EXTRACTS,
&c.

EXTRACTS FROM THE TRACTS FOR THE TIMES.

1. "It is certain that the Bishops and Clergy in England and Ireland remained the same as before the separation; and that it was these, with the aid of the civil power, who delivered the Church of those kingdoms from the yoke of Papal tyranny and usurpation ; while at the same time they gradually removed from the minds of the people various superstitious opinions and practices which had grown up during the middle ages."—No. 15. p. 4.

2. "That there is not a word in Scripture about our duty to obey the Pope, is quite clear. The Papists, indeed, say that he is the successor of St. Peter; and that, therefore, he is head of all Bishops, because St. Peter bore rule over the other Apostles. But though the Bishops of Rome were often called the successors of St. Peter in the early Church, yet every other Bishop had the same title. And though it be true that St. Peter was the foremost of the Apostles, that does not prove that he had any dominion over them. And so Rome has ever had what is called the primacy of the Christian Churches, but it has not, therefore, any right to interfere in their internal administration."-Ibid. p. 5.

3. "But it may be said, that we have really no valid orders, as having received them from an heretical Church. True, Rome may be so considered now; but she was not heretical in the primitive ages."-Ibid. p. 10.

4. "It may be said, that we threw blame on Luther, and others of the foreign Reformers, who did act without the authority of their Bishops. But we reply, that it has been always agreeable to the principles of the Church, that, if a Bishop taught and upheld what was contrary to the orthodox faith, the Clergy and people were not bound to submit, but were obliged to maintain the true religion."Ibid. p. 11.

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'While they [the writer and others] consider that the revival of this portion of truth is especially adapted to break up existing parties in the Church, and to form instead a bond of union among all who love the LORD JESUS CHRIST in sincerity; they believe that nothing but these neglected doctrines, faithfully preached, will repress that extension of Popery, for which the ever-multiplying divisions of the religious world are too clearly preparing the way." -Advertisement to Vol. i. p. 5.

6. "You have some misgivings, it seems, lest the doctrine I have been advocating should lead to Popery.' I will not, by way of answer, say, that the question is not whether it will lead to Popery, but whether it is in the Bible; because it would bring the Bible and Popery into one sentence, and seem to imply the possibility of a 'communion' between light and darkness.' No; it is the very enmity I feel against the Papistical corruptions of the Gospel, which leads me to press upon you a doctrine of Scripture, which we are sinfully surrendering, and the Church of Rome has faithfully retained.

"How comes it that a system so unscriptural as the Popish makes converts? Because it has in it an element of truth and comfort amid its falsehoods. And the true way of opposing it is not to give up to them that element, which GoD's providence has preserved to us also, thus basely surrendering the inheritance of our fathers,' but to claim it as our own."-No. 20. p. 1.

7. " Truly when one surveys the grandeur of their system, a sigh arises in the thoughtful mind, to think that we should be separate from them; Cum talis sis, utinam noster esses!-But, alas! AN UNION IS IMPOSSIBLE'. Their communion is infected with heterodoxy; we are bound to flee it as a pestilence. They have established a lie in the place of God's truth; and by their claim of immutability in doctrine, cannot undo the sin they have committed. They cannot repent. Popery must be destroyed; it cannot be reformed."-Ibid. p. 3.

8. "He has wonderfully preserved our Church as a true branch of the Church Universal, yet withal preserved it free from doctrinal heresy. It is Catholic and Apostolic, yet not Papistical. . . . Depend upon it, to insist on the doctrine of the visible Church is not to favour the Papists, it is to do them the most serious injury. It is to deprive them of their only strength."-Ibid. p. 4.

9. "

Though it may please GOD that we should suffer for a while as we suffered, together with good King Charles, at the hands of the dissenters; as we suffered in the days of bloody Queen Mary, at the hands of the Roman Catholics; as we suffered during the first three hundred years after CHRIST, at the hands of the Heathens and the Jews, yet eventually, triumph will await us."No. 23. p. 3.

10. "As to the manner of the presence of the body and blood of our LORD in the Blessed Sacrament, we that are Protestant and Reformed, according to the ancient Catholic Church, do not search into the manner of it with perplexing inquiries. Had the Romish maintainers of Transubstantiation done the same, they would not have determined and decreed, and then imposed as an article of faith absolutely necessary to salvation, a manner of presence, newly by them invented, under pain of the most direful curse; and there would have been in the Church less wrangling, and more peace and

1 Vid. infr. Extract 50.

unity than now is."—No. 27. p. 2.—Bishop Cosin on Transubstantiation.

