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LETTER

EDINBURGH REVIEWER,

ON THE CASE OF THE

OXFORD MALIGNANTS AND DR. HAMPDEN.

BY

EDWARD CHURTON, M.A.
OF CHRIST CHURCH, OXFORD,
AND RECTOR OF CRAYKE, IN THE COUNTY OF DURHAM.

Whether the subject of Freethinking in religion be not exhausted ? and whether
it be not high time for our Freethinkers to turn their thoughts to the improvement
of their country ? — Berkeley's Queries, No. 248.

LONDON:
PRINTED FOR J. G. & F. RIVINGTON,
st. Paul's church yard, and Waterloo place, pall mall,
AND
H. WIX, BRIDGE STREET, BLACKFRIARS.
1836.

LONDON :
gilbert & rivington, printers,
st. John's square.

ADVERTISEMENT.

The writer of the following pages, having taken
no public part in the late proceedings at Oxford,
would willingly have confined the expression of
his sentiments respecting them to a private circle,
uninfluenced to depart from this resolution by any
thing which might have appeared in the pages of
the Edinburgh Review. But as the merit of
having contributed the article here noticed has
been ascribed to a Clergyman of the Church of
England, an Oxonian of some reputation as a
scholar and theologian, who must, from his habits
of life, be supposed to hold some intimacy with
individuals of the party he has denounced, it
seemed advisable, by an appeal authenticated with
the writer's name, to offer him an opportunity,
either of justifying his language, or, by disclaiming
the authorship, of receding from a position of
unenviable notoriety.

SUMMARY.

Meaning of the term Malignant. — Case of Dr. Hampden. —
Ruling motives of his appointment. — Proceedings and
object of the Malignant party. — Reviewer's defence of Dr.
Hampden's opinions. — The advocate betrays the cause .... 1 — 22
Application of the New Philosophy to Natural Religion, Morals,
and Policy. — How far the principle was discovered by
Shaftesbury and Bolingbroke, and by the author of ' Chris
tianity not founded in Argument.' — Case of the Patrioti
Decisi at Naples. — What is Truth, and whether the human
mind is capable of truth? — Practical inference from the
whole in the words of Bolingbroke  22 — 35
Decent language of the Reviewer compared with former oppo
nents of Malignancy. — The Puritan's Prayer. — ' The Mo
dest Enquirer.' — 'Junius.' — Parallel of Judaism and the
Forty Assassins. — High Church principles misrepresented
and represented. — Evidence on which they rest. — Doctrine of
the Church of England respecting them. — Authorities. —
Hooker. — Consistency of Edinburgh Reviewers  36 — 49
Case of the Nonjurors. — Oaths. — Political perjuries. — Mr.
Hallam's opinion. — Scheme of Comprehension. Bishop
Burnet. — His political character. — His view of Subscription.
Charles Leslie and Archbishop Tillotson. — Charge of Hob-
bism against the latter. — Charge of Socinianism. — Present
estimate of Tillotson. — Johnson's opinion of the Nonjurors.
— Candour of the Reviewer in stating this opinion. — The
Irish- woman's prayer. — Conclusion of the case  49 — 58
State of the Church under Walpole's government, &c. — Case
of Bishop Wilson. — Case of Butler and Seeker against the
Reviewer's point. — Real end and aim of the Purifying Ordi
nance designed for Oxford. — Parting words to the Reviewer. 58 — 62

LETTER,
Sfc.

Sir,
The Malignants of Oxford owe you a debt of
gratitude. It is a name long since written in bold
characters on the annals of the place ; and its true
historic meaning will serve beyond all other proofs
to evince the bitter sincerity of heart which could
apply it. Surely the ingenuity of the little love
you bear them has betrayed you into a slight im
prudence in this designation. The gentle spirit
will be reminded of men who dared to be good in
evil days, who mourned for the silent sanctuary
and banished order of the house of God ; — the
enemy of persecution will be startled to recall the
gentle means once enforced against those who
refused to bow to an Usurper, or to take their
rule of faith and worship from an ordinance of
Parliament.

considerable attention.' How far public attention
was attracted by Dr. Hampden's name or preach
ing is a point of little moment ; his subject was
one which seemed remote enough from the reli
gious questions of the day, and as his views were
taken through the optics of modern French phi
losophy ', it is nothing surprising if the Lectures
dropped from the pulpit or the press without ex
citing much interest. Indeed, except that the
author has since avowed the fact, one might well
be surprised to learn that any Mezentian process
could have linked the dead abstractions of the
Scholastic Theology with the living energies that
breathe through the Formularies of the Reforma
tion. The few who read these lectures were
naturally startled at the singular bizarreries they
found ; but something they allowed to one, who
from conversing with the contentious learning of
the middle ages had obscured his style and be
wildered his brain with sophistries scarcely deve
loped to himself, and of which the consequences
could not be foreseen by him 2. It was not till
1 M. Guizot, Histoire de la Civilization Francaise.
' It was the case of the author of the strange treatise De
l'Esprit : — ' C'etait un homme de mceurs douces, &c. : il sem-
blait faire une sorte de contraste avec son livre, et ce contraste
faisait demander ce qui pouvait engager un homme honnete a
debiter, avec tant de confiance, une foule de paradoxes ou le
faux des raisonnemens est aussi marque que l'odieux des con
sequences.' Laharpe. Lycee. XV.

the publication of his pamphlet in 1834, that by
a reference to those lectures he openly declared to
those whom a regard for 'the decencies and chari
ties of life ' ' had before blinded, that he had even
then intentionally and systematically set forth the
principle which the Malignants have accused as
reviving the German theory of Rationalism. In
the mean time, on what persuasion it is useless to
inquire, Lord Grenville, as one of the latest acts
of his life, appointed Dr. Hampden to the head
ship of St. Mary's Hall, and a board of six electors,
with two dissentients2, yielded to the influence
that was made to procure him the Professorship of
Morals. The existence of these Bampton Lectures in
print for the space of two years before the publi
cation of Dr. Hampden's pamphlet, and their ex
istence uncensured by the University, forms, I
believe, your whole ground for the accusation of
the motives of the ' unhappy promoters' of the
late proceedings. This is the damning fact which
convicts under the statute the evil imaginations
and black arts of those who have raised this ' hur
ricane' and ' whirlwind V
It may be said that you have rendered the
charge more weighty by two additional circum-
1 P. 239.
' Dr. Routh, President of Magdalen, and Dr. Wynter of St.
John's. 3 P. 226, 227.

6
stances, that the University during this interval
approved the doctrine by granting the preacher
his doctor's degree, and permitting in silence his
appointment to the chair of Morals. With regard
to the first, it may pass for a rhetorical flourish to
round a sentence. The refusal of one of the
higher degrees to any graduate who has not
renounced the Communion of the Church of
England, or whose life has not been flagrantly
immoral, is so unprecedented, that even Edin
burgh Reviewers, who have shown their regard
' to the charities and decencies of life' by libelling
the persons of their friends, have passed them
without notice. Whether an appointment to the
chair of Moral Philosophy is equivalent to a re
commendation for the chief seat among the
teachers of Christian Theology is a question
which does not obviously lead to an affirmative
answer. At least it cannot but be supposed that
a little of the ' sudden illumination' abovemen-
tioned led Dr. Hampden's patrons to this inference.
But I am free to confess that it was more gene
rously than wisely done thus to dispose of the
chair of Morals. The predecessor ' of Dr. Hamp
den was one whose immature loss those who knew
him publicly or privately will not cease to deplore;
and if his retiring worth had ever permitted him
1 Professor Mills.

to accept a more honourable preferment, there are
few who would not have rejoiced in his promotion.
The station should be eminent : the Professor of
Morals in a Christian University should be not
negatively but positively ' sinceritate fidei com-
mendatus ;' not one who subscribes to a Creed
which he holds to contain ' notions unphilosophical
and unscriptural V It becomes, however, a ques
tion of political prudence to judge how far the
rule of charity may be applied, and to weigh the
amount of good or evil likely to result from an
act of public censure. The old truth, ' punitis
ingeniis, gliscit auctoritas,' might forbid an act of
restraint in one case, while it would be treason to
the public good to refuse to exert it in another.
It is confessed, then, that this 'systematic mis
chief was in print two years before it was noticed.
Your mistaken kindness to Dr. Hampden has led
you to call it four years ; ' four years of dulness
or indifference, or one month of audacious and
unprincipled calumny.' These are the horns of
the dilemma, within whose ample compass you
have fast bound the four hundred Malignants of
the 22d of March, besides all those whom timely
warning of the ruse about to be practised with
held from a journey of pain without profit. On
further consideration let me hope that you will
1 Dr. Hampden's Bampton Lectures, p. 378.

correct or modify this statement. If there were
two years of dulness or indifference, Dr. Hampden
has no right to complain that his notions have met
with no attention during the two years since the
appearance of his spirit-stirring pamphlet. He
who makes a charge so grave as yours should be
correct in his facts, or the term calumny may be
retorted. It may be surmised that the conceal
ment of this well-known fact has been hazarded
to serve a party purpose ; that the king's advisers
may appear to have had no intimation of the real
position of Dr. Hampden, — no possible intention
to assist a baffled minority in weeding out of Ox
ford the principles of the Reformation.
The fact, however, being once seen, all the in
ferences from the mis-statement are at once re
moved. There was no ' compromise' before the
appointment, no ' conspiracy' after it. The Ma
lignants were just as active in 1834 and 1835 as
in 1836. If few persons comparatively were
acquainted with the character of his Theology
previously to 1834, it is no very novel case that
an octavo volume of five hundred pages should
sleep in harmless oblivion ; the hulk might have
foundered and been forgotten, had not the little
pilot-boat been sent to tow it into port. Who
does not feel that the task of censure under such
circumstances is invidious ? Who does not see
that if an opponent had then laid to Dr.

