L I B R.ARY 
 
 OF THL 
 U N 1 VLR.S ITY 
 or 1 LLl NOIS
 
 PASTORAL LETTER 
 
 THE CLERGY 
 
 DIOCESE OF GLASGOW AND GALLOWAY, 
 
 IN REFERENCE 
 
 TO 
 
 I. THE DECLARATION SIGNED BY SCOTTISH BISHOPS AT THE TIME 
 OF THEIR CONSECRATION. 
 
 II. RITUAL AND RUBRICS IN SCOTLAND. 
 
 III. WHAT SHOULD BE A CHURCHMAN'S MIND AND FEELING 
 WITH RESPECT TO PRESBYTERIANS. 
 
 BY 
 
 THE RIGHT REV. W. J. TROWER, D.D. 
 
 BISHOP OF GLASGOW AND GALLOWAY. 
 
 LONDON: 
 
 FRANCIS & JOHN RIVINGTON, 
 
 ST. Paul's church yard, awd waterlog place. 
 1851.
 
 LONDON : 
 GILBERT & RTVINGTON, PRINTERS, 
 
 ST. John's square.
 
 PASTORAL LETTER, 
 
 My Reverend Brethren, 
 
 In the Pastoral Letter which I addressed to 
 you last summer, I adverted to the circumstance, 
 that in England the necessity of a frequent address 
 on the part of the Bishop to the Clergy is in some 
 degree removed or lessened by the annual Archi- 
 diaconal Visitations. Our better system of Diocesan 
 Synods, by which the Bishop and Clergy have the 
 mutual privilege of annually meeting and consulting 
 together in regularly constituted ecclesiastical assem- 
 blies, seems to me an occasion and opportunity for a 
 word of fatherly exhortation and counsel on the part 
 of the Chief Pastor, which it is not well to lose. 
 The visitation spoken of in the Canons is rather a 
 personal circuit, from time to time, of the churches 
 in the diocese by the Ordinary, than a triennial 
 address to the assembled Clergy ; and in the times 
 of religious excitement in which our lot is cast, it 
 
 A 2
 
 can rarely happen that the occasion of an annual 
 Synod can return without suggesting to its several 
 members many occurrences of the year that has 
 elapsed since its last meeting, on which the Clergy 
 must wish to be guided by the opinion, or at least 
 to know the judgment of their Bishop, and on which 
 the Bishop must desire to address to his Clergy a 
 word of warning or explanation, of advice or obser- 
 vation. As it is our rule to receive together on this 
 solemn occasion the Holy Communion, and the busi- 
 ness of the Synod occupies necessarily a large portion 
 of the day, I have felt (both now and last year) that 
 I shall consult your convenience, and also be enabled 
 to go somewhat more into detail than would other- 
 wise be the case on one or two important subjects, by 
 addressing you in the form of a Pastoral Letter, rather 
 than in a Charge orally delivered. I need hardly 
 assure you that I neither wish to weary you, my Reve- 
 rend Brethren, nor to increase my own responsibility, 
 by needless expression of opinion ; still less, I trust, 
 is it necessary for me to renew the declaration of my 
 deep sense of personal insufficiency in questions upon 
 which the most wise and holy not only differ, but 
 differ so widely as to perplex many well-disposed and 
 sober-minded Christians, who wish anxiously to be 
 guided aright in the way of life. I can truly say 
 that I am fully alive to such considerations as these ; 
 but still the responsibility which God has laid upon 
 me is one which I dare not shrink from ; and (in 
 reliance on His gracious aid) I had rather incur the 

 
 5 
 
 charge of over-anxiety, and of giving unnecessary 
 advice, than lose an opportunity of saying some word, 
 that by God's blessing may tend to the comfort and 
 stability, the abstinence from extreme courses and 
 violent opinions, or the greater zeal and deeper 
 sense of responsibility of one reverend brother, or 
 (I may say) of one member of the Church of God. 
 
 The first subject to which I will call your atten- 
 tion is the official collection of several documents 
 which have from time to time issued from the Epis- 
 copal Synod ; and especially the publication of an 
 important Declaration which has been signed by 
 every Bishop at the time of consecration since the 
 days of Bishop Rattray. The Bishops (I may ven- 
 ture to say, although still almost the junior member 
 of the Episcopal College) are well aware that no 
 document is binding on the Church which has not 
 the sanction of a General Synod ; and any interpre- 
 tation of the Canons of the Church by the Episcopal 
 Synod may be completely superseded by the supreme 
 authority of the next General Synod that may be 
 called. In the intervals, however, between the meet- 
 ings of General Synods (especially in such times as 
 these) many cases must occur which require an 
 immediate and {jwo tempore, to a certain degree) an 
 authoritative interpretation of the Canons or other 
 documents of the Church. The Canons evidently 
 contemplate the meeting of a General Synod as a 
 rare event; and where questions arise which thus 
 require an immediate declaration, on the part of the
 
 G 
 
 authorities in the Churcli, of the meaning of formu- 
 laries, a kind of instinct (or, let me say, the very 
 principle of Episcopacy) leads members of the Church 
 to address the Episcopal Synod for some expression 
 of opinion, which, though not formally binding, may 
 be for the time sufficient in respect of weight and 
 authority. This has already been the case in several 
 instances even within my own short Episcopate. 
 I may mention the addresses which gave occasion to 
 the declaration of the Bishops from Dundee on the 
 subject of the two offices of administration of Holy 
 Communion ; and the request of our own Diocesan 
 Synod, in the early part of last year, for some decla- 
 ration on the doctrine of Holy Baptism on the part 
 of the Episcopal Synod. The replies or declarations 
 which those addresses elicited (so far as I have been 
 able to observe) have, by God's blessing, much tended 
 to i3eace and unity; nor can I forbear from repeating 
 (what was, indeed, expressed in my Pastoral Letter 
 last year) my thankfulness to Almighty God, that on 
 the deeply important subject of Holy Baptism, the 
 Bishops were unanimous, and their declaration con- 
 ceived in terms both firm and temperate. I must 
 also take occasion to add the expression of a convic- 
 tion with which you will doubtless fully concur and 
 sympathize, that the privilege of this free syuodical 
 action, and the power of adjudging in questions of 
 doctrine and discipline, pro re natd, by a competent 
 ecclesiastical authority, is an advantage so great and 
 precious, that no temporal endowments could ever
 
 compensate any Church for the loss of it. For that 
 Declaration on the doctrine of Holy Baptism the 
 Episcopal Synod received an address of thanks from 
 upwards of three thousand members of the Church 
 of England ; and I am thankful to believe (what is 
 indeed the opinion also of some far more competent 
 than myself to judge), that the Declaration of the 
 Bishops was ecclesiastically sufficient for the occa- 
 sion. My present object, however, in calling your 
 attention to the documents issued by the Episco- 
 pal College is (in the first place) to disclaim any 
 idea of ascribing undue authority to those Episcopal 
 writings. Whatever authority they possess is simply 
 interpretative. The various interpretations embodied 
 in them might be reversed by the next General 
 Synod. To those who are duly impressed with the 
 paternal character of the Episcopal office, ^and the 
 weight which the Church has ever allowed to the 
 acts of Bishops canonically sitting in Synod, their 
 authority will be considerable ; and I purpose pre- 
 sently to call your attention to some passages on the 
 subject of Ritual. 
 
 I have specially referred to the Declaration ' 
 signed by all Bishops since Bishop Rattray at the 
 time of consecration ; and it is to me a source of 
 much satisfaction that the Bishops have seen fit to 
 publish that important document; the subscription 
 to which is of course as binding and conclusive on 
 those who subscribe, as subscription to the Canons or 
 ' See Appendix, No. I.
 
 any other document. This Church has great reason 
 to be thankful for the excellent code of Canons 
 which it possesses, and the unanimity with which 
 those Canons were adopted. They are, on the whole, 
 very admirably suited to the government of an unes- 
 tablished Church like our own : although, from the 
 circumstances of their history, it is not to be expected 
 that they should be as complete as could be wished, 
 or that their provisions can meet every case and ques- 
 tion that can occur. The Declaration (only recently 
 published, but adopted, signed, and acted upon by 
 every Bishop and by the whole Episcopal Synod for 
 about one hundred years) seems to meet one de- 
 ficiency of the Canons of considerable moment ; I 
 mean, the want of some sufficient provision to 
 secure a virtual and sufficient uniformity of ritual in 
 the several dioceses of the Church ; and to prevent 
 the introduction into one or more dioceses of any 
 practices in conformity (it may be) with the taste 
 or opinion of an existing Bishop, but different 
 (whether in the way of excess or defect) from those 
 which are generally received. It is true, indeed, as 
 we have recently been reminded by the Bishop of 
 Exeter, that every diocese is in itself a complete 
 Church ; and many occasions may be conceived on 
 which a diocese should assert this claim, which is 
 inherent in its constitution, to complete organi- 
 zation, and even to independent action. But the 
 practice of the Catholic Church from the beginning 
 has been to connect, by metropolical comprehension
 
 9 
 
 or rule, and by identity of Canon and synodical 
 action, and by uniformity of practice and ritual, the 
 several dioceses geographically included within the 
 limits of provinces and nations. It appears, indeed, 
 that local usages, when not inconsistent with sound- 
 ness of doctrine and soberness of practice, have at 
 all times been more or less tolerated and borne 
 with ; although it has been increasingly felt that 
 uniformity is a badge of unity, and a very important 
 means of producing it ; and that local usages have 
 not unfrequently been abused to the promotion of a 
 superstitious and pharisaic spirit, and even to un- 
 soundness or extravagance of religious faith. It is 
 obviously most desirable that members of such 
 dioceses, as, according to Catholic usage from the 
 beginning, have been comprehended and united into 
 a Provincial or National Church, should find in any 
 diocese to which they may be providentially re- 
 moved, the same ritual as well as the same Apostolic 
 order, and the same Evangelic truth which they 
 learnt to love and hold in the diocese which they are 
 called to leave. And the desirableness of such 
 uniformity will of course increase, in proportion as 
 on the one hand, from increased facility of inter- 
 course, such changes of residence may become more 
 frequent ; or, on the other, from the many aberra- 
 tions of persons calling themselves Christians, any 
 novelties or differences of ritual may be regarded 
 with increasing suspicion or dislike. With re- 
 ference to the circumstances of our own Communion
 
