THE CONTEMPORARY REVIEW. NONCONFORMIST ESSAYS ON CHURCH PROBLEMS, IN Ecclesia: Church Problems Considered, in a Series of Essays. Edited a recent number of this Review, we brought before our readers a series of Essays by distinguished Churchmen, entitled "The Church and the Age." The present volume is a pendant to that one, coming as it does from the opposite region of Ecclesiastical thought. Among the noticeable phenomena of our Church life in the present day is the emergence of Nonconformist thought as an element no longer to be put aside. Hitherto, the literature of Nonconformity has been almost as strange to us Anglicans as if it were in another language. Watts, and Doddridge, and Robert Hall, and a few other illustrious names, had the entrée: but whether there were not others worthy of being ranked with these,—or indeed what was the tendency and calibre of religious thought outside the Church of England, has been, till within a few years, a matter of supreme indifference to socalled Churchmen. But even the more exclusive among us are beginning to learn that this can be so no longer. Every year is widening our acquaintance with Nonconformist religious literature. This has been owing partly to its own intrinsic excellence, partly to our gradual escape from narrow Anglicanism. But deeper causes than either of these have been working on both parties. The strong common sense which has been of late the prevalent force in our social and political changes, has begun to make itself felt even in the less matter of fact region of religious thought. "Sirs, ye are brethren "-words many times. spoken to unheeding ears, have at length begun to sound in the inner hearts of the sober and practical as well as in those of the sensitive and enthusiastic. And the result has been a gradual, and therefore the more safe and certain, drawing together of good and earnest men, not in disregard of the doctrines which keep them apart, but in recognition of the primary duties of Christian discipleship, and of the necessity of union for their common Christian work. We shall recur to this movement, and its present point of progress, at the close of this article. At present it may suffice to say that the volume before us is written entirely in its interest, and is penetrated with its spirit. Containing, as it does, firm and consistent assertion of Nonconformist principles, it is full of brotherly sympathy and frank recognition. Refusing as its writers very properly do, the lofty condescension of those Churchmen who contemplate their reabsorption into the State Establishment,―holding on principle that there can be no real brotherhood till all are politically equal,-theyare guilty of no railing against our Church government or customs = and as far as we have seen, indulge in no word of disapproval which earnest Churchmen themselves could not adopt, and even carry further. Now there is no denying that prima facie the Nonconformistoccupies, as compared with the Anglican, vantage ground for the consideration of Church questions. Anglicanism may be good or bad, right or wrong, but at all events it is the result of a compromise, and has an awkward position to defend. The first step for an Anglican apologist must ever be, the abandonment of logic. Logically, his position is altogether indefensible. Any one of his arguments, which begin so fairly, will, if carried out, land him either in Rome or at Geneva. Of course we do not regard this as fatal to his position. His position shares the predicament with everything else that is English. There is not an institution in our realm that is logically defensible. Everything English either is, or is in course of being made, the best that can be had under the circumstances. We are as yet, Church and all, a kingdom that is of this world: an image mingled of gold and silver and brass and iron and clay: battered and weatherstained, assailable at every point:-we prefer energizing, though maimed, to perfect symmetry on a pedestal. But while this is the Anglican's answer, we must take it as it comes, with all its disadvantages-and one of these unquestionably is, that the Nonconformist shows better in argument. The Churchman is beaten every day; but he has the happy faculty of not knowing when he is beaten, and of fronting men and angels with all his scars. The Nonconformist has fewer corners to turn, fewer perils of proving too much. Let us willingly accord him this advantage, and use it for our instruction. It may instruct us thus. A day has come upon us, when we are all beginning to look about for realities. I suppose it is not want of charity to say, that for one man now, who simply sets himself to defend his own position coûte qui coûte, there were ten men a century ago. I suppose it is no unreal optimism to say, that the commoner thing among thinking persons now is, simply to be pursuing the enquiry after the best working form of truth, regardless in the main of the consequences to themselves. Poor human nature, it is true, is where it was: we have only taught our self-interest to see a stratum deeper, and to perceive that to be rendering essential service is after all