"
In 1842 he wrote to a friend abroad:--
"I have not yet discovered of what I am to die, but I rather believe I
shall be burnt alive by the Puseyites. Nothing so remarkable in
England as the progress of these foolish people.[177] I have no
conception what they mean, if it be not to revive every absurd
ceremony, and every antiquated folly, which the common sense of
mankind has set to sleep. You will find at your return a fanatical
Church of England, but pray do not let it prevent your return. We can
always gather together, in Green Street, a chosen few who have never
bowed the knee to Rimmon."
It may be questioned whether the Hermit of Green Street was very well
qualified to settle the points at issue between the "Puseyites" and
himself, or had bestowed very close attention on what is, after all, mainly
a question of Documents. In earlier days, when it suited his purpose to
argue for greater liberality towards Roman Catholics, he had said:--
"In their tenets, in their church-government, in the nature of their
endowments, the Dissenters are infinitely more distant from the Church
of England than the Catholics are."
In 1813 he had intervened in the controversy which raged round the cradle
of that most pacific institution, the British and Foreign Bible Society,
and had taken the unexpectedly clerical view that Churchmen were bound to
"circulate the Scriptures with the Prayer Book, in preference to any other
method.
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