:^ '' 
 
 ^ 
 
 -A.
 
 L I B RA RY 
 
 OF THE 
 U N I VERSITY 
 or ILLl NOIS
 
 THE 
 
 THREE REFORMATIONS : 
 
 ?Lut!)nan — ixoman — Sugliran^ 
 
 AVALTEK FARQUHAR HOOK, D.D. 
 
 VICAK OF LEEDS. 
 
 " You can easily conceive, that, when any one stands on a middle point between two 
 others, who are, with respect to him, strictly equidistant, lie must, from the inevitable laws 
 of perspective, appear to both, not to be in the middle, but comparatively near the opposite 
 party."— Alexander Knox. 
 
 LONDON: 
 JOHN MURRAY, ALBEMARLE STREET. 
 
 1847.
 
 LosFiON : 
 
 Printed by A. Si'oitiswoode, 
 
 New Street- Sqimn-
 
 ADVERTISEMENT. 
 
 The following Lecture was delivered at the Church of 
 England Library at Rochdale, on the 8th of December, 
 1846; and on the 15th of the same month at the 
 Church Institution of Leeds. As the latter Institu- 
 tion provided the former with its fundamental rules, 
 and has been imitated in many places, a brief account 
 of it is given in the appendix. 
 
 The subject of this Lecture has been further illus- 
 trated by the Author, in five sermons preached before 
 the University of Oxford in 1837, and in " A Call to 
 Union on the Principles of the English Reformation," 
 published in 1838. 
 
 A 2
 
 , uiuc I 
 
 J
 
 THREE REFORMATIONS; 
 
 1Lut!)£ran — Moman — Anglican. 
 
 Gentle.aien, 
 
 The institution Avhich I have the honour to 
 address has an object in common with many other 
 institutions, which have of late years sprung up in 
 this country, that object being, to supply the in- 
 dustrial classes of society with the means of enjoying 
 those pleasures which result from an acquaintance 
 with the elegancies of literature, the philosophy of 
 history, and the discoveries of science. Whatever 
 has a tendency to attract man from sensual indul- 
 gences to the cultivation of the mind has a tendency 
 also to promote civilisation ; and although there are 
 sins of the intellect as well as sins of the body, for 
 which we shall have hereafter to give an account, 
 and although, therefore, mental culture does not of 
 necessity imply moral excellence, yet it is upon the 
 civilised mind that Christianity is brought to bear: — 
 
 " Prowess and arts did tame 
 And tune men's hearts before the Gospel came ; 
 Strength levell'd grounds ; art made a garden there ; 
 Then shower'd religion, and made all to bear;" 
 
 A 3
 
 6 THE THREE REFORMATIONS: 
 
 and consequently such institutions as these must be 
 regarded with interest by all who have the promo- 
 tion of God's glory and the welfare of their fellow- 
 creatures at heart. Man consists of body, mind, and 
 soul (o-to/jta, y^^x^h T^veufxa,) : there are food and 
 exercise for the body ; there is grace for the soul ; 
 let there be the pursuits of literature and science for 
 the mind. 
 
 For the corporeal part of our nature let us do 
 Avhat in us lies to prevent the people from being over- 
 worked ; let us adopt those sanatory measures which 
 are needful, in order that our noble Saxon race may 
 not degenerate into pigmies; and while we value the 
 commercial interests of our country, let us never 
 forget that the object of the true patriot will be to 
 promote not merely the wealth of the few but the 
 welfare of the millions ; for the souls of our brethren 
 let us go on erecting sanctuaries and providing the 
 means of grace ; let us build schools, train school- 
 masters, and multiply such institutions as this, that 
 men may improve their minds, and in the intervals 
 of labour taste the delights of mental recreation. 
 
 But in many institutions, professing the same 
 objects as yours, one branch of literature and science 
 is excluded, namely, theology. And yet among the 
 sciences theology is the most important ; and if we 
 exclude from our library the works of our theologians, 
 we exclude a large portion of the philosoj^hy, the 
 metaphysics, the eloquence, and the poetry of our 
 country. There seems to be no ground in reason 
 for actino; thus. The ambition of forming; one laroe 
 association is very attractive, but surely it is not an
 
 LUTllEKAN, KOMAN, ANGLICAN. 7 
 
 object for whicli it is worth our while to make a 
 sacrifice so great as that to which I have alluderl. 
 It is far better to attempt tlic formation of many 
 smaller institutions, all constituted on definite prin- 
 ciples, but encouraging friendly intercourse ; and we 
 may be sure that whenever the line of demarcation 
 is clearly drawn, intercourse between disagreeing 
 ^Darties becomes practicable and easy : it is not by 
 concealing differences, but by stating them candidly, 
 and knowing clearly the points upon which we must 
 agree to differ, that we further the cause of charity 
 as well as of truth. Each separate society Avould be 
 a gainer, for better lectures would be obtained. The 
 restraint under which a lecturer is placed when his 
 subject trenches upon theology, and he is afraid to give 
 utterance to the sentiment which suggests itself to 
 his mind, lest he should seem to encroach uj)on the 
 religious neutrality professed by the society he ad- 
 dresses, must do damage to his own soul, while it 
 deteriorates the character of his lecture. And the 
 lecture given at one institution might be open to the 
 members of all similar institutions, who would attend 
 with a knowledge beforehand of the bias of the 
 lecturer's mind, and would have, in consequence, no 
 ground of complaint when the lecturer expresses 
 himself freely according to principles not inculcated 
 by inuendo but openly avowed. (Note A.) 
 
 But however this may appear to others, I feel it to 
 be a satisfaction that I am now addressing a literary 
 and scientific association where I may speak freely as 
 a theologian. It is, indeed, only as a theologian that 
 you can have requested me to address you this eveu- 
 
 A 4
 
 8 THE THREE REFORMATIONS: 
 
 ing ; for you must know enough of the duties of a 
 working clergyman in a manufacturing district to be 
 aware that he can have but little time for any literary 
 and scientific pursuits, except those which bear upon 
 his immediate duties. A clergyman is, indeed, pledged 
 to this. Although he may have a general acquaint- 
 ance with many subjects, since this is needful in order 
 to know any one subject perfectly, yet it is only on 
 one subject that ordinary minds can be really learned 
 so as to be able to instruct others ; that subject being 
 the one to which their powers, such as they are, have 
 been especially directed. It is from a forgetfulness 
 of this, that there is truth in the line which has be- 
 come proverbial, '* A little learning is a dangerous 
 thing." It is dangerous, because the conceited sciolist 
 mistakes his little for much. Take your OAvn profes- 
 sion, trade, or calling in life, and deliver to us a dis- 
 course upon it, or upon some subject connected with 
 it, and whatever it may be, or however ungrammatical 
 your expression, you wiU be heard with respectful 
 attention. We should listen with satisfaction to a 
 shoemaker discoursing on the art of making shoes, 
 and expatiating on his discoveries in the cordwainer's 
 department of science ; but if that person, from the 
 perusal of a few books upon astronomy, were to open 
 a lecture-room at Cambridge, and to pretend to throw 
 fresh light upon the solar system, we could protect 
 him neither from the silent contempt of the professors, 
 nor from the noisy mirth of the undergraduates. A 
 wise man knows when to be silent as well as when to 
 speak ; and a little learning on many subjects is not 
 dangerous, if, mindful that it is but little we know,
 
 LUTHERAN, EO.AIAN, ANGLICAN. 9 
 
 we approach them as a relaxation and amusement, 
 and give our mind in its vigour to that one subject 
 to which, by the Providence of God, we are called to 
 devote ourselves. 
 
 It is on this ne sutor ultra crepidam principle that 
 I intend to select for my lecture this evening a sub- 
 ject which could not, with propriety, be handled in a 
 sermon, or, at all events, not in sufficient detail ; but 
 Avhich, nevertheless, is one of such importance that no 
 apology can be necessary for bringing it under the 
 notice of those who, being members of a Church In- 
 stitution, ought to be reminded of the singular advan- 
 tages they possess in being members of that pure and 
 apostolical branch of the Church which is the bul- 
 wark not of the Reformation only, but of Catholicism 
 itself. 
 
 What may be the office assigned in the secret coun- 
 sels of God to that pure and reformed branch of the 
 Church to which we have the happiness to belong, 
 we, of course, know not : that our Church may be 
 destined to be the preserver and restorer of the faith, 
 when Antichrist shall have appeared, and when the 
 predicted falling away shall have occurred — this 
 may be only a dream, though it be a dream in which 
 the dutiful children of our dear and holy mother may 
 be permitted to indulge without giving offence ; but 
 be that as it may, this is quite certain, that we, Avhe- 
 ther ministers or people, clergy or laity, can only do 
 God's work in this Church of England by adhering 
 firmly and consistently to the principles of our Church 
 as laid down at the glorious and blessed epoch of the 
 Reformation. This I have said to Ultra-Protes-
 
 10 THE THREE REFORMATIONS: 
 
 tants *, and this I will continue to say to Romanizers ; 
 and, in despite of the cavils of either extreme, honest 
 Church-of-England men must march straight onward 
 in the via media, that straight and narrow path, 
 between miscalled Evangelicalism and miscalled Ca- 
 tholicism, which leadeth unto truth. (Note B.) 
 
 It is to the era of the Reformation that all parties 
 must refer, not because to the Reformers, erring and 
 sinful men, any peculiar deference is due, but because 
 at that time were settled the principles which have 
 developed themselves in Ultra-Protestantism, Ro- 
 manism, and Anglicanism. I include Romanism, for 
 the present Church of Rome was reformed at the 
 Council of Trent ; and our real dispute with Rome is 
 simply this, — whether her reformation or ours was 
 conducted on the proper principle. To the three 
 Reformations, therefore, the Lutheran, the Roman, 
 and the Anglican, after a few preliminary observa- 
 tions, I propose to call your attention. 
 
 Long before the Reformation took place, a reforma- 
 tion of the Church was demanded by the moral sense 
 of mankind, as every one will admit who is even mo- 
 derately acquainted with the history of the middle 
 ages. Much pains have been taken within the last 
 few years to vindicate the character of the middle 
 ages from the unmitigated censures of the historians 
 of the last century, who wrote without sufficiently 
 examining the subject. By no one has this been 
 done so efficiently as by the learned Mr. Maitland : it 
 
 * See the author's " Call to Union on the Principles of the 
 English lv''forniiitiou ;" and his "Five Sermons before the Uni- 
 versity of Oxford."
 
 LUTllEKAN, RO^LA.N, ANGLICAN. 11 
 
 would have been well if those who have followed him 
 had always been guided by that good common sense 
 which is as remarkable in him as his learning. But 
 some persons have appeared among us who have con- 
 cluded that, because the middle ages were not so dark 
 as they were regarded by our innnediate ancestors, 
 they must have been one blaze of light. When we 
 look at the magnificent minsters and the gorgeous 
 cathedrals by which not only our own country but 
 all Europe is adorned, we shall not think scorn of 
 the artists whose skill we have hitherto been unable 
 to equal : but when we discover the misery, splendid 
 or sordid, in which the mass of the people lived, our 
 admiration of those "good old times" is considerably 
 diminished. We permit our imagination to gaze with 
 delight on the gentle knight in his panoply, " prick- 
 ing on the plain," but the very fact of his having to 
 go forth armed cap-a-'pie as the redresser of wrongs, 
 bears silent testimony to the disturbed state of the 
 country, and the miseries resulting from the want of 
 a police. When the student opens the volumes of 
 the schoolmen, he admires the acuteness of intellect 
 which prevailed among them, and the care with which 
 the mind was cultivated ; but when he reads in Bos- 
 suet what comes with double force from him, because 
 it comes in the light of an admission, that " they pre- 
 ferred for the most part to proceed on philosophical 
 reasonings of the worst description rather than con- 
 sult the fathers*,'' l^is respect for them as theologians 
 is considerably diminished. And this becomes still 
 
 * Bossuet, Detensio Declar. Cler. Gallic. Lib. viii. cxi.
 
 12 THE THREE KEEOKMATIONS : 
 
 more the case when he learns from Fleury that " it 
 was the misfortune of the doctors of the 13th and 
 14th centuries to know very little of the works of the 
 fathers, especially the more ancient ; to be deficient 
 in the aids necessary for well understanding them ;" 
 that " the generality of students, even of divines, 
 limited themselves to few books, chiefly to those of 
 modern authors, whom they understood better than 
 the ancients'^:" nor will he forget what the Abbe 
 Goujet observes, that " they did not engage in the 
 study of Scripture, even in the schools of theology, 
 except Avith lukewarmness ; and they often contented 
 themselves with imperfect extracts from it, found in 
 the writings of some theologian of little solidity, which 
 they put in the hands of those they wish to apply to 
 theological science." " The theologians who preceded 
 the 14th century, and were after the time of St. Ber- 
 nard or St. Thomas, had deprived themselves of an 
 advantage in abandoning, or, at least, neglecting, so 
 much the study of the fathers, both Greek and 
 Latin." t 
 
 I request you to bear in mind what is here said by 
 Roman Catholic writers — an admission on their part 
 of the inefficiency of the theologians of the middle 
 ages ; for the importance of this admission will be 
 presently apparent. 
 
 But religion, it will be said, sound morals, reverence, 
 devotion, these were characteristic of the middle ages. 
 
 * Fleury, Cinquieme Discours sur I'Histoire Ecclesiastique. 
 f Goujet ill " Fleury 's Discourses on Eccles. Hist." See Pal- 
 mer's " Essay on tlie Church."
 
 LUTHERAN, ROMAN, ANGLICAN. 13 
 
 Let US see what those who lived in those ages thought 
 upon this subject. We admit 
 
 " That many hooded Ceiiobites there were 
 Who in their private cells had yet a care 
 Of public quiet, unambitious men, 
 Counsellors for the world, of piercing ken ; 
 Whose fervent exhortations from afar 
 Moved princes to their duty, peace or war ; 
 And oft-times in the most forbidding den 
 Of solitude, with love of science strong, 
 Most patiently the yoke of thought they bare." 
 
 Such men were Bradwardine, Bishop Pecock, Wil- 
 liam of Wykeham, and Waynflete. Undoubtedly there 
 were many such ; but to what great object were the most 
 fervent exhortations of these great men addressed ? 
 It was to the reformation of the Church. The dis- 
 solution of morals, the irreverence in all that per- 
 tained to religion, the venality of the prelates, the 
 immorality of the clergy, were such that the hearts of 
 the righteous were afflicted, and their exertions para- 
 lysed : " Oh ! that I might see the Church," says St. 
 Bernard, writing to his friend and former pupil, Eu- 
 genius III., now on the papal throne — " Oh ! that I 
 might see the Church, before I die, as it was in the 
 days of the apostles, who made it their business to 
 win, not silver and gold, but souls ! How earnestly 
 do I desire to hear from you the apostle's sentence, 
 * Thy money perish with thee ! ' Oh ! word of thun- 
 der ! at which all the enemies of Zion should arise 
 and flee away. And this doth your mother the Church 
 require of you. For this doth her children, small and 
 great, continually sigh ; namely^ that you would root 
 out every plant which your heavenly Father hath not
 
 14 THE THIJKE UEKOmiATIONS : 
 
 planted ; for you are set over nations and kingdoms " 
 (he had exaggerated ideas of papal power) "to root 
 out and to destroy, and to build up and to plant. Yet, 
 in all your undertakings, remember that you are but 
 a man ; and let the fear of Him that taketh away the 
 breath of princes be ever before your eyes." * 
 
 What, indeed, was the moral state of society at 
 that time may be gathered from a single fact, that 
 Heloisa expressed her disinclination to marry Abelard, 
 because, as his mistress, she would every where be 
 received with honour ; whereas he, as a married eccle- 
 siastic, would be treated with scorn, and excluded 
 from preferment. f The constrained celibacy of the 
 clergy had, indeed, not only corrupted the whole 
 clerical order, but had demoralised the world. A re- 
 formation of the Church, in its head and its members, 
 became a cry throughout Europe. It originated with 
 a cardinal — it was repeated by the Emperor — it was 
 reiterated by kings and princes — it was re-echoed by 
 the serfs and peasants. " To reform the Church, in 
 its head and its members," the Councils of Pisa and of 
 Constance were convoked ; and in order more fully to 
 impress upon your minds the error of those who refer 
 us to the middle ages, as to ages of peculiar excel- 
 lence in morality and religion, I shall present you 
 with an account of the moral and religious condition 
 
 * Bern. Epist. 257. fid Eugen. 
 
 I A married clerk was in all respects reputed as a layman, 
 saving that if he kept his habit and tonsure he could be examined, 
 according to the canon law, before no secular judge ; and if any 
 one laid violent hands on him, he was excommunicated ipso facto, 
 fiee Johnson's Eccles. Cof/oiis, 1416.
 
