IMAGE EVALUATION 
 TEST TARGET (MT-3) 
 
 1.0 
 
 I.I 
 
 1^ ^ 12.2 
 
 
 2.0 
 
 18 
 
 
 1-25 1.4 1 1.6 
 
 
 
 
 
 ■• ■ 6" 
 
 ► 
 
 V] 
 
 <P1 
 
 -% 
 
 "h 
 
 > ■> 
 
 
 / 
 
 '/ 
 
 /A 
 
 Hiotographic 
 
 Sciences 
 
 Corporation 
 
 33 Vie>f MAIN STREET 
 
 WEBSTER, N.Y. 14580 
 
 (716) 872-4503 
 
 \ 
 
 V 
 
 •s? 
 
 N> 
 
 ^^ ..\ ^m:sy 
 
 IV 
 
 ^>. '^ 
 
 "^K"" 
 
 ^ 
 
 <* 
 

 CIHM/ICMH 
 
 Microfiche 
 
 Series. 
 
 CIHM/ICMH 
 Collection de 
 microfiches. 
 
 Canadian Institute for Historical Microreproductions / Institut Canadian de microreproductions historiques 
 
Technical and Bibliographic Notes/Notes techniques et bibliographiques 
 
 The Institute has attempted to obtain the best 
 original copy available for filming. Features of this 
 copy which may be bibliographically unique, 
 which may alter any of the images in the 
 reproduction, or which may significantly change 
 the usual method of filming, are checked below. 
 
 r~~| Coloured covers/ 
 
 1^/ I Couverture de couleur 
 
 I I Covers damaged/ 
 
 D 
 
 D 
 
 D 
 D 
 
 D 
 
 D 
 
 Couverture endommagie 
 
 Covers restored and/or laminated/ 
 Couverture restaurde et/ou pellicul^e 
 
 I I Cover title missing/ 
 
 Le titre de couverture manque 
 
 I I Coloured maps/ 
 
 Cartes gdographiques en couleur 
 
 Coloured ink (i.e. other than blue or black)/ 
 Encre de couleur (i.e. autre que bleue ou noire) 
 
 I I Coloured plates and/or illustrations/ 
 
 Planches et/ou illustrations en couleur 
 
 Bound with other material/ 
 Reli6 avec d'autres documents 
 
 Tight binding may cause shadows or distortion 
 along interior margin/ 
 
 La re liure serr6e peut causer de 9'ombre ou de la 
 distortion le long de la marge int^rieure 
 
 Blank leaves added during restoration may 
 appear within the text. Whenever possible, these 
 have been omitted from filming/ 
 II se peut que certaines pages blaiiches ajouties 
 lors d'une restauration apparaissent dans le texte, 
 mais, lorsque cela 6tait possible, ces pages n'ont 
 pas 6t6 filmies. 
 
 Additional comments:/ 
 Commentaires suppldmentaires; 
 
 L'institut a microfilmd le meilleur exemplaire 
 qu'il lui a M possible de se procurer. Les details 
 de cet exemplaire oui sont peut-dtre uniques du 
 point de vue bibliographique, qui peuvent modifier 
 une image reproduite, ou qui peuvent exiger une 
 modification dans la mithode normale de filmage 
 sont indiquis ci-dessous. 
 
 I I Coloured pages/ 
 
 Pages de couleur 
 
 Pages damaged/ 
 Pages endommagdes 
 
 Pages restored and/oi 
 
 Pages restaur^es et/ou pelliculdes 
 
 I I Pages damaged/ 
 
 I I Pages restored and/or laminated/ 
 
 Pages discoloured, stained or foxed 
 Pages d6colordes, tacheties ou piqueas 
 
 □ Pages detached/ 
 Pages ddtachdes 
 
 v/ 
 
 D 
 
 Showthrough/ 
 Transparence 
 
 I I Quality of print varies/ 
 
 Quality indgale de ('impression 
 
 Includes supplementary material/ 
 Comprend du matdriel supplementaire 
 
 Only edition available/ 
 Seule Edition disponible 
 
 Pages wholly or partially obscured by errata 
 slips, tissues, etc., have been refilmed to 
 ensure the best possible image/ 
 Les pages totalement ou partiellement 
 obscurcies par un feuillet d'errata, une pelure, 
 etc., ont 6t6 film6es & nouveau de facon d 
 obtenir la meilleure image possible. 
 
 Tl 
 to 
 
 Tl 
 
 P< 
 o1 
 fil 
 
 O 
 b( 
 tt 
 si 
 01 
 fil 
 si 
 
 0( 
 
 Tl 
 si 
 Tl 
 w 
 
 ly 
 
 dl 
 ei 
 bi 
 rl| 
 re 
 m 
 
 This item is filmed at the reduction ratio checked below/ 
 
 Ce document est filmd au taux de reduction indiqui ci-dessous. 
 
 10X 
 
 
 
 
 14X 
 
 
 
 
 18X 
 
 
 
 
 22X 
 
 
 
 
 MX 
 
 
 
 
 30X 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 v^ 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 12X 
 
 1«( 
 
 20X 
 
 24X 
 
 28X 
 
 32X 
 
The copy filmed here hes been reproduced thenks 
 to the generosity of: 
 
 Douglas Library 
 Queen's University 
 
 The images appearing here are the best quality 
 possible considering the condition and legibility 
 of the original copy and in Iceeping with the 
 filming contract specifications. 
 
 Original copies in printed paper covers are filmed 
 beginning with the front cover and ending on 
 the last page with a printed or illustrated impres- 
 sion, or the back cover when appropriate. AH 
 other original copies are filmed beginning on the 
 first page with a printed or illustrated impres- 
 sion, and ending on the iast page with a printed 
 or illustrated impression. 
 
 The last recorded frame on each microfiche 
 shall contain the symbol ^»> (meaning "CON- 
 TINUED"), or the symbol V (meaning "END"), 
 whichever applies. 
 
 Maps, plates, charts, etc., may be filmed at 
 different reduction ratios. Those too large to be 
 entirely included in one exposure are filmed 
 beginning in the upper left hand corner, left to 
 right and top to bottom, as many frames as 
 required. The following diagrams illustrate the 
 method: 
 
 1 
 
 2 
 
 3 
 
 L'exemplaire film* fut reproduit grAce A la 
 gAntrositA de: 
 
 Douglas Library 
 Queen's University 
 
 Les images suivantes ont 6t6 reproduites avec le 
 plus grand soin, compte tenu de la condition et 
 de le netteti de rexemplaire film6, et en 
 conformity avec les conditions du contrat de 
 filmage. 
 
 Les exemplaires originaux dont la couverture en 
 papier est ImprimAe sont filmis en commenpant 
 par le premier plat et en terminant soit par la 
 dernlAre page qui comporte une empreinte 
 d'impression ou d'illustration. soit par le second 
 plat, selon le cas. Tous les autres exemplaires 
 originaux sont fiimis en commen9ant par la 
 premiere page qui comporte une empreinte 
 d'impression ou d'illustration et en terminant par 
 la dernidre page qui comporte une telle 
 empreinte. 
 
 Un des symboies suivants apparaitra sur la 
 derniire image de cheque microfiche, selon le 
 cas: le symbols -^ signifie "A SUiVRE", le 
 symbols V signifie "FIN". 
 
 Les cartes, planches, tableaux, etc., peuvent dtre 
 fiimds d des taux de rMucti'on diffdrents. 
 Lorsque le document est trop grand pour dtre 
 reproduit en un seul clich6, il est film6 d partir 
 de I'angle sup6rieur gauche, de gauche d droite, 
 et de haut en bas, en prenant le nombre 
 d'images nicessaire. Les diagrammes suivants 
 illustrent la mithode. 
 
 1 
 
 2 
 
 3 
 
 4 
 
 5 
 
 6 
 
CANADIAN BICENTENARY PAPERS. 
 
 o 
 
 s,/-»^ 
 
N 
 
 N 
 
CANADIAN 
 
 Sn'* 
 
 muUmt^ ^^m: 
 
 Ko. I. 
 
 THE HISTOBT OP 
 
 NONCONFORMITY IN ENGLAND IN 1662. 
 
 BY REV. W. F. CLARKE. 
 
 ITo. II. 
 
 / 
 
 THB REASONS FOR 
 
 NONCONFORMITY IN CANADA IN 1862. 
 
 BY REV. P. H. MARLING. 
 
 ) 
 
 - ♦ • 
 
 TORONTO? 
 
 PRINTED BT W. 0. OBEWETT ft CO., KING STRSET, 
 
 1862. 
 
 1^ , _-• 
 
L 
 
^mmiim ^kmtmm^ ^upt^^ 
 
 No. I. 
 
 
 
 HISTORY OF NONCONFORMITY IN ENGLAND IN 1662. 
 
 BT THE BEY. W. F. CLARKE, 
 
 [Note. — The following Paper was prepared for the Annual Meeting of the 
 ; Congregational Union of Oanada, held in Hamilton, in June, 1862. It li noW 
 I pablished, after rerlsion, by the request of many who heard It; the writer, 
 I of Gourae, assuming the entire responsibility of its contents.] 
 
 Our Ecclesiastical kindred in the father-land are busily 
 engaged in reviving the history and freshening the memory 
 of an event, which, though it occurred two centuries ago> 
 is exerting a wondrous influence upon ^,he times in which 
 we live. That event, the ejection of some Two Thousand 
 of the best of England's parish ministers from their pul' 
 pits and livings, under the operation of the Act oiT Unifor- 
 mity, has obvious and strong claims to commemoration by 
 the Congregational Churches of Great Britain. Founded, 
 many of them, by the martyr spirits of that memorable era, 
 located amid the very scenes rendered for ever sacrf i by 
 association with Nonconformist heroism — ^themselves affec- 
 ted in various ways by the still unrepealed Act which 
 wrought such injustice two hundred years ago— brought 
 continually into juxtaposition and even rivalry with the 
 Establishment ; there is eminent propriety in their observing, 
 with marked honour, the Bicentenary of English Noncon- 
 formity. 
 
CANADIAN BICENTENARY PAPKH& 
 
 f 
 
 But what have Canadian Congregationalists to do wifh 
 such a commemoration ? Much every way. True we arc 
 not Dissenters, but Nonconformity is a distinct thing from 
 Dissent That term, as usually understood, implies objeo^ 
 tion to the Establishment principle, and it is a well-known 
 fact that many of the worthies of 1662 did not stumble at 
 that. With the question as to State Establishments of 
 religion left wholly in abeyance, the matter of Conformity 
 loses little or none of its interest and importance. The 
 Episcopal denomination claims to be the church of Protes- 
 tantism, in this as well as in the mother country. It dis- 
 plays all the ecclesiastical exclusivencss, makes all the 
 sacerdotal pretensions, and maintains all the hierarchical 
 proportions, which distinguish it in the father-land. Vere, 
 as there, it is the church of the Prayer Book. The wor- 
 ship and usages of Canadian Episcopalians are regulated 
 by the provisions of the identical Act of Uniformity which 
 produced martyrs on so large a scale in 1662. That Act 
 bars all interchange of services between ministers of the 
 Episcopaliftii and other bodies, prevents recognition of any 
 but Episcopal ordination as valid, and is the occasion of 
 alienation and strife from on^ end of the land to the other 
 From its prestige as ** the Church of England in Canada,^' 
 the ready transfer hither of all those associations which 
 cluster round it in Britain^ and the brand it places upon us 
 as upstarts and schismatics, we may well feel called upon 
 on all suitable occasions, and especially at such a time as 
 this^ to justify and defend our separate position. Sur- 
 rounded, too, by many, who from our past and present 
 feebleness in this country, are constantly ready to tell us 
 that " we are of yesterday and know nothing," it is desir- 
 able to show that we havo a history of which we have no 
 reason to be ashamed — that however small and remote 
 fr^i the parent stem, we are neverlhelei36 natural biNinches 
 
 oft 
 
 ^glor 
 
 ;"Ra 
 
 , Lor( 
 
 fatb 
 
 sciet 
 
 Lacl 
 
 ^it m; 
 
 ^own 
 
 acte( 
 
 calle 
 
 pur 
 
 plow 
 
 year 
 
 irious 
 
 ^ions 
 
 ;jFath 
 
 •eveni 
 
 it so 
 
 \ Fi] 
 
 attec 
 
 ^uin 
 
 ihistc 
 
 lofK 
 
 |Btyl( 
 
 pbine 
 
 |Bxas 
 
 «Chu 
 
 mi^ 
 
 clos< 
 
 •plac 
 
 >rwho 
 
to do with 
 Drue wo arc 
 
 thing from 
 iplies objeo" 
 well-known 
 stumble at 
 ishments of 
 Conformity 
 bance. The 
 ti of Protes- 
 ry. It dis- 
 kes all the 
 hierarchical 
 md, Vere, 
 
 The wor- 
 e regulated 
 •mity which 
 
 That Act 
 sters of the 
 tion of any 
 occasion of 
 » the other 
 n Canada," 
 ions which 
 ;es upon us 
 called upon 
 
 a time as 
 ion. Sur- 
 nd present 
 
 to tell us 
 
 it is desir- 
 ve have no 
 md remote 
 ilbi^tuiches 
 
 CANADIAN BlGSMTliNARY PAPERS. 7 
 
 of that genealogical tree which blossomed and fruited so 
 ^gloriously 200 years ago, and though we call no man 
 ,' *' Rabbi,*' vaunt no human names, and glory only in the 
 Lord, it is our aim to stand where our nonconforming fore- 
 fathers stood^ in the *' good old paths" of fidelity to con- 
 science and submission to God only, in matters of religion. 
 Lacking, as it must be confessed that we do, much of that 
 e^rit de corpsy which characterizes other denominations^ 
 )it may do something to kindle becoming enthusiasir. in our 
 own hearts, to see how the men of another age felt and 
 acted under the influence of principles for which we are 
 called to witness to-day. It may encourage us too, amid 
 our trials and difficulties, to observe how, in the furrows 
 plowed long and deep through a suffering land two hundred 
 years ago, the seeds of truth were sown, from which a glo^ 
 irioua harvest is now being reaped. Surely such considera- 
 Itions as these justify, nay demand^ that we as well as our 
 i^Fathers and Brethren in Great Britain, should recall the 
 -«vent of 1662, and bend our attention to the great lessons 
 M so loudly teaches. 
 
 ^ Fully to relate the circumstances which preceded and 
 
 ^attended the ejectment of the Nonconformists, would re- 
 
 Iquire more lengthened extracts from the page of English 
 
 history than could possibly be crowded into this brief 
 
 i|>a{>er. A convenient starting point will be the \&^t days 
 
 fof Kino Charles, erroneously, shall we say superstitiously, 
 
 «Btyled " The Martyr." A series of persecuting acta, com- 
 
 Ibined with the exercise of arbitrary power in civil affairs, 
 
 Isxasperated the English nation, led to the overthrow of the 
 
 fChurch as by law established, and brought the reign of the 
 
 mi^uided monarch just mentioned to an abrupt and tragic 
 
 close. The overturning of the Throne and Church took 
 
 rplace because the state of society was volcanic, and those 
 
 -who might have warded off the catastrophe w^ro infatuated 
 
8 
 
 CANADIAN BICENTENARY PAPERS. 
 
 t 
 
 enough to hurry it on. A people ripe for larger freedom 
 could not brook the imposition of new and unconstitutional 
 restraints. Ecclesiastic and monarch were too proud and 
 obstinate to bend at the bidding of reason and right, they 
 despised conciliation and reform, and counted too confi- 
 dently on their ability to crush and subdue the demand for 
 civil and religious liberty. As Dr. Vaughan well observes, 
 "That church would be a superstitious and intolerant 
 church, and she paid the penalty ; that king would be a 
 tyrannical king, and would deal treacherously with his 
 subjects to the last ; and the natural consequences fol- 
 lowed." 
 
 On the establishment of the Commonwealth, " that great 
 Englishman, Oliver Cromwell," to whom history has at 
 length done tardy justice, showed himself far in advance 
 of the spirit of the age, in his views of the rights of con- 
 science, and the nature of true religious freedom. It must 
 be frankly confessed that the Puritans or Presbyterians, as 
 they were henceforth called, were but too ready to copy 
 recent prelatical examples. Having now the power, they 
 showed, in many instances, the disposition to persecute. 
 The Book of Common Prayer, not then so objectionable in 
 some of its features as it is now, was suppressed. Its use 
 was made a penal offence. A " Directory of Public Wor- 
 ship" was prescribed in its stead, and was required, under 
 threat of pains and penalties, to be used " in all exercises 
 of the public worship of God." The sequestration, about 
 this time, of a large number of the clergy, was a high 
 handed act of authority which it is impossible wholly to 
 justify. Still this ejection neither paralleled nor resembled 
 that enforced in 1662 by the Act of Uniformity. It is 
 important to have this clearly understood, because very 
 extraordinary and unsupported statements are sometimes 
 made in reference to the matter. Very few of the clwgy 
 
 WJ 
 
 sal 
 
 ^tl 
 
 erj 
 
 .tol 
 
 th 
 
 taJ 
 
 .icai 
 
 bei 
 
 «o[ 
 
 wo 
 
 no 
 
 rai 
 
 ant 
 
 #ei 
 
 Ihe 
 
 jrob 
 
 ^cor 
 
 oth 
 
 mei 
 
 woi 
 
 ion 
 
 Wei 
 
 son 
 
 Wei 
 
 tid< 
 
 Of 1 
 
 Wh( 
 
 the 
 
 by 
 
 bee 
 
 ftet 
 
CANADIAN BICENTENARY PAPERS. 
 
