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 L I B RAFLY 
 
 OF THE 
 U N ! VERS ITY 
 or I LLI NOIS
 
 ^ 
 
 CHARGE 
 
 DELIVERED TO THE CLERGY 
 
 DIOCESE OF OXFORD 
 
 RICHARD BAGOT, D.D., 
 
 BISHOP OF OXFORD, 
 
 AND CHANCELLOR OF THE MOST NOBLE OKDEK OF THE GARTER I 
 
 FOURTH VISITATION, 
 
 MAY, 1842. 
 
 OXFORD : 
 
 JOHN HENRY PARKER; 
 
 J. G. F. AND J. RIVINGTON, LONDON. 
 
 1842.
 
 OXFORD : 
 PRINTED BY I. SHRIMPTON.
 
 THE REVEREND THE CLERGY 
 
 OF 
 
 THE DIOCESE OF OXFORD, 
 THIS CHARGE 
 
 MADE PUnLIC IN COMPLIANCE WITH THEIR BEQUEST, 
 
 IS 
 
 AEFECTIONATELT AND RESPKCTFUIXY 
 
 INSCRIBED 
 
 BT 
 
 THEIR FAITHFUL CROTHEU AND SERVANT, 
 
 R. OXFORD. 
 
 C'uddesden Palace, 
 May, 1842.
 
 <WW< 
 
 -UHJC' 
 
 *«*k^
 
 A CHARGE, 
 
 My Reverend Brethren, 
 
 The serious inconvenience and embarrassment, to 
 which, at my last Visitation, I was exposed in conse- 
 quence of the unsettled state of the Berkshire juris- 
 diction, induced me a year ago to postpone the 
 business in which we are now engaged to the present 
 time, in the hope that during the interval these not 
 unimportant matters, which have now for several 
 years been waiting a decision, would have been 
 adjusted. 
 
 In this hope I have been disappointed. Berkshire 
 therefore must remain un visited, until such time as 
 those obstacles which impede the due exercise of the 
 Bishop's authority shall be removed, and the new 
 arrangements shall be definitively ordered and com- 
 pleted ; and I feel sure, that the Clergy in Berkshire 
 
 A 2
 
 8 
 
 will not misconstrue this determination into any 
 mark of inattention, or want of interest, respect, or 
 regard towards them on my part. 
 
 I cannot, however, allow these circumstances to 
 preclude me any longer from calling together the 
 Clergy of that part of my Diocese, to which the re- 
 marks I have just made do not apply ; and you must 
 yourselves feel, as I have long since felt, that of all 
 Dioceses, that of Oxford is perhaps the one which, 
 at the present time, can least bear any interruption 
 of intercourse between the Bishop and his Clergy. 
 
 Since I last addressed you collectively from this 
 chair, four years have elapsed, and, although it com- 
 monly happens, that men are disposed to exaggerate 
 the importance of events occurring in their own 
 time, and in which they are themselves more or less 
 the actors, — still I cannot but think, that those four 
 years will be hereafter looked upon as the commence- 
 ment of one of the most eventful epochs in the his- 
 tory of the English CathoUc Church. 
 
 Would to God, that he, who has been called to 
 preside over you at so momentous a period, had been 
 an abler and a better man, — one more fitted by learn- 
 ing, clear-sightedness, and experience, to cope with 
 the emergencies of the times, and to guide you far
 
 9 
 
 better than I can hope to do, amid the daily in- 
 creasing difficulties of our position ! 
 
 My trust, however, is in that strength, which is 
 made perfect in weakness, — my comfort in the 
 assurance of your prayers. 
 
 But to proceed. The last four years have wit- 
 nessed the rapid development of those principles, 
 which the world (though untruly, for they are of no 
 locality) has identified with Oxford, and to which I 
 felt it my duty to advert at my last Visitation. Those 
 principles have, during this short interval, spread and 
 taken root, — not merely in our own neighbourhood, 
 and in other parts of England, but have passed from 
 shore to shore, — east and west, — north and south, — 
 wherever members of our Church are to be found, — 
 nay, are unquestionably the object to which, whether 
 at home or abroad, the eyes of all are turned who 
 have any interest or care for the concerns of religion. 
 I am not now saying any thing about the tendency of 
 those principles : I am simply asserting the fact of 
 their existence and development. There they are, 
 whether for good or evil ; and they are forming 
 at this moment the most remarkable movement, 
 which, for three centuries at least, has taken place 
 amongst us.
 