 LUTHEHAN, ROMAN, ANGLICAN. IT) 
 
 of the people, as given by persons of high ecclesiasti- 
 cal rank and dignity, selected to preach before the 
 assembled fathers of the Council of Constance, by 
 whom their assertions were neither refuted nor cen- 
 sured. The Council was opened on the 5th, and the 
 first session was held on the 13th, of November, 1414. 
 I will not refer to John Huss, whose cruel death, 
 under an act of unexampled injustice, is itself a tes- 
 timony against the age, because he might be con- 
 sidered as an exceptionable witness ; but I will refer 
 to the sermon of Matthew Roeder, Professor of Di- 
 vinity in the College of Navarre, at Paris, which was 
 delivered before the Council on the 30 th of December. 
 He expresses his astonishment, that so many wise and 
 understanding men had been supported in such hor- 
 rible licentiousness as he expresses in two verses, 
 which are characteristic of the taste of the age. Every 
 noun of the first verse is the nominative to the verb 
 under it in the second — 
 
 Virtus, Ecclesia, Populus, Daemon, Simonia, 
 Cessat, turbatur, errat, regnat, doniinatur, 
 
 Virtue, theChui'ch, the People, the Devil, Simony, 
 Is fled, is disturbed, erreth, reigneth, governeth.* 
 
 " The truth is," said Paul I'Anglois, a school-doctor 
 of those times, " that the whole court of Rome, from 
 the sole of the foot to the crown of the head, is 
 blinded with manifest and public error. It has made 
 almost all the parts of the world drunk with the 
 poison of its errors, as if it thought to measure out 
 the divine Almighty Power after its own fancy. 
 
 * Lenfant, i. Iv.
 
 16 THE TIIREK KEFORMATIONS : 
 
 Every body murmurs at it, though nobod}' opcMdy 
 complains."* 
 
 The eifrhteeiith session of the Council was held on 
 the 17th of August, 1415 ; and the day after, Bertrand 
 Vasher preached a sermon on the necessity of the 
 reformation of the Church, exhorting the Council to 
 m.ake use of the most speedy and effectual means to 
 correct abuses, " especially the insatiable avarice, the 
 untameable ambition, the shameful laziness, and the 
 execrable pride of the clergy.*' On the 8th of Sep- 
 tember, the jDreacher, after inveighing against the 
 corruptions of the clergy, complains that " the sacra- 
 ments used to be piously administered, whereas they 
 had now fallen into contempt, and were profaned." 
 In the same month another preacher remarks, " Wlien 
 a prelate is consecrated, they ask him if he knows the 
 Old and New Testament ? I'll be judged by most 
 of them whether they can affirm it with a safe con- 
 science." He urges the necessity of a reformation, 
 and quotes largely from St. Bernard, who, in his 
 commentary on the Song of Songs, was particularly 
 severe upon the corruption of the times. On the 
 25th of October, we find the Bishop of Lodi repre- 
 senting the clergy as so plunged in excessive luxury, 
 and such disgraceful incontinency, that he thinks if 
 Diogenes were to seek for a man among them, he 
 would find none but black cattle and swine. He 
 mentions a circumstance which had occurred a few 
 days before, when a priest of Constance, who had 
 just been saying vespers, was assassinated in the open 
 
 * Quoted by Lenfant, book iii.
 
 LUTHERAN, ROMAN, ANGLICAN. 17 
 
 street by a citizen on horseback, who, when he had 
 struck the blow, rode off at full speed. " It was but 
 too natural for such accidents to happen in so great 
 a crowd of people, and at a time when the clergy, by 
 their ill example," as he observes, " gave full toler- 
 ation to the laity, of whom they fell not short in acts 
 of violence, any more than in all other enormities." 
 Equally strong on the necessity of a reformation 
 was Hottric Abendon, an Englishman, Professor of 
 Divinity at Oxford, who preached before the Council 
 on the following Sunday. On the 16th of February, 
 1416, Theodoric of Minster preached in full council, 
 when he accused the clergy of neglecting the study 
 of the Holy Scriptures for the sake of applying only 
 to the canon law and the decretals, because there 
 they learn how to get money. In these days, said 
 the preacher, " the positive laws (the canon law, the 
 decretals, and the constitutions of the popes,) are 
 advanced above the law of God and the command- 
 ments of Jesus Christ." The preacher only said in 
 prose what Dante says in verse — 
 
 " The accursed love of coin 
 Hath driven from the field both sheep and lambs : 
 The shepherd turned into a wolf. For this, 
 The Gospel and great teachers laid aside, 
 The decretals, as their stufTd margins show, 
 Are the sole study : pope and cardinals. 
 All bent on these, think not of Nazareth, 
 Where Gabriel lighted down on golden wing." 
 
 Upon the day of Epiphany, 1417, the preacher 
 denounced the sins of the clergy and the people, and, 
 among other things, accused them of neglecting the 
 study of the Sacred Scriptures, and the preaching of 
 
 B
 
 18 THE THREE REFORMATIONS *. 
 
 the Gospel. On the 17th of January, the celebrated 
 Gerson preached ; and being unable to compress all 
 his matter within the limits of a sermon, he pub- 
 lished what he intended to say as a pamphlet, in 
 which, without despising the decretals, he expresses 
 his regret that they should be preferred to the word 
 of God ; and he remarks, " among those people who 
 are called religious by way of eminence, you will see 
 the transgression of certain constitutions, which are 
 sometimes very frivolous, punished with much more 
 severity than the transgression of the law of God 
 Himself, as murder or perjury." 
 
 In June of this year, Stephen of Prague, a pro- 
 fessor of divinity, alluding to the way in which 
 preferments were disposed of, asks, "Is it just for 
 fools to preside, and for wise men to obey ? that boys 
 should command, and grey beards be their lackeys? 
 that ignoramuses should have the charge of the most 
 delicate affairs, and scholars not dare to open their 
 lips ? that grooms should be preferred to doctors 
 and preachers of God's word ? There," he exclaimed, 
 " is the fruit of simony ! " 
 
 In August, a French abbot, called Bernard the 
 Baptized, thus describes the state of society: — " I am 
 sorry to say it, that in our days the Catholic faith is 
 reduced to nothing; hope is turned into rash pre- 
 sumption, and the law of God and our neighbour is 
 quite extinct. In the laity falsehood bears the chief 
 sway, and avarice is the rule of the clergy. In the 
 Church the flock is divided. In the prelates there is 
 nothing but malice, iniquity, negligence, ignorance, 
 vanity, pride, covetousness, simony, lasciviousness,
 
 LUTHERAN, ROMAN, ANGLICAN. 19 
 
 pomp, and hypocrisy. At the pope's court there is 
 no sanctity ; law-suits and quarrels being the hap- 
 piness of that court, and imposture its delight. 
 Tyranny, rapaciousness, and simony are practised in 
 every part of it. It is a diabolical court." 
 
 This person preached evidently under the impulse of 
 excited feelings ; but admitting some exaggeration, 
 what must have been the real state of things when this 
 was an approximation to the truth ? Another doctor, 
 whose name was Theobald, delivered a sermon a few 
 days after on the same subject : this discourse was in a 
 milder strain, but this only gives the sharper point 
 to his invectives. He reproaches the clergy for not 
 administering the sacraments except for money, and 
 for letting people die without the viaticum, if they 
 had not wherewithal to pay the priest. " As to 
 their expenses, they would rather spend their money 
 in fools, harlequins, harlots, fiddlers, flatterers, dogs, 
 and birds, than give to the poor. Contrary to the 
 sacred canons, they frequent taverns and houses of 
 ill-fame : they openly keep concubines in their houses; 
 and, notwithstanding the most gross vice, make no 
 scruple to celebrate the holy communion." 
 
 " It has become a proverb," he says, " that the 
 prelates keep as many mistresses as they have domes- 
 tics ; and do not suppose," he adds, " that your 
 shame can be concealed, for your mistresses publicly 
 boast of it." " The convents of women, which, 
 according to the canons, ought absolutely to be shut 
 up from the men, are public places, and theatres and 
 receptacles for vanity. If any great men are scru- 
 pulous of going into them, they send presents, dishes 
 
 B 2
 
 20 THE TiiiiEi-: reformations: 
 
 of meat, letters, and invitations to the nuns to come 
 to their houses. What passes there it were a shame 
 to tell, but it is a greater shame to do. The most de- 
 plorable case of all is, that the court of Rome, which 
 ought to set an example, commits all these abomi- 
 nations ; and even in this place, where an assembly is 
 held for the reformation of morals." * 
 
 If it be said that these must have been hyperbolical 
 expressions, let me remind you that they were uttered 
 by dignitaries of the Church before a general council. 
 Could any one of our bishops, at the present day, 
 make any accusation against the Church of England 
 approaching to this, before the House of Lords, with- 
 out being silenced at once ? Every one would be a 
 witness that such is not the state of society in Eng- 
 land ; and therefore, when we find that preacher after 
 preacher thus described the state of things in the 
 middle ages uncontradicted and unrebuked, our ad- 
 miration of the middle ages, and the wonderful effects 
 Avhich mediaeval religion produced, must greatly de- 
 crease, if it be not entirely annihilated. Peter D'Ailli, 
 Cardinal of Cambray, one of the great luminaries of 
 the 15th century, Avho wrote with more moderation 
 than most of his contemporaries, declares that it was 
 the common saying at that time, " that the Church 
 was come to such a pass that the government of it 
 was only fit for reprobates." f 
 
 * Vander Hart, torn. i. p. 898. 
 
 f Adeo ut jam horrendum quorundam proverbiura sit, ad hunc 
 statura venisse ecclesiam, ut nou sit digna regi nisi per reprobos. 
 — Alliac. Catw7i. Reform, np. V. d. Ilardty torn. i. p. 424.
 
 LUTHERAN, ROMAN, ANGLICAN. 21 
 
 Well, indeed, might Dante sing — 
 
 " Of shepherds such as you, the Evangelist 
 Was ware, when her wlio sits upon the waves 
 With kings in filthy whoredom he beheld ; 
 She, who with seven heads tower'd at her birth ; 
 And from ten horns her proof of glory drew. 
 Long, as her spouse, in virtue took delight. 
 Of gold and silver ye have made your god. 
 Differing wherein from the idolater. 
 But that he worships one, an hundred ye ? 
 Oh, Constantine ! of how much ill was cause 
 Not thy conversion, but those rich domains 
 That the first wealthy pope received of thee." 
 
 Inferno, cant. xix. (Note C) 
 
 It is pleasant to find the practical mind of an 
 Englishman brought to bear upon the subject ; and, 
 while the others were making their complaints, sug- 
 gesting the remedy. In a treatise by Richard Aller- 
 ston, a doctor of Oxford, dedicated to the Bishop of 
 Salisbury, after uniting with others in censuring the 
 iniquity of the age, the author concludes with saying, 
 '* Things being thus disposed in their natural order, 
 and all those abuses taken away, the Pope, according 
 to the duty of his ofiice, will make it his business to 
 procure peace among the Christians ; to preach the 
 Gospel himself, and to send out sound preachers to 
 all parts, who, by their preaching and example, may 
 teach both prelates and people their several duties, 
 and make a holy war against their passions, which, 
 according to St. James, are the source of divisions 
 and wars in church and state." 
 
 I may be pardoned for a short digression, interest- 
 ing to Englishmen, which shows that geographical 
 
 B 3
 
 22 THE THREE REFORMATIONS : 
 
 knowledge was certainly not among the accomplisli- 
 ments of the middle ages. An attempt was made by 
 the French, at the Council of Constance, to refuse to 
 the English the rank of a nation : it was contended 
 that they were, though an independent kmgdorn, to 
 vote as part of the German nation. This impertinence 
 on the part of our jealous neighbours, who, unable to 
 compete with us in the field, tried to outwit us in 
 diplomacy, was duly resented by our ancestors. They 
 proclaimed England to be inferior in no respect to 
 the kingdom of France, either as to extent, dignity, 
 or antiquity. As to extent, they computed that, 
 " taking England from north to south, it extends 
 800 Englisli miles — that is to say, forty days' 
 journey — which France does not, according to com- 
 mon estimation. Besides, the English nation has 
 eight kingdoms ; namely, England, Scotland, and 
 Wales, all which together make Great Britain ; Ire- 
 land, and four other kingdoms which be near Eng- 
 land ; the Orkney Islands, which are sixty in number, 
 and which are as large, if not larger, than the king- 
 dom of France ; thirty-two counties ; fifty-two thou- 
 sand parish churches, besides cathedral and collegiate 
 churches, priories, hospitals ; whereas in France 
 there are not above six thousand parochial churches, 
 and only four or five counties. It is true," they 
 continue, " that the French reckon eleven provinces 
 and one hundred and thirty-five dioceses in their 
 nation ; but, admitting their calculation to be just, if 
 so small a difference authorises them to deprive Eng- 
 land of the right of making a nation in the Council,
 
 LUTHERAN, ROMAN, ANGLICAN. 23 
 
 the Italians have much more reason to controvert the 
 right of France to make such a nation, because Italy 
 has three hundred and thirteen dioceses." The right 
 of the English to be regarded as a nation was con- 
 ceded; and we cannot but admit that if their skill 
 at the long bow bested them at Agincourt, they 
 were equally skilful in the use of it at Constance.* 
 Yerily the fathers of Constance must have thought 
 that the prediction of Seneca was fulfilled : — 
 
 " Venieut annis 
 Secula seris, quibus Oceanus 
 Vincula rerum laxet, et ingens 
 Pateat tellus." 
 
 So strong was the feeling at Constance with refer- 
 ence to the need of a reformation, that the Council 
 did not separate before it had passed a decree that 
 " the frequent holding of these councils being the 
 best way to prevent heresies and schisms, to correct 
 enormities, to reform abuses, and to maintain the 
 Church in a flourishing condition. General Councils 
 ought to be held often ; that there should be one in 
 five years, then one in seven, and afterwards one 
 every ten years." 
 
 If the ambition and wickedness of popes had not 
 frustrated the designs of the Council, it is impossible 
 to conjecture what might have been the result of the 
 decree, or to calculate on the blessing of which a 
 simultaneous and unanimous movement in the cause 
 
 * See Lenfant, lib. iv. 19. See Lenfant also for the authorities 
 before quoted, lib. i. 55., iv. 11.27. 30. 36. 46. 64., v. 4, 5. 47. 60., 
 vii. passim. See also Herman Vander Hart, Acta Concil. Const, 
 
 n 4
 
 24 THE THREE EEFORMATIOXS I 
 
 of reformation might have brought upon the 
 Churches of the West. 
 
 It has not been because it »vas necessary to prove 
 that a reformation had long been demanded in Europe 
 that I have suffered myself to be led into these de- 
 tails ; but it has been to show vou that the earth was 
 not that Paradise in the middle ases which some who 
 
 c 
 
 are not firm friends to the Church of England would 
 represent it to have been, and which others, in dreamy 
 iornorance, take for orranted. This is a fiction of modem 
 times — the effect of that re-action of the mind to 
 which I have alluded upon the discovery that those 
 ages were not such ages of ignorance as some histo- 
 rians had supposed, and that, amidst the gloom of 
 immorality, some persons were conspicuous for their 
 saintly virtues — virtues which shone forth the more 
 conspicuously as the stars shine brightest when the 
 sky is most dark. 
 
 A translation of the Colloquies of Erasmus would 
 be a useful and interesting work to enlighten the 
 public mind upon this subject ; a subject upon which 
 all who are acquainted ^vith the history of the ages 
 which preceded the Reformation are agreed. What, 
 indeed, are the very first words of the most popular 
 book of the most subtle of Roman Catholic controver- 
 sialists, Bossuet ? " A reformation." he says. " of 
 ecclesiastical discipline had been desired several ages 
 since." Alluding to the strong desire of St. Bernard 
 to see a reformation effected, he says, " If this holy 
 man had any thing to regret at his death, it was, that 
 he had not witnessed so happy a change. During his 
 whole life he bewailed the evils of the Church ; he
 
 LUTHERAN, ROMAN, ANGLICAN. 25 
 
 never ceased to admonish the people, the clergy, the 
 bishops, the popes, of them. Nor did he conceal his 
 sentiments on the subject from his own religious, 
 who partook of his affliction in their solitude, and 
 extolled the Divine goodness, in having drawn them 
 to it, so much the more gratefully as the world was 
 more universally corrupted. Disorders still increased 
 since that time.^' After alluding to the Council of 
 Pisa and that of Constance, of which you have heard 
 so much, the great prelate of Meaux proceeds : — 
 " What happened at the Council of Basil, where a 
 reformation was unfortunately eluded, and the Church 
 re-involved in new divisions, is well known. The 
 disorders of the clergy, chiefly those of Germany, 
 were presented forcibly in this manner to Eugenius IV. 
 by Cardinal Julian. ' These disorders,' he said, ' ex- 
 cite the hatred of the people against the whole eccle- 
 siastical order, and, should they not be corrected, it 
 is to be feared that the laity, like the Hussites, should 
 rise against the clergy, as they loudly threaten us.' 
 If the clergy of Germany were not quickly reformed, 
 he predicted that after the heresy of Bohemia, and 
 when it would be extinct, another, still more danger- 
 ous, would succeed ; for it will be said, proceeded he, 
 ' that the clergy are incorrigible, and will apply no 
 remedy to their disorders. When they shall have no 
 longer hopes of amendment,' said this great cardinal, 
 ' then will they fall upon us. The minds of men are 
 pregnant with expectation of what measures will be 
 adopted, and are ready for the birth of something 
 tragic. The rancour they have imbibed against us 
 becomes manifest ; they will soon think it an agree-
 
 26 THE TIIRKE UEFORMATIOXS : 
 
 able sacrifice to God to abuse and rob ecclesiastics, as 
 abandoned to extreme disorders, and hateful to God 
 and man. The little respect now remaining for the 
 ecclesiastical orders will soon be extino-uished. Men 
 will cast the blame of these abuses on the courts of 
 Eome, which will be considered the cause of them, 
 because it had neglected to apply the necessary re- 
 medy.' He afterwards spoke more emphatically. 
 ' I see,' said he, ' the axe is at the root : the tree be- 
 gins to bend ; and, instead of propping it whilst in 
 our power, we accelerate its fall ! ' He foresees a 
 speedy desolation on the German clergy. The desire 
 of depriving them of their temporal goods would form 
 the first spring of motion. ' Bodies and souls,' said 
 he, 'will perish together. God hides from us the 
 prospect of our dangers, as he is accustomed to do 
 with those whom he destines for punishment : we run 
 into the fire which we see lighted before us.' " * 
 
 Oh ! awful picture of a profligate clergy dreading 
 the vengeance of a people they had demoralised ! Oh ! 
 vain boasting of Romanists, when they themselves 
 admit these to be the fruit of Romanism unchecked ! 
 Oh ! ignorance of Roman izers, Avhen they attribute to 
 the Reformation those schisms and heresies of which 
 the want of timely reformation was the real cause ! 
 
