The Express.
London, England, 1851-06-14 00:00:00

TO TEE sorroa Or THE DAILY NEWS.

sta,—We ate now come back to the inquiry with
which this discussion commenced : how it happens
that so many secessions take plaice front the church
of England to that of Rome. We have no longer
far to seek for an answer : the diligent and successful
teaching of the Anglican theory of church principles
is the chief cause of these disasters. I said that
Newnan, Manning. Hope, and others, had tried the
church of England by the test of church prin-
ciples, and had judged her not to be the true
church of elitist. I have shown, I believe, that
they judged rightly. The Anglican theory taught
them what were the notes of the true church : we
have seen that these notes either never existed at all,
or have been effaced in the church of England. That
church was the child of a revolution, an absolutely
new creation at the Reformation in respect of
its government and its constitution. The old so-
ciety of Christians, us I remarked before, con-
tinued on in the country : but it became revolution-
ised. It rebelled against its government, and iu
direct opposition to all its authorised rulers, re-
ceived a new polity and a new faith from the state.
Moreover, these new institutions did not derive their
authority from the sanction or decree of the previous
government of the church, or front the clergy and
still more, I think I have proved, with the full con-
currence of the Bishop of Exeter, that a collection
of national bishops was not, according to catholic
principles, a true church authority, but only nn
aggregate of individuals, and consequently had no
power to confer legitimacy on new opinions, or a
new frame of ecclesiastical polity.
It follows, therefore, irresistibly that the church of
England, with her creed, her liturgy, and her consti-
tution, has no regular and lawful -church authority,
such as the catholic theory requires for her basis, but
rests solely on the revolution which originated her—
that is, on the protestant principle of the right of
every Christain society to govern itself. If her
doctrine and her discipliuc are received, the Angli-
can theory correctly tells us, through its organ, the
Bishop of Exeter, that this acceptance is founded on
the approbation of the divine church of each diocese,
that is, in reality, on that of each divine bishop. If,
however, any bishop comes to dissent from that
doctrine and discipline, the extraneous coercion
of the state alone compels him and his diocese
to remain connected with the national church. There
is no ecclesiastical superior who can legitimately,
upon Anglican principles, overrule him : he is hound
by the decisions neither of his colleagues nor of his
predecessors. The divine church of the diocese be-
comes the one catholic and apostolic church !
church of England passes into the domain of schism.
What a vast field is here opened, let ate remark, to
the other great protestant principle of private
judgment ; and with what art is monopoly of
its exercise secured for the bishop. 'fhe bishop
has a veto on the resolutions of the dio-
cesan synod, cries Dr. Phillpotts. The synod is
infallible, when it agrees with the bishop : it sends
forth empty sounds when it differs. Can any one
marvel, after this, that every intelligent and logical
thinker, who has imbibed from the Anglican theory
his principles of church government, should find
nothing but disorder, disunion, and rank Protestant-
ism in the church of England, and should take
refuge in a church which professes to fulfil the re-
quirements of catholic doctrine?
" D.C.L.," in common with us protestants, will
no doubt call the professions of the Roman church
unfounded assumptions ; but let hint observe, that it
is absolutely and logically necessary, according to
the catholic theory, that the catholic church should
make the professions, and that a church which does
not make or them cannot be the catholic
church. Above all is the great profession of infalli-
bility logically indispensable for the catholic
church. Without it, there is no possible escape
from the qaieksands of protestant principles. With-
oat it neither scripture nor the fathers, nor tradition,
nor the imposition of hands, nor the divinely ap.
poiated bishop, nor the divine institution all &ocean
church, will avail to build up christian faith and

ehristian p!ity or authority. Without an infa!liblo
oracle, the perplexities and miseries of contending
opinions, conflicting creeds, private and personal con-
victions, arguments, and reasonings, must ever over-
whelm the anglo-catholic seeker after truth and
certainty.

