k^
 
 ^::im
 
 1 snouiu oe giau lu imu iavuur wiLiii Liieui ; uuu — j. uu uu 
 now for the first time, multo malo vos salvos esse. 
 
 Believe me, dear , 
 
 Ever yours truly, 
 ''June IS, 1874" "Selboi 
 
 In this passage I believe there is somew] 
 
 truth. I must myself plead guilty to having 
 
 tained some hope of honesty and truthfulnesi 
 
 man who protests against the " tampering wii 
 
 text of hymns ;"^ but this man is, it seems, will 
 
 have the decrees of the final court of appeal 
 
 pulated and forged, and to place further poT 
 
 the hands of one who was particeps criminis ir 
 
 acts. Again, a man who is reported to have de 
 
 the highest honour attainable in his professic 
 
 conscience' sake, is a person that one hopes to b 
 
 to respect to the close of his life. From s 
 
 quarter special pleading and unjust accusation, 
 
 sations which must be known to be unjust 
 
 special pleading which would be unnecessary i 
 
 good cause, are very disappointing. It make 
 
 lay down one's pen and ask with the Psalmist 
 
 ostendit nobis bona ? 
 
 I am, my Lord, 
 
 Your Lordship's obedient 
 
 Servant and Fellow- La; 
 
 B. M. P
 
 Price Id. 
 
 RITUALISM A MISNOMER. 
 
 ^* Ritualism^' is a misnomer; — it is *^ Sacramen- 
 talism'^ that is really attacked ; — and only Ritual- 
 ism so far as it tends to restore the Holy Eucharist 
 to the chief and central place in Christian wor- 
 ship; — that place which it held throughout the 
 whole Church for fifteen hundred years, but from 
 which it has been dethroned in the Church of 
 England for the last three hundred. 
 
 It is not Ritualism, as such, that is attacked ; 
 — for some Ritual is necessary in Public Wor- 
 ship and in social life to save us from brutality ; 
 — shaking the hand (a ridiculous thing in itself) 
 is the Ritual expression of friendship ; bowing the 
 head, of respect ; the Jew and the Quaker who 
 keep their hats on in public worship are as much 
 " Ritualists^^ in doing so, as the Churchman and 
 Dissenter who take theirs off; it is not even the 
 affectations of a petty mannerism, or mere excess 
 that is attacked, for there will always be extremes; 
 the petit maitre and the sans culotte will always 
 be mutually provocative of each other, each cari- 
 
 J. Masters & Co., 78, New Bond Steeet.
 
 caturing the truth he holds, and thereby repelling 
 the other from it. It is not " Ritualism'^ as such, 
 it is not kneeling, bowing the head, taking off the 
 hat, or wearing a surplice, that is now attacked, 
 — but only the Ritual of the Altar, in which four 
 things are just now prominent, viz., Lights, In- 
 cense, Vestments, and the position of the Cele- 
 brant. 
 
 Are these four things then lawful (though un- 
 usual) in the Church of England ? and, if lawful, 
 is their restoration right and desirable in itself, 
 due consideration being shown to the circum- 
 stances of time and place, in such restoration ? I 
 think both of these questions may be fairly and 
 honestly answered in the affirmative. 
 
 To leave, however, the question of the Cele- 
 brant^s position for the present, as not coming 
 under the " Ornament " Rubric : of the other 
 three. Lights, Incense, and Vestments, Vestments 
 stand on one ground. Lights and Incense on 
 another, slightly, but only slightly, different. 
 
 The Rubric says, " Such Ornaments of the 
 Church and of the Ministers thereof, at all times 
 of their Ministration, shall be retained and be in 
 use, as were in this Church of England, by the 
 authority of Parliament, in the second year of 
 the reign of King Edward the Sixth." This 
 " authority of Parliament" was finally ruled in 
 the S. Barnabas case to mean an Act of Parlia- 
 ment passed in the second year of Edward VL, 
 
 o
 
 — which Act authorised the use of all Ornaments 
 used under Edward's First Book; and in that 
 First Book the Eucharistic Vestments are dis- 
 tinctly named : if, therefore, that Judgment is a 
 right one (and it certainly seems fair and true) 
 then the Eucharistic Vestments are absolutely and 
 unquestionably lawful ; and if they are so, I do 
 think it most unfair that clergymen who have 
 adopted them in consequence of that Judgment 
 should now be found fault with for doing so. 
 
