Narrative of events connected with the publication of the "Tracts for the Times" : with an introduction and supplement extending to the present time

Preface

The work of which the following is a reprint, received some attention at the period of its publication in 1843, when several thousand copies were in circulation in England j and a still larger number in America. It happened to be connected with important events in the Oxford Movement of 1833, which have however been almost forgotten ; and the work itself has become a rarity.

A wish has been expressed in various quarters, arising from a recent publication of mine in the Contemporary Review (May, 1883) on the n Oxford Movement/' that, as the last surviving member of the English Church who took part in the initiation of that movement, I should discuss the subject at greater length, and in connexion with the " Narrative ,J here reprinted. That narrative, it is true, was compiled to meet a peculiar exigency of the Church (happily no longer existing) ; but will, it is hoped, furnish a convenient basis, from its historical character, for further and fuller observations on the progress of the movement vi Preface.

and its results in their bearing upon the Church of England. The author attempts this task with a deep sense of the imperfections of the opinions here expressed, more especially when they relate to the motives and feelings of others.

Introduction

CHAP.

I. Preparatory Events — The Reformation

IT. "Wesleyan Revival

III. Dangers of Religion, 1833

IV. Altered Position of the State

Y. Awakening of the Church, 1833

VI. Proceedings of the Association of Friends of the Church, 1833, 1834 .

VII. The Tractarian Movement

VIII. Change in the Attitude of Tractarianism

PAGE

10 19 34 37

48 54 66

THE NARRATIVE.

I. The Association of Friends of the Church in 1833

II. Tracts for the Times— The Hampden Controversy 119

III. Party-Spirit — Tendency to Romanism . . . 136

IV. Church Principles stated — Duties of Churchmen —

Appendix, comprising Additional Notes, and Correspondence 208 viii Contents.

SUPPLEMENT TO THE NARRATIVE.

CHAP. PAGE

I. Division of Tractarianism, and Fall of the

Botanizing Party 233

II. Keyiyal of Synodal Action with Lay Co-operation 244

III. Keyiyal of Pastoral Diligence and of the Church 254

IV. Adverse Circumstances 269

Conclusion . 292

INTRODUCTION.

Chapter I. Preparatory Events The Reformation

\Te have to trace, however imperfectly, the fortunes of one of those great movements of Christianity which may be among the last which are to prepare us to receive the coming Saviour. \Ve find it impossible not to connect the movement with a series of preparatory events, in which the watchful care of the Divine Head of Christianity has been manifested, and in which the insidious workings of the great enemy of souls may be also traced — the contest being for the preservation of the witness of this great Church, or its extinction by the powers of darkness.

It is of the essence of that state of trial in which man's soul and body are placed in this mortal life, preparatory to the eternal existence beyond the grave, that evil as well as good should be here permitted to try the children of men, whether they will be faithful in the great combat between good and evil.

A faultless world and a faultless Church would have been inconsistent with the incarnation and atonement of the Eternal Son of God ; inconsistent with all that Christianity offers in the assurance of the forgiveness of sins ; inconsistent with that liability to fall into sin; so sadly known to all genuine Christians. They feel and they know how weak our nature is, how inclined to sin ; and

B

Preparatory Events.

tliey feel experimentally, and by all that passes before their eyes, that this world is but a field overspread with tares, in which indeed the good seed springeth up and beareth fruit, but in which the tares of error and corruption are ever widely prevalent, and full of vitality.

