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REMARKS

CHURCHES OF ROME AND ENGLAND.

KEMARKS

CHURCHES OF ROME AND ENGLAND,

RESPECTFULLY ADDRESSED TO

THE RIGHT REV. DR WISEMAN

THE REV, WILLIAM PALMER.

LONDON:
J. HATCHARD AND SON, 187, PICCADILLY.
1841.

LONDON :
PRINTEn Bi- G, J. PALMER, SAVoy STREET.

REMARKS, &c.

It is not my intention to make any observa
tions to aggravate the discussion which has
taken place between these two learned and re
spectable priests of the One, Holy, Catholic and
Apostolic Church : all that has been said by
either in the way of charge and recrimination
has been said and re-said by members of both
communions, — the unleavened and the leavened,
— many times during the last three centuries,
doubtless to the grief of the heart of our common
Father which is in heaven, and need not to be
repeated. My object is to draw the attention of
the Catholic priesthood to the common hope of
all, by means of the points at which all are at
one, whether in the admission or the denial of
them.

It is a fact, which is as much a matter of grief
to intelligent and pious priests of Spain and
Italy, as a matter of unholy triumph to their
enemies, that the inhabitants of those countries
are prone to superstition and idolatry. It is
equally a fact that the natives of northern lati
tudes are cold and phlegmatic in their devo
tions ; their religion consisting more in intellec
tual speculations than in practical usefulness to
man : idolaters and deists are the extremes to
which the ill-instructed of both extremities of
Europe incline ; but certainly these effects are
little attributable to the authorized standards of
any church. Dr. Wiseman is no more an
idolater than Mr. Palmer is a deist, although
idolaters are to be found at Rome, and deists in
London. It is a proof that up to a certain point the
people are instructed in the christian religion,
when their superstition takes that form rather
than any other. The Scotch and the Germans
are superstitious, but their superstition is not
through faith in relics or saints, but in all kinds
of imaginary beings in an imaginary world. In
Spain and Italy it is rashly concluded that
the idolatry of the people has been incul
cated by the Spanish and Italian priests, because
the belief of the vulgar rests on silly legends
about pious christian people, and that it has

not been inculcated by German priests, because
the heroes of the Brochen and of the Geistvelt
have not been fathers and martyrs in the Chris
tian Church. But if the charge of idolatry
were justly attributable to the priests of the
Roman Catholic Church, the same idolatry
would be found equally in every portion of
that community, amongst the learned as well
as the ignorant, amongst the German and Eng
lish, as well as amongst tlie Spanish and Italian
population. Since it is the common creed of the Church
that there is, and can be, but One, Holy, Catholic
and Apostolic Church, whence comes it that we
hear so much of the Roman Church, and the
Anglican Church, and the Genevan Church, and
the Scottish? Is Christ divided? The voice oF
antiquity has decided against such names : and
any church that had assumed them, would for
that cause alone have been condemned as schis
matic by our fathers.
These names are not names of love, but of
discord ; they are not titles of unity, but of di
vision ; they are contradictions to the truth main
tained alike by all, " I believe in one Holy
Catholic and Apostolic Church." Behold how
good and pleasant a thing it is for brethren to
dwell together in unity : ecce quam honum et
quam jucundum habitare fratres in unum. Is

this good and pleasant sight presented by bre
thren to their Father which is in heaven 1 All
will make the same reply. Wherefore is this?
Let the Scriptures answer, and as the Church
teaches : Whence come these wars and fight
ings amongst you ? Unde bella et lites in vobis 1
nonne hinc ? ex concupiscentiis vestris quce mili
tant in membris vestris ? Every one is right in
his own eyes, but God is judge ; the quarrels of
nations and of churches are as unjustifiable as
the quarrels of individuals. Neither is it of any
use to seek in former ages for the justification
and causes of things that exist now. We do
indeed inherit the sins of our fathers, and com
mit the same, without being able to plead in ex
tenuation that we have their provocation.
In order to approximate, each must see not
only his own case, but feel for the position of a
brother. No Roman Catholic priest wishes a
Protestant to become an idolater ; it cannot be
said that no Church of England priest wishes a
Roman Catholic to become schismatic : and
members of the Church of England must show
themselves, not as individuals, but as a church
— as a body, — more sensitive to the sin of schism,
before they have a right to expect that their
addresses to Roman Catholics can have much
weight. The Roman Catholic adheres to the
creed in whicli he has been instructed : the

9
Church of England man invites him, as he sup
poses, to become a schismatic, to consult his
Bible, to renounce idolatry, and to join the
Church of England. The Roman Catholic feels
that if he had only to choose between the church
in which he has been instructed and the Church
of England, the matter would be much sim
plified ; but how can he be assured that, so soon
as he is cut adrift from the creed of his youth,
he may not be wafted where neither he nor his
Church of England adviser would wish him to
go? Here is the difiiculty : the Lord promised to
be with His church to the end of the world ;
if, then, she has been suffered to err in the re
motest degree in doctrine or discipline, the
Roman Catholic apprehends that the promise
has failed, and he can no longer trust any pro
mise that the Scriptures contain. This maxim
the Roman Catholic is prepared to carry out
to every possible consequence, and to admit any
conclusion that can be drawn from it : charge
his church with what you please ; convict him
of the truth of the charge, so that he shall not
be able to escape from your reasoning, never
theless his reply will be, " So the Church has
taught, and therefore so Christ has guided her,
and therefore so I believe."
Unquestionably the promise was given, and

