Ex Libris C. K. OGDEX CHURCH COURTS AND BY ROBERT ISAAC WILBERFORCE, M.A. ARCHDEACON OF THE EAST RIDING, CANON OF YORK, ETC. In causa Dei, ubi communionis periculum est, etiam dissimulare peccatum non leve. and it will not be the work of any ordinary reformer to recon- quer them for the common good. It were easy to mention other circumstances as showing the expediency of a Church Legislature. It is no trifling evil that many violations of law are habitually practised, by which scrupulous con- sciences are offended, and a door is opened to greater irregularities. The clergy have given a solemn promise, that in public prayer they will use that form which is prescribed in the Liturgy, and none other. Every departure from it subjects them to prosecution and punishment. Yet forms of prayer or thanksgiving are circulated on various public occasions, and the clergy must either incur the appearance of being disloyal and lovers of sin- gularity, or they must violate the law of the land and their own obligation. These forms do not even bear upon them that they come through the Bishop,* but are usually forwarded at once from * This circumstance takes away the only ground on which the clergy can rest satisfied with their use, i. e. that they are sanctioned by their several Diocesans. Though even then their employment is open to the same re- mark, which has often been made respecting the four services commonly appended to the Prayer-Book, namely, that their use is contrary to the law of the Church as well as to that of the land. The use of these services is contrary to the law of the Church as con- tained in the fourteenth Canon, which enjoins that the Common Prayer shall be used " without either diminishing or adding any thing." Now it is true that Services were set forth by Convocation for three of these oc- CHURCH LEGISLATURE. 131 the King's printer, and have no show of authority, save that of the Lords of the Council. But what authority have the Lords of the Council for altering casions, but these Services have been materially altered at different times. So that Johnson says, " I cannot think it advisable to use forms not duly authorized, but rather so much of the old forms drawn in Convocation 1662, as may be consistent with the present state of things. These forms are in King Charles the Second's Common Prayer-Book, printed before the year 1685." Nor are these Services authorized by the law of the land any more than by that of the Church. Respecting three of them Wheatly remarks, that though Acts of Parliament " appoint these several days to be solemnly ob- served, yet not one of them provides for or establishes any office for the use of either one or other of the said days : nor have our Kings, by whose order and directions alone these several offices are printed and annexed to the book of Common Prayer, any power by the Act of Uniformity to estab- lish any other form than what is provided in the book of Common Prayer." Illustration of the Common Prayer, p. 550. The exercise of this right by the Crown seems to have been founded on a clause in the Act of Uniformity, 1 Eliz. 2. 26., which gave that Queen power to alter ceremonies, by advice of the High Commission, or the Me- tropolitan. King James acted upon this authority in regard to the changes made at the Hampton Conference, in a manner " which would not have been in the least warranted by that proviso, had the powers there specified extended to the Queen's heirs and successors ; but as they were lodged personally in the Queen, there could be no colour for King James's exer- cising them in virtue of it. The drawer up of the Commission," for the Convocation of 1603, "was aware of this, and supplies therefore what was wanting by a recourse to that inexhaustible source of power, the King's supreme authority and prerogative royal." Atterbury's Rights of Convo- cation, 420. This was a part of that dispensing power (any Act of Parliament, &c. non obstante) to which this King and some of his successors laid claim. But since the passing of the Act 1 William and Mary, by which it is ex- pressly declared that "the pretended power of suspending of laws, or exe- cution of laws by regal authority, without consent of Parliament, is ille- gal," (Tindal's Continuation, i. 56.) it is difficult to conceive on what grounds the statute of the 13th Charles II. c. 4., by which such innovations in the form of Prayer are distinctly forbidden, can be safely violated. The only ground alleged by Wheatly is the mutual connivance of all parties. 132 CHURCH LEGISLATURE. the Liturgy of the Church of England ? There might be a danger lest this power, gaining ground from usage, should in time assert its pretensions, did not the express permission given to the Council to alter, from time to time, the names of the royal family, exclude all tacit right of interference ; and if the resolution of a clergyman,* a century ago, in standing to his engagements, had not established a precedent for rejecting their authority. These circumstances render it improbable that such violations of law will ever be construed into a right, but if this be not to be apprehended, is there no evil in allowing a law to be habitually broken ? Is it no hardship upon the clergy to compel them to promise one thing and perform another ? Yet is this but one of various inconveniences, to which for want of a Church Legislature they are continually subjected. It is often avowed, frequently perhaps with little reason, that the Church is not sufficiently adapted to the circumstances of the age. Yet it is impossible altogether to deny the charge, strange as it may appear, which has been made against her by one of the last and ablest foreign writers on eccle- siastical law. " Her system of jurisprudence," he says, " has been destitute unhappily of that reform - * Vide " The case of occasional Days and Prayers, containing a defence for not solemnizing the Accession Day by reading the new form, and for not using occasional Prayers," by John Johnson, A.M., Vicar of Cranbrook. Burnet remarks that a compliance of this kind embarrassed the clergy, when called upon to read James the Second's famous declaration : " Now it appeared what bad effects were likely to follow that officious motion for obliging the clergy to read the declaration that King Charles set out in the year 1681." History of own Times, i. 736. CHURCH LEGISLATURE. 133 ing process, which the [Roman] Catholic Church has undergone through the instrumentality of the Council of Nice and of the later provincial coun- cils and has therefore become gradually a life- less mass."* But must not the same have been the result with any society, which was debarred the opportunity of acting for itself, and obliged to call in the aid of a Legislature, too much immersed in general politics to regard it ? Could any community be active, the vital powers whereof were thus held in abeyance ? Could any concern be profitably conducted, when a great public body must give sanction to every step as trustees? Let the experiment be tried with the Wesleyan Methodists. Let them be compelled to obtain Parliamentary sanction for every change, however minute, in their system and arrangements. Let them be obliged to apply to Sir Robert Peel for the regulation of their class meetings, or to Mr. Joseph Hume for the order of their circuits. Would they be the same judicious accommodating people that we now find them ? as ready to take advan- tage of every opening, and make the most of every incident ? Yet this is exactly the situation in which the Church of England has been placed for above a century. If these reasons establish any case in behalf of the expediency of having a Church Legislature, the next question is, of what kind must that Legis- lature be ? * Walter's Lehrbuch des Kirchenrecht's, Pref. v. 134 CHURCH LEGISLATURE. Now in answer to this question, some will say at once that we have a Church Legislature already in the Imperial Parliament. This answer would of course preclude the necessity of further inquiry. And it cannot be denied that Parliament has full power to legislate for all subjects of the realm. Were such a change as has been suggested in the internal arrangements of the Wesleyan Methodists, to be enacted by King, Lords, and Commons, what- ever were the feelings of their Conference, it would become the law of the land. But does this circum- stance make Parliament a Wesleyan Legislature ? Indeed Parliament does at present make rules, by which various religious persuasions are more or less affected. A licence to celebrate the religious office of uniting persons in matrimony is given, under certain conditions, to various Dissenting bodies by the State. This is to make enactments which affect their private arrangements. Arid we have lately seen an interference with the religious practices of several Indian sects, because incon- sistent with the general laws of the English em- pire. These circumstances show that the power of legislating for the Church does not necessarily render Parliament a Church Legislature. But tolerated sects, it will be said, are not anal- ogous to an Established Church ; what is contended is, that so long as the Church is established, Par- liament has not only the power, but the right to legislate for her. Now this is so prevalent and so plausible an opinion, that its justice requires to be CHURCH LEGISLATURE. 135 fully considered. But those who adopt it may fairly be expected to state what is that circumstance or quality about an Establishment, which gives this peculiar right of interference to the Imperial Par- liament. When it is said that the Lower House has the exclusive right of taxing the Commons of the land, we know what is that circumstance to which this power is referable, viz. that the Com- mons House has been deputed by the possessors of property. It is in like manner demanded what is that quality of an Established Church, which makes it fitting that her internal affairs should be regu- lated by Parliament. Unless this question is re- solved, all reasoning will be lost in generalities ; and the term " Established" will be employed with the same unfairness with which James the First is said to have used a word of like indeterminate sig- nification, when he referred such acts as were un- supported by law, precedent, or principle, to the virtue of his Prerogative Royal. Consider then some of those circumstances, which have already been noticed, as distinguishing the Established Church. The Sovereign must be a member of her Communion. Her Bishops are an estate of the realm. Her Churches have a legal claim to maintenance. Her Courts possess a cer- tain measure of public authority. Nothing of course need be said of Endowments, which are possessed with equal security by various parties in the land. Now in what manner do these points, taken singly or collectively, establish any right of 136 CHURCH LEGISLATURE. peculiar interference with the internal management of the Church ? If it be said that the religious condition imposed upon the possession of the Crown, and the right of the Bishops to vote in the Upper House, connect these two branches of the Legislature with the Established Church, then should it be to these alone that Legislation should be committed. As the Lower House has the sole regulation of taxes, because it represents the peo- ple, so would the Upper prescribe for the Church, were she truly represented there. Looking then to the Legislature at large, what direct title do these circumstances convey, such as is pleaded in any other case, or would be conceded by any other body ? Two of them are found equally in the Scotch Establishment, which, though subject to the limiting power of the State, like every occupant of entailed property, is yet allowed to refer its in- ternal arrangements to its own Assembly. And all four of them existed before the Reformation, during which legislative power over the Church was plainly in other hands, and no claim to it was asserted by Parliament. Now had there been such a natural and necessary connexion between these characteristic peculiarities of an " Establishment," and the right of Parliamentary Legislation, had the one by any inevitable sequence involved the other, it could hardly happen that at that great epoch when the ancient mode of legislation was materially changed, and many new provisions were introduced an age fertile too in great minds, and CHURCH LEGISLATURE. 