USA > Virginia > Ecclesiastical law and discipline. A charge to the clergy of the Protestant Episcopal church of Virginia > Part 4
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* So violent were the prejudices of dissatisfied Puritans and strenuous Churchmen towards each other in those days, that it is difficult from any histories or other writings to form a true estimate of their real or comparative merit. The author of this charge has long since determined to take as his guide and authority above all others, the testimony of the good, the great, the pious, Sir Matthew Hale, as found in some few pages of his life and wri- tings. Sir Matthew Hale lived during the most painfully interesting period of the Eng- lish history, and from his intimacy with Puritans, Non-conformists and Churchmen, and the high esteem in which he was held by all, may be trusted beyond any other, for accu- racy of knowledge and soundness of judgment. Though differing much from him in the- ological matters, he defended Archbishop Laud when on his trial, and would have defended king Charles, if defence had been permitted, as he thought that both of them were unjust- ly dealt with, though both greatly in fault. He was intimate with Bishop Wilkins, and Tillotson, and Mr. Baxter, and labored hard to get through Parliament a bill of compre- hension which he had drawn up, by which to reconcile differences. As to the Churchmen, he thought they were too severe in the course pursued towards the Puritans. As to the Puritans, he thought "they were good men, but had narrow souls, who would break the peace of the Church about such inconsiderable matters as the points in difference were."
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England, who show such a partiality for Laudian Church principles, and such a veneration for antiquity, have mani- fested a leaning to this very thing. As the primitive Church forbade fasting on the Lord's day, because a day of rejoicing, and Rome assigns one-half of it to merry making, they would relax also, and yield something to the calls of human nature for light amusements on that day. One of their leaders in the British Parliament, has either written a book or made some motion to that effect within the last few years.
What I have said must show that we cannot look to the Church of England as an example of godly discipline, and yet we may find much in it to strengthen our conviction of its importance, and much to effect in its unavoidable absence that which discipline is designed to promote. God employs various instruments for effecting one and the same object, so that if one is out of place, others may succeed to it, and do some of its duty, if it cannot accomplish all. Archbishop Sandys says, "There be three ways for guarding the vine- yard of the Lord-1st. 'The faithful preaching of the word; 2ndly. The holy conversation of ministers; 3rdly. The dis- cipline of the Church." "This last net," as he calls it, will take hold, when the two former fail. It held that in- cestuous Corinthian whom no other way could have taken." Now let us see how she has endeavored to perform her duty in all these respects, and how far succeeded.
1st. She commands her ministers faithfully to preach the whole word of God, and read the same to the people, where- by their souls may be converted to God, and thus built up in him. Especially does she make them give faithful views
As to the disputes about the Sabbath and the proper mode of spending it, he was entirely against those loose Churchmen who so shamefully profaned it, being a most strict ob- server of it, leaving behind him a strong testimony concerning the benefits of its due celebration. His letters to his grand-children show that he had no sympathy for light and trifling pastimes, games of chance, etc. As to the theatre, his condemnation is very strong, and his example in renouncing it at eighteen years of age is worthy to be fol- lowed.
