The Sun.
London, England, 1820-10-10 00:00:00

[PRICE SEVtNPENCE.

FOR THE SUN.

HOLY ORDERS.
MR. EntToa—Some little time ago* I ven-
tured to address you a few lines in answer
to a Pamphlet, disputing the legality of cer-
tain questions proposed by the Bishop of
PRZERBOROUGII ,to the Candidates for Holy Or-
ders in his Diocese, which proved, I trust to
your satisfaction, the great injustice of the charge:
I have now to call your attention to another
Pamphlet, most probably by the same Author,
called " Episcopal Innovation, or the Test of
46 Modern Orthodoxy, in 87 Questions, imposed
" as Articles of Faith upon Candidates for Li-
cc cences for Holy Orders in the Diocese. of Pe-
" terborough, with a distinct answer to each
" Question, and General Reflections relative to
" their illegal Structure and pernicious Ten-
" dency." To read this formidable title, and.
the corresponding introduction, which is all you
can allow me the space to consider for the pre-
sent,—who would not imagine this Prelate,
who is usually reputed as one of the most resolute
Champions of the Church, to be a very leveller
of its Laws and a downright Radical, and endea-
vouring to overthrow the Church and State
together ? But which is the most likely to
deserve the imputation, that man who affects to
dispute the Articles of the Bishop in an affair
that may come within his own proper controul
within his own Diocese, or the Bishop, who, ex-
ercising that authority to the best of his judgment,
does not overstep the boundaries of his office, but
only proposes certain Questions, which he in his
wisdom thinks right, in order to discriminate the
qualifications of those who offer themselves for
the Ministry—to occupy stations of the most
sacred trust, for which he as a Bishop is princi-
pally responsible, and never can be too minute in
his investigation ?
But it seems that in these 87 questions, put to
the Candidates for this purpose, he commits so
many overt acts against the Articles of our Faith,
" assuming on the one hand a Legislative. Au-
" thority in grafting new Articles upon the old,
cc and on the other, poisoning the fountain with
heretical tenets ;" and yet when we look into
these questions we are fairly at a loss to dis-
cover either the poison or the novelty—the
author is affrighted at a phantom of his own rais-
ing—so far from breathing a spirit of innovation,
these questions arise in the most natural manner
from the Articles themselves, and may be the only
means that remain in the power of the Bishops to
preserve them pure and inviolate, and to stem
that torrent of superstition which so furiously
rages uot only in the hearts of the People, but
too frequently in the •btiscnn of the Church, and
which, if not impeded in Its course, will, in the
end, hurry away every vestige of the real Church
and of Christianity itself from time face of Chris-
tendom. ' •
.These, therefore, are not so flinch to l;e con-
sidered as new Articles, as'intended to elicit the
sentiments of Candidates upon the old, as the
Bishop himself declares, " that he may know
whether the doctrines of the Candidates are in
perfect unison with the doctrines of the Church."
If, therefore, some will venture before him,
whose doctrines are not in unison (and many
such, I fear, are now even in'the Ministry, for
want of this mode of descriminatiori) whose fault
can it be but their own if they are excluded ?
If men will rush, with profane temerity, into the
borders of the Sanctuary, and not perform the
proper rites, or entertain the corresponding opi-
nions, who but• themselves are to answer for the
consequences ? By the confession of the Au-
thor, " were it not for the influence of a fixed
National Creed, upheld and prospered by a gra,
cious Providence, we should long since, accord-
ing to all human probability, have had our land
overrun with Popery, Socinianism, and Infide-
lity;" and were it not for the providential interfer-
ence of Episcopal vigilance, exactly adapting its
,salutary measures to the times and seasons,
notwithstanding all our Articles, bulwarks of the
Faith as they .are, and ever have been, we might
be exposed to perils from our treacherous friends
within, far more: to be dreaded than any perils
from our open 'enemies without. It is upon the
principle of self-defence from such treachery
that this Prelate, who has so frequently and suc-
cessfully shewn himself a zealous Champion of
the Church, comes forward with a manly and
open spirit of inquiry, to probe and sift the minds
of the Candidates most thoroughly and without
reserve, on those parts particularly which have
of late become more interesting, from the man-
ner in which they have been distorted, even by
some of our own Ministers ; and it is for the sake
of excluding such, and not with the most distant
view, as this author would insinuate, of impoe-
ing any new Articles of his own, or of indulging
a passion for 'innovation ; but inspired with au
honest zeal to contend earnestly for thb Faith
once delivered to the Saints—not to the modern
Saints, who. arrogate to. themselves exclusively
the name, though, with the s, •ae breath, they
scruple not to call themselves the most desperate
Sinners,. hat, to the Saints of old, who may be
now looking down from on high, and rejoicing
with the Angels over this one among the many
pious efforts of this Prelate to frustrate the ma-
chinatiops of the common Adversary, who never
enjoys a greater triumph than when he is able to
P Kurt Holy Writ • and make the very Articles
or. Faith, upon,which we all rely for truth and
'consolation, by in-14. Construction and 'false
LUTp Aifeqly against-the Church itself.
lab a Septvtuber.'