ardently desire, and which you so feelingly describe, would be no blessings to me, were I to seek them otherwise than by the road which conscience points out. And again you will understand me to speak with reference to the present only, for with it alone I am concerned. My argument having been throughout grounded, not so much upon the abstract tenableness of our ecclesiastical position (into which, as an unlearned person, I do not feel myself competent to enter), as upon what may be called the moral and popular evidence for our Church, would not, I must acknowledge, in itself, serve me with grounds of steadfastness in our present position, under all conceivable, or, as many may think, very possible, and even imminent contingencies. But my one question is, Why should I leave my communion? And this question I am content to answer for to-day, without going on to the morrow, about which it is better not to "take thought." If you remind me that events of the most startling and critical aspect are happening or threatening around us, with a rapidity of succession which almost takes one's breath away, so that it was never harder than at this moment to tell what "a day may bring forth," this I must needs acknowledge. Yet what is this to me, till that particular emergency arises, which seems like a providential call to "depart hence?" I must look, I repeat, to myself, and to things as they are, not as they may be. Why should I join the Roman Church? I have a place to fill, and a work to do, in the Church of England; with more privileges than I use, and more happiness than I deserve. I have kind superiors, holy guides, a dutiful flock, edifying friends. Why should I, with no summons from without, and no motion from within, thanklessly and presumptuously (as I should feel it), but, in my case, gratuitously, cut the cords which fasten me to my present anchorage, to drift away, I know not whither, to strike, it may be, on some rock of doubt, or to be stranded on some island of desolation? arena. But again; while it is not for us to speculate upon the course of Divine Providence with respect to our Church, nor wise and well, in days like these, to plight our troth by any irrevocable vow, to a communion which possesses so little of external safeguard against the inroads of heresy, and uses even less than it possesses, it would be ungrateful to close our eyes against the actual signs of promise which surround us. Our Church has this, among other points of similarity to the Church Catholic, that it is continually on the verge of a crisis, which yet some good hand interposes te arrest. It never" is," but always "to be" crushed. Wherever good angels resort and company, there evil angels will also be on the alert; and our Church, especially of late, has shown like some such favoured haunt or privileged And here we are, after all our alarms-nay, and all our real perils-certainly in no worse predicament as respects the power of witnessing to Catholic truth, than three years back; and, if not in a worse state, then, surely, in a better. It is everything to gain time, if we gain nothing else. This, however, is to state our blessings at a great disadvantage. Only consider what has been said and done in our Church since 1840, without formal condemnation or serious check! Think of the "British Critic," of the "Sermons on Subjects of the Day," of Dr. Pusey's recent Preface to Surin, or, again, of that wonderful book, the "Ideal of a Christian Church!" What signify insulated protests and inoperative manifestoes, so long as the Church of England is tolerant, with whatever reluctance, of those remedial efforts which, if they do not convulse her, must raise her to a state of vigorous health absolutely without precedent in her Reformed annals. And now for a word, in conclusion, on recent conversions. Those who have seen good to quit our communion for yours, have it, doubtless, in their power to do great things in the way of renewing onr amicable relations with your Church; and thus of hastening that external union, which, so it could be effected without injury to conscience, most English churchmen would, I suppose, agree in desiring. But will your new members receive a hint or two from a sincere friend? Their peculiar work in the wonderful and complex economy of which we are subjects, would seem to be especially that of mediation. With you they are now connected by spiritual, and, not unfrequently, still with us by natural and social ties. Their past experience of our religious system might render them, one should think, in many special ways, a valuable acquisition to you, while, by the continued exhibition, in their own persons, of those graces which may be expected to flow from the increased nearness to God in His Church which they feel themselves to have attained, they would do more in the way of winning upon us, than by a thousand efforts of a more directly controversial sort. We know all they would say; and by saying it out of season, they do but tend to prejudice their influence with us, Let them, however, be assured that our eyes are anxiously, as well as lovingly, upon them. Let us see, then, as time proceeds, that they are not less, but, if possible, even more, humble, gentle, patient, self-denying, considerate, than when we knew them amongst us. Let