the surest way of advancing ourselves. But this is a step worth gaining, and in the direction of the highest and truest view of all. Now in the pursuit above-mentioned, we may learn much from the unfetteredness of Nonconformist thought as compared with our own. Not that they have not a groove to run in, but that it is a wider one than ours, and this very fact produces in them a healthier tone of thought. The little dishonesties of argument are not so frequently met with. We do not encounter, or we meet very seldom, that harking back, and hedging, which are so provoking in our Church divines: that alternation of seemingly generous concession with neutralizing cautions, which characterizes the writings of more than one of the able Anglican prelates and authors of our day. I. The first essay, on "Primitive Ecclesia," is from the pen of Dr. Stoughton, the well-known author of the "Ecclesiastical History of England." It is written in a sober and thoughtful spirit, as all who know its author might have predicted; and combines firmness as against a national church establishment with refusal to follow the exaggerated conclusions of extreme Nonconformity. Dr. Stoughton concedes, for example, the religious character of the nation, and even the legitimacy of certain State ceremonials: he contends, on the ground of political security to the liberties of the nation, for the maintenance of a Protestant succession to the throne. We are glad to see that one who is so severe in his demands on us for conformity to the New Testament Ecclesia can submit sometimes to the logic of history as opposed to that of mere reason; for surely if there be a necessary anomaly in our national free constitution, it is this same Protestant succession. We find Dr. Stoughton, in company with all sensible men, repudiating the practice so triumphantly exposed by Hooker, of demanding a text for every Church practice. We do not know that this would have been worth mentioning, were it not that the other day some one of our numerous anonymous monitors forwarded us a sermon of Mr. Spurgeon's on the words "Thus saith the Lord," in which the old demand of a text for everything was made with as much assurance as if it had never been questioned, and the whole system of the Church of England was arraigned and condemned accordingly. We had hoped that the whole realm of ecclesiastical controversy was long ere this well rid of the fallacy; and we are glad to find no trace of it in these essays. The latter part of Dr. Stoughton's paper is occupied with an enquiry, how far the principles, which in the former part he has maintained, may be found in operation among the Churches of our own country. It may be interesting, as briefly as possible, to follow him in the results of this enquiry :— Congregationalists, including Independents and Baptists, regard their Churches as close approximations to original Christian Institutes. They profess to bow to Scripture authority upon all ecclesiastical as well as all theological questions; and where Scripture supplies no formal directions, to fall back for guidance upon the spiritual nature of Christianity. They believe that Churches are formed for the maintaining of truth, and for the edifying of believers; fellowship being based upon common faith, and a common range of spiritual sympathy. It is a fellowship of religious life, experience, and action. Care is employed in the admission of members, lest persons should intrude themselves with mistaken views or for improper ends. Discipline is exercised, and in cases of immorality, delinquents are forbidden to receive the Lord's Supper. Upon proofs of repentance such persons are restored. Bishops and deacons are popularly elected. Each Church is complete in itself, and independent of others; nevertheless, County Associations and National Unions are formed for conference, counsel, and co-operation. Both the denominations specified are opposed to a hierarchy, to an official priesthood as distinguished from the priesthood of all the faithful, and to what is generally meant by Ritualism in worship. They protest against every method of supporting religion, except that which is voluntary. "These principles, generally considered, are in harmony with the ideas of primitive Churches, conveyed in the first part of this Essay. How far practice is in conformity with these principles, and how far the principles, as sometimes expounded, come up to the ideal which is acknowledged and upheld, is another question :-principles, and the organized systems into which they are wrought, are not identical; and with certain general principles different particular opinions may be connected. "It would be beside the mark to enter fully into this complicated subject, but since I do not assume the function of a special pleader for English Congregationalism as it is-since I wish to be, if not a disinterested, at least an honest critic-I may be permitted to remark, that it appears to me that Ecclesiastical principles of Divine authority have been decidedly seized, but not thoroughly grasped by Congregationalists; that with attainments reached there are defects betrayed." |