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of the sacraments, and the danger of receiving them un- worthily. See how her article on the subject of the Lord's supper, and her whole communion service (the same with our own), warn against the unworthy receiving, and bid various descriptions of sinners by name not to come, lest it be to their condemnation. This cannot but produce great effect in deterring the unworthy. Such was the preaching of the early Reformers. See also how this was done in the Homilies which were ordered to be read in all the Churches. In the Homily on the worthy receiving of the supper it is declared, that "newness of life and godliness of conversa- tion " are required of those who partake, as was the case with those who partook of the sacraments of Moses, some of whom God overthrew because "they coveted after evil
things." It is declared that we must "be pure from all filthiness of flesh and spirit, lest we eat and drink our own condemnation." It declares that "here be tokens of pure- ness and innocency of life, whereby we may perceive that we ought to purge our souls from all uncleanness, iniquity and wickedness, lest when we eat this mystical bread, as Origen saith, we eat in an unclean place, that is, in a soul defiled and polluted with sin." Again, "we both read in St. Paul that the Church at Corinth was scourged of the Lord for misusing the Lord's supper; and we may plainly see Christ's Church there nine years miserably vexed and oppressed for the horrible profanation of the same. Where- fore let us all, universal and singular, behold our own lives and manners to amend them." Otherwise, " it must needs come to pass that as wholesome meat received into a sour stomach corrupteth and marreth all, and is the cause of fur- ther sickness; so shall we eat this bread and drink this cup to our eternal destruction." Again, " Why cried the Dea- con in the primitive Church, If any be holy let him draw near? Was it not because this table received no unholy, unclean, or sinful guests?" Thus did all the Reformers
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preach. Bishop Hooper says, to the unworthy, " the sacra- ments be not profitable, but damnable." Becon quotes Hirome as saying, "All that be lovers of pleasure more than lovers of God, eat not the flesh and drink not the blood of Christ." And St. Cyprian as saying, "none do eat of this lamb but the true Israelites;" and himself says, "as corporal meat, if it find a stomach occupied with adverse and corrupt humors, doth hurt the more," so "this spiritual meat, if it find any man polluted with malignity and evil, shall destroy him the more, not of the own nature of it, but through the fault of him that receiveth it." It is thus that numbers of holy men ever since the Reformers, preached in warning words to the unworthy, while all, even the most faithless of her ministers, have been obliged to preach from the desk and chancel what the Bible and Prayer Book speak on the subject of unworthy receiving.
2ndly. How much has been done by the holy conversa- tion of faithful men, whose lips .and lives have privately warned the wicked against a false profession and unworthy living. How solemn are the ordination vows of her minis- ters, how sacred the promise to preach the word faithfully and administer the sacraments rightly. Much has been done in this way also towards the promotion of true piety and the establishment of correct views of the communion. What an invaluable blessing we have in our Liturgy and the word of God publicly used, and what a help in the private inter- course of the minister with his people, especially with the young, in training them up so as not to need the rude hand of discipline, or even the kind voice of warning.
3rdly. But our mother Church is not without her code of discipline, which, of itself, however embarrassed in its exe- cution, is not without its effect. She has her canons for clergy as well as laity, and her positive rubrics specifying and enjoining discipline, in close connection with the very words of the service. She commands the minister not to
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suffer the evil liver to approach, and thereby commands him also not to draw near. In her canons, besides repeating the general directions of the rubric, she is sometimes more par- ticular. She declares in one of her canons on godly con- versation in her ministers, " that they should be examples to the people to live well and christianly;" "that they should not resort to taverns or ale houses for other than honest ne- cessities; " " that they should not spend their time idly, by day or by night, playing at dice, cards, or tables, or any other unlawful games." Moreover, she has appointed lay officers, called Church Wardens, Sidesmen, Questmen, to present all offenders among the laity to the Ordinary. Be- sides specifying a number of the greater crimes, it is added, or "any other uncleanness and wickedness of life," thus, not binding the informers or executors of discipline to the mere names of sins, which might be changed to avoid pen- alty. Moreover, to show what use she wished to make of private admonition and warning, and to put to shame the unworthy, she orders in one of her canons that before every communion, either on the preceding day or on the morn- ing thereof, every one desiring to partake shall inform the minister of such his desire. None can question that the de- sign of this was to facilitate and ensure the keeping of un- worthy persons from the Lord's table, for their own and the Church's sake, by the opportunity it afforded of private advice, warning and prohibition. That law enforced, how many unworthy ones would rather withdraw from the com- munion than subject themselves to this private ordeal. This part of discipline, which is only required in our Diocese on one occasion, that is, before the first approach to the table, was thus required on every occasion. However inconve- nient and difficult of execution, and however much neg- lected, it still remains among the canons in evidence of the sense and wishes of the English Church on the subject. It may be further remarked, that in a country where Church
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and State were united, and the latter predominant, and where all were expected, and many were required to com- mune under certain penalties, and in order to office, the civil magistrate was expected to execute the laws of Parlia- ment, which legislated for Christians as citizens. The Re- formers dwell much on this, and refer to the Old and New Testaments in calling on the rulers to be "a terror to evil doers," and bidding all to obey them in the Lord.
