.•••• •j .•:'f :- t' ir ''i \ RUBRICKAL CONFORMITY THE CHURCHMAN'S DUTY, AND AS SUCn HECOGNIZED BY OUR BISHOPS, DIVINES, AND RITUALISTS, IN THE SEVENTEENTH AND EIGHTEENTH CENTURIES. IN A CHAEGE DELIVERED TO HIS CLERGY, JULY 4th AND 5th, 1843, BV THE LORD BISHOP OF DOWN AND CONNOR, AND DROMORE. [RFPRINTF.D from the IRISH ECCLESIASTICAL JOURNAL.] DUBLIN: GRANT AND BOLTON, GRAFTON-STREET. J. G. F. & J. RIVINGTON, ST. PAT'T/S CHURCHYARD, AND WATERLOO PLACF, LONDON. PHILLirS, BELFAST. 1843. [price 9IXrE5CE, OR A DOZf.5 FOR FIVE SIIIl.LISfOS.] DUBLIN : PRINTED AT THE UNIVERSITY PKESS, BY M. H. GILL. TO THE MOST REVEKEND FATHEKS IN COD, BV DIVINE PROVIDENCE, WILLIAM, LORD ARCHBISHOP OF CANTERBURY, AND JOHN GEORGE, LORD ARCHBISHOP OF ARMAGH, PRIMATES RESPECTIVELY OF ALL ENGLAND AND ALL IRELAND : MY THE PATRONAGE AND UNDER THE EPISCOPAL SUPERINTENDENCE OF THE FORMER OF 'WHOM, HE AT AN EARLIER PERIOD EXERCISED HIS PAROCHIAL MINISTRY, AND TO THE LATTER OF ■WHOM FOR THE LAST TAVENTY YEARS HE HAS ACKNOWLEDGED OBEDIENCE AS HIS metropolitan: THE following EXPOSITION OF HIS PRINCIPLE OF CLERICAL DUTY IS INSCRIBED AND SUBMITTED, WITH ALL DUE AND DEFERENTIAL OBSERVANCE, WITH ALL RESPECTFUL AND AFFECTIONATE REGARD, BY THEIR HUMBLE SERVANT IN CHRIST, Kd. down and CONNOR, AND DROMORE. Jul I/. I(SJ3. '"jlrrWlV JP CHARGE, &c: &c. {Extracted from the Irish Ecclesiastical Journal for July, 1843.] My dear Sir, — Herewith I transmit you a Charge, recently delivered to my Clergy. If agreeable to you that it should be inserted in your valuable publication, I beg the favour of you to let it appear in your next Number. I remain, my dear Sir, Very truly yours, Rd. Down and Connou, and Dromork. Dotcn and Connor House, Belfast, July 7, 184f. My Reverend Brethren, — After the long addresses, to which I endeavoured to draw your attention, and that of our brethren in the other division of the united diocese in the last summer, it may seem, perbaps, that you might well be spared the task of listening again, on so early an occasion, to an exposi- tion of my sentiments. And indeed I should not be inclined to address you again after so short an interval, if I were not prompted by a desire of speaking to a particular question, for the purpose of giving, if it please God, greater efficacy to the sentiments which I have already expressed. 2. Once, and again, and still more often perhaps in the course of my late Charges, I assumed that the most infallible rule of our ministerial conduct and actions is a faithful adherence to the laws of the Church, in her Book of Common Prayur. This rule I assunu'd as one, about which there could be no material difference of persuasion in the minds of the (church's ministers. As, however, the obligation of this rule appears to be not uni- versally acknowledged : as there are those in the present day 8 who seem to think, that an observance of the laws of the Church is a sort of open question, which the clergy may de- cide, each for himself, as to its practical operation upon their ministerial actions ; and as even there are not wanting some, who allow themselves to speak with levity and disrespect of a careful observance of the Church's laws in her rubricks, and who scruple not to stigmatise such, as endeavour to make her laws the rule of their actions, by some hard and injurious ap- pellations : I trust that a few words on this occasion will not be deemed superfluous, in fuller exposition, and for the clearer and firmer establishment, of the authority of the rubrickal di- rections of the Church. 3. The first ground which shall be stated is "the Act for the Uniformity of Publick Prayers and Administration of the Sa- craments, and other Rites and Ceremonies/' as containing the Statute law upon the subject, passed in England in the 14th year of King Charles the 2nd, and much to the same effect in Ireland, in the 17th and 18th of the same reign. The motives to the enactments that follow are stated to be "in regard that nothing conduceth more to the settling of the peace of the nation (which is desired of all good men) nor to the honour of our religion, and the propagation thereof, than an universal agreement in the publick worship of Almighty God ; and to the intent that every person within this realm may certainly know the rule, to which he is to conform in publick worship, and administration of the sacraments, and other rites and ceremonies of the Church of England:" and the first en- actment accordingly is, that " all and singular ministers shall be bound to say and use the Morning Prayer, Evening Prayer, Celebration and Administration of both the Sacraments, and all other the publick and common prayer, in such order and form as is mentioned in the said Book annexed and joined to this present Act, and intituled, The Book of Common Prayer, and Administration of the Sacraments, and other Rites and Ceremonies of the Church, according to the use of the Church of England." In the Irish Act, for " the Church of England" is substituted the " Church of Ireland." This, I say, is the injunction of the Statute, enacted by the authority of the king, lords, and commons in parliament assembled : to which, therefore, as part and parcel of the law of the land, we are bound to be obedient, "for conscience' sake." The Act is prefixed to the Book of Common Prayer of the larger sizes, in folio, quarto, and octavo ; so that a clergy- man, or other inquirer, who may wish for more copious infor- mation on the subject, will readily find it in the volume pro- vided for our clerical ministrations. 