137 which has bequeathed to us so many masterly digests of our standard principles this most im- portant claim should be altogether unnoticed. Yet in which of our Formularies is it to be found ? In the Articles are stated the rights " of the civil magistrates." Is there a word in them which im- plies, that because the Church is Established, therefore its internal arrangements should be regu- lated by Parliament ? Is there a word on the subject from one end of the Prayer-Book to the other ? But it may suggest itself to some persons, that a declaration of this kind was dispensed with, be- cause the acts of power superseded the necessity of its assertion. Parliament, it may be thought, showed its right to legislate for the Established Church by deeds and not by words ; and the very fact of its abolishing that Papal power which had once existed, was a sufficient charter of its author- ity. What need is there to assert rights, which are practically admitted ? And this, it may be added, is after all, the truest claim to power. That im- memorial usage, which rests merely upon the pre- scription of centuries, is not only most safe from abuse, but is least obstructed by envy. On this basis stand the best Institutions of the country, and it is a sufficient argument for supposing that there is something in the notion of an Establish- ment, taken collectively, which justifies the inter- ference of Parliament with the internal arrange- ments of the Church. Such seems to be the feeling 138 CHURCH LEGISLATURE. commonly entertained by those who advocate the opinion in question. But if it be tested by a refer- ence to facts, it will be found utterly at variance with the evidence of History. For not only has Parliament never exercised by itself any such power, but it made public profession of its grounds for claiming that power which it did really exer- cise, and so far was it thereby from asserting or gaining any prescriptive right to legislate for the internal affairs of the Church, that its assertions are wholly inconsistent with any such present pretension. Persons have perhaps been led to the opinion that Parliament has exercised this authority, from finding that the Book of Common Prayer is pre- scribed by its Act of Uniformity. Nor is it un- natural to conclude, that what is enjoined by Au- thority of Parliament stands upon no other basis. But observe in what manner this and similar Acts of Parliament are worded. Their general principle is recorded in the Preamble to that celebrated Act for Restraint of Appeals,* by which the usurped power of the Pope was abrogated. " Where by divers sundry and authentic histories and chronicles it is manifestly declared and expressed that this realm of England is an Empire, and so hath been accepted in the world, governed by one supreme head and king, having dignity and royal estate of the imperial crown of the same : unto whom a 24th Henry VIII. Cap. 12. CHURCH LEGISLATURE. 139 body politic, compact of all sorts and degrees of people, divided in terms and by names of Spiritu- alty and Temporalty, been bounden arid owen to bear next to GOD, a natural and humble obedience : He being also institute and furnished by the good- ness and sufferance of Almighty GOD with plenary, whole and entire power, pre-eminence, authority, prerogative arid jurisdiction, to render and yield justice and final determination to all manner of folk, resiants or subjects within this his realm, in all causes, matters, debates and contentions happen- ing to occur, insurge or begin, within the limits thereof, without restraint or provocation to any foreign princes or potentates of the world : the body spiritual whereof having power, when any cause of the law divine happened to come in ques- tion, or of spiritual learning, that it was declared in- terpreted and showed by that part of the said body politic called the Spiritualty, now being usually called the English Church, which always hath been reported arid also found of that sort, that both for knowledge, integrity and sufficiency of number it hath been always thought, and is also at this hour, sufficient and meet of itself without the intermed- dling of any exterior person or persons to declare arid determine all such doubts, and to administer all such offices and duties, as to their rooms spiri- tual do appertain : and the laws temporal for trial of property of lands and goods, and for the conser- vation of the people of this realm in unity and peace, without rapine and spoil, was, and yet is 140 CHURCH LEGISLATURE. administered, adjudged and executed by sundry judges and ministers of the other part of the said body politic, called the Temporally : and both their authorities and jurisdictions do conjoin together in the due administration of justice, the one to help the other." Now in this statement we have no assertion of any inherent right in the Temporalty to decide any thing, unless the advice of the Spiritualty was also had " when any cause of the law Divine or Spiritual learning happened to come in question." And this principle was adopted both in refer- ence to the Act of Uniformity and to every other law, which affected the internal government of the Church. The Preface to the Prayer-book contains the principle on which that book had been derived, and shows that its compilers conceived it to have a claim of right, irrespective of the sanction which it might afterwards receive from the power of Par- liament. " We have good hope," they say, " that what is here presented, and hath been by the Convocations of both Provinces with great dili- gence examined and approved, will be also well accepted and approved by all sober, peaceable and truly conscientious sons of the Church of England." In strict accordance with this hope was the de- claration of Parliament as contained in the Act of Uniformity. " Whereas in the 5th year of the late Queen Elizabeth, there was one uniform order of Common Prayer, and of the administration of Sacraments, (agreeable to the Word of GOD, and CHURCH LEGISLATURE. 141 usage of the Primitive Church,) compiled by the reverend Bishops and Clergy, and whereas the Convocations of both the Provinces of Canter- bury and York, being by his Majesty called and assembled and now sitting, his Majesty hath been pleased to authorize and require the President of the said Convocation, and others the Bishops and Clergy of the same, to review the said Book of Common Prayer, &c., and that after mature consideration they should make such additions and alterations as to them should seem meet, and should exhibit the same to his Majesty in writing for his further allowance or confirmation. Since which time, upon full and mature deliberation, they the said Presi- dents, Bishops, and Clergy of both Provinces, have accordingly reviewed the said Book, and have made some alterations, which they think fit to be insert- ed to the same, &c., and have presented the same unto his Majesty, in writing all which his Ma- jesty having duly considered, hath fully approved and allowed the same, and recommended to this present Parliament that the said Book of Common Prayer, &c., be the Book which shall be appointed to be read under such sanctions and penalties as the Houses of Parliament shall think fit. Now in regard that nothing conduceth more to the settling of the peace of this nation (which is desired of all good men) nor to the honour of our religion, and the propagation thereof, than an uni- versal agreement in the public worship of Almighty GOD ; and to the intent that every person within 142 CHURCH LEGISLATURE. this realm may certainly know the rule to which he is to conform in public worship," &c. then fol- lows an order for the use of the Book of Common Prayer. In this act there is surely no assertion that Par- liament, without the concurrence of the Spiritualty in their Convocation, has any right to legislate for the Church's internal government. That Parlia- ment should by " sanction and penalty," enjoin that which Convocation had recommended, no more gives it a right by itself to rescir;d what had been agreed upon by their joint authority, than the penalty of death annexed by it to a breach of the sixth Commandment gives it a right to abrogate the law of GOD. If such right exists, it cannot be based at all events on this tacit prescription. Those who build merely upon the fact of usage, must have some less equivocal usage to produce. And to omit a few unimportant matters of late occurrence, it will not be found that Parliament, at least till the last few years, has even professed to exercise any such powers. Those which are really ques- tions of spiritual authority, the right of excommu- nication, the validity of orders, the form of wor- ship, the establishment of doctrine, these have never been touched save by that compound body of the Spiritualty and Temporalty, to which the statute for Restraint of Appeals refers. There is no ground of precedent therefore for supposing that they may be altered, save by that which Hooker describes as "the very essence of all government CHURCH LEGISLATURE. 143 within this kingdom the body of the whole realm," namely, " the Parliament of England, to- gether with the Convocation annexed thereunto."* But not only is there no foundation in precedent for supposing that because the Church is establish- ed, therefore has Parliament, by itself, a right to regulate its internal affairs ; but the very reasons anciently adduced for Parliamentary interference are destructive in themselves of this modern pre- tension. Parliament was absolutely called upon to state its right of legislation, when, in conjunction with Convocation, it protested against Papal usurpation, and stated which of the existing laws and customs should hereafter be received. And it made its assertion in the following words : " Where this, your Grace's realm, recognizing no superior under GOD, but only your Grace, hath been and is free from subjection to any man's laws, but only to such as have been devised, made, and obtained within this realm for the wealth of the same ; or to such other as by sufferance of your Grace and your Progenitors, the people of this your realm, have taken at their liberty by their own consent to be used amongst them ; and have bound themselves by long use and custom to the observance of the same, not as to the observance of the laws of any foreign prince, potentate, or prelate, but as the cus- tomed and ancient laws of this realm, originally *Eccl. Polity, viii. vi. 11. 144 CHURCH LEGISLATURE. established as laws of the same, by the said suffer- ance, consent, and custom, and none otherwise."* And in the same year was an Act passed, which provided " that no canons, constitutions, or ordi- nance, shall be made or put in execution within this realm by authority of the Convocation of the clergy, which shall be contrariant or repugnant to the King's prerogative royal, or the customs, laws, or statutes of this realm."f Here then we have the ground of that claim which was made by Parliament to a certain inter- ference in the Church's laws. To the notion that because the Church was Established, therefore its internal government must be in the hands of the Legislature, there is not the slightest reference indeed it is negatived by the nature of that restric- tion which is imposed upon Convocation. The principle involved is of a more plain and definite nature. How it is to be accommodated to the maxims of Christ's Church it is needless in this place to consider, but at all events it is sufficiently consistent with the hereditary notions of British liberty. What is asserted is, that in religious as in civil matters, the people of England are not subject save to their own laws. There is challenged for them a certain inalienable privilege to be conversant with the enactment of those rules, which they are subsequently to obey. This assertion is not in- compatible with a belief in certain antecedent max- 25th Henry VIII. 21. f 25th Henry VIII. 19. CHURCH LEGISLATURE. 145 ims of right, whether derived from morals or reve- lation, whether affecting civil laws or Church prin- ciples, from which the compulsory statutes of the realm are not at liberty to diverge. One of these may be the judgment passed by the early Church, on the authority of GOD'S word, respecting the right of controul inherent in the order of Bishops. It is of the human enforcement only of such rights that Parliament is treating. And its opinion on this subject is explained by the great expositor of the Church's constitution, in words the authenticity whereof seems to be attested by their accordance with his general sentiments. " In all societies, companies, and corporations, what severally each shall be bound unto, it must be with all their assents ratified. Against all equity it were that a man should suffer detriment at the hands of men, for not observing that, which he never did, either by himself or by others, mediately or immediately, agree unto."* The interference of Parliament then is not rested on any peculiar quality of Established Churches, but on the clear and intelligible ground of the people's rights. It is part of that system which is involved in the words already quoted, that no " man is a member of the commonwealth, who is not also of the Church of England." It followed naturally from the arrangements of a period in which the whole nation was compelled to be of one * Eccl. Pol. viii. 6. 