Page images
PDF
EPUB

The following Works, all in single volumes, or pamphlets, and recently published, will be found more or less to uphold or elucidate the general doctrines inculcated in these Tracts :

Bp. Taylor on Repentance, by Hale.-Rivingtons.

Bp. Taylor's Golden Grove.-Parker, Oxford.

Vincentii Lirinensis Commonitorium, with translation.-Parker, Oxford.

Pusey on Cathedrals and Clerical Education.-Roake & Varty.
Hook's University Sermons.-Talboys, Oxford.

Pusey on Baptism (published separately).-Rivingtons.

Newman's Sermons, 4 vols.-Rivingtons.

Newman on Romanism, &c.-Rivingtons.

The Christian Year.-Parker, Oxford.
Lyra Apostolica.-Rivingtons.

Perceval on the Roman Schism.-Leslie.

Bishop Jebb's Pastoral Instructions.-Duncan.
Dodsworth's Lectures on the Church.-Burns.
Cary on the Apostolical Succession.—Rivingtons.
Newman on Suffragan Bishops.-Rivingtons.
Keble's Sermon on National Apostasy.-Rivingtons.
Keble's Sermon on Tradition.-Rivingtons.
Memoir of Ambrose Bonwick.-Parker, Oxford.
Hymns for Children on the Lord's Prayer.-Rivingtons.
Law's first and second Letters to Hoadley.-Rivingtons.
Bp. Andrews' Devotions. Latin and Greek.-Pickering.
Hook's Family Prayers.-Rivingtons.
Herbert's Poems and Country Pastor.

Evans's Scripture Biography.-Rivingtons.

Le Bas' Life of Archbishop Laud.—Rivingtons.

Jones (of Nayland) on the Church.

Bp. Bethell on Baptismal Regeneration.-Rivingtons.

Bp. Beveridge's Sermons on the Ministry and Ordinances.—Parker, Oxford.

Bp. Jolly on the Eucharist.

Fulford's Sermons on the Ministry, &c.-Rivingtons.
Rose's Sermons on the Ministry.-Rivingtons.

A Catechism on the Church.-Parker, Oxford.

Russell's Judgment of the Anglican Church.—Baily.
Poole's Sermons on the Creed.-Grant, Edinburgh.
Sutton on the Eucharist.-Parker, Oxford.
Leslie on the Regale and Pontificate.-Leslie.
Pusey's Sermon on November 5.-Rivingtons.
Bishop Wilson's Sacra Privata.-Parker, Oxford.
The Cathedral, a Poem.-Parker, Oxford.
Palmer's Ecclesiastical History.-Burns.

Larger Works which may be profitably studied.
Bishop Bull's Sermons.-Parker, Oxford.
Bishop Bull's Works.—University Press.
Waterland's Works.-Do.

Wall on Infant Baptism.-Do.

Pearson on the Creed.-Do.

Leslie's Works.-Do.

Bingham's Works.-Straker, London.

Palmer on the Liturgy.-University Press.

Palmer on the Church.-Rivingtons.

Hooker, ed. Keble.-Rivingtons.

TRACTS FOR THE TIMES.

CHURCH AND STATE.

We are very naturally jealous of the attempts that are making to disunite, as it is called, Church and State; which in fact means neither more nor less, in the mouths of those who clamour for it, than a general confiscation of Church property, and a repeal of the few remaining laws which make the true Church the Church of England.

This is what Dissenters mean by Disuniting Church and State; and we are all naturally anxious to avert a step at once so unjust towards men and sacrilegious towards God.

Let us not imagine, however, that every one who apparently joins with us in this anxiety must necessarily have the welfare of the Church at heart. Many people seem to join us at this crisis, and protest loudly in favour of the Union of Church and State, who nevertheless mean by this, something very different from what Dissenters mean, and from what we mean when we are opposing Dissenters. The "Union of Church and State," which many persons so call, and are so anxious to preserve, is in some points almost as great an evil, as it is confessedly, in other points, a good and there are almost as many persons who support it for its bad points, as there are who hate it for its good.

:

To make this plain, I shall endeavour to explain what it is that the Union of Church and State consists in, as now enforced by the law of the land.

It consists in two things, STATE PROTECTION and STATE INTERFERENCE; the former of which, Dissenters wish to overthrow; and the latter of which, governments, of whatever kind, are very anxious to retain while Churchmen have hitherto been contented to accept both conjointly, without perhaps very exactly calculating how little they gain on the one hand, and how much they sacrifice on the other. This subject is indeed one which, from the confidence

VOL. 11.-59.

A

hitherto placed by us in the integrity of government, has, perhaps, been much less investigated than any other of equal importance. But recent changes in the constitution have now so entirely altered the mutual relations of the Church and the Legislature, that what has in past times been a becoming, though perhaps misplaced, reliance on authority, would at present be a disgraceful negligence about our most sacred interests. In the following pages, then, it will be my object to consider the gains and losses which we accept jointly, in the Union of Church and State, arranging them under the above-mentioned heads: STATE PROTECTION and STATE

INTERFERENCE.

