The Sun.
London, England, 1861-05-06 00:00:00

THE. SUN, LoNDorz, MONDAY EVENING, MAY 6, 1861.

?HE ESSAYS AND REVIEWS.

(From the Brighton Observer of May 3.)

The following is the sixth of a series of discourses,
delivered at Christ Church, New-road, by the R,v.
Robert. Ainslie, on Sunday last:—

ON THE TENDENC i ES OF RELIGIOUS THOUGHT

IN ENGLAND, 1688-1750.

Romans, 2d chapter, latter part of the xv. verse.
" Their thoughts the mean while accusing, or
else excusing one another."
The Essay to come under notice this evening is
the longest but one in the volume. It is not on a
controversial topic ; it is rather a review of the
theological controversies that raged in England for
about 62 years or from 1688 to 1750. It is written
with great ability, and the writer is thoroughly
master of his subject. There is one passage, and
only one, that the Memorialists cite as objection-
able. " The Career of the evidential school, its suc-
cess and failure—its success in vindicating the ethi-
cal part of Christianity, and the regulative aspect of
revealed truth ; its failure in establishing the super-
natural and speculative part have enriched the his-
tory of doctrine with a complete refutation of that
method as an instrument of theological investiga-
tion." Instead of reading on continuously the Me-
morialists leave out the following explanatory pas-
sage, and thus present the Essayist's views without
the qualification that was immediately before them.
[" This judgment, however, must not be left un-
balanced by a consideration on the other side. It
will hardly be supposed that the drift of what has
been said is, that common sense is out of place in
religion, or in any other matter. The defect of the
18th century theology was not in havit g too much
good sense, but in having nothing besides."] This
was omitted, and the following that is consecutive
is quoted :—" In the present day when a godless
orthodoxy threatens as in the 16th century to extin-
guish religious thought altogether, and nothing is
allowed in the Church of England but the formulae
of past thinkings, which have long lost all sense
of any kind; it may seem out of season to be
bringing forward a misapplication of common sense
in a by-gone age." This is the 'solitary objection-
able passage adduced by the memorialists from an
Essay of 75 octavo pages. The manner of quoting
it is unfair and unjust to the writer, and discredit-
able to the memorialists. The latter part of the
quotation is however more injurious to the writer
than to any one else. It is his own description of
the state of the Church of England. It presents
that Church in a humiliating condition. There is
no doubt that within her pale there are some of the
most !earned and best of men, and some of the
finest scholars in Europe ; and yet the Essayist says
that it is threatened to extinguish religious thought
altogether, and that nothing is allowed but the for-
mules of past thinkings which have long lost all
sense of any kind. The statement is unconditional,
partial, and exaggerated. You MAY think ali the
religious thought in the homilies, the prayer-book,
and the bible, if you will keep your thoughts in har-
mony with the Articles, Canons. and reeds of the
Church fhe conditions of freedom of course are
never complied with in a state of bondage. If a
man sells his conscience, faith, mental power, or
learning for Ecclesiastical position and emolument,
he cannot expect, nor ought he to have the right of
disregarding the term of the contract ? The Church
of England purposely shuts out from her pale, or
tries to do it, although called a National Church.
all who do not accept her Creeds, Catechism,
Articles, Canons, and Rubrics. Her aim has never
been as an establishment to examine the scriptures t
avail herself of biblical criticism, and the discoveries
and information of modern travel to keep her stan-
dards in harmony with the Bible. She is built
upon Acts of Parliament passed in the Ist of Eliza-
beth, and the 14th of Charlei 11. The House of
Parliament in those days decreed what was truth
in their judgment, and what should be truth for
centuries to come. Owing to the foundations being
laid in several pieces, different parties erect their
own little places of refuge upon them. The old
high orthodox party—the modern Anglican party—
the low church—the broad church—the Calvinistic,
the Arminian, and other sects are all there, and
strange as it may seem, they all give their assent
and consent to the same Articles, en none, Offices,
Creeds, Rubrics, and while they introduce no
"strange doctrine" they may remain quiet. They
must believe what their fathers, grandfathers, and
great grandfathers believed, and give their assent
and consent to it however foolish, erroneous, and
unscriptural, everything in the prayer book being in-
controvertible. The 4th Canon especially declares
that " whosoever shall affirm that the Book of Com-