4. Our next authority shall be the injunction of our spiritual rulers, the bishops and clergy of the Church in convocation assemble(i ; whose judgment *' of the prescript form of divine service contained in the Book of Common Prayer," may be found in the thirty-sixth Enghsh canon, and to the same effect in the third Irish. They are usually appended to the folio and quarto editions of the Common Prayer Book. The judgment is, " That form of Liturgy or Divine Service, and no other, shall he used in any church of this realm, but that which is established by the law, and comprised in the Book of Common Prayer and Administration of Sacraments." And so clear and strong is the. Church's sentence in main- tenance of her authority, that in her thirty-fourth Article she affirms, " Whosoever through his private judgment, willingly and purposely, doth openly break the Traditions" (meaning thereby, as she afterwards expresses it, the rites) " and Cere- monies of the Church, which be not repugnant to" the Word of God, and be ordained and approved by common authority, ought to be rebuked openly (that others may fear to do the like), as he that oflfendeth against the common order of the Church, and hurteth the authority of the Magistrate, and woundeth the consciences of the weak brethren." And in the Preface to her Book of Common Prayer, " Of Ceremonies, why some be abolished and some retained," she asserts after the same manner : " Although the keeping or omitting of a cere- mony, in itself considered, is but a small thing ; yet the wilful and contemj^tuous transgression and breaking of a common order and discipline is no small offence before God. Let all things be done among you, saith St. Paul, in a seemly (ind due order : the appointment of the which order pertaineth not t(t private men; therefore no man ought to take in hand, nor presume to appoint or alter any publick or common order in Christ's Church, except he be lawfully called and autht)rized thereunto." 5. Such are the general enactments of the law, both of the State and of the Church, with respect to the use of the Book of Common Prayer in our official ministrations : the object of those enactments being to procure universal agreement and conformity in our publick worship. (5. Let us now see how the law applies particularly to every minister, and to what personal engagements he is thereby sub- jected. First of all, to the canon just recited, the thirty-sixth Eng- lish, or the third Irish canon, every candidate for tlie holy order of deacon does "by subscription declare his consent, and to every thing contained therein," before he is received into the ministry; thereby pledging himself to use " the prescript Form of divine service, contained in the Book of Common Prayer and Ad- ministration of the Sacraments, and none other." A 3 10 7. Secondly, before his admission into the holy order of priests, the candidate subscribes the same declaration, and thus repeats the same pledge. 8. ^ Thirdly, at the time of his admission into that order, the candidate promises conformity to the same rule of divine ser- vice : for when the Bishop demands of him " in the name of God, and of his Church, and in the presence of the congrega- tion of Christ there assembled," " Will you give your faithful diligence always so to minister the doctrine and sacraments, and the discipline of Christ, as the Lord hath commanded, and as this Church and Realm hath received the same, according to the commandments of God : so that you may teach the people committed to your cure and charge with all diligence to keep and observe the same?" — the candidate makes answer, " I will do so, by the help of the Lord." 9. Fourthly, before a curate is admitted to his cure, he again, by subscription before the bishop, declares his consent to the canon, concerning " the prescript form of divine service in the Book of Common Prayer." 10. Fifthly, before an incumbent is admitted to his benefice, he again, by subscription before the bishop, declares his con- sent to the same canon concerning "the prescript form of divine service." H. Sixthly, this subscription, previously to admission either to holy orders, or to a cure, or a benefice, is accompanied with an express declaration by word of mouth, that he, who is about to be admitted, will " conform to the Liturgy of the United Church of England and Ireland, as it is now by law established." 12. Finally, every beneficed person, within a short time after being in actual possession of his benefice, does, upon some Lord's day, openly and publickly before the congregation as- sembled in the church, *' declare his unfeigned assent and consent to all and every thing prescribed in and by the Book of Common Prayer ;" repeating at the same time in the pre- sence of his people the same declaration of conformity to the liturgy, which he had previously made to the bishop. It may be added, that, if at any time he exchanges his benefice, or is admitted to any new preferment, he renews these declarations and engagements. 