"I know not at present the kind or the extent of these difficulties, and therefore can only reply in general terms. I have already stated my opinion on the impropriety of {161} entering the Church with the previous belief that our Liturgy and Articles are not founded on Scripture. But if a clergyman who believed that they were so at the time of his ordination, and continued that belief till after he had obtained preferment in the Church, begins at some future period to entertain doubts about certain parts either of the Liturgy or the Articles, we have a case which presents a very different question from that which was considered in the former paragraph. In the former case there was a choice of professions, in the latter case there is not. By the laws of this country a clergyman cannot divest himself of the character acquired by the admission to Holy Orders. He can hold no office in the State which is inconsistent with the character of a clergyman. To relinquish preferment, therefore, without being able to relinquish the character by which that preferment was acquired, is quite a different question from that which relates to the original assumption of that character: Nor must it be forgotten that a clergyman may have a numerous family altogether dependent on the income of his benefice, whom he would bring therefore to utter ruin if he resigned it. "On the other hand, I do not think that even a clergyman so situated is at liberty to substitute his _own_ doctrine for that to which he objects. By so doing he would directly impugn the Articles of our Church, he would make himself liable to deprivation, and would justly deserve it. For he would violate a solemn contract, and destroy the very tenure by which he holds his preferment. "But is there no medium between an open attack on our Liturgy and Articles and the entertaining of doubts on certain points, which a clergyman may communicate in confidence to a friend, in the hope of having them removed? If, in the mean time, he is unwilling to inculcate in the pulpit doctrines to which his doubts apply, he will at the same time conscientiously abstain from inculcating doctrines of an opposite tendency. Now, if I mistake not, this is precisely your case. And happy shall I be if I can be instrumental to the removal of the doubts which oppress you. I am now at leisure; the engagements which I had at Cambridge {162} respecting my lectures are finished; you may now fully and freely unburden your mind, and I will give to all your difficulties the best consideration in my power. "I am, my dear Sir, "Very truly yours, "Herbert Peterborough." This letter evoked a statement of the precise points, and the following was the answer:--