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CHURCH MATTERS IN 1641.

16. Some have given excessive cause of scandall to the Church as being suspected of Socinianisme.

17. Some have defended that concupiscence is no sin either in the habit or first motion.

18. Some have broacht out of Socinus a most uncomfortable and desperate doctrine, that late repentance, that is, upon the last bed of sicknesse, is unfruitfull, at least to reconcile the penitent to God.

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9. By reading the Letany in the midst of the body of the church in many parochiall churches.

10. By pretending for their innovations, the injunctions, and advertisements of Queene Elizabeth, which are not in force, but by way of commentary and imposition, and by putting to the Liturgie printed, secundo, tertio Edwardi sexti, which the parliament hath reformed and laid aside.

11. By offering of bread and wine

ADDE UNTO THESE SOME DANGEROUS by the hand of the churchwardens, or

AND MOST REPROVEABLE BOOKES.

1. The reconciliation of Sancta Clara to knit the Komish and Protestant in one, Memorandum that he be caused to produce Bishop Watkins' booke of the like reconciliation which he speaks of.

2. A booke called Brevis Disquisitio printed (as it is thought) in London, and vulgarly to be had, which impugneth the doctrine of the Holy Trinity, and the verity of Christ's body (which hee tooke of the blessed virgin) in heaven, and the verity of our resurrection.

3. A booke called Timotheus philalethes de pace Eclesia, which holds that every religion will save a man if hee hold the covenant.

INNOVATIONS IN DISCIPLINE.

1. The turning of the holy table altarwise, and most commonly calling it an Altar.

2. Bowing towards it, or towards the East, many times, with three congees, but usually in every motion, accesse or recesse in the church.

3. Advancing candlesticks in many churches upon the altar so called.

4. In making canopies over the altar so called, with traverses and curtains on each side and before it.

5. In compelling all communicants to come up before the rails, and there to receive.

6. In advancing crucifices and images upon the parafront, or altarcloth so called.

7. In reading some part of the morning prayer at the holy table, when there is no communion celebrated.

8. By the minister's turning his back to the West, and his face to the East, when he pronounceth the creed or reads prayers.

others, before the consecration of the elements.

12. By having a Credentia, or side table, besides the Lord's table, for divers uses in the Lord's Supper.

13. By introducing an offertory before the communion, distant from the giving of alms to the poore.

14. By prohibiting the ministers to expound the catechisme at large to their parishioners.

15. By supressing of lectures, partly on Sundayes in the afternoon, partly on week dayes, performed as well by combination, as some one man.

16. By prohibiting a direct prayer before sermon, and bidding of prayer.

17. By singing the Te Deum in prose after a cathedrall church way, in divers parochiall churches, where the people have no skill in such musique.

18. By introducing Latine service in the communion of late, in Oxford, and into some colledges in Cambridge, at morning and evening prayer, so that some young students, and the servants of the colledge doe not understand their prayers.

19. By standing up at the hymnes of the church, and always at Gloria Patri.

20. By carrying children from the baptisine to the altar so called, there to offer them up to God.

21. By taking down galleries in churches, or restraining the building of such galleries where the parishes are very populous.

MEMORANDUM.

1. That in all cathedrall and collegiate churches, two sermons be preached every Sunday by the Dean and Prebendaries, or by their procurement, and likewise every holi

day, and one lecture at the least to be preached on working dayes every week, all the yeere long.

2. That the musick used in God's holy service in cathedrall and collegiate churches, be framed with lesse curiositie, that it may be more edifying and more intelligible, and that no hymnes or anthemes be used where ditties are framed by private men, but such as are contained in the sacred canonicall scriptures, or in our liturgie of prayers, or have publike allowance. 3. That the reading-deske bee placed in the Church where divine service may best be heard of all the people.

CONSIDERATIONS UPON THE BOOK OF

COMMON PRAYER.

