CIHM Microfiche Series (■Monographs) ICIMH Collection de microfiches (monographles) Canadian Inttituta for Historical H Tha iaat racordad frama on aach microfieha ahaH contain tha aymbol — ^ (moaning "CON- TINUED"), or tha aymbol ▼ (moaning "END"), Un daa aymbolaa auhranta apparaftra aur la damlAra imaga da chaqua microfieha, aaton la caa: la aymbola —^ aignifla "A SUIVRE", la aymbola ▼ aignifla "FIN". IMapa. plataa, charta, ate., may ba filmad at diffarartt reduction ratkia. Thoaa too larga to ba antiraiy Inciudad in ona ncpoaura ara filmad baglnning in tha uppar iaft hand comar, laft to right and top to bottom, aa many framaa aa raquirad. Thit following diagrama iHuatrata tha mathod: Laa eartaa. planehaa, tablaaux, ate., pauvant Atra fHmAa A daa taux da rAduction diff Aranta. Loraquo la documant aat trap graiKl pour Atra raproduit an un aaul ciichA, 11 aat fNmA A partir da I'angla aupArlaur gaucha, da gaucha A droita, at da haut an baa. an pranant la ruNnbra d'imagaa nAeaaaaira. i.as diagrammaa auivanta Uluatrantla m A thoda. 1 2 3 1 2 3 4 5 6 MICROCOPY nsouinoN nsT chart (ANSI and ISO TEST CHART ^4o. 2) 1.0 I.I ISO *^ -Itt Itt UO 12.2 2.0 1.8 (•25 iu 1.6 ^ >^PPUED IN/HBE Inc 1 8M Com Main Stratt ^^^ ^!^f^' "M VO^ t4«09 USA -= (7t6) «ea - 0300 - Phon. (716) 288- 5009 -F« in (Jllaiuiiiia (tl^ttrrii Ifmut ^samnih JlXmtabn lvF*^~W^ ■VHBpMaHMpqnOTSP SOME ¥ ACTS ABOUT C|)e C|)un|) of <^nslan)i IN NE IV BR UNSWICK A PAPER WRITTEN AT THE REQUEST AND PUBLISHED UliDER THE AUSPICES OF THE RURI-DECANAL CHAPTER OF FREDERICTON BY THE SECRETARY : Rev. H. MONTGOMERY, M.A. RECTOR OF KINGSCLEAR. ANaiGAN CHURCH OF CANADA GENERAL SYNOD, ARCHIVES mmmm *■■ n^ I have been (uked to write a word of appraXHXtion of thU tractate^ by way of ^ imprimatur,^'* It i$ carefully written and temperately aryuedf and if the author here doe* tervice by hie pen to a» many as he has served elsewhere by his word tf motOh U will be of great value. Many may be helped^ some misunde: ianding may be removed^ and some may be strengthened in their views, I hope that a blessing may attend its pubHeation, H, T. FBEDEBICTON. May 6, 1901. Some Facts about the Church of England IN New Brunswick. What do we mean by the word CHUSOHt The Church it the Body of Christ (see L Oor. ziL : 27 ; and E^h. L : 23). The CL. ~^h is Hor because it is the Body Mid Bride of Christ and not beca- « of the holiness of any of its members. It is also called Cathouo, r<^tfih means nniTorsal to distinguish it from the »' v -jgh Chu'-eh whidi was confined to ono latbn. Christ founded a Church, or Elingdom as it is called in the Kew Testament, for the whde wwid. He opened "The Kingdom of Heaven to all beUevers." This is the reason why the Church is named in the Apostles' Creed "The Holy Catholic Chnich." The great test by whidi the Church ci Christ was to be known to all the world, was that her teaching was to be "the hath which was once fc " all deUvered unto the Saints" (St Jude iii). That is the same faith or doctrine to be believed by all, for all time and in all j^Uuses, as expressed in the rule of St. Vincent of Lerius : " Quod ubique^ quod temper, quod ab omniiue ereditum e^" Which literally put into our own language means: That is to be bdieved, which has been held everywhere, at all times and by all people. This statraient, so far as it applies to the Christian religion, i& called tl^ rule or test of the Catholic Faith. (6) The Church of Christy or m it is oaned in the Holy Soriptnros the Kingdom of Heaven^ wm to be planted in all nations, and in whatsoever nation or important eity it was foanded it took the name of that naticm or city to distinguish it from the o^er portions of the Church found- ed elsewhere. The Church of Christ was founded in Britain in the Apoetolio age, aiki was known at first as the Church of, or in Britain. Long ycMS aftwward when the Saxon? were the dominant race in Britain, and as a preparatory step towards the uni5) good of His people, brovgfat ber uMy through the dangen and trials of this period, and so ordained it that she should live and be a power for good in the nation and onpire. And the nation itself has decreed that the Sovereign who roles over the British Empire must be a member of the Church of England, and must sware, before receiving the crown to maintain the rights and