 But further still. If justice is to be done, this 
 Act of Parliament must surely be interpreted on 
 the same recognised legal principles as all other 
 Acts, — i.e. as not interfering with any previous 
 Parliamentary authority on the same subject, ex- 
 cept only so far as it expressly repeals it, or does 
 so by direct, necessary implication, I have been 
 told, on very high legal authority, that this is a 
 well-known principle amongst lawyers : if therefore 
 it is set aside in the present case only, a strong 
 sense of injustice will certainly be felt. 
 
 Let me give an illustration of this. Suppose 
 an Act had been passed providing for the mainte- 
 nance of Turnpike Roads in the last year of 
 George III.; and another Act in the reign of 
 George IV. ; and another in the reign of William 
 IV. ; and then finally one in the reign of Victoria, 
 saying, "Turnpike roads shall be maintained as 
 provided by authority of Parliament in the reign 
 of George III.;'' this would throw us back at
 
 4 
 
 once to the Act of the last year of George III., 
 overleaping all intermediate Acts; but it would 
 not interfere with any authority of Parliament on 
 the subject previous to that Act, except so far 
 only as that Act itself did so, either " expressly, 
 or by direct necessary implication^' 
 
 Now if the Act of the second year of Edward 
 VI. is thus interpreted, it must be shown with 
 respect to Lights and Incense, that it either ex- 
 pressly forbids their use, or that it does so by 
 direct necessary implication. Can either of these 
 be shown ? I think not. 
 
 Let us suppose the Minister at the Altar in 
 albe and chasuble, which are expressly ordered, 
 would not the use of Lights and of Incense, which 
 always had been used, be taken for granted in 
 that case, unless shown to be distinctly forbidden? 
 Would not this assumption, as respects Lights 
 at least, be greatly strengthened by the Candle- 
 sticks retained on the Altar, — retained to this 
 day in cathedrals and college chapels ? And does 
 not the direction that, "the chancels shall remain 
 as they have done in times past," also favour the 
 idea that the worship there conducted should 
 '^ remain as in times past,^^ except where this was 
 specially forbidden ? 
 
 I say, then, that if the S. Barnabas Judgment 
 is a sound and true one, the Eucharistic Vest- 
 ments are distinctly ordered; and if the Act of 
 the second year of Edward VI. is interpreted on
 
 the same principle as all other Acts, Lights and 
 Incense, the common accompaniment of Vest- 
 ments, are lawful too. 
 
 That these things are " Popish" is not true, as 
 any one may judge for himself by visiting the 
 Greek Church in Welbeck S treet, or that in London 
 Wall; — they are Catholic, as distinguished from 
 Roman Catholic, and on this ground alone the 
 assumption would be that the Church of England 
 does not forbid them. The e\als of the Roman 
 Catholic Church are : Compulsory Confession, an 
 encroachment on the liberty of the laity ; Com- 
 pulsory Celibacy, a similar encroachment on the 
 clergy; Indulgences; Service in Latin; miracu- 
 lous images; and other such things. But surely 
 we need not mix up with these evils, from which 
 we are happily free, those outward marks of 
 honour to Christ's ordinance, which have been in 
 use throughout the whole Church, and are still 
 ^' retained and in use'' in the Greek as well as in 
 the Roman. 
 
