Obrázky na stránke
PDF
ePub

heel.

He alone dared meet a tyrant's mandate by pointing to a charter, and oppose the fury of innovation by the everlasting principles of truth and justice; and well has it been observed of him by a writer never partial, nor always fair,* had he been given to his country but a few years later, we should have seen him at the head of the barons, wresting at Runnymeade the great manumission deed of Englishmen from Henry's arbitrary son. Let not prejudice suggest that he only sought the substitution of ecclesiastical for political domination. The Church was, in his time, the only citadel of human rights known to our insular progenitors. That land which now gives law to half a world, had been trampled successively by Roman, Saxon, Dane and Norman; and the heterogeneous race, so foolishly miscalled, by eminence, the Anglo-Saxon, on whom each conqueror had branded his mark in turn, sat in bondage dark, unmitigated, Egyptian. The first faint beams of day were glimmering on the mountain tops, but night and vapor still submerged the plain. The great tenants of the crown, "the thousand small despots perched on their robber crags," had wrung some vague concessions from the fears or necessities of royalty; but the idea of popular liberty had no existence but as some half remembered, brilliant dream of childhood, in the recollections of the learned, or the traveller from distant lands. Prerogative swayed unresisted, and man's only asylum was within the walls of the convent, or under the sacred shadow of the Church. That Church, I quote the language of a native Protestant writer,+ "labored with untiring zeal and perseverance, from the first century to the fifteenth, and successfully laid the foundations of all that society now is. During the greater part of that period, by means of its superior intelligence and virtue, it ruled the state, modified its action and compelled its administrators to consult the rights of man, by protecting the poor, the feeble, and the defenceless. It is not easy to estimate the astonishing progress it effected for civilization, during

[blocks in formation]

that long period, called, by narrow minded and bigoted Protestant historians, “the dark ages." Never before had such labors been performed for humanity. Never before had there been such an immense body as the Christian clergy, animated by a common spirit, and directed, by a common will and intelligence, to the cultivation and growth of the moral virtues, and the arts of peace. Then was tamed the wild barbarian, and the savage heart made to yield to the humanising influences of tenderness, gentleness, meekness, humility, and love; then imperial crown and royal sceptre paled before the crosier, and the representative of him who had lived, and toiled, and preached, and suffered, and died in obscurity, in poverty and disgrace, was exalted and made himself felt in the palace and in the cottage, in the court and the camp; striking terror into the rich and noble, and pouring the oil and wine of consolation into the bruised heart of the poor and friendless.

[ocr errors]

'Wrong, wrong have they been who have complained that kings and emperors were subject to the spiritual head of Christendom. It was well for man that there was a power above the brutal tyrants, called emperors, kings, and barons, who rode rough shod over the humble peasant and artisan; well that there was a power, even on earth, that could touch their cold and atheistical hearts, and make them tremble as the veriest slave. The heart of humanity leaps with joy, when a murderous Henry is scourged at the tomb of a Thomas à Becket; or when another Henry waits barefoot, shivering with cold and hunger for days, at the door of the Vatican; or when a Pope grinds his foot into the neck of a Frederic Barbarossa.

"Aristocratic Protestantism which has never dared enforce its discipline on royalty or nobility, may weep over the exercise of such power; but it is to the existence and exercise of such power that the PEOPLE -owe their existence, and the doctrine of man's equality to man, its progress."

And an English Protestant,* commenting on the Pope's recent allocution against the outrages of the Russian autocrat upon

* London Morning Herald.

28

his Catholic subjects, exclaims with equal candor:

"We hail with gratification and with hope this appeal of the Roman Catholic Church against the injustice of Russia. It reminds us of the records of ancient days,

. . . in which we find, in ages termed by us dark, the appeal for justice ever made to the Church, the voice of the Church ever responding to that appeal, restraining the powerful, protecting the weak, and asserting in times of violence and danger, the supremacy of justice and right.”

