ART. VI.-Two Memorials, addressed to the General Meeting of the Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge, on the alleged corrupt Character of some of its Publications. London: Seeley. 1837. A DROP of cold water, thrown in the playful wantonness of power, has before now led to the dissolution of committees and councils of state. A drop of cold water, thrown in sober sadness on the project of five Essex ministers, has raised a ferment, which nothing but the remodelling of a great ecclesiastical body can appease. The provocation given for presenting these two memorials, appears to have been no more than the refusal of the Tract Committee of the Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge, to recommend a reprint of Fox's Book of Martyrs, at the expense of the Society. The exciting cause for publishing them, the refusal of the Standing Committee to sit in conclave and dictate an answer, "grounded on reasons specific and particular, and entering into the details of the case,' ," to the two documents themselves: which consist of more than one hundred closely-printed octavo pages, and contain the most grave charges against divers eminent prelates and divines of honoured memory in the Church of England, involving the general character of the books and tracts which have been circulated by the Society "for more than one hundred and thirty years." The total absence of all practical wisdom in the request itself is but an ill omen of the degree of intelligence to be expected in the memorials. But the request being refused, the rejected addresses are here presented to the public; tendered gratuitously to all the district societies throughout the land; and, that none may slight the importance of the question at issue, they are prefaced by a dedication to the throne of majesty itself, to the archbishops, bishops, and clergy, as well as to the general body of members of the Society, whom alone, one would suppose, such a question properly concerns. What is the end aimed at in this publication? We are told that the "character of the Society" is compromised by the decision of its committee; that an appeal to the members at large was "the only resource" of the memorialists; and that "their object is to improve the constituted agency provided by the Society," in order to "the more effectual dissemination of the truth as it is in Jesus; in other words, to destroy the confidence which the Society has placed in the body of select members, forming its standing committee;§ and to have that confidence transferred to seven clergymen, "well conversant with the writings of our Re • Memorials, p. 106. NO. XLV. JAN. 1838. † Ibid. + Introduction. I § P. 107. formers," who shall review and report upon the publications of the Society, in order to a final decision, what shall be abolished, and what retained.* Now it must occur to the reader of this solemn statement to ask, first, what particular claim the letter and requisition of five ministers, in the flats of Essex, had to such consideration, that the character of the Society is compromised by the committee's decision. The names of the memorialists are as follow: "Hastings Robinson, D.D., Rector of Great Warley, Henry B. S. Harris, B.A., Rector of Leaden Roothing." The first of these gentlemen is little known to the reading public, except by one or two academical publications, written in Latin not remarkably classical, and which, though they may not greatly impeach his usefulness as a parish priest, render his verdict at least questionable, in all such matters as require to be debated by a learned clergy. The second is the author of a set of little tracts entitled "Helps for the Nursery;" of which we have only heard that they are intended to convey to those who have the charge of such infantine departments, some peculiar notions on the subject of Christian Baptism. With the names of the remaining three we are entirely unacquainted: they are known probably as praiseworthy ministers in the confines of Leaden Roothing; but we know of no indefeasible claim they could prefer, above all other ministers of Essex or Suffolk, Kent or Christendom, to have repeated sessions of the committee appointed to hear and answer their theological lucubrations. Secondly, supposing the names of these gentlemen to be ever so distinguished among the masters in Israel, what probability could there have been that a requisition should have been immediately granted, the proposers of which went the length of meditating a radical change in the constitution and character of the Society, accusing its first founders of a deliberate design to disguise and corrupt the doctrines of the Reformation, and prepare the public mind for a countermarch to the camp of Popery? To say nothing of the cuckoo-game covertly attempted by the five members, who, after joining a society, whose principles the act itself should imply that they approved,* would remove the writings of Ken, Patrick, Kettlewell, and Melmoth, to replace them with *P. 16. + These gentlemen have, however, a different view of the matter; they endure the burden on their consciences," simply with the hope of improving the Society's books and tracts," p. 107, i. e. according to their own statement, they are doing evil, that good may come. "Honest Roger" or "Helps for the Nursery,"-what probability was there that any general meeting or select committee of the Society could have thought themselves justified in passing a public censure on those good men, who, whether mistaken in 'some of their tenets or not, were the first founders of that system of social co-operation among churchmen, by which, for more than a full century, the translated Bible, the Liturgy, and elementary doctrines of the Church, have been made known, wherever English colonies and commerce have carried the influence of our native land? The Essex ministers, however, are abashed by no such scruples. They do not intend to confine their efforts for the improvement of the constituted agency of the Society to the publication of these manifestos, but announce their purpose of proposing a resolution, grounded upon them, to a general meeting, as soon as sufficient time has been allowed for their circulation; and in the interim invite other members, individually or collectively, to make known their sentiments to the Society. We shall therefore beg leave to communicate ours through the medium adopted by the five ministers, the public press. We shall offer a few short notes on these memorials, and the design which they avow of restoring true Protestantism from a thraldom nearly double in duration to the Babylonish captivity. He It is well known that so long ago as the year of our Lord 1690, Archbishop Tillotson had proposed to Bishops Burnet and Patrick, a design of getting up a new Book of Homilies, "not