THE POPULAR DELUSION.
A rumour having reached us that the venerable Mr. Ingleby had met with an accident on his return from a visitation, we made a call at the rectory, and had the gratification to find that it was a false report. Mr. and Miss Roscoe and Mr. Lewellin came while we were there; he detained us to tea, and then gave us an account of his journey, which, though unattended by any remarkable incidents, was both interesting and instructive.
Rev. Mr. Ingleby.—"I was much pleased with our bishop; he is a commanding figure in the pulpit, with a clear sonorous voice, and very graceful action. I never heard a more natural speaker. But he has other, and still greater excellencies; he is a truly godly man—a spiritually-minded man; and he equals, if he does not surpass, both in purity of doctrine and impressiveness of manner, the most distinguished of our prelates."
Mr. Roscoe.—"It is to be regretted that our bishops don't preach as Paul and the other apostles preached—in season and out of season—anywhere and at any time; proving, by the multiplicity of their labours, that they are in earnest in their efforts to save souls from perishing."
Mr. Lewellin.—"There is some difference between our modern Episcopal bishops and the bishops of the New Testament, though they profess to be their lineal descendants."
Mr. Roscoe.—"Yes, the bishops of the New Testament were fishermen or tent-makers; men of a meek and lowly spirit, who coveted no man's gold or silver; they thirsted for no secular honour; in their own estimation they were less than the least of all saints; and the highest point of their ambition was to preach amongst Jews and Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ, regardless of the privations and sufferings to which this exposed them. But a mitre now adorns the brow of our Episcopal bishops; there is a graceful magnificence in their appearance, and they are in general men of a lofty bearing; their superb palaces are decorated with the skilful devices of sculptors and painters; they roll in carriages, and fare sumptuously every day; they may be seen occupying their seats in the legislative council of the nation, and on days of public audience Cæsar admits them into his august presence, and his princes and nobles do not hesitate to bow down and do them homage. What a striking contrast between the primitive and our modern bishops!"
Mr. Stevens.—"And you may add, Sir, between the primitive church of the apostles, and our modern Episcopal Church. The latter is distinguished by its wealth and splendour, the former by its extreme simplicity and purity. The Apostolic Church was founded for the edification and safety of its members, who were an incorporation of independent freemen, to whom the right of private judgment was conceded; the Episcopal Church is an ecclesiastical institution, established for the support of an hierarchical priesthood, who, like despots, admit of no interference from the people over whom their jurisdiction extends."
Rev. Mr. Ingleby.—"I must confess that I should like to see our church brought into a nearer resemblance to the Apostolic Church of the New Testament; but still I think we may look upon it, with all its faults, as a national blessing; and if we could get the Tractarians expelled, it would stand as a mighty breakwater against the drifting currents of Popery and infidelity."
Mr. Roscoe.—"But most of our bishops have a strong bias towards Tractarianism, because it is so favourable to their spiritual despotism; it increases and consolidates their power, and under its sway the lay members of the church are reduced to a state of abject submissiveness to the priesthood, similar to the condition of the members of the Church of Rome. The inferior order of priests rule the people, and the bishops govern the priests; the laity have no voice in the appointment of any of them; and if, as is sometimes the case, they object to their teachings as having a tendency to establish Roman Catholicism on the ruins of the Protestant faith, they can obtain no redress against such a fatal result."
Rev. Mr. Ingleby.—"But, happily, there are exceptions to this general rule, and our bishop is a very decided one. He is a good and faithful minister of Jesus Christ, imbued with a Pauline spirit; and the sermon which he delivered to his clergy was both appropriate and impressive. I was quite delighted with it, and so were some of my brethren, especially our pious and intelligent lay brethren. The text was taken from Rom. xiv. 17: 'For the kingdom of God is not meat and drink; but righteousness, and peace, and joy in the Holy Ghost.' The bearing of the discourse was to prove that the essence of religion consists in supreme love to God our Saviour, and uniform and cheerful obedience to his revealed will; and not in a mere conformity to ecclesiastical regulations, and the observance of ceremonial rites. And when addressing the clergy at the conclusion, he said, 'My beloved brethren, to whom is intrusted the ministry of reconciliation, you will not neglect to observe the rules which the church has laid down for the government of her clergy, nor omit to administer the sacraments of baptism and the Lord's supper, but ever keep in mind the sacred and imperative command of your Divine Lord and Master—"GO AND PREACH THE GOSPEL"—for it is the gospel which is the power of God to the salvation of the people. Preach it fully, clearly, and faithfully—in season and out of season—and with all the energy of your soul. Before you enter your pulpits to preach, retire to your closets to get your heart imbued with the unction of the Spirit; and when you return from your labours, withdraw to your closets to invoke the Divine Spirit to impress your message of grace and mercy on the hearts of the people. Ever remember you are in some degree responsible for their salvation.'"
