THE AMERICAN CLERGY IN ENGLAND.

Extract of a Letter from an American Clergyman to a Prebendary of Durham.

The following extract has been sent to the Committee, with the names of the writer and of the reverend prebendary to whom it was addressed; they think, however, that, for various sufficient reasons assigned, the names had better be kept back at present.-Sec. Com.

“MY DEAR SIR,-Much indeed do I wish that you could find leisure to visit this country. Connected in spirit, feeling, and usefulness, as are the Churches of England and America, nothing would be more pleasant than frequent and unreserved communication between us. You have deep learning, stability, standing, and wealth, on your side of the water, all uniting their influence for the support of religion; and we have energy, youthfulness, zeal, independence, and perhaps I may say, more fervent love for the Church as an idealization of unity, pervading both lay and clerical members, than is to be found with you. Several of our most conspicuous clergy have visited England, and perhaps never returned without improvement, and without a deeper love for episcopacy; but very few of your eminent and popular characters have paid us a visit: so that the English know little of the American Church, and the Americans, in general, form a poor idea of English clergy, from the very inferior specimens that they see among us here. Had you had freer communication with us, the late act, permitting us to preach in England, could scarcely have been passed as it stands. We look upon it here, very generally, as a narrow-minded measure, intended to throw greater restrictions in the way, while an appearance of candour is set forth. Indeed, after the kind and open manner in which the American Church has ever received English clergymen, and when we consider the absolute equality which exists in faith, doctrine, government, and apostolic succession, between the two Churches, it is rather an insult than a favour to pass an act throwing so many obstructions in the way of our preaching in England. We never wished to hold livings; but we did wish to be recognized as equally capable of officiating in English pulpits, when asked, as Englishmen are in America pulpits. One of our most eminent prelates remarked to me, that on no account would he preach under such restrictions, should he visit England; and such, I believe, is a general feeling among the clergy.

"Since I saw you last my own course has been one of constant labour. Within three months of my return I was called upon to pass my examination, and immediately ordained deacon. I then came out to this diocese as a missionary. Thirty years ago nothing further than the shores of Michigan were known. The largest place, Detroit, contained four or five hundred inhabitants. Eleven years ago the most westerly settlement was only forty miles in the interior. In that year the first tree was cut down in my parish. At this moment we have a well-settled country, fine farms, handsome villages, a population intelligent and well educated (but very irreligious), and every luxury which can be had in England. Detroit is a city

of 10,000 inhabitants, and a very beautiful city. My parish, Jackson, has 2,000 inhabitants, is a handsome village, with fine stone buildings, a state prison, and a most aristocratic population, living almost in as luxurious a manner as do the inhabitants of Five years ago we had only two episcopal churches in the diocese; we have now twenty, and as many more parishes without churches. We have three or four railroads, and as good common roads as can be desired. I found my parish in a miserable state when I took charge of it. I was the first clergyman. Religion was unknown, and the Sabbath unkept; in fact, the people were no better than heathen. We have now a handsome church, a fine congregation, schools, public libraries, and all in about eighteen months. In this period the population has increased upwards of one thousand, and is still flowing in quickly. You may imagine the constant state of excitement in which a clergyman is kept under such circumstances, and the labour he has to undergo. But it is most delightful to see improvement advancing so rapidly, and society forming into good from evil. What I have most suffered from has been the ague, which is the constant disease of a new country. If I do not recover by the spring, I shall be obliged to return to the East. On account of my health I have been spending three weeks with my bishop (Bishop McCooksy), and, loving him as a friend as much as I respect him as a bishop, I have, of course, a very pleasant period of relaxation. It will always give me much pleasure to hear from you, or to be of any use to you. With my best respects to your family, I am, with much respect, yours very faithfully and sincerely."

LETTER II.—THE "BRITISH CRITIC" AND THE AUTHOR OF THE EIGHTYTHIRD TRACT FOR THE TIMES.'

To the Secretary of the Committee of Management.

SIR, Were I desired to characterise the review of Mr. Todd's "Donnellan Lectures" in the fifty-sixth number of the "British Critic," I fear I should be obliged to say: that it is a scarcely concealed attempt to write up the Church of Rome and to write down the Reformation.

