Primitive Christian Worship Part 15

2. Lord, be thou my helper.-- 2. Send help to us, O Thomas; Ps. x.x.x. [xxix.] 10.

3. Thou shalt guide me by thy 3. Guide thou those who stand; counsel.--Ps. lxxiii. [lxxii.] 24.

He, The Holy Spirit, shall guide you into all truth.--John xvi. 13.

4. The Lord upholdeth all that 4. Raise up those who fall; fall, and raiseth up all those that be bowed down.--Psalm cxlv.

[cxliv.] 14.

5. Create in me a clean heart, 5. Correct our morals, actions O G.o.d.--Ps. li. [l.] 10. and life;

6. The steps of a good man are 6. And guide us into the way ordered by the Lord. Though of peace.

he fall, he shall not be utterly cast down, for the Lord upholdeth him.--Ps. x.x.xvii. [x.x.xvi.]

23.

The day-spring from on high hath visited us, to guide our feet into the way of peace.--Luke i.

78, 79.

And then again, in celebrating the praises of a mortal {223} man, recourse is had to language which can fitly be used only in our hymns and praises to the supreme Lord of our destinies, the eternal Creator, Redeemer, and Comforter, the only wise G.o.d our Saviour.

_Address to Thomas._ _Language of Scripture._

1. Hail, Thomas, Rod of Justice! 1. There shall come a rod out of the stem of Jesse. Ye denied the Holy One, and the Just--Isaiah xi. 1. Acts iii. 14.

2. The brightness of the world. 2. The brightness of his glory.

I am the light of the world--Heb.

i. 3. John viii. 12.

3. The strength of the Church. 3. I can do all things through Christ, that strengthened me.

Christ loved the Church, and gave himself for it.--Phil. iv. 13.

Eph. v. 25.

4. The love of the people: the 4. Grace be with all them that delight of the Clergy. love our Lord Jesus Christ in sincerity. Delight thyself in the Lord.--Eph. vi. 24. Ps. x.x.xvii. 4.

5. Hail, glorious Guardian of 5. Our Lord Jesus, that great the Flock. Save those who rejoice Shepherd of the sheep. Give ear, in thy glory. O Shepherd of Israel; come and save us. He that glorieth, let him glory in the Lord.--Heb. xiii. 20.

Psalm lx.x.x. [lxxix.] 1. 1 Cor.

i. 31.

Can that wors.h.i.+p become the disciples of the Gospel and the Cross, which addresses such prayers and such praises to the spirit of a mortal man?

Every prayer, and every form of praise here used in honour of Thomas Becket, it would well become Christians to offer to the Giver of all good, trusting solely and exclusively to the mediation of Christ Jesus our Lord for acceptance; and pleading-only the merits of his most precious blood. {224} And yet I am bound to confess, that in principle, in spirit, and in fact, I can find no substantial difference between this service of Thomas of Canterbury, and the service which all in communion with the Church of Rome are under an obligation to use even at the present hour.

This point remains next for our inquiry, and we will draw from the well-head. I would, however, first suggest the application of a general test for ascertaining the real _bona-fide_ nature of these prayers and praises. The test I would apply is, to try with the change only of the name, subst.i.tuting the holiest name ever named in heaven or in earth for the name of Thomas of Canterbury--whether these prayers and praises should not be offered to the Supreme Being alone through the atoning merits of his Blessed Son; whether they are not exclusively appropriate to HIM.

To (Thomas/G.o.d Almighty) all things bow and are obedient.

Plagues, diseases, death, and devils, Fire, air, land, and sea.

(Thomas/The Almighty) fills the world with glory.

The world offers obeisance to (Thomas/Almighty G.o.d).

(The Martyr Thomas/Our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ) began to s.h.i.+ne forth with miracles [John ii. 11]; restoring sight to the blind [Luke vii. 21]; walking to the lame; hearing to the deaf; speech to the dumb; cleansing to the lepers [Matt. xi. 5]; making the paralytic sound [Matt.

iv. 24]; healing the dropsy [Luke xiv. 4]; and all kinds of incurable diseases [Luke iv. 40]; restoring the dead to {225} life [Luke viii. 43.

55]; in a wonderful manner commanding the devils [Matt. viii. 16], and all the elements [Luke viii. 25]. He put forth his hand to unwonted and unheard-of signs of his own power [Mark ii. 12. John ix. 30].

Do thou, O Lord, by the blood of (Thomas/Christ) cause us to ascend whither (Thomas/Christ) has ascended. (O Thomas/O G.o.d), send help to us.

Guide those who stand; raise up those who fall; correct our morals, actions, and life; and guide us into the way of peace.

Hail, (Thomas!/Jesus!) Rod of Justice, the Brightness of the world, the Strength of the Church, the Love of the people, the Delight of the Clergy. Hail, Glorious Guardian of the flock! Save Thou those who delight in Thy glory.

We shall apply this same test to many of the collects and prayers used, and of necessity to be used, because they are authorized and appointed, even at the present day, in the ministrations of the Church of Rome. The impiety in many of those instances is not couched in such startling language; but it is not the less real. G.o.d forbid that we should charge our fellow-creatures with idolatry, who declare that they offer divine wors.h.i.+p to the Supreme Being only; or that we should p.r.o.nounce any professed Christian to have cast off his {226} dependence on the merits of Christ alone, who a.s.sures us that he looks for mercy only through those merits. But I know and feel, that according to the standard of Christian truth, and of the pure wors.h.i.+p of Almighty G.o.d, which the Scriptures and primitive antiquity compel me to adopt, I should stain my own soul with the guilt of idolatry, and with the sin of relying on other merits than Christ's, were I myself to offer those prayers.

