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THE 
 
 CAUSES AND THE CURE 
 
 0 F 
 
 P U S E Y I S M : 
 
 OR, THE 
 
 ELEMENTARY PRINCIPLES OF ROMAN ERROR 
 
 DETECTED IN THE 
 
 LITUKGY, OFFICES, HOMILIES, AND USAGES 
 
 OF THE 
 
 EPISCOPAL CHURCHES OF ENGLAND AND AMERICA; 
 WITH A PROPOSED REMEDY. 
 
 BY IRA WARREN, 
 
 LATE THE EDITOR OF THE ' MONTHLY EPISCOPAI. OBSEBVEB." 
 
 " How liule diJ the venerable men — the martyrs of the English Church — imagine 
 what they were doing, and what harvest for their country ihey were preparing, when, 
 from a'mistalien anxiety to conciliate the adherents of the ancient idolatry, they pro- 
 fessed their submission to the very authors of that idolatry, and admitted into the 
 constitutions they formed, the routs ot llie anciejil delusion, and the germs of an after- 
 growth of polytheism I " I^^^ ^^^^^^ 
 
 SECOND EDITION. 
 
 BOSTON: 
 PUBLISHED BY CROCKER & BREWSTER. 
 NEW YORK : M. W. DODD. 
 PHILADELPHIA : HENRY PERKINS. 
 1847. 
 
Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1847, by 
 IRA WARREN, 
 
 In the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the District of Massachusetts. 
 
 GEORGE A. CURTIS; 
 
 NEW ENGLAND TYPE AND STEREOTYPE FOUNDKHy, 
 BOSTON. 
 
PREFACE. 
 
 Being an Episcopalian, the author of this work has 
 written with a desire, not to injure, but to benefit, the 
 Episcopal church. He has attacked nothing essential to 
 its spread in the world. On the contrary, he has assailed 
 those things only which are destructive of its interests, 
 and which cast a mildew upon all its prospects of use- 
 fulness in this country. In a word, he has attacked those 
 things only which he firmly believes to be essentially 
 popish, and which engender popery. These, when at- 
 tempting to write on tractarianism, his christian honor, as 
 well as his protestant instincts, have compelled him to 
 attack. His Episcopalian friends will please to observe 
 that he is not assailing them. Far otherwise. They are 
 his brethren, fastened to him by the bonds which surround 
 a common household. Their interests are his interests. 
 He has no private or public wrongs to avenge ; and if 
 he had, vengeance is not his. He has the kindest feel- 
 ings towards his brethren ; and in their presence he now 
 virashes his hands of any intent except that of doing 
 something to drive popery from the Episcopal church. 
 
 Boston, May 3, 1847. 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 CAUSES OF PUSEYISM. 
 PART I. 
 
 THE HISTORICAL ARGUMENT. 
 
 THE REFORMATION OF THE ESTABLISHED CHURCH OF ENGLAND AND 
 OF THE PROTESTANT EPISCOPAL CHURCH IN THE UNITED STATES 
 
 NEVER COMPLETED. 
 
 CHAPTER I. Page 
 The English Reformation accidental in its Origin, 19 
 
 CHAPTER 11. 
 
 The English Reformation accidental in its Progress, 25 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 The EngUsh Reformation incomplete as to Doctrines, 35 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 The Reformation incomplete as to Usages, 41 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 The Reformation incomplete as to the Numbers Reformed, ... 50 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 Results of an unfinished Reformation, 61 
 
vi 
 
 CONTENTS, 
 
 PART II. 
 
 CAUSES WHICH HAVE PREVENTED THE COMPLETION OF THE REFORMA- 
 TION IN THE ENGLISH CHURCH, AND IN THE PROTESTANT EPISCO- 
 
 PAL CHURCH IN THE UNITED STATES. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 Tolerance of Romish Error, 73 
 
 CHAPTER H. 
 
 Intolerance of Purity in Worship, 84 
 
 PART III. 
 THE THEOLOGICAL ARGUMENT. 
 
 THE PRAYER-BOOK NEVER FULLY PURGED OF THE REMAINS OF 
 
 PAPAL ERROR. 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 Method of interpreting the Prayer-book, 96 
 
 CHAPTER H. 
 
 The Communion Office, 100 
 
 CHAPTER HI. 
 
 The Baptismal Office, 115 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 The Catechism, 125 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 Office for the Burial of the Dead, 130 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 Ordination Office, 133 
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 The Declaration of Absolution, 139 
 
 CHAPTER Vin. 
 The Calendar, 145 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 vii 
 
 PART IV. 
 THE PHILOSOPHICAL ARGUMENT. 
 
 CERTAIN USAGES SANCTIONED AND USED BY THE EPISCOPAL CHURCHES 
 OF ENGLAND AND AMERICA, WHICH NECESSARILY, ON PHILOSOPHI- 
 CAL PRINCIPLES, BEGET ROMISH VIEWS AND ROMISH FEELINGS. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 Usages which imply and teach False Doctrine, 148 
 
 CHAPTER U. 
 
 Usages which beget Romish Feelings, 168 
 
 PART V. 
 THE PHILOSOPHICAL ARGUMENT. 
 
 CERTAIN OPINIONS AND CUSTOMS ADOPTED BY THE PROTESTANT EPIS- 
 COPAL CHURCH, WHICH GIVE INCREASED ACTIVITY TO THE CAUSES 
 
 OF PUSEYISM ALREADY DESCRIBED. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 The Notion of Catholic Consent, 178 
 
 CHAPTER H. 
 
 Authority of the Church, 186 
 
 CHAPTER HI. 
 
 Teaching of the Church, 203 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 High Views of the Ministry, 205 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 Tyrannizing High Churchism, 212 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 Falling Back in Times of Trial, 219 
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 Some of the first Stepping-stones, 227 
 
viii 
 
 CONTENTS. 
 
 CHAPTER VIII. 
 Are these the true Causes ? 232 
 
 CURE OF PUSEYISM. 
 PART VI. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 Revision of the Prayer-book and Homilies, 242 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 Abridgment and Simplification of Usages, 249 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 Purification of our own Minds, 254 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 Disciplinary Cleansing of the Church, 260 
 
 Conclusion, 263 
 
INTRODUCTION. 
 
 It is well known that about twelve years since, a series 
 of publications were commenced at Oxford, England, en- 
 titled " Tracts for the Times." For a while, the doctrines 
 and usages inculcated varied so little from the general 
 sentiment in the English church, that they attracted atten- 
 tion for their earnest tone and their general display of 
 learning and ability, rather than for any lack of soundness 
 in the faith. The appeal of these writers was first to 
 antiquity ; and they seem to have studied and represented 
 the early fathers only preparatory to studying and repre- 
 senting their successors. Indeed, so nearly did the pro- 
 gressive corruption of doctrine and usage in these tracts 
 resemble the historical facts developed from the year 200 
 to the assembling of the council of Trent, that Track of 
 Time would be a far more appropriate designation for them 
 than " Tracts for the Times." As these publications went 
 forward, and the germ of one error after another began to 
 blot their pages, discerning minds began to discover them, 
 and to exhibit symptoms of alarm. It was a long time, 
 however, before there was anything like a general commo- 
 tion ; and it was only when they had reached the enormous 
 number of ninety, and had brought antiquity down to the 
 
10 
 
 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 sixteenth century, and adopted the papal decrees of Trent, 
 — the damnatory clauses excepted, — that public indignation 
 was so far awakened as to arrest their further publication. 
 
 Thoughtful observers in this country saw the havoc pro- 
 duced, and feared the result ; but they still hoped that the 
 miasm engendered abroad would not be floated to our 
 atmosphere, and that the Episcopal church of this country 
 would escape the infection which had so deeply diseased 
 the mother church of England. It was a vain hope. As 
 we have imitators of foreign fashions, so there were not 
 wanting those who were ready to adopt imported doctrines. 
 Seven years ago, an edition of the " Tracts for the Times " 
 was published in New York ; and it need surprise no one 
 that the highest of the old-fashioned high churchmen, as 
 well as all the young amateur sprigs of theology, who had 
 chosen the clerical profession because it would clothe them 
 in black silk and white linen, and invest them with a degree 
 of imagined gentility, seized upon it with avidity. In 
 short, the infection spread with great rapidity. High 
 church presbyters, in their sermons, extolled the " Tracts " 
 as the best expositors of christian doctrine ; bishops, in 
 their conventional addresses, praised them as embodying 
 the results of the highest attainment in primitive theology, 
 and the best presentation of apostolic truth, in the apostolic 
 spirit. Moderate men spoke of them as containing much 
 truth, mixed with a little error, and thought the truth should 
 be received and the error rejected; while here and there 
 a solitary voice, and one Episcopal press, the Episcopal 
 Eecorder of Philadelphia, uttered bold and fearless denun- 
 ciations against them, as containing the substance of the 
 
INTRODUCTION. 
 
 11 
 
 Roman heresy, and as tending to the overthrow of protes- 
 tant truth. So limited, however, was the sphere of vigorous 
 opposition, that the principles of the tracts advanced with 
 greater and still greater rapidity, until, in the summer of 
 1843, a young man who openly, in the presence of his 
 examiners, professed his belief in the papal decrees of 
 Trent, was ordained, in spite of public remonstrance, to 
 the ministry of the Protestant Episcopal church. This 
 young man was educated in the General Theological 
 Seminary, and was ordained in the largest diocese in the 
 country, and by a bishop exercising at that time a leading 
 influence ; it was, therefore, a crowning act of apostasy, 
 and deeply wounded the honor of the whole American 
 Episcopal church. The act was like an earthquake ; it 
 seemed likely for the time to open the earth and entomb 
 the persons immediately concerned, and shook the Episco- 
 pal church to its most distant extremities. From this time 
 forward, the number of open opposers was greatly increased. 
 Yet Tractarianism continued to increase ; and is at this 
 moment advancing as fast as ever. If I were asked why it 
 is not yet arrested, I should say, for the simple reason, that 
 its causes have not yet been discovered and removed. To 
 discover and expose these causes, and to propose a remedy, 
 will be the object of the following pages. 
 
 The attempt has been made to break the force of what- 
 ever may be said in this treatise, by representing its 
 author as no longer attached to the Episcopal church, and 
 as about to leave its communion. In view of this fact, I 
 trust I may say, that during a membership of eighteen 
 years, there has never been an hour or a moment when I 
 
12 
 
 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 did not love the Episcopal church. I love it still. I have 
 ever indulged the hope that this church will not only con- 
 tinue as it has heen, one of the bulwarks of the protestant 
 faith, but that it will become the very fountain head of pure 
 gospel preaching, and the leading division of that army 
 which, in the name of the Lord of Hosts, shall conquer the 
 world. With these views and feelings, — though I confess 
 they have of late been somewhat shaken, — I can have no 
 thought, unless its errors become incurable, of ever leaving 
 its communion. The language of my heart now is, " Her 
 people shall be my people, and her God my God — let me 
 enjoy her smiles while I live, and in her arms be gathered 
 to my fathers." 
 
 But while I say all this, I am obliged to add, that the 
 Episcopal church has many defects.* Of these, although 
 for a number of years I was accustomed to hold almost 
 weekly intercourse with the public through Episcopal 
 prints, I was permitted to say nothing. Here, every ave- 
 nue to the public mind was shut against me ; and not 
 against me only, but against every man who dared to raise 
 a note of warning or remonstrance. 
 
 With this state of things I have long been dissatisfied. 
 Having studied, to some extent, the history, doctrines, for- 
 mularies and usages of the Episcopal church, I find there 
 are many things which, in my humble opinion, ought to be 
 
 * Since writing the above, I have discovered a passage in "Bishop 
 Burnet's History of his Own Times," so much like it in sentiment, 
 that 1 take pleasure in giving it to the reader. He says, — "I have 
 always had a true zeal for the church of England ; I have lived in 
 its communion with great joy, and have pursued its true interests 
 with unfeigned affection. Yet I must say there are many things in 
 it that have been very uneasy to me." — Vol. ii., p. 634. 
 
INTRODUCTION. 
 
 13 
 
 reformed or given up, but which are growing worse and 
 worse, with no prospect of amendment, unless those in 
 high places can be reached with reproofs which we have 
 all hitherto failed to apply, either for want of courage, or 
 lack of the means of doing so. I am persuaded that the 
 old leaven of popery was not wholly purged out of the 
 English church at the reformation ; that it remains diffused 
 through the formularies, which we, as a denomination, have 
 inherited from that church ; and that from the fermentation 
 of this leaven have sprung up those popish bubbles with 
 which the doughy portion of our communion is so thickly 
 covered over. I am convinced, still further, that unless 
 this corrupting portion of error is removed, we shall con- 
 tinue to manifest Romeward tendencies to the end of time. 
 Our misfortune is, that the larger portion of even the evan- 
 gelical clergy do not see this. Their cry is, " Let us cling 
 to the church as it is." Although the prayer-book, in its 
 preface, takes the ground that, " by common consent and 
 authority," whatever belongs to " forms and usages " " may 
 be altered, abridged, enlarged, amended, or otherwise disjjosed 
 of, as may seem most convenient for the edification of the people, 
 accordingAo the various exigencies of times and occasions," 
 yet this wholesome provision has become a practical nullity, 
 from the extreme horror with which the majority of the 
 clergy have come to regard the idea of making the slightest 
 alteration in the ritual which our fathers have left us. 
 "The church as it is," "The prayer-book as it is," "The 
 usages of the church as they are," these are the watch- 
 words which pass from mouth to mouth, and from print to 
 print ; and hence, the first uttered word which implies that 
 2 
 
14 
 
 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 anything in the constitution of the Episcopal church, in its 
 usages, or in its ritual, is not as perfect as possible, is either 
 frowned or flattered into silence. 
 
 Such being the facts of the case, I have deemed it incum- 
 bent upon me to attempt to speak in the public ear through 
 some independent channel, and have thought the mode 
 selected the most unobjectionable of any. Strongly as I 
 love the church of my choice, and much as I desire its ulti- 
 mate extension in the earth, I am yet willing, if need be, to 
 do something to check its advance until a remedy can be 
 applied ; for I am persuaded that, under present circumstan- 
 ces, with the tractarian influence shaping and swaying its 
 policy, its growth is not desirable.* I would rather see 
 every branch of God's church witkout episcopacy, than the 
 Episcopal church without a life-imparting gospel. 
 
 I am persuaded that a remedy cannot be found for the 
 evils of which I complain, until the laity can be reached 
 with an appeal which shall stir them to action. It is clear, 
 that the clergy as a body, including a majority of the evan- 
 gelical portion, cling to the objectionable things of which I 
 speak, with great tenacity. It is surprising what a fond- 
 ness they manifest for the unsavory leeks which our fathers 
 
 * Some three years since, the Hon. 'William Jay, of Bedford, New 
 York, a distinguished member of tlie Episcopal church, was invited 
 to contribute something towards the erection of a place of worship for 
 an Episcopal congregation just gathered in his neighborhood ; but in 
 a public letter he declined, on the ground that such was the course 
 of things among us, he could have no guarantee that any church edi- 
 fice he might aid in building would not soon be perverted to the 
 dissemination of principles at war with all he held dear as a protes- 
 tant. For the present, until a remedy could be found for these things, 
 he preferred to distribute his charities where he had more confidence 
 that they would not be turned aside from their intended use. I have 
 not his letter at hand, and speak of it from recollection. 
 
INTKODUCTION. 
 
 15 
 
 brought from spiritual Egypt, when led out from thence at 
 the reformation. Trifling things, more worthless than 
 straws, which render the Episcopal church unpopular, and 
 hinder its growth and usefulness in the world, great num- 
 bers of the clergy fondle and caress, as a man would a pet 
 dog which he had learned to consider essential to his 
 happiness. My aim, therefore, in the following pages, is 
 to reach the laity, and to press upon their attention a 
 succession of topics, which, by great effort, and to the 
 manifest injury of our denomination, have been kept out 
 of view. No doubt, the theme to many of our people will 
 be a new one, but not, I trust, the less inviting on that 
 account. If I am not mistaken, it will awaken the more 
 interest from the care with which it has been hitherto con- 
 cealed. At any rate, my desire is to see it awaken a 
 general concern among us for the purity of the gospel. I 
 would have an interest in this matter reach all the borders 
 of our denomination, and the General Convention made 
 to feel so heavy a pressure of public sentiment from with- 
 out, and so imperative a prompting from within, as to be 
 willing to take the matter in hand, and revise the liturgy, 
 making it thoroughly protestant. To favor this object, I 
 invite the cooperation of all the christian churches in this 
 land, of every name. I ask them to invite the attention of 
 their own people to the subject ; to give this volume a wide 
 circulation among them; and in every way to do what * 
 they can to awaken a public feeling which shall have 
 moral force enough to make itself felt. I ask this in behalf 
 of the gospel, in which all have a common interest. The 
 Episcopal church already embraces a very considerable 
 
16 
 
 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 portion of the wealth and talent of the country, and is 
 fast augmenting its worldly strength from these sources. 
 Should it, in the inscrutable providence of God, become 
 thoroughly pervaded with the papal leaven, and in any 
 measure moulded to the papal spirit, (and such the trac- 
 tarian portion has already become,) it can hardly be con- 
 ceived what a formidable power its wealth and talent would 
 associate with the popish interest, and ply to the same 
 general end ; and how mighty and destructive an engine 
 would be added to the forces which make war upon the, 
 saints of God. It is painful to indulge a thought of the 
 possibility that such a perversion may ever overtake the 
 church of my choice. And yet, if the word of God is true, 
 and history is not a lie, I know that such a fall is possible. 
 Rome was once a pure church, but in her pride she fell 
 into a pit from which she may never recover. 
 
 The writing of this book has brought against me a host 
 of prejudices, and has destroyed friendships which I have 
 held very dear. This last result I hoped to avoid ; but as 
 it has turned out otherwise, I can with a clear conscience 
 place it to the account of my misfortune, and not my fault. 
 Much as I value and love the evangelical clergy who are 
 known to me, I cannot purchase a continuance of their kind 
 regards at the expense of keeping silence on this subject. 
 Some, I have reason to believe and know, agree with me, 
 and rejoice to see this effort, ineffectual though it may be, 
 to do something towards removing the evils which afflict 
 the Episcopal church; others, dissenting in part from what 
 1 advance, do yet, in consideration of the uprightness of my 
 motives, continue their friendship for me. The few or 
 
INTRODUCTION. 
 
 17 
 
 many who compose these two classes, I hold dearer than 
 ever. From the remainder I part in sorrow, as from the 
 victims of a wretched delusion. 
 
 While I say this, however, I must add, that I do not 
 write primarily or mainly for the clergy. My appeal is to 
 the laity ; and among them, I know there are hundreds and 
 thousands who will respond to what may be said. Nothing 
 can hinder this response, unless it be an effort to prevent 
 them from reading. Against this, I hope they will firmly 
 set their faces. From the action of nearly all the Episcopal 
 conventions in the country for the last few years, it is 
 manifest that the clergy are far higher in their notions than 
 the laity. Still, the laity have been silent. It is time that 
 one of their number should be heard. 
 
 There are great numbers of the Episcopal clergy who 
 heartily reject and warmly oppose distinctive tractarianism ; 
 but they do not believe the cause of it exists, in any man- 
 ner or degree, in our liturgy, homilies and usages. The 
 main object of the writer of this volume is to convince 
 these persons that they are mistaken. In treating of the 
 " offices," &c., HE had, therefore, nothing to do beyond 
 showing that the roots of Puseyism are there; for if evan- 
 gelical Episcopalians can be convinced of this, a remedy 
 will soon be applied. His plan did not at all embrace a 
 discussion of " baptismal regeneration," and other kindred 
 subjects ; for, on these he considers the views of evangeli- 
 cal Episcopalians as substantially sound and consistent. 
 They, not less than he, have a lively sense of the enormous 
 evils we are suffering. His only wish is to draw their 
 attention to the fountain head of our troubles. 
 2* 
 
18 
 
 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 It is but just to say, that the errors respecting the sacra- 
 ments, pointed out as existing in the offices, catechism, 
 &c., were not peculiar to the English reformers. With the 
 exception, perhaps, of Zuinglius, all the continental re- 
 formers were more or less infected with them. They were 
 errors, not of the English reformers, but of their times. 
 The sixteenth century was an age of sacramental delu- 
 sion. Nearly all the reformers in England and abroad 
 \vrote, and spoke, and acted, with a sacramental veil upon 
 their faces. Luther speaks thus of baptism : 
 
 " Perhaps to what I have said on the necessity of faith, 
 « the baptism of little children may be objected ; but as the 
 word of God is mighty to change the heart of a wicked 
 man, who is not less deaf nor less helpless than an infant, 
 so the prayers of the church, to which all things are pos- 
 sible, change the little child, by the faith it pleases God to 
 put in his heart, and thus purifies and renews it." ^ 
 
 The English reformers, then, ought not to be so much 
 blamed for holding, as the English church for retaining, 
 views of which the better light of subsequent ages should 
 have induced a rejection. 
 
 * D'Aubigne's Reformation, vol. ii., p. 123. 
 
CAUSES OF PUSEYISM. 
 
 PART I. 
 THE HISTORICAL ARGUMENT. 
 
 THE REFORMATION OF THE ESTABLISHED CHURCH OF ENGLAND 
 AND OF THE PROTESTANT EPISCOPAL CHURCH IN THE UNITED 
 STATES NEVER COMPLETED. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 THE ENGLISH REFORMATION ACCIDENTAL. 
 
 The reformation in the English church was acci- 
 dental in its origin. I mean by this, that it grew out 
 of a fact which produced it as an accidental, and not 
 as a designed event. The promoters of it did not hold 
 it up as an eiid to be sought and gained ; but effected 
 it, for the most part, unintentionally, while in pursuit 
 of another and distinct object. That other object was 
 the wresting of the rights of the crown of England out 
 of the hands of the Roman pontiff. This was the great, 
 leading aim which directed and controlled the first 
 reformatory movement in England. It was a battle 
 between Henry VIII. and the pope ; the former strug- 
 gling to break the fetters which a spiritual despot had 
 put upon him ; the latter using all his arts to hold his 
 victim fast in his toils. In its origin, therefore, it had 
 no aim save this, to set the king and nation of Eng- 
 land free from the secular encroachments of the secu- 
 larized see of Rome. In proof of this, I might cite 
 
20 REFORMATION ACCIDENTAL IN ITS ORIGIN. 
 
 the whole array of facts which attended the birth of 
 that long-continued and vacillating struggle. 
 
 From the earliest encroachments of the papal su- 
 premacy upon the prerogatives of the English crown, 
 a struggle of resistance, more or less vigorous, had 
 been kept up. During some reigns, the royal power 
 had asserted its rights in manly tones, and thrown 
 very serious obstacles in the way of the advancing 
 enemy ; under others, resistance was feeble and inde- 
 cisive, and did very little to check the progress of 
 usurpation. Henry VIII., in whose reign this refor- 
 mation began, was himself a bigoted papist. He was 
 a man of considerable ability, and was somewhat dis- 
 tinguished as a scholar. At rather an early period 
 of his life, he wrote a book against Luther in defence 
 of the seven sacraments of the Romish church, which 
 procured for him the title of '■^Defender of the Faith." 
 He courted the pope with a constant and servile sub- 
 mission, and identified his own interests so entirely 
 with those of the Roman see, that, in the language 
 of a historian, " Had he died at any time before the 
 nineteenth year of his reign, he could scarce have 
 escaped being canonized, notwithstanding all his 
 faults." 
 
 Devoted as Henry was to the see of Rome, he 
 would probably never have called in question the 
 papal authority, had not the pope made a final deci- 
 sion against his divorce from Queen Katharine, and 
 marriage to Anne Boleyn. On this change in his 
 matrimonial relation, the king's heart was steadfastly 
 bent ; but so bigoted was his reverence for the au- 
 thority of the self-styled successor of St. Peter, that 
 he spent several years in attending to little else than 
 devising means for obtaining a dispensation from the 
 pope. Finding, after he had exhausted all the arts 
 
REFORMATION ACCIDENTAL IN ITS ORIGIN. 21 
 
 of diplomacy and all the terms of flattery and en- 
 treaty, that the pope was inexorable, he was shut up 
 to the necessity of first doubting, then denying, and 
 finally resisting a claim which many of his predeces- 
 sors had stoutly withstood. 
 
 Thus began the movement which carried the Eng- 
 lish reformation iii its train. The first step taken 
 was a denial of the pope's supremacy ; and the over- 
 throw of this supremacy was sought, not as an end, 
 but as the means of securing another object. Its in- 
 validation was desired, not because it was an unscrip- 
 tural usurpation, destructive of the liberty wherewith 
 Christ makes his people free, but because it stood like 
 a wall of fire across the path which led to the ob- 
 ject of Henry's desires. It is questionable, indeed, 
 whether, at the time this first step was taken, there 
 Avas any thought of a reformation in religion enter- 
 tained by the king and parliament. It was a mere 
 struggle for temporal power, looking to no object be- 
 yond the advancement of this or that secular interest. 
 This appears probable from the language of an act 
 of parliament, passed in 1533, soon after Henry's 
 marriage to Anne Boleyn. "The preamble bears," 
 says Burnet,* "that the crown of England was im- 
 perial, and that the nation was a complete body 
 within itself, with a full power to give justice in all 
 cases, spiritual as well as temporal; and that in the 
 spirituality, as there had been at all times, so there 
 were then men of that sufficiency and integrity, that 
 they might declare and determine all doubts in the 
 kingdom; and that several kings, as Edward I., Ed- 
 ward III., Richard II., and Henry IV., had by several 
 laws preserved the liberty of the realm, both spiritual 
 
 * Hist. Ref., vol. i., p. 206. 
 
22 REFORMATION ACCIDENTAL IN ITS ORIGIN. 
 
 and temporal, from the annoyance of the see of Rome, 
 and other foreign potentates ; yet many inconven- 
 iences had arisen by appeals to the see of Rome in 
 cases of matrimony, divorces, and other cases, which 
 were not sufficiently provided against by these laws ; 
 by which not only the king and his subjects were put 
 to great charges, but justice was much delayed by 
 appeals ; and Rome being at such a distance, evi- 
 dences could not be brought thither, nor witnesses, so 
 easily as within the kingdom ; therefore it was en- 
 acted, that all such causes, whether relating to the 
 king or any of his subjects, were to be determined 
 within the kingdom, in the several courts to which 
 they belonged, notwithstanding any appeals to Rome, 
 or inhibitions and bulls from Rome." 
 
 The causes here set forth for prohibiting appeals to 
 Rome are, that the English nation was a complete 
 body within itself; that there were men enough pos- 
 sessing spiritual discernment sufficient to determine 
 all cases without such appeals ; that the king and his 
 subjects were put to heavy charges, and justice was 
 delayed by fixing its seat at so great a distance. Not 
 one word is said about reforming an abuse of spiritual 
 power. Indeed, the foundation of the breach with 
 Rome seems to have been laid by an act of parliament 
 in 1532. by which the payment of annuities to the 
 Roman court was restrained. And the reason recited 
 by historians for the passage of this act is, that by the 
 payment of their first fruits, large sums of money were 
 carried out of England, to the impoverishing of the 
 kingdom. The primary, and indeed the only object 
 of these acts, appears to have been, to free the liberties 
 and crown of England from foreign trammels. 
 
 In saying this, I would not be understood as im- 
 plying that any thought of a reformation in religion 
 
REFORMATION ACCIDENTAL IN ITS ORIGIN. 23 
 
 was altogether a new thing in England; much less 
 that there was no preparation in the English mind 
 for the spiritual reforms which the secular movements 
 brought along with them. From the time of Wicliff, 
 who translated the Bible into English, the principles 
 of the reformation afterwards developed had been 
 making gradual advances. To the Bible which he 
 translated into the vulgar tongue, Wiclitf prefixed a 
 long preface, in which he reflected, in strong terms, 
 and with just severity, on the vices and general profli- 
 gacy of the clergy. And though his writings were 
 not distinguished for beauty of style, yet they made 
 so direct an appeal to the good sense of the middle 
 classes, that he soon had followers scattered over the 
 whole kingdom, making no public profession of his 
 opinions, — which it would not have been safe for them 
 to do, — but holding them in private, and gradually 
 infusing them, as opportunity offered, into minds with 
 which their daily calling brought them into contact. 
 There breathes in all his writings a fearless simplici- 
 ty, a total disregard and contempt for frowning des- 
 potism. His principles of religious freedom wrought 
 in him an elevation of soul which sought for his con- 
 duct only an approving conscience, and the approba- 
 tion of his God. And we are assured by the most 
 abundant evidence, that the testimony he was contin- 
 ually bearing against Romish assumptions and op- 
 pressions, was soon found, as we have intimated, in 
 full harmony with the tone of feeling among a large 
 proportion of the people. The attentive observer of 
 human affairs will perceive, therefore, that, however 
 much was incidentally done at the reformation, the 
 great Ruler of nations had been long preparing the 
 Avay for its accomplishment. Not merely the life and 
 writings of Wicliff", but a variety of other circum- 
 
24 REFORMATION ACCIDENTAL IN ITS ORIGIN. 
 
 stances, had fitted the pubUc mind for the results then 
 witnessed. The open violence of some of the popes, 
 the shameless and profligate lives of some others of 
 those high functionaries, the notorious licentiousness 
 which generally characterized their court and capital, 
 the shockingly corrupt morals of the clergy generally, 
 the gross ignorance and effrontery of the several or- 
 ders of the mendicants. — these, and other abuses, 
 contributed to make the reforms afterwards effected 
 comparatively easy. It is no less true in all other con- 
 vulsions and upheavings of society than in this, that 
 there must be for some time previous some profound 
 impulses accumulating upon the public mind. 
 
 Some are apt to look upon the reformation as stand- 
 ing on the utmost verge of moral life, and to regard all 
 beyond as lying in unbroken sleep, and surrounded 
 with darkness impenetrable. They are disposed to 
 consider this great moral revolution as combining 
 within itself all the principles of an ultimate cause, as 
 standing at the extreme starting point of that series of 
 revolutions which followed in its train. The thought is 
 unphilosophical ; it contradicts all just views of the pro- 
 gress of changes in individual and national character. 
 
 The admission of all this involves no denial of the 
 fact that the reformation in England was, in its origin, 
 a secondary and unintended work. But for this prep- 
 aration, it probably could not have been effected. 
 Nevertheless, its chief supporters aimed, primarily, at 
 another end, and made this the instrument of securing 
 their chief object. While, therefore, Ave must magnify 
 the wisdom and grace of God in- educing good out of 
 evil, we can award to the king and parliament the 
 praise of no higher motive than the desire to secure 
 the wealth, power and independence of the English 
 nation. 
 
25 
 
 CHAPTER n. 
 
 THB ENGLISH REFORMATION ACCIDENTAL IN ITS PROGRESS. 
 
 My next position is, that the English reformation 
 was accidental in its progress ; that is, it was mainly 
 so, though not exclusively. 
 
 In sustaining this position, I need not confine my- 
 self to events which transpired subsequently to the 
 rupture of friendship between Henry VIII. and the 
 pope. That was the first movement towards the 
 breaking, in England, of the temporal power of the 
 sovereign pontiff. Official acts had been previously 
 resorted to by those in authority, to suppress some of 
 the corrupt and corrupting appendages of the papal 
 system. The suppression of monasteries was effected 
 in a way which illustrates what I am now saying. 
 Henry VIII. was fond of making a display of learn- 
 ing, and so was Cardinal Wolsey ; and in the earlier 
 part of Henry's reign, the king and the cardinal de- 
 vised a plan for erecting colleges, and promoting 
 learning, by suppressing monasteries, and using for 
 such purpose the money invested in them.* The 
 first bull for carrying this purpose into effect was 
 obtained from Pope Clement, in 1524. The reader 
 will easily believe that whatever was done in this 
 way to reform religion, must have been incidental 
 and unintended, or it would not have been forwarded 
 by a bull from the pope. Cardinal Wolsey wished 
 
 * Historians also relate that the king was expecting a war with 
 France, and lacking the funds to make preparations for it, he wished 
 to make the money tlius raised contribute something to this end. — 
 Burnet's Hist. Ref., vol i., pp. 305, 306. 
 
 3 
 
26 REFORMATION ACCIDENTAL IN ITS PROGRESS. 
 
 to make a display; and to do this, he could think of 
 no better way than to convert monasteries "into bish- 
 oprics, cathedrals, collegiate churches, and colleges." 
 Thus God made use of his pride to destroy that sink 
 of iniquity, the monastic system, as he afterwards did 
 of Henry's lust to break the civil chain which the pope 
 had bound around the English nation. 
 
 But my business is chiefly with events that trans- 
 pired in the progress of the reformation which was 
 effected, not by the aid of the pope's bulls, but in spite 
 of them. And here, while I find reforms occurring, 
 great and glorious, and such as have been lifting the 
 English nation into a higher and higher eminence, 
 even to the present hour, I find them, as a general rule, 
 only following in the train of other and more absorb- 
 ing interests, and creeping into existence as it were by 
 stealth, or at most by accident. This statement, as I 
 intimated in the outset, I desire to make with some 
 measure of abatement, — applying it, not to every spe- 
 cific fact, but only to the general current of events 
 which characterized the period of which I speak. 
 
 And here I would invite attention particularly to 
 an abatement of the persecution of protestants which 
 occurred at one time during the controversy between 
 Henry and the pope. It arose from no desire to ex- 
 tend the rights of conscience and the liberty of think- 
 ing and acting freely in religion, — rights and liber- 
 ties which are inherent in the very first principles of 
 a protestant faith, — but it Iiad its origin in the selfish 
 ambition to force the pope into a compliance with 
 Henry's wishes. It is well known that at that day 
 the Romish church relied almost wholly upon force 
 to propagate its faith and to suppress alleged heresy. 
 Henry caused the withdrawal of all forcible persecu- 
 tion of the preacheiis of Luther's doctrines, and held 
 
UEFORMATION ACCIDENTAL IN ITS PROGRESS. 27 
 
 the fact up before the pope as a threat, that heresy- 
 would be permitted to spread over the land, unless 
 his demands should be acceded to.* And when More 
 came into favor, who was a bigoted persecutor by na- 
 ture, and persuaded the king that a vigorous support 
 of the church Avould be more likely to bring the pope 
 to a compliance, a proclamation against the heretics 
 was issued, and a rigorous array of force was again 
 put in motion to exterminate false doctrine. 
 
 The translation of the Scriptures into English, one 
 of the most important movements in Henry's time, 
 was wholly accidental, in the sense in which we are 
 vising the term in this discussion. When a transla- 
 tion was proposed, great opposition, of course, was 
 made to it, and nothing seems to have prevailed with 
 the king, except the argument that a flattering of the 
 people, by entrusting them with the Bible, would 
 make his own supremacy acceptable, while that of 
 the pope would become odious by the remembrance 
 that he had kept them in darkness. He was assured, 
 moreover, that, as the Scriptures recognized a kingly 
 head of the church, rather than a papal, a general 
 reading of them would establish his claims among the 
 people, and overthrow those of the pontiff.f It was 
 not, therefore, any love for the Scriptures, or any de- 
 sire that the people should become enlightened by 
 them, which led the king to consent to their transla- 
 tion, — for he had utterly refused to give his consent 
 on a previous occasion ; but it was his jealousy of the 
 pope's influence with the people. 
 
 I may refer also to some modifications in religious 
 matters, made in 1543. "The king," says Burnet, J 
 " was now entering upon a war; so it seemed reason- 
 
 * Burnet's Hisl. Ref., vol. i., p. 260. f Ibid., vol. i., p. 315. 
 t Ibid., vol. i., p. 516. 
 
28 REFORMATION ACCIDENTAL IN ITS PROGRESS. 
 
 able to qualify the severity of the late acts about reli- 
 gion, that all might be quiet at home." 
 
 Facts like these might be multiplied to a great ex- 
 tent; for a careful analysis of the historical records 
 which relate to this reformation, will show that nearly 
 every specific reform grew out of, and was modified 
 by, considerations of state policy.* This is not the 
 branch of my subject, however, to which I am chiefly 
 anxious to draw attention; and, having opened it, I 
 leave it to be enlarged upon by others, or possibly by 
 myself hereafter. 
 
 Thus was the progress of the reformation, or its 
 outward acknoAvledgment by the nation, made de- 
 pendent on the worldly aims of a wicked and ambi- 
 tious king. Henry had Avrested an ecclesiastical 
 supremacy from the Roiuan pontiff, only to retain it 
 in his own hands. He had denied that the pope was 
 the head of the church, only that he might proclaim 
 himself its head.f Henry had no more thought of 
 
 * Burnet, in the preface to his rakiable History of the Reforma- 
 tion, speaking of the advances made in the reformation during 
 Henry's reign, says, " There was still an alloy of other corruptions, 
 embarrassing the purity of the faith. And, indeed, in the whole, 
 progress of these changes, the king's design seems to have been to 
 terrify the court of Rome, and cudgel the pope into a compliance with 
 what he desired." 
 
 t The session of parliament held in 1534, enacted " That the king 
 was supreme head in earth of the Church of England, which was to 
 be annexed to his other titles ; it was also enacted that the king and 
 his heirs and successors should have power to visit and reform all here- 
 sies, errors and other abuses, which in the spiritual jurisdiction ought 
 to be reformed." — Burnet's Hist. Ref, vol. i., p. 256. 
 
 The laws and orders issued for the government of the reformed 
 church of England, and possessing authority to bind its members, 
 may be arranged under the three heads of legislative, synodical, and 
 mandatory ; the first consisting of acts of parUament, the second of 
 decrees of synods confirmed by the sovereign, and the third of the 
 royal mandates. It is evident that in all these cases the assent of the 
 sovereign is indispensable ; and in the language of law as well as of 
 prerogative, the royal pleasure has been considered as the source of 
 all church authority ; and the diiferent bodies that took part with the 
 crown in the enactment of ecclesiastical laws, were looked upon 
 
KEFORMATION ACCIDENTAL IN ITS PKOGKESS. 29 
 
 favoring religious freedom of opinion than had the 
 pope. He absolved the people from thinking as the 
 pope thought, but not from thinking as he thought. 
 Hence the vacillating character of the reformation 
 
 advisers anil counsellors, to be employed in their respective capacities 
 according to the discretion of the sovereign. Thus King James I., in 
 his proclamation of October, 1603, respecting the alleged corruptions 
 of the church, says: "We will proceed according to the laws and 
 customs of this realm, by advice of our council, or in our high court 
 of parliament, or by convocation of our clergy, as we shall find reason 
 lo lead us." In Sir Edward Coke's Reports, it is stated, " Albeit the 
 kings of England derived their ecclesiastical laws from others, yet so 
 many as were proved, approved, and allowed here, by and with a 
 general consent, are aptly and rightly called the king's ecclesiastical 
 laws of England :" and the twelve judges declared, m the year 1604, 
 that " the king, without parliament, might make orders and constitu- 
 lions for the government of the clergy, and might deprive them, if 
 they obeyed not." 
 
 The same fact is expressed by Archbishop Wake, in the following 
 manner : " I say it is in the power of the prince to make laws in mat- 
 ters ecclesiastical : and for the doing of this he may advise with his 
 clergy, and follow their counsel, so far as he approves of it. Thus 
 Charles the emperor made up his capitular ; and thus any other sov- 
 ereign prince may take the canons of the church, and form them in 
 such wise into an ecclesiastical law, as he thinks will be most for the 
 honor of God and the good of his people." * * * * 
 
 The supremacy of the sovereign rests mamly upon the statute (1 
 Eliz., c. 1) which "restored to the crown the ancient jurisdiction over 
 the estate ecclesiastical and spiritual, and abolished all foreign powers 
 repugnant to the same." By that statute it is enacted, that "such 
 jurisdictions, privileges, superiorities anri |.i • ii iM ih spiritual and 
 ecclesiastical, as by any spiritual or et-clt : ' : . r or authority 
 have heretofore been, or may lawfully 1" ^ 'i used for the 
 
 visitation of the ecclesiastical stale and j)ci mi , an. I iiu- reformation, 
 order, and correction of the same, and of all manner of errors, here- 
 sies, schisms, abuses, olTences, contempts, and enormities, shall for- 
 ever be united and annexed to the imperial crown of this realm." By 
 another statute of the same period, (1 Eliz., c. 2, ^ 26,) the sovereign 
 was empowered, with the advice of commissioners, or of the metro- 
 politan, to ordain additional rites and ceremonies, to be of equal force 
 and authority with those already onlaiucrl hy net of parliament. 
 
 It would appear from the priiiLi]i:il m i ,.| i jaecn Mary, and the 
 statutes repealed by it, that the jn 1 1 ^ 1 ictiou in England was 
 
 comprised under the five following lu-ails : 1. He was acknowledged 
 as chief bishop of the Christian church, with authority to reform and 
 redress heresies, errors, and abuses in the same. 2. To him belonged 
 the institution or confirmation of bishops elect. 3. He could grant to 
 clergymen licenses of non-residence, and permission to hold more 
 
 3* 
 
30 REFORMATION ACCIDENTAL IN ITS PROGRESS. 
 
 from the beginning to the end. It was in great part 
 dependent on the caprice of the sovereign. During 
 Henry's hfe, it went forward or backward just as his 
 whims or his ambition led him to favor or oppose it. 
 
 than one benefice. 4. He dispensed in the canonical impediments 
 of matrimony. 5. He received appeals from the spiritual courts. So 
 that the supremacy of the crown in this respect may be summed up 
 in the words of Hooker, after the following manner : " There is re- 
 quired an universal power which reacheth over all, importing supreme 
 authority of government over all courts, all judges, all causes ; the 
 operation of which power is as well to strengthen, maintain, and up- 
 hold particular jurisdictions, which haply might else be of small 
 efl'ect, as also to remedy that which they are not able to help, and to 
 redress that wherein they at any time do otherwise than they ought 
 to do. This power being some time in the Bishop of Rome, who, by 
 sinister practices, had drawn it into his hands, was for just considera- 
 tions by public consent annexed unto the king's royal seat and crown. 
 * # # # Our laws have provided that the king's supereminent 
 authority and power shall serve : as, namely, when the whole ecclesi- 
 astical state, or the principal persons therein, do need visitation and 
 reformation : when in any part of the church, errors, heresies, schisms, 
 abuses, offences, contempts, enormities, are grown which men, in 
 their several jurisdictions, either do not or cannot help : whatsoever 
 any spiritual authority or power, (such as legates from the see of 
 Rome did sometimes exercise,) hath done or might heretofore have 
 done for the remedy of those evils in lawful sort, (that is to say, with- 
 out the violation of the law of God or nature in the deed done,) as 
 much in every degree our laws have fully granted that the king for- 
 ever may do, not only by setting ecclesiastical synods on work that 
 the thing may be their act and the king their motion unto it, but by 
 commissioners few or many, who, having the king's letters patents, 
 may in the virtue thereof execute the premises as agents in the right, 
 not of their own peculiar and ordinary, but of his supereminent 
 power." 
 
 Large, however, as is the tield allowed by the statute for the exercise 
 of the supremacy, its boundary is made more indistinct, and at last 
 vanishes in the distance, when we include within it the further range 
 that was claimed and recognized at different periods of our history, 
 under the title of the king's prerogative. It was decided, in the well- 
 known case of Cawdry, that the act of supremacy (1 Eliz., c. 1) 
 " was not a statute introductory of a new law, but declaratory of the 
 old ;" and that if it had never been enacted, " the king or queen of 
 England might make such a commission as is there provided, by the 
 ancient prerogative and law of England." So that, independently 
 of the powers acknowledged in the statute, there was yet in reserve 
 within the capacious bosom of the common law, an undefined author- 
 ity, which being similar in its character, might also be equal in its 
 amount, to the omnipotence of Rome. — CardmeWs Annals Ch. of 
 Eng., vol. i., pp. 5 — 11. 
 
REFORMATION ACCIDENTAL IN ITS PROGRESS. 31 
 
 The church had cut itself off from the possibiUty of a 
 thorough and steadily progressive reformation, by 
 vesting the papal authority in the king, and by thus 
 retaining an arbitrary earthly head. The religious 
 rights of the people, long unrighteously merged in the 
 pope, were not, when wrested away from him, dis- 
 tributed to their rightful possessors. At one time, 
 Henry's interest required him to favor a specific re- 
 form, and again to oppose and repress another. And 
 in subsequent reigns, the reformation was carried 
 rapidly forward, and again well nigh destroyed by 
 the elevation to the throne first of a protestant, then of 
 a papist. In one period. Bibles were distributed, com- 
 munion tables introduced, pictures taken down from 
 the walls of churches, and a free interchange and 
 expression of religious opinion everywhere tolerated. 
 In another, Bibles contribute to papal bonfires, altars 
 for celebrating the mass are set up, pictures are again 
 Avorshipped, martyrs alone utter their opinions freely, 
 and the fires of the stake atford the only light in the 
 kingdom. The chief difl3.culty lay in the fact that, in 
 the beginning, the king took the management of the 
 reformation into his own hands, and it was ever after 
 considered a matter for the sovereign to manage, in- 
 stead of the divines of the church.* Hence it became 
 
 * These statements are strikingly illustrated in the failure of the 
 attempt made by Melancthon and others on the continent, and Craii- 
 mer and his associates in England, to strengthen the ' protestant 
 interest by uniting the German and English reformers in a joint 
 confession of faith. The plan originated with Melancthon, and was 
 warmly seconded by Cranmcr. After considerable correspondence 
 on the subject, Melancthon, in 1534, was invited into England for 
 the purposes of assisting to conclude a treaty of alliance, and to 
 prepare a joint confession of faith. He did not comply with the in- 
 vitation, but he labored to prepare the way for effecting the pro- 
 posed measures ; and in 1538, a mission, consisting of three distin- 
 guished gentlemen, was sent to England for the purposes just 
 named. Cranmcr, and other bishops and divines, having been 
 directed to confer with them, the Augsburg confession was selected 
 
32 REFORMATION ACCIDENTAL IN ITS PROGRESS. 
 
 a question of state policy,* rather than one of religious 
 reform. The power, weaUh, and aggrandizement of 
 the nation was the leading aim, and the renovation and 
 purity of the church were secondary objects. The 
 facts of history, and the necessities of the case, speak 
 the same general truth, and declare alike the subser- 
 viency of the religious reformation to the national glory. 
 The English nation never committed a sadder or more 
 fatal mistake, than when its high priests celebrated the 
 banns of marriage between the church and the state. 
 This is the fundamental error which underlies all their 
 subsequent mistakes — the marriage which has given 
 to the world a most unnatural progeny in every gen- 
 eration since. For when such a union is once com- 
 pleted, the church must become the mere handmaid of 
 the state — its servant, not its mistress. The pride of 
 the state and the humility of the church concur in giv- 
 
 as the ground-work of their proceeding, with the understanding that 
 the articles of faith should first be settled, and then that the abuses of 
 the church should be considered. Having brought the first division of 
 their labor to an amicable issue, the ambassadors urged upon Craii- 
 mer the importance of taking up immediately the abuses of the 
 church. Cranmer gave his full consent, but the other bishops de- 
 clined, on the plea that the king was about to mite on the points in dis- 
 pute, and it wonld be improper for them to anticipate him, lest they should 
 express sentiments which his royal highness would not approve. Thus, a 
 confederacy, which might have resulted in giving to England a more 
 unequivocal protestantism, and to the church a protestant league which 
 might before this have driven Romanism from the earth, was pre- 
 vented. An account of this movement will be found in the fourth 
 vol. of Burnet's History of the Reformation ; also, with less fulness, 
 in the first vol. of Strype's Annals Ref. 
 
 * Maurice, in his " Kingdom of Christ," a work which combines 
 the tractarian and transcendental theologie?, tells occasionally an 
 honest truth, in quite a philosophical way. He says, " While I have 
 maintained that the protestant principles are inseparably connected, 
 and that all are imphcitly contained in the first, [justification by 
 faith,] I have hinted also that they presented themselves in quite dif- 
 ferent aspects and relations to the diflerent reformers. Justification 
 was the central thought in Luther's mind, election in Calvin's, the 
 authority of the Scriptures in Zuingle's, the authority of sovereigns in 
 all the political patrons of protestantism, and in some of its theological 
 champions, especially here in England." — p. 105. 
 
REFORMATION ACCIDENTAL IN ITS PROGRESS. 33 
 
 ing the supremacy to the former. The interests of the 
 state, therefore, must first be looked after ; and any 
 reformation in the church can only be allowed when 
 the interests of the state require or tolerate it. It need 
 excite no surprise, therefore, that the reformation was 
 accidental in its Avhole course. It could not be other- 
 wise. The church's espousal to the state had given 
 her a menial position, and subordinated her interests 
 to those of a higher power. She had permitted her- 
 self to be sold into bondage — had entered into the ser- 
 vice of a master who would not divide with her the 
 rights of supremacy. She could expect no less than 
 that her claims should be secondary to those of her 
 liege lord. 
 
 In expressing these thoughts, of course I shall not be 
 accused of saying or insinuating aught to the discredit 
 of the divines of the English church, whose hearts 
 were in the reformation. Certainly, I cannot be 
 thought to entertain other than feelings of the highest 
 respect for such men as Cranmer, who at the stake 
 voluntarily thrust his right hand into the flame, say- 
 ing, " That unworthy hand," because it had signed a 
 false declaration of his faith; as Hooper, who died in 
 the flames with the words of the martyr Stephen upon 
 his lips; as Ridley, who said to his fellow-sufierer, 
 " Be of good heart, brother, for God will either assuage 
 the fury of the flame, or enable us to abide it ;" as Lati- 
 mer, who, in like trying circumstances, said — "We 
 shall this day light such a candle in England as I 
 trust by God's grace shall never be put out;" — men 
 of whom the world was not worthy, and to whom God 
 granted, as to Elijah of old, the special favor of being 
 carried to heaven in chariots of fire. These, and nu- 
 merous others, were among the salt of the earth. 
 They shed a lustre, such as is seldom shed, upon the 
 
34 REFORMATION ACCIDENTAL IN ITS PROGRESS. 
 
 christian name. But they were the servants of a mis- 
 tress who was in bondage. The church, at whose 
 ahars they served, liad espoused herself to a kingdom 
 which was of this world. They were in heart true to 
 their heavenly King ; but the iron will of an earthly 
 master often stopped them in their course, and held 
 back their hands from the work they desired to do.* 
 Our Lord has forewarned his people that they cannot 
 serve two masters ; and the experience of these excel- 
 lent men shows that there was deep philosophy in the 
 remark. They often would do good, but evil — an evil 
 worldly power — was present to restrain and hinder 
 them. The example furnishes a warning to the 
 church never again to link herself to the state, or in 
 any way to form an alliance with the world. She has 
 a Master in heaven, who will not justify her in becom- 
 ing the servant of another. 
 
 * •' They [the reformers] had exposed the errors and renounced the 
 jurisdiction of the court of Rome ; but the powers it had exercised 
 were transferred, asof necessit}', to their sovereign, and no inquiry was 
 made whether some of them were not part of his original prerogative, 
 and others inconsistent with the nature of his office. It appeared as if 
 the Cliurch of England, having drifted away from the shores of the 
 papacy, was treated by the statesmen of these times as a waif or an 
 esiray, and claimed, lilie all other bona vacuntin, as the property of the 
 crown. With respect, then, to the future condition and the positive 
 reformation of the national church, the powers of the reformers were 
 at an end as soon as they had shaken ofi' the tyranny of Eome." — 
 CardrveU's History of Conferences, and other proceedings connected with 
 the revision of the Book of Common Prayer. 
 
35 
 
 CHAPTER m. 
 
 THE ENGLISH REFORMATION INCOMPLETE AS TO DOCTRINES. 
 
 It would be saying too much to affirm that the great 
 doctrines of the gospel were not asserted, and strongly- 
 set forth, in the preaching and the writings of the re- 
 formers of the English commimion. In this respect, 
 they Avere, perhaps, fully as clear and intelligently 
 sound as the reformers on the continent. My charge 
 against them is, not that they did not hold the truth, 
 but that they did not hold it in a state of separation 
 from error. They restored all the truths which the 
 Roman church had lost; but they did not reject all 
 the errors which that wicked communion had intro- 
 duced. Thus, while they combined in their teachings 
 all the protestant elements of a true gospel, they min- 
 gled with them enough of the popish element of a false 
 gospel to neutralize in part their heavenly influences, 
 and to hinder their free and benign action upon the 
 world. 
 
 1. My first charge against the English reformers 
 relates to the views held and inculcated respecting the 
 canon of Scripture.* On this point, I shall draw my 
 evidence from but one source, and that of such author- 
 ity that all will regard it as sufficient. I refer to the 
 first and second books of homilies. Of these books the 
 XXX Vth article thus speaks : " The second book of 
 
 * It is well known that the Roman church makes the canon of 
 Scriptures consist, not merely of the written word received by prot- 
 estants, but of a body of written and unwritten tradition also ; and 
 that to these combined, it adds the whole of the books called the 
 apocrypha. The written Scriptures, tradition, and the apocrypha, 
 make up the Roman Catholic's scriptural canon. 
 
36 REFORMATION INCOMPLETE AS TO DOCTRINES. 
 
 homilies, the several titles whereof we have joined, 
 under this article, doth contain a godly and whole- 
 some doctrine, and necessary for these times, as doth 
 the former book of homilies, which were set forth in 
 the time of Edward the Sixth ; and therefore we judge 
 them to be read in churches by the ministers, dili- 
 gently and distinctly, that they may be imderstanded 
 of the people." To this article the American Episco- 
 pal church has added these words : " This article is 
 received in this church, so far as it declares the books 
 of homilies to be an explication of christian doctriney 
 and instructive in piety and morals." 
 