8. L 146 CHURCH LEGISLATURE. faith. It was part of a compulsory system, and en- dured as long as that system prevailed. Were the churchwardens of every parish chosen by such rate payers as were communicants, did they vote for deputies who should represent the lay mem hers of the Church, and did every parish bind itself by in- denture to submit to such representatives, we should then have an assembly answering to the House of Commons, at the time when Parliament, together with Convocation, was a Church Legislature. Such a plan is not mentioned as though it were thought expedient far otherwise ; but as showing how little Parliament, as at present constituted, can lay claim to such a title. For not only was it never claimed by Parliament, save when united to Convocation, but the very ground on which in that case it was asserted, has passed away. Since Par- liament has ceased to consist of or be elected exclu- sively by Churchmen, it cannot profess to be the representative of the lay members of the Church. Of those who constitute any particular assemblage of its members, not one need be included in her ranks. To assert therefore that it ought to legis- late for her internal interests, is to act in direct contrariety to that very maxim, upon which was grounded its former interference. It is to sanction the principle of persecution, of which the cardinal point seems to be, that one set of persons undertake without authority, to make laws for the religious in- terests of another. " Equals," says Hooker's again, " cannot impose laws or statutes upon their equals. CHURCH LEGISLATURE. 147 Therefore neither may any one man indifferently impose canons ecclesiastical upon another, nor yet one Church upon another. If they go about at any time to do it, they must either show some commission sufficient for their warrant, or else be justly condemned of presumption in the sight both of GOD and man."* Parliament then, as at present constituted, is not only no Church Legislature in itself, but it is des- titute of that very characteristic, which rendered it in times past an inherent part of such a Legislature. Its present acts therefore for the Church can only be acts of arbitrary power. They may be salutary, judicious, and temperate, they have no doubt the compulsory force of penal enactments, but they are without that condition, so essential to all confi- dence, of being enacted by the Church for her own controul. However prompt the obedience which they may receive, while not contrary to the law of GOD, they will not cease to be considered unconsti- tutional and oppressive. So that Parliamentary interference will have to be grounded not on its abstract right, but on its actual advantages. But is there any thing in the manner in which Church questions are commonly discussed in the Legislature, which can compensate for a departure from the maxims of ancient law and the principles of British justice? Is it not notorious that the reception often given to such matters, has convinced those who * Eccl. Pol. viii. 6. 1 . 148 CHURCH LEGISLATURE. judge only by the rule of apparent effect, that the less a Church Legislature is dependent upon the House of Commons, the better ? In all temporal matters, no assembly can be more fair and sagacious than a British House of Commons ; but with spiri- tual questions its very nature disqualifies it to deal. Such questions are seldom introduced, without the occurrence of scenes which must give pain to well- disposed minds. Even in the last generation, when this assembly consisted in larger measure of church- men, one of the Church's most zealous and devout sons was unwilling to bring before it various mat- ters of national importance, because, while it was dubious whether the cause of religion would profit by his attempts, it was certain that it would suffer by the profaneness with which they would be combated.* The Church Legislature then ought to be some- thing distinct from the Imperial Parliament. But supposing, which is sufficiently unlikely, that Par- liament could be induced to make over its legislative power to the bench of Bishops, would this be more satisfactory ? The possibility of its committing this power to any other persons, as, for example, par- ties selected by royal commission, need hardly be thought of, since it is an expedient with which no An honourable exception must be made in reference to a late debate on Lord Ellenborough's Proclamation respecting the Gates of Somnauth. Even here however it was observable how much more alive were the ma- jority of speakers to the religious prejudices of the Mahometans of India, than to those of the Christians of Britain. CHURCH LEGISLATURE. 149 one would be contented, having no basis in the theory of Episcopal authority, and being contrary to the acknowledged principles of the British con- stitution. But the delegation of this power to the Episcopal order would obviate that irreverence so much to be feared from a mixed assembly of church- men and separatists, while the clergy would doubt- less submit with due respect to whatever emanated from such a quarter. But it cannot be concealed that such a measure would not be altogether ac- cordant to the precedents of early times, while it would involve various practical difficulties. Gene- ral councils of old decided things indeed by the judgment of Bishops ; and the judgment of Bishops so assembled 110 churchman probably would dispute. But on such occasions the Bishops of different countries were united, so that the rulers of each Church profited by the hereditary testimony which was borne to the great truths of the gospel by every other. The Bishop also at that time was a sort of representative, in whom the wishes and feelings of the lower clergy, as well as of the laity, were em- bodied. If in general councils the Bishop attended alone, he had previously met his clergy in provin- cial ones, and the principles which he adduced at the former had been canvassed at the latter. Be- sides both clergy and laity had a share in the selec- tion of the person, on whom his brother Bishops were to bestow the Apostolic office. These circumstances show that whatever may be said in favour of such a measure, it cannot at all 150 CHURCH LEGISLATURE. events be rested upon the regulations of the ancient Church. Were the Statutes of Praernunire either repealed or modified, so that the appointment of Bishops was subject to controul by any Church authority were the salutary custom revived of se- curing the co-operation of the inferior clergy by previous consultation such a course might then be defended by its analogy to the usage of earlier days. At present the measure must be canvassed with a view principally to its practical effect. Suppose that such a step had been taken at the commencement of the last century. A further change in the Prayer-Book is known to have been in agitation, which it is impossible to contemplate without great apprehension. And from the avowed sentiments of Burnet, (certainly not the worst man in the party which had the ascendancy,) subscrip- tion to our ancient formularies would probably have been abandoned. This measure Bishop Burnet prided himself in having been the means of bring- ing about at Geneva,* and the ascendancy of So- cinian principles is the acknowledged result of his efforts. That similar results would have followed if the party of Bishop Hoadley had ever possessed itself of legislative power, is sufficiently obvious from the sentiments of what was called " the Fea- thers' Tavern Petition." With this precedent before us, is it likely that the great body of the lay mem- bers of the Church, would acquiesce in committing Burnet's Life and Times, 2. 693. CHURCH LEGISLATURE. ] 51 to any body of persons an absolute power of legis- lature which they do not at present possess ? What may be the abstract right of the Episcopal order is not here discussed, nor is the compulsory power of Parliament disputed ; but no great change is likely to be made, until both right and power are com- bined in the same parties. So that, as matters stand at present, if Parliament would delegate its power, which can hardly be expected, the acqui- escence of the great mass of churchmen might not be secured. And if this be so, there is little prospect of see- ing any Church Assembly endowed with a plenary power of Legislation. The Church's laws must continue to resemble the principles of the Spartan Constitution, and be incapable of change, unless under a contingency as unlikely as that the spirit of Lycurgus should re-animate his lifeless clay. For as Sparta had pledged herself to admit no alteration till the return of her great Lawgiver, so can the Church desire none, while the Legislative power is in the hands of other than her own repre- sentatives. Nor is this inflexibility in her funda- mental laws so much to be regretted. A power of adaptation in matters of detail is consistent with the most unalterable stability of principles. The boughs may have room to extend, and the leaves to unfold themselves, while the roots only strike deeper in the parent soil. This was the very prin- ciple of those ancient states in which the fluctua- tions of human opinion were restrained within cer- 152 CHURCH LEGISLATURE. tain sacred limits, yet were allowed freedom enough to prevent stagnation. The British constitution, indeed, confiding in the fixed habits of our leaders, leaves its Parliament absolutely unfettered ; but our more jealous kinsmen in America intrust their Congress with no such discretionary power. The fundamental laws of the United States cannot be altered without a reference to the people at large ; and the acts of Congress therefore are subject to be disallowed by the Courts of Justice. Now is there no assembly, which while it is limited in like man- ner by the established laws of the Church, might within those limits exercise a partial authority ? Because the Church can have no plenary legisla- ture, such as Sparta renounced, and such as Amer- ica does not commonly employ, can she therefore have no authorized organ, and combined existence ? On the contrary, she actually possesses such an organ, limited indeed both in nature and power, but within its limits perfectly capable of action, namely, the Convocation of the Bishops and Clergy of the Church of England. Convocation, it is true, could not by itself make rules which could be enforced upon the laity. This question is set at rest by Lord Hardwicke's deci- sion.* Nor could it alter any of those laws, which Parliament, and the Convocation annexed to it, have enacted. With the Book of Common Prayer therefore and with the Articles it could not inter- * Preface to Burn's Eccl. Law, xxxi. CHURCH LEGISLATURE. 153 fere. Indeed it may be doubted whether without some further sanction, (which however might pro- bably be obtained) it could even authorize the use of such forms of Prayer, as occasional circumstances render it desirable to introduce. But it would be able to pass canons for the direction of the clergy, which, when not contrary to Acts of Parliament, might be carried into effect by the Ecclesiastical Courts of the realm. Such canons, when ratified by the Sovereign, would not only be binding upon the consciences of the clergy, but might be en- forced upon them as laws. It might in like man- ner exonerate them from such an use of the funeral service, as was never intended by its original com- pilers. For this necessity depends upon a canon alone.* It would thus be able to introduce such a measure of discipline as is dependent upon the acts of the clergy ; while its superintendence would obviate partial and inconsiderate attempts, and give efficacy to consistent and salutary reforms. It could devise remedies for many difficulties at pre- sent experienced, and originate plans of various and extensive usefulness. The Church would thus * Convocation could only release the clergy from such canonical obliga- tions as are contrary to the intentions of the Church. The right of every Parishioner to a grave in the church-yard, but without any religious ser- vice, would remain such as it is according to the Common Law. In the case of Rex v. Taylor, " the clergyman had allowed the body to be taken into the church-yard, and had permitted a grave to be dug there," and the Court held "that they could only order the interment of the body, the performance of ecclesiastical rites being left to the ordinary." Mastin v. Escott, p. 177. 154 CHURCH LEGISLATURE. have an organ, which, if not chosen by its whole body, might yet speak in its name. And such an organ is the more called for at pre- sent, because the restless spirit of the times, toge- ther with the absolute necessity of certain altera- tions, may otherwise commit the Church to changes in which she will have no voice, and which she will regard perhaps with no satisfaction. When storms assail and breakers threaten, it cannot be needless to stand by the helm, and see that the sails are adjusted. If at such a moment the vessel is abandoned by its own crew, and pronounced to be unmanageable, no wonder that others assume a right to direct its course. Now of this nature is the Church's present crisis. She has much to hope, and yet it is impossible to deny that she has much to fear. She is no longer, as in the last century, becalmed in the midst of the ocean : new objects and fresh emergencies are every hour arising, fraught indeed with danger, but indicating more certainly the proximity of the haven. To whom then shall she commit her helm : to her own chil- dren or to strangers ? Are her measures to be can- vassed with that deep and serious consideration, which may be expected from those who think her interests the most important of earthly considera- tions, or are they to be jumbled up with Tariffs and Railroad bills, in an assembly the time where- of is already fully occupied, and where subjects are afloat, which to the Laity at large possess more immediate interest ? The question at present, as CHURCH LEGISLATURE. 