10
as unquestionably it has been kept : and to this
day we perceive the Church existing, and at the
close of eighteen hundred years, in the midst of
all corruptions and evils, not more corrupt nor
more evil than it was in the lifetime of the
apostles who had built it. Who can read
the Epistles to the Corinthians, those of James
and Peter, and the addresses to the seven
churches in the Apocalypse, without being con
vinced that every vice and every evil was
existing then which is to be found now, though
more developed iu these days, because the num
ber of the baptized has greatly multiplied ?
The truth that the Lord Jesus Christ has been
ever guiding His church, is not more essential
to the faith of a Roman Catholic than to that of
a Protestant. It is a great principle, that no
thing must be allowed to contravene or shake.
It is necessary to be very accurate in examining
the terms of the promise before we determine
whether it has been observed or broken, and, if
observed, it will be profitable to inquire by what
means it has been effected. The terms of the
promise are these : data est mihi omnis potestas
in ccbIo et in terra : euntes ergo docete omnes
gentes, baptizantes eos in nomine Patris et Filii
et Spiritus Sancti ; docentes eos servare omnia
qucecumque mandari vobis ; et ecce ego vobiscum
sum omnibus diebus, usque ad consummationem

11
sceculi. It is written by the evangelist Saint Mat
thew, " All power is given unto me in heaven
and in earth ; go ye therefore and teach (make
disciples or Christians of) all nations, baptizing
them in the name of the Father, and of the Son,
and of the Holy Ghost ; teaching them to ob
serve all things whatsoever I have commanded
you ; and lo, I am with you alway, even unto
the end of the world."
The commission given to the eleven was to
teach certain observances which had bean taught
to them ; they were " to observe all things"
that the Lord had enjoined. They were not to
teach certain propositions after the manner of
the heathen schools of philosophy, which were,
by being received, to effect a corresponding line
of conduct, but they were to teach certain ob
servances. This point is of importance, because in these
days the commission given to the eleven is quoted
by the sectaries as if it were to teach certain
propositions concerning justification by faith, the
place of good works, the decrees of election,
predestination, &c. : and it is not meant by these
observations to deny that such things do in their
place deserve to be taught by pastors to their
flocks ; but what is meant is, that such things
were not the only, nor even the primary, things
contained in the commission originally given,

12
but the " observance " of certain things, and
not the belief of certain propositions.
Only one amongst the things which were to be
observed was mentioned at the time the com
mission was given by our Lord to his apostles,
and that is baptism, by which men were to be
made members of the church : " make disciples
of all nations, baptizing them, &c. ; teaching
them to observe all things," &c. The sacrament
of the Eucharist had been established before. No
men on earth could teach the things which our
Lord had taught the eleven, except themselves,
for none others knew them. They, in their turn,
commissioned other teachers, some to teach one
part of what they had been taught, and some
other parts, as we see by the Epistles to the Co
rinthians and Ephesians ; so that the whole teach
ing of the disciples was carried on by a fourfold
division of ministers : ipse dedit quosdam quidem
apostolos, quosdam autem prophetas, alios verd
evangalistas, alios autem pastores et docentes;
" some apostles, some prophets, some evangelists,
and some pastors and teachers." These, also,
were of course to teach others " to observe the
things" which Christ had taught the eleven,
namely baptism, by which they were made dis
ciples, and the celebration of the Eucharist,
which they did on the first day of every week.
Thus, then, tlie things which were observed at tlie

13
beginning were Baptism and the Lord's Supper,
both of which were administered by the eleven
themselves, or by others commissioned by them
for that end. The priesthood and the sacraments
have continued until this time ; by them has the
church been preserved; and however unworthily
of their great privileges the majority of Christians
may have conducted themselves, nevertheless the
baptized nations are distinguished above all
others for civilization, humanity, and virtue.
Undoubtedly, the sacraments are not now ad
ministered as they were at the first, nor precisely
in the same manner in every part of Europe ; but
nevertheless there is suflacient in the most cor
rupted form of administration to identify the
present with, and render them as efficacious as
the original rites. This is analogous to the
manner in which God established, at the com
mencement, the Jewish church. He took Moses
into the mount, and showed him the pattern of
the tabernacle, which was accordingly built after
that pattern. In like manner, after His resurrec
tion, and before His ascension, our blessed Lord
conversed with and instructed His apostles in the
form and ordering of His church, according to
which they were to build it, and to set it in order :
quibus et prcebuit seipsum vivum post passionem
suam in multis argumentis, per dies quadraginta
apparens eis, et loquens de regno Dei. It is doubt-

