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 THE LIBRARY 
 
 OF 
 
 THE UNIVERSITY 
 
 OF CALIFORNIA 
 
 LOS ANGELES 
 
 Ex Lihris 
 
 SIR MICHAEL SADLER 
 
 ACQUIRED 1948 
 
 WITH THE HELP OF ALUMNI OF THE 
 
 SCHOOL OF EDUCATION 
 
 SYDENHAM H.A.HERVEY, 
 
 WEDVIORE VICARAGE, 
 1894.
 
 ^ 
 
 ^"T^-^dL. 
 
 ^^^-*<^ .(y^=^^^^^ x^^^**^ 
 
 S'*<'*^Cr-rx. 
 
 FROM A PH070 BY FRADELLE & YOUNG, LONDON.
 
 f~ ^-r ^-^iXZ^ „^ 
 
 SUPPLEMENT 
 
 TO 
 
 "NOTES OF MY LIFE," 1879, 
 
 AND 
 
 "MR. GLADSTONE," 1886. 
 
 GEORGE ANTHONY DENISON, 
 
 VICAR OF EAST BRENT, 1 845 ; 
 ARCHDEACON OF TAUNTON, 1 85 1. 
 
 JAMES PARKER AND CO. 
 
 1893.
 
 PRINTED BY JAMES PARKER AND CO. 
 CROWN YARD OXFORD.
 
 PREFACE. 
 
 MY object in publishing this volume is to humbly 
 request of my brethren and sisters of the 
 Church of England the consideration of the three 
 matters following. 
 
 I. The position and the prospects of the 
 "Church" of England in its connection 
 with the "State" of England at the close 
 of Century XIX. 
 
 2. The delusion which lies at the root of " The 
 New Criticism." T/ie dehision comes from 
 within the Chiiixh. 
 
 The delusion is this — 
 That the Authority of our Lord Jesus 
 Christ, " Perfect God and Perfect Man;" 
 The Divine Teacher, " Who hath brought 
 life and immortality to life through the 
 Gospel ;" with its Mysteries unsearchable 
 by the reasoning power; is, nevertheless, 
 in order to the acceptance of such Authority 
 by man, subject to concurrence therewith 
 and approval thereof on the part of " the 
 literary critic " of this and every successive 
 generation: thus reducing belief in " Holy 
 Scripture" to a perpetual flux to the end 
 of time. 
 
 62310'?
 
 iv PREFACE. 
 
 Upon this delusion I submit as follows — 
 That the best and highest use of the reason- 
 ing power, in matters of its province, is to 
 teach man not how much he knows, but 
 how little. That the reasoning power of 
 man fallen, though he be redeemed and 
 regenerate in and by Christ, has to be 
 humbled continually, that it may be ex- 
 alted ^ 
 That for the reasoning power to so much as 
 attempt to enter into " The Secret Things 
 of God," which are not of its province, is not 
 only not reasonable : it is sinful. Of these 
 " Secret Things " God has revealed so 
 much as it is good for man to know by The 
 Spirit, guiding His Church into all Truth." 
 
 Hear the Teaching of the Old Scriptures. I cite 
 here Deut. xxix. 29, and the last five chapters of 
 Job only. Hear the Teaching of our Lord in His 
 Gospel. St. Matthew xvlli. 1-6, St. Mark ix. 33, 
 St. Luke ix. 46, and xxli. 24. Hear St. Paul, 1 Cor. 
 xvil. 31. 
 
 " Little children keep yourselves from Idols," is 
 the teaching " of the Apostle whom Jesus loved." 
 
 The Idol of the heathen is the stock and the 
 stone. To him they represent a power above his 
 own. 
 
 The Idol of the Christian is not the "stock" and 
 the "stone:" it is his own reasoning power; 
 and he worships it above the Giver of it. 
 
 ^ Prov. i. 7, XV. 33, xviii. 12.
 
 PREFACE. 
 
 3. Matters subordinate ; but all of them of 
 primary importance in connection with 
 " The many coloured greatness of Eng- 
 land." 
 
 In 1879 I published " Notes of My Life," con- 
 taining the record of what I had, so far, been prin- 
 cipally concerned in for forty years up to that time. 
 
 I resume that record now by way of Supplement. 
 Since 1879 I had, in 1886, been compelled to 
 publish my " Mr. Gladstone." I supplement this 
 also now. It requires no words of mine here to 
 show the close connection between the above 
 matters and Mr. Gladstone. 
 
 As I understand Mr. Gladstone, he holds what 
 " The New Criticism " rejects. 
 
 On the other hand, he holds not as of Divine 
 Authority, external to man, but as of the outcome 
 of controversy among men. If so, he conforms 
 to the principle of " The New Criticism," while 
 rejecting its conclusions. Now this is not the 
 simplicity and obedience of faith : it is the pride 
 of reason. In St. John's language " the pride of 
 
 life." 
 
 Let us have Grace not to waste our little life in 
 " giving heed to fables, and endless genealogies, 
 " which minister questions, rather than godly edify- 
 " ing which is In faith." i Tim. i. 4, vi. 4 ; 2 Tim. 
 xi. 23 ; Titus Hi. 9. 
 
 It is not for us to build up in our " Vanity " a 
 Church other than that "which is built upon the 
 " foundation of the Apostles and Prophets— Jesus 
 " Christ Himself being The Head cornerstone." 
 
 A 2
 
 vl TREFACE. 
 
 Neale, of my most loving memory, was, with us, 
 a great master of holy song. 
 
 He has left to ourselves and our children his song 
 of faith ; his Hymn for St. Thomas' Day. Among 
 many beautiful Hymns, I know nothing more 
 beautiful ; more moving in its grand simplicity ; 
 in the faith which believes what it cannot see ; in 
 the hope, "an anchor of the souP," which grasps 
 and clings to what it cannot touch. 
 
 We have not seen, we cannot see, 
 
 The happy land above, 
 Where sin and death, and suffering flee 
 
 And all is peace and love : 
 
 Its Sun that never goeth down, 
 
 Its streets of pearl and gold. 
 Its blessed saints that wear the crown 
 
 That never groweth old. 
 
 We only see the path is long 
 
 By which we have to go ; 
 We only feel the foes are strong 
 
 That seek to work us woe. 
 
 We have not seen, we cannot see, 
 
 The Cross our Master bore, 
 With all its pains, that we might be 
 
 The devil's slaves no more. 
 
 We only think it hard to part 
 
 With very pleasant sin. 
 And give to God a perfect heart, 
 
 And make Him Lord within. 
 
 The Spirit's grace we cannot see, 
 
 That makes an infant whole ; 
 And gives the water power to free 
 
 From sin a guilty soul. 
 
 '' Hebr. vi. 19.
 
 PREFACE. Vll 
 
 We only know that we have power 
 
 To do our Father's will ; 
 Though every day and every hour, 
 
 We meet temptation still. 
 
 We walk by faith, and not by sight ; 
 
 And blessed Saint like thee 
 We sometimes doubt if faith tells right, 
 
 Because we cannot see. 
 
 Upon the promise we would lean 
 
 Thy doubting heart received ; — 
 '^ Blessed are they that have not seen, 
 And that have yet believed ! ' 
 
 Wide as the Church's voice can spread , 
 
 To God all glory be ; 
 To Him that is the Apostles' Head, 
 
 And, Holy Ghost, to Thee ! Amen. 
 
 Hymn 22'],from the People's By m na /.— Mastkks and Co. 
 
 The Volume contains, besides Text, Papers, 
 Speeches, Documents, inserted in their order of 
 time and connection, conckiding with Six Sermons 
 preached in Wells Cathedral between May lo, 1891, 
 and Nov. 13, 1892. 
 
 I am indebted to Messrs. Fradelle and Young 
 for their kind permission to use the Photograph 
 at the beginning of the Volume. 
 
 GEORGE ANTHONY DENISON.
 
 CONTENTS. 
 
 SUPPLEMENT TO "NOTES OF MY LIFE, 
 
 1879," and to "MR. GLADSTONE, 1886" . 1—92 
 
 APPENDICES. 
 
 No. I. 
 
 The National Synod. 
 
 A Speech as prepared for May Sessions of Con- 
 vocation of Canterbury y i88g . . 95 
 
 Analysis of Account of the Spiritual Element 
 in the fudicial Committee of the Privy 
 Council, from 1832 to the present time . 119 
 
 No. II. 
 The Political Heresy and the Intellectual 
 Heresy of Century XIX. in England. 
 
 The Charge of the A rchdeacon of Taunton, i8go. 1 26 
 
 No. III. 
 
 Lux MUNDI. 
 
 A Paper read at a Meeting of the English 
 
 Church Union, February 27, i8go . .136 
 
 A Speech before the Lower House of Con- 
 vocation, Session February j, i8gi . .142 
 
 A Letter to His Grace the Archbishop of Can- 
 terbury, fune, i8gi . . • .109 
 
 Declaration on the Truth of Holy Scripture, 
 
 December 16, i8gi . • • .175
 
 CONTENTS. 
 
 No. IV. 
 
 The New Criticism. 
 
 A Visitation Charge, April 26, i8g2 
 
 No. V. 
 
 SIX SERMONS PREACHED IN WELLS 
 CATHEDRAL. 
 
 179 
 
 1. Lux MUNDI. 
 
 May 10, i8gi. 
 
 2. ,, ,, 
 
 Aug, p, i8gi. 
 
 3. Lux MUNDI AND the 
 
 Bampton Lecture 
 OF I 89 1. 
 
 Nov. 8, i8gi. 
 
 4. The New Criticism. 
 Feb. 7, i8g2. 
 
 Aug. 7, i8g2. 
 Nov. I J, i8g2. 
 
 pp. 187—265
 
 ORDER OF THE BOOK. 
 
 " Causes of the many coloured greatness 
 
 -of 
 
 " England.'' 
 
 (a) Primary, the Causes Divine. 
 
 (b) Secondary, the Causes Human, in their 
 
 several order and dependence. 
 
 Causes human, which have been, and are 
 progressively, in action to the injury, and, 
 in the end, to the decline and fall of that 
 
 greatness.
 
 " The Many Coloured Greatness of 
 England y 
 
 ♦' The many coloured greatness of England." 
 These are words of The Times some years ago : 
 on what occasion I forget : but they are fine words, 
 and worth recalling. 
 
 I will hope that I need no apology for recalling 
 them, though it be done in a sense of misgiving 
 rather than of the congratulation in which, if I re- 
 member right, the words were written. If I am 
 unduly magnifying dangers, my words will answer 
 themselves. If there be already in the position 
 of " Church and State " elements not of fear only 
 but of fact, I shall at least stand excused for giving 
 utterance in my old age to principles and action 
 of a life. I have differed absolutely from many 
 men, but I do not recall having quarrelled with 
 any man. 
 
 The many coloured greatness of England has 
 been the Creation and the Gift of Divine Provi- 
 dence. It has passed through many trials and vicis- 
 situdes. It has survived under the same Hand 
 which gave it. It survives still under trial. Whether 
 it shall survive, grow and increase under God, or 
 shall fall from its high estate, would appear now to 
 be proposed that it shall be for the people of Eng- 
 land, of all orders and conditions of men, to pro- 
 nounce. But most of all for that order and con- 
 dition which is a large numerical majority, but 
 
 B
 
 which, with rare exceptions, does not, never can 
 know anything, of the science of government, " in- 
 struct " them how you will ; not even what is the 
 meaning of the word " Government." 
 
 Up to the year 1832 English Government was in 
 the hands of those who were parties to the Con- 
 stitution, the Sovereign, and the three Estates of 
 the Realm, the Lords Spiritual, the Lords Temporal, 
 and the Commons. Election to membership of 
 House of Commons was in the hands of those 
 who might, as the rule, be reasonably supposed to 
 know something of what the Constitution of Eng- 
 land not only was then, but is now : something 
 again of the science, the practice, and the purposes 
 of Government. There was conflict always then 
 between two parties, now no longer existing as 
 Parties, which of the two should hold the reins 
 of Government. The description above given ap- 
 plied alike to both parties. 
 
 The impulse to organic change, the habit of all 
 peoples, sooner or later, according to the amount 
 of what is called by us " Common Sense," from the 
 Latin " Communis Sensus," was given by the French 
 Revolution. The act of organic change with us was 
 almost, if not quite, without blood. England had 
 less to provoke, and much more common sense to 
 restrain, than France had. But, whatever the com- 
 parison may amount to, there ensued in 1832 or- 
 ganic change in England. Others may call it what 
 they like. I call it, both in itself and in its effects, 
 a Revolution. 
 
 Now when this took place ; when the battle of 
 Europe which could not have been fought at all 
 without Endand, and which was, in the main, fought
 
 by England — when the battle of Europe was closed 
 at Waterloo, England had reached the height of her 
 Temporal Greatness. The battle of Europe had been 
 fought and won by England with a third of her 
 present population ; with resources not to be com- 
 pared with her resources now ; with an united king- 
 dom and not, as now, a disunited heart. 
 
 Further, it had been fought when one of the two 
 parties referred to above was in power. That one 
 the party who had — it may be said — administered 
 the government of England throughout the war. 
 
 The Power of giving in the House of Commons 
 a preponderating representation of the Radical ele- 
 ment is now in the hands of those electors who 
 know nothing of the science of Government ; not 
 even what is meant by the word " Government." 
 England is very near reaching the lowest issue ; 
 that of universal suffrage. This issue is one of 
 those things which, once born, grow and increase 
 much faster than suits those who have been most 
 concerned with its birth. One principal account 
 of this is, that men, who know nothing of the 
 Science of Government, nor even of what Govern- 
 ment means, but must, being men, have some 
 reason for what they do, though it be not fact, nor 
 truth ; some reason tempting, or misrepresenting, 
 or both, upon which to vote ; proceed to vote upon 
 such reason or reasons as being all they have to 
 vote upon, as soon as such reasons are presented 
 to their mind. 
 
 At the root of the growth and increase of " the 
 many coloured greatness " there have lain from the 
 first and lie still, though not without signs of fear 
 
 B 2
 
 all about them, certain primary causes, all of them 
 the Gift of Divine Providence ; but liable to suffer, 
 even to perish, in the case of this or that people, 
 at the hands of man's abuse. 
 
 First and foremost is the gift of the early intro- 
 duction into England of the Church of Christ. 
 It became the Religion of England. It was en- 
 dowed largely by the nobles and wealthier classes 
 of England ; with all provision and care for the 
 poor of the land. It grew upwards with the native 
 strength and power of the country. This, in after 
 time, re-formed. Not, that is, changed at all in 
 respect of its Catholic Truth and Substance, and 
 so made, by man's authority dictating to the Pro- 
 vidence of God, a "new thing," in the vulgar 
 sense of the word ' Reform,' but, the old thing 
 revived, as given of God, through the undivided 
 Church, by the Spirit, according to the promise 
 of Christ ; given by the Spirit, and laid up in 
 all its unapproachable Mystery, in all its Reve- 
 lation of what has been and of what is to come, 
 with all its promise, and all its warning, laid up, 
 once for all, in the Holy Scriptures of the old and 
 the New Testament : Holy Scriptures not lawful for 
 a man to touch so as in any manner or degree to 
 impair or disparage the Divine Integrity, Oneness, 
 and Authority thereof. This is the Basis upon 
 which I rest my whole contention in the matter 
 Religious. I cannot "contend" upon any other 
 Basis. I cannot contend earnestly for "the one 
 Faith" of which I am a Priest, and, with the 
 same hand and voice, contend for "opinions" and 
 "inventions^" of men. I may not "halt between 
 * Eccles. vii. 29.
 
 two opinions^ " of what the " one Faith" is. I am 
 bound by the most solemn oath of my life to hold 
 fast by what the Church of England has given me. 
 I am no less bound by the same oath to do all that 
 in me lies to keep and to help others in and to that 
 " one Faith, one Lord, one Baptism, one God and 
 Father of all : " to keep for myself, and to help others 
 to keep, in and for the love of Christ. 
 
 There is a comment upon language very common 
 in the mouth of English Church People, when 
 speaking of the position and the prospects of the 
 Church of England, to be made here. They say 
 ** God will take care of His Church." Doubtless, 
 if His Church be faithful to its Trust. There 
 is no promise to unfaithfulness. Now there is 
 a Corporate faithfulness, and an individual faith- 
 fulness ; and before any one of us may comfort him- 
 self with the words " God will take care of His 
 Church," he must humbly and thankfully, with 
 searching of heart and mind, find ground to hope 
 that faithfulness, both in respect of himself, and 
 of the Body of which he is a member, is truth of 
 fact. I much fear that the words are not uncom- 
 monly used rather as shifting from those who use 
 them uneasiness of mind upon both points than as 
 anything else. 
 
 And indeed, if either the member, or the Body, 
 be striving to follow after, and attain to faithfulness, 
 there will still not lack room for repentance, for time 
 and opportunities lost, prayer not made, care not 
 taken that God, having given in His Son, by the 
 
 ^ I Kings xviii. 21.
 
 Spirit, to the Body of His Son, which is the Church, 
 Peace upon Earth and Life in Heaven, it has not 
 been the first and foremost " endeavour," privately, 
 pubhcly, of life here "to keep the Unity of the 
 Spirit in the bond of Peace." 
 
 There are many signs from within and from with- 
 out that, besides all the trials which have come upon 
 the Church of England at the hands of herself 
 and of the Civil Power during the last sixty years, 
 a far greater trial is upon us, and is every day 
 becoming greater still. What had been already 
 done in respect of the Schools and Universities of 
 the Church of England had issued in Indifferentism 
 and looseness of thought, the greatest and the most 
 subtle enemies of true Religion. But when the 
 young men of a University and the people of 
 England generally are invited from within to be- 
 lieve in so much only of the old Scriptures as 
 they are willing to accept, on the understand- 
 ing that they are not asked to believe in so 
 much as they are not willing to accept ; and when, 
 in order to override and supersede the testimony 
 of our Lord Himself to the Truth of all the 
 Old Scriptures, there is assigned to Him such 
 limited knowledge only of them and of their history 
 as any Jew might have, the axe has been laid to the 
 root of the tree. It is ready to be cut down and 
 cast into the fire. If "science, falsely so called," is 
 to be the judge of the Mysteries of God; if 
 "philosophy" in respect of the same Mysteries, 
 and therein a **vain deceit," is to take to itself the 
 chair of the Simplicity of Faith ; if these things 
 are to be the food of the English heart and mind.
 
 then certainly no greater blow remains to be dealt 
 from ivithin the Church of England upon the 
 many coloured greatness of England. The Synod 
 of the Province says no word — will not so much 
 as grant an enquiry into charges alleged — the 
 Voluntary Body, first forming itself in 1845, when 
 there was no Synod, to supply, so far as it was 
 possible for a voluntary body, the Synod's place, 
 refuses in 1892 to say a word even of regret; and 
 assigns as its reason that the Synod has said nothing. 
 It was formed to come, so far as it might, into 
 the Synod's room to help the faithful. When the 
 Synod has come, and is not itself faithful, the 
 Voluntary Body uses the fault of the Synod to 
 hide its own fault; and stultifies its own raison 
 d ^etre '^. 
 
 The Element of the many coloured greatness 
 of England which is next in the order of Gifts 
 Divine to the early introduction into England of 
 the Church of Christ, is what is conveyed under 
 the watchword * Church and King,' ' Church and 
 Queen,' * Church and State.' The Church of 
 Christ is not only the Church in England : it 
 is the Church of England. It is the Church 
 of the Sovereign and of the People of England. 
 Accordingly the Constitution of England is that 
 the Sovereign be a Communicant of the Church 
 of England : that the Convocations or Synods 
 of the two Provinces of Canterbury and York 
 be the advisers, severally or conjointly, of the 
 Crown in matters Spiritual. The Houses of Lords 
 
 *= See below, pp. 60 — 63.
 
 8 
 
 and Commons in matters Temporal. The King, 
 or Queen, and the three Estates of England, 
 the Lords Spiritual, the Lords Temporal, and the 
 Commons, are the Legislature of England. The 
 Clergy may not sit in the Commons House of 
 Parliament. The Bishops sit as Barons in the 
 House of Lords. The Archbishop of Canterbury is, 
 next in order after the Princes of the Blood, the 
 first Peer of Parliament. The Union of the Tem- 
 poral Power with the Spiritual Power in this order 
 is the Union of ' Church and State.' 
 
 But it is said Unity of the Religion of Christ 
 is an Idea only, not a fact. We are bidden to 
 look at the innumerable and sharp differences of 
 Religion in England outside the Church of Eng- 
 land. To look at the differences inside the Church 
 of England. Unity of Religion between Sovereign 
 and People is not a fact ; it is an Idea. Well, let 
 this be granted freely, unreservedly. If what the 
 world has got to live upon be fads only and not Ideas, 
 then indeed it must be conceded that it is a miserable 
 world. But the Mercy of God in Christ has not 
 so willed. He has Qriven it to His Creature Man for 
 Christ's sake to rejoice under all sense of pain and 
 distress, under fear of death itself, to find comfort, 
 to find joy in the Idea of perfectness for Christ's 
 sake, by the Spirit. If this most marvellous Gift 
 of God be marred in Man's hand, is it the Gift that 
 is imperfect ? Man, even though he be regenerate, 
 born aofain, and become a new Creature in Christ 
 by the Spirit, retains so much of the Fall that in 
 touching the things of God — more particularly the 
 secret things of God — and bringing them, as he
 
 thinks, nearer to himself and within his reasoning 
 power, mars the beauty and perfectness of what 
 he touches by what St. John calls the 'pride of 
 life; 
 
 If there be many Religions amongst us, does that 
 go to prove that there is not one true Religion of 
 Christ, even as there is only one Christ ? Is it not 
 true that every Body separating itself from the 
 Catholic Church of Christ does this on the ground 
 that the one true Religion is found in that particular 
 Body of which he is a member either by birth and 
 teaching, or by any other man's influence over him ? 
 Thus every kind of Nonconformity bears testimony 
 to the Idea of Oneness of Faith by the act of the 
 Non-conformity itself. 
 
 The Church of England prays in her Prayer for 
 the Church, Militant here upon Earth, that all 
 Bishops and Curates may have grace to set forth 
 both by their life and doctrine the true and lively 
 Word, and rightly and duly administer the Holy 
 Sacraments : this is the sum of the prayer offered 
 for them. Both in those who set forth and ad- 
 minister, and in those who hear, see, obey, there 
 may be as many degrees, as there are souls, of the 
 measure and manner of such perfectness as may be 
 had here. But their Unity of Faith is not broken 
 thereby. The Idea of the Gift, the Gift itself, is 
 always the same, according as God sees fit to be- 
 stow it. The end is laid up with God. There is 
 nothing for those who serve and wait in the imper- 
 fect Unity of this World but to keep ever recalling 
 each one to his own soul the holy call to Charity. 
 "In lowliness of mind let each esteem other better
 
 lO 
 
 than themselves;" that is, nearer to the idea of the 
 perfectness which is of Christ. 
 
 The one Basis then, the Unity of the Faith, 
 stands fast unto the end of time, ahke whether 
 man confess or reject it, "whether he will hear 
 or whether he will forbear"^." ' The true and lively 
 Word,' ' the Holy Sacraments,' are the Gift of 
 Christ unto Life eternal. Man may not alter, add 
 to or take away one letter of their Substance. They 
 are committed by God to the keeping and the 
 ministration of the Bishops and Curates of the 
 Church of England. What the responsibility of 
 Bishop and of Curate is certainly no words of man, 
 it may be no thought of man, can measure on this 
 side the grave. 
 
 It is the proof of what remaineth in us of 
 " the infection of our nature, though we be re- 
 generate in Holy Baptism ; " and of the per- 
 petual conflict between the pride of self-will, and 
 consequent rejection of authority of the Church, 
 on the one hand, and the humble and implicit 
 acceptance of the Revelation of God in Holy 
 Scripture on the other, with all its unapproachable 
 Mystery as committed to the Church to be delivered 
 unto the end of time, that England, with all her 
 wonderful Gifts and Blessings, has failed to be any- 
 thing but a most imperfect example of Oneness of 
 Faith in Christ. In this failure, the causes of 
 which are to be found not only without the Church, 
 but also perhaps even more within the Church, by 
 the rule that where there are the highest gifts, 
 
 "* Ezek, ii. 5.
 
 II 
 
 there are the highest duties and responsibilities, 
 " The Compassions of God fail not ;" and England 
 is still, at the close of the nineteenth Century of 
 Redemption, a People of which the Constitution 
 and order of Government answer aloud to * Church 
 and King,' * Church and Queen,' ' Church and 
 State.' 
 
 The connection between the aspect Moral and 
 Religious and the aspect Political in England is 
 very close ; and is now a matter of deepest and 
 growing anxiety to the English Churchman. I 
 say this because of the continually increasing hos- 
 tile element inside the House of Commons, and 
 because of the general looseness of thought above 
 referred to, and every day developing itself more 
 largely in respect of Truth of Religion. I am not 
 speaking of the two principal orders of Belief which 
 have their place in the Church of England since 
 the Reformation of the sixteenth century. I am 
 speaking of the whole body of the Church of 
 England when I use the term * looseness of thought.' 
 And if I were asked to give account of what I 
 mean by ' looseness of thought,' I should say the 
 temper of mind which does not accept ' Holy 
 Scripture ' itself, in its integrity, as delivered accord- 
 ing to the promise of Christ, by the undivided 
 Church to the Church Catholic of England as the 
 one authoritative Guide for English Church people ; 
 and this, as declared and expounded to English 
 Church people in " The Book of Common Prayer 
 and Administration of the Sacraments " and the 
 " Articles of Religion ;" but accepts " Holy Scrip- 
 ture" only as subordinate to every man's private
 
 12 
 
 judgment, or to that of some other person. — In one 
 word, that there is no Rule of Faith at all. This 
 is the edict which is going forth day by day from 
 the University of Oxford to all orders and con- 
 ditions of men in England as the great discovery 
 of the close of Century XIX. Does its accept- 
 ance and the conformity to it leave any room for 
 the name and profession of " the English Church- 
 man ? " I submit that it does not. Every one 
 in and governed by such circumstances is no 
 Churchman, save in name only. Every man is 
 his own Church, or the Church of some other 
 man to whose guiding he has committed himself. 
 " English Churchman " is fast losing its place 
 amongst us by the opening of the door, once more 
 at close of nineteenth Century of Redemption, to 
 " What is Truth ? " as asked by Pilate. 
 
 There are two principal aspects of this posi- 
 tion of the Church of England — the mental and 
 the formal. The first of these I have stated 
 briefly. 
 
 The formal aspect consists in the lack of any 
 Corporate Defence and maintenance of The Faith 
 of the Church of England on the part of The Body 
 of the Church of England — that is by its Synods 
 several or collective. There may be much sound 
 Controversy on the Catholic side. But this has no 
 public Authority ; our Lord has marked the differ- 
 ence to us. He says " tell it to the Church " as the 
 final authority. But English People do not " tell 
 it to the Church;" or, if they do, "the Church" 
 hears them tell it and lays what is told upon the 
 shelf. In other words, the Synod of the Province,
 
 13 
 
 in which a Book directly in contradiction to Holy 
 Scripture, to the Book of Common Prayer and 
 Administration of the Sacraments and the Articles 
 of Religion has been published, and is brought 
 before them, as to be enquired of before them 
 and pronounced upon, refuses to act. 
 
 It had been the increasing prospect of this laying 
 upon the shelf on the part of the Synod or Convo- 
 cation of the Province of Canterbury that prevailed 
 with me to ask attention to the necessity of a 
 National Synod under the continually multiplying 
 of causes for its authoritative declaration of the 
 Faith ; and for its warning to Members of the 
 Church of England against being seduced from the 
 Faith of the Church of England. Many subjects of 
 comparatively inferior moment interfered for some 
 time with my opportunity of bringing the matter 
 before the House, and it was delayed till the pub- 
 lication of *'Lux Mundi," Nov. 1889, called me 
 away from it to the attempt to pray the attention of 
 the Synod to the new and immediate danger. Upon 
 this, I withdrew my notice touching the National 
 Synod ; proposing to wait for my opportunity 
 therein ; and endeavoured to deal at once with 
 the particular matter of greatest fear before us. 
 
 I failed in this, and need not here further recur 
 to it ; all sad to me as it is in not allowing me to 
 take any more part in the proceedings of Con- 
 vocation. 
 
 I reprint in this volume the speech I had prepared 
 in the matter of a National Synod", with documents 
 of much interest annexed. 
 
 e See Appendix, No. I.
 
 Our Lord has taught us in a manner which no 
 misinterpretation of " Hterary Criticism" can touch. 
 He has taught us all, more particularly the "literary," 
 the "scientific," the "philosophical" man, that, in 
 His sight, we are all "little children ;" as the little 
 Child before its Parent. This represents to us the 
 primary value of Simplicity of Faith ^, and of our utter 
 helplessness apart from it. How that without it we 
 are as " ever learning, and never able to come to the 
 Knowledge of The Truth." 
 
 The propensity of the English mind to doubt 
 about God and His Providence is evidenced by 
 the fact that Hobbes and Herbert — next after 
 Socinus, and before Spinoza, in point of time — were 
 the two leaders of the modern heresies of Europe. 
 Their teachings passed through France into Ger- 
 many, and have been, and are being repaid very 
 largely with compound interest. 
 
 Atheism and Deism are shadows rather than 
 substance. Reason-worship, the parent of all here- 
 sies from Gen. iii. i — 6 to the end of time, is sub- 
 stance. I have had for fifty years to contend against 
 it in the " Hampden," " Essays and Reviews," and 
 Colenso cases. I moved in Convocation for Com- 
 mittees in the last two cases, and was Chairman 
 of both. I have done what I could to expose the 
 delusions of "the New Criticism." I repeat that 
 it is fuller of cause for fear than all preceding it. 
 
 In 1879 I published 3rd Ed. of "Notes of my 
 Life." In 1886 I published 8th Ed. of "Mr. 
 Gladstone." 
 
 f S. Matt. xvii. 20, 21, xviii. i — 7.
 
 15 
 
 The substance of " Notes of my Life " is a re- 
 sume I. of the history from 1840 to 1879 of the 
 exchange of the Parish School, the nursery of the 
 Parish Church, for the State school of all relio-ions. 
 and of none : of the Commission of the Parish Priest 
 and his authority invaded thereby : of this invasion 
 enforced by the Civil Power making grants to the 
 Church School out of the Common Taxes conditional 
 upon submission to the scheme of " State Educa- 
 tion." The proposers could not get rid of the 
 network of the Parish Schools ; and so devised 
 the plan of " reforming " them. 
 
 2. Of the doctrinal aspects of the Church of 
 England for the same time. Of my trial 1854 — 
 1858 in the matter of "the Real Presence." I 
 refer in pp. 82-4 to my book, 1861, on "Church 
 Rate, a National Trust." Of various proceedings 
 in Convocation from 1852, Essays and Reviews; 
 Dr. Colenso ; Ritualism. 
 
 .For the Home Politics of England, 1832 — 1892, 
 they have all of them the downward step in re- 
 spect of the science, the order and the stability 
 of Government 
 
 Tory Whig 
 
 Conservative Liberal Unionist 
 
 Liberal Conservative Radical. 
 
 Mr. Gladstone stands now upon the Radical 
 Ground — or, upon what he prefers to call " The 
 great Liberal Party." The two last steps are 
 universal Suffrage and the Radical. These last
 
 i6 
 
 are not yet taken, but are coming into sight, how- 
 ever he may disclaim them. We have forced 
 upon us already what the present amount is. It is 
 only those whom it does not suit to see it who dis- 
 claim the seeinor. We have before us the break- 
 ing up the home Empire of England. The sever- 
 ance in England, Wales, Scotland, as already in 
 Ireland, of " Church and State." These are the 
 legacies of 1832, as 1832 was of the Revolution in 
 France, but without the provocation and the blood ; 
 to say nothing of the door opening to the Invader, 
 whosoever, or how many soever, it shall be of the 
 enviers and the enemies of England. This is the 
 inheritance that Red Radical Policy is welcoming 
 for all sorts and conditions of men in old England. 
 
 In my old age I try to forecast the issue from 
 1892 downwards. I should be something less un- 
 happy than I am if I had not always before me 
 a very general Indifferentism touching Religion; an 
 all-pervading and insatiable love of amusement; 
 the love of employment and work well and truly 
 done decaying. The labourer, especially the agri- 
 cultural labourer, becoming more and more above 
 his work, and fast disappearing throughout the 
 country ; and this not so much by his fault, as 
 that of his untrue training ; and finally, and 
 above all, among the wise and learned men of the 
 world, the claim of " the literary Critic " of every 
 successive generation to settle what portions of 
 Holy Scripture are of Divine Authority and what 
 are not; to settle how mAich Authority is to be 
 conceded to our Lord Jesus Christ in sealing the 
 Old Scriptures with His own seal; claims issuing
 
 17 
 
 in the confounding the mind and inciting to dis- 
 belief in "all Holy Scripture" among all sorts 
 and conditions of men ; taking away their one com- 
 fort of hope in a life of heavy trials, and giving 
 them nothing in its room because there is nothino- 
 to give. If learning, science, art, money-making, 
 amusement could satisfy the life of threescore years 
 and ten, and free from the sting of conscience and 
 from fear of what shall come after it, there had been 
 no need of a Revelation, with its unapproachable 
 mysteries, with its Incarnation and its Atonement, 
 its promise and its warning. Anything, under what- 
 ever pretext it may come, that tends to weaken 
 the Power of, or discourage the Reverence for, that 
 Revelation, is a sin against God and Man. 
 
 II. The substance of my Mr. Gladstone is the 
 showing that nothing has been or is allowed to 
 interfere with his motto — " I am the only man who 
 can govern England." 
 
 Now, if in room of "govern" you substitute 
 " revolutionise," you make the motto a present 
 truth. Mr. Gladstone is the one man, now of the 
 " Great Liberal Party," including amongst its ele- 
 ments the Red Radical, who could have succeeded in 
 placing that Party on the right side of the Speaker's 
 Chair. It is only silliness to point to any other man : 
 to any one again, who could have come, or can 
 come, into his room. It is in this that consists the 
 one prospect of some abiding possession by the 
 Party in possession now. The Sections — no one 
 Section of the Party dare rebel, because, however 
 it may groan under the yoke, it knows well that if 
 
 c
 
 it did rebel the position on the right side of the 
 Speaker's Chair is gone from them. They will 
 therefore swallow any dose, however bitter, that 
 Mr. Gladstone may prescribe for them. How 
 long this may last no man can say. Probably 
 not very long ; Revolutionists are hungry folk. But 
 it will do to play with for the present, inasmuch as 
 it is the one Security in the Red Radical Treasury. 
 Mr. Gladstone then for the time has fulfilled to 
 himself his own promise. He is " the only man 
 w^ho can govern England." What is coming after 
 him, the sequel of his continual descent, is the Red 
 R.adical, unless it may be the English people re- 
 sume that character of "common sense" which is 
 now under hiding, if it still exists. " Common 
 Sense" has become a very uncommon thing amongst 
 us. If it take the Red Radical into its confidence 
 in proposing to dispose of " the many coloured 
 greatness of England," there is no more to be said. 
 Things look very like it. And indeed, if England 
 is content to place in the hands of those who know 
 the least about all that makes men capable judges 
 of those they would have to represent them in Par- 
 liament, it not being in man's nature to act without 
 something in the shape of a reason true or false ; 
 then in the lack of anything of true weight in their 
 minds upon which to act they fall an easy prey 
 before the first fiction, however absurd or mon- 
 strous, which is poured into their ears. The late 
 Election will have its historic character for many 
 reasons — one of them is the unprecedented use of 
 fiction in place of fact which has pervaded it 
 throughout. This tells its own story.
 
 Mr. Gladstone has very lately issued his conclu- 
 sion following. These things keep dribbling out to 
 keep one section or other of his supporters alive. 
 His conclusion is that Religious Equality is the thing 
 to be contended for. It is difficult to adjust to Mr. 
 Gladstone's own Churchmanship what he means by 
 Religious Equality. But difficulties in understand- 
 ing Mr. Gladstone are things of every day occurrence. 
 And this, if well considered, is the chief secret of 
 his power over men. It may seem a paradox, but 
 it is true, when combined with his power of lan- 
 guage. Men listen to him in huge crowds — they 
 find him talking as they have not been used to hear 
 other men talk about matters they know something 
 of, but nothing like what he knows. All of a 
 sudden, in his own magnificent language, he gets 
 upon grounds they know nothing of, and they say to 
 themselves. What a man this is ! He knows all about 
 things we know something of many times better 
 than we do. We may be sure he knows everything 
 about matters we know nothing of. There is 
 nobody like him. We must go with him whether 
 we like it or not. This is the impulse of the big 
 meeting. With those who know more it has not 
 the same power — ^often the quite contrary power. 
 
 But so far as this we shall agree — Religious 
 Equality within its Province is an essential to the 
 Enoflishman. What then is its Province ? Its 
 Province is so far as the Law of the land applies 
 to it. In the eye of the Law all are to be dealt 
 with alike. Churchmen and Nonconformists. 
 
 But when in helping the Nonconformist the Law 
 robs the Churchman, this is not equality, but usurp- 
 
 c 2
 
 20 
 
 ation. I go back, by way of illustration, to an earlier 
 part of my Contention against the Civil Power. 
 It is the fact of such usurpation which has been the 
 ground upon which from 1847 to 1892 I have been 
 compelled to refuse to have anything to do with 
 what is called " Education " in the hands of the 
 Civil Power. I have said all along, by all means 
 let Government assist out of the common taxes 
 the Education of Roman Catholic and Noncon- 
 formist children as it assists the children of the 
 Church of E no-land. 
 
 But, what Government has done is not this. 
 Government for the last forty-five years has pos- 
 sessed itself of the Parish Schools of the Church of 
 England by way of invasion, and has turned them 
 into schools of all denominations, or no denomina- 
 tion, for Secular Education, on the strength of hold- 
 ing the purse out of which all grants come. Now the 
 Parish School is the nursery of the Parish Church, 
 and therefore, in its proper and essential character, 
 is for the baptized in the faith of the Church of 
 England only, with those preparing to be baptized. 
 The Government says ' no.' If you are to have a 
 grant you must admit any and every child under the 
 Conscience Clause, no matter whether baptized or 
 not. The Parish School, a place of a particular and 
 definite religious character under the Incumbent of 
 the place, is sacrificed to the uses of the Noncon- 
 formist, and has stamped upon it as its main feature 
 and use the character of a place for Secular Instruc- 
 tion. The " Religious Lesson " to the children of 
 the Church is a thing of half an hour, like a lesson 
 in summing. I say this is not Religious Equality.
 
 21 
 
 It is a robbery to suit the Nonconformist at the 
 cost of the Churchman. It is a vital change of the 
 character of the Parish School under " The Con- 
 science Clause" at the cost of the Church. 
 
 " Conscience Clause " has done its work of trans- 
 mutation at the expense of Church Truth and order. 
 The Church submitted to it in an evil hour, and 
 is paying the cost. The recollection of it is revived 
 now and then after a ludicrous fashion. A Church 
 parent does not send his child to the school of his 
 district because he is not satisfied with the Indif- 
 ferentism of the school. He is summoned — he 
 pleads his Conscience as an English Churchman. 
 The answer is that he must either send his child 
 or be fined for not sending him. This is now what 
 the Churchman gets for having a Conscience at the 
 hands of the Law. Conscience Clause has done 
 the work it was wanted to do. It is become incon- 
 venient when urged by the Churchman on behalf 
 of his child ; and is laid upon the shelf of the Com- 
 mittee of Council on " Education," as no lono-er 
 wanted. 
 
 I recall here (see " Notes of my Life," pp. 330-2), 
 how, in 1866, Samuel Wilberforce, Bishop of Oxford, 
 who, with my brother Edward, then Bishop of Salis- 
 bury, were in 1847 and after it, my chief oppo- 
 nents in respect of Conscience Clause and its 
 issues, came to the conclusion, and told me so him- 
 self, that, in iS^y, I had been in the right; and 
 then and there proposed to act ivith me 7pon the basis 
 that rather than accept the terms of the Temporal 
 Power, the Spiritual Power must submit to give np 
 its share of the Education Grant.
 
 22 
 
 In resuming my discussion of Mr. Gladstone's 
 public life, up to 1886, I know well that I shall get 
 little credit for being even more sorry now than I 
 was then for having to say what I am going to say. 
 The sum of this is that he is, down to the time in 
 which I write, identified with all the steps of the 
 downward move in English Politics which is 
 steadily on its way to the ruin of the Consti- 
 tution of England in Church and State. And, as 
 my sorrow is a fact which touches me very nearly 
 privately and publicly, I take leave to state it. 
 
 Mr. Gladstone, both before and after we ceased 
 not only to agree in Politics, but after my attempt 
 to turn him out of his seat for Oxford in 1852, and 
 even after I succeeded in setting on foot con- 
 clusively, when it was all but wrecked, the move 
 which issued in turning him out in 1866 — (" Notes 
 of My Life," 3rd ed., pp. 335-8) — has, throughout, 
 been personally most kind to me. It would be out 
 of place for me to add a word about his extra- 
 ordinary intellectual and oratorical power, his at- 
 tractiveness, his power of fascination. All this and 
 more than this has been done better far than I 
 could do it. The fact remains that he is identified 
 with, and is the leader of, men whose object is to 
 revolutionise the Home Empire of England, and to 
 dethrone the Church of England from its Constitu- 
 tional position in Church and State. I must try, as 
 concisely as I can, to trace the successive steps to 
 this issue. 
 
 Meantime I would observe that there is a fallacy 
 which besets those men in highest power, who are 
 content to proceed much more upon " opportun-
 
 ism ;" that is upon the pohcy which will, for the 
 time, best conduce to the retaining of power, than 
 upon the first principles of Government of men. It 
 is the fallacy of " cedendo impera." This fallacy 
 may succeed in small matters, but is always a thing 
 dangerous to play with : and, when applied to the 
 primary principles of a Nation's Life, cannot be 
 distinguished from the Revolutionary basis and 
 issue. As matter of fact, Mr. Gladstone has eiven 
 way continuously before the storm ; has made him- 
 self a party to it ; is the author of the phrase, 
 " The great Liberal party," the child of his adop- 
 tion ; without discrimination of its many compo- 
 nent, and ultimately irreconcilable elements ; has 
 been carried away by it : is now about to let it 
 loose ; and, with all its numberless discordant 
 devouring and devastating claims, still proposes 
 to sTuide and grovern it. I cannot look to live to 
 see the cumulative issue. But that it is surely on 
 its way this is what is present to thousands of the 
 English People day and night. And not a hun- 
 dred Gladstones could now ever guide much less 
 control it. 
 
 It is an ill return to make to the Providence of 
 God in the merciful preservation of the United 
 Kingdom ; more particularly for the Reign of Queen 
 Victoria ; a Reign, in respect of the Person of the 
 Sovereis^n, lackincr in nothing that commands the 
 love and respect of the United Kingdom, of all 
 other English Dominions, and I may add of all 
 other Nations. Well, what is the crowning fact of 
 the time ? Is it not that in that Reign it is pro- 
 posed by the first Minister of the Crown to dis-
 
 24 
 
 unite the United Kingdom ? To attempt a con- 
 joint Government of England and Ireland. The 
 attempt may be a clever or a clumsy device for 
 regaining power; but it has been breaking down 
 ever since it was conceived, and has all along been 
 an illusion, because of the impossibility of recon- 
 ciling two Governments, when the real claim of one 
 of them is that of substantial independence, and the 
 claim of the other supreme control. Ireland may 
 well be said to have a right to the warmest interest 
 and the most careful consideration of England, but 
 she has no claim to rule herself. May I not say 
 more ? May I not say, and say truly, that she has 
 a rio-ht to more than the warmest interest and most 
 careful consideration of England ; the right of wrong 
 to be acknowledged and repaired ; the right of in- 
 juries done to be confessed and deplored. But has 
 "Home Rule" anything belonging to it in which 
 there is so much as a shadow of even one of such 
 feeHngs, convictions, actions ? There is nothing of 
 this nature appertaining to it. Nay, every part 
 of the pursuit of it entails aggravation of the 
 greatest miseries of Ireland, furious hate, rapine, 
 blood ; within, disunion irreconcilable, without, not 
 closer union with, but every seed of severance from 
 England. The many enemies of England encour- 
 ao-ed as they have never been before. Everything 
 sacrificed to the recovery of one man's power — 
 everything lost to England, to Scotland, to Wales — 
 everything most helping to the downfall of the 
 Empire of England, to the blotting out of its great 
 place in the world. This is the inheritance coming 
 of the vain attempt to fuse into one the irreconcil-
 
 25 
 
 able elements of " the Great Liberal Party," that 
 Mr. Gladstone may sit once more upon the right 
 hand of the Speaker's Chair, and be " the one man 
 who can govern England." Look at the re- 
 verse of the picture. Ireland has been cared 
 for truly, kindly and with true success. In the 
 last few years very much has been done. Now 
 in some two months of a change in the hands 
 which hold the reins of Government in England all 
 the promise of better things has been destroyed, 
 and the future is darker than it has ever been, 
 because the Irish demand being one which England 
 cannot grant either with safety or with honour, the 
 Irish Element which makes its demand finds in 
 England, not the vote which would grant its claim 
 but, the vote which puts Mr. Gladstone at the head 
 of a small majority in the House of Commons, com- 
 posed of all the sections of " the English great 
 Liberal party" and the Irish vote. The English 
 Sections have every one of them their own objects. 
 They have severally helped to put Mr. Gladstone 
 into power as their best chance of attaining to 
 these. What Mr. Gladstone's, Home Rule Policy 
 may be nobody knows. It may be doubted whether 
 in the concurrent difficulties of his position he 
 knows this himself. 
 
 Meantime " the only man who can govern Eng- 
 land " is once again in power at the head of all 
 those who are bent upon destroying this or that ele- 
 ment of the Constitution in " Church and State." 
 
 It is a most curious descent to trace from early 
 childhood downwards, as from many curiously con- 
 current circumstances I am able to trace it.
 
 26 
 
 The special connection of "Religious Equality" 
 with Wales, in the early utterance of the words 
 at a meeting in Wales not long after the con- 
 clusion of the late election will have to be enlarged 
 upon further down. Meantime, looking to the 
 illustration of it that I have already employed, I 
 have this to say. That it was Mr. Gladstone who 
 in 1847 first called my special attention to what 
 was in hand in respect of the Parish Schools of 
 the Church of England, in the matter of " the 
 Management Clauses." It was in his reply to a 
 published letter of mine addressed to him setting 
 forth the then present and prospective issues of 
 the Creation of the Committee of Council on Edu- 
 cation by Lord John Russell 1839-40, upon the 
 strength of a majority of 2 in House of Com- 
 mons for, and upon the weakness of a minority of 
 III in the House of Lords. A thing more dis- 
 tinctly Revolutionary, and more directed against 
 the Religious Equality of the Constitution in 
 " Church and State " is not upon record. 
 
 The scheme thus promoted by the then Prime 
 Minister had been , under the hatching process 
 before 1832, and in the fostering private care of 
 three men — the then Marquis of Lansdowne, Lord 
 John Russell and Sir Francis Kay Shuttleworth. 
 It had, however, leaked out a little, and had reached 
 the original founders of the " National Society for 
 the Education of the Poor in the Principles of the 
 Established Church." These sound-minded men 
 were directly opposed to it throughout. There 
 were preliminary steps and inducements held out 
 by the framers of the Scheme up to 1839-40, but
 
 27 
 
 no overt act. I was well aware in part of what 
 was in its main feature proposed to be done. In 
 1839-40 the chicken came forth; and the Consti- 
 tutional party in the House of Commons were 
 finally defeated by a majority of 2, as I have 
 stated above. 
 
 About that time or a year later I was building 
 Schools in my then Parish of Broadwinsor, Dorset ; 
 and was asking assistance out of Government 
 Money. The Committee of Council on " Educa- 
 tion," i.e. upon Instruction, first, in knowledge Secu- 
 lar, second, in knowledge of things Religious just 
 so far as the second could be combined with the 
 first, thus inverting the order of the Church and of 
 the Providence of God,— objected to my requirement 
 that the Parish School I was building should be 
 wholly in the hands of the Priest of the Parish. I 
 would not accept their requirement ; and, as I then 
 supposed, the Committee finding that things were 
 not ripe for pressing their view of the case, gave 
 way, and I got my school constituted as I would 
 have it. Five years after I came to East Brent m 
 1845, and found there a new School constituted 
 upon the same basis by the man who had been my 
 next neighbour in Dorset, the Hon. and Rev. 
 William Law. I do not know what has become 
 of my stipulations at Broadwinsor : but I do know 
 what has become of them at East Brent. They 
 have stood fast from 1845 to 1892, and will stand 
 fast so long as I am Vicar of East Brent. Since 
 1847 I have not had a sixpence of the Government 
 money, and have no connection, direct or indirect, 
 with Committee of Council on " Education."
 
 28 
 
 In 1847, I proceeded to take up the whole 
 matter at issue between the Civil Power and the 
 Church of England as being one of which it was 
 impossible to overstate the importance, and made 
 my first public move after much consideration with 
 my dear old friend Bishop Bagot, and with the 
 hearty concurrence of Clergy and Laity in the 
 Diocese of Bath and Wells at the annual Meeting 
 of the National Society in 1847. I was seconded 
 by Christopher Wordsworth, afterwards Bishop of 
 Lincoln. 
 
 The sense of the meetino- was altoijether with 
 me, when my dear brother Edward, then Bishop of 
 Salisbury, and Samuel Wilberforce, then Bishop of 
 Oxford, asked Edward Manning, then Archdeacon 
 of Surrey, to move an amendment for delay, is- 
 suing practically in stultifying the vote which was 
 in my hands. Manning was then very high in the 
 estimation of English Churchmen. I was, com- 
 paratively and very reasonably, unknown. 
 
 I went home wuth hearty assurances of support 
 from large numbers of Churchmen who saw what 
 was at stake, and prepared for the resistance to the 
 Government scheme down to 1852. The details 
 are in " Notes of My Life," c. VI L pp. 95, 221. 
 
 I have been told some years ago by one who 
 heard it said by a high Whig authority that the 
 only reliable account of the entire controversy be- 
 tween the Temporal Power and myself and others, 
 including dear John Keble, is to be found in 
 " Notes of My Life." The record runs from 1839- 
 40 to 1870, when the Lower House of Convocation, 
 seduced by the proposals of Mr. Forster, Mr. Glad-
 
 29 
 
 stone being Prime Minster, deserted me after a 
 support by successive large majorities of i8 years. 
 
 I return to what took place in the same matter 
 in 1852. 
 
 The Earl of Derby, who had fought the battle in 
 the House of Commons in 1839-40 against the 
 Committee of Council on Education, came into 
 power, but was not in a majority in the House of 
 Commons. 
 
 I was called to London the summer of 1852 by 
 the Government. The Government wished to know 
 whether a certain concession would satisfy me, and 
 issue in the withdrawal of my notice for annual 
 meeting of National Society in which I was to 
 have the support of John Keble. 
 
 I was shown the Minute and asked whether it 
 would satisfy me. I said " no." That it gave me 
 only a part of what was required for the safety of 
 the Church School in its integrity, and therefore in 
 its value. But I added that, as it was the first 
 instance of Her Majesty's Government evincing 
 a disposition to deal truly with the Church of 
 England, I would accept it. 
 
 I was then asked whether I could answer for my 
 supporters. I said that they would act with me 
 upon what I had to tell them, with my ground for 
 so acting : adding that I understood that I was at 
 liberty to state publicly on the morrow to the meet- 
 ing the proposal of the Government. Certainly, 
 was the reply. 
 
 I withdrew my Resolutions, and everybody was 
 glad. But I could not be so glad. 
 
 The Minute promised would have to lie upon 
 the Table of the House forty days awaiting ob-
 
 30 
 
 jections. Of course it was objected to. Govern- 
 ment was asked whether what I had stated was 
 authorised by it. Upon answer in the affirmative 
 the fate of the Minute was sealed. I went home 
 and set up a school beside the Parish School in my 
 own house at E. Brent. This lasted very happily 
 for two years. Then came the Prosecution in the 
 matter of " the Real Presence," lasting four years 
 one month, and issuing in its own defeats I was 
 compelled to give up the School in the Vicarage 
 House with much regret. 
 
 After the Lower House of Convocation left me 
 in 1869, and accepted Mr. Forster, I have not 
 concerned myself directly or indirectly with the 
 "Church School." In the true sense of "Church 
 School " the thing is gone from every such school 
 if it receive aid from the " Committee of Council on 
 Education." No doubt there is a quasi-Church 
 school, but the true type is subject to having 
 no connection direct or indirect with the Civil 
 Power. No doubt there are immense exertions 
 and sacrifices on the part of Bishops, Priests, 
 People to retain all the principles and the power 
 of a " Church School " they can retain ; but in its 
 integrity the Church School, the nursery of the 
 Parish Church, cannot be had, so long as it be 
 connected with the Temporal Power. I say more. 
 I say that the fruit of this muddling up together 
 Religious and Secular Instruction, subordinating 
 Religious to Secular, and calling the compound 
 Education, is an abuse of terms. More again than 
 this, that it has issued in producing and fostering 
 
 ^ See Contents, p. ix.
 
 the great curse and root of the evil of our time ; 
 I mean Indifferentism in Religion, the parent of 
 Infidelity. Even the name " Church School " has 
 almost disappeared, and " Voluntary School " has 
 come into its room ; and the Church School of 
 England, which has the first right to the fostering 
 care of the Constitution in " Church and State," is 
 bundled up with certain other " voluntary schools," 
 into which no children are obtruded, and those only 
 admitted that the Managers of the School would 
 of their own mind admit. 
 
 But, it is said, will you not even allow us, Priests 
 of the Church with yourself, to make the best we 
 can of what is no doubt a bad business ? Well, I 
 have a liking for logic, which, with a good many 
 other valuable things, is fast becoming, under 
 Mr. Gladstone's patronage, out of date, and I try to 
 distinguish a little. I say then that, if a thing is 
 not vicious hi pjHjtciple as befoTe the Church, there 
 may be room for making the best of a bad case. 
 But when there can be no doubt at all that a thing 
 is vicious in principle, then there is no room for 
 making the best of it. In other words : If the 
 Parish Priest be not allowed without any manner 
 of hindrance to go into his Parish School, the 
 nursery of his Parish Church, at any hour of the 
 day for the purpose of teaching all the children 
 there their first business and duty — that is, to 
 know and to love the Religion of Christ — because 
 there are children there, under the compulsory 
 requirements of the Temporal Power, who have 
 neither received Holy Baptism, nor are being pre- 
 pared to receive it, then I say this is to break into
 
 32 
 
 the Province, and to break down the right Divine 
 committed to the Church, and to do what can be 
 done to disparage its authority and destroy its 
 power, which are both of them Gifts of God. 
 
 I have returned above to part of the contents of 
 " Notes of My Life." It is necessary to any suffi- 
 cient understanding of the history of the sacrifice of 
 the " Church School " in the process proposed 
 before 1832 ; carried out into open assault 1839-40, 
 when the " unostentatious " policy of Sir James 
 Kay Shuttleworth, the prime mover, was exchanged 
 for that open assault — passing through some tem- 
 porary delays, and finally consolidated in Mr. 
 Forster's Bill of 1870, when Mr. Gladstone was 
 Prime Minister. That Bill has been the basis 
 upon which further development of the principle 
 that Education " Religious," and "non-Religious," 
 has to be conducted in England on the final respon- 
 sibility of the Temporal Power, with the Proviso 
 that the teaching of the " non-Religious," or Secu- 
 lar, is the p7'i7nary business of a Government which 
 has all alone been a Government of " Church and 
 State " — with the " Religious " subordinated to the 
 exigencies, real or imaginary, of the non-Religious.' 
 This has been the true history of the case now for 
 60 years. It is hardly necessary to remark that a 
 system of this distinct character is in its nature of 
 one tendency ; and that the tendency is to lower 
 the value of the *' Religious " in the public mind ; 
 and promote the " Secular " at the expense of the 
 " Religious." That there are not a few who grasp 
 the whole extent of the injury thus effected by what
 
 33 
 
 is called Policy ; and are labouring with energies 
 and means in a very bad case in support of the 
 " Religious," does not in any degree make better 
 or palliate the action of those who are respon- 
 sible for the bad case. Persecution of the Truth 
 no doubt developes and increases always the 
 power of the Truth. But that is not to the 
 excuse, as it is certainly not to the mind, of the 
 persecutor. 
 
 I pass on to certain remarkable points in the 
 Educational Controversy from 1852 to 1870. The 
 fuller account of them is to be found in " Notes of 
 My Life," pp. 267-275, and other places. There 
 are some portions of that account which I reproduce 
 here. 
 
 I first advert to "the Manchester and Salford 
 Education Scheme." This received its final accom- 
 plishment, and a good deal more besides in the 
 Elementary Education Act of 1870. Mr. Entwisle 
 of Manchester was its chief promoter. But, 1 8 years 
 before 1870, public men generally were "not pre- 
 pared" for it. In conjunction with two very power- 
 ful allies, one in the South, the other in the North 
 of England, the Rev. Henry Newland and W. Ro- 
 mayne Callender, Esq., afterwards Member for 
 Manchester, I did what I could to stay the plague ; 
 and it did not succeed. 
 
