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 1
 
 L I B RA R.Y 
 
 OF THE 
 
 U N I VLRS ITY 
 
 or 1 LLI NOIS
 
 /
 
 A CHARGE 
 
 DELIVERED TO 
 
 THE DIOCESE OF NATAL, 
 
 IN THE 
 AT 
 
 HIS PRIMARY METROPOLITICAL VISITATION, 
 
 JS/LJ^-^ 18, 1864, 
 
 AND METROPOLITAN. 
 
 PUBLISHED BY REQUEST OP THE CLERGY AND LAITY. 
 
 PIETERMAKITZBURG : 
 
 PRINTED BY P. DAVIS & SON, 21, LONGMAllKET STREET. 
 
 1864.
 
 A CHARGE, &c. 
 
 My Reverend Brethren, 
 
 AND 
 
 My Brethren op the Laity, — 
 
 Commencing, as I do to-day, my first Metropolitical 
 Visitation, it may be well that I should briefly touch upon 
 the position which the Metropolitan fills in the Church of 
 Christ, and upon the grounds upon which I claim to dis- 
 charge the functions of that office. 
 
 At what time the office was first instituted in the Church 
 of Christ has been a matter of some doubt. Archbishop 
 Usher, Bishop Beveridge, Dr. Hammond, and other learned 
 men, believed it to have been co-eval with the Apostles. 
 Dr. Cave, Bingham, and others, have regarded it as of 
 somewhat later appointment. All are agreed that it was in 
 full operation before the Council of Nicaea (a.d. 325) ; 
 the sixth famous canon referring to it as part of the exist- 
 ing constitution of the Church, and commanding that the 
 privileges which belonged to it by ancient custom should 
 be maintained. The thirty-fourth of the Apostolical 
 Canons is, probably, the earliest authority which speaks 
 distinctly of the office, and of its true position in the 
 Church of God. 
 
 The functions of the Metropolitan, as defined by the 
 Canons of the Church, were : To regulate the elections of 
 Provincial Bishops, and ordain them ; their appointment 
 being null without his consent (Bingham, Book II., chap, 
 xvi, sec. 12; Van Espen, Part I., Titulus xix., chaps. 3, 
 4, 5, 6) : upon this point, all the Canons are express, — 
 to decide controversies between them, — to compel them to 
 residence, — to hear appeals, — to call and preside at Pro- 
 vincial Synods, — to take care of all vacant Sees within
 
 their Province, — to administer the affairs of the Church 
 during a vacancy (Bingham, ch. xvi., sec. 20), — to secure 
 the revenues of the Bishopric, and procure the speedy 
 election of a new Bishop, — and, lastly, with the aid of his 
 com-provincials — and, probably, under peculiar circum- 
 stances, without that aid (Van Espen, Part I., Tit. xix., 
 De Metropolitan is, cap. iii., sec. 3) — to hear charges 
 against any Bishop of his province ; to correct, suspend, 
 and, if need be, to deprive him. 
 
 These duties, powers, responsibilities of the Metropoli- 
 tan are largely discussed and laid down by Bingham, Van 
 Espen, Dictionaire de Droit Canonigue, Institutionem 
 Canoniconem, lib. iv.. Juris Canonici Compendium, and 
 indeed all writers on the subject. 
 
 The office has been in existence in our Mother Church 
 from time immemorial ; and the spiritual functions belong- 
 ing to it, or assigned to it by the Canons, have been in 
 exercise there, some of the more secular duties having 
 been provided for otherwise by statute. 
 
 In the Churches of the Roman obedience, since the 
 Council of Trent, the powers of the Metropolitan, as well 
 as those of the Episcopate generally, have been, to a very 
 great extent, merged in the Papacy. 
 
 To such an office, at all times full of responsibility, at 
 this time burdened with great anxieties and difficulties, I 
 have been called. 
 
 The want of that office was not felt within the missions 
 of the English Church while they were few and feeble. 
 When, however, it pleased God to stir deeply the slum- 
 bering zeal of our Mother Church, and fill her with a de- 
 sire and determination to provide for the spiritual needs of 
 her children scattered abroad over the face of the earth, 
 and to extend the Redeemer's Kingdom over heathen 
 lands, it became clear, that if order and unity were to be 
 maintained — if the laity were to partake of all the rites of 
 the Church, and enjoy the full blessings which it was in- 
 stituted to convey — if a ministry was to be provided, and a 
 new life thrown into these distant extremities ; in a word, 
 if the infant Churches throughout and beyond our empire 
 were to be perpetuated and enlarged, it would be needful 
 to plant among them the Church, in the completeness of its 
 constitution. 
 
 Bishops were, therefore, in the first instance, gradually 
 placed in all our Colonies. At first, the dioceses were of 
 
 ,UJUC \ 
 
 K.J.
 
 immense extent. Mine was, from one end to the other, 
 3,000 miles in length, and comprised five civil govern- 
 ments. Duties were thus imposed upon Bishops which 
 they could not discharge; and it was soon felt that the 
 dioceses must be divided. Before this subdivision was 
 effected, the Bishops of Churches in the Colonies were all 
 regarded as suffragans of the See of Canterbury. When 
 they began to multiply, and the Churches to grow stronger, 
 it was seen that they ought to be gathered into provinces, 
 and possess the complete framework of the Church as it 
 exists at home, and has always existed in the Catholic 
 Church. The subject was fully discussed at a meeting of 
 the English Bishops, and such of the Colonial Bishops as 
 were within reach, summoned by the late Archbishop of 
 Canterbury, in 1853. 
 
 At that meeting, at which I was present, it was resolved 
 that Metropolitans should be at once appointed over the 
 Churches of Canada, New Zealand, South Africa (Austra- 
 lia, and the East Indies being already under Metropoli- 
 tans) ; and the concurrence and joint action of the Crown 
 in this matter was sought and obtained. 
 
 The Crown gave what force of law it was in its power to 
 do to the decision of the Church ; and proclaimed, by 
 Letters Patent, the See of Cape Town to be the Metro- 
 political See of this Province ; and declared the Bishops 
 of Graham's Town and Natal (the other Sees were not 
 then founded) to be under the jurisdiction of the same. 
 
 By the concurrent action of the Church and of the 
 Crown, and at their united call, I hold the office which 1 
 now fill.* 
 
 * As the subject is oue whicli at this time excites some interest, I 
 extract from the Letters Patent issued at the foundation both of the 
 MetropoHtan See and of the See of Natal, and published by Government 
 in the Gazette, the passages which relate to the office of the Metropo- 
 litan : — 
 
 Extract from the Letters Patent of the Metropolitan Bishop of Cape Town. 
 And we do further will and ordain that the said Eight Reverend Father 
 in God, Robert Graj', Bishop of the said See of Gape Town, and his suc- 
 cessors, the Bishops thereof for the time being, shall be and be deemed 
 and taken to be Metropolitan Bishop in our Colony of the Cape of Good 
 Hope, and its dependencies, and our Island of St. Helena, subject, never- 
 theless, to the general superintendence and revision of the Archbishop of 
 Canterbury for the time being, and subordinate to the Archiepiscopal See 
 of the province of Canterbury. And we will and ordain that the said 
 Bishops of Grahamstown and Natal, respectively, shall be Suffragan
 
 Jurisdiction of the Metro'politaji over the Bishops of his 
 Province. 
 What legal force the Letters Patent of the See of Cape 
 Town or of the See of Natal may have in this Colony, 
 issued as both were before the granting of a Constitution, 
 it is not for me to decide. Let them be absolutely worth- 
 less as legal instruments — which, however, I believe not to 
 be the case — there remain the facts, that if the Church 
 and Crown united in the appointment of a Bishop, they 
 were united also in the appointment of a Metropolitan : 
 
 Bishops to the said Bishops of Cape Town, and his successors. And we 
 will and grant to the said Bishop of Cape Town, and his successors, full 
 power and authority as Metropolitan of the Cape of Good Hope, and of 
 the Island of St. Helena, to perform all functions peculiar and appropi'iate 
 to the office of Metropolitan within the limits of the said Sees of Grahams- 
 town and Natal, and to exercise Metropolitan jurisdiction overthe Bishops 
 of the said Sees, and their saccessors, and over all Archdeacons, Digni- 
 taries, and all other Chaplains, Ministers, Priests, and Deacons, in holy 
 orders, of the United Chui-ch of England and Ireland, within the limits 
 of the said Dioceses. And we do by these presents give and grant unto 
 the said Bishop of Cape Town, and his successors, full power and autho- 
 rity to visit, once in five years, or oftener, if occasion shall require, as 
 well the said several Bishops and their successors, as all Dignitaries and 
 all other Chaplains, Ministers, Priests, and Deacons, in holy orders, of the 
 United Church of England and Ireland, resident in the said Dioceses, for 
 correcting and supplying the defects of the said Bishops, and their suc- 
 cessors, with all and all manner of visitorial jmnsdiction, power, and 
 coercion. 
 
 And we do hereby authorize and empower the said Bishop of Cape 
 Town, and all successors, to inhabit, dm-ing any such visitation of the said 
 Dioceses, the exercise of all, or of such part, or parts, of the ordinary 
 jurisdiction of the said Bishops, or their successors, as to him, the said 
 Bishop of Cape Town, or his successors, shall seem expedient, and during 
 the time of such visitation to exercise by himself, or themselves, or his or 
 their Commissaries, such powers, frmctions, and jurisdiction, in and over 
 the said Dioceses, as the IBishops thereof might have exercised, if they 
 had not been inhibited from exercising the same. 
 
 And we do further ordain and declare that if any person against whom 
 a judgment or decree shall be pronounced by the said Bishops, or their 
 saccessors, or their Commissary, or Commissaries, shall conceive himself 
 aggrieved by such sentence, it shall be lawful for such person to appeal 
 to the said Bishop of Cape Town, or his successors, provided such appeal 
 Bhall be entered within fifteen days after such sentence shall have been 
 pronounced. 
 
 And we do give and grant to the said Bishop of Cape Town, and his 
 Buccessors, full power and authority finally to decree and determine the 
 said appeals. 
 
