-5'

Trad

Mho 4 9
.J&5

A TRACT

FOR THE TIMES.

¥o. XCI.

BY A BY-STANDER.

Kgent hodi^ tantum explicatione commode. Akcbbishop Secker.

LONDON:
JAMES RIDGWAY, PICCADILLY.
1841.

' LONDON ;
CBARLES WOOD, PRINTER, POPPIs's COURT, FLEET STREET.

A TJRACT FOE THE TIMES.

I UNDERSTAND that the authors of the Tracts for
the Times have been respectfully favoured vpith
an episcopal suggestion, that, under existing cir
cumstances, a discontinuance of the Series might
be on the whole desirable ; and that they have
very properly acquiesced in an opinion proceeding
from such a quarter. I trust, however, that as a
postscript to a letter is not an additional letter,
nor is a brief explanatory speech- in Parliament
accounted, in either House, a second speech ; some
few valedictory pages of explanation, written with
out the knowledge of any other person, though
bearing the title of No. xcr, to indicate the subject
to which they belong, will not be deemed a de
parture from the adopted line of submission. I
am the more confirmed in this confidence by the
two following considerations. First; my purpose
is not to bring forward any new matter, but simply
to establish, by concise remarks and illustrations,
certain positions, stated in the Tracts already before
A 2

the world, respecting the Articles of the Church
of England. Secondly ; my reasoning on the topics
adduced will be closely conformed to the celebrated
model of ratiocination exhibited and uninterruptedly
pursued in those Tracts ; and specially in the re
cognized master-piece among them, No. xc, which
is universally and justly contemplated as shining
amidst the rest, Velut inter ignes
Luna minores.
If any one should require a farther account of
myself, I would merely reply. Read the subsequent
observations ; and form your own judgement (for
which I promise you ample evidence), what I am,
what I propose, and what I do and do not accom
plish. What, if I appear in Court as a professional
advocate of the weaker side ?
I do not mean to weary myself or my readers
by sweeping away all the rubbish of opposition,
which has been accumulated around statements
in the Tracts connected with the Articles. I shall
exemplify in a few cases, taken as specimens, the
facility with which it may be scattered as dust to
the wind ; and thus indicate the efficacy with which
a besom may be applied by any other operator to
dissipate the remainder.
It is obvious that, in this process of clarification,
the first step towards eliciting the true signification
of the several Articles must be, to ascertain the

leading principle on which the legitimate inter
pretation of them rests. Most happy am I not
to be like a traveller in a fog, to bewilder myself
among brakes, and to flounder through peat-mosses.
I am placed at once, and without an effort of my
own, on smooth and solid ground, and in broad
sun-shine. The momentous principle is set before
me in meridian light, and by an authority which
cannot be contested. The Thirty-nine Articles.
Egent hodie tantum explicatione commod&..
They need at this day only a commodious explication.
So pronounces the deservedly reverenced Arch
bishop Seeker, in his Oratio Synodalis, addressed
to his Clergy*.
Consider the immense value of this authority,
as compared with any weight which could have
been attached to any principle, which might have
been propounded by myself. Seeker was an arch
bishop. Luckily, or unluckily, I am not. Seeker
was a man entitled to the highest estimation for
sound sense, knowledge, and fairness. I could
wish that I were so. Seeker had been brought up
a Dissenter; and as converts are reputed to be
particularly strenuous against the body which they
have left, and for that which they have joined, was
likely to be watchful not to make the portals of
* See the last volume of his works, published by Beilby
Porteus, D.D., and George Stinton, D.D., his grace's chap
lains. London, 3d edit., p. 363.

