Golighlly

NEW AND STRANGE DOCTRINES

EXTRACTED FHOM

THE WRITINGS OF MR. NEWMAN
AND HIS FRIENDS,

A LETTER

REV. W. F. HOOK, D.D.

BY ONE OF THE ORIGINAL SUBSCRIBERS TO THE
TRACTS FOR THE TIMES.

" Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, to-day, and for ever. Be not carried
with divers and strange doctrines." Hehr. xiii. 8, 9.

OXFORD,
PRINTED BY W. BAXTER;
SOLD BY SIMPKIN, MARSHALL, AND CO. LONDON.
H\\<S^2. 1841.

BAXTER, PRINTER, OXFORD.

CONTENTS.

Attacks on the XXXIX Articles — on the Prayer
Book — on the Reformers and the Reformation — on the
Existing Bishops, and the Purity of their Succession —
New and Strange Views of Justification — of Sin after
Baptism — of Reserve in Religious Teaching — Favorable
Mention of the Church of Rome — Favorable Mention of
the Council of Trent — Tradition — Images — Invocation of
Saints — Sign of the Cross — Sinlessness of the Virgin-^
Assumption of the Virgin.

A LETTER,

Rev. Sir,
The high character which you bear for learning
and ability, and the influence which you conse
quently exercise over many members of our
common Church, must plead my excuse for begging
you to reconsider some sentiments which you have
advocated in your recently-published Letter to the
Bishop of Ripon.
The passage to which I more particularly allude
is the following. You maintain (p. 5.) that ' it is
an undeniable fact that there are two parties in
the Church of England, the High Church and the
Low Church party,' and that the recent condemna
tion of No. 90 of the Tracts for the Times by the
Board of Heads of Houses at Oxford ' renders it
absolutely necessary for us to range ourselves on
the one side or the other.' You add, that in your
opinion the duty of each individual is ' to join that
party with which in general principles he agrees,
and not desert it merely because he may think that a

6
few individuals may have expressed themselves in
some points incautiously, or have been hurried into
acts which a colder and a calmer judgment may
condemn.' Now I shall not stop to consider whether it be
wise or right to recognise such divisions in the
Church of England, nor whether, upon the sup
position of their existence, the declaration of the
Hebdomadal Board, that a certain mode of inter
preting the XXXIX Articles is inconsistent with
the Statutes of the University, renders it imperative
upon her members to choose their side, although I
confess that to my thinking the connection here
between cause and effect is not very obvious. But I
beg to put to you very seriously and respectfully
the following question. Do you really mean to
maintain, that all the fault you have to find with
the Authors of the Tracts for the Times is, that
' they have on some points expressed themselves
incautiously, and been hurried into acts, which a
colder and a calmer judgment may condemn ?'
From the date of your Letter I shall presume,
that at the moment of writing it you were not
aware that the Bishop of Oxford, Mr. Newman's
own diocesan, had expressed a somewhat dif
ferent opinion in the following words, viz. that
No. 90 of the Series called Tracts for the Times
was ' objectionable, and might tend to disturb the
peace and tranquillity of the Church ;' and further,
that it was his Lordship's advice, ' that the Tracts

for the Times should be discontinued.' That with
your views you shodld differ from his Lordship, I
can only account for upon the supposition either
that you have never examined the sentiments of
Mr. Newman and his friends, or have forgotten
them. At all events, if, at the time of writing, the
following had been present to your recollection, I
am persuaded that you would not have been satisfied
with bringing so light a charge against their
advocates as the want of a little care and caution.
L Attacks on the XXXIX Articles.
For the present ' let the Church sit still ; let her be
content to be in bondage; let her submit to her imper
fections as a punishment ; let her go on teaching with the
stammering lips of ambiguous formularies, and inconsistent
precedents, and principles but partially developed. We
are not better than our fathers; let us bear to be what
Hammond was, or Andrews, or Hooker ; let us not faint
under that body of death, which they bore about in
patience ; nor shrink from the penalty of sins, which they
inherited from the age before them.' Tracts for the
Times, No. 90.
I am sure. Sir, that you would not attribute the
disparaging language, in which the Articles are
spoken of here and in other parts of the same
Tract, to mere want of caution on the part of the
writer, or differ from Mr. Sewell in condemning
' the representation of them as a bondage rather
than a safeguard, and the suggestion that their

