Imágenes de páginas
PDF
EPUB

trines so zealously maintained by certain learned theologians of Oxford, and their advocates elsewhere. Before I proceed to notice any of these doctrines in particular, I will make a few observations upon them in general. In the first place, then, there is remarkable about them, that the preaching of them at this day seems to scatter dismay through the ranks of every party, save the Catholic alone. Whatever may be the cause (I stay not to enquire what it may be), it cannot escape observation, that while all others look upon the spread of their doctrines as they do upon the mustering of the storm, the Catholics hail it as they do the rising of the summer cloud. In the next place, whatever diversity of opinion there may be, however differently men may speculate upon their tendency and ultimate consequences-all are unanimous in this-that they bespeak in those who hold them and preach them, a satiety of things as they are, and a longing desire to restore, if they knew how to restore it, the ancient faith of this land and of Christendom. Here again the Catholics lift up their heads like men comforted. It is refreshing, after years of persecution for our adherence to the religion of our fathers, after hearing their doctrines and their rites scoffed at so long as unchristian and idolatrous, to find men, nurtured in the bosom of another Church, and ornaments of itfor that cannot be denied-proclaiming aloud, fearless of every consequence, that in very deed and truth, there has been a delusion over the land; that the Reformation is not that blessing which it has been deemed to be; that it went too far; that it lopped what it ought not to have lopped away; that they of those days had better have stood more by the ancient land-marks; and that it is high time to return; or, that the very Christianity of the land is endangered. I say it is beyond measure refreshing to find, from the admission

66

of men like these, that some of our most popular doctrines--the doctrine of the real presence and the eucharistic sacrifice, the doctrine of communion with the Saints in heaven, the long-derided holiness of fasting, and other penitential practices-it is cheering to find, notwithstanding parliamentary acts and articles, that these doctrines really are portions of the faith once delivered to the saints, ought not to have deen discarded, as at the Reformation they were discarded. When we hear these things, when we see them with our own eyes, we thank God, who gives us to behold in our own days what we can only read of in the past, namely, the Catholic Church rising victorious from every combat in which she has been engaged," &c. &c. The reverend preacher then shews that the foundation of the whole system of the Oxford Tracts rests on the theory of the Apostolical succession; and on this ground he professes to be ready to meet the Protestant Episcopalians with a perfect certainty of victory. "You must pardon us, my brethren, you must make some allowances for us, if when we are called upon to discuss claims like these, we are sometimes tempted to laugh them to scorn. When the advocates of Protestantism tell us that they came out of Babylon because of her abominations, we understand what they say; when they again tell us that the whole Christian world was buried in damnable idolatry for the space of eight hundred years and more, we again comprehend them; but when they attempt to establish for the bishops of the Protestant Church of England, a Church never heard of before the sixteenth century, a lineal decent from the Apostles of Christ; and for this purpose present us with a scroll, which reaches back only to Archbishop Cranmer, and is then lost in idolatry-we leave the confusion to those who have confounded it, and betake ourselves to more intelligible

and more Christian things. For as it is insulting to our understandings to be told, that a descent of three hundred years establishes a connexion with the Apostles of Christ, so it is shocking and revolting to all our Christian feeling, to think the sacred privileges of apostolicity can be derived from a Church buried in idolatry, and having Anti-Christ for her head! I now proceed upon the supposition that these unchristian charges are henceforward withdrawn, and that from the Ministers and Members of the Church of England (those at least among them who are advocates for the apostolical succession), we shall hear of them never more; and not only so, but that if the Catholics shall ever think fit to petition Parliament to abolish the superfluous and unseemly declaration, respecting the idolatry of Transubstantiation and the Mass, we have a right to calculate upon their countenance and support; and not this only, but that we have a right also to look for their powerful aid in putting down those itinerant declaimers, who are still proclaiming in our cities, towns, and villages that the Catholics are idolators, and the successors of St. Peter, Anti-Christ; inasmuch as these men are propagating doctrines, which if true, Protestantism is but a delusion!"

So then the plot is thickening and Popery is returning with a vengeance; not only do the popish priests proclaim a most cordial friendship with the Oxford sect, but already calculate on their "powerful aid" in putting down those itinerant preachers who denounce the pope as Anti-Christ.

How their process of "putting down" is to be effected we are not yet informed, but that in the wishes and intentions of a popish priest, it must be something very decided there can be no doubt. The pope and his servants, the priests and monks, for a hundred and fifty years tried in vain "to put down" the Lollards and reformers, who went about the country

declaiming against the idolatry of Rome and the successors of St. Peter; but after having burnt and murdered these "declaimers" wherever they could find them, it ended in the priests themselves being "put down," who, however, after a long period of torpor and debility, are now coming forth again from their hiding-places fully prepared to "put down" the reformation if they can; having better hopes than ever of their success through "the powerful aid" of the Oxford school.

We feel grateful to the priest of Scarborough for having thus given timely notice of his intentions.

