The Sun.
London, England, 1852-11-11 00:00:00

THE SUN, LONDON, THURSDAY EVENING, NOVEMBER 11, 1852.

COJ'vFESSION AND CONVOCATION.

mother. But he denied it. The Church of Rome was
the mother of harlots and abominations. She was a
mother that !lOLA nourish them with blood, and not
with the pure mills of a mother. (Hear, hear.) Re
wished the bishops of the Charch had come forward in
a body, in the face of the laity and of the country, to
maintain the truth and purity of the Church of England,
and to declare that, so far from countenancing, tha
Church of England recoiled with horror from the auri-
cular confession of the Church of Rome. (Hear, hear.)
He viewed with approbation tho recent proclamation
in
Ireland, and he hoped the policy which dictated it would
be followed out in England. Let them only remain true
to the Church of England ; let them stand with the
laity of England. They had traitors within their own
ramp ; whilst they were menaced by an usurper who is
about to assume the imperial title cf France, they were
also menaced by a combination of Popish Europe,
goaded on by Jesuitical intrigue ; but let her Majesty's
ministers take courage, and take their stand on Gospel
truth and liberty ; let them do justice to all men, but
never let them give political power to there men, who
were determined to use it fur the destruction of their
freedom, their bibles, and their lives. (Cheers.) Let
her Majesty's Ministers adopt this course, and they will
have the prayers of the devout, the syin athies of the
devout, and the heart of Old England with them.
(Chi era) Let the helm of the State be put about, the
country would then steer by the chart of that Protestant
faith which their martyred forefathers bad la queathed
to them ; and though France and Austria, the Pope and
Anti-Christ, were opposed to them, he had no fear for
the result. The Reverend Gentleman eat down amidst
loud cheers.
The resolution was then put, and carried unanimously.
Mr. Coaasunouss moved the next resolution, as fol-
lows:—" That it seems especially needful, at the present
moment,, to withstand the sedulous endeavours now put
torth in various parts of the country to bring back into
the Church the practice of auricular confession and the
Romish doctrine of priestly absolution. In opposition to
which, this meeting solemnly adheres to the declarations
of God's Word, and of the Church of England, that God
hath promised forgiveness of sins to all them that, with
hearty repentance and true faith, turn to Han.' To this
Divine forgiveness, which is instant and complete, no
man can add; and from it no man can take away.
While, on the other hand, without this hearty repentance
and true faith there is no forgiveness; and in such cases
the absolution of the priest is calculated only to delude
and harden. Objecting, then, first to this fundamental
error of the supposed efficacy attending the absolution
of a priest, this meeting further protests against the
practice which results from it, of periodical auricular
confession, as a means by which that absolution is
to be attained ; a practice most wisely expelled from
the Church of England at the Reformation , and the
revival of which involves, on the one hand, a departure
from sound doctrine as to the forgiveness of sins, while it
leads, on the other, to prurient discussions and develop-
ments of vice, which are utterly opposed
tion of purity and business." to the =lava-
The Rev. Mr. MAUxE, who seconded the resolution,
said he thanked God, for seeing, as he did that day, the
clergy and laity of the Church of England coming for-
ward in defence of the institution. (Hear, hear.) If
the laity came forward tfaroughout the country as they
(tiHone aort.)th
eTh laity e hwaarsc h
save it. In the Church
did on that day, the Church of England would be saved.
, and the co-opera-
datosgr
of England there were two parties—one which con-
scientiously believe that the Refoimation was a great
evil—the other which conscientiously telieye that it was
a great blessing. One would carry the people back to
the era before the Reformation, the other would main-
tain the Reformation. The one party desired to intro-
' necessaryas in
dace auricular confession in its grossest form amongst
them, but if the people held firm they, could never in-
troduce confession in this country. (Cheers.)
The resolution was supported by Mr. J. C. Woo), and
afterwards carried unanimously.
