REASONS.

It is not one, because the different branchés of the pretended Reformation are divided from one another in faith and communion, &c. 2. Their Church is not holy; neither in her doctrine, nor in the lives either of her first teachers, or of their followers. 3. Their Church is not Catholic; they are sensible this name belongs not to them, and therefore they have taken to themselves another name, viz. that of Protestants. And indeed how should their Church be Catholic or Universal, which implies being in all ages, and in all nations; since it had no being for fifteen ages, and is unknown in most nations. 4. Their Church is not Apostolical; since it neither was founded by any of the Apostles, nor has any succession of doctrine, communion, or lawful mission.

6. Because Luther, the first preacher of the Protestant religion, &c.

7. Because the first steps towards intro

ANSWERS.

the Lutheran Church, and the Church of England. The universal Church of Christ is one, holy, Catholic, and Apostolical; but the before-mentioned branches of this Church do not pretend to be the whole Church of Christ. Yet they are one with the universal Church, as the disciples of Christ are one with Christ; (2.) they are holy, as being parts of that which is holy; (3.) they are Catholic, as being parts of the Church universal; and (4.) they are Apostolical, because they are' founded on the doctrines and discipline of the Apostles. The Church of Britain is eminently Apostolical, having been founded and established by St. Paul,

Protestants are Catholic, as being members. of the Church universal. They do not cease to be Catholic, because they protest against the errors of the Church of Rome; however improperly the term Catholic may be used by Papists, and even by some Protestants, as opposed to the term Protestant.

6. Luther lived nine hundred years after the first Protest of the British Church against the Church of Rome.

7. Answered in Nos. 1, 3, 6.

REASONS.

ducing the Protestant Religion into England were made by King Henry VIII,

8. Because Protestancy was settled upon its present bottom in this kingdom by act of Parliament in the first year of the reign of Queen Elizabeth, &c. How then can it be called the Church of England, or any Church at all, seeing it was introduced and established only by the authority of mere laymen, in opposition to the Church?

9. Because there is not so much religion among Protestants as among Catholics [Papists], no extraordinary sanctity, no renunciation of worldly goods, no houses consecrated to retirement, &c.

10. Because we alone inherit the name of Catholic.

ANSWERS.

8. Protestantism was restored and reestablished in the reign of Queen Elizabeth. But the British Church protested against Popery more than nine centuries before that time. Popish writers have a very imperfect notion of the Church of Christ. 'The

Church does not consist merely of Bishops and the Clergy, but of the whole body of believers in Christ, who observe the ordinances of Christ and his Apostles. The Parliament of Elizabeth did not at all interfere with the Church, but only with the Church establishment. It restored to the Crown" the ancient jurisdiction over the state ecclesiastical, and abolished all foreign powers repugnant to the same."

9. Protestants believe, that there is more real sanctity in an innocent, virtuous, charitable, and useful life spent in the busiest society of our fellow-creatures, than in the most rigid and painful austerities of solitude.

10. The Church of Rome is not the Catholic Church, but only a part of it. All Christians are Catholics, who adhere to

REASONS.

11. Because even in the judgment of Protestants we must be on the safer side.

12. Because the Protestant Religion encourages Protestants by the doctrine of Justification by Faith alone to be no ways solicitous for redeeming their past sins by good works and penitential austerities.

15. Because the Protestant Religion can afford no certainty in matters of faith.

These Reasons are taken from a small Tract published by Keating, Brown, and Co. The whole Tract, with the Reasons and Answers more at large, will be given in a subsequent part of this volume.