Mr. Roscoe.—"Why, Sir, this was like an apostolic sermon. Did the clergy listen to it; and did they appear to like it?"
Rev. Mr. Ingleby.—"Yes, Sir, they listened, and some of them were delighted with it; but I fear the majority thought it savoured too strongly of the spirit of the evangelical school; they appeared rather restless."
Mr. Roscoe.—"I recently spent a few days with an old friend, when I was introduced to several Puseyite clergymen, with whom he keeps up a close intimacy. They are, in general, accomplished and intelligent, but bitter in spirit against Dissenters, and, if possible, I think more bitter against their evangelical brethren. They say the Dissenters are honest foes to the church, because they avow their hostility; but the evangelical clergy, they say, are sly, artful, and dishonest, who conform to betray—take the loaves and the fishes of the church, while they are labouring to destroy it."
Mr. Lewellin.—"Of what practical use, Sir, is your act of uniformity? The Dissenters have no such an act in their ecclesiastical statute-book, and yet, with the exception of a few Socinians, we agree on all the essential truths of the Christian faith, and our ministers preach in each other's pulpits without making any compromise, or giving any offence; but it is not so amongst the clergy of your church, even though they are under a legal obligation to believe alike. Why, Sir, it is Jew and Samaritan dwelling together in the land of promise, still refusing to have any dealings with each other, though they avow allegiance to the same prince."
Mr. Roscoe.—"Yes, Sir, our clergy are two distinct orders of men, subscribing to the same creed; yet the faith for which some contend, as the original faith once delivered to the saints, is disdainfully rejected by others as false doctrine."
Mr. Lewellin.—"The evil which you, Sir, and other stanch Churchmen see and deplore, without being able to correct it, takes its rise in this plain palpable fact—the reformation from Popery in England was not a thorough reformation; it was no plucking up by the root, as in Scotland; it was mere topping and lopping work. It was more like a transfer of the Papacy, a little changed and a little modified, from the Pope to the English monarch, to answer his ambitious purpose, than a transformation of the Papal superstition into the Protestant faith of the New Testament. Why, Sir, there is very little difference between a Tractarian clergyman and a Roman Catholic priest; they both claim the same high prerogatives, and arrogate to themselves the same submissiveness on the part of the people, restrict salvation within the pale of their own church, and assume a delegated power to discharge all the functions of their office, without any acknowledgment of their dependence on a supernatural agency. They are dogmatic, imperious, and intolerant—spiritual Ishmaelites, whose hands are against every man belonging to another order; they are, in temper and in spirit, a perfect contrast to the apostles of the New Testament, from whom they profess to derive their descent."
Mr. Roscoe.—"Your description is strong, but, alas! it is too true. I recollect one day, when there was a large number of Tractarian clergy at my friend's, being rather provoked by the Papal-like style of speech which prevailed amongst them, and availing myself of a favourable opportunity, I said, 'Gentlemen, I can hardly bring my mind to believe that you are the genuine successors of the apostles, as you assume to yourselves a self-sufficient power for the performance of your duties. The apostles spoke as men who were appointed to act ministerially, always acknowledging that their success depended on the concurrence of a Divine power; and when they were successful in their great work, they offered up their thanksgiving to God, to whom they ascribed the honour of their success, viewing themselves as mere inefficient instruments.'"
Rev. Mr. Ingleby.—"Did your remarks, Sir, elicit any reply?"
Mr. Roscoe.—"O no, Sir; I saw by their looks and their significant movements that they regarded them as beneath their notice, because they were the remarks of a layman. Infallibles will not stoop to discussion; they merely dictate like an oracle, or command like a despot."
Rev. Mr. Ingleby.—"Yes, Sir; our clergy who advocate high church principles talk like Papal priests, and breathe the same spirit; and, unless they can be checked, they will assimilate the Church of England to the Church of Rome. Regeneration and absolution, which the sacred writers ascribe to the grace of God, they pretend to effect by their own delegated authority and power; and, as a necessary consequence, they require the people to look to them as holding the keys of the kingdom of heaven. And some few of the order are gone so far on their way to Rome, that they require their penitents to enter the confessional and make a full confession of all their sins, before they perform the delusive act of absolution."
