The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1846-02-10 00:00:00

DR. PUSEY'S SERMON

Dr. Pusey cannot have been insensible to the effects of
his own cherished but mischievous opinions, during the
last few months. He has seen those who acknowledge
themselves with pride and gratitude his disciples passing
through every stage of duplicity, until desertion from the
church his crowned their lamentable career of retrogres-
sion. We did expect that duty to the University and love
to the Church would, at the very earliest opportunity, have
urged the parent of this great calamity to express his sor-
row for the past, and to utter a word of warning for the
future; to fling away, at least, those gloomy crudities and
that worse than useless mysticism with which he has ever
delighted to invest baleful error, and to captivate the
minds of the thoughtless and the weak. Nothing of the
kind has happened. In a tone of spiritual defiance Dr.
Pusey takes up the thread of his discourse at the point at
which he quitted it upon the occasion of his summary dis-
missal. The sermon which he preached on Sunday last,
so far from evincing a healthier state of thought and feel-
ing, may be read in connexion with that which obtained
for him the grave censure of the University, and be re-
garded only as its fit and natural conclusion. It betrays
the same leaning towards doctrines repudiated by the
church of England,—it exhibits the same cloud and dark-
ness, and deals in the like subtle and abstruse enigmas.
Lowly as the style may look, there is no mistaking the
animus that flows beneath it. Priestly self-satisfaction
and sufficiency creep to the very surface ; an unconquered
will pervades it. The text of the sermon already announces
the assumption of the old position, and proclaims the te-
nacity with which the holy warrior is prepared to fight for
sacerdotal rights.
" Whosoever sins ye remit, they are remitted to them ;
and whosoever sins ye retain, they are retained." It is in
illustrating these words that Dr. Pusey, in his first ser-
mon after readmission, remarks as follows :

" The greatness of the power thus intrusted to man might
well exceed our belief, and make us tremble to e ecute it, and
almost doubt as men had doubted whether we had it. But our
Lord premised his commission with these few brief words, con-
veying at once its extent, and the t ule and guidance of it As
my Father Rath sent me, even so send I you.' "

e are loth to enter in these columns upon any religious
discussion whatever, but we do feel urged by the necessi-
ties of the case to step for once between the public and the
acceptance of a doctrine that involves the spiritual inde-
pendence and possibly the happiness of every member of
the state. We need hardly say, that the assertion con-
tained in the sentence above quoted is one that has long
been stoutly maintained by the Romanist. Once prove
I hat human power is not inferior to that of Heaven,—that
the ability to forgive and punish rests equally with the
Creator and the creature, and what sacrifices shall not be
made to purify the soul, what bribes shall be sufficient to
satisfy the greedy man in whom this power lives ? If sins
may be forgiven, forgiveness may be purchased, and if for-
giveness may be purchased, sinfulness may be indulged.
Not so, says Dr. Pusey ; for " true repentance must pre-
cede the priest's forgiveness ;" but true repentance has
already gained the forgiveness of the sinner's Saviour.
The pardon of the prit st is useless, or is worse. If re-
pentance is sufficient for pardon, priestly condonation is
not required ; it insufficient, priestly favour cannot be im-
partial, since it may be bought, and the rich only can
make sure of the blessing.— Times.