much attached to your Prayer-book. It is to many Churchmen not
only a domestic idol, but the idol of their temple: and now you
are suffering for your idolatrous attachment to a book which the
Jesuitical spirit of Rome induced your Reformers to take into
their worship, and indorse it as the guide of the faithful in all
future ages. To that book, which you admit to be an authority, the
Puseyites now appeal in support and defence of their Papal opinions
and customs, preferring its authority to the authority of the
Word of the Lord. They tell you, as the Papal priests tell their
devotees, that the Bible is an ambiguous book; that it ought not
to be put into circulation, except with notes and comments written
by some of their own order; that prophets, and apostles, and Jesus
Christ himself ought not to be trusted amongst the people, unless
some Tractarian professor or priest go with them to give the proper
interpretation to their equivocal teachings; but the PRAYER-BOOK,
in their estimation, is the living oracle, the Urim and Thummim
of a new theocracy, which utters the truth of inspiration in
unmistakeable language."
_Mr. Stevens._--"I went and heard the Rev. Mr. Farish, who left
his curacy a few months ago, preach his farewell sermon. He knew
that the clergyman who was appointed to succeed him, was one of the
most rabid Puseyites that Oxford ever sent forth. At the conclusion
of his discourse he said, as nearly as I can recollect, 'I have
preached to you Christ and him crucified; and I have told you again
and again that there is none other name under heaven given amongst
men whereby we must be saved. I have proved from Holy Writ that
salvation is of grace--free unmerited grace through faith--and that
not of yourselves, it is the gift of God: "not of works, lest any
man should boast" (Eph. ii. 9). My successor is a clergyman of a
different school, and he will, I fear, dwell more on the ceremonies
of our faith than on its doctrines, and most likely he will give to
the sacraments a prominency to which you have not been accustomed.
But if the gospel should be excluded from the pulpit, as I fear it
will be, sorrow not, even as others who have no hope; you will hear
it from the desk. The great truths of the Bible may be perverted
and suppressed, but no sacrilegious hand will dare to mutilate or
withhold our Prayer-book. This ever liveth, and is unchangeable
amidst all the mutations of a mysterious Providence. You then,
brethren, will not forget that you are Churchmen, and you will still
cleave to the altar and the walls of your church; and wait till the
vision returns, which for a season is about to vanish away.'"
_Rev. Mr. Ingleby._--"I have always protested against advising
people to attend their church when the gospel is banished from the
pulpit, and for this reason: it is the gospel of Christ which is the
power of God unto salvation, and not the Prayer-book. And experience
proves, that if there be no more gospel in a church than what the
Prayer-book announces, the people show no signs of spiritual life."
_Mr. Roscoe._--"This is diverting the attention of the people from
the Word of God, to the compositions of man--a most dangerous
experiment, fraught with great evil."
_Rev. Mr. Ingleby._--"I think so. When we go to the Bible, and take
its lessons, believing what it teaches us, we are safe; but if we
admit any other book to become our authoritative teacher, then we
are in great danger. In that case we follow a fallible instead of an
infallible guide. Hence originate the discordant opinions which are
now disturbing the peace of our church."
_Mr. Roscoe._--"Yes, Sir, this is the root of the evil that exists
and is spreading amongst us. I certainly admire much of our Liturgy,
and think that the men who drew up some of the prayers, though
not inspired, in the sense in which apostles and prophets were
inspired, yet they must have been greatly assisted by the Spirit of
the Lord when composing them. But many parts of the Prayer-book are
very exceptionable, of which I was not conscious till lately. The
fantastical exhibition of the white-robed priest in the pulpit, and
wax candles burning on the altar at mid-day, or in readiness to be
lighted, have led me to examine the Prayer-book more attentively and
minutely, and I must confess that the closer I study it, the lower
it sinks in my esteem and confidence."
_Rev. Mr. Ingleby._--"I have been attached to the church from
my youth, and I am still attached to it. But my attachment is
to its excellencies, not to its defects. I prefer Episcopacy
to Presbyterianism, or Independency; but the exterior form of
government is a matter of little moment, when compared with the
essential principles of the Christian faith. Forms may change,
as they have changed before, but Christianity itself undergoes
no change; the new and living way of access to a reconciled God
and Father in Christ Jesus, is the same yesterday, to-day, and
for ever--one Lord, one faith, one baptism, for all ages and all
countries."