Mr. BAXTER proposed the third resolution, as follows:
—" That, in connexion with these attempts to corrupt
and debase the doctrines and practices of the Church of
England, this meeting must protest against the remedy
which is proposed by the
very parties who are most
active in those endeavours. It is demanded by them,
that all such questions shall be referred
toil h
decision
of a body, long practically defunct, but still known by
the name of Convocation. 01 that body it is sufficient
to say, that no layman has any Be i
at n it, nor any voice
in the election of those of whom it ra.composed. By such
a body as this, therefore, this meeting demands, that
the laws of the Church of England be not changFcl.' Nor
can it for a moment admit, that a body BO constituted as
to be unfit to make a single law, may yet be fit to frame
a constitution. Whatever, therefore, may be thought
of the claim in general, that then hurch should have
liberty to meet in some kind of nod or assembly, it
appears to this meeting beyond a doubt that that Convo-
cation which was arrested in its career of turbulence
more than a century since, is a balY wholly and entirely
unfit to be trusted with the cooluct of affairs in the
present difficult circumstances of the Church of Eng-
land."
Mr. CONXINGS seconded the resolution. He thought
they ought
to thank the Protestant Defence Committee
for obtaining each an expression of opinion as they heard
that day.
The resolution was put, and carried unanimously.
Admiral Illacoura proposed a vote of thanks to the
chairman.
The Rev. D. WILSON seconded the resolution, and in
doing so hoped that they would be encouraged by what
had taken place that day' to go on in defence of those
pure and holy principles which were an honour to their
Church and to the nation.
The motion was put and carried unanimously.
The CHAIRMAN, in returning thanks, said he had not
heard a singles( ntiment uttered at that meetingin which
he did nut concur. They had made a great demonstra-
tive meeting in support of Protestant principles, and he
hoped that when the occasion arose again they would
be ready to show, as they did that day, that there was a
party in the Church who were prepared to sacrifice
every thing to what they believed to be the cause of
Christ Jesus. (Cheers.) Let them recollect that these
meetings produced but a temporary effect, and that it
was fur them, in their various circles, to keep the flame
alive.
The meeting then separated.

Yeetse,7ay, a very numerous meeting el the member:, of
the Church of England was held at the Freemashns'
Tavern, Great Queen• street, for the purpose of adopting
resolutions on the attempted introduction of auricular
confession, and on the threatened revival of cony cation.
The chair was taken at 12 o'clock by the Earl of
Shaftesbury. Amongst those present on the occasion
we noticed the Earl of Cavan, Lord Thomas Cecil, the
Hon. and Rev. H. M. Villiers, Lord H. Cholrnondeley,
M.P., Sir 11. Verney, the Rev. Lord Wriothesly Rus-
sel, Mr. Colquhoun, Rev. H. Stowell, Rev. E. Auriol,
Rev. J. Mark, Captain Trotter, General Sir Peregrine
Maitland, Hon. Captain F. Maude, Admiral Vernon
Harcourt, Sir George Pollock, Dr. Cowan, Rev. C.
Kemble, Hon. A. Kinnaird, M.P., Rev. H. Venn, Mr.
Thornton, R. E. L. Bevan, Mr. MtQueen, Rev. G. A
Rogers, Rev. J. Miller, Ven. Archdeacon Hill, Rev.
T. Tate, &c.
The meeting was opened with a prayer by the Rev,
Dr. MARCH.
The CUAIRNAN, who on rising to open the proceed-
ings was received with loud and general cheering said:—
Ladies and gentlemen, and brother Protestants of the
Church of England,—We are assembled here again in a
great crises of the Church, not so much to deliberate on
some positive course of action as to take counsel, and to
give to .each other mutual linstruction and encourage•
ment, and to pass resolutions which shall show our de-
termination to persevere until we shall have ',pelted, by
God's blessing, to these great mischiefs some decisive and
some final remedy. (Cheers) Now many, I understand,
have taken objection to our course, thinking that a
meeting such as this was not necessary at the pre-
sent moment. He, indeed, should have been very
glad to have been spared the necessity of holding
such a meeting, but it was inevitable. The recent pro-
ceedings which had been developed in many parts of the
United Kingdom—l now more particularly allude to
Brighton and Plymouth—the recent disclosures that have
been made, have revealed to us a great and growing cor-
ruption, and they have also revealed to us our many
infirmities to resist the progress of that great and grow•
ing corruption. (Applause.) An effort was made to see
whether these matters could not be brought before the
ecclesiastical courts for the object of obtaining either the
prohibition or censure of these tribunals in regard of
such proceedings; but the best opinions on matters of
this kind declared, setting aside the merits of the case,
that legally and technically it could not be handled in
the ecclesiastical courts. An attempt was then made to
bring the matter before the criminal courts of the realm;
but again, those best versed in such matters gave it as
their decided opinion that the case was not in a form to
be produced before the criminal courts. A third attempt
was then made by an appeal to the Primate of England,
the Archbishop of Canterbury, to see how he could
bring his power to bear to put a prohibition on the pro-
gress of these practices; but that great and worthy
Prelate—(Cheers)—gave it as his opinion that he was
wholly powerless in the matter. Thus, then, we were
left to make our appeal to public opinion—(Cheers)—
and therefore it is to public opinion we come—(Hear)—
under God's blessing, to make that appeal, and to an-
nounce our determination and perseverance, that we will
never desist until, by the Almighty's blessing, we shall
be hoard and felt through the length and breadth of the
land. (Cheers.) Now, gentlemen, we have been somewhat
criticised for bringing into juxtaposition convocation and
the confessional. It appears to me that they are so much
akin and so nearly inseparable that I would just as soon
think of separating in the Guildhall Gog from Magog.