13. Thus, besides the general obligations for conformity to the Book of Common Prayer, imposed by the laws of the realm and the Church, every individual minister, whether deacon or priest, whether curate or incumbent, has taken upon himself personal pledges, and has made personal promises, on the faith of which he was admitted to his order or station in the Church. 14. And these obligations, promises, and pledges of the 11 ministerine: clerjjv, derive, if possible, additional strength from an ordinance of the Church with respect to her bishops, to whom she allows no dispensing power in this behalf, but expressly pronounces their authority to be subordinate to, and positively prohibits it from interfering with, hers. For in her preface " concerning the service of the Church," she ordains, that " forasnuich as nothing can be so jjlainly set forth, bat doubts may arise in the use and practice of the same ; to appease such diversity, if any arise, and for the resolution of all doubts con- cerning the manner how to understand, do, and execute the things contained in this book," namely, the Book of Common Prayer, " the parties that so doubt, or diversly take any thing, shall alway resort to the bishop of the diocese, who by his dis- cretion shall take order for the quieting and appeasing of the same ;" but then this authority is given to the bishop on the special condition, for so it follows in the ordinance, *' that the same order be not contrary to any thing contained in this book." Whence it appears, as remarked by a very sensible and judicious ritualist, Archdeacon Sharp of Northumberland, about the middle of the last century, that "in all points, where the rubricks are plain and express, the ordinary has no authority to release any minister from that obedience which he owes to the Church in what she commands in her rubricks," and that, in such points, " he is as much prohibited from making innova- tions as the meanest parochial minister." 15. Thus is established the paramount authority of the ru- bricks, and the clergy's duty of obedience to their directions. At the same time it is not irrelevant to observe, that although the bishop be not invested with any more discretion than the inferior ministers of the Church, so as to deviate from the prescript form of Divine Service, in respect either of addition or diminution, yet it belongs to him to see and re(juire that all things, contained in that prescript form, be performed and administered as the law injoins ; and that it is the duty of the minister, in compliance with his vow of "reverent obedience to his ordinary," when so re(|uired, to perform and administer them in that manner. It is his duty to the law indeed, in the first place, so to perform and administer them ; but if he have neglected or violated that, his primary duty, then, on being admonished by his ordinary, it becomes his duty to supply his former omissions, or to repair his former irregularities, in pur- suance of that reverent obedience which he has promisetl to those, "to whom is committed the charge and government over him, following with a glad mind and will their godly admoni- tions, and submitting himself to their godly judgments." K>. Such then are the provisions, which the Church has made for the conformitv of her ministers to her Book of Com- 12 mon Praver: provisions which to my mind seem utterly incom- patible with the notion of every minister being at liberty to do that which is right in his own eyes, whatever may be the direc- tions of the rubrick on the subject; provisions which do indeed constitute the rubrick the legitimate, acknowledged, and para- mount rule of his ministrations; provisions which allow no other authority whatsoever to interfere with its supremacy. So that in the words of the learned expositor of "the rubricks and canons of the Church of England," already cited, " we may affirm in general, that we are under higher obligations to observe the rubrick, than any other ecclesiastical law whatso- ever; that excepting a very few cases, or under some necessary limitations and reservations, we are bound to adhere to it li- terally, punctually, and perpetually ; and that whosoever among the clergy either adds to it, or diminishes from it, or useth any other rule instead of it, as he is in the eye of the law so far a non-conformist, so it becomes him to consider with himself, whether in point of conscience he be not a breaker of his word and trust, and an eluder of his engagements to the Church." II. 1. This is, for the most part, what I had in my mind to submit to you, my reverend brethren, at our present meeting. Something more remains to be added on the circumstances of the present address. In the year 1822, I delivered a charge to the clerg}* of Kil- laloe, which was published at their request, under the title of " The Rule of Ministerial Duty enforced and illustrated." And in the year 1829 or 1830, I published a small volume, en- tituled " The Clergyman's Obligations considered," wherein was comprised the substance of the Charge. Together with a distinct statement of the rule and its authority, these publica- tions contained such illustrations and applications of it to practice, as the discussion naturally embraced ; the rule itself being considered under the threefold division of obedience to the rubricks, the canons, and the governors of the Church ; and some excuses, which are made for the non-observance of the rubricks in particular, being specially noticed. 