.^^■'^ ^S'^s^- -^^- •"«- 
 
 ['<<:• 
 
 V 
 
 .c-c^^ <:_ 
 
 •«c<' ^c. 
 
 '^^- est ' <.' 
 
 ^JB-. 
 
 
 
 <L^' <3^< 
 
 <: -cc rcci^- 
 
 
 r . <c c<r<?c: ■■■ rd <rfc.«r 
 
 ccor< 
 
 .'.- «S: 'C-: «: c 
 
 JC«[C 
 c <cc< < 
 
 < t < «cx 
 
 <^cccc c 
 
 
 ^^^^ '^V^^ 
 
 ^3^m^f:x«: <« 
 
 :v < < „ ^^ _ _^ , 
 
 •^'.^^v ^\;.vs<<i^^ ?is« 
 
 ^"'-K^fe^t'^^ '-,.
 
 ''J
 
 r 
 
 REASONS FOR FEELING SECURE 
 
 yi. '''™'' ^r^^^C AwM ^ 
 
 CHURCH OF BNGLlND. 
 
 A LETTER TO A FRIEND, 
 
 IN ANSWER TO 
 
 DOUBTS EXPRESSED IN REFERENCE TO THE CLAIMS 
 
 CHURCH OE ROME. 
 
 BY THE REV. EDWARD MONRO, M.A. 
 
 INCUMBENT OF IIAUUOW WEALD, MIDDLESEX. 
 
 LONDON: 
 L H. PARKER, 377 STRAND. 
 
 1850.
 
 LONDON : 
 
 PaiNTED BY KOBSOX, LEVEY, AND FRANKLTW, 
 
 Great New Street, Felter Lane.
 
 EEASONS FOR FEELING SECURE 
 
 THE CHUKCH OF ENGLAND. 
 
 MY DEAR SIR, 
 
 You ask me what I conceive to be the 
 ground of those men among us who are determined 
 to assert a definite position for the Enghsh Church, 
 and feel satisfied that that position is tenable, and 
 are decidedly opposed to any movement or ten- 
 dency in the direction of Rome. In answer to 
 this question, I will make a few remarks on what 
 I conceive to be the condition and features of par- 
 ties amongst and around us. 
 
 To me it appears that the day is now come 
 when a clear line must be drawn with regard to 
 the claims of the Roman Communion upon us. 
 We can no longer go on playing with Romanism, 
 or live on the borders of her encampments, while 
 we are members of the Communion of the Church 
 of England. Whatever character the latter has, 
 however deficient and below the mark of antiquity 
 in her practical life, there is a character belonging
 
 to the English Churchman which distinguishes him 
 from Rome as well as from the lowest form of 
 so-called Evangelicahsm. We must at last explode 
 the idea that a man simply approximates to 
 Catholicism in the degree in which he approxi- 
 mates to Rome. Rome has stood off the direct high 
 road to Catholicism, though nearer to us than we 
 to Catholicism. We have therefore had her of 
 necessity constantly in sight, hitherto in advance 
 of us, and have fixed our attention on her too 
 much, to the loss of the main object. We may 
 not make a circuit. The straight road lies before 
 us. Our great trial seems to be at the point we 
 have reached. We are at this moment in the 
 course of our journey immediately under the in- 
 fluence of her attraction. It is to be feared 
 that many will endeavour to escape the onward 
 journey which may yet be our trial of patience 
 for years to come ; and instead of provoking 
 her to emulation in the effort to attain with us 
 the object for which we started, will turn aside 
 to rest in her Communion, as if it were the 
 perfect ideal for which men's hearts are longing. 
 We have a more direct guide for return to pure 
 Catholicity — Scripture and the undivided Church. 
 And we must deny the claims of Rome, on the 
 ground that she has deserted the rule of faith 
 which she herself professed, and which we hold. 
 We have retained it ; and, however imperfectly we 
 have worked upon it, we esteem ourselves to be. 
 