8
latitude and so-called ' ambiguity' is an evil to be
deprecated ;' instead of regarding these character
istics ' in the true light of a most wise, and chari-
table moderation, and a blessing for which we should
be thankful \'
II. Attacks upon the Prayer Book.
" Suppose a conscientious Layman to enquire on what
grounds the Prayer Book, &c. are called the teaching of
the Church, how are we to answer him .' Shall we tell
him that they were formerly enacted by Convocation in
the reign of Charles II ? But what especial claim had
this Convocation, &c. to monopolize the name and autho
rity of the Church.?  I can see no other claim,
which the Prayer Book has on a Layman ''s deference as
the teaching of the Church, which the Breviary and
Missal have not in a far greater degree." Fronde's Re
mains, pp. 402, 3.
" Some might be disposed to think, that the changes in
the second Book of King Edward, brought about through
the advice and influence (though perhaps not the open
instrumentality) of foreigners, were opposed to the spirit
of the previous declaration intended against Rome, that
each Church was to regulate its own internal affairs; that
it had not so much the free and spontaneous concurrence
of the Church itself; and that therefore this book had not
the high sanction of the former. Or it might be supposed
that any innovation at all on the ancient forms of worship
savoured of irreverence, for it is written, ' Remove not
the ancient landmarks which thy fathers have set,'' and that
it therefore endangered the Church's forfeiting the bless
ing attached to thejifth Com.mandment, which promises the
" Letter to Dr. I'usey, p. 4.

9
strength of earthly inheritance to honour paid to parents ;
for it is a kind of parental authority which sacred antiquity
claims over us. It is an easy matter now to think thus ;
but, considering the state of the times, it should rather be
ever remembered as the interference of a most merciful
Providence, that any thing ancient was retained through
those convulsions." Tracts for the Times, No. 86, p. 33.
Here again you will surely admit, that the
authors of the foregoing passages have been guilty
of a somewhat graver offence than ' want of caution,'
and that the natural effect of such writing is to
shake our deference for the authority of our own
Church, and lower our value for the Book of
Common Prayer.
III. Attacks on the Reformation and the Reformers.
" I hate the Reformation and the Reformers more and
more." Fronde's Remains, p. 389.
" As to the Reformers, I think worse and worse of
tiiem. Jewel is what you would call in these days an
irreverent Dissenter.^'' Ibid. p. 379.
" Also, why do you praise Ridley.' Do you know
sufficient good about him to counterbalance the fact, that
he was the associate of Cranmer, Peter Martyr, and
Bucer^?" 76irf. p. 293, 4.
'• Dean Jackson speaks of this Reformer as the ' learned and
religious Bucer ;' Works, t. i. p. 759. Bishop Hall of Jewel,
as ' the precious Jewel.' Works, t. ix. p. 444. And Hooker
says of the same great writer, that he was ' the worthiest
divine that Christendom had seen for the space of some
hundreds of years.' Eccl. Pol. b. ii. sect. 6.

10
In presenting you with these and other extracts
from Mr. Froude's Remains, you must excuse my
remarking, that whatever ' want of caution' the
editors of that pubhcation may have been guilty of,
the giving Mr. Froude's sentiments to the world
was not an ' act' which they were ' hurried into.'
They did not publish the work until two years
after the death of the writer, and profess to have
exercised so great care in the selection of extracts
from his correspondence, as to have ' kept nothing
back, but what it was judged would be fairly and
naturally misunderstood,' and ' inserted nothing
which did not tell indirectly perhaps, but really,
towards filling up the outline of his mind and
character, which seemed requisite to complete the
idea of him as a witness to Catholic views.' (Preface,
pp. xxi, xxii.)
IV. Attacks on the existing Bishops, and the purity
of their Succession.
" Some months ago, before I had repented of my
radicalism, I was devising a scheme for you, which was
knocked on the head by my finding from the British
Magazine, that you were ordained by the Bishop of  .
For my part, / had rather have had my Orders from a
Scotch Bishop, and I thought of suggesting the same to
you. The stream is purer." Vol. i. p. 385.
Again :
Aug. 16, 1831. " Nothing yet is so painful as the
defection of the heads of the Church. I hear that the
Bishop of Ferns is dying ; spes ultima." Vol. i. p. 250.