mon Prayer containeth anything in it repugnant to
the scriptures, let him be excommunicated, and only
restored by the Bishop or Archbishop, after repen-
tance of his wicked errors." The Essayist knows
this. It was decreed before he was born. He has
gone into chains voluntarily. He can throw them
off whenever he pleases. If he have a good living
or a good office he has only to resign it, and there
are thousands ready to wear the chains, however
galling, if .they can but have the preferment.
Clergymen should remember that of their own ac-
cord, they have put on the Ecclesiastical collar;
and by their own consent have been harnessed to
the huge and wealthy car. So far as the Essayist
complains as a man, an Englishman, a scholar—de-
voted to truth, to the enlargement of the domain of "
knowledge, and the better understanding of the
Scriptures ; I deeply sympathise with him ; but as
one of the 15 or 20,000 men who are in possession
of an old Ecclesiastical Edifice, who professedly
examined the foundation?, and buttresses, before
they entered it, and pronounced them very good :
who on entering saw the chains for the minds of
the inmates, and the gold and silver that they were
to receive for wearing them, for such a man as a
voluntary member of such an Ecclesiastical body
I have no sympathy. If he be unhappy, if his
conscience trouble him if he cannot digest
what he took on entering, let him leave,
breathe the air of freedom, respect himself,
and rely upon 4Divine Providence for whatever he
may require in the short sojourn of life. At the
same time it is deeply to be regretted that if we
must have a National Church, it cannot keep up
with scriptural truth, charity, and modern science.
The Houses of Parliament endeavour to keep up
with true principles of commerce—sound principles
of civil and religious liberty—free thought, free
speech, and free printing. But the ecclesiastical
establishment remains faithful to her two Acts of
Parliament, the first of them 300 years old. Her
offices—her patronage—her conflicting interests—
the mixture of obsolete errors, with great and glo-
rious truths—her relics of popery and priestly
power, all these oppress her, and make her repair
as dangerous as that of the pire of an old Cathe-
dral. Some think it can be done, others think it
cannot. Convocation has been revived to try what
can be done. An attempt was recently suggested
by which godfathers and godmothers in the baptis-
mal service might be put under new regulations;
but for the present it has fallen through. The
Scriptures know nothing of them. The Essayist,
as a highly educated, liberal minded man, does not
sit easy with " the formula of past thinkings" be-
fore him, which he says " have lost all sense of any
kind ;" but he has no liberty, no power to alter
them ; and he must submit, however obnoxious and
galling, or he must leave as the price of his freedom.
The Essay of which I am about to give you the
outline, occupies, as I have said, no less than 75 ,
pages of the volume. It opens with Mr. Hallam's
favourable testimony to the real prosperity of the
community during the reign of George 11., to which
the Essayist puts in contrast the immorality and
licentiousness of the same period. He refers to the
manner in which High Churchmen treat the theo-
logy of this period, but intimates that the facts of
history cannot be disposed of by forgetting them.
He refers to the partiality of the writers of Eccle-
siastical history, and to the influence and effect of
theories upon the history of Theology. He reminds
us that antecedent, and immediately preceding
agencies aro not to be omitted from our considera-
tion of the subject, and he specifies three of those
agencies, toleration—the re-kindling of the religious
consciousness,—and the supremacy of reason. He
alludes to the matters in dispute:during that period,
and says that Locke's Treatise on the Reasonable-
ness of Christianity, may be said to have been the
solitary thesis of Christian theology in England for
great part of a century. The proving of the truth
Christianity andgi.oo theo e
esoept
ei ndg theforth
p eo as nodf elevationt
distinguished writers on both sides. There were
no less than thirty-five answers to the book pub-
fished by Collins u
tled " A
Grounds and Reaseontsi
of
theChDriissteioa
Discourse r sRe
Religion."
loi teh.
He refers to the two periods in
which it was shown
that whatever was in'the Bible was in harmony
with reason, and the other to the genuineness and
authority of the Christian records. Ile says, " Of
an honest critical enquiry into the origin and com-
position of the Canonical
writings, there is but one
trace—Herbert Marsh's lectures at Cambridge, and
that was suggested from a foreign source. The
remains of Christian antiquity had sunk into obli-
vion, and were not disinterred until about the time
of the Tractarian movement. He refers to the
change that has taken place in public opinion re-

