some temporary benefits might appear to result from it. He who declared, that "they who caused divisions or offences served not our Lord Jesus Christ," (Rom. xvi. 17, 18.) never would have approved of those, who, while they preached the Gospel of Christ, could not but have encouraged a spirit of rebellion against his authority. That motives of personal enmity would have had no weight with him we may well imagine; that he would rejoice in the successful exertions of those, who, though his fellow-labourers, bore him no good-will, we cannot doubt: but that he could have felt pleasure in contemplating the acts of those preachers, whose envy and strife were directed, not against himself, but against the government of that Church which he had been so earnestly employed in constituting, the whole tenour of his doctrine and his conduct forbids us to allow. Vain then must be every attempt to elicit from the language of this great master-builder any approbation of those, who would divide the house which he had contributed to raise; on the contrary, acting as one fully sensible of the meaning and the necessity of the caution conveyed in the text, he taught us plainly and decidedly "to mark those who caused divisions, and to avoid them;" (Rom. xvi. 17.) Before I quit the subject of the text, I would willingly call the observation of the reader to a paraphrase of the passage by Zuinglius, as cited by Meisner in his review of a celebrated scheme of pacification, which will be noticed in its proper place. "Non possum hic" (says Meisner) "quin Zuinglii verba adducam, quæ a Marlorato ad eum locum recensentur: medium non reliquit Christus, inquit, aut colligere oportet cum eo, aut dispergere cum Satana. Ergo videtur simul his verbis hypocritas quosdam allocutus, qui eum esse Messiam dissimulabant, quasi dicat, Multi inter vos qui omnia dissimulant, neutri parti adhærentes. Sed si vere essetis discipuli mei, si vere crederetis mihi, adjungeretis vos plebi et confitemini, me virtute Dei ejecisse dæmonium, ageretisque pro tam immenso beneficio gratias Deo. Cum hoc nolitis, deberetis vos palam adjunxisse alteri parti, quæ factum meum calumniatur, et dæmoni ascribit. At quia dissimulatis, certissimum signum est,

6

vos mecum non esse, nec mecum colligere, sed dispergere potius, adhæretis calumniantibus me, utcunque dissimuletis. 'Observent ista,' pergit, qui hodie neutri parti addicti sunt, nihilque religionem Christi, et veritatem evangelicam curant, quorum magnus est numerus.'" Meisner. Irenicum Durcanum, p. 424.

NOTE CXXX.

The law of the Six Articles (see Note XCIII.) was framed in this spirit; and is a proof that, even where the temporal supremacy of the Roman Pontiff had been renounced, the same mode of enforcing submission to the peculiar doctrines which the Roman Church had taught, was carefully adhered to by the advocates of its superstition." In this parliament, synode, or convocation," says Fox, "certaine articles, matters, and questions, touching religion, were decreed by certaine prelates, to the number especiallie of six, commonly called the Six Articles, to be had and received among the king's subjects, in pretence of unitie. But what unitie thereof followed, the groaning hearts of a great number, and also the cruell death of divers, both in the daies of King Henrie and of Queene Mary, can so well declare, as I pray God, never the like be felt hereafter." Wordsworth's Eccles. Biog, vol. iii. p. 470.

NOTE CXXXI.

The almost prophetic language of the venerable Latimer, when the kindled fagot was placed at the feet of his fellow sufferer, should ever be remembered. "Be of good comfort, Master Ridley, and play the man. We shall this day light such a candle, by God's grace, in England, as I trust shall never be put out." That expectation, which contributed to support these holy men under the fiery trial which awaited them, has, by God's blessing, been fully accomplished. But their example began to produce its effect sooner than they could have imagined. For even at the moment, when, with true Christian heroism, they were strengthening themselves under torments, by the hope that the pure religion of Christ would flourish by their death; that heroism was working its effect, in one of the spectators

of their martyrdom. Julius Palmer, an ingenious young man, and Fellow of Magdalen College in Oxford, had been through King Edward's reign a warm and zealous Papist; and now attended the execution of Ridley and Latimer, with an anxious desire to discover something in their behaviour, which might justify him in believing that they were not sincere in their profession; or that they were obstinate enthusiasts, not real martyrs to the truth. "But he rose," says their biographer, 66 a convert from their blood; and went away publickly exclaiming against the tyranny and cruelty of his old allies. And having suffered loss of fortune for his intemperate zeal in Popery under King Edward, was now so convinced of his error, as boldly to suffer martyrdom for Protestantism under Queen Mary." See Wordsworth, Eccles. Biog. vol. iii. p. 422. where this interesting anecdote is related with a pathos and simplicity which cannot fail to impress it upon the reader.