Such is the testimony of that liberality

which dares to break the trammels of nursery prejudice, and seek historic truth beyond the magic circle of the primer! Such was the Church for whose vested rights the sainted Becket poured himself out like water! But to those who know her for the guardian of that better liberty wherein Christ hath made us free, he rises far above her Wallaces and Tells; and we gratefully respond to his commemoration in the liturgy of this day.

"Behold a great Prelate who in his days pleased God! There was none found like him in keeping the law of the Most High.”

A. M. D. G.

Selected.

VIRTUE AND VICE.

I SAW the virtuous man contend
With life's unnumbered woes,
And he was poor, without a friend,
Pressed by a thousand foes.

I saw the passion's pliant slave,
In gallant trim and gay;

His course was pleasure's placid wave,
His life a summer day.

And I was caught in folly's snare,

And joined her giddy train,

But found her soon the nurse of care,

And punishment and pain.

There surely is some guiding power,
That rightly suffers wrong;

Gives vice to bloom her little hour,
But virtue late and long.

ETERNITY.

Eternity! Eternity!

How long art thou, Eternity!

A moment's pleasure sinners know,
Through which they pass to endless wo:
A moment's wo the righteous taste,
Through which to endless joy they haste :
Mark well, O Man, Eternity!-Wülffer.

THE EPISCOPALIAN CHURCH A MODERN SECT.

Hear the Church; a sermon preached in the chapel royal, St. James' palace, June 17, 1838. By Walter Farquhar Hook, D. D. chaplain in ordinary to her Majesty. Second American from the fifteenth London edition. Burlington, N. J.*

AVING shown what is meant by the

H Church, the queen's lecturer proceeds

to exemplify it by what he calls an indisputable fact. Behold, then, gentle reader, the fact, and the doctor's reasoning upon it. "In this country there is at this time a religious society known by the name of the Church. The question is, when and by whom was this society instituted? Now the Roman Catholics, or Papists, assert that it was instituted and founded, like the generality of Protestant sects, by certain Reformers in the sixteenth century; and thence they would deduce a strong argument against us. They would ask us whether any man could take to himself the office of the ministry unless he be sent by God; and if we are spiritual Christians, if we take the Bible for our guide, if we act on that sound Protestant principle, with the fifth chapter to the Hebrews open before us, we must answer, no. They then proceed to ask, how can you prove that your ministers are called of God to the office? And if their assertion were true, that our Church was founded at the reformation, we could

*At a time when such bold pretensions are put forth to names and things, which belong exclusively to the Church founded by the apostles, the review of Dr. Hook's sermon will be read with interest. It is from the pen of the Rev. J. A. Mason, a convert in England from Methodism to Catholicity, and we extract from it such portions as will establish incontestibly the proposition contained in the title of this article. The author clothes his ideas occasionally with rather too much of the ludicrous, which is probably attributable to the vividness of conviction with which he beheld and deplored the errors of Protestantism; but we recommend his observations solely for the able argument by which his point is sustained, and we trust that the overfacetiousness of the writer, if such it may sometimes appear, will be pardoned even by our dissenting friends.—[ED.

give them no answer at all."* It is not my province to defend the dissenting ministers in this review, against whom this quotation from the fifth chapter of the Hebrews is levelled. But the doctor ought to know, that the right of private judgment was established at the reformation as an indispensable and irrefragable principle. Without this, neither Luther, Calvin, Henry VIII, Cranmer, or any other reformer, could have accomplished their respective reformations. Up to that time the authority of the Church expressed and exercised, through the Roman pontiff, or a general council presided over by him or his representatives, was the rule of faith and essential discipline, according to the commission given to the pastors of the Church," to feed and rule the Church of God," (Acts xx, 28): to teach and discipline all nations; "Going, therefore, teach all nations, baptizing, teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you; and, behold, I am with you always, even to the consummation of the world!" (St. Matt. xxviii, 19, 20): "As my Father hath sent me, so I send you," &c. (St. John xx, 21): "He that heareth you heareth me; and he that despiseth you despiseth me; and he that despiseth me despiseth him that sent me." (St. Luke x, 16.) It is evidently upon this ground that all are obliged to "hear the Church," and that her decrees in matters of faith and essential discipline, have ever been paramount to private judgment, and imperative on the consciences of men. And, although the bishops of every national Church are appointed of God to feed and rule their respective Churches, it is in subordination to the general voice and authority of the whole body of the pastors of the Church Catholic. It is as much their duty to "hear the Church" as it is of the meanest of their flocks. It is true that as all points of mere

