It is not the faith which Peter exhibited when he received this encomium from our blessed Lord, in which the worshipper is to put his trust, but in that supposed power of the keys conferred on the church through this apostle. Whether Mr. Bennett does not regard the succession of this power as more direct in the church of Rome than in the church of England, may be judged from the device which he has adopted; of which the following passage, in his last printed sermons, offers a commentary. "It was a year in which a sister Church, (meaning the church of Rome,) poor and crippled in temporal things, but relying solely on the spiritual power of the Keys, came forth prominently among us to save the perishing souls of Westminster, Birmingham, and other like places, by giving them Chief Shepherds to rule and guide them in spiritual things."* You may remember, my Lord, my mentioning that five out of the seven officiating clergy of Frome signed the protest; and now I am happy to add that this small minority is further reduced to a single individual. One of these two clergymen has resided many years in Frome, and for the last eight years has had the sole charge of a hamlet and church three miles distant from the town. At first he, to our regret, as he was much respected among us, did not regard Mr. Bennett's appointment with the same alarm as ourselves; he hoped we might be mistaken in our belief of the Romanizing tendency of the new vicar's views, and consequently he received and supported him. But as the new order of things has been gradually developed, his confidence has been shaken, till, at length, on his hearing a sermon which Mr. Bennett preached on the 14th of November, from the text, "He that eateth my flesh and drinketh my blood, dwelleth in me and I in him," he wrote to him and stated that, according to his belief, the doctrines enunciated, which, according to general report, advocated the corporeal presence in the Eucharist, were not in accordance with the church of England. A correspondence and explanation ensued, which embraced other * Preface of dedication, p. 7, Mr. Bennett's "Last Sermons." 1851. + St. John v. 56. subjects, and it has terminated in this gentleman's resigning his charge, notwithstanding expectations were held out to him that he should be made the Incumbent; and he has now formally notified to the bishop his intention to quit his cure, preferring to relinquish all prospect of his advancement, rather than continue longer under a Vicar whom he considers an unsound member of our church. I have further to add to my "Facts from Frome," that some of those practices, for which Mr. Bennett was deprived by the bishop of London, are renewed here. If you will refer, my Lord, to the letter from Mr. Skinner, a part of which I have quoted, (p. 7,) you will find, that contrary to Mr. Bennett's assertion, the clergy at St. Barnabas do not now stand in the middle of the altar from the beginning of the Communion Service, but stand there only as the Rubric directs, from the prayer of consecration: and they do break the bread before the people.' At Frome, Mr. Bennett DOES stand before the middle of the communion table, during the whole of the communion service, with his back to the congregation; and he does not break the bread before the people. At Frome the assisting clergy do kneel right and left of the celebrant, and with their hands folded and arms crossed, when they are not officiating. A credence table has been introduced. The weekly services are performed within the chancel, from whence also the sermons are preached, excepting on Sundays, the minister standing in his white gown. A schoolmaster, whom Mr. Bennett has introduced for his own particular school, has opened a shop opposite the Vicarage house, where his Vicar's works and other books of the same divinity school, are sold; among them is an Almanack for 1853, called the "Churchman's Diary," published by J. Masters. In this book, notes are given on the celebration of Divine Service, in which we read, that in the Litany the priest gathers together the suffrages which have been offered before in common with the people, and presents them to God,'-that in consecrating the elements, the priest “should be careful to raise them up, so that the people may see;" 6 (evidently because the priest in the church of Rome elevates the host,)—that in the sacrament of baptism "it is an ancient custom for the Priest to make the sign of the Cross, in the water, at the words "sanctify this water," in the prayer of Consecration, as he commonly does upon the elements in the other sacrament." A form for making a confession to the priest is also given, in which the penitent is taught to say, kneeling before the priest, "and of thee, father, I ask penance, counsel, and absolution." A prayer is introduced for the clergyman, preparatory to his administering the communion, in which this petition occurs, " et concede propitius, ut in hoc altari, ad quod indignus accedo, HOSTIAS acceptabiles offeram pietati Tuæ pro peccatis et offensionibus meis," &c. I need hardly remark that "hostia" is the word used in the service of the mass, and means the consecrated wafer, -the actual body and blood of our blessed Lord,-whereas the Latin copy of the Thirty-nine Articles, which was prepared at the same time as the English, and is of equal authority, renders that which we break and eat at the communion, by the word panis; "panis quem frangimus est communicatio corporis Christi," &c.