11. "It is in vain that they bring Scripture to defend this their stupendous doctrine [transubstantiation]; and it is not true, what they so often and so confidently affirm, that the Universal Church hath always constantly owned it, being it was not so much as heard of in the Church for many ages, and hath been but lately approved by the Pope's authority in the Councils of Lateran and Trent.' Ibid. p. 16.

12. "The history of the Papists is this. Many centuries ago, strange and corrupt notions and practices prevailed in many of the Churches in Europe. Among others, people thought the Pope or Bishop of Rome was gifted with authority from Heaven to control all the branches of the Church on earth, and that his word was to be of more weight than even the Holy Scriptures themselves. But about three hundred years ago, the Bishops of the Church of England saw these errors in their true light."-No. 30.

p. 5.

13. "Clericus. Say more definitely what the charge against me is. Laicus. That your religious system, which I have heard some persons style the Apostolical, and which I so name by way of designation, is like that against which our forefathers protested at the Reformation.

C. I will admit it, i. e., if I may reverse your statement, and say that the Popish system resembles it. Indeed, how could it be otherwise, seeing that all corruptions of the truth must be like the truth which they corrupt, else they would not persuade mankind to take them instead of it?"-No. 38. p. 1.

14. "Be assured of this, no party will be more opposed to our doctrine, if it ever prospers and makes noise, than the Roman party. This has been proved before now. In the seventeenth cen

tury, the theology of the divines of the English Church was substantially the same as ours is; and it experienced the full hostility of the Papacy. It was the true Via Media: Rome sought to block up that way, as fiercely as the Puritans. History tells us this. In a few words, then, before we separate, I will state some of my irreconcileable differences with Rome as she is; and in stating her errors, I will closely follow the order observed by Bishop Hall in his treatise on The Old Religion, whose Protestantism is unquestionable.

I consider that it is unscriptural to say with the Church of Rome, that we are justified by inherent righteousness.'

6

That it is unscriptural that the good works of a man justified do truly merit eternal life.'

That the doctrine of transubstantiation, as not being revealed, but a theory of man's devising, is profane and impious.

That the denial of the cup to the laity, is a bold and unwarranted encroachment on their privileges as CHRIST's people.

That the sacrifice of masses, as it has been practised in the Roman

Church, is without foundation in Scripture or antiquity, and therefore blasphemous and dangerous.

That the honour paid to images is very full of peril, in the case of the uneducated, that is, of the great part of Christians.

That indulgences, as in use, are a gross and monstrous invention of later times.

That the received doctrine of purgatory is at variance with Scripture, cruel to the better sort of Christians, and administering deceitful comfort to the irreligious.

That the practice of celebrating divine service in an unknown tongue is a great corruption.

That forced confession is an unauthorized and dangerous practice. That the direct invocation of saints is a dangerous practice, as tending to give, often actually giving, to creatures the honour and reliance due to the Creator alone.

That there are not seven sacraments.

That the Roman doctrine of Tradition is unscriptural.

That the claim of the Pope to be universal bishop is against Scripture and antiquity.

I might add other points in which also I protest against the Church of Rome, but I think it enough to make my confession in Hall's order, and so leave it."-Ibid. P. 11.

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15. Rome has to confess her Papal corruptions, and her cruelty towards those who refuse to accept them."-No. 8. p. 4.

16. " The Church has in a measure forgotten its own principles, as declared in the sixteenth century; nay, under stranger circumstances, as far as I know, than have attended any of the errors and corruptions of the Papists. Grievous as are their declensions from primitive usage, I never heard in any case of their practice directly contradicting their services; whereas we go on lamenting once a year the absence of discipline in our Church, yet do not even dream of taking any one step towards its restoration."-No. 41. p. 1.

17. "Do you not suppose that there are multitudes both among clergy and laity at the present day, who disparage not indeed CHRIST's merits, but the sacraments He has appointed? and if so, is not their error so far the same in kind as that of the Romish churchthe preferring Abana and Pharpar to the waters of Jordan?.... Happily we are not as yet so corrupted as at the era of the Reformation;....yet is not the mode of viewing the subject I refer to, a growing one, and how does it differ from the presumption of the Papists ? In both cases the power of CHRIST's sacraments is denied; in the one case by the unbelief of restlessness and fear, in the other by the unbelief of profaneness."-Ibid. p. 2.

18. "Our Reformers in the sixteenth century did not touch the existing documents of doctrine; there was no occasion; they kept the creeds as they were; but they added protests against the corruptions of faith, worship, and discipline, which had grown up round them."-Ibid. p. 3.