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essential presence" in that declaration was altered into “corporal presence.

Several other alterations of less importance may be observed on comparing the two forms; in particular, the word "priest" is, in most places, substituted for " minister," and "the whole church," for "the whole congregation," in the first collect for the king. The priest is also directed "to pronounce this absolution," instead of merely "to say thus;" to turn to the Lord's table before the repeating of the trisagion, &c. All of these alterations, though slight in themselves, yet tended to the same object, the reviving of primitive notions.

Every churchman must see great reason to be thankful for these various alterations; and although I may still, as an individual, prefer, upon the whole, the form in the First Book of Edward VI., yet, at the same time, I am disposed to think that we have reason not merely to be contented with our present form, but to feel satisfied that it is better for us that the first form was not entirely restored. There can be no doubt but that many particulars of that form, however unobjectionable they may in reality be, would have been very much assailed in the present day, and have afforded what to many persons would appear a more reasonable ground than any which can now be produced for a revision of the liturgy,-an event which could hardly fail, under present circumstances, to be productive of serious injury to the church.

Such being the case, it is surely our duty to be very cautious how we find fault with our present form. It contains everything that can be proved to be necessary to the due celebration of the holy communion; and we all have it in our power to make any additions which we may think desirable by secret prayer. In most respects, however, it will bear comparison for beauty and propriety of expression, and for energy of devotion, with any other form existing in the world; and truly grateful ought we to be to those holy men who, by God's blessing, have delivered it to us.

H.

ON THE RUBRIC OF THE COMMUNION SERVICE.

MY DEAR SIR,-Your correspondent "On the term Altar and Church Homage," in the November number of the British Magazine, appears to me to have taken a wrong view of the intention of the words "Draw near" in the exhortation to confession in the communion service. He considers that the congregation should go from their seats towards the altar when the invitation beginning with the words "Draw near" &c. has been read.

This is the practice in some churches, and wherever I have wit nessed it I have invariably remarked that it has been productive of great confusion, as only a small portion of the communicants can at one time follow the concluding injunction, "meekly kneeling on their knees," while the rest must continue standing throughout the remainder of the service until it comes to their turn to kneel at the table, which arrangement is manifestly both inconvenient and inconsistent.

But the rubric preceding the general exhortation, commencing, "Dearly beloved in the Lord," &c., orders that, "at the time of the celebration of the communion, the communicants being conveniently placed for the receiving the holy sacrament, the priest shall say this exhortation." I have underlined the words "being conveniently placed," because I think that they quite as fully imply that there should be no subsequent movement on the part of the communicants previously to their communicating, as that the words "Draw near" &c. imply a movement in consequence.

The communicants cannot literally be conveniently placed for the receiving the holy sacrament if they have to move again previously to their doing so, which they must do even if they stand about the table, as they are compelled to wait until the foregoing set of communicants have retired, when they take their places, and so on until all have communicated. I therefore think that the plan most in accordance with the instructions in the rubrics is that usually adopted, in which the congregation arrange themselves in the seats in the more immediate neighbourhood of the altar, whereby less disturbance is caused in walking to and fro, and there wait for a fitting opportunity, when they may approach a few at a time, according to the number the table will accommodate; and that the words "Draw near" are a general injunction to approach the table, there to receive the elements, instead of waiting, as had been the practice, until they were brought to them in their seats by the minister, which appears even by your correspondent's own shewing; or rather, that they are subsidiary to the words "with faith," advising, without reference to time, the proper spirit in which persons are to approach and partake of the holy communion.

Your correspondent's true remark, that "there is much difference in the time at which congregations in different churches go from their seats towards the altar at the celebration of the communion," has induced me to trouble you with these observations, knowing at the same time that you permit a portion of your Magazine to be the medium of amicable discussion upon topics of this description.

I remain, dear Sir, yours very truly,

E. J.

PRESBYTERIAN MODE OF ADMINISTERING THE COMMUNION.

