The Sun.
London, England, 1822-07-01 00:00:00

SUN.

in the front, on purpose to take care that the
holy ark be not defiled by the entrance of the
unclean ;—or if any such have, by some over-
sight, been able to intrude, that they shall by a
stricter form of examination be prevented from
penetrating any further, and their mouths
stopped from preaching doctrines, of which be-
fore they were opened under the licence of Arti-
cles subscribed in a latitudinarian sense, they
were not so much as suspected; and because
they now can do so no longer in the diocese of
Peterborough, they complain bitterly of a want
of toleration, and that the Bishop has no right to
demand any thing but assent and subscription,—
and they alone are to determine what shall be
the sense of the Church Articles.

If such presumption is to be encouraged, the
jurisdiction of the Bishop is at an end—the can-
didate may turn round and examine the Bishop,
and we must take the sense of our Articles from
those who are just on the threshold, and not from
those who are in the holy of holies; contrary
to the constant and sober custom of our ancestors,
who wisely thought the head was to govern the
body, and not the body the head, and have ap-
pointed, by express canons, the Bishop to exa-
mine, whether for or,.lers or for livings, and as
they can but examine in their own sense and un-
derstanding, the sense of each Bishop in his
diocese must be tha standard of orthodoxy to the
several candidates. This would be the com-
monly received sense, not only in his own dio-
cese, but in that of his brother diocesans, and of
the Church in general, with scarcely one exception.
Yet though, as far as I have heard, none of this
Prelate's pious and venerable colleagues (who have
been accused of silence by those who never knew
the virtue of silence themselves,' dicenda tacen-
da locutis," and who were not themselves witnesses
of the power of eloquence on the night of the peti-
tion in the cause of truth, which never looks for
numbers on its side, but only the opportunity to
shew itself in its own native dignity,) have exact-
ly adopted this particular mode of examination,
but have each of them modes of their own. I,
for one, can see no objection to this mode, so
long as it consists with the general sense and
spirit of the Church in the present dynasty ; in
the present, I say—for if-the heads of the Church
now may be supposed to interpret the acts dif-
ferently from the first compilers, we who sub-
scribe are bound to take them in the sense of
those who actually impose them, and not in any
peculiar sense of our own that may even be borne
out, if that were possible, by the original framers.
If this sense is to be taken, how convenient
and useful is it for one of the Bishops (and all
might have done the same) to propose questions
in such a manner as to deliver the sense of the
Church as to its Artioles in a more modern and
concise form : and where can there be a form at
once so concise and comprehensive as what is
presented in these questions, more especially
upon the particular points that have, from the
circumstances of the times, risen into more im-
mediate importance, as the subjects are now in
agitation, upon which even some of the very
Priests of the Church are said to be dividing it
against itself, and are aiming against its spirit
under the masked battery of the letter.
In such a precarious state, that there may not
he diversity of opinion in preachers of the same
Articles, and that they who subscribe to them
may agree not only in form, but in spirit, in
reality and not in name only, he whose right
and office it is, to whom his diocese looks up as
their model and arbiter, puts forth these ques-
tions to the candidate, that he may sift his prin-
ciples, and not merely listen to the sound of
his voice, or only read the subscription of his
hand ; but that he may know of a truth, what it
is his duty to know, whether he is qualified or
not for the preaching of those doctrines which
are of such infinite importance to all that are to
hear him.

These questions are called 87 Articles, and the
Calvinist is supposed to be involved in the greater
embarrassment, frem having so many more to an-
swer than the Articles themselves; but they ought
not to be considered in that invidious light ;
they are only questions under the separate Arti-
cles, and we might divide their number into five
points, and which, so far from being more diffi-
cult or more deeply involved than the Articles,
are the clearest elucidation, as far as they can be
elucidated, of their real meaning—and, to any
but Calvinists, can admit only of one answer and
interpretation ; for a child might answer them ;
and the more a man has the simplicity of a child,
the less likely he will be not to comprehend and
admit them.

The right to put these questions, if even it
were doubtful, must now be placed beyond the
reach of dispute, as it it so confirmed by the
highest authority, notwithstanding all the noise
and opposition that has been vented against it,
—like truth, it has come only the purer from the
ordeal. The expediency must be left to the
bosom of him, to whom alone it belongs to
decide, as more intimate with the concerns of his
own diocese, and as best qualified to know what
particular tenets prevail against which he is to
be most on his guard, and what particular tem-
per of preachers he would be most eager to en-
courage : for I make no doubt that, notwith-
standing all the foul aspersions of his indignant
adversaries, he has used that sober discretion and
sound judgment in the discrimination, that entitles
him to the praise and gratitude of all who feel
any regard for the interests of the Church, which
might otherwise be embroiled and torn to pieces
by the discord of its own nominal defenders.
That in the conscientious discharge of his duty;
there may be some cases that press hard upon in-
dividuals, is no more a charge against his impar-

PRICE SEVENPENCE..

