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ROMAN AGGRESSIONS, CORRUPTIONS,
AND THEIR REMEDY,

TWO SERMONS
PREACHED TN
THE PARISH CHURCH OF S. DAVID,
EXETER,
ON THE FIKST & SECOND SUNDAYS IN ADVENT, 1860.

CH; CH: BAHTHOLOMEW, A.M.,
INCUMBENT.

LONDON: RIVINGTONS.
EXETER : WALLIS. PLYMOUTH : LIDSTONE.

TO THE PARISHIONERS OF S. DAVID,
THESE SERMONS,
PREACHED IN A TIME OF TRIAL AND EXCITEMENT,
ARE INSCRIBED,
AS A RECORD OF THE PRINCIPLES OF HIS PUBLIC AND PRIVATE
TEACHING AMONG THEM,
(IN WHICH HE TRUSTS, BY GOD'S GEACE, TO CONTINUE,)
BT
THEIR WELL-WISHER AND PASTOR,
THE AUTHOR.

SEEMON I,

2 Corinthians, iv. 8.
''We are troubled on every side, yet not distressed:
tve are perplexed, yet not in despair."

Strange and eventful are the times in which our
lot is cast: "we are troubled on every side:"
"without are fightings, within are fears." To what*
ever point we look of the political horizon, dark
clouds are gathering, which portend, too surely,
an approaching storm ; and though we are bound
to acknowledge, with the deepest thankfulness, that,
in this favoured land, they do not assume that
threatening character, which appears to obtain in
the far larger part of the civilized world ; yet we
are not without our elements of disturbance, moral,
social, political, and religious. Great changes are
going on, opinions developing themselves, thought
ful and earnest minds taking different, and oppo
site, directions, all tending to some as yet un
known result, but, doubtless, one that will involve

great modifications of existing institutions ; and our
only hope and prayer must be, that the AU-wise
Disposer may so govern and direct the turbulent
stream of human passions, and the fierce conflict
of clashing opinions, as that the principles, on
which those institutions have been founded, may
remain J that "though the waves toss themselves,
yet shall they not prevail : • though they roar, yet
shall they not pass over it."
But while, with mingled hope and fear, we are
contemplating a strife, which involves subjects dear
to the heart, and all the heart's best feelings :
another and foreign element of disturbance is in
troduced : a Bull, or Authoritative Document, has
been issued by the Pope of Rome, ignoring the
very existence of the Church of England, claiming
spiritual authority over "all the baptized," (a well
weighed and most significant expression, intimating
that this was the only mark which distinguished
the people of England from absolute heathenism,)
and dividing the whole land into thirteen Dioceses,
in words carefully excluding all idea of an existing
Church, or of limitation to members of her own
communion. Rome claims all : "We govern, and
shall continue to govern, the counties of Hertford,
and Essex," &c., is the language of the so-called
Cardinal Archbishop of Westminster. I will not
detain you longer on the arrogant character and
pretensions of the Papal Rescript. Independently
of the exclusive spiritual jurisdiction claimed over
all Christendom by the Successor of St. Peter ; it

is doubtless put forth on the plea of the necessity
of unity : Rome claims to be the centre and source
of unity; the sole channel of grace; the sole means,
providentially ordained, of making and keeping the
Church of Christ to be one fold under One Shep
herd. Nor will I now discuss the question of the
Papal Supremacy, unsupported, as I believe it to
be, by the testimony of Scripture, and opposed to,
and contradicted by, the history of the Church.
The question is, whether, even supposing her claims
were, as they are not, well founded, she has not
forfeited them, by such corruptions of Christian
Doctrine, as utterly disqualify her from being the
agent by which, if ever, the broken unity of the
Christian Church is again to be gathered up into
one compact and harmonious whole.
This is a dream which, doubtless, many good and
holy men have fondly lingered over ; till, as the glo
rious vision of an united Christendom rose before
their eyes, they forgot the obstacles which Rome her
self has strewn in the path, wherein their feet would
dehghtedly tread ; and their eyes were blinded to
the corruptions, novelties, and superstitious inven
tions, by which she has polluted "the faith once
delivered to the saints." Alas ! it is a dream, a
baseless vision, which fades away before the clear
and searching light of truth. There can be no
union with Rome, till she be far other than what
she is ; we cannot accept Rome as a teacher, or
even as a fellowworker, till she have purged herself
from errors which eat into her as does a canker-

