Ephesians, iv. 2, 3.
WITH ALL LOWLINESS AND MEEKNESS, WITH LONG-SUFFERING, FORBEARING ONE ANOTHER IN LOVE; ENDEAVOURING TO KEEP THE UNITY OF THE SPIRIT IN THE BOND OF PEACE.
Although in performance of the duties of our sacred calling, we, the ministers of the Gospel, are habituated to the practice of delivering our discourses in public; and although those of us especially, who have been for some time in the ministry, may be justly supposed to have conquered that inherent diffidence, which more or less embarrasses a tyro in elocution; yet nevertheless, upon an occasion like the present, when one of a public body, whatever be his standing, is called upon to address, for the first time, an assembly of those of his own order—those of whose piety, learning, research, and ability, he must be fully sensible; he will necessarily enter upon the task with feelings of more than ordinary anxiety, distrustful of his power for an undertaking of so much, and so critical importance.
It would, my Reverend Brethren, be an unworthy and presumptuous affectation of confidence on my part, if I did not confess how sensibly I am at this moment impressed with this feeling; if I did not assure you how gladly I would have forgone the honor to which I have been called by our respected Archdeacon—of this day addressing myself to you. At any period it would have been to me a service of deep anxiety; how ten-fold more so do I feel it at this eventful epoch, when it is impossible for any candid observer to deny that there is much in the actual condition of the Church of England, to inspire the most intense solicitude for the future. Deeply must we all participate in the agitation which now affects her, and which has so attracted the notice of several of the most eminent Bishops of our Church, as to cause them to make it the almost exclusive subject-matter of their recent Charges to their Clergy. Intently must he, who has the welfare of our Zion at heart, view the present aspect of a controversy which threatens to shake the English Church to the centre; but which I feel the most perfect confidence will, under the sanctifying influence of Divine grace, issue in her greater and more glorious prosperity—that it will tend to refine her from many of those defects in practice, which now make up the measure of her fallibility; and cause her to emerge from the ordeal more becoming the radiant type of the Church triumphant, against which, we have the assurance of our blessed Lord, “the gates of hell shall not prevail.” [9a]
Fain, however, as I would have avoided the position I now occupy, I felt that it was impossible—I felt that I had a double duty to perform, from which it would have been unbecoming in me to shrink. The respect I owe, in common with you all, to our justly-esteemed Archdeacon, would alone have deterred me from declining his request to officiate at this Visitation; but beyond this—that paramount duty I owe to our blessed Lord and Master as His ordained Minister, now, and at all times, inspires me to attempt to discharge, to the utmost of my ability, the performance of any duty in His cause, which may lie within the humble sphere of my usefulness. Conscious however, as I am, how many of you, my Reverend Brethren, far more competent than myself to this task, might have been selected for addressing you to-day; yet strong in the conviction of integrity of purpose, and yielding to no one in zeal for the unity and prosperity of the Church of Christ, I rely mainly on that Divine support which can supply strength to the weak, sanctifying them to be “meet for the Master’s use, and prepared unto every good work;” [9b]—and next, I look with confidence to the candid and generous indulgence of you, my Reverend Brethren, whom I am now addressing, whose holy Christian calling so pre-eminently qualifies you to carry out that divinely-taught precept of doing unto others as you yourselves would be done by,—to grant me the meed of lenient criticism, and believe me when I assert that, in any thing which I may this day address to you, I am earnestly desirous of avoiding all personality, or seeking to give offence to any—that in my humble endeavour to promote the good of the Church and the glory of God, I am solicitous of bearing in mind that I am addressing Ministers of Christ, acting, with myself, under the same Apostolical commission—pledged all to walk by the same rule, and to speak the same thing—bound all by the same vows, with interests, and pursuits, and duties identical; and that we should all be guided by those words of the great gentle Apostle, which I have selected for my text:—“With all lowliness and meekness, with long-suffering, forbearing one another in love, and endeavouring to keep the unity of the spirit in the bond of peace.” [10]
At no period could such an exhortation be more requisite. I have said—and I believe it will be conceded by all of you—that this is an eventful epoch of the English Church. The religious spirit of the age seems to be singularly marked by extremely opposite characters—Enthusiasm and Rationalism; the former betraying its votaries into wild excesses of fanatical extravagance; and the latter so unduly exalting human wisdom, as to undervalue the doctrine of Holy Scripture. There is abroad also a spirit of Latitudinarianism—a species of counterfeit liberality, which, in the vain desire of conciliation, increases division, and multiplies heresy, by palliating the guilt of schism, or by diminishing the number and undervaluing the importance of the fundamental doctrines of Christianity. Of the alarming magnitude of the peril arising from this source, we ought to be made duly sensible, when we remark some of those, whose sincere faith in the Holy Gospel would seem to be above suspicion, who are, nevertheless, betrayed into lending their aid and countenance in furtherance of this unfortunate scheme. Captivated by the amiable desire, but fallacious hope, of uniting in bonds of brotherhood, faith and scepticism, truth and heresy, they are insensibly beguiled by this deluding phantom into the net of infidelity, and are themselves entangled in its meshes ere they are alive to the consequences of so dangerous and unholy an alliance. The leading prejudice, the very key-stone of this falsely called liberality, is the notion that sincerity is all in all; that, provided we are secure of our “integrity before God,” and conscientiously embrace religion under the form that best accords with our own views, it matters not whether we be of this or that communion; or whether we be of any communion at all. But however charitable this may be in theory, it has proved itself most erroneous in practice. Conceding truth to error, on the ground of expediency—or when, for the sake of obtaining the semblance of peace, and the reputation of liberality, we would veil that marked boundary which separates between those who are and who are not, of what we know and believe to be the true Church of Christ,—never yet has been, and yet never will be, the means of securing unity in the Christian Church: in plain words, it will fail, as it has failed, in making Churchmen of Dissenters.
