Defence of the English Ordinal

Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: Schemes of Liturgical Revision. 9 Creed also, which they characterized l as a needless repetition of the Apostles' Creed, or an unsuitable termination of the service The Burial Service also occupied much attention, and the Absolution in the Visitation of the Sick; but comparatively few Reformers attempted...
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Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: Schemes of Liturgical Revision. 9 Creed also, which they characterized l as a needless repetition of the Apostles' Creed, or an unsuitable termination of the service The Burial Service also occupied much attention, and the Absolution in the Visitation of the Sick; but comparatively few Reformers attempted to handle the Ordinal. Mr. Wodehouse, in 1832, however, included the forms for Ordering Priests and ordaining Bishops among the salient points of the Liturgy, which he said, differ from the general contents of that excellent book, inasmuch as they were not derived from the early Christian Fathers, nor yet were composed by Protestant Divines. They were first introduced at what are always esteemed the worst ages of the Christian Church, and were probably retained in our Prayer-Book for reasons which no longer exist. At the same time no strong or determined defence was set up on the other hand. It was conceded by Conservative Churchmen2 that if the Liturgy was framed de novo, they would not desire to see such forms as those of the Ordinal or the Athanasian Creed inserted in it; and that the form of Ordination of Priests, together with that of the Absolution in the Visitation of the Sick, if understood in their literal or apparent meaning, were indefensible. But they pleaded3 for continuance of use on the ground of the prescription of centuries, and the unseasonableness of Liturio Arnold's View of Holy Orders, 1 ' What will the Bishops do ?' by a Beneficed Clergyman, 1833. ' Thoughts on the Revision of the Liturgy, ' by Amicus Ecclesise, 1831. 3 ' British Critic, ' 1833, p. 391. 3 Ibid., p. 392. gical alterations in the present unsettled relations of Church and State. It is remarkable that Dr. Arnold, in his pamphlet on Church Reform, made no suggestion as to the Ordina..