Now the "British Critic," I believe, is well known to be a principal organ of the Tract School. I cannot, therefore, more fitly commence my probate of the SYSTEM of that school, than with the article I have specified: and, conjunctively, the eighty-third "Tract for the Times," which is constructed upon exactly the same basis, may usefully be made to contribute its share of evidence also.

The reviewer, very frankly, himself gives us the key to his entire performance.

We, says he, are the Church: and Rome, the Church: and BOTH, the SAME Church.*

And again members of the English Church are not quite persons

* "British Critic," num. lvi., p. 418.

to speak of that woman Jezebel: meaning, thereby, THE HOLY CATHOLIC CHURCH Sojourning in Rome.*

This is sufficiently clear: yet, lest there should be any mistake, the reviewer settles the matter by a somewhat startling argument.

The Roman Church being THE HOLY CATHOLIC CHURCH sojourning in Rome, and as such enjoying the constant presence of Christ through his Spirit: it clearly follows, that those, who speak against the Gracious Presence which inhabits THE CHURCH thus defined, and who thence ascribe the work of the Spirit to Beelzebub, are, to say the least, kicking against the pricks; though, from our Lord's strong language, it may well be feared, that they are even guilty of the unpardonable sin against the Holy Ghost.†

Having thus prepared the way, not merely by admitting the Roman Church to be a branch, though a withered and unholy branch, of the fruitful and holy Catholic Church, but by actually making her the Holy Catholic Church sojourning in Rome, he next indulges us with a panegyric upon this same Holy Catholic Church thus sojourning: which, had we not but too mournful certainty that he is really speaking in good earnest, we should be apt to deem a piece of grave irony and mock-heroic banter.

It is impossible, surely, to read the history of THE CHURCH, up to the last four hundred or five hundred years, with an unprejudiced mind, without perceiving: that, whatever were the faults of her servants and the corruptions of her children, she has, on the whole, been the one element of civilization, light, moral improvement, peace, and purity, in the world. In the darkest times, she has been, with exceptions too brief or local to bear insisting on, far superior, in these respects in which she was designed to be superior, to those earthly powers among whom she has moved. In the darkest times, and when the conduct of her organs was least defensible and her professed aims at principles most extreme, she will be found, when contrasted with other powers, to be fighting the cause of truth and right against sin, to be a witness for God, or defending the poor, or purifying and reforming her own functionaries, or promoting peace and maintaining the holy faith committed to her. What, we ask, are her acts as then (in former and happier times than the present) displayed; so lordly and high, so maternal, so loving and yet so firm, so calm and yet so keen, so gentle and yet so vigorous, so full of serpent's wisdom yet of dove's innocence: what is all this, but a literal accomplishment of the sure word of prophecy concerning the religion of Christ upon earth? +

The specified chronological term of five hundred years carries us back two centuries beyond the Reformation. Consequently, THE CHURCH, thus lauded, must inevitably be, as the reviewer himself speaks, THE HOLY CATHOLIC CHURCH SOJOURNING IN ROME: aud, inasmuch as this same HOLY CATHOLIC CHURCH thus sojourning is inhabited by the Gracious Presence, to speak evil of it, or to apply to it the denunciations of vituperative prophecy, is nothing

"British Critic," num. lvi., p. 433. † Ibid., num. lvi., p. 393.
‡ Ibid., num. lvi., p. 434, 435.

less than to ascribe the work of the Spirit to Beelzebub, and thus to commit the unpardonable sin against the Holy Ghost.

Agreeably to this estimate, the reviewer beholds, in the Holy Catholic Church while sojourning in Rome previous to the day of the Reformation, a literal accomplishment of the sure word of prophecy concerning the religion of Christ upon earth: in other words, he beholds, in the Roman Church during at least two centuries before the Reformation (though, why he should have specified a retrospective term of five hundred years rather than a retrospective term of twelve hundred years, I pretend not to divine), that pure and irrefragable Church of Christ's promise; that visible Church or congregation of faithful men, in the which (as our nineteenth Article speaks) the pure word of God is preached, and the sacraments be duly ministered according to Christ's ordinance; that Church doctrinally unstained, when other visible Churches have erred, not only in their living and manner of ceremonies, but also in matters of faith; that Church, with which the Lord would ever be graciously present by his Spirit, guiding it into all essential truth, and preserving it from all damnable error both of doctrine and of doctrinal practice. Thus does he exactly and avowedly accord with Bossuet: who, on these very premises, frames his celebrated dilemma for the confusion of all dissidents from the Holy and Apostolic and Catholic Church of Rome.*

To borrow the reviewer's own metaphor, must the screw be driven tighter still? If so, the operation shall be performed.

