provisions; that is, 57 the providing, before vacancies occurred, for the needy adventurers from a foreign land. My limits do not permit me to particularize the attempts made, 58 especially in the reigns of the Edwards I. and III., to correct these glaring evils; nor that, 59 in the reign of Richard II., the Commons in Parliament, among their grievances, complained that the clergy held one-third of the landed property of the kingdom. But we should observe that, through Papal means and for Papal purposes, in many flagrant instances, this appropriation of property was principally lodged in the hands of the conventual or regular clergy, as they were called; who were unjustly freed from contributing their due support to the parochial, or, as they were called, the secular clergy. These and other gross enormities, independent of the restoration of the scriptural doctrines, freed from 60 the base alloy of the heathenized tenets of the Roman Church, demanded the re-assertion of the rights of the primitive Church of Britain; to which our Church was, and is entitled, 61 according to the Sixth Canon of the first Council of Nice, in common with all other independent Churches.

The claims of the Church of England in opposition to Dissent in some measure relate, like those in oppo

57 Blackstone's Commentaries on the Laws of England, IV., 8, 107.

58 Blackstone, ibid., 33, 425, 428. Twysden's Historical Vindication of the Church of England, &c., IV. Of the Payments to the Papacy from England, 82, &c., compared with III. Of the increase of the Papal Power, &c., 62, 67, &c. London, 1675.

59 Cotton's Exact Abridgment of the Records in the Tower of London, 189. London, 1657. Kennett's Case of Impropriations, $9.25; 22, 84, &c. London, 1704.

Laud's Conference with Fisher, § 33, 181-183. London, 1686. Stopford's Pagano-Papismus ; or, an exact Parallel between Rome Pagan and Rome Christian. Introduction. London, 1675. Fabricii Bibliographia Antiquaria, IV., § vi. 165, &c. Hamburgi, 1760, wherein the Romish Church writers are quoted by way of proof.

See in this Tract, 12, 13, 37, 38, and notes.

sition to Popery, to Church government, and to matters of faith and practice.

To begin with Church government. We shall find that the Dissenters in this kingdom, usually passing under the title of 62 "the Three Denominations," that is, the Presbyterians, the Independents, and the Baptists, (or, more correctly, Anabaptists,) declare for the parity of the ministers of the Gospel in matters of Church government. 63 But we have seen that the Universal Church and our ancient Church, as a portion of it, was from its beginning established in Episcopacy. Our judicious Hooker asserts, 64 "A thousand five hundred years and upward the Church of Christ hath now continued under the sacred regiment of bishops." Salmasius of France, one of the most learned of all Presbyterians, admits, concerning Episcopal government, 65" The thing itself is most ancient; for, if the times of the Apostles are excepted, those two orders of bishops and presbyters have been distinct in the Church." If this be conceded, then Salmasius gives up the contest; for it is evident, 66 as has been already observed, that the Apostles themselves, as shewn in the New Testament, exercised this supervision, which, as an abiding part of their office, has descended to the bishops of the Church. Blondel, another very learned Frenchman and Presbyterian, singularly enough admits, 67 66 "By all that we have said to assert the rights of the

62 Burn's Ecclesiastical Law under Dissenters, II., 166, note a. London, 1809.

63 See in this Tract, 32-34.

64 Hooker's Ecclesiastical Polity, VII., i. 111. Oxford, 1807. 65 Salmasius, under the name of Walo Messalinus, in Hammondi Dissertationes Quatuor, IV., xvii. § 2, 222, Londini, 1651, and Parker's Government of the Church, &c., § V. 56, note. London, 1683.

66 See in this Tract, 32-34.

67 Blondell, quoted in Durel's Government, &c., in the Reformed Churches, &c. Appendix, 339. London, 1662, compared with Blondelli Apologia pro Sententia Hieronymi de Episcopis et Presbyteris. Præf. 7, 11; sect. I., 3; observanda 3. Amst., 1646. Hammond., 221.

Presbytery, we do not intend to invalidate the ancient and Apostolical constitution of Episcopal pre-eminence." And the three leading Reformers, Luther, Melancthon, and Calvin, were all in favour of Episcopacy, as their works, if examined, will shew. If any doubt this assertion, especially as it regards Calvin, 69 let such consult the "Life and Correspondence of Parker, Archbishop of Canterbury," as written and published by Strype, and they may be satisfied.

As regards faith and practice, the claims of the Church of England against the Dissenters may be safely intrusted to one to whom our Dissenters frequently appeal,-I mean John Calvin. He tells us,

"Wherever we see the Word of God sincerely preached and heard, wherever we see the sacraments administered according to the institution of Christ, there we cannot have any doubt that the Church of God has some existence, since his promise cannot fail, 'Where two or three are gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst of them."" He adds, after noticing several objections, 71 "No man may with impunity spurn her authority, or reject her admonitions,-far less revolt from her unity." These things, then, declare the unlawfulness of Dissent among ourselves in England; for those who do so, cannot deny that in our Protestant Church, as established, the Rule of Faith and Practice is the Word of God; that this is insisted upon in her Liturgy, Articles, and Homilies; and that the Sacraments are administered according to Christ's institution. As to matters of Practice, which 68 Morton's Episcopacy of the Church of England, &c., L., § i. 1; S v. 14-18; IV., § vii. 94, &c. London, 1670, Forbesii Irenicum, II., xi. 410, 411, in Oper. I. Amst., 1703, and the Calvin Translation Society's editions. Edinburgh, 1846, 1844.