 Lights, Incense, and Vestments, were ordained 
 by God Himself for the Tabernacle and Temple 
 worship; — and that worship was not a copy of 
 Paganism, (the converse of this was the case,) but 
 of the worship of heaven itself; — *' See thou make 
 all things according to the pattern showed to 
 thee in the mount ;" — that worship of which 
 S. John speaks in the Book of Revelation, " the 
 new song," (the choral service ;) " the white robes
 
 and crowns of gold/^ (the vestments ;) '^ the angel 
 with the golden censer," (incense ;) " the seven 
 lamps of fire before the throne of God/^ (the altar 
 lights;) — can these things be wrong in them- 
 selves? Was the Church Catholic guided by a 
 low and sensual Paganising instinct, or by a high 
 and heavenly one, in fashioning its worship here 
 on earth after the worship of heaven itself, as re- 
 vealed by S. John? Will the Church of England 
 be true or untrue to its own principles in restoring, 
 along with a fuller perception of Catholic faith, a 
 fuller use also of Catholic Worship ? 
 
 But how then have these things fallen out of 
 use in England, — Vestments being only used at 
 coronations. Altar candles, and they too unlighted, 
 having been retained in cathedrals and college 
 chapels almost exclusively ? 
 
 The answer is plain. The Rubric which for- 
 bids a celebration of the Sacrament unless a cer- 
 tain number communicate with the Priest, at once 
 made the celebration of the Sacrament occasional 
 only, and this for the first time in the history 
 of the Church. Henceforward the service gene- 
 rally ended with the sermon : and the minister 
 would scarce think it worth while to put on Cope 
 or Vestment, (though distinctly ordered to do so,) 
 simply to read the Ten Commandments in ; and 
 having thus got accustomed to read the first part of 
 the Communion Service in a surplice, when there 
 was no celebration, he would make no change
 
 in that respect when there was ; and would con- 
 tinue probably the use of the Surplice throughout 
 the latter part as well as the former. The same 
 would follow with Lights ; the same with Incense ; 
 the same with Choral Service, which would seem 
 out of place in an almost empty church. Who can 
 remember hearing the Nicene Creed, Sanctus, and 
 Gloria in Excelsis sung till the late restoration of 
 these things, plainly sanctioned as they are by 
 the letter of the present Rubric ? The practice of 
 the Church of England has fallen much below its 
 theory in these things, and it is that theory which 
 we now desire to restore in practice, and to bring 
 our Eucharistic Worship into harmony with that 
 of the whole Church in all ages and places. 
 
 We believe these things to be "lawful and 
 right'' and desirable in themselves. We wish for 
 a fair and true judgment in the matter, — and if 
 this is not given, if judgment is wrested to please 
 a popular cry, or to stereotype an ill-founded 
 custom, then the respect hitherto felt for our 
 courts of law will be seriously shaken, — and it 
 will be said, " Judges are impartial only where 
 they are disinterested, and in these matters they 
 have their prejudice, and their prejudice has 
 biased their judgment." 
 
 EDWARD STUART. 
 
 Munster Square, Regent's Fark. 
 
 J. Masters and Co., Printers, Albion Buddings, Bartholomew Close.
 
 THE PEW SYSTEM. 3d. 
 
 SACEAMENTAL WOESHIP. (Lights, Incense, Vest- 
 ments.) 6d. 
 
 LOW MASSES. 6d. 
 
 These three, by the Eev. E. Stfart, are published by Palmer, 
 32, Little Queen Street, Lincoln's Inn Fields.
 
 THE ASSYRIAN CHRISTIANS 
 
 i REPORT OF A JOURNEY, 
 
 K UNDERTAKEN BY DESIRE OF 
 
 ' HIS GRACE THE ARCHBISHOP OF CANTERBUR 
 
 (;■ AND 
 
 I HIS GRACE THE ARCHBISHOP OF YORK, 
 
 to TO THE 
 
 I Christians in ^oortristan ano ©rxromia^. 
 
 REV. EDWARD L. CUTTS, B.A. 
 
 VICAR OF HOLY TRINITY, HAVERSTOCK HILL, LONDON. 
 
 LONDON : 
 
 PRINTED BY R. CLAY, SONS, AND TAYLOR, 
 
 5READ STREET HILL, QUEEN VICTORIA STREET. 
 1877.