liberties of the Church as laid down in the Magna Charta of John's reign. This is the old Church of England, dear reader, which has come down tiirongh the centuries past, surviving the critical struggles of the Reformation, tiM Puritan and the Cromwellian periods, bravely facing and overcoming every danger, whether frtmi within or without Surely in her history of eighteen centuries th ^ romise of the great Head of the Church has not failed : " The gates of hell shall not prevail agunst it." V. Continuing "steadfastly in the Apostles teaching and fellowship, in the breaking of bread, and the prayers" (Acts ii : 42, rev. version). This portion of the Church of Christ came down to us in New Brunswick throuoch the faith and self-sacrifice of the Loyalists. To-day she reads the same Bible, uses the same prayers, teaches the same faith and administers the same sacraments as in their day. They were indeed glad to honour her as the spiritual mother who had moulded and developed their (16) coble ohftTMter and loyal prindplei. We ^017 in the ooonge^ the heroism and •eU'iacrifloe ol thew Iware men. And may we not reaeonaMy aak, why ihoold not their •ona, oTeiy one of them in this hmd, be as f^ to hononr and love ihe same spiritoal mother as did their faihers and forefathers. Alas, we fear throogfa mironderstandingw, throagh mil- representation, or it may be throagh forgetfolness of the ftdth of their hJ^n some have vuidMed w been led away from the fold of the old mother Chnroh. Bat we humbly hope and pray that in God's own good time the descendants of the Loyalists will "serioosly lay to heart the great dangers we are in by oar unhappy divisions." And will eamestiy pray God to "take away all hatred and prejudice and whatsoever else may hinder us from Godly union and concord." Time alone, under God's guiding hand, can remove the prejudice, the bitterness and the mis* teken ideas that prevail in some parts of our province concerning the Church of Eugland in Canada. This done may we not hope to see all the children of the loyalists walking in the "old paths" and learning more and mora to love, and pray, and work for the old Churoh of their fethers. i ■■ (■7) f I 1 i VI. Let us now ooadder wHiie of ihe olqeotion* toe . ar Son can be found fbi^ bidding this command t<. j observed, in His day. He changed the outward sign <^ the covenant and oraunanded oK to be admitted into it by Baptism into th^ "Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Qhost" (St Matthew xxviii. : 19). For in the world-wide Church, which He evolved out of tiie national Jewish Church, Uiere was to be no distinction between male and fnnale in (18) admitting them to oovnuuit reUtionship nnder the wm dispensation. All were to be made one in Him. St Fkul says in his Epistle to the Qalations (iiL: 29) : "If ye be Christ's then are ye Abraham's seed and heirs according 'o the prmnise." That is the pr(»nise referred to in the seTcnteenth chapter of CJeneais. I^ as some teachers main- tain, it is nnscriptural to Baptise Infimts, may we not reasonably ask in what way are our childrm to be bronght into that covenant rekttionship which God established with Abraham and his seed after him as an " everlasting coven- ant," nniess it be by Baptism f And have those who object to Infimt Baptism provided Miy other means for receiving children into covenant with Qod t Out of a total number of about 500,000,000 of so-called Christians, 475,000,000 believe in bringing little children to Christ that he may bless them in Baptism and receive them into covenant relationship, while less than 20,000,000, including the Mormons, condemn the practice of Infant Baptism. Numbers may not always be safely quoted in support of a religions doc^ *ine or practice, but in this case the majors ity is so overwhelmingly great that it seems utterly un- reasonable to believe that the Holy Spirit, the guide " into all truth," should allow almost the whole of the Chureh of Christ to have fallen into such an error — as the objeoters to Infant Baptism claim it to be — and to retain such an erroneous practice for eighteen centuries. It is simply preposterous, with such evidence before us, for anyone to \ i' ■■■ik (19) objeefc to lofMit Biq|>tism, mod my that it !