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Tous les autres exemplaires originaux sont ffilmte en commenpant par la premiere page qui comporte une empreinte d'impression ou d'illustration et en terminant par la derniire page qui comporte une telle empreinte. Un des symboles suivants apparaltra sur la dernidre image de cheque microfiche, selon le cas: le symbole -^ signifid "A SUIVRE". le symbols y signifie "FIN". Les cartes, planches, tableaux, etc., peuvent dtre ffilmis d des taux de reduction difff6rents. Lorsque le document est trop grand pour §tre reproduit en un seul clich6, il est ffiimd d partir de I'angle sup^rieur gauche, de gauche d droite, et de haut en bas, en prenant le nombre d'images ndcessaire. Les diagrammes suivants illustrent la m6thode. 1 2 3 32X 1 2 3 4 5 6 ■■i* j:\5flts(;r ^-r^k i^'^^iHSjf»^]^ife*^.^t*^^iif^sBB(^[^'i^^ DUTY TO THE CHURCH. AN ADDRESS To THOSE PERSONS RESIDISa IS BROOKLYN AND ITS VICINITV, WHO HAVB HERETOFOR B BELONGED TO THE CHCRCH IN ANY PART OF THE BRITISH DoJIINIONS. N DY EVAN M. JOHNSON, Rector of St. Michael's Church, BROOKLYN, L. i. BROOKLYN: I. VAN ANDEX'S STEAM PUESSES, 30 FULTON' STREET. 1855. I DUTY TO THE CHURCH. This city having been and at present being the* residence of many of you for whom this address is intended ; and having for the last thirty years discharged (however imperfectly) the duties of Rector of St. John's and St. Michael's Churches ; I have had a great opportunity to observe the varied effect which a change of country and residence produces upon tlie religious character and habits. Called upon as I am, and have been most frequently^ to visit the sick and afflicted, and to perform the last rites of the Church, I can but become familiar with the state of religion as it exists among every class of people. In very many cases it has been my happiness to become acquainted with both families and individuals, now resident here, who have uniformly and constantly attended upon " the word and ministry " of the Church ; who have continued in the same regular habits of worship which they practised " at home," and who have thus remained in "the Apostles' fellowship and doctrine," and have " grown in grace, and increased in knowledge and in virtue." It grieves me, however, to say, and I trust I shall not be considered less your friend for saying so, that I am compelled to believe a change of country has, on the whole, an injurious effect upon the religious character and frequently the moral habits. How frequently has it been said to me by the sick or dying penitent, " Oh ! how have I neglected my God and Saviour ! how have I neglected the Church and her ordinances ! "When " at home," I never was absent from Church ; since I have been here, I have never attended at all." This is not the language of a solitary individual ; it is language that is repeated time and again. When I have been called to perform the occasional offices of the Church, such as funerals, or marriages, or baptism of children, I have found persons who it was evident had been educated in the Church and accustomed to its services, by the manner in which they joined in its responsive parts. Of such, I haye frequently made the inquiry where they attended Church? In a vast many instances, I have been answered, " Since I have Ijeen in this country^ I have never attended church at all — 'at home,' I never was absent." I think, my friends, +liat those of you who have not neglected your duty in the particular above 5 I referred to in this address, must have been convinced from your own observation, tliat it is true of great numbers, and especially, of younger persons, and those who are employed among the commercial and laborious classes, there is great inattention to the Church and me.ans of grace. I know you will not impute to me any other motives in making this declaration, than the desire to promote your own temporal and eternal good, if in this address I attempt to lay before you, as the result of my own reflections and observation, some of the rauses to which this declension may bo imputed, and to suggest some remedies^ which, if adopted, would go far to obviate this acknowledged evil. There can be no doubt but the breaking up of family, and domestic and social relations, almost universally eifected by a change of country, is attended with injurious effects. You liave left your family circle, your father's house, your mother's care, your brethren and kindred with whom yo'. took sweet counsel, your parish Church, your pastor, who perhaps admitted you by baptism into the fold of Christ, and by whom you have been taught the rudiments of religion. You are comparatively amonjr strangers — those restraints which at home kept you from irregularity, if not vice, are no longer binding. Some of you may have fallen into the society of the dishonest, the prodigal, the abandoned ; if not, you perhaps found your first acquaintances much like yourselves, loosed from the restraints of their family and parochial circle. It would be marvellous, if \mder all such untoward circum- stances, you had retained all your regular habits and devout practices. I think it is for want of information and proper consideration, that many fall off from their