"ESSAYS AND REVIEWS" JUDGMENT.

New Zealand Herald, Volume I, Issue 141, 26 April 1864, Page 4

"ESSAYS AND REVIEWS" JUDGMENT.

| OPINIONS OK 'JL'IIK PRESS. j I rltoM TIIK TIMES. i I It will be as weil at once to recognise the fact, | which is made pretty evident by this decision, tliat the existing formularies of the Cl'urch are not suilieient to exercise utiy adequate control over the development oi' modern opinion. They "were, in I'aet, composed in a distant age, with reference to controversies now obsolete, and they eannot possibly tie expected to si.ttle question:! which were never raised, and almost unknown at the date ot their composition. It must be added that it would be quite useless, in the present spirit of legislation, to add any additional stringency to the laws and formularies of the Church. On every subject the universal principle of the present day is to interpret laws as laberaliy as possible; and we believe that the more the Church follows the same plan the better it will be for its interests. We should be glad, too, to see a little more eonlidenee among the orthodox clergy in the inherent goodness of their cause. Men have learnt to view tile publication ot the wildest speculations 011 any other subject without ■dismay, ami to abandon any attempt to restrain sucli speculations by force of law, because they have perfect confidence of the ultimate success ot trullift is, of cuurse. a somewhat difl'event matter 111 the ; case oi'the established clergy. It is important, 110 doubt., that the authorised instructors of a whole nation should not be permitted to leach what is positively injurious. 011 that point, however, we have perfect confidence in the wisdom ot the authors of our ecclesiastical constitution, and shall see without the slightest anxiety am tiling taught which is dceidcil by the first Court in the kingdom to be within the limits imposed by the formularies. Fi;OM THE DAILY N'KWS. ( hie advantage may certainly lie expected of it : a very invidious argument, which has been often heard during the last three years, must now be wholly laid aside. Those who hold the stricter views 011 the subjects of these judgments are still at liberty to brand their brcthcrn as ' infidels,' the 'Xrptt m ctm/n/ Crrix/mii,' and so 011, but they must not accuse them of dishonesty—must not allege that they are ' breaking a contract.' anil teaching a doctrine contrary 10 that of the Church whose bread they tat. The judgment of the highest tiibunal in this country afiinning that T>r. "Williams and Mr. "Wilson have only exercised a liberty which belongs to all clergymen of their Church, is their vindication against this charge. The Bishops, too, we may reasonably expect, will learn a lesson of caution from the peculiar position in which they are placed by this judgment. An authority higher than theirs has absolved, after a most patient tiial, those whom they had condemned without- hearing. Agitators in Convocation, stnh as the Bishop ot Oxford and .Archdeacon Dinison. will be less eager in luture to commit themselves (o propositions which the ultimate authority upon the law of the Church is so ready to overrule. Anil we also hope that the free . enquirers' themselves, relieved from the auxiely wliich attends an uncertain ecclesiastical position, will in future use their privilege with some consideration for the case of the great body ot the Church, especially lor its weaker and less instructed members, and not heedlessly lay stumbling-blocks in the way of their brethren.

I-'IiOM THF. Ot'AUUIAX. 15e it dl served tliat the obligations of a clergyman of til'.* Church renin in ju.-l ;ls they tlid before th U tin - happy trial. lie will still be bound in honour und conscience. as witnessed hy his premises and subscriptions, to believe hcartly as the Church has received, and to milliliter honestly as the Church prescribes The doubtful point is, and always has been, lio«' far obligations of this sort can be enforced on the unwilling by law. There always have been, and there always will be, those who will avail tlu-iuselvesol the imperfections attending on the administration ot human justice to do and say thing? from which a liner con.-cienciousncss would have made them abstain. There will, however, we may hope, never be many clergymen whef will be content to hold utlice in the Church whilst contravening in their publie teaching the manifest spirit of her whole doctrine, nrnl the clear significance of nLI her institutions. Hut if such there tire, they imist p it seems, except in some few ver\ extreme cases, account to their Maker on!y for their sins. The rest of us must be content to balance tin- blessings conferred both on Church and State by their connexion agaili.-t evils such lis this, which undoubtedly will occasionally arise. There is but one way of suppressing new heresies—namely, new dogmatic decisions. l!ut to call out in days lil;e these the slumbering authority of the Church—or rather of n single branch of it. our own—in this kind, would, it may reasonably be feared, lead to Jar worse evils than the occasional endurance of an unsound ecclesiastic in a country parish.

