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NON-RESIDENT M.A.'s

SELF-VINDICATION

ATTENDING TO SUPPORT THE VOTE OF CENSURE

DR. HAMPDEN'S WRITINGS.

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OXFORD,
PRINTED BY W. BAXTER:
SOLD BY J. H. PARKER ; AND BY MESSRS. RIVINGTON,
LONDON. 1836.

I am one of the three hundred non-resident
Members of Convocation, who went up to
Oxford a few weeks ago to testify their
disapprobation of the principles contained in
Dr. Hampden's writings. I went fully prepared
for the cry of Bigotry and Intolerance which
I knew would be raised against us, and which
has accordingly been raised with no sparing
voice. This, of course, I give no heed to ;
except so far as the nature and the authors
of the cry are such as to confirm my conviction,
that the course we took was a right one. Next
to the approbation of Christian friends, nothing is
more encouraging than the censures of unchristian
adversaries. I find, however, that some whose
good opinion I value, and whom I should be
sorry to leave with erroneous impressions on
the subject, are not quite clear as to the
imperative necessity of the line we have taken.
Not knowing the momentous importance of the
matter at issue, they are surprised that in
fimes like these we should choose (as it appears
a2

to them) to interrupt the peace and harmony
of the University. Misinformed as to the
extent of Dr. Hampden's errors, they wonder
that we should expose ourselves to the charge of
acting with unkindness and harshness to an
individual ; and having heard a few popular
and plausible objections started to our line of
proceeding, they 'have suffered them to grow
in their minds, instead of doing us the justice
to enquire into their truth and propriety.
It is to such persons that I address these few
lines, in justification of what we have already
done, and of what we intend hereafter to do.
1. I find it objected to us, that whereas
Dr. H. published his opinions several years
ago, it is only now, on his appointment to
the Regius Professorship that they have been
raked up against him. " If," say they, " these
doctrines are really false and dangerous,
they ought to have been denounced long
ago, and not brought forward now to
serve a particular purpose." But surely even
were it true to the letter that the resident
portion of the University had so neglected their
duty as to suffer these doctrines to remain for a
long time unexposed and unrefuted, are they
therefore never to say a word against them
hereafter? Is there any statute of limitations
to protect the growth of spurious Theology?
What is the term of years through which, if

a dangerous book can creep unobserved, it is
thenceforth to command respect and defy
censure ? But the alleged ground of this
objection is not strictly true. I am informed
that, immediately after the publication of Dr.
H's Lectures, their unsound and destructive
contents were freely commented on in private
conversation : they did not however attract
general attention; they took no hold whatever
of the public mind : and it was concluded,
with apparent justice, that it would be a
needless waste of time to attack opinions which
nobody was in danger of being misled by;
that controversy might only tend to enliven
and render attractive opinions which in them
selves, and in the mode of setting them forth,
were hitherto as dull and repulsive as could
be desired; and that therefore the best course
was to let them go their way quietly down
 in vicum vendentem thus et odores
Et piper, et quidquid chartis amicitur ineptis.
Moreover, more than a year ago there was
published a pamphlet, entitled " The Foundations
of the Faith assailed at Oxford," addressed
to the Archbishop of Canterbury as our Visitor,
in which the attention of the University and
the Church at large was invited to the peculiar
views of Dr. Hampden. In short, he has
most undoubtedly for some time past, been
looked on with suspicion as an unsound

6
Theologian: and if from a love of peace or
from private considerations those who knew
his errors have held on with him till the very
last moment, till silence became a sinful consent,
is their temporary forbearance to be now brought
against them ? Are they never to be allowed
an opportunity of atoning for their remissness,
if remissness it were not to withdraw from
him the first instant they found him " teaching
otherwise, and not consenting to wholesome
words?" After all, if there were any force in this
objection, it would only apply to the resident
members, who heard or who read the statements
in question ; or rather to those only who
by station or character might be expected
to expose and confute them. Let them
make their own defence as best they may.
It does not affect the non-residents, whose
duty it is to use their votes in defence of
the sacred cause of truth as soon as they
are informed of the danger, and allowed an
opportunity of acting.
But, 2dly, it is generally objected to us,
especially by such as are predisposed in Dr. H's
favour, " He is a Professor already. You made
him one a very short time since." Not we — a
majority did so out of six electors who in no sense
represent the University ; but we had no control
over their choice, which was besides a matter