worm, tainting, and rendering of no effect, those
portions of Christian doctrine which still linger in
her Creeds as loath to leave her.
It were a saddening task to detail, one by one,
all Romish corruptions of Christian doctrine, nor
indeed possible, within any reasonable limits ; and
I therefore propose to deal with one, the most pro
minent, having the most wide spread and pernicious
influence, and, as I think, the source of many of
those fond imaginations, with which the Church of
Rome has obscured the Gospel ; I mean the worship,
or Cultus, as it is commonly termed, of the blessed
Virgin. I select this, too, because it is the point
which renders all union with Rome impossible,
inasmuch as, I hesitate not to say, that this worship,
or Cultus, is, as developed in Roman rituals and
ceremonial observances, absolutely idolatrous ; and is,
moreover, that one corruption for which not only
no ground can be found in Scripture, but which, by
its silence, Scripture emphatically condemns. Let
us dwell on this point as illustrating most strongly
and painfully the nature of Romish tendencies.
We all know the prominent place which the Bless
ed Virgin occupies in the Romish system ; the rites,
ceremonies, and religious services in her honour ;
the manner in which, in some form or other, she is
ever meeting the eye of Roman Catholic Christendom.
What scriptural ground is there for this ? Surely
we might expect to find some warrant for the
peculiar and exclusive prominency assigned to One
who is doubtless the greatest and most honoured of

the Saints of God. Scripture is silent : but this
silence is more than negative; it condemns. All the
brief notices we possess of our blessed Lord's inter
course with her, wear the aspect of being anticipative
of this heresy, (for so it is,) and designed to mark
its utter groundlessness. We have the tone of his
address to her at the marriage at Cana in Galilee :
"Woman, what have I to do with thee? Mine
hour is not yet come." We have the striking
declaration more than once repeated, when one said,
" Blessed is the womb that bare thee, and the paps
that thou hast sucked ;" and when another said,
" Thy brethren stand without desiring to see thee."
"My mother and my brethren," said the Lord,
" are they that hear the word of God and do it."
And again, still more strongly. He looked round
on his disciples and said, "Whosoever will do the will
of God, the same is my mother, and sister, and
brother." Now these expressions are surely re
pressive : they are designed to prevent, in their
minds and ours, any association of his mother with
himself. This is the least that can be said of them.
But supposing for a moment that our Lord's inten
tion was to repress in its germ, any train of religious
thought which might unduly exalt the blessed Vir
gin, there is a still more decisive instance ; I allude
to his memorable words in the agony of death upon
the cross : " When Jesus therefore saw his mother,
and the disciple standing by whom he loved, he
saith unto his mother. Woman, behold thy son.
Then saith he to his disciple, Behold thy mother :

and from that hour that disciple took her to his own
home." Here is the highest tenderness and con
sideration for her, who had been the honoured
channel whereby God had become manifest in the
flesh ; here was unutterable love, which even in that
sad and awful moment, showed itself, by confiding
her to a secure, though sorrowing retirement, with
the beloved disciple.
But is there not something more than this ? Is
there not, mingled with the spirit of love and com
passion, an evident note of separation, a dissolving
of their earthly connection, an intimation that,
henceforth, their relation was to be that of a crea
ture to its Creator, and that the offices of filial love
and duty would be discharged tov/ards her, by one
as herself, human, and partaking only of human
affections ? Surely this is decisive as an indication
of the light in which, henceforth, she was to be
regarded. And what foUows? The blessed Virgin
is at once removed from sight as the mother of the
Lord. It is most remarkable, that we have no
record of our Lord's appearance to her after His
Resurrection, as we know He did, to Mary Magdalene,
to Peter, to James, and the rest of the Apostles.
Why was this ? but to make the separation that
had noiu taken place between them more evident, to
force us to dissociate her from Him in our thoughts
and feelings. From the hour of His death on the
Cross, the blessed Virgin becomes only as one of the
disciples : she is once spoken of as in company
with them, and once only. After this, we hear

9
nothing, either of her life or death : the Apostles,
even St. John, are silent respecting her ; and she,
the blessed among women, her office done, her
ministry discharged, fades from our view in the
cloud of faithful witnesses, and mingles, unnoticed,
with the company of Apostles and disciples.
This silence is conclusive. Can we doubt that it
is intentional? that it was designed to repress all
tendency to give her an undue prominency ? that,
looking to the feelings that would naturally be
excited towards her, as an object of religious in
terest, and the idolatrous leaning of the human
heart, she is, so to speak, set aside and disregarded
by Holy Writ ; so that there might not be the
smallest germ for any other feeling save that of
pious remembrance?
Now, in the face of all this, with nothing in
Scripture to fall back upon, what has been the
doctrine regarding her gradually developed by the
Church of Rome ?
First, we have her miraculous assumption ; then
her beatification; visions representing her as the
great patroness and mediatrix of the Church; mira
cles wrought by images and representations of her.
As age after age passes away, she gradually assumes
a more central and influential position in the Romish
system ; she is taken out of the category of saints
and martyrs, as if not of the same nature and
passions with them ; divine titles, and all the attri
butes of Divinity, are accumulated around her ; she
is addressed in terms of open direct adoration : all