FROM Tin: cr.Kit 10AT. .IOTTHN'AL. It need excite no alarm per sc, lor it is impossible tlml a decision could have been pronounced in which the doctrine of the Church is left more utterly untouched. It should be everywhere made known by us that not one item of doubtful or heretical teachinglias been sanctioned or allowed by the decision arrived «at. .At the same time the case illustrates the nice sense of justice which prevades our Courts. A clergyman has his rights and liberties fenced round so as 10 prevent his ever becoming the victim of parly spirit or bigotry, or of hasty and crude verdicts of excited judge.-. We do not envy the position of the clerical defendants in this piotracted suit, for, although they have escaped the penalties which hung over tliem, thev do not come out of Court cleared from the charges alleged against them. The decision does 110 more than a Scotch verdict of not proven, and they cannot say that their teaching has been proved to be in accordance with our formularies. The taint of heresv is still upon them. The great bulk of their brethren are in 110 doubt about their unsoundness. Jiut thev have not gone altogether unpunished, for expenses unci menial anxieties have severely mulcted them. FROM THE INQL'IItEIt. Thus ends this famous trial. No longer can our bibliolaters endeavour to establish their dogma in our Courts of law. The idea of "criminal proceedings" or "penal coneijuenccs" hanging like a Damocles' swovil over the heads of those who bring scholarship and piety to the intelligent interpctation of the Uible as of all other books, will no longer be u hindrance to a free scientific theology. . . . AVe shall have more outspoken honesty as well us charity in future, and if erroneous opinions are advanced, they will be sure, in the diverity of free minds, to be euiliciently refuted. An impossible uniformity will cease to be desired; and tiie benefits of an inevitable variety, springing out of the natural development of our various characters, will be thankfully recognised. For these blessings to the Gospel of our country let us avow our obligations to the brave but much defamed Essayist a and Kcviowm.

FROM THE SPECTATOR; The decision seta free the consciences of English clergynion on the three questions most essential to the sincerity of the Christian intellect of our own dny the nature of the inspiration of the Bible, the meaning of justification by faith, the duration and limit of the Divine retribution to be exacted for ei n . in other words, on the question which involves toe freedom of intellectual inquiry into the composition of the Bible, the question which involves the freedom of ethical investigation into the grounds of the Divine forgiveness, and the question which involves the freedom of pnraonal trust in God in relation to his treatment of human evil, and whether it is decent to bind Him over by certain teclmical, finality principles which, if tliev nro to be found in the Bible at all, arc visible only through the special magnifying glasses of particular creeds. It seeins to us impossible to overate the importance of these decisions. They will give freedom without robbing anyone; they will remove that detestable necessity for vague and ambiguous speech which saps the influence of the clergyand yet, while removing these oppressive doctrinal fetters from those who do not like to wear them, they leave the great personal faith in the Son of God incarnate in our humanity wholly untouched as the first principle and great assumption of our own creed. FROM THE ATHC.VJICM. A clergvman is safe as long as he does not contradict a proposition laid down in the articles, in express logical terms of negation ; and further, that, even if InT should so contradict, he has licence, provided that the historv of the establishment shows that the licence has' been taken by the first mimes in theology. . An alteration of the terms of subscription is certain, and with 110 A ery long delay. But it must proceed upon the principle of allowing all that has been gained, in a manner which may make the consciences of the subscribers quite easy. Its giuding rule must be, that not a man who has escaped under the old system should by possibility have been im- | peached "under the new."How much more, is a que 5 - j lion for tlirrenssion, and a curious discussion it will I bo. As We have often said before, we want, and we now think we are to get, sure and certain hope— whic!i men hasasMivanceiu spite of the Archbishop of York—that when we open a book written by a clergvman, we may r< ad the five thought ot a free mam" and not turn away from the quibblings of a muzzled slave.

FHOM THE LONIK'N REVIEW. I fail the tlirou t-pisi.-op.-«.l judges been unanimous, we ilo not believe that the lay lords would have ventured. to overide their united on a ((uestiou of the meaning to be attached to theological language in the l'rayer-book. On the liishop of London, therefore, the responsibility of this judgment, with whatever evils may result from it, very mainly rests : and we regret this the more because the consideration that this is the case will tend to increase that feeling of distrust of his Lordship's leaning and influence in the religious questions ot the dav, which we have been.sorry to see gaining ground both amongst the clergy and laity, and which is going far to neutralise "the great benefits which his Kmi'lhu:;. piety and labours would otherwise confer on his diocese and the Church. KKOM THE SATURDAY REVIEW. The prosecutor in the recent suit probably believes that he has been following in the footsteps of Athanusius : but he has compa.-sed ii result which would have been as distasteful to his exemplar as it himself. lie desired to fence in the field of Churclimauship at a point where he thought tlie hedges had been neglected ; but all that he has done has been to lay low a considerable length ol fence which, beiore he commenced his efforts, seemed to be in perfectly good repair.