 10 
 
 And now, in the next place, I would advert to the 
 manner of their growth. Certainly they have been 
 fostered with no friendly hand. No adscititious aid 
 of powerful patronage has helped them forward, — 
 no gale of popular applause has urged them on. On 
 the contrary, they seem to have been the single ex- 
 ception, which an age of latitudinarian liberality could 
 discover, against the rule of tolerating any form of 
 belief. And, while many, whose motives are above 
 all suspicion, and whose honoured names need no 
 praise of mine, have unhesitatingly and utterly con- 
 demned them, — ^while many more have looked on 
 with caution and mistrust, — ^while many in authority 
 (myself among the number) have felt it their duty 
 to warn those committed to their trust of the possible 
 tendencies of the doctrines in question, — they have 
 likewise been exposed to a storm of abuse as violent 
 as it has been unceasing, — to calumnies and mis- 
 representations of the most wanton and cruel descrip- 
 tion, and to attacks from the Dissenting, Democratic, 
 and Infidel portions of the public press, clothed in 
 language which I will not trust myself to charac- 
 terize, but which, for the sake of our common huma- 
 nity, (I say nothing of Christian charity,) it behoves 
 us, as with one voice, to reprobate and condemn. I
 
 11 
 
 am not now saying, whether these principles deserved 
 the chilling reception they have met with, — I am 
 only stating an admitted fact, that such has been 
 their reception. 
 
 Again, let us look at the character of the doctrines 
 brought before the public. What has been their 
 attraction? What have they to recommend them 
 to general adoption ? The system in question, instead 
 of being an easy comfortable form of religion, adapt- 
 ing itself to modern habits and luxurious tastes, is 
 uncompromisingly stern and severe, — laying the 
 greatest stress upon self-discipline and self-denial, — 
 encouraging fasting, and alms-deeds, and prayer, to 
 an extent of which the present generation, at least, 
 knows nothing, — and inculcating a deference to 
 authority which is wholly opposed to the spirit of 
 the age, — and uniformly upholding that minute at- 
 tention to external religion, which our formularies, 
 indeed, prescribe, but which the world has mostly 
 cast aside as superfluous, or as shackling and inter- 
 fering with the freedom which it loves. 
 
 Now, such being the character of the religious 
 movement which has forced itself upon our notice, 
 it must be obvious to every one, who thinks at all 
 on the subject, that it has peculiarities about it.
 
 12 
 
 which render it quite unUke any thing which has 
 hitherto been observed among us ; — and, if this be 
 the case, it is no less obvious, that a system, which 
 has grown up under such disadvantages, and which 
 professes, at least, to be that of the ancient Catholic 
 Church, deserves at any rate to be treated with as 
 much of prudence and circumspection, as Gamaliel 
 prescribed in a not very dissimilar instance ". 
 
 But this is a sort of forbearance, of which I have 
 seen no signs whatsoever. I do not mean, — God 
 forbid ! — that, if the doctrines of which I am speak- 
 ing are erroneous, they are not to be exposed and 
 condemned, that high and low, rich and poor, are not 
 in their several stations to be warned against adopt- 
 ing them ; but what I say is this, that error is to 
 be met with argument, not with clamour, and to be 
 answered with painful care, and grave reverence, 
 and firm (though kind) remonstrance ; — not to be 
 made the subject of rancorous declamation, — not to 
 be treated with the rude, coarse abuse, which party 
 spirit is sure to elicit from ill-conditioned minds, 
 and which is as opposite to the tone of Christian 
 condemnation as darkness is to light. Persecution 
 never has, never will, answer its object ; — there is 
 
 a Acts V. 35—39.
 
 13 
 
 something in the very constitution of our common 
 nature, which incUnes men to side with those whom 
 they think unfairly treated. And such, I am dis- 
 posed to think, has been the case with respect to 
 the opinions of which I am speaking. Wliether 
 those opinions are right or wTong, I verily believe, 
 that the temper in which their advocates have been 
 attacked has gained them more adherents than, 
 perhaps, any other cause. 
 