of comparative insignificance. Any one with
three years experience of Oxford knows the im
mense difference between a Professor of Moral
Philosophy, and the Regius Professor of Divinity —
the one almost a sinecurist, the other the
most important, the most prominent, the most
responsible officer in the University ! — between
a Professor whose public Lectures are heard
once a term by a few idle M.A.s and stray under
graduates, unless indeed the walls have the sole
and undivided benefit of them — and a Professor
whose Lectures have hitherto been attended by all
the students in Theology, to whom they have
served as an outline to be filled up by their
future studies — a standard by which their
religious views have been fixed and regulated —
a chart by which they have been taught to steer
clear of the rocks and shoals of Theological
reading. To most of us the Divinity Lectures
were our last gift from the University, at a time
when we were most disposed to receive deep
impressions, on our taking leave of the state of
pupillage, and having soon to teach others what we
had learnt ourselves. Surely this is an office in
which soundness of principle, devotion of heart,
and depth and extent and accuracy of learning,
must, by God's blessing,be most widely and perma
nently beneficial to His Church : and in which, on
the other hand, an unsound, superficial, wavering,
double-minded person cannot fail of doing the
greatest mischief.

Philosophers must and will have some material
for curious novelties and ingenious speculation.
Let them confine themselves to discussing heathen
ethics, and constructing hypothetical schemes
of morality of their own. Dr. H. could do com
paratively little harm, while he travestied Butler
and developed Epicurus to the few who chose to
listen to him, but was not for a moment to be
trusted where a whole University must sit at his
feet to receive his impressions of Divine truth.
" A cow," as, Dr. Johnson has observed, "is a
very good animal in afield, but we turn her out of
a garden." Can it be a matter of surprise, that
the same men who silently tolerated Dr.
Hampden's solitary browsings in the wide field
of Moral Philosophy, should protest against his
breaking into the sacred garden of Divinity,
where we know too well that he will begin at
once to trample under foot its most carefully
maintained fences, and its most precious borders ?
But, 3dly, it is said, " After all, it is a mere
question of words, and names, and Theological
speculations, about which if Dr. Hampden does
not quite agree with you, why cannot you bear
with him quietly, and discuss the matter with
him in a friendly manner, instead of trying to
cry him down with this summary condemnation ?"
Now I can quite conceive, that people, who are
not actually engaged in studying or teaching
Theology, may sometimes be surprised at the

stress laid on certain questions, of which it
requires a more practised eye than theirs to see
the full bearings, and appreciate the infinite
importance: and therefore I am not surprised
at some even serious right-minded persons
wondering at our strenuousness on the present
occasion. But I must entreat all such persons
to give us credit for being engaged in a contest
of much more than mere names and words : I
must assure them, that the very foundations of
our faith are assailed : I must beg them to believe
the truth of what I am going to say ; namely,
that men of the highest reputation in the Uni
versity for talents, piety, and Theological acquire
ments, have examined the writings of Dr. H.
carefully and dispassionately, and found them to
be full of contradictions to the very truths, which
by his ordination vows he is pledged to maintain :
they have found in them strong reasons to
conclude, that he has been led away by a false
philosophy too closely resembling that of the
German rationalists : they have found but too
many instances of the most irreverent and depre
ciating manner of speaking of our Creeds and
Articles, the Sacraments, and all the mysteries
of our holy faith : and they apprehend that the
tendency of his principles must be to encourage
the levelling latitudinarianism of the present day,
to foster a spirit of self-confidence and rash
judgment, and thus to pave the way to Soci-