Mr. Stevens.—"One should suppose that the Papal-like extravagance of the Tractarian clergy would be so repugnant to the evangelical clergy as to keep them at an infinite distance from all adhesion to high church principles, and yet it has not this effect. They seem, with rare exceptions, as much attached to these principles as the priests are, whom they denounce as Papists in disguise. Hence they will allow no church to be a true church of Christ but the Episcopal Church of England, and no minister to be a true minister of Christ unless he has been episcopally ordained."
Rev. Mr. Ingleby.—"Yes, I regret to say these opinions are becoming very popular, and the clergy of both orders are endeavouring to impress them on the laity, and, I fear, with some degree of success. Indeed, high church principles, which used to be confined to the studies of the clergy, or merely lurked about amongst a few grave thinkers of the monkish order, are now becoming popular; they are finding their way into the light reading of the day, in hymns, in tales, and in memoirs; the female sex is captivated by them, and they are employing their powerful influence in propagating them amongst the poor, in Sabbath-schools, in workhouses, and wherever they can track the foot-treads of a human being. The advocates of these principles are displaying an ardent and an untiring zeal, a zeal worthy of a better cause. They employ the same argument amongst all classes, and with an equal amount of success; the intelligent and the sentimental, the uneducated and the uncouth, are alike ensnared by it. Ours, they say, is the true church, which Jesus Christ has purchased by his blood; enter and keep in, and you will have nothing to fear at death or the day of judgment."
Mr. Roscoe.—"And this belief is rising in popularity, and is becoming a national delusion. It is an instrument of great power in the hands of our Tractarians, as well as in the hands of the priests of Rome, and it is to the members of both churches a refuge of lies. The infatuated Tractarians reason precisely on the same data as the Papists, and arrive at the same deceptive conclusion—We are members of the true church because we are members of the Church of England, and therefore we are safe—as safe, they think, as the family of Noah in the ark when the door was shut; and no argument, however scriptural or powerful, can shake their confidence in the belief of their safety."
Mr. Stevens.—"Yes; and so inveterate is this belief amongst a vast majority of the members of the Church of England, that they will resent, as a personal insult, any reference to the possibility of their labouring under a delusion. An intimate friend related to me the following anecdote, which is illustrative of the facility of self-deception when under the power of high church principles.—He had been, in the early period of his life, a gay man of fashion, but he was now become a new man in Christ Jesus; and he had been a Churchman, but he was now a Dissenter. An old friend, with whom he had lived on terms of very close intimacy when they were both gay men of the world, came to reside in his neighbourhood, and he went to see him. On his second visit he took an opportunity of referring to the progress they were both making towards old age, and to the importance of being prepared for an entrance into the eternal world. His old friend abruptly terminated the subject of reference, by saying, 'I am not disposed, Sir, to do as you have done—change my religion. I am a member of the Church of England, as my father was before me; and I mean to live and die in her communion. I offer no opinion about what will become of schismatics; but we know that the members of the true church will be saved; and such is the Church of England.' Yet this man very seldom went to church. He was gay in his old age—passionately fond of gay company and high living."
Mr. Lewellin.—"This is the common cant apology which Churchmen offer in defence of their utter neglect of the great salvation. I had formed, some short time ago, a slight commercial intimacy with a gentleman; and on one occasion I ventured to call his attention to the solemn interrogation of Jesus Christ—'For what shall it profit a man, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul? Or what shall a man give in exchange for his soul?' (Mark viii. 36, 37). He replied, with an off-hand pleasantry, 'I am not disposed, Sir, to change my religion.' He knew I was a Dissenter. 'Why, Sir,' I remarked, 'I did not know that you had any religion to change, for I heard you say, not long since, that you had not been inside a church for several years.' 'True, Sir, but I am a member of the Church of England, as my forefathers were as far back as we can trace; and I shall live and die in her communion. You know, Sir (so the apostle says), our Saviour has purchased the church, and He will not let go any part of it; and therefore I am safe. Our rector, who is a very learned man, preached a sermon on that subject the very last time I heard him; and he satisfied me that I have nothing else to do, to propitiate the Deity, than to keep within the pale of the church.'"