 w
 
 by possession of it, on the way to the more perfect 
 form of CathoHcity. And if this be the case, it 
 must be highly culpable to continue in communion 
 with England, while we are, by word and act, con- 
 demning and weakening her position by living Ro- 
 man lives and teaching distinctly Roman doctrine. 
 It is either lack of moral courage or something 
 worse ; and he who dies in this mind is in the 
 dilemma either that he dies rebellious to the 
 Church to which he belongs, or out of commu- 
 nion with the Church which he esteems to be the 
 true one. We dare not go on with this line of 
 things. We must at once recognise our position. 
 If it be a false one, let us change it ; if a true one, 
 support and strengthen it, and not, in an effeminate 
 and affected manner, go on imitating the teaching, 
 dress, mannerisms, and dictions of a Church in 
 whose communion we are not, and which would 
 despise the weakness of the man who, while he 
 imitates, will not join her. Men should remember 
 that mere imitation of truth will in no way benefit 
 their spiritual condition ; and simply they will have 
 their peril aggravated, if, while they hold Rome 
 as altogether true, they have hesitated for any mo- 
 tive on earth to throw themselves into her bosom. 
 If Rome be alone true, join her ; if not, let us do 
 our best to strengthen the stakes, and give the tone 
 and teaching of the English Church a hold on the 
 hearts of the people. 
 
 Many men have not held their position honestly
 
 6 
 
 and fairly. On the one side, some belong to the 
 Church, hold office in her, are tied by and recog- 
 nise the canons and councils of early centuries and 
 the phraseologies of antiquity, and yet seem to be 
 staggered by being reminded that a general council 
 is a real thing, that heresy is not simply a name 
 belonging to the persecutions of Gardiner, and the 
 terms Priest and Sacrament do mean something 
 more than Layman and Memorial, — in fact, that 
 the laws, terms, ways, and limits of the Church 
 they belong to have some real meaning ; that 
 they are not simply matter of ecclesiastical his- 
 tory, to be read by the antiquarian in the pages 
 of Eusebius or St. Augustine. A large school, in 
 short, among us have enacted Puritanism in spite 
 of their Churclvmembership ; and when, in a day 
 of crisis, they are driven to see their intellectual 
 position, they are so startled, as either to be willing 
 to renounce Catholicity altogether, or to declare it 
 obsolete save in name. On the other hand, men 
 have inclined towards the more consistent position 
 Rome occupied, forgetting that what they saw 
 around them was no fair picture of what might be, 
 and that it was possible to throw life into a faded 
 system ; and by the constant use, though in secret, 
 of Roman offices, the half-asserted statement of 
 Roman doctrines, half fearing and half daring to 
 hold and assert them, have gone as nearly as pos- 
 sible to the borders of that Communion, and led as 
 unreal lives as those to whom I have above referred.
 
 For these two classes, distinct Puritanism and 
 Rome are the legitimate homes ; and out of these, 
 on their own hypothesis, they are in peril of their 
 souls where they are. If Rome is right, neither 
 father, mother, M^ife, home, lands, nor parishioners 
 should keep us from her Communion. If a visible 
 Church be synonymous with Antichrist, no Evan- 
 gelical is safe another hour in retaining his position 
 as an English priest. 
 
 But the point for us is, to discover whether 
 there be no ground which we should occupy, equally 
 clear and equally definite with each of these, and 
 at the same time satisfactory to our standard of 
 truth ; and whether there be such a priori claims 
 from Rome on our allegiance as to invalidate that 
 ground. I fully grant that such a dreamy state of 
 opinion as I have described, would, in a day of 
 great religious transition, be allowable for a length 
 of time ; and we could have expected no other re- 
 sult than that we should have been thus indefinite 
 through a long period. But a limit must come to 
 it. And have we not reached that limit now ? is it 
 not a time to see our ground ? It is quite true that 
 the controversy did assume another shape once, 
 and that in the last century Rome and Puritanism 
 were the only definite principles which divided 
 good men, to a great degree, between them ; and 
 the theory of a visible Church, with its teaching, 
 was mixed up in the Puritan mind with Rome ; 
 but it need be so no longer. While England as
 
 8 
 
 a Church was silent, and Rome chose to ignore 
 the Greek Church, she might say to the Puritan : 
 All that belongs to a Church belongs to us; the 
 term Church is synonymous with the Papal See. 
 But it is not so in truth. 
 
 The first point to examine seems to be the 
 ground of our rule of faith. The Puritan theory 
 here is in direct issue with that of the Church 
 Catholic ; it recognises Scripture alone, aided by 
 individual inspiration ; nothing more. It rejects 
 alike tradition and dogmatic teaching ; it re- 
 nounces human authority in any guise. This is 
 a clear line. We can understand it and debate 
 on it : and by its test many an Evangelical cler- 
 gyman must feel that his honesty is at stake in 
 retaining his position in the Church ; the very 
 terms he uses daily are at variance with his in- 
 ward rule of faith. No ground of expediency is 
 enough to excuse this position ; no regard for 
 caste or position in society. 
 
