DUKE UNIVERSITY LIBRARY THE BOOK OF COMMON PRAYER, THE STANDARD PROTESTANT EPISCOPAL CHURCH, A SERMON, ^ ■ * « PREACHED DURING THE SESSION OF THE CONVENTION OP THE DIOCESE OF NORTH CAROLINA, 1849. BY THE REV, CAMERON McRAE, Rector of Emanuel Churcli, Warrenton, N. C. Published by request RICHMOND: H. K. ELLYSON, PRINTER, 176, MAIN STREET \ 1849. THE BOOK OF COMMON PRAYER, THE STANDARD ! the i J Book ',7ih line) read ofine Liturgy. M " a hing ... a lond thing. M X3ih »« Sacred Truth ■ • Sacred Trust. SERMON 2 TIMOTHY, IV: 13. HOLD FAST THE FORM OF SOUND WORDS WHICH THOU HAST HEARD OF ME IN FAITH AND LOVE WHICH IS IN CHRIST JESUS. Sunday next, Whitsunday, will be the tricentenary of the Book of Common Prayer. For three hundred years have the prayers of the Church, in almost the precise order in which they were said by us to-day, been offered by that branch of the Church Catholic from which the Church to which we have the high privilege to belong, is descended. It would seem a fit occasion to consider some of the ex- cellencies of the Book of Common Prayer, and the great safe- guard and advantage the Church possesses in such a liturgy. The work then performed was almost entirely a work of compilation. It was simply to gather what we now possess from the earliest and most approved liturgies; those which had been composed and used by the martyrs and confessors of the best days of Christianity. The compilers of this Book of Common Prayer thus went back to the first days of the Church, and have perpetuated those forms of devoiion which once sprang warmly from the lips of those who lived nearest to inspired times, and who sealed the truth with their own blood. They regarded that which was first taught as being nearest God's truth; and hence the creeds which they adopted, were such as were confessed by the Church Catholic in her purest days. But not merely is the faith once delivered to the saints thus treasured up and preserved in the Apostles' and Nicene creeds, but it is also incorporated into the prayers and other offices of devotion as set forth in the Book of Common Prayer. These are, in a sense, forms of belief also; since, what the Church teaches is, in her prayers and offices again 6 and again repeated., and that too, not in cold addresses to the understanding, but in direct appeals to the heart. There is not an important truth of the blessed gospel, that is not in some way bound up in the liturgy of the Church, and indel- ibly impressed by frequent use upon the mind and heart of the devout worshiper. The Church in supplying her members with offices of de- votion, supplies them, at the same time, with articles of faith. Nothing, (I may instance,) can more effectually teach the doctrine of the ever blessed trinity, than the invocation of the different persons of the Godhead contained in the litany; nothing can so effectually as this guard the Church against the heresy of denying the divinity of Christ, and that of the Holy Ghost. For at every offering of the litany, she distinctly confesses the Son as God, and the Holy Ghost with the Father and the Son, as being " three persons and one God." And what is said of this may be likewise said of the sev- eral doctrines of the christian Church. They are to be found not only in her formal creeds, but woven also into her very prayers. Now, nothing so much as this can de- fend the Church from the sin of heresy; for nothing so much as this can familiarize the minds of her members with the truth. What she teaches is not closed up in some dry confession of faith, couched in technical terms and unsuited to the common reader, and therefore seldom or never read. The Church has adopted a wiser and a better plan. She teaches her children what to believe when she teaches them how to pray. And if we bear this in mind, it will greatly assist us in understanding aright the liturgy. It will throw light upon many parts to which we had perhaps attached no peculiar meaning. If we would enter fully into the spirit and meaning of the liturgy, we must throw ourselves back into the times when it was compiled and put into its present shape. I need not remind you that it was compiled at the 7 period of the Reformation, when the church having freed herself from the usurpations and corruptions of Rome, sought to bring every thing to the simplicity, and purity, and catholicity of the primitive practice and faith. And in framing the liturgy, she erected the strongest bulwark, next the Bible, that the world has ever seen against the errors of the Roman Church. For she went for the materials that form it, to an age anterior to the existence of papal intoler- ance and corruption. Indeed, this was the great work which the English reformers set themselves to achieve. The work to which they were called of God, was to free his Church from the abuses of the Roman system. And this they effectually accomplished, by reducing things to the condition in which they were before Roman supremacy was recognized or known. This is abundantly shown in various parts of the Book of Common Prayer. And if we bear this in mind, it will greatly assist us in defining the full and peculiar meaning of many parts of it. I mention one as an illustration. The Church of Rome taught then as she teaches now, the absolute necessity of auricular confession and of judicial absolution to the for- giveness of sin. She made it (where it could be had) an indispensable condition of salvation.