Let me explain further: that in what I am about to write, I am going to admit, at any rate for the sake of argument, the authority and jurisdiction of the Committee of Council as a tribunal in this case. I may, and indeed do think, that in your letter, you have allowed too little for the difficulty in which the Church has been placed as to making her voice heard: too little therefore to the circumstances which have hitherto trammelled her, as accounting for and excusing her silence, especially in later times: as for example in the changes made in 1832, and perhaps in other instances. Still I am not concerned in what I am about to write to controvert your positions on this matter, because for the present purpose of my argument I am going to admit the competency, i.e. the authority as distinct of course from the fitness, of this tribunal to try the issue, between Mr. Gorham and the Bishop of Exeter. Still, as it seems to me, both these points may be conceded: first that the court is sufficient: and secondly, that to deny unconditional regeneration in the case of infants, is heresy; and yet, it may be reasonably maintained, that whatever the decision in this trial shall be, The Church of England may not stand committed to heresy thereby. No doubt, at first sight this will appear a paradox; and the interpreter the harder to be understood of the two, in thus imagining it not impossible to find a middle way between “accepting and acting upon this court’s decision, and repudiating it altogether as if it had never existed.” But I mean, not impossible to p. 7find a point of view, regarding the tribunal from which, we may be able justly and reasonably to allow it’s competency for the present judgment on doctrine, and yet to repudiate, not exactly the decision itself, but the effect of it as committing the Church at large: repudiate it, in your own words, “in every other respect, but the one point comparatively unimportant and trivial of the institution of a certain person to a certain benefice.” Now the only postulate I ask for this conclusion, is, that the Church shall not, and cannot, stand committed to heresy without proof that her crime is something not accidental, but wilful and deliberate; something more than a mistake, which she is ready and willing to clear up the moment opportunity is given her to do so. In short that as a man is not a liar, without the intention to deceive; so a Church is not heretical, unless the animus of heresy be proved against her.