religious character. " At home," most of you belonged to the Church established in the British Empire. (Observe, I do not say to the Established Church of^ but hi the British Empire. I do not wish to call you to remember the Church which you left, especially in England and Ireland, as connected with the State, and as identified, perhaps to the personal knowledge of many of you, with many vexatious and troublesome questions and disputes arising out of that connexion ; but the Church as it was first established in Great Britain by the laboi^s of St. Paul, or of the Bishops in the Apostolical age, which was afterwards re-established and incor- porated with the former, especially in England, by St. Austin, and which, at a later period, in the full exercise of its legitimate powers, arose in its might and rejected the many' additions of man's device which had been made both to her doctrines and worship by the usurped authority of the Bishops of Rome. It is to the Church established in this sense, the Church to which your fathers from time imme- morial have belonged — the old Church — older than either the liomau or the modern sects — the Church in which your parents with pious care caused you to be admitted at your baptism, in whose sublime strains they now, with your relatives and friends, offer up their daily and weekly sacrifice of* i)raise and worship. It is to the claims of* this your parent Church, upon you as her children, that I ask your attention. The history of the earlier measures adopted by the Church in England to plant a branch of her own vino in these then colonies in America, is exceed- ingly interesting ; but it is principally to the fact that the Bishops of the Church of England, after the separation of these states from the mother country, consecrated Bishops and committed to their charge the congregations and individual Christians, who had before been spiritually subjected to them, that I wish to call your attention.* This was done with all due regularity, and by this means the Bishops and Clergy of the Church in America are the successors of the Bir^hops in Great Britain, and all are in a direct line of succession from St. Austin, if not, as is possible, from the Bishops of England in the first century. The fact that the * A most invnlnablc History of the Protestant Episcopal Churcli in America^ was published by Bishop Wilberforce of Oxford, England, a few years ago, and was re-pu1?lished by Sword & Stanford, New York, where it may be had. It ought to be in the hands of every individual who desires to obtain a knowledge of the connexion of the Church in America with that in England, and is indispensible ta every Sunday School Library. s spiritual clmrgo over the Church in the United States was thus transferred, shows that as to spiritual matters they are l)ut one Church. The same submission, therefore, is due to the spiritual authority of the Chief Pastors from indiviihuils belonging to either Church, resident in the country of tlio other, whether they bo natives of Great Britain residing in the United States, or whether of tlie rnited States residing in Great Britain. At about the same time that this regular Apostolical succession was obtained, the Liturgy of tlie Cliurch was adopted to the form of government established liere, and some otlier alterations were nuide, not affecting tlie mode or order of public worship. The Thirty-nine Articles, and the Book of Homilies, were received as containing Scriptural doctrines and prescribing Christian duties. Thus the Cliurch in this country is one with the Church to which you belonged before you came hero as to discipline, doctrine and jn-actice. She has the same claim to your regard, to your obedience and to your submission, that the Church in England had. To separate from this one Cliurch was schism there, is schism here. In the days of the Apostles it was said to members of the Church, " Let there be no schism in the body of Christ," and they were to " mark them that caused divisions, (schisms.) " It is, however, now scarcely ever really considered that schism is a sin, and that it is forbidden by the word of God. Almost every one thinks he has a right to withdraw from the Church and join any chiss of schismatics lie may choose. But, my Kiiends, it is schismatical, and tlierefore sinful to do so. I am persuaded that of those who forsake the communion of the Church, the greater part do so more from want of information and consideration, than from any design to despise this Apostolical precept.* It is for want of information, or at least con- sideration of these facts, that many of you think that here one Church is called a secty in the same sense as another, because no one is established by law. On your first arrival here, you did not ask for the CI lurch — the Church of your fathers ; you delayed to do your duty and transfer your spiritual allegi- ance. Thus an inroad was made upon your religious habits, and in too many instances you have never returned to them. What wonder, then, that those who have neglected the ordinances of the Church ; " despised the hol}^ Sabbaths," and in some instances have even disused the reception of ♦Schism. — John Wesley advises the members of the Church to " bewnrc of schism, of malving a rent in the Church of Christ," what he means by the Church of Christ, plainly appears from a letter of his (vol. X, pape 2:52). " I would take some pains to recover any one from error or to reconcile him to our Church. I mean to tlie Church of England ; from which I do not separate, and I (probably) never shall. The little Church, which I occasionally mentioned at Holy Mount, is that wherein 7 ;'«u/ ^>/*ai/er«, I preach, I administer the merament etery Sunday when T am in London." " To separate ourselves from a body of living- Christians with whom we were before imited, is a grUvous breach of the law of love,'" Vol. HI, page 3S4. 