CONSIDERATIONS

POSITION AND DUTY

THE UNIVEBSITY OF OXFORD,

WITH BEFEKENCE TO

THE LATE PROCEEDING ^^-O"'
. AGAINST THE O y ,- , S

REGIUS PROFESSOR OF HEBREW. (

BY HENRY ARTHUR WOODGATE, B.D.,
III ' '
RECTOR OF BELBROUGHTON,
LATE FELLOW AND TUTOR OF ST. JOHN'S COLLEGE, OXFORD.

OXFORD,
JOHN HENRY PARKER:
J. G. F. AND J. RIVINGTONS, LONDON.
MDCCCXLIII.

OXFORD :
PRINTED BY I. SHRIMPTON.

CONSIDERATIONS ON THE POSITION AND DUTY OF
THE UNIVERSITY OF OXFORD.

It has fallen to the lot of the University of late years to
be the scene of agitation and excitement from controversy
and other causes, more frequently than in an equal number
of years for a long period of our Academical history.
That these events are ordained by the providence of God,
that they are designed for good and wise purposes, and that
they will ultimately work together for good, it would be
wrong to question. Meanwhile important interests are made
to suffer ; and it deeply concerns those who are connected
with the University, especially those who in any way have
a voice in her councils, not to remain inactive and await the
issue as mere passive spectators, but to consider whether
there are not duties arising out of these events, on the right
discharge of which materially depends the present influence
on the University and the Church at large, and for which,
without respect to the ultimate issue, we shall have a solemn
account to render hereafter.
The recent condemnation of Dr. Pusey's Sermon by the
Board of Six Doctors, and his consequent suspension, for
two years, from preaching in the University pulpit, is one of
these events. In its character, however, it may be said to
be unprecedented, and to stand alone, not only from the
events of our own time, but from any which have occurred
since the Reformation.
It is true that the University, and the truth of which she
is the trustee, has been assailed, and with far greater violence,
in former years. In turn she has suffered from the assaults
of both the principles by which the Truth has ever been
opposed. In the Great Rebellion, and the usurpations which
followed it, she suffered from tyranny of the most fearful

kind, resulting from the ascendancy of those principles. She
witnessed the interdiction of the offices of our Holy Religion,
and beheld her high places filled by men representing the
worst features of our fallen nature. At another period she
has experienced the arbitrary and tyrannical attempt on the
part of a civil ruler, representing the opposite principle, to
force upon her men professing an erroneous, system of faith
which she had long abjured ; and a period of no distant date
in our own times has again exhibited her in painful collision
with the Executive government, from the censurable conduct
of the responsible advisers of the Crown. But these attacks
on her liberties and purity of faith were from external
sources, in which herself bore no part; while her constitu
tional and uncompromising resistance to them constitute
some of the brightest epochs in her history.
The case is now different : she has now been assailed, for
the first time, both in her liberties and the purity of her faith,
by an act which, done as it has been by her lawfully consti
tuted authorities, must be regarded as her own till authorita
tively cancelled.
It is to call attention to this fact, and to point out the posi
tion in which we are thereby placed, with the duties which
consequently devolve upon us, that the following remarks are
chiefly designed. I could have wished indeed that this duty
had devolved on some other to whom it might have been
attended with less pain, from the absence of circumstances
which exist in the present instance. I have long been on
terms of friendship and intimacy with some of the members
of the Board in question ; and for most of them every person
must entertain feelings of respect and esteem : still there are
higher duties demanded of us when such momentous interests
are at stake, which compel us, at however painful a cost, to
make a sacrifice of our private feelings. I believe that with
the majority of Members of Convocation there is but one
opinion as to the position in which the University is placed
by the late sentence, however they may differ as to the mode
in which the question could with the greatest propriety and

efficiency be taken up. Happily for all parties, the interven
tion of the Long Vacation has afforded time for thought and
deliberation, and has enabled us to take a calmer and juster
view of the whole question than might have been the case
during the excitement consequent upon the earlier stages
of it.
Whether viewed ecclesiastically or academically, the sus
pension of Dr. Pusey is not to be regarded as an insulated
occurrence, having no relation to other questions which have
long occupied so large a portion of public attention ; but is
rather to be regarded as a link among many, all of them inti
mately connected with, and arising out of, the great move
ment which has been going on for some years in the English
Church, and the continued struggle which it necessarily has
to encounter with the sectarian spirit of the day, whether as
exhibited in professed liberalism in matters of faith, with its
unavoidable consequence, a tyrannical intolerance of the opin
ion of others, or in the profaneness and daring impiety which
too frequently mark its progress. At the same time, what
ever may be its ecclesiastical relation and its bearing on
the Church generally, to us, in an academical point of view,
it assumes a far greater importance. Considered eccle
siastically, as an act of Six Presbyters, it claims no more
attention, nor is entitled to more consideration in the way of
authority, than is due to the weight of their several individual
names : and as regards the interests of the Church, there can
be no doubt that eventually it will be found to have been
productive of great though not unmixed good ; of which I
shall have occasion to speak more fully hereafter. As an
academical question, it is impossible for us to separate it
from the circumstance that, not long since, the Board of Heads
of Houses submitted to Convocation a measure having for its
object to abolish the present practice of subscription to the
Articles on matriculation, and thereby to concede the whole
question at issue between the dissenters and ourselves, by
surrendering the very principle of our academical system ;
and that scarce twelve months have elapsed since they
b 2

gravely proposed to rescind the censure passed in 1836 on the
Regius Professor of Divinity, without his having recalled one
statement on which that proceeding was founded, or having
even allowed that he had been at all in error. Is that spirit
and principle which then led the Convocation, by the bless
ing of Divine Providence, to rescue the University from those
threatened concessions to the sectarian clamour and liberal
ism of the day, now without the legal means of vindicating
her from the stain which at present rests upon her from the
decision of the Six Doctors ?
It will not be denied that the ground on which this Sermon
has been condemned, and its author suspended, is the asser
tion of the Real Presence in the Holy Eucharist — a doctrine
which, though always held in the Church of Christ, has ever
proved a stumbling-block to the spirit of rationalism and
want of faith ; and has therefore, by each extreme, according
to their respective temper, either been associated with some
thing tangible and perceptible to the outward senses, or re
jected and denied altogether. It is the same spirit of rational
ism and want of faith in simple means, which, on the one
hand, has led the Romanist to rationalise and corrupt the
doctrine of the Real Presence into transubstantiation, and on
the other, has led the Protestant dissenter, and those who
fraternize with him in the Church, to reject it as super
stitious a.
a Naaman the Syrian, expecting that after his contemptuous comparison of
the prophet " would surely come out the waters of Israel with the rivers
to him, and stand and call on the of Damascus, will represent the Cal-
Name of the Lord his God, and strike vinist, Presbyterian, and Protestant
his hand over the place, and recover dissenter, in regard to the Sacra-
the leper," is no unappropriate repre- ments.
sentative of the spirit and temper of Had the Syrian believed in part the
each of these extremes. For the prin- instrumentality of Jordan towards effect-
ciple on which they meet, and from ing his cure, but had refused to believe
which they diverge to their respective in its efficacy, till assured that its
errors, is the same in both ; viz. a waters had been endued with healing
rationalistic want of faith, a disgust virtue by a total change of its nature
at simple means, and a disbelief of and substance, he would have repre-
their efficacy, without some tangible sented the Roman Catholic in relation
process, or "some great thing" per- to the Eucharist.
ceptible to the outward senses. N aaman The simple and faithful remonstrance
"turning and going away in a rage," of his servant, "My father, if the pro-