_Mr. Roscoe._--"If we could have Episcopacy thoroughly relieved from
the excrescences which disfigure and defile it, and our Prayer-book
thoroughly purged from all its Papal sacraments and ceremonies, we
then should have, in my opinion, the faith embodied in an external
form of government and ritual, as near the perfection of the New
Testament as human wisdom could make it. I then should look on the
Church of England as one of the purest churches of the Reformation:
it then would be the temple of peace and order."
_Rev. Mr. Ingleby._--"Yes, Sir, I should like to see this done; but
alas! it is what, I fear, the present temper of the times would not
tolerate--something to be desired, rather than expected--a utopian
calculation--the forlorn hope of ecclesiastical reformation."
_Mr. Lewellin._--"Reform the Prayer-book! Why, Sir, to touch
that antique book, grown gray in the service of the temple, and
around which there is such a clustering of tender and imaginative
associations--to obliterate a single sentence, or change a single
custom, or new-shape a single ceremony--would be, in the estimation
of the great majority of Churchmen, a crime as heinous as that of
Uzzah, who laid hold of the ark of God with unclean hands; and would
merit a similar doom. The proposal to do such a foul deed would
disturb the peace of every parish within the domain of Episcopacy;
would raise such lamentations as have never yet been heard by the
ear of living humanity; and compel many a grave old man, and many
a still graver old matron, to go and mourn apart from the general
community of grief. Reform the Prayer-book! that pure relic of
antiquity! What wild project next? If you take my Bible, O, spare me
my Prayer-book! would be the exclamation of many of the church-going
people of England."
_Rev. Mr. Ingleby._--"I think, with you, Sir, that the current of
national prejudice in favour of the integrity of the Prayer-book is
at present too strong to be resisted; and all attempts to effect any
essential change in it will end in failure."
_Mr. Roscoe._--"It must be revised and reformed if we are to retain
our Protestantism."
_Mr. Lewellin._--"As Protestantism and the Prayer-book have lived
together in love for so many centuries, why not permit them to
live on to the end? especially as this close alliance has had both
the sanction and the support of the most distinguished of the
evangelical clergy."
_Mr. Roscoe._--"Because the Prayer-book is now putting forth that
inherent Papal power which long lay dormant and unsuspected; and is
doing this, not to aid the spiritual triumphs of the glorious gospel
of Christ, but to sap the foundation of our Protestant faith; and
thus prepare the people to hail the return of the Papacy amongst
us. It is, if I may be allowed the use of such a figure, the decoy
duck of Popery, which we have been carefully preserving in the ark
of our faith, mistaking it for the gentle dove. Dr. Pusey, in his
letter to the Bishop of London, says: 'It is more than idle to talk,
as some have done, of putting down Tractarianism in order to check
secession to Rome. Such might drive hundreds from the church for
tens; but while that precious jewel, the Prayer-book, remains, they
cannot destroy or weaken Tractarianism. Tractarianism was entirely
the birth of the English Church. Its life must be consistent with
the formularies with which it is embodied.'"
_Mr. Stevens._--"But there is certainly a change coming over the
public mind respecting the Prayer-book. Some very stanch Churchmen
are for driving it out of our church, as the buyers and sellers were
driven out of the temple; but most are for purging it from its Papal
defilements and sacraments."
_Mr. Lewellin._--"I am aware that there is a slight movement amongst
a certain order of Churchmen in favour of a revision of your
Prayer-book, that it may be brought into a more perfect agreement
with the purity of the Christian faith; but how is it that so few of
the evangelical clergy take part in the present struggle? They seem,
so I judge from their inaction, as willing to let this stronghold of
Popery remain unscaled, as their Tractarian opponents."
_Rev. Mr. Ingleby._--"Two reasons, I think, may be assigned for
their inaction, though, in my opinion, they are not very logical
or powerful. They love peace and quietness, and this restrains
them from taking any active part in the contest; and, in addition
to this, they are somewhat apprehensive that if the secular powers
interfere, they may decree a rejection of the old Prayer-book, and
the construction of a new one."
_Mr. Roscoe._--"I would not give my sanction to such a decree.