 These books are, therefore, one of the standards of 
 doctrine of highest authority in the Episcopal church. 
 Now listen to the allusions which they make inciden- 
 tally to passages contained in the apocrypha. 
 
 " Let us learn also here [in the Book of Wisdom, one 
 of the apocryphal books, vi. 1 — 3] by the infallible 
 and undeceivable word of God," &c., Homilies, 1 B., x. 
 1, p. 97.* " As the word of God testifieth. Wisdom 
 xiv." 2 B., ii. 3, p. 198. "So is the weakness, vile- 
 ness, and foolishness, in device of the images, (where- 
 by we have dishonored him,) expressed at large in the 
 Sa-iptwes, namely, the Psalms, the book of Wisdom, 
 the prophet Esaias," &x;. 2 B., i. 1, p. 164. 
 
 " The same lesson doth the Holy Ghost also teach 
 in sundry places of Scripture, saying, 'mercifulness 
 and alms-giving,' " &c. Tobit iv., 10. 2 B., xi., 2, p. 
 346. 
 
 The wise preacher, the son of Sirach, confirmeth the 
 same, when he says, " As water quencheth burning 
 
 * My first intention was to take some of the passages selected by- 
 Mr. Newman in Tract ex. ; but discovering a few of his quotations 
 to be incorrect and dishonest, like his explanation of the articles, I 
 threw them aside, and have made my quotations directly from the 
 late American edition of the homilies. 
 
REFORMATION INCOMPLETE AS TO DOCTRINES. 37 
 
 fire," &c. "The rude people, who specially as the 
 Scripture teacheth. Wisdom xiii. and xiv., are in dan- 
 ger of superstition and idolatry," &c. 2 B., ii. 3, p. 
 216. Ecclesiasticus iii. 30. 
 
 The homilies also, after quoting these, and some 
 passages from the fathers, add these words, — ' ' Thus we 
 are taught by the Scriptures and ancient doctors," &c. 
 2 B., Horn, ix., p. 322. 
 
 Here, in a volume next in authority to the prayer- 
 book, is a very clear and repeated recognition of the 
 apocrypha as a part of the canon of Scripture, a doc- 
 trine most thoroughly and perniciously unprotestant. 
 
 2. My second charge relates to justification and re- 
 generation. The English reformers connected both 
 with baptism, after the manner of the Roman church. 
 I again sustain my position by quotations from the 
 homilies. 
 
 "Our office is, not to pass the time of this present 
 life unfruitfully and idly, after that we are baptized or 
 justified" &c. 1 B., iii. 3, p. 26. 
 
 " The order or decree made by the elders for wash- 
 ing oft-times, which was diligently observed of the 
 Jews; yet tending to superstition, our Saviour Christ 
 altered and changed the same in his church, into a 
 profitable sacrament, the sacrament of our regeueratioii 
 or new birth." 2 B., iv. 2. p. 258. 
 
 " We be therefore was/ted in our baptism from the 
 fiUhiness of sin, that we should live afterwards in the 
 pureness of life." 2 B., xiii. 1, p. 369. 
 
 Speaking of the house of God, the homilies say, 
 " The fountain of our generation is there presented 
 [ministered] unto us." 2 B., iii., p. 245. 
 
 It will not be needful to enter into any labored proof 
 that these passages convey a doctrine which is not 
 protestant. Enough to know that Rome says, speak- 
 4 
 
38 REFORMATION INCOMPLETE AS TO DOCTRINES. 
 
 ing of justification, "The instrumental cause is the 
 sacrament of baptism, without which justification 
 comes to none." It admits of no doubt that these re- 
 formers bcheved that regeneration, — inward, spiritual 
 regeneration, not merely sacramental, — is effected in 
 the waters of baptism. They believed that the act of 
 consecrating the water infused it with the Spirit, or 
 endowed it with power to convey the germs or begin- 
 nings of spiritual life. This doctrine is abundantly 
 taught in the prayer-book, and in the writings of Eng- 
 lish divines, as I shall have occasion to show in a sub- 
 sequent part of this discussion. 
 
 3. I charge still further upon the English reformers, 
 that they held not only Romish opinions as to the na- 
 ture and efficacy of the sacraments, as shown above, 
 but that their views were indistinct and unsettled as to 
 their number. Referring again to the homilies, the 
 reader may find such language as this : 
 
 " By holy promises, with calling the name of God to 
 witness, we be made lively members of Christ, when 
 we profess his religion receiving the sacrament of bap- 
 tism. By like holy promise the sacrament of matri- 
 mony knitteth man and wife in perpetual love." 1 B., 
 vii. 1, p. 64. 
 
 The homilies do indeed contain passages which seem 
 to contradict this clear statement, and to imply that the 
 writers did not hold the Roman doctrine of seven sacra- 
 ments. Their sentiments respecting the sacraments 
 seem, in fact, to have been confused and obscure. They 
 did not regard matrimony, orders, &c., '■'■such sacraments 
 as baptism and the communion are ;" yet they viewed 
 them as, to a certain extent, sacramental ordinances. 
 In short, they had retreated about as far from Roman- 
 ism, in some respects, as the tractarians have from 
 protestantism ; and were holding, somewhere between 
 
REFORMATION INCOMPLETE AS TO DOCTRINES. 39 
 
 the two systems, a kind of "sacramental theology," 
 minus a number of the papal adjuncts. 
 
 4. The minds of these reformers seem not to have 
 been purged of Roman views of the authority of the 
 ancient church and fathers. liCt the homilists utter 
 their sentiments once more. 
 
 "Contrary to the which most manifest doctrine of 
 the Scriptures, and contrary to the usage of the primi- 
 tive church, which was most pure and uncorrupt, and 
 contrary to the sentences and judgments of the most 
 ancient, learned, and godly doctors of the church." 2 
 B., ii. 1, p. 158. 
 
 "Epiphanius, a bishop and doctor of such antiquity 
 and authority.''^ 2 B., ii. 2, p. 174. This short pas- 
 sage gives but a slight idea of the extravagant manner 
 in which this homily speaks of Epiphanius. The 
 reader will do well to consult the whole passage. 
 
 "It shall be declared, both by God's word, and the 
 sente7ices of the ancient doctors, and judgment of the 
 primitive church," &jC. 2 B., ii. 3, p. 193. 
 
 " That the law of God is likewise to be understood 
 against all our images, as well of Christ as his saints, 
 in temples and churches, appeareth further by the judg- 
 ment of the doctors, and the primitive church." 2 B., 
 ii. 3, p. 197. 
 
 " The primitive church ichich is specially to be fol- 
 loived, as most incorrupt and pure. Thus it is declared 
 by God's word, the sentences of the doctors, and the 
 judgment of the primitive church." 2 B., ii. 3, p. 199. 
 " Thus you see that the authority both of the Scripture, 
 and also of Augustine, doth not permit that we should 
 pray unto them." 2 B., vii. 2, p. 290. 
 
 To show the unsoundness of these views belongs to 
 anotlier branch of the subject. I therefore pass them 
 here without comment. 
 
40 REFORMATION INCOMPLETE AS TO DOCTRINES. 
 
 These quotations afford a striking comment on a 
 truth which may several times come out in this discus- 
 sion, namely, that the English reformation, the prayer- 
 book, the homilies, and the teachings of the English 
 divines, are, and have been, remarkable for the min- 
 gling of the Roman Catholic and protestant elements.* 
 At almost every point, the glorious truths of the gospel 
 are shining out, and side by side with them are found 
 the traces, and sometimes the body and substance, of 
 Roman error. 
 
 The propriety of quoting from the homilies in this 
 chapter will be manifest when it is considered that 
 they were written by Crannier and Ridley, are reck- 
 oned among the symbolical writings of the church of 
 England, and of the Protestant Episcopal church in 
 the United States, and are said by one of our articles 
 of religion to "contain a godly and wholesome doc- 
 trine." 
 
 * When I had nearly completed the writing of this volume, Isaac 
 Taylor's profound and learned work, entitled " Ancient Christianity," 
 fell into my hands ; and as the author is a member of the church of 
 England, I am happy to strengthen the above statement by the fol- 
 lowing quotation : 
 
 " The worship, the sacramental notions, and the feelings of the Af- 
 rican church of the times of Cyprian, furnish, as I think, the ideal 
 model which the founders of the English church held in their view. 
 With these notions and practises, wliich affect the ' offices,' were min- 
 gled the very incongruous materials proper to the continental reforma- 
 tion — I mean those energetic, evangelic principles, which gave life to 
 the preaching of Luther and his colleagues. Almost an utter dissimi- 
 larity distinguishes the Christianity of Luther from that of Cyprian ; 
 — and yet elements of both are bound together in the English 
 
 PKAYER-BOOK AND HOMILIES ! 
 
 "From this source have arisen, from time to time, differences 
 which no ingenuity of explanation can ever avail to reconcile, and 
 feuds to which, in the nature of things, no method of pacification can 
 be applied. All may indeed seem to go well during seasons of uni- 
 versal slumber; but at the moment of a revival of religious feeling, 
 from whatever quarter it springs, the old interminable strife wakes 
 up, and threatens an open schism." — Ancient Christianity, vol. ii., p. 
 109. 
 
41 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 TUE REFORMATION INCOMPLETE AS TO USAGES. 
 
 Numerous passages from the homilies have been 
 produced as documentary evidence that the Enghsh 
 reformation was doctrinally incomplete. I now ad- 
 vance another step, and view it as it presents itself in 
 its outward ceremonial. 
 
 This reformation was emphatically a gradual work. 
 Begun under accidental circumstances, it had to urge 
 its way through constant embarrassments, and was 
 effected only by a slow and uncertain process. In- 
 deed, it seems to have been gradual intentionally, so 
 far as there was any intention about it. It was grad- 
 ual intentionally, as I shall have occasion to show in a 
 subsequent chapter, with the view of silencing the ob- 
 jections of those papistically inclined, and of keeping 
 them satisfied with an amount of papal appearances^ 
 at least, still remaining. It does not appear, however, 
 but that the promoters of it among the clergy hoped 
 that every Romish peculiarity would ultimately be re- 
 moved. But they differed much as to present ac- 
 tion in reference to many points. Thus, in the reign 
 of Edward VI., Hooper, one of the most zealous and 
 faithful preachers of the time, and who was burnt in 
 the reign of Mary, was conscientiously opposed to 
 wearing the "popish habits," the surplice included; 
 whereas Cranmer and Ridley were at that time so much 
 set upon their use, that they silenced Hooper, and re- 
 fused to consecrate him to a bishopric unless he would 
 4* 
 
42 REFORMATION INCOMPLETE AS TO USAGES. 
 
 use them.* Had he lived a Uttle later, he would have 
 been ranked among the puritans. He was, in fact, the 
 first puritan ; that is, he was the first minister in the 
 church of England who advocated an entire imnfica- 
 tion of the church from the errors and usages of the 
 Romish communion. 
 
 During the reign of Mary, when the Roman faith 
 was restored, many of the bishops and divines fled to 
 the continent to escape the flames of martyrdom. 
 During their absence, they of course cherished the 
 strongest desire to see their native country rid of all the 
 corruptions of popery; and when Elizabeth came to 
 the throne, and the time was approaching for their joy- 
 ful return to England, those who had taken refuge at 
 Frankfort became extremely anxious as to the course 
 which would be taken at home in regard to "ceremo- 
 nies;" and on the 3d of January, 1559, they wrote to 
 others of their brethren who had sheltered themselves 
 from the storm at Geneva, for the purpose of having 
 some mutual understanding as to Avhat course they 
 should pursue on this subject when they reached their 
 native home. They said to their brethren, that what- 
 ever ceremonies should be retained, they should have 
 no hand in their establishment ; they hoped they should 
 not be burthened with them; but if disappointed in 
 this, they thought it best to submit; but they would 
 be ready to join with their brethren in becoming "suit- 
 ors for the reformation and abolishing of the same." 
 James Pilkington, soon after the learned and zealous 
 bishop of Duresme, was one of the signers of this let- 
 ter. Strype says,t "And the first bishops that were 
 made, and who were but newly returned out of their 
 
 * Warner's Ecclesiastical Hist., vol. ii., p. 280. — Bogue and Ben- 
 nett's Dissenters, 
 t Annals of the Ref., vol. i., p. 177. 
 
REFORMATION INCOMPLETE AS TO USAGES. 43 
 
 exiles, as Cox, Grindal, Home, Sandys, Jewel, Park- 
 hurst, Bentham, upon their first returns, before they 
 entered upon their ministry, labored all they could 
 against receiving into the church the papistical habits, 
 and that all the ceremonies should be clean laid aside. 
 But they coidd, not obtain it from the queen and par- 
 liament. And the habits were enacted. Then they 
 concerted together what to do, being in some doubt 
 whether to enter into their functions.'''' Strype also 
 says, " As for the other ceremonies used in the Roman 
 church, these our divines could have been contented at 
 this juncture to have been without, observing what 
 jealousies were taken at them ; and that there might 
 not be the least compliance with the popish devotions. 
 Bishop Jewel, in a letter dated in February, 1559, to 
 Bulinger, said, " The surplice moved weak minds, and 
 that for his part he wished that the very slightest foot- 
 steps of popery might be taken away, both out of the 
 church, and out of the minds of men. But the queen," 
 he said, "could at that time bear no change in reli- 
 gion." * The excellent archbishop Sandys said in his 
 last will and testament, "I am now, and ever have 
 been, persuaded that some of the rites and ceremonies 
 are not expedient for this church now ; but that in the 
 church reformed, and in all this time of the gospel, they 
 may better be disused by little and little than more and 
 more urged." 
 
 On the authorities, then, of bishops Jewel, Pilking- 
 ton, Cox, Grindal, Horne, Sandys, Parkhurst and Ben- 
 tham, I assert, that, in the matter of ceremonies, the 
 reformation was not completed ; for the surplice, which 
 Jewel ranks among the "footsteps of popery;" the 
 habits, the surplice included, which Strype, the emi- 
 
 * Annals of the Ref., vol. i., p. 177. 
 
44 REFORMATION INCOMPLETE AS TO USAGES. 
 
 nent historian, calls the "papistical habits;" and a 
 variety of other ceremonies which they all " labored 
 all they could" to have "clean laid aside," were re- 
 tained. All these ceremonies, too, would have been 
 removed but for the queen, who, Jewel said, could 
 bear no change in religion beyond that which was 
 made. And the question fairly arises here, who was 
 right, the half papist queen Elizabeth, or the reformed 
 bishops just named? The queen said the reformation 
 was carried far enough, that it was completed, and 
 should go no further. The bishops said, the " footsteps 
 of popery" were not blotted out, and that the remains 
 of Romanism ought to be " clean laid aside." I do not 
 hesitate to declare for the bishops ; though the greater 
 part of my episcopal friends now take sides with the 
 queen, and think some portion of the "papistical hab- 
 its" the most becoming in the world. I am aware 
 that queen Elizabeth was very fond of showy things ; 
 but I never could learn that she used stronger argu- 
 ments for retaining a white linen surplice than these 
 eminent divines employed for laying it aside. I shall 
 feel, at all events, when I come, by and by, to urge 
 good philosophical reasons why it should now be aban- 
 doned, that I am supported by better authorities than 
 that of a half reformed and tyrannical queen. If these 
 ceremonies ought to be retained, then it was fortunate 
 that the sovereign had been made the head of the 
 church, for it was only in consequence of this that they 
 were saved. Let the lovers of the surplice never for- 
 get their obligations to queen Elizabeth, who saved 
 their "papistical habit" from the oblivion into which 
 these eminent bishops would have cast it.* 
 
 * The committee of divines appointed in the beginning of Eliza- 
 beth's reign, to revise the prayer-book, presented a new book to Sir 
 William Cecil, accompanied with a paper by Guest, a distinguished 
 
REFORMATION INCOMPLETE AS TO USAGES. 45 
 
 Notwithstanding that these divines were foiled in 
 their attempt to make a "dean" sweep of the ceremo- 
 nies, they still decided to "enter into their functions," 
 hoping that the time would come when a more thor- 
 oughly protestant feeling would prevail with the head 
 of the church, to consent to a removal of the last re- 
 mains of the " popish devotions." Constant in the dis- 
 charge of their ministerial duties, they were also busy 
 in urging a further reformation, particularly in regard 
 to "ceremonies;" and three years after their return 
 from abroad, the great convocation of the clergy was 
 called together, in which the articles of religion were 
 adopted, and other matters were debated and arranged. 
 Previous to the meeting of this body, the archbishop 
 of Canterbury prepared, or procured to be prepared, a 
 paper, embracing such matters as were expected to 
 come before the convocation. The matter embraced 
 in this paper related to "doctrines," "rites," and "ec- 
 clesiastical laws and discipline." Under the head of 
 rites, the paper proposed that " the use of vestments, 
 copes and surplices, be from henceforth taken away." 
 When the matter of rites and ceremonies came before the 
 convocation, bishop Sandys brought in a paper, wherein 
 he advised that her majesty be moved that " the collect 
 
 divine, setting forth the reasons which had induced him to assent to 
 several of the alterations. A distinguished writer says : 
 
 " But the fact of greatest interest which we learn from this docu- 
 ment is, that after the divines had completed their work, and delivered 
 it to Sir W. Cecil, some important changes were still made, before the 
 book received the sanction of the legislature. It is supposed by some 
 that these changes were introduced during its progress through the 
 legislature ; btit it if more probable, from the known sentiments and subse- 
 quent conduct of the queen, that they were inserted previoiisbj by herself 
 and her council. This, however, is certain, that the committee of di- 
 vines disapproved of any distinction as to the use of vestments, be- 
 tween the celebration of the communion and the other services of the 
 church ; and by a still bolder act of concession, left it to every man's 
 choice to communicate either standing or kneeling : both these 
 changes, however, were withdrawn before the book was eventually 
 published." — CardweWs Hist, of Conferences, pp. 21, 22. 
 
46 REFORMATION INCOMPLETE AS TO USAGES. 
 
 for crossing the infant in the forehead may be blotted 
 out. As it seems very sujjcrstitious, so it is not needful." 
 There was put in also a request from certain members 
 of the lower house, signed by thirty-three in number, to 
 the effect, among other things, that the cross in baptism 
 miglit be laid aside ; that the use of copes and surplices 
 might be taken away ; that all saints' and holy-days, 
 except such as relate to Christ, be rejected, as tejiding 
 to supersliiion, &IJ:,. These articles were earnestly de- 
 bated, and when passed upon, fifty-eight voted for 
 them, and fifty-nine against them. Of those present^ 
 however, forty-three voted for the propositions, and 
 thirty-five against them. They were lost by jivoxy 
 votes. The main objection urged against them was, 
 that they were contrary to the book of common prayer, 
 which had been settled by act of parliament.* It is 
 plain that the opinion of the convocation was against 
 the usages which these articles aimed to abolish ; but 
 they were enacted by parliament, and the queen was 
 known to be averse to their removal ; and so the " cer- 
 emonies " were saved again by the half-reformed queen. 
 I ask again, who was right, the convocation of the 
 clergy, or the queen 7 By the decision of this convo- 
 cation, the church was not fully reformed in the matter 
 of ceremonies. 
 
 From this time forward, open remonstrances against 
 the papal ceremonies were greatly increased. Many 
 of the most pious as well as the most learned men in 
 the church became earnest opposers of them, alleging 
 that they were vestiges of the papal system, tending 
 only to the begetting of feelings and sentiments in har- 
 mony with a cast-off and rejected rehgion. Indeed, so 
 general was the dissatisfaction with them, that the 
 
 * Strype's Annals of the Ref., vol. i., pp. 316 — 339. Burnet's Hist. 
 Eef., vol. iii., pp. 451 — 5. Warner, vol. ii., p. 429. 
 
REFORMATION INCOMPLETE AS TO USAGES. 47 
 
 London Christian Observer says, (and several histories 
 which I have examined confirm the statement,) a large 
 portion of the preaching clergy scrupled at the ceremo- 
 nies, so that nearly thirty years after the establishment 
 of the reformation, there were only about two thousand 
 preachers for ten thousand parish churches. 
 
 The limits assigned to this branch of the subject 
 do not allow of reciting the numerous instances in 
 which a strong expression of opinion against the re- 
 mains of popery was called forth. It is indeed true 
 that the supporters of them became more and more nu- 
 merous every year, and more intolerant towards their 
 opposers. The attentive student of history may find a 
 reason for this in the patronage and encouragement 
 they received from the sovereigns, who, through sev- 
 eral successive reigns, were the firm supporters of the 
 "ceremonies." 
 
 Passing over other attempts to reform the prayer- 
 book, made by the best men in the establishment, I 
 will merely invite the reader's attention to a move- 
 ment in the reign of William and Mary, to effect a 
 comprehension* with the nonconformists. Several of 
 the most eminent bishops, lamenting the folly which 
 defeated the attempted comprehension at the Savoy 
 conference, in 1662, were desirous, as a protestant king 
 had at length come to the throne, to make one more 
 effort, hoping to repair, in some measure, the mischiefs 
 of a former obstinate clinging to Romish ceremonials. 
 The king, therefore, by their advice, summoned a con- 
 vocation of the clergy, and appointed a commission of 
 ten bishops and twenty other divines f to prepare mat- 
 
 * This is a term which has beca usually employed to signify such 
 alterations in the prayer-book as would make it acceptable to the dis- 
 senters, and bring them into the establishment. 
 
 t The ten bishops were, Lamplugh, archbishop of York, Compton, 
 Mew, Lloyd, Sprat, Smith, Trelawly, Burnet, Humphreys and Strat- 
 
48 KEFORMATION INCOMPLETE AS TO USAGES. 
 
 ters to be laid before them. The commission met at 
 the Jerusalem Chamber, Westminster, on the 10th of 
 October, 1689. In his memoir of archbishop Sancroft, 
 Dr. D'Oyly says of this project : 
 
 " In consequence of this temper now displayed by 
 the protestant dissenters, [a mild and conciliating tem- 
 per,] archbishop Sancroft was induced to set on foot a 
 scheme of comprehension, in which his purpose seems 
 to have been, to make such alterations m the liturgy, 
 and in the discipline of the church, in points not 
 deemed of essential and primary importance, as might 
 prove the means, through corresponding concessions on 
 the part of the more moderate dissenters, of admitting 
 them within its pale." 
 
 It will not be necessary to recite the particular do- 
 ings of the commission. Enough to say that six hun- 
 dred alterations were proposed by them to be laid 
 before the convocation for its sanction and adoption. 
 They were brought before the convocation, but by 
 the appointment of Dr. Jane as prolocutor in the lower 
 house, instead of Dr. Tillotson, the whole scheme was 
 blasted. 
 
 Burnet,* writing in the beginning of the next cen- 
 tury, and referring to this convocation, says, "Our 
 Avorship is the perfectest composition of devotion that 
 we find in any church, ancient or modern ; yet the cor- 
 rections that were agreed to, by a deputation of bishops 
 and divines in the year 1689, would make the whole 
 frame, of our liturgy still more perfect; and will, I 
 hope, at some time or other, be better entertained than 
 
 ford, whose dioceses were London, Winchester, St. Asaph, Rochester, 
 Carlisle, Exeter, Salisbury, Bangor and Chester. The twenty divines 
 were, Stillingfleet, Patrick, Tillotson, Meggot, Sharp, Kidder, Aldridge, 
 Jane, Hall, Beaumont, Montague, Goodman, Beveridge, Battely, Al- 
 ston, Tennison, Scott, Fowler, Grove, Williams. 
 * Hist, of His Own Times, vol. ii., p. 634. 
 
REFORMATION INCOMPLETE AS TO USAGES. 49 
 
 they were then. I am persuaded they are such as 
 would bring in the much greater part of the dissenters 
 to the communion of the church, and are in themselves 
 desirable, though there were not a dissenter in the na- 
 tion^ 
 
 Thus I have adduced the testimony of the most 
 eminent bishops and divines of the Enghsh church, at 
 two different periods of its history, that the usages of 
 the church are not " sufficiently purged ;" that they 
 need further corrections in order to remove just and 
 reasonable grounds of complaint. At the first at- 
 tempt, their removal Avas prevented by the secular 
 head of the church ; at the second, by high church 
 bishops and priests, and an unyielding house of com- 
 mons. A large portion of the purest and best divines 
 along the whole track of time from one period to the 
 other, were opposed to them, and desired their removal. 
 It may be fairly assumed, therefore, that, in the matter 
 of ceremonies, the reformation was not completed, the 
 English church itself being judge. 
 5 
 
50 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 THE REFORMATION INCOMPLETE AS TO THE NUMBERS REFORMED. 
 
 The English church never presented the glorious 
 spectacle of the ivhole body of its clergy and people 
 devoted to the principles of a pure protestant faith.* 
 
 * The particulars are, of course, included in a general declaration 
 that this reformation was never completed. The general declaration 
 can be fully sustained by a reference to Burnet. I quote this writer 
 because he is a standard authority in our denomination, both among 
 high and low churchmen. In the preface to his second volume of 
 Ilist. Ref , he says : 
 
 " This whole objection, when all acknowledged, as the greatest part 
 of it cannot be denied, amounts, indeed, to this, that our reformatmi 
 has iiot yet arrived at that full perfection that is to be desired." * * * 
 
 " The worst that can be said of all these abuses is, that they are rel- 
 ics of popery, and we owe it to the unhappy contests among ourselves 
 that a due correction has not yet been given to them." * * # * 
 
 " I have now examined all the prejudices that either occur to my 
 thoughts, or that I have met with in books or discourses against our 
 reformation ; and I hope, upon a free inquiry into them, it will be 
 ibund that some of them are of no force at all, and that the others, 
 which are better gronaded, can amount to no more than this, that things 
 were not managed with that care, or brought to that perfection, that 
 were to be desired ; so that all the use we ought to make of these ob- 
 jections, is to be directed by them to do those things which may com- 
 plete and adorn that work, which was managed by men subject to 
 iniirraities, who neither could see everything, nor were able to accom- 
 plish all they had projected, and saw fit to be done." * * * "To 
 speak freely, I make no doubt but if the reformation had been longer 
 a hatching under the heat of persecution, it had come forth ptrfecter 
 than it was." 
 
 These are honest and honorable concessions. They accord so en- 
 tirely with the fact,^- of the case, that no sincere inquirer after truth 
 can fairly come to any other conclusion. They breathe a spirit of 
 thankfulness for ^vhat had been accuinplished, and a desire that the 
 work might be completed. Attributing to the men who promoted the 
 reformation the common frailties of our nature, and recognizing the 
 dithculties which stood in their way — difficulties which I have spoken 
 of in a previous chapter — they indulge in no boastings which truth 
 will not warrant. I commend ihem to the consideration of those who 
 are in the habit of stating the results of this reformation in a different 
 way. These statements are vital to the subject m hand, and they 
 
REFORMATION NUMERICALLY INCOMPLETE. 51 
 
 It would be much nearer the truth, however, to assert 
 the opposite of this of the people, than to affirm it of 
 the clergy. The English people have generally, since 
 the reformation, been pretty thoroughly protestant — so 
 much so that when any portion of them have been 
 perverted by a strong popish leaning among the clergy, 
 it has been only the few, and they among the wealthy 
 and aristocratic. The body of the middling and lower 
 classes of the nation has been struck through and 
 through with protestant principles. Hence the discon- 
 tents, the murmurings, the secessions, which have 
 characterized the periods most signalized by a tendency 
 to Roman doctrines. The people have been reached 
 and influenced less than the clergy, by considerations 
 of state policy. With them, religion has been more a 
 domestic and fireside matter ; and they have heartily 
 embraced that which accords best with their common- 
 sense views of the truth as revealed in the word of 
 God. The clergy have been, to some extent, vinder 
 less favorable influences. By making the ritual of the 
 church a subject of earnest sttidy, the seeds of Roman- 
 ism there remaining have always to some extent devel- 
 oped themselves. It would be strange were it other- 
 wise ; for if, with them, the reformation of religion was 
 necessarily a matter of expediency to some extent, and 
 was not, as we have shown, fully carried through, it 
 Avould be marvellous if the traces of the ancient cor- 
 ruptions did not mar the theology of at least some of 
 them. Such we find to be the case, as I shall now at- 
 tempt to prove. 
 
 There is a difference between the theology of Rome 
 and the government of Rome. Its government may be 
 
 must, either be admitted, or the authority of Burnet as a historian be 
 invalidated. 
 
 See also Warner's Eccles. Hist., vol. ii., p. 317. 
 
52 REFORMATION NUMERICALLY INCOMPLETE. 
 
 expressed in one word — despotism; its theology in 
 another — superstition. In the order of their birth into 
 the world, the theology of Rome was, by a philosophi- 
 cal necessity, before its government. The mind of the 
 people had to be degraded by superstition, before it 
 would bow itself to receive the burdens of a religious 
 despotism. The papal despotism is, therefore, the off- 
 spring of the papal corruptions. The latter constitute 
 the root ; the former is the branch. Luther, when he 
 began his reformation, made his first attack upon the 
 theology of Rome; and when, axe in hand, he had 
 gone round the tree, and with his strong Saxon arm 
 severed the roots, the whole fell together ; and when 
 the large sacramental root which he cut only half 
 through was afterwards broken asunder, the whole 
 perished together. The English reformers began with 
 the government of Rome ; and having lopped off the 
 top of the tree, were obliged afterwards to dig the tan- 
 gled roots from the ground, or to satisfy themselves 
 with making an annual business of whipping down the 
 sprouts which should spring up. For the reasons 
 stated in a previous chapter, they did not make thor- 
 ough work in extracting the roots; — especially those 
 sacramental roots which had gone the deepest into the 
 soil. These have, at different periods, sent out their 
 filaments, producing reserve in preaching the doctrine 
 of the atonement, tradition, undue exaltation of the 
 church and of ceremonies, prayers for the dead, the 
 use of pictures, &c. The most prominent errors re- 
 tained by our reformers related to the sacraments. 
 Upon these, in truth, they appear to have been most 
 deeply in error. Here, nearly all the early English 
 reformers were more or less defective, and inany of the 
 divines in every subsequent period. 
 
 The reader's attention is first invited to the opin- 
 
REFORMATION NUMERICALLY INCOMPLETE. 
 
 53 
 
 ions of Cranmer. Of the sacraments, he speaks 
 thus : 
 
 "And for this cause, Christ ordained baptism in 
 water, that, as sure as we see. feel, and touch, water, 
 with our bodies, and be washed with water, so assured- 
 ly ought we to beheve, when we be baptized, that 
 Christ is verily present with us, and that by him we be 
 newly born again spiritually, and tvashed from our 
 siiis, and grafted into the stock of Christ's oion body. 
 * * * * In like manner, Christ ordained the sa- 
 crament of his body and blood, in bread and wine, to 
 preach unto us that, as our bodies be fed, nourished, 
 and preserved with meat and drink, so {as touching 
 our spiritual life towards God) roe be fed, nourished, 
 and preserved, by the body and blood of our Saviour 
 Christ.'' 1^ 
 
 This same leading reformer also says — 
 "And when you say, that, in baptism, we receive 
 the Spirit of Christ, and in the sacrament of his body, 
 we receive his very flesh and blood, this your saying is 
 no small derogation to baptism; wherein wc receive 
 not only the Spirit of Christ, but also Christ him- 
 self, whole, body arid sotd, manhood and Godhead, 
 unto everlasting life. For St. Paul saith, as many as 
 be baptized in Christ, put Christ upon them. Never- 
 theless, this is in divers respects ; for in baptism, it is 
 done in respect of regeneration, and in the holy com- 
 munion, in respect of nourishment and sustentation." f 
 It is common noAV-a-days, to interpret' the word re- 
 generation, which occurs in the baptismal service of 
 our church, as referring, not to a spiritual, but to an 
 ecclesiastical change ; not to the renovation of the soul, 
 but to a mere outward transfer from the world to the 
 
 * Cranmer's Remaias, pp. 302, 303. 
 ' t Wordsworth's Life of Latimer, iii., 238. 
 5* 
 
54 REFORMATION NUMERICALLY INCOBIPLETE. 
 
 church. The above quotation shows this to be a very 
 different view from the one held by Cranmer. The 
 receiving the Spirit of Christ, the blood of Christ, nay, 
 Christ himself, body and soul, manhood and Godhead, 
 is quite another affair from a mere changing of one's 
 external relations. 
 
 Hear now what Ridley says. 
 
 "As the body is nourished by the bread and wine, 
 at the communion, and the soul by grace and Spirit, 
 loith the body of Christ ; even so in baptism, the body 
 is washed with the visible water, and the soid cleansed 
 by the invisible Holy Ghost."* 
 
 This, too, is very different doctrine from that Avhich 
 makes baptismal regeneration consist merely in the 
 outward change. The same reformer says again — 
 
 " Both you and I agree in this, that in the sacra- 
 ment is the very true and natural body and blood of 
 Christ, even that ivhich was born of the Virgin Mary, 
 which ascended into heaven, which sits on the right 
 hand of God the Father, which shall come from thence 
 to judge the quick and the dead, only we differ in 
 mode, in the way and manner of the being. We con- 
 fess all one thing to be in the sacrament, and dissent 
 in the manner of being there. I confess Christ's 7iatu- 
 ral body to be in the sacrament by Spirit and grace, 
 &c. You [Romanists] make a grosser kind of being, 
 enclosing a natural body under the shape and form of 
 bread and wine." f 
 
 This passage brings to light a fact which I shall 
 have occasion to prove at large when I come to treat 
 of the sacraments, namely, that the formularies of our 
 church inculcate, and that many of the English divines 
 teach, a spiritual change in the elements, and a spirit- 
 
 * Cranmer's Remains, iii., 65. f RiiUey's Remains, p. 274. 
 
REFORMATION NUMERICALLY INCOMPLETE. 55 
 
 ual presence in the elements, in contradistinction to the 
 Roman doctrine of a carnal change and a carnal pres- 
 ence ; the only difference being that the one beheves 
 the bread and wine changed into the carnal body and 
 blood of Christ, and the other into his spiritual body 
 and blood — both regarding the change alike real. 
 
 Look next at the words of Latimer : 
 
 " Like as Christ was born in rags, so the conversion 
 of the whole world is by rags, by things which are 
 most vile in this world. For what is so common as 
 water 7 Every foul ditch is full of it ; yet we wash 
 out remission of our siiis by baptism ; for, like as he 
 was found in rags, so we must find him by baptism.^' * 
 
 In regard to baptism, bishop Jeremy Taylor says : 
 
 "In baptism, all our sins are pardoned. According 
 to the words of the prophet: 'I will sprinkle clean 
 water upon you, and ye shall be clean from all your 
 filthiness.' The catechumen descends into the font a 
 sinner, he arises purified; he goes down the son of 
 death, he comes up the son of the resurrection ; he en- 
 ters in the son of folly and prevarication, he returns 
 the son of reconciliation ; he stoops down the child of 
 wrath, and ascends the heir of mercy ; he was the child 
 of the devil, and now he is the servant of the Son of 
 God." * * * " Baptism is aneklogistos aphesis 
 amartion, — an entire full forgiveness of sins; so that 
 they shall never be called again to scrutiny." 
 
 " Baptism does not only pardon our sins, but puts us 
 into a state of pardon for the time to come. * * * 
 Baptism hath influence into the pardon of all our sins, 
 committed in all the days of our folly and infirmity ; 
 and so long as we have not been baptized, so long we 
 are out of the state of pardon." f 
 
 * Latimer's Sermons, ii., 347 f Works, vol. ii., pp. 243—247. 
 
56 REFORMATION NUMERICALLY INCOMPLETE. 
 
 The reader will please next to consider the language 
 of the "judicious" Hooker. 
 
 " The eucharist is not a bare sign or figure only. 
 These holy mysteries^ received in due manner, do in- 
 strumentally, both make us partakers of that body and 
 blood which were given for the life of the world ; and, 
 besides, also impart unto us, even in true and real, 
 though mystical manner, the very person of our Lord 
 himself whole, perfect and entire."* 
 
 In another place, the same eminent divine uses this 
 strong language : 
 
 " The very letter of the words of Christ giveth plain 
 security, that these mysteries do as nails fasten us to 
 His very cross, that by them we draw out as touching 
 efficacy, force and virtue, even the blood of His gored 
 side ; in the wounds of our Redeemer we there dip our 
 tongues, we are dyed red both within and without, our 
 hunger is satisfied, and our thirst forever quenched; 
 they are things wonderful which he feeleth, great 
 which he seeth, and unheard of which he uttereth. 
 whose soul is possessed of the Paschal Lamb, and 
 made joyful in the strength of this new wine; this 
 bread hath in it more than the substance which our 
 eyes behold ; this cup, hallowed with solemn benedic- 
 tion, availeth to the endless life and welfare of soul and 
 body, in that it serveth as well for a medicine to heal 
 oar ijifirmities and purge our sins, as for a sacrifice 
 of thanksgiving: with touching it sanctifieth, it en- 
 lighteneth with belief, it truly conformeth us to the 
 image of Jesus Christ; what these elements are in 
 themselves it skilleth not, it is enough that to me which 
 take them they are the body and blood of Christ. His 
 promise in witness hereof sufficeth ; His word He know- 
 
 * Ecclesiastical Polity, v. Ixvii., 8. 
 
REFORMATION NUMERICALLY INCOMPLETE. 57 
 
 eth which way to accomphsh ; why should any cogi- 
 tation possess the mind of a faithful communicant but 
 this, O my God, Thou art true, O my soul, thou art 
 happy!" * 
 
 Equally, and, if possible, more extravagant are this 
 writer's views of the powers of the christian ministry. 
 
 "In that they are Christ's ambassadors and His 
 laborers, who should give them their commission, but 
 He whose most inward affairs they manage 1 Is not 
 God alone the Father of spirits 7 Are not souls the 
 purchase of Jesus Christ? What angels in heaven 
 could have said to man, as our Lord did unto St. Pe- 
 ter, 'Feed my sheep, — preach — baptize — do this in 
 remembrance of me. Whose sins ye retain, they are 
 retained ; and their offences in heaven pardoned, whose 
 faults you shall on earth forgive?' What think we? 
 Are these terrestrial sounds, or else are they voices ut- 
 tered out of the clouds above ? The power of the min- 
 istry of God translateth out of darkness into glory ; it 
 raiseth man from the earth, and bringeth God him- 
 self from heaven ; by blessing visible elements it maketh 
 them invisible graces ; it giveth daily the Holy Ghost ; 
 it hath to dispose of that flesh which was given for the 
 life of the world, and the blood which was poitred out 
 to redeem souls ; when it pour eth maledictions upon the 
 heads of the wicked, they perish ; when it revoketh the 
 same, they revive. O wretched blindness ! if we ad- 
 mire not so great power ; more wretched, if we con- 
 sider it aright, and, notwithstanding, imagine that any 
 but God can bestow it ! To whom Christ hath im- 
 parted power, both over that mystical body, which is 
 the society of souls, and over that natural, which is 
 Himself; for the knitting of both in one, (a work 
 
 * Ecc. Pol., book v., c. 67. 
 
58 REFORMATION NUMERICALLY INCOMPLETE. 
 
 which antiquity doth call the making of Christ's body,) 
 the same power is in such not amiss both termed a kind 
 of mark or character, and acknowledged to be indeli- 
 ble." 
 
 I quote thus largely from this author, because he is 
 the representative of a large class, and is held in high 
 repute. The work from which Ave quote has the rec- 
 ommendation of the house of bishops, and belongs to 
 the course of study which every candidate for the min- 
 istry in our church is required to pursue. 
 
 I subjoin a few quotations from English divines on 
 other topics. 
 
 Respecting the number of the sacraments, bishop 
 Taylor says : 
 
 " It is none of the doctrine of the church of England, 
 that there are two sacraments only; but that those 
 rituals commanded in scripture, which the ecclesias- 
 tical use calls sacraments (by a word of art) two only 
 are generally necessary to salvation." 
 
 Mr. Palmer also quotes archbishop Seeker to the 
 same effect. 
 
 Bishop Overall, one of the translators of our Bible, 
 and the author of the latter part of our church cate- 
 chism, in his comment on the communion service in 
 the first prayer-book of Edward VI., thus advances a 
 doctrine which looks very much like the popish sacri- 
 fice of the mass : 
 
 " 'We mid all thy whole church? This is a plain 
 oblation of Christ's death once offered, and a repre- 
 sentative sacrifice of it for the sins and for the benefit 
 of the whole world, of the whole church ; that both 
 those which are here on earth, and those which rest in 
 the sleep of peace, being departed in the faith of Christ, 
 
 * Ecclesiastical Pol., v. Ixxvii., 1, 2. 
 
REFORMATION NUMERICALLY INCOMPLETE. 59 
 
 may find the effect and virtue of it. And if the au- 
 thority of the ancient church may prevail with us, as 
 it ought to do, there is nothing more manifest than 
 that it always taught as much. * * * And in 
 this sense, it is not only an eucharistical, but a propi- 
 tiaiory saa-ifice ; and to prove it a sacrifice propitia- 
 tory, always so acknowledged by the ancient church, 
 there can be no better argument than that it was offered 
 up, not only for the living but for the dead, and for 
 those that were absent, for them that travelled, for 
 Jews, for heretics, &c., who could have no other bene- 
 fit of it, but as it Avas a propitiatory sacrifice ; and 
 that they did thus offer it, read a whole army of fa- 
 thers. Nos autem ita comparati sumus ut cum tasse 
 multis et magnis authoribus errare malimus quam cum 
 Puritanis verum dicere. Not that it makes any propi- 
 tiation as that of the cross did, but only that it obtains 
 and brings into act that propitiation which was once 
 made by Christ." 
 
 Bishop Cosins thus speaks of prayers for the dead : 
 "Our church agrees Avith the church of Rome in 
 giving thanks to God for them that are departed out 
 of this life in the true faith of Christ's catholic church, 
 and in praying to God that they may have a joyfixl 
 resurrection, and a perfect consummation of bliss, both 
 in their bodies and souls in his eternal kingdom." 
 
 It was and is the opinion of a large class of English 
 divines, that the sentence before a prayer in the com- 
 munion service, "Let us pray for the whole state of 
 Christ's church militant," is intended to include that 
 portion of the church now in the unseen world, as well 
 as that on earth, and hence that that prayer is intended 
 to be offered for the departed saints as well as for the 
 living. Through the influence of Bucer, and other 
 foreign reformers, the words "here on earth" were 
 
60 REFORMATION NUMERICALLY INCOMPLETE. 
 
 inserted after the adjective militant. Our American 
 prayer-book has been made more popish than the 
 EngUsh, by the fathers of our church restoring it to the 
 ancient phraseology. There is no doubt that, in doing 
 so, they have made it conform to the opinions of the 
 great body of high church English divines, — especially 
 such men as Andrewes, Overall, Bull, Hammond, 
 Thorndike, Leslie, and many others. 
 
 So numerous are the authorities I might cite to 
 strengthen the position in hand, that the chief difficul- 
 ty lies in knowing where to stop. Enough, however, 
 is before the reader, to show that z. portion of the Eng- 
 lish clergy were never reached and influenced by an 
 unalloyed protestant faith. Some of the persons spoken 
 of were never protestants in any just sense ; others of 
 them were — such as Cranmer, Jewel, &c., though on 
 some points confused and defective. 
 
61 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 RESULTS OF AN UNFINISHED REFORMATION. 
 
 Many persons have the impression that the strong 
 tendency towards Romanism exhibited at the present 
 time in the EngUsh and American Episcopal churches, 
 under the form of what is called tractarianism or Pu- 
 seyism, is altogether a new thing; that the Enghsh 
 church, after its reformation was estabhshed, continued 
 through successive generations to be swayed by prot- 
 estant principles only ; and that in these latter days, 
 for the first time, a popish spirit, from some unknown, 
 mysterious cause, has entered its sacred temples, per- 
 verting its ministers, and spoiling the simplicity of its 
 worship. In scarcely anything could such persons be 
 more mistaken. The present tendency to Romanism, 
 in that church, is not the first, or the second, or the 
 third, it has experienced, as history abundantly tes- 
 tifies. It is not a disease just broken out for the first 
 time, but one which has long been rankling in the sys- 
 tem. It is an old chronic difficulty, which has pro- 
 duced gouts, and dyspepsias, and fevers, and chills, 
 and convulsions, through several generations ; and 
 these are the results of an unfinished reformation. 
 
 It is evident that ever since the days of Cranmer and 
 Jewel, the tendency in regard to ceremonialism, and 
 Romish views of the sacraments, the ministry, &<;.. has 
 been upward. Even in the days of Laud, when there 
 was a strong leaning towards papal corruptions, the 
 body of the clergy and people were far less submissive 
 under the burdens of an exact ceremonialism, than 
 they were even just before the publication of the 
 6 
 
62 RESULTS OF AN UNFINISHED REFORMATION. 
 
 Tracts for the Times was begun. The phraseology 
 of our own times has far more of the Romish cast than 
 that of earUer periods. The following passages, found 
 in the London Christian Observer, are a good illustra- 
 tion. Rush worth speaks thus of Laud: — "As Laud 
 approached the communion table, he made several lowly- 
 bowings ; and coming up to the side of the table where 
 the bread and wine were covered, he bowed seven 
 times." Le Bas, of our own times, says, — "Laud is 
 supposed to have bowed repeatedly towards the altar, 
 and to have approached the sacred elements, with antic 
 gesticulations." 
 
 The forms of speaking here are particularly worthy 
 of notice. At an early period in the history of the 
 English church, the word altar was not generally 
 used; in our time, it is common. Then bread and 
 wine'' was the more common expression, now it is 
 " sacred elements." In the reign of Charles I., a vari- 
 ety of ceremonies, such as signing with the sign of the 
 cross in baptism, bowing at the name of Jesus, kneel- 
 ing to receive the communion, wearing the surplice, 
 and a variety of other things, occasioned great discon- 
 tents, murmurings, protestations, and finally even the 
 overthrow of the government and the church, the tri- 
 umph of presbytery over episcopacy, and of the direc- 
 tory over the prayer-book. In our times, these observ- 
 ances, — sorry I am to say it, — are all submitted to 
 without a murmur, or, at most, with only here and 
 there an open remonstrant. At every revision of the 
 liturgy, from the reign of EHzabeth to that of Charles 
 II., it was made more popish instead of less. The ten- 
 dency, then, has been upwards towards a higher and 
 more stringent ritualism. In other words, there has 
 been a Rome-ward movement, gradual and generally 
 almost imperceptible, but still so real as to be capable 
 
RESULTS OF AN UNFINISHED REFORMATION. 63 
 
 of historical demonstration, from the days of Edward 
 VI. In the times of Ehzabeth, James I., and Charles 
 I., the validity of the orders of foreign protestant 
 churches was acknowledged by the great body of 
 English Episcopalians. Noio, the orders of other 
 churches are declared to be invalid, not by tractarians 
 merely, but by large numbers who call themselves 
 evangelical. There can be no doubt, therefore, that 
 there has been an upward tendency for a long period 
 of time ; and that the tractarian movement is only the 
 old tendency a little quickened in its motion. 
 
 There have been periods, however, when this move- 
 ment has been more marked, and when it has ac- 
 cordingly attracted more of the public notice. The 
 reader's attention is invited to two or three of these 
 periods. 
 
 In the latter part of the reign of queen Anne, there 
 was a rapid movement towards Rome, not less marked 
 and alarming than the one we are witnessing at the 
 present time. In speaking of this movement, Burnet 
 says : 
 
 " Many, who profess great zeal for the legal estab- 
 lishment, yet seem to be set on forming a new scheme, 
 both of religion and government, and are taking the 
 very same methods, only a little diversified, that have 
 been pursued in popery, to bring the world into a blind 
 dependence tipon the clergy, and to draw the wealth 
 and strength of the nation into their hands. 
 
 " The opinion of the sacrament being an expiatory 
 sacrifice, and of the necessity of secret confession and 
 absolution, and of the church's authority acting in an 
 independence on the civil powers, were the founda- 
 tions of popery, and the seminal principles out of 
 which that mass of corruptions was formed. They 
 have no color for them in the New Testament, nor in 
 
64 RESULTS OF AN UNFINISHED REFORMATION. 
 
 the first ages of Christianity, and are directly contrary 
 to all the principles on which the reformation was car- 
 ried on, and to every step that was made in the whole 
 progress of that work ; and yet these of late have been 
 notions much favored^ and written for icith much zeal, 
 not to say indecency ; besides a vast number of little 
 superstitious practices, that in some places have grown 
 to great height, so that we were insensibly going off 
 from the reformation, and framing a new model of a 
 church, totally different from all our former princi- 
 ples." ***** 
 
 " These have been but too visibly the arts of Satan 
 to divide and distract us ; and have oftener than once 
 brought us near the brink of ruin. God has often res- 
 cued us, while the continuance and progress of these 
 evil dispositions have as often made us relapse into a 
 broken and disjointed state."* 
 
 Again, " If there is any difference between the pres- 
 ent state of things and that we tcere in above thirty 
 years ago, it is that we are now more naked and de- 
 fenceless, more insensible and stupid, and much more 
 depraved in all respects, than we were then. We are 
 sunk in our learning, vitiated in principle; tainted, 
 some with atheism, others with superstition, both 
 which, though by different ways, prepare us for 
 popery. Our old breaches are not healed, and new 
 ones, not known in former times, are raised and fer- 
 mented with much industry and great art, as well as 
 much heat ; many are barefacedly going back to thai 
 misery from which God by such a. mighty Imnd res- 
 cued us." ***** 
 
 " The indispensable necessity of the priesthood to all 
 sacred functions, is carried in the point of baptism fur- 
 
 * Preface to third volume Hist. Ref. 
 
RESULTS OF AN UNFINISHED REFORMATION. 
 
 65 
 
 ther than popery. Their devotions are openly recom- 
 mended, and a union with the Galilean church has 
 been impudently j^rojiosed ; tlie reformation and the 
 reformers are by many daily vilified." * 
 
 Such is the sad account which Burnet gives of the 
 state of things during the first years of the eighteenth 
 century. Such passages, stumbled upon accidentally, 
 and without connection, would be taken as a descrip- 
 tion of what is now passing under our own observa- 
 tion. It was just such a movement tov/ards Roman- 
 ism as that of the present time ; characterized by 
 defection in the same particular doctrines, the same 
 deprecation of the reformation and reformers, with the 
 same longing for a reunion with Rome. It was at- 
 tended, too, by the same alarms and remonstrances on 
 the part of sensible men. 
 
 But this is not the only instance in which the church 
 of England has filled the hearts of her true children 
 with grief, by a threatened revolt from the protestant 
 faith. The reader will observe that in the above ex- 
 tracts, Burnet speaks of the state the church of Eng- 
 land was then in, as similar, though perhaps worse in 
 some respects, than the one it was in more than thirty 
 years before. He refers to the dark period in the Eng- 
 lish church's history diu-ing the reign of James II., who 
 was during his headship of the church an avowed pa- 
 pist. Of this period, Burnet says,f " In king James' 
 reign, the fear of popery was so strong, as well as just ^ 
 that many, in and about London, began to meet often 
 together, both for devotion, and for their further in- 
 struction." 
 
 He also says of the preceding reign, that of Charles 
 II., that "The management for popery was visible:" 
 
 * Introduction to Hist. Ref., vol. iii. 
 t Hist, of His Own Times, vol. ii., p. 317. 
 6* 
 
66 RESULTS OF AN UNFINISHED REFORMATION. 
 
 and in another place, that " the fears of popery, and 
 the progress that atheism was making, did alarm good 
 and wise menP 
 
 Before the commonwealth, in the days of archbishop 
 Laud, about 1640, there was still another strong lean- 
 ing to Romanism. The account of this period I take 
 from Hallam.* 
 
 Speaking of the persecutions of the puritans under 
 Laud, this writer says : 
 
 " These severe proceedings of the court and hie- 
 rarchy became more odious on account of their sus- 
 pected bearing, or at least notorious indulgence, towards 
 popery." * * * * " It was evidently true, wAa^ 
 the nation saw with alarm, that a proneness to favor 
 the professors of this religion, [the Roman Catholic,] 
 and to a considerable degree the religion itself, was at 
 the bottom of a conduct so inconsistent," &c. 
 
 Again, after speaking of the eifectual way in which 
 the puritans resisted the papal fascinations, he says : 
 
 " But far different principles actuated the prevailing 
 party in the church of England. A change had for 
 some years been wrought in its tenets, and still more in 
 its sentiments, which, while it brought the whole body 
 into a sort of approximation to Rome, made many in- 
 dividuals shoot as it were from their own sphere, 
 on coming within the stronger attraction of another." 
 * * * * " It is notorious that^all the innovations 
 of the school of Laud were so many approaches, in 
 the exterior worship of the church, to the Roman 
 model. Pictures were set up or repaired; the com- 
 munion-table took the name and the position of an 
 altar; it was sometimes made of stone; obeisances 
 were made to it ; the crucifix was sometimes placed 
 
 * Constitutional Hist, of Eng., vol. ii., pp. 80—102. 
 
