The Sun.
London, England, 1846-02-02 00:00:00

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LONDON, MONDAY, FEBRUARY 2, 1846.

Dr. PUSEY, who has raised such a commotion in the
English Church, and given his name to a new Protes-
tant sect professing Roman Catholic doctrines, made his
first exhibition on Sunday as a preacher, since his sus-
pension in 1843, before the University of Oxford. Many
of the young clergymen whom he had led astray during
the period intervening between his suspension and the
present time have acted an honest part, carried out their
convictions like upright men, and openly enlisted them-
selves under the banners of Rome. They are still going
over to the Catholic Church in considerable numbers,
and if any doubt could exist as to the tenets, and doc-
trines, and conversion of PusEY himself, the secession of
his disciples puts it entirely at an end. But strange to
say, the original offender, the cause of all this lament-
able backsliding from the Protestant faith, the enemy
of the Established Church and the Ref, rmation, not
only still remains in the University to pollute the
sources of mental instruction, but is allowed to display
in all their naked deformity some of the most obnoxious
and mischievous pretensions of the Church of Rome in
her worst days. In his sermon on Sunday, so far from
manifesting repentance or any contrition for acts which
the University in its mildness only considered deserving
of suspension, he boldly appealed again to the authority
of the Fethers of the Church, and seemed anxious to
place their authority above that of the sacred Scriptures.
St. PAUL, and St. JAMES, and St. JOHN are only second
or third rate personages—the great favourites, the guides
of truth, and the pillars of the Church, are St. TATIAN,
St. CYRIL, St. IGNATIUS, St. CURYSOSTOM, St. Au-
GIISTINE, and perhaps, also, another St. IGNATIUS, sur-
named LOYOLA. These are the men to whom
this Canon of Christchurch looks up to as ex-
amples, and holds forth as models and instructors to
the clergy of a Protestant church. It is curious tco
on referring to his sermon which we have merely'
given an outline), to find that the main doctrines on
which it comments are of the most dangerous
tendency in regard to morality, and are calcu-
lated solely for the advancement and establishment of
clerical power. The Church in the dark ages
strove above all things to put the laity under its feet.
It claimed power from on high ; it represented the
Porn and Cardinals, and archbishops, and bishops
throughout the rest of Europe, as the legitimate suc-
cessors of the Apostles, and assert( d f.r them all those
miraculous and undefined powers which were con-
ferred on his immediate followers by the Founder
of the Christian religion. The right of giving or with-
holding absolution is one of the most powerful handles
to accomplish despotism ever invented. It makes the
rich give up their treasures, and renders the poor slaves;
it makes the crown yield to the mitre, terrifies the
timid, and subdues the hau,t,hty and powerful ; it makes
all except one class dependents and serfs, and raises
that class to the ragions of divinity. This, as
might have been expected, therefore, is a favourite topic
with the Pusey itcs, and on Sunday their pastor carried
out its principles to their full extent. This is w hat he
calls the doctrine of the keys—a doctrine by which the
i.escendant of the Apostles has thepower not to loose only
but to bind; not to remitonly,butto retain sin; and he thus
traces this power to its source and maintains the right
of the Church to it in the present day Now, the
commission upon which the authority of the Church
rested, as it had ever been understood by the Church
itself; was given in part in different words, at three
different times ; before the resurrection first, to St.

PETER as the type of unity, then to all the Apostles
(both these being in promise), and then to all, in fulfil-
ment, in the text. The greatness of the power
thus entrusted to man might well exceed our
belief, and make us tremble to execute it,
and almost doubt, as men had doubted, whether we
had it. But our LORD premised his commission with these
few brief words, conveying at once its extent, and the
rule and guidance of it As my Father hath sent me
even so send I you. And when He had said this, He
breathed on them, and saith, Receive ye the Holy
Ghost ;' to show that he who created man in His
own image, breathing into his nostrils the breath
of life,' was now about to recreate him in a
more perfect and divine way by union with
himself. And then 'e said, Whosesoever sins ye re-
mit, they are remitted unto them ; and whosesoever
sins ye retain, they are retained.' Understanding the
words in their plain meaning, of a power lodged in the
Church to forgive sins in Ills name, the very words ex-
pressed the fulness of the pardon ; the same word was
used by which He himself forgave." And then he ex-
presses his great regret that the Church has not re-
tained this power to its full extent, and seems to rejoice
that the Protestant Church has in so many instances
departed frOm the principles of its great prototype,
solely because the inevitable evils thus caused
will more speedily bring her back to the
right faith. "We might even be thankful," he adds,
" that the yet remaining rules, requiring all her mem-
bers to partake of her ordinances, had passed into
disuse ; to encourage indiscriminately the approach
to the holy communion, without a corresponding
inward system, whereby they who were entitled
so to do should know intimately the hearts of those
whom they so encouraged, had brought us to an amount
of carelessness and profanation which, if known, would
make many a heart of those who had so done to sink and
quake. It was of Gop's manifold mercy to this portion of
His church, that He had at the same time by His provi-
dence allowed almost all remains of that outward compul-
sory system to be broken down, and by His spirit within had
aroused people's consciences to desire the full conditions
laid up for the church." These are sufficient specimens
of Dr. PusEY's fixed sentiments, and it is needless to
add ono word of condemnation. The only question is,
will the University still retain as one of its canons an
avowed professor of the most dangerous Roman Catholic
doctrines, and suffer the Protestant Church to be de-
stroyed by enemies within its own bosom?

Tamworth—that is to say the monopolist farming in-
terest of Tamworth—is resolved, apparently, not to
allow Sir ROBERT an opportunity of acting, in his Minis-
terial capacity, with that independence which he him-
self claimed as tho noblest prerogative of a statesman.
scale
eocf
cannot be accomplished on a gigantic scale—a
What
demonstration proportioned to the vastness of the
proposed
policy—they are now endeavouring to achieve
through the most petty and presumptous interference.
No unnecessary time is frittered
away
by these gentle.
men in a calm, and honest, and dispassionateth examina-
! andetlhaenidr
tion of the Premier's arguments;
for-
sooth! and their cash accounts, forli?inions,
market plans, forsooth! are not to be. disarranged,
thwarted, and broken in upon, for the sakem
that trumpery thing called commercial justice. Aretuyrnof
turn-
spit had been amply sufficient for the exigencies of their
forefathers, and, notwithstanding the shortness of
its wind, having so far competed with the short-
ness of its legs, as to interrupt the regularity
of its movements, the old animal was satisfactory to
themselves. True enough, the number of mouths which
it was necessary to supply with provisions had become
absolutely doubled, and consequently more facilities in
obtaining sustenance had become requisite,:—Up with
the turnspit of protection ! and down with the bottle-
jack of free trade ! This
.is precisely the be-

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