Scottish episcopacy past and present / by Alexander Thomson.

  • Alexander Thomson
Date:
1860
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Scottish episcopacy past and present / by Alexander Thomson. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    16/46 (page 16)
    wHcli follows the former, but altered, and denominated in the margin “The Invocation;” we there read:—“And we most hnmhly beseech Thee, 0 merciful Father, to hear us, and of Thy Almighty goodness, vouchsafe to bless and sanctify with Thy word and Holy Spirit these Thy gifts and creatures of bread and wine, that they may lecome the body and blood of Thy most dearly beloved Son.” The important explanatory words, found both in 1637 and the English Service-book, “So that we receiving them according to Thy Son our Saviour Jesus Christ’s holy institution, in remembrance of His death and passion, may be partakers of the same His most precious body and blood,” are omitted. Observe, too, that in the Scottish Service of 1637, the words are, “ may be to %is the body,” &c. How they stand absolutely, “ may becomed If there be meaning in plain words, then does not the Scottish Service teach the %vhole doctrine of transubstantiation The words of the Komish Communion Service are, “ ut nobis corpus et sanguis fiat dilectissimi Filii tui,” &c. &c. thus limiting the tran¬ substantiation to the communicants, “ That unto us they may become the body and blood of Thy most dearly beloved Son; ” but the Scottish Service, by omitting the words “ to nsf goes further than the very Mass Book. Looking at these omissions and alterations, can we for a moment doubt what was the end in view of those who made them? Or can we reasonably question the views and objects of those who now insist on this Communion Service as being of ijrimary autho¬ rity in their Church ? Another variation of importance regards the prayer for the whole state of Christ’s Church militant. In the English Prayer Book, and the Scottish of 1637, the words are added, “here on earth; ” but in the Scottish Service now in use, these words are omitted, and the title of the prayer stands simply—“ Let us pray for the whole state of Christ’s Church,” and thus this prayer becomes a prayer for the dead as well as the living. That this is the meaning of this change is shown by the Catechisms of the late Bishop John Skinner, long Primus of the Scottish Episcopal Church, and often printed, as in 1799, 1815, 1825, 1832, and of which the edition of 1837 is now before us. At pau’e 35 treatino- of the communion of saints, we read :— “ Since the union between Christ and His Church cannot be dis-