 And we do further wiU and ordain that, in case any proceeding shall 
 be instituted against any of the said Bishops of Grahamstown and Natal, 
 when placed under the said Metropolitical See of Cape Town, such pro- 
 ceedings shall originate and be carried on before the said Bishop of Cape 
 Town, whom we hereby authorize and direct to take cognizance of the same.
 
 that if one office exists, the other exists also : and that 
 each of the eight South African Bishops that have been 
 appointed since the province was formed, solemnly swore 
 before God that he would render canonical obedience to 
 me as Metropolitan, at his consecration. 
 
 The following is the oath which was taken by your late 
 Bishop : 
 
 I, John William Colenso, Doctor in Divinity, appointed Bishop of the 
 See and Diocese of Natal, do profess and promise all due reverence and 
 obedience to the Metropolitan Bishop of Cape Town, and his successors, 
 and to the Metropolitan Church of St. George's, Cape Town. So help me 
 God, through Jesus Christ. 
 
 Extract from the Letters Patent constituting the See of Natal. 
 
 And we do further ordain and declare that the said Bishop of Natal, 
 and his successors, shall be subject and subordinate to the See of Cape 
 Town, and to the Bishop thereof, and his successors, in the same manner 
 as any Bishop of any See within the province of Canterbury, in our King- 
 dom of England, is under the authority of the Archiepiscopal See of that 
 province, and of the Archbishop of the same. And we do hereby further 
 will and ordain that the said John William Colenso, and every Bishop of 
 Natal, shall, within sis months after the date of their respective Letters 
 Patent, take an oath of due obedience to the Bishop of Cape Town, for 
 the time being, as his Metropolitan, which oath shall and may be minis- 
 tered unto him by the said Archbishop, or by any person by him duly 
 appointed or authorized for that purpose. 
 
 And we further will, and do by these presents declare and ordain, tliat 
 it shall be lawful for any party against whom any judgment, decree, or 
 sentence shall be pronounced by any of the said Archdeacons, or by the 
 Vicar-General, or other officer or officers of the said Bishop, or his suc- 
 cessors, to demand a re-examination and review of such judgment, decree, 
 or sentence, before the Bishop, or his successors, in person, who, upon 
 such demand made, shall take cognizance thereof, and shall have full 
 power and authority to affirm, reverse, or alter the said judgment, sen- 
 tence, or decree ; and if any party shall conceive himself aggrieved by 
 any judgment, decree, or sentence, pronounced by the said Bishop of 
 Natal, or his successors, either in case of such review, or in any cause 
 originally instituted before the said Bishop, or his successors, it shall be 
 lawful for the said party to appeal to the said Lord Bishop of Cape Town, 
 or his successors, who shall finally decide and determine the said appeal : 
 Provided always, that in any such case of appeal or review, notice of the 
 intention of the party to make such appeal, or demand such review, shall 
 be given to the Bishop or subordinate judge by whom the sentence ap- 
 pealed from, or to be reviewed, shall have been pronounced, vtdthin fifteen 
 days from the promulgation thereof. 
 
 And we do further will, and by these presents ordain, that in all cases 
 in which an appeal shall be made, or review demanded, as aforesaid, a 
 copy of the judgment or sentence in such case promulgated or given. 
 Betting forth the causes thereof^ with a copy of the evidence on which the 
 same was founded, shall, without delay, be certified and transmitted by 
 such subordinate judge to the said Bishop, or his successors, or by the 
 eaid Bishop, or his successors, to the Lord Bishop of Cape Town, as the 
 case may reqaire.
 
 As Metropolitan I have been received by the Church of 
 South Africa. For nine years I have exercised that office. 
 All have acknowledged it. None have questioned it, until 
 your late Bishop, who had for years recognized my juris- 
 diction, as has been abundantly shown by the documents 
 produced at his trial, denied, on that unhappy occasion, 
 that I had any jurisdiction over him, and protested against 
 the exercise of it. Upon this point I do not think it need- 
 ful to say more. If Dr. Colenso claims to be Bishop over 
 the clergy and laity of this diocese, he can scarcely ques- 
 tion my authority as Metropolitan over him. We derived 
 our respective jurisdictions from precisely the same source, 
 with this only difference, — that it was with his express 
 concurrence and consent that I became his Metropolitan, 
 but it was not with the expressed concurrence and consent 
 of the clergy and laity of this diocese that he became its 
 Bishop. 
 
 Relation of Civil Courts to the Tribunals of Religious 
 
 Bodies. 
 
 It is, in my view, a matter of no great importance whe- 
 ther the Metropolitan and Bishop sit for the exercise of 
 their judicial functions in a court clothed with the autho- 
 rity of law, or merely ^^ foro domestico^ In either case, 
 the aid of the civil power might be needed to give effect to 
 their decisions, if questions of property were involved. 
 
 I have never, in the exercise of discipline, affected to do 
 more than to put in force a jurisdiction or authority over 
 those who had voluntarily submitted themselves to that 
 jurisdiction and authority. I have claimed the same right, 
 but no greater, to administer the laws of this Church, 
 whether in my capacity of Metropolitan, or in that of 
 Bishop, than would be conceded to a Roman Catholic 
 Bishop, or a Wesleyan Superintendent, in the administra- 
 tion of the laws of their respective communities, or than 
 was conceded to the Church of the early ages by heathen 
 Emperors, or is conceded to the Church in America in 
 these days by the civil power. And this right has been 
 acknowledged, as it could hardly fail to be, by the highest 
 Court of Law in England. We are pronounced to be 
 (Judgment of Privy Council, Long y . Bishop of Cape Town) 
 " in the same situation with any other religious body ; in 
 no better, but in no worse position." They are allowed to 
 exercise their laws in their own way, through their own
 
 officers ; and it is conceded that we are entitled to do the 
 same. The principles laid down by Lord Lyndhurst on 
 this subject in the case of Dr. Warren, with regard to the 
 Methodist community, are declared by the Judicial Com- 
 mittee of the Privy Council, "to be founded in good sense 
 and justice, and established by the highest authority," and 
 to be the principles to which our Courts of Law will 
 " strictly adhere." 
 
 The language of that great Judge is as follows : — 
 
 The district committee had a power to regulate their own proceedings. 
 They had a power to do so ; and iipon whether it tvas duly exercised or not I 
 wish to give no opinion. Upon whether it was a discreet exercise of that 
 power, I give no opinion ; but they exercise that power that no stranger 
 should be present. They have authority to do that ; and that does not 
 therefore render the proceedings illegal or invalid. It is again said that 
 the publication * * * * was in realitij not oai offence ; not o/n offence 
 entitling this body to exercise the jurisdiction ; andj that it did not support the 
 charges that were preferred against him, copies of which were handed to 
 me. The evidence does not appear to have been gone into. I presume 
 that was because he was absent and did not attend. Whether it did sup- 
 port those charges or not was a question for the district meeting, I have no 
 jimsdiction ivith respect to it. A particular tribunal is established by the 
 agreement of those parties to decide a question of th's kind. I therefore have 
 no authority to say whether, within the meaning of the rules of this Society, 
 this^poAnphlet ivas or ivas not an offence ; that ivas peculiarly for the decision 
 of the district committee. I therefore am of opinion, not only that the 
 district committee had the power to suspend, but I am of opiuiou that 
 they acted legally. I am not called upon to say more. Whether they 
 acted wisely, discreetly, temperately, or harshly, these are ^natters with which 
 I have no concern, and upon which I desire now to express no opinion. 
 Therefore, upon these grounds merely, the regularity of the ^proceedings, and 
 being satisfied of the authority of the bodjy, I am bound to affirm the decision 
 in this respect of the Yice-Chaucellor, 
 
 With our highest Court of Law, I believe that in these 
 words are laid down true principles for the guidance of all 
 Civil Courts with regard to all causes brought before them 
 by members of religious bodies not established by law. 
 They have only to inquire whether, according to the rules 
 of a particular religious association, certain parties are en- 
 titled to sit in judgment upon certain causes. If they 
 decide that they are, and there is no evidence of "mala fides," 
 there the function of the Civil Court ends. If it proceed 
 further, and inquires into the merits of a particular cause, 
 more especially in matters relating to the faith, it invades 
 religious liberty. It constitutes itself a judge on matters 
 of which it is not entitled to take cognizance, and its as- 
 sumption of such a right should, and wherever there is life 
 in a Church would, be resisted. 
 
 To these principles the Civil Courts of America strictly 
 
 B
 
 10 
 
 adhere, and there are, consequently, no collisions between 
 religious bodies and civil authorities. In England, I may 
 venture to observe that the establishment of the Church 
 has so habituated the minds of civil judges to entertain 
 ecclesiastical questions, and of the people generally to ac- 
 quiesce in such a state of things, that there is some danger 
 lest the Courts, when matters involving temporal rights 
 are brought before them by religious bodies in the colonies, 
 should overlook the fact that civil judges are not judges 
 in ecclesiastical causes for non-established Churches, and 
 while professing to adhere to the principles involved in 
 Lord Lyndhurst's judgment, should gradually and insen- 
 sibly set them aside, and thereby violate religious liberty. 
 That ecclesiastical causes should be tried and decided by 
 ecclesiastical judges, has been the law of the Church from 
 the begimiing. It is embodied in the Canons. Freedom 
 in this matter was secured to the Church from which we 
 have sprung by the provisions of Magna Charta. " Li- 
 bera sit Ecclesia haheatque sua jura lihertatesque 
 illoesas^ The right is recognized in the preamble of the 
 great Statute of Appeals, which is the foundation compact 
 between the State and the Church of England at the Re- 
 formation. Its maintenance is essential to the indepen- 
 dence and religious liberties of those voluntary religious 
 associations which exist in the colonies, and has never been 
 surrendered by them. 
 
 Upon this matter I should not have thought it necessary 
 to say another word, had I not found that there are some 
 members of the Church in this Diocese who are perplexed 
 as to the true relation of the several offices of the Church 
 to each other, and to the civil power. I therefore venture 
 to put forward at some length what I believe to be our 
 true status and position as a Church. 
 
 Our colonists, when they go forth from the motherland, 
 carry with them all that it is possible under the circum- 
 stances, of the Church of their fathers. They are not, in 
 the home of their adoption, the established Church of the 
 country. They do not carry with them the Statute Law of 
 England, by which the Church is estabhshed there. They 
 carry with them their Bible and their Prayer Book ; and 
 with them the laws of their Church embodied in the 
 Canons, so far as these are applicable to their new circum- 
 stances. It is the Canons which define the relations of the 
 Priest and Deacon to tlie Bishop, of the Bishop to the
 
 n 
 
 Metropolitan, of the Metropolitan to the Primate, and at 
 present, as it would seem, the de facto Patriarch of all 
 Churches of the Etiglish communion. 
 
