The Sun.
London, England, 1867-10-03 00:00:00

THE ARCHBISHOP OF TVESTMLVSTER
ON THE PAN-ANGLICAN SYNOD.

On Sunday last, the feast of St. Michael, in the
church of St. Mary of the Angels, Bayswater, the
Archbishop of Westminster, after preaching on
the subject of the day, spoke in substance as
follows :—" The feast of St. Michael the Arch-
angel irresistibly forces upon me other thoughts
bearing upon the present moment. The head and
prince of the angels of God is the special guar-
dian of the chief pastor of the Church on earth.
The ministration of angels and men in a wonder-
ful order, as the Church describes it in Holy Mass,
is so disposed, that the guardianship of angels
surrounds and mingles with the Church through-
out the world ; but to their chief is assigned the
protection of the Vicar of its Divine Head. Last
year, on Rosary Sunday, you made special in-
tercession for our Holy Father. A year of tumult
and uncertainty is passed, and he is still upon his
throne : not by the power of kings or of armies,
but by the power of God alone. He is walking on
the water, as his Divine Master, whose power
rules the instability of the world. I call on you
again, on Sunday next, the festival of the Holy
Rosary, to offer your communions and your
prayers for the same intention. Another thought,
forced upon me by this festival, is this : It is th e
anniversary of the restoration of the Catholic
Hierarchy of England. It was on this day that
the great Pontifical act of its creation was signed
and dated ; and that the first Archbishop of West-
minster received from the supreme Pontiff the
pallium of his authority. It is within our
memory that the Church in England was under
penal laws, out of sight, and powerless. The pro-
vidence of God set it free, and renewed its unity
and symmetry in the fulness of Catholic order.
Since that moment it has expanded sensibly and
visibly, year by year ; and is expanding at this
hour with an irresistible force, which no human
antagonist can overcome. The Catholic Church
in England is visible to the eye, and sensible to
the ear. It has entered into the intellect of
Englishmen, and has established itself in
the consciousness of our country. Nay,
more than this. The derision and de-
nunciation of the past is gone ; and men are
turning to it for the knowledge of doctrine, for the
evidence of Scripture, for the proof of Christianity.
But on this I cannot now dwell. There is another
thought which at this time calls our attention. A
signal event in the religion of England has hap-
pened in these days. Separated as we are by our
faith and the unity of the Church of God from the
people of our country, nevertheless we rejoice over
11 all that remains of Christianity in England. our land
was once as the garden of Eden, before the storms of
tyranny and heresy three hundred years ago swept
over it the sands of the desert, and turned its
beauty into desolation. The unity and symmetry
of its faith was broken down, and its Christian
order cast to the ground. We lament its shat-
tered state, and we labour to build up again the
sanctuary which has been cast down. There is
something pathetically beautiful in the face of Eng-
land. The outline of the Catholic Church is still
to be traced upon it, as in the bottom of deep
lakes, we are told, or imagination fancies, that the
foundations of ancient cities may still be seen. The
majestic cathedrals and the beautiful parish
churches of England remain as the image of what
Catholic England was. But the PreSence has de-
parted from the altar, and the light has been ex-
tinguished. Nevertheless, there is in the English
people a belief in much that their forefathers
believed. The old religion has still great hold
upon them. Remnants of faith, and scattered
Christian doctrines, portions of ritual, yet remain.
There is a spirit of religion and an aspiration after
higher things, great fidelity to conscience, and an
earnest seeking after truth ; there is a religious
life, and evidences of that life. All these things
are to be found both within and without the An-
glican communion. We pray that they may be
increased more and more ; that the smoking flax
may not be quenched ; that the truth and piety
still alive may be unfolded into the perfect faith
and worship of the Church of God. " Some, in-
deed, even out of envy and contention, but some
also for good will, preach Christ. But what then?
So that every way, whether by occasion or by
truth, Christ be preached ; in this also I rejoice,
yea, and will rejoice." There are signs upon
England full of hope. For a hundred years
there has been a reaction towards personal
religion, conversion to God, the works of repent-
ance, and obedience to the Spirit of Grace. There
has been also a continual rising again towards the
faith. Truth after truth, doctrine after doctrine,
shattered and lost in the vehemence of human
passion, which three hundred years ago fell up on
England, has been restored in the reason and the
belief of Englishmen. There has been a reaching
after higher aims and a more supernatural life.
Men have come to believe and to teach many
doctrines of the Catholic faith, and to clothe
them in a ritual which borrows its splendour and
its beauty from the Catholic Church. They have
learned to acknowledge the sanctity of the reli-
gious state ; and both men and women are devoting
themselves after the manner of the religious life.
They are craving after unity with Christendom at
large, and seeking a restoration to the communion
of the Church throughout the world. They are
conscious of the confusions and disorders of Eng-
land, and are labouring to introduce order and
submission. And now in these last days we are
witnesses of an event of which I should be sorry
to speak as bitter and cold critics of their own
have spoken. The heads of the Anglican Com-
munion in the British empire and in America have
assembled together in Synod. All these things
point one way. All these movements have one
direction. When such strong currents, contrary
to all previous tendencies, converge towards one
point, we may be sure that a greater than man is
here. I fain would hope that the influences which
impel this movement are from above. It is forcing
men from their old moorings. The Holy Spirit is
working upon them ; and we ought to pray that
He may lift the anchors of pride which have so
long fastened them to this earth ; and that they
may be raised upon the waters of Grace, and
may launch out into the deep for a draught;
that they may meet him on the water
who alone, in the power of his Master, can
walk upon it. In the last twenty years,
the Angli-
can communion has been spreading in the British
Empire, but its extension has been without cohe-
sion. It has multiplied its diversities and become
more divided as it has spread. The consciousness
of . irreconcileable contradictions and conflicting
doctrines, even among its chief pastors, compels it
to feel about for some principle of coherence. This
very Synod demonstrates the absence of unity, be-
cause it manifests the irreconcileable doctrines of
those who meet in it, and of those who have
marked their differences by their absence. Unity
is the consequence of truth. Truth precedes and
generates unity. Truth alone can unite men.
Authority without truth is impossible. The two
keys of knowledge and jurisdiction are inseparable.
The divisions before our eyes demonstrate the ab-
sence of those keys in that assembly. They are to
be found alone where unity of truth and unity of
order exist together, in that Church to which alone
the keys were given. Nevertheless, the sympathy
of every Catholic heart will be with all who are
seeking for higher and more perfect grace. Though
the original sin of usurping the place of the Church
of God three hundred years ago lies upon that
communion, there are among its members multi-
tudes as unconscious of that sin as infants are of
the sin of Adam. They were born into it, robbed
of their inheritance—born into a state of privation
of which they are unconscious. It is our part to
pray that what they desire may be granted above
all that they ask or understand ; and that when
their chief teachers are gathered together, seeking
for truth and unity, our Lord may bestow upon
them the unity and truth which are to be found
alone in His only Church. This Synod is a break-
ing down of insular narrowness. It is a reaching
out to find a stay and support beyond the four seas
of England. It is a confession that an island is
not enough for the Church ; that a centre to rest
upon is needed ; and that no such centre is to be
found in England. Whether they know it or not
—confess it to themselves or not—it is an instinc-
tive action, an effort to find a rock on which to
rest. It points to the Divine order • " Thou art
Peter, and upon this rock I will build My Church,
and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.
Aud I will give to thee the keys of the kingdom of
heaven." On that rock stands the Vicar of the
Son of God, with outstretched arms, with a father's
love, bidding all to come who will return to him
with filial confidence and submission,