14
ful whether the apostles were ever able to esta
blish the Church during their lifetime, according
to the perfect plan which had been shown them ;
and, however that may be, it is very evident that
the perfect form of the Church did not last long,
even if it were ever completed in any one place, as
the disorders in the Corinthian church do testify,
where they almost rejected the authority of the
apostle who had planted that church. St. John
complains, in his letter to Gaius, who was Paul's
host in that same place, that one of their principal
men had rejected him also. Many Protestant
schismatics have attempted to construct the
Church according to the original mind and in
tention of God, and have vainly supposed that
this plan could be found in the Bible. But God
did not cause a description of the plan of His
Church to be written, but He taught it viva voce
to men who taught it vivd voce to others, so far
as they were able to bear it ; and Paul complains
to the Hebrews that they were not able to hear
the things he had to tell them, for they were
carnal, as was proved by living in contention :
and it is impossible now to ascertain what the
plan was which Christ taught to the apostles,
unless God should please to raise up prophets
again in the Church to reveal it to us.
Amidst the various divisions into which the
baptized are unhappily separated, it will be found

15
that the most spiritual portion is that wherein most
respect is paid to the priesthood and the sacra
ments. A spiritual man is not one who has
notions about spiritual things, nor even one who
has made considerable attainment in the progress
of spiritual life ; but he is spiritual, who appre
hends his spiritual standing apart from, and in
contradistinction to, his fleshly standing; who
knows what it is to be a new creature in Christ
Jesus, and understands all the duties, privileges,
and responsibilities ofthat relationship. In strong
contrast stand the churches of Rome, and of
Geneva or Scotland : in the former, the value of
the sacraments and the dignity of the priesthood
are fully appreciated, and the mighty power of
the priests, as the instruments of God for con
stituting the creatures of bread and wine to be
indeed the flesh and blood of the Son of God ;
in the latter, having cast off episcopal succession,
they have of necessity no priests, for priests must
be constituted by those who are higher than
themselves; neither is baptism received as God's
instrument of making men disciples of Christ,
which act is attributed to the speech of the
preacher, whereby the office of the teacher is
made to nullify the sacrament : neither are the
spirits of men fed at all with the flesh and blood
of Christ, although bread and wine is eaten and
drank in commemoration of the Saviour's death :

16
neither are any spiritual, for none know and re
cognize the standing into which they are brought
by the giving of the Holy Ghost at Pentecost,
and of which they have been made partakers in
baptism. Thus, then, it is evident, that not only is it by
the priesthood and the sacraments that Christ
has preserved His Church, but that since its un
happy divisions and guilt of schism, the spiritu
ality of each portion has remained in proportion
to the respect for " the observance of these
things" which has been preserved, and not lost
sight of; and let us now examine what has been
the condition of the teaching in these various di
visions. The character and style of the ecclesiastical
teacher must ever be analogous to the style of the
age and of the country in which he lives. We
must, therefore, take a more catholic view of the
subject of teaching than we can attain to by a
mere weighing of Augustine with Hooker, Jerome
with Beveridge. The matters aimed at by all are
the same ; namely, to inculcate faith in the remis
sion of sins through Christ's death which is past,
and hope of a share in His eternal kingdom of
blessedness which is to come.
The " observances " of the early Church
taught both these things : the forms of worship
set them forth visibly before the eyes of the

17
people. So far as it can be gathered from
the ancient liturgies which have come down to
us, the order of worship appears to have con
sisted in the celebration of the Eucharist by the
priests daily at midday, and by the people on the
first day of every week. At the first and last
hours of the day there were also services, and at
nine and three o'clock. In these services the
people were exhorted to confess their si us, not
merely as children of Adam, but as baptized
persons, who had therefore sinned more than
others in offending against the grace of God ;
the confession of sin was made in the name of the
body, which body began to be constituted at the
day of Pentecost, and contains all the living and
the dead who have been baptized into it from
that day until the day of the final close of this
dispensation : hence the confession was catholic,
and the sin confessed was not only personal, but
that of all mankind, and specially of all the bap
tized; sin original and transmitted, as well as
actual ; this, after being confessed, was pro
nounced by the priest to be blotted out by the
blood of the Lamb ; and hence was avowed daily
the great truth to which subsequent polemists
gave the name of original sin, of justification by
faith, of God's election, &c.
During the corruptions of the dark ages, when
opulent ecclesiastics were as much warriors as
c

18
priests, when temporal power was their object, and
when they sought to attain it by violence, gorgeous
ceremonies were added to the primitive worship,
which, if they did not obliterate, at least obscured
the meaning of the truth still remaining, al
though concealed in the ritual. Morality began
to be taught in schools as a science after the
manner of Aristotle, and men looked rather to
the acuteness of intellectual gladiators than to the
quiet instructions of the parochial pastors in
order to be advanced in the precepts of christian
doctrine. Subtle disputations upon every pos
sible and impossible subject abounded throughout
Europe, and still fill the pages of every system of
Theologia moralis. At length the great schism,
which, under the name of reform, began to vex
the Church, afforded a new fund of questions to
ingenious men, wearied with the topics which
had hitherto interested them. Nothing was too
sacred to be handled : the mode of the subsistence
of the persons in the ever-blessed Trinity, and the
unfathomable attributes and being of the invisible
God, were treated with the familiarity with which
men discuss questions of botany or natural his
tory. New ways of worshipping God were de
vised by men ; the ceremonies signified nothing,
and therefore taught nothing ; and men were
compelled to look to sermons without, and not to
the rites transacted within the holy place, in