155 an eminent Prelate has of late observed, is riot be- tween rest and change ; but between changes with the Church's consent and without it ; between the right of Convocation and the power of Parlia- ment.* For while Parliament is confessed to have the power of legislating for the Church, Convo- cation within its proper limits, has both the power and the right. Its power is plainly recognized by the statute which restrains the clergy from making canons " by authority of the Convocation," which shall be contrary to the customs of the realm. f It is still more plainly recognized by the Royal De- claration prefixed to the Articles, which promises license to Convocation, in order " that the Church- men may do the work, which is proper unto them." Its revival therefore would not, like any new expedient, endanger the ancient harmony be- tween Church and State, because it is already a part of our constitution, "as by law established." And so far as the clergy are concerned, it has that very claim of right on which the interference of Parliament in times past was rested. It is the authorized expositor of their sentiments, because by representation:}: it is themselves. It is capable * Charge of the Bishop of Salisbury, for 1842. f 25 Henry VIII. 19. J Convocation appears to combine every claim to be a body representative of the Clergy, having been formed from the union of two kinds of assem- blies, one called by the Archbishops as Provincial Synods, the other sum- moned by the Bishops in consequence of a writ from the Crown, for the purpose of taxing the Clergy. The difference between these two assem- blies, and the manner in which they were united, is thus stated by Hey- lin, at a time when the subject had not yet become matter of controversy : 156 CHURCH LEGISLATURE. of vindication therefore according to that jealous vigilance, which demands that every institution which is introduced among us, should be accordant with the free principles of the Saxon race. To all which must be added, that it alone will satisfy those who take the higher line of Church authority, inasmuch as it forms the only means by which the voice of the Church's spiritual governors can be pronounced. To this view they are positively " In calling Parliaments the King directs his writs or letters severally to the Peers and Prelates, requiring them to attend in Parliament, to be holden by the advice of his Privy Council, at a certain time and place ap- pointed, and there to give their counsel in some great and weighty affairs, touching himself, the safety of the realm, and the defence of the Church of England : a clause being added in all those to the several Bishops, to give notice to all Deans and Archdeacons to attend the Parliament in their own persons, all Chapters by one proxy, and the Diocesan Clergy by two ; for yielding their counsel and obedience to such laws and ordinances as by the Common Council of the kingdom shall then be enacted : which clause re- mains still in those letters, though not still in practice. Writs are sent out also to the several Sheriffs, acquainting them with his Majesty's purpose of consulting in a Parliamentary way with the Peers, and Prelates, and other great men of the realm, (the Judges and Officers of State, &c.) and re- quiring them to cause two knights to be elected for every county, two citizens for every city, &c. All of these to attend in Parliament at the time appointed : no otherwise empowered than the Dean, Archdeacons, and the rest of the Clergy by their formal writs. But in the calling of a Convocation the form is otherwise : for in this case the King directs his writs to the two Archbishops, requiring them for the great and weighty reasons above mentioned, to cause a Convocation of the Clergy to be forth- with called, leaving the nomination of the time and place to their discre- tion ; though for the ease of the Bishops and Clergy, commanded to at- tend in Parliament, as before was said, the Archbishop used to nominate such time and place, as might suit with that attendance. On the receiving of which writ, the Archbishop of Canterbury sent his mandate to the Bishop of London, as Dean of the Episcopal College, requiring him to cite and summon all the Bishops, Deans, Archdeacons, and Capitular bodies, with the whole Clergy of the province, according to the usual form, to ap- CHURCH LEGISLATURE. 157 pledged by the decision of the Bishops and Clergy of a past age, who have actually denounced the penalty of excommunication upon those, who shall deny that the sacred synod of this land is " the Church of England by representation."* More- over it has a strong claim upon that very different, but scarcely less numerous class of persons, who, without troubling themselves about principles, are pear before him at such place and time as he therein nominated, and that the Procurators for the Chapter and Clergy be furnished with sufficient powers by those that sent them, not only to treat upon such points as should be propounded for the peace of the Church, and defence of the realm of England, and to give their counsel in the same, but also to consent, both in their own names, and in the names of them that sent them, unto all such things as by mature deliberation and counsel should be there advanced. Which mandate being received by the Bishop of London, he sends out his citations to the several Bishops of that province, and they give intimation of it to the clergy of their different Dioceses ; according whereunto the Chapters and Parochial clergy elect their Clerks, binding themselves under the forfeiture of all their goods, to stand to and perform whatsoever the said Clerks shall say or do in their behalf. " Both bodies being thus assembled, are to continue their attendance on the public service during the pleasure of the King; the acts of both to be invalid till confirmed by his Majesty, the one most commonly by himself, sitting upon his royal throne in open Parliament, the other always by let- ters patent under the Great Seal ; neither of the two to be dissolved but by several writs, that for the Parliament directed to the Lord Chancellor or Lord Keeper, (as the case may be) that for the Convocation issued out to the Metropolitans of the several provinces. In this, and this alone, they differ as to matter of form, that the Peers and people assembled in Parliament may treat, debate, and conclude of any thing which is tendered to the King for his royal assent, without any other power than the first writ, by virtue whereof they are assembled. But the Bishops and Clergy are restrained in their Convocation by the Statute of the 25th Henry VIII., from treating, debating, framing and concluding of any Canons and Con- stitutions, or doing any Ecclesiastical acts, tending to the determination of controversies or decreeing ceremonies, till they are licensed thereunto by the King's Commission." Life of Laud, p. 421. Canon 139. 158 CHURCH LEGISLATURE. anxious only for something, which can be brought to bear at once, and will lead to direct practical improvements. For this purpose, what more suit- able than Convocation ? Its revival needs no law, and involves no disputed principles ; it is already in existence, and might act immediately supposing only that the Queen's licence was solicited and ob- tained. Now with these arguments in its favour, why is it that Convocation, which for successive cen- turies was the safe and natural medium for eccle- siastical reforms, by which all matters of Church discipline were uniformly decided, should be viewed with so much distrust ? Is it reasonable, that the collisions of a short period of political disunion should be allowed to outweigh the benefits of seven hundred years of peaceful and salutary action ? The nature of these collisions it is essential to notice, inasmuch as they form the real ground of that suspicion, with which the renewal of synodical action is regarded by wise and good men. They had their root in the deprivation of a body of learned, zealous, and respected clergymen, whose consciences forbade them to take oaths to King William III., which they judged contrary to those taken to his predecessors. Whether their decision was right or wrong, it is needless to inquire : but considering that many of them had incurred the displeasure of James by opposing what was illegal in his measures, it is impossible not to respect their conduct in sacrificing their worldly prospects to their feeling of the sanctity of an oath. The natu- CHURCH LEGISLATURE. 1,59 ral leaders then of the Church were suddenly with- drawn, and among its younger and less tried mem- bers were to be found the directors of its future course. Every ten thousand may in such circum- stances contain its Xeriophon, but the moment was doubtless critical, arid no wonder if the clergy were disinclined for new and hazardous attempts. Of the twenty-six Prelates of the Church of England, nearly half had been removed, eight for not taking the oaths, and four others by death.* The main charge against the lower House of Convocation is, that at this moment it refused to concur in a sud- den alteration of the Liturgy arid Discipline of the Church. The other complaints against it arose in fact out of this, for this created the suspicion and hostility to which the subsequent dissensions are to be attributed. Now had the change been an unques- tionable improvement, we may pardon those who at such a moment were indisposed to make it. But when we find that for the time-honoured petitions of our ancient ritual, were to be substituted " new collects for the whole course of the year," in which " Dr. Tillotson had the last hand, giving them some free and masterly strokes of his easy and flowing eloquence," that " the chaunting of divine service in Cathedral Churches" was to be " laid * Seth Ward, Bishop of Salisbury, ob. Jan. 6, 1688. Humphrey Lloyd, Bishop of Bangor, ob. Jan. 18, 1688. Thomas Cartwright, Bishop of Chester, ob. April 15, 1689. The See of Exeter was already vacant by the translation of Lamplugh to York, which had not been filled since the death of Dolben, in 1686. 160 CHURCH LEGISLATURE. aside," that such points as episcopal ordination, the use of sponsors, the practice of kneeling at the Holy Communion, and the Athanasian Creed, though not abandoned,* were yet not to be insisted upon, we can hardly wonder at the disinclination of the lower House to entertain the question of al- teration. Few churchmen probably of modern days, will fail to agree with Bishop Burnet, a main abettor of these alterations, in thinking that their defeat was " a very happy direction of the provi- dence of GOD."| And if this was admitted within a few years, even by the most busy advocate of such innovations, what just ground could such conduct supply either for regarding convocations in general with alarm, or for subjecting this to the especial displeasure of the government ? Such how- ever was the result. " Seeing they were in no dis- position to enter upon business," says Burnet, " they were kept from doing mischief by proroga- tions for a course of ten years.":]: With the natural irritation which such a state of things engendered, did Convocation meet again ten years afterwards. The very persons who were resenting the unjust censure which had been passed upon them, were suddenly presented with an op- * Rapin's History of England, vol. iii. b. 25. p. 108. As a further indi- cation of the judgment of those, who proposed to remodel what our Re- formers had thought most worthy of regard amidst the records of antiquity, may be mentioned their determination that " the prayer which begins, O God, whose nature and property, shall be thrown out, as full of strange and impertinent expressions." ] History of own Times, vol. ii. p. 33. Burnet, 2. 