 9 
 
 irger freedom 
 constitutional 
 00 proud and 
 id right, they 
 ted too confi- 
 iie demand for 
 well observes, 
 ,nd intolerant 
 g would be a 
 isly with his 
 sequences fol- 
 
 h, " that great 
 
 listorv has at 
 
 ar in advance 
 
 rights of con- 
 
 lom. It must 
 
 ssbyterians, as 
 
 ready to copy 
 
 power, they 
 
 to persecute. 
 
 yectionable in 
 
 sed. Its use 
 
 Public Wor- 
 
 quired, under 
 
 all exercises 
 
 ration, about 
 
 was a high- 
 
 le wholly to 
 
 or resembled 
 
 mity. It is 
 
 ecause very 
 
 e sometimes 
 
 f the cl^gy 
 
 whom the Puritans ejected were sufferers for conscience 
 pake. The great majority were set aside for absolute vice, 
 Jitter incompetency, or for opposition to the existing gov- 
 ernment. Many of the clergy, from the active part they 
 took in the national struggles then going on, suffered from 
 the chances of war, and were plundered by the parliamen- 
 tary soldiery, not because they were Conformists, but be- 
 jcause they were Cavaliers. The Rev. D. Mountfield, who, 
 being an Episcopalian clergyman, may well be regarded as 
 good authority for such a statement, says in his valuable 
 work recently published :* " Some of them probably were 
 BO loss to their parishes, being drunkards, swearers, igno- 
 Rint as well as ungodly ; but others were good men, holy 
 •nd learned, who had done no man wrong, a Hammond, a 
 #eremy Taylor, a Prideaux, a Hall, a Nicholas Ferrar; 
 Ihese men were treated with remorseless bigotry, insulted, 
 jrobbed, beggared, imprisoned — sixteen hundred in all, ac- 
 ^cording to some — two thousand four hundred, according to 
 ©thers." It must also be borne in mind that these clergy- 
 Ipen had no option in the matter — they did not, like the 
 •irorthies of 1662, resign their livings to maintain a clear 
 Conscience — they went out of the church because they 
 Were not allowed to remain in it. On their ejection, too, 
 iome provision was made for their maintenance. They 
 Were allowed a fifth part of their livings, a lenient and con- 
 llderate arrangement which you look for in vain in the case 
 of the ejected Nonconformists. Moreover, many of those 
 Who were ejected by the Long Parliament for not taking 
 Ifce covenant, the only religious test imposed, were restored 
 hy Oliver Cromwell's "Triers." Many more would have 
 been thus restored, if their characters and ministerial qua- 
 
 , ♦ Two Hundred Years Ago : An account of the Ejection of the Puritans 
 ttom the Church of England, and the efforts made to restore them, with a 
 ftetoh of their rise. 1862. 
 
 i 
 
w 
 
 10 
 
 CANADIAN EICENTENAUV PAPERS. 
 
 if 
 
 lifications would have stood examination. The whole case 
 is a weighty ailment against State Churchism, showing, 
 OS it does most conclusively, that the dominancy of one 
 sect is sure to induce persecution of others. Puritanism* 
 itself, when allied with the civil power, became oppressive 
 and exacting. Toleration and liberty of conscience were 
 denounced as "damnable doctrines," and a spiritual 
 tyranny as objectionable in principle, though not so cruel 
 in spirit, as that of Laud, was established. The brief era 
 of Puritan supremacy is an ample historical justification of 
 the present race of Nonconformists, who not only refuse to 
 subscribe to the declaration of assent and consent, but 
 oppose, with united front and resolute determination, the 
 union between Church and State in any and every form. 
 
 Anxious as Cromwell unquestionably was to prevent a 
 second tyranny rising up in the place of the one which had 
 been overthrown, he was unable wholly to repress the dis- 
 position to employ force in religious matters. He was 
 sagacious enough to foresee the inevitable results of the 
 alienation and strife which are naturally begotten by in- 
 tolerance, and exerted himself to check and allay these 
 tendencies. " When the parties which were then formed 
 became angry, and sometimes vented their anger in hard 
 words against each other, it was he who came in with words 
 of caution and exhortations to forbearance, urging them to 
 seek a settlement on the ground of what some men would 
 call compromise, but which he, as an. enlightened statesman, 
 described as a settlement by mutual concession on the basis 
 of mutual right and duty. He told them that if they would 
 pursue that course, what they had gained at the cost of so 
 much blood and treasure, would be preserved ; but if they 
 should pursue the contrary course, then, said he, 'you 
 will be thrust to the wall. Charles Stuart will come back, 
 and you will be all left to feed upon your little crotchets as 
 
 bi*. 
 
I 
 
 CANADIAN BICENTENARY PAPERS. 
 
 11 
 
 I whole case 
 n, showing, 
 kncy of one 
 Puritanism* 
 
 oppressive 
 nence were 
 a spiritual 
 lot so cruel 
 e brief era 
 tification of 
 [y refuse to 
 )nsent, but 
 [nation, the 
 >ry form. 
 
 prevent a 
 which had 
 iss the dis- 
 He was 
 ilts of the 
 ten by in- 
 llay these 
 en formed 
 sr in hard 
 rith words 
 g them to 
 len would 
 statesman, 
 
 the basis 
 ley would 
 cost of so 
 ut if they 
 he, *you 
 »me back, 
 )tchets as 
 
 |rou best may, and very sorry provender you will find it, 
 P warrant you!'"* What was thi^s predicted, actually 
 lame to pass ere long. Very soon after the great Pro- 
 ifector's death, the days of the Commonwealth were num- 
 Ifeered. Weary of uncertainty, experiment, and apparently 
 interminable contention, the nation hailed, almost with one 
 bMirt and voice, the restoration of the monai'chy in the 
 glnrson of the second Charles. The unanimity and enthu- 
 dbsm displayed in connexion with this event, were largely 
 firing to that memorable "Declaration from Breda," in 
 H^ich the politic monarch, eying wistfully the vacant throne 
 «i England, promised that he would grant "liberty to 
 ttlttder consciences," and pledged his royal word, that no 
 H^n should be " disquieted or called in question for differ- 
 VIBices of opinion " in religious matters. The long distracted 
 alktion regarded this as the manifesto of an enlightened 
 |iwnce who had learnt excellent lessons in the school of 
 diversity. All parties indulged the hope that with larger 
 fiNtedom, peace and concord would be established through- 
 oltt the realm. But soon the old tendency to civil and 
 religious tyranny which had once wrecked and ruined the 
 fiwtunes of the Stuart dynasty, began again to betray 
 tteelf. Hardly was the restored monarch fixed on his 
 throne, when systematic measures were instituted in order 
 <l» subdue independent and refractory thinking, and bind 
 ^le whole nation with the chain of uniformity. Episcopacy 
 •Was in the ascendant again, and true to its antecedents, 
 determined to make no concession and extend no toleration 
 tO« the " sectaries." Though the Puritan divines were in- 
 "Vtted to conferences, and some plausible overtures made for 
 ft basis of harmonious adjustment of differences, it soon 
 bteame evident that the Episcopalian party was determined 
 
 Sfj^- 
 
 * Dr. VAughan's case of the Kjected Ministers of 1662. 
 
12 
 
 CANADIAN BICENTENARY PAPEUS^. 
 
 to have everything its own way, and to get rid of all wha 
 placed any value on liberty of thought, freedom of con- 
 science, and the right of private judgment. The Puritans 
 or Presbyterians as they were mterchangeably and indis- 
 criminately called, were not disposed to he stieklish about 
 minor matters. Had they been met in a spirit of generous 
 and magnanimous consideration, an adjustment alike honour- 
 able to all concerned, might doubtless have been eflFected. 
 But throughout the entire procedure^ the bishops and their 
 party displayed an exclusiveness and arrogance, such as 
 quite precluded an harmonious issue. So obviously was 
 this the case, that Episcopalian writers in speaking of the 
 history of that period, employ language quite as strong as 
 any Non-conformist could do. Archdeacon Hare says, "All 
 hope of union was blasted by that second most disastrous, 
 most tyrannical, and schismatieal Act of Uniformity, the 
 authors of which it is plain^ were not seeMng unity hut 
 division^ According to Bishop Burnet, " care was taken 
 that nothing should be altered as it had been moved by the 
 Presbyterians for it was resolved to gratify them in 
 nothing^ The Puritans wished to make the Church of 
 England comprehend all who held essentially the common 
 faith of Christians. The aim of the bishops was to make 
 this comprehension impossible, — at least it was resolved to 
 exclude every puritan. " It is to be called a ' comprehen- 
 sive'' church," said the Bishop of Ely with coarse and con- 
 temptuous ridicule, when preaching before the King, — 
 " though I think it might better be called a drag-net^ — or 
 a Trojan horse with a comprehensive helly .'" Isaac Taylor 
 states, that the whole proceeding seems to have been con- 
 ducted " with the express object of preventing any exten- 
 sive conformity talcing place." The whole design of the con- 
 ferences, so far as the Episcopalian leaders were concerned, 
 appears to have been to ascertain how far the Puritans 
 
CANADIAN BICENTENARY PAPERig. 
 
 13 
 
 were prepared to go in the way of concession, in order that 
 hy making exti'avagant demands in that direction, compli- 
 ance might be rendered impossible. When the Earl of 
 Manchester told the King in the presence of Sheldon, 
 Bishop of London, "he was afraid the terms of conformity 
 were so hard that many ministers would not comply," — 
 the Bishop replied, " he was afraid they would, but now we 
 know their minds,^^ he added, *'we will make them all 
 KNAVES IF they CONFORM.^' When after the act came into 
 force. Dr. Allan said, "it is a pity the door is so strait," 
 SheMon replied, " No pity at all ; if we had thought so 
 many of them would have conformed, we would have made 
 it straiter." 
 
 The Act of TJniforniity required that every one who 
 ministered in the Church should declare " his unfeigned 
 assent and consent to all and everything contained and 
 prescribed in and by the book entitled, 'The Book of Com- 
 mon Prayer, and Administration of Sacraments, and «thcr 
 Rites and Ceremonies of the Church, according to the use 
 of the Church of England ; together with the Psalter, <»• 
 Psalms of David, printed as they are to be sung in Churcfaesi: 
 and the Form or Manner of Making, Ordaining, and Conse- 
 crating of Bishops, Priests, and Deacons.^" The Pray«r 
 Book to which " unfeigned assent and consent" was thus 
 required, had jusrt been subjected to a Revision, the prime 
 objfecc of which seems to have been to render it as distaste- 
 ful and objectionable as possible to the Puritans. This is 
 acknowledged by Episcopalians themselves. A distingui^k- 
 ■cd Episcopalian writer, yv^i quoted, Isaac Taylor, in liis 
 pamphlet on Liturgical Revision, says: — "In this unwise 
 and unchristian spirit the Prayer Book was systematically 
 Tevised— obnoxious ceremonies were not only retained, but 
 arere fortified by auxihaffy rubrics; almost ev«ry incidental 
 w^d or phrase in the Liturgy which ^e Puritans valuediis 
 
19911 
 
 14 
 
 CANADIAN BICENTENARY PAPERS. 
 
 being favourable to their own eeclesiastical theories or their 
 doctrinal views, was now carefully excised, and such words 
 and such phrases were substituted as were known to be 
 specially offensive to their prejudices. Those matters about 
 which the Puritans scrupled were now made more promi> 
 nent; and a coherence and systematic consistent^ were 
 now given to those sacerdotal and sacramental theories 
 which bad previously existed in the Prayer Book only in an 
 embryotic condition; and certain dogmas, whichy by ihe 
 moderation of the Beformers, had been couched in vague 
 and general ternks, were now expressed in ample and 
 emphatic phraseology.'* 
 
 Again^ he says, in reference to certain alterations, that 
 they " seem to have been made with no other assignable 
 object than that of rtndering^ the Prayer Boole distasteful 
 to the PuritnnnSj and' so preventingr any probable or pomble 
 conformity. ^^ Mr. Taylor describes these alterations in 
 detail, and a few samples may be given. "In spite of 
 remonstrance, additional lesscms were added from the Apo- 
 crypha, and the discretionary liberty previoasly possessed 
 of changing such Lessons for others, was taken away. In. 
 the words of Hallam, Hhe Puritans having always objectect 
 to the number of saints' days, the Bishops added a fevr 
 more — ^more than sixty of the mythical or semi-historical 
 heroes of monkish legends,^ and for the charitable purpose 
 of annoying those who objected to all commemorations of 
 the kind, the names of a few Popes were included in the 
 list ; because it was desired ' that parents might be allowed 
 to present their own children at the font, and to dispense 
 with liie ihtervention (rf other sponsors^ to^ vender that 
 impombhy a rubric was now first added to enjoin three 
 god-parents for every child ;' and the Puritans wishing the 
 word '^ priest ' to be changed to ' minister, ' the words 
 'pastor' and 'minister' were changed into prie»t^ with 
 
CANADIAN BICENTENARY PAPEBS. 
 
 15 
 
 If theur 
 words 
 to be 
 3 about 
 promi- 
 Y were 
 heories 
 \y in an 
 by the 
 1 vague 
 )le and 
 
 IS, that 
 ngnaMe 
 tmteful 
 
 tions in 
 spite of 
 ;he Apo- 
 !)sse6sed 
 jay. In. 
 objected? 
 d a fevo 
 listorical 
 purpose 
 itions of 
 sd in the 
 allowed 
 dispense 
 deT that 
 m tHree 
 ihing the 
 e words 
 st^^ with 
 
 i'Sa 
 
 other offensive alterations that could not but have been 
 designed." 
 
 " These changes," he adds, " trifling and indifferent as 
 perhaps they seem at the present time, struck with a 
 deadly malignity at the points which, to the Puritans, 
 seemed vital points. The Puritans held that a bishop was 
 only primus inter pares: that is the difference between 
 bishops and presbyters was a difference of degree^ not a 
 difference of order — or, to use the words of Cranmer, that 
 * they were both one office in the beginning of Christ^s 
 religion.' 
 
 " In the reigns of Edward and Elizabeth, the Church of 
 England, by statute, as well as in practice, had recognised 
 Presbyterian ordination. At the close of the sixteenth 
 century, ' scores if not hundreds ' of clergymen were offici- 
 ating in the Church of England who had been ordained by 
 presbyters in Scotland, or on the continent. 
 
 " Now, however, a clause was inserted in the preface to 
 the Ordinal, asserting the necessity of Episcopalian ordina- 
 tion, and consequently denying the validity of the orders of 
 all those who had been ordained during the last fifteen or 
 twenty years. . .. 
 
 '"'' This liturgical change was not suffered to remain a dead 
 letter. The Act of Uniformity deprived of their ministerial 
 character all those who had received Preshyterian ordina- 
 tion, unless by consenting to Episcopal re-ordination, they 
 would agree virtually to confess the nullity of thdr pre- 
 vious ministrations. 
 
 " But while the leaders of the High Church party were 
 devising liturgical innovations, which they well knew would 
 drive their antagonists out of the Church, at the same time, 
 with an almost blasphemous irony, they inserted in the 
 Litany a petition /or deliveraTice from that * schism' which 
 
 THEY WERE THEMSELVES INTENTIONALLY BRINGING ABOUT hy 
 
 their own high-handed and intolerant conduct." 
 
u 
 
 CANADIAN BICENTENARY PAPERS. 
 
 The celebrated John Locke, a most competent witness, 
 has left on record some striking observations illustrative of 
 the spirit in which the Act of Uniformity was framed and 
 passed, and while he expresses his own view of the reason 
 why many complied with the Act, he clearly shows that it 
 was meant to exclude the most conscientious and devout. He 
 says : — " Immediately after this, followed the * Act of Uni- 
 formity.' This, the clergy, i.e.^ the greater part, readily 
 complied with ; for you know that sort of men are taught 
 rather to obey than understand, and to use that learning 
 they have, to justify, not to examine. And yet that * Bar- 
 tholomew-day' was fatal to our church and religion, in 
 throwing out a very great number of worthy, learned, pious, 
 and orthodox divines, who could not come up to this and 
 other things in the Act. And it is upon this occasion 
 worthy your knowledge, that so great was the zeal in 
 carrying on this church affair, and so blind was the obedi- 
 ence required, that if you compute the time of the passing 
 of this Act, with the time allowed for the clergy to sub- 
 scribe the Book of Common Prayer, thereby established, 
 you shall find it could not be printed and distributed so as 
 one map in forty could have seen the book they so perfectly 
 assent and consent to. It is a fact that the Common 
 Prayer Book, with the alterations and amendments made 
 by the Convocation, did not come out of the press until a 
 few days before the 24th of August, when those who could 
 not comply with its requirements were ejected from their 
 livings." * 
 
 In addition to the "unfeigned assent and consent" to 
 "all and everything" in the Prayer Book, the Act of Uni- 
 formity required subscription to the three articles of the 
 86th Canon, wherein the King's supremacy in spiritual or 
 
 ♦ Locke's Works, Vol. X. 
 