19
order to learn the things that belonged to their
everlasting peace. Hence it is that polemics
came to be substituted for worship, and the
whole life of Protestantism is not peace, but war.
A quiet clergyman, doing his own dut}' in his
own parish, who neither rails at his bishop nor
meddles with the flocks of his neighbours, is sup
posed to be dead; and one who perpetually leaves
his charge in order to declaim in self-constituted
societies against ancient institutions, and against
those who fill them, is extolled for his zeal, and
reputed to be exuberant of spiritual life.
It is very much to be doubted whether, after
deducting all that is personal, local, and secta
rian, the amount of catholic truth which would
remain in the writings of the most celebrated in
every orthodox church, is not equal. The fer
vent language of Augustine would, indeed, be
lost on the mass of the Scottish people, whilst the
abstract acuteness of northern Protestants would
find little sympathy in a glowing Spanish ima
gination. Each class and charact-gr of mind, as
well as each age and nation, must have its writers
and teachers particularly adapted to it, and
catholic charity, or a mind enlarged with the
capacity of Christ, will approve of, because able
to appreciate the merits of each in its way, just
as in the schools of painting, the florid colouring
of one may please "more, without causing dis-
c 2

20
pleasure to another, who prefers a severer and
more accurate master.
The fulfilment of the promise of the Lord to be
with His church, in teaching the things which
He commanded to be taught, is necessarily con
tingent upon the fulfilment of that condition.
The eleven themselves were not exempt from the
temptations to teach other things than those which
they were commissioned to teach, and St. Peter,
having so taught, was withstood because he was to
blame, quia reprehensibilis erat, and required to re
tract and renounce them. This history is a warn
ing to all who should, in subsequent times, teach
other than what the apostles taught, and all
things which they have so taught they must re
pent of and abandon. Moreover, in such things
they must be withstood, but only by those who
have authority to do so.
The most remarkable instance of things now
taught and practised in the Church, which are
contrary to the instruction of Christ and contrary
to the instruction of the apostles, is the refusal to
give to the laity the wine in the Eucharist. This
abuse of the power entrusted to the rulers of the
Church is so flagrant, that it has ever worked,
and is now working, more hostility, however
smothered, to ecclesiastical authority, than any
other circumstance. To this may be added, the
carrying on of public worship in a language un-

21
known to the people; the compelling of all
priests, indiscriminately, to abjure marriage ; and
the forcing of all persons to be subject to any
interrogatories, however disgusting and offensive
to delicacy, which the priests please to put, under
the pretext of perfect confession. A large body
of the Roman Catholic clergy in Germany is now
determined to put an end to these abuses, even
at the risk of incurring much evil of a different
kind ; and this body of clergy in Germany is
supported by many ecclesiastics in France and
Italy. The above-mentioned abuses all relate to
matters of discipline, and not of faith, and might
be easily corrected, if the Sovereign Pntiff
should be induced, by timeous interference, to
save the Church from the further evil of another
extensive schism. But it requires much intre
pidity to break through the impediments which
official forms and prejudices would place in his
way. For the government of the Church at
Rome is as unwieldy a machinery as the
government of Austria, and the sovereign is often
prevented by that which is well termed the
bureaucratic, which is, in other words, the vis
inertice of the clerks and subalterns, through
whose hands all details must pass before any
decree can go forth as law, and produce any
active result. Above all, it behoves the Court of
Rome to see that the application of the truth, that

22
Christ has ever guided His church, is carried too
far in many things, and that the time is come
when it is indispensably necessary to curtail this
doctrine within its true and proper limits.
In the faith of that which is past, namely, in the
facts of Christ's death, of the two natures of His
one person, and of the efficacy of the satisfaction
for the sins of men made upon the cross, in short,
in everything that is contained in the Apostles',
Nicene, and Athanasian creeds, all are agreed ;
but on the present condition of the Christian
Church, and on the hopes of men for the future,
it is hard to say whether there exists more error
in one communion than in another, or whether
there be not as much unity of error in what
respects the present and future, as there is of
truth in what respects the past.
If the Church had ever spoken upon the pas
sages of Holy Scripture to which I am about to
direct the attention of the reader, I should have
abstained from presuming to bring forward what
must have been considered private judgment in
contradistinction to the judgment of the Church :
but as she has in no council, nor by any autho
rity, spoken upon them, it is permissible to any
one to refer to them in no hidden and mysterious
sense, but in the plain, obvious, and undoubted
meaning of the terms.
The apostle refers to the seasons (Acts xvii. 26,