 I remember then writing to Mr. Gladstone upon 
 It. I think it was in 1851. Some little time ago, 
 on looking over correspondence, I found his answer. 
 It was, ''what woidd dispose me to vote against 
 the second reading is the very insufficient pro- 
 vision made by the Bill for Religious Education^ 
 
 D
 
 It is curious to contrast these words with Mr. 
 Gladstone's account of his own case ; how it 
 was that he entered upon hfe, " / was born and 
 bred in an tininflnenced habit of life ^' — " Mr. Glad- 
 stone," pp. 38-9, edition viii., 1886. I have been 
 told that daily discussion of subjects by the children 
 of the family was the habit of Mr. Gladstone's home. 
 In 1855-6 there came a very remarkable instance of 
 how difficult it was even for Members of the Par- 
 liament, as reformed in 1832, to part with the 
 intuitive acceptance of " Education " as in its 
 essence a Religious thing, not a Secular thing. 
 Sir John Pakington and, subsequently, Lord John 
 Russell, made proposals in the House of Commons 
 favourable to transposing the order of " Religious " 
 and " Secular." Mr. Henley, my dear wife's 
 father, wisest and best of men within all my know- 
 ledge, opposed the action of the House in this 
 direction. The proposal failed because — as Mr. 
 Henley told me — "the Nonconformist leaders came 
 to me in the lobby and told me they were going to 
 vote with me upon the ground of the danger of 
 ' State Education ' to all definite Relieious teaching:.'' 
 With their assistance he carried his amendment by 
 a majority of 102. The then Speaker, afterwards 
 Lord Eversley, said of this that " it was the most 
 crushing defeat he had ever witnessed." 
 
 Fifteen years afterwards this vote of 1856 was 
 reversed absolutely by Mr. Forster's Bill. When I 
 made my final attempt at the meeting in Willis's 
 Rooms, 1868, Hon. C. L. Wood in the chair, I asked 
 Mr. Henley whether it would be of use to attempt 
 anything in Parliament. He said, "No use at all;
 
 35 
 
 those who gave me my majority in 1856 would 
 not give it now." 
 
 The sense of this was that Nonconformity had in 
 the interval become, in its substance, political. 
 
 In taking leave of my public contention against 
 what is called " State Education," a thing, Tn its 
 own nature, however it may be disguised or quali- 
 fied, essentially and irredeemably hostile to the 
 Church of England ; and having for its issue " In- 
 differentism," the parent and precursor of Infidelity, 
 there are two parts of its history which I may not 
 omit to notice. Before dealing with these I note 
 once more that the true character of our Parishes, 
 our Parish schools, our Universities has suffered 
 hopelessly under it. Some twenty years ago I 
 took my name off the books of the University of 
 Oxford. I did this because I could not, and can- 
 not, see " Dominus Illumlnatio Mea " retained as 
 the watchword of the University when Its meaning 
 was gone. In connection with this issue, I have 
 something to say upon the words of Mr. Gladstone 
 In his late lecture at Oxford. 
 
 It may be very natural to Mr. Gladstone— who, 
 as I have been compelled to conclude for many 
 years, himself holding the Truth Catholic, holds it, not 
 as a trust delivered to him by the Church to keep, 
 defend, maintain, teach, first for himself, next for all 
 men, but, on the ground of his own reasoning power, 
 and therefore as a thing independent of all Law 
 external to himself,— It may be very natural to him 
 to say, as I find him laying down very early In his 
 late lecture, that the germ of Oxford University 
 was the conflict between the lay and the ecclesi- 
 
 D 2
 
 36 
 
 as'tical element. But to say this is one thing ; to 
 accept it is another thing. The words might be 
 true enough if apphed to a gathering together of 
 learned men for purposes of discussion of thought 
 pressing heavily upon heart and mind before Christ 
 came. For it cannot be doubted that there were 
 among them those who were insisting upon and 
 looking for something above and beyond the con- 
 clusions of the reasoning power, something of a 
 province outside man's province, and unapproach- 
 able by it ; something which the Christian man 
 calls the Mysteries of the Godhead ; and others 
 again who were, as there have been, and are now 
 among us, self-reliant only ; who disposed of all 
 such thought, and its looking up from earth to 
 Heaven for help ; men filled with man's learning, but 
 who had nothing to do with " the altar to the un- 
 known God." For any such gathering of men 
 together there was no ground upon which to rest 
 the superiority of this or that method and manner 
 of opinion, save only the ground of argumentative 
 power ; and they represented Mr. Gladstone's idea 
 of a University. But to extend this account of 
 those very wonderful wise men of Athens to the 
 world after Christ-s corning; to apply it to those 
 who had recognized and confessed that, in coming 
 together as an University, the element Ecclesias- 
 tical, i.e. the Church, had become the teaching and 
 the gove?^ni7ig power by the Spirit for the bringing 
 Christ home to the heart and mind of man ; to 
 say that, all this notwithstanding, the germ of the 
 University of Oxford is to be found in a contention, 
 (which the Church cannot recognize), between the
 
 Z1 
 
 ecclesiastical and the lay elements, appears to me to 
 be a very curious confusion of thought. I may add 
 a very dangerous confusion, because it presupposes 
 that, under the Gospel, there is as much room for 
 argument against the Eternal Verities of the 
 Gospel as there is fo7' them ; that the raisoit 
 d'etre of a Christian University is, in substance, 
 identical with that searching after Truth on Mars' 
 Hill. 
 
 I return now to my two points. The first is what 
 is called " Educating the Masses." I have an 
 extreme dislike to the term " Educatine the 
 Masses," — not because I have not done all in my 
 power to provide for the true Education of the 
 children committed to my care, but because of what 
 the term " the Masses," as opposed to " the 
 Classes" indicates. It is not a mere numerical 
 representative. It is contrasted with "the Classes" 
 as denoting the lowest order of citizens : an order 
 which wants elevating, raising out of the position 
 in which God has placed them. Well I hope there 
 is still common sense left in England to say that 
 this is rubbish — offensive rubbish. And for the 
 means of so elevating them, if it is to be mainly, if 
 not exclusively, Secular teaching, with or without 
 Religion. This is worse than rubbish. 
 
 I think myself a good deal more about " the 
 Classes," and iJicir great need of moral, intellectual. 
 Religious elevation, and the issue, a good example 
 before " the Masses." The key to understanding 
 why " the Classes " so much need elevating is found 
 ■firstly in their very low and unworthy estimate of the 
 Religion and of the virtues of the poor; secondly
 
 38 
 
 In the all-prevailing mischief of instructing the poor 
 in thines which do not belonor in the order of Pro- 
 vidence to their position in life : more than this ; 
 things which supersede what do so belong. You 
 do not qualify them for the one, you disqualify 
 them for the other. Exceptions to this rule are no 
 doubt not a few. But these will clear their own 
 way for themselves. A man or woman beginning 
 with a low position in Society often attains to a 
 high place amongst us. But these are special cases, 
 and the general order and purpose of the Providence 
 of God is not to be violated on their account. 
 
 The other point is the taking very young children 
 away from their parents at the public expense. I 
 do not believe that this can be justified — especially 
 under the particular character of " the State School," 
 either as respects the parent, or the children — and I 
 fear that the proposal of and the carrying it into 
 practice were only a weight thrown into the scale 
 which is always open to the contribution of the 
 political parties fighting for victory. 
 
 "State Education" then and free Education as 
 part of it, I put down as two of the principal causes 
 of the decline and fall of the many coloured great- 
 ness of England. 
 
 The more comprehensive cause — that which is 
 vulgarly called " disestablishment of the Church," 
 the real name for it being " disendowment," 
 had been introduced by Mr. Gladstone in Ireland 
 under special circumstances of aggravation in 
 the application of a large portion of the endow- 
 ments to uses for which, however good in them-
 
 39 
 
 selves, they were not given. It Is now pro- 
 posed for Wales ; is indicated for England, on the 
 ground of " Religious Equality." I shall have to 
 return to this part of my subject matter below, in 
 reviewing the past history of the action of the 
 Temporal Power in respect of the Church in Wales. 
 
 I say vulgarly called " disestablishment " because 
 the term has no other than a vulgar use. The 
 Temporal Power of England did not establish the 
 Church of England. The Church, under God, 
 established herself, and was endowed by her own 
 people. The word which tells the truth of what 
 is meant to be done is '* disendowment." Now 
 disendowment of the Church is robbery of God. 
 
 " Will a man rob God ? Yet ye have robbed Me. 
 But ye say. Wherein have we robbed Thee ? In 
 tithes and offerings'"." 
 
 I turn now, not willingly, but under imperative 
 sense of duty to Church and State of England, 
 to the man at the helm — the man who " knows 
 that he is the only man who can govern England." 
 I look at him with a curious mixture of deep wonder, 
 and deeper fear. 
 
 Mr. Gladstone is four years younger than I am. 
 We were not therefore contemporaries either at 
 Eton or at Oxford. But many things have 
 curiously combined to make me conversant with 
 circumstances and particulars of his earliest life. 
 
 If I repeat some things already published in my 
 " Mr. Gladstone, 1886," I cannot help it in my now 
 still deeper fear. 
 
 ^ Malachi iii. 8.
 
 40 
 
 I left Ch. Ch. in 1828, on becoming- Fellow of 
 Oriel. I used to be often in the rooms of my dear 
 old friend Saunders, Mathematical Tutor of Ch. Ch., 
 afterwards Dean of Peterborough. Of all men that 
 I have known he had the deepest and clearest 
 insight into character, and greatest power of pre- 
 dicting consequent issues in after life. One night, 
 in 1832, I was with him discussing many men high 
 in position and in University honours, who had 
 been and were his pupils ; and were afterwards in 
 the public service. He was hitting them off in 
 succession in a manner marvellously verified in the 
 several cases. At last I said, now there is one 
 more I want to know about, and then I shall have 
 as much as I can carry. What have you to tell me 
 about Gladstone ? Oh, he said, I will tell you all 
 about Gladstone in a minute. " His conscience is 
 so tender he will never go straight^ I had heard 
 enough. 
 
 I watched Gladstone upon this a good many 
 years ; and had, as time went on, much experience 
 of the working of this uncertainty of action. It 
 was near thirty years afterwards, when talking one 
 day with a near neighbour of mine, the Chairman 
 of Gladstone's Oxford Committee, he said suddenly 
 and apropos of nothing — I say, Denison, I think I 
 must give up Gladstone. You, I said. " Et Tu 
 Brute ;" may I ask why ? you know I have said no 
 word to invite this confidence. He said, '' I think 
 his intellect can persnadc his conscience of any thing !' 
 
 Ah, I thought, and think still, here is the key to 
 Saunders' prediction. Saunders spoke of the boy at 
 Oxford perpetually weighing every manner of issue
 
 41 
 
 and conclusion, and having no ground to proceed 
 upon but himself, that is to say, the conclusions 
 of his own reasoning power — a nature, by his own 
 admission, " without intuitions ; " " born and bred 
 uninfluenced." Later on, there came a very heavy 
 weight into the practical scale. His great attain- 
 ments, his high character, his position in Parlia- 
 ment full of promise — a growing belief that he 
 was equal to, and would one day attain to, chief 
 power among officers of State, all these threw their 
 combined weight into the scale of attaining to and 
 keeping that chief power. The reasoning faculty, 
 exercised by him continuously, as it had been in 
 early childhood, had taught him that it was in him 
 to do this— nay, had gone further, and had led 
 him towards looking ultimately upon himself as 
 " the only man who could govern England." 
 
 Before I go on to consider that position and 
 sequence of political party which has issued out 
 of the Act of 1832, and has now been in rapid 
 operation for 60 years, I take leave to mention 
 a matter of augury ascribed to myself, of which I 
 was reminded this year. I believe it to be quite 
 true that I did say what I am reported to have 
 said in 1832 concerning Mr. Gladstone, then already 
 among the first speakers in the Oxford Debating 
 Society of not many years' date — some six or seven. 
 
 Mr. Gladstone, then an ultra-Tory, and after- 
 wards returned, as such, Member for Newark by 
 the Duke of Newcastle, made a great anti-Reform 
 Bill Speech in his place. The question put to me 
 this year is— whether it is true that, being asked 
 the next day what I thought of the speech, I said
 
 42 
 
 that the speaker would certainly end in becoming 
 a Radical, because he had supported his Tory posi- 
 tion upon Radical grounds. 
 
 My answer to my enquirer this year upon his 
 telline me that he had heard both in London and 
 Oxford that I had so said, was this — That I could 
 not verify it sixty years after. But that I thought 
 I must have said so, because I had been asked 
 before whether I had said it, and that there was in 
 my mind a shadowy remembrance of my having 
 said it. 
 
 I come then now to that surging up of the 
 Radical and Red Radical element in which we 
 live, sixty years after the Bill of 1832, and I find 
 that Mr. Gladstone's settled conviction that he is 
 the only man who can govern England, combined 
 with the rapid descent down the political ladder 
 from ultra-Tory towards Red Radical in sixty years, 
 have compelled him upon his own ground to de- 
 scend with the descent ; and that therefore it is 
 that he is now resting in his chariot at the head of 
 that motley company which he calls "the great 
 Liberal party." That he may guide it for a time, 
 there being no other man in the whole of it who 
 has any pretension whatsoever to guiding it, or 
 who in any manner could fill Mr. Gladstone's place, 
 may be conceded. But that, as I have said before, 
 Revolutionists being hungry folk, there will be no 
 occasion for surprise at any moment if one or more 
 of the wheels of the chariot come off suddenly, and 
 Mr. Gladstone comes once again to the ground. 
 
 Meantime it is certainly not a comforting re- 
 trospect upon the sixty years last past that men of
 
 43 
 
 every shade of the political life — beginning from the 
 time when party meant principle, down to this time 
 when it means nothing but the leadership of this or 
 that particular man, with as much principle as he 
 can save in the perpetual flux of it, and in the 
 attempt to reconcile its contradictions — have been 
 doing nothing so much and helping in nothing so 
 much as in oiling the wheels of the Gladstone 
 chariot. Old Tory and New — Old Whig and New 
 — Conservative and Unionist — Gladstonite and 
 Radical — Radical and Red Radical, down the hill ; 
 flogging in front, pushing behind, down the hill to 
 the end of it ; where will lie what remains of " the 
 many coloured greatness of England." 
 
 If it be said these are words undiscriminating and 
 violent, my rejoinder is that the time is gone by to 
 hesitate about language in the face of fact. I take 
 one instance as more than sufiicient. Mr. Glad- 
 stone threatens the House of Lords with, what is 
 worse than destruction, impotence and disgrace, if 
 it refuse to help him in rending asunder the home 
 Empire of England. To make " Home Rule" for 
 Ireland he is ready to swamp the House of Lords; 
 to worse than destroy, to make contemptible the 
 legislative power of England, and thereby to de- 
 stroy the Constitution itself. Are we in such cir- 
 cumstance to be careful about words ? It would be 
 about as reasonable to ask that when two armies 
 stand face to face and about to fight, they should 
 be careful to exchange compliments before they 
 begin the battle. Mr. Gladstone has taken care 
 that there shall be no mistake about his purpose, 
 and the manner of maintaining his position. It is
 
 44 
 
 for all who care for the Home Empire, and have 
 worst fears of what will come out of disruption, to 
 call that purpose and the manner of maintaining the 
 position in connection with it by its right name. 
 
 / make no apology then for saying that to descend 
 to threaten the House of Lords, with the piirpose of 
 compassing Legislation thereby, is, of itself a dis- 
 qnalification for the office of Prime Minister. 
 
 Before passing on, to what may be called sub- 
 ordinate causes, divine and human, of the many 
 coloured greatness of England, I sum up the 
 general conclusion arrived at above in respect of 
 the manner and method of her "Government" at 
 the close of Century XIX. 
 
 One order and condition of Electors, that order 
 and condition the least capable of understanding 
 what Government means ; the order and condition 
 most easily persuaded to listen to and follow un- 
 scrupulous guidance, and cunning misrepresentation 
 or colouring of facts, is in the position of being able 
 to dictate to the House of Commons what the 
 character of its majorities is to be. 
 
 It is, therefore, according to the sequence of this 
 position, the favour of that order and condition 
 which has now, and henceforth, to be primarily 
 consulted, in providing membership of House of 
 Commons. Now the House of Commons is claim- 
 ing every day more and more to be the finally de- 
 ciding power in all matters of legislation and admin- 
 istration. A majority of it has long brought in or 
 "turned out the Prime Minister of the Crown. No- 
 body wants to alter this. But it supplies matter for 
 'most serious and deepest consideration of what stuff
 
 45 
 
 the House of Commons itself is to be composed. 
 For the House of Commons, in itself claiming more 
 and more to be the final decider of all legislation, is 
 in the hands of that order and condition of the 
 people ; and claims practically, while it denies the 
 claim, to overrule all other orders and conditions of 
 men. 
 
 This is a big claim, it extends to dealing with the 
 House of Lords ; with the Church ; and with the 
 Crown. 
 
 But there is a yet bigger claim behind, already in 
 very active operation. 
 
 Not only is "the one order and condition" to 
 have control over England's Parliament, Church 
 and Crown, by action in the House of Commons. 
 It must have its own Parliament outside the House 
 of Commons to keep the House in proper subjection 
 to " the People." It must have its Mass Meetings 
 in London and other cities and places, as may be 
 required for the despatch of the public business by 
 threat and intimidation. 
 
 You may call this " Government " if you like ; 
 but it is only a name for what does not exist. 
 
 Of all the presages of the military despotism 
 there is nothing so powerfully tending to its fulfil- 
 ment as the Mass Meeting. 
 
 For its immediate effects, there is nothing so 
 ruinous to the well-being of a city — to the security 
 of its trade ; of all its other business, its ordinary 
 peace, comfort, and sense of security as the Mass 
 Meeting, with its excitement, its passion, its igno- 
 rance, its delivering itself into the hands of the 
 professed Agitator, whose own trade it is to live by
 
 46 
 
 it, so long as he can persuade his hearers that, by 
 listening to him and following his guidance, they 
 will get all they want, whether it be their own or 
 not their own — whether they have any claim to it 
 or not. The Mass Meeting breaks up. It may be 
 without disorder of any account ; though this be very 
 difficult to contrive ; and, in order to ensure It, large 
 numbers of the keepers of the peace are drawn away 
 from their own proper positions in the City ; thereby 
 giving opportunity for outrages which otherwise it 
 would have not been easy to venture upon. A 
 Mass Meeting day Is a day to be deducted out of 
 the business life of a city. It has in the estimate of 
 common sense nothing to recommend It, everything 
 to dissuade from it. In allowing it to be on a 
 Sunday, it Is a profanation. But the Idea inherent 
 In the minds of those who demand it. Is that they 
 are thereby a step nearer to universal plenty by 
 some inroad or other upon other men's rights or 
 other men's property — and that with view to this 
 they have read a very convincing lesson to their 
 friends in the House of Commons. How near Is 
 the sublime to the ridiculous. It were well if it 
 stopped at ridiculous, and did not become the 
 scourge to the city which is the scene of it, and one 
 more example of the licence which is now called the 
 right and the liberty of the Englishman. 
 
 I go back to the constituent parts of the House 
 of Commons itself. We are come for some years 
 past to a House of Commons composed rather 
 of delegates to carry this or that particular end 
 than of representatives of the commonwealth. We 
 are come to the three-cornered constituency, in
 
 47 
 
 room of that which gave us the knights of the 
 shire, representing alike their own and their com- 
 petitors' supporters, and bound to consider and 
 care for them all alike ; a thing which was 
 worthy of old England. To carve counties into 
 three pieces was to introduce the idea of a man 
 representing only his own side. No doubt this is 
 always disclaimed, but it exists nevertheless. It 
 cannot be said that representation has not lost, and 
 that delegation has not gained, in the operation ; 
 and in the same proportion that this has become 
 a fact, in that proportion old England has lost. 
 What you want for anything like true Government 
 are the obligations of representation of opposing 
 claims and not the delegacy of one. The idea of / 
 representation is disappearing before that of dele- / / 
 gacy ; and while great numbers aspire to be dele- 
 gates of the popular will, whatever that may be, the 
 best men of the country are beginning to shrink 
 from the membership which is the exhibition 
 of it. 
 
 One of the horses in Mr. Gladstone's chariot is 
 Disestablishment or Disendowment for Wales. The 
 terms are interchangeable. 
 
 It is not the first time that Wales has been the 
 victim of public policy. 
 
 Not long after the, so-called. Restoration of Con- 
 vocation in 1852 I was asked whether I would be 
 one of a Committee of Enquiry into the historical 
 position of the Church in Wales for the last hundred 
 years. My answer was that I would, subject to my 
 first making further enquiry, and being able to verify 
 on best authority the knowledge which I had pre-
 
 48 
 
 viously acquired. I very soon was able to succeed 
 in this particular. 
 
 The knowledge is as follows : 
 
 That, up to 1 760, Nonconformity in Wales was a 
 very rare thing. 
 
 That the Jacobite had retired thither to a large 
 extent. 
 
 That the Hanoverian had upon this taken steps. 
 
 That these steps were of the nature following: — 
 
 That the making of Welsh-speaking Bishops was 
 discontinued. 
 
 That the Welsh Bishoprics were given to English 
 Bishops. 
 
 That the English Bishops gave their Welsh 
 livings to Priests beneficed in England in plurality. 
 
 That the Incumbents did not reside : that the 
 livings so given were badly cared for ; and in many 
 cases placed in unfit hands. 
 
 That the result of all this was, that the Welsh 
 people, a people of strong national feeling and 
 religiously minded, fell to a large extent into the 
 arms of Charles Wesley. 
 
 Mr. Gladstone has returned to Welsh-speaking 
 Bishops. But a Welsh -speaking Bishop and a 
 Welsh Bishop are by no means the same thing. 
 On the other hand, I do not remember to have 
 seen any account of the historical position of about 
 a century from 1760. At the present time it is 
 proposed to compensate Wales by disendowing, 
 that is, disestablishing her Church — for they are 
 interchangeable forms of speaking — in favour of a 
 Nonconformity created by action of public Policy : 
 and to make her a precedent for the like in Eng-
 
 49 
 
 land. No doubt Mr. Gladstone may gain votes at 
 elections by this proceeding, and will do something 
 towards satisfying the craving of his supporters for 
 a breaking up in one part of Great Britain, and 
 opening a door of hope in respect of the rest of it. 
 
 How he is to be justified is not my business ; and 
 I am thankful it is not, because I have no belief 
 that there is any justification to be found. 
 
 I pass on to the subsidiary causes of the many 
 coloured greatness of England, and to the dangers 
 of the counteracting, impairing, destroying those 
 causes, by interfering with their hitherto natural 
 order and course of development. England, under 
 God, has grown to be what she is. At the close of 
 the nineteenth century it is now proposed practically 
 to abolish what she has been, and still is, by way of 
 " pleasing the people." The causes of the greatness 
 remaining as given of God, it is proposed to deal 
 with them as they have not been dealt with before 
 when they were slowly but steadily combining to 
 produce the " many coloured greatness." 
 
 The first of those causes is the insular position 
 of the Home Empire. There are of this two 
 aspects; one. Great Britain and Ireland; two, the 
 proposal to make a railway under the sea from 
 Calais to Dover. 
 
 It seems to me a strange thing that it should not 
 present itself to the ' Home Rule ' mind generally, 
 that if England had to fight the battle of Europe 
 for the fifteen first years of this century, with the 
 Home Rule cry upon her, and in consequence with 
 a Home Empire disunited instead of being closely 
 
 E
 
 50 
 
 bound and compacted together as one land and 
 one people, there would have been no ground for 
 surprise if England had suffered all things, instead 
 of achieving all things. And if the Englishman's 
 pride will not admit so much as this, what he can- 
 not help admitting is, that the prospects of the final 
 issue must have been very heavily discounted by 
 any such disunion. Now no man can look upon 
 the continental Europe of this time, and hide from 
 himself in so doing the many elements of a general 
 war. At this moment the peace of Continental 
 Europe is kept only at the cost of six millions of 
 soldiers. Peace is not kept for Peace' sake, but 
 only because every one is afraid to begin that of 
 which he can see no end. As for the method and 
 manner of war by land or sea, there is no room for 
 prestige about their issues. Battle by sea appears 
 to be no more a question of boarding, the English- 
 man's recipe for winning. Battle by land, the 
 farther off you fight, has a great amount of un- 
 certainty imported into it. Some men say it is a 
 good thing for so many peoples being ready to 
 fight, for it is the best chance of keeping peace, the 
 chance of a common fear. Well, this is a ridicu- 
 lous kind of consolation to have to take to oneself, 
 as a note of advance in the world's policy. Really 
 it is only one of the many delusions of the time, 
 to be found out when the time comes. 
 
 One thing on the darker side I may not forbear 
 reverting to. It is the sad instances of military 
 insubordination at home which of late years have 
 distressed and alarmed us all. I am in no position 
 to assign the causes with any attempt at precision ;
 
 51 
 
 but I may be allowed to say so much as this, that 
 I find a very general opinion prevailing that the 
 insubordination has had much to do with the regu- 
 lation of retiring from regiments of officers Com- 
 missioned and non-Commissioned, who by long 
 service and habit of intercourse with the soldiers 
 had established their claims upon the confidence 
 and respect of the men. Perhaps I may be par- 
 doned for what looks like presumption for saying 
 so much as this. That I am only giving expression 
 to a very prevailing judgment is what I have to 
 offer in excuse. 
 
 From the insular position which Old England 
 has, with very good reason, thought so much of, 
 but which it is now proposed to get rid of upon 
 grounds not very clear to a plain understanding — 
 grounds which belong to that which goes by the 
 name of scientific development, and universal peace. 
 I pass on to the blending of races and the product 
 of that blending in England. 
 
 The product has been the high and conquering 
 spirit of the people of all classes. This is largely 
 evidenced by its games, its sports at home. Abroad 
 by the grasp and the hold of a mighty empire by 
 land and sea. By the long record of many triumphs 
 and rare reverses. By the refusal so much as to 
 entertain the idea of a conquering force. By the 
 content to count its soldiers by thousands instead of 
 millions, for all that has to be done all over the 
 world. By no instance of Civil War since 1745. 
 By the comparatively few keepers of the peace 
 even in London, with its four millions of people. 
 By the unwearied power of acquiring Capital, the 
 
 E 2
 
 52 
 
 mother of and provider for all labour. By the right 
 of its accumulation, by the right of its disposition, 
 by the claim of its inheritance. By the indefeasible 
 law of right that what has been gained by the 
 industry, the ability and skill of the parent, both 
 the Capital and the Status in Society inseparably 
 connected with it should descend from father to 
 son. That as it had been the father's to deal with, 
 because God had given it to him for his own, so 
 is it the son's also. I shall have to say some- 
 thing further upon this when I come to the 
 matter of Capital and Labour, which so many 
 are busy about now in making enemies of each 
 other, instead of leaving them in the old natural 
 order of mother and child. 
 
 It was the Capital of England, the credit based 
 upon the Capital ; the confidence that what England 
 said she would do that she would do, towards 
 fighting the battle of Europe, that enabled Europe 
 to muster for the fight. England did much more ; 
 she threw herself into the scale by land and 
 sea, and the battle was won. Since that day her 
 triumphs have been many. England fights when 
 she must, but her aim is peace. She is up to this 
 day where she has been so many hundred years 
 by land and by sea. 
 
 The climate of England allows of much continuous 
 work. The general issue is the Capital of England. 
 Capital applied to England's several industries ; 
 agricultural, manufacturing, engineering, commercial, 
 mining. 
 
 But if any one say that the Capital of England is
 
 53 
 
 not now in great danger of being sacrificed to the 
 demands of those who have neither inherited nor 
 acquired Capital, I, for one, do not beh'eve he 
 knows what he is talking about. Capital, to one 
 amount or another, is the only source of wages of 
 labour. It is the goose that lays the golden eggs ; 
 now the goose is to be killed in order to get at the 
 golden eggs. And where are the real geese ? 
 They are helping in the killing. For what end ? 
 To encourage to something very like plunder all 
 those who would be richer than they are by having 
 more for themselves of another man's money than 
 they have got already, in return for their labour. 
 
 There are plenty of people who are always watch- 
 ing their opportunity to lay up store for themselves 
 out of the funds contributed towards organising 
 conspiracy to force the Capitalist, the employer and 
 payer of labour, to what is called " raise wages." 
 These men make themselves, for their own uses, 
 the judges for other men, more simple, of what an 
 employer can afford to pay for having his work 
 done. 
 
 This is bad enough in itself. It is an inversion 
 of the natural order of Providence. The man who 
 employs what he has been enabled to acquire, or 
 who has inherited what his father had acquired 
 before him, is not the possessor of public property 
 for others to divide among them as they please. 
 He has his money, and his station in life, both of 
 them gifts of God to him, to employ upon his own 
 responsibility for the employment. Because other 
 men say his wages are low, that does not make them 
 low. They may be perfectly adapted to the circum-.
 
 54 
 
 stances of his trade. And these he must know much 
 more, infinitely more, about than those in his employ. 
 No man has any right to say that the wages his 
 employer gives are too little, without first knowing 
 as much about the whole case as his employer 
 knows. He has his own remedy in his hands ; he 
 may say, what nobody pretends he has not a plain 
 right to say, this is not enough for me. I will go 
 and get work elsewhere. 
 
 But at this point his right ceases. All the Mass 
 Meetings in the world can never prevent it ceasing. 
 It may prevail with others like the man himself to 
 say what is nothing else than the resorting to foul 
 means when you cannot get what you want by fair 
 means. The first step upon the foul-means platform 
 is to combine to intimidate others who are willino- to 
 continue to work upon the employer's terms from so 
 continuing. This is about as great an offence — 
 short of personal violence — that a man can commit ; 
 and very commonly it issues rapidly in personal 
 violence of one kind or another. When this has 
 gone on for a time, the iron is hot enough for 
 the Strike. 
 
 Of all things in civilized life immediately in- 
 jurious to, and never compensating the huge 
 injury to Capital, the payer of wages, and to the 
 general credit of England, there is nothing at once 
 to silly, and in all its silliness so injurious all round, 
 so "the Strike." And when we come to think of 
 the power now existing of organizing within a week 
 an universal and combined strike throughout the 
 whole country, there is small wisdom, little fore- 
 sight, no justice, no common sense, in those who
 
 55 
 
 pet and encourage " Strike," and call it by fine 
 names, and denounce the Capitalist, the wage payer, 
 as one who does not know his duty to his fellow- 
 men, and has to be taught by force. And yet 
 this is common language in what has, I suppose, 
 to be called New England as distinguished from 
 Old England. 
 
 But the Strike — so far as it has yet been con- 
 sidered a little — is only the skirmish before the 
 battle ; the signal that the fight between property 
 and no property is begun. There is, as there 
 always is in like things, much worse behind. There 
 is this behind it. 
 
 I have touched it in two aspects, i. The refusal 
 to work for the present wages. This is every man's 
 right. What the wisdom or common sense of it 
 may be in each case is not the question. I have 
 touched also upon point number two, the preventing 
 another man from working for the present wages. 
 It wants no reasoning to be enabled to say that this 
 is a sin against society. Now for point number 
 three. This is the claim of the workman to a share 
 in the profits. Who was the inventor of this blow 
 upon accumulation of Capital I do not know. But 
 of all extravagancies of Socialism — and there are 
 many — I know of no one so palpably aburd. The 
 Capital invested by the Capitalist or Capitalists is 
 the mainspring of the clock. The labour of many 
 hands is required to keep it going ; going, not 
 " wound up." Well, says the Socialist, these men 
 contribute their labour. No doubt they do, but 
 then they are paid for it on their own terms. They 
 have not contributed a farthing towards the capital.
 
 56 
 
 They are the face of the clock and the hands : they 
 are no part of the mainspring. Where, then, is 
 their title to share in the profits ? It is indeed well 
 if the Capitalist find himself enabled to add with- 
 out injury to the Capital any amount, such as he 
 may judo^e to be good for him to give, among those 
 who work for him. But this is almsgiving, not pay- 
 ment of debt. The debt has been paid already. 
 
 What other still further demand upon the Capital- 
 ist may be projected, I do not yet know. But I do 
 know this, that the present demands, demands as 
 of right, upon the Capitalist, are to the common 
 sense of men as ridiculous as they are damaging. 
 Common sense is by no means the all-prevailing 
 helper that it has been in England. Fearing, or if 
 you like better to call it, pleasing the people, which 
 is the same thing, is fast taking its place, as senti- 
 mentalism is taking the place of common sense, I 
 go back to my text. It is the national spirit of the 
 Eno-lishman combined with the Capital of the 
 Englishman which has made and kept England's 
 Empire. If men want to ruin England's Empire, 
 as many appear to be busily concerned in, let them 
 go on with their " Strike," their interference with 
 other men's labour, their endeavour to intimidate 
 those who see no good cause for taking part with 
 them. Their listening to the orator who makes 
 money or power out of their need ; and in the end 
 let them betake themselves to extort what is not 
 their own and never can be, a share of the produce 
 of a machine to the creation and repair of which 
 they have not contributed one farthing. Let 
 English workmen do this to their own hurt and
 
 57 
 
 their country's weakness. If they would pause a 
 little to look a little, only a little, further into the 
 truth and prospects of what they are about, they 
 would learn to look upon w^orks closed, enterprises 
 abandoned, speculations ruined, Capital withdrawn, — 
 gone away from the old island home. And why all 
 this ? Because Englishmen are being taught by those 
 whose interest is so to teach them, that a workman 
 is a slave, unless he is also master ; and can order 
 as he likes what is to be done with the Capital he 
 has had nothing to do with creating, and which is 
 not his to touch. 
 
 I have said some words about Socialism. So- 
 cialism is in many mouths in our time ; is assuming 
 an extravagant character ; and wants analysing a 
 little. It proceeds with other things upon impulse, 
 much more than upon authority, or even reason. 
 It is one of those matters upon which men and 
 women have "views." Now "views," either upon 
 Religion, or upon first principles of Society, as 
 ordained of God, are dangerous, and very pre- 
 sumptuous, things. The " view " of the Socialist 
 proper, in respect of means of living, is that it would 
 be better if all men had the same amount of means 
 of living. Now this view oversets itself — for one 
 man may have only himself to care and provide 
 for ; his next door neighbour may have a wife and 
 a dozen children. But there is a more cogent 
 answer to the proposal. The whole course of the 
 language of the Bible declares the poor to be a 
 primary part of His Providence. Deut. xv. ii, 
 I Sam. ii. 7. And surely it requires no argument 
 to show to the common understanding power of
 
 man how much better it is that it should be so, 
 even if God had not declared it to be part of His 
 Providence. 
 
 But, to Q-o a litde further into the matter, there 
 are fallacies which lie at the root of the Socialist 
 theory. 
 
 It is not only means of life, but it is station in 
 life which are part of the Providence of God. 
 Means are either inherited or acquired. So is 
 station. The means in some cases^ create the sta- 
 tion — in others support and maintain it. Now no 
 man can divest himself of his station, even though 
 he give up all care for the discharge of the natural 
 duties of it. How, then, may he divest himself 
 of the means appointed of God for the discharge 
 of the natural duties of it. What we call " a Gen- 
 tleman " would remain a gentleman still, though he 
 were to give away all the means of maintaining the 
 position and the name. But as he cannot give 
 away his station, so neither ought he to give away 
 what has been given him to maintain it. To bring 
 up a family in the comfort and luxury which are 
 inseparable, however carefully guarded against in 
 respect of excess, and to leave them perhaps 
 late in life to begin a different kind of life, does 
 certainly appear difficult to justify. I am supposing 
 a case in which family possessions are alienated 
 and applied to some greaft public purpose. Alms- 
 giving, one of the three great duties enjoined by 
 our Lord, Almsgiving to any extent not impairing 
 the resources of Capital is quite another thing. 
 
 There is one more consideration before I leave this
 
 59 
 
 matter. The respect due to higher station should 
 never be interfered with by famih'arity of manner 
 not consistent with the relative position of the two 
 parties. As much kindness always as can be, but 
 no levelling as no condescension. The poor them- 
 selves are the truest and best teachers in this par- 
 ticular. They love and they respect in a manner 
 very admirable, being perfectly natural, and accord- 
 ing to the innate tendencies of their position, the 
 Christian Gentleman. They are quite at their ease 
 with him, but they do not lose the feeling that the 
 two positions are not one and the same. They are 
 glad to have it as it is. The opposite of it is not 
 natural to them ; and answers no good purpose. 
 
 Again, the project of dividing a property into so 
 many shares of each the same amount, which is one 
 of the theories of Socialism, does not require more 
 than twenty-four hours to expose its futility. If it 
 were carried out on a Monday, the Monday follow- 
 ing would find it broken down. The whole number 
 of shares would be much smaller, and a good many 
 would have not much left. A man cannot say 
 I am going to put an end to the poverty of this 
 place. He cannot alter the rule of a Higher Hand 
 — " The poor shall never cease out of the land." It 
 would be a most unhappy thing for the rich if they 
 did cease. 
 
 Old England, among her many blessings and 
 gifts, has taken care to her utmost that no one 
 of the poor should starve. That no one should 
 perish for want of food and shelter. Whether it 
 be just or reasonable that the cost of maintaining 
 this rule should fall only upon those who possess
 
 6o 
 
 what is called " real property," i.e. house and land, 
 is another question. 
 
 In p. 7 I have stated briefly why, in May, 1892, 
 I withdrew myself from membership of " Church 
 Union " after 47 years of Membership. I state here 
 the facts connected with that withdrawal not in 
 their detail, which would only be cumbersome, but 
 in their substance. It is my last word in the 
 matter. I make no reply to any communication 
 upon it private or public. 
 
 I am compelled to say once more that the issue 
 as respects myself has been of deep private regret ; 
 but of very large public relief. 
 
 In the autumn of 1889 I had come to the con- 
 clusion — after considering very carefully the ante- 
 cedents and consequents, and the actual then posi- 
 tion of " The English Church Union," founded in 
 1859 on the same principles as the original Church 
 Union — the Bristol Union — had been founded and 
 administered, and had acted upon in and after 1845, 
 — that the time was come when it had become 
 necessary that the English Church Union should 
 reaffirm, under the circumstances of the Lincoln 
 and other cases, its own precise position. 
 
 Accordingly, Nov. 26, 1889, I moved in Council 
 for Committee to consider about such reaffirmation. 
 The Committee was given me nem. con. 
 
 The book "Lux Mundi," Ed. i, the organ of 
 The New Criticism, had just been published. It 
 was not possible for me to omit reference to it. 
 If I had done so I should have been false to all my 
 antecedents as a member of " Church Union." Ac-
 
 6r 
 
 cordingly In my Draft Report laid before Committee, 
 Jan. 7, 1890, I referred to it. After the Draft had 
 been read to the Committee, discussion arose 
 upon Report to be presented to President and 
 Council. 
 
 There was no question raised in the course of 
 that discussion about the portion of the Draft 
 Report referring to the " New Criticism," and the 
 discussion closed with the passing of the Resolu- 
 tion following, moved by the Warden of Keble, 
 seconded by Sir Walter Phillimore : — 
 
 " That the Committee, without discussing in 
 " detail the Draft Report of the Archdeacon — which 
 " in its general tenour they consider very valuable — 
 " recommend it to the Council, with certain altera- 
 " tions which the Archdeacon has adopted on their 
 " sup"Q:estion ; and would suo:2:est that the Draft be 
 " submitted to the various Branches and District 
 " Unions, with a view to the consideration of it in 
 " respect of its general tenour, and report thereon 
 " to the Council." Carried iieni. con. I was then 
 left by Committee with three other members of it 
 to prepare Draft Report as amended for Council. 
 
 It seemed to me then that, looking to the especial 
 character of that paragraph of the Report which 
 included the reference to the " New Criticism," it 
 would be safest, though no objection had been taken 
 to it in Committee, to take the sense of my three 
 coadjutors as to whether it was their wish, as it was 
 mine, that it should stand as I had written it. They 
 every one of them said, " by all means let it stand." 
 
 The Report so revised was laid before Council. 
 The President was absent. It was transmitted to
 
 62 
 
 him with the unanimous Resolution of the Com- 
 mittee. 
 
 As Chairman of the Committee and Senior Vice- 
 President I heard no more of the Report from 
 President or Council. I have no knowledge of any 
 action having been taken upon it as recommended 
 by the Committee. It became a dead letter, and 
 was laid upon the shelf, where I suppose it may be 
 lying still, if it exist as a document anywhere but in 
 the shape of the one copy lying before me as I 
 write. For two years and a half I did what I could 
 to bring it under consideration, but without effect. 
 In June, 1891, I moved in Council upon it. Debate 
 was adjourned. In May, 1892, I moved again in 
 special Council upon the substance of that portion 
 of it which referred to the New Criticism; was 
 met by an evasive motion supported by the Presi- 
 dent ; a motion even less worthy of the occasion 
 than " The previous question." Nothing remained 
 to me but to withdraw from membership ; which 
 I did within twenty-four hours after the vote. 
 
 I repeat that for the manner in which the Report 
 of the Committee of which I was Chairman ; and 
 the cause in hand had been dealt with by Presi- 
 dent and Council, more particularly by the Presi- 
 dent ; and for the manner in which the general 
 body of the Union had been dealt with through- 
 out this matter, there is and must remain ground for 
 painful regret : more than this, for distrust of the ad- 
 ministration of the Eno^lish Church Union and of its 
 
 o 
 
 faithfulness to the Church of England. To myself 
 the issue has been one of great public relief. I 
 have escaped from being committed by the action
 
 63 
 
 of a voluntary Body organizing itself for defence 
 of the Doctrine and Discipline of the Church of 
 England ''against all attacks by Ratw7ialism ;" but, 
 as I have said above, p. 6, refusing even to express 
 so much as one word of regret for an assault upon 
 the integrity of "Holy Scripture," and the Divine 
 knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ, as declared 
 by Him when upon earth, and written for all time 
 in His Gospel. 
 
 I allow myself to refer to some particulars in- 
 timately connected with my own calling in life 
 which appear to me to interfere injuriously with 
 the power arid therein the usefulness of the Church 
 of England. I have been Priest of the Church of 
 England sixty years. I have been intimately con- 
 cerned with all the action of the Civil Power which 
 cannot be regarded as subsidiary to the Church, 
 and in some chief particulars has been openly hos- 
 tile to it. I have never known for myself, nor have 
 been able to understand in others, the thought of 
 taking refuge in any other Communion. So much 
 by way of excuse for what to many may seem to 
 savour of presumption. 
 
 First then for Ritual. I contrast what I may 
 call tightness about Ritual with comparative loose- 
 ness ; or if that be too severe a term let me sub- 
 stitute what is not now, but was thirty-four years 
 ago, uncertainty about the Doctrine of the Real 
 Presence, and the primary and governing position 
 of The Doctrine as evidenced by the practice of 
 the Church of England.
 
 64 
 
 Let me instance what I mean by my own case. 
 It is now thirty-four years since a suit against 
 myself in the matter of the Real Presence broke 
 down in the Court of Arches upon the first point of 
 the legal position, as ruled by the pro- Diocesan Court 
 at Bath, presided over by the then Archbishop of 
 the Province. The points of law had been sum- 
 marily disposed of by the Assessor of the Arch- 
 bishop, Dr. Lushington, in order to arrive at what 
 were called "the merits" of the case. With respect 
 to those merits, an incident occurred, too ludicrous 
 to repeat here, before the Court proceeded to de- 
 liver judgment against me. It shewed conclusively 
 how little was known of the true history of the 
 Doctrine of the Real Presence as the Doctrine of 
 the Church of England. Indeed I have best reason 
 to believe that at that time there was even no 
 lawyer ecclesiastical, except my dear brother-in- 
 law, the late Sir Robert Phillimore, who knew 
 anything about it. 
 
 The Court of Arches having decided in my 
 favour upon the first point of law, the judicial Com- 
 mittee of Privy Council confirmed the decision : and 
 what I can call by no other than the farces of Com- 
 mission at Clevedon, and trial at Bath, came in 
 1858 to their closing scene after four years and one 
 month of playing. 
 
 But, all this notwithstanding, and all the entire 
 concurrence with myself of chief names at that time 
 all powerful in the revival of the Faith of the 
 Church of England, I have to confess that, having 
 had daily Mattins and Evensong in the Church of 
 E. Brent since 1845, it was not till 1871 that I
 
 65 
 
 began the Daily Eucharist in the Church of E. 
 Brent. Even now, after an interval of thirty-four 
 years, there are not many instances of the Daily 
 Eucharist in the Diocese of Bath and Wells. 
 
 On the other hand there is, in conjunction with 
 Celebration a large amount of Ritual. I cannot 
 hesitate then to say that Ritual is commanding 
 much attention and observance, when that of which 
 it is primarily and principally the exponent and 
 the teacher, remains not where it was, but, com- 
 paratively speaking, much as it was. 
 
 The cry of High Churchmen is mainly for 
 Ritual — for the outward thing. The true and 
 lawful exponent doubtless of Worship and Adora- 
 tion of The Presence, but not the life and the 
 power of It. The Church of England in its 
 true action has yet to attain to this ; and no 
 amount of Ritual can come into its place, nay rather 
 let me say it, and hope that I say it without offence, 
 that in proportion as Ritual Is, comparatively, mag- 
 nified in its outward form and aspect, it will re- 
 main distasteful to the oreneral mind of the 
 English People. A thing in Religion must be real 
 and substantial, and continually recalled to its es- 
 sence and power, to command the respect, observ- 
 ance, love of the English mind, lest it be set down 
 to nothing more than vE^stheticism ; and this more 
 especially in these our days, when Doctrine is being 
 dealt with within the Church not as the unchange- 
 able Basis of all our hope committed once for all to 
 the Church to maintain, defend, deliver to all men, 
 but as one of the things called "views;" which 
 every man is at liberty to take for himself; to rest 
 
 F
 
 66 
 
 upon for himself, and to commend to others as the 
 one thing needful to the true understanding and 
 grasp of the Will and the Purpose of the Provi- 
 dence of God. 
 
 Next for Preaching. It is and always must be 
 the few who are eloquent preachers. But eloquence 
 in a preacher is the thing desiderated. It is not 
 so much instruction ; that is very commonly sup- 
 posed to be not needed ; but the being what is 
 called "interested." Give the eloquence, or what 
 is taken for it, and the congregation go away : some 
 agree, some do not : all say "a fine sermon." Now 
 what is wanted in a Sermon is somethings to make 
 a hearer consider his ways, and repent and amend 
 his ways. Christians don't go to Church to be 
 " amused " or " interested ; " they go to Church to 
 be reminded of repentance, faith, confession of sins, 
 amendment : of prayer and praise, of Worship 
 and Adoration ; and there is no sermon, however 
 simple, and not " striking," out of which every one 
 of us may not draw much for his own and others' 
 good. 
 
 To this end, considering all the circumstances 
 of the case, a Sermon should be short ; more es- 
 pecially in the morning, when it is part of " The 
 Order of the Administration of the Lord's Supper 
 or Holy Communion." My rule is ten minutes. 
 I find that it requires all care not to exceed them. 
 But it can be done, and I believe profitably done. 
 From twenty to twenty-five minutes is quite enough 
 in the evening. But, after all, say what one can, 
 the preaching is become a primary consideration — 
 one, I may observe, not possible to be commanded
 
 67 
 
 in the great majority of cases, nor desirable, unless 
 it be directed to the amendment of the Preacher 
 himself and those who hear him. 
 
 Then, in order to reach the Sermon what happens ? 
 There may be a good deal of music and singing. 
 In my Church we have none of either till we come 
 to the Celebration. 
 
 There is also what I call one of the worst faults 
 a Deacon or Priest of the Church of Eneland can 
 have, as part of the discharge of his " duty ;" a rapid 
 and hurried saying of the Order of Common Prayer 
 — and what is even worse, a hasty reading of the 
 Lessons — that is of God's Lessons to His People 
 in Christ. Those who do not consider that this 
 is the true account of " The Lessons," though the 
 name itself one would have thought might have 
 taught them better, lose for themselves and the 
 congregation what nothing can replace. 
 
 But, it is said, people dorit like long praying. 
 Men say many foolish things ; but this is more than 
 foolish. Is the rule of true Religion what men 
 like? Is a Service of Prayer to be measured out 
 to meet the likings of men — accommodated to their 
 tastes ? Well, the Service of God in Christ is all 
 the other way. It is a perpetual demand upon 
 men's self-denial, upon their choice of what they do 
 not like. "If any man will come after Me let him 
 deny himself," saith our Lord. Certainly there are 
 limits to Divine Service, as there are limits to the 
 day itself, but those limits are not to be filled with 
 what men like, but with the overcoming, by grace 
 given of that " infection of their nature " which 
 still remains in them though they be redeemed 
 
 F 2
 
 68 
 
 and regenerate in and by Holy Baptism. There 
 is no one of us, whatever be our order and condi- 
 tion, who will not, after coming home from Church, 
 have more or less to find fault with his or her 
 praying and observance in Church, and feel how 
 much is required yet, under the mercy of God the 
 Father, for the sake of Christ the Son, by the Spirit, 
 in order to the truer keeping of the Words of 
 Christ — " If any man will come after Me, let him 
 deny himself, and take up his cross daily and follow 
 Me." 
 
 From 1845 to 1854 I was Examining Chaplain 
 to the then Bishop of Bath and Wells. I resigned 
 the Chaplaincy when I had to fight the fight of the 
 Real Presence. Not at all because my very dear 
 old friend Bishop Bagot wished me to resign ; nor 
 because he did not hold the Doctrine which he did 
 hold as I did, but because I wished to " fight for 
 my own hand;" because I wanted to keep myself 
 clear to fight my own battle. 
 
 My experience as Examining Chaplain had shewn 
 me that the main defect of such qualification for 
 Holy Orders as examination could bring to light lay 
 in the lack of knowledge of the Bible and the 
 Prayer-book. Candidates could, more or less, an- 
 swer questions upon the contents of certain books 
 which they were expected to have ^ studied and 
 digested ; but as a rule, they were by no means 
 sufficiently conversant with the Bible itself and the 
 Prayer-book. 
 
 And if I had remained Examining Chaplain,
 
 69 
 
 I had made up my mind to propose to the Bishop 
 that the Deacon's examination should be confined 
 to these ; and renewed upon these as seemed best to 
 the Examining Chaplain when they came for their 
 Priest's Orders ; together with such other sources 
 of instruction and enquiry as in each case the 
 Examining Chaplain should judge to be best suited 
 from what he had gathered from the Deacon's 
 examination. 
 
 This plan would, I am persuaded, have issued in 
 that closer and truer knowledge of the Bible as 
 being delivered by the Church, the one source of all 
 authority, and in the Prayer-book as embodying 
 that authority ; and would have resulted in simpler, 
 plainer, undoubting, unquestioning sermons and 
 other instructions to the people. 
 
 For the great effort of a good many years to 
 promote temperance in drinking intoxicating drinks, 
 I have been unable to conceal the conclusion I 
 arrived at early in the history of the effort, that it 
 did not proceed upon a true and sound basis. 
 
 First — the particular temperance it was proposed 
 to promote should have been clearly stated. Tem- 
 perance is applicable to the control of every kind 
 of mental and bodily excess. But let it be granted 
 that there could be no difficulty in understanding 
 which kind it was proposed to meet, it would still 
 have been better to have carefully defined its 
 meaning. 
 
 Then comes the manner of so defininof. After 
 the manner of most impulses not regulated by the
 
 70 
 
 rule of Religion and Reason combined, but after 
 the manner of a clock of which the pendulum is 
 always swinging to its full extent, and the clock 
 itself never suffered to run down, the point insisted 
 upon from the first was total abstinence ; and not 
 this only, but every one declining to comply with it 
 stigmatized as a traitor to the cause. 
 
 Now the rule of Holy Scripture and of the obedi- 
 ence of reason in such matters as this is that " every 
 " creature of God is good, and to be received with 
 *' thanksgiving, for it is sanctified by the Word of 
 " God and Prayer." 
 
 The disregard of this rule, and consequent ex- 
 travagance of demand invading every dictate of the 
 common sense of the English mind, even in a time 
 when common sense would appear to have with- 
 drawn into the recesses of the scene of human life 
 amongst us, and to have yielded up the foreground of 
 the stage to sentimentalism, has had an effect very 
 adverse to the success of its propounders — and 
 though it may be true that public drunkenness is 
 not so often forced upon the eye, yet this may be 
 ascribed to other causes ; and there may be as much 
 over - drinking going on as before — and what is 
 worse still, there may be more drinking at home, 
 and among women, than before. 
 
 Upon the whole I see no reason to depart now 
 from the conclusion with which I began, that the 
 attempt to improve our condition would not have the 
 success it might have had if based upon the more 
 moderate ground of abstinence from all drinking 
 of spirituous drinks at any time except at meals — 
 and that for the labouring classes, who want re-
 
 freshment at other times beside their meals, means 
 had been proposed to regulate and supply this 
 want. 
 
 I proceed to notice briefly other signs of the time 
 which appear to me very disturbing of the hope 
 of continuance of prosperity and even of security. 
 
 First I name the diminishing love of work as 
 work — a thing of late years creeping fast over 
 England. And this, coupled with the requirement 
 of the same wages for short time as for the longer 
 time. 
 
 Second, the passion for amusement and relaxation 
 prevailing day by day. 
 
 Third, the growing to excess through many years 
 of refusal of deference to Authority, qua Authority ; 
 in other words the lack of implicit submission to 
 Authority without demanding the reason for it. 
 
 I go now to what I call ** The Higher Educa- 
 tion." The English language is about to be be- 
 trayed into having this term perverted and stamped 
 for use as denoting the inroad upon the Religion 
 of Christ embodied in the interminable theories, 
 and licence of speculation upon the Mysteries of 
 God which is the sum and substance of " The 
 New Criticism." 
 
 Now the Christian man and woman have to live 
 in their little time here two lives — one life is that 
 of being educated by their parents and others first 
 in the keeping of the vows of their Baptism. Second, 
 of their continuing this education of themselves by
 
 72 
 
 themselves till death comes. Nos nosmd semper et 
 cotitimie cdticamus. 
 
 We in England, the other peoples of Europe, and 
 as time goes on it may be of other parts of the 
 world, have been and are favoured with two especial 
 assistances to the mental power in respect of sharp- 
 ening and smoothing its edge, making it cut deep 
 and clean. These two are the scholarly acquire- 
 ments of the Greek and the Latin languages. 
 There is no grindstone for the mind like the Greek, 
 and no whetstone like the Latin. The one cuts, 
 the other polishes. I do not mean that both have 
 not each their share of these attributes. I am only 
 specifying what may be assigned generally as the most 
 remarkable feature and excellence of each of them. 
 If you want power and condensation of thought 
 there is the Greek. If terseness and sweetness 
 there is the Latin. Latin is especially what Greek 
 is not, the language of Epitaphs. Greek is es- 
 pecially what Latin is not, the language of Philo- 
 sophy. It seems to admit of a doubt whether 
 Latin be not the most powerful for oratory. In the 
 art of letter-writing it is inimitable. To speak 
 generally, the one is the exponent of the vigour and 
 the power of language ; the other of its taste and 
 grace. 
 
 I have said a word about Epitaphs. It may be 
 worth mentioning that the most beautiful Epitaph 
 that I know is that upon Shenstone, written by an 
 Englishman in Latin : Eheu ! quanto minus est cum 
 ccBteris versari qtiam tui memiuisse. 
 
 In our time all that I have claimed for Greek and
 
 Latin in the matter of the earlier part of Education 
 for that class of mankind which God has made 
 capable of employing them ; and which, I may con- 
 clude, will continue to exist in its native power, in 
 the face of all the downward tendencies of the time, 
 because it is an ordinance of God ; unless it betray 
 itself to its blotting out of itself from the map of 
 England's Society—is called into question. Other 
 ways of attempting to educate the mind and making 
 it continue to educate itself are preferred; and a 
 new curriculum adopted. 
 
 Now it appears to be forgotten or overlooked ; 
 though it be an essential in this question to a 
 Christian man, that the language of Theology, the 
 apxLT€KT0VLKr] (j)p6vr]aLs, is mainly, if not altogether, 
 Greek and Latin. Possibly those who desire to 
 get rid of both may not feel that there is any 
 cogency in this fact. But, as I may not agree with 
 them, I will take leave to state it for consideration. 
 
 Meantime it is very comforting to see the way 
 m which the English woman is welcoming her 
 public access to the treasures of old time, and win- 
 ning for her own all their beauty and their power. 
 
 In comparing ourselves with earlier ages of the 
 world there are two points which it is difficult to 
 leave untouched. 
 
 ^ One is that the world has reached long ago the 
 highest point in the highest departments of intel- 
 lectual power. What is true of the world generally 
 IS probably true of particular portions of it. There 
 are words of Bacon bearing upon this point. He
 
 74 
 
 says, " In the youth of a state arms doflotirish : in 
 " the middle age of a state letters: arid then both 
 *' of them together for a time: in the declining 
 ** age of a state Mechanical Arts and Merchan- 
 " dizey 
 
 Now surely it is true of our world that the highest 
 excellencies of product of the intellectual power 
 belong to time long past. This is true of language, 
 of philosophy, of oratory, of poetry, of sculpture, of 
 painting, of architecture. After ages compete, they 
 do not surpass ; hardly equal. Even in respect 
 of mechanical art there are marvels of the old 
 world's history which seem to escape from any 
 reasonable account of them. And though it be 
 humbling it may not be the less true for that, that 
 we are living in the declining age of this world, 
 though we be flattering our pride that we have 
 attained, and have yet to attain to a still greater 
 height than any we have yet known. 
 
 The other point is the very curious one that 
 words which in older languages have borne and 
 conveyed the highest meaning have come in our 
 own time to be words of depreciation and something 
 like contempt. 
 
 I will take three instances. There are others, 
 but these will suffice to illustrate my meaning. 
 
 I. The word in the Greek heL(jihai\xovLa — fear of 
 and reverence for the Divine Nature. 
 
 In the Latin, ' Superstitio,' the fear and the rever- 
 ence disappear ; but the idea of something upon 
 which to rely, outside of and more to be depended 
 upon than ourselves, remains — something upon which 
 we can stand rather than ourselves — u?ia Superstitio
 
 75 
 
 Stiperis qu(s reddita Divis''—\\\^ only oath which 
 binds the Gods. Then we come to the English 
 use of the Latin word. The EngHsh use is one 
 of contumely and abuse as denoting something 
 beneath mans intellect to trouble itself with. 
 
 2. In like manner 'Ej^Oovcriaa/xoy. Enthusiasmus 
 is not found in Latin ; Entheus is. The indwelling 
 of the Divine. In English, Enthusiam is very 
 commonly used to denote a disposition of mind not 
 to be relied upon ; of little use for the purposes of 
 life, something not according to the true test of 
 "the reasoning power." 
 