1. Whether the names of some departed saints and others should not be quite expunged the calender.

2. Whether the reading of psalmes, sentences of Scripture concurring in divers places in the hymnes, the epistles, and the gospels, should not be set out in the new translation.

3. Whether the rubrique should not bee mended, where all vestments in them of divine service are now commanded which were used, 2 Ed. VI.

4. Whether lessons of canonicall Scripture should be put into the Calender in stead of Apocrypha.

5. That the Doxologie should be alwayes printed at the end of the Lord's prayer, and bee always said by the minister.

6. Whether the Rubrique should not bee mended, where it is (that the lessons should bee sung in a plaine tune) why not (read with a distinct voice.)

7. Whether Gloria Patri should be repeated at the end of every psalme.

8. Whether according to that end of the preface before the common prayer, the curate should be bound to read morning and evening prayers every day in the church, if he be at home, and not reasonably letted, and why not only on Wednesday, and Fryday morning, and in the Afternoone on Saturdais, with holyday eves.

9. Whether the hymnes, Benedicete omnia opera, &c., may not be left out. 10. In the prayer for the clergy, that phrase perhaps to be altered, [which only worketh great marvails.]

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13. Whether the Rubrique is not to be mended, where the churchwardens are straitly appointed to gather the almes for the poore before the communion begin, for by experience it is proved to be done better when the people depart.

14. Whether the Rubrique is not to be mended, concerning the party that is to make his generall confession upon his knees, before the communion, that it should be said only by the minister, and then at every clause repeated to the people.

15. These words in the forme of the consecration, "This is my body, this is my bloud of the New Testament," not to be printed hereafter in great letters.

16. Whether it will not be fit to insert a Rubrique touching kneeling at the communion, that is, to comply in all humility with the prayer which the minister makes, when he delivers the elements.

17. Whether cathedrall and collegiate churches shall be straitly bound to celebrate the holy communion every Sunday at the least, and might not it rather bee added once in

a moneth.

18. In the last Rubrique touching the Communion, is it not fit that the printer make a full point, and begin with a new great letter at these words, "And every parishioner shall also receive the sacraments."

19. Whether in the first prayer at the baptisme, these words, "Didst sanctifie the floud Jordan, and all other waters," should not be thas changed, "Didst sanctifie the element water."

20. Whether it be not fit to have some discreete rubrique made to take away all scandall from signifying the signe of the crosse upon the infants

PRINCIPLES OF CHURCH REFORM ILLUSTRATED.

after baptisme, or if it shall seeme more expedient to be quite disused, whether this reason should be published, that in ancient Liturgies no cross was consigned upon the party but where oile also was used, and therefore oile being now omitted, so may also that which was concomitant with it, the signe of the crosse.

21. In private baptisme, the Rubrique mentions that which must not be done, "that the minister may dip the child in water being at the point of death."

22. Whether in the last Rubrique of confirmation, those words to be left out, [and be undoubtedly saved.]

23. Whether the catechisme may not receive a little more enlarge

ment.

24. Whether the times prohibited for marriage are quite to be taken

away.

25. Whether none hereafter shall have licences to marry, nor be asked their banes of matrimony, that shall not bring with them a certificat from their ministers that they are instructed in their catechisme.

26. Whether these words in matrimony [with my body I thee worship] shall not be thus altered, [I give thee power over my body.]

27. Whether the last Rubrique of marriage should not be mended, that new married persons should receive the communion the same day of their marriage, may it not wel be, or upon the next Sunday following when the communion is celebrated.

28. In the absolution of the sicke,

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were it not plaine to say, "I pronounce thee absolved."

29. The psalme of thanksgiving of women after childbirth, were it not fit to be composed out of proper versicles taken from divers psalmes.

30. May not the priest rather read the commination in the desk, then go up to the pulpit.

31. The Rubrike in the commination leaves it doubtfull whether the Letany may not be read in divers places in the church.

32. In the order of the buriall of all persons, 'tis said, "We commit his body to the ground, in sure and certain hope of resurrection to eternall life," Why not thus, "Knowing assuredly, that the dead shall rise again."

