Extracts.

New Zealander, Volume 1, Issue 14, 6 September 1845, Page 4

Extracts.

Extract from a Pamphlet entitled The Rubrics and Canons considered, by the Rev. C. Benson Master of the Temple :—": — " The controveisy that has been laisefl m the Church of England with legard to the ruhiical directions of the Book of C< mmon Pra\er, has gio« n with a rapidity, reached to an extent, and is now carried on with a bitterness which 7s most deeply to be lamented. One of its great evilb is the time, the stud>, the legal inqunies and antiqnai idn iesearches wl,ich it entails upon the whole body of the clergy. At a moment in winch all their energy is required to maintain true leligion, and piomote religious education among the people, they are called upon, either at once to submit to! the decieos of their own bishop — opposed as the) may be to the practice and opinions of many! othfr bishops and dioceses, or to examine at gi eat length, and with much difficulty, a number of cc remoiiuil questions in their own nature of very little irapoi tance. Whether, or when thesuiplice or the gown is to be used in preaching ; whether lights are to bo placed, and if placed, when to be lighted, on the communion table j whether theOfl'ortuiy sentences, and the prater for the Church militant ought to follow ever) sermon which is preached at the morning service; in what cases the minister is to turn his lace k> the east, and his back or side lotl:e conyiegaiion; whether the pracliceof bowing ty.vjirds the communion table when approaching it, and the chinch on entering or quilting it, is repudiated by any canonical legulatious j v\hetherthe bread and nine are to be placed on the sacramental board before or after the service of the Loid's Supper leginsj — these and many other Liturgical niceties aie foiced upon the attention of the elergtinen ol'oiir Kstablished Chinch, witha portinncit) in some, and ;i lone of autliority in others, which their comparative insignificance, and theol/scurih that attends them, aie quite unable to jus-

tify. The necessary consequeiK c is, that in order to become acquainted with these lesser 'duties, men are compelled to sanifice to them, a great portion of those thoughts and hours, which w oulcl otherwise have been more usefully devoted to the more weightiei matters of their sacred piofession or the active duties of their bishopric of souls. The history oj the Liturgy interferes w iih the history of the Bible; the controveisial conferences at llampton Court and file Savoy, disturb the ier gularity of ministerial conferences ivith parish- | oners ; and the First and Second Books of King j Edward the Sixth, in connexion with the alterations m the leign of Elizabeth, and the canons and Acts of Lhufoiinity in those of James 1., and | Charles 11., are to be compared and considered, instead of the historical books of Kings and Chronicles in the Old Testament, and the harmony of the Gospels in the New. Nothing can be imagined more fatal to the spiritual welfare of our Chinch, nothing more adverse to the.building up of her people in the faith and holiness of Christianity, undei pastots,\\ell instructed m the doctiine that is according to godliness, than such a diversion of the clerical mind of the nation from the substance of religion to the founs of external worship. It was not with a view to liturgical investigations like these, that candidates for holy 1011 01 dei s u ere exhorted to the ' daily reading and weighing of the Sciipturcs, that thereby they might wax riper and stronger in their ministry.' i Nor is it easy to peiceive how such enquiries can ' heip to the knowledge of the same.* Far fioui it. Both the nature of the controversy itself, and the spirit which it hasa tendenc) to generate, are so contrary to the views and feelings of every one who is setiously interested in 'a woik pertaining to the salvalionofsouls/thdtit must be most burdensome to tho^e who are aware of its comparative iiisigmfieuice ; most injurious to the Divine growth and usefulness of those who devote to it their understandings and affections ; most dangerous to the )oung, the weak, and the mnvan, by ill awing away their studies and cares from God's word, and the higher and holier things of their vocation. With sentiments like these I would gladly have avoided any attempt to prolong, by wiiting upon it, a controveisy I condemn. 13ut whatever may be the 1 relative insignificance of the points in debate, when compared with the weightier matteis of religion, such language has been used, and such puciples laid down by several writers, who think they have a right tospeak with authority, as have given an adventitious importance to the subject, and rendeied it impossible for an\ conscientious minister of the Church of England any longer to view it with indifference. His o\wi conscience is dcepl) interested in the proper determiutaion of the dispute, and his own future conduct cannot fail to be influenced by the^gmdes he follows, and the opinions he forms."