 The Enghsh Church recognises as her rule of 
 faith Holy Scripture and the interpretation and 
 teaching of the undivided Church. This, too, is a 
 clear line, expressed by the canon of Vincentius, 
 with the modifications that he himself offers; here, 
 too, we understand where we are. For the test of 
 a rule of faith we have nothing to guide us except 
 our moral sense and our reason. This ground 
 Rome did profess to occupy : she does so practi- 
 cally no longer. She persists in a third theory ; for
 
 9 
 
 the theory of development fully carried out is a 
 third theory militating against the other two, and 
 in its consequences striking and important. Rome 
 has renounced, in fact, her allegiance to the rule 
 above laid down, for her own developments, the 
 developments of what vve do and must call but a 
 portion of the Church Catholic; and this can never 
 be taken for the same as the continued interpreta- 
 tion of the united Church. She asserts that her 
 theory of development is simply a further applica- 
 tion of the principle involved in the Nicene and 
 Athanasian Creeds ; but we cannot agree to the 
 assertion. The undivided Church had a power to 
 develope, which a single branch of a divided Church 
 has not ; and the dogmatic teaching of that undi- 
 vided Church we still retain. If she plead the 
 authority of the Church for superseding and alter- 
 ing the ancient rule of faith, we may fairly say she 
 at once begs the whole question. 
 
 Roman writers who have boldly asserted the 
 theory of Vincentius have not spoken of Infalli- 
 bility; and those who have pleaded the latter have 
 been compelled to renounce the former. Conse- 
 quently, either Rome is not what she was, or, if 
 so, has admitted a practical state of things at va- 
 riance with her professed theology. If she stands 
 theoretically on her old ground, we at once con- 
 demn her existing system of development as untrue 
 to her theory ; if she has renounced that theory, 
 we may fairly join issue on that point, and object
 
 10 
 
 to her claim to pure Catholicity from her having 
 renounced the rule of faith of the early Church. 
 
 But however, as to the doctrine of Infallibility, 
 after all, Rome herself is divided in opinion. Arch- 
 bishop Bramhall tells us that Rome has six opi- 
 nions as to the seat of the Infallibility ; some de- 
 claring it to be lodged in the Pope ex cathedra^ 
 some in the Pope in General Council, some in 
 General Council itself, and so forth. Now, on 
 this theory of Inftillibility hinges the whole theory 
 of development ; wherever any teaching appears 
 to violate the rule of faith just given, Romanists 
 fall back on the Infalhbility ; and where that ap- 
 pears to deduce doctrines militating against the 
 rule, they suggest that it is Infallibility enabling 
 the Church to develope. 
 
 Why Infallibility has been invented is a dif- 
 ferent matter : it stands as a broad fact, and has 
 materially altered their whole final appeal. If it 
 be pleaded that the result is of no importance, that 
 the theory does not bring out any mode of opinion 
 which need cause uneasiness or has the appearance 
 of novelty, we must assert that it does ; for the 
 present actual teaching of Rome, with regard to 
 the Blessed Virgin, worship of saints, and purga- 
 tory, is most alarming to a mind which has been 
 led to lean on the rule laid down above, and very 
 different to the mode in which Rome herself held 
 those very doctrines some time since. So that it 
 appears that, accepting the Infallibility, we must
 
 11 
 
 be prepared any day to deny the most palpable 
 statements of Scripture and antiquity. If the Ro- 
 manist says. No, for the Church cannot err, — it 
 is simply arguing in a circle : Rome is right, be- 
 cause she has infallibility ; and infallibility is right, 
 because Rome asserts it. 
 
 Let us, then, see the motives which may have 
 led to the invention of the theory of development. 
 There is a constant inclination to act on argu- 
 ments founded on the a priori expectation of what 
 a Church should be ; and these are made the 
 ground-work of logical conclusions. It is wrong 
 to cast a halo around dreams and surmises, and to 
 visit condemnation and contempt, as a matter of 
 course, on those who will not receive them. The 
 simple truth is, that such arguments are founded 
 on false ideals of what a Church should be : one 
 of them being, the possession of clear and definite 
 teaching on all points ; another, visible unity ; an- 
 other, the voice of authority guiding the conscience 
 infallibly ; another, the assertion of the power to 
 excommunicate all who are not in visible com- 
 munion with her. But may we not question the 
 safety of testing the truth and falsehood of a 
 Church by mere ideals, when it involves the sur- 
 render of our present doctrine and teaching, the 
 rule of St. Vincentius, and the still recognised ca- 
 nons of the Church of the whole world, for a doc- 
 trine in which Rome herself is divided in opinion ? 
 