33. In the collect next unto the collect against the pestilence, the clause perhaps to be mended, "For the honour of Jesus Christ's sake."

34. In the Letany, instead of "fornication and all other deadly sin," would it not satisfie thus, "From fornication and all other grievous sinnes."

35. It is very fit that the imperfections of the meeter in the singing psalmes should be mended, and then lawfull authority added unto them, to have them publiquely sung before and after sermons, and sometimes instead of the hymns of morning and evening prayer.

ARCHBISHOP OF ARMACH.
BP. OF LINCOLNE,
DR. PRIDEAUX,
DR. WARD,

DR. BROwnrig,
DR. FEATELY,
DR. HACKET.

PRINCIPLES OF CHURCH REFORM ILLUSTRATED.
By REV. J. JORDAN, Vicar of Enston", Oxon.

The approbation expressed by two correspondents of the "Christian Guardian,” Mr. Fynes Clinton and "K."at pp. 30 and 33 above, of a principle upon which Reforms in our Liturgy might be safely carried out, has encouraged me to undertake a task I had already proposed to myself,-that of presenting to the readers of the "Christian Guardian," a connected

and systematic survey of the ecclesiastical system of the Church of England, and a review of those principles upon which reforms in all parts of it, might with security be effected.

If it may be permitted me briefly to refer to myself, in order to bespeak the attention of my readers, I would beg leave to explain to them, that the subject I would treat of is to me no

novelty, for that during many years I have exercised myself largely in it; and from the year 1837, to the present time, I have both written and published very extensively respecting it. The important topics referred to in the second column of p. 33, above, by "K.," have touched a chord that vibrates powerfully within me, and arouses me once more to an effort, however feeble, to direct attention to the reforms now needed in the Church of England.

I shall first invite my readers to a consideration of certain principles which are essential, and must be steadily kept in view, in all reforms that should be sought in our Church; and by determining these first, we shall be in a better position to understand and deal with details afterwards.

I. The Church must be unsecularized. All persons and offices in the Church, from churchwardens to archbishops, need this reform. It is grievous to think how, in various ways, a well and wisely constituted ecclesiastical body, such as our Church is, consisting of spiritual officers with purely spiritual functions, has had imposed upon it temporal dignities and duties, or has consented in the case of individuals to assume temporal powers, which, by secularizing the persons and their offices, tarnish the glory and brightness of their spiritual functions. Thus the office of churchwarden is originally an ecclesiastical, that is, in fact, a spiritual one only. But when in the reign of Elizabeth, churchwardens were made ex officio overseers of the poor, then began that system which has so entirely changed the nature of the office,-that it is at present regarded almost as a secular one, and only incidentally as an ecclesiastical one. But this is not all. There are other officers in the Church cognate with that of the churchwardens, dependant in some degree upon them for their jurisdiction and powers; but which, by the secularizing of the chief lay-officers in every parish, have themselves almost passed into desuetude, and where they happen to survive, are yet so little known, that neither their names nor their duties

are understood. Such are sidesmen, questmen, assistants, and the like; all of whom, together with the churchwardens, should form in every parish an able and efficient body of laymen, to assist and support the clergy in their more responsible labours. But if the lay-officers of the Church require to be unsecularized, how much more so do the clerical. However german it may at first appear to the functions of the christian ministry, to be engaged in administering the laws relating to the poor, and to act as guardians of the poor, the duties devolving upon those officials are not, I am persuaded, consonant with those of the parochial minister. The poorlaw guardian has not to administer charity, but a law; and a law moreover in which he must restrain his feelings, so as to act faithfully in the disbursement of funds which are not his own, but are intrusted to him for a special purpose. Now although in this work, as in every other amongst men, there is room for charity and the exercise of kindliness and love, yet he who should engage in it as a work of charity only, would be led to disregard what is due to the rate-payers as well as to the needy. In fact, in order to test poverty, as the poor-law guardian is bound to do, and in order to deal with and correct the idle and the vicious, a minister of Christ acting as a guardian, would often have to act in a manner that would entirely separate those from him whom he would most desire to reclain; and place him in a position of hostility to them, when he should strive to win them to repentance and reformation. I am sure, then, that no clergyman should ever be a guardian; and it would be well for the ministry if they were not only exempt, but excluded from the charge. But how much more forcibly do these reasons apply to the exercise of the judicial functions, in the office of the magistrate. The ministry of Christ is essentially one of reconciliation and of peace, not of judgment and of vengeance. Our Master's strange work, was judgment; His glory, was mercy. came not to condemn the world, but that the world through him might be