10
power in heaven and in earth is ascribed to her ;
services and ceremonial observances are multiplied
in her honour ; the mother supersedes and obscures
her divine Son; till at last all that is human in con
nection with her is done away, and she is admitted
to a participation with Deity.
Such is the fearful blasphemy which has been
enunciated by writers held in high esteem by the
Romish Church, and canonized by its Popes ; the
very act of canonization recognising and stamping
their doctrine as orthodox. I allude especially to
Alphonso Liguori and Cardinal Bonaventura, the
last of whom has furnished a singular and instruc
tive, but melancholy, instance of the fanatical
frenzy of religious error. Would it be credited, a
priori, that an otherwise good and holy man, could
have been guilty of distorting the words of the
Holy Spirit of God, in order to prop up a favourite
religious theory ? Yet so it is ; in the Psalter of
Cardinal Bonaventura, the Psalm commencing with
the words " The Lord said unto my Lord," is
altered to " The Lord said unto my Lady, Sit thou
on my right hand until I make thine enemies thy
footstool :" and the whole book proceeds on this
principle. How deeply rooted and permeated must
the whole system have been with this one and
gigantic heresy, which could tolerate such impiety
as this. But the whole history of the Romish
Church, fi'om the seventh century downwards, bears
witness to the growing, encroaching, absorbing,
object of interest, which tlie Blessed Virgin, and

11
the worship paid to her, have been to the popular
mind of Roman Catholic Christendom.
If in that intermediate state, where the souls of
the faithful departed rest in peace, the spirit of the
mother of the Lord be conscious of the supersti
tious uses and fond idolatries with which her name
has been so long associated ; is it wrong for us
to imagine, that even amid the deep repose and
peace of Paradise, it may have disquieted that
meek and humble spirit, in life so unobtrusive and
retii'ing, so content to be esteemed as nothing, to
know, that she was the unconscious instrument of
dishonouring her Son and Lord ; usurping His
place and office ; and that her name was, by a
branch of the Church redeemed and purchased
by His precious blood, associated with, yea, and
placed above, that Name, before which "every
knee should bow, of things in heaven and things
in earth."
Can it be denied that this has been the result
produced by Romish teaching ? Look to the four
quarters of the globe, and wherever the Papacy
has obtained spiritual dominion, there the cultus
of the blessed Virgin and its ultimate and inevitable
tendency have been developed with greater or less
intensity. It is a most striking fact, that wherever
the power of the Roman See is least controlled,
there is Mariolatry exhibited in its strongest and
most idolatrous form. In proof of this, I would
instance, Italy, Spain and Portugal, South America
and Mexico : in all these countries, the idolatrous

12
character of the honor paid to the blessed Vii'gin is .
patent : the slightest and most superficial observa
tion shews how deeply it has been kneaded into the
popular mind. In Spain and Portugal, indeed, there
is a most significant proof of the manner in which
the religious mind of those nations concentrates and
fastens itself on one absorbing idea. Friends and
acquaintances enter each others' houses ; the open
ing salutation invariably is, "Ave Maria purissima,"
the answer of the host, " Sin peccado concebida."
Can there be a clearer and more decisive proof of
the leading and dominant feature of the religion
of the country, when we find the name of the
blessed Virgin, and the immaculate conception
fondly, but falsely, ascribed to her, so jealously
guarded, as to be mixed up with the intercourse
of daily and domestic life : and I feel it is not
too much to say, that in the countries above men
tioned, it is not the Christian, but the Marian,
religion that prevails.
It is true, that in other parts of Roman Catholic
Christendom, as, for instance, in France, Germany, in
this country, and the United States of America, Ma
riolatry is not so openly or offensively exhibited ; it
is controlled and checked by the development of a
purer and more simple faith : controlled, but not
abandoned; tendencies to it are constantly exhibiting
themselves even in this country: the Church of Rome
waits only, till, according to its judgment, the popu
lar mind shall be able to bear it ; with that disinge
nuous subtlety which has ever marked the course of

