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Preface

This small volume has been prepared with much care, in the hope that it may meet the wants of those who desire a short account of the Church and her ways from the Catholic standpoint, and a hand-book of information not easily arrived at without consulting a number of larger works. It has all been thoroughly reviewed by three well-learned clergymen of the Church, and the author gratefully acknowledges his indebtedness to them for many most important corrections of and additions to the original manuscript. The one aim and object of the work has been to set forth in concise form the Catholic faith and practice of the Church, in loyalty to the standards of the Anglican Communion in this country. That God may bless it to His glory is the prayer of the Author.

Easter, 1891.

Table Of Contents

CHAPTER PAGE

II. Creation, 6

III. The Angels and the Devils, 7-9

Chapter I. GOD

We easily think of God as the Father of all, the Maker and Preserver of the universe. God must therefore be Almighty; He is the Ruler and Upholder of all things, the Source of all power. the Centre of every force. The perfect order of the universe, the wonderful way in which everything is adapted to its own use, and the fitness of al' living creatures for their own kinds of life teach us that God is All- Wise, as well as Almighty. Power without wisdom could never have created the universe with its perfect order. Again the general beauty of creation, and the evident provision that has been made for man's happiness, in spite of the many sad things in the world, teach us that God is also Good. Devils might exercise great power and great wisdom, but God only exercises absolute power and infinite wisdom with perfect goodness.

The Church teaches us in the Creed that God is in Three Persons, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost. When we use the word person of ourselves we mean an individual in human nature.

When it is used of God it defines certain necessary distinctions in the Divine nature. God in His nature can only be One. It is impossible that there can be more than one God. Yet in the Divine nature there are distinct Individualities. To understand this in the best way we should think of God not as we would of a man, but rather as we would of a mind. God is pure Spirit, without body, parts or passions. God the Father is the one Source and Origin of all persons and things that exist.

From all eternity the Father, the Divine Mind acts, expressing Himself in one perfect Thought Which has a distinct Personality from Himself.

The Divine Mind differs in Its action from our human minds in this that we express ourselves in many partial thoughts which, taken together, do not even declare our whole mind, and come one after another many of the earlier ones being forgotten before the later ones have come into being; but God thinks but one Thought forever, Which pe: fectly declares His whole Mind, and is, as the Apostle says " The express Image of His Person" (Heb. i, 3.). This perfect Thought of God St. John calls the Logos, or Word, and is the Second Person of the Blessed Trinity, God the Son. The Word of God is called the Son because as as a child is begotten by his father, so the Expressed Thought is begotten of the Thinking Mind; and as the Thinking Mind in the Divine Life is God the Father, so the Expressed Thought Which declares that Mind is God the Son, the Only-begotten of the Father. (St. John i, 18.)

The perfect goodness of God has always gone forth within the Divine Essence in one great act of love, the Father loving the Son and the Son loving the Father. The Love of God is spoken of as the Spirit, literally Breath, of God which goes forth towards the Object of love. This Spirit of God is a distinct Person from the Father and the Son, while joining Them in the unity of love, and is called the Holy Spirit, or the Holy Ghost, for ghost is only old English for spirit

Thus we see that we are obliged to think of God as three in Person though but ojie in Life. The Father exists of Himself alone, and is the Fount and Origin of all being. The Son is of the Father alone, not made nor created but begotten before all worlds. The Holy Ghost is of the Father and the Son, not made nor created nor begotten but proceeding.

The Father is first, the Son second, and the Holy Ghost third, not in time, but in the order of the Divine life, for all three Persons are coeternal together and coequal.

Our Lord tells us that " The Son can do nothing of Himself." This means that the Son being one in essence and power with the Father, can do nothing to the exclusion of the Father. Every power which the Father has, the Son has likewise with Him. The power by which the Father generates, is in the Son, the Father having it as giving, the Son as receiving. The Divine Persons mutually inexist. (St. John xiv, n; and xvii, 21.)

To the Father is attributed especially the work of Creation, that is the origination of all things out of His own infinite Being; to the Son the work of Redemption, that is the restoration of man after his fall into sin; to the Holy Ghost the work of Sanctification, that is the making holy of man so that he may be able to dwell with God in heaven.

Chapter II. CREATION

The Book of Genesis tells us that in the beginning God created the heaven and the earth. Then we are told how He prepared the world for man in six days. This word day does not mean of necessity twenty four hours, but rather a time of darkness, perhaps of thousands of years, followed by a corresponding time of light. " And God called the light Day, and the darkness He called Night. And the evening and the morning were the first day." Gen. i, 4. On the first day, after God had created the heaven and the earth, the darkness that had covered the earth which was without form and void, gave place to light.