Before the publication of this Sermon, many who, like
myself, living at a distance from Oxford, had not an oppor
tunity of hearing it delivered, when they saw an announcement
that it had been condemned and its author suspended,
were compelled to believe that there were some grounds for
the proceeding ; and that, however harsh and severe the
sentence, men in the solemn and responsible office of judges,
and deliberating on a subject so entirely falling within their
own profession, would at least have been able to produce
some grounds on which they had convicted. It was thought,
for example, not impossible that Dr. Pusey might not have
been sufficiently mindful of the important principle laid down
in the well known tracts on Reserve, and that, however orthodox
himself, he might, even in putting forward Divine truth, have
had not sufficient regard to the capacity of his hearers to re
ceive it,, emerging as we are from the miserable laxity and
ignorance on doctrinal matters which characterized the last and
commencement of the present century ; so that, in urging some
long-forgotten truth, he had offended against the principle, so
observable in Scripture and so incumbent on the Minister of
Christ, of suiting the degree and strength of knowledge to
the spiritual capacity of the recipient. And I am willing to
admit that such an objection would form a valid ground for
the negative act of viiihholding an appointment as preacher,
one, for example, resting solely with the discretion of the
Vice-Chancellor, unconnected with any legal rights or official
duties, and the withholding of which consequently involved no
censure on the hundreds from whom it must necessarily be
withheld. But this is essentially different from a positive
overt act amounting to a bill of pains and penalties like the
present, and involving the suspension from prescriptive rights
and the most sacred legal duties. Neither am I prepared to
say that this Sermon would not have offended against the

phet had bid thee do some great thing, represent the spirit and tone of faith in
wouldest thou not have done it? how the efficacy of God's ordinances which
much rather then when he saith to thee, characterizes the humble Apostolic
Wash, and be clean," will not inaptly Churchman.

10
principle here spoken of, had it been addressed by a stranger
to some mixed congregation, who had taken their religious tone,
and adopted their views of doctrine, from the lax system and
low notions on ecclesiastical and doctrinal matters which
prevail so extensively among us: (though for any mischief
which may on this same principle arise from the present pub
lication of the Sermon, and its consequent circulation among
numbers in no way prepared for the more advanced stages
and higher views of the Eucharist here set forth, those persons
clearly are responsible, who have driven the author to this
step.) But what is the real state of the case ? The audience
in the present instance was the University, whom Dr. Pusey
had been for years accustomed to address from the pulpit in
his official turn — a congregation not only familiar with his
writings, (more freely canvassed than those of any living
author,) but, which is particularly to be observed, one which
might fairly be presumed to have heard the earlier sermons of
the series of which this one formed a part.
And what is the main purport of the Sermon ? The
assertion of a great fundamental truth — one much lost sight of
indeed in a lax and profane age — but one, — not only recognised
and taught in the English Church, but set forth prominently
in every Formulary and Office relating to the subject. And it is
also to be particularly observed, that this has been done, not as
setting forth a dogma of the Church, in a way calculated to
provoke a spirit of controversy, with no practical bearing,
but purely as a practical question, pointing out its blessedness
and value in its practical relation, as a source of comfort to
the penitent, in the forgiveness of sins and the increase of
spiritual life.
To the astonishment of all, these Six Doctors have pro
nounced this doctrine unorthodox; and if they have not
actually condemned, have at least circumscribed within the
limits of sectarian interpretation, the English Church her
Homilies, Liturgy, Catechism, Offices. Men too, of names
the most illustrious in the annals of our Church, men who
suffered persecution, some even unto death, for maintaining

11
this very truth — to whom we have ever been taught to look
up as our standard Divines — whose works form our standard
English Divinity, and are recommended by our Bishops to
candidates for Holy Orders — Archbishops Wake, Sharp, Laud,
Bramhall; Bishops Ridley, Bilson, Overall, Morton, Andre wes,
Cosin, Sparrow, Fell, Jeremy Taylor, Ken, Hackett, Beveridge,
Bull, Wilson ; Deans Jackson and Comber ; together with
Sutton, Mede, Herbert, Hammond, Thorndike, Leslie,
Wheatley, Grabeb, and many others, — all these have been
condemned, and virtually branded with the charge of heresy
by the Vice-Chancellor" and his coadjutors.
On this subject men will feel with different degrees of
intensity, however agreed on the truth of the doctrine. The
act of the Six Doctors may be regarded in two points of view ;
the one, as infringing seriously on our Christian liberty, by
deciding on a question which the Church has left opend(to those

b There are circumstances connected
with the history of some of these great
Divines, especially in regard to this
very subject of the Sacraments, which
makes their condemnation by the Six
Doctors, if possible, more astounding.
For example, Bishop Overall who, next
to Ridley, speaks perhaps more de
cidedly than any of them on the subject
of the Real Presence in the Holy Eu
charist, was not only associated with
Bilson in the translation of the Bible,
but actually wrote the Sacramental part
of the Church Catechism! Of the meaning
of which, if any doubt existed, his own
words on the same subject elsewhere,
would be the proper commentary. Cosin
wrote a History of Transubstantiation.
Archbishop Sharp was suspended by
James the Second for preaching against
Popery on this very subject. Bishop
Wilson's work on the Eucharist, as is
well known, has ever been received as a
standard work on the subject; and as a
manual, is placed in the hands of all
young communicants.
c Although in these pages, I may,

for the convenience of expression, speak
of this act as that of the Vice-Chancellor
as representing the whole Board, yet I
by no means attribute the act to him,
nor the chief part in it. The whole
proceeding, in fact, has been enveloped
in so much secrecy, as though each
membershrunk from the responsibility of
it, that it is impossible to know how far he
has acted as juryman, so to say, in decid
ing on the Sermon itself, or whether he
has only been in a position analogous to
that of a judge, acting on a verdict over
which he has no control. The only
thing known with any certainty is, that
the Margaret Professor was the insti
gator of the whole proceeding, and that
he combined in his own person the
offices of accuser and judge.
d Allowing, for argument's sake, the
doctrine of the Real Presence to be
what is commonly called an open ques
tion in the English Church, by what
right can any set of individuals pre
sume to pronounce it unorthodox, and
to affix penalties to .the belief in it?
Whereas, so far as it is an open ques-