Hampden's charge the systematic design he has
since fixed upon himself1, and called upon the
public to credit any thing so paradoxical, what
ever might be the consequence with those
who read and judged for themselves, the majo
rity would have suspected it, in spite of evidence,
for a malicious accusation. It would have been
too much ' to draw so largely on the confidence
of his readers 2.' On one side he must have set
down the pious injunctions of Canon Bampton's
will, that his preacher should ' confirm and es
tablish the Christian Faith, and confute all heretics
and schismatics,' — that he should preach ' upon
the divine authority of the Holy Scriptures,' —
' upon the authority of the writings of the primi
tive Fathers as to the Faith and Practice of the
Church,' — and ' upon the Articles of the Chris
tian Faith as comprehended in the Apostles' and
Nicene Creeds.' On the other he must have
shown how the preacher who undertook to fulfil
these pious injunctions, had proved Christianity
not to be founded in argument, and that the false
principle of supposing it to be so has a ' tendency
to corrupt and debase revealed truth 3 ;' that here
tics are not to be distinguished by their opinions,
1 " I must refer to my work already before the public — the
Bampton Lectures for 1832 — in which I have endeavoured
throughout to elucidate the nature of this false principle," &c. —
Observations on Dissent, p. 13.
1 Edin. Rev. p. 226. ' " Observations," p. 13.

10
and that ' the most orthodox person may be the
most heretical 1 ;' — that there may be ' much false
Ethical Philosophy embodied in the language of
Revelation -;' — that the primitive Fathers were
much mistaken in supposing ' Christianity to in
terfere at all with the principles of human con
duct 3;' and that they who hold by Church Creeds
and Articles, ' admit human authority to a parity
with Inspiration4.' I say nothing of the truth or
falsehood of these opinions : I only ask how it
would have been credited that such opinions had
been systematically put forth by one who had
undertaken to fulfil the designs of the Founder of
these Lectures ?
Modern America has, indeed, furnished us with
precedents, which may show the ultimate pro
gress of such respect to a pious Founder's inten
tion, in the history of Harvard College, or the
King's Chapel at Boston. The last is too admoni
tory, in the words of Mr. Hamilton 5, to be passed
over slightly. A benefactor had bequeathed to
the King's Chapel, the interest of a sum of
money to be paid to the preacher of a certain
number of annual Sermons on the Trinity. —
'The Revolution came; and the Congregation
of the King's Chapel had cast off both King
and Creed, had become Republicans in poli-
1 Observations, p. 28. 2 Bampt. Lect. p. 302.
' Ibid. p. 296. Mor. Phil. p. 23. * Bampt. Lect. p. 381.
* Men and Manners in America, vol. i. p. 101.

11
tics, and Unitarians in religion. What was to
be done with the legacy 1 This did not long re
main a moot point. It was discovered that an
Unitarian could preach sermons on the Trinity, as
well as the most orthodox Athanasian ; and the
effect of the testator's zeal for the diffusion of the
pure faith has been to encourage doctrines which,
of course, he regarded as false and damnable.'
Those who see nothing more than a harmless jest
in this, will of course regard the steps taken by
the Malignants with the deepest disapprobation.
Your charge of a ' conspiracy to run down a
good and pious individual' being therefore based
upon a little unintentional confusion of chronology,
may be safely left to stand or fall by the facts it
has elicited. The charge of indifference or foolish
clemency is one which may more easily be for
given ; for the forbearance is accounted for. Prove
that the same ' dulness and indifference' was
shown when the intention had been avowed ; or
you have no ground for your ' one month of
audacious and unprincipled calumny.'
I pass on to your next charge, which lies
against the mode of proceedings adopted by these
conspirators, that they have chosen to guard the
integrity of University doctrine by proposing to
suspend a statute, rather than by preferring an
indictment of heresy. The substance of it you
have thus expressed : —

12
' If Dr. Hampden had really published any
' thing in opposition to the Articles of the Church
' of England, there was a ready way of substan-
' tiating the charges, and obtaining a censure upon
' him from a competent authority. But the course
' of truth and honesty was not suited to the eighty-
' one conspirators. They thought that they had a
' secure majority in Convocation, which would vote
' for any thing that they proposed to it. A vote,
' they knew, might give them what they could
' never dare to hope from a verdict V
If the object had been to obtain a censure
against an individual, there would perhaps have
been no such extraordinary difficulty in securing a
verdict, seeing that the parties composing this
factious majority must, in all probability, have
furnished the materials for a jury. But then,
possibly, we might have heard of the unfairness of
secret tribunals, of persecution and inquisitorial
proceedings, such as were in the days of Bancroft
and Laud, charges as well supported at least as
those which are here preferred. The Malignants
were not guilty of instituting this covert inquisi
tion ; they had no personal motives to gratify ;
the sole object to be attained was to guard the
orthodox doctrine which had been assailed, and
to guard it from one whom a fatal act of patron
age had armed with authority to assail it. They
1 P. 229.

13
made their appeal not to a 'faction,' but to the
sense of the whole public body and society, com
posed of men who were in all points Dr. Hamp
den's peers, men educated under the same system,
tried in the same discipline, professors of the
same faith. These are the same men whom you
stigmatize as 'base followers' of the prime movers,
' led by the worst passions,' composing ' no legal
or competent tribunal,' proceeding with ' no
thing of Christian zeal, but much of the mingled
fraud and cruelty of fanatical persecution V
Is it possible, Sir, that you, who, to judge from
your expressions, have seen the interior of a
College, (for this, it seems, is ' no Edinburgh
Review calumny 2,') should have no misgivings in
applying the terms ? Is the mark of fraud and
cruelty so palpably impressed on these proceed
ings, that you can thus speak of an act which
found support in so many accomplished men,
friends of Dr. Hampden and probably of your
own, — in the aged churchman of threescore and
ten, and the youth of Oxford ? Is it so clear that
a measure simply defensive and precautionary
should bear the character of persecution ? or that
the members of a Christian University, passing
their deliberate judgment on a question of religion
and learning, should be called ' no legal or com-
i P. 239. 2 P. 227.

11
petent tribunal V The case speaks for itself. Is
there any member of the Church of England,
who, conscious of his own faithfulness and integrity
of purpose, might not defy the malice of any con
spiracy to defame him before such an audience, —
who would have any thing to fear from the
sentence of such an assembly? Was it so intricate
a point of casuistry, that the party most concerned
could not see the course which duty required,
either openly to defend the opinions he had
broached as consistent with the symbolical writ
ings of his Church, or at once to retract them
with the ingenuous plea of a candid mind, ' Errare
possum : hsereticus esse nolo ?' It was an easier
course to ' appeal from an excited spirit,' from
an ' array of hostile numbers' mustered by ' an
adverse school ;' — to describe the opponents whom
unwilling conviction had called forth against him,
as seeking to elude the force of argument by the
assemblage of a mob '.
Truly if there be any faith in the old maxim,
' It is the heretic that makes the fire,
Not he that burns in't ;'—
there can be little doubt which of the two con
tending parties first raised and kept up the ' war-
1 " Argumentum pessimi turba est." Dr. Hampden's Inaug.
Lect.

15
cry' in this lamentable contest. Yet the offence
of the Malignants is the more aggravated, because
they heard this Inaugural Lecture and were not
convinced. Statements indeed were made in it,
which no ingenuity can reconcile with the prin
ciples of the ' Observations on Dissent ;' but
nothing was recalled. There may be different
opinions on the course which the University took ;
some may doubt whether that adopted was the
best. I hesitate not to maintain, however, that
this inaugural lecture could not and ought not to
have changed one vote. It was only a device
for puzzling the question. The wizard who had
raised the storm was seen to pour his modicum of
oil upon the troubled billows : — the conjuror who
had aimed the poisonous shaft, dropped his wea
pons and drew back his arm ; but he knew that
the mischief was on its way.
Your defence of the Professor's written opinions
is somewhat singular and short : and I am greatly
mistaken if it will much advance the cause of
your client. You have spoken indeed boldly in
your condemnation of his accusers :
' A charge that dared not abide the decision of
' a legal tribunal, was to be supported by evidence
' worthy of itself. A pamphlet was published,
' entitled ' Elucidations of Dr. Hampden's Theolo-
' gical Statements,' consisting of a number of quo-
' tations from his works, classed in such an order,

16
' and separated in such a manner from the context,
' as might best serve the compiler's purposes. This
' was followed by another and more elaborate pro-
' duction, in which a number of propositions are
' professedly selected from Dr. Hampden's works,
' and contrasted with the Articles of the Church of
' England — a selection made precisely in the same
' spirit, and conducted with the same honesty, as
' the famous selection of articles from Wycliff s
' works, which had the honour of being condemned
' by the Council of Constance V
After this prelude, and the amiable parallel with
which it is worked up, — a parallel reflecting so
much honour on ' the squabbles of a few obscure
fanatics,' we naturally expect something like
proofs to follow, especially as the next sentence
announces your intention to produce them :
' We have before us a copy of the ' Elucida-
' tions,' in which the omissions in the pretended
' quotations there given from Dr. Hampden's works
' have been carefully noted down; and these omis-
' sions happen so unluckily to fall upon passages
' which would have altered the whole tone and
' character of the quotation, that there is no possi-
' bility of acquitting the compiler of deliberate
' dishonesty V
One instance is then given. And why not one
1 P. 229. 2 ibid.