23
Rom. i. 20) as the proof of God's goodness which
all may understand : God's instructions are upon
a great scale, obvious to all. The truths which
He inculcates are not wrapt up in shreds of sen
tences, and recondite meanings of abstruse
terms : above all, to the Christian Church does
He speak plainly, in having given another
church and another dispensation as its example
and warning ; the example of His dealing, both
with a faithful people, whilst walking in His ways,
and the warning of His conduct to them when
apostate and departed from Him.
The Church is represented in the Apocalypse
under the figure of a harlot ; as one who has
committed fornication with the kings of the
earth ; that is, mystically as one who has sought
for protection, and rank, and power, and in
fluence, and support, from secular princes, and
not trusted alone to spiritual means for her suc
cess. The Protestant sects charge this character
upon the Church of Rome ; writers in the com
munion of Rome (see Decameron with Pope
Gregory's sixteenth letter to the author) charge
that character, and apply the figure, with equal
justice to Protestantism. Both are equally right
and equally wrong, for the figure does not apply
to any part, but to the whole ; and the wonder
and astonishment of the seer is, that she whom
he had previously had represented to him as the

24
pure and spotless bride, should now have come
into this dishonourable and filthy condition.
Now it is not a sect or part of the baptized
which was the bride, but the whole body of
the baptized : even if it were a part, still it is
the same part that is seen in the latter, con
dition that is seen in the first : if then it be the
Roman Catholic Church which is the latter, it
is also her that is the first ; and vice versd. It
is quite obvious that since the days of Con-
stantine the union of Church and State has been
productive of serious spiritual evils to the former,
whatever may have been the effect upon the
latter ; and the union has ended in these days
in making the Church the perfect slave of the
State. Everywhere she is oppressed, and every
where is she tempted to join the ranks of those
who are destroying all the thrones of Europe, in
the hopes that she may then be liberated and
free to do her own work. Thus the Abbe
Lammenais is urging the pope to become a re
volutionist ; the Romish priests in Ireland are
agitating to the same end; and some of the
Oxford associates of Mr. Palmer are calling
upon their friends to look to the people (see
Cluirch of the Fathers) for support, rather than
to regal and aristocratical power.
Under this aspect of oppression the Church is
represented as still in darkness and bondage.

25
and to her, under this view, do the writings of
the prophets apply, which allude to her as now
in Egypt, although they were written many ages
after the literal deliverance of the Jewish Church
from that literal bondage. In like manner,
when the whole body of the baptized is viewed
catholically in its many divisions of Greek,
Roman, Galilean, Anglican, Scottish, Swiss, &c.
&c., presenting, instead of unity, the confusion
and contradiction of many opinions, yet unable
to deliver herself, and produce unity, peace, and
harmony again, no term can describe her state
but that of Babylon, distinguished for its want
of unity in speech and confusion of tongues, and
for its being the last place of captivity into which
the Jewish Church was brought.
A catholic eye sees such to be the true con
dition of the whole of Christendom, whilst a sec
tarian eye can see only these conditions as
applicable to its rival, and not to itself. Yet
the Jewish Church was always dealt with as an
unity : the true priests considered themselves
as priests of the whole body of the circumcised,
and offered sacrifices for the whole. After the
unhappy division into the two and the ten
tribes, the priests did not divide the sacrifices,
but offered them for the entire nation, and not
only for the part with which they happened to
be connected. A memorable instance of this

26
occurs in the case of the restoration of the two
tribes out of Babylon under Ezra : so soon as
they returned to Jerusalem he offered twelve
oxen, one for each of the tribes, although only
two were present and had returned with him,
and ten had been carried away, as judged and
sentenced idolaters, into an endless captivity
more than two centuries before : still for these
also did he offer as well as for those present, for
he knew that all the circumcised were as one,
being viewed as one in Abraham, to whom all
the promises were made.
In like manner God will deal with the Chris
tian Church as an unity, and the priests of the
Christian Church are priests of the whole, and
not of a part ; just as baptism is into the body
of Christ, and not into a sect or portion of that
body, and every baptized person is as certainly re
sponsible for all the terms of the Christian cove
nant, and entitled to its privileges, as was every
circumcised person to those of the Jewish cove
nant. So the Sacrament of the body of the Lord
is not confined to the assembly in the midst of
which the rite is celebrated, but it is offered for,
and eaten for, the whole baptized world. In like
manner the priests are priests of the One, Holy,
Catholic Church, or they are no priests at all ;
and in this view of the subject I purposely ab
stain from discussing who are and who are not

