Page images
PDF
EPUB

But the Bishop mistook his man. No retractation for Mr. Butler: it is as bad a word as refunding. He re-states, explains, excuses, defends, like a master of the Skiomachia. In a word, he who charges others with prevaricating, has given the most glaring instance of prevarication perhaps on record. Let the reader judge.

"I beg leave to assure your Lordship, that I did not mean to insinuate, by the expression in question, any thing like that which your Lordship imputes to it; I simply meant to describe THE LATITUDE OF CONSTRUCTION IN WHICH THE ARTICLES ARE GENERALLY SIGNED, and the different feelings to which the necessity of recurring to this latitude of construction unavoidably excites in the subscribers." P. 6.

Then follows a truly Butlerian observation: "As a preliminary observation I entreat your Lordship, and every reader of these pages, to bear in mind, that all I now write is for self-defence, not to attack your Lordship or the Church, of which all acknowledge your Lordship to be a splendid ornament." P. 7.

What should we think of a man, who after firing a pistol among a crowd of inoffensive people, and being seized by one of them, should fire again, and call it self-defence? "A latitude of construction," is itself unfortunately a phrase of double meaning: it may signify in less offensive words much the same as that which Mr. Butler said before, and in that case his defence is evasive and prevaricating. But if we interpret it thus, Many an English clergyman signs the thirty-nine articles seriously, honestly and with good faith, without thinking it necessary to enquire whether all his brethren affix exactly the same meaning which he does to every proposition they contain;-if this be the sense of " a latitude of construction," the term is not only inoffensive, but true, and must be true, not only with regard to the articles of the Church of England, but to the creeds and formularies of every church of every denomination, that ever was, or will be, in the world (palpably with regard to those of the Church of Rome,) and to the civil contracts and obligations of all states. Two men may conscientiously sign the same bond in two different senses: circumstances may never occur to discover that they meant differently, or the difference, though sufficient to kindle heat and contention, may be upon particular points of small importance in comparison of the general tenor of the whole compact.

With a latitude of construction of this kind Members of Parliament execute their trust; they split into parties, which upon specific questions, and those of magnitude, never coalesce; they are all professed supporters, and may be very sincere and ho

nourable supporters of the same constitution, though there be strong shades of difference among them as to the construction of some even of its fundamental principles. Mr. Locke has shewn that the simplest of all Christian creeds, "I believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God," is a proposition which contains within it the germ of interminable controversy.

Our position, therefore, is behind that battery, which Mr. Butler has taken the pains to construct against latitudinarians, who have no sincerity of principle; and we are in an condition to take possession of it. We are not even latitudinarians in toleration; but these surely Mr. Butler cannot aim at, for in so doing he would attack his own friends, and particularly the venerable Bishop of Norwich, who is the only prelate that has been distinguished by zeal for the Roman Catholic cause. If this be the beginning of the reward of his Lordship's liberality, it is enough to make the serious sigh, and the light-minded smile: we trust there is nothing worse to come from that church for him, "qui semper amabilem sperat nescius auræ fallacis." Mr. Butler himself, in an appendix to his beautiful Life of Fenelon (a work addressed to the Bishop of Norwich) has a note on the "re-union of Christians," in which he sketches the outline of a creed, so comprehensive, that to use his words, "in a belief in its articles all Christians, Roman Catholics, Lutherans, Calvinists and Socinians are agreed." This is latitude with a witness.

[ocr errors]

How ill does it become the same person to sneer at the celebrated dogma of the immortal Chillingworth, that the Bible, and the Bible only, is the religion of Protestants." He adds, p. 12, "It is most clear that the system proposed in these few but very emphatic words, leaves no authority to the Thirty-nine Articles." What reasoning! The Bible is the only divine authority: the Thirty-nine Articles have all the authority of human laws. Where is the contradiction? The Thirty-nine Articles have had authority enough, according to the intention of their framers, to keep out of our Church Roman Catholics, and Anti-Episcopalians, and we may add Anti-Trinitarians, and all those who dislike any ecclesiastical jurisdiction. There have been, no doubt, good men in our Church, as in other churches, whose philosophical benevolence has run beyond experience and common sense, who have regretted that any test should be required of its members except an assent to the Bible but the number of these is few. Still fewer we trust and believe are they, who, after a peculiar education for some years, and a solemn examination at the time, can enter upon the most serious and sacred engagement, that of Orders, with

[ocr errors]

levity. It is not natural they should do so. The feelings with which the Thirty-nine Articles are subscribed, generally, consist of paramount reverence for the Holy Scriptures, as the sole fountain of theology and religious doctrine, and of attachment to the constitution and government of the Church of England, which exercises no other than a lawful authority over her sons; and which has been, and we trust always will be, exemplary in moderation towards dissentients. If the language of the Thirtynine Articles be not always received in its original sense, this is an equity which adapts the universality of the law to particular circumstances: a change which, in the lapse of three hundred years, must partially take place in the construction of the laws of all communities.

[ocr errors]

If we rightly understand the conclusion of Mr. Butler's pamphlet, from page 21, the meaning is, You Protestants are latitudinarians; the Roman Catholics are very conscientious : therefore the Protestant Bishops in particular ought to vote for giving additional civil privileges to the Roman Catholics.' The conciliation is on a par with the argument. The practical reply has already been given, where Mr. Butler hoped, doubtless, to create a strong diversion in favour of his cause.