 10 
 
 — a Communion numerically small, but the mem- 
 bers of which are widely scattered over the whole 
 of Scotland, — I believe that nothing would be more 
 fatal, both to the edification of individuals, and also 
 to the diffusion of what we believe to be the truth, 
 than any thing that should tend to weaken the tie of 
 coherence by which our dioceses are happily united ; 
 and split them into seven independent Churches. 
 There are peculiarities in our ecclesiastical system 
 which, however well suited to our unendowed and 
 disestablished status, and also to the closeness of 
 our connexion with the sister Church of England, 
 should always make us watchful against any 
 symptoms of this tendency : I mean the absence of 
 any such oath of canonical obedience from Bishops 
 to an Archbishop or Metropolitan, as is required 
 in almost every other duly constituted branch of the 
 Catholic Church ; and also the sanction by our 
 Church of two Offices for the administration of the 
 Holy Communion. I do not allude to these pecu- 
 liarities, as objecting to either of them. They have 
 been solemnly embodied in our Canons; and with 
 respect to the latter and more important of them, 
 while I hold to the principles embodied in the 
 Declaration of the Bishops at Dundee, to which I 
 have already alluded, I would never be a con- 
 senting party to an alteration of the canonical 
 relation in which those Offices stand with respect 
 to each other; but it does appear to me that 
 both these peculiarities of our system should make
 
 11 
 
 US watchful against any disposition to increase 
 the difference of usage and practice between one 
 diocese and another; or between this Church and 
 the united Church of England and Ireland. Any 
 badges of distinction (if not required by principle) 
 are an evil rather than a good. Let us hold to the 
 solemn settlement of a difficult and delicate ques- 
 tion embodied in our Canons ; let us prize (as we 
 have reason to prize with thankfulness and meek- 
 ness) the independence and freedom of our Church ; 
 but let us remember, as to any badges of distinction 
 not adopted by our Canons, that uniformity of 
 ritual (as a type and means of unity) is of far greater 
 value than the indulgence of private taste for some 
 venerable practice not generally received. I would 
 earnestly exhort any person who thinks it a glory to 
 their Church in some measure to recognize unes- 
 sential usages which have not been retained by the 
 sister Church of England, to remember what dis- 
 putes and dissensions have been occasioned by mat- 
 ters of this kind ; and that it is a far greater glory to 
 a Church to give up preferences of taste or feeling 
 for the sake of love and unity, than with rigid and 
 pharisaic tenacity to aim at any distinctive badge 
 which is not required by principle^. 
 
 If usages unobjectionable in themselves, and 
 
 ^ I may, perhaps, be allowed to remind those whom I am 
 addressing of the disastrous effects of questions of ritual and 
 usage on the coherence and union of the English nonjuring body, 
 especially in the later part of its history.
 
 12 
 
 though not adopted by canonical sanction, yet vene- 
 rable from their origin and the custom of the Church, 
 are found to exist in certain districts or places, it 
 would seem to me unwise to engage in a crusade 
 against them ; or with the rude hand of authority, 
 to sweep away what has hold on the attachment of 
 the people, and what seems to bear no evil fruit of 
 superstition or bigotry. But it would seem to me 
 equally unwise for those who are attached to such 
 local usages, to cling to them as if they were essen- 
 tial, or introduce them where they are unknown ; 
 and not only unwise but also highly reprehensible, 
 to endeavour by any irregular means to attach a 
 canonical authority and to ascribe the character 
 which is due only to synodical enactment, to what 
 at most can plead only local usage (more or less 
 general) and the connivance of the ecclesiastical 
 authority. That our system exposes us to the 
 danger of attempts of this kind, and thereby to 
 greater recognized difference of usage in different 
 dioceses, than can well consist with their coherence 
 into one provincial Church, our recent experience 
 has too plainly shown ; and if our Canons do not at 
 present contain any complete provision against this 
 danger, it is of great importance that the Church 
 should be aware of a considerable security against 
 it, which has been in existence for about one hun- 
 dred years, by the wisdom of the Episcopal Synod. 
 In the Declaration which has been subscribed by 
 every Bishop during that period, before or at the
 
 13 
 
 time of consecration, every Bishop has bound him- 
 self " never, on any consideration, to assist in the 
 consecration of any person in order to be a Bishop of 
 this Church, without the consent of the majority of 
 such persons as shall have been received into the 
 Episcopal order, and shall have adhered to this 
 agreement, declaration, and promise, by their sub- 
 scriptions at the foot thereof." And, " Item, (the 
 Declaration proceeds) We declare that in all 
 matters relating to the Church, worship and dis- 
 cipline thereof, we shall be determined by the same 
 majority as in the former article." In this Decla- 
 ration there is a great security and guarantee that 
 neither any number of the Bishops, nor the Church 
 at large, can by the act of any single Bishop be 
 involved in responsibility. It is a guarantee and 
 security alike to each, and from each ; and it was 
 well observed by the last Bishop who subscribed it, 
 that it may be regarded (so far as its authority is 
 admitted) as our Act of Uniformity. I say, so far as 
 its authority is admitted ; because I do not mean to 
 claim for it any weight which it does not legiti- 
 mately possess. By those, however, who feel the 
 authority of ancient, though unwritten usages, a 
 document which records mid embodies the usage of 
 the whole Scottish Episcopate (at the time of con- 
 secration, and with respect to a due security for 
 avoidance of irregularities in all matters relating 
 to the Church, its worship arid its discipline) for a 
 period of one hundred years, will be regarded as
 
 14 
 
 liaving no little claim to veneration and authority. 
 And it is impossible to see how any one who has 
 voluntarily attached his signature to the two clauses 
 of this Declaration can evade the obligation of either 
 of them. 
 
 There is not, I believe, any measure more to be 
 desired for the peace and prosperity of our Church, 
 than that at the next General Synod (whenever 
 such a Synod shall be summoned) some provision 
 similar in effect to the document to which I have 
 called your attention shall be adopted by canonical 
 authority. In the mean time, but indeed at all 
 times, we should bear in mind, as an axiom in the 
 case of a voluntary and unendowed Church, that 
 the principle of coherence in such a Church is far 
 weaker than in a body sustained by all the props of 
 legal enactment; and that we should throw our 
 whole weight into the scale of whatever tends to 
 lessen the chance of divergence, and promotes unity 
 and harmony of action. 
 
 II. These remarks naturally lead the way to another 
 subject which has of late occasioned much very pain- 
 ful controversy and collision in our own Church as 
 well as in England : I mean the tendency to increased 
 ritual observance among many very zealous and well- 
 meaning members of our Church. It is a subject 
 which very specially calls for mutual forbearance and 
 fair construction of motives and intentions : and in 
 confessing myself a decided advocate (especially as a 
 Scottish Bishop) for as simple a ritual as is consistent
 
 15 
 
 with a decent solemn and characteristic observance of 
 our public offices, I neither wish to speak harshly of 
 those who promote a more elaborate ceremonial, and 
 (as they think) a stricter observance of rubrics than 
 has been usual ; nor would I refuse a legitimate vent 
 for the disposition and tendency in question, so long 
 as the received rules of our Church are the basis on 
 which any practice is avowedly rested. I would bear 
 in mind that the Wesleyan schism might probably 
 have been avoided, had a legitimate vent been found 
 by the ecclesiastical authorities of the day for that 
 outburst of a sincere, though in the end it became 
 an irregular and misdirected zeal. It is the part of 
 Christian charity and wisdom to guide and attemper 
 rather than crush what has an element of love and 
 faith, though (as appears to me) overladen with much 
 that is earthly and dangerous. In the public worship 
 of God, I freely admit, or rather earnestly contend, 
 that there should be nothing mean or unseemly. 
 They who grudge no expenditure for the decoration 
 and characterof public buildings for civil purposes or of 
 their own private homes ; and who would be ashamed 
 of any thing that betrayed a regard for cheapness in 
 what concerns their personal habits and comfort, must 
 surely be considered to convict themselves of very 
 painful irreverence if the churches in which they are 
 content to worship, betoken the feeling that cheaj)- 
 ness is the great object ; and that while they would 
 associate whatever is costly and beautiful with the 
 maintenance of political institutions, or with the
 
 16 
 
 liabits of private life, they would connect the cele- 
 bration of religious offices only with what is mean 
 and cheap — repulsive to a pure and cultivated taste, 
 and suggestive of thoughts that can neither purify 
 nor elevate. It seems to me quite natural and be- 
 coming, that reverential love should express itself in 
 beautifying the houses of God with whatever may 
 suitably imply a sense of the sacred purposes to 
 which they are dedicated ; and that their very form 
 and character should call away the mind from common 
 thoughts and associations to what is high and holy. 
 But, on the other hand, the reaction that has taken 
 place from the culpable irreverence and neglect of 
 the last century is hurrying men into the opposite 
 extreme, and is leading to a style of decoration, not 
 only open to the charge of gaudiness and tawdriness 
 (and of being such as to suggest a resemblance to the 
 tinsel ornaments and meretricious tastes of Romish 
 churches), but also such as is too likely to detain the 
 minds of worshippers in what is outward and formal, 
 instead of assisting them to rise to heavenly and spi- 
 ritual thoughts. This is indeed the great danger of 
 an elaborate ritual and excess of decoration. Its 
 tendency, with the (jreat vnajority of minds and in the 
 long run, is to induce the habit of formal worship ; 
 and to obscure the great truth that as God is a 
 Spirit, so He requires those who worship Him to 
 worship Him in spirit and in truth. My conviction 
 is, that the same danger exists with respect to sacred 
 music. I have rarely been present at services dis-
 
 tinguislied by large and elaborate introductions of 
 sacred music, without having a painful impression that, 
 in order to achieve a successful performance of such 
 music, there has been such an amount of artificial and 
 formal preparation as must be very prejudicial to the 
 spiritual character of worship in those who take part 
 in it; and even in the very performance of Divine wor- 
 ship thus conducted there is too much of the character 
 of a musical exercise ; and the attention is withdrawn 
 from the great object of worship to the skill and suc- 
 cess of those on whom its effectiveness depends, 
 whether vocally or instrumentally. I have often 
 been struck with, the degree in which this lamentable 
 fact is evinced by the conversation that afterwards 
 takes place on the success or failure of the several 
 performers ; and by the pains too evidently taken to 
 produce effect, rather than to worship God. The re- 
 sult of this kind of worship is not fairly judged of 
 by its effect on the imaginative or excited minds of 
 those who, having recently taken up a certain theory, 
 are eager in carrying it out, and lend themselves 
 enthusiastically to its successful development, per- 
 suading themselves, in a far greater degree than by- 
 standers are persuaded, of its beneficial effects on 
 themselves : but the system should be judged of by 
 its practical result, after a long series of years ; and 
 I must say that having long observed that result in 
 England, where the system has much more to favour 
 it than can probably ever be the case among our- 
 selves, I have the deepest possible conviction that it
 