• not in aeoord- •noe with the oommuida of Almighty God. n we call vp the witneMes to the teMshing and practice of the Ohuroh of Ohmt, in -t« earlieet and pureet yean, we find Um following teatimony : I.— Iir THi Dat» 01' TH» Apoctlib. It is recoided in the account giver in the New Teeta- ment of their ministrations that ftve households were Baptized. Is it unreasonable to believe that there were children in «me one of these households t Pick out at random the first five households you can think of, dear reader, and answer the question yourself. n. In the Days Iuikdiatklt Suookioiho tbosb or THK Apostlks. JvmH Mabttb, one of the earliest writers of Christian history, who was bom near the close of the first century, in speaking of Christians contemporary with himself, about the year 148, A. D., says that "there were among Chris- tians in his time many persons of both sexes, some sixty, some seventy years old, who had been made disciples to Christ yrom their in/aney." In what way could infante be made disciples of Christ, except by Baptism t Ibknakus, another early writer and Bishop of the Church, the pupil of Polycarp who had been tau^t by St John, writing about the year 176, A- D., saye : "That children ! i (.o) M well as others were then actoally bi^daed to dbtain remiflsion of nna." No art can explain away mr elude thk paeeage, which folly confirms the fact that Infant Bi^itism was the practice of the Church in the second century. Tkbtulliak, another writer in the latter end of the second century and the beginning of the third, who^ though he had peculiar ideas about Infant Baptism, yet beiurs witness to the fact that the Church in his day baptized infants. This writer is sometimes quoted by those who object to Infant Baptism as supporting their belief. Let us see, however, how he witnesses to the custom of his day. Tertullian believed, as his writings show, that sin after baptism ^^as unpardonable. Ccmsequently he endeavored to have the practice of the Church about Infant Baptism changed and the sacrament delayed until death was at hand or upon some assurance that the candidate would not commit any wilful sin after baptism. To show conclusively that he was trying to get the custom of the Church changed, he says: "What need is there that the God- fathers should be brought into danger t Because they may either fail of their promises by death, or they may be deceived by a child's proving of wicked disposition." It was evidenUy the custom then in his day to have Godparents, anf* -> baptize children, otherwise why should he refer to these facts. His manner of arguing plainly shews that he was seeking to introduce a new practice into the Church of his time. We dwell more particularly on this writer be- cause he has been so frequently put forth as a sub-Apostolto mmm champion agaiiut the practice of Infant Baptism. Bat certainly not a diampion for the same reasons as put forth by those of this century. TertuUiaEi did imiai vpon if^ania being haptiaed if they were in danger fff death and not likeiy to recover. OuoiN, who lived in the beginning of the third oentary, also bears testimony, without a shadow of a doubt^ as to the practice of the Church in his day about Infant Baptism. He says in his writings that "none is free from pollution though his life be but the length of one day upon the earth. And for that reason ii^famU aire haptimdt because by the sacrament of baptism the pollution of our birth is taken away; and 'except one be bwn of water and the spirit he cannot enter the Kingdom of Heaven.' " Origen not only refers to Infant Baptism as the practice of the Church, but also refers to it as of Divine institution. At a council of the Church held at Carthage, A. D., 253, where sixty-six Bishops were assembled, an account of whose proceedings is given by St. Cyprian, Bishop of Carthage, no one had the audacity to ask whether it was right to baptize infants or not. There was, however, at this council a discussion about Infant Baptism, but it was on a question submitted by Fidus, an African Bishop, who asked " whether infants ought to be baptised before they were eight days old t " Since this was the age for ciroum- dsion in the Jewish Church. But the council decided imanimomly tiiat there was no occasion for delay, even for eight days, but that it^onte might be baptised at any time. There are many other early writers and