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institutions, as the surest way to fetter our own progress, and to deprive us of the advantages of our own superior experience, which it is no boast to say that we possess, but rather, a most disgraceful reproach, since we use them so little. The error of the last century appears to me to have been this, that they undervalued their ancestors without duly studying antiquity; thus they naturally did not gain the experience which they ought to have done, and were confident even whilst digging from under their feet the ground on which their confidence might have rested justly. Yet still, even in this respect, the 16th and 17th centuries have little cause, I think, to insult the 18th. The great writers of those times read, indeed, enormously, but surely their critical spirit was in no proportion to their reading-and thus the true experience to be gained from the study of antiquity was not gained, because antiquity was not fully understood. It is not, I believe, that I estimate our actual doings more highly than you do; but I believe I estimate those of our fathers less highly; and instead of looking upon them as in any degree a standard, I turn instinctively to that picture of entire perfection which the Gospel holds out, and from which I cannot but think that the state of things in times past was further removed even than ours is now, although our little may be more inexcusable than their less was in them. And, in particular, I confess, that if I were called upon to name what spirit of evil predominantly deserved the name of Antichrist, I should name the spirit of chivalry-the more detestable for the very guise of the "Archangel ruined," which has made it so seductive to the most generous spirits-but to me so hateful, because it is in direct opposition to the impartial justice of the Gospel, and its comprehensive feeling of equal brotherhood, and because it so fostered a sense of honour rather than a sense of duty.

V.

TO REV. DR. HAWKINS.

May 29, 1829.

[After refusing to reprint the pamphlet on the Roman Catholic claims, and expressing his belief that the school has not and will not sustain any injury from what he has done.] I claim a full right to use my own discretion in writing upon any subject I choose, provided I do not neglect my duties as master, in order to find time for it. But those who know me will be aware that, to say nothing of duty, my interest in the school far exceeds what I feel in any sort of composition of my own; and that neither here nor at Laleham, have I ever allowed my own writings to encroach upon the time, or on the spirits and vigour of mind and body, which I hold that my pupils have a paramount claim upon.

As to the principles in the pamphlet, it is a matter of unfeigned astonishment to me, that any man calling himself a Christian, should think them bad, or should not recognize in them the very principles of Christianity itself. If my principles are bad, I only wish that those who think

1) "Chivalry," or (as he used more frequently to call the element in the middle ages which he thus condemned)" feudality, is especially Keltic and barbarian-incompatible with the highest virtue of which man is capable, and the last at which he arrives-a sense of justice. It sets up the personal allegiance to the chief above allegiance to God and law." And in like manner he maintained that the great excellence of the 18th century was the development of the idea of justice,-even amid the excesses to which it was carried in some of the notions then prevalent on what was called civil and religious liberty.

them so, would state their own in opposition to them. It is all very well to call certain principles mischievous and democratical; but I believe very few of those, who do so call them, would be able to bear the monstrous nature of their own, if they were obliged fully to develope them. I mean that they would then be seen to involve what in their daily language about things of common life their very holders laugh at as absurdity and mischief. For instance, about continual reforms, or the wisdom of our ancestors I have heard Tories laugh at the farmers in their parish, for opposing the mending of the roads, because, as they said, what had been good enough for their fathers was good enough for them; and yet these farmers were not an atom more silly than the people who laughed at them, but only more consistent. And as to the arrogance of tone in the pamphlet, I do not consider it to be arrogance to assume that I know more of a particular subject, which I have studied eagerly from a child, than those do who notoriously do not study it at all. The very men who think it hard to be taxed with ignorance of modern history, and of the laws and literature of foreign nations, are men who, till this question came on, never pretended to know any thing about them: and, in the case of the Evangelicals, professed to shun such studies as profane. I should consider no man arrogant, who, if I were to talk about some mathematical or scientific question which he had studied habitually, and on which all scientific men were agreed, should tell me that I did not and could not understand the subject, because I had never liked mathematics, and had never pretended to work at them. Those only who have studied history with that fondness that I have done ail my life, can fully appreciate the pain which it gives me to see the most mischievous principles supported, as they have been on this question, with an ignorance truly audacious. I will only instance Mr. C.'s appeal to English History in proof that God's judgments will visit us if we grant any favour to the Catholics. On the point of Episcopacy, I can only say, that my notions, whether right or wrong, have been drawn solely from the New Testament itself, according to what appears to me its true meaning and spirit. I do not know that I ever read any Low Church or No Church argument in my life. But I should like to develope my notions on this point more fully hereafter. I have some thoughts of publishing a volume of essays on various points connected with Christian doctrine and practice: I do not mean nowbut if I live, and can work out some points, on which I have not yet got far enough to authorize me to address others, yet I think I see my way to some useful truths. Meantime I trust I shall not give just cause of offence to any good and wise man- or of personal offence to any man.