RESULTS OF AN UNFINISHED REFORMATION. 67 
 
 upon it ; the dress of the officiating priests became 
 more gaiidy, churches were consecrated with a strange 
 and mystical pageantry. These petty superstitions, 
 which would of themselves have disgusted a nation 
 accustomed to despise as well as abhor the pompous 
 rites of the Catholics, became more alarming from the 
 evident bias of some leading churchmen to parts of the 
 Romish theology. The doctrine of the real presence, 
 distinguishable only by vagueness of definition from 
 that of the church of Rome, was generally held. Mon- 
 tague, bishop of Chichester, already so conspicuous, 
 and justly reckoned the chief of the Romanizing fac- 
 tion, went a considerable length towards admitting the 
 invocation of saints ; prayers for the dead, which lead 
 at once to the tenet of purgatory, were vindicated by 
 many; in fact, there was hardly any distinctive opin- 
 ion of the church of Rome, which had not its abettors 
 among the bishops, or those who wrote under their 
 patronage. The practice of auricular confession, the 
 suppression of which an aspiring clergy must so deeply 
 regret, was frequently inculcated as a duty. And 
 Laud gave just offence by a public declaration that, in 
 the disposal of benefices, he should, in equal degrees 
 of merit, prefer single before married priests." * * * 
 '•It became usual for our churchmen to lament the 
 precipitancy with which the reformation had been 
 conducted, and to inveigh against its principal instru- 
 ments." * 
 
 * The thronged condition of the highway to Rome, exhibited at this 
 period, is well described in the following pointed anecdote : 
 
 "A court lady, daughter of the earl of Devonshire, having turned 
 Catholic, was asked by Laud the reason of her conversion. "Tis 
 chiefly,' said she, ' because I hate to travel in a crowd.' The meaning of 
 this expression being demanded, she replied, ' I perceive your grace and 
 many others are making haste to Rome ; and, therefore, in order to prevent 
 my being crowded, I have gone before you.' — Hume's Hist, of Eng., vol. 
 vii., p. 90. 
 
68 RESULTS OF AN UNFINISHED REFORMATION. 
 
 Here again are the same characteristics which mark 
 the present movements in the church of England, and 
 in the Episcopal church of America — the same lean- 
 ing to Roman doctrine, the same adoption of supersti- 
 tious practices, and the same disparagement of the 
 reformation and the reformers. 
 
 What else could be anticipated from such a state of 
 things, but that Rome would rejoice, and calculate on 
 large annexations from protestant territory? And 
 such indeed was the fact. So hopeful did she regard 
 the aspect of things in England, that she prevailed 
 upon king Charles (no very difficult task, I appre- 
 hend) to receive privately from her court an accred- 
 ited agent, named Panzani, for the purpose of effecting 
 some incipient reconciliations. During Panzani's stay 
 in England, negotiations were attempted for reconcil- 
 ing the church of England with that of Rome. Win- 
 debank. Lord Cottington, and bishop Montague, acted 
 in behalf of the king. The negotiations failed by rea- 
 son of the stubbornness of the see of Rome in refusing 
 to make any concessions. 
 
 Panzani, on his return to Rome, made a report to the 
 pope respecting the state of the Roman Catholic reli- 
 gion in England. From this report, Mr. Charles Butler 
 has published a long and important extract. It speaks 
 of the flourishing state of the Roman Catholic religion 
 in England ; says that many, especially among the no- 
 bility, maintained such an exterior as not to be known 
 as Romanists; that many others, from apprehensions 
 of losing their property, lived outwardly as protestants, 
 taking the oath of allegiance, and attending protestant 
 churches, who were yet papists in heart. While he 
 was in London, he reports that nearly all the nobility 
 who died, though reported protestants, died as Roman- 
 ists. He speaks of a great change as apparent in 
 
RESULTS OF AN UNFINISHED REFORMATION. 69 
 
 books; auricular confession as being praised, images 
 as well spoken of, and wishes of reunion as expressed. 
 He says a good deal about the appointment of a Roman 
 Cathohc bishop for England. He also mentions a book, 
 written by Sancta Clara, and expresses sorrow at find- 
 ing it put in the Index Expurgatorius, because the king 
 was pleased with it. The book was an attempt to 
 show the compatibility of the Anglican doctrines with 
 those of the Roman Catholic church. 
 
 Thus I have adduced, I believe, sufficient evidence 
 to show that there have be6n at least Jive distinct peri- 
 ods, including the present, in which a strong and 
 alarming tendency towards the theology and the 
 usages of the papal church has been manifested in the 
 established church of England. And in each case, it 
 has been marked by precisely the same characteristics, 
 and has been developed in the same progressive way 
 and order. First, an increased attention to outward 
 ordinances and ceremonies ; then the magnification 
 and lifting up of the sacraments as the chief of these ; 
 then a perversion of the doctrine of the sacraments ; 
 then higher claims in behalf of priestly power and 
 priestly intervention ; then the setting up of the abso- 
 lute authority of the church; and then, as a necessary 
 consequence of this, and as a cap-stone of the whole, 
 the conclusion that there was sin in resisting the au- 
 thority of the Romish church, and a desire once more 
 to bow the neck and receive her yoke. And the only 
 material difference which can be shown to exist be- 
 tween the state of things in each of these periods and 
 the present, consists in the fact that during tha contin- 
 uance of each of them there was within the bosom of 
 the church a strong and powerful body, consisting of 
 the best divines and a large majority of the laity, who 
 openly alleged that the causes of the difficulty lay in, 
 
70 RESULTS OF AN UNFINISHED REFORMATION. 
 
 the remains of popery, not purged out of the hturgy 
 and usages of the church, and who reasoned, protested, 
 expostulated, and in some instances clamored for their 
 removal ; whereas, at the present time, the great ma- 
 jority seem to have lost sight of these true sources of 
 the difficulty, and appear so forgetful of the historical 
 facts in the case, that when the old arguments which 
 have been pressed by the wisest men in the church, 
 through all its popish periods, are reasserted, they are 
 seized with horror and amazement, as if some new 
 thing had happened, and an axe were laid at the root 
 of church principles. It will be shown, in a subsequent 
 part of the book, that there have been principles lying 
 at the bottom of the English system, which produced 
 these results, not by accident, but by a philosophical 
 and logical process. 
 
 Such, then, have been the results of a reformation 
 not completed. But even these are not the whole of 
 its evil results. Strype* speaks of a "dangerous in- 
 crease of papists," and revolts to popery which "ap- 
 peared in the north, and other parts of the realm." 
 only six years after what was called the settling of the 
 reformation, in Elizabeth's reign. In the next reign, 
 also, that of James the First, the tokens of a backward 
 movement were everywhere open to the inspection of 
 vigilant protestant eyes. James was himself at heart 
 two thirds a papist; and in the famous Hampton Court 
 conference, in which he presided, he so far forgot the 
 proper dignity both of a king and of a presiding officer, 
 as to enlist vehemently in the discussion against those 
 who opposed "the ceremonies," which brought some of 
 the popishly-inclined high churchmen upon their knees 
 to thank God for such a king as no nation (so they 
 
 * Annals of the Ref., vol. i., p. 550. 
 
RESULTS OF AN UNFINISHED REFORMATION. 71 
 
 asserted) ever before enjoyed. Dr. Barlow, in his re- 
 port of the king's speech, at the opening of the confer- 
 ence, represents him as saying, "that he had received 
 many complaints, since his first entrance into the king- 
 dom, especially through the dissensions in the church, 
 of many disorders, as he heard, and much disobedience 
 to the laws, luith a great falling away to popery.^ ^ * 
 
 The truth is, there have ahoays^ since the days of 
 Edward VI., been Romish affinities and appetences in 
 the English church; but the outward expression of 
 tliese affinities has of course depended much on the in- 
 dividual character of its secular head. The divines of 
 the church having learned, many of them to their sor- 
 row, and others to their joy, that the sovereign's will 
 must not be resisted, were always slow to attempt any 
 Romish innovations, unless the leanings of the occu- 
 pants of the throne were such as to encourage them. 
 Hence, in all those reigns from Elizabeth to George I. 
 in which the sovereign exhibited any papal leaning, 
 the natural affinities! of the church immediately came 
 out, and she was seen receding towards a papal bond- 
 age; and hence, too, during all those reigns, the high 
 church Romanizers were the strong supporters of the 
 crown, and especially of an established religion. 
 
 This fact will solve what has been a difficulty to 
 some minds. Many have Avondered why the tractari- 
 ans, or Romanizers of the present day, are so anxious 
 for the overthrow of the establishment; while it is 
 warmly supported by the low churchmen. The diffi- 
 culty vanishes when it is considered that for some time 
 past the throne has been occupied by frotesiants ; and 
 
 * Cardwell's Hist, of Conferences, p. 171. 
 
 1 1 do not mean that the English church has always had affinities 
 for the grosser forms of the Roman theology and usage ; but only for 
 those elementary principles, out of which, when once embraced, the 
 inofe abhorrent mysteries of an idolatrous faith are easily evolved. 
 
72 RESULTS OF AN UNFINISHED KEFORMATION. 
 
 hence the low churchmen can sheher themselves from 
 the papal storm behind the throne and the establish- 
 ment, while the tractarians find these to be the chief 
 obstacles in the way of " unprotestantizing" the Eng- 
 lish church. 
 
 Let this fact be a significant warning to the Protes- 
 tant Episcopal church in the United States, which 
 meets no such formidable obstacle in the way of its 
 Romeward movements. Let it be well considered 
 whether there is anything which can arrest it, except 
 a removal of the remains of popery from its prayer- 
 book and homilies. It is a historic /ac/, that the Eng- 
 lish church, at every period of its papal tendencies, has 
 been prevented from a total relapse to Romanism only 
 by the government. What is to prevent the Protestant 
 Episcopal church in the United States from an entire 
 falling away to popery, since no government stretches 
 out an interposing arm 7 May God enable our church 
 to meet this question speedily, and to answer it faith- 
 fully in the light of history. 
 
73 
 
 PART II. 
 
 CAUSES WHICH HAVE PREVENTED THE COMPLETION OF THE 
 REFORMATION IN THE ENGLISH CHURCH, AND IN THE PROT- 
 ESTANT EPISCOPAL CHURCH IN THE UNITED STATES. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 TOLERANCE OF ROMISH ERROR. 
 
 Errors usually carry errors in their train. A single 
 false step in the beginning frequently prepares the way 
 for a series of false steps. The error already described, 
 of investing the king with the highest ecclesiastical 
 prerogatives, and placing him at the head of the church, 
 drev/ after it a long succession of embarrassing move- 
 ments and practical absurdities. The divines of the 
 church were soon compelled to see that nothing gained 
 in the reformation could be looked forward to as abso- 
 lutely settled ; and especially that they could calculate 
 with no certainty upon any advances in future. They 
 might have the clearest views of truth, and the best 
 resolutions to publish it to men ; but they could not 
 say with entire confidence, truth is mighty, and will 
 prevail ; for they had no assurances that, for a single 
 hour, the throne would be occupied by one who would 
 either hold or tolerate protestant principles. They 
 knew that at any moment their own mouths might be 
 stopped, and every truth-telling tongue in the land be 
 silenced. They feU themselves fettered and embar- 
 rassed at every step, and hedged about with the capri- 
 cious uncertainties, generally, of the will of a half- 
 reformed sovereign. The reformation which they had 
 7 
 
74 
 
 TOLERANCE OF ROMISH ERROR. 
 
 to effect, therefore, became a work to be pushed to its 
 results, through the winding and intricate mazes of an 
 involved and fickle state policy; liable at any moment 
 to be interrupted and crushed with its authors under 
 the massive wheels of government. They were like 
 men digging under an overhanging cliff, and liable to 
 be buried by its sudden descent upon them. Their 
 work, necessarily, therefore, became one, to some 
 extent, of hesitation, of caution. Every stone was 
 moved from its place with due reference to the condi- 
 tion of the massive rocks towering above them. The 
 sovereign himself, who had the whole control of the 
 reformation, was much in the same condition. The 
 country had been overrun with popery. To what ex- 
 tent it had been eradicated from the minds of the peo- 
 ple, was not precisely known. He was surrounded by 
 men of every grade of opinion, from the high papist to 
 the high protestant. Romanism was spread, too, over 
 a large part of Europe, and had for ages been so thor- 
 oughly mixed with politics, that this reformation, being 
 one for the sovereign to manage, was touched at a 
 thousand points by the machinery of British diplo- 
 macy. So that not the divines only, but the king was 
 tempted to move with great caution, and even to treat 
 the partially routed enemy with some consideration. 
 In short, both the sovereign and the divines were led 
 by these causes to manifest more or less of a spirit of 
 compromise with Romanism. The nation had large 
 numbers of Romanists in it, in every condition of life, 
 from the lowest to the highest. It was not for the 
 interest of the sovereign to drive them into an attitude 
 of hostility to the government, and link their power 
 and interest with those of a foreign and hated enemy. 
 There were great numbers of papists, too, who were 
 partially convinced of the rottenness of their own sys- 
 
TOLERANCE OF ROMISH ERROR. 
 
 75 
 
 tern, and who were ready to embrace protestant prin- 
 ciples to a certain extent. It could hardly be expected 
 that a king or queen who looked more to the good of 
 the state than of the church would deem it politic to 
 repel such. It would rather be strange if they did not 
 court and flatter them by generous concessions. 
 
 Exactly in harmony with these suggestions of rea- 
 son, are the facts of history. The following is much 
 to the point : 
 
 "King Edward's prayer-book was the first estab- 
 lished book of connnon prayer in England, and in 
 order to make the transition from the Roman catholic 
 to the protestant religion as moderate as possible, and 
 thus reconcile a great number to the change, its com- 
 pilers allowed the word ' Mass ' to stand as the title 
 of the communion service." * 
 
 A very important concession to Romanists, surely, the 
 expediency of which most protestants would deny. 
 
 In regard to the subject of compromise, bishop Bur- 
 net says : 
 
 "There was a great variety of sentiments among 
 our reformers on the point whether it was fit to retain 
 an external face of things near to what had been prac- 
 tised in the times of popery, or not. The doing that, 
 made the people come easily into the more real changes 
 that were made in the doctrines, when they saw the 
 outward appearances so little altered : so this method 
 seemed the safer and the readier way to wean the 
 people from the fondness they had for a splendid face 
 of things, by that which was still kept up. But, on 
 the other hand, it was said that this kept up the in- 
 clination in the people to the former practices : they 
 were by these made to think that the reformed state 
 
 * Comparison between the Communion Offices of the Church of 
 England, and the Scottish Episcopal Church, p. 21. 
 
76 
 
 TOLERANCE OF ROMISH ERROR. 
 
 of the church did not differ much from them. And 
 they apprehended, that tliis outward resemblance made 
 the old root of popery to live still in their thoughts ; so 
 that, if it made them conform at present more easily to 
 the change that was now made, it would make it still 
 much the easier for them to fall back to poperij?'' * 
 
 What else has occasioned the "falling back to 
 popery" at the several periods of which we spoke in 
 the last chapter, but the very cause here assigned as 
 naturally tending to it, namely, the "retaining an ex- 
 ternal face of things near to what it had been in the 
 times of popery?" But it seems there were two par- 
 ties, one for retaining this external papal "face of 
 things;" the other, for becoming protestant in appear- 
 ance as well as fact. It is not difficult to learn which 
 policy triumphed. 
 
 Take, for example, the doctrine of the presence in 
 the sacrament of the supper. History is fidl on the 
 point that the English reformers intended to leave it so 
 unexplained that papal views, or those amounting to 
 about the same thing, might be held in the bosom of 
 the church. In the liturgy of king Edward, a rubric 
 was placed before the communion service, explaining 
 that by kneeling "no adoration was intended to any 
 corporal presence of Christ's natural flesh and blood." 
 But in the early part of the reign of Elizabeth, " it was 
 proposed," saysBurnet,t "to have the communion book 
 so contrived that it might not exclude the belief of the 
 corporal presence : for the chief design of the queen's 
 council was, to unite the nation in one faith ; [another 
 evil result of putting the sovereign at the head of the 
 church ;] and the greatest part of the nation continued 
 to believe such a presence. Therefore, it was recom- 
 mended to the divines, to see that there should be no 
 
 * Hist. Ref., vol. iii., pp. 258-9. f Ibid., vol. ii., p. 606. 
 
TOLERANCE OF ROMISH ERROR. 
 
 77 
 
 express definition against it; that it might lie as a 
 speculative opinion, not detei^mined, in which every 
 man was left to the freedom of his own mind. Here- 
 upon the rubric that explained the reason for kneeling 
 at the sacrament * * was left out.''' This was after- 
 wards, in 1661, restored, more by accident than by 
 any real wish to suppress the doctrine of the real cor- 
 poral presence ; for it was done just after the Savoy 
 Conference, at the time when the changes were made 
 indicating an advance towards popery. " The papists," 
 says Burnet,* " were highly offended, when such an 
 express declaration was made against the real pres- 
 ence, and the duke told me, that when he asked Shel- 
 den how they came to declare against a doctrine, 
 which he had been instructed was the doctrine of the 
 church, Shelden answered, ask Gawden about it, who 
 is a bishop of your own making." The rubric still 
 stands in the English prayer-book, but has been left 
 out of our liturgy in this country, — showing that the 
 old compromise policy was adopted by our church, 
 and that the improvement made in the English prayer- 
 book one hundred years after what is called the set- 
 tling of the reformation, was deemed by the fathers of 
 our church no improvement. 
 
 At the same place in his history of the reformation, 
 Burnet assigns the same reason for a change in regard 
 to the sentences used at the distribution of the bread 
 and wine. In king Edward's first liturgy, as it was 
 called, only the words, " The body of our Lord Jesus 
 Christ," &c., and "The blood of o ir Lord Jesus 
 Christ," <kc., were used. The most thorough protest- 
 ants objected to these words, when used in such con- 
 nection, as fostering the Roman idea of the corporal 
 
 * Hist, his Own Times, vol. i., p. 161. 
 7* 
 
78 
 
 TOLERANCE OF ROMISH ERROR. 
 
 presence; and as the protestant influence was then 
 predominant, these sentences were struck out in the 
 second Uturgy of Edward, and the words, " Take, eat 
 this in remembrance that Christ died for thee," &c., and 
 "Drink this in rememhrance^^^ &c., — words expressing 
 the true protestant idea, — Avere substituted for them. 
 But the Romanists being offended at this, the com- 
 promise principle was resorted to, and in the first of 
 Ehzabeth's reign, the difiicuky was settled to the satis- 
 faction of all parties, by restoring the sentences which 
 had been cast away, and retaining those which had 
 been substituted for them. And thus, the sentences 
 which express the Romish idea, and those which repre- 
 sent the protestant doctrine, have stood side by side, or 
 rather one above the other, to the present time. Bishop 
 Brownell, in his commentary on the prayer-book, 
 mentions these changes, but carefully avoids giving 
 the reasons. 
 
 Strype relates* that, in 1559, the bishops of the 
 church allowed popish priests, Avho had been openly 
 such under Mary, to retain their places and officiate as 
 parish ministers, without any renunciation of their 
 errors, or any profession of protestant principles. And 
 this state of things continued for a number of years, 
 though many of these persons were known to favor 
 Romanism secretly, and to do whatever they could to 
 draw their people away from the protestant religion. 
 
 The commission appointed by Charles II., 1662, to 
 revise the liturgy, consisted of two classes of persons : 
 the "ministers," who desired alterations and improve- 
 ments in the common prayer; and the "bishops," who 
 resisted all movements towards such an end. The 
 ministers, in an address to the sovereign, say. 
 
 * Annals of the Reformation, vol. i., p. 176. 
 
TOLERANCE OF ROMISH ERROR. 
 
 79 
 
 " We humbly desire that it may be seriously consid- 
 ered, that as our first reformers, out of their great wis- 
 dom, did at that time so comjjose the liturgy as to win 
 tipon the papists, and to draw them into their church 
 communion, by varying as little as they well could from 
 the Romish forms before hi use ; so whether in the 
 present constitution, and state of things amongst us, we 
 should not, according to the same rule of prudence and 
 charity, have our liturgy so composed as to gain upon 
 the judgments and atfection of all those who in the sub- 
 stantials of the protestant are of the same persuasions 
 with ourselves."* 
 
 To this, the bishops," who were in the same com- 
 mission, respond in a way which concedes even more 
 than the "ministers" here urge. They say, 
 
 " It 7oas the loisdom of our reformers to draw up 
 such a litxirgy as neither Romanist nor protestant 
 could justly except against ; and therefore as the first 
 never charged it with any positive errors, but only the 
 want of something they conceived necessary, so it was 
 never found fault with by those to whom the name of 
 protestants most properly belongs, those that profess 
 the Augustan confession ; and for those who unlaAV- 
 fuUy and sinfully brought it into dislike with some 
 people, to urge the present state of affairs as an argu- 
 ment why the book should be altered, to give them 
 satisfaction, and so that they should take advantage 
 by their own im warrantable acts, is not reasonable."! 
 
 Facts like the above might be multiplied to a con- 
 siderable extent; but these are sufficient. I will 
 simply add the express declaration of Burnet, that the 
 reformation was conducted, to some extent, on this prin- 
 
 * Cardwell's Hist, of Conferences, &c., p. 305. Baxter's Life by 
 Sylvester, B. I., P. 2., p. 316. 
 t Cardwell's Hist. Conferences, &c., p. 338. 
 
80 
 
 TOLERANCE OF ROMISH ERROR. 
 
 ciple ; and no man has ever studied both its outward 
 movements and its secret springs more thoroughly 
 than he. He says : 
 
 " Many of these things, [that is, ceremonies,] were 
 retained at the reformation, to draw the people more 
 entirely into it ; who are apt to judge, especially in 
 things of ignorance, by outward appearances more 
 than by the real value of things ; so the preserving an 
 exterior thai looked somewhat like what they had been 
 formerly accustomed to, without doubt had a great 
 effect at first on many persons, who, without that, could 
 not have been easily brought over* to adhere to the 
 ivork."-\- 
 
 A strongly presumptive argument in favor of this 
 view might be found in the extent to which this com- 
 promise principle prevails in our own church ; for it 
 we are distinguished for anything, it is for the assi- 
 duity witli which we have cherished those principles, 
 and only those, which can claim the sanction of an 
 early recognition in what we have so pertinaciously 
 called our mother church of England. It will not be 
 worth while, however, to push a merely presumptive 
 argument to any great extent ; and I shall only offer 
 one fact. 
 
 Some five or six years since, while living in a 
 neighboring town, I undertook to write the principal 
 part of the editorial matter for the Christian Witness. 
 The policy of the Witness had been, up to that time, 
 to say very little about tractarianism, with the general 
 view, I believe, of avoiding all excitement on the sub- 
 ject, and of keeping its readers ignorant of the fact that 
 
 * This is precisely like employing heathen rites and ceremonies, in 
 order to bring over heathens to the reception of Christianity. Such a 
 policy may succeed in transferring them from one system to another, 
 but it leaves their hearts and prejudices the same. 
 
 t Hist, of his Own Times, vol. ii., p. 636. 
 
TOLERANCE OF ROMISH ERROR. 
 
 81 
 
 there was any such thing in the Episcopal church. 
 Soon after beginning to write for it, I saw and felt 
 deeply the need of some earnest and reiterated protest 
 in its columns on this subject. I began, therefore, and 
 for about two years continued my earnest appeals to 
 the managers of the paper in Boston, to open its col- 
 umns to a bold and fearless discussion of a subject 
 more fearfully important than almost any other. I 
 was repulsed again and again ; was told that such a 
 discussion would disturb the peace of the church ; 
 would loosen the attachment of many laymen to it by 
 making them acquainted with a greater amount of 
 mischief in it than they had supposed to exist, — in 
 short, that if the whole subject were let alone, Pusey- 
 ism would soon die of itself On the other hand, I 
 urged that the danger was much greater than was 
 generally apprehended; that Puseyism, if let alone, 
 would, instead of dying out, overnm and blight our 
 denomination ; that the Witness itself, if it remained 
 silent, would either be swept along into tractarianism, 
 or by-and by, would resist only to its own destruction, 
 and be torn in pieces by being thrown in the face of a 
 breeze rapidly swelling to a gale. 
 
 My appeals were ineffectual ; and the sentinels of 
 the press as well as the public conscience slept, until 
 the Carey ordination, in 1843, sent a shock of terror 
 through the heart of the denomination, and caused 
 every writer, not infected by the heresy, to grasp his 
 pen, as men grasp their swords when an invading 
 naval fleet suddenly pours its thousands of armed 
 warriors upon their shores. The editor in Boston, — 
 a gentleman whom I shall always respect for his 
 amiable and manly qualities, — made a full statement 
 of the case, together with some stringent and appro- 
 priate remarks. The following week, in the midst of 
 
82 
 
 TOLERANCE OF ROMISH ERROR. 
 
 the excitement, I slipped in an article, of four columns 
 in length, reviewing the principles involved in the case, 
 in an earnest tone. At this, a large proportion of the 
 clergy were much disturbed, and censures were freely- 
 passed upon the Witness in various quarters. About 
 two weeks after, the Banner of the Cross, a very high 
 church paper m Philadelphia, came out with an edito- 
 rial, charging the Witness with disturbing the peace 
 of the church against the wishes of the bishop of the 
 diocese, and asserting that it had authority from a pri- 
 vate source on which it could rely for making the 
 assertion. The private informant was supposed to 
 have been another editor of the Witness, residing in 
 another town. Our worthy bishop immediately sent 
 a letter to the Banner of the Cross, saying that while 
 he agreed with the conductors of the Witness in their 
 general views of christian doctrine, and of tractarian- 
 ism, he yet disapproved of their course in disturbing 
 his diocese with alarms which he did not believe to be 
 necessary. To make the matter more perplexing, the 
 other editor of the Witness alluded to, who highly dis- 
 approved of what myself and the Boston editor had writ- 
 ten, preached a sermon soon after, and had it inserted 
 in the Witness, in which he attempted to smooth over 
 the whole matter, took ground directly opposite to that 
 which we had taken, and, in fact, made the paper 
 appear perfectly self-condemned and contemptible. 
 He referred to the views of Dr. Pusey and of other 
 tractarians; and affirmed that though they were 
 unsound, yet, according to the theory of the church, 
 they ought to be tolerated. He declared alarm to be 
 entirely unnecessary, and deprecated any attempt to 
 raise it. 
 
 This appeal to the compromise prmciple was so well 
 received, and so generally conceded to be in harmony 
 
TOLERANCE OF ROMISH ERROR. 
 
 83 
 
 with the accredited policy of the church, that the Bos- 
 ton managers of the Witness did not dare to reject it ; 
 and the paper was obliged to retire from the advanced 
 position it liad taken. 
 
 Tliis convinced me more thoroughly than ever 
 where the true source of our difficulties lay ; and I 
 immediately began the treatise now published ; but 
 not finding any suitable channel for conveying it to 
 the public, I only made a beginning. I do not regret 
 that it did not appear then, as my mind has now had 
 time to mould the general subject into a better form. 
 
 The reader will easily see that a reformation con- 
 ducted on a principle of compromise with Rome could 
 not, in the nature of the case, be completed. A com- 
 plete reformation concedes nothing to the enemy. It 
 is absurd to talk of casting out all of Romanism, and 
 yet gratify Romanists by retaining some things to 
 please them. 
 
84 
 
 CHAPTER n. 
 
 INTOLERANCE OF PURITY IN WORSHIP. 
 
 Had the early divines of the Enghsh church been 
 permitted to exercise their christian judgment in 
 reforming rehgion, without let or hindrance, the papis- 
 tical ceremonies retained in the services would, at an 
 early period, have been swept to the oblivion they so 
 justly merit. But this they were not allowed to do. 
 They had conceded to the crown the " power to visit 
 and reform all heresies, errors and other abuses, which 
 in the spiritual jurisdiction ought to be reformed ;" had 
 allowed this to be enacted by parliament ; and had thus 
 divested themselves of all right save that of petition. 
 And, therefore, though the great body of the clergy in 
 the Convocation of 1662 were decidedly in favor of 
 removing all the ceremonies having a papal aspect ; 
 though the opposition to them among the clergy during 
 the first thirty years of Elizabeth's reign was so gen- 
 eral that they conscientiously abstained from supply- 
 ing eight thousand out of the ten thousand churches in 
 the kingdom ; though a strong effort was made to get 
 rid of them at the Hampton Court conference in the 
 reign of James I., another at the Savoy conference in 
 the reign of Charles H.. and still another at the meet- 
 ing of the Jerusalem Chamber commission in that of 
 William and Mary ; though one thousand ministers of 
 the established church met James I., on his way to the 
 throne, and presented him with the famous " millenary 
 petition," [the clergy had the right of petition!] pray- 
 ing for a removal of the remaining ceremonies ; yet 
 they were not removed. The occupant of the throne 
 
INTOLERANCE OF PURITY IN WORSHIP. 
 
 85 
 
 said nay ; and so the reformation was not carried to 
 the extent which the church through several ages 
 desired. 
 
 But the mischief of a secular headship of the church 
 did not end here. When the ecclesiastical supremacy 
 Avas given to the sovereign, it was a Tudor who occu- 
 pied the throne ; and when the effort was made in 
 1559 and onward to destroy the last vestiges of papacy, 
 it was a Tudor again who swayed the sceptre ; and a 
 Tudor would brook no contradiction or resistance. 
 Nothing made Henry VIII. more restive than for the 
 clergy to resist his will in regard"to any religious mat- 
 ter respecting which he chose to decree uniformity. 
 And when certain of the clergy, in Elizabeth's reign, 
 neglected to comply with the ceremonies, and it came 
 to the queen's ears, she was angry, and wrote to the 
 archbishop of Canterbury, reflecting with severity on 
 his remissness in neglecting to enforce the act of uni- 
 formity ; and " requiring him, that, with the assistance 
 of other bishops, commissioned by her for causes eccle- 
 siastical, he should give strict orders, that all diversi- 
 ties and varieties, both among the clergy and the people, 
 might be reformed and repressed; and that-all should 
 be brought to one manner of uniformity, through 
 the whole kingdom, that so the people might quietly 
 honor and serve God."* Strypef reports the queen's 
 letter more fully, and represents her as saying, among 
 other things, " that she, considering the authority given 
 her of God for the defence of public peace and truth in 
 the church, meant not any longer to suffer these evils 
 thus to proceed, spread and increase in her realm ; but 
 certainly determined to have all such diversities and 
 novelties among the clergy and people (breeding noth- 
 
 * Burnet's Hist. Ref., vol. iii., p. 460. 
 t Annals of the Ref., vol. i., pp. 460-1 
 8 
 
86 
 
 INTOLERANCE OF PURITY IN WORSHIP. 
 
 ing but contention and offence, and being against the 
 laws, good usages and ordinances of the realm) to be 
 reformed and repressed, and brought to one manner of 
 uniformity through the whole realm." * * * "And 
 in time to come, charging him [the archbishop] 
 straightly, to provide and enjoin in her name, in all 
 places of his province, that none hereafter be admit- 
 ted into any office, cure or place ecclesiastical, but 
 such as should be found well disposed to common 
 order," that is, uniformity in the use of the ceremo- 
 nies. 
 
 Here was the root of the difficulty. The queen not 
 only compelled the retaining of many ceremonies 
 against the wishes of the clergy, but she enforced 
 their observance. And from this time forward, except 
 at particular times and to a limited extent, there was 
 no toleration for those who disapproved of the remains 
 of popery. The best protestant divines in the church 
 were silenced because they could not conscientiously 
 comply, and the church deprived of their services ; 
 while Roman priests, known to be such in heart, were 
 allowed to officiate at her altars.* Thus the bishops 
 and clergy were being trained to a tolerance of error in 
 doctrine, and an intolerance of purity in worship ; a 
 training to which they were subjected under several 
 succeeding reigns, until these principles were thor- 
 oughly wrought into their moral constitution. I 
 have already alluded to the fact that eight thou- 
 sand parish churches were suffered to go unsupplied. 
 rather than permit those to officiate who would not 
 conform to the senseless usages. Those members 
 of the church who would not comply in the days 
 of Laud, were, in the language of the London Chris- 
 
 *Strype's Annals, vol. i., p. 178. 
 
INTOLERANCE OF PURITY IN WORSHIP. 
 
 87 
 
 tian Observer, "fined, and whipped, and dungeoned," 
 till they were thought to he " effectually subdued." 
 A historian relates that they were fined in the star 
 chamber, till many of them were reduced from afflu- 
 ence to beggary; and the fines were aggravated to 
 meet the expense of repairs on St. Paul's cathedral, 
 which gave birth to the saying, that the church was 
 built with the sins of the people.* And so severe 
 were the ceremonial persecutions at this period, that 
 Dr. Alexander Leigh ton, father of the celebrated arch- 
 bishop, for publishing an appeal to parliament, was 
 brought into the star chamber, and had a sentence 
 passed upon him, the execution of which is thus 
 recorded in Laud's diary. "His ears were cut off, his 
 nose slit, his face branded with burning irons ; he was 
 tied to a post, and whipped with a treble cord, of 
 which every lash brought away his flesh. He was 
 kept in the pillory near two hours, in frost and snow." 
 The historian adds, that he was then imprisoned, with 
 peculiar severity, for about eleven years ; and when 
 released by the parliament, he could neither hear not 
 see, nor walk.f When this sentence was pronounced 
 in the star chamber. Laud's gratification was such, 
 that he publicly pulled off his cap and gave God 
 thanks. Under such persecutions, it is not surprising 
 that the dissentients began to turn their attention to 
 foreign lands, and to say to each other, " The sun 
 shines as pleasantly on America as on England, and 
 the Sim of Righteousness much more clearly." Neal 
 states that he had a list of seventy-seven divines 
 ordained in the church of England, who became pas- 
 tors of emigrant churches in America, as early as pre- 
 vious to the year 1640. 
 
 * Bogue and Bennett's Dissenters, vol. i., p. 79. 
 t Pierce, p. 179. 
 
88 INTOLERANCE OF PURITY IN WORSHIP. 
 
 Thus were the ceremonies upheld, not by reason or 
 argument, — for they admit of no defence on these 
 grounds, — but by the power of the royal prerogatives, 
 by acts of parliament, by the star chamber, <fcc., until 
 by numerous additions made to them, they became too 
 heavy a freight of iniquity, and sunk the ship of 
 church and state in her own harbor, making room for 
 unfurling the flag of the commonwealth. 
 
 On the restoration of Charles II., and, with him, the 
 restoration of the church, one would have supposed 
 that milder measures would have governed the coun- 
 cils of the nation ; and such seems to have been the 
 wish of many. But the Savoy conference soon put an 
 end to such hopes on the part of any who might have 
 indulged them. "In the convocation," says a histo- 
 rian, "the prayer-book was altered from bad to worse." 
 The points debated were, the apocryphal lessons, com- 
 pulsory kneeling at the Lord's supper, the use of the 
 surplice, the cross in baptism, sponsors in baptism, and 
 ecclesiastical holy days. The bishops declined any rea- 
 sonable concessions, and "the conference," says bishop 
 Burnet, " broke up Avithout doing any good." And not 
 only so: but Burnet says further, that " now all concern 
 that seemed to employ the bishops' thoughts was, not 
 only to make no alterations on their (the Presbyteri- 
 ans') account, but to make the terms of conformity 
 much stricter than they had been before the war." * 
 The result was, that, instead of relaxing at all, and 
 mending the prayer-book, it was the next year made, 
 as above expressed, " from bad to worse." New holy 
 days were added, as St. Barnabas, and the cotiversion 
 of St. Paul; and the reasonable objections to the apoc- 
 ryphal lessons in the calendar were met by adding to 
 
 * Burnet's Hist, of his Own Times, vol. i., p. 182. 
 
INTOLERANCE OF PURITY IN WORSHIP. 
 
 89 
 
 them the edifying story of Bel and the Dragon ! " * 
 And to crown the follies of this petiod, an act of uni- 
 formity in the observance of the ceremonies was passed 
 in 1662, which took effect on St. Bartholomew's day, 
 and expelled two thousand of its best and purest di- 
 vines from the established church. And to make the 
 persecution as severe as possible, St. Bartholomew's 
 day was chosen for the act to take effect, because their 
 yearly salaries became due a few days after, of which 
 they were by this means deprived. f The celebrated 
 Mr. Locke styles these two thousand ejected ministers, 
 learned, pious and orthodox divines. 
 
 Nor did the persecuting spirit end with this period. 
 James II. came to the throne with an honest avowal 
 of popery in his mouth. Under him, the opposers of a 
 ceremonialism were persecuted with increased violence. 
 "Availing himself of Monmouth's rebellion^ to crush 
 the enemies of popery and arbitrary power, the king 
 turned his realm into a slaughter-house; of which 
 Judge Jeffreys was the grand butcher.^ After his 
 western circuit, the quarters of several hundred per- 
 sons were hung up all over the country, for fifty or 
 sixty miles." || This state of things continued for a 
 time, but was alleviated by a considerable amendment, 
 before the revolution, which brought to the throne Wil- 
 liam of Orange. Between the restoration and the rev- 
 olution, a period of less than thirty years, sixty thou- 
 sand are said to have suffered for dissent, of whom 
 five thousand died in prison. And during the three 
 reigns which preceded this period, namely, those of 
 Elizabeth, James I., and Charles I., large numbers of 
 the best ministers were ejected from the church, and 
 
 * Burnet's Hist, of his Own Times, vol. i., p 182. 
 
 t Ibid., vol i., p. 184. % Warner, p. 631. § Pierce, 263 — 4. 
 
 II Bogue and Bennett's Dissenters, vol. i., p. 105. 
 
 8* 
 
90 INTOLERANCE OF PURITY IN WORSHIP. 
 
 prevented from preaching the gospel to perishing 
 souls.* Bishops spent much of their time in hunting 
 out of the church those who could not conform to every 
 ceremony. And when one of them applied to a noble- 
 man for his influence with the bishop in his behalf, 
 the answer he received was, "Had you been guilty 
 of drunkenness, or grosser immoralities, I could have 
 procured you relief; but if you cannot comply with 
 the ceremonies, you are undone. It is a crime in 
 the eyes of the bishop for which there is no forgive- 
 ness." 
 
 The accession of William to the throne brought an 
 "act of toleration," which has been called the dissent- 
 ers' Magna Charta. By it, they were thenceforward 
 exempted from the legal penalties annexed to non-con- 
 formity. 
 
 Thus I have briefly stated the cause which prevent- 
 ed an entire removal from the English ritual of all the 
 
 * What an awful violaiion of all the principles of the gospel, to 
 shitt the mouths of thousands of preachers, — depriving hundreds of 
 thousands of souls of christian instruction, — merely because they 
 would not employ a few senseless Eomish rites ! Whence did the 
 church of England derive the authority to fasten such ceremonies upon 
 the consciences of ministers, and to deprive the world of their labors, 
 in case of a refusal to comply ? Not from the word of God, surely, 
 for that is full of instruction of an opposite kind. 
 
 Men often talk of schisms produced by puritans and non-conform- 
 ists. It is a perversion of truth. Whatever schism was effected, it 
 must lie at the door of the established church. That church imposed 
 ceremonies which Christ never enjoined. It enforced its burdensome 
 ceremonial as an essential thing ; whereas Christ made an overgrown 
 ceremonial unlawful, and even a simple one indifferent. This church 
 put a yoke upon the necks of its people which Christ never designed 
 or wished them to bear. They had a right to reject it ; nay, they 
 were bound to reject it, under the circumstances. They saw that they 
 could not labor with acceptance among the people while they used 
 such ceremonies. It was a plain scriptural duty, therefore, to cast 
 them off as they would anything else that hindered the gospel from 
 havmg a free course. And when no alternative was left them save 
 compliance or ejection from the church, the schism was plainly on 
 the English establishment. 
 
INTOLERANCE OF PURITY IN WORSHIP. 
 
 91 
 
 papal ceremonies. Again and again the better sense 
 of the church declared against them; but the royal 
 mandates, the acts of parliament, the sentences of the 
 star-chamber, the watchful intolerance of the bishops, 
 the whip, the rack, the pillory, the dungeon, the ex- 
 patriation, overmastered the protestant feelings of the 
 national church, and drove tlie ministers and people 
 into co?nplia7ice. This compliance, however, could be 
 effected only by one additional measure. When the 
 dissenters in the church became so numerous as to 
 make it probable that they would soon carry all the 
 people with them, they were cast out. When argu- 
 ments failed, as they always did, expulsion from the 
 church came to their aid. 
 
 A hundred and thirty years' school of intolerance 
 towards dissent was not lost upon the national church. 
 Its clergy were thoroughly drilled into the belief that 
 opposition to any portion of the ceremonial of the 
 church, though no longer punishable by fine and im- 
 prisonment, was a very grave offence, and punishable, 
 at least, by a complete moral proscription. And since 
 the passage of the toleration act, dissent has not been 
 starved by fines, or wasted by imprisonment ; but it 
 has been silenced and crushed in the church by a pro- 
 scription which brings loss of influence, loss of place, 
 loss of church caste, and loss of the means of useful- 
 ness. 
 
 These remarks are painfully illustrated in the treat- 
 ment of those eminent servants of God, John and 
 Charles Wesley. These gentlemen were warm, at- 
 tached and steadfast friends of the church of England, 
 as by law established. When invested with the re- 
 sponsibilities of the gospel ministry, they found that 
 church cumbered with a spirit of worldliness, and 
 doing little to make the spiritual truths of the gospel 
 
92 INTOLERANCE OF PURITY IN WORSHIP. 
 
 felt among their countrymen. It was their special 
 calling, as they believed^ to break the slumbers of that 
 church, to raise it up to the gospel standard, and to re- 
 kindle within it the light of the reformation. With 
 this noble purpose in view, they labored in season and 
 out of season, preaching Jesus and him crucified 
 wherever they went. 
 
 Their object was a noble one, and with noble enthu- 
 siasm did they pursue it. And how were their labors 
 received? By the poorer classes of the people with 
 joy and thanksgiving. By the clergy and the aristoc- 
 racy, they were treated with scorn and contempt. 
 The pulpits of the established church were closed 
 against them, and they Avere driven out into the high- 
 ways, and the fields, where they were often made to 
 feel the violence of the multitudes, excited against 
 them by the high church supporters of formalism and 
 exact conformity. Nor have these annoying, unchris- 
 tian persecutions ceased, until a host of warm-hearted, 
 pious, energetic, and chivalrous christians have been 
 pushed entirely off the platform of the establishment, 
 and practically compacted into a firm, united, high-re- 
 solving body of dissent. 
 
 In our own church, the lesson of proscription has 
 been well learned from the mother church of England. 
 So imperative have become the demands for a compli- 
 ance with the j)rescribed notions among us, that very 
 few have the courage to hold themselves apart from 
 their adoption, and to spurn the bondage fastened upon 
 the mind by them. I speak only what is generally 
 known, and what those in bondage must themselves 
 acknowledge, when I say there is no alternative, save 
 compliance on the one hand, or proscription on the 
 other. However liberal our church may be in doc- 
 trinal matters, it has no liberality in regard to the use- 
 
INTOLERANCE OF PURITY IN WORSHIP. 
 
 93 
 
 less things of which I have been speaking. A man 
 may have all the latitude he can ask in selecting his 
 own mode of explaining doctrines. He may be a Cal- 
 vinist, or an Arminian, or take his stand somewhere 
 between the two, and the Episcopal church asks him 
 no questions. He may have any range in his mode of 
 explaining even the great doctrines of grace, and may 
 even embrace many doctrines peculiar to the apostate 
 church of Rome — nay, the offices of his church have 
 been so "co/i^r/werf," as Burnet expresses it, that he 
 may have a wide sweep here, and free himself from 
 restraint. But the moment he begins to adapt himself 
 to mere externals, the non-essentials of his religion, he 
 finds the executors of the church's laws cutting from 
 him a pound of flesh here, and two pounds there, lop- 
 ping off" something of his length, or stretching him out 
 to the right degree of elongation, until he answers in 
 every particular to the prescribed pattern. It is not 
 necessary to dwell on the absurdity, nay, the wicked- 
 ness, of such a state of things. 
 
 These, then, as I have described them in this and in 
 the preceding chapter, are the causes which have pre- 
 vented the completion of the reformation in the Epis- 
 copal churches of England and America — a tolerance 
 of error in doctrine, and an intolerance of purity in 
 worship. These are historical facts, which lie open to 
 the eyes of all men, and which cannot be gainsaid. 
 In this tolerance, and this intolerance, the divines of 
 these churches have been trained through a long suc- 
 cession of years ; and no man can study the standards 
 and ephemeral writings of these churches, entering 
 into their spirit approvingly, and imbuing his mind 
 with them, without becoming tolerant of error, even 
 though he does not himself embrace error, and intoler- 
 ant of piuity in worship, even though he is not much 
 
94 
 
 INTOLERANCE OF PURITY IN WORSHIP. 
 
 attached to the rags of popery which hang about our 
 services. The same tolerance of error which, in the 
 days of Ehzabeth, attempted to conciliate the Roman- 
 ists, is seen in the sermon of which I spoke in the last 
 chapter, as published in the Witness, and in scores of 
 sermons, pamphlets, newspapers, and books, published 
 by those who are called moderate men all over the 
 United States ; and the same intolerance of purity in 
 worship, which, as the London Christian Observer 
 says, "had fined, and whipped, and dungeoned the 
 puritans, both in and out of the church, and with them 
 the old-fashioned Anglican churchmen, till they were 
 thought to be effectually subdued," has been visited, 
 in the shape of proscription, upon the head of the 
 writer of this volume, because he has dared to revive 
 the objections to the remains of popery. He has been 
 met by his old friends with averted looks, and cold 
 salutations ; has been told plainly that, for holding and 
 publishing these opinions, his influence was gone ; has 
 had the attempt made to push him out of the church, 
 by circulating the report that he had left it ; and in 
 public places, with great vehemence, has been repeat- 
 edly denounced as a traitor to his church. 
 
 It is high time that the whole subject of our doc- 
 trines, polity, and ritual, were thrown open to free and 
 full discussion. They are fair subjects of discussion ; 
 and it is disgrace enough that, to near the middle of 
 the nineteenth century, they have been excluded vi et 
 armis, from the circle of free inquiry. " An open Bi- 
 ble and a free conscience," with freedom of speech and 
 the blessing of God ; these are all I plead for. If our 
 ritual will not bear the light shed upon it from these 
 sources, the sooner it is riddled the better. Claiming 
 this freedom of inquiry as my christian birthright, and 
 in the exercise of it, asking no man or men's permis- 
 
JNTOLEKANCE OF PURITY IN WORSHIP. 
 
 95 
 
 sion, and at the same time recognizing and respecting 
 all other men's rights, I invite the reader to accom- 
 pany me in a free investigation of the prayer-book, 
 in the theological branch of my subject next claiming 
 attention. 
 
96 
 
 PART III. 
 THE THEOLOGICAL ARGUMENT. 
 
 THE PRAYER-BOOK NEVER FULLY PURGED OF THE REMAINS 
 OF PAPAL ERROR. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 METHOD OF INTERPRETING THE PRAYER-BOOK. 
 
 The men who conducted the reformation in the Eng- 
 hsh church, it is well known, were bred in the Roman 
 school. They were in early life thoroughly indoctrin- 
 ated with Roman theology, and habits of superstitious 
 Romish feeling were Avrought into the very frame-work 
 of their souls. Romisli phraseology had become a part 
 of their mental furniture ; and to employ the idiom of 
 Rome was as natural as to speak their vernacular 
 tongue. It were unreasonable to expect of such men, 
 that, in casting off false doctrine, they would do the 
 work in its entireness at once; and that they would 
 not need time to rid themselves wholly of forms of ex- 
 pression to which they had been accustomed from 
 childhood. The foreigner, when he reaches our shores, 
 though he has left behind him, it may be, some portion 
 of his religion, and of the principles of government 
 which have been taught him from his youth, still feels 
 their influence upon him for many years, or rather, 
 perhaps, never succeeds in wholly ridding himself of 
 them. He brings with him the brogue which he 
 learned from his mother, and many of the forms of 
 speech and domestic habits peculiar to his native coun- 
 
METHOD OF INTERPRETING THE PRAYER-BOOK. 97 
 
 try. How much more certainly might we expect that 
 a Romanist, whose rehgion is so very pecuhar, in 
 ■whose eyes every outward ordinance is full of a divine 
 life, who worships an incarnate Deity in the bread and 
 wine of the Lord's supper, and who has learned to con- 
 nect the word holy with the place, the forms and the 
 circumstances, as well as the object of worship, would 
 retain for a long time the vestiges of Romish doctrines, 
 feelings and forms of speech. 
 
 We find the facts of history to be in perfect harmony 
 with these suggestions of reason. Light broke in upon 
 the minds of these reformers in a very gradual way ; 
 and when their conceptions of truth had reached a 
 certain degree of conformity to evangelical protestant- 
 ism, they were embodied in a book of common prayer. 
 As these views became gradually moulded to a nearer 
 conformity to scriptural truth, this book was, from time 
 to time, subjected to processes of amendment. And 
 when queen Elizabeth said the reformation should go 
 no further, and the prayer-book was improved for the 
 last time, it became the embodied results of the refor- 
 mation ; so that, by surrounding it from that time to 
 the present with associations of greater and still greater 
 sanctity, whatever errors were then left in the minds 
 of the reformers, have been preserved, like the em- 
 bahned mummies of Egypt. They differ from the 
 mummies, however, in having been kept in a living, 
 active and reproductive state. 
 
 The prayer-book, then, is a transcript of the English 
 reformation. By what rule or standard shall we inter- 
 pret it? Of course, by the events out of which it 
 sprung ; by the opinions of the reformers who com- 
 piled it; by the reformation which it embodies and 
 represents. This is the rule Mr. Butler has adopted in 
 his "Common Prayer Interpreted," and it is undoubt- 
 9 
 
98 METHOD OF INTERPRETING THE PRAYER-BOOK. 
 
 edly the best yet employed. I adopt it, therefore, as 
 the rule by which to ascertain what the prayer-book 
 means; but not to settle the truth of its meaning. 
 This must be tried by a higher and safer standard. 
 We have had enough of appealing to the reformation, 
 the fathers, and the church, in settling christian doc- 
 trine. It is high time the scriptures were - made the 
 supreme and sole rule of faith, practically as well as 
 theoretically. As the prayer-book, however, embodies 
 a transcript of the reformation, it is right to appeal to 
 the reformation to ascertain lohat doctrines it teaches. 
 
 It was proved, in former chapters, that this reforma- 
 tion was begun under accidental circumstances ; that 
 by being placed under the control of the English mon- 
 arch, and made dependent on his caprices, it cut itself 
 off from the certainty of a steady progress and a trium- 
 phant issue ; and that it was, in fact, unsteady in its 
 progress, and incomplete in its results. It was proved 
 that its incompleteness arose from two causes, — a 
 tolerance of Roman doctrine, and an intolerance of 
 purity in worship ; the one operating to retain Roman 
 doctrine, the other to prevent the loss of papal ceremo- 
 nies. 
 
 With these facts before us, and viewing the prayer- 
 book as the embodiment of the reformation, we may 
 presume a priori, without opening its pages, that it 
 contains traces, more or less distinct, of the ancient 
 corruptions, out of which the reformation aimed to lift 
 the English church. The reformation we have seen 
 to be imperfect ; the prayer-book, if it be a fair repre- 
 sentation of it, must be imperfect also. The presump- 
 tion is, therefore, that the prayer-book is a compound 
 of truth and error ; or rather, that it contains, in con- 
 nection with its large amount of truth, a hurtful mix- 
 ture of error. 
 
METHOD OF INTERPRETING THE PRAYER-BOOK. 99 
 
 But this is only presumption. It is not certainty. 
 Finding a fountain muddy, it may be inferred, with 
 tolerable safety, that the stream is muddy. Notwith- 
 standing most persons would prefer to examine the 
 stream also, before making a positive decision, because 
 it may have been cleansed by passing through a stra- 
 tum of earth. Let us turn our attention, then, to the 
 doctrinal contents of the liturgy. They lie before us 
 with the light of history shining upon them to tell us 
 xohat they mean, and the clearer light of revelation to 
 decide whether their meaning is in harmony with eter- 
 nal truth. 
 
100 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 THE COMMUNION OFFICE. 
 
 Doctrinal corruptions of the sacraments have 
 usually been antecedent to the other corruptions 
 Avhich characterize the tractarian and Roman systems, 
 and in no small degree productive of them. In search- 
 ing for the causes of Puseyism in the prayer-book, 
 therefore, the first proper business is to examine the 
 communion and baptismal offices. 
 
 Against our communion office I urge one cardinal 
 objection, which, if sustained, must exclude it from 
 the fellowship of pure protestant truths, and consign it 
 to a companionship at least with semi-Roman teach- 
 ing. It inculcates, as I believe, a presence in the ele- 
 ments — not a carnal^ but a spiritual presence. I am 
 aware that this is not exactly the Roman doctrine, but 
 it is precisely the tractarian, and differs from the 
 Roman only in being a little more misty and obscure. 
 
 It may be remarked here, that the English com- 
 munion service is not exposed fully to the objection 
 now urged to our own. It does not contain the obla- 
 tion and invocation. These, as they stand in our ser- 
 vice, are as follows : 
 
 " Wherefore, O Lord, and Heavenly Father, accord- 
 ing to the institution of thy dearly beloved Son our 
 Saviour Jesus Christ, we, thy humble servants, do cel- 
 ebrate and make here before thy divine Majesty, with 
 these thy holy gifts, which we now offer vinto thee, the 
 memorial thy Son hath commanded us to make ; hav- 
 ing in remembrance his blessed passion and precious 
 death, his mighty resurrection and glorious ascension ; 
 
THE COMMUNION OFFICE. 
 
 101 
 
 rendering unto thee most hearty thanks, for the innu- 
 merable benefits procured unto us by the same. And 
 we most humbly beseech thee, O merciful Father, to 
 hear us ; and, of thy almighty goodness, vouchsafe to 
 bless and sanctify, with thy Word and Holy Spirit, 
 these thy gifts and creatures of bread and wine ; that 
 we, receiving them according to thy Son our Saviour, 
 Jesus Christ's holy institution, in remembrance of his 
 death and passion, may be partakers of his most 
 blessed body and blood." 
 