his church too easily to be opened by persons of
other sects. I have always been a member of the
Church of England ; and, never having left any
other description of Christians, might be supposed
to be the less vigilant against their intrusion.
On this immovable principle, therefore, I stand
firm and fearless.
Egent liodie tantum explicatione commodi.
The grand and incontestable principle of inter
preting the Thirty-nine Articles is, in one word,
Commodiousness. Let me preclude a possible misapprehension, that
the memory of the good archbishop may suffer
in my hands. Nothing is more remote from my
thoughts. Nothing is more easy to obviate. Agree
ing in the principle, we might differ widely in
our conclusions. We might rest in wholly op
posite opinions. That which I may deem com
modious, the archbishop might judge quite the
contrary. That which is now commodious, might
have been incommodious in the days of the arch
bishop. Diversity in the application, error in the
application, affects not the principle. The funda
mental principle of interpreting the Articles still
remains Commodiousness.
But the principle may be abused. Admitted.
What principle is not liable to abuse? Let those
who abuse be responsible. What object is there
which may not be employed for different purposes,

right or wrong, higher or lower ? Time was when
mummy was a choice ingredient in medical pre
scriptions. Yet the difference between New Zea-
landers and ourselves was clear and definite. The
New Zealander ate man for gratification. Eng
lishmen ate hira for health.
There are still in existence two books, published
more than a century ago, alike malignant, detestable,
and despicable, the writers of which availed them
selves of some petty excesses and minute extra
vagancies committed by indiscreet adherents of the
renowned exemplars of the principle of Commo
diousness in their days, (and what large body of the
most able men, civil or ecclesiastical, has not in
discreet and unmanageable adherents ?) and directed
the shafts of their satire against the principle itself.
These pestilent writings are respectively entitled
Pascal's Provincial Letters, and Swift's Tale of a
Tub. But these very works, as is often the case
with concentrations of mischief, contain that which
in part nullifies the intended effect. By their al
lusions and details they incidentally throw so much
light on the various forms and uses of the rule of
Commodiousness as in the mind of a sagacious
reader greatly to enhance its value. If, by the peru
sal of either of the books, any one of the eminent
authors of Tracts for the Times shall have had
his perception of the importance of the principle
strengthened, and his adroitness in the application
of it improved ; he will deserve the same credit as
the general who has supplied himself with arms

from the stores of the enemy, or the physician who
has extracted remedies from poisons.
" Misera est servitus," says some ancient Jurist,
" ubi lex est vaga et incerta." " Wretched is the
" bondage, where the law is vagrant and uncertain.'
Ignorant and narrow minded man ! We proclaim,
Felix libertas, ubi lex est vaga et incerta. Happy
liberty, where the law is vagrant and uncertain.
We delight to enjoy liberty unfettered by adamantine
restrictions ; and to expatiate in the unenclosed ex
tent spread before us by law undefined and un
certain ; where, if the law in its uncertain vagaries
should chance inopportunely to approach, and seem
likely to cross upon us, there is space on the right
hand and on the left for turning out of its way. Nay,
we double the advantage by a coalition. Feli-
cissima libertas, ubi lex est certa atque incerta. The
perfection of liberty on a given subject is, when the
law is certain and uncertain ; that is to say, when it
is certain that the law ha& nothing to do with some
parts of the subject, and uncertain whether it has any
thing to do with the rest. Here is the perfection of
scope for the operations of Commodiousness. Here
is the consummation of its usefulness as the inter
preter of our Articles. The interpretation will be
such as the archbishop justly prescribes*; not crafty
and fraudulent, but critically and grammatically re
gular. The Articles are penal laws, with their penal-
* Non vafram et veteratoriam (explicationem) intelligo ; sed
artis grammaticee criticseque regulis consonam. Orat. Synod.,
p. 363.

