Transcribed from the 1863 Rivingtons edition ,
PROPOSED SURRENDER OF THE PRAYER-BOOK AND
ARTICLES OF THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND.
A LETTER
TO THE
LORD BISHOP OF LONDON,
ON
PROFESSOR STANLEY’S VIEWS
OF
CLERICAL AND UNIVERSITY “SUBSCRIPTION.”
BY
WILLIAM J. IRONS, D.D.
PREBENDARY OF ST. PAUL’S, ANDINCUMBENT OF BROMPTON, MIDDLESEX.
LONDON:
THEODORE WRIGHT, 188, STRAND;
RIVINGTONS, WATERLOO PLACE; AND PARKERS,377, STRAND, AND OXFORD.
1863.
p. 2LONDON:
SAVILL AND EDWARDS, PRINTERS, CHANDOSSTREET,
COVENT GARDEN.
p. 3ALETTER,
ETC.
Brompton,Whitsuntide, 1863.
My dear Lord,
If twenty years ago, soon after afew of the clergy had asserted their “claim to hold allRoman doctrine,” [3] a proposal had beenmade to abolish Subscription to the English Formularies, it wouldsurely have been thought to indicate very grave disloyalty to ourChurch. And now, when others have asserted the right tounfettered “free-thinking” within her pale, andendeavoured to vindicate that right in our Courts of Law, can wehelp being struck at the intrepidity of the demand to sweep awayat once the sober restraints of orthodoxy to which Churchmen havebeen so long accustomed?
Your Lordship has been openly addressed, as we are all aware,in behalf of this “Relaxation of Subscription;” butas our Bishop—so deeply interested in the welfare of thewhole Church—I venture to believe that you will do justiceto opposite views, and in offering them to your attention, I relyon that broad-minded charity to various schools among us, whichhas marked your Lordship’s administration of thisdiocese.
p. 4Dr.Stanley’s position. [4a]
The eloquent advocacy of Dr. Stanley on the other side is, indeed, noslight advantage to the cause of those who would now supersedethe Prayer-book by “modern thought.” In urgingthe surrender of all Subscription to our Formularies, he canspeak, in his position, with a prestige and power to whichI can have no claim. His testimony as to the tone of mindnow prevailing in Oxford, or among the younger clergy of the lastfew years, it is not for me to impeach,—I must leave thatto the Bishop of Oxford; [4b] but certain of hisdeductions from very limited facts, I may be permitted, I think,to call in question at once. As one who, without belongingto any party, has had the happiness of much friendship withall—as a Churchman, I may add, who has kept steadily to theold Prayer-book from very early childhood till now—I havehad large opportunities for many years of knowing the heart andmind of my brethren the clergy, ten thousand of whom not longsince responded to an appeal which I and others had been invitedto make to them; and I confess that I am amazed at Dr. S