 Each of these possess in or over the Churches in our 
 various dependencies the spiritual authority given to him 
 by the Word of God, or by the Canons of the Church ; 
 and the Crown, by Letters Patent, assumes to grant ex- 
 ternal jurisdiction, — i.e., coercive power, as distinguished 
 from authority, to each of these offices in the Church, in 
 exact accordance with the functions as defined by the 
 Canons. There is thus secured by the Canons and by the 
 Letters Patent, in cases of discipline, an appeal from the 
 Bishop to the Metropolitan, from the Metropolitan to the 
 Patriarch. In the case of Dr. Colenso, an appeal was 
 allowed by the sentence to the Archbishop of Canterbury, 
 as de facto Patriarch of the Church, because to him the 
 Letters Patent seemed to assign authority over the Metro- 
 politan, who was to exercise his office " subject to the 
 general superintendence and revision of the Archbishop of 
 Canterbury for the time being, and subordinate to the 
 Archiepiscopal See of the Province of Canterbury." 
 
 His Grace has informed me that no appeal has been 
 lodged with him. I have been informed, however, that Dr. 
 Colenso has written out to say, that he contemplates an 
 appeal either to the Judicial Committee of Privy Council, 
 or to the Court of Queen's ^ench. 
 
 The Judicial Committee of Privy Council could not, and 
 1 feel assured would not, venture to entertain his appeal. 
 That body is a Court of Appeal from the Supreme Courts 
 in our Colonies, on matters involving civil rights. But the 
 tribunal of the Metropolitan in a Colony is not a court 
 known to the law, from which an appeal could lie. The 
 late Bishop seems to have been advised that such is the 
 case; but to hope that, by petition, Her Majesty the 
 Queen might be induced to refer his case, by a stretch of 
 the prerogative, to that body. 
 
 The Crown, however, is intra leges, not idtra leges; and 
 its advisers are not likely to consent to an attempt to ex- 
 tend the jurisdiction of the Privy Council to persons and 
 things not contemplated by the Act which gives that body 
 its powers. Such a proceeding would be to constitute, by 
 the sole act of the Crown, a new Court for the Churches in 
 the Colonies ; to assume powers over those Churches ex- 
 pressly taken from the Crown, as regards the Established
 
 12 
 
 Church, by the Acts of 16 Car. I., cap. x., s. 3; 16 Car. I,, 
 cap. xi., s. 3 ; 1 Wra. & Mary, cap. ii., s. 36; in fact, to 
 revive the Courts of Review, Star Chamber, and High 
 Commission, with all their arbitrary powers ; and thereby 
 to adopt a course which would be destructive of the liberty 
 of the subject. 
 
 But it may be asked, — Is not the Judicial Committee of 
 the Privy Council the final Court of Appeal for the Church 
 of England? In certain cases it is so, with the presence of 
 the Archbishops of Canterbury and York, and the Bishop 
 /^ of London. For the last thirty years, by a mere over- 
 sight, as Lord Brougham has stated publicly in his place 
 in the House of Lords, it has been so ; and the judgment 
 :- which it has just given, in opposition to the Archbishops 
 and the voice of Convocation, has convulsed the Church of 
 England, and is forcing her to repudiate its decision, and 
 to demand an alteration in the Court of Appeal. It is, how- 
 ever, only for the Establishment, and purely because it is an 
 Establishment, with its whole status defined by statute law, 
 that it is a Court of Appeal at all. With it, the non-estab- 
 lished Churches of the Colonies have absolutely no concern. 
 
 To the Court of Queen's Bench Dr. Colenso can un- 
 doubtedly appeal, if he should see fit ; not against the sen- 
 tence of the Metropolitan, but against any persons who 
 may withhold funds from him to which he many think 
 himself entitled. With questions of property the sentence 
 of deposition does not directly interfere. It simply pro- 
 nounces the Bishop to have erred from the Faith, and to be 
 deposed from his spiritual office. With that sentence the 
 Court of Queen's Bench could not, and would not, inter- 
 fere. It might give, or it might withhold, lands or monies; 
 that is within its jurisdiction. I have no fear that it would 
 deprive the living Church in this land, which means to 
 abide in the faith of Christ, of endowments given by my- 
 self, and by others whom I have induced to provide them ; 
 but if it did, we should but be in the position of the Church 
 for the first three hundred years of its existence, not only 
 unsupported but persecuted by the world ; with the right, 
 however, still allowed to us, of placing true and faithful 
 pastors over that portion of the flock that resolved to 
 abide in the faith of Christ.* 
 
 * I add the following note, in the hope that it may relieve the anxieties 
 of some who have spoken to me on the subject. The fear is expressed
 
 13 
 
 Bishop Colenso's Trial and Co?idemnation. 
 
 I have touched upon these points here, my brethren, 
 because they bear closely on the sad subject, which, on 
 this occasion, will be uppermost in your thoughts, — the 
 trial and condemnation of your Bishop. 
 
 Upon the grounds of that condemnation you will not 
 expect me here to enter. They are given fully in my 
 judgment, copies of which I have placed at your disposal. 
 
 Sufficient it wall be to observe, that the painful duty 
 which I have discharged has been deemed unavoidable by 
 the Bishops of this Province, as well as by the whole 
 Episcopate of the Church ; and that the condemnation and 
 deprivation were agreed upon in our Provincial Synod 
 before sentence was pronounced in open Court. 
 
 that a Civil Coui-t might send back Dr. Colenso as Bishop of this Diocese, 
 because there is no legal power in the Metropohtan to deprive hiin. The 
 question, however, is not whether there is a legal power, i.e., a power 
 conferred by some civil law, but whether there is any rkjht in the Metro- 
 politan to deprive, and whether I am Metropolitan. I have shown 
 above, that by the joint action of the Church and the State T am Metro- 
 politan ; and that the Metropolitan has power by the laws of the Church 
 to deprive. I do not believe that any Civil Court would deny this ; be- 
 cause, first, by so doing it would declare that the Church, or, if the term 
 is preferred, the "voluntary association" in this country called the 
 Episcopal Communion, is the only religious association, or the only 
 Bociety in this land of any kind, that cannot remove an unfaithful officer 
 from his office : for if the Metropolitan, with the aid of the other Bishops 
 of the Province cannot do it, no power on earth can. The Archbishop of 
 Canterbury cannot do so. The Crown cannot. Were a Bishop to become 
 an Atheist, or were he to believe in Mahomet, or to teach all Roman 
 doctrine, it would by such a sentence be affirmed that there is no redress, 
 no power of removal. And next, it would thereby declare that the 
 Church in this Colony, which is a branch of the oldest corporation in the 
 world, shall not be governed by its own laws, — laws which it inherits 
 from the Church from which it derives its origin. I will not believe that 
 any Civil Court on earth would so openly violate the religious liberties of 
 any denomination of Christians. But if it did, it could only deprive the 
 Church of its property. It could not give spiritual authority to any man. 
 Christ has not given this power to Kings or Civil Courts. He has given 
 it only to His Church ; and if any Church were to surrender this power 
 to Civil Courts, it would un-Church itself, — cease to be a Church. 
 
 The Church in this present case dare not leave the flock to be devoured 
 by the wolf. It would betray Christ. It would forfeit, and deservedly 
 forfeit. His presence and blessing if it did. If this diocese, therefore, 
 were to be deprived of its temporalities by an unrighteous decision, the 
 Mother Church would provide means for the support of another Bishop, 
 and send him out to minister to the faithful in the land. I would myself 
 were life and sti-ength spared, undertake to return home, and rouse it up 
 to the discharge of this duty ; and would, with my episcopal brethren, 
 consecrate another Bishop to minister to the flock, and to witness for 
 Christ, and His word, and His truth in this land.
 
 u 
 
 Dr. Colenso's Writings. 
 
 I must not, however, forget that I have solemn respon- 
 sibilities towards this portion of the South African Church 
 beyond those which I have fulfilled as Judge, Speaking lo 
 you, as I do to-day, in this Cathedral Church, as Metropolitan 
 Bishop on visitation, at such a time as this, I am bound 
 most solemnly and earnestly to warn you, and through you 
 the whole flock of Christ in this land, against the writings 
 of which a portion only have been formally condemned. 
 For it would be mischievous indeed were it to be imagined 
 that the Bishops of this Province, in reviewing the works 
 which have been brought under their consideration, meant 
 to imply that they were sound and orthodox, with the ex- 
 ception only of the passages which were submitted to 
 them for judgment. 
 
 Unhappily, Dr. Colenso has expressed himself on many 
 other points, besides those on which distinct charges were 
 brought against him, in a way to shock the minds and 
 sadden the hearts of many of his brethren. It is with re- 
 luctance, and only from a sense of duty to yourselves, that 
 I allude further to the subject. 
 
 The questions which have really been raised by these 
 writings are nothing less than these — Have we a written 
 Revelation or not? Is our Lord, God Incarnate? Is 
 Christianity true ? This is sti'ong language ; you will see 
 as I proceed that it is not too strong. 
 
 I understand Dr. Colenso to affirm, that there is a light 
 within a man — within every man — by which he can try, 
 and ought to try, the very words of our Lord Himself, 
 whether they teach truth or not. " By that light," he 
 says, " the words recorded to have been uttered by our 
 Lord Himself must all be tried." 
 
 He supposes that there is an infallible guide to truth, an 
 unerring capacity to test ti'uth, in every man — a gift, or an 
 instinct — by which he can, not merely interpret Scripture 
 so as to be certain that he has arrived at the true meaning 
 of it, but try Scripture itself, whether it is to be believed 
 or not, whether it teaches truth or falsehood, — and this 
 apparently upon any and every subject ; for he expressly 
 says that "every question of morals or of faith is to be 
 brought before it for judgment." And this upon the 
 ground that " the voice of the inner witness is closer to 
 him. than any that can reach him from without, and ought
 
 15 
 
 to reign supreme in his whole being. The light in which 
 he thus sees light, the voice which he hears, is the light of 
 the Divine Word, is the voice of his Lord." (Comm. P. 
 188, ch. viii., 18 — 23). What is this but to place man's 
 mind above God's Holy Word — human reason above Di- 
 vine revelation 1 On this view man is the standard of truth 
 to himself. That is truth which seems to a man to be truth. 
 There is no external standard by which to measure it. 
 Each man is to try it by the inner light. If of two men, 
 one believes our Lord to be God Incarnate, another be- 
 lieves him not so to be — the contradictories are apparently 
 both true. In other words, there is no such thing* as ex- 
 ternal, objective truth, outside a man, which all ought to 
 believe. There is no such thing as positive truth ; it has 
 no existence. If it is not received, it is not truth. The 
 truth is a lie, and a lie is the truth. This really is the 
 logical result of the system of this new teacher ; and this 
 is the fanaticism of unbelief. 
 
