The central Presbyterian. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1856-1908, 1868-03-18

and accordingly sent for Culdee mis-
sionaries who labored for some time
among the Saxons with no little success
Had they been allowed to continue. Eng
land would have been Culdeeised, and her
history changed. But several facts turn
ed the scale of events. One of these
was the mission of Augustine not the
great Augustine) to bring England over
to Rome. When Gregory became Pope,
he remembered the VOW he had made, and
sent deputation to convert England,
which after laboring for time in the
South of England, met these Culdee la
borers at work in the North. The radical
difference between the Culdee faith and
the Romish, is shown by the fact that
they could not labor together, and that
the Romish missionaries found that the
expulsion of the Culdees was Necessary
to their success. Milman in speaking of
this collision, Lat. Christianity, II, 1861
says, "0ne half of the island had been
converted by the monks from Scotland,
the other by those from Rome. They
were opposed on certain points of disci-
pline, held hardly of less Importance than
vital truths of the Gospel" ," In describ-
ing the debate on these points at the
Synod of Whitby, Milman refers to the
claim of the Scottish missionaries that
they held an uninterrupted descent of
their tradition from St. John, whilst the
Romans pleaded the authority of st. Pc
ter, and the King finally sided with the
representatives of Rome, and the Cul-
dees were compelled to retire to Scot
land. Neander (Ch. Hist. III, a. re-
ferring to this struggle says that when it
occurred, cit became necessary for men
to decide between the Roman and the
Scottish Church influences and the man.
ner in which this decision was made,
could not fail to be attended with the
most important effects on the shaping of
ecclesiastic relations over all England;
for had the Scottish tendency prevailed,
England would have obtained more free
Church constitution and reaction against
the Romish hierarchical system would
have ever continued to go forth from this
quarter" Although the Culdees were
banished from England, the controversy
continued for several centuries. At
Synod held in Northampton, A. D. 1l76,
Gilbert Murray, Scotsman, resisted the
claims of the English Church, and said
i9f his speech, that 's&er mother. the
Church of Scotland, which from the be-
ginning hath been Catholic and free,
ought not TO yield; and reminded the
English. how by means of this ancient
Church, England had been brought,
"when straying in the wilderness of
of heathenism into the safeguard of the
true faith aud way unto life, even unto
Jesus Christ and Author of eternal rest"
and concluded his bold and masterly ef-
fort by declaring, that although he should
stand alone, he would dissent from sub
iecting the free Church of his fathers to
any other power than that of the Lord,
unto whom Immediately she was subject;
and if it were needful to die in this cause,
declaring his readiness to lay down his
neck unto the sword" (Alexander's
Iona, p. 1917 The tone of this manly
speech reminds one of later times and
shows that the spirit of the fearless Muir
ray was exactly the same with his spirit
ual descendants Knox, Henderson, and
Chalmers, and that their metal has the
same true ring. The fact then is one
that cannot be doubted, that the Church
of Scotland and the Church of Rome
struggled for the occupancy of England,
and hence that the Anglican Church
which was the result of that struggle is
younger Church than that of Scot
land.
Astriking testimony of this is given by a
learned clergyman of the Church of Eng
land of the 18th century, Mr.. 7. Jones,
naval chaplain to the Duke of York, (af
forwards James H. in curious volume
published by him to show "the historical
title of the British Church, and by what
ministry the Gospel was first planted in
England" Having been written before
the rise of the modern High Church
spirit, it gives the testimony of a very
earnest Episcopalian, who distinctly af-
firms that Presbyterians are "schismat-
les" but does not deny them Church
existence. We quote a few sentences
from his learned work. He says, Up.
231,) "And first it is to be remembered
and repeated that the Gospel from its
first planting by the Apostles was never
extinguished or eradicated from among
the Brittains," (i.e e. the Celts or aborigi-
nal inhabitants of the British islands, }
% as it soon Jared with our Augustine s
adventures upon the English, but that
they persevered to praise God to this day,
in the same Religion and Language with
their forefathers, the 1900 years and
upwards, as they trust to continue till