D
ties of suspension, degradation, forfeitures, and ex
pulsion ; and, like other penal laws, are to be
interpreted literally. So says King James; so says
Seeker ; so say we.
I proceed to manifest by a small but sufficient
selection of examples, how fairly, how perseveringly,
and how successfully and beneficially the principle
of Commodiousness has been applied by the writers
of Tracts for the Times ; and how feeble and con
temptible have been the efforts of their opponents,
and chiefly from their ignorance of this great prin
ciple, to gain an atom of advantage over the Trac-
tarians.
TRACT FOR THE TIMES, No. XC. p.23— 43.
"article XXII.  PURGATORY, PARDONS,
IMAGES, RELICS, INVOCATION OF SAINTS."
As the discussions concerning these topics have
an immediate reference to the Church of Rome, it
is fitting that, as speaking on behalf of the Tracta-
rians, our opinions concerning that Church should
be fully expressed.
As Protestants, then, we believe, know, and pro
nounce, that the Church of Rome is The Woman
described in the Apocalypse as seated on a scarlet-
coloured beast, fy,ll of names of blasphemy — as arrayed
in purple and scarlet colour, and decked with gold
and precious stones and pearls ; having a golden cup
in her hand, full of abominations andjilthiness of her

10
fornication — as having upon her forehead a Name
written, Mystery, Babylon the Great, the Mother of
harlots and abominations of the earth — and as drunken
with the blood of the saints, a)td with the blood of the
martyrs of Jesus : and that a special voice from hea
ven commands all the people of God to come 'out of
her. * We equally recognize the Hierarchy of the
Romish Church to be emblematised by the tioo-
horned beast, with horns like a lamb, but speaking
as a dragon ; the false Prophet, in the same in
spired book, who deceived the dwellers on the earth
by pretended miracles, and is to be cast alive into
a lake of fire burning with brimstone '\ ; and, also,
as characterised by St. Paul J as the Wicked One,
whom the Lord shall consume with ike Spirit of
His mouth, and shall destroy with the brightness of
His coming : the Man of Sin, the Son of Perdition,
who opposeth and exalteth himself above all that is
called God, or that is worshipped ; so that he, as
God, sitteth in the temple of God, showing himself
that he is God; whose coming is after the working
of Satan with all power, and signs, and lying won
ders, and with all deceivableness of unrighteousness.
Farther, " We trust that active and visible union
" with the See of Rome is not of the essence of a
" Church. At the same time we are deeply con-
" scious that in lacking it, far from asserting a
* Revelation xvii, 3 — 6 ; xviii, 4.
t Rev. xiii, 11—14 ; xix, 20.
J 2 Thess. ii, 3 — 12. We also recognize other kindred pas
sages of Scripture, which it is not necessary to cite.

11
" right, we forego a privilege. Rome has impe-
" rishable claims upon our gratitude ; and, were it
" so ordered, upon our deference. She is our elder
" sister in the faith ; nay, she is our mother, to
" whom by the grace of God we owe it that we are
" what we are. For her sins, and for our own, we
" are estranged from her in presence, not in heart.
" May we never be provoked to forget her, or cease
" to love her, even though she frown upon us ; and
" to desire, if it were possible, to be at one with
" her*." As these views are so manifestly and accurately
in harmony with the Scriptural statements previously
quoted, our duty necessarily is to combine, unite,
and amalgamate both.
When by the decease of our great-grandmother,
the Druidical hierarchy ; and of our* grandmother,
the Saxon hierarchy of Odin, we were left des
titute orphans upon the world ; Rome, as a kind
mother, took us up, adopted us as her children,
bestowed upon us an excellent education, and
trained us in all her paths. Like other wise and
tender parents, she not only kept us under the
salutary regimen of implicit obedience to all her
commands, but for our good chastised, on fit occa
sions, any deviation, and sometimes by methods
which at the moment might appear to involve a
degree of severity : or, to speak correctly, she quelled
* British Critic, No. lix, p. 260. More of the Tractarian
sentiments may be found by the reader in the same number.