VI. TO A PARENT HOLDING UNITARIAN PRINCIPLES.
Rugby, June 15, 1829.

I had occasion to speak to your son this evening on the subject of the approaching confirmation; and, as I had understood that his friends were not members of the Established Church, my object was not so much to persuade him to be confirmed, as to avail myself of the opportunity thus afforded me to speak with him generally on the subject of his state as a Christian, and the peculiar temptations to which he was now peculiarly exposed, and the nature of that hope and faith which he would require as his best defence. But, on inquiring to what persuasion his friends be

longed, I found that they were Unitarians. I felt myself therefore unable to proceed, because, as nothing would be more repugnant to my notions of fair dealing, than to avail myself indirectly of my opportunities of influencing a boy's mind contrary to the religious belief of his parents, without giving them the fullest notice, so, on the other hand, when the differences of belief are so great and so many, I feel that I could not at all enter into the subject, without enforcing principles wholly contrary to those in which your son has been brought up. This difficulty will increase with every half-year that he remains at the school, as he will be gradually coming more and more under my immediate care; and I can neither suffer any of those boys with whom I am more immediately connected, to be left without religious instruction, nor can I give it in his case, without unavoidably imparting views, wholly different from those entertained by the persons whom he is naturally most disposed to love and honour. Under these circumstances, I think it fair to state to you, what line I shall feel bound to follow, after the knowledge which I have gained of your son's religious belief. In every thing I should say to him on the subject, I should use every possible pains and delicacy to avoid hurting his feelings with regard to his relations; but at the same time, I cannot avoid labouring to impress on him, what is my belief on the most valuable truths in Christianity, and which, I fear, must be sadly at variance with the tenets in which he has been brought up. I should not do this controversially, and in the case of any other form of dissent from the Establishment, I would avoid dwelling on the differences between us, because I could teach all that I conceive to be essential in Christianity, without at all touching upon them. But in this instance, it impossible to avoid interfering with the very points most at issue. I have a very good opinion of your son, both as to his conduct and abilities, and I should be very sorry to lose him from the school. I think, also, that any one who knows me, would give you ample assurance that I have not the slightest feeling against Dissenters as such, or any desire, but rather very much the contrary, to make this school exclusive. My difficulty with your son is not one which I feel as a Churchman, but as a Christian; and goes only on this simple principle, that I feel bound to teach the essentials of Christianity to all those committed to my care-and with these the tenets of the Unitarians alone, among all the Dissenters in the kingdom, are in my judgment irreconcileable. I trust that you will forgive me for having troubled you thus at length on this subject.

VII. TO THE REV. GEORGE CORNISH.
(After the death of his father-in-law.)

Rugby, September 2, 129.

I, too, had been meditating a letter to you for some time past, when the sight of yours roused me to make a vigorous effort, and here I have regularly begun a sheet of paper to you. You will perhaps have heard already that all our anxiety for Mr. Penrose was speedily and mercifully terminated, by as blessed a death as I suppose ever was witnessed. Although we were naturally anxious about him, because his attacks, though very slight and transient, had rather increased in frequency, yet he was perfectly able to perform all his usual duties, and enjoy his usual comforts in his family, and even his amusements in

attending to his garden. On the Thursday before his death he was standing on his ladder, and pruning his vine for some time, and he went to bed perfectly well. The next morning he was seized with a more violent attack, but still without pain, or without affecting his A second senses, and all he said indicated perfect Christian peace. attack the same morning made him speechless, and he soon sank into a lethargic slumber, in which he remained till Sunday night, when he expired in the arms of his children without a struggle. We arrived in time to see him alive, although he was then insensible, and M. followed him to his grave on the Thursday following, with her aunts, brothers, and sisters, and John Keble to read the funeral service. When I dwell on the entire happiness that we are tasting day after day and year after year, it really seems startling; and the sense of so much and such continued temporal mercy, is even more than humbling,—it is at times even fearful to me when I look within, and know how little truly grateful I am for it. All the children are well, and all, I trust, improving in character-thanks to their dear mother's care for them, who, under God, has been their constant corrector and guide. As for myself, I think of Wordsworth's lines,