33. CHURCH LEGISLATURE. ] 6l portunity of re-asserting their innocence and their rights. If they did not do so with all the temper which could be desired, yet at all events they were not guilty of any such heinous excesses as the Long Parliament, when it recovered itself after similar suspension. If the acts of the one are no good argument against Parliaments, neither are those of the other against Convocations. Nor were their acts at worst any thing more than was natural, after the deprivation of the nonjuring Bishops had destroyed for a time the natural inter- course between the rulers of the Church, and those they governed. For it cannot be too much in- sisted upon, that Episcopal government is not of the nature of those ancient tyrannies, in which the subjugation of a vanquished people left nothing but a master on one side and slaves on the other. Rather is it the perfection of that paternal govern- ment, which attended the original developement of the human race, in which affection and consan- guinity was felt as vividly in the highest as in the lowest bosom, and every inferior conceived himself to have a natural representative in the person of his chief. The inherent influence of the family re- lations, and the equity of an unwritten law, are the natural check on such a government ; and they would have been sufficient in any ordinary times to have saved the Church from collisions so disas- trous. But could this influence be reckoned upon when men were excited by injustice and suspicion, while loyalty and obedience spoke with a divided M 162 CHURCH LEGISLATURE. voice ? Nor is it a slight disadvantage that the Convocation of that day has the misfortune to be principally known through the writings of Burnet, a man of zeal and talents, who has repaid the illiberality at that time shown to his nation and his politics, by a deep-rooted hatred, which, when- ever the clergy of the Church of England are in question, he never fails to express. It must be borne in mind also, that these dis- putes were not, after all, the cause which led to the suspension of synod ical action. They had in a considerable degree subsided ; Atterbury, who had borne a main part in inflaming them, had been re- moved to the Episcopal Bench ; and the authority of the Archbishop had been asserted and obeyed. It was not till the political interests of the ruling party required the preservation of Hoadley from the censure to which he was justly liable, that the voice of the Church was finally stifled. The vio- lence of the ruling party may be estimated, when it was thought justifiable to expunge the honoured name of Sherlock from the list of the King's Chap- lains, because he took part against this political divine, whom one of the most distinguished Pre- lates of the present day (the Bishop of London) has not scrupled to designate as a Socinian. What- ever therefore may have been the temporary faults of convocation, it was not any strange or unreason- able proceeding which occasioned the final suspen- sion of its powers. And if the conduct of the Lower House of Con- CHURCH LEGISLATURE. 163 vocation be allowed to have been open to some ex- ception, it should not be forgotten that the period during which its sessions were permitted, was a time of active zeal, which altogether slept so soon as they were suspended. Bishop Gibson bestows especial praise upon the pains which Convocation had taken at this very period, for the purpose of correcting the evils of the Ecclesiastical Courts, and asserts it to have already made progress in this important task.* One of the most material parts of the improvement effected in 1813, had been al- ready recommended by it, and would have been at- tained a century sooner, if the King's sanction had not been withdrawn.f The Report of the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel, at the same pe- riod A. D. 1712, and A. D. 1713 states that a re- presentation had been made during the preceding year to the Queen, respecting the importance of settling four Bishops in the American Colonies, that she had returned a favourable answer, and ordered the draught of a Bill to be prepared for the consideration of Parliament ; and so certain was the promise of success, that the Society actually pur- chased a house at Burlington, for a Bishop's resi- dence.^: The simple inspection of Nelson's Advice to Persons of Quality will show what was at that time the spirit of the Church. Nor were these efforts uninteresting to those who in other respects * Preface to Charges, p. ix. f Gibson's Codex, 2. 1059. J Sermons before the Society for Prop, of the Gospel, p. 27, 60, &c. 164 CHURCH LEGISLATURE. were the moving spirits of the age. The Commis- sion for building fifty new Churches in and near London, the last great effort in this cause, till at- tention was called to it in recent days, contains, amidst its leading clerical members, those who are principally objected to for their connexion with Convocation. Atterbury, indeed, is said to have suggested the design. And let the state of things during the following reigns be considered. Was it a wholesome change which was introduced by Wai- pole, when he made the preferment of the Crown a mere instrument of temporal corruption ? This, it is to be observed, was a new scheme, not more contrary to the laws of the Church than to the practice of the government. In King William's days, a Commission of Bishops, it is well known, was appointed to recommend the fittest persons for all government preferment. In Queen Anne's reign, the course was the same which had been followed from time immemorial the Crown was advised by responsible ecclesiastical councillors, and was expected to be as free from mercenary motives as any other patron. How the practice introduced by Walpole, of bartering Church preferment for Par- liamentary support, can be exempted from the guilt of simony, it is difficult to conceive. On this pain- ful part of our history it is sufficient to say, that the evil never could have reached the height it did, had there been a Church Legislature, authorized to represent to the Sovereign the misconduct of his officers. But it was essential for Walpole to CHURCH LEGISLATURE, 165 prevent the clergy from assembling, when he found that with all the patronage of the Crown he was unable to bribe them to silence. A system, there- fore, which had not been adopted since the time of William II. (except during the ten years of William III.) was again introduced into our history. Du- ring the reign of William Rufus, synodical meet- ings of the clergy were suspended, lest they should remind the King that Bishoprics were kept vacant, and their revenues appropriated to his own use. From the year 1717, when the last discussions took place in Convocation, there would have been equal ground to dread an inquiry into the principles upon which public preferment was administered. A bet- ter system, happily, has now been adopted. And the destruction of Borough patronage, by the Re- form Bill, has withdrawn the temptation to the former abuses. What cause is there then why government should entertain any fear of what was formerly not unreasonably to be apprehended ? Es- pecially since one common feeling of loyalty has taken place of that political division, by which the mal-practices of the last age are in some measure palliated. The ground of alarm is the less, because the constitution of Convocation cannot surely be con- sidered to be unreasonably democratic. It cannot assemble without the sovereign's writ. When as- sembled, it cannot act without the sovereign's con- currence. The Archbishop's power of suspending it is a further safeguard. Again, it is in a great 166 CHURCH LEGISLATURE. measure composed of those who are appointed by the Bishops. " The Lower House" in the province of Canterbury, to quote from an account which, though old, is not inaccurate, " consists in all of one hundred and sixty-six persons ; viz. twenty- two Deans, twenty-four Prebendaries, fifty-four Archdeacons, arid forty-four Clerks, representing the Diocesan Clergy."* Now although this body may have been at va- riance with the Upper House, when so sudden a change had been undergone by the Episcopal Or- der, yet there can be no natural reason for such dissensions. It is guarded against by individual attachment, as well as by public principle. And this is, after all, the great evil against which it is necessary to guard, both because it is the only rock which has hitherto been found fatal, and because it is most opposed to those principles of duty by which the clergy ought to be directed. But another apprehension is not unlikely to sug- gest itself: the fear of violent dissensions among individual members of the inferior body. The present age, like every other, has its party ques- tions, which are not agitated in a more dispassion- ate and Christian spirit than during times past. Would not these questions induce ferment and agi- * Chamberlain's State of England. There seems no reason, in point of principle, why the Assemblies of the two Provinces should not be sum- moned together, as appears to have been the case when they were assem- bled by the Archbishop of Canterbury's legatine authority. In later times, the Prelates of the Northern Provinces often sat with their southern bre- thren Vide Lathbury's Hist, of Convoc. p. 132, 244. CHURCH LEGISLATURE. 167 tation ? This fear is sometimes grounded on the judgment of an ancient Father, respecting ecclesias- tical assemblies ; a judgment however of which the universal application may be more safely dis- puted, because it referred to meetings of Bishops, not of the inferior clergy, and the Anglican Bishops have been long used to meet together without such lamentable results. It may be doubted also whether the agitated state of the public mind is not as strong an argu- ment for the revival of Convocation, as for con- tinuing its suspension. For is the Church quiet at present ? Is not the land split into cabals, which are assailing one another? Are there not news- papers and periodicals, which exist by keeping the heat of different religious parties at the point of in- cipient combustion ? Now it is an established rule in politics, that such peccant humours must either be suppressed by authority, or be allowed to evapor rate by some natural vent. Why is the People's Charter safely despised, but because we have the Bill of Rights ? What renders the meeting of Dele- gates unimportant, but the yearly session of the House of Commons ? Might not something of this kind be expected, if the Church had some authorized mode of expressing its sentiments ? At present every party and every writer professes to speak for the Church of England. One man quotes it for this or that ceremony : another asserts it to dis- approve of all. What remedy is there against such assertions, however wild and groundless, while the ]68 CHURCH LEGISLATURE. Church's deliberative powers are in abeyance ? The most stirring, active, and noisy, are alone heard. Nothing is less designed than to speak with disre- spect of the able and learned men, who have taken part in the controversies of the day, but the great mass of the clergy, who are occupied in the quiet discharge of their own duties, and desire to know no party but the party of the Church, might well address the clamorous disturbers of their peace in the words which the immortal Burke employed re- specting certain political alarmists. " Because half a dozen grasshoppers under a fern make the field ring with their importunate chink, whilst thou- sands of great cattle, reposed beneath the shadow of the British oak, chew the cud and are silent, pray do not imagine, that those who make the noise are the only inhabitants of the field ; that of course they are many in number, and that, after all, they are other than the little shrivelled, meagre, hopping, though loud and troublesome, insects of the hour." The great mass of the clergy then will be found to look neither to Rome nor Geneva, their desire being only to hand on that system which the wis- dom of past ages has embodied in the Prayer-Book. They will not contract those limits which their fathers erected, much less will they demolish them. They can tolerate such Calvinists as can reconcile themselves to the Baptismal service, and such ad- mirers of the Mediaeval Church as can subscribe the Articles. They think that they have cause to CHURCH LEGISLATURE. 