ORDINATIONS.

THE

CHURCHMAN'S MONTHLY REVIEW

AND CHRONICLE.

APRIL, 1843.

SERMONS ON RELIGIOUS BELIEF. By the Rev. J. H. NEWMAN, M.A., Vicar of St. Mary the Virgin, Oxford. 1843. OUR DANGERS AND OUR DUTIES AT THE PRESENT CRISIS. By the Rev. W. DALTON, M.A., Incumbent of St. Paul's, Wolverhampton.

In the year 1833 there commenced in Oxford a series of publications, entitled "Tracts for the Times, by Members of the University." The individuals with whom these writings originated were understood to be the Rev. Dr. Pusey, now Regius Professor of Hebrew, and Canon of Christ Church, but formerly Fellow of Oriel College; the Rev. Mr. Keble, now Vicar of Hursley, in the diocese of Winchester, but formerly Professor of Poetry and Fellow of Oriel College; the Rev. Mr. Newman, Vicar of St. Mary's, in Oxford, and Fellow of Oriel College; the Rev. Mr. Froude, formerly Fellow of Oriel College, but now deceased; the Hon. and Rev. A. P. Percival, at first of Oriel College, then of All Souls' College, and Chaplain in Ordinary to the Queen; the Rev. Mr. Sewell, Professor of Moral Philosophy, and Fellow of Exeter College; and some others of less note in the University. It may not be amiss to notice some previous circumstances in the careers of these individuals. Dr. Pusey had exhibited his prowess as a controversialist on the subject of German Protestantism; and subsequently, in the year 1836, was one of the strongest opponents of Dr. Hampden. Upon the decease of Dr. Nicoll, in the year 1828, he had been elected, though a very young man for

such a station, to the Regius Professorship of Hebrew; but, however qualified in Eastern literature for such a post, his views in divinity do not appear to have been very matured, either then or even down to the time of the Hampden controversy; but he rather seems to have been in the condition of one searching for something he desires, yet not knowing exactly where to find it, nor what the desired object will prove when found. This observation is also applicable to all those with whom he was connected, who do not seem at first to have been able to foresee, whereunto that would eventually grow which they were so industriously planting. Indeed Mr. Perceval, in his "Letter to the Irish Ecclesiastical Journal on the Oxford Tracts," is studiously anxious to prove, and fearful lest "his explanation should be supposed an after-thought," that neither himself nor any of his fellow "conspirators," as the junta were appropriately designated by Mr. Froude, "had more objects in view than two at this time; the first, the assertion and maintenance of the doctrine of the apostolical succession; the second, the preservation, in its integrity, of the Christian doctrines in our Prayer-books, with a view to avert the Socinian" (a term ingeniously and adroitly used to comprehend all dissenters) "leaven with which we had reason to fear it would be tainted." Mr. Keble had become celebrated for his not inelegant string of poetry, entitled "The Christian Year," in which already began to show themselves the budding blossoms of an imaginative system, more prurient than sacred, and which, as it may thus be said to have originated in some degree in poetry, rejoices still in the vaunt, "Give us this divine auxiliary on our side, and we will let you dictate, denounce, proscribe, and even persecute, as you please. Providence has placed in our hands powers that laugh to scorn your petty dominion."-(British Critic.) Mr. Newman had, earlier in his career, shown very different predilections than those which subsequent years have witnessed, for he had associated himself much with the evangelical party in the University, small as that always is, and had even been for some time one of the secretaries of the Oxford Association of the Church Missionary Society. Mr. Froude has become more remarkable since his decease than he was at all conceived to be before, and that by the rashness of his editors, who have revealed to the world those hours and thoughts of privacy, in which men think to themselves because they conceive themselves unseen, but would not like to reveal even to their dearest friends their secret cogitations. Mr. Sewell had even gone beyond Mr. Newman, and was at one time a member of the committee of the Oxford Auxiliary of the British and Foreign Bible Society; and we remember upon one occasion his coming forward