historians who might be quoted to show that Infant Baptism was uni- versally practiced in the Apostolic and Primitive Ohuroh of Christ There is but one result in the appeal to history on this question, and it is this : I%at during the jvnt 1100 yean of the exittenoe of the Chrietian Chureh there w no record of amy aociety or body of men toho denied the latq/tUneee tflr^ant Baptiem. II. — As TO THK MODK OF BAPTISM. The Chureh of England, following Scriptural and ancient custom, directs her ministers to either dip (not immerse) the candidate in water, or to pour (not sprinkle) water on the head of the candidate. About twenty years ago a remarkable manuscript was discovered. It caused great interest and deep reeearoh as to its authenticity and genu- ineness among the learned theologians of the day. It was first published by the learned Greek Arohbishop Bryennius in 1883, under its title, "The Teaching of the Twelve Apostles," and was claimed by its critical and learned examiners to be not only genuine but the earliest Christian treatise known next to the (Gospels and other portions of the New Testament. The date assigned to it by competent judges was sometime between A. D. 80 and 110. Proba- bly about the year 100 A. D. would be a fair assumption as to its date. This would mean that it was written a (*3) f ▼ery short time after St John wrote his book on the revelation made to him on the Isle of Patmos. One of the giants in theology of the nineteenth century, the late Bishop lightfoot, of Durham, whom the Christian world acknowledges to be one of the greatest Biblical scholars and critics of his day, gave it as his opinion, after carefully examining "The Teaching of the Twelve Apostles " that ** of the genuineness of this document there can be no shadow of doubt." In this treatise on the teaching of (he Apostles we find the following directions given concerning the mode of baptism : " Baptize into the nwne of the Father, and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost in flowing >.ater. But if you have not got flowing water baptize in other water, and if you cannot in cold then in wwrm. But if you have not (enough of) either, potw water three timee upon the Keadt into the name of the Father and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost." This reference is made solely as to the quantity of water that suffices for baptism, and not to the state or condition of the candidate. And when we con- sider that this document was written and these directions given, shortly after the last book of the New Testament was completed, by those who were no doubt instructed by some of the Apostles themsdves, it ought to have the greatest possible weight and influence on the minds of those who really desire to learn what the custom and practice of the Apostolic Church was as regards the mode of administering the sacrament oi baptism. Surdy the aathw of this important traatiae and his fellow laborers would be familiar with the practice le assembled for worship of the necessity of being eonvt/rted or " turned " as the revised version renders the Greek word, which in the aathorized version is trandated "converted." The prayers also of the Charch abound in appeals to God that we may be ** turned " from the way of ungodli- ness, and that He may be pleased " to create and make in us new and contrite hcMrts." She lays the greatest stress on the absolute necessity of r^aetUanee for our sins past, as did our bleued Lord in order to obtain saving grace. True, the word conversion itself is seldom ever heard in her services. She prefers rather to use the BiHe word repentance; reiterating over and over again the cry of John the Baptist, and of our Saviour Himself, "r^Mnt for the EliDgdom of Heaven is at hand." The word version so .