10
nianism and other more avowed forms of Infidelity.
This, 1 say, is the true case against Dr. H, made
out after the most careful investigation ; not from
isolated passages only, but from the universal
tenor of his writings. I shall not now subjoin
any specimens or extracts from them to prove
this charge : if it is false, it can easily be refuted :
if any are seriously anxious to ascertain the
truth of it for themselves, they have only to send
to any bookseller for the pamphlets which have
appeared on the subject : but, if it be true, does
it not follow that this is a matter which admits
not of dallying and quiet conferring, but which
calls for speedy and decisive measures of con
demnation ? The religious principles of the
University are at stake: the youth of the Univer
sity are in immediate danger of being corrupted :
our love of peace must give way to our still
more sacred obligation to the cause of truth :
and the courtesies of common life are only so
far to be regarded as they are consistent with our
duty to " contend for the faith once delivered to
the saints."
4. Another objection, that it was a personal
business, can, of course, in the nature of things,
only be aimed at a few ; as one man cannot
come into any thing like personal collision with
many. For my own part, lean truly say, that when
I got off the coach at Oxford, I had never seen
Dr. Hampden in my life; and this must be the

11
case with most of the non-residents. But I have
every reason to believe, that those residents who
are most conspicuous in their opposition to his
opinions, are not the kind of men to indulge in
personal animosities. Every question, however
Christianly and prudently agitated, may still be
charged with personality, by those who are
minded to regard it as such. We live in a world
of persons. We are all persons, and have persons
to deal with. Truth is committed to the care of
persons, who when they defend it from the mani
fold aggressions of error, have something more
than abstractions to cope with, and still find they
have persons for their antagonists.
Moreover it must needs happen, that in the
many vicissitudes of our holy warfare, the
foremost maintainers of truth and error, and of
good and evil principles, are again and again
brought into something like hostile collision.
As the spheres of individuals enlarge and new oc
casions occur, so each renewed encounter, be the
cause ever so legitimate and the stake ever so
sacred, may still bemalignantly construed into the
remnant of some former feud. Men become
personifications, as it were, of the views they
advocate and represent : and while the more
spiritual discerners see this world and this world's
conflicts to be but the visible field of that fight,
wherein the causes, the guidance, the aids, and
the prizes, are all of heaven ; men of grosser

12
apprehensions rest their eyes on the outward
shape and present circumstances of that unseen
struggle. The 5th objection seems to be, that it was
a. party business. To this I answer, What party?
Look at the Record and the British Magazine.
Are they of the same party ? Are they likely to
agree on any one point if they can possibly help
it ? Look through the list of names affixed to the
various documents. You will find there speci
mens of the highest of what are termed High
Churchmen, and the lowest of those who are
designated the Low Church. But, I assert, the
main body of Dr. Hampden's opponents are
precisely those who are least likely to be influ
enced by party feelings ; they are men, who,
disclaiming any particular name, cognizance, or
leader, seek only to be good Churchmen in the
most sacred sense of the word. They are men
whose hearts' desire and prayer is that the
Gospel may be preached and received as free
from human adulterations as can possibly be,
and that the Church may be brought more and
more to her primitive purity of Doctrine and
Discipline; but who, believing that Dr. Hampden's
principles would tend to results the most opposite
to these, feel it their duty zealously and sted-
fastly to oppose them.
I pass to objection the 6th, That it was a
political business.

13
If this means that our proceedings may by
some persons be viewed politically, or connected
and even mixed up with political questions, of
course I cannot answer for the religious single-
mindedness of every one who went up to vote, nor
should I think any one could be utterly un
conscious of the possibility of political con
sequences. Unfortunately in these days of
excitement, politics, like the frogs in Egypt,
are a plague which penetrates to our beds, or
ovens, and our kneading troughs. I will not
pretend to be certain, that all who met in Oxford
are as wholly uninfluenced by political motives
as myself, who am perfectly guiltless of ever
having given a political vote, or attended a
political meeting : but this I have every reason
to believe, that, generally speaking, it was religious
principle, and not political excitement, which
called us forth, and that all worldly consider
ations were merged in our apprehensions of the
danger which we saw impending over the present
fortunes of the Church of Christ. We were not
so simple as not to be aware, that had a desire to
embarrass Lord Melbourne's administration been
our object, the step we were taking would rather
tend to defeat than advance our purposes : and
that the more we objected to his appointments,
the greater would be his credit for relentless
liberality among the people at large. But, in
fact, no such plan, to the best of my knowledge,

