ESSAYS ECCLESIASTICAL AND SOCIAL. REPRINTED, WITH ADDITIONS, FROM THE EDINBURGH REVIEW. BY W. J. CONYBEARE, M. A. LATE FELLOW OF TRINITY COLLEGE, CAMBRIDGE. LONDON: LONGMAN, BROWN, GREEN, AND LONGMANS. 1855. PREFACE. IN the true sense of the words, there can be no ecclesiastical question which is not also a social question, nor any social question which is not also an ecclesiastical question. For the Church is nothing else but a catholic society, divinely instituted for social ends; and if the actual realised the ideal, therein would originate, and thereby would be applied, the remedies for all moral evils which afflict humanity. Yet, perhaps, there is no branch of the Universal Church which now adequately fulfils this heavenly mission. In England, indeed, the National Church cannot even attempt the task, except by the isolated efforts of her individual members; for she has no power of collective action, and can scarcely be said to possess any functionaries except her clergy. The main purpose of the present Volume is to illustrate the great need which exists for a more perfect organisation of the Church, both with a view to internal discipline and external efficiency. The four first Essays are designed to give a picture of the actual state of the National Establishment, viewed in several different aspects; the general object of them all being, partly to remove some prevalent misconceptions, but principally to throw light upon those causes which |