lative to some of the greatest preachers of this
period. Such as South, Barrow, Tillotson, and
Sherlock, and adverts to the inconstancy both of
literary and theological tastes. He adverts to the
Deistical and Bangorian controversies, and to Bo-
lingbroke, Gibson, Prideaux, and Tillotson ; and to
Bishop Butler, James Foster, and others. The
sufficiency of natural religion was the turning
point of the dispute, and that while Christianity
was a particular scheme under the general plan of
Providence. Reason was needed for the verifica-
tion of Christianity. He defines natural religion ;
says it is not fully known, and gives various expo-
sitions of St. Paul's words, " do by nature the
things contained in the law ;" and gives the
arguments both of Deists and Orthodox divines.
He alludes to the preachers of that period, and that
their congregations, as now, will be adapted to
their thinking, and their style of expression. He
also quotes Dr. Johnson's opinion of Whitfield as a
preacher. He then alludes to thecommon contrast
of the Rationalist preachers of the 18th century
with the Evangelicals, who displaced them, and
enters upon a curious examination after the manner
of Neale, of the number of texts of Scripture, in a
sermon by John Newton, by a Roman Catholic
Abbot and by John Blair. The Evangelical preacher
had twenty-one references; the Roman Catholic
fifty-seven, and John Blair thirty-seven. He says
that " where each text of Scripture has but one
one sense—that sense in which the writer penned
it—it can only be sited in that sense, without doing
it violenceY adds—" This was the turn by
which Seldon so discomfited the Puritan divines,
who, like the Catholic mystics, made Scripture
words the vehicdp of the r own feelings. He alludes
to the style of preaching that succeeded to that of
the Puritans, and shows that there was a decrease
of authority in the preacher, but that the state of
the argument was fully laid down before the hearers.
The prevalence of theological discussions he refers
to, and urges the necessity of fair play in debate,
and 'that for this publicity is the best guarantee.
He remarks that time cannot alter the force of
truth ; and quotes_Burke's opinion on the preceding
age as con trastedlwith that then present. Burke
considered their forefathers deeper thinkers than