J2
her maternal sympathies, and stood aloof with averted
eyes, while the civil powers stepped in, and put the
incorrigible out of the way. Our grandmother and
our great-grandmother have so long been laid in
their graves, that for services rendered unto us, or
intended for us, by them, we can offer no return
beyond reverential respect for their memories. But
to Rome, our beloved mother, we are thankful to
have the power no less than the will to testify our
deep and affectionate sense of obligations too great
ever to be fully compensated. And surely when we
reflect on the persecutions and spoliations which
during the last half century and to this hour she
has experienced in various parts of the Continent,
and the coldness and hostility even yet so widely
prevalent respecting her in our own island ; we
must feel evefy emotion of grateful kindness towards
her, every desire for the removal of all obstacles
to a perfect union between her and our own Church,
roused to increased and unfailing exertion. Nay,
when we advert to the period commonly termed that
of the Reformation*, and bring before us from the
faithful records of history, the violence, the bitterness,
the unsanctified spirit, the unchristian deeds, the
needless lacerations, with which the bonds that con
nected us with our parent were rent asunder; must
we not confess that the authors of the Tracts rightly
regard the existing "bondage" of the Church of
* " The late Mr. Froude, whose sentiments are ever to be
remembered with affectionate esteem." — Tract, No. lxxxvi.

13
England, which they so pointedly describe and de
plore*, as a penal retribution for those offences?
Well, perhaps, may that Church, apply to its own
case the language of Diomede, when labouring
under the punishments brought down upon him by
former acts of presumption and profanation : —
Haec adeo ex illo mihi jam speranda fuerunt
Tempore, cum ferro coelestia corpora demens
Appetii, et Veneris violavi vulnere dextramf.
Woes from that hour I might expect to feel,
That hour which saw me lift my frantic steel
Against the exalted race of heaven, and dare,
Venus, thy sacred hand with impious wound to tear.
We return to Article xxii.
" The Romish doctrine concerning Purgatory,
" Pardons (de indulgentiis), worshipping (de vene-
" ratione), and adoration as well of images as of
" relics, and also invocation of saints, is a fond
" thing (res est futilis) vainly (inanit^r) invented,
" and grounded upon no warranty of Scripture,
" but rather repugnant (contradicit) to the Word of
" God," The observations of the author of No. xc, who of
course speaks for his brethren, on the various sub
jects comprehended in this article, require, in order
* See the Introduction to Tract, No. xc, p. 1 — 4. Throughout,
a wise mysteriousness pervades the language and style. But,
like the Odes of Gray, they are " (pwyayla, a-vyslottn."
t Virgil, ^neid, xi, 277.

14
that justice may be rendered to them, a separate
examination, however brief, of each point. Only a
summary of them can be given ; but a continual re
ference to the Tract is open,.
We commence with the subject placed foremost
in the article — Purgatory.
It is a surprising, but an undeniable fact, that the
great mass of the English public, clerical and laical,
with perhaps few exceptions besides the writers of
the Tracts for the Times and those whom the Tracts
have enlightened, have been resting in a blind
persuasion that this article condemns the belief of
the existence of such a place or state as Purgatory.
No mistake can be more expressly contrary to the
first words of the article itself. The article con
demns the Romish doctrine concerning Purgatory,
and the Romish doctrine only. To no other doc
trine than the Romish does the article allude. Of
no other doctrine does it forbid or censure the
belief and the profession. There was a primitive
doctrine of Purgatory widely spread anterior to
Romanism*. There were two other doctrines of
Purgatory, not Romish, but said to be maintained
by the Greeks at Florence f. " None of these doc-
" trines does the article condemn J." In short, any
doctrine concerning Purgatory not identical with
the Romish, the subscriber to the article is free
to adopt, * Tract, No. xc, p. 25. f Il)i<l. I Ibid.

15
The question then arises ; What is the Romish
doctrine condemned by the article ? The Tract
replies*: — "Not the Tridentine statement, because
" this article was drawn up before the decree of the
" Council of Trent." What then does it condemn ?
The Tract answers, with commendable hesitation : —
" Let it be considered then, whether on the whole
" ' the Romish doctrine of Purgatory,' which the arti-
" cle condemns, and which was generally believed in
" the Roman Church three centuries since, as well
" as now, viewed in its essence, be not the doc-
" trine, that the punishment of unrighteous Chris-
" tians is temporary, not eternal, and that the
" purification of the righteous is a portion of the
" same punishment ; together with the supersti-
" tions, and impostures for the sake of gain, con-
" sequent thereuponf."
To the preceding statements in the Tract and to
the conclusion in which they terminate, all so highly
gratifying in the extension of our Protestant liberty
of belief and conduct, all so decidedly consonant to
the grand principle of interpretation, Commodious
ness, two subsidiary observations may be subjoined.
First, if the opinion that the future punishment of
the unrighteous will be only temporary is still held
among Catholics, it may be thrown aside from any
discussion respecting Purgatory; as their great stand
ard of authority, the Council of Trent, pronounces
* Traot, No. xc, p. 24. f Page 28.

