The Northern Daily Times.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1856-02-29 00:00:00

TO THE EDITOR OF THE NOR iIIERN TbIEN

Sir,—l am glad to meet a respectable opponent in Mr.
Bardsley. He advances a plausible argument. I cannot
in courtesy decline to reply. I agree with him upon many
of the positions he maintains in his letter of the 20th of
February. I believe in his sincerity, and though I still
differ from him upon some important questions, nothing
shall tempt me to treat him as other than a scholar and a
gentleman.
lie has, I am sure involuntarily, made a misrepresenta-
tion of the views of the authors of the pamphlet which he
criticises when he wrote that they asserted that on Sunday
(which Mr. Bardsley will call the Sabbath) " it is lawful at
any hour to buy and sell whatever a persons pleases that it
is a day for rational amusement, innocent recreation, and
pleasure." From this it is clear that Mr. Bardsley has not
read the pamphlet very carefully. His time has been
employed. But it is hard that the authors should suffer
from his oversight. I have never doubted the authority of
certain Acts of Parliament which prohibit Sunday trading.
On the contrary I think it a very proper municipal regula-
tion, and have certainly never advocated its abrogation.
Azain, I have advocated sober and rational amusement, and
all the pleasure that can be derived from it, but I never have,
and never shall, advocate it if it were to be attained by the
sacrifice of the slightest portion of the de, otional duty. No
word that I have writ,en can in the slightest degree
derogate from the importance of public worship. It is
with the gin-shop and not with the church that I am at
war.

Mr. Bardsley indulges in pleasant irony, when he quotes
the 7ih Article against me. I will, as he is so minded, be-
come his catechumen. Commandments are moral or posi-
tive—moral, if they relate to piety, purity, ju,tice, mercy
and the like ; positive, if they ordain things which, without
Divine ordinance, would appear indifferent, such as to offer
sacrifices, to rest on the seventh day, to abstain from tillage
in the seventh year. The Fourth Commandment is therefore
positive, and while I deny its obligation upon Christians, I
can still sincerely subscribe the 7th Article.

J. Taylor, Ductor Dubitantium, B. 1., c. 2., Rule 6, s. 58
Thirrow's Works, ed. 1847, vol. 1., p. 572.

Mr. Bardsley proceeds to enforce his arguments by refe-
rence to the Communion Service. He treads upon danger.
ous ground. In it there is apparent confusion or worse,
but I think it may be explained, and that upon the authority
of an Irish clergyman.

In the outset, we observe that the version of the Decalogue
in the Common Prayer differs from that of the 20th chap-
ter of Exodus. The First Commandment in the former
omits the words " which have brought thee out of the land
of Egypt, out of the house of bondage." These are very
material, because they show that these c immandrunts were
addressed exclusively to the Israelites.

However, the omission is of little importance to educated
Christians. They are perfectly cognisant of it, and they
also know that the Fourth Commandment is exclusively
addressed to the Jews, because Christians do not observe
the Sabbath, but worship God publicly, and take
their rest on the Lord's Day. There is, moreover,
no autlioritive declaration by the church that the obliga-
tion of the Sabbath was transferred by Christ, or his
Apostles. to Sunday. On the contrary, Mr. Bardsley may
be surprised to learn that this doctrine was held by the
Romanists, and was a marked point of difference between
them and the early Reformers. Lingard, vol. 7, note N.
The responses of the people are ejaculations taken from
a Psalm, the first Book of IC ngs, and the Epistle to the
Hebrews. The Rubric is, that after every Commandment
the people shall " ask god's mercy for their transgressions
thereof"—in other words, acknowledge that they are guilty
of theft, murder, adultery, and the like.

If, therefore, this be taken literally, it is simply absurd.
But when we know that it was intended as the substitute
for confession, which invariably preceded communication in
the old religion, it bears a very different aspect. These
fragments of holy Writ, repeated on the most solemn
occasion, are far from inappropriate remembrances to the
penitent, though they be, and must be, recited with the
same feeling that we recite many of the Psalms—at all
events, not in a literal sense. The following words,
of an Irish clergyman (bishop of Down), will
better explain my meaning :—" Now, whilst each
commandment is reading, every communicant ought, by a
secret recollection at least of his grosser sins, to examine
his own conscience, and being conscious wherein he hath
offended, bewail his own sinfulness, crying out with the
rest—" Lord have mercy upon us," and also purpose his
amendment, adding, " and incline our hearts to keep this
law." (Common Prayer--pant.)
1 do not pretend to censure the introduction of the
mutilated Decilo,'ue, with the responses and Rubric in
question, into the Communion Service. But I may remark,
that it is r.ot to be found in the liturgy of any of the other
reformed churches. I conjecture it was inserted principally
for the sake of inculcating the second commandment, which
the Reformers held to be infringed by the Romanists. If
so, it is a curious circumstance that its introduction should,
after a lapse of three hundred years, induce a Protestant
clergyman to defend another Romanist doctrine.

With respect to the Homilies, Mr. Bardsley again
indulges in pleasant irony. The articles are only binding
upon me which are articles of faith and doctrine. These he
well knows are the first eighteen and the twenty-second.
(Burns Ecclesilstical Law—Title Articles.)
The homilies, however, I can freely admit in the sense
prescribed by Burnet, even the 35th, though I do not admit
the first portion quoted by Mr. Bards'ey to be an authora-
tive exposition of the Church. To the latter quotation I
object no more than Mr. Bardsley himself. I give the
passage from Burnet to show I do nut speak without
warrant :

We profess about them is that they contain a godly
and wholesome doe-rine. This rather relates to the main
importance and design of them, than to every passage of
them. This approbation is not to be stretched so far as to
carry in it a special assent to every particular in that whole
volume; But a man must he persuaded of the main of the
doctrine that is taught in them." (Exposition of the
Articles.)
The head of the church, in two successive reigns, seems
to have disregarded in like manner the authority of this
homily, and found it necessary to declare what sports were
lawful on Sunday. It is absurd to suppose that the royal
declarations were issued without the advice of prelates.
'They formed a portion of the ecclesiastical legislation of th-
country. Thee declarations hare not been continued. Still
no ordinance of the Church has been made iu derogation of
the liberty they proclaimed.
These matters, however, are, after all, but mere child's
play. In my first letter I appealed to the authority of the
great teachers of the Christian and protestant church. Con-
vocation, in our day,is mute ; and, to ascertain the doctrines
of the church, we can only refer to the individual authority
of their great recognised exponents. Of these, Dr. M'Neile
had taken no notice whatever. Ile a'sumed it to be a clear
case. Religion on one side, and atheism on the other ! I
had no alternative but to ascribe to him either ignorance or
deception. I
know nothing of the gentleman personally. My respect
for his high office forbade me to impute a wilful suppression
of the truth. I%lr. Bardsley retaliate; the charge of ignorance
upon me. With him I appeal to the public as my judge.
I regret, however, that much of this letter has turnedis
i upon the vindication of myself as a churchman, fort
hardly relevant to the main question. Let me sum up the
proposition I maintain.
Sunday is a day of Christian public worship and rest.
Recreation is a necessary part of the rest of an intelligent
being.
From withholding it on Sundays, manifest evil follows.
Neither the gospel tor the church, enjoin upon us that we
should abstain from sober and rational entertainment on
that day.—l an;, Sir, &c., A CHURCHMAN.
27th February, 1856,