Untitled - Electric Scotland

316 LIFE OF ARCHBISHOP TAIT [CH. xn.
"... are contradicted by, or plainly inconsistent with,
the Articles or Formularies to which the charges refer."
With respect to the further charge against Mr. Wilson,
that he denied the doctrine of eternal punishment, the
judgment
ran as follows :-
"We are not required, or at liberty, to express any opinion
upon the mysterious question of the eternity of future punish
ment, further than to say that we do not find in the Formularies
to which this article refers any such distinct declaration of our
Church upon the subject as to require us to condemn as penal
the expression of a hope by a Clergyman that even the ultimate
pardon of the wicked who are condemned in the day of judgment
may be consistent with the will of God." Almighty . . . "On
the short extracts before us, our judgment is that the charges
are not proved."
From this judgment, so far as the doctrine of inspira
tion was concerned, the two Archbishops dissented, but
Bishop Tait and the lay judges were unanimous, and Dr.
Williams and Mr. Wilson were accordingly acquitted.
The immediate result of this decision was a widespread
and not unnatural panic. Hundreds of the clergy, who
felt that the book was mischievous and was likely to
corrupt the faith of their people, failed to see, or declined
to see, that the court had emphatically refused to adjudi
cate upon the general character of the book, and had
insisted upon dealing merely with specific extracts in
their strict grammatical construction. For them it was
enough that the essayists were unpunished, and thus, as
they believed, a grievous wrong committed, and, worse
than all, with the apparent approval of one of the Bishops
of the Church. A defensive alliance was immediately
cemented between the High Church and the Low Church
leaders, and within a fortnight from the publication of the
judgment, the following declaration was sent by post to
every clergyman in England and Ireland, with a letter