169 bless GOD for the Church which they have received from their fathers, and desire only that they may not deserve their children's curse for its overthrow. " Spartam nactus es, hanc orna," is their motto. Now if such be, as the writer hopes and believes, the feeling of a vast majority of the clergy, would there be danger in giving them such opportu- nity of deliberation as should draw off attention from the self-constituted assemblies of the day? Let men ask themselves whether in any Diocese with which they are acquainted, the more tem- perate and moderate persons would not in general command the confidence of the clergy. Such then would be the representatives whom they would send to Convocation. And what would result from such men's deliberations ? Their debates need not be public. Their resolutions only would be before the world. And these would be a rallying point to the more moderate party, and would attract atten- tion to practical reforms. And while men are in danger of being more widely separated by abstract discussions, they are by nothing more drawn to- gether than by labouring in concert for some prac- tical result. Let some civil improvement, the con- solidation, for instance, of the criminal code, be in question, and the leaders of conflicting parties are found side by side in its support. Those who sus- pect one another are thus brought into concert, and many a long- cherished prejudice is dissolved in the warmth of a kindred pursuit. To these general grounds for looking without 170 CHURCH LEGISLATURE. apprehension on the meeting of Convocation, must be added the fact, that during a most stormy period of our history, no such evil was found to be its re- sult. This was not the charge under which Con- vocation formerly laboured. No more serious ques- tion can at present be agitated, than those which vexed the close of the sixteenth century, ere yet the ferment of the Reformation had subsided. The assaults then made also were against matters of practice, on which any term of union is more diffi- cult to devise. At present those who show least desire to use the Prayer-Book, agree at all events to applaud it. What ground is there for fearing a danger, which even at that period was not found to follow ? There does not seem then to be any reason why churchmen should look with peculiar apprehension on the resumption of the Church's synodical pow- ers. The difficulty felt by many minds will be only that the State will not choose to permit it. No minister of the crown, it will be said, would advise a step which would give such an increase of power to the Church. But the state of public affairs is every day reading new lessons to public men, and a few years will undoubtedly demonstrate, that if the blessings of our present happy constitu- tion are to continue, it can only be through the in- strumentality of our national Church. The last year has witnessed the boiling up of a spirit in our more peopled districts, which no other influence can permanently allay. If Walpole therefore found CHURCH LEGISLATURE. 171 it necessary to weaken the Church, because the government of George I. could not stand against its opposition, the Ministers of Queen Victoria may find it no less needful to strengthen it, now that government cannot endure without its support. Political grounds then might lead a Statesman of his own accord to restore that synodical action, which on political grounds was intermitted. But what minister would incur the responsibility of ad- vising her Majesty to refuse such a permission, if the clergy of every Diocese in England were to re- quest it. It may be said indeed, that so decided a step as this would be inconsistent with the tranquil and retiring habits, which their situation and cha- racter combine to produce. And no doubt they will keep aloof, as they ever have done, from the agitation of the day. But there are limits to this love of peace : and they would surely be aroused to a calm and temperate expression of their wishes, should they see any wholesale and hazardous changes imposed on the Church without right, while she is denied the power to effect for herself the most necessary reforms. In such a case their past silence would add efficacy to their subsequent complaints. And who is there to interfere between the clergy and the goodness of the crown ? This is not a question in which separatists are interested, for we neither seek to obtain for ourselves, nor to debar them, from power or possessions. We seek only that liberty which they all possess, of devising measures for our internal government. 172 CHURCH LEGISLATURE. And have we not a positive declaration, from the same hand which signed the Bill of Rights, that such a request shall not be made ineffectually ? May we not claim it therefore with the same confi- dence, with which any of the civil liberties of the subject are asserted ? Surely no minister would advise the Crown to falsify the royal word to an attached and obedient class of the community. For as the submission of the clergy binds them " not to attempt," as well as not to put in force any Canons or Constitutions without the Queen's sanc- tion, so doubtless would her Majesty not be found wanting to that promise of her predecessor, which still continues to appear in the book of Common Prayer. " That out of our Princely care that the Church- men may do the work that is proper unto them, the Bishops and Clergy, from time to time in convoca- tion^ upon their humble desire, shall have licence under our Broad Seal to deliberate of, and do all such things as being made plain by them, and assented unto by us, shall concern the settled conti- nuance of the Church of England now established" CHAPTER VI. Concluding Considerations. IF Church Discipline be plainly enjoined in Holy Scripture, if the causes which have interfered with our obedience to this command are likely to be withdrawn, inasmuch as a final divorce will be soon made between spiritual power and state coer- cion, if some sacred tribunals are essential to the carrying out of what is required, if such tribunals cannot be obtained except through the action of a Church Legislature, it follows that those who reve- rence GOD'S word, and " pray for the peace of" His spiritual kingdom, should either desire to see that course adopted, which has been described in the preceding pages, or at all events should aim at something by which similar results may be effected. But before concluding the subject, it will be well to notice some difficulties, which will probably sug- gest themselves to reflecting minds. There will no doubt be those who will observe, that in the present day one great duty of the clergy is to induce per- sons to remember the benefits which attend the due use of the Holy Eucharist, that the mass of men are too little inclined to it, and that it would be 174 CHURCH DISCIPLINK. idle to place further hinderances in the way of a duty already so insufficiently regarded. Far better it is, they say, for the clergy to go on inviting all devout persons to communicate as frequently as possible. This is the ordinary advice from the pulpit, and how will it suit with a different lan- guage from the Lord's table ? And do we riot hear with satisfaction, and mention with approbation, the numerous bodies of communicants, which zea- lous and popular ministers have gathered together ? Would these bodies have been so great, if scrutiny and selection had been needful ? In all this there is much of truth ; yet still the question recurs, is this want of inquiry scriptural ? If not, can the outward promise produce real bene- fit, or may it not be the hollow and insincere show of mere profession ? Is it not too much like that state of things which the Apostle censured ? " Ye are puffed up, and have not rather mourned, that he which hath done this thing might be taken away from among you." There is something ex- tremely fearful to the considerate mind in the reli- gious condition of the great mass of the Christian community. What multitudes are there, who by the courtesy of language are called churchmen, but who are not accustomed by any solemn act of their own to claim participation with their risen Sa- viour, even if their open sins and avowed worldli- ness do not show them to be enlisted in the ranks of His enemies ! What is the course of their lives ? They mix with us as friends and neighbours. We CONCLUDING CONSIDERATIONS. 175 meet them in our streets, we talk with them in our market-places. Custom or curiosity, rather than any desire of personal benefit, leads them sometimes to the House of GOD. But they do not even pretend to any intimate connexion with the Church, except in the negative particular, that they have riot allied themselves to any hostile society. They come under no pastoral relation to the ap- pointed ministers of Christ, except that they may have heard at times their general declarations. They were enrolled, indeed, during infancy, in the Christian family, but of the ties and duties of its family union, they have thought nothing. At length they die, and are no more seen. Their dust is now to return to its native earth. And their friends think it essential that the minister of Christ's Church should give expression to their common thanks to GOD, for taking to Him " the soul of this our dear brother here departed." Now that it is not the Church's intent that her words should be so employed, has been made appa- rent. She has authorized no vain hope. She never intended her solemn rites, like uritempered mortar, to be a cement for the crumbling edifices of human deceit. How different, if such persons had on certain previous occasions been reminded of the awful realities, on which themselves were so soon to enter ! What change might it not have wrought in the temper of their minds ? But to be satisfied without any show of repentance and of holiness, to accept, as GOD'S servants, those who 176 CHURCH DISCIPLINE. would not even profess to take on them His mild yoke and light burden what is this but to say that men may live GOD'S enemies, and yet after death be found to be His friends ? And what is this in reality but to maintain that there is some further state of probation, that it is not true that where the tree falls, there it must lie ; that there is some means, in short, of reconciliation with GOD, for those who have not sought Him in this life. So that we have here an instance how much the Romish errors are rooted in the soil of man's nature, for this popular abuse implies, in truth, the doctrine of Purgatory as its explanation. That bold invention, for which there is confessedly no ground in Holy Scripture, owes its currency in great measure to its harmonizing so well with the corrupt practice of a dissipated age. During the strict period of early faith it was never heard of. But when Christianity had become the religion of the empire, and men desired to be esteemed Chris- tians after their death, who during their life would not act upon their baptismal vows, then was this afterthought patched on to the Gospel scheme, as a middle term between its strictness and man's de- pravity. Thus, as Discipline died out, did Purga- tory corne in. This is why the indulgencies, which were designed originally to mitigate the rigours of the first, are still thought by the Romanists to be applicable to the second. But what indulgence can be more plenary than is laid claim to, if con- fessing that " without holiness no man shall see the CONCLUDING CONSIDERATIONS. 177 Lord," we yet discern no incongruity in returning GOD thanks for taking to Him the souls of those, who have never even made profession of obedience. True it is that we cannot read the secrets of man's nature, may be deceived by assumed hypocrisy on one hand, and insensible to secret repentance on another, but when there has been no desire to claim communion with GOD, no profession of obedience, what ground is there for expecting us to allow what has never been asserted ? How can such a system be exempted from participation in the Romish error, which it necessarily involves ? How can it be better described than in the exact lan- guage of the Article, as " a fond thing, vainly in- vented, and grounded on no warranty of Scrip- ture?" This lax system, moreover, is as little commend- able for its practical results as for its authoritative grounds. With the show of inviting, it is the real cause which inclines men to turn their back upon the Lord's Table. For it keeps up the delusion that men can live in peace and die in safety, with- out that communion with Christ which is essential to the life of our spiritual nature. Or even to look at its lower effects, is it not notorious that men are indisposed to prize what is too easy of acquisi- tion ? Let men be told that they may communicate when they will, that they are never to be ques- tioned for their negligence, that the banquet will be made for them every year, that those who now refrain will have another opportunity, and what M 178 CHURCH DISCIPLINE. wonder if they do not press to the marriage feast, when the door is never to be closed against them. With well-disposed persons, also, the general admission of all parties is one of the great stum- bling-blocks which makes them look with suspicion on the communion of the Church. They need some closer bond. They desire some more binding fellowship. This is the motive which leads vast numbers of Christ's poorer brethren to ally them- selves to some separatist body, that so they may be members of a society, in which it can be clearly known who are, and who are not, of their commu- nion ; in which they may find a stricter discipline and a more frequent devotion. They become Sepa- ratists, as men subjected themselves of old to some monastic vow, for whom the ordinary standard of the public devotion was insufficient. The best remedy to such complaints would be to return to the Church's rules : we need only to put these in execution, and men will see that it is not neces- sary to separate from the family of Christ, in order to be of the number of His children. But then it is further objected, that even if Church Discipline could be introduced among the lower classes of society, yet that those of a higher rank would never submit to its enactments. Not to be received for the first time at the Lord's Table, without a previous notice, would be an exaction which such persons could not bring themselves to endure. In proof of which, a story is sometimes adduced, which is told by Alexander Knox of Lord CONCLUDING CONSIDERATIONS. 