 And, after all, the truth and necessity of
 
 12 
 
 each one of these ideals is disputable. I do not 
 see that we are to expect (} priori clearness and 
 exactness of teaching and direction in a Church 
 continuously, on every conceivable point. Her 
 lamp, like that of the individual, may give at times 
 a dim and uncertain light. The picture of the 
 Church Catholic in the Apocalypse, under the 
 name of the Seven Churches, does not favour this 
 view. Holy Scripture does not lead us to expect 
 it, nor the analogy of nature and the proceedings 
 of God in other parts of His creation. They 
 generally lead us to the notion of a certain in- 
 definiteness of view on many points, which will 
 gradually clear away before a holy life and pur- 
 pose. " If any man do My will, he shall know of 
 the doctrine." Many points are not of necessity 
 clear at once, nor without effort ; and wherever 
 great distinctness in minutiae has been arrived at 
 in statement, there has ever been a tendency to 
 heresy and error resulting from it. Many of the 
 errors of Rome seem of this very kind. 
 
 Or consider for a moment the supposed need 
 of external visible unity. Is it so needful as to 
 justify us in passing by so much to gain it ? On 
 what do men found their assumption as to its ne- 
 cessity ? The only analogy we have of a Church 
 in Scripture does not support this view, for the 
 Jewish Church was divided. And I do not know 
 where Scripture states its necessity in such man- 
 ner as the Romanist intends it. And, as a matter
 
 13 
 
 of fact, it cannot be shewn satisfactorily to exist 
 any where ; for supposing a man leaves the Com- 
 munion of the English Church to gain it, he will 
 not find such unity outside her, since it is impos- 
 sible to ignore the existence and life of the Greek 
 Church — a branch possessing far more life than 
 the Romanist is willing to grant. And these are 
 two ideals on which the force of the Roman argu- 
 ment is much built in this day. We desire unity 
 among Christians ; but let us take care lest in our 
 too great haste and impatience we grasp a shadow. 
 
 Some men, again, would make much of the 
 position of Rome as being the Church of the im- 
 mense majority, and use against us the argument 
 of St. Augustine against the Donatists ; but when 
 we look fairly into the matter, she can never be 
 said to occupy the position which the Catholic 
 Church did at that day, inasmuch as again the 
 Greek Church does and must divide with her and 
 us the population of Christendom. 
 
 Another argument which has weight with many 
 is the profession in the Roman Communion of 
 poverty, the recognition of asceticism, and of the 
 need of energetic movements among the poor. All 
 these are striking features of a Church, and no 
 Church can be in a truly healthy state without 
 them ; but have we no tokens of their exist- 
 ence among ourselves, and are we to give up the 
 most essential points to gain them ? And when 
 men have joined the Roman Communion, what
 
 14 
 
 do they find to be the state of many of those 
 very practices among her members ? Has not 
 the appearance of poverty, in many instances, 
 dwindled off into a mere affectation of singularity 
 of dress, which in truth gives as much scope for 
 elaborate care, expense, and attention as the com- 
 mon occasions of such things in the world ? And 
 is she not largely open to a charge of theatrical 
 display, which destroys impressions of reality, to 
 say nothing more ? And, in the place of the 
 austerity and really rude dress and habit of life 
 of other days, which were healthy in their ten- 
 dency because they drew down contempt upon the 
 wearer, has there not crept in a soft and effemi- 
 nate copy of it to suit the spirit of the age ? To 
 be attracted by this, so as to be induced to give 
 up our present position, would be indeed perilous. 
 Who can say but that it wants but the self-de- 
 votion and energy of a few to give an impetus 
 among ourselves towards formal austere life and 
 missions among the poor ? What is there to 
 prevent the English Church bursting out with 
 unparalleled energy in evangelisation, education, 
 parochial ministration, and every other branch of 
 holy calling, when once the present incubus is re- 
 moved, and she is relieved of lukewarm, faint- 
 hearted sons, who suspect and despise her ? Only 
 give her the chance of a faithful and energetic 
 ministry, and she will do as much, and more a 
 hundredfold, than she ever did yet.
 