11
V. New and strange View of the Doctrine of
Justification".
" Justification consists in the habitation in us of God
the Father, and the Word Incarnate through the Holy
Ghost." " To be justified is to receive the divine pre
sence within us, and be made a temple of the Holy
Ghost." Lectures on Justification, p. 160.
This, it may be observed, is a totally different
account of the doctrine from that which we find
in the Homily of Salvation, to which the Xlth of
our XXXIX Articles refers. " Because all men
be sinners and offenders against God, and breakers
of his Law and Commandment, therefore can no
man by his own acts, works, and deeds, (seem they
never so good,) be justified and made righteous
before God, but every man of necessity is con
strained to seek another Righteousness or Justifica
tion to be received at God's hands, that is to say,
the forgiveness of his sins and trespasses in such
things as he hath offended."
Archbishop Laurence remarks, that Mr. Newman
has afiixed a peculiar sense to the word Justifi
cation, which, with the exception of Osiander, no
Protestant had ever afiixed before." Visitation of
the Saxon Church. Appendix.

•^ See this and the two following points more fully considered
in a work entitled ' Strictures upon Dr. Pusey's Letter to the
Bishop of Oxford, by a Clergyman of the Diocese, and Resident
Member of the University.'

12
But to prove the novelty and strangeness of the
views of Justification maintained by Mr. Newman
and his friends, it may be well to put some of their
statements side by side with those of writers whom
they have themselves, when treating of other sub
jects, referred to as leading divines of the Church
of England, and quoted as links of a Catena
Patrum.

1. Justification and Sanctification are really one

gift.

Mr. Newman.
" I do not understand
how a man can read this
most important Psalm, i. e.
the 51st, without perceiving
that we are forgiven by
being, or while we are re
newed, and that the present
broad separation of Justifi
cation and Sanctification,
as if they were two gifts, is
technical and unscriptural."
Lectures, p. 44.
" It is usual at the pre
sent day to lay great stress
on the distinction between
deliverance from guilt, and
deliverance from sin ,• to lay
down as a first principle.

Hooker.
" St. Paul doth I'LAiNLY
SEVER these two parts of
Christian righteousness one
from another. For in the
sixth to the Romans thus he
writeth ; ' Being freed from
sin, and made servants unto
God, ye have your fruit in
holiness, and the end ever
lasting life.' ' Ye are made
free from sin, and made
servants unto God,' this is
the righteousness of Justi
fication. ' Ye have your
fruit in holiness;' this is the
righteousness of Sancti/i-
cation.'''' On Justification,
sect. 6.

13

that they are two coincident
indeed and contemporary
but altogether independent
benefits, to call them Justifi
cation and Renewal, and to
consider that any confusion
between them argues serious
and alarming ignorance of
Christian truth. Now in
opposition to this, it may
surely be maintained, that
Scripture itself blends them
together as intimately as
any system of Theology can
do." p. 42.

Bishop Beveridge.
" The Scriptures plainly
distinguish between Justi
fication and Sanctification.
Sanctification being God's
act in us, whereby we are
made righteous in ourselves,
but Justification is God's
act in Himself, whereby we
are accounted righteous by
Him, and shall be declared
to be so at the Judgment
of the great day." Serm.
on Rom. iv. 25.

