58 AN HISTORICAL VIEW OF THE CHARACTER 



tion;* enough to tell him, we are quite as much opposed as he to 

 that school of divinity called liberal or latitudinarian, although, un- 

 like him, we indulge in no harshness, bitterness, or severity, against 

 those whose religious opinions are different from our own. Under 

 this influence of a degree of similarity of sentiments between us, 

 we may pass with some as papists in disguise, seceders from pure 

 protestantism, and favourers of the undue claims and pestilent 

 errors of the church of Rome. Our earnest wish to do justice, as 

 impartial critics, to the character of Bishop Fisher — to shew how 

 completely it is stamped with the seal of the Christian virtues of 

 humility and self-denial — may, we say, bring upon us these accu- 

 sations ; but those who know how essentially protestant have been 

 the complexion of our religious opinions in all our writings, how 

 unfeigned, undisguised, and unalterable, our attachment to episco- 

 palian protestantism, will smile at any such ill-founded reproaches ; 

 nevertheless, we would have no one think that we had imitated the 

 example of Bishop Gunning, who, as Burnett tells us, " by setting 

 himself with great zeal to clear the church of Rome from idolatry, 

 made many suspect him as inclined to go over, though he was far 

 from it." Returning, then, to the subject which has occasioned 

 this digression : Burnett, instead of expressing all the admiration 

 and respect which this noble example set by Fisher to other bishops 

 demands, contemplates it with that freezing indifference which will 

 not allow him to bestow even one cold sentence of approbation. 

 For in reference to a determination which places the character of 

 Fisher in so venerable a light — which so beautifully exemplifies the 

 feelings of a Christian bishop of the primitive times — our historian 

 thinks it sufficient to remark that " he followed the rule of the pri- 

 mitive church, which never changes for a better."t That the His- 

 tory of the Reformation does equal credit to the talents and industry 

 of Burnett will be readily allowed by all competent judges, but no 

 satisfactory excuse can be made for his withholding praises so justly 

 due, and thus sinking the character of the historian into that of the 

 common polemic, because the Bishop of Rochester lived and died in 

 the Romish communion, because he held the same faith which a 



acknowledged and retained." — p. 14. See his excellent Sermon On the Vo- 

 luntartf Principle not recognized bi/ the Primitive Church. 



• Mr. Keble has discussed this mucli debated point in a most masterly 

 manrer, in his recent Sermon, entitled, ^^ Primitive Traditions recognized in 

 Holy Soripture.'" We earnestly recommend it to the attention of the young 

 theological student. 



f Hhiorii of the Reform., v. i., p. 708. 