 3.^ Again Idicorrjf — a private citizen — a man con- 
 cerning himself with his own more than with public 
 affairs. Let us hear Horace's account of the man :— 
 
 Beatus ille, qui procul negotiis, 
 
 Ut prisca gens mortalium, 
 Paterna rura bobus exercet suis, 
 
 Solutus omni foenore. 
 
 Happy man who does not concern himself with 
 public affairs ; who works land ; his father's before 
 him, with his own team ; and has no interest to pay 
 for borrowed money. 
 
 In English IdicoTi]?, an Idiot. 
 
 Other instances will suggest themselves— these 
 are enough for my present purpose. 
 
 Many years ago I received from my dear friend, 
 Francis Leighton, late Warden of All Souls, a re- 
 markable illustration of the pre-eminence of Greek 
 and Latin Scholarship in preparing and assisting the 
 mental power in the acquisition of other knowled'o-e 
 ' ^neid xii. 817. . --
 
 76 
 
 What he told me was this. That upon the 
 passing of the Oxford " Reform " Bill, and the 
 applying of certain of the All Souls Fellowships to 
 the special purposes of this and that branch of 
 knowledge, the College had applied itself — he did 
 not say enthusiastically, but — bona fide throughout, 
 to carry out the purposes of the Act. 
 
 That this had been strictly the practise for the 
 thirteen years succeeding the coming into operation 
 of the Act. 
 
 That there had been no instance in which the 
 classman in Greek and Latin, having begun to 
 apply himself, upon notice given by the College, to 
 arrive at the particular knowledge required for 
 success in the particular candidature, had not won 
 the Fellowship over the head of the man of no 
 particular Greek or Latin Scholarship, but of honour 
 gained in the School of that Department, to the 
 encouragement of which the Fellowship had to be 
 applied. The mental machine was in the one case 
 in much better order for the discharge of its office 
 than in the other. In other words, there was all 
 the difference between the training how to learn and 
 the learning without that training. 
 
 I was telling this story in London to a friend. 
 He said, Well, it is a curious coincidence that being 
 at Oxford last week with the present Warden of 
 All Souls, he told me^ in all its substance, the same 
 thing. 
 
 *' The difficulties of Holy Scripture" are words 
 in very common use.
 
 n 
 
 Now there are no dijfindties in Holy Scripture. 
 There are " Mysteries " in great abundance — every 
 page presents or implies one or more. But a mys- 
 tery is not a difficulty ; and a difficulty is not 
 a mystery. Mysteries are things unapproachable 
 and unfathomable by human reason. Things which 
 we are told " the angels desire to look into." 
 *' Difficulties " are things which may be overcome, 
 by either physical or intellectual power. 
 
 " Holy Scripture " reveals the fact of Mystery, 
 and delivers it as such by the Spirit to the Church ; 
 that the Church, the Witness and Keeper of Holy 
 Writ may, in her turn and discharge of her office, 
 deliver, maintain, defend the fact of Mystery. But 
 the Church nowhere attempts to expound the Mys- 
 tery. The Church knows very well that she has 
 no Corporate power, any more than the individual 
 man has individual power, to expound and unfold 
 a Mystery of God. The Church has t\\&fact of the 
 Mystery committed to it by the Spirit to deliver 
 for all time. The Church has delivered it ; will 
 continue to deliver it unto the end. What power 
 of apprehending Mystery may be in store for the 
 soul saved is a "secret thing" of God. The words 
 of Holy Scripture are indeed full of mighty pro- 
 mises to the saved in this particular. But here we 
 can only stand and wait in the simplicity of faith ; 
 as little children, waiting till the father shows his 
 face. 
 
 Men and Women, Brothers and Sisters, of the 
 Church of England, suffer an old man to say that
 
 78 
 
 there is for every one of us one Holy Bible, the 
 Book of God : one Book of Common Prayer and 
 Administration of the Sacraments. For the Holy 
 Bible, God has spoken therein, by the Spirit to 
 the Church Catholic, the undivided Church. The 
 Church Catholic, the undivided Church, has de- 
 livered the Truth of God to man for all time, 
 from the time of the delivery to the end of time, 
 with all its Mysteries, all its Commandments, 
 all its Teaching, all its Warning, Comfort, Peace, 
 Hope. It is of man's imperfectness that the 
 oneness and the perfectness of the Gift of God are 
 more or less marred by man's touch ; and so it is 
 that, with one and the same Bible, and one and the 
 same " Book of Common Prayer and Administration 
 of the Sacraments," there have been and are dif- 
 ferences within the Church of England, out of 
 which it may not be allowed to us, or to our 
 children, to see the way. 
 
 Well, if these differences are to abide, let us bow 
 ourselves down, and confess that if we had served 
 and worshipped God more truly, we might, if it 
 seemed good to Him, have done some little thing to 
 compose and heal them. 
 
 And, in all our "conversation" with those who 
 are not of the same mind with ourselves, let us re- 
 member, and recall that there is shewn unto us still 
 "a more excellent way:" a way greater even than 
 the way of "Faith" and "Hope:" the way of 
 ♦* Charity," that " thinketh no evil." 
 
 Let us pray one with another, one for another, 
 that we may walk in " the more excellent way." 
 And that there be no manner of doubt or question
 
 79 
 
 upon what ground it is that we take our stand in 
 seeking so to v/alk, let us be taught of God, as His^ 
 '• Httle children," in answer to our daily Prayer, to 
 hold fast in all its own integrity, in all its oneness 
 and perfectness for the uses for which it has been 
 given unto us through the Church Catholic, the 
 undivided Church — The Holy Bible ; the Word of 
 God. Let it be our common and conjoint answer 
 to every " invention " of man's reasoning power, 
 We may not touch the Word of God — lest we lose 
 the Light which guides us on our way to Heaven. 
 
 One thing is too plain, upon the face of both 
 " Holy Bible" and *' Book of Common Prayer and 
 Administration of the Sacraments," to admit of 
 any " reasoning " upon it. 
 
 That one thing is — 
 
 That the Book of God, of Divine Authority 
 throughout; the Book of man, throughout all its 
 own order and administration, in its humble and 
 thankful acceptance of the Book of God as de- 
 livered to the Church by The Spirit, are the wit- 
 nesses of the Church of England against the 
 Delusion of the New Criticism. 
 
 I am writing in Advent-tide. I read in the Book 
 of Common Prayer and Administration of the Sacra- 
 ments, the guide of every member of the Church 
 of England, the words of S. Paul, Rom. xv. 4, 
 " that we through patience, and comfort of the Scrip- 
 tures might have hope." " The Scriptures " here 
 of necessity mean " The Old Scriptures," of which 
 he writes to his dearly beloved son, 2 Tim. iii. 14, 15 : 
 " But continue thou in the things which thou hast
 
 So 
 
 " learned and hast been assured of, knowing of 
 " whom thou hast learned them ; and that from 
 '* a child thou hast known the Holy Scriptures, 
 " which are able to make thee wise unto salvation, 
 " through faith which is in Christ Jesus." 
 
 We have here the Old Scriptures and the New 
 Scriptures so linked together, that no man can lay 
 the hand of doubt upon any portion of the one 
 without laying it on the other also. 
 
 There is, further still, 2 Tim. i. 5, a very pre- 
 cious testimony to the gift given to the believing 
 mother and to her mother also, of Grace to bring up 
 the child in "unfeicrned faith." 
 
 " When I call to remembrance the unfeigned 
 ** faith that is in thee, which dwelt first in thy 
 " grandmother Lois, and thy mother Eunice ; and 
 *' I am persuaded that in thee also." 
 
 I ask here w'hether it can be to sin ao^ainst 
 Charity, which S. Paul exalts above Faith and 
 Hope, to say with him, Rom. xvl. 17, "Now 
 " I beseech you, brethren, mark them which cause 
 *' divisions and offences contrary to the Doctrine 
 " which ye have learned ; and avoid them." 
 
 I am constrained to say further, that the Idolatry 
 of Reason-Worship in the room of the simple and 
 childlike acceptance of, and obedience to, " Holy 
 Scripture," committed by the Spirit to the Church 
 Catholic to deliver unto the end, is the seed out 
 of which have come all the heresies and schisms 
 which have distorted and defaced the Church of 
 Christ. 
 
 A more cruel thing can never be done by
 
 one Englishman to another than that which has 
 been, and is being done day by day by " The 
 New Criticism." It is shaking and pulling out one 
 stone after another of the one foundation of peace, 
 comfort, hope ; of the consolation given of God 
 to all sorts and conditions of men, in all the 
 troubles, hopes, pains, death of this life of three- 
 score years and ten. Their hope, their comfort, 
 their peace have rested upon " Holy Scripture," 
 as revealing to man, according to the Will of God, 
 all that is knoivn of the relations between man and 
 the God of love and mercy — all the foundation of 
 the Religion of Christ — the Book in which are 
 enshrined all the Mysteries of God, all His Warn- 
 ings, all His Promises, in one word, all His Love. 
 
 The learned of the world are led, under the 
 temptation of " the pride of life " to think that they 
 have something of their own to look to side by side 
 zuith ''Holy Sc7'iptu7'e." And not only this, but 
 something by which Holy Scripture is to be judged. 
 It would be waste of time to argue in such a case. 
 Men who start from opposite poles of thought 
 cannot argue. Holy Scripture states and delivers. 
 It does not argue about what it states and de- 
 livers. The man who believes that every word of 
 " Holy Scripture " comes from God cannot argue 
 with the man who does not. To teach what 
 has been delivered to you by the Church to teach 
 is one thing ; to debate about whether you will 
 teach it or reject it, for others as for yourself, 
 is another thing. 
 
 There is a fallacy pervading the pages of the 
 " New Criticism " which requires special notice, 
 
 G
 
 82 
 
 next in order to the cardinal fallacy of the " im- 
 perfect knowledge " of our Lord and Saviour Jesus 
 Christ ; because it partakes of and displays the 
 unbounded licence of thought and extravagance 
 of assumption of that "Criticism." 
 
 Every " literature " is open to criticism 
 
 upon its Authority. 
 The Holy Bible is a literature. 
 The Holy Bible is open to criticism upon 
 its Authority. 
 No doubt the Holy Bible is a literature. 
 But it is tJie one only Divine Literature. It 
 is thro7igJiont " Revelation." Blessed be God 
 who has not left it to man to say what parts 
 of It are " Revelation," and what are not 
 " Revelation." 
 
 The Syllogism of 1889 has four terms. 
 Logic must, it seems, be expiring, with other 
 things, in Oxford. 
 
 Possibly the New Critic may say that what is 
 meant is whether the Holy Bible is, or is not, 
 " Revelation." The rejoinder to this is, then 
 you had better have so put it that there might 
 be no mistake about what you mean. 
 
 There is one more thing lying at the root 
 of the " New Criticism." It is, that, 2?i order to 
 believe you mnst first under sta7id. Here is the 
 full development of the conceit of the " Reason- 
 ing Power," as the (3; /rzd7r2 Judge Our Lord 
 says — " If thou canst believe : all things are 
 possible to him that believeth." 
 To believe and to obey because you believe — 
 to help others to believe and to obey, to pray, to
 
 83 
 
 serve, to wait, whether by Worship in all its at- 
 traction, or in all its simplicity : so to preach 
 the Word of God, as, whether it be plain or elo- 
 quent, its issue, as its object, is to lead to more 
 earnestness in confession, repentance, amendment, 
 prayer, thanksgiving, worship, adoration. Is one 
 thing. It has been well said the end of Preaching 
 is Praying. To move men to doubt about " Holy 
 Scripture," the Word of God, is another thing. 
 The one saves In Christ, the other kills. 
 
 Sad and, in all its Sadness, seductive through 
 man's pride in himself, as the New Criticism is, 
 the apathy, the indifference on the one hand, the 
 welcome with which it has been received on the 
 other in England, are much deeper causes of alarm, 
 distress, fear, than the thing itself; which, when 
 weighed In the balance of its own making, that Is 
 when tested by Its own new Logic, Is self-stultifying 
 throughout. It is, comparatively, in its new phase 
 at the close of century XIX., a " new thing ; " both 
 in respect of itself, and of the House in Oxford In 
 which it was born — and England is very like Athens 
 in S. Paul's time ; but with infinitely less excuse. 
 
 For myself, I do not understand whether Mr. 
 Gore, President of the Pusey House, allowed him- 
 self to write his Preface to " Lux Mundl;" to edit 
 and publish the book, Nov., 1889, with, or without 
 the formal cojiairrence oi th.^ Trustees. If without, 
 I do not understand upon what rule of conduct he 
 proceeded : if with, upon what rule of conduct the 
 Trustees proceeded. I submit that contributors to 
 the Pusey House have the right to be told one 
 or other of these two thlnors. 
 
 G 2
 
 84 
 
 There are two points, one of warning, one of 
 thankfulness; points of our inheritance which I may 
 not pass by. First of the warning. 
 
 The duty and the comfort of daily reading and 
 meditation upon some portion of " Holy Scripture." 
 Where there are Mattins and Evensong the portion 
 of Holy Scripture is supplied for those who can 
 be in the Church : Where there are not, it ought 
 to be supplied by those whose necessary occupations 
 admit of it in the evening, in their home. 
 
 I am constrained to believe that the private read- 
 ing of and meditation upon the Prophets by whom 
 " The Holy Ghost spake " is not a common practice : 
 not by any means so common as that upon other 
 parts of the Old Scriptures. 
 
 Now the warning of the Prophets comes to us 
 through its continued and most mournful address 
 to Judah and Israel : " Lamentations and mourning 
 and woe," Ezek. ii. lo. It is, by far, the largest 
 amount of all Prophecy. Denunciation of Idolatry 
 — of all manner of worst sinfulness, and turning 
 away from God ; and this among the one People 
 to whom God had revealed Himself The "lamen- 
 tations, mourning, woe," are summed up in Malachi : 
 more particularly, with reference to the Priesthood 
 of the Jews. 
 
 As we read, the temptation is upon us, by the 
 subtlety of the Tempter, to confine our thoughts 
 to the evil doings of Judah and Israel ; and to 
 thank God that we are not as they were ; much as 
 did the Pharisee. 
 
 But is this the Truth of the case ? Are we not 
 throwing away in our self-satisfaction all the warning
 
 85 
 
 of the Prophets — we the children of the Kingdom; 
 with all the Light of Christ upon us : the warn- 
 ino- that we do not in their substance the same 
 things which are the burden of the message of the 
 Prophets to Judah and to Israel. Are we not 
 in forgetting this, or putting it aside, are we not 
 holding indeed the Old Scriptures in our hand, 
 but not laying them up in our heart ? 
 
 I have said in my Preface, when contrasting the 
 Idolatry of the Heathen and the Jew with the 
 Idolatry of the Christian, that their idol, stock and 
 stone, represented to them a power above their own. 
 That the Idol of the Christian represents nothing 
 but himself, or some other man. His own, or the 
 other's reasoning power ; nothing but man worship- 
 ing man. The Christian has been set free from 
 "stock and stone;" he has put himself, or some 
 other man, in their room, and in their representa- 
 tion. 
 
 S. John has warned us all of this worst danger, 
 " Little children keep yourselves from idols." From 
 the worship of self, or of some other man in the 
 " Vanity " of our mind. 
 
 The conclusion appears to be irresistible — that 
 the Idolatry of the Christian is a worse Idolatry 
 than that of the Heathen and the Jew. Theirs had 
 respect to a power above their own. The Christian 
 goes no higher in his Idolatry than himself or sofne 
 other man. God speaks by His Holy Word. The 
 Christian Idolater takes upon himself to say what is 
 the Holy Word of God, and what is not. He makes 
 himself the Judge Supreme of Holy Scripture. 
 How much therefore of " Holy Scripture " is the
 
 86 
 
 Word of God, and how much is not, awaits the 
 sentence of the Hterary critic of " the New Criti- 
 cism ; " in this and every succeeding generation : 
 leaving " What is Truth " not only not known at 
 the close of the nineteenth century, but in a per- 
 petual flux to the end of time. 
 
 The mass of English People, of all orders and 
 conditions, are being cheated out of their Bible ; 
 and do not appear to trouble themselves much 
 about it. They have themselves in its room. 
 
 Next for the thankfulness. It is in the growth, 
 and the growing continually of the Missionary 
 spirit. 
 
 " The Missionary spirit." What is it ? 
 
 It is the spirit which is of The Spirit. It is 
 the spirit which is taught and guided by The Spirit 
 to " count all things loss for the excellency of the 
 knowledge of Christ Jesus our Lord, and of His 
 commandment," " Go ye into all the world, and 
 preach the Gospel to every creature." To do this 
 at the cost of all things, save one only, and that 
 "the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus 
 our Lord." 
 
 I am little worthy to write words about the Mis- 
 sionary spirit, for I know well that my own part 
 in this gift, with my mind so many years full of 
 fear for our Condition at home, has been little 
 indeed. But the call comes to the ear that has 
 been deaf, and the heart which has comparatively 
 been cold. And there are many very dear and 
 near to me who have laboured and are labouring 
 in England and out of England to help to win
 
 and save souls. I recall with the life of others of 
 mine own people the young life of my dear nephew 
 Edward Denison, son of my brother Edward 
 Denison, Bishop of Salisbury, among the first, if 
 not the first, of the servants of Christ passing 
 from the West into the East of London, to do 
 what he could to win and save souls. The life 
 of my dear nephew James, son of my brother Sir 
 William Denison ; dead this year in Africa ; helping 
 there in Missionary work. The life of my dear 
 nephew Henry Phipps Denison, his elder brother, 
 now twenty years my Curate at East Brent ; full 
 of care for Missionary work. My last words, c. x. 
 p. 374, of "Notes of my Life," 1879, are of him. 
 I repeat the words now, with this addition, and 
 thank God. 
 
 I seem to be able to recall the time when it was 
 little that was said about this field wherein to give 
 up life and what are called its enjoyments for the 
 work of bringing men, women, children, to the 
 knowledge of Christ. All honour to the Non- 
 conformist as to the Churchman who makes It his 
 life ; or enables others to make it their own, in and 
 by, The Spirit of Christ. 
 
 I have endeavoured in the above pages to con- 
 dense the aspect of Political and of Religious Eng- 
 land as it presents itself to me, for the last thirteen 
 years. I find it to be a rapid descent towards 
 Democracy on the one hand; and towards In- 
 difTerentism on the other. 
 
 I had looked forward to the latter of these two
 
 88 
 
 in the concluding Chapters ix., x,, xi. of " Notes 
 of my Life." But I had not thought to have lived 
 to see what have already been the issues ; and, 
 more distinctly still, to foreshadow what these will 
 be to us and our children. 
 
 I speak of" Democracy" here in the true meaning 
 of the word and of what it includes. That meaning 
 is as follows. 
 
 Democracy ' is the right of every male of a given 
 age to contribute by his vote to the election of those 
 who make and administer the law. It includes the 
 free employment of the Mass Meeting. The poisons 
 of Agitation and Misrepresentation. The gross 
 fallacy of " the Strike." The uncontrolled licence 
 of speech. The loss of reverence for GoD-given 
 Station, and its Authority, when diligently and duly 
 employed. It depreciates what is high : it panders 
 to what is low. It is abnormal — self-asserting — 
 not co-operating — dictatorial, not conciliating, not 
 even consultatory — interfering as by right in what 
 is not its own to touch. England under its present 
 administration is going fast towards Democracy. 
 It forgets that a people cannot any more do with- 
 out the Statesman, than the Statesman without 
 the people. The People are many, the Statesmen 
 are few. It forgets that the People of the Church 
 of Christ cannot any more do without Bishop and 
 
 * I am speaking of the term " Democracy" as understood 
 in Europe. In America there is a different and a contrasted 
 use, arising out of special circumstances of the United States. 
 The United States are a confederate Republic ; they are not 
 a Democracy.
 
 89 
 
 Priest than Bishop and Priest can do without the 
 People. The People are many. The Bishop is 
 one. Parishes count by thousands ; Priests one 
 by one. The People by millions ; the Sovereign 
 is One''. 
 
 If a man wants Democracy in England, he wants 
 the biggest Revolution the country has ever seen, 
 or thought of. If he thinks he is going to have 
 it without civil war, he is an unconscious victim 
 to his own folly and his own ignorance. 
 
 For the aspect Political, England has not attained 
 to her "many coloured greatness" under Demo- 
 cracy ; nor do I believe it possible that, under De- 
 mocracy, England will retain it. 
 
 In stating what appears to me to be the Religious 
 aspect of the Church of England at the close of 
 Century XIX. ; how much there is to shrink from, 
 how much to fear from within and from without; 
 it is not possible, and would be most unthankful, not 
 to recognize with heart and mind that something 
 has come conjointly from within and from without, 
 i.e. from "Church and State;" and much more 
 than something from within only; for all which we 
 have to praise God, as the Giver, and not ourselves, 
 save only as confessing ourselves to have been His 
 humble and obedient instruments. The something 
 from within and from without is the enlargement 
 of the Home Episcopate, Diocesan and Suffragan. 
 That from within is the Colonial Episcopate from 
 Bishops, Clergy, and Laity of the Church of Eng- 
 land, and the restoring and the building of Churches 
 at home — ("Schools" I cannot add, because, as I 
 ^^ Compare Ecclesiasticus xxx. 31-4.
 
 90 
 
 have said from 1847 to 1892, and repeat here, 
 I have never been able to admit the lawfulness, 
 or the honesty of making assistance to the Schools 
 of " the Church " out of the common taxes con- 
 ditional upon destroying the fundamental character, 
 the religious principle of the Schools, under " the 
 Conscience Clause'")— the increase of services— the 
 more frequent Celebration of Holy Communion — 
 the increase of Communicants young and old — the 
 Lay co-operation in ministering in and out of Church, 
 and for special purposes of almsgiving home and 
 abroad — the self-denying lives of men and women. 
 
 But there Is still so much lacking if the Church 
 of England is to meet, under God in a good hope, 
 the severity of the present and coming crisis as it 
 has to be met, that I submit that there is much 
 laro-er oround for the fear which tells the truth, 
 than for the congratulation which deceives. Man, 
 with all his learning, is but a little child in the pre- 
 sence of " the secret things " of God his Father, 
 which is in Heaven. 
 
 But, after all, hope is better than fear if we will 
 but bow and humble ourselves, not before our own 
 Idols but, before The Truth: that in all things In 
 which the principle has not been, it would appear 
 Irretrievably, sacrificed to " the pride of life," the in- 
 firmity of unbelief, and the idol of Political necessity, 
 let us hope that it may still be able to be said of 
 England, that she is striving to walk more worthily 
 of her high calling " in Church and State : " that It 
 is still to be said of her — 
 
 Instruity et proprios habet enumerare triumphos. 
 
 J See p. 38, on "State Education."
 
 91 
 
 So much then for the aspect Political. 
 
 For the aspect Religious, I know of no remedy, 
 and have never heard of any, save only the simplicity 
 of faith in Holy Scripture, and the living up to the 
 Book of Common Prayer and Administration of the 
 Sacraments. Suffer me to add to this that this may 
 not be looked for in the People, unless it be found 
 in the Priest. Is it difficult ? what is there that 
 is worth having in life as in death but what is diffi- 
 cult, and would be impossible, if it were not for the 
 Grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of 
 God, and the fellowship of The Holy Ghost ? 
 The Church i^i England has to be handed down to 
 our children as it has been received by us. The 
 Church ^England has to be contended for to the 
 utmost. I confess with shame, as I have confessed 
 it many times, that for something like two years of 
 my life, under the weight of many and great invasions 
 on the part of the Civil Power of the Province of 
 the Church of England, I allowed myself to become 
 a member of a body for promoting what is vulgarly 
 called dis-Establishment. The ground upon which 
 I returned to a better mind was this. That it is 
 impossible to deny that it is most according to the 
 Will of God that Sovereign and People should be 
 of the "One Faith." That this position was what 
 I found in England as the Constitution of England. 
 That I was in manner the most solemn pledged to 
 it. That I might not, because I was troubled by 
 many and great trials of faith and patience, add my 
 voice against it. If there be differences about the 
 one Faith, there is indeed need of Holy Charity in 
 dealing with them ; but there is nothing in them
 
 92 
 
 to convert into a ground for leaving the Church 
 of our Baptism, or for throwing ourselves into the 
 scale of separation of Church from State. Rather 
 let us watch and wait and work to help to make 
 the position to which God has called us more 
 pleasing in His sight for Jesus Christ's sake. 
 
 I cannot do better than cite here in conclusion 
 the words of my dearly loved and honoured old 
 friend Dr. Pusey, from his paper read at the Church 
 Congress in 1865, upon "The Spirit in which the 
 " Researches of Learning and Science should be 
 " applied to the study of the Bible ""." 
 
 " Physical science and faith are not commensurate. Faith 
 relates to that which is supernatural ; science, to things natural ; 
 faith rests upon what is supernatural ; science upon man's 
 natural powers of observation, induction, combination, infer- 
 ence, deduction ; faith has to do chiefly with the invisible ; 
 science, with the visible order of things. Science relates to 
 causes and eff"ects, the laws by which God upholds His material 
 creation, or its past history. It is purely material. Faith relates 
 to God, His revelation, His word. Faith has the certainty of 
 a Divine gift ; science has the certainty of human reasoning. 
 Faith is one Divine, God-given habit of mind. It is 
 one and the same in the well-instructed peasant as in the 
 most intellectual philosopher — perfect, solid, unshakable. What 
 really lies outside the peasant's faith cannot really touch 
 the faith of any, however intellectual. Faith lies above the 
 clouds of human doubt, in the serene sunshine of the Eternal 
 Light ; and, contemplating Him, the Cause of all causes, the 
 Truth of all which is true, the Life of all that is, is sure that 
 there is a solution of any thing which seems for the time (if so 
 be) insoluble. Lightning and storm gleam far Jjelow. For it 
 rests secure in the bosom of its God." 
 
 " The words were cited by my dear friend Canoa Hinds Howell, my 
 seconder, Sess. Feb. 3, 1S91.
 
 APPENDICES.
 
 APPENDIX I. 
 
 THE NATIONAL SYNOD. 
 A Speech prepared for May Sessions of Convocation^ i88g *. 
 
 MOTION. 
 
 ' Whereas the present condition of Discipline in the Ciiurch is full 
 of danger to the Spiritual Welfare of the whole English People, 
 
 * This House hianbly prays His Grace the President, and t/ieir 
 Lordships the Bis/iops, to give their concurrence and direction, 
 with view to an Address to the Crown praying for the con- 
 vening of a National Synod of the two Provinces of Canterbury 
 and York to take counsel attd to advise upon such measures 
 as may be needful in the present distress. 
 
 Sir, The Right Rev. the PROLOCUTOR, — 
 
 I find it more than difficult to give any adequate expres- 
 sion to the anxieties which belong inseparably to the 
 present position in ' Church and State.' 
 
 The two conflicting forces are, so to speak, every hour 
 gathering strength. The conflicting forces are the Spiritual 
 and the Temporal powers. The Temporal power gathers 
 strength from many sources which I need not number. 
 The Spiritual power gathers strength in being forced back 
 upon its principles, religious and constitutional. 
 
 But, as yet, it appears to me that, so far as we have 
 gone, the disposition is to have recourse by way of remedy 
 to the often tried but ever failing machinery of expedient, 
 rather than to the simple affirmation and vindication of 
 the first principles of a Divine trust. 
 
 For in every people to which Christianity has come 
 there have been, since the evening of the Day of the 
 Resurrection, and will be to the end of time, by ordinance 
 of God, two jurisdictions ; that is, two settings forth of 
 
 * The Speech here reprinted was withdrawn from Notices of Motion, 
 Sess. May 17, 1889, in consequence of continued pressure of business before 
 the House ; and deferred for a future opportunity, which it has not been in 
 my power to command.
 
 96 
 
 law : one of law as concerned directly with the things 
 of time only, the other of law as concerned directly with 
 the things of time and of eternity. The first jurisdiction 
 is called ' Secular ; ' the second is called ' Spiritual.' Both 
 are, under God, administered by man. The first by rule 
 and order of the Authority Temporal, the second by rule 
 and order of the Authority Spiritual, into whose hands it 
 was committed by our Lord. 
 
 It is the happiest condition of a people when the two 
 jurisdictions are found in active exercise, but not inter- 
 fering the one with the other: the happiest because the 
 condition nearest to the ordinance of God. I say ' nearest 
 to the ordinance of God ' because the abiding imperfection 
 of our common nature does not admit of the existence 
 in any unbroken permanence, in passing through man's 
 hands, of the exact representation among men of an 
 ordinance of God. 
 
 But in the same proportion as the representation is one 
 of active exercise but not of interference on either side, 
 the people with whom this representation is found comes 
 nearest to the ordinance of God. 
 
 Now there is no people in whose history the proper 
 exercise of the two jurisdictions has been found more 
 provided for than in the constitutional history of the 
 people of England. The exercise of both jurisdictions, 
 each in their proper province, true independence and, 
 nevertheless, true harmony, under the Royalty of England. 
 For the supremacy of the Crown in all causes, Eccle- 
 siastical and Civil ^ means that the Crown as the fountain, 
 under God, of all justice, is charged with the careful 
 keeping of the two jurisdictions, and with the careful 
 guarding against all undue interference of the one with 
 the other. 
 
 Take away the due exercise of the two jurisdictions, 
 each in its proper province, true independence, and, never- 
 theless, true harmony, and you have utter confusion ; and 
 
 '' ' In all causes, Ecclesiastical and Civil, within these her Dominions 
 supreme.' — The Bidding Prayer.
 
 97 
 
 will have done more to destroy ' Church and State ' than 
 by any other process to which you can apply yourself. 
 
 Now then what has become, for the last fifty-seven 
 years, of the two jurisdictions ? They have become one 
 jurisdiction by the legislation of 1832-3, and after years. 
 That jurisdiction is, in all its substance and power, wholly 
 temporal. Assessorship of the spiritualty is a myth : 
 a thing shadowless, being unsubstantial, and deluding the 
 unwary and confiding mind. 
 
 This being the position, the Resolution I have to move 
 prays for the convening of a National Synod of the two 
 provinces of Canterbury and York ' in the present distress.' 
 
 The distress is not present only, but of many years' 
 experience ; and is filled with utmost cause for deepest 
 anxiety in respect of the due subsistence of the relations 
 between ' Church and State.' 
 
 It dates more particularly from 1832-3 to 1888-9 inclu- 
 sive—fifty-seven years. More generally, from the closing 
 the doors of the Convocations or Synods of England in 
 
 1717- 
 
 It has two aspects— one, in respect of the transfer of 
 
 final appeal in causes of doctrine and discipline to a lay 
 tribunal (I dismiss the question of ' spiritual assessorship,' 
 as being in principle wrong, and in practice a vain and 
 self-stultifying expedient) ; the other, in respect of sundry 
 matters of ritual and ceremonial alleged before, and pro- 
 nounced by, that tribunal to be offences against ' Church 
 and State' demanding correction, and, if not corrected, 
 demanding penalty. 
 
 I hold in my hand a paper drawn up for me by an 
 eminent legal firm in London, giving account of the 
 spiritual element in all causes spiritual from 1832-3 to 
 1888 inclusive, brought before the Judicial Committee of 
 Privy Council. Copies of it are laid upon the table of the 
 Housed 
 
 It is to be observed upon it that what there came to be 
 
 « See Paper printed at end of this Appendix, p. 119. 
 H
 
 98 
 
 afterwards even of assessorship of the spiritualty was of 
 late and uncertain introduction. 
 
 The transfer of judicial authority from 'spiritual' to 
 ' temporal ' in causes of doctrine and discipline is then the 
 distress precedent. The condemnation of certain rites and 
 ceremonies connected with the administration of the Holy 
 Sacraments ^ is the distress subsequent and consequent. 
 
 For many years last past ' proceedings at law ' with 
 view to such condemnation have been confined to priests. 
 These have now assumed their most aggravated shape in 
 being directed against bishops : the Bishops of London 
 and Lincoln. In the case of the Bishop of London, upon 
 his alleged non-observance of a certain requirement of law ; 
 in the case of the Bishop of Lincoln, upon his alleged 
 disobedience to law. For the nature and substance of the 
 attempt, these are, as directed against priest, or bishop, 
 mutatis mutandis, the same in both cases. 
 
 Having been subject, in my own person, to ' proceedings 
 at law,' first, in respect of the doctrine of ' the Real Pre- 
 sence,' from January 1854 to February 1858 ; having been 
 spared to teach the doctrine of ' the Real Presence,' now 
 thirty-one years since 1858, precisely as I was condemned 
 for teaching it in 1856 ; having, again, been the subject of 
 question about ' rite and ceremony,' not in my own person, 
 but in that of my curate, in 1871-2 ; having caused the 
 case to be carried into the Archbishop's Court at Lambeth, 
 and having there recovered my curate's licence by the 
 judgment of the late Archbishop ; and, finally, having 
 used the same ritual and ceremonial ever since, I submit 
 that it is not unreasonable that, in this hour of general 
 and pervading distress, coming out of the operation of the 
 distress precedent, and exhibited in the distress consequent 
 in like 'proceedings' against bishops, L should pray 
 attention to what is, I believe, at once, the true and the 
 
 ^ Prayer for the Church Militant : ' Give grace, O heavenly Father, to 
 all Bishops and Curates, that they may, both by their life and doctrine, set 
 forth Thy true and lively Word ; and rightly and duly administer Thy holy 
 Sacraments.'
 
 99 
 
 only way — I do not say of return to ' unity,' for that has 
 never yet subsisted amongst us— but to that comparative 
 peace which may, in the mercies of God, issue in some 
 approach to unity. 
 
 For, as matters have stood with us now for many years, it 
 is not only lack of anything that can be called peace, but 
 on one side of the two parties to the conflict, and on one 
 side only, the active presence of abiding, growing, and in- 
 creasing estrangement and hostility — of what it is not too 
 much to call quasi-religious civil war, everywhere present 
 amongst us, and before the world. We may repudiate the 
 statement, but we cannot escape from its truth. 
 
 Under such circumstances of position, to associate our- 
 selves for purposes of unity inside and outside England 
 has always appeared to me, may I say it without offence, 
 almost a mockery— I mean, to be doing this in the face of 
 our actual, and, so to speak, our normal condition at home, 
 without, first of all, giving ourselves to the doing of all that 
 it lies in our power to do towards healing the distress 
 precedent and consequent which meets and half paralyses 
 us at every turn ; which has built, and is building up more 
 and more every day, barriers amongst us at home, and 
 abroad in all the dependencies of England, barriers not of 
 God's building. All this is a thing in which, I respectfully 
 submit to the House, we can hardly be content to acqui- 
 esce—a position in which it is difficult to understand acqui- 
 escence under any circumstances— one in which I, for 
 one, find it impossible to discover any sound ground of 
 acquiescence. 
 
 No doubt we may find ourselves, after adducing all our 
 manifold reasons and pleadings for a hearing, unable to 
 persuade the governing powers to assist us in our attempt 
 to remove the causes of the distress precedent and conse- 
 quent ; and the prospects of ' no success ' may be used — 
 as is not uncommon with us — as an argument against the 
 attempt. 
 
 I submit respectfully that, in matters of duty to God and 
 His Church, there is no room at all for any such argument. 
 
 H 2
 
 lOO 
 
 And that, when we have humbly and duly prayed to be 
 heard, then, but not till then, we stand in our true position 
 as an integral part of ' the Church by representation ' so 
 far as that position rests with us. 
 
 Again, I submit respectfully that to teach, to preach 
 publicly the Word of God by word, by act, by example of 
 life, as we have the truth drawn for us, and committed to us, 
 by the Church from the fountain of truth — the Holy Scrip- 
 tures — to do all this, according to our light, is one thing. 
 To denounce and assail others, and expel them from their 
 ministry because we will not endure their way of worship, 
 their way of receiving and abiding by ' the Book of Com- 
 mon Prayer, and administration of the Sacraments, and 
 other Rites and Ceremonies, of the Church, according to 
 the use of the Church of England,' this is another thing. 
 The first has been the covipreJietisivc character of the 
 Church of England for some 300 years ; the second is the 
 exclusive character of the Church of England, now for 
 many years insisted upon and made matter of infliction of 
 civil penalty on the one side ; of demand impossible to be 
 complied with on the other. 
 
 One word here upon the term * comprehensive character.' 
 I have seen it applied as a ground why ' Ritualism ' ought 
 not to be interfered with ab extra. I am unable to accept 
 the argument so applied. I submit that it is deroga- 
 tory to our position, and, more than this, that it is un- 
 sound. ' Ritualism,' so called, if anything, is a part of 
 Catholicism. Catholicism comprehends, but cannot be 
 comprehended. There is nothing in the world to com- 
 prehend it. It stands upon its own natural and inherent 
 right as the outward expression and manifestation of the 
 doctrine of the Sacraments, and of worship and adoration 
 due. 
 
 What I have to say in support of the resolution is more 
 or less not new. But let me hope that I need no apology 
 for saying it nevertheless. Members of Convocation do 
 not speak, being members of a House, which is part of 
 * the Church by representation,' to ourselves only ; and
 
 lor 
 
 I would, as far as I may, speak to those outside these 
 walls also. 
 
 It is my humble hope and prayer that no word of mine 
 to-day may give reasonable cause for offence to any 
 man. 
 
 I desire to deal with facts only ; not with imputation of 
 motives. I am a Ritualist; not of a very large and uni- 
 form type. My priest's life began too early for that ; but, 
 in respect of the Doctrine « which is the fountain of 
 ' Ritualism,' I have never at any time had but one under- 
 standing and one belief I am an English Churchman. 
 I have never for one moment known the temptation, nor 
 ever been able to understand what it is to others, to desert 
 England for Rome. So much for myself; I believe, 
 that having regard to what I am endeavouring to do, it is 
 my duty to all to say it in few words ; and having said it, 
 I will not revert to it. 
 
 The light of that blessed time. Acts ii. 41-7; iv. 32 f, 
 falls still upon the Churches out of the Word of God, and 
 through them— though, for the sins of the baptized into 
 
 ' The Doctrine of the Real Presence, Spiritual, not Corporal. 
 
 ' ' Then they that gladly received his word were baptized : and the same 
 day there were added unto them about three thousand souls. 
 
 'And they continued stedfastly in the apostles' doctrine and fellowship, 
 and in breaking of bread, and in prayers. And fear came upon every soul : 
 and many wonders and signs were done by the apostles. 
 
 ' And all that believed were together, and had all things common ; 
 
 'And sold their possessions and goods, and parted them to all men, as 
 every man hath need. 
 
 'And they, continuing daily with one accord in the temple, and breaking 
 bread from house to house, did eat their meat with gladness and singleness 
 of heart. 
 
 ' Praising God, and having favour with all the people. And the Lord 
 added to the Church daily * such as should be saved. 
 
 'And the multitude of them that believed were of one heart and of one 
 soul : neither said any of them that ought of the things which he possessed 
 was his own ; but they had all things common. ' 
 
 * ' Those that were being saved.' — Revised Version. Qy. ' the saved.' 
 ' The like figure whereunto even Baptism doth also now save us.' 
 
 ' Then they that gladly received his word were baptised ; and the same 
 day were added unto them about three thousand souls.'
 
 102 
 
 Christ, it be very dim — upon the world not yet within their 
 pale. 
 
 As for the way to that light, it is, as it were, written 
 upon the wall for us all, whatever be the particular form or 
 manner of our religion. ' Be at peace among yourselves ' 
 — and, again, as respects all other men, ' Follow peace with 
 all men.* 
 
 There is one consideration, preliminary to the dealing 
 with the distress which is the burden now well-nigh weigh- 
 ing us down ; preliminary to the consideration of the course 
 of carrying differences of belief and worship to the extent 
 of ecclesiastical ostracism in case after case of priests, and 
 from this to imprisonment ; a system of procedure now 
 proposed to be adopted towards and against the Bishop of 
 Lincoln. It is suggested by our presence together in this 
 House, and by our constitutional common membership of 
 it as summoned by royal writ. No doubt it is a ' reductio 
 ad absurdum ; ' but this is often a light helpful in an argu- 
 ment upon gravest things. 
 
 By the rule of promoting 'proceedings at law,' as these 
 are now promoted and accepted and adjudicated upon in 
 causes spiritual by a court temporal, some of us are not 
 in our proper place in Convocation — some of us are not 
 worthy to sit there, because we are * Ritualists,' under all 
 circumstances abiding in our ' Ritualism ' — our proper place 
 is not here ; it is in prison. For many sit here as beneficed 
 clergy, having their own parish churches — some of us (not 
 nearly as many as there should be in due proportion to the 
 official members of the House) as chosen to represent con- 
 stituencies of clergy. If, then, no beneficed clergyman, 
 being a * Ritualist,' and using ' Ritualism ' in his church, is 
 fit to be beneficed, how is he fit to sit where he must be 
 beneficed ? 
 
 But, in this move against bishops, we hear nothing, as 
 yet, about a move against us in this House, nor from with- 
 out this House, in our capacity as members of it ; and yet 
 this House is -a part of ' the Church by representation ; ' 
 and, by the logic of the ' anti-Ritualist,' there are members
 
 103 
 
 of this House fit objects of exclusion from it ; yes, and of 
 imprisonment, as disobeying anti-Ritualist law. 
 
 I am one of these. Now I am quite ready that the 
 procedure should begin with me, as, I think, the oldest 
 member of this House. But, I confess, I should prefer 
 its not taking place before any existing court. 
 
 The proceedings against the Bishop of Lincoln partake 
 also of the ludicrous. As bishop, he is judge of Ritual in 
 his own diocese. His answer to those who do accuse him 
 is that his contention is, not — as a good many are found 
 to say — about things of no importance — an imputation 
 which, I observe in passing, is, under all its aspects, about 
 the weakest of all imputations — but for primary principles 
 of Church truth, and the teaching of them, not by word 
 only, but also by observance of rite and ceremony, i.e. 
 by what is nicknamed ' Ritualism.' Now, in one degree 
 or another, every priest is a ' Ritualist ' whether he wear 
 a surplice and a stole, or a surplice only. It is the par- 
 ticular ' Ritualism ' attaching to the administration of the 
 Sacraments which is assailed as a relic of and guide to 
 Popery f?. Now it is neither of these things. It is simply 
 the inheritance of the Church of England Re-formed— an 
 inheritance long time neglected, now recalled into life, and 
 of great value, as true to the constitution of our common 
 nature, which calls for outward expression in proportion 
 to the depth and cogency of belief ; and therein may not 
 be neglected, much less converted into ground of accusa- 
 tion of unfaithfulness. 
 
 But if there must be such accusation, then it should, in 
 all reason, be directed against the fons et origo of the ac- 
 cusing cry, Le. against the doctrine of the Sacraments so 
 expressed, and taught, and impressed. 
 
 Now it is curious to note that the accusation against 
 the doctrine of the 'Real Presence' has broken down 
 even before the Judicial Committee of Privy Council ; 
 resort, therefore, is had by the 'anti-Ritualist' to the 
 expression of it in act, that is, by, ' rite and cere- 
 
 B C. p. 19, A.
 
 I04 
 
 mony,' as to an easier way to a successful appeal ad 
 popiduDi. 
 
 On our part, we have no purpose, not so much as 
 a thought, of seeking to force by ' proceedings at law,' 
 ' rite and ceremony ' upon those who reject them, or think 
 that it is better not to use them— no, nor of calling in the 
 law to force upon them so much as a more exact obser- 
 vance of the Rubrics of the Prayer Book in many and 
 sundry particulars. Proceedings at law are not, never 
 have been, never can be, in matter of religion, the way 
 of peace. 
 
 On the other hand, all that we ask for ourselves is that 
 we be not sought to be forced by legislative act and 
 judicial sentence of a temporal Court — so far as 'pro- 
 ceedings at law' can force any man in a matter of religious 
 conscience — to abandon, for ourselves and our people, 
 what is, so to speak, imbedded in our belief. 
 
 We say that to seek so to force us is inequitable ; we 
 say that it is unjust; we say that it is uncharitable; we 
 say that it is cruel ; we say, in sum, that it is rending 
 already in part, and, if persevered in, must issue in rending 
 throughout, in two, or many more than two, the Church 
 of England. That this will be the return made unto God 
 by the English people for the gift of His Church to the 
 English people. 
 
 I sum up what 1 have said about the Bishops. The 
 charges against them are frivolous and vexatious. They 
 have, unhappily, not been estimated at their true value. 
 But, supposing the charges in the event to be rightly 
 judged to be ' frivolous and vexatious,' the real distress 
 of the Church remains where it was. For this see letter 
 following, addressed to the Archbishops and Bishops, and 
 widely circulated. 
 
 Committee Room, 3 Adam Street, Adelphi, W.C, 
 December 15, 1888. 
 
 My Lord, — Will you allow me in your kindness to 
 lay before you what is the substance of the movement of
 
 105 
 
 November 13, 1888, called 'Declaration and Remon- 
 strance ? ' 
 
 It is a movement conceived, and, so far, being now 
 carried out, for recovery of the true discipline of the 
 Church of England — viz. ' Spiritual Causes by Spiritual 
 Judges^' — being the one true and lawful discipline. 
 
 It is not necessary here to do more than revert to 
 the well-known circumstances of the substitution of the 
 Judicial Committee of Privy Council for the Court of 
 Delegates in 1832-3, and how it was that, through a Par- 
 liamentary inadvertence, ' causes ecclesiastical ' passed, 
 with probate, divorce, maritime causes, &c., under the 
 jurisdiction of the Judicial Committee ; and a false disci- 
 pline was created ; is now quasi-established, and in active 
 exercise of its functions. 
 
 All past and present 'legal proceedings' of the nature 
 referred to in ' Declaration and Remonstrance' are ' neces- 
 sary accidents ' of this false discipline. 
 
 On the other hand, the ' right use of ecclesiastical disci- 
 pline ' being one of the three notes of a true Church', 
 I submit, very respectfully, that the time is fully come 
 when archbishops, bishops, clergy, and laity, may be asked 
 to unite in moving steadily and continuously for recovery 
 of the true discipline — viz. ' Spiritual Causes by Spiritual 
 Judges ' — a discipline which alone can commend and com- 
 mand a loyal obedience. 
 
 May I add that I am unable to comprehend how it is 
 possible, under the present position and exercise of the so- 
 called ' Ecclesiastical Discipline,' for ' Church and State ' 
 to continue in that harmony of purpose and act given of 
 God to be preserved and cherished by the English people ? 
 
 In the hope of contributing something at least towards 
 staying the unhealthy craving for what is called 'Disestab- 
 lishment,' but which is really nothing else but an invention 
 by man of a substitute for the Providence of God ; and in 
 
 '' 24 Henry VIII. c. 12. 
 Second Tart of Homily, Concerning the Holy Ghost, pp. 494-5- London, 
 1864.
 
 io6 
 
 the further hope of promoting peace among ourselves, if it 
 be not yet for us to rejoice in the unity of the faith, I pray 
 humbly that your Lordship will allow me to place this 
 letter in your hands. 
 
 I am, my Lord, 
 
 Your humble and faithful servant, 
 
 George Anthony Denison, 
 A rdideacon of Taunton and Chairman of Committee. 
 
 To the Lord Bishop of 
 
 We are living, have been living for many years, under 
 a false discipline. 
 
 That so-called discipline remains. The false and un- 
 constitutional discipline which is the distress precedent ; 
 and has issued in a kindred false and unconstitutional ad- 
 ministration, which is the distress consequent. 
 
 Of both these heads of distress it is the second that has 
 commanded most attention and called forth continuous 
 remonstrance. This is only natural ; because details press 
 more upon the general mind than the source from which 
 they spring. But, after all, it is the principle, and not the 
 detail, which is important. If the principle is abandoned 
 as unconstitutional, the practice falls with it ; if the prin- 
 ciple be maintained, the practice survives and becomes 
 a settled order with it. 
 
 The defence of the practice then, not being strong in 
 itself, looks for extraneous support, and relies mainly 
 upon the imputation that a ' Ritualist ' is a lawless man ; 
 an offender against the law of the land ; and therefore 
 a proper object of punishment; that it is, no doubt, very 
 painful to have to inflict punishment upon him, but that 
 it is a stern necessity and an imperative duty. 
 
 Now there are five parties to the consideration of what 
 these allegations are worth ; to the consideration of this 
 alleged necessity and duty as before God and man.
 
 107 
 
 1. There is the Church of England in her constitutional 
 position of ' Church and State ; ' observe not * State and 
 Church,' but ' Church and State,' as set forth in her Parha- 
 ment, as set forth in her Prayer Book and her Articles, and 
 committed to her Archbishops and Bishops in Synod and 
 in Parliament. To her Priests in Synod, as representing 
 the priesthood. 
 
 2. There is the legislature in respect of temporal Courts 
 of judicature ; of Courts absorbing and abrogating the 
 jurisdiction of the Courts spiritual. 
 
 3. There is the accuser promoting. 
 
 4. There is the Court temporal punishing. 
 
 5- There is the priest and the bishop suffering ; and 
 this upon the charge of anyone who may think, ex mero 
 motu, or be deceived by others into thinking, that he is 
 competent to hold the office and to do the work of accuser. 
 
 Of these five parties the first has never been asked for 
 its judgment at all. The fifth has got to suffer. The 
 second, third, and fourth have had, and mean to hold, if 
 they can, all their own way. It is enough for them that 
 it is ' law of the land ' that it should so be. How that 
 law has been arrived at ; whether it be agreeable or not to 
 the constitution in ' Church and State,' whether it be 'just,' 
 'equitable,' 'convenient,' ' wise/ these things are not things 
 for them to consider. 
 
 For there arc laws and laws ; laws of the land and laws 
 of the land. 
 
 Now in the matter before us. which, suffer me to say, is 
 the primary and central concern of this House, there' is 
 a law of the land, a good many hundred years old, govern- 
 ing the mutual relations of the Spiritualty and the Tem- 
 poralty ; a law not repealed, the law of the co-ordinate 
 jurisdiction of the two elements of the Constitution, the 
 Spiritualty, and the Temporalty, each having its own pro- 
 vince, its own courts, its own subject-matter ; each finally, 
 as respects matters within its own province, advising the 
 law 24 Henry VHI. c. 12. 
 
 Out of these concurrent jurisdictions, combining together
 
 io8 
 
 for the true purposes of ' Church and State,' have come the 
 Engh'sh Bible, the Prayer Book, the Articles of the Church 
 of England. These arc ' the threefold cord not quickly 
 broken ' (Eccles. iv. 12), and binding together ' Church and 
 State.' 
 
 The Spiritualty encroaching in nothing upon the Tem- 
 poralty. The Temporalty encroaching in nothing upon 
 the Spiritualty. The province of each being definitely 
 clear, and their juxtaposition and action combining to- 
 gether, under the supremacy of the Crown, for the common 
 benefit of the entire people, and preservation to it of the 
 great gift of God in ' Church and State.' 
 
 The distress precedent then is the absorption of the 
 Spiritual authority in causes Spiritual by the Temporal 
 element of the Constitution in Church and State. The 
 printed paper which I have brought with me to-day, 
 states in sum what has been the position of the Spiritualty 
 in the Judicial Committee of Privy Council from 1832-3, 
 when that Committee came into the place of the Court of 
 Delegates, to the present time. 
 
 I ask, was this absorption made by any concurrent action 
 of Church and State ? The answer is that there was no 
 thought even of any such concurrent action. This was the 
 natural fruit of the shutting the doors of Convocation for 
 115 years up to 1832. Hence the way was open for the 
 invention of the Judicial Committee of Privy Council ; and 
 indeed when, for purposes of State policy, the doors were 
 opened again in 1852, I remember very well what was 
 commonly reported to be said by the then Prime Minister. 
 * If we do not open the doors, these men will have a griev- 
 ance : we will open the doors for them to meet and talk, 
 taking care that they do nothing.' Now the absorption 
 was, and is, in direct contravention of the Reformation 
 Statutes, and of the Prayer Book and Articles of the 
 Church of England, and has borne its own proper fruit 
 in the distress that is now upon us. Primarily the Statute 
 24 Henry VHI. c. 12, then Article xix. clause i, Article 
 XX. clause i, Article xxxiv. clause 2, Article xxxvii. clause 2.
 
 109 
 
 The last clause of ist division of 'Concerning the 
 Service of the Church,' and that part of the Preface of 
 Prayer Book ' Of Ceremonies, why some be abolished and 
 some retained,' and, finally, the two paragraphs of the 
 'ornaments rubric' 
 
 Article xx., as it stands, has been the law of the Church 
 throughout the world always, and herein the law of the 
 land here in England from 1571 to 1889. But this fact 
 was not so regarded, either in the formation of the Judicial 
 Committee, or in the passing of the 'Public Worship 
 Regulation Act.' The fact that ' the Church hath power 
 to decree Rites or Ceremonies, and Authority in Contro- 
 versies of Faith.' 
 
 ' The Church,' Article xix., is defined to be ' a congrega- 
 tion of faithful men.' It must of necessity have its body 
 representative ; that body is ' the National Synod,' for the 
 convening of which 'in the present distress' I am now 
 asking the House to pray. There is also the Diocesan, 
 and the Provincial Synod, or Convocation of the Province. 
 
 And it is to be noted here that Burnet, upon Article xx., 
 understands always the ' Church ' to mean the ' Synod ; ' 
 the body representative of the ' Spiritualty.' 
 
 Now that which clause i. Article xx., declares is involved 
 or implied distinctly in others of the Articles. If this 
 again were not so, the thing expressed in the clause is the 
 inherent and inalienable right, claim, and property of the 
 Church Catholic, and therein of the Church of England K 
 There is nothing anywhere in her connection with the 
 civil power to touch the spiritual authority in causes 
 spiritual— the legislative authority abiding always with the 
 Crown in Parliament. 
 
 The thing declared and expressed in the clause was the 
 battle-ground between the Catholic and the Puritan in the 
 sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. 
 
 '' See An Exposition of the Thirty-nine Articles, Historical and Doctrinal^ 
 by Edward Harold Browne, D.D., D.C.L., Lord Bishop of Winchester', 
 Prelate of the Order of the Garter; 13th ed. p. 470; London, Longmans, 
 Green & Co. 1887. Also Bishop Burnet on the XXXIX. Articles, Article XX. 
 pp. 270—273, Oxford, at the University Press, 1831.
 
 no 
 
 It is the battle-f^round in the nineteenth century between 
 the Church of England and the Civil Power of England, 
 all antecedents notwithstanding. It is sad to have to add 
 that it is the battle-ground between a large and daily in- 
 creasing number of Church people, clergy and laity, at this 
 moment centred round the person and office of the Bishops 
 of London and Lincoln on the one hand ; on the other 
 hand, there is a subsection of the element ' anti-Ritualist,' 
 aided, encouraged, abetted by the lay administration of 
 ecclesiastical law for the last half century. 
 
 We on our side would fain be at peace with these our 
 brethren, if we may not be * in the unity of the faith ' with 
 them. And as an earnest of this purpose and desire we 
 do not retaliate. We resort to no ' proceedings at law ' on 
 the score of disobedience to the law of the Prayer Book, 
 because (i) it is impossible for us to recognise the authority 
 of the Courts now commissioned by the Legislature to try 
 causes spiritual ; and (2) because we have no belief that 
 * going to law ' about such things has any tendency what- 
 soever to mend matters, but every tendency in the oppo- 
 site direction. 
 
 It has been tried many times before this our own time 
 to put down the conscience religious by civil penalty. 
 Has it ever succeeded ? nay, has it not always ignomi- 
 niously failed ? No doubt, if you will persist in creating 
 Courts of law for this purpose, you must give your Courts 
 the power to enforce their sentence by the infliction of 
 penalties. But it is the Legislature that makes the Courts, 
 and not the Courts, which has to bear the blame of the 
 penalties. 
 
 This manifold distress has been creeping on many years 
 since the huge design or huge mistake of 1832-3. 
 
 It has now reached the apex of its ascent in England. 
 In its descent it carries with it ' Church and State.' Eng- 
 land has now to make up her mind one way or the other, 
 for a new Prayer Book, or for the old — for a new so- 
 called Church or for the old. England cannot have both. 
 
 The new way rends at one blow the Church in two
 
 Ill 
 
 or in a good many more pieces. The old way rests upon 
 the Prayer Book as we have received and keep it. 
 
 The old way is the one only way of keeping and pro- 
 moting peace. We cannot have ' unity ' between ' Ritual- 
 ist ' and ' anti-Ritualist.' It is not among things possible 
 to be had. If England listens to the Church Association 
 and the subsection of the ' anti-Ritualist ' section, we can- 
 not have so much even as sufferance. We can have 
 nothing but * proceedings at law ' and penal consequences 
 against the ' Ritualist ' element. 
 
 I believe England is coming to her senses under the 
 pressure of this great distress ; and is going to say that 
 the old way is the best. 
 
 That we want no new Act of Parliament, and no inter- 
 pretation — made law, with civil penalties against this or 
 that holding of forms of religion. Ritualist, anti-Ritualist, 
 Nonconformist. That the Courts Spiritual of the Church 
 of England, duly constituted, are the one sufficient means 
 of trial and appeal in and of every cause spiritual within 
 the Church of England. That this is the constitutional 
 position ; that it is the one only reasonable position — the 
 one only position which carries with it any sound prospect 
 of goodwill and peace, where unity cannot be had. 
 
 The present eating-out process, by way of case after 
 case, issuing at last in these cases of Bishops, which I 
 suppose there were very few who anticipated, but which, 
 all the precedents considered, are now perceived to be only 
 the natural issue of a destructive policy, these things are 
 now at last forced from without upon our consideration, 
 our anxious and painful consideration. The present posi- 
 tion, the growth of fifty-seven years, comes before the 
 people under the name of law. As matter of modern fact 
 it is law of the land ; as matter of the Constitution in 
 Church and State it is not law of the land. 
 
 The people of England love law, and are very slow to 
 question it in whatever shape it is presented to them. 
 But a great constitutional question demands close his- 
 torical inquiry, and a considerable amount of historical
 
 112 
 
 logic. The logic of the English citizen generally cannot 
 be said to be historical. 
 
