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.'"
[23] Miss Rawlins, of London.
_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."
THE CHURCHMAN'S LAMENT.
The Rev. Mr. Ingleby, when opening an evening discussion on a very
important question, gave it as his opinion that the judgment which
Robert Hall formed on the present aspect of the Papal movements, is
perfectly correct. He says--"It is certain that the members of the
Romish community are at this moment on the tiptoe of expectation,
indulging the most sanguine hopes, suggested by the temper of the
times, of soon recovering all that they have lost, and of seeing the
pretended rights of their church restored in their full splendour.
If anything can realize such an expectation, it is undoubtedly the
torpor and indifference of Protestants, combined with the incredible
zeal and activity of Papists; and universal observation shows what
these are capable of effecting--for often they compensate the
disadvantages arising from paucity of number, as well as almost
every kind of inequality."
_Mr. Roscoe._--"If, Sir, we were merely torpid and indifferent,
there would be less danger to apprehend; but the fact is, the high
church principles, which are now struggling amongst us for the
ascendency, are imperceptibly and very extensively reconciling the
clergy and many of the laity to the fatal errors of the Church of
Rome. It is, I believe, the opinion of most who have paid much
attention to the records of prophecy, that Popery, before her final
overthrow and extinction, will revive from her long torpid state,
will shake herself from the dust which has been accumulating around
her during her slumber of inaction, and come forth with new and more
vigorous life. I fear that a large number of our Episcopal clergy
are preparing the way, some few openly, but the greater proportion
of them secretly and slyly, for the triumphs of the Papacy in the
United Kingdom, especially amongst the Churchmen of England."
_Mr. Lewellin._--"That the Papacy does look with a longing eye on
Britain, the emporium of wealth and of the arts and the sciences,
and is with Jesuitical artifice concocting schemes for its recovery
to her own dominion, is now too palpable for any one to doubt; and
I believe, when she does come forth in some new forms of seductive
attraction, she will gain over many to her ranks, both of the clergy
and the laity of your church; but her efforts to beguile and subdue
Dissenters will be but the serpent biting at the file; our absolute
and exclusive authority in support and defence of our belief is the
Bible, and our watchword is, 'To the law and to the testimony: if
they speak not according to this word, it is because there is no
light in them'" (Isa. viii. 20).
[Illustration:
M. S. MORGAN. T. BOLTON.
THE BRIDAL PARTY WELCOMED BY THE VILLAGERS.
Vol. ii page 456.]
_Rev. Mr. Ingleby._--"And _our_ appeal, if we acted a consistent
part as sound Protestants, would be to the same authority; but many
of our clergy are not satisfied with this authority, but are for
calling in the fathers, and appealing to the decisions of councils,
and listening to the vague and often contradictory testimony of
unauthenticated tradition. They are unsettling Protestantism by the
attempts they are making in its defence."
_Mr. Lewellin._--"A high Churchman may say, and say truly, there
is but a step between me and Popery. And consistency has already
forced some of them to take this step; but I apprehend that many,
with the Pope in their hearts, will feel more disposed to sacrifice
consistency on the altar of self-interest, than publicly profess
allegiance to his authority. The entreaties and the tears of a
loving wife, especially when she pleads under the shade of a palace,
the mitre gracing the brow of her frail lord, or when standing on
the luxuriant soil of a rich benefice, will decide many a bishop,
and many a prebend, and many a rector, to prefer hypocrisy to
apostasy; they will content themselves by attempting to assimilate
the Church of England, as nearly as possible, to the corrupt
original from which she withdrew at the Reformation."
_Mr. Roscoe._--"But some are so thoroughly honest, that they prefer
apostasy to hypocrisy. Some, even of the evangelical clergy, are
gone off to Rome, and many others, I fear, will follow them."