27
priests; who have been rightly consecrated, and
who have taken upon themselves the office with
out due authority ; who have been rightly or
imperfectly baptized ; as these topics would ne
cessarily give a narrower limit to the view than
that which I am now taking, and divert the
attention of the reader from the matter more im
mediately in hand.
Thus it is also that the term " Apostasy,"
which signifies " falling from a standing," is the
condition into which the Church as a whole falls,
and not a condition into which one part falls,
and into which another does not come. The
two tribes vaunted themselves greatly that they
had never become idolaters ; the Pharisees, who
were the most religious people of that day, were
proud that they were not deists like the Saddu-
cees ; yet the Lord spake more severe things
against the Pharisees than against the Sad-
ducees or the two idolatrous tribes. The stand
ing of the Christian Church was to have God,
through the Holy Ghost, ever residing in her,
guiding her through her priesthood, and govern
ing the baptized nations through anointed kings.
The blessing of the people was to recognize God
in His anointed kings and priests ; worshipping
the Invisible through the visible, but yet apart
from and above it. The apostasy or antichrist
consequently is the refusal to recognise Christ

28
in these His ordinances, the rejecting of the
bands of Christ in kings and priests : and St. John
tells us that that spirit qui solvit Christum had
begun to work in his time : whilst the Apostle
Paul tells us that the lawless one, ille iniquus,
o avo/uog, should be hindered from manifesting
himself completely until the heavy arm of
the secular power was taken off. For the
power of the secular arm, which repressed re
bellion against itself, would necessarily produce
indirectly a submission to all other authority
also, even if it had not directly lent its power to
the Church to enforce its decrees : so that al
though the alliance of the Church with the State
produced evil in one way, it produced good in
another. But now the unbridled right of pri
vate judgment, which first was proclaimed at the
time of the Reformation, has produced its na
tural effect, and no one will submit to another;
and every one will be king and priest unto him
self; and God is not recognized in His kings
nor in His priests; and priesthood is treated as
a mere trade ; and kingship is considered a
merely human form of government which the
will and wisdom of men may change whenever
they please : for that all power proceeds from
below and not from above, from the mob and
not from God.
This spirit of rejecting authority as an ordi-

29
nance of God has now pervaded everj' portion
of Christendom, and every rank in society.
Kings and priests themselves are not exempt
from it, because a moral, like a spiritual epi
demic, affects all classes alike. This " speaking
evil of dignities," " casting off the bands of
Christ, the Anointed," is spoken of in Psalm ii.,
in St. Paul's Epistle to Timothy, in the Ej)istles
of St. Jude and of St. Peter, as the condition
of things in the last days : it is a state of
things which no power that is now upon the
earth, and no machinery at present in existence,
have sufficient force to remedy ; and it is a spirit
which must be the last, because it is a spirit
of destruction of everything, and of building and
upholding of nothing. All mankind are more
or less looking to a republic, to a state of free
dom from restraint, both in civil and religious
matters, totally unlike anything which has yet
appeared in the world. It is avowed that the
world, with all its institutions, whether of king
doms or of churches, has been only in its in
fancy, and that now it is arriving at that maturity
of wisdom which will enable it to chalk out new
plans for itself, vastly superior to all that have
been hitherto seen. They who know their duty
are afraid of avowing true principles. The
priests in France do not reclaim for God the
houses and lands which have been sacrile-

30
giously taken from them ; and neither king
dare claim, nor statesman inculcate, obedience
as a duty to the vicegerent of God.
It is indeed questionable whether the Church
ought ever to have received lands, but there can
be no doubt about the necessity of its having
buildings, and that these buildings having once
been given to God cannot be desecrated to any
secular purpose. The support of the priests was
to arise from tithes ; and the tenth of every
man's income as much belongs to God as the
seventh of his time ; and the payment of the one
and the observance of the other are matters of
eternal obligation, having been established long
before the institution of any church either Jewish
or Christian. The successive developements of
God's eternal and unchangeable purpose to bless
His creatures in His kingdom to come, do not
abrogate anything that has been previously es
tablished. Circumcision is not abrogated to the
Jews now ; and every Jew who is ignorant of
the hope revealed in Christ, and who knows
nothing but that given to Abraham, is bound to
be circumcised. The Christian ought not to be
circumcised, because he has a higher and a better
hope, and is partaker of better promises, of
which he received the earnest in baptism ; he
renounces the Jewish hope and the Jewish rite,
not because that is not good in its way, and in

31
its kind, but because, having one better and in
finitely superior, he stands in no need of the
old. Christians have ever laboured to convert the
Jews, but they have laboured in a bad spirit, and
in a bad way. The denunciations of God are
continued and great against all who shall misuse
that people, and it is the greatest sin for which
Christendom is answerable, and that which
above all has need to be confessed and repented
of, if we would avert God's impending and
already begun judgments upon all ecclesiastic
and civil institutions. In the malignity of the
rage which urged the priests of past ages to tor
ture, mangle, and burn the Jews alive, and
the laity to plunder, rob, and insult them.
Christians lost sight of the great truth for which
the Jews have been the only faithful witnesses
for God upon the earth. Indeed, although
the constancy of the faith of Christians in all
times amidst sufferings has been wonderful; that
of the Jews, amidst the cruelties practised upon
them by Christians, has not been less praise
worthy. Moreover, respecting the amount of tes
timony for the object of the Jewish hope, in com
parison with that of the Christian, much more
can be said in favour of the former than of the
latter. The Fathers have taken frequent occasion
to remark upon the extraordinary manner in