On the second day the dense vapours which had covered the surface of the earth were lifted up and an aerial atmosphere took their place.

On the third day the continents which had thus far been covered with water appeared, and the oceans were confined within their limits. Then the earth was speedily covered with grass, various herbs, and fruit-bearing trees.

On the fourth day the sun and moon and stars appeared and shed their light upon the earth.

On the fifth day the fishes and fowls came into being.

On the sixth day all the rest of the living creatures were made, and last of all Adam the father of the Human race.

Man differed frojn all other earthly creatures in being made in the image and after the likeness of God. By the image of God we ought to understand all those things in the human race which radically distinguish it from the beasts, as for example man's sense of religion, his conscience, and his constant desire to improve his condition. By the likeness of God is rather to be understood a special gift of holiness, which like a garment of glory clothed our first parents in the Garden.

Man's body was made of the dust of the ground. Then God breathed into it the breath of life, and man became a living soul. The body of the woman was not made directly of the dust of the ground, but out of a rib taken by God from the side of Adam, while he slept. By thus giving man a wife made of his own flesh God taught him the sacredness of the marriage bond, which only death can dissolve. " They twain shall be one flesh."

Chapter III. THE ANGELS AND THE DEVILS

God created a countless number of pure spirits, called Angels, to nve in heaven, probably long before He made Adam upon earth. We find no less than nine different orders of these heavenly spirits named in the

Bible, (i.) Seraphim (Is. vi, 2), (2.) Cherubim (Ezek. x, 20-21), (3.) Thrones, (4.) Principalities, (5.) Dominions, (6.) Powers (Col. i, 16), (7.) Virtues, or Mights (Eph. i. 21), (8.) Archangels, (Jude 9), (9.) Angels (Heb. i, 7). Of these the Cherubim and Seraphim are represented as continually praising God in heaven. They cry "Holy, Holy, Holy, is the Lord of Hosts: the whole earth is full of His glory." The Archangels and Angels seem to be especially in charge of the affairs of men. St. Paul says of the Angels, "Are they not all ministering spirits, sent forth to minister for them who shall be heirs of salvation?'* Three of the Archangels are mentioned in Holy Scripture, St. Michael, St. Gabriel, and St. Raphael, while in the Apocryphal Book of Esdras St. Uriel is also named.

Some time in the past, probably before the creation of man, one of the great angels in heaven, Lucifer, rebelled against God. His sin was pride (Is. xiv, 12-15). Many of the Angels followed him in his sin. So there was war in heaven, but St. Michael and the good Angels prevailed against the sinners, and they were cast out. (Rev. xii, 7-9.; St. Jude 6). After his fall Lucifer became " that old serpent called the Devil, and Satan, which deceiveth the whole world."

It is possible that in the fall of the Angels the mystery of the origin of evil is solved. God Who is perfect Goodness could not make anything evil; but the Angels who fell chose their own glory, which was good in itself, instead of the glory of God as the object of their being. Thus by living for a lesser good than the highest good they made an evil choice, and introduced sin into creation. We may reasonably believe that the rebellion of Lucifer was the one great probation of the Angels. Those who fell then are fallen for eternity, they can never be restored; and those who remained loyal to God were confirmed in their loyalty forever. Now while Satan and his devils strive to make men wicked like themselves, the good Angels help us to be righteous.

The nature of the Angels is different from that of men. They are pure spirits without material bodies (Ps. civ, 4). And though now they are so much greater than we, yet the Saints in heaven are promised greater glory than the Angels, because our Lord has taken human nature and made it His own, but He took not angelic nature. (Heb. ii, 16).

It is a pious belief of Catholics that God gives to every person at his birth a special Angel to be his guardian (St. Matt., xviii, 10).

Chapter IV. THE FALL OF MAN

When God had made Adam and Eve, He placed them in the garden of Eden, to dress it and to keep it. He told them that they might eat freely of all the trees in the garden except of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. By this tree their obedience to God was to be proved.

Then came Satan to Eve, as she stood by the tree of knowledge, to tempt her. Although he directly contradicted what God had said, and told her that she should not die if she should eat of the forbidden fruit, Eve listened to him, until she was quite deceived by him. He induced her to see that the forbidden fruit was good for food, pleasant to the eyes, and to be desired to make one wise. Here we find the beginning of all three of those great roots of sin by which men are tempted, the lust of the flesh (Sensuality), the lust of the eyes (Covetousness), and the pride of life (Pride), (i St. John, ii, 16.)