12
who so regard it), and attaching penalties to those who differ
from them ; the other, as a direct act of heterodoxy, by con
travening the unequivocal and authoritative declarations of the
Church and her standard Divines. With many men this truth
is so identified with their earliest impressions, so early instilled
into their minds with the instruction provided by the Church
for the little ones entrusted to her care, that they naturally
regard it in the latter of these two points of view, and cannot
realize to their minds the fact of its condemnation. And it
seems difficult at first to account for the infatuation which
could lead, I will not say Six Doctors of Divinity, nay, nor six
Clergymen, but any six men really trained in the English
Church, to such a monstrous decision. And here it will not
be deemed irrelevant to offer a few remarks, which, if they will
not account for the fact, will at least tend to remove to a cer
tain extent a predisposition in the minds of some, founded
on the extreme improbability, antecedently, that these Six
Doctors should have denounced what the Church really holds;
arguing from which, they will infer, from the mere fact of their
having condemned it, that the doctrine was at least one of a
questionable nature, if not absolutely erroneous. This, how
ever, will admit of an easy reply, if we look back a few years
in the doctrinal history of our Church, especially in regard
to the two Sacraments.
It is well known that at the period of the Reformation it
was a peculiar and important feature in the English Church,
as distinguished from most Protestant bodies in other parts
of Europe,— -in addition to, though arising out of, the fact that
the principle on which they were respectively reformed was
essentially different6, — that while, in common with them, she

tion at all, it is well known that the the Homilies, Liturgy, and Offices of
only Divine of eminence who contends the Church, leave.no doubt as to what is
for liberty to receive it or not, does so the general decision of the Church on
rather as an advocate pleading for certain the subject.
weak consciences of others, than as e When the Protestant Association,
maintaining his own opinion. On the and the Committees of Exeter Hall,
other hand, the concurrent testimony of speak of the " Principles of the Refor-
our Standard Divines, as well as of mation," it should be borne in mind

13
abjured the distinctive errors of Romanism, she still retained
essential Catholic truths which the others rejected, such as,
for example, the authority of Catholic tradition in matters of
faith, the witness of the Church as the keeper and expositor
of Holy Scripture, Episcopacy and Apostolical succession,
and, what is most important and bearing particularly on the
present question, the orthodox Catholic view of the Sacraments
as means and pledges of grace, the Real Presence in the one,
the Regenerating influence of the other ; with all the benefits
involved in, and attendant on, these blessed truths, and the
great danger involved in the neglect or abuse of them.
Her decision on these great truths, was, by the blessing
and superintending providence of God, embodied in the
Articles, Prayer Book, and Formularies.
Although there existed from the beginning this wide gulf
between the English Church and foreign Protestant com
munities, there has been a constant effort among the ad
herents and partizans of the latter to draw her downwards to
themselves, and to assimilate her in doctrine and practice to the
system of Geneva. I do not mean to assert that this could
really have been done, in respect of doctrine, by the Church
as a whole, while the Prayer Book and Articles, as settled by
our Reformers, remained intact ; but in practice it was very
much the case with individuals, though, of course, at the
expense of consistency, and not unattended with a violation
of the most solemn vows. It is not necessary for the present
purpose to do more than advert by name to some of the causes
which contributed to this result. We may mention among
others the Marian persecution, and the natural re-action in
favour of the opposite extreme, with the temptations thereby
that the principles there spoken of are writings j an act of justice, however,
those of the continental Reformation, which, by some marvellous ineonsist-
with which that of the English Church ency,is uniformly denied to the Fathers
had little affinity, except the negative of the English Church by ultra- Protest-
one of separation from Rome, however ants. It is on a similar principle that
great the attempts now made to assimi- the Six Doctors would seem to deny
late them. ' One would have thought that the collective voice of our standard
that the principles which actuated men, Divines in any degree form the testi-
would be best gathered from their own moiiy of the English Church.

14
afforded to Protestants to regard their mutual differences with
a less jealous eye, through fear and dislike of a common foe ;
a feeling which afterwards was considerably strengthened by
the return of the Puritans and others who had been driven
abroad by that persecution, bringing with them the principles
of foreign Protestantism, and the bad passions which that
system was calculated to foster. To this, and in fact mainly
arising out of it, succeeded the Great Rebellion, in which the
land was flooded by these principles, terminating in the over
throw of the Constitution, the murder of the King and the Pri
mate, the utter proscription of the Liturgy and Offices of
the Church, and the most fearful and relentless persecution of
the Clergy. This deplorable state of things was ill remedied
by the profligate state of the Court and society generally which
followed the Restoration, and which, instead of restoring the
ancient discipline of the Church, went further to secularize the
Clergy, and prepared the way for the next fatal step, on the
accession of the Prince of Orange, — the appointment of Bishops
of Presbyterian principles, and, as a natural consequence, the
subsequent disputes between the Bishops and the Clergy of the
Lower House, affording to the Crown a plea, too eagerly seized
upon, for suspending the powers of Convocation, and with them,
ecclesiastical discipline. Since that period, things have been
gradually becoming worse ; the last century affording a lament
able picture in respect of doctrine, discipline, and practice.
The revival of a stricter system in practice having originated
mainly with one body of dissenters, (for which they are entitled
to due praise,) many of the more earnest-minded clergy who
mourned over the laxity of the age, and were ready to hail any
system which presented an antagonist principle to it, being led
fallaciously to identify strictness of practice with latitudinari-
anism in doctrine, embraced not only the practice, but, in very
many instances, the doctrines of dissent, especially in the virtual
denial of those points which formed the distinctive features of
the Church — the saving efficacy of the Sacraments as channels
and pledges of grace, with Episcopacy and its relation to
the efficacy of the Sacraments; and likewise in the undue

15
exaltation of preaching to the disparagement of public prayer.
This was one natural result of the ascendancy of Puritan and
Presbyterian principles, which placed preaching before prayer
and the Sacraments, and depended mainly for success on the
appeal to the passions.
To this system the Church's doctrine of the Sacraments
opposed no small obstacle. Hence it was denied both by
dissenters and such of the clergy as fraternized with them,
particularly in regard to Baptismal regeneration; and this,
not by implication merely, but in many instances by direct
denial. And here we may remark, as a blessing for which
we can never shew ourselves sufficiently thankful, how mar
vellously the superintending providence of God was mani
fested in the circumstance that during this long period the
Prayer Book itself should have remained intact ; that during
the reign of virtual heresy, the voice of the Church still
spoke authoritatively, though silently, through her authorized
formularies — the living witness, at once to testify and rebuke
the apostacy of her children. It is painful, though instructive,
to reflect on the unhealthy state of things in which that could
have taken place which has been just described; that even
the perjury involved in it should have excited so little sensa
tion, not only in the world at large, but even among the more
religiously disposed followers of the system : and perhaps a
few years hence, when the wretched moral atmosphere which
we now breathe shall, if God so permit, have cleared away
and given place to a purer and healthier tone of society,
it will be thought incredible that such should ever have been ;
and were it not for the writings which may survive to attest
that it once has been, its very existence would be denied, and
treated as an idle tale. Yet so it is ; and unhappily at present
it needs but our personal recollections to attest its truth.
The Saeraments have ever been the ground on which,
since the Reformation, the battle has been fought between
the Church and her enemies. And if what has been described
above is true of the one Sacrament, however incredible ante
cedently, it will be less unintelligible how the Six Doctors