 Reason and Faith. 
 
 Our God has given us many great and precious gifts,— 
 gifts which we have marred and abused. Amongst the 
 highest of His natural gifts and endowments is Reason, 
 which has its place in matters relating to God and revealed 
 religion. It is the office of reason to examine the grounds, 
 to weigh the evidence, of there being a Revelation from 
 God. 
 
 Prophecy and miracles are the grounds upon which Re- 
 velation rests its claims. Through them an appeal is made 
 to the reason of man in support of the truth of God's 
 Word, and the Divine mission of our Lord. When the 
 Saviour sent back the messengers of John Baptist, who 
 came to ask him, " Art thou He that should come, or look 
 we for another V and bade them report to their master how 
 " the blind received their sight, the lame walked, the lepers 
 were cleansed, the dead were raised," — he appealed to their 
 reason. They were to judge whether these things did not 
 furnish sufficient evidence of His being the Messiah, 
 
 When the understanding is convinced that the Bible is 
 the record of God's Revelation, the functions of reason end. 
 It has no right to sit in judgment upon the contents of that 
 Revelation, and reject what it dislikes, or cannot compre- 
 hend. Here is the turning point between faith and un- 
 belief. Faith embraces things shown to be true, whether
 
 16 
 
 reason can comprehend them or not. Unbelief rejects 
 what does not commend itself to the individual mind. The 
 disciples who were offended, and walked no more with 
 Jesus, saying, " How can this man give us His flesh to 
 eat?" brought reason to bear on a subject matter which 
 was beyond it, and was within the province of faith. The 
 Apostles who continued to follow our Lord, though they 
 understood not His teaching better than those who forsook 
 Him, because His miracles proved that He was the Christ, 
 the Son of God, — were guided by reason on matters 
 within the province of Reason ; and by Faith on matters 
 within its province. 
 
 In man, however, the Will is often stronger than reason, 
 — overpowers and masters it, — leads it captive. It was in 
 vain that our Lord appealed by miracle to the reason of 
 the Priests and Pharisees. They willed not to believe, and 
 closed their ears against all such appeals. It is to the 
 want of will that He attributes unbelief, — "Ye will not 
 come to me that ye might have life." 
 
 Reason, then, has its place as a guide to God, and the 
 things of God ; but it is not an unerring guide. It is the 
 channel through which Divine truth is conveyed to the 
 soul; but it is imperfect in all. In many it is most dull and 
 feeble. And God has no where told us that it is, by itself, 
 a sufficient guide to Him, and His truth and will. On the 
 contrary, he has shown us to what depths man, left to his 
 own unaided reason, has fallen ; and all the history of the 
 past, and the present condition of the heathen world, too 
 sadly testifies to the truth of the picture : " They became 
 vain in their imaginations, and their foolish heart was 
 darkened, professing themselves to be wise they became 
 fools ;" they " changed the truth of God into a lie, and 
 worshipped and served the creature more than the Creator, 
 who is blessed for ever." " They changed the glory of the 
 incorruptible God into an image made like to corruptible 
 man, and to birds, and four-footed beasts, and creeping 
 things." 
 
 In truth, however, it is not reason that Dr. Colenso so 
 extravagantly exalts. Reason would teach him to weigh 
 the external evidence which proves the Scriptures to have 
 come from God. No where does he do this. He slights 
 and disregards this kind of evidence. It is not reason 
 that he follows, but what he calls the " inner witness," 
 *' the light of the Divine Word," " the voice of His Lord."
 
 17 
 
 With many other unbelievers, he is purely a fanatic. His 
 system is a false mysticism, based upon assumption. It is 
 Divine illumination he claims for himself and others, — for 
 the heathen, it would seem, quite as much as for the Chris- 
 tian, — for it is not to any special gift of the Spirit in con- 
 sequence of our Lord's promise that he lays claim. What 
 he asserts for himself, and apparently for " every living 
 man," is that he has vi^ithin him a light and a voice which 
 are infallible, " an unction from the Holy One to guide 
 him unto all truth." "The light in which he sees light, 
 the voice which he hears, is the light of the Divine Word, 
 is the voice of his Lord." 
 
 What he strives with all his might to do, is to break 
 down the authority of the Bible as a written Revelation ; 
 and he does this by claiming for man in his natural state a 
 higher enlightenment than was vouchsafed to the writers 
 of the Bible, even on matters of " faith and morals," 
 which places him above them, and above the written word. 
 " We are not," he says, "at liberty to shake off this res- 
 ponsibility of judging for ourselves whether this or that 
 portion of the Bible has a message from God to our souls 
 or not. God will not relieve us from this responsibility. 
 He will not give us what, in one form or other, men are so 
 prone to desire, an infallible external guide, — a voice from 
 without, such as men often wish to substitute for the voice 
 within." 
 
 He saySj indeed, that God's word is in the Bible, but 
 he does not point out what part of it is God's word, and 
 what not. He does not provide any certain guide to this, 
 any test whereby to try it. On the contrary, he claims for 
 each man the right to decide for himself how much or how 
 little of it is God's Word. One man may believe the 
 whole to be so, with the Church of Christ in every age. 
 Apparently, in Dr. Colenso's view, he is the only one in 
 the wrong. Others may reject this portion or that. They 
 may differ greatly as to what they reject and what they re- 
 ceive. One may repudiate the very parts which another 
 regards as specially Divine. And each does it by the 
 " voice which he hears within," which is " the light of the 
 Divine Word," "the voice of his Lord." When it is 
 objected to him that language like this "constitutes each 
 individual the judge to decide what is the Word of God, 
 and what is not," he boldly replies, " no doubt it does, the 
 responsibility must lie on every living man to know when 
 

 
 18 
 
 he feels in his heart the penetrating force of God's hving 
 Word * * * * to know when he hears the word of 
 God, that he may receive it and obey it." (Part iv., 297 — 8). 
 So that what, to use a homely phrase, does not come home 
 to him as God's Word, does not appear to his inner man 
 to be such, may be, and ought to be rejected, for it does 
 not come from God. And "every living man," however 
 ignorant or incompetent, is to try any and every portion of 
 God's Holy W^ord by this most delusive test. 
 
 Is it possible that one who puts forward such views can 
 believe in a written Revelation of God's truth and will \ 
 If God has revealed Himself in His Word, as the writer 
 still professes to believe, that word is above him, not he 
 above it. It is to him an " infallible external guide." 
 Man is not left to the uncertainty and darkness of his poor 
 fallible reason. God speaks to him through His Word, 
 and he must bow himself reverently before Him. 
 
 The real question between the Church and this her fallen 
 son is, whether what the Scriptures proclaim as to faith and 
 duty is a Revelation from God, is to be received by every man 
 as such or not. He has not told us what residuum of truth 
 there is in the Bible, — what is to be believed, and what is 
 not ; but he has intimated to us that we may sit in judg- 
 ment upon the very words of Him whom he still professes 
 to regard as God Incarnate. 
 
 But this is not the only question at issue between Dr. 
 Colenso and the Church. The reality of the Incarnation 
 itself, notwithstanding his assertion that he still retains his 
 belief in it, is really denied by him. Nothing can be clearer 
 than that our Lord stamps the Old Testament, and espe- 
 cially the Pentateuch, with His authority as Divine. Take 
 one passage alone as evidence of this. On the very day 
 of His Resurrection, — " that same day," St. Luke says — 
 He thus addressed two of His disciples : " O fools, and 
 slow of heart to believe all that the Prophets have spoken. 
 Ought not Christ to have suffered these things, and to 
 enter into His glory ^ And beginning at Moses and all 
 the Prophets, He expounded to them in all the Scriptures 
 the things concerning himself." 
 
 Now these words were spoken to men who had the Old 
 Testament in their hands, just as we have it, by the 
 Saviour, immediately after God, by the stupendous miracle 
 of the Resurrection, had set His seal to the truth of His 
 mission and His words.
 
 19 
 
 If the Scriptures of the Old Testament are not Divine, 
 our Lord either knowingly deceived others, or was Himself 
 deceived. If He was raised from the dead by the power 
 of God the Father; if He were Himself God, who had 
 taken man's nature into the Godhead, He could neither de- 
 ceive nor be deceived. 
 
 Compelled to make a choice by this dilemma, and not 
 being willing to surrender his own speculations, and ac- 
 knowledge that, — whatever might be the seeming difficulties 
 and obscurities in the oldest book in the world, arising, to 
 a very great extent, from the brevity with which it relates 
 events, and possibly from errors in the text, which, ft:o»i 
 from multiplied transcriptions, may have crept in, but 
 which are of no great moment, — it is, as a whole, God's 
 Word; he challenges the knowledge of his Divine Mas- 
 ter, — assumes to himself a superiority over him, — sets his 
 Lord right on matters on which he pronounces him to have 
 been in error, — classes Him, the Eternal Word, with other 
 devout Jews of the day, thinks it no blasphemy to doubt 
 whether He was not as ignorant as they, and far more ig- 
 norant than Dr. Colenso himself. "It is not to be sup- 
 posed," he says (Pref. Part I.), " it cannot be maintained," 
 that "He possessed a knowledge surpassing that of the 
 most pious and learned adults of His nation upon the 
 subject of the authorship and age of the different portions 
 of the Pentateuch," that " he knew more than any educated 
 Jew of his age." 
 
 And this is He whom the writer professes still to regard 
 as "God manifest in the flesh," — the everlasting Son of 
 the Father, God of God, Light of Light, Very God of 
 Very God, — who came down from Heaven, and took our 
 nature in the Godhead. 
 