Then Eve took of the forbidden fruit and ate it. When Adam came to her she desired him als6 to eat with her. Adam was not deceived as his wife had been, (1 Tim. ii, 14), yet he chose rather to stay with her by committing sin, than to be separated from her, as he supposed he would be, by remaining faithful to God. So he ate also, and then both of them saw how greatly they had sinned and sought to hide themselves from God.

But God easily found them out and brought them to judgment. Upon the woman the sentence of pain in child-bearing and of subjection to her husband was pronounced. Upon man that of sorrow and labour in earning his living. Yet while the ground was cursed, man himself was not cursed. Upon both man and woman came also the penalty of death, which they probably would have escaped, througli Divine grace, had they never sinned.

Thus by the sin of our first parents w r as the whole state of the human race in the world changed. Supernatural holiness was lost to man, and the proper order of his nature so subverted that his passions constantly rebel against his higher nature and move his will to actions which his conscience condemns. By this first transgression man was also alienated from God, and could not be restored to favour and the heavenly life except by redemption. God was very merciful hovvever,and even while pronouncing sentence upon the guilty ones He promised that eventually the seed of the woman (that is our Lord) shoiald bruise the head of the serpent (that is Satan). This first promise of redemption was fulfilled when our Lord died on the Cross.

Chapter V. CAIN AND ABEL

So soon as man had sinned God drove him out of Eden. We next read that children were born to Adam and Eve; the one of them, Cain, was a tiller of the ground, the other, Abel, a keeper of sheep. At the end of days, perhaps on some primaeval Sabbath, the brothers came to worship the Lord. Cain offered of the fruit of the ground, but Abel of the firstlings of his flock. Abel's offering was accepted and Cain's rejected. We may believe that there underlies this history a great truth of religion. For Abel s offering, the lamb slain at the Altar, was a type of our Lord the Lamb of God, offered on the Cross. So Abel's offering showed his acknowledgment of the fact that he was a sinner, deserving death for his sins, yet trusting in a Saviour Who should die for him that he might be saved.

Cain's offering expressed no acknowledgment of sinfulness, nor any faith in a Saviour; but only that God was his Maker and heavenly Father, and had a right to the tithe of his possessions. St. John tells us that Cain slew his brother " Because his own works were evil and his brother's righteous." (i St. John iii, 12.)

We ought to believe that God had in some way revealed to the family of Adam that the right mode of worship was by animal sacrifice, for He would not have punished Cain for not knowing what had not been revealed. And in confirmation of this fact we find that everywhere throughout the world, in the ages before our Lord, men were wont to worship God by the sacrifice of animals at an altar. Sacrificial worship is the traditional worship of the whole human race.

Chapter VI. THE ANTEDILUVIANS AND THE FLOOD

Cain was angry because his sacrifice was not accepted and he slew his brother. Then God gave to Adam and Eve another son called Seth. Presently we find two distinct families in the world, the descendants of Cain, who were godless yet very progressive in worldly civilization, and the descendants of Seth who served God and kept themselves pure. Among these righteous ones was Enoch, who after living on earth 365 years was translated or taken away by God without dying. The antediluvians lived to great ages, Methuselah attaining the number of 969 years. We may well believe that the splendid physical vigour of the human race deteriorated but slowly after the expulsion from Paradise, and that only after man had weakened his constitution by long disobedience to God's laws did he become so short-lived as we are now.

When Holy Scripture (in Gen. VII) speaks of the " Sons of God/' and the " Daughters of men," many of the Fathers think that it refers to the two races of Adam's children, the righteous family of Seth, and the wicked family of Cain. The righteous men of Seth's family, being attracted by the beauty of the daughters of Cain, took them in marriage, and so were gradually corrupted. Whether this be the meaning of the passage or not, we know that eventually things became so bad that of all the children of Seth only the family of Noah remained righteous. Then God determined to send the Flood upon them to drown them all. Noah was warned to build the Ark, that in it his family and the various sorts of beasts and birds might be saved from destruction. We ought to believe that the Flood destroyed all the descendants of Adam except Noah's family.

After being a year in the Ark Noah and his family found the earth dry again, and went forth at the command of God to repeople it. It is important to note that the patriarch preserved the old form of worship and the true religion, for so soon as he had gone forth from the Ark he " builded an Altar unto the Lord; and took of every clean beast, and of every clean fowl, and offered burnt offerings on the Altar."

Chapter VII. THE PATRIARCHS

After the Flood the human race soon fell into sin again, and worshipped false gods. A righteous remnant was left however in the family of Heber the great grandson of Shem, one of Noah's three sons. The most famous of Heber's descendants was Abram who dwelt La Ur of the Chaldees. About 2000 years before our Lord, God called Abram to leave his country and friends, and go to a new land which He would give him for his own. Abram believed God and obeyed. This new land was Canaan or Palestine. There Abram dwelt in tents, moving from place to place with the great flocks which were his wealth. Wherever he went he faithfully worshipped God and obeyed Him. God rewarded his faith by making a covenant with him that if he would remain loyal to Him, He would make the patriarch's descendants His own peculiar people.

