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Leader (1850-1860), 8th March 1856, Edition 2 of 2, Page 15, There i3 no learned man but will confess...

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      Oxford Manich/3eism. Oxford Will Not Tol...

      tion > — ' When my testimony diverges from what seems to you righteous , which will you follow , me or your moral sense ? ' And in Abraham ' s case the command was only a trial , to pro"be the depths of the Patriarch ' s heart , never designed to be executed . The origin of the Atonement is to be sought in the

      righteous wrath of God against sin ; for sin strikes a blow at the authority of God , and so at the order of the universe . The more perfect the character , the more doth it abhor anything that is evil . Holiness Avould banish sinners for ever from his presence , by an antipathy deeply seated in his nature . A representative of the whole human race is

      constituted , upon whom went forth the whole curse of God . It was not a sweet savour offering fox acceptance , but as a burnt offering for expiation , and the wrath and curse of God visited the sin bearer with a death specifically different from every other death the world has ever witnessed , —more insupportable ; for when the light of God ' s countenance was withdrawn from Him , all was withdrawn ? Non nosier hie ' sermo *

      We need scarcely notice the shallow presumptions which crowd our abridged citations . Dr . Goulbuen forgets that the instincts which lie contemns are given to us by the Divine Author , whose purpose in the creation Dr . Goulburn undertakes to explain , as if lie had been there at the time . He fo 3 ; gets that the child has positive knowledge of his father ' s consistency ; and that where his knowledge fails , his instincts teach him loving trust and obedience . Wlio told him that it is part of

      God ' s dealings to try us \> y our moral sense ; who that we must believe and not see , when the millions of things that we see go on , and we ourselves , gor on , whether we believe or not ? Who taught him that it is necessary for the All-seeing to try the faith which is in the heart ? Who taught him that antipathy , is a Divine attribute or that " abhorrence "—the rising of the hairs upon a skin contracted by cold or fear , —is possible to a Divine nature ? Who that

      sin or anything else can . strike a blow at the authority of God , or disturb the order of the universe 5 which , so far as we can . see , can understand , believe , or conceive , is never for one instant stricken , arrested , or disturbed ? Dr . Goulburn revels in paradox , works himself up into a dogmatic frenzy , and borrowing the theory of Jewish sacrifice , undertakes to explain the doctrines of the new dispensation in a fierce and sanguinary jargon , as wild as Delphic rhapsodies , bitt coarser and meaner .

      There is indeed one argument into -which abhorrence positivel y forbids our entering ; it is the argument that unless the subject of this sermon were more than a martyr in the intolerable agony of the suffering endured , he was something less than a martyr ; for we are told of " shrinking , " "dread , " " anguish of mind" unknown to the martyrs of the Church , to men , to feeble women , or even to Socrates ! There is the gross suggestion of a contrast here , which is hazarded in the very insolence of dogmatism .

      And this is the picluxe which Oxford paints of The Martyr ; this is the Oxford interpretation of the Atonement 1 We will not characterise it . All who can apprehend its hideous meaning , where the red light comes through the dark cloud of mystic nonsense , must be driven to take refuge in . the mild and simple light , which Benjamin Jowett has thrown upon the subject , and in which the believer * The Sermon is published in London by John Hbnkt nod Jamkb Paiuisjsh ; wo could wish , that every one of our reudora should procure it , and study it for himself . " Wo luivo groatfy abridged the passages quoted ; wo have , however , uaod none but Dr . ( Joulbum ' s words , andi wo believo that wehavonot -warped Jus meaning .

      even of the Church of England , can walk reconciled to the Creation and to its Divine government .

      March 8, 1856.] The L E A Pffi B. 231

      March 8 , 1856 . ] THE L E A Pffi B . 231

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      There I3 No Learned Man But Will Confess...

      There i 3 no learned man but will confess be liath much profited tiy reading controversies , his senses awaiened , and nis judgment sharpened . If , then , it be profitable for him to read , -why alumld it not , at least , be tolerable for his adversary to write T—Mixton .

      An" Historical Study. (To The Editor Of ...