16
could so shut their eyes to the plain unequivocal declarations
of the Church in regard to the other; how, yielding to the
outcry of the dissenting and ultra-protestant section of the com
munity, they should have suffered themselves to be driven into
this fatal course. It is not unworthy of remark, as indicating
the temper in which this has been done, and the principles of
the party with whom it originates, that in the first announce
ment to non-resident members of the Sermon having been de
manded by the Vice-Chancellor, which was done through the
medium of a letter to one of those profane publications which
are the organs of the ultra-protestant portion of the Church, it
was stated, as a ground of proceeding against Dr. Pusey, that
he had asserted the Holy Eucharist to be a means of continuing
and increasing the spiritual life which was commenced in Bap
tism ! A charge, the truth of which is unquestionably borne
out by the Sermon itself, but one which the Sermon shares
with every formulary of the Church relating to the subject.
Another remarkable circumstance also requires notice, and
throws much light on the subject. Whence is it that the
revival of Church principles, and the stricter adherence to
the Prayer Book, which have characterized the last ten years,
have been associated by their opponents with the name of
Dr. Pusey? He was not one of the original projectors, nor
even one of the earliest contributors to that series of pub
lications to which in a great measure it owes its rise. Several
numbers had appeared, and the subject had excited very
general interest long before Dr. Pusey took any part in it.
An answer to this question will be found in the fact
that when at length Dr. Pusey did begin to contribute
to the papers in question, the branch of the subject which
he took up was that which formed the great wall of separa
tion, and consequently the chief battle ground, between
the Church and sectarians, — the efficacy of the Holy Sacra
ments as means and pledges of grace. Whatever minor causes
may have contributed subsequently, it was Dr. Pusev's well-
known work on Baptism, in which he asserted its vast bles
sings and privileges, and the corresponding danger of forfeit-

17
ing them, which mainly led to the association of his name, as
a term of reproach, with the assertion of the great characteristic
and distinctive doctrines of the Church of England. Nor is
there any thing to create surprise in this when we reflect, that
for many years, with dissenters and those of the Clergy who
fraternized with them, the main subject of their preaching,
and their fundamental principle, on the successful advocacy of
which depended the advancement of their system, was the
denial, avowed or implied, of Baptismal regeneration ; to re
gard every individual as unregenerate and unconverted until
converted by what was to them the sacrament of preaching ;
to set forth the doctrines of Regeneration, Justification, Sanc-
tification, as utterly unconnected with the instrumentality of
the two Sacraments; and, as a necessary consequence, to apply
the promises in Scripture of plenary and immediate forgiveness
alike to sins committed before and after Baptism, alike to those
who have fallen from and those who have never received Baptis
mal grace ; excluding from the catalogue of sins to be repented
of, that which is greatest of all in a Christian, — the having
sinned against grace received under the covenant ; offering to
the deadliest sin, instead of the process of painful secret self-
discipline and gradual restoration, instead of a course of
humiliation, mortification, and holy discipline, — offering an
instant and ready mode for assuming at once all the privi
leges and authority of advanced piety and matured Christian
growth ; and, as a consequence of this, not only making sin
after Baptism of little account, as such, but throwing away
that weapon against our spiritual foe, so often and so forcibly
wielded by the Apostle with the Church in his day, viz.,
the appeal to them as Christians — to their position and pri
vileges — as furnishing the most constraining motive to holy
living, and as though one who was truly conscious of these
could not wilfully forfeit themf.
' " What, know ye not that your " Know ye not that ye are the temple
body is the temple of the Holy Ghost of God, and that the Spirit of God
which is in you?" . . . . "Ye are dwelleth in y ou ? "
bought with a price, therefore," &c.

18

Now I am as ready as any one to admit that the lives of
thousands who have been washed in the laver of Regeneration,
would, to those not strong in faith nor observant of the ana
logy of God's dealings, seem at variance with the reception of
a gift of which so little fruit is visible to attest its existence:
I am ready also to bear testimony to the zeal and earnestness
of the class of teachers here alluded to, and to the good of
which, in the absence of a better system, they were for a while
unquestionably the instruments, in reclaiming many from sin,
and of awakening them to a sense of their danger and respon
sibility; though the system itself, resting on an unsound
foundation, being Antinomian in its principle and tendencies,
exciting the feelings rather than humbling and purifying the
heart, and wanting those protectives against a relapse into sin
which are provided by the fulness of the Church's system,
failed of effecting much permanent good.
Such, however, being the system in question, it must be ob
vious to the most superficial observer, what must be the effect
and what the reception, by its advocates, of a work the chief ob
jects of which were the assertion of the doctrine of Baptismal
grace, the setting forth the greatness of Baptismal privileges and
the danger of trifling with them ; which placed grievous sin
after Baptism in a different position to sins committed before
it, both in regard to magnitude, and their relation to the pro
mises of forgiveness under the Gospel s. It is not my inten
tion, nor is it necessary for the present purpose, to enter on
a defence of that work, with many of the details of which
I am not sufficiently acquainted. I refer to it in confirmation
of what I am now saying, and to shew further, that when,

8 It is not necessary here to enter on ever between sin committed before and
the question how far and in what way after Baptism, either in regard to mag-
these promises do apply, (that they do nitude and character, or the claim to
the Church declares in the daily and the promises of immediate forgiveness j
Communion service, also in the Com- thereby not only throwing away the
ruination;) all that is here necessary Scriptural protection against sin re-
to be observed is that the system ferred to above, but directly, though of
of Geneva, to which Dr. Pusey's tracts course undesignedly, encouraging sin
are opposed, makes no distinction what- that grace may abound.

19
in pursuance of the same subject, the author entered, as he states
in his preface to his sermon, on the subject of " the comforts
provided by the Gospel amid the consciousness of sin, with
the view to meet the charge of sternness involved by the exhi
bition of one side of Catholic truth, in which course the sacred
subject of the Holy Eucharist, of necessity came in its order,"
— the hostility excited against this, was but a continuation and
part of the same feeling which had been previously excited
among the dissenters and evangelical Clergy (so called)
against his former work, in which he had asserted the spiri
tual efficacy of the other Sacrament. I am far from saying
that the Six Doctors are themselves to be numbered among
the class of religionists here alluded to : but, evidently little
acquainted themselves with the language of the Fathers or
our standard Divines, they appear to have succumbed to party
dictation ; and have, on this occasion at least, lent themselves to
the vulgar senseless outcry which would denounce as Popery
every relic of Catholic truth, which our Reformers, by the
blessing of Almighty God, bequeathed unto us.
It will not therefore be considered so extraordinary, under
all the circumstances of the present case, that Six Doctors
of Divinity should be found to condemn as unorthodox what
the Church has stated in her various formularies. There can
be little doubt that, had the (so called) evangelical party been
ascendant in the University twenty years since, they would
have suspended a preacher for asserting the doctrine of Bap
tismal regeneration. Nay, is it not notorious that for years
they were accustomed to denounce the Parochial Clergy
for so doing, and for not adopting with them the dissenting
views of regeneration, justification, and holiness, irrespec
tive of the instrumentality of the Sacraments ? That they de
nounced them as not preaching the Gospel, and that they
assumed to themselves their distinctive appellation of evange
lical on this very ground — a name, be it remembered, not
given to them by others, but voluntarily assumed by them
selves, as denoting that of all the Clergy they and they alone
preached the Gospel ? And from this wholesale denunciation,