One other feature I would refer to in the scheme of dis- cipline of the English Church, in which she agrees with the Jewish, Apostolic and Primitive Church, which is, that it is not designed to force men to religion who have none, nor to punish those only who are lost ones and cast aways, as to all human appearance, but for the children of the kingdom, as well as pretenders. One of the Reformers quotes Ter- tullian as saying, " It is not religion to force a religion which ought to be willingly received." Another quotes Cyprian as saying, " The object of discipline is to make us perpetually to abide in Christ and live to God." Where- fore he says, not only " gravissima et extrema delicta-the greatest and most heinous of crimes-sed minora delicta- the less ones were punished, so cutting off sin in its bud, and by the excision of its less acts and ebullitions, prevent- ing its more gross and scandalous eruptions." The two great objects of discipline are set forth in the English Com- mination service, which declares that the subjects of it "are to be punished in this world, that their souls might be saved in the day of the Lord; and that others, admonished by their example, might be the more afraid to offend." Such are almost the words, and altogether the doctrine of the Apostles.
But now it may be asked, if there have been all these guards and fences, these cherubims and seraphims with flaming swords, around our mother Church, to prevent the admission of the unworthy to the Lord's supper; if all these
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provisions are made for the exercise of godly discipline on those who have been admitted; if the clergy, by canon and by their solemn ordination vows, are required to be such examples to the laity, especially in their abstinence from worldly dissipation; how is it that there have been, almost from the first years of the Reformation, such heavy com- plaints against the Church, for the misconduct of both min- isters and people, especially the former; that her own best friends have acknowledged it and mourned over it; that reformation has been ever called for and promised; that so many secessions on this very ground have taken place for more than two centuries; that Tractarians, who boast them- selves the only true Churchmen, and those most opposed to them, join with Dissenters, in either taunting the Church with this defect, or mourning over it and hoping for reforma- tion? And how is it that some, who by reason of their immorality are more worthy of prisoners' fare in some place of civil correction, are compelled by their office to sit down at the table of the Lord? How is it that even now, great and blessed as the change has been, that some few even of the clergy, may be seen where once numbers were, at the ball-room, the card-table, the theatre, and such like places ? It is difficult to make an answer to this which will be intelli- gible, much less acceptable. One must be well acquainted with the whole history of the civil and ecclesiastical courts and laws in England, in all their intermixtures one with the other, in order to understand and estimate the excuse derived therefrom. Doubtless much of that which is evil might have been prevented, as it has been within the last fifty years or more, by the faithful use of the other instruments which we have mentioned, and much of it may be ascribed to other causes; but making due allowance for other things, it must be admitted that very much of the want of discipline in the English Church is to be ascribed to the uncertainty, difficulty and expense of suits, in the courts to which clergy
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are liable to be called for acts of discipline. An appeal from the decisions of Bishops and ministers against either clergy or laity, may at once be had by any one who is able and desirous to do it, and the costs are very great. This has ever been considered the greatest of all the grievances, to which, in the Church of England, faithful Bishops and clergy are liable. Let me mention two instances by way of proof and illustration. On my visit to England in '41, a minister of the highest standing in the Church mentioned the following cases :- There was in his Church a communi- cant of intemperate habits, who had for sometime been a reproach to it. He was anxious to remove that reproach, but knew that it was a case in which, if suspension took place, he would probably be summoned into the courts on a charge of slander, and that the trial must be tedious, vexa- tious and most expensive. He had neither time nor the means to spare. He was however resolved to do something, by which he might vindicate himself before a congregation which well knew that the individual was unworthy. After having no doubt used all private admonition in vain, on a certain occasion of administering the Lord's supper he passed him by. Perhaps on the spot the person demanded the reason for so doing, when the minister being prepared for it, pointed out to him the canon of which I have spoken, requiring every communicant to inform the minister of his wish so to do, before each administration of the rite. The man, conscious that the law was against him, was obliged to submit, and in that instance there was no danger to the minister from appeal to the courts. The same minister mentioned the following fact as occurring between his own Bishop and an intemperate clergyman of the Diocese. The Bishop fearing to degrade him, on account of the difficulty and expense of proof, and defence against slander, if sum- moned before the courts, determined nevertheless to do what he could in the way of private admonition. He accordingly
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after advising him of an intended visit on a certain day, the object of which was easily understood by the offending minister, called on him, and in a short time opened the subject. The minister immediately rang the bell for his chief servant, asking the Bishop to wait a few moments. When the servant came, his master requested him to be seated, saying, that the Bishop was about to hold a conver- sation with him, to which he wished him-the servant-to listen. The Bishop at once perceived that his object was to have the servant be a witness in an action of slander, which he would bring into the courts, and therefore took up his hat and left the room. Not only has this liability to be sued for acts of discipline, prevented the exercise of it in our mother Church, but such has been the influence over some in our own land, that notwithstanding the severance between Church and State, spiritual and civil courts in this country, it has been pleaded in excuse for the neglect of discipline, that there was danger even here.