Mr. Stevens.—"Last winter I went to visit a very old woman, whose grandson is my groom; she has attended (so she told me), all her life long, the parish church in which the Rev. Mr. Cole does duty. When I asked her if she thought she was prepared for death, she replied instanter, 'Yes, I be, Sir. I keeps to my church. There I was married, there I was confirmed, there I was christened, and there I had the holy sacrament many times. There my husband is buried, and my father and mother, and all the rest of them that lived before them; and there I shall be buried when I dies. I ant changed my religion, Sir. It has been in our family for upwards of a hundred years. We have all kept to our church. The Lord rest our souls.'"
Mr. Lewellin.—"I suppose, Sir, you could not lead her into another way of thinking?"
Mr. Stevens.—"O no. Her unvarying note was, 'I keeps to my church—my blessed church.' I offered to read a chapter of the Bible, and pray with her; but she said she had taken the sacrament and made her peace with God, and did not want to be troubled with any fresh thing."
Miss Roscoe.—"These are most melancholy tales. Why, it appears that one great comprehensive scheme of delusion is extending its fatal influence both over the clergy and the laity of our church. One should suppose they look upon it as the very ark of God, transferred from the Levitical to the Christian dispensation. They make the church their saviour. I have recently had a most painful confirmation of this. I opened an epistolary correspondence, a few months since, with a young lady[23] with whom I formed an intimacy when I was moving amidst the gay scenes of fashionable life. She is both intelligent and accomplished, and of a most amiable disposition. Having adverted to the attention I was giving to the paramount claims of religion, I very delicately urged her to consider them, as life is so uncertain; alluding, at the same time, to give force to my remarks, to the death of Miss Denham, with whom I knew she sometimes exchanged letters. The following is her reply:—'I am delighted to hear that you are becoming religious. Our Maker has enjoined it upon us. I resolved, when I had finished my education, and before I made my debut in fashionable life, to become decided, and settle everything connected with religion, as I knew that when I had done so I should be more at liberty to give attention to other claims, and to derive gratification from other pursuits. Indeed, I may say I acted on the old maxim, "Finish one thing before you commence another." Therefore, having perfected myself in the Creed, the Lord's Prayer, the Commandments, and the Catechism, I passed through our curate's examination without any difficulty; and, in the following week, I was confirmed by the Bishop of London, along with several of my school-fellows. The next Sunday I took the sacrament; and I have taken it three times since. So you see, my dear friend, I am now a member of our pure apostolic church; and I am resolved to live and die in her communion. I do not think the Almighty can require anything more than this; and I think, if we keep steady and faithful to our church, we are sure to go to heaven when we die. I advise all my young friends to follow my example; but, I am sorry to say, some are too frivolous and gay to do so. It is too grave a subject for them.'"
Mr. Lewellin.—"It is appalling to listen to such tales as these; and yet we are all familiar with them. What myriads of Churchmen live, and die, and perish under this fatal delusion! What agony of surprise, what intense anguish of soul, must they feel on entering the world of spirits—on discovering the deception which has been practised on them, and which they so fondly cherished. The Papal and the Tractarian priests are the most successful agents which the devil employs to ruin souls. What terrible mental encounters will take place between them and their deluded victims when they meet each other in hell—and meet they will!"
Miss Roscoe.—"And how much is it to be deplored that the living victims of this popular delusion are so deeply intrenched in their superstitious belief, that the ordinary methods of conviction and recovery cannot get at them? O these priests, who are preparing their devotees for destruction! Pray, Sir," turning to the Rev. Mr. Ingleby, "what judgment do these Tractarians entertain of the Church of Scotland, which made such a noble stand for the faith against the encroachments of the Papal power?"
Rev. Mr. Ingleby.—"O, they unchurch it."
Miss Roscoe.—"And, of course, they are as unceremonious in their treatment of the Dissenters?"
Rev. Mr. Ingleby.—"Yes, they treat all alike, except the Papal Church, and that they admit to be a true church of Jesus Christ."
Miss Roscoe.—"This does not surprise me. They revere and love their parentage; this is a filial virtue. For this they are to be commended. But do they consign all to a state of future misery who do not belong to the Episcopal Church?"
Rev. Mr. Ingleby.—"Why, my dear, there is a diversity of opinion amongst them on this question. Some will take their belief to the full stretch of the tether of consistency, and, without hesitation, doom all to destruction who are not within the pale of their communion. Others are a little more charitable; they admit the bare possibility of their salvation, by assigning them over to the uncovenanted mercies of God."