"He

PRINCIPLES OF CHURCH REFORM ILLUSTRATED.

saved." "He came to seek and to save them that were lost," not to convict and to condemn. I have never known a single instance of a clergyman acting as a magistrate, without losing somewhat of the spiritual influence which otherwise he would not fail to have enjoyed. Both the guardianship and the magistracy grievously secularize the ministry, which needs to be relieved from their effects, and restricted to, or rather liberated for, the free exercise of its own blessed and glorious functions.

But more than either of these does the higher office of the ministry, the episcopate, require to be set free from that position in the legislature into which it has been unhappily cast, to the damage of its powers and the secularization of its proper spiritual authority. What dignity or honour of man,—what title, place, or station, amongst men,-what authority or influence in the government, and direction of mere temporal concerns, can ever add to the interest, virtue, grace, and glory of the bishopric of souls? Fraught as the position of a bishop in the House of Peers is, with peril to the humility of those who occupy it; with temptations to worldly pride and display in the senate, on the one hand, and from the fear of man, which bringeth a snare, on the other; demanding attention to secular affairs from those, whose proper care is all the churches; offering them an excuse to engage against sin very different from that which the pulpit affords;the peerages of our bishops, instead of giving power and dignity to the Church, are the causes too often of its dishonour and shame. Of late years, indeed, there has been some improvement in the distribution of this wealthy patronage, and political partizanship has not been the only qualification required by the patron; but some even now there are, whose political influence has had no small share in their selection and appointment to an office, which more than any other needs to be free from worldly contamination and restraint. The Church, then, will never be properly unsecularized until the bishops are relieved from parliamentary perils, and released from FEBRUARY-1851.

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that temporal dignity which sullies their spiritual grace.

For it is not only the bishops themselves who suffer from these things. They carry with them their lordly state and dignity into their dioceses, and to their visitations. They must have palaces to dwell in, and be attended with the forms of a court. They have their Courts of Judicature, and officers, who are engaged in duties far more suitable to the civil than the ecclesiastical power. They have large incomes and powerful patronage. And thus they draw around them those who are, if not servile, at least hopeful; and who tend, by their too ready compliance, and willing submission, to foster and encourage feelings prejudicial to that humility, which is the chief grace that can adorn the bishop's office.

2. To reduce therefore the hierarchy, and by so doing to elevate the episcopacy, is the second principle I would endeavour to maintain, as essential in effecting Church Reform. The necessity for reduction, and consequently the principle to be kept in view, require to be shewn and illustrated in various ways. The cost of our own hierarchy must be contrasted not only with those of other countries, but with other and secular offices in our own; in order that on the one hand we may not reduce them below what is reasonable and right, and yet on the other hand may prove the necessity for their reduction when they are evidently excessive, as shewn by contrast with others. We fear, however, it must be confessed, that when compared with most other public offices in the state, they are disproportionately large, and this is not the appearance which ministers of Christ, however noble and exalted their stations, or arduous their duties, should present. Thus the salaries of the chief officers of the Crown, the chief ministers of the State, and the judges of the land, are much below those of several of the bishops, while all the latter are high in proportion to the duties imposed upon them. The only reasonable excuse for this is, that they are put to much expence in appearing in the parliament as peers of the realm, but

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