SIR,-Allow a correspondent to thank Dr. Hook for the very clear and satisfactory statement of the recent occurrence in the church at Leeds, which Socinianizing churchmen have so cruelly misrepresented against him and others who entertain scriptural views of the sacrament of the Lord's supper. By their way of treating this occurrence, the "Recordites" have shewn their utter ignorance, or their wilful disregard, of the doctrines and principles of the catholic church. The occurrence, and the dust and noise which have been so unnecessarily raised respecting it, are likely to do good in more places than Leeds, to excite serious inquiry, and in the end to lead to a more correct view respecting the mysteriously solemn nature of the eucharistic feast

upon our blessed Saviour's sacrifice. Some will be happy to see the ancient piscina placed by the side of the altar in some of the many new churches which we must rejoice to mark rising in all directions throughout the land. For want of the piscina, which, where I have found it remaining, I have always used, I have myself, after causing the remains of the consecrated elements to be consumed by the communicants who were nearest the altar, long been in the habit of throwing reverently the few drops remaining in the cup into the flame of the stove in the winter, and on the floor of the altar in summer, in the face of those who were leaving the church. I am equally careful to throw away with my own hands the consecrated water after baptisms.

The indelicacy of dissenters in permitting themselves, as at Leeds, to be thrust into offices of trust in the church, which offices they are too likely to abuse, and into association with the priests of a church whose spirit they are not of, and whose principles they cannot comprehend, cannot be too severely commented upon.

There is a fact mentioned in the worthy vicar of Leeds' letter, in your July number, upon which I would respectfully make a few remarks. That consistent churchman relates that he found the presbyterian mode of celebrating the communion, which has probably never been discontinued since the great rebellion, prevailing at Leeds. He doubtless knows better than a stranger can do what probability there is that so irreverent a custom, such a violation of the wholesome rule of uniformity, could, in his parish, be quietly done away with. But I may be permitted to say, that, with my own feelings, were I to come into a parish where I was shocked by so unseemly an innovation, I should decidedly leave no stone unturned-no argument, or persuasion, in season and out of season, untried-until I could carry the feelings of the parishioners with me (supposing them ever so strongly prejudiced in favour of the existing mode) in introducing a more decent method of administering the eucharist. I am happy to observe that many have, without the slightest difficulty, succeeded in parishes where the only accommodation within the communion rails for celebrating the eucharist had been the disgracefully shabby, slight oak or elm tables, which, at the great rebellion, were made the substitutes for the more decent massive tables, or stone slabs, or altars, previously used-they have succeeded, in such places, in restoring the more substantial structure, to the gratification and comfort of the more devout and intelligent portion of the congregation.

Permit me, with reference to the existing practice at Leeds, to relate an anecdote of a humble son of the church, whose name, I believe, has not been transmitted to us, but of whom, for the respect which the judicious Hooker while living bore to him, and for the respect which he bore to the memory of the venerable Hooker when dead, I have often thought, as of the woman who did what she could to do honour to our blessed Saviour while on earth, and of whom I could wish, that wheresoever the gospel be preached, these little incidents might be recorded as memorials. Hooker's parish-clerk at Bishop's Bourne, in Kent, the place of his death and burial, in 1600,

seems to have enjoyed his confidence, and to have been admitted into the recesses of his heart in this good man's most retired thoughts and practices. It is related of this worthy clerk and of his rector, that such was their mutual respect for one another, and such the humility of each, they never conversed with one another but both their hats were on, or both off, during the whole time of their discourse. Hooker used, too, on Fridays, ember-days, and all other days of fasting, to take at this man's hands the keys of Bishop's Bourne church, into which he was wont to retire on every such day, to lock himself in, and spend there many hours of solitary prayer. It was the will of God that this humble friend, with whom he had often taken sweet counsel, and walked to the house of God in company, should survive Hooker several years, during which he watched his deceased master's grave, and shewed it to the numerous visitors who resorted thither from Canterbury to view it, and to converse with his old servant upon his talents, his labours, and his many virtues. He was spared to the third or fourth year of the Long Parliament, and witnessed the sequestration of Hooker's successor, and the intrusion of a minister of the Geneva school. "This and other like sequestrations," observes Isaac Walton, "made the clerk express himself in a wonder, and say, they had sequestered so many good men, that he doubted if his good master, Mr. Hooker, had lived till now, they would have sequestered him too.' It was not long before this intruding minister had made a party in and about the said parish that were desirous to receive the sacrament as at Geneva, to which end the day was appointed for a select company, and forms and stools set about the altar or communion table for them to sit, and eat, and drink; but when they went about the work there was a want of some joint stools, which the minister sent the clerk to fetch, and then to fetch cushions, (but not to kneel upon.) When the clerk saw them begin to sit down, he began to wonder; but the minister bade him 'cease wondering, and lock the church door;' to whom he replied, Pray, take you the keys, and lock me out: I will never come more into this church, for all men will say my master Hooker was a good man and a good scholar, and I am sure it was not used to be thus in his days;' and report says the old man went presently home and died; I do not say died immediately, but within a few days after."