intending," as he expressed himself to those prelates,*" to lay "aside the book already established, but to add a new one. "thought that the old book was not full enough, and that it was, "according to the state of things at the time in which it was composed, fitted chiefly to settle people's minds right with "relation to the Reformation, and in opposition to Popery. He "thought that such a work had been of great use; but that ano"ther Book of Homilies, that should contain a full and plain "account both of the doctrinal and practical parts of the Chris“tian religion, was necessary chiefly for the instruction of the " clergy, and it might be also a family book for the general use " of the whole nation." The plan is detailed at length by Burnet, and was to have comprized a course of doctrine for the year, fifty-two homilies for the Sundays, and ten for some selected festivals and fasts; for which subjects were expressed, suggested chiefly by the services for the day. Among other particulars, "in the six Sundays to Whitsuntide, the doctrine of Justification Burnet's Sermons and Essay, 1713, p. 193. "was to be explained, and some expressions in the first book, "that seemed to carry Justification by Faith only to a height that "wanted some mitigation, were to be well examined, and all that "St. Paul had written on that head, both to the Romans and the Galatians, was to be explained, and reconciled to what [St.] "James wrote on the same subject." "At that time," says Burnet, "the King and Queen set out "proclamations against profane swearing, breach of Sabbath, lewdness, and drunkenness: so the Archbishop put it upon me "to draw, for an essay, homilies on these subjects. He said he "would take a large share of the work to himself; the like also "Bishop Patrick was willing to undertake; and he knew several "C persons who had considered some matters relating to this scheme "very critically, to whom he would assign such parts of it, as they would be both very willing and able to execute well. He "also told told me, that he had proposed the design to the pre"sent reverend and most learned bishop of Worcester, [Lloyd,] "who approved highly of it," but would take no part except of revising and correcting. In due time Burnet made his draft of five homilies, which, after Lloyd had corrected them, were shown to Tillotson, who according to Burnet, "was so pleased with "this essay, that he told him he must take for his share the whole "Ten Commandments." On this proceeding the five ministers make the following com ment: 6 "Here is a plain and simple detail, given by one of the most active originators of this and the sister Society for Propagating the Gospel in Foreign Parts, of the dissatisfaction of the leading Divines of our Church in the day when this Society was founded, with our Homilies generally, and with the fundamental doctrine of the Reformation, so ably, and lucidly, and perseveringly, and Scripturally insisted on in them, viz. Justification by Faith alone: Bishop Burnet expressly stating it as the design of the divines of his day, that some expressions in the first book that seemed to carry Justification by faith only to a height that wanted some mitigation were to be well examined.' The Homilies in the first book here alluded to, as carrying the doctrine of Justification by Faith only to a height that wanted some mitigation, are, it is to be presumed, the third and fourth; the first of which is usually ascribed to pen of Archbishop Craumer, and has long been looked upon as one of the most elaborate and accurate statements of that doctrine ever presented to the Church. That the divines of Bishop Burnet's day, with whom the Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge originated, should have desired to mitigate the height of the Reformers' statement of this doctrine, is a plain evidence that they had fallen from the purity of Christian doctrine as held at the Reformation: the eleventh article of our Church marking, with the most explicit approbation, the truth of the the doctrine as expressed in the Homily. Nor does it appear that this design, to mitigate the height of the doctrine of Justification by Faith only, was confined to the most eminent divines of the day in which the Society arose; such as bishops Tillotson, Patrick, Lloyd, Burnet, &c. but Bishop Burnet affirms that Archbishop Tillotson said he knew seteral persons who had considered some matters relating to this scheme very critically.'"-Two Memorials, pp. 5, 6. They then proceed to give a short extract from Burnet's second homily, which it is not necessary for us to insert, as we are not aware that these homilies were ever circulated by the Christian Knowledge Society; but which appears to us by no means unscriptural, stating that "a man who feels a forgiving temper in "himself, may hence gather an argument to plead for forgiveness." (See the words of our Lord's prayer, as they stand in St. Luke, si. 4,) and from Tillotson's approbation of this doctrine, as well as from the design before announced, "they submit it has been "proved that the first founders of the Society held and recommended a style of divinity directly opposed to the great leading "doctrine of the Reformation."—p. 8. There are two or three little assumptions in this statement, which it is necessary to consider before we enter on the main question. First, it is assumed that Tillotson was one of the founders of the two sister societies,* The Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge was founded in 1698; the Gospel Society in 1701 whereas Tillotson died in 1694. It is plain, therefore, that the five ministers have, in this particular, as the French critic says of Canning, poached on the manors of futurity. Secondly, that Patrick, Lloyd, and Burnet were all sympathetic with Tillotson in thinking that some expressions in Cranmer's homily required to be mitigated: which is only inferred from Burnet's stating nothing to the contrary. Thirdly, that the several persons whom Tillotson knew, to whom he intended to assign parts of this Apocryphal Book of Homilies, were all, like himself, Jesuits in disguise: which is all assumed from the fact that "he knew them." The facts of the case are no more than this; that Tillotson proposed a new Book of Homilies, and approved of Burnet's essay towards it when it was done;-that he spoke of some expressions in the first book of Homilies, not as actually carrying, but seeming to carry, Justification by Faith only, to a height that wanted some mitigation; that he set Burnet to write homilies, not on this subject, but against swearing, sabbath-breaking, lewdness and drunkenness, and was so well pleased with his performance, that he said he wished him to write, still not upon Justification, • This is assumed throughout the Memorials. See pp. 20, 24. |