 18 
 
 is not, on the whole and in tlie long run, favourable 
 to pure devotion and spiritual worship. Too often, 
 on the long run, the music is performed in a manner 
 painfully irreverent and slovenly, and repels rather 
 than attracts any congregation ; and where this is 
 not the case the anthem is found to acquire an un- 
 natural and unbecoming prominence. Crowds will 
 attend it as a musical exercise, and leave the cathe- 
 dral or the college chapel as soon as the attraction is 
 over. Where this system indeed has been immemo- 
 rially established in buildings specially adapted for 
 musical or choral services, the part of Christian 
 wisdom would probably be, to aim at giving due 
 effect to whatever claims it may have as an aid of 
 devotion ; and to guard, as far as possible, against 
 any abuse or any evil result, rather than to endeavour 
 to abolish what exists ; but in a country where, from 
 circumstances, this choral service has not been in- 
 troduced at all till recently, and as yet only in a very 
 few instances, I feel myself bound to use any influence 
 which I legitimately possess as a Bishop of this 
 Church, decidedly against the introduction of this 
 mode of conducting the worship of Almighty God. 
 The practice of metrical Psalmody came in with that 
 great recurrence to a pure and simple worship, which 
 (though its general phase in Scotland be not indeed 
 as bright and primitive as in England) I trust we 
 shall never cease to designate as the Blessed Reforma- 
 tion. It has associated itself with the feelings and sym- 
 pathies of the people in a degree that will never, even
 
 19 
 
 in England, and much less in Scotland, be attained 
 by what is commonly understood as choral or cathe- 
 dral music ; and I believe is far more likely to lead 
 to real congregational praise and worship. There is 
 nothing that the Reformed Catholic Church has 
 more aimed at than that its worship should be pure, 
 simple, intelligent, and congregational. It knows 
 nothing of the formal severance of the Clergy from 
 the Laity, in a special portion of the sacred building, 
 and by a screen of partition or separation. Its great 
 object is that all should pray as one body, with spirit 
 and with understanding; and I must declare my 
 solemn opinion that this is one great reason why, in 
 all churches (at least in all churches intended for 
 general congregations) the prayers should be read 
 and not intoned ; viz. as being more easily under- 
 stood by the great mass of the people, when simply 
 and plainly read, than when intoned or sung. I have 
 no intention, nor do I claim any power beyond what 
 the Church allows me, of interfering in cases (if 
 there be cases in this diocese) in which the practice 
 of intoning the prayers has been already introduced. 
 I do indeed doubt the wisdom of such introduction, 
 and I believe that the persons who are most eager 
 for such outward excitement are often the very last, 
 for whose spiritual edification it is really desirable. 
 While, however, I claim no power of authoritative 
 interference beyond what is given me by the Church, 
 I do feel myself responsible for giving my fatherly 
 and episcopal advice, and for using such personal in- 
 
 b2
 
 20 
 
 fluence as I may legitimately claim. And I must 
 protest against the disparaging way in which the 
 practice is often mentioned, of reading the prayers 
 in a solemn and distinct manner, as if they were, in 
 this case, rather preached to the people than offered 
 to God. Let me earnestly and affectionately exhort 
 you, my Reverend Brethren, not to be deterred by 
 disparaging expressions of this kind from such a 
 mode of reading the prayers and lessons of the 
 Church as is simple, natural, and distinct, as well as 
 solemn and reverent. It is not natural to read ad- 
 dresses to the Supreme Being in a hurried, indistinct, 
 or irreverent manner ; — while, on the other hand, any 
 thing pompous or ostentatious should be carefully 
 avoided. I believe that no aid to the devotions of 
 the people is so important as a simple, natural, but 
 at the same time devout and solemn manner of 
 reading the prayers of the Church. On the subject 
 of excess in decoration of churches and that sesthetic 
 tendency (the word has now passed into popular use) 
 of which the excessive use of sacred music is but one 
 symptom, I would refer you to the latter part of St. 
 Bernard's Apologia ad Gulielmum Abbatem. St. 
 Bernard is a writer who at least will not be suspected 
 of what is called a Puritanical tendency; and his 
 holy caution against the danger of merging what is 
 spiritual under a load of sestheticism and decoration 
 might be read with great advantage by many persons 
 in the present day. He has been speaking of abuses 
 which had crept into the monastery over which his
 
 21 
 
 correspondent presided, and the passage to which I 
 refer is only one of many instances which show that 
 great zeal for external decoration and a sumptuous 
 ritual too often consists with disregard for pure and 
 spiritual worship. 
 
 " Veniam (he says) ad majora, sed ideo visa ma- 
 jora, quia usitatiora. Omitto oratoriorum immensas 
 altitudines, immoderatas longitudines, supervacuas 
 latitudines, sumptuosas politiones, curiosas depic- 
 tiones, quoe dum orantium in se detorquent aspectum^ 
 impediunt et affectum^ et mihi quodammodo reprcBsen- 
 tant antiquum ritum JudcBorum." The testimony of 
 this holy man to the degree in which the attention 
 is diverted by sumptuous decoration and curious use 
 of colour, and in which true devotion is impeded by 
 what was professedly introduced to aid it, is very 
 striking and valuable. He proceeds to show the 
 inconsistency of such aesthetic aids to devotion in 
 the case of men who had renounced all carnal and 
 sensual delight. I cite the passage, not, of course, 
 as literally applicable to ourselves, who do not re- 
 cognize his distinction between regular and secular 
 Clergy ; but yet as deserving very serious considera- 
 tion at a time when the stream is running so strongly 
 in the direction of external and elaborate ceremo- 
 nial. 
 
 " Dicite (he says, quoting the words of the Roman 
 satirist), Pontifices, in sancto quid facit aurum ? Ego 
 autem dico, Dicite Pauperes. Non enim attendo 
 versum, sed sensum. Dicite, inquam, Pauperes (you.
 
 22 
 
 who profess to be poor) si tamen pauperes, in 
 sancto quid facit aurura ? Et quidem alia causa est 
 Episcoporum, alia Monachorum. Sciraus namque 
 quod illi sapientibus et insipientibus debitores cum 
 sint, carnalis populi devotionem, quia spiritualibus 
 non possunt, corporalibus excitant ornamentis. (In 
 this very concession of such external arts and aids to 
 the secular Clergy, we see St. Bernard's profound 
 sense of their poverty and carnality.) Nos vero (he 
 proceeds) qui jam de populo exivimus, qui mundi 
 quseque preciosa et speciosa pro Christo reliquimus 
 . . . quorum, quseso, in his devotionem excitari inten- 
 dimus 'i quem, inquam, ex his fructum requirimus ? 
 Stultorum admirationem an simplicium oblectatio- 
 nem? An, quoniam commixti sumus inter gentes, 
 forte didicimus opera eorum, et servimus adhuc 
 sculptibilibus eorum ? (Would God that the modern 
 Romish Clergy would thus plainly testify to the dan- 
 ger of using graven images, as well as against — what 
 St. Bernard proceeds to speak of — the attempt to 
 obtain larger offerings from the faithful by spending 
 largely in outward decoration.) Et, ut aperte loquar, 
 an hoc totum facit avaritia, quae est idolorum servitus, 
 et non requirimus fructus sed datum? Si quseris 
 quomodo, miro, inquam, modo. Tali quadam arte 
 spargitur ses, ut multiplicetur. Expenditur ut au- 
 geatur, et effusio copiam parit. Ipso quippe visu 
 sumptuosarum sed miraudarum vanitatum accendun- 
 tur homines magis ad offerendum quam ad adoran- 
 dum. Sic opes opibus hauriuntur, pecunia pecuniam
 
 23 
 
 traliit : quia nescio quo pacto ubi amplius divitiarum 
 cernitur, ibi offertur libentius. Auro tectis reliquiis 
 saginantur oculi, et loculi aperiuntur. Ostenditur 
 pulcherrima forma sancti vel sanctse alicujus, et eo 
 creditur sanctior, quo coloratior. Currunt homines 
 ad osculandum, invitantur ad donandum, et magis 
 mirantur pulclira, quam venerantur sacra. Ponuntur 
 dehinc in ecclesia gemmatse non coronse, sed rotse, 
 circumseptse lampadibus, sed non minus fulgentes 
 incertis lapidibus. Cernimus et pro candelabris ar- 
 bores quasdam erutas multo seris pondere, miro 
 artificis opere fabricatas nee magis coruscantes super- 
 positis lucernis quam suis gemmis. Quid putas in 
 his omnibus quseritur? poenitentium compunctio, an 
 intuentium admiratio? O vanitas vanitatum ! sed 
 non vanior quam insanior. Fulget ecclesia in 
 parietibus, et in pauperibus eget. Suos lapides in- 
 duit auro, et suos filios nudos deserit. De sumptibus 
 egenorum servitur oculis Divitum. Tnveniunt curiosi 
 quo delectentur, et non inveniunt miseri quo susten- 
 tentur." What follows is instructive as to the dan- 
 ger of producing irreverence by modes of ornament 
 unwisely introduced, and is also very interesting to 
 the ecclesiastical antiquary. But you will, I think, 
 be specially struck by a caution on this subject from 
 one of St. Bernard's period and position. May we 
 so read ecclesiastical history as to profit by its warn- 
 ings ! Modes of decoration and ritual usages which 
 were natural and commendable before experience 
 had shown the certainty of their leading the mind
 
 24 
 
 by degrees to superstition and formality, and thus 
 putting it, as it were, into an attitude in which it is 
 prepared to receive erroneous doctrine, are highly 
 culpable when experience has repeatedly made plain 
 the inevitable peril that attends them. Can any one 
 fail to see from the history of the last fifteen years 
 that the attention to ritual observance which then 
 arose from a blameless, nay, a commendable desire 
 to carry out the directions of the Prayer Book, has 
 been and is still attended with extreme peril. Few 
 people can have had greater opportunities than have 
 been afforded to myself of knowing with how honest 
 a purpose of being guided by the spirit as well as the 
 letter of the documents of the Church of England 
 that movement began, and also of observing how by 
 degrees the letter, rather than the spirit, became the 
 great subject of investigation ; and an object (if con- 
 templated, not avowed at the beginning) was in- 
 creasingly entertained of introducing every ritual 
 practice for which the slightest justification could 
 be found in the letter of obsolete rubrics, or from 
 the absence of express prohibition. I have distinctly 
 seen, in the instance of some of the most lamentable 
 cases of recent secession to the Church of Rome, 
 how one step has led to another, and how the thirst 
 for ritual observance and symbolical ceremonies, has 
 gradually rendered distasteful that simple but decent 
 celebration of Divine worship, according to the 
 generally received sense of what is the mind of the 
 Church of England, under which, the sons and
 
