a holy God, unless accompanied by an abandonment of iniquity. The wealthy were also recommended to relieve the wants of others in seasons of self-denial, by bestowing upon them that provision which their own tables would have demanded, if supplied in the usual way.

As might be expected from an age of rudeness and prevailing illiteracy, our ancient divines admitted into their discourses fanciful speculations, drawn from apocryphal gospels, and other questionable authorities. Thus it was represented, that the primeval pair, with others of those who preceded the Christian era, were consigned after death to a gloomy and uncomfortable place of detention. Thither from Calvary did the disembodied spirit of Jesus flee; when the tedious durance of our first parents, and of many among their children, found a termination. Our Lord's mysterious temptation was understood as an intended parallel, in all but its event, to that of Adam Antichrist was expected to prove an incarnation of Satan; under whose usurped authority the Church would suffer a rigorous persecution before the final consummation". As a counterpoise to this infernal power, Enoch and Elijah, it was thought, would reappear upon the earth; but would fall vic

40

tims to the violence and malice of their

enemy.

Hence

In the department of tradition, known as ecclesiastical, our early progenitors followed obediently the direction of their age. obtained among them a ceremonial somewhat cumbrous; the deceitful nurse of that tendency to superstition, which besets the feebler intellects in every station. Their usages, however, with respect to the constitution of Christ's visible Church, are unimpeachable. Anglo-Saxon authorities afford no encouragement to that unapostolical form of religious polity, which arose from certain unhappy necessities of the sixteenth century, and which has proved the fruitful parent both of heresy and fanaticism. On the contrary, a presiding bishop was established in every kingdom of the Octarchy, as soon as a Christian ministry found a settlement within its borders. Rash intrusions into the clerical office were thus rendered hopeless; those who served in God's holy temple, received their commission through the regular channel of apostolical succession; and religious unity was preserved by confiding to a single pastor in every district the chief direction of ecclesiastical affairs.

Thus primitively constituted, thus excellently taught, in various traditions of conspi

cuous importance, was the Church of ancient England. Nor in these more essential articles did she cease to "hold fast the profession of her faith without waverings." Her foundation rested, therefore, upon the principle of acknowledging in Scripture a sufficient revelation of God's holy will. Her approbation of certain Jewish writings, uncontained in the Hebrew canon, extended merely to an admission of their utility for moral edification. Her divines admitted only two sacraments, in the received acceptation of that term; and from the initiatory one of these, they led men to expect the grace of regeneration. The main principles of our ancient Church, unfolded in this Discourse, are thus evidently worthy of apostolic origin. Hence it may fairly be presumed, that the whole inquiry will have a tendency to win respect from an English protestant for the religion of his distant ancestry.

s Heb. x. 23.

PROOFS AND ILLUSTRATIONS

OF

SERMON II.

I

SCRIPTURA divina, qua Christiana eruditio continetur." S. Aurel. Augustin. De Civit. Dei. lib. IX. cap. 5. Opp. Ed. Benedict. Tom. VII. col. 222.

2

"Egredimini, inquit, in montem, et afferte frondes oliva, et frondes ligni pulcherrimi, &c. Et nos egrediamur de mansione quadam generalium cogitationum in altitudinem sanctarum Scripturarum crebrius meditandam : et afferamus nobis inde, quasi frondes olivæ, fructus misericordiæ, quibus pauperes recreando, nos simul ab æstu tentantium vitiorum obumbremus: et frondes ligni pulcherrimi, quod Judæi cedrum vocant, fructus, nimirum, charitatis, quæ inter omnes pulcherrima et eximia est virtutes: per quem et Dominus noster lignum crucis pro nostra salute conscendit." Bed. Ven. in Ezram Allegoric. Expos. lib. III. cap. 27. Opp. Bas. 1563. tom. IV. col. 569.

"Veruntamen animi ejus" (Bedæ sc.) " pura sanctitas, et sancta puritas magis proximo tempore obitus excellunt. Siquidem continuis septem hebdomadibus stomachi indignatione cibos nauseans, ægroque et angusto suspirio halitum producens, adeo ut eum incommoditas lecto prosterneret, non tamen litteralium studiorum rejecit operam. Totis.

enim diebus, præter debitum psalmodiæ pensum, assiduis ad discipulos lectionibus, ruminandisque et absolvendis quæstionum difficultatibus, gravedinem valetudinis decipere, suspensa interim cogitatione nitebatur. Evangelium quoque Johannis, quod difficultate sui mentes legentium exercet, his diebus lingua interpretatus Anglica, condescendit minus imbutis Latina.” De Gest. Angl. Continuator Anonym. Inter Rer. Britannic. Scriptores Vetustiores. Heidelberg. 1587. p. 285.

♦ “710. Eadfridus, Lindisfarnensis Episcopus, a sermone Latino in Anglo-Saxonicam linguam vertit plures Bibliorum libros; ut habet Gul. Butler, in suo libello contra translationem vulgarem." Jac. Usserii Armach. Archiepisc. Historia Dogmatica. Lond. 1690. p. 105.

5 Sum zepunzen laɲeop pær on engla þeode albinur gehaten 7 hærde micele zepincu. Se lænede maneza þær englircan mennircer on boclicum cлæfte spa spa he pel cude. Ferde siðan on ræ to pa rnoteɲan cyninge kapulur gehaten re hærde mycelne cæft for gode I for poɲulde. 7 he pirlice leopode. To pam com albinur re æpela lapeop on hir anpealde ælpeodiz punode on sancte martines mýnstene pæn maneza gelænde mid þam heoponlican pirdome pe him god forzeaf. (MSS. Junii 23. Bibl. Bodl.) There was a certain famous doctor in the English nation, called Albinus, and he had great estimation. He taught many of the English race in bookish craft, as he well knew how; and went afterwards over sea to the wise king, called Karulus: who had great talents for religion, and for the world; and he lived wisely. To him comes Albinus, the noble doctor,