 These parts of the service were in the first prayer- 
 book of Edward the Sixth ; but at the revision of the 
 book, under that monarch, they were struck out, on 
 the ground that they favored the idea of a sacrifice in 
 the supper. Happily, they have never been restored 
 to the English service book. They were reengrafted 
 upon our service at the revision of the liturgy by our 
 General Convention in the year- 1789. They were 
 introduced at the special request and solicitation of 
 bishop Seabury, a man who received his episcopal 
 ordination in Scotland, and who had embraced the 
 high sacramentarian views held by the bishops in 
 that country. How the usual sagacity of bishop 
 White was imposed upon so far as to overlook the 
 vicious import of these sentences, and to permit their 
 introduction without remonstrance, it is not easy to 
 conjecture. 
 
 The oblatory words contain, it seems to me, one 
 very essential error. It consists in what is implied in 
 offering the bread and wine to God. The Rev. Mr. 
 Butler, in his " Common Prayer Interpreted," quotes 
 from the " Comparison between the communion offices 
 of the Church of England and the Scottish Episcopal 
 Church," in which the author, after citing the words 
 " which we now offer unto thee^^^ says of them, " They 
 9* 
 
102 
 
 THE COMMUNION OFFICE. 
 
 imply a direct offering of the bread and wine as a sac- 
 rifice.''^ He is speaking, to be sure, of the Scotch office ; 
 but as the words were taken by our General Conven- 
 tion from that office, it is no more than fair to give 
 them the same interpretation. Viewed in any light, 
 they present themselves as plainly inconsistent with 
 the thirty-first article, which boldly designates other 
 offerings, except that of " Christ once made," as 
 " blasphemous fables and dangerous deceits." And to 
 remind the reader of their utter incompatibility with 
 anything contained in the Scriptures, seems almost 
 superfluous. 
 
 Not only is there the sacrificial idea conveyed in 
 offering the "holy gifts" to God, but in the invocation, 
 there is some kind of a change in the elements implied 
 in the invoking upon them of the power of the " Word 
 and Holy Spirit." This invocation is also thoroughly 
 unscriptural. The records of God's word will be 
 searched in vain for the slightest trace of any authority 
 for this act. 
 
 Let us look for a few moments at the account of the 
 institution of the supper contained in the New Testa- 
 ment. Matthew says, "And as they were eating, 
 Jesus took bread and blessed it, and brake it, and gave 
 it to his disciples, and said, Take, eat ; this is my body. 
 And he took the cup and gave thanks, and gave it to 
 them, saying, Drink ye all of it ; for this is my blood 
 of the new testament, which is shed for many for the 
 remission of sins."* Mark's account is nearly identi- 
 cal with Matthew's. Luke says, " And he took, bread, 
 and gave thanks, and brake it, and gave it unto them, 
 saying, This is my body, which is given for you ; this 
 do in remembrance of me. Likewise also the cup, 
 
 * Matthew xxvi. 
 
THE COMMUNION OFFICE. 
 
 103 
 
 after supper, saying, This cup is the new testament in 
 my blood, which is shed for you."* St. Paul records 
 the account of the institution thus : " For I have 
 received of the Lord that which also I delivered unto 
 you. That the Lord Jesus Christ, the same night that 
 he was betrayed, took bread, and when he had given 
 thanks, he brake it, saying. Take, eat; this is my 
 body, which is broken for you ; this do in remembrance 
 of me. After the same manner, also, he took the cup, 
 when he had supped, saying, This cup is the new tes- 
 tament in my blood ; this do, as oft as ye drink it, in 
 remembrance of me."f 
 
 These three accounts, it will be seen, are substan- 
 tially the same. Matthew uses the expression, " He 
 took bread and blessed i^." It is not in the original ; 
 and learned men affirm that the word God might be 
 more properly supplied, so that the sentence should 
 read, " He took bread and blessed Gody This ren- 
 dering is certainly more in harmony with the state- 
 ments of Luke and Paul. Luke's words are, " He 
 took bread, and gave thanks" — Paul's, "He took 
 bread, and when he had given thanks, he brake it." 
 
 Now compare this scriptural account of the supper 
 with the words of our office. The officiating minister 
 is required by our service to invoke God's Word and 
 Holy Spirit to bless and sanctify the bread and wine ; 
 and the object of the blessing and sanctifying of them 
 is declared to be '■'■that we, receiving them," may be 
 partakers of Christ's "most blessed body and blood." 
 Our Saviour does not even ask God's blessing upon 
 the bread and wine, but merely blesses God for them. 
 He gives no hint of the elements being a channel of 
 divine grace to us. 
 
 * Luke xxii. 19, 20. f 1 Cor. xi. 23 — 25. 
 
104 
 
 THE COMMUNION OFFICE. 
 
 The minister is required by the service to offer the 
 bread and wine to God, certainly in the form, if not 
 with the intent, of a sacrifice. Our Saviour did noth- 
 ing but bless God, and offer the elements to his disci- 
 ples. The service calls the elements " holy gifts," and 
 " Iwly mysteries.''^ The Scriptures are silent as the 
 sepulchre as to any holiness connected with the ele- 
 ments ; and I have no doubt they are intentionally so, 
 that there might not be any possible excuse for the 
 error of a presence in the bread and wine. Could 
 there well be a more striking contrast and dissimi- 
 larity? On the scriptural side, there is the blessing 
 God, the giving the bread and wine to the disciples, 
 the declaring them symbols in strongly figurative lan- 
 guage, and the direction that the repetition of the ser- 
 Aace shall be, through all time, a memorial act. This 
 is all ; no consecrating the elements by invoking the 
 Holy Ghost upon them ;* no intimation even that, in 
 
 * But one passage of Scripture occurs to me, which, by any possi- 
 bility, can be made even to appear to favor this idea. " The cup of 
 blessing, ivhich n-e bless," &c., (1 Cor. x. 16.) It is usually inferred 
 from these words, that the apostles, in their official capacity as minis- 
 ters of the New Testament, were in the habit of blessing or conse- 
 crating the wine. But as all the scriptural accounts of the institution 
 of the supper go to show that our Saviour did no such thing, it is not 
 to be presumed, without the clearest evidence, that the apostles varied 
 essentially from his example. We have seen that Christ did not bless 
 either the bread or the wine, but merely rendered thanks, and blessed 
 God. Since this passage is highly figurative, would it not be safer to 
 give it an interpretation which would bring it into harmony with all 
 the other Scriptures which relate to the same subject ? The cup of 
 blessing, upon the receiving of which we render thanks and bless 
 God ; would not such a rendering be admissible ? It would certainly 
 reheve the passage from the contrariety to other Scriptures, which the 
 usual interpretation gives ; and does not appear to me at all to tran- 
 scend the latitude which its highly figurative character allows. 
 
 After publishing this in the Christian Alliance; I received the fol- 
 lowing communication, with which I am happy to strengthen the 
 position taken : 
 
 " Dear Sir, — In your article on the communion service, in argu- 
 ing against a change in the elements, in consequence of the consecra- 
 tion, you remark, ' Our Saviour does not even ask God's blessing oa 
 
THE COMMUNION OFFICE. 
 
 105 
 
 consequence of any act of consecration, we, receiving 
 them, may be able to receive the body and blood of 
 Christ; no employing them theatrically to make a 
 
 Uio bread and wine, but merely blesses God for them ;' you also say, 
 iluTc is 'no consecrating the elements by invoking the Holy Ghost 
 upon them.' In a note you consider the consistency of 1 Cor. x. 16, 
 ' The cup of blessing which we bless ' with this view, and ask whether 
 it would not be admissible to render the passage thus, 'The cup of 
 blessmg on the receiving of which we render thanks and bless God.' 
 
 ■I think you have presented the true view of the passage; and 
 1 ilo not doubt that it will gratify you to be assured that others who 
 li 111 no argumentative end to gain have taken substantially the same 
 \ II 'w before you. For it will thus be rendered evident that you have 
 M il resorted to an evasion to escape a difficulty, but have followed 
 \'. hat the most eminent interpreters regard as the true sense of the 
 p:is,sage. 
 
 'To evince that this is so, I make the following quotation from 
 Uloomfield, an eminent critic and commentator, and now Lord Bishop 
 111 London, and, of course, a thorough Episcopalian. 
 
 "' The cup of blessing.' This is best explained as put for 'the 
 cup for, or over which, we give thanks to God,' and it is supposed to 
 have been a popular phrase to denote the encharist, and adopted from 
 what was called the cup of blessing at the paschal feast. ' Which we 
 bless,' is exegetical of ' the cup of blessing,' and, according to the 
 Ttwst eminent interpreters ancient and modern, is put for, ' on account of 
 which we give thanks to God.' So far Bloomfield. 
 
 " Here then, according to the most eminent interpreters, ancient 
 and modern, there is giving thanks to God, on account of the cup, but 
 no blessing of the cup — no consecration of the wine. 
 
 "It may also interest you and your readers to know Bloomfield's 
 opinion of Matt. xxvi. 26 — -translated in our version, 'He took bread 
 and blessed it, and brake it.' He declares that the common text is 
 not correct, and ought to be so altered as to agree with Luke xxii. 19, 
 and 1 Cor. xi. 24 ; i. e., instead of tvXoY>iaag it should read iv^raQimti- 
 aag. In this way no translation is possible except ' he took the bread 
 and having given thanks, he brake it.' He has accordingly so 
 changed the text, and says in his note, 'It is not easy to imagine 
 stronger authority of manuscripts, versions, fathers, and early edi- 
 tions, than that which exists for this reading, instead of the common 
 one.' 
 
 "'From the term ev/aQiaTtjaag, the rite afterwards took its name, 
 i. e. eucharist, especially as the service was a sacrifice of praise and 
 thanksgiving.' He then refers to the universal custom of the Jews 
 of givnng thanks to God, before the reception of any food, as illustrat- 
 ing the giving of thanks in this case. 
 
 " Nor is this all. Philologists of the greatest authority assign to 
 fnAoyfjooc, which occurs in Mark xiv. 22, the same sense as to tv/oQin- 
 Ttjnag, (i. e., gave thanks,) in the other passages, as may be seen by 
 any one who will consult Schleusner's and Wahl's Lexicons, and 
 Eoseimiuller's and Kuinoel's Commentaries. Indeed, the same word 
 
106 
 
 THE COMMUNION OFFICE. 
 
 memorial service before God ; no offering them to God 
 in the manner of a sacrifice ; and no pronouncing them 
 " Ao/y," or in any sense mr/sterioii.s. In short, so far 
 as this part of the service is concerned, it would not be 
 easy to make it more unlike the scriptural account of 
 the supper. 
 
 Whatever this service may mean, therefore, it 
 teaches something which the Scriptures do not teach. 
 That something I have already affirmed to be a spir- 
 itual presence in the elements. As this, however, will 
 be denied, it seems proper to give more particular 
 attention to it. But let it not be forgotten that I have 
 proved the service to be thoroughly tmscripiural, so 
 that whatever it teaches, it does not teach scriptural 
 truth. The very least that can be said against it is, 
 that where heartily received, it prevents the mind 
 from embracing the doctrine of -the ordinance in its 
 
 tvXoyvoag, is used in Mark vi. 41, where Christ gave thanks before 
 breaking and distributing the loaves and fishes. Here surely was no 
 sacramental consecration, and change of bread and fish. So in Mark 
 viii. 7, the same word is used to denote giving thanks before distrib- 
 uting a few small fishes. Here is simply thanksgiving before a com- 
 mon meal, and yet precisely the same word and form are used as 
 when describing the eucharist. 
 
 " There is, then, no reason to doubt that Kosenmuller, Bloomfield 
 and others are correct, when they say that Christ, in establishing the 
 eucharist, simply followed, on a more solemn occasion, the universal 
 Jewish practice of neither eating nor drinking anything at any meal, 
 till they had first give?i thanks to God. 
 
 " I could with ease multiply authorities to sustain Bloomfield's 
 views of 1 Cor. x. 16, but I forbear. 
 
 " I am thus particular in sustaining your views, because I regard 
 this as a point of great moment. It proves that Christ had no more 
 design to act on or to change the bread and the wine in the eucha- 
 rist, than we have to act on or change our food in a common meal, 
 when for it we give thanks to God. There is no more mystery in one 
 case than in the other. 
 
 The design of Christ was simply to give thanks to God, on a most 
 solemn and affecting occasion, and nothing more or less. Thus is all 
 transabstantiation, consubstantiation, and spiritual or mystical pres- 
 ence in the elements, cut up by the roots, and an intelligent, grateful 
 commemoration of the death of Christ alone remains." 
 
THE COMMUNION OFFICE. 
 
 107 
 
 simplicity ; suggests to it the idea of a sacrifice ; fills 
 it with confused ideas of some mysterious supernatural 
 energy acting through the elements ; puts it on a blind 
 chase after something not distinctly defined, and thus 
 prepares it to embrace just such view as the current 
 superstition of the hour, or especially as the general 
 teaching of Episcopalian divines, may be thought to 
 sanction. 
 
 And now to the proof that the service does teach a 
 spiritual presence in the elements. I think it more than 
 probable^ from the plain import of the words them- 
 selves, that they were intended to teach such a doc- 
 trine. To my mind they very clearly convey such an 
 idea ; for they not only invoke the power of the Holy 
 Ghost upon the elements, but they also assign a 
 descent of the Spirit upon them, as the means of pre- 
 paring them for conveying the body and blood of 
 Christ to the communicant. Observe the force of 
 the words, " Vouchsafe to bless and sanctify with thy 
 Word and Holy Spirit, these thy gifts, and creatures 
 of bread and wine," — for what purpose? — '■'■that we, 
 receiving them," <fec., "may be partakers of his most 
 blessed body and blood." The necessary inference is, 
 that the Holy Ghost, commg down upon the elements 
 at the time of consecration, makes them the chamiels 
 of conveying, supernaturally, the body and blood of 
 Christ ; and that, without this mingling of the Spirit 
 with them, or mysterious change wrought in them by 
 the Spirit, they would not answer their intended end 
 in the sacrament. I Imow not what other meaning 
 can fairly be drawn out of the words. 
 
 We shall be helped in settling the truth of this inter- 
 pretation, by refering to the recorded opinions of the 
 reformers, and other leading English divmes. If they 
 held the notion of a spiritual presence in the elements. 
 
108 
 
 THE COMMUNION OFFICE. 
 
 we may conclude that the obvious sense which we 
 have seen lying upon the face of those words is past 
 all doubt the true one. 
 
 Our evangelical writers have laid much stress on 
 the fact that the English reformers speak strongly 
 against the Roman doctrine of a carnal or corporal 
 presence. Within the last two or three years, I have 
 been often struck with the circumstance that, in con- 
 tending against the Roman doctrine, they almost inva- 
 riably use either the word "carnal" or "corporal."* 
 I might fill an octavo volume with sentences of this 
 kind ; and I invite the reader's attention particularly 
 to this fact, and also to another fact bearing directly 
 on the point in hand, namely, that they seldom start 
 an objection to a spiritual presence in the elements. 
 A spiritual presence seems Avith them to have been the 
 scriptural antithesis to the carnal presence of the 
 Romanists. All admit that it is Romish to hold the 
 corporal presence of Christ in the elements. It would 
 be difficult, I apprehend, to show that it is less essen- 
 tially Romish, or rather, I should say, less essentially 
 heretical, to hold that the spiritual nature of Christ is 
 joined with the elements. "Any view," says a distin- 
 guished writer, " is to be rejected, which involves the 
 idea of a descent into the elements;" and I may add 
 that any view is especially to be avoided, which 
 involves the idea that this descent is effected by 
 the consecrating prayer of the minister ; that when 
 
 * Cardwell, in his Hist, of Conferences, &c., p, 383, states that 
 when the rubric, explaining the reason for kneeling to receive the 
 Lord's supper, was restored in the reign of Charles II., instead of the 
 words, " Any real and essential presence there being of Christ's natural 
 flesh and blood," it was made to read, " Any corporal presence," &c. ; 
 thus showing that while there was a readiness to commit the church 
 against any corporal presence, there was no disposition to condemn 
 the notion of a " real and essential presence," even " of Christ's natural 
 flesh and blood." 
 
THE COMMUNION OFFICE. 
 
 109 
 
 the prayer is said over the bread and wine, the 
 Spirit," in the language of another, "descends and 
 lights upon them." Here is where a large portion of 
 the English divines and their imitators stumble. This 
 is essentia! error. It puts the Spirit, in a sense, at the 
 disposal of the priest, and clothes the divine nature of 
 the Son of God, not indeed as the Romanist does, in a 
 fleshly, but, what is equally erroneous, in a vegeta- 
 ble garment. So that if there is not present "God 
 manifest in the Jlesh,^' there is God clothed in another 
 form of matter, which amounts to the same thing. In 
 both cases alike there is present the divine Saviour 
 clad in an earthly garment, and in the one case, as in 
 the other, entitled to divine worship. With what pro- 
 priety those who take this view can condemn the Ro- 
 manist for adoring the host, I cannot see. 
 
 It avails nothing to object that this view does not 
 involve the opus operatum idea, since the receiving of 
 Christ is altogether conditional, depending on the faith 
 of the believer ; for then it amounts simply to this, — 
 that the elements being charged with a divine essence, 
 as the jar of the experimenter is charged with elec- 
 tricity, convey, by themselves, spiritual influences, and 
 impart spiritual graces, to such as have spiritual affini- 
 ties for the divine gift conveyed. It is a physical idea 
 throughout, representing believers and unbelievers as 
 receiving or not receiving the divine Spirit, conveyed 
 along with the elements, just as conducting and non- 
 conducting bodies receive or decline the electric fluid 
 when brought in contact with a body containing it. 
 
 But it is time to ascertain whether the English re- 
 formers and others did hold this view of a spiritual 
 presence in the elements, and also a spiritual change 
 in the elements. 
 
 10 
 
110 
 
 THE COMMUNION OFFICE. 
 
 Bishop Ridley, whose mind contributed not a little 
 to give a cast to this reformation, says : 
 
 "Always my protestation reserved, I answer thus: 
 that in the sacrament is a certain change, in that that 
 bread which was before common bread, is now made 
 a lively presentation of Christ's body, and not only a 
 figure, but elfectuously representeth his body ; that 
 even as the mortal body was nourished by that visible 
 bread, so is the internal soul fed with the heavenly 
 food of Christ's body, which the eyes of faith see, as 
 the bodily eyes see only bread. Such a sacramental 
 mutation I grant to be in the bread and wine, xoh'tch 
 truly is no small change, but such a change as no mor- 
 tal man can make, but only that omnipotence of Christ's 
 word." * 
 
 Bishop Overall. ^'^That we, receiving these, thy 
 creatures of bread and ivine, &c., may be partakers of 
 his blessed body atid blood. Together with the hal- 
 loived elements of bread and toitie, we may receive the 
 body and blood of Christ, which are truly exhibited in 
 this sacrament, the one as well as the other." "It is 
 confessed by all divines, [that is, the English divines,] 
 that iipon the words of the consecration, the body and 
 blood of Christ are really and substantially present, and 
 so exhibited and given to all who receive them ; and all 
 this is not after a physical and sensual, but after a 
 heavenly and incomprehensible manner. These holy 
 mysteries were the spiritual food of the most precious 
 body and blood," &c. "Before consecration, we call 
 them God's creatures of bread and wine ; now we do 
 so no more after consecration ; wherein we have the 
 advantage of the church of Rome, who call them still 
 creatures in their very mass, after consecration."! 
 
 * "Works, p. 274. 
 
 t Notes to the Book of Common Prayer. 
 
THE COMMUNION OFFICE. 
 
 Ill 
 
 Bishop Bramhall. "Having viewed all your strength 
 with a single eye, I find not one of your arguments that 
 comes home to transubstantiation, but only to a true 
 and real presence; which no genuine son of the church 
 of England did ever deny, no, nor your adversary him- 
 self Christ said, 'This is my body;' what he said we 
 do most steadfastly believe. He said not after this or 
 that manner, neque con, nequc snh, nequa trans^* 
 
 Bishop Cosins. "As far as we openly profess, with 
 St. Bernard, that the presence of the body of Christ in 
 the sacrament, [by the expression ' in the sacrament,' 
 these writers almost invariably mean, in the elements,] 
 is spiritual, and, therefore, true and real, and with the 
 same Bernard, and all the ancients, we deny that the 
 body of Christ is carnally either present or given."! 
 
 Bishop Sparrow. "The words are pronounced 
 by the lips of the priest, but the elements are conse- 
 crated by the power and grace of Christ." % 
 
 Hooker. " This bread hath in it more than our eyes 
 behold; this cup, hallowed with solemn benediction, 
 availeth to the endless life and welfare of soul and 
 body," <fcc. * * * * " What these elements are 
 in themselves, it skilleth not."§ Again, "5y blessing 
 visible elements, it [the ministry] maketh them invisi- 
 ble graces." 
 
 Bishop Taylor. " The Doctrine of the Church of 
 England, and generally of the protestants, in this arti- 
 cle, is, that after the minister of the holy mysteries hath 
 rightly prayed, and blessed or consecrated the bread 
 and wine, the symbols become changed into the body 
 and blood of Christ, after a sacramental, that is, in a 
 spiritual, real manner." || Again, " When the holy 
 
 * Works, p. 15. t History of Transubstantiation, p. 53. 
 
 X Rationale upon the Common Prayer. 
 
 ^ Ecc. Pol. Book, vol. vi., p. 67. || Real Presence, vol. ix., p. 424. 
 
112 
 
 THE COMMUNION OFFICE. 
 
 man stands at the table of blessing, and ministers the 
 rite of consecration, then do as the angels do, who be- 
 hold, and love, and wonder, that the Son of God should 
 become food to the souls of his servants ; that he who 
 cannot suffer any change or lessening should he broken 
 into pieces, and enter into the body to support and 
 nourish the spirit." * Again, "Have mercy upon us, 
 O heavenly Father, according to thy glorious mercies 
 and promises, send thy Holy Ghost upon our hearts, 
 and let him also descend upon these gifts, that by his 
 good, his holy, his glorious presence, he may sanctify 
 and enlighten our hearts, and he may bless and sanc- 
 tify these gifts. 
 
 "That this bread may become the holy body of 
 Christ. Amen. 
 
 "And this chalice may become the life-giving blood 
 of Christ. Amen."t 
 
 Bishop Ken. " I believe, O crucitied Lord, that the 
 bread which we break, in the celebration of the holy 
 mysteries, is the communication of thy body, and 
 the cup of blessing which we bless, is the communica- 
 tion of thy blood, and that thou dost as effectually and 
 really convey thy body and blood to our souls, by the 
 bread and wine, as thou didst thy Holy Spirit by thy 
 breath to thy disciples, for which all love, all glory be 
 to \heo."% 
 
 Wheatley. "In these words of the consecration 
 prayer, ' Hear us, O merciful Father,' &c., the sense 
 of the former is still implied, and consequently, by 
 these, the elements are now consecrated, and so become 
 the body and blood of our Saviour." 
 
 Perhaps these extracts are extended too far already. 
 
 * Holy Living, vol. iv., p. 269. 
 
 t Office for the Holy Communion, vol. xv., p. 299. 
 
 % Exposition of the Church Catechism. 
 
THE COMMUNION OFFICE. 
 
 113 
 
 I might extend them much further. If they have any 
 definite meaning, it is one in harmony with the con- 
 struction I have put upon the communion office. They 
 teach — and affirm the teaching to be that of the Eng- 
 lish church — that in the act of consecration by the 
 priest, there occurs what Ridley calls " a certain 
 change" and mutation f that this change is "spir- 
 itual," and " iticomprehensible" in opposition to the 
 one contended for by the Romanists, which is physi- 
 cal and " carnal ;" that this cliange is " into the body 
 (I lid blood of Christ" and is '•'•true" and '■'■real;" that, 
 \\\ consequence of the elements having "become" thus 
 really changed, they really '•'•convey" to the believer the 
 body and blood of Christ. This is exactly the teaching 
 which lies upon the face of our communion office, and 
 since it turns out to be the current teaching of such 
 leading divines as have at different periods chiefly 
 controlled the English church, the writer thinks it 
 would be subversive of the rules of fair interpreta- 
 tion, to give it any other than its most obvious mean- 
 ing.* 
 
 I have extended this chapter to a considerable length, 
 because it is one of the vital points in the discussion. 
 The dramatic character of the communion service, 
 strengthens very essentially, in my mind, the force of 
 the above objections; but this belongs to the philo- 
 sophical branch of my subject, and I forego the imme- 
 diate advantage to be derived from it here, for the 
 purpose of preserving the order of the subjects. The 
 
 * Beside the doctrinal objection to this office here urged, it is often 
 made a subject of complaint by clergymen, in feeble health, on ac- 
 count of its great length, and the peculiar construction of its sen- 
 tences. These, it is said, make its recitation more exhausting to the 
 lungs than any other part of a clergyman's duty. How strange, that 
 ministers will chafe and gall their necks with a yoke which God 
 never required them to wear ! 
 
 10* 
 
114 
 
 THE COMMUNION OFFICE. 
 
 reader may be reminded here, that as the argument is 
 cumulative throughout, he can only judge fairly of the 
 force of its particular branches, when he shall have 
 seen the whole, and surveyed their united as well as 
 separate bearings. 
 
115 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 THE BAPTISMAL OFFICE. 
 
 There are few evangelical men in our church whc 
 •will not confess, that, if their own personal wishes could 
 be attained, they would have a few words altered in the 
 baptismal office. This is, indeed, regarded commonly 
 as the most exceptionable part of the prayer-book. 
 Still the attempt has very generally been made to bend 
 its strong language into conformity with the truth ; to 
 press it into unison with the enmaciations of an evan- 
 gelical faith. With what success will appear, I hope, 
 before I reach the end of this chapter. 
 
 As a help for ascertaining the meaning of this office, 
 I may draw the reader's attention once more to the 
 opinions of the reformers. 
 
 The first question needing to be settled is this : Is 
 there any evidence for believing that the leading re- 
 formers thought the baptismal water was so changed 
 or sanctified by the Holy Ghost, as to be capable of 
 effecting somethiiag in the soul which it could not effect 
 in its natural state ? Having proved the same thing in 
 regard to the bread and wine in the supper, I need not 
 lumber these pages with a large amount of testimony. 
 Let the language of Jewel be taken as a specimen 
 under this head : 
 
 " St. Chrysostom saith: ' Plain or bare water work- 
 eth not in us ; but when it hath received the grace of 
 the Holy Ghost, it washeth away our sins.' So saith 
 St. Ambrose, also : ' The Holy Ghost cometh down and 
 hallo weth the water ;' and ' there is the presence of the 
 Trinity.' So saith St. Cyril: 'As water thoroughly 
 
116 
 
 THE BAPTISMAL OFFICE. 
 
 heated with fire burneth as well as the fire, so the 
 waters that wash the body of him that is baptized 
 are changed into divine power by the working of the 
 Holy Ghost.' So saith St. Leo, some time bishop of 
 Rome : ' Christ hath given like preeminence to the 
 water of baptism as he gave to his mother for that 
 power of the Highest, and that overshadowing of the 
 Holy Ghost, which brought to pass that Mary should 
 bring forth the Saviour of the world, and hath also 
 brought to pass that the water should bear anew, or 
 regenerate him that helieveth? Such opinion had the 
 ancient learned fathers, and such reverent words they 
 used when they entreated of the sacraments. For it 
 is not man, but God, which worketh by them." — Of 
 Sacraments, (Tracts of the Anglican Fathers,) p. 72. 
 
 I invite particular attention to the words quoted 
 above from Cyril, — "As water thoroughly heated 
 with fire burneth as well as the fire, so the waters that 
 wash the body of him that is baptized are changed 
 into divine power by the working of the Holy Ghost," 
 — that is, so as to do the same thing in the soul which 
 the Holy Ghost does, just as water heated with fire 
 does the same as fire does. 
 
 The next proper question is, Did the reformers be- 
 lieve that in, by, or through baptism, the soul is 
 cleansed, purged, regenerated, new-created 1 Take the 
 following from Cranmer as a sample : 
 
 "And the second birth is by the water of baptism, 
 which Paul called the bath of regeneration, because 
 our siiis be forgiven us in baptism, and the Holy Ghost 
 is poured into us as into God's beloved children, so thai, 
 by the potver and working of the Holy Ghost, we be 
 born again, spiritually, and made new creatures. And 
 so, by baptism, we enter into the kingdom of God, and 
 are saved forever, if we continue, to our lives' end, in 
 
THE BAPTISMAL OFFICE. 
 
 iir 
 
 the faith of Christ." — Of Baptism, (Tracts of the An- 
 glican Fathers,) p. 1. 
 
 And the following from Dr. Lancelot Ridley: 
 "Here (Ephesians v. 26) is showed how Christ 
 hath purged his church truly in the fountain of water, 
 by his word, although God, of his mere mercy and 
 goodness, without all man's deserts or merits, only for 
 Christ's sake, hath washed and purged man from sin ; 
 yet he tiseth a mean, by the which lie cleanseth man 
 from sin, which is baptism, in water, by the toord of 
 God ; and so, in baptism, are our sins taken away, and 
 we from sin purged, cleansed, and regenerated in a 
 nerv man, to live an holy life, according to the Spirit 
 and will of God." — Commentary on the Ephesians, in 
 Richmond's Fathers of the English Church, ii. 
 
 Cranmer's words are, the reader will observe, "Our 
 sins are forgiven us in baptism, and the Holy Ghost is 
 poured into ns and that " we be born again, spirit- 
 ually, and made new creatures." Ridley's are, that 
 baptism is a " mean by the which God cleanseth man 
 from sinf and that we are in baptism, '•'•purged, 
 cleansed, regenerated^ With these strong words in 
 mind, from men who contributed not a little to form 
 that mass of public opinion amid which the prayer- 
 book had its birth, and one of whom was in fact the 
 presiding spirit in its formation, let us turn to the bap- 
 tismal office. 
 
 The first thing that strikes the mind in this office 
 is the strong phraseology peculiar to the period in 
 which it had its origin. It speaks the language of 
 Cranmer, and Ridley, and Jewel ; does it mean what 
 they so evidently meant when they lased similar lan- 
 guage? The presumption certainly is, that it does. 
 But let us take its words in our hands, as it were, and 
 handle them, and see if we can draw any other mean- 
 
118 
 
 THE BAPTISMAL OFFICE. 
 
 ing from them than that baptism effects a spiritual 
 change in the soul. 
 
 On the very threshold of the office, we meet these 
 words : " And by the baptism of thy well beloved Son, 
 Jesus Christ, in the river Jordan, didst sanctify water 
 to tlie mystical washing away of sin;'' and in a subse- 
 quent part of the service, ^'sanctify this water to the 
 mystical washing aivay of sin;" words which cannot 
 fairly be construed to mean anything else than the gen- 
 eral idea conveyed in the strong passages which Jewel 
 quotes with approbation from the fathers, and which 
 evidently imply that the water is, in some mysterious, 
 supernatural way, endowed by the Holy Ghost with 
 poioer to wash aioay sin ; for it is immediately added, 
 "and grant that this child, now to be baptized therein, 
 [in this water, thus sanctified for the mystical wash- 
 ing away of sin,] may receive the fulness of thy 
 grace." 
 
 This office, then, teaches some kind of a change in 
 the water, as the communion office does in the bread and 
 wine. Does it also agree with the reformers in teaching 
 the other doctrine spoken of above, namely, a spiritual 
 change or renovation of the soul effected in baptism ? 
 I think it does. The following seems to me very much 
 to this point. " We call upon thee for this infant, that 
 he, coming to thy holy baptism, may receive remission 
 of sin, by spiritual regeneration," — "spiritual," not 
 ecclesiastical, regeneration. And again : " Give thy 
 Holy Spirit to this infant, that he may be born again, 
 and made an heir of everlasting salvation." To re- 
 ceive the "Holy Spirit," and to "be born again" in 
 baptism, in such a way as to be " made an heir of 
 everlasting salvation," is certainly to receive all the 
 spiritual change one is capable of, and all that can 
 be needed. The same in their general import are these 
 
THE BAPTISMAL OFFICE. 
 
 119 
 
 words : " O merciful God, grant that the old Adam in 
 this child matj be so buried that the neio mmi may be 
 raised up in him. Grant that all sinful affections may 
 die in himy " Seeing now, dearly deloved brethren, 
 that this child is regenerate, and grafted into the body 
 of Christ's church." And again: "We yield thee 
 hearty thanks, most merciful Father, that it hath 
 pleased thee to regenerate this infant with thy Holy 
 Spirit, to receive him for thine oxvn child, and to incor- 
 porate him into thy holy church. And humbly we 
 beseech thee to grant, that he, bei?ig dead nnto sifi, and 
 living unto righteousness, and beirig buried ivith Christ 
 in his death, may crucify the old man, and utterly 
 abolish the whole body of sin ; and that as he is made 
 partaker of the death of thy Son, he may also be par- 
 taker of his resurrection," &c. 
 
 It is not my purpose to enter upon any scriptural 
 argument to show that infants are not "really regen- 
 erated by a change of their moral nature, in baptism, 
 as its source, or cause, or instrument;" for this, says 
 the Rev. Mr. Butler, in his " Common Prayer Inter- 
 preted," does "overthrow all the statements of scrip- 
 ture." It is admitted, almost universally, among 
 evangelical churchmen, that such a view of baptism is 
 not true, wherever found. All I need to do, therefore, 
 — for I am not writing to convince Romanists or trac- 
 tarians, — is to show that such is the teaching of the 
 baptismal office. 
 
 And now, can the strong passages I have cited mean 
 merely an outward change? It does appear to me 
 that, to say so, is to set at naught all the help to be 
 derived from a knowledge of what the framers of the 
 liturgy believed, and practically to avow the impossi- 
 bility of expressing an inward moral change of the 
 soul by any language whatever. For how is it possi- 
 
120 
 
 THE BAPTISMAL OFFICE. 
 
 ble to find stronger language than has been quoted 
 above 1 First, there is the prayer that the water may- 
 be sanctified to the mystical washing away of sin; 
 then, that the child, being baptized therein, may re- 
 ceive the fulness of God's grace; then, that, coming to 
 baptism^ it may not only receive "remission of sin," 
 but "spiritual regeneration;" that it may be "born 
 again," and "made an heir of everlasting salvation;" 
 that the " old Adam may be buried in him," and that 
 all "sinful aflfections may die in him," &c. Such things 
 are prayed for. And after the child is baptized, the 
 people are told that it is "regenerated," and grafted 
 into the church ; and God is also thanked that he has 
 been pleased to "regenerate"''' the child by his " Holy 
 Spirit,'''' and to adopt him as his "own child." In 
 the same prayer, it is also affirmed, that the child is 
 now "dead unto sin," and buried with Christ in his 
 death. 
 
 It is almost unnecessary to say that no words can 
 more fully express the idea of a " change of the moral 
 nature" effected "in baptism." It is plain that the 
 interpretation of this service, which makes it mean a 
 mere "change of state," is lame at every point. To 
 the mind of one who should read the service for the 
 first time, knowing nothing of the controversies re- 
 specting it, the thought could not be even suggested. 
 Burnet, in describing the Savoy Conference, speaks of 
 the changes in the liturgy demanded by the presbyte- 
 rians, and after referring to other alterations insisted 
 on, he says, " They excepted to many parts of the 
 office of baptism that import the inward regeneration 
 of all that were baptized." * The passage is particu- 
 larly valuable in this connection, as embodying Bur- 
 
 * His Own Times, vol. i., p. 180. 
 
THE BAPTISMAL OFFICE. 
 
 121 
 
 net's testimony to the fact that several parts of the 
 baptismal office do import an "inward regeneration;" 
 and this testimony is the more valuable as it is alto- 
 gether incidental. He speaks of such a sense as if 
 it were then everywhere taken for granted, as if no 
 other had been thought of And although I do not 
 affirm it, — for I have not sufficiently examined the 
 point, — yet my belief is, that all Episcopalian writers, 
 before Burnet's time, understood this office to teach a 
 spiritual change of the soul in baptism. I observe that 
 in bishop Brownell's Commentary on the prayer-book, 
 his quotations from earlier authors give it this interpre- 
 tation, while his citations from writers of our own time 
 generally adopt the notion of a mere "admission into 
 the christian church, the kingdom of Christ existing in 
 a two-fold state — on earth and in heaven." Should I 
 prove to be right in regard to the modern origin of this 
 latter interpretation, any person who will point me to 
 the author who first broached it, will confer a special 
 favor. 
 
 In answer to the objection that the word "regenera- 
 tion" means only an outward grafting into the church, 
 it is scarcely necessary to say one syllable ; because, 
 in the first place, the opposite is plain from the ex- 
 pression, " regenerated and grafted into the church," 
 showing that regenerating and grafting are two differ- 
 ent things; and, in the second place, there is not, in 
 this office, a mere using of the word "regenerate;" but 
 all the other strong terms, implying a moral change of 
 the soul, are also employed. 
 
 To the views here urged it is objected, that, as the 
 Scriptures speak of the visible church as holy because it 
 is so by profession, so the prayer-book addresses adult 
 candidates for baptism as if they really possessed what 
 they profess to have, and of infants as regenerated be- 
 ll 
 
122 
 
 THE BAPTISMAL OFFICE. 
 
 cause they are so by consecration and profession. But 
 the same remark is again apphcable, that the word 
 regeneration is not used alone. It is backed up with 
 all the strong phrases which denote an inward change. 
 The subjects of baptism are said not only to be regen- 
 erated, but to have the Holy Spirit given to them, to 
 be born again, to be made heirs of everlasting salva- 
 tion, to be received as the children of God by adoption, 
 to have the old Adam buried in them, to have all sinful 
 affections die in them, to have the new man raised up 
 in them, to be buried with Christ in his death, to be 
 dead unto sin, to be made partakers of the death of the 
 Son of God. 
 
 Moreover, the prayer-book not only takes it for 
 granted that adult persons receiving baptism actually 
 possess what they profess to have, but it represents 
 that possession as conferred by baptism ; and in this 
 consists the heresy. 
 
 To show that this is so, I remark, in the first place, 
 that the introductory exhortation addressed to the con- 
 gregation is constructed entirely on the supposition 
 that the persons coming to be baptized are in a state 
 of nature. For the congregation are first told that per- 
 sons "in the flesh cannot please God, but live in sin," 
 &c. ; and they are then called upon to pray that God 
 would " grant these persons that which by nature they 
 cannot have," and which, of coui'se, they have not 
 now; and " that they may be baptized with water and 
 the Holy Ghost, and received into Christ's church, 
 and" — by being so baptized and so received — "be 
 made lively members of the same." Then, to confirm 
 the idea, already conveyed, that they are yet "in the 
 flesh," a prayer is offered that "they, coming to holy 
 baptism, may receive remission of tlieir sins, and spir- 
 itual regeneration, — implying that their sins had not 
 
THE BAPTISMAL OFFICE. 
 
 123 
 
 been previously remitted, and that they had not before 
 experienced spiritual regeneration. And in another 
 prayer which follows, we find this language: "Give 
 thy Holy Spirit to these persons, that they maybe born 
 again, and be made heirs of everlasting salvation." 
 
 How can it be pretended that the language of the 
 prayer-book is framed on the supposition that the re- 
 generating grace is bestowed before baptism? It is 
 framed on the supposition that the regenerating grace 
 is bestowed at, in, by, and through baptism, as the 
 above quotations fully show. 
 
 But this is not all. Before the baptismal water is 
 used, the minister addresses the candidates thus : 
 "Well-beloved, who are come hither desiring to re- 
 ceive holy baptism, ye have heard how the congrega- 
 tion hath prayed, that our Lord Jesus Christ would 
 vouchsafe to receive you and bless you, to release yon 
 of you?- sins" &c. Here is the prominent idea still 
 before the mind. The candidates are not yet released 
 from their sins, not yet regenerated, not yet made the 
 children of God, and heirs of the kingdom. They are 
 waiting before God, ready to receive "one baptism 
 for the remission of sins." 
 
 And then, the moment water is applied, see how the 
 whole language is changed. They are now no longer 
 waiting for the blessing of regeneration and remission, 
 — they have received it. Noiv, "these persons are 
 regenerate;" they are ^^now born again, made heirs 
 of everlasting salvation;" for such is the language 
 which follows. " 
 
 It only remains to be said that the olfering of a prayer 
 of consecration over the baptismal water is, as in the 
 case of consecrating the bread and wine in the other 
 sacrament, entirely unscriptural. This, however, is, if 
 possible, a more glaring departure from scripture than 
 
124 
 
 THE BAPTISMAL OFFICE. 
 
 the other ; for there is no passage of the word of truth 
 which can be construed even into an apparent sanction 
 of such an act. It is a practice derived from the Ro- 
 man church, and not from the Bible ; from the notion 
 that water thus becomes endowed by the Spirit with 
 power to wash away sin, and not from any just views 
 of this christian rite. It is a practice which it is high 
 time our church laid aside. Stretching the hands over 
 the water, frequently dipping them into the water, and 
 calling upon God to sanctify it to the mystical washing 
 away of sin, has too much the appearance of heathen 
 incantation, to be tolerated in a protestant church. I 
 invite any person to point to the paosage of scripture 
 which directly, or even remotely, sanctions such a prac- 
 tice. 
 
125 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 THE CATECHISM. 
 
 The teaching of our catechism is in complete har- 
 mony with that of the baptismal office. It starts with 
 putting into the mouth of the child a declaration of the 
 same general character with the strong passages I have 
 quoted from that service. "Who gave you this 
 name?" "My sponsors in baptism, wherein I was 
 made a member of Christy a child of God, and an in- 
 heritor of the kingdom of heavenP Being made a 
 member of Christ must mean one of two things. It 
 either implies, as bishop Doane affirms, that the church 
 is Christ, so that the being made a member of one is 
 the same thing as being made a member of the other, 
 or that there is effected in baptism an immediate spir- 
 itual joining to Christ, beside the outward joining to 
 the church. Either interpretation gives the passage 
 the strongest sense it is capable of receiving. " Child 
 of God," is also as strong an expression as our lan- 
 guage admits. All allow that one in whom a spir- 
 itual change has not been effected, is, though baptized, 
 a child of the devil, and not a "child of God." Hence 
 the language is either false, or it implies that a spirit- 
 ual change is wrought in baptism. 
 
 " How many sacraments hath Christ ordained in his 
 church?" 
 
 " Two only, as generally necessary to salvation." 
 
 The peculiar phraseology of this answer is generally 
 overlooked. It always carried to my mind the force 
 of the declaration, that though Christ has established 
 several sacraments in his church, yet he has estab- 
 II* 
 
126 
 
 THE CATECHISM. 
 
 lished but two as generally necessary to salvation. Let 
 the order of the sentence be changed, and the meaning 
 will be more apparent, thus — '-As generally necessary 
 to salvation, two only." There is not the shadow of 
 a doubt in my mind that such a meaning was intended 
 by the compilers of the liturgy. It is in exact harmony 
 with the teaching of the homilies, as adduced in the 
 third chapter of part first. Matrimony is there called 
 a sacrament ; and it is contended that there are other 
 sacraments beside baptism and the Lord's supper, but 
 it is said they are not such sacraments as these ; that 
 is, we may presume, they are unlike these in not being 
 necessary to salvation, as well as in other particulars. 
 Bishop Taylor, one of the greatest, if not the very 
 greatest man the English church ever produced, takes 
 the same view. In a passage already quoted, he says : 
 "It is none of the doctrine of the church of England, 
 that there are two sacraments only ; but that those rit- 
 uals commanded in scripture, which the ecclesiastical 
 use calls sacraments, (by a word of art,) two only are 
 generally necessary to salvation." 
 
 " What meanest thou by this word sacrament? " 
 
 "I mean an outward and visible sign of an inward 
 and spiritual grace given unto us ; ordained by Christ 
 himself, as a means whereby we receive the same, and 
 a pledge to assure us thereof" 
 
 " How many parts are there in a sacrament ?" 
 
 "Two; the outward visible sign, and the inward 
 spiritual grace." 
 
 " What is the outward visible sign or form in bap- 
 tism?" 
 
 "Water; wherein the person is baptized," &c. 
 "What is the inward and spiritual grace?" 
 " A death unto sin, and a new birth unto righteous- 
 ness." 
 
THE CATECHISM. 
 
 It will be observed here, that the first assertion 
 above declares a sacrament to be merely " an out- 
 ward and visible sign." Thus far, I presume, no one 
 would attempt to convict the catechism of error. 
 Baptism is, undoubtedly, an outward sign — a sign of 
 something inward and spiritual, — not the inward and 
 spiritual thi?ig itself, but the sign of it ; for if, in the 
 language of bishop Eastburn, " the sign becomes the 
 thing which it signifies, where is the sign?" 
 
 But the catechism, I am sorry to say, does not rest 
 here. It proceeds, as the reader will see from the 
 above extracts, to contradict its own simple definition 
 of a sacrament. Having pronoimced a sacrament to 
 be an outward and visible sign of an inward and 
 unseen grace, it proceeds at once to say that it is both 
 the sign and the thing signified. One of these defini- 
 tions must be incorrect. If a sacrament is correctly 
 defined to be a sign of grace, then it cannot be the sign 
 and the grace both. If it be true that it is both the 
 sign and the grace, then it is not correct to define it as 
 merely an outward sign of inward grace. 
 
 It is very evident that the last definition of a sacra- 
 ment was the one which was intended to be adopted, 
 and the one, in fact, which is in harmony with the 
 introductory sentences of the catechism ; and it cannot 
 escape the reader's notice that it presents a sacrament 
 in a light as strong as any tractarian can desire ; for, 
 if a sacrament consist of the sign and the grace, then 
 there is no perfect sacrament where the " inward and 
 spiritual grace" is not conveyed; that is to say, there 
 is no baptism, unless " hereby spiritual regeneration 
 is effected. 
 
 Besides, if baptism consist of both the outward sign 
 and the inward grace, then the inward grace, or spir- 
 itual renovation, is as necessarily a part of baptism as 
 
128 
 
 THE CATECHISM. 
 
 the outward sign ; and our evangelical men who inter- 
 pret the strong language of the baptismal service as 
 meaning no more than an outward change, not only 
 overlook the well-known opinions of the compilers of 
 the liturgy, but subvert the very nature of a sacra- 
 ment, robbing it of its most important part, namely, its 
 internal grace. They are doing a work similar to that 
 of the philosopher who should declare that the soul is 
 not an essential part of man ; for if the sacrament be 
 composed of the "outward form" and the "spiritual 
 grace," the latter is as much more important than the 
 former, as the soul of man is more important than his 
 body, and as much more essential to the being of a 
 sacrament, as the soul is more essential than the body 
 to the being of man. 
 
 So far as the sacraments are concerned, the dividing 
 line between truth and error is now, I think, fairly 
 under the eye of the reader, and he is brought to a 
 point where he must decide for himself, whether a 
 sacrament is composed of " two parts," or of only one ; 
 whether it is merely an outward sign, or whether in 
 its essential nature it includes both the sign and the 
 thing signified.* If he decide in favor of the first defi- 
 
 * The true protestant idea of a sacrament, as I conceive, is, that it 
 is a simple rite, symbolizing a great truth. The Koman idea is, that 
 it is a mysterious instrument, which, in the hands of a divinely-com- 
 missioned priest, works miraculous and supernatural changes in the 
 soul. The former idea necessarily confines its nature to a unit, 
 making it consist of but one part, — a simple symbol or " sign " of 
 what God does in the soul ; the latter gives it a dual character, mak- 
 ing it mysteriously enfold and convey the inner grace along with 
 the outer sign. Hence the sign becomes not only the means whereby 
 the inner grace is received, but when it is set as a signet upon the 
 brow, it stands there as " a pledge to assure us " that the grace is 
 received. This whole question in dispute, therefore, may be made to 
 turn on the question whether a sacrament has two parts or but one. 
 
 It has been objected that any duty in which a christian can engage 
 — such as prayer, for example — has two parts — the outward form, 
 and the blessing attending it. The criticism is a trifling one ; but it 
 has been made, and I answer it by saying, that, in the case of the 
 
THE CATECHISM. 
 
 129 
 
 nition, then he rejects the opinion of our reformers, sets 
 aside our baptismal office and catechism, and in view 
 of the teaching of these^ subverts the nature of a sacra- 
 ment. If he take the latter definition, namely, that a 
 sacrament has two parts, he puts himself into har- 
 mony with the offices of his church, to be sure, but he 
 virtually joins hands with the supporters of tractarian 
 views, and gives his support to the first principle of a 
 merely sacramental theology. He must take his 
 choice — either embrace the views of the offices and 
 catechism, and be a tractarian; or admit that the 
 prayer-book teaches error, and, rejecting its teaching, 
 embrace such protestant doctrines as he finds revealed 
 in the word of God. 
 
 sacrament, the "inward and spiritual grace" is supposed to be apart 
 of the sacrament itself, and to be conveyed to the soul in the adminis- 
 tration of the sacrament ; whereas, in the other case, prayer comes 
 from the soul and ascends to God, while the answering grace is from 
 God, and descends upon the soul. Prayer and the answer of prayer 
 are distinct and separate things, and cannot be two parts of the same 
 thing. 
 
130 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 OFFICE FOR THE BURIAL OF THE DEAD. 
 
 The first rubric which stands at the begiimiiig of 
 this service reads thus : " Here is to be noted, that the 
 oifice ensuing is not to be used for any unbaptized 
 adults, any who die excommunicate, or who have laid 
 violent hands upon themselves." 
 
 The observing reader will see in this rubric a recog- 
 nition of the same general principle which runs 
 through the office of baptism and the catechism. It 
 implies that baptism, being the cause, or instrument 
 of spiritual regeneration, is to be taken as the only 
 evidence of christian character, or of the state of 
 regeneration and adoption. For why are all, except 
 the baptized, excluded from christian burial, unless for 
 the reason that no others are christians 1 
 
 That such is a true inference appears very plain 
 from the passages of scripture, expressive of christian 
 triumph, with which the service opens ; passages most 
 beautifully adapted to the occasion of committing the 
 body of the true believer to the ground, but shockingly 
 inappropriate and revolting when used at the burial 
 of a baptized drunkard or infidel. But our church 
 makes no distinction. At the grave of the one, as at ' 
 the grave of the other, she bids her ministers repeat in 
 triumph, " I am the resurrection and the life, saith the 
 Lord ; he that believeth in me, though he were dead, 
 yet shall he live ; and whosoever liveth and believeth 
 in me, shall never die." I know a person may quib- 
 ble, and say there is no positive declaration that the 
 departed, over whom the language is pronounced, is a 
 
OFFICE FOR THE BURIAL OF THE DEAD. 131 
 
 believer in Jesus, and "shall never die;" but I should 
 not en-vy that person his clearness of perception, to 
 whose mind such a meaning was not obviously con- 
 veyed by the whole scope of the service ; or the fair- 
 ness of one, who, perceiving this obvious meaning, 
 should attempt to evade it in the way just named.* 
 
 This general sentiment, of which I have spoken, is 
 particularly apparent in the latter part of the service. 
 " Forasmuch as it hath pleased Almighty God, in his 
 wise providence, to take out of this world the soul of 
 our deceased brother, we therefore commit his body to 
 the ground; earth to earth, ashes to ashes, dust to 
 dust ; looking for the general resurrection in the last 
 day, and the life of the world to come, through our 
 Lord Jesus Christ ; at whose second coming in glori- 
 ous majesty to judge the world, the earth and the sea 
 shall give up their dead ; and the corruptible bodies 
 of those who sleep in him shall be changed, and 
 made like unto his glorious body; according to the 
 mighty working whereby he is able to subdue all 
 things unto himself." " I heard a voice from heaven, 
 saying unto me, Write, from henceforth blessed are the 
 dead who die in the Lord ; even so saith the Spirit ; 
 for they rest from their labors." " Almighty God, 
 with whom do live the spirits of those who depart 
 hence in the Lord ; and with whom the souls of the 
 faithful, after they are delivered from the burden of 
 the flesh, are in joy and felicity ; we give thee hearty 
 
 * Calamy reports that the celebrated Dr. Tillotson having frankly 
 owned in a sermon, that the dissenters had some plausible objections 
 against the common prayer, archbishop Bancroft sent for him to 
 reprimand him. The doctor stood to what he had asserted. The 
 archbishop asked him what parts of the common prayer he meant. 
 He mentioned the burial service. Upon which the archbishop owned 
 to him, that he was so little satisfied with that office himself, that for 
 that very reason he had never taken a cure of souls. — Vol. i., 
 p. 226. 
 
132 OFFICE FOR THE BURIAL OF THE DEAD. 
 
 thanks for the good example of all those thy servants, 
 who, having finished their course in faith, do now rest 
 from their labors." " O merciful God, the Father of 
 our Lord Jesus Christ, who is the resurrection and the 
 life ; in whom whosoever believeth shall live, though 
 he die, and whosoever liveth and believeth in him 
 shall not die eternally, who also hath taught us, by 
 his holy apostle, St. Paul, not to be sorry, as men with- 
 out hope, for those who sleep i?i him," &c. 
 