tiality than in all other cases, whether of law
civil or religious, where the individual interest
must give way to that of the community at large ;
but what has been the great hardships about which
there are so many angry complaints ? Listen
one moment to a plain fact, which will be enough,
as stated in a paper to which I before alluded,
renowned for its power, to put them down.
" Since the Bishop of Peterborough has used in
his diocese these questions, thirty-eight men have
applied for Ordination, Curacies, &c., out of which
number one inefficient candidate has been reject-
ed, and two Curates refused licenses, because one
refused to be examined at all, though he acknow-
ledged the legal right, and the other because, in-
stead of giving brief intelligible answers, sent
folio sheets of complex unintelligible matter, and
declined giving any other.—Since the Bishop
would not perjure himself by declaring that he
had, according to the 48th and 49th Canons, as•
certained that the applicant's doctrine was sound,
of course he was rejected, whereupon the whole
race of Methodists poured forth torrents of
abuse in various publications ; reviled the Pre-
late with every bitter epithet, and predicted that
the Mitre and the Crown would fall together ;
put the whole House of Peers in motion, by pre-
senting a petition, which was immediately re-
jected ; to have legally accepted which the King,
Lords, and Commons, and a Convocation, must
have altered the existing laws..
46 Because the House of Peers rejected the Pe.
tition, a Rev. Mr. Grimshawe peremptorily di-
rected his Diocesan to relinquish the use of his
questions, and threatened him with an action at
law. The Prelate not being deterred from ful.
filling his duty by this menace, Mr. Grimshawe
wrote a very nonsensical pamphlet, in which he
declared that a Methodist was a title of honour,
and the Bishop's questions the bed of Pro-
crustes.

" Since the publication of this precious bijou,
there has been an attempt made in Norfolk to
get up a Petition, but there was not matter
enough to be found for the purpose. Then
another attempt was made in the Diocese of Pe-
terborough, and Messrs. Buxton and Little Grey-
Bennet enlisted to present and support it ; the
former passed many a tedious day in rummaging
musty folios for legal grounds on which to act,
but he might as well have looked for the Em-
peror of China. This failure did not discou-
rage the assailants, and so they asked a Re-
verend Prelate to present it, who very properly
scouted the proposal. At last they pitched on
Lord Dacre, of whom they wish to make
a cat's-paw." That he has burnt his fingers, by
putting them into the fire which they had laid
for him, may be seen by any who will take the
pains to look at the speeches on that occasion,
when be and a few of his colleagues in the tem-
poral peerage made as poor a figure as the Bishop
(himself a host) makes the most brilliant in the
spiritual, at once defending their" own right, and
the right of the Church, of which he shines forth
on this as on all occasions so zealous and intre.
pid a champion.
As to your other Correspondent F. D., I much
regret that I- have not now room and time to
spare upon one who appears calm and tempe-
rate by nature, but unfortunately falling in
with peculiar societies, has acquired the same
propensity to calling of names. I have only one
word to say, that the Church, like Truth, stands
firm between the two extremes of Calvinism and
Arminianism, in which the sects fluctuate, some
more, some less, from the spirit of their first
Founder.

Both of these deserve to be called sects : as I
maintain, and perhaps shall prove at some future
period, that the church is neither Calvinistic nor
,Arminian. That the Bishop has authority to
im-
pose his own sense of the Articles upon those
candidates who come to him for orders, &c.
follows from his having the office of examination
enjoined him by the Canons, as he cannot ex+
amine but in his own sense, as I have before
observed, and that I believe to be the commonly
received sense of his brethren in. the Church.
Nor shall I ever plead guilty to the charge of
bigotry, for asserting that as long as these can.
didates appear to him to be either Calvinists or Ar•
minians, or what are called Evangelicals (follow-
ing a gospel of their own), it would be kviolation
of the duty which he owes to the .establishment,
whatever may be their moral character, to admit
them into the Church. .EQULTS.

LYNN ELECTION.—This election commenced
on Thursday, when the Hon. J. WALPOLE and
Sir M. B. FOLKES appealed as the Candidates.
The latter being the favourite of the mob, his
friends committed various outrages, demolished
the windows of the Duke's
.Head lan, and even
demolished that part of the hustings which be-
longed to the other party, and set fire to the
timbers. The Yeomanry Cavalry were obliged
to be called in, and the public tranquillity has
not since been disturbed. The numbers at the
close of the poll were—for WALPOLE 41; for
FOLKES 42—six of the latter votes objected to.
'WESTMINSTER SEScIONS.—On SaturdaY Peter
Langham, Jeremiah his
.son, James: Ward, Rich.
Kelly, and Peter Leeson, with several 'others not
in custody, were indicted for a riot in Peter-street,
Golden-square, and assaulting the constables and
watchmen of the parish of St. James, and the
landlord and landlady of the City of Londcn
public-house, on Sunday evening the 2d ult.
The case being clearly proved, the Jury found
them all Guilty, and the Court sentenced J.
Langham, J. Ward, and P. Leeson to three
months, Thomas Kelly to one month, and Peter
Laugh= to seven days' imprisonment in the
Meuse of Correction.