 > 
 
CANADIAN BICENTENARY PAPERS. 
 
 IT 
 
 I 
 
 ecclesiastical things is asserted, the faultlessness of the 
 Prayer Bpok emphatically affirmed, and the 39 articles 
 declared to be agreeable to the Word of God. " The pre- 
 scribed and enforced form of subscription was singularly 
 distinct, unequivocal, and solemn." " One order and form 
 of words " must be used, and no other. " For the avoiding 
 of all ambiguities," both the Christian and surname of the 
 subscriber was to be set down, and he must declare, " I, 
 N. N., do willingly and ex animo subscribe to these three 
 articles above mentioned, and to all things that are con- 
 tained in themy No room was afforded for evasion, no 
 opportunity given for mental reservation. Subscription 
 could not be excused by the pressure of constraint. " Wil- 
 lingly and from the soul " must the act be done. 
 
 The issue thus presented was distinct and clear. Ex- 
 pressed in the briefest possible terms, the question that 
 rung in many a good man's conscience was, " Will you lie 
 for the sake of emolument and place ?" It is true that 
 much diversity of opinion prevailed among those who alike 
 felt the impossibility, as honest and truthful men, of con- 
 formity. On a variety of points they were not agreed. To 
 some, one class of difficulties, in the way of conformity, 
 seemed less insuperable than they did to others. As 
 Baxter says : — " The Nonconformists were of divers sorts, 
 some being further distant from conformity than others." 
 The grievous corruptions allowed in the Church, as re- 
 organized under Charles 11. , seemed insurmountable ob- 
 stacles to conformity in the case of those who had solemnly 
 sworn to effect ecclesiastical reformation. Others were 
 greatly exercised at the unjustifiable terms of communion 
 imposed by the Act of Uniformity. Others could by no 
 means reconcile Diocesan Episcopacy with the Word of 
 God. Others regarded the oath of canonical obedience as 
 pledging submission to a spiritual usurpation which cast 
 
18 
 
 CANADIAN BICENTENAllY PAPERS. 
 
 
 ^ii 
 
 dishonour on the crown and dignity of Christ. Those who 
 had received Presbyterian ordination could not, by sub- 
 mitting to re-ordination by bishops, declare that they had 
 not in the past been ministers of Christ. 
 
 In reference, however, to the "unfeigned assent and 
 consent to all and everything in the Prayer-Book," the 
 Nonconformists saw p^^e to eye. They were unanimous in 
 objecting to the Apocryphal Lessons, they could not use a 
 baptismal service which in the plain intent and meaning of 
 the words, declared ''all baptized infants to be regenerate 
 by the Holy Ghost," — the Confirmation Service staggered 
 them, — they saw no Scriptural warrant for the adminis- 
 tration of the Lord's Supper to persons notoriously unfit, 
 — they could not make the authoritative and uncon- 
 ditional declaration of absolution to all sick persons who 
 profess repentance, — ^nor could they read the sublime and 
 touching burial service indiscriminately over all the dead. In 
 these things they were agreed, and when it was demanded 
 of them to give their "assent" and "consent" to what 
 they firmly believed to be contrary to the Word of God, 
 they nobly refused. To the question, " Will you lie for 
 the sake of emolument and place?" a glorious army of 
 two thousand gave forth an emphatic " No !" whose thun- 
 der-tones echoed and re-echoed throughout their island 
 home, and whose reverberations, at the distance of two 
 hundred years, are loud and distinct as ever. Conscien- 
 tious, straightforward. God-fearing men as they were, 
 they knew nothing of those modern arts of syllogistic jug- 
 glery, by which some conforming clergymen in the present 
 day, contrive to convince themselves, that it is honest and 
 right to subscribe to one ereed and hold another. As the 
 Rev. J. G. Rogers well remarks,* " They had not learned 
 
 * {isctwe on *< Pf^rltfoit Non(»aformi8t«, and Dissenters." 
 
CANADIAN BICENTENARY PAPERS. 
 
 the ingenious subtleties of Mn. Wilson and other authors of 
 * Subscription made Easy,' — they had not cultivated the 
 wondrous art by which words are made to assume such 
 different senses at the will of the speaker, — they could not 
 construe a positive declaration into a charitabl-e hope, — in 
 short, they were simple men who took the words as they 
 found them, and discovering in them ideas which they held 
 to be errors, they could not solemnly subscribe to them as 
 truths." Their unsophisticated consciences received ast 
 unquestionable axioms, the propositions, that " unfeigned 
 assent and consent to all and everything contained in a given 
 book, can never be rightly professed if even a jot or a tittle 
 be doubted," and that " honest men cannot use formu- 
 laries WHICH they think TO BE UNTRUE OR CONTRARY TO THE 
 
 Word op God." The singleness of heart and tenderness 
 of conscience manifested by the Nonconformists of 1662, 
 is- rendered all the more conspicuous, impressive, and 
 instructive by the contrast which is to be seen, not only in 
 the case of the semi-sceptics officiating at Episcopal altars, 
 but in that of the earnest, evangelical men who feel inward 
 shrinkings and heart-misgivings in the discharge of those 
 o£l jal duties which, in effect, express and renew, from time 
 to time, "assent" and "consent" to what they regard as 
 unscriptural. Inwardly sighing for some deliverance from 
 a painful yoke, and fearing lest souls may be misled by the 
 formularies which they can only pronounce with mental 
 reservation, they must be, aiid doubtless are, the victims of 
 many a pang from which a higher consistency and nobler 
 courage would at once, and forever, deliver them. One is 
 forcibly reminded, in the presence of such a contrast, of a 
 question put by one of Nathaniel Hey wood's parishioners, 
 who, anxious to retain his beloved pastor, exclaimed, " Oh I 
 sir, many a man now-a-days makes a great gash in his 
 conscience — camnot yowmdke a little niek in yours f That 
 
'^ 
 
 n 
 
 I 
 
 20 
 
 CA5ADIA1V BrCERTENART PAPCRft 
 
 ^painfbl and successful preacher," a» be is described to 
 bare been, left bis much-loved charge because he could not 
 make ^^a m>ib" in bis cooecience, and it nable rpectavie that 
 was of tw9 thousand tender, umnutilated conscienc;.;:/, own** 
 ing subjection to God alone. What a contrast to inanj a 
 gashed and wounded consdence- on which it is our raisfor* 
 tune and sorrow to gaze in certain quarters to-dby t 
 
 These faithful men had contemporaries who* soothed 
 inward uneasiness, and orercamo conscientious repugnance 
 by the help uf evasion and subterfuge. Some got over the 
 difficult J of re-ordination by the help of an ingenious theory, 
 that it was but a renewul of what had been already effected^ 
 and was actumulatke in its character and influence. With 
 reference to the Prayer Book, though objection was felt, it 
 was reserved not to *^ philosophize upon the words," bat to 
 accept the requirements of the Act as simply implying 
 approval of the use of the Common Prayer, a view which, 
 when attempted to be embodied in a HeHef Bill the year 
 foUowii^, was declared by Parliament to have "neither 
 law nor justice in it." ^he blessedness of union, the im- 
 portance of reducing the ecclesiastical confusions of the 
 times, the folly of sacrificing great influence and usefulness 
 for the sake of small scruples, these and like considerations 
 weighed with not a few. " One M. Frank, S. T. P., asked, 
 withimpas^oned earnestness, were their talents, their offices, 
 and their powers of doing good at their own disposal ? 
 Were the cries of their people, and their families hanging 
 on them^ easily answered ? Was the importunity of friends, 
 the persuasions of foreign divineB,and the authority of ancient 
 custom, to go for nothing? Only small matters were in 
 the way, and he that died of the bite of a weasel, lamented 
 that it was not a li(»." * But there were two thousand 
 
 * See Stoagbton'B Cburdi and State Two Hundred Tears Ago, pp. 287-6. 
 
CANADIAN BTCENTENART PAPERS. 
 
 SI 
 
 who could not resort to subterfuge and evasion. The Act 
 was pressed upon them in the ^^strint fjrammatical meanr 
 ingy It did not seem to them that questions of truth, 
 honesty, sincerity, faith, were " small matters." Than these, 
 they knew of no larger interests anywhere in the domain 
 of moral obligatioi, as defined by that only rule of human 
 belief and action — the Word of Ood, 
 
 The conduct of these noble men, the principles on which 
 they acted, and the spirit they manifested, atl through the 
 trying ordeal to which they were subjected, show dearly 
 that they were not influenced by caprioe, ©r by the morbid 
 sensitiveness of weak, tender, but unenlightened consciencesi, 
 but that a high sense of duty reigned supreme, and their 
 guiding star was the apostolic maxim, "we ought to obey 
 God rather than men." Imperative indeed must that sense 
 of duty have been, which led a Calamy, the most popular 
 of London ministers, — a Baxter, to whom «, bishopric had 
 been offered, — a Howe, with his clear judgment and elevated 
 piety, — a Henry, who s© loycd his work that the Sabbath 
 often seemed to him heaven itseif, and who had a eeneem 
 to be among the " quiet of the land," that he might prose- 
 cute his beloved work unmolested, — and such kindred 
 spirits as Owen, and Charnock, and Manton, and Bates, and 
 Flavel, with ©thers, forming a galaxy ©f gifted and saintly 
 men such as no single age, before or since, has produced — 
 imperative indeed must that sense of duty have been which 
 compelled them simultaneously to vacate their pulpits, sacri- 
 fice their daily bread, and go forth into a cold world, not 
 knowing whither they went. Jo&n Howe, in a eonversataon 
 with Bishop Wilkins, remarked, " that one thing he could 
 tell him, with assurance, that that latitude of his to which 
 the Bishop had been referripg (meaning his catholicity of 
 spirit, and liberality of principle and feeling) was so far 
 from inducing him to cojaformity, that it was the v^y thing 
 
'pi 
 
 Hi^^^nSCuS^SSRBS 
 
 •' 
 
 III 
 
 CAWADIAIT BrCENTENART PAPERS^. 
 
 which nmde him and kept him a Nonconformist. He coutd 
 not recognifie in the present constitution tiiose noble and 
 generous principles of communion which he thought must, 
 sooner or later, eharaeto-ise eyeiy C^hurch ®f Christ ; that^ 
 conse^^ntly, wlien that flourislwng state of religjbn, should 
 arrive, which be ♦^hought he had sufficient warrant from the 
 Word of God to expect, a constitution which rested on 
 such an exclusive basis nwist fall ; that beKeving this to be- 
 the case, he was nO' i7wr» -wiUmg^ to- exercise hi'» rmmstryf 
 'vnder-auch a system than he wmtlat 5^ t(M dwell m a house 
 with an insecture Jmmdngti^nf" 
 
 " Pray, sir," said another bishop to Hovre, " "vvhat hurt is; 
 there in beir^ twic^ ordained ^^ " Hurt, my lord,"" rejoineci 
 fiowe;; "it hurts msy understsaiding; the- thought is shock- 
 ing; it is an absurdity,, since notliing can have two be- 
 ginnings- I an> sure I am a minister of Christ,, and am 
 leady to debate that matter with you^ if y©ur loitdship 
 pleases, lait I cannot begm agaiib to be a miriste»:"' 
 
 j^jiother cf the greeted, John Oldfield of Derbyshire, int 
 % soliloquy fouiid among bis papers after his decease, says, 
 "^It is not, oh my soul! a light nmtter thoui art now emr- 
 ployed in ;, it is do4 thy maintenance, family, wife, or ehild- 
 3ten^ thai! are- tlie main things cwisideKable in this enquiry.. 
 Forget these till thou art come to^a resoltetion in th& mainf 
 "business. It is, oh my soul, the glory of God, the credit 
 and advantage of religion,, the good of that poor flock com- 
 mitted to thy keeping by the Holy Ghost,. — thy ministry,, 
 thy conscience, thy salvation, and the salvation of others,, 
 irhat nnist cast th« seale and determine thy resolution^ 
 And where alJ cannot be at once promoted (or at least seemt 
 lo cross one another), it in fit the less should give place to 
 the greater. Thy ministry, thy people must be singularly 
 dear and precious to thee ; incomparably above body, food,, 
 laimjent, wife, children,, and. life itself; but whea thoa canst 
 
CANADIAN BICENTENARY PAPERS, 
 
 2a 
 
 could 
 le and 
 must, 
 ; thaty 
 should 
 om the 
 ted on 
 s to be- 
 imstty/ 
 rj( house 
 
 hurt is 
 
 •ejoined 
 
 shock- 
 
 \T0 be- 
 
 and am 
 
 ordship 
 
 ' ■ s ■• -- 
 
 shire, inr 
 se, says, 
 now emr 
 or child- 
 BTkquiry.. 
 h& maini 
 m credit 
 )ckcom- 
 mnistryy 
 r others^ 
 solution, 
 list seemt 
 place to* 
 ingularly 
 idy, food,, 
 xoacan&l 
 
 no longer continue in thy work without dishonour to God, 
 wounding conscience, spoiling thy peace, and hazarding the 
 loss of thy salvation, — in a word, when the conditions on 
 which thou must continue, (if thou wilt continue), in thy 
 employment are sinful, and unwarranted by the Word of 
 God, thou mayest, yea thou must, believe that God will 
 turn thy very silence, suspension, deprivation, and laying 
 aside, to his glory and the gospel interest." 
 
 Another ejected minister writes : "A noble lord enquired 
 whether I would conform or not.' I answered, 'such 
 things were enjoined as I could not swallow, and therefore 
 should be necessitated to sound a retreat.' His lordship 
 seemed much concerned for me ; but seeing me unmoved, 
 he said with a sigh, ' I wish it had been otherwise ; but 
 they were resolved either to reproach you or undo you.' " 
 Another great peer, when speaking to him of tho hard terms 
 of conformity, replied, " I confess I could scarcely do so 
 much for the Bible as they require for the Common Prayer 
 Book." . , 
 
 " My God," exclaims one of these spiritual heroes as he 
 writhes amid the anguish of his inward struggle, "My God! 
 may I declare my unfeigned assent and consent to all things 
 in this book of Common Prayer, and to the use of those 
 unprofitable, but most offensive ceremonies, which have 
 occasioned so much mischief already in the church, and 
 turned so many out of the way ? to the constant practice 
 of this Common Prayer as it now is ? to this consecration 
 of bishops, and to many things in the ordaining priests and 
 deaccis? t'> the reading of those vain stories in the Apo- 
 crypha, while so much of thy word, inspired by thy Spirit, 
 is left out ? to those things in the Catechism which intimate 
 Baptismal Regeneration ? May I now renounce the solemn 
 oath, the covenant, wherein the nations stand bound to a 
 reformation?" &c. "My Lord," he adds, "I am at thy 
 
 ^ 
 
24 
 
 CANADIAN BICENTENARY PAPERS. 
 
 ■1' I 
 
 I :i 
 
 ^a 
 
 f 1! 
 
 I 
 
 footstool ; I may not do evil that good may come, I may 
 not do this great sin against my God, and the dictates of 
 my conscience. I therefore surrender myself, my soul, my 
 ministry, my people, my place, my wife and children, and 
 whatsoever else is herein concerned, into thy hand from 
 whom I received them. Lord have mercy upon me, and 
 assist me for ever to " keep faith and a good conscience /" 
 The prayer was heard, and years after on the bed of death, 
 in reviewing his decision, the good man exclaimed with 
 devout thankfulness, "I bless God vvith all my soul I 
 did not conform." 
 
 Edward Bury, a worthy minister at Great Bolas, in 
 Shropshire, thus records his deliberate judgment as to duty 
 in the matter: — " I solemnly profess, in the presence of the 
 Great God, before whom I must shortly give an account of 
 my words and actions, that in my most impartial judgment, 
 after all the light I can get by reading, praying, thinking, and 
 discoursing with about twenty judicious and solid divines, 
 of both persuasions, I look upon it us my duty not to con- 
 form ; and whatever becomes either of myself or my family, 
 as I cannot force my judgment, so I will not dare to force 
 my conscience." *' Before the Act of Uniformity came 
 forth," writes Mrs. Alleit e, wife of the saintly author of 
 "Alleine's Alarm," "my husband was very earnest, day 
 and night, with God, that his way might be made plain to 
 him, and that he might not desist from such advantages of 
 saving souls, with any scruple upon his spirit. He seemed 
 so moderate, that both myself and others thought he would 
 have conformed ; he often saying that he would not leave 
 his work for small and dubious matters ; but when he saw 
 those clauses of assent and consent^ and renouncing the 
 Covenant, he was fully satisfied." -• v- - '- j- .,• . ,i 
 
 ' Lawrence, of Baschurch, near Shrewsbury, observed, 
 ** that if he would have consulted with flesh and blood, ho 
 
CANADIAN BICENTENARY PAPERS. 
 