 Upon the heresy of these awful and profane words I do 
 not here dwell, because I am sure that you are shocked and 
 pained by it, and because I have gone into the subject in 
 my judgment, which is in your hands ; but I cannot refrain 
 from pointing out to you how destructive it is of the whole 
 of Christianity. The Christian Faith is derived wholly 
 from Christ, — rests altogether upon him. He is the source 
 of it. If it proceeds from a fallible being — from one so liable 
 to error as to be corrected by Dr. Colenso, upon so grave 
 a point as whether the earlier part of the Revealed Word, 
 which is bound up with all the rest, came from God, or did 
 not, — what is it worth I What claims has it to our devout
 
 20 
 
 and reverent acceptance 1 If our Lord was incompetent, 
 mistaken, in error, all that derives its authority in any way 
 from Him may be equally mistaken and unworthy of credit. 
 If He were not infallible, how can the Scriptures of the 
 New Testament be the certain repository of Divine Truth ? 
 If the Church was not in its earliest days the pillar and 
 ground of the truth, how could it ever be ? Of what 
 value, if the Saviour's words are not to be trusted, is His 
 promise that He would, when He ascended up on high, 
 send down upon it the Spirit of Truth, to guide it unto all 
 truth'? or that He Himself would be with it always, even 
 unto the end of the world'? If we may neither look to out 
 Incarnate God, nor to His written word, nor to the Church, 
 guided, inhabited, by the Spirit, — to what can we look '? Is 
 all dreamy uncertainty — are we still at sea without a com- 
 pass, as to matters of deepest moment to us '? 
 
 You have heard the answer, and to what it leads. Man's 
 spirit is the ultimate judge before whose bar all that claims 
 to be Revelation must be brought. - He is to be a guide, — 
 a Revelation to himself. One man may believe that the 
 letter of the Bible is the " revealed word of God;" ano- 
 ther's conscience may bind him to the " dicta of the 
 Church." Both are wrong. " Having the Spirit ourselves, 
 an unction from the Holy One that we may know all things, 
 having the promise that we shall be guided into all truth," 
 we are to "judge for ourselves whether this or that portion 
 of the Bible has a message to our souls or not," " though 
 a thousand texts of Scripture should be against .us." 
 (Comm. 187—8.) 
 
 Your late Bishop's theories, my brethren, are destructive 
 of all Revelation, — of Christianity itself; and they have 
 not been put forward with that modesty and reverence 
 which a good man should have felt in dealing with a book 
 which, for thousands of years, Jew and Gentile have alike 
 believed to be the Word of God; — but with that reckless 
 arrogance which marked the infidels of the preceding 
 century. There has been no careful balancing of opposing 
 arguments, — no fair appreciation of the weight of external 
 testimony against his speculations ; scarce a word of reply 
 to those who have exposed his many errors, but one strain 
 of self-complacent triumph over the success of his per- 
 formances, — the vigor of his assaults upon the faith of 
 Christendom. But upon these points I will not dwell, 
 further than to observe that while all would have felt syra-
 
 21 
 
 pathy for a mind oppressed with difficulties which it could 
 not surmount, and seeking earnestly to know the truth, 
 they cannot but be repelled by the language of the boaster 
 and the scorner. It is for the publication of works sub- 
 versive of the Christian religion that he has been tried and 
 condemned/ and you will. I am sure, feel with me that no 
 other course was open to the Church but to depose him 
 from an office which ought long since to have been freely 
 surrendered by himself. 
 
 How far he may yet go I know not. One who regards 
 his own dim perceptions as " the light of the Divine 
 Word, as the voice of his Lord," — may follow wherever 
 his distempered imagination may lead him. Already, 
 though he seems scarce conscious of it, his religious stand- 
 ing ground appears to be that of pure Deism, and whether 
 he will rest there none can say, for he has thrown from him 
 all objective truth, derived from an external infallible Re- 
 velation, — and is, as we have seen, really his own revela- 
 tion, — a law unto himself. There is a downward tendency 
 in each successive publication. How one who still believed 
 in Christ at all could have written the closing paragraph of 
 his second part on the Pentateuch, is to me incomprehen- 
 sible. He there expresses a hope, not that " the Hebrew 
 race," " shaking off the superstitious belief of ages," 
 shall believe in Christ, and embrace him whom they have" 
 too long disowned, for their Lord and Saviour, not this, 
 but " yield to the demands of modern science, and give up 
 the story of the Pentateuch," and then, manifestly without 
 embracing the faith of Christ, "may missionaries of their 
 race go forth, as well as ours, far and wide, as heralds of 
 Salvation, proclaiming with free utterance the name of the 
 living God," (not the faith which is in Christ Jesus also, — 
 not that " we have redemption through His blood, the for- 
 giveness of sins, according to the riches of His grace." 
 This forms no part of the message of the mission. It is 
 wholly unnecessary, if not untrue) — but only " the name 
 of the living God, whom their fathers knew and wor- 
 shipped, telling the nations of His grace, His truth, His 
 righteousness." 
 
 Could one who had not really, if unconsciously, aban- 
 doned Christianity have written thus "? What, a Christian 
 Bishop invites the Jew — not to believe that the Scriptures 
 of the New Testament, and the Saviour whom they reveal, 
 are worthy of all acceptation — but to cast off his belief in
 
 22 * 
 
 the Old Testament as a superstition, and then go forth 
 with him — the man who regards the Christ as an impostor 
 and deceiver, with the man who believes him to be his 
 Incarnate God, the Saviour of the World, and has bound 
 himself by the most solemn oaths to witness to the world 
 of Him — as joint heralds of salvation ; proclaiming in the 
 ears of a listening world, not the Gospel, but a re-publica- 
 tion of natural religion ; the being, unity, love, majesty of 
 God, — not the Incarnation of the Son of God, which the 
 Jew abhors still, and denounces as a lie — not the Love of 
 the Atonement, upon which he pours contempt — but that 
 only which the Jew, who has rejected Christianity, has 
 believed all along and believes to this hour. 
 
 The world has never seen a sadder sight than this. A 
 Christian Bishop, not building up and seeking to enlarge 
 the faith of the Jew, — not leading him on through the study 
 of his own Scriptures, to Christ, of whom they are full; 
 but seeking to destroy his faith in those Scriptures through 
 which alone, humanly speaking, he can be led to discern 
 the Christ. Alas ! that Jews and even Mahomedans should 
 have had occasion to vindicate, as they have done, the 
 authenticity and inspiration of the Word of God against 
 the unbelieving assaults of a Bishop of the Church of 
 Christ. 
 
 I have said that in each succeeding publication there are 
 traces of a wider departure from the faith. In his 3rd 
 Part (Pref., p, 4) he shows as little respect for the New 
 Testament as for the Old. He says : " If there is any 
 part of the Church's teaching depending on the New Tes- 
 tament which will not bear the test of truth (you will re- 
 member what is his test of truth — the approbation of the 
 inner light — the voice of God within every man — the unc- 
 tion from the Holy One which is to guide him into all 
 truth) we shall, of course, as servants of the God of Truth, 
 be bound to reject that also." " Every living man " is at 
 liberty to do this, nay is " bound to do it." 
 
 Again (page 629) he says : " They must try the spirit of 
 the Prophet's words by that law which they have within 
 them, wTitten upon their hearts." * « * * " If the 
 words which that Prophet speaks to them come home to 
 their consciences as right and true words, then, in God's 
 name, let them acknowledge and welcome them, and send 
 them, with a blessing of ' God speed ' to others. If the 
 voice which speaks within declares that the utterance from
 
 2.3 
 
 without is false, then shalt thou not hearken ; the word is 
 not God's, and he who hears it must not obey it." In 
 other words, every living man has a higher inspiration in 
 him than the Prophet ; or, as most plain men will think, 
 the Prophet has none, i.e., he was not commissioned by 
 God, not moved by the Spirit to deliver what he did deliver. 
 
 In his 4th Part (Preface, xiii.), after having spoken con- 
 temptuously of the Creeds, which express the faith of all 
 Christendom from the commencement of Christianity to the 
 present hour, — regarding them evidently as venerable docu- 
 ments, which we may, if we please, altogether set aside ; 
 and quoting, in support of his unbelief, the language of 
 one, who, even in the worst days of the last century, was, 
 in his sense of duty towards his flock, and to the Chief 
 Shepherd, far behind others, he proceeds (page xxx.) to 
 give us the views of himself and other " men of learnino- 
 and science " with regard to Revelation : " They believe 
 that God reveals himself to the spirit of man; though they 
 do not suppose His revelation of Himself is confined to 
 one nation, or one set of boohs. There is, in our days, a 
 general acceptance of the highest and deepest truths as 
 revelations in themselves, the communication of the Divine 
 Being to His children, without a slavish adherence to the 
 forms in which they have appeared, or to the authoritative 
 ecclesiastical system of doctrine to which some would limit 
 their existence for us." 
 
 First, we have it here affirmed that the Bible is not the 
 exclusive record of God's Revelation. There are other 
 " books " which contain revelations. I know not what the 
 books are to which he alludes ; whether we are to under- 
 stand him to mean the Koran, or the sacred books of the 
 heathen, or the writings of men of genius, — Milton, Shak- 
 spere. At all events, the Bible is not classed above other 
 books, which Christians have ever regarded as of purely 
 human composition. 
 
 Next, there is a claim put in in behalf of modern science 
 to be a revelation from God, and this claim is repeated 
 elsewhere still more strongly (pp. 299, 300). While "our 
 religious duty " is now "not any longer to receive "the 
 Pentateuch as the Word of God, it binds us "to be ready 
 to receive, with devout faith and humble adoration, that 
 wondrous Revelation of Himself, which God is manifestly 
 making in these our days, by giving us the glorious light 
 of Modern Science, — which that light displays to us;" and
 
 24 
 
 it is suggested that, in place of their present teaching, 
 consisting of the " dry routine of dogmas, or the stereo- 
 typed improvements of Scripture texts," the clergy "should 
 bring before their flocks freely" ***** "the 
 views which the great scientific discoveries of our own 
 time unfold to us." 
 
 Lastly, we are to get rid of " formal dogmatical theologi- 
 cal teaching " (p. xxxiv), that " slavish adherence to form," 
 and to the " authoritative ecclesiastical system of doctrine," 
 i.e., the Creeds, in which have been handed down to us 
 from the first ages, " the Faith once for all delivered to the 
 saints," in " the form of sound words." 
 
