The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1839-10-15 00:00:00

THE OXFORD. TRACTS.---BISHOP WILSON'S
CHARGE TO THE CLERGY OF CALCUTTA.

(From the,Christian Observer.)

A CHARGE DELIVERED TO THE CLERGY OF THE DIOCESE
OF CALCUTTA, JULY 6TH, 1838, BY THE RIGHT REV.
DANIEL WILSON, D.D., BISHOP OF CALCUTTA AND
METROPOLITAN.
This Charge is excellent, and full of valuable matter. We
find in the Daniel Wilson of Calcutta, the self-same man who
nearly forty years ago was commencing his devoted and zea-
lous career of ministerial usefulness as the curate of his
honoured friend Richard Cecil ; and who afterwards at Ox-
ford, at St. John's, _Bedford-row, and at Islington, was ena-
bled, by the grace of God, to war a good warfare as a faith-
ful soldierof Jesus Christ ;—we find, we say, with the weight
and experience of mature years, the self-same man, in un-
wearied diligence, in straight-forward honesty of purpose, in
unremitting perseverance, in undaunted boldness and reso-
lution, all devoted to the glory of God and the salvation of
souls ; and connected with, and springing out of, the essential
verities of Christ's Holy Gospel, applied to the soul by the
transforming power of the Holy Ghost. The preaching and
writings of Bishop Wilson have always been characterized,
amidst the fluctuating opinions of the times, by a peculiarly
close adherence to the spirit and character of the Gospel dis-
pensation as a combined record of grace and holiness. The
cross of Christ—including, in that expressive scriptural
phrase, the sacrifice for sin and the ensample of godly life—
has ever been his prominent topic ; he has not, in urging it
in the one aspect, forgotten its importance in the other; he
has not, in preaching salvation by grace through faith, dero-
gated from the fruits and evidences of faith ; or, while in-
sisting upon the fruits and evidences, detached them from
their source ; extolling a faith which does not lead to sancti-
fication ; or making sanctification the parent of faith. We
should be at a loss to say whether the grace of the-Gospel, or
its power; Christ dying for us, or Christ living in us, is most
conspicuous in his writings; except that the former is al-
ways scripturally made the precursor and cause of the latter ;
so that while inculcating the duties of the Christian life, no
place is given to that monstrous Popish and Oxford Tract
perversion of the whole genius of Christianity, that Christ
crucified means self-mortified ; that justification is virtually
sanctification; and that the Gospel is not—at least after bap-
tism—hope to the guilty, and shelter to the perishing, when
they truly turn to God in Christ, but a covenant of works
based upon the condition of not forfeiting the alleged privi-
leges of baptismal innocence.
With respect to the questions between the Church of Eng-
land and her opponents, Bishop Wilson has exhibited simi-
lar comprehensiveness of grasp. While gladly exercising ex-
pansive affection towards all who love the Lord Jesus Christ
in sincerity, he has never shrunk from maintaining the scrip-
tural warrant and practical excellence of that communion in
which he is a minister and an overseer. He did this at a
time when the spirit of the evangelical dissenters seemed less
harsh than it has been of late ; and when they appeared to
rejoice in proportion as Christ was preached through the
agency of the Church of England ; and he has not receded
from his position, because under altered circumstances the
love of the church is unjustly branded with the names of party-
spirit and political secularity.
But our chief reason for reviewing his Lordship's Charge,
is to lay before our readers the substance of his sound and
seasonable remarks upon the Oxford Tract doctrines ; or ra-
ther upon that which forms their basis—namely, the setting
forth Tradition as a rule of faith. We have abstained of late
from renewing the discussions upon these topics, as we feared
we bad overstepped the patience of our readers ; but they
have lost none of their importance, and there is still much to
say upon them ; and we rejoice in adding a warning voice
from India to the salutary monitions which have abounded
at home. Of these we have already mentioned many in our
former papers. Among the more recent ones, which we have
not noticed, the reader will do well to weigh the faithful,
lucid, and powerful arguments of the Rev. Prebendary Ben-
son, Master of the Temple ; and also " Not tradition but Re-
velation," by Dr. Shuttleworth, Warden of New College,
Oxford. The question for examination, says Dr. Shuttle-
worth, is "Whether we have any reason for supposing that
in the Apostolic church, and that which immediately followed,
any articles were taught as of Divine authority, independently
of those expressly comprehended in the page of Scripture."
He proves the negative of this supposition ; and shews that
it was not till long after, that the notion of the authority of
tradition in matters of faith became current. If any reader
imagines that dependence may be placed upon the Fathers as