*Hear the Church, p. 5, &c.

discipline would not be suitable to all nations, the bishops of a particular nation have a right to judge what parts of discipline that are not essential to the well being of the whole Church Catholic may be received or rejected; and hence the French Church does not receive every point of discipline ordained by Rome, nor are all points decreed by the council of Trent every where received. But such points as are essential to the integrity of the whole Church and her worship are every where of obligation. But the reformers of the English Church, like all the rest of the reformers, claimed the right of private judgment, and altered the faith and essential discipline of their Church according to their private judgment; so that the English Church was not like any other national Church in the world, and consequently not like the united Church Catholic. Nay they broke off from the centre of unity by which the Church Catholic was bound together in one, and thus ceased to be a member of the Catholic Church, and became at once heretical and schismatical. From that moment it was no longer a duty to "hear the English Church," but on the contrary a duty not to hear her. If, however, she had the right of private judgment to alter the faith and discipline of the body national, then Brown, and Penn, and Wesley, &c., have the same right to endeavor a counter reformation. And, were I a dissenting minister, I should soon dispose of the fifth chapter to the Hebrews. (Vide Dr. Clarke's comment on that chapter.) But Dr. Hook wishes to take root in the old Catholic Church of this kingdom. I have just shown that he cannot ;*

* Dr. Hook must himself know that the king was proclaimed at the reformation the fountain and source of all authority, ecclesiastical and civil; that in virtue of this authority the Church was established and modelled to his will; that no doctrine, canon or constitution of this Church could be of any force otherwise than as the king willed and decreed; that he could make and unmake bishops at his pleasure. Henry forbade the clergy to intermeddle with matters of religion without his authority for it, and they only durst complain that it was an encroachment on their privilege; just as if meddling in matters of religion was only a privilege and not a duty inherent in their apostolical and divine commission, if they had any. Under Edward the convocation of the clergy only petitioned of the parliament that no statute might pass concerning religion without their advice, but it could not be ob

and I will now show it more fully, as it has been shown in a little work on the Church, as a monument, now in the press. The Christian religion is acknowledged by all professing Christians to be a divine revelation, a final and complete revelation. This religion may be comprised under the terms doctrine and worship. Now whatever is essential to the truth of doctrine and worship, was delivered by Christ to the Church with the design that it should be universally promulgated and established, and that it should endure through all generations to the end of time. Hence such is the form of the commission Christ, the wisdom of God, gave to his apostles, and such the promises he made to them. Knowing that as men they and their successors would be liable to error-knowing that the gates of hell would strive to prevail against them, he promises, who cannot lie or be deceived, that he will give the Holy Ghost to them to guide them into all truth, and that he shall remain with them for ever. Thus the unity, integrity, and perpetuity of truth is guaranteed to the Church by God himself; and guaranteed, not conditionally, like salvation to individuals, which depends upon their own fidelity to divine grace, but unconditionally, that all men in all ages may have the means of salvation in the Church established for this purpose. This unity and integrity of truth is essential to itself, essential to the design of its revelation, essential to afford the means of acquiring divine knowledge and saving grace for all nations

tained. Soon after the king and privy council sent visiters into all parts of the kingdom with ecclesiastical constitutions and articles of faith. They required an express declaration from the bishops that they would teach only such doctrines as were established and explained by the king and clergy. But why require this of the bishops if they were the dictators of these doctrines? It is evident the word clergy is only inserted for form's sake, and regarded the faithless Cranmer (and perhaps Ridley), who was in all things the king's willing tool. After this came forth a mandate forbidding all teaching or preaching without the bishops' license; then the power of licensing was taken from the bishops and reserved to the king and Cranmer only; and, finally, all preaching was suspended throughout the kingdom till a form of faith silencing all controversy should come from the royal mint, and all persons were exhorted to receive with submission the orders that should be sent down to them. These are the high and holy grounds on which the claims of the Church of England rest.—Review, p. 19.

