For, in each case
the result must mean confusion. If such a result could ever have been
doubted in the past, it can surely be doubted no longer. The sad
experience of the past three hundred years speaks more eloquently than
any words; and its verdict is conclusive. It proves two things beyond
dispute. The _first_ is, that even the largest and most heterogeneous
body of men may be easily united and kept together, if they can all be
brought to recognise and obey one supreme authority; and the _second_
is, that, even a small and homogeneous body of men will soon divide
and split up into sections, if they cannot be brought to recognise
such an authority.
Further, any one looking out over the face of Christendom, with an
unprejudiced eye, for the realisation of that unity which Christ
promised to affix to his Church as an infallible sign of authenticity,
will find it in the Catholic Communion, but certainly nowhere
else--least of all in the Church of England.
"What," asks a well-known writer in unfeigned astonishment, "what
opinion is not held within the Established Church? Were not Dr.
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