It is however instructive to hear the scorn and contempt with which the Romish priests treat the Church of England; and it should be remembered that in the following passage the allusions to “Hear the Church" refer of course to the notorious sermon of Dr. Hook, the vicar of Leeds : owing to local feelings, therefore, the allusions would tell with force. "They tell you that Archbishop Cranmer and his associates detected grievous errors in the Catholic Church—be it so, since that is not now the question. I say, that, in presuming to pronounce this, Archbishop Cramner and his associates claimed the rights of private judgment, and wielded them against a Church which they acknowledged to be apostolical. Now, I ask, does the Church of England allow the Dissenters of England to wield the rights of private judgment against herself? No; by no means. But why does she not? Hear it, my brethren, Because she says she is an apostolical Church. So then she herself claims the rights of private judgment, and glories throughout all her coasts that she one day rose and asserted them against the one, holy, catholic, and apostolic Church, diffused over all the earth, and consolidated on the basis of one thousand five hundred years; and yet she charges the Dissenters with disobedience and schism, and

drives them beyond the pale of the Catholic Church, because they dare to exercise the rights of private judgment against her own island Church, which is but of yesterday! Can there be inconsistency and perplexity comparable to this? Can anything more plainly bespeak a cause that is desperate, and advocates that are at a loss? For if it be the duty of the Dissenters to 'hear the Church' of England, which they do not believe to be apostolical, surely it was the duty of the Church of England to hear the Catholic Church for the same reason; or rather for a much better reason. For if it be the duty of Dissenters to 'hear the Church' of England, which they do not believe to be apostolical, surely it was the duty of the Church of England to hear the Catholic Church, which she believes to be apostolical, and from which she is ambitious of deriving apostolicity for herself, if she can. Thus is she straitened and compassed on every side; chastising the Dissenters with the rod of authority, and vindicating herself against the Catholic Church with the sword of private judgment, she lifts the standard of Church authority, and bids the Dissenters be reconciled to the Church of England. First strike the flag of private judgment_yourselves, and be reconciled to Rome,' is the reply. 'Rome has erred, and we have left her,' they say. 'You have erred, and we have renounced you,' is the answer.

[ocr errors]
[blocks in formation]

"London Ministers," but a pastor of

66

The

a humble congregation in a secluded country village.' The passage concerning which a controversy has thus risen up between "M" and us, was given at full length in the Inquirer, and as no part of the author's sentiments was suppressed, we must request our readers once more to peruse the paragraph in question, and to judge for themselves of its real import.* author, it seems, had another meaning than that which was attributed to his lucubrations, in the expression of which we must again repeat our firm belief, that perspicuity of language was not sought for-and for this reason, that the matter in hand was of a delicate nature, and would not bear an unreserved discussion. If therefore, there is any mistake in the interpretation of the hieroglyph, or if any harm has arisen from this mistake

"Of late years, nonconformists have sometimes betrayed a suspicion of the efficacy of their own principles in the accomplishment of God's gracious purposes towards mankind; while at other times they have held a language which has induced the inquiry, 'Why don't you conform ?' The object of this inquiry would reply, Because the episcopacy of England is established. But then all episcopacy is not established. There is a poor and an unestablished episcopacy in Scotland. There are, too, bishops in the Greek Church, whose orders would give admittance to the pulpits of England, which the orders of the American Episcopal Church, magnificent as they are in the estimation of their holders-nor yet we believe those of the Scottish Episcopacy-would not do. Mr. Matthew Henry, though he had no intention of ministering in the established Church, unless a change should take place in the terms of conformity, deliberated solemnly, when entering into the ministry, whether he should receive episcopal ordination, provided he could do it without subscription; a deliberation which was terminated by the conviction that ordination by Presbyters is, though not the only valid, yet the best, most scripturally regular, and therefore the most eligible ordination. And although we are no friends to episcopacy, we should have been glad to see some congregational ministers episcopally or dained, since they would thereby have acquired the consistency which is an essential element of goodness."

the worthy M, seems to lay the whole blame to his own choice and arrangement of words. If " M." had advice to give in a new and perplexing position of affairs, it behoved him to have selected the clearest terms, and have made the most lucid statements, lest peradventure the unwary should be deceived by insufficient hints and incomplete suggestions.

But this is now the author's explanation; after first quoting our deductions from his words, 1. "That some congregational ministers ought to be ordained by bishops." 2. "That ordination by bishops has in it an element of goodness." He says, "I could scarcely have thought that the dulness of the most obtuse, or the torsion of the most perverse, could have misinterpreted the passage which is the subject of our writer's censure. I had been combating the arguments of an independent deacon in favour of episcopacy, and recollecting a few ministers who were tinctured with the same views, I wrote the passage which has offended the correspondent of the Inquirer. His first deduction from my statement is legitimate; but the second is a gross perversion. I did not say, and had he used his eyes, he must have seen, that I did not say, that "ordination by bishops has in it an element of goodness," but that "consistency is an essential element of goodness.'