No, Sir, we will retain our Prayer-book, but have it submitted
to a very severe purifying process. There must not be, as at the
Reformation, an attempt made to please both Papists and Protestants;
it must be made thoroughly Protestant, as it is designed for us;
and hence there must be a thorough purging out of the old leaven
of Popery, and nothing retained but what is in exact harmony with
the New Testament records. No rite, no ceremony, no institution, no
ecclesiastical law or regulation which does not originate in Divine
appointment."
_Rev. Mr. Ingleby._--"If this could be accomplished, and we
could have a Prayer-book whose articles and ceremonial rites and
institutes would exactly harmonize, as they ought to do, with the
integrity and the purity of the New Testament, then the Church of
England would become a great moral and spiritual power amongst us,
justly entitled to the admiration and the homage of the British
people, whose sympathies and affections would rally so closely
around her, that she need not stand in awe of the aristocracy of
Popery, nor be jealous of the democracy of Dissent, nor cherish the
slightest misgivings, when assailed by any class of infidels."
_Mr. Lewellin._--"I should very much like to see such a prayer-book
substituted for the half-Papal and half-Protestant one which you now
have; and if, Sir," addressing Mr. Roscoe, "you were nominated on a
commission appointed to revise it, what suppressions and alterations
would you propose?"
_Mr. Roscoe._--"I would begin with the Catechism."
THE CATECHISM.
_Rev. Mr. Ingleby._--"A catechism should be a digest of the entire
theory of Divine truth, arranged in logical and systematic order,
every part should be stated in such definite and plain terms as to
be easily understood, especially by the young."
_Mr. Roscoe._--"But our Catechism does not answer this description.
It contains no correct digest of biblical truth, nor is there
any order; it is defective on some points, and on others it is
erroneous--more in harmony with Papal than with Protestant belief.
It begins by advancing, in a categorical form, a delusive and a most
fatal error, which, as a necessary sequence, is made to run through
all the prominent ceremonies of our church, placing the Tractarians
on the vantage ground, who claim the honour of being more faithful
expositors of our national creed than their evangelical opponents.
In reply to the question about who gave the catechumen his name,
he is taught to say, 'My godfathers and godmothers in my baptism,
wherein I was made a member of Christ, the child of God, and an
inheritor of the kingdom of heaven.'"
_Mr. Lewellin._--"These ecclesiastical officials can put in no claim
to a Divine origin or sanction; there is no allusion to godfathers
or godmothers in the Bible; they are an importation from Rome; and I
think it will be more to your honour to send them back, than retain
them in your service."
_Mr. Roscoe._--"What follows is equally, if not more
objectionable:--'_Question._--What did your godfathers and
godmothers then for you? _Answer._--They did promise and vow three
things in my name. First, that I should renounce the devil and all
his works, the pomp and vanity of this wicked world, and all the
sinful lusts of the flesh. Secondly, that I should believe all the
articles of the Christian faith. And thirdly, that I should keep
God's holy will and commandments, and walk in the same all the
days of my life.' Thus the Church of England initiates the rising
generation into the belief of positive and dangerous error;[25]
substitutes absolute falsehood for Scripture truth, as no such moral
wonders[26] are performed when the rite of baptism is administered."
[25] See page 320.
[26] The writer of this article, in the year 1843, met a physician
in Bath, and in the same year he met a solicitor in Banbury, who
for many years ranked as members of the Church of England; but on
examining the baptismal service in conjunction with this part of the
Catechism, they felt such a strong repugnance against having their
children baptized according to the prescribed formula, that they
both preferred becoming Dissenters, rather than give their sanction
to what they conscientiously believed to be a sinful, because
antiscriptural ceremony, more fit for a Papal than a Protestant
church.
_Mr. Lewellin._--"How any intelligent Protestant, with the fear of
God before his eyes, can conscientiously take upon himself such
a vow, that a child, who is born in sin and shapen in iniquity,
shall renounce all the sinful lusts of the flesh, and walk in God's
commandments all the days of his life, is to me inexplicable, unless
he looks upon the ceremony of baptism as a mere farce, and his vow
an idle, unmeaning utterance. However, one thing is certain; they
find it more easy to make the vow than to keep it; as the children
of the church turn out as gay, and dissipated, and sceptical, as
those who never had such a vow made in their behalf."