2. Justification consists partly in Remission of
Sins, partly in Sanctification.

Dr. Pusey.
" As God's true servants
allow his Spirit to burn out
what is impure within Him,
though they have still need
of daily forgiveness, and
feel that need the more,
there is actually less to be
forgiven. God makes them
acceptable to Himself, more
by creating in them what

Homily on Salvation,
" Righteousness, or Jus
tification, i. e. the forgive
ness of our sins and tres
passes in such things as we
have offended. And this
Justification or Righteous
ness which we receive of
God's mercy and Christ's
merits embraced by faith,
is taken, accepted, and al-

14
is intrinsically acceptable to lowed of God for our per-
him, less by effacing what feet and full justification.
is displeasing. And thus
Justification becomes more
and more identified with
Sanctification ; although since
the best to the end remain
imperfect, there is still need
of His grace justifying them
as in part unholy, as well
as making them day by day
more holy. And so in the
sad reverse, when persons
are gradually falling out of
a justified state, their jus
tification, so long as they
continue in it, consists more
in the remission of sin
through the longsuffering
of God ; less in sanctifica
tion by His Spirit." Letter
to the Bishop of Oxford,
Introduction, p. xvi.
Obs. It is remarkable that Archbishop Cranmer's
great enemy Bishop Gardiner, laid his finger upon
this very expression, when endeavouring to prove
that the doctrine contained in the Homilies was
contrary to that of another work previously put
forth by authority of Parliament. " The Boke of
Homyles hath in the Homilie of Salvation, how
Remission of synne is taken, accepted, and allowed
of God for your perfect Justification. The doctrine

15
of the Parliament teacheth Justification for the
fullness and perfection thereof, to have more parts
than Remission of sinne, as in the same appereth.
And althought Remission of sinne be a Justification,
yett it is not a full and perfite." Bishop of Winton
to the Duke of Somerset, Strype's Cranmer, t. ii.
p. 786.
3. There is no real difference between the views
of sounder Romanists and our own on the subject
of Justification.

Dr. Pusey.
" It has been admitted by
moderate theologians even of
the reformed school, that the
sounder wri ters in theChurch
of Rome itself, mean sub
stantially the same as them
selves." Letter ,Introd. p. ix.

Hooker.
" If any man think that
I seek to varnish their opi
nions, to set the better foot
of a lame cause foremost, let
him know, that since I began
thoroughly to understand
their meaning, I have found
their halting greater than
perhaps it seemeth to them
which know not the deepness
of Satan, as the Blessed
Divine speaketh." Disc, on
Justification, sect. 38.

The ' moderate theologians of the reformed
school' referred to by Dr. Pusey are Le Blanc and
Mr. Newman (!). Who the sounder writers in the
Church of Rome are he does not inform us, but it

16
matters not what individual Romanists may have
said. The question is. What saith the Church of
Rome? VI. New and Strange View of Sin after Baptism.

Dr. Pusey.
" The Church has no
second Baptism to give, and
therefore cannot pronounce
the sinner altogether free
from past sin."
" There are but two
periods ot absolute cleansing.
Baptism and the Day of
Judgment." Letter, pp. 92,
93.

Homilies.
" By the Sacrifice of Christ
infants being baptized and
dying in their infancy are
washed from their sins,
brought to God's favour,
and made his children, and
inheritors of his kingdom of
heaven. And they which in
act or deed do sin after their
Baptism, when they turn
again to God unfeignedly,
they are likewise washedfrom
their sins in such sort, that
there remaineth not any spot
of sin which shall be im
puted to their damnation.''''
On Salvation, Part I.

VII. New and Strange View of Reserve in Religious
Teaching.

Mr. Newman.
" The Alexandrian father
(i. e. Clement) who has

St. Paul.
" We have renounced the
hidden things of dishonesty,

17

NOT WALKING IN CEAFTI-
NESS, NOR HANDLING THE
WORD OF God deceitfully;
BUT BY MANIFESTATION OF
THE TRUTH, COMMENDING
OURSELVES TO EVERY MAN'S
CONSCIENCE IN THE SIGHT OF
God." 1 Cor. iv. 2.

already been referred to,
accurately describes the rules
which should guide the Chris
tian in speaking and acting
economically. " Being ever
persuaded of the omnipre
sence of God," he says, " and
ashamed to come short of the
truth, he is satisfied with the
approval of God, and of his
own conscience. Whatever
is in his mind, is also on
his tongue ; towards those
who are fit recipients, both in
speaking and living, he har
monizes his profession with
his opinions. He both thinks and speaks the truth except
when consideration is necessary, and then, as a physician for
the good of his patients, he will be false, or utter a falsehood,
as the Sophists say. For instance, the great Apostle circum
cised Timothy, while he cried out, and wrote down,
' Circumcision availeth not ;' and yet, lest he should so
suddenly tear his Hebrew disciples from the Law, as to
unsettle them, accommodating himself to the Jews, he
became a Jew, that he might make his gain of all 
Nothing, however, but his neighbour's good will lead him
to do this. He gives himself up for the Church, for the
friends whom he has begotten in the faith, for an example
to those who have the ability to undertake the high office
(oixovoiji,lav) of a teacher, full of love to God and man ; and
so, while he preserves the sincerity of his words, he at the
same time displays the work of zeal for the Lord."
Arians, p. 72.

