reference to the rules laid down for the conference with the Romish priests and jesuits, among which we find the following:

"If they should shew any ground of Scripture, and wrest it to their sense, let it be shewed by the interpretation of the old doctors, such as were before Gregory I. For that in his time began the first claim of the supremacy by the Patriarch of Constantinople, and shortly after was usurped by the Bishop of Rome, the first founder of the Papacy and supremacy of that see, by the authority of Phocas, the traitor and murderer of his Lord.

"And as for the testimony of the latter Doctors, if they bring any, let them refuse them; for that the most part of the writers of that time, and after, yielded to the authority of the Emperor and the Bishop of Rome.

"If they can shew no Doctor that agreed with them in their said opinion before that time, then to conclude that they have no succession in that doctrine from the time of the Apostles, and above four hundred years after, (when doctrine and religion were most pure.) For that they can shew no predecessor whom they might succeed in the same. Quod primum verum. Tertull.

"If they allege any Doctor of that antiquity, then to view the place; and to seek the true meaning ex præcedentibus et consequentibus; or of other places out of the same Doctor. And to oppose other Doctors likewise writing of the same matter, in case the sentence of the said old Doctor shall seem to make against us."

Strype's Whitgift, vol. i. p. 197.

Well, indeed, would it be for the cause of truth, if the self-appointed disputants in favour of the Reformation, in their challenges to the Papists, would be guided by these rules. The, so called, "Reformation Society" would then be less injurious to the cause of the Reformation than it now is, and the Papists, with the worst cause, would less frequently come off triumphant.

We may now proceed to shew how, in regulating her practice and defending her conduct, the Church of England, whenever she has spoken authoritatively, has followed the example of her illustrious reformers, and shewn her deference to antiquity. It is well known that there were persons who were weak and foolish enough to scruple at our use of the sign of the cross. It is thus that in the 30th Canon the Church of England vindicates her retention of that ceremony :

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Following the steps of our most worthy King, because he therein followeth the rules of the Scriptures, and the practice of the primitive Church, we do commend to all true members of the Church of England these our directions and observations ensuing: The honour and dignity of the name of the cross begat a reverend estimation even in the apostles' time (for aught that is known to the contrary), of the sign of the cross, which the Christians shortly after used in all their actions. The use of this sign in Baptism was held by the primitive Church, as well by the Greeks as the Latins, with one consent and great applause. This continual and general use of the sign of the cross is evident by the testimonies of the ancient fathers.

"It must be confessed that, in process of time, the sign of the cross was greatly abused in the Church of Rome. But the abuse of a thing does not take away the lawful use of it. Nay, so far was it from the purpose of the Church of England to forsake and reject the Churches of Italy, France, Spain, Germany, or any such like Churches, in all things which they held and practised, that, as the Apology of the Church of England confesseth, it doth with reverence retain those ceremonies which do neither endamage the Church of God, nor offend the minds of sober men and only departeth from them in those particular points, wherein they were fallen both from themselves in their ancient integrity, and from the Apostolical Churches, which were their first founders.

"The sign of the cross in Baptism being thus purged from all Popish superstition and error, and reduced in the Church of England to the primary institution of it, upon those rules of doctrine concerning things indifferent, which are consonant to the Word of God, and the judgments of all the ancient fathers, we hold it the part of every private man, both minister and other, reverently to retain the true use of it prescribed by public authority." Canon XXX.

The Apology of the Church of England, referred to in this canon, is the celebrated work of Bishop Jewell, than which no book, excepting the Common Prayer and the Books of Homilies, has received a greater share of public sanction and authority in the English Church. The whole plan of this work is an appeal to Catholic tradition and primitive consent against the innovations of the Church of Rome, and any selection of passages rather diminishes the force of his whole train of reasoning. This is plainly seen from the outset of his work, where he states the kind of charges brought against the reformers by the Romanists: "that we have made a tumultuous defection from the Catholic Church; that we despise the authority of the primitive fathers and ancient councils; that we have imprudently and insolently abrogated the ancient ceremonies......and by our own private authority, without the consent of a holy and general council, we have introduced new rites into the Church,......but that they have retained all things as they were delivered to them by the apostles, approved by the ancient fathers, and have been kept ever since, through all the intermediate ages

D

Translation by a
In answer to

to this day."-Chap. i. sect. v. Person of Quality. A. D. 1685. which he undertakes to prove "that not obscurely and craftily, but bona fide, before God, truly, ingeniously, clearly, and perspicuously, we teach the most holy gospel of God, and that the ancient fathers and the whole primitive Church are on our side, and that we have not without just cause left them, the Romish divines, and returned to the apostles, and the ancient Catholic fathers."— Sect. 12. Accordingly every point of the Apology is illustrated by quotations of the words, and proofs of the practice, of the fathers. In a latter part of his work, not far from the middle, he returns to this point more specifically: "Though they, the Papists, have not the Scriptures on their side, perhaps they will pretend they have the ancient doctors and holy fathers, for that they have ever boasted that all antiquity and the perpetual consent of all times is for them, and that all our pretences are novel, and were never heard of till within the course of a very few years last past." Chap. v. sect. i. The way in which he enters upon his answer to this, is very remarkable, as shewing the depth of principle which he perceived to be involved in this adherence to antiquity: "Now certainly there can nothing of more weight be said against religion than that it is new."-Ibid. In what follows there are several challenges to the Romanists on this very ground, proving, as the very learned writer of "Letters from a Reformed

Catholic"* says, how "the modern Protestant and Romanist have shifted positions." "Our doctrine, which we may much better call the Catholic doctrine of Christ, is not so new but that it is commended to us by the Ancient of Days, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, in most ancient monuments, the prophets, and gospels, and writings of the apostles.......But, then, as to their religion, if it be so ancient as they pretend, why do they not prove it so from the examples of the primitive Church, from the old fathers, and the ancient councils? Why doth so ancient a cause lie desolate and without a patron for so long a time? Indeed, they-the Romanists,-never want fire and swords; but, then, as to the ancient fathers and councils, there is with them a deep silence."Ibid, sect. 3. Again: "Why, then, should we trust them in relation to what they pretend concerning the fathers, the ancient councils and the Scriptures? They have not, O good God! they have not, on their side, what they pretend to have; they have neither antiquity, nor universality, nor the consent of either all times or all nations :‡ and

*These plain and powerful Letters are published by Messrs. Rivington, price 3d. They are generally attributed to the Rev. Edward Churton, M. A. Rector of Crayke, and they are worthy of his high reputation.

+ It was not because their doctrine was protestant, but because it was catholic, that our Reformers and such Divines as Jewell, Nowell, Hooker, and Andrews defended the doctrines of the English Reformation. And in the declaration of faith which our Reformers directed to be made by ministers, they were required to say of the Book of Common Prayer, "that it is catholic, apostolic, and most for the edifying of God's people."—Strype's Annals, vol. 1, pt. i. p. 327.

He evidently alludes here to the Rule of Vincentius.