16
" Purgatory to be a place for believers, not unbe-
"lievers," a place only for the purification of the
righteous f. Secondly, whether the words quoted
above, " the purification of the righteous is a portion
" of the same punishment," be intended to imply, that
as some Catholics may yet hold, the purifying pains,
while they last, are identically the same with the
torments of Hell ; the point is either no fixed doctrine
of the Romish Church, or one easy of modification
for facilitating the reconciling of that Church with a
Protestant Church,
Our duty, we have already seen, is to endeavour
by all warrantable means to effect a complete union
between our estranged, but beloved mother, and her
Protestant children. It is evident that, so far as
Purgatory is concerned in the Article, no obstacle
remains in the way.
The succeeding subject in the Article and in No.xc,
is Pardons, or Indulgences.
On this subject, as throughout the whole of the
article, the doctrine condemned is exclusively " the
" Romish doctrine."
"There was a primitive doctrine on all these
" points — how far Catholic, or universal, is a further
''question — but still so widely received and so re-
"spectably supported, that it may well be enter-
" tained as a matter of opinion by a theologian now.
"This, then, whatever be its merits, is not con-
t Page 26.

17
** demned by the article. This is clear on the face
" of the matter, at least as regards Pardons. Of
" course the article never meant to make light of
"every doctrine about Pardons, but a certain doc-
" trine, the Romish doctrine, as indeed the plural
" form itself shows *." An intimation is added, that
such an understanding of the article is supported by
some sentences in the Homily on the Peril of Idolatry,
and is again affirmed in the following page f.
" The doctrine, then, of Pardons, spoken of in the
" article, is the doctrine maintained and acted on in
" the Roman Church, that remission of the penalties
" of sin in the next life may be obtained by the
"power of the Pope, with such abuses as money-
" payments consequent thereon :[;."
Still, however, the Tract furnishes encouragement
to the hope of a fit arrangement with our mother by
the quotation from Bishop Burnet, stating that the
Council of Trent, by its decree concerning Indul
gences, " restrained some abuses, in particular that
" of selling them §."
An agreement, based on the rational meaning of
the form of absolution in our Liturgy for the Visita
tion of the Sick, might perhaps not be ultimately
rejected at Rome, if worded in cautious language.
The Tract proceeds to " Veneration and worship-
" ping of Images and Relics."
• Tract xc, p. 23. t P- 23, 24. | P. 31.
% P. 30. — Burnet on Article xxii, p. 305. B

18
On these subjects the article condemns only the
Romish doctrine. " Not every doctrine on these
' matters" (* Image-worship' having been specified in
the preceding line in the Tract) " is a fond thing,
' but the Romish doctrine *."
" In the Homily on the Peril of Idolatry, as far as
'regards Relics, a certain 'veneration' is sanctioned
'by its tone in speaking of them, though not of
' course the Romish veneration j"." — " If, then, in
' the judgement of the Homilies, not all doctrine con-
' cerning veneration of Relics is condemned in the
' article before us, but a certain toleration of them is
'compatible with its wording, neither is all doc-
' trine concerning — Images — condemned by the
' article, but only the Romish J."
" On the whole, then, by the Romish doctrine of
'the veneration and worshipping of Images and Re-
'lics, the article means all maintenance of those
' idolatrous honours which have been, and are paid
'them so commonly throughout the Church of Rome,
' with the superstitions, profanities, and impurities
' consequent thereupon §."
Still, however, the Council of Trent found itself
' obliged both to confess the above-mentioned enor-
' mities in the veneration of relics and images, and
' to forbid them." " Into these holy and salutary
' observances should any abuse creep, of these the
* P. 20. t Ibid, and p. 31, near the bottom.
X P. 24. § P. 36, 37.

