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 & Varty. Pusey on Baptism (published separately).—Rivingtons. Newman's Sermons, 6 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. Hymns for Children on the Lord's Prayer.-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 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.-Rivingtons. TRACTS FOR THE TIMES. CATENA PATRUM. No. IV. TESTIMONY OF WRITERS OF THE LATER ENGLISH CHURCH TO THE DOCTRINE OF THE EUCHARISTIC SACRIFICE, WITH AN HISTORICAL ACCOUNT OF THE CHANGES MADE IN THE LITURGY AS TO THE EXPRESSION OF THAT DOCTRINE. THE general character and object of these Catenæ is the same: viz. to exhibit the practical working of the system, and peculiar temper and principles of our Church upon the minds of the more faithful of her sons, whether acting upon them through the channel of reflection or learning, or through the deference of a singlehearted simplicity. The extent and character of this influence will, however, necessarily vary, according to the nature of the several doctrines, and the degree in which they enter into that system. Doctrines, for instance, are impressed more or less prominently, and in different ways, in her Creeds, or her Prayers, or her Catechism, or her selection of Holy Scripture: some definitely and tangibly, some conveyed in a general tone, which runs throughout, and which may be called the 00s, or spirit of the Church: some again have been retained by oral tradition, and maintained by her uniform spirit of deference to the early Church, whose hallowed lamp she carries on, and whose handmaid she is. Such, for instance, is her view of the spiritual benefits of absolution and confirmation, or the spiritual gifts in ordination, which are assumed to be great and real, where these ordinances are duly and worthily received; but what they are, is not dogmatically enunciated, being presupposed as already known, through the VOL. IV.-81. B successive teaching of her Ministers. So in other points, wherein they, who at the time had the deposit of her faith committed to them, were persuaded to withdraw from common use, or to leave but slight indications of, doctrine, which had recently and might again be abused. This might, by a sort of analogy, as far as relates to the object, be called the "disciplina arcani" of the Anglican Church; only, it was so far a hazardous experiment, in that no provision was made (as in the ancient Church) for authoritatively inculcating upon those fit to receive it, the doctrine thus withheld from the unworthy or uninstructed. It was left to tra dition, but that tradition was not guarded. One must, also, herein not speak of the wisdom or foresight of individuals, but of the good Providence of GOD, controlling and guiding the genius of the Church. "Not through our merit but His mercy; not "through our foresight but His Providence; not through our own "arm, but His right hand and His arm, were we rescued and deli"vered." Yet since He "saw some good thing in us," He so directed our Church's reverence for the "good old Fathers of the primitive Church" as not indeed to exempt us from "suffering "loss," but still with safety of our "lives" as a Church. For "loss" He has ordained all to suffer, who in any way tamper, whether by adding to or taking away from, the Apostolic deposit of sound words; yet since we had in most things been faithful, He chastened us only, and gave us not over unto death. Of this latter kind-a doctrine, namely, which our Church retains, but one of the most withdrawn from sight, lest it should, at one time, perchance have been misapplied or profaned, is the doctrine of a Sacrifice in the Blessed Eucharist. It is not here intended to speak disparagingly of those of the revisers of our Liturgy, who furthered or consented to the suppression of doctrine visible in the 2nd book of Edward VI. They listened or yielded to foreign advisers, who had their minds fixed solely on the "blasphemous fables and dangerous deceits," which the Church of Rome had connected with the true doctrine, and who had themselves abandoned it. Happy, if while guarding against the errors of Rome, they had escaped the opposite danger of fomenting profane indifference or unbelief, which have left their own homes desolate! And the revisers of our own Liturgy, in the latter part of the reign of Edward VI., would have acted with greater wisdom and a firmer faith, had they continued to retain the explicit statements of the Catholic doctrine, and sought other means of averting its abuse, or left the correction to ALMIGHTY GOD, who gave that doctrine. No one can doubt that if they could have foreseen, whither this half-suppression of true doctrine would lead, they would have guarded in some other way against any temporary danger which might arise from the association of past errors therewith. There is evidence, as will appear hereafter, that those of the revisers, who were most yielding, held, (as they hoped, in the sense of the primitive Church,) the doctrine of the Eucharistic Sacrifice; one cannot indeed suppose that they felt altogether, even as men might, its great value and privilege: they had been engaged in controverting errors connected with a high view of sacred doctrine; and such errors cannot be controverted without great peril to the delicacy of our own faith, and our refined and affectionate apprehension of it; the office of assault makes the mind rough and rude, and associates jarring thoughts with the doctrine thus approached, (so that the Spirit of love cannot dwell there,) and, again, it almost forces the mind to speak familiarly on high mysteries, thereby injuring the reverence by which they must be apprehended. Then also, the very notion of disguising the expression of any doctrine implies a diminished estimation of it; the debating about it, preparing for it, at last, the overt act of doing it, are so many acts of forfeiture. For "he that hath not, from him shall be taken away even that he hath." Whoso watches not jealously over the deposit committed to him shall lose it. Still the revisers in question had the doctrine, and wished, in their way, to keep it, and so would be grieved to find that their mode of acting had nearly forfeited it to the Church. But, further, no doctrine can be lost, or injured singly. We may not indeed maintain any doctrine, or rest its principal importance, upon its connection with or bearings upon some other doctrine, lest we arrogate too much to ourselves, and lose sight of the intrinsic value of the doctrine, which we presume to make thus dependent on another; still it is allowable to point out any additional evils, |