 15 
 
 We may easily see our faults. We have too 
 much depreciated goodness which had not high 
 intellect to adorn it, and have forgotten, in choice 
 of leaders, that the weapons of our w^arfare are 
 not carnal but spiritual, the shield of faith, the 
 helmet of salvation, and the sword of the spirit. 
 Therefore many are out of hope, when such men, 
 as now, are leaving us. But we may believe that 
 God would teach us to trust the more in Him 
 and His gifts of grace than in any natural gifts. 
 There are modest, humble men beneath the pre- 
 sent surface of the English Church, who are likely 
 to do, in God's own good time, greater works than 
 we have yet imagined. They appear but little. 
 They are neither writers nor public speakers, and 
 are generally overlooked. They decline partisan- 
 ship, and shrink from notice ; but these are the 
 true instruments for great spiritual works. 
 
 Another feature many are struck with, is the 
 apparent agreement of opinion among members of 
 the Roman Communion as contrasted with our- 
 selves. It is true Rome has had the wisdom to 
 embrace a larger latitude of schools by external 
 rule than we have done, and it has been our error 
 that we have lost so many who might have been 
 pouring life through the Church instead of assail- 
 ing her bulwarks ; but as to actual agreement of 
 opinion, I much doubt whether we should find that 
 there was so much more in their Communion than 
 our own.
 
 16 
 
 These are some of the reasons urged upon me 
 by many among us for deserting our Communion, 
 and changing their rule of faith for that which 
 Rome offers. For, after all, it is on this that we 
 must make our stand : the point on which men 
 now with us differ at this moment from Rome is 
 on the nature of that rule. 
 
 It is very easy to cast a mist over the whole 
 question, and without fairly viewing what we are 
 about to do, to plunge at once into a new state of 
 things, which offer many external and apparent at- 
 tractions. But this we cannot safely do. It is wronsr 
 to put forward objections to bringing the teaching 
 of a Church to an existing standard, whether of our 
 own moral sense or Scripture. Practically, as we 
 see on all hands, this kind of thing cannot be pre- 
 vented. The state of Christendom compels it. It 
 is a widely different thing to accept without any 
 exercise of the principle of private judgment the 
 teaching of the Church in which we have been 
 baptised, and to do this in the case of a Church 
 to which we are meditating desertion. We must 
 test the rule and teaching of any such commu- 
 nion by a most rigid process ; and if they are found 
 wanting, we dare not take the step. There is a 
 wide difference between the voice which merely 
 speaks with authority and the voice which actually 
 has authoritative claim over us. 
 
 We must lay stress upon the fact, which men 
 refuse to see clearly, that Rome of this day has a
 
 17 
 
 very clear definite teaching of her own, opposed to 
 her own teaching of other days. Men must not 
 shut their eyes to this. Oratorianism is a distinct 
 teaching and creed of very momentous import, and 
 one which is very different from the tone of writers 
 of the Church of Rome of other days, or her 
 formal teaching as a Church hitherto. And what- 
 ever Oratorianism is, each man will have to accept 
 it w^ho joins the Communion of Rome. I would 
 especially refer to the position that St. Joseph is 
 made to occupy, and the modes of statement with 
 regard to our blessed Lord, which we find in their 
 hymns lately published, surely alike unscriptural, 
 uncatholic, and unprimitive. I speak thus strongly 
 because there is an energy about this school which 
 bids fair to stamp the English Roman communion. 
 Rome as she is now, and especially Oratorian- 
 ism, is something distinct in kind from English 
 doctrine : it is not simply the excess of it ; it is 
 wholly separate from it. A man may go to nearly 
 any length of Catholicity of doctrine and practice 
 with safety from a clue in our own Church, while 
 he holds in his hand one end of a chain which 
 will connect him with primitive ages. But when 
 no such link is visible, he appears to be occu- 
 pying a dishonest and false position. There are, 
 of course, many points where the indications are 
 clear enough in the teaching of the Church in 
 England, however poorly worked out or generally 
 recognised, in the light of which we reach the 
 
 £
 
 18 
 
 highest and truest Catholicity, deep views of Holy 
 Baptism, the Real Presence, Communion with the 
 departed. Absolution, and the need of Confession. 
 But it appears that there are points which men are 
 aiming at now in our Communion which are in 
 no way deducible from word or indication in the 
 Church in England, or in the early ages. A man 
 cannot honestly retain position in the English 
 Church while he holds and teaches these ; they 
 have no root or branch in our system : however 
 meagrely other parts of the Catholic theory may 
 be worked out among us, and have remained too 
 long but a dead letter, they have at least their 
 recognition in our formularies. I am very far from 
 meaning to assert any kind of attachment for the 
 spirit of Anghcanism, or any idea that it contains 
 any finality, — it is but the chain which binds us, 
 in a troubled and difficult day, to the Church of a 
 more united and purer time ; — yet there is such a 
 thing as position within its limits ; it has limits of 
 its own, and it has a definite teaching, which we 
 cannot ignore, and which is not synonymous with 
 Rome, still less with Oratorianism. 
 
