The Sun.
London, England, 1838-09-21 00:00:00

HE NEW FAITH%

(From 0.1 6..';';:ierset County Gazette.)
The eatrwqrqinary view of this portentous feAture in the re-
lqiiotit history of cur times, a hick we published a few weeks
ago, has excited some interest among our readers, many of
whom were surpris.ed to learn that in the middle of the nine.
tt crab century, when freedom of thought and inquiry has be:
come almost an established truth, there has arisen a sect,
distinguished for ability and growing hourly in nitmbers,
maintaining the worst theories of the dark ages, and preaching
unmitigated Popery, not, as it now exists, in its mild and
modified form, but as it was, centuries ago, when it ruled in
undisputed supremacy the Christian world. Nor Was the sur.
prise less to learn that this sect had ',rung from the bosom
of the Church of England, and that Oxford claimed the
honour of its birth-td wee.

The retnartableletter of the Rev. H. E. Head to the
Bialva; of Exeter, published in our last page—a letter which
eloquently and powerfully rebukes the attempt made by that
Bishop (a recent convert) to spread this new heresy through
out his diocese, has directed public Ettention to the subject,
and, therefore, we now proceed a ith our brief notice of it.
Three clergymen, named severally Pusey, Newman, and
Keble, have headed a school of Theologians, who have revived
at Oxford the very doctrines of Old Popery, exploded even
by the. Roman Catholics of bur day. They support their
tenets sith very remarkable talent, and with a z-al to which
they owe mach or their success. They publish their senti-
ments in a work, emanating from the Oxford Press, called
netts for the Times, a book abounding in eloquence' and
learning, and which has been extensively read by the higher
classes of the community. Besides this, many isolated publi-
cations promulgate their doctrines. Mr. Newman's "History
of the Arians," and Mr. Keble's Visitation Sermon, entitled
" Primitive Tradition recognized in Holy Scripture," are
authorities among the new sect.
Their doctrines are almost exactly similar to those of the
Church of Rome in their ancient rigour. They maintain
Apostolical Succession, which means that the Bishops do not
receive their power from the State, but that it is directly
handed down to them from the Apostles. Hence they infer
that the Church is superior to, and whol'y independent of, the
State. Dr. Hook, in a sermon preached before the Queen, of
which so much has been said, boldly asserted that—
" Were all connexion between Church and State at this
very moment to cease, the Church would remain precisely as
she now is—that is to say, our Bishops, though deprived of
temporal rank, would still exercise all those spiritual 'functions
which, conferred by higher than human authority, no human
authority can take away ; still, to the vacant sees they would
consecrate new Bishops, still ordain the Clergy, still confirm
the baptized, still govern the Church."
They contend that the Church is the sole depository of
Divine Truth, which lies not merely in the Bible, but in tradi-
tion. That the Church, and not the Bible, should be the
guide in matters of faith, for the interpretation put upon the
Scriptures by the Bishops, who are divinely inspired successors
of the Apostles, must necessarily be the correct one, and,
therefore, it is wrong to put any other construction or to in-
quire into the matter at all. They object to the indiscrimi-
nate reading of the Bible, they deny that it is the guide of the
laity, contending that it should be restricted to the Clergy
only. In short, assimilating themselves to the doctrines of
Popery, as it was, they virtually prohibit the reading of the
Bible by the people, pronounce the Church infallible, and de.
Clare that through it only can Divine Truth be attained.
That we do not exaggerate will be seen by the following
extract from one of the publications of Mr. Newman, a high
authority :
" The sacred volume," says Mr. Newman, " was never in-
tended, and was not adapted to teach us our creed. From the
very first the rule has been, as a matter of fact, for the Church
to teach the truth, and then appeal to the Scripture in vindi-
cation of its own teachings. And, from the first, it has been
the error of heretics to neglect the information provided for
them, and to attempt of themselves a work to which they are
unequal—the eliciting a systematic doctrine from the scat-
tered notices of the truth which Scripture contains. The
insufficiency of the mere private study of Holy Scripture for
arriving at the entire truth which it really contains, is shown
by the fact, that creeds and teachers have ever been divinely
provided, and by the discordance of opinions which exist,
whenever those aids are laid aside, as well as by the very
structure of the Bible itself. And if this be so, it follows
that when inquirers and neophytes use the inspired writings
for the purposes of morals, and for instruction in the rudi-
ments of the faith, they still might need the teaching of the
Church," &c.
Mr. Keble in his " Christian Year" publishes the follow.
ing verses, which, though very beautiful, breathe the spirit of
Catholicism rather than of Protestantism :
" Ave Maria 1 Mother blest,
To whom, caressing and caress'd,
Clings the eternal child ;
Favour'd beyond archangel's dream,
When first on thee, with tenderest gleam,
Thy new-born Saviour smiled.
" Ave Maria 1 Thou whose name
All but adoring love may claim,
Yet may we reach thy shrine;
For he, thy Son and Saviour, vows
To crown all lowly lofty brows
With love and joy like thine."
And Dr. Pusey, their acknowledged leader, maintains the
efficacy of " prayers for the dead," identical with " masses,"
and energetically avows the doctrines of " passive obedience"
and " divine right," which were believed to be exploded long
ago. _ _ _

