M. Villemain, in his commentary on Cicero's De Republicâ, contemptuously compares the ecclesiastical legislation of the English Parliament to the ecclesiastical legislation of the Roman Senate. We see no reason for being ashamed of the comparison. We know from Polybius, as well as from Cicero, that the good sense of their ecclesiastical polity did not prevent the Romans from being more religious than their neighbours. Can as much be said in favour of the ecclesiastical polity of modern Rome? In our judgment, the political constitution of the Church of England, rightly understood, is its specific merit. It is the people's share in it. As a general advantage, it can scarcely be overrated. Yet the Church of England is beset with particular disadvantages, great and numerous, to which remedies of some sort must be applied erelong; or dissolution, in one or other of its forms, may overtake the wealthiest, though not the first-born, of the Churches of the Reformation before it is aware. Dr Arnold wrote his pamphlet on Church Reform during the excitement of 1833; under an exaggerated impression (as he afterwards acknowledged) of the strength of the movement party, and of the immediateness of the danger. His general opinion of the Church of England-of its merits and demerits, its present and its future-will be better gathered from his varied correspondence, extending over a tract of years. The opinion will be found to be much the same, from first to last. He thought its whole system so corrupt, that it had not to be amended here and there, but to be recast. It stands, he said, in many points, just as it did in the worst days of Popery--only reading 'king or aristocracy' in the place of 'pope.' It had been left at the Reformation as avowedly unfinished as Cologne Cathedral. Yet English Churchmen, instead of renewing the crane on its half-built towers, in the hope of some day finishing them, persuade themselves that their building is complete! Its historical and motley character made him marvel at the fondness of many noble minds for our dear mother the panther.' The very phrase, mother church,' sounded in his ears as an unscriptural and mischievous idolatry. Dissent from it, accordingly, wore a very different aspect in his eyes from divisions introduced into a more perfect church. Nor was the making and irritating Dissenters the worst consequence of its corruptions. To the extent, that the notion of a Priesthood had got possession of it, its Christian power of union and co-operation was so far paralysed. The spirit of the great body of the Clergy at the present day, had altered very little from what it had been ever since the time of Queen Elizabeth downwards. It still continues to be the spirit of a Political party; and, unfortunately, of the party which had been, in the main, opposed to all improvement. 6 Therefore (he concludes, that were there no other objection to their title to be considered a national Church) it will not do 'for the Church party in England to identify themselves with the nation, which they are not; nor with the Constitution, ' which they did their best to hinder ever coming into existence.' Nothing that can now be done, can change the past history of the English Church; or much improve, we fear, the political spirit of its Clergy. The obstacles in the way of Church Reform, in the high meaning which Dr Arnold attributed to the word, are confessedly insurmountable. They lie deeper even than the idolatry of things as they are by the high churchmen; or than the idolizing of the early reformers by the evangelicals; or even than that indifference to general principles, so characteristic of Englishmen, which was enough (he said) to break his heart. They lie in the fact, that an attempt to execute his reform would probably produce far less good than evil-unless a previous reformation should have taken place in human nature, amounting to a change of it altogether. But, far short of the views he loved to brood over, there is room for many changes in the Church; which might lessen considerably its internal evils, and moderate the dangers to it from without. With respect to the Liturgy, he appears to have thought little alteration was needed in it beyond leaving out the political services. He made equally light of the important questions of patronage, of the equalizing of revenues, and of pluralities. The tone in which he notices Wesley's observation to his Ministers, (to the effect that they had no more to do with being gentlemen than with being dancing-masters,) shows he was aware of one of the evils of a rich establishment. We mean of the danger that its Clergy will get above their work-not from pride, but from their station, their habits, and their mode of education. With respect to the Articles-as an ostrich, it is said, can digest iron-so, when Arnold had once swallowed the Articles, they seem to have given him no further trouble. He disliked them, he said, because they represented truth theologically and technically, and, in consequence, untruly. He would have gladly reduced them to articles of peace. He willingly, therefore, signed petitions for relief in respect of the terms of subscription to both Articles and Liturgy. But this was all. There is no proof of his having been sufficiently sensitive to the real extent of the grievance which these peremptory subscriptions are