32
which the two advents of Christ are mixed up in
the views and writings of the prophets, in the
same chapter and same verses, so that, as has
been well remarked by some able critics, the
Jewish prophets evidently saw the two advents
as one, and perceived nothing of the condition
and history of the Church which was to inter
vene between them. The Jews themselves, since
the commencement of the Christian era, have
been forced bv circumstances into the idea that
there are two Messiahs, the one a suffering
martyr, and the other a triumphant prince. It
is certain that if the passages of the Holy Scrip
tures, which speak of the sufferings and humi
liation of Messiah, were to be arranged on one
side, and those which speak of His glory and
dominion were to be arranged on the other, the
latter would predominate tenfold. The Jews
bear witness unto the death for the latter, and
deny that the former have been fulfilled in the
person of Jesus of Nazareth ; the Christians tes
tify exclusively of the former, and have wholly
lost sight of the latter. Thus the second advent
of the Lord and Saviour has become no object of
hope, but an object of terror : no idea is con
nected with it, even amongst the saints, but the
coming of an executioner. The Christian Church
has fallen lower than the ancient heathen, for
they looked forward to a glorified world to come.

33
The only hope ever held forth to the world, was
from the establishment of the kingdom of God
upon it. To the Thessalonians Paul writes :
Mxpectare Filium ejus de ccbUs — Nonne vos ante
Dominum nostrum Jesum Christum estis (spes
nostra) in adventu ejus? ad conjirmanda corda
vestra sine querela in sanctitate ante Deum et
Patrem nostrum in adventu Domini nostri Jesus
Christi cum omnibus Sanctis ejus. Hoc enim vobis
dicimus in verba Domini, quia nos qui vivimus, qui
residui sumus in adventum Domini, nonprceveniemus
eos qui dormierunt. Quoniam ipse Dominus, in
jussu et in voce Archangeli, et in tuba Dei descendet
de ccelo, et mortui qui in Christo sunt resurgent
primi: deinde nos qui vivimus, qui relinquimur,
simul rapiemur cum illis in nubibus obviam
Christo in acre, et sic semper cum Domino erimus ;
itaque consolamini invicem in verbis istis. Where
is now the man who ever consoles himself, or any
one else, with the hope of the coming of the
Lord? The Romanists scare it away with the cry
of millianarianism, as the Protestant sectaries
do the sacraments with the cry of popery. If
the Lord were this day to come down and touch
the earth, where is the church, or sect, or even
individual, who would give Him welcome? where
is the bride who would cry, " Come, Lord Jesusl"
No : Satan has deceived the whole world, and
made all men believe that his triumph, which is
D

34
death, is the coming of the Lord : and thus, as
no one believes or looks forward to translation
without seeing death at His coming, neither does
any one see the hopelessness of the present con
dition of the Church, but each sect is buckling on
its armour for more deadly feud with its brother,
as our Lord foretold would ever be the case with
those who said " the Lord delay eth his coming,"
moramfacit Dominus meus venire, and Christians
spend whatever religious energy they have, in
beating the fellow-servants of their common
Master, Whilst the Roman Catholics are exerting
themselves to draw over to their communion
members from all other ; whilst in some
countries, such as England and Ireland, these
exertions excite great opposition, and whilst
societies are formed amongst Protestants to send
books and emissaries to shake the faith of Roman
Catholics in the things most surely believed
amongst them ; the attention of both parties is
diverted from the real character of the evil which
assails Christendom. Party warfare is ever more
hot than national, sectarian more fierce than
catholic. During the first years of the Refor
mation it was natural that the interests which
pressed at the moment should absorb all other
considerations ; but now that matters are settled
down into a fixed and determinate position, which

35
no human power nor arguments can alter, it
becomes the priests of the one Catholic Church
to look to more important things than private,
personal, local, individual, national or sectarian
objects, and enlarge their minds and spirits to
the catholic purpose of God now about to be ac
complished. And there is ground to hope that out of the
mass of the baptized a small remnant shall be
gathered to bear witness, in the midst of all sects,
and all churches, and all nations, who shall be
prepared before their brethren for the harvest ;
for the harvest at the end of the age, messis est
consummatio sceculi, consists not only of the
general ingathering, but of a previous firstfruits ;
and even this previous firstfruits is preceded by
a few green ears dried artificially before the full
time, as may be seen in the first chapter of
Leviticus, and in the passages in the Apocalypse
which speak of these things. Moreover, it is
declared in Isaiah i. that if the Church will put
away her sins, she shall receive absolution, and
that her ordinances shall be restored to her as
they were at the beginning, and that " after
wards she shall be called the faithful city," al
though she had " become a harlot," and although
all " her silver had become as dross," and al
though she had stained her hands with blood,"
so that her prayers, rites, and ceremonies, had