      AN" HISTORICAL STUDY . ( To the Editor of the Leader . ) Sir , —To realise the future in the instant— -to see an -event as it passes in the same aspect which it will wear some twenty years hence , is a thing notoriously difficult . Nevertheless , an attempt of this sort is generally amusing , and may- be instructive . I was present in the House of Lords on the first night of the Wensleydale Peerage debate , and so struck was I with the whole scene , that I have been tempted to set it forth as an historical study . Some future historian may perhaps write thus : —

      About this time a number of the London Gazette appeared announcing 4 > hat her Majesty had conferred upon Sir James Parke , one of the most distinguished judges on the Bench , the dignity of Baron Wensley * dale for the term of his natural life . Hitherto the peerage had been hereditary . . Forthwith the Press teemed with arguments in favour of the innovation of life-peers , and against it . Parliament had-scarcely assembled when the leaders of Opposition denounced the proposed . change ,, and -predicted the destruction of the Constitution ; At- length notice of a motion , on the subject .-was given , and a thousand conjectures as to the result of that motion distracted the town ..

      Accordingly , on " Thursday , the 8 th of Febiuary , 1856 , the HoueeofLords presented a sqene as striking as it iwas instructive . The substantial question was , wiefcher it , was legal , and constitutional for the _ Queen to create liferPeers , who should sit and vote in Parliament . - £ fh . e Lords were alarmed ; the public were interested ; the galleries and the bar of the House were crowded , with spectators . The occasion'was no common occasion , for it might be the . opening p £ < a conflict between prerogative and privilege .

      To see the venerable Lyndhursfc , four-score and upward—the wreck of one of the handsomest men in his time—led . in tottering and halfrblind to that seat amongst the hereditary Peers of England which he had won by his transeendant but prostituted abilities , rise in his place , and for nearly two hours , without a single memorandum , sustain a learned and elaborate argument in defence of his order , with the same delightful voice , the game unfaltering eloquence , and

      the same persuasive perspicuity with , which lie had charmed that House some thirty years ago , was a spectacle which those who witnessed it . will noi ; easily forget . Nor was this the only memorable incident in that debate an which the Lords put forth all their strength to ^ this attack made upon a wealthy hereditary order by the intrusion of life-Peers , however illustrious . Of a truth the champions were strangely marshalled . There stood Edward Sugden

      —the precocious child of the Truentt of hiB timeonce a barrister ' s clerk , now the Coke of his day , eager in defence of his long-desired , but late-acquired > hereditary dignity , side by side with Edward Geoffrey , fourteenth Eaa ! of Derby , who , in his vehement passion to maintain the purity and the dignity of his oi-der , not only ennobled the blood of the long-neglected Sugden , but adorned the ranks of the Peerage with , all the amphibious scions of his house . There , on the benches opposite to his early friend and political associate , Lansdowno — that aged and consistent Whig—stood the fantastic Henry Brougham , his tongue once the denouncer of kings , the trumpet of revolution , the idol of his countrymen , now mere sounding brass and a tinkling cymbal . Thexe stood plain John Campbell , some fifty years ago a" stranger

      in London , the friendless Bon of a Scotch Presbyterian minister , who , by sturdy poraeverance and solid ability , at length achieved the descent from the Gallery of the Reporters to the stops of the Thronerevealing by his every look and gesture the struggling atory of his early life , but yqt speaking on behalf of hereditary nobility with oil the weight of the Lord Chief Justice of ftugland—aide by side with George Douglas Campbell , the eighth Duko , Murquia and Earl of Argyll , and with Henry Goorge Grey , Earl Grey , the representative of an , onoiont and ULuatrious housetho champions of the now creation . To sec the noblemen of yesterday clamorous for hereditary honours , and tho noblemen of anoient lineago willing to admit into their rankB PeorB fox- life , may to some men noom . Btrjxnge . But , in truth , tho thing ia admirably natural . Hod I the pen of the Preacher I might lament over human vanity ; hod I tho pen of

      Swift , I might anatomise human weakness . To the wise man my reflections would be tedious , to the dull man useless . Therefore , let the curtain fall . « » * a

      Amended Statutes. (To The Editor Of The ...

