capable of this interpretation, than have been twisted to uphold transubstantiation. Dr. Pusey will allow most readily, that there are abundant passages in them, written with warm feelings and conscious singleness of aim, which a writer, in whom that notion had taken root, might without any dishonesty convert into a support of it. Yet he will allow that, taking the whole context of their writings, the interpretation would be unjust and unreasonable. My impression is, that the passages (which must after all be considered picked passages) in his own tracts, lead to this conclusion, and this only,—that the fathers had a very strong and abiding sense, that God had entered into covenant with men, and by entering into covenant with them, had made them holy; and that, except at times when the speculative understanding got the better of their sounder judgments and hearts, they did not look further. They believed generally, that they were baptized in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost; that in some way or other, they were members of Christ, and did receive the Holy Spirit. But each of these truths was far less explicit and prominent in their minds, than that general feeling of being adopted by God into his family. Now this seems to me just as it should be ;—this feeling I think is the one which God, who revealed himself to Abraham, through the relations of the family, before he revealed himself to Moses, through the relations of the nation, would com 110 THE REFORMERS. municate to His infant church. All simple, childlike, affectionate piety would consist with this apprehension, and be called forth by it. It would imply, as the revelation to Abraham did, all that followed after, all that was reserved in the wisdom of God for a full and clear development in future ages. Heresies and oppositions would arise, and then it would be God's pleasure and purpose to bring his church to apprehend things involved in its own existence and constitution, already revealed in his word, but not yet distinctly perceived by his servants. This truth, that men are constituted in Christ, and that they must exert a direct faith in Christ, if they would enjoy the privilege of being children of God,that they must feel themselves not to be mere members of a holy family, but distinct, living, righteous creatures in Him,-this truth, it seems to me, was intended to be brought into distinct consciousness at a later period, and was brought out at the Reformation. Then, first, it began to be clearly understood, that baptism is a sacrament which applies to all stages of life, and not merely an act instituting a man into a position from which he falls afterwards; then it came out in a new character, as the ground for the doctrine of justification by faith to rest upon; then, those notions of repentance, for which I grant that Dr. Pusey has warrant in the writings of the fathers, (and according to my shewing might be expected to have warrant,) were proved to OUR OWN POSITION. 111 be incompatible with the nature of Baptism; or, as Luther expressed it, in a passage I have already quoted,—that there are not two planks on which we get to heaven, baptism and repentance, for that baptism includes repentance. If I am right in this view, the doctrine of the Reformers is neither strictly the same with that of the fathers, nor yet contrary to it. It was a portion of their truth, a portion in earlier times received implicitly, but not, properly speaking, understood; consequently, in practice sometimes overlooked then, as in later times it was habitually contradicted. The Evangelical party sets up the doctrines of the Reformation against that of the fathers: we have seen, that in order to do so, they are obliged to mangle and pervert the doctrines of the Reformation. Nevertheless, they are so far right, I conceive, that the Reformers did see some things that their predecessors did not see; they are right, also, in believing that some of them fancied that what they saw was the whole truth, and superseded or comprehended all which had been believed in former times. But now men are driven by the materialism, and death, and darkness which they see around them, to sigh and cry after some new truth, some fresh revelation, to renew that which is decayed, and restore the fallen age. Hence, Irvingism, Millenarianism, prayer meetings for the out-pouring of the spirit, &c. And now, the doctrine of baptism comes in to meet 112 HOW TO MAKE A REAL PROGRESS. this condition of society also, to speak of a mighty spiritual power given to the hearts of men, to be renewed in them day by day, to govern all their thoughts and studies, all the events, arrangements, accidents of their life, to unite them with each other, to make them the willing servants of God. If the age of the fathers was the infancy, that of the Reformation the boyhood, we need not fear to call the time when this truth shall not be perceived merely, but realized, the manhood of the church. But then it must be a manhood which does not set itself up, either against the boyhood or the childhood, which acknowledges that all, which it is permitted to perceive hovered in dreams about the church's cradle, was actually contained in its institutions, hinted at in its traditions, expressed in its divine oracles. Thus we give to experience what is experience's due; we believe it is an instrument in the hands of God, for training his church; but we believe that it merely leads us into the consciousness of truths, which, in fact, were our inheritance long before; and that the chief lesson which it teaches is, that one age cannot exist without another, and that one of the greatest steps to advancement and perfection, is to seek again those truths which, when we first felt that a progress was intended for us, we carelessly cast away. I have not shrunk from explaining to you what I consider is the imperfection of each existing sect or system in our Church, and even of the views prevailing in each age of the Church, be LESSONS TAUGHT BY CHURCH HISTORY. 113 cause, while meditating on these apparent discrepancies and contradictions, I have been led, more than at any other time, to understand the nature of Christ's kingdom; the necessity of institutions to uphold it; the weakness and partiality of human judgments; the wonderful method in which the Spirit of God has overruled that very weakness and partiality and made them the means of bringing out mightily the portion of truth needed in each period; the connection of the truths strongly realized by one set of men, with those as strongly realized by another; the certainty that truth is, whether we acknowledge it or no; the certainty that all who submit to the guidance of God's Spirit, and do his will, shall apprehend it in its integrity and fulness; the impertinence of any limb of Christ's body saying to any other limb, I have no need of thee;' the difference between the charity which flies from truth as an enemy, and that which is the twin sister of truth, and in life or death cannot be parted from her. In such sweet and melancholy tones the History of the Church Speaks to the ear of faith; and there are times, What coherency it adds to this idea, to believe that God has preserved a set of forms from age to age, teaching persons to express in them more than they themselves understood, and to preserve H |