18
Obs. Mr. Newman's words appear to contain
an express approbation of Clement's most objec
tionable sentiment. But surely he must either
attach some, other than its obvious meaning to the
passage, or would retract his own approval of it
upon further consideration.

Tracts/or the Times.
" The

of bringing

e prevailing notion
forward the
Atonement explicitly and
prominently on all occasions
is evidently quite opposed
to what we consider the

Bp. of Exeter.
" I lament, and more than
lament, the tendency at least,
if not the direct import, of
some of the views of the
writers of the Tracts for the
Times, ' On Reserve in com-

teachingof Scripture."TVac^, municating Religious Know-

No. 80. p. 72.
" To require as is some
times done from both grown
persons and children, an ex
plicit declaration of a belief
in the Atonement, and the
full assurance of its power,
appears equally untenable."
Ibid. p. 78.

ledge,' especially, their ven
turing to recommend to us
to keep back from any who
are baptized the explicit and
full declaration of the doc
trine of the Atonement. I
know not how such reserve
can be made consistent, not
only with the general duty
of the Christian Minister,
to be able at all times to say
with St. Paul, that he ' has
not shunned to declare all
the counsel of God ;' but also with the special and distinct
requirement of our own Church, that every child be taught
the Catechism : for I need not remind you, that in the
Catechism this great Article of our faith holds a most pro
minent place; that it is there taught both by plain imph-

19
cation, in saying, that God the Son hath Redeemed us;
again in the inward grace of each Sacrament ; and more
explicitly and expressly in the reason, " Why the Sacra
ment of the Lord's Supper was ordained," namely, " for
the continual remembrance of the Sacrifice of the Death of
Christ, and of the benefits which we receive thereby."
How is the meaning of these passages to be taught, with
out also teaching the doctrine of the Atonement.^" Charge,
1889.

VIII. Favorable mention of the Church of Rome.
" There is at this moment a great progress of the
religious mind of our Church to something deeper and
truer than satisfied the last century  The age is
moving towards something, and most unhappily the one
religious communion among us which has of late years
been practically in possession of this something, is the
Church of Rome. She alone, amid all the errors and
evils of her practical system, has given free scope to the
feelings of awe, mystery, tenderness, reverence, devoted-
ness, and other feelings which may be especially called
Catholic'" Letter to Dr. Jelf, pp. 25, 26.

IX. Favorable mention of the Council of Trent.
" The XXIIdof our XXXIX Articles ' gains a witness
and concurrence from the Council of Trent.' Tract, 90.
p. 40.
" The Articles do not condemn the Doctrinal statements
of the Council.' Id. passim.

20
Obs. Nothing is more alarming in connection
with the influence which Mr. Newman exercises
over many youthful minds, than the unsettled state
of his own views as exhibited in his change of
language upon this important subject. Three years
ago he thus expressed himself in his Letter to
Dr. Faussett ;
" The Council of Trent did, as regards Roman errors,"
as follows ; " Take them into her system, make them terms
of communion, bind upon her hitherto favoured sons their
grievous chain.'"'' He subsequently speaks of it as that
" Unhappy Council.'''' Page 15.

X. Tradition.
To the view of this subject advocated by Mr.
Newman and his friends, it may be enough to state
my own objection in the words of the Bishop of
Exeter. " I lament to hear them, i. e. the Tract writers, speak of
adherence to " the Bible and nothing but the Bible," as
" an unthankful rejection of another great gift equally
from God, such as no true Anglican can tolerate." — I
lament to see them state, as " the sounder view, that the
Bible is the record of necessary truth, or of matters
of Faith, and the Church Catholic's Tradition is" — not a
most venerable witness, or most useful assistant in inter
preting it, but — " the interpreter of it." Page 77.