17
as well as a hundred, if it be conclusive of the
fact ? But let it be fairly stated :
' That person, in order to ' elucidate,' which,
' in his language, means to ' misrepresent,' Dr.
' Hampden's doctrine on the Trinity, begins a
' quotation with this sentence : ' No one can be
' more convinced than I am, that there is a real
' mystery of God revealed in the Christian dispen-
' sation, and that no scheme of Unitarianism can
' solve the whole of the phenomena which Scripture
' records. But I am also as fully sensible that
' there is a mystery attached to the subject, which
' is not a mystery of God ;' and then follows the
' explanation of this last clause, for which the
' passage has been selected.' [Let it be observed
' that it is not the Elucidator, but the Reviewer,
' who omits this explanation.] ' The appearance
' therefore is, that Dr. Hampden, after one prefatory
' sentence expressing for decency's sake his belief
' that there was a mystery connected with the divine
' nature, goes on with great satisfaction to dispute
' or undervalue the peculiar view of this mystery
' entertained by the Church of England. Accord-
' ingly the pretended Elucidator observes, in his
' introduction to this chapter of his work, that
' ' Dr. Hampden holds that there is some mystery
*" in the divine nature ; but what that mystery is, or
' that it is the very mystery which the Catholic
' doctrine of the Trinity expresses, is, he considers,
c

18
' not revealed.' . . But what shall we say to this
' Elucidator, when we find that this serious charge
' rests only on his own direct falsification of what
' Dr. Hampden has written ? For the quotation
' which we have copied is preceded by about a page
' and half, in which Dr. Hampden has been at
' great pains to distinguish between the doctrine
' of the Trinity itself, and the technical language in
' which it has been expressed by theologians ; and
' to urge that it is only this language which has
' thrown a difficulty in the way of receiving the
' doctrine ; ' causing,' he says, ' the wisdom of God
' to be received as the foolishness of men.' And
' then the paragraph with which the Elucidator's
' quotation begins, begins in reality with the follow-
' ing sentence, alone sufficient to refute the whole
' charge founded upon its deliberate suppression.
' ' The truth itself of the Trinitarian doctrine
' emerges from these mists of human speculation,
' like the bold naked land on which an atmosphere
' of fog has for a while rested, and then been dis-
' persed.' It is apparent enough that the atmos-
' phere of fog, of which Dr. Hampden speaks, has
' rested without being dispersed,, upon the under-
' standing or conscience of the Elucidator V
Now it was no part of my intention, in writing
these pages, to embark in a Theological contro-
1 P. 230.

19
versy. I say nothing of the truth or falsehood of
Dr. Hampden's opinions. They may be ' as true
as the Gospel of Nicodemus,' for all that con
cerns us now. It may be true that the whole
charge is about ' technical language,' ' a ques
tion of words and names.' But can you suppose
that any logical mind will be deceived by the
transparent fallacy with which you have invested
it ? The charge was, as you have stated it, that
the Professor ' undervalues the peculiar view of
this mystery entertained by the Church' to which
he has vowed allegiance. Will it stand for a
refutation of this charge to quote a sentence
which confirms all that had been alleged against
him ? — when he is accused of disputing against
the doctrine of the Trinity as held in his own
Communion, to answer that he holds the doctrine
of the Trinity ? Suppose it possible that Dr.
Hampden has the clearest view of the bold naked
land of which he speaks, and that the atmosphere
of fog rests upon the understanding of all his
opponents ; — that he is fully competent to give
out these ' Instructions pour les aveugles par un
clairvoyant ;' — yet this is no acquittal for the man
who one day sets his hand to a creed as capable
of being ' proved by most certain warrants of
Scripture V and the next day censures it from
i Article VIII.

20
the pulpit as containing ' notions unphilosophical
and unscriptural.'
In your next paragraph you seem indeed to
have some mistrust of the line of argument here
exposed ; but the difficulty of reconciling your
statements with Dr. Hampden's printed words
seems to have deterred you from a closer inspec
tion of the point at issue :
' The same falsehood, for it deserves no lighter
' name, runs through all the second pamphlet, the
* preface to which is actually signed with the name
' of Dr. Pusey. The technical language, in which
' Scriptural truths have been expressed, is carefully
' confounded with the truths themselves. Dr.
' Hampden as carefully distinguishes them ; repeat-
' ing over and over again his firm belief that the
' Scriptural truths are such in substance as the
' Church of England represents them, — but agree-
' ing with many other good and sound divines in
' regarding the language in which they are con-
' veyed in theological writings, as perplexing ; and
' as not setting forth the truth in the same prac-
' tical manner as it is to be found in Scripture.
' Now, if a minister of the Church of England did
' not believe that her Articles expressed substan-
* tially the truth, he would undoubtedly be guilty
' of great inconsistency in subscribing them ; but
' to account historically for the origin of their
' technical language,— and to separate it from the

21
' divine truth intended to be expressed by it, is
' neither inconsistent with the faith of an orthodox
' Christian, nor with the subscriptions signed by a
' clergyman of the Church of England '.'
Falsehood is a hard word, but supported by soft
arguments. Is it ' repeating a firm belief that
the Scriptural truths are such in substance as the
Church of England represents them,' to speak of
all Symbols and Creeds as containing only ' pious
opinions2 ?' — to hold that ' there is no pretending
to the exactness of thought on which the Church's
formularies are based V — to call the Athanasian
Creed ' an evidence of the triumph of a party V
— to seek to establish as a main principle, ' that
no conclusions of human reasoning, drawn from
Scripture, however correctly deduced, however
logically sound, are proper religious truths V Are
these positions to be classed under the generic
name of an 'historical account of the origin of
the technical language of those Articles ?' What
can be the strength of a cause which is driven to
such a subterfuge as this ?
But we are told that Dr. Hampden has pub
lished a volume of Parochial Sermons containing
passages on every important point in Theology,
and these ' so full and clear, so entirely in uni
son with the doctrines of the Church, and ex
pressed with such intense earnestness of sincerity,
that it might seem beyond the power of the very
1 P. 231. ' Observations, p. 14 — 19.

22
spirit of calumny to affix a charge of heresy on
their author ;' and accordingly ' this work his
calumniators took good care not to notice 1.'
Now, if the person charged had been a Paro
chial minister and nothing more — if his published
doctrine had been limited to these parochial exer
cises, and the parties likely to suffer from them
only the members of a parochial congregation,
and the ' wise intellects' who might read them
after they had issued from the press, this plea
would undoubtedly be valid. But the question is
not what the Parish Priest will say in the pulpit,
but the Professor in the chair. Which of Dr.
Hampden's publications affords the juster crite
rion ? And is it not a well-known fact that the
German Rationalists, who have forestalled the
Professor in his claim of originality, might be
defended on the same grounds, — that it was their
practice to preach Luther, as they termed it, to
their congregations, while they proceeded with
their root and branch work of destruction in their
schools? The esoteric language of the philoso
pher is the true index of his mind.
For my own part I profess that the discoveries
of Dr. Hampden are such as appear to me to
belong to a higher sphere than that ' atmosphere
of fog' in which he is now constrained to dwell ;
1 Edin. Rev. p. 231.

23
they will doubtless be treasured up in the region
where Astolfo found the lost wits of another
champion, famous in his time for encountering
rude antagonists. And as a skilful master of na
ture informs us that this kind of philosophy often
tries to persuade us of more than it believes1, I
hope I may be allowed to come to its examination
with a little sober scepticism.
' The principle for which he contends,' he tells
us, ' is simply this, that no conclusions of human
reasoning, however correctly deduced, however
logically sound, are properly religious truths.' . . .
' If the point cannot be proved out of Scripture it
is no truth of Revelation. It by no means how
ever follows that what can be proved out of Scrip
ture must therefore be truth of Revelation. To
assert this would be to give an opening to every
ingenious arguer — every skilful commentator or
expositor — to pass off his own conclusions for the
dictates of Scripture2.'
I protest I wish to understand this principle ;
but the light it gives is somewhat dazzling. If no
conclusions of human reasoning are religious
1 Sir Walter Scott observes of the ' Philosophie des petites
maisons,' that persons under its influence ' are frequently more
anxious to impress upon others a faith in their visions than they
are themselves confirmed in their reality.' — See Lady of the
Lake, Canto III. Note V.
2 Observations, p. 8, 9.

24
truths, it is not fair to confine this to deductions
from Scripture ; it must apply equally to Natural
Religion. If our understanding faculties may
deceive us in one case, however correctly de
duced, however logically sound their conclusions
are, they may equally deceive us in all ; we may
be deceived for instance in the first article of Re
ligion, the existence of a God ; and much more
in the arguments by which we persuade ourselves
that Scripture is his Revelation. We can have
no certainty in either; for neither, according to
Dr. Hampden's principle, is a religious truth.
But let us suppose that the principle is to be
confined to the interpretation of Scripture, — what
results from it ? That all interpretation of Scrip
ture is a work of supererogation ; — not only so,
but, as the Professor himself records his senti
ments upon it, something that ' ought not to
exist1.' All religious truth is centred, according to
Dr. Hampden, in the axiom, that there is a book
of Revelation. What is the meaning of that
book no human being can tell with any certainty;
and if he wishes to lead a quiet life, the more he
keeps his notions to himself the better. ' To a
Trinitarian, the consequences of rejecting the
doctrine of the Trinity must necessarily be re
garded as dangerous. But he has no right to
1 P. 21.