 All positive, definite statements with regard to those 
 truths which the whole Church of Christ has ever received, 
 believed, taught, as the faith which God has revealed, and 
 which all who would be saved must believe, must be thrown 
 from us as worn out, obsolete, false symbols of the true 
 faith, that man may soar up, unfettered by such clogs into 
 the sublimer regions of science, and take counsel only, as to 
 the things of God, with 'the voice within, the light Divine, 
 the unction from the Holy One, which will guide them 
 into all truth." 
 
 But as he proceeds he goes further still than this. He 
 insinuates that not Apostles only, but the Lord himself, 
 borrowed His language, ideas, truths which He announced, 
 from an Apocryphal writing. He gives us the choice of 
 believing either that our Lord's words were not spoken by 
 Him, were not coi-rectly given, and therefore that we can- 
 not trust what the Scriptures report as delivered by Him ; 
 or else that His teaching was at least in part derived from 
 the book of Enoch, an acknowledged spurious work. 
 (Part iv., page 323). ''In the language,'' he says, "at- 
 tributed to our Lord Himself, — in that of St. Paul, espe- 
 cially in his earli/ Epistles, or that of St. James, St. Peter, 
 and St. Jude, — we can distinctly trace an intimate acquain- 
 tance with it, and recognise its form of expression;" and 
 he adds — " The writers of these Scriptures * * * * 
 appear to have been all acquainted with this book, and 
 more or less imbued with its teaching." To it we are in- 
 debted, he tells us, for a portion of that which we have 
 hitherto believed to be part of the Christian faith; for " it 
 must have exercised considerable influence upon the minds 
 of devout persons in the first age of Christianity, and must 
 have helped to fashion many of the ideas which prevailed
 
 25 
 
 at that time, especially as regards the popular conceptions 
 about hell, and the endless torment of the wicked." (Page 
 314). '' Especially it deserves notice that almost all the 
 language of the New Testament, in which the judgment of 
 the last day is described, appears to have been directly de- 
 rived from its language," (page 325), and being such, "the 
 fact " (as he says) " is of great importance," and the words, 
 therefore, of our Lord, and of his Apostles, were " popular 
 expressions" * * * * a^^j "must be interpreted 
 according to their general spirit, and not be pressed too far 
 in literal meaning." (Page 326). We must not, there- 
 fore, suppose that " they are meant to convey to us accu- 
 rate information about the details of the invisible world." 
 (Page 327). 
 
 What is left to us "? Apostles' words cannot be trusted 
 as conveying to us the sure truth of a Revelation from God. 
 The words attributed to our Lord, whether spoken by Him 
 or not, are not all to be received as coming certainly from 
 a Divine source. We must try His words, as those of His 
 Apostles, by the inner light, — the voice of God within us; 
 but we may congratulate ourselves that we have still left to 
 us (page 303) "our modern Christianity," "developed by 
 degrees" "by the quickening influence of the Spirit of 
 Grace," out of " the Gospel of Jesus Christ," not, how- 
 ever, without contributions from the gifts bestowed on other 
 portions of the great human family, — to be developed, I 
 presume, still further into a newer and more spiritual creed 
 by our modern unbelievers. 
 
 Upon these awful writings you will not expect me here 
 to dwell further, nor indeed is it needful ; but you will, I 
 am assured, feel that on such an occasion as the present it 
 was my duty to refer to them ; and earnestly warn the flock 
 against their impiety. The earlier portions of these criti- 
 cisms on the word of God, which, from their startling na- 
 ture, and the high office in the Church of Christ of him 
 who hazarded them, excited general attention, — have been 
 met and exposed by not less than seventy writers, in publi- 
 cations of, I need scarce say, very different degrees of merit. 
 How far it is possible, or worth while, to follow a writer 
 who pours forth his objections with such rapidity, and so 
 voluminously, borrowing for the purpose from all sources 
 of German infidelity, must depend upon circumstances. 
 The rapidly declining interest felt in his writings, now that 
 the novelty arising from the author's position has worn
 
 26 
 
 away ; the wearisome length of full replies, — an objection 
 started in a few lines requiring many pages for a thorough 
 and efficient answer; — the little bearing that many of these 
 sceptical questionings have upon the real point at issue, — 
 may all combine to make theologians think that their time 
 had better be devoted, as some are devoting it, to solid 
 works, such as the two great Commentaries on Scripture, 
 now in the course of publication; in which the chief doubts 
 and difficulties which, not a single writer only, but others^ 
 whether in England or the Continent, have raised or feltj 
 may be examined, and receive such solution as our present 
 knowledge and learning may enable us to give them. For 
 it may be, perhaps rather I should say it always will be, 
 that in the Word of God there will continue to exist, 
 " things hard to be understood, which they that are un- 
 stable, will wrest to their own destruction." 
 
 Difficulties and obscurities there are. As knowledge ad- 
 vances, however, old difficulties are removed, as has been 
 remarkably the case of late with the history of the Bible ; 
 but from the same cause new difficulties are discovered, as 
 may be the case, in connection with our present stage of 
 scientific inquiry. But the difficulties of past ages are not 
 difficulties to us, and ours will be made clear to succeeding 
 generations. It may be that these are allowed to arise for 
 the trial of our faith, — and to lead our thoughts to the 
 earnest and reverent study of the Written Word, which is 
 even now, with all the attention which is drawn to it, too 
 much overlooked by us ; but which, if all were smooth and 
 easy, and no assault were made upon it, would incur great 
 risk of being altogether forgotten by us. 
 
 Present Duties. 
 
 Let me next turn to the consideration of our present 
 duties and responsibilities. You are aware that the Bishops 
 of this Province, assembled in Synod, declared — " That 
 this Synod is of opinion that, should the Bishop of Natal 
 presume to exercise episcopal functions in the Diocese of 
 Natal, after the sentence of the Metropolitan shall have 
 been notified to him, without an appeal to Canterbury, and 
 without being restored to his office by the Metropolitan, 
 he will be ip^o/ac^o excommunicate; and that it will be the 
 duty of the Metropolitan, after due admonition, to pro- 
 nounce the formal sentence of excommunication." 
 
 It is due to you that I should state the grounds upon
 
 27 
 
 which we came to this painful conclusion. We deemed 
 this to be our duty, because it was the course marked out 
 for us by our Lord in such cases, practised by His Apos- 
 tles, confirmed by the very earliest Canons of the Church, 
 as well as by our own Canons. 
 
 The command of our Lord is conclusive on such a 
 matter. We are bound to do what He declares to be the 
 duty of the Church. His injunction is, "If thy brother 
 trespass against thee, go and tell him of his fault between 
 him and thee alone ; if he shall hear thee, thou has gained 
 thy brother. But if he will not hear thee, then take with 
 thee one or two more, that in the mouth of two or three 
 witnesses every word may be established. And if he shall 
 neglect to hear them, tell it unto the Church ; but if he 
 neglect to hear the Church, let him be unto thee as a hea- 
 then man and a publican." 
 
 The spirit of this command has, I believe, been acted 
 up to in this case. Amongst yourselves, brethren, there 
 are those who have privately pleaded with your Bishop, 
 and sought to convince him. Upon the appearance of his 
 first work, assailing the faith through his commentary, I 
 wrote a letter, earnestly entreating him not to publish ; and 
 when too late to hinder publication, sought to point out to 
 him wherein he had taught amiss. When unable to con- 
 vince him, I referred the book, and our correspondence, to 
 the Fathers of the Church at home, who met, at the call of 
 the late Archbishop, now with God, to consider it. Be- 
 fore I could receive their answer, the death of the beloved 
 Bishop Mackenzie compelled me to proceed to England. 
 I there received the concurrence of the Bishops generally 
 in the course which I had pursued ; and on the arrival of 
 your late Bishop shortly after me in England, I communi- 
 cated their views to him. At the same time I entreated 
 him to meet three of the most eminent Bishops of our 
 Church, who had expressed their willingness to confer with 
 him on his arrival, and discuss his difficulties with him, 
 hoping that he might thereby be induced to suppress his 
 book so full of error. He however declined. He would 
 not meet more than one, and then not as if he were in any 
 error, but only as a common seeker after truth. At that 
 time he had not published his open assault upon the Word 
 of God ; but hearing that he had printed, for private cir- 
 culation in the Colony, a work reputed to be sceptical in 
 its tendency, I besought him not to put it forth in England
 
 28 
 
 until he had met and discussed liis views with the Bishops. 
 But this also was declined, and the work was published. 
 
 Then came the appeal to him from the Bishops, resolved 
 upon at an assembly of all the English, Irish, and Colonial 
 Bishops, summoned by the Archbishop of Canterbury, 
 calling upon him to resign a post which he could no longer 
 with honor fill. Then, upon his refusal to resign, their in- 
 hibition of him. And last of all, the charges brought 
 against him by the Clergy of this Province, the trial, and 
 the condemnation. 
 
 Time was allowed for the Bishop to consider his posi- 
 tion, and to withdraw, if he saw fit, the teaching which, I 
 may truly say, not I alone, but the whole Church, has con- 
 demned. 
 
 All, however, has been in vain. He perseveres in main- 
 taining and propagating heresies, greater and more nu- 
 merous than have ever been imputed to a Bishop before ; 
 and he has publicly declared that he will treat all spiritual 
 sentences of the Church as a nullity, and attempt to resume 
 the exercise of sacred functions and government over the 
 Church of God, without renouncing his errors, and without 
 being restored, either by the Metropolitan or the Arch- 
 bishop of Canterbury. 
 
 Should he carry this threat into execution, not only will 
 the clergy and the faithful laity stand aloof from him, and 
 hold no communion with him ; but all other methods hav- 
 ing failed, it will be the duty of the Church to fulfil her 
 Lord's command, and separate, by solemn and open sen- 
 tence from the communion of the faithful, one who in spirit 
 and belief has already separated himself from them. 
 
 We are bound to this by that command of Christ, the 
 Head of the Church, to which I have already referred ; — 
 by the command of His Holy Apostles; — and by the Canons 
 of the Church. " A man that is an heretic, after the first 
 and second admonition reject" (Titus iii.,11), is the injunc- 
 tion of God's Word. " There be some that trouble you," 
 says St. Paul to the Galatians, "and would pervert the Gos- 
 pel of Christ ; but though we, or an angel from Heaven, 
 preach any other Gospel than that which we have preached 
 unto you, let him be accursed. As we said before, so say I 
 now again, if any man preach any other Gospel to you than 
 that ye have received, let him be accursed " (Gal. i., 7 — 10). 
 