inflicting on many natures. Snares to some-to others scourges. We should ourselves wish for no better instance of the peril of them, than the way in which such minds as Arnold's and Paley's reasoned themselves into subscribing. The time, however, when such reasonings can prevail with men of 6 half their ability and honesty, seems coming to an end. For this we have to thank the extreme cases of Messrs Ward and Oakley. Arnold says, historically our prayer-book exhibits the opinions of two very different parties, King Edward's refor 'mers, and the high churchmen of James the First's time, and of 1661. There is a necessity, therefore, in fact, for a compre'hensive subscription, unless the followers of one of these parties are to be driven out of the Church.' Comprehensive Articles, that is, open Articles, would be a great gain. But a comprehensive subscription of close Articles, is more than we can comprehend, or should wish to be comprehended in. We are told that the friends of Mr Oakley are threatening to proceed against Mr Baptist Noel; and that there has been some talk, more or less, of convening Archbishop Whately before his Oxford brethren as a Sabellian, because Mr Ward has been degraded as a Roman Catholic. In case a see-saw of this kind should drive out of the Church not only one party, but both, Church of England men would see their way at once. whole system of subscription must come down; and the test of Church membership might possibly be reduced to the test required in baptism. As somebody said of old, it would be then no longer res ingeniosa to be a Christian. We once heard an exclamation from the pulpit of Robert Hall, which we should rejoice to hear taken up and echoed from pulpit to pulpit throughout Christendom. If there be one truth clear as the sun in heaven, it is this There should be no terms of communion but what are terms of salvation: and the man who is good enough for Christ is good enough for me!? The The difficulties of the Church regarding doctrine pressed lightly, in comparison, on Arnold's spirit. Its difficulties of discipline and government almost weighed him down. Before he could feel any hope for the Church, there must be signs in it of a real Church government, not a pretended one; and the only government he would have believed to be a real one, must be one which was vested in the Church, not in the Clergy. This he would have thought so incalculable a good, that, for the sake of it, he would have been willing to undergo for a season almost any aggravation of actual misgovernment. One thing I see, that if attempts be made, as they seem to be, to make the power of the Bishops 'less nominal than it has been, there will be all the better 'chance of our getting a really good church government; for 'irresponsible persons, irremoveable, and acting without responsible advisers, are such a solecism in government, that they can only be suffered to exist so long as they do nothing; let them begin to act, and the vices of their constitution will become 'flagrant.' On this part of the case, Lord Bacon, in a remark 6 6 6 6 able paper On the Pacification of the Church,' had pronounced judgment long ago: There be two circumstances in the administration of Bishops, wherein, I confess, I could never be satis'fied; the one, the sole exercise of their authority-the other, 'the deputation of it.' We have said that Arnold did not attach sufficient importance to the pressure put upon scrupulous consciences within the Church by Articles of Faith. He was quite awake,. however, to the injury they did the Church from without. A National Establishment can be only just, useful, and secure, when it is nearly co-extensive with the Nation. In the hope of saving it, Arnold would have relaxed its theoretical bond-its Articles; and would have tightened its practical one-its Government. Its multifarious and complicated Articles make it the religion only of a part, and of a much smaller part than would otherwise be the case, Arnold's alternative was a short one: Either the Church must be more comprehensive, or an establishment cannot be • maintained. The Church as it now stands, no human power 'can save.' 6 The Supremacy of the State is one thing; an identity of Church and State, another. Any such identity is so manifestly impossible in these kingdoms, that, if it were the only condition upon which the Church of England could be saved, we should agree with Arnold that it was not to be saved by human means. On the other hand, if it is to be considered merely as the Theory of a perfect Church and a perfect State,' it is no longer a subject of meditation for Statesmen and Divines, but for the ingenious exercitations of a declamation prize. Upon any view of it, it is a theory on which, we are afraid, we are scarcely open to conviction. However, as we understand that an Appendix to the Fragment on the Church,' and also a Miscellaneous volume, in which Arnold's views are more fully stated and developed, will soon be published, we gladly put aside our pen and our objections, and wait for their appearance. INDEX. A Agriculture, progress of scientific, 89-increase of population demands Allotment system considered, 521-525. American President, corrupt influences which result from the re- Animals, influence of the kind of food on, 115-122. Arnold, Dr Thomas, life and correspondence of, by A. P. Stanley, 190 |