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At the present day, there is a melancholy departure from the simplicity and integrity of primitive Christianity. It is the prevailing errour of the age to place human reason above the truths of God's word, or to pry into things not revealed, as if paramount to those which are revealed and belong unto us and to our children for ever. No small portion of professing Christians, in this country at least, seem chiefly. desirous of being considered orthodox or liberal, Calvinists or Ar minians, without sufficient solicitude for attaining those virtues and graces, which have generally been considered the glory of the Christian character. While one sect is railing against Calvinism, and another against Arminianism, or liberal Christianity in more modern phraseology; while one represents belief in the former as necessary to salvation as belief in Christ, and the other represents an alliance with the latter as rendering the only pure and acceptable worship to the Deity, the articles of the Church know nothing of these distinctions; her members are neither required to subscribe to the dogmas of Geneva, nor to rest their hopes of heaven on a faith as cold as polar ice, and as fruitless in heavenly joy as a Nubian desert! And if it is not sufficient, that they are called Christians, it is sufficient, under all circumstances, that they are called Churchmen or Episcopalians!

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THE importance of the subjoined extracts will, I trust, be an apology for requesting their insertion in the Gospel Advocate. The wise and pious counsel of our spiritual fathers at all times demands our serious regard, and is never out of place. If there be any of the clergy, whose aberrations in the performance of their publick duties, may justly render them obnoxious to the bishops' reprehension, I would only implore them to remember their ordination vows, voluntarily made in the presence of God, and his church. Among these vows, they promised "reverently to obey their bishop, and other chief ministers, who, according to the canons of the Church, may have the charge and government over them; following, with a glad mind and will, their godly admonitions, and submitting themselves to their godly judgments.' Keeping this solemn promise full in view, I respectfully invite their attention to the following extract from "A Pastoral Letter to the Members of the Protestant Episcopal Church in the United States of America, from the House of Bishops of said Church, assembled in General Convention, May, 1808."*

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"When we bring before you, brethren, the subject of publick worship, you will, of course, suppose, that it is principally with a view to the devotions, which, with an extraordinary degree of harmony, and much previous deliberation, have been constituted our established Liturgy.

* Journals of the General Convention, pp. 356, 357, 358.

"Independently on the admirable prayer prescribed by our Lord himself, there is no fact equally ancient, of which we are more fully persuaded, than that the having of prescribed devotions, is a practice that has prevailed from the earliest origin of our religion. We mean not, that there were the same forms of prayer in all churches; but that every local church had its rule, according to the suitableness of time and place, and under the sanction of the episcopacy of the different districts. And we are further persuaded, that the Christian economy in this matter was no other than a continuation of the Jewish, as prevailing in that very worship which was attended on, and joined in, by our blessed Saviour and his apostles. This is a mode of worship, that has been handed down to us through the channel of the Church of England; and we suppose that we may affirm, as a notorious fact, its being acceptable to our communion generally.

"But if this feature of our system is to be retained, we cannot but perceive, that the order of Divine service must be directed, not by individual discretion, but by publick counsel. If, on the contrary,

this principle is to cease to govern, we know of no plea for deviation tolerated in any minister, which will not extend to the indulgence of the humour of every member of his congregation. For this is a necessary result of that property of our ecclesiastical system, which contemplates the exercises of prayer and praise as those of a social body, of which the minister is the leader.

"If there should be in any, a rage for innovation, it would be the more deplored by us, from the circumstance that it often originates in the affecting of an extravagant degree of animal sensibility; which, it must be confessed, will not be either excited or kept alive by the temperate devotion of our prescribed liturgy. There are but few prayers handed down to us in the New Testament; if, however, any who may be advocates of an enthusiastick fervour would duly contemplate the spirit that animates these prayers, they would not, we think, undervalue those of the Church, as though they were uninteresting to the best affections of the human heart.