We should bear in mind, my Reverend Brethren, that unity of spirit is not the only thing to be thought of and promoted; we are to have regard also to the unity of the body. Now, if the Church be a body, a visible incorporated society, she must, like other incorporations, be under the government of certain rulers, and under the guidance of certain regulations. And so, in fact, we find the Church to be: she has all the marks of a visible incorporated society.—She has a regular form of admission: the Sacrament of Baptism.—She has a constant badge of membership: the Sacrament of the Lord’s Supper.—She has peculiar duties: repentance, faith, and obedience.—She has peculiar privileges: forgiveness of sins, present grace, and future glory.—And she was placed, by our Lord, her founder, under officers of His own appointment, the Apostles and their Episcopal Successors, by whom the affairs of the Community are to be regulated from time to time. Now, if the Church be thus a body, we must preserve her unity by deference to her laws, her articles, and canons, in their plain, literal, and grammatical acceptation, and by obedience to her constituted authorities.
The Church, under God, is our nursing mother; and the only image of the Church Catholic which we know of, is that which she embodies to us. She is the representative of Christ; she consigns us with provident care to the protection of our Lord, even before we are conscious of the blessing; she teaches us to lisp in holy words; she dedicates our youth to God; and, in her pure and comprehensive discipline, trains us up into our spiritual manhood. Even then she inspires our devotion, while she regulates our faith, and accompanies us from the cradle to the grave in that grand circle of offices to which I have just alluded, and which embraces every vicissitude and condition of life, instructing us how to improve them, how to sanctify even earthly occupations, by impregnating them with a divine spirit, and conferring a consecration from Heaven upon them all. These, my Reverend Brethren, are powerful claims upon the heart and judgment of all reasonable and sound-thinking men, to do their utmost to promote the unity of the Church; and should make every Churchman, and especially every Minister of the Church, pause long and ponder well ere they disparage her claim to Catholicity, or to humour the subtle scruples of Separatists, they presume to dishonour her formularies, and risk, we know not what ultimate results, or what calamitous consequences to the Church and to the Nation, by overthrowing the ancient landmarks of opinion, and sapping the traditional faith and the undoubted loyalty of men to her communion.
The movement in the Anglican Church, which, at the present time, has occasioned that violent oscillation between two extremes, has, as we all know, been set in action by the energy of a body of pious and eminently learned Divines of the University of Oxford; and whatever difference of sentiment may exist, as to their opinions and judgment, I believe I may safely assert, that the meed of commendation which has been awarded them by those Dignitaries of our Church who have alluded to their writings, is universally and most justly conceded to them by all candid and unprejudiced persons, viz. that they are men of acknowledged piety and sincerity, of unsullied morality, and profound learning and research.