 That all these sublime exultations, thanksgivings, 
 and ascriptions of praise, should be employed in a gen- 
 eral way, and with no reference to the person com- 
 mitted to the ground, is not to be supposed. They 
 have no meaning, unless they are applicable to the 
 occasions on which they are used. And as our church 
 uses them all at the burial of every baptized person, 
 forbidding their use at the interment of every nnbap- 
 tized individual, the inference seems quite clear, that 
 she regards all baptized persons, not excommunicated, 
 nor destroyed by their own hands, as having " finished 
 their course in faith," as dying "in the Lord," and 
 bids us, in their case, " not to be sorry as men without 
 hope." In short, it is a complete carrying out of the 
 teachings of the baptismal service and the catechism ; 
 for since, according to these, men are, in baptism, 
 "born again" by "spiritual regeneration," made tlie 
 "children of God," and "heirs of the kingdom of 
 heaven;" the burial office but finishes the system, by 
 sending them to heaven when they die, without dis- 
 tinction. 
 
133 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 ORDINATION OFFICE. 
 
 It is well known that those who entertain the high 
 views of the sacraments which we have seen to be put 
 forth by the framers of our offices, usually urge ex- 
 traordinary claims in behalf of ministerial power and 
 authority. The exaltation of the sacraments has ever 
 been the immediate causal antecedent of the lifting up 
 of the clerical powers and claims. This, however, is 
 a philosophical view of the subject, which falls into a 
 subsequent part of this work, and which I can use 
 here only as a connecting link with which to preserve 
 imbroken the chain of my argument, and to fasten 
 those parts of the prayer-book which bring to view the 
 functions and powers of the ministry, to those just 
 considered, which unfold the alleged nature and effi- 
 cacy of the sacraments. 
 
 It is plain that the English reformers entertained 
 extravagant opinions respecting the powers of the 
 christian ministry. Hooker, in his great work, has 
 embodied this extravagance thus : " The power of the 
 ministry of God translateth out of darkness into glory ; 
 it raiseth man from the earth, and bringeth God him- 
 self from heaven; [that is, as the context shows, it 
 brings Christ down from heaven, and joins him to the 
 elements of bread and wine;] by blessing visible ele- 
 ments, it maketh them invisible graces ; it giveth daily 
 the Holy Ghost ; it hath to dispose of that flesh which 
 was giveti for the life of the world, and the blood ivhich 
 was poured out to redeem souls ; when it poureth male- 
 dictions vpoti the heads of the wicked, they perish; 
 12 
 
134 
 
 ORDINATION OFFICE. 
 
 %t)he7i it revokeih the same, they revived Extravagant 
 as this language is, it is no more so than the view 
 of the sacraments presented in the prayer-book will 
 justify. For, if the ministry, by invoking the power 
 of the Holy Ghost upon the bread and wine, can so 
 change them, "that" we may receive the body and 
 blood of Christ by " 7-eceiving them;" if the clergy 
 have the command of the Spirit, so as at all times, 
 whether in a holy or an miholy frame of mind, to pro- 
 cure such a consecration of water that it shall mysti- 
 cally wash away sin ; if they hold in their hands the 
 keys of the kingdom in such a sense that by admin- 
 istering baptism they may admit whomsoever they 
 will, making them " members of Christ," "children of 
 God," and "heirs of the kingdom of heaven," com- 
 mitting all such to the ground when they die, in a joy- 
 ful looking for the resurrection from the dead, — at the 
 same time excluding all unbaptized persons from 
 christian burial, as though nothing save the water 
 ihey had consecrated could wash away sin, and fit the 
 soul for heaven ; — if such things may be done by the 
 ministry, then Hooker is right in saying, "It trans- 
 late th out of darkness into glory," and " raise th man 
 from the earth ;" then he cannot be far out of the way 
 when he says, those " perish" upon whom "it poureth 
 maledictions," and "revive" when "it revoketh the 
 same." And then, especially, the reader will be pre- 
 pared to listen without surprise to the language of the 
 bishop, when, in the act of ordination, he lays his 
 hands upon the head of the person to be ordained, and 
 says, " Receive the Holy Ghost for the office and 
 work of a priest in the church of God, now committed 
 unto thee by the imposition of our hands ; whose sins 
 thou dost forgive, they are forgiven ; and whose sins 
 thou dost retain, they are retained," 
 
ORDINATION OFFICE. 
 
 135 
 
 This is certainly in harmony with what has gone 
 before. If the 'presbyter can consecrate water so that 
 it shall wash away sin ; if he can bring down Christ 
 from heaven, and so mysteriously mix his spiritual 
 nature with bread and wine as to change " visible ele- 
 ments" into "invisible graces," — it is surely no mar- 
 vel that the bishop can give "the Holy Ghost" to 
 whom he will, even though he use the imperative 
 word — " receive." If the presbyter " hath to dispose 
 of that flesh which was given for the life of the 
 world," it is not strange that the bishop may have the 
 Holy Ghost to dispose of with equal freedom. We 
 are obliged, therefore, to regard the teaching of the 
 ordination office as a faithful carrying out, or more 
 properly, a genuine development, of the high sacra- 
 mental views which lie just behind it in the com- 
 munion, baptismal, and burial offices, and in the cate- 
 chism. However little of gospel truth there may be, 
 therefore, in this part of the ordination office, and 
 however little light it may throw upon any sound sys- 
 tem of christian theology, it throws backward a con- 
 siderable amount of interpretative light, so to speak, 
 upon the portions of the prayer-book already consid- 
 ered ; and under the guidance of this light, the reader 
 is requested to rim his thoughts back over the argu- 
 ments adduced in favor of the strong and obvious 
 sense put upon those parts of the common prayer. 
 When this is done, he will be ready for the inquiry, 
 Avhether the portion of the ordinal quoted above 
 can be otherwise regarded than as expressive of an 
 unsound and dangerous assumption of episcopal 
 power. 
 
 The words of the ordinal, to which objection is now 
 made, are the same with those used by our Saviour 
 to his disciples, when he came suddenly to them. 
 
136 
 
 ORDINATION OFFICE. 
 
 and, breathing on them, said, " Receive ye the Holy 
 Ghost," &c.* 
 
 The inquiry Avhich here naturally springs to the 
 mind is. Did our Lord intend this as an act of ordina- 
 tion ? Of course it would not become me to say he 
 did not. Yet to my mind, there are certainly very 
 reasonable doubts hanging over the question. If it 
 were an ordination, the apostles who were ordained 
 did not appear conscious of the fact ; for when Thomas 
 came in, they had nothing to say to him of any ordi- 
 nation, but merely told him they had seen the Lord. 
 Moreover, if the apostles then received their ministe- 
 rial commission, it does not appear that Thomas was 
 ordained, for he was absent, and there is no account 
 of his being ordained at any other time. 
 
 But if there is no evidence that this was an ordina- 
 tion, then it is certainly incongruous, to say the least, 
 to take words which were employed on another occa- 
 sion, and for another purpose, and use them in an 
 ordination service as the formula for expressing the 
 conveyance of the ministerial commission. 
 
 At all events, whatever was the object of this par- 
 ticular act, it is evident that Christ alone has power to 
 bestow the Holy Ghost. I object to this part of the 
 service, then, on three grounds. 1. There is no evi- 
 dence that this was an ordination, and it is therefore 
 improper to use these words on such an occasion. 2. 
 Granting it to be an ordination, it then follows that 
 the bishops ought to breathe upon those whom they 
 ordain, and omit all those words in the ordinal not 
 used by Christ, in order to make their imitation of him 
 at all consistent. 3. It is the next thing to blasphemy, 
 to attempt to imitate Christ in the bestowment of the 
 
 * John XX. 22, 23. 
 
ORDINATION OFFICE. 
 
 137 
 
 Holy Ghost, whatever the particular significance of 
 the act he performed when he found the disciples 
 alone. 
 
 There are three senses in which the words, " Whose 
 soever sins ye remit, they are remitted," &c., may be 
 understood. First, the absolute sense, which implies 
 the full power to forgive sins — a power which practi- 
 cally embodies itself in the phrase — "I absolve thee 
 from all thy sins." Of course, no person could be 
 invested with this power, unless he were endowed 
 with the gift of discerning spirits. Speaking of what 
 our Lord said to his disciples, Matthew Henry remarks, 
 — "In the strict sense, this is a special commission to 
 the apostles themselves, and the first preachers of the 
 gospel, who could distinguish who were in the gall of 
 bitterness and bond of iniquity, and who were not. 
 By virtue of this power, Peter struck Ananias and 
 Sapphira dead, and Paul struck Elymas blind." 
 Secondly, these words may have the more general 
 meaning, that the ministers of the gospel are author- 
 ized to declare to every man, that if he repents, his 
 sins are forgiven, and if he does not repent, that his 
 sins are retained and treasured up against him. 
 Thirdly, they may mean that all penitent persons 
 whom the apostles should admit into church fellow- 
 ship, on gospel terms, God would admit into fellowship 
 with himself 
 
 If the first of these senses is true at all, it is of 
 course true only of the apostles and early heralds of 
 the gospel, or those of them who were not only 
 endowed with the general gifts of the Spirit, but with 
 the special gift of the " discerning of spirits."* The 
 second and the third, then, are the only senses in 
 
 * 1 Cor. xii. 10. 
 
 12* 
 
138 
 
 ORDINATION OFFICE. 
 
 which they can be apphcable to ministers at the pres- 
 ent day ; and hence they can be unobjectionable only 
 when separated from the words which imply some 
 miraculous gift of the Spirit. To use them in connec- 
 tion with the words — "Receive ye the Holy Ghost," 
 is to give them the sense which the Roman Catholic 
 attaches to them, and to expose those who thus 
 employ them to the just rebuke and censure of a 
 protestant community. 
 
139 
 
 CHAPTER Vn. 
 
 THE DECLARATION OF ABSOLUTION. 
 
 In close doctrinal alliance with the ordination office, 
 stands " The declaration of absolution or remission of 
 sins." The latter is but an attempted arrangement for 
 a constant exercise of the power said to be conferred in 
 ordination. The presbyter, having been told at his 
 ordination that he has the power of forgiving sins, 
 finds here, prepared to his hands, a formula of words, 
 in which he is to exercise this extraordinary function ; 
 and accordingly he rises from his knees, at the end of 
 the first prayer or general confession, — the people re- 
 maining in the kneeling posture, — and says — "Al- 
 mighty God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who 
 desireth not the death of a sinner, but rather that he 
 may turn from his wickedness and live, hath given 
 POWER and commandment to his ministers to declare and 
 pronounce to his people, being penitent, the absolution 
 and remission of their sins." 
 
 In order to meet fairly and honestly the logical se- 
 quence of this annunciation, he ought now to go on 
 and say — I, therefore, in obedience to this "com- 
 mand," and in virtue of this "power," do "declare 
 and pronounce" a full remission and absolution of all 
 your sins, — so that yau are hereby entirely acquitted 
 in the sight of God. But instead of this straight-for- 
 ward acceptance of an inference fairly flowing from 
 the premises annoimced, he is made to shrink away in 
 a cowardly manner, and to take up the mere christian 
 truism, that God "pardoneth and absolveth all those 
 who truly repent, and unfeignedly believe his holy 
 
140 THE DECLARATION OF ABSOLUTION. 
 
 gospel ;" and to turn the whole thing almost into a 
 burlesque, by beginning to exhort the people, " Let us 
 beseech him to grant us true repentance, and his Holy- 
 Spirit." &c. 
 
 This declaration of absolution appears to be fairlj'' 
 exposed to several objections. 
 
 1. The first objection is, that the introductory lan- 
 guage is too strong. It implies a power of absolving 
 from sin more absolute than any man can possess who 
 is not endowed with the gift of discerning spirits ; and 
 as that gift has not been bestowed since apostolic times, 
 the language is inadmissible. 
 
 2. In the second place, it is illogical, as I have shown 
 above, — compelling the minister to shrink from the 
 fair conclusion of his own premises, and, instead of 
 exercising his asserted right to absolve, to declare 
 merely what any christian in the assembly might de- 
 clare, namely, that God forgives the sins of penitent 
 persons. 
 
 3. The third objection to this form of absolution is, 
 that the minister having been first compelled to an- 
 nounce his power to declare and pronounce absolution, 
 and God's command^^ that he should do so, and then 
 having disap})o'mted the naturally excited expectation 
 in the minds of the people that he is about to exercise 
 the consoling power upon them, — he is obliged still 
 further to confuse them, by abruptly bringing them 
 back upon an equality with himself, and exhorting 
 them to join with him in mutual prayer, that God 
 would bestow upon them both, what he had just de- 
 clared himself empowered and commanded to pro- 
 nounce upon them, namely, absolution from sin. 
 
 4. The next objection to this part of the service is, 
 that it is not what it professes to be ; that is, it is not a 
 declaration of absolution. In the words of bishop 
 
THE DECLARATION OF ABSOLUTION. 
 
 141 
 
 White, " Although it affirms a certain authority in the 
 speaker, he is not made to exercise the authority on 
 those before him, however possessed of necessary requi- 
 sites." He rises from his knees, and in a formal man- 
 ner makes known his authority to do a certain thing, 
 but, notwithstanding the expectation he has raised, 
 does not do it ; and when he gets through, he may be 
 said to have declared and pronounced his authority — 
 nothing more. 
 
 5. Another, and, if possible, a more serious objection 
 to this part of the service, is, that it bears so strikingly 
 the marks and lineaments of that Janus-faced policy 
 which smiles in one direction upon Romanists, and in 
 another upon protestants. I showed, in a former chap- 
 ter, that the English reformation was conducted, in 
 part, on the compromise principle ; and here we have 
 an example of an attempt to preserve that "external" 
 papal "face of things," of which Burnet speaks, 
 which was supposed to have so potent an influence 
 "to draw the people more entirely into the reforma- 
 tion ;" with the general impression, we presume, that 
 as they "are apt to judge," as he further states, "in 
 things of ignorance, by outward appearances more 
 than by the real vahie of things ; so the jjreserving an 
 exterior, that looked somewhat like what they had been 
 formerly accustomed to, had a great effect at first on 
 m,any persons, who, without that, could not have been 
 easily brouglU over to adhere to the work." The call- 
 ing this part of the service a "declaration of absolu- 
 tion, or remission of sins," together with the minister's 
 rising up, and announcing that God has given him 
 power to declare and pronounce absolution and remis- 
 sion, would all have to the minds of the people the 
 "external face" and appearance of that to which 
 " they had been formerly accustomed," that is to Ro- 
 
142 
 
 THE DECLARATION OF ABSOLUTION. 
 
 manism itself; while the illogical and abrupt slide into 
 something bearing no resemblance to an exercise of the 
 power of absolution, would avail to satisfy the con- 
 sciences of many protestants. The whole aspect of the 
 thing admirably illustrates the remark, as already 
 quoted, of the bishops belonging to the commission ap- 
 pointed by Charles II. to revise the liturgy, namely, 
 " It was the wisdom of our reformers to draw up such 
 a liturgy as neither Romanist nor protestant could well 
 except against." * 
 
 At quite an early period, there began to appear in 
 the christian church a disposition to dramatize the 
 several parts of christian worship ; that is, to embody 
 certain general hints thrown out in the Scriptures in 
 specific formulas, and to repeat them before the con- 
 gregation, accompanying them with theatrical acts and 
 gesticulations, intended to illustrate and give them sig- 
 nificance. To this general tendency, the other form 
 of absolution, which is precatory in its nature, owes its 
 origin. Christ had given to his ministers the authority 
 to declare in general terms the forgiveness of all who 
 should receive the gospel, repent of sins, and live a 
 holy life ; and the authority, too, to tell any individual 
 man who inquired the way of salvation, that, on the 
 condition of repentance and faith, he' should be for- 
 given. But the early church, not contented with any 
 general exercise of the power, attempted, in its drama- 
 tizing zeal, as often as each recurrence of divine wor- 
 ship, formally to act- it out, and in a way which was 
 never, we may presume, intended by our Lord. 
 
 Possibly, indeed not unlikely, the desire to make the 
 sinner dependent on the ministry for salvation, to shut 
 him up to the necessity of receiving divine grace 
 
 * Dr. Cardwell's Hist, of Coaferences, &c., p. 338. 
 
THE DECLARATION OF ABSOLUTION. 143 
 
 through that channel, to lay him prostrate at the feet 
 of the priesthood as an humble beggar for admission 
 into the kingdom of heaven, may have had something 
 to do with the attempt to give particular form., and 
 regularly recurring 'prominence to an alleged absolving 
 power. Certain it is that it is well fitted to encourage 
 the worst forms of spiritual despotism. 
 
 The word "priest," as it occurs in the rubric which 
 precedes the first form of absolution, is worthy of some 
 attention. It evidently throws some light on the gen- 
 eral design and intent of this part of the service. This 
 was, at the Savoy conference, substituted in the place 
 of "minister." The Presbyterian divines who at- 
 tended the conference requested, — a very reasonable 
 request, — that the word minister might be used 
 throughout the book of common prayer. But the bish- 
 ops said there were some ofiices which a deacon might 
 not perform, "particularly the absolution and conse- 
 cration," and that it was necessary to preserve the 
 word priest to distinguish the powers of the two orders. 
 They, therefore, not only refused to make the request- 
 ed alteration, but struck the word minister out of this 
 rubric, and inserted the word priest. It cannot be 
 pleaded, therefore, that the word is here used care- 
 lessly, and is intended to mean no more than minister. 
 It is avowedly employed to signify that higher grade 
 of the clergy who have the power to consecrate, that 
 is, to consecrate bread and wine, to make them "holy ;" 
 who have the power, in the language of Hooker, " to 
 bring down God from heaven;" — that is, the God- 
 man, Christ, — and so to mingle his nature with the 
 bread and wine, that the "visible elements" shall be- 
 come "invisible graces;" who have the power, there- 
 fore, to make a sacrifice in the eucharist, and who are 
 priests in the true primary sense of the term. 
 
H4 THE DECLARATION OP ABSOLUTION. 
 
 Besides, as they are called priests here in order to 
 distinguish them from the order of deacons, and to ex- 
 clude the deacon from the right of pronouncing abso- 
 lution, it follows that the absolving power here set 
 forth is intended to be something more absolute than a 
 general proclamation of pardon through faith ; for this, 
 a deacon might make as well as a priest. That is to 
 say, the deacon may declare from the pulpit that God 
 will forgive every penitent sinner; but he may not 
 pronounce this absolution from the desk ; therefore this 
 declaration is understood by our church to be some- 
 thing more than any such general declaration. Of this 
 view of the subject I have never seen even an attempt- 
 ed answer. 
 
145 
 
 CHAPTER Vm. 
 
 THE CALENDAR. 
 
 The chapter on the homiUes created, when pubhshed 
 in the Christian Alhance, a considerable feeling ; and 
 much of this feeling arose, as I have reason to believe, 
 from the exposure there made of a full recognition in 
 the homilies of the apocrypha as a part of the inspired 
 Scriptures. It was clear that such a recognition was 
 there ; and it was equally clear, of course, that it was 
 not put there by the writer of these pages. He was 
 blamed, therefore, for exposing that recognition ; that 
 is, for publishing a fact, a fact which is not denied, and 
 which cannot be denied. 
 
 It has been denied, however, that our church, in its 
 higher standard, namely, the prayer-book, makes any 
 such recognition. It has been said that, "in the worst 
 aspect of the case, it would appear that the church has 
 declared, by her most authoritative standard, that the 
 apocrypha is not, and by a standard of lower author- 
 ity, that it is, a part of the canon of Scripture." 
 
 Were I to grant the truth of this remark, it would 
 only help me to establish the main position at which I 
 aim throughout these pages, namely, that our church is 
 inconsistent with itself, — that it is not everywhere clear 
 and distinct in its enunciations of truth — that it min- 
 gles with its shining protestant gold a hurtful and de- 
 basing alloy of Romanism. 
 
 But even this cannot be admitted. The apocrypha 
 is recognized as a part of "holy Scripture" by the 
 "higher authority," also, namely, the prayer-book. 
 13 
 
146 
 
 THE CALENDAR. 
 
 The rubric which stands before the calendar of lessons 
 for the year, reads thus : " The order how the rest of 
 the holy Scripture is appointed to be read." Under 
 this general designation of "holy Scripture," I find no 
 less than eighteen lessons selected from the apocrypha. 
 In the best aspect of the case, therefore, our church 
 recognizes the apocrypha as "holy Scripture" in the 
 prayer-book and homilies, and denies it to be such in 
 the articles.* 
 
 Now, it is well known that these apocryphal lessons 
 in the calendar were one of the prominent grounds of 
 the puritan protest. They have not stood there, like 
 obsolete laws upon the statute book, which do neither 
 good nor harm, because nobody knows anything about 
 them. For more than a hundred years, the attention 
 of the English church was continually drawn to them 
 by an unceasing protest. They were known to be the 
 means of bringing much scandal upon the church, and 
 to be the occasion of driving many excellent men out 
 of it. And yet there they stood, labelled " holy Scrip- 
 ture," and sanctioned as such by the prayer-book, the 
 church's "most authoritative standard." 
 
 It would be difficult to conjecture why these lessons 
 were not thrown out of the calendar at the revision of 
 the prayer-book by the Protestant Episcopal church 
 in this country. That was a favorable opportunity 
 for clearing itself of a reproach justly resting upon it. 
 Such an amendment might have been easily made. 
 Nothing was needed but to drop a few spurious lessons 
 out of the calendar, and to insert a few in their place 
 taken from what is in truth " holy Scripture." Who 
 can tell why it was not done ? Nay, who can tell why 
 it hgs not been done since 7 why a single session of the 
 
 * The articles, 5 need hardly say, are separate things from the 
 prayer-book ; though bound up with it, they make no part of it. 
 
THE CALENDAR. 
 
 147 
 
 general convention is allowed to pass without the 
 needed correction ? While these lessons remain, does 
 not our church stand before the christian world in a 
 very equivocal position, to say the least? 
 
 Regard tliis matter as lightly as men will ; treat this 
 exposure with as much severity as they please ; the 
 protestantism of no church will or can pass current 
 and unsuspected, while it reckons the apocrypha as a 
 part of God's word. 
 
148 
 
 PART IV. 
 THE PHILOSOPHICAL ARGUMENT. 
 
 CERTAIN rSAGES SAKCTIONED AND USED BY THE EPISCOPAL 
 CHURCHES OF ENGLAND AND AMERICA, WHICH NECESSA- 
 "RILY, ON PHILOSOPHICAL PRINCIPLES, BEGET ROMISH VIEWS, 
 AND ROMISH FEELINGS. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 USAGES WHICH IMPLY AND TEACH FALSE DOCTRINE. 
 
 The general subject announced above as the topic 
 of discussion in this part of the Work, very naturally 
 divides itself into two parts ; the first of which em- 
 braces all those usages, employed by our church, 
 which teach, by implication, any of the false doctrines 
 of Rome ; the second, comprehending those which do 
 not teach or imply false doctrine, but which, from 
 their resemblance to Roman practices, and the asso- 
 ciations connected with them, do beget superstitious 
 and Romish feelings — thus preparing the icay for 
 false doctrine. 
 
 It is scarcely necessary to say that the argument in 
 this chapter, and the one to follow it, is based on the 
 principle that drapery, arrangement, signs, actions, 
 have a language of their own, and frequently convey 
 a meaning as distinct and impressive as the best 
 chosen words. This principle involves the philosophy 
 of language, and lies at the basis of all methods of 
 communicating thought. Words have no inherent 
 capacity to express thought. They have just that 
 meaning which usage and common consent have 
 
USAGES WHICH IMPLY AND TEACH FALSE DOCTRINE. 149 
 
 attached to them, and no other. Had men so decided, 
 there is no reason why a motion of the finger should 
 not have signified the flesh of cattle, as well as the 
 word beef Indeed, one part of our fellow-creatures 
 are entirely dependent upon signs for the communica- 
 tion of their thoughts. Every person, too, has heard 
 of the theatrical entertainment called pantomime, in 
 which the whole plot and intention of the piece is 
 mifolded by gesticulation, without the use of words. 
 And, indeed, the popularity of all dramatic perform- 
 ances depends more upon drapery and action, than 
 upon the words repeated. Even children understand 
 the philosophy of signs, as every teacher of youth can 
 testify, who has had his best efforts for order defeated 
 by electric communications across the schoolroom. 
 Near the beginning of our service, the minister rises 
 up, and by his " outward gesture" and manner repre- 
 sents an exercise of an alleged absolving power ; and 
 actions are so well understood to have a rnsaning, as 
 well as words, that, although there is really no abso- 
 lution pronounced, the people have, for two hundred 
 years, let it pass as a regular absolution. 
 
 Preparatory to a fair appreciation of the following 
 line of argument, the reader is requested to observe 
 that several of the usages which fall under these two 
 branches of the subject would not, perhaps, if consid- 
 ered singly and alone, be particularly worthy of repre- 
 hension. It is only when viewed in connection with 
 each other, and as having a consentient voice and aim, 
 that they become dangerous whisperers of Roman 
 falsehood in the ears of the people. It will be, there- 
 fore, an act of egregious unfairness, when I broach one 
 of the least important of these usages, to turn upon me, 
 and say I am magnifying trifles. They might be 
 trifles considered alone ; but a multiplication of just 
 13* 
 
150 USAGES WHICH IMPLY AND TEACH FALSE DOCTRINE. 
 
 such trifles constitutes the paraphernalia of tractarian- 
 ism, and their further multiplication completes the 
 drapery of Romanism itself. A comma, standing 
 alone on a plain sheet of paper, is a thing of very little 
 significance ; but place it in a row of figures, in the 
 arrangement of units and decimals, and it becomes a 
 character of very great importance. 
 
 Desks and Pulpits. 
 
 Nearly all the usages which imply and teach false 
 doctrine bear with more or less directness upon the 
 nature and efficacy of the sacraments, or upon the 
 office and powers of the ministry. On these two. 
 points especially, the sacraments and the ministry, the 
 English reformers failed to rid themselves of papal 
 error. The separation of the pulpit and the desk ; the 
 instructing the people from one, and the offering the 
 prayers from the other, is of itself strongly presump- 
 tive evidence that they retained erroneous notions of 
 the ministerial character. Why does not the minister 
 pray and preach from the same desk or pulpit ? Does 
 God hear him better from the desk, and the people 
 catch the sound of his voice more perfectly from the 
 pulpit? Is this mode more convenient than Avorship- 
 ping and teaching in one and the same place ? Not at 
 all. The reason lies deeper than either of these con- 
 siderations. As our reformers held wrong notions of 
 the sacraments, so they entertained erroneous opinions 
 of the ministry. When our ritual was arranged, they 
 had not abandoned the idea of a priesthood in the 
 church of God, — a class of men not only authorized 
 to teach the people, but to offer sacrifices to Jehovah, 
 and especially to be the medium of offering to God the 
 sacrifice of the people's prayers and praises. They 
 regarded the clergy as a kind of mediators between 
 
USAGES WHICH IMPLY AND TEACH FALSE DOCTRINE. 151 
 
 God and men ; in other words, they beheved in what 
 bishop Whittingham calls a "ministerial intervention 
 for the forgiveness of sin." They looked upon the 
 clergy as having a double office to perform, — that of 
 teaching the people, and of offering to God sacrifices 
 in their behalf And one of the most natural modes 
 of expressing this double idea, was the double arrange- 
 ment of the clergyman's arena of public duty. Hav- 
 ing oftered the prayers of the people as a priest, it was 
 natural that he should take another position from 
 which to instruct them as a teacher. This double 
 character of the ministry; — its character as a body of 
 .teachers, which is scriptural and consequently true, 
 and its character as a body of sacrificers, which is 
 unscriptural and consequently false; — is not only sug- 
 gested, but, to a philosophical mind, plainly implied, 
 in praying in the desk and preaching in the pulpit. 
 
 The Surplice. 
 
 But not to rest so grave a charge on a single fact, 
 however well it might sustain it, I urge that the idea 
 of a christian priesthood is still further implied and 
 taught by wearing the surplice. The minister not 
 only gives a significant intimation of his double char- 
 acter of priest and prophet, by praying in the desk and 
 preaching in the pulpit, but he illustrates and enforces 
 the idea still further, by appearing in these two places 
 in different dresses. White adorns him in the desk, in 
 token that he shall offer to God for the people a pure 
 sacrifice. The black gown covers him in the pulpit, it 
 being the badge of a professional teacher. It might 
 possibly be said, with some show of plausibility, that it 
 is inferring a little too much to draw the false doctrine 
 of which I speak out of a mere preaching and praying 
 in different places, provided this were a solitary fact 
 
152 USAGES WHICH IMPLY AND TEACH FALSE DOCTKINE. 
 
 Standing alone; but when, in addition to this, the 
 preacher appears in the pulpit with the scholastic 
 gown, plainly indicative of his character as a teacher, 
 and in the desk and at the communion table decked 
 with a white linen surplice, resembling, intentionally, 
 the white linen ephod of the Jewish ])riest, there can 
 be no reasonable doubt that he is supposed to possess 
 not merely the character of a teacher, but that of a 
 priest. At all events, whatever may have been the 
 intention of the compilers of our ritual, the change of 
 place in performing the different parts of clerical duty, 
 and the corresponding change of dress, do necessarily, 
 to a philosophical mind, convey such an idea ; and, in 
 searching for the causes which produce sacramentari- 
 anism, — called at the present time Puseyism, — I may 
 safely charge these usages as being fruitful sources of 
 wrong ideas in regard to the ministry. When the 
 tendency is towards a sacramental theology, of which 
 a priesthood is an essential element, it is plain that 
 these usages must have their due influence in creating 
 the doctrine of a priesthood.* 
 
 * Aside from the false teaching growing out af the use of the sur- 
 plice, a well-grounded objection has often been urged to a change from 
 one vestment to another durmg divine service. I would not press un- 
 important thmgs ; but I frankly confess it has always appeared to me 
 a frivolous trilling with God's worship, for him who conducts it to 
 break its order and solemnity, by retiring, like a stage performer, to 
 an adjoining room, to change his vestment from white to black. At 
 the moment when the minister's thoughts should be lifted into com- 
 munion with the highest and holiest contemplations, when the big and 
 overpowering convictions of his responsibilities should be pressing, 
 like mountains, upon his soul, what solemn mockery to send him away 
 into a lobby on the trifling and childish errand of getting a robe of 
 another color to show the congregation! Singing is a part of the 
 worship of God's house ; and I have yet to learn that the minister can 
 with propriety absent himself for the purpose of readjusting his per- 
 sonal habiliments, while the congregation engages in it. As well 
 might the people, while he otfers prayer, retire to brush their hair and 
 arrange their cravats, that they might present to the eyes of each 
 other a sleek and comely appearance. As things now are, the usual 
 invitation — "Let us worship God by singing," &c., should be 
 
USAGES WHICH IMPLY AND TEACH FALSE DOCTRINE. 153 
 
 I speak with the more freedom on this point, 
 because I know I am not singular in regarding the 
 surpUce as a symbohcal garment. It is so considered 
 by all Episcopalian writers, who have published any- 
 thing of consequence on the subject. It has ncf apol- 
 ogist or defender who does not regard it as designed 
 and fitted to teach something symbolically. But what 
 is it generally supposed to teach ?- This is the ques- 
 tion ; and perhaps no man is better able to answer it 
 than the learned Dr. Hopkins, the bishop of the protes- 
 tant Episcopal church in the diocese of Vermont. In 
 his work on the primitive church, having stated the 
 reason for wearing the black dress in the pulpit, he 
 says : 
 
 "The office appropriated to the desk, the font, and 
 the altar, are of a different character ; for they are 
 addressed not so inuch to men, as to Uod. To .him 
 we lift the voice of prayer, to him we raise the chant 
 of praise, to him we offer the consecrated elements, 
 and with them present our souls and bodies in the 
 eucharist. And, therefore^ the putting on a white gar- 
 ment as a preparation for these acts of worship, is 
 intended to remind us of many interesting and affect- 
 ing points in the character of our holy religion."* 
 
 changed into "You will please to worship God," &c., as the minster 
 has but very little to do with it, being engaged in the very important 
 business of changing his gowns ! 
 
 Another strange incongruity is that of the minister's kneeling, on 
 his return from the vestry, to offer silent prayer, while the congrega- 
 tion is singing. Whether it is in accordance with the apostle's injunc- 
 tion, " Let all things be done decently and in order," to have the peo- 
 ple engaged in one part of worship, and the minister in another at the 
 same time, might safely be left to the decision of the most ordinary 
 common sense. Certain it is, there is no mind which would not in- 
 stinctively shrink from the impropriety, had it not previously been 
 accustomed to the grosser incongruity of an absence from a part of 
 worship for a cliange of dress. 
 
 * Page 160. 
 
154 USAGES WHICH IMPLY AND TEACH FALSE DOCTRINE. 
 
 The bishop then goes on and states what it is intended 
 to call to mind. 
 
 "It reminds us," he says, "of the robe of Christ's 
 righteousness, the wedding garment of the Lamb of 
 God,-in which we must appear in the great day, if we 
 would obtain justification before the eternal throne." 
 
 " It reminds us that the cleansing and purifying of 
 the sinner depends on the blessed sacrifice of the 
 atonement." 
 
 "It reminds us of the future glory of the re- 
 deemed." 
 
 "It reminds us, lastly, of the frame of heart with 
 which we should approach the majesty of the eternai 
 Sovereign. As black clothing is an expressive emblem 
 of mourning and grief, so white clothing is an emblem 
 of purity and joy. And what purity should he attain 
 who is allowed to enter into the sanctuary of the God 
 of holiness — what solemn joy should he feel who is 
 permitted to offer, before the King of heaven, an 
 acceptable sacrifice of prayer and praise!'' 
 
 These statements suggest some interesting thoughts. 
 The first reason assigned for wearing the surplice is, 
 that the minister is, in the discharge of this part of his 
 duty, engaged in addressing God, and not men. So 
 are the people, in this part of the service, engaged also 
 in addressing God ; should they likewise be clad in a 
 white linen surplice? Certainly they should, if the 
 mere fact of addressing God, and not men, were a 
 sufficient reason for wearing it. " To him," says 
 bishop Hopkins, " we lift the voice of prayer." So do 
 the people. " To him we raise the chant of praise." 
 The people do the same. " To him we dedicate the 
 convert in baptism." Ah, here is the difference. The 
 dedicating of the convert's soul and body to God, as a 
 
USAGES WHICH IMPLY AND TEACH FALSE DOCTRINE. 155 
 
 living sacrifice, is made by the priest* " To him we 
 offer the consecrated elements." Here is another sac- 
 rificial act, which the people may not perform. So 
 far, then, bishop Hopkins' reasons for wearing the 
 surplice go to show that the minister wears it as a 
 badge of his priestly character. And how it can 
 remind one of the "robe of Christ's righteousness," 
 and " that the cleansing and purifying of the sinner 
 depends on this blessed sacrifice of the atonement," it 
 is not easy to see, unless it naturally associates with 
 itself the sacrificial idea. As white is appropriately 
 symbolical of "joy," bishop Hopkins thinks the min- 
 ister should wear it in token of joy at bemg permitted 
 to offer to the " King of heaven an acceptable sacri- 
 fice of prayer and praise." We must, then, infer one 
 of two things ; either that the people ought to wear it, 
 or that they do not offer the sacrifice of prayer and 
 praise. As the friends of the surplice will not pretend 
 that it ought to be worn by the people, of course they 
 must conclude that all their prayers and praises are 
 offered by the priest, and offered, too, in his priestly 
 character, so strikingly symbolized by his white Imen 
 surplice. And, indeed, this is only a consistent carry- 
 ing out of a principle announced a little before; for if 
 the priest may dedicate to God the convert, in baptism, 
 he may surely be the medium of offering the sacrifice 
 of his prayers and praises. 
 
 * By looking at Rom. xii. 1, the reader will see that St. Paul directs 
 that men should themselves present their souls and bodies to God. He 
 seems to have had no idea that a mediating priest was necessary to 
 offer them to God. God requires men to come directly to him. 
 "Give me thy heart," is his language — not, give it to the priest, that 
 he may give it to me. Religion is a personal matter. God must be 
 approached directly by every man for himself. The only mediation 
 to be thought of is that of Jesus, our great High Priest, who has 
 passed into the heavens. And yet all the arrangements of our ritual 
 which bear on this question of the ministry and the sacraments, in- 
 volve more or less clearly the idea of a ministerial intervention. 
 
156 USAGES WHICH IMPLY AND TEACH FALSE DOCTKINE, 
 
 Giving the Bread. 
 
 The Roman Catholic priest puts the wafer into the 
 mouth of the communicant. This indicates the depend- 
 ence of the latter upon the former, for an instrumental 
 or mediatorial conveyance of grace. The minister, in 
 our denomination, imitating in part the Roman priest, 
 takes the piece of bread, and places it in the hand of 
 the communicant. I object to this, on the ground that 
 it implies a ministerial power to impart grace. It sug- 
 gests the idea that the clergyman has something to 
 give, and the communicant something to receive from 
 him* It obtrudes upon the observing mind the oft- 
 recurring idea of a " ministerial invention." The 
 communicants go to the table of their Lord, to feed, not 
 to be fed by the priest ; to take the bread of life for 
 themselves, not to have it given to them by another 
 mortal. Anything is exceptionable, however appa- 
 rently trifling, which helps to place the ministry 
 between God and the soul, or which in any way 
 .obscures the idea of a direct communication with the 
 Father of spirits. The act of taking a single piece of 
 bread, and placing it in the hand of each communi- 
 cant, viewed in connection with the fact that the bread 
 has been previously consecrated and made "holy," 
 and also with the fact that it has to be done at the 
 expense of what, on other occasions, would be consid- 
 ered the plainest requirements of politeness, (for what 
 gentleman, at an ordinary meal, would think of put- 
 ting a piece of bread into the hand of another 7) is cer- 
 tainly fitted to suggest a false idea ; and who does not 
 know that the mind often receives and settles down 
 
 * It will perhaps be objected that Christ, having broken the bread, 
 gave it to his disciples ; but I ask if the ordinary method of passing 
 bread does not answer to this account as well ? 
 
USAGES WHICH IMPLY AND TEACH FALSE DOCTRINE. 157 
 
 upon principles which it learns only through sugges- 
 tions. Satan seldom broaches a falsehood in a direct 
 and open manner. If he can keep the mind quiet, and 
 familiarize it to the repeated suggestion of what is un- 
 true, he is well contented to bide his time, and wait 
 for the issue. 
 
 Arrangement of Chancels. 
 
 A priesthood would be an anomaly without an altar. 
 Hence, our reformers have not preserved one without 
 the other. The implied- idea of an altar, so plainly pre- 
 served in our ritual, seems for some time to have slept. 
 Recently, however, it has come out with new promi- 
 nence ; and has found a mute but emphatic expression, 
 in the modern arrangement of chancels. 
 
 It has become quite common to put the pulpit at 
 one end of the chancel, or near the corner of the church, 
 and the reading desk at the other.* The design of 
 this seems to be to make room for the altar. When- 
 ever a thing increases in magnitude and iVnportance, it 
 always wants more room. A mere communion-table 
 is well enough accommodated in front of the reading- 
 desk, or even behind the pulpit against the wall. -It is 
 a very unambitious, and consequently unostentatious 
 thing. It is contented with the most obscure position, 
 and is satisfied, even if not seen at all. But the mo- 
 ment it becomes an altar, on which a sacrifice is offered, 
 it ceases to be unassuming, and claims to be the most 
 important thing in the church. Then it becomes the 
 
 * By this arrangement, the minister is made to address his congre- 
 gation diagonally, or obliquely ; and it is a fact which ought to excite 
 no surprise, that where this practice is adopted, the style of presenting 
 christian doctrine often becomes similarly diagonal and oblique. For 
 when there is a desire to make the pulpit and the desk stand out of 
 the way of the altar, it is not singular that the doctrine of justification 
 by faith only should begin to give place to an alleged inherent and 
 sacramental righteousness. 
 
 14 
 
158 USAGES WHICH IMPLY AND TEACH FALSE DOCTRINE. 
 
 particular spot where God appears to meet his people, 
 and where an unbloody sacrifice is offered for their 
 sins. Then it is the visible shechinah, the local dwell- 
 ing-place of the Deity. Then it can admit of no ob- 
 scuration. It must stand in open view of the whole 
 congregation. Pulpits and reading-desks must meekly 
 retire, and be content to stand, each in a corner, against 
 the wall. 
 
 If this is not in substance the meaning of such an 
 arrangement of desks and pulpits, I must plead igno- 
 rance of what it does mean. It certainly has the ap- 
 j)earance of an attempt to give prominence and sacred- 
 ness to the table of the Lord. The pulpit and desk 
 seem to be taken out of the way that they may not 
 overshadow or obscure this intentionally prominent 
 object. 
 
 Praying towards the Table. 
 
 That part of our service called morning prayer, the 
 minister performs in the reading-desk. At the close of 
 this he usually comes out and reads the ante-commun- 
 ion service at the right-hand side of the communion- 
 table. I observe that the great majority of our clergy, 
 — the evangelical men as well as the high churchmen, 
 — stand with their faces to the people when reading 
 the commandments, the gospel and epistle, and the 
 psalms and hymns ; but turn their faces directly to the 
 communion-table during the offering of each prayer, 
 though they often stand while offering it, and are not 
 obliged to turn for the convenience of kneeling. Now 
 there is of course some reason for this. It is an act too 
 singular in its character not to mean something. 
 When a minister has read the commandments with 
 his face to the people, he certainly would not whirl 
 suddenly round to the table to offer a prayer of six 
 
USAGES WHICH IMPLY AND TEACH FALSE DOCTRINE. 159 
 
 lines in length, unless there was some special reason 
 for it. If the table be a simple table, and no more holy 
 than any other part of the church, this would certainly 
 be a very meaningless change of position; but if it be 
 an altar, a holy thing, a thing from whose awe-inspir- 
 ing presence the pulpit and the reading-desk must re- 
 tire into opposite corners ; if it be the shechinah of the 
 christian church, the place where God is locally pres- 
 ent ; then we see at once why prayer must be offered 
 in that direction. If the altar be the place where God 
 is specially present, then there is the place to address 
 him; if he be everywhere alike "in his holy temple," 
 then one would suppose the minister might as well 
 address him with his face towards the congregation as 
 towards the table. And, however unconscious clergy- 
 men may be of the fact, I venture, the opinion that 
 those who practise this significant change of position 
 arc generally prompted to it by a real, though, per- 
 haps, unconfessed feeling of reverence for the "holy 
 table," — some hidden (hidden, perhaps, from them- 
 selves) apprehension of God's peculiarly mysterious 
 manifestation there.* 
 
 Kneeling at the Communion. 
 
 ■ It has never been doubted, I believe, that at the in- 
 stitution of the supper, our Saviour and his disciples 
 reclined at the table in the same manner as when 
 
 * My readers will many of them remember how much was said in 
 the Episcopal papers respecting the Rev. Mr. Croswell, when he 
 started the new church of the Advent in this city, and read the psalter 
 and offered the prayers with his back to the people. In principle the 
 turning to the table, in the manner spoken of above, is precisely the 
 same with Mr. Croswell's practice. This has been suggested by Mr. 
 Croswell's friends, and I have heard it scouted at as though it were 
 not worthy of notice ; btit those who treat it thus scornfully would be 
 sadly puzzled to answer it — nor do I believe they would like to un- 
 dertake to show a dilference before a discriminating public. 
 
160 USAGES WHICH IMPLY AND TEACH FALSE DOCTRINE. 
 
 taking a common meal. It is scriptural, then, to take 
 this sacrament in the same position in which we re- 
 ceive our meals. 
 
 But the Roman church teaches her people that the 
 bread and wine, upon the pronouncing of the consecra- 
 tion prayer by the priest, are changed into the real 
 body and blood of Christ, and that a whole Christ, — 
 including body, soul, and divinity, — is present under 
 the outward form of bread and wine ; and hence she 
 teaches them, still further, that this Christ ought to be 
 worshipped, and that kneeling, in token of adoration, 
 is the proper position in which to receive the sacra- 
 ment. 
 
 So necessarily does this act of kneeling indicate wor- 
 ship of the elements, or rather of the Christ supposed 
 to be concealed under the elements, that the earlier re- 
 formers thought it necessary to place a rubric before 
 the communion service, declaring that, by kneeling, 
 ' ' no adoration was intended to any corporal presence 
 of Christ's natural flesh and blood." This rubric Avas 
 subsequently left out, with the view, bishop Burnet 
 says, of letting the question of Christ's corporal pres- 
 ence lie open, as an unsettled question. The rubric 
 was afterwards inserted again in the English prayer- 
 book, but it is not in ours. 
 
 It is very evident that a person may kneel to receive 
 the communion without intending or feeling any hom- 
 age towards the elements ; and of course in the breast 
 of all true protestants there is an absence of such a 
 feeling. But when there is a tendency to the exalta- 
 tion of the sacraments, the question is, whether this 
 reverential mode of receiving the bread and wine will 
 not help on the tendency ; and whether the receiving 
 of them in the usual posture of taking a common meal, 
 after the example of our Lord and his apostles, would 
 
USAGES WHICH IMPLY AND TEACH FALSE DOCTRINE. 161 
 
 not of itself go far to jtrevent any idea of a change in 
 them, by preventing the exercise of reverential feel- 
 ings towards them. I think a true philosophy will not 
 be long in deciding this question. It seems to me that 
 the feelings appropriate to be excited at the communion 
 table are joy and gratitude, not reverence and adora- 
 tion. We go to the table of the Lord, not reverentially 
 to worship, but joyfully to commemorate the glorious 
 work which Christ has done for us. The feeling of 
 reverence does not appear to be the one which the oc- 
 casion is intended te excite. The reverential posture 
 would appear, therefore, to be inappropriate. A kneel- 
 ing to take the elements certainly implies a reverential 
 feeling towards them.* 
 
 Consecrations. 
 
 When describing the manner in which the English 
 reformers set themselves to purge out the superstitious 
 practices of the church, bishop Burnet f says: 
 
 " In the search of the former offices, they found an in- 
 finite deal of superstition in the consecrations of water, 
 salt, bread, incense, candles, fire, bells, churches, im- 
 ages, altars, crosses, vessels, garments, palms, flowers ; 
 all looked like the rites of heathenism, and seemed to 
 spring from the same fountain. Wlien the water or salt 
 Avere blessed, it was^xpressed to be to this end, that they 
 might be health both to soul and body; and devils, who 
 might Avell laugh at these tricks which they had taught 
 them, were abjured not to come to any place where 
 they were sprinkled ; and the holy bread was blessed, 
 
 * One would suppose that the example of Christ and his apostles 
 would be sufficient to condemn the practice of kneeling, without any- 
 reasoning to show its evil tendency. Alas ! as this example does not 
 avail to correct the error, I fear my argument will stand but little 
 chance of producing conviction. 
 
 t Hist. Ref., vol. ii., p. 117. 
 
 14* 
 
162 USAGES WHICH IMPLY AND TEACH FALSE DOCTRINE. 
 
 to be a defence against all diseases and snares of the 
 devil ; and the holy incense, that devils might not 
 come near the smoke of it, but that all who smelled at 
 it might perceiv ; the virtue of the Holy Ghost; and 
 the ashes were blessed, so that all who were covered 
 with them might deserve to obtain the remission of 
 their sins. All these things had drawn the people to 
 such confidence in them, that they generally thought 
 without those harder terms of true hohness, they might, 
 upon such superstitious observances, be sure of heaven. 
 So all these they resolved to cast out as things which 
 had no warrant in scripture, and were vain devices to 
 draw men from a lively application to God through 
 Christ, according to the method of the gospel." 
 
 It has been already proved that the reformers enter- 
 tained a commendable resolution to dismiss all need- 
 less ceremonies, as here stated by Burnet, but that they 
 were hindered by Elizabeth from completing the work. 
 The most of these extremely superstitious consecrations 
 they did indeed put away; but they did not go to the 
 extent of banishing all that were unscriptural. Con- 
 secrating the baptismal water, we have already said, 
 has no warrant in the Bible. Consecrating the bread 
 and wine has as little. "When the water or salt were 
 blessed," says Burnet "it was expressed to be to this 
 end, that they might be health botlrto soul and body;" 
 and is not the water said, in our baptismal service, to 
 be sanctified that it may mystically wash away sin ? 
 and are not the bread and wine said to be consecrated, 
 "//m^" we, by receiving them, may receive the body 
 and blood of Christ ? So far as the blessing, the con- 
 secrating, or the sanctifying are concerned, we have 
 certainly retained the essence of the Roman super- 
 stition, — a superstition which, Burnet says, is not 
 
USAGES WHICH IMPLY AND TEACH FALSE DOCTRINE. 163 
 
 merely the offspring of heathenism, but which retains 
 the marks and evidences of its paternity. 
 
 Significant Manipulations. 
 
 The heathen origin of these consecrations appears 
 more evident when we consider the gestures and ma- 
 nipulations employed in connection with them. Much 
 of the significance of heathen rites is made to consist 
 in gesticulation. So, in performing our baptismal ser- 
 vice, many of our ministers are in the habit of spread- 
 ing their hands over the water, and some dip them into 
 it when they invoke the sanctification which is to fit it 
 for washing away sin. And in the communion ser- 
 vice, while reciting the account of the institution, the 
 direction for the minister is, " Here the priest is to take 
 the paten into his hands." "And here to break the 
 bread." "And here to lay his hands upon all the 
 bread." " Here he is to take the cup into his hands." 
 " And here he is to lay his hands upon every vessel in 
 which there is any wine to be consecrated." Thus it 
 is all acted out, as if the precious gifts of the Spirit, 
 almost impiously supposed to be called down upon the 
 elements, were distilled from the ends of his fingers. 
 Who is so little acquainted with the philosophy of 
 signs as not to know that such gestures have all the 
 force of the most explicit words ; that they are too full 
 of meaning to find any verbal utterance? Who does 
 not see that our baptismal service and communion ser- 
 vice, — especially the latter, — are highly dramatic? 
 that they talk to the eye as well as to the ear ? that 
 they have intelligible signs as well as explicit words ? 
 that they speak the language of the deaf mute as well 
 as that of the hearing and talking man? that they pre- 
 sent the expressive pantomime to the eye as well as 
 the clear recitation to the ear^ 
 
164 USAGES WHICH IMPLY AND TEACH FALSE DOCTRINE. 
 Eating and Drinking what remain. 
 
 Our communion office closes with this rubric : " And 
 if any of the consecrated bread and wine remain after 
 the communion, it shall not be carried out of the 
 church ; but the minister and other communicants 
 shall, immediately after the blessing, reverently eat 
 and drink the same." 
 
 Let it be observed here that it is the '■'■consecrated 
 bread and wine" only which are not to be carried out 
 of the church, and that they are to be retained and 
 " reiierenily'' eat and drank, because they are conse- 
 crated.* What is the meaning of this ? What other 
 meaning can it have than this, namely, that consecra- 
 tion has given to the elements a holiness which must 
 not be lost, and also made them proper objects of rev- 
 erential feelings 7 They are to be reverently eat and 
 drank. But why reverently 1 Did cur Saviour and 
 the apostles eat and drink them reverently 7 If so, 
 then the five thousand must have eat the loaves and 
 fishes reverently, for there was just as much consecra- 
 tion of these as of the bread and wine. In truth, there 
 was only a rendering thanks to God in either case. 
 Why, then, the question returns, forbid that they shall 
 be carried out of the church, and why command that 
 they shall be eat and drank reverently? and why, 
 too, I may add, is the minister required '■'■reverently^' 
 to place "what remaineth of the consecrated elements" 
 upon the table, "covering the same with a fine linen 
 cloth?" 
 
 * Let the reader hold fast to the fact, also, that there is nothing, 
 absolutely nothing, in the New Testament which sanctions any act 
 of consecration of the elements whatever; and that this practice 
 comes to us backed by no higher authority than it can derive from its 
 heathen origin, and a transmission through the Roman Catholic 
 church. 
 
USAGES WHICH IMPLY AND TEACH FALSE DOCTRINE. 165 
 
 Why, but because some mysterious change is sup- 
 posed to be wrought in them, such as I have shown 
 to be fairly taught in the writings of leading English 
 divines, and in the language of the communion office 1 
 The same general idea is implied also in the rubric 
 which requires the interruption of the communion 
 for the purpose of consecrating more bread and wine, 
 if they chance "to be spent before all have communi- 
 cated." 
 
 General Aspect. 
 
 We have been viewing the particulars, one by one, 
 which go to make up our sacramental system. It may 
 be well now to group them together, that the reader 
 may see their general aspect. 
 
 We have seen that the leading English divines be- 
 lieved in a " change," or "mutation," effected in the 
 elements of bread and wine at the time of their con- 
 secration ; that this change is a "spiritual" one, in 
 opposition to the Roman notion of a "carnal" 
 change; that the change is "real" and "true," and 
 is " into the body and blood of Christ ;" that, in con- 
 sequence of this change, they "really convey" to the 
 believer the body and blood of Christ. We have 
 seen, too, that these divines believed the baptismal 
 water to be "changed into divine power by the work- 
 ing of the Holy Ghost," so as to "regenerate him 
 that believeth." We have found our communion 
 office teaching the same sanctification of the bread 
 and wine, so that those who receive them become 
 partakers of the body and blood of Christ; and the 
 baptismal service bringing to view the same sanctifi- 
 cation of water for "the mystical washing away of 
 sin." We have found our catechism interpreting 
 the whole for us by teaching the doctrine of iwo 
 
166 USAGES WHICH IMPLY AND TEACH FALSE DOCTRINE. 
 
 jmrls in a sacrament, — making the sanctifying grace 
 ill the supper and the spiritual regeneration in bap- 
 tism as essential- to the being of the two sacraments, 
 as the outward eating and drinking and the outward 
 washing. The ordination office, and tlie forms of 
 absolution, have unfolded to us the idea of is. priest- 
 hood, — endowed with power to offer sacrifices to God, 
 and with authority to declare and pronounce absolu- 
 tion from sin. 
 