The Bishop of Chester, with great propriety, calls Mr. Butler's attention to the intemperate abuse with which certain Roman Catholics have lately assailed the Established Church; and in conclusion points out, in a shrewd and able manner, this clue to the refutation of many of Mr. Butler's arguments. Mr. Butler insists," that no doctrine should be ascribed to the Roman Catholics as a body, except such as is an article of their faith;" and for an exact account of that faith he refers to the creed of Pius IV., published in 1564. But, says the Bishop, "the last clause but one in that creed is as follows: I also profess and undoubtedly receive all other things delivered, defined, and declared by the sacred canons and general councils, and particularly by the Council of Trent, &c.'" The decrees of some of these councils are contradictory to each otherupon the meaning of some of them the Roman Catholics are divided; the Council of Constance declared, (Sess. 19.) "that no safe conduct given to a heretic ought to exempt him from judgment," and accordingly John Huss was condemned and burnt. Are we then to believe Mr. Butler that Roman Catholics at the present day "profess and undoubtedly receive" all these doctrines, "without restriction or qualification?" No, no; they are not so bad: they assent to Pius IV.'s creed with a latitude of construction: they subscribe to some doctrines " with a sigh or a smile."

Mr. Butler intimates an intention of answering the Bishop of Chester's observations. In a third edition of the Bishop' pamphlet, a Postscript is added in reply to Mr. Butler's Letter, in which his Lordship animadverts in sufficiently strong language upon what certainly appears to be an evasion, rather than a satisfactory explanation of the meaning, in which Mr. Butler has made use of the offensive terms. As the subject of this Postscript is chiefly the latitude of interpretation with which the Thirty-nine Articles may be subscribed, we shall reserve what we have to say upon it for our article on Paley's works, in which it must necessarily be considered.

In the last edition of Mr. Butler's pamphlet, we find a short rejoinder from that gentleman, deprecating the style in which the Bishop had addressed him, and intimating that he was prepared to meet the forces which are known to be marching up against him.

The Accusations of History against the Church of Rome examined, in remarks on many of the principal observations in the work of Mr. Charles Butler, entitled the "Book of the Roman Catholic Church." By the Rev. GEORGE TOWNSEND, M.A. of Trinity College, Cambridge. Svo. pp. 812. 6s. Murray. 1825.

MR. Butler's "Book of the Roman Catholic Church," and the controversies to which it has led, afford a striking illustration of the temper and character of the times; and furnish a practical comment to the declaration which we set out with making, and which we have repeated in several of our articles,-that the age has arrived wherein we may hope to hear religious opinions discussed without angry disputes or personal invectives.

It is a happy sign, that the most venerable of our Bishops, whose public services as a churchman, and whose years as a man, have been extended far beyond the most lengthened of any of his predecessors, that the prelate, whose episcopal charges, whose political bias, whose patronage of literary merit, and whose acts of bounty, have all testified his ardent zeal for the interests of the Reformed religion, as opposed to that of Rome, should yet have carried himself so mildly and charitably in the great contest, that the very champion of the hostile faith, the writer himself of "the Book of the Roman Catholic Church," bears honourable witness to his worth, and takes an honest

pride in telling the world, that he has enjoyed his Lordship's confidence. "Having been professionally employed, (says Mr. Butler, in his Reminiscences, p. 97, when speaking of the Bishop of Durham and of himself,) and confidentially consulted by his Lordship, during half a century, he has come to the knowledge of a multitude of instances of his Lordship's exemplary charity, and well regulated munificence:-100,000l. would not make up the amount of those, in the foundation or arrangement of which his Lordship has professionally consulted the Reminiscent."

It is moreover a singular coincidence, that the two volumes which first issued from the press in reply to Mr. Butler's defence of the Roman Catholic faith, viz. Mr. Townsend's "Accusations of History against the Church of Rome," and Dr. Phillpotts'"Letters to Charles Butler, Esq. on the theological parts of his Book," &c. should be the productions of two of the Bishop of Durham's domestic chaplains. Our present concern is with Mr. Townsend's reply, as that which was first published; and in the next number we shall notice Dr. Phillpotts", -for the matter contained in each is so distinct, and entitled to so much grave attention, that it would be the height of injustice to both to mix them up under one article.

..Every body who has read Mr. Butler's "Book of the Roman Catholic Church," must have observed the strain of courtesy which pervades it. We think, as we hinted in a former Article, it somewhat approaches to affectation; and therefore we are better pleased with the genuine placidity, with which Mr. Townsend picks up the glove and enters the lists. It is with the serenity and composure of one who is sure of victory, and is not desirous of dealing severer blows, than the nature of the combat compels him to inflict. Never certainly did a gentler or more courteous knight come pricking on his way, or run a tilt in more studied attitude than Mr. Butler. He prances and caracoles over the course upon his menaged ambler, in the most graceful manner possible. He salutes his adversary, and makes his obeisance to the spectators of the conflict with that smiling air, which shews, that he is as anxious to exhibit his courtly demeanour and attire, as his prowess; or rather that he depends more upon conciliating the sympathy of the ring, and subduing his foe, by the pretty way in which he canters up to the rencontre, than by the vigour of his charge. To continue the simile, Mr. Townsend advances on his heavy war-horse, whose very weight is enough to trample every thing beneath him,

"Quadrupedante putrem sonitu quatit ungula campum."

« PreviousContinue »