefore he saith, When he ascended up on high, He led captivity captive, and gave gifts to men." What gifts? Surely, to those who think slightly of Apostolical order in the Church, the answer must appear very surprising. "He gave some, Apostles, and some, Prophets, and some, Evangelists, and some, Pastors and Teachers." I do not of course press this text as proving, by itself, the Apostolical authority of our three orders. But thus much, undoubtedly, it proves, that some kind of order was instituted in the beginning, of so important and beneficial tendency, as to deserve a very high place in the enumeration of those royal gifts, by which the Holy Comforter solemnized the inauguration of the Son of GOD. We may, or we may not, enjoy that order still. We may have irrecoverably lost it by God's Providence justly visiting human abuse of it: in which case it might not strike us a practical topic of inquiry: but to suppose that it still exists, or may be recovered, and yet to speak of it as an idle dream, a worn out theory, or (still worse) a profane superstition-this is not what one should expect from those who reverence the Divine Inspirer of this and similar passages in St. Paul. But to proceed: the Apostle goes on to mention unity of doctrine, as one main final cause of the institution of this Apostolical system. The Apostles, Prophets, and the rest, were given to the Church by the HOLY GHOST, "that we henceforth be no more children, tossed to and fro, and carried about with every

wind of doctrine, by the sleight of men, by cunning craftiness, according to the wily system of deceit but speaking the truth in love, may grow up unto Him in all things, which is the Head, even CHRIST" i. e. may daily go on unto perfection in serving and copying our adorable SAVIOUR, and in nearer and nearer communion with Him.

It is clear that if the Apostolical ministry does guard effectually the foundations of our faith, it so far gives room and opportunity for all to go on to perfection. It puts men on a vantage ground, disencumbers them of cares and anxieties about that which is behind, and enables them with undivided energy to press forward to that which is before. As a mere witness, the Apostolical system, supposing it really such, must have this effect: and we must not forget, that, on the same supposition, especial helps from Divine Grace may be looked for as likely to be vouchsafed to those who humbly endeavour to go on by its aid.

Now, that the great Head of the Church has hitherto made use of the succession of Bishops as a singular mean for guarding the doctrine of His Incarnation in particular, was shown on a former occasion, by reference to the ancient Church: where it was proved, that both as indisputable witnesses, and as commissioned and responsible guardians, the Bishops of the three first centuries effectually maintained the truth for us. The same conclusion is now to be deduced from a more painful set of experiments, in which modern times, unfortunately, have too much abounded. We are to consider what has been the doctrinal result in those Churches which have been so bold as to dispense with primitive discipline and government. If we find them marked, in the great majority of cases, by great unsteadiness and vacillation of doctrinal views, even on those points which contain the very essence of our faith will not this be an additional lesson to us, that by forsaking the Apostolical ministry we are but giving ourselves up to be "tossed to and fro, and carried about with every wind of doctrine ?"

Now, first, although, as I said before, the heretics of the first ages dared not openly dispense with Apostolical succession, the times, as they well knew, not enduring it yet they showed in

« ПредыдущаяПродолжить »