I have said that the duty allotted to me this day is one from which I would fain have been absolved; but there is a circumstance connected with it, which affords me much personal satisfaction—and it is this:—that while I thus most freely and cheerfully bear this testimony to the character and ability of the authors of the “Tracts far the Times;”—while I do not shrink from declaring, but am rejoiced to acknowledge, the good service they have, in my humble estimation, in many ways rendered to the Church;—I, at the same time, am far from subscribing to all their opinions: nay, I deplore most sincerely much that they have written, much they have done—only too painfully proving how fallible even the best-informed and best-intentioned amongst men may be. While they viewed with just alarm and grief the spirit of Latitudinarianism which was rapidly leavening the Church of England, they fearlessly and honestly stood forth to arrest a torrent which was undermining the foundation of that venerable fabric, and awakened us to the danger of that schismatic poison which was insidiously stealing through the whole frame of her system. They have recalled us to the sacred obligations we are under to regard and uphold the fundamental doctrines of the Church of Christ, in the beauty of their pristine purity, as restored to us at the Reformation—they have vindicated the two Sacraments, and especially that of Baptism, from the deadening and false interpretation with which it has been attempted to obscure them—they have revived a spirit of zeal into the ministrations of the Church, and rescued from oblivion the many portions of her beautiful services which had too generally fallen into desuetude—they have, as it were, purified the temples of our native land, dedicated and consecrated to the service of God, from a laxity which had lamentably paralysed the spirituality of the services of the sanctuary. These things, amongst many others I could name, they have done;—for these we have reason to feel gratitude to them for their labours of love;—but, in the plenitude of zeal, they have, alas! outstepped the bounds of moderation—in some of the later Tracts, and particularly in the Ninetieth, they have justly alarmed all sober-minded members of the Established Church of England. In defending the Catholic truth, inherited from our immediate forefathers in the faith—the Reformers of our Church, and through them from the Apostles themselves—they have, I lament to say, ventured to adopt some odious corruptions of Romanism, glossing over their most prominent deformities, and investing them with the name of Catholicity; and then endeavoured to maintain their position in the Church, by arguing the approximation of our Articles to the Decrees of the Council of Trent. Nothing can be more lamentable, nothing more reprehensible than this;—as well as the adoption of some external ceremonials of no intrinsic value, but which savour of an unworthy fondness for the outward pomps and ceremonies of the Romish Church. Grieved as I am to be compelled conscientiously to make these acknowledgments, I am yet happy to have this public opportunity of expressing my sentiments on the subject; because, I regret to say, I have, individually, been most unchristianly and uncharitably maligned as a bigoted disciple of the so-called Oxford School; and I trust, therefore, this free and unreserved declaration of my decided dissent from their errors, will exonerate me in future from the unkind and unjust aspersions, which have been so unwarrantably and lavishly heaped upon me.
My Reverend Brethren, I must calmly, yet earnestly protest against the injustice and inconsistency of men, either of the Clergy or Laity, who are ready to hurl anathemas against those who, mindful of the solemn vows made at their ordination, as Ministers of the Reformed Religion, are conscientiously resolved to observe, as fully and exactly as they are able, the Rubrical injunctions of the Church. Because they do so, are they, with any shadow of justice or charity, to be roundly taxed with embracing all the erroneous opinions of the Oxford Divines? Are they to be stigmatized as “papistical” and “superstitious” in their ministrations and doctrines? The reverse is the truth. They thereby prove themselves the most safe and zealous advocates of the reformed faith; they present the most undaunted front against the hateful errors of Rome on the one hand, and the no less dangerous and insidious underminings of Geneva on the other. In defence and justification of their practice, I may be permitted to make the following short extract of a Charge delivered by one of the present eminently pious and learned Dignitaries of our Church. He says,—“A strict and punctual conformity with the Liturgy and Articles of our Church is a duty to which we have bound ourselves by a solemn promise; and which, while we continue in the ministry, we must scrupulously fulfil. Conformity to the Liturgy implies, of course, an exact observance of the Rubric. We are no more at liberty to vary the mode of performing any part of public worship, than we are to preach doctrines at variance with the Articles of Religion. If there be any direction for the public service of the Church, with which a Clergyman cannot conscientiously comply, he is at liberty to withdraw from her ministry; but not to violate the solemn compact he has made with her.” [18] Now I apprehend every conscientious English Clergyman will act upon this principle:—that while Scripture, and Scripture only is his rule of faith, he is, in the interpretation of Scripture, to defer to the Ritual, Liturgy, Articles, and Formularies of the Church of England; he is to promote the glory of God in the highest—peace upon earth, and good-will amongst men; but to do so, not in the way which he may imagine to be the wisest, but according to the Regulations, Canons, Rubrics, and Customs of his Church;—to these he is bound by vows the most solemn to conform. These, my Reverend Brethren, I have conscientiously endeavoured to make my rule;—and where are we to look for Unity, if we find it not here? And what terms of reprobation can be sufficiently strong to designate the conduct of those, who, by causing discord among brethren who in principle are united, would thereby make harmony for our enemies? Alas! in every community such persons are found to exist, whose element is strife; who live by faction; who, mistaking party spirit for Christian zeal, in their contest for what they allege to be truth, forget that Christianity is also a religion of Peace and Love. At the present time such persons are busy among ourselves; some openly avow their wish to prevent a union among the Clergy; in the bitterness of their hatred towards the Established Religion, they conceive that the cause of Truth can only be supported by the formation of hostile confederacies within the Church: others covertly, and with the semblance even of friendship towards us—the better to disguise their real malignity—yet exert their utmost unholy endeavours to arm brother against brother, in the hope of waging a worse than civil war, with the deadly weapons of theological hatred. Few in number, they would scarcely be deserving of notice, if, by anonymous misrepresentations—which ought never to be credited until they have been fully examined—and by wilful and gross exaggerations, which from their very absurdity ought to excite the scepticism of charity; they had not partially succeeded in inflaming the passions, and exciting the prejudices, of many good and zealous, but ill-judging and mistaken men, who, instead of regarding measures, respect persons; who confound opinions with principles; and who, in an exclusive fondness for latitude of interpretation and practice, refuse even the meed of integrity and sincerity to those with whom they differ, even though they are acting in obedient accordance with their plighted vows.