 In addition to this positive verbal teaching, we 
 have found an array of dramatic arrangements and 
 representations, pointing in the same general direc- 
 tion, and distinctly implying the same errors. There 
 is, first, the significant preaching and praying in sep- 
 arate places, and then the appearing in those two 
 places in different habits, — both indicative of the 
 double character of priest and prophet. Then there 
 is the laying the priestly hands upon the elements, 
 and making over them certain gestures, as if call- 
 ing down some mysterious spiritual influence upon 
 them ; then the kneeling to receive them, as if they 
 were objects of worship; and then, finally, the "rev- 
 erently" covering them with a fine linen cloth, and 
 the eating them with the reverence due only to 
 what has been " changed'" into the body and blood 
 of Christ. 
 
 If any person mistakes this united teaching of 
 words, and arrangements, and manipulations, and 
 postures, I can only say, it seems to me a very need- 
 less blunder. It does appear to me as plain as the sun 
 at noonday, that the great idea of sacramental grace is 
 the basis and substratum of all these outward forms. 
 Take this away, and they are as meaningless and in- 
 appropriate as a Mahomedan crescent carved vipon the 
 front of a christian pulpit. 
 
USAGES WHICH IMPLY AND TEACH FALSE DOCTRINE. 167 
 
 No person, I think, need to wonder that we have 
 "Puseyism" m our church. The only real matter 
 for suprise is that we have not more. Here are causes 
 enough for all the tractarianism we have, and for a 
 vast deal more, too, unless they are removed. 
 
168 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 USAGES WHICH BEGET ROMISH FEELINGS. 
 
 There is another class of usages which, though not 
 chargeable with teaching or directly implying errone- 
 ous doctrine, do yet engender a state of feeling very 
 nearly allied, at least, to those fostered in the Roman 
 church. 
 
 I claim that in this chapter I argue on a principle to 
 a certain extent admitted in our own church. Bishop 
 M'llvaine very properly, as I believe, refused last year 
 to consecrate a church in the diocese over which he 
 presides, because a piece of furniture had been placed 
 in it which looked like a Roman Catholic altar. Now 
 I beg to know what possible objection there could be 
 to this piece of furniture, except on the ground that 
 those usages which resemble Romish usages do in fact 
 lead to Romish feelings first, and then through them 
 to Romish doctrines'? Why should a table, having 
 the shape of an altar, suggest the Romish idea, except 
 it be because it looks like one, has the Romish aspect, 
 and therefore impresses the mind with the idea of 
 something Romish underneath % 
 
 To the philosophical mind there may be, and is, a 
 kind of ecclesiastical physiognomy, by which what is 
 outward and visible determines what is internal and 
 unseen ; by which the complexion, the aspect, the cast 
 of a thing, indicates its character. If we meet a man 
 in the street, having the complexion of a Spaniard, we 
 infer that Spanish blood probably flows in his veins. 
 So, when a stranger enters a city, and passes a church 
 with a cross upon it, his impression is that it is Roman 
 
USAGKS WHICH BEGET ROMISH FEELINGS. 169 
 
 Catholic ; and when one visits the cemetery at Mount 
 Auburn, and sees a stone embellished with the same 
 symbol, he takes it for granted that a Roman Catholic 
 sleeps underneath. He may be wrong, but he is more 
 likely to be right. Romanism has its badges, its 
 marks, its symbols ; and these are parts of a system, 
 and are the indices of principles which lie out of sight. 
 These things are so well understood, that when the 
 outward marks are adopted, they generally react 
 towards the principle. Without this, they are instinc- 
 tively felt to be an anomaly, a branch without a trunk 
 or root. And when they are forbidden to connect 
 themselves with the parent root, like the banian tree, 
 they send down the shoots from their branches to the 
 earth, and into the earth, and make roots for them- 
 selves, congenial with their nature. There is, there- 
 fore, an ecclesiastical physiology also, by which out- 
 ward parts seek nourishment from some unseen agency 
 within. 
 
 I do not pretend that these usages necessarily imply 
 or directly teach anything doctrinally false ; but I do 
 insist that they induce a state of feeling Avhich gives 
 erroneous doctrine a welcome reception, and in which 
 it finds a nourishment highly favorable to its growth. 
 Among the usages to which I refer, may be reckoned, 
 in the first place, 
 
 The Multiplication of Crosses. 
 
 The demand for a symbolical use of the cross has 
 been wonderfully increased of late. Let any man run 
 his eye over the Episcopal- books which have been 
 published within a dozen years, and see how rapidly, 
 during the last six or seven of those years, the picture 
 of the cross has been multiplied upon the covers, the 
 title-pages, and indeed upon all the pages. Ten years 
 15 
 
170 USAGES WHICH BEGET ROMISH FEELINGS. 
 
 ago, it was a comparatively rare thing to stamp a cross 
 upon a new book. What has produced this change 1 
 Nothing, of course, except a demand for such pictures ; 
 and this demand is helping, — unconsciously on the 
 part of many who aid it, — to encourage a system 
 which exalts trifles into great importance, and con- 
 structs a sacramental and sensuous religion out of 
 forms. As an illustration of this growing demand for 
 visible crosses, the fact may be mentioned, that, in 
 three of the older Episcopal churches in this city, the 
 cross is not seen, Avhile it is not only found in four of 
 those more recently established, but, begirming with 
 Grace, the elder of the four, in which it occupies an 
 unassuming place upon the shaft of the baptismal font, 
 it rises rapidly in prominence, according to the age of 
 the parish, and in the Advent, the younger of the four, 
 it swells to such dimensions, and puts on so much of 
 the glare of conspicuity, as to have offended many of 
 those who have helped foster the taste which has pro- 
 duced it.* 
 
 I think I have been told by the present bishop of our 
 church in this state, that a few years ago there was 
 not a cross in an Episcopal church in New York; 
 now, crosses abound in them. If I am not mistaken, 
 the same gentleman also informed me that when he 
 visited England, some years since, he did not see a 
 cross in any church. They are now numerous. 
 
 Sign of the Cross in Baptism. 
 
 As has been already stated, a paper was laid before 
 the convocation of 1562, by archbishop Sandys, advis- 
 
 * There is a clergyman in the diocese of Massachusetts who makes 
 it a rule never to purchase a book which has the picture of the cross 
 upon it. So far, I honor him as a wise man, who looks to the bottom 
 of things, and lets alone error before it is meddled with. Would to 
 God that he did not stop with the symbol of the cross ! 
 
USAGES WHICH BEGET ROMISH FEELINGS. 171 
 
 ing that her majesty, queen Elizabeth, be moved that 
 " the collect for crossmg the mfant in the forehead be 
 blotted out," on the ground that " it seems very super- 
 stitious" and "is not needful." We all knoAv that 
 this is practised in the Roman Catholic church. If any 
 possible advantage could arise from the practice, or if 
 it were recommended, or even hinted, in the Scriptures, 
 the fact of its being used in the papal church would 
 not be a sufficient reason for omitting it ; but when we 
 find that it has no sanction in the word of God, and is 
 both superstitious and needless, and is one of the 
 superstitions of the Roman church, it^ does seem as 
 though a marvellous fondness for puerilities could 
 alone prevent its rejection.* 
 
 Besides this sign of the cross upon the child's fore- 
 head, tire church of Rome orders that the priest's 
 fingers shall be put into its ears, as a sign that it shall 
 listen to the word of truth. Now this, in my appre- 
 hension, is quite as expressive and beautiful a token as 
 the cross. This apostate church also directs that salt 
 shall be put upon its tongue, as a sign that its conver- 
 sation shall be always with grace. This I regard as a 
 more expressive token than the sign of the cross. The 
 chui'ch of Rome furthermore administers milk and 
 honey, in token that it shall love the sincere milk of 
 the word, and keep God's commandments, which shall 
 be sweeter to it than honey from the honeycomb. 
 Now these are all very expressive and beautiful signs, 
 
 * The arguments used in support of this ceremony are generally 
 about as forcible as that of James I., when pressed in regard to it by 
 one of the Presbyterian divines, in the Hampton Court conference. 
 His majesty desired to be informed as to the aiitiquiti/ of its use ; and 
 when told by the bishop of Winchester that it was employed in the 
 time of Constaatine the Great, the king answered, " And is it come to 
 that pass, that we must charge Constantine with superstition and 
 popery ? 1/ it was used so early, I see no reason why it may not be con- 
 tinued." — Collier's Ecclesiastical Hist., vol. vii., p. 292. 
 
172 USAGES WHICH BEGET ROMISH FEELINGS. 
 
 — not a whit more superstitious than the sign of the 
 cross, and quite as needful. If one ought to be 
 retained, there is no possible reason why all should 
 not. They are used together in the Roman Catholic 
 church ; are parts of a great system of superstition ; 
 have like significance and intent ; and should stand or 
 fall together. 
 
 Bowing at the Name of Jesus. 
 
 Of all the childish superstitions which our church 
 has unfortunately retained, I have regarded the prac- 
 tice of bowing at the name of Jesus in the creed, as 
 founded in a more genuine puerility than any other. 
 It is one of those superstitions which are exactly 
 adapted to the taste of a genteel, foppish tractarian, 
 who is an amateur in all that relates to a graceful 
 observance of the prescribed forms of an outside reli- 
 gion. To see such bending down with the grace of a 
 young willow coquetting Avith a summer breeze, excites 
 no surprise. But who, upon seeing a strong, Saxon- 
 minded, christian man, attempting this flexion of the 
 body in the midst of public worship, does not feel 
 somewhat as he would to see the forest oak attempt- 
 ing to imitate the playful sports of the young wil- 
 low]* 
 
 This bow is intended, I suppose, as a mark of 
 respect paid to Christ. But the Scriptures teach us to 
 honor the Son only as we honor the Father. To pay 
 him higher and more marked honors than we pay the 
 Father, would seem to be making an invidious dis- 
 tinction between the persons of the sacred Trinity ; for 
 
 * The late venerable bishop Griswold regarded this practice with a 
 great deal of dissatisfaction. He was accustomed to speak of it as 
 one of those practices which commend themselves only to supersti- 
 tious and sickly minds; and he has left on record one or two pithy, 
 unanswerable arguments against it. 
 
USAGES WHICH BEGET ROMISH FEELINGS. 173 
 
 as we are to honor the Son as we honor the Father, so 
 there can be no doubt that we ought to honor the 
 Father as we honor the Son. 
 
 It is said, too, that at times of denial of the Divinity 
 of Christ, this bow is usefvd as a significant recognition 
 of his supreme Godhead, and of his right to our 
 homage. But as those who deny the Divinity of 
 Christ deny also the personality of the Holy Ghost, 
 tlicre would seem to be quite as much need of bowing 
 at the point in the creed where the third person in the 
 Trinity is named. Besides, if the Deity of the Son be 
 dependent for support upon a bow, it rests on a basis 
 far other than I had supposed. Were I a Unitarian, I 
 would thank Episcopalians for the implied admission. 
 
 The Roman Catholic bows whenever the name of 
 Jesus is repeated either in the worship or the sermon. 
 This is consistent. EpiscopaUans, if they bow at all, 
 should do the same. 
 
 Of the same character with bowing is the standing 
 while the gospel is read ; an act by which particular 
 honor is intended to be paid to the words of Christ. 
 But why should the words of our Saviour be more 
 honored than the words of the Holy Ghost, spoken 
 through the apostles in the epistles? And why, es- 
 pecially, should the words of Christ be more respected 
 when read in what is called the gospel, than when 
 read as the second morning lesson'^- Can anybody 
 tell? 
 
 Holy Days. 
 
 An observance of days which do not relate to Christ 
 is one of those parts of a ceremonialism which has 
 been the occasion of much discontent in the church of 
 England, and was, in the reign of Elizabeth, as I have 
 15* 
 
1 74 USAGES WHICH BEGET ROMISH FEELINGS. 
 
 already stated, saved from dismission only by a proxy 
 vote. 
 
 The chief objections to these are, that they strengthen 
 a regard for a mere ceremonialism, and draw the mind 
 back towards that bondage which the relics of saints, 
 and all the attendant superstitions, so long imposed 
 upon it. In times like the present, it would be no 
 marvel to see saint-worship growing, as a historical 
 sequence, out of the observance of saints' days. The 
 Roman Catholic calendar is burdened with about one 
 thousand seven hundred names. Compared with this, 
 ours may seem so scanty as to be almost unobjectiona- 
 ble. But we must remember that it is not the number 
 of names in the calendar which establishes the princi- 
 ple. The observance of one saint's day sanctions the 
 principle and opens the way for the observance of any 
 number.* 
 
 * Since writing this chapter, I have fallen in, as already men- 
 tioned, with a full English edition of Isaac Taylor's able and learned 
 work entitled " Ancient Christianity." As this remarkably eloquent 
 writer is a member of the established church of England, I shall 
 avail myself of his strong reasonings and facts, to enrich my book 
 with a few notes. I subjoin here the remarks with which he closes 
 his criticisms on the English Church Calendar. It is but fair to say 
 that the English Saints' Calendar is more full than oiirs, and is 
 justly exposed to more serious objections. 
 
 " Is then the Calendar, with its inauspicious commemorations, a 
 matter of no moment ? Are the many objections to which, unques- 
 tionably, it is liable, frivolous ? I have already declared my belief 
 that the subject, unimportant as it may have been years ago, assumes, 
 at this time, a serious aspect ; and that it will connect itself with the 
 great course of events now in progress. Christendom, as every one 
 feels and sees, is hastening on towards a disruption, more signal, and 
 more extensive in its consequences, than any that has heretofore had 
 place. On the one side are the adherents of biblical Christianity, and 
 on the other those of whatever is human in religion ; the first, advan- 
 taged by no visible organization, and having no centre of union, and 
 guided by no conclave of concerted movement, is yet every day drawing 
 nearer, part to part, and is reaching a clearer and a deeper conviction 
 at once of that substantial unity which might lead them to a state of 
 visible combination ; and is also discerning more distinctly the com- 
 mon danger which is likely to cement all — by the bond of suffer- 
 ings. 
 
USAGES WHICH BEGET ROMISH FEELINGS. 175 
 
 Use of the word Holy. 
 
 A system which exalts the outward forms of reh- 
 gion, especially the ministry and the sacraments; 
 which contemplates and provides for the consecration 
 
 "On the other side, there is a visible coherence, and intelligent and 
 well-directed concert, and political as well as spiritual influence, and 
 economized resources, and a scheme of religion well adapted to the 
 tastes of perverted human nature, and moreover a manifest tendency, 
 throughout Europe, towards the restoration of a gorgeous and mystic 
 spiritual despotism. 
 
 " In this present equipoise of spiritual forces, the position of the Prot- 
 estant Episcopal church of England is — we must not say neutral, 
 but ambiguous. It is not as if the church, strong in a calm unanimity 
 of feeling, had taken up a position between the two parties, prepared 
 to mediate, and to rescue truth from the expected collision of the two. 
 This is not the fact ; for the church, intestinely sundered in opinion, 
 reels to and fro, between the two, apparently inclining toward the 
 side of anti-biblical despotism, and yet in the feeling which pervades 
 very many of its individual and private members, connected by vital 
 sympathies with the church — tntbj catholic and protestant. 
 
 " At such a moment, when human sagacity must quite fail in the 
 attempt to forecast the issue even of a year's events, no circumstances, 
 no alliances, no symbols, are unimportant, which in fact stand forth as 
 badges of filiation and paternity, and which may be appealed to 
 such, in some moment of ecclesiastical conflict. 
 
 " A day may come — and such a day seems to be at hand — wherein 
 the church of England will be dealt with — not according to its intrin- 
 sic and ancient merits; but according to its badges — according to 
 the colors it wears — according to its ostensible armorial distinctions. 
 And it may be thus dealt with — first, by its declared opponents, who 
 will snatch an incalculable advantage in thus denouncing the Episco- 
 pal church as a body decorated with the scarlet fringes and the mere- 
 tricious ribbons of polytheism. Secondly, it may thus be dealt with 
 by the mass of the people, whose rude impressions will be confirmed, 
 while they listened at once to the denunciations of its adversaries, and 
 to the plausible pretexts of Romish seducers. 
 
 " And next it may be thus dealt with by statesmen, who, finding the 
 church resolved not to relinquish its symbols and bearings, will prompt- 
 ly act on the assumption that this pertinacity is not without an inward 
 motive and a reason ; and that, therefore, the church of England ought, 
 in a legal sense, to be regarded as mainly one with the Eastern and 
 Romish churches. 
 
 " Yet this is not all ; for a moment may come when He who looketh 
 down from the high heavens, and who deals with public bodies accord- 
 ing to their visible merits, even he who, in preparation for a day of 
 terror, sends his angel to seal the faithful few in their foreheads, that 
 they may be known as his, in the tumult — it may be that He will 
 
176 USAGES WHICH BEGET ROMISH FEELINGS. 
 
 not only of water, and of bread and wine, but of church 
 edifices, bishops, &.C., finds much use for the word 
 " holy." Under such a system, we hear of holy 
 church, holy priesthood, holy table, holy communion, 
 holy baptism, holy orders, and even holy days. 
 
 Under the old dispensation, there were great num- 
 bers of " things " set apart by divine appointment, for 
 religious purposes, and called "holy." There were 
 the holy garments, the holy crown, the holy perfume, 
 the holy ointment, the holy chambers, the holy ves- 
 sels, &c. Under the new dispensation, these things 
 were dispensed with, being no longer needed. Noxp^ 
 men were not obliged to go up to Jerusalem to Avorship 
 God. at certain seasons, where a priest might make an 
 atonement for their sins ; but he that would worship 
 him in spirit and in truth, might do so anywhere and at 
 any time. Mount Tabor was as suitable a place for 
 worship as Mount Gerizim, and Nazareth as Jeru- 
 salem. All mountains and all valleys, all places and 
 all things, were henceforth alike holy. Thencefor- 
 Avard there was to be no consecration except that of 
 intelligent souls and human bodies ; and nothing holy, 
 
 deal with the church of England according to its badges of ecclesias- 
 tical alliance ! 
 
 " And what are these badges ? They arc those of the idolatries of an 
 apostate church! The very same names, names recommended alone 
 by, and known even to, this apostate power alone ; commemorations 
 which, through a king course of ages, have been the occasion of wicked 
 delusions and iiilamous corruptions — these names, — these commem- 
 orations — these unholy holidays — tliese festivals of Satan — these 
 anniversaries of blasphemy — these flaunting impieties, in the which 
 everything truly sacred is hung up to scorn ; these names, commemo- 
 rations — festivals, whicli have been rejected by purer reformed com- 
 munions, and are retained by the Ilomish, the Greek, and the Episco- 
 pal English, stand in the view of earth and of heaven, as broad noti- 
 fications of party — they are watchwords held ready for mustering a 
 host, — they are symbols on banners, which may be descried, and fol- 
 lowed, amid the confusion of that last Arrnageddon-field, whereon are 
 yet to be gathered all the antagonist forces of the world." — Supple- 
 ment, vol. ii., pp. 99—101. 
 
USAGES WHICH BEGET ROMISH FEELINGS. 177 
 
 except God, and angels, and men, and those things 
 which have moral qualities ; no priest to offer sacri- 
 fices, and no holy garments for him to wear ; no rites 
 save those which were simple, and without incanta- 
 tions, and signs, and mysteries ; and no worship except 
 that which was spiritual and from the heart. 
 
 Hence, we hear nothing in the New Testament 
 about holy things. Nothing is accounted " holy," 
 under the new dispensation, except it has some moral 
 quality. Peter once speaks of the " holy mount," 
 evidently in reference to that wonderful visible display 
 of the divine glory, the transfiguration ; but nowhere 
 else, I believe, is the word used, except with the limi- 
 tation just named. 
 
 Romanism is a system which resembles, in many 
 points, the bondage of the old dispensation. It 
 abounds in " holy things," and attempts to put these 
 between God and the soul, and to make them the 
 channels through which all grace or holiness shall flow 
 from the former to the latter. And just so far as we 
 have holy baptisms, holy symbols, " holy mysteries," 
 (fee., are we under the ancient bondage. 
 
178 
 
 PART V. 
 THE PHILOSOPHICAL AEGUMENT. 
 
 CERTAIN OPINIONS AND CUSTOMS ADOrTED BY THE PROTESTANT 
 EPISCOPAL CHURCH, WHICH GIVE INCREASED ACTIVITY TO 
 THE CAUSES OF PUSEYISM ALREADY DESCRIBED. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 THE NOTION OF CATHOLIC CONSENT. 
 
 It is not necessary to prove that the notion of what 
 is called a " catholic consent " has become very preva- 
 lent in our church. The substance of this notion is, 
 that the visible church of God being that against 
 which our Lord promised that the gates of hell should 
 not prevail, the great fundamental doctrines of the gos- 
 pel have never been lost by it, but have been substan- 
 tially received, semper, iibiqtie, et ab omnibtts, always, 
 everywhere, and by all ; in other words, that there has 
 been a universal agreement, in the visible church, on 
 certain doctrines. 
 
 The inference, practical and logical, which grows 
 out of this, namely, the right of the church to control 
 individual faith, belongs to the next chapter. I con- 
 fine myself here to an unqualified denial that there is 
 any such thing as a "catholic consent." 
 
 If there be any universal consent, agreement, una- 
 nimity, or whatever it may be called, it certainly may 
 be found in the first ages of the christian era, or, in 
 the "primitive church," which the homilies often say 
 was "most imcorrupt and pure." If such consent 
 
THE NOTION OF CATHOLIC CONSENT. 179 
 
 cannot be discovered among the fathers of the first 
 three or four centuries, it surely need not be looked for 
 elsewhere, for even if unanimity be discovered in sub- 
 sequent times, it Avould lack the ahoays, and would 
 not be strictly catholic consent. But I deny that it has 
 any existence, even in the writings of the primitive 
 fathers. I intend to prove that the fathers, for the first 
 three or four centuries, essentially disagree and contra- 
 dict each other, in reference even to fundamental doc- 
 trines ; and in doing this, I shall of course show that 
 there is no consentient voice of the visible church dur- 
 ing that period. 
 
 Before I proceed to examine this point, let me sup- 
 pose for a moment that all the early fathers whose 
 writings have come down to us have spoken in perfect 
 agreement with each other. Of those who wrote dur- 
 ing a little more than the first three hundred years of 
 the christian era, only about twenty have sent down a 
 portion of their writings to our day. Allowing, then, 
 that these writers have spoken harmoniously ; does 
 this constitute a catholic consent of the church 1 Not 
 at all. It is the universal consent of these twenty per- 
 sons; but of the untold millions of Christians who 
 made up the church during the different periods of 
 those centuries, it is not the millionth part of a con- 
 sent. 
 
 But there is no consent among those fathers whose 
 writings have accidentally reached our times. See, 
 for example, what they say of the Holy Ghost. Ori- 
 gen, a writer of distinction, calls him a thing, and says 
 expressly that he was created by the Son. " We truly 
 believing," his language is, " that there are three per- 
 sons, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit ; and 
 believing that there is nothing unbegotten [or uncre- 
 ated] but the Father, receive as the most pious and 
 
180 THE NOTION OF CATHOLIC CONSENT. 
 
 true the opinion, that of all the things viade by the 
 Word, the Holy Spirit is the most honorable, and ranks 
 higher than all things made by the Father through 
 Christ. And perhaps this is the reason that he is not 
 called the very Son of God, the only begotten alone 
 being originally by nature Son, who appears to have 
 been necessary to the Holy Spirit, ministering to the 
 formation of his peison, not only tvith I'es'pect to his 
 existence, but with respect to his being wise, and endued 
 with reason, and Just, and everything which we ought 
 to suppose him to be, according to the participation of 
 those qualities of Christ which we have already men- 
 tioned." Other passages are found in Origen, in which 
 he repeats, in express terms, that the Holy Spirit was 
 made by the Logos. 
 
 Photius says that Pierins, who succeeded Origen in 
 the school of Alexandria, delivers very dangerous and 
 impious doctrines concerning the Spirit, for he affirms, 
 that "he is inferior in glory to the Father and the 
 Son." Theognastus, he charges with the same heresy. 
 Novatian calls the Paraclete "inferior to Christ," on 
 account of which, and other things asserted by him, 
 Pamelius says he is not orthodox : and Ruffinus men- 
 tions the fact that the Macedonians, who denied the 
 divinity of the Holy Spirit, circulated his works for the 
 purpose of sustaining their cause. Lactantius, in his 
 letters to Demetrius, denies the entity of the Holy 
 Ghost. Eusebius says the sentiment that the Holy 
 Spirit was made by the Son, was the doctrine of " the 
 catholic and holy church." And Jerome says, " many, 
 through ignorance of the Scriptures," assert a" doctrine 
 essentially the same. 
 
 It is not needful to show that there are fathers, on 
 the other side, who affirm the supreme divinity of the 
 Holy Spirit. The supporters of a catholic consent will 
 
THE NOTION OF CATHOLIC CONSENT. 181 
 
 allow this ; for it is presumed that some of them, at 
 least, would sooner yield the notion of a consentient 
 voice of the church than admit that this voice is heard 
 only in support of the opinion that the Holy Ghost is a 
 mere thing, created by the Son. On the vital question, 
 then, whether converted sinners have been renewed by 
 an Almighty Sanctifier, or by some created being only, 
 the fathers are by no means agreed. 
 
 And what is their testimony in regard to the ever 
 blessed Son of God? Not a whit more harmonious 
 than in reference to the Holy Ghost. 
 
 Athenagoras says of Christ, that " he is the first-born 
 of the Father, not as a created being, (for, from the be- 
 ginning, God, being an eternal Mmd, had the Word in 
 himself, being etidued with reason from etei'nity,') but 
 as having come forth to be the form and energy of all 
 material things." Theophilus of Antioch speaks of 
 the Word as the "mind and understanding" of God; 
 and says that "when God wished to make the things 
 he had resolved upon, he brought forth this Word as 
 an eternal Word," &c. Justin Martyr says, " Before 
 all created things, God begat a certain rational power, 
 {dvvafiig lo)'iy.rj,) of himself;" and adds, that this is 
 called Son, Word, &c. 
 
 These passages seem to teach that the Son existed 
 in the Fatlier, before his generation, as an essence, but 
 not as a person. The writer certainly could not have 
 believed in his eternal existence as the second person 
 in the Trinity. 
 
 But see what Tertullian says respecting the Father 
 and the Son. " The Father is the whole substance, 
 but the Son a derivation and portion of the whole, as 
 he himself professes," "For the Father is greater than 
 I." And still further, " God is a Father, and God is a 
 Judge ; but he was not always a Father and Judge be- 
 16 
 
182 
 
 THE NOTION OF CATHOLIC CONSENT. 
 
 cause always God. For he could neither be a Father 
 before there was a Son, nor a Judge before there was 
 an offence. But there was a time when there was 
 neither an offence nor a Son." In commenting on the 
 words, " Who, being in the form of God, thought it not 
 robbery to be equal with God," Novatian says, "Nev- 
 ertheless, this very thing, that he should be both God 
 and Lord of all things, and God, after the form of God 
 the Father, he obtained from his Father, being born 
 and brought forth of him. Although, therefore, he was 
 in the form of God, he did not think it fell to his lot to 
 be equal with God. For although he remembered that 
 he was God of God the Father, he never either com- 
 pared or likened himself to God the Father, remem- 
 bering that he was of his own Father, and that he 
 possessed existence because the Father had given it." 
 
 I need not multiply these quotations. Admitting 
 again, what all will allow, and what is certainly very 
 true, that another portion of the fathers gave what is 
 called the orthodox view of this subject, and we have 
 before us the fact, — as stubborn as any fact in his- 
 tory, — that the fathers did not agree respecting the 
 eternal generation of the Son, and his equality with 
 the Father. 
 
 In the interpretation of the Scripture, as might be 
 expected, there is as little consent among the fathers 
 as in reference to the doctrines just considered. We 
 have not space to allude to more than one or two. We 
 select John x. 30. — "I and my Father are one." All 
 the Ante-Nicene fathers interpret this passage as im- 
 plying a oneness between the Father and the Son only 
 in loill^ in purjmse, in affection, &c. ; and some of them 
 quote, as a parallel passage, the language of Paul in 
 reference to himself and Apollos, " He that planteth, 
 and he that watereth are one.^' So unanimous are 
 
THE NOTION OF CATHOLIC CONSENT. 183 
 
 these writers in giving this sense to the words, that Mr. 
 Goode, — a man deeply versed in patristic learning, — 
 says he is not aware that there is " any passage among 
 the Ante-Nicene fathers, as showing the unity of es- 
 sence between the Father and the Son." And yet, at 
 a subsequent period, all the writers against the Arians, 
 such as Hilary, Athanasius, Basil, Augustine, &x;., give 
 it this latter sense. 
 
 Take Proverbs viii. 22, "The Lord possessed me in the 
 beginning of his way before his works of old." Justin 
 Martyr. Athenagoras, Clement of Alexandria, and Ter- 
 tuUian, apply this to the divine generation of Christ. 
 Irenaeus applies it to the Holy Spirit. And at a subse- 
 quent period, when Arianism was prevailing, it was 
 generally understood by the opposers of that, to refer to 
 the generation of the human nature of Christ. Hilary- 
 thinks it was Christ who assumed a human form, and 
 appeared to Adam in paradise, and afterwards to Abra- 
 ham, and that these words refer to that taking of a 
 human form. Here, then, are four interpretations 
 given by the fathers to this passage, differing as widely 
 from each other as the human from the divine. 
 
 According to a principle almost universally con- 
 tended for by those who think much of the testimony 
 of the early church, those who lived nearest the apos- 
 tolic age are most to be relied upon. We often hear it 
 said, that the sense put by the apostles upon prom- 
 inent passages of Scripture must have been handed 
 down to the earlier fathers, so that their testimony is 
 exceedingly valuable, because it records what was 
 handed down to them as a kind of inspired commen- 
 tary on the word of God. Now, the facts I have ad- 
 duced show two things : first, that a unanimous con- 
 sent in the church in regard to leading doctrines, or in 
 reference to the interpretation of prominent texts, is a 
 
184 THE NOTION OF CATHOLIC CONSENT. 
 
 delusion; and, secondly, that the testimony of the early 
 fathers npon the matter of fact as to what interpreta- 
 tion was given in the beginning to certain passages, is 
 not reliable, — they testifying unanimously to an inter- 
 pretation which every one knows to be wrong, unless 
 the orthodox fathers of a subsequent period were all 
 wrong, and the Avians all right. 
 
 Some Episcopalians may be ready to say, by this 
 time, that they do not suppose any "catholic consent" 
 has ever been expressed by the fathers as individuals ; 
 but that, whenever the church has spoken through 
 general councils, they believe her voice has been con- 
 sentient. 
 
 Some carry their views only to this extent, I am 
 aware; but I can assure such that I have not been 
 chasing a phantom ; for there are multitudes among us 
 whose sentiments are exactly met by the remarks I 
 have been making. I am very willing, however, in 
 view of this new class of objectors, to change my line 
 of argument; and I now deny that "catholic consent" 
 is to be found among general councils. 
 
 In the year 325, a council assembled, by order of 
 Constantine the Great, in the city of Nice. It was 
 composed of three hundred and sixty-five bishops. 
 This council adopted the Nicene creed, which ex- 
 presses, in very strong terms, the Deity of Christ. But 
 what becomes of the "consentient" notion, Avhen we 
 learn that, at the council of Ariminum, held some twen- 
 ty-five years after, at which there were six hundred 
 bishops present, and which bishop Stillingfleet calls 
 " the most general council we read of in church histo- 
 ry," the doctrine of Arius was ratified and confirmed, 
 directly in the face of the creed adopted at Nice 1 Au- 
 gustine, when endeavoring to refute an Arian, had the 
 magnanimity and good sense to admit that his oppo- 
 
THE NOTION OF CATHOLIC CONSENT. 185 
 
 nent's citation of the council of Ariminum, was worth 
 as much as his of that of Nice ; and said the Scriptures 
 were the only proper court of appeal in such matters. 
 And sure I am that all who have looked at this subject 
 with any care will approve his decision. 
 
 Such, then, is the view which facts give us of the 
 so much talked of "catholic consent" of the church! 
 The truth is, we cannot find enough of it to cover even 
 the narrow ground occupied by the Nicene creed. For 
 while Trinitarianism may claim a number of the Ante- 
 Nicene fathers, and the decision of the three hundred 
 and sixty odd bishops who composed the council of 
 Nice, in favor of that creed — Arianism is permitted to 
 boast of others of those fathers, and of the opinions of 
 the six hundred bishops assembled in council at Arim- 
 inum, in support of the doctrines of Arius. I have 
 no words to express my surprise, therefore, that any 
 intelligent member of our church should be caught in 
 the silly net of catholic consent. A more perfect Jig- 
 ment never was invented ; and yet the devil is at this 
 moment using it to beguile unwary protestants, pre- 
 paratory to the final ensnaring of them with the debas- 
 ing papal dogma of an ecclesia docens. It is a cause 
 of Puseyism of tremendous power. 
 16* 
 
186 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 AUTHORITY OF THE CHURCH. 
 
 The doctrine of a catholic consent leads necessarily to 
 that of infallibility ; for, if in all ages there has been in 
 the church a universal doctrinal agreement, — in other 
 words, if in all periods and all places, the same chris- 
 tian doctrines have been held and professed by all 
 branches of the church, — this could have resulted from 
 nothing else than an infallible power to perceive the 
 truth, and an indefectible purpose to embrace it. And 
 then, out of this infallibility grows the church's au- 
 thority. A teacher who has been instructing the world 
 for eighteen hundred years, and has never committed 
 an essential mistake, may surely speak as one having 
 authority. Hence, those who believe in a catholic 
 consent generally claim the subjection of reason and 
 conscience to the teaching of the church. 
 
 In the last chapter I denied the fact that the church 
 has spoken with any such unanimity as is pretended. 
 I now deny the doctrine usually drawn out of it, name- 
 ly, the right of the church to control the faith and the 
 conscience. 
 
 It is doubtfid whether such a thing as a strictly 
 general council was ever held ; but if such a council 
 were possible, its decisions would probably be the best 
 exponent of the general church's views that could be 
 had. 
 
 Let it be supposed, then, that, at the present mo- 
 ment, there is assembled in general council, in the city 
 of London, a full representation from every branch of 
 the visible church, in all parts of the christian world ; 
 
AUTHORITY OF THE CHUKCH. 
 
 187 
 
 such a representation as will malce a full, fair, and 
 unquestioned expose of the prevailing sentiments of the 
 whole body of professed believers. What will prob- 
 ably be the result of their deliberations'? "Most 
 likely," one will say, "they will quarrel, and break 
 lip in confusion, without settling anything." That, as 
 they will be called to act on doctrinal matters, is not 
 very improbable. But let us suppose they accomplish 
 the purpose of their coming together, and pass, in due 
 form, the requisite number of decrees. Will the advo- 
 cates of catholic consent, and its attendant dogmas, 
 pledge themselves in advance, to hold, believe, and 
 defend all they decree 7 Perhaps this is a new ques- 
 tion ; but they must not shrink back from it. If they 
 would be consistent, they must answer, yea. And to 
 what will they probably be called to assent 1 The 
 council is composed of Roman Catholics, Greeks, 
 Armenians, Nestorians, Lutherans, Presbyterians, Con- 
 gregationalists, Baptists, Methodists, Episcopalians, 
 &c. In such an assembly, the Roman Catholic dele- 
 gates, or they and the Greek representatives together, 
 it is well known, will exercise a largely preponder- 
 ating influence. They will outvote all others, and 
 gain the sanction of the council for such decrees as 
 they see fit to introduce. What, then, can be expected 
 but a reenactment of the decrees of Trent, or some- 
 thing equivalent thereto? 
 
 I know it would be impossible to collect such a 
 council as is here supposed, or to hold together its dis- 
 cordant materials until the full settling of its opinions ; 
 but it is not the less true, that, if such a coming 
 together and such an avowal of opinions could be 
 effected, the whole weight of the council's judgment 
 would be cast into the scale of error. In short, it is 
 perfectly clear, that, if the judgment of the whole visi- 
 
188 
 
 AUTHORITY OF THE CHURCH. 
 
 ble church could be collected, whether by a general 
 council, or in some other way, it would be in favor of 
 transubstantiation, the sacrifice of the mass, justifica- 
 tion by inherent righteousness, and a variety of other 
 errors, which, with these, overlay and obscure, if they 
 do not destroy, the saving effect of the truth. To say 
 nothing of the Greek church, which is but little less 
 heretical, the Romish communion outnumbers all 
 protestant denominations; so that the result of any 
 outward expression of judgment on the part of the 
 whole visible church, could not fail to be as I have 
 stated. 
 
 I put four questions to the supporters of catholic con- 
 sent, and the binding authority of the whole visible 
 church's decision. 
 
 1. Do you deny that the voice of the whole visible 
 church, if it could at this moment be heard, would be 
 on the side of great and dangerous errors ? Examine 
 the subject. Study the symbolical writings of those 
 bodies which make up the sum total of the visible 
 church. Look into their statistics ; and then, in the 
 exercise of a prudent calculation, bring their suffrages 
 together, and say whether you can deny what is stated 
 above ? 
 
 2. If not, do you still maintain that the decisions of 
 the whole church are binding 7 These questions, you 
 will see, have a bearing upon each other. It is 
 important that you should settle, in your own mind, 
 not one merely, but both. You are bound to admit 
 the position taken, or prove from the creeds and statis- 
 tics of the several denominations that it is untenable ; 
 and, if you find my statement to be true, you are 
 bound to answer this second question in view of that 
 statement. That you cannot drive me from the 
 ground taken, is very evident. How, then, will you 
 
AUTHORITY OF THE CHURCH. 
 
 189 
 
 answer the second question 1 I must of course con- 
 clude that you have thought of these questions, and 
 that you are probably ready to affirm, that whatever 
 the whole church shall judge to be true, and necessary 
 to be received, that, the individual judgment is mrder 
 the strongest obligations to receive. 
 
 3. If so, Avill you, as individuals, submit your judg- 
 ments to the guidance of the general church '? and will 
 you hold and defend such doctrines as you have 
 reason to believe would-be sanctioned as necessary by 
 such a general council as I have supposed ? You will 
 see that these questions very naturally link themselves 
 together, and have a mutual bearing and dependence. 
 If it be admitted that a strictly general council of the 
 present visible church would sanction erroneous doc- 
 trines, and that the decisions of such a council would 
 be binding on the individual conscience, then it fol- 
 lows that you would be under obligation to embrace 
 any doctrine which such a council might propose to 
 you. Arc you ready to admit your obligation to 
 do so? 
 
 4. If it be admitted that the judgment of the church 
 may be settled by general covmcils, and these councils 
 pass their decrees by the vote of the majority ; if such 
 councils may assemble at any time, and their decisions 
 must be received as truth by christian men ; then it 
 follows that whatever a majority of those composing 
 the visible church believe, that, if it can be discovered, 
 every individual Christian is bound to receive, whether 
 it has or has not been formally decreed. Are you 
 ready, therefore, to receive transvibstantiation, and 
 such other objectionable doctrines as you are well per- 
 suaded a majority of the present visible church now 
 hold, and would express, if an opportunity were 
 given ? 
 
190 
 
 AUTHORITY OF THE CHURCH. 
 
 It may possibly be objected that I am arguing this 
 whole question on too narrow a basis ; that I am sup- 
 posing those against whose opinions these remarks 
 are directed to hold that the decisions of the whole 
 church, at any one particular period, are binding upon 
 individuals; whereas, their rule is, not only "every- 
 where and by all," but always f that they believe 
 any doctrine, in order to be binding upon men, must not 
 only be embraced by a majority of the whole, but that 
 it must have been so held through the whole period of 
 the chtircKs history. I beg leave to say this consid- 
 eration has not been overlooked. But if the whole 
 church of one period may contradict the whole church 
 of another, then her decisions surely cannot be bind- 
 ing on the conscience at any time, and the judgments 
 of general councils can have no weight. Either, 
 therefore, the authority of councils must be surren- 
 dered, or my argument must be admitted to stand on 
 as broad a foundation as the subject admits. And if 
 the authority of councils be abandoned, and the deci- 
 sions of the church, at ariy given period, are decided to 
 be without weight; if it be claimed that the idea of 
 " always" must be added to the " everywhere and by 
 all," then nothing in the way of authority can be 
 urged upon the conscience until the church shall have 
 completed her history ; for "always," I suppose, must 
 imply the whole compass of its militant existence, 
 including the future as well as the past. This, at all 
 events, is the common sense view ; for if the church 
 in any past age may differ from the church in the 
 present, so the church of this day, and the church of 
 past times, may essentially contradict the church of 
 the future.* 
 
 * A tract issued by the Protestant Episcopal Society of New York 
 has these remarks : 
 
 " The dissenter exercises his private judgment in deciding that he 
 
AUTHORITY OF THE CHURCH. 
 
 191 
 
 Thus it is seen that the views I am combating have 
 a very dangerous tendency, — resulting in the doctrine 
 of the infaUibiUty of the church, and the loss of private 
 judgment. 
 
 is at liberty to judge for himself of the proper interpretation of Scrip- 
 ture, without any guidance from the church. The Romanist exer- 
 cises his private judgment in deciding that he ought to follow im- 
 plicitly the guidance of the church of Rome, without reference to 
 Scripture. The member of the church of England, or of America, 
 exercises his private judgment in deciding that he ought to follow the 
 guidance of his church, so long as that church is led by Scripture, 
 interpreted by the consentient void of the catholic church from the begin- 
 ning." 
 
 The only difference which can be seen between the Roman doc- 
 trine and that here propounded, is this ; — that while the Roman sen- 
 timent is based on the assumption that the present church is infallible, 
 as well as the universal church through past ages, the above passage 
 implies that the present church may err, and that we are therefore 
 only bound to follow it when i« follows the "catholic church from the 
 beginning," which is infallible. The language of the tract takes for 
 granted that the attentive ear may hear in the " catholic church from 
 the beginning" a "consentient voice" respecting the doctrines of 
 religion, and that by comparing the teachings of the present church 
 with the infallible instructions of this unanimous voice, one may 
 learn whether he may or may not deviate from the " guidance of his 
 church." 
 
 This sentiment plainly involves an absurdity. It assumes that 
 while the church through all past ages has been harmonious in its 
 enunciations of truth, it has suddenly, in the present day, become 
 fallible, and liable to break that unity of sentiment which has pre- 
 vailed up to the present period. So that those learned divines who 
 write tracts in the next generation may rejoice in being guided by a 
 "consentient voice of the catholic church" up to the beginning of "the 
 nineteenth century, but will be obliged to interrupt their gratulations 
 by expressions of sorrow and grief, that, at the period of time lying 
 just behind them, a demon of error entered the church, and notes were 
 sent forth, not accordant with that harmonious voice which has been 
 heard from the beginning. 
 
 The truth is, this doctrine is a little more Jesuitical than that of the 
 Roman church. The holders of it know very well that the infalli- 
 bility of the present church is a doctrine which, in any undisguised 
 form, protestants cannot, by any possibility, be induced to embrace. 
 The object, therefore, is to be reached in another way. An undefined, 
 inaccessible tribunal, called the " catholic church from the beginning," 
 must be set up, " and a consentient voice '•' given to it, which utters 
 only the infallible decrees of truth. So, to complete the delusion, and to 
 withdraw the mind of the inquirer from the real object aimed at, the 
 present church must be pronounced fallible, and the searcher after 
 truth must be allowed, in the exercise of his private judgment, to 
 
192 
 
 AUTHORITY OF THE CHURCH. 
 
 But I shall have missed my aim in pursuing this 
 argument, if it shall turn out, that our church, neither 
 in its standards, nor in the general current of its opin- 
 ions, gives any encouragement to such notions. How, 
 then, is this matter ? 
 
 The homilies, as I showed in a former part of this 
 worlc, have not been silent on this subject. They 
 have not, however, spoken so much of the church in 
 
 deviate from it whenever he can discover that its teachings vary from 
 this " consentient voice of the catholic church from the beginning." 
 
 We submit whether this doctrine does not as effectually withdraw 
 the mind from any direct appeal to the Scriptures as the out and out 
 Roman dogma itself. To our mind it certainly does. For to what 
 is the appeal made ? To the Scriptures simply, as the Holy Ghost, 
 through inspired men, has spread them out before us without note or 
 comment ? No ; but to the Scripture interpreted by the " consentient 
 voice of the catholic church, from the beginning." Now, this language is 
 intended to fill the mind with a spirit of inquiry ; but does it start 
 the direct inciuiry what the Bible means ? No ; but rather, ivhat the 
 church says it means. The appeal is to the church, as being a better 
 interpreter of the mind of the Spirit than the record of inspiration 
 itself. The Spirit has certain things to reveal to men. Certain in- 
 spired men are employed to make a record of these things ; but the 
 record does not make known what the Spirit wishes to reveal. The 
 church must tell us what the revelation is. Disguise it as we will, 
 therefore, it is the church, and not the Bible, to which this theory 
 sends us for instruction. The form of it differs a little from the 
 Roman doctrine, but in substance it amounts to about the same 
 thing. 
 
 We need not stop long here to inquire into the practical value of 
 any consentient testimony of the church in all ages respecting the 
 meaning of the Bible, supposing it to exist : for it is evident, at the 
 first glance, that it could avail those only who had mastered the accu- 
 mulated theology of eighteen centuries. And how many are there 
 among the laity who are sufficiently acquainted with the decrees of 
 councils, and the opinions of learned men and doctors in all ages, to 
 give any intelligible and reliable account of what the church has held 
 from the beginning, be it harmonious or discordant ? We shall prob- 
 ably be far within the limits of truth if we say, not one in ten thou- 
 sand. And what proportion of the clergy could probably draw out 
 from their minds at any moment a consecutive and well arranged 
 view of the teachings of the church through all ages, upon the vari- 
 ous doctrines of the Bible ? Certainly not one in a hundred. If, then, 
 the Scriptures are to be understood only as "interpreted by the con- 
 sentient voice of the catholic church from the beginning," who can 
 become wise unto salvation by understanding them ? One in a hun- 
 dred of the clergy, at most, and perhaps one in ten thousand of the 
 laity ! 
 
AUTHORITY OF THE CHURCH. 
 
 193 
 
 its widest sense, as existing through all time, as of the 
 particular 2^rimitive church. Nor will I affirm that 
 the homilies have claimed for the ancient church even, 
 any absolute and unqualified authority. That they do 
 defer to the primitive church ; that they claim for it 
 some authority ; that they put it forward as a sort of 
 timpire in settling controversies, there caimot be a Avell- 
 gromided doubt. For, in the first place, they quote it, 
 side by side, with the Scriptures, thus — "We are 
 taught by the Scriptures and ancient doctors." " Con- 
 trary to the which most manifest doctrine of the Scrip- 
 tures, and contrary to the usage of the primitive 
 church, which was most pure and uncorrupt, and con- 
 trary to the sentences and judgments of the most 
 ancient, learned and godly doctors of the church." 
 " It shall be declared, both by God's word, and the 
 sentences of the ancient doctors, and judgment of the 
 primitive church." " Thus you see that the authority 
 both of the Scripture, and also of Augustine, doth not 
 permit," &c. 
 
 Now let it be granted that the homilists believed 
 and taught that a doctrine established by the Scrip- 
 tures "hath no more need of the confirmation of 
 man's doctrine and writings, than the bright sun at 
 noontide hath need of the light of a little candle, to put 
 away darkness, and to increase his light ;" it is yet 
 true that they haA'-e lifted up that little candle, and 
 daringly set it down beside the great sun, with the 
 avowed intention of shedding more light into the minds 
 of opponents. They have practically made it a co- 
 ordinate light. 
 
 It has been said that by the words "judgment" and 
 "sentences" of the fathers, nothing more is meant 
 than their opinions. Let it be granted — what then? 
 So long as these judgments or opinions are made a 
 17 
 
194 
 
 AUTHORITY OF THE CHURCH. 
 
 standard by which to decide certain things, what mat- 
 ters it what they are called 7 I claim the privilege to 
 go below the surface, and lay hold of things, leaving 
 those to play with names who deem it a suitable 
 employment. 
 
 That I am right in saying the homilists do defer to 
 the primitive church, appears evident from such lan- 
 guage as this — "The primitive church, which is 
 specially to he followed, as most uncorrupt and pure." 
 If the word of God be the only standard, why is the 
 primitive church "specially to be followed?" 
 
 Great mischief has resulted from this appeal to the 
 fathers, because, especially, it is not legitimate. It 
 does not establish what it was intended to establish. 
 It sends the inquirer, for proof against the idolatry of 
 saint-worship, and picture-worship, and relic-worship, 
 to a period which is full of testimony in its favor. It 
 represents the church as most pure and uncorrupt at 
 the very time when it was most corrupt and impure. 
 The distinguished Isaac Taylor, a member of the 
 church of England, who is deeply read in patristic 
 learning, and, withal, is one of the most fresh and 
 vigorous writers of the age, has made out, on this 
 point, a case against the homilies, whicli is to me, — 
 and, could I spread out on these pages his learned 
 array of facts and arguments, it would be to the 
 reader, — astonishing beyond measure. He shows that 
 the homilists commit great errors in citing the fathers, 
 first, by incorrect references, and, secondly, by inaccu- 
 rate quotations. He shows that they often attribute to 
 one author words that were used by another; and, 
 above all, that they give no heed to the context, thus 
 citing them, often, to prove the very opposite of their 
 known sentiments, and to condemn usages which 
 their own writings show them to have approved and 
 
AUTHORITY OF THE CHURCH. 
 
 195 
 
 practised. I can scarcely restrain the temptation to 
 crowd large extracts into these pages ; but that I must 
 not do. Let the reader procure Taylor's "Ancient 
 Christianity," London edition, and read the fifty odd 
 pages devoted to this point, and the same amazement 
 which fills my mind will, I have no doubt, fill his. 
 The most that I can do is to give a few sentences 
 from this author, and one rather long note. He says : 
 
 "I leave it to the ingenious reader to devise some 
 probable explication of the astounding contradictions 
 presented in the following passage, occurring in the 
 ' Sermon concerning Prayer.' Inconsistencies so dis- 
 creditable call, surely, for a revising hand." 
 
 He then gives the extract, and appends this remark. 
 " How shall the protestant church contend with 
 popery, while, by appeals such as these, to the fathers, 
 it puts an irrefragable argument into the mouth of the 
 Romanist." 
 
 He then goes on to compare the several allegations 
 of the homilist with the authorities he adduces, and 
 shows that the letter of Augustine to Paulinus, which 
 the homilist quotes as high authority, is full of recog- 
 nitions and professions of the very opinions and prac- 
 tices which he was laboring to disparage. He cites 
 passages from Augustine, containing a " distinct recog- 
 nition, and his explicit approval of a practice — at that 
 time prevalent — of addressing fervent supplications to 
 the martyrs, at their shrines, beseeching them to 
 undertake the office of intercessors for the departed !" 
 " Here, therefore," continues Mr. Taylor, " the com- 
 plicated superstitions of the times, involving every 
 theological error, are sanctioned by this ' doctor of great 
 authority, and also antiquity:' — and yet the homilist 
 can think himself at hberty to cite Augustine on the 
 
196 
 
 AUTHORITY OF THE CHURCH. 
 
 protestant side, as one who ' doth not permit that we 
 should pray unto them' (the saints and martyrs !)" 
 
 Again; "O that men would studiously read and 
 search the Scriptures!" — a most appropriate ejacula- 
 tion, indeed, and worthy of a protestant teacher. But 
 when all men shall actually do so, the consequence, we 
 may be sure, will be, their utterly rejecting the perni- 
 cious guidance of those "ancient doctors" to whom the 
 writers of the homilies so unwarrantably made their 
 appeal. 
 
 Again; after attending to a number of quotations 
 from Ambrose, as contained in the homilies, Mr. Tay- 
 lor says, " To what purpose, then, may Ambrose be 
 adduced, as disallowing the invocation of saints, or the 
 practice of confiding in their protection? He himself 
 habitually invoked them — he himself professes his 
 confident reliance upon their merits and interces- 
 sion ! " 
 
 " ' So saith St. Chrysostom, an ancient doctor of the 
 church.' But what is it that Chrysostom saith? not 
 that which the homilist affirms, but the very contrary ! 
 I need not here repeat or add to the citations already 
 made from the undoubted writings of Chrysostom, in 
 proof of the fact that this father warmly, and on all 
 occasions, recommended the practice which the writer 
 of the 'Sermon on Prayer' as warmly and constantly 
 condemns." 
 
 Again; "The references to the ancient catholic fa- 
 thers in the homily, 'Of the worthy receiving and 
 I'everent esteeming of the sacrament of the body and 
 blood of Christ,' are liable to the same kind of excep- 
 tion; — for, in several of these instances, if the whole 
 case were fairly stated, that 'gross idolatry,' and 
 ' mummish massing,' against which the argument of 
 the homily is directed, would appear to have sprung 
 
AUTHORITY OF THE CHURCH. 
 
 197 
 
 directly from the exaggerations of the writers who are 
 adduced as witnesses on the protestant side ! " 
 
 "A Romanist may find his advantage in almost 
 every instance in which, throughout the homilies, an 
 appeal is made against the usages of his church to the 
 ancient doctors." * 
 
 * The reader will be gratified with the following forcible remarks, 
 with which Mr. Taylor closes his criticisms of the homilies : 
 
 " I have adduced a sample only of instances in illustration of the 
 mode in which the compilers of the book of homilies avail themselves 
 of the authority of ecclesiastical antiquity, assumed to favor the doc- 
 trine and worship of the English church. If the entire number of 
 such citations was to be analyzed, I think it would appear that, at the 
 least, four fifths of them are liable to some specific and substantial 
 exception : — many, as we have seen, on the ground of literary in- 
 accuracies ; or such a want of precision as betrays the practice of 
 quoting at secondhand ; or from some miscellaneous repertory, itself 
 carelessly stocked ; or from the unassisted memory. 
 