 I have given you a description of the ante-reforma- 
 tion Church in the words of a Roman cardinal, as 
 quoted by the most eminent of Roman Catholic con- 
 troversialists. 
 
 Hope delayed maketh the heart sick. The 
 
 * Bossuet, lib. i. 1.
 
 LUTHERxVN, ROMAN, ANGLICAN. 27 
 
 churches of the West being enslaved by the usurpa- 
 tions of the court of Rome, for many years notorious 
 for pre-eminence in Avickedness, and the policy of that 
 court being to oppose all attempts at reformation, 
 what ought to have been legally and systematically 
 accomplished was, at last, when the abuses became 
 perfectly intolerable, attempted by a German monk, 
 whose moral sense had been insulted by the nefarious 
 sale of indulgences, authorised by the cupidity of a 
 luxurious and infidel pontiff. 
 
 When Martin Luther commenced the German Re- 
 formation, he appeared simply as an opposer of abuses. 
 He had no system, no plan : whatever may have been 
 his subsequent conduct, or whatever the deficiencies 
 of his character, he made a noble stand, for which all 
 the world must be grateful, against wickedness in high 
 places, and against a system which, in the name of 
 Heaven, was doing the work of hell. It is a page of 
 history which every one must read with thrilling in- 
 terest, that which tells of one poor monk daring the 
 fulminations of the Vatican, when those fulminations 
 were not, as now, like thunder unattended with light- 
 ning, but, though innocuous to the soul of the upright, 
 were as sounds preceding the destruction of the poor 
 victim at whom they were aimed. His was not a 
 malijrnant feelino^, such as too often animates those 
 who, without danger to their persons but rather with 
 much to gratify their vanity, declaim, in these days, 
 on platforms, against Popery, of the real nature of 
 which they are too often ignorant : his was a stand 
 against existing and acknowledged and practical evils, 
 made at the peril of his life. I am no apologist for
 
 28 THE THREE REFORMATIONS : 
 
 Martin Luther; his character deteriorated as he ad- 
 vanced in his career, and his conduct was sometimes 
 as reprehensible as that of liis opponents. But still 
 he was a magnanimous man ; and I will defy the 
 student of ecclesiastical history who has proceeded 
 from the primitive through the mediseval historians 
 not to be excited, even to enthusiasm, when his heart, 
 made sorrowful by the record of the Church's gradual 
 corruption, is cheered by the exhibition of one mind, 
 representing the mind of millions, but distinguished 
 from others by its own resolution, saying to the waters 
 of corruption, " You may overwhelm me, but further 
 ye shall not go." 
 
 As a destructive movement, Luther's was most im- 
 portant ; but when he was led by the force of circum- 
 stances to constructive measures, he was found to 
 fail. He had not the patience, the meekness, the 
 learning, the devoutness of mind necessary for such a 
 work. And yet, considering all things, we can scarcely 
 see how he could have acted otherwise. He married 
 his own mind, as it were, to the mind of one who pos- 
 sessed the qualifications in which he must have been 
 conscious that he was himself deficient. The chief 
 fault of Philip Melancthon was, that he suffered him- 
 self to be overborne too often by the impetuosity of 
 Martin Luther, and that his judgment sometimes 
 quailed before the proud will, not always reasonable, 
 of the elder reformer. 
 
 By the school of theologians thus formed, a system 
 of divinity was produced ; and Luther demanded its 
 acceptance by all who were driven, like himself, out 
 of the Church of Rome ; and now it was that the self-
 
 LUTHERAN, ROMAN, ANGLICAN. 29 
 
 will and strong temper which excited our sympathy 
 when resisting abuses became intolerant, so that the 
 vehemence of Luther against all who refused to be 
 Lutherans exceeded that which he had displayed 
 against the Romanists. His admirei's attempt to slur 
 over this last portion of his history ; and Ave must cer- 
 tainly admit that his contemporary Protestants bore 
 his infirmities with kindness, though sometimes, as 
 was natural, with impatience. The impartial Christian 
 who cares not for Luther, but regards him only as an 
 instrument in the hands of Him who orders all human 
 events, is as free to censure Luther as Luther himself 
 was to censure others, and may think it important to 
 do so, lest to the name of an uninspired individual 
 too much importance should be attached. 
 
 When Martin Luther endeavoured to force his 
 theological system upon mankind, the question was 
 fairly asked. Why are we to receive this system, and 
 this system only ? And the only answer was. That 
 this system commends itself as scriptural to those 
 great minds whom I have associated with my oa\ti. 
 Luther knew that truth is one ; that there cannot be 
 two opposing interpretations of Scripture, both of 
 them correct. He said, " Here is the Bible, and here 
 is the right interpretation of the Bible, or scriptural 
 doctrines drawn up systematically by learned men, 
 who, emancipated from Romish prejudices, have been 
 able impartially to investigate the subject." He seems 
 to have been not only exasperated but surprised, 
 when Zuinglius and the Swiss reformers, considering 
 themselves, whether justly or not, the equals of 
 Luther and Melancthon in learning, produced a
 
 30 THE TIIKEE KEFOUMATIONB .* 
 
 system differing from theirs upon points which they 
 had regarded as indisputable, and even controverting 
 their view of the sacraments. 
 
 It is evident that nothing was further from the mind 
 of Luther and Melancthon than to admit the doctrine 
 of private judgment ; by which I mean the notion 
 that not only the Scripture is to be taken as the rule 
 of faith, but that each man, whether learned or un- 
 learned, is to place his own construction upon it, and 
 to act according to the opinions so formed. And yet, 
 though he would be among the foremost to denounce 
 such a notion, he is the real author of this the prin- 
 ciple of modern ultra-protestantism. He did not per- 
 ceive the vice of his own principle ; but, as a practical 
 man, he could not be blind to the evil consequences 
 of dividing the reformers ; and, as is usually the 
 case, Avliile he could not deny the right of the Swiss 
 reformers to do as he had done himself, he became 
 impassioned, and rendered himself, as I have just 
 said, an object of pity from his impotent intolerance. 
 The evil in his principle did not fully develop itself 
 until he was removed from the arena of controversy 
 in which his life had been passed. He had asserted 
 the supremacy of the Bible ; but insisted that on 
 essential points, and especially on the doctrine of the 
 sacraments, the Bible should l)e received in the sense 
 attached to it by himself and his compeers. He did 
 not perceive that men had a right to ask, irhy are we 
 to defer to you and the theologians of your school ? 
 And Avhen the question was indirectly asked, he 
 answered the querists by a torrent of abuse. The 
 Swiss reformers contended that they were as com-
 
 LUTHERAN, ROMAN, ANGLICAN. 31 
 
 petent as the reformers of Germany to interpret 
 Scripture ; but even with them the doctrine of pri- 
 vate judgment, as held now, was scarcely recognised, 
 if at all. The question was one between system and 
 system ; and the appeal was made not to the common 
 mind but to the learned. AVhat was done by Luther 
 and Melancthon, Zuinglius and Calvin had clearly a 
 right to do; and when Socinus proceeded in an attempt 
 to demonstrate, from Scripture, that the God of the 
 Christian church is not the God of revelation ; when, 
 by the presumed authority of Scripture, he intro- 
 duced into the world another Gospel and another 
 God, in what spirit was he met ? Let the flames 
 which consumed the body of Servetus give the 
 answer. 
 
 But persecution was never yet successful in pre- 
 venting conscientious men from carrying out a recog- 
 nised principle to its legitimate consequences. If the 
 principle of Calvin was right, Socinus and Servetus 
 were justifiable, however intellectually erroneous, in 
 the course they pursued. Although Calvin did not 
 discover the vice of his principle, his acute mind must 
 have suspected it of unsoundness, or he would not 
 have resorted to the bloody argument by which he 
 silenced Servetus, or have written previously to So- 
 cinus thus : " Let me beg of you seriously, as L have 
 often done, to correct in yourself this love of inquiry^ 
 which may bring you into trouble." * 
 
 It was clear to impartial men that Calvin had a 
 right to do what was acknowledged to be a right on 
 
 * Da Pin.
 
 32 THE THREE REFORMATIONS I 
 
 the part of Luther, and that the same privilege 
 which was exercised by Calvin was allowable to 
 Socinus. They said to their followers, Here is the 
 Bible, and the Bible only, for our guide; but you 
 must receive the Bible as we interpret it. AVhy ? 
 Because Ave are learned men. Thus they saved them- 
 selves from the perplexities in which they would have 
 been involved if they had conceded to all others the 
 right they claimed for themselves : they silenced the 
 multitude by reminding them that a few only could 
 be learned, and that to the decisions of the learned 
 they ought to defer. This was the principle upon 
 which the Protestant confessions of faith were 
 grounded — the Bible, and the opinion of learned 
 Protestants. 
 
 But there are always men of considerable powers of 
 mind, and even of genius, who have not patience to 
 acquire a sufficiency of learning to render them com- 
 petent to decide upon questions upon which, never- 
 theless, they form a judgment, while they have ability 
 to defend with eloquence, if not by argument, the 
 opinions they have adopted. These were not, as 
 education advanced and brought the minds of men 
 nearer to an equality, to be silenced ; but individual 
 preachers arose, who claimed for themselves that right 
 of judgment which had been assumed by Luther and 
 Calvin. Were they met by the assertion, that these 
 and their associates Avere learned men, the opponent 
 was silenced by an assumption of divine illumination. 
 They prayed to God, and by God they affirmed that 
 they were tauglit ; forgetting, or not heeding, that the 
 illumination promised in Scripture is a moral illumi-
 
 LUTHERAN, ROMAN, ANGLICAN. 33 
 
 nation, not an intellectual^ or only so far intellectual 
 as the intellect is improved as the soul becomes sanc- 
 tified. Moral tempers and dispositions will be granted 
 to us in answer to our prayers, but not an intellectual 
 power to decide between two opposing schemes of doc- 
 trine, which is and which is not scriptural. (Note D.) 
 This distinction, however, being lost sight of, the 
 principle of Luther's Reformation has been gradually 
 developed into that theory which makes the Bible say 
 any thing or nothing — the theory, that the Bible is 
 to be received by each individual, and is then to be 
 interpreted according to the caprice of his private 
 judgment ; a theory by which we can educe from one 
 and the same passage of Scripture the most contra- 
 dictory assertions. 
 
 Such is the development of the principle of the 
 Lutheran Reformation, which having commenced with 
 all the high doctrines of Catholicism, especially in 
 what relates to the sacraments, when legitimately 
 carried out, subsides into Rationalism. The school of 
 theology which has resulted from this reformation is 
 the ultra-Protestant, embracing the Puritan extreme 
 on the one side, and the Rationalist extreme on the 
 other. The Puritan holds the dogmas of Calvin, and 
 many Catholic truths, because these commend them- 
 selves to his private judgment; and Rationalists, for 
 the same reason, reject all but the Bible itself, yea 
 even sometimes the Bible too as an inspired book. 
 They diverge to opposite extremes, but they com- 
 mence on the same principle, and combine to raise a 
 moral persecution against all who venture to dis- 
 
 c
 
 34 THE THREE REFORMATIONS : 
 
 credit the principle, or to think that a deference to 
 authority is required in all who seek the truth. 
 
 And here I cannot but remark in passing upon the 
 extreme wretc?iedness of that person who holds the 
 right of private judgment, and yet ventures to call 
 another a heretic. This " accuser of the brethren " 
 uses an obnoxious word, merely to indulge the ma- 
 lignity of his heart against an opponent. If you 
 recognise the principle of private judgment in the 
 interpretation of Scripture, you can have no possible 
 right to accuse another of heresy because his private 
 judgment differs from your o^vn, whether it be on the 
 side of Rome or on the side of Socinus. Whenever 
 the word heresy is used by such a one it betrays a 
 malignant spirit, such as has been too often exhibited 
 by ultra-Protestantism, from the day when Calvin 
 murdered Servetus, down to the present age of re- 
 ligious newspapers — the most irreligious of all publi- 
 cations. 
 
 The word aipsa-ig signifies choice or election. Of 
 the various systems of opinion brought before a Greek 
 by the philosophers, one was chosen : he exercised his 
 choice upon one, and this was his heresy. When the 
 Avord passed into the Church it Avas used by the 
 primitive Christians to distinguish those who, upon 
 points of doctrine on which doubts had been raised, 
 considered the various interpretations of Scripture 
 which had been suggested, and adopted that Avhich 
 commended itself to their private judgment — from 
 Catholics or orthodox Christians, Avho instead of 
 making choice amidst many interpretations, accepted 
 that which had been handed down by tradition from
 
 LUTIIEllAN, ROMAN, ANGLICAN. 35 
 
 tlie apostles through the fathers. He was considered 
 orthodox who in the study of Scriptures took the 
 Church for his guide, and in humility renounced his 
 private judgment when it was shown to him that it 
 did not accord with her teaching. He, on the other 
 hand, was accounted as a heretic who, receiving the 
 Bible, put upon it his own interpretation, and ob- 
 stinately maintained it by argument, even though his 
 conclusions were such as the Church condemned. 
 The term became odious, because it was considered 
 to be disgraceful not to be in communion with the 
 Church ; but an odious term "svill only be applied by 
 Christians when a strong necessity compels them. I 
 must beg you to bear this little digression in mind, 
 as it will elucidate what I shall have presently to say 
 with reference to the English reformers. 
 
 In the mean time I must advert to the Church of 
 Rome. How great were the corruptions acknow- 
 ledged by Romanists to exist in the middle ages, and 
 down to the time of the Reformation, you have 
 already heard. You have also heard how unwilling 
 the popes of Rome were to meet the evil or to correct 
 the abuses, the existence of which they could not 
 deny. But they were at length obliged to yield : the 
 emperor, and other princes who still adhered to the 
 Roman obedience, were so urgent in demanding a 
 council, in order that the Church might be reformed, 
 that at last grudgingly and of necessity, that assembly 
 was held at Trent, which, though called a Council, 
 does not deserve the name.* It was convoked to 
 
 * The Galilean bisliops, with many of the Spaniards and Ita- 
 lians, insisted that the words " representing the universal Church " 
 * c 2
 
 Ob THE THREE REFORMATIONS : 
 
 effect a reformation ; and the result of that reform- 
 ation is what is now denominated Komanism. 
 
 It is the boast of Bossuet, that, by those celebrated 
 doctors who called most vehemently for a reform- 
 ation in the middle ajj:es, no one ever thou2:ht of 
 " changing the faith of the Church, or of correcting 
 her worship." As an argument, this assertion is not 
 of much weight. Luther had no thought of inter- 
 fering with the established doctrines of the Church 
 Avlien he commenced his career. His virtuous indig- 
 nation was first aroused by a palpable abuse in the 
 mode of granting indulgences. This led him to the 
 consideration of the whole question of indulgences, 
 and thence to the root of the evil — the gainful doc- 
 trine of purgatory, which he found to be a doctrine 
 unknown in the primitive ages, and clearly unscrip- 
 tural. It was thus that he proceeded with respect to 
 other doctrines : perceiving the evil fruit, he traced 
 it to an evil root. And we may fairly suppose that 
 the medieval reformers would have been thus led on 
 to an examination of the doctrine and worship of the 
 Roman Church, had not their endeavours to commence 
 a Reformation been frustrated by the artifices of the 
 court of Rome. 
 
 should be added to the title of the Council of Trent. This, how- 
 ever, the papal legates refused, remembering that such had been 
 the form in the Councils of Constance at Basle ; and fearing lest, if 
 this addition Avere made, the rest of the form of Constance and 
 Basle might follow, viz. " which derives its power immediately 
 from Jesus Christ, and to which every person of whatever dignity, 
 not excepting the Pope, is bound to yield obedience." This is re- 
 markable as a ftict. The student will find " Landon's Manual of 
 
 Councils " a valuable work. 
 
 *
 
 LUTHERAN, ROMAN, ANGLICAN. 37 
 
 But the ossertion of Bossuet is correct as relatinji 
 to the Avork attempted at the Council of Trent. A 
 reformation of discipline was there effected ; but as 
 to doctrine, the simple question was, not what ought 
 to be, but what is, the doctrine received in the 
 Church. The Trentine doctors only attempted to 
 reduce to form the doctrines then current, and either 
 assisted or assented to the Roman pontiff and coun- 
 cils convened by him in the middle ages. They were 
 obliged, in their principles, to such a course. They 
 confounded the Church of Rome with tlie Church Ca- 
 tholic, and so predicated of Rome infallibility. They 
 could not correct, therefore, the medieval theology 
 either by primitive doctrine or by Scripture ; for, 
 though they regarded the primitive Church as infal- 
 lible, they regarded the medieval Church as equally 
 infallible : the doctrine of the primitive Church was 
 therefore to be explained away, in order that it might 
 be rendered conformable with medieval theology ; be- 
 cause, of course, the later revelation throws light on 
 the earlier. They did not say. The faith was once, 
 and once for all, delivered to the saints ; and there- 
 fore those who lived nearest to the apostolic age 
 must have known the mind of the Spirit, on dis- 
 putable points, better than later theologians : but 
 they held that Christianity is a continuous revelation 
 to the Catholic, that is, in their sense, to the Roman, 
 Church. They commenced their proceedings with a 
 declaration of this fundamental error : they declared 
 that the Christian faith is contained partly in Holy 
 Scripture, partly in the traditions of the Church; 
 while existing usages were classed under the head of
 
 38 THE THREE REFORMATIONS : 
 
 traditions, which latter word is thus used by them in 
 an ambiguous sense. 
 