—We state these remarkable facts without passing any opi-
nion as to the truth or error of the doctrines. With that
we have nothing to do in this place. Our duty is only to
record them as striking features in the history of passing
events. We hope we have no prejudices against any sect.
But when we see a body of men adopting, whether rightly or
wrongly, the principal doctrines of the Roman Catholics, and
at the same moment seeking to keep the Roman Catholics
in bondage, denying to them political rights and social pri-
vileges, we cannot suppress indignation at the inconsistency,
nor avoid a suspicion that temporal power and profit are
their inducements to the continued ill-treatment of a body
of men with whose tenets they so nearly agree, that if ad-
mitted to equality with them, their own importance would be
lost among the multitude of the faithful who have stool!' the
test of persecution and wavered not.
It is, however, strange but true, that the bitterest foes of
Roman Catholic rights are the very sect that is promulgat-
ing Roman Catholic doctrines. We understand that our
Member, Mr. Acland, is an enthusiastic disciple of this new
school of Protestant Popery.
It must be evident, at a glance, that the most momentous
consequences must result from the spread of this new faith.
The first and most important in its social and political aspect
will be the total rupture in the Unity of the Church of Eng-
land. Already there are indications of a schism which has.
proceeded to an extent little supposed by the public. Mr.
Head's stringent letter is a direct declaration of defiance be-
tween the hostile parties, which must be followed by an open
war. In every town, in every company, at all public meet-
ings, and in every church, we see the same proofs of a sepa-
ration, which has been long secretly in progress, but which is
now openly avowed, between the Apostolicals or Popish sec-
tion of the Church, and the Evangelicals or Calvinistic section.
These two sects are as opposed in creed, in practice, in
doctrine, as any Dissenting sects. It is contrary to the na-
ture of things that they can continue united, even for the sake
of the temporalities which both share. The breach is made,
and we believe that nothing now will heal it. It will grow
wider every day.
But if the Church be thus divided against herself, can she
possibly stand amidst the opposition with which she is assailed
from without ? To us, who anxiously desire for her a long
and useful existence, this is the painful, the alarming reflection
suggested by the schism that has sprung up within her bosom.
And what will be the recombinations of religious party to
it will give rise? Ere long the rival sects within will
struegle for supremacy. In this struggle they will seek help
from those without the pale, and each will be content to share
the possessions and the power with new allies, rather than re-
sign the whole to their opponents. Thus it is probable that
every sect will shortly feel the consequences of the conflict.
The Apostolicals will draw to themselves all those in whom
imagination prevails over reason, the weak and wavering, who
are glad to escape from the trouble and anxiety of seeking
truth, by embracing a creed teaching that they ought not to
think but to believe implicitly whatever their Church teaches.
In this party will be found the largest section of the Aris-
tocracy, partly because the doctrines are favourable to their
own indolence, but chiefly because, by prostrating the prin-
ciple of freedom of tieought, they tend to the maintenance of
eristocratic exclusive privileges.
Oe the other hand, the Evangelicals will lee joined by the
ehole body of Protestant Dissenters, not merely from as6mi-
lat ion of creed, but because they agree in the principle of free-
dom of thought, and reject all tradition and authority, resting
their faith solely, upon the Bible.
Such are the parties about to appear prominently upon the
which is right, wl.ich wrong; we have to
stage Of history. It is 110 part of our
province to
only with
inquire
withthe
fact of their existence, to state their doctrines and to pourtrav
th •ir probable tffects upon the d-stinies of our country. ft
has been a great fault in all political discussion that the influ-
ence of religion upon a nation has been left too much out of
view. Public writers have seemed afraid to touch upon it, lest
it liould drag them into polemical discussion, which is cer-
tainly without their province. But it, is their duty to deal with
it as an existing fact, and one which cannot be left out of the
Recount without making their speculations worthless. As
sich, and as such only, do we now, anti shall we hereafter, deal
eith it.

Bell's Ll/4 in London of Sunday, September 23d,
will contain the most correct particulars of the Doncaster
Races, with a portrait of the wiener of the St. Leger. The
publication of the country edition of Belts Life in Londoi
will in future commence on Saturday neon, at twelve o'clock,
by which arrangement the papers can be forwarded by the
two o'clock trains, and delivered in Birmingham the same
evening. Bell's Life in London cf Sunday l.st, September
16, wi:h the engraving of the splendid Doncaster Cup, may
rt be had at the office, No. 170, Strand. The price of
Bell's Life in London is only Fiv,.pence, and is now the
largest folio Ilurnal printed in London.
LONGEVITY.—On
.reference to the Relieving
Officer's books for the parish of St. Clear's, Carmarthenshire,
lately. it was found that there arc Low residing in that parish
s;x old men receiving parochial relief, whose united ages
amount
o r
u n
andt
to
to and ten old women, whose united ages
year,
()idea man has now entered on his 03d
man on her 87th. Their intellects are
:7.
805.
Yea
oldest woman
sound and memory go andin the m
ssooito omrteyighhebosuairdhooofd
severalnearly theold
whole. Mare are also d
t
of a similar age.—Cambrian.
people, who are not paupers,