19
"Holy Council stron^y (vehementhr) desires the
" utter extinction, so that no images of a false doc-
" trine, and supplying to the uninstructed oppor-
" tunity of perilous error, should be set up. All
"superstition, also, in invocation of saints, venera-
" tion of relics, and sacred use of images, be put
" away ; ^W filthy lucre be cast out of doors, and all
" wantonness be avoided, so that images be not
" painted or adorned with an immodest beauty ; or
" the celebration of saints and attendance on relics
" be abused to revelries and drunkenness, as though
" festival days were kept in honour of saints by
" luxury and lasciviousness *."
Here, again, there is set open before us an im
portant door of hope. A " certain veneration" of
relics and images being allowed by the Homilies and
the present article, the question between the Angli
can and the Roman Church becomes one of degrees ;
and seems capable of being accommodated conform
ably to the pious and dutiful solicitude of the Trac-
tarians for the union, by leaving the mode and the
amount of the veneration to be settled by each
Church for itself.
It is requisite that I should not omit the following
significant paragraph, which the author of Tract
No. xc subjoins under the present head to an ex
tract from one of the Homilies, and quietly leaves
the reader to deduce from it the important inferences
* Page 36.

20
which it includes. " It will be observed that in this
" extract, as elsewhere in the Homilies, it is implied
" that the bishop, or the Church of Rome, is Anti-
"christ. But this is a statement bearing on pro-
" phetical interpretation, not on doctrine; and one,
"besides, which cannot be reasonably brought to
" illustrate or explain any of the positions of the
" Articles, and therefore it may be suitably passed
" over*." Two inferences are sufficiently plain.
First. In any proposition to the Church of Rome
for the desired reinstatement in unity, to bring for
ward an offensive expression would not only be very
unhandsome, but would prevent the attainment of
success. Secondly. As the doctrines and proceedings of
the Church of Rome were long posterior to the publi
cation of the New Testament, they could not be
introduced to notice otherwise than by prophecy.
All passages, therefore, in Scripture which relate to
them, fall equally with the prediction respecting
Antichrist under the concluding words of the para
graph quoted above.
"INVPCATION OF SAINTS."
The Tract shows, that the mere circumstance of
addressing beings out of sight, or which we know
' Page 33.

21
cannot hear, and we use the invocations as interjec
tions, and " mean nothing definite by them," is not
censurable. The authority of the Psalms, as frequent
in the invocation of angels, and the Benedicite in
our Liturgy, as addressing the spirits and souls of
the righteous and the inanimate works of Creation,
and also the sanction of the Homilies *, set this
point at rest,
" By the doctrine of the Invocation of Saints,
" then, the article means all maintenance of ad-
" dresses to them, which entrench upon the incom-
" municable honour due to God alone, and such
" as have been, and are, in the Church of Rome ;
" and such as — are unknown to the Catholic
" Church t-"
In a passage, already quoted, the Tract cites a
decree of the Council of Trent, as forbidding cer
tain specified abuses connected with the Invocation
of Saints J. It now adds, respecting other abuses,
" Here again, as before, the article gains a wit-
" ness and concurrence from the Council of Trent.
" Though, say the divines there assembled, the
" Church has been accustomed, sometimes, to cele-
" brate a few masses to the honour and remem-
" brance of Saints ; yet she doth not teach that
" sacrifice is offered to them, but to God alone, who
" crowned them : wherefore, neither is the priest
• P. 37. t P. 42. t Vide supra, p. 19.

