Socinians and other excommunicated persons: to the scorn of our enemies, and our own un

"It is

Thus the Rubric in the matrimonial office directsconvenient that the new married persons should receive the Holy Communion at the time of their marriage, or at the first opportunity after their marriage."

That in the office for Churching of Women-" The Woman that cometh to give her thanks, must offer accustomed offerings; and if there be a Communion, it is convenient that she receive the Holy Communion."

For the office of Baptism, the 29th Canon forbids any who are not communicants to be admitted as godfathers or godmothers.

When the Burial Office was framed, the Ecclesiastical law of England was as follows. "Whoever does not receive the Sacrament of the Eucharist at Easter (unless he think he ought to abstain by the advice of the Priest) let him be forbidden entrance into the Church while he is alive, and be deprived of Christian burial when dead*.”

And though this was repealed in 1603, when none were to be debarred from Christian burial but those who were denounced excommunicate (Can. 68.), yet at the same time, with a view to obtaining that sentence upon all inveterate abstainers from the Holy Communion, the 112th Canon was framed, which enjoins as follows:-" The minister, churchwardens, &c. shall yearly, within forty days after Easter, exhibit to the Bishop or his Chancellor, the names and surnames of all the parishioners, as well men as women, which being of the age of sixteen years received not the communion at Easter before."

Thus plainly showing that the intention of the Church

* 4th. Archbishop Sudbury's Constitutions, 1378,

easiness and perplexity. The whole body of our ecclesiastical law is of such a complex character, (consisting of such parts of the ancient canons of the Catholic Church, of the Papal decrees, and of our own Provincial Statutes1, as have been sanctioned by custom, and are not contrary to the Prerogative Royal, the statutes, laws, and customs of the realm,) that it is difficult even for those who have given themselves to the study of it, to say what parts are binding and what are not. It seems to rest in the bosom of the judge to determine what he chooses to consider law for the time. Nor can the strictest adherence to the letter of the latest regulations avail,

remained the same, though it was differently expressed. And since the year 1661, when the present Rubric was substituted for the Canon, there is reason to believe that under the term "excommunicate" those persons are to be understood who live and die in the neglect of the holy Communion, and have thus carried into effect a sentence of excommunication against themselves. The ancient maxim on this point was, Quibus viventibus non communicavimus mortuis communicare non possumus."

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1 25 Hen. VIII. c. 19. § 7. " Provided also that such canons, constitutions, ordinances, and Synodals Provincial, being already made, which be not contrariant nor repugnant to the laws, statutes, and customs of this realm, nor to the damage or hurt of the King's Prerogative Royal, shall now still be used and executed as they were afore making of this act, till such time as they be viewed, searched, or otherwise ordered," &c.

in some cases, to screen a clergyman from the censure of these courts. If he neglects the canon in some cases he is censured: if he adheres to it he is censured in others. A Bishop may charge the clergy to obey the Rubric1, and yet for obeying the Rubric they may be censured by the lay judge in the Ecclesiastical Court 2. So that all certainty and feeling of security is taken away.

The second of the obnoxious statutes referred to, relates to the Consecration of Bishops. Its chief provisions are, 1st, that upon the vacancy of any bishoprick, the King shall recommend to the Dean and Chapter of the cathedral the individual whom he wishes them to elect. If they

Bishop Wilson's Charge to the Clergy of Man, 1715. "The rubric before the office for the burial of the dead, expressly requires that office shall not be have laid violent hands upon themselves.

used for any that

The Church does

not leave it to every clergyman to expound this in a favourable sense nor did she subject her clergy to be governed by the verdicts of ignorant or prejudiced juries. . . . . I would have us all govern ourselves by the rules which the Church has set us," &c.

2 The received opinion of the Ecclesiastical Courts is, that the rubric to which Bishop Wilson points in the preceding note, "furnishes no defence" to any clergyman who shall venture to obey it. See Statement of Rev. Robert Taylor, Rector of Clifton Campville, of the proceedings in his case. London. Bohn, 1832.

delay the election twelve days, the King may nominate the individual by letters-patent, and after eight days more the Dean and Chapter become liable to the penalty of a præmunire. 2dly, If the Archbishop or Bishops appointed to consecrate the person thus chosen, or nominated, shall delay to do so for twenty days, they also become liable to the penalties of a præmunire'.

This is not only a snare and temptation to the chapters to take part in the appointment of improper persons, should such be recommended, that they may escape the tremendous penalties of a præmunire: but is a violation of the office of the chief pastors of the Church, with whom, as we believe, our Lord and his Apostles left the power of ordination. For they are thus forbidden to discharge the responsibility which the Holy Ghost by St. Paul has laid upon them to

lay hands suddenly on no man," and are compelled to consecrate any person who shall be presented to them in the name of the King, who is advised by his civil ministers, be their characters what they may. So that now, since 1828 and 1829, it is in the power of any Dissenter, Romanist or Socinian, who may attain to the King's Council, to select the rulers of our Church, and to compel the reluctant Bishops to consecrate his nominees into the office of the Apostles.

1 25 Hen. VIII. c. 20. § 4. and 7.

The civil disability arising from the state of servitude and weakness to which these statutes have reduced the Church is chiefly felt in the insecurity of her endowments, which, though as much the result of individual piety of her members as the endowments of any Dissenting body are of theirs, do not receive that protection which is vouchsafed to the others. The Bishops and Clergy of the Church are not allowed the peaceable enjoyment of the provision made for their maintenance, which is strictly guarded for the ministers of the different denominations of Dissenters. They are subjected to inquisitorial investigation from which the others are exempt; and every person in either House of Parliament, be he of what religion he may, thinks himself warranted in ordering inquiries, and proposing alterations respecting them, which, if they were suggested with regard to the Romanists or Protestant Dissenters, would be met with an outcry of persecution.

The Church, while encumbered and oppressed by the statutes before-mentioned, is supposed by many to be what the Romanists and Protestant Dissenters call her, the mere creature of the State: her real, original, independent, and Apostolic character is unknown: numbers, through ignorance of this, fall off from her communion to