THE VERY HEV. H. WAGE, D.D., OX AUTHORITY. 227 



the general authority of the Christian Church, by what right do 

 you cut out of the continuous life of that Church four whole 

 centuries, since the Keformation, of the history of some of the 

 most vigorous and devoted Communions which the whole history 

 of Christianity can show ? The English Church, in particular, 

 has existed in this land for thirteen centuries. By what right 

 do you cut out of the experience and example of that Church 

 nearly one-third of its whole existence, the four hundred years 

 since the Keformation, and say tliat they shall not be taken into 

 account in determining what catholic practices and doctrines 

 are ? This supposed Catholic Church, to which appeal is made 

 by the extreme High Churchmen of our day, is, except so far as 

 it can be identified with the primitive Church; a phantom of the 

 imagination. In the mouth of the Romanist, the appeal to the 

 Catholic Church has a clear and definite meaning. To adapt 

 Bellarmine's words to the present day, the Eomanist appeals to 

 a Communion and an authority which is as visible and tangible 

 as the Eepublic of France or the Kingdom of Italy. But in the 

 moutli of an English Churchman, an appeal to the Catholic 

 Church is an appeal to an authority which does not exist as a 

 real authority, except so far as it is an appeal to the primitive 

 Church; and even that Church, as we have seen, is not an 

 absolute authority, even in its Creeds. 



The ideal, no doubt, of the Christian Church is that the whole 

 congregation of Christian people, dispersed throughout the 

 whole world, should be so united in Christian charity, as to he 

 able to bring their united wisdom and spiritual experience 

 together in council, and so to guide, under the influence of the 

 Spirit of God, the belief and the practice of the various local 

 Churches. But no such authority has existed since the time of 

 the primitive authority already mentioned. 'No General Council 

 can now be appealed to ; and in the absence of such general 

 authority, each Church must exercise its own authority, on its 

 own responsibility. But this being the case, the authority of 

 my own Church is the only one that exists for me ; and^ the 

 only way in which I can discharge the duty of obedience to those 

 who are set over me in the Lord, which is the acknowledged 

 duty of every Christian man, is by dutifully submitting myself 

 to this authority, so long as it requires nothing of me which I 

 may be persuaded, on my conscience, is absolutely contrary to 

 the Law of God. The only hope for the establishment of order 

 in the Church at large consists in the cultivation of the habit 

 of obedience to the authorities immediately over us. To appeal, 

 from that authority, to some imaginary authority which has 