To believers it often seems as if the work of Christ is overborne, and evil obtains ascendency over men, even over the Lord's household and family ; and they deeply mourn over the prevalence of sin, and of utter infidelity, and are amazed at the endurance of God, who leaves iniquities and blasphemies unpunished in this life, and permits wicked men to pursue their career of guilt without check or impediment. But while many a soul is sinking beneath the weight of its personal trial, and while many a soul is desponding for the cause of God, which seems overborne by the cause of Satan, the great trial which God appoints to man is proceeding. Man judges by external effects whether the cause of God is advancing or falling. But it was not the purpose of the Creator to make a faultless world or a faultless Church, or to ensure the triumph of good over evil at all times during this life. His great test is within — whether the individual soul is in relations of religion towards Him — whether it passes rightly through the trial of life. That trial is for ever going on, and no human eye can behold it. It involves the great inquiry, " Is religion to me a reality ? am I walking with God ? M The outward features of religion, even of objective and revealed truth, are subordinate to the salvation of particular souls. They are means to an end.

Christian souls as they pass through the furnace of trial are judged, and at last transferred from this life to the abodes which will be theirs throughout eternity after the judgment of the great day, when they shall have accomplished the good work they were created to finish,

The Reformation.

or shall have fallen short of the prize of their high calling in Christ Jesus, and received that heritage of tribulation and woe destined for all who do evil.

Hence it is that in the chosen field of God's election out of the world a mingled scene of good and evil meets us on every hand. In that chosen body which bears Christ's name, many tares, many errors, many divisions, many failings abound, as every one admits ; yet the promise still remains true — "the gates of hell shall not prevail against it." God's ways are not as our ways, or His thoughts as our thoughts. He looks from on high, and with higher objects and euds than we understand. We are but children and idiots before Him, even the wisest of us. Who but looks on this matchless world — this product of skill evidently unapproachable by man — can doubt of His all-comprehensive power and wisdom and knowledge ? Can human or progressive knowledge, which can scarcely realize even what is visible, conceive the power which called those things into being, and has left its impress on the infinity of creation and its every detail ?

But we — what are we but children in the presence of that Divine and Infinite wisdom ? And yet we wonder to think that He can have created a moral world in which He permits faults to exist. We are blind to His object — the moral trial of man.

It was this that permitted the growth of Judaic and heretical innovations which, in number legion, assailed the faith of Christians, and did that work which Infidelity and Ultramontanism are now continuing.

It was this that permitted Arianism to overrun the Church, to receive the support of the temporal power, and at one time to be apparently ascendant. But God who permitted the prevalence of evil, raised up at length instruments for the purposes of reviving faith when it was in danger of extinction.

b 2

Preparatory Events.

If in Montanism the Church was deeply troubled by a heresy derived from Oriental philosophy, which substituted a new righteousness — the righteousness of fasts, celibacy, and ceremonial observances — for the true righteousness of a renewed heart and soul, He caused it to be resisted, though supported by the greatest names, and left it as a sore to trouble the Church, yet prevented it from becoming an article of the faith.

When Arianism proclaimed the worship of the Son as a creature, Athanasius was raised up to denounce this doctrine as an inlet to heathenism, because it established creature-worship in principle, and the principle of religion which worshipped the Creator only was abandoned. And when in later times images were introduced, and began to receive worship as well as other material objects, and heathenism again began to prevail in the Church and to furnish objects of religion to man, great witnesses were raised up to contend against principles and practices destructive of the very principle of Christianity. The witnesses and undaunted confessions and labours of Serenus and Claudius, of the synods and emperors of the East, of the synods of Frankfort and Paris in the West, for many ages kept in check the torrent of heathen and idolatrous practices, until at length resistance was overcome by the unhappy influence of the Papacy — " the mother " of superstitions and errors.

As a trial God permitted the rapid growth of the Roman usurpation, which from the fifth century outstripped all others, and to which even kings and emperors were forced to bend and to become its vassals and slaves — a power which identifying itself with the first article of the Christian Creed, and assuming as of Divine right the delegated power of God Himself, cannot, if it would, relinquish any of its pretensions ; and which its adherents

The Reformation. 5

are bound consistently to maintain and to advance as parts of religion itself. To yield any one of these pretensions would be to acknowledge that it has been guilty of blasphemy, and to destroy its power. To obey it is represented as the first duty of believers, and salvation depends upon it. And hence (when the evil threatened to destroy religion) the counteraction which the Papacy experienced in its ambitious scheme of universal dominion and the absorption of all power and wealth on earth, by two great movements (the work of Jesus Christ) the rise of Gallicanism, and the contemporaneous rise of the Reformation.