 Wliat can have been more lamentable than the tone, 
 which (of course I am speaking generally) has been 
 adopted by those who have set themselves (I hope 
 conscientiously) to oppose the opinions in question, 
 — ^what can be more offensive to Christian charity, 
 than to hear men of blameless lives held up to public 
 execration in the newspapers of the day, as "a 
 synagogue of Satan," and branded as "heretics" 
 by persons, who yet hold back the grounds on which 
 they make their charges ? Above all, — and I cannot 
 notice without grave reprehension the conduct of 
 these individuals, — ^what can be more offensive than 
 to see Clergymen, Ministers of the Gospel of Peace, 
 so far forgetting themselves, their duties, and their 
 position, as to appear at public meetings as speakers, 
 or -in the daily journals as correspondents, whose
 
 14 
 
 tone is rather that of personal opposition, than of 
 grave objection to error, and who thereby almost 
 compel us to think, that they are lamentably deficient 
 in that spirit which is " pure, and peaceable, and 
 gentle, and easy to be intreated, full of mercy and 
 good fruits," — '' thinking no evil," — "rejoicing not 
 in iniquity, but rejoicing in the truth." 
 
 I would that such could see themselves as they 
 appear to others, — and could think of themselves, 
 as all good men, of whatever party, must think of 
 them. I would that they would reflect, with whom 
 they are leaguing themselves, and whether some of 
 those with whom they act are not men whose hearts' 
 desire, and ulterior object, is the total destruction 
 of our National Church. And more than this, — 
 I would that they should learn a lesson from the 
 men, whose doctrines they repudiate, and whose 
 persons they so bitterly assail. Whatever may have 
 been the errors, whether of doctrine or of judgment, 
 (and of these I am not at present speaking,) of which 
 the Authors of the Tracts for the Times have been 
 guilty, I will say this for them, that the moderation 
 and forbearance they have shewn under insults the 
 most galling and provoking that can be imagined, 
 has been exemplary ; and I am glad to avail myself
 
 15 
 
 of this public opportunity of expressing my admira- 
 tion of the meek and Christian spirit they have in- 
 variably shewn, — not rendering railing for railing, 
 and never tempted, by the frequent ignorance, and 
 often immeasurable inferiority, of many of their 
 adversaries, to retort upon them. 
 
 You will observe, that what I have now said has 
 no reference whatever to the question, how far the 
 doctrines promulgated by the Tract-writers are, 
 or are not, erroneous : but I am desirous now to 
 record my judgment, that, granting them to be ever 
 so erroneous, ever so heretical, and ever so much to 
 be condemned, they have been dealt with, for the 
 most part, in that spirit of predetermined hostility, 
 which is most apt to confound what is true with 
 what is false, and which, from having so little of 
 Christian charity in it (for charity, while it has no 
 leaning to the error, is lenient to the erring), is on 
 that very ground to be suspected. 
 
 I now proceed, in the discharge of the heavy 
 responsibilities of my office, to offer some remarks 
 and advice on the subject of the opinions of which 
 we have been speaking. 
 
 Four years ago, when the principles in question 
 were beginning to spread, men knew not how, and
 
 16 
 
 while there was more doubt than at present where- 
 iinto they would grow, — whether, like fire among 
 the thorns they w^ould blaze up for the moment, 
 and then die away, — or whether the flame was kind- 
 led among such materials as would give forth no 
 mean light, and not be readily extinguished, I took 
 the opportunity to speak freely to you, of the good, 
 which, in my opinion, had actually resulted from the 
 publication of the Tracts for the Times, of the ten- 
 dencies in them which I considered dangerous ; 
 and I further stated to you, that my fears arose, 
 for the most part, rather from the disciples than the 
 teachers. 
 
 During the period which has intervened, I have, 
 speaking generally, seen no reason to alter my 
 sentiments. 
 
 The Tracts for the Times have indeed been 
 brought to a close, and at my personal request. 
 And I take this opportunity of repeating in pubUc, 
 what I have never been backward to acknowledge 
 in private, my deep sense of the dutifulness, and 
 ready submission, which was then shewn to the 
 Bishop of the diocese, and of the afl'ection and kind 
 feeling displayed towards myself personally by the 
 individuals most interested.
 
 17 
 
 With respect to the 90th Tract, which was the 
 immediate cause of my interference, I have already 
 expressed my opinion, that it was objectionable, and 
 likely to disturb the peace of the Church. I thought 
 so last year, and I think so still. I deeply regret 
 its publication, though I am quite ready to allow, 
 that the explanations, with which it has been subse- 
 quently modified, or rather, I should say, by which 
 the writer's original meaning has been made more 
 clear, have in part relieved me from some of those 
 most serious apprehensions, with which the first 
 perusal of it filled my mind. I am aware, that the 
 Articles of our Church were rather drawn up with 
 the view of including, than of excluding, men of 
 various shades of opinion, and I am further aware, 
 that, if a precedent w^ere wanted for — I will not say 
 stretching — ^but for contorting the meaning of those 
 formularies, nothing can exceed the licence which 
 has been assumed by Calvinistic interpreters of the 
 Articles — a licence, w^hich has often gone beyond 
 what was attempted in the 90th Tract. Still, I 
 cannot persuade myself, that any but the plain obvious 
 meaning is the meaning which as members of the 
 Church we are bound to receive ; and I cannot re- 
 concile myself to a system of interpretation, which
 
 18 
 
 is so subtle, that by it the Articles may be made to 
 mean anything or nothing. 
 
