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Page 13
But to continue. The Archbishop begins by putting Mr. Maskell a
question. "Are they (_i.e._, the doctrines about which he is seeking
information) contained in the Word of God? St. Paul says, 'Preach the
Word'.... Now whether the doctrines concerning which you inquire are
contained in the Word of God, and can be proved thereby, _you have the
same means_ of discovering for yourself as I have, and I have no
special authority to declare."
Did any one ever witness such an exhibition of ineptitude and
spiritual asthenia? We can conceive a man rejecting all revelation. It
is possible even to conceive a man denying the Divinity of Christ. But
we know nothing that would ever enable us even to conceive that
Infinite Wisdom and Infinite Power had established a Church which
cannot teach, or had sent an ambassador utterly unable to deliver His
message. There is no use for such Church as that. Total silence is
better than incoherent speech. What is the consequence? The
consequence is that in the Anglican community endless variations and
differences exist and flourish side by side, not alone in matters
where differences are comparatively of little account, but in even the
most momentous and fundamental doctrines, such as the necessity of
Baptism, the power of Absolution, the nature of the Holy Eucharist,
the effects of the sacrament of Holy Orders, and so forth. Were it not
for the iron hand of the State, which grasps her firmly, and binds her
mutually repellent elements together, she must have fallen to pieces
long ago. Now, we must beg our readers to consider well, that from the
very terms of the institution such a deplorable state of things as we
have been contemplating is absolutely impossible and unthinkable in
the Church (1) which _God-incarnate_ founded, _for the express
purpose of handing down His doctrine_, pure and undefiled to the end
of time; and (2) with which He promised to abide for ever; and (3)
which the Holy Ghost Himself, speaking through St. Paul, declared to
be "the pillar and ground of truth" (1. Tim. iii. 15). Nevertheless,
if the Catholic Church, numbering over 250,000,000 of persons, is not
to fall into the sad plight that has overtaken all the small churches
that have gone out from her, she must not only desire unity, as, no
doubt, all the sects desire it, but she must have been provided by her
all-wise Founder with what none of them even profess to possess,
_viz._, some simple, workable, and effective means of securing it.
This means, as practical as it is simple, is no other than one supreme
central and living authority, enjoying full jurisdiction over
all--that is to say, the authority of Peter, ever living in his See,
and speaking, now by the lips of Leo, and now by the lips of Pius, but
always in the name, and with the authority, and under the guidance of
Him who, in the plenitude of His divine power, made Peter the
immovable rock, against which the gates of hell may indeed expend
their fury, but against which they never have prevailed and never can
prevail. "The gates of hell shall not prevail against Thee." That any
one can fail to understand the meaning of these inspired words; that
any one can give them any application save that which they receive in
the Catholic Church, is but another illustration of the extraordinary
power of prejudice and pride to blind the reason and to darken the
understanding.
Without this final Court of Appeal, set up by the wisdom of God, the
Church would disintegrate and fall into pieces to-morrow. To remove
from the Church of Christ the infallibility of the Pope would be like
removing the hub from the wheel, the key-stone from the arch, the
trunk from the tree, the foundation from the house. For, in each case
the result must mean confusion. If such a result could ever have been
doubted in the past, it can surely be doubted no longer. The sad
experience of the past three hundred years speaks more eloquently than
any words; and its verdict is conclusive. It proves two things beyond
dispute. The _first_ is, that even the largest and most heterogeneous
body of men may be easily united and kept together, if they can all be
brought to recognise and obey one supreme authority; and the _second_
is, that, even a small and homogeneous body of men will soon divide
and split up into sections, if they cannot be brought to recognise
such an authority.
Further, any one looking out over the face of Christendom, with an
unprejudiced eye, for the realisation of that unity which Christ
promised to affix to his Church as an infallible sign of authenticity,
will find it in the Catholic Communion, but certainly nowhere
else--least of all in the Church of England.
"What," asks a well-known writer in unfeigned astonishment, "what
opinion is not held within the Established Church? Were not Dr.
Wilberforce and Dr. Colenso, Dr. Hamilton and Dr. Baring equally
Bishops of the Church of England? Were not Dr. Pusey and Mr. Jowett
at the same time her professors; Father Ignatius and Mr. Bellew her
ministers; Archdeacon Denison and Dr. M'Neile her distinguished
ornaments and preachers? Yet their religions differed almost as widely
as Buddhism from Calvinism, or the philosophy of Aristotle from that
of Martin Tupper." If a Catholic priest were to teach a single
heretical doctrine, he would be at once cashiered, and turned out of
the Church. But "if an Anglican minister must resign because his
opinions are at variance with some other Anglican minister, every soul
of them would have to retire, from the Archbishop of Canterbury down
to the last licentiate of Durham or St. Bees".
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