22
" wont to say, / offer sacrifice to thee, O Peter,
" or O Paul, but to God *."
The tractarian cannot doubt that if, on any of the
subjects of Article xxii, abuses condemned by the
Council of Trent survive ; the Holy See will at once
be ready to exterminate them, independently of any
fartherconcessions which it might be induced to make.
The selections which remain may be more concise.
TRANSUBSTANTXATION,  ARTICLE XXVIII.
The doctrine of the article is, that " of a real
superlocal presence in the Holy Sacrament "t"."
A quotation is afterwards given from Bishop
Burnet's explanation of this article, stating that
" the design of government was, at that time," (the
time of framing the article) " much turned to the
" drawing over the body of the nation to the
" Reformation, in whom the old leaven had gone
"deep; and no part deeper than the belief of
" the corporeal presence of Christ in the Sacra-
" ment J." The ambiguous words in the Catechism,
that the body^ and blood of Christ .are verily and
indeed taken and received by the faithful in the
Lord's Supper, may have been employed partly to
conciliate wavering Roman Catholics : and may sug
gest a useful course at some future conjuncture.
* Tract, p. 40, 41. t P- 58. t P. 82.

23

MASSES.  ARTICLE XXXI.
" Nothing can show more clearly than this pas-
" sage" (respecting Masses) " that the Articles are not
" written against the Creed of the Roman Church,
" but against actual existing errors in it, whether
" taken into its system or not. Here the sacrifice
" of the Mass is not spoken of, in which the spe-
" cial question of doctrine would be introduced ;
" but ' the sacrifice of Masses,' certain observances,
" for the most part private and solitary, which the
" writers of the Articles knew to have been in force
-" in time past, and saw before their eyes, and
" which involved certain opinions and a certain
" teaching *."
" On the whole, then, it is conceived that the
" article before us, neither speaks against the Mass
" in itself, nor against its being an offering, though
" commemorative, for the quick and the dead for
" the remission of sin (especially since the decree
" of Trent says, that ' the fruits of the bloody obla*
" * tion are, through this, most abundantly ohtained ;
^' ' so far is the latter from detracting in any v^ay
" ' from the former') ; but against its' being viewed;
" on the one hand, as independent of, or distinct
"from, the sacrifice on the cross, which is blas-
* Page 59.

24

"phemy; and, on the other, its being directed
" to the emolument of those to whom it pertains to
" celebrate it, which is imposture in addition *."
Thus we may comfortably trust that Rome, when
she inquires on the subject, will find with satis
faction that we are not so far removed from her,
concerning the sacrifice of Masses, as she may have
imagined.

In now laying aside the indefinite character as
sumed in the commencement of these pages, I
may hope that in the progress of them the reader
has discerned the purpose for which it may have
been adopted. It may have aflforded facilities for
illustrating the actual nature, and the intrinsic spirit
of passages which have been noticed ; and to some
persons it may present, by the line of examination
pursued, a little variety not wholly unwelcome
amidst the more profound and comprehensive dis
quisitions, which have a far more powerful claim on
their attention.
There are other tenets maintained in the Tracts
as to which, were it compatible v/ith the limit
* Page 63.

25
which it seemed most advisable to assign to myself,
I should not easily have been content merely to
record my strongest protest, irrefragably as they
have already been exposed by various writers.
There is the denial of Scripture being the exclusive
rule of faith, and the exaltation of tradition to the
rank of a colleague, whose sanction is necessary
to establish Scriptural doctrine — tradition, which
though it may evince the prevalence of an external
usage, or of a particular doctrine at a given time
or place, cannot prove the truth of the doctrine.
For that proof we must resort to the Word of God,
to the Word of God only. "For my part," said
Chillingworth, " after a long, and, I hope, impartial
" search after happiness, I do profess plainly that I
" cannot find any rest for the sole of my foot, but
" upon this rock (Scripture) only. I see plainlyy
" and with my own eyes, that there are popes
" against popes — councils against councils — some
" fathers against others — the same fathers against
" themselves — a consent of fathers of one age
" against a consent of fathers of another age — the
" Church of one age against the Church of another
" age. Traditive interpretations of Scripture are
" pretended ; but there are few or none to be
" found. No tradition but only of Scripture can
" derive itself from the fountain ; but may be plainly
" proved either to have been brought in, in such an
" age after Christ, or that in such an age it was
" not in. In a word, there is no sufficient certainty
c