 It is easy to see how it thus came to pass that 
 neither Scripture nor the primitive Church, but 
 medieval theology, became their guide. Not Scrip- 
 ture ; for if the Scripture were silent upon any exist- 
 ing doctrine, or if any existing practice seemed 
 repugnant to the plain language of Holy Writ, the 
 silence of Scripture was counted for nothing : it was 
 asserted, but not proved, that the germ of the doctrine 
 or practice was discoverable in the sacred volume ; 
 the later revelation, from which, in part, the Christian 
 faith was supposed to be derived, having developed it 
 more fully. Thus to reform the Church on scrip- 
 tural principles was impossible ; and the Fathers 
 fared no better. We have an instance of the manner 
 in which the testimony of the primitive Church was 
 set aside in the discussion which took place, in one 
 of the congregations of the Council of Trent, with 
 reference to the Book of Baruch. The question was, 
 Avhetlier this book should be received as canonical. 
 What said the primitive Church ? It Avas not in the 
 list of sacred books drawn up in the Council of Car- 
 thage; that is to say, no authority for it could be 
 produced from the primitive Church. This was ad- 
 mitted ; but what then ? The existing Church used 
 it as canonical in the offices for Easter-eve and the 
 eve of Pentecost ; and the existing Church being in- 
 fallible, the silence of the primitive Church went for 
 nothing. You perceive from this — which is one 
 instance out of many which might be produced — 
 how the authority of the primitive Church was ren-
 
 LUTHERAN, ROMAN, ANGLICAN. 39 
 
 dered null and void ; how the existing theology — the 
 product, in its corruptions, of the middle ages — was 
 received without examination : in other words, how 
 medieval theology was established so as to supersede 
 both Scripture and the primitive Church. 
 
 There were many great and pious men in the 
 Romish churches at that time, some even at the 
 Council of Trent, who would have pursued a different 
 course, but by the managers of the council they were 
 overruled ; for with them the one care which over- 
 whelmed every other thought and consideration was, 
 that the papal authority should suffer no damage. 
 The papal power was the offspring of medieval theo- 
 logy ; touch one stone of that theology, and the throne 
 of the pope would have been brought to a level with 
 every other episcopal throne, and the triple crown 
 would have become an ordinary mitre. Therefore not 
 an attempt was made to compare the existing theology 
 with the theology of the fathers or with Holy Scrip- 
 ture ; the deference to Scripture and the fathers in 
 the Church of Rome is merely verbal ; and the busi- 
 ness of the Trentine doctors was to systematise the 
 doctrines of the middle ages. As Mosheim justly 
 observes, " not only was every doctrine that had 
 been established by medieval councils received, but 
 many of the opinions of the scholastic doctors on 
 intricate su])jects, which had been formerly left unde- 
 cided, and had been wisely permitted as subjects of 
 free debate, were by this council absurdly adopted 
 as articles of faith, and recommended as such, nay, im- 
 posed with violence on the consciences of men under 
 pain of excommunication." 
 
 c 4
 
 40 THE THREE REFORMATIONS : 
 
 The standard of Romish doctrine has remained un- 
 altered from the time of the great assembly of Trent. 
 Churches in connexion with Rome which at first de- 
 murred to the reception of the Trentine definitions 
 have now tacitly if not avowedly adopted them. 
 
 The Church of Rome, therefore, is the represent- 
 ative, not of scriptural and primitive Christianity, but 
 of medieval corruptions ; and on the Bible and medi- 
 eval tradition her doctors based their reformation. 
 
 A little before this, the Church of England had also 
 been reformed. She had sympathised with the reform- 
 ation movement in Germany, but adopted the Lutheran 
 system of reform only in part ; while she guarded 
 against that development of it, which, through Cal- 
 vinism and Puritanism, has resulted, in strong, power- 
 ful, and independent minds, in Rationalism. 
 
 The reformers of the Church of England agreed so 
 far with both Luther and the Church of Rome, that 
 they insisted upon the necessity of a definite system of 
 theology, to be received on authority by the unlearned 
 and beginners : they foresaw that if each individual 
 were sent to his Bible as to a quarry, to dig out a 
 religion for himself, the result would be infidelity. 
 
 But they difi'ered from Luther by adopting an 
 authority by which to be guided in the interpreta- 
 tion of Scripture, which they themselves adopted, in- 
 stead of relying upon argument ; while they differed 
 from the Church by refusing to receive as authoritative 
 the novel definitions and modern practices of the West- 
 ern Church. With Luther they took the Bible, and the 
 Bible only, for their foundation ; but when, in relation 
 to any doctrine or practice of the Church, the precise
 
 LUTilEKAN, ROMAN, ANGLICAN. 41 
 
 meaning of Scripture was not indisputably apparent ; 
 Avlien Luther argued one way and Zuinglius another, 
 and both contended that their opposite conclusions 
 were scriptural, our practical forefathers ceased to 
 argue, and deferred to authority : the question with 
 them was, how was the Scripture understood with 
 reference to the doctrine or practice under consider- 
 ation, by Christians of the primitive church ; by those 
 who received their instruction from the apostles, or 
 apostolic men, and at a period when, through the cor- 
 respondence of the metropolitans of an united Church, 
 as well as by frequent councils, the depositum and 
 tradition were watched with the most jealous care ?* 
 Their rule was the Bible, and it was the only rule, 
 where all parties are agreed as to what the Bible says : 
 and the Bible with the primitive Church when by the 
 cavils of men the voice of Scripture is indistinct. If, 
 then, we may say of the Lutheran principle of re- 
 formation, when fully developed, that it is the Bible 
 and each man's private judgment ; if we may describe 
 the Romish principle as that of the Bible and the 
 middle ages, we may state the distinguishing prin- 
 ciple of the English Reformation to be, the Bible and 
 the primitive Church. Our Reformers received the 
 doctrines of the Church as they found them, assuming 
 that their existence was a prima facie evidence in 
 their favour. They did not reject any thing because 
 it was medieval ; but where any thing medieval was 
 of a questionable character, they then sought for 
 
 * See the author's Sermon " on Tradition," in his " Five Sermons 
 before the University of Oxford."
 
 42 THE THREE REFORMATIONS : 
 
 guidance from Scripture; and if the Scripture was 
 not clear, if two parties at variance, both of them 
 claimed Scripture as being on their side, they then 
 yielded to the decisions of the primitive councils or 
 to the evidence of the primitive writers. They did 
 not do as the Romanists, who professed to yield to 
 the authority of the fathers, but interpreted the 
 fathers by the tenets and practices of the existing 
 Church ; but when they found the existing theology 
 contrary to the patristic theology, then they made 
 an alteration, the modern yielded to the ancient. 
 They fully understood that " antiquity ought to 
 attend as the handmaid of Scripture, to wait upon 
 her as her mistress, and to observe her ; to keep off 
 intruders from making too bold with her, and to 
 discourage strangers from misrepresenting her." For, 
 as Dr. Waterland observes, " Those that lived in or 
 near to the apostolic times might retain in memory 
 what the apostles themselves, or their immediate 
 successors, thought or said upon such and such points ; 
 and though there is no trusting in such case to oral 
 tradition as distinct from Scripture, nor to written 
 disagreeing with Scripture, yet written accounts, 
 consonant to Scripture, are of use to confirm and 
 strengthen Scripture, and to ascertain its true mean- 
 ing." They held that if " what appears but probably 
 to be taught in Scripture itself appears certainly 
 to have been taught by the primitive and Catholic 
 Church, such probability so confirmed and strengthened 
 carries with it the force of demonstration." * 
 
 * Waterland's Works, v. 261., ii. 8.
 
 LUTHERAN, ROMAN, ANGLICAN. 43 
 
 You see their principle and you see the reason 
 for the adoption of it. Our Reformers, like Luther 
 and Melancthon, required assent to a definite 
 scheme of doctrine. When asked why to that 
 scheme assent was required, Luther and Melancthon 
 replied, because it has commended itself as scrip- 
 tural to us and other learned men, and then they 
 were open to attack from other learned men, who 
 had a right to argue with them, since it was by 
 argument only that Luther and Melancthon sought 
 to establish their positions. With us the case is dif- 
 ferent; our Church was reformed by learned men, 
 but they formed their scheme not upon argument 
 but upon authority ; they deferred to the authority 
 of the primitive Church, and on any given point the 
 question with them related to a fact — what was the 
 doctrine received in the primitive Church ? this was 
 a matter of historical investigation. Transubstan- 
 tiation was repudiated, not from* any argumentative 
 notion of its being absurd, for some of the most 
 erudite and acute minds have accepted it, but simply 
 because it was not primitive : this, in the case of 
 Dr. Cranraer and Dr. Ridley, is an historical fact. 
 It is very possible that our Reformers may have been 
 mistaken in some particular details : they may have 
 omitted something that is primitive, or they may 
 have received something that is novel ; and if a con- 
 vocation to reform the Church shall again be called, 
 these mistakes may be rectified. But their mistakes, 
 supposing them to exist, are nothing to the point: 
 the question is, what was their principle, and were 
 they honest as well as learned men, who, in all
 
 44 THE THREE reformations: 
 
 essentials, would apply the principle properly ? Their 
 honesty is proved to us by their having died, many 
 of them, for their principles, and of their learning 
 there has never been a question. That their prin- 
 ciple Avas the Bible and the primitive Church no man 
 can doubt who is acquainted with their writings, or 
 who has even looked into our formularies. Let the 
 last words of Dr. Cranmer bear testimony to their 
 principles. I am not an admirer of Dr. Cranmer, 
 though God used him as an instrument of good to the 
 Church of England : though an amiable, he was a 
 weak, worldly, vacillating man, the flatterer of a tyrant, 
 and one, too, who certainly did not always act con- 
 sistently with the principle he professed. (Note E.) 
 But this only renders him the less exceptionable as 
 a witness. When he, after having pusillanimously 
 endeavoured to save his life by an act for which he 
 may be pitied, but which it would be disgraceful to de- 
 fend, fell a victim to Romish treachery and the prin- 
 ciples of the Inquisition, he expressed himself thus: — 
 " Touching my doctrine of the sacrament and 
 other my doctrine of what kind soever it be, I protest 
 that it was never my mind to write, speak, or under- 
 stand any thing contrary to the most Holy Word of 
 God, or else against the Holy Catholic Church of 
 Christ ; but purely and simply to imitate and teach 
 those things only which I had learned of the Sacred 
 Scripture and of the Holy Catholic Church of Christ 
 from the beginning, and according to the exposition 
 of the most lioly and learned fathers and marti/rs of the 
 Church ; and if any thing hath peradventure chanced 
 otherwise than 1 thought, I may err, but heretic I
 
 LUTHERAN, ROMAN, ANGLICAN. 45 
 
 cannot be, forasmuch as I am ready in all things to 
 follow the judgment of the most Sacred Word of God 
 and of the Holy Catholic Church, desiring none other 
 thing than meekly and gently to be taught, if any 
 where, which God forbid, I have swerved from the 
 truth. 
 
 " And I protest and openly confess that in all my 
 doctrine and preaching, both of the sacrament and of 
 other my doctrine, whatsoever it be, not only I mean 
 and judge those things as the Catholic church and 
 most holy fathers of old, with one accord, have 
 meant and judged, but also I would gladly use the 
 same words that they used, and not use any other 
 words, but to set my hand to all and singular their 
 speeches, phrases, ways, and forms of speech, which 
 they do use in their treatises upon the sacrament, 
 and to keep still their interpretation. But in this 
 thing only I am accused for an heretic, because I 
 allow not the doctrine lately brought in of the sacra- 
 ment, and because I consent not to words not accus- 
 tomed in Scripture, and unknown to the ancient fathers, 
 but newly invented and brought in by men, and be- 
 longino; to the destruction of souls, and overthrowino; 
 of the pure and old religion." * 
 
 " Touching the substance of religion," says Bishop 
 Jewell, in defence of our Reformation, " we believe 
 that which the ancient. Catholic, learned fathers be- 
 lieved ; we do what they did, we say what they said ; 
 and marvel not, on what side soever ye see them, if 
 ye see us join unto the same. It is our comfort that 
 
 * Cranraer's Works, iv. 126.
 
 46 THE THREE REFORMATIONS : 
 
 we see their faith and our faith agree in one." " We 
 have approached, as much as possibly we could, the 
 Church of the apostles, and ancient Catholic bishops 
 and fathers, which we know was yet a perfect, and, 
 as Tertullian saith, an unspotted virgin, and not con- 
 taminated with idolatry or any great public error. 
 Neither have we only reformed the doctrine of our 
 Church and made it like theirs in all things; but we 
 have also brought the celebration of the sacraments 
 and forms of our public rites and prayers to an exact 
 resemblance to their institutions and customs; and 
 so we have only done that which we know Christ and 
 all pious and godly men have in all ages ever done ; 
 for we have brought back religion, which was foully 
 neglected and def)raved by them, to her original and 
 first state ; for we considered that the reformation of 
 religion was to he made by that which 2vas the first 
 pattern of it; for this rule will ever hold good against 
 all heretics, saith the most ancient father, Tertullian, 
 that which is true is first, and that is adulterated and 
 corrupted which is later. Irenaeus doth often appeal 
 to the most ancient churches which are nearest to 
 Christ, and which therefore are not at all likely to 
 have erred. And why should not that course be taken 
 now also ? Why should we not return to a con- 
 formity with the most ancient churches ? Why 
 should not that now be heard among us which was 
 pronounced at the Council of Nice, without the least 
 contradiction or opposition from so many bishops 
 and Catholic fathers ; s^vj app^aTa xparsiro, let the old 
 customs stand firm ? " * 
 
 * Jewell's Answer to Harding, ad Jin. Apology, vi. § 15.
 
 LUTIIEKAN, KOMAN, ANGLICAN. 47 
 
 I do not quote Dr.Cranmer or Dr. Jewell as persons 
 having any authority so far as their private opinions 
 are concerned, but as witnesses to the fact that the 
 Bible and the primitive Church was the principle 
 upon which our Reformers attempted to reform the 
 Church, in opposition to the principle of the Romish 
 Church, which made antiquity defer to modern inno- 
 vations. To Dr. Cranmer or Dr. Jewell no more of 
 deference is in any other respect due, than there is 
 to those of our modern bishops who endeavour to 
 compel their clergy to receive not the teaching of the 
 Church, but their own construction of our formularies, 
 a course of conduct which the clergy and laity must 
 respectfully resist. We do not require a bishop to 
 give us his private opinion, but we do expect him to 
 act on the principles of the Church, be his private 
 opinions what they may. What says the Church of 
 which the Reformers were sons and servants, not 
 founders ? this is our question ; and the Church we 
 will hear. Let us hear the Church speaking of the 
 manner in which her ancient ritual was reformed. 
 " There was never any thing by the wit of man so 
 well devised," it is said in the Prayer Book, " or so 
 sure established, which in continuance of time hath 
 not been corrupted ; as among other things may 
 plainly appear by the Common Prayers in the Church, 
 commonly called Divine Service. The first original 
 or ground whereof, if a man would search out hy the 
 ancient fathers^ he will find that the same was not 
 ordained but of a good purpose, and for a great ad- 
 vancement in godliness. . . . Here you have an 
 order of prayer, and for the reading of the Scripture, 
 much agreeable to the mind and purpose of the old
 
 48 THE THREE reformations: 
 
 fathers.'^ * It is said that in the ritual " of this 
 Church of Enoland," the same Church which had 
 existed before the Reformation, the " godly and 
 decent order of the ancient fathers having been 
 altered, broken, and neglected," the reformed Liturgy 
 was " compiled " from the offices before in use, " so 
 as to be agreeable to the mind and purpose of the 
 old fathers." f Does the Church assert the doctrine 
 of apostolical succession ? She does it in these words : 
 "It is evident unto all men, diligently reading Holy 
 Scripture a7id ancient autho7's, that from the apostles' 
 time there hath been these orders of ministers in 
 Christ's church, bishops, priests, and deacons." J 
 (Note F.) 
 
 So has it always continued to be the rule of the 
 Church of England to defer to the authority of the pri- 
 mitive Church ; for our formularies, as we have them at 
 present, are not the work of the first Reformers, but of 
 reforming convocations down to the reign of Charles II. 
 In 1603 we find the use of the sign of the cross de- 
 fended by the convocation, " following the steps of the 
 King, because he therein followed the rules of the 
 Scripture, and the practice of the primitive Church ; " 
 because the use of this sign in baptism was held by "the 
 primitive Church, as well by the Greeks as the Latins, 
 with one consent and great applause. . . . This 
 continual and general use of the cross is evident by 
 the testimonies of the ancient fathers. . . . It must 
 
 * " Concerning the Service of the Church," in the Book of 
 Common Prayer. 
 
 f Preface to Prayer Book, 1548. 
 :{: Preface to the Ordination Office.
 
