230 THE VERY IlEV. H. WACE^ ON AUTHORITy. 



between them. It may be permitted to an English Churchman 

 to think that the best example, at least in idea and intention, 

 in this respect, is exhibited by the establishment of the 

 relations of Church and State at the English Eeformation. 

 The object steadily kept in view by the secular and ecclesias- 

 tical statesmen of that time was to maintain a complete 

 co-operation, almost amounting to identity, of action between 

 the authorities of Church and State, and thus to maintain a 

 permanent and universal standard for individual action. In pro- 

 portion as the ties between the State and the established Church 

 have been loosened, and the State has assumed a more and more 

 secular complexion, this has become increasingly difficult ; but 

 a due regard to the good order and harmony of Society would 

 indicate the necessity of continuing this old English habit of 

 mutual consideration between Church and State as constantly 

 and earnestly as possible. Nothing can be more injurious to 

 the social peace of the community, and to the moral authority 

 of law, than for statesmen to legislate on questions like 

 marriage without regard to the existing law of the Church and 

 without consulting its authorities ; on the other hand, ecclesias- 

 tics are guilty of a similar fault if they peremptorily resolve 

 that in whatever point the law of the State has come into 

 conflict with the law of the Church, it is their duty, and that 

 of the individuals who look to them for guidauce, to enforce the 

 law of the Church without hesitati(m and with the utmost 

 rigour. If, in particular, the conflict arises, as at present it does, 

 on points on which Christian men, and even Christian Churches, 

 have been and are divided, it becomes a still more urgent duty 

 to act with moderation, and to seek some course of action 

 which will involve a reasonable mutual deference. 



In a word, the only indefeasible authority in the world is 

 that of the will of God, which is manifested througli various 

 sources, such as the Church under the guidance of the 

 Scriptures, the State, and the individual conscience. The 

 happiest condition of human society is when the first two, 

 the Church and State, coincide. When, unhappily, they differ, 

 neither of them has any absolute or Divine right to override the 

 other, and the individual cannot escape the responsibility of his 

 private conscience by an absolute submission to either. Each 

 particular problem must be gradually worked out in a spirit of 

 patience and mutual respect ; and our consolation and hope 

 must be found in the grand fact which underlies all these 

 considerations, that the Divine authority is a living authority, 

 constantly at work alike in the Church, in the State, in 