2. Upon this threefold division I have been unwilling to detain you upon the present occasion ; nor have I dwelt on the illustrations and applications of the rule ; nor upon the excuses sometimes made for clerical non-conformity, and their answers. But the substance of what was then said upon the authority of the rubricks, and upon the obligations of the clergy to observe them, has been adopted into the present address, as being of the greatest moment towards the due discharge of our engage- ments. For when a sense of that authority and of those obli- gations is deeply impressed on a clergyman's mind, when he is clearly persuaded of what he is bound and pledged to do ; he 13 is equipped with the most eft'cctu.al armour, under God's prace, for doing it, and is prepared with an answer to such seductions as might otherwise lead him astray ; and thus the evil spirit of latitudinarianism is best met and defeated. 3. Which way does my appointed and acknowledged duty lead me ? What says the law to which I am bound to be obedient? What obligations have I personally incurred in agreement with its requirements ? Upon what stipulations was I admitted to my orders of deacon and priest, to my cure, or to my benefice ? In what way did I promise to give my faithful diligence, always to minister the doctrine and sacraments, and the discipline of Christ, teaching the people committed to my cure and charge, with all diligence to keep and observe the same, not therefore suffering the people to misteach and mislead me from keeping and observing them ? What form of divine service, and none other, did I subscribe and promise to use, conditioning for it without omission, addition, or alteration ? To what Book of Common Prayer, with all and every thing prescribed therein and thereby, did I declare my unfeigned assent and consent? To what liturgy did I promise conformity; taking that liturgy for my rule of conduct, and not the ex- ample of occasional non-conformists ? Questions such as these, my reverend brethren, seriously proposed, and faithfully an- swered, and conscientiously allowed to produce their proper practical consequences, appear to me of all things best calcu- lated, with prayer for God's blessing, for contributing to such " an universal agreement in the publick worship of Almighty God," together with the "peaceable fruits of righteousness," as was contemplated by the legislature of the realm and of the Church, when they enacted the Statute for uniformity, and laid the clergy under their several obligations for the celebration of divine worship. 4. Such questions as these naturally result from a consi- deration of the authority of the rubricks, and the consequent obligations upon the clergy, as traced in the Cbarge of which I have spoken. The season, when that Charge was delivered, was one of comparative tranquillity, as to the spiritual condi- tion of the Church ; at least some of the ({uestions, which have of later years disturbed tbe minds of her members, and ranged many of them, unhappily, into conflicting parties, and excited among them strong feelings of jealousy and distrust, had not then been ventilated; so that the argument of her authority and of her ministers' obedience was more capable of being discussed on their independent grounds, apart from accidental associ- ations, and free from any admixture or suspicion of partial prepossessions. 5. In such a season my views of our professional duty were 14 submitted to those with whom I was officially connected, and received by them, as I had the satisfaction of believing, with assent and approbation. Therefore it is, that instead of entering on a novel train of observation for the attainment of the same end, I have pursued the course which I had formerly chosen and followed up, with the approval of those whose minds were free from temporary impulses, such as are too apt to impede a sound judgment. Such impulses, however, if they are now acting upon others, will not, I trust, operate upon you, my reverend brethren, in your estimate of the claims, which the Book of Common Prayer, with its rubricks, has perpe- tually upon our observance, by virtue of the general laws both of the realm and of the Church ; and of the different special promises and pledges by which also, at the commencement, and at several stages during the progress of our professional lives, we have bound ourselves to observe it. 6. A clear perception of our duty cannot, at any time, but be of infinite moment. Such it appeared to me, when, above twenty years ago, in a season of tranquillity I endeavoured to mark out the line of clerical duty : equally such, at least, does it appear in the present season of disquietude, when ministerial vows are by many deemed to be of little or no obligation, and, by many, all ecclesiastical authority is thought scorn of and set at nought. 