He also changed Abram's name to Abraham (Father of a multitude), and gave him the rite of circumcision as the outward sign of the covenant. Thus Abraham became the Father of the Faithful, and in his family the true worship of God was preserved.

God rewarded Abraham's faith by giving him a son in his old age, Isaac by name, who was to inherit the promise after his father's death.

After Isaac, Jacob his younger son inherited the promise instead of Esau, the elder, who despised his birthright and sold it for a mess of pottage. God also changed Jacob's name to Israel (Prince of God), and gave him twelve sons who became the fathers of the twelve tribes of Israel.

Joseph, one of Jacob's sons, was so beloved of God for his goodness, that his two sons Ephraim and Manasseh were both made the fathers of tribes along with their uncles, Joseph's brothers. Thus Joseph had a double portion in Israel. The tribes were still counted as only twelve however for Levi was separated from the others to be the priestly tribe, especially consecrated to the service of God.

Chapter VIII. THE ISRAELITISH CHURCH

Before Jacob's death, in a time of great famine, his children and grandchildren, about seventy in all, went down into Egypt to live, and there the children of Israel, as they were called, grew to be a nation. After they had dwelt in Egypt more than two hundred years God sent Moses to deliver them out of the hands of the Egyptians who had made slaves of them. By a great miracle He enabled them to pass through the Red Sea and then they began their march by way of the desert of Arabia towards the land of Canaan, which God had so long before promised to Abraham and his descendants. When they reached Mount Sinai God bade Moses come up into the mountain and there He talked with him face to face and gave him a Law for the children of Israel.

A most conspicuous part of this Law was that relating to Divine worship. Moses was commanded to make a tabernacle, or tent, wherein the service of God was to be carried on, and wherein He would manifest His Presence in an especial way. The Tabernacle was to be a tent in order that it might be carried about by the children of Israel on their journeyings, being taken down and set up as necessity required. Outside the covered tent a large enclosed but uncovered Court was made, wherein the brazen Altar on which animals were to be sacrificed stood (Ex. xxvii, i). There was also in the Court, between the Altar and the covered Tabernacle a Laver of brass, whereat the priests might wash their hands and feet (Ex. xxx, 18). The Tabernacle proper was divided into two compartments, separated by a curtain or Veil, the first called the Holy Place, and the second or inner one the Most Holy Place. In the Holy Place were the small Altar covered with gold upon which incense was to be burned (Ex. xxx, i), the Holy Table on which Shew-Bread was to be placed in two rows upon which also incense should be burned, (Lev. xxiv, 7) and a great golden Candlestick with seven lamps (Ex. xxv. 31-39). Into the Holy Place only the Priests might go to perform the service of the Sanctuary. In the Most Holy place stood the sacred Ark or chest in which the two stone tables on which the Ten Commandments had been engraved, and other most precious treasures of the Israelites were kept. Over the Ark was a small golden throne called the Mercy-Seat on which God manifested His Presence in some mysterious way, probably by an unearthly light (Ex. xxv. 10-22). Into the Most Holy Place the High Priest alone might enter and he only once a year.

God gave to Moses the fullest directions concerning the making of all these things, showing him patterns of them all, and also concerning the worship the children of Israel should offer Him. The tribe of Levi was separated from the rest of the nation for the exclusive service of the Tabernacle; and the family of Aaron, the brother of Moses, was made the priestly family, so that no one might presume to execute the Priest's office except he were one of the sons of Aaron, nor any one to minister about the tabernacle except he were of the tribe of Levi. Over all the Priests was one chosen to be High Priest, who alone could perform the most solemn Services of the Sanctuary and make the great Atonement for the people in the Most Holy Place.

There were sacrifices of many different kinds and for various occasions ordained by God to be offered in the Tabernacle, and every day both in the morning and in the afternoon a lamb was to be offered as a burnt-offering at the great Altar in the Court, while one of the Priests burnt Incense upon the golden Altar in the Holy Place. This was the Daily Sacrifice of the Israelites. On the Sabbath the Daily Sacrifice was doubled, two lambs being offered in the morning and two in the afternoon.

It is important to notice some of the ceremonial features of the worship of the Israelites because being all ordained expressly by God they must signify principles of worship which are pleasing to Him.

