replies to them. I would much prefer that any of the Priests would meet me before a mixed auditory of Protestants and Romanists, in any suitable place, and vivâ voce discuss the great points at issue. I am ready, in the Lord's strength, to show that the great peculiarities of the Romish Church are essentially unscriptural, and that the distinguishing tenets of the Oxford school are no less so. CONTENTS. TRIDENTINE AND TRACTARIAN POPERY, ITS PRINCIPLES AND PROGRESS. "It was needful for me to write unto you, and exhort you that ye should earnestly contend for the faith, which was once delivered unto ROMISH AND TRACTARIAN CLAIMS AND PRETENSIONS. "In vain they do worship me, teaching for doctrines the command- THE APOSTOLICAL SUCCESSION, AND THE UNITY OF THE CHURCH. "Neither give heed to fables, and endless genealogies, which minister questions, rather than godly edifying, which is in faith."-1 Timothy THE FATHERS NOT SAFE EXPOSITORS OF HOLY SCRIPTURE, AND THE NICENE CHURCH NOT THE RIGHT MODEL OF THE CHRISTIAN CHURCH. "Beware lest any man spoil you through philosophy and vain deceit, after the tradition of men, after the rudiments of the world, and not LECTURE VII. TRANSUBSTANTIATION. "This is my body, which is broken for you."-1 Cor. xi. 24... 143 66 LECTURE VIII. THE SACRIFICE OF THE MASS. By one offering He hath perfected for ever them that are sanctified."Hebrews x. 14. 159 LECTURE IX. PURGATORY. "The blood of Jesus Christ his Son, cleanseth us from all sin."1 John i. 7..... 177 LECTURE X. PROTESTANT CHRISTIANITY. "God forbid that I should glory, save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ."-Galatians vi, 14. 591 LECTURE I. TRIDENTINE AND TRACTARIAN POPERY-ITS PRINCIPLES AND PROGRESS. "It was needful for me to write unto you, and exhort you that ye should earnestly contend for the faith, which was once delivered unto the saints."-Jude 3. "The faith delivered to the saints," is the great and precious prize for which we are exhorted to contend. We are not urged, openly, or by implication, to contend for the outward forms of ecclesiastical polity, which even their most devout admirers do not hold, or, at least, do not prove, to have been delivered originally to the saints by the inspired penmen. Nor does it seem to be implied, at least here, that we are earnestly to contend for those minor and subordinate truths, about which Christians may differ, and to each of which they may attach varied degrees of importance. The object for which we are exhorted to contend, is called, in Titus i. 4, "the common faith;" Jude 3, "the common salvation;" Phil. iii. 16, common hope;" and, in Ephesians iv. 3, "ONE LORD, ONE SPIRIT, ONE BODY, ONE FAITH, ONE BAPTISM, ONE HOPE, ONE GOD and Father of all," the seven-fold-the common hope of the unity of the Christian Church, embosoming within it the principles that lie at the very roots, and nourish the very substance, of the gospel; the great and everlasting truths, the extinction of which is the extinction of Christianity itself, and the corruption of which is the contamination of men's hearts upon earth, and the perdition of men's souls in eternity. (6 You will observe, it is said that this faith was once delivered to the saints." It was specially delivered to the Apostles and Evangelists by the Holy Spirit, by whom it has been recorded for our instruction. It was intrusted to believers, or, if you like, to the Christian Church of every age, to be witnesses to its sacredness, to be the guardians of its integrity, and in order that ministers and people might drink from its pure and refreshing streams, "without money and without price." The Old Testament was entrusted to the Jews,-to them were committed the oracles of God;" the Old and New Testament, together, were intrusted to the Christians. In both cases the sacred Scriptures were to be the only conclusive and binding directory; "to the law and to the testimony," being the only legitimate tribunal to which they were commanded to appeal in all things sacred. This faith was 66 once delivered to the saints." The very same Greek word, which is here translated "once," and applied to the Gospel record or the Scriptures as delivered to the saints, is also applied to the atonement of our blessed Lord, which is declared to have been "once for all." It denotes finality and completeness. The full weight and force of the expression is, unquestionably, this that the truths contained within the commencement of Genesis and the close of Revelation, are the centre and circumference of saving truth, so complete and so perfect, that tampering with them is deadly guilt; so that, subtraction from them is to incur subtraction of our name from the book of life, and, in addition, to draw down the infliction of all the curses that are written in this book. The reason which Jude assigns for this command to his converts, "earnestly to contend for this faith," is, that there were "certain men crept in unawares," who are said to have been inculcating pernicious principles, and, in addition, practising certain immoral conduct. Now we maintain, that the circumstances of the present day are, to a great extent, parallel in spirit, if not in letter, with those of the Apostle Jude's day. Never did superstition seem to menace so powerfully the eclipse of all that we love, the extinction of all that we revere. Never did the Church of Rome, on the one hand, attain a spread so rapid, and a power so gigantic, even already weaving chaplets for her victories; and never in the whole history of the Protestant Church, on the other hand, has there evolved so rapid and so fatal an apostacy, as that which is now overshadowing, not a small, but a large section of the clergy of the Church of England. It is time, therefore, earnestly to contend for the faith once delivered to the saints. This evening my statements may not be interesting; but I believe they are necessary, and, in no slight degree, important. My object, according to the announcement in the placard, is to lay before you the principles of the Church of Rome, on the one hand, as briefly as I can ; and, on the other, as clearly and compendiously as I may be able, the principles of certain ostensibly Protestant ministers, who thirst for absorption in the Papacy, and assimilate daily to its doctrine and discipline. There are, in fact, two forms, or rather degrees, of Popery, in the present day; there is Popery in the blossom, and Popery in the bud. There is Popery in its full-blown, destructive, and wasting practices; and there is Popery in principle, only more perilous because concentrated, and waiting for the moment when the pressure of Protestant watchfulness and Protestant faithfulness shall be withdrawn, to expand and develope its bud in that overshadowing despotism, which has enslaved the free, tainted the holy, and made kings and nations to be prostrate at the foot of an insolent Hierarch. The principles of the Church of Rome may be very briefly summed up. You are probably aware that the document, specially binding upon every priest and member of the Roman Catholic Church, is made up of what are called the Canons of the Council of Trent. It would be tedious to read these; but, immediately after that council, Pope Pius IV. drew up, with the sanction of the council, a summary of its canons and decrees, now universally received by the Papacy; and if any Protestant abandons his own church, and joins the Church of Rome, he has to repeat that creed, and set his seal to it, as the profession of his faith. This is what is called the creed of Pope Pius the Fourth; and, to it, every priest, and bishop, and Cardinal, and Pope, of the Roman Catholic Church, necessarily subscribes. You will observe, that, in reading this document, I read the principles only of the Church of Rome, without any reference to the practical development of those principles in her books of devotion; I shall have occasion in the course of my lectures, to turn your attention to the practical development of those principles, as they exist in the authorised |