themselves, because they set a higher value on good
sense than on knowledge in various sciences, and
their good sense was derived very often from as
much study and more knowledge though of another
sort. He alludes to Pascal and his age—to the
argumentative defence of Religion—to theanerit
of Butler's Analogy, and pronounces upon it an ela-
borate eulogy. He alludes to the fact that by the
Revolution of 1688 the theory of Anglican autho-
rity was destroyed—he refers to the authority of
independency—the inner light—and to that of a
section of the Church of whom Cudworth is the
type, to whom " Scripture faith is not a mere be-
lieving of historical things and upon artificial argu.
ments, or testimonies only, but. a certain higher
and diviner power in the soul that peculiarly cor-
respondeth with the Deity." He tells us there can
be no mysteries of Christianity. The word " mus-
terion," as Archbishop Whately pointed out, means
in the New festamet t not that which is incompre-
hensible, but that which was once a secret, though
now it is revealed, it is no longer so. He refers to
the theology of Butler, both in his Analogy and
sermons ; and also to the use of the writings for
that period. He comments upon theology, and
says when it is stiffened into phrases, and these
phrases are declared to be objects of reverence, but
not of intelligence, it is on the way to become a
useless encumbrance—the rubbish of the past—
blocking the road. Theology then reti, es into the
position it occupies in the Church of Rome—at
present an unmeaning frost work of dogma—out of
all relation to the actual history of man. At the
period to which the essayist is referring two things
were prominent in theological and political circles,
personal slander and private vituperation. Porson,
at a later period, says the essayist, complains—
" In these ticklish times—talk of religion, it is
odds but you have infidel, blasphemer, atheist, or
schismatic thundered in your ears; touch upon po-
litics you will be in luck, if you are only charged
with a tendency to treason. Nor is the innocence of
your intention any safeguard." But theological
literature, as a written debate, bad a form of malig-
nant imputation peculiar to itself. Moral imputa-
tion which is justly banished from legal argument,
seems to find a proper place in theological. The
Essayist then refers to the theology of the Hano-
verian period, as being of the most violently parti-
san character. It seats itself by its theory in the
judicial chair, but it is only to comport itself there
like Judge Jeffries. Healludes to several controver-
sialists of that period, and quotes a very pungent
description by Bentley of the state of things in the
Church ; and shows that while other men shared
largely of polemical abuse, Shaftesbury was treated
differently on account of his high rank. He then
cites two or three facts as indicative of the popular
feeling of the times; such as Mandeville's fable of
the bees—Bolingbroke's collected works—Toland's
Christianity not mysterious, were all presented as
nuisances by the Grand Jury of Middlesex. Toland
and Collins fled the country, but the persecutions
fell to the ground. At some length he alludes to the
moral state of the clergy—the satires published
every week about them, and the feeling of contempt
for priests that generally prevailed. He alludes to
Cowper's well-known satire, and attributes the
commencement of the corrupt distribution of patro-
nage to the Duke of Newcastle. After referring at
some length to the corruption of manners that then
privailed, nevertheless, he says, " There cannot be
a darker picture than that drawn by the Fathers of
the ad century, of the morals of the Christians in
their time." He then specifies David Hartley's
strange state
" Six Sources of Ruin," that threatened to over-
whelm the States of Christendom, and alludes to
the party recriminations as to the origin of this
corrupt
of
epuabmliuesieg manitieersr.eadlttheis
recriminations that were bandied about. • High
absurdsome-
what
Churchmen attributed the public profligacy
to the Toleration Act. ln a sermon preached before
the Lord Mayor it was attributed to a corrupt expo-
sition of the words of Jesus, " My kingdom is not'
of this world." The Papists attributed it to the Pro-
testant Reformation—Warburton attributed it to
the bestowal of preferment by the Walpole admi-
nistration, and George 11. attributed the growth of
methodism to the fact that his Minister would not
take his advice and make the celebrated Whitfield
e bishop. He refers to the Evangelical and Metho-
dic-teachers, to church h •
aut ority, and to reason,
and concludes by saying " Whoever would take the
religious literature of the present day as a whole,
and endeavour to make out clearly on what basis
Revelation is supposed by it to rest, whether on
authority—on the inward light on reason--on self-
evidencing iScripture—or on the
combination of the
four, or some of them, and in what proportions
would probably find that he had undertaken a per-
plexing, but not altogether profitless, inquiry.'
There are tendencies of religious thought, not
looked at nor intended to be looked at by the
Essayist, which are deeply interesting. In itself,
and apart from any particular period of history, the
tendency of religious thought is of great moment.
In reference to our ancestors, contemporaries, and
successors, we are all influenced by it, and more or
less are influencing others. Everything in the na-
tions and ages,—literature and science—faith and
devotion—that have existed before our time, and
to which we can get access, must be productive of
instruction and benefit, either by warning, direct-
ing, controlling, or encouraging us in the path of
life. We owe much to our ancestors. They had a
fearful struggle with oppression, to obtain for them-
selves and their posterity--political freedom, reli-
gious liberty, and the right to worship God as their
consciences dictated to them. Their contemporaries,
in other and foreign lands, succumbed to the yoke,
and their descendants have suffered oppression,
even until now. If we take a broader and more an-
cient view of those who have lived before us, we
owe them much. The literature of past ages, con•
taining philosophy, poetry, history, and morals, has
had a powerful influence in moulding the men of
the present generation. The tendency of the reli-
gious thought of the Ist century has been fearfully
counteracted by the selfishness and ambition of those
who in subsequent centuries had to teach it. They
buried it as quickly as they could, for it was inimical
to deceit, selfishness, ambition, superstition, and
tyranny. What we want now, and what I believe is
the aim and the end of the essayists, is to get back
to the Christianity of the Ist century, especially as
taught by Jesus. Everything he uttered had a de-
finite meaning. It was true, noble, devout, good and
benevolent. He burst asunder the fetters of Judaism,
enlarged the domain of worship and divine service,
until he embraced the whole human family. The
divine religion he taught was free for the spirit of
man, and intelligible and definite as the rule of his
life. He left no creed—n, system of theology. It
was no part of his int tructions to build up wealthy
ecclesiastical kingdoms. He gave the people truth
and told them the truth should make them free. He