_Rev. Mr. Ingleby._--"I can offer no arguments in defence of the
appointment of godfathers and godmothers; they certainly have no New
Testament origin or sanction. And if I were left to my own choice,
I would rather forego administering the rite of baptism to infants,
than I would tolerate such vows, when those who make them, and
those who hear them made, very well know that they have no power to
redeem them."
_Mr. Roscoe._--"As no human being can persuade or coerce another to
do these deeds of renunciation and submission, we must look upon the
whole ceremony as a purely Papal invention, admitted most censurably
within the pale of our church, and incorporated with her system of
ceremonial discipline and order. Hence I presume, Sir, you would
very willingly have these parts of our Catechism expunged?"
_Rev. Mr. Ingleby._--"Indeed, Sir, I should, and so would my
evangelical brethren. It is a sad evil which we groan under."
_Mr. Lewellin._--"The Tractarian clergy, in common with the
Papal priests, are resolute in their adherence to this baptismal
ceremony and its catechetical adjuncts; and they denounce their
evangelical opponents as unfit to officiate in the church, because
they impeach her authority to originate ecclesiastical ceremonies
which have no sanction from the New Testament. From these data I
draw the following conclusion:--the evangelical clergy are the
most consistent scripturalists, but the Tractarian are the most
consistent Churchmen; and while the former do homage to Divine
authority, the latter prefer rendering allegiance to human."
_Mr. Roscoe._--"Your conclusion, Sir, is just; but it is a most
mortifying one, and I think we should do all in our power to get a
Catechism more in harmony with the New Testament and the Protestant
faith."
THE CONFIRMATION SERVICE.
_Rev. Mr. Ingleby._--"It is maintained by many, that the rite of
confirmation which is administered by our bishops is a continuation
of apostolic practice, recorded in the Acts; but I prefer the
judgment which our own distinguished commentator, the Rev. T.
Scott, has given on this subject:--'The rite of confirmation, as
practised by many Christian churches, has often been, and still
is, spoken of as a continuation of the apostolical imposition of
hands for the confirmation of new converts, by the Holy Spirit
thus given to them. But it is far from evident that this was done
universally by the apostles, or by those who immediately succeeded
them. As, however, _miraculous powers_, rather than _sanctifying
grace_, were thus conferred, unless miraculous powers were _now_
connected with that rite, the parallel must wholly fail.[27] How far
something of this kind, properly regulated and conducted, may be
rendered subservient to the edification of young persons descended
from pious parents, and baptized when infants, is another question;
but to advance this observance into a _sacrament_, and even above
a sacrament (as it certainly is advanced when the _Holy Spirit is
supposed to be conferred by imposition of hands_, and by using words
in prayer like those of Peter and of John), puts the subject in a
very different light. Doubtless it was at first thus magnified in
order to _exalt the Episcopal order_, to whom the administration of
it was confined, as if they were intrusted with apostolic authority;
but as miracles are out of the question, so to follow the apostles
in faith, humility, diligence in preaching in season and out of
season, in piety, and self-denial, is the only scriptural mode of
magnifying either the Episcopal or the clerical office. Assuredly
as this matter (namely, the confirmation service) is very often
conducted, it must be allowed to be _an evil; and it ought either
to be attended to in another manner, or not at all_.' Change it, or
abolish it."
[27] "After the intelligent reader has carefully examined the
following references--Acts viii. 5-15; xix. 1-6--then let him look
at a Puseyite confirmation, and I think the contrast cannot fail to
strike his attention.
"We have seen what took place in the days of the apostles, let
us next see what takes place at a Puseyite confirmation. The
unconscious infants of a nation are baptized; by such baptism they
are professedly regenerated; they are made children of God, heirs of
the kingdom of heaven. At this ordinance there are godfathers and
godmothers undertaking solemn responsibilities; these parties are
required to be present to witness the confirmation, and are taught
to regard it as a loosening of them from their sacred bonds.
"Now, we ask the Episcopal expositors to tell us where we are
to look for godfathers or godmothers at the baptisms mentioned
in the Acts? Where is the doctrine of the _regeneration_ of
baptized infants in the Acts? Where is the doctrine of a Divine
life begun in baptism and perfected in confirmation? What are the
proofs of such regeneration as a qualification for confirmation?