_Rev. Mr. Ingleby._--"I have long apprehended and dreaded this, and
I have made many efforts to convince my clerical brethren of the
fatal tendency of their high church principles, but I have not been
very successful. No mathematical demonstration appears to me clearer
than this, that if the clergy will magnify the church, instead of
magnifying the Saviour; if they will confine salvation within the
pale of her communion, instead of proclaiming that whosoever calleth
on the name of the Lord shall be saved; if they will maintain that
no minister of the Christian faith is a true minister of Jesus
Christ, unless he has received episcopal ordination from a bishop in
the regular line of succession from the apostles, they will be led,
in the process of the inquiry, to see the palpable inconsistency of
having a secular power as the head of the church, and then there
is no alternative but to bow down and do homage to the Pope, as
the spiritual head of a church founded and upheld by his spiritual
authority. But so strong is the attachment they cherish to their
high church principles, that some say they cannot give them up, even
though such an issue should take place; and others are even sanguine
in their expectations of being able to effect a junction with Rome,
by inducing her to abandon some of her dogmas, and relax in some of
her absolute, and what they consider unimportant regulations."
_Mr. Stevens._--"I see dark omens in the heavens. A severe testing
time is coming. I believe we have amongst us many noble spirits, who
are valiant for the Protestant faith; but we have also a powerful
and subtile enemy in the field, and, I fear, many treacherous men
in our camp. A party of the clergy of our Protestant Church hailing
with delight a union with Papal Rome! How startling and humiliating!"
_Mr. Roscoe._--"Many great and good laymen amongst us see the
tendency of these high church principles, and deeply deplore it,
yet but few of the clergy apprehend any real, or rather any very
alarming danger. Indeed, the leading men amongst them believe that
these principles are the only safe barrier of defence which can be
thrown around the Church of England, thus virtually admitting that
she is not established by Christ's authority, nor guarded by his
strong arm. I have often said to many of them, You act not only
impoliticly, but dangerously. You are professedly protecting your
church against Dissenters, from whom you have little or nothing to
fear; while by your manoeuvres you are moving nearer and nearer the
Romanists, who will ultimately seduce you to their fellowship, if
they do not gain actual possession of your church."
_Rev. Mr. Ingleby._--"Yes, I fear that evil times are coming. Many
of the best part of our clergy are tainted with the popular opinions
of the worst. They do not preach like our pious forefathers, urging
the people to repent and believe in Christ. They magnify the Church
of England at the perfection of ecclesiastical order and beauty,
and direct their vituperations against their fellow-Protestants
who differ from them on the comparatively unimportant questions of
Episcopacy and Episcopal ordination. The only points of importance
on which the evangelical clergy differ from their Tractarian
brethren, relate to the efficacy of the sacraments."
_Mr. Stevens._--"These high church principles have always prevailed
amongst some of our clergy; but they never gained such notoriety as
they have recently done. They were merely an undercurrent, but now
they are like the Jordan overflowing its banks. Daubeny's _Guide to
the Church_ made a little stir on its appearance, but it produced no
ferment in the popular mind. Mant's tracts on baptismal regeneration
made a more powerful impression; but it very soon subsided, and
things remained as they were. But the Oxford tracts have roused the
attention of Europe. They are shrewd, subtile, elegantly written
papers, which, by laying hold of the imagination, easily beguile
the heart; they are doing great execution amongst our sentimental
half-Popish Churchmen, and especially amongst silly women: written
professedly in defence of the Church of England, yet, as I once
heard a Catholic priest[24] say, nothing that ever issued from the
press has done so much to aid the triumphs of Popery."
[24] Rev. Mr. Logan, a priest at Oscott College, near Birmingham.
_Mr. Roscoe._--"I have read most of these tracts, and I am fully
convinced, by the arguments and reasonings of the writers, that the
high church principles, which are becoming so popular amongst our
clergy and some of the laity, cannot be deduced from the Bible,
which contains the religion of Protestants."
_Mr. Stevens._--"From the Bible, Sir! no; they emanate from the
Prayer-book, that keepsake which Rome gave to Protestantism at
the time of the Reformation, with this inscription written in
hieroglyphics:--'Occupy till I come.' That book, Sir, is the
cause of all the Popery with which our church abounds. It is the
destroying angel of a pure Protestant faith."