 Now where there is this lack of historical logic upon 
 which to refresh and invigorate the mental powers, people 
 require to be supplied carefully with the sound article. If 
 this be not done, they fall an easy prey to the most 
 extravagant fallacies. 
 
 I notice briefly three : 
 
 1. There is ' the small things ' fallacy. Now ' Ritualism * 
 is not, cannot be, a small thing to the Ritualist. It is to 
 him a part of a precious inheritance, having its own special 
 privileges, duties, uses, and purposes. I submit, then, that 
 men do not, in the common experience of our nature, 
 suffer the heaviest losses they can suffer in these times in 
 respect of doctrine and discipline for a 'small thing' — 
 a thing, as it is called, 'of no consequence.' Neither, on 
 the other hand, is it a ' small thing ' to the anti-Ritualist. 
 
 In his eyes it includes, besides itself, a great many 
 things I will not here mention. 
 
 2. There is ' the name ' fallacy. The common substitu- 
 tion of ' Ritualist ' for ' High Churchman ' — intending the 
 same thing in substance, but expressing it differently, so 
 that the stigma intended becomes attached primarily and 
 principally to the employment of palpable objects of the 
 outward sense. 
 
 Now let me say this \ Some forty years ago, being in 
 much communication and company with the men then 
 called ' High Churchmen,' I began to keep a list of those 
 who left England for Rome. I kept it a good many years, 
 and then in my distress and weariness, I burnt it. 
 
 But before burning it, I looked it through once more 
 very closely, and found that near two-thirds of the names 
 upon the list had not begun their diaconate and priesthood 
 in the Church of England as ' High Churchmen ' at all. 
 
 3. Lastly, there is the 'law-breaking' fallacy — the com- 
 monest and most easily deluding of all fallacies — the fal- 
 
 ' C. p. 9, A.
 
 113 
 
 lacy of * proving too much.' I call it, for clearness sake, 
 'the Grimthorpe fallacy;' and sum up its operation here 
 in fewest words. 
 
 It would persuade the unwary — a very large section, in 
 these matters, of the English people — that not only, as is 
 true, the right of saying what is, or what is not, or what 
 shall be, or shall not be, * law of the land,' resides exclusively 
 with the Crown in Parliament, but also the right of saying 
 to the Spiritualty what shall, or shall not, be the substance 
 of the law of the land in respect of controverted matters of 
 doctrine and discipline of the Church of England, as is 
 not true. 
 
 This last fallacy may be said, not certainly by way of 
 good pre-eminence, to be the cardinal fallacy of the history 
 of the nineteenth century in the history of England. 
 
 I have spoken of the distress precedent at that coming 
 out of the absorption by the Court Temporal of the con- 
 stitutional authority and action of the Court Spiritual. 
 
 It is self-evident what many, nevertheless, will not, many 
 more do not, see, that no one of the many questions which 
 have been publicly raised in this controversy is at most 
 more than a subordinate question — a question of detail 
 only, in comparison with the great primary question of 
 ' the power of the Church ' — that is, of the Synod of the 
 two Provinces of Canterbury and York {a) ' to decree Rites 
 and Ceremonies,' and (d) of its ' authority in controversies 
 of faith ; ' and that nothing can be hoped for from expedi- 
 ents of detail in the room of a steady endeavour to recover 
 and invigorate the principle, out of which the details flow 
 as from a fountain-head. 
 
 But it is certainly not matter of surprise that the Church 
 of England, having lost her Synods for 135 years (17 17 — 
 1852), and, when allowed to sit again by Royal writ for 
 despatch of business, finding itself with its hands tied in 
 Synod, should very generally have lost almost the know- 
 ledge of what a Synod is, and of what belongs to it, under 
 the express authority of its own formularies. 
 
 I have spoken of the distress consequent, as inflicting 
 
 I
 
 114 
 
 penalties upon the ' Ritualist,' and having made the Church 
 of England for the first rime exclusive in his person. 
 These are historical facts. 
 
 There is a third aspect of distress, compounded of the 
 precedent and the consequent. It is not yet formally- 
 announced, nor is it formally developed ; but that it is in 
 considerable operation cannot be denied. That operation 
 IS the steady and continuous effect upon ' the book of 
 Common Prayer and administration of the Sacraments and 
 other Rites and Ceremonies of the Church according to 
 the use of the Church of England.' 
 
 Eor decisions in the Courts, as now constituted, decisions 
 in one sense legal, in another and larger sense illegal, do, 
 all the illegality alleged against them notwithstanding, lay 
 very strong hold on the popular mind, which cannot be 
 expected to look very deeply into the matter in controversy, 
 and takes refuge under high names and positions of public 
 trust, so soon as these are formally constituted and recog- 
 nised by the governing powers of the country. 
 
 I may dismiss safely the prospect of Parliament initiating 
 or even taking in hand any alteration in the Prayer Book, 
 in its preface, text, rubrics. Parliament is too wise not to 
 perceive that any move of this nature proposes and implies 
 the wrecking of the Constitution in ' Church and State ; * 
 and I have, for one, no belief that the number of members 
 in either House who would vote for this is anything but 
 very small ; and not in any present way of becoming 
 greater. 
 
 But there are two ways of making a new ' Book of Com- 
 mon Prayer' — one, the alteration of the present Book by 
 Parliament : this I have dismissed ; the other, that inter- 
 pretation of it — language, text, rubric — which a large and 
 primary element of the Church of England cannot possibly 
 accept. 
 
 Such interpretation has taken place now for a good many 
 years, not by the Spiritual but by the Temporal authority, 
 and is by many accepted as good Church law and sound 
 interpretation.
 
 115 
 
 Now in this way the Prayer Book is being undermined ; 
 it may be, almost insensibly, but the fact remains that it is 
 being undermined ; and its whole authority shaken in the 
 mind of the people ; directly with some, indirectly with 
 others. This is the third distress. 
 
 I have finished, in its outline, my argument. How im- 
 perfectly no one is more entirely aware than myself. I have 
 left very much unsaid. 
 
 I have no fear for the ultimate issue of this contention 
 on the part of the Church of England. It seems as if it 
 were written in the very nature of things divine and things 
 human that the time for this must come, and that .speedily, 
 when the Church of England in its truth, in its charity, in 
 its shrinking from infliction of civil penalties for conscience 
 sake, in its natural comprehensiveness, in its union among 
 its members for the saving of souls, in the midst of differ- 
 ences respecting interpretation of the Church's law and 
 respecting the authority ordained to expound and maintain 
 that law, as necessity may arise, that the time must come 
 when things will be better with us than they are now; and, 
 if there cannot yet be ' unity,' there will, nevertheless, be 
 peace ; brother with brother, parish with parish, in the 
 charity which * thinketh no evil,' and 'hopeth all things.' 
 
 Now let me add very respectfully one more consideration. 
 There is yet a fourth distress, a distress prospective. I 
 will hope it will not come till I see it come. The Con- 
 vocations will pardon me if, in the intenseness of my 
 anxiety, I approach it now, by way of placing myself fully 
 before them and the Church outside them. 
 
 I mean the distress of the Convocations of England de- 
 clining to move with prayer to the Crown, or even post- 
 poning such move, in the present distress. That is, if 
 I must speak plain, declining to pray for the exercise of 
 their divine and their constitutional inheritance in an 
 emergency the most comprehensive and the greatest of all 
 the many emergencies that have arisen since their doors 
 were re-opened in 1852 ; or even to resolve upon post- 
 ponement of the prayer. 
 
 I 2
 
 ii6 
 
 This would be, in the only aspect in which I can allow 
 myself to regard the position, the fourth, and culminating 
 distress. 
 
 For myself, I believe that, if the Convocations were now 
 to unite in praying to be allowed to apply themselves in 
 a National Synod for the consideration of the present 
 distress, the most powerful impulse would be given in the 
 direction of peace ; and time given to consider well that 
 no possible good can accrue to individual or common weal 
 by the promoting of these proceedings at law. 
 
 Whether, much rather, it would not become abundantly 
 clear, that, though it be quite true that you must have 
 Courts of law for the correction of such offences against 
 ' Church and State ' as all would desire to sec corrected, 
 you are not much better without Courts of law for the 
 visiting with civil penalties at the hands of the Temporalty, 
 interpretations of the Prayer I^ook and the Articles which 
 one man affirms and rejoices in, and another does not. 
 
 I appeal for an answer not to the Convocations only. 
 I appeal to the common sense religious of the English 
 people. No number of the present 'proceedings at law' 
 will avail to force or stifle religious conscience. Their only 
 effect is, as it were, to confirm, to increase, to stereotype. 
 
 If, for our sins, we may not have 'the Unity of the 
 Faith,' may we not, at least, have the peace that comes of 
 charitable consideration and patient construing of motives 
 one with another ? Or is it to be for ever that ' brother 
 goes to law with brother ? ' 
 
 I repeat that I believe that the expression by the 
 mouth of a National Synod of counsels of peace, rather 
 than of law, would have a moral power greater far than 
 any words of mine could hope to measure. I believe 
 that, apart from it, there is no other manner of remedy 
 which carries with it any hope of healing our many 
 wounds. With it, and with the kindly and most valuable 
 co-operation of our brethren of the Laity, and especially 
 of 'the House of Laymen,' I believe that peace and 
 rejoicing are in store for us all.
 
 117 
 
 I trust I may not offend in saying that to take up what 
 little time we have about this or that detail of Church 
 life, and to make no primary and steady effort towards 
 recovering ' her discipline,' is very like buying furniture 
 for a house when the house is on fire. Her discipline? 
 I mean, administrative and corrective, in matters of 
 Doctrine and Worship. All other I, for one, am thankful 
 to see reposed in the hands of the Civil Power. 
 
 It is not possible for me to concur in any proposal 
 which falls short of restoring to the Spiritualty their 
 exclusive jurisdiction in matters of Doctrine and Worship. 
 
 It is said this will not be given. Be it so. Let us put 
 into its place the call to Peace by the voice of the 
 National Synod. 
 
 I therefore humbly submit my proposal for acceptance. 
 
 If it be not accepted, may I not reasonably ask of those 
 who do not accept, what ' constitutional ' substitute they 
 have to propose ? I pray attention to the word ' consti- 
 tutional,' as reserving its true, historical, and lawful 
 position to the spiritual element in ' Church and State ; ' 
 without such reservation, every attempt to remove the 
 burden of the present distress must, in the nature of things, 
 and the necessities of the case, continuously and hopelessly 
 fail. 
 
 If the Convocations of the Church of England decline 
 to exercise their constitutional inheritance in the present 
 distress, so nearly touching the whole position of the 
 Church of England, what is there to come into the room 
 of the Houses of Convocation ? 
 
 If no such substitute can be found — if there be no 
 proper room for attempting to find such other substitute 
 — because there is, in the nature of things. Divine or 
 human, no other such substitute ; are we to sit still, and 
 see the Church of England broken into pieces, without so 
 much as raising its voice and hand in the endeavour to 
 stay the blow .'' 
 
 On the one hand, then, there is before us 
 the attempt often made, but always failing,
 
 ii8 
 
 because always unsound, to frame a combined 
 Court— Temporal and Spiritual rather than 
 Spiritual and Temporal— of final appeal in 
 CAUSES of Doctrine and Worship. 
 
 On the OTHER, THE ATTEMPT TO ATTAIN TO 
 PEACE BY ABSTAINING FROM INTERFERENCE WITH 
 RELIGIOUS CONSCIENCE BY WAY OF 'PROCEEDINGS AT 
 LAW.' I AM PERSUADED THAT THE LAST IS THE 'VIA 
 PRIMA SALUTIS;' AND I PRAY ALWAYS THAT THE 
 TIME MAY COME WHEN IT WILL BE AFFIRMED SO TO 
 BE BY THE VOICE OF THE N.\TIONAL SVNOD.
 
 PAPERS REFERRED TO PAGE io8. 
 
 Analysis of Account of the Spiritual Eleinent in the Judicial 
 Committee of the Privy Council, from 1832 to April 1889, 
 7mth Preface, containing Note Explanatory, and Extract 
 from Lord Brougham^ s Speech on Bishop of Londonh Bill 
 in House of Lords, 1850. Extracted by Brooks, Jenkins, 
 and Co., Proctors, Doctors' Commons. 
 
 PREFACE. 
 
 The Analysis following presents forty-six Cases. 
 
 The first in order of date is that of * Speer v. Burder,' described 
 'Correction of Clerks,' July 2, 1840. — No Spiritual Element. 
 
 The last in order of date is that of ' Read v. the Archbishop 
 of Canterbury,' described * Refusal of Archbishop of Canterbury 
 to grant Citation,' August 3, 1888. 
 
 The remaining forty-four cases are classed under their several 
 heads of description. 
 
 Note. 
 
 In 1832 the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council was 
 substituted for the Court of Delegates, for the purposes of 
 Appeals of all Ecclesiastical Causes. From that date down to 
 that of the Church Discipline Act, 1840, there was no Spiritual 
 Element in the Judicial Committee. From the Church Dis- 
 cipline Act to the Appellate Jurisdiction Act, 1876, it was 
 ordered that an Archbishop or Bishop should be a member of 
 the Judicial Committee in Criminal Cases. There were none in 
 Civil Cases. But in the Gorham Case, though Civil, the Arch- 
 bishops and the Bishop of London, and in the Cases of ' Liddell 
 V. Westerton ' and ' Liddell v. Beal,' also Civil, the Archbishop 
 of Canterbury and the Bishop of London were asked to attend 
 as Assessors, though not being Members of the Judicial Com- 
 mittee, for the purposes of those Appeals. Since the Appellate 
 Jurisdiction Act, 1876, there has been a Rota of Archbishops 
 and Bishops in every Ecclesiastical Case as Assessors.
 
 120 
 
 Extract from Lord Brougham's Speech in House of 
 Lords on Bishop of London's Bill, 1850 ». 
 
 Lord Brougham said : — * It was my Bill that constituted the 
 Judicial Committee. It was I also who abolished the Court of 
 Delegates. I cannot help feeling that the Judicial Committee of 
 the Privy Council was framed without the expectation of ques- 
 tions like that [Gorham Case] which had produced the present 
 measure being brought before it. — It was created for the con- 
 sideration of a totally different class of Case ; and I have no 
 doubt that if it had been constituted with a view to such Cases 
 as the present, some other arrangement would have been made,' 
 &c., &c., &c. 
 
 ANAL YSIS. 
 DOCTRINE. 
 
 Cases 
 
 Spiritual Element 
 
 
 1858, Feb. 6. 
 
 Ditcher v. Denison. 
 
 Bishop of London. 
 
 
 1867, ytme 18. 
 
 Simpson v. Flamank. 
 
 Archbishop of York. 
 
 
 1861, March 13. 
 
 Heatli V. Burder (ist Appeal). 
 
 No Spiritual Element. 
 
 
 1862, June 6. 
 
 Heath v. Burder (2nd Appeal). 
 
 Archbishop of York. 
 Bishop of London. 
 
 
 1870, Nov. 14. 
 
 Voysey v. Noble. 
 
 Archbishop of Canterbury. 
 
 
 HERESY. 
 
 Cases 
 
 Spiritual Element 
 
 1863, jfime 26. 
 
 (a) Wilson v. Fendall. \ 
 
 \b) Williams v. Bishop of j. 
 
 Salisbury. J 
 
 1876, y«w. 31. 
 
 Jenkins v. Cook, 
 
 f Archbishop of Canterbury. 
 -! Archbishop of York. 
 t Bishop of London. 
 
 Archbishop of Canterbury. 
 Archbishop of York. 
 
 * Hansard's Parliamentary Debates, vol. iii., June 3, 1850. Appeals to 
 Privy Council from Ecclesiastical Courts ; Matters of Doctrine Bill.
 
 121 
 
 CORRECTION OF CLERKS. 
 
 Cases 
 
 1840, July 2. 
 
 Speer v. Burder. 
 
 1842, June 23. 
 
 Escott V. Martin. 
 
 1842, Nov. 28. 
 
 Head v. Saunders. 
 
 1846, May 13. 
 
 Bluck V. Rackham ''. 
 
 1848, Feb. 14. 
 
 Shore v. Barnes. 
 
 1850, May 9. 
 
 Dodd V. Cooper {abandoned). 
 
 1850, Dec. 31. 
 
 Madan v. Karr {abandoned). 
 
 1856, June 20. 
 
 West V. Johnson. 
 
 Spiritual Element 
 
 No Spiritual Element. 
 No Spiritual Element. 
 Bishop of Londcn. 
 No Spiritual Element. 
 Archbishop of York. 
 
 No Spiritual Element. 
 
 IMMORALITY. 
 
 Cases 
 
 1846, Feb. 18. 
 
 Loftus V. Kitson. 
 
 1849, Feb. 13. 
 
 Craig V. Farnall. 
 
 1867, Feb. 7. 
 
 Berney v. Bishop of Norwich. 
 
 1868, Feb. 12. 
 
 Pearse v. Bishop of Norwich. 
 
 Fitzroy v. Taylor {abandoned). 
 
 1869, Feb. 18. 
 
 Edwards v. Moss. 
 
 1874, April 28. 
 Jackson v. Martin. 
 
 1875, May 2^. 
 Reid V. Burch. 
 
 Spiritual Element 
 
 No Spiritual Element. 
 Bishop of London. 
 Archbishop of York. 
 Archbishop of York. 
 
 Archbishop of York. 
 
 Bishop of London. 
 Archbishop of York. 
 
 ^ Tried in form as a Civil Suit.
 
 122 
 RITUAL. 
 
 Cases 
 
 1868, Nffv. 18. 
 
 Martin v. Mackonochie. 
 
 1869, Jtme 19. 
 Sheppard v. Phillimore. 
 
 1870, March 26. 
 
 Sheppard z/. Bennett ( 1st Appeal). 
 
 1871, Nov. 29. 
 
 Sheppard v. Bennett (2nd Ap- 
 peal). 
 
 1 870, July 4. 
 Elphinstone v. Purchas. 
 
 1 87 1, April zd. 
 Hebbert v. Purchas. 
 
 1874, May. 
 Mackonochie v. Martin 
 
 (abandoned). 
 
 1875, Nov. 24. 
 
 Parnell v. Roughton. 
 
 1882, Feb. 3. 
 
 Martin v. Mackonochie. 
 
 1882, July 4. 
 
 Harris v. Perkins and Enraght. 
 
 Spiritual Element 
 
 Archbishop of York. 
 
 Archbishop of York. 
 Bishop of London. 
 
 Archbishop of York. 
 Bishop of London. 
 
 Archbishop of York. 
 Bishop of London. 
 
 Archbishop of York. 
 
 Archbishop of York. 
 Bishop of London. 
 
 Archbishop of Canterbury. 
 
 Archbishop of York. 
 Bishop of Durham. 
 Bishop of Winchester. 
 Bishop of Lichfield. 
 
 Bishop of London. 
 
 CHURCH ORNAMENTS. 
 
 Cases 
 
 Spiritual Element 
 
 iS^TfAfarc/i 21. 
 
 Liddell v. Westerton, \ 
 Liddell v. Beal. J 
 
 / Archbishop of Canterbury. 
 \ Bishop of London. 
 
 1874, June 25. 
 
 Lee V. Fagg and Mummery. 
 
 No Spiritual Element. 
 
 1877, Feb. I. 
 
 Ridsdale v. Clifton. 
 
 Archbishop of Canterbury. 
 Bishop of Chichester. 
 Bishop of St. Asaph. 
 Bishop of Ely. 
 Bishop of St. David's.
 
 123 
 
 IRREGULAR PERFORMANCE OF DIVINE SERVICE. 
 
 Cases 
 
 1867, Dec. 17. 
 
 Rugg V. Kings mill. 
 
 1868, l^ov. 17. 
 
 Rugg V. Bishop of Winchester. 
 
 Spiritual Element 
 
 No Spiritual Element. 
 Archbishop of York. 
 
 RETABLE. 
 
 Cases 
 
 1876, March 21. 
 
 Masters v. Durst (ist Hearing). 
 
 1876, May 29. 
 
 Masters v. Durst (2nd Hearing, 
 on a Special Case ordered to 
 be brought in). 
 
 Spiritual Element 
 
 No Spiritual Element. 
 No Spiritual Element. 
 
 REREDOS. 
 
 Case 
 
 Spiritual Element 
 
 1875, Jan. 22. 
 
 Plailpotts V. Boyd. 
 
 No Spiritual Element. 
 
 DUPLEX QUERELA. 
 
 Cases 
 
 1849, Dec. 12. 
 
 Gorham v. Bishop of Exeter. 
 
 1875, Feb. 19. 
 
 Marriner v. Bishop of Bath and 
 Wells. 
 
 Spiritual Element 
 
 Archbishop of Canterbury. 
 Archbishop of York. 
 Bishop of Lincoln. 
 
 Bishop of Exeter. 
 Bishop of Oxford. 
 Bishop of Manchester.
 
 124 
 
 REFUSAL OF ARCHBISHOP OF CANTERBURY TO GRANT 
 CITATION. 
 
 Case 
 
 Spiritual Element 
 
 1888, Au^usi 3. 
 
 Read v. Archbishop of Canter- 
 bury. 
 
 Bishop of London. 
 Bishop of Salisbury. 
 Bishop of Ely. 
 Bishop of Manchester. 
 Bishop of Sodor and Man. 
 
 Since then we have had 
 1892, Augiisi 2. 
 
 Bishop of Chichester. 
 Bishop of St. David's. 
 
 Same Case. 
 
 Bishop of Lichfield. 
 
 (Archbishop of York). 
 
 It has to be observed — 
 
 1. That in ten out of the forty-two cases in analysis there is 
 no Spiritual Element. 
 
 2. That in the last case, ' Read v. Archbishop of Canterbury,' 
 the original order of facts was : 
 
 {a) That the Prosecutor having applied to the Archbishop to 
 cite the Bishop of Lincoln, the Archbishop refused. 
 
 {b) That, thereupon, the Prosecutor api)lied to the Judicial 
 Committee in the matter of the Archbishop's jurisdiction. 
 
 {c) That the Judicial Committee pronounced that the Arch- 
 bishop had jurisdiction in the case, as upon a point referred to 
 and resting with them to decide aye or no. 
 
 {d) That the Judicial Committee did not say 'final jurisdic- 
 tion/ but only 'jurisdiction.' 
 
 {e) That after this delivery on the part of the Judicial 
 Committee the Archbishop proceeded to cite. 
 
 George Anthony Denison, 
 
 Archdeacon of Taunton. 
 
 East Brent : April, 1889.
 
 125 
 
 NOTE BY AUTHOR. 
 
 In republishing the above Analysis, I am once more presenting 
 the position which dates from 1832 down to the present time 
 in respect of Causes Spiritual before Judicial Committee of 
 Privy Council. The case of Read v. Bishop of Lincoln has 
 been added. 
 
 It has to be noted that the real substance of the complaint 
 
 against the Civil Power in respect of Spiritual Causes remains 
 
 just where it was before the late trial in the Archbishop's Court, 
 
 and the final review of the Archbishop's Judgment by Privy 
 
 Council. 
 
 I am bound to add here that I am not able to recognise the 
 Archbishop's sole Jurisdiction as exercised in that Court. 
 
 I have ceased to concern myself about Ritual upon finding it 
 made of primary concern, and Doctrine of secondary concern. 
 
 G. A. Denison.
 
 APPENDIX II. 
 
 THE POLITICAL HERESY AND THE INTEL- 
 LECTUAL HERESY OF CENTURY XIX. 
 IN ENGLAND. 
 
 The Charge of tJic Archdeacon of Taunton , i8go. 
 
 Brethren in Christ, 
 
 I speak to you to-day in the matter of two 
 heresies — the political and the intellectual — prevailing in 
 England very widely, from the early part of this century 
 down to our own time, and gathering strength day by day. 
 England may be said, with the exception of Socinus ", to 
 have been the parent, in the persons of Hobbes^ and 
 Herbert S of the modern heresy of Europe. Heresy, pass- 
 ing through France into Germany, is now returned upon 
 us in large requital from both, and especially from Ger- 
 many. 
 
 The two heresies — the political and the intellectual — 
 have particular features and aspects of their own. But 
 they are also closely allied the one with the other, inter- 
 mixed and intertwined the one with the other. 
 
 * Heresy ' stands forth now, has ever so done, and will 
 do unto the end, denying and contending against ' the 
 Holy Catholic Church ' of the Apostles' Creed, * the one 
 Holy Catholic Church' of the Nicene Creed, 'the Catholic 
 Faith,' ' the Catholic Religion ' of the Creed of S. Atha- 
 nasius. 
 
 It is the Holy Catholic Church, guided by * The Spirit 
 of Truth <^,' which has in God's own time given to all men 
 
 « Socinus, 1525— 1562. '• Hobbes, 1588— 1679. 
 
 ••■ Herbert, 1561 — 1648. ^ S. John xvi. 13.
 
 127 
 
 for all time ' Holy Scripture,' the Bible, the Book of God, 
 the Word of God, as we of the Church of England have 
 received it. 
 
 The Political Heresy. When therefore I subjoin the 
 word ' heresy ' to ' political,' I mean what are called ' neces- 
 sities of party,' coupled with corresponding public action 
 on the part of the legislature for the time being — action 
 opposed to and, in one measure or another, consciously or 
 unconsciously, hostile to the Church of Christ, subordinat- 
 ing its Divine commission, duty and authority to temporal 
 wants and uses. 
 
 I am not referring here to any party in particular, but 
 to a fact common to parties in power during this century, 
 in respect of what I have here in hand. What one has 
 originated its successor has adopted. 
 
 The political heresy, then, is in England not only simply 
 * an unconstitutional thing' in virtue of the constitution of 
 England being a constitution in * Church and State.' It is 
 much more than this ; it is an ' irreligious thing.' I speak 
 of the thing conceived and done ; not of the man conceiving 
 and doing. I have no authority to judge the doer; but if 
 I hesitated, as priest of the Holy Catholic Church, to 
 judge and warn against complicity with the thing done, 
 I should be unfaithful to my office. 
 
 Within the last sixty years there have been multiplied 
 instances in England of the action and rapid development 
 of the ' political heresy ' — that is, the heresy which con- 
 cerns itself with ignoring, damaging, destroying the inherit- 
 ance and the rights of English citizens^; inheritance and 
 rights, religious and civil. 
 
 Of this multiplied number I cite two instances only. 
 I cite them because they are primary in point of time and 
 in the significance and extent of their character and their 
 issues. There is in both a very copious intermixture of 
 the ' intellectual heresy,' with which I shall have to deal 
 presently. Meantime, I refer to my two instances. 
 
 * iroAiTTjs.
 
 128 
 
 1. To the annexation in 1832-3 of the province of the 
 Spiritualty, being the constitutional adviser of the Crown 
 in all causes spiritual, to the province of the Judicial Com- 
 mittee of Privy Council ; with all the subsequent develop- 
 ments and unhappy issues of this annexation. 
 
 2. To the annexation of the province of the parish school 
 of England, the nursery of the parish Church of England, 
 to the province of the Committee of Council on ' Educa- 
 tion ' (so called), as the price to be paid for assistance 
 from the public purse ; with all the subsequent develop- 
 ments and unhappy issues of this annexation. This was 
 done in its substance in 1839 — 40. The thing then done 
 had been hatching from 1832 to 1839 — 40- It was finally 
 completed in 1870. The issues may be summed up thus : 
 {a) The essence of the parish school has been destroyed ; 
 {b) the position of the parish priest in his school negatived ; 
 {c) the spirit of general indifferentism engendered and 
 encouraged. Indifferentism has a ' generation ; ' that 
 generation is infidelity. 
 
 A very few words I add here for myself. 
 
 I have never denied or questioned that it is the duty of 
 the Civil Power of England to assist schools of citizens not 
 members of the Church of England, but being tax-payers 
 alike with them ; what I have denied, and do deny, is that 
 it is the duty of the Civil Power to sacrifice ' the Church 
 school ' to any extent, or in any particular, in order to the 
 readier promotion of secular teaching ; of what goes now 
 by the name of ' the education of the young ' in the mouth 
 of those forgetting that there is no such thing as * educa- 
 tion ' in a Church school save only that which is in every 
 particular according to the Prayer-book. 
 
 I take leave, now, of ' the political heresy,' summing it 
 up as follows : 
 
 The political heresy is an irreligious principle, carried 
 out in action by dominant citizenship of the World against 
 the Church. 
 
 I have here to note that what is vulgarly called ' dis- 
 establishment ' is not only not the remedy for the wrong
 
 129 
 
 of 'the political heresy,' but is a sin against ' the Unity of 
 the Faith.' Some time ago I was hasty enough and un- 
 wise enough not to see this, and for about two years took 
 part in the 'disestablishment' cry. I thank God I was 
 brought to the knowledge of my unhappy error. 
 
 The Intellecttial Heresy. When I subjoin the word 
 ' heresy ' to ' intellectual ' I mean everything that casts 
 a shadow of doubt upon the genuineness, authenticity, 
 Divine authority of Holy Scripture as given to us by the 
 Catholic Church, guided by the Spirit of Truth. 
 One example is sufficient. 
 
 ' The New Criticism ' does not accept Moses as the writer 
 of the Law : Our Lord says, ' Did not Moses give you the 
 law?' (S. John viii, 19.) 
 
 ' Had ye believed Moses, ye would have believed Me, 
 for he wrote of Me. But if ye believe not his writings, how 
 shall ye believe My words } ' (S. John v. 46, 7.) 
 
 * The Law was given by Moses : but grace and truth 
 came by Jesus Christ.' (S. John i. 17.) 
 
 The condoners of ' The New Criticism ' apply themselves 
 to getting rid of all this, and of much more of like warning, 
 by the assumption of the alternative following, in the 
 nature of the case unavoidable : 
 
 Either our Blessed Lord did not know the historic truth 
 of the Scriptures ; or knowing it. He 'veiled His omnis- 
 cience ' according to ' the general method of the Incarna- 
 tion.' 
 
 What these last words may mean I cannot tell. To say 
 the least, the vagueness and the presumption of knowledge 
 conveyed in them are about equal. If they have no 
 meaning to me, I may perhaps be allowed humbly to ask 
 what basis they supply to the Christian world for the 
 introduction of a new Christianity at the demand of ' The 
 New Criticism ^ ' And what is to become of the learned 
 and unlearned to whom, or for whom, the Scriptures are 
 read every day in the Church as out of God's book : and 
 who, out of the Church, and perhaps in it, are told that the 
 Scriptures are of more than doubtful authority ? 
 
 K
 
 I30 
 
 The seed of doubt about the Divine authority of ' the 
 Scriptures' now proposed to be sown broadcast in the 
 English mind, finds its ready way, among other eadiest 
 impressions, into schools. 
 
 There arc two forms of the intellectual heresy, the major 
 and the minor, the primary and the subsidiary. 
 
 The first is the conceiving, and the acting in direct 
 assault upon 'The Faith.' The instrument employed in 
 action is 'The New Criticism,' which assumes that the 
 historic truth of the Revelation of God has yet to be 
 ascertained by man. 
 
 The second is the excusing, jjalliating, extenuating, in 
 one word condoning, ' The New Criticism ; ' and even 
 claiming for it the name of * a development of natural 
 knowledge,' and the name of a ' search after Truth ; ' the 
 * development ' and the ' search after Truth ' being not 
 reconcilable with Holy Scripture as delivered to us by the 
 Church, under the guidance of ' The Spirit of Truth,' in 
 fulfilment of the prophesy and promise of our Lord^ 
 
 ' The New Criticism,' applying its ' inventive ^' power to 
 the overthrow of the genuineness, the authenticity, and 
 therein to the undermining and loosening faith in, and 
 even respect for, ' Holy Scripture,' is conceded to and con- 
 doned by the book ' Lux Mundi.' 
 
 Now if any man want to see and know what is the 
 simple history of the birth into the world of ' the intellec- 
 tual heresy,' he has it given him once for all in the first 
 seven verses of the third chapter of the first book of 
 Moses. (Genesis iii. i — 7.) 
 
 There is nothing left untold there of the history of its 
 birth, and of what it is ; nothing for man to invent, or to 
 inquire about further ; nothing which he may invent or 
 inquire about further. ' Natural knowledge ' has its pro- 
 vince. Outside that province it is not lawful ; becomes 
 unnatural ; an intruding into the province of God. The 
 mind of man in the pride of its reason craves to know 
 what is beyond the range of the reasoning power. It 
 
 f S. John xvi. 13. ^ Eccles. vii. 29.
 
 131 
 
 craves, but cannot be satisfied ; any more than could the 
 highest order of the fallen Angels be satisfied. 
 
 In discourse more sweet 
 (For eloquence the soul, song charms the sense) 
 Others apart sat on a hill retired, 
 In thoughts more elevate ; and reasoned high 
 Of Providence, foreknowledge, will, and fate ; 
 Fix'd fate, free will, foreknowledge absolute ; 
 And found no end, in wandering mazes lost. 
 Of good and evil much they argued then, 
 Of happiness and final misery, 
 Passion and apathy, and glory, and shame ; 
 Vain wisdom all, and false philosophy. 
 
 Paradise Lost ^ Book II. 555—565 {c. Eccles. viii. 17). 
 
 I do not know what ' The New Criticism ' propounds 
 upon Genesis iii. i — 7. I do not care to know. / knotv 
 beforehand that I may not so much as listen to it. I accept 
 with humble thankfulness, in all its fulness and satisfying 
 power, the Revelation of God ; not the inventions of men. 
 
 The desire to be wiser than God is the deadliest of the 
 three snares of the devil laid for every soul of man. 
 
 To man yet innocent the devil applied this his deadliest 
 weapon — the desire to be wise, wiser than God. He 
 instilled it by his subtlety into the heart of the woman : 
 
 Yea, hath God said : Ye shall not eat of every tree of the garden. 
 (Gen. iii. i.) 
 
 Ye shall not surely die. For God doth know that in the day ye 
 eat thereof, then your eyes shall be opened, and ye shall be as gods, 
 knowing good and evil. (Gen. iii. 4.) 
 
 The fall was begun, the way opened for the other two 
 temptations of man — ' the lust of the flesh and the lust of 
 the eye.' 
 
 And when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and 
 that it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree to be desired to make one 
 wise, she took of the fruit thereof and did eat. (Gen. iii. 6.) 
 
 Our Blessed Lord ' was in all points tempted like as we 
 are, yet without sin' (Hebrews iv. 15); S. Luke gives us 
 His three temptations in the same order with our own 
 (S. Luke iv. i — 14) ; in like manner S. John, calling the 
 
 K 2
 
 132 
 
 desire to be wiser than God 'the pride of life' (i S. John 
 ii. 1 6, 17). Man is proud most of all of the gift of the 
 reasoning power. The giving way to this temptation our 
 Lord calls ' tempting God''' (S. Luke iv. 12). It becomes 
 in one form or another the intellectual heresy, finding fault 
 with the order and the record of the Revelation of God, 
 and therein doing all that can be done to undermine and 
 loosen men's faith in its truth, and, therein, in its Divine 
 authority. 
 
 Here compare, particularly in the matter of Christ's 
 Divine Authority, which has scaled the Scriptures for His 
 Church by the Spirit, as against all the wisdom of the 
 World : 
 
 Neither let us tempt Christ, as some of them also tempted, (i Cor. 
 X. 9.) 
 
 I need hardly add — but it may be useful — that, in order 
 to the full understanding of what is meant in Holy Scrip- 
 ture by 'tempting God,' 'tempting Christ,' tempting the 
 Spirit of the Lord, the above passage has to be most 
 carefully compared with Exod. xvii. 2 — 7, Deut vi. 16, 
 Isaiah vii. 12, Malachi iii. 15, S. Matthew xxii. 18, Acts 
 V. 9. 
 
 I have already published a brief comment upon chief 
 points forced upon the English people by the book 'Lux 
 Mundi.' The comment is to be found in extenso in the 
 Guardian of March 12, 1890, p. 448. I reproduce here, 
 from the prefatory note, ' the sum of my position : ' 
 
 I. That our Lord, having made 'Holy Scripture' His 
 own, has ' anticipated and foreclosed ' every manner 
 of questioning touching the 'genuineness,' the 
 
 •• See Milton's Paradise Regained, Book IV. 555—562 : — 
 ' Cast Thyself down ; safely, if Son of God i 
 For it is written, He will give command 
 Concerning Thee to His Angels ; in their hands 
 They shall uplift Thee, lest at any time 
 Thou chance to dash Thy foot against a stone. ' 
 To whom thus Jesus : ' Also it is written, 
 Tempt not the Lord thy God.' He said, and stood. 
 But Satan, smitten with amazement, fell.
 
 133 
 
 ' authenticity,' and, therein, the ' Divine Authority, 
 of the several Books of ' Holy Scripture.' 
 
 2. That, therefore, to enter upon any such questioning- 
 
 at all is to put human reasoning into the place of 
 Revelation ; and to undermine the one foundation 
 of Simplicity of Faith. 
 
 3. That nothing coming short of smiple and absolute 
 
 rejection of ' The New Criticism ' can meet the re- 
 quirements of the case. 
 
 I reproduce also the following : 
 
 For the personal character of the twelve writers in the 
 book, let me say that it commands respect, honour, love. 
 
 Also that there is in the book much very beautiful, very 
 attractive, very powerful. 
 
 But, all this notwithstanding, I am constrained to say 
 that it is an extreme unhappiness that the book should 
 have been written, prefaced, edited, published. 
 
 It adds to the gravity of the position that all the writers 
 in 'Lux Mundi' have made themselves responsible in 
 genere for the contents of the entire volume. (Preface, 
 p. 6.) 
 
 Now the object and purpose of the entire volume is set 
 forth in the second sentence of the Preface to be an 
 ' attempt to put the Catholic Faith into its right relation 
 to modern intellectual and moral problems.' 
 
 The manner of conducting this attempt resolves itself 
 into the condoning, and more than condoning, the issues 
 of man's ' New Criticism,' in virtue of one or other of the 
 following a.ssumptions : 
 
 Either that our Lord had not, in the days of His 
 Ministry upon earth, knowledge of the Historic Truth of 
 'the Scriptures;' or that, having that knowledge. He 
 'veiled His Eternal Omniscience' in favour of the ' natural 
 knowledge ' of successive generations of men. 
 
 Again, I am forced to repeat that language of the book 
 is, in places, applied to the Divine Nature, which is natural 
 as applied to human nature, but is unnatural and painfully 
 distressing in its familiar manner of use as applied by man
 
 134 
 
 to the Divine Nature. The promises of God throui^hout 
 His Revelation are conditional upon such obedience as He 
 will accept for Christ's sake. That obedience failing, the 
 promise is withdrawn, and this is declared by God in His 
 own lajigiiage. But for man to speak of the 'disappoint- 
 ment' of God is plainly to use language which cannot be 
 reconciled with His Eternal Omniscience. 
 
 I will not believe, till it becomes a fact, that whatever 
 may be the differences in matters spiritual among believers 
 in Christ in England, there will not be found a great mul- 
 titude of all orders and conditions of men uniting in 
 absolute rejection of the new Christianity imported into 
 England by * The New Criticism ; ' condoned, and more 
 than condoned, by the book ' Lux Mundi.' It is close 
 upon two thousand years since Christ came ; and we are 
 asked by the pride of human learning to deal with the 
 Book of God, and teach our people so, as if it was a book 
 of man. 
 
 God grant to us, dear brethren in Christ, in the trial 
 which is upon us, to learn to be thankful that, in an age 
 which is very loose, and filled to the brim with the conceit 
 of human learning, knowledge, power, along with forget- 
 fulness of The Giver, He hath sent us something to make 
 us more careful to try ourselves, and to say to ourselves, 
 * Do ye now believe } ' (S. John xvi. 31.) To try ourselves 
 as to what that is which we call our ' faith.' 
 
 ' The New Critic ' and his condoners drag down heaven 
 to earth — heavenly things to earthly things. They are 
 hearing men rather than God. 
 
 Hear we then our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, speak- 
 ing to us in the days of His Incarnation — speaking to us 
 of His own method of His own Incarnation : 
 
 Verily, verily, I say unto thee, We speak that we do know, and 
 testify that we have seen ; and ye receive not our witness. If I have 
 told you earthly things, and ye believe not, how shall ye believe, 
 if I tell you of heavenly things } And no man hath ascended up 
 to heaven, but He that came down from heaven, even the Son of 
 man which is in heaven. (S. John iii. 11 — 13.)
 
 03 
 
 I sum up in brief — 
 
 The question raised by Mr. Gore in his Preface to the 
 book ' Lux Mundi,' and developed in his own Essay, is 
 not a question of the like nature with those of 'Rite 
 and Ceremony' and of Church Government, in both of 
 which the contending parties appeal to ' the Law of the 
 Church ' as by each interpreted— 
 
 But is a question primary and precedent of all other ; 
 a question lying at the fountain head of The Faith ; a 
 question of the Divine Authority of the common inherit- 
 ance of ' all sorts and conditions of men ; ' a question 
 in its nature, not admitting of diverse interpretation; 
 a question of the Divine Authority of the Canonical 
 Scriptures of the Old Testament, as delivered to man 
 for all time by the Church Catholic, guided by The Spirit 
 into all Truth ; Authority precluding and foreclosing 
 human enquiry into the genuineness and authenticity 
 of the several Books of the Old Testament, as so de- 
 livered ; or of portions of those Books. 
 
 I cite some words of our Blessed Lord : 
 
 Search the Scriptures ; for in them ye think ye have eternal life : 
 and they are they which testify of Me. (S. John v. 39.)
 
 APPENDIX III. 
 
 LUX MUNDI. 
 
 A Paper read at a Meeting of the English C/utrch Union, 
 February 2j, iSqo. 
 
 Dear Friends in CHRIST,— 
 
 I thank GOD that I am able to be again present here 
 with you to-night. 
 
 I have a special duty to discharge towards you, and 
 through you, to others. 
 
 A book has been published called " Lux Mundi " — 
 " The Light of the World." 
 
 The book in itself, with special circumstances closely 
 connected with its publication, are the warrant for freest 
 comment upon it, and its issues. 
 
 What I have to say upon it to-night must needs be 
 condensed to the utmost possible extent — I am going to 
 state truths, not to argue. There is indeed no room for 
 arguing in the case. 
 
 If, upon this, any one say that, when arguing is shut 
 out, the position of the man who shuts it out is a weak 
 one, my answer is this — 
 
 That for the Christian man, in respect of the Authority 
 of " Holy Scripture," there is a weakness which is stronger 
 than the deepest enquiry, the keenest reasoning power, the 
 most attractive and winning eloquence ; and that is child- 
 like simplicity of Faith. 
 
 " Except ye be converted and become as little chil- 
 "dren, ye shall not enter into the kingdom of Heaven '\" 
 
 " When I am weak, then am I strong ''." 
 
 • S. Matt, xviii. 3. ^2 Cor. xii. 10.
 
 137 
 
 A simple childlike Faith, a sense of inherent weakness 
 apart from Christ, is, for the Christian, the one way of 
 Life. The one way for high and low, rich and poor, 
 learned and unlearned, one with another. 
 
 Simple childlike Faith in " Holy Scripture " as de- 
 livered to him by the Church ^. 
 
 Suffer me to recall to you the words of jESUS in the 
 Gospel for S. Matthias Day. 
 
 '^"At that time jESUS answered and said, I thank 
 " Thee, O Father, Lord of Heaven and Earth, because 
 " Thou hast hid these things from the wise and prudent ^, 
 " and hast revealed them unto babes. Even so Father, 
 " for so it seemed good in Thy sight." 
 
 On the other hand, the Adversary of the Church, the 
 World, led by its Prince, proclaims "Science" or "Phi- 
 losophy" to be its chief and safest guide. From the 
 earliest times of Christianity, the World has been doing 
 this. In our own portion of " the last days^" the World 
 is asking us to admire and adopt a " Science," or " Phi- 
 losophy," which has for its object the promotion of dis- 
 Belief in The Divine Authority of the Old Testament. 
 
 This " Science " or " Philosophy " is " the New Criti- 
 cism." There are only two places in Holy Scripture 
 in which the words "Philosophy," "Science" are found. 
 
 " Beware lest any man spoil you through philosophy 
 "and vain deceit; after the tradition of men, after the 
 " rudiments of the World, and not after Christ s." 
 
 " O Timothy, keep that which is committed to thy 
 " trust, avoiding profane and vain babblings and opposi- 
 " tions of ' Science ' falsely so called ; which some, 
 "professing, have erred concerning The Faith ^" 
 
 For the personal character of the twelve writers in 
 the book, let me say that it commands respect, honour, 
 love. 
 
 " Article VI. ^ S. Matt. xi. 25. " ffwerwi'. " Under- 
 
 standing " R. V. '2 S. Peter ii. 3 ; I Heb. i. 2 ; Acts ii. 171 
 
 8 Coloss. ii. 8. '' I Timothy vi. 20, 21.
 
 138 
 
 Also that there is in the book much very beautiful, 
 very attractive, very powerful. 
 
 But, all this notwithstanding, I am constrained to say 
 that it is an extreme unhappiness that the book should 
 have been written, prefaced, edited, published. 
 
 The object and drift of the book is stated in the second 
 paragraph of the Preface, as follows : 
 
 •* The writers are compelled for their own sake, no 
 " less than for that of others, to attempt to put The 
 " Catholic Faith into its right relation to modern intellec- 
 "tual and moral problems." 
 
 Upon this, I have first to say, that it would be diffi- 
 cult to find anywhere a more startling and confounding 
 attempt announced by sons of The Church Catholic than 
 this public announcement at the close of the Nineteenth 
 Century of Redemption. 
 
 Further still, that it lays the foundation of never-ending 
 aggression upon Simplicity of Faith by way of succes- 
 sive adaptations of " Holy Scripture " to the successive 
 "modern intellectual and moral problems" of successive 
 times : that is to the successive "inventions'" of men. 
 
 Now I submit that it is not the duty of sons of The 
 Church Catholic to be, at any time, under any circum- 
 stances, shifting the line of Defence of the Faith com- 
 mitted and entrusted to them of GOD by The Church. 
 
 More particularly, that it is not their duty to minister 
 to, in the hope of reconciling, those who are, in their 
 appetite for profane and reckless criticism, applying their 
 little life to instilling into the minds of Christ's People 
 doubts and difficulties about the genuineness and the 
 authenticity, and therein about the authority, of the Holy 
 Scriptures of The Old Testament. 
 
 Further still that it rs not their duty as sons of The 
 
 Church to do this at the cost of the simple and humble 
 
 believer ; of the man who does not live his little life to 
 
 criticise, argue, question, doubt about the foundation of 
 
 ' Eccles. vii. 29.
 
 139 
 
 his Faith ; but to obey because he beHeves ; with the 
 words always in his heart. "If thou canst beheve, all 
 "things are possible to him that believeth— Lord, I 
 " believe ; help Thou mine ' unbelief V 
 
 Of all cruel things that one man can do to another 
 there is nothing so cruel as to go about to shake the 
 foundations of Belief; and therein to rob the thousands 
 and ten thousands of men of their one ground of Comfort 
 and of Hope. 
 
 In whatever way, and however guarded or modified, 
 this be done, it carries with it the largest, the worst, and 
 the most unhappy issues. 
 
 It is, if not consciously but, surely, to help to poison 
 the fountain-head in order to make the waters healing. 
 To muddy the spring that the stream may be clear and 
 bright. To help the doubter and disputer to the loss and 
 harm of the simple believer. 
 
 Above all it is to rush in to tread where our Lord 
 and Saviour has barred the way, and has shut the gate. 
 He has made all Holy Scripture His own. 
 
 There is another feature of the book which I may 
 not pass by. I mean the use in many places of language 
 natural and familiar as applied by man to man ; unnatural 
 and distressing as applied by man to GOD. 
 
 There is yet another feature, the unhappiest of all, if 
 there be room to distinguish. 
 
 The neologian, being in difficulty about our Lord's 
 express testimony to the historical Truth of " The Scrip- 
 tures," assumes, in accordance with the general character 
 of neologic criticism i, that our Lord did not possess in His 
 life upon Earth that accurate knowledge of historical fact, 
 which he, the neologian, has been able to possess in virtue 
 of his own critical research. 
 
 '' S. Mark ix. 23, 24. 
 
 ' The new criticism in itself, condoned as it is in " Lux Mundi," is of 
 a character not tolerable, as applied to a book of man. It is worse than 
 intolerable as applied to The Book of God.
 
 140 
 
 How does Mr. Gore, the writer of Essay VIII., the 
 Editor of the book, deal with this ? 
 
 He deals with it not by way of condemnation, or refu- 
 tation, or even reproof. He concedes the substance of it ; 
 and he supports the concession upon the following nega- 
 tive process : 
 
 " He shews no signs at all of transcending the Science 
 "of His age. Equally he shews no signs of transcending 
 " the History of His age. He does not reveal His Eternity 
 "by statements as to what had happened in the past, or 
 "was to happen in the future outside the ken of existing 
 •' history. 
 
 " Thus the utterances of CHRIST about the Old Testa- 
 " ment do not seem to be nearly definite or clear enough 
 "to allow of our supposing that in this case He is de- 
 " parting from the general method of the Incarnation, by 
 "brino-ing to bear the unveiled omniscience of the 
 "Godhead to anticipate or foreclose a developement of 
 " natural knowledge ■"." 
 
 That is to say, that because our LORD did not state 
 formally that He had all historic knowledge, it is to be 
 assumed that He had it not. His express declarations 
 about Moses' "writings" and "the Scriptures" notwith- 
 standing. And that real knowledge of what is, and what 
 is not, historic Truth of "Holy Scripture" has been left 
 to be supplied in after ages by successive developements 
 of " natural knowledge." That is, by what " Holy Scrip- 
 ture" has "anticipated and foreclosed" under the name 
 of " inventions of men °." 
 
 " Do not think I will accuse you to The Father. 
 " There is one that accuseth you, even Moses, in whom 
 " ye trust. For had ye believed Moses, ye would have 
 " believed Me, for he u^rote of Me. But if ye believe not 
 " his writings, how shall ye believe My words ° ? " 
 
 " Search the Scriptures, for in them ye think ye have 
 " eternal Life ; and they are they which testify of Me p." 
 
 " Essay VHI., p. 360. ° Eccles. vii. 29. " S. John v. 44-5-6. 
 
 p Pss. cvi. 29, 39 ; xcix. 8 ; St. John v. 39.
 
 141 
 
 I sum up this Paper as follows : 
 
 That the book " Lux Mundi " is much more a con- 
 cession to and an excuse for " the New Criticism " than 
 a reproof and warning against it. 
 
 That therefore I call it a most unhappy and dangerous 
 book. 
 
 And I have this further to say : That, filled as the last 
 
 58 years of this century have been with successive 
 
 assaults upon The Catholic Faith and Position of the 
 
 Church of England, the book called " Lux Mundi " coining 
 
 from witJiin is my chief ground for fear. 
 
 I make no apology, dear friends in CHRIST, for this 
 Address. To have passed by the book unnoticed in the 
 exercise of my office among you as Chairman of this 
 Branch of the English Church Union would have been 
 to betray that office in failing to warn you lest ye be 
 " corrupted from the Simplicity that is in Christ''." 
 
 I allow myself to hope that, by grace of God, the Union 
 of Clergy and People against everything that touches the 
 authority of The Bible will be very general and very 
 powerful. 
 
 ■i 2 Cor. xi. 3.
 
 A SPEECH BEFORE CONVOCATION, 
 
 Februaiy j, iSgi. 
 
 The Gravamen of the undersigned, George Anthony Dcnison, 
 Archdeacon of Taunton. 
 
 Session of Convocation of Canterbury, February 3, 1S91. 
 
 1. Whereas, on Tuesday, Session May 6th, 1890, the under- 
 
 signed presented a gravamen tJi re ' Lux Mundi ' 
 (London : John Murray, Albemarle Street, 1889), and 
 gave notice of motion that it be made ' Articulus 
 Cleri ' for Session next ensuing, Wednesday, 7th ; 
 
 2. And whereas the evening of May 6th the undersigned 
 
 was told by high authority that there was a prospect 
 of ' explanation ' being given upon the Preface and 
 other portions of the book, and was much pressed by 
 many for whom he has highest consideration to wait 
 for such explanation before moving further in the 
 matter ; 
 
 3. And whereas the undersigned consented to this course ; 
 
 but was careful to guard himself by saying that he 
 was unable to understand now any sufficient ' explana- 
 tion ' could be given in the case short of withdrawal 
 of the matter published and complained of; 
 
 4. And whereas the undersigned was disabled by illness 
 
 from appearing in his place in Convocation on Wed- 
 nesday, Session May 7th ; and wrote the letter to the 
 Prolocutor which is placed upon record of the proceed- 
 ings of the Lower House, Session May 7th, 1890 ; 
 
 5. And whereas the undersigned has received the ' expla- 
 
 nation ' supplied by the Editor of, and contributor to, 
 the book in his Preface to Edition X. ; and that also 
 in his letter to ' Guardian,' October i8th, pubHshed in 
 ' Guardian ' of October 22nd, 1890 ; 
 
 6. And whereas the undersigned finds nothing in either of 
 
 these two papers, or in any other, to remove or lessen
 
 143 
 
 the ground of his complaint : but rather to add 
 thereto ; 
 7. And whereas the undersigned desires to place that 
 complaint as concisely as possible before the House 
 and the Church ; 
 
 He proceeds to state as follows : 
 
 1. That in the book ' Lux Mundi,' our Blessed Lord's 
 
 ' positive teaching,' in respect of the Old Testa- 
 ment Scriptures, is limited to those instances in 
 which our Blessed Lord has Himself prefaced, or 
 accompanied, His 'teaching' by His own affir- 
 mation of its ' positive ' character. 
 
 2. That, in every other instance, the book assumes it 
 
 to be the right, power, and proper function of the 
 ' literary critic ' of this, and every successive, 
 generation to discern, in the above-named respect, 
 between the * positive ' and ' non-positive ' char- 
 acter of our Blessed Lord's ' teaching.' 
 
 3. That such limitation and assumption — 
 
 A. Cannot be reconciled with the Holy Gospels. 
 
 B. Tend to 'beguile' and 'corrupt' men's minds 
 
 'from the simplicity that is in ClIRIST*.' 
 
 C. Are irreverent towards Him, perfect GOD and 
 
 perfect Man. 
 
 D. Are contrary to the authority of the Church, 
 
 as declared by the Vlth Article of Religion. 
 
 E. Are contrary to the Book of Common Prayer, 
 
 and Administration of the Sacraments. 
 Reformandmn. — The undersigned respectfully prays his 
 Grace the President and their Lordships the Bishops 
 to take such steps as may be necessary to protect the 
 Church from dangerous error. 
 
 GEORGE ANTHONY DENISON, 
 
 A rchdeacon of Taunton. 
 
 Carried up to the Upper House by the Prolocutor of the 
 Lower House. 
 
 ■ 2 Cor. xi. 3.
 
 A SPEECH BEFORE THE LOWER 
 HOUSE OF CONVOCATION, 
 
 Scssio7i February j, iSgi. 
 
 It is not easy to measure the distress under which I come 
 before the House. Those of you who know me well, now 
 not many, will give me credit for it. From those who do 
 not I ask the most favourable construction they can put 
 upon my action. 
 
 I desire here, in limine, to remove a possible misappre- 
 hension of the object I have in asking the House to concur 
 in praying for a committee to enquire into and report. I 
 look at the man who is primarily and principally concerned 
 with the position taken, and claim advanced, in a great 
 centre of English learning. I look at those associated with 
 him and stated by him to be ingenere concurrent with him 
 upon the main issue. I find them, as I find himself, to 
 be respected, honoured, loved — all of them men of large 
 ability, learning, kindliness in purpose and in act, and of 
 recognised and unquestioned Churchmanship, save in the 
 present instance. On the other hand, I find them advocat- 
 ing conclusions which it is not possible for me to stand by 
 and not to disallow. I find them advocating in substance 
 a revised faith and a new theology at the close of the 
 nineteenth century of redemption-''; advocating these things 
 by way of ' succour to a distressed faith ' in themselves 
 and others, because such faith is unable to reconcile con- 
 clusions of science with Holy Scripture, and is making its 
 choice between Holy Scripture in its integrity and the 
 conclusions of science, in favour of the latter. For myself 
 and for others ' of all sorts and conditions of men,' who are 
 either without time or without care, or without the means 
 of taking part in duly considering this great question ; for 
 all who cling advisedly to Holy Scripture as committed to 
 us by the Church of England ; and lastly, for the millions 
 
 » See Preface to " LuxMundi," Ed. i, 1889, p. viii.
 
 145 
 
 of mankind, who live and must die unlearned, and have 
 nothing to look to but the simplicity of faith in which 
 to live and die, what I am asking the House to concur in 
 is this and this only. 
 
 First, negatively, in no word of condemnation. It is 
 far away from myself, either in thought, word, or act. It 
 would be quite unfitting in the case. Second, affirmatively, 
 that it concur in saying that it is right there should be 
 inquiry by a committee in the hope that the committee 
 will advise the House that the Church of England, in this 
 Province, may not accept the conclusions of ' Lux Mundi,' 
 inasmuch as such conclusions involve, to use its own 
 language, a revised faith '^ and a new theology; this as 
 against 'the old ways and the old paths.' I have en- 
 deavoured here to present the gentler and more hopeful 
 aspect of the case— that is to say, of the necessary and 
 abiding conflict between the old faith and the new, the 
 old theology and the new. It would only be idle to 
 attempt to hide from myself and others that there is 
 another aspect which I will not anticipate, which the 
 Church of England may have to look steadily in the face 
 throughout all time. 
 
 Meantime, I have, to the best of my poor ability, to do 
 what is my plain duty, irrespective of consequences that 
 may or may not ensue, and to ask the House kindly to bear 
 with me while I endeavour, as briefly as I can, to place 
 the present case before them. 
 