The only qualification prescribed by the Book of Common Prayer
for confirmation by the bishop, is ability to repeat the Creed,
the Lord's Prayer, the Ten Commandments, and the Catechism. Of
repentance towards God and faith towards the Lord Jesus Christ there
is not a word. Here, then, we have a generation of young persons
on whom Episcopal hands are laid, and who are taught to believe
that, in consequence of this act, they have received an influx of
spiritual grace, implanting new, and invigorating old spiritual
principles, and raising them at once to the stature of Christian
manhood. Was there ever such delusion! How long will men of sense in
the Established Church endure it!"--_Dr. Campbell._
_Mr. Stevens._--"I met the other day, in my casual reading, with
an honest confession from a leading Tractarian: 'It is true, the
actual word confirmation does not occur in the Bible _in that sense
in which we are now using it_,' which is a plain admission that
the rite, as administered by our bishops, differs from that act of
confirmation which the apostles performed. They confirmed believers
who were members of the church; that is, strengthened their faith,
by renewed evidences of its Divine origin, urging them at the same
time to continue in it, notwithstanding the persecutions they might
be exposed to, and on some occasions they conferred the miraculous
gifts of the Holy Ghost; but our modern bishops administer the
ceremony to young people who make no decided profession of personal
piety, and the observance of this ceremony, and not their piety, is
the ecclesiastical qualification for membership with the church over
which their jurisdiction extends."
_Mr. Roscoe._--"It appears to me, after a close investigation of
the subject, that confirmation, as administered by our bishops,
is based on the fatal error of baptismal regeneration, and is a
necessary sequence to it. Two objects are accomplished by it. In
the first place, it is a release to godfathers and godmothers from
the heavy responsibilities they took upon themselves, when they
gave the vow at the baptismal font that their godchild should
renounce all the sinful lusts of the flesh, &c.; and, in the second
place, the confirmed person becomes legally entitled to all the
privileges and immunities which the Church of England guarantees
to her members; and, at the same time, 'confirms and perfects,' as
Dr. Hook says, 'that which the grace of God's most Holy Spirit has
already begun in baptism.' Hence the prayer which the bishop offers
up before he administers the rite, is in exact agreement with this
statement:--'Almighty and everlasting God, who hast vouchsafed to
regenerate these thy servants by water and the Holy Ghost, and
hast given unto them the forgiveness of all their sins, strengthen
them, we beseech thee, O Lord, with the Holy Ghost the Comforter,
and daily increase in them thy manifold gifts of grace; the spirit
of wisdom and understanding; the spirit of counsel and ghostly
strength; the spirit of knowledge and true godliness; and fill them,
O Lord, with the spirit of thy holy fear, now and for ever. Amen.'
After this prayer, then, follows the effective act of confirmation;
the bishop lays his hand on the head of every one kneeling before
him, repeating a short prayer; and it is by this imposition of
hands and prayer that the grace is conveyed which nourishes and
strengthens the inner spiritual life, which was infused at the
baptismal font; or, to quote what Dr. Hook says, 'it is to perfect
that which the grace of God's most Holy Spirit has already begun in
baptism.'"
_Mr. Lewellin._--"This certainly is a very ingenious arrangement,
to show out to public notice the importance of a duly authorized
priesthood, on whose official actions the spiritual life and safety
of Churchmen and their children are made to depend; but it is
ingenuity at the expense of truth and common sense. In the prayer
which precedes the ceremony of confirmation, the bishop asserts what
is not true--children are not regenerated at the font of baptism;
and yet it is asserted that they are. He does not pray that God
would be pleased to forgive them their sins; he merely tells God
that he has done it; and thus they are confirmed in the belief of a
most fatal delusion--a positive falsehood."
_Mr. Stevens._-"Unquestionably; every person who is confirmed, if
he have any faith in the integrity of the bishop, when engaged in
this act of public devotion, must believe two things; indeed, he
is compelled to believe them, unless he impeaches the piety of the
bishop; he must believe that he is regenerated, and consequently
needs no spiritual change of heart and mind; and he must believe
that all his past sins are forgiven, which renders it unnecessary
for him to pray for mercy on account of any bygone acts of
delinquency or--impiety. What a delusion!--a fatal delusion!"