Still, God has in many ways blessed our mother Church, not only in making her, what she has been called, the bul- wark of the Reformation, but ever since, by raising up a great multitude of faithful Bishops and other ministers to set forth and defend, by preaching and writing, the glorious truths of the gospel, and of converting the souls of a great multitude of people, who by their lives have evinced the power of godliness. He has in a measure supplied the lack of discipline, and counteracted the evil effects of her eccle- siastical courts, by blessing other means the more abun- dantly. He made many things to work together for her good. The lamentations of her friends, the taunts of her enemies, the very secessions from her communion, the establishment of independent societies within the kingdom, the emulation produced thereby, all have been made to con- tribute something to her purity. Wesley and Whitfield and their followers, have done no little by stirring up an holy zeal
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in their mother Church. The Spirit of God has raised up within the last sixty or seventy years, a host of pious minis- ters, who, by their zealous labors and sound doctrine, have almost redeemed her character, and removed the stigma cast upon her. The Newtons, Venns, Elliotts, Simeons, Wil- sons, Gisbornes, Bickerstiths; the Wilberforces, Thorntons, Grants, Hannah Mores, and thousands like them, have pro- duced a most blessed reformation in the manners of her communicants; and even those who are now troubling the peace of the Church by their Romanizing doctrines, have been made to contribute something to the good cause; and we cherish not only a pleasing hope, but strong confidence, that all the trials through which she is passing, and all the changes which may take place in her outward condition, will be made subservient to her true prosperity, and bring her nearer to that perfect pattern of a Church, which we find in the days of the Apostles, when, though under perse- cution, it was under bondage to no earthly power, so as to submit itself for laws and discipline to the authority thereof.
SEC. VIII .- DISCIPLINE OF OUR AMERICAN CHURCH.
In what we have said of the English Church, we have anticipated much that we should say of her daughter in America, were we only engaged in exhibiting the dis- cipline of the latter. Her articles, her rubrics, her offices and her canons, so far as they bear on this subject, are substantially the same with those we have been consider- ing. The homilies remain unchanged. Some of the can- ons bear a striking resemblance. Most of the canons of the English Church were directed against the Non-con- formists. We of course have none such. Our rubrics, canons, and addresses before the communion, have the three characteristics which we have shown to belong to the Church in the times of the Apostles, to the Primi- tive Church and to the English Church. 1st. By our 7
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articles on the sacraments, by our addresses before or at the communion, by our preaching from the pulpit, we state the qualifications for communing, and warn of the danger of unworthy receiving, instead of encouraging any to come with superstitious views of the ordinance .* 2ndly. By canons, rubrics, ordination services, and the whole tenor of our Prayer Book, we expect the ministers to do much in the way of private admonition, advice and warning. 3rdly. If these fail, either to correct what is evil, or to cause the un- worthy to forbear approaching the table, then as to those evil livers, some of whom are specified, who by their open and notorious transgressions, offend the congregation, they must not be suffered to come. They must, either for a spe- cified or indefinite period, be separated from their fellowship with the Church. It may not be amiss to state some of the language used on this subject. In the rubric before the ser- vice, the open and notorious evil liver is specified as one who must not be permitted to come; being one who does not merely fall into some open act of sin through infirmity, and repents at once of the same, but who practices the same, so as to offend the congregation and injure the cause of religion. The words open and notorious are opposed to secret sins, the making public of which might do more harm, than the discipline would do good. We have seen, that in primitive times the divulging of secret sins by the
* As another proof that our Church opposes herself to that Romish view of the sacra- ments which supposes them to possess in themselves some inherent virtue, or magical power, by which they operate for good on the soul, if there be no great obstacle, and that she most carefully seeks to keep the unworthy from partaking of them, we may mention that she has offices for the visitation of the sick and dying, besides other prayers for them, yet in none of them does she bid the minister urge the sick or dying to partake of the Lord's supper. In cases where private communion is allowed, the sick person must "be desirous of it," and must "send for" the minister for that very purpose; and even then, there must be at least two others besides the minister and sick person, except in times of contagious disease, when they cannot be gotten, in order to a communion. But if "for lack of company to receive with him" or other sufficient cause he does not then receive the supper, the minister must assure him that if he has true faith, and penitence, and love in his heart, he doth partake of Christ profitably to his soul's health, though he do not receive the sacrament with his mouth.