 25 
 
 had eleven good arguments for conformity, for he had a 
 wife and ten children dependent on him for support." 
 " Brethren," exclaimed Mr. Lye, another of their number, 
 " I would do very much for the love I bear to you ; but / 
 dare not sin. I know they will tell you this is pride and 
 peevishness in us — that we are tender of our reputation, 
 and would fain all be bishops, andfforty things more ; but 
 the Lord be witness between them and us in this. Be- 
 loved, I prefer my wife and children before a blast of air or 
 people's talk. I am very sensible of what it is to be re- 
 duced to a morsel of bread. Let the God of Heaven and 
 earth do what he will with me, if I could have subscribed 
 with a good conscience, I would. I would do anything to 
 keep myself in the work of God ; but to sin against God, 
 I DARE not." 
 
 ■ Volumes might be filled with extracts, facts, and anec- 
 dotes, illustrative of the principles on which this noble 
 army of martyrs acted. But the samples now given must 
 suffice. Next to the story of what they did^ naturally 
 comes the account of what they suffered. As if to be equal 
 in disgrace and infamy to that Romish Church from which 
 it was but partially reformed, and to give Protestantism, as 
 well as Popery, a '"'•Black Bartholomew^^ the day desig- 
 nated in the Calendar of the Church the "Feast of St. 
 Bartholomew, August 24th, was chosen as the date of 
 ejectment by the rampant Episcopacy of 1662. The time 
 was fixed at such a part of the year that, if they did not 
 conform, they would lose all the profits of their livings for 
 that year, which was drawing towards its close. The day 
 came, and two thousand noble confessors, with their wives 
 and children, were houseless, homeless, penniless. This 
 was but the beginning of sorrows. Their history hence- 
 forth was one of peril and straits. " Some died broLen- 
 hearted, some left the country, some became physicians, 
 
m 
 
 CANAMAN BICENTENARY PAPERS. 
 
 I 
 
 
 I 
 
 others famous once became private tutors, and were heard 
 of in the world no more. Many, with their families, had 
 to exchange a life of refinement and competency for a life 
 on the verge of starvation, gentlemen and scholars as they 
 were. Many had to adopt the calling of farm servants or 
 artizans. Some were too old to support themselves by 
 such new modes of labour. Privation, grief, and want soon 
 released these from earthly trouble.''' Many a heart that 
 would not have faltered at the stake, shrunk from the slow 
 fires with which the furnace glowed. "Martyrdom," says 
 Rogers, " might have been borne, nay, in man^b* instances, 
 would have been most welcome ; but long years of penury 
 and destitution, with the maddening spectacle of a starving 
 family, these must have been worse than many martyrdoms." 
 Successive measures, of a persecuting character, added fuel 
 to the fiame kindled by the Act of Uniformity., "The Con- 
 venticle Act, forbidding all meetings for religious worship 
 contrary to the order of the Church of England, when there 
 should be five persons present, besides the members of the 
 family above 16 years of age and imposing fines and imprison- 
 ment, soon crowded the jails of the kingdom, and " among 
 the sufferers," says Macaulay, " were some of whose genius 
 and virtue any Christian society might well be proud." 
 Then came the Five Mile Act, forbidding any of the ejected 
 clergy from coming within five miles of the places where 
 they had been "parson, priest or vicar," under pain of 
 imprisonment and a fine of forty pounds for each offence. 
 A second and still more rigorous Conv')nticle Act, together 
 with the Test Act, which required the Lord's Supper to be 
 taken, after the manner of the Church o£ England, by all 
 persons who should be placed in any office or trust, civil or 
 military, completed the machinery by which the endeavour 
 
 * Stanford's Life of Joseph AUeine, pp. 178-9. 
 
CANADIAN BICENTENARY PAPERS. 37 
 
 irftft made to root out the spirit of ^Ffonooaiformity. Btit all 
 was rain. 
 
 *< Triatb cnished to earth shaU rise agaiby 
 -'. Tbe et«rnall years of Ood are bars." 
 
 The spirit of Nonconformity grew strong amid suffering ; 
 persecution proTcd itself, as •ver, a signal failure, and re- 
 laxation of severe measures came at length, but too late 
 lor any practical benefit to the persecuting party. The 
 odk>us Act of Uniformity, of which the other measures 
 were but the fit appendages, remained, a^itsiiU^e^, unre- 
 pealed, and, as Dr. Vaughan well observes, its effect has 
 aever been to cure men ttf tendencies to Nonconformity- 
 Under its working, dfisafiection toward the Church erf Eng- 
 bind ha» gone dows^ deeper Mto the English heart, and the 
 result we see in the fact that, at this day, half the peqple of 
 England are outside the pale of the EstabMshmijeot. Yet 
 the Act still stands unchanged "To change it in any 
 esseoitiali respect/' says Stanford^* '^^ would be to shake the 
 very foundations oS Anglican S^scopacy, for it is the po- 
 litical rock on which the Church is built." Straiige as it 
 may seem in reference to this vestige of a persecuting age, 
 Idle Act has its defenders ; nay, there are modem apologists 
 Jot it, who unhesitatingly justify the way it was originally 
 carried out. Though a deploraWe failure, not only in its 
 effect CHI the nation at large, but in its influence on the 
 Episcopalian Church itself, there it stands, grir , and unre- 
 lenting as ever. The spectacle m>w presented by the Church 
 ftf England is indeed a sad, though instructive one. Every 
 ^hase of bdief and o£ unheKef is comprehended within her 
 pale. She is a house divided aga,iDst itself. Both Shibbo- 
 leth and Sibboleth are pronounced by her children, together 
 with many a dialect not comprehended in the language of 
 
 *lileof AlleJfie, P.18U 
 
CANADIAN CtCENTENART PAPERS. 
 
 i 
 
 i^anaan. Three great sections especiiiUy stand forth promi- 
 nent : the Evangelicals, who dissent from the theology of 
 the Liturgy ; the Tractaanans, who disse<it from the theology 
 of the Articles ; and the Essayists, who dissent from the 
 theology of both Liturgy and Artteles. A large party is 
 clamorous for liturgical revision. Not long ago, Jive hundred 
 ch'njj/men petitioned for a reformed Liturgy. The discus- 
 jBion of tliis demand is bringing out strange phases of 
 thought . vud workinccs of conscience. In reference to the 
 doctrine of Baptismal Regeneration, generally referred to by 
 the ejoctetl ministers of 16 62 as a principal reason for non- 
 subscription, and foit to be ene of the most objectionable 
 features in the theok>gv of the Liturgv by the Nonconformists 
 of the present day, some extraordinary admissions and 
 assertions are being made by the adyocates and opponents 
 «f revision. t>ne of the former,* speaking of himself and 
 feis btythr«i, who reject the literal meaning of the Baptis- 
 mal sinTi<x\ frankly declarer: — *'We say one thing, and 
 mo^^n anotlK?r, at ihe risk of being continually misunder- 
 
 *stvx^d The positive and absolute meaning of 
 
 the words, as they stand, is aitogetlier banished, and sup- 
 pl.^nted by another of hypoihesis and hope. The words are 
 not to moan irhot <if rint th^-v lUd mean^ and naturaUv 
 t^ivr «rii7 mean : they may say one thing, but they m u«t 
 mean anvMher. A«d instead of "this ehild U regenerate.' 
 -our tlK>uelns are to be * ^t( h^}'^ tKis child is regenerate V 
 , . . , To our shame and sorrow be it spoken, that we 
 hare sv>lemnly subsv^ritW to tHe Prayer B<M>k. as containing 
 in it nothu>ir cmitrary to the Worii of Uod, at the rerrtime 
 that <\>nscieiioe oWiges us to reject the natural sense as 
 unsvTitMural, and to invent anMher; and that we have 
 tie^-^ared th.*;? we will use the fc^rm in the said Ixxvk pre- 
 
 . iJ 
 
 * E*T MiOi? iS^-iL •' T^£>]^:s A5 llb« Li taixy," 
 
 
t'ANADtAff BICENTENARY PAPERS. 
 
 29 
 
 teribed, and no other, when, fictitiously and covertly, we are 
 using another all the while and rejecting this 
 
 TO PKOCEED IN THIS WAY OF DUPLICITY BEFORE CoD MUST Bft 
 WRONG IN A VEHY HIGH DEGREE, WHATh'VER EJTClJSEa MAY BK 
 
 HADE FOR IT." On the other hand, we find the present 
 Bishop of Exeter boldly prodaiming: "If infants be not 
 bom again of the Spirit of God in Baptism, the Church 
 which aflftrms that they are, not only teaches superstition 
 of the grossest kind, bat also teaches a lie hoth to, and of^ 
 the Holy Ghost. But if baptized infants be so born again, 
 those ministers who teach the contrary, not only are fahe 
 to their most solemn vows, but teach, as God's AV^ord, what 
 is manifestly sacriligious and hlasphemous.^ " It is per- 
 fectly incomprehensihU tome," says the Bishop of Tasmania 
 in a recent charge, " how the denier of Baptismal Regene- 
 ration can make i(p his mind to use the senAces in which 
 THE FACT is SO jfOsitiTely insisted vpon. He must, as ft seems 
 to me, speak with doubting lij/s, and a rnisffivrn^ heart. 
 He must surely use the Churd^i's words, not in that literal 
 and grammatical meaning which she so evidently enjoins, 
 but rather in that n/m-natv.ral sense, through the applica- 
 tion of which an attempt was made, some years ago, so to 
 explain away the Articles as to render it possible for a man 
 to hold any doctrine of Rome, and yet to subscribe to them. 
 The principles of Tract 90 (for it is to that which I allude) 
 are, in my judgment, so essentially dishonest, that I hare 
 no mind to icink at tlie atloption of thMr sj/stem of inter- 
 pretation in this diocese, whether they lead or lean to Rome 
 or Geneva.'''' One English rector affirms that the declaration 
 of assent and consent requires such a latitude in a solemn 
 act as DO honest man would allow himself to use for any 
 other contract, however trifling. Another entreats the 
 clergy to be no longer treacherous to truth, Vjut to come 
 forward boldly a&d nobly and obtain relief to their con- 
 
«■ 
 
 i 
 
 if 
 
 i 
 
 %% CANADIAN BICENTENARY PAPERS. y , 
 
 sciences, by petitioning Parliament to change the terms of 
 conformity ; while a third, like the prelates quoted a little 
 ago, satisfied with things as they are, kindly informs his 
 scrupulous brethren that they can relieve their distressed 
 consciences by resigning their livings ; but as most well-to- 
 do people wish to make as little change as possible, he 
 recommends them to obtain an alteration of only tioo letters 
 in the Act of Uniformity, so that instead of declaring their 
 unfeigned assent and consent, they might be permitted to 
 declare their feigned assent and consent 
 
 Facts and utterances such as these vindicate the eonduct 
 and do honour to the memory of the Nonconformists of 
 1662. It were a still nobler vindication of the " good con- 
 fession" borne two hundred years ago, and a glorious 
 homage and sacrifice to the truth, would all those who 
 share the views of the two thousand confessors of 1662, 
 manfully walk in their footsteps. As the Rev. R W. Dale, 
 of Birmingham, forcibly remarks, * "there are clergymen 
 in our own time ministering at the altar of the English 
 Church who object, as the two thousand did, to the doctrine 
 of Baptismal Regeneration, to language used in the Confir- 
 mation service, to absolution in the service for the Visitation 
 of the Sick, to the Burial service. It belongs to them, 
 rather than others, to do honour to th« heroic fidelity and 
 
 conscience of the men of 1662 The truest, 
 
 fittest, sul)limest celebration of the Bicentenary, would be 
 for the eight or ten thousand of the Evangelical clergy who 
 object to these services in the Prayer Book, but who ob- 
 tain their ministerial office and their ministerial income by 
 avowing their " unfeigned assent and consent " to all the 
 book contains, to come out and declare to the English 
 people that they can no longer retain a position which they 
 
 * Lecture In reply to the Rev. Oanon Miller. 
 
 i 
 
 I 
 
CANADIAN BICENTENARY PAPERS. 
 
 81 
 
 acquired by professing to believe what now, at least, they 
 reject." 
 
 At present, however, there is no sign of such a movement. 
 But there is manifest uneasiness and disquiet, together with 
 a morbid sensitiveness, which clearly show the activity of 
 the inward monitor in many a troubled bosom. Meantime, 
 those who occupy substantially the same ground of con- 
 scientious nonconformity, as was taken by the worthies of 
 1662, are reviving the noble deeds, and paying respect to 
 the memories of their illustrious Spiritual ancestors. By 
 lectures, publications, and a princely fund, to be expended in 
 disseminating the principles for which the Nonconformists 
 stood so bravely, and suffered so heroically, suitable com- 
 memoration is being made of this Bicentenary year. If, in 
 connection with all this, contrasts are drawn, and opinions 
 expressed that bear upon contemporaries, there is surely no 
 cause for fault-finding, provided the spirit of love be cherished 
 and exhibited. It is no new thing in the earth for good 
 men to be accused of enmity for "speaking the truth in 
 love." Many lose sight of the fact that it is the duty of 
 Christians, enforced alike by Scripture precept and example, 
 to watch over their brethren in the Lord — ^to exhort them 
 as opportunity offers — to reprove them when occasion re- 
 quires, and to withstand them to the face, if, like Peter and 
 Barnabas at Antioch, they are carried away by any dissimu- 
 lation. Nor can it be wrong, while eulogising the spiritual 
 heroes of a bygone age, to hold up their conduct for 
 imitation in the present day. The men of 1662 taught the 
 world a noble lesson, and set the Church a glorious example. 
 To preserve " a conscience void of offence toward God and 
 man," they were willing to suffer the loss of all things. 
 When single-hearted allegiance to Christ required, they 
 courageously said one to another, " Let us go forth, there- 
 fore, unto him without the camp, bearing his reproach." 
 
8^ 
 
 CANADIAN BICENTENARY PAPERS. 
 
 
 I I 
 
 Most meekly did they bear that reproach, most patiently 
 did they endure even unto the end. Nor can we put up 
 for ourselves or our brethren a more appropriate prayer 
 than that- we may be enabled to stand for the truth with 
 constancy such as theirs — to maintain like them, at all cost, 
 ''a good conscience" — to do as they did^ and, if need be, to 
 suffer as they suffered, 
 
 " Their steps may we pursue, 
 As they, obeyed their Lord." 
 
 "We shall best hononr their memories by imitating their 
 example. In an age which presents many a sad spectacle 
 of humiliating bondage, let us dare to be really free. In 
 the midst of a crooked and perverse generation, let us have 
 the holy boldness to be upright and true. Exposed to the 
 contempt of many who sneer at downright conscientious- 
 ness as needless and over-scrupulous particularity, let us 
 beware of yielding to a temporizing policy. Discarding the 
 principle of expediency, let us show a manly faith in the 
 expediency of principle. These things will require no little 
 moral courage. Christian freemen, truly such, are few in 
 number. The multitude loves the broad road of ease-seek- 
 ing selfishness, and shuns the narrow, rugged pathway up 
 which the soldier of Christ must clamber to conflict and 
 victory. Be it ours to care less for the outward than the 
 inward, more for the spirit than the form. With Robert 
 Hall, let us feel that " there is nothing better for a mind 
 than to rest in Providence, to move in charity, and to turn 
 itself on the poles of truth.'''' Like John Milton, let us 
 prize, above all liberties, " the liberty to know, to utter, 
 and to argue freely, according to the dictates of conscience." 
 Thanks to the valiant fighters and heroic sufferers of the 
 past, we hate this liberty as our heritage. Let no mess of 
 pottage tempt us to sell our birthright Let no yoke of 
 
CANADIAN BICENTENARY PAPERS. 
 
 38 
 
 bondage entangle us, no chain of slavery fetter us. Let us 
 never forget, to quote the words of a gifted poet : — 
 
 " They are slaves who would not chooso 
 i. ^ . i> Hatred, Rcufflng, and abuse, , ; , 
 
 Rather than in silence shrink 
 
 From the truth they needa must think. 
 
 They are slaves who fear to be 
 * In the right with two or three." .. -f . 
 