 Nevertheless, if within certain limits the Articles 
 may be so construed as not to force persons of a 
 Calvinistic bias to leave the Church, I do not see 
 why a similar licence, within the same limits, is not 
 to be conceded to those, whose opinions accord with 
 those of our Divines who resisted the puritanical 
 temper of the 16th and 17th centuries; or why 
 such persons should be forced into communion with 
 Rome. And I say this the more, because I am 
 satisfied that the 90th Tract was written with the 
 object of retaining persons within the bosom of our 
 Church who might otherwise ^have seceded, and 
 further, because I think that few living men have 
 written more ably upon the errors of the Romish 
 Church, and the sin of leaving our own Church for 
 her communion, than the author of that Tract. 
 
 With respect to the other numbers of the work 
 in question, it is obviously impossible to speak 
 otherwise than very generally. No doubt there are 
 many imperfections in them. The language is often 
 painfully obscure, equivocal, capable of bearing 
 
 ^ See pages 28, 29 of Mr. Newman's letter to Dr. Jelf ; also 
 the introduction of Dr. Pusey's letter to Dr. Jelf.
 
 19 
 
 several interpretations, and not rarely it is most un- 
 guarded. And all this, in addition to there being 
 many statements in them, on which good men will 
 hold conflicting opinions to the end of time, I feel 
 also bound to say, that the authors of the Tracts 
 have seemed to me far too indifferent to the discord 
 and distractions which their actions and writings 
 have caused, thereby hurrying on a crisis, from the 
 acceleration of which nothing is to be hoped, and 
 everything to be feared. However, as public atten- 
 tion has been, and is so strongly directed to the 
 Tracts, there seems no fear lest any errors in them 
 should remain undetected. God grant, that what 
 there is of evil in them may be rendered innocuous, 
 that what is good may be yet further blessed to the 
 Church's welfare ; and that those, who contributed 
 to produce them, may in all their future writings so 
 profit by past experience, as to keep ever before 
 them the Apostolic injunctions — " not to let their 
 good be evil spoken of," and " to abstain from all 
 appearance of evil." 
 
 That, in spite of these faults, the Tracts for the 
 Times have, from their commencement, exerted a 
 beneficial influence among us in many respects 
 must, I should think, — even their enemies being
 
 20 
 
 their judges, — be admitted. Their effect even upon 
 those who are not in communion with our Church,— 
 the Dissenters and Romanists, — has not been imma- 
 terial ; and within the Church it is impossible to 
 mark the revival of Church principles which has 
 taken place among us, the increasing desire for 
 unity — the increasing sense of the guilt and evils of 
 schism — the yearning after that discipline which we 
 have so much lost — the more ready and willing 
 obedience to ecclesiastical authority — the greater 
 anxiety to Uve by the Prayer-Book — the better 
 observation of the Fasts and Festivals of the 
 Church — the more decent ministration of, and 
 deeper reverence for, her Sacraments — growing 
 habits of devotion and self-sacrifice, — it is impos- 
 sible, I say, to see these things, and their growth 
 within the last ten years, and not acknowledge that, 
 under God, the authors of the Tracts have been 
 the humble instruments of at least bringing them 
 before men's minds, and of exhibiting in their own 
 lives their practical fruits. 
 
 And now, since nothing can be more unfair, than 
 to make the teachers responsible for the proceedings 
 of the disciples, where the latter are now wholly 
 beyond their control, I would say a few words
 
 21 
 
 with respect to those, who, as you know, excited 
 my fears heretofore, and have since in some in- 
 stances verified them. I am happy to say that, so 
 far as the Parochial Clergy are concerned, the 
 caution which I felt it my duty to give at my last 
 Visitation with respect to the revival of obsolete 
 practices, which were calculated to give offence, 
 without any adequate advantage resulting, has been, 
 so far as I have been able to ascertain, attended to. 
 Of course questions about vestments and matters 
 of a similar description, cannot be raised without 
 much higher principles being involved. It was not 
 a contest whether the red rose or the white were 
 the fairer flower, which in a former age deluged 
 our land with blood. These were but the outward 
 badges of the strife of political opinions within. 
 Still, in the present state of the Church, when 
 there are already such miserable divisions among 
 us with respect to the essentials of Religion, it does 
 seem to me worse than folly in those who so far 
 allow their zeal to master their judgment, as to go 
 out of their way to create fresh causes of dissension, 
 by giving undue importance to things indifferent, 
 and even of questionable value. And besides, those, 
 who profess to be guided by CathoUc principles,
 