Boniface VIII., at the end of the fourteenth century, carried to the extremest height these demands and pretensions to temporal and spiritual empire, which had for ages oppressed Christendom, and converted the world into a human shambles, or into a Papal monarchy, absolute over the soul as well as the body. At length endurance failed, and France, under Philip le Bel, revolted from the monstrous pretensions of Home, and assumed freedom. The Gallican system included in principle that of the Reformation. It asserted the necessity for proof, instead of a blind submission to the actual Papal dictation. Hence its appeal was throughout to the tradition of the Church, the remains of apostolic Christianity, against the bold assertion of the Papacy — to the Fathers, the Councils, the Scriptures, the Universal Church, against the mere authority of a particular hierarch supposed to be the representative Deity.

And from this sprang the principle of the Reformation, which equally consisted in an appeal from the Roman to the Universal Church, and to the Scripture as the apostolic record of the faith. Hence Gallicanism and Protestantism were in principle the same, and they are equally denounced as heresy by the Ultramontane party.

Preparatory Events.

It is a remarkable fact, that as France had been the earliest defender of the Papacy (whence its kings were adorned by the Popes with the title of the " Most Christian King "), to whom the Papacy was indebted for its temporal monarchy in 756, so it was also France that was the first kingdom in Europe to break the yoke of servitude to Rome, and to revive the appeal to the Church and to Catholic tradition, and to uphold the temporal rights of kings against the usurpations of the Papacy ; and it was France that first overthrew the temporal dominion of the Papacy.

And in England a still more remarkable case presents itself. England in its earlier days (as Ranke has well shown) was distinguished among European nations for its subservience to the Papacy, in virtue of which its kings at one time became vassals of the Pope, and yet in the end England became the greatest witness whom God raised up to overthrow the dominion and devices of that spiritual and temporal usurpation, and to be the witness against it in the face of the world — a witness which the Papacy has ever regarded as its most potent antagonist, and which it has used infinite exertions to destroy either by the sword or by sophistry and flatteries.

Such has been the course of the Papacy, and in the intellectual world its gyrations in pursuit of power have been endless, until at last we have seen it neutralize its own assumption of infallibility, and readopt the Gallican and Protestant principles which it has denounced, by Minimism, the latest product of Papal ingenuity and inconsistency. Magna est Veritas.

The century when Gallicanism, in the time of Philip le Bel, came forth, and gained the ascendant in the Councils of Constance and Basle (which reduced the Papal power into subjection to that of the Church) gave birth to the Reformation in England under Wycliffe.

The Reformation,

Under that great reformer the great work was against the Papal Usurpation and the enormous evils which it brought upon the Church — the money-making, the taxation, the corruption, the luxury, the conversion of the Church into a temporal kingdom ruled by the Papacy and administered by the monks. Hence evils deep and intolerable, against which Christianity bore witness most boldly amidst threats and persecutions beyond telling. It is remarkable, too, that this great witness on behalf of revealed Truth went forth from Oxford, the great intellectual centre of England, famed for its intellectual ascendency amongst all the Churches of the world. It was the first " Oxford Movement/''

Wycliffe and those who adopted his doctrines in opposition to the Papacy — the great centre of worldliness and idolatry, and whence all evil influence was perpetually flowing upon all the clergy — were little aware of the great consequences which were to follow from their efforts in one corner of Europe — little conscious of the effects to result from their intrepid manifestation of the Gospel.