 Again, there are many points which go to 
 make up our whole ideal of Christian truth, and 
 Christian worship as one distinct and important 
 portion of the whole. We gain an idea of Chris- 
 tian worship from Holy Scripture; and that idea 
 is in many points more answered by our own ob- 
 jects of worship than that of the Church of Rome.
 
 19 
 
 If Holy Scripture is to be our ground and type 
 for proceeding with regard to God, we shall gain 
 a certain impression from it as to the mode of 
 approaching the Divine Being, which certain pre- 
 valent fashions are as far removed from as can 
 well be. 
 
 It seems to me that the whole prima facie view 
 is against a move to Rome as she is ; and the very 
 ground of attack used by Mr. Newman in his first 
 lecture might well be occupied against themselves, 
 when he complains of the Church of England being 
 one which has no stability of teaching, but simply 
 elastic to the will and fancy of the English people. 
 With still greater force we might say, that the 
 spirit of Rome as exhibited in Oratorianism bears 
 the stamp of being simply determined by the ad- 
 vancing popular opinion, by no one settled rule of 
 truth or teaching. 
 
 I quite see the force of certain claims a Church 
 in the position of Rome may appear to make on many 
 wavering minds : I quite understand the anxiety 
 on finding that many a feature esteemed by some 
 essential to Catholicity is apparently possessed by 
 her and absent from our own Church. But it is 
 surely a grave question, and one which transcends 
 words, whether a man, to gain advantages, many 
 of which we by patience might possess ourselves, 
 can safely forego his present position. It seems 
 that to gain certain features of Catholic life and 
 practice, which after all may be of doubtful neces-
 
 20 
 
 sity, men are willing to cut themselves off from 
 Holy Scripture as a ground of faith, from the voice 
 of antiquity and the opinions they have held since 
 baptism, to treat with contempt the canon of Vin- 
 centius, and violate the rules and opinions of many 
 even within the pale of Rome : and this is the posi- 
 tion of our own recent converts ; for a very con- 
 siderable portion of the members of the Roman 
 Communion are in no small alarm at the growth 
 and defence of practices and opinions among con- 
 verts which they had looked upon as accidents 
 and abuses. There is something alarming in join- 
 ing such a state of things ; it is almost like en- 
 tering on another religion. It surely by none can 
 be lightly undertaken. That we are in a position of 
 deep difficulty and anxiety there can be no doubt ; 
 but the question seems to be, are we not given to 
 expect that this very state of things would exist 
 near the end ? was there not to be a " falling 
 away," and difficulties enough to perplex and startle 
 the very elect ? and do not the present move- 
 ments partake of the very character which we 
 were led to expect would mark these final con- 
 vulsions ? I see nothing staggering in the fact of 
 every branch of the Church being in a position 
 of perplexity and trouble, but rather the fulfil- 
 ment of expectations. What is before us, who 
 can say? 
 
 In short, I find myself occupying a position 
 in which I was born, baptised, and have received
 
 21 
 
 continually the means of grace, — in a body which 
 has always professed itself to be an integral part 
 of Christ's holy Catholic Church, — asserting, and 
 satisfactorily proving, its union with the Church 
 of other days, through Apostolic succession, sacra- 
 ments, and creeds, — a body which other branches 
 of the Church have not unitedly condemned, and 
 when condemned, have done so under a misunder- 
 standing and upon unsound principles, and whom 
 even eminent individuals in Rome are not agreed 
 in denouncing, — one which appears in worship and 
 rule of faith to be nearer to the spirit and tone of 
 Scripture and the early ages than her rivals, and 
 which has not denied, but still preserves the state- 
 ment of the highest Catholic truths, and, in not 
 requiring over-definiteness of statement, appears 
 more in unison with the spirit of antiquity than 
 the Church of Rome. I find myself in that body 
 at this moment, with many failings and shortcom- 
 ings ; but still I see every other branch with equal 
 difficulties when tested by the standard of truth ; 
 and I find every reason to expect, from the ana- 
 logy of the Jewish Church, from the analogy 
 of God's dealings with man, from the analogy 
 of the individual Christian, which always leads us 
 to expect that God's Presence will be often ob- 
 scured, and to be discovered only by the eye of 
 anxious and obedient faith, and on this I would lay 
 great weight, and from prophecy, that some such 
 form of high moral difficulty and ecclesiastical
 