 26 
 
 daughters of that Church have been trained and 
 fitted for the everlasting worship for so many gene- 
 rations. There were unquestionably too many cases 
 of a slovenly neglect of plain rules respecting the 
 administration of the blessed sacraments, the fre- 
 quency of public worship, and other points of import- 
 ance ; but the antiquarian passion for reviving ancient 
 customs, which is so striking a characteristic of the 
 present tone of society, combined with an increasing- 
 taste for impressive ceremonial and sesthetic worship, 
 could not be satisfied without far exceeding what 
 was originally contemplated ; and (1 must not shrink 
 from avowing my unfeigned and deliberate convic- 
 tion, though the experience of the last few months 
 has shown, that a Bishop exposes himself to no little 
 obloquy for doing so, on the part of those who speak 
 in the most extravagant terms of the Episcopal 
 sanction when it is on their side) the mind has thus 
 by degrees been brought to a point of view from 
 which the defects of the Church of England, and the 
 favourable or brighter parts of the system of the 
 Church of Rome, have alike been seen through an 
 exaggerating medium. The spiritual vision has been 
 brought into an unhealthy state : the moral judg- 
 ment has been gradually dimmed : the conscience 
 has become insensible to the obligation which rests 
 upon every member — much more upon every minis- 
 ter — of the Church of England, to consider the spirit 
 and tone, as well as the letter of her various docu- 
 ments. The mind has thus been prepared for the
 
 26 
 
 plunge, which at an earlier period of its history 
 would have seemed impossible. That that plunge 
 has been made by some, who, if warned what would 
 be their course at even a very recent period, would 
 have replied in language scarcely less indignant than 
 that of Hazael in reply to the Prophet's prediction, 
 is a fact within my personal knowledge ; and every 
 unprejudiced person must yield to the conviction, 
 that in these cases, from an ever-increasing prac- 
 tice of considering how the letter of the Church 
 of England formularies could be so strained, as to 
 admit of a ritual system very alien to their tone and 
 spirit, a taste had been formed, which could only be 
 legitimately indulged in the system of the Church 
 of Rome, and which predisposed the mind to take a 
 prejudiced and biassed view of questions demanding 
 the most clear and healthy vision. 
 
 Now, with regard to the vea/ata qucestio of strict 
 rubrical observance, I do not wish on the present 
 occasion to go into details. I am prepared to main- 
 tain what I have elsewhere stated, that the greatest 
 stickler for observance of the letter of rubrics fails 
 to act up to his own principles. Nay, there are 
 rubrics (now universally disused) which the persons 
 who generally take the side of rubrical observance, 
 would think it a great hardship to be compelled to 
 observe. I will gladly discuss such subjects privately 
 with any one who may think it worth while to know 
 the grounds of my opinions : but I wish to avoid the 
 public handling of questions about vestments, and
 
 27 
 
 postures, and the like, which a little time hence will 
 seem as miserable, and as unworthy of the grave 
 attention of men who are charged with the ministry 
 of reconciliation, as the question about the time of 
 observing Easter now appears to us. 
 
 I would wish rather to remind you of one or two 
 principles, which would tend to settle our minds on 
 this subject. 
 
 I. In all societies and institutions, in the lapse of 
 ages and changes of men's manners and opinions, 
 laws become obsolete: without being formally re- 
 pealed, they fall into disuse. This is the case espe- 
 cially with laws respecting what is conventional, 
 ceremonial, and external. Truth and principles are 
 eternal; and with eternal truth and principles we 
 may class whatever institutions are of Divine or 
 Apostolic origin. But whatever is of human institu- 
 tion, is necessarily subject to change ; and such 
 change is effected either by the tacit and gradual in- 
 troduction of diverse practice or by positive enact- 
 ment. It may be, that what, by tacit disuse, has 
 become obsolete, is some pleasing or edifying custom ; 
 or, on the other hand, some law more honoured in 
 the breach than the observance. In either case 
 common sense demands that the revival of what is 
 obsolete should not be left to individual judgment, 
 but should have the sanction of constituted authori- 
 ties. We see at this very moment (with respect to 
 the Papal aggression) that the legislature of the 
 State acts on this principle, and it must surely apply
 
 28 
 
 also to such ecclesiastical enactments as affect only 
 what is unessential, and leave untouched the Creed, 
 the Sacraments, the ministerial commission, the 
 great principle of worshipping through the medium 
 of an appointed Liturgy. As in most Churches 
 there are some practices or usages which rest for 
 sanction on custom rather than on positive enact- 
 ment, so, I believe, there are few (if any) Churches 
 in which mere ceremonial or ritual enactments do 
 not more or less vary by force of usage, without ac- 
 tual repeal or canonical modification ; and if, in such 
 cases, the executive authority, whether it be that of 
 a Bishop or a Judge, resists the revival of what is 
 obsolete at the discretion of individuals, such officer 
 is not to be considered as being open to the charge 
 of setting himself above the laws which he is sworn 
 to minister: as would be the case if he claimed the 
 power to dispense with statutes or canons in actual 
 observance. The question, indeed, is asked — When 
 is a law obsolete ? or what degree of disuse is suf- 
 ficient to make it so? Surely the answer is, that 
 common sense and common observation will enable 
 all fair and candid minds to form an opinion. Com- 
 mon sense will also show whether the practice, which 
 has fallen into disuse, be any thing essential to the 
 great principles of a Church that is both Protestant 
 and Episcopal, the system of which is pervaded by the 
 doctrine of sacramental grace, and which prescribes 
 a written Liturgy ; or, whether it is something which 
 (be it edifying or unedifying) does not trench upon
 
 29 
 
 those distinctive principles. Common sense would 
 prevent the imputation of being unmindful of the 
 vovrs of ordination, in consequence of non-compliance 
 with the letter of some obsolete and unessential 
 rubric, to any clergyman who, in all good faith, 
 performs the offices of the Church in accordance with 
 what has been generally enforced or enjoined by ortho- 
 dox and devout Bishops, and received and acted upon 
 by the great mass of devout and orthodox church- 
 men from age to age, as expressing the mind of the 
 Church, whose servant and minister he has promised 
 to be. As a mistaken adherence to the letter of 
 certain texts has led certain over-scrupulous persons 
 to refuse the usual titles of honour to those who are 
 lawfully entitled to them ; or to abstain from every 
 species of oath ; and thus, by adhering to the letter, 
 they have missed the true spirit and meaning of the 
 Christian rule; so by this scrupulous adherence to 
 the letter of disused (if not obsolete) rubrics, too 
 many have both missed the tone and spirit of the 
 ritual of the Church ; and others have lost more by 
 offending against Christian charity and the spirit of 
 meekness, than they have gained by the revival of 
 some neglected practice. As it is possible for a 
 sermon or a book to be orthodox in the letter, while 
 its tone, and tendency, and spirit is dangerous, if not 
 heretical ; so it is very possible to adhere to the 
 letter of rubrics, and yet miss the tone and spirit of 
 the Church ; and in either case, a man who has given 
 his assent to any documents incurs a deep responsi-
 
 30 
 
 bility, if he either so contends for their letter as to 
 lose their spirit, or if he thinks himself at liberty to 
 forget their spirit, so long as he is not a transgressor 
 of their letter. And the importance of being duly 
 influenced by such considerations as these will be 
 the more perceived, when the mind is alive to the 
 imperfection which attaches itself to every human 
 act ; and how, from the perpetual change that passes 
 on all things human, an enactment which may be 
 most suitable in its strictest letter to an existing 
 condition of society, must soon become less equally 
 and strictly applicable to an altered state. Common 
 sense, moreover, teaches us, that in a question so in- 
 volved in curious and antiquarian research, as that 
 (for instance) respecting the ornaments which were 
 in the Church of England by authority of Parlia- 
 ment, in the second year of Edward VI., the received 
 practice of the Church and the advice of the 
 Ordinary, are far more safe and legitimate guides 
 than any conclusion even of the most learned indi- 
 vidual, and (much more) than the private judgment 
 of partially informed and over-excited minds. No 
 one, on taking upon him the vows of ordination, 
 intended, or was expected to make himself respon- 
 sible for an opinion, e.g., on such a question as 
 this. I do not deny, that if rubrics are disused, it 
 is the duty of the ecclesiastical authorities to con- 
 sider anxiously whether any doctrine is thereby 
 obscured or Christian edification lessened. I do not 
 deny that the attention of those authorities may
 
 31 
 
 legitimately be called to such subjects by those who 
 feel deeply their importance. I do not deny that it 
 would be {per se) desirable that the practice of the 
 Church and the letter of its rules should coincide. 
 I believe that the laity are often needlessly, though 
 not unnaturally apprehensive on the subject of 
 rubrical strictness. But I do most earnestly con- 
 tend, that the peace of congregations and the com- 
 fort of devout persons, affectionately attached to 
 what they have been accustomed to ever since they 
 could lisp the prayers of their Church, in earliest 
 childhood, ought not to be endangered by the sudden 
 and unauthorized revival of what has been gene- 
 rally disused ; and much more, of what is to all 
 intents and purposes obsolete : as, for instance, the 
 wearing of copes or the lighting of candles on 
 the altar. No one has ever contended that a 
 clergyman is bound to revive at all hazards what- 
 ever he believes to be enjoined by the letter of 
 rubrics, without consideration of the opinion of an 
 Ordinary and the state of his congregation. And it 
 seems to me, that in allowing that such considera- 
 tions as these are worthy of attention, the whole 
 question of principle is conceded. In the case of 
 doctrine, we are bound to declare the whole counsel 
 of God, whether men will hear or whether they will 
 forbear. Expediency must not induce us to tamper 
 with one article of the Christian Creed. And if it 
 be once conceded, that considerations of prudence 
 and expediency are admissible, then I must contend
 
 32 
 
 that the judgment of the Ordinary should be resorted 
 to. On this subject I am glad to quote what seems 
 to me to be the suitable language of the Episcopal 
 Synod : — " No Bishop in his diocese can so stretch 
 his authority as to dispense with rubrics and canons 
 of the Church ; although great weight is due (in the 
 case of attempts to revive such rubrics as may be 
 disused) to his godly admonition and his fatherly 
 judgment^." "But when any practice inconsistent 
 with the rubrics has been long prevalent in a con- 
 gregation, it is not right, summarily, and without 
 due instruction of the congregation, to alter or omit 
 such practice. And the Bishop may very properly 
 remonstrate against rash and hasty reforms ; and it 
 is the duty of the incumbent to submit to such re- 
 monstrances, as being the godly admonitions of his 
 Ordinary, at least so far as to abstain from acting on 
 his own individual judgment, against the remon- 
 strances of his Ordinary, in so grave a matter as any 
 thing that affects the peace of a congregation. The 
 Bishop is, in the first instance, the proper judge as to 
 the mode in which canons should be interpreted ; 
 and upon this head, there has ever been in the 
 ecclesiastical law, a large allowance for the effect of 
 usage and established practice \" And thus (2), I 
 must contend that this question of the meaning 
 of rubrics does not rest on the same grounds in 
 
 ^ Address, p. 7. 
 
