They dealt with a great variety of
questions, but the underlying intention of all of them was to
attack the accepted doctrines and practices of the Church of
England. Dr. Pusey wrote learnedly on Baptismal Regeneration; he
also wrote on Fasting. His treatment of the latter subject met
with considerable disapproval, which surprised the Doctor. 'I was
not prepared,' he said, 'for people questioning, even in the
abstract, the duty of fasting; I thought serious-minded persons
at least supposed they practised fasting in some way or other. I
assumed the duty to be acknowledged and thought it only
undervalued.' We live and learn, even though we have been to
Germany.
Other tracts discussed the Holy Catholic Church, the Clergy, and
the Liturgy. One treated of the question 'whether a clergyman of
the Church of England be now bound to have morning and evening
prayers daily in his parish church?' Another pointed out the
'Indications of a superintending Providence in the preservation
of the Prayer-book and in the changes which it has undergone'.
Another consisted of a collection of 'Advent Sermons on
Antichrist'. Keble wrote a long and elaborate tract 'On the
Mysticism attributed to the Early Fathers of the Church', in
which he expressed his opinions upon a large number of curious
matters. 'According to men's usual way of talking,' he wrote, 'it
would be called an accidental circumstance that there were five
loaves, not more nor less, in the store of Our Lord and His
disciples wherewith to provide the miraculous feast.
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