Miss Roscoe.—"And pray, Sir, what do they mean by the uncovenanted mercies of God?"
Rev. Mr. Ingleby.—"They mean that God can save them, as he can save an infernal spirit; but he gives them no promise of mercy on which they can place any hope of salvation."
Miss Roscoe.—"What opinion, Sir, do the evangelical clergy who hold high church principles entertain on this question?"
Rev. Mr. Ingleby.—"Why, all of them would rather see the people within the pale of the church than on the outside, deeming it of the two, the safest spiritual locality; yet I never knew an evangelical clergyman express a doubt about the salvation of any one who believes and trusts in Jesus Christ."
Mr. Roscoe.—"Are high church principles held by any very considerable number of the evangelical clergy?"
Rev. Mr. Ingleby.—"I regret to say that, in the best and the most liberal, there is a strong leaning towards them; but the majority, I believe, are not only their decided but their zealous advocates. They know that the gospel they preach is preached with equal purity, and sometimes with greater power, in the pulpits of Dissenting churches and chapels; and hence, from motives of policy, I apprehend, they endeavour to enlist the sympathies of the lay members of the Establishment in favour of these principles, to prevent the possibility of their withdrawing from it. To what extent they succeed in imparting their spirit of exclusiveness and bigoted attachment to Episcopacy, amongst the enlightened and the pious laity, I have no means of judging; but I believe, from some few indications I have seen, that in liberality of opinion, and generous expressions of Christian feeling, these lay members of the Establishment are at least half a century in advance of their clergy. They were, a few years since, equally exclusive and bigoted, but, from the concurrence of various causes, they have improved most rapidly in the cultivation of charity and brotherly kindness—the prominent graces of the Christian faith. They are acting now as pioneers in the work of church reform, though that, I fear, is a forlorn hope."
Mr. Stevens.—"Then, Sir, we cannot calculate on any great accessions from the clergy of the Church of England to the cause of Christian union and fraternal fellowship, during the prevalence of these high church principles."
Rev. Mr. Ingleby.—"A few, who are ripening more rapidly than the average of their brethren for a removal to a purer world, gladly hail and accelerate the progress and the triumph of fraternal union of all denominations amongst the people of God; but they subject themselves to much obloquy and reproach, by overstepping the broad line of ecclesiastical demarcation which is drawn by these high church principles, to prevent any intermixing of the different denominations, even in ordinary social intimacy. They are marked men; deemed by their brethren ecclesiastical renegades, who sacrifice clerical consistency to gratify their vanity."
Mr. Roscoe.—"These high church principles, in their development and practical working, militate very strongly against the Church of England, and do more than any other cause to shake the confidence of the laity in her Divine origin; they make her more like the gaudy, intolerant, and exclusive Church of Rome, than the simple, meek, and loving church of the New Testament. She has now officiating at her altars a numerous tribe of Tractarian priests, who are subdivided into two orders—one prepared to fraternize with Papal priests, the other directly opposed to them—but both orders unite in denouncing their evangelical brethren, and with as much severity as they denounce Dissenters. The various tribes of infidelity watch the virulence and the progress of this internal contest with intense gratification, and its tendency is to increase their contempt for the Bible and Christianity. We know that the church has in her service a comparatively small number of clergymen who preach the pure gospel of Jesus Christ; but, unhappily, with few exceptions, even these are as much opposed to Dissenters as the Tractarian clergy, and consequently it would be utopian to expect any rapid progress in the cause of Christian unity and fraternal fellowship while these high church principles continue in the ascendant. What reaction may take place on the evangelical party from the tremendous efforts of the Tractarians to assimilate the Church of England to the Church of Rome, must be left to pure conjecture, but we may hope that, in process of time, they will be brought to see and to feel that the more nearly they are conformed in spirit, in temper, and in disposition to the Lord of all, the more brilliant will be their moral lustre, and the more powerful their ministry."
Rev. Mr. Ingleby.—"I should like to see the dove with the olive branch make its appearance, betokening the abatement of the elements of strife and contention; but I fear the day of its alighting on our altars is far distant. However, let it be our aim and our daily prayer to aid the progress of Christian union and fraternal fellowship, and then we shall have this testimony, that we please God our Saviour, and serve our generation according to his revealed will."