"It is impossible that there should be composed forms for publick use, and yet that individuals should not perceive instances in which, according to their respective babits of thinking, the matter might have been more judiciously conceived, or more happily expressed. It is,

+"The Lord's Prayer is given to us by St. Luke (ch. xi. 2.) under the injunction, when ye pray, say'-which is evidently language expressive of the appointment of a form. But the construction has been thought to sustain an abatement of its force by the words in the parallel place of St. Matthew (ch. vi. 9.) After this manner pray ye.' There is, however no difference of sense in the two places. The Greek word Tws, translated after this manner,' may be rendered thus,' that is, in these words.' For that either of the two phrases would have expressed the meaning, appears from ch. ii. 5, of the same evangelist. When Herod had demanded of the sanhedrim where Christ should be born,' they made answer, 'in Bethlehem of Judea; for thus [src] it is written by the prophet.' Then they go on to repeat the prophet's words And thou Bethlehem, in the land of Judah, art not the least among the princes of Judah for out of thee shall come a governour, who shall rule my people Israel." "

however, evident, that this, far from being prevented, would be much increased, by removing the subject from the controlling authority of the Church, to that of her ministers in their respective places. The cause of the supposed evil, is an imperfection in human affairs, to which they will be always liable; and a temper to accommodate to it, is an essential circumstance of a worthy membership of society, whether civil or religious. The dissatisfaction alluded to may effect either circumstantials, or the essence of the established liturgy. If it apply to the former, submission of private opinion is one of the smallest sacrifices which may be exacted, for the maintenance of order. But if any should lightly esteem the service, from the opinion that it is below the dignity of the subjects comprehended in it, and unequal to the uses which prayers and praises point to; we have so much to oppose to such a sentiment, in the sense of wise and holy men of our communion in former ages, still shining as lights to the world in their estimable writings; so much, also, in the acknowledgment of judicious persons not of our communion, both in past ages and in the present; and so much of the effects of the habitual use of the liturgy, on the tempers and on the lives of persons, who, in their respective days, have eminently adorned the doctrine of their God and Saviour;' that, if we spare an appeal to the modesty of the complainants, we are constrained to make a demand on their justice; and, in the name of all true members of our communion, to insist on being left in the secure possession of a mode of worship, which has become endeared to us by habit and by choice. It is on this ground, that we consider every Churchman as possessing a personal right to lift up his voice against the intermixture of foreign matter with the service; rendering it such as can never be acceptable to the same judgments, or interesting to the same affections.

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"In regard to any license which may be taken of another kind, that of varying words and phrases, for an accommodation of the reader's ideas of correct expression; to any minister who may be tempted to this fault, we intimate, that it has the effect of subjecting him to the imputation of a species of levity, which breeds contempt.* Certainly, every consideration which should relieve him from the charge of errour, would proportionably expose him to that of vanity. But, whether it be errour or vanity, the fault of wanton irregularity is attached to it.

"Under the operation of the sentiments which have been delivered, we should be especially grieved to hear of any ministers, that they make the services of the Church give way to their own crude conceptions. We call them such, because it may be expected from experience of former times, that a practice, so irregular in itself, would be generally found in those who have the most moderate share of the knowledge and the discretion, qualifying for a judicious exercise of the au

*I know a clergyman, now without a cure, who, when reading to a country congregation the following deprecation in the litany-"From all evil and mischief; from sin; from the crafts and assaults of the devil; from thy wrath, and from everlasting damnation,"—for the last word substituted condemnation.

thority thus arrogated. While we earnestly admonish all ministers against this assumption of a power not committed to them, we also exhort the laity to avoid encouragement of the delinquency, should it happen, and, much more, inducement to it. We know that the most intelligent and best informed lay members of our communion, if this license should be obtruded on them, would disapprove of it; and, if they did not complain in publick, would mourn in private. Even of those who, in any way, might countenance the irregularity, we should hope that they either did not know, or did not recollect, the sacred promises which would be hereby broken. And, on the whole, we announce, both to the clergy and to the laity, our utter disapprobation of the irregularity here remarked on; calling on every one of them, in his place, to give his aid to the guarding against the evil; both by persuasion, and by every other temperate expedient provided by the canons of the Church."

