Here, then, we have a perfectly fair and straightforward question, deserving an equally clear and straightforward answer:  and such as would be given at once if addressed by any Catholic enquirer to his Bishop.  But how does the Anglican Archbishop proceed to calm and comfort this helpless, agitated soul, groping painfully in the dark?  What is his Grace’s reply?  He cannot refer the matter to a Sovereign Pontiff, for no Pontiff in the Anglican Church is possessed of any sovereignty whatsoever.  In fact the Archbishop himself has to “verily testify and declare that His Majesty the King is the only supreme Governor in spiritual and ecclesiastical things as well as temporal,” etc.[6] Nor dare he solve these troublesome doubts himself:  for he is no more infallible than his questioner.  Then what does he do?  Practically nothing.  He throws the whole burden back upon poor Mr. Maskell, and leaves him to struggle with his doubts as best he may.  Thus; though the Church of God was established to “teach all nations,” and must still be teaching all nations if she exist at all; the Church of England seems unable to teach one nation, or even one man.

But to continue.  The Archbishop begins by putting Mr. Maskell a question.  “Are they (i.e., the doctrines about which he is seeking information) contained in the Word of God?  St. Paul says, ’Preach the Word’....  Now whether the doctrines concerning which you inquire are contained in the Word of God, and can be proved thereby, you have the same means of discovering for yourself as I have, and I have no special authority to declare.”

Did any one ever witness such an exhibition of ineptitude and spiritual asthenia?  We can conceive a man rejecting all revelation.  It is possible even to conceive a man denying the Divinity of Christ.  But we know nothing that would ever enable us even to conceive that Infinite Wisdom and Infinite Power had established a Church which cannot teach, or had sent an ambassador utterly unable to deliver His message.  There is no use for such Church as that.  Total silence is better than incoherent speech.  What is the consequence?  The consequence is that in the Anglican community endless variations and differences exist and flourish side by side, not alone in matters where differences are comparatively of little account, but in even the most momentous and fundamental doctrines, such as the necessity of Baptism, the power of Absolution, the nature of the Holy Eucharist, the effects of the sacrament of Holy Orders, and so forth.  Were it not for the iron hand of the State, which grasps her firmly, and binds her mutually repellent elements together, she must have fallen to pieces long ago.  Now, we must beg our readers to consider well, that from the very terms of the institution such a deplorable state of things as we have been contemplating is absolutely impossible and unthinkable in the Church (1) which