They little dreamt that the flame raised here in England would be quenched iu the blood of its advocates, through the machinations of the Papacy and subserviency of the priesthood and the temporal power, but that it would not fail to produce its results elsewhere ; that it would break forth in Germany and Bohemia, and produce heroic martyrdoms for the Truth ; that when repressed by the persecuting rage of the pontiffs and emperors, it would again shine forth, and triumph over a thousand persecutions and all the power of the Enemy, in the Lutheran reformation ; that it would thence return to the land of its birth, and in England win the crown of martyrdom and the confessor's glorious name ; that here in England it would struggle with the dragon of sophistry and error, and prove victorious ; that it would be then beset by foes,

Preparatory Events.

liable to the danger of hidden enemies, assailed by foreign war, weakened by domestic divisions, and yet triumphant over all, until it had converted this Church and nation into the grand bulwark of Truth throughout Europe. And this great fabric arose, as it were, without builder. "There was heard no hammer or axe or tool of iron." The names of the restorers of the temple of the Lord in the far West were not conspicuous. It has been often said that the English Reformers were not remarkable for their genius or their worldly renown. They were weak and fallible men. They had but one surpassing glory — a glory above all the gifts of mightier men — the glory of martyrdom — that unconquerable love of Christ which prompted them to render up their lives in vindication of the truths of the Gospel, and in protest against heathenism under the name of Christianity. It was martyrdom that restored and consolidated the sacred edifice in England. It was this Christian heroism, based upon a true faith, which has produced indelible effects upon the English mind. It was this martyrdom which secured for England her precious formularies, the Christian Prayer Book, the Christian worship, the Christian ministry, the settled convictions and the blessing which have attended on their use, the presence of Christ with His Church perpetual and unfailing. The Church of the martyrs has been preserved amidst the most desperate assaults.

There are those who see the strength of the forces arrayed against the truth. They refuse to bend the knee and confess that "not unto us, but unto Thy name give glory." But we should look to another comfort. Look at the wonderful care of God in ordaining that, notwithstanding Roman treasons and Protestant divisions, the good seed of the Word should grow and flourish, and cause a salutary jealousy of innovations on that truth so triumphantly established

The Reformation. 9 by the Reformation, at a period when monarchy in England was beset by Roman attacks from without and from within; when the Jesuits were not sent in vain from Rome to advocate regicide and the forcible overthrow of the State ; when Romish agencies, and Romish intrigues, and Roman absolutism led to the times of James II. and the results ; and Roman absolutism at length showed itself upon the throne in its true colours, and brought about revolution.

The deep-dyed moral corruption of the Stuart dynasty, combined with Roman superstition and that of Louis XIV. and the French Court, brought on Europe the plague of a general corruption of manners, and the Divine judgment brought down on man the heaviest chastisement for his sins. Christianity was derided, wars decimated the human race. Impiety daringly produced deistic sophistries against religion. The work of God was coming to nought ; the salt had lost its saltness. It was time for the Lord to interfere for the preservation of the faith, which was nearly overthrown.

Chapter II. Wesleyan Revival

When Christianity was thus growing faint amidst general corruption, help came to it, not from human wisdom or contrivance, not from the wisdom of Church or State, not from learning or intellectual power or philosophy, but from the meanest, the most humble, the most obscure sources. It was not the bishops and learned men who were enabled to turn the tide, though they strove manfully. It was the despised and obscure preachers of the Gospel. By " foolishness" the world was saved.

A " Second Movement," like that of Wy cliff e, broke forth from the University of Oxford. Three young men arose, the two Wesleys and Whitefield — without station — graduates or undergraduates — and began the work of evangelization. They began by preaching in the prisons^ they preached the Gospel of repentance for the remission of sins — a change of heart. They went forth, without learning, to awaken their brethren slumbering in trespasses and sins — the virgins sleeping at their posts. Not by wisdom, but by the foolishness of preaching like the apostles they won the world. Their work was irregular, beyond all common rules. They preached no profound doctrines gathered by man's ingenuity out of the Scriptures— no philosophy with its endless theories and vain illusions and contradictory conclusions — but simply re-