"But," as Isaac Walton says, "let us leave this grateful clerk in his quiet grave, and return to Mr. Hooker himself." Humility, it is well known, was always a characteristic of Hooker, and, without supposing that the clerk was superior to hundreds of the humble pious men who fill these places in our quiet country villages, we may account, from Hooker's character, for the courtesy and respect which Hooker shewed to him; but the habitual respect shewn to Hooker by one who for years was associated with him in his clerical duties gives gratifying proof of the effect which the piety and consistency of Hooker, the "visible rhetoric" of the pious pastor's life, produced upon those who had the privilege of living within his influence. "No one is a hero to his valet de chambre," may elucidate the notion which many modern clerks may entertain respecting the saintship, the ex

emplariness, the separatedness, the self-devotion, the self-denial, of some of the spiritual pastors of the present day. Yet can I recollect with peculiar interest the sober seriousness, the evident deep devotion, with which a venerable village-clerk (whose grey locks were waving in the wind, as he stood by an open grave, and was reminded by one whom he had served in this capacity for half a century that "their hour, too, was coming,") remarked slowly, with a pious shake of his aged head, "Aye, Sir, we know all about that." A pious pause followed each word in this natural, this simple, but eloquent, expression of the result of his experience, and the fruits of his reflection, on the solemnities in which he and his master had been so long engaged together.

The increase of Dr. Hook's communicants, the enlargement of his spacious church, which has become necessary since his residence at Leeds, and its still crowded state, are gratifying proofs of the happy influence which a clear statement of the principles of the catholic church, and a consistent life in our clergy, may even in these evil days produce; and many, I trust, are the parish-clerks and other humble members of our flocks who may hereafter bedew the graves of clergy of the present generation with their tears, and pray, as doubtless did the clerk of the venerable Hooker, that "God would give them grace so to follow their good examples, that with them they may be partakers of his heavenly kingdom, for Jesus Christ's sake, our only mediator and advocate." Φιλάρχαιος,

PRESBYTERIAN BAPTISMS.

SIR,-As several letters have lately appeared in your Magazine on the subject of presbyterian baptisms, perhaps you could find room for the following extract from Bishop Bethell's work on Baptismal Regeneration (p. 19, second edition), which seems applicable to the case of those who (to use the words of "T. C.") " leave their own country, and become members of the English church, and receive from the hands of her ministers the Lord's Supper."

"The Donatists held, agreeably to Cyprian's opinion, that the baptism of schismatics is invalid; and since they contended that, with the exception of their own churches, all the Christians of their days were in a state of schism, they affirmed that none but themselves were validly baptized, and that none could enter into the kingdom of God without receiving baptism from their ministers. But Augustine replied that, even allowing the truth of their accusation, they who are baptized in schism are in the same situation with those who are baptized in impenitence or hypocrisy. For as the latter participate in the saving effects of regeneration, when they repent of their sins, and believe the gospel with sincerity, so the former enjoy the benefits of their baptism whenever they renounce their schism, and are received into the communion of the church."

S. I.

ON PRIMITIVE EPISCOPACY AND ORDINATION.

DEAR SIR, I have read attentively a long letter of Mr. Faber's in your November number, but without being at all convinced of the possible validity of presbyterian ordination. Without, however, pre

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