7. There are some, indeed, M'ho would fain establish a con- nexion between a faithful submission to the Church's authority, and the peculiarities of that system of religious opinion, which has, within the last ten years, been the occasion of so much commotion in the Church, and against which I of late gave you several cautions; as if a strict sense of ministerial obligation were a new thing among us ; as if it had not been professed and maintained at all times by our best ritualists and most con- sistent and exemplary divines. The judgment of one of the most eminent of these there has been cause to lay before you in this address, as it had been cited in support of the opinions delivered in my Charge of 1822. But before the period which reached from 1731 to 1753, during which Archdeacon Sharp was coun- selling the clergy of Northumberland on " The Rubricks and Canons of the Church of England," in a series of Archidi- aconal Charges, many such judgments had been pronounced. 8. In his " Exposition of the Thirty-nine Articles," first pub- lished in 1725, and afterwards enlarged in 1730, Mr. Veneer thus comments on the thirty-fourth, " Of the Traditions of the Church." "Rites and ceremonies," he remarks, "are in themselves indifferent. Nevertheless, when these indifferent things are established by theauthority of the Church, they ought to be observed by all, out of reverence to that authority, because 1^ it is from God, who heath commanded us to ' ohey those who have the rule over us,' Heh. xiii. 1 ; and to be * subject to the higher powers,' Rom. xiii. 1 ; and hath left a power with the governors of the Church, to take care that * all things be done in the publick worship, decently and in order,' I Cor. xiv. 40. And, therefore, whosoever wilfully and openly breaks the tra- ditions and ceremonies of the Church thus ordained, is a schismatical person, a disturber of the Church's peace, and, inasmuch as all vice is of a spreading and infectious nature, as St. Paul tells us, 1 Cor. xv. 83, a wounder of the consciences of the weak brethren, by inclining them to follow his bad ex- ample. And, although private admonition be necessary when men's faults are not open and notorious, for then we are to ' entreat them as fathers, if they are old, and as brethren, if they are young,' as we see 1 Tim. v. 1 : yet, when the case is other- wise, ' they that sin are to be rebuked before all, that others also may fear.' " 9. In three discourses on " Decency and Order in Publick Worship," preached by Dr. Bisse in the Cathedral Church of Hereford, of which he was Canon, and published in \7'2S, oc- curs the following recommendation of unanimity and uniformi- ty, as well as of decency and order : " Let the ministers them- selves, as it is their bounden duty, teach and train up their people in the knowledge and reasons of all things contained in our established worship : not only of the service itself, but also of the rites and ceremonies appertaining to it ; and, moreover, take care that they observe them to do them.'' And it may be here noticed by the way, with respect to a particidar rubrick, which has been of late much controverted ; namely, the first pa- ragraph after the Comnuuiion Service, which directs, that " upon the Sundays and other holydays (if there be no com- munion) shall lie said all that is appointed at the Ci^umunion, until the end of the general prayer, for the rchole state of Christ's Church militant here in earth, together with one or more of these Collects last before rehearsed, concluding with the bless- ing;" with respect, I say, to that most plain and unambiguous rubrick, it may be noticed from another work of Dr. Bisse, " The Beauty of Holiness in the Couunon Prayer, as set forth in Four Sermons, preached at the Rolls Chapel in the Year 1716," that that rubrick appears to have been in common use at the said period. " For," as he observes, " after the sermon the congregation, though there be no communion, yet is not dismissed without prayers and the blessing. The prayer for the Church Militant contains in it sii/>/>lications, jn-tajcrs, and intercessions, and giviny; (f thanks for all men, for kings, and tdl in authority, as the Apostle directs; which expression of our universal charity is highly necessary, when there is a celebra- 16 tion of the Lord's Supper ; but when there is none, yet, being a general intercession, it is necessary to fill up and complete the second service, which is a distinct service, and in the first institu- tion was performed at different times." My object, however, on this occasion, is less to insist upon an argument derived from the reason of the thing, than to give evidence of the sentiments entertained and professed by our divines, eminent at that period for station and character, concerning ministerial observance of the laws of the Church. 