 22 
 
 crisis would mark the approach of the latter days. 
 I find that the very rules and canons we assert, 
 Rome has not denied, and still formally holds ; I 
 find that the branch of the Church I am in com- 
 munion with has had a continued life ever since 
 its severance from the Roman See ; has produced 
 very many holy men in each generation ; has 
 withstood safely many storms and shocks ; has 
 employed great energies abroad, and is now at 
 work in converting the world ; and 1 find no 
 failure in her teaching and energy which cannot 
 be accounted for by the chastening fatherly hand 
 of God for her sins ; and the fact of general 
 divisions, which seem equally to paralyse every 
 other branch of the Church. I find the absence 
 of continued dogmatic teaching, in the sense in 
 which objectors use the term ; but I see it nowhere 
 else satisfactorily given ; nor do I see any a j)rion 
 reasons for accounting it essential. We possess the 
 dogmatic teaching of the united Church, and are 
 not ambitious to add to it in our present condition, 
 which would be to assume the functions of the 
 whole undivided Church. For these reasons, I 
 conceive, unless some satisfactory historical flaw 
 be found in our position, which never has been, 
 that we are bound to remain in our place, and 
 to do all in our power to strengthen the Church's 
 position in the hearts of the people and against 
 oppression from without. 
 
 The claims of the Koman Communion are
 
 23 
 
 high-sounding; but when I examine them, I find 
 them built on no satisfactory historical ground or 
 proof; she does not prove, but rather asserts that 
 she was the branch which at the great schism con- 
 tinued the stream of pure Catholicity ; her mem- 
 bers test her position by an ideal of their own, as 
 to the necessity of continued dogmatic teaching 
 and visible unity of opinion. When I ask for proof 
 of that necessity, they refuse to offer any thing but 
 their own ideal ; for they refuse to allow Scripture 
 or antiquity to be stable and unalterable appeals ; 
 they cast away the only stable ground we ever had, 
 and bid us float with the stream of continued de- 
 velopment, without satisfying us as to the weight 
 and authority of the body which developes. I find 
 that many members of her own Communion are 
 exceedingly afraid of this view, and she herself 
 is considerably divided upon it. I find that to 
 accept her teaching I must give up all that feeling 
 about Holy Scripture which I have been ever bound 
 to hold, which is with me synonymous with religion, 
 and to yield which seems the first bold step to infi- 
 delity. Nay, more ; I find Holy Scripture recog- 
 nised as little more than a revelation to Primitive 
 Christianity, for which infallibility is now an equi- 
 valent substitute. And that theory may lead to 
 the denial of higher doctrines than have yet been 
 impugned ; and if they be, I am told I have no 
 appeal to any final authority beyond that supposed 
 infallible voice, for whose authorised existence I
 
 24 
 
 have not one single proof offered me. By doing 
 this, the vessel of the soul leaves all sure anchor- 
 age, and is let adrift on the wide waters of un- 
 certainty and mere opinion. I find in Rome ob- 
 jects of worship and a mode of teaching distinctly 
 different from the prh)id facie mode of worship and 
 teaching in Scripture and the early Church ; and 
 in some cases not even a clue which connects it 
 with a form to be found there; and when I ob- 
 ject all this, I am told that continued dogmatic 
 teaching is essential to a Church, — that, to gain 
 that, I must succumb to her authority, as she 
 alone professes to give it, and yield all else ; but 
 she offers me no satisfactory proof that she has 
 a fair claim to speak with that authority, nor that 
 such dosrmatic teachincj is essential to the truth of 
 a Church. She professes to offer an unbroken 
 face, and to give clear, tangible answers to all 
 difficulties ; but I do not see that the analogy of 
 God's deahngs would lead me to think that such 
 would be the position of His Church on earth. 
 Besides which, I cannot but be staggered by the 
 apparent violation of the plain and common voice 
 of conscience, — the apparent prevarications and 
 departures from truth and honesty in many of 
 her members. I must feel alarmed at hearing of 
 fictitious miracles, and the old charge of pious 
 frauds made good against her. The voice of 
 conscience comes, with the weight of God's pri- 
 mary teaching, to the individual heart ; and we
 
 25 
 
 should rather test an existing Church by it than 
 allow its light to pale before the doubtful teaching 
 of a branch — of the Church Catholic. In short, 
 if I dethrone conscience, and annul the force of 
 Scripture as a primary appeal, with the interpre- 
 tation of the undivided Church, I do not know 
 what standing ground I have left, or what is to 
 save my drifting away into shoreless infidelity. 
 Those two I have ever looked to as the anchor 
 of my soul ; and if you remove them, what have 
 I to save me from infidelity? And the authority 
 of conscience is dethroned, if I am told that ficti- 
 tious miracles may be recognised, and the common 
 rules of truth violated. 
 
