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THE

CHRISTIAN REVIEW

AND

Clerical Magazine.

OCTOBER 1827.

A Charge delivered to the Clergy of the Archdeaconry of Ely, at a Visitation held at Cambridge on Monday, April 24, 1825. With an Appendix. By the Rev. J. H. BROWNE, A. M. Archdeacon of Ely, &c. London: Hatchards. 1826. A Vindication of the Character of the pious and learned Bishop Bull, from the unqualified Accusations brought against it by the Archdeacon of Ely, in his Charge delivered in the Year 1826. By the Rev. CHARLES DAUBENY, LL. D. Archdeacon of Sarum. London: Rivingtons. 1827.

IF

F the subject of these publications were not in close and vital alliance with the highest interests of mankind, we should perhaps have felt at liberty, under existing circumstances, to forfeit the pledge we had given to weigh them in the balance of theological criticism. Since we thus engaged ourselves, the Archdeacon of Sarum has been called away from the field of human passion and controversy, to enter, we trust, into that pure and perfect rest, which is reserved for those who depart in the faith and love of the Redeemer. To summon before the bar of our fallible tribunal one who has so lately been cited to the unerring judgment-seat of Heaven, is a painful, and may seem an ungracious proceeding. But to animadvert on certain erroneous opinions avowed by an individual in a public confession of faith, and to repel allegations unjustly thrown out by him against the creed and character of others, may be imperiously commanded by truth and religion, although that individual have escaped through the gate of death from all sense of exposure and rebuke. We had no acquaintance with Dr. Daubeny, except as a public man and theological writer. The little, however, that has reached us concerning his private life

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and ministerial deportment, enables us cordially to sympathize with those who deplore his loss. There are also many sentiments interspersed throughout his writings, which allow us to hope that a sounder faith was wrought into his moral constitution than he could bring himself in speculation to entertain. And this, it is our comfort to believe, is not unfrequently the case. Many, we doubt not, are deeply imbued with evangelical verities, which they are prevented from recognising by a certain dim-sightedness, that results from the offuscating influence of education, association, and ecclesiastical position. Yet, while we cherish this charitable opinion of the spiritual condition of many, to whose tenets, as delivered from the pulpit and the press, we are utterly unfriendly, we should grievously sin against charity if we refrained from exposing what appear to us capital faults in their scheme of doctrine. To a notice of one of these faults the present article will be chiefly devoted. It is generally known that the Archdeacon of Sarum was of that party in the Church, whose sentiments, according to our deliberate judgment, were very wide of the platform of the Lutheran Reformation, and in the same degree at variance with Scriptural Orthodoxy. While, therefore, we would treat the memory of the deceased dignitary with becoming consideration, we must not forget that an infinitely higher duty lies upon us than that of leaving inviolate the reputation of one who is no longer sensible to praise or censure. We stand in the critical and responsible post of watchmen round the temple of Jehovah. To protect that hallowed edifice from open assault or clandestine sap, is the work to which our faith is solemnly plighted ;-and not, we trust, without_direction and help from the omnipotent Lord of the temple. In such an undertaking, the eye must never wink, nor the hand be slack; neither may we sacrifice to a cowardly and squeamish complaisance, to a preposterous tenderness towards the dead, the best interests of the living. This is our principle, and it is firmly settled in us by Divine authority, by sober reason, and by genuine philanthropy. The maxim," De mortuis nil nisi bonum," has indeed a shew of kindliness; but it is a hollow and spurious kindliness, such as the word of God repudiates, and such as social utility cannot endure, except under many limitations.

It is for the sake of asserting an important general principle that we throw out these preliminary reflections, and not with a view to intercept the futile calumny, that we are dealing injuriously by the late Archdeacon, in putting him upon his trial after he has been precluded, by an insuperable decree, from self-defence and recrimination. Our reason for so

doing is clear and obvious. He died with his harness on, and in the attitude of defiance. The last effort of his pen, which is of a highly polemical description, has not descended with him to the grave. Indeed, the death of its author may tend to augment its noxious vitality, by attracting to it a kind of superstitious veneration from the partisans of that mongrel divinity which it inculcates. Dr. Daubeny was a man of considerable eminence in that division of the Establishment, which, by a flagrant misnomer, is designated High Church; for it comprises, nay, owns for leaders, men who are the antipodes of our great Reformers. We believe that numbers looked to him as to a standard-bearer: and, notwithstanding the severe check he had sustained in more than one campaign, they still tracked his steps and cheered him on; displaying in perfection that sturdy mood which remains unconscious of defeat, be it ever so obvious to all the world except the vanquished legions themselves.

The circumstance which again called their veteran champion into the field, and induced him to buckle his armour on limbs for which age and long service might fairly have claimed exemption, was the publication of a Charge, officially delivered by Archdeacon Browne, to the Clergy of the archdeaconry of Ely, in which the doctrine of Justification is exhibited, and the hypothesis of Bishop Bull in his Harmonia Apostolica is canvassed. It is impossible, we think, for any discussion of a controverted point to be managed with more good sense and temper than are conspicuous in this Charge. By his opponent it is admitted to be exceedingly well written; and serious Christians, of that school to which Dr. Daubeny was opposed, will rejoice that so able and manly a testimony to "the truth as it is in Jesus" has issued from so respectable a quarter, at the instance of so considerable a body of clergy.

We observe that the Archdeacon of Sarum, in the outset of his "Vindication," expresses considerable surprise, that "so lengthened an exposition of the first rudiments of Christianity" should have been thought necessary for so enlightened a society as the clergy of any diocese may be supposed to constitute. Is it possible not to suspect, that such a reflection was rather sneeringly than seriously thrown out? No doctrine of our holy religion, as Dr. Daubeny was fully aware, has given occasion to more rugged strife, and more subtle speculation, than the doctrine of Justification by faith. Elementary it is indeed, inasmuch as it is the very principle and core of the Gospel; nor can any superstructure of Christian godliness be reared on any other foundation: but if the Doctor meant, by terming it a first rudiment, to insinuate that it is food for babes

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