Critical and Historical Essays — Volume 2Macaulay, Thomas Babington Macaulay, Baron
History
Critical and Historical Essays — Volume 2
Macaulay, Thomas Babington Macaulay, Baron
English literature -- History and criticism; Great Britain -- History
It will be observed that we are not putting cases of dishonest men who,
for the sake of lucre, falsely pretend to believe in the doctrines of
an establishment. We are putting cases of men as upright as ever lived,
differing on theological questions of the highest importance and avowing
that difference, are yet priests and prelates of the same church. We
therefore say, that on some points which Mr. Gladstone himself thinks of
vital importance, the Church has either not spoken at all, or, what is
for all practical purposes the same thing, has not spoken in language to
be understood even by honest and sagacious divines. The religion of the
Church of England is so far from exhibiting that unity of doctrine which
Mr. Gladstone represents as her distinguishing glory, that it is, in
fact, a bundle of religious systems without number. It comprises the
religious system of Bishop Tomline, and the religious system of John
Newton, and all the religious systems which lie between them. It
comprises the religious system of Mr. Newman, and the religious system
of the Archbishop of Dublin, and all the religious systems which lie
between them. All these different opinions are held, avowed, preached,
printed, within the pale of the Church, by men of unquestioned integrity
and understanding.
Do we make this diversity a topic of reproach to the Church of England?
Far from it. We would oppose with all our power every attempt to narrow
her basis? Would to God that, a hundred and fifty years ago, a good king
and a good primate had possessed the power as well as the will to widen
it! It was a noble enterprise, worthy of William and of Tillotson. But
what becomes of all Mr. Gladstone’s eloquent exhortations to unity? Is
it not mere mockery to attach so much importance to unity in form and
name, where there is so little in substance, to shudder at the thought
of two Churches in alliance with one State, and to endure with patience
the spectacle of a hundred sects battling within one Church? And is it
not clear that Mr. Gladstone is bound, on all his own principles, to
abandon the defence of a Church in which unity is not found? Is it not
clear that he is bound to divide the House of Commons against every
grant of money which may be proposed for the clergy of the Established
Church in the colonies? He objects to the vote for Maynooth, because it
is monstrous to pay one man to teach truth, and another to denounce that
truth as falsehood. But it is a mere chance whether any sum which he
votes for the English Church in any colony will go to the maintenance of
an Arminian or a Calvinist, of a man like Mr. Froude, or of a man
like Dr. Arnold. It is a mere chance, therefore, whether it will go
to support a teacher of truth, or one who will denounce that truth as
falsehood.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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