179 Chancellor Clare. This nobleman, when disposed late in life to adopt a stricter line of conduct than he had done, would not approach the Lord's Table in any place of public resort, but withdrew to some remote Church in the outskirts of Dublin, where he thought that he should escape observation. Yet if we are to draw our examples from other coun- tries, why may not Scotland be as good a model as Ireland ? Is not this usage submitted to by mem- bers of the Kirk, who claim blood as pure and wealth as exorbitant as any Englishman ? And if Lord A. or the Duke of A. submit to it, why should the rest of the nobility find it so objectionable ? If persons go on to observe, that this would imply a submission to the ministers of Christ, not to be ex- pected from the independent spirit of the present day, they should bear in mind the following con- sideration. We hear it stated as a complaint against those times in which Church Discipline was best observed, that the doctrine of justification by faith was then but imperfectly apprehended, that men were accustomed to attach too much importance to their own merits, and to repose too little on the sacrifice of Christ In these respects, our times are supposed to present a favourable contrast to antiquity, and it is inferred that too great attention to Church Discipline may tend to encourage this dangerous defect. Now that which makes the doctrine of justifica- tion by faith so important, is the clear light in which it brings out the great truth of our Lord's sa- 180 CHURCH DISCIPLINE. crifice, once for all, for the sins of men. It sets forth the merit of that grand offering in contradistinction to any notion which men may entertain of their own deservings. The evil therefore, which is op- posed to it, is that pride of heart which would rest in the conceit of its own excellence. Its certain consequence is such unfeigned humility, as will form a just appreciation of its own sins and infir- mities. But neither will this pride nor this hum- bleness be shown in the estimation merely of the common deficiencies of mankind, but in the notion which each man will entertain of his individual de- fects. No one probably was ever so puffed up with pride as to be offended because six feet is a limit to the ordinary stature of mankind, but many have felt hurt at being of more pigmy dimensions than their fellows. So it is then in the things of the spirit. Real humility, the inseparable consequence of being alto- gether free from self-dependence, will show itself in a deep sense of individual sins. A man must be strangely constituted, to whom it costs a pang to confess the general peccancy of human nature, but he who is really justified by faith will discern the individual weight of his own offences. He will discern them in their full proportions, arid perceive that they are of an amount, for which nothing but the Redeemer's sacrifice can satisfy. In the words of the Prayer-Book, " the remembrance of his sins will be grievous unto him, and the burthen of them intolerable." CONCLUDING CONSIDERATIONS. 181 Now let this rule be applied to the instance which has been adduced. Let us take the case of an offender withdrawing secretly to an unfrequented neighbourhood, because he could not bear that the witnesses of his former sins should be spectators of his repentance. With this let us contrast a well known scene from the history of the ancient Church ; a scene however in no respect different from that which every day occurred, except that it was recorded by St. Augustine. The individual spoken of shall be also a man of note, distinguished like the person who has been mentioned for his eloquence and ability. He too had determined late in life to undo the practice of his earlier years. And " when the hour was come for making profes- sion of his faith, (which at Rome they who are about to approach to Thy grace, deliver from an elevated place in the sight of all the faithful, in a set form of words committed to memory) the pres- byters offered Victorinus (as was done to such as seemed likely through bashfulness to be alarmed) to make his profession more privately : but he chose rather to profess his salvation in the pre- sence of the holy multitude. For it was not sal- vation that he taught in rhetoric, and yet that he had publicly professed. How much less then ought he, when pronouncing Thy word, to dread Thy meek flock, who when delivering his own words had not feared a mad multitude. When then he went up to make his profession, all as they knew him whispered his name one to another with the 182 CHURCH DISCIPLINE. voice of congratulation. And who there knew him not ? And there ran a low murmur through all the mouths of the rejoicing multitude, Victorinus ! Victorinus ! Sudden was the burst of rapture when they saw him, suddenly were they hushed that they might hear him. He pronounced the true faith with an excellent boldness, and all wished to draw him into their very heart."* Now which of these cases betrays the most real sense of past defects that in which a man would hide his regret from his nearest fellows, or when his own sense of the greatness of the change ob- literates all thought of human spectators ? And stronger cases might be adduced, did we take the instances of those, who in dress of mourners and with the language of supplicants, solicited re-ad- mission into the society from which their sins had made them exiles. Now if all this is rendered im- possible in the present day by the greater indepen- dence of man's temper, we must admit at all events that in a true sense of our deficiencies, and of the need therefore of our Lord's sacrifice, we have no reason to suppose ourselves in advance of earlier days. For unless we confess that the doc- trine of justification by faith as held among our- selves is too often a mere painted shadow, how can we suppose those persons to be really penetrated with its importance, whom it does not lead to a lively sense of their own defects ? What are we to St. Augustine's Confessions, viii. 5. CONCLUDING CONSIDERATIONS. 183 say of men who study so much the decency of their regret, and the opinion which may be formed of their penitence by their fellow-creatures ? Are those true penitents, who cannot bring themselves to the humiliation of desiring to be received afresh into the covenant of Christ's mystic blessings ? Either therefore we must abandon this objection against Church Discipline, or the pretence that in our estimate of Christ's sole sacrifice we have made such wide advances must be abandoned for ever. Nor must it be forgotten that if there are some who would be offended by the return to a more strict rule of discipline, there are others whose complaint is of the want of those soothing reme- dies, in which the wounded conscience might seek relief. No one can long have had the care of souls without meeting with persons, who were oppressed with the burthen of past sins, and desired nothing so earnestly as some rule of discipline, by which they might find guidance as to the manner and proofs of their repentance. This is not indeed the common case ; the generality of persons, though confessing that in general they are offenders, have no such lively sense of sin as to be able to discover their particular grief. They are like the hypochon- driac, who tells us he is ill, but cannot say what is his especial sickness. Such conduct is the natural tendency of the age : the effect of that Antinomian carelessness, with which the most thoughtless men have learnt to shield themselves under the general 184 CHURCH DISCIPLINE. promises of Scripture. Some however still remain, who have a more genuine tenderness of conscience, and who would gladly be assured that their repent- ance is sincere, and that their sins therefore are really forgiven. If such persons fall under the direction of in- structors who understand rightly the Church's sys- tem, they may doubtless be duly guided, but in how many cases have they to regret the absence of that public order and authorized system, which the Prayer-Book implies, but in which the practice of the Church is wanting ? How much rather would they wait to be directed, than put themselves for- ward to seek for guidance. They desire that the Church should mark out their course, and are un- satisfied in following mere individual suggestions. To tell them that they may judge for themselves, at their own hazard, when their penitence is sin- cere, and whether or no to approach the Lord's table, is to cast upon individuals the very respon- sibility, from which the public order of the Chris- tian ministry was instituted to relieve them. Did St. Paul cast this responsibility upon the offending Corinthian ? Did not he provide for the case by a definite law which could not be mistaken ? What cruelty is it then not to give relief to such persons, by providing that the authorized ministry of the word shall of itself bring them in contact with those, who are instructed, and have authority to deal with them. It should not be left to them to search out and invent a remedy for their difficulties : the CONCLUDING CONSIDERATIONS. 185 Church's general duty is to show herself prepared beforehand to administer relief. And who should be more regarded than those who are really suffer- ing under sense of sin, who need comfort under their distress, and guidance under their perplexities? Theirs is the broken reed and smoking flax, which the merciful Redeemer thought worthy of especial tenderness. These are the Church's children, whose bread we may not waste, in a fruitless attempt to make Christ's banquet palatable to the worldly and luxurious. There is no reason then, why the authorized directors of the Church should refrain from taking such steps, as may lead to an enforcement of those rubrical orders which respect Church Discipline. There is no reason why they should not require previous notice from all new attendants at the Lord's table why they should not agree upon some method for the exclusion of unworthy commu- nicants, (as provided in the rubrics before the com- munion office) lastly, why they should allow the clergy to use Church-offices for those who are not Church-men. One further point only shall be no- ticed in conclusion, the feeling, namely, which has been already alluded to, that such matters were better left to the independent action of our existing Diocesans. Now the direct answer to this, already given, is that some legislative orders are needed to give effect to these rules, and that neither by the law of the land, nor by the law of the English Church, do our Bishops possess by themselves any 186 CHURCH DISCIPLINE. legislative power. The question is not therefore whether any other constitution would be better, but whether, till a better is provided for us, we shall use the one we possess. That our Bishops possess no such power at pre- sent is beyond dispute : the law of the land can emanate from no body but the Imperial Parlia- ment, and legislative authority in the Church has been given in express words to the Bishops and Clergy in Convocation. This is the statement of the 139th canon, " agreed upon," " in their Synod begun at London, A. D. 1603." " Authority of Synods. A national Synod the Church Representative. Whosoever shall hereafter affirm that the Sacred Synod of this nation in the name of the Church, and by the King's authority assembled, is not the true Church of England by representation, let him be excommunicated." Such is the present constitution of the English Church, and it has been already observed that it is by no means so opposite to primitive usage as might at first sight be supposed. The subject is not noticed in this place with a view of resuming the discussion of the conformity of this usage to an- cient rules, but with a view of noticing its prac- tical consequence. There is nothing then, which though it might seem to limit the Bishop's power, would in fact so greatly increase it, as a renewal of .synodical action. CONCLUDING CONSIDERATIONS. 