 From the first day that I took the book ' Lux Mundi ' 
 into my hands, now more than a year ago, I have never 
 been without the keenest sense of the special danger of it 
 to ' all sorts and conditions of men ' — to the few that are 
 ' learned,' to the millions that are not * learned,' and must 
 perforce continue all their lives in that position. Even to 
 those who may think themselves little likely to let its 
 assumptions and its reasoning — assumptions startling from 
 more causes than one, reasoning curiously vague, specu- 
 
 *> Preface to First and Tenth Editions. 
 L
 
 146 
 
 lativc and undefined — have any weight with them, portions 
 of the book — the Preface and Eic^hth Essay more particu- 
 larly — in one respect, the whole book collectively — however 
 in many parts beautiful and commended by the high 
 character of its writers — appear to me, all the explanations 
 that have been given upon them, by rewriting, notes and 
 Preface in editions subsequent, and a great amount of other 
 explanation from critics, more or less concurring notwith- 
 standing, to exhibit unmistakably, as much as ever — I will 
 not say more than ever — its special danger. The latest 
 of these 'explanations' from the hands of Mr. Gore, that 
 I have knowledge of, is his letter to the ' Guardian,' dated 
 October 18, 1890, published October 22. I reproduce it 
 below, with my comments upon it. 
 
 This danger to 'all sorts and conditions of men' is 
 thus to my heart and mind so great that I have been 
 constrained to renew my complaint before this House, and 
 to take further necessary steps, issuing in prayer to his 
 Grace the President of this Synod, to direct appointment 
 of committee to consider and report upon it. I bring my 
 complaint before both Houses by gravamen — before this 
 House by motion. 
 
 There have been times in the history of the Church, 
 and maybe again — though, indeed, the present temper and 
 bias of men's minds does not appear to promise it — when 
 the leading character of the book, ' Lux Mundi,' w^hich I 
 am about to state, would have been dismissed in humble 
 confidence that it would fail entirely to command such 
 attention and concurrence as to require, so to speak, the 
 intervention of the Church's authority — I mean the autho- 
 rity of the Synod of the Province in which the publication 
 has been made. I do not go here into the true, lawful, 
 legal, and constitutional authority of the Synod, however 
 set at naught by assumption and invasion of the Civil 
 Power. There is no room or necessity for this now. 
 
 But I need hardly say that our time is not such a time 
 as that just referred to. On the contrary, it is a time 
 which, from great abundance of causes — which I do not
 
 147 
 
 stop to enumerate, and which accumulate day by day — - 
 supplies special grounds for increased watchfulness on the 
 part of the Synods of the Church in guarding and main- 
 taining unimpaired the precious deposit committed to their 
 care. 
 
 Is it said there is the public, though not corporate, 
 criticism of numbers of individual men competent to 
 criticise, which may be looked to to correct false conclusions 
 upon matters of the deepest interest, such as are all 
 questions of the faith in the revealed Will of God ? — my 
 answer is that any amount of such criticism can never 
 come into the place of the decision of the Synod of the 
 Church when such false conclusions threaten to prevail. 
 The Church has to speak by her corporate voice ; that 
 corporate voice is with us in England the voice of the 
 Synod Provincial, or let us hope there are those now in 
 this House who will live to see if the voice of the Synod 
 National — the Synod of the Bishops and Priests of all 
 England. Criticism has its own proper uses, religious and 
 civil ; but religious criticism can no more make law for 
 the Church than civil criticism can make law for the State. 
 Again, let me not be understood as disparaging the mar- 
 vellous accumulations of man's knowledge ; for every one 
 of these is God's gift. But there is the province of the 
 Giver and the province of the receiver, and the boundary 
 line between them may not be broken. Having premised 
 these things, I proceed to state that there are four principal 
 heads of the matter in hand which have to be placed before 
 this House, and the Church at large. 
 
 I. The claim of ' Lux Mundi,' as stated in its Preface 
 and the VHIth Essay, and endorsed, in its general aspect, 
 by the other writers in the book. I pass by as too painful 
 for me to dwell upon expressions following : ' limitation 
 of knowledge in our Lord's human mind,' ' statements 
 upon subjects about which He was really ignorant,' * state- 
 ments which are now known to have been false.' All 
 these expressions are of the essence of most irreverent 
 assumption in the form of care for reverence. 
 
 L 2
 
 148 
 
 Further still, the suggestincj that our Lord could err 
 upon matters on which He did not make affirmation that 
 He was speaking positively. Mr. Gore says, * I have re- 
 pudiated this idea on three separate occasions.' We shall 
 see what the repudiation comes to. With respect to the 
 ' Spectator ' and the ' Church Quarterly,' as cited in the 
 letter above referred to (p. 146), I marvel that, where we 
 might have looked for some more care and discernment, 
 the assumption, the irreverence of language, the figment 
 of our Lord's * positive affirmation ' should have escaped 
 them, and left them so content with what are called Mr. 
 Gore's * explanations.' 
 
 The like has to be said of the handing over to that high 
 court of appeal in matters of faith, 'the literary critic' of 
 this and all time to come, the final decision of the claim of 
 man's reason as against God's Revelation, 
 
 2. The principle, or basis, underlying the claim. 
 
 3. The ' invention ' by help of which it is proposed to 
 substantiate the claim. 
 
 4. What appears to the mover to be the answer of the 
 Church of England against the claim. 
 
 I. The claim of the book is a revised faith and a new 
 development of theology"^. I have to pause here to ask 
 a question upon use of language. Preface in First and 
 Tenth Editions, p. viii., {a) ' outlying departments of 
 theology,' {b) ' theology must take a new development.' 
 
 {a) What are the outlying departments of theology ? It 
 is a vague and arbitrary division. We want to be told 
 distinctly what is meant by ' outlying departments,' and 
 we are told nothing beyond what is inherent in the word 
 itself — i.e., less important. Who is to measure the com- 
 parative importance ? Now, we are upon a matter concern- 
 ing the true interpretation and the use of the ' Word of 
 God,' the Holy Scriptures of the Old and New Testa- 
 
 •= ' But we are conscious also that, if the true meaning of the faith is to 
 be made sufficiently conspicuous, it needs disencumbering, re-interpreting, 
 explaining' (Preface to First and Tenth Editions). I call this 'a revised 
 faith.' What else is it ?
 
 J49 
 
 ments. Is this, then, meant to be included under the 
 term ' outlying departments ?' If so, then we know where 
 we are, which now we do not. {b) Again, ' a new de- 
 velopment of theology.' Is there any difference, save in 
 words only, between this and *a new theology?' It is 
 much to be regretted that we should have to deal with 
 language so vague and indefinite, more especially when it 
 includes the word ' theology.' ' Theology,' &eoXoyia 
 (Plato, lib. 3, Politics) is defined : — ' Sermo aut disputatio 
 de Deo, rebusve Divinis. Donum Dei quo Fides salvifica 
 ex Deo loquitur.' 
 
 2. The principle, or basis, underlying the claim is the 
 reconciling, with the Holy Scriptures of the Old and the 
 New Testaments, the conclusions of reason, science, philo- 
 sophy, criticism, old and new, the latter more particularly 
 — call it what you will, it comes to the same thing — and 
 where this cannot be done, making Holy Scripture give 
 way before the ' inventions ' of man's reasoning power. 
 
 3. The invention, by help of which it is proposed to sub- 
 stantiate the claim, is ' literary criticism.' The weapon in 
 the hands of the literary critic of this and all succeeding 
 generations to the end of time is the ' invention ' of divid- 
 ing our Blessed Lord's teaching in the Holy Gospels into 
 'positive' and 'non-positive' — the literary critic to be 
 taken as having the right, power, and proper function to 
 discern and decide what is ' positive ' and what is ' non- 
 positive ' teaching of our Blessed Lord in connection with 
 the Old Scriptures. 
 
 4. It has fallen into my poor hands, most unworthy of 
 the task, to say what appears to me to be the answer of 
 the Church of England to the claim, and to the invention 
 it proposes to employ for the making a revised faith and 
 a new development of theology. 
 
 I. I proceed to state the claim in the words of its prin- 
 cipal author. The Preface to the First and subsequent 
 Editions of 'Lux Mundi ' (1889) has the passages follow- 
 ing:— 
 
 {a) The writers (of the essays contained in the volume) found
 
 ISO 
 
 themselves compelled, for their own sake"* no less than that of 
 others, to attempt to put the Catholic faith into its riglit relation to 
 modern intellectual and moral problems. 
 
 {i) For this collection of essays represents an attempt on behalf 
 of the Christian Creed in the way of explanation. We are sure that 
 Jesus Christ is still, and will continue to be, the light of the world. 
 We are sure that, if men can rid themselves of prejudices and 
 mistakes (for which, it must be said, the Church is often as respon- 
 sible as they), and will look afresh at what the Christian faith really 
 means, they will find that it is as adequate as ever to interpret life 
 and knowledge in its several departments, and to impart not less 
 intellectual than moral freedom. But we are conscious also that, if 
 the true meaning of the faith is to be made sufficiently conspicuous, 
 it needs disencumbering, re-interpreting, explaining. 
 
 Then follows, in the same paragraph, a passage giving 
 an account of what St. Paul means by interpreting ' the 
 unknown tongue.' It would appear that the writer is 
 referring to vv. 13, 14 of i Cor. xiv. The reference seems 
 to be hardly entitled to be called a reference to authority 
 on interpretation. The same may be said even more of 
 the use, in the third division of paragraph 3 of our Blessed 
 Lord's words, ' The truth makes her (the Church) free.' 
 These arc additional instances of the assumption always 
 ready to hand : — 
 
 (c) We have written, then, in this volume, not as ' guessers at 
 truth,' but as servants of the Catholic Creed and Church, aiming only 
 at interpreting the faith we have received. 
 
 How this consists with the ' disencumbering ' (whatever 
 that may mean) and the ' re-interpreting,' the principal 
 parts of the claim of ' Lux Mundi,' is not stated : the 
 ambiguity of language is of itself a ground for heavy com- 
 plaint against ' Lux Mundi.' 
 
 On the other hand, we have written with the conviction that the 
 epoch in which we live is one of profound transformation, intellectual 
 and social, abounding in new needs, new points of view, new ques- 
 tions, and certain therefore to involve great changes in the outlying 
 departments of theology, where it is linked on to other sciences, and 
 
 ■* The words ' for their own sake ' are full of significance in respect of 
 where it was that the 'distress of faith' began, and led, with combined 
 external causes, to the issue of ' Lux Mundi.'
 
 151 
 
 to necessitate some general re-statement of its claim and meaning. 
 This is to say, that theology must take a new development. 
 
 It appears to me to be impossible to arrive at any other 
 conclusion from the above passages than this — that what 
 is required at the close of the nineteenth century of re- 
 demption is a faith different from that we have received at 
 the hands of the Church, and a new development of 
 theology. I pass by the confusion of language in which 
 this is conveyed. The fact, I submit, remains as I have 
 stated it. I may add here, by way of illustration of the 
 character of the book, and of the extent of it, some words 
 from paragraph 4 : — 
 
 To such development these studies attempt to be a contribution. 
 They will seem to cover, more or less, the area of the Christian faith 
 in its natural order and sequence of parts. 
 
 The extent then and proposed operation of the attempt 
 is in itself plain. In the Preface to the Fifth Edition we 
 read : — 
 
 The author of the essay 'The Holy Spirit and Inspiration' has 
 endeavoured to obviate further misunderstanding of his meaning on 
 one important point, by rewriting some sentences on pp. 359-63, in 
 accordance with the corrigenda inserted in the Fourth Edition. 
 
 In the Preface to Tenth Edition, p. i, is the note follow- 
 ing :— 
 
 By the phrase ' to attempt to put the Catholic faith into its right 
 relation to modern intellectual and moral problems ' (Preface to First 
 Edition) it was not by any means intended to suggest that the 
 modern problems or the modern sciences were the things of first 
 importance, and the faith only secondary. What was intended was 
 that, as holding the faith, we needed, as the Church has often needed, 
 to bring that with which we are ourselves identified into relation to 
 the claims, intellectual and practical, made upon us from outside. 
 
 Upon this I rejoin that if, somehow or other, faith is, to 
 use the writer's own language, to be ' brought into relation 
 to^ the claims, intellectual and practical, made upon us 
 from outside,' what this comes to is that, somehow or 
 other, faith is to hand over its supremacy to the reasoning 
 
 * Qu. What is the exact logical import of ' into relation to ? '
 
 152 
 
 power, and is to become the secondar>', not the primar)-, 
 basis upon which we have to build. Now, our Lord says, 
 ' If thou canst believe ; all thinc^s are possible to him that 
 believeth.' He does not say. ' If thou canst understand, 
 all things are possible to him that understandeth.' 
 
 II. I have stated the claim of 'Lux Mundi ' in the 
 words of the book. 
 
 I come next in order to the principle or basis underlying 
 the claim. Bear with me, brethren in Christ, while I 
 speak upon this point. I pray and strive that no harsh 
 or unworthy word may pass my lips. The principle, or 
 basis, underlying the claim is as old as Christianity itself. 
 It is older still. It is found in the earliest records of 
 creation. It appears for the first time in Genesis iii. i in 
 its most complete form, and issues in the words, 'Yea, 
 hath God said ? ' The three temptations of man, the three 
 by which our Blessed Lord was tempted in the wilderness, 
 and as He tells us Himself, not in the wilderness only — 
 St. Luke xxii. 28— are stated by St. John to be 'the lust 
 of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, the pride of life' (i St. 
 John ii. 16), corresponding exactly to those recorded in 
 St. Matthew and St. Luke, the order only being in one 
 respect difi"erent in the two Gospels. ' The pride of life ' 
 is the worship of the reasoning power — our first mother 
 bowed down before it. It was the temptation by which 
 she fell. The Tempter used it to suggest the other two, 
 but he tempted her through her reasoning power — ' Yea, 
 hath God said ? ' He tempted her to doubt the Word of 
 God. It opened the door. The other temptations fol- 
 lowed in its train and the world fell. It is out of this 
 order of Revelation that the temptation through the 
 reasoning power is called specially the temptation * of the 
 Devil ' — that which gave the signal to the other two temp- 
 tations to begin to add their work. It is the worship of 
 reason. The doubting God in His Word is the basis, 
 the principle of all sin. We know that God is by His 
 works — we know Him in His relations to man by His 
 Word. The world as we see it tells us that God is. The
 
 153 
 
 Word of God tells us of the relations of God to man. If, 
 then, I am asked to lay hand upon the Word of God as 
 committed to me by the Church in which the providence 
 of God has placed me, I do not do it because I may not 
 do it. If I am asked to put Revelation into one scale and 
 the reasoning power — science, philosophy, literary criticism, 
 call it what you will — into the other, and to commit the 
 issue to which wcic,^hs the heaviest, I decline to do it, not 
 because I am in any fear for the issue, but because this 
 suggestion is a mockery of holy things, and a defiance of 
 God. What my reasoning power may not comprehend I 
 leave — as I leave the mysteries of the Divine nature — as I 
 find it. There is much more than enough upon which to 
 employ all my reasoning power in its own province in my 
 own little life without seeking to rush in where angels 
 desire to look into but fear to tread. 
 
 It is the overpowering sense of the magnitude of the 
 point now at issue which has compelled me to do what 
 little is in my power to bring it formally before the House. 
 I contend for the absolute supremacy of the Word of God 
 as given us by the authority of the Church of England. I 
 contend for the simple truth that if the reasoning power 
 find anything which appears to dispute that supremacy, it 
 is for the reasoning power to leave it to the light of the 
 world that is to come, when the reasoning power passes 
 away in the fulness of the Light that is in heaven. I 
 believe there to be no other safety for the wisest, the most 
 learned of men. I believe, further, that it is this simplicity 
 of faith on their part which is, under God, a necessary 
 security for the faith of the unlearned millions of men. 
 
 III. I pass on now {a) to the 'invention' by which it is 
 proposed to substantiate the claim ; {b) to the hand to be 
 employed to substantiate it ; {c) to the test by which the 
 claim is to be decided in each case, [a) The ' invention ' 
 is the dividing the teaching of our Blessed Lord, in con- 
 nection with the Old Scriptures, into ' positive ' and ' non- 
 positive ; ' {b) the hand to be employed in so dividing is 
 the hand of ' the literary critic,' of this, and all future time ;
 
 154 
 
 (c) the test to be applied for so dividing is whether our 
 Blessed Lord in each case of His teaching as above stated, 
 affirms that He is teaching positively or does not so affirm. 
 
 I note upon this point the first suggestion of the division 
 of our Blessed Lord's teaching in connection with the Old 
 Scriptures into 'positive' and 'non-positive' in p. 359 in 
 Ed. L, in p. 359 in Ed. X. His teaching by question 
 upon a point raised is there excluded from the number of 
 things in their nature positive by assumption meant to be 
 logical, but not logical. 
 
 I am compelled to ask attention here to the fact that 
 the general character of the Essay, as of the Preface, is 
 assumption and not conclusion from premisses. The book 
 worships reason ; but it does not reason, it assumes. It 
 presents a curious aspect of the once logical Oxford. In 
 both Preface and Essay assumption is large, vagueness is 
 large, logic is lacking. And indeed, if we well consider 
 a moment, this could hardly be otherwise in the matter in 
 hand. If there had been room for logic in canvassing and 
 questioning the one Book in the world which contains the 
 Revelation of God to man, and the consequent relations 
 of man to God, it might have been otherwise. But there 
 being no such book but one — ' The Word of God,' ' The 
 Book ' — there is no room for logic. Therefore it is that 
 the only inroad upon the Book containing all that man 
 will ever know on this side of the grave is by way of man's 
 assumption based upon the only other basis remaining to 
 him — that is to say, upon his finite knowledge — his science 
 as it is called, but which it is continually proving against 
 itself is ' falsely so called,' and if it were not so proved up 
 to any given time, would still be as nothing to the millions 
 of men, whatever it might be to ' the literary critic,' and 
 might at any time be tumbled down or superseded by 
 another literary critic or scientist, after the manner of 
 scientists on other subject-matters. 
 
 What shall become of the millions of the unlearned 
 among the little controversies of our little life ? This 
 becomes of them, that the one thing they have been
 
 155 
 
 taught from their youth up always, under every circum- 
 stance, most to respect and cHng to as the anchor of their 
 hope is cut away from under their feet ; cut away and 
 nothing left for them to stand upon in its room, and all 
 this in the futile attempt to succour the distressed faith of 
 the man taught of his learning and so-called science to 
 doubt the Word of God. 
 
 Mr. Gore, in his letter published in the 'Guardian,' 
 October 22, 1889, has represented the claim and function 
 of the literary critic as a supreme claim and highest 
 function. In dealing with these three points I take them 
 in their inverse order, because the last disposed of, the 
 other two disappear. If the test proposed be found to 
 have no existence in fact, the literary critic has nothing to 
 work with to the end of arriving at the proposed division 
 of our Blessed Lord's teaching in connection with the Old 
 Scriptures into ' positive ' and ' non-positive,' and the con- 
 tention of ' Lux Mundi ' in respect of the right, power, and 
 proper function of the literary critic of this and all future 
 time falls to the ground mole sud. 
 
 Now to the end of elucidating to the best of my power 
 whether there be any room for the test proposed, I have 
 examined with all due care the language of the Four 
 Gospels throughout. I find citations from, and references 
 to, the Old Scriptures by our Blessed Lord to be, as we 
 all know, very many, besides many coincidences of teach- 
 ing and passages of connection between the Old and New 
 Scriptures, without citation from or reference to, by our 
 Blessed Lord. These two classes are, therefore, not in- 
 cluded in my enumeration as given here : — 
 
 Passages in which our Blessed Lord cites or refers to 
 passages in the Old Scriptures. 
 
 St. Matthew 256 
 
 St. Mark 55 
 
 St. Luke 130 
 
 St. John 86 
 
 527
 
 156 
 
 Passages in the Gospels in which our Blessed Lord cites 
 from or refers to the Old Scriptures. 
 
 St. Matthew. 
 Chap. i. 
 Chap. ii. 
 Chap. iii. ver. 15 refers to the Providence of God as revealed in the 
 
 Old Scriptures. 
 Chap. iv. ver. 4 to Deut. viii. 3 ; ver. 7 to Deut. vi. 16 ; ver. 10 to 
 Deut. vi. 13, X. 20, Joshua xxiv. 14, i Sam. vii. 3; verses 12 — 16, 
 reference by way of fulfilment of prophecy, Isaiah ix. i, 2, xlii. 7. 
 Chap v. ver. 3 to Isaiah Ivii. 15, Ixvi, 2, Ixi. 2, 3, Psalms xxxvii. li ; 
 ver. 6 to Isaiah Iv. i, Ixv. 13; ver. 7, Psalms xli. i ; ver. 8 to Psalms 
 XV. 2; ver. 12 to i Chron. xxx. 16, Nehem. ix. 26, Prov. iv. 18 ; ver. 
 21 to Exod. XX. 13. Deut. v. 17 ; ver. 7, Exod. xx. 14, Deut. v. 18 ; 
 ver. 28 to Job xxx. i, Prov. vi. 25 ; ver. 31, Deut. xxiv. I, Jer. iii. i ; 
 ver. 33, Exod. xx. 7, Levit. xix., Numb. xxx. 2, Deut. v. 1 1, xxiii. 23 ; 
 ver. 34, Isaiah Ixv. i ; ver. 35, Psalms xlviii. 2, Ixxxvii. 3 ; ver. 38, 
 Exod. xxi. 24, Levit. xxiv. 20, Deut. xix. 21 ; ver. 39, Prov. xx. 22, 
 Isaiah 1. 6; ver. 42, Deut. xv. 8, 10 : ver. 43, Levit. xix. 18, Deut, 
 xxiii. 6 ; verses 43 — 48, Psalms xli. 10, Job xxv. 3, Gen. xvii. i, 
 Levit. xi. 44, xix. 2. 
 Chap. vi. ver. 6 to 2 Kings iv. 23 ; ver. 10 to Psalms ciii. 20, 21 ; ver. 
 13 to I Chron. xxix. 1 1 ; ver. 17 to Isaiah Iviii. 5, Ruth iii. 3, Dan. 
 x. 3; ver. 19, Prov. xxiii. 4; ver. 26 to Job xxxviii. 41, Psalms 
 cxlix. 9. 
 Chap. vii. verses 7, 8 to Prov. viii. 17, Jerem. xxix. 12, 13; ver. 12 to 
 Levit. xix. 18 ; ver. 15 to Deut. xiii. 3, Jerem. xxiii. 16, Micah iii. 5 ; 
 ver. 22 to Numb. xxiv. 4 ; ver. 23 to Psalms v. 5, vi. 8; note also 
 ver. 29. 
 Chap. viii. ver. 4, Levit. xiv. 3, 4, 10; ver. 11 to Gen, xii. 3, Isaiah ii. 
 2, 3, xi. 10, Mai. i. II ; ver. 17 to Isaiah liii. 4; ver. 26, Psalms Ixv. 
 7, Ixxxix. 9, cvii. 29. 
 Chap. ix. ver. 4, Psalms cxxxix. 2; ver. 13 to Hosea vi. 6, Micah vi. 
 6 — 8 ; ver. 36 to Numb, xxxvii. 7, i Kings xxii. 17, Ezek. xxiv. 3, 
 Zech. X. 2. 
 Chap. X. ver. 6 to Isaiah liii. 6, Jerem. 1. 6, 17, Ezek. xxxiv. 5, 6, 10 ; 
 ver. 13 to Nehem. v. 13, Psalms xxxv. 13; ver. 19, Exod. iv. 12, 
 Jerem. i. 7 ; ver. 21, Micah vii. 6; ver. 22 to Dan. xii. 12, 13 ; ver. 
 28 to Isaiah viii. 12, 13 ; ver. 35, Micah vii. 6, Psalms xli. 9, Iv. 13. 
 Chap. xi. ver. 4 to Isaiah xxix. 18, xxxv. 4 — 6, xl. 7, Psalms xxii. 
 26, Isaiah Ixi. I ; ver. 6, Isaiah viii. 14, 15 ; ver. 10 to Mai. iii. 
 I ; ver. 13 to Mai. iv. 6 ; ver. 15, Mai. iv. 5 ; ver. 21 to Jonah iii. 7, 
 8; ver. 29 to Zech. ix. 9, Jerem. vi. 16.
 
 157 
 
 Chap. xii. ver. 3 to i Sam. xxi. 6 ; ver, 4, Exod. xxv. 30, Levit. xxiv. 
 5, Exod. xxix. 32, 33, Levit. viii. 31, xxiv. 9; ver. 5 to Numb, xxviii. 
 9 ; ver. 6 to 2 Cliron. vi. 18 ; ver. 7, Mai. iii. i, to Rosea vi. 6, 
 Micah vi. 6—8; ver. 11 to Deut. xxii. 4; ver. 18 to Isaiah xlii. 
 I ; ver. 28 to Dan. ii. 44,vii. 14; ver. 39 to Isaiah Ivii. 3; verses 39, 
 40 to Jonah i. 17 ; ver. 41, Ezek. xvi. 51, 52, Jonah iii. 5 ; ver. 42 to 
 
 1 Kings x. I, 2 Chron. ix. i ; ver. 43, Job i. 7. 
 
 Chap. xiii. ver. 14, Isaiah vi. 9, Ezek. xii. 2 ; ver. 20 to Isaiah Iviii. 2, 
 Ezek. xxxiii. 31, 32 ; ver. 22 to Jerem. iv. 3 ; ver. 35, Psalms Ixxviii. 
 
 2 ; ver. 38 to Gen. iii. 15 ; ver. 39 to Joel iii. I3J ver. 43, Dan. xii. 3. 
 Chap. xiv. 
 
 Chap. XV. ver. 4 to Exod. xx. 12, Levit. xix. 3, Deut. v. 16, Prov. xxiii. 
 
 32, Exod. xxi. 17, Levit. xx. 9, Deut. xxvii. 16, Prov. xx. 2o,xxx. 17; 
 
 ver. 8, Ezek. xxx. 31 ; yer. 9, Isaiah xxix. 13 ; ver. 19 to Gen. vi. 5, 
 
 viii. 21, Jerem. xvii. 9. 
 Chap. xvi. ver. 4 to the prophet Jonas ; ver. 27 to Job xxiv. 1 1, Psalms 
 
 Ixii. 12, Prov. xxiv. 12, Jerem. xvii. 10, xxxii. 19. 
 Chap. xvii. ver. 10 to Mai. iv. 5, 6. 
 
 Chap, xviii. ver. 15 to Levit. xix. 17 ; ver. 16, Deut. xvii. 6, xix. 15. 
 Chap. xix. ver, 4 to Gen. i. 27, v. 2, Mai. ii. 15 ; ver. 5 to Gen. ii. 24; 
 
 verses 16—19 to Exod. xx. 13, Deut. v. 17 ; ver. 8 to Deut. xxiv. i ; 
 
 ver. 26, Gen. xviii. 14, Job xlii. 2, Jerem. xxxii. 17. 
 Chap. XX. ver. 28, Isaiah liii. 10, n, Daniel ix. 24—26. 
 Chap. xxi. ver. 5 to Isaiah Ixii. 11, Zech. ix. 9 ; ver. 13 to Isaiah Ivi. 
 
 7, Jerem. vii. n ; ver. 16, Psalms viii. 2; ver. 33 to Isaiah v. r, 
 
 Jerem. ii. 21 ; ver. 35 to 2 Chron. xxiv. i, xxxvi. 16, Nehem. xviii. 
 
 26; ver. 38 to Psalms ii. 2; ver. 42 to Psalms cxviii. 22, Isaiah 
 
 xxviii. 16; ver. 44 to Isaiah viii. 14, 15, Zech. xii. 3; Dan. ii. 44. 
 Chap. xxii. ver. 24, Deut. xxv. 5; ver. 32 to Exod. iii. 6, 16; ver. 
 
 37 to Deut. vi. 5, X. 12, xxx. 6; ver. 39 to Levit. xix. 18, ver. 44 to 
 
 Psalms ex. i. 
 Chap, xxiii. ver. 2 to Nehem. viii. 4—8, Mai. ii. 7 ; ver. 5 to Numb. 
 
 xvi. 38, Deut. vi. 8, xxii. 12; verses 16—21 to Exod. xxx. 20, 
 
 xxix. 37 : ver. 21 to i Kings viii. 13 ; 2 Chron. vi, 2, Psalms 
 
 xxvi. 8, cxxxii. 14; ver. 22, Psalms xi. 4; ver. 23 to i Sam. xv. 
 
 22, Rosea vi. 6, Micah vi. 8; ver. 35 to Gen. iv. 8, 2 Chron. 
 
 xxiv. 20, 21 ; ver. 37 to Deut, xxxii. 11, 12, Psalms xci. 4; 
 
 ver. 39 to Psalms cxviii. 26. 
 Chap. xxiv. ver. 2 to i Kings v. 7, Jerem. xxvi. 18, Micah iii. 
 
 12; ver. 5 to Jerem. xiv. 14, xxiii. 21—25; ver, 7 to 2 Chron, 
 
 XV. 6; ver. 15 to Dan. ix. 27, xii. 11, Dan. ix. 23, 25; v, 21, 
 
 Dan, ix, 26, xii. i, Joel ii. 2 ; ver, 22, Isaiah Ixv, 8, 9, Zech. 
 
 xiv. 23 ; ver, 24, Deut. xiii. 1 ; ver. 28, Job xxxix. 30 ; ver, 
 
 29 to Isaiah xiii. 10, Ezek. xxxii. 7. Joel ii. 10, 3^) i"- ^S» 
 Amos V. 20, viii. 9; ver. 30 to Dan. vii. 13, Zech. xu. 12;
 
 158 
 
 ver. 35 to Psalms cii. 26, to Isaiah li. 6, Jer. xxxi. 35, 36 ; ver. 
 
 36, Zech, xiv. 7 ; ver. 38 to Gen. vi. 3—5, vii. 7. 
 Chap. XXV. ver. 31 to Zech. xiv. 5 ; ver. 32 to Ezek. xx. 38, xxxiv. 
 
 17, 20; verses 34—40 to Isaiah Iviii. 7, Ezek. xviii. 7; ver. 40 
 
 to Prov. xiv. 31, xix. 17 ; ver. 41, Psalms vi. 8. 
 Chap. xxvi. ver. 11 to Deut. xv. 11; ver. 23, Psalms xli. 9; ver. 
 
 24 to Psalms xxii. Isaiah liii., Dan. ix. 26; ver. 28, Jerem. xxxi. 
 
 31; ver. 31 to Zech. xiii. 7; ver. 50 to Psalms xli. 9, Iv. 13; 
 
 ver. 52, Gen. ix. 6; ver. 53 to Dan. vii. 10; ver. 54 to Isaiah 
 
 liii. 7, &c.; ver. 56 to Lam. iv. 20; ver. 64, Dan. vii. 13, Psalms 
 
 ex. I. 
 Chap, xxvii. ver. 46 to Psalms xxii. i. 
 Chap, xxviii. ver. 15 to Dan. vii. 13, 14; ver. 19 to Isaiah Hi. 10. 
 
 St. Mark. 
 
 Chap. i. ver. 15 to Dan. vii. 27 and ix. 25; ver. 38 to Isaiah Ixi. 
 
 1 ; ver. 44 to Levit. xiv. 3, 4, 10. 
 
 Chap. ii. verses 25— 28 to i Sam. xii. 6, Exod. xxix. 32, 33, Levit. 
 
 xxiv. 9. 
 Chap. iii. 
 
 Chap. iv. ver. 12 to Isaiah vi. 9. 
 Chap. v. 
 
 Chap. vi. ver. 1 1 to Gen. xix. 
 Chap. vii. ver. 6 to Isaiah xxix. 13; verses 8 — 13 to Exod. xx. 12. 
 
 Deut. V. 16, Exod. xxi. 17, Levit. xx. 9. 
 Chap. viii. 
 Chap. ix. verses 11 — 13 to Mai. iv. 5, Psalms xxii. 6, Isaiah liii. 
 
 2, Dan. i.x. 26; ver. 44 to Isaiah Ixvi. 24; ver. 49 to Levit. 
 
 ii. 13, Ezek. xliii. 24. 
 Chap. X. ver. 6 to Gen. i. and ii., Deut. xxiv. i. Gen. v. 2; ver. 7 
 
 to Gen. ii. 24 ; ver. 19 to Exod. xx. ; v. 27 to Jerem. xxxii. 11. 
 Chap. xi. ver. 17 to Isaiah Ivi. 7, Jerem. vii. 11. 
 Chap. xii. ver. 10 to Psalms cxviii. 22; verses 18 — 37 to Deut. v. 
 
 5, Exod. iii. 6, Deut. vi. 4, Levit. xix. 18, Deut. iv. 39, Isai.ih 
 
 xiv. 6, 14; ver. 9, J Sam. xv. 22, Hosea vi. 6, Micah vi, 7, 8, 
 
 2 Sam. xxiii. 2, Psalms ex. i. 
 
 Chap, xiii, verses 5 — 31 to Jerem. xxix. 8, Micah vii. 6. Dan. xii. 
 
 12, ix. 27, Dan. ix. 26, xii. i, Joel ii. 2, Dan. vii. 10, Zeph. i. 
 
 15, Dan. vii. 13, 14, Isaiah xl. 8. 
 Chap. xiv. ver. 27 to Zech. xiii. 7; ver. 49 to Isaiah liii. 7, &c., 
 
 Psalms XX. 6. 
 Chap. XV. ver. 34 to Psalms xxii. i. 
 Chap. xvi.
 
 159 
 
 St. Luke, 
 
 Chap. i. 
 
 Chap. ii. 
 
 Chap. iii. 
 
 Chap. iv. ver 4 to Deut. viii. 3; ver. 8 to Deut. vi. 13; ver. 12 
 to Deut. vi. 16; iVerses 18 — 21 to Isaiah Ixi. i; verses 25—27 
 to I Kings xvii. 9, xviii. i, 2 Kings v. 14. 
 
 Chap. v. ver. 14 to Levit. xiv. 4, 10, 21, 22. 
 
 Chap. vi. verses 3—5 to i Sam. xxi. 6, Levit. xxiv. 9; verses 6— 
 10 refer to 'the Law;' verses 28—38 to Isaiah Iv. i, Ixv. 13, 
 Ixi. 3, Amos vi. i, Isaiah Ixv. 13, Prov. xiv. 13, xix. 17, Psalms 
 Ixxix. 12 ; ver. 46 to Mai. i. 6. 
 
 Chap. vii. ver. 22 to Isaiah xxxv. 5; verses 27, 28, to Mai. iii. 5; 
 ver. 46 to Psalms xxiii. 5. 
 
 Chap. viii. ver. 10 to Isaiah vi. 9. 
 
 Chap. ix. verses 54—56 to 2 Kings i. 10, 12. 
 
 Chap. x. verses 4-16 to 2 Kings iv. 29, Ezek. iii. 6, Deut. i. 28, 
 Isaiah xiv. 13, Jerem. li. 58 ; verses 20, 21, Exod. xxxii. 32, Psalms 
 Ixix. 28, Isaiah iv. 3, Dan. xii. i ; verses 26—28, Deut. vi. 5, Levit- 
 xix. 18, xviii. 5, Nehem. ix. 29, Ezek. xx. u, 13, 21 ; ver. 31 to 
 Psalms xxviii. 1 1. 
 
 Chap. xi. verses 20 — 22 to Exod. viii. 19, Isaiah liii. 12 ; verses 30— 
 32 to Jonah i. 17, ii. 10, i Kings x. I, Jonah xii. 5 ; ver. 41 to Isaiah 
 Iviii. 7, Dan. iv. 27 ; verses 50, 51 to Gen. iv. 8, 2 Chron. xxiv. 
 20, 21. 
 
 Chap. xii. ver. 4 to Isaiah li. 7, Jerem. i. 8 ; ver. 19 to Eccles. xi. 9 ; 
 verses 19 — 24 to Job xxvii. 8, and xx. 22, Psalms Iii. 7, xxxix. 6, 
 Jerem. xvii. 11, Job xxxviii. 41, Psalms cxlvii. 9; verses 47, 48 to 
 Numb. XV. 30, Deut. xxv. 2, Levit. v. 17 ; ver. 52 to Micah vii. 6 ; 
 ver. 58 to Prov. xxv. 8. 
 Chap. xiii. ver. 6 to Isaiah v. 2 ; verses 14 — 16 to Exod. xx. 9 ; ver. 
 
 25 to Psalms xxxii. 6, Isaiah Iv. 6 ; ver. 27 to Psalms vi. 8 : verses 
 33 — 35 to Levit. xxvi. 31, 32, Psalms Ixix. 25, Isaiah i. 7. Dan. ix. 
 27, Micah iii. 12, Psalms cxviii. 26. 
 
 Chap. xiv. verses 3 — 5 to Exod. xxiii. 5, Deut. xxii. 4; ver. 10, Prov. 
 
 xxv. 6, 7 ; ver. 1 1 to Job xxii. 2, 9, Psalms xviii. 27, Prov. xxix. 23 ; 
 
 ver. 13 to Nehem. vii. 10, 12; ver. 17 to Prov. ix. 2, 3; ver. 26 to 
 
 Deut. xiii. 6, xxxiii. 9. 
 Chap. XV. ver. 21 to Psalms li. 4. 
 Chap. xvi. ver. 15 to i Sam. xvi. 7; ver, 17 to Isaiah xl. 3, Ii. 6; ver. 
 
 34 to Isaiah Ixvi. 24 ; verses 29—31 to Isaiah xxxiv. 16; ver. 29 to 
 
 Jerem. vi. 16, Isaiah viii. 20. 
 Chap. xvii. ver. 3 to Levit. xix. 27 ; ver. 14 to Levit. xiii. 2, xiv. 2 ; ver. 
 
 26 to Gen. vii. ; verses 28, 29, ;i5 to Gen. xix. 
 
 Chap, xviii. ver. 20 to Exod. xx. 12 — 16, Deut. v. 16 — 20; ver. 27 to 
 Jerem. xxxii. 17, Psalms xxii,, Isaiah liii.
 
 i6o 
 
 Chap. xix. verses 8, 9 to Exod. xxii, i, l Sam. xii. 3 ; ver. 40, H;ib. xi. 
 1 1 ; verses 42 — 44 to Isaiah xxix. 3, 4, Jerem. vi. 3, 6, i Kings ix. 
 7, 8, Micah iii. 12 ; ver. 4 to Isaiah Ivi. 7, Jerem. vii. 11. 
 
 Chap. XX. ver. 17 to Psalms cxviii. 22 ; ver. 18 to Dan. ii. 34, 35 ; ver. 
 27 to Isaiah xxv. 5, Exod. iii. 6, Psalms ex. i. 
 
 Chap. xxi. ver. 16 to Micah vii. 6 ; ver, 22 to Dan. ix. 2, 6, 7, Zcch. 
 xi. I, Dan. xii. 7, 
 
 Chap. xxii. ver. 21 to Psalms xii. 9; ver. 31 to Amos ix. 9 ; ver. 37 to 
 Isaiah liii. 12. 
 
 Chap, xxiii. ver. 30 to Isaiah xi. 19, Hosea x. 8 ; ver. 31 to Ezek. xv. 
 47 ; ver. 46 to Psalms xxxi. 5. 
 
 Chap. xxiv. verses 25 — 27 to Gen. iii. 15, xxii. 18, xxvi. 4, xlix. The 
 chapter is all a series of connecting links of the most comprehen- 
 sive character between ' the Law, the Psalms, and the Prophets'— 
 two-thirds of it by our Blessed Lord Himself — and the New Testa- 
 ment ; the Old Scriptures and the New. He expounded to them 
 in all the Scriptures the things concerning Himself, beginning at 
 Moses and all the prophets, closing at ver. 49 with the promise of 
 the Spirit, Isaiah xliv. 3, Joel ii. 28. 
 
 If it stood by itself it is a testimony vouchsafed of the Spirit 
 against the questioning by man of the Divine authority of any 
 portion of Holy Scripture. 
 
 St. John. 
 Chap. i. verses 47 — 51 to Psalms xxx. 2, Gen. xxviii. 12. 
 Chap. ii. 
 Chap. iii. ver. 10, a direct reference to the Jewish Church ; ver. 13 to 
 
 Prov. xxx. 4 ; ver. 14 to Numb. xxi. 9 ; ver. 20 Job xxiv, 13, 17. 
 Chap. iv. verses 6 — 26, Isaiah xii. 3, xliv. 3, Jerem. 11, 13, Zech. xiii. 
 
 I, xiv. 8, Mai. i. 11 ; ver. 22 to 2 Kings xvii. 29; ver. 34, Job 
 
 xxiii. 12. 
 Chap. V. verses 27 — 29, Dan. vii. 13, 14, Isaiah xxvi. 19, Dan. xii. 2; 
 
 ver. 37, Deut. iv. 12 ; ver. 39 to Isaiah xxiv. 16, Deut. xviii. 15, 18 ; 
 
 verses 45 — 47, Gen. iii. 15, xii. 3, xviii. 18, xxii, 18, xlix, 10, Deut. 
 
 xviii, 15, 18. 
 Chap. vi. ver. 31, Exod. xvi. 15, Numb. xi. 7, Nehem. ix. 15, Psalms 
 
 l.xxviii. 24, 25 ; verses 45, 46, Isaiah liv, 13, Jerem, xxxi. 34, Micah 
 
 iv. 2. 
 Chap. vii. ver, 19 to Exod. xxiv, 3, Deut. xxxiii. 4; ver. 22 to Levit. 
 
 xii. 3, Gen. xvii. 10 ; ver. 24, Deut. i. 16, 17, Prov. xxiv. 23; ver, 34 
 
 to Hosea v. 6; verses 37, 38 to Isaiah Iv. i, Deut. xviii. 15, Isaiah 
 
 xii. 3, xliv. 3, Joel ii. 28 ; ver. 42, Deut. xviii. 15, Psalms cxxxii. 11, 
 
 Jerem. xxiii. 5, Micah v. 2. 
 Chap. viii. verses i — 11 to Levit. xx. 10, Deut. xxii. 22, xvii. 7 ; ver. 
 
 17 to Deut. xvii. 6, xix. 15 ; verses 31 — 59, continuous teaching of
 
 i6i 
 
 our Blessed Lord referring to the Old Scriptures, verses 33 — 36 ; 
 
 verses 37 — 44 to Isaiah Ixiii. 16, Ixiv. 8 ; verses 52 — 59, Zech. i. 5, 
 
 Exod. iii. 14, Isaiah xliii. 13. 
 Chap. ix. ver. 7 to Nehem. iii. 15. 
 Chap. X. ver. 11 to Isaiah xl. ri, Ezek. xxxiv. 12, 23, xxxvii. 24, 
 
 Zech. xi, 16, 17; ver. 16 to Ezek. xxxvii. 22; ver. 17, Isaiah 
 
 liii. 7, 8, 12; verses 34 — 36, Psalms Ixxxii. 6. 
 Chap. xi. ver. 11 to Deut. xxxi. 16, Dan. xii. 2. 
 Chap. xii. ver. 35 to Jerem. xiii. 16; verses 48, 49 to Deut. xviii. 
 
 19, xviii. 18. 
 Chap. xiii. ver. 18 to Psalms xii. 9. 
 Chap. xiv. 
 
 Chap. XV. verses 24, 25, to Psalms xxxv. 19, Ixix. 4. 
 Chap. xvi. ver. 21 to Isaiah xxvi. 17; ver. 33 to Isaiah ix. 6. 
 Chap. xvii. ver. 2 to Dan. vii. 14; ver. 3 to Isaiah liii. il; ver. 
 
 6 to Psalms xxii. 22; ver. 12, Psalms cix. 8; ver. 17 to 2 Sam. 
 
 vii. 28, Psalms cxix. 142, 151. 
 Chap, xviii. ver. 36 to Dan. ii. 14, vii. 14. 
 Chap. xix. ver. 9 to Isaiah liii. 7; ver. 28 to Psalms Ixix. 21. 
 Chap. XX. ver. 17 to Psalms xxii. 22. 
 
 First, then, for the general issue. This is one of so com- 
 plete interlacing and interweaving of the Old Scriptures 
 with the Gospels as of itself to negative any proposal for 
 making any distinction of authority. Next, to come more 
 particularly to the test proposed for establishing distinction 
 of authority, I do not find a single instance in which our 
 Blessed Lord has affirmed anything about His teaching in 
 connection with the Old Scriptures being ' positive ' teach- 
 ing in so many words. There are, indeed, several instances 
 in which the ' positiveness ' is implied, but not one in which 
 it is stated in terms. The idea of our Blessed Lord, so to 
 speak, guarding Himself by His own affirmation that He 
 is speaking positively carries with it the savour of a 
 dangerous familiarity with the mystery of Christ, tending 
 powerfully not to the revealed, but to the human, side 
 of it only. On the other hand, in the immense majority 
 of instances there is only the teaching just as it is described 
 in St. Matthew vii. 28-9:— 'And it came to pass, when 
 Jesus had ended these sayings, the people were astonished 
 at His doctrine : for He taught them as one having 
 
 M
 
 1 62 
 
 authority, and not as the scribes ; ' St. John vii. 46 :— ' The 
 officers answered, Never man spake like this man.' The 
 issue, then, here is that, omitting the comparatively few 
 instances of implied positiveness, every other case of our 
 Lord's teaching in connection with the Old Scriptures 
 is, according to the invention or theory or claim of ' Lux 
 Mundi,' matter for the free handling of the literary critic. 
 The fourth head is to state what appears to me, as the 
 mover of the resolution or motion before the House, to be 
 the answer of the Church of England to the claim made. 
 The resolution is as follows : — 
 
 That his Grace the President be respectfully requested to direct 
 the appointment of a committee of this House to consider and report 
 upon the Preface and Vlllth Essay of the book 'Lux Mundi,' as 
 alleged to contain and involve dangerous error. 
 
 The dangerous error — over and above that of the division 
 into ' positive ' and ' non-positive ' teaching — alleged to be 
 contained and involved in the portions of the book above 
 cited, I state as follows : 
 
 (a) The error of irreverence towards Him, perfect God and perfect 
 Man. 
 
 {d) The error of tending to 'beguile' and 'corrupt' men's minds 
 ' from the simplicity that is in Christ' (2 Cor. xi. 3). 
 
 (f) The error of being contrary to the Book of Common Prayer 
 and Administration of the Sacraments. 
 
 {(f) The error of being contrary to the authority of the Church 
 as declared by the Vlth Ai'ticle of Religion. 
 
 (a) In respect of ' the error of irreverence towards Him, 
 perfect God and perfect Man.' Let me first say that 
 I have never said, written, or thought that the irreverence 
 was of the intention. I have all along considered it, and 
 am now reviewing it only as it is — that is to say, the 
 necessary and unavoidable issue of the claim, and of the 
 means to be employed in carrying out the claim above 
 stated and considered. ' God is in heaven, and thou upon 
 earth : therefore let thy words be few ' (Eccles. v. 2). 
 I will, therefore, only set forth a few of many of the texts 
 from the Holy Gospels declaring the eternal mystery of
 
 1 63 
 
 Christ, unapproachable by man on this side of the 
 grave : — 
 
 Before Abraham was, I am. 
 I and the Father are One. 
 He who hath seen Me hath seen the Father. 
 
 And now, O Father, glorify Thou Me with Thine own self, with the 
 glory which I had with Thee before the world was. 
 
 On the other hand, there is one text in St. Mark's Gospel: 
 * But of that day and hour knoweth no man — no, not the 
 angels which are in heaven, neither the Son, but the 
 Father.' All these alike, the last included, declare the 
 eternal mystery of Christ, the Son — all alike are wholly 
 out of the grasp of the reasoning power of man. Now, 
 then, what is in the grasp of man's reasoning powers ? 
 This, that Christ has set His seal upon the Old Testa- 
 ment Scriptures as upon the New. May we then. Bishops 
 and priests of His Church, stand by and see Him repre- 
 sented as teaching in any instance, as teaching not of His 
 own, not of His own * eternal ' and ' incomprehensible ' 
 authority, or, what is more unhappy still, may we stand 
 by and see Him represented as citing from, or referring 
 to, in His teaching, things known to Him to be not facts, 
 but myth, or allegory, or drama, and the like, and yet 
 employing them as facts, because, being infallible, He 
 knew they were not facts, and yet employed them as 
 if they were facts .-' Is not this in act, however it may 
 be in intention, irreverent .-' Is it not, as coming from the 
 human teacher, to allure us, and encourage irreverence 
 in all sorts and conditions of men ? 
 
 {b) The error of tending to * beguile ' and * corrupt * 
 men's minds ' from the simplicity that is in Christ.' There 
 is no need here to refer to any other than St. Paul him- 
 self to explain what he means by * the simplicity that is 
 in Christ,' in the first portion of the same verse. ' For 
 I fear, lest by any means, as the serpent beguiled Eve 
 through his subtilty, so your minds should be corrupted 
 from the simplicity that is in Christ.' In the temptation 
 of Eve the bait of the Tempter was the sufficiency of 
 
 M 2
 
 164 
 
 Eve's reasoning power to justify her in doubting, and finally 
 disobeying, God. And when she hesitated he offers the 
 bait again with the allurements of all the highest know- 
 ledge added to it — 'Ye shall not surely die, for God doth 
 know that in the day ye eat thereof ye shall be as gods, 
 knowing good and evil.' Then the woman gave way, the 
 lust of the flesh and the eye added their power, and the 
 world fell. 
 
 {c) The error of being contrary to the Book of Common 
 Prayer and Administration of the Sacraments. The claim 
 cannot be reconciled with the Book of Common Prayer 
 and Administration of the Sacraments, the Preface to that 
 Book, the order of daily and Sunday prayer, the reading 
 in Church the Lessons of God from the Old and New 
 Scriptures, the questions put to those to be ordained 
 deacons respecting ' all the Canonical Scriptures of the 
 Old and the New Testament,' the delivering the Bible into 
 the hands of the priest after his ordination, the simple and 
 collective language throughout employed without any dis- 
 tinction of parts— Holy Scripture, the Word, the Word of 
 God, God's Holy Word, true and lively Word, most Holy 
 Word : all these witness to one and the same thing, that 
 it is not part of the faithfulness to the Church of England, 
 sworn and pledged, to invent distinctions of whatever 
 kind, respecting the Divine authority of any portion of the 
 canonical Scriptures of the Old and New Testament. Nor 
 again, by way of qualifying that authority, to import into 
 them the character of myth, allegory, drama, and the like, 
 
 {d) The error of being contrary to the authority of the 
 Church as declared by the Sixth Article of Religion. The 
 Sixth Article of Religion speaks of the Authority of Holy 
 Scripture — i.e., of the canonical books of the Old Testa- 
 ment — without distinction or difference of parts. The 
 claim, therefore, of the portions of the ' Lux Mundi ' now 
 under consideration cannot be reconciled with it. 
 
 Mr. Prolocutor, let me pray the House to bear with me, 
 I believe its oldest member, when I say what is the first 
 thing that this House is here for, conjointly with the Upper
 
 i65 
 
 House. It is for the defending and maintaining — it carf- 
 not maintain unless it defends point by point — and, 
 further, for the extending, in every way open to it, the 
 area of the doctrine and the discipline of the Church of 
 England, upon the basis of the faith of the Church of 
 England. There is no such extending, either at home or 
 abroad, unless the home foundation be most faithfully 
 preserved in all its soundness. We are not here to 
 criticise or theorise anew upon that doctrine and dis- 
 cipline as it stands before us in the Prayer Book and the 
 Articles of the Church of England. If we were we should 
 be 'blind leaders of the blind.' We are not here to 
 ' invent ' a revised faith and a new theology — to ' invent * 
 these on the ground that there are those of us who will not 
 receive the old because they cannot make them coincide 
 with the science of the day. We have our house built 
 upon the rock — the Church of the Apostles and first 
 fathers of the Church of Christ, the Church of England 
 reformed after the pattern of it ; reformed — formed again 
 — upon that pattern. To faithfulness to that Church we 
 are all sworn — the Church built upon the foundation of 
 the Apostles and Prophets, Jesus Christ being the head 
 corner-stone. We have not had a Revelation of the truth 
 of God given us in order to our recasting it from time by 
 advice of the ' literary critic' We have not been sworn 
 and ordained to the priesthood in order to become as 
 those of whom the prophet Jeremiah (vi. l6) speaks : — 
 ' Thus saith the Lord, Stand ye in the ways, and see, and 
 ask for the old paths, where is the good way, and walk 
 therein, and ye shall find rest for your souls,' to say, ' We 
 will not walk therein.' Surely it cannot be that we are 
 going to say, ' We will not walk therein ; we will not keep 
 our oath ; we will have new paths, new ways of man's 
 inventing ; it is in new paths and ways only that we can 
 find rest for our souls ; it is these only that can enable us 
 to teach and guide our people .-' ' If it be so with us, what 
 is it with those who say, 'We will not have the Church of 
 England to guide and teach us — we will henceforth teach
 
 i66 
 
 ■the Church ? ' God in His mercy to ourselves and to our 
 .people, and to all in whose name we speak, God in His 
 mercy forbid this claim to find acceptance. But we may 
 never put out of our sight that we have our own work 
 appointed for us, not to shrink from but to do, whatever 
 sacrifice this may demand at our hands. We have this to 
 do under grace that the mercy of God will interpose to 
 help and save us. 
 
 ■ There are two ways in which ' dangerous error ' may be 
 presented before the Church. There is the writer giving 
 his name ; there is the writer anonymous. I do not con- 
 cern myself with the last. I call it unworthy and cowardly, 
 especially in the matter of the faith, to write anonymously. 
 The writer who writes with his name the letter I am going 
 to quote represents the full amount and issue of the claim 
 of those portions of the Preface and VHIth Essay of the 
 book ' Lux Mundi ' with which we are concerned ; and 
 which, however any one of us may wish it, he cannot hide 
 from himself I have nothing to do with his concluding 
 phantasy of peace and reconciliation between the wor- 
 shipper of science and the humble receiver of the Revela- 
 tion of God, based by the writer upon the perpetual over- 
 throw of the last before the successive triumphs of the 
 first to the end of time. What I have to pray attention to 
 is the outspoken statement made and insisted upon in the 
 sentence beginning with ' the same ' and ending with 
 •non-existent.' I thank James McCann, Doctor of 
 Divinity, for telling us all what is really meant by the 
 claim now before the House, and placing this before us in 
 language about which there can be no mistake either in 
 respect of clear meaning or of authorship. In the current 
 number of the ' Theological Monthly,' Dr. McCann, in re- 
 ferring to the conflict between science and religion, says : — 
 It is a cry that is so strong and so persistent as to startle and 
 perplex many earnest Christians, who, believing that the oft-repeated 
 vociferation must have in it some truth, ask the very natural ques- 
 tion, ' If Nature be the work of God, and the Bible be His Word, 
 how can there be any conflict between the two ? '
 
 16/ 
 
 • Scientists have done much more than elaborate conjectures — they 
 have discovered innumerable and startling facts, that make one 
 pause in wonder, wondering how such things can be. Every branch 
 of science abounds in marvels that almost surpass belief, and make 
 Nature a sacred thing. These facts press upon us the question 
 ' What relation have they to Scripture, and how do they affect our 
 belief in the Divine inspiration of the Bible ? ' In answering this we 
 must again distinguish between fact and the interpretation of fact, 
 between Scripture and the interpretation of Scripture. The same 
 distinctions must be applied to the Word of God that are applied to 
 the work of God ; and it may be at once granted that if any demon- 
 strated fact in Nature be contradictory of any fact in revelation, the 
 latter must yield its ground, and revelation in that instance be pro- 
 nounced non-existent— that is, it must be given up as a revelation, 
 for no revelation from God can by any possibility be erroneous. As 
 naturalists have blundered regarding nature, so have theologians 
 blundered regarding Scripture ; and most of the embittered contro- 
 versies about Genesis and geology, science and the Bible, have their 
 origin in these mutual blunders. But while the naturalist will insist 
 on fighting with the newest weapons from the armoury of thought, 
 he equally insists that the theologian shall fight with the oldest. To 
 this the latter decidedly objects, and, while fully acknowledging the 
 progress of science, claims for exegesis a corresponding advance. 
 There are now better canons adopted, fuller information is possessed, 
 more current renderings have been elicited, so that many old inter- 
 pretations have to be abandoned. Biblical criticism, consequently, 
 like nature criticism, contains fluctuating elements. It would 
 manifestly be a waste of time to contrast these varying quantities 
 with each other, or attempt by their means either attack or defence. 
 This, however, is the very thing that is being done by men on both 
 sides. The sceptic naturalist brings forward his very latest theory, 
 and asserts the untruthfulness of the Bible because it seems out 
 of harmony with it. The Christian, bowing to the authoritative 
 assertion, believes this, and attempts to adjust the statements of his 
 Bible to this new guess, and most probably fails, as he ought to do. 
 Let each branch of study grow in its own way, doing its own work, 
 unhindered by interference from the other, and the eventual result 
 will be a mutual embrace ; and nowhere will it be more cordial than 
 over the much-battered first chapter of Genesis. 
 
 In the Word of God the term 'science' is found only 
 once, I Tim. vi. 20, 21, 'O Timothy, keep that which is 
 committed to thy trust, avoiding profane and vain bab- 
 blings, and opposition of science falsely so called, which 
 some professing have erred concerning the faith.' So,
 
 i68 
 
 again, of the term * philosophy ' (Col. ii. 8, c. Acts xvii. 
 1 8): 'Beware lest any man spoil you through philosophy 
 and vain deceit, after the tradition of men, after the rudi- 
 ments of the world, and not after Christ.' Bishops and 
 priests of the Church of England in this House, God help 
 us all never to forget the warning of our Saviour and our 
 Judge — ' When the Son of Man cometh, shall He find 
 faith upon the earth } ' Mr. Prolocutor, I move the resolu- 
 tion which has been read to the House.
 
 A LETTER TO HIS GRACE THE ARCH- 
 BISHOP OF CANTERBURY, 
 June, i8gi. 
 
 My Lord Archbishop, 
 
 I allow myself in this, the greatest of the many dis- 
 tresses of our time, to attempt to place in few words before 
 your Grace the proposal of the book "Lux Mundi," 
 that there be adopted amongst us a new manner of the Faith 
 in Christ. That is to say, a Faith which, for the Old 
 Scriptures, excludes the Divine Authority of portions of 
 the Old Scriptures ; and, for the New Scriptures, excludes 
 the eternal knowledge of jESUS Christ. 
 