21
XI. XII. Adoration of Images. Invocation of
Saints.
" The Tridentine Decree declares that it is good and
useful suppllantly to invoke the Saints, and that the
Images of Christ and the Blessed Virgin, and the other
Saints, should ' receive due honour and veneration ;' words,
which themselves go to the very verge of what could be
received by the cautious Christian, though possibly admit
ting of a honest interpretation!!'''' Tracts for the Times,
No. 71.
" It is not unnatural, if ' the seven Angels before the
throne' have sent us, through St. John the Evangelist,
' grace and peace,' that we, in turn, should send up our
thoughts and desires to them.'''' Ibid. No. 90.

Obs. Mr. Newman acknowledges in his Letter
to Dr. Jelf (note, p. 28.) that he has slipped into
an ' inaccuracy' here in substitutiiig the word
' Angel' for ' Spirit,' when citing Rev. i. 4. where
indeed the Third Person of the Blessed Trinity is
referred to, and not Angels at all. Mr. Newman
adds, that perhaps his entire remark had better
have been omitted, but why he does not say, — not,
it is to be feared, on account of any change of
sentiment. To refer again to the Bp. of Exeter.
' Defending themselves,' he observes, 'against the charge
of leaning towards Popery,' they confidently affirm that
" in the seventeenth century the Theology of the Body of

22
the English Church was substantially the same as theirs;"
and in proof of this, they profess, in stating the errors
of Rome, to " follow closely the order observed by
Bishop Hall in his treatise on ' the Old Religion,' whose
Protestantism, they add, ' is unquestionable,' and is
claimed therefore as a voucher for their own. But
looking to particulars, I lament to see them ' following'
indeed ' the order of Bp. Hall,' but widely departing from
his truly Protestant sentiments on more than one im
portant article.
" First, of ' the worship of Images,' (for so that great
Divine" justly designates, what they more delicately call
' the honour paid to images,') they say only, that it
is ' dangerous in the case of the uneducated, that is,
of the great part of Christians.' But Bishop Hall treats
it, as not merely ' dangerous' to some, but as sinful in
all; as ' against Scripture;' ' the Book of God is full
of his indignation against this practice ;' and ' against
reason.' ' What a madness is it,' says he, ' for a living
man to stoop unto a dead stock !'
" Next, of ¦ the Invocation of Saints,' these writers say,
that it ' is a dangerous practice, as tending to give, often
actually giving, to creatures the honour and reliance due
to the Creator alone." Tracts, No. 38. p. 12.
" But how does the good Bishop, whom they profess to
follow, speak on this same point ? ' These foul super
stitions,' says he, ' are not more heinous than new — and
such as wherein we have justly abhorred to take part with
the practisers of them.' Again, ' This doctrine and
practice of the Romish Invocation of Saints, both as new
and erroneous, against Scripture and reason, we have
' Bp. Hall's Works, 8vo. vol. ix. p. 340.

23
justly rejected; and are thereupon ejected, as unjustly.'
Bp. of Exeter's Charge, 1839.

XIII. The Sign of the Cross.
Whene'er across this sinful flesh of mine
I draw the Holy Sign,
All good thoughts stir within me, and collect
Their slumbering strength divine ;
Till there springs up that hope of God's elect
My faith shall ne'er be wrecked.
And who shall say, but hateful spirits around,
For their brief hour unbound.
Shudder to see, and wail ijieir overthrow ?
While on far heathen ground
Some lonely Saint hails the fresh odour, though
lis source he cannot know. Lyra Apostolica.

XIV. Sinlessness of the Virgin.
" Further, she is doubtless to be accounted blessed and
favoured in herself, as well as in the benefits she has done
us. Who can estimate the holiness and perfection of her,
who was chosen to be the mother of Christ.? If to him
that hath, more is given, and holiness and divine favour go
together, (and this we are expressly told,) what must
have been the angelic purity of her whom the Creator
Spirit condescended to overshadow with his miraculous
presence?  This contemplation runs to a higher
subiect, did we dare follow it; for what, think you, was
the sanctity and grace of that human nature, of which
God formed Bis sinless Son; knowing, as we do, that

24
' lahat is born of the flesh is flesh;' and that ' none can
bring a clean thing out of an unclean ?' John ill. 6.
.lob xiv. 4. Mr. Newman's Parochial Sermons, vol. ii.
Serm. xii.