told them to love one another,ai4;xeMplifieditii,
laying down his own life for mankind. Unselfish-
ness and self-sacrifice were two of his constant prac-
tical lessons, and he urged the cultivation of uni-
versal brotherhood. If the religious thought that
Jesus uttered wasuow the substance of puNio teach-

ing, how powerful would be its tendency to elevate
men, purify their hearts, and make them happy.
Unfortunately, we have phrases and terms instead of
thoughts, which do not represent the mind of Chris-
tianity ; but are in conformity with modern systems
of theological teaching. No book, probably, is more
universally circulated than the Bible ; no book more
generally read, and no book less studied with an
unfettered and impartial mind. The habit which is
too common is to have a system 'of doctrines
and to require belief in them as the condition
of salvation. It is also too common to take thenz
to the Scriptures, and to find texts
to support them, instead of going free and unfet-
tered to the sayings and commandments of Jesus,
and receive them in all their freshness, fullness,
and life-giving power. Every Church, Roman,
Lutheran, and English, has its conditions of belief
as the way of salvation—but it is not so in the
teachings of Jesus, nor will it be so according to
what Jesus has said, and Matthew has recorded in
the twenty-fifth chapter of his Gospel.
A public meeting, it appears, was held last Wed-
nesday afternoon at the Hanover-square Rooms, in
behalf of Home Missions belonging to the Church
of England. The two Archbishops were there, and
the Bishops of London and Oxford, besides noble
dukes, commoners, and clergy. At a time like the
present, one would have thought that the tenor of
the speaking as to the Home Mission work to be
done would have been to have recommended the
beautiful lessons of. Jesus—the divine doctrines he
taught men, the heavenly spirit he breathed—in
order that men, might understand Christianity, and
receive the life-giving power of divine truth. If we
had heard the main features of the mission of the
life and death of Jesus alluded to, the power and
self-denying influence of his gospel recommended,
as what was essential to individual Christian life,
and the spiritual life and power of the Church, we
should have thought it worthy of the speaker, and
calculated to do great good. But instead of this, the
Bishop of Oxford said, " At a time like this we must
strengthen the church to go with the creeds"—and
he then enumerated some of their doctrinal articles.
He also said, "At a time like this, the Church of
England must be made strong, to bring creeds
home in their particularity." With great deference
to his lordship, this is not what British society at
present requires. It wants the Ohristian life—the
spirit of Jesus, the unselfish and self-sacrificing
spirit of the founder of our faith, promi-
nently pliced before the eyes of the enemies and
the friends of the gospel. We want the love of
God, anti the ,love of our neighbour, set forth—
we want the practical recognition of our com-
mon humanity, and of the just claims of man
upon man, brought to bear upon society, in high
places, and in humble circles. We want just re-
proaches wiped away from our ecclesiastical esta-
blishment and our ecclesiastical commission, and the
tales of profligate expenditure for the palaces, and
worldly pomp of our chief ecclesiastics, which tales
are published on tie authority of the commissioners,
refuted if they can be, and if not, the aiders, abettors,
and receivers of such expenditure should r tire, and
repent that what they have done is as inimical to
the spirit and will of Jesus, and the purpose of the
gospel, as murder is to love, and truth to falsehood.
You may take the creeds of the Church and make
her strong, and you may take " them home in their
particularity ;" hut another creed, the creed of the
Bishop of Durham, has been taken home by the
public press, and by our leading satirist, in all its
particularity, to every cottage in the kingdom : that
creed has been acted upon by an evangelical Bishop
—but with THAT in your hand, leave the religion
of Jesus for some one else to take. The tendency
of such an unchristian thought, and such an irreli-
gious act, will do more real dair age in causing the
religion of Jesus to be treated with contempt, or
rather the men who sanction it, than a whole
library of "Essays and Reviews." While the life
of Jesus and the life of Paul are upon record, the
corrupt and selfish practices of so many who have
sat upon the Episcopal benches during the last
century, must prove to be a great scandal. Men of
every class are prepared to vote the Ecclesiastical
Commission to be a disgrace to the Church, and
a deep offence against English society and the reli►-
gious of Jesus. In the forthcoming replies to the
Essays and Rev;ews it would be well to devote some
pages to the vindication of the bishops in the matter
of the Ecclesiastical Commission, and there is no
abler pen, nor one more interested in the removal of
the scandal, than the pen of the Bishop of Oxford.
It is said that his lordship is to contribute a preface to
one of the volumes, and while proving the heterodoxy
of the Essayists, let him also set forth the practical
infidelity to the religion of Jesus of every one who
has received money by thousands, to beautify
palaces, that should have gone to aid in supporting
the hard working, badly fed, and ill-paid Clergy of
our wealthy Establishment.