"Yes! they can make who fail to find
Brief leisure e'en in busiest days," &c.

and I know how much need I have to make such moments of leisure : for else one goes on still employed, till all makes progress, except our spiritual life, and that, I fear, goes backward. The very dealing, as I do, with beings in the highest state of bodily health and spirits, is apt to give a corresponding carelessness to my own mind. I must be all alive and vigorous to manage them, and to do my work; very different from the contemplation of sickness and sorrow, which so often present themselves to a man who has the care of a parish. And, indeed, my spirits in themselves are a great blessing, for without them, the work would weigh me down, whereas now I seem to throw it off like the fleas from a dog's back when he shakes himself. May I only learn daily and hourly σωφρονεῖν.

I am very much delighted with what you say of my pamphlet (on the Roman Catholic claims). I know it gave pain, and I fear it has —————————, and others of my friends. Yet, I know that I did not write it with one atom of unkindness or violence of feeling-nor do I think that the language or tone is violent; and what I said of the clergy, I said in the very simplicity of my heart, no more imagining tha. it would give offence, than if I had said that they were unacquainted generally with military tactics or fortification. The part which you object to, was not put in unthinkingly-but I wished very much to bring the matter of part schism to an issue; and if any respectable man were to notice that of the pamphlet, I should like to enter more fully into the subject. own notions upon it have grown up wholly out of the New Testament, and because 1 never have thought, that what people call the Primitive Church, and much less the Ante-Nicene Church more generally, was any better authority per se, than the Church of Rome, or the Greek Church. But I do not know that what I have said in the pamphlet goes at all beyond the fair conclusions to be drawn from our own article, which gives

My

to any national Church an authority to manage its own concerns, where God has not laid down any fixed rule; and, besides, what resemblance is there between the government of the most ancient Episcopal Churches and that of the Church of England, to those who regard resemblances or differences of government to consist in things more than in names? I think, that what I have said in my pamphlet merely goes so far as to assert, that there is no schism in the Church of England, having nothing to do with the Bishop of Rome, or in the Kirk of Scotland, having nothing to do with any Archbishops and Bishops at all, but that I have not at all treated of the question of different ecclesiastical societies existing in one and the same civil society like our English Dissenters, whatever my own opinions may be about the matter. I find people continually misunderstanding the strong distinction which I draw between individuals and societies, insomuch that Faber charges me with saying, that every individual has a right to govern himself, which I have especially disclaimed in divers places; being, in fact, a firm believer in the duty of absolute passive obedience in all cases between an individual and the government -but not when the individual is acting as a member of the society, and their concurrence with him tells him that obedience is now a misplaced term-beeause there is no authority in a rebellious government-rebellious against society-to claim obedience. I am sure that my views in this matter are neither seditious nor turbulent-and I think I stated them clearly, but it seems they were not clear to every body.

VIII. TO REV. F. C. BLACKSTONE.

Rugby, October 14, 1829.

I never felt more strongly the desire of keeping up my old friendships, and it often grieves me to think how little I see or hear of many of those for whom I feel the strongest regard. I do not mean that this is their fault rather than mine, or that it is a fault at all; but it is a tendency of middle life and settled occupation, which I think we ought to struggle against, or else it grows with a fearful rapidity. I am very anxious to express my repentance of that passage in my pamphlet which you allude to, "raving about idolatry," &c. I mean my repentance of its tone and language, for the substance of it I think correct, and that men, whose most ignorant, and worse than ignorant, application of English history had, to say the truth, made me angry, are likely to do a great deal of mischief in Ireland. But the expression was unkind, and too sweeping, and I certainly ought not, nor would I, speak of all those as "raving about idolatry," whose opinions as to the guilt of the Romish Church differ from my own. With regard to the apparent inconsistency between the sermons and the pamphlet, you will find the term "practically idolatry" applied to the Roman Catholic system in some countries, even in the pamphlet. I never wished to mince the matter with their practices, but still, in principle, I cannot call the Romish Church an idolatrous Church in that strong sense as to warrant Faber's conclusions, even putting aside the difference of Christian times from Jewish. I should compare their superstitions to the worship of the brazen serpent, which Hezekiah did away with, which appears to have been long in existence, and which, in many of its worshippers, at any rate, was practically idolatry; but I should not have called the Jewish Church idolatrous

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