20
is it a long step, or a very violent transition, to proceed to
actual suspension ? If the written unequivocal language of
the Prayer Book has offered no insuperable obstacle in the
one case, what greater probability is there that it would have
done so in the other ? especially if, under the assumed sanc
tion of some obsolete statute, they could have resorted to
the expedient of withholding the reasons of their con
demnation, and thus have escaped the punishment to which
they would have been liable from a direct avowal of heterodoxy.
The next generation will view the present proceeding with
the same feelings of astonishment with which we should at
this day view the suspension of a University preacher for
asserting the doctrine of Baptismal regeneration h.
To this act, however, the University as a whole is com
mitted, until annulled by competent authority; or until, as
in the case of the Regius Professor of Divinity, it shall as a
whole, have taken some step to mark its disapproval and to
record its censure. For I am by no means prepared to assert
that the Vice-Chancellor has exceeded his legal powers, ac
cording to the strict letter of the law ; though on the wisdom
or justice of the proceeding a different opinion may fairly
be held. This requires some little notice, inasmuch as the
Vice-Chancellor, in the various correspondence which has
taken place on the subject, has uniformly sheltered himself
under the strict letter of the statute. I grieve for this, for
I consider that it is, in another way, fatal to the privileges of
the University.
It is a sorry defence, and surely not one indicative of a
comprehensive wisdom, when an executive government shields
its acts under the strict letter of the law. It is at all times
dangerous to trifle with men's reverence for the law, by
pushing its enactments too far ; or to try the strength of
their loyalty by wantonly presuming too much upon it.
b Had Ridley and Cranmer, and example, been a University preacher,
other Reformers, lived in these days, it is difficult to conceive with what
there can be no doubt they would have shadow of consistency he would have
been branded as Papists by the ultra- been allowed to enter the University pul-
Protestant party. And had Ridley, for pit, after the suspension of Dr. Pusey.

21
Though not forming the foundation of our obedience, it is no
doubt a strong collateral aid, that we are not allowed generally
to see the full tendency of implicit obedience if fairly carried
out. Not that true high-principled loyalty would thus mea
sure its acts, or so limit its exercise ; but none will deny that,
as in all moral questions, there is a point at which, when
the powers of the law are pressed to an extent or in a way
different from that contemplated by its founders, the generality
of men are soon tempted to revert to what are commonly
termed first principles, and to question the grounds of their
original obligation ; and doubtless one of our greatest trials,
in our moral and social relations, is frequently made to consist
in this. When allowed by God Himself for this special pur
pose, we doubt not that strength equal to the temptation is
given to enable us to bear it ; but this in no way excuses
any human ruler for going out of his way to strain the cord
till it breaks by the very force of its tension.
If this is true of laws generally, infinitely more does it apply
to a body of laws so peculiar in their origin and design as the
University Statutes. It is well known that from the peculiar
nature and position of the University, and from the magnitude
and solemn character of the trusts committed to her, she has
ever been invested with powers of no ordinary extent in
various departments. Perhaps the constitution of no country
in the world will altogether furnish a parallel. For ex
ample : on the subject of arrest and matters affecting the
liberty of the subject, or the right of entering the houses of
the citizens, the authorities are possessed of legal powers such
as are not to be found save in the most despotic governments.
And when it is remembered that the object of these great
powers is to protect the morals of an immense portion
of that class of our youth on whose future conduct the best
interests of the country so materially depend, and that the
course of many centuries has rarely witnessed an instance of
their abuse, it has not been thought that the powers granted
to the University were too great, or the confidence which
their existence implied, misplaced. c

22
I may here refer, in corroboration of this, to a circum
stance which occurred some years since, and which will
probably be in the recollection of many of our members.
It happened that by some new Act of Parliament, the law
which gave the University these strict powers was by im
plication repealed, and the authorities were left to depend on
no other powers than those supplied by the ordinary law of
the land. So dangerous was this thought to be to the in
terests of the place, that the then member for the University,
Mr. Peel, was requested to bring in a separate bill to restore
the suspended powers, which was accordingly done. In the
debate which ensued upon it, certain members objected to
the excessive powers which it gave, one member observing
that under such a law his own wife or sister, in passing
through the streets of Oxford, might be arrested at the mere
will of the Proctors. This was not denied, but it was con
tended that in a place where the morals of so many young
men were concerned, extraordinary powers were required ;
while the fact of their not having been abused for so long a
period was a safe guarantee that they might safely be restored.
Now the powers' given to the Vice-Chancellor by the
statutes in question are, in regard to purity of doctrine, what
the others just alluded to are in regard to purity of morals —
necessary perhaps, like the other, to meet extreme cases, and
to be defended, as regards any danger to be apprehended
from their extent, by the fact that they never have been so
abused. The late exercise of this power, however, by the
Vice-Chancellor, will only find its parallel, in the Procura-
torial powers, to that supposed exercise of the latter, the bare
possibility of which, in the opinion of the Member of Parlia
ment before spoken of, formed so serious an objection to their
being conferred.
If the case contemplated by that Member had occurred, I
need not ask the commonest observer whether the Legislature
would, for a day longer than was required by the forms of
Parliament for the repeal of a law, continue a power to those
who had shewn themselves so capable of abusing it. Not

23
that this will find its parallel in any proposal to recall the
powers entrusted to the Vice-Chancellor in regard to the
University preachers; nor indeed should I wish to see it
done. The Legislature is not likely to trouble itself on the
matter. Had it been a case affecting the supposed rights of
conscience of some seditious dissenter or turbulent dema
gogue, there would not have been wanting men to take it
up, and to make it a case of great grievance and hardship.
But affecting, as it does, matters relating to the Church
alone, it would be to such men, as to Gallio, " a question of
words and names, and of your law," and like him, "they care
for none of those things." And it is well that it is so. It
were better perhaps to trust to the good sense and right prin
ciple of those who may come after us, that such a flagrant
violation of the spirit of a statute will not occur again, than
to legislate for particular cases, and to recall powers which
the wisdom of our founders may have deemed necessary, and
which for so many centuries have not been abused. It is
true that the statutes which confer these great powers were
framed in better times of the Church, and presuppose ortho
doxy on the part of those to whom they are entrusted. But
is it visionary to hope that those times may yet be restored to
us? With such a standing memorial of the providence of
God, as is exhibited in the preservation, through the worst
periods of our history, of the Prayer Book itself, it were a
want of faith to doubt the possibility of a return to its letter
and spirit Certainly as regards the University, the grounds
on which the Board of Heads of Houses were stated to have
condemned the celebrated Tract XC, form a most welcome
token that they are at least awake to the danger and sin of
"explaining away, and receiving otherwise than in its plain
literal sense, what men profess to believe and maintain." With
short-sighted human nature the application of an important
principle may not always follow immediately on its recogni
tion; though generally speaking, its ultimate application is
only a question of time.
At the same time, though not leading to its repeal, the
c 2