 * Appendix to Address, No. II. p. 15.
 
 33 
 
 Scotland as in England. What has been said above 
 applies, I think, to the question both in England and 
 in Scotland ; but if it be conceded, that in England 
 the advocates for a literal observance have a right to 
 insist on a strict antiquarian investigation of the 
 practice of the Church three centuries ago, and the 
 precise ornaments which were used by authority of 
 Parliament in the second year of King Edward VI., 
 I cannot allow that this is the case among ourselves. 
 You are well aware how recent (comparatively 
 speaking) has been the Canonical direction by this 
 Church, that " in the performance of Morning and 
 Evening Service the words and rubrical directions 
 of the English Liturgy shall be strictly adhered to." 
 The period, however, at which this direction was 
 adopted, although quite recent, was anterior to the 
 rise of this present excitement on the subject of 
 rubrical observance ; and in thus adopting as her 
 own to this extent the rubrical directions of the 
 English Liturgy, the Church in Scotland never 
 dreamed that she was doing more than enacting that 
 Divine Worship should be offered in her chapels 
 according to the usual forms observed in well-ordered 
 churches in England. She never dreamed that she 
 was subjecting herself to whatever interpretation 
 might be found for this or that rubric by legal or 
 antiquarian research : and, indeed, from the way in 
 which she adopted these rubrical directions in the 
 mass, without a very careful and accurate investiga- 
 tion of the history and meaning of every single ex- 
 
 c
 
 34 
 
 pression, it is plain that no likelihood was appre- 
 hended of the- hgt controversy which has been raised, 
 as to the true sense and obligation of every minute 
 direction. The general practice of the English 
 Church in well-ordered congregations was what this 
 Church intended to adopt; and it seems to have 
 been supposed, too hastily, that by adopting the 
 rubrical directions under which that decent and 
 solemn ceremonial had settled itself in the affections 
 of the people, the object in view would be certainly 
 attained. I will venture, for instance, to affirm, that 
 when this sanction was given to the rubrical directions 
 of the English Liturgy, it was never for a moment sup- 
 posed that the word " say" (" The Priest shall say ;" 
 " then shall be said or sung") is equivalent to the word 
 " intone ;" or that the rubric respecting the ornaments, 
 temp. 2 Edward VI. (long obsolete in England, 
 but adopted with the rest in the mass) would be 
 used either in England or Scotland as an authority 
 for the use of copes and mitres, or the lighting of 
 candles on the altar. I do not, indeed, admit for a 
 moment, that even in England the inferences which 
 have been drawn on the subjects to which I am 
 alluding are legitimate and binding on the con- 
 sciences of the clergy ; but I contend, that even if 
 there be any colour for those inferences as applicable 
 to the Church of England, there is no such colour 
 for them as applicable to ourselves, inasmuch as it is 
 a plain and notorious fact, that when this Church, in 
 her Synods of 1804, 1811, and 1828, gradually
 
 35 
 
 adopted her present canonical rule on the subject of 
 the rubrical directions of the English Liturgy, she had 
 no idea of adopting those directions in any other 
 sense than that of which (speaking generally) the 
 practice of devout and well-ordered members of the 
 Church of England from age to age had been the 
 exponent. No one then imagined that diverse prac- 
 tices in vestments and postures would become the 
 badges of the two schools which have always existed 
 within the communion of the English Church, or 
 that an antiquarian zeal would go to work to dis- 
 cover for what obsolete ceremonies a possible justifi- 
 cation could be found in the letter of the rubrics. 
 No one then imagined that these petty questions 
 were again to be brought into the arena of contro- 
 versial conflict, at a time when there was such need 
 of united efforts in setting forth the weightier matters 
 of the law and the message of reconciliation. Far 
 less did any one suppose, that the unscriptural de- 
 velopments of the Church of Rome could prove 
 attractive to minds which had learned that Scripture, 
 as received by primitive antiquity, is the sure guide 
 to truth. 
 
 III. I gladly pass from a topic which suggests 
 much that is painful and humiliating, to another sub- 
 ject on which I am anxious to address you; and indeed, 
 to address the laity as well as clergy, for whose edifica- 
 tion it is my duty to watch as one that must give ac- 
 count. The subject to which I allude is this: — What is 
 the state of mind at which we ought to aim, as intelli- 
 
 c2
 
 36 
 
 gent and attaclied members of tlie Scottish Episcopal 
 Church, with respect to the Presbyterian bodies 
 among whom our lot is cast, or towards others who 
 equally repudiate the claims of this Church to their 
 duty and allegiance, though they call themselves 
 Episcopalians, and use the same Liturgy with our- 
 selves. The subject is one on which indeed it is 
 difficult to speak satisfactorily; and yet, inasmuch 
 as our position in the midst of Christian bodies, 
 divergent from us, and regarding us with distrust 
 and dislike, has considerable influence, even on our 
 theological opinions, and (still more) on our moral 
 and religious state, it is a very suitable topic for 
 pastoral advice. 
 
 And, I. I think we ought to bear in mind that the 
 habit of opposing errors of any one special class has 
 a tendency to force the mind unduly into the oppo- 
 site extreme. The prevailing character and colour 
 of religious opinions in the Church of Ireland, as 
 compared with what has generally distinguished 
 our own branch of the Catholic Church, will illus- 
 trate what I mean. In Ireland the habitual business 
 and duty of the Church has been to oppose Romish 
 error ; and the tendency of that somewhat exclusive 
 attention to one class of errors has been to dispose 
 the mind towards an ultra Protestant view of certain 
 important doctrines and practices. In this country 
 the Church has been chiefly antagonistic to Cal- 
 vinistic tenets, and the evils which attend the want 
 of Episcopal government, and a prescribed Liturgy.
 
 '37 
 
 The result has been that this Church has been, gene- 
 rally speaking, characterized by a disposition to give 
 more prominence to the points in which it is 
 opposed to the Presbyterian system, than has been 
 the case in England, and its Clergy have (I am 
 inclined to think) somewhat disproportionately dwelt 
 upon those distinctive tenets, the necessity of de- 
 fending which against the mistakes or attacks of 
 Presbyterians was continually forced upon their 
 attention. At any rate, the fact to which I invite 
 your notice, ought surely to put us on our guard 
 against the natural consequence of being bound 
 habitually to oppose some special form of error. We 
 should be watchful lest we should unconsciously be 
 giving more prominence to the doctrines and prac- 
 tices specially opposed to the particular errors with 
 which we are habitually brought in contact, than is 
 according to the proportion of faith ; lest the shape 
 of our opinions should be the result of a perpetual 
 strain in one particular direction, rather than the 
 correct symmetrical outline of truth. 
 
 II. On the other hand it is impossible, I think, to 
 be long in this country without perceiving that a 
 frequent result of the differences unhappily existing, 
 and dividing almost every family to so remarkable 
 an extent, is a disposition to explain away, as 
 unessential and unimportant, the distinctive points 
 in the various forms of faith which exist among 
 those who still hold the great doctrine of the ever 
 blessed Trinity, and other cardinal truths of Chris-
 
 38 
 
 tianity. Amiable and gentle minds very naturally 
 lend themselves to a persuasion which both excuses 
 themselves from the responsibility of an accurate 
 and careful investigation of controverted questions, 
 and also enables them to think equally well of those 
 whom they love and admire in one or another com- 
 munion. The tendency of such minds is to shrink 
 from collision and acquiesce in compromise ; and 
 more especially when the parties who differ happen 
 to be equally beloved, and seem to be equally 
 estimable and devout. The present visit to England 
 of many foreigners belonging to those Christian 
 communions on the continent, which are united with 
 us in a protest against the errors of the Church of 
 Rome, has not unnaturally led to a correspondence 
 between those bodies and some of the rulers of the 
 English Church; and language has been used in 
 some quarters as to the agreement between the 
 Church of England and those foreign Protestant 
 bodies which goes far to support the disposition 
 which I have alluded to as frequently existing in 
 this country. Nay, the authority of even such men 
 as Laud, and Bramhall, Usher, and Cosin, has been 
 claimed in support of it. 
 
 I must freely confess that I do not think this 
 language safe or defensible ; and it would appear to 
 me (if defensible) to be fatal to the position of an 
 Episcopal Church in any country in which a Pres- 
 byterian system, confessing the cardinal doctrines of 
 Christianity, is established by law. Nothing short of
 
 39 
 
 what is essential can, I think, justify separation 
 from a system of Christianity established by law. 
 