The PriesLs were to wear special Vestments, some of fine linen, others of rich fabrics of various colours (blue, purple, scarlet, and gold). These Vestments were embroidered and set with jewels. (Ex. xxviii. ) While the linen garments would symbolize the purity with which one should serve God, the richer Vestments would fittingly express the dignity of God's service and the glory which it should have in the eyes of men.

The Candlestick with its seven lamps constantly lighted in the Holy Place symbolized the Divine Presence in the Sanctuary.

Incense with its fragrant smoke filling the house of God, was a symbol of the intercession of our Lord Christ without which man's offerings never could ascend to heaven, and which must therefore always accompany the sacrifices made at the great Altar.

Thus in the Israelitish Church we find the principles of worship which God taught to mankind in patriarchal days expanded and developed by God Himself. A special Priesthood is set apart to offer sacrifice; the Sacrifices themselves are clear types of our Lord's Sacrifice upon the Cross; the Vestments of the Priests remind men of the solemnity and glory of the service of God; the Incense signifies that God's mercy will go forth to meet the sacrifices of His people and His grace make them acceptable; the Lights symbolize the Divine Presence among men; the Altar is God's place of meeting with

His people; the Laver the symbol of the purification of his soul from sin which man must seek before he can serve God acceptably; and the Most Holy Place with its Mercy Seat is a type of heaven itself (Heb. ix, 24).

Chapter IX. THE BIBLE OF THE ISRAELITES

Besides making all things for the service of the Sanctuary after the pattern which was showed him in the Mount, Moses wrote down for the use of the Israelites all the more important features of the revelation he had received from God. He also, by Divine Inspiration, committed to writing the story of Creation and the early history of the human race as we have them in the book called Genesis. These sacred records together with the narrative of the wanderings of the Israelites in the desert until the time of Moses' death, are called the Pentateuch, or five books of Moses, Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy.

As the national life of the Israelites developed in the promised land, other sacred books were written by holy men under the guidance of the Holy Ghost. Among these are the Historical books, which carry the history of the nation down from the days of Moses to a period only a few hundred years before our Lord; the Prophetical books, which foretell God's dealings with many people, and especially the wonderful coming and gracious work of our Lord; and the Holy Writings such as the Psalms, Proverbs,

Ecclesiastes, etc. These various books were carefully preserved and copied by the Hebrew Scribes, and were probably gathered into one collection in the time of Ezra, some 500 years before our Lord. This Jewish Bible we call the Old Testament.

Chapter X. HISTORY OF THE ISRAELITES

After the death of Moses Joshua became the leader of the children of Israel, and under his guidance they took possession of the land of Canaan driving out and destroying by the command of God the wicked and idolatrous nations that had hitherto dwelt there. For about 350 years after Joshua's time the Israelites were governed by Judges, raised up by God from time to time in emergencies: but eventually they desired a King. So God*gave them Saul for their King. After Saul's disobedience and death David reigned, and he in turn w T as succeeded by his son Solomon, the greatest of Hebrew Kings. David had made Jerusalem the capital of the nation, and there Solomon built a Temple of stone to take the place of the ancient Tabernacle.

The Temple was constructed upon the model of the Tabernacle which Moses had made, but was much larger and more magnificent, enormous amounts of gold, silver, precious stones, and other costly materials being used in furnishing it. Like the Tabernacle it had an outer Court containing the great brazen Altar of sacrifice and the Laver, while within the building were the

Holy Place and the Holy of Holies. God showed that He accepted this Temple as His earthly dwelling place in the stead of the Tabernacle, by the fire which came down from heaven and consumed the sacrifices, and by the Cloud of His Presence which filled the house (II. Chron. vii, i). Thenceforth until the time of our Lord, the Temple at Jerusalem was the one true House of God in the world, and the centre of the true religion.

In the time of Solomon's son Rehoboam the Israelites were separated into two kingdoms, called Israel and Judah. God allowed the nation to be thus divided but the Hebrew Church remained one, and the men of Israel were required to worship at Jerusalem as well as the men of Judah. No rival Temple was permitted. The people of both kingdoms often fell into idolatry and were punished by God for their sins. Eventually the men of Israel became so corrupt that God gave them up to the King of Assyria, who carried the chief of them away into captivity. So the kingdom of Israel came to an end. The Kingdom of Judah was allowed to remain a little longer, but some 600 years before our Lord it became so idolatrous that it was surrendered by God to the King of Babylon. He took Jerusalem, destroyed the Temple and carried many of the people, (now calledjews from the name Judah,) captive to Babylon.

They remained in captivity seventy years, and then Cyrus the Persian, who had conquered Babylon, allowed them to go back to their own land and to rebuild the Temple. During the