XV. Assumption of the Virgin.
" Here perhaps we learn a lesson from the deep silence
which Scripture observes concerning the blessed Virgin
after the Resurrection; as if she, who was too pure and
holy a flower to be more than seen here on earth, even
during the season of her Son's humiliation, was altogether
drawn within the veil on His Resurrection, and had her
joy in Paradise with Gabriel, who had been the first to
honour her, and with those elder Saints who arose after
the Resurrection, appeared in the holy city, and then
vanished away." Ibid. vol. iv. Serm. xxiii.
Obs. In proof that the Virgin Mary could not
have had her joy in Paradise upon our Lord's
Resurrection, it will be enough to refer to Acts
i. 14. where she is mentioned as having been pre
sent at a meeting of the Apostles, subsequently to
our Lord's Ascension.

Such, Sir, are some of the many, I fear I may
say very many. New and Strange Doctrines, which
surely you had either never seen, or had forgotten,
when you penned the observation already so fre
quently alluded to in the foregoing pages. As

2.5
one of the original subscribers to the Tracts for the
Times, for the furtherance of what you mean by
High Church Opinions, I conceive that we must
needs agree in our general principles ; but if you
still think that the want of a little care and caution
is all the fault fairly chargeable upon Mr. Newman
and his friends, I must beg leave entirely to differ
from you, and instead of thinking that their publi
cations tend to forward their original objects, rather
to regard them in the light of calculated efforts to
shake the confidence of the youthful and unwary in
the existing system of the Anglican Church, and to
prepare them for the reception of another system —
what, — Mr. Newman is not as yet prepared to say.
But, There is a history in all men's lives,
Figuring the nature of the times deceased :
The which observed, a man may prophesy
With a near aim, of the main chance of things
As not yet come to life, which in their seeds
And weak beginnings lie intreasured. Henry IV.
The truth is, as has been already observed, that
his own views are unsettled as well as those of all
his party; and in reference to his change of language
with respect to the Council of Trent, well may
Dr. Wiseman appeal to him, " Wh// not suspect
your own judgments, if you find that they vary? If
there ivas a time when you did not see many of our

26
doctrines as 5fou now view them; when you utterly
rejected all comprecation with, as much as prayers
to Saints, all honour without reserve to images and
relics  when, in fine, you were more remote
from us in practice and feeling than your writings
now show you to be; why not suspect, that a further
approximation may yet remain ; and that further
discoveries of truth in what to-day seems erroneous,
may be reserved for to-morrow?" 1 observe. Sir,
that you say that you consider Mr. Newman's
Letter to Dr. Jelf to be quite satisfactory. Indeed 1
Is it satisfactory to you to learn that Mr. Newman's
writings have produced so baneful an effect upon
many of his disciples, that it is as much as he can
do to prevent them ' straggling in the direction of
Rome' ? — and more than he can do, unless he be
permitted to put an interpretation upon the XXXIX
Articles, which has been condemned by the Bishop
of the Diocese as well as by the Hebdomadal Board.
In conclusion, allow me to remark, that from a
Clergyman of your sentiments and character, I
cannot but think that the less wary members of our
Church might have looked for a different admoni
tion to that which you have thought proper to give
them in your Letter — an admonition, I mean, not
to join a party, but avoid one; and instead of calhng
any man master in all their religious perplexities, to
look to Him for guidance who has promised his
Holy Spirit to all who ask Him, and has given us
by the mouth of his prophet, the following all-

27
important exhortation ; ' Trust in the Lord with all
thine heart, and lean not to thine own understand
ing: in all thy ways acknowledge Him, and He shall
direct thy paths.' I have the honour to be. Rev. Sir,
Your obedient Servant,
One of the Original Subscribers to ike
Tracts for the Times.
Oxford, April -29, lS4i-

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