 22 
 
 should remember that one of the first principles of 
 Catholicism is " dv€V rov iirio-KO'JTOV firjZev Trpacrcreti/''," to 
 do nothing without Episcopal sanction. 
 
 Generally speaking, indiscretions such as I have 
 alluded to emanate only from very young men ; and 
 such persons may be quite sure that, whatever be 
 their talents, or how sincere soever their zeal, 
 there cannot but be great defects of character in 
 them — they can hardly be otherwise than self-con- 
 fident, or vain, or deficient in humility, or far 
 from having disciplined minds. And here I must 
 further observe, that there has appeared to me a 
 lamentable want of judgment, and I cannot but say 
 of charity and humility too, in the writings of some 
 who of late have come forward as the advocates of 
 Catholic principles. When a man anathematizes 
 Protestantism, he may very possibly mean nothing 
 more than that he refers Dissenters to the judgment 
 of God, — no doubt it was so in the case to which I 
 allude, — but not one man in a thousand will under- 
 stand this ; to the world, who receive words in 
 their common acceptation, he will seem to be 
 invoking judgments on whatever is not Popish. 
 And I do say, that men ought to pause and consider 
 
 •= Ignatius ad Trail. § 2.
 
 23 
 
 what they are about, before they use language which 
 is sure to be misinterpreted. Really the reckless- 
 ness to the mischiefs, which arise from expressions 
 of this description, is quite inexcusable. 
 
 Further I must take leave to tell those persons, 
 whoever they are, that they are doing no good 
 service to the Church of England, by their recent 
 publication of manuals of private devotion, ex- 
 tracted from the Breviary and similar sources — 
 by inserting therein no small portion of highly 
 objectionable matter, and tacitly, if not openly, 
 encouraging young persons to be dissatisfied with 
 what God has given them, and to look on the con- 
 tents of our admirable Liturgy as insufficient to 
 meet the wants of a Catholic mind. Be it ours, 
 my Reverend Brethren, to remind the young and 
 ardent of these days, that it is a most dangerous 
 delusion to wander from any thing so definite and 
 tangible as the Prayer-Book, in search of what is so 
 indefinite and elusive as that shadowy Catholicism, 
 which, under the aspect represented by them, has 
 never existed except in their own imaginations. 
 
 Again, I most strongly deprecate the tone which 
 some, mistaking their position and their duties, 
 have thought fit to adopt with respect to the 
 
 B 2
 
 24 
 
 Reformation and the Reformers. No doubt that in 
 some, and these not unimportant respects, as in the 
 loss of Church discipUne, we suffered by that great 
 convulsion. There was much fearful crime, much 
 iniquitous sacrilege, much done that had been better 
 left undone. So likewise the Reformers were but 
 frail, fallible men, compassed about with many 
 infirmities, sometimes halting (how could it be 
 otherwise ?) between two opinions, and sometimes 
 of course erring in judgment. Still we are their 
 debtors to an incalculable amount : and if, perhaps, 
 we have lost some little through them, or rather in 
 spite of their wishes to the contrary, we have lost far 
 less than our sins deserved : we have even now, 
 through their instrumentality, more blessings within 
 our reach than we care to avail ourselves of ; and 
 if, I must say it once more, if we were not deficient 
 in humility, we should be so grateful for what we 
 have, that we might almost, perhaps, begin to hope, 
 that in His good time God would make up to us, 
 what hitherto we have been without. 
 
