PART

I.

S. CHRYSOSTOM, vi. p. 408. Savil. εüxɛσ0α μèv ènì Tηs ἰδίας οικίας δυνατὸν, οὕτω δὲ εὔχεσθαι ὡς ἐπὶ τῆς ἐκκλησίας ἀδύνατον, όπου πατέρων πλῆθος τοσοῦτον, ὅπου βοὴ πρὸς τὸν Θεὸν ὁμοθυμαδὸν ἀναπέμπεται—ἐνταῦθα γάρ ἐστι τί πλεῖον, οἷον ἡ ὁμόνοια, ἡ συμφωνία, καὶ τῆς ἀγάπης ὁ σύνδεσμος καὶ αἱ τῶν ἱερέων εὐχαί. See also vi. 663.

Prayer for UNITY, in Form of Prayer for Queen's Accession. See pt. ii. ch. iii. ans. 2.

HOOKER, V. XXXIX. 1. If the Prophet David did think that the very meeting of men together, and their accompanying one another to the House of God, should make the bond of their love insoluble, and tie them in a league of inviolable amity, (Ps. lv. 14.) how much more may we judge it reasonable to hope that the like effects may grow in cach of the people towards other, in them all towards their pastor, and in their pastor towards every of them, between whom there daily and interchangeably pass in the hearing of God Himself, and in the presence of His holy Angels, so many heavenly acclamations, exultations, provocations, petitions, songs of comfort, psalms of praise and thanksgiving, as when the pastor maketh their suits, and they with one voice testify a general assent thereunto.

On this and the two preceding chapters, consult W. LAW's Three Letters to Bp. Hoadly, i. p. 364 (in the Scholar Armed.) [And in Weller's Tracts.] See also i. p. 362, on Benediction; i. p. 368–370, on Intercession; i. 382–391, 495, on Absolution; i. p. 500, on Excommunication.

CHAPTER XVI.

PRIVILEGES IN THE CHURCH.

Set Forms of Public Prayer.

Q. 1. WHAT other benefit do we receive through the Church, besides the pure Word of God, the Administration of the Sacraments, Discipline, Intercession, and Benediction? (Chaps. vi.-xv.)

A. That of sound set Forms of Common Prayer. CHAP. Q. 2. How do we receive them by the Church?

A. Because, even if the Church could exist without them, they could not exist without the Church; that is, they could not exist without stated Times, Places, and Persons, set apart for the exercise of religious worship.

Q. 3. What authority have we for expecting to receive special benefits from Public Prayer?

XVI.

Matt.xviii.

A. When our Lord described the Temple, He Matt. xxi. 13. called it a "House of Prayer;" and to Public Isa. Ivi. 7. Prayers, as distinguished from Private, a special 20 blessing is promised by Christ Himself: "Where two or three are gathered together in My Name, there am I in the midst of them."1

1 HOOKER, V. XXIV. V. xxv. 2. The House of Prayer is a place beautified with the presence of celestial powers; there we stand, we pray, we sound forth hymns to God, having His Angels intermingled as our associates.

Q. 4. In what way are set Forms of Public Prayer advantageous?

A. Set forms of sound words, as distinguished from extemporaneous Prayers, are free1 from the danger of offending the majesty of God by irrelevant and irreverent expressions, and "endless and senseless effusions of indigested prayers, and of thus disgracing the worthiest part of Christian duty towards God;"s they are formed after Christ's own precept; they impart fervour to the lukewarm, and are a restraint on fanaticism; they are public, solemn professions of true Religion, to which they give life and vigour; they maintain unimpaired “the proportion of faith, τὴν ἀναλογίαν Tns RioTews: they deliver the Minister from the Rom. xii. 6. peril of pride, and of unduly exalting and dwelling upon one doctrine, and depressing and neglecting another; they are a standard of preaching,

I.

PART and a rule for hearing; they unite the hearts, and voices of Christian men and of Christian congregations with each other, with the saints departed, and with angels in heaven; they give public significations of Christian charity for those who cannot or will not communicate in them; they serve to maintain Unity by Unison and Uniformity; they are like a sacred anchor, by which the Church is safely moored in the peaceful harbour of Catholic Truth and Love.

