An Apology Of The Church Of England Classic Reprint PDF Download

Excerpt from An Apology for the Church of Englandin Reply to the Cavils and Objections of Those Who Dissent From Her Communion And expectation of future Preferment, or Translation, dependent upon, and obseqnious to the Crown. I moreover object to the system of Private Patronage, adopted in the Church of England, not only because it frequently happens that a Minister is thereby obtruded upon his flock without their consent, and often against their will, but because it gives occasion to the sin of Simy, to Pluralities, and the evils of Nonresidence, all of which are either approved of, or connived at, by the Church of England. To this same System of Patronage is to be attributed the Ordination by the English Bishops of immoral and worldly-minded Ministers, who suffer their pleasures to interfere with their spiritual duties, Finally, on this head, I would add that I can find no warrant in the Word of God for supposing with the Church of England, that an Apostolical Succession is essential to the validity of the Ministerial Functions and, indeed, even if I could be prevailed upon to alter (my opinion, I should think it exceedingly improbable that the sue. Cession should have continued in the Church of England, or in any other Church amidst the changes of so many nations, and under all the corruptions which have disgraced the christian world; and, particularly, as it affects the Church of England, if (according to her own acknowledgment) the want of an Apostolical Succession invalidate Ordination, her own Clergy are no better ordained than Dissenting Ministers, (whom she refuses to recognise as Ministers of the Gospel.) because it has been clearly shown by many Romanists, that she lost that Succession in her Secession from their Communion. Thirdly, I dissent from the Church of England, on account of her stated imposition of a Form of Prayer, not only because I can find no warrant in Scripture for the use of a Form of Public Devotion, but because I consider all Forms both unnecessary and pernicious. Moreover, I think that the Liturgy of the Church of England very closely resembles the Papish Mass Boole I also olfiect to the length 0 of its Services, and to its division into short Collects instead of being one continued Prayer and Idecidedly disapprove of the vain and unnecessary repetition in each Service of the Lord's Prayer, and to its numerous Responses, which are used in no other Protestant Church. I see no reason why the Apocryphal Books should be read publicly in her Churches, nor why the Psalms by a foolish custom should be recited alternately, and every month and I object to the daily recital of the Nine Canticles, especially because five of them are exceedingly exceptiouable; the first, (te Deum) because selected verbatim from the Popish Missal, the second, Benedicite because not selected from the Canonical Scriptures, and the remaining three, Magnificat, Nunc Dimittis, and Benedictus) because l consider them too personal for any congres gation to adopt. The English Liturgy also sanctions many unscrip. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.