The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1849-06-26 00:00:00

CORRESPONDENCE.

THE (EPISCOPAL) CHURCH IN SCOTLAND.

TO TIIE EDITOR OF THE LIVERPOOL STANDARD.

Stn,—The Christian world, in its present condition,
most parties and sects of men seem to concur in regarding
as on the whole grossly degenerate from its high estate,
and as giving little earnest or evidence of the loftiness of
its destiny, or the splendour of its extraction. A large
number of " those who profess and call themselveS Chris-
tians" have so grievously perverted the simplicity of the
truth, and upon the goodly foundation of the faith com-
mitted to them built a superstructure of their own de-
vising, that where apostles, confessors, and martyrs—a
Paul, a Peter, or an Ignatius—fought the last fight of
faith, and where the favoured candlestick once held forth
the " true light which lighteth every man that cometh
into the world" in all its brilliancy and power, now
smoulder the false fires of superstition, and its flickering
and unhealthy glare is almost all that remains to light the
wanderer to a grave of darkness through a world of gloom,
whilst but scanty is the proportion of those who have
preserved the truth unmutilated and undefiled by the
carnal invention, the proud ignorance, the misguided
fanaticism, or the worldly passions of mankind. But
amid this almost universal havoc, how is it nearer home ?
—how in this our own land, where the veil which still
hangs before the sleeping vision of unrepentant Rome
has dropped from our eves, and where the searching rays
of truth have certainly beamed upon us in unclouded
effulgence, illuminating every corner and hiding-place of
error, pouring its brightness upon the path of rectitude
both in morals and in faith, and displaying to us in
colours not easily to be mistaken all the subtle devices,
the corrupt additions, and the false deceits, which the
spirit of the world had engrafted on the purity of the
Church ? We are blessed from on high with an uncor-
rupt branch of that Church to which have been committed
the custody and care of the bread of life, which she, as a
faithful steward of the mysteries of God, in unmutilated
SiVrairlentB WA. litleOrrilVW scripture dispenses to the
flock of Christ,—a Church which, stedfastly maintaining
the " one Lord, one faith, and one baptism," earnestly
desires and fondly cherishes the " unity of the spirit in
the bond of peace," and, possessing within herself the
full credentials and necessary gifts of the heavenly am-
bassadress, holds forth the word of truth as the sole
foundation of the faith. But is the gracious gift trea-
sured ? Are our practice and opinions formed upon its
models? or has it little influence upon either, but holds
its place only where the prejudices of habit or the predis.
positions of education are undisturbed by its sway ? We
too, sir, are degenerate; and if an apostle were to come
among us, I fear he would not recognise us as worthy
descendants of those churchmen to whose bishop he wrote,
admonishing him how he should behave himself " in the
house of God, which is the Church of the living God, the
Pillar and ground of the truth." However, the English
petitioners from Scotland, upon whose conduct I briefly
animadverted a wesk or two ago, do not afford a favoura-
ble specimen of Churchmen in this matter, and have
shown a spirit of independence and waywardness not less
discreditable than it may be considered natural and ine-
vitable.