 " If any Bishops, Presbyter, or Deacon," say the Apos- 
 tolical Canons (Canon 28), "''having been justly deposed
 
 29 
 
 upon open accusation, shall dare to meddle with any of the 
 Divine offices which have been entrusted to him, let him be 
 altogether cut off from the Church." 
 
 " If any Bishop," say the Canons of Antioch (iv.), 
 which have been received into the code of the Universal 
 Church, and were confirmed by the General Council of 
 Chalcedon, and form part of the Canon Law of the Eng- 
 lish Church, " If any Bishop being deposed in Synod 
 * * * * shall dare to perform any part of the Divine 
 service * * * * he shall no longer be allowed to do 
 so, nor shall he have any hope of restoration or defence in 
 another Synod ; moreover, all those who communicate 
 with him shall be cast out of the Church." 
 
 This was the course adopted by Archbishop Tennison 
 when he deposed Bishop Watson. Bishop Watson ap- 
 pealed in vain in succession to the Court of Delegates, the 
 Court of Queen's Bench, and the House of Lords. His 
 case was a complicated one. The Archbishop's sentence 
 deprived him of his peerage. He was warned, under the 
 penalty of the greater excommunication, not to resume the 
 exercise of spiritual functions within his diocese. He was 
 afterwards excommunicated. 
 
 The Past Career of Bishop Colenso. 
 
 I need not say, brethren, that it is with the deepest dis- 
 tress that I have felt compelled to speak as I have done, of 
 one once a brother beloved in the Lord, with whom I have 
 taken earnest counsel as to the things to be done for the 
 advancement, in this land, of that faith and Kingdom of 
 Christ, of which he now seeks the overthrow. 
 
 A noble field lay before him when called to the Episco- 
 pate. The Church was planted here in its completeness 
 almost from the foundation of the Colony. All, or nearly 
 all, welcomed the arrival of its Bishop. The European 
 population, at least equal in character, education, and zeal, 
 to that within any other British Colony, were ready to ex- 
 ert themselves to provide means of grace for themselves. 
 The soil was one in which the Church might have struck 
 deep her root. One hundred and fifty thousand heathen 
 in this small diocese were without the fold of Christ, wait- 
 ing, as I deem, if any in this land of Africa, the call to 
 enter in. Beyond it were many hundred thousand more. 
 Upon the work to which he was called, I bear him willing
 
 30 
 
 record, the Bishop entered with hearty zeal, and, I believe, 
 with love and loyalty to Christ. Had he persevered, — had 
 there been no falling away, first in his own soul, from the 
 faith of Christ, — there had been now around you the fruits 
 of his energy and zeal, — a sufficient staff of faithful clergy 
 — multiplied missions, — churches, — schools. The spiritual 
 wants of the English population would have been supplied; 
 an influence would long ere this have been brought to bear 
 on the tribes within the Colony, and the regions beyond ; 
 and, socially and politically, the condition of this land 
 would have been sounder and safer than it is ; and, reli- 
 giously, nearer to God. There is no saying what the effect 
 of vigorous and extensive Cliurch Missions might have been 
 upon the mass of untutored heathenism around you, direc- 
 ted by one endowed with considerable gifts, who had pre- 
 pared the way for great success by mastering, beyond all 
 others, the difficulties of the language, and making its future 
 acquisition easier to all religious teachers. 
 
 But there came a falling away. The subtle poison of 
 unbelief entered in ; — the mind was turned away from the 
 practical work which lay before it, and given to the work- 
 ing out of sceptical theories. Confidence was shaken. 
 Works, begun well, were abandoned. Progress there was 
 none. Instead thereof there has been a declension. The 
 Clergy are reduced in number from what they were. Men 
 are unwilling to remain under such a state of things as has 
 existed amongst you. Others have shrunk from supplying 
 their places. Whatever there is of real work, whether in 
 the mission field or in parochial work, was the result of 
 first efforts, when faith was not undermined ; and for the 
 last few years has been carried on by zealous men, — apart 
 from, almost in opposition to, him who might have been 
 the soul of it, but from whom there has been of necessity a 
 continually increasing alienation. 
 
 Your Bishop's declension from the faith was felt first, my 
 reverend brethren, by yourselves, as was natural. It is due 
 to those amongst you who drew my attention to it years 
 ago, to say, that I now perceive that there were stronger 
 grounds for your apprehension than I was willing to believe 
 at the time. I do not, however, regret the refusal to enter- 
 tain your several presentations. It is well that we should 
 be slow to believe, in days when men are made " offenders 
 for a word," that there is ground for misgiving ; and the 
 delays which have occurred, and the rejection of previous
 
 81 
 
 charges, will serve at least to show that, in this case, there 
 has been patience and forbearance as long as it was pos- 
 sible that there should be. 
 
 Persecution. 
 
 It has, indeed, been said by some, — Why persecute a 
 man for his opinions? — why make a martyr of him? 
 Ought not, in these days, every man to be left to hold and 
 teach what he believes to be truth ? However true these 
 remarks are in the abstract, as regards private individuals, 
 they do not apply in this case. Persecution is abhorrent 
 to the mind of all who love freedom. We are all agreed 
 upon this. Men must have liberty to disbelieve, if they 
 are inclined to unbelief. But this is not the question here. 
 What we have to consider is, whether one who undertook 
 an office of great trust and dignity, and received the emo- 
 luments thereof, upon a distinct understanding that he 
 would teach certain things which the Church who com- 
 missioned him deemed to be of the very deepest importance 
 as regards God's glory, the truth of Christ, the salvation of 
 man, — her own life and being as a Church, — is to be al- 
 lowed, now that he has changed his mind, and holds and 
 teaches the very opposite to that which he undertook to 
 teach, and at first did teach — to retain his position in the 
 Church of God, and to enjoy the emoluments of his abused 
 office and violated trust ? 
 
 The change that has taken place in your late Bishop's 
 mind is not a light one. It affects not minute points of 
 opinion. It extends to the whole faith of Christ. It touches 
 almost every question of unbelief. The Church's first office 
 is to witness for Christ and His Truth. If she allowed her 
 teachers to proclaim widely different views on all the great 
 mysteries of the faith, she could have no faith herself. She 
 would cease to be a witness. She would herself have fallen 
 from the faith. She could not impress mankind, or win 
 the world to Christ. " If the trumpet give an uncertain 
 sound, who shall prepare himself for the battle ?" 
 
 Let us look at the circumstances in this particular case. 
 Our Church, in common with the whole Catholic Church, 
 of which she claims to be a branch, holds that the Bible is 
 the Word of God. Dr. Colenso says that it is not. 
 
 The Church holds that Christ died to reconcile His 
 Father to us. Dr. Colenso says that He did not. 
 
 n /^ / /■ T -^
 
 82 
 
 The Church says that faith in Clirist is needful to man's 
 justification before God. Dr. Colenso says that it is not — 
 that all men everywhere are justified. 
 
 The Church affirms that the Sacraments are generally 
 necessary to salvation. Dr. Colenso teaches that they are 
 not. 
 
 The Church teaches that the wicked perish everlastingly, 
 — that this is our time of trial and probation, — that in the 
 eternal world there is no more trial, — that the judgment 
 fixes our condition for ever. Dr. Colenso rejects this 
 view, in the teeth of the Word of God, and the faith of the 
 whole Church of Christ. 
 
 The Church teaches that our Blessed Lord was God 
 Incarnate ; — That the Son took man's nature into the 
 Godhead : — That Christ, in one person, was God and Man. 
 
 Dr. Colenso, while professing to admit this truth, impli- 
 citly denies it, by charging the God-Man with ignorance 
 and error. How could the Church, without forfeiting her 
 title to be a Church, through ceasing to witness for Christ 
 and his truth, allow such wholly different teaching to be 
 proclaimed in her name, and with her authority 1 She has 
 no wish unduly to interfere with Dr. Colenso' s liberty of 
 thought, or teaching ; but she says, that if he teaches di- 
 rectly contrary to what she holds on fundamental points, 
 and directly opposite to what he undertook to teach when 
 she gave him his commission, — and for the teaching of 
 which her faithful children have provided for him a main- 
 tenance, — he shall not do so in her name, or as a Bishop 
 of the Church. He must do it outside the Church, not in 
 communion with it. She cannot abandon the faith, because 
 he has abandoned it. She cannot — because he has changed 
 his mind, while she has not changed hers, — cease to witness 
 as a Church for Christ, and for the truth ; which she would 
 do, by allowing him to continue as one of her represen- 
 tatives in her high places. Nor is this the only ground 
 upon which she is constrained to deprive him of his office. 
 The office of a Bishop is not merely that of a teacher. It 
 involves government over the Church of God. He is a 
 ruler over others. Can the Church allow one whom she 
 has declared to have fallen into heresy, to be ruler over a 
 body of faithful, orthodox clergy"? — to enter their Churches 
 when he pleases; proclaim from their pulpits, to their 
 flocks, doctrines, upon fundamental points, the very oppo- 
 site to those which they are teaching day by day ; and
 
 33 
 
 •which both he and they have sworn that they will banish 
 and drive away from the Church of God ? Is a body of 
 faithful clergy thus to be oppressed ; — tyrannized over, for 
 it comes to that, by one with whom they cannot hold com- 
 munion without being unfaithful to their Lord, — driven 
 out of the Church ; and the Church itself ruined and des- 
 troyed ] 
 
 Has the flock itself no rights in the matter? Are con- 
 gregations to be driven from the churches which they have 
 built, in faith that the teaching of the Church and of the 
 Word of God, would be ever proclaimed within their walls, 
 and compelled to seek refuge in other religious bodies 
 where discipline will at least secure to them the essentials 
 of the faith? Are they to behold their Bishop ordaining 
 men, and sending them forth in the name of Christ and his 
 Church, to instil the poison of unbelief into the minds of 
 their children, and their children's children, — and all under 
 the plea of preserving the liberty of teaching 1 There is 
 such a thing as the Truth of God, — " the Faith once for 
 all delivered to the Saints," — or there is not. If there be, 
 it must be held, maintained, clung to, with the tenacity of 
 men struggling for that which is more precious than life. 
 
