ANGLICAN CHURCHES. 



bishops of the Church of England on March 

 1st. It was signed by all the prelates holding 

 sees in England, except the Bishops of Salis- 

 bury and Durham : 



LAMBETH PALACE, March 1, 1875. 



We, the undersigned, archbishops and bishops of 

 the Church of England, under a deep sense of the 

 duty that rests upon us of endeavoring to guide 

 those committed to our pastoral charge, desire to 

 address some words of .counsel and exhortation to 

 the clergy and laity of our dioceses in the grave cir- 

 cumstances of the present time. 



We acknowledge, humbly and thankfully, the 

 mercies vouchsafed by Almighty God to the Church 

 of England. By His blessing on the labors of the 

 clergy and laity, our Church has of late been ena- 

 bled in a marvelous manner to promote His glory, 

 and to^ advance His kingdom, both at home and 

 abroad.' If we judge by external signs the churches 

 built, restored, and endowed during the last forty 

 years ; the new parishes formed in that time, espe- 

 cially in our great towns and cities ; the vast sums 

 of money voluntarily contributed for the promotion 

 of religious education; the extension of the Church 

 in the colonies and in foreign countries, including 

 the foundation of more than fifty new sees ; the 

 great increase in the number of persons of all classes 

 who by prayers and labor assist in the work of con- 

 verting souls to Christ all bear witness to the zeal 

 and earnestness of the clergy and laity of .the Eng- 

 lish Church, an earnestness and zeal which we re- 

 joice to know is by no means confined to any sec- 

 tion or party. We may humbly trust that the inward 

 work of the Holy Spirit of God in the hearts of men, 

 a work which He alone can measure, has been great 

 in proportion to these outward eiforts. 



While, however, we thankfully recognize these 

 abundant mercies and blessings, we cannot but ac- 

 knowledge with sorrow that serious evils disturb the 

 peace of the Church, and hinder its work. 



One of these evils is the interruption of the sym- 

 pathy and mutual confidence which ought to exist 

 between the clergy and laity. Changes in the mode 

 of performing Divine service, in themselves some- 

 times of small importance, introduced without au- 

 thority, and often without due regard to the feel- 

 ings of parishioners, have excited apprehensions 

 that greater changes are to follow ; distrust has 

 been engendered, and the edification which ought 

 to result from united worship has been impeded. 

 The suspicions thus aroused, often, no doubt, un- 

 reasonable, have in some cases produced serious 

 alienation. 



The refusal to obey legitimate authority is another 

 evil in the Church at the present time. Not only 

 has it frequently occurred that clergymen fail to ren- 

 der to Episcopal authority that submission which is 

 involved in the idea of Episcopacy, but obedience 

 has been avowedly refused to the highest judicial in- 

 terpretations of the law of this Church and realm. 

 Even the authority which our Church claims, as in- 

 herent in every particular or national Church, to 

 ordain and change rites and ceremonies, has been 

 questioned and denied. 



We also observe, with increasing anxiety and 

 alarm, the dissemination of doctrines and encour- 

 agement of practices repugnant to the teaching of 

 Holy Scripture and to the principles of the Church, 

 as derived from Apostolic times, and as authorita- 

 tively set forth at the Eeformation. More especially 

 we'call serious attention to the multiplication and 

 the assiduous circulation among the young and sus- 

 ceptible of manuals of doctrine and private devotion, 

 of which it is not too much to say that many of the 

 doctrines and practices they inculcate are wholly in- 

 compatible with the teaching and principles of our 

 Reformed Church. 



Further, we feel it our duty to call attention to the 



growing tendency to associate doctrinal significance 

 with rites and ceremonies which dp not necessarily 

 involve it. For example, the position to be occu- 

 pied by the minister during the Prayer of Consecra- 

 tion in the Holy Communion, though it has varied 

 in different ages and different countries, and has 

 never been formally declared by the Church to have 

 any doctrinal significance, is now regarded by many 

 persons of very opposite opinions as a symbol of dis- 

 tinctive doctrine, and, as such, has become the sub- 

 ject of embittered controversy. 



We would seriously remind our brethren of the 

 clergy of the solemn obligation which binds us all 

 to be ready to yield a willing obedience to the law 

 of the Church of England, of which we are ordained 

 ministers, and to recognize the necessity of submit- 

 ting our own interpretations of any points in that 

 law, which may be considered doubtful to the judi- 

 cial decisions of lawfully constituted courts. We, 

 the clergy, are bound by every consideration to 

 obey the law, when thus clearly interpreted ; and to 

 decline to obey when called upon by lawful author- 

 ity, is to set an example that cannot fail to be most 

 injurious in its influence and effects. We are con- 

 vinced that the number of those who would refuse 

 such reasonable obedience is small, and that the vast 

 majority of the clergy and laity of the Church of 

 England are thoroughly loyal to its doctrine and 

 discipline. We fully recognize the difference be- 

 tween unity and an overstrained- uniformity, and 

 are well aware that our Church is rightly tolerant 

 of diversity, within certain limits, both in opinions 

 and practices. We would not narrow in the least 

 this wise comprehensiveness ; but liberty must not 

 degenerate into license and self-will; as fundamen- 

 tal truths must not be explained away, so neither 

 must those clear lines be obliterated which separate 

 the doctrines and practices of pur Reformed Church 

 from the novelties and corruptions of the Church of 

 Rome. 



* We live in an age which prides itself on freedom 

 of thought and emancipation from the control of au- 

 thority. In every portion of Christendom men are 

 more disposed than ever to run into extremes of 

 opinion and practice. While, on the one hand, fun- 

 damental truths are increasingly neglected or denied, 

 vain attempts, on the other, are made in many quar- 

 ters to meet this infidelity by the revival of super- 

 stition. 



Under these grave circumstances, we solemnly 

 charge you all, brethren beloved in the Lord, to cul- 

 tivate a spirit of charity and mutual forbearance, 

 laying aside dissension and disputes which must 

 issue, not in the victory of one party over another, 

 but in the triumph of the enemies ^of the Church, 

 and indeed of those who are enemies to the faith 

 of Christ. We exhort the clergy not to disquiet 

 their congregations by novel practices and unauthor- 

 ized ceremonies, and to discountenance those who 

 seek to introduce them. We entreat the laity not to 

 give way to suspicions in regard of honest efforts to 

 promote the more reverent worship of Almighty 

 God in loyal conformity with the rules of the Book 

 of Common Prayer. Surely this is not a time for 

 estrangement, but rather for drawing closer together 

 the bonds between the*clergy and their parishioners, 

 when vice, ignorance, infidelity, and intemperance 

 are calling for united effort on the part of all who 

 hold the faith of Christ crucified, and love and serve 

 Him as their common Lord. 



Let us all, then, both clergy and laity, be faith- 

 ful to the doctrine and discipline of our Church, 

 founded as they are on Holy Scripture, and in ac- 

 cordance with the teaching and practice of the Prim- 

 itive Church. We entreat all whom our words may 

 reach to strive together with us in prayer to Al- 

 mighty God, that as there is but one Body and one 

 Spirit, and one hope of our calling, one Lord, one 

 Faith, one Baptism, one God and Father of us all, so 

 we may henceforth be all of one heart and of one 