The venerable house of bishops, deeply impressed with the importance of a strict adherence to the established order of the Church, in the performance of publick worship, brought the subject again before the clergy and laity, in a pastoral letter, May, 1811, from which the following is an extract.*

"Considering the description of subjects on which we are now addressing you, it would be an omission, not to entreat you to aid us in our endeavours to carry into effect the canons of our Church generally; and especially the provisions made for the using of her services agreeably to the rubricks. And although this is a matter which belongs more immediately to the clergy, yet we think it not unworthy of the laity to discountenance deviations, if made by any minister in contrariety to his solemn promises at ordination. We, ourselves, are not only under a common weight of obligation with all the clergy; but make an especial promise at our consecration, of 'conformity and obedience to the doctrine, discipline, and worship' of our Church. Now one part of the discipline, is the looking to the maintenance of order by others, in those three departments. We have been sensibly affected by some instances of the breach of promises made to us, under solemn appeals to God, and invocations of the testimony of his church. We should hold ourselves wanting to our subject, if we were not now to declare our disppointment, and to invite to the irregularity the disapprobation of all persons, who entertain a sense of the obligations of integrity and truth. We do this the more readily, as there have not been wanting occasions, when displeasure has been manifested in the premises with good effect, by judicious lay members of congregations, on which the irregularities have been obtruded."

I most sincerely hope that, since the above pastoral letters were written, the impropriety of the practice complained of, by our spiritual fathers, has become so manifest to both clergy and laity, that it has, in a great measure, been discontinued. And I do most sincerely hope and pray, that the practice of none of the clergy will now be found in direct opposition to their ordination vows.

* Journals of the General Convention, pp. 369, 370.

CLERICUS.

TO THE EDITOR OF THE GOSPEL ADVOCATE.

I WAS much gratified at reading, in the Gospel Advocate for January last, an extraordinary prediction from Alison's sermons, of the final overthrow of the infidel power in France. I have read it over and over again, and always with additional pleasure, and increased admiration. The classical purity of the style, and the happy accomplishment of the prediction, give an interest to the subject which must always engage our feelings.

To preserve in our memory the difference between the American and French revolutions, I subjoin an interesting extract from a thanksgiving sermon of the late eminent and excellent Bishop Dehon. I doubt not it will be read with as much interest as that from Alison, and be equally admired for the beauty of its imagery, as well as its patriotism. It takes a religious view of the awful state of the world, during the revolution in France, and makes an admirable application to the condition of our country at that period. The sermon was delivered in Newport, R. I. previous to 1809; the precise date appears not to be known.

"In the first place, we are called upon to render thanks to the Author and Giver of every good gift,' that our country has enjoyed peace and freedom, and their happy fruits, while the nations of the earth have been convulsed by wars and violence, and deluded and oppressed by the cupidity and ambition of wicked men. Peace and freedom are among the choicest blessings which heaven can bestow upon a nation. Alas! what people have justly appreciated them, till they were gone! Without them, small is the enjoyment of any other blessing. Property is not safe, improvement languishes, the smiles of comfort and the carols of joy cease; the endearing charities of life yield not their customary delight; humanity loses its bland control over the hearts of men, when the peace and freedom of a country are destroyed. Even the kind voice of religion is lost in the din of contention, and her benevolent hand palsied in the manacle of servitude. War and slavery! They are among the sores and curses which an angry God inflicts upon the earth, when he would chastise its degenerate inhabitants. In its preservation from these evils, our country has hitherto been peculiarly favoured by the Almighty. We live in an eventful period of the world. Our age is an age of tribulation to a great part of the earth. We have seen a war of uncommon terrour, spring from monstrous parents, and, uncontrolled by any principle of honour or right, sent forth to ravage the most civilized portions of the globe. Early it fed upon the ruins of every thing great and sacred. It demolished the weak, and dismayed the powerful. It prowled for plunder, even into the hallowed abodes of religion. It spared not the peaceful recesses of the arts. It had, at length, returned to the den from which it came, spiteful as a wounded tiger, and covered with the blood of innocence and virtue. The humane were wishing that there it might expire, either of its surfeit, or of its dreadful exertions. But, it is again let loose. Europe trembles at GOSPEL ADVOCATE, VOL. III.

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