intractable state of our ecclesiastical laws, or from all these causes combined, the terrors of censure and suspension and excommunication are no more; and the awful sentence which brought a mighty emperor to prostration and penance before the venerable Ambrose, would now probably, if

66

b

h "Open offenders were not suffered once to enter "into the house of the Lord, nor admitted to common "prayer and the use of the holy sacraments, with other "true Christians, until they had done open penance be"fore the whole Church. And this was practised not only upon mean persons, but also upon the rich, no"ble, and mighty persons; yea upon Theodosius, that puissant and mighty emperor, whom, for committing "a grievous and wilful murder, St. Ambrose, Bishop of "Milan, reproved sharply, and did also excommunicate "the said emperor, and brought him to open penance. "And they that were so justly exempted and banished, 66 as it were, from the house of the Lord, were taken (as 66 they be indeed) for men divided and separated from "Christ's Church, and in most dangerous estate; yea, "as St. Paul saith, even given unto Satan the Devil for

σε

a time; and their company was shunned and avoided "of all godly men and women, until such time as they "by repentance and public penance were reconciled." Homily of the right use of the Church, second part, For a fuller account of the excommunication of Theodosius, as extracted from the Ecclesiastical Histories of Sozomen and Theodoret, see Hickes on the Dignity of the Episcopal Order, p. 217-222.

pronounced against the meanest individual amongst us, be treated with derision and contempt.

Again; the general ignorance of the nature and constitution of the visible Church has been very materially caused by the scantiness of the means of instruction afforded to the laity on such points. The definition of the Church in our Articles, probably from that moderate and conciliatory spirit so honourably characteristic of our Church, a spirit from which, in this instance at least, she seems to have been a sufferer, appears to have been purposely

i Article XIX. thus defines the Church: "The visible "Church of Christ is a congregation of faithful men, "in the which the pure word of God is preached, "and the sacraments be duly ministered according to "Christ's ordinance in all those things that of necessity "are requisite to the same." Article XXIII. goes a step further, and declares that no man may minister the sacraments "before he be lawfully called and sent ;" and then adds, "those we ought to judge lawfully called and

sent, which be chosen and called to this work by men "who have public authority given unto them in the con"gregation, to call and send ministers into the Lord's "vineyard." These definitions certainly embrace most important truths, but they leave the question between the Episcopalian and the Presbyterian wholly undecided.

drawn up with less precision than was to have been desired. Our Catechism too, though an admirable summary of instruction on every point which it undertakes to elucidate, conveys no information whatever on the important subjects of Church communion and schism.

The sectaries, on the other hand, have never been remiss, and when their minds are once fully satisfied of the correctness of their own persuasion, it is not to be expected that they should be remiss, in explaining and inculcating the principles of their dissent.

Thus a most unfair, and, I conceive, unnecessary advantage is thrown into their scale. For it is impossible to doubt, that under circumstances so unfavourable, and by a method so inauspicious, instead of conciliating enemies, we must have been constantly losing many well-disposed but ill-informed friends, by having left that undefined, and almost unnoticed, which ought to have been accurately explained in some form universally intelligible, and in universal circulation.

66

Neither has the deficiency here observed been at all adequately remedied by the exertions of the Clergy themselves. Upon "these topics,” said an eminent Prelate of our Church, towards the close of the last century, "the Clergy of late years have "been more silent than is perfectly, con"sistent with their duty, from a fear, as I "conceive, of acquiring the name and re

66

putation of High Churchmen." And there is, I apprehend, no sufficient reason to believe, that had Bishop Horsley survived to the present day, he would have seen grounds to reverse his observation or retract his censure.

That a gradual improvement in these particulars has been observable in the members of our Church, may, I believe, be admitted; but it does not appear to have kept pace with the occasion which so imperiously demanded it. A conviction of increasing necessity and impending danger has aroused numbers to a more lively sense of their duty in this respect, and called forth in sermons

k Bishop Horsley's Charge to the Clergy of the Diocese of St. David's, at his primary Visitation in 1790.

and charges, and more regular treatises', many productions highly creditable to the zeal and talents of their authors; but, at the same time, it is but too evident, that there has not been that general combination and identity of exertion, which could serve to stem the adverse torrent, augmented as it is from the opposite, but in this instance unhappily united, sources of schismatical hostility and latitudinarian indifference.

Besides, the writings alluded to having had to contend with inveterate prejudices, or, to say the least, having been addressed to minds little prepared by any previous impressions for the reception of the truths advanced, and tainted perhaps by the specious and imposing sentiments of modern liberality, have acquired but little popularity in proportion to their intrinsic merit,

1 Among those most deserving of attention, are Archdeacon Daubeny's "Guide to the Church," and his more recent publication "on the Nature, Progress, and "Consequences of Schism;" Mr. Sikes's "Discourse on "Parochial Communion;" and Mr. Spry's Bampton Lectures on the subject of "Christian Unity," preached in the year 1816.