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§ 40. TRIVIALITIES DANGEROUS.

We have, so far, trodden in the Archdeacon's steps through the first three Chapters of his Book-which are all devoted to the subject of the absolute necessity of Consecration, and the invariable gift attending it— the third containing "the Testimony of the Ancient Church to the effect of Consecration." Much of that testimony is derived from such trivial speeches and usages, as the last Extract displays. He attaches the greatest importance to them, however, simply because they belong to the Ancient Church. The less they are entitled to be respected on their own account, the more they should be reverenced for the sake of shewing respect to the Church, and allying ourselves to the Saints of old. Every little thing those Saints said or did, is to be treasured up and imitated. Such is the principle on which the Archdeacon seems to regard such customs as the one above-mentioned. chooses to assume, without the shadow of a proof, that they form part of an ancient Ritual, which was handed down from the Apostolic age. And he concludes his Third Chapter with a rebuke, which appears intended for his

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High Church friends who do not go all lengths in restoring the old practices; and with an ominous allusion to "the love and devotion of all saints." The expression is a strange one; we fear it has a strange meaning!

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"If a certain ritual was ordained by Christ, and "handed down by His apostles"-(as if the ritual to be gathered from the Liturgies and Fathers of the Fourth Century had been so !)-" can it be indifferent whether or not it be observed? As it would be presumptuous to invent, so to abandon it would be impious. And yet "either, perhaps, were less heinous guilt, than to retain "holy and sublime usages, pregnant with great truths "and associated with the love and devotion of all saints, yet to regard them with the cold contempt, with which men treat the unmeaning and obsolete fashions of a "barbarous age." (p. 88.)

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This is evidently aimed at his High Church friends. They do not look deep enough for him. We venture to suggest, that he should add to the next Edition, either of the "Incarnation," or the present Work, a Chapter on the veneration due to "all Saints," and to the Blessed Virgin, the Queen of Saints-that we may clearly know his sentiments. The "British Critic," in its 64th Number, intimated, that

"No one who has not fully mastered the great doctrine "of the Incarnation is entitled to any opinion on a subject "which many, however, treat in an off-hand manner per

"fectly startling, the question, namely, what is the full "and legitimate development of Catholic doctrine on the "exaltation and intercessory power of the Blessed Virgin." (B.C. LXIV.)

And the same organ of the Oxford Tract Writers, in the following number, reviewing with some satisfaction certain Bishops' Charges, laments their having overlooked the fact, that

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"Our actual system fails to enshrine and keep what

we consider essential, whilst what, with reference to our "own notions, we should call the unessential part of the "Catholic system seems to be providentially preservative "of the essential part; for example, certain views of the "Sacraments, and certain views of the condition of the Saints "and our relation to them, contribute to a fuller belief of "the doctrine of the Incarnation." (B.C. LXV.)

We beg leave to differ from the Tractarian Reviewers. Puerilities, and superstitious vanities, stifle, rather than preserve, the truths which they encrust. It is true, they adapt themselves to the form of the particular truth on which they fasten; and had we no other means whatever of discovering what that form was, whilst the truth was in its life and vigour, they would possess in this respect an antiquarian value. But we humbly submit that we have no need of them for this purpose, since the truths themselves are before our eyes, unencrusted and undefaced, in Holy Scripture.

If the Archdeacon thinks, that none but those who belong to his School can write with glowing devotion and yet scriptural simplicity on the subject of his Book, let him turn to Bishop Reynolds's works, and read his solemn and beautiful "Meditations on the Holy Sacrament of the Lord's Supper."

We will take the liberty of presenting him with a passage out of that Treatise-written two hundred years ago-concerning superstitions.

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"Will-worship, and services of superstition, may flatter "God, but they do not please Him. He that requires us 66 to deny ourselves in His service, doth therein teach us, "that His commands stand rather in fear of us, than in "need of us; in fear of our boldness, lest we abuse "them; not in need of our judgment, to polish or alter "them. The conquest of an enemy, against the prescript of his General, cost a Roman gentleman his "life; though his own Father was the judge. (Liv. L. 8.) "The killing of a lion, contrary to the established laws "of the King's hunting, though it was only to rescue "the King himself whose life was set upon, cost a poor "Persian the loss of his head. (Brisson de Reg. Pers. "L. 1.) The overwise idolatry of the architect, in bring66 ing, not the same, but a fitter piece of timber than he was commanded, to the Roman Consul, was rewarded "with nothing but the bundle of rods. (A. Gell. L. 1.) "So jealous and displeased are even men themselves "(Cyprian c. Dem.) to have their own laws undervalued by the private judgments of those, who rather interpret "than obey them. And therefore even those men who erected the fabrics of superstition and will-worship, "have yet ever endeavoured to derive the original of "them on some divine relations (Numa ap. Liv. L. i.)

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"And that great Roman captain Scipio, even before the undertaking of any business, was wont first to enter the "" Capitol, or pretend a consultation with the Gods, touching their allowance of his intended designs, 66 grounding all his attempts and governing all his ac"tions by the unerring judgment of their deities. And generally, in all the Roman sacrifices, the minister or 66 servant (Ov. Fast. L. 2.) was to wait a command, before "he was to strike the beast that was offered. Horrible, “then, and more than heathenish, is the impiety of those, "who mixing human inventions and ceremonies of their own 66 unto the substance of these sacred mysteries, and imposing them as divine duties, with a necessity of absolute obe"dience, do, by that means, wrench Christ's own divine prerogative out of His own hands, and make them"selves, shall I say? confounders and joint-authors of "His Sacraments; nay rather, indeed, the destroyers of "them; since as he that receives otherwise than Christ "requires, receives not Christ, but rather condemnation; 66 he that gives otherwise than Christ instituted, doth not in"deed give Christ, but an idol of his own making." (Bp. Reyn. on the Sacr. c. 5.)

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§ 41. DISTINCTION BETWEEN RES AND VIRTUS

SACRAMENTI.

Let not our readers be afraid. It is by no means our intention to pursue the Archdeacon through all his Chapters seriatim. But we have yet some views to expose. And we wish more completely to show the antagonism which exists between him and the divines of our Church.

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