(" Hear, hear," and laughter.) The convocation lam
speaking of is the convocation as extinguished in the
year 1717—the convocation animated by the worst sen-
timents and views of priestly despotism—(Cheers)—we
naturally, and, to use a modern phrase, nominally resort
to the confessional as the best and most effectual engine
of priestly domination. (Applause.) But we are not
here, my friends, to denounce every form of church
synod and ecclesiastical assembly. (Hear, hear.) We
are not here to deny the expediency of it, or the right
of the Church to have some form of, for the purposes of
self-regulation I but we are here to denounce the revival
of that convocation that was partly extinguished in the
last century ; but we are here to deny to that convoca•
tion, if called together, the power and right of suggesting
the plan and the limits of its own reform—(Hear, hear)—
and we are here to sey that we will not submit to any
clerical parliament—(Cheers)— that the laity of the
Church should be made mere hewers of wood and
drawers of water to a select knot of sacerdotal digni-
taries. (Hear, hoar.) To form our church government
upon a reasonable and moderate foundation, in which
the laity of the Church shall have not only a great but
a dominant share, is well worthy of consideration. But
as for that other convocation that was swept away in
1717, I can only express a hope, in which I hope you
will all concur—that should there be any attempt to
revise it, her most gracious Majesty will follow the
example of her great predecessor—and, to use the lan-
guage of that great historian, Mr. Hallam, that she
will "sprinkle a little dust upon the angry insects."
(Laughter.) But the principal ground on which our de-
termination this day should be based, was the attempted
revival of the confessional—(ifear, hear)—in many parte
of the realm ; and this has acquired a greater import-
ance, because it is expected that one of our bishops has
declared ex cathedra, and officially, that the practice of
the confessional is not inconsistent with the doctrines of
the Church of England. (Hisses.) Now, I was curious
upon that point, and last night, having half an hour's
leisure, I just turned over the writings of some of our
older bishops, to see what was the opinion of these dig-
nitaries upon the subject of the confessional. Because,
after all, one bishop may be as good as another, how-
ever groat the claims and assumptions of that other may
be. (Laughter.) I turned to the works of Archbishop
Grindle, and in his injunction to the York laity, he
says—" No persons shall use the beads, or pray on beads
or knots, cr any other superstitious thing, nor shall he
resort to auricular confession to any Popish priest, at
Lent or any other time." Again, Bishop Hooper says,
in ono of his sermons—" Before the receiving of the sa-
crament, the receiver of it shall prepare and make ready
his mind towards God ; he shall from the bottom of his
heart, confess his fault and his sins. I make no mention
here," says he, " of auricular confession, as though that
was a thing necessary to be done before or after receiv-
ing the sacrament." And he assigned his reasons, and
all of you know what a man Bishop Hooper was, " for,"
says he, " confession is not of God." (Cheers.)
Bishop Pilkington quotes with approval writers who say,
that shriving to a priest was not commanded by God,
but invented by man. He goes on to say—" There has
been nothing more profitable to the Pope than ear-shriv-
ing has, besides much filthiness done by it, for no time
was fitter to woo or work their feats in without sus-
picion than shriving time." Ho afterwards proceeds as
follows—" If confession might be taken away, as it here
appears it was, as not so necessary to salvation, we dis-
obey not the Church in leaving it off, seeing so many
holy men have done without it." (Hear, hear.) We
are here then to protest against the revival of
it
the con-
fessional. (Hear, hear.) We protest against as in-
consistent with the spiritual rights of the laity of all the
Protestant Churches, and especially of the members of
the Church of England. (Cheers.)
