e, we must have recourse to
the formularies of the Church; for instance to the Catechism, and
to the Creeds. He considers, that, after learning from them the
doctrines of Christianity, the inquirer must verify them by
Scripture. This view, most true in its outline, most fruitful in its
consequences, opened upon me a large field of thought. Dr. Whately
held it too. One of its effects was to strike at the root of the
principle on which the Bible Society was set up. I belonged to its
Oxford Association; it became a matter of time when I should withdraw
my name from its subscription-list, though I did not do so at once.

It is with pleasure that I pay here a tribute to the memory of the
Rev. William James, then Fellow of Oriel; who, about the year 1823,
taught me the doctrine of Apostolical Succession, in the course of a
walk, I think, round Christ Church meadow: I recollect being somewhat
impatient on the subject at the time.

It was at about this date, I suppose, that I read Bishop Butler's
Analogy; the study of which has been to so many, as it was to me, an
era in their religious opinions. Its inculcation of a visible Church,
the oracle of truth and a pattern of sanctity, of the duties of
external religion, and of the historical character of revelation, are
characteristics of this great work which strike the reader at once;
for myself, if I may attempt to determine what I most gained from it,
it lay in two points, which I shall have an opportunity of dwelling
on in the sequel; they are the underlying principles of a great
portion of my teaching. First, the very idea of an analogy between
the separate works of God leads to the conclusion that the system
which is of less importance is economically or sacramentally
connected with the more momentous system, and of this conclusion the
theory, to which I was inclined as a boy, viz. the unreality of
material phenomena, is an ultimate resolution. At this time I did not
make the distinction between matter itself and its phenomena, which
is so necessary and so obvious in discussing the subject. Secondly,
Butler's doctrine that probability is the guide of life, led me, at
least under the teaching to which a few years later I was introduced,
to the question of the logical cogency of faith, on which I have
written so much. Thus to Butler I trace those two principles of my
teaching, which have led to a charge against me both of fancifulness
and of scepticism.

And now as to Dr. Wh