 Of course, principles may be carried to excess, 
 and Rationalism may be the result of a cessation 
 of continued dogmatic teaching ; but, in the same 
 way, Rome may result in something very much 
 resembling this spirit, if she is not shewing it now ; 
 and all this would teach us that the only safe 
 course in questions of morals is to adopt a mean, 
 and not to deem it necessary to drive every prin- 
 ciple to its possible result : no principle on earth 
 will stand it. Of course, you understand me, that 
 while I thus state the firm footing I feel in the 
 English Church, and the clear case I see against 
 the claims of Rome, I feel that we are to strive, 
 by every conceivable means, against the posi- 
 tion in which the English Church is now placed, 
 and never to rest, night or day, till we have 
 
 c
 
 26 
 
 gained for her perfect freedom of teaching and 
 action. 
 
 In spite, then, of many difficulties, I feel secure 
 in my present position. We are on the verge of 
 a crisis : God knows it may be the precursor of the 
 end. I should fear placing myself out of the po- 
 sition which I feel to be providentially ordered. 
 We have enough to do : self-subjugation is no 
 easy work ; and there might be a chance of allow- 
 ing that to merge in the contemplation of possible 
 theoretic difficulties. There may be a need for 
 some, in this day, of the sacred check : " What is 
 that to thee ? follow thou Me." Some may prefer 
 dwelling on speculative difficulties. May it not 
 be possible that some who have left us have no 
 right to the amount of attention and weight given 
 to them, from the fact that their religious posi- 
 tion has ever been rather intellectual than earnest 
 and spiritual ? What may come before the end, 
 who can say ? It may be, by some mighty in- 
 ward guiding, that the riven Church may be- 
 come again in all things one. It may be that 
 difficulties will pass away hke morning mists 
 before the advancing sun, and the clouds which 
 now seem to hang so heavily over the Church 
 will be absorbed into the glory of his rising, 
 and open to our gaze scenes of such perfect 
 harmony and beauty prepared beneath the veil, 
 as to wake our eternal praise; — in a moment, 
 the wildest apparent confusion may appear to
 
 27 
 
 have an unbroken order, and seeming contra- 
 dictions become the very harmony of truth. 
 And when, at length, the everlasting morning 
 breaks, it will burst on a scene where, in calm 
 and majestic silence, the vast army of the Visible 
 Church will be revealed to her astonished foes, 
 presenting a front without a division, — a garment 
 without a seam ; gathered together for the last 
 great conquest of the Lamb, where every portion 
 will have been led to its position by the voice of 
 the invisible Head, unconscious of the wondrous 
 scheme it was aiding to accomplish, and ignorant 
 that it stood side by side with the very portions 
 of the Church from which it had thought itself 
 severed ; little knowing that, beneath the shadows 
 of the night of time, the mighty array was mar- 
 shalling in perfect, though unconscious unity, and 
 that that unity centred in Him who is the Captain 
 of her salvation, " in whom dwelleth all the fulness 
 of the Godhead bodily." 
 
 I remain, 
 
 Yours sincerely, 
 
 EDWARD MONRO. 
 
 Harrow Weald, 
 Ember Week, Sept. 1850. 
 
 lEVEY, ROBSON, AND FRANKLYN, GKEAT KEW STREET.
 
 'jr>J^J9 ' 
 
 5 >>^ _ 
 
 
 >3»v< 
 
 iirx 
 
 -.^v^ j.?.;; 
 
 ■■ ) > > • 
 
 
 >-> ;.- 
 
 ■ jn r. ■ 
 
 -3» • ■ -» *-»»•> • 
 
 .■» 
 
 > >ji» 
 
 
 
 » 
 
 >> 
 
 jw XT' 
 
 
 
 
 "^^.j^^ 
 
 
 
 V . » • i 
 
 >> 
 
 
 
 1^ w*^ ?b 
 
 
 > >3» 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 iI2Q^ > O > 
 >-y>im j»» :> > » 
 
 B