26
" but Scripture only, for any considering man to
" build upon*."
There is also the denial of the leading doctrine
of the Reformation, justification by faith only in
the blood of the Redeemer ; and the amalgamating
with it the office of works, and also of the sacra
ments (which are invested with extravagant privi
leges and authority) ; and the confounding of
justification by faith in the atonement of Christ
with sanctification of the heart by the Holy
Spirit. Then comes that most aweful and most destructive
departure from Scripture, the tenet of reserve in
bringing forward the grand doctrine of the atone
ment ; reserve as to bringing forward the most stu
pendous of all the manifestations of Divine love,
* Chillingworth's Works, p. 290. — All difficulty as to agree
ment with Rome concerning general councils (Art. xxi) is re
moved in Tract xc (p. 21, 22) by the assertion, that the article
contemplates those only which are called by "princes," and are
therefore fallible, but not those which are called "in the name
" of Christ," and are thus oecumenical and Catholic, and have the
promise (not specified) of infallibility. Of these the Tract affirms
that there are two (not specified), and that the Homilies seem to
recognize " four, or even six." The " conditions" which show
a council to be oecumenical "it is not necessary here to deter-
" mine. Some have included among these conditions the subse-
" quent reception of its decrees by the universal Church ; others
" a ratification by the Pope." After all these loopholes another
is opened — " nay, as even Romanists grant, the same councils
" may be partly Catholic, partly not."

27
the foundation of a sinner's hope of peace of mind
in this life, and of heaven in the next.
There is yet one other topic, which it may be ex
pedient not to pass by, though it sinks into shade
when placed side by side with those which have
been specified : namely, the tone and language in
which (in a former Tract, lxxxvi*), the Liturgy of
the Church of England, and that Church as con
nected with its Liturgy, are characterised. The
Liturgy, as compared with ancient litanies and with
Roman breviaries, is described as indicating and
befitting " a low and decayed state" of the Church.
Changes made in it at the Reformation are repre
sented as " taking away a part of our ancient in-
" heritance;" and as judgements and penal inflic
tions on the Church for its misdeeds, showing in
melancholy contrast its unworthiness of such higher
privileges as it enjoyed in earlier and better times.
Among the many alterations deeply censured and
deplored, " one of more importance than any which
" have been considered," is " the entire omission
" of oil at baptism and at confirmation,"
On grave charges of moral delinquency in mis
representation of facts and discreditable prevarica
tion, advanced by high authority against the
Tractarians, I do not mean to enter. My principal
* See also the Introduction to Tract, No. xc, p. 4, where the
Church is described as bearing " a body of death, the penalty
" of sins inherited" from a former age, manifestly the sins of the
Reformation.

28
object has been to manifest the perpetually recur
ring tendency towards Rome which pervades the
Tracts. They seem continually to whisper to their
readers, and at times in a voice scarcely subdued,
" Antiquam exquirite matrem." Bishop Horsley, in
combating a statement by Dr. Priestley, pronounced
it to be a specimen of that mode of exposition by
which any sense may be extracted from any words.
I apprehend that many passages in the Tracts may
be produced as examples of that mode of inter
pretation, by which the really intended significa
tion of almost any form of words may be evaded.
The authors are master-builders in their line of
architecture. They have erected a halfway-house
by the side of the road from the Church of England
to the Church of Rome, furnished with every ac
commodation for travellers, and supplying every
encouragement for the completion of the journey, at
the end of .which, under their friendly guidance, in
dividuals are reported already to have arrived.

LONDON:
CHARLES WOOD, PRINTER, POPPIN*S COURT, FLEET STREET.

I

f ^

' '' ^

^
-s >
' 1
t
' '¦?
i'l
N
1
. ' J
>^ ¦"
'•t. '-4
L
..
' / \
> ^ *
^
V V
'.IB
'\ '
^%H
''}¦-
'
!'^
•» f
¦%;;
'if 'J
iMl. '-','.,, i,,V.