NOTE CXXXII,

The language of Cassander on this subject, as well as throughout the treatise, is guarded and moderate: but he unequivocally maintains the supremacy of the Pope, as if it rested upon the indisputable testimony of all antiquity. "Quod autem ad unitatem hujus externæ Ecclesiæ requirunt obedientiam unius summi rectoris, qui Petrum in regenda Christi Ecclesia, et ejus ovibus pascendis successerit, non est a consensu prisca quoque Ecclesiæ alienum." He allows indeed, that the power which the Popes had possessed, had been abused; and to this abuse alone he attributes the resistance it had met with, and the controversies which had been raised concerning its legality. "Neque unquam credo controversia apud nos ea de re extitisset, nisi Pontifices Romani hac auctoritate ad dominationis quandam speciem abusi fuissent, eamque extra fines a Christo, et Ecclesia præscriptos ambitionis et cupiditatis causa extulissent." Still however he asserts its necessity; and seems to think, that no real friend of Christian concord can object to it. "Qui Christianæ concordiæ studiosi erunt, et animo ab omni contentionis æstu abducto rem ipsam considerarint, libenter

ad Ecclesiæ unitatem et pacem conservandam eam potestatem agnoscent, quam illi perpetuus Ecclesiæ consensus tribuit." Cassandri Consult. art. 7. Grotii Op. tom. iii.

NOTE CXXXIII.

The treatise of Bossuet, as translated, bore this title: "An Exposition of the Doctrine of the Catholic Church in Matters of Controversie, by the Right Rev. James Benigne Bossuet, &c. &c.; done into English from the fifth edition in French. London. 1685." The object of the author was so to soften down and explain away the leading articles of Popery, as to allure unwary Protestants into that communion, by persuading them that the ground of the Reformation was wholly laid in mis-conception and misrepresentation; and that those te-nets of the Romanists, which were generally represented as most obnoxious, were either not held by them, or' held in such a sense as to involve none of the errors with which they had been charged. This subtle design Archbp. Wake fully disclosed in "An Exposition of the Doctrine of the Church of England in the several Articles proposed by M. de Meaux, late Bp. of Condom, in his Exposition of the Doctrine of the Catholic Church; to which is prefixed a particular account of M. de Meaux's book. London. 1686." This account contains the history of the first edition of the work; which was suppressed by Bossuet, in consequence of the opposition he experienced from the doctors of the Sorbonne; who, instead of approving of it, "marked several of the most considerable parts of it, wherein the Exposition, instead of palliating, had absolutely perverted the doctrine of their Church." To prevent the scandal which such a censure might have caused, "the several places which had been marked were changed; and at the end of the same year a new edition, much altered, was exposed as the first impression of the work." Even in this state however it never received the approbation of the Sorbonne in form; nor could it obtain that of the Pope," until after eight years' powerful solicitation, when his Holiness was at last convinced, that it was a scheme artfully contrived to support the Ca

tholic cause, and to reconcile the Protestants to it in France." See Tottie's Charge, printed with a volume of Sermons. Oxon. 1775. Wake, however, having procured a copy of the suppressed edition, compared it with that which was published, and was enabled to prove, in opposition to the assertion of Bossuet, that it was not so improbable as he had represented it, "that a bishop of the Church of Rome should either be not sufficiently instructed in his religion, to know what is the doctrine of it; or not sufficiently sincere, to represent it without disguise." He then examines the altered passages, and shews that they do not come up to the doctrine of the Romish Church, though their language is much stronger than that of the original copy. And in order to prove, that, to uphold their cause, the Roman Church writers have not scrupled publicly to hold doctrines themselves, and to approve them when held by others, which their Church really condemns; he brings forward evidence, that some of the dignified persons, who had sanctioned the Exposition of Bossuet, had at other times published opinions directly contrary to that which it maintains. He then declares the object of his own Treatise thus; " Having by a long converse among the Papists of our own and other countries perceived, that, either by the ignorance or malice of their instructors, they have generally very false and imperfect notions of our opinions, in the matters in controversy between us; I have suffered myself to be persuaded to pursue the method of M. de Meaux's Exposition, as to the doctrine of the Church of England; and oppose sincerely, to what he pretends is the opinion of the Roman Church, that form of faith that is openly professed, and taught without any disguise.or dissimulation among us. (See Preface.) This he does, following Bossuet article by article; stating the doctrine of the Church of England, exposing his attempts to palliate the Romish errors, and shewing by an appeal to her authorized forms, and the writings of her most celebrated defenders, what are the opinions really held by the Church of Rome. This treatise having called forth "A Vindication of the Bishop of Condom's Exposition of the Doctrine of the Catholic