The application of vituperative prophecy, to the Holy Catholic Church sojourning in Rome, is, as we have seen, the sin against the Holy Ghost: and the bestowing upon her the Apocalyptic name of Jezebel ill becomes members of the English Church, inasmuch as Rome and England are the same Church.

Yet, all this while, what is the conduct, not merely (we will say) of some ill-advised members, but of the Church of England herself? In good sooth, she repeatedly disavows and reprobates the Church of Rome, as grossly idolatrous :† and, without the least scruple, rather indeed with a stern severity of language from which modern refinement would shrink as from an utter violation of good breeding, applies, to that Church, the prophetic symbols of the Apocalyptic harlot and the Babylonical beast; and fixes upon her that combination of damnatory characters and images, whether occurring in the predictions of Daniel or of St. Paul or of St. John, which it has been customary to understand and describe by the single compendious name of Antichrist.

What, then, is the result of such conduct on the part of the Church of England?

* See my Anc. Vallens, and Albig., Pref. p. v. to ix.

Homil. against Peril of Idol. passim, and Notice at the end of the Communion Service. See also Homil. for Whit-Sunday, part ii., p. 393-398. Homil. against Peril of Idol., part iii., p. 216. Homil. against Rebell., part vi., p. 510. Homil. for Whit-Sund., part ii., p. 398. Homil. of Salvat., part ii., p. 22. Homil. of Good Works, part iii., p. 47. Homil. of Obed., part iii., p.

95.

Truly, a most unexpected one. We, her children, were not aware that she had committed the sin against the Holy Ghost, until the alarming discovery was made by the "British Critic."

That all, who opposed Rome in the middle ages, should be damnable heretics, was, from the premises laid down by our reviewer, a thing of course: and, when he writes the Albigenses, gross Manichees, disbelievers in the incarnation, deriders of baptism, and enemies of all external religion; he does nothing more, as we shall hereafter see in its proper place, than follow out the system of his school.* Yet, methinks, while he thus dogmatically stigmatises these calumniated and persecuted Christians, he might at least have hinted at the existence of DIRECT EVIDENCE, even to say nothing of indirect evidence, that no such character belonged to them. I by no means assert, that he had not a perfect right to declare himself unconvinced by the EVIDENCE in question. But, in common equity, he had no right coolly to brand the Albigenses with Manichèism, and at the same time suppress all mention that any such EVIDENCE is in existence. Any person, who read his article while previously unacquainted with the subject, would conclude, from the unhesitating positiveness of his tone, that Albigensie Manichèism was a point disputed by no one.

The diabolical persecution of the old Waldenses and Albigenses was, of course, not to be deemed any persecution of THE CHURCH: for, sure enough, THE HOLY CATHOLIC CHURCH SOJOURNING IN ROME had no share in the persecution of these good men, save as the author and very active promoter of it. Neither, again, were the later persecutions, either of the united Albigenses and Waldenses, or of the Reformed Churches on the continent, or of the Insular Church of England in the days of Queen Mary, to be viewed under any such delusive aspect, as that of persecutions endured by THE CHURCH. Quite the contrary. They were not persecutions inflicted upon THE CHURCH: they were simply just punishments inflicted by THE CHURCH.

Into this mystery, most harmoniously with the reviewer, we are duly initiated by the writer of the eighty-third "Tract for the Times." He calls upon us to apprehend and realize the idea that THE CHURCH has been sheltered from persecution for fifteen hundred years.† Reckoned backward from the present time, fifteen centuries will bring us to the cessation of pagan persecution. Such being the case, the Tract School lays it down: that, during the whole of the last fifteen hundred years, THE CHURCH has been sheltered from per

secution.

Now, this alleged fact of the non-persecution of THE CHURCH for the last fifteen centuries, it is impossible to substantiate from history, save on the principle which we are invited to apprehend and realize: that the Romish Church collectively is alone THE CHURCH.

Persecutions, no doubt, and bloody massacres, and inquisitorial tortures and murders, there have been, of diverse persons by courtesy denominated Christians, during the last fifteen hundred years. The + Tract lxxxiii., p. 45.

"British Critic," num. lvi., p. 419.