* She taught then as now, that no forgiveness can be had of God unless the pen- itent accompanies his repentance by a private confession to a priest, and from him receives sacramental absolution. Now this doctrine was altogether unknown to the primi- tive Church. f It was a doctrine, therefore, which the com- pilers of the Book of Common Prayer sought most studiously *" Secret confession to the priest alone, of all and every mortal sin, which, upon the most diligent search and examination of our consciences, we can remember ourselves to have been guilty since our baptism, together with all the circumstances of those sins which may change the nature of them; because without the perfect knowledge of these, the priest cannot make a judgment of the nature and quality of men's sins, nor impose fitting penance upon them." — Decree of the Council of Trent. t Bingham's Christian Antiquities. 8 to correct; and you will find the mode of that correction in the several collects for Ash Wednesday. Ash Wednesday and Shrove Tuesday (the day previous,) aie in the Romish Church days of confession, penance, and peculiar humiliation, connected with absolution. And the Church in her service for Ash Wednesday bears this in mind, and in the prayers she teaches her children to offer on that clay, seeks to correct these fatal errors. This is the history of the collects for Ash Wednesday, and explains to us in a peculiar sense their meaning. The first collect has these words, "That we may obtain of Thee, the God of all mercy, perfect remission and forgiveness." The two following are taken from the commination ser- vice of the Church of England, and are leveled against private confession and the corrupt view of absolution — thus : "O Lord, spare all those who confess their sins wito thee, that they, whose consciences by sin are accused, by thy merciful pardon may be absolved." Again — "Thy property is always to have mercy; to thee only it appertain- ed to forgive sins." I have cited this as illustrative of what I have already said — that the Church defends herself from errors, not merely in her formal creeds, but in her very prayers and offices of devotion; and that if we would understand these aright, we must look at the circumstances under which they were formed.* The Church is sometimes suspected of, and charged with Romish tendencies; and yet there is no Church in all Christendom so fortified against such influences. She pos- * Another illustration of this may be found in the prayers for the whole State of Christ's Church militant. The Church of Rome teaches the effica- cy of prayers for the dead ; and accordingly offers masses for the repose of souls and for their release from the pains of purgatory. In the place of this, the Church calls us to pray for the whole State of Christ's Church militant — and the Church of England studies to be more guarded— for she says : Let us pray for the whole State of Christ's Church militant here on earth. These words were designed expressly to exclude prayer for the dead. — Shepherd on the Common Prayer. 9 sesses now the very creeds and offices of devotion, which she possessed when first she came from the fiery ordeal of the Reformation. She was then regarded as having* no Ro- mish tendencies; and for holding then what she now holds, her holy bishops Cranmer, and Ridley, and Latimer, and Hooper suffered at the cruel stake. Her faith remains the same. She has renounced jot nor tittle of what she then held. She has endured too much suffering for the cause of catholic truth to be led again into error. But may it not be that in our eagerness to roll from the Church a bias to Romish errors, that we fail to follow what the Church really does teach? May it not be that in our eagerness to escape what she condemns, we rush heedlessly by what the Church really sanctions? Let us take heed what we do. The Church does not hold the Romish doc- trine of auricular confession and that of sacramental abso- lution as necessary to salvation. But she does exhort her children in these words: "If there be any of you who can- not quiet his own conscience but requireth further comfort or counsel, let him come to me or some other minister of God's word, and open his grief, that he may receive such godly counsel and advice as may tend to the quieting of his conscience and the removing all scruple and doubtful- ness." It is plain, then, the Church believes cases may exist in which the distressed individual cannot quiet his own conscience; and this is the provision which she has made for such cases. Common reason and interest teach men what to do when they are under any doubts and diffi- culties in other matters. He, for