AMERICA.

LIVERPOOL, MAY 5.

The Persia, which touched at Queenstown yes-
terday, has arrived. She left New York on the
25th ult., having been detained some hours for
despatches.
Agents have arrived by the Persia to 'purchase
rifled cannon of the Armstrong, Clay, and Blakely
patterns, also nearly 200,000 rifles and revolvers
for immediate shipment.

The latest despatch from Washington is to the
24th. The New York Regiment and the Bth
Massachusetts had just• arrived. The Govern-
ment had sent urgent demands for troops and
artillery to various places, as the capital was in
danger. In reply to a request for troops, the
Governor of Tennessee said he would not comply,
but would rather furnish 50,000 men against the
North.

At Washington the number of troops was esti-
mated at 6,000. Provisions were very scarce.
The public buildings were all barricaded. A
rumour that General Beauregard, of the Southern
army, was posted with 5,000 men on Arlington
heights, on the opposite shore of the Potomac
two miles as the bird flies from the White-house,
appears to have no foundation.
A letter from New York, dated April 19, says :
It is just eighty-six years to-day since the first
shot was fired in the War of American Indepen-
dence at Lexington, in Massachusetts, at break of
day on the warm morning of a prematurely sum-
merish day. On the anniversary of that day we
hear by telegraph of the first blood—and that, by
a singular coincidence, the blood of Massachusetts
men—shed in the new war, which has been com-
menced by those who seek to subvert all that was
accomplished in the struggle for Independence.
The great civil war that everybody has regarded
as an improbability is now fairly inaugurated—
blood has been shed, sectional animosities have
been aroused—Virginia has seceded, or will do so
soon in the van of the Border Slave States—there
is every probability that Kentucky, Tennessee,
Arkansas, and North Carolina will follow--Mary-
land is trembling poised between her allegiance to
the stars and stripes and her sympathy for slavery,
and everything -now promises a war between the
consolidated Slave States and the American
Government—a war for the extension of African
slavery and the annihilation of constitutional
Government, except as subservient to that institu-
tion.

Mr. Lincoln had given audience to several Mary-
land delegates, whose mission was to induce him to
countermand orders for the passage of troops
through that State. In the course of one of the
interviews President Lincoln said he must have
the troops, and through Maryland they must come.
" They can't," he said, "come under the earth, and
they can't fly over it, and, mathematically, they
must come across it. Why, sir, those Carolinians
are now crossing Virginia, and, hang me, what can
I do ?" In reply to a suggestion that a peace policy
would be the best, he said, " There would be no
Washington, no Jackson, no spirit in that ; I must
run the machine as I found it.;" As the deputation
were departing he said, " I'll tell you a story.
You have all heard of the Irishman who, when a:
fellow was cutting his throat with a blunt razor,
complained that he haggled it. Now, if I can'thave
troops direct through Maryland, and must have
them all the way round by water, or marched across
out o -the-way territory, I shall be haggled:."
Governor Hicks, of Maryland, made a similar pll-^
cation to Mr. Seward, and suggested that hostilties
should be suspended, and the differences
between
the belligerents referred for arbitrament to Lord
Lyons, to prevent the effusion of blood. In reply,