at the annual meeting in Oxford, and briefly delivering himself to the effect, "that he rejoiced at such meetings, because they tended to promote brotherly union and concord amongst those who else were entirely separated." Of the above members of the University, alleged by common report to be associated together in the publication of the Tracts, two have ceased to be so. One, Mr. Froude, by an early death; another, Mr. Sewell, by his own secession. Notwithstanding the publication of his very extraordinary work, on what, by a misnomer or alias, he has been pleased to denominate "Christian Morals"—a work conceived in the spirit of, and executed in admirable conformity with, the Tracts and their divinity-Mr. Sewell would have us believe that there is no such thing as a party so connected in Oxford, and that he himself is but one of some disjecta membra, that are sprinkling their leaven throughout the Church; or probably he, like Mr. Newman, "has no wish at all to take part in any measures which aim at changes," but contents himself with the assertion, that "time is the great innovator." However this may be, certain it is that upon the very first alarm respecting Tract No. 90, Mr. Sewell addressed a letter to his "Dear Pusey," the too obvious object of which was to shake himself clear of all connection with a concern, which he evidently saw to be growing into disrepute with the authorities in the University and Church.

Such were these gentlemen up to about the years 1831-33, when a panic seemed to seize the University. The cry for reform that was then raised with so much determination, and which resulted in the Reform Bill becoming the law of the land, followed by other demands made by dissenters for a free and complete participation in the institutions of the country, educational as well as civil, gave rise to an opposite cry of "the Church in danger." The dissenters, because they asked for admission to, and education at, the Universities of the land, without being compelled to subscribe to the Articles, were denounced as meaning thereby an attack upon the Church, and as aiming at nothing less than its overthrow and destruction. Many who had hitherto regarded them with the Christian spirit of brotherly love, and had associated with them in such public acts as they compromised no principle, became all at once alarmed by the cry of terror that was raised, and forsook all connection and communion with them. The Irish Church Bill of Lord Stanley, by which ten bishoprics were suppressed, that their stipends might be applied to other ecclesiastical purposes, was another cause of grievance, as avowed by Mr. Perceval in his letter on the Oxford movement, and proved a popular rallying point, around which to attract all the alarmed and alarm

ists of the period; and as it was something tangible, inasmuch as it was easy to denounce a suppression of bishoprics without mentioning the better appropriation of their temporalities, the cry of "the Church in danger" was raised the louder, and the result showed itself in the clerical address to the Archbishop of Canterbury, got up and signed somewhat in a similar manner to the petitions against the Ecclesiastical Duties and Revenues Bill, so fully exposed by the Bishop of London, who affirmed, that he "could himself get up 3000 or 4000 signatures to petitions on any ecclesiastical subject, and that he must be a strong-minded and rather a bold man who would refuse his signature to a petition brought before him by his immediate ecclesiastical superior. (Speech in the House of Lords.) The reaction accordingly was sudden, and proportionately violent and extreme. The moment

was opportune for the revival and spread of High Church principles. It was seized on with avidity by the parties already referred to, and they commenced their crusade in defence of the holy temple, against the apprehended assaults of the supposed enemies of Zion.

This origin of the system is of the utmost importance to be known and remembered, because it cannot be too much impressed upon the public mind, that however extravagant may be the length to which the Tractarians have already carried, and may hereafter carry their notions, the root of the whole matter is in the High Church feelings and principles with which they originated. Indeed, pursuing the simile of High Church principles being the root of their extravagances, we may say that in Tractarianism those principles have only been suffered to run to seed, and that the produce of that seed is now springing up around us. This will account at once for what otherwise has seemed surprising to some, and has been considered a testimony in favour of these writers by others; namely, the rapidity with which their principles have spread, and the readiness with which they have found acceptance far and wide in the land. Probably a majority of the meinbers of the Church of England are of High Church principles, contending for the privileges of apostolical succession, most exclusive in their views with respect to all other Christian communities, and practically at least, if not theoretically, claiming to themselves to be Kar' oxy, the Church, and that beyond their pale there can be no salvation. With such views they were prepared to receive the pretensions which the Tract-writers, by degrees, pressed upon their notice. But more than this, the evangelical party itself, from which better things were to have been hoped, seemed paralyzed by the boldness of the claims made, and even to adopt many of them, so