Above xi. ans. 15, 16.

1 Bp. TAYLOR, vol. vii. p. 285-307.

2 HOOKER, V. VI. 2. This present world affordeth not any thing comparable unto the Public Duties of Religion.

3 HOOKER, V. Xxv. 5. ibid. 4. No doubt from God it hath proceeded, and by us it must be acknowledged a work of His singular Care and Providence, that the Church hath evermore held a prescript form of Common Prayer, although not in all things every where the same, yet for the most part retaining still the same analogy. If the liturgies of all ancient Churches be compared, it may easily be perceived that the public prayers in Churches thoroughly settled, did never use to be voluntary dictates proceeding from any man's extemporal wits. King CHARLES I. Works, Icôn Basilike, chap. xvi. Bp. BULL, Serm. xiii. vol. i. p. 336.

4 HOCKER, V. xxvI. 2. Who hath left us of His own framing a Prayer which might both remain as a part of the Church Liturgy, and serve as a pattern whereby to frame all our prayers.

PART II.

On the Anglican Branch of the Catholic Church.

CHAPTER I.

CHURCH OF ENGLAND.-ITS ORIGIN,

I.

Q. 1. The Catholic Church is compared by the CHAP. Christian Fathers to the Sea,1 as being diffused throughout all the world; as being, like the Sea, one; as having one name, that of the Catholic Church; and as containing within it many Catholic Churches with various names, as the Ocean has many various seas and bays within it: is the CHURCH OF ENGLAND one of these Churches? A. Yes.

1S. THEOPHIL. Antioch. Autolyc. ii. 14.

See the beautiful comparison of St. AMBROSE, Hexaëm. iii. 5. Bene Mari plerumque comparatur Ecclesia, &c.

S. AMBROSE de Benedict. Patriarch. lib. i. cap. 5. Ecclesia, spectans Hæreticorum procellas et naufragia Judæorum, tanquam Portus salutis, quæ expansis brachiis in gremium tranquillitatis suæ vocet periclitantes, locum fidæ stationis ostendens. Ecclesiæ igitur in hoc sæculo tamquam Portus maritimi per littora diffusi occurrunt laborantibus, dicentes esse credentibus refugium præparatum, quo ventis quassata navigia possint subducere.

HOOKER, III. 1. 14. As the main body of the Sea being one, yet within divers precincts hath divers names, so the Catholic Church is in like sort divided into a number of

PART distinct societies, every one of which is termed a Church II. within itself.

Q. 2. How do you prove that she is a part of the Catholic Church?

A. Because she is united with it in Origin, in Doctrine, and in Government.

Q. 3. How in Origin?

A. By means of the unbroken succession of her Bishops and Pastors, through whom she traces her origin1 from the Apostles, some of whom are recorded to have preached the Gospel in the British Isles.

Omne genus ad

1 TERTULLIAN, Præscr. Hæret. c. 20. Originem suam censeatur necesse est. Itaque tot et tantæ Ecclesiæ Una est Illa ab Apostolis Prima, ex quâ Omnes. Sic omnes Prima et Apostolica dum una omnes probant unitatem.

Ibid. Apostoli Ecclesias condiderunt a quibus traducem fidei et semina doctrinæ cæteræ Ecclesiæ mutuatæ sunt et quotidie mutuantur ut Ecclesiæ fiant, ac per hoc Apostolica deputantur ut soboles Ecclesiarum Apostolicarum.

See below, Pt. ii. chap. vi. On the Apostolical Succession in the Church of England.

Q. 4. You say that the Church of England was founded in the Apostolic age; how is this consistent with the opinion sometimes maintained, that its inhabitants were first converted to Christianity by St. Augustine, sent from Rome for that purpose by Pope Gregory the First, at the close of the sixth century (A. D. 596?)

A. St. Augustine converted the Saxon inhabitants of a part of England1 (Kent,) who had invaded that region and dispossessed the ancient British inhabitants; but they relapsed into heathenism in a little more than twenty years after the arrival of St. Augustine; and there were Christian Bishops in Britain several hundred years before he landed there."