The Church of England quarterly review

A Familiar Explanation of the Higher Parts of Arithmetic. By

the Rev. Frederick Calder, B.A., Head Master of the Gram-

mar School, Chesterfield.

The One Hope of All Believers, as set forth in the Holy Scrip-

tures: a Word for Warningand Strengthening in an Evil Day 482

The Closing Scene; or Christianity and Infidelity Contrasted in

the Last Hours of Remarkable Persons. By the Author of

"The Bishop's Daughter," "Self-Sacrifice," the "Life Book

of a Labourer," &c.

485

The Young Westminster. No. I.

487

A Summary Practical Elucidation of National Economy in Sup-

port of Direct Taxation and Direct Assessment. By Robert

Watt.

488

The Speeches of the Right Hon. the Earl of Chatham: with a

An Authentic Interpretation of the Guarantee of England and

France, with reference to the Duchy of Schleswig. Compiled

from Documentary Sources. By Dr. William Leverkus

Arithmetic for Young Children. By H. Grant.

Testimony to the Truth: or, the Autobiography of an Atheist. 490

Questions on Church History: from the Earliest Period to the

490

Present Time. Addressed Particularly to Young Persons. 490

Egypt and Nubia. From Sketches by David Roberts, R.A.; the

Literature by William Brockendon

The Voice of Many Waters. A Tale for Young People

The Bible of Every Land; or, a Sacred History, Critical and

Philosophical, of all the Versions of the Scriptures, in every

Language and Dialect into which Translations have been

made

A Letter to Lord John Russell on Church Reform

Original Thoughts on Various Passages of Scripture; being the

Substance of Sermons preached by the late Rev. Richard Cecil,

A.M., never before published.

The Gathering of Israel; or, the Patriarchal Blessing, as con-

tained in the Forty-ninth Chapter of Genesis.

. 496

496

Baptism; or, the Ministration of Public Baptism of Infants, to be

used in the Church, scripturally illustrated and explained 495

Hints on the Management of Female Parochial Schools.

A Letter Addressed to the Church by a Member of the Church

of England, on the Holy Mystery of the "First Resurrection,

the Day of the Restoration of the Kingdom of Israel"

Fifty-two Sermons, adapted to each Sunday in the Year, and

designed more especially to trace and explain the Connection

between the Doctrines, Duties, and Consolation, of Religion. 497

The Revolutions of 1848. A Re-commencement of the Judg-

ments upon the Papacy. By Charles Richard Cameron, M.A. 497

Defects in the Practice of Life Assurance, and Suggestions for

their Remedy.

Matutina: Morning Readings, Selected and Original, chiefly

Practical, and adapted to the Use of the Younger Members of

the Church of England. By the Rev. G. Renaud, M.A..

Presbytery Examined: an Essay, Critical and Historical, on the

Ecclesiastical History of Scotland since the Reformation

497

498

499

THE

CHURCH OF ENGLAND

Quarterly Review.

JULY, MDCCCXLVIII.

ART. I.-Reciprocal Obligations of the Church and the Civil Power. By the Rev. J. L. Ross, M.A. London: Parker. 1848.

WHEN any two things are brought into comparison, in order to determine their relative importance, we must cast out of the estimate such points in either case as may be variable or accidental, and rely only on those points of comparison which are unchangeable and are permanent characteristics of both the one and the other of the things which we would so compare. And if, for mere accuracy of comparison, such discrimination between the real and the accidental qualities of things be necessary, much more imperative does it become when estimating the comparative obligations of living institutions which cannot but act upon and modify each other. We are here forced to draw a distinction between the temporary and the permanent characteristics of such institutions when considering the reciprocal obligations and competing claims of two bodies like the Church and State to which we all owe allegiance: and we cannot but take into our account the modification to which these claims are liable under the various circumstances of the State having been at one time heathen, at another time Christian; and the additional claims which the Church acquires when it has been established in a land and is recognised as one of the estates of the realm.