 Further ; — the rude, unthinking, and unjustifiable 
 manner, in which some have allowed themselves to 
 speak of the Reformation, has a direct tendency to 
 produce that frame of mind which under-estimates
 
 25 
 
 the intolerable evils and errors of the Romish system, 
 — which slurs over its defects, conceals its guilt, 
 and thereby inclines the doubting, the thoughtless, 
 the self-willed, the half-educated, to listen to the 
 suggestions of those who offer them, in communion 
 with the Roman obedience, the unity which they 
 long for, and the support of a guide who claims to 
 be infallible. And let no one think, that this is an 
 imaginary evil, or that there is no danger at the 
 present time of a secession from our ranks to those 
 of Rome. There is very great danger, very 
 imminent danger, one that it behoves us to look 
 steadily in the face, and be prepared for. I do not 
 mean that I anticipate any defection, my Reverend 
 Brethren, from those of our own profession : I trust 
 and believe, that the Clergy generally are too fully 
 persuaded in their own minds that the Church in 
 which they exercise their Ministry has all the marks 
 of a branch of the true Church, to make them have 
 a thought or a wish beyond it. And I see nothing 
 in a few sad cases which have occurred of late, to 
 make me change my opinion. When persons of 
 not very strong minds find that extreme opinions 
 on one side are erroneous, they commonly run into 
 those of an opposite description. When they have
 
 2G 
 
 made the discovery that Calvinism is unsafe ground 
 to stand upon, they conclude that Romanism is the 
 only thing which can afford them the sure footing 
 they require. The Puritans believed that the con- 
 tradictory of Popery was purity of faith. This, of 
 course, was a great error, and has been repudiated, 
 but error is multiform, and the danger now is lest 
 persons, who have originally been leavened with 
 Puritanical tenets, should, on finding their error, 
 rush to the other extreme, and take it for granted 
 that what is nearest to Popery is nearest to truth. 
 My fears, however, as I have already observed, are 
 not with respect to the Clergy, but to the rising 
 generation. The religious movement of the last ten 
 years has been gradual : those, who have most con- 
 tributed to it, seem rather to have been led on from 
 one opinion to another, than to have seen from the 
 first whither they would advance, or to have started 
 with any definite system : we therefore, my Reverend 
 Brethren, have had more opportunity to view things 
 calmly and dispassionately. But with respect to 
 young persons this can hardly be said to be the 
 case. With all the impetuosity and self-confidence 
 of youth about them, — reckless of consequences, 
 and full of exaggerated notions of the rights of
 
 27 
 
 private judgment, they find themselves in the midst 
 of a controversy, which has brought many older 
 persons, persons of the highest talents and deepest 
 religious feelings, into a miserable state of doubt 
 and disquietude. They see on all sides a spirit at 
 work, which nothing human can quell; — there is 
 a desire for unity and Catholic privileges which 
 interests them, and they observe the persecuting, 
 unchristian spirit, in which many act and write 
 who oppose themselves to the present movement. 
 With the generosity which is natural to their time 
 of life, they are disposed to take part with those 
 whom they think hardly treated ; and then, perhaps, 
 in place of giving themselves up to the Church 
 system, and so becoming practically better than they 
 were before, — humble, diffident, self-disciplined, 
 thankful for the blessings they possess, — they be- 
 come mere talkers, perhaps even irreverent de- 
 claimers on subjects which are too hard for them, 
 or which, at any rate, they are too ignorant, if not 
 too shallow, to view in all their bearings. Mean- 
 wliile Rome has her eye upon them ; and, adapting 
 herself to their tone of mind, represents her Creed 
 not as it is, but as they wish it to be. She keeps 
 what is essentially Popish as much as possible in
 
 28 
 
 the back-ground, — brings what is Cathohc promi- 
 nently forward, and so in the end wins them over to 
 her side, because they are too impatient to learn, that 
 the middle way of truth, the way of the English 
 Church, is as far removed from Popery on the one 
 side as from Puritanism on the other. 
 
 I must therefore exhort you, my Reverend 
 Brethren, that, as on all other accounts, so espe- 
 cially on this, you extend at the present time a 
 double measure of care and watchfulness towards 
 the younger members of your flock. If, with 
 me, you believe that there is an almost incal- 
 culable amount of error and superstition in the 
 Church of Rome ; — if, with me, you believe that 
 she has not altered one jot or tittle of her ancient 
 character ; — if, with me, you believe her to be still 
 as subtle, as dangerous, and as false as she has ever 
 been, as shameless a perverter of the truth, and 
 as cruel a persecutor ; — if, with me, you feel that 
 any attempt at union with her, while she is what she 
 is, is to be deprecated utterly, and that all conces- 
 sion must come from her, not from us ; — if, with 
 me, you have (because you know her real character) 
 a deep and increasing dread of her workings and 
 artifices ; — if, with me, you look on her as schisma-
 
 29 
 
 tical, and anti-Christian ; — if, with me, you feel that 
 our own Church is pure in doctrine, apostoHc in 
 her ministry, and that, if a man will live as her 
 Prayer-Book would have him live, he will not miss 
 of his salvation ; you will be more than ever zealous 
 to keep those who have been baptized among us 
 within our pale, and you will leave nothing undone, 
 which the sense of your tremendous responsibilities, 
 — which your feelings of devotedness and affection 
 can suggest, towards preserving those of your flocks 
 who are most exposed to them, from the perils of 
 these dangerous days. 
 