in all generations. And there is a mutual and correlative dependence between the unity and integrity of the faith and the unity and integrity of the Church, and vice versa. Once break the bond of faith, and the bond of the Church is broken directly; on the other hand, once break the bond of the Church, and a breach in the unity and integrity of the faith will soon follow. Now the unity of the Church is dependent upon unity of authority in the universal whole, and this unity of authority cannot be maintained without a centre of unity. Hence we come to the Pope at once, and must come to him; for if the scriptures had said nothing about St. Peter, or any other visible head, men might indeed have been at a loss as to the legitimate person (unless tradition had been strong enough to convince all men upon the subject, which can scarcely be supposed); but common sense would have appointed one, not a temporal king, but a pontiff, and would have enforced his authority. Protestants, therefore, have sinned as much against common sense in this particular as against a divine institution.* This being the nature of revealed truth, and the nature of a divinely appointed Church, there can be no independence of national Churches so far. Supposing St. Paul, or any other apostle, did preach the gospel in Britain, he could not establish an independent faith and Church; and the ancient British Church before or after the Saxon conquest could not be independent, as is evident from the very nature of the Christian compact. All that were converted were added to the Church, and it became a mountain filling the whole earth; and if any embraced the profession of Christianity without being added to the Church, no salvation was promised them,-"The Lord added to the Church such as should be saved." Thus there is one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one church, the body and spouse of Christ, the pillar and temple of truth. But supposing the English Church had its root in the ancient Catholic Church of this kingdom, it was not by being connected with the ancient British, but the ancient Saxon *This many distinguished Protestants have admitted, as Leibnitz, Melancthon, &c.-ED.

Church. The archbishop of Canterbury owns not St. David, but St. Augustine, as the founder of his see and of the English Catholic Church. We will now examine whether the present English Church has its root in the ancient Church of this kingdom. No one can deny that, per accidens, it has, inasmuch as if there had not been a Church there could have been no departure from the Church, or no pretended reformation of it; but, per vinculum, she has no more union with the ancient Church than the latter had with the ancient Druids, or the votaries of Woden. She has seized on ancient emoluments, and converted Catholic temples into Protestant churches; but this does not unite her to the Church she despoiled. Dr. Hook talks of bishops, priests, and deacons, and what they will do if driven into the caves of the desert; and no doubt he would be proud to acknowledge with Mr. Wesley, "that their bishops derive their orders from those bishops who received their episcopacy from the Roman Pontiff." But supposing they did, they have rejected the faith, for the protection and propagation of which that episcopacy was given, and which faith was held entire till the reign of Edward VI, and for the defence of which against the reformer Luther, Henry VIII received from the Pope the title Defensor Fidei. Now if this defence had not been true Popery, the Pope would not thus have rewarded him. But having afterwards cast off this faith, the English Church and clergy are condemned and excommunicated, not only by the Catholic Church but by the whole world. Neither Greeks, nor Latins, nor Copts, Syrians, Armenians or Nestorians will hold communion with them, or any other of the Protestant Churches.

Dr. Hook treats the word Protestant very shabbily; nay, he treats the whole offspring of the reformers, and the reformers too of all other reformed Churches, as if they were heretics and schismatics, calling them "Protestant sects," and evidently condemning them as to doctrine and discipline. He labors hard to wash out the blot of Protestantism from his Church; but finding it like an attempt to wash a negro white, very

« PredošláPokračovať »