instance, who doubts his title to an earthly inheritance, a temporal estate, does not hesitate to consult an able lawyer and take his advice and counsel. And if one is suffering from a physical malady, he betakes himself to some skilful and approved physician. Why then in cases that afflict the soul — those spiritual mal- 2 10 adies to which the christian is exposed — why in such as these should we hesitate (o consult a spiritual guide, who may be presumed as skilful and as learned in his profession as either of the former? His business is to understand the nature of God, and his religion, and his laws, and the ex- tent of his mercy and terms of pardon to penitent sinners. Who then can be so well qualified to guide the enquiring — to soothe the distressed — to relieve the afflicted soul? He is, indeed, constituted by Christ to be his minister upon earth for these very purposes; not only in Christ's stead, to beseech men to be reconciled and to pray for them, but to give them in seasons of doubt and distress, help and comfort; nay, more, "to declare and pronounce to Christ's people, being penitent, (I quote the very language of the Church,) the absolution and remission of their sins."* It is indeed true of our religious feelings, that they can- not be disclosed without injury to the common gaze of others. To unlock the door of the heart, and allow others to pry into the most sacred feelings that exist within, is to tear away the veil of the temple and disclose to profane eyes the mysteries of God. And for this, shall it be said that the distressed penitent should fly immediately to God ? It is God whom he has offended; and bowed beneath a sense of his sinfulness, he has no courage, no confidence to approach him. Shall he betake himself to Christ? He is indeed the great intercessor between God and man. But it is his blood that he has accounted an unholy thing. He looks upon Christ not as a Saviour, but as a Judge. He feels that he has cru- cified afresh the Son of God^and fears his just anger. What then? Angels cannot assist him; for though " ministering spirits sent forth to minister to those who shall be heirs of *"The Church of Rome makes the absolution of the priest, in the sacra- ment of penance, essential to the salvation of every individual. The churchman only considers a general absolution as an edifying and consola- tory part of public service." — (Bishop HobarVs charge to his clergy in 1849.) 11 salvation/' their agency is invisible. And the distressed soul needs a visible comforter to whom it may open its grief, and whose advice it may take in its sorrow. It has often a need beyond this. It needs a distinct declaration and as- surance from one authorized by Christ to pronounce them, of the terms and conditions on which the Divine for- giveness is bestowed. To whom in such a case shall the penitent go, but to him who is commissioned to declare in Christ's name the terms of pardon — whose business it is to solve his doubts — to assist him in examining his repent- ance, comparing it for him with the word of God. Man- kind may put so low an estimate upon this wise and merci- ful provision of the Church, as to pass it by with indiffer- ence. We are often unmindful of the privileges vouchsafed us. But this does not affect the nature of any privilege, nor release us from an obligation to apply for its benefits when we really need them. I said no Church in all Christendom is so well defended against usurpation and errors. It was not said at hazard. It was no vague and unmeaning declaration. It is strictly true. Were the doctrines of the Church to be found only in some formal confession of faith, and did the people receive instruction as to their meaning from the pulpit alone, their teachers might cause them to err.* But it is far otherwise. The doctrines of the Church are not mystified by metaphysi- cal distinctions. They are not set forth in a form uninvit- ing and obscure. They are in your daily prayers, and woven into offices you are familiar with from childhood; and if one is ignorant of what tTie Church teaches, it is because he knows not what his Prayer Book contains. Let him use it with prayerful diligence, and he will soon discover it to * We may form some idea of the importance of a liturgy, if we consider the unhappy condition of those who reject it. There are now prevalent among the leading denominations in this country, as independent organiza- tions — 7 distinct sects of Baptists, 5 of Methodists, 6 of Presbyterians, 4 of Congregationalists. 