Untitled - Rore Sanctifica

Spirit in wliich Re-union should be sought. 207
here one side appearing at an advantage, there
the other. And though,
at different periods,
individuals may have felt bitterly, and in their
ignorance used strong language towards the
Bishop of Rome, yet none, in a right mind and
with the needs of Christian souls before them,
could possibly have desired that Visible Unity
should ever have been broken, however much
rash acts and unjustifiable words tended to so
miserable a consummation.
The fact, however, stands before us, and it is
a melancholy fact, that the Church of England*
is isolated in Christendom. For three centuries
her sons have not sufficiently lamented the
existence of this crying evil, nor even realized
the spiritual losses which on account of it her
children have sustained. Intercommunion with
the Orthodox and Latin Churches having been
practically suspended, innumerable anomalies
have crept into existence to the great detriment
of harmonious action, in the practical working
of the Church of England. As long as Acts
of Parliament and State judgments could sustain
an artificial influence that began to wane in the
early part of the seventeenth century, and
collapsed during the Great Rebellion, so long the
Anglican theory remained much in the same
/
* By this term is included not simply those colonial
churches in communion with the United Church of Eng
land and Ireland, but also the Protestant Episcopal com
munions in Scotland and America.