 "We are not only greatly indebted to our Nonconforming 
 forefathers for the example they have left us, and for the 
 work which, under God, they achieved in the direction of 
 civil and religious liberty, but let us bear in mind that we 
 owe them a still larger debt of gratitude for what they did 
 toward perpetuating a sound theology, and promoting vital 
 religion as distinguished from ritualism and formalism. 
 The writings of Howe, Owen, Baxter, Manton, Charnock, 
 Bates, and others, are distinguished by a fulness and rich- 
 ness of holy thought, an evangelical savour, a point and 
 practical power, an experimental acquaintance with the 
 deep things of God, such as have been rarely equalled, and 
 never surpassed. Despite their quaintness, prolixity, the 
 number of their divisions, and their antiquated method, they 
 are invaluable treasures to the ministry and church of our 
 own time. It has been well observed : — " Their writings 
 have erected to their memory a monument more durable 
 than brass or marble, which has so perpetuated and diffused 
 their sentiments and spirit, that had their enemies antici- 
 pated the consequence of excluding them from the pulpits, 
 they would have left them to preach, that they might have 
 had no leisure to write."* 
 
 The influence of the Nonconformists on their own and on 
 succeeding ages, will never be fully known until the great 
 
 * " History of Dissenters," by Bogue and Bennet 
 
84 
 
 CANADIAN BICENTENARY PAPERS. 
 
 revealing day. Their course of action was a most useful 
 demonstration, in a loose, licentious ago, of the power of 
 religious principle, while their spirit, works and prayers 
 have been of inestimable benefit to British Dissenters, to 
 the thousands of churches in America, and even to the 
 English Establishment itself. ** I am glad," said one who 
 lived in their day, and who was not a Nonconformist, " I 
 am glad so many have chosen suffering rather than con- 
 formity to the Establishment, for had they complied, the 
 world would have thought that there had been nothing in 
 religion ; but now they see that there are some sincere in 
 their professions." The wondrous revivals of religion in 
 the next century may largely be attributed to the Divine 
 blessing on their labours and testimony, and it would be 
 easy to trace at length the effect of their learning, piety, 
 self-sacrifice, and prayers on our own age. Blessed men of 
 God ! may your mantle rest on the shoulders of those who 
 enjoy your precious legacy of freedom and truth ; may a 
 double portion of your spirit be theirs ; and may they ever 
 draw the inspiration of their faith and zeal from a fellow- 
 ship such as yours, which was " Tkulv with the Father 
 AND WITH His Son Jesus Christ !" 
 
 <••»»■' 
 
I 5 ^'^ 
 
 eUimalkw liawt^wari} ^^m* 
 
 No. II. 
 
 THE REASONS FOR NONGONFORMITY IN CANADA IN 1861. 
 
 BY THE KEY. F. H. MARLING. 
 
 ■ [NoTi.— The following Paper was prepared for the AnnHal Meeting of the 
 Congregational Union of Canada, held in Hamilton, in June, 1862. It is now 
 published, after revision, by the request of many who heard it ; the writer, 
 of courHe, assuming the entire responsibility for its contents.] 
 
 It has been deemed advisfble that, in connection with 
 our present commemoration of the Nonconformists of 1662, 
 there should be not only a setting forth of their sufferings 
 for conscience' sake, but also a rcYiew of our own position 
 two centuries later, and on this new soil, in reference to the 
 same question which then claimed an answer from them — 
 " Will you conform to the Church of the Prayer Book ?" 
 
 This question comes to us in a Yery different shape from 
 that in which it was presented to our Fathers, — for such, 
 notwithstanding all denials of our kindi'ed, we feel we haYe 
 a right to call them ; and we approach its consideration with 
 other prepossessions and associations than they brought to 
 it. A demand of Conformity is not made upon us by 
 authority of all the estates of the Realm, on behalf of a so- 
 called National Church, for, thank God! no one religious 
 body is here so exalted aboYe the rest. We owe it in a large 
 
1 
 
 86 
 
 CANADIAN BICENTENARY PAPERS, 
 
 measure to the Ejected of 1662, though they knew it not, 
 that a conviction of the inevitable and incurable evils of an 
 Ecclesiaslical Establishment was so early and so deeply 
 wrought into the minds of the Canadian people, that, though 
 steps were taken at the very beginning of our history, and 
 most persistently followed up, to endow the Anglican 
 ChuTcb and invest it with all the power and prestige of the 
 Religion of the Colony, — these plans were frustrated, and 
 but a few fragments of the overshadowing structure that 
 was to have been, remain scattered over the ground in the 
 shape of Rectories, Commutation Funds, and so forth, to 
 remind us of the destiny which some had promised to the 
 infant State. We claim with others to have done the State 
 an inestimable service by relieving it of all Church patron- 
 age and control ; and our consciences are very void of offence 
 towards the church which clung so convulsively to its endow- 
 ments, and so vehemently denounced its " spoilers," for now 
 that it is so nearly self-dependent, it is free and self-reliant, 
 and in its new voluntary endowments of Parishes and Sees, 
 its elective Episcopate, its Diocesun and Provincial Synods 
 evincing so much of regulated life and power, and its casting 
 itself — with ever less and less of surprise and timidity — upon 
 the activity and liberality of its own members, — we see the 
 fulfilment of every prophecy which we had uttered, and the 
 contradiction of every lugubrious foreboding of our former 
 opponents. Standing thus upon an equal footing, as far as 
 the laws of the Colony are concerned, with the churches 
 which are endowed in Britain, we are not ^'^ Dissenters,^* 
 nor should we ever assume or accept such a name. The 
 term " Nonconformity," in the title of this paper, is not 
 used strictly., since there is among us no Estiblishmeiit 
 to conform to : only by way of accommodation, for the sake 
 of conciseness, and to indicate our historical connection, is it 
 here employed. 
 
CA1?ADIAN BICENTENARY PAPERS. 
 » 
 
 37 
 
 Notwithstanding, however, theabscrice of an endowed and 
 dominant church, though we are not — like the two thousand 
 — the possessors of "livings'" which we must lose unless 
 we accept the Prayer Book, — little cause as we have to fear 
 a Conventicle Act forbidding our assembling of ourselves to- 
 gether, or a Five Mile Act to keep us at that distance from 
 any corporate town, — it is no idle or irrelevant question for 
 us to reconsider, could we do what the ejected refused t« 
 -do ? We may not be insensible of some losses entailed upon 
 us by standing aloof from what — though not the church — 
 is a church of no mean position In our land, numbering its 
 adherents by hundreds of thousands, embracing a large pro- 
 portion of the most influential classes in society, and com- 
 paratively free in nractice, even if somewhat against its 
 will, from thatpoi... .i character, and that enjoyment of 
 exclusive p-iviieges, which a command of th^ " secular arm" 
 has given it in the Father-land. The choice that we make 
 of a communion in which to worship and especially to min- 
 ister, ought not to be decided — though it cannot but be in- 
 fluenced — by hereditary beliefs. We should fee able t« 
 ^' give a reason" why we belong to this body, and why we 
 4o not belong to that 
 
 An enquiry ef this kind, ia reference to the Church of 
 England, is especially appropriate on this sceasien, f^ems, 
 indeed, to be demanded by it, for two reasons : 1. The Act 
 of Uniformity is still in full force, and is exrried into effect 
 «t every Episoopai ordination. 2. "The Church in this 
 Province " is, according to the well-weighed " Declaration ^ 
 of principles put forth by the Provincial Synod, at its first 
 meeting, held at Montreal, in September, 18G1, "anintegrai 
 portion of the United Church of England and Ireland." 
 The penalties of nonconformity in Canada may be very 
 different, but the requirements of ordination are the sameu 
 The lapse of jears, the progress of religious liberty, aai 
 
CANADIAN BICENTENARY PAPERS. 
 
 I ; 
 
 iif 
 
 our position in a new country, have materially modified 
 some accidents (logically speaking) of the question ; but its 
 essence remains unchanged. For the same reasons, we may 
 find objections to what is involved in Anglican "^ orders'* 
 which our fathers did not, and vice versd. From the point 
 of view of Canada and of 1862, therefore, we shall survey 
 our subject. And as the event we commemorate was an 
 example of " Conscientious Clerical Nonconformity," — th& 
 Act of Uniformity dealing- only with the clergy, — ^let us 
 consider the question in this shape: — 
 
 What would present itself as necessary to be profeb ^'id 
 and done by one of our own ministers, who had been r j 
 some means led to contemplate receiving ordination from 
 an Anglican Bishop, and was seeking to ascertain whether 
 be could do so with a good conscience ? 
 
 The first thing that meets our enquirer is, that until he 
 has received Episc(ypal m'dinatimi^ the Church of England 
 will not recognise him as a minister of Christ. Not only 
 in the English EstaMishment does the law of the iand for- 
 Ind Iiim to occupy the buildings set apart by the State for 
 the Episcopal Church, but lie find» the same exclusion 
 practised in the Protestant Episcopal Church of the- United 
 States, which has no connection with the "^powersthat be.'* 
 In the British Colonies, he is told, at the best, — as the 
 Bishop of Adelaide wrote to the Rev. Thomas Binney during 
 the latter's Australian lour, and while discussing in an 
 excellent spirit the tei-ms of a possible union of evangelical 
 christians, — " Neither the power of your intellect, nor vigour 
 of your reasoning, nor mighty eloquence, nor purity of life, 
 nor suavity of manners, nor soundn'^ss in the faith, would 
 justify me in departing from the rule of the Church of 
 England ; a tradition of eighteen centuries which declares 
 y&ur orders irregular^ your mission the offspring of division^ 
 and your church system — I will not say schism — but 
 
 
CANADIAN BICENTENARY PAPERS. 
 
 89 
 
 n 
 
 *^J 
 
 dieJtostasy." [Note to " dichostasy " — "Gal. 5: 20, 'sedi- 
 tions,' literally, ' standing apart.' "]* Again, " If I have 
 doubts how far the letter of the Ecclesiastical Statute Law 
 of the Established Church of England is applicable to this 
 or other colonial dioceses, I have none as respects its spirit, 
 nor of the inspired authority of the apostolic 'tradition of 
 eighteen centuries ' on which that law is founded. ... I 
 could not, therefore, nor can I feel justified in departing from 
 that traditionary rule, even in your case."t On this ground, 
 as well as on that of possible illegality and want of prece- 
 dent, this liberal prelate felt compelled to refuse assent to a 
 memorial, signed by the Governor of the Colony and a large 
 number of other members of the Church of England pray- 
 ing that Mr. Binney might be allowed to preach in one of 
 the Episcopal pulpits. With no such scruples or misgivings 
 the Bishop of Toronto declares, " In all the British Colo- 
 nies, we are alone entitled, as holding the divine commis- 
 sion, and as the clergy of the National Church, to be their 
 teachers, guides, and directors in spiritual things." J Who- 
 soever, therefore, " takes orders " from the hands of an 
 Anglican prelate, must virtually confess that until then he 
 has been no true minister of Christ at all, but a simple 
 layman, touching with unhallowed hands the Ark of God, 
 and treading with unanointed feet the Holy of Holies. A 
 taousand times worse, he must cut himself off from minis- 
 terial fellowship with all who have not been Episcopally 
 ordained. A Binney, a Chalmers, or a Robert Hall, he 
 dare not ask to preach or pray in his pulpit or desk ! He 
 must, officir ^ly, deem their " orders irregular," and go out 
 of "his own place" to some neutral territory — neither 
 church nor conventicle, perhaps then with abject apologies, 
 — before he can treat as a brother minister such a man as the 
 
 ■■ Binuey's " Church-Life ia Australia," p. 6, f /&., App, p. 6. :{ Charge, 1844. 
 
<• 
 
 40 
 
 CANADIAN BICENTENARY PAPEKS. 
 
 ; 
 
 Bishop of Adelaide describes Mr. Binney to be ! On the 
 other hand, he can, and he must, acknowledge as brethren 
 in the service of the Gospel, " duly called " to minister :he 
 Word and Sacraments, with "orders" most "regula.*" 
 and unquestionable, many a man whom he believes to 
 be unconverted to God, and whom he believes to be preach- 
 ing deadly error — to-day a Rationalist, to-morrow a semi- 
 Romanist ! Moreover, if a Romish priest desires to conform 
 to the ChuFi ,' ^ England, he, unlike the minister of any 
 Protestant Chu , needs no re-ordination! A bishop 
 has laid hands upon him and he is a consecrated man ! To 
 be obliged to turn your back on all othev christian ministers, 
 as ministers, — on such grounds, and in such company, — 
 does it not " give you pause ?" 
 
 Supposing however, that, for the sake of the advantages 
 of " orders," all this can be endured, the next fact to be en- 
 countered is, that these orders miLst he conferred hy a 
 Bishop. His " Chaplains " examine all candidates, and with 
 him it rests to say whether each one shall be admitted or 
 rejected. It is true that other Presbyters join in the im- 
 position of hands, but in the approval of the candidate they 
 have no voice. To the Bishop, also, a promise is made of 
 canonical obedience. Whence hath this man this authority ? 
 By patent from the Crown, after election by a Synod, and 
 when duly consecrated according to the rites of the Church ! 
 Now, if this form of government w^ere set forth as a mere 
 prudential arrangement, — the whole question of church 
 polity being left open by our Lord and His apostles to the 
 judgment of christians in different countries, and the Epis- 
 copal form being simply accepted as that adopted by the 
 Church of England, — it would present less diflSculty. But 
 the Prayer Book, to all things contained in which the clergy- 
 man has to give his assent and consent, declares, (Preface 
 to Ordination Services,) " It is evident unto all men diligently 
 
CANADIAN BICENTENAUY PAPERS. 
 
 41 
 
 reading the Holy Scriptures and ancient authors, that from 
 the apostles' time there have been these Orders of ministers 
 in Christ's Church Bishops, Priests, and Deacons." Says 
 the Declaration of the Provincial Synod of Canada — " We 
 maintain the form of Church Government by Bishops, 
 Priests, and Deacons, as Scriptural and ApostoUeaiy Is 
 the candidate for orders prepared to profess this, in face of 
 the facts, that "elder" or "presbyter," and "bishop," in 
 Scripture, are synonymous terms (Acts. xx. 17 and 28, 1 
 Tim. iii. 1-7, Titus i. 5-7) ; that there were in apostolical 
 times, as at Philippi and Ephesus, many " bishops " in one 
 church (Phil. i. 1, Acts. xx. 28), and not one bishop over 
 many churches ; and that the history of Christianity so 
 clearly traces the gradual rise of Diocesan Episcopacy in 
 place of ministerial »^arity, side by side with many a doc- 
 trine which led on to that system of Popery of which 
 prelacy is so essential a constitutent ? The entire Anglican 
 doctrine of " orders," without which a ministry is not 
 valid, and to whose own validity due consecration by 
 hands themselves duly consecrated, is indispensable, re- 
 quires, for its logical completeness, that the Apostolical 
 Succession be found for many a century of the " eighteen '* 
 only in the Romish Communion. Does that fountain send 
 forth the water of life ? Shall we desert all others to drink 
 only there ? 
 
 Though it may not be an insuperable objection, yet neither 
 is it a consideration to be utterly passed by, that the system 
 of Episcopal ordination is so administered^ practically ^ that 
 charity itself cannot believe or hope that due care is taken 
 that true christians only be admitted to the ministry. True, 
 this may be regarded as an accident rather than as of the 
 essence, of the system, for the Bishop is to be satisfied that 
 a candidate is "of virtuous conversation and without 
 crime," and the congregation before whom the ordination 
 
42 
 
 CANADIAN BICENTENARY PAPERS. 
 
 ii 
 
 takes place is appealed to, to "declare if they know any im- 
 pediment or notable crime, for the which he ought not to be 
 admitted to that office." But when the church has pro- 
 nounced him regenerate in Baptism, and accepted the re- 
 newal of his vows in Confirmation, can she ask afterwards 
 more than ordinary morality ? And when, under the influ- 
 ence of rich endowments, a cure of souls has been so long 
 regarded, by members of the church and the law of England 
 itself, in the light of a " benefice " — a " living^'''' — what bishop 
 can stem the tide of Worldlings rushing to the altar for the 
 sake of the gold that covers it ? Canadian Rectories are 
 not so numerous nor so tempting as those in England. Very 
 little patronage — though there is provision even for that — 
 puts family livings within the reach of younger sons. But 
 old habits remain. The influence of the English practice is 
 widely felt. And the results, even here, are sometimes very 
 sad. This feature, in the practical worhirig of the system, 
 claims the most earnest consideration of one proposing 
 to place himself under it. For no small measure of 
 the comfort and success of a ministry depends upon the 
 character of the men with and under whom we are placed, 
 who control the discipline, legislation, and policy of a church, 
 and give a tone to the '^^tire body. 
 
 But it is time to advance from these preliminary questions, 
 to look into the personal professions made in receiving 
 Episcopal ordination, the <?wi/es undertaken, and iYiQ powers 
 conferred. With reference to all these matters, the Act 
 of Uniformity is in full force to this hour^ in Canada as 
 much as in England, and every candidate for ''''holy orders''^ 
 must comply with its demands. It requires adhesion to 
 the three following Articles, taken from the 36th Canon. 
 
 "1. That the King's Majesty, under God, is the only 
 Supreme Governor of this realm, and of all other his highness' 
 dominions and countries, as well in all spiritual or ecclesi- 
 
 1 
 
 1 1 
 
CANADIAN BICENTENARY PAPERS. 
 
 4a 
 
 astical things or causes, as temporal, and that no foreign 
 prince, person, prelate, state or potentate, hath, or ought to 
 have, any jurisdiction, power, sirperiority, pre-eminence or 
 authority, ecclesiastical or spiritual, withm his Majesty^s said 
 realms, dominions and countries. 
 
 "2. That the Book of Common Prayer, and of ordering^ 
 of bishops, priests, and deacons, containeth in it nothing 
 contrary to the Word of God, and that it may lawfully so 
 be used ; and that he himself will use the form in the said 
 book prescribed, in public prayer, and in administration of 
 the Sacraments, and none other. 
 