36
all become an object of abomination, instead of
an object pleasing to a holy God. And they
who have faith in God's promises, and who will
cry to Him to fulfil them, shall see these things
accomplished ; and they shall be prepared for
His coming ; and they shall be caught up " to
meet Him in the air," according to the promises
which He has so often given. But it is not my
intention now to enter into this matter, because
long extracts would be required from the
Scriptures, together with reference to the writ
ings of the Fathers, in order to show that no
thing was inculcated but what was in harmony
with the catholic faith.
The correction of abuses is not so easy a matter
as they who are ignorant of these subjects com
monly suppose. Many of the Roman Catholic
clergy in Germany, and some in Italy, have been
labouring at this object for many years. The
sovereign Pontiff himself, both before and sub
sequent to his elevation to the holy see, has
had it in contemplation to remedy many things,
which good purpose, however, he has not been
able to effect. The contrariety of opinions
amongst the bishops of the Church of England
would make any attempt at a unity, which is the
first characteristic of the Church, and essential
to its taking any step as a body, perfectly chime
rical. Where, then, can we look for help, in

37
such a miserable state of schism, but to God Him
self, " from whom we have so deeply departed ?"
For He does hold the Christian priesthood re
sponsible for the sins of the whole body of the
baptized, and truly His judgments upon it are
abroad on the earth. The wicked are the Lord's
sword, and it is whetted and drawn for the
slaughter of kings who have not blessed the
people committed to their charge, and of priests
who have not led the baptized in the ways of
God ; and neither throne nor altar in Christen
dom shall escape. God is just : it behoves us
to recognize His justice ; and laying our mouths
in the dust before Him, cry, " Unclean, unclean :"
The only part for those who are faithful is to
cry and sigh for the abominations which are in
the Church : for the Lord has said, Transi per
mediam civitatem in medio Jerusalem ; et signa
thau super frontes virorum gementium et dolentum
super cunctis abominationibus qui jiunt in medio
ejus. In these times specially He says to the
priesthood, Inter vestibulum et altar e plorabunt
sacer dotes ministri Domini, etdicent, Parce Domine,
parce populo tuo, et ne des hcereditatem tuam in
opprobrium, ut dominentur eis nationes. This is
our duty ; remembering it is also written, Diliges
proximum tuum sicut teipsum ; quod si invicem
mordetis, et comeditis, videte ne ab invicem con-
sumemini. Thou shalt love thy neighbour as

38
thyself: but if ye bite and devour one another,
see that ye be not consumed one of another.
At the commencement of this dispensation was
revealed the mystery of godliness, God manifest
in the flesh ; and now at the close of the same is
revealed the mystery of iniquity, the lawlessness
which refuses to recognize God in any institution
amongst men, or to obey kings and priests as
ministers of God, and as those in whom and by
whom alone, as members of His body since the
Incarnation and giving of the Holy Ghost, He
rules, blesses, and teaches men. Every public
controversy encourages the spirit of private judg
ment, which is the spirit of lawlessness; and
when Mr. Palmer publishes, he necessarily calls
on the inferior clergy to sit in judgrac^it on
Bishop Wiseman, and, at the same time, calls
on the laity of his own flock to sit in judgment
on himself. Schism in the Church has produced
as a necessary consequence, the passing by every
priest of the bounds of his own mission. A state
ment which might be useful in the hands of some,
is detrimental when it falls into the hands of
others, so that it is impossible for paper war to
effect any good. Each has need of the support
of his brother, for God is now calling His priest
hood to account for all the idolatry, and all the
division, as well as for all the immorality and
ignorance of His ways that are found upon the

39
earth. The priesthood was appointed to be the
instructor, and the means of preventing these
very evils ; and if these evils are found, the
priesthood has failed to effect this object, for
which, amongst others, it was sent. But never
can the miserable condition of the Church be
mended by each division proclaiming the mote
that is to be seen in the eye of the other, unmind
ful of the beam that is in its own. In order to
heal others, the injunction is to the physician
first to heal himself; ejisceprimum trahem de oculo
tuo,et tunc videbis ejicere festucam de oculo fratris
tui. It is in vain that the Church of Rome calls
to the Church of England to refuse the cup to the
laity ; to conduct the worship in an unknown
tongue ; to command her priests to repudiate
their wives ; to subject women to the disgust
ing details of the confessional ; and to suffer the
allegiance of the people to the Queen to be
contingent upon the word of a foreign bishop.
It is equally vain for the Church of England to
call upon Roman Catholics to unite with a
church which has no government ; where the
preachers are daily contradicting each other and
the standards of the Church with impunity ; and
where every variety of faith is known and avowed
amongst the bishops themselves. Nothing but
an authority superior to both, such as a duly-con
stituted oecumenical council, could possibly bring

40
such discrepancies into union. But each may
cease from widening the breach : and more than
ever shall be now fulfilled the promise of beati
pacifici, quia filii Dei vocahuntur. Blessed are
the peace-makers, for they shall be called the
children of God.

LONDON :
PRINTED BY O, .T. PALMER, SAVOY STREET, STRAND.

YALE UNIVERSITY LIBRARY

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