Strype's Life and Acts of Matthew Parker, &c., I., ii., ii., 139, 140. Oxford, 1821, compared with Strype's Memorials of Thomas Cranmer, &c., II., ii. 15, 191-193. Oxford, 1848. Original Letters relating to the English Reformation, 21-26, 711-714. Parker Society Edition, 1846, &c.

70 Calvin's Institutes of the Christian Religion, IV., i., § 9, 21. Edinburgh, 1846, under the auspices of the Calvin Translation Society. Matt. xviii. 20. 71 Calvin, ibid., § 10, 22.

Dissenters object against the Church of England, as the Cross in Baptism, Kneeling at the Lord's Supper, the wearing the surplice, and the like, I may again adduce the authority of Calvin : 72 "How perilous then, nay, how fatal the temptation, when we even entertain a thought of separating ourselves from that assembly in which we behold the signs and badges -the Word of God sincerely preached and heard, and the Sacraments administered according to the institution of Christ,-which the Lord hath deemed sufficient to characterize his Church." In short as Calvin adds; 73 We are not on account of every minute difference to abandon a Church."

I have not noticed the peculiar tenet of the Anabaptists, in their denial of Infant Baptism; which distinguishes or rather divides them, not only from our Church, but from their own brother Dissenters of other denominations :-it is sufficient to observe that 74 all the Reformers, 75 and the Universal Church in all ages, were opposed to them; and, what is much more, 76 the command of the Saviour himself, the analogy and comparison of the two Dispensations, Mosaical and Christian, between Circumcision and Baptism; as 77 Calvin also shews in his works, against the Anabaptists of his own days.

The separation of Dissenters from the Church of England, then, according to Calvin, is not only unten

72 Ibid., § 11, 23; § 9, 21.

73 Ibid., § 12, 24.

*Bowden's Covenant Right of Infants, and the Mode of Christian Baptism. London. Seeleys.-Confessions of a Convert from Baptism in Water, to Baptism with Water. London, 1845, compared with Ridgley's Body of Divinity, II. Quest. clxvi. 408-420. London, 1731, &c.

74 Sylloge Confessionum, 83, 110, 134, 314, 344. Oxon., 1804, compared with XXVIIth Article of the Church of England: Of Baptism.

75 Wall's History of Infant Baptism, Part II., viii. in Wall's Conference between two Men that had Doubts on Infant Baptism, 42. Printed for the Christian Knowledge Society, 1840. 76 Matthew, xix. 13; Calvin, ibid. xvi., § 7, 356.

77 Calvin, ibid. xvi., § 3, 352, &c. Calvini Oper. viii. 357–359. Amst., 1667.

80

able, but contrary to the true interpretation of the Word of God, and the Unity of his Church: 78 but the separation of the Church of England from the Church of Rome, and especially, since the enactments of the Council of Trent, and the promulgation of its Creed, A.D. 1564, by Pius IV., the then principal Bishop of that Church, is not only lawful but necessary; 79 arising, as it does, from her Tyranny in the Government of the Church; Capital Errors in Doctrine; and Idolatry in Worship. All these, in the fourth book of his Institutes, near the commencement does Calvin luminously shew, and incontestably support. And if, in conclusion, I may hazard a few words, we consider only the assertions of the Trent Creed;-81 "a form of Faith extracted out of the Council of Trent,”—that the Roman Church is the Mother and Mistress of all other Churches; that there are seven, truly and properly, Sacraments of the new law, instituted by Jesus Christ; that there is offered in the Mass, a true, proper, and propitiatory Sacrifice for the living and the dead; that the body and blood of our Lord Jesus Christ are truly, really, and substantially present in the Eucharist, together with his soul and Divinity; that a conversion of the whole substance of the bread and wine is made into the body and blood (of our Lord), which conversion the (Roman) Catholic Church calls Transubstantiation ;-in short, that Christ is wholly present under each species, (the bread and wine ;) that the Saints reigning with Christ are to be venerated and invocated; their images to have the accustomed honour and veneration bestowed upon them; that the power of indulgences was bequeathed by Christ to his Church, and their use highly salutary to Christian

78" Clagett's Difference of the Case between the Separation of Protestants from the Church of Rome, and the Separation of Dissenters from the Church of England:" in Gibson's Preser vative against Popery, III. Title ix. 438-460. Stillingfleet's Unreasonableness of Separation, in his Works, II., 439-674. 79 Stillingfleet, ibid. 552-554.

So Calvin's Instit., ii., § 1-12, 41-55. 81 Gibson, ibid. Title x., 3-59.