13
Roman policy, she bides her time : but indications
are not wanting, that the Marian element in the
Romish Church is waiting only for a fit oppor
tunity, and the preaching of the Oratorians in
London and elsewhere, on this point, is probably
put forth as a feeler to ascertain whether that time
be come.
Now, the answer, which will be given to all I
have said, is simply and shortly this, that in the
Decrees of the Council of Trent, the authorized
interpreter of the dogmatic teaching of the Church
of Rome, the worship of the blessed Virgin is not to
be found. And this is true, it is not there; though
the germ from which it may be developed, I think
is. But the rejoinder is, Can it be denied, that in
Roman Catholic Christendom, the honour paid to
the blessed Virgin has assumed an idolatrous form,
and that the popular belief of millions wears this
aspect? If it be termed a mere exuberance of
religious feeling, unsanctioned by any positive autho
rity, has any attempt been made to prune it, and
reduce it within the bounds of wholesome Christian
doctrine ? Why are ritual services, and ceremonies,
and observances permitted, which have all this one
and necessary tendency, to what must be called
creature worship ? Why, as age after age has
passed away, has the hierarchy of the Church of
Rome made no attempt, in the fulness of its power
and authority, to put a stop to practices which,
experience must have shewn, can have only one
end, the exaltation of the creature, the dishonouring

14
the One only Mediator between God and man, Jesus
Christ ?
Alas ! one only answer can be given. When I
find the Church of Rome asserting, in this very
year, the pretended doctrine of tbe immaculate con
ception, and ordering it to be received as an article
of faith ; when I find, in two documents issued by
the present Pope, one to the Church at large, and
the other to the Roman Catholics of Ireland, the
blessed Virgin is styled " our hope, yea, the ground
of our hope," I can come but to one conclusion,
that Rome sanctions, Rome is answerable for, this
corruption of Christian doctrine ; Rome is, on this
point, an idolatrous Church.
The worship, then, or cultus of the blessed Virgin
is the plague-spot of the Church of Rome, tainting,
and corrupting the whole system, and neutralizing,
to a great extent, what remains in her of Christian
truth ; nor can I doubt that a close analogy exists
between this and other errors in her teaching, and
that they are traceable to this one. Taking a broad
view of the origin and progress of Roman doctrine,
its besetting sin, to which it has so often yielded,
would seem to be a concession to the sinful ten
dencies of fallen man, a skilful adaptation of its
doctrine to the weak points of human nature, a
sacrificing of the truth of God to human infirmity.
Therefore it is that she has failed in her great
office : Rome has failed as a Teacher of Morals.
Yes, defective, almost extinct, and ready to vanish
away, as our discipline is, the Church of England

15
stands on a point of proud, though not, I trust,
boastful preeminence. Much have we to mourn
over ; " many things to strengthen, which are ready
to die ;" and but little power, as a Church, to
correct and amend ; yet still, our teaching, un
supported by authority, or any course of systematic
discipline, has borne good fruit ; has, if it have done
no more, prevented much of evil, though we still
lack the means, which the fierce jealousy of the
State denies us, to bring our ministrations to bear
with full effect on the mass of our people. While
Rome, with full authority, with a discipline, as she
proudly vaunts, unchecked and uncontrolled, has,
in those very countries where no will but her own
is recognized, where she is either the State herself,
or has full power over the State, been unable to
exercise her discipline, has been obliged to tolerate
practices, to sanction wide spread customs and habits
of decent vice in social and domestic life, from any
open acknowledgment of which, the moral sense of
this country, would recoil in unutterable disgust, and
which the public voice would brand with infamy.
This is the sad and fearful result of her teaching :
her concessions to human infirmity on points of
doctrine, necessarily lead to a like yielding in points
of practice, and till she has purged herself of the
one, there is no hope that she can reform the other.
Will that time ever come ? Will Rome ever be
other than what she is ? I fear not. She has
bound herself in fetters of iron by her own rash
assertion of infallibility : by this she must abide ;

16
on this her whole system depends ; remove this,
and it crumbles to pieces. Rome, then, cannot
change ; what she is now, so she will remain ; and
being so, it is with equal surprise and grief, that
we see persons, willing to accept her corruptions,
especially the one to which I have drawn your
attention, allured, I doubt not, by the claim to
a divinely appointed Supremacy, put forth, as could
be shewn, in opposition to the testimony of Ec
clesiastical history, and in the face of the Eastern
Church occupying as large a field, and possessing
as unquestioned an apostolic origin as herself.
I return to the point from which I started. Rome
claims to be the centre of unity : To obtain unity
is the ground of this aggressive movement. I have
endeavoured to shew, that she has disqualified her
self for being the instrument of unity, by manifold
and manifest corruptions of Christian doctrine ;
and especially by the worship or cultus of the
blessed Virgin. We cannot join, or even act, with
her, without a sin : she has placed herself in
direct antagonism ; the battle is begun, and to
GOD do we commend our cause.

