sition to speculate; such a principle being chiefly demanded by a belief in transubstantiation28. But their theological monuments inculcate repeatedly, that no unhappy taint of ministerial unworthiness defeats the operation of God's holy sacramentsh. Of these, that whereby men are "grafted into the body of Christ's Church" was denied to adults, incapable of repeating the Creed and the Lord's Prayer. But generally, Baptism was administered in infancy, and especial care was taken to identify with regeneration the spiritual grace thereby received." In the Saturdays next before the festivals of Easter and Whitsuntide, a space was allotted for the general administration of this holy sacrament. If a bishop were present, as he was not uncommonly, the confirmation with chrism, of all who had been immersed in the sacred laver, immediately followed. If no episcopal presence graced the solemnity, all the newlybaptized were admitted to that rite, but without Chrism, by sacerdotal hands.

To these interesting celebrations, the prevailing course of hermeneutical tradition lent a feature yet more peculiar. That declaration of the blessed Jesus," Except ye eat the flesh of the Son of man, and drink his blood,

h See note 25.

G

ye have no life in you," was understood as conclusive of an universal necessity for communicating in the holy Supper. Hence, none were allowed to depart after their mystical ablution in the water of regeneration, infants at the breast as many of them were, until they had tasted eucharistic bread and wine3°. It was apprehended that spiritual life, now so happily begun, unless fed by the sacred nutriment appointed for its sustenance, might fail of proceeding "unto a perfect man, unto the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christk."

In the same spirit of literal interpretation, the Church of ancient England likewise received these words of her adorable Founder: "If I, then, your Lord and Master, have washed your feet, ye ought also to wash one another's feet!." Among ceremonies, accordingly, commemorating the last Supper, the more pious of our ancestors imitated solemnly that admirable display of condescension, by which the great "Captain of our salvationm" significantly taught the hopelessness of heavenly grace without a preparation of true humility3°.

In another instance, the teachers of our

i St. John vi. 25.

St. John xiii. 14.

k Ephes. iv. 13.

m Heb. ii. 10.

distant ancestry enjoined obedience to the very letter of God's recorded word. That well-known text, in which St. James exhorts the sick to call for prayers and unction from the elders of the Church", was represented as a sufficient reason for sending such a summons, whenever illness caused alarm3. Expectations were however entertained, that all the benefits mentioned by the Apostle were likely to flow from attention to his mandate. Hence our Saxon fathers calculated upon alleviation of corporeal suffering, not less than upon some undefined spiritual advantage. Oft-recurring disappointments of the former expectation could not fail to strike even an age of ignorance and credulity. This unction, accordingly, seems to have experienced some difficulty in maintaining its hold upon popular veneration.

In the first of these three literal interpretations, the Christian world in general has long virtually pronounced, that our progenitors held, without sufficient inquiry, "the traditions which they had been taught." A very large and learned portion of the Catholic Church has thus determined in these later ages respecting all the three. That portion, however, will not deny, that in other points .

n St. James v. 14.

of no mean importance the divines of ancient England evinced a sound discrimination. They firmly maintained the corruption of human nature, and the need of divine grace33. They inculcated unceasingly34, that "without faith it is impossible to please God." They represented religious principles, unfruitful in good works, as merely serving to blind the understanding, and betray the soul3. To spiritual aids, indispensable for unfeigned obedience, a septiform arrangement was assigned; and under eight divisions were classed the various moral fruits of this invisible direction from above. Divine predestination and human free-agency were treated with that reverential fear of aiming to be wise "above that which is written"," manifestly becoming the creatures of an hour. Neither did presumption rashly strive to fathom, or venture to deny, the depths of infinite prescience; nor were anxious minds left unassured, that the eternal decrees of a merciful God had awarded perdition to those alone, in whom was foreseen an irreclaimable habit of disobedience. For dispensing widely those "good and perfect gifts" of heavenly knowledge, which have

• Heb. xi. 6.

p 1 Cor. iv. 6.

9 See an excellent homily upon this subject, with a Latin translation, in Whelock's Bede, p. 64.

"come down from the Father of lights," provision was piously and judiciously made in the strict observance of Sunday. That care, therefore, of hallowing regularly a sabbath to the Lord, which distinguishes modern England so advantageously from some of her continental neighbours, is a portion of her inheritance from Anglo-Saxon times. Numerous enactments of that distant age protected from secular profanation the consecrated seventh of human life.

Other traditions of the Anglo-Saxon Church naturally partook of that ascetic character which had long prevailed among the followers of Jesus. High commendations, accordingly, were lavished upon a life of celibacy. Nor did the brightest ornaments of their profession fail of representing ecclesiastics as universally bound, in propriety, though not in law, nor, perhaps, altogether in conscience, to embrace it faithfully". Fasting too, at stated times, but especially in Lent, was earnestly recommended3, and canonical penances enforced an observance of it upon the unreflecting and irreligious. But, then, it was impressed carefully upon the popular mind, that no abstinence from meats, however rigorous, would render men acceptable in the sight of

St. James i. 17.