their writings will be treated more and more with a sort of hasty familiarity inspiration will be less and less thought of; and then, should either heresy become fashionable, or the man be naturally restless in discussion, and tormented with thoughts of his own ingenuity, the result is all but morally certain. Thirdly (the point must not be omitted, however the majority may agree to scoff at it, and however gravely some may blame it as uncharitable :) If there be such a thing as a true Apostolical commission, truly connected with the efficacy of CHRIST'S holy Sacraments; then we must suppose, that where that commission is wanting, especially if the want be through men's presumption or neglect, then the gracious assistance of the HOLY GHOST cannot be so certainly depended on, as for other sanctifying purposes, so for the guiding of the mind to doctrinal truth. Of course, then, the evil spirit and the tempting sophistry of the world will have the more power over men: so that if for no other reason, yet through the want or imperfection of the ordinary channels of grace, schism might be expected to lead to false doctrine and heresy. Can it be necessary to add the obvious remark, that if the Church system were needful heretofore, it is but rendered the more evidently necessary for every advance in intellectual light and liberty, which the present age, from day to day, prides itself on making? Alas! if the appetite for knowledge of good and evil be indeed the great snare of all, then all the supernatural means and aids which our LORD has provided in His Church, instead of having gone out of date, are more than ever necessary to us; and those more heavily than ever responsible, who scorn any of those aids, or teach and encourage others to do so. It is of God's great mercy, that to such a perversion of mind is generally annexed what makes its own punishment here, and so far gives it a fairer chance of better and more humble thoughts in time for hereafter. We are plainly taught by St. Paul, that those who permit themselves to disparage the heavenly gifts conveyed to us by the SPIRIT of CHRIST through His Apostles, may expect to be, if no worse, yet all their lives "children, tossed to and fro, and carried away by every wind of doctrine :" or, as he elsewhere expresses it, 66 ever learning and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth." Let us remember these things, when we hear as we too often have heard, and must more and more expect to hear, of ingenious men letting go their hold, first, of Christian order, and then of Christian faith; and let us fear and pray both for them and for ourselves. OXFORD, The Feast of the Annunciation. [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. 1841. 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 Baptism (published separately).—Rivingtons. Newman's Sermons, 4 vols.-Rivingtons. Newman on Romanism, &c.-Rivingtons. The Christian Year.-Parker, Oxford. Perceval on the Roman Schism.-Leslie. Bishop Jebb's Pastoral Instructions.-Duncan. Hymns for Children on the Lord's Prayer.-Rivingtons. Bp. Andrews' Devotions. Latin and Greek.-Pickering. 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 Ordinances.-Parker Oxford. Bp. Jolly on the Eucharist. Fulford's Sermons on the Ministry, &c.-Rivingtons. A Catechism on the Church.-Parker, Oxford. Russell's Judgment of the Anglican Church.—Baily. Larger Works which may be profitably studied. Bishop Bull's Sermons.-Parker, Oxford. 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. ON THE CHURCH AS VIEWED BY FAITH AND BY THE WORLD. BY A LAYMAN. Yet a little while, and the world seeth Me no more; but ye see Me. JOHN xiv. 19. MOSES endured his trials, according to St. Paul in the 11th chapter of Hebrews, 66 as seeing Him who is invisible." And this blessed privilege it is, according to the Apostle's language throughout the same chapter, which has distinguished the true servants of GOD, in every age, from the unbelieving world around them. Even while pilgrims here on earth," the pure in heart," in one sense at least," see GOD." They trace, alike in the events which befal themselves, and in the varying scenes which succeed each other before their eyes on the great theatre of life, a Presence and an Agency of which mankind at large know nothing. Things visible and tangible they feel but to be the screen and vail of the things invisible and intangible behind them; or, at most, to be the adjuncts and comparatively unimportant accompaniments of the great system in which their spirits really move. They view the things of earth as being, as in truth they are, necessarily connected with the things of heaven. They habitually look, not only "through nature, up to nature's GOD," but through the wide expanse of the social and moral world around them,-through the habits, opinions, and institutions, of their time and country-through the strife of politics, and the din of the unruly multitude,—to that eternal BEING who reigns above them all; whose will and whose counsels are in truth interwoven with them all,-and who works out His own great designs as surely by the operation of these VOL. II.-58. A jarring and unruly elements, as by the more tranquil and steady processes of the world of inanimate nature. And this view of GoD in all things-this habitual contemplation of the ALMIGHTY, His word, and will, in connection, not only with our daily actions, but even with the daily scene before us, it is, of course, the object of the great enemy of the Church to obstruct and to prevent. His most ardent wish is, to thicken the screen before us, to persuade us to regard the tangible things which surround us as the exclusive objects of our moral vision,―to induce in us a belief that the adjuncts to the great scene really open to our ken, are to be identified with that scene itself. And even with regard to things, which from their nature are the most essential (to say) connected with Heaven, he would have us forget the connection, and imagine that the things of earth with which, in this world, they are necessarily involved, are the heavenly things themselves. He would have the objects of our contemplation, and by consequence our spirits themselves, of the earth, earthy; he would darken the prospect before us by excluding, if possible, every gleam of celestial light which might burst through the vail; every ray of spiritual brightness which might impart to us, amid the dimness and the haziness of our nearer prospect, a conception of the glories of a world unseen. These great truths, for such they are, may be illustrated by examples varied as is the manner of Satan's warfare with the Church in each succeeding generation. But the most profitable illustration of them, as far as this generation is concerned, may be drawn from the mode in which he is especially labouring to deceive ourselves and our contemporaries by obscuring, as far as in him lies, from our view, the real nature of the Holy Church itself, to which we belong. That Church, we may presume, as contemplated by CHRIST's followers, by the light which His HOLY SPIRIT sheds upon their minds, is seen to be His own Divine Institution; to be an institution gifted and blessed by Himself in the first instance, and still presided over by Ministers deriving their authority from those Apostles on whom He deigned to breathe, and with whom, in their Apostolic capacity, He pledged Himself to be even unto the end of the world. They recognize |