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of our own is introduced. In an address, for example, sent by certain members of the Church of England to the Eastern Church, it was definitely stated that the Church of England accepted definitely the Seven Sacraments. good deal of mechanical and, as it seems to me, unreal language is used. The doctrine of the Apostolical succession is taught in a mechanical way. Grace is said to have come down from the Apostles by the golden channel of laying on of hands. And it is implied that, except in that way, the gift of the Holy Spirit is not given. I heard the other day of a Suffragan Bishop who explained confirmation by the analogy of a photograph. Before the click of the photographer, the plate has nothing on it; after the click there is the impression. So when hands are laid, the Holy Spirit comes like the impression on the photograph. We have similar uneducated language among English Roman Catholics, as, for example, when we are told that the priest has the power given of making the body and blood of Christ.

Now all language like this is most harmful. It is bad theology. It suggests a mechanical idea of Sacrament and divine grace. It puts stumbling-blocks in the way of many people. It is saying what the majority of people can't believe, and won't believe, and ought not to believe.

There are three great points to remember about all sacramental teaching. In the first place, the Sacraments are performed not by the Bishop or priest, but by the Church; and the Minister of the Sacrament is Christ. The priest is but the minister of the Church through whom it acts. Let me give you two statements which will corroborate this. Khomiakoff, the Russian theologian, says: "The Seven Sacraments are in reality not accomplished by any single individual who is worthy of the mercy of God, but by the whole Church in the person of an individual, even though he be unworthy." And Thomas Aquinas says: "The priest in consecrating the

1 Russia and the English Church, by W. J. Birkbeck, chapter xxiii. Essay on the Unity of the Church, by A. S. Khomiakoff, P. 206.

Eucharist acts as the representative of the whole Church; it is as the representative of the Church that he utters the prayers.

"1

In the second place, the "form" of a Sacrament is a prayer. It is not that the priest uses certain words and "makes "the Sacrament, but that the whole Church prays, through its duly appointed ministers, that Christ will give us the spiritual food of His body and blood. The rules that the Church has made for the due ordering of the Sacrament are not the conditions of validity, but of regularity and order. The gift is from God in answer to the prayers of the Church. And all Christian tradition is in support of this. If you turn, for example, to the Gelasian Sacramentary, the earliest remaining service book of the Roman Church, you will find that the form of Absolution is a prayer for forgiveness. The form of Ordination is a prayer, and good theologians have doubted the validity of the English Order for the ordination of a deacon because there is no prayer immediately before the laying on of hands. In fact, there are some of our formulas which give the impression of being mechanical.

Then, thirdly, we have to remember another dictum of St. Thomas, that God is not bound or limited by Sacraments. The Sacraments are given to us as means to come to Him. They do not restrain His grace. neither here nor elsewhere is there any exclusiveness of grace or exclusiveness of privilege.

So

I think if you realize these things, and make people realize them, the freedom of God's grace, and the gift that comes to us not through any power of the priest but by God's answer to the prayers of the Church, you will be able to make your people understand the reality and meaning of Sacraments. You will not ask them to believe what they cannot believe.

I have attempted in three directions to study the

1 Summa Theologiæ, Pars iii., Quæst. LXXXII., Art. vii. Mr. Rawlinson in the book referred to above quotes these passages, but gives a wrong reference.

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theology of the Church of England in relation to the theology of the Christian Church. During the last hundred years there has been a great revival of teaching on the Authority of the Church, on the doctrine of the Person of Christ, on the Sacraments. That revival has restored much that is true and vital to our teaching, but it has also tended to a good deal of rather imperfect theology-of a kind which does not commend itself to thoughtful people.

I would represent to you that in teaching the doctrines of Christianity it is necessary so to put your instruction that you may be believed. In the first place, following our Lord's example, we should begin with the ethical appeal. He preached the kingdom which was righteousness. "Seek ye first the kingdom of God and his righteousness." It is the characteristic, I think, of most English people that they approach religion on its ethical side, and although that will not be ultimately sufficient or satisfactory, it is the ethical appeal that they will understand.

"

Then next you must avoid dogmatic overstatement, or dogmatic elaboration. They do not appear to be real, and, in fact, they are not. Overstatement in old days of Calvinism on the doctrine of the Atonement, overstatement in more recent years of the doctrine of the Church and Sacrament, have defeated the purpose with which they were made. The extreme logical statement of a doctrine is never true, for it is only arrived at by eliminating factors.

The Church of England is always sober and balanced in its statements, and loyalty to the traditions of the Church of England will help us to state our beliefs in a way which will appeal to the thoughtful person of the present day.

CHAPTER IV

THE WORSHIP OF THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND

I PROPOSE to-day to discuss with you the subject of the worship of the Church of England, and I shall begin with trying to lay down what I believe were the general aims of the Church in the reconstruction in the time of the Reformation.

What were the circumstances which the reformers had to meet? There prevailed throughout the country the mediæval system of Church worship; all the regular services in the Church were in the Latin language, although there might be a few services in English for the use of the people; they were carried out, at any rate in the cathedrals and great abbeys, with elaborate ceremonial; they were long and complicated, the music was elaborate and often tedious. There was little preaching except by the friars, and that not always of a very edifying character. The services in many of the parish churches were probably carried out in a slovenly and perfunctory way. A great complaint was that the Bishops did not preach. There was much which the growing enlightenment of the country was beginning to look upon as superstitious. There can be no doubt that for a long time there had been criticism of these services. They were felt by many not to satisfy their religious needs, to be tedious and unprofitable. On the other hand, as is always the case, there were those who were much attached to the traditional usage, and some of those, no doubt, who were absorbed in their liturgical services and worship felt in them an almost complete religious satisfaction. When Henry VIII., by asserting his authority as against that of the Pope, had opened the floodgates there was much stir in the country. The traditions of Lollardism, which had

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never completely died out, were revived, sometimes in an extreme form, and the influence of the German Reformation spread throughout the country. The result was the beginning of a period of change, consisting to a large extent of periods of action followed by periods of reaction, until the coming in of the Prayer Book of 1662.

It must be noticed first that the Church of England has definitely declared its right to arrange its own services in its own way. This claim is expressed in the Thirtyfourth Article:

"Every particular or national Church hath authority to ordain, change, and abolish ceremonies or rites of the Church ordered only by man's authority, so that all things be done to edifying."

And if we turn to the contemporary literature we shall find that there is no point on which greater emphasis is laid. The right is asserted and developed with great skill. The aim of this period, in this as in other matters, was not to change the tradition, but to reform it by an appeal to the Scriptures and the teaching and usage of the primitive Church. It definitely refused to desert the traditional form of service on the one hand; on the other, its aim was to make the services more suitable and edifying. The principles that it adopted are clearly laid down for us in the Preface to the Prayer Book, and as we are engaged at present in the work of Prayer Book revision it may be as well that we should remind ourselves of them.

In the first place, the services were to be in the English language. This was definitely and explicitly asserted, and undoubtedly was a popular measure. The appeal is both to Scripture and to edification:

"Whereas St. Paul would have such language spoken to the people in the Church as they might understand and have profit by hearing the same; the service in this Church of England these many years hath been read in Latin to the people, which they understand not; so that they have heard with their ears only, and their heart, spirit, and mind have not been edified thereby."