18
Divine Providence, it were useless now to speculate
on ; but Rome, be their errors what they may, is
utterly disqualified from being an accuser of the
brethren. For what was it that rent the unity of
continental Christendom? WTiat was it, but Ro
man corruptions ? What was it, but the fearful
height to which that corruption had arisen, corrup
tion of doctrine, corruption of life, specially mani
fested in the very seat of the Papacy, that incarna
tion of the spirit of the world, w^hich was developed
in Rome, claiming to be the Spiritual Mother of
Christendom, which necessitated that separation, of
which Luther was the appointed instrument ?
Whatever, then, may have been the'final results,
however far the continental Churches may have
fallen away from the principles of the Reformation,
Rome should, in very shame, be silent ; she is
bound to regard them with a sorrowing and repent
ant tenderness, ever to remember that her corrup
tions, corruptions, which, three hundred years ago,
were such as to stamp on her some of the most
distinguishing features of the predicted anti-Christ,
were the primary causes of their separation and
of their present spiritual decay.
It is with far other feelings, that we regard the
progress of the Reformed Church in England.
Great and unspeakable have been God's mercies
towards us. Wliy, in His partial love, He has
separated us from the rest of the world by so many
distinguishing marks of His favour ; why we have
been preserved from falling into eiTors, which have

19
destroyed the vitality of other Reformed Churches ;
why we have been entrusted with talents that seem
to have been denied to them, we know not. This
only we do know, that it comes not from our
deservings, but from His mercy. We ought ever
to feel, and are bound ever to hold in sad and
sorrowing remembrance, that many of the talents
entrusted to us have been unemployed. Witness
the shame and reproach under which we so long
lay, of our neglect of all missionary exertion, when
realm after realm was added to our dominion, and
for one hundred and fifty years not a single effort
was made by the Church, as a Church, in the con
version of the Heathen, and this in the face of, it
must be acknowledged, great, though misdirected
zeal, by the Roman See.
Will it not be wise for us to view our present
difficulties in connection with our shortcomings ; to
enquire whether the disunion amongst ourselves ; the
unfriendly aspect which the State has assumed ; the
jealousy with which it regards all Church influence ;
the niggard hand with which it deals out a reluctant
help ; the countenance, and favour with which it has
cherished those who are now our open antagonists,
are not the due punishment of past neglect and
present deficiency : whether the present attempt to
deny our claims and existence as a Church, be not
intended to try and prove us ; to see if we have
enough of faith and life to endure ; whether, though
" troubled, distressed, and perplexed on every side,"
we can pass through the fiery trial, and preserve

20
uncorrupted the " Faith once delivered to the
Saints?" God grant it ; and that we may do so, let us
call to mind the privileges, advantages, and bless
ings we possess, as members of the Church of
England. By the good providence of God, the grace of
Apostolic Succession, and with it the grace of the
Sacraments was preserved to us in England at the
Reformation. Bear with me, if I dwell upon this
as a distinctive mark of God's favour ; the Apos
tolic Succession, and the grace of the Sacraments,
appear to be, in the counsels of God, the divinely
appointed channels and instruments of possessing
and continuing the great Christian verities, the
doctrines of the Incarnation, the Atonement, the
Divinity of the Saviour, the belief in the Holy and
ever Blessed Trinity. Why this is, I know not;
I can only point to the significant fact, that the
other Reformed Churches, who have rejected the
grace of the Apostolic Succession, have lost also
those great cardinal truths which even Rome still
retains. The argument is inductive ; there is a
connection between the Apostolic Succession and
the permanent continuance of Christian truth. We
should not have known this a priori, but now we
see that it is so ; and certainly the chief feature
which distinguished the Reformation in this country
from that of the Continent, was an adherence to
Apostolic rule and order. By the providence of
God, the Episcopal Succession was preserved to

21
us, and that divinely appointed channel of grace
was the cause of and guarantee for that moderation
in troublous times, which was the chief feature of
the English Reformation. We reformed, but did
not destroy. We rejected the Papal Supremacy,
but we retained the authority and office of the
Episcopate, preserving unbroken the grace of the
succession from the Apostles to ourselves. We repu
diated seven Sacraments, but we carefully preserved
two, as " appointed by Christ himself, as generally
necessary to salvation." We protested against the
worship of the blessed Virgin, and praying to the
Saints, but we retained a pious remembrance of
them in our Fasts and Festivals : and here I would
remark upon the delicacy of touch, so to speak,
which the Church of England has manifested, in
appointing two days in commemoration of the
blessed Virgin, as the highly favoured and blessed
among women. We denied the novelty of the
doctrine of Transubstantiation, but we affirmed a
real, though purely spiritual, presence, to the faith
ful communicants in the Lord's Supper. Wisdom,
caution, moderation, a careful discrimination be
tween divine truth and merely human additions
and inventions, marked the progress of the Re
formed Church in England; and of this there is
a significant proof in the fact, that for fifteen years
in the reign of Elizabeth, the whole Roman Catholic
body conformed to the worship and service of the
Reformed Church. They saw it had all the marks
of a true Church ; they recognized its full retention

