e reproves
those who attached themselves to St. Peter equally with the Paulines or
with the disciples of Apollos; is it possible he could have done so,
were St. Peter the head and essence of the Church in a sense in which
St. Paul was not? And, again, there was an occasion when not only their
followers were at variance, but the Apostles themselves; we refer to the
dissimulation of St. Peter at Antioch, and the resistance of St, Paul to
it: was this a reason why St. Peter's disciples should go over to St.
Paul, or rather why they should correct their dissimulation?

We are surely bound to prosecute this search after the promised Teacher
of truth entirely as a practical matter, with reference to our duty and
nothing else. The simple question which we have to ask ourselves is, Has
the English Church _sufficiently_ upon her the signs of an Apostle? is
she the divinely-appointed teacher to _us_? If so, we need not go
further; we have no reason to break through the divine rule of "being
content with such things as we have"; we have no warrant to compare our
own prophet with the prophet given to others. Nor can we: tests are not
given us for the purpose. We may believe that our own Church has certain
imperfections; the Church of Rome certain corruptions: such a belief
has no tendency to lead us to any determinate judgment as to which of
the two on the whole is the better, or to induce or warrant us to leave
the one communion for the other.

5

One point remains, however, which is so often felt as a difficulty by
members of our Church that we are tempted to say a few words upon it in
conclusion, and to try to show what is the true practical mode of
meeting it. And this perhaps will give us an opportunity of expressing
our general meaning in a more definite and intelligible form.

It cannot be denied, then, that a very plausible ground of attack may be
taken up against the Church of England, from the circumstance that she
is separated from the rest of Christendom; and just such a ground as it
would be allowable for private judgment to rest and act upon, supposing
its office to be what we have described it to be. "As to the particular
doctrines of Anglicanism, (it may be urged,) Scripture may, if so be,
supply private judgment with little grounds for quarrelling with them;
but what can be said to explain away the note of forfeiture, which
attaches to us in consequence of our isolated state? We are, in fact,
(it may be objec