XXXVII. The Souls of such as have died with true faith and repentance, may still need something after death, and are holpen by the prayers of the living, and especially by the Oblation of the Bloodless XXXVIII. The wicked perish not by the will of God, but by their own fault. . 239 xxxix. Bodily poverty undertaken voluntarily may serve to the perfection XL. Of hungering and thirsting after righteousness. XLII. Due honour is to be rendered to holy Angels and holy Men. XLIII. Due honour is to be rendered to the holy Pictures or other sacred XLIV. The Lord's Day and not the Sabbath is to be kept holy by Chris- A List of Public Documents quoted in the foregoing Sections. A List of Bishops and Divines whose writings are quoted in the PREFAC E. THE plan of the present publication is to set before the reader a systematic outline of Divinity, capable of being used as a Harmony or joint exposition of doctrine at once Eastern and British. For this purpose the Longer Russian Catechism, otherwise entitled, A Full Catechism of the Catholic and Apostolic Church of the East, has been taken as a convenient basis; the text of which, so far as it expresses a doctrine confessedly common to both Churches, needs no corroboration from Anglican sources, but is at once and of itself the Harmony desired. But wherever this is not the case, wherever, that is, any proposition occurs in the text of the Catechism, on which members either of the Eastern or of the British Churches might possibly suspect disagreement, or on which we are in point of fact divided among ourselves, in all such places references are added to Anglican Authorities which will be found subjoined in an Appendix, and which are intended to shew that, whatever some may think of present appearances, Anglican Divinity is not necessarily nor unequivocally, on any single point, irreconcileable with that of the Easterns. It is hoped that the reader will find no point passed over in silence, on which any well-informed member of either Communion would be likely to suspect disagreement. And so, either alone, or in conjunction with the Appendix, the Catechism may be read and used not merely as an Eastern or Russian document, but as equally our own, and as capable of being entitled simply, as indeed it has been sometimes entitled, without respect to rite or language, A Full Catechism of the Orthodox Christian Faith. The compiler of the Appendix is far from pretending that the actual agreement of the two Communions, where they do already agree, is in all points equally self-evident; or that their eventual agreement upon other questions, where Anglican theology seems as yet to be undecided, and to admit of contrary opinions, will be in every case alike easy or certain. All that is maintained is this: that there has been in the Anglican Church, from the sixteenth century downwards, not only a Puritan or Protestant spirit and school, but also a contrary Catholic school; and a tendency towards the recovery and reconstruction of that Orthodoxy, which was mutilated at the first through a weak submission to the civil power. Further it is very certain, indeed it must be perceived from the extracts now published, that the orthodox party have ever maintained a high tone of authority, as if they felt that they represented the mind and will of the Church: sometimes they have even succeeded in obtaining synodical acts in their favour, which have impressed a character upon the whole body. And this being so, there is nothing absurd in anticipating, that the same party may hereafter succeed in moving the Church again to do other similar and still more decisive acts in their favour; so as to purge out the remaining leaven of Calvinism, and re-open to them the communion of the East. In the meantime, we may perhaps be thought by the Easterns to stand to them in a relation somewhat similar to that of the Armenian Church, which, like our own, seems to have had a double character from a remote period. And though any union which should be made at once with the Armenians, as they are, without change or explanation on their part, would be union with heresy; still, if that Church were to do again what she has already more than once been on the point of doing, that is to say, explain her heretical language in an orthodox sense, and formally reject and disuse the language as well as the spirit of heresy for the future, unity being thus declared and ascertained, union would be no longer objectionable. But there is one part of the Anglican Communion, which fairly claims to be distinguished from the rest. The Scottish Church, if she be considered by herself, seems even at present to approach somewhat nearer towards Eastern orthodoxy, and to offer greater facilities for future reconciliation, than can be pretended of the English. Not only has she embodied in her Liturgy and Catechisms various doctrines still controverted in England, but she has also hitherto enjoyed the advantage of being at unity within herself. The original and native Scottish Church is a stranger to those parties which exist in the south. She has no chain of Puritan and Latitudinarian divines, whose testimonies can be opposed to those of the orthodox. Her Bishops are freely elected by the Clergy in each diocese, not nominated by parliamentary leaders. They can meet in Synods and make canons, without fearing any statute of Premunire. They feel themselves the Apostles of a Church which has suffered wrong, not the servants of a government which has done it. They are the successors of Martyrs and Confessors, not of time-serving and latitudinarian intruders; of prelates, who in former days aimed after a re-union of Churches, not after a comprehension of sects; who amended an imperfect Liturgy, without wishing themselves well rid of their Creed. It is true indeed that they preside over a poor and humble flock, not over a powerful and wealthy nation : they are unconnected with the state, and unendowed: but then they are the pastors of a believing minority, not of a multitude of political conformists: they are expected to teach the faith of their Church, not to dissemble it: to convert heretics and schismatics without, not to tolerate or flatter them within: to rebuke vice and error, not to frown upon orthodoxy and zeal. They are free to reform abuses, to restore discipline, to retain and remit sins: they are not obliged to worship popular traditions, nor to submit discipline to parliaments or newspapers, nor to give passive communion to all comers. To say all in few words, their Church has not made herself a partaker in the crying sins of a nation and its rulers, but intercedes for their repentance and forgiveness; and she is known to all men as the open and uncompromising enemy, not as the courteous or dissembling sister of a Presbyterian Establishment. These peculiarities of the Scottish Church are witnessed to alike by friends and enemies; and are of course variously regarded by conflicting parties. They are vehemently denounced by Puritan Bishops and Clergy in the name of the Southern, no less than by Presbyterian Ministers in the name of the Northern Establishment: but they are looked up to with thankfulness and hope by a minority in England, which has suffered severe disappointments. They are noticed perhaps with a smile or a sigh by some who secede to Rome, as curious relics of an unexplained after-growth, or of a retrograde political struggle, parasitical excrescences of a paper theology; but they may possibly excite other feelings of interest or expectation in the minds of brethren who have been separated for ages. In the meantime they seem to be attracting towards themselves that controversy which has hitherto been confined to the south of Britain: strenuous efforts are being made to force or persuade the Scottish Church to descend to the level of the English: and it is even thought not impossible, that such efforts may eventually succeed. Already, it is whispered, some individuals of her Clergy are beginning to feel the awkwardness of their position, and to look along a broad and easy road to the south, and to contemplate their own past history with more of embarrassment than satisfaction. Still it is hard for an individual, harder far for a whole community, to cut itself off from the past. It might even perhaps be more safe and more honourable for the Scottish Church to go forward, than to go back; to lead deep and kindred convictions, than to submit to the attacks of spiritual enemies or the persuasions of worldly friends. At any rate, till she do openly go back, those peculiarities which have been noticed justify the assertion, that even a single testimony of any one Scottish Bishop or Divine of note goes further to prove the doctrine of the Scottish Church, than a host of English quotations, or even public acts and documents can go, at present, to prove the doctrine of the |