22
of primitive truth and Apostohc order : and it was
not till emissaries from Rome, in the garb and
guise of the Puritans, had been instructed to sow
dissension, and deform the Prayer Book, that the
Roman schism in this country commenced ; till
then the whole body of the people recognized, in
the Reformed Church, a return only to primitive
doctrine and discipline.
But the chief glory of the Church of England is
her Prayer Book, framed upon primitive usage,
carefully revised, and finally settled with full sy-
nodical authority in 1662. The Prayer Book is
emphatically the voice of the Church of England ;
it is to every English Churchman the authorised
interpreter of God's Word. It is different in this
respect from the Articles, that, while they are a
record of fundamental truth, and a protest against
Romish corruptions, and are intended chiefly as
safeguards against errors in doctrine, whether
Romish or otherwise ; the Prayer Book is intended
to mould and form the popular mind ; to direct
and govern its devotional tendencies ; to bring
before it a connected, well arranged system of
Christian doctrine, and commend it to the heart
and affections by prayers and offices of devotion
of such singular beauty and gravity, such depth
of learning united to such plainness of speech, as
all, rich and poor, learned and unlearned, might
equally profit by ; while at the same time, year after
year might pass away, and the same "form of sound
words " might never weary, and w^e might come

23
to it as to " some dear familiar strain," untired,
unsatiated, "ever in its melodious store finding a
spell unknown before."
This is no fancy, but strictly, literally true ; they
who are best acquainted with Church services, they
who, day by day, and week by week, whenever
God's House is open, come to the House of Prayer,
seeking and finding rest and refreshment to the
wearied spirit, and striving to escape from the con
tinued and engrossing pressure of worldly thoughts
and feelings, by quickening and ginng expression
to their devotional tendencies ; they who have learnt
to estimate rightly the value of prayer with the
great congregation, in that place where God's honour
dwelleth ; who come here, not to hear the preacher,
but to pray to God ; and whose inner and spiritual
life depends not on fitful excitement, and needs not
to be fed by exciting novelties ; they know that
the Prayer Book never wearies; they know that,
in the arrangements of its services, in the well
connected and digested round of Christian doctrine,
which it brings before them, " year by year contin
ually ;" they receive hints and intimations of divine
truth unknown and unfelt before ; that it opens to
them continually the treasures of God's Word ;
that it assists them in their investigations ; that
there is many a well-weighed condensed sentence
in our Prayers and Collects, which, though often
read, comes out constantly in a new point of view ;
shedding new light, disclosing new trains of religious
thought, and leading the way to higher, increased,

24
and more connected knowledge ; they feel that the
Prayer Book consecrates to them every part of the
Christian year ; that every season is hallowed by
its connection with some religious truth ; and that
its sure, though indirect and secret, tendency, is
to set and " fix the affections on things above, and
not on things of the earth ;" ever reminding them,
that "the things that are seen are temporal, but the
things that are not seen are eternal." But above
all, they are conscious, it has made them and kept
them humble, that the " form of sound words,"
which they have held fast, has promoted and
formed in them a sound mind and a sober judg
ment ; that it has kept them from being " led away
by every blast of vain doctrine," enabling them to
possess their souls in patience, and to rest on the
assurance that in quietness and confidence was
their strength.
Can we doubt that for ages the Prayer Book has
formed the religious mind of England? formed it
as the interpreter of God's Word and the handmaid
of divine truth, for apart from, and independent of,
this, it is nothing worth. Can w^e doubt, as we read
the lives of those, whom, from time to time, God
has raised up as lights amongst us, and the testi
mony which, as with one voice, they bear to it, as
an aid to devotion, and the formation within them
of the divine life, that, if even those deeply learned
and well instructed sons of, and teachers in the
Church, have acknowledged the debt they owe to
that \roicc of prayer and praise, which ascends up