10 the Holy Sacrifice of the altar, upon which they once feasted ; what wonder if such as these (and alas ! they are too many,) are in a state of spiritual death — "dead while they live." What wonder, that when temporal death stares them in the face, and they know they are about to go into the presence of an oifended God, that the recollection of their neglect of Him and their duty, should add a bitter pang to the accusations of a guilty conscience ! Such is the fact. It is, my friends, to save you, into whose hands this address may fall, and who know that your case has been here described, from the stings of such a conscience at such an hour, as well as from the eternal displeasure of oifended Majesty, that I entreat you now, to " thiidv of these things." 1 know that in many instances, direct means are used to effect your estrangement from the Church. 1 will mention a few of them : — Your prejudices against some of the abuses which have grown up in England (and which many there lament,) in conse- (pience of the connexion of Church and State, are aj^pealed to. You are asked, will you here continue to be attached to a Church, which " at home " compels every one to contribute to its support ; which upholds so many lordly Bishops, and rich and indolent clergy ? This kind of talk is most common ; and by such appeals to prejudice, the attempt is often successfully made to induce our weaker do 11 ?y brethren to stray from the rightful fold. But what have these abuses which have crept into the Established Church of England, to do with her as a member of Christ's body. These abuses do not change the character of the truths which she teaches, or the validity of the sacraments whicli her ministers dispense. They do not exist in the Church herc^ if they do there. If you have experienced any evils on account of the connexion of the Church and State, you ought to be thankful that here they cannot again occur. You are told that you cannot go to church here unless you hire a pew, and that you and your families would not be accommodated if vou were to make the attempt. I am aware that a difference of practice in regard to the manner of supporting the Clergy prevails here, from that which exists ''at home." There, the Cleri]cv and Church beiui»- supported by Government, it is, or ought to be so, that every one has a seat in Church. But that seat is not without charge, only it is ptdd for by tax, collected by the officers of state. Here you are entirely exempt from this as a tax ; you pay for the support for the Gospel Ministry, either what you voluntarily agree to do, or, what you are charged as a rent for your seat. Though from necessity, the support for the Minister is thus ordinarily obtained, there are few churches in which sittings cannot l)e gratuitous!}" obtained by application at the door. I do not believe an instance can be pointed out, where a person or a family has been compelled to leave the communion, and absent themselves from the services of the Church, for want of seats, if they have made any exertion to obtain one ; but I do know that many have done so because they ivere told that the effort would be fruitless.* Another very common and very effectual method used to draw you away from your Church, will be found in the unceasing efforts of sectarian Sabhath School visitoi*s, to induce yon to place your child- ren under their charge. They tell you that the Sabbath School cause is a good one — that the children are only taught what is good — there is no sectarianism — it is perhaps a " Union School ;'' you are pleased with this show of kindness and attention, and you consent, without thinking of the conse- quences, to send your children. In this school they are introduced to a method of worship new to them — they hear many crude and heretical doctrines — they are taken to the meeting house or chapel, an'0 wlu^'e the true Christian 15 sec sacrifice is oft'erecl, and the sacraments duly and lawfully administered. Permit not yourselves to be drawn aside by the persuasions of those who would strive to make you believe that '' one church is as good as another ;" of those who cry " Lo ! he is here, and lo ! he is there ; go not after them." Wait you upon God in his holy Church, to which he hath promised his blessing, and in the use of whose sacred rites and holy sacraments, you will assuredly find given to you his strengthening spirit. The holy spirit is the animating principle of the Church, the l)ody of Christ. Whatever others may desire to be, or whatever tliey may represent themselves to be, they ., 1855.