I. The PROTECTION which the Church receives from the STATE consists principally in four things.

1. In securing to us by Law some small portion of those ample endowments which the piety of our forefathers set apart for the maintenance of true religion in this country. Of these endowments far more than half are at this day in the hands of laymen, who may be of any religion or none, and do not consider themselves obliged to spend one farthing of it in the cause of GOD. But there is still a certain remnant in the hands of the clergy, who are thereby enabled to spread truth over the land, in the poorest and most remote districts; and to live in decency themselves, without being a burden to the poor people for whose good they are labouring. This remnant, then, the State has forborne to confiscate, as it has confiscated the rest; and in this consists the first kind of State Protection.

2. It further consists in enabling us to raise a tax on real property for the keeping our parish churches in tolerable and decent repair through the country,-which tax, as estimated by those who put it at the highest, amounts to about as many thousands a year as the other taxes amount to hundred thousands. This is the only existing law by which Englishmen, as such, are called on to assist in the maintenance of the Church of England.

3. It consists, farther, in allowing Thirty Bishops to sit and vote in the House of Lords, to which House all Bishops, and many other Church Dignitaries belonged, as a matter of right, at the

signing of Magna Charta; and from which they never can be excluded without violating the very first article of Magna Charta, the basis of English liberty.

4. In the law De excommunicato capiendo, by which the State engages, that on receiving due notice, of the excommunication of any given person, he shall be arrested, and put in prison until he is absolved.

Such are the four principal heads of STATE PROTECTION : on reading them over, it will occur to every one, that the first is nothing more than common justice, and no greater favour than every person in the country receives in being protected from thieves; that, as to the second, the most that one can infer from it is, that in the eye of the State the importance of the Church is to the importance of civil government as a thousand to a hundred thousand, or as one to a hundred; that to counterbalance the third, which admits some Bishops to the House of Lords, all clergymen whatever are excluded from the House of Commons; and that the fourth is a bad useless law, which cannot be done away with too soon.

II. Such is STATE PROTECTION: now, on the other hand, let us consider the existing set off against it, which is demanded of us. This is STATE INTERFERENCE, which encumbers us in ways too numerous to be catalogued, but is especially grievous in regard to the two following particulars:-1. Church Patronage. 2. Church Discipline.

1. With regard to the first of these, it is obvious that the efficiency of the Church must ever mainly depend on the character of the Bishops and Clergy; and that any laws which facilitate the intrusion of unfit persons into such stations must be in the highest degree prejudicial. The appointment of our Bishops, and of those who are to undertake the cure of souls, is a trust on which so much depends, that it is difficult to be too cautious as to the hands in which it is placed, and as to the checks with which its due execution is guarded. The sole object which should be kept in view is the getting these offices well filled, and the fewer private interests which are allowed to interfere in filling them the better.

Yet what are the Laws which are forced on the acceptance of the Church for regulating this important matter? What is the care that has been taken to vest the appointment in proper hands? with what checks is its due execution guarded? what attention has been paid to any one point except the very last that should have been thought of, the private interests of patrons? We shall see.

The appointment of all our Bishops, and, in much the greater number of instances, of those who are to undertake the cure of souls, is vested in the hands of individuals irresponsible and unpledged to any opinions or any conduct; laymen, good or bad, as it may happen, orthodox or heretic, faithful or infidel. The Bishops, every one of them, are, as a matter of fact, appointed by the Prime Minister for the time being, who since the repeal of the Test Act, may be an avowed Socinian, or even Atheist. A very large proportion of other Church benefices, carrying with them cure of souls, are likewise in the hands of the Prime Minister, or of the Lord Chancellor and other Lay Patrons, who, like him, may be of any or no religion. So much for the hands in which these appointments are vested: the checks by which they are guarded must be considered separately in case of Bishopricks and of inferior benefices.

At former periods of our history, even in the most arbitrary and tyrannical times, various precautions were adopted to prevent the intrusion of improper persons into Bishopricks. To exclude the great officers of state from a share in the nomination was indeed impossible, perhaps not desirable, but to prevent their usurping an undue and exclusive influence, their choice was subjected to the approbation of other bodies of men, with different interest, and sufficiently independent to make their approbation more than a form.

The Nomination of the King and his Ministers was to be followed by a real boná fide election on the part of the Collegiate Body attached to the vacant See. In the Church of Canterbury this body consisted of 140 men, with small incomes, and connected, in many instances, with the peasantry of the country, whose feelings and opinions they seem to have, in a great measure, represented. The courage and resolution with which these men frequently resisted state persecution, will be appreciated on read

« PreviousContinue »