 I believe that God has been pleased to reveal 
 both the Remedy for the great disease of human 
 nature, and the means of applying that Remedy ; 
 and while I do not put on the same level (because I 
 do not think that the Author of Truth has put on 
 the same level) the Remedy and the means of apply- 
 ing it, yet I dare not call any thing unessential which 
 I believe Him to have revealed. Nay, more than 
 this, I believe that the evidence on which we ground 
 our persuasion, that what we call the Catholic 
 Faith does truly and adequately embody and pro- 
 claim the Remedy revealed, is virtually and essen- 
 tially the self-same evidence which is producible 
 in support of what we hold with respect to the 
 means of applying that Remedy. So that if we suffer 
 ourselves to make light of the evidence in favour 
 of the assumed fact, that the means of applying 
 the Remedy are divinely revealed, we are indeed 
 cutting from under the CatJwlic faith with respect 
 to the Remedy itself, the grounds on which it 
 rests. And these considerations are a continual 
 check to any tendency in my own mind to lessen 
 the importance of the distinctive and character- 
 istic tenets of an Episcopal Church. I confess that 
 such a tendency exists. My mind would of itself be 
 disposed to an opinion that disparages the importance 
 of what is outward and formal, and looks only to an 
 agreement as to the great objects of Christian faith
 
 40 
 
 and worship. But, 1. I dare not disparage what 
 seems to me to rest on sufficient evidence, as revealed 
 truths And 2. I see that, according to every mode 
 of reasoning which commends itself to my mind as 
 fair, logical, and legitimate, if the means of applying 
 the Remedy were abandoned, from the demolition of 
 the evidence on which they rest there would be a 
 recoil on the Remedy itself. It is, I believe, to the 
 unspeakable blessing of Presbyterians themselves 
 that the Apostolic institution of Episcopacy, and 
 consequently the duty of cleaving to it as essential to 
 a Christian Church, should be maintained even in a 
 Presbyterian country, because the habit is thus kept 
 alive of investigating and duly estimating that species 
 of evidence on which revealed religion, and every one 
 of its most essential doctrines must depend, and also 
 because the controversy is thus kept rather within 
 the region of the outworks of the citadel, than at the 
 citadel itself; rather with respect to the casket than 
 the jewel which it contains. And thus you are well 
 aware that the general history of non-Episcopal com- 
 munions has shown that when once the principle of 
 Episcopacy is abandoned, a declension in what is 
 commonly called orthodoxy is sure to follow at no 
 distant period. If this, by the blessing of God, has 
 not been the case in Scotland, as it has been so gene- 
 
 ° Do Presbyterians (we may ask) think themselves at liberty 
 to dispense with sacraments, because they believe that God has 
 been pleased to give his sanctifying grace to Quakers, who deny 
 the necessity of sacraments ?
 
 41 
 
 rally the case in continental Protestant communions, 
 I believe that the result is greatly to be ascribed 
 under God, to the influence of the fact, that while 
 Presbyterianism was established in the northern 
 division of Great Britain, an Episcopal Church was 
 equally by law established in the southern and more 
 influential division of the island. An influence has 
 thus always been, doubtless, more or less at work, — 
 but more esj)ecially since the union of Scotland and 
 England, — tending to produce, to a considerable de- 
 gree, a similarity in the actual practical teaching of 
 the two Establishments, notwithstanding their organic 
 difference. I may be permitted to doubt whether 
 this reciprocal influence has acted favourably on the 
 English Church, with respect to practical adherence 
 to its theoretic principle, just as a person strongly at- 
 tached to the Calvinistic doctrines may doubt whether 
 the English influence has been favourable to what he 
 thinks religious truth in Scotland ; but an Episco- 
 palian may not unreasonably ascribe to the influence 
 of the English Church in Scotland, the fact that 
 Presbyterianism has in that country been favourably 
 distinguished from the same system on the continent, 
 with respect to the confession of the great Objects of 
 Christian faith. The works of many of the greatest 
 English divines have, I am informed, been read in 
 the Scotch Presbyterian universities, as well as 
 habitually consulted in after life by the ministers of 
 the Presbyterian Church. On the continent no 
 similar influence has acted on the various Presbyte-
 
 42 
 
 rian communities, and their real character, as a recent 
 able writer has observed, has shown itself: " Socinian 
 in Switzerland ; rationalistic and pantheistic in Ger- 
 many ; dead to all holiness in Sweden ; they tell their 
 own tale ^" This development of their real character 
 had not exhibited itself in the seventeenth century; 
 and therefore I agree entirely with the writer of that 
 letter, that it is vain to infer from the language used 
 of foreign Protestant bodies by the divines of the 
 seventeenth century, when it was still possible to 
 hope that those communities might seek to recover 
 their Apostolic regimen, and when the real tendencies 
 of non-Episcopal principles were not yet known, that 
 those divines would in these days concur in the 
 amiable but latitudinarian notion, that we may 
 safely merge mere differences about Church govern- 
 ment and outward organization in the case of indi- 
 viduals or communities confessing the doctrine of the 
 Trinity and some other cardinal verities. I would, 
 in passing, make a similar remark in reference to the 
 appeal to such men as Bishop Andrewes and others, 
 in support of ritual or other practices of quite a 
 different character. It by no means follows that if 
 those excellent men, with all their dread of Romish 
 error, had seen what we have seen during the last 
 few years, they would have written as they wrote, 
 with respect to the practices alluded to. Before any 
 
 * D. C. L., in a Letter to the Editor of the " Morning 
 Chronicle," dated May 31.
 
 43 
 
 writer's authority is alleged as to practices and ques- 
 tions of the present day, it is always necessary to con- 
 sider, whether the circumstances of the Church, at the 
 time when he wrote, and those which we feel the 
 pressure of were identical or fairly analogous. With 
 respect to the questions between ourselves and 
 Presbyterian communities, it seems to me that there 
 is a wide difference between what might have been 
 hoped in the seventeenth century, and what expe- 
 rience has shown to be the fact ; and however painful 
 it may be, when we differ from good men about the 
 means of applying the Divine Remedy, to treat that 
 question as one of a very deep and serious import, I 
 must always warn any persons who regard me as their 
 appointed pastor and guide, that it is quite a false 
 charity to speak or act as if the distinctive doctrines 
 of an Episcopal Church were unessential and unim- 
 portant. But then : 
 
 III. No language which I can use can ade- 
 quately express my sense of the grievous fault of 
 speaking bitterly of Presbyterian individuals or com- 
 munities ; or shutting our eyes to the blessed fact, 
 that God has been pleased to dispense with the 
 strict observance of what we believe to be His own 
 appointed ordinances, and to bestow His grace on 
 those whose fault (as we believe it is) is palliated — 
 1, by their true zeal for pure evangelical truth, un- 
 spoilt by Romish errors and superstitions; and, 2, 
 (in the case of the Scotch Presbyterians for many 
 generations,) by the facts that they inherit, and did
 
 44 
 
 not originate the system under which they live ; 
 and that God has been pleased to bless that system to 
 the sanctification, — we doubt not, the eternal salva- 
 tion — of numberless souls. While we cling with affec- 
 tionate reverence to the ordinances which we believe 
 to be revealed, and which were unquestioned in 
 Christendom for fifteen hundred years; while we 
 feel the value and sanctifying character, and sooth- 
 ing and comforting influence of those ordinances in 
 our daily experience, we should yet bow our hearts 
 and understandings before the blessed fact, that God 
 has been pleased to bestow His grace by other chan- 
 nels, besides those which we could not in our own 
 case venture to dispense with, because we see them to 
 be revealed. This fact is not to make us think less 
 fondly, or less reverently and believingly of these 
 old and appointed channels ; but rather to make us 
 admire and extol the more the riches of God's com- 
 passionate and overflowing mercy. It is surely infi- 
 delity to doubt the characters which no hand but His 
 can impress ! When we look, indeed, on classes of 
 men in the mass, and judge of the effects of differ- 
 ent systems on the long run, we may fairly and legi- 
 timately doubt whether some of the higher gifts and 
 graces of the blessed Spirit are bestowed as largely 
 under the Presbyterian system as under that which 
 we believe to be revealed ; — I mean the graces of 
 love and gentleness, and reverence and meekness, 
 and unworldliness, and a lowly and childlike mind. 
 Even if no such result were discernible, it would still
 
 45 
 
 he our duty to cleave to what Ave heh'eve to be 
 revealed, and to be assured that the safest and hap- 
 piest rule is to cling closely to what God appointed 
 as the means of perpetuating His presence, even to 
 the end of the world. But if love, and peace, and 
 gentleness, and reverence, and a lowly mind be 
 among the higher fruits and graces of the Spirit, I 
 cannot for my own part doubt under which system 
 the greatest examples of this more excellent way are 
 to be found. At the same time, I gladly and reve- 
 rently bow before the fact, that under a system 
 which wants, as I believe (independently of other 
 doctrinal objections to it), the authority and com- 
 pleteness of an Apostolic commission, the work of 
 Divine grace is wrought and the reign of Satan is 
 broken. I see the mastery of passion checked and 
 bridled amidst the temptations of youth, by a prin- 
 ciple of love and duty to the Great Unseen. I see 
 the energy of manhood devoted unsparingly to 
 works of faith and labours of love. In the stillness 
 and order which pervades, for the most part, the 
 great city where my lot is cast, on the Christian's 
 Sabbath, to a degree in this respect perhaps unex- 
 ampled, except in Scotland, I see a token of deep 
 homage to the word and will of God as here under- 
 stood, and a great witness to the influences of un- 
 seen things on men engaged in the most exciting 
 and engrossing occupations. I see mourners en- 
 dued with the grace of resignation and comforted by 
 all the hopes and consolations of the Gospel, and
 
 46 
 
 their sorrow sanctified to their growth in grace, 
 while they both rejoice in hope and are patient in 
 tribulation. I see (amidst many divisions indeed 
 and too much of a polemical spirit, yet) a high 
 degree of the unmistakable purity and sacredness of 
 domestic religion, and of that love of holiness which 
 is never so influential as when it is mixed up with 
 all the associations which gather round the parental 
 hearth and the family altar. I see the departing 
 Christian sustained and comforted by reliance on 
 the great atonement, and by the communication of 
 grace, mercy, and peace, passing understanding ; and 
 while T am unshaken in what I know to have been 
 the faith of God's Church from the first, and what I 
 could not venture in my own instance to dispense 
 with, yet I acknowledge the finger of God in that 
 handwriting which He only can inscribe; and I 
 rejoice and give Him glory for His goodness to the 
 children of men, and the tokens of His own un- 
 speakable gift. For, my Reverend Brethren, it 
 seems to me that we shall far fall short of what 
 ought to be our mind towards Presbyterian commu- 
 nities, if we only acknowledge that the grace of 
 God is given under systems which we know to 
 be imperfect. We ought to rejoice and give thanks 
 to God for every token of His grace. We ought 
 not to view His goodness to others with a secret 
 feeling that it seems to render needless our close and 
 faithful adherence to His prescribed ordinances, or 
 even to proclaim their abrogation. This is to imitate
 
 47 
 
 the mind of the elder brother in the parable. On 
 the contrary, while we are at peace in the thought 
 that we are ever with Him as His children, and all 
 that He has is ours, we should rejoice in His good- 
 ness to those who, from early prepossessions, and 
 from a deep sense of the abuses to which certain 
 views have led in the Romish Communion, are un- 
 able to see what \v& see so clearly, and what we 
 could not hide from our eyes without sin. We 
 should rejoice and sympathize with whatever is lovely 
 and of good report in their character and practice, 
 whatever store of truth is retained and taught by 
 their doctrines and system : we should be provoked 
 to love and good works by that zeal and self-denial 
 and other graces from which we may well take ex- 
 ample ; and we should seek to Min them to what we 
 believe to be the Divinely-warranted, and therefore 
 the sure and perfect and sanctifying means of apply- 
 ing the great Remedy — not by a proud and contemp- 
 tuous disdain of what we see, or at least believe to 
 be, an imperfect system ; nor yet by a perpetual 
 challenge to controversy on the points on which we 
 differ from them ; but rather by an exhibition of 
 the effects of our own more perfect system on our 
 own life and character ; by love and sympathy with 
 them in all that we hold in common ; by a meek 
 and patient endurance of whatever is wrongfully and 
 mistakenly imputed to us ; by a love of Christ and 
 of the souls for which He died ; and all the other 
 evidences of a holy, and heavenly, and unworldly
 
 48 
 
 spirit. Let me add also, that it should be an habitual 
 subject of prayer, that God would be pleased to per- 
 fect in those communities whatever is good, and to 
 supply what is wanting ; and (since a right de- 
 meanour is confessedly very difficult towards those 
 with whom our relation is peculiarly delicate and 
 painful) that He will ever give us grace that in all 
 our intercourse with those who differ from us we 
 may neither compromise or surrender our own prin- 
 ciples and convictions, nor yet offend against the law 
 of truth, meekness, and charity ; that the law of 
 truth, of meekness, and kindness may ever rule in 
 our hearts and dwell on our lips. That heavenly 
 law must rule in our hearts, that it may dwell on our 
 lips. 
 