14
ever entered our minds. I never remember a
question conducted so simply on its own merits.
The material on which we were called to decide
was certain published statements : the character
or motives or movements of the author, or of his
friends, or of his political patron, were all utterly
irrelevant considerations ; I am sure that none
openly mixed them up with the religious question
before us ; and no one can fairly say that ours
was a political movement, unless he can prove,
that every individual of those 400, who were ready
to vote on our side, was probably a hypocrite to
all the rest. Lord Melbourne, I think, was
generally considered to have acted somewhat
in the dark. Had he given us a Professor with
the most negative recommendations, we should
have taken no more notice of his appointment
than of the promotion of Dr. Longley, or of Mr.
O'Connell's reported nominee. I may or may
not be correct in this estimate of the feelings and
motives of so large a body of men ; but to me it
seems neither fair nor reasonable to imagine,
that they were other than those which were
expressed in their words, and which fully
accounted for their actions.
7. And, lastly, it is objected to us that this
is persecution. I was quite prepared for
this, knowing that Dr. H. would be immediately
held up to the compassion of the world as
a poor persecuted martyr, and ourselves to

15
its reprobation as furious bigots. The World
is a system of counterfeits, and loves to
have its martyrs as well as the Church.
It appreciates too well the vivid and enduring
testimony of suffering saints, to lose any
opportunity of making out something like it,
on its own side of the question. I confess,
however, that I did not expect to find any
one of Dr. H's station in the University
condescending to minister to the delusion :
I did not expect to find that he had begun
his course of public instruction with so awful
a perversion of our Lord's own words, as
that which appears in his Inaugural Lecture —
that he had dared to quote in reference to
himself, when called solemnly to account for
his doctrinal errors by his brother ministers,
a text which our Saviour designed for a
consolation to His Apostles, when suffering
under the violence of the Jew and the insult
of the Greek — that he had ventured to insinuate,
that to his situation apply the words, " Woe
unto you, when all men shall speak well of you!"
Let him reflect whether they would not better
apply to warn him against the approbation
of the profane and thoughtless multitude, than
to console him under the loss of the confidence
of his Brethren in Christ.
But let us see how the matter really stands.
The persecution of Dr. H., if such there

16
be, must consist either in the steps themselves
we have taken, or in the manner in which
they are taken. For the first, we have only
acted in a defensive, or rather protective,
capacity. We designed simply to pass an
act of censure on Dr. H's published opinions,
that the unwary youth of Oxford might not
fall into them through mere inadvertence and
ignorance : and to place in trustworthy hands
during his possession of the Professorship certain
offices which do not necessarily belong to it ;
and which we could not suffer him to discharge
consistently with our sworn duty to the
University. Convocation had annexed these
functions to the Professorship, not to augment the
power and dignity of that office, but with a view
to the general benefit of the Church : on that
same view it became now our duty to suspend
powers which we were morally certain would be
abused. We do not wish to interfere with
Dr. H's comforts, or to meddle with his
emoluments. Is this persecution? I cannot
understand why it should be thought so.
When a man is thrust into an office for
which every one connected with that office
judges him utterly unfit, I do not think it
persecution openly and fairly to object to
his appointment. A man in a public station
becomes public property, and people have a
right to enquire whether his character is

17

such as they can place confidence in. His
defects, whether of judgment, principles, or
abilities, which, in a private station, could have
concerned none but himself, become open to the
censure of those, who feel that the body to which
they belong may be disgraced or injured by
them. We claim the liberty of doing this, and no
more than this, with respect to Dr. H. and we do
not think, that he has any right in consequence of
it to throw himself on the protection of the public
as a persecuted individual. With respect to the
manner in which we have done it, I will only
say, that I came up under some degree of ap
prehension, lest in the warmth of the moment
my friends might have been betrayed into
harsh expressions, and breaches of the strict
rule of meekness and charity : and I was struck
with the fact, and I cannot but attribute it to the
especial grace of God controlling their hearts, that
there was nothing of the kind whatever to object
to; that, on the contrary, there had been through
out, in the many conferences held, and the many
writings published, a remarkable freedom from
all theological acerbity ; no rash attribution of
bad motives, no unkind stories raked up, no
perversion of words or misrepresentation of facts ;
every care taken to screen Dr. H.'s personal cha
racter from the least imputation ; and due credit
given him for perfect sincerity of purpose, so as to