10. Proceeding then to other examples, I observe, that in the " Supplement to his Commentary on the Book of Common Prayer,'" published in 1711, Dr. Nicholls says, with reference to the clergyman's ministrations, as promised by his ordination vow, " all this must be done with a just limitation, and under the direction of the laws of the land, and the canons of the Church, and not at the arbitrary pleasure of the minister. They must not preach any doctrine but what is warranted by the Articles of our Church, nor administer either sacraments or sacramentals, or any other publick or open prayer, but ac- cording to the offices prescribed in the Book of Common Prayer, and none other or otherwise, as the Act of Uniformity speaks." 1 1. In " The Clergyman's Vade Mecum," of which the first edition was published in 1705, and the third, now lying before me, in 1709, the author, Mr. Johnson, says: " Our Reformers transcribed nothing into our Liturgy, but what was truly primitive, nothing but what was borrowed by the Church of Rome from other Churches, or what was used by that Chm'ch as well as others, while her faith and worship were yet uncor- rupted; so that it may justly be said of our Liturgy, that it is the most primitive and complete collection of publick devotion that is used in any Church in the world. Therefore, no clergy- man ought to think the Liturgy too long." x\nd soon after he adds, " A clergyman is not to shorten or curtail divine offices, to make room for a long sermon. He that does this, does not conform to the Liturgy, and so is false to his promise and subscription, and liable to the censures of the Or- dinary." 12. In his Sermon on "the manner of the institution of ministers with us," Bishop Beveridge, who presided over the diocese of St. Asaph from 1704 to 1707, commenting on the questions which " concern their future behaviour, and diligence, and faithfulness in discharging the office committed to them," remarks, " Their answers are all so many solemn promises made to God and his Church, to act accordingly; v.hich promises, being so solemnly made before God and his Church, are certainly as binding as if they were made upon oath, and ought to be as 17 religiously observed. Inasmuch, that as all Christians, as such, should always remember and keep the vows and promises they made when they were baptized; so all ministers, as such, should remember and keep those vows and promises which they made when they were ordained. For which purposes it is very con- venient, if not necessary, for us often to read over the office of ordination, or at least that part of it which contains the answers and promises which we made to God and his Church, when we were received into the ministry of the Gospel." 13. Dr. Comber, Dean of Durham, who published his " Dis- course upon the Office for making Priests" in 1G99, thus insists upon the "manner, in which they are to administer doctrine, sacraments, and discipline, so as the Lord hath commanded in his word, and so as the ecclesiastical laws of the Realm do ap- point." "We have," he says, "accurately prescribed forms of all our ministrations, from which, if any private minister might vary, and follow his own fancy, it would breed infinite confusion, and endless scandals ; wherefore, after the example of our pious ancestors, we oblige all the clergy to minister the word and sacraments, yea, and discipline also, in one uniform manner. . . So that for any minister to come short of, or go beyond, this perfect constitution, argues intolerable pride and folly, and discovers such a presumption, as admits of no excuse, especially after he hath so solemnly promised before God and many witnesses, that he will administer all these according to the rules of this Church. Moreover, since he is now to take charge of a flock, he must not only rightly dispense doctrine, discipline, and the sacraments himself, but must use all possible endeavours to bring his people to do their part of these offices strictly and conscientiously." 14. In 1695, Bishop Sprat thus charged the clergy of Ro- chester, as to "the manner of doing their part in all the ordinary offices of the publick Liturgy." " I do not only mean," said he, '*that you should be very punctual in reading the Common Prayer Book, as the law requires ; that is, not only to do it constantly and entirely in each part, without any maiming, adding to, or altering it If you do not so, you are liable to a legal punishment and censure." 15. In 1688, among "some heads of things to be more fully insisted on by the Bishops in their addresses to the clergy and people of their respective Dioceses," Archl)ishop Sancroft de- livered from Lambeth the following injunctions : " That the clergy often read over the forms of their ordination, and seriously consider what solemn vows and professions they made therein to God and his Church, together with the several oaths and subscriptions they have taken and made upon divers oc- casions : that in compliance with those and other obligations, 18 they be active and zealous in all the parts and instances of their duty That they diligently catechise the children and youth of their parishes, as the rubrick of the Common Prayer Book and the fifty-ninth canon enjoin, and so prepare them to be brought in due time to confirmation that they perform the daily office publickly, with all decency, affection, and gravity, in all market and other great towns ; and, even in villages, and less populous places, bring people to publick prayers 3,8 frequently as may be ; especially on such days and at such times as the rubrick and canons appoint." 