 And here I must say one word as to our mind and 
 feeling with respect to those also who, though they 
 call themselves Episcopalians, yet discard the pastoral 
 rule of the Bishops of their Church. It has often 
 been observed, that in proportion to the nearness of 
 agreement, especially on theological subjects, is the 
 depth and bitterness of animosity produced by any 
 special difference. I fear that the general tone of 
 feeling on the part of members of our Church to- 
 wards those to whom I allude, is an instance of this 
 fact. It has even seemed to me, that when any 
 individuals have left our Communion, and joined the 
 congregations in question, an opinion has been ven- 
 tured, that they would have done better had they 
 united themselves to one of the Presbyterian com-
 
 49 
 
 munities. However natural this feeling may be, I 
 cannot think it reasonable or right. Of course there 
 can be no question between me and those whom I 
 am addressing as to the ecclesiastical position of the 
 congregations alluded to ; and I lament that the 
 tone of documents, issued from time to time by per- 
 sons connected with them, has been such as to exas- 
 perate, rather than allay, any feelings of irritation. 
 But still I can make no concession to the notion 
 that a smaller amount of theological difference is to 
 occasion or justify a greater degree of estrangement. 
 My own personal office and authority may indeed be 
 more directly attacked by the leaders of these con- 
 gregations, than by those who, on principle, object to 
 Episcopacy altogether; but still very many have 
 joined these congregations who have no idea of the 
 schismatic position in which they have involved 
 themselves; and in any wise, I must rejoice (even 
 while lamenting what I think a serious error, though, 
 in many instances, unconsciously committed) that 
 our excellent Liturgy is used ; the ancient Creeds of 
 the Church repeated, and the Sacraments ministered 
 according to one of the offices of our Church, though 
 without due licence from the Bishop. The principle 
 for which I contend is not that (God forbid !) of 
 compromising truth, but of rejoicing in agreement, 
 as far as it exists ; occupying firmly and faithfully 
 our own ground, but sympathizing with the great 
 truths confessed by one or another Christian body, 
 though accompanied with an alloy of error. As our 
 
 D
 
 50 
 
 blessed Lord is said to have loved the young man in 
 the Gospel for the tokens of good M'hich he exhibited, 
 although his character was far enough as yet from 
 the simplicity and unworldliness of a true Israelite, 
 so we should truly love the Christian bodies by 
 which we are surrounded, for the measure of 
 truth which they severally confess, and the fruits 
 of Christian grace which they severally exhibit ; 
 and this the more in proportion as that measure 
 is greater and those fruits are more abundant; 
 although there be much (whether in one or another 
 community) which is yet far enough, in our judgment, 
 from the completeness and perfectness of the Gospel 
 of Christ. 
 
 There were other topics connected with this sub- 
 ject on which I had intended to have addressed 
 you ; but I have already taxed your patience too 
 long. Yet, before I conclude, I could wish to 
 remind you of a passage from the writings of that 
 great and saintly predecessor, whose example and 
 teaching should especially be familiar to us in this 
 diocese ; which seems to me remarkably suited to 
 the times in which we live, and, I trust, is in har- 
 mony with what I have endeavoured to set before 
 you, both on this and other occasions. He is speaking 
 of the blessing of peace, and especially peace eccle- 
 siastical. " We ought," he says, " to wish for eccle- 
 siastical peace to the Church, that she may be free 
 from dissensions and divisions. These readily arise, 
 more or less, as we see, in all times, and haunt reli-
 
 51 
 
 gion, and the reformation of it, as a malus genius. 
 St. Paul had this to say to his Corinthians, though 
 he had given them this testimony, that they were 
 enriched in all utterance and knowledge, and want- 
 ing in no gift; yet, presently after (i. 10, 11; xi. 
 1 8 ; iii. 3,) ' I hear that there are divisions and conten- 
 tions among you.' '■An enemy hath done this ;' as our 
 Saviour speaks : and this enemy is no fool, for, by 
 Divine permission, he works to his own end very 
 wisely ; there is not one thing that doth on all hands 
 choke the seed of religion so much, as thorny debates 
 and differences about itself. So, in succeeding ages, 
 and at the breaking forth of the light in Germany, 
 in Luther's time, multitudes of sects arose. 
 
 " Profane men do not only stumble, but fall and 
 break their necks upon these divisions. We see 
 (think they, and some of them possibly say it out) 
 that they who mind religion most cannot agree upon 
 it ; our easiest way is, not to embroil ourselves, not 
 at all to be troubled with the business. Many are 
 of Gallio's temper, they will care for none of these 
 things. Thus these offences prove a mischief to the 
 profane world, as our Saviour says, ' Woe unto the 
 world because of offences.' 
 
 "Then those on the erring side, who are taken 
 with new opinions and fancies, are altogether taken 
 up with them, their main thoughts are spent upon 
 them ; and thus the sap is drawn from that which 
 should nourish and prosper in their hearts — sancti- 
 fied useful knowledge and saving grace. The 
 
 D 2
 
 52 
 
 otliers are as weeds which divert the nourishment in 
 gardens from the plants and flowers ; and certainly 
 these weeds, namely, men's own conceits, cannot but 
 grow more with them, when they give way to 
 them, than solid religion doth ; for their hearts (as 
 one said of the earth), are mother to those, and but 
 stepmother to this. 
 
 " It is also a loss, even to those too that oppose 
 errors and divisions, that they are forced to be busied 
 in that way ; for the wisest and godliest of them find 
 (and such are sensible of it) that disputes in religion 
 are no friends to that which is far sweeter in it, but 
 hinder and abate it, viz., those pious and devout 
 thoughts that are both more useful and truly de- 
 lightful ^" 
 
 Or again : Non est enim mihi animus vos quses- 
 tiuncularum et disputationum rubetis implicare; sed 
 si quid illius artis in me esset, per amoenas et faciles 
 pietatis semitas ad beatam vitam quam libenter vos 
 et me comitem talem ducerem, animosque vestros 
 anhelis desideriis et fervido coelestium amore accen- 
 dere gestirem ; et, ut cum magno illo Theologo loquar, 
 
 TTTiovjav Tag ipv^ac;, Kai apiraaai Koafxov, Kai covvai few 
 
 alas addere animis, et abripere a mundo, et reddere 
 Deo. Pleraque autem (si detur libere loquendi ve- 
 nia) quae etiam in Theologicis scholis tractantur, et 
 magno cum apparatu et strepitu docentur et dispu- 
 tantur, spinosum forte acumen habent, sed simul 
 certe spinosam sterilitatem : lacerare et pungere 
 ^ Comm. on 1 Pet. i. 2.
 
 53 
 
 possiint, animos pascere noii possunt. Nemo enim 
 ex spinis uvas collegit unquam, aut ex trihulis ficus. 
 Quorsum alta, inquit ille, de Trinitate disputare, si 
 careas humilitatey et sic T^^initati displiceas ? (Thomas- 
 a-Keinpis.) Et apte S. Augustinus ad illud Esaias, 
 Ego Deus tims docens te iitilia ; utilia, inquit, docens, 
 non subtilia. Et hoc est quod opto et oro, ut nobis, 
 pro modulo nostro subdocentibus, ille efficaciter vos 
 perdoceat, qui, cathedram in coelo habens, corda 
 docet in terris *." 
 
 The wisdom of these excellent passages will, 
 I trust, commend itself to our hearts and under- 
 standings ; and in these days of contention and divi- 
 sion, while we do not shrink from giving a reason 
 for the hope that is in us to those who seek in- 
 struction, nor yet from replying to gainsayers, if due 
 occasion shall arise for such vindication, our main 
 business and concern will be, by example and pre- 
 cept, to " go before" our flocks, and lead them to the 
 green pastures and by the still waters. Interceding 
 for the erring and the guilty, the afflicted and per- 
 plexed, the feeble and faint-hearted ; anxiously 
 striving to be guiltless of " the blood of souls" re- 
 deemed by our Gracious Master and committed by 
 Him to our charge ; redeeming the time, because the 
 days are evil ; giving no needless offence, that the 
 ministry be not blamed ; by prayer and study, and 
 continual exercise, growing in that aptness to teach 
 and to divide rightly the word of truth, which is so 
 
 *' Praelectio Prooemialis.
 
 54 
 
 necessary a qualiiication for the Christian ministry ; 
 remembering, that while we are to be as a city set 
 on an hill, and as leaven in the mass, yet our teach- 
 ing will be but as " sounding brass and a tinkling 
 cymbal," unless we are living a hidden life, and sus- 
 tained and enabled by that strength which is made 
 perfect in weakness, — may we be found stedfast 
 to our principles and unblamable in our work ; 
 winning souls away from this false world to the 
 reality of unseen things, and amidst discouragement, 
 perplexity, and disappointment, remembering the 
 maxim, " Duties are ours, events are God's." Ever- 
 more let us seem to hear the voice that will de- 
 mand of us, "Where is thy beautiful flock?" and 
 thus live with the great purpose ever before our 
 minds and ever quickening our exertions, to save 
 ourselves and those who hear us. 
 