 With this view you will take care, that, so far as 
 in you lies, none shall have it in their power to say, 
 that they sought Rome because their own mother 
 withheld from them the spiritual sustenance which 
 they needed, or because they were discouraged from 
 living (instead of being encouraged to live) according 
 to the system prescribed in the Prayer Book. Let 
 the slovenly method, in which the divine offices have, 
 perhaps, in some places been performed heretofore, 
 cease at once and for ever in all ; let our Churches 
 be no longer left to damp and dilapidation, but meet 
 (as far as we can make them so) for the presence of 
 Him who hath promised to come among us there
 
 30 
 
 and bless us. Above all, let the ministration of the 
 blessed Sacraments be duly and reverently performed ; 
 the one no longer solemnized out of its proper place 
 in the service, the other more frequently adminis- 
 tered. I well know that we have been so neglectful, 
 that our people have ceased to value much which we 
 could restore to them, and it will only be when we 
 have taught them to look on attendance upon the 
 ordinances of religion as a blessing and a privilege 
 as well as a duty, that we can bring them back to 
 the habits and feelings of a better day. And this 
 can only be done gradually, most gradually, and in 
 the exercise of that sound discretion, which prefers 
 slow but sure advance, to that more rapid and excited 
 movement which is sure ere long to halt and linger, 
 and is not rarely forced to retrace its steps. Two 
 services on the Sunday, where hitherto there has 
 been but one, the observances of the Festivals, of 
 Lent and Passion Week, and, as opportunity may 
 offer, of the Ember and Rogation days, may in due 
 time bring us back to the restoration of the daily 
 service. The Church fasts kept will accustom men 
 to habits of self-denial, and we may have more hope, 
 that luxury will diminish, and almsgiving increase ; 
 the Offertory will not be as now, almost a mockery
 
 3L 
 
 of offerings, not as now, rarely read, but regularly, 
 and largely contributed to. In a word, let the 
 teaching of the Church and her holy practices as a 
 Church be systematically brought forward, taking 
 care, of course, all the while that an exaggerated 
 and undue importance is not given to externals, — 
 that, to use the language of a popular cry, " the 
 Church be not set in place of the Saviour ;" 
 let there be, in short, a nearer approximation, 
 year by year, to the system prescribed by our 
 Prayer-Book, and I do not fear but that the result 
 will be a vast increase of piety, devotion, and charity 
 among us, and those Catholic aspirations and long- 
 ings, which we hear of as now seeking relief irregu- 
 larly and inadequately, and as looking towards 
 other communions, will find safe and sufficient 
 vent in our own. Be sure there is at this time an 
 expansive principle within us, which can no longer 
 be pent up with safety. If you attempt to repress 
 it, an explosion, the limits of whose destructive 
 force none can tell, will inevitably follow. But we 
 have a safety-valve ready provided in the Church 
 system, which, if only properly used, may yet bear 
 us harmless. As for those, the success of whose 
 system would be to drive their brethren into seces-
 
 32 
 
 sion, it seems to me that they little know of what 
 spirit they are. The opinions they dislike may or 
 may not be true — that is a point on which men 
 may differ to the end of time — but it cannot be well 
 to condemn rashly and rancorously what has been 
 held in whole or in part by such men as Bull, and 
 Beveridge, and Andrewes, and Hooker, and Taylor, 
 and Jackson, and a host besides of those who, in 
 their day, were, and are still, the soundest Divines 
 of the Church of England. It cannot be wise to 
 seek to expel from the bosom of that Church men 
 who love her with no common love, and seek to 
 serve her with no ordinary devotion. 
 