W
it not only as inconsistent with the
eCi
shtuernct with th
Church
e Word England,
butdoctrines
protest
to
the
Word of God, while it leaves us to the ministration of
the clergy in the due administration of the Sacrament
dof w e
G protestod_(u againstear,heiao
t as which
and all our Church services, declares that we are one and
all " kings and priests under God." I might quote to
you many other bishops; bat not to detain you further,
I may say I believe there is but one bishop who has
been yet found in the Church of England to maintain so
To be
monstrous a proposition? (Loud applause.)
sure, he may be a bishop the like of whom was never
before seen, and upon whose like we shall never look
again—(Laughter)—but, nevertheless, he is but a unit,
and this unit will never outweigh the prodigious testi-
mony which I have quoted to you from the works of
the early English authors. Very well,
here we are,
abandoned, I do not hesitate to sayeby those who should
take the lead in this great matter—(Hear, hear)—who
should be found in the front of the battle. We come
here to•day, a body of laymen, aided by our clerical
friends, who share with us our feelings, sympathise
with our rights, and who, with God's blessing, will,
conjointly with us, maintain the battle of the truth.
(Loud cheers.) We come here to appeal to public
opinion, mad to implore God's grace that he would
so govern that opinion that we should be as stanch
for the truth as our enemies are stanch for error.
("Hear, bear," and loud cheers.) And lam quite sure
that I am not going too far when I say that this is the
greatest crisis of the Church of England—(Hear, hear)—
and that unless by the blessing of God we shall be able
to boat back this great consist' acy upon our political
rights and spiritual privileges—l am not going too far
when I say all those who have examined recorded his-
tory will concur with me, that we shall live to see a
state of things, should this be revived and established
with the concurrence of the people of England, that will
recal the tyranny of the Church of Rome, and the
blasphemies of anti-Christ. (Loud and prolonged cheer-
ing.)
Sir H. VERNEY proposed the first resolution, which
was as follows :—" That while this meeting desires
thankfully to acknowledge her Majesty's gracious recep-
tion of the memorial from lay members of the Church
of England agreed to in December, 1850, it feels the
necessity of renewing the protest then recorded against
of
which, in various quarters, are still being made to assi-
milate the doctrines and practices of the Church
England to those of the apostate Church of Rome."
The
The Earl of CAVAN, who said he had but just returned
from Florence, whtre he formed one of the deputation
in favour of the Madiais, seconded the resolution. The
deputation had not obtained permission to visit the Ma-
dials, but the Earl of Roden had visited them on Sunday
last, and he was not without hope that they would
finally succeed in obtaining the release of their poor
imprisoned and suffering brethren. (Cheers.) But they
must not be satisfied with that, but must continuo to la-
hour further till they obtained religious liberty fee ell
their brethren who were suffering in Tuscany.
The Rev. HUGH STOWELT„ who was received with
loud cheers, supported the resolatien. He said he rose
under mingled feelings of deep sorrow and lively thank-
fulncss—ot deep sorrow that retch a mustering as the
present was necessary, and of lively thankfulness that,
when necessary, they met in such strength. (Cheers.)
Happy had it been if the Church had been allowed to
proceed
e,
sounp
lyino: warfnd fresh
af no
Idd
se r
for,l ar ge
the d
schoeuprhs e of e
rdegaut
oi f
ruesseh-
shepherds to recal the stray sheep. (Cheers.) He be-
lieved that the greatest arm the Dissenters ever wielded
nk
ege. itinst the Church was this wretched semi-Popery
the more
powert shaa
eshich nursed, in its own bosom. (Hear, hear.) No-
thinggn
esitflyncotifontehoof
bench the laity,
t had
IoP Gerone
bishops. (Hear, hear.) Nothing had ever occurred to
give more plausibility to the insinuations of the Dissent-
e. re respecting the Roerdsh leaven which they said existed
in the Church of England. They said it showed what
they always tliserted, that
-the Rcraish Church was their

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