 LUTHERAN, ROMAN, ANGLICAN. 49 
 
 be confessed that, in process of time, the sign of the 
 cross was greatly abused in the Church of Rome 
 . . . but the abuse of a thing doth not take away 
 its lawful use." * 
 
 Why were the Ember days appointed for prayer 
 and fasting ? It was in imitation of " the holy and 
 religious example" of "the ancient fathers of the 
 Church."! The office of deacon is described "as a 
 step or degree to the ministry, according to the judg- 
 ment of the ancient fathers, and the practice of the 
 primitive Church." J The convocation of 1640, in 
 the seventh canon, says, " We declare that this situa- 
 tion of the holy table (at the east end of the chan- 
 cel) doth not imply that it is, or ought to be, esteemed 
 a true and proper altar, whereon Christ is again really 
 sacrificed ; but it is and may be called an altar by us, 
 in that sense in which the primitive Church called it an 
 altar ^ and in no other ;'' and a little after, " We think 
 it very meet and behoveful, and heartily commend it 
 to all good and well-afFected people, members of this 
 Church, that they be ready to tender unto the Lord 
 the said acknowledgment, by doing reverence and 
 obeisance, both at their coming in and going out of 
 the said churches, chancels, or chapels, according to 
 the most ancient custom of the primitive Church in 
 the purest times." 
 
 When the commission was issued for the last re- 
 revision of the Prayer Book, in 1661, the commis- 
 sioners were directed to compare the same " with the 
 most ancient liturgies which have been used in the Church 
 
 * Canon xxx. f Canon xxxi. 
 
 I Canon xxxii.
 
 50 THE THREE reformations: 
 
 in the primitive and purest timesP * And at the Savoy 
 Conference, " to that part of the proposal that prayers 
 may consist of nothing doubtful or questioned by 
 pious, learned, and orthodox persons, the episcopal 
 divines reply, that " since it is not defined and ascer- 
 tained who those orthodox persons are, they must 
 either take all those for orthodox persons who have 
 the assurance to affirm themselves such, and if so, the 
 demand is unreasonable ; (for some who deny the 
 divinity of the Son of God will style themselves or- 
 thodox ; and yet there is no reason we should part 
 with an article of the creed for their satisfaction: 
 besides, the proposal requires an impossibility, for 
 there never was nor ever will be any prayers couched 
 in such a manner as not to be questioned by some 
 people, who call themselves pious, learned, and ortho- 
 dox :) but if by orthodox is meant only those who ad- 
 here to Scripture, and the Catholic consent of antiquity, 
 they are not of opinion that any part of the English 
 Liturgy hath been questioned by such."f 
 
 I shall produce, lastly, the well-known canon of 
 1571 : — " Preachers shall take heed that they teach 
 nothing in their preaching which they would have 
 their people religiously observe and believe but that 
 which is agreeable to the doctrine of the Old Testa- 
 ment and New, and that which the Catholic fathers 
 and ancient bishops have gathered from the same 
 doctrine." | 
 
 * Collier, ii. 877. 
 
 t Collier, ii. 880. The reader who wishes to see ho'.v consist- 
 ently this principle has been held by the gi-eat divines of the Church 
 of England is referred to Russell's " Judgment of the Anglican 
 Churcli." \ Sparrow's Collection.
 
 LUTHERAN, ROMAN, ANGLICAN. 51 
 
 Such is tlic principle of the English reformation : 
 it is distinct from the principle of ultra-Protestantism, 
 the Bible, and each man's private judgment : it is 
 distinct from the principle upon which the Church of 
 Rome was reformed, by which the Bible and primitive 
 tradition were superseded, and the errors of the middle 
 ages were systematised : it is the Bible and the primi- 
 tive Church. 
 
 Now this principle was accepted by some of those 
 respectable but unfortunate individuals who have 
 been of late years perverted to Romanism. Justly 
 offended mth the puritanism which, at the close of 
 the last century and the beginning of this, obtained 
 an ascendency in the Church of England, when a 
 Cathohc ritual, administered by a latitudinarian 
 clergy, seemed to be full of contradictions ; when 
 baptismal regeneration, asserted at the font in an 
 office, to all and every thing contained in and pre- 
 scribed by which the clergy give their unfeigned 
 assent and consent, was, nevertheless, too often, by 
 those very clergy, denied in the pulpit ; where cere- 
 monies were enjoined in the Liturgy, but too often 
 reviled as popery by those who were compelled to 
 observe them: oiFended, I say, by puritanism in 
 the Church, attended as it was with these demor- 
 alising inconsistencies, many who at one time were 
 prejudiced against church principles adhered to them, 
 without ascertaining precisely what church principles 
 are. They had recourse to the study of the fathers 
 and of the primitive Church, and for a time all was 
 wx41. The friends of the Church rejoiced in these new 
 
 o 2
 
 52 THE THREE REFORMATIONS : 
 
 allies. The study of the fathers commenced, but, 
 alas ! wherever we encourage the fertility of the soil 
 we encourage the luxuriance which displays itself 
 also in the produce of weeds ; while we rejoiced in the 
 increase of church principles, a tendency to Romanism 
 (gradually, and before we were aware) developed itself. 
 Men went into the study of the medieval writers ; and 
 the consequence was, that those who, while reading 
 the fathers, were devoted admirers of the Church of 
 England, became at first depravers of their own 
 Church, and at last victinis of the Church of Eome. 
 
 You must perceive from this, that in order to 
 guard against this great error, the question presents 
 itself, iclio are the primitive writers whom our Church 
 consults, and to whom she would direct her divines ? 
 what are the councils to which we are to refer? This 
 difficulty did not escape our Reformers : tliey saw 
 that the line must be drawn somewhere, in order to 
 distinguish primitive from medieval Christianity ; and 
 of course, as medieval is the perversion and corruption 
 of primitive Christianity, a perversion and corruption 
 gradually and imperceptibly introduced, not by de- 
 sign, not through ignorance, it was clearly impossible 
 to draw the line very accurately. 
 
 " Where holy ground begins, unhallow'd ends, 
 Is mark'd by no distinguishable line." 
 
 We can tell night from day ; but we find it diffi- 
 cult to decide upon the precise moment Avhen twi- 
 light ])egins or ends. An approximation was all that 
 was attempted ; and this was done, and so we possess 
 a general rule.
 
 LUTHERAN, ROMAN, ANGLICAN. 53 
 
 I have before remarked on the absurdity as well as 
 uncharitableness into which those persons are hurried 
 by their evil passions, who, holding the right of pri- 
 vate judgment, call another a heretic because his 
 private judgment differs from theirs. I have also 
 hinted that a rule to judge of heresy is necessary in 
 a Church which regards as a heretic any one who 
 refuses to hear the Church on points upon which the 
 Church has once decided. Accordingly, in the first 
 year of Queen Elizabeth, an act of parliament was 
 obtained, by which it is enacted, that no persons, 
 howsoever appointed, shall " have authority or power 
 to order, determine, or adjudge any matter or cause 
 to be heresy, but only such as have heretofore been 
 determined, ordered, or adjudged to be heresy by the 
 authority of the canonical Scriptures*, or by the 
 first four general councils, or any of them." At the 
 commencement of the same reign, when the English 
 Reformers declared their willingness to refer the 
 whole controversy between themselves and the Ro- 
 manists to the Holy Scriptures and the Catholic 
 Church, they affirmed that they meant, by the Word 
 of God, the canonical Scriptures only; and by the 
 custom of the primitive Church, the general practice 
 of the Catholics for the first five centuries, f In the 
 rules laid do^vn for the conference with the priests 
 and Jesuits in 1582, it said, " If they, the Papists, 
 show any ground of Scripture, and wTest it to their 
 
 * Gibson's Codex, vol. i. p. 425. 
 t Collier, ii. 416. 
 D 3
 
 54 THE TPIKEE REFOKMATIONS : 
 
 sense, let it be showed by interpretation of the 
 old doctors, such as were before Gregory I. . . . 
 If they can show no doctor that agreed with them in 
 their said opinion before that time, then to conclude 
 that they have no succession in that doctrine from 
 the apostles, and above four hundred years after, 
 when doctrine and religion were most pure ; for that 
 they can show no predecessor whom they might suc- 
 ceed in the same. Quod primmn verumr * 
 
 In the convocation of 1640 it is decreed in the 
 fourth canon : " Whereas much mischief is already 
 done in the Church of God by the spreading of the 
 damnable and cursed heresy of Socinianisra, as being 
 a comjDlication of many ancient heresies, condemned 
 hy the first councils, and contrariant to the articles of 
 religion established in the Church of England . . . 
 it is therefore decreed." f 
 
 Here, then, we have a general direction, which, 
 in these days, when so many persons are unconsciously 
 Romanizing, it is especially important to observe. 
 The line of demarcation between primitive and me- 
 dieval Christianity having been, as I have said, over- 
 looked by some persons, they have, while supposing 
 themselves to be acting on the principle of the En- 
 glish Church, made shipwreck of their faith on the 
 rocks and shoals of Romanism. And they who have 
 done so, the Romanizers, unite with the idtra-Pro- 
 testants, and, with a sneer, accuse the faithful sons of 
 
 * Strype's Life of Whitgift, i. 196. 
 t SpaiTow's Collection.
 
 LUTHERAN, ROJIAN, ANGLICAN. 55 
 
 the Church of Eno-land of maintaininoj the absurd 
 proposition that we would have every man to study 
 the fathers as well as the Scriptures, in order that 
 they may arrive at the truth. Of such an absurdity 
 no one was ever guilty ; but they are guilty of trans- 
 gressing the ninth commandment who bring such a 
 railino: accusation ao-ainst Ensjlish churchmen. We 
 agree with the Romanists in calling upon people to 
 defer to the existing Church : they refer them to the 
 scheme of theology finally settled for their church at 
 the Council of Trent ; ice to the scheme of theology 
 settled in various convocations of the Church since 
 the time of Henry VIII. At the assembly of Trent 
 the Romish Church accepted the theology which had 
 come to them through the middle ages ; while our 
 Reformers corrected the medieval theology by refer- 
 ence to Scripture and the primitive Church. The 
 question is a simple one, viz. What was the prin- 
 ciple upon which each party formed that system of 
 theology which remains unaltered on both sides 
 since the period of tlieir respective Reformations ? 
 No one is so weak in intellect that he cannot under- 
 stand this ; and I am sure that if he be not blinded 
 by the pride of sect and the subtleties of system, he 
 will see that the course adopted by our Reformers was 
 the wise one. We do 7iot tell the unlearned man to 
 study the fathers, but we tell him what the principle 
 of our Reformation was ; that our Reformers studied 
 the fathers, and deferred to the primitive Church ; 
 that when Scripture was doubtful, they ascertained 
 how the early Church, during the first five centuries, 
 understood it ; and we give them, as the result of 
 
 D 4
 
 56 THE THREE KEFORMATIONS : 
 
 these investigations, corroborated by the subsequent 
 investigations of learned men who acted on the same 
 principle, the Book of Common Prayer. The Prayer 
 Book is as a glass in which are collected the scattered 
 rays of primitive tradition. This the most unlearned 
 man can understand ; and in accepting our formularies 
 as the testimony of the primitive Church to guide 
 him in his interpretation of Scripture, he has only to 
 suppose, what it would be want of charity to doubt, 
 that the succession of divines in the Church of 
 England has consisted of honest men. If the prin- 
 ciple of our Reformation was the Bible and the primi- 
 tive Church, then the Prayer Book is, ex j^rofesso, both 
 scriptural and primitive ; and learned men who have 
 studied primitive Christianity during the last three 
 centuries have added the weight of their testimony to 
 the fact, that it is what it professes to be. What is 
 more, our enemies have never been able to prove that 
 our Prayer Book is contrary to primitive Christianity. 
 Ultra-Protestants who, consistently with their prin- 
 ciples, have left the Church, have contended that it 
 is unscriptural ; but by unscriptural they merely 
 mean that it is opposed to their private judgment 
 of Scripture ; and when Romanists and Romanizers 
 have accused it of deficiencies, the deficiencies have 
 been found to be of very minor importance, and the 
 complaint has generally originated with those who, 
 in ignorance, if not wilfully, have confounded primi- 
 tive with medieval doctrines. 
 
 The practical question before men at the present 
 time is a short and simple one, viz. which was the 
 right principle of reformation ? That of Luther, that
 
 LUTHERAN, ROMAN, ANGLICAN. 57 
 
 of Eome, or that of the Church of England ? On this 
 pohit we must make up our mmds. But when our 
 muids are made up, when we have decided on the 
 principle to which our private opinions ought to be 
 conformed, let us act upon it consistently. 
 
 Ao-ainst those who, liavino^ been trained in ad- 
 miration of medieval principles, are leading godly 
 lives in the Church of Rome, in which medieval 
 theology has been systematised ; or against those 
 ultra-Protestants, whether Puritans or Rationalists, 
 whether Sabellians or Socinians, who take a position 
 external to the Church, I utter not one word of 
 censure. They act consistently on their principles. 
 Were we in controversy with them, our business 
 would be to suggest to them that the principle 
 from which they started was erroneous, and to 
 point out the end to which it logically tends. But 
 further than this we do not proceed : to their own 
 Master they must stand or fall, and what have Ave to 
 do with judging them that are without ? Be liberal 
 in this respect, as the most liberal latitudinarian or 
 Gallio could desire. Let us hope even against hope ; 
 even when prejudice against truth is most bitter, and 
 railing accusations are brought against us, let us 
 trust that it may be traced to an ignorance which is 
 invincible: — 
 
 " If the rude waste of human error bear 
 One flower of hope, oh ! pass, and leave it there." 
 
 But surely there is nothing illiberal in requiring 
 of those who remain in the Church of England to 
 abide by the doctrines of that Church, and to take for
 
 58 THE THREE REFORMATIONS : 
 
 their guide in the exposition of her doctrines the 
 principle of her Reformation. For this is only to call 
 upon them to act as honest men. Even here there is 
 room for true liberality ; for a latitude of ojnnion 
 must be tolerated, when that opinion is ^professedly 
 in accordance with fundamental principles : the con- 
 troversy between parties in the Church ought to be 
 confined to this one point, whether certain private 
 opinions are or are not consistent with our formu- 
 laries, not only in the letter but in the spirit, the 
 controversialists assuming as their data that our 
 Church was reformed on the right principle, and 
 that the exposition of that principle, as contained in 
 the Prayer Book, including the Articles and not ex- 
 cluding the Canons, is in essentials scriptural and 
 primitive. 
 
 But if men reject the principle of our Reform- 
 ation, and adopt either the ultra-Protestant principle 
 or the Romish principle, it certainly does appear 
 to me that we are acting in a mere sectarian spirit, 
 when we endeavour to persuade them to conform 
 to or remain in the Church of England ; their con- 
 tinuance among us must be injurious to their own 
 souls, at the same time that it causes confusion in 
 the Church. The acceptance of Calvinistic theology, 
 and so unconsciously, at first, of the ultra-Protestant 
 principle, made Puritans within the Church, who, 
 judging the Church by a principle which she repu- 
 diates, became discontented with her offices, and 
 then, when there was an honest and independent 
 spirit, after a while forsook her, and established Pro- 
 testant nonconformity. And just so it must be with
 
 LUTHERAN, KOMAN, ANGLICAN. 59 
 
 those wlio of late years have adopted, at first uncon- 
 sciously, but now very often avowedly, medieval 
 tastes and feelings : they make comparisons between 
 the Church of England and the Church of Rome, and 
 draw conclusions in favour of the latter — why ? be- 
 cause they judge the Church of England by a prin- 
 ciple she rejects, and they judge the Church of Rome 
 by the principle she professes. It follows, as a matter 
 of course, that if you have respect to medieval theo- 
 logy, you must, in the ordinary process of your 
 mental operations, become Romanists in spirit and in 
 jDrinciple : this is as certain as that the motion of a 
 point makes a line, and the addition of numbers a 
 sum. 
 