18
make it evident throughout, that our attack was
directed not against the man, but against his
errors a.
To conclude, I hope I have satisfactorily
shewn, that in what we have been obliged to do
in this unfortunate business, there has been
nothing unkind, unjust, or unnecessary; that so
* I subjoin an extract from Martin Luther's Table Talk,
which will shew that Dr. H. may consider himself
fortunate that he has to deal with Oxonians of the
nineteenth century, and not with a German Reformer
of the sixteenth.
" Anno 1543, Nov. 8. Gaspar Schwenkfield sent one
of his books to Luther, whereupon Luther brake out with
fervent zeal and said, " Schwenkfield is a silly creature,
" qui non habet ingenium, nee spiritum, sed est attonitus,"
as all seducers are. He knoweth not what he babbleth ....
A little child goeth plainly to work, and saith, I believe
in Jesus Christ our Lord, who was conceived of the
Holy Ghost &c. but this idiot, this fantastical gentle
man, hath filched certain words out of my book,
therewith the fellow will trim himself: he mingleth my
phrases with his own, and sets it forth as if it were
all my meaning. He will teach me what Christ is,
and how I shall worship Him : I have, God be praised,
better learnt it than he ; let him trouble me no more.''
Then spake Dr. Roper to Luther, and said, " Oh sir,
that is somewhat too harsh:" Luther answered him,
" Such fellows teach me to be harsh; we must talk so
with the Devil. Let Schwenkfield, by public writing,
revoke that heresy about the Sacrament, and bring me
testimony from Dr. Hessey, and Dr. Moibane, otherwise,
said Luther, I will not believe him, though he sware
onto me."

19
far from our conduct having been a departure
from Christian principles, it was a sense of duty
alone which compelled us to overlook our own
private feelings, and brave the opinion of the
world around us. Most solemnly do I reply to
the charge, " Art thou he that troubleth Israel ?"
" I have not troubled Israel, but those, who have
forsaken the Lord, and have followed Baalim."
How the matter will end, I cannot conjecture.
One thing is quite clear, that Dr. H. never
can recover the confidence of the University, at
least not sufficiently so as to be qualified for
his present office. Is there a single clergyman
or gentleman in the country, who would choose
to send his son to a clergyman of Dr. H.'s
opinions, to prepare him for Orders ? and if
so, can Dr. H. be a fit person to preside over
the religious education of near half the clergy of
England? How Dr. H., holding the opinions
he does, can continue in the Church, I cannot
conceive : speaking as he does of her Creeds,
her Articles, and her Sacraments, and yet con
tinuing in her communion and eating of her bread.
But will he, can he, after what has passed,
continue in his Professorship ? will he. safe
under the shelter of the law, go on despising
the united voices of the University and Clergy
at large, as an idle clamour; and our deep
convictions of his unfitness, as an empty prejudice ?

20
Can he bear to think, that while union is so
desirable at the present moment, he should be
the principal ingredient of discord ? that while the
friends of pure religion are preparing to resist
the unhallowed inroads of philosophy and neology,
which threaten them on every side, the enemies
of our faith should be looking to him as their
friend in the citadel, who is to open the gates to
them ? that while every day our students in
Divinity are increasing in attachment to the
real religion of our Church, as set forth in her
confessions of faith, he should be foremost in
leading them to undervalue those sacred bul
warks, and to set up their own private judg
ment in preference to the universal consent of the
Church, and the wisdom of antiquity ? Oh how
infinitely should I prefer the obscurest poverty,
to wealth, and fame, and the applause of the
multitude so dearly purchased !
While writing these lines, I have received notice
that the question will shortly be brought forward
again. God willing, I shall be at my post, and
I trust that all who can, will be there likewise.
Meanwhile, I commit the matter to Him, to whom,
in times of difficulty and danger, we may always
confidently look for light, for strength, and for
protection. May these be granted us on the
present occasion ! If in any point we have
departed from the strict rule of humility and

21

Christian love, may we as we proceed be made
wiser, and more watchful ! May this sad affair
be the means of uniting all the really faithful
servants of Christ more closely together, and
thus be overruled to our good and His glory !

THE END.

BAXTER, PRINTER, OXFORD.

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