That ye be not partakers of her sins, and that ye receive not of her plagues. The reason is just, and satisfactory. Reward her. Why? No reason is assigned, or could be assigned consistently with the spirit of the christian religion. It only follows, as she has rewarded you—words which express only the measure, and the equitable grounds of the allotted punishment, not the duty of christians to inflict it."-An Introduction to the Study of the Prophecies &c. By Bishop Hurd, p. 416. 420.

I will now add two short extracts from the writings of two more eminent prelates, one of whom adorned the Church of England in the 17th., and the other in the 18th. century, tending further to illustrate "the strong claims of the Church of Rome and its dependencies on our admiration, reverence, love, and gratitude." The following is taken from “ a century of Sermons, by John Hacket, Lord Bishop of Lichfield and Coventry." "And what if I should put you in mind of a more pernicious cup, than that which begets the surfeit of drunkenness? It is called the golden cup of abominations, and the Jesuits are the cupbearers. God give you grace to refuse it when it is reached out unto you! AND THESE ARE THE DAYS OF TRIAL, WHEN SWARMS OF ROMANISTS BUZZ ABOUT

TO PERVERT THE INNOCENT. What can they say unto you, beloved? Are they so meek and humble as we are, who built their popedom above kings, and made their cardinals the princes of the earth? Are they so merciful? WHO KNOWS

NOT DUKE D'ALVA'S BLOODY DAYS, QUEEN MARY'S BONFIRES, AND THE TORMENTS OF INQUISITIONS? But is Christ more magnified by them? Why do they interfere upon his intercession, by praying to saints, upon his mediation, by their own merits? Is their worship of God more spiritual? Why do I see their images? Can they prove their doctrine by so good a foundation as we do? WHEREFORE DO THEY URGE TRADITIONS? Finally, is their religion more ancient? No more

than Abraham's idolatry at Ur in Chaldæa was ancienter than the worship of the living God." Hacket's Sermons, p. 876.

Let us now see the testimony of Bishop Newton. "Infamous as the woman is for her idolatry, she is no less detestable for her cruelty, which are the two principal characteristics of the anti-christian empire. She is drunken with the blood of the saints, and with the blood of the martyrs of Jesus: which may indeed be applied both to Pagan and to Christian Rome, for both have in their turns cruelly persecuted the saints and martyrs of Jesus. But the latter is more deserving of the character, as she hath far exceeded the former both in the degree and duration of her persecutions. It is very true, as was hinted before, that if Rome Pagan hath slain her thousands of innocent Christians, Rome Christian hath slain her ten thousands. For, not to mention other outrageous slaughters and barbarities, the Crusades against the Waldenses and Albigenses, the murders committed by the Duke of Alva in the Netherlands, the massacres in France and in Ireland, will probably amount to above ten times the number of all the Christians slain in all the ten persecutions of the Roman Emperors put together." Dissertations on the Prophecies, vol. iii. p. 296.

An interesting subject of inquiry here presents itself, and one, perhaps, which may not be deemed altogether irrelevant, viz. whether there is any probability that the apostate Church of Rome will ever be brought to see the tremendous guilt which she has incurred,-to repent of it and sorrowfully confess it, to reform herself,-renounce her soul-destroying errors, --and thus avoid the awful doom denounced upon her. My answer to this inquiry would, without hesitation, be, that no such probability exists. It is, indeed, devoutly to be hoped that thousands and tens of thousands of individuals will obey the warning voice and come out of her; nay, that "entire dependencies" may be induced to abandon her dangerous communion :

and it