Wesley an Revival. 1 1

pentance from dead works, and conversion to the living- God — conversion to Him who completed the work of man's redemption on Calvary. Their forms of expression were sometimes rude or inaccurate, but their meaning in general was to recall a dead or dying world to the first principle of its religion, salvation through Christ — conversion with all the heart to God. And hence the marvellous and magnificent success which attended their work, hence the heaven-descended power which caused the human heart, even of the very least and most illiterate, to respond to the call of heaven, to turn with bitter tears from its iniquities, and place itself under the dominion of the Most High. In comparison of such a work, which was national, and from whose influence no class or order of men was exempt, what are the minor points in which human infirmity may have shown itself in that direction ? We can forgive everything — even Wesley's and Whitefield's mistakes — for the sake of the fervent testimony they bore to Christ, and to the cardinal doctrines of the Gospel which they unceasingly preached.

It was from this great movement that a reflex action passed over the whole Church of England. A part indeed of those who had been converted fell for a time into separation ; (one of those evils which we have to lament, and by which Satan has often contrived to render imperfect, or to mar the greatest works of believers.) But the effect on the whole Church of England was revivifying. Hence the stimulus applied to such men as Romaine, Cadogan, Newton, Cowper, Scott, Bickersteth, Martyn, Wilberforce — especially to the last, who, in his " Practical View " set forth before all classes, rich and poor, their paramount duties to Christianity, and the exalted hopes and promises on which these duties rested — and all strove together with one mind to glorify God in Christ ; all fervently believed and faithfully preached the

1 2 Preparatoiy Events.

grand essential doctrines of revealed truth handed down from the beginning in the apostolic baptismal creeds. Defects in expression and in minor points might be pointed out by a hostile ingenuity in the religious system of the Evangelicals and of their opponents, as well as in that of the Wesleyans. Alas ! what human representations of the revealed truth are wholly free from human infirmity ? We can only see that the cardinal truths of Christianity are secured against being lost, and that the doctrines of the superstructure are guarded with most fidelity in the purest Christian Churches. And through God's special mercy bestowed upon the English branch of the universal Church, " the gold, silver, and precious stones" of the superstructure are here innumerable, while the " wood, hay, and stubble " of human doctrines, have been reduced to a minimum, save the errors of individuals.

When the author commenced his religious life — that is, when he first felt interest in religious subjects — the Evangelical system was in its full force and efficacy. And gladly does he bear witness to the sincerity with which it proclaimed Christ ; gladly does he bear witness to the fervid devotion which characterized many of its members, to whom to live was Christ, and to die was gain ; gladly does he witness to their earnest and exhaustless efforts to glorify God in their generation. If they were somewhat narrow in their views as regarded certain truths of the Gospel, which they made party Shibboleths, we can only attribute it to the imperfection of human reason, which is not always able to preserve the due proportion of truth, but exalts certain truths beyond their comparative importance — a fault common to all developments of Christianity, and not peculiar to Evangelicals. Jealous, too, of human righteousness, in place of the righteousness which is by faith of Jesus Christ,

Wesley an Reviz 'a L their language sometimes seemed to undervalue or despise good works, though they wholly and with indignation rejected Antinomianism. In fact, to state the true Christian doctrine of justification by faith, which (if it have opportunity) bringeth forth good works, has always been liable to a charge of Antinomianism. It was so in the time of St. Paul, and it was so in the time of the Reformation j it is so now. The true remedy is to follow the course which the Fathers and Reformers did — to preach good works, but also to preach the sole savingmerits of Christ. The fault of some of the Evangelicals was to feel a jealousy of the mention of good works, even as evidences of faith ; lest men should trust in them for salvation. Their doctrine also had the tendency of undervaluing the necessity of baptism, though it was not intended.