 In this Paper I have not travelled outside " Lux 
 MUNDl." I have no sufficient knowledge of other writings 
 of the same category, but of a different manner. But 
 I would submit for consideration that if the more refined 
 and enticing aspects of the present attempt require to be 
 spoken of, as I have had to speak here and elsewhere of 
 "Lux Mundi," a fortiori the unrefined, coarse, and, so to 
 speak, brutal character of other attempts is, of itself, con- 
 demned as unworthy of notice. 
 
 I am, 
 
 In all respect and obedience, 
 
 Your Grace's humble and obedient Servant, 
 
 GEORGE ANTHONY DENISON. 
 
 fune, 1 89 1. 
 
 ANALYSIS. 
 
 I. We are asked, here in England, at the close of nine- 
 teenth century of Redemption, to adopt, for ourselves and 
 for our children, a new manner of the Faith in CHRIST, in
 
 170 
 
 respect of the Divine Authority of portions of the Scrip- 
 tures of the Old Testament, and in respect of the Eternal 
 Knowledge of Jesus Christ. We are told that the Old 
 Faith " needs disincumbering, reinterpreting, explaining." 
 (Preface to all Editions of" Lux MUNDI," p. i.) 
 
 2. We are invited to concur in " an attempt to put the 
 Catholic Faith into its right relation to modern intellectual 
 and moral problems." Not to put modern intellectual and 
 moral problems into their right relation to the Catholic 
 Faith, but vice versa". The Catholic Faith then is the 
 subject-matter with which the reasoning power is now to 
 deal afresh upon its own authority. 
 
 3. We are invited to do this in the name of " intellectual 
 and moral freedom." For the meaning of the word 
 " freedom " as here used, see Par 7. 
 
 4. We are invited further to do this by way of " succour 
 to a distressed faith ''," " by endeavouring to bring the 
 Christian Creed into its right relation " to the modern 
 growth of knowledge, scientific, historical, critical ; and to 
 modern problem.s of politics and ethics." Why a distressed 
 faith } Primarily, because required by the Church ^ to 
 accept the Divine Authority of every portion of the Old 
 Scripture. We are invited to find relief from the " distress " 
 in discarding portions of the Old Scriptures in order to the 
 enabling us to accept what remains of them ; in a word, to 
 put aside the Bible of the Church Catholic, and to take up 
 the Bible of the New Criticism. 
 
 5. We are asked to accept the proposal for "a readjust- 
 
 ' All Editions. Preface, p. I. (An explanation is appended, Note I ; 
 Preface to Tenth Edition, p. ii.) The explanation there offered amounts 
 to the same thing with the thing explained, conversely put. Faith adjusted 
 to Reason is one and the same thing with Reason prescribing to Faith. 
 It is then no explanation at all. The substance of the thing complained 
 of remains just where it was. 
 
 The two lines in italics (par. 2) are the basis of "LuxMundi." See 
 par. 12 of this Paper, pp. 7, 8, where the "explanation" above referred 
 to is cited. 
 
 '' Preface to Tenth Edition, p. 11. See p. 7, par. 12. 
 
 •^ See below, par. 12, p. 8. 
 
 "^ Vide Article VI. of the Articles of Religion.
 
 171 
 
 ment, or fresh correlation, of the things of faith and the 
 things of knowledge ^" 
 
 6. We are encouraged to intrude ourselves into the 
 Province of the Divine Nature ; to assume a knowledge 
 which man cannot have here — a knowledge of the Divine 
 purposes beyond and beside what is revealed to us in 
 "Holy Scripture;" and thereupon to found and fashion 
 anew our old belief. To pronounce upon the strength of 
 such "knowledge" that the knowledge of jESUS Christ 
 was limited, not eternal. 
 
 . 7. We are told that we have, in arriving at these con- 
 clusions, to submit ourselves to man's wisdom, learning, 
 research, science. That is to say : to give up ourselves to 
 be guided by " the Literary Critic," the Critic of " the New 
 Criticism " for the time being : to give up ourselves to his 
 guidance in respect of what portions of the Old Scriptures 
 are to be received, and what not to be received. In other 
 words, that it is of man's " intellectual and moral freedom " 
 to believe in, or not to believe in, so much of the Old 
 Scriptures as the Literary Critic for the time being, and of 
 all succeeding generations to the end of time, may allow 
 him to accept, or may require him to reject, as not being 
 of Divine Authority. 
 
 8. Thus it is proposed to us to unite in inaugurating 
 a perpetual flux of what is, nevertheless, to be still called 
 by the name of the Catholic Faith ; but is a perpetual dis- 
 integration, increasing as time goes on, of the elements 
 of the Catholic Faith. For no generation of the New 
 Criticism has any control, positive or negative, over a like 
 claim of the generation next in succession. It has its evil 
 example ; but without its authority, such as that authority 
 is, after the manner of other " Sciences." It has no bind- 
 ing power over the generations that come after. The 
 authority of one generation of " the Literary Criticism " 
 may, upon its own assumption, accept, reject, amend, 
 substitute an account of what is to be received or what 
 
 e Preface to Tenth Edition, p. 12.
 
 172 
 
 is not to be received, in the place of what a previous 
 generation of it may have in like manner insisted upon ; 
 and this, in the nature of the case, unto the end of time: 
 in virtue of what are called new discoveries, and new 
 corresponding insight into the Revelation of GOD by 
 man's reasoning power. Faith disappears step by step ; 
 Rationalism, in one or other of its forms, comes into its 
 place ; and herein we seem to recognise the answer to 
 our Lord's question, "When CllRlST cometh, shall He 
 find faith upon the earth ? " 
 
 9. If it be replied to all this assumption and require- 
 ment, as the simple and all sufficient answer, that our 
 Blessed Lord jESUS CHRIST has in His Gospel set His 
 seal upon all the old Scriptures, making them His own; 
 that He has so cared for man's infirmities, and, more than 
 this, has so warned against man's presumption, as to have 
 twice repeated \.h\s setting of His seal after He rose from the 
 dead, and was about to return to "the Glory which He 
 had with the Father before the World was" (St. Luke 
 xxiv. 25, 26, 27, and 44) — we are, nevertheless, informed 
 by "Lux MuNDi" that the knowledge of Christ Jesus 
 was "a limited knowledge," after the nature of a man's 
 knowledge in this world (see Essay VHI., Ed. X., pp. 
 360-1). 
 
 10. The most comprehensive form of Rationalism is 
 the saying of the fool, " There is no GOD." There is a par- 
 ticular and subordinate form, more subtle, quite as danger- 
 ous, if not more so. It is the form of Rationalism presented 
 in "Lux MUNDI." This form declares: (i) I believe 
 that God is ; (2) That there are Three Persons, one God ; 
 (3) That God speaks to man by His "Holy Scripture:" 
 But (4) that what is " Holy Scripture," and what is not 
 " Holy Scripture," is for man's reasoning power to decide 
 from time to time unto the end of time. 
 
 ■ II. This, conjoined with the assumption — it is nothing 
 hnt assumption — of the "limited knowledge" of our Lord 
 and Saviour jESUS Christ, is the Rationalism of " Lux 
 MUNDI." The Rationalism seductive. The two forms
 
 ^7i 
 
 of Rationalism present themselves under two aspects. 
 On the one hand, there is the Rationalism of the learned 
 man resting in his learning, or what he calls his learning: 
 On the other is the Rationalism of the plain man seduced 
 by the learned man into thinking that he is himself also 
 a judge of " Holy Scripture ; " and in this way the millions 
 of men fall away from their one hope, the simplicity of 
 the One Faith in Christ Jesus, and in His Holy Scrip- 
 ture as delivered to man by the undivided Church under 
 guidance of The Spirit. Of all things cruel as done by 
 man to man there is nothing so cruel as that which is 
 done by the learning which ignores the Divine Authority 
 of Holy Scripture, of portions of it, or of the whole of it ; 
 to the harm and loss of the souls of the learned few, and 
 the unlearned millions of men. 
 
 12. In Note I, p. II, Preface to Tenth Edition, we read 
 as follows : — 
 
 " By the phrase ' to attempt to put the Catholic Faith into its right 
 relation to modern intellectual and moral problems' (Preface to Fh-st 
 Edition; it was not by any means intended to suggest that the modern 
 problems, or the modern sciences, were the things of the first import- 
 ance, and the faith only secondary. What was intended was that, 
 as holding the Faith, we needed, as the Church has often needed' 
 to bring that with which we are ourselves identified into relation to 
 the claims, intellectual and practical, made upon us from outside." 
 
 This is no " explanation." It is nothing but a repetition, 
 leaving out the word " right " before " relation," and insert- 
 ing the words " the claims intellectual and practical made 
 upon us from outside " in the room of " modern intellectual 
 and moral problems." 
 
 Again, " as holding the Faith "—what Faith .? Certainly 
 not the Faith of the Church Catholic in the Divine 
 Authority of all the old Scriptures ! 
 
 Again, what is the precise meaning of "into its right 
 relation to," or, " into relation to ? " 
 
 The two expressions obviously mean the same thing. 
 But what is that same thing? We are not told. No 
 doubt we can gather it ; but not to any relief from our 
 distress.
 
 174 
 
 13. In sum then, we are asked by "Lux MUNDI " to 
 believe that the only safe guide in respect of portions 
 of the Old Scriptures, whether they be, or be not, of 
 Divine Authority ; and in respect of the knowledge of 
 Jesus Christ whether it were eternal, or limited, is to 
 be found in the conclusions of the Literary Critic of 
 the New Criticism for the time being. 
 
 14. It has not been possible in this brief analysis to 
 include dissection of the reasonings of the Editor of " Lux 
 MUNDI" upon Revelation and Inspiration, Essay VIII., 
 
 PP- 337—362. 
 
 If I were pleading my cause before a Court of Enquiry 
 in Convocation, which has not been allowed to mc, I 
 should be prepared to show : 
 
 1. That it is difficult, even for the few among men, 
 to discern what the Editor affirms and what he denies ; 
 and that this is a good ground for not attaching 
 weight to his reasoning, however dogmatic in its 
 character. 
 
 2. That, though there be herein a refuge for the 
 few, all that remains for the millions is to have doubts 
 suggested about the Divine Authority of Holy Scrip- 
 ture, and the eternal knowledge of our LORD and 
 Saviour, Jesus Christ, which they have no answer 
 to for themselves, and no living voice of the Church 
 to enable them to put the doubts away. 
 
 G. A. DENISON. 
 July, 1 89 1.
 
 DECLARATION ON THE TRUTH OF 
 
 HOLY SCRIPTURE. 
 
 December i6, i8gi. 
 
 1. It must be evident to thoughtful persons that there 
 are now current certain impressions that Holy Scripture 
 has been discovered not to be worthy of unquestioning 
 beh'ef; and the faith of many Christian people is thereby 
 unsettled. 
 
 2. These impressions are manifestly a dishonour to God, 
 as discrediting His Faithfulness and Truth ; and are full 
 of peril to the eternal life of those affected by them, 
 seeing that they undermine all faith in the mystery of 
 Christ, and, indeed, in the supernatural itself. 
 
 3. And although such impressions might appear to 
 originate in various learned speculations in Theological 
 and Physical Science, yet they are in great measure 
 derived immediately from the popular literature of the 
 day, and therefore, no sustained argument can reach 
 the mass of those affected by them ; even if it were 
 true (which it is not) that the tribunal of human reason, 
 to which such argument must be submitted, had juris- 
 diction and competency to deliver judgment on the 
 authority of the Holy Bible. 
 
 4. It is, moreover, evident that the effects of these 
 speculations survive, and accumulate, to the general lower- 
 ing of the popular estimation of the Holy Bible ; though 
 individual speculations may have but a transitory in- 
 fluence, or even be utterly refuted on their own ground. 
 
 5. The synods of the Church have not yet spoken with
 
 176 
 
 authority to guide us in matters of such grave import- 
 ance ; but it cannot be right in the sight of God that 
 where His Honour is so directly assailed, and the sal- 
 vation of His people so seriously hindered, the whole 
 matter should be allowed to drift ; and that only isolated 
 voices should be raised here and there in the Church, 
 in defence of the Truth of God's Word. 
 
 6. Under these circumstances, we, the undersigned, 
 messengers, watchmen, and stewards of the Lord, who 
 have received the Holy Ghost to be faithful dispensers 
 of the Word of God, being sorely distressed at these 
 things, and deeply feeling the burden and shame of sitting 
 still, can no longer forbear — 
 
 (i) To deliver our joint testimony herein before 
 God ; and 
 
 (2) To attempt, by the only united action in our 
 power, to settle the minds of those to whom our 
 testimony may seem to be of value, in a good and 
 comfortable reliance on the absolute Truth of the 
 Holy Scriptures. 
 
 7. We therefore solemnly profess and declare our un- 
 feigned belief in all the Canonical Scriptures of the Old 
 and New Testaments, as handed down to us by the 
 undivided Church in the original languages. We believe 
 that they are inspired by the Holy Ghost ; that they arc 
 what they profess to be ; that they mean what they say ; 
 and that they declare incontrovertibly the actual historical 
 truth in all records, both of past events, and of the 
 delivery of predictions to be thereafter fulfilled. 
 
 8. We believe these Scriptures because they have the 
 authority of Divine Revelation ; and wholly indepen- 
 dently of our own, or of any human, approval of the 
 probability or possibility of their subject-matter; and 
 wholly independently of our own, or of any human and 
 finite, comprehension thereof. 
 
 9. And we believe that any judgment, either for or 
 against them, formed on the ground of such approval or
 
 177 
 
 comprehension, or of the want thereof, is inapplicable 
 to matter of Divine revelation. 
 
 10. And we believe the Holy Scriptures to have this 
 Divine authority, on the testimony of the Universal 
 Church, the Spouse and Body of Christ, the Witness 
 and Keeper of Holy Writ. So that no opinion of the fact 
 or form of Divine Revelation, grounded on literary cri- 
 ticism of the Scriptures themselves, can be admitted to 
 interfere with the Traditionary Testimony of the Church, 
 when that has been once ascertained and verified by 
 appeal to antiquity. 
 
 11. It is far from our purpose to undervalue or depre- 
 cate the employment of the highest powers of the human 
 intellect, when sanctified through prayer, in diligent and 
 reverent searching the Scriptures, and in such studies 
 as help to the knowledge of the same ; provided that the 
 object be the meaning of the living Oracles, and not their 
 genuineness or their authenticity. And while we believe 
 that the seal of The Spirit of Truth is set to all the 
 Canonical Scriptures as the Truth of the Living God, 
 we especially repudiate and abhor all suggestions of 
 fallibility in the Person of our Blessed Lord Jesus Christ, 
 in respect of His own use of the Scriptures of the Old 
 Testament. 
 
 12. We earnestly pray that the clergy and laity of 
 the Church of England may never acquiesce in rejecting 
 any portions of the One Volume of God's Revelation, 
 as hard sayings, causing stumbling ; but, on the contrary, 
 may hold fast their confidence in the Faithfulness of God, 
 Who will not suffer us to be deceived in humbly believing 
 that to which He hath set His Seal ; and may wait 
 patiently, knowing only in part, for the time when we 
 shall know even as we are known, and shall be filled unto 
 all the fulness of God. 
 
 EDWARD MEYRICK GOUL- 
 BURN, D.D., D.C.L., Some- 
 time Dean of Norwich. 
 
 GEORGE ANTHONY DENISON, 
 
 Archdeacon of Taunton. 
 
 BERDMORE COMPTON, formerly 
 Vicar of All Saints', Margaret 
 Street. 
 
 U. F. SADLER, Prebendary of 
 ^VelIs. 
 
 N
 
 1/8 
 
 T. T. CARTER, Hon. Canon of 
 
 Christ Church. 
 J. L. READlNCi, Bishop -Suffragan. 
 IIINUS-HOWELL, Rector of Pray- 
 ton, Rural Dean, Hon. Canon 
 of Norwich, and Proctor in Con- 
 vocation. 
 ROBERT GREGORY, Dean of St. 
 
 Paul's. 
 CANON WILLIAM COOKE. 
 R. W. RANDALL, Vicar of All 
 Saints', Clifton, Hon. Canon of 
 Bristol. 
 T. L. CLAUGHTON, late Bishop 
 
 of St. Albans. 
 R. PAYNE-SMITH, Dean of Can- 
 terbury. 
 F. H. LEICE.STER, Suffragan of 
 
 Peterborough. 
 WILLIAM RALPH CHURTON, 
 
 Canon of St. Albans. 
 H. \V. WEB13-PEPLOE, Vicar of 
 St. Paul's, Onslow Sciuare, 
 London. 
 ERNALD LANE, Archdeacon of 
 
 Stoke-upon-Trent. 
 WILLIAM BUTLER, Dean of 
 
 Lincoln. 
 H. DONALD W. SPENCE, Dean 
 
 of Gloucester. 
 THOMAS E. ESPIN, D.D., Pro- 
 locutor of the Northern Convo- 
 cation, Chancellor of the Dioceses 
 of Chester and Liverpool, Rector 
 of Walsingham. 
 BENJAMIN J. CLARKE, Arch- 
 deacon of Liverpool. 
 B. M. COWIE, Dean of Exeter. 
 
 ARTHUR DOUGLAS WAGNER, 
 
 Vicar of St. Paul's, Brighton. 
 HENRY R. NEVILL, Archdeacon 
 
 of Norfolk, Canon of Norwich. 
 FREDERICK MEYRICK, Non- 
 residentiary Canon of Lincoln. 
 J. W. MARSHALL, Vicar of St. 
 
 John, Blackheath. 
 RICHARD T. WEST, Vicar of St. 
 
 Mary Magdalene, Paddington. 
 W. H. HUTCHINGS, Rector of 
 Kirby Misperton, and Rural 
 Dean of Malton. 
 GEORGE PREVOST, Rector of 
 Stinchcombe, late Archdeacon of 
 Gloucester. 
 EDWARD MILLER, late Rector 
 
 of Bucknill. 
 JOSEPH H. STEPHENSON, Pre- 
 bendary and Treasurer of Wells. 
 RICHARD C. KIRKPATRICK, 
 Vicar of St. Augustine, Kilbum. 
 W. CLAVELL INGRAM, Hon. 
 
 Canon of Peterborough. 
 CHARLES STEPHEN GRUE- 
 BER, Vicar of Hambridge. 
 I K. B. PORT MAN, late Rector of 
 Staple Fitzpaino. 
 W. H. ASKWITH, R.D., Vicar of 
 
 St. Mary's, Taunton. 
 EDMUND FIELD, Fellow and 
 Senior Chaplain of St. Nicholas 
 College. 
 E. EARDLEY ^^TLMO^, Pre- 
 bendary of Wells. 
 W. F. HOBSON. 
 MICHAEL ROSENTHAL.
 
 APPENDIX IV. 
 
 THE NEW CRITICISM. 
 
 A Visitation Charge, April 26, i8g2. 
 
 Brethren in Christ, 
 
 I have to speak to you to-day under circumstances of 
 special anxiety and distress. 
 
 There are not a few things of great concern to the 
 Church upon which I should have been ready to speak, 
 and to take counsel with you. On the other hand, there is 
 one thing, superseding every other, which has filled my 
 heart and mind for the last two years and a half; and has 
 constrained me to put all other aside : so that I have not 
 been able to see my way to give that consideration to the 
 other things referred to, which would have prepared me to 
 give you my judgment upon them, as otherwise I should 
 have been able to do. 
 
 I look to a first principle committed in their first ordina- 
 tion to the keeping and the teaching of bishops, priests, 
 deacons of the Church of England in their care for the 
 people of Christ — I mean " unfeigned behef in all the 
 canonical Scriptures." 
 
 " The Ordering of Deacons." The Bishop : Do you un- 
 feignedly believe all the canonical Scriptures of the Old 
 and the New Testament ? — Answer : I do believe them. 
 
 I look to all that has been done and is doing, and is at 
 work among all sorts and conditions of men in England, 
 as elsewhere, day by day, to sap the foundation of that 
 belief; and I have not been able to find room for con- 
 sideration of questions, of however grave importance to 
 the Church, which are, nevertheless, wholly subordinate 
 
 N 2
 
 i8o 
 
 questions. To find such room seems to me very like the 
 being very busy when building a house, about the roof of 
 the house, and making it wind and water-tight, while 
 hands below are even more busy in pulling out the foun- 
 dations, beginning with the foundation-stone. 
 
 The subject-matter to which I confine myself to-day 
 here, and at the other places of my visitation, is (i) the 
 teaching of the New Criticism concerning Books and por- 
 tions of Books of the Old Scriptures ; (2) the teaching of 
 the New Criticism in respect of the self-limitation of our 
 Lord's knowledge when upon earth ; and after as before 
 His Resurrection, in respect of His knowledge of the Old 
 Scriptures. One would have thought, a priori, that a 
 moment's consideration would have sufficed to show the 
 New, or Higher Critic, upon his own rule even of the 
 majesty of human reason, that such assumption is an 
 absurdity, and worse than an absurdity. I might safely 
 use a much stronger word. 
 
 A Book, every page of which is stamped with unfathom- 
 able mysteries, and is sealed with the seal of God ; a Book 
 containing things which even " the Angels desire to look 
 into" (i St. Peter i. 12) is to be handed over to every 
 man to say what it pleases him to say upon it. It is an 
 evil claim for the learned few. It is a miserable claim for 
 the millions of men, miserable in its profound cruelty, 
 drawing away the life-blood of their hope, comfort, peace 
 here ; giving them nothing in their room ; having nothing 
 to give. Truly it may be said that the pride of human 
 reason and the lust of human appetite rise in rebellion 
 against what it is not within the province of the first to 
 comprehend, nor of the second to find in the rebellion any- 
 thing wherewith to replace lost comfort, hope, and peace. 
 The same answer extends to the particular objections to 
 portions of Books advanced by the New Critic. It is not 
 for man to discuss what parts of the Bible as delivered by 
 the Church Catholic, under guidance of the Spirit, are, or 
 are not, of God. 
 
 But all this notwithstanding, "the New or Higher
 
 I8l 
 
 Criticism " does claim to deal with Holy Scripture as it 
 would deal with any other " literature ; " and proceeds to 
 part and parcel out the Old Scriptures into what is to, or 
 may, be accepted as of Divine Revelation, and what may 
 be dismissed as not required to be so accepted. 
 
 To this it is replied that our Lord Jesus Christ has in 
 His Gospels, before and after His Resurrection alike (St. 
 Luke xxiv. 25-6-7, 44-8), referred to, or cited from, the 
 Old Scriptures in more than 520 places of His teaching. 
 The rejoinder of the New, or Higher, Critic is that our 
 Lord's knowledge of the Old Scriptures was a "self- 
 limited knowledge." This was indeed the only resort left 
 to the New, or Higher, Critic, in defending and maintain- 
 ing his position in respect of the Old Scriptures ; and as 
 such he does not hesitate to cling to it with all the 
 tenacity of the Neologist of our, as of all other time. 
 
 The New Critic, having thus laid his foundation on his 
 entire liberty to deal with the Holy Scriptures of the Old 
 Testament as he would deal with any other literature ; 
 and to represent the knowledge of our Lord in respect of 
 the Old Scriptures as of no account in the matter between 
 him and the Church of England, falls back upon the 
 supremacy of the New, or Higher, Critic ; and is driven to 
 the assertion that our Lord's citation from, and reference 
 to, the Old Scriptures in the Gospel's Teaching has no 
 force because our Lord's knowledge of the Old Scriptures 
 was a self-limited knowledge. 
 
 For this " invention*" of a " limited knowledge" in our 
 Lord Jesus Christ when upon earth, and other like " in- 
 ventions " of man, well defined as follows, " New ways of 
 making a man more wise and happy than God has made 
 him," let me say — though I shrink from having to state it 
 — that " self-limited knowledge " in our Lord carries with 
 it this inseparable consequence. It is terrible to have to 
 state it, but it has to be done. It is this, that our Lord, 
 knowing that He had so self-limited Himself, has, never- 
 theless, employed the Old Scriptures in His teaching, as 
 
 * Eccles. vii. 29.
 
 IS2 
 
 if He were not " self- limited " — employed them to illus- 
 trate and to enforce His teaching when He had Himself 
 deprived Himself of the knowledge whether what He was 
 citing or referring to was truth of fact or not. 
 
 It is, I repeat, terrible to be forced to note such things ; 
 but, as it is my duty to note them, my duty to God, to 
 His Church, to you, to myself, I note them and leave them 
 with as few words as I may. 
 
 I am speaking to my brethren the clergy and church- 
 wardens of this portion of the Archdeaconry of Taunton 
 and others of them here present ; but also to many others, 
 every one of whom, baptized into Christ, has it in charge 
 to keep the faith as he has received it, and to commend it 
 to others to the best of his power. It is only a repetition, 
 in another form, of what I have been saying everywhere 
 for the last two years and a half — the main points of it 
 condensed into a brief space. 
 
 Now, if it be said that this is a position rather of the 
 Bishop of a Diocese than of one of his Archdeacons, I am 
 thankful to be able to cite and plead what has been long 
 before the Church — that I am saying no more than what 
 our dear Bishop has publicly said upon this matter many 
 times. 
 
 I am thankful to be able to restate here that I was 
 enabled, by vote of our Diocesan Conference of 1891, to 
 affirm that the one Basis of" the Best way of dealing with 
 Indifferentism and Scepticism " is the Divine Integrity 
 and Authority of Holy Scripture : the Old Scriptures as 
 witnessed to by our Lord in His Gospels. The Book as 
 delivered to man by the undivided Church Catholic : The 
 Spirit of Truth guiding It into all Truth, for all time. 
 
 Reason, man's greatest earthly gift, may, like all other 
 gifts bestowed upon him, become his greatest snare. It 
 may, that is, become unreason ; and, in respect of things 
 Divine, will issue, if left to itself, in what S. John calls 
 it, " The pride of life." 
 
 It may and will win many proselytes in the hands of 
 the user, and find much honour in the world as denoting
 
 i83 
 
 much acumen and intellectual power. Whether it can 
 issue in the form it has adopted for itself in helping men 
 to save their souls is another question. For one, I need 
 not state in words the answer I must give to that 
 question. 
 
 Call to mind day by day, dear brethren in Christ, what 
 that Book is, which many amongst us are handling so 
 freely, each one of them as if it was his own native pro- 
 duction, or that of some other man. 
 
 It is the Book of God speaking to man by man, and 
 as delivered to all men by the Church Catholic, as He 
 sees fit in His Almighty wisdom. It is the one Book 
 that does this. It is the Book which tells us of all the 
 relations of God to man. It is the one Book that does 
 this. It is the Book which tells us of all the relations 
 of man to God. It is the one Book that does this. 
 
 May God the Father, the Son, the Holy Ghost, warn 
 us, teach us, help us, guide us all, guard us against that 
 deadliest wile of the Tempter, " The pride of life." All 
 this let us pray for ourselves and for all, watching unto 
 prayer, praying, confessing, mourning for our many sins, 
 hoping for everlasting life, giving up ourselves in body 
 and in soul to Christ, speaking to us by The Spirit, in 
 His own Holy Word — not living as though we had not 
 yet received the Truth, but have alway to find it still 
 for ourselves by our own reasoning power. God in His 
 mercy in Christ keep us from being found, when Christ 
 Cometh, to know then for the first time what that is 
 which Christ meaneth when He said, " When the Son of 
 Man conieth, shall He find faith upon the earth ? "
 
 APPENDIX V. 
 
 LUX MUNDI. 
 
 Six Sermons preached in Wells Cathedral.
 
 SERMON I. 
 
 Preached in Wells Cathedral, Sunday, May to, i8gi. 
 
 DEUT. xxix. 29. 
 
 *' The secret things belong tinto the Lord our God. But the things 
 that are Revealed belong unto us, and to our children, that we 
 may do all the words of this Latv "—and St. Matthew xviii. 1 7— 
 " Tell it unto the Church." 
 
 I KNOW well that I shall be thought to say to-day what 
 "the world" calls "hard things." Let me say, then, in 
 limine, that what I have in hand to-day is to do, if God 
 permit, what I can against Rationalism. Rationalism is 
 largely infecting the English people, within the Church 
 and without it. It is weakening the hold of the Bible 
 on the heart and mind. I know nothing so unhappy, 
 because so fatal to true religion. It is the intrusion of 
 the reasoning power of the finite into the mystery of the 
 infinite. Shall the thing formed say, in his discontent 
 and presumption, to Him that formed it, Why hast Thou 
 made me thus? Nay but, O man, who art thou that 
 replies against God ? (Rom. ix. 20.) But my quarrel is 
 not with the Rationalist. The "hard things" of the 
 world's judgment are not for him. My quarrel is with 
 Rationalism. I have sought all my life to have no 
 quarrel with men, however much I must needs quarrel 
 with their teaching. Many of the Rationalists carry 
 about with them special attractions ; but it is not a ques- 
 tion of special attractions of men. It is a question of 
 The Truth of The Word of God, as delivered to the 
 World by the undivided Church guided into all Truth 
 by The Spirit. The '* hard things" of the world's lan- 
 guage are the Truth of Holy Scripture by the voice of 
 the Church. If I believe them with all my heart, mind,
 
 i88 
 
 and strength, I may not shrink from saying this. Let 
 us take note here in what places Holy Scripture may be 
 said more particularly to define and characterise Rational- 
 ism. To this end we have to compare carefully the places 
 following in the Old and the New Scripture : — Genesis 
 iii. 1—8; Exodus ii. 2—8; Deut. vi. i6 ; Numbers xx. 
 13; Psalm xcv. 8— 11 ; St. Luke iv. 9—13 ; i St. John 
 ii. 16. If any man strive to give any other account of 
 what Rationalism is, I have this only to say — 
 
 Malim cum his scire, qiiam tecum nescire. 
 
 We are told, Genesis iii. 22—24, of the guard of the 
 Cherubim, and the flaming sword to keep the way of the 
 Tree of Life in the garden of Eden. God vouchsafes here 
 to tell us why; to give some account of a portion of His 
 Mysteries. Let us not presume, but be humble and wait. 
 See Job xxxiii. 13 ; Rev. xxii. 2. 
 
 I. The history of what is called, in English, " Rational- 
 ism," is coeval and concurrent with the history of this 
 world. Rationalism, with its subtleties, whisperings, il- 
 lusions, attractions of many kinds, its ever ready gratifi- 
 cation of pride of heart and mind — in one word, with its 
 temptations — is, in " the last time " what it has ever been 
 in and since the first time of the world, the most seducing 
 and powerful enemy and destroyer of souls by temptation 
 of the devil. Rationalism is irreconcilable with faith, its 
 essence being doubt about the will and the power of 
 Qod — aye, sometimes of belief in the being of God. If 
 it does not issue in this, it goes far towards issuing in it. 
 It has nothing to offer of comfort in what is here, or of 
 hope of what shall be hereafter. It has no basis to stand 
 upon, as against the Word of God, but conceit of itself ; 
 of its own power and value for amending and from time 
 to time re-editing the faith, by taking away from it part 
 after part, element after element. Add to this conceit — 
 what is indeed separable from it — the call to walk by 
 sight and not by faith, and you have the summary of 
 Rationalism. Rationalism is the Sadduceeism of Chris-
 
 1 89 
 
 tianity. It is the waters of Marah : the bitter source and 
 fountain of the heresy that doubts and distrusts the Word 
 of God. The history of this world — the relations of God 
 to man, the duty of man to God— is in Holy Scripture, 
 in the Scripture of the Old and the New Testaments, 
 bound together by the threefold cord of faith, hope, and 
 charity — the threefold cord which cannot be broken. The 
 history of this world ; created for man in innocence, in 
 the image of God ; of the world fallen by the yielding 
 of man, for whom the world was made, to the temptation 
 to doubt the will of God, with the other two temptations 
 of man, the lust of the flesh and the lust of the eyes, 
 coming in its train, and making him ever the slave of the 
 tempter; the history of the world fallen in man's fall, 
 redeemed in and by Christ ; of man, delivered unto the 
 death of this world, redeemed from the second death unto 
 the hope of heaven by the death of Christ on the cross ; 
 raised again unto the life and glory and equality with the 
 angels by the resurrection of Christ— all this is laid up in 
 Holy Scripture, and nowhere else. Laid up in the Book 
 of God. Man may not lay a finger upon the Book of 
 God, except to take it all into his hands, his heart, and 
 life. First, in its mystery, which is outside the province, 
 outside the power, of man to do more than humbly to 
 receive. Second, in its command and teaching of obe- 
 dience and keeping of all the words of the law of God, 
 which is man's " reasonable service." 
 
 I have said " coeval and concurrent," because though we 
 be not told for how long our first parents abided in their 
 innocence— and all that is told us of the presence of God 
 with man in the Garden of Eden is contained, with the 
 creation of woman, in the second chapter of Genesis — it is 
 the first thing told us in the third chapter, how it came to 
 pass that our first parents fell away from the grace of God. 
 Man fell, and " in Adam all die." This was compassed 
 through Rationalism, called into life and power by the 
 temptation of the devil. It was doubt entertained and 
 carried out into action— doubt of the will and of thq
 
 190 
 
 word of God. " Yea, hath God said ? " The woman 
 hearkened ; her trust in and obedience to God began to 
 shake like a leaf before the wind. She looked upon the 
 tree ; she saw that the tree was good for food, and 
 pleasant to the eyes, and a tree to be desired to make 
 one wise. The tempter had said, " Ye shall not surely 
 die ; for God doth know that in the day yc eat thereof, 
 then your eyes shall be opened ; and ye shall be as gods, 
 knowing good and evil." The door was opened for doubt 
 in God ; the temptations of the lust of the flesh and the 
 lust of the eyes came in at the fall of the tempter. " And 
 when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and 
 pleasant to the eyes, and a tree to be dcsij-cd to make one 
 wise, she took of the fruit thereof, and did cat ; and gave 
 also to her husband with her, and he did eat. And the 
 eyes of them both were opened, and they knew that they 
 were naked." This was the knowledge they had attained 
 to. Here, then, closely waiting upon the beginning of 
 man's earliest history is Rationalism, in all its power 
 unto the death of the soul. Our first parents reasoned 
 about God, about His word, and their obedience to it ; 
 and they fell away, with all their children, from the grace 
 of God. I pass by here what remains in chapter iii., all 
 wonderful, merciful, and marvellous as it is. The mercy 
 of God the Father, in Christ the Son, to man fallen ; 
 the curse of the tempter ; the promise of redemption ; 
 the Sacrament of the Tree of Life. It is told us why 
 it ; was that cur first parents were driven forth of the 
 Garden of Eden. It is told us of the mystery of the Tree 
 of Life. It is given to us to compare carefully and 
 humbly Genesis iii. 23-4, with the last chapter of the 
 Revelation of St. John — the beginning of the Old Scrip- 
 ture with the end of the New ; and to lay it up in our 
 hearts and minds, waiting upon God. The Rationalist 
 laughs at all this. He says, " I cannot understand it." 
 Surely he cannot. " I am ready," he adds complacently, 
 " to go along with it so far as my reasoning power will 
 allow me to go ; and I do not quite see how far that might
 
 191 
 
 be. Farther I cannot go." What the Rationalist does 
 herein is that he makes himself one of the " gods " of 
 the tempter's temptation — thinks he knows, but does not 
 know "good and evil" — (Hebraism for all things). I 
 repeat that Rationalism is the Sadduceeism of Chris- 
 tianity. 
 
 II. I pass on now from what I had to say in limine^ 
 upon the nature and effects of Rationalism, to the actual 
 present position of the Church of England in respect of 
 them. At the close of the XlXth Century of Redemp- 
 tion, that nature and those effects have re-presented them- 
 selves under special circumstances in the publication of 
 the book " Lux Mundi," issuing from what was, but is 
 not now, The Pusey House, Oxford, November, 1889, 
 edited by the Principal of the house still so called but 
 not so being. I cite from paragraphs 1-2 of Preface to 
 first and tenth editions, the words which are the key to 
 the main purpose of the entire volume, and to the method 
 of carrying out that purpose. The Preface is the true 
 interpreter of the book. Let me ask closest attention 
 to every word cited. Par. I. — "The writers of this volume 
 found themselves at Oxford together between the years 
 1 875 -1 885, engaged in the common work of University 
 education ; and compelled for their own sake no less than 
 that of others, to attempt to put the Catholic Faith into its 
 right relation to modern intellectual and moral problems" 
 Par. 2. — " This collection of essays represents an attempt 
 on behalf of the Christian Creed in the way of explana- 
 tion. We are sure that Jesus Christ is still, and will 
 continue to be, the Light of the world. We are sure 
 that if men can rid themselves of prejudices and mistakes 
 (for which, it must be said, the Church is often as re- 
 sponsible as they), and will look afresh at what the 
 Christian faith really means, they will find it as adequate 
 as ever to interpret life and knowledge in its several 
 departments, and to impart not less intellectual than moral 
 freedom. But we are conscious, also, that, if the true mean- 
 ing of the faith is to be made sufficiently conspicuous, it needs
 
 192 
 
 disenannberhtg, re-interpreting, explaining!' Par. i.— We 
 have here the statement of an " attempt " on the part of 
 twelve priests of the Church of England to exercise, " for 
 their own sake, no less than that of others," the power of 
 ''Putting the Catholic Faith into its right relation to modern 
 intellectual and moral problems." The hypothesis upon 
 which the attempt proceeds is that modern intellectual 
 and moral problems require now, and will of necessity 
 and continually require in the nature of the thing, from 
 time to time, unto the end, revisions of the faith, and 
 present and future readjustments of it to them. What 
 is meant here by " intellectual freedom " we are not told. 
 If it means the freedom of judging of the Divine authority 
 of portions of Holy Scripture— which appears to be the 
 meaning— then this is naked Rationalism. We know 
 what the moral freedom of the Christian is. It is the 
 living under and obeying by the Spirit "the perfect law 
 of liberty." But this great gift of God has nothing in 
 common with the " intellectual freedom " which constitutes 
 itself a judge of the Revelation of God in " Holy Scrip- 
 ture," in order to decide, at the bidding of the literary 
 critic of the time, whether this or that portion of it be 
 Holy Scripture or not ; and may not be coupled with 
 "moral freedom." The concluding sentence of Par. II., 
 p. vii., " But," down to " explaining," fills up the demand of 
 "Lux Mundi " In order to making ''the true meanitig of 
 the faith sufficiently conspicuous'' — what these two last 
 words may mean I do not know— but I think they mean 
 a great deal which is not explained— the faith needs " dis- 
 encumbering'' of something, of what again we are not told, 
 "re-interpreting" " explairiing." The Church, then, has 
 been in the dark some 1,900 years in respect of what 
 " The Faith " is. What is the meaning of the words t 
 What is the true nature and the measure of the faith 
 which receives the Faith? The "attempt" of "Lux 
 Mundi " is to enlighten the Church, taken from a posi- 
 tion of "quasi and self-assumed authority." It does this 
 by calling in the forces of Rationalism. I have said from
 
 193 
 
 the first that the whole gist and all the cause of deepest 
 distress in and by " Lux Mundi " is in the first page of the 
 preface as it stands in the first and the tenth editions. It is 
 certainly a curious position at the close of Cent. XIX., 
 that the attempt of Churchmen should be not to '^ Jiear the 
 Church V' but to teach the Church new and strange things 
 by way of relieving a distressed, that is a doubting, faith. 
 To teach that a man may believe less, may take away 
 from his belief, in order to believe in what is left under 
 this process. Upon the above, let me say what, in its sum, 
 I have said privately and publicly many times since the 
 first publication of the book — that they are words of the 
 Rationalist, inventing a faith, to be " disencumbered," " re- 
 interpreted," "explained " some 1900 years after Christ, as 
 set forth in the book "Lux Mundi." And that, of them- 
 selves, they carry with them the complete justification of 
 all that has been, as yet, said or done against the book. 
 The book has since passed through many editions, and, 
 some attempts at explanation by its editor notwithstand- 
 ing, remains in all its substance the same book. 
 
 III. It has, unhappily, become my duty in my place in 
 this Cathedral church to resume the charge of Rational- 
 ism, and of the agency employed to carry out the purposes 
 of the Rationalist. That agency is the negation of the 
 Divine authority of portions of Holy Scripture as not 
 being genuine and authentic in the judgment of the 
 literary critic of the new criticism of the present and all 
 future time ; thereby laying the foundation in the Church 
 of England, at the close of the XlXth Century of redemp- 
 tion, for the perpetual re-editing of faith in Holy Scripture 
 to the end of time, by the hands of the literary critic. It 
 is this negation, issued from what was The Pusey House, 
 1889, that I am principally concerned with in this sermon. 
 All such negation, on whatever ground advanced, is a tree 
 of Rationalistic growth, bearing deadly fruit throughout 
 
 • Note that, out of the 1 1 verses of Psalm xcv., the Psalm selected to be 
 read every day of Morning Prayer, the warning against Rationalism occupies 
 the four last verses. 
 
 O
 
 194 
 
 all time for all sorts and conditions of men. Since the 
 publication of the book, the Principal of the House has 
 been appointed to, and has served in, the office of 
 Bampton lecturer. This is enough to show what the 
 position Rationalistic is in its extent and power. On 
 the other hand, it has to be stated that the negation 
 above specified has no warrant, but the reverse, from the 
 great name and authority of Edward Bouveric Puscy ; 
 nor, again, from those of his nearest and dearest 
 friend and coadjutor of late years, Henry Parry 
 Liddon. 
 
 But, it is said there is large counter criticism as against 
 the " new criticism," dealing with portions of the Old 
 Scriptures as a thing to be brought to the bar of man's 
 reasoning power, and waiting, not only in and for this 
 generation, but in and for every succeeding generation, for 
 the decision of the literary critic whether each one of those 
 portions be of Divine authority or not. Now criticism 
 may be a very useful thing when applied to men's books, 
 but it can never be useful or lawful when applied to the 
 Book of God for the purpose of settling aye or no whether 
 this or that part of it is of God, or is not of God ; that is, 
 is part of the Bible, or not part of it, by man's authority, 
 and may be dealt with accordingly as each man pleases. 
 Any such rule is shut out vi terviini. The rule in such 
 case has been decided for all men once for all by the 
 Spirit guiding the undivided Church into all truth ; the 
 Church Catholic, for all time, in respect of which are the 
 books that make up Holy Scripture — that is the Books of 
 the Old and the New Testament ; and therein receiving 
 the name of " The Canonical Books," and we know what 
 it is, the warning it would be well for us to carry about 
 with us always, what it is to resist the Spirit, Criticism 
 of interpretation of language is one thing. It has to be 
 most carefully and reverently done. But I say it is one 
 thing. Criticism of Divine authority, i.e., whether the 
 part criticised be, under any manner of interpretation, 
 of Divine authority or not, is another thing. It may
 
 195 
 
 not be done reverently, because it may not be done at 
 all. The Bible has been delivered to the Church to keep 
 and deliver what it has received to each people in their 
 own language. It has been delivered to no people, to no 
 man, to cavil and dispute about, whether this or that part 
 of it be a part of the Word of God, or not. The pride of 
 reason calls out, and will continue to call out, against this 
 to the end of time; but this is, and will only be, to 
 manifest before God and man what a foolish, illogical, 
 unreasonable, and self-condemnatory thing reason is when 
 becoming unreason ; by asking to know what it cannot 
 know, leaving its own province, it ventures itself into the 
 province of God, to settle anew in its own finite way, for 
 its own little life, what the Infinite has in His inscrutable 
 wisdom settled from the beginning. Man ever craving to 
 know — oh !— how much that he can never know here, but 
 putting on patience and comfort of the Holy Word of 
 God, waits upon God to tell him when and how God sees 
 fit. Receiving trials of his reasoning power as mercies to 
 bring him to be humble, not as grounds for being rebel- 
 lious in the wisdom of his own heart (Job xxxvii, 24), he 
 goes on his way comforted ; rejoicing in deep thankfulness 
 for the good that is in him for Christ's sake by the Spirit. 
 On the other hand, there are words of awful warning in 
 Holy Scripture of what shall come in " the last time," that 
 of the last dispensation, that dispensation under which we 
 and those who come after us live and shall live unto the 
 end. Above all, doth not our Blessed Lord warn us — 
 " When the Son of Man cometh, shall He find faith upon 
 the earth ? " And has there ever been a time with us here 
 in England when there has been a louder call upon the 
 Church people of England to cry with Moses as he stood 
 at the gate of the camp, " Who is on the Lord's side ? " 
 (Exod. xxxii. 26.) 
 
 IV. I have used the word " resume," because it was my 
 duty to ascertain first what I might be able to do in this 
 unhappy matter in my place in Convocation of Canter- 
 bury. I began to move in Convocation, that is, to " Tell 
 
 o 2
 
 196 
 
 it to the Church," after statements pubh'c and private, and 
 correspondence private and pubHc, Session May 6, 1890. 
 Synods, or Convocations in England, of the two Provinces 
 of Canterbury and York, each within its own province, or 
 conjointly, in a national synod, are the only place, or 
 places, from which issues the living voice of the Church in 
 the province, or the corporative voice of the Church of 
 England in both provinces conjointly. The final issue of 
 my move in synod. Session Feb. 3-4, 1891, with my 
 summary of it and preface to my speech republished 
 by request, is given above '^. I state here the charges 
 laid in my gravamen (or complaint), laid before both 
 Houses of the Synod of Province of Canterbury. 
 
 1. That in the book " Lux Mundi," our blessed Lord's 
 positive teaching in respect of the Old Testament Scrip- 
 tures is limited to those instances in which our Blessed 
 Lord has Himself prefaced, or accompanied His " teach- 
 ing," by His own afifirmation of its "positive" character. 
 
 2. That, in every other instance, the book assumes it to be 
 the right, power, and proper function of the literary critic 
 of this, and every successive, generation to discern, in the 
 above-named respect, between the " positive " and '' non- 
 positive " character of our Blessed Lord's " teaching." 
 
 3. That such limitation and assumption {a) cannot be re- 
 conciled with the Holy Gospel, {b) that they tend to " be- 
 guile " and '• corrupt " men's minds from the simplicity 
 that is in Christ, {c) that they are irreverent towards Him, 
 perfect God and perfect man, {d) that they are contrary to 
 the authority of the Church, as declared by the sixth 
 Article of Religion, {e) that they are contrary to the Book 
 of Common Prayer and Administration of the Sacraments. 
 I failed in obtaining committee to inquire into and report 
 upon the charges laid by me with proofs of them tendered. 
 I have then said already all that it was necessary for me 
 to say up to this time. I resume the contention now in 
 another form. 
 
 ** See in the present Volume, pp. 142 — 168.
 
 197 
 
 V. It is plain from facts, from letters, books, reports 
 of facts and prospects " educational " (so called), general 
 tone of public papers, conversational language, things 
 done, and things left undone, that the English mind is 
 all at sea in the matter of Rationalism v. Religion. This 
 has lately appeared in force, as it always has done in the 
 history of the Church, in the forms of the " inventions " 
 of learned men. It has always been the special and 
 commanding temptation of the learned man to be led 
 by Rationalism v. Religion <=. It is rapidly, in our time 
 from ever-growing means of intercourse and communi- 
 cation of " thought " by word, and writing, and printing, 
 infecting the millions. Now, of all cruel things that a man 
 can do to those he influences in any way, the most cruel, 
 because the most deadly, now and ever, is to guide — 
 I should say, seduce — him into Rationalism v. Religion. 
 He takes away from his victim — calling him his dear 
 friend — all his comfort, all his hope ; and gives him no- 
 thing in their room except the self-confidence of the 
 creature of threescore years and ten — a confidence be- 
 longing to this world only. 
 
 There is a kindred distress suggested here by the temper 
 of the times. If I were here enumerating in the order of 
 their grounds for fear the causes of distress and unhappy 
 prospect arising out of, and inseparably connected with, 
 the book "Lux Mundi," and with the special adjuncts 
 of its conception and publication, I should put in the first 
 place not the book itself, but the carelessness, indifference, 
 apathy with which it has been so largely received by 
 English Churchmen, lay and clerical. With the last of 
 these two the blame chiefly rests. It is true that it is 
 only " the natural man " who rejoices in it, as he does in 
 everything which is for the supremacy of the Reasoning 
 Power and against the Faith. But it is very largely the 
 spiritual man, also, who, though not rejoicing in it at all 
 
 ' Next in order of time to Socinus, Hobbes and Herbert were the leaders of 
 modern European heresy. It is a heavy debt for England to add to at the 
 close of Cent. XIX.
 
 198 
 
 is, very curiously, little disturbed by it, and all that it 
 
 indicates and presages. There is much increased care 
 
 amongst us about details of the house of Church life, there 
 
 is something very like indifference about the safety of the 
 
 house itself It is not " I don't care " — it is " I don't see 
 
 what I can do ; " and, certainly if the Church, speaking 
 
 by its Synod, says, " I don't see what I can do," it is only 
 
 what is to be looked for that individual Church-people 
 
 should say the same thing. But, then, I ask, what shall 
 
 surely come out of this ? Is this what our Blessed Lord 
 
 has told us to look for, when He said, " Tell it unto the 
 
 Church ? " Is it not rather a sign of an evil time coming 
 
 fast upon us, when the cry will be indeed the cry of Moses, 
 
 ** Who is on the Lord's side ? " I have taken part publicly 
 
 for the last fifty years in many matters of grievous trouble 
 
 and distress to the Church of England. I have never 
 
 been concerned with any matter of so great trouble and 
 
 distress as that now raised by the book " Lux Mundi," 
 
 and its reception in England. " Lux Mundi " has laid 
 
 its hand upon, would remove, if it has its way, the Church 
 
 built upon the foundation of the Apostles and Prophets, 
 
 Jesus Christ Himself being the Head Corner Stone, and 
 
 would put into its place the Church of the Rationalist ; 
 
 that is to say, no Church at all, but a collection of unbeliefs 
 
 in Holy Scripture accepted by the reasoning power of the 
 
 individual man, learned and unlearned, and issuing in this 
 
 general affirmation, as sufficient proof that Holy Scripture 
 
 is not what the Church Catholic has declared it to be. 
 
 The present object proposed being, as stated in the preface, 
 
 the relief of the writers of the book themselves, and others, 
 
 from a distressed, i.e., a doubting, faith by the remedy 
 
 of surrendering portions of Holy Scripture, as being 
 
 proved by man's reason, to be not of Divine authority, 
 
 because found to be, by the " New Criticism," not genuine 
 
 or not authentic, or both. This in the hope of persuading 
 
 the "distressed faith" to believe in what remains to the 
 
 end of time of the Book of God under the new method 
 
 of handling it by man.
 
 199 
 
 The principle, then, of the book being Rationalism, 
 the method of advocating the principle is the judging 
 of Holy Scripture in respect of the primary question 
 in the matter—/.^., Is this portion of it Holy Scripture, 
 or is it not Holy Scripture ?— and seeking to find, in the 
 reply to this question what is in truth, another Bible— 
 the IBible of the New Criticism. The Bible is the founda- 
 tion of The Faith. If this perpetual uncertainty, added 
 to year by year by the discoveries of learned men in 
 respect of what is meant by " The Bible," is to be the rule 
 of The Faith, what shall become of The Faith ? Are not 
 our Lord's words the answer— " When Christ cometh, 
 shall He find faith upon the earth?" The Gospel author- 
 ity of our Blessed Lord being not reconcilable with this 
 manner of handling the Old Scriptures, the mystery of 
 Christ in His Divine and Human Nature is freely handled, 
 and conclusions based thereupon that in His human nature, 
 He was ignorant of historical fact, in common with the 
 men of His time. It is terrible to have to write and 
 speak and repeat such things ; but they are before our 
 eyes, and wringing our hearts. There is also one thing 
 more, of all the most grievous— that Christ, knowing that 
 there were things in the old Scripture of the character 
 of myth, used them in citation and reference as things 
 
 of fact. 
 
 It has also been attempted to supply a test of the 
 character of the references and citations to and from the 
 Old Scriptures by our Blessed Lord— the test that He 
 is teaching positively only when He affirms expressly 
 that He is so teaching. Now, there is no such instance 
 in the Gospels. The issue, then, of this contrivance of 
 the defence of "Lux Mundi " is that, in the 627 places 
 of such reference and citation d, our Blessed Lord is open 
 to be judged upon every one of them by the Literary 
 Critic, and the judgment to be registered for or against 
 
 Him. 
 
 I turn away in weariness and pain from these thmgs, 
 
 '^ See above, pp. 156— i6i.
 
 200 
 
 marvelling at the copious currency into which they have 
 passed — marvelling at the source which looks like the 
 beginning of not only a great river, but a devastating 
 flood. I turn away to the Bible itself. What hath the 
 Bible done to and for man? What hath the Almighty 
 God done, promised, and pledged Himself in Christ to 
 do for all men by the Eternal Spirit, to have return like 
 this made unto Him by the crying aloud for a new faith 
 1,900 years after Christ — by using the light words of man's 
 vanity (that is, both his pride and his emptiness) against 
 the one Record of His holy Will, His mercies, warnings, 
 promises to man, fallen, redeemed, elect, saved. I turn 
 to the Word of God, Holy Scripture, The Bible, The Book, 
 The Book of God. The one Record of the relations of 
 God to man, and therein of man to God. The one 
 Witness unto life or unto death of every man born into 
 the world in body and soul. The Bible, as by gift of the 
 Eternal Spirit, promised and pledged by our Lord and 
 Saviour Jesus Christ, guiding the undivided Church, the 
 Church Catholic, into all truth. The Bible, the Book for 
 all men, put into the hands of all men — with the Creeds 
 and the Sacraments and the Orders of the Ministry of the 
 Church — put into the hands of all men by the Church, 
 wheresoever the Church can come. If Holy Scripture be 
 dealt with not as it has been given, but according to the 
 " inventions " of men. Holy Scripture is, as ever, by its 
 own nature, its own critic — its own defender, maintainer, 
 advocate. If it be called in question by the wisdom of 
 man, which is foolishness with God, it re-states itself. 
 This is its criticism, its maintenance, its defence, its 
 advocacy. Holy Scripture does not argue against the 
 criticism of man. It re-states itself. Holy Scripture as 
 set forth for the Church of England in her Sixth Article 
 of Religion some 320 years ago. 
 
 We have, in the first of my two texts (Deut. xxix. 29), 
 two things which are stamped upon every page of Holy 
 Writ. I. The Mystery of God and His works, stamped 
 in the first three words of the first Book of Moses, " In the
 
 201 
 
 beginning." In the same first words of St. John's Gospel ; 
 in the 5th verse of his Gospel, chapter xvii. In the 
 closing words of his Revelation. Mystery unapproachable 
 and unsearchable ; that which cannot be approached by 
 man's reason, and which 7nay not be searched into by it. 
 2. The duty of obedience of man to God as enjoined and 
 required by every Word of His Law. When God has 
 abrogated any portion of His Law, He has abrogated it 
 Himself. Where He has not, it is not for man to touch it 
 or to " invent " anything in its room. This is the twofold 
 character of Holy Writ, written upon every page of Holy 
 Writ. The Mystery is Eternal. It may be — we do not 
 know — Everlasting, when this world and all that has been 
 or is in it is gone. The obedience remains for Heaven as 
 it had remained for Earth ; the thankful acceptance of it, 
 the living in and by it of all sorts and conditions of men, 
 high and low, rich and poor, one with another, learned and 
 unlearned, all alike — with this difference only, that to him 
 to whom much has been given, of him will much be re- 
 quired — issue in the newness of life, which the Mercy of 
 God has made possible to man by His grace restored to 
 man by the Sacrifice of The Cross. In the eating of the 
 Tree of Life, in the Eternal and Everlasting Garden of 
 God. — Rev. c. xxii. Of these two characters then of Holy 
 Writ, compound and yet in their nature distinct, the 
 character of the Mystery holds the first and the all com- 
 manding place. It is the source out of which the require- 
 ment of obedience flows— the requirement of the " reason- 
 able " service of man. Together they are the account of 
 all Holy Writ. The reasoning power is, as an instrument, 
 the chief gift of God to man, because it enables man to 
 receive Holy Scripture. To receive, apprehend so far as it 
 is the Will of God, and to obey the law of Holy Scripture. 
 The chief gift of God has, like all His other gifts, its own 
 special trial. That trial is whether it will receive Holy 
 Scripture in repentance, in thankfulness, in love, in sim- 
 plicity of faith, for the purposes for which it has been 
 given, or whether it will receive it to doubt and question it
 
 202 
 
 in the " pride of life." In unreason asking to know what 
 it cannot know, in the presumptuous sin, the tempting 
 God — the sin by which the world fell. The List of the 
 three temptations of Christ, the " Tempting God." 
 
 'Tempt not the Lord thy God, He said, and stood : 
 Then Satan, smitten with amazement, fell.' 
 
 Paradise Regained. 
 
 It is, then, in the right consideration of the compound 
 character of Holy Scripture, distinct and compound, 
 primary and subordinate, unapproachable and un- 
 searchable by the reasoning power, and }'ct appealing 
 to all that is in it humble before God — absolute in 
 requiring acceptance and obedience, merciful in deliver- 
 ing the way wherein justice and mercy meet, but disclosing 
 no part of the mystery of the way, this being a thing not 
 of earth but of heaven — all this, yea, and much more than 
 this, delivering the mystery of the Eternity of Father, Son, 
 and Holy Ghost, without unfolding one ray of the m)'stery 
 of the Godhead, but ever inviting by all grace the exercise 
 of reason within its own province unto life eternal, that we 
 find the province of man created. It is in these characters 
 of the revelation of God that is given unto man the key to 
 the connection between the character and the dependence of 
 the character of obedience upon the character of mystery, 
 and therein to all true reverence towards all Holy Scrip- 
 ture as given of God for man's use in obeying, not for his 
 criticism upon any portion of it, /.t'., whether it be a portion 
 of Holy Scripture or not ; nor, again, whether any char- 
 acter of drama or m}-th, much less of uncertain knowledge, 
 in Christ Himself, can be assigned to it. Where is there 
 one word in Holy Scripture giving this licence to the 
 reasoning power ? There are many words denying it 
 and foreboding doom upon such its exercise. The reason 
 of man when venturing beyond the bounds of its own pro- 
 vince, in the pride of possession over all other things 
 created, lands itself in the darkness which can be felt. It 
 were better not to have had Reason at all than to have it 
 upon the terms of Rationalism.
 