25
extend his anathema to one who has not embraced
the same view of Scripture truth V Thus the
Beraeans searched the Scriptures, and persuaded
themselves that Jesus was the Messias. There
were other people who read them at least " every
Sabbath-day," and "thought they did God ser
vice" by acting on a contrary persuasion. Who
could say which party was right ? To the Beraeans
the consequence of rejecting the doctrine of a
Saviour come in the flesh, would have been dan
gerous ; but they could have no right to extend
their anathema to the Scribes and Pharisees, who
had not embraced the same view of Scripture
truth. In fact, they were both equally wrong.
They founded theological opinions upon Scripture,
and such opinions ought not to exist.
I may be reminded that Dr. Hampden confines
his principle ' to intellectual, speculative, or theo
logical truth, as distinct from moral*.' It will be
time to notice this, when Dr. Hampden shall have
furnished us with a list of those conclusions from
Scripture, which are merely speculative or intel
lectual ; i. e. when he shall have proved the light
of the sun to be distinct from its warmth. In the
mean time, I suppose it to * be allowed that a
belief in the Trinity, the Eternal Generation of
the Son, the proceeding of the Holy Ghost from
' P. 27. ' P. 12.

26
the Father and the Son, is distinctly professed in
the creeds and articles of our Church. It is
equally plain that these are truths not mentioned
in express terms, but heretofore supposed to be
proved out of Scripture. But ' it is a fundamen
tal character of the Christian Scriptures to exclude
all deduction of speculative conclusions1.' In what
sense then has Dr. Hampden set his hand to the
formularies which state these conclusions as articles
of Faith ?
But the Professor has here forgotten another
discovery of his own ; or he would not speak of
moral truth as deducible from Scripture.
There was an ancient prejudice standing in the
way of the Atheistic Moralist, which it was left
for Dr. Hampden to remove. ' II est indubitable2,'
says Pascal, ' que l'ame est mortette ou immortelle.
Cela doit mettre une difference entiere dans la
morale.' 'Not at all,' says Dr. Hampden, 'the
principles of morality are founded in our nature,
independently of any system of religious belief,
and are in fact obligatory even on the Atheist 3 :'
religion is so far from having ennobled the science
of ethics, that it has rather obscured it ; ' it is
nothing strange if we find much of the false
Ethical Philosophy of former systems embodied
1 P. 13. 2 Pascal, Pensees, ii. xvii. 69.
3 Moral Phil. p. 18. Bampt. Lect. p. 296.

27
in the language of Revelation.' What then ? Is
moral truth deducible from these false systems ?
Are we to be taught to seek it there ? May we
depend on conclusions drawn from false premises ?
' The principles of morality are independent of
any system of religious belief, and are in fact obli
gatory on the Atheist.' ' Both Shaftesbury and
Bolingbroke,' he says, ' have shown this, and he
thinks unanswerably.'
Dr. Hampden well understands your principle,
that every true reformer should ' give a further
development to the truths achieved and discovered
by his fathers1.' It is a conclusion which Shaftes
bury takes some pains to enforce, that ' the per
fection and height of virtue must be owing to the
belief of a God2.' And even Bolingbroke through
out his writings uses the terms of Natural Religion,
and Ethics as synonymous. As to Shaftesbury,
he did not go so far as to hold Neckar's famous
principle, that ' the single idea of a God was a
sufficient support of morality 3 ;' — but taught that
' there must be a steady opinion of the superin
tendence of a Supreme Being, a witness and spec
tator of human life, and conscious of whatsoever
is felt and acted in the universe, so that in the
most perfect recess and deepest solitude there must
1 Edin. Rev. p. 234.
2 Characteristics, vol. ii. p. 76.
3 Neckar on Religious Opinions, c. xi.
2

28
be One still presumed remaining with us, whose
presence singly is of more moment than that of
the most august assembly upon earth1.' So far
was he from the perfect doctrine of Morals. And
Bolingbroke, who builds all moral restraint on the
law of nature and constitution of things, yet,
maintaining this to be the positive law of the
Creator 2, amidst all the bad faith with which he
wrote, he cannot be charged with cutting off the
sunbeam from the sun, with laying down a prin
ciple of virtue separate from God. It is true that
both these unhappily distinguished men have ex
pressed themselves with a suspicious tenderness
towards Atheism, as thinking it only indirectly or
casually productive of immorality, and not imme
diately or by plain consequence. But it was left
for Dr. Hampden to show that the point is wholly
indifferent, — that the principles of morality are so
far from being obscured by any difference of reli
gious belief, that their obligation is equally felt by
one whose simple creed is written in the ' Sys-
teme de la Nature.'
Let it be observed, that the question here is
not about the existence of a moral sense, or the
inward light of conscience. That there is such a
moral sense existing in the heart of man, prior to,
1 Characteristics, vol. ii. p. 51.
2 Bolingbroke's Posthumous Works, vol. v. p. 47.

29
and independent of, Revelation, few will probably
deny. The Atheist himself is, probably, unable to
dismiss these compunctious visitings of nature. But
Dr. Hampden, where he sets his ' springs and
wheels' of the moral machine, plainly intimates that
we may ' content ourselves with the positive fact,
that virtue is, to a certain extent, rewarded in the
present life V He lays it down as an axiom that
* Christianity interferes not with the principles of
human conduct2.' What Christianity has to do
with us, or we with Christianity, after we have
' achieved ' this axiom, we may well inquire.
One more discovery. ' All opinion,' says Dr.
Hampden, ' as such, is involuntary in its nature V
The enlightened author of Christianity not founded
in Argument, had gone a little way before him
here. ' Assent and dissent,' he says, ' is an in-
1 Moral Phil. p. 29. and 25 and 76. Bampt. Lect. p. 296. 301.
1 ' Holiness, separation from the world, devotion, stillness of
the thoughts and affections, are the means of Religion. Ethics
are all activity, all business. Neither will answer the purpose
of the other.' — Bampt. Lect. p. 302.
The Apostle St. James, talking of " Pure and undefiled Reli
gion," speaks of one part of it as being " to visit the fatherless
and widows in their affliction." Is this a specimen of the ' false
Ethical Philosophy' elsewhere alluded to 1 Or is Dr. Hampden
like the worthy American gentleman, who * stood upon the
shoulders of the Apostles, and thought he must needs see further
than they did V
5 Observations, p. 5.

30
dependent event under no influence of ours.'
And again, ' a determination either right or wrong,
in matters which are not self-evident, in which
there is any thing of induction or inference, is
equally meritorious. ' Possibly some persons may
think that Leland has a little reason on his side,
when he says of this principle, that it is ' a very
convenient plea for infidelity, and even for Atheism
itself : it proceeds upon this foundation, that men
can never be obliged to believe any principles at
all, in which there is any thing of induction or
inference, nor consequently those relating to the
existence of God, and his providence. And if
there be no fault in disbelieving those principles,
there may be none in refusing to obey or worship
Him, which necessarily dependeth upon the belief
of His existence V
Still 'the worthiest tribute' to the discoverer
of a new truth is to give it a further develope-
ment. The author of Christianity not founded in
Argument had but a Pisgah -sight of this new
truth; he limits his rule to matters in which there
is something of inference or induction. Dr. Hamp
den's principle is universal. It extends to all
opinions. It is very useful, as we have seen, in
points of faith ; it may be still more serviceable in
policy and morals. 1 Leland's View, vol. i. Letter x.

31
I cannot, therefore, but admire the Neapolitan
senator, whose liberal spirit could at once embrace
the principle, in all its consequences, without a
Professor to instruct him ; in which respect he has
an enviable advantage over the pure patriot who
promoted Dr. Hampden : —
 ' th' Italian brain

That in our duller Britain operates
So vilely.'
There was, it seems, at Naples, in the year 1817,
one Ciro Annichiarico, leader of a sect of poli
ticians called the Patrioti Decisi1. This decided
Patriot, being suspected of a little anomaly in some
of his proceedings, was, with certain confederates,
put upon his trial, when he confessed that he had,
with his own hand, killed some seventy persons,
besides having compelled a few more, at the point
of the stiletto, to make over their property, sign
leases, or draw wills in favour of the association.
In the National Assembly, when the question of
punishment was agitated, the deputy Arcovito gave
his sentence, ' That the crimes committed by the
prisoners were all in consequence of their political
opinions, and therefore proposed a decree to sup
press all criminal proceedings against such as had
not been tried, and to remit the punishment of
such as had already been condemned.'
1 Memoirs of the Carbonari.