The questions which now arise amongst us receive no sufficient solution from the mere letter of Scripture, nor does the

VOL. XXIV.-B

past history of the Church afford precedents which meet the case. Our circumstances are so entirely altered-the Church and State occupy such very different positions towards each other from those which they occupied at any former periodthat the abstract principles which guided the Church at the beginning and under trials far more severe are our only guide, which principles we may not pervert by falsely imputing to a Christian State features which belong to none but the heathen; nor yet so relax sacred principles as to sacrifice truth out of deference to those who have, however unintentionally, set themselves in a false position either in the Church or the State.

During the first, second, and third centuries of Church history, the powers of the world were not merely unchristian or simply careless and indifferent to religion: they were ranged in active hostility against the Church. This arose from two causes, both singly sufficient, but, being combined, each tended to aggravate the other. The heathen were strongly prejudiced against all Jews, and it was amongst this loathed and despised people that the new religion had arisen; added to which, they beheld the Jews themselves opposing those who professed Christianity amongst them with the utmost rancour; and, having crucified their King and the Author of our faith, they persecuted his followers from city to city with deadly hatred. And the heathen might thus appeal to notorious and universal facts, and say, with perfect truth, that the new religion was everywhere spoken against by the Jews themselves as well as by the Gentiles.

And looking at the Church itself, whether we regard the body or its individual members, the separation from the world was much more complete and absolute than it could possibly continue to be for any great length of time even under heathen government; while the subsequent conversion of the State to the religion of the Church, and the establishment of Christianity as the State religion, necessarily produced an entire alteration in their reciprocal obligations towards each other and as in after times the Church became endowed with lands and possessions, it became the duty of the State both to protect these possessions of its subjects, and to see that they were not misappropriated, but were applied to the purposes for which they were originally given; which possessions, moreover, invested the Church with the civil rights and customary dues of such tenancy or tenure, and so brought the Church under fresh obligations to the State.

- These various complicating elements cannot be overlooked

with safety by any who would form an impartial opinion: and Churchmen, in writing on such subjects, need to be more especially upon their guard: since they are not only in danger of forming a partial judgment by constituting themselves the judges in a cause which is their own; but, where both parties have occasionally been in fault, by stretching these proper means of influence beyond their just bounds. Yet it is a notorious fact that the prelacy has at sundry times not only encroached upon but trampled under foot the just and indubitable rights of the civil power. It, therefore, becomes all men who would come to right conclusions on a subject which equally affects all the members of a Christian community to be quite sure that they are taking their stand on principles which are immutable, and which will not be affected by any alteration of circumstances, or rather which will serve as rules of conduct in every case, and are large enough to embrace every possible variety of condition either in the Church or in the civil power.

The apostolic epistles were written either to Jewish or to Gentile converts: the former had only just emerged from Judaism: the prejudices and traditions received from their fathers were still clinging to them. They had been brought into bondage under the heathen by their own sin; but, instead of "accepting the punishment of their iniquity" and repenting of their sin, they only chafed under the yoke and charged the fault upon others. They generally held it to be sinful to pay tribute or to give any other token of submission to the government under which they then lived and enjoyed protection from their worst enemies-from their own countrymen and the Gentile converts, to whom the other apostolic epistles were written, had been gathered out of the darkness of heathenism and had every thing old to abandonevery thing new to learn and while both the Jewish and Heathen systems were to be forsaken in order to receive the truths of Christianity, yet the Jewish priesthood and ritual were to be treated with reverence as long as the temple stood; and the laws of Rome were to be respected as being conducive to the welfare of society, although the State was heathen, and the emperor should be such an one as Tiberius or Nero; for God was to be honoured in his temple and priesthood as long as he saw fit to tolerate it and avert its destruction; and the providence of God is to be acknowledged in that government under which he has placed us, and from obedience to which men ought not to emancipate themselves: but it becomes evident that the apostolic epistles, written under

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The Church of England quarterly review, Volume 24