Ittttro fa Or iititur.
LIMITS OT' TIIE CIIIJ]tCII OP ENGLAND.
Barnstaple, Saturday.
Snt—It has been stated that the "true Protestant Church of England" should be the Church of the "Christian people of this land " ; that is, if I understand rightly, it should be such as would combine all Protestant sects. Now I will not stop to dilate on the Christian charity which excludes lie- monists from the rank of Christians ; but will merely ask how the thing is possible ? It sounds well, doubtless ; but a little reflection will, I think, show the impossibility. A society calling itself the "Evangelical Alliance" was started some time back, which was to include all "Protestants' sects : what was the result? The only points of agreement were our Lord's divinity, that the Pope is An- tichrist, and the resurrection of the body. Are these three points, then, to form the entire doctrine of the Church of England when reformed according to this new proposal? I do not see anY other way of reconciling all sects into one body. We must give up the Apostolic constitution, the Holy Sacraments, the doctrine of the Atonement, the Creeds, which we believe because they may be proved by most certain warrant of Holy Scripture—in short, everything which can entitle us to the name of a Church : and for what ? to embrace those who have separated from their spiritual mother, and would fain drag her into the same condition as themselves.
Either the Church of England is a true church, or she is not : if she is, she cannot depart from those truths of the Gospel which she holds, for the sake of including those who reject them. It would be a sad day for England if the Church should be forced to thus keep silent the truth : in fact, she would be a church no longer, but merely the establishment of the nation, and even then nobody would be satisfied. I cannot believe that the best means of restoring unity is the rejeetion (at least negatively) of truth : the thing is a fallacy. I am, Sir, your obedient servant, Z.
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