12 give no unmeaning or uncertain sound. Let him give heed to it, and he will be preseived from error, and his mind and heart be enriched with all necessary truth. The Book of Common Prayer is the teaching of the Church to which we have the high privilege to belong. It is her authorized confession of faith. Nothing contrary to it is to be received as an article of belief binding the conscience; and the Church allows no minister to assume to himself the right to give his own interpretation of holy writ. This is not his business. Did he proclaim nothing more than what he thought, his exposition of holy Scripture would be of no more worth, than that of any private christian equally instructed. It is because he forgets his own imaginings, and utters not what he conceives to be truth, but what the Church from the first has taught, that his instruction is indeed of value, and worthy to be received. We should feel as though we had no claim to your patient attention, were we to proclaim nothing more than our interpretation of the meaning of the Scriptures. It would be worthless to you indeed, and a miserable substitute for that we are set to announce, viz: The teaching of the Church. The gospel in its integrity and entireness — not simply a few of its cardinal truths, but the whole gospel, as first proclaimed by the apostles and taught by them to their immediate successors, — has descended to us neither corrupted by human traditions on the one hand, nor weakened by human omissions on the other. Such, then, are the blessed privileges of our Zion. Bap- tized into the holy Church of God, we are furnished with a book of devotion which is not the offspring of yesterday, but one which contains the creeds of the primitive Church, and is enriched with the prayers through which confessors, and saints, and martyrs have approached the Most High. As members of this Church, we are in no uncertainty. It is our blessed privilege to know what we believe, and to be assured doctrinally, no less than practically, of the hope that is in us. Our holy creeds contain all the essential doc- 13 trinal truths of holy Scripture, and our collects and prayers teach its deepest mysteries and its highest practical require- ments. We are not dependent upon any particular preacher for the time being. Our faith and our prayers remain the same whoever may occupy the pulpit. The liturgy is then a constant check upon the preacher. He is bound to conform his teaching to it. Whatever is declared from this sacred place must accord with the Prayer Book, otherwise it can have no binding authority with us. Every priest of the Church has vowed to give " faithful diligence, always so to minister the doctrine, and sacra- ments, and the discipline of Christ, as the Lord hath com- manded, and as the Church hath received the same, accord- ing to the commandments of God;' ,# and how, in what sense the church has received these things, we learn from the Book of Common Prayer, her authorized exponent and confession of faith. By this is he required to frame his teaching, and a departure from it is a violation of his ordi- nation vow. And the canon of the Church of England in reference to this expressly declares, (< Whoever shall do otherwise, and shall disturb the people with contrary doc- trine, shall be excommunicated." What the Church requires of her ministers, cannot be expressed more distinctly than in the charge of our beloved Bishop to the clergy of his diocese in 1836, "on the duties now especially called for to preserve the faith of the church. " He says: "As ministers of the Protestant Episcopal Church, we have made a solemn declaration of our belief in her doctrines as scriptural, and have vowed fidelity to her interests and sub- mission to her authority, in diligently setting them forth as the doctrines of God. We are not at liberty, therefore, to de- part in the slightest degree from the faith of the Church as expressed in her articles and liturgy .f Our professed sub- * The ordaining of priests in the Book of Common Prayer. \ " A Book of Common Prayer, administration of the sacraments and other rites and ceremonies of the church, articles of religion, and a form 14 mission was voluntary — it must be real and unqualified." Again, in his charge to his clergy in 1841, he says, in reference to the powers of the priesthood: u These powers are defined and limited. All essential points of faith and discipline are definitely settled by the authority which Christ reposed in the Church. The creeds, and offices, and catechism, and rubrics, and articles of the prayer book, shew how the doctrines, the sacraments and discipline of Christ have been received by the Church, and hence what the stand- ards are by which each minister is to be governed in the ex- ercise of his functions." Such are the godly admonitions which our ordination vows bind us to heed; and if these be religiously observed, then u the Romish doctrine concerning purgatory, pardons, worshiping and adorations as well of images as of relics, and also invocation of saints," will find no place among us, for the 22d article declares such doctrine "a foul thing, vainly invented and grounded upon no warranty of scrip- ture, but rather repugnant to the word of God." Thus we find no thraldom in submitting to the judgment of the Church. Hear her with reverence and with cheerfulness; obey her not as arrogating any right to domineer over your faith, but because Christ has made the Church the pillar and ground of the truth" — "its witness and keeper." It is on this account she challenges our reception of her faith — because "it is