 203 
 
 Alas for the Pusey House ; alas for Oxford, with its 
 watchword of old time, " Douimus Illuviijiatio Meal' torn, 
 blotted, defaced. 
 
 To what then do the reasonings — I should say " assump- 
 tions : " for reasonings there neither are, nor can be, in this 
 matter — to what do the assumptions come ? They come 
 to this. 
 
 That, on the one hand, He " By Whom all things were 
 made " — Who came from the Glory which He had with The 
 Father before the World was — Who made Himself of no 
 reputation, and took upon Him the form of a servant, and 
 was made in the likeness of men ; and, being found in 
 fashion as a man, He humbled Himself, and became 
 obedient unto death, even the death of the Cross. He of 
 Whom it is said by Himself in one place in the Gospel, 
 in the unfathomable Mystery of His Incarnation, that He 
 did not know — that He is to be placed, in respect of know- 
 ledge of His Own Scriptures, on the same basis as any 
 other man of His time upon earth ; and that therefore it 
 follows, according to what man calls his reason, that His 
 testimony to the Old Scriptures so continually given in 
 the Gospels is within man's province to dispute. 
 
 The demand herein made for himself by the creature of 
 threescore years and ten, if it were not so dangerous to 
 souls, would only be eminently ridiculous. 
 
 On the other hand, in whom is it that men are invited 
 to place the confidence due to unlimited knowledge, which 
 is denied to the limited knowledge of Christ the Redeemer 
 and the Saviour ? 
 
 It is the Literary Critic — the fallen creature whom He, 
 " perfect God and perfect Man," came to save — the Literary 
 Critic of all successive generations to the end of time — the 
 Literary Critic, the man of man's books and stones and 
 manuscripts, and " many inventions." Do we want an 
 example of " the wisdom of the world," which is " foolish- 
 ness with God ? " Here it is in the garb of our poor 
 humanity — Man dies in the pride of thought that he has 
 " limited " Christ ; he rises again only by and for the sake 
 and by the power of the " limited ^' Christ.
 
 204 
 
 The man who shrinks from so much as the shadow of 
 RationaHsm lying across his path to the strait gate by the 
 narrow way — crying aloud, ' Lord, I bcHeve, help thou mine 
 unbelief — the man who prays with the Church of England 
 — ** Blessed Lord, who hast caused all Holy Scriptures to be 
 written for our learning ; grant that we may in such wise 
 hear them, read, mark, learn, and inwardly digest them, 
 that by patience, and comfort of Thy Holy Word, we may 
 embrace, and ever hold fast the blessed hope of everlastinfr 
 life, which thou hast given us in our Saviour Jesus Christ " 
 — this is the man of humble, childlike faith. There are 
 many such among the few who are learned — there are 
 thousands and ten thousands among the millions. Learn- 
 ing is not needed to make a man faithful to Christ. When 
 God sees fit He gives it to be used to His glory. If 
 a man wants learning not given him in the Providence of 
 God, he is turning his want into a snare, and falls a prey 
 to those who live upon the pride of their reason. The 
 Englishman has his Bible and his Book of Common Prayer 
 and Administration of the Sacraments in his hands ; he 
 has his Church and his Priest. He has his Bible stamped 
 and sealed with two characters distinct and yet combined 
 for man's humblest and thankfulest use in the mercy of 
 God. The character of the Mystery of God is delivered 
 to man, not to his reason, which cannot touch it, but to 
 his faith. The character of the call and the command to 
 obey and keep the commandment of God in all holy fear. 
 There is no word in the Bible about bringing the Bible to 
 trial before the Court of Man's Reasoning Power in order 
 to arrive now, some 1,900 years after Christ, at " what faith 
 in Christ means." All the obedience of faith flows out of 
 the Mystery of God, as being the pure river of the water 
 of life proceeding out of the throne of God and of the 
 Lamb. May God, in His Mercy, give us grace in this 
 dangerous time to lay these things unto our hearts and 
 minds, that we be not deceived, and, being deceived unto 
 the end, fail of our hope in Christ.
 
 SERMON 11. 
 
 Preached in Wells Cathedral, Sunday, A tig. p, i8qt. 
 
 DEUT. xxix. 29. 
 
 " The secret thmgs belong unto the Lord our God ; but those things 
 ivhich are revealed belong u?ito us and to our children for ever, 
 that zve may do all the words of this law " — and Isaiah xliii. 
 10 — 12, xliv. 8 — " Ye are My witnesses, saith the Lord.^^ 
 
 When I was last here in my place in this Cathedral 
 Church, I endeavoured to contribute something towards 
 the answer of Religion to the Rationalism of the book 
 " Lux Mundi." I say " to contribute something," because 
 I have little of my own to contribute but what is in very 
 many hands to bring wherever there is the love of resting 
 in a simple and implicit acceptance of every portion of 
 the Canonical Scriptures of the Old and the New Testa- 
 ments as having the authority of the Divine Giver, and 
 as, more particularly in respect of the Old Scriptures, 
 stamped and sealed for His own in the Eternal know- 
 ledge of Jesus Christ before His dying upon the Cross, 
 and after He rose again from the dead ; given to our- 
 selves and to our children to keep in all their integrity, as 
 received by the Church of England by inheritance from 
 the undivided Church guided into all truth by the Spirit ; 
 but portions of them called in question, if not formally 
 disallowed to be of Divine Authority, and even of 
 historical character, by the inventors and disciples of 
 " The New Criticism." This fact of the present position 
 has laid the foundation of an organised and perpetually 
 accruing inquiry, upon grounds of Science, Philosophy, 
 Criticism upon discoveries, unearthing of stones and de- 
 ciphering of manuscripts, into the claim of " Holy Scrip- 
 ture " to be received from the first verse of Genesis to the
 
 206 
 
 last verse of Revelation as the Book of God. On the one 
 side is Revelation, on the other is Rationalism. There is 
 no middle term by which the two terms can be brought 
 into one. Reason can in its highest exercise demonstrate 
 this. It has nothing to do but to accept it, if it would 
 that Revelation should do its proper work. 
 
 May we have grace to bear in mind always that if the 
 Bible, or any portion of it, is to be discarded at the 
 bidding of what is called the Reasoning Power, but is the 
 unreasoning power — that is to say, what is commonly 
 termed "Rationalism" — man has nothing wherewith to 
 replace the Bible, save only the new Bible of " The New 
 Criticism : " and that, by picking and choosing from gene- 
 ration to generation till the end of time, upon the ever 
 accumulating conclusions of the so- called Reasoning 
 Power, what portions of the Word of God are to be 
 received as of Divine authority, and what are not to be 
 so received, we shall have done what we could to destroy 
 the value of the one Historical Record of the relation of 
 God to man, and of man to God. 
 
 Again, that the Bible is one whole ; the Old and the 
 New Testaments making together the Book of God 
 throughout its entire structure ; committed in the order of 
 His Providence under His Inspiration to man to write. 
 To detract in any manner or degree from the Divine 
 Authority of any portion of it upon the conclusions, or 
 rather the assumptions of human Reason — for there is no 
 such thing as conclusions against God — is to sin against 
 God. It is to set up the creature against the Creator. 
 
 There is another vital error interwoven throughout with 
 the teaching of " Lux Mundi." It is this — that it is the 
 office of the Christian teacher to make belief in The Bible 
 as placed in our hands an easy belief. Now there is no 
 warrant for this anywhere in the Bible. The reverse is 
 • the fact of the case. We are all in this our little life like 
 the man who cried, " Lord, I believe, help Thou mine 
 unbelief." However filled with peace here and joy here- 
 after, true belief is a hard thing to come by. It has to
 
 207 
 
 fight day by day by Grace sought and given against the 
 powers of evil and a self-pleased and self-pleasing nature. 
 The Love of God for man does not exclude suffering, it 
 insists upon it. It lays the foundation in the suffering of 
 the Eternal Son. It instances it in St. Paul, " I will show 
 him how many things he must suffer for My Name's 
 sake." The suffering may be from without, if God so 
 wills. There is always the suffering from within, through 
 which, by grace, we "cease from sin." It is by so suf- 
 fering, in the never-ending process of overcoming, by grace 
 restored to us in Christ, the natural man ; the lusts that 
 are in us, the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the 
 pride of life ; the last of the three temptations, that which 
 waits on man's distinguishing gift, his reasoning power ; 
 the temptation by which, it can never be too often re- 
 peated, man fell away from the grace of God, lost the 
 innocence and image of God, in which he had been 
 created, and sin and death came into the world ; it is by 
 this overcoming in Christ that we win Heaven, as Christ 
 in the unfathomable Mystery of His Incarnation, His 
 suffering and His Victory on the Cross won Heaven for 
 us. Where does Christ so manifest His Eternal Godhead, 
 the eternal knowledge of His Godhead in the sight and 
 the hearing of man, as when speaking in the last words of 
 His Agony He said, " It is finished," and He bowed His 
 Head and gave up the Ghost ? It is one of the " many 
 inventions " of man, usurping the place of the Mysteries of 
 God, to make wide " the strait gate," to make broad " the 
 narrow way." 
 
 And it has become a question, alas ! a primary question, 
 for every one of us, high and low, rich and poor, one with 
 another, what that is which each one of us in a world of 
 sin, of sins hardly to be named— of brief life here— of 
 sorrows, pains, diseases, death, has to hope and trust in for 
 himself, herself, his, hers— I say it has become a common 
 question amongst us, whether this is to be the guiding of 
 man's Reasoning Power based upon man's " discoveries " 
 from time to time unto the end of time, or the Revelation
 
 208 
 
 of God, as given to each one of us once for all in The 
 Bible and nowhere else. 
 
 In the Bible, that is in the " Holy Scripture " of the Old 
 and the New Testaments, joined together by the hand of 
 God, the Giver of both, by a chain that cannot be broken. 
 Take away one link of the chain and put something of 
 your own or any other man's making in its place, and you 
 turn to yourself, or to other men, one or more, to save you. 
 and not to CHRIST, bidding us all, as He bade the Jews, 
 " Search the Scriptures, for in them ye think ye have 
 eternal life, and they are they which testify of Me." 
 
 In these our days of " thought," claiming to be un- 
 limited and uncontrolled even by the Law of God, we are 
 once more invited not as before, here and there partially, 
 and from quarters where we might not be surprised to 
 find it, but generally, powerfully from a quarter least to 
 be expected to bear any fruit of the kind, to take up the 
 Bible and deal with it as with a man's book ; the Book of 
 the Infinite, as the reasonable subject-matter of the finite 
 reason of ourselves and our fellow-men. The Bible, The 
 Book of God, written by His Bidding, inspired by His 
 Inspiration, the Book filled with unsearchable Mysteries, 
 Revealed only so far as the Eternal Wisdom that Reveals 
 sees fit, and suitable to the understanding of His finite 
 creature ; telling him all such things as it has pleased God 
 to tell him, all such things as are required and good and 
 sufiicient for his Redemption and Salvation ; no more and 
 no less. 
 
 The Englishman of our time, in XlXth Century of 
 Redemption ; in what St. John calls "the pride of life" is 
 the first of temptations in order of time (see Genesis iii. 
 1-8), and the most powerful of the three temptations which 
 our Blessed Lord came to " overcome," and which man is 
 called to "overcome" in Him by the Spirit — the English- 
 man, in " the pride of life," that is in the pride of reasoning 
 power, man's distinguishing gift among the creations of 
 God — is urged to take the Bible into his hands and to say 
 — Let us examine this book and see what it is worth —
 
 209 
 
 how much we may beh'eve of it to be of God, and how 
 much we may understand to be of man only. 
 
 The conclusion is that the Bible cannot indeed be got 
 rid of, but is to be manipulated, " disencumbered," " re- 
 interpreted," " explained " afresh ; and various degrees of 
 belief in it as being of Divine Authority, or of man's 
 Authority only, to be assigned to this or that portion of it. 
 It is to become one of the innumerable discoveries of 
 man's " Art and Science " what this or that portion of The 
 Bible is worth. 
 
 What is, as yet, the answer of the Church of England.^ 
 There is no answer. There are individual Counter Criti- 
 cisms, but there is no answer of the Church ; there is no 
 living voice. 
 
 What is the manner in which the proposal has been and 
 is being received ? That manner is marked by nothing 
 so much as by a desire to get rid of the trouble of even 
 considering the matter, and to go our way congratulating 
 ourselves on the rapid growth of subjects of interest and 
 admiration, belonging to our life here, which crowd them- 
 selves day by day into the area of our little life before the 
 grave. In respect of these there is abundance of praise 
 and honour bestowed upon the men who are the instru- 
 ments of God in giving such things to their fellow-men 
 for the uses and comforts and enjoyment of this life, but 
 very little of thanks of praise and blessing, thanksgiving 
 and honour and glory to the same God who has given 
 them to us for this life, in our way to the life which is not 
 this life. The conflict, then, of the present day, at which 
 many laugh ; of which many more take no notice ; others 
 put aside as an inconvenient interference with the business 
 of life, is another recurrence of the conflict of all time 
 between Rationalism and Faith. I place Rationalism first, 
 because it is the Rationalism of man that has provoked 
 the recurrence. It has arisen now under special circum- 
 stance of distress and fear, both from the character and 
 position ot those promoting it and from the general loose 
 
 p
 
 2IO 
 
 temper of the time ; lastly and most unhappily from the 
 absence of the living Voice of the Church of England. 
 The Diocesan Voice of our Bishop is, God be thanked, 
 plain and clear and powerful, as also that of the Bishop 
 of an adjoining Diocese ; but the living Voice of the 
 Church of the Province is not heard. As one of its 
 Priests, not now for the first time very closely concerned 
 with conflicts of a like character, though by no means, 
 I submit to your consideration, of one so dangerous, as that 
 now upon us, I must endeavour to state distinctly what 
 Rationalism is. I am citing for this purpose words not all 
 my own, but which appear to me to be incontrovertible. 
 
 " To Rationalise is to ask for reasons out of place ; to 
 ask improperly how we are to account for certain things ; 
 to be unwilling to believe them unless they can be ac- 
 counted for ; referred, that is, to something else as a cause, 
 to some existing system as harmonising with them, or 
 taking them up into itself. Again, since, whatever is 
 assigned as the reason for the original fact stated, admits 
 in turn of a like question being raised about itself, unless, 
 it be at once ascertainable by the senses, and be the 
 subject of personal experience, Rationalism is bound to 
 pursue onward its course of investigation on this principle, 
 and not to stop till it can directly or ultimately refer to 
 itself, as a witness, whatever is offered to its acceptance. 
 Thus Rationalism is characterised by two peculiarities : 
 its love of systematising, and its basing its system upon 
 personal experience, on the evidence of sense." 
 
 In both respects it stands opposed to Faith, or belief 
 in Testimony, for which it deliberately substitutes System, 
 or what is popularly called Reason and Sight. 
 
 To act the Rationalist, then, the mind must be more 
 or less in an unsound or unhealthy state ; that is, must be 
 unduly set more or less, unduly set upon "accounting for" 
 what is offered for its acceptance. I say unduly, because 
 it is not the duty of man, in the presence of the Revelation 
 of God, to let Reason range over the whole of the Province 
 of the Creation of God ; but, on the contrary, it is the
 
 2ir 
 
 highest exercise of Reason to confine itself strictly within 
 the limits which His Providence has assigned to it. If 
 it be asked, how are these limits to be known to man, the 
 answer is plain and simple. The question before me 
 carries with it its solution, that insight into the Mysteries 
 of God, which are in one form or another before us in 
 every page of the Book of God, is not within the grasp of 
 the Reasoning Power on this side of the grave. Do what 
 I will, search as I may, I find I can come no nearer than 
 I am to the solution of any one of the Mysteries of God ; 
 this is what every man who tries to invent (Psalm xcix. 8, 
 cvi. 29 — 39 ; Ecclesiastes vii. 29) a Providence other than 
 that Revealed has to confess to himself. Here what we 
 are called to is to receive, accept, obey : to know is for the 
 hereafter. " Now I know in part, but then shall I know 
 even as also I am known," are the words even of him who 
 was " caught up to the third heaven." 
 
 In all this there is no word or thought against the entire 
 freedom of exercise of Reason within its own province. 
 Nay, it is our duty to exercise that freedom as best we may 
 by our own power and others' help. To seek within that 
 Province for answer to inquiry and solution of reasonable 
 doubt, this is part of the nature that God has given us. It 
 is only when we begin to travel out of the Province of 
 Reason into the Province of the Mysteries of God, and set 
 up our lawful mode and system of knowledge as the one 
 sufficing test of the credibility of the testimony which is 
 not only above us, but beyond our grasp — yes, beyond 
 our touch — that we " find ourselves in wandering mazes 
 lost," and if we do not in the Mercy of God in CJirist, 
 recover by repentance and faith our footing in the narrow 
 way that leads to the strait gate, we lose the portion allotted, 
 the place prepared for us within the gate : we shall have 
 allowed ourselves to become here the prey of Rationalism. 
 Presuming to say " We see, our sin remaineth." 
 
 It is to be noted that there are instances in Holy Scrip, 
 ture in which Rationalism is the outcome of ignorance 
 of God, of His Power, of His Providence, e.g. — 
 
 P 2
 
 212 
 
 When the rich Lord in Samaria said, " Behold if the 
 Lord would make windows in heaven, might this thing- 
 be" (2 Kings vii. 2), he rationalised, as stating his disbelief 
 in Elisha's prophecy; and so resting in his disbelief. In 
 like manner, Naaman refusing to bathe in Jordan because 
 he could not see why Jordan was better than the rivers of 
 Damascus. These are instances of ignorance of God, 
 His Power and His Providence, issuing in Rationalism. 
 This ifrnorance iti as becomes a sin. In them in one case 
 
 o 
 
 it was punished as foretold, in the other forgiven upon 
 change of purpose. 
 
 Turn to the Holy Gospels. The case of Nicodemus — 
 *' How can these things be } " Of the Capernaites — " How 
 can this man give us His flesh to eat } " Of St. Thomas, 
 refusing to accept the testimony of the other Apostles (St. 
 Mark xvi. 4) because he was not there, and had not seen 
 and touched. 
 
 What the magnitude of the sin is in us is easily gathered 
 from our earliest record of Creation and Providence 
 (Genesis iii. i — 7). We read there of its first suggestion, 
 and of the fatal power of its triumph. The Tempter drew 
 near to Eve to sow the seeds of doubt in her mind about 
 what God had said — "Yea, hath God said?" — and he 
 followed it up by argument addressed to her Reason as 
 capable of judging and deciding between God and herself. 
 The Tempter persuaded. Reason expelled Faith. Men 
 fell away from the Grace of God. 
 
 In like manner, when we ask how prayer can influence 
 the course of God's Providence, or how everlasting punish- 
 ment consists with God's mercy, we rationalise. 
 
 The same temper of mind shows itself about the stop- 
 ping of the sun at the bidding of Joshua. Note here that 
 when in the day of Hezekiah a like miracle is recorded 
 (c. xxxviii. vv. 4 — 8), it is expressly stated to have been 
 the work of God Himself — " the bringing again the 
 shadow of the degrees which is gone down in the sun- 
 dial of Ahaz ten degrees backward." And, indeed, this 
 is no more than is distinctly implied in Joshua x. 14,
 
 213 
 
 by the words that " The Lord hearkened unto the voice 
 of a man." How the manna was provided, and the like ; 
 forgetting, or, rather, putting away, what our Lord said 
 to the Sadducees, "Ye do err, not knowing the Scrip- 
 tures, nor the power of God." 
 
 In sum, then, Rationalism is a denial of God's Power — 
 disbelief of the existence of a First Cause ; in itself suf- 
 ficing to account for any events, facts, particulars, however 
 extraordinary or out of keeping, as men allow themselves 
 to say, with a Book of God. It is, consequently, a mea- 
 suring of the credibility of a record claiming to be Divine, 
 not by the Power and other attributes of God, but by our 
 own finite knowledge. It is the limiting of the possible 
 by the seen and known. It is the denying the infinite 
 range of the works and the operation of God wheresoever 
 they are beyond the power of our Reason to apprehend 
 them. 
 
 Hume, the English historian, openly avows the prin- 
 ciple of Rationalism, and pursues it to its one inevitable 
 issue. He declares it to be unphilosophical to suppose 
 that the Almighty God can do anything but what we see 
 that He does. Rationalists no doubt, in many cases, when 
 they are not what is now called " advanced," shrink from 
 the conclusion at which Mr. Hume's Philosophy lands 
 itself, which is Atheism. But the premises, once admitted, 
 land the Rationalist in that conclusion, upon his own rule 
 of the supremacy of Reason, however he may seek to 
 escape. 
 
 Hence it is that the thing really terrible, and forced now 
 upon the English mind, is the temptation to, and the 
 common tendency of, so many minds to enter upon a path 
 of doubting and questioning, which has two issues only — 
 one, the abuse and utter confusion of the thinking power 
 till it rest in unbelief ; two, the discarding of Testimony, 
 not human only, but Divine. 
 
 In the Rationalist, then, Reason, taking, as it were, its 
 revenge upon itself, becomes un-Reason ; and " The wis- 
 dom of this world is foolishness with God."
 
 214 
 
 What, I repeat, on the other hand, is the truth and 
 highest exercise of Reason ? It is the teaching every man 
 that, in the presence of God and His Mysteries, there is 
 one lesson — one lesson only — for him to hear, and that is — 
 to bow his head to hear, his mind, heart, and hand to obey ; 
 to be thankful for being able to know now in part ; to 
 hope, with the hope that maketh not ashamed, to know 
 hereafter ever as he is known. 
 
 We are forced upon these considerations by the facts of 
 our own life and experience. It is a warning from God 
 to us that we give not up ourselves to the power of " the 
 pride of life," I say that it is a warning to us that we find 
 ourselves, suddenly, and contrary to all reasonable ex- 
 pectation, so little troubled or even disturbed by the 
 active presence amongst us of the seductive power of 
 the Rationalistic agency. Poison is being mixed with 
 our daily bread, and we flatter ourselves that it is no 
 poison to us. By the fact of this self-confidence we are 
 robbing ourselves of our one security, and we say to those 
 among whom, we live that there is no cause for fear ; that 
 there is no special call upon us to sound more deeply the 
 depths of our conscience ; to examine and search out 
 ourselves more carefully than we have done in respect of 
 our own faithful and implicit acceptance of all " Holy 
 Scripture ; " of the only record in our hands, placed there 
 by the Providence of God, making known to man — 
 through men's hands, but by Inspiration of God — all that 
 is known as certainly true of The Creator and His 
 Created, of Life and Innocence, of Sin and Death, of 
 Redemption and Hope of Heaven, of Grace given that, 
 for the sake of Him Who died and rose again for us to 
 assure us of the life that knows no death, and to guide us 
 by the Spirit along the narrow way to the strait gate — we 
 shall come to Heaven. 
 
 I have dealt as I could with the Preface to all editions 
 of " Lux Mundi." That Preface contains the germ of 
 Essay VIII.; the Essay of the Editor, and of that which is
 
 215 
 
 stated by him to have the general concurrence of the 
 other contributors to the book. It can only be briefly 
 that I touch here upon Essay VIII. But some chief 
 points I may not omit to refer to. 
 
 The contention against " Lux Mundi " being a con- 
 tention (i) for the Divine Authority of all Holy Scrip- 
 ture, (2) for the perfect knowledge of our Lord and Sa- 
 viour Jesus Christ, inherent in His Godhead ; " Lux 
 Mundi " denies both. I am unable to find room for the 
 denial wherein a man holding the Catholic Faith can 
 place his foot. It follows by necessary consequence that 
 I affirm of " Lux Mundi " — that it teaches what is form- 
 ally and primarily contrary to the Doctrine of the Church 
 of England. 
 
 This was the conclusion to which I came upon my first 
 reading of the Preface to all the Editions, and of the 
 Essay of the Editor, No. VIII. It was as plain to me 
 then as it has continued to be ever since after repeated 
 recurrence both to Preface and to Essay, and to expla- 
 nations of them offered. 
 
 In his Essay the Editor appears to be so enamoured of 
 the rights of Reason, as to make all Religion to originate 
 in, and depend upon, its exercise ; and to define the na- 
 ture of that exercise in every case without stopping to 
 consider that, supposing for a moment his system to be 
 in itself right (we will allow to be possible for argument's 
 sake), it is wholly of impossible application. I am re- 
 ferring to pp. 337-B, and cite words from them. 
 
 "In order to have grounds for believing the facts (the 
 facts of the New Testament Record), in order to be 
 susceptible of their evidence, we require an antecedent 
 state of conception and expectation. A whole set of pre- 
 suppositions about God, about the slavery of sin, about 
 the reasonableness of Redemption must be present with 
 us. So only can the facts presented to us in the Gospel 
 come to us as credible things, or as parts of an intelligible 
 universe, correlated elements in a rational whole." 
 
 The Editor, in addition to this dogmatic announcement
 
 2l6 
 
 of what is universally required by way of preparation for 
 belief in the Gospel Record, puts out of mind — out of 
 sight — that what he is here claiming for Reason is exactly 
 what the mind of man, when first, and ever since, exposed 
 to the temptation to doubt God — that is, before and after 
 the Fall — has been primarily tempted to claim for himself 
 against God. Further still, that the Fall itself is identified 
 for all time with the undue exercise of Reason, and the 
 awful punishment of it inflicted upon the world for all its 
 time. 
 
 But no consideration of this kind appears, in his own 
 case, to interfere with the working of his theory that in 
 every case what everyone has first to decide, after deepest 
 inquiry, is what that is which faith has to accept ; and 
 that then, but not till then, the man is in the position 
 to cry, " Lord, I believe." 
 
 Upon this the question arises, that, supposing for a 
 moment such a path to belief to be possible for the 
 " highly educated " man of full age, what is to become of 
 himself meantime, and of all children and young people? 
 They must wait among all sorts and conditions of men 
 till they can satisfy all the antecedent conditions of 
 reason before they can say, " Lord, I believe." Whether 
 then they are to append " Help Thou mine Unbelief" 
 does not appear. 
 
 If it be answered that the preliminary supposition refers 
 not to individual souls but to the Church (though it is 
 not so said in the passage cited), then it is not Reason, 
 but parental and school care and teaching, home and 
 other example and persuasion, much more moral than 
 intellectual, which makes the facts of the Gospel credible 
 to us in our early life. It is with the heart that we believe 
 unto righteousness. Either way the passage in the Essay 
 very curiously is an answer to itself ; and the charge 
 against it remains where it was, and where Holy Scripture 
 places it in its instruction to Parents about the training of 
 their children. The Charge, I say, remains against the 
 surrender of faith to the Critical power of the Philosopher,
 
 217 
 
 the Scientist, the Literary Critic for every successive gene- 
 ration down to the end of time. 
 
 For sacred history, Essay VIII. limits this to " from 
 Abraham downwards" (three times repeated, pp. 351-2). 
 Large distinctions are drawn by the Editor between Books 
 of the Bible, and separate characters assigned to them ; this 
 is done again assumptively and dogmatically, but upon no 
 authority. It would be hard to find a reason for this 
 except that of comparative depreciation before man's 
 reason of the Divine Authority of portions of the Holy 
 Scriptures ; and the call upon Reason to pass its own 
 judgment in the matter, e.g. — The Song of Solomon is of 
 the nature of a drama, its authorship settled to be not of 
 Solomon. The Book of Job merely dramatic. The au- 
 thorship of Deuteronomy and of Ecclesiastes more than 
 questioned. For Jonah, Daniel, " Criticism asks us to go 
 fartherl' and regard them as " dramatic compositions, 
 worked up on a basis of history." " It is maintained, 
 then," says the Editor, " that the Church leaves open to 
 literary Criticism the question whether several of the 
 writings of the Old Testament are, or are not, dramatic," 
 pp. 351-2. Again, p. 357, "Are not its earlier narratives, 
 those of Jewish history before the call of Abraham, of the 
 nature of myth, in which we cannot distinguish the histo- 
 rical germ, though we do not at all deny that it exists?" 
 Why not say at once of the nature of Fable ? — "Mythicus," 
 i.e., Fabulous. Note that all this about "myth" and 
 " drama " is spoken of Creation, the Fall, the promise of 
 Redemption, the casting out of Paradise, the Sacramental 
 character of the Tree of Life, Enoch, Noah, the Flood. 
 What the "profound air of historical truthfulness " may be 
 which pervades, in contradistinction, the Old Testament 
 record "from Abraham downwards" is left in the as- 
 sumption so common in the Editor's writing. But the 
 words carry with them a deep and terrible significance. 
 
 I submit here that readers of " Lux Mundi," labouring 
 to grasp its meanings, ought to have been told what is the 
 precise nature of "the historical germ" — a term introduced
 
 2l8 
 
 here, in the greatest of all cases, as one which it is as- 
 sumed everybody understands, and which, whatever it 
 may comprise, is relied upon by the Editor to establish 
 a distinction between the first eleven chapters of Genesis, 
 and the remainder of the Book. Whatever then this pre- 
 cise nature may be explained to be, it is employed for the 
 construction of a theory destructive of the unity of Genesis, 
 with little reverence towards God, the Author and Giver 
 of all Holy Scripture. The profound air of " historical 
 truthfulness" attaching to the Book "from Abraham 
 downwards " is contrasted with " the doubtful air of 
 historical truthfulness" implied in the Editor's words, "In 
 particular, are not its earlier narratives {i.e., the narratives 
 of Holy Scripture) before the call of Abraham, of the 
 nature of myth, in which we cannot distinguish the his- 
 torical germ, though we do not at all deny that it exists." 
 The entire passage, coupled with the' myth and drama 
 interlude, is full of deepest distress throughout, and of 
 much disturbing and shaking the faith of men in the 
 Divine Authority of the Basis of all Holy Scripture. 
 
 Again, for Inspiration. 
 
 For Inspiration — we read, p. 355 {U) — "we find all soi-ts 
 of literature in the Inspired Volume." It is not said how 
 this has become the knowledge of the Editor who dog- 
 matically pronounces it. There is no trace of it in the 
 Bible. The Bible presents its several Books to us as the 
 Church has been " guided " of the Spirit to present them. 
 Some for "establishment of Doctrine," others for "ex- 
 ample of life and instruction of manners ; " all alike as 
 coming from God, written by man moved by the Spirit. 
 This is told us distinctly in the words of St. Paul, from 
 whom it clearly appears to be derived. " But continue 
 thou in the things which thou hast learned and hast been 
 assured of, knowing of whom thou hast learned them ; and 
 that from a child thou hast known the Holy Scriptures, 
 which are able to make thee wise unto salvation through 
 faith which is in Christ Jesus. All Scripture is given by 
 Inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for
 
 219 
 
 reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness ; 
 that the man of God may be perfect (or, 'perfected'), 
 throughly furnished unto all good works" (2 Timothy iii. 
 
 14-17). 
 The New Criticism calls the Bible "a literature;" no 
 
 doubt if "literature" means a "book" the Bible is a 
 literature. But it has its differentia from all other litera- 
 tures in being The One Book of God, containing by 
 Revelation all that man can ever know on this side the 
 grave of His relations to man, and of man's relations to 
 Him. This seems to have escaped the logic of "Lux 
 
 Mundi." 
 
 The Editor, p. 349, n, 8, 9, 10, gives us his rendering of 
 the Greek as we have it in our Greek Testament. It is 
 impossible to reconcile that rendering with the Greek as it 
 stands. As rendered by the Editor, it amounts only to 
 this— every Scripture, if from God, is profitable, &c., &c. 
 This may answer the Editor's purpose, but it is a tautology 
 only ; and, I cannot hesitate to say it, reads very like " the 
 presumptuous sin." 
 
 If I add here that I recommend any one who has any 
 doubts about the Inspiration of all Holy Scripture to read 
 the Editor's argument, pp. 337-3^1, it is only because 
 I believe that it will be of great service to him to see 
 of what character that argument is. It will be found 
 throughout to be of the assumptive and yet dogmatic 
 character ; also of that of leaving the mind in confusion 
 about its issue, coupled with much fear of what that issue 
 may probably be. 
 
 Included in the above pages is the Editor's argument 
 against the perfect — what may truly be called "the 
 eternal— knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of 
 God, God and Man— Perfect God and Perfect Man." It 
 is like his other reasoning, assumptive and dogmatic. On 
 the other hand, it comes very close to a denial of the 
 Incarnation. Bear with me, dear people in Christ, when 
 I say that it has long appeared to me that there is a large 
 and increasing amount of the Socinian Element amongst
 
 220 
 
 US here in England. Certain it is that the denial of the 
 perfect knowledge of our Lord when upon Earth is em- 
 ployed by the book " Lux Mundi " in order to the dis- 
 paragement of His testimony to all the Old Scriptures, 
 " Search the Scriptures, for in them ye think ye have 
 eternal life, and they are they which testify of Me." 
 " The Scriptures." Here is no exception, no distinction, 
 no comparison of one Scripture with another. It is the 
 Book of God throughout — not the book which man doubts 
 about, as if he had nothing better to do with his little life 
 than to be Criticising always, and then to die. 
 
 It is not possible to omit here reference to certain 
 language in " Lux Mundi," applied to the Eternal and 
 Infinite God. 
 
 " The abyss of Divine disappointment." — Essay I., p. 19. 
 " It is here that the Divine Spirit has found His chiefest 
 disappoijitjnent. — Essay VIII., p. 319. 
 
 "The Divine Spirit again and again 'baffled' in the 
 body of the Jewish nation." — p. 320. 
 
 Are the words "-disappointment" and ''baffled" words 
 that may be applied to the Eternal and the Infinite ? If so 
 applied, is not this to apply the same measure to the finite 
 knowledge and power of man, and to the knowledge and 
 power of the Eternal and Infinite God ? Is not, again, 
 the act of so applying to play with words that have no 
 meaning? There is no disappointment where all is Omni- 
 science and time is not. There is no baffling where all is 
 Almighty. Again, to attempt to illustrate or explain the 
 application by what God says of Himself — of His " re- 
 penting " — is simply foolish. The Promises of the Mer- 
 cies of God are made upon His own conditions of re- 
 pentance, faith, obedience. Where these are no more 
 found of Him, the promises cease. Where there was 
 repentance, again, " The Lord repented according to His 
 Mercies " (Ps. cvi. 45). This is the " Repentance " of God in 
 the Book of God (Judges ii. 18). The obedience ceases, 
 the Mercy ceases ; the obedience returns ; as God sees fity 
 the mercy returns. Look at Eli, Saul, David, Solomon.
 
 221 
 
 Was God " disappointed? " was God " baffled? " Nay, 
 but, O man, do not go about to measure the Creator by 
 His Creature — His knowledge by man's ignorance — His 
 power by man's weakness. There is nothing more dan- 
 gerous to true ReHgion than the conceit of familiarity 
 with the unseen and unknown, which issues in language 
 natural as applied by man to man ; unnatural and revolt- 
 ing as applied by man to the Eternal and the Infinite. 
 
 " Ye are my witnesses, saith the Lord." 
 
 It is the second text of this sermon. I will condense 
 into briefest space what I have to say upon the words of 
 God to us by His Prophet. 
 
 First, then, if these be words spoken of God to the 
 Church of the Jews, and to every member of it, how much 
 more are they spoken to the Catholic Church of Christ 
 and to every member of it. " Ye are my witnesses, saith 
 
 the Lord." 
 
 Secondly, what is that to which every member of the 
 Church is a witness for God ? 
 
 He is a witness to the Being of God ; to His Revela- 
 tion of Himself to man as contained in all " Holy Scrip- 
 ture," to Creation, to man's "original righteousness," to his 
 Fall under temptation ; to the Promise of Redemption by 
 the seed of the woman ; to the preparation by the Provi- 
 dence of God for the fulfilment of that Promise ; to its ful- 
 filment ; to the one way to the inheritance of the Promise. 
 
 What is that one way ? It is the way of faith ? " We 
 walk by faith, and not by sight." We are, every one of us, 
 upon our trial. It is the sum and the condition of accept- 
 ance under every trial, that we walk by faith and not by 
 sight. That we may humbly and profitably meditate 
 upon the Mysteries of God ; but may not attempt to 
 interpret what is not given to our nature here to under- 
 stand. 
 
 The trial of man redeemed in this primary matter of 
 walking by faith, and not by sight, is conterminous with 
 Revelation. Where there is most of human learning, and
 
 222 
 
 that dependence upon self which it is apt and wont to 
 [generate and foster, then the trial is the most severe, and 
 most issuing in the walk by sight, and not by faith ; in 
 man's walking by his own intelligence or that of others, 
 rather than by the teaching of Holy Scripture ; forgetting, 
 or rather refusing to see that, " though the ways of man are 
 before the eyes of the Lord" (Prov. v. 21), the ways 
 of the Lord are not before the eyes of man. 
 
 To make, therefore, " the intelligible," the needful pre- 
 liminary to " the faithful," which is the expression of the 
 primary teaching of " Lux Mundi " (in teaching which the 
 general concurrence of all the waiters in the book is 
 stated by the Editor), is to reverse the order of the Provi- 
 dence of God. 
 
 Rather, oh how much rather, let us be content, in this, 
 our portion of " the last days " — yea, more than content, 
 ever thankful — we " upon whom the ends of the world are 
 come," to be humble witnesses to God, walking by faith, 
 and not by sight ; and to learn from The Transfiguration 
 to shrink with shrinking too deep for words from every 
 temptation of " the pride of life " moving our hearts and 
 minds to assign limits, in the day of His humiliation, to 
 the knowledije of The Eternal Son.
 
 SERMON III. 
 
 Preached in Wells Cathedral, Sunday, Nov. 8, i8gi. 
 
 EZEKIEL xiv, 14. 
 
 " Though these three jfien, Noah, Daniel, and Job, were in it^ 
 they should deliver but their own souls by their righteousness, 
 saith the Lord God ;^' — Revelation ii. 7 — "71? him that over- 
 cometh will I give to eat of the tree of life which is in the midst 
 
 '■ of the Paradise of God.''^ 
 
 These texts of " Holy Scripture," the Old Scripture 
 and the New, have an exceptional character. The first 
 is repeated four times in Ezekiel ; again — " The Tree 
 of Life," three times in Genesis ; three times in " The 
 Revelation." "To him that overcometh," eight times 
 in " The Revelation." They bind together by a chain 
 that cannot be broken the Old Scriptures and the New; 
 the Books of Moses, "The Man of God" (ist Chronicles 
 xxiii. 14), the Books of the Prophets, the Book of Revela- 
 tion, the Lord of the Gospel and His Evangelist, the 
 disciple whom Jesus loved and showed Himself to in His 
 glory. It is all, from the beginning to the end, one and 
 the same thing. There is a unity throughout ; measured 
 out into its parts by the Divine Wisdom, as is best for 
 His creatures, and committed to man to write and 
 bequeath for man for all time as His Word, to be re- 
 ceived in humblest thankfulness, kept in truest faithful- 
 ness, obeyed as coming from a Father to His children, 
 reverenced as a sacred thing, loved as being His Record, 
 a Record beginning, continuing throughout, beginning, 
 ending with unsearchable mysteries — delivering all that 
 is good for the saving of the soul for Christ's sake — re- 
 quiring thereto repentance, faith, love; forbidding all 
 intrusion of Reason into the Province of Revelation
 
 234 
 
 (Dcut. xxix. 29), encouraging the use of Reason wiihin 
 its own Prcvince. The one Record of the relations of 
 God to man and of man to God, the Record that God 
 so loved the " World that He gave His only begotten 
 Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, 
 but have everlasting life." Day by day, there is in these 
 places of Holy Scripture food for deepest and humblest 
 meditation. Man cannot look on this side the grave 
 into the mysteries of God. That is reserved for those for 
 •whom it i.s prepared hereafter ; but by meditating upon 
 them and their historical character he may wonderfully 
 cherish and improve his powers of perception, and of 
 appropriating unto himself the requirements, the peace, 
 the rest, the hope of the life in Christ. 
 
 There is a question now before the Church of England 
 — perhaps the gravest question that can be proposed 
 to a Christian man — whether this Record has to be left 
 untouched by man, as it has been delivered to the Church 
 Catholic by the undivided Church guided by the Spirit 
 into all Truth ; or whether it has to be perpetually re- 
 considered throughout all time, in respect of its Character 
 and Authority, by human learning, and adjusted to the 
 (so called) requirements of that learning by " The New 
 Criticism." There is one more primary question of like 
 gravity — whether the knowledge of our Lord, in respect 
 of the Old Scriptures, was a fallible or an infallible know- 
 ledge. These are the two great problems touching The 
 Faith of Christ forced upon the Church of England by 
 "The New Criticism." 
 
 I am compelled to advert again in this sermon to the 
 " New Criticism," by the text from Ezekiel ; and here it 
 has to be noted carefully that the prophet is delivering 
 " The Word of the Lord V' speaking unto him of " Noah, 
 Daniel, Job ; " and that any manner or degree of doubt 
 raised about them is not only doubt of the prophet, but 
 doubt about the Author and Giver of all Prophecy. 
 
 ■ cxiv. V. 12.
 
 225 
 
 The " New Criticism," in its discriminating between 
 Scripture and Scripture, assigns the character of " Myth " 
 to the eleven first chapters of Genesis, containing among 
 many other primary verities the history of Noah. It says 
 that " the historic germ " is not easy to perceive in them. 
 That it is only " from Abraham downwards (three times 
 repeated, L.M., Essay VI 1 1., pp. 35 1-2, ed. X.), that there 
 is a profound air of historical truthfulness pervading the 
 Old Testament Record." What " the historic germ " may 
 be I am not learned enough in the vocabulary of the " New 
 Criticism " to know. But the passage, even without it, is 
 full of unavoidible inferences of the Rationalistic character. 
 
 Now, the eleven first chapters of Genesis contain all 
 that man can ever know on this side the grave of what was 
 before the Creation ; of the Creation ; of the Creation of 
 man in the Image of God ; of the Fall ; the Redemption ; 
 the promise of victory over the Tempter ; the Mystery of 
 the Tree of Life ; of the tree of knowledge of Good and 
 Evil ; of Enoch ; of Noah and his righteousness ; of thj; 
 Flood ; of the dispersion of mankind. In few words, the 
 eleven chapters are the one foundation of the Religion of 
 Christ ; and we are asked to accept a statement that there 
 is not in them that "profound air of historical truthful- 
 ness " which we begin to find in chap. xii. ; that " the 
 historic germ '' may exist, but that it is not easy to find. 
 It has to be noted here that the cardinal difference be- 
 tween the eleven first chapters of Genesis and the remain- 
 ing chapters is assumed ; not in any sense attempted to be 
 accounted for, after the manner of the reasoning of " Lux 
 Mundi." 
 
 The same thing, mutatis mutandis, and substituting 
 " drama " for " myth," is to be observed about the book of 
 Job, viz., that " although it works on an historical basis, it 
 can hardly be denied to be mainly dramatic." 
 
 Again, " Criticism goes further, and asks us to regard 
 Jonah and Daniel among the prophetic books, as dramatic 
 compositions, worked up upon a basis of history." 
 
 I do not descend to argument upon the language of 
 
 Q
 
 226 
 
 these passages. I have something to say upon the prin- 
 ciple they proceed upon. 
 
 That principle is the right of every man's reasoning 
 power to discriminate between Scripture and Scripture. 
 Let it, then, be carefully borne in mind that all such 
 "discrimination" involves disparagement of Scripture as 
 against Scripture ; disparagement of relative authority. 
 Indeed, it is impossible not to see that this is the end 
 proposed to be attained by it on the part of " The New 
 Criticism." 
 
 Where, then, is the authority for this discrimination by 
 every man, as he pleases, of Scripture from Scripture — of 
 one part of the Book of God from another part of it ? 
 Every man ! I say, learned and unlearned ; there is no 
 difference between them in this matter. It is the same 
 authority which is required in both cases alike. Learning 
 is not given to enable men to use larger licence in dealing 
 with heavenly things than other men. 
 
 For the " Old Scriptures," then, with which we are at 
 present concerned, the authority was not of the individual 
 man at all ; it was the authority called the Canon, or 
 Rule, of the Jewish Church ; which settled what books of 
 the Old Scripture were, and what were not, " The Oracles 
 of God" (Rom. iii. 2). The Church of Christ affirmed 
 for itself this authority of the Jewish Church, " guided," 
 according to the promise of Christ, "into all Truth" by 
 the Spirit ; and added in God's own time, being then the 
 undivided Church of Christ, to the Canon of the Jewish 
 Church, the Canon of the Church of Christ, the New 
 Scriptures. The outcome of this work of the Church of 
 Christ was, and is, the Bible as we have it in our own 
 tongue. The Bible as we have it, and as it will remain 
 until the end of time ; " The New Criticism," with any 
 other like " invention " of man, notwithstanding, for 
 all those who by grace, inherited, sought, and given, hold 
 it fast, and do not make it the plaything of their un- 
 Reason — that is, of what is called " Rationalism." 
 
 " The New Criticism," of our day is an eminent and
 
 227 
 
 unhappy example of this " invention " of un-Reason, in 
 conception, process, issue. Eminent because it is the 
 creation of eminent men. Unhappy because both in its 
 process, and still more in its issue, it seeks out, allures, 
 guides all sorts and conditions of men, high and low, rich 
 and poor, one with another, to wander away from the one 
 sure stay of peace here and of hope for hereafter ; from 
 the promises and the work of God by the Spirit, for His Son 
 Jesus Christ's sake, and to put into their place — Nothing. 
 Nothing but that thing poor indeed in comparison, and 
 having nothing in it of the substance of heavenly hope, 
 the individual reason. 
 
 Now closely connected with the discrimination between 
 Scripture and Scripture by the individual hand, as illus- 
 trated under the head of Genesis before Abraham, and 
 " from Abraham downwards," is the special position of 
 Moses amongst the Saints of God, as revealed both in the 
 Old and in the New Scriptures, It would take a long 
 time to enumerate the particulars of that special position ; 
 and any one, by the help of His Concordance under the 
 word " Moses," can supply the enumeration to himself. 
 There is no other such position, excepting only the 
 Transfiguration of Christ, in all Holy Scripture ; not even 
 the visions of the Prophets Isaiah and Ezekiel, of St. 
 Paul, and St. John. 
 
 The point, then, that I would wish to press upon your 
 attention is, that the special position of Moses among the 
 Saints of God, as set forth in the Old and in the New 
 Scriptures, is of that very awful character as to increase to 
 the largest possible extent the responsibility of raising any 
 doubt about the character of mystery and miracle inherent 
 in it ; apart from which no effort of human reason can in- 
 terpret it. And therein about the genuineness and authen- 
 ticity of his five Books ; lastly, and much more, about 
 ascribing to them terms of disparagement ; and this more 
 particularly in the case of Genesis — because it is Genesis, 
 and no other Book, which has been, or ever can be, that 
 contains the beginning of all things belonging to man, 
 
 Q2
 
 228 
 
 and the foundation of all rclii^ion ; and that it is upon the 
 eleven first chapters of Genesis that the entire building of 
 faith rests. 
 
 I have, therefore, to say first, with reference to the " New 
 Criticism," that it is impossible to me to accept — that it is 
 forbidden to me to accept ^ — the discriminating of Holy 
 Scripture from Holy Scripture, beginning with Genesis i. 
 downwards to xii., into Myth, Drama, History. I accept 
 it in its integrity as it has been given us by the Church, 
 guided into all Truth by the Spirit. History, Prophecy, 
 The Law, The Psalms, The Prophets : as Fact ; Mystery ; 
 Miracle. I accept this, as I have twice sworn to accept 
 and teach it, as Deacon and Priest of the Church of 
 England. 
 
 I am here compelled to say that the "view" of Chris- 
 tian obligation set forth in " Lux Mundi," and which I 
 cannot find otherwise represented by the Editor in his 
 Bampton Lectures, is a view of individual responsibility — 
 of Church responsibility just as far, and no more, as the 
 individual may accept that responsibility : and this for 
 Bishops, Priests, People in common : for all sorts and con- 
 ditions of Church people — men, women, children alike. 
 
 It is, therefore, nothing else than a view and scheme 
 for disintegration of the Church. It is a new Christianity 
 proposed at the close of century XIX. for the Church 
 of England. TJic ClmrcJi of England in the Province of 
 Canterbitry looks on and says no word. 
 
 I have now further to say, in reference to what is called 
 "the rectified Traditional view of the Old Testament," 
 that is, as it is described, the Reasonable view, as con- 
 trasted with " the Analytical " or un-Reasonable view — 
 that it is impossible for me to accept this basis upon 
 which to "fight the good fight of faith;" to accept the 
 position of Moses as that of his having been " the compiler 
 of his record, in its earliest chapters, from primeval 
 documents, which may have been brought by Abraham 
 
 '' Deut. xxix. 29.
 
 229 
 
 from Chaldea ; and, in its later chapters, from family- 
 records of a distinctly contemporaneous- origin, which we 
 may reasonably believe to have been preserved in the 
 families of the successive patriarchs as the archives of 
 the race." 
 
 I submJt humbly that this view (I wish it might be that 
 the word " view " were cast out from among us in relation 
 to the things of God) might be very well if the question 
 were about some nation's history, or some family history, 
 or some man's history ; but that, if taken as sufficient 
 answer to the Analytical theory, it provokes only a smile 
 in the assailant, and a tear in the maintainer of the Word 
 of God. It is too earthy. It is too " reasonable," in that 
 sense of the word "reasonable," which is correlative of 
 that part of Reason which is not Faith, but is now 
 labouring, with no little success, to take to itself the 
 place of Faith besides and beyond its own proper place. 
 It is out of this usurpation that every Heresy of the 
 World has come. 
 
 Reason is the gift of God whereby man is enabled to 
 receive Revelation. But it is a special form of Reason, 
 called Faith, whereby man is enabled, in humblest thanks- 
 giving as before God, to receive Revelation, unto peace, 
 rest, hope, here ; unto the inheritance in Christ of Life 
 Eternal. 
 
 What we want is not a possible " compilation of prime- 
 val documents and family records " by the " Man of God." 
 It would appear to have escaped the acumen of the 
 " discoverers " of " primeval documents " and " family 
 records" that Genesis i. 1-26, and Genesis ii. 5, tell us 
 of things before man was created. Things of which 
 knowledge by man could not be, save only by Inspiration 
 of God. What we want is the world's history as delivered 
 in the Old Scriptures for the world, by the Almighty 
 God, to His Prince of the Saints ; and witnessed to as 
 Truth Eternal by our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ 
 in the New Scriptures. We want to keep whole and 
 undefiled that which the Church of England has kept
 
 230 
 
 and delivered whole and undefiled ; yea, and will deliver 
 unto the end, if she will awake and arise and shake off 
 the heavy slumber which is closing so many eyes, and 
 dulling so many hearts, and whispering peace where there 
 is no peace. 
 
 Moses, " the Man of God," was twice for forty days 
 and forty nights in the Mount of God. Is there anything 
 to forbid the humble believer in the all-Directing and 
 all-Governing Hand of God — is there anything which 
 does not encourage us to believe that Moses was then 
 inspired of God to write Genesis ? That it was then — 
 is it not a thousand times more reverent, more in accord- 
 ance with all his history in life and death — that he was 
 so inspired. We shrink from the " compilation of prime- 
 val documents and family records" — we want something 
 that does not so much savour of earth, to teach us the 
 Birth, the Death, the Fall, the Redemption of our race ; 
 our Birth, our Life, our Death, our sin and sorrow — 
 our hope and peace and joy for ever. We believe that 
 to give us the beginning of all this in the beginning 
 of the Old Scriptures, as the fulfilment of it all in the 
 New, there was delivered unto Moses, the Man of God 
 (i Chron. xxiii. 14) the words which we have now in His 
 name telling man for all time the history of this, our 
 world ; created, filled with Light and Life, Life innocent. 
 Life walking in the Light of the Presence of God, Life 
 tempted, deceived, ruined, cast forth from Paradise, 
 doomed to die ; Life to be redeemed for all who would 
 turn to God by the Incarnation and the Atonement of 
 the Eternal Son, by His intercession for us unworthy ser- 
 vants, miserable sinners, taking unto ourselves the Sword of 
 the Spirit, which is the Word of God ; and in the end, for 
 our poor repentance, faith, love, sealed by the Spirit 
 with the seal of our Baptism ; which, alas ! may have 
 been many times stained and dishonoured^ but not de- 
 faced through intercession of the Spirit. 
 
 It has become necessary to say here as follows. 
 
 I have read carefully the Bampton Lectures of the
 
 231 
 
 Editor of " Lux Mundi." I find nothing in them to 
 relieve me from the distress which has arisen out of 
 the doubts cast in the scheme of "Lux Mundi," (i) 
 upon the Divine Integrity and Authority of the Old 
 Scriptures, and (2) upon the unlimited, i.e., infallible, 
 knowledge of our Blessed Lord in respect of the Old 
 Scriptures. 
 
 If in places of the Lectures, Beliefs of the Church 
 be in general admitted, the admission is promptly quaUfied 
 by exceptions in particulars, so that the doubt engen- 
 dered has still its existence, its operation, and its ad- 
 vocacy. 
 
 I take the chief example of my meaning. 
 
 Lecture III. is headed "The Supernatural Christ 
 Historical ; " and its corresponding heading is " The 
 Incarnation of the Son of God." 
 
 The lecture issues in the full affirmation of Belief 
 in the Incarnation. Lecture IV. is the sequel of Lecture 
 III., issuing in like affirmation of The Creed of S. 
 Athanasius. So far, all is well. 
 
 But in Lecture VI., pp, 147, 150, we come to the 
 limiting of the Knowledge of the Son of God Incarnate. 
 
 The primary ground for this limiting is in the words, 
 " neither the Son, but the Father." — S. Mark xiii. 32. 
 
 There are what the Lecturer terms "corresponding 
 indications and impressions " of " a limited human con- 
 sciousness" in The Incarnate Son, in other parts of Holy 
 Scripture. 
 
 I turn away from these "indications and impressions," 
 for which there is no authority of Divine origin, to " the 
 primary ground." 
 
 Our Lord here Himself limits Himself Let us learn 
 a little to leave His mysteries where He has left them ; 
 and not proceed to theorise upon them, a thing which 
 it is forbidden us to do. It is the one instance of the 
 fact of limitation. All else is man's " invention." 
 
 Now, " Lux Mundi " and the Bampton Lectures have 
 extended it into limitation of our Lord's knowledge of
 
 232 
 
 the Old Scriptures ; and the outcome of this is — that 
 our Lord, in His teaching citing from and referring to 
 the Old Scriptures in more than 500 places in the Gospels, 
 cited from and referred to what — it is very terrible to 
 have to add — He knew He w-as not informed upon — 
 so terrible, beyond all words to express them, is the 
 beginning, the middle and the end of the attempt to 
 reduce the Mysteries of God into something within the 
 Grasp of the Reasoning Power. That attempt is being 
 made now, in one degree or another, all over England 
 and outside England. 
 
 We are told that " Christianity became metaphysical 
 simply and only because man is rational." — B. L., p. 21. 
 
 Why not say at once that, because man is rational, 
 there is no such thing remaining as "the secret things 
 which belong unto the Lord our God ; " or, if there be 
 distinctions to be taken among " the secret things " where 
 is the authority, where is the hand to make them ? It 
 is said again (p. 21), "Man's rationality means that he 
 must attempt to give an account of things — of what 
 things? of all things.'*" Then he must be prepared to 
 give an account of the Being of God, which is the foun- 
 dation and the Reason of all things. But, if so, where 
 is the difference between " Secret " and " Revealed ? " 
 
 But, says the New Criticism, this is only in the Book of 
 Deuteronomy — only in The Book from which our Lord 
 took His three answers to The Tempter, 
 
 I ask what has become of the most ordinary reverence 
 of the English mind, when such things as these are not 
 only publicly proclaimed, but command a wide and 
 welcoming currency .'' 
 
 There is here a primary matter to be noted — 
 
 The chief characteristic of the Lectures, as of the Book, 
 is that it subjects the Mysteries of God to metaphysical 
 analysis. This is more distinctly to be observed in the 
 Lectures than in the Book. I shrink from stating the 
 primary issue of this process ; but it has to be stated. 
 The issue is to lower indefinitely the Doctrine of the
 
 Incarnation, and to interpret it rather as t/te Manliood 
 receiving into itself the Godhead ; than tJie Godhead taking 
 into itself the Manhood. 
 
 I turn away now from the atmosphere of doubt, un- 
 authorised speculation, and metaphysical impertinence, 
 when applied to Divine Mysteries, in a word, from for- 
 bidden intrusion into the ]**Iysteries of GOD, to the purer 
 atmosphere of Simplicity of Faith. I turn, with relief 
 unspeakable, to humble and implicit acceptance of, and 
 rejoicing in the Gift of the Word of GOD. 
 
 I turn to the histories of Noah, Daniel, Job, chief 
 examples of faith before Christ came. In their burning 
 and shining light, witnesses to three integral parts of 
 faith. 
 
 Xoah in his instant and exact obedience — who, " when 
 the wickedness of man was great upon the earth," " found 
 grace in the exes of the Lord," " a just man and perfect in 
 his generations" — a man who "walked with God." Daniel 
 in his overcoming " the lust of the flesh and the lust of the 
 CNCs" — in his holy innocence; in his never- failing trust ; in 
 the abundance of his promise — " Go thou thy way till the 
 end be : for thou shalt rest, and stand in thy lot at the 
 end of the days." Job, of whom it had been said of God — 
 " Hast thou considered My servant Job : that there is 
 none like him in the earth ; a perfect and an upright man, 
 one tliat feareth God, and escheweth evil ? ' Job, in the 
 fulfilling the good purpose of his trial, tried to the utmost — 
 complaining, asserting himself before God, reasoning, in 
 word, with man, upon man s confounding chastening with 
 punishment ; but in mind, if not in heart, reasoning witli 
 God ; until God, in His great mercy, bowed Himself to 
 reason with His Servant ; to teach him the yet more 
 perfect way. And wherein consists that teaching ? Is it 
 not wonderfully wanted, most wonderfull}* in this our own 
 time? How was it tlie Almighty God vouchsafed to 
 teach Job where it was that he failed } God taught Job 
 by bringing home to his mind and heart how poor and 
 small a thing his knowledge was. That not only could
 
 234 
 
 he not make one of the least marvels of the Creation of 
 God, but that he could not so much as understand how 
 and why these were made. 
 
