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dable difficulties must be encountered by us at no great distance ; and it is a sense of duty alone which- has induced us to avow the conviction which has been reluctantly forced upon us . Let the aristocracy of England , Jet all who have strong- influence in this land , bethink them well what they are about . Let them beware of rash actions and of rash words . Let them look
before they leap . " And these views , the writer says , are common to him with " others not less distinguished for talents and sagacity than for station and influence , who in private confess that they completely coincide with us in the views we have taken , but doubt the expediency of presenting them to the public , lest they should depress ourselves or prove encouraging to our enemies *
. The learned Chillingworth has declared , " The Bible , and the Bible alone , is the religion of Protestants , " and this we had thought was at least in theory recognized by the Protestant Church of England . It appears , however , we have been mistaken . Some years since , Bishop Marsh came forward to shew the indispensable necessity for the welfare of the Establishment that the Prayer-book should be conveyed into the hands of the poor
jointly with the Bible . And now a writer in the British Critic for April maintains the necessity , that in order to arrive at a knowledge of Divine Revelation , not only the Thirty-nine Articles of the Church should be carefully studied , but " her admirable liturgy and offices of public worship , " " and , above all , the especial study of the Fathers of the Church and ancient writers of ecclesiastical history , as the best and safest guides to lead to the right
interpretation of Scripture . " In unison with this , the writer is indignant at the idea which Bishop Poynter ( a Catholic ) has advanced , of the members of the Church o £ England being left " without aid to discover the truths of religion by our own solitary judgment . " Bishop Poynter contends that no particular church , separated from the communion of the Church of Rome , is , or can be , one in its faith . " For where , " he asks , " is the particular
church separated from the Church of Rome that does not admit this principle of private judgment in matters of faith ? " " We have already told him , " says the British Critic , " the Church of England . " Well did we know that in practice the right of private judgment was a nullity in the Established Church , but scarcely should we have been bold enough to deny it a theoretical existence . But we bow before the authority of the church , and may , without incurring the charge of misrepresentation , declare in her own words ,
that the Church of England admits not the right of private judgment . To learn what the Scripture means , you must consult the articles and the liturgy , and the fathers . Alas ! when shall we know the meaning of the Scriptures ? Ages have debated about the right interpretation of the articles , and many people think they were intended to say much and define nothing . But before we can know the truths of Scripture , we must learn the teachings of the articles . Then the fathers are to be mastered . But the fathers surpass the glorious uncertainty of the law itself . Any thing and every thing may be
proved from them , and to heresy and orthodoxy they are alike hostile . That they are devoid of important instruction we do not pretend ; but if the object had been to enwrap truth in the most revolting and impenetrable obscurity , no better devise could have been hit upon than the collected writings of the fathers . Yet , through all this confusion and uncertainty , we are to toil our way to the understanding of the Scriptures . Common sense asks , Why not go direct Xp the sacred books themselves ? Wh y grope through worse than Egyptian cterkness , when by an effort of the will you may at once alight in the bright and sunny land of Goshen ? And how , after all this consultation
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390 The Watchman .
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), June 2, 1829, page 390, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2573/page/22/
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