There was a time, however, when these good Evangelicals formed the minority in the Church. They were for a long time looked on with jealousy and distrust, and they did not obtain the higher ministries in the Church. The author was trained up, not in their system, but in the ordinary principles of the Church of England. He never was a disciple of the Evangelical school. His friends and relations were of the general Church school. He was diligently taught his catechism, and examined by the clergy before his confirmation. Immediately after, he was prepared with prayer and careful instruction for the receipt of the Holy Communion. His parents were religious, One could never receive the sacrament without the deepest emotion; the other was a devoted Christian, who lived in the presence of God. Amongst near relations was one who was rather an angel than a human being — one whose every word and every act were marked by the impress of Divine grace — one whom it was impossible even for the world not to love. That most holy and harmless of men fell a victim to the cause of Christ. He endured a bloody death for Christ's sake, in the calm discharge of duty, for the profession of his faith.

I compare the state of the Church then with its state now. Is the Church now a greater instrument for bringing souls to heaven than it then was ? Has it improved in sanctity ? Do we see more fervid devotion ? God alone can tell. We only see the surface of things; we cannot read the heart ; but this we see, that as the world judges, that is in external appearances, the Church of England has in many respects improved since those days. In some perhaps it may have gone backwards. Attention is more keenly directed towards religion; it is more active; but it is a question whether it is as rich in assured faith and childlike submission. The outward works are indeed great and noble; and as far as regards them we must confess to a great improvement. Yet we must remember that in past times the State took part in supplying the education and the spiritual wants of the Church. The Church trusted to the State's piety, and it was not until the State withdrew its preference from the Church, and made common cause with her adversaries, that Christianity was compelled to call out all her inherent forces ; and the changes which we have witnessed are in some degree the result. Thus out of evil the Divine Ruler and Aid of Christianity has brought forth good.

But there are too many who imagine that because the Church sixty or seventy years since was very different from what it now is, the state of things must necessarily have been very bad. And there are those who delight in anecdotes about bishops and clergy who disgraced their profession. Such things there always will be and always have been, but one must, in judging of a body,

Wesleyan Revival. 1 5

judge by its general mode of action and spirit ; and looking on both, one who has seen both can say that, in this wider view, and taking all circumstances into account, there is not so great a difference as is usually thought.

The notions of pastoral vigilance, the modes of action, have greatly changed, and more is expected from modern knowledge of duty, but that there was less zeal in acting up to known duties than there now is, I for one do not believe. What is true is, that our views of Christian duty have expanded in time.

And as regards the great end for which religion and Christianity were instituted, let us bear in mind that this great end — namely, the trial of the soul — has been proceeding amidst greater and less knowledge — greater and less exertion externally — that it depends not on the amount of labour actually employed, but on the question whether we act in the right spirit, in the true faith.

And now to speak of the general state of religion in England after the Wesleyan revival. Be it remembered that in the latter part of the last century Europe had been visited by the desolating storm of infidelity. And from whence did that storm break forth ? Was it from the Reformation, which up to this hour is accused by every Roman Catholic theologian of being infidel in principle and the cause of infidelity ? How innumerable have been the souls which have been deceived by those loud and positive assertions into the belief that their religion is based on irreligion and unbelief ! Where did infidelity spring from in the eighteenth century ? From that country which, through the persuasions of the Papacy, had long embrued its hands in the blood of Protestants, and the persecution of the Jansenists, who adopted the same principles, and that of Gallicanism. It came forth from France — from the country where Jesuitism had long been rampant and triumphant, and where the Scriptures had been suppressed as eagerly by superstition as by infidelity itself. From this Roman Catholic country — the master-piece of Jesuit ingenuity — sprang forth the plague of infidelity which in a brief space overran all the countries of Europe, and which by a Divine Nemesis was followed by blood and revolution. Is infidelity complained of ? It sprang from the Papal and Jesuit rule in France. It was this that sealed up the Scriptures and destroyed the rational appeal to history and fact, to substitute the reign of arrogant assertion. Accordingly they were successful : in every part of Europe the Word of God at the French revolution was shut, and Christianity had become a mockery. In all but one : that one was Britain ; the lamp of faith still burned brightly there. In Britain's faith Christianity still found its resting-place.