24

present exercise of this power has struck a fearful blow at
our privileges, both in that concurrence of public opinion on
which such privileges must always in a great measure rest
from without, and in the loyal confiding obedience by which
they must ever be supported from within. Externally, it has
gone further to shake public confidence in the goodness of our
institutions; and internally, it has inflicted a heavier wound
on the principle of filial obedience, and more strongly tempted
men to fall back on first principles, than any assault which
has been made upon us for a long period of years. And
yet the Vice-Chancellor has complained that the respectful
remonstrance which pointed this out, is "worthy of the
strongest censure." I must beg leave to dissent from this.
That this address was not the course which I could best have
wished to see adopted, I freely admit ; and for some time I
delayed to sign it, in the hope that some better might have
been devised. But in cases where large bodies of men are
concerned, it is impossible to meet the views of all ; and no
other memorial offering itself, I affixed my name, feeling
that, as an independent member of Convocation, I had full
right, without being open to this rebuke, of representing that
the interests of the University would be injured by this pro
ceeding. (Would that we could say with truth that the
interests of the University are not injured beyond recovery
by it ! ) If the Vice-Chancellor complains of the memorial
as unusual, surely it must be allowed that the case which
has called it forth is still more unprecedented. Extraordinary
circumstances often call for extraordinary measures ; and as
one of the persons involved in his unmeasured censure, I
must be allowed to say, that as regards any want of courtesy
in the transaction, the balance due is not on our side.
The practical course now to be pursued is to ascertain
what statutable modes are open to us of really or virtually
annulling the act in question, and thereby of absolving the
University from a participation in its responsibility. What
these are, or which is the best for us to pursue, I do not feel
myself competent to determine. They are necessarily limited,

25
from the very nature of the case. The same principle which
never contemplated the abuse of such powers, has left us
without adequate restraints upon such an abuse, analogous to
the checks which the jealousy of the Constitution has placed
on the undue exercise of the prerogatives of the Crown : an
omission which, however practically inconvenient at the present
juncture, speaks more strongly than words could have done in
condemnation of those who have taken advantage of the con
fidence reposed in their discretion. It is obvious, however,
that the object mainly to be kept in view is to have the matter
carried to some court of appeal, or in fact to any tribunal
allowed by our statutes, where, referred as it would be, not to
the irresponsible opinions or prejudices of any set of individuals,
but to the law and facts of the case, the truth would be at once
attained. Of the result of such an appeal there can be no
doubt; and by such a decision the University, as a whole,
would be absolved from participation in the late proceedings.
Has the Chancellor of the University no appellative juris
diction in such a case? If he has, and the accused is not
competent to appeal, surely a respectful memorial, praying for
his interference, would not be set aside, signed as it would be
by names strong both in number and weight. Is there no
appeal to either of the Boards of Delegates of Appeals, similar
to that said to be resorted to by the Regius Professor of
Divinity against the late decision in his case in the Vice-
Chancellor's Court ? If there is no appeal, cannot a counter
charge be brought against the Six Doctors on the ground of
the heterodoxy involved in their decision, and thus the onus
of defending their act be thrown on themselves ?
These are questions worthy of consideration, to be decided by
those conversant with the interpretation of University law ; and
if any of the courses here referred to is practicable, the Vice-
Chancellor can have no good ground of complaint that it is
put in force. Every authority, save the highest of all, is liable
to have a decree or act reversed by a higher court. It is no
more than the highest judges in the realm are liable to : all
but an absolute sovereign must be amenable to some law ; and

26
whether there exists that law in the present case, is a point
most important to be ascertained. There are many objections,
save in great extremity, to resort to the legal fiction of
pecuniary loss in a question of this solemn nature, and to
bring a suit in the University court on that ground as the peg
on which to hang the trial of the real question at issue, how
ever common the practice in ordinary courts of law : still even
this course would be preferable to allowing the sentence to
remain unreversed. A decision in any court, whether of law
or equity, constituted according to the ordinary principles of
judicature, would be sufficient for the purpose; and this is the
object to be kept mainly in view. Should no appeal be open
to us, we may, it is true, enter our solemn protest against the
proceeding, or we may severally sign our approval of the
Sermon, and our affirmation of its orthodoxy. But these
measures, though absolving us personally from participation
in the deed, would be but our act as individuals, and could
not absolve us in our corporate capacity. Nor is it necessary
or desirable, in taking up this question, to view it in its
peculiar relation to Dr. Pusey personally, whether as recom
mending it or the reverse. Any such association of the
question with particular persons, beyond what is absolutely
necessary, would rather tend to confuse the judgment, and
divert our attention from the main question before us. But
regarding it as only accidentally connected with him, we
should look rather to the principle involved in the whole pro
ceeding, and this, as deeply affecting the University, both in
regard to purity of doctrine and the liberty of her members.
To this must be added, as a point to be kept closely in
view, our position in the eyes of the world, whether as regards
the estimation in which we may be held, or the example we
may afford to others \ For although we may concede the
1 A Bishop of the American Church, the Vice-Chancellor to meet! What
distinguished for orthodoxy, zeal, and can be the standard of doctrine, when
piety, thus speaks of the late proceed- such a Sermon procures suspension for
ing: "Dissenters of every sort hope its author! Alas for Oxford, if re-
to make of it a wedge to rend the duced to this complexion !"
Church. What a fearful account has

27

doctrine of the Real Presence to be an open question, for the
purpose of shewing that even on this assumption a serious
blow has been struck at our privileges and purity of doctrine,
yet it must not be forgotten, that this is but a concession for
argument's sake ; that in the strict sense of the word, it can
hardly be called an open question in the English Church;
that the language of our acknowledged standard Divines is
unequivocal ; that the formularies and offices of the Church, if
to some they appear at first sight to speak less decisively on the
subject, must in common justice be interpreted by the fuller
and more categorical declarations of the former, especially if
they were, either wholly or in part, the authors or compilers of
the formularies and offices in question. And further, as if to
cut away the whole ground from beneath the feet of those
who would gainsay this blessed truth, it is remarkable that
our Reformers, providentially as it were for us, had to contend
for this very doctrine against the Romanists, who accused them,
in rejecting transubstantiation, of rejecting this k.

k " Think not that because I disallow
that Presence which the first proposi
tion maintained (as a Presence which I
take to be forged, fantastical, and beside
the authority of God's Word, perni
ciously brought into the Church by the
Romanists,) that I therefore go about
to take away the true Presence of
Christ's Body in His Supper, rightly
and duly administered, which is ground
ed upon the Word of God, and made
more plain by the commentaries of the
faithful Fathers  Out of these I
suppose it may clearly appear unto all
men, how far we are from that opinion
whereof some go about falsely to slan
der us to the world, saying we teach
that the godly and faithful receive
nothing else at the Lord's table but a
figure of the Body of Christ." — Bishop
Ridley. " Both you and I agree herein, that
in the Sacrament is the very, 'true,
and natural Body and Blood of Christ,
even that which was born of the Virgin

Mary ; which ascended into Heaven ;
which sits on the right hand of God the
Father ; which shall come from thence
to judge the quick and the dead ; only
we differ in modo, in the way and man
ner of being. We confess all one thing
to be in the Sacrament, and dissent in
the manner of being there." 
" Always, my protestation reserved, I
answer thus : — that in the Sacrament is
a certain change, in that that bread,
which was before common bread, is now
made a lively presentation of Christ's
Body, and not only a figure, but effec
tually representeth His Body 
Such a sacramental mutation I grant
to be in the Bread and Wine, which is
truly no small change, but such as no
mortal man can make, but only that
omnipotency of Christ's Word." — Ibid.
" It is confessed by all Divines, that
upon the words of the Consecration, the
Body and Blood of Christ is really and
substantially present, and so exhibited
and given to all that receive it, and all

