It was not uncommon for Low Church parents to have their children ...

It was not uncommon for Low Church parents to have their children christened by Nonconformist ministers, so as to avoid the awful words seeing now that this child is by baptism regenerate'. In 1864 Spurgeon preached a sermon calling on the Evangelicals to quit an establishment which admitted the doctrine. Over 700,000 copies were sold.

But proceedings for heresy being of a penal character, the law required an exact and circumstantial statement of the offence alleged, and the wise ambiguity with which the Church had formulated the mysteries of her faith, made it almost impossible to frame a charge which could, or defence which could not, be sustained. In 18 So the Gorham judgement which allowed a clergyman to disbelieve in Baptismal Regeneration,' had produced a formidable secession to Rome.

In 18 60 a group of scholars put forth a volume of Essays and Reviews, not very remarkable in themselves, which was taken as a challenge to orthodoxy.

After much agitation, not altogether creditable to the good sense or good faith of the orthodox, it was brought before the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council. An adverse judgement now would have forced many conscientious men to lay down their orders and would have checked the inflow of

educated candidates, already

shrinking as the Universities grew more secular.

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