^omoMMily used in these days is not what may be truly called a Bible word. It is not found in any of the Epistles of St. Paul or the other Apostles. Neither do any of the Apostles in their writings ever exhort people to be converted, but they do urge them to "repent,'' which is a much deeper and more suggestive word dian con- version. mam (.6) Hm Chnrdi bdiovM it to be her duty to t^ men to do what Ghrist and His Apoetles told them to do^ and in urging men to repent she inolndes all that tiie word oon- yerrion can possibly mean. She welcomes to her Holy Table, only those who do tmly and earnestly r^wnt th«n of their sins and intend to lead a new (converted or tamed) life, following the command- ments of God: "And widking from henceforth in His holy ways." She distinctly tells her pec^Ie that without repentance and without being turned to Qod, they cannot receive grace in the sacrament of the Holy Communion. VII. There are other objections sometimes raised, such as the Form ol Gk>yemment in the Church of England; vis.. Episcopal, prescribed Form of Prayer, and other minor objections which can easily be answered by the authorized teachers of the Church, and to them we earnestly commend all those who really and sincerely desire a better under- standing and knowledge of the Church and her ways. The one great need of this day and age is a fuller and clearer knowledge of the " truth as it is in Jesus," and to search diligently until we find it. To this end we must read, and read, and read again, in the spirit of that prayer of the saintly Chrysostom : " Granting us in this world knowledge of Thy truth." Above all we must ever be willing to learn, and that too in a meek and patient spirit («7) It if nofc the opiuioiis or sentimeati of mmi, no matter how cleyer or leemed, it is rather the truth conoeming "the luth whioh wa$ onee for aU delirered onto the Mint*" (Jade 3, rev. vernonX that we all need to know tor oar souls eternal welfare. UnlcHrtanatelj we live in an age of **anha]^7 divisions" among Christians, and so many diflfereo*" opinions an set fortii as "the troth" that it b very difficalt oftentimes for tiie poor wayfuing man or the busy man to know as tiwy ■ay "just what to bdieve;" and too often sach men oon- dade that it makes no diffisrenoe what a man believes so k>ng as his life is all right If sach a oonclosion were trae, or even reasonable, then Ingersoll, the far-famed atiieist, might have passed for a ChristiMu Bat^ dear reader, U doe§ mah$ a d^^erence in OoePt tightf if not in man's, what men believe, as well as what th^ da The trath oi God is eternal and onchangeaUe^ not to be added to or taken away from, nor is there any new troth to be discovered. He has revealed it ail for all time. As a iMmed man of old writes : "What is true is not new, and what is new is not troa" An axiom which certainly will always hold good as regards the religion of Christ and His Choroh. Perverted troths, half troths, are, in a great measore, the oaose of misonderstanding, as well as the result of it, concerning the teaching of the Chorch of England. Too often have they been set fmrth by teachers and preaoht rs of different denominations with great fervoor and intenuty ( «8 ) of feeling and pnrpoae undw the undue prendre of relig- ions exdtanent, when that portion of man caUed tine ** feelings," so diangeable and often unreliable, Mre alone appealed to and worked upon until they reach the state of frenzy and sometimes temporary delirium. Misrepresentation ci the truth, jealousy, selfishness and blind lri£x>try have been the cause of divisions in the Christian Church, but we believe that iE God's own good time, the prayer of His dear Son "that they all may be one " will be answered, and Christians (moe more united in one Fold under one Shepherd. There mo signs, which observing and thoughtful men have not failed to note in the closing years of the century just passed, which encourage all who desire the re-union of Christians in the Church of Christ to be hq)eful as wdl as prayerful. Who can tell what the new century just hegan may bring forth in this direction t For that re-union the Church of England unceasingly intercedes in her daily service of prayer and praise. Oc<>upying as she does a peculiar position, between the Boman Catholic Church on the one side and the various Protestant denominations on the other, she affords good ground and ample opportunity for the re-union of the Church of Christ. Able and learned men on both sides, by their writings on the subject, confirm this claim and inspire brighter hopes for unity. Among them we quote the following : («9) The late Dr. J. P. Newman, a Melhodist-Epiaoopa "Bishop," in an addrees given abont two yean ago "On the Outlook lor Christianity in the United States," said ** that it irmi his firm oonviotion that not many yean henoe the Christian den