the faith once delivered to the saints." It was in reference to the principles of the Book of Com- mon Prayer that our first Bishop, the sainted Ravenscroft, in his last charge to his clergy, afTectingly said: "On these and manner of making, ordaining and consecrating Bishops, Priests and Deacons, when established by this or a future General Convention, shall be used in the Protestant Episcopal Church, in those dioceses which shall have adopted this Constitution. No alteration or addition shall be made in the Book of Common Prayer or other offices of the Church, or the articles of religion, unless the same be proposed in one General Convention, and by a resolve thereof made known to the Convention of every diocese, and adopted at the subsequent General Convention. — Art. 8th Con. of the Church. See 36th Article on the Homilies. 15 principles, derived from the Bible and from the Bible alone, searched for among the various accessible denominations of christian profession, but found only in the Church, I shall go, God being my helper, to my account. On these princi- ples, professed and acted on, or compromised and sur- rendered, will the Church, the Protestant Episcopal Church, flourish or decline, continue or melt away into a sect." And his venerated successor, in the charge from which I have already quoted, exhorts: " Be faithful in imparting to your people a proper knowledge, and in urging upon them a proper use of this Book of Common Prayer, and you will do much to protect them against the errors of the day. You will put a c two edged sword ' into their hands for their own defence; will most effectually furnish them with the shield of faith." And now let me, in conclusion, ask, who can doubt, placed as is the Church in the midst of a sea of contending factions, and surrounded by perpetually shifting systems of faith, that with an apostolic ministry, our great safeguard, under God, is in the possession of our incomparable liturgy? In this day of distress and anxiety, when men are casting about them for some sure refuge from the baleful effects of heresy and schism, with what confidence may we point to this security for the preservation and defence of the truth. The materials of which it is formed, were brought from an age in which the Church knew but one heart, and one mind. They existed in that fair morning before clouds of human sys- tems and theories arose to obscure the brightness of the truth. Our blessed Lord has said, his disciples shall be known, not by their loud professions — not by any party zeal they may show— not by religious ostentation, but by this, that they "love one another." "By this shall all men know that ye are my disciples, that ye have love one toward another." In order to this we are to strive to be one, as the Father and his Christ are one. How great must be the influence of our holy liturgy in bringing us to this mind and this heart. How should this mingling together common prayers and 16 common praises, knit heart to heart, and bind the Church as the soul of one to God. Let us cherish this sacred truth. Remember that in the Church's keeping are the holy Scriptures and the creeds, the holy sacraments and the liturgy. Let us ever bear in mind the words of one of the most learned doctors of the Church, (Dr. South:) "There is no prayer necessary that is not in the liturgy but one, which is this, that God would vouchsafe to continue the liturgy itself in use, and honor, and veneration, in this Church forever." "Remember how thou hast received and heard, and hold fast." The liturgy breathes no sectarian spirit. It is tinged with no party views, and hence has commanded the admira- tion of the most honored men of every household of faith. Dr. Adam Clark speaks of it " as a form of devotion that has no equal in any part of the universal Church of God." "It is founded on those doctrines which contain the sum and essence of Christianity. Next to the Bible, the Prayer Book is the book of my understanding and my heart." Robert Hall, the eminent Baptist Divine, speaking of the liturgy, says: ii I believe that the evangelical purity of its sentiments, the chastened fervor of its devotions, and the majestic simplicity of its language, have combined to place it in the very first rank of uninspired compositions." And in our own day, we have this tribute from Dr. Barnes, of the Presbyterian faith: "We have never doubted that many of the purest flames of devotion that rise from the earth, ascend from the altars of the Episcopal Church, in prayers and praises consecrated by the use of piety for centuries." Thus, what the pious Bishop Horne says of the Psalms, most happily applies to the sacred services of the Church: "They suit mankind in all situations; grateful as the manna which descended from above and conformed itself to every palate. He who hath once tasted their excellencies will desire to taste them again, and he who tastes them oftenest will relish them the best." aaiX2 -M 342894 N -C Pamphlets N.C 975.6 Z993 1841-53 V»t,l*>f y, >f 342394 OUTSIDE T#i* - : - ' b^H* 0 *" 0