16. In his work on " The Moderation of the Church of Eng- land," published in 1679, Dr. Puller remarks, " To this head of right reading the divine service, belongs the order of our Chm'ch to use the divine service in publick, as order hath pre- scribed : ' not chopping and changing, adding and plucking away,' as the Homily speaks of the Romanists intermingling their own traditions. Yet, though the Church doth not allow her clergy to mangle her offices ; yet, where need is, remissions are allowed ; as in the office of private baptism, communion of the sick, and the like." And elsewhere noticing the wisdom of the Church, in " avoiding variableness, and being not given to change," he observes, "so often as any private persons willingly and purposely recede from the appointments of the Church, the thirty-fourth Article provides for their open rehuke." This work was dedicated to William, Lord Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr. William Sancroft, who is commemorated as the successor of those "who had governed and defended our Church, and testified to the equity of her rubricks with their own blood;" and as one " who also, for his inviolable adherence to the Church in spite of sufferings, must hereafter be celebrated among her confessors." 17. Among his " Rules and Advices to the ClergA- of the Diocese of Down and Connor, for their deportment in their publick and personal capacities," in 1678, Bishop Jeremy Taylor called on ministers for an observance of the " law," as the rule of conduct in their respective cures, not without cautions against irregular proceedings. " Fear no man's person in the doing of your duty wisely, and according to the laws." " Strive to get the love of the congregation, but let it not degenerate into popularity Get their love by doing your duty, but not by omitting or spoiling any part of it." " Let no minister of a parish introduce any ceremony, rites, or gestures, though with some seeming piety and devotion, but what are commanded by the Church, and established by law. And let these also be wisely and usefully explicated to the people, that they may understand the reasons and measures of obedience : but let there be no more introduced, lest the people be burdened 19 unnecessarily, and tempted or divided." And acain, " Mark them that cause divisions amongst you, and avoid them ; for such persons are by the Scripture called 'scandals' in the ab- stract (Rom. xvi. 17) : they are offenders and offences too. But if any man have an opinion, let him have it to himself, till he can be cured of his disease by time, and counsel, and gentle usages. But if he separates from the Church, and gathers a congregation, he is proud, and is fallen from the communion of saints, and the unity of the Catholick Church." 18. Bishop Sparrow, who bore the episcopal office successively in the sees of Exeter and Norwich, from 1GG7 to 1685, in his " Rationale on the Common Prayer," thus affirms the authority, the divine and exclusive authority, of a rightly constituted ritual like ours. " God," he says, " hath in general commanded a publick worship and service, but hath not, under the Gospel, assigned the particular form and method. That he hath left to his ministers and delegates, the governors of the Church, to determine, agreeable to his general rules ; which, being so determined, is God's service and worship, not only by human, but even by divine law also ; and all other publick services whatsoever made by private men, to whom God hath given no such commission, are strange icorship (see the 10th chapter of Leviticus, first verse) because not commanded." And again, " The publick worship of God, prescribed, as we have said, by those to whom he hath given commission, is the only true and right publick worship : and all other forms and methods offered up instead of that, though ever so exactly drawn, are strange worship, because not conunanded. It is not the elegancy of the phrase, nor the fineness of the composition, that makes it acceptable to God, as his worship and service ; but obedience is the thing accepted. * Behuld, to obey is better them sacrifice^ or any fat of lamhsJ' — 1 Sam. xv. 22." 