Titt:re..:ltre only two roads by which he can escape
from his distress. He may have his eyes opened to
see that the catholic doctrine of the apostolate has no
foundation in scripture or reason ; and he will then
remain in a church which it constructed on a nega-
tion of that doctrine. Or, if he adheres to church
principles, he must fly from a church whose insti-
tutions contradict them, and pass ou to another
which claims to possess every note and characteristic
of the one universal church. A third course is im-
possible, except for such confused and inconsequential
reasoner,, as Dr. Pussy and his followers.
If we wish to understand the feelings which prompt
the secessions to Rome, let no compare briefly the
professions and principles of the two churches with
the requirements of catholic doctrine. The theory of
the apostolate tells us that Christ founded one visi-
ble church, the sole depositary of his word
and sacraments. Rome presents the form of one
single church, claiming to embrace all Christendom.
The Anglican church exhibits, according to the
accurate exposition of the Bishop of Exeter, us many
churches as dioceses. Again, catholic unity is the
privilege and the test of the trite church. Rome
points to one centre of rule for all Christians on
earth; without distinction of nations. The church
of England is for Englishmen and their
dependencies alone. Rome unites all the bishops
of the church under one bead. Anglicanism
presents an episcopate isolated and dissenting from
all other episcopates. The catholic theory proclaims
the inability of human reason to discover the truth,
whether in scripture or tradition. asserts the neces-
sity of a divine guide, and demands obedience to tho
faith on the ground of authority. Accordingly Rome
holds forth an infallible oracle, the living church,
which infallibly interprets both scripture and tradi-
tion. The church of I,:nland derives her creed from
private judgment, and that the private judgment of
the king and parliament. The catholic doctrine
announces the institution of a divine corporation
fur the government of the church. Rome exhibits
the purely spiritual rule of a spiritual chief; Angli-
canism presents an episcopate which can neither
declare doctrine nor enact laws, nor perform a single
ecclesiastical function, except under the control of
the state. The living voice of the Roman church
defends the faith, defines doctrine, and repels heresy.
The State of Englund determines the faith frir its
bishops, and is itself the supreme arbiter of truth
and heresy. Anglicanism owns the Roman to be a
true church: Rome excommunicates the church of
England. The Romanist receives doctrine on sub-
mission : the Anglican must seek divine truth by the
same process as human, by reasoning, and comparison,
and sound judgment. The Romanist believes because
he has the assurance of a church which cannot err : the
Anglican believes because he can prove agreement
witlt the statements of apostles and fathers. The
Romanist wins peace of mind and certainty, because
he follows a guide who cannot mislead ; the Anglican
can never be sure that his interpretation of has au-
thorities may not he mistaken. The Romanist obeys
the church; the Anglican adopts a principle of in-
vestigating the truth, which he admits to have au-
thorised a lay parliament and individual bishops to
declare the church to have erred. Rome claims to
• possess benefits worthy of a divine corporation being
founded to impart them. Anglo-catholicism claims
the privileges of a caste, without any adequate end
to justify them.
n we conceive such a contrast presenting itself
Billy to the mind of a man thoroughly imbued
with church principles, and feel surprised if he
abandons the Anglican fbr the Roman church? If
the catholic theory is true, he must be safe within
the bosom of the church of Rome: at the best he
may only be safe within the Anglican communion.
How is he to assure himself that he is not cut off b
schism from union throuf,sh the visible church with
Christ? or that the doctrines imposed on the church
of England, against the protest of all her bishops,
are not false and heretical?