 I may be wrong, but I certainly have more sym- 
 pathy with those honest though mistaken men, Avho, 
 having renounced the principle of our Reformation, on 
 either side, leave the Church, than with those who, 
 knowing that they cannot adhere to the principle of 
 the English Church, endeavour to explain away her 
 doctrines, or to make her practice conformable to the 
 principle, either ultra-Protestant or medieval, which 
 they have adopted. It must be injurious to a man's 
 moral and religious character to use our baptismal 
 office at the font, and to preach against baptismal re- 
 generation in the pulpit; it must be equally detri- 
 mental, with regard to the other sacrament, so to state 
 the doctrine of the real presence as to insinuate the 
 medieval and very fundamental error of transubstan- 
 tiation, or to confound the primitive doctrine of a 
 spiritual sacrifice with the repudiated figment of Rome 
 with respect to the sacrifice of the mass. It is not
 
 GO THE THREE REFORMATIONS t 
 
 the act of a strictly candid mind to add to the Liturgy, 
 in order to make it conformable to ultra-Protest-ant 
 tastes, by introducing hymns from the meeting-house; 
 but if hymns be taken from the Breviary to meet the 
 cravings of a mind fed upon the husks of medieval 
 theology, there is the same want of candour which 
 consists in attempting to teach, through the Church 
 of England, what forms, in fact, no part of her teach- 
 ing. That we want authorised hymns, hymns autho- 
 rised by convocation (for no other authority can be 
 admitted), may be true, and true it also is that there 
 is as much right to adopt hymns in the one extreme 
 as there is in the other — as much right, that is, no 
 right at all : but the evil resulting from the assump- 
 tion of this right is apparent ; though my object 
 in alluding to the subject at the present time is 
 only to show how injurious it must be to character 
 when this right is assumed by ultra-Protestants or 
 by Romanizers, in order that they may make the 
 Church of England appear to say what, in fact, she 
 does not. The same observations are applicable to 
 that sore point, the ceremonies of the Church ; the 
 narrowness of mind of ultra-Protestants remaining: 
 in the Church which leads them to condemn the cere- 
 monies retained in the Church of England, and to 
 revile those more scriptural as well as wiser persons 
 who, knowing the value of ceremonial religion, are 
 determined to observe them is highly reprelien- 
 sible : but if their desire to make the Church of 
 England conformable to the prejudices of ultra-Pro- 
 testants be censurable, equally censurable, equally 
 dishonest, equally detrimental to character, must be
 
 LUTHERAN, ROMAN, ANGLICAN. 61 
 
 the introduction of ceremonies not sanctioned by the 
 Church of England, on the part of those whose hearts 
 are evidently in the mass-house- 
 
 I need not at the present time dwell on the errors 
 of those who err on the ultra-Protestant side, and 
 who endeavour to introduce clandestinely into the 
 Church of England modes of thought directly adverse 
 to her principles, for this has been already done by 
 Mr. Gresley with his usual ability, and with more 
 than his accustomed eloquence. But I feel it incum- 
 bent upon me to warn an opposite extreme against 
 acting on the same wrong principle, though applied 
 in a different direction. 
 
 To all parties I would say, Obsta princijnis. For 
 my own part it has always been my humble endeavour 
 to abide by the principles of the Church of England ; 
 and I have ever professed myself ready to renounce, 
 detest, and abjure any opinion which could be proved 
 contrary to the principles laid doAvn by her in her 
 formularies, as reformed and established in her various 
 convocations assembled for the purposes of compiling 
 or revising her Liturgy during the last three hun- 
 dred years ; that is to say, I have received the prin- 
 ciple of the English Reformation, and I presume that 
 convocations of honest Church-of-England men, act- 
 ing on this principle, and under the guidance of the 
 Holy Ghost, whose aid they invoked, have so applied 
 the principle which commends itself to my judgment, 
 that they have not erred in essentials. Conscious of 
 this honest Anglicanism, I have disregarded attacks 
 on all sides ; and I feel that I have a right, in address- 
 ing members of the Church of England, to say. Look
 
 62 THE TIIKEE REFORMATIONS : 
 
 to your principle, tlie principle of your Reformation, 
 abide by it, and so will 5 ou be safe. 
 
 Is it said that we thus make our formularies infal- 
 lible? I know that this is said, but then it cannot be 
 proved. We may admit that our formularies are 
 capable of, or even that they require improvement ; 
 we may admit that reform is necessary ; it may be, 
 as some assert, that there is some ambiguity in some 
 of our formularies ; that our canonical regulations are 
 obsolete, and our discipline relaxed: it may be, as 
 Mr. Bennett informs us, that the Church of England 
 is alienating from her communion millions of souls by 
 her negligence ; that her powers are paralysed by 
 " the carnal lives of her clergy, the Erastianism of 
 her prelates, and the ungodliness of her laity."* Yes, 
 we may admit that our laity are irreverent, that in 
 many parishes the clergy are neglectful of their duty, 
 and that our prelates are proud, time-serving, and 
 despotic : I will not assert it ; I have no sympathy 
 
 * See " Crime and Education. By the Rev. ^Y. E. J. Bennett." 
 The public are deeply indebted to this gentleman, as in so many 
 other respects, so also for this pamphlet. ^Vhether his plan of 
 education is practicable is a question not easily decided : it must 
 be approved by those who, under a conviction of the necessity of 
 the adoption of some great educational movement, would make 
 even greater concessions. The greater number of plans which 
 private persons can suggest to our superiors the better. To 
 Mr. Bennett the friends of education are indebted for the clear, 
 decided, energetic manner in which he demands for the opera- 
 tives of England an increase in the means of education, and shows 
 how inadequate are those hitherto adopted to meet our educational 
 wants. The manner in which he speaks of the virtues and the 
 wrongs of the working classes must obtain tlic sympathy of all who 
 labour among them.
 
 LUTHEKAN, ROMAN, ANGLICAN. 63 
 
 with those who say these things, not in sorrow but in 
 scorn ; I will, moreover, contend, that if these charges 
 can be established against us, they are in the same pro- 
 portion true of all other communities, composed as 
 they are of sinful and fallible men : but for the sake 
 of argument we will admit it. In making the admis- 
 sion, we only admit that it is possible to make out a 
 case for the assembly of another convocation, to carry 
 out and apply yet further that principle which, 
 adopted at the commencement of our Reformation, 
 has been acted upon ever since. If any mistakes can 
 be shown to have been made, any practices, not 
 medieval, but really primitive and scriptural, omitted, 
 let a convocation be held to amend the error and 
 correct the abuse. All that we say is, that to our 
 2?rinciple we must adhere, and that we are content 
 to receive the application of that principle, as we find 
 it applied in our formularies, until it be proved to 
 the satisfaction of those who have authority to pro- 
 nounce upon the subject, that is, to our divines 
 assembled in convocation, that, according to our ad- 
 mitted principle, an alteration is requisite. 
 
 And here we may interpose a caution against 
 listening to what is said by single divines, however 
 learned, as to what is or is not primitive truth, Avhen 
 the truth they call primitive is not recognised by our 
 formularies. We are not to defer to the opinion of 
 an individual, merely because he says that he is in- 
 fluenced by the principle of the Bible and the primitive 
 Church : we are not thus to have respect to persons. 
 If he make an assertion contrary to the doctrine of 
 our formularies, and call it primitive, is it not safer
 
 64 THE THREE REFORMATIONS : 
 
 to suppose that tliey who drew up our formularies, 
 being many learned men, are more likely to have 
 been right than any single individual who makes a 
 statement counter to that on which they have acted ? 
 It is, on the other hand, no doubt, true, that they 
 may have been prejudiced by contemporary opinions, 
 and that they may have sometimes unintentionally 
 deviated from their principle ; and, consequently, if 
 you are a learned man, you are at liberty to ascer- 
 tain, on any mooted point, whether our Reformers have 
 or have not adhered to the principle upon which they 
 professed to act. And if you find that they have, in any 
 minor detail, fallen into error, you may, with modesty, 
 state your conviction, and hope that the subject will 
 be fairly discussed at a future convocation, if such 
 should assemble; but even then the subject will have 
 to be discussed by men as learned as yourself, and 
 after all, it may be discovered that you are in error. 
 It is not much to require a little modesty and humi- 
 lity in judging of the Church ; and learned men are 
 to be warned against supposing that, by the canon of 
 1571, more latitude is allowed them than is con- 
 sistent with a due regard to our formularies. " This 
 canon," says Dr. Waterland, " does not order that 
 preachers shall teach whatever hath been taught by 
 the fathers. No; that would be setting up a new 
 rule of faith: neither doth it say that they shall 
 teach whatsoever the fathers had collected from 
 Scripture. No; that would be making them infal- 
 lible interpreters or infallible reasoners : the doctrine 
 must be found first in Scripture ; only, to be more 
 secure that we have found it there, the fathers are
 
 LUTHERAN, llOMAN, ANGLICAN. G5 
 
 to be called in, to be, as it were, constant cliccks 
 upon the presumption and wantonness of private in- 
 terpretation ; but then, again, as to private interpret- 
 ation, there is liberty enough allowed to it. Preachers 
 are not forbidden to interpret this or that text, or 
 hundreds of texts, diiferently from what the fathers 
 have done, provided still they keep within the 
 analogy of faith, and presume not to raise any new 
 doctrine. Neither are they altogether restrained 
 from teaching any thing new, provided it be offered 
 as an opinion only, or an inferior truth, and not 
 pressed, as necessary, upon the people. For it was 
 thought that there could be no necessary article of 
 faith or doctrine now drawn from Scripture, but 
 what the ancients had drawn out before from the 
 same Scripture : to say otherAvise, would impl}? that 
 the ancients had failed universally in necessaries, 
 which is morally absurd. From this account it may 
 appear that the Church of England is exactly in the 
 same sentiments which I have been pleading for ; 
 and, indeed, if there be any Church now in the world 
 which truly reverences antiquity, and pays a proper 
 regard to it, it is this Church. The Romanists talk 
 of antiquity, while ive observe and follow it." * 
 
 If caution be thus necessary, even in the case of 
 an individual who professes to be under the guidance 
 of the principle of our Reformation, when he ventures 
 to find fault with our formularies, it becomes still 
 more important that we should not at any time yield 
 our minds to the guidance of an author who is known 
 
 * On the Holy Trinity, cvii. p. 442. 
 E
 
 66 THE THREE KEEOKMATIONS : 
 
 to be under the influence of a principle Avliich \xc re- 
 gard as erroneous. As the leaf determines the cha- 
 racter of the future tree, and as the bud presents the 
 rudiments of the yet unfolded flower, even so you 
 may be sure of the tendency of an author's work 
 when you liave ascertained what his principle is. He 
 may be inconsistent, and thus not always come pro- 
 fessedly to a wrong conclusion ; but the tendency of 
 his instruction must be in a direction contrary to 
 that wdiich you believe to be right. There is no 
 bigotry, therefore, in our refusing to seek instruction 
 from a book written by a Puritan, a Nationalist, or a 
 Roman Catholic. We only act by our o^m souls as 
 Ave should act in the case of our children. Before 
 we send our child to school, we inquire into the prin- 
 ciples of the master ; and although we know him to 
 be a clever man, and may occasionally find pleasure 
 in his conversation, if his principles be in our opinion 
 erroneous, we refuse to commit our child to his train- 
 ing. In like manner, we may have recourse to a 
 book written by one whose iDrinciples we condemn, 
 for information on a given point, or for amusement ; 
 but when it is offered to us as what is called a re- 
 ligious book, we should refuse it, lest, being led by 
 the blind, we fall into the ditch. Such a work we 
 should approach, not as a learner, but as a critic — for 
 amusement, not for spiritual edification. However in- 
 ferior we may be to the writer in intellect, or however 
 excellent his moral character may have been, we are 
 to assume a superiority, because we have been trained 
 on a superior principle, and on a better system. We 
 do not prohibit the use of opium or other drugs, dc-
 
 LUTHERAN, KOMAN, ANGLICAN. 67 
 
 leterious in themselves, but in some cases beneficially 
 administered ; but when the conscientious druggist 
 permits a bottle of laudanum to be taken from his 
 counter, he has the precaution to write " Poison" on 
 its label, and to warn the purchaser not to leave it in 
 the way of the careless. So ought we clearly to 
 designate the works of authors who have Avritten 
 under the influence of an erroneous principle, lest 
 the unwary should be injured.* Even good works, 
 coming from a suspected quarter, are to be viewed 
 with suspicion. Xor is it safe, since there are both 
 Puritans and Romanizers in the Church of England, 
 to adopt as our guide the work of one holding office 
 amono- us, if he is known to be under the influence 
 of any other principle than that of the English Re- 
 formation. 
 
 * In the reprints of Roman Catholic books of devotion by 
 Dr. Pusej, there is not sufficient caution in this respect. Not- 
 withstanding tlie care of the excellent editor to extract the pecu- 
 liarities of Roman doctrine, they tend evidently to encourage a 
 Roman-Catholic style of devotion. The author took the liberty 
 of expressing his sentiments upon the subject to Dr. Pusey after 
 his first publication. Dr. Pusey's notion of the liberty given him 
 by the canon of 1571 is at variance with that common-sense view 
 of the question taken by Dr. Waterland, and quoted in this lec- 
 ture. We may not go to the Fathers, exercise our own judg- 
 ment as regards their teaching, and then pass judgment upon the 
 Church of England, or constrain her formularies to consonance 
 with our own notions of primitive theology ; relying thus, in fact, 
 on our private judgment. We should start with our formularies ; 
 we should suppose that they are right, and, in studying the Fa- 
 thers, take them for our guide, upon tlie ground that they are 
 based on the decision, not of one learned or pious man, but of 
 many. It is clear that phrases used by the Fathers before the 
 Nicene Council, though quite capable of an orthodox meaning, 
 which is their right meaning, because they were used by orthodox 
 
 £ 2
 
 G8 THE TIIKEE REFOKMATIONS : 
 
 People do act witli this precaution almost by a mo- 
 ral instinct. A true-hearted member of the Church 
 of England would scruple to receive a tract either 
 from the Religious Tract Society, or from the so-called 
 Catholic Institute ; and I maintain that your caution 
 in so doing is justifiable, and no sign of an illiberal 
 spirit : you refuse to receive what is circulated by 
 persons who openly profess to be under the guidance 
 of a principle different from that which you have 
 adopted : you do not wish to have your ideas con- 
 founded. At the same time, by both societies, works 
 maybe circvdated which you read, when received from 
 some one in whom you have confidence, because, though 
 written by persons whose general principle was erro- 
 neous, they have been examined by Anglicans, and 
 
 men, would, nevertheless, be inexpedient at a time when the doc- 
 trine of the Trinity had been more clearly defined. Before here- 
 sies exist, our expressions are lax, because they cannot be misun- 
 derstood : when terms have been applied to express a sense which 
 we repudiate, we become more circumspect in the use of them. 
 Terms used by the Fathers with reference to the eucharist could 
 not be used with propriety at a pei'iod subsequent to the introduc- 
 tion of the medieval error of transubstantiation. The question is 
 not as to words, but as to the fact, whether the Fathers believed as 
 we do. If that be granted, then it is surely more safe to adhere 
 to the terms adopted by our Reformers when repudiating the me- 
 dieval ei-ror, than to terms orthodox at the time, but misunderstood 
 and misapplied by Romanists. These observations are applicable 
 to the use of Romish phraseology in other respects : instead of 
 seeking to adopt it, we should prefer what is Anglican. 
 
 Jeremy Taylor, like Dr. Pusey, made use of Roman Catholic 
 books of devotion. But he corrected them by our formularies, 
 and so Anglicanised them ; Dr. Pusey corrects them by what he 
 calls the primitive church ; meaning thereby what Dr. Pusey re- 
 gards as sucli. The process is entirely ditferent, and the result 
 can hardly be the same.
 
 LUTHERAN, KOMAN, ANGLICAN. 69 
 
 have been by them pronounced to be consistent with 
 the doctrines of our formularies. We may instance, 
 on the one hand, some of the works of Baxter, and on 
 the other, Thomas a Kempis. 
 
 I must, before I conclude, touch upon two other 
 subjects, on Avhich it appears necessary to say some- 
 thing, though, in saying it, offence may be taken by 
 some of those who deserve our esteem and respect. 
 It is impossible not to perceive that by those who are 
 zealously employed in restoring old churches and 
 erecting new ones at the present time, an impulse is 
 given to the encouragement of medieval tastes ; me- 
 dieval tastes may lead to medieval studies ; and me- 
 dieval studies to Romanism. Surely, then, those good 
 and zealous men who are thus honourably employed 
 should pause in the midst of their work, and recon- 
 sider their ways. You will not, I am sure, have any 
 sympathy with those who speak of Gothic architecture 
 as peculiarly or exclusively ecclesiastical. We may 
 admire Gothic architecture ; we may think that, on 
 the whole, it is best adapted to ecclesiastical purposes; 
 but there were splendid churches in existence before 
 the first Gothic architect was born. Gothic architec- 
 ture is not connected, in our minds, with the purest 
 ages of Christianity. The student of ecclesiastical 
 history must be well acquainted with the description 
 given by Eusebius of the churches erected at Tyre^ 
 at Jerusalem, and at Constantinople.* Magnificent 
 churches they were ; sumptuously ornamented, as was 
 proper, being dedicated by the first Christian emperor 
 
 * Euseb. lib. x. c. 4. ; Ue Vit. Const, lib. iii. o. 33., and lib. iv. 
 c. 50. 53. 
 
 E 3
 
 70 THE THREE REFORMATIONS : 
 
 to tlio service of the King of kings. For magnificent 
 and sumptuous churches, you have primitive prece- 
 dent as well as scriptural authority. But these were 
 not Gothic churches. In various particulars and de- 
 tails they differed from the churches of the middle 
 ages, and why? The rituals of the primitive and 
 medieval churches differed ; and the primitive Chris- 
 tians considered that a church was to be built for the 
 ritual, not the ritual adapted to the church. Their 
 churches were erected to meet the exigencies of the 
 Greek ritual and the customs of the people. And, 
 surely, this is the principle upon which new churches 
 ought to be erected in England. Is it not manifestly 
 incongruous to erect a church on the model for the 
 fourteenth century, when we want a church for the 
 ritual of the nineteenth century ? In the fourteenth 
 century the Litany was sung or said in procession, 
 and there were frequent processions in churches ; in 
 the nineteenth century the Litany is sung or said 
 kneeling, and processions are of rare occurrence : in 
 the fourteenth century the sermon seldom formed part 
 of divine service, and was often delivered in another 
 part of the church*; whereas now the sermon forms 
 
 * The account which we have in Dante of medieval preaching 
 does not impress us with the notion of there being more of rever- 
 ence at that time than there is now : — 
 
 " Christ said not to the convent of his twelve, 
 ' Go forth and preach buffooneries to the world ; ' 
 But gave them truth to build on ; and the sound 
 \Yas mightier on their lips than shield or spear. 
 The preacher now provides himself with store 
 Of jests and jibes; and if his hearers laugh, 
 His big cowl swells with pride, and all goes right."
 