safe guides, he will do well to correct his mistaken estimate,
by turning to the facts adduced by Dr. Shuttleworth. Fuller
and more striking disclosures will be found in a work now in
the course of publication, entitled " Ancient Christianity, and
the Doctrines of the Oxford Tracts, by the Author of Spi-
ritual Despotism.' " We reserve any remarks which we
may have occasion to offer upon this remarkable and original
publication, till its completion, as we are far from being sure
how the learned and able writer intends to wind up his con-
clusion ; and he has already disclosed some intimations which
we think hear not fairly upon our reformed Anglican commu-
nion. His chief drift however is to shew how early and
widely the superstitious, demoralising, and, we need not add,
unscriptural notion of the religious virtue of celibacy spread
in the ancient church, and to trace to it most of the errors
which corrupted, and the evils which afflicted, it ; and to
prove their inseparable connexion, not only with popery, but
with the system adopted by the divines of the Oxford Tract
school; some of whom have written of the virtues of asteti-
cism in a spirit akin to that of the most fanatical of the anci-
ents of their modern followers.
To us however it is not pleasing to speak of the mistakes
and faults, the superstitions and absurdities, of weak good
men of former days ; and throughout the whole of our papers
upon the practical bearings of the question of Tradition, we
have sedulously avoided this exposure ; though it is an argu-
ment both popularly intelligible, and justly effective. The
Oxford Tractators, in publishing the writings of the Fathers,
if they select them fairly, will furnish the best antidote to
their own arguments. It is wonderful, however, to observe
how blind they are as to the effects of their statements. They
seem utterly unaware of the extent of Scriptural intelligence,
and we add of common sense, which, with all the faults of the
age, are to be found in this Christian land ; and hence, after
making some astounding declaration, they take for granted
that they have proved its truth, or opened the way to its ac-
ceptance, if they tell us that some person wrote or believed
so twelve or fifteen hundred years ago. Thus, for instance,
with most marvellous simplicity they say, in the advertise-
ment to their second volume : " Would not most men main-
tain, on the first view of the subject, that to administer the
Lord's Supper to infants, or to the dying and insensible, how-
ever consistently pious and believing in their past lives, was
a superstition ? and yet both practices have the sanction of
primitive usage." The inference of every sound-minded per-
son upon reading this passage would be, not that the unscrip-
tural superstitions alluded to were justifiable because they
had the sanction of primitive usage ; but that primitive
usage is very little to be depended upon, if it sanctioned such
unscriptural and senseless superstitions.
Should we be forced, as a supplementary argument, (for
the word of God is the only authoritative standard of appeal,)
to shew how little too many of the Fathers deserve the cha-
racter of being even ordinarily perspicacious guides—to say
nothing of infallible interpreters—we should not have far to
seek for such a mass of absurd and often pernicious fancies,
as must shock the mind of ignorant persons, who conclude,
because they have been told so, that the Fathers are models
olsound doctrine, powerful argument, and apt illustration
But, while we can, we eschew this invidious topic ; resting
our argument, not upon what the Fathers actually are, but
upon what, as men like ourselves, they must be, frail and, fal-
lible ; and upon the wisdom and duty of leaving the filthy
" puddles," as the Homily calls them, of human tradition,
for the pure fountain of unerring and eternal truth. We
concur with Bishop Jeremy Taylor, where in his Liberty of
Prophesying (Sect. viii.)—speaking of some who " press the
authority of the Fathers ;" and " think they can determine
all questions in the world by two or three sayings of the Fa-
thers, or by the consent of so many as they will please to call
a concurrent testimony"—he says :
" If I should reckon all the particular reasons against the
certainty of this topic, it would be more than needs as to this
question, and therefore I will abstain from all disparagement
of those worthy personages, who were excellent lights to their
several dioceses and cures. And therefore I willnot instance
that Clemens Alexandrinus taught that Christ felt no hunger
or thirst, but eat only to make demonstration of the verity of
his human nature ; nor that St. Hilary taught that Christ in
his sufferings had no sorrow; nor that Origen taught the
pains of hell not to have eternal duration ; nor that St. Cy-
prian taught Re-baptization ; nor that Athenagoras con-
demned second marriages ; nor that St. John Damascen said
Christ only prayed in appearance, not really and in truth ; I
will let them all rest in peace, and their memories in honour.
For if I should inquire into the particular probations of this