25
to God from the ten thousand Churches of this
land ; can we doubt, I say, of the fruit which those
words have borne, engraven, through nearly three
centuries, on the hearts and memories of millions,
who now sleep in the dust, and who will awake, we
trust, in the morning of the Resurrection, with the
new song of the Lamb, mingled, it may be, with
recollections of those preluding notes, which glad
dened the years of their earthly sojourning.
The importance of the Prayer Book as an abiding
testimony to, and channel of, Christian doctrine,
can hardly be over-estimated. I firmly believe, that
there have been periods when the Liturgy has saved
the Church. In that sad and dreary time, from the
beginning to nearly the close of the eighteenth cen
tury, when a deep sleep fell upon the Church of
England; when distinctive Christian doctrines had
almost ceased to be heard from her pulpits ; when,
with rare exceptions, the Episcopate itself was
unfaithfiil, and in some cases tinged with a deadly
heresy ; when the educated intellect of the country
had almost formally rejected Christianity, so that
our great Bishop Butler put forth his celebrated
Analogy, with the avowed object of showing, that
Christianity was not as incredible and unreasonable
as was supposed ; and he himself thought of, and
mourned over the Church of England as a " falling
Church"; in that age our Liturgy saved us; the
voice of the preacher was silent, or unfaithful ; but
that was unchanged : in that annual round of Divine
Service the whole system of Christian doctrine was

26
still enunciated ; the great truths of the Gospel were
sounded in the ears of the people, and unaided, save
by their own intrinsic strength, and the Holy and
Presiding Spirit, retained a hold over their affections.
But the value of the Liturgy is not only to be
seen in its influence upon the members of our own
Church : I doubt not it has had a most extensive
and salutary effect upon others who have departed
from amongst us, and cannot be said to be members
of the One true Catholic Church in England. I
believe the Dissenters themselves, owe the continu
ance amongst them of that portion they retain of
dogmatic truth, to the Church's Liturgy. What is
it that has prevented their spiritual falling away
to the same extent as their continental brethren ?
The presence amongst them of an Apostohc Church
has saved them ; the solemn enunciation by the
services of the Church of the great truths of the
Gospel within their knowledge and hearing. This
has unconsciously influenced them ; and therefore,
with the exception of one happily decreasing sec
tion of the community, who deny Jesus Christ to
be their Lord and God, they hold many unconnected
fragments of the "Faith once delivered to the
Saints." Would to God that the presence now of
a common enemy, the aggression of the Roman
schism, might bring them back to the fold of the
One Church which God has planted in this land.
I would close this part of my subject by insisting
on one more claim which the Prayer Book has
on our religious affections. The Prayer Book is

27
especially the teacher of the poor. With but few op
portunities, with but one talent entrusted, with but
small portions of time snatched from necessary toil,
the unchanging voice, the not uncertain sound given
out by the Prayer Book, has formed the mind,
quickened and moulded the affections, strength
ened and confirmed the faith, of the Church-going,
Church-loving poor. From youth to age, it has been"
their faithful guide, their never-failing consolation :
they have accepted it as the interpreter of divine
truth, as unfolding to them the mysteries of God's
Word; and, by God's grace, it has aided to make
them " wise unto salvation." Were it in our power
to compare their spiritual progress and attainment,
and even their knowledge of spiritual things, with
that of those, whom they have been taught to regard,
and willingly acknowledge, as their betters, it would
strike us with great, though not altogether pleasing,
surprise. We should find their knowledge of Divine
things far greater than we could beforehand have
supposed : and we can trace this to their diligent
faithful attendance at the House of Prayer. They
have used their Bible, as directed and interpreted by
their Prayer Book ; and they have slowly but surely
become acquainted with all that is "necessary to
salvation." So also have they become "thoroughly
furnished to every good word and work." They
who know them best, know also, that amongst the
Church-going, Church-loving poor, are the great
though hidden Saints of God : these are they in
whom, to thoughtful and observant minds, the

28
power of the meek and humble, though precious and
enduring graces of the Gospel is most strongly ex
hibited. There is that, in the quiet, humble, un
obtrusive, retiring walk of those meek and humble
followers of Him who "was meek and lowly of heart,"
which is inexpressibly touching : it reads to us a
constant and most useful lesson ; it levels all earthly
distinctions ; it sanctifies and ennobles a low estate,
that estate which our Lord chose for Himself;
it helps us to see human life, its end and aim,
in their true light : we see in them that " life
which is hid with Christ in God," that life which
even here is a commencing Heaven ; we catch
gleams, enlivening a life of care and toil and
poverty, of that glory which shall be theirs here
after. Rome vaunts herself as the nursery of Saints,
and far be it from me to deny that such men as
Pascal, Fenelon, and Borromeo have been as lights
in an evil world, but believing, as I do, that the
great Saints of God are hidden Saints, and seeing,
as I have seen, the work of divine gi'ace in those,
some entered into their rest, and others yet lin
gering in this vale of tears, whom the world has
never known, and never will know, I am deeply
persuaded, that the Church in this land has nou
rished and brought up children, who in the last
day will shine as stars in the firmament, with a
glory unsurpassed by the brightest names in the
Church's history.
And now, Brethren, what is the practical remedy

