The moderate members of this party, especially,
do not hold them as "the basis of their system, but only as secondary
and ornamental details. Even against Dissenters they are not rigidly
enforced. The hereditary non-conformist is not excluded from salvation.
Foreign Protestants are even owned as brethren, though a mild regret is
expressed that they lack the blessing of an authorized church
government. Apostolical succession is not practically made essential to
the being of a church, but rather cherished as a dignified and ancient
pedigree, connecting our English episcopate with primitive antiquity,
and binding the present to the past by a chain of filial piety. In the
same hands, church authority is reduced to little more than a claim to
that deference which is due from the ignorant to the learned, from the
taught to the teacher."[205]
Of the general service rendered by the High Churchmen, the same writer
says, "Their system gives freer scope to the feelings of reverence, awe,
and beauty than that of their opponents.
Pages:
800
801
802
803
804
805
806
807
808
809
810
811
812
813
814
815
816
817
818
819
820
821
822
823
824