 " More than a few of these faulty citations are derived from writings 
 glaringly spurious ; and several occur nowhere in the works of the 
 writers named. 
 
 " But the most remarkable of these exceptionable quotations are 
 those — and we have seen that many such present themselves — in 
 which a father is deliberately brought forward to give his evidence in 
 direct contrariety to his actual opinion, and to his uniform practice ; 
 and is thus made to condemn that which, on the very page referred to, 
 he most strenuously commends. 
 
 " Now let it be supposed that a revision, merely literary, of the book 
 of homilies were judged to be necessary by the authorities of the 
 church. Would not the editors who might be appointed to carry for- 
 ward such a revision, think themselves absolutely obliged, in the due 
 performance of their task, to collate and verify the entire mass of 
 quotations therein occurring, from ancient authors ? If so, we may 
 assume it as certain that they would feel themselves compelled to 
 rectify the numerous instances of merely erroneous reference, as to 
 book, chapter and treatise. But again ; must it not be thought in- 
 cumbent upon them also to note, or actually to expunge, quotations 
 from writings confessedly spurious ? This also ought to be granted ; 
 and then what course should be pursued in dealing with those fla- 
 grant instances — instances which give so much advantage to Ro- 
 manists — wherein a use altogether unwarrantable is made of the 
 name and reputation of a father, to disparage usages and notions 
 which he is well kno\vn to have constantly upheld and professed ? It 
 would seem strange indeed if, while removing from the book of 
 homilies its harmless literary blemishes, it were still left burdened 
 with the grave faults which nullify its cogent argumentation, and 
 serve to embolden those whom it would abash ! 
 
 " We advance then only one step further, and imagine that, in the 
 room of quotations erroneous, or logically unsound, there were inserted 
 17* 
 
198 
 
 AUTHORITY OF THE CHURCH. 
 
 Thus it is seen that this homiletic appeal to these 
 idolatrous fathers is fitted, in the very nature of the 
 
 in these homilies some simple statements of the meke historic fact : 
 That the various errors, corruptions, and superstitions, on the ground 
 of which the church of Eome is so vehemently arraigned as apostate, 
 prevailed long before the age of the papal usurpation, and may be 
 traced to the ' doctors and bishops' of the third and fourth centuries. 
 
 " We are here supposing two things, both of which it seems reason- 
 able to assume, namely, that from the formularies of the church, what 
 is glaringly false in fact should be expunged ; and that what is at 
 once true in itself, and necessary to the argumentative existence and 
 consistency of that church, should be acknowledged and insisted upon. 
 
 " But how momentous would be the consequence of so reasonable 
 an expurgation ! For it would then appear, not merely that the church 
 of England is protestant in its spirit and doctrine ; — for this is mani- 
 fest already ; — but that it is so consistently and harmoniocsly ! 
 
 "Were the formularies of the church relieved of blemishes — 
 which, in fact, ought to be removed, in regard merely to the literary 
 reputation of so erudite a communion — then would its adversaries 
 on either hand lose oil their advantage in argument : — and more than 
 this, the church would cease to generate, as it has done, and does at 
 this moment, an intestinal plague threatening its very life. 
 
 "All the seeming, or the real, strength of the argument urged by 
 the present admirers of antiquity, or of the argument which they 
 advance as members of the church of England, is derived from the 
 alleged fact that the church itself leans, not merely upon Scripture, but 
 upon antiquity. Let, however, this 'leaning upon antiquity ' be ana- 
 lyzed, and critically followed through its details, and what is the con- 
 sequence ? From such a scrutiny arises an imperative necessity for 
 rejecting, almost in mass, this appeal to the authority of the fathers ! 
 
 " If our object at this time were simply to make good a charge of 
 faultiness, on several counts, against the book of homilies, we might 
 be allowed to have sufficiently acquitted our task. But what we 
 intend is of far more moment ; for we mean to affirm, that the prot- 
 estant WIND of the Episcopal church, if disencumbered of what, in a 
 merely literary and logical sense, ought to be rejected and expunged, 
 would leave without even a pretext those who, entertaining a feeling 
 and opinion diametrically opposite, yet hold their position within it, 
 and subscribe its formularies. 
 
 " Although, by its homogeneity of style, its animation, its earnest- 
 ness, and its force, the collection of sermons which the church pro- 
 nounces to contain ' a godly and wholesome doctrine ' sustains 
 throughout an apparent uniformity of intention — the characteristic 
 of consistent and mature minds — yet, when the mass comes to be 
 more narrowly scrutinized, we are compelled to admit that beneath 
 the surface two elements utterly incongruous — two principles forever 
 irreconcilable — are forced into an unblessed combination. It is impossible 
 that any one mind, a mind reasonable and well informed, can embrace and 
 assent to the tvhole ; if the one element be received, the other by necessity is 
 rejected." 
 
AUTHORITY OF THE CHURCH. 
 
 199 
 
 case, to do immense mischief. Mr. Taylor furnishes 
 the most ample documentary proof that the legendary 
 
 " The mere question as to the literary quality of the book of homilies 
 ■we quite reject, as beside our purpose. But the sample we have 
 given of the monstrous faultiness attaching to its citation of ancient 
 authorities serves to bring to view, in a tangible form, that dangerous 
 linking together of antagonist elements which is now bringing on an 
 ecclesiastical revolution. 
 
 "How little did the venerable men — the martyrs of the English 
 church — imagine what they were doing, and what harvest for their 
 country they were preparing, when, from a mistaken anxiety to con- 
 ciliate the adherents of the ancient idolatry, they professed their sub- 
 mission to the very authors of that idolatry, and admitted into the 
 constitutions they formed the roots of the ancient delusion, and the germs 
 of an after-grorvth of polytheism .' 
 
 " The first and inevitable consequence of thi.s fatal mistake was, to 
 necessitate the puritan-protest against that residue of deadly error — 
 a protest as fully justified as it was nobly sustained! Unless this 
 protest had been made and perpetuated, England would liave differed 
 nothing from Spain ! 
 
 " The next effect, not less inevitable, has waited for its development 
 to these times ; and is now fast advancing towards its terrible crisis — 
 a religious, and, perhaps, a civil, convulsion, springing from, and 
 mainly promoted by, the reckless determination of hierarchs to re- 
 establish among us a spiritual despotism. 
 
 " Elements essentially destructive one of the other may long repose 
 in quiet juxtaposition, or apparent harmony. That is to say, so long 
 as no agitation produces a collision between them ; but not an hour 
 longer ; for, at the moment when a deep energy begins to heave the 
 mass, these antagonist forces begin also a counteraction, which con- 
 tinues and increases, until a mighty convulsion gives to the stronger, 
 or to the more active, of the two, the opportunity to oust its enemy. 
 
 " The stir of church-principles, in the present times, has just 
 imparted this expulsive energy to that element of the ancient super- 
 stition which the reformers left as a lifeless mass (so they thought) 
 about the foundation of the church. 
 
 "It matters not as to the issue, that this element is adjunctive — is 
 separable in theory — is in itself worthless and utterly contemptible : 
 — IT IS THnRE ; and it is there where sappers and miners are wont 
 to deposit the grains that shall mock earthquakes the moment fire 
 reaches them ! 
 
 " There was a season which passed over England like an April sun- 
 shine, when the long-cherished wish of many hearts to remove from 
 the church the dangerous admixture of ancient errors seemed not 
 unlikely to be accomplished! But none at that moment were gifted 
 with the moral courage, the religious integrity, and the political wis- 
 dom, that should have fitted them for the task of putting their hands 
 to so great and good a work. 
 
 " The consequence might have been safely and surely predicted ; a 
 reaction the most natural ensued ; and instantly, when all hope of 
 reform was abandoned, a new feeling, having in it something of the 
 
200 
 
 AUTHORITY OF THE CHURCH. 
 
 theology, prevailing at the period of time to which the 
 homilies send us for instruction, had, at that very mo- 
 ment, reduced the christian church to a depth of super- 
 stition and moral degradation lower than those of the 
 heathens by whom it was surrounded. And yet this 
 is the period of which the homilies speak as "most 
 pure and uncorrupt," and " specially to be followed." 
 It is to the fathers of this period, sunk in polytheism, 
 and every vice, that they send us, with hat in hand, as 
 to "godly bishops," and "ancient doctors," of "great 
 authority." Of so evil a tendency does Mr. Taylor 
 regard this appeal, that he attributes to it, " in great 
 measure," the " many reactions towards Romanism in 
 the English church." And Mr. Hallam, speaking of 
 the state of things in the days of Laud, says, " An ex- 
 treme reverence for what they called the primitive 
 church had been flie source of all these errors."* 
 
 The " authority" of the fathers ! The very thought 
 makes the heart sick. Whence came the papal sys- 
 tem 1 Who were its originators and authors 7 Who 
 stood like guides along the road, not only pointing out 
 the way, but themselves walking in it, and directing 
 the church in its passage over the track of primitive 
 time to the city with seven hills ? The fathers ; those 
 very fathers of whose antiquity and authority the hom- 
 ilists make so nuich account. The Roman system, 
 with its multiplied abominations, did not take the 
 world by surprise, springing upon it like the tiger upon 
 his prey. It was not born at once, with all its parts 
 entire, but was the result of a long and steady groioth, 
 — rising up in its enormous magnitude by little and 
 
 energy of desperation, came in as a reaction, strongly corroborative 
 of whatever had seemed the most questionable in the liturgic offices. 
 Human affairs not unfrequently present such an aspect of sudden 
 contrariety." — Supphment Ancient Christianity, vol. ii., pp. 46 — 52. 
 * Constitutional Hist, of Eng., vol. ii., p. 86. 
 
AUTHORITY OF THE CHURCH. 
 
 201 
 
 little; taking into its mass of unlawful things one un- 
 scriptural ceremony after another, and fmally, when 
 the whole body was complete, putting on the papal 
 head. I ask again, Who reared this enormous struc- 
 ture of superstition, carrying it up, age after age, by 
 placing one stone upon it, and then another, until the 
 papal cap-stone was put on, with the attendant shouts 
 of hell 7 And the answer leaps from every page of 
 ancient history — the fathers ! They it was who laid 
 the foundation-stones on soil reclaimed from heathen 
 possession, and with ceremonies congenial Avith the 
 feelings of heathen converts ; they who added rite after 
 rite, ceremony after ceremony, superstition after super- 
 stition; they who encouraged, and aided, or rather 
 catised, the growth of the papal system, until the pope 
 became its only appropriate, and in fact its necessary 
 head. There must first be popery, before there could 
 be a pope; the papal system, before its papal director. 
 And no man or men can show that anybody produced 
 this system except the fathers. It is, therefore, the 
 next thing to effrontery to claim for the fathers author- 
 ity in matters of faith, or indeed to defer to them in 
 any manner whatever. With just the same propriety 
 we might defer to the tractarians. The fathers were 
 on the way to Rome. They were producing a system 
 which ended in crowning a pope. The tractarians are 
 doing the same, and no more. I would as soon follow 
 the one as the other. It was by deferring to the fathers 
 that the tractarians got where they are. Their first 
 tracts were in harmony with the sentiments of the ear- 
 lier fathers. Their subsequent ones were exponents 
 of the opinions of later fathers. Tract XC. brought 
 them into the society and fellowship of the trideniine 
 fathers ! 
 
 Strange that theologians will not cease from man ! 
 
202 
 
 AUTHORITY OF THE CHURCH. 
 
 that they will not let alone the fathers ! that they will 
 not abstain even from appealing to the reformers ! that 
 they will not prove all things by the infallible word of 
 God, and consider that j)roof enough ! 
 
 I cannot but say here that I have been pained to 
 witness, in the late controversies with tractarians, the 
 continual appeals of our evangelical writers to the re- 
 formers. Among our writers of any note, in this coun- 
 try, the Rev. Dr. Stone is the only one I can call to 
 mind who has left upon his pages the traces of a clear,' 
 settled, and resolute conviction, that the Bible is the 
 only rule of faith, and a full purpose to assert its su- 
 premacy, practically as well as theoretically, in the face 
 of a confused, fickle, and man-worshipping generation. 
 
203 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 TEACHING OF THE CHURCH. 
 
 The phrase, " teaching of the church," has become 
 very common of late ; and, considering the sense in 
 which it is used, it would be difficult to find one of 
 more evil tendency. What right has the church to 
 teach'} Who has endowed it with this prerogative? 
 Rome talks much about an ecclesia docens, or teaching 
 church; and this language, as she uses it, has some 
 meaning. She means by it the body of bishops and 
 priests, with the pope at their head, who are literally 
 authorized to teach ; to tell the people what they shall 
 believe and do. But the protestant idea of the church 
 includes the whole body of the people, as well as the 
 priests ; and it is an absurd idea that themselves, col- 
 lectively, should be the teachers, and themselves singly 
 the taught. Besides, the protestant idea I had always 
 supposed to be, that the Bible and the Holy Spirit were 
 the christian's only teachers. The church, I had 
 thought, was the publisher of the gospel, not its origi- 
 nator ; the bearer of good news, not the original promul- 
 gator of it ; that her cry was. Thus saith the Lord, 
 not. Thus dccreeth the church ; that she brought a 
 message from God, not a decree from her own coun- 
 cils. The church is no teacher — has no right to teach. 
 It is taught itself; and what it is taught it may telHo 
 others — nay, it must tell it; its own life depends upon 
 its telling it ; and when it has done this, it must point 
 to the source of its own light and instruction as the 
 fountain of light and instruction for its members. The 
 moment it rises above this humble office of publisher 
 
204 
 
 TEACHING OF THE CHURCH. 
 
 of good news, and assumes the functions of teacher, 
 that moment it usurps the prerogatives of God, and 
 thwarts his benevolent purposes towards men. It is 
 disseminating a false doctrine, therefore, to talk about 
 the teaching of the church. It sends men to the wrong 
 source for instruction. It begets a habit of attempting 
 to settle all controversies by an appeal to the church, 
 or the primitive church, or the fathers, or the reform- 
 ers, or the prayer-book, or anything in fact, rather 
 than the pure word of God. Such has been the result 
 among us. Such appeals have been constantly made 
 on both sides, during all the tractarian controversy; 
 so that a direct and sole appeal to the Bible has become 
 exceedingly rare. Scarcely any writer seems to think 
 he has proved anything, until he has dragged forward 
 some canon, or decree, or rubric, or article of the 
 church. If the church can be made to speak in his 
 favor, he has gained his point ; if not, he has lost it, 
 though Isaiah, and Paul, and John, and Matthew, 
 should each furnish a score of texts which are pat to 
 his purpose. Thus the word of God is depreciated, 
 and the way is prepared for sinking it altogether out 
 of sight, and for introducing in its.stead the traditions 
 of men. If God's word is a?«?/thing, it is everything; 
 if it is not the sole rule of faith, it is not the rule of faith 
 at all. God will not divide his glory with another. 
 If men will not take his word and Spirit as their only 
 teachers, he will not allow them to be rightly taught. 
 Hence, when they begin to resort to the church for in- 
 struction, he generally permits them to be blinded, and 
 to be led astray. 
 
205 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 HIGH VIEWS OF THE MINISTRY. 
 
 Nearly all the roots of the ancient corruption which 
 the English reformers left in the soil, have now, I be- 
 lieve, been uncovered and exposed to the reader; in 
 other terms, the original causes of a relapse towards the 
 old bondage are now chiefly under the reader's eye — 
 all those causes, I mean, which were left at the refor- 
 mation in the doctrines and formularies of the English 
 church. But these, in due time, produced effects, 
 which, in their turn, acted, and still act, as causes ; 
 and in some instances are more active than many of 
 the original causes, though not found in the homilies, 
 the prayer-book, or the articles. 
 
 Among these causes of later origin, may be men- 
 tioned, as particularly prominent, high views of the 
 ministry. These have grown out of high views of the 
 sacraments. 
 
 Ever since the reformation, two antagonistic views 
 have been taken of the sacraments. One, the protes- 
 tant view, represents them as "two simple, outward 
 rites, constituted by divine appointment, to be, in the 
 practice of the church, the expression or profession, on 
 our part, of the possession of an inward spiritual grace, 
 which we have divinely received, — or of our desire for 
 spiritual gifts, which are to be divinely bestowed;"* 
 the other, the Roman view, represents them as the 
 sources of divine life in the soul, and the channels for 
 conveying the grace needed for its continuance and 
 
 * Rev. Dr. Tyng's Simplicity of the Lord's Supper. 
 
 18 
 
206 HIGH VIEWS OF THE MINISTRY. 
 
 growth. This latter view being taken, the sacraments 
 become the germinant points from whicii springs a 
 system that reverses the whole order of the christian 
 economy. Under this scheme, grace is no longer 
 sought and obtained ; it is first prepared by the priest, 
 and then conveyed. The participator in a sacrament 
 no longer takes it as a token of the life which has been 
 already received directly from Christ; but it either 
 conveys life to the soul, as is affirmed of baptism, or, 
 as is alleged of the supper, strengthens a life already 
 imparted. Salvation no longer hangs suspended upon 
 faith, and repentance and prayer, and a holy life ; but 
 upon a constant and devout receiving of the sacra- 
 ments. Out of this view logical errors grow somewhat 
 in this order. 
 
 1. That some change is produced in the elements 
 of bread and wine in the supper, and of the water in 
 baptism ; for it is very plain that bread and Avine and 
 water can do nothing for the soul in their natural state. 
 In order to impart a new and divine life to the soul, or to 
 invigorate a life already given, they must be made alive 
 themselves; and in order that they may impart a spir- 
 itual life, the life with which they are endowed must 
 be spiritual. In a word, they must be infused with the 
 Spirit, or spiritually changed into the body and blood 
 of Christ. 
 
 2. The sacraments being thus made the sources and 
 the supports of spiritual life, and the necessary infer- 
 ence being drawn from it that a spiritual change 
 takes place in the elements, — a logical necessity is cre- 
 ated for a priesthood^— noi for pastors and teachers, but 
 {or priests, — men to offer the sacrifice. For if grace is 
 no longer obtained directly from Christ in answer to 
 prayer, if the hfe and the health of the soul comes only 
 through the sacraments, and if these are efficacious 
 
HIGH VIEWS OF THE MINISTRY. 
 
 207 
 
 only when there is a change in the elements, then there 
 is absolute need of a class of men Avith power to work 
 the mysterious change in them, to endow them with 
 the precious boon of life, which they are to convey to 
 dead or languishing souls. 
 
 3. Then comes the necessity of a still more mis- 
 chievous error. The priest, thus endowed with the 
 supernatural power of working a change in bread, and 
 wine, and water, is in possession of a gift Avhich no 
 man can possibly have who has not been set apart to 
 the priesthood in his particular way and manner. The 
 persons, therefore, who thus endowed him, namely, 
 the bishops, are essential to the being of the church. 
 The priest, also, becomes absolutely essential. For as 
 there is no life for the soul without the sacraments, and 
 no life-giving sacraments without a change in the ele- 
 ments, and no change in the elements without the exer- 
 cise of the miraculous power of the priest; then the 
 priest who possesses this miraculous power must be 
 retained, or the soul will infallibly be lost. This puts 
 the salvation of the soul entirely into the hands of the 
 priest ; it gives him the poAver to infuse the gift of eter- 
 nal life into bread, and wine, and water, and then to 
 confer it at such time, in such measure, on such terms, 
 and upon such individuals, and such only, as he will. 
 And here is completed a system of unmixed spiritual 
 despotism. For the priest, holding in his hand the 
 boon of eternal life, offers it to such only as yield him a 
 willing, uncomplaining, and constant obedience. From 
 such as resist his will, he withholds the sacraments, 
 and thus closes against them the gate of heaven. 
 
 4. Not only does a spiritual despotism grow out of 
 the above premises, but there shoots off in another 
 direction, from this thrifty sacramental tree, the spread- 
 ing branch of " apostolic succession." For those bish- 
 
208 HIGH VIEWS OF THE MINISTRY. 
 
 ops and priests, endowed with miraculous gifts for 
 working mysterious changes in material things, must 
 receive their endowments from their miraculously 
 endowed predecessors ; not merely their power of 
 government, but their power to elaborate — so to speak 
 — and then to convey grace ; a power on which 
 depend the validity and virtue of all sacramental and 
 ministerial acts ; a power without which no man can 
 validly administer the sacraments, or perform other 
 clerical functions. Hence follow the dogmas, not only 
 of " No bishop, no church ;" but, especially. No bishop, 
 no valid ministry ; and no valid ministry, no life-im- 
 parting sacraments ; and no life-imparting sacraments, 
 no salvation. These sequences grow necessarily out 
 of each other, and are linked together as with hooks 
 of steel, so that the strongest dialectician has not the 
 power to force them asunder. 
 
 Some may think it a merely fanciful idea that high 
 notions in regard to the sacraments lead to high and 
 exclusive views of the ministry. Regarding this 
 merely as a philosophical question, I would not pre- 
 tend to say that such is the only way in which a 
 false estimate of clerical character and powers can be 
 induced ; but I do affirm that it can be induced very 
 philosophically in this way ; and it can, in fact, be 
 historically verified that this has been the order in 
 which the false views spoken of have made their 
 appearance in the English church. For a long time 
 after the reformation, high views of the ministry were 
 almost unknown among English Episcopalians; nor 
 were they embraced to any considerable extent, until 
 preceded by a false estimate of the sacraments ; and 
 any upward tendency of opinions in regard to the 
 priesthood has, at every period in the history of that 
 church, and of the Protestant Episcopal church in the 
 
HIGH VIEWS OF THE MINISTRY. 
 
 209 
 
 United States, been preceded by a corresponding upward 
 movement of opinions in regard to the sacraments. 
 
 The reader may find a confirmation of this remark, 
 by caUing to mind the fact that, in the reign of queen 
 Aime, 1702, the lower house of convocation, having 
 fallen into some dispute with the bishops, and fearing 
 that they should be suspected of favoring presbytery, 
 passed a resolution that episcopacy was of divine 
 right. But when the proposition was sent up to the 
 bishops, they declined to sanction it ; notwithstanding 
 the knoAvn determination of the lower house to charge 
 them with favoring presbytery, in case they declined. 
 They raised a dispute on that point, which finally 
 divided the clergy ; and out of this contention arose 
 the terms high and loio church.* 
 
 So necessarily do high views of the sacraments tend 
 to exalt the priestly office, that Burnet says,t " After 
 the schoolmen fell to examine matters of divinity with 
 logical and unintelligible niceties, and the canonists 
 began to comment upon the rules of the ancient 
 church, they studied to make bishops and priests seem 
 very near one another, so that the difference was but 
 small. They did it with different designs ; the school- 
 men, having set up the grand mystery of transubstan- 
 tiation, were to exalt the priestly office as much as 
 possible; for the turning the host into God was so 
 great an action, that they reckoned there could be no 
 office higher than that which qualified a man to so 
 mighty a j)erformance ; therefore, as they changed the 
 form of ordination from what it was anciently believed 
 to consist in, to a delivering of the sacred vessels, and 
 held that a priest had his orders by that rite, and not 
 by the imposition of hands ; so they raised their ofl5.ce 
 
 * Burnet's Own Times, vol. ii., pp. 346, 347. 
 t Addenda Hist. Ref.; vol. 1. 
 18* 
 
210 
 
 HIGH VIEWS OF THE MINISTRY. 
 
 SO high as to make it equal with the order of a 
 bishop." 
 
 The reader cannot fail to see the force of this 
 historic fact. So necessarily did exalted notions of the 
 sacraments engender extraordinary claims in behalf of 
 priestly power, that the wide distinction which had 
 long been maintained between bishops and priests 
 shrunk, under the necessary pressure of this idea, in 
 the acute and logical minds of the schoolmen, to a 
 point, and actually disappeared. 
 
 In this case, as in many others, that which was at 
 first only an effect, being once produced, becomes 
 itself a cause, and reacts towards the cause which pro- 
 duced it ; and, as its legitimate effect, increases the 
 activity and power of that cause. High and exclusive 
 views of the ministry induce still higher views of the 
 sacraments. When a certain class of clergy get to be 
 the only dispensers of gospel ordinances, then these 
 ordinances become, if they were not before, the only 
 channels of divine grace. And thus, by a vicious 
 action and reaction, the evils of an erroneous system 
 are increased. 
 
 The Rev. Dr. Stone, in his great work on the 
 " Universal Church," has furnished an invincible 
 array of testimony, showing that the earlier English 
 divines did not entertain high views of the ministry, 
 and especially, that their opinions were not tinctured 
 with a particle of exclusiveness. So abundant is the 
 evidence he has furnished on this point, that, though 
 it might be increased, it could not be made more satis- 
 factory. 
 
 The reader may be ready here to propound to me 
 the question — Why, if the reformers " left an element 
 of the ancient corruption about the foundation of the 
 church;" in other words, if their minds were not 
 
HIGH VIEWS OF THE MINISTRY. 211 
 
 purged of superstitious views of the sacraments, why 
 did they not embrace the logical results of these 
 opinions, namely, high and exclusive views of the 
 ministry 1 
 
 There were several reasons why they did not. In 
 the first place, they were themselves charged with 
 not having a valid ministry by the Roman church ; 
 and with that charge pressed upon them by so pow- 
 erful a body, and in so offensive and dogmatic a 
 way, they had very little disposition to imitate so 
 unlovely an example, by turning to their neighbors, 
 and making the same proud assumptions, and urg- 
 ing the same offensive charges against them. In 
 the second place, the protestants of Europe were then 
 but a handful of faithful men, who had come out 
 of great darkness, and were liable at any moment to 
 be crushed imder the iron wheels of both civil and 
 religious despotisms. While they exercised a firm 
 reliance upon God, they still felt the need of encour- 
 agement and support from each other. The English 
 churchmen, therefore, cultivated the friendship of con- 
 tinental protestants. In the third place, the reformers 
 of England received not a little advice and assistance 
 from the continental reformers in framing our articles 
 of religion. These causes all acting upon their minds 
 together, prevented the development in their minds of 
 the natural results of the sacramentarian notions of 
 which they had not wholly rid themselves. But the 
 moment the offensive accusation of the Roman church 
 began to be unheeded, and the several sections of the 
 protestant army to feel competent to fight its battles 
 alone, and the favors of the continental reformers to be 
 forgotten ; ihe?i the leaven began to work ; then altars 
 no longer stood isolated and alone, but priests appeared 
 before them, and affirmed their exclusive right to offer 
 the sacrifice. 
 
212 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 TYRANNIZING HIGH CHURCHISM. 
 
 The force of the present evil teiideircy of our sys- 
 tem is greatly enhanced by certain customs among us 
 which are tyrannous beyond measure ; customs which, 
 I am sorry to say, tend to destroy all manly freedom, 
 and to introduce the habit of a blind following of 
 such leaders as happen to be in high and honored 
 places. 
 
 At about the period when the influence of the 
 " Tracts for the Times" began to be felt in this country, 
 there appeared somewhat suddenly, among Episcopa- 
 lians in New England, a kind of general feeling that 
 the outward forms and ceremonies of the church had 
 been a little too much neglected ; and that a more 
 exact and earnest attention to them would give to our 
 Zion a more divine and heavenly beauty. Confessions 
 of neglect and short-comings in this behalf were heard 
 on every hand, and stragglings after a more exact 
 conformity to ritual observances were noticeable in 
 various quarters. The church, the churcli, began to 
 be the watchword, and right earnestly the watchmen 
 rung it from the walls of Zion. It Avas heard from the 
 pulpit ; it was heard through the press. Every editor 
 must make it prominent in his articles, or be censured 
 as a puritan, and wanting in churchmanship. Men 
 of fancy had only to rack their brains and invent some 
 phrase or aphorism, which gave a remarkable and 
 apposite prominence to '■^ the church,'''' and straightway 
 it was heard from half our pulpits, became a part of 
 every true churchman's colloquial furniture, and soon 
 
TYRANNIZING HIGH CHURCHISM. 
 
 213 
 
 even found itself conspicuously and quietly seated, as 
 a motto, at the head of some two or three religious jour- 
 nals ! And when a clergyman was found, who did 
 not pronounce this shibboleth with sufficient frequency, 
 I need not say how gossip caught up the rumor, and 
 
 ran with it from mouth to mouth, that Mr. was 
 
 not a sound churchman. 
 
 It is well known, that, in a short time, under this 
 state of things, usages and modes of speech were 
 introduced, entirely unknown to the canons or the 
 rubrics, which it was disreputable, and almost as much 
 as one's character was worth, to disregard. Amid the 
 general shout of, " The temple of the Lord, the temple 
 of the Lord are these," many were terrified and awed 
 into submission; more were charmed and delighted 
 with the gaudy robes of the heavenly bride, as she 
 swept back and forth before their excited imagina- 
 tions ; and still more were confused by the new and 
 tumultuous shouts, and were hurried on, they knew 
 not whither. Ministers began to explain from the 
 pulpit the "principles of the church," and to get up 
 courses of lectures, not only to explain, but to laud and 
 magnify, "our excellent liturgy."* " The wisdom 
 of our church" became a phrase of such frequent use, 
 that many really seemed to think that wisdom would 
 perish from the earth if that church should be pros- 
 trated. " A good churchman" became far more talked 
 
 * The practice of explaining and praising the liturgy, and ex- 
 pounding " the principles of the church," by courses of lectures, I 
 have seen adopted in several country churches ; and in no instance, 
 within my knowledge, has the effect been other than a serious injury 
 to the parish. It has, in every instance, lowered the standard of vital 
 piety, thinned the congregation, increased the prejudices of the com- 
 munity against the Episcopal church, originated disputes on topics 
 which the people had previously thought nothing about, and has 
 generally ended in raising up some three or four sturdy churchmen, 
 who have thenceforward acted as faithful sentinels, by guarding every 
 avenue to the church, and driving back the people. 
 
214 
 
 TYRANNIZING HIGH CHUKCHISM. 
 
 of, and apparently more esteemed, than a good chris- 
 tian. "The church" once more became the holy 
 "wzo^Aer" of all the faithful; and hence, not only 
 afforded nourishment for all her children, but became 
 their teacher ; in short, she became, practically, all in 
 all to them. Then, too, we began to hear about " the 
 gospel in the church,'"* and "the church in the gos- 
 pel;" " the church as a shelter to flee to;" the church 
 as conservative of all that is valuable in the world. 
 
 This latter idea has been particularly dwelt upon ; 
 and " the church" has been lauded as a secure retreat 
 from the alleged loose theology and loose government 
 of those denominations which reject episcopacy. So 
 much has this idea been fostered, that it has become a 
 mark of churchmaiiship to be particularly clear on this 
 point ; and so strong is the desire of many now to 
 maintain an irreproachable character for maintaining 
 church principles, that they have not the moral courage 
 to deal a manly blow at Rome, without at the same 
 time making a petulant thrust at Geneva. Forms of 
 speech which express this thrusting in two directions 
 have become so common, that they meet us in many 
 of our convention sermons and leading newspaper 
 articles ; and many of those who use them, if called to 
 announce them suddenly, would be at no more loss 
 than in pronouncing the benediction. Their stereo- 
 typed forms seem, to be varied only by the different 
 metals in which they are cast. Those who are fond 
 of indistinctness will form them somewhat after this 
 fashion: "We hope it will ever be the happiness of 
 our church to pursue the middle way between Rome 
 on the one hand, and Geneva on the other." One who 
 
 ♦When men begin with taking particular pains to see that the 
 gospel is in the church, they generally end with turning the key upon 
 It, and making it a prisoner for life. 
 
TYRANNIZING HTfiH CHTIKCHISM. 
 
 215 
 
 has a little more distinctness in his composition, and a 
 considerable suaviter in modo, will give them some- 
 thing like the following rotundity and fairness of 
 exterior: "May the venerable communion, to which 
 it is our happiness to belong, ever preserve that even 
 balance of doctrine and discipline for which it has 
 been so long distinguished; protesting firmly against 
 the errors of the papal church on the one side, and 
 avoiding those extremes into which some of our 
 brethren of other denominations have unhappily run 
 on the other." While another, who has a little more 
 force and acerbity of temper, rings them out somewhat 
 in this manner: " It will be a sad day for us when 
 the venerable church of our choice ceases to protest 
 alike against the damning heresies of Rome on the one 
 hand, and the pestilent and schismatical fanaticisms 
 of Geneva on the other." If those who patronize this 
 folly could offer the Scottish bard's simple prayer, 
 and receive answer to it, — 
 
 " 0 wad some power the giftie gie us, 
 To see oursels as ithers see us," — 
 
 we are sure they would forsake it at once. So strong 
 has its influence become, however, that few seem to 
 be endowed with the moral courage to withstand it; 
 and hence the majority are carried along, step by step, 
 in an upward direction, magnifying the church in this 
 particular and in that, placing it in the foreground of 
 every picture drawn for public inspection, and in 
 various ways drawing the attention of others to the 
 irreproachable character of their churchmanship. So 
 fanatical had this spirit become several years since, 
 that episcopal institutions, periodicals, (fee., had to be 
 labelled with denominational letters, that all men might 
 know at a glance to whom and what they belonged, 
 
216 
 
 TYRANNIZING HIGH CHURCHISM. 
 
 and that they had a character distinct and distinguish- 
 able from anything " disseitiing" and sectarian. The 
 paper long known under the beautiful name of Chris- 
 iia?i Witness, and which was at first contented to be 
 simply a witness for Christ, was now filled with an 
 irrepressible desire to speak also for "the chi/rch," and 
 would thenceforward be known as the "Christian 
 Witness and Church Advocate." The institution of 
 learning at Hartford, which had borne the patriotic 
 title of Washington College, could be satisfied with 
 this no longer, and, like some whimsical individuals, 
 applied to the legislature for another name, taking the 
 more church-like title of Trinity College. 
 
 In this way, high churchism has been gradually 
 advancing, and the moral power of resisting it has 
 diminished in the same proportion. The relative dis- 
 tance between the parties of high and low is indeed 
 about the same that it was some years since, but both 
 parties have advanced in one direction. The Hobart- 
 ism of eighteen hundred and thirty has become the 
 Puseyism of eighteen hundred and forty-seven; and 
 the New England low churchism of eighteen hundred 
 and thirty-five has travelled upward in the same 
 direction, and, with a few honorable exceptions, in 
 eighteen hundred and forty-seven has taken its stand, 
 — or rather, I might say, is passing across the Hobart 
 platform. The New York Churchman was not so 
 high church in its tone twelve years ago as the Chris- 
 tian Witness and Church Advocate now is. Let any 
 man bring me the little flying " Banner of the 
 Church," conducted in this city fourteen years ago, 
 by the present bishop Doane, and Dr. William Cros- 
 well, and show me its high churchism; I will find 
 him column for column, nay two for one, on the pages 
 of the Witness, of the same kind of matter, only a little 
 
TYRANNIZING HIGH CHURCHISM. 217 
 
 more assumptive. Fifteen years ago, one half the 
 clergy in Massachusetts and Rhode Island omitted, for 
 the purpose of shortening the service, the litany occa- 
 sionally, and the ante-communion service habitually. 
 Now their churchmanship would not be worth a straw 
 unless both Avere read every Sunday. Now, not one 
 of them dares venture on even an occasional omission, 
 though many of them are physically vinfit to endure 
 the tedious recitation. To venture on such an omis- 
 sion would bring against them the accusation — " He 
 is no churchman ;" a kind of moral martyrdom which 
 none of them like to endure. Scores of things are 
 approved among us now, which suddenly introduced 
 ten years ago, would have caused a revoluiion. The 
 beginning is always gradual; at first alarm, and a 
 little opposition, then acquiescence, then approval. 
 Two years ago, when the respected bishop of this dio- 
 cese took his bold stand in reference to the church of 
 the Advent, I had hope that the high church progress 
 would be arrested in this quarter ; but the evangelical 
 clergy did not stand by him. They began soon to find 
 fault that he carried the matter too far, because he 
 refused to admit to his pulpit those who encouraged 
 the Advent. And now he is virtually crushed. He 
 thought nearly all the clergy were with him in that 
 matter, but it turned out otherwise. Nearly half the 
 clerical votes in this diocese were cast, at the last con- 
 vention, for the rector of the Advent, as a member of 
 the standing committee. In two years from this time, 
 Mr. Croswell, I think it may be safely predicted, will 
 be in better standing in this diocese than he ever was ; 
 and should I live ten years, it certainly would not sur- 
 prise me to see half the clergy in the diocese of Massa- 
 chusetts following his example, by reading the psalter 
 and offering the prayers with their backs to the people. 
 19 
 
218 
 
 TYRANNIZING HIGH CHURCHISM. 
 
 None of them will ever imitate his rash experiment of 
 wheeling entirely round at once ; but it will not be 
 marvellous to see them going half way rotind at first, 
 after the prudent manner of the rector of St. Stephen's 
 Free Chapel. 
 
 The high churchism of the Hobart stamp has been 
 a source of great mischief in our denomination. It has 
 in it all the elements of an aftergrowth of tractarian- 
 ism; and can fail to be developed into this only in 
 those minds in which either the opposing principles of 
 the gospel are deeply imbedded, or logical activity is 
 sadly deficient. That class of men who call them- 
 selves Hobart churchmen are doing as much injury in 
 our church just now as any other class whatever. 
 There is also a class of newspapers of the same stamp, 
 of which the Calendar, published at Hartford, is a fair 
 representative. These men, and these publications, 
 are, to all intents and purposes, tractarian. Their 
 whole current of thought and remark, so far as they 
 fail to conceal it, is seen at a glance to be in the direc- 
 tion of Rome. They hold and teach, virtually, the doc- 
 trine of an indefectible, visible church ; infallibly and 
 authoritatively teaching the meaning of God's word; 
 the doctrine of sacramental grace, conveyed through 
 an apostolic succession, through baptism, through the 
 Lord's supper, through confirmation, and the like. 
 And yet these men and these journals, because they 
 stoutly declare themselves not tractarian, are httle 
 guarded against, and, on the whole, are looked upon 
 as only somewhat high in their notions, but in no 
 maimer dangerous. 
 
219 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 FALLING BACK IN TIMES OF TRIAL. 
 
 Any attempted tyranny of high churchism would be 
 harmless, were it not for the frailty which fails to stand 
 unabashed in its presence. The vicious habit which 
 some fall into, of praising the liturgy to excess, would 
 do no harm if others had independence enough to ab- 
 stain from following their example. It is not the high 
 churchism of high churchmen, but the high church- 
 ism of the low churchmen, which does the mischief. 
 It is the aping of high church practices on the part of 
 low churchmen, and the extreme timidity of the latter, 
 which induces them to yield to the former whenever 
 the progress of ecclesiastical events brings on a conflict 
 , of antagonistic elements. 
 
 I have for the last fifteen years been an attentive 
 observer of church matters in New England, and have 
 been particularly interested in the several emergencies 
 when principles have been at stake, and when, conse- 
 quently, there has been an especial call for firmness on 
 the part of evangelical men ; and I am quite within 
 the limits of fact when I say, our Zion has not come 
 out of one of these conflicts but with the banner of her 
 churchmanship lifted higher ; in a word, low church- 
 men have invariably lost ground, and lost it through 
 the moral cowardice of some of their leaders. They 
 have failed to stand firm and resist, when the truth 
 was in danger. They have had so strong a desire for 
 peace, that they have seemed to forget that this is a 
 state of warfare and of strife, and that unmixed peace is 
 to be found only in heaven. Losing sight of the duty 
 
220 FALLING BACK IN TIMES OF TRIAL. 
 
 of contending for the faith, they have formed com- 
 promises with their opponents, and accepted a policy, 
 many times, which their own judgment condemned, 
 for the purpose of avoiding strife. It has been painful 
 to witness these vacillating acts, for they have been 
 calculated to crush all moral courage and manly feel- 
 ing, and to deaden apprehensions of vital truth, since 
 they practically make that of little moment, which, 
 theoretically, is declared to be all-important. 
 
 Two instances in the history of our church, in each 
 of which the conflict of great principles has induced 
 a crisis, and in which high church principles have 
 gained their accustomed advantage, will illustrate these 
 remarks. 
 
 In February, 1838, the Rt. Rev. bishop Stone, of 
 Maryland, was taken to his reward by death. For 
 two years and a half the episcopate of the diocese 
 over which he presided remained vacant, though, if I 
 have not been misinformed, the friends of evangelism 
 had it in their power, at any moment, to have elected' 
 as his successor the Rev. Dr. John Johns, now the 
 popular and much esteemed assistant bishop of Vir- 
 ginia. Several incipient measures were taken towards 
 an election, but they resulted in nothing, because the 
 high church party were resolved to fight for every inch 
 of ground, rather than permit the elevation to the epis- ' 
 copal office of one so decidedly evangelical in his 
 views. At length the low church party, tired of the 
 threats of their opponents, and anxious to secure peace 
 on any terms which would leave an equal chance for 
 the preservation of truth, consented to a compromise, 
 which resulted in taking the Rev. Dr. Whittingham, 
 who had been recently engaged in some incidental 
 controversies with Dr. Seabury, and who, they hoped, 
 was moderate in his views, and would, at least, put no 
 
FALLING BACK IN TIMES OF TRIAL. 
 
 221 
 
 obstacles in the way of spreading evangelical truth 
 through the diocese. In fact, for the sake of present 
 peace, they consented to take a man who was not 
 their choice, and whom they regarded as far less likely 
 to employ his influence and his talents on the side of 
 truth. 
 
 Now what right had they thus to put the interests 
 of the gospel in jeopardy? Where did they learn the 
 expediency of purchasing a present and temporary 
 peace at the expense of so great a hazard 7 Who em- 
 powered them to make a barter trade with their oppo- 
 nents, and to sell, in the best view of the case, one 
 half the chances for preserving a pure gospel among 
 them, for a little freedom from care and anxiety, and 
 a release from the trouble of fighting the good fight of 
 faith I I say temporary peace ; for such it has proved. 
 The man whom they took with the hope that he 
 would do nothing to injure the truth, if he did nothing 
 to advance it, has become a high tractarian, and is at 
 this moment attempting to place his foot upon their 
 necks, and to make them his vassals, and has already 
 procured a decision by an ecclesiastical court in favor 
 of inherent episcopal powers. 
 
 Another case, equally mortifying in its results, is 
 the election to the episcopal office of the Rev. Horatio 
 Southgate, as a missionary bishop to reside at Constan- 
 tinople. 
 
 Mr. Southgate, it will be remembered, was sent by 
 our church, some years since, on an exploring expedi- 
 tion through Persia, with a view to missionary opera- 
 tions in that direction, should the providence of God 
 open the way. After some two or three years' ab- 
 sence, he returned to this country with a fund of 
 useful information, which he published in two vol- 
 umes. He was subsequently sent to Constantinople, 
 19* 
 
222 FALLING BACK IN TIMES OF TRIAL. 
 
 clothed with a kind of ecclesiastical plenipotentiary 
 power for opening friendly negotiations, or forming 
 treaties of amity with the decayed oriental churches in 
 that neighborhood. The degree of corruption of doc- 
 trine and practice which had ci-ept into those churches 
 seems not at that time to have been very generally 
 known in this country, and the exact line of duty 
 which it would be necessary for Mr. Southgate to fol- 
 low was not, therefore, very clearly defined. It was 
 expected, however, at least by all the friends of evan- 
 gelical truth, that he would do nothing to encourage 
 the amount of error which he should find to exist, be 
 it great or small, but should be wise as a serpent in 
 devising means for recovering those churches out of the 
 snare of the devil. From his first appointment to this 
 mission, there were large numbers of Episcopalians, 
 both among the clergy and the laity, who regarded the 
 whole scheme as visionary, and the principle of frater- 
 nization with eastern churches as unsound and dan- 
 gerous in a high degree. 
 
 Time passed on ; and when the official reports of 
 the missionary began to reach this country, and to 
 develop his views and plans of operation, not only 
 were those who doubted from the beginning confirmed 
 in their feelings of opposition, but others were induced 
 to take the same sceptical and opposing view of the 
 whole scheme. 
 
 Time passed on again ; and Mr. Southgate was in 
 this country, and before the house of bishops as a can- 
 didate for the office of missionary bishop in Turkey. 
 And how was the subject met? Not, there is good 
 reason to beheve, in accordance with the convictions 
 of a majority of the church, but, in a spirit of concili- 
 ating compromise. It is well known that the foreign 
 missions of our church are chiefly under the control, 
 
FALLING BACK IN TIMES OF TRLiL. 223 
 
 and are mostly supported by, its evangelical members. 
 That portion of the church, therefore, had this drag- 
 on's egg in their hand, and might have crushed it if 
 they would. But bishops Doane, Ives, and Whitting- 
 ham took Mr. Southgate under their special care ; and, 
 Avith threats of bringing trouble upon the church in 
 case they were refused, they overawed the evangelical 
 men, and procured for their ward a bishop's mitre. In 
 the same way they procured support for him from the 
 Board of Missions, though the foreign committee were 
 unanimously opposed to his receiving it. The conse- 
 quence was, that, with the full and swelling robes of 
 office fresh upon him, he went out to Constantinople, 
 where the Armenian patriarch smiled upon and ca- 
 ressed him, nay, called him his friend ; and that he is 
 now there as a kind of episcopal ambassador, with no 
 other apparent duties but to eat dinners and exchange 
 compliments with the heads of corrupt churches — 
 allowing them to invoke his episcopal authority to 
 prop their falling superstitions. He is no longer a 
 preacher of a simple gospel, but a negotiator with the 
 great ones of the earth — no longer an ambassador foi 
 Christ, praying men to be reconciled to God, but a 
 high ecclesiastical minister of state, offering his com- 
 pliments, and the compliments of his church, at a high 
 patriarchal court. Who can wonder that Piiseyism 
 waxes strong and abounds, when evangelical men 
 permit such things to gain the implied sanction of the 
 church, notwithstanding they have the power to pre- 
 vent it ? 
 
 One of the reasons that defection has spread so far 
 in our church is, that evangelical men, while they 
 occasionally speak in a very spirited way of the senti- 
 ments of their opponents, cannot summon the moral 
 force and courage to repress and kill one of their meas- 
 
224 FALLING BACK IN TIMES OF TRIAL. 
 
 ures. I suppose the secret of the whole matter is this. 
 There are men scattered along, at every conceivable 
 point of the scale of churchmanship, from the lowest 
 to the highest. Those standing at the lower end of the 
 scale, who are the most sound in doctrine, not willing 
 to displease and repel their intermediate brethren, lest 
 they should drive them into higher positions, generally 
 concede all they ask; and then, to reward them for 
 their generosity, these intermediate men, whose sym- 
 pathies are really with the class above, when any test 
 question is brought forward, cast their votes with the 
 tractarians. I have seen this game played, during the 
 last twelve years, again and again ; and I have never 
 known a test question brought fairly to an issue, by 
 which the tractarians did not gain, directly or indi- 
 rectly, some advantage. 
 
 It is very evident that this vacillating course has 
 made the evangelical party in our church appear, for 
 the last few years, extremely inconsistent. There 
 have been frequent occasions when clouds have arisen 
 in the horizon just before the meeting of some conven- 
 tion of our Zion, and great anxiety has been felt re- 
 specting coming trouble. A convention has been known 
 to come together in such a state of things ; the clouds 
 to grow blacker and more threatening, when suddenly 
 all that was demanded by high churchmen would be 
 yielded, the very clouds themselves would appear to 
 dissolve and fall in showers of golden sunshine, light- 
 ing up all faces with smiles, and filling all mouths 
 with thanksgiving that the peace and unity of the 
 church had been preserved ; when in fact peace and 
 unity had been maintained only by a compromise of 
 those principles on which the life of the church de- 
 pended. In such cases, it has not been uncommon to 
 see, on the following day, the highest tractarian walk- 
 
FALLING BACK IN TIMES OF TRUL. 225 
 
 ing arm in arm with the lowest episcopalian, and on 
 the following Sunday to see them burying all their 
 past misunderstandings by an exchange of pulpits ! 
 
 Who can fail to see the inconsistency of such a 
 course on the part of low churchmen? They regard 
 tractarians as little better than open papists, and often 
 say so without disguise. Would they admit papists 
 to their pulpits, and make concessions to them for the 
 sake of peace 7 Not at all. Why, then, do it in these 
 cases 7 The people see these inconsistencies, and 
 mark them. Hence their frequent indifference to the 
 advance of Puseyism. They find that their ministers' 
 opposition to it is altogether theoretical. They do not 
 think it worth while to make war upon an enemy 
 which the clergy fight only with paper balls. It can- 
 not be a very dangerous theology, say they, which 
 our ministers are willing to have expounded to us 
 from their pulpits. In this way, tractarianism makes 
 rapid advances. Evangelical men give it wings to fly 
 with. 
 
 These evils have been much aggravated in New 
 England by what has been called the conservative, but 
 Avhat might better be denominated the trimming policy 
 of the episcopal church. I am only affirming what is 
 within my own knowledge, when I say that, on the 
 part of New England Episcopalian papers, there has 
 been an effort to please both parties. 
 
 The evils deprecated in this chapter would be 
 speedily cured, could there be induced among our 
 clergy a heroic, daring desire for the suppression of 
 error, which would induce them to throw themselves 
 forward into the breach, fearlessly, and to utter their 
 convictions with strong and vehement emphasis, with- 
 out fear or favor; but so long as there is among them 
 a cautious, calculating, fussing temperament, which 
 
226 
 
 FALLING BACK IN TIMES OF TRIAL. 
 
 makes them nervous, timid, alarmed, when any bold 
 and fearless word for the truth causes a sudden noise 
 to break in their ears, or a tea-pot tempest to shake 
 the knives and forks upon their tables ; just so long 
 will they be mere straws on the current of tractarian- 
 ism— not impeding its onward movement, but rather 
 serving to indicate the rapidity of its motion. 
 
227 
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 
 SOME OF THE FIRST STEPPING-STONES. 
 
 Satan never builds a temple for the votaries of error 
 to worship in, without placing at a distance from it a 
 few small stepping-stones, to make the beginning of 
 their ascent easy. 
 
 The beginnings of an iindue exaltation of clerical 
 power, and of the consequent loss of popular liberty, 
 are often extremely subtle, and sometimes entirely 
 unnoticed. The forms of expression, "my people," 
 "my church," which have been much employed by 
 our clergy of late, are probably seldom thought of as 
 having any evil import, or as indicating any unlawful 
 assumption. And yet a moment's reflection must con- 
 vince any one that they are based upon an inward 
 sense of a right to control, to govern, to direct. 
 
 That such a feeling does lie at the bottom when 
 they are used, is quite manifest from the fact that the 
 claim of a right to control, &c., is generally put forth 
 by the very persons who use them. Thus it has been 
 often attempted of late to decide for the people what 
 kind of reading they shall provide for themselves. I 
 do not mean that efforts have been made to induce the 
 people to read good books and newspapers, and to 
 direct their attention to those which are most esteemed, 
 — for this is manifestly proper, and perhaps a clerical 
 duty, — but the claim is often put forth that the min- 
 ister must be consulted, and his permission be obtained, 
 before newspapers or books may be offered to the peo- 
 ple. An agent often has the remark made to him, " I 
 do not wish that paper circulated among my people;" 
 
228 SOME OF THE FIRST STEPPING-STONES. 
 
 and I have known instances of a good deal of offence 
 being taken because subscriptions for certain, papers 
 have been taken in a parish without obtaining or ask- 
 ing a clergyman's consent. Need I say how offensive 
 such an assumption must be to persons who are in the 
 habit of thinking and acting for themselves 1 This is 
 one of the effective means by which the Roman clergy 
 keep the people in ignorance. If I knew a man went 
 to my minister to obtain permission to sell a book or a 
 paper to me, I certainly would decline to buy, even 
 though it were the very thing I wanted ; and I 
 would do so for the purpose of contributing something 
 towards destroying a practice which is fraught with 
 much danger and mischief. At the same time, my 
 minister's opinion respecting any book or paper would 
 have its due influence. The laity would do well to 
 look to this matter — not, however, with the view of 
 charging wrong motives or bad intentions upon the 
 clergy, but to destroy the very beginnings of evil. 
 Many ministers of the gospel adopt these forms of 
 speech, and assume the rights here disputed ; but do it 
 without the intention of infringing on the rights of 
 others, and with no other thought than that of guard- 
 ing the church in which they minister against im- 
 heahhful influences. This being a praiseworthy 
 desire, the people ought to avoid all impeachment of 
 motives. But, however excellent the motive, it is still 
 true that it is dangerous to attempt to cure one evil by 
 the introduction of another and a greater. Spiritual 
 despotism, which is all involved in what I am here 
 contending against, is far more destructive of all that 
 is valuable to the church of God than any evils that 
 may arise from even an injudicious choice of religious 
 reading. Besides, who shall say that the people are 
 not capable of judging for themselves what are the 
 
SOME OF THE FIRST STEPPING-STONES. 229 
 
 most suitable periodicals for them to read. In truth, 
 as things arc now going in our church, the laity are 
 generally far nearer right in their views than the 
 clergy. It was a remark of bishop Griswold, that 
 "the hope of the church is in the laity;" and the 
 numerous instances in which, within a few years, 
 many of our diocesan conventions have been held back 
 from ruinous acts solely by lay votes, prove the just- 
 ness of the good bishop's remark. 
 