 We hold that there is that truth, — that the Church has 
 had it transmitted to her keeping, and cannot part with it 
 without apostacy. And we are no less sure that your late 
 Bishop, led captive of the evil one, has parted with it, and 
 now seeks to destroy that faith which once he upheld. If 
 the Church were willing to keep him company, and part 
 with it too, she would un-Church herself, — cease to be a 
 Church. She would be a dead branch of the living vine — • 
 would wither away — die out. She would be desti'oyed, 
 and ought to be destroyed. 
 
 Ou7' True Standing Ground. 
 
 Assaults upon the Faith, my brethren, like that to which 
 we have been of late, and still are exposed, should lead all 
 to consider upon what foundation their faith rests, — what 
 grounds they have for confidence that it • is the truth on 
 which they stand. 
 
 I ought, perhaps, at such a time as this, to set before 
 you what I hold to be the standing ground of our own 
 branch of the Church, but I can only do so briefly and im- 
 perfectly.
 
 34 
 
 We must commence by assuming something. We need 
 assume, for our purpose, no more than that the facta 
 recorded in the New Testament are facts ; — that the things 
 were done, and the words were spoken, which are there 
 declared to have been done and spoken. If this be granted, 
 our Lord died, rose again, ascended, promised before His 
 ascension that He would send upon His Church the Spirit 
 of Truth, who should guide it into all truth ; did actually 
 send down upon it the gift of the Holy Ghost. If the 
 whole of Scripture were to perish, these facts would re- 
 main as facts in history. Out of them, nay, out of the 
 simple truth of the Resun'eclion, is evolved the whole 
 Christian scheme. If God raised Christ from the dead, 
 He set His seal to the truth of our Lord's claims to have 
 come forth from God, — to the truth of all that He did and 
 said. But He promised supernatural gifts to His Church, 
 — a Divine presence and a Divine guidance. The Divine 
 presence was vouchsafed on the " very same day" on which 
 He rose. In the "evening" He breathed on His assembled 
 Apostles, and " saith unto them. Receive ye the Holy 
 Ghost," John xx. 19, 22. The Divine guidance was vouch- 
 safed through the Penticostal gifts. Under its direction, the 
 Scriptures were writterl. Under the promised help of the 
 Spirit, the Church was guided by a Divine instinct (which 
 Dr. Colenso claims for each individual of the human race, 
 but which belongs only to the body of Christ) to distin- 
 guish between what was the Word of God and what was 
 not. 
 
 If our Lord's words are to be believed, the Church was 
 imbued, inhabited, filled by the Holy Ghost. It could say 
 without blasphemy, "it seemed Gf©d to the Holy Ghost 
 and to us." 
 
 To sum up, — we believe the Scriptures to be the Word 
 of God, because the Church, under the guidance of the 
 Spirit of God, declared them to be such. 
 
 We believe the Church to have acted under the impulse 
 of the Divine Spirit, because our Lord promised that so 
 it should be. 
 
 We believe our Lord's word, because God raised Him 
 from the dead. On the very same grounds, we believe the 
 Creed to be the true interpretation of the Word on all 
 essential points. It was framed by the Church under the 
 same guidance, vouchsafed in consequence of the same 
 promises.
 
 85 
 
 The Resurrection of our Lord is thus the truth on which 
 Christianity and the Church depend. " If Christ be not 
 raised from the dead, your faith is vain," ye are yet in your 
 sins. But if He be risen, then does all that He taught, 
 and that the Church holds and teaches, follow as a neces- 
 sary consequence. 
 
 One step further I will go. The Creeds, interpreted as 
 the Church Avhich drew them up under the Spirit's guid- 
 ance intended them to be interpreted, contain the whole 
 Catholic Faith. 
 
 Here is the Churchman's standing ground. What the 
 Catholic Church, while yet one, during the first thousand 
 years of her history, under the Spirit's guidance m her 
 great Councils, declared to be or received as the true Faith, 
 that is the true Faith, and that we receive as such. More 
 than this we are not bound to acknowledge. Less we may 
 not. He who takes his stand upon the Church's principle, 
 builds upon a foundation which cannot be shaken. He 
 equally rejects the modern Roman corruptions of, and ad- 
 ditions to, the faith, and the still more modern cavils of the 
 sceptic and unbeliever. 
 
 If it be asked, — on what ground the Thirty-nine Articles 
 were added, and in what light they are to be regarded"? I 
 reply that, to a large extent, they are a re-assertion of the 
 Catholic Faith, called in question, on one side or the other, 
 at a period of great religious excitement; and that, where 
 this is not the case, they are the Church's protest against 
 grave errors and mistakes, on matters rather of "opinion" 
 than of " faith," at the period of the Reformation. 
 
 The Future. 
 
 And now, my brethren, one word as to the future. 
 
 This is a widowed diocese. The whole flock is without 
 its pastor. The clergy without their guide, counsellor, 
 friend. The Church without its ruler. What are our 
 present common responsibilities 1 The duty of my office 
 compels me, sede vacayite, to take charge of this diocese. 
 I have come amongst you for the express purpose of doing 
 so. During the vacancy, the clergy will look to me for in- 
 structions as to all points of duty. They will hold them- 
 selves responsible to me. It is my earnest desire, my 
 reverend brethren, to render you every assistance in m.y 
 power, to share your anxieties and labors, to counsel you,
 
 36 
 
 and, so far as in me lies, to strengthen your hands in the 
 dischargfe of the duties of our common ministry. 
 
 It will not be long, I trust, before another shall be ap- 
 pointed in the room of him who has fallen from the Faith, 
 to fill his vacant seat, and witness for Christ and for the 
 Faith in this land. " His Bishopric shall another take," 
 is the Spirit's rule for the Church in every age. 
 
 But should there be delay, as, in circumstances which 
 are, happily, of so novel a character, and in which so 
 many, and such complicated interests are concerned, 
 may possibly be the case, I shall hold myself in readi- 
 ness to visit you again, if my other duties will admit of 
 my so doing. 
 
 Meantime, until another Bishop shall be consecrated, I 
 have appointed the Very Reverend the Dean to act as Vicar 
 General. And I may add, that I have asked J. W. Turn- 
 bull, Esq., Barrister-at-Law, to act as Registrar; and have 
 placed in his hands the formal withdrawal of the power of 
 attorney under which the late Bishop administered the pro- 
 perty of this Church vested in the See of Cape Town. 
 
 In conclusion, suffer me, my reverend brethren, to set 
 before you, what, amidst your present trials and anxieties 
 is your duty. 
 
 To you, and to your conduct in this post, and at this 
 hour of danger, the whole Church of Christ is looking, — 
 for you it is praying; nay, from His throne in Heaven, 
 your Lord looks down and notes how each of His servants 
 comports himself at this crisis in the history of His Church. 
 God be praised ! ye are yourselves true and faithful to your 
 Lord. It is a ground of deep thankfulness, that not one 
 clergyman holding a spiritual office, in the whole Province, 
 — throughout this Church in South Africa, — has been led 
 astray from the faith of Christ by the false teaching that 
 has been put forth. 
 
 But of you, my brethren, more is expected than this. 
 It is your high privilege, if ye so will, to be Christ's living 
 witnesses in the land in v/hich your lot is cast; — to stand up 
 for Him and for His truth, — for the living Word of God, 
 and for the written Word of God, — against him who has 
 forsaken both. Your trial is far less than His saints have 
 endured in other days. Ye are not called to "resist unto 
 blood, striving against sin." Ye are in no danger of bonds, 
 or imprisonment, or death. Nay, the world, or all that 
 would be respectable in the world, ignorant and careless
 
 37 
 
 though some be, — all but the scoffer and the unbeliever, 
 — avowedly are on God's side. 
 
 And the assault upon the Faith, on the part of him who 
 was set over you in the Lord, has not come, as it might 
 have come, in some subtle form, calculated to deceive even 
 the very elect, and requiring the keen and practised eye of 
 the theologian to detect; but it has come in the bare and 
 naked form of a direct assault upon the foundation of all 
 Revelation and of all Faith, to which even the unlearned 
 cannot altogether shut his eyes. 
 
 Your first duty, my reverend bi'ethren, is to witness, in 
 this land of your adoption, for Christ, and for the Faith, 
 once and once for all delivered. My charge to you is to 
 stand fast in the faith, — to quit you like men, — to uphold, 
 teach, maintain the good deposit which ye have received, 
 and to hand it on unimpaired to those that shall come after. 
 yi%lj, The first, and next, — to regard this sad falling-away of 
 " your Bishop, as a solemn call from God to watch more 
 earnestly, lovingly, devotedly, over that portion of the 
 flock which the Chief Shepherd has entrusted to your 
 keeping. Labor amongst them in season and out of season. 
 Pray for them with continual intercession night and day. 
 Strive to shield them from the arts of the seducer, and to 
 build them up in their most holy faith. Win for yourselves 
 the rich promise, — the glad welcome of your Lord when 
 you shall have finished your course : " To him that over- 
 cometh will I grant to sit down with Me on My throne ; 
 even as I also overcame, and am set down with the Father 
 on His throne." " Well done, good and faithful servant, 
 enter thou into the joy of thy Lord." 
 
 Realise the fact, that unto you Christ entrusts the cus- 
 tody of His truth, the keeping of His faith in this land. 
 Be not dismayed though some fall away, or are indifferent, 
 or even should they oppose themselves. Through you, if 
 ye are faithful, Christ will maintain His own cause, and 
 bring future good out of present evil. He allows tempta- 
 tions to came upon His people for the trial of their faith, 
 and patience, and love ; but he never suffers anything to 
 befal His Church, which will not, if it prove faithful, be 
 turned to its good. 
 
 Let this Church, amidst its present distress, be true to 
 its Lord, — hold fast the Faith which it has received from 
 the Fathers, — stand by the Bible as God's Word, and by
 
 38 
 
 the Creeds as containing the one unchangeable Faith of 
 Christ, — and a blessing shall be poured out upon it from 
 on high. It shall "lengthen its cords and strengthen its 
 stakes, burst forth on the right hand and on the left," and 
 even yet, through the mighty power and indwelling of the 
 Spirit of God, become a praise upon earth.