* Churchmen are taught in these notes to observe the "hours of prayer;" to eat according to certain directions on fast days: but if persons find the rules for these observances too rigid, they may " apply to their Parish Priest, or other proper authority, and, on just cause, they may obtain a relaxation." Various rules are given respecting the dimensions and covering of the "Altar." "The covering or vestment should fit closely, and be in two parts; the frontal or antependium, which hangs in front, and the superfrontal which covers the slab, and should hang down about six inches below. The frontal and superfrontal should each have a fringe." This description will be recog 66 * Art. 28, De cœna Domini. I am perfectly well aware that in justification of this petition, a plea may be set up that "hostia" is to be understood in its classical signification of "sacrifice," and not in its theological "host." 66 Hostia," however, is the term used in the office of the mass; and in the eleventh rubric of the missal, we find it used in the plural number, as above, "Si est consecraturus plures Hostias pro communione facienda," &c. sense nised as a faithful representation of the coverings of the altar in a Roman Catholic church; and the subsequent directions for the separate use of other sets of vestments for the altar, is a direct copy from the 18th Rubric of the Roman Missal. The order only of the colours is differently enumerated. The Roman rubric describes the proper seasons for using white, red, green, violet, and black coverings. “The Churchman's Diary” takes them in the order of white, red, violet, black, and green; and though the appropriate seasons for their use are not described at the same length as in the Missal, yet they are made generally to correspond. This is a pretty specimen of objective teaching, by which the eyes of Protestants may be familiarized with the meretricious ornaments of the lady enthroned on the seven hills. Not the least curious part of this Diary is the Almanack itself, the calendar of which is a compound of our own and that of the church of Rome, with some original ingredients. Thus we find the martyrdom of St. Thomas of Canterbury, and of Laud, commemorated. It might be supposed that in a calendar for the Church of England, if the name of Thomas à Becket were borrowed from the Roman Missal, that of Wicliffe might have been added as a "pendant;" and if the death of Archbishop Laud, who, be it remembered, was beheaded as a traitor, were commemorated, that of Archbishop Cranmer, who earned the martyr's crown at the fiery stake, would not be overlooked. But alas, with the Tractarian party, what is catholic, and so worthy of imitation and adoption, must be culled from the church of Rome, -those differences which the church of England teaches, are but sectarian peculiarities! Again, the "Churchman's Diary" mentions "the invention of the Holy Cross," borrowing the word " Holy" from the Romish calendar; and more than this, recognises and adopts the fable, by adding the date of its supposed occurrence, “A. D. 326.” Upon what principle Mr. Bennett, who professes so great a respect for the Canons of our Church, that he says, (p. 65,) * Those who have any doubts as to the invention of this miracle, are referred to Jortin's "Remarks on Ecclesiastical History," p. 238. they even restrained him from witnessing the celebration of mass before he left England, thinks himself justified in circulating (qui facit per alium, facit per se,) among his parishioners, a calendar for religious use, different from that set forth in our Prayer Book by our second Reformers under Queen Elizabeth, I must leave others to solve. I have now, my Lord, given, what I believe to be, a faithful description of the state of things in Frome, in reference to our Church, and it is for your Lordship to judge how far we are to be congratulated, as some imagine, in having Mr. Bennett for our Vicar. At the time he was appointed, those who advocated his cause wished us to believe that he had modified his views, and that he had returned to England with opinions much changed, in consequence of what he had seen and learnt in Roman Catholic countries. His second letter to your Lordship must have undeceived them, but the time is past for removing the evil, which they were, perhaps, instrumental in introducing. The gravity of our controversy rests not only on the fact that Mr. Bennett has not retracted a single iota of all that he held to be right, both in doctrine and in practice, when he was expelled from St. Barnabas; but that he has also ventured, in this second letter, to set forth opinions which exceed in boldness anything yet advanced by his party; and with an openness which cannot but be admired. He challenges all those who would gainsay the arguments which he has advocated in his pamphlet, to join issue with him in the courts of law: and "he takes to himself again and makes his own, in every possible sense and way, every word he has ever written or preached throughout his life.” The "mélange" would be a strange one, as the Lectures against Romanism, which he wrote when preaching in his chapel in Baker Street, would be strikingly at cross purposes with some of his later publications and sermons. Still the chal lenge is fair, and I should wish to see it taken up, but I think this is not likely to be done by any of the protesting parishioners of Frome. We are satisfied that we have performed our part in objecting to his appointment, and in en |