article, I must do to them as I should be forced to do now.
If any man should say that the writings of the school-men
were excellent argument snd authority to determine men's
persuasions, I must considg their writings, and observe their
defailances, their contradict‘ons, the weakness of their argu-
ments, the mis-allegations Of Scripture, their inconsequent
deductions, their false opinions, and all the weaknesses of
humanity, and the failings of their persons ; which no good
man is willing to do, unless he be compelled to it by a pre-
tence that they are infallible, or that they are followed by men
even into eirors or impiety. And therefore since there is
enough in the former instances 'to cure any such mispersua-
sion and prejudice, I will not instance in the innumerable par-
ticularities that might persuade us to keep our liberty entire,
or to use it discreetly. For it is not to be denied but that
great advantages are to be made by their writings, 'et probs.
bile est quod omnibus, quod pluribus, quod sapientibus vide-
tur.' If one wise man says a thing, is it an argument to me
to believe it in its degree of probation—that is, proportion-
able to such an assent as the authority of a wise man can pro-
duce, and when there is nothing against it that is greater ;
and so in proportion higher and higher, as more wise men
(such as the Old Doctors were) do affirm it. But that which
I complain of is, that we look upon wise men that lived long
ago with so much veneration and mistake, that we reverence
them, not for having been wise men, but that they lived long
since. But when the question is concerning authority, there
must be something to build it on ; a Divine commandment,
human sanction, excellency of spirit, and greatness of under-
standing, on which- things all human authority is regularly
•huilt. But now, if we had lived in their times, (for so we
must look upon them now, as they did who without prejudice
beheld them) I suppose we should then have beheld them as
we in England look on those prelates who are of great repu-
tation for learning and sanctity : here only is the difference ;
when persons are living, their authority is depressed by their
personal defailanccs, and the contrary interests ofTheir con-
temporaries, which disband when they are dead, and leave
their credit entire upon the reputation of those excellent
books and monuments of learning and piety which are left
behind. But beyond this, why the Bishop of Hippo shall
have greater authority than the Bishop of the Canaries, cote-
ris paribus, I understand not."
Bishop Taylor goes more fully into the subject in his Due-
tor Dubitantium. There are some admirable remarks upon
the Fathers as good witnesses, but bad expositors, and no
authorities. He opens Rule X. of Book I. Chap. 4, with
the following striking passage, from which the modern church
may learn a humbling but salutary lesson.
"Ancient writers are more venerable; Modern writers are
more knowing. They might be better witnesses, but these
are betterjudges. Antiquity did teach the .Millenary opinion,
and that infants were to be communicated ; that without
Baptism they were damned to the flames of hell ; that angels
are corporeal ; that the souls of saints did not see God before
dooms-day; that sins once pardoned did return again upon
case of relapse • that persons baptized by heretics were to be
rebaptized ; and they expounded Scripture in places innu-
merable, otherwise than they are at this day by men of all
persuasions ; and therefore no company of men will consent,
that in. all cases the Fathers are rather to be followed than

their successors. They lived in the infancy of Christianity,
and we in the elder ages ; they practised more and knew less ;
we know more, and practise less ; passion is for younger
years, and for beginning of things ; wisdom is by experience,
and age, and progression. They were highly to be valued,
because in more imperfect motives they had the more perfect
piety : we are highly to be reproved, that in better discourses
we have a most imperfect life, and an inactive religion.
If the reader will turn to the heads of " Catholic church"
and " Tradition," in the Index to the Ductor, he will find re-
ferences to many powerful remarks and arguments upon the
whole question. It is impossible for us to quote them at
length, but we will adduce a brief specimen. Under the Rule
entitled " The Catholic church is a witness of faith, and a
record of all necessary truth ; but not the mistress and ruler
of our creed—that is, cannot make any laws of faith," he
says : _

" The Catholic church", taking ;n the Apostolical, that is,
the church of all ages, is a witness beyond exception. For it'
she have the spirit ; if she love truth, and if she do not con-
sent to deceive herself, she cannot be deceived in giving tes-
timony concerning matter of fact and actual tradition : or if
she could, yet we are excused in following that testimony, be-
cause we have no better, we have no other. Better than our
best, and better than all we have, we cannot be obliged to