 LUTHERAN, ROMAN, ANGLICAN. 71 
 
 part of the Communion Service. Not to instance 
 other particulars, it is quite clear, that for rituals dif- 
 fering so widely, another arrangement of the Church 
 is necessary. We all admit that our forefathers were 
 in error when they sought to assimilate the Church to 
 the Conventicle, in order that Dissenters might not per- 
 ceive what an honest man wishes to have perceptible, the 
 difference between the principles professed in a church 
 and in a meeting-house : they were led to this by their 
 ultra-Protestantism. Let us take warning from their 
 example, and, instead of rushing into the opposite 
 extreme, take care that our admiration of Gothic 
 churches does not lead to medieval tastes, which will 
 end in Romanism. Why are our architects to be mere 
 servile imitators of their predecessors ? Why are they 
 to have no scope for genius ? Surely we ought, acting 
 on primitive principles, to encourage their inventive 
 powers ; we ought to say to them, " As Gothic archi- 
 tecture was at its excellence in the fourteenth century, 
 you ought to master the principles of your art from 
 the a.icient models ; and then, having studied your 
 Prayer Book, you ought to apply those principles to 
 the production of an edifice in which the services of 
 the existing Church of England may be performed in 
 the beauty of holiness." Even with respect to gal- 
 leries, they are unsightly objects, but they are some- 
 times necessary. In the fourteenth century, when the 
 ritual was in a dead language, the people assisted, but 
 took no part in the service. The ritual has now been 
 translated into the vulgar tongue, that all the congre- 
 gation may hear, and bear their part in the services ; 
 
 E 4
 
 72 THE THREE REFORM ATIONS : 
 
 while, in medieval churches, ample space was required 
 for processions, we, on the contrary, require to have 
 many people accommodated in the smallest possible 
 space. Where this can be done without galleries, 
 every one will desire to dispense with them ; but prac- 
 tical men will be unwilling to remove them entirely 
 until our architects have seriously considered whether 
 they cannot be made ornamental as well as useful. 
 
 I need scarcely remark, that it was on this prac- 
 tical and primitive principle that the parish church of 
 Leeds was built. We impressed upon the mind of our 
 architect that our object was not to exhibit an imita- 
 tion of medieval art, but to have an edifice erected in 
 which the services of the existing Church of England, 
 the ritual of the nineteenth century, might be per- 
 formed with solemnity and grandeur. I know how 
 much fault is found with this structure by medieval 
 pedants ; but I have never yet seen a church so ad- 
 mirably adapted for the services of the Church of 
 England ; and when it is criticised by those who say, 
 with a sneer, that "It is truly Anglican," I take the sneer 
 for a compliment, and rejoice to find that it is what it 
 assumes to be. It is, indeed, a representation of the 
 Church of England, reviled by one extreme as Popish, 
 and by the other extreme as Protestant ; and long 
 may its consecrated walls witness the teaching of that 
 good old Church-of-England theology, removed on 
 the one hand from ultra-Protestantism, and on the 
 other from Romanism, which would train us in the 
 via media, and call upon us to " stand in the ways, 
 and see, and ask for the old p.'iths, where is the good
 
 LUTHERAN, ROMAN, ANGLICAN. 73 
 
 way, that ye may walk therein, and so find rest to 
 your souls." * 
 
 What has been said with reference to church archi- 
 tecture is applicable also to church music. If a man 
 says that he adopts the Gregorian music, because it 
 is the best that he can provide, or because he thinks 
 it peculiarly devotional, his conduct is intelligible, 
 though his taste may be questionable. The occasional 
 use of the Gregorian chants is a pleasing variety in 
 our services. But when an attempt is made to bring 
 them into use, as being peculiarly or exclusively eccle- 
 siastical, I, for one, shall continue to resist it. How 
 are they peculiarly ecclesiastical? They certainly 
 formed the music of the middle ages, but that is a 
 prima facie objection to them; a taste for what Avas 
 used in the middle ages being precisely that which 
 we of the Church of England are unwilling to en- 
 courage. The primitive principle was this, that 
 whenever God blesses our labours, and permits us to 
 discover a ncAV art, or to make progress in a science, 
 we should dedicate to his service the art or science in 
 which the advancement has been made. It may be 
 contrary to medieval taste to light our churches with 
 gas, or warm them with hot air ; but primitive prin- 
 ciples would lead us to consecrate these discoveries, 
 by introducing them into God's house. And if in 
 musical science men have improved, on these grounds, 
 there ought to be an attempt to improve the music of 
 the Church. And hence the Church of England has 
 a nmsic X)f her own, based upon the old Gregorian 
 
 * Jcremiali, vi. 16.
 
 74 THE THREE REFORMATIONS : 
 
 music, but harmonised according to the rules of 
 science, which Gregory the Great would, doubtless, 
 have adopted had they been known to him ; for he 
 was a reformer of church music on this very princi- 
 ple. It is true that what is thought by some to be 
 an improvement is regarded by others as the reverse. 
 About tastes there can be no dispute ; if a minister 
 and his congregation* prefer Gregorian to other mu- 
 sic, we have no right to find fault with their adoption 
 of it. But when an attempt is made to force it into 
 general use, we resist it, because this implies the pre- 
 valence of that medieval taste, which, unchecked, 
 must lead to Romanism. The carelessness of the 
 last century led to a manner of performing our ser- 
 vices by which they are unmeaning. We rejoice in 
 the improvement which, in spite of controversy, is 
 iri progress ; and we rejoice the more because a 
 stricter observance of the rubric, and the bringing 
 forward portions of our offices hitherto kept designedly 
 in the back ground, has a tendency to annihilate the 
 ultra-Protestant spirit, which has checked tlie ad- 
 vancement of true religion and virtue in our Zion. 
 But ultra-Protestantism is to be replaced not by Me- 
 dievalism, but according to the blessed principles of 
 tlie English Reformation, by primitive Christianity as 
 embodied in our Book of Common Prayer. (NoteG.) 
 
 * Surely no clergyman has a right to make an alteration in the 
 services of the Church, except when a rubric is evidently violated, 
 without consulting the people. We blame a bishop when he acts 
 despotically, by not consulting his presbyters ; but presbyters act 
 equally as despots when they do not attend to the wishes, ex- 
 pressed or implied, of the faithful among whom they minister.
 
 LUTHERAN, ROMAN, ANGLICAN. 75 
 
 I have detained you unreasonably, but I trust not 
 unpardonably long. Having had to enter into details, 
 I could not compress what I had to say within a 
 shorter compass. I thank you for the attention with 
 which you have heard me ; and I hope that what I 
 have said may be serviceable to some who, in the 
 midst of controversial strife, are anxious for a rule by 
 which to be guided. The miserable Latitudinarians 
 who, careless of doctrine, are in practice more care- 
 less still ; who think of their dignity and ease when 
 souls are perishing around them whom they are 
 salaried to feed ; who hate nothing so much as 
 earnestness in religion, and vent their selfish spleen 
 by discovering Puritanism in every act of self-denial, 
 and Popery in every act of devotion ; who censure 
 and sneer at all who are labouring in the vineyard, 
 while they themselves are like drones in the bee-hive : 
 these are not the men who represent the via media 
 principle of the Church of England, as our enemies 
 would represent them to be. To them, with their 
 closed churches and full tithe barns, the men of 
 the via media are resolutely opposed : nay, we can 
 revere zeal, and Christian love, and enthusiastic devo- 
 tion to the service of our adorable Saviour wherever 
 they may be found : we can gaze with admiration on 
 the fruits of the Spirit wheresoever produced, whether 
 in the Roman convent or the IMethodist class-room ; 
 but we say, in the quaint but strong language of an 
 old poet : — 
 
 " In my religion I dare entertain 
 No fancies hatched in my own weak brain, 
 Nor private spirits ; but am ruled by 
 The Scriptures, and that church authority,
 
 76 THE THREE REFORMATIONS. 
 
 "Which with the ancient faith doth best agree ; 
 
 But new opinions will not down with me. 
 
 When I would learn I never greatly care, 
 
 So truth they teach me, who my teachers are ; 
 
 In points of faith I look not on the man ; 
 
 Nor Beza, Calvin, neither Luther can 
 
 More things, without just proof, persuade me to, 
 
 Than any honest parish clerk can do. 
 
 The ancient fathers (where consent I find) 
 
 Do make me, without doubting, of their mind : 
 
 But where, in his opinion, any 07ie 
 
 Of those great pillars I shall find alone, 
 
 (Except in questions which indifferent are, 
 
 And such until his name unmoved were,) 
 
 I shun his doctrine ; for this swayeth me, 
 
 * No man alone on points of faith can be.' " 
 
 Withers.
 
 77 
 
 APPENDIX 
 
 Note A. 
 LEEDS CHURCH INSTITUTION. 
 
 This Society was formed on the SOtli May, 1838, when a library 
 was established, to be conducted on Church principles ; and it was 
 afterwards extended under its present title. 
 
 I. That the Vicar be ex-officio the President of the Institution ; 
 that the officers (consisting of the President, Treasurer, and 
 Secretaries) be permanent appointments ; but in case of a vacancy 
 occurring, it shall be filled up by the council. 
 
 II. That the management of this Institution be vested in the 
 officers and council, consisting of the clergy of the parish, of the 
 officers for the time being of the Leeds' District Committee of the 
 Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge (provided they be 
 members of the Institution), and of twelve laymen, to be elected 
 annually. 
 
 III. That at the last meeting in each session, to be held the 
 first Monday in May, the council do submit, for the api)robation of 
 the subscribers, a report of their proceedings ; and a list of twelve 
 members to act as the lay members of the council for the ensuing 
 session. 
 
 IV. That the council meet on the first Monday in each month 
 for the transaction of business. 
 
 V. That subscribers of 10*. 6d. per annum shall have the ad- 
 vantage of the library, news-room, papers, and lectures, and be 
 entitled to the use of one set of books. The subscribers of 1/. 1*. 
 per annum, or donors of 10/. Ws., having an addition of one extra 
 transferable ticket to each paper and lecture, and one extra set of 
 books. 
 
 VL That persons wishing to become members must be recom- 
 mended by a member, in a book kept for that purpose ; and be
 
 78 AITENDIX. 
 
 submitted at the next monthly meeting to the council for election. 
 But that none be considered eligible who are not conscientious 
 members of tlie Church of England. 
 
 VII. That a book be kept on the library table for the insertion 
 of suggestions by the members, and for the recommendation of 
 books. 
 
 VIII. That the council, so far as the funds allow, shall pro- 
 vide books, periodicals, and newspapers, for the perusal of the 
 members. 
 
 IX. That, as far as possible, regularly recurring papers and 
 lectures be provided for the members. That to these lectures the 
 members of the district libraries be admitted, provided they ha\e 
 been subscribers for the previous three months. 
 
 X. That classes be formed for mutual instruction, subject to the 
 direction of the council. 
 
 XL That the council be empowered to make grants of books 
 towards establishing libraries in the different districts of the toAvn, 
 and of money towards the fitting up of libraries and reading- 
 rooms. 
 
 XII. Tliat the management of the district libraries and reading- 
 rooms be vested in the hands of the clergy of the district, and of 
 the visitors of the Christian Knowledge Society, being members 
 of the Central Library; but that all proceedings of the district 
 committees be transmitted to the next monthly meeting of the 
 council, for its approval. 
 
 XIII. That the property of the libraries be vested in the bishop 
 of the diocese, and the vicar of the parish, as trustees. 
 
 Tlie following abstract will exhibit the steady progress of the 
 Institution : — 
 
 
 
 £ 
 
 s. 
 
 d. 
 
 Li 1839, 
 
 the income amounted to 
 
 110 
 
 10 
 
 6 
 
 1840, 
 
 ditto 
 
 90 
 
 15 
 
 
 
 1841, 
 
 ditto 
 
 74 
 
 5 
 
 9 
 
 1842, 
 
 ditto 
 
 124 
 
 13 
 
 6 
 
 1843, 
 
 ditto 
 
 89 
 
 10 
 
 9 
 
 1844, 
 
 ditto 
 
 73 
 
 2 
 
 
 
 1845,^ 
 
 * ditto 
 
 162 
 
 19 
 
 6.i 
 
 1846, 
 
 ditto 
 
 223 
 
 8 
 
 8 
 
 In these retur 
 
 ns special donations are not i 
 
 included 
 
 
 
 * 111 this year 90?. lis. was subscribed for special purposes, which would 
 raise tlie net actual income to 253A 10s. 6h<h
 
 . APPENDIX. 79 
 
 Note B. 
 
 One of the artifices on the part of Romanizers of which we have 
 to complain is, that they place Catholicism as the opposite to Pro- 
 testantism. Popery and Protestantism are opposed, and so also 
 are Popery and Catholicism. Catholicism is opposed to heresy. 
 There are undoubtedly Protestant heresies, but heresy is not 
 peculiar to Protestantism ; there are Popish heresies also. It is 
 absolutely necessary to use these old-fashioned terms, in order to 
 make the distinction which it is attempted in some quarters to 
 confound. The author submits to the reader the following article 
 from his " Church Dictionary," on the word Protestant. At the 
 time of its first publication the article was attacked in the "British 
 Magazine," but he saw no reason to make any alteration in it : — 
 
 " PiJOTESTAXT. — The designation of Protestant is used in 
 England as a general terra to denote all who protest against 
 ]*opery. Such, however, w^as neither the original acceptation of 
 the Avord, nor is it the sense in which it is still applied, on the 
 Continent. It was originally given to those who protested againt 
 a certain decree issued by the Emperor Charles V., and the Diet of 
 Spires, in 1529. 
 
 " On the Continent it is applied as a term to distinguish the 
 Lutheran communions. The Lutherans are called Protestants ; 
 the Calvinists the Reformed. It is evident that in our application 
 of the word it is a mere term of negation. If a man says that he 
 is a Protestant, he only tells us that he is not a Romanist ; at the 
 same time he may be what is worse — a Socinian, or even an 
 Infidel, for these are all united under the common principle of 
 protesting against Popery. The appellation is not given to us, as 
 far as the writer knows, in any of our formularies, and has chiefly 
 been employed in political warfare as a watchword to rally in one 
 band all who, whatever may be their religious differences, are pre- 
 pared to act politically against the aggressions of the Romanists. 
 In this respect it was particularly useful at the Revolution ; and as 
 politics intrude themselves into all the considerations of an 
 Englishman, either directly or indirectly, the term is endeared to a 
 powerful and influential party in the state. But on the very 
 ground that it thus keeps out of view distinguishing and vital 
 principles, and unites in apparent agreement those who essentially 
 differ, many of our divines object to the use of the word. They 
 contend, with good reason, that it is quite absurd to speak of the
 
 so APPENDIX. 
 
 Protestant reliyion, since a religion must, of course, be distin- 
 guished, not by what it renounces, but by Avhat it professes : they 
 apprehend that it has occasioned a kind of sceptical habit, of 
 inquiring, not how much we ought to believe, but how much we 
 may refuse to believe ; of looking at what is negative instead of 
 what is positive in our religion ; of fearing to inquire after truth, 
 lest it should lead to something which is held by the Papists in 
 common with ourselves ; and which, therefore, as some persons 
 seem to argue, no sound Protestant can hold ; forgetting that on 
 this principle we ought to renounce the Liturgy, the sacraments, 
 the doctrine of the Trinity, the divinity and atonement of Christ, 
 nay, the very Bible itself. It is on these gi'ounds that some 
 writers have scrupled to use the word. But although it is certainly 
 absurd to speak of the Protestant religion, i. e. a negative religion, 
 yet there is no absurdity in speaking of the Church of England, 
 or the Church of America, as a Protestant Church : the word 
 Church conveys a positive idea, and there can be no reason why 
 we should not have also a negative appellation. If we admit that 
 the Church of Rome is a true, though a corrupt, Church, it is well 
 to have a term by which we may always declare that, while we 
 hold in common with her all that she has which is catholic, scrip- 
 tural, and pure, we protest for ever against her multiplied corrup- 
 tions. Besides, the word, whether correctly or not, is in general 
 use, and is, in a certain sense, applicable to the Church of England ; 
 it is surely, therefore, better to retain it, only with this under- 
 standing, that when we call ourselves Protestants, we mean no 
 more to profess that we hold communion Avith all parties who are 
 so styled, than the Church of England when, in her creeds and 
 formularies, she designates herself, not as the Protestant, but as 
 the Catholic Church of this country, intends to hold communion 
 with those Catholic churches abroad which have iaifused into their 
 system the principles of the Council of Trent. Protestant is ctur 
 negative, Catholic our definitive name. We tell the Papist that 
 with respect to him we are Protestant ; we tell the Protestant 
 Dissenter that with respect to him we are Catholics ; and we may 
 be called Protestant or Protesting Catholics, or, as some of our 
 writers describe us, Anglo-Catholics." 
 
 Note C. 
 
 The verses of Walter Dyee, a countryman of ours, describe the 
 state of things as strongly, though less poetically : —
 
 APrEXDIY. 81 
 
 " In primis pontifices et prajlatos noto, 
 Nam iste grex hominum, canone remoto, 
 Totus est in poculis, totus lucri voto 
 ^stuat, et vitce disconvenit ordine toto. 
 Heu I quam nugatorii praesules moderni, 
 Dici debent potius praesides Averni, 
 Vel spretores melius judicis aeterni, 
 Potores bibuli media de nocte phalerni." * 
 
 The following poem has more pretension to poetical merit, while 
 it shows also the estimation in which the Church of Rome was at 
 that time held. Even as we Anglicans contend, what was at first 
 gold, gradually degenerated into silver, mud, dung. 
 
