RITES AND RITUAL;
A PLEA FOR
APOSTOLIC DOCTRINE AND WORSHIP.

BY
PHILIP FREEMAN, M.A.,

VICAR OF THORVERTON, DEVON; ARCHDEACON AND CANON OF EXETER;
AUTHOR OF "THE PRINCIPLES OF DIVINE SERVICE."

WITH AN APPENDIX
CONTAINING THE OPINIONS, ON CERTAIN POINTS OF DOCTRINE,
OF
HENRY, LORD BISHOP OF EXETER.

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FOURTH EDITION, REVISED.

LONDON:
JOHN MURRAY, ALBEMARLE STREET.
1866.

LONDON: PRINTED BY W. CLOWES AND SONS, STAMFORD STREET,
AND CHARING CROSS.

PREFACE.

The following pages had been prepared, for the most part, for publication, before it was known that the question of Ritual would be discussed in Convocation, or a Committee of the Lower House appointed, by the direction of the Upper House, to report upon it.

But the suggestions here offered are of so general a character, that it seemed to the writer that they might still without impropriety be put forth as a contribution, of however humble a kind, to the general ventilation of the subject.

It was the writer's hope, as expressed in the original announcement of the Pamphlet, that his Diocesan, the venerable Bishop of Exeter, would have been able to prefix, in an Introduction, his opinion on the leading points, whether of Ritual or Doctrine, involved in the present controversy. And, although that hope has been in part frustrated, he has still been privileged to embody, in an Appendix, his Lordship's deliberate judgment on some of the weightier matters of Eucharistic Doctrine; and to receive an assurance of his warm interest in the subjects dwelt upon in these pages.

The writer has to apologise for having occasionally referred the reader to a larger work of his own. He begs that this may be understood to be merely a guarantee, that detailed proof is forthcoming on points which could only be cursorily treated of in the present publication.

CONTENTS.

Rites.—Importance of them above Ritual—Serious departure of the English Church from primitive practice—Abeyance of Weekly Celebration—Proofs that Weekly Communion is part of the Divine Ordinance—Practical advantages of restoring it—Origin and history of the present unsound practice—Vigorous protest of the English Church against it—Difficulties in the way of a reformation, how to be met—Recent Eucharistic excesses—Worship addressed to Christ as enshrined in the Elements—Proof that this was not the primitive doctrine or practice—Recent origin of it among ourselves—Non-communicating attendance unknown to antiquity.

Ritual.—Law of the English Church about it, how ascertainable—Vestments—An alternative recognised—The Vestment Rubric preserved—The Surplice permitted—Ritual advance at the present day—Choral Festivals—Church Decoration—History and rationale of the Eucharistic Vestments, and of the ordinary ones—Position of the Celebrant—Two lights on the Altar—Incense—The "Mixed Chalice"—The Crucifix—Minute ceremonial disallowed by the English Church—Suggestions as to the present controversy—Hopeful circumstances, and grounds of union.

RITES AND RITUAL,

ETC.

The position of affairs in the English Church, at the present moment, is such as may well call forth from her children such counsel as their affection may prompt, or their experience justify. And, whatever be the intrinsic value, if any, of the suggestions about to be offered here, the writer can at least testify that, though called forth by a particular conjuncture of circumstances, they are not the hasty or immature thoughts of the moment, but rather an outpouring of the anxious musing of years over the condition and prospects of a beloved and honoured Mother.

It will be conjectured, from what has now been said, that the writer is not among the number of those who perceive, in the present condition of the English Church, or in her rate of improvement of late years, any grounds for satisfaction, much less for complacency or congratulation. On the contrary, he very humbly conceives—and his reasons for that opinion shall be given presently—that to the spiritual eye, used to rest either on what the Church of God was intended to be, or on what once, for a few centuries, she was, there is, in the practical condition of the English Church one defect of so radical a character, and which has eaten so extensively into her entire system, that until this is, at least in a very great measure, remedied, all else is little better than a palliative, and little else than an illusion. There is surely something deeply saddening in the spectacle (if it indeed be so) of a Church busying herself with "many things"—making much show of practical activity, of self-reparation, of improvement in services and ministries, of extension abroad,—when all the while the "one thing," namely, soundness and perfectness in Apostolic faith and practice, is in any serious degree wanting to her. If, while she is manifesting a feverish anxiety about the more or less of Ritual, there is in her Rites (of which Ritual is but the outward clothing) that which demands repair and readjustment on an extensive scale; then it is surely needful to press upon her, in the first instance, the redress of such