 " 3. That he alloweth the book of the articles of religion 
 agreed upon by the archbishops and bishops of both pro- 
 vinces, and the whole clergy in the convocation holden at 
 London in the year of our Lord God 1562, and that he 
 acknowledgeth all and every the articles therein contained, 
 being in number nine and thirty, besides the ratification, to- 
 be agreeable to the Word of God. 
 
 " To these three articles whosoever shall subscribe, he 
 shall for the avoiding of ambiguities, subscribe in this order 
 and form of words, setting down both his christian and sur- 
 name, viz., /, N. N., do iclllingly and ex saxxTdo subscribe to 
 these three articles above mentioned^ and to all things that 
 are contained in themy r 
 
 The following form is alsorequired to be subscribed under 
 authority of the same Act, — "^ /A. B., do hereby declare my 
 unfeigned assent and consent to all and everything con- 
 tained and prescribed in and by the Booh intituled^ The/ 
 Booh of Common Prayer^ d&c." 
 
 Now, what are the things to which, in language so pre- 
 cise — " for the avoiding of ambiguities " — ^the clergyman 
 thus binds his conscience ? 
 
 L The Royal Supremacy.. — There have been many dis- 
 cussions as to the true intent of the ascription to the Sove- 
 reign of supremacy in " spiritual or ecclesiastical causes.'" 
 The xxxvii article gives a very mild definition of it, merely 
 denying that the Sovereign "is or ought to be, subject to aiiy 
 
44 
 
 CATTADIAN BICENTENARY PAPERS. 
 
 |i ' 
 
 f' 
 
 V ' 
 
 foreign jurisdiction," and asserting that "we give not to 
 our Princes the ministering either of God's word or of the 
 Sacraments, — but that only prerogative, which we see to 
 have been given always to all godly Princes in holy scrip- 
 tures by God himself; that is, that they should rule all 
 states and degrees committed to their charge by God, 
 whether they be ecclesiastical or temporal, and restrain 
 with the civil sword the stubborn and evil doers." 
 
 " The oath of the Queen's supremacy," administered by 
 the Bishop during the ordination of a deacon, is but an ab- 
 juration of the jurisdiction of the Romish See over the 
 Church, Sovereign, and Realm of England. 
 
 These terms and definitions do not of themselves suggest 
 a, sense that would trouble many of our conseieDces. But 
 we know too well that the claim of Royal Supremacy did 
 not and does not end here. The first claimant of such 
 power, Henry VIII., renouncing the supremacy of the Pope, 
 made himself the Pope of England. We need not quote in 
 Illustration the innumerable facts which the history of the 
 Reformation supplies, nor thence derive our ideas of the 
 claims asserted in our own century and our own land. Let 
 the dead bury their dead. Nor do we adduce the Canons, 
 with all their persecuting and excommunicatory provisions, 
 worthy only of a council of Trent, since part are deemed 
 obsolete even in England, and the worst of them are omitted 
 from the list of such as it has been, in the Diocese of To- 
 ronto, deemed advisable to " re-adopt aad declare !n full 
 force,"* while the question awaits th« action of the Provin- 
 -eial Synod. But read in the Prayer-book of to-day " His 
 Majesty's Declaration," prefixed to the "Articles of Reli- 
 gion." It is as follows : — 
 
 "Being ?>y God's ordinance^ according to our just Title, De- 
 
 * Proceedlngg of Sjnod, Toi'onto, 1858, pp. 17—37, 1860, pp. 161, 18L 
 
CANADIAN BICENTBTNARY TAPERS. 
 
 45 
 
 fender of the Faith and Supreme Governor of the Churchy 
 we hold it mo%t agreeable to our kingly office, and our own 
 religious zeal, to conserve and maintain the church com- 
 mitted to our charge, in the unity of true religion and in the 
 bond of Peace, and and not to »uffer unnecessary disputa- 
 tions, altercations, or questions to he raised, which may 
 nourish faction both in the church and commonwealth. 
 We have therefore, upon mature deliberation, and with the 
 advice of so many of our Bishops as might conveniently 
 be called together, thought fit to make this Declaration 
 following : — 
 
 "That the Articles of the Church of England do contain 
 the true doctrine of the church of England agreeable to God's 
 word, which we do therefore ratify and confirm, requiring 
 
 ALL OUR LOVING SUBJECTS TO CONTINUE IN THE UNIFORM PRO- 
 FESSION THEREOF, AND PROHIBITING THE LEAST DIFFERENCE 
 FROM THE SAID ARTICLES. 
 
 " That We are the Supreme Governor of the Church of 
 England : and that if any difference arise about the exter- 
 nal policy, concerning the Injunctions, Canons, and other 
 Constitutions whatsoever thereto belonging, the Clergy, in 
 their Convocation, is to order and settle them, having first 
 obtained leave under our Broad Seal so to do; and we 
 approving their said Ordinances and Constitutions; pro- 
 viding that none be made contrary to the Laws and Customs 
 of the Land. 
 
 " That out of our Princely Care that the Churchmen may 
 do the work which is proper unto them, the Bishops and 
 Clergy, from time to time in Convocation, upon their humble 
 desire, shall have license under our Broad Seal to deliberate 
 of, and to do all such things, as, being made plain by 
 them, and assented to by Us, shall concern the Settled Con- 
 tinuance of the Doctrine and Discipline of the Church of 
 England now established ; from which we will not endure 
 any varying or departing in the least degreed 
 
 "That therefore in these both curious and unhappy 
 differences, which have for so many hundred years, in 
 different times and places, exercised the Church of Christy 
 
 ^Ve WILL, THAT ALL FURTHER GUBIOU& jEABCH BE LAID ASIDE, 
 
 / 
 
 !A 
 
46 
 
 CANADIAN BICENTENAKY PAPERS. 
 
 and these disputes shut up in God's promises, as they be 
 generally set forth to us in the Holy Scriptures, and the 
 general meaning of the Articles of the Church of England 
 according to them. Andihat no man hereafter shall either 
 prints or preachy to draw the Article aside any way^ hut 
 shall submit to it in the plain and full meaning thereof: 
 and shall not put his own sense or comment to he the mean- 
 ing of the Article^ hut shall take it in the literal and 
 grammatical sense.'''* 
 
 Such a "Declaration " as this would not bo put forth by 
 our Sovereign Lady Queen Victoria, in 18G2, nor does her 
 gracious Majesty dream of enforcing it ; but enforced or not, 
 the clerical subscriber solemnly affirms his free " assent and 
 consent to all and everything herein contained." Moreover 
 in the living present, and in our dis-established Colonial 
 church, we have other proofs of the nature of the Royal 
 Supremacy. By consent of the Crown, Diocesan Synods 
 are allowed to elect their Bishops, but their Patents of office 
 and the "Warrants for their consecration must emanate from 
 Her Majesty, so that the very continuance of the source of 
 *' orders " is so far dependent upon the Royal pleasure. As 
 '* an integral portion of the church of England and Ireland," 
 C anadian churchmen must accept the decisions of a Law 
 Court — the judicial committee of the Privy Council — as in 
 the " Gorham case," upon what doctrines may be held by 
 their clergyman. To their decision in that case the Bishop 
 of Huron refers in his statement of 20th May. Not until the 
 Queen so ordered it by her Proclamation, were they at li- 
 berty to cease to commemorate " King Charles the Martyr." 
 Should another George IV. or Charles II. arise — God for- 
 bid ! — he must be prayed for as " our most religious king." 
 And whatsoever other changes may hereafter be enacted in 
 Britain in the Prayer-book or the constitution of the church, 
 must be obediently followed here. Its doctrine, worship, 
 
CANADIAN BIOENTENAUY PAPERS. 
 
 47 
 
 and discipline, are in the hands of the Queen and her 
 Parliament. To them must all petitions be addressed for 
 Revision of the Liturgy ; just as we read in the preface 
 to the Prayer-book, that " great importunities were used to 
 his sacred Majesty, that the said Book might be revised . . 
 whereunto his Majesty . . did graciously condescend." It 
 is an Act of Uniformity ordained by the Estates of the 
 Bealm, not by the Church, which has fixed the terms of 
 clerical subscription. Free, comparatively, as the Canadian 
 Branch of the church may be, she expressly declares in her 
 Provincial Synod that she will " eonfine^'' her deliberations to 
 "discipline," "temporalities," "regulations of order and 
 modes of operation." The " Declaration" of the Synod of 
 the Diocese of Toronto, which claims the honour of being 
 the earliest Colonial Synod, says, " in adopting Synodical 
 actions upon such a principle, we feel that we shall not he 
 infringing upon the Royal Prerogative.^^ These obvious 
 facts prove that very much more than the Sovereign's 
 supreme and exclusive authority over ecclesiastical persons, 
 in ordinary matters ofgovernment, is involved in the acknow- 
 ledgment of the Royal Supremacy. " The church is subject" 
 to the State " in everything." From the State's point of view, 
 who can deny the justice of the arrangement, where the 
 church is endowed ? If Caesar pays the clergy, Caesar has 
 a right to say what work they shall do. Moreover, one 
 can understand how a man like Dr. Arnold should uphold 
 the Royal Supremacy as the great security of the church, 
 inasmuch as, under constitutional government, this principle 
 commits it to the common sense of the people of England, 
 through their representatives, rather than to such a body 
 as the convocation of the clergy. But are not the above 
 consequences fatal alike to both principles, the connection 
 with the State and the Supremacy of the Crown ? Is it not 
 monstrous that a church of Christ can hold no doctrine, 
 
1^ 
 
 48 
 
 CANADIAN BICENTENARY PAPERS. 
 
 offer no prayer, and receive or reject no member or minister, 
 except as prescribed by Act of Parliament ? Can we sub- 
 scribe to this Royal Supremacy ? We yield to none in 
 loyalty to our Sovereign ; but " there is another King — one 
 Jesus," and we must "render unto Caesar the things which 
 are CcBsa/r^s^ and unto God the things which are God's." 
 
 II. The Second Article to which a clergyman must sub- 
 scribe is the declaration, that " nothing in the Prayer Booh 
 is contrary to the Word of Ood^"* and that ^e will u%e its 
 forma and no other in Divine Service. Besides which, he 
 has also to declare his " unfeigned assent and consent to all 
 and everything contained " and prescribed in that Book. 
 
 The question of the ITae of any Liturgy is here involved. 
 The Nonconformists of 1G62 did not all object to forms in 
 Public Worship, and many of their descendantti think the 
 entire disuse of them a reaction to an undesirable extreme. 
 It may well be asked, Are forms and free prayer necessarily 
 exclusive of each other ? May we not enjoy the use — as 
 apoJcen in proee — of the devotions of holy men of old, as 
 well 9.S when 8ung in verse f A hymn is a " form " of praise 
 or prayer. Does it preclude the freshness and reality of 
 worship ? Are we sure that spoken prayers come always 
 from the heart ? Is it not wise to provide some place for 
 the active participation of the people in Divine Worship 
 besides the service of song ? Are there not acts of Adora- 
 tion, Thanksgiving, Confession, Prayer, and Intercession, 
 which, under almost all circumstances, should form part of 
 the Sabbath Service of the Sanctuary .' And can these be 
 expressed in language more befitting than is used in those 
 Prayers of the Ages which Liturgies have culled and pre- 
 served ? Is it often that we hear such prayers from living 
 lips? Are We not often grievously disappointed by the 
 limited conceptions of God's glory and man's want, by the 
 inflated or cQmiaoo phra^oology, ^d by the narrow range 
 
CANADIAN nTCKNTRNRRY PAPRRS. 
 
 40 
 
 or excessive lenj^th — pcrhap.s both at once — of extcrnpo- 
 raiieous prayers ? Do not the people need some provision 
 that will render them less dependent on the gifts or graces 
 of the preacher for the day ? And is there not a thrilling 
 inspiration in the thoughts, that we worship God in the very 
 words of just men now made perfect, and that millions of 
 tongues are, at the same hour, thus uttering their common 
 supphcations and thanksgivings ? Thus, at all events, the 
 leading Reformers thought, and Luther, Calvin, and Knox 
 l)rovided forms of prayer for the Protestant Churches of 
 Germany, France, Switzerland, aye, and of Scotland^ 
 too ! But while such arguments as these may be employed 
 against the condemnation of all Liturgir il services, there 
 are very weighty ones also against the restriction of the 
 worship of all Christian congregations, in all lands, in all 
 ages, and under all circumstances, to one invariable form of 
 words ; and there are perils in the use of forms enovigh to 
 vindicate those who object to them from the charge of mere 
 blinded bigotry. A man may pray most formally without 
 a book, but must it not be a great assistance and relief to 
 one who has never learnt in his closet how to pray, and a 
 great encouragement to take upon himself a work otherwise 
 most difficult and irksome — that every word of his public 
 prayers is prepared for him beforehand ? Is it not such a 
 system that such a man would most desire ? And, there- 
 fore, does not the system of free prayer, in some measure, 
 defend the pulpit from the intrusion of prayerless men ? If 
 prayers whose words are most devout are read by an un- 
 devout man, do not the words lose half their power over us 
 as they fall from his lips, besides being an awful mockery ? 
 Can we not pray better when following the homelier 
 language and the more contracted thought of some godly 
 but ordinary man ? Is it right to forbid the utterance of 
 the glowing desires which the Spirit of the Lord may 
 
60 
 
 CANADIAN BICENTENARY PAPERS. 
 
 li 
 
 breathe into the souls of his servants in that measure of 
 fulness, in that form and relation, and in those words which 
 the Pastor's heart at the time is led to employ ? Ought 
 men of all diversities of gifts to pray always and only in the 
 same terms ? Can there be no adaptation to passing cir- 
 cumstances — no such special remembrance of our widowed 
 QuecL (for example) as we sre all at liberty to make, but 
 which those cannot — except silently — ^,yho may pray for 
 her now only in the same words as whonthe Prince Consort 
 stood by her side, or only as they pray for all widows of 
 every degree ? "Whence the Scriptural example or authority 
 for so restraining our prayers ? Amidst its many examples 
 of free prayer, where is its Liturgy ? Let these things be 
 pondered well by any man who is asked to bind himself to 
 use any one "form of words" in public prayer, "and no 
 other." 
 
 The English Booh of Common Prayer, Sc, now before 
 us, acknowledges a strange origm and history. Part of its 
 services have descended to us from an almost primitive 
 antiquity; and of part their "speech bewrayeth" a Roman 
 authorship. Here we trace the hand of a self-willed but 
 most un-theological monarch ; here the intervention of some 
 sturdy reformer ; and here the dabbling of a re-actionary 
 archbishop. During the several reigns whuch elapsed 
 between its first appearance and its final promulgation in 
 its present form, the nation was swayed to and fro by divers 
 spiritual and "W/ispiritual forces, enjoyed little freeucm, and 
 found no rest. AVith sceptre or with crosier, now a Papist 
 and now a Reformer ruled the people — and a strong rule 
 verily it was. Fire and sword, bonds and death, for all who 
 disobeyed the latest proclamation of infallible truth 1 A re- 
 forming leaven was steadily working among the people ; but 
 Popish traditions retained much power, and articles and 
 i^ervicea were altered again and again. " Two nations" were 
 
CANADIAN BICENTENARY PAPERS. 
 
 0^1 
 
 *' in the womb" of Mother Church, and " the children strug- 
 gled together within h er." " Two manner of people were 
 born of her." And if " the one people" became " stronger 
 than the other people, and the elder' — the Romish — was 
 compelled to " serve the younger," — since the latter bringing 
 savoury meat to his father, the King, obtained the blessing 
 and birthright — ^riches and dominion, — yet, with many fears, 
 and costly offerings, and profoundest obeisances, did the 
 Supplanter approach " my lord Esau." The Prayer-book is 
 not one — a consistent whole ; it abounds with compromises 
 and contradictions. It is hard for us to see how any one 
 man can " assent and consent to all and everything con- 
 tained" in it. 
 