28
On this topic, however, it is not necessary at present to say
more, nor to enter on the mere ecclesiastical view of a subject
which it has been my object to consider chiefly as it affects
us academically, in one respect. To the Church, indeed, and
the ultimate triumph of truth, this event will prove of infinite
good. Already many thousand copies of this Sermon and its
Appendix have been circulated, and found their way to distant
places at home and abroad, where, but for the notoriety given
to it by the late proceedings, it might have been long unknown.
But such has ever been the rule of God's providence, that the
persecution of His Church shall be but the instrument of its
renewed increase and vigour. The Jews, when they gratified
their malignity by the murder of the blessed Martyr, St. Stephen,
little dreamed that the very first effect of the persecution would
be the dispersion of the disciples to preach the Gospel more
widely in distant places. And as a necessary result of the
present persecution (for such I fear it must in the most im
partial view be termed), and the circulation of the condemned
Sermon, with all the interest attached to it from the reputation
of the author, the importance of the subject, and the position
of his accusers and judges ; how many, to whom the doctrine
of the Real Presence was a mere name, have now had it
brought practically before them in a form the most attractive,
and most calculated to give strength and support to the hungry
and weary soul ! While those who, having ever held it, have
yet required more authoritative information to assure them of
its blessed truth, against those who would identify it with its
superstitious abuse in the Church of Rome, have now had pre-
thisnot after a physical and sensual, but ledgment of our adversaries may serve
after an heavenly and incomprehensible to stay the contrary clamour and calum-
manner."  "And this did most nious accusations, wherein they use to
Protestants grant and profess at first, range Protestants with those heretics
though now the Calvinists make Popish who denied that the true Body of Christ
masse of it in their licentious bias- was in the Eucharist, and maintained
phemy." — Bishop Overall, author of the only a figure and image of Christ's
Sacramental part of the Church Catechism. Body, seeing that our difference is not
" The question is not absolutely con- about the truth and reality of that Pre-
cerning a Real Presence, which Pro- sence, but about the true manner of the
testants (as their own Jesuits witness) being and receiving thereof." — Bishop
do also profess  which acknow- Morton.

29
sented to them, in the most forcible manner and in the most
compendious form, the authority of those whom they have
ever been taught to regard as the brightest in the firmament
of God's saints, among those who, when in the body^were
Bishops and Pastors of that Church of which themselves now
are members.
At the same time, although productive of positive and ex
tensive beneficial results to the Church in this point of view,
yet in another it may prove, I fear, very prejudicial : and to
this, connected as it is with the academical consideration of
the question, and consequently with our responsibility, it is
most important to advert. I allude to the effect which the
late proceeding may have, in conjunction with other things,
on the tendencies which are said to exist towards Romanism.
It is now upwards of ten years since, owing to the laxity of
doctrine and discipline which then so extensively prevailed,
and the consequent numerous defections to Romanism and
Protestant dissent, as well as the serious attacks made on
the Church, and the threatened tamperings with the Liturgy,
the publication of the Tracts for the Times was projected, with
a view of calling men's attention to the Divine origin and con
stitution of the Church, and to the nature and extent of their
privileges, duties, and responsibilities, as members of the
Church : and that they had at least this effect all impartial
persons will allow, however they may differ from some of the
later publications of the series.
Among the various results, whether for good or otherwise,
which it was foreseen might arise from the revival of Church
principles by means of those papers, were these two — one
necessary and essential, the other possible and accidental —
that while it would unquestionably be the means, under Provi
dence, of directly saving many from Romanism, it might,
indirectly, be the means of leading some towards it.
It was thought, for example, that it would prove the means
of preventing those from being drawn towards Romanism, who,
not having their minds pre-occupied by Catholic principles as
represented by the English Church, nor in any shape what-

30
ever, were daily exposed to the danger of having those princi
ples brought before them, for the first time, by members of
the Roman Catholic Church : no small danger ; for Church
principles are in themselves so truly Scriptural, so congenial
to our nature, so calculated to meet our wants and satisfy our
earnest yearnings, that those who have once been awakened to
the perception of them, will generally embrace them in a cor
rupted form, in the absence of a pure one, rather than reject
them altogether. This in truth is the great source of the
success of Romanists in gaining proselytes among us, from
finding minds not pre-occupied by Church principles in any
form, and therefore ready to receive them from them in the
shape in which they offer them. And further, not only have
they this advantage afforded them, but they also thus gain the
opportunity, where their own system as fully developed would
not be received, of putting before the convert a much sounder
system and one more nearly approximating to that of the
English Church, which, in the absence of all knowledge to
the contrary, or of any other pre-possession, they are enabled
to represent as that of Rome.
And this circumstance, it may be here remarked, will serve
to account for what is a source of difficulty and perplexity to
many persons, when they see those wrought upon by this
influence, whom they would have least expected to be open
to it, contrasting as they do the known character and princi
ples of their friends who have been thus influenced, with what
they assume to be the true doctrine and practice of the Church
of Rome, as exhibited in the working of their system on the
Continent and elsewhere. But the truth is, that this form is
not the system which the Romanist in England exhibits to
those whom he wishes to influence ; but one which, with a
few exceptions, and these materially softened down and di
vested of much that is objectionable, is not very far removed
from that of the English Church ; with which they can possess
the mind of the convert, under the impression that he is adopt
ing that of Rome. This appears to be a mode of procedure
adopted towards the educated and intelligent English convert,

31
whose mind has not been pre-occupied by any other Catholic
system. Certainly, either the ordinarily received statements of
Roman Catholic doctrines (I am not speaking of the exag
gerated misrepresentations of ultra-Protestants) are untrue ; or
else the system adopted by their English converts, by which
the latter are brought into visible communion with them, is not
that of Rome.
Now it is obvious that the only way to meet successfully
this procedure of the Romanist, is not by the fierce denunciations
of his faith which characterize the Protestant Association and
similar societies ; but to set forth true Church principles in a
purer form, as exhibited in the Anglican Church, and thus to
pre-occupy the ground now left vacant, and thereby open to
the advances of the Romanist.
This then was one result anticipated from the revival of
Church principles among us ; and experience has shewn with
what justice those anticipations were formed.
II. The other possible result alluded to as having been
foreseen, though an evil one, was, that without any direct
influence or interference on the part of Roman Catholics, the
revival of Church principles might of itself have the effect of
leading some towards Romanism, by awakening feelings and ex
citing yearnings which the English Church, owing to the laxity
of its discipline and practice, (and for no other reason,) would
for the present fail to satisfy. The class of persons thus acted
upon differ from those mentioned under the former head, being
persons of more ardent and less patient minds, and therefore
taking a less wide and comprehensive view of the whole ques
tion ; who are made painfully alive to the practical defects of
our own system, from the discrepancy between our theory and
practice, occasioned solely by want of discipline ; and are led
to behold only the best side of the Roman system as exhibited
in England, — where every thing offensive is studiously kept
out of sight or greatly softened down, and all that is Catholic
is brought prominently forward, — without taking a sufficiently
comprehensive view, or being possessed of sufficient faith (may
it not be said ?) to trace the fulfilment of Christ's promises

