New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1874-10-08
CHURCH RELATIONS.
Ra ia Lee nr n Koakhara

Bv tie Rev. Dr. x. a. Wa.h,srn
1 hail it as the marked feature Of modern
Christendom that 1t Is seeking a age since the
Reformation the unity Of the Church and 1t is visible
IN all ways-fantasc or sober in all movements.
whether the Eirenkon OF Pusey with the Latin Com
munion. the effort Of others for COncordat with the
Greek. the Alliance OF the great evangelical bodies
OF Europe and our land And eau thank God for
them all. While frankly say that my sympathes are
more with the Protestant movement which holds the
intellectual and spiritual life Of tho time. than with
and medieval theories yet believe all these the
prelude Of grand historic step from our sesatsfed
Angicanism or Westminster or Augsburg Confessions
toward the Christianity Of Christ know that this
vast ground swell is from the depths. and He who is
wiser than doctors or councils will sweep the con-
verging tides into His ocean.
This 10 Is that makes the question before us q vital
We cannot put 1t by to-day; we are forced to say
what Church has to offer to this waiting Chrsten-
doa But 1t involves bur grand ideas OF the Church. its
primitive ORDER and above ALL thorough grasp OF its
history before aud since the Reformation shall then,
dismiss all rhetoric, and 40 far as can clrcimnavgate
such In 20 minutes shall give you few guiding
principles.
It's the true view of what the unity of the
Church which seek to unfold. shall show the
historic principle OF the English Church. az witness to
it; falacy Of the sOcaled AngiOCatholic theory,
which believe far from Cathoicty as from Protest
antism: and the principles which hold can alone make
communion true to Its capacity aud its living place
claim, then, that in the structure OF the English
Churchand like that name better than any Anglican
most Comprehensive unity, which at gives US all
that historic in tho past and yet makes us one
High Church ground Evangelical ground take, but
that OF impartial criticism l cannot repeat the long
chapter of English Reformation. We have had efforts
enough to snow that it was modelled after an Anglican
theory. Puritan theory: but the simple truth Is that
France Germany stamped itself personally on 1t but
it grew out of the national character. and hence from
and Latimer. Ridley and Whitgift. 1t was Protest
ant to the core NOT U IN rn nj o bs Rfomaton M
formal principle OF Scripture as the one Divine Rule or
sword Of the Spirit against sacramenai errors But as
an ancient national body, 1t kept the old English land
this that made it on side less spiritual movement
with Luther or Calvin less capable OF free growth
dency to division, opinion. All this. repeat
of any defined idea OF Anglo Catholic system
TALLY distinct from the Pro,estantsm OF the Continent
That va Media of which we talk so fairly Is later IN
veDtiOn. We know all this from the early sources whch
have ony been opened within inc ast my aIy
the English fathers Of the SECOND age Whtgli. the
2e ri 9 fact pss s Pa then
it Antehris but he never claimed as dlvne essen
maintained it az an apostolic institution and therefore
best; but he placed the fountain of authority IN the
il be needful. Such the Guardianship OF the
fathers 1t in the next ago that distinct schools and
Church with the more advanced Reformers. That
battle has been strangely confused from the
icai and its ecclesiastical elements. IL no
strife between the principle OF an Eplscopacy aud
Puritan ependence. Both parties were narrow but
in his theology the Puritan was the narrower assaant
Laud OF the broader thinkers in doctrine; and
the whole host OF Churchmen, ike Jeremy Taylor of
the Arninan school, were models OF the comprehensive
moderate type. which has made the Church OF England
CudwOrth or Leighton heDle or an Arnold But on
the side of church government the gning spirit was
n mil
fornity 1t out OF this confusion there came the
sso G w he s
Andrewes, Cosn. Bramhall and host beside-to whom
we give due honor But we are not confound their
IDEAS with the whole church, and TO forget
while ut home they cOntended against Pope or Pres
bytery that many even Of these whom our churchmen
oiloe today held by any theory of an excIu.
siye episcOpacy. Bramhall claimed only that it was
mart OF The Ecelesia ingra. not the Ecc!esa rera 1t
remained at best school; il did represent the
tone of the whole church. There has been IRON
thinkers who, while attached to their communion
and maintaining its primitive character, It's NOPE
of creed and order have been content with ns
I need not name them-LeghtOn, Stillingieet. Chilling
WORTH and host OF representative men In each period
whom forget Is TO blot out the stars from tue English
/ wish could linger this but must pass to our
time and the growth which has strangely shut out of
view ali but one school, idea Church tendency.
l shall examine that Anglo-Catholic theory. which
maintain is the product OF the last 40 years only yet
really lies AZ the bottom Of regDiDg churchDanshp
IL came with that Oxford movement, OF which shall
II arose when the English Church bad grown secular In
years serdom, when the Methodist revival had
been thrust out and Eyangeical life had withered into
a duli party tradition. The snewy mind OF Newman
had little idea of the result he and his friends felt the
barren anomaly English Church. and longed after
a real organic, united body OF Christ, more Catholic
. than Rome, unbroken by Protestant dscords. They
found in the school of Anglican Fathers, as they
thought, the ideas OF such Christianity, and formed
them into symmetrical system: It was then what
swelling tide. 1t bore with 1t much OF the thought aud
life of England 1t secured the realization Of the long
Newman in Rome IL remained with the Illogical and
slow mind OF the Church. which is now working its way
through later rualIsm 10 the knowledge OF the error
Of oil s Us h iseS WORTH It revived worship art
church literature; 1t created new scnolasties
stead OF placing the Church in the van OF living
Chrstendom, It has made 1t narrow, uncathoo copy
A. unbare all falaces about organic unity, which,
whether men II no, have had their root IN this
movement II the position OF this ADglo-Caholic
school that the ground OF unity could be found in
the later traditions OF Rome nor in the Protestant no
interpreters. 1t must be in some universal, fixed, ca
tholic landmarks Ii We could mud sucn principles, nelu
sepper, uoque ct 40 omnibus always everywhere, anu
by all we have organic unity. That is genuine and
noble truth lies the basis OF church history; Il IS
the reality all seeking. But we are to ask What
q, fnese minds that they bred eccesatcai ira
dton; not in the school Of thinkers and so, IN.
stead OF seeing in the Church of Christ a
70 one age OF IT, where they found such visible
seemed them the rock OF There Was the great
Creed there the councils and the federated episcopae
Here then was the base OF unity. The faith liked
depost forever and with the Word OF
God and epscopate the central organ OF church
nfe IL was a Triumphant theory for a while. But its
nTnosure came out Of It's own Inventors Newman
anaiy xed It the flame OF his chemical reor and
Ss nnity of the Church rest on this eeeesia dozens
divine rule OF faith and order could only be FOUND In
such concurrent church authority then could no. DC
one OF the questions after Nice, between Catholic and
Protestant and, therefore tue Church must nave