187 It was said of old that the Prince who limited Spartan rule, left it in fact greater, because more secure. And this must ever be the case in an in- stitution like the Church, compacted merely by voluntary acquiescence, where the power of rulers depends on their carrying with them the willing assent of an attached people. Let the lower clergy feel that they have a voice in what is decided, that their wishes are consulted, and their wants known, and the moral influence of their leaders without which power in this country is but an unmanage- able weapon would become irresistible. Now how can this be so naturally and so safely effected as through the existence of a lower house of Convocation, consisting on the one hand of the representatives of the clergy, and on the other of persons appointed by the Bishops themselves ? When backed in this manner by the unanimous voice of the Church, with what confidence would they proceed in every reform. They would be in no danger of committing themselves to steps, like the suppression of the See of Sodor and Man, not to take a more present instance, which the unanimous reclamations of the inferior clergy must make them desirous to recall. They would either advance with greater safety, or stand still with greater satisfaction. The necessary result of the contrary system may be seen in the lamentable condition of things during the last century on the one hand might be seen clergymen whose conduct called loudly for restraint and censure and Bishops 188 CHURCH DISCIPLINE. on the other who felt that they were too unpo- pular to venture upon measures of reform. Yet such must ever be the case, among a free people, when mere force is substituted in the place of in- fluence. From such difficulties we might now be free. No disputed succession divides the nation. No doubt as to the truth or excellence of our for- mularies divides the Church. The character of our clergy has advanced with the popularity of their rulers. Disputes indeed there are, but their reme- dy is not rest, but action. Let the Church but move on in her divine warfare, and many who are now ready to turn their weapons against one ano- ther, would then vie in service against the common foe. We need only to have a path laid open to our attempts, in that direction which GOD'S law requires, and in which the leaders of our Reforma- tion have invited us to advance. To you, then, reverend Fathers, I make my ap- peal. I beseech you to consider the power which you possess, in that ready submission with which the clergy of the Church of England would answer to your call. The greatest body of educated per- sons in the country, toiling in calm obedience along their unnoticed path, enduring patiently the per- secution of lawless, and the contempt of ambitious men, they wait but your signal to act together with a promptitude, which no other class either would or could display. This thought surely may teach the abiding truth of that, which was spoken to the original possessors of your office ; " if ye have faith CONCLUDING CONSIDERATIONS. 189 as a grain of mustard seed, ye shall say unto this mountain, be thou plucked up, and be thou planted in the sea, and it shall obey you." This promise proved true to those twelve disciples who first reared the mountain of the Lord's house, and why should it be less applicable to the successors of the Apostles ? I may be accused of an hereditary apti- tude to believe 'the possibility of great reforms and I am not careful to deny the imputation. But of this I am confident, that the great practical de- ficiency of the present day is in that quality of which in theory there is most profession The age is without faith. Have not those very principles of policy and of literature, which were laughed to scorn by the last generation, been adopted as axioms by our own ? Sixty years ago, who had ventured to arraign the Slave Trade even in a British House of Commons, while it is now condemned by the con- sentient voice of collective Europe. How many maxims and customs of a past age have been dis- carded as unanimously as they were approved ? Have not taste and art gone through a total revolu- tion? What need we then but FAITH to see the manners of men reformed ? The Word of GOD at all events is a standard, which admits of no varia- tion ; and so long as the Prayer-Book of the Church continues to embody its yearly complaint, the time can never be gone by for a return to CHURCH DISCIPLINE. 190 The following Petitions were unanimously agreed upon at a Meeting of the Clergy of the Archdea- conry of the East Riding, held at Beverley, after public notice, on the 19th January, 1843. To the Queen's Most excellent Majesty, The humble Petition of the Archdeacon and Clergy of the Archdeaconry of the East Riding of the County of York, and of others of the Clergy resident within the limits of the said Archdeaconry. Sheweth, That your Petitioners approach your Majesty with the dutiful assurance of their devoted attachment and loyalty to your Majesty's person and government. That your peti- tioners humbly beg leave to represent to your Majesty, that of late years various measures have been adopted and opinions maintained and upheld by the legislature and other authorities of this country, as well as by large and influential bodies of individuals, deeply, and, in the judgment of your Petitioners, injuriously affecting the doctrines and discipline, as well as ancient and undoubted rights and privileges of the Church of England, her Bishops and Clergy ; that your petitioners have been informed, and verily believe, that other measures of like dangerous ten- dency are in contemplation : that by the ancient laws and constitution of this realm, all measures, legal alterations and changes affecting the Doctrines, Discipline, Rights and Privileges aforesaid, ought previously to their final adoption, to be submitted to the consideration, and sanc- tioned by the concurrence of the Bishops and Clergy of the Church in Convocation assembled : and that in confor- mity therewith, one of your Majesty's Royal Predecessors, King Charles the First, did in his Royal Declaration, by which he ratified and confirmed the Articles of Religion, professed and maintained by the said Church, declare and 191 promise that " out of his princely care that the Churchmen " might do the work that was proper unto them, the " Bishops and Clergy from time to time in Convocation " upon their humble desire, should have Licence under his " Majesty's broad Seal to deliberate of and to do all such " things as being made plain by them, and assented unto " by his said Majesty, should concern the settled continu- " ance of the Doctrine and Discipline of the Church of " England, as then established, from which his said " Majesty declared that he would not endure any varying " or departing in the least degree." That your petitioners further beg leave humbly to represent to your Majesty, that no such licence as aforesaid has been issued in conformity with the said gracious declaration of your said Majesty's Royal Predecessor, for a period of one hundred and twenty- five years now last past, whereby the Bishops and Clergy have been deprived of the power to deliberate and act as aforesaid : and that in the opinion of your petitioners, it is to this cause that the said injurious measures and opinions above mentioned are to be mainly attributed ; and your petitioners further beg leave humbly to represent, that the Ministers of the Religion established by Law in Scotland, as well as those of every sect and denomination of Religion in England, enjoy the full and free privilege of synodical action, and that it is not enjoyed by the Bishops and Clergy of the Church of England alone. Wherefore your peti- tioners beg leave to present to your Majesty their humble petition, and desire that your Majesty in conformity with the said declaration and promise of your Majesty's said Royal Predecessor, will be graciously pleased to issue your Royal Licence to the said Bishops and Clergy to deliberate of, and do all such things in Convocation, as shall concern the settled continuance of the Doctrines and Discipline of the Church of England, by Law established. And your petitioners will ever pray. 192 To the Lord Bishop of Salisbury. MY LORD, I have the honour to inform your Lordship, that I have not failed to lay before the Queen, the address of the Archdeacon and Clergy of the East Riding of the County of York, transmitted to me by your Lordship in the absence of His Grace the Archbishop of York, praying that Her Majesty will be graciously pleased to grant the Royal Licence for the Clergy assembled in Convocation to deliberate on matters relating to the doctrine and the Discipline of the Established Church. I have the honour to be, My Lord, Your Lordship's very obedient servant, JAMES GRAHAM. Whitehall, February 13, 1843. To the Honourable the Commons, &c. in Parliament assembled. The humble petition of the Archdeacon and Clergy of the Archdeaconry of the East Riding of the County of York, and of other of the Clergy resident within the limits of the said Archdeaconry. Sheweth, That your Petitioners have learned with great anxiety that it is intended to introduce into your honourable house under the Sanction of Her Majesty's Government, a Bill greatly altering the constitution of the Spiritual Courts of England and Wales : that your petitioners are of opinion that certain material changes are needed in the said Courts, but that very many of the powers exercised by the said Courts, and thej questions submitted to their decision, are 193 of a nature wholly or in part Spiritual, and deeply affecting the Doctrine, Discipline and Polity of the Church of England ; that for the due exercise of such powers and the satisfactory settlement of such questions, it is necessary that the advice and assistance should be had of persons who by a long course of study and professional education, are well imbued with sound principles of religious knowledge and theological learning ; and more particularly with the Doctrines, Discipline and Polity of the Church of England, as declared and maintained in her Articles, Liturgy, Con- stitutions and Canons : and that such qualifications can in the ordinary course of affairs, be only expected or found to exist in the Bishops and Clergy of the said Church : and that for want of such advice and assistance as aforesaid, various errors in Spiritual Doctrine, and various infractions of the Rights and Privileges of the said Church have re- ceived the Sanction of public Authority : and your peti- tioners would further beg leave humbly to represent to your honourable House, that whatever power of spiritual discipline still exists in the Church, is capable of being exercised only through the medium of the Ecclesiastical Courts : that it is only by means of these Courts, that spiritual offences can in any manner be visited by the censures of the Church, or that, as a last resource, un- worthy members can be cut off from the fellowship of the body of Christ : but that the exercise of this high and necessary power, hath in all ages of the Church of Christ and in every portion of it, but more especially in the Con- stitutions and Canons of that pure and reformed part of it now happily established in England, been recognised as absolutely and essentially inherent in the Church alone : that the exercise of this authority is solemnly referred to in the Service appointed to be used in the Church at the Consecration of every Bishop, as being a duty committed to him not only by the ordinances of the realm, but also by the word of God : but that the removal of this power, supposing that the said Courts should be abolished, without the substitution of some other legitimate means of spiritual superintendence in their stead, will wrest from the Bishop 194 that controul and superintendence, to which he himself stands pledged by his own oath of office, made in the face of the Church at his Consecration. And your petitioners further beg leave humbly to represent that his Majesty King Charles the First did in his Royal Declaration, ratifying the Articles of the Church, solemnly declare that " if any dif- " ference should arise about the external Policy concerning " the Injunctions, Canons, and other Constitutions what- " soever to the Church of England belonging, the Clergy " in their Convocation were to order and settle them :" that the question of the maintenance or abolition of the Ecclesiastical Courts, and any question touching the sub- traction, diminution, or other alteration of their power in spiritual affairs, are questions arising about the external Policy of the said Church, and vitally concerning various Injunctions, Canons and other Constitutions thereto be- longing : Wherefore your petitioners do humbly pray your Honourable House, that no Bill which may be preferred to your Honourable House either for the abolition of the spiritual Courts, or for the purpose of diminishing or other- wise materially affecting their Jurisdiction and Authority, may be permitted to pass into a Law, until the Bishops and Clergy in Convocation, shall have had an opportunity of deliberating thereon and of expressing their opinion on the subject. And your petitioners will ever pray, &c. Henry Mo/Icy nnd Sons, Printers. Derby. By the same Author. 1. THE FIVE EMPIRES, AN OUTLINE OF ANCIENT HISTORY. 2nd Edition. RUTILIUS AND LUCIUS, OR STORIES OF THE THIRD AGE. A LETTER TO LORD LANSDOWNE, ON NATIONAL EDUCATION. 2nd Edition. A SECOND LETTER TO LORD LANSDOWNE, ON NATIONAL EDUCATION. 2nd Edition. 5. A PRIMARY CHARGE TO THE CLERGY OF THE ARCHDEACONRY OF THE EAST RIDING, A. D. 1841. 6. A CHARGE TO THE CLERGY, &c. A. D. 1842. 7. A LETTER TO THE GENTRY, YEOMEN, AND FARMERS OF THE EAST RIDING, ON THE EDUCATION OF FARM SERVANTS. 4th Edition. University of California SOUTHERN REGIONAL LIBRARY FACILITY 405 Hilgard Avenue, Los Angeles, CA 90024-1388 Return this material to the library from which it was borrowed. A 000 101 877 9