32
Truly this Neapolitan Thistlewood stands as
clear on Dr. Hampden's principle, as the famous
Jean D'Alba, who robbed his master to make up
his wages, on the casuistic doctrine of the Jesuits1.
Much as we owe therefore to Dr. Hampden, there
is one step further which these discoveries must
help us to advance. What is the reason that men
make these mistakes ? Either there is such a
thing as self-existent truth, or there is not. If
there is not, if it is factitious, a thing which every
man can make for himself, — if opinions are as
palates, something constitutional, — we must be no
more offended with a Pagan for his gross creed,
than with an Esquimaux for his appetite for train-
oil 2. And as to moral or theological professors,
they are but like professors of the science of
defence ; they profess to defend a vital part, but
on closer inspection we shall find there is no
danger ; they combat only with foils. But if
there is truth both in the type and antitype,
things truly existing without the mind, and
1 See Pascal. Lett. Prov. vi.
2 ' I should be no more offended with an infidel for not be
lieving as I do, than with a German for saying Gott, or a
Spaniard Dios.' Sismondi on Religious Opinion. This is
the gentleman who explains the enigma why his Italian
countrymen always ran away in the field : " Equally brave,
and superior in military science to the French, they were unable
to make head against an enemy, whose ferocity disturbed their
imaginations." Italian Republics, last edit. p. 281.

33
their true impress within it, — then we conclude
that in false opinions it is not the understanding
that is deceived, but the will and affections which
obscure and oversway the understanding1. If
men always determined by evidence, there is no
more reason why in religion or morals they should
not come to one conclusion, than in the province
of mathematics or in discoveries of nature. But
the calculation of an eclipse, the study of the laws
of matter and motion are things which leave the
passions free. Not so those truths which require
the surrender of the soul and spirit, the subjection
of the thoughts and intents of the heart. Why
then has the Church put forth those forms of
sound words, directing her members in the objects
of faith ? Because the profession of these truths is
the best index of that state of mind in which she
wishes them to be established. Because it is next
to impossible that any worthy notions of religious
service are to be found in that mind, whose
notions of the God of truth are distempered and
depraved. It is but a nugatory distinction, which Dr.
Hampden draws, confining his principle to « reli
gious,' or as he afterwards calls it, • speculative
truth.' Either the human mind is incapable of
truth altogether, or it is capable of forming just
1 See Cudworth, Intell. Syst. Vol. III.
D

34
conclusions in the science which connects man
with his Maker. And these conclusions of the
human reason purely exercised on divine things, —
this ' phantasmagoria of controversial statement1,'
— so far from being the incubus he makes it,
sucking up ' the life and blood of the gospel,' —
are the appointed conduits by which that life is
infused into the believing heart. For what is the
other alternative ? That the word of God itself
is of such dubious import as to leave us uncertain
in all that concerns us most to know, — that ' it
is so confusedly promulgated as to warrant all
the anomalies and contradictions of theological
opinion, — turned adrift in the world without any
consistent interpretation, to be the common docu
ment of all sects and persuasions V
It is vain for Dr. Hampden, after he has shot
his bolt 3, to speak with tenderness of creeds and
articles — to talk of preserving ' the cumbrous
machinery' — to play off the 'phantasmagoria,'
as a necessary trick of priestcraft. It is confessed
to be something which ' ought not to exist.' His
1 Postscript to Obs. p. 14.
2 See a Letter to the late Earl of Liverpool by H. H. Norris,
M.A. 1822.
3 Cosi chi drizza stral veloce al segno,
Poi che tratt' ha, torcendo il capo crede
Drizzarlo, egli e gia fuor del curvo legno.
Lorenzo de Med. Son.

35
policy on this head is indeed learnt in the same
school which enlightened him in morals. ' Truth
and falsehood,' says his father in discovery *,
' knowledge and ignorance, revelations of the
Creator, inventions of the creature, dictates of
reason, sallies of enthusiasm, have been blended
so long together in our systems of Theology, that
it may be thought dangerous to separate them,
lest by attacking some parts of these systems we
should shake the whole. It may be thought that
error itself deserves to be respected on this ac
count, and that men who are deluded for their
good shall be deluded on.' No ! the precarious
existence thus provided for the mouldering fabric
is not worth the purchase. The plain and com
fortable conclusion is, that, as by this principle we
get rid of Creeds and Articles, so we may dis
pense with Professors of Divinity, and by implica
tion, with Dr. Hampden himself. We may sum
it up in the pious words of Bolingbroke, when he
came to the end of his paper : ' It remains that
we apply ourselves to the study of the first
Philosophy without any other guides than the
works and the word of God. In natural religion
the clergy are unnecessary, in revealed they are
dangerous2.' Quod erat demonstrandum.
1 Bolingbroke, Letter to Pope.
2 Letter to Pope, ad fin.
D 2

36
Forgive me, Sir, if I have for a short time
forgotten the patron in the client. I have
already, I believe, examined all that in your
pages bears upon the case of Dr. Hampden. A
mis-statement of a main fact followed by a train
of inferences which that fact disproves, — a mis
representation of the object sought by the act of
Convocation, turning an act of public safety into
one of personal hostility, — a defence of doctrine
which evades the point at issue and confirms the
charge : these are the grounds upon which you
have raised your conductor for the public indig
nation, and call for legislative measures against
Oxford and her Malignants.
They are guilty of no ordinary misdemeanors.
They are the sons of those, who, at the Revolu
tion of 1688, and at the Reformation, ' always
impeded the progress of good, and in some degree
marred its triumph '.' ' They are the very
Nonjurors and High Church Clergy of King
William's and Anne's, and George the First's
reign, reproduced with scarcely a shade of dif
ference.' They are either ' of the Hophni and
Phinehas school,' — ministers not of the Gospel
but of the [aristocracy, low and worldly, careless,
and grossly ignorant,' — or, still worse, ' formalist
Judaizing fanatics, the peculiar disgrace of the
1 P. 234—35.

37
' Church of England, who have imbibed nothing
' but the folly and virulence of fanaticism itself.'
' Other fanatics have persecuted, like the Ro-
' manists, to uphold a magnificent system, which,
' striking its roots deep and stretching its branches
' wide, exercises a vast influence over the moral
' condition of man, and may almost excuse some
' extravagance of zeal in its behalf. Others again
' have been fanatics for freedom, and what they
' deemed the due authority of God's word : — they
' were violent against human ceremonies, — they
' despised learning, — they cast away the delicacies
4 and almost the humanities of society, for the sake
' of asserting two great principles, noble even in
' their exaggeration, — entire freedom towards man,
' and entire devotion towards God. But the fanati-
' cism of the English High Churchman has been
' the fanaticism of mere foolery. A dress, a ritual,
' a name, a ceremony ; — a technical phraseology ; —
' the superstition of a priesthood, without its power;
« — the form of Episcopal government without the
' substance ; — a system imperfect and paralysed,
¦ not independent or sovereign, afraid to cast off
'the subjection against which it is perpetually
' murmuring. Such are the objects of High Church
' fanaticism, — objects so pitiful, that, if gained ever
' so completely, they would make no man the
' wiser or the better,— they would lead to no good,
•intellectual, moral, or spiritual,— to no effect,

38
' social or religious, except to the changing of sense
' into silliness, and holiness of heart and life into
' formality and hypocrisy V
And lest all this should not be sufficient, another
Article in the same number of your Review 2 runs
in the same strain. Surely you have paid undue
attention to the mischievous principles of these
' few obscure fanatics,' if, while you think them
of such little moment, you cannot be content
without wasting so much breath in good round
railing upon so mean a subject. It is indeed a
hard case that all this good round railing should
have failed of its full effect, whenever it was most
urgently applied. The zealous puritans, whom
you admire in their naked freedom, who ' cast
away the delicacies and almost the humanities of
life,' most devoutly excited their flocks to pray
' that God would strike through the sides' of the
Malignants who 'marred the triumph' of their
godly discipline 3. The ' Modest Enquirer' at
the Revolution gently hinted that the disasters of
his time would soon be brought to a perpetual
end, if the English people would imitate their
Dutch allies, and give to all High Churchmen,
who could not swallow the chaste Wharton's
1 P. 235. 2 Art. III. p. 44.
3 ' Ye shall also pray that God would strike through the sides,
&c.' — Supplement to the form of Bidding Prayers before Ser
mon, used by the Puritans. — Strype's Whitgift, p. 124.

39
oath, the Lynch-law, which they gave to John
De Witt '. The dove-like Junius, when he threat
ened with a new revolution the first monarch of
the House of Brunswick, who chose to reign by
uniting the affections of his people, did not forget
to pursue the scattered remnant with his curse 2.
Yet they are ' reproduced,' and in numbers
' strong enough to be mischievous.' How is
this ? If railing could have prevented it, surely
no pains were spared. But if railing was too
weak, other means were not forgotten. The time
has been when Malignants were hunted like a
partridge on the mountains ; such were the snares
which the iron soul of Cromwell rained upon
them 3. There was also a time when another
1 See a ' Modest Enquiry into the Causes of the present
Disasters.' — 1690. The English people are excited ' to De
Witt' such persons as the primate Sancroft, &c.
2 ' You are not destitute of every appearance of support.
You have all the Jacobites, Nonjurors, Roman Catholics, and
Tories without exception. Is it possible for you to place any
confidence in men, whose numbers are so inconsiderable, that
they have long since been obliged to give up the principles and
language which distinguish them as a party, and to fight under
the banners of their enemies V &c. — Letter to the King. We
know what sort of a Government was concocted out of these
despicable materials, and what it was able to effect. But • a
strong Government,' says the brilliant Dr. John Bowring,
' must always be a bad one.'
' ' And now, again, when all the power was devolved into
the Scotish Kinge and the Malignant Partie, they invadeinge

40
liberal-minded prince, and one much applauded
in his day for having ' restored God to his empire
over conscience1,' thought proper to force upon
the Oxford Malignants a creature of his own ;
but his success has, till now, attracted few imi
tators. Possibly, if one may judge from the
temper now displayed by Dr. Hampden's parti-
zans, and the menaces of power already made in
his favour, the time may not be long before these
' degraded and low-principled heretics' are again
consigned to the secular arm.
Let us hear your pious breathings :
' Once, and once only in the history of Chris-
' tianity do we find a heresy — for never was that
' term more justly applied — so degraded and low-
' principled as this. We must pass over the times
' of Romanists — we must go back to the very
' beginning of the Christian Church ; and there,
' in the Jews and Judaizers of the New Testament,
' we find the only exact resemblance to the high-
' churchman of Oxford. In the zealots of circum-
' cision and the ceremonies of the law, — in the
England, the Lord rayned down upon them such snares as the in
closed will shew,' &c. — Oliver Cromwell's Letter to his esteemed
Friend, John Cotton, of Boston. I have made a slight change
in the text : for it seemed right to leave the Devil's business in
the hands of his own agent.
5 Addresses of Dissenters to James the Second. — See Dry-
den's Pref. to the ' Hind and Panther.'