 Now, then, let us hear Job himself making reply before 
 God. His mind and heart are wholly changed. He resists 
 no more. He complains no more. He reasons no more. 
 He submits. He does more than submit. He has learnt 
 to abhor himself, and to repent in dust and ashes. The 
 perfect man who had thought he lacked nothing, and was 
 in no danger of lacking anything, has found cause to 
 " abhor himself, and to repent in dust and ashes." He 
 has found cause for all this, because being brought near 
 unto God, and hearkening unto God, resisting no more, 
 complaining no more, reasoning no more, he has learnt to 
 repent and abhor himself — to repent in dust and ashes. 
 And so it was that the Lord " blessed the latter end of 
 Job more than his beginning." 
 
 God grant to us in His mercy to read, mark, learn, the 
 lessons of the Old Scriptures — sealed as every one of them 
 is with the Seal of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. 
 
 " Then Job answered the Lord and said — 
 " I know that Thou canst do everything, and that no 
 thought can be withholden from Thee. Who is he that 
 hideth counsel without knowledge ? Therefore have I 
 uttered that I understood not ; things too wonderful for 
 me, which I knew not. Hear, I beseech Thee, and I will 
 speak : I will demand of Thee, and declare Thou unto 
 me. I have heard of Thee by the hearing of the ear ; but 
 now my eye seeth Thee. Wherefore I abhor myself, and 
 repent in dust and ashes." 
 
 Who is it that gaineth anything ? Who is it that doth 
 not peril everything for himself and others by leading 
 both himself and others away from the simplicity of 
 Belief in the Old Scriptures ? Is there any other belief 
 that can supply its place ? There is none anywhere, now ; 
 nor is there any to look for. For these are " the last 
 days." There is no room to hope for any other Revela-
 
 235 
 
 tion than that we have received. Are we, instead of 
 laying fast hold of it by grace sought and given, and 
 embracing it in heart and mind — in heart, I say first, 
 because it is " with the heart that man believeth unto 
 righteousness " — are we to go about to deceive ourselves, 
 and to help others to deceive themselves, into a more 
 excellent way, of man's " invention," than God hath pre- 
 pared for us to walk in? Nay, dear people in Christ, 
 rather let us learn, after the example of Job, if we have 
 been led astray ; if we have not as yet been led astray, 
 but are tempted to walk in the lust of the pride of life, let 
 us learn to turn to God in Christ, to repent and abhor 
 ourselves in dust and ashes ; in the sure hope that, so 
 doing. He will receive us, and make our end better than 
 our beginning. 
 
 " To him that overcometh will I give to eat of the Tree 
 of Life, which is in the midst of the Paradise of God." I 
 turn, in the last place, to the threefold chain which cannot 
 be broken between the Old Scriptures and the New. 
 
 All about " the strait gate," opening into " the narrow 
 way," that leads to Heaven, lie on every side the three 
 temptations of man. The three temptations that our 
 Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ bowed Himself to undergo 
 that in His strength, who underwent and overcame, man 
 might undergo and overcome : " the lust of the flesh, the 
 lust of the eyes, and the pride of life." All about the 
 strait gate and the narrow way is the darkness of the 
 Tempter. But the Spirit of God is there also, moving 
 upon the face of the waters of the new Creation in Christ. 
 There is light to guide, grace to help, power to overcome ; 
 power to regain the " right to the Tree of Life." 
 
 There are those of us who, by grace given in Holy 
 Baptism ; and, grace sought, who overcome the World and 
 the Flesh ; but who fail to overcome that which is called, in 
 its own special sense, the temptation of the Devil. The 
 Pride of life, St. John calls it. That which tempted our 
 first Parents ; and tempts each one of us, especially the 
 learned few amongst us, to think himself wiser than God.
 
 236 
 
 What fruit does this last and greatest temptation bear ? 
 It corrupts the Reason of man — then the passions through 
 the Reason. This was the art and wile by which the 
 Tempter prevailed and taught man to fall away from 
 God. It is written in the third chapter of Genesis, one of 
 the chapters which the " New Criticism " tells us is Myth, 
 not History. It would be ludicrous, if it were not terrible, 
 to see how easily we poor creatures of threescore years 
 and ten apply ourselves to the pulling out foundation and 
 corner-stones of God's Building. It is written in the third 
 chapter of Genesis. It is not written elsewhere. Take 
 away Genesis out of the Record of God, and you have no 
 Record at all. Insinuate doubts about the Record of 
 God, doubts of any kind, and you have less than no 
 Record at all, for you have a Record of every man's 
 making. Man knows nothing, can know nothing, save 
 from Genesis, the first chapters, how it is that he is as he 
 is, and where he is and what he is for his little life here. 
 What is his condition, what is his hope, what is his 
 assurance of a life, not like this little life, but pure, 
 innocent, never dying, equal, as our Saviour tells us, unto 
 the life of the Angels. Did not the Tempter begin, 
 " Yea, hath God said," dropping into the heart of the 
 woman the first drop of poison, the Doubt of God .-* Did 
 he not continue, " Ye shall not surely die," denying the 
 Truth of the Word of God ? Advancing a step further, 
 did he not call in, when he saw the heart and the mind of 
 the woman tottering to its fall, the two other subordinate 
 temptations — the lust of the flesh and the lust of the eyes, 
 adding them to the temptation to be wiser than God ? 
 
 " And when the woman saw that the tree was good for 
 food, and that it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree 
 to be desired to make one wise, she took of the fruit 
 thereof and did eat, and gave also unto her husband 
 with her, and he did eat." 
 
 Our first parents fell away from God. They lost 
 Paradise, the way of the Tree of Life was fenced against 
 them by the Cherubim. The World has lost the access
 
 to the Tree of Life — not the hope of access, but the 
 fruit of hope in the glory of its perfectness on this side 
 the grave. 
 
 We are told now that all this is "Myth." That it 
 " lacks the historic germ " — something which is one of the 
 figments of these latter days. We are told now that 
 the Record of the Creation, and of all that we have in 
 the eleven first chapters of Genesis, is a myth. That 
 a myth is not a fable, but something else — what, we 
 are not told — it is left in that obscurity of thought and 
 expression in which men seem to take so much pleasure 
 in our time. What still goes by the name of Logic in 
 Oxford is something like an unknown quantity. But 
 supposing we could be told, how should we be the better 
 for being told ? We want the account of our life as it 
 is, and as we hope it will be. In its beginning and in 
 its substance it is in the first three chapters of Genesis. 
 In its progress and in its failure by reason of unrepented 
 sin it is in the rest of Holy Scripture, Old and New. 
 In its hope and glory it is shadowed forth in the Old 
 Scriptures ; it is fulfilled in the New, in the Gospel of 
 our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. It is nowhere else. 
 It is laid up, not in the treasure-house of man, but of 
 God. It is the Spirit of God who holds the key. 
 
 The World talks of " Difficulties in Scripture." The 
 World does not know what it is that it talks about. 
 
 There are no such things as " Difficulties in Scripture." 
 There are " Mysteries " in every page of it ; but there 
 are no " Difficulties." Dif^culty, physical or moral, means 
 something which may be overcome or cleared up by 
 means of physical or intellectual power. This cannot 
 be done with a Mystery. A Mystery is a thing pro- 
 posed to the Reason of man by the Author and Giver 
 of all good things not to be comprehended — for the finite 
 has no measure of the Infinite — but to be accepted 
 humbly, thankfully, as the foundation upon which Eternal 
 Wisdom has seen good to build up in man's heart and 
 mind the faith that saves.
 
 238 
 
 Dear People in Christ, let us not seek to be fed upon 
 emptiness — nay, rather let us strive to help one another 
 in this, our little life, to " a better and enduring sub- 
 stance ; " to accept humbly what has been given unto 
 us to know, and to keep it unto life eternal. To enter 
 in by grace given by " the strait gate," to walk in " the 
 narrow way " by the light of the Spirit, ever shining 
 through the darkness of the world, the flesh, and the 
 Devil ; ever moving upon the face of the waters, re- 
 creating, purifying — not turning aside to the right hand 
 or to the left to lay hold of the treasures of the Reason 
 or the Passion of this world — the lust of passion, the lust 
 of power, the lust of Reason ; calling us to a Wisdom 
 which is not Wisdom, but foolishness with God ; remem- 
 bering always, day by day, night by night, what God 
 hath showed us. He hath showed us what is good — 
 what it is that God doth require of us. He requireth 
 of us to do justice, to love mercy, to walk humbly with 
 thy God (Micah vi. 8). 
 
 And again, as God saith unto us all by His Prophet 
 Isaiah, " Let him take hold of My strength, that he may 
 make peace with Me ; and he shall make peace with 
 Me" (xxvii. 5). 
 
 To him that overcometh will- I give to eat of the Tree 
 of Life, which is in the midst of the Paradise of God. 
 
 I end here with the Old Scripture with which I began 
 these sermons. 
 
 " The secret things belong unto the Lord our God : 
 but those things which are Revealed belong unto us and 
 to our children for ever ; that we may do all the Words 
 of this Law" (Deut. xxix. 29). Amen.
 
 SERMON IV. 
 
 P readied in Wells Cathedral^ Sunday, Feb. 7, i8g2. 
 
 '' LIG H Tr 
 
 GENESIS i. I, 2, 3. 
 
 * In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth. And 
 
 the earth was without form and void ; and darkness was upon 
 the face of the deep. 
 
 * A?id the Spirit of God « moved upon the face of the waters ; 
 
 and God said^ Let there be light ; and there was light'^ 
 
 ISAIAH lix. 9. 
 " We wait for light, but behold obscurity ; for brightness, but we 
 walk in darkness^ 
 
 ZECHARIAH xiv. 6. 
 " But it shall come to pass that at evening time it shall be light." 
 
 ST. JOHN i. 4, 5- 
 "/« Him was light, and the light was the life of men, and the light 
 shineth in darktiess, and the darkness comprehended it not." 
 
 Dearly beloved in Christ, — I propose this morning to 
 bring together these places of Holy Scripture, each in 
 the order of time and Inspiration. 
 
 Light, in " Holy Scripture," is used to denote all that 
 is good — yea, even our Lord Jesus Christ Himself — as 
 darkness is used to denote all that is bad : all that of 
 which the Tempter is " The Prince " — the Prince of this 
 world, who hath nothing in Christ — the Prince of the 
 darkness of this world. 
 
 First, then, for Genesis — especially for the first eleven 
 
 • Note V. 2. — There would appear to be nothing to limit the time that may 
 have passed between the word " deep " and the rest of v. 2 and v. 3. The 
 Creation of Light and Life begins with " The Spirit of God moving upon the 
 face of the waters."
 
 240 
 
 chapters thereof, which contain all the substance of what 
 is known to man of the relations of God to man, and man 
 to God, Take away these chapters — touch their Inspi- 
 ration (that is, their Divine Integrity and Authority) — 
 and we are in hopeless ignorance, in the darkness that 
 may be felt, about the Creation of Heaven and Earth — • 
 about the first innocence of man, his temptation, his fall, 
 his redemption in and by Christ — about everything, chief 
 and governing parts of this world's history ; down to the 
 time of Abraham. We have been robbed of the founda- 
 tion, and we grope in darkness ; we have lost the light ; all 
 the light of the soul and spirit, which is necessary to our 
 knowing all our sins ; all our infirmities ; all our danger 
 of losing our inheritance in Christ ; all that can make 
 us cry aloud to the Spirit to guide us into humble and 
 thankful use of tloly Scripture. 
 
 And the same account applies to the proposal to resolve 
 these eleven chapters into " myth," whatever may be 
 the precise meaning of that word in connection with the 
 context of the proposal. As yet I have seen nothing 
 approaching to a definition of it fitting to be applied 
 to The Word of God. And if it be after all only a figur- 
 ative fancy of the learned man so to speak of that Word, 
 without any purpose of inpugning The Truth of that 
 Word in all its substance, to what good purpose to use 
 a word which to the millions of men will present itself 
 in no other shape, than that of suggesting difference 
 between one part of Holy Scripture and another? If 
 difference between, then doubt of all " Holy Scripture," 
 more or less ; and it is just this which has been the fruit 
 amongst us of " The New Criticism." To doubt God, 
 i.e., to tempt God, to try God, whether He hath spoken 
 truth or no'', has from first to last been the chief temp- 
 tation of man. Wheresoever doubt creeps in, and settles 
 itself; which it does easily where there is not continual 
 prayer and watching unto prayer ; then faith departs, 
 and man walks by sight and not by faith. 
 
 '' Exodus xvii. 2 — 7 ; Deut. vi. 16 ; St. Luke iv. 12.
 
 241 
 
 I cannot here go into the order of the first chapter 
 of Genesis. It would take more time than I may give 
 to it here <^, 
 
 There is, however, one thing inseparably connected 
 with the first 25 verses of it that I may not pass by in 
 connection with so much of the chapter as precedes them. 
 
 Observe, then, there is in connection with these 25 verses 
 an account commonly given of the first history of this 
 world, called " The Rectified Traditional Account." 
 
 It is an account wholly opposed to "The Analytical 
 Account " of" The New Criticism," as it is to " The Myth " 
 
 "= Creation— Order of Genesis I, 
 
 {a) Genesis I. reveals to man the Creation of God— nowhere else given — 
 in its parts and order. 
 
 (3) The Creation of the Heaven and the Earth; That "the Earth was 
 without form and void ; " That " darkness was upon the face of the 
 Deep." — vv. i — 2 down to "deep." 
 
 {c) That " The Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters ; " That 
 "Light "was created, "divided from darkness;" That "God called 
 the light Day, and the darkness Night; That "the evening and the 
 morning were the first day " — vv. 2 — 5. 
 
 {d) That God made the "firmanent in the midst of the waters, dividing the 
 waters from the waters ; " That " God called the firmament Heaven : " 
 That "the evening and the morning were the second day." — vv. 6, 
 7,8. 
 
 (e) That God bade "the waters under the heaven to be gathered together 
 unto one place, and let the dry land appear : " That " God called the 
 dry land Earth ; and that the gathering together of the waters He 
 called Seas ; " That God bade the Earth bring forth all her produce ; 
 That " the evening and the morning were the third day." — vv. 9, 10, 
 II, 12, 13. 
 
 (/) That God provided lights in Heaven for the Earth, day and night ; That 
 "the evening and the morning were the fourth day." — vv. 14, 15, 16, 
 17, 18, 19. 
 
 {g) That God created "the moving creature that hath life in the sea, and m 
 the air ; " That " the evening and the morning were the fifth day." — 
 vv. 20, 21, 22, 23. 
 
 {A) That God bade " the Earth bring forth the living creature after his kind, 
 cattle, and creeping thing and beast of the earth after his kind ; " 
 That God made man in His own image, to have dominion over the 
 fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over every living thing 
 that moveth upon the Earth; That God "blessed man, and said, 
 Be fruitful and multiply ;" That "the evening and the morning were 
 the sixth day."— vv. 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31. 
 R
 
 242 
 
 of " The New Criticism ; " and, nevertheless, it is an 
 account which exposes and defeats itself when set side 
 by side with the Record of Holy Scripture. 
 
 We must bear in mind here that what is meant by 
 " Traditional " is what is handed down from man to man ; 
 from one generation to another. 
 
 Now, it is not till v. 26, Genesis i., that we come to the 
 creation of man (see also Genesis ii, v. 5). What, there- 
 fore, it is that is meant by " Tradition " here, i.e. Tradition 
 of all that happened in Creation before there was a man 
 upon the earth to begin "Tradition," that is, to lay the 
 first stone of the building, is difficult to apprehend. 
 Genesis i. has 31 verses. Of these it is the last six only 
 which belong to the Creation of man. All that comes 
 before there was not a man upon the earth (Gen. ii. 5) 
 to know. Nothing, therefore, to set down for Tradition 
 to transmit. There was a light, but no man to receive 
 it. There was in the order of God's Providence every- 
 thing temporal belonging to this world, but not man. 
 There was then, upon the face of the record itself, no man 
 to tell all this to his son. No man to lay the first stone 
 for the building up of transmission by Tradition. 
 
 It would appear then to remain, as I have observed 
 elsewhere, that the record of Creation, under all its aspects 
 and sequel, was delivered to Moses by Inspiration of God. 
 Reason, boasting itself as able to give account of and 
 answer to all things, cannot, I submit, produce any other 
 possible way. A man may say indeed, I understand and 
 believe, that all that was done in Creation, before man 
 was created, was taiigJit of God to Adam, and handed 
 down by Tradition from Adam. But it remains, just the 
 same, that the beginning of Tradition was by Inspiration 
 — i.e., by teaching of God. It may be what is called 
 in Holy Scripture " walking with God." We cannot tell. 
 But I suppose that this solution running up to Adam 
 would not find favour with the New Criticism. If accepted, 
 it would, I think, be necessary for them to abandon their 
 favourite child, " myth."
 
 243 
 
 I turn now to the complaint and the consolation of 
 Isaiah, to the promise of Zechariah, to the fulfilment in 
 Christ. 
 
 " We wait for light, but behold obscurity ; for bright- 
 ness, but we walk in darkness." 
 
 The prophet complains — c. lix., v. 9 — of the People 
 of God. The People had the light given them which was 
 not given to any other People. They had received the 
 light for some 1,500 years before Isaiah complained of 
 ■what the light had become to them— the light had become 
 obscurity; the brightness had become darkness. And 
 yet, as inspired, and obeying the call of the never-failing 
 mercies of God, in the Ix. chapter he bursts forth in the 
 song of triumph and eternal hope for all who would 
 believe— " Arise, shine; for thy light is come, and the 
 glory of the Lord hath risen upon thee. The Lord shall 
 be unto thee an everlasting light, and thy God thy glory." 
 The time had not yet come. Even for the people 
 to whom the knowledge of The One God had been vouch- 
 safed, and committed. The time of bringing good 
 tidings to all people. Lower and lower still fell faith 
 in God, and with it Worship of God ; till in Malachi, the 
 darkest of the Old Scriptures, and yet not without presage 
 still of the coming light, the curse falls upon a faithless 
 priesthood and a betrayed people. But here, again, the 
 eternal promise fails not ; light shines forth through the 
 thick darkness, and the promise of "the Son of Righteous- 
 ness, with healing on His wings," of " the dayspring from 
 on high," of the " Morning Star," of " Him the Light, the 
 Life of men," closes the Old Scriptures, begins the New, 
 speaks in the Angels' song, " Glory to God in the highest, 
 and on earth peace, goodwill towards men," summons 
 to repentance and faith, to hope, to peace, to the life 
 of heaven. 
 
 This is the twentieth century of Redemption. The 
 wisdom of this world is with us, here in England, as 
 elsewhere, in conflict with the Simplicity of faith. Now 
 all the wisdom of this world that ever has been, or ever 
 
 R 2
 
 244 
 
 can be, is as nothing against the Simplicity of faith, 
 the faith that saves. The prevaih'ng looseness of mind, 
 the appetite for "some new thing" in the Religion of 
 Christ, and the ever increasing self-assumption of our 
 time, are all at work together against the Simplicity 
 of faith. It is with us, as it hath been spoken of by 
 the Apostles of Christ, telling us of what should come 
 in "the last time," in "the last days," in the last dis- 
 pensation of the Providence of God vouchsafed to the 
 inhabitants of the earth. The Bible, given unto us 
 through the Church by the Spirit, is become the plaything 
 of man's conceit, the battle-ground of Unreason, the food 
 for "Criticism." There is a cry everywhere amongst 
 us, "What is Truth ? " There is another cry. Men, "wise 
 and learned men," have discovered that the Bible has 
 to be sifted, and pared down, and tested by perpetual 
 processes of doubt, according to the decision of the literary 
 critic, to be renewed from time to time till the end of time. 
 There is to be then a never-ending flux as long as the 
 earth shall last of the subject-matter of faith. 
 
 This is what the World, and some who are not of 
 the World, but fall into its snare, call " searching after 
 Truth." 
 
 Observe, I pray you, that it is a search in which the 
 millions of men are vitally concerned, just as the few. 
 
 How is the search to be pursued ? It is one in which 
 the millions of men can take no primary or active part. 
 But it remains, nevertheless, the question of the life here 
 alike of the millions and of the few. 
 
 Now in a search after the Truth of GoD there must 
 be a particular Basis upon which to proceed. Is there 
 any such Basis known to man believing in Christ outside 
 The Bible? The Bible as given to man through The 
 Church Catholic under the promised guidance of The 
 Spirit : or, is man to come into competition with GOD, 
 and make a Basis of his own, as " The New Criticism " 
 would have us do .'' 
 
 Is the " learned man," having his gift of learning given
 
 245 
 
 him of God, to use his gift against GoD, making a Basis 
 of his own " invention ? " Certainly it is his duty to apply 
 his learning to illustrate and explain The Word of GoD, 
 within those limits which man cannot pass. It is not 
 his duty to travel, after his own will and imagination, 
 outside those bounds into regions of which he can know 
 nothing — that is to say, into the Mysteries of GOD. 
 Indeed, it is just out of doing this precise thing that 
 there came the first instance (see Genesis iii.), and will 
 come to the end of time, the loss of the Grace of God ; 
 and " in Adam all die." The children of Adam, trusting 
 to their own wisdom, sever themselves from the one 
 Basis, The Word of GOD, and draw others away with 
 and after them. And this — I say it again — is called 
 "Searching after Truth." Nay, my brethren in Christ, 
 let not this be so with us. GoD has provided us all alike 
 with The Truth once for all, in His own Book ; in Holy 
 Scripture. We have to search for it there, guided by 
 The Church Catholic; itself under guidance of The Spirit. 
 We have to teach as The Church, not as ourselves would 
 teach ourselves. Obedience in the true way to searching 
 after Truth. Obedience to what is written for us in " Holy 
 Scripture." Not to what we may " invent " for ourselves 
 out of Holy Scripture. 
 
 For any other manner of Searching after Truth, it is 
 a search in which the millions of men can take no part : 
 not so much as to understand what the nature or manner 
 of the search is, and whether it be right or wrong. They 
 will be guided mainly by outside causes ; led rightly or 
 wrongly by other men. 
 
 All that they can understand in the matter, as it is 
 before the English People, is that " learned men " are 
 telling them that The Truth of The Bible is by no means 
 so certain as it is supposed to be ; and that men have 
 to try to find out where and what the Truth is of them- 
 selves. 
 
 And so the miUions of men follow after the few ; and 
 the lowly and humble are mingled with " the proud in
 
 246 
 
 heart," are deceived into casting away the Simplicity of 
 Faith, and " trust to a broken reed, whereon if a man 
 lean, it will go " into " his hand and pierce if^." 
 
 It is not a blessed, it is a wretched and a most cruel 
 thing to go about to rob, not ourselves only, but the 
 millions of men, of our own and their common and only 
 hope, and to give them nothing in exchange but " the 
 pride of life." 
 
 I need add no more of this. I have said it many 
 times; but my heart and mind is so full of the darkness 
 which is crushing out the light from thousands of souls, 
 that I must needs say it again. 
 
 The World laughs. There is a Judge Who is not 
 of the World. Perfect God. Perfect Man. 
 
 I turn back to the promise of Zcchariah — " At even 
 time it shall be light." What is it then that for every 
 one of us — however it may from time to time be hidden 
 away in and by other things— what is it that all our hearts 
 would confess to be its dearest hope ? Is it not that 
 at even time it may be light — that then there may be 
 no darkness at all ? What is there in the life of every one 
 of us so precious as this ? 
 
 The Light has come. We live in the Light. The 
 Spirit bids us walk in the light, helps us, intercedes for 
 us, goes before us, worketh in and with us, leading, guid- 
 ing us to walk in the light. He is our Strength, He 
 is our Peace. He is ever with us if we will listen and 
 obey His voice, calling upon us to repent, love, believe, 
 live as the redeemed of Christ. 
 
 Where do we read all this ? how do we know all this ? 
 Where and how but in and by The Word of God ? There 
 is no other thing in the World to tell us of it ; nor will 
 there be. Let us hear again the Prophet Isaiah, xliii. 9 : 
 — " Let all the nations be gathered together ; and let 
 the people be assembled. Who among them can de- 
 clare this, and show us former things? Let them bring 
 
 ^ 2 Kings xviii. 21 ; Isaiah xxxvi. 6 ; Ezekiel xxix. 6, 7.
 
 247 
 
 forth their witnesses that they may be justified ; or 
 let them hear and say It is Truth." God has given 
 us His " Word." Has He anywhere told us that we 
 are Judges of His Word } Do we say that there are 
 portions of it which our natural Reason here cannot 
 reach? It would not be the Book of the God whom 
 we cannot see if there were not. We are not in darkness 
 because there are things we cannot see ; we are not foolish 
 because there are things we cannot grasp. We are wiser 
 than the World which interprets them to suit man's un- 
 reason. The World says there are " difficulties in Scrip- 
 ture," and how does the World, and the Church, if it listen 
 to the World, proceed to get rid of the difficulties? By 
 getting rid of " Holy Scripture" wheresoever " Holy Scrip- 
 ture " is found to be inconvenient. The World speaks of 
 what it docs not — of itself cannot —understand. 
 
 There are no "difficulties in Scripture" — it is an abuse 
 of language and of thought to say there are. A difficulty 
 is — I have said it before, but think it worth repeating — 
 a difficulty is a thing which man's either physical or 
 mental power can overcome. There are numberless 
 Mysteries in Scripture which no mental power of man 
 can so much as touch. There are no " difficulties," save 
 only such as man in his un-Reason " invents " for himself 
 and others. The man who docs this, I say it again, walks 
 by sight, not by faith. 
 
 Our little life of threescore years and ten, with all 
 its lesser periods, is more than enough wherein to .save 
 our souls, with or without the learning of this world, that 
 may, or may not, be ours, even as God has ordered in His 
 Providence for each and every one of us. How great 
 is the responsibility of the learned man to see that he 
 neither speaks nor writes anything which can in any 
 member tend to discourage the simplicity of faith, I have 
 no words to say. 
 
 O holiest and most blessed promise, "at even time 
 there shall be light." The light that is nearest upon earth 
 to the light that is in Heaven. God, in His Mercy, grant
 
 248 
 
 It may be so with us. Is it not worth — can we even 
 venture to set it side by side with all the learning and 
 power and place of this world— yea, even with all the 
 peace that comes of prayer and watching unto prayer, 
 all holy thought and searching of meditation upon " Holy 
 Scripture ? " Is it not the sum of all this, more precious 
 even than all this, to have it for our own in life and death 
 by the Comforting of The Spirit for the Merits of Christ ? 
 It it not worth the utmost all that this world can give, 
 that when " the world passeth away " from us " and the 
 lust thereof," if we have believed in Christ, and in Him 
 have had all things made possible <^ to us, have been taught 
 of Christ, have come nearer and nearer unto Him by 
 The Spirit, is it not the most precious of all things in 
 Earth and Heaven, of all things the most precious, that 
 we are His own in life and death? 
 
 Then " at even time there will be light " all around 
 us as we die — as we go to Him to Whom we have cried 
 in life and death, "Lord, I believe, help Thou mine un- 
 belief—to Him Who calleth us to Himself in the Light 
 of Heaven. 
 
 * "Jesus said unto him, If thou canst believe, all things are possible to him 
 that believeth."— St. Mark ix. 23.
 
 SERMON V. 
 
 A Sermon preached in Wells Cathedral, August 7, i8g2. 
 
 ST. JOHN V. 21. 
 ''Little children keep yourselves from idols P 
 
 REV. xxii. 8, 9. 
 " And I John saw these things, and heard them. And when I had 
 heard and seen I fell down to worship before the feet of the angel 
 which showed me these things. Then said he unto ine. See thou 
 do it not : for I am thy fellow-servattt and of thy brethren the 
 prophets, and of them which keep the sayings of this Book. 
 Worship God." 
 
 The first of these texts of Holy Scripture is the last 
 of ten places of Holy Scripture of the New Testament 
 in which the words "little children" are used by our 
 Lord and His apostles. The places are, first, those spoken 
 of infants:— St. Matt, xviii. 3; St. Matt. xix. 13, 14; 
 St. Mark x. 14 ; St. Luke xviii. 16, in all, five places. 
 Second, those spoken of those of all other ages, these 
 also, in all, five places:— i. By our Lord, St. John xiii. 
 33: By St. Paul, Gal. iv. 19: By St. John i, ii. i ; iv. 4; 
 v. 21. It is to be noted, further, that our Lord, St. Matt, 
 xviii. 4, "Whosoever therefore shall humble himself as 
 this little child, the same is greatest in the kingdom 
 of heaven," brings into one the freedom from original 
 sin by reason of baptized infancy, and the freedom from 
 sin after Baptism in those "little children" of all other 
 ages of life, by reason of the pardoning mercy of God 
 upon true repentance and faith in Him. So that the 
 Scriptural meaning of the words "little children" is every 
 way clear and complete, and beyond all question or 
 dispute, as we should by faith look to find it in the Word 
 of God; the Book of God-the one guide, accordmg 
 to our Lord's promise by the Spirit into all truth, by the 
 voice and the hand of His Church.
 
 250 
 
 Further, it may not be passed by that we have here 
 in St. Matt, xxiii. 6, the awful curse denounced by our 
 Lord upon those of His " little children " not in their 
 infancy, who should by their sins, either of commission 
 or omission, teach and encourage others to sin, secretly 
 or openly ; and have not, with a bruised and broken spirit 
 and contrite heart, repented of and done all in their power 
 to repair this their sin by newness of life in themselves 
 and before others ; by grace vouchsafed in answer to 
 their cry for mercy. 
 
 I hope I have advanced enough to show that every 
 one of us, baptized into Christ by water and the Spirit — 
 high and low, rich and poor, priest and people, all ages, 
 all sorts and conditions of men — that every one of us 
 is, by gift of God the Father, in Christ the Son, for 
 Christ's sake, by the Spirit, young and not young, " a little 
 child," marked as such in baptism with the cross of Christ 
 in life and in death. 
 
 That it is our " reward " when we die to have continued 
 to be among the " little children " of Christ, in the sim- 
 plicity of our faith, in daily repentance and newness of 
 life is, I think, not necessary for me to go about to 
 prove from the Word of God. I need not, therefore, 
 comment further upon St. Matthew xviii. i-ii, and its 
 corresponding passages in the New Testament ; or show 
 in detail how all this is prefigured in the Old Testa- 
 ment according to that wonderful connection and cor- 
 respondence between the Old Scriptures and the New, 
 which is throughout to be found in the Word of God. 
 It is the "threefold cord between them which cannot 
 be broken." 
 
 It has pleased God, in His merciful warning, to bring 
 upon the English people in this our day a visitation and 
 a trial, of no ordinary kind. I have nothing to say here 
 of what is passing outside the pale of the Church of 
 England. Inside her pale there is much of a specially 
 seductive character with which, as an English Churchman, 
 I have, within my own sphere of duty and action,
 
 251 
 
 everything to say and do, and which, in these dangerous 
 days, will, I believe, command the first place in my 
 thoughts daily so long as the mercy of God spares me to 
 live. 
 
 The visitation and the trial is, which of two things is 
 most entitled to our respect, observance, care, thankful- 
 ness, as conveying and guaranteeing to us from God, 
 upon His own conditions, peace in this life, eternal life 
 in the new heaven and new earth wherein dwelleth 
 righteousness. Is it, then, the Book called the Bible — 
 the Book of God as delivered once for all by the Church, 
 the Old Scriptures and the New, delivered to man for 
 all time under the guidance of the Spirit, according to 
 the promise of Christ — or is it the ever multiplying, ever 
 changing "opinions," conclusions, and inventions of learned 
 men touching the different degrees of acceptance by man 
 due to this or that portion of the Bible? In the first 
 of these sources we find the simplicity of faith — the way 
 of the life to the " little children " of Christ the Lord, 
 the Saviour and the judge. In the second, we find the 
 setting up of idols to worship ; the setting up of man 
 to be, each for himself, or as following some one whom 
 he is content to take for his guidance and authority as 
 final judge of the revelation of God ; of what is His 
 revelation and what is not, 
 
 I try to reduce into its primary and governing elements 
 and issues the visitation and the trial which are upon 
 the Baptized, in their true character, of " little children " 
 before God our Father for His dear Son's sake. On the 
 one hand there is the pride of the Reasoning Power, the 
 pride which St. John calls " the pride of life ; " the last 
 and the greatest of the temptations and trials of man, 
 as it was of Him Who came to save man at the beginning 
 of the Ministry of Salvation, and corresponding exactly 
 to the temptation by which our first parents fell away 
 from the grace of God, and sin and death came in for 
 all time. The conceit and the pride of the Reasoning 
 Power, the distinctive gift of our creation, called into
 
 252 
 
 action, stimulating us to proceed from one presumption 
 to another, and gathering strength from every assault 
 here upon the simplicity of faith. On the other hand, 
 there is the duty of those who are called to the office 
 of teaching and expounding to Church people the Word 
 of God, to draw for themselves and others living water 
 out of the spring which never fails to supply them, as 
 it supplies himself, from the One source of all Truth 
 vouchsafed to man on this side the grave, The Book 
 of God. It is my duty, therefore, as one of the least 
 of such teachers, to do all I may, to be ever recalling 
 to myself and others our little childhood before God; 
 our utter incapacity to understand and comprehend one 
 of the least mysteries of God ; to know that we must 
 die as we have lived, not understanding, not having the 
 power to understand what our Father which is in Heaven 
 has not revealed to us ; understanding this only, the 
 conclusion of the man who was the " wisest " of men by 
 God's gift, and repeating it to ourselves and others day 
 by day, " Let us hear the conclusion of the whole matter 
 — Fear God and keep His commandments, for this is the 
 whole duty of man." To know the fact of a Mystery 
 of God ; to confess it in the words in which the Church 
 has confessed it for us ; to worship God for it in Christ 
 The Lord, in the humbleness of a little child ; to receive 
 all that is necessary unto salvation, as the little child 
 receives from the parent's hand ; this is one thing ; a 
 thing which has the Blessing of Christ upon it. To 
 be ever questioning about the Divine oneness and au- 
 thority of this or that portion of The Book in which, 
 and in which alone, God has seen fit to reveal Himself 
 to man — to be ever wasting the powers of our poor little 
 life upon " ever learning, and never able to come to the 
 knowledge of, The Truth " — to make idols of ourselves 
 or others to worship ; this is another thing. There is 
 nothing in it of "the Httle child." It has not upon it the 
 Blessing of Christ. 
 
 I would submit for the consideration of those, to whom
 
 253 
 
 I speak that the two fundamental and primary lessons 
 to be learnt by heart and mind by the Baptized into 
 Christ, from the words "little children," as applied in 
 Holy Scripture to all times of life, are (i) the lesson of 
 ever-growing, never-failing, humbleness before God the 
 Father for the sake of Christ the Son, by the strengthen- 
 ing and comforting of the Spirit ; and (2) the lesson 
 by the same Spirit of absolute, unconditional, unques- 
 tioning dependence upon God as Revealed in the Holy 
 Scriptures of the Old and New Testament ; as these have 
 been delivered to the world for all time by the Spirit 
 guiding into all Truth as promised by our Lord, and 
 speaking to all Peoples by the voice of the undivided 
 Church. 
 
 The two lessons of humbleness and dependence are 
 indeed inseparable as cause and effect, and I turn to 
 consider them briefly ; premising only that both lessons 
 are irreconcilable with the assault upon the Divine 
 Integrity, or Oneness, and the authority of " Holy Scrip- 
 ture " now proposing to supersede the order and the faith 
 of the Church of England, and compelled by its own 
 course of argument to assign to our Lord, for the purposes 
 of His teaching in the Gospels, a limited knowledge only 
 of the Old Scriptures. The demand of this assault is 
 that Holy Scripture be criticised before it be received. 
 That it be distinguished into parts by human learning 
 in respect of the credence to be allowed to its several 
 books — that credence in some of these books, or parts 
 of books, is to be purchased at the cost of dismissing 
 it as unnecessary in the case of other books of the same 
 Word of God ; and as our Lord has sealed all the Old 
 Scriptures as His own by citation and reference to them 
 as His own, this difficulty in the way of man's philosophy 
 and science is to be got rid of by pronouncing that our 
 Lord's knowledge of the Old Scriptures was only a 
 limited knowledge — such as any " educated" Jew of His 
 time might have. 
 
 One thing has always to be repeated, in the hope of
 
 254 
 
 its finding its way amongst us much more than it has 
 hitherto done. That, to assign to our Lord in His teach- 
 ing " a Hmited knowledge of the Old Scriptures," is to 
 say of Him nothing else than this — That in His teaching 
 He used the Old Scriptures as the record of historical 
 fact ; not knowing whether they contained historical fact. 
 
 I have said all this many times, but it cannot be said 
 too often, either to him who says it, or by him to those 
 who are — as he is himself— each one a "little child," 
 called to the obedience of love, not to the cavilling and 
 controversy about what are and what are not, integral 
 parts of the Book of God. Channels by which He- has 
 seen fit to convey to man by men's hands such revelation 
 of Himself as it has seemed good to Him to make — His 
 promises — His warnings. It is enough whereby to follow 
 and be saved ; not enough to satisfy the lust of the pride 
 of life. What is revealed is not in the whole, but in part 
 only, and as man's nature is able to bear it. For the 
 understanding of The Book of God this world is not the 
 place. For obeying it and loving it it is. The obedience 
 of the little child is the key that unlocks the casket of 
 the father's love. 
 
 If in Christ, we be children of the Church of England, 
 let us " hear " the Church of England ; and we shall never 
 harm, much less desert her. If we rejoice in being 
 children of the Church of England, let us not betray her 
 by lip service. Above all things, let us not deceive our- 
 selves and set up the Idol of Policy in the room of the 
 spirit and the action of Principle. The old motto " incul- 
 canda repetenda" may be allowed to be applied to the 
 present case. 
 
 For the true humbleness and dependence of the "little 
 child " as revealed in the old Scripture I turn to the 
 example of Job. 
 
 " And the Lord said unto Satan, Hast thou considered 
 my servant Job ; that there is none like him in the 
 earth, a perfect and an upright man, one that feareth 
 God and escheweth evil .'' "
 
 255 
 Now human perfectness and uprightness may be greater 
 in some case or cases than in any other, and yet under 
 further trial, if God see fit, admitting of growth and 
 increase. This was the case in the instance of Job, 
 whose " latter end the Lord blessed more than his begin- 
 ning," as a sign of increased perfectness. So we read 
 of fob when taught The Truth by God Himself, bowing 
 Himself to reason with His creature, and having cause 
 to know thereby what men had tried in vain to persuade 
 him of, because they " darkened counsel with words with- 
 out knowledge." We learn here what the true position 
 of the created before the Creator is. We learn that this 
 is that not only the created cannot make one of the least 
 of the works of the Creator, but that it is not in his power 
 to understand how that one is made. Let us hear Job 
 himself, xlii. 1-6:-" Then Job answered the Lord, and 
 said— I know that Thou canst do everything, and that 
 no thought can be withholden from Thee. Who is he 
 that hideth counsel without knowledge .? therefore have 
 I uttered that I understood not; things too wonderful 
 for me, which I knew not. Hear, I beseech Thee, and 
 I will speak : I will demand of Thee, and declare Thou 
 unto me. I have heard of Thee by the hearing of the 
 ear : but now mine eye seeth Thee. Wherefore I abhor 
 myself, and repent in dust and ashes." 
 
 For the dependence of His little children upon God, 
 I turn to Daniel the Prophet. I turn to the answer of the 
 three Servants of God, c. iii. i6, 17, 18. There is nothing 
 higher in the history of man ; nothing nearer to the 
 Gospel itself than the answer of the " three holy children : " 
 "O Nebuchadnezzar, we are not careful to answer thee 
 in this matter— (that is, we are ready to answer thee 
 at once). If it be so, our God Whom we serve is able 
 to deliver us from the burning fiery furnace, and he 
 will deliver us out of thine hand, O King. But if not, 
 be it known unto thee, O King, that we will not serve 
 thy gods, nor worship the golden image which thou 
 hast set up."
 
 256 
 
 I look once more into the book " Lux Mundi," Ed. 
 X. sec. 5, p. 351, down to "Astronomy," p. 356. Here 
 Job and Daniel are discredited, together with many other 
 Books of the Old Scriptures, in the literal and true sense 
 of the word " discredited." 
 
 I can only here refer you to the pages I have cited, 
 and pray you to consider what the seed is which most 
 surely this free handling of the Old Scriptures is sowing 
 broadcast into the hearts and minds of the English people. 
 The fruit of that seed is their shaking first unto tottering 
 to their fall, next unto ruin of their dependence upon The 
 Truth of Holy Scripture. 
 
 Dear people in Christ, let it not be with us, little 
 children in Christ, if we have been called away, set free 
 from the worship of wood and stone, to set up ourselves 
 as idols for ourselves to worship, or " some new thing " 
 which easily lays hold of an idle or unsettled mind, and 
 unloving heart, and make an idol of it, bow down to, and 
 worship it. 
 
 I ask this in the name of the Apostle whom Jesus 
 loved. It is one of the last warnings of the New Scrip- 
 tures. It is my second text. " And St. John saw these 
 things and heard them, and when I had heard and seen, 
 I fell down to worship before the feet of the angel which 
 showed me these things. Then saith he unto me, See 
 thou do it not : for I am thy fellow-servant, and of thy 
 brethren, the prophets, and of them which keep the 
 sayings of this book : Worship God."
 
 SERMON VI. 
 
 Preached in Wells Cathedral on Stmday, Nov. ij, i8g2. 
 
 ST. JOHN iv. 26. 
 ^'' Jesus saith unto her, ' / that speak unto thee am He.'' " 
 
 This is the last but two of 14 records of our Lord Jesus 
 Christ, The Son of God, Perfect God and Perfect Man, 
 contained in the four first chapters of St. John's Gospel. 
 
 c. i. 1,5. The record of St. John the Apostle. 
 
 c. i. 6, 18. The record of St. John the Baptist. 
 
 c. i. 19, 28. The record of St. John the Baptist. 
 
 c. i. 29, 34. The record of St. John the Baptist. 
 
 c- i- 35, 36. The record of St. John the Baptist. 
 
 c. i. 41. The record of St. Andrew. 
 
 c. i. 45. The record of St. Philip. 
 
 c. i. 49. The record of St. Nathaniel. 
 
 c. iii. 19, 21. The record of our Lord before the Jews. 
 
 c. iii. I, 21. The record oi our Lord heiovQ Nicodemus. 
 
 c. iii. 25,36. The record of St. John the Baptist before 
 the Jews. 
 
 c. iv. 26. The record of our Lord before the woman 
 
 of Samaria. 
 
 c. iv. 29. The record of the woman of Samaria. 
 
 c. iv. 29. The record of the Samaritans. 
 
 The record of the Samaritans is remarkable as being 
 one of the two places in which the words, " Saviour of 
 the World," are found in Holy Scripture. It is scarcely 
 necessary to say that the same idea, otherwise expressed, 
 is to be found times very many. 
 
 With this, and all other concurrent testimonies in the 
 hands of all Christian People, it is painful to contrast 
 
 s
 
 258 
 
 the present tendency of a large portion of the English 
 mind led astray /r^//^ witJiin to doubt and question about 
 the Perfect Godhead and the Perfect Manhood of our 
 Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ : so that here with us 
 successive years, instead of confirming and settling the 
 English People, and the many dependencies of the 
 English Empire in the Unity of the Faith, are directed 
 much rather into perpetual doubting and inquiry by 
 learned men, where it was least to be looked for. The 
 enquiry raised being this — what was after all the know- 
 ledge of the Perfect God and Perfect Man here upon 
 earth ? The main gist and purpose of these doubts and 
 inquiries being the weakening the value of the testimony 
 of Christ to " the Old Scriptures," for the end of enabling 
 men to believe in portions of the Old Scriptures by 
 allowing them the liberty of disbelieving in other portions. 
 
 It was seen that this could not be done but by dis- 
 crediting the Divine Authority of the Saviour of the 
 World in respect of the Old Scriptures, and restricting 
 it within the limits of the Jew of His time. Therefore 
 it is that, as a necessary requirement of the New Critic 
 of the day upon which to maintain the destructive argu- 
 ments, called by him the " disencumberment " of faith 
 in Christ, English People, old and young, high and low, 
 rich and poor, are being taught now that they need not 
 trouble themselves about believing the Divine Authority 
 of more of the Old Scriptures than it pleases them to 
 accept. 
 
 I know that I have said all this many times, and have 
 replied to it so far as it has been in my power to do. 
 But I would ask you, dear People in Christ, in taking 
 leave of this matter before you — the worst and darkest 
 blot upon Engljsh Religion that in a long life I have 
 lived to see — Is there not a cause ? I can say truly that 
 the fear of and shrinking from this teaching,, in its source, 
 in its character, in its effects, is never away from me ; 
 and though my power of persuading others to look more 
 closely into it may be little, the duty of bearing testimony
 
 259 
 
 to Christ, Perfect God and Perfect Man, the Saviour of 
 the World, abides with every one of us to our last breath. 
 But, having said this, I am not going into any detail of 
 argument. It is becoming the fashion of the time to 
 approach everything, Divine or human, as admitting of 
 discussion. But, under this circumstance, there are many 
 more of us than is commonly supposed who will not have 
 " Holy Scripture," and the Lord's Seal upon it, discussed 
 at all in any part of its substance and authority, seeing 
 that they are the only one ground upon which faith may 
 be built. The Old Scriptures and the New, as given unto 
 men to the end of time by the Church — yea, and unto the 
 angels — hear St. Paul : " To the intent that now unto the 
 principalities and powers in heavenly places, might be 
 known by the Church the manifold wisdom of God " 
 (Ephes. iii. lo). 
 
 Discussion, then, in matters of The Faith, more par- 
 ticularly in respect of the Unity of the Faith, must be 
 most strictly watched on the side of those who would 
 defend and maintain The Faith, lest they should any way 
 compromise the principle upon which it behoves the 
 maintainer and defender of The Faith to stand. The 
 principle is that of stating much more than arguing — 
 men argue on the ground that it is possible that both 
 sides may be more or less, or wholly, right. But this 
 is not the case with argument upon The Faith. There 
 is but one Faith, and that given — by whom, by what 
 given ? Given of God " by the Church." The Churchman 
 therefore states what the Church tells him. He may not 
 argue upon it, as if there were room for doubt at all. 
 Holy Scripture itself does not argue upon The Faith — 
 it states and insists. It is the voice of God speaking 
 to man — not a voice which can mean a thing and the 
 opposite of the thing ; it has to be settled which by 
 argument. The Church, by the ordinance of God, under 
 guidance of The Spirit, has settled all things necessary 
 to salvation. Two thousand years after Christ is surely 
 not the time for men to be asking " What is Truth ? "
 
 26o 
 
 Death may come before the knowledge, which is always 
 at hand by The Church. 
 
 " Endeavouring to keep the unity of The Spirit in the 
 bond of Peace." Words beside these are not needed. 
 They supply in themselves the best argument, better than 
 any that man can make, for being content to re-state 
 " Holy Scripture " rather than apply ourselves to argue 
 one with another about The Truth of God. There is no 
 promise of the giving of any other than that which has 
 been given. There is not " another Gospel " — another 
 rather than that which has been given unto the end 
 of time. The Gospel bearing the testimony of our Lord 
 to the Old Scriptures, making no discrimination between 
 this or that portion of them — accepting all alike as the 
 gift of God. The golden chain between the two cannot 
 want any other words of man to commend it than the 
 words of St. Paul to Timothy, his dearly beloved son : 
 " That from a child thou hast known the Holy Scriptures 
 which are able to make thee wise unto salvation through 
 faith which is in Christ Jesus." He is speaking of " The 
 Old Scriptures," even as our Lord Himself to the Jews 
 (St. John v. 39) : " Search the Scriptures ; for in them ye 
 think ye have eternal life : and they are they which 
 testify of Me." 
 
 I turn now to the Woman of Samaria at the Well, 
 bearing, in her sin and ignorance, testimony to The 
 Messiah : " Come, see a man which told me all things 
 that ever I did : is not this the Christ ? " She had come 
 to draw water at Jacob's Well, and there she had found 
 Christ. 
 
 The Divine Nature, having taken to itself, for the sav- 
 ing of the world in the Mystery of the Incarnation, the 
 human nature sinless, was, nevertheless, in sorrow and 
 suffering, when the Son of God came in the Flesh, as 
 those are who are His. Hear St. Paul (2 Cor. xi. 27), 
 speaking of himself, " In weariness and painfulness, in 
 watchings often ; in hunger and thirst ; in fastings 
 often, in cold and nakedness " — yea, and how much more.
 
 26 1 
 
 how infinitely more, than St. Paul, or any others greatest 
 amon- the Saints, could say of himself or others, because 
 of The Mystery of the Godhead and the Manhood : of the 
 union between that which could not suffer and that which 
 could and did suffer, as no other in the form of man has 
 or could suffer. All this again for man fallen away from 
 God in his inherited nature ; inherited as the curse of the 
 pride in man's chief gift, the pride which St. John calls 
 "the pride of life." The pride of the reasonmg power, 
 the chief gift of the natural man ; the subordmate gift 
 of the spiritual man. That pride was evoked in the first 
 and governing temptation in the garden of Eden. The 
 temptation to doubt God. "Yea, hath God said? _ It 
 was reserved by the Tempter, as the last in order of time 
 (but the first in power over the heart and mind of man), 
 on the pinnacle of the Temple : " If thou be the Son 
 of God cast Thyself from hence: for it is written, He shall 
 give His angels charge over Thee, to keep Thee, and in 
 their hands they shall bear Thee up, lest at any time Thou 
 dash Thy foot against a stone. And Jesus, answering him, 
 said unto him. It is said (Deut. vi. i6). Thou shalt not 
 tempt the Lord thy God : and when the devil had ended 
 all the temptation, He departed from Him, for a season 
 (St. Luke iv. 13). 
 
 He said and stood : 
 Then Satan, filled with amazement, fell. 
 
 Milton's Paradise Regained. 
 
 Our Lord says afterwards to His Apostles, "Ye are they 
 which have continued with Me in My temptations" (St. 
 
 Luke xxii. 28). 1.1. 
 
 The woman at the well is the type of many shades 
 of quasi-religious character. I state them in their order : 
 First, there is the type of public separation of the two 
 tribes and the ten (v. 9), the separation of faith and 
 worship caused by "The sin of Jeroboam, who made 
 Israel to sin." Unity of worship in the twelve tribes had 
 ceased for nearly a thousand years. This had governed 
 
 S 2
 
 262 
 
 all the life, public and private, of the two peoples, and 
 " the Jews had no dealings with the Samaritans." Hence 
 the call of our Lord was more than strange to the woman, 
 and when told of " the living water " she had no thought 
 of anything beyond the earthly life. There is, neverthe- 
 less, a trace of something of a higher nature beginning 
 to steal its way into her heart and mind in v. 15 : "Sir, 
 give me this water that I thirst not, neither come hither 
 to draw." 
 
 Our Lord tries her again more closely. He appeals 
 to her consciousness of sin : " Go call thy husband, and 
 come hither." The woman confesses, " I have no hus- 
 band." Then our Lord, receiving her confession, "Thou 
 hast well said," waits for her reply. 
 
 Secondly, there is the type of some moving of the heart 
 to a sense of need of help. Thirdly, there is the type 
 of the failing and disappearing of the move towards 
 repentance and confession of our sin, with the desire 
 to hide under other colours the darkness of our sin. 
 
 The woman, acknowledging our Lord for a prophet, 
 seeks, nevertheless, to escape from the inward searching 
 of her sinful life by implying that she would be thankful 
 for counsel respecting the true place of worship, whether 
 it were Jerusalem or Mount Gerizim. 
 
 Our Lord answers her in the words of vv. 21, 22, 23, 
 24. The woman, overwhelmed and confounded, confesses 
 her ignorance and her want of light, v. 25, is drawn 
 onward by some inward sense that she was in a holy 
 presence — our Lord declares, bears record of Himself 
 Upon this, there is the fourth type of a call superseding 
 the satisfying of earthly need. The woman forgets her 
 earthly need, leaves her waterpot, goes her way to the city, 
 and says, " Come, see a man which told me all things that 
 ever I did. Is not this the Christ?" Then they went 
 out of the city and came unto Him. The verses that 
 follow, 31 — 8, I must pass by here, filled as they are 
 with holy teaching, and proceed to vv. 39 — 42. These 
 verses should be carefully studied side by side with the
 
 instances of the holy charity of our Lord towards the 
 Samaritans, and of His choice of them for examples: on 
 the other hand, there is no allowance for the question 
 of breach of Unity. 
 
 For ourselves then, dear people in Christ, for ourselves, 
 and for all whom the providence of God places in our 
 hands, either of necessity, as being our own children, 
 or the children of others committed to our charge and 
 care, and this more particularly day by day in the 
 extreme danger coming out of what is called " the spirit 
 of our time," what shall we do ? It was the first cry in 
 Jerusalem when, in answer to St. Peter : "Therefore let all 
 the house of Israel know assuredly, that God hath made 
 that same Jesus, whom ye hath crucified, both Lord and 
 Christ." " They were pricked in their heart, and said unto 
 Peter and the rest of the Apostles, Men and brethren, 
 what shall we do?" (Acts ii. 36, 37). Aye indeed, what 
 shall we do? It is by doing that we are saved, not by 
 thought, conviction, resolve only. Salvation were easy, if 
 thought, conviction, resolve were all is that is commanded. 
 But it is not all, nor the thousandth part of it. We have 
 threescore years and ten wherein to be doing for ourselves, 
 for others, for our life, for theirs. Men and brethren, 
 what shall we do? What shall we do for this Church 
 of Christ in England — of England? I will venture to 
 make the answer : " Endeavour to keep the Unity of the 
 Spirit in the bond of peace." 
 
 It is said the strife in " endeavouring to keep the Unity 
 of the Spirit" is a strife that lies among the deepest 
 heartstrings of men. I know it is. But if any man say 
 that therefore it cannot be carried on in the bond of 
 peace, I may not allow the conclusion. God hath not 
 given us two chief things to be done in this our life ; two 
 things to be done for the love, and in the power of Christ : 
 two the greatest things — of all our service — two things, 
 neither of which can be done without daily abiding re- 
 pentance, faith, hope, charity. God hath not given us 
 two things to be done which we cannot do. He hath
 
 264 
 
 spoken to us His eternal Word — endeavouring to keep the 
 Unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. Men and 
 brethren, what shall we do? We will make answer — The 
 Spirit helping us, we endeavour to keep the Unity of the 
 Spirit in the bond of peace. The Apostle says " en- 
 deavouring" — that is giving our life to. We may be able 
 to do little : the amount is not the question. The heart 
 and mind in which it is undertaken as the chief business 
 of our life, this is the question. The mercy of God, the 
 wisdom of God, which knoweth all things, knows what 
 Spirit we are of Let us trust Christ to help us by the 
 Spirit. To whom else can we go ? Has He not the 
 Words of Eternal life .'' 
 
 Is it meant then, some may ask, that we are to consort 
 and communicate with those who are rending asunder the 
 Unity of the Faith as the Church has delivered it into 
 our hands to keep and teach .'' There is a reply to this 
 in the words of the same Apostle, who bids us endeavour 
 to keep the Unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace, 
 
 " Now, I beseech you, brethren, mark them which cause 
 divisions and offences among you, contrary to the doctrine 
 which ye have learned, and avoid them." Noting such, 
 for caution's sake, is not ill-will — avoiding them is not ill- 
 will. Agreement is impossible in the case. The case 
 supposed is not one where there is room for discussion. 
 It is a case in which Eternal Truth is committed to the 
 Church, is abided by as being of God on the one side — 
 discredited or explained away on the other side — by what 
 process, for what purpose, under what conditions, it 
 matters not at all. There is no room for discussion 
 where men start from opposite poles of thought. It 
 is only foolishness to attempt to discuss when one side 
 limits the province of Reason, setting a boundary between 
 it and the province of the Mysteries of God, and the other 
 side walks in among the Mysteries, and handles themx 
 to see what their value may be. Let us pray daily to 
 be kept from a spirit like this. Let us pray no less 
 that what we would strive by the Spirit to do for the
 
 265 
 
 defence and maintenance of the Truth of God, for "the 
 Unity of the Spirit," may have no stain upon it from the 
 bitterness of conflict which the Tempter is ever labouring 
 to pour into the hearts of men. 
 
 Dear brethren, what is there not everywhere around 
 us that does not speak of the Unity of the Spirit and 
 of the bond of peace? This beautiful church of St. 
 Andrew the Apostle, the centre of the Unity of the 
 diocese— the Palace of the Bishop— the houses of the 
 Dean and Chapter— the Vicar's close, the Training 
 College— everywhere around us. When we leave this 
 city, church after church lifting its head to the Heaven 
 where all is Unity. Hard by the churches, the house 
 of the priest of the parish ; inside the churches, the Font 
 and the Altar. The Holy Bible and the Book of 
 Common Prayer and Administration of the Sacraments. 
 All cry aloud to us with one voice. " There is one body 
 and one Spirit, even as ye are called in one hope of your 
 calling : one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one GOD and 
 Father of all, who is above all, and through all, and in 
 you all." Is it not then for each one and all of us to live 
 fighting the good fight of faith, in love, in the simplicity 
 of " little children " before GoD, in power and in peace- 
 endeavouring to keep the Unity of the Spirit in the 
 Bond of Peace ? Ephesians iv. 3, 6. 
 
 lC)viutcb b\: 5amcs iPavUcv an& do-, Cvfiwn Jtjart, ®ifO(»,
 
 :B^ tbe same Hutbor. 
 
 Third Edition, 8w., cloth, price \2S. 
 
 NOTES OF MY LIFE, 1805— 1878. 
 
 Oxford and London : James Parker and Co.
 
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