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person himself before the congregation, did much evil, and was therefore abandoned. Open and notorious, therefore, are opposed to secret and unknown. It is also forbidden that any one who has done wrong to his neighbor, by word or deed (which of course must be open and notorious), must be forbidden to come until he have made reparation, or is ready so to do. But more especially if he perceive malice and hatred to reign between two of them, he must not suffer them to partake while in this state. Both are supposed to have done some wrong in word or deed, and to have malice reigning in them. If either of them professes repentance, and readiness to make amends, he or she may be admitted, but not the one who refuses. The Church in every age, Jewish and Christian, has emphasized this point. The sin is that of murder in the sight of God. No such murderer has eternal life abiding in him. While this is the most obligatory of all ministerial acts of discipline, it is one requiring much discretion. The existence of such a state of feeling as malice or hatred, must be clearly perceived by the minister. Of course either words or deeds must exhibit it. It must also exist to such a degree as to reign in them. A hasty and injudicious attempt at reconciliation, with a threatening of repulsion from the table, whereby it would be made notorious, may do harm. The indispensable ne- cessity of Christian love in communicants, should be fre- quently and emphatically presented, in speaking and preach- ing of this feast of love, and then it will seldom happen that any who are conscious of such a settled feeling as that men- tioned in the rubric, will need to be repelled. A voluntary withdrawal will supersede that. There is also a very sol- emn passage in one of the addresses to be used on the Sun- day or holyday preceding the sacrament, in which it is said, " Therefore if any of you be a blasphemer of God, a hin- derer or slanderer of his word, an adulterer, or be in malice or envy, or any other grievous crime, repent ye of your sins,
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or come not to that holy table." We should remember who are adulterers before God, and in how many ways we may be hinderers of his word, and may cause others to blas- pheme his holy name. Again, in our forty-second canon of the General Convention it is declared, that if any persons within this Church offend their brethren by any wickedness of life, such persons shall be repelled from the communion according to the rubric. The foregoing are the specifications of sins by name, as well as more general designations of evil living, which we find in our Prayer Book and the canons of the General Convention. It may perhaps be said, we do not see amongst them any express mention of those things which belong to the class of pleasurable sins, which are so often denounced in scripture, and made the subjects of dis- cipline in the primitive Church, as well as in some of later date. We shall state what the Church has done on that subject. First. Her canon in relation to candidates for orders, who are as yet but laymen, requires that the Bishop or Ecclesiastical Authority under whose care they are, "shall see that they do not indulge in any vain or trifling conduct, or in any amusements most liable to be abused to licentiousness, or unfavorable to that seriousness, and to those pious and studious habits which become those who are preparing for the holy ministry." As to those in the minis- try, according to the 37th canon, they are liable to be tried and punished, not only for gross immorality and violation of canons, but "frequenting places most liable to be abused to licentiousness." As to what such amusements and such places are, though not specified by name, few would be at a loss to determine, they being some things now existing amongst us. And if ministers and candidates for orders are required to be examples to the people, it is in order that the people should follow them, even as St. Paul calls upon the Churches to follow him, as he followed Christ, and pro- posed not only himself but the other Apostles, as examples
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