Sixthly, when certain individuals, in obedience to the exhortations of papal emissaries, or to the directions of Roman pontiffs, went out and separated themselves from the communion of the catholic church of their country; when they established rival altars, a rival priesthood, and endeavoured to withdraw the faithful from obedience to their legitimate pastors; then it is plain that such men were guilty of that aggravated schism, which the Second Ecumenical Council calls heresy; and that they were altogether cut off from the unity of the church. Such was the conduct of the Romish or popish party in England and Ireland, who fell from the catholic church in the reign of Queen Elizabeth, and have not ceased to rage against her ever since. This subject will be enlarged on elsewhere, and the original of these sects will be developed.

Seventhly, Schismatics do not cease to be so by a mere change of country. Therefore the papists who went from this country, to establish colonies in the United States of North America, were schismatics when they arrived there; and always remaining separated from that branch of the catholic apostolic church which was established there, they only perpetuated their schism. In fine, when America received bishops from our churches, the schismatics constituted a rival episcopacy, and so remain to this day separated from the true church.

* See Part II. Chapters II secrated by Dr. Moore, the Most and X.

Dr. Seabury, bishop of Connecticut, was consecrated by the Most Reverend Primus, Dr. Kilgour, and other bishops of Scotland, A.D. 1784. Dr. Provost, bishop of New York, and Dr. White of Pennsylvania, were con

VOL. I.

Reverend Primate of all England, and other English bishops, in 1787; as was Dr. Madison, bishop of Virginia, in 1790. The dioceses of Maryland, South Carolina, Massachusetts, &c. which had all been previously constituted, received bishops about the

X

OBJECTIONS ANSWERED.

I. The Homilies of the church of England deny that the Roman is a part of the Christian church. Having defined the true church, and explained its notes or marks, it is said: "If you will compare this with the church of Rome, not as it was in the beginning, but as it is at present, and hath been for the space of nine hundred years and odd, you will perceive the state thereof to be so far wide from the nature of the true church, that nothing can be more ". Therefore the Homilies deny the Roman to be a part of the church of Christ.

Answer. (1.) This is merely used in the way of argument against the position of the popes of Rome, that they "are the chief heads and the principal part of the church, therefore they have the Holy Ghost for ever: and whatsoever things they decree, are undoubted verities and oracles of the Holy Ghost." The "godly and wholesome doctrine" inculcated by the Homily, in denying this position, we are bound to receive; but the particular argument on which this denial rests, is not a

same time. The Roman pontiff erected, in 1789, the rival bishoprick of Baltimore; and nominated to it Dr. John Carroll, who was consecrated in England 1790, and headed the schism in America. In 1808, the pontiff raised the see of Baltimore to be archiepiscopal, and pretended to erect sees of New York, Philadelphia, Boston, and Beardstown, in opposition to the previously existing churches of those localities. There are very serious difficulties affecting the regularity, and even the

validity of the ordination of the above-mentioned Carroll, and all the Romish clergy of the United States derived from him; in consequence of his ordination having been performed by only one titular bishop, Dr. Walmsley, who appears to have laboured under a similar irregularity or deficiency himself. See Mémoires Eccl. xviii. siècle, tom. iii. p. 142. 145. 485. See also Part VI. chapter on Romish Ordinations.

ii,

"Sermon for Whitsunday, pt.

thing to which we are in any degree bound. (2.) These expressions relate only to the Roman pontiffs and their immediate "adherents," as the context shews, and by no means to the whole Western church. (3.) Being used in a discourse designed for the people, and intended to guard them against the papal emissaries, they must be considered in some degree popular and rhetorical, and are not to be taken literally and strictly as expressing the formal sense of the church.

II. The Homilies elsewhere speak of the "idolatrous church," as "a foul, filthy, old, withered harlot (for she is indeed of ancient years)," &c."

Answer. In this place it is not said, what church is the "idolatrous church," and we may most properly understand these expressions to apply to that party in the Roman church, which is involved in idolatrous honouring of images, not to the whole of that church. Besides these expressions are only used obiter, and not in the way of formal doctrine or definition, therefore we are by no means bound to them in every point.

III. The Homily against Peril of Idolatry says, that "not only the unlearned and simple, but the learned and wise; not the people only, but the bishops; not the sheep, but also the shepherds themselves... . being blinded by the bewitching of images, as blind guides of the blind, fell both into the pit of damnable idolatry. In the which all the world, as it were drowned, continued until our age, by the space of above eight hundred years, unspoken against in a manner. . . . So that laity and clergy, learned and unlearned, all ages, sects, and degrees of men, women, and children, of whole Christen

OBJECTIONS ANSWERED.

I. The Homilies of the church of England deny that the Roman is a part of the Christian church. Having defined the true church, and explained its notes or marks, it is said: "If you will compare this with the church of Rome, not as it was in the beginning, but as it is at present, and hath been for the space of nine hundred years and odd, you will perceive the state thereof to be so far wide from the nature of the true church, that nothing can be more "." Therefore the Homilies deny the Roman to be a part of the church of Christ.

66

Answer. (1.) This is merely used in the way of argument against the position of the popes of Rome, that they are the chief heads and the principal part of the church, therefore they have the Holy Ghost for ever: and whatsoever things they decree, are undoubted verities and oracles of the Holy Ghost." The "godly and wholesome doctrine” inculcated by the Homily, in denying this position, we are bound to receive; but the particular argument on which this denial rests, is not a

thing to which we are in any degree bound. (2.) These expressions relate only to the Roman pontiffs and their immediate "adherents," as the context shews, and by no means to the whole Western church. (3.) Being used in a discourse designed for the people, and intended to guard them against the papal emissaries, they must be considered in some degree popular and rhetorical, and are not to be taken literally and strictly as expressing the formal sense of the church.

II. The Homilies elsewhere speak of the "idolatrous church,” as “a foul, filthy, old, withered harlot (for she is indeed of ancient years)," &c."

Answer. In this place it is not said, what church is the "idolatrous church," and we may most properly understand these expressions to apply to that party in the Roman church, which is involved in idolatrous honouring of images, not to the whole of that church. Besides these expressions are only used obiter, and not in the way of formal doctrine or definition, therefore we are by no means bound to them in every point.

III. The Homily against Peril of Idolatry says, that "not only the unlearned and simple, but the learned and wise; not the people only, but the bishops; not the sheep, but also the shepherds themselves. . . being blinded by the bewitching of images, as blind guides of the blind, fell both into the pit of damnable idolatry. In the which all the world, as it were drowned, continued until our age, by the space of above eight hundred years, unspoken against in a manner. . . . So that laity and clergy, learned and unlearned, all ages, sects, and degrees of men, women, and children, of whole Christen

▾ Sermon against Peril of Idolatry, part iii.