it be brought home to us, that Rome has ripened the fruit which budded, and blossomed, and set, in England. And let them not thanklessly turn round upon their first Mother, as though it had been gall, and not milk, which they had been all the time sucking in at her breasts. Let them bear in mind (as another has observed), that of the hundred steps of doctrinal developement and spiritual progress by which they have reached what they describe as their present height of blessedness; the former ninety and nine were surmounted before they left us. Till they satisfy us by acts, and not by mere assurances, that they have gained by that step which is our great loss, they cannot wonder that our pain at their estrangement from us should be aggravated by some natural anxiety; by an anxiety which no confidence in the purity of their intentions, and no consciousness of our own (it may be) immeasurable inferiority to them in all spiritual attainments, can wholly preclude, so long as our respective views of duty, in the most momentous of all questions, are, for the time at least, so seriously at variance. That God may give us all grace to “hold the faith in unity of spirit, in the bond of peace, and in righteousness of life," is, as you know, the daily prayer of our Church...... Margaret-street, London, Nov. 18, 1844. FREDERICK OAKELEY. London: Printed by D. Cahn, 7, Great Queen-street, Lincoln's Inn Fields. INDEX. Abuse, Use and, of the Testimony of the Academical Propedeutics, or Science of Afternoons, Sunday, at Home, 705. Ancient Ceremonies and Superstitions, Ancient Church of Ireland, 413, 507. Aramean Dialects, Concise Notices of the, Architecture, Church, 546, 662. Archdeacon Browne's Charge on the Arnold, Dr. J., Life and Correspondence Arnold's (Rev. T. K.) Remarks on Close's Athaliah, the Death of, 348. Balaam's Lament, 84. Bilder und Skizzen aus Rom, 443. Blessed Virgin Mary, Manual of Devotion Blessed Virgin Mary, Worship of the, in Book of Common Prayer, Seven Sermons Book of Revelations in Greek, 532. Calderon de la Barca, Religious Dramas Calendar of Phrophecy, The Sacred, 527. Cattermole's Literature of the Church of Ceremonies and Superstitions, Ancient, Character of Antichrist, Archdeacon Charities, the Metropolitan, 1. Christ, Bonaventura's Life of, 211, 306. Church, Evils in the, and their Remedies, Church of England, Declaration of Mi- Church of Rome, Corruptions of Scrip- ture by the, 563.. Cistercian Saints of England, The, 353. Close's Reply to the Remarks of the Rev. Collection of Psalms and Hymns in the Mohawk Language, 427 Common Prayer, Book of, in the Mohawk Common Prayer, Seven Sermons on the Companion for the Sick Chamber, 581. Authenticity and Inspiration of the Confraternity of the Living Rosary of the of the Regius Professor of Divinity and Correspondence of Dr. J. Arnold, Life Correspondence, 109, 231, 349, 470,583. Cox's Principles of the Reformation, 706. Daniel, the Visions of, 628. Darkness, Progress of Light and, 299. David, The Psalms of, metrically para- Dead, Voices from the, 571. the Church of England respecting se- nity of the Living Rosary of the Blessed Dévotion, Traité de la Vraie, à la Sainte Dialects, Concise Notices of the Aramean, AIAOHK, H KAINH, Novum Testa- Die Anglikanischen Kirchenzustände,230. Divinity, Copies of the Correspondence in Dr. Murray's Outlines of the History of Dr. T. Arnold's Christian Life, 1. Dusatoy's Lectures on the Book of Com- mon Prayer, 704. Duty, The, of Private Judgement in Re- Dying Christian, The, 671. Ecclesiastical History of the Early Ages, Education in Germany and England, 291. Eighth Annual Report of the Committee Eller's Anglikanische Kirchenzustände, Elliott's Delineation of Roman Catholi- Enemy and Falsifier of Scripture, Popery England, Church of, Declaration of Min- Errors of the Romish Faith, Letters to a Etheridge's Horæ Aramaicæ, 230. Eve of Whitsuntide, On the, from the Evils in the Church, and their Remedies, Examinations, Questions for, on the Acts of the Apostels, 349. Faber, Rev. S. E., on Taylor's Ancient Faber's Sacred Calendar of Prophecy, 527. Fallacies, Roman, 342. Falsifier of Scripture, Popery the Enemy Fathers, Use and Abuse of the Testimony Fleur, La, des Mois de Marie, 322. Flower's Practical English Grammar, 706. Life and Opinions of, 108. Garbett's, Is Unauthorised Teaching Eve of Whitsuntide, 42. Germany and England, Education in, 291. Gilly's Vigilantius and his Times, 250. Hammond, 635. Haughton's Middle System of teaching Hearn's Prophecy of the Man of Sin, 468. Henry Homeward, 370, 491, 605. of the Ancient Church of Ireland, 413, History, Ecclesiastical, of the Early Ages, History of the Catholic Church in Ire- Hodgson's Duty of Private Judgement, Holy Scripture, Aramean Versions of, 230. House of Commons, Report of the Select Ideal, The, of a Christian Church, 95, 233. India, Christianity in North, 448. Ireland, The Ancient Church of, 413, 507. Is Unauthorised Teaching always Schis- James's Corruptions of Scripture, Coun- Kirchenzustände, die Anglikanischen, 230. Lament, Balaam's, 84. Lands, The New Zealanders and their, 688. Language, Mohawk, Collection of Psalms Lay Readers, Visiting Societies and, 473. Life and Opinions, Religious, of Frederick William III., of Prussia, 108. Life of Christ, Bonaventura's, 211, 306. |