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AT that period of our history, when the Clergy of the Church of England, were deprived of their revenues, their rank, and their privileges; they disdained either to retract, to palliate, or to apologise for, their opinions. If any person who advocated their return to power, had required from them "distinct explanatory statement of the doctrines, and opinions, of the Episcopalians of the Church of England;" they would have scorned the expedient of submitting to the Presbyterian Republicans of their time, any long, labored, studied declaration. They would have triumphantly appealed to their well-known Articles of Religion, to the Book of Common Prayer, and to the Book of Homilies, as to the undoubted, and authorised expositions of their faith. To these, indeed, the Clergy have uniformly and successfully

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referred, in every attack upon their Church, whether by the Puritan, the Romanist, or the Sectarian.*

If the advocates of the Church of Rome had resorted to this plan, when Mr. Wilmot Horton demanded of the Roman Catholic Body, an explicit statement of their religious opinions; the country would have been more satisfied with their reply. The Bishops who have signed the declaration, which has been so unblushingly, and extensively circulated, have sworn to the truth of certain doctrines. They have promised true obedience to the Roman Pontiff, as the Successor of St. Peter, and Vicar of Jesus Christ; and to receive all things defined, delivered, and declared by the Holy Canons, and General Councils, and more especially by the Council of Trent. They have solemnly declared, that they will preserve, defend, increase, and advance, the rights, the honors, the privileges, and authority of the Church of Rome, and of their Lord the Pope.† We have been accustomed to assert, and that pub

* Dr Gauden's "Church Complaints;" Thorndyke's Epilogue to the Church of England; many of Hammond's Works, and of Bishop Taylor, were published in the time of the Commonwealth. Bishop Taylor's Preface to his Apology for Liturgies, is one of the most eloquent compositions of that day. I shall only crave leave, he says, that I may remember Jerusalem, and call to mind the pleasures of the Temple, the order of her services, the beauty of her buildings, the sweetness of her songs, the decency of her ministrations, the assiduity and economy of her Priests and Levites, and the eternal fire of devotion, that went not out by day, nor by night: these were the pleasures of our peace, and there is a remanent felicity in the very memory of those spiritual delights, &c. &c. &c.

See the Creed of Pope Pius, published by Mr Butler-the

licly, and repeatedly, that these oaths include many things which are detrimental to the security of a We therefore refuse to grant them

Protestant state.

their faith.

political power. Their own partizans, under these circumstances, require an authentic Exposition of Why then do they not produce the Creeds, and Canons, and Councils to which they have sworn? Why do they not appeal to their acknowledged formularies, alone, for their confession of faith? They present us with a paper called a Declaration. They neither tell us if it is a Declaration of their religious, or of their political opinions-whether it expresses all, or part-whether it is the summary of faith, entertained by the whole of the Romish body-or of those only, who have affixed to it their signature. It is neither sanctioned by the Pope, nor approved by foreign Universities. It appeals neither to Councils, nor Canons, nor Fathers. It is supported by no quotations from their written creeds, or from their solemn oaths, or from their offices of religion-from their breviary, their missal, or their ritual. We have no proof whatever, that if this Declaration were to be regarded by the government of the country, as a complete and satisfactory statement of the opinions entertained by the members of the Church of Rome, that it is an authorised confession of faith, irrepealable by the Head

Oath of a Roman Catholic Priest-and the Oath of a Roman Catholic Bishop, in the Report of the Lords' Committee of En quiry into the state of Ireland.

of their Church, if He should at any time think proper to exercise the power with which the Romanists believe him to be vested,-the power of the dominium altum, or the right of providing for extraordinary cases, by extraordinary acts of authority. The Declaration, therefore, appears to many, and to me among the number, to be utterly unworthy of notice. It is incompetent to its object, and unsatisfactory in its statements. As others, however, have not considered it deserving of this severe condemnation, I very unwillingly impose upon myself the task of reviewing it throughout; and of exhibiting its delusiveness, by comparing it with the acknowledged creeds and catechisms, which are the best, and accredited authorities of the Church of Rome.

That the reader may more easily follow me through the examination of this singular document, I reprint the Declaration; and reply, as briefly as possible, to each of its paragraphs, in their order, as they are respectively numbered. I have patiently, and anxiously waited, in the hope that some other person, who has more leisure, and is better qualified than I am, would have undertaken this office, on the plan which appears most adviseable; and thus have relieved me from this ungrateful duty. I have waited in vain. The indolence of Protestants is the greatest encouragement of Romanism; and in the present instance, silence would be weakness, and forbearance a crime.

* Sec Mr Butler's Works, vol. ii., p. 15, and the Remarks of Dr. Phillpotts, 2nd edition, p. 305.