 But let us look a little more minutely into the aeveralforms 
 ofaermce which the Anglican clergyman binds himself to 
 use, and declares himself cordially to approve. Let us begin 
 with " the form and manner of ordering''' him a ^'■Priest." It 
 is for the most part a very solemn and (presupposing Epis- 
 copacy) appropriate form of setting apart a minister of the 
 Gospel. But in the midst of it, the Bishop says to the candi- 
 date, — " Receive the Holy Ghost for the oflSce and work of 
 a Priest in the church of God, now committed unto thee by 
 imposition of our hands. Whose sins thou dost forgive, 
 they are forgiven, and whose sins thou dost retain, they are 
 retained." Now, this is not said to the Deacon, — only to 
 the Priest. Accordingly, the Deacon is not allowed to pro- 
 nounce the "Abbolution" in the morning and evening ser- 
 vice. The Priest, moreover, in his most solemn duty, 
 dealing with a dying man, is instructed to say, after receiving 
 bis confession, " Our Lord Jesus Christ who hath left power 
 to his church, to absolve all sinners who truly repent and 
 beheve in him, of his ^ireat mercy forgive thee thine offences ; 
 and by his authority committed to me, I absolve thee from 
 all thy sins in the name of the Father," &c. It is said that 
 
CANADIAN BICENTENARY PAPERS. 
 
 these words are merely declarative^ — as the form of absolu- 
 tion in the daily service is — in terms ; but why does any 
 man need "authority committed unto him," simply to 
 announce the truth of the words and promises of God ? 
 The form in the Visitation of the Sick is much more start- 
 ling. We Imow ichere that form comes from. It is newer 
 than the scriptures, older than the Reformtuion. The 
 Romanising party are not slow to avail them selves of such 
 expressions. They believe them and glory in them. Says 
 Provost Whitaker of Trinity College, Toronto, in words by 
 whose manifest sincerity we cannot but be touched — how- 
 ever erring we may deem them, — 
 
 "Did I not beHeve as I do," — that is, — "that sin is for- 
 given, first in Baptism to infants, or to adults duly prepared 
 by faith and repentance; «and that, after Baptism, it is 
 granted on repentance, which remission is declared in the 
 authoritative absolution of the church, and sealed in the 
 reception of the Holy Communion j" so that, in the words 
 quoted from St. Chrysostom, '''■Heaven loaita and expects 
 the priesfs sentence here on earth,^^ — " Did I not believe as 
 I do, I trust that I should not be still consenting to the act 
 of past years, when I knelt before the Bishop and received, 
 in the solemn words of our Ordinal, authority to execute 
 the office of priest in the church of God. What mean 
 these words, or are they 'idle' words: ' Whose sins thou 
 dostforgite,, they are forgiven ; and whose sins thou dost 
 retain^ they are retained f My Lord, I have no wish to 
 use language unduly severe, but I must be allowed to say 
 that I cannot but regard men as labouring under a strange 
 infatuation, when they make it matter of grave charge 
 against a clergyman of the Church of England, that he does 
 not adopt a scheme of doctrine, which, in his honest con- 
 viction, reduces the ministerial authority, thus solemnly 
 bestowed, to a nullity ; and renders an acquiescence in the 
 form, by which the church professes to convey that au- 
 thority, a mockery of the Most High. Are we to be re- 
 quired, as a matter of conscience, thus to bow ourselves 
 down in the house of Rimmon, but of God ; and to be 
 branded as faithless to the most sacred obligations, if we 
 
CANADIAN BICENTENARY PAPERS. 
 
 53 
 
 will not recklessly assume that 'the Lord' will 'pardon us 
 in this thing?'"* 
 
 Nor does it avail the more Protestant ministers of the 
 Church to say that they do not use this form. They have 
 declared that it is "not contrary to the Word of God," and 
 that they yield an " unfeigned assent and consent to it." 
 
 Could you place yourselves under the Bishop's hands to 
 " receive the Holy Ghost," and then go forth to absolve men 
 from their sins f 
 
 May we turn aside at this point to look at the 'vest- 
 ments in which our young clergyman is to attire himself 
 as often as he performs Divine Service ? As an abstract 
 question, or one merely of taste, we should tliink very 
 lightly of the wisdom of our Puritan ancestors for the fierce 
 battle the)'' fought, long before 1663, over the surplice. We 
 may admit that a flowing robe is more graceful than almost 
 any modern costume. We could count it, in itself, a matter 
 of indifference whether a minister wore a black gown, which 
 is an article of academic or official tnme, or "fine linen, 
 clean and white," symbolising "the righteousness of the 
 saints." But that "linen ephod" has a hisiory. It is not 
 the garb of the scholar or the public officer, but ilie peculiar 
 and exclusive apparel of a Priest — one who can offer sacri- 
 fice and forgive sins, and is a mediator between God and 
 man. Fearing, therefore, and not without cause, that with 
 the sacerdotal badge, sacerdotal pretensions should be re- 
 tained, the Puritans "hated even the garment spotted bv 
 the flesh." In our own day, too, the party who ciaiin 
 priestly powers for the clergy have asserted them by 
 wearing the surplice in the pulpit as well as the reading- 
 desk. The Puritans were denounced as "factious," "dis- 
 putatious," and "ovv,r-nice" when they made war against 
 
 ♦ Two Letters to the Lord Bishop of Toronto in reply to charges brought by 
 the Lord llibhop of Huron, &o., pp. 94, 53. 05. 
 
CANADIAN BICENTENARY PAPERS. 
 
 a mere costume ; but a very little matter may be the symbol 
 of a vital truth. The Stars and Stripes that floated over 
 Fort Sumter were made of common bunting ; what matter 
 though a cannon shot made a rent in it ? — that couM soon 
 be mended. But that piece of bunting was the emblem of 
 the nation's authority ; in it the nation suffered ; and all 
 the loyal North rose as one man to avenge its wrongs! 
 We would not be too scrupulous, nor make our fellowship 
 with a church dependent on mere forms, which have been 
 made an ill use of, but can be kept up innocently. Yet, at 
 the least, may we not say — we covet not a "Babylonish 
 garment ?" 
 
 Following our newly ordained priest into his various 
 duties, we now find him reading the " Order for morning 
 and evening pr'ayer^ If the principle of forms be conceded, 
 there can be no question as to the gejiej'al excellence oithese 
 forms. Excessive length and needless repetitions, though 
 blemishes, are not sufficient reasons for Nonconformity. In 
 spite of our strong repugnance to many things in the Prayer 
 Book, our hearts do burn within us as we join in these 
 broken and contrite confessions, these lofty songs of praise, 
 these comprehensive and yearning intercessions. We are 
 sensible of the advantage of incorporating so much scripture 
 into each service. We feel the animation excited by the 
 variety and completeness of the whole and the brevity of the 
 several parts. But even in these services there are words 
 we find it hard to use. The Apostle's creed (so-called ) makes 
 us say — " I believe in the Holy Catholic Church." In the 
 sense of " the general assembly and church of the first-born 
 which are written in heaven," we do — but was this the sense 
 that the compilers of this creed intended ? i he Creed of St. 
 Athanasius' Creed is sometimes substituted. Are we pre- 
 pared to say of all its metaphysical elaborations of the doc- 
 trine of the Trinity—" This is the Cathohc faith ; which ex- 
 
CANADIAN BICENTENARY PAPERS. 
 
 55 
 
 
 cept a man believe faithfully, Tie sJiall witJiout donht perish 
 everlastingly y In the Nicene Creed, said in the Commu- 
 nion service, are these clauses, " I believe in one Catholic and 
 Apostolic Church, I acknowledge one Baptism for the re- 
 mission of sins." Tn this later profession, we S€e the growth 
 of the doctrine of the church, and we have the new article 
 concerning Baptisra. Can we understand the latter in any 
 evangelical, Protestant, scriptural sense ? And is it not a 
 vital defect^ pervading the entire book, that the whole con- 
 gregation are supposed to be true christians, there being no 
 discrimination attempted in these services ? 
 
 After the Second Lesson the Clergyman has to administer 
 Baptism^ which he must do according to the form provided, 
 aiid no other. Let us briefly analyse it After some 
 exhortations and prayers, in which, so far as they assure 
 of " the good-will of our heavenly Father towards this 
 infant," and pray for the Holy Spirit to regenerate him, we 
 could heartily join, — though we know not what is that 
 '''"mystical washing away of sin" to which water is said to 
 have been sanctified by our Saviour's Baptism, — we come 
 to the Baptismal Covenant itself. This is not made with 
 the jjarents, respecting their duty in bring-ing him up in the 
 fear of God, — but, strange to say, with the unconscious 
 babe himself! ! Three sureties, 7wt being its parents, — 
 " 6^06Z-fathers and (?o<^-raothers," — in the child's name, 
 "renounce the devil and all his works, the vain pomp and 
 glory of the world, with all covetous desires of the same, 
 and the carnal desires of the flesh," — profess stcadfixst 
 belief in the Apostles' Creed, — declare his desire to be 
 baptised in that faith, — and prt:>miss to keep God's oomr 
 niandnici^ts all the days of his life ! I I We do not dwell 
 on the lighiness with which these solemn vows are so often 
 made, tlie merely complimentary relation of sponsorship in 
 ,thc vast majority of cases., — ^.these evils are conceivably 
 
CANADIAN BICENTENARY PAPERS. 
 
 curable, — and Bishops in Convocation have bewailed them, 
 and moved for liberty to receive parents as sponsors, — but 
 take the case at the best, suppose minister, parents, and 
 God-parents to be devout and believing,^— how is it possible 
 that one person can answer for another who does not know 
 his right hand from his left, in this manner ? Could we ask 
 and receive pledges which the sureties have no power what- 
 ever to cause the child to fulfil, or, in case of failure, 
 themselves to make good ? What is such suretyship worth ? 
 These answers being given, however, the child is baptised, 
 and signed with the cross, (which we do not find in our 
 Bibles, though it is in the Romish Missal,) and '* then shall 
 the priest say, ' Seeing how, dearly beloved, that this child 
 is regenerated, and grafted into the body of Christ's Church, 
 let us give thanks,' " &c., — which is done in these terms, 
 " that it hath pleased thee to regenerate this infant with 
 thy Holy Spirit, to receive him for thine own child by 
 adoption, and to incorporate him into thy holy church." 
 The office closes with an exhortation merely to the sponsors, 
 — no pledge being taken for what they can do! — to do their 
 duty, namely, to have the child instructed and trained 
 religiously. Such is the Baptismal Service of the Church 
 of England, which was one of the most decisive reasons for 
 the nonconformity of the 2,000, and is with many an honest 
 man the chief cause of nonconformity to this day. At its 
 first reading, does it not strike every one as declaring, in 
 the most unequivocal terms, the new birth — in the highest 
 sense — of every baptised child "i How then, can Evangelical 
 men use and explain it ? On this wise, one section, the 
 Calvinistic, tells us. The child by his sureties professes 
 repentance and faith ; the Church must presume that that 
 profession is true ; and on that hypothesis and condition, 
 pronounce him regenerate. If the child's vow is not 
 fulfilled, the regeneration also fails. When, by special 
 
CANADIAN BICENTENARY PAPERS. 
 
 It 
 
 >> 
 
 grace, regeneration is wrought, it may take place either 
 before, at, or after baptism, but is not tied to the rite itself. 
 Indeed, it is admitted that regeneration at the time is the 
 rare exception. So said Mr. Gorham in his celebrated suit 
 with the Bishop of Exeter, and so writes Mr. Goode in a 
 work, which is the acknowledged standard on the same 
 side. But of all this possible, conditional, hypothetical 
 regeneration, this charitable assumption yet utter uncer- 
 tainty, — the service says not a word! There is no doubt 
 hinted there. Language could not express an idea in 
 stronger and clearer terms, than those that are employed, 
 if the idea meant to be conveyed were that no failure or 
 doubt was conceivable. Not only so, but the regeneration 
 is expressly connected with the act of Baptism, as where 
 in the office for Private Baptism it is said, " this child, being 
 born in original sin, and in the wrath of God, is now hy the 
 laver of Regeneration in Baptism, received into the number 
 of the children of God and heirs of everlasting life ;" and 
 again, ''this child is by Baptism regeneraie.^^ Throughout, 
 it is the "water" that "mystically washes away sin." 
 Again, what theology is this that makes repentance and 
 faith antecedents and conditions of regeneration, rather than 
 its results and evidences ? And at the foundation of the 
 entire explanation, lies that impossible suretyship. Could 
 we, with such explanations, promise to administer this ordi- 
 nance according to the form prescribed in the Prayer-Book ? 
 
 On the other hand, there does seem to be the true 
 ring of manly consistency in such declarations as we now 
 proceed to quote. The Bishop of Toronto, addressing the 
 Synod of his diocese, in June, 1801, says, 
 
 " We hold every article and word of the Apostles' and 
 Nicene Creeds, and believe them to be the expression of 
 divine truth, in its simplest and most pregnant form. . . 
 . . We desire no change in the Prayer Book, no retrench- 
 
58 
 
 CANADIAN BICENTENARY PAPERS. 
 
 ment or alterations, for we need none. We can accept and 
 9ine its well-weighed expressions^ icithout recourse tojignra- 
 five or liypotTietienl interpretations. When in confirming 
 we say to Cod, that He hath vouchsafed to regenerate these 
 His servants, on whom we liave been la^'ing hands, by- 
 water and the Holy Ghost, we mean by these words just 
 what the plainest person in the congregation understands 
 us to mean, and have no mental reservations or applications. 
 When we teach our children, as the Catechism directs, 
 that in baptism they are made members of Christ, children 
 of God, and inheritors of the Kingdom of Heaven, we be- 
 lieve them to have the right to say so, and that what they 
 say is the truth as revealed by our Lord and Saviour." 
 
 Provost Whitaker, defending himself against the Bishop 
 
 of Huron, says, 
 
 " Are we to be required again, as a matter of conscience, 
 to attach a non-natural sense to that article of our creed, 
 which we as ministers, and the people with us, solemnly 
 confess whenever the Communion Service is read, ' I 
 acknowledge one Baptism for the remission of sins f . . 
 , . If I could not accept the teaching of the Baptismal 
 Service and of the Catechism in its plain and obvious sense, 
 I would not consent for another day to discharge my office 
 as a minister of the Chuch of England."* 
 
 Nor is this ground taken in Canada alone. A member of 
 the Colonial Episcopate at tlie antipodes, the Lord Bishop 
 of Tasmania, may be referred to as showing that the same 
 spirit animates the many scattered members of the one 
 body. In a publication called forth by some local contro- 
 versy, he denies " that the compilers of the Liturgy were so 
 double-minded in their dishonesty as to say what they did 
 not intend ; to assert^ categorically, what they meant 
 hypothetically/'t In support of this, he quotes these 
 words from Dr. Wordsworth, Canon of Westminster, a 
 son oC the great poet : — 
 
 ♦ Two Letters, ut Bapni, pp. 94, 95. 
 t Taken from CAuro/* Ztf« tn .ilu^roZto, pp. lOS^llL 
 
CANADIAN BICENTENARY PAPERS. 
 
 m 
 
 " If the words of the English Church in the Enprh'sh Prayer 
 Book are not to be understood in their plain, simple, literal 
 English sense ; if, when she says, ' seeing, dearly beloved, 
 this child is 7iow regenerate,' she is not to be understood to 
 mean that the child is regenerate, then doubt, suspicion and 
 scepticism will lurk beneath her altars, and steal into the 
 most solemn mysteries of religion. Then, faith in suhscrip- 
 tiona to Articles will he no more; and all confidence in her 
 teaching and in that of her ministers will be destroyed ; and 
 so a grievous penalty will be inflicted on her and them ; a 
 heavy injury will be sustained by her people; and the 
 English name and nation will sink low in the scale of 
 honesty^ sincerity^ and truths 
 
 Once more, at a meeting of Bishops held in Sydney, New 
 South Wales, in 1850, the following declaration was adopted : 
 "We believe that it is the doctrine of our Church that all 
 infants do, hy baptism^ receive this grace of regeneration" — 
 that is, as just defined by themselves, a "work of God," by 
 which those who are its subjects " die unto sin, and rise 
 again unto righteousness, and are made members of Christ, 
 children of God, and inheritors of the Kingdom of Heaven." 
 Returning now to Canada, we find the Bishop of Toronto, 
 in his Charge of 1847,* using this extract from the Sermons 
 of Rev. Henry Melvill :t " That the Church of England does 
 hold, and does teach. Baptismal Regeneration, would never, 
 we must venture to think, have been disputed, had not men 
 been anxious to remain in her Communion and yet to make 
 her formularies square with their private notions. We 
 really think that no fair, no straightforward dealing, can get 
 rid of the conclusion, that the Church holds what is called 
 Baptismal Regeneration. You may dislike the doctrine, you 
 may wish it expunged from the Prayer Book ; but so long 
 as I suhscribe to that Prayer Book, and so long as I officiate 
 according to the forms of that Prayer Book, I do not see 
 
 ♦Page 55. 
 fVol. II., Sermon 8. " 
 
60 
 
 CANADIAN BICENTENARY PAPERS. 
 
 how I can be commonly honest and yet deny that every 
 baptised person is, on that account, regenerate." 
 
 Upon this, Dr. Strachan goes on to say — and certainly 
 speaks as a representative man — " concurring as I do, in 
 these observations, it may be useful to remark, that the 
 doctrine of the church is, that in Baptism the penalty 
 attached to thejlrst transgression is removed, and the sin 
 forgiven; hut she does not maintain that all haptised per' 
 sons, are by virtue of this sacrament placed them in a path 
 which must of necessity lead them to eternal life ; or that 
 the end of our christian calling is accomplished. The church 
 does not teach that every branch engrafted on the mystical 
 body of Christ shall bear fruit unto everlasting salvation. 
 Many of those who deny the doctrine of regeneration, so 
 clearly taught by the church, are carried away with the opin- 
 ion that she teaches that those loho are once regenerate must 
 ever continue 80, and advance in holiness; but this is an 
 error. Baptism is the commencement of a new life, hence 
 it is called a new birth ; but it is not the whole of that new 
 life, and must be sustained by a living faith, working through 
 love. The gifts and privileges it confers may be lost ; men 
 may resist and do resist God, and hold his grace in un- 
 righteousness ; they become withered branches, though still 
 attached to the vine ; and this is their condemnation, for the 
 sins of men baptised are far worse than the sins of the 
 heathen." 
 