"For what it, Dr. Pusey's church? " asks a Roman
catholic writer in the last number of the Dublin
Review. "Not the Pope, not the bishops, not the
Emperor, not any representative of any authority
clothed in definite form; but certain fathers, some
of whom use language upon which subsequent,
though early, dogmatic decisions east tit., shade
heresy ; certain divines, arbitrarily chosen as the re-
presentatives of his own chtweh, which at most they
did but represent during a brief and former period of
its hi,tory —a select mediaeval saint, a stray high
churchman or two among the existing body of
bishops—parts of the Homilies, the least heretical of
the reformers or of continental prate tarts the
more depraved heretics themselves, in their more
orthodox m00d,,, or in their more liberal' allow-
ances. or in their morcunstud ied instincts of devotion
a medley, in short, of ante-Nicene Fathers, Caroline
divines, Luther, Melanethon, St. Bernard, the Bishop
of Exeter, and I%r. Arnold, collected as the inter-
preters of equivocal articles and a defeetivc liturgy.
We say that such a system is heretical to the
very core ; that if it could succeed in importing every
catholic doctrine in existence into the church of Eng-
land, it would be still essentially pmtestant. For, if
it involve truth, it does so only by accident, by pre-
ference, and not by submission."
Such is Anglo-catholicism; an illogical, inconsis-
tent, and unhistorical, rim media," a name without
an object, a worshipping of a form, wheOhe sub-
stance is wholly altered : a fond and untenable make-
shift between the only two great and permanent
realities of belief, an infallible church and the pro-
testantuan of predate judgment.
It behoves D.C.L. and his fellow labourers in the
same cause to ponder over the effects of this Anglo-
catholic teaching. Anglo-catholicism has never re-
claimed a single English Roman catholic to the alle-
giance of the national church. It loses every day an
increasing number of seceders from its ranks. I ern
not aware that conversions to Rome are made
amongst the adherents of protest° nt principles : if there
are any, they are certainly few. Anglo-catholicism is
the portal through which lies the eativ'e to Romauism.
Protestants do not become ltomanists. Romanists do
nut become Anglo-catholies, but Anglo-catholies in
numbers become papists. Such is the fact ; and
theory says that it must and ought to be so. It is
idle to talk of perverseness, or exuavagance, or any
special idiosyncrasy in the seceders : we have seen
that they are better logicians and truer disciples of
the apostolate that D.C.L. and his friends.
I ant very sure that D.C.L. does not wish to en-
rich Rome with spoils won from the Church of Eng-
land; but I tell him, that if he desires to prevent
that result, he must cease to advocate views of
church polity which are incompatible with continued
allegiance to the Church of -England. We have
seen what are the principles which lie at its
foundation, and that they are contradictory to
the traetarian theory. Let D.C.L. agitate, if he
will, for a new constitution ; only let the object
be fairly avowed; for a new English church;
for it is an intolerable grievance that the people
of England, and especially the young, should be
taught to imbibe with reverence and a total absence
of suspicion, as the principles of the church of Eng-
land principles which are not hers, and which, when
understood, will drive them front her pale. The true
character of Anglo-catholic teaching is revealed by
the secessions. Its essence is disaffection to the
church of England, and its result a counter-revolu-
tion restoring the supremacy of Rome.-1 am, sir,
your obedient servant, M. A.

THE ACCIDENT ON TUE BRIOFITON AND LEWES
RAlLWAY.—Yesterday the investigation into the circum-
stances connected with this lamentable occurrence was re-
sumed at Lewes. Mr. E. Woods, an engineer connected
with the Liverpool and Manchester ltailoray, was the first
witness exanuned, and he stated that the general practice
on the lines upon which he had been engaged was to run
the engine before the tender. It was unusual to have
guards placed on the wheels of the tender. Cases, however,
occurred when the tender was placed first, and no danger
within his knowledge had been apprehcoded.—Some of the
passengers were next examined, but their evidence was im-
material—Hannah Boalics, the mother of the boy who has
been suspected of haring placed on the rails a sleeper, by
which the train was thrown off the line, and the boy himself,
were subjected to a rigid examination, hot nothing was
elicited inconsistent with the child's innoccuce.—Henry
Boakes, the father of the boy, and some persons con-
nected with the local and metropolitan, police, were also
produced as vritnesses, but their evidence failed to throw
any, additional light on this mysterious occurrence. The
2roteedings were again adjourned.