29
against Romish aggression, against the revival of
Popery in this land. Acts of Parliament can do
but little ; it is but little that legislative enactments
can effect on the religious mind and spirit of a
nation. The remedy lies with ourselves ; and in
applying this, the poorest and humblest amongst
us may bear his part. Rome assails us as a Church,
on fixed definite principles ; and we can only meet
her as a Church, and by acting in a like manner.
We must act unitedly on Church principles. To
meet Rome on ground common to all denomina
tions, as they are termed, would be worse than use
less ; the vague and barren generalities of popular
Protestantism would be scattered, like chaff before
the winds, before the united action, the energy, and
those remains of dogmatic truth which still linger
in the Church of Rome.
I say then to you. Hold fast by the Prayer
Book ; be content with nothing else, either more
or less. The Prayer Book is the embodiment of
the principles of the Reformation; it is to every
English Churchman the authorized interpreter of
God's Word. Attempts will be made, indeed are
making, to mutilate it. And who are they who
are foremost in attacking that well-weighed careful
digest of Divine Truth, of which the far greater
part has been winnowed and sifted through more
than twelve hundred years of the Church's history ?
They who avowedly dissent from her doctrine and
discipline. To use the mildest language, can any
thing be more utterly unreasonable than this ? or

30
can any Churchman join such men, in such an
attempt, without a sin ? If there be any thing in
that book that needs alteration (and I, for my
part, know not what it is), this is not the time,
nor are such men the instruments, by which such
a change is to be effected. Nothing but the so
lemn, well-weighed, deliberative voice of the sacred
Synod of this nation, the Convocation, can be
binding on the consciences, or claim rightfully the
obedience of the members of the Church. Any
other attempt to mutilate and square the teaching
of the Prayer Book, to the wishes of men equally
presumptuous and ignorant, and perhaps their
ignorance is the only excuse that can be offered
for their presumption, would be a virtual sentence
of dissolution to the whole frame-work and poHty
of the Church of England ; and, as of old, amid
the destruction of the temple of Jerusalem, that
fearful voice was heard, " Let us depart," so surely
would our hearts quail within us, and we should
feel that God was departing from amongst us.
Whatever causes may have concurred in inviting
this aggressive movement of the Church of Rome,
and I am far from denying, that the unfaithfulness
of some amongst ourselves, has been one, I cannot
but think, that our supineness, our indifference, our
apparent unconsciousness and neglect of Church
principles as a bond of union and as affecting the
heart and hfe, have been the main cause of the
aggression. Rome has marked this ; she has seen
multitudes holding lightly by, or utterly neglecting.

31
Church ordinances, living without any distinctive
religious truths ; she sees, amongst ourselves, those
who are Churchmen only in name, or in the vaguest
and most general sense ; thousands and tens of
thousands who, as she has emphatically worded it,
" are baptized," and nothing more : living without
any apparent sense of being members of a religious
body, or as connected with it by ordinances and
sacraments. She sees, that amongst such as these,
there is room for a more practical system ; she
knows, that the human mind will not always be
contented to rest in a rehgious habit so meagre and
uninfluential as this, and she hopes to offer success
fully to them a system, which will combine all the
charms of novelty, with a powerful appeal to their
religious affections.
We can meet this only in one way : we must
cast ourselves into the system of our own Church.
We must make the Prayer Book not a dead letter,
but a living reality. Let us give ourselves to
prayer, ordinances, and sacraments ; let the Church
be our guide and interpreter, in the study of God's
word ; and let every season of the natural year,
bring with it the hallowed remembrance of some
great Christian truth, some point of religious in
terest in the life or death of the Lord Jesus.
Let us rejoice in the festival of His birth ; let us
sorrow with a godly sorrow during the preparation
for commemorating His sufferings and death; let
His death on the Cross deepen our hatred of sin,
and the love of Him who has first loved us ; let us

32
triumph in his victory over death and the grave,
and ascend with Him in heart and spirit to that
heaven whither He has gone before. Let us hold
fast the confession of a true Faith in the Holy and
ever Blessed Trinity, in the Father who made us,
in the Son who redeemed us, in the Holy Spirit
who sanctifieth us. This, if we do, "confessing
with the mouth unto salvation, and believing with
the heart unto righteousness," we shall not need
the more elaborate devotional Formularies of the
Church of Rome ; we shall need no other Mediator
save the one Christ Jesus. He who is the Sun and
Centre of the Church's system, wiU be all in all to
us ; our hope in life, our stay in the hour of death ;
the one undivided object of our loving adoration
and adoring love.

W. & H. Pollard, Printers, North Street, Exeter.

YALE UNIVERSITY LIBRARY

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