 " Papa stupor mundi cecidit, secum cecidere 
 
 Ccelica templa, mea membra, simuique caput 
 Papa dolor ! mundique pudor I per crebra patescit 
 
 Crimina sen scelera, faemine sonifero! 
 Heu Simon regnat ! per munera quteque reguntur; 
 
 Judiciumque pium gaza nefanda vetat. 
 Curia Papalis fovet omnia scandala mundi, 
 
 Delubra sacra facit, perfiditate, forum. 
 Ordo sacer, baptisma sacrum cum Chrismate sancto 
 
 Venduntur turpi conditione foro. 
 Dives honoratur, pauper contemnitur, atque 
 
 Qui dare plura valet munera gratus erit. 
 Aurea quse quondam fuit, bine argentea, papae 
 
 Curia, procedit deteriore modo. 
 Ferrea dehinc facta, dura cervice quievit 
 
 Tempore non modico, sed modo facta lutum. 
 Postque lutum quid deterius solet esse ? Recordor, 
 
 Stercus. Et in tali curia tota sedet." 
 
 This is taken from Theodoric Uric's History, which contains 
 an accovmt of the Council of Constance, and abounds with lively 
 descriptions of the corruptions of the Church. 
 
 Note D. 
 
 On this subject the following observations of Mr. Stanley Faber, 
 in his work on the Doctrine of Election, are worthy of notice : — 
 
 * Ad Calcera Oiierum Nicol. Clem. Leyden. 
 F
 
 82 APPENDIX. 
 
 " Two person?, we will say, each with perfect, though mistaken 
 sincerity, supplicate the throne of grace, that the true interpreta- 
 tion of those texts, which speak of election and predestination, 
 may, by the Holy Spirit, be conveyed to their divinely illuminated 
 intellect. 
 
 " The prayer is by each party duly put ixp ; and the incongruous 
 result is, that the one person becomes a decided Calvinist, and 
 that the other person rises up from his devotions a steadfast Armi- 
 nian. Now, clearly, the interpretations which they henceforth 
 confidently recommend as answers, severallj vouchsafed to their 
 prayers for intellectual illumination, cannot both be correct. 
 
 " How, then, if we admit the fitness of the practice, are we to 
 determine between the two opposing expositions ? Which inter- 
 pretation are we bound in conscience to receive as the unerring 
 communication of the infallible Spirit of unmixed truth ? 
 
 " Without the very extremity of arrogant assumption, neither 
 individual, I apprehend, can presume to say that his interpi'etation 
 is the genuine dictate of the Spirit, and that the interpretation of 
 his opponent is advanced purely under the influence of strong de- 
 lusion. I put not any mere imaginary case ; the unseemly incon- 
 gruity here pointed out has actually occurred, as the result of the 
 unauthorised prayers of two very good, though very mistaken, 
 men. 
 
 " ]VIr. Whitfield says, ' I never read any thing that Calvin wrote 
 — my doctrines I had from Christ and his apostles — I was 
 taught them of God.' And he further somewhat more distinctly 
 states, in regard to the particular doctrine specially alluded to — 
 ' Election is a doctrine which I thought, and do now believe, Avas 
 taught me of God.' 
 
 " Yet Mr. Wesley broadly declares, that he has an immediate 
 call from God, to preach and publish to the world that Mr. Whit- 
 field's doctrine is highly injurious to Christ. 
 
 " From the very purport of these jarring allegations, I venture 
 to conclude, that Mr. Whitfield and Mr. AVesley had alike prayed 
 to God for a right understanding of the texts which are litigated 
 between Calvinists and Arminians ; for neither of them could have 
 well imagined ' that he was taught of God,' or * that he had an 
 immediate call from God,' without the antecedent preparation of 
 much thought on the subject, mingled with prayer. Yet, what is 
 the result of such utterly unscriptural applications to the Deity ? 
 Combining the two together, we portentously learn, from the con- 
 joined declarations of Mr, Whitfield and Mr. Wesley, that ' the
 
 APPENDIX. 83 
 
 former was taught of God the doctrine of election, as expounded 
 by Augustine and Calvin ;' while ' the latter had an immediate 
 call from God to publish to the whole world that this identical 
 doctrine of election thus expounded is totally false, and highly 
 injurious to Christ' The truth of the matter was, that each, by 
 lus own private reasoning and judging upon Scripture, had firmly 
 persuaded himself that his own view of election was undoubtedly 
 correct ; and an erroneous estimate of the nature and office of 
 prayer, associated with a strong imagination, readily effected the 
 i-emainder. 
 
 " But the mischief of such presumptuous petitions will appear 
 even in a yet more striking point of view, when it is stated that 
 they have actually been preferred both by an infidel and (in the 
 language of the early Church) by a God-denying apostate, and that 
 the wretched result was a full confidence on the part of each that 
 his own system had received the special sanction of Heaven. 
 
 " TVhen Lord Herbert of Cherbury had finished his favourite 
 infidel work, he prayed that he might be instructed by some sign 
 from Heaven, whether it were for the honour of God to suppress it 
 or publish it. The answer to his prayer, he tells us, was a divine 
 sign, which authorised him to print and circulate the work. 
 
 " The prayers of Socinus were, to himself at least, of an equally 
 satisfactory description : he claimed to have received God's in- 
 struction and assistance in the interpretations Avhich he has put 
 upon the various passages of Scripture litigated between his own 
 followers and the Catholic Church." 
 
 Note E. 
 
 It is not generally known that Archbishop Cranmer enriched 
 himself with the spoils of the Church, availing himself of the 
 extraordinary powers he possessed as one of the regency at the 
 beginning of the reign of Edward VI. The town of Cookridge 
 formed part of the possessions of the abbey of Kirkstall, the ruins 
 of Avhich are still an ornament to the parish of Leeds. " It was 
 granted," says Thoresby, " together with the site of the monastery, 
 &c., by King Henry VIIL, by indenture, dated 10th June, 1540, 
 to Robert Pakeman, Gent., of the King's household, under the 
 yearly rent of 51/. 14-s. King Edward VI., by letters patent, 1st 
 June, in the first year of his reign, gave it to Archbishop Cran- 
 mer." Bramley, a township of Leeds, and several other places 
 
 r 2
 
 84 APPENDIX. 
 
 belonging to the Abbot of Kirkstall, " are expressly mentioned in 
 the original letters patent of King Edward VI. to Archbishop 
 Cranmer, now in the possession of mj honoured friend Thomas 
 Bjrke, Esq." "King Edward VI., A. R., Imo, among other 
 estates, granted all the demesne lands belonging to the monastery 
 of Kirkstall, in Horseforth, to Ai'cbbishop Cranmer. In the fourth 
 year of the same reign the same archbishop obtained a licence to 
 alienate these lands to one Peter Hamond, and others to the use of 
 Thomas Cranmer, his eldest son and heirs." * 
 
 Note F, 
 
 To the preface of the ordinal, as well as to the ordinal itself, 
 aad to all that is contained therein and prescribed thereby, all 
 clergymen, bishops as well as priests and deacons, declare their 
 unfeigned assent and consent ; it is somewhat remarkable, there- 
 fore, that some prelates, whom it would be invidious to name, 
 should denounce the doctrine of the apostolical succession to their 
 clergy, as if it were a doctrine not held by the Church of England. 
 If this be not the doctrine of the Church of England, why are there 
 bishops at all? Except for this doctrine, we could dispense with 
 bishops, and conduct the discipline of the Church more efficiently 
 by Presbyterian synods. In the preface to the ordinal, the question 
 is, what did the ancient authors, whose authority is quoted and 
 whose example is followed, mean by the word bishops ? No one 
 can deny that they meant ecclesiastical rulers, having power to 
 ordain, they having themselves been ordained by others. This 
 cannot be denied. The assertion then of the Church is this : that 
 from the apostles' time this order existed, the order of bishops as 
 distinguished from the two other orders. She also states that, 
 moreover, even in the apostles' time, the bishops, as well as other 
 clergy, were admitted to their office by public prayer and imposi- 
 tion of hands. It is admitted that ordination is an office which has 
 always belonged exclusively to the episcopal order, wherever epis- 
 copacy has existed ; and the Church of England affirms that this 
 order has existed from the apostles' time. Therefore as our present 
 bishops were ordained by bishops, so were their predecessors con- 
 secrated by bishops up to what period ? The Church answers. Up 
 to the apostles' time. The apostles being themselves appointed by 
 
 * Whitakur's Tlioresby, i. 157. 175. ; ii. -^14.
 
 APPENDIX. 85 
 
 Christ, ordained the first generation of bishops, and bishops from 
 that time to this have ordained others to the episcopal office, as 
 from time to time there Avas a vacancy ; and this is what is called 
 the Apostolical Succession. 
 
 At the same time, we are to remember that the real question is 
 not whether the Church of England asserts this doctrine in any 
 particular formulary, but whether she denies it. She admitted it, 
 as no one can deny, before the Reformation ; and if she has not 
 denied it subsequently, it must be her doctrine still. The Church 
 of England does not date from the Reformation ; if she did, she 
 would be no church at all. The Catholic Church was at the Re- 
 formation not destroyed in this country, but refoi'med on the prin- 
 ciple shown in the text. Medieval corruptions and innovations 
 were repudiated, but the Church remained as she was — Naaman 
 cleansed indeed of his leprosy, but Naaman still ; Naaman Avith his 
 leprous spots, but with his hands and feet, the same body and the 
 same soul. As in ecclesiastical courts, because the Church is un- 
 changed, the canons which existed before the Reformation are in 
 force, except Avhere contradicted by subsequent enactments ; so is 
 it also Avith doctrine, and the regulation of our services. It is thus 
 that in some churches the custom prevails of turning to the East 
 when the Creed is rehearsed : a sectarian churchman asks. Where 
 is it appointed ? The answer is, It was the custom of the Church: 
 where is it prohibited? It is on the same ground that aa'c justify 
 the saying or chanting antiphonaUy, or the minister saying one 
 verse, the people the other. The suspension of the Church during 
 the great rebellion led to the disuse of many observances which 
 we find to have existed in our Church long after the Reformation 
 
 Note G. 
 
 It may be said that St. Saviour's Church, in Leeds, was erected, 
 and that the services there are conducted, on principles the reverse 
 of those maintained in this Lecture. 
 
 St, Saviour's Church was erected in a very desolate region of 
 Leeds by the exertions of one who seemed to be devoted, in all 
 singleness of heart, to the promotion of liis Master's glory; and the 
 author rejoiced in the work, although he was in no way concerned 
 in it after the first stone Avas laid. He was not consulted, directly 
 or indirectly, during the erection of the church ; and, from the 
 character of the building, and the manner of some Avho Avere pre-
 
 86 APPENDIX. 
 
 sent at its opening, the author would not attend the consecration, 
 until, with more than two thirds of tlie clergy, he had signed a 
 protest against Eomanism. 
 
 The founder of the church, having availed himself of the Leeds 
 Vicarage Act, St. Saviour's forms a vicarage distinct from the parish 
 of Leeds, and with the clergy subsequently appointed the author has 
 not had an opportunity of becoming acquainted. But when this 
 Lectui'c, which was written for delivery before the members of the 
 Church Library at Rochdale, was repeated at the Church Institu- 
 tion at Leeds, one of the clergy of St. Saviour's Church complained 
 that it was an attack upon the principles for Avhich the clergy of 
 that church are responsible. What the principles of the clergy of 
 St. Saviour's can be, except those of our reformed branch of the 
 Church Catholic, the author is at a loss to conceive ; for of that 
 branch of the Church they are sworn members. If, however, as 
 the complaint referred to would indicate, there be arising there a 
 tendency to any other doctrine, the author thinks it right to warn 
 his flock that he is not responsible for any opinions promulgated at 
 St. Saviour's. It is an independent vicarage, and the author has 
 been warned by the founder that he has no more concern with it 
 than he has with any parish in London. 
 
 TIIK KND. 
 
 London : 
 
 Printed by A. SroTTiswoODE, 
 
 New- Street- Square.
 
 POSTSCKIPTUM. 
 
 The last proof of this Lecture had been sent to Lon- 
 don, and returned to the printer, when information 
 was brought to me that the Reverend Mr. ]\Iacmullen 
 had left St. Saviour's, and had gone over to the papal 
 church, taking with him three other persons. The 
 publication has been delayed that this postscript may 
 be appended to the Lecture. 
 
 Although few persons have been more frequently 
 assailed by the so-called religious press than myself, 
 I have never thought it necessary to appear in self- 
 defence. What is thought of me by others, except 
 by those whose kind feelings no calumny can change, 
 is a matter of very little importance, as the Day of 
 Judgment is at hand, when all will be known. But 
 on the present occasion, the accuser of the brethren 
 will doubtless try to represent the perversions at St. 
 Saviour's as the result of the teaching which has been 
 prevalent in Leeds during the last ten years. Out of 
 regard for those good old Church-of-England prin- 
 ciples, therefore, I shall add a few remarks to those 
 which have been made in the concluding note. 
 
 About three months ago the district of St. Saviour's 
 was constituted a parish and a vicarage, under the 
 Leeds Vicarage Act. Lentil that time no attempt 
 was made to pervert men to Rome, because the clergy 
 officiating Avithin the district were responsible to me, 
 and I could have put a stop to their proceedings. 
 
 G
 
 2 POSTSCRIPTUM. 
 
 But when St. Saviour's became a parish separated 
 from the parish of Leeds, Mr. Macmullen and two 
 other clergymen were sent from Oxford ; and from 
 that time there has been a systematic depreciation of 
 the Church of England, and a defence of the Church 
 of Rome : one of the clergy going so far as to say, 
 that to speak against the Church of Rome was a mor- 
 tal sin, and lamenting that his lot had been cast in 
 the Church of England. A regular system of per- 
 version has been going on. 
 
 When I had ascertained the character of the pro- 
 ceedings, I remonstrated with the patrons of the 
 livino-, and I Avas warned that I had no more to do 
 with the parish of St. Saviour's than I have with a 
 parish in London ; and when I ventured in reply to 
 observe, that I might justly complain when a hornet's 
 nest was planted at my garden gate, the rejoinder 
 was, that what I took for a hornet's nest was a hive 
 of sweet honey. What the honey is events have 
 shown. 
 
 With Mr. Macmullen I have had no acquaintance ; 
 he did not call upon me on his coming to Leeds, and 
 I informed the Bishop of Ripon of my suspicions in 
 relation to his character. His Lordship declined to 
 grant a license to Mr. Macmullen until he had made 
 further enquiry ; but Mr. Macmullen continued to 
 officiate, without the Bishop's license, until his Lord- 
 ship being informed of the fact prohibited him from 
 officiating in the diocese of Ripon. 
 
 The firmness, sound judgment, and considerate 
 kindness of the Lord Bishop of Ripon nuist be men- 
 tioned with gratitude, and, under his Lordship's
 
 rOSTSCRIPTUM. 6 
 
 direction, we may hope that St. Saviour's may ev^n 
 yet be converted into a blessing to the town of Leeds. 
 It has hitherto been the reverse. 
 
 To true-hearted members of the Church of Eng- 
 hnul, the departure of ^fr. Macraullen and his dis- 
 ciples is a satisfaction and relief: we may hope that 
 all Romanizers will follow his example. I have no 
 sympathy with the cant of those who urge us to 
 retain such persons in the Church, by permitting 
 them to revile, at will, the principles of the English 
 Reformation. I am told that Mr. Macmullen would 
 have laboured in the Church of England, if he had 
 been permitted to act thus : I rejoice to think that 
 lie is gone. When once they honestly declare them- 
 selves, these men become, like Mr. Newman, power- 
 less : no one cares for what they say, write, or do. 
 When they come to us as friends, they deceive the 
 unwary. We may regret that those whom we trusted 
 and protected have been perverted, have chosen dark- 
 ness when they were educated in the light : for their 
 own sake we may feel regret, but as meml3ers of the 
 Church we rejoice. 
 
 Although I should never again trust the patrons of 
 St. Saviour's Church " et dona ferentes," and althouofli 
 I have not hesitated strongly to express to them my 
 feelings on their conduct, it is due to them to say, 
 that I do not believe that their intention was to send 
 men over to Rome ; but they would not listen to my 
 remonstrances, or proceed to act when I solemnly 
 called upon them in the name of God to withdraw 
 the clergy they had sent to Leeds. Their answer to 
 me was, that if I suspected them of Romanizing, I
 
 4 POSTSCRIPTUM. 
 
 was myself regarded as a Papist by many. It may 
 be so. But, in my declining years, Avhile I have 
 much to regret as regards the past, I have the satis- 
 faction of being able to look back to a life of honest 
 and earnest, if not successful, service to the Church 
 of England, having always acted on the principles of 
 the English Reformation, and I read vnth. compla- 
 cence the sentence I have placed as the motto on my 
 title-page.
 
 i. '■' 
 
 ' t - 
 
 - *• ' 
 
 , ,-;vX 
 
 
 .^ X 
 
 r ■ 
 
 9* 
 
 
 '■^- 
 
 * 
 
 
 
 "f •■* V,- 
 
 -•< ' ' 
 
 
 ■\ 
 
 ^ 
 
 ' r- , 
 
 
 .^ 
 
 ^>, 
 
 K 
 
 
 
 < -'.