32
to His Church amid these apparent discrepancies, or to find
here their resting-place against the temptations afforded by
the more ostensible though unreal uniformity professed by the
Church of Rome.
The persons here spoken of might perhaps not have had
their attention called to this, at least not in the same degree,
but for the present Catholic movement; but when made to
see it, they thus feel and reason, and are more or less tempted
to join the Roman communion.
This result was foreseen from the beginning ; nor is it easy
to say how it could have been avoided. It appears to have
been an accidental consequence of the revival of Church prin
ciples, not liable to take place at one period more than another,
and can only be effectually prevented by the Church of
England carrying out her own principles, and thereby shewing
to the class of persons here spoken of, that they will find, in
a purer form, in her their natural mother, what they are
tempted to seek in another communion.
The difference between the two classes here described as
acted upon by the revival of Church principles, would appear
to be mainly this : that the one are more readily satisfied when
they find that what they are told to look for in the Church of
Rome, is amply provided for in their own Church if consistently
followed up ; and therefore are less liable to be worked upon
by external influences : the others have had their feelings
awakened by setting forth the theory of the Church, which
they have embraced as such ; and turning to their own Church,
and finding it not realized there, solely from want of discipline
and neglect of her own provisions— perhaps told, moreover, by
those who should have been their guides, that the English
Church recognises no such theory, that she is only one among
the many Protestant sects that abound in this land, with the
advantage indeed of being the established religion, but without
any spiritual pre-eminence or authority, — have taken them
selves to a communion where they are told that their legitimate
yearnings will be realized, and where, to those viewing that
system as a theory, without being familiar with its practical

33
working, such expectations might appear at first to be not
altogether unfounded.
It is obvious, therefore, how important it is with each of
these classes, though not in equal degrees, to vindicate the
principles of our own Church, to contend for the revival of her
wholesome discipline, and, which is of no small importance,
however humiliating the task, — to confess that our Church
does not act up to her own principles — that her discipline is
miserably defective — that her provisions are not carried out —
that many are virtually a dead letter — that the departures in prac
tice, from her principles and doctrines, are many and grievous, —
that those defects and anomalies through which men are
tempted to leave her communion, are not parts of her system,
but departures from, and violations of it — that if important
truths appear to be lost sight of, it is not that they are not to
be found in the Prayer Book, but that they have been allowed
to fall into disuse or be perverted. Else, if existing errors of
practice are confirmed by authority, if they are asserted to be
parts of the theory and principle of the Church, instead of
departures from it; if important doctrines which have fallen
into partial disuse, are denied to be doctrines of the Church at
all ; if those who hold them are told that if they do so hold
them it is their duty to leave her communion ; — who can
wonder if men of ardent minds, without a corresponding
strength of judgment, however holy and devout, however pure
in life and practice, should leave a Church where they are told
by those in authority that these truths are not held, and join
another where they are held, though in error and a corrupted
form? And now to apply this to the present question.
The doctrine of the Real Presence in the Holy Eucharist, is
an essential doctrine of the Catholic Church. The Anglican
branch has ever held it. The Roman branch also holds it,
though in a corrupted form. If a person, such as has been
described above, having been taught to hold it, is told, whether
by his Bishop or by others in authority, that it is not a doctrine
of the English Church ; if he beholds a faithful and devoted

34
minister of that Church suspended from spiritual functions for
maintaining and preaching that doctrine ; I need not ask what
is the temptation, to one of such a temperament, to join the
communion of a Church where the doctrine is held universally,
though in a corrupt form, rather than remain in one where he
is told by authority that it is not held, and where perhaps he
personally incurs penalties for avowing it. It is with no
unfriendly feeling towards any Bishop who may have so acted,
that I say this, nor with any want of reverence for his high
and sacred office ; but it would be well for such to reflect, that
with many of those whom they censure or condemn in the
way alluded to, such is their deep reverence for the Bishop's
office, as such, that his very words carry a weight of which he
frequently has no conception ; and that, in condemning what
he erroneously deems a passing error of the day, he is con
demning what they have ever identified with the teaching of
their Church, and is unconsciously throwing about as it were
fire-brands, or laying the foundation of some wide and irre
mediable schism.
What is here said of the Bishop's office, applies, though of
course in a far less degree, to the late act of the University, as
represented by the Six Doctors. It is true that the University
is only a lay corporation, and therefore has no authority,
properly so called, in ecclesiastical matters. It is true, that,
strictly speaking, the late proceeding, viewed ecclesiastically,
is only the act of six individual presbyters. Yet considering
the peculiar relation of the University to the Church in this
country, and the light in which men are accustomed to regard
it, the effects of its decisions and proceedings in ecclesiastical
matters are practically far more influential and extensive than
those of any ordinary lay body, or even of spiritual persons not
acting synodically : and unless this proceeding is annulled, or
declared invalid by competent authority, it will, in conjunction
with other acts on which it is painful to dwell, tempt men of
both the classes referred to above, to feel that the English
Church is not their abiding place and their home. It is wrong,
I admit, for men so to feel. The acts even of all the Bishops,

35
while acting as individuals and not in synod, would not have
authority against the authoritative declarations of the Church,
which they, as well as the clergy and people, are alike bound
to obey. Still less ought the decision of any lay corporation
to have authority against such declarations. Yet not thus, as is
well known, do those of whom I have been speaking, reason
and feel ; and as long as they do thus feel, it is our bounden
duty, independently of other considerations, to endeavour to
remove so serious a stumbling-block in the way of weak
consciences. It may be a convenient and easy way of dispos
ing of the matter to say, as some do, that if men do not agree
with the Church, they had better leave it and join the com
munion of Rome — an appalling sentiment from the lips of men
who will tell us in the next breath perhaps, that the members
of the Roman Church are out of the pale of salvation, and who
speak of those who are converted from it to Protestantism, as
being "turned from Satan to God." Rather let those who
thus think and speak, ascertain by diligent enquiry, whether
the doctrines in question are those of the Church or not.
Else, they may be hereafter overwhelmed with the bitter re
flection, that they have been instrumental in casting out those
whom they might and ought to have retained in our com
munion ; and that they have laid the foundation of a fearful
schism, of which it is as impossible to estimate the conse
quences, as it is to foresee the termination.
The measure thus fraught with these mixed results to the
Church, as a whole, has involved the University in no small re
proach — and its authors, alas ! in how fearful an amount of
responsibility ! From this reproach and the responsibility
which must attach to it, it deeply concerns us, by every lawful
method, to set her free. Of these, the most obvious, and at the
same time the most effectual, would be an appeal and decision
procured by some of the methods referred to above.
Should it be found that, from the peculiar nature of our
constitution, this mode of redress is not open to us, but that
the power of the Vice-Chancellor, no matter how exercised, is
absolute, and subject to no tribunal beyond its own, it will

36
furnish an additional reason for adopting other means which
happily are in our power, for resorting to which we have a
precedent of no ancient date, and for neglecting which we shall
have a heavy account to render. It is true that such means will
not undo the act of the Six Doctors, nor reverse their decision ;
but still, like the precedent alluded to, they will, as the act of
the University, mark our censure of that deed, and be a formal
and lasting record that we renounce all participation in it.
They will at least absolve us in the eyes of posterity; and
what is of infinitely greater importance, they will deliver us
from the guilt of transmitting without a struggle a precious
heritage to them, less unimpaired, than our forefathers, by the
blessing of God, bequeathed it to us.

OXFORD : PRINTED BY I. SHRIMFTON.

YALE UNIVERSITY LIBRARY

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