That this service excited much disgust among the early reformers, we learn from various writers[85]. On the merits of the struggle between Becket and his king; on the question of Becket's moral and religious worth, (a question long and often discussed among the exercises of the masters of Paris in the full a.s.sembly of the Sorbonne[86],) or on the motives which influenced Henry the Eighth, I intend not to say one word: those points belong not to our present inquiry. It may not, however, be thought irrelevant here to quote a pa.s.sage {227} from the ordinance of this latter monarch for erasing Becket's service out of the books, and his name from the calendar of the saints.

[Footnote 85: See Mornay "De la Messe," Saumur, 1604. p. 826.

Becon, in his "New Year's Gift," London, 1564, p. 183, thus speaks: "What saint at any time thought himself so pure, immaculate, and without all spot of sin, that he durst presume to die for us, and to avouch his death to be an oblation and sacrifice for our lives to G.o.d the Father, except peradventure we will admit for good payment these and such like blasphemies, which were wont full solemnly to be sung in the temples unto the great ignominy of the glorious name of G.o.d, and the dishonour of Christ's most precious blood." Then quoting the lines from the service of Thomas Becket, on which we have above commented, he adds, "I will let pa.s.s many more which are easy to be searched and found out." Becon preached and wrote in the reign of Henry VIII. and was then persecuted for his religion, as he was afterwards in the reign of Mary.]

[Footnote 86: We are told that forty-eight years after his death, the masters of Paris disputed whether Thomas was a condemned sinner, or admitted into heaven.]

In Henry the Eighth's proclamation, dated Westminster, 16th November, in the thirtieth year of his reign, printed by Bertholet, is the following very curious pa.s.sage:--

"ITEM, for as moche as it appereth now clerely, that Thomas Becket, sometyme Archbyshop of Canterburie, stubburnly to withstand the holsome lawes establyshed agaynste the enormities of the clergie, by the kynges highness mooste n.o.ble progenitour, kynge HENRY the Seconde, for the common welthe, reste, and tranquillitie of this realme, of his frowarde mynde fledde the realme into Fraunce, and to the bishop of Rome, mayntenour of those enormities, to procure the abrogation of the sayd lawes, whereby arose moch trouble in this said realme, and that his dethe, which they untruely called martyrdome, happened upon a reskewe by him made, and that, as it is written, he gave opprobrious wordes to the gentyllmen, whiche than counsayled hym to leave his stubbernesse, and to avoyde the commocion of the people, rysen up for that rescue. And he not only callyd the one of them bawde, but also toke Tracy by the bosome, and violently shoke and plucked hym in suche maner, that he had almoste overthrowen hym to the pavement of the Churche; so that upon this fray one of their company, perceivynge the same, strake hym, and so in the thronge Becket was slayne. And further that his canonization was made onely by the bysshop of Rome, bycause he had ben a champion of maynteyne his usurped auctoritie, and a bearer of the iniquitie of the clergie, for these and for other great and urgent causes, longe to recyte, the Kynge's {228} Maiestie, by the advyse of his counsayle, hath thought expedient to declare to his lovynge subjectes, that notwithstandynge the sayde canonization, there appereth nothynge in his lyfe and exteriour conversation, wherby he shuld be callyd a sainct, but rather estemed to have ben a rebell and traytour to his prynce.

Therefore his Grace strayghtly chargeth and commandeth that from henseforth the sayde Thomas Becket shall not be estemed, named, reputed, nor called a sayncte, but bysshop Becket; and that his ymages and pictures, through the hole realme, shall be putte downe, and avoyded out of all churches, chapelles, and other places; and that from henseforthe, the dayes used to be festivall in his name shall not be observed, nor the service, office, antiphoners, colletes, and prayers, in his name redde, but rased and put out of all the bokes[87]."

[Footnote 87: In the Roman Breviary, adapted to England, several biographical lessons are appointed for the Anniversary of "St.

Thomas, bishop and martyr," interspersed with canticles. In one of these we read, "This is truly a martyr, who, for the name of Christ, shed blood; who feared not the threats of judges, nor sought the glory of earthly dignity. But he reached the heavenly kingdom."--Norwich, 1830. Hiem. p. 251.] {229}

CHAPTER II.

COUNCIL OF TRENT.

In the process of ascertaining the real state of doctrine and practice in the wors.h.i.+p of the Church of Rome at the present day, we must first gain as clear and accurate a knowledge of the decree of the Council of Trent, as its words will enable us to form. Into the character of that Council, and of those who const.i.tuted it, our present investigation does not lead us to inquire. It is now, I believe, generally understood, that its decrees are binding on all who profess allegiance to the Sovereign Roman Pontiff; and that the man would be considered to have renounced the Roman Catholic Communion, who should professedly withhold his a.s.sent from the doctrines there promulgated as vital, or against the oppugners of which the Council itself p.r.o.nounced an anathema.

Ecclesiastical writers[88] a.s.sure us, that the wording of the decrees of that Council was in many cases on purpose framed ambiguously and vaguely. The lat.i.tude, however, of the expressions employed, does not in itself {230} of necessity imply any of those sinister and unworthy motives to which it has been usual with many writers to attribute it. In charity, and without any improbable a.s.sumption, it may be referred to an honest and laudable desire of making the terms of communion as wide as might be, with a view of comprehending within what was regarded the pale of the Catholic Church, the greatest number of those who professed and called themselves Christians. Be this as it may, the vagueness and uncertainty of the terms employed, compel us in many instances to have recourse to the actual practice of the Church of Rome, as the best interpreter of doubtful expressions in the articles of that Council. The decree which bears on the subject of this volume is drawn up in the following words:--

[Footnote 88: See Mosheim, xvi. Cent. c. i. vol. iv. p. 196.

London, 1811.]

"SESSION XXV.[89]

"On the invocation, veneration, and reliques of saints, and of sacred images.