19. And finally, in a sermon preached at Lambeth Chapel in 1006, on the consecration of Dr. John Dolben, Bishop of Rochester, and afterwards Archbishop of York, and published by command of Dr. Gilbert Sheldon, Archbishnp of Canter- bury, Dr. South thus insists on the episcopal authority, with reference to an enforcing of the Church's ordinances. The Bishop's government, he says, " implies exaction of duty from the persons placed under it. For it is both to be confessfd and lamented, that men are not so ready to off'er it, where it is not exacted. Otherwise what means the service of the Church so imperfectly, and by halves read over ; and that by many who profess a conformity to the rules of the Church ? What makes them mince and mangle that in their practice, which they could swallow whole in their subscriptions? Why are the publick prayers curtailed and left out ; prayers composed with 20 sobriety, and enjoined with authority; only to make the more room for a long, crude, impertinent, upstart harangue before the sermon ? Such persons seem to conform (the signification of which word they never make good) only that they may despise the Church's injunctions under the Church's wing, and contemn authority within the protection of the laws." 20. These quotations, my reverend brethren, bring the sub- ject before us under several points of view, but they all concur in enforcing on the Church's ministers the duty of celebrating the Church's offices after the manner which the Church has appointed. They carry up the subject through several consecutive stages, from 1754 to 1666, which last date nearly synchronises with the date of the last Act for " Uni- formity of Publick Prayers" on the restoration of King Charles the Second ; and they record the sentiments of some of our most eminent prelates, theologians, and ritualists during that period. These will suffice to prove that a strict observance of the rubrick is no recent innovation, but that from the first, and at all times, through the earlier and larger moiety at least of the last century, it was the acknowledged duty of the clergy and people of the Church. 21. Of later years a less strict observance of it has been growing up and gaining strength amongst us ; whether it be that the governors of the Chiu*ch have not expressed such de- finite and decided sentiments on ritual conformity as their predecessors in the episcopate, the Sparrows, the Taylors, the Sprats, and the Beveridges, the Dolbens, the Sheldons, and the Sancrofts of a bygone age ; or that the clergy have been less apt to take counsel of our Souths, and Pullers, and Combers, and Johnsons, and Nichollses, and Bisses, and Veneers, and Sharps, in exposition of our liturgical provisions; and thus interpreting, perhaps, the forbearance of the ordinaries into permission, con- sent, or connivance, and countenanced and encouraged by the latitudinarian spirit which has marked the preceding and the last half century, have adopted a less regular coxirse, in com- pliance with their own private accommodation and convenience, or with the wishes and prepossessions of others. But whatever may be the co-operating causes, the root of the irregularity appears to be the want of a deliberate, exact, and faithful es- timate of our ordination vow. Awakened attention is calculated to correct the evil, and to produce the opposite salutary effects. Let the candidate for holy orders, or for a license to a cure, or institution to a benefice, ponder seriously his promises of " con- formity to the Liturgy," to " the prescript form of Divine Service in the Church, and none other," and, by God's help on consequent good resolutions, clerical nonconformity will cease from among us. The sense of the pledge is too plain to be mis- apprehended : its obligation too palpable to be evaded. 21 22. Thus then I have endeavoured to remind you of your clerical engagements, and to establish you in principles, which, having many years ago put them forward with careful con- sideration, the experience of a long intervening period has en- abled me to examine and approve. Accordingly, in conclusion, my reverend brethren, I now say to you, what twenty-one years ago I said to the clergy of Killaloe, and what twenty years ago I said to the clergy of Down and Connor, by circulating amongst them copies of my Charge of the preceding year, " The course which I have been tracing before you is straight and simple ; it is no other than to guide yoiu* steps in the line of lawful authority, according to your own stipulated engage- ments. If ever our lawgivers shall see reason to alter the pro- visions of our ecclesiastical laws, or to relax the bond of ministerial conformity and obedience, observations, such as have now been offered to your thoughts, will become, perhaps, antiquated and obsolete. At present, however, it behoves us to take things as they are, and to frame our conduct accordingly : you to perform your actual obligations, as parochial ministers, faithfully, punctually, and constantly; me, to see and require, in discharge of the trust reposed in me, that they be faithfully, punctually, and constantly performed. Thus may we have mutually the satisfaction of reflecting, that we have endeavoured each to 'fulfil our ministry,' and 'herein have exercised our- selves, to have a conscience void of offence toward God and toward man.' This reflection will be our highest delight or our best consolation in any success, whether, humanly speaking, good or evil, which may follow from such a discharge of our engagements to the Church of God. Suflficient for us that we have ' striven lawfully,' and laboured to be ' found faithful :' the result must be left in the hands of God." THE END. •• \ ^t r.