Untitled - Electric Scotland

1856-60] THE CONFESSIONAL CONTROVERSY 225
mencement of the dispute, and the general question had
in the meantime been under vehement discussion on
every side. The Bishop had taken pains to show from
the first that it was on no grounds personal to Mr. Poole
that the licence had been revoked. It was intended to
be a distinct and public declaration of his opinion an
to which he adhered to the end of his life that
opinion
the inculcation of the practice of habitual auricular con
fession was contrary to the doctrine and practice of the
Church of England. Accepting this as the issue, Mr.
Liddell and other London clergymen espoused with the
utmost zeal the cause of Mr. Poole, while pamphlets and
letters not less vehement poured forth upon the Bishop s
side. While the strife was at its height the time came for
the Bishop s primary Charge. Its general purport and
the remarkable facts of its delivery are described else
where. 1 But the importance of this particular question,
and the care with which it was treated in the Charge, 2
seem to require that a few extracts should be given.
"
In pointing," he said,
"
to the difficulties which beset a young
pastor, I would especially refer, as an example, to questions
as to the authority and claims of the ministerial office, which
have in these days grown to an importance such as has scarcely
ever before attached to them in our Church since the Refor
mation.
" On this matter I must be explicit. First, then, let us not
forget in approaching such questions that nothing can exceed
the solemnity of the words in which it has been thought proper
in the Church of England to confer the full rights of the office of
the Presbyter. Also let us not forget that these words of ordina
tion have always in our Church been interpreted by a large and
influential body by many, indeed, of our most honoured divines
as conferring the right, derived from Christ Himself, not only
to administer His Holy Sacraments and preach His Holy Word
1
See p. 265.
3
Twenty-five pages of the Charge are devoted to this subject alone.
VOL. I. p