The Church: Her Books and Her SacramentsHolmes, E. E. (Ernest Edward)
Religion
The Church: Her Books and Her Sacraments
Holmes, E. E. (Ernest Edward)
Church of England; Sacraments -- Church of England
There is, it is true, a sense in which the name is fairly used to
represent the views of all loyal English Churchmen. Every English
Churchman protests against anything unhistoric or uncatholic. The
Church of England does protest against anything imposed by one part of
the Church on any other part of the Church, apart from the consent of
the whole Church. It does protest against the claims of Italy or of
any other nation to rule England, or to impose upon us, as _de fide_,
anything exclusively Roman. In this sense, Laud declared upon the
scaffold that he died "a true Protestant"; in this sense, Nicholas
Ferrar, founder of a Religious House in Huntingdonshire, called himself
a Protestant; in this sense, we are all Protestants, and in this sense
we are not ashamed of our unhistoric name.
{20}
In these Prayer-Book names, then, we see (1) that the Church on earth
is a society, established in the Upper Chamber on the Day of Pentecost;
(2) that it was established to be the ordained and ordinary channel
through which God saves and sanctifies fallen man; (3) that, in order
to accomplish this, and for business and administrative purposes, the
Church Catholic establishes itself in national centres; (4) that one
such national centre is England; and (5) that this Pentecostal Church
established in England is the Church which "Christ loved," the Sponsa
Christi, the "Bride of Christ":--
_Elect from every nation,_
_Yet one all o'er the Earth._
[1] Eph. v. 25.
[2] The primary meaning of the word Catholic seems to refer to
world-wide extension. St. Augustine teaches that it means "Universal"
as opposed to particular, and says that "The Church is called Catholic
because it is spread throughout the whole world". St. Cyril of
Jerusalem says: "The Church is called Catholic because it extends
throughout the whole world, from one end of the Earth to the other,"
and he adds, "because it teaches universally all the doctrines which
men ought to know" ("Catechetical Lectures," xviii. 23).
[3] "Foul fall the day," writes Mr. Gladstone, "when the persons of
this world shall, on whatever pretext, take into their uncommissioned
hands the manipulation of the religion of our Lord and Saviour."
[4] Service for "The Ordering of Priests".
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account