 The writer heard a West Indian clergyman, during the 
 homeward passage of the Great Eastern, in August, 1861, 
 use language to this effect, in the course of a sermon in which 
 he had spoken of " the regenerating dew coursing down your 
 infant cheek," — " Do you ask me, ' What ? are there Chris- 
 tians in hell V undoubtedly ; multitudes of them.'''' 
 
 You may think it strange to find among these believers in 
 Baptismal Regeneration, the present Archbishop of Canter- 
 
CANADIAN BICENTENARY PAPERS. 
 
 61 
 
 6wry, Dr. John Bird Sumner, who has so long been looked 
 up to as an evangelical leader, and is such an honourable 
 exception to the customary cxclusivcness of Bishops. How- 
 far he represents the Arniinian section of the Low Church 
 clergy, tlio writer cannot say, but the views of the Primate 
 of All England, can hardly fail to bo those of many of his 
 brethren. In a work on " Apostolical Preaching," first pub- 
 lished in 1824 and re-issued in 1850 — during the Gorham 
 controversy — the Archbishop argues against the doctrine of 
 "special grace,"* "that it implies the necessity of some test 
 of God's favour^ and of the reconcilement of Christians unto 
 Him, heyond and subsequent to the covenant of Baptism'''' — 
 "that it reduces Baptism to an empty rite, an external 
 mark of admission into the visible Church, attended with 
 'no real grace, and therefore conveying no real benefit, nor 
 advancing a person one step towards salvation." Again, 
 " how is this fact of regeneracy^ upon which no less than 
 eternity depends, to be discovered ? The Apostle enumerates 
 the works of the flesh and the fruits of the Spirit ; but his 
 test is insurfficient, (!) for the two lists are here mixed and 
 confounded. The hearers appeal to the Church, an autho- 
 rised interpreter of Scripture. {! !) The Church acquaints 
 them, that they loere themselves regener'ated, and made the 
 children of grace, by the benefit of baptism^ " No preacher 
 is, therefore, authorised, either by our Church, or by St. 
 Paul, to leave a doubt on the mind of his hearers whether 
 they are within the pale of God's favour." 
 
 Thus, it is clear, that all who hold that Regeneration 
 invariably takes place in Baptism — whether High or Low 
 Church — do so in the Arminian sense. Only in that sense, 
 indeed, could the doctrine be held at all. The Church of 
 Rome holds it in the same manner. 
 
 * Quoted iu The Oreat Gorham case, hy John Search, pp. 11-20, 234-241. 
 
62 
 
 CA. VDIAN BICENTENARY PAPERS. 
 
 But can we allow a doctrine, which forbids us to say to 
 men once outwardly baptised, however they may be living, 
 " Ye must bo born again ?" which virtually supercedes 
 Justification by Faith V which makes God's *' free Spirit " 
 wait upon the act of some human priest? which con- 
 tradicts the Apostle Peter (1 Peter iii. 21), who declares, 
 indeed, that " Baptism doth save us," but " not the putting 
 away of thejilth ofthejlesh ("water mystically washing 
 away sin "), but the answer of a good conscience towards 
 God ?" and which says that Christ's sheep can be " plucked 
 out of his Father's hand ?" 
 
 The next duty naturally devolving on the Anglican priest 
 js the preparation of candidates for Confirmation. In this,^ 
 he must teach them the Church Catechism, which is con- 
 structed on the principle of teaching doctrine and duty in 
 the form of a personal profession of faith on the part of 
 the child I Yet is it taught to all indiscriminately, with- 
 out, as we fear, any effort to ascertain whether the words 
 can be spoken in truth or not. And what are the doctrines 
 so taught ? The child is made to say — "In my Baptism I 
 was made a member of Christ, the child of God, and an 
 inheritor of the Kingdom of Heaven," that the sacraments 
 are "generally necessary to salvation," and that "the Body 
 and Blood of Christ are verily and indeed taken and re- 
 ceived by the faithful in the Lord's Supper." Shall this be 
 our manual for Catechumens ? When youths can repeat the 
 Catechism, the Rubric says, that the curate shall bring to 
 the bishop for Confirmation such "a« lie shall think fit.'^ 
 This allows the exercise of discriminating fidelity, and some 
 clergymen do not fail to avail themselves of it, while the 
 language is such as to save the conscience of one giving 
 " assent and consent" to it : but usage, often stronger than 
 the letter of the law, admits all who have " come to years 
 of discretion " to the rite which confers on them the full 
 
CANADIAN BICENTENARY PAPERS. 
 
 the 
 
 privileges of church membership. The Confirmation Scr. 
 vice begins with a renewal, on their own behalf, of the 
 Baptismal vows, in which respect it is as explicit a profes- 
 sion and covenant as amj church could require, were it 
 properly applied ; but at this step again the Almighty is 
 addressed as ^^ having vouchsafed to regenerate these his 
 servants by water and the Holy Ghost, and having given 
 them forgiveness of all their sins." Could you say that so 
 confidently, with a clear conscience ? 
 
 All who have been confirmed are entitled to come there- 
 after to the Lord's Table, unless forbidden by the Curate, 
 who may keep back " an open and notorious evil liver," one 
 ♦' who has done any wrong to his neighbour by word or 
 deed," and " those betwixt whom malice and hatred reign," 
 — until they manifest repentance. Here there seems to be 
 provision for discipline ; but practically what does it amount 
 to ? The rule, however, protects the assentor, r/'he can be 
 assured that the provision that " the congregation .nay be 
 satisfied, which before were offended" with the "open and 
 notorious" sinner, as it is carried out, sufficiently complies 
 with the requirement addressed to the church, — "Put away 
 from among yourselves that wicked person," and the like. 
 The actual working of the system is, that all may com- 
 municate who choose to come forward. Are we prepared 
 to consent to this? The Communion Service itself does 
 not suggest many scruples. It is one of great pathos and 
 beauty. Here and there is a dubious hint on the subject 
 of eating Christ's flesh and drinking his blood, which, with 
 the terms "holy mysteries," and the hieeling at the altar 
 savour too much of the Mass to comport with the scriptural 
 
 • _ 
 
 Idea of a joyous and familiar "feast" of "remembrance, » 
 arc most easily interpreted by multitudes of Churchmen in 
 anything but a Protestant sense, and have required guard- 
 ing in the book itself, from very natural inferences. 
 
64 
 
 CANADIAN BICENTENARY PAPERS. 
 
 We have already referred to the service for the Visitation 
 of the SicJc^ and its startling form of absolution ; so we pass 
 on at once to the Buried Service^ the last ofiice which the 
 clergyman performs for those under his spiritual care. We 
 find no fault with the service itself when read at the funeral 
 of a true believer : it is most consolatory and elevating : 
 but it is the Burial Service and is read over all alike, however 
 they may have lived and died. When the minister says 
 that "it hath pleased Almighty God of his great mercy to 
 take unto himself the soul of our dear hrother here depart- 
 ed ;" and that they " commit his body to the ground in 
 sure and certain hope of the Resurrection to eternal life ;" 
 and thanks Him, " with whom do live the spirits of them 
 that depart hence in the Lord, and with whom the souls of 
 the faithful, after they are delivered from the burden of the 
 flesh, are in joy and felicity," " that it hath pleased Him to 
 deliver this our brother out of the miseries of this sinful 
 tcorld^" — does it not declare the eternal safety of the 
 departed? No wonder that it is felt to be such a sore 
 burden by conscientious clergymen, and that some 4,000 
 lately petitioned for relief, though all in vain I 
 
 Such are the Liturgical forms to which, at his ordination, 
 the clergyman declares his entire adherence, and which 
 alone he binds himself to use. Do they, as a whole, or in 
 their several parts, command such confidence in you ? Is 
 it thus you can serve God in his sanctuary ? Or would you 
 not rather, once committed, and committed for hfe, " groan 
 under sorrows, which you dare not utter, from the pressure 
 upon you of harrowing thoughts on the language of these 
 formularies?" Would it not need "terrible toil, intense 
 and unavailing, to repress doubts, and sophisticate the 
 understanding, and to find an interpretation that might be 
 held as harmonising with Scriptural truth? And what 
 stabs, and darts, and shootings through the soul of the 
 
 ^ 
 
 
 J 
 
CANADIAN BICENTENARY PAPERS. 
 
 M 
 
 flaming arrows of shame and remorse, as ever and anon, 
 while the words of the book were breathed to heaven, 
 repugnance to their meaning lacerated the heart! No 
 decision of Committee of Privy Council, — no authoritative 
 legal deliverance, fixing a sense or tolerating differences, 
 could reach the core and eradicate the causes of a disease 
 like this ! N'othing icoiild do hut a cliange in the offices of 
 the Church themselves.'''''''' 
 
 III. We hav^ little space left for dwelling on the Articles 
 of Religion^ which must be pronounced "agreeable to the 
 Word of God." Certainly, an Evangelical Christian can find 
 him jolf more at home among these than among the Offices 
 just referred to. But in this very fact lies our difficulty in 
 accepting hoth^ as we are required to do. The two opposing 
 parties in the Church t?.ke refuge, one in the Articles and 
 the other in the Liturgy, and thence denounce each other as 
 in deadly error. One says that the Liturgy must be in- 
 terpreted by the Articles, and the other reverses this rule, 
 both thus confessing the^ opposition between the two. The 
 Liturgy is largely inherited from the Papacy. The Articles 
 are the fruit of the Reformation. They are, on the whole, 
 Calvinistie in their Theology. The IXth contains a 
 strong statement of the doctrine of " Original Sin." The 
 Xth is equal to the Westminster Confession on the subject 
 of "Free Will" The Xlth, Xllth and XITIth are very 
 clear on ".Justification by Faith," and "Good Works." 
 The XVlTth is most explicit on the topic of "Predesti- 
 nation." On the subject of the Church, we could scarcely 
 desire a better definition of our own views than that in the 
 XlXth, — " A:^ visible Church of Christ is a congregation of 
 faithful (Jbelieding) men, in the which the pure Word of 
 
 ^lat 
 bhe 
 
 •" Great Gorham Cuse, pp. 159, ICO. 
 Archbishop Whateley's rendering of the Lathi, Visibilis. 
 
66 
 
 CANADIAN BICENTENARY PAPERS. 
 
 Qod is preaehed^ and the Sacraments duly ministered ac- 
 cording to Christ's ordinance, in all those things that of 
 necessity are requisite tc the same." But Art. XX gives 
 the Church "power to decree Rites and Ceremonies, and 
 authority in Controversies of Faiths The XXIst forbids a 
 General Council being gathered " without the commandment 
 of Princes " — Royal Supremacy ! Art. XXVII, on Bap- 
 tism, is not free from a sacramentarian tinge, though it by 
 no means comes up to the standard of the Liturgy. Nor 
 are there wanting other traces of a " churchly " spirit here 
 and there, which have opened the door to many errors. 
 
 We have now gone over the requisites to Episcopal ordi- 
 nation, and may be better prepared to answer the question, 
 "Can we conform, when the approval required is so com- 
 plete, but the standards are so contradictory, some of them 
 so unscriptural, as we cannot help reading the Scriptures ?" 
 Shall we resort, in using terms so stringent, to the "non- 
 natural sense ?" Is it honest ? Could we do it in secular 
 afftiirs and be true men ? 
 
 AVill the animits-imponentis principle help us? according 
 to v/hich, not the " literal and grammatical sense " of the 
 words, but the intention of the Church, is to be our guide 
 to the import of subscription. But what does the Church 
 believe, say on the fundamental question of Baptism ? We 
 have Bishop against Bishop — the Articles against the 
 Liturgy — and the Sovereign, the Head of the Church, says 
 &o^A parties are good churchmen, and may hold their livings ! 
 To what, then, arc we to subscribe as the truth on this 
 question ? 
 
 Shall we wait for Liiurgical Remsion? Even then, we 
 must wait outside, not being at liberty to make declarations 
 we do not believe in the hope that by and by they will no< 
 be required. But what is the prospect of revision V The 
 Archbishop of Canterbury dared not encourage the peti 
 
 «»|* 
 
 
CANADIAN BICENTENARY PAPERS. 
 
 cr 
 
 ;his 
 
 we 
 ons 
 noi 
 ■The 
 
 tioners in the matter of the Burial Service to hope for any 
 success, for if they once began to alter, what might it not 
 lead to, and where would it stop ? The book has age, custom, 
 prestige, and world-wide use on its side. A large party are 
 ready to defend its every jot and tittle. The timid and easy, 
 who dread every agitation and change, will throw all their 
 weight into the same scale. The revisors — if clergymen — 
 have already declared their " unfeigned assent and consent 
 to all and everything contained " therein. Can they now 
 make out a strong case on the other side ? We see little 
 prospect of any relief in this direction. 
 
 What if the terins of auhacri/ption imposed by the Act of 
 Uniformity could be altered, though the Liturgy were not 
 revised? Such a measure has just beeen brought forward 
 in the House of Lords, by Lord Ebury, but — of course — 
 withdrawn again. Even had it passed, what had been its 
 effect? Says a Church journal, — "that, provided a man 
 promises to '^ise a religious formulary, he is under no obli- 
 gation to agree with it. The sensitive persons for whom 
 the measure is introduced are to have tho privilege of saying 
 that they never pledge themselves to the truth of the icords 
 they utter. '''' - - 
 
 "But do not many good men subscribe? Surely they 
 do it with good conscience. Cannot I do the same ?■' When 
 Peter asked the Lord concerning John, "And what shall 
 this man do?" — the Master sharply replied, " W7iat is 
 that to thee? Folloio thou me!'''' "To his own Master ho 
 standeth or falleth." Our conscience is no rule for our 
 neighbour; neither is his for us. '-'■ Every one of us shall 
 give account of himself unto God. Let every man prove 
 his omi work, and then shall he have rejoicing in himself 
 alone, and not in another. For every man shall hear his 
 axon 'burden.^'' Are you satisfied in your oicn mind, that you 
 
68 
 
 CANADIAN BICENTENARY PAPERS. 
 
 ♦> 
 
 can take these vows in sincerity and truth ? " Whatsoever 
 is not offaith^ is sin." 
 
 Thus there seems no escape from the necessity of non- 
 confonnity, on our religious principles. It is a very simple 
 matter — We do not delieve the things loe should he required 
 to say ; and therefore ice cannot say them. It is nothing 
 cither to boast or be ashamed of, that in such a transaction, 
 above all, we want to speak the truth. Wo have honestly 
 endeavoured to get at the core and substance of the question 
 to consider what must be said and done in " taking orders," 
 that which no man can be a clergyman without saying and 
 doing, and we find that we cannot say and do them. This 
 is enough. Whatever attractions we may find in some 
 features of the church system, however much we may 
 admire and love some churchmen, or, again, whatever other 
 objections we may have to the Church of England, in 
 matters of taste, judgment, or even principle, this essential 
 impossibility settles the question. Our fathers did right, 
 in coming out, for the like reasons, in 16G2, and we, in 
 staying out, are thankful to be able to join such a goodly 
 company. 
 
 And if such is the duty of ministers^ does a less obliga- 
 tion lie on like-minded private individuals f They are not 
 required, it is true, to sign the declaration just examined, 
 but "by regular, acquiescent, silent conformity they give 
 their support to the whole of a system, a system which they 
 think, tempts members to say what makes their public 
 position intolerable and false. They perpetuate this. They 
 help to rivet on the necks of many a heavy burden which 
 they should rather endeavour to lessen or remove."* On the 
 other hand, they leave the Pastors who are suffering for their 
 conscientious Nonconformity to suffer alone. Ought they not 
 
 * Church Life in Australia, p. xxxiii. 
 
* I • CANADIAN BICENTENARY PAPEBS. gg 
 
 to do something more than commend-to stand by and help 
 them? But docs not a lay member of the Church take 
 part in these very services ? In Baptism, for instance, does 
 he not adopt the ofiice as much as the officiating minister? 
 If he bnng. up his children under the Prayer Book, can 
 they escape tl,e influence of such an atmosphere? Ought 
 « man to be a member „f a Church who is in constant pro- 
 test agamst its plainest teaching ? Is it right for such an 
 
 1: )" V ' "' '"''"' "dvantages, or even for some 
 
 measure of religious gratification, to conform ' 
 
 formkf Cb ''*, " *" *° *™ "'' "^ ''" *" '»»''« °" Noncon- 
 form St Churches not merely protestors against evil without, 
 
 bat themselves so pure, so large-heai^ted, so earnest, so 
 
 devout, and so peaceable, that there shall be no UmpMion 
 
 for a good man to seek a religious home elsewhere. Not by 
 
 separation from any erring church, but by living union 
 
 to Christ, shall we fully vindicate our claim to hay! 
 
 descended from the Confessors of 1662. May "a double 
 
 portion of their spirit be upon us •" 
 
 W. O. OHETETT 4 CO., PRINTERS, KINO STREET, TORONTO.