[ocr errors]

Our second deduction then is a 66 gross perversion," is it? Let us

[blocks in formation]

"M." states that if some 66 gregational ministers were episcopally ordained, they would thereby acquire the consistency which is an essential element of goodness," but he denies that ordination by bishops has an element of goodness in it.

How can he avoid such a deduction with such a position preceding? Can that which is an essential element of goodness, flow from or proceed from that which is not good in itself? or, if ordination

ordination of bishops must be either bad or good: let "M." take his choice: if bad, then that which is bad may create and convey that which is essentially good! But if the ordination be good, cadit questio.

"The dulness of the most obtuse," which seems to be our portion, still leaves us in uncertainty as to the real meaning of "M." even with the explanation he has offered. We will therefore state our interpretation hypothetically, and in the form of a question?

Did "M." mean to say, that there are certain Congregational Ministers under the influence of episcopal, or rather prelatical predilections, who, though they have their eye to the three orders, nevertheless continue to act as Dissenting Ministers; and that therefore to place themselves in a more intelligible position they ought to be episcopally ordained? If that was “ M’s” only meaning, why did he add the clause which has created all the confusion by these mysterious* words, "since they would thereby acquire the consistency which is an essential element of goodness." When a dissenting minister advises (the expression is, "we should have been glad to see") his brethren in the ministry, secretly infected with prelatical notions, to seek ordination from the bishops; and when, moreover, he tells them, that if they do so, they will acquire that consistency which is an essential element of goodness, in our humble opinion he stamps the seal of his own approbation on Episcopal orders; for how can a person perform an act which is to create a quality essentially good, unless the thing to be done is in itself essentially good? May we do evil that good may come?

These being our views, if our advice were to be asked in a similar case, our

*Thé Editor of the British Magazine, who has also noticed the passage in ques

by bishops is not in itself essentially tion, professes not to be able to understand

good, how can it possibly convey an essential element of goodness? The

"the consistency which is an essential element of goodness."

language would be quite different. We should say to these congregational ministers whose hearts were with the bishops" By all means quit the Dissenters; your present position is one of deception; the inference which your people draw from your actions as a nonconformist minister must unquestionably be, that you heartily approve of the principles of nonconformity; but this is not the case. You really disapprove of those principles-it is, therefore, your clear duty to withdraw; but if having withdrawn, you should fully conform to the prelacy-if you should be ordained a deacon and a priest by the bishops, and should receive the pretended power of retaining and remitting sins by the touch of their hands, do not imagine that we shall approve of your conduct. No; though you may thereby be consistent in your open change of character and sentiment, yet it will only be a consistency in that which is bad; you will have acquired the consistency which is an essential element of badness."

But it would seem that there is the whole difference between "M." and us of an ethical canon, for he says, "Consistency in this passage does mean adherence to principle, as approvers of Episcopacy; and in this adherence I would recommend the parties, though quite as sensible as my reprover of their inconsistency in other respects" (page 179). What then? If a person has only admitted or practised the fraction of an evil, are we to recommend him to admit or practise the totality of that evil, in order that he may adhere to his principle," and acquire "that consistency which is an essential element of goodness;" and are we then to recommend that old saw of popular daring boldness, "in for a penny, in for a pound?"

On the same ground of moral reasoning, we presume, that " M." would recommend all High Church clergymen to be reconciled forthwith to the Church of Rome, in order that they

VOL. II.

too might acquire that consistency "which is an essential element of goodness;" and that, in one word, it matters not what may be the principle which animates a man, if only he carries out the principle to its full length.

These, indeed, seem to be the inevitable deductions from our opponent's language, in which we hope he will not persist; for we indulge the pleasing hope, that having at first resorted to ambiguity of words, best suited in his opinion to state a difficult and delicate subject, he has been led on to defend a sentence which is indefensible. We have had no desire to misinterpret "M." "M." We had no idea that he wished otherwise, than to recommend Episcopal ordination as a beginning of some new scheme of accommodation, suited to the predilections which he confesses do exist in the minds of "some congregational ministers." We supposed, indeed, that he was putting out a feeler, which we knew it to be our duty to repel with a sharp rebuff, as it is evident that this is not a time when any proposal of priestcraft may be made with impunity.

In taking leave of our unknown friend,"M.," we request him to remember that he is, by his own description of himself, "the minister of a retired country village," and that choleric words ill become the sequestered pastor meditating in the calm retreat of rural tranquillity. We will not appeal to all those happy images of rustic repose, to which poets have recourse, for calming the tumults of the human breast, in order to lull the feelings which the Inquirer" has excited in his bosom; but to higher principles we appeal, to convince our opponent that when he talks of " gross perversion, moral recklessness," and of our wanting "truth and honesty," &c. &c., when he ventures to predict that we, ourselves, ere long "shall desire episcopal ordination, and in that case may easily find a poor Greek bishop, whe

T

« AnteriorContinuar »