The pestilential notion, indeed, which degrades the
Church into a sort of religious club, into which its
members are self-elected, has gained ground among the
Churchmen of these days to a considerable extent, but
though prevalent it is no less a fiction of modern times—
modern, I mean, among Churchmen ; for I suppose it is
itself as old es the Puritans of some centuries ago, who
committed themselves to the heresy of denying the Church
altogether—a heresy to which many of us are, perhaps
unconsciously, approaching. Such an antiquity and such
an authorship are possibly great presumptions in its fa-
vour, but I am rather disposed to think that many who
call themselves Churchmen have never investigated the
subject at all, and, if they were asked why they were
Churchmen, or what their Churchism meant, would be
first staggered at the question, and afterwards perhaps
struck with the necessity of inquiring into one portion of
truth of which previously they had little thought. And
supposing an answer were to be drawn from such an one,
would it hang on grounds very different from, or much
more tenable than, those upon which I touched in my
last remarks upon this subject ? Would he not, I repeat,
tell us that he " liked" the Church very well, that he
admired her liturgy, that he approved her order, that at
all events so long as he could " sit under" the ministry
of so-and-so he certainly never would leave the Church,
and perhaps, in an honest burst of enthusiasm, protest
that she wee the Church of his forefathers, had been the
Church of his infancy, and should be the Church of his
old age ? These, or some of these, indeed, may be mo-
tives of regard and allegiance which cannot he found fault
with, except as superseding others that are the very foun-
dation of them, and which reach beyond any mere per-
sonal feelings of preference or choice. And supposing
him to be thus taxed by a Dissenter, and asked why he
attended the " church" instead of the" meeting-house,"
would he not continue in the same strain, profess that
each man was free to go where it suited him, and con-
scientiously advise his Dissenter friend to do his duty is
his " chapel," and let him do his in his " church" ?
Can we suppose, sir, that the petitioners had any more
lofty ideas of the Church than these sentiments may
convey or indicate, or that they considered that " there
is a divinity cloth hedge around " it more than around
any religious institution which a company of men may
join together and agree to form ? If they had possessed
the true idea of the Church,—namely, that it was a body
transmitted down from the apostles, and inherited from
age to age, united together and to its head in the two
sacraments, under its lawfully commissioned pastors and
ministers, and that the " Episcopal Communion " in
Scotland was a true part of that Church,—surely they
would have hesitated ere they had dared to play with,
and make the subject of a hasty petition to the House of
Lords of, their relations to the Catholic Church of Christ.
They would have reflected that men are not allowed to
set up congregations of religious worship as fancy pleases
or convenience seems to require,—that this is no part of
that liberty with which Christ has made them free, but
rather a turning of it into a cloak for licentiousness,—
that they are bound by relations which take no account
of conventional prejudice, national predilection, or terri-
torial independence; and that in the Church of God, and
in the baptism whereby they were engrafted into it, there
is neither Englishman nor Scotchman, there is neither
tribe nor race nor language, but we are " all baptized into
one body, whether we be Jews or Gentiles, whether we
be bond or free, and have been all made to drink into one
spirit." They would have reflected that to separate them-
selves from any branch of this Church, or to refuse com-
munion with it, except only so far as its terms of com-
munion could not be complied with without sin, was to
fall into that yawning gulf of schism, into which so many.
allured by the delusive cry of " Spirit, spirit, spirit,"
which, said Luther, emanates from Satan himself, have
been and arc now daily swallowed up, flinging away the
solid fervour, holy joy, and spiritual blessings, dispensed
through the divine brdinance of the Redeemer, for the
fitful flashes of a wayward imagination, or the proud in-
ventions of a perverted will. Surely they would have
been scared by such dangers as these. The enlightened
sense of independence, which I believe belongs of right
to the nineteenth century, would not have despised the
scruples which such obstacles as these wero calculated to
call forth. But, sir, they had no conception of such ob-
stacles ; they had no rule before them beside their own
will ; baptised into the Church of Christ, and, if loft to
the teaching of that Church, brought up with correct
notions of their position, they have yet modelled out a
path of their own ; and as for their baptism, if they ever
considered what change or effect that produced, they look
upon it as having made them members of the " United
Church of England and Ireland" ! This is sufficiently
lamentable—lamentable that those who look upon them-
selves as no longer babes, nor " unskilful in the word of
righteousness," have still need that they should learn
" the principles of the doctrine of Christ," that they
may the more profitably, leaving them behind, " go on
unto perfection." But I must not forget that the con-
duct of these petitioners was justified on the ground of
the " freedom of their Protestantism" ! Now, sir, " free
Protestantism" is a highly dangerous weapon in the hands
of inconsiderate men. Free Protestantism can and has,
visibly before our eyes, run from top to bottom over the
whole gamut of schism, heresy, and unbelief, and, under
its specious garb, shadowed the most monstrous growths
of this fertile age. What is it that has blighted, in the
freedom of its progress, the fair realms which Luther and
which Calvin once thought their own ? Does not the
gloomy genius of scepticism and infidelity now brood
where the former hurled forth his thunderbolts against
Papal mendacity and corruption, and where the latter,
with classic pen and fitting zeal, vindicated the purity of
Christianity ? Yes ; revelling in the freedom of their
Protestantism, the doctors and professors of Germany
and Geneva have disclaimed all for which Luther pro-
tested and Calvin wrote ; have found the Bible too meagre
for their "free" and bold invention ; have degraded their
Redeemer into such an one as themselves ; have trampled
under foot the blood of the Covenant as an unholy thing ;
have driven preachers from pulpits for attempting to
preach the Gospel, and teachers from schools for daring
to teach the Scriptures ; have, in the " freedom" of their
emancipated minds, in utter contempt of Bible, creeds,
antiquity, authority, and every other restraint, luxuriated
in all the dreary lengths and depths of Transcendentalism,
Socinianism, Pantheism, and Neology; and behold, now
glory in—the " freedom of their Protestantism " ! And
has not the deadly blast, too, swept over the " Free Pro-
testantiem" of Russia, Prussia, and France ? In Russia,
all the quondam Lutherans and Calvinists are little better
than Infidels; in Prussia, Christianity and Infidelity still
contend for victory ; and in France, its Free Protestant
ministers tell us that Socinianism was the direct conse-
quence of their Reformation, and that " the freedom of
inquiry could not but inevitably produce such results ";
whilst I must not forget that in this town of ours I was
lately somewhat astounded by finding the buildings
which, in the homeliness of my Christianity, I had been
accustomed to consider as meeting-houses for the sect
called Socinians, dignified with the name of—" Free
Protestant or Unitarian Chapels" ! I will not say, how-
ever, that it was to Germany or Geneva, to Prussia or to
France, in its present state, that these Churchmen ap-
pealed for the " free Protestantism " which was to eman-
cipate them from the Church of Christ; but I will con-
clude these few remarks with repeating, that many of us
are but degenerate Churchmen, and treasure not the gift
of grace deposited among us. Where is its influence ?
Is the Church heeded, even when she claims no unquali-
fied assent nor blind submission ? Where is our endea-
vour after unity ? What diversities of doctrine, and ani-
mosity of opposition—what sectarian watchwords, and
human titles, and party faction—what pride of spirit and
confidence of dogmatism and ungodly independence, called
eartnestness and zeal and Christian liberty ! What fla-
ming demonstrations about Christian rights, and what
comparative oblivion of Christian duty ! What magna-
nimity in asserting our "freedom" from imaginary yokes
of bondage, and what little anxiety to ascertain the inti-
mations of the will of Christ ! What is it preserves us
from the infidelity into which they have fallen who set