Transcribed from the 1843 Longman, Brown, Green and Longmans[second edition] .
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BY
THE REV. C. N. WODEHOUSE,
CANON OF NORWICH.
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SECOND EDITION.
London:
LONGMAN, BROWN, GREEN, AND LONGMANS.
NORWICH: CHARLES MUSKETT.
1843.
In human affairs, when attention ispowerfully attracted to some question of absorbing interest, theeffect frequently is as though one half only of the subject werevisible to the eyes of the understanding. The mind fixes onsome peculiar point. On that a partial light is exclusivelycast; till in time it is discovered that others, consigned for awhile to an unnatural obscurity, are in reality of greatermoment. They have quietly grown in importance—likehardy trees unnoticed by the planter, as not requiring hiscare—till they are suddenly developed in their truecharacter and vigour, to the astonishment of those who hadoverlooked them; and demand, if it be not too late, the deepestattention and the most active intelligence to control or directthem.
While Charles I. and Archbishop Laud were absorbed in maturingtheir favoured plans for Church and State, opposite anddeeply-rooted opinions, whose force they never paused toappreciate till it was useless, were ripening all around them;and their lives became a sacrifice to their blindness. While James II. was only intent p. 4upon enforcing the dictates of his ownone-eyed bigotry, the Revolution was already accomplished in thehearts of his people; and William III., the instrument to realizetheir wish, was almost at the gates of London. While Mr.Canning was delighting the electors of Liverpool with hiseloquent, and to them convincing, denunciations against theminutest change in the parliamentary representation of thisnation; while he was admonishing them, with a wisdom thenesteemed oracular, “Spartam nactus es, hancadorna,” a few brief years were to give us almost a newSparta; new electoral departments; new laws and forms ofelection; new qualifications, and thus new constituents; and,more than all, new influences upon electors and therepresentatives elected.
And thus, as it appears to the writer, will it come to passwith respect to the subject now to be briefly considered. While the minds of the most able divines in our nation are bentto one point; are engrossed in discussing the meaning of ourConfession of Faith, the interpretation of our Articles ofReligion; they are imperceptibly nourishing the growth of aconclusion more irresistible and more unmanageable than even allthe complicated questions now so eagerly debated; for theyare, by their differences and divisions,demolishing the whole force of the solemn assent required tothat Confession. Amidst the present confusion oftongues, the language of our Articles has still less than it everhad, a definite meaning. Subscription, instead of being thetie which is to bind people to certain opinions or truths, isbecome a rope of sand. So uncertain is the trumpet’ssound, that it no longer, as of old, proclaims the spirit of p. 5an united host,but