      AMENDED STATUTES . ( To the Editor of the leader . ') Sin , —Oxford -is laughing in her sleeve at the public , who think she is becoming liberal . Will it be believed that . in the amended statutes of Corpus , published last week , it is laid down that the college shall contain * ' two Acolytes , or at least such -as Eave the -first clerical tonsure ? " That besides , every fellow- shall not only , declare his conformity to the Church of England , but tbat any time

      after his election he may be tried for heresy' by the senior members of ; the college , wko . may deprive * , him of bis . fellowship . . But he may appeal ; and to whom does the reader think ? To the Bishop of Winchester ; and to no other . That is iio say , a 'High Church majojority among the ^ fellows , if secure of -a High Church bishop , may glut their personal or religious spite against a Reforming , Low , or Broa d Churchman , and deprive him of Ms income without possibility of redress .

      In Exeter's amended statutes we find the following ( Stat . iii ., art . i . ) : — " No one may be elected a fellow except members of the Church of England or of some Church inccnnmv / nwn with it / ' "After all , " the Wesleyan may say , " this is fair enough . " Not so fast , my good sir ; you don't belong to any Church at all ; you have-no bishops , ? no apostolicaL succession . The sons of our " erring sister" ofRome , or of _ Holy Euasia , these , though not all we could wish , we would receive and cherish ; but a profane vulgar of rniddleKslass schismatics , to come betw « en the wind and our orthodox gentility—we have not quite come to that yet .

      Moreover , " If any fellow shall cease to be a member of the Church of * England ) <« *> $ some Church in communion with . it , it ^ shalliibe ¦? . lawful for"the visitor to s proceed to the deprivation ¦*> £ ¦ > . & uchfollow . " ? No \ y : this visitor is the Bishop of Exeter . Whoever disbelieves in baptismal regeneration is considered by that prelate to be no inember of the Church' 6 f 'England . How on sueh a . point tMs worthy can unite the bullying tone of the schoolboy with the pedantry of the schoolmaster ,. your readers know- ; yetin ! the Oorham case an appeal ' lay against him to the Privy Council . . Now , -whatever moderation he may have thought it prudent to exhibit ' will not be needed , for Oxford . proposes- to settle her own matters at once , and secretly , and not to trouble the public with the ¦ wearisome details of a public trial .

      One more extract , fromanoiiher college . "If it become known to the rector ( of Lincoln ) and to , the majority of the fellows , that any fellow has maliciously and contumaciously favoured any heretical opinion in public or private , he shall be removed from our college for ever , unless within six days he ^ submits himself to the rector and humbly undergoes correction . " " Sir , cdvum theologicum is a plant , ttat needs little cultivation . Yet these " amended statutes " are most skilfully preparing the field and the soil , where it may excel , as it has hitherto excelled , the rankest and most prolific growths of England . The worst of the

      Oxford Statutea -were rapidly becoming obsolete . -By pruning some of the most harmless , the rest will sprout with renewed « nad most perniciouB Btrengjih . The fact is , Oxford has throughout grossly abused the patience of a country tolerant of her f 6 llie , because fond of her . antiquities . For the last two centuries she has been the one fatal obstruction to the enlargement of the Church , and the nationalising of education . When open defiance of Reform would avail no longer , she has seen the policy of bending to

      the storm , of spontaneously amending her statutea , and of securing privately a firm , footing for future aggression and annoyance . But if the splendid revenues of Oxford are ever to be national , and if every earnest and independent thinker is not to bo a prey to the blind instincts and zealous pedantry of Oxford Common Booms , let Mr . Heywood call the attention of Parliament to the London Gazette of Feb . 9 th , containing the " amended statutes , " the first fruits of Oxford Reform . . 1 am , Sir , ; Your obedient servant , Oxford , Feb . 22 . Oxoniensib .

      Another Emperor.—The World Counts One Em...

      Another Emperor . —The world counts one Emperor more . ICwaa , brother-in-law of one of the petty kings of Abyssinia , after dethroning lus relative , hfts assumed tho Imperial crown , under the . name , pf Theodore I . Australia . —Trado , according to tlie lost accounts from AuBfciftlift , was in a more flquwalung condition than it had been ; and the rej ^ rta fro m tho gold , fields are highly aatisftvetory , the yiold being largo , and tho minors in a prosperoua condition . The . new coiiatltution has boon proclaimed at'JWColbourue . Sir Charl «» Hothflun , in ^ his . jatpopoh . on the , flpeniifig . o . f th © JLegteJa . - tivo Council ,, eald ho believed tho colony would 1 > nearly free from debt by the end- Of the year .

  • Citation
    • Leader (1850-1860), March 8, 1856, page 15, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/cld_08031856/page/15/