 It has often appeared to me that our ministers do 
 much to increase the evil tendencies of our system, by 
 the kind of conversation in which they engage in 
 their social intercourse with each other. It is well 
 known that much of their conversation, at such times, 
 turns upon the strictly outward things of religion. 
 The most proper arrangement of pulpits and desks, 
 quite often, on such occasions, calls into exercise the 
 most eloquent powers, and induces extended, and 
 many times discriminating, remarks on their architec- 
 tural relation to the other parts of the church edifice. 
 The cut of clerical dresses, the propriety of their use, 
 the material of which they should be composed, the 
 need of a new supply in this, that, or the other church, 
 the means of obtaining these articles for some poor 
 brother whose parish cannot command the necessary 
 funds ; — these are very common topics of clerical con- 
 versation. The rubrics, too, furnish subjects of fre- 
 quent conversational discussion. The exactness with 
 which this brother or that observes them ; the mean- 
 ing of this or that rubric as it regards the position in 
 which certain things are to be done; whether the 
 people are required to sit, or stand, or kneel, during 
 the recital of this or that part of the service ; whether 
 the rubric requires the doing of certain things before 
 sermon or after, on every Lord's day or only at com- 
 20 
 
230 
 
 SOME OF THE FIRST STEPPING-STONES. 
 
 munion seasons, with the face turned to the people or 
 to the communion table, in the morning or afternoon, 
 by the deacon or only by the priest ; — these, and like 
 things, are also fruitful subjects of conversation. In 
 this way, a fondness for the externals of religion is 
 cherished too often, to the neglect of its internal and 
 more important matters. 
 
 At the meetings of our annual conventions, this 
 attention to outward things takes another and perhaps 
 more pernicious form. The bishop's address has come 
 to consist, often, of little more than a recital of out- 
 ward acts and services ; and some of it is generally 
 occupied in describing the architectural taste displayed 
 in building some new church or churches, or in ar- 
 ranging a pulpit, a reading desk, or the accompani- 
 ments. 
 
 The parochial reports from the clergy are too much 
 devoted to a congenial round of secular narrative. 
 What has been given for the repairing of the church ; 
 some munificent donation for procuring a bell ; a re- 
 fitting and rearranging of the furniture of the church ; 
 the obtaining of a new and elegant prayer-book for 
 the desk ; the gift of a valuable communion service ; 
 the number of sermons preached; the fact that the 
 regular services of the church have been used on all 
 occasions of public worship; these are facts and 
 themes which fill much space in the parochial reports, 
 and take as great a variety of form as the sameness of 
 the subjects will allow. 
 
 It is not pretended that these practices have any 
 logical tendency to erroneous views, but merely that 
 they cultivate a fondness for the externals of religion, 
 and finally fill the mind and heart with them, to the 
 exclusion of its inner essence or spirit. What is most 
 talked of is generally most esteemed; and what is 
 
SOME OF THE FIRST STEPPING-STONES. 231 
 
 most esteemed becomes at length of most importance. 
 The practices spoken of are often adopted, not from 
 any lack of interest in the higher and better part of 
 religion, but from a desire to keep pace with the 
 churchmanship of the times ; and that which begins 
 with putting the church into the fore-ground, gener- 
 ally ends in placing Christ in the back-ground. 
 
232 
 
 CHAPTER VII] . 
 
 ARE THESE THE TRUE CAUSES? 
 
 All the causes of tractarianism which it is deemed 
 necessary to adduce at present are now before the 
 reader. Are they the true causes 1 If so, the remedy 
 is simple and easy ; if not, we are thrown back into 
 the same ignorance which has permitted the periodical 
 recurrence of the disease for the last three hundred 
 years. With whatever indifference many persons may 
 regard this question, therefore, it is still immensely 
 important to know whether these causes are the true 
 ones. 
 
 I think any persons might settle this question by 
 propounding to themselves another. Does any one 
 doubt that the removal of the causes specified would 
 prevent the further generation of tractarianism in our 
 denomination 1 
 
 But the whole subject is met with several objections. 
 The only one which has struck me as having any 
 weight, or as entitled to much respect, is generally 
 expressed somewhat in this form — " Puseyism springs 
 from a corrupt nature — from sin in the heart. When 
 piety runs low in the church, and unconverted men 
 are introduced to our pulpits, a worldly, outside reli- 
 gion begins to be desired, and tractarianism is exactly 
 suited to meet this desire. Hence, it is not anything 
 in our liturgy, but something in man's heart, which 
 occasions all our trouble." 
 
 I respect the objection, and shall, therefore, treat it 
 respectfully. At the same time, I am obliged to say 
 there is not a particle of truth or philosophy in it. To 
 
AKE THESE THE TRUE CAUSES? 
 
 233 
 
 run back to the depravity of human nature, and 
 charge upon that the cause of any particular bad de- 
 velopment, is an easy way for superficial minds to 
 escape difficulty ; but in this case it will not answer. 
 Sin in the heart is the cause of tractarianism, just as 
 it is the cause of every other evil in the world. But 
 any discerning mind will see, that to announce this 
 general truism, is to throw no light upon the subject 
 whatever. 
 
 The citizens of Boston assembled last fall, in large 
 numbers, week after week, to inquire after the causes 
 of the juvenile depravity which was exhibiting itself in 
 so many shocking forms in every part of our city. 
 Suppose some individual had told the people collected 
 on those ocasions, that their inquiries were easily an- 
 swered, — it was sin in the heart, it was the corruption 
 of human nature, which caused the wickedness so 
 glaringly conspicuous. Would this have been deemed 
 a satisfactory response to their inquiries ? Would not 
 the people have said, — you have told us a truth; but 
 it happens to be a truth which has no bearing on the 
 matter of our present investigation. We do not wish 
 to know that human nature is in a condition to allow 
 of wickedness, but we desire to be enlightened as to 
 what has called out its inborn depravity into these 
 revolting forms of immorality. 
 
 The element of papal corruption, lying at the basis 
 of our system, does not act as the primal predis- 
 posing, but as the proximate, exciting cause of Pusey- 
 isra. The predisposing cause (predisposing, I mean, 
 not to tractarianism, particularly, but to sin and error 
 of every kind) lies back of all exciting causes, and 
 has its seat, of course, in the corruption of human 
 nature. In that is found the spring whence issue all 
 the streams of error ; in that the fountain whence the 
 20* 
 
234 ARE THESE THE TRUE CAUSES? 
 
 bitter waters are drawn out. But there is manifestly 
 in human nature no inherent tendency to any specific 
 form of error or sin; nor is it absolutely essential, as 
 far as I can see, that human nature should be devel- 
 oped into all the forms of doctrinal and practical profli- 
 gacy of which it is capable. Christians pray not to 
 be led into temptation, with the view, I suppose, that 
 their evil natures may be repressed, and that their ten- 
 dencies to unbelief and sin may be checked. Christian 
 parents think it necessary, too, to keep their children, 
 as far as possible, removed from the bad influences 
 that are in the world, that is, from the exciting causes 
 of sin ; and in this way they often prevent the mosf 
 terrible developments of wickedness, and save them 
 selves from the pangs of a broken heart. But ir 
 attempting to guard against these exciting causes, 
 they do not overlook the deep-seated, primal cause, or 
 rather fountain, of all sin in the heart. 
 
 No more does the writer of these pages, by exhibit- 
 ing the excitmg causes of Puseyism, — as he thinks he 
 has done, — overlook the fountain of every form of 
 unbelief and error, which is found in the depths of our 
 fallen nature. If the corruption of human nature had 
 any specific tendency to engender tractarianism, why, 
 then, tractarianism would be the outward form in 
 which it would everywhere develop itself; but it hap- 
 pens, unfortunately, that it is only among Episcopa- 
 lians that it shows any such tendency. Why does not 
 sin in the heart produce a relapse towards Romanism 
 among all protestant denominations ? Simply because 
 it has no inherent tendency in. that direction, and only 
 produces such a relapse to any extent when excited 
 by the causes specified. Our prayer as a denomina- 
 tion should be, therefore. Remove from us temptation 
 in this direction ; and our first care should be to remove 
 
ARE THESE THE TRUE CAUSES? 
 
 235 
 
 from our system those elements of evil which our 
 reformers had not the power to extract. 
 
 Here I shall be met, very likely, with this objec- 
 tion — " Let it be granted that the removal from our 
 system of what you are pleased to call a dangerous 
 admixture would relieve us of all papal tendencies; 
 the same elimination which freed us from this em- 
 barrassment would cut the tie which binds us to the 
 objects of faith, and by eviscerating our religion of all 
 mystery, would put us upon the downward slide into 
 the great gulf of rationalistic scepticism." 
 
 Is it then true that the christian church must choose 
 between the hell of popery and the hell of infidelity 1 
 Is a reception of Christianity inseparable from one or 
 the other of these bad tendencies 'I Such is the neces- 
 sary implication of the objection I am considering. If 
 this were true, we should be obliged to confess that 
 Christianity is a failure. But, thank God, it is not 
 true. It is a libel upon the church of God. We may 
 reject superstition, without embracing rationalism. 
 We maij worship God in accordance with reason, 
 without reverencing reason to the neglect of God. We 
 may cast out tractarianism, Avithout rejecting faith; 
 and we 7nay embrace a reasonable belief, without ac- 
 cepting a rationalistic scepticism. For one, I totally 
 reject the alternative. It is not necessary; and it is 
 dishonorable alike to the christian religion and to its 
 divine Author. 
 
 Yet it will be said (for it is often said) that in the 
 case of those extreme protestant denominations, from 
 which all those things have been cast out which I 
 denominate superstitious adjuncts, there has been 
 almost universally a falling away to infidelity, and 
 that there is, therefore, no safety in putting them away. 
 To this, I submit the following reply. 
 
236 ARE THESE THE TRUE CAUSES? 
 
 1. At Geneva, and in Germany, among the purely 
 protestant churches, there has been, indeed, to a large 
 extent, the alleged falling away. It occurred xinder 
 the operation of mistakes which I have not the room 
 nor the disposition to recite. Enough to say that these 
 mistakes are at this moment correcting themselves, and 
 that the protestantism of Switzerland and Germany is 
 rallying, with every prospect of freeing itself, at no very 
 distant day, from the errors into which it has fallen. 
 Evangelical men have already been multiplied sev- 
 eral hundred fold, and a reasonable hope may be justly 
 entertained that the central seat of the great continen- 
 tal reformation will again acquire a name and a praise 
 in the earth. We may draw from the history of the 
 reformation in Switzerland and Germany this lesson. 
 Human reason, employed to excess in religious things, 
 and without a due regard to the divine reason, as re- 
 vealed in the Bible, is one of those evils which are not 
 hopelessly incurable, — it cures itself by its own ex- 
 cesses. The mind, plunged into the evils of infidelity 
 by the excesses of its own reason, is always dissatis- 
 fied ; and being free to think, to act, to struggle, is 
 very likely, after feeding for a time upon husks, to 
 return towards a father's house, and to be guided back 
 by the ever watchful and merciful Spirit of God, into 
 the regions of light and peace. But not so with the 
 poor victim of papal despotism. Sink him to the low- 
 est depths of spiritual degradation, and his chilled, tor- 
 pid, and unreasoning mind lies still and unthinking, 
 like the shell-fish at the bottom of the ocean ; and if 
 ever he is cast up upon the shores where the light of 
 heaven can reach him, it is only by some moral tem- 
 pest which breaks up the fountains of the great deep, 
 and casts him, unresisting, along with dirt and sand, 
 into a world of light and motion. There is hope for 
 
ARE THESE THE TRUE CAUSES? 237 
 
 a protestant church which becomes infidel ; but not 
 for one which sinks bade into the embrace of Roman- 
 ism. 
 
 2. My next reply is, that the charge is not true re- 
 specting the Presbyterian churches of Scotland and 
 America. No churches in the world are more sound 
 in the faith. 
 
 It is not true respecting the Baptist churches. Shoots 
 have gone off from these which are unsound ; but the 
 original stock is good, and is endowed with a large share 
 of vitality. 
 
 It is not true respecting the Methodist churches. 
 They went out from the church of England — rejected 
 the very things of which I complain, or nearly all of 
 them, — retained an episcopacy, in this country, even 
 stronger than that which they left ; and their condi- 
 tion now proves, not only that the casting away of 
 these things does not lead to a loss of the faith, and to 
 a rationalistic infidelity, but that the retaining of them 
 is the cause of a tendency towards popery, since no 
 such tendency has been at all felt among them. 
 
 It is not true respecting the independent churches of 
 England. There have been some defections among 
 these, as there have been among all churches, but the 
 great body of them are sound. 
 
 It is not true respecting the Congregational churches 
 in New England. Infidelity has elaborated out of the 
 free principles they have disseminated a few transcen- 
 dentalists in Boston and vicinity ; but the body of these 
 churches is sound. They were never more numerous, 
 never more prosperous, and had never better hopes 
 for the future, than now.* Statistics, did I choose 
 
 * The following is taken from the Protestant Churchman : 
 " State of Unitarianism. — The Christian Witness gives the follow- 
 ing statement from the Christian Register, a Unitarian paper pub- 
 
238 
 
 AKE THESE THE TRUE CAUSES? 
 
 to employ them, would fully bear me out in these 
 remarks. 
 
 There are quite a variety of alleged sources to which 
 tractarianism has been traced by writers on this sub- 
 ject. A certain class of high churchmen have been 
 fond of attributing it to a reaction from low views of 
 the church, and from a loose state of things growing out 
 of such laxness of views ; but this is to take a superfi- 
 cial and unphilosophical view of the subject. Great 
 movements, which affect large classes of men, always 
 spring from principles which have laid hold of the 
 foundations of opinion. In all matters of theology, 
 there are germinant principles, or radicles, which, hav- 
 ing taken positions in the soil, infallibly send up their 
 shoots at those points where their vital forces are col- 
 » lected. 
 
 It is not pretended that the several causes assigned 
 
 lished in Boston. The question is frequently asked, 'Does Uni- 
 tarianism increase in Massachusetts ? ' This is the reply of their 
 organ : 
 
 " ' If we look solely to our own denomination, we might be dis- 
 couraged. True, there never was a period when Unitarians had so 
 many churches as now, or when they had a more able or zealous 
 ministry, or so wide a field. But, at the same time, here in Massa- 
 chusetts, things are not as they were five and twenty j'ears ago, when 
 almost all the distinguished men of the state were Unitarians ; when 
 the literature, intelligence, public spirit, wealth, and social influence 
 were almost entirely on that side. Now, the tendency is elsewhere, 
 and the fashion, at least, if not the intelligence, of the community, is 
 setting decidedly in another direction.'" 
 
 This little scrap from the Christian Register was copied into several of 
 the Episcopal papers, and in a kind of triumphant way held up as evi- 
 dence that Unitarianism had seen its best days ; and yet, to serve another 
 purpose, they were at the very time frequently attempting to show that 
 in Massachusetts everything valuable in the gospel was gradually per- 
 ishing — all the Orthodox churches were going, through Unitarianism, 
 to infidelity ! It has been extremely painful to see my Episcopalian 
 friends thus catching at every straw which floats by them — pretend- 
 ing at one moment that Unitarianism is dying out, and in the next 
 that it is augmenting by a gradual lapse in that direction of all the 
 orthodox churches in New England. Such is not the way to gain 
 the respect of others, or to serve the interests of truth. 
 
ARE THESE THE TRUE CAUSES? 239 
 
 in this treatise are of equal importance, or act with 
 equal energy ; nor yet that some of the less important 
 of them, standing alone, would so influence or pervert 
 a religious body as to attract notice. ]\or, indeed, 
 would the whole together be particularly mischievous, 
 but for the manner in which they are brought into 
 perpetual contact with the ministry, and to some ex- 
 tent with the people. The seeds of our errors are in 
 .the liturgy. — a book which is constantly used, and to 
 which attention is perpetually drawn in a thousand 
 ways. Were these elementary errors lodged in some 
 old formulas, or confessons of faith, which' were seldom 
 looked at or thought of, they would do very little mis- 
 chief But the whole tendency of things in our church 
 is, and generally has been, to enter into the spirit of 
 our forms ; to make them practically, as well as theo- 
 retically, our standards. Hence, all the poison there 
 is in them is made active and operative. A dozen 
 grains of arsenic, enclosed in a piece of bread, and 
 lodged in the human stomach, would do no harm, pro- 
 vided it could lie safely in some corner, and not be dis- 
 turbed, or brought into contact with the coats of the 
 stomach ; but let the gastric juice dissolve the bread, 
 and the vital forces assault the enveloped poison, and 
 then follow the retching, the vomiting, the spasms, the 
 prostration, and perhaps death itself 
 
 Finally, the causes of Puseyism here assigned must 
 be the true ones, because they alone will satisfactorily 
 account for tractarian phenomena. Whatever the 
 causes are, they have acted with uniformity, — pro- 
 ducing so settled and uniform a bias towards incipient 
 popery, that it has required the most active use of all 
 the protestant elements in the system, the most zealous 
 vigilance of the truly protestant people of England, — 
 nay, the intervention, at several periods, of the British 
 
240 
 
 ARE THESE THE TRUE CAUSES? 
 
 throne itself, to prevent a total and shameful relapse 
 into papal bondage. We may assume it as certain, 
 therefore, that the causes are not extraneous, acting 
 upon the system from without ; for then they would 
 vary in the direction of their impulses, according to the 
 varying conditions of the outward world. They must 
 be internal — they must be of the system ; and in what 
 else can they consist than in that "external face of 
 things, near to what had been practised in the times 
 of popery," which has been fully exhibited? When 
 the question was up, at the time of the reformation, 
 whether this " face of things" should be retained, there 
 was a powerful party of far-seeing men, who faith- 
 fully forewarned the church that " this outward resem- 
 blance wovld make the old root of popery to live still in 
 the thoughts^'' of the people ; " so that, if it made them 
 conform at present more easily to the change that was 
 now made, it woidd make it still much the easier for 
 
 them to FALL BACK TO POPERY." * 
 
 It has produced a falling back, not only among the 
 people, but especially among the clergy, — so that at 
 each of the periods when a tendency to popery has 
 appeared, there have been large numbers of them who 
 have supported the remaining popish ceremonies ; and, 
 finally, it has induced so general a falling back, that 
 they are now supported by overwhelming majorities, 
 and are openly opposed by few. In the reign of Eliza- 
 beth, nearly all thought it best to remove them, and 
 looked forward with hope to the time of their destruc- 
 tion. In the days of Charles I., a large number sup- 
 ported them ; in the time of Charles II., a still larger 
 number ; in the reign of Anne, a yet larger, and in the 
 present day, nearly all. The philosophy of those who 
 
 * Burnet's Hist. Ref., vol. iii., p. 259. 
 
ARE THESE THE TRUE CAUSES? 
 
 241 
 
 opposed them at first looked to the bottom of the whole 
 matter, and rightly predicted a relapse towards popery 
 as their natural result. They have steadily operated 
 in that direction — gradually enlarging the sphere of 
 their influence in every age. The church has gone 
 through all the stages of struggling against their influ- 
 ence ; first unanimously striving to rid itself of them 
 against the acts of parliament, and the will of the sov- 
 ereign ; then yielding to them in part, then further, and 
 again further, and then entirely. It now remains for 
 it to cast them off, or be " unprotestantized" by them. 
 The sum of the whole matter is this : the Roman and 
 protestant elements were mingled. They were forcibly 
 held together by acts of parliament. The result is 
 before the world ; the former has been gradually over- 
 mastering the latter, and the time has now come, when 
 they must be forcibly separated, or the christian world 
 be pained with witnessing the destruction of the 
 latter.* 
 
 * The above was written in my scrap-book about six months before 
 I saw Mr. Taylor's work, from which I have introduced several ex- 
 tracts. The reader will see from the following that Mr. Taylor had 
 entertained similar thoughts. 
 
 " It is thus at this moment, Cyprian and Luther are wrestling amain 
 for mastery in the English church ; and the one or the other of these 
 spirits must be dislodged. A season of apathy may again come upon 
 the church, and so the struggle may stand over to another day ; but, 
 at its next revival, the English church will either go over uncondi- 
 tionally to ' antiquity,' erasing from its formularies whatever in them 
 is protestant, and will expel all who adhere to scriptural doctrine ; or 
 it will recover its lost ground, and become consistently protestant and 
 biblical." — Ancient Christianity, vol ii., p. 110. 
 
 21 
 
242 
 
 CURE OF PUSEYISM. 
 
 PART VI. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 REVISION OF THE PRAYER-BOOK AND HOMILIES. 
 
 The cure of Puseyism must begin with a purging 
 of the prayer-book and homihes. This is essential. 
 Without it, no prescription can be of any avail. And 
 why should not this be done 1 Does anybody pretend 
 tliat these formularies are perfect 7 Not when dealing 
 honestly with their judgment. Then it is not impos- 
 sible to improve them. Moreover, the preface of the 
 prayer-book itself contemplates changes and improve- 
 ments from time to time; and says that, "In every 
 church, what cannot be clearly determined to belong 
 to doctrine must be referred to discipline ; and there- 
 fore, by common consent and authority, may be altered, 
 abridged, enlarged, amended, or otherwise disposed of, 
 as may seem most convenient for the edification of the 
 people, according to the various exigencies of times 
 and occasions." 
 
 The preface continues : — " The church of England, 
 to which the Protestant Episcopal church in these 
 states is indebted, under God, for her first foundation 
 and a long continuance of nursing care and protection, 
 hath, in the preface of her book of common prayer, 
 laid it down as a rule, that ' fhe partmdar forms of 
 
REVISION OF THE PRAYER-BOOK AND HOMILIES. 243 
 
 divine worship, and the rites and ceremonies appointed 
 to be used therein, being things in their own nature 
 
 INDIFFERENT AND ALTERABLE, AND SO ACKNOWLEDGED, it iS 
 
 but reasonable that, upon weighty and important con- 
 siderations, according to the various exigencies of times 
 and occasions, sucJi changes and alterations shoidd be 
 made therein as to those who are in authority should, 
 from time to time, seem either necessary or expe- 
 dient.' " 
 
 Nor is this all. This preface says : — " The same 
 church hath not only in her preface, but likewise in 
 her articles and homilies, declared the necessity and 
 expediency of occasiotial alterations and amendments 
 in her forms of public wo?-ship." 
 
 Who now shall say that the liturgy ought not to be 
 touched, when it was the declared intention of the 
 reformers that it should, from time to time, be " altered 
 and amended," and when they affirmed it " reasona- 
 ble" and laid it down as a ride, that it should undergo 
 "changes" which should adapt it to times and cir- 
 cumstances? And yet, had 1 denied the canonical 
 authenticity of the gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke, 
 and John, I should probably have been treated with 
 less severity than for urging the necessity of revising 
 the prayer-book. 
 
 But the preface of the prayer-book advances another 
 step. After referring to several revisions which had 
 taken place, it adds : — " Her general aim in these dif- 
 ferent reviews and alteration^ hath been, as she further 
 declares in her said preface, ' to do that which, accord- 
 ing to her best understanding, might most tend to the 
 preservation of peace and unity in the church; the 
 procuring of reverence, and the exciting of piety and 
 devotion in the worship of God ; and, finally, the cut- 
 ting off occasion of cavil or quarrel against her hturgy.' " 
 
244 REVISION OF THE PRAYER-BOOK AND HOMILIES. 
 
 It is well known that those parts of the liturgy 
 against which objections have been raised in this 
 treatise have been the cause of much prejudice against 
 the prayer-book, and against the Episcopal church. 
 Those who defend them as proper, and who are 
 unwilling to part with them, will acknowledge this. 
 They, as well as I, know that nothing has so much 
 hindered the growth of the Episcopal church. And 
 the preface of the prayer-book, as quoted above, 
 affirms, not only that "the particular forms of divine 
 worship, and the rites and ceremonies appointed to be 
 used therein," are "things in their own nature indif- 
 ferent and alterable^ and so acknowledged," but that 
 alterations should be made, when in this manner 
 "occasion of cavil or quarrel against the liturgy" may 
 be "cut off." I press home, therefore, upon the 
 asserters of the "authority of the prayer-book" this 
 very authority itself As they will not listen to my 
 plea, I bring the prayer-book before them, and allow it 
 to plead itself for revision. And I ask those gentle- 
 men who are so fond of accusing me of opposing the 
 church, and of assuming to be themselves its exclusive 
 guardians and friends, to come forward and show 
 wherein I prove myself its enemy by urging what the 
 prayer-book itself asserts to be necessary. It does 
 appear to me a most marvellous exhibition of infatua- 
 tion for the Episcopalian clergy, knowing, — as they 
 do know, — that those things m the liturgy which I 
 allege to be popish, and which the members of all non- 
 episcopal churches believe to be popish, stand directly 
 in their path, — hedging up their way to usefulness, 
 and closing many a field of pious labor against a 
 church towards which they profess to exercise the 
 warmest affection, — should yet insist on retaining 
 them, and frown upon every attempt to cast them out. 
 
REVISION OF THE PRAYER-BOOK AND HOMILIES. 245 
 
 The way of our church is literally hedged up by these 
 popish things.* The people do not, and will not, enter 
 heartily into them. They may like some things about 
 the Episcopal church ; but to these they have a just 
 and an unconquerable aversion. Our church may 
 prosper in large cities, and among the aristocracy ; but 
 in the country its progress will be exceedingly slow 
 and discouraging. The clergy may be active, exem- 
 plary and excellent men ; they may labor with great 
 zeal and diligence, but they will not be gratified with 
 very full congregations, or be encouraged with flatter- 
 ing results of their exertions. They may explain 
 absolution, baptismal regeneration, and other things 
 very satisfactorily, as they think; but, with a few 
 exceptions, the people will think for themselves not- 
 withstanding, and will say, — We do not believe these 
 as taught in the prayer-book, and we carmot believe 
 them. 
 
 If, however, the clergy are willing to spend one 
 half their time in attempting to explain to the people 
 what cannot be explained, and to labor hard to advance 
 a church which cannot be much advanced, rather than 
 to permit the removal of those things which stand in 
 the way of its progress, — why, then the laity have 
 only to decide whether they will quietly and uncom- 
 plainingly consent to work with them under such dis- 
 
 * Bishop Griswold, the wisest man our church in this country has 
 ever had, and who was better acquainted than any other man with 
 the condition and prospects of the Episcopal churches in New Eng- 
 land, thus speaks in his address delivered before the convention of the 
 eastern diocese in 1837 : — " The prejudice in these Eastern states 
 against forms of prayer, and the objections so generally made to some 
 parts of ours particularly, and to the length of our morning service, 
 are powerful obstacles to our increase." ****<< When there shall 
 have been a judicious revision of our liturgy, in the manner wisely 
 recommended by our venerable brother, bishop White, deceased, 1 
 doubt not but our churches will more rapidly increase." 
 
 21* 
 
246 REVISION OF THE PRAYER-BOOK AND HOMILIES. 
 
 heartening circumstances, and with so httle hope of 
 encouraging results. I hope they will not. I hope 
 they will call for a revision of the prayer-book, and 
 press it upon the clergy as absolutely essential to the 
 growth of our church. They can make themselves 
 heard on this subject if they will. They ought to do 
 it. They should do it as a matter of justice to them- 
 selves. They are now burdened, many of them, with 
 constant calls for money to support, year after year, 
 feeble churches, which would at once acquire strength 
 to take care of themselves, but for these relics of 
 popery which drive away the people. They should 
 do it out of regard for the church they have chosen as 
 their own, out of love for its extension and prosperity. 
 And, above all, they should do it from a desire that the 
 gospel, which every branch of the church is commis- 
 sioned to publish, may have free course and be glori- 
 fied. 
 
 There is an absolute necessity that they should do 
 this. In the strong language of Isaac Taylor, " Luther 
 and Cyprian are wrestling amain for the mastery in 
 the English church." And one or the other will have 
 the mastery both in the English church and in our 
 own. If the laity do not cast out Cyprian's super- 
 stitions, these superstitions Avill assuredly cast out 
 Luther's justification by faith. Cyprian is predomi- 
 nant in tlic prayer-book, and Luther in the articles. 
 That the prayer-book and articles do not speak the 
 same language, even i7i the public estimation^ is evident 
 from the fact that the tractarians attempted long to 
 support their views from the liturgy, no man appear- 
 ing to feel particularly outraged; but the moment Mr. 
 Newman tried to do the same thing with the articles 
 in tract XC, so general and emphatic was the burst of 
 
REVISION OF THE PRAYER-BOOK AND HOMILIES. 247 
 
 public indignation, that the further pubUcation of the 
 tracts was immediately arrested.* 
 
 Some suppose that our evils may be cured by legis- 
 lation ; that is, by the enactment of s\;ch canons by 
 the general convention as shall deprive any bishop, 
 presbyter, or deacon, of the right to construe our arti- 
 cles in harmony with the doctrinal matter of the 
 decrees of Trent, or to make any of our formularies 
 speak the language of Rome. 
 
 Legislation may possibly do something for us ; but 
 it cannot do much. Our chief danger does not lie in 
 any attempt to efface the lines of demarkation between 
 the decrees of Trent and the thirty-nine articles. 
 Those lines can never be lost. The common sense of 
 the people will treat with scorn any attempt to wipe 
 them out. The danger, then, does not lie here. But 
 it has been shown that there are many things in the 
 prayer-book of which this cannot be fairly said. It 
 has been proved that tractarians can fairly make out 
 from that book a strong case. And although it might 
 be an easy thing for the general convention to declare 
 that the term regeneration, for example, in the baptismal 
 service, means nothing more than an outward change 
 of state, and to forbid the use of the term by the clergy 
 in any other sense ; yet the great body of the people, 
 as well as some of the first minds in the clerical pro- 
 fession, would insist, not only that the word does in 
 
 * In saying this, I do not wish to be understood as endorsing all that 
 is contained even in the articles ; but only the general body of truth 
 which they present. For example, I do not believe, with the twen- 
 tieth article, that the church hath "authority in controversies of 
 faith ;" for the most ingenious logic cannot land such an assumption 
 anywhere except in the destruction of private judgment. For if, when 
 a controversy is up, the decision of the church settles it for all her chil- 
 dren, then there is no private judgment ; but if, after the decision of 
 the church, there is still an appeal to the individual judgment, and 
 each man settles it for himself, then the " authority" of the church has 
 no existence in fact. 
 
248 REVISION OF THE PRAYER-BOOK AND HOMILIES. 
 
 itself mean an inward and spiritual change, but that 
 the whole baptismal service is framed in accordance 
 with such meaning ; and saying this from their inward 
 convictions, they would see and feel the injustice of 
 commanding the interpretation first named. The gen- 
 eral convention might aiiirm, too, that the Episcopal 
 church does not teach any presence in the bread and 
 wine, or any change in these visible elements; but 
 everybody sees that the whole service is framed and 
 conducted as if something were done to the material 
 substances to make them what they were not before. 
 What then could legislation avail? Nothing, that I 
 can see, except to raise endless disputes about the 
 animus of the compilers of the liturgy. The only 
 remedy is to strike out the mischievous passages, and 
 make the liturgy thoroughly and consistently protes- 
 tant. This would pluck the evil up by the roots ; and 
 by making it unpleasant for Romanizers to remain 
 with us, would leave us an undisputing, a united, and 
 a prosperous people. 
 
249 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 ABRIDGMENT AND SIMPLIFICATION OF USAGES. 
 
 The next thing needing to be done to effect a cure 
 of tractarianism is to abridge the number of our 
 usages, and to simpUfy such as are retained. This is 
 also indispensable. We have seen that usages have a 
 very effective way of teaching. They are full, many 
 of them, of bad positive instruction, and many others 
 of them, of vicious suggestion. So that, were we to 
 rid our prayer-book of all doctrinal error, and to retain 
 our usages as they are, we should yet be in danger, 
 and could not boast of having clean escaped the snares 
 of the enemy. 
 
 Let the usages of the church, then, be purged. Why 
 should they not ? Do those I object to, accomplish 
 any good 7 W"hat possible advantage can there be in 
 having different places for preaching and praying? 
 Who was ever made wise unto salvation, or had a 
 holy thought suggested, by a variety of clerical 
 dresses, or especially by a theatrical exchange of vest- 
 ments during divine service 1 When was truth better 
 enforced by a special conspicuity of the altar, or winged 
 with a diviner energy by being published from one 
 corner, and sent diagonally across the church ? Has 
 any prayer ever gone more directly up to the throne 
 of God, or entered more readily into the ears of 
 Jehovah, by being offered with the face to the com- 
 munion table? Have any better views of the Lord's 
 supper been induced by departing from the example 
 of the Saviour and his apostles, and receiving the 
 bread and wine in a kneeling posture? Have the 
 
250 ABRIDGMENT AND SIMPLIFICATION OF USAGES. 
 
 sacramental bread and wine, or the baptismal water, 
 ever been made the better by heathen manipulations ? 
 Has a bow ever enforced the divinity of the Son of 
 God, or a couple of finger strokes, in the form of a 
 cross, upon a child's forehead, ever sunk the grace of 
 God more deeply into his heart, or sent him, in subse- 
 quent life, more cheerfully forward in the path of 
 duty? No ; to each and to all, I say, no— not in any 
 manner, not in any degree. Tell me, then, ye who 
 support these things ; if they do no good, for what are 
 they retained 7 Why practise useless ceremonies 1 Is 
 the christian, especially the christian minister, to spend 
 his time in observing ceremonies which have no use- 
 ful end 1 Is the church of God, placed in the midst 
 of this wicked world, to busy itself about trifles which 
 benefit no one 7 
 
 But this is not the worst view of the case. These 
 things are not merely useless ; it has been proved that 
 they do positive mischief; that they suggest and teach 
 error ; that they beget superstitious feelings. 
 
 Nor is this all. They drive away the people. 
 They have operated steadily in that direction from the 
 days of Elizabeth to this time. They destroyed the 
 usefulness of many of the best divines of the English 
 church, while Elizabeth was yet on the throne. They 
 closed the pulpits of eight thousand of the English 
 churches at one time. They drove two thousand of 
 its best clergy out of the establishment in a body. 
 They have filled the hearts of thousands of the truest 
 sons of that church with sorrow, and grief, and indig- 
 nation ; have changed thousands of the friends of the 
 establishment into its enemies. In short, the pestilence 
 and the sword could not have been more efiectual in 
 thimring the ranks of the church of England. 
 
 And yet, suicidal as this policy is, these usages are 
 
ABRIDGMENT AND SIMPLIFICATION OF USAGES. 251 
 
 retained. There they are, in the prayer-book, in the 
 practices of the church, — doing no good, producing 
 false doctrine, engendering superstition, converting 
 friends into enemies, thinning the church, putting into 
 its mouth the cry, " My leanness, my leanness," fill- 
 ing the minds of the people with prejudices against it, 
 and making it, not a praise, but a reproach, in the 
 earth. 
 
 A plain scriptural duty has been resting upon the 
 English church, and upon our own, from their origin, 
 which is yet unfulfilled. St. Paul says, " If meat 
 make my brother to offend, I will eat no more meat 
 while the world stands;" from which I infer that 
 christian morals require the disciples of Christ to 
 abstain from anything not essential, which offends a 
 brother, or causes him to stumble. How the Episco- 
 pal churches of England and America can have so 
 long felt like resisting the demands of this duty, while 
 so many have been stumbling over these useless and 
 unessential ceremonies, it passes my understanding to 
 conceive. I leave the fact to stand before the eyes 
 of men, as a mystery, not of godliness, but of unbe- 
 lief 
 
 At all events, I insist that thoSe are not the true 
 friends of the church who retain these things to its 
 injury. Whatever their pretensions, they are its worst 
 enemies. The world, the flesh, and the devil, com- 
 bined, cannot hinder its growth, as they are hinder- 
 ing it. 
 
 The ministers belonging to the commission selected 
 by Charles the Second for attending to the responsible 
 duties of revising and thoroughly protestantizing the 
 liturgy, urge a great number of objections to the book 
 of common prayer, and lay down this rule, which 
 
252 ABRIDGMENT AND SIMPLIFICATION OF USAGES. 
 
 they thought should be followed in preparing a liturgy 
 for public worship. It is worthy of special notice : 
 
 "And, therefore, in pursuance of this his majesty's 
 most gracious commission, and the procuring of unity 
 amongst ourselves, we judge meet to propose, 
 
 " First, that all prayers, and other materials of the 
 liturgy, may consist of nothing doubtful or questioned 
 amongst pious, learned, and orthodox persons, inas- 
 much as the professed end of composing them is for 
 the declaring of the unity and consent of all who join 
 in the public worship."* 
 
 A most wise and judicious rule ! It is the only rule 
 which can be made to harmonize at all with the chari- 
 ties of the gospel. Whence can a church, by any 
 possibility, derive the right to put doubtful things into 
 its formularies of worship ? From any fair construc- 
 tion of the principles of mutual rights? Not at all. 
 Every christian owes to every other christian the con- 
 cession of whatever injures that other's conscience, 
 provided his own conscience does not regard it as 
 essential. This is a plain principle of christian ethics, 
 and he who violates it is below the morality of his 
 religion. 
 
 For the majority of a church to decline to give up a 
 useless ceremony which wounds the consciences of a 
 minority, merely because they have the power to 
 retain it, seems very much like acting on the maxim 
 of, " Keep all you have got, and get all you can." 
 
 It is a pity any should have so learned Christ. If a 
 church employs a liturgy, it should be so constructed 
 that it shall not occasion doubt or disquietude in the 
 mind of any christian who uses it ; for every member 
 of that church, provided he is a true christian, is enti- 
 
 *Cardwell's Hist, of Conferences, p. 304. 
 
ABRIDGMENT AND SIMPLIFICATION OF USAGES. 263 
 
 tied to have a liturgy which shall not offend or hurt 
 his conscience. This, I say, he is entitled to. To 
 impose upon him a liturgy which is burdened with 
 ceremonies not enjoined in the word of God, is to 
 abuse and insult him in the very house of God, while 
 professing to aid him in his religious duties. 
 
 To lay doubtful things upon the conscience is not 
 only a violation of mutual rights ; it is subversive of 
 the teaching of the gospel. 
 
 In the letter which "the apostles, and elders, and 
 brethren," sent to the disciples at Antioch, they say — 
 " For it seemed good to the Holy Ghost, and to us, to 
 lay upon you no greater burden than these necessary 
 things."* Necessarrj things; they mT^y he imposed; 
 all others are improper. But who will pretend that 
 the ceremonies objected to are necessary 7 I never 
 yet heard them called necessary. I never yet saw an 
 Episcopalian who would not say that they were not so. 
 Then the gospel rule demands that they shall be thrown 
 aside. To retain them, is to rebel against God.| 
 
 * Acts XV. 28. 
 
 t These remarks apply, of course, only to such usages as wound the 
 consciences of believers. 
 
 22 
 
254 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 PURIFICATION OF OUR OWN MINDS. 
 
 ScAKCE a day passes without adding to the strength 
 of my conviction, that there are very few minds in our 
 church which are wholly free from the effects of the 
 sacramental virus. The prayer-book has done its mis- 
 chievous work among us to a very wide extent. It 
 may be regarded as nearly certain, that any man who 
 affirms the prayer-book to be free from error, and ex- 
 cellent in all its tendencies, is himself infected — that 
 is, he has the seeds of error in him, and nothing will 
 prevent their springing up and growing, except an 
 uncommon share of the grace of God, or a lack of men- 
 tal activity.* Nearly all our evangelical men, there- 
 fore, need to reexamine the ground on which they are 
 standing. In short, they must purge their own minds. 
 This will result naturally from a purging of the prayer- 
 beok, homilies, and usages of the church. For when 
 superstitious formularies and usages are corrected, 
 superstitious views and feelings will die as a matter of 
 course. 
 
 But there are certain things which evangelical 
 churchmen ought to do at once. They should clear 
 
 * A man may be kept by either of these means from embracing 
 undisguised error. A large supply of God's grace in the heart, or a 
 warm and hearty embracing of the vital doctrines of evangelical re- 
 ligion, may give him so lively and keen a sense of the value of truth, 
 as to induce him to repress and stifle any mental activity which should 
 attempt to draw legitimate errors out of the elementary principles 
 lying in his mind. So, on the other hand, a lack of intellectual activ- 
 ity may prevent the elaboration of error, though all its primary ele- 
 ments are lodged in the intellect. 
 
PURIFICATIO\. OF OUR OWN MINBS. 255 
 
 their minds immediately of all exclusiveness. Nothing 
 can be more unlovely than an exclusive spirit — noth- 
 ing less in harmony with the spirit of the gospel. And 
 surely it is not in keeping with the supposed views of 
 evangelical men, for it is of the very essence of high 
 churchism. Of the old-fashioned bishop Hobart 
 churchmanship, the apostolic succession is the corner- 
 stone. And yet many evangelical men among us 
 liave embraced it in the very sense in which it was 
 held by Hobart — I mean the unchurching sense of no 
 valid ministerial orders except through the apostolic 
 line. There are two classes of apostolic successionists ; 
 the one affirming that not only the powers of govern- 
 ment, but the moral qualities which fit one for dis- 
 charging the peculiar functions of the ministry, and 
 give validity to clerical acts, are also conveyed along 
 the line of succession, so that a breaking of this Une 
 would interrupt the flow of divine grace to the church ; 
 the other declaring that, although no moral fitness 
 for clerical duty is imparted in ordination, yet that all 
 lawful government must come through the line of 
 bishops. 
 
 Now, although this latter class does not believe in 
 the transmission of sacramental power, yet, if they 
 believe in the transmission of office or government 
 through the episcopal line, I fear they have the root 
 of the whole evil in them, and will not ultimately 
 escape its power. For why should not the apostolic 
 succession be as necessary to convey power to perform 
 the peculiar functions of an office, as to convey the 
 office itself? Of what peculiar advantage Avould it be 
 to anybody that one man alone had the keys of his 
 country's arsenal, if all his neighbors could enter the 
 armory without keys? And, in like manner, of what 
 distinctive advantage is office^ conveyed by episcopal 
 
256 
 
 PURIFICATION OF OUR 'OWN MINDS. 
 
 ordination, if those who have not episcopal ordination, 
 can derive from some other source the power val- 
 idly to discharge all the functions of the ministerial 
 office? 
 
 The tractarian view on this point seems to be the 
 more consistent of the two. For, if God intended to 
 confine the transmission of ministerial office to the 
 episcopal line of ordination, it would seem reasonable 
 to suppose that he would have conveyed, through the 
 same channel, the qualifications for discharging efiec- 
 tively the duties of the office ; for then the lack of 
 qualification, as evinced by fruitless labors, would be 
 an infallible evidence that the office had not been de- 
 rived through the apostolic line. But since the minis- 
 terial acts of those who have not been episcopally 
 ordained are equally efficacious with the acts of those 
 who are, the inference seems unavoidable, that God 
 never intended to transmit the ministerial commission 
 through any line whatever. 
 
 I shall not pretend to impeach the correctness of our 
 ordinal, when it says, "It is evident unto all men, 
 diligently reading holy Scripture and ancient authors, 
 that from the apostles' times there have been these 
 orders of ministers in Christ's church — bishops, 
 priests, and deacons." Granting that such a trine 
 distribution of the christian ministry for several hun- 
 dred years as a mere historic fact, may be very " evi- 
 dent" to the readers of "Scripture and ancient au- 
 thors," it does not follow that such an arrangement of 
 the ministry is alone lawful, or that it might not at 
 any time be dispensed with. It is equally " evident 
 unto all men, diligently reading holy Scripture and 
 ancient authors," that from the time of Augustus 
 Caesar, there has been at the head of that organic con- 
 dition of society called government, this single order 
 
PURIFICATION OF OUR OWN MINDS. 
 
 267 
 
 of men, namely, kings. But the admission of tljis 
 fact does not imply that it is unlawful to dispense 
 with the regal form of government, and that the re- 
 publican government under which we live is a wicked 
 breach upon the order which divine wisdom has estab- 
 lished. 
 
 It is well known that a large majority of the first 
 bishops and divines of the English church held that 
 bishops were not a separate order, jure divino ; that 
 ordination was confined to bishops exclusively by 
 apostolic practice, and the canons of the church, 
 rather than by a divme enactment ; and it is known, 
 still further, that, in a conference held by these bish- 
 ops and divines, with Cranmer at their head, before 
 the compiling of the liturgy, such an opinion was fully 
 expressed. Now, the whole question whether episco- 
 pacy is perpetually binding on the church, turns on 
 the question whether it is of divine right. If of 
 divine right, it is perpetually binding ; if not, it may 
 be dismissed whenever the church shall see fit to dis- 
 pense with it. 
 
 Moreover, the reformers did not seem to regard 
 episcopacy as binding on the church ; for in the pref- 
 ace of the prayer-book they say, "What cannot be 
 clearly determined to belong to doctrine, must be re- 
 ferred to discipline; and therefore, by common con- 
 sent and authority, may be altered, abridged, enlarged, 
 amended, or otherwise disposed of, as may seem most 
 convenient for the edification of the people, according 
 to tlie various exigencies of times and occasions J' ^ 
 Now, if episcopacy belongs to "disciplined^ rather than 
 to "doctrine,^'' — as of course it does, — we want no 
 further evidence that the English reformers regarded 
 it not only not of divine right, but as not perpetually 
 binding on the church. 
 
 22* 
 
258 PURIFICATION OF OUR OWN MINDS. 
 
 In these views I fully concur. My conviction is 
 that government, civil and ecclesiastical, is of divine 
 appointment ; but that its particular form, in the one 
 case as in the other, has not been made the sub- 
 ject of any positive divine enactment, but has been 
 left to the moulding, under divine providence, of 
 times and circumstances, in accordance with the 
 wants of the race in its various moral and physical 
 conditions. 
 
 I believe, therefore, that the preface of the prayer- 
 book is right in referring to discipline all things not 
 clearly included under the term doctrine, and in de- 
 claring that, without exception, they are, — episcopacy 
 and the form of church government of course included, 
 — alterable at the pleasw*e of the church. I have never 
 seen the fact that our church takes this ground before 
 stated ; but here it is in the prayer-book. It cannot be 
 evaded. 
 
 The exclusive views growing out of the divine 
 right of episcopacy have no support, then, either in 
 the Bible or in the prayer-book. No real progress 
 can be made towards the cure of Puseyism, until 
 evangelical men shall have discarded from their minds 
 every vestige of the divine right of episcopacy. 
 
 Moreover, if we would get rid of our tractarian 
 tendencies, we must cultivate christian union. We 
 must abandon all our lofty notions, and step right 
 upon the platform of christian brotherhood, taking 
 every christian man by the hand as a brother and 
 an equal, and according to the true gospel rule, es- 
 teeming others better than ourselves. The spirit of 
 the age demands this of us. Without it, we shall, in 
 the great race of love and charity, on which the prot- 
 estant church is entering so earnestly, be left far in 
 the rear. Our own life as a denomination demands it 
 
PURIFICATION OF OUR OWN MINDS. 
 
 259 
 
 of us. Without it, we shall be thrown, practically, in 
 spite of us, into the society and fellowship of the apos- 
 tate church of Rome. Our loyalty to Christ requires 
 it of us. Without it, our position will more and 
 more be found, of necessity, to be one of antagonism to 
 him and his cause. 
 
260 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 DISCIPLINARY CLEANSING OF THE CHURCH". 
 
 It is an acknowledged fact that there is a class of 
 men in the bosom of the Episcopal church, whose 
 views, feelings, and sympathies are essentially Romish. 
 Is it proper that such persons should remain within its 
 pale 7 Perhaps it would not be proper, so long as they 
 can draw the elementary principles of their system out 
 of the standards of the denomination, to eject them. 
 But, these standards being corrected, according to pre- 
 vious suggestions, the next, and closing act in the cure 
 of tractarianism, would be the exscinding of all Roman- 
 izers. I do not believe their ejection from the church 
 would do any good, the standards remaining as 
 they are ; for the same causes which have produced 
 these, would, in due time, generate as many more. 
 The mere sloughing from the body ecclesiastic of the 
 gangrenous portion would avail little, unless corrective 
 influences were applied to the seat of the disease, and 
 its power were broken in the heart of the constitution. 
 Let this be done, and then, as tractarians are dead to 
 protestantism, the moment the vital forces of our 
 system can make a boundary line between life and 
 death, they will be thrown off in the way that other 
 dead matter is. 
 
 "Those energetic, evangelic principles," of which 
 Isaac Taylor speaks, "which gave life to the preach- 
 ing of Luther and his colleagues," and which are 
 found in our articles, and in some parts of our prayer- 
 book, produced, at an early period, their necessary 
 
DISCIPLINARY CLEANSING OF THE CHURCH. 261 
 
 result, namely, a race of energetic, pure-minded prot- 
 estants, who wished to remain in the church of their 
 choice, and who therefore clamored for its purification. 
 The Cyprianic influence being in the ascendant, these 
 men were deemed heretical disturbers of the church's 
 peace, and were therefore cast out. But this did not 
 cure what was called an evil. Had the church cast 
 away the articles and a few other things, and then 
 cast out the puritans, puritanism would have perished 
 in the established church, though it would have lived 
 and flourished beyond its pale. 
 
 So now, if our church will first cast out Cyprianism, 
 and then eject tractarians, Puseyism will perish like a 
 tree plucked up by the roots. Let the last step in the 
 cure of tractarianism, then, be the ejecting of tracta- 
 rians. This is indispensable to the completion of the 
 cure. Perhaps it would not do any harm to begin 
 with this. 
 
 It is a singular fact that while Cyprianism and 
 Lutheranism have existed together in the English 
 church, and in our own, and that while these two 
 conflicting elements have been producing Romanism 
 on the one hand, and puritanism or pure protestantism 
 on the other, all the expulsions from the church have 
 been on the puritan side. Not a Romanist has ever 
 been expelled. Mr. Newman remained four years 
 after he was a Roman Catholic, and finally went out 
 by his own choice. Dr. Pusey still remains, though 
 holding all that is essential to Romanism. And there 
 are men in our own denomination in this country, who 
 are known to believe the doctrinal matter of the 
 decrees of Trent. 
 
262 
 
 CONCLUSION. 
 
 The writer trusts it has now been sufficiently 
 demonstrated that there are in our system two irrecon- 
 cileably antagonistic elements, the Lutheran and the 
 Cyprianic. The theological amials of the church of 
 England and of our own, spread out before us, as the 
 results of these elements, two systems of theology, 
 lying in latitudes as separate from each other as the 
 northern and southern hemispheres, and with a boun- 
 dary line between them as well defined as the equa- 
 tor. 
 
 If this be so, then any attempt to define or explain 
 the causes of Puseyism which overlooks these antag- 
 onisms, is fundamentally erroneous, and can, at best, 
 only make some indirect approaches to the truth. 
 
 From the history of tractarianism in England and 
 our own country, we may learn two things. 
 
 1. We may learn that those who embrace high and 
 strained views of the church, the ministry, and the 
 sacraments, do not know whither they are going. 
 They are much in the condition of men who have 
 begun to make a free and habitual use of intoxicating 
 drinks, who are on the highway to the drunkard's 
 grave, but cannot be persuaded of the fact. Some of 
 these men, to be sure, who have got near enough to 
 the engulfing whirlpool to hear it roar, know very 
 well where they are, and with foolish calnmess medi- 
 tate the fatal plunge. But the great mass of those 
 who have embraced the seminal principles of tracta- 
 rianism, and are just beginning to thread the inviting 
 paths by which it conducts its votaries gradually 
 
CONCLUSION. 
 
 263 
 
 away from the high road of truth, are totally uncon- 
 scious of what is before them. They think they 
 are only cultivating a higher and more becoming 
 gi-ade of churchmanship. They are only helping to 
 drive away from the church all loose views of the 
 ministry, and low views of the sacraments, and are 
 restoring those distinctively church views which a 
 radical and undevout age has so nearly destroyed. 
 But they never dream that they are putting the church 
 in danger — that they are in danger themselves. Such 
 a suggestion makes them indignant. They are blinded. 
 They are just where the writers of the tracts for the 
 times were just after they began the series. They are 
 sowing the seeds of death, but they know it not. 
 There are few who seem to be aware how many 
 among us are in this condition. 
 
 2. We may learn from what has passed that there 
 is danger in the very security which is felt by such 
 numbers among us. Since there has been so general a 
 failure to discover, and consequently a failure to 
 remove, the causes of Puseyism, the fact of a feeling of 
 security ought to be a source of alarm. There are 
 large numbers of men among us, who are saying all is 
 well, and who yet, by all they have said on the sub- 
 ject, have shown that they knew not whereof they 
 affirmed. 
 
 It is time, therefore, that we throw off our slumbers, 
 and begin in earnest to look after the true sources of 
 our troubles. We are already, as a denomination, 
 moving round in the circles of the great whirlpool 
 which has engulfed many of our brethren. Some 
 among us are looking gleefully over the side of the 
 boat, and are rejoicing in the increasing swiftness of 
 its motion; others, who would be alarmed if they 
 knew the actual state of the case, have been so 
 
264 
 
 CONCLUSION. 
 
 deceived by the gradual increase of its motion, that 
 they seem not aware of its having been increased at 
 all ; while others still, unmindful of the craft in which 
 they are sailing and of the fatally winding motion of 
 the element in which it glides, are trustfully gazing up 
 into the deep and calm heavens, and are forgetting, in 
 the contemplation of their majestic and settled repose, 
 the unsettled and moving state of the treacherous ele- 
 ment below. 
 
 Our awful misfortune is, that these latter classes 
 attribute whatever change in our position they may be 
 aware of, to some accidental wind which is blowing 
 us, temporarily, out of our course, rather than to an 
 irreversible and fatal whirl of the flood, on which our 
 all is embarked. May God convince them of their 
 mistake before we are engulfed ! 
 
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