The Northern Daily Times.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1856-09-20 00:00:00

THE C:VSE ARCHDENCON DENISON

A number o, clergymen in the north of England have
addressed the following remonstrance to the Archbishop
of Canterbury :

" May it pleme your Grace,—We, the undersigned
clergy and laity in the diocese of Durham, are unable to
withhold from your grace the expression of our surprise
and alarm at the judgment which your grace has
intimated your intention of pronouncing in the case of the
Venerable the Archdeacon of Taunton.

" That a clergyman should undergo sentence of depriva-
tion for holding opinions which have been maintained by
multitudes of the greatest ornaments, not only of the
Church of England, but of the church of Christ, in all
ages and countries, on a question professedly of the most
deep and recondite character, on which different and
apparently conflicting modes of expression have always
been freely employed, as endeavours (all perhaps equally
inadequate) to represent, from different points of view,
the different aspects of the same transcendant mystery :
"That limitations should thus be introduced, and
burdens upon the conscience imposed, when the Holy
Scriptures and the Church Universal have imposed none :
" That the same formularies, the interpretation of which
was, on a recent occasion, with your grace's expressed
approval, stretched so wide as to admit of their embracing
statements upon one of the sacraments, apparently in direct
opposition to them, should now, in the case of the other
sacrament, have their interpretation contracted to so narrow
a limit as to admit but of one rigid construction alone:

" That the articles should be shut out from the explana-
tory light thrown on them by other portions of the Prayer
Book, by the writings of the recognised authorities of the
Church of England, and even by Holy Scripture ; and should
thus, without reference to their history, or the specific
theological bearing of their terms, be constituted the one
all-sufficient standard of doctrine :

" All this appears to us fraught with consequences so
disastrous and detrimental to the best interests of our
church, that we dare not withhold our feeble remon-
strance.

" We must humbly remind your grace that the vener-
able defendant in the pres nt case has solemnly. professed
his full assent to the dogmatic statements of the Church
of England upon the holy sacrament of our Lord's body
and blood, and that the opinions for which he has been
tried are held by him not in disparagement of those state-
mentc, but in conjunction with them. We would also
suggest that, however formally irreconcilable the two
lines of thought embodied respectively in the defendant's
propositions and in the Articles. may appear, they are not
really so, as is evidenced by their existing side by side in
the writings of our greatest divines, particularly that
sainted father of the church (St. Augustine) from whom
the very words of the Twenty-ninth Article are derived,
as also by their joint recognition in our own Eucharistic
office.

" We have only to add that, as Archdeacon Denison
impugns none of the doctrinal statements of our articles,
but merely vindicates the co-existent truth of another set
of statements, which cannot be shown to be theologically
incompatible with the former, we cannot regard a sentence
which would condemn him, on the ground of his con-
tradicting what he does not contradict, otherwise
than as repugnant to equity, as establishing a most
dangerous precedent, and on alt accounts to be seriously
deprecated.
Earnestly praying that the Great Head of the Church
may pour upon your grace the spirit of wisdom and under-
standing, and direct you so to act in this and all other
matters as shall best promote His glory, and further the
trua interests of the holy church throughout the world,
we beg to subscribe ourselves your grace's faithful and
devoted servants."