 There is yet one more subject which 1 wish at 
 this time very briefly to commend to your thoughtful 
 consideration. In common with all other Bishops in 
 communion with the Church of England, I have 
 received from the Bishop of Newcastle a copy of the 
 proceedings at the recent meeting of the Australian 
 Bishops ; and you are probably aware that in the 
 diocese of Toronto, a Convention of Clergy and laity 
 from the several parishes has met under the sanction, 
 or rather at the call, of the venerable and excellent 
 Bishop. I could wish you to authorize me, when I 
 reply to the communication of the Australian 
 Bishops, to convey to their lordships, on the part of
 
 55 
 
 our diocesan Synod, an expression of sympathy and 
 congratulation on the fact, that in so many branches 
 of the Church, with which it is our happiness to be 
 in communion, there is thus an effort towards that 
 synodical action, which is our own privilege, and 
 which we believe to be very essential to the healthy 
 condition of the Church. What I am, however, 
 especially anxious to observe, is, that in both these 
 instances the opinion is expressed, that in every 
 diocesan or provincial Synod there should be a pro- 
 vision for the presence and concurrence of tlie laity, 
 under such rules as consist with true ecclesiastical 
 principle. It would, I confess, seem to me that some 
 similar provision would render the constitution of 
 our own diocesan and general Synods more complete, 
 more primitive, and more satisfactory. The subject 
 is not mentioned with a view to any effort for an 
 immediate or speedy provision of this kind ; and it 
 may indeed seem presumptuous in one so recently 
 called to my sacred office, thus to moot it. It does, 
 however, appear to me that whenever a general 
 Synod of our Church shall again, in the providence of 
 God, assemble, it will be very desirable that this 
 subject shall, for some previous time, have been before 
 the minds of the laity and Clergy of our Church. I 
 know that some influential laymen have a strong 
 feeling in favour of such a measure ; and it is a feel- 
 ing with which I very sincerely sympathize. If ever 
 any such measure should be adopted, it is very 
 desirable that its details, as well as its general
 
 56 
 
 nature, shall have been previously weW considered, 
 not under the excitement of immediate pressure, 
 but in the calmness of voluntary deliberation ; and 
 it is very desirable also that the laity should know 
 that, far from yielding to such a measure an un- 
 willing acquiescence, the Clergy would rather lead 
 the way in proposing it and aiding its efficiency. 
 For my own part, I believe that a well-considered 
 measure of this kind would tend greatly, by the 
 Divine blessing, to the coherence and stability of 
 our Church ; to the increase of a spirit of respect 
 and obedience to synodical authority ; to the pro- 
 pagation of our principles, and the removal of pre- 
 judices ; to the institution or expansion of endow- 
 ment-funds both for the Bishoprics and pastoral 
 charges; to the promotion of missionary schemes 
 and the work of education. May God of His mercy 
 abundantly shed upon us, and on all the members of 
 our Church, the spirit of wisdom, and power, and 
 love, and of a sound mind, whether for this or any 
 other measure that is designed for His glory and the 
 edification of His Church. 
 
 And now, Brethren, commending you individually 
 and collectively, and your several charges to the 
 Divine blessing, and entreating you, should any of 
 you differ from any thing which I have here ad- 
 dressed to you in the exercise of my pastoral office, 
 to receive and ponder it, not as written in a spirit 
 of dictation and self-confidence, but with a recollec- 
 tion of my fallible judgment, and an earnest desire
 
 67 
 
 to lead any, over whom I am placed, to the principles 
 and practice which I believe to be for truth, peace, 
 and edification, I beg to subscribe myself, 
 
 Your affectionate Brother 
 
 and Servant in Christ, 
 
 WALTER JOHN, 
 
 Bishop of Glasgow & Galloway. 
 
 Wiston Park, June 13, 1851.
 
 APPENDIX. 
 
 No. I. 
 
 Declaration signed hy all Bishops of the Church in Scotland, 
 at the time of their Consecration. 
 
 We, Thomas Eattray, William Dunbar, Eobert Keith, aud 
 Eobert Wliite, Bishops of the Chiirch of Scotland, do hei-eby 
 solemnly declare and promise mutually to each other, that 
 while the Church continues in the present situation, we will 
 not, upon any whatsoever consideration, assist in the consecra- 
 tion of any person in order to be a Bishop of this Church, 
 without the consent and approbation of the majority of us that 
 shall happen to be alive at the time, or the consent and appro- 
 bation of the majority of such persons as we shall from time to 
 time receive into our Episcopal order, and who shall adhere to 
 this agreement, declaration, and promise by their subscription 
 to the foot thereof. 
 
 Item, We declare that in all matters relating to the Church, 
 worship and discipline thereof, we shall be determined by the 
 same majority as in the former article. 
 
 William Dunbab. 
 
 T. Eattbat. 
 
 EoBEBT Keith. 
 
 E. White.
 
 60 
 
 C. Hay, Elect Bishop of Moray and Eoss, adheres '. 
 
 "WiL. Fa-LCONAE adheres. 
 
 James Raith adheres. 
 
 And. Geeakd adheres. 
 
 John Alexandee adheres. 
 
 EoBEET FoEBES adheres. 
 
 Haeie Elgae adheres. 
 
 EoBEET KiLGOus adheres. 
 
 Chaeles Eose adheres. 
 
 Aethue Peteie adheres. 
 
 Geo. Innes adheres. 
 
 John Skinnee adheres. 
 
 Wm. Abeenetht Deummond adheres, 
 
 John Steachan adheres. 
 
 Andeew Maceaelane adheres. 
 
 JoNATH. "Watson adheres. 
 
 Alexandee Jolly adheres. 
 
 Daniel Sandfoed adheres. 
 
 Pateick Toeey adheres. 
 
 Geo. Gleig adheres. 
 
 "W. Skinnee adheres. 
 
 David Low adheres. 
 
 James Walkee adheres. 
 
 David Moie adheres. 
 
 Michael Eussell adheres. 
 
 Chaeles Hughes Teeeot adheres. 
 
 Alexandee Ewing adheres. 
 
 Alexandee Peneose Eoebes adheres. 
 
 "Waltee John Teowee adheres. 
 
 Eobeet Eden adheres. 
 
 ' Mr. Hay died before he was consecrated.
 
 61 
 
 No. II. 
 
 Extract from Minutes and Proceedings of the Metropolitan and 
 Suffragan Bishops of the Province of Australasia, 1850. 
 
 PROVINCIAL AND DIOCESAN CONVENTIONS. 
 
 1. We are of opinion that the Laity, acting by their represen- 
 tatives duly elected, should meet in Diocesan and Provincial 
 Conventions simultaneously with the Diocesan and Provincial 
 Synods, that the Clergy and Laity may severally consult and 
 decide upon aU questions affecting the temporaHties of the 
 Church, and that no act of either order relating thereto should 
 be valid without the consent of the other. 
 
 2. That any change of constitution affecting the whole body 
 of the Church should be first proposed and approved in the 
 Provincial Synod ; but should not be vaHd without the consent 
 of the Provincial Convention. (^Signed tmanimouslg.) 
 
 No. III. 
 
 The following passages from a Charge of Bishop Huntingford 
 will not be read without interest in these days : — 
 
 Extract from a Charge delivered in the Diocese of Hereford, 
 A.D. 1825. 
 
 As the Canons Ecclesiastical are now brought within our 
 view, it win be here seasonable for us to recollect that two 
 modes of interpretation are often allowed, because they are 
 often indispensably requisite. Of them, one is according to the 
 plain letter ; the other, according to the general purpoi*t and 
 designed object of a writing. The Canons, in many parts, have 
 on them an appearance of rigid severity ; and if we were now 
 compelled to foUow the letter of those parts, we should be pre- 
 cluded from the satisfaction of contemplating and representing
 
 62 
 
 our Church as mild in discipline. But to the Canons, equally 
 as to many acts on our national statute-books, is applicable the 
 maxim, " Consuetudo est altera lex^" Change of ideas con- 
 cerning circumstances which the Canons were originally calcu- 
 lated to meet, progressively introduced alteration of usage. 
 That alteration of usage led to departure from construction 
 literal, to acceptation in sense extended. Consideration of what 
 was practicable under wide variation and dissimilitude of cus- 
 tom ; attention also to what was possible, conformably with 
 legislative enactments, from time to time adapted to conceptions 
 of exigency ; — these causes could not but operate with strong 
 force on the minds of our predecessors. Thence, partly in their 
 right judgment, and partly iinder imperative necessity, they 
 interpreted the Canons, not by the text apparent, but by the 
 spirit. The result to us has been a general imderstanding that 
 we are subject to quaMed regulations ; the power of which, 
 however, is but just enough for conducting a system of Church 
 discipline with decency and order. Suffice it : — ^may the state 
 of things with reference to that point continue as it now exists. 
 Further innovation would be productive of most unfavoiu-able 
 consequences. The superintendents of Church discipline do not 
 wish to increase, the friends of a Church establishment should 
 be very cautious how they diminish, the power stiU remaining 
 for the government of the Church, and for the direction of 
 clerical concerns. — pp. 314, 315. 
 
 Of the National Synod, to which allusion is made at the end 
 of our Canons and Constitutions Ecclesiastical, the substance 
 has vanished, the form only remains. We are indeed, at certain 
 periods, summoned to "Convocation;" but that word is now 
 almost become a " nomen inutile ^." Would it were otherwise ; 
 for had its meetings been regular, and efficiency maintained, 
 through the several years hx which it hath been comparatively 
 
 2 See " Principia Legis, or Maxims," by T. Blanche, Esq., p. 17, ed. in 
 1811. 
 
 3 Hor., Lib. i., Od. xiv. 13.
 
 (53 
 
 annihilated and really degraded, there is reason to beheve the 
 encouragement of blasphemy, the profane attacks on religion, 
 and the vile publications for the horrid purpose of corrupting 
 morals, — all which banes of piety, of virtue, of social happiness, 
 we have so long witnessed, and so deeply deplored, — would 
 have been much less prevalent. Call to your recollection the 
 Church government in North Britain. It is not to be con- 
 ceived that the Provincial Synods and General Assemblies, 
 which are uniformly holden in that part of our kingdom, can 
 have no influence on the public mind. We know they have 
 great influence, which cannot be otherwise than conducive 
 towards repressing whatever is irrehgious or immoral. Similar 
 causes naturally tend to produce similar effects. That the 
 annual convention of numerous Clergy assembled for many 
 weeks, and that their grave deliberations on topics either imme- 
 diately or indirectly connected with religion, would have no 
 weight in retarding the progress of impiety and vice in this 
 nation, seems quite improbable.— pp. 316, 317. 
 
 THE END. 
 
 (iiLBERT & RiviNGTDN, Printers, St. John's Square, London.
 
 ■10/ 
 
 #