The central Presbyterian. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1856-1908, 1870-03-30

Anglican Book We owe to our own prudent and
cody fathers large debt OF gratitude Tor having
removed many Of these Stumbling blocks from our
own Book and 70: some of these changes, great
and unavailng struggles have been made IN Eng,
land. So far from the perfect acquiescence and
constantly prevailed, from Bishop Potter's repre-
sentatiou, the murmurs of dissatisfaction have
never been hushed The tone OF many OF the
able defenders of the Anglican Liturgy has been
that of constrained apology. Wanting the power
to remodel or remove what caused otense, they
devoted great pains to the task OF obvlatlng OBJ
iections, and showing that the words complained
of did not necessarily mean what was alleged
But how much wearisome and unpleasant labor
would have been escaped by moderate and judi
cious emendation?"
THE SOURCE OF TROUBLES.
"Strfe and bitterness in parishes and dioceses
have of late years not been uncommon. Trace
them to their source Have they not been coinci-
dent with the revival of Laudean doctrines and
ceremonies? Was our Communion distracted and
divided before the appearance OF the Oxford
Tracts? Take the decade from 1881 to $780,
What harmony reigned in our Conventions and
how many devout persons. brought up In other
folds, looked to our Church as refuge from storm
and tempest-a haven of peace Of late how
changed And to what is the change attrlouta-
be but to attemnts at first stealthy and nsidious,
afterward holder and more open, to undo the work
of the Reformation, and bring back the errors,
against which martys witnessed at the stake The
introducers, favorers, and patrons of this unscrp
tura theology and of these offensive practices nave
been the troublerS of Israel. Only bitter waters
have flowed, or can fow from this corrupt toun'
| tain. And we call upon those who are shocked by
controversy and contentt9p, to do what In them
lies to arrest and repel this enemy. Let this be
done, as it ought to be done, by the Bishops and
Pastors of Church purged by the fires OF the
Reformation, and comparatively little will our har
mony be broken by one or two concessions OF litur-
gical freedom. The wisdom that is from above is
first pure, then peaceabe. y
BAPTIsMAL REGENERATION
Our readers will find in the following extract,
and in words of great energy and solemnity a
statement eff the deadly errors so rife in the Epis
copal Church on this subject. 1t is precisely in
accordance with what we have endeavored to set
forth for some time past, and we are pleased to
find the truth of God so clearly expressed by one
holding the position in his Church which this wr-
ter does. He remarks:
1.-THE Pastoral Letter finds fault with the as
cribing of our present difficulties to the bold limo
vations in doctrine and usage which at the present
time, so unhappily agtate our Communion, and
expose the Protestant and Scriptural character of
our Church to diStruSt and reprOach. This state
ment in the letter of the nine Bishops follows the
sentence: We have always been fully pursuaded
that our formuares in their just Interpretation,
embody the truth of Christ are warranted by the
teaching Of Holy Scripture, ETC. But the limo.
walton of which We complain contradlcts this gust
interpretations. The erroneous system which, as
we firmly believe, aims to supplant and obscure
the precious truths Of the Gospel, is essentially
sacrameutarian 1t virtually ignores the inner
spiritual life, the life of God in the soul of man,
by making it thing inseparabe from outward or
dinances That life as is taught, begins lin the
case of infants invariably in baptism, is strength
ened by the imposition of hands, fed of course, by
the body and blood of Christ in the Eucharist,
and, | am safe in adding, renewed, after apses
and decays, by penance and absolutiOn. The sa
craments are supposed to confer grace &c Opere
operate, instead of having a wholesome effect and
operation in such only as worthily receive the
same. The sign and the thing slgnifed are iden-
titled The Holy Spirit is attached and bound to
the rite, irrespective of the faith of the receiver
Baptism is considered to be not, in the language
of our Article a sign OF regeneration, but regen-
Grafton itself Confirmation is the seal of the
Holy Ghost and reception Of the Eucharistic ele-
mentS necessarily Dartaking of the body and blood
|
and spiritual safety are not to be tested by holy
affections and conversation becoming the Gospel.
| The fruits of the Spirit are not regarded as the
evidence that one is born of the Spirit. Whether
the soul has passed frS- death unto life is to be
determined by the Parish Register. And instead
of the preacher startling the impenitent, the
worldly hearted the uDgOdly by the pet-bast,
'Ye must be born again, he lulls into deeper
| slumber and more death like ethargy by the as
surauce, Having been baptized by regularly or
dained minister, ye need not be born again
In the words of Bishop Wilson, of Calcutta,
! (another Of the sanity men named in the Paste
raj In a lukewarm, declining, and dead state of
the Church, it is most perilOus to argue, from the
language of Offices designed for the sincere and
earnest and spiritual followers of Christ, to the
heartess services of thoroughly worldly assem-
blages, when frequently not one condition of the
promised blessings is fulfilled. For, in the nature
of things, can it be expected that baptism, care
essly administered and received as a mere matter
of form aud ceremony, without faith on the part
of parents or sponsors, without one petition put up
! from the heart for the Holy Spirit, without the
least thought or desire about spiritual blessings,
with nothing attended to but pageant, custom
airy insertion, for civil purposes, of name in a
register, can bring with 1t divine influence tor the
highest ends Of the sacrament? Is God to be so
triaed with? Can we wonder that infants thus
|
instructed afterwards, never taught the elements
of the Gospel, never accustomed to witness the
prayers of their parents or their cody example,
should show. when the dawn of reason breaks,
no one single sign of spiritual life in its most In.
cipient and imperfect form? And can any poison
be more deadly than to treat such persons as born
of God? Let us then stand by Christ: let us dis.
tinguish things that differ let US use the language
of Scripture in the various senses in which 1t Is
there employed, with all wisdom and spiritual un-
derstanding; and let US never confouud the sacra-
ments and ordinances of Christ with the mighty
grace of which they are the signs, and seals, and
means of conveyance only to penitent and believ-
ing souls.
A great deal of other interesting matter is con-
tanned in this paper as to the errors now pervading
the Episcopal Church on the whole subject of So
crameatal grace With some of all this we do not
agree The theory upon which the author under
takes to explain the baptismal service for infants,
is that it is constructed upon she principle Of lie
gal fiction" This he goes on to explain. We
cannot now enter into it, but pass it by with the
single remark that, suppOsiug it to be so, if
Church finds itself encountered with service of
this kind, whether it be "legal fiction, or a ne
Hgious fiction, the sooner it eradcates the whole
thing and plants the truth of God in the place of
human fiction, the better 1t is humiliation for
any Church to have to resort to such theory in
explaining its standards of faith
LESSONS PROM THE PAST.
1t has often been said of the Bow5ona, of
France, that they forgot nothing and learned moth
ing. The writer brings up to Bishop Potter some
very solemn facts of history.
"No part OF this Pastoral Letter has been read
with deeper pain and regret than the following
sentences: If there are any who are incorrigibe-
any who are so burdened or distressed in the use
of certain expressions in our fOrmularies that they
cannot remain in the Church quietly and with a