 And while I thus warn you of the manner in 
 which, without doing any thing hastily, unadvisedly, 
 or without due intimation of your intentions to 
 myself, you may, each in his own sphere, render 
 our Church system more accordant in her practice 
 with what she is in theory, I trust it is unne- 
 cessary to remind you, how needful it has become 
 that your studies should be directed to the subjects 
 which now agitate the public mind, and I am con- 
 fident that, whatever views you espouse, you will 
 not condemn without reading, and honestly making 
 yourselves acquainted with, the real opinions of
 
 33 
 
 those from whom you differ. Still less, I trust, is 
 it needful, that I should recommend you especially 
 to arm yourselves with sound weapons of defence 
 against the assaults of Rome. If ever there was a 
 case, in which weak arguments, illogical conclusions, 
 incorrect statements, and a little knowledge were 
 dangerous, it is in that contest. Our opponents 
 are no unskilled controversiaUsts, and they desire 
 nothing better than an antagonist, whose notions of 
 Popery are gathered from the declamations of 
 popular orators at the public meetings of the day. 
 
 Nor, while I speak of your studies, must I omit 
 one caution with respect to yourselves, namely, that, 
 if the Church is ever to be, what all confess she 
 might be among us, and all declare they wish her to 
 be, her priesthood must be holy, — examples in 
 prayer, in hoUness, in devotedness, in self-denial, 
 in taking up the Cross of Christ crucified ; — they 
 must live as men who, in the words of St. Paul, 
 " though troubled on every side," are yet " not dis- 
 tressed ; though perplexed, yet not in despair ; 
 persecuted, but not forsaken ; cast down, but not 
 destroyed; always bearing about in the body the 
 dying of the Lord Jesus, that the life also of Jesus 
 might be made manifest in their body*^." 
 
 ^ 2 Cor. iv. 8, 9, 10.
 
 34 
 
 In conclusion, I have little hope that what I have 
 now said will escape misrepresentations ; and to this, 
 so far as the world is concerned. I am quite prepared 
 to submit. But you. my Reverend Brethi^n. who 
 can appreciate and s^inpathize in the difficulties 
 which it has pleased God to lay on those who hold 
 lii2:h office in the Church, will know that what has 
 been spoken has not been uttered with the view of 
 either supporting: or depressing any man or set of 
 men. But the same vows, which bind me "" with all 
 faithful dih2:ence to banish and drive away all erro- 
 neous doctrines, and to encourage others to do the 
 same," bind me likewise '' to maintain and set for- 
 ward quietness, peace, and love amons: all men," 
 and to restrain '* the unquiet and disobedient." 
 
 And, seein? the grievous want of charity which 
 has prevailed among us, I have felt it my dut\' to 
 condemn those who have set themselves forward as 
 2:i*atuitous agitators, and unbidden accusers of their 
 bretlii'en. I am no lover of error, and will shew it 
 no favour ; but, wliile the world stands, there must 
 be points on which good men will differ, and so long 
 as those points of difference do not contravene the 
 Prayer-Book and formulaiies of the Church, it seems 
 to me. that one set of opinions has the same right to 
 expect toleration as the other.
 
 35 
 
 Believe me, what most we need is peace : peace, 
 in order that the Church may " lengthen her cords 
 and strengthen her stakes," and provide spiritual 
 sustenance for her population rapidly heathenizing 
 through want of religious instruction ; peace, in 
 order that her parochial system may be once more 
 made adequate to the wants of her people ; peace, 
 in order that she may calmly prepare, not merely for 
 any crisis of opinions among her own children, but 
 for that tremendous, final contest betw^een good 
 and evil, to which all things seem hastening with 
 rapidity. Let us, then, avoiding the strifes of men, 
 and keeping ourselves pure, seek the Church's 
 peace, and ensue it : and let our daily prayer be that 
 of one who died a martyr in her cause, and whose 
 blood was not shed in vain; that God would "fill 
 her with all truth, in all truth, with all peace ;" 
 that where she is " corrupt," her Heavenly Father 
 would vouchsafe to "purify her," "where in error, 
 to direct her ; where superstitious, to rectify her ; 
 where any thing is amiss in her, to reform it ; where it 
 is right, to strengthen and confirm her ; where she is in 
 want of any thing, to furnish it ; where she is divided 
 and rent asunder, to make up the breaches of it^" 
 
 ^ Archbishop Laud's Private Devotions, Dominica V. post 
 Epiphaniam.
 
 36 
 
 And then, my Brethren, be the end what it may, 
 we shall not be unprepared to meet it : — w^e shall, 
 perhaps, even be made worthy to suffer for His 
 sake, who is the Church's Head and Lord ; — and, 
 when the doubts and strifes of this present world 
 are ended, shall through His alone merits be 
 admitted to those mansions which have been pre- 
 pared from the foundation of the world for the 
 peace-makers, — the poor in spirit, — the meek, the 
 merciful, the pure in heart. 
 
 OXFORD : 
 PRINTED BY 1. SHBIMPTON.
 
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