41
' slanderers and persecutors of St. Paul — the doters
' upon old wives' fables and endless genealogies —
' the men of ' soft words and fair speeches,' — of a
' voluntary ' humility,' all the time that they were
' calumniating and opposing the Gospel and its
' great apostle ; — in the malignant fanatics who, to
' the number of more than forty, formed a con-
' spiracy to assassinate Paul, because he had denied
' the necessity of ceremonies to salvation — the men
' of mint, and anise, and cummin, who cared not for
' judgment, mercy, and truth — the enemies and
' revilers of the holiest names which earth reve-
' rences, and who are condemned, in the most
' emphatic language, by that authority which all
' Christians acknowledge as divine ; — in these, and
' in these alone, can the party which has headed
' the late Oxford conspiracy find their perfect
' prototype V
Decent language in an advocate of truth ! I
could wish you had spared the parallel of the
forty assassins ; for the character suits better with
one who does secret service in the dark, than with
those whose proceedings have at least been open
and avowed. For the rest, these ' fanatics for a
ritual,' as long as that ritual is authorized for their
daily use, and no minority of forty are armed with
power to eject it, will probably not cease to pray
1 P. 226.

42
for forgiveness upon ' their enemies, persecutors,
and slanderers, and that it may please God to turn
their hearts.'
It would be a very vain effort to trace your
travestied character of a high-churchman point by
point. Those who, like your friend Dr. Arnold ',
place the commission of the Christian minister on
the same footing as that of a parish beadle, may
safely be left to revel in the luxury of freedom
which their exalted spirits have achieved. If
there is nothing of positive institution in the re
ligion of Christ, we are doubtless much in the
wrong to advocate the necessity of such a ' cere
mony' as baptism or the eucharist, — to maintain
the apostolic rite of confirmation, — to submit the
candidate for a ministerial office to the laying-on
of hands. But if there is clear evidence that the
sacraments were ordained by Christ himself — that
these other rites have all the authority of Apos
tolic Institution, — that all Christian Churches
were first planted in one form of a divine society',
and that all authority to minister emanated from
' See Edin. Rev. p. 53. Arnold's Serm. vol. iii. Postscript.
3 Let it not be forgotten from what quarter a different doc
trine first came ; — ' Jesuitce per Hiberniam verbis defendunt,
per Angliam etiam scriptis tuentur, Ecclesias particulares, ut
loquuntur, recte gubernari etiam sine Episcopis posse : qua in
re pro Puritanis faciunt.' — Grotius, Epist. ad Gall. cxx. A
byestander saw something of the truth.
9

43
the society so constituted itself, — where is the
bigotry, the formality, or the folly, of believing it
the safest course to imitate this pattern ?
It would be well for the world if bigotry or fana
ticism were confined to one set or class of opinions.
I see nothing of this essential to high-churchman-
ship. It may belong, for aught I know, as much
to one who maintains it to be a mere farce to
consecrate Bishops, Priests, or Deacons '. Our
assent to any truth must be proportioned to its
evidence ; our zeal for it to its importance. For
the evidence, it would be a libel on the Clergy,
(and indeed on educated churchmen generally),
not to believe it to be their persuasion that the
Apostles were led by divine providence to establish
the three different orders in their Church. It is
distinctly recognized in the Church's prayers, and
taught in one of those formularies to which they
have repeatedly set their hands 2. As to its im
portance, I cannot suppose it to be undervalued
by those who see it to rest on the same sanction as
the first-day Sabbath, and the baptism of infant
1 ' It is a farce to provoke laughter, if there were no sus
picion of profanation in it, to see people gravely lay hands on
one another, and bid one another receive the Holy Ghost.' —
Bolingbroke, Letter to Pope. I recommend the whole para
graph to the devout meditations of Dr. Arnold.
2 Compare the Collects for Ember Weeks with the Preface to
the Ordination Services.

44
children, — two more of those matters of pious
opinion which Dr. Hampden may think it better
to abolish than dispute.
In pleading with an opponent we rest these
principles on the evidence by which we have been
persuaded of their truth. Is this fanaticism ? It
is no part of fanaticism to deal with evidence.
But of those who have assented to our formu
laries we have a right to require that they should
not insult the system to which they have volun
tarily become parties. Is this persecution ? Or
is it not the law by which all societies are go
verned ?
But it seems it is worse than persecution ; it is
illegal. ' The law of England has taken away all
government from the Church 1,' even over its own
members. The Church is ' entirely the off
spring and creature of the state.' If this be true,
every little knot of congregational Dissenters, the
twenty or ten who may license a new marriage
office, — the smallest section of the smallest new
born sect, — enjoy an enviable privilege above it.
But the question may be put to a short issue. Re
quire of the Church to surrender all this ' foolery,'
which has provoked your holy rage ; — this 'dress,'
this 'ritual,' this 'name,' this 'form without
substance,' this ' technical phraseology,' these
1 Edin. Rev. p. 53. 51.

45
' objects so pitiful, that they lead to no good, in
tellectual, moral, or spiritual ;' — the result will
shew whether the Christian Sacraments and Priest
hood exist by acts of parliament, or not.
We appeal to Scripture as the rule ; we respect
universal Tradition as the interpreter. And if
we are thus led to extend the kingdom of our
Lord by remaining in union with that body which
He founded — to regard it as marked by certain
distinct and essential principles of doctrine, minis
try, sacraments, and worship, — if when we avow
these principles in opposition to those who are
without, we are ready to try them by the tests to
which we appeal 1, withholding no social affections
or duties from those who differ from us, — is this
Judaism ? —
' The. creed, that to the circumcis'd alone
Would point the path or make the fountain known V
We aim to advance a duly constituted Reformed
Episcopal Church ; and in so doing we most cer
tainly proclaim the Gospel, as we view it, which
Christ and his apostles taught — the kingdom of
God which they established and extended. In
what other way should we proclaim it ? We
may highly respect other sects among our coun-
1 ' Mr. Newman appeals to Scripture. We have not room lo
follow him there.' — Edin. Rev. p. 63.

46
try men and fellow-Christians, rejoice in the por
tion of truth they hold, honour their piety and
zeal, cherish affection for their persons, unite with
them in public charities and in the social charities
of life ; but we are bound by ties more sacred, by
the love of our Redeemer, to that sound form of
doctrine, that ministry, sacraments, and worship,
under which we believe the Church was consti
tuted by Him. We presume not to arraign the
fitness of the peculiar constitution of Christ's
mystical body : this is not a thing to be judged
by man's wisdom : ' He who came to save the
world knew best by what institutions the all-mer
ciful purpose was to be accomplished V So far,
however, from confining Salvation to a state of
visible union with Christ's mystical body, we
preach the redemption of all in every sect and
nation under heaven, — salvation effectual to all
that come to God, " believing that He is, and that
He is a rewarder of them that diligently seek
Him." But if we understand the most solemn
obligations which mortals can assume, or heaven
sanction, we cannot use unconsecrated means to
advance a consecrated end.
This Creed was one of those things which the
party whom we follow preserved to mar the tri-
1 These are the words of the late admirable John Henry Hobart,
an American Bishop : — for these hateful principles sometimes
pass current in that country.

umph of the Reformation. It was a party, how
ever, with which we need not blush to be enlisted,—
the party of Ridley, of Jewell, and of Hooker ¦ ;
of Andrews and of Hall ; of Chillingworth and
Taylor ; of Hammond and of Barrow ; of Pear
son, of Beveridge, and of Ken ; of Wilson and
of Horne ; and almost all the names which reflect
a lustre on the sacred literature of our country.
It was the Creed of Bacon and of Grotius, of
Falkland and of Clarendon, and one which has
been for ever consecrated in the affections of the
Christian loyalist by the sacrifice which stained
with blood the grey hairs of a reverend Prelate,
and the manly virtues of a British King !
1 ' They are ministers of God, not only by way of subordina
tion, as princes and civil magistrates, whose execution of judg
ment and justice the supreme hand of Divine Providence doth
uphold : but ministers of God, as from whom their authority is
derived, and not from men. For who should give them
their commission, but He whose most inward affairs they
manage V — Eccl. Pol. v. 77. This is that Hooker, who, we
are told, ' identifies the Church with the State,' who 'rests the
rights of the Clergy on the will' of the majority, and whose
system 'found no favour in the eyes of Churchmen.' Edin.
Rev. p. 52. I beg to suggest to your very good ally, who
wrote that other Article meant to demolish High Churchmen,
whether it may not be better in future to fall back upon the old
principles of your Review, and give up ' the judicious Hooker.'
Certainly ' the justice of that epithet' was once well proved to
be ' rather questionable,' when applied to this ' thorough
going advocate of things established.' — See Edin. Rev. Sept,
1826, -p. 508.

48
But enough for this parallel of Judaism. It is
time to descend from the high flights of invective
to a statement of facts ; and I willingly follow
you to the field of Enghsh history, to read of old
fantastic ' tricks' enacted by the spirit which you
wish to exorcise.
' We turn to a comparison less solemn, to a
' period and country less remote — to the events of
' scarcely more than a century ago — to the spirit
' and the proceedings of the High Church party
' under the Liberal Government that followed the
' Revolution. The tricks that have been now
' attempted to be played in the Convocation of the
' University were then played in the Convocation of
' the Clergy. There we find the bigot, Dr. Jane,
' who defeated the attempt of King William's
' Government to effect a union between the Church
' and the Dissenters, by the parrot-like repetition of
' Nolumus leges Anglice mutari. There we find
' Burnet's ' Exposition of the Articles' condemned
' by the Lower House of Convocation, on grounds
' similar to those now urged by the Oxford Con-
' spirators against the writings of Dr. Hampden ;
' namely, ' that it allowed a diversity of opinions,
' which the Articles were framed to avoid ; that it
' contained many passages contrary to the Articles
' and other received doctrines of the Church ; that
' some things in it were of dangerous consequence,
' and derogated from the honour of the Reforma-
' tion !' Such was the sentence passed by the High

49
' Churchmen of the last century upon a book
' which is now universally received as a correct
' statement of the doctrines of the Church, and
' which is commonly recommended by the Bishops
' as a companion to the theological studies of can-
' didates for orders 1.'
In those unhappy days of mutual distrust, to
which this paragraph alludes, an impartial sen
tence must award a due measure of blame to
either party. How was it likely that Churchmen
could repose their confidence in the intentions of
a Government, which, in its rapacity for patron
age, had imposed those arbitrary and unnecessary
Oaths, well characterized as calculated to enrich
knaves and to starve honest men — which drove
from their preferments five of the seven Bishops,
the country's best champions against the tyranny
of James — which stripped of their means the most
pious and learned among the Clergy — which were
rejected even by many warm friends of the Revo
lution, who could afford to keep a conscience 2 ?
Let us, for the honour of humanity, draw a veil
over the multiplied perjuries which deformed the
character of the highest actors then upon the
scene. The cause of such oaths is given up even
by the most ingenious advocate who ever falsified
i P. 236.
2 See u letter of Dr. Fitzwilliam in Lady Russell's Collection.
E '

50
history in your behalf1. As to the scheme of
comprehension, those who have perused Richard
Baxter's ' wilderness of prayer' proposed at the
Savoy Conference, may well doubt whether there
was much prospect of an amicable settlement
from a plan which, if we may believe Archbishop
Wake, was to leave ' the doctrine, government,
and worship of the Church entire.' If Bishop
1 ' We may always look for a system of perjury from the im
position of political tests.' — Hallam, Constit. Hist. ii. p. 9.
He therefore approves more of other means resorted to by Wil
liam, and brought to perfection by Walpole, who used them, as
he used to say, ' to make the members vote not against? but
according to, their conscience.' ' There is,' says Mr. Hallam,
' I presume, some moral distinction between the acceptance of
a bribe to desert or betray our principles, and that of a trifling
"present for acting in conformity to them.'— Ibid. p. 273.
We may remember the excellent Costard's distinction between
guerdon and remuneration; but as this is said of Algernon
Sidney's case, it goes a little deeper. Truly I am not casuist
enough to decide whether the most exemplary traitor is he who
is inoculated with treason, or he who has it in the natural way.
The learned Jesuist, Leonard Lessius, has touched this subject
in the best manner of probabilism. ' Vous direz peut-etre
que celui qui regoit de l'argent pour une action sale, peche, et
qu' ainsi il ne peut ni le prendre, ni le retenir. Mais je reponds,
qa'apres que la chose est executee, il n'y a plus aucun peche ni
a payer, ni a en recevoir le payement.' — See Pascal's Prov.
Lett. viii. But ' Integrity,' says Lord John, ' is the virtue of
extreme simplicity, or extreme refinement ;' and these were not
certainly the days for either ! — Lord J. Russell's ' Turks in
Europe,' p. 26.

51
Burnet met with rough treatment, one who so
sank the divine in the meddling politician may be
considered to have done just penance for his
thorough-going party spirit, — for the low credulity
that could act sponsor to the story of the warming-
pan, — and the pliant morality that could stand
forth to defend the attainder of Fenwick. But
let it be confessed that posterity may forget the
politician in the divine ; I believe there are few,
even among the ' Church Tories,' who are not
willing to do so ; — for they really ' have stirred'
in this, and you may be consoled by knowing that,
even with them, in one instance, ' the heresy of
one period has become the orthodox belief of
another.' But the head and front of offence then
charged against the Exposition of the Articles is
one that may be still sustained ; for the author
had put forth a principle repugnant to any con
scientious mind, that they are capable of two
literal and grammatical senses, plainly contrary to
each other.
' Again the rancorous slanders of the high
' churchmen against names the most revered in the
' annals of the Church, may sufficiently console
' Dr. Hampden for the same slanders now vented
' against himself. The Irish Nonjuror Lesley, in
' an anonymous pamphlet, professing to be written
' by ' a true son of the Church,' and published in
' 1695, writes thus of Archbishop Tillotson : ' His
e 2

52
' politics are Leviathan, and his religion is latitudi-
' narian, which is none ; that is, nothing that is
' positive, but against every thing that is positive in
' other religions  He is owned by the athe-
' istical wits of all England as their true primate
' and apostle. They glory and rejoice in him, and
' make their public boasts of him. He leads them
' not only the length of Socinianism, (they are but
' slender beaux who have got no further than that,)
' but to call in question all revelation — to turn
' Genesis, &c. into a mere romance — to ridicule the
' whole, as Blount, Gildon, and others of the doctor's
' disciples have done in print.' Lesley goes on to
' call Tillotson's principles ' diabolical,' and says
* that he had by them ' deeply poisoned' the nation.
' (Birch, Life of Tillotson, p. 297, ed. 1753.) And
' another Nonjuror, Hickes, a man, like one or two
' of the Oxford conspirators, much vaunted by his
' party for the pretended holiness of his life l, because
' he used a sentimental style of excessive religious
' feeling in his prayers and other compositions, found
' his religion perfectly compatible with falsehood
• and malignity; for he was privy to the writing of
' this wicked libel, and recommended it, hoping it
* might see the light before the publication of his
' own discourses uponDr. Burnet and Dr. Tillotson.
1 Those who understand the allusion, and the source from
which it comes, will appreciate the means employed to eclipse
the theological reputation of a rival.

53
' (Birch, ubi supra.) These men, whose intellectual
' powers were so low, that Johnson himself, in spite
' of all his prejudices in their favour, declared ' that,
' with one exception, he never knew a nonjuror that
' could reason,' appear exactly to have reversed the
' precept of St. Paul, which bids us " in malice to
' be children, but in understanding to be men 1." '
It is scarcely worth the pains to enter into this
trivial charge, but for the want of candour which
pervades it. To speak of the author of the ' Short
Method with the Deists,' as the Irish Nonjuror
Lesley, may answer very well with those who make
no enquiries for themselves. To give a garbled
quotation at second hand from the pen of an ad
versary may suit the hasty injustice of one who
has but one side to represent. The idea of call
ing Tillotson's politics Leviathan was not an in
vention of Charles Leslie's ; it came from a lay
man. ' It is many years ago since the ECarf] of
D£orsef] one Sunday that Dr. Tillotson preached
at Whitehall, told King Charles II. that Mr.
' Hobbes was got into the pulpit.' Then follows
the passage, ' his politics are Leviathan,' &c. 2 '
Tillotson had said he did not think it lawful to
preach the Gospel against the commands of the
1 P. 237.
2 See Leslie's Works, Vol. II. p. 595. Oxford Ed. 1832.
But the story is well known.

54
prince ' unless we had such extraordinary com
mission as the Apostles, and were able to vouch it
with miracles as they did :' — an unguarded sen
tence, which, if acted upon in the three first
centuries, would have annihilated Christianity.
It is in fact near a kin to the principle of Hobbes,
that Christians are bound in conscience to obey
an infidel king in matters of religion : and can
only be approved by those who look upon the
Church as ' entirely the offspring and creature of
the state1.'
As to the Socinians claiming Tillotson for their
father, Leslie is no libeller ; for he quotes their
own words for it 2.
There can be no doubt that the language of
Charles Leslie, in many of his controversial writ
ings, is such as marks a mind cast in nature's
roughest mould : one would no more wish to re
vive such a style in theology than the political
phraseology of Lord Coningsby or Sir Charles
Hanbury Williams. Setting this aside, I see
nothing in the whole passage which has not a
foundation of facts to support it. It is unques-
1 Edin. Rev. p. 51.
2 Leslie's Works, ib. p. 584. Priestley's opinion is worth
adding : ' To see such men as Bishop Hurd in the class of
these writers,' (viz. who assert the divinity of Christ,) ' a
class so little respectable, when he is qualified to class with
Tillotson, Hoadley, and Clarke, equally excites one's pity and
indignation.' — Hist, of Corrupt. Christ, ii. 471.
7

oo

tionable that Tillotson's religion was latitudina-
rian ; he was probably an Universalist ; like other
metropolitans of his period, he did not put to hazard
the doctrine of " eternal judgment." He speaks as
if it were a brutumfulmen, and evidently leans to the
Protestant Purgatory of Dr. Parr \ It was an age
when the Church had to maintain a severer strug
gle with manners and principles, than before with
the brief tyrant of the hour ; yet it is unquestion
able that the Deists Blount, Gildon, and Tindal2
afterwards, expressed themselves towards both
these Prelates in terms of compliment and fellow
ship, which might have startled a less equable
temper than Tillotson's, or one less devoted than
Burnet's to ' that Liberal Government which fol
lowed the Revolution.'
The sentence of posterity is sooner or more
slowly just to those writers, whom party zeal
exalts to an undue degree of popular applause.
Warburton, who lived while Tillotson's fame was
fresh, was too acute not to perceive something of
the truth : — he pronounced ' his Sermons, pub
lished in his lifetime, to be fine moral discourses,
clear, rational, and equable ;' but could not for-
1 See his Serm. xxxv., and Le Clerc's Defence of it.
2 Tindal's 'Rights of the Christian Church:' — a source of
information from which these Edinburgh recruits may borrow
many valuable hints against High Churchmen. They ought to
thank me for pointing it out.

56
bear to add, that ' you may be much at your ease
in the midst of a long lecture from Tillotson.'
The more vital defect of his views on more essen
tial points of Christianity, which was then pointed
out by the Nonjurors, has gradually forced convic
tion on those whom the magic of a name too long
fascinated. Who now reads Tillotson ? Those
' fine moral discourses' rest on the shelf with
' modest Foster,' and the rest of his lethargic
school, while the devotional writings of Hickes, a
man whose sterling worth should have protected
him from your obloquy, are among the most trea
sured aids of private meditation and prayer.
I cannot pass by the closing sentence of this
paragraph ; for the candour which penned it had
surely dipped in as sable a stream as ever flowed
through the Canongate. ' These men, whose
intellectual powers were so low, that Johnson
himself, in spite of all his prejudices, declared
that, with one exception, he never knew a Nonjuror
who could reason.' — Why will you 'draw so largely
upon the confidence of your readers ?' The want
of logical acumen is not identical with the want of
all intellectual power; nor did Johnson intend this.
He did not exclude by it even the strongest powers
of persuasion, as is plain by what he repeatedly
said of the hortatory treatises of William Law.
But could you deem it possible that your readers
1 Letters to Hurd.

57
should not know that this ' one exception,' this
one ' reasoner,' in Johnson's estimate, ' and a
reasoner not to be reasoned against,' was that
very Irish Nonjuror, Lesley % here put on his
defence as the wicked libeller of Tillotson's good
fame ? — Who now has ' reversed the precept
of St. Paul, which bids us " in malice to be chil
dren, but in understanding to be men ?" '
A good-natured Irish lady, of the Roman per
suasion, when she heard of Leslie's death, left a
prayer in her diary, ' Lord, lay not invincible igno
rance to his charge.' We know the generous
meaning of such a prayer, when used by persons
of her creed ; applied to such a man, it may at
least provoke a smile. I fear it will anger you
after the virtuous scorn you have expressed
against the ' doters upon old wives' fables,' if I
suspect you to have been biassed by this testi
mony ; but I would recommend you to think of
it in future when you have to do with Leslie, as
one, literally taken, more to the purpose than that
of Johnson.
I repeat it, it was the imposed perjury of the
Court which drove many a sincere Christian and
man of honour into the ranks of the Pretender.
Leslie himself took an active part both as a
Churchman and a Magistrate in resisting the in-
' See Boswell's Johnson, vol. iv. p. 314. Ed. 1816.

58
struments of James, the little tyrants of his Irish
fields in Monaghan. But the principle of the
man revolted at the doubleness of heart displayed
in the exaction of two contrary oaths. Grant
that the Nonjurors regarded such scruples too
exclusively for the common interest; they had
lately had a weighty warning not to divide a pri
vate from a public conscience. It is high time that
the sufferings of such men should be mentioned
with pity rather than their memory be pursued
with insult. The ' spotless Norfolk' has found
pardon for fidelity to a worse master ; and we
know that these were bound by an adherence like
his — a mistaken adherence perhaps — but to a
principle, of which Hallam himself in a calm mo
ment has declared, that it is 'indispensable to
the tranquillity and permanence of every mo
narchy,' and in a moral view has a strong ' ten
dency to refine and elevate the heart V
' But the Government held on its way in spite
' of the clamours, the constant libels, and occa-
' sional treasons of the High Church Clergy. It
' continued to advance real Christians, like Burnet
' and Tillotson, to such important stations in the
' Church as fell vacant. The higher clergy were
' thus gradually purified ; and of the lower, the
' Hophni and Phinehas party, seeing which way
1 Hist, of Midd. Ages, vol. i. p. 323.

59
' promotion came, composed their outward bearing
' accordingly, while the more fanatical died out in
' their own folly. Then came a period in which
' the spirit of the Heads of the Clergy was indeed
' an honour to the Church of England — the period
' of Wake, of Butler, of the Apostolical Bishop
' Wilson, and of Seeker — men firm and earnest in
' the faith of the Church of England, but in whom
' faith ministered to holiness and charity, because it
' was the faith of Christians, and not of Judaizers V
It would be well if one who accuses Oxford of
' living in the past,' would turn his eyes a little
upon the present. Is there any one of the ma
lignants of the day who does not respect the use
ful labours of Wake and Seeker, who does not
admire the deep reasonings of Butler, and rever
ence the devoted zeal of the Apostolical Bishop
Wilson ? But if you had ever looked into the
records of Bishop Wilson's life, I doubt whether
his name would have found admission even into
this meagre catalogue of Whig discernment. To
whom did he owe his promotion to the poor
Bishopric of Man? Not to Walpole's Govern
ment, but to the private friendship of Lord Derby,
to whom the patronage belonged. And indeed
his notions of Church authority may well account
for his not being advanced to a higher place : he
was to all intents and purposes as rigid a High
1 P. 238.

60
Churchman as the veriest Nonjuror of the sect.
Something might be said on this head also in the
case of Butler. A little light may be thrown
upon the character of the Court-bishops of this
golden period by an inspection of the corres
pondence of Hoadley, or an enquiry into the
private annals of Archbishop Blackburne. But
the voice of public remonstrance would sometimes
be heard in the high places of luxury and sloth ;
the virtuous Berkeley, Gibson, and Sherlock, were
not suffered to descend unhonoured to the grave.
Once more, the case of Butler and of Seeker,
both Oxford men, yet men who were born and
bred Dissenters, might well have arrested one who
had not made it his axiom, that 'the origin of all ex
isting societies is in ignorance and injustice1.' The
truth is plain enough. A religious Dissenter has
never found subscription to the Church Articles a
bar to the admission of his children at Oxford ; he
respects a system conducted on principle rather
than one marked by the absence of all principle.
In fact, the religious Dissenter, so far from refusing
the Articles, thinks them only too comprehensive
for unity of faith, and wishes it to be defined
whether the Calvinistic or Arminian sense is the
true. How many instances might be produced
1 Owen of Lanark, adopted by Dr. Arnold, ' Christian Duty,'
p. 9. Pereant qui ante nos, &c.

61
even in these days of sons of Wesleyans or Dis
senters, who from Oxford have risen to deserved
honour and advancement in the Church. But are
these the men who would now tear the peaceful
bosom of their nursing mother ? They are those
who tender her rights with the most religious
care. For whom then is ' the poisonous root of
Judaism 1 ' to be extirpated ? in other words, all
that distinguishes the University as a school of
Reformed Faith and Episcopal Discipline to be
abolished ? For those only, who, under the name
of Dissent, wage a war against all that unites the
bond of Christian brotherhood ; all settled princi
ples of faith, all order of worship, all obedience to
authority, all means of instruction ; — all those
Cinnas and Borgias of religion, who think they
have no liberty till they have the power of perse
cution — who avow that the very existence of the
Church is incompatible with their rights of think
ing and acting. It is due to the Church and
country to show what those crooked counsels are,
which it is already called an act of ' moral wicked
ness 2 ' to oppose. It is due to my brethren and
companions not to abandon them to calumnies,
which they cannot suffer in a question of religion
without injury to the cause of God. If this
struggle is now to come, you may possibly find
i p. 238. 2 Ibid.

62
that there are hearts prepared in quietness and
confidence to abide the trial by which an All-
merciful Providence ever brings round the victory
of truth : and the statesman who first puts his
hand to the ark that secures our holy things, will
discover that ' the Church of England cannot be
persecuted by any governor that understands his
own interest, unless he be abused by false preach
ers, and prefer his secret opinion before his public
advantage V
As for your own effusion, Sir, my prayer is,
that it may be the blessing of all who hate High
Churchmen to write as you have done. It must
only be left as a point for the naturalist to explain
why creatures should exist, like the cuttle-fish,
with a sword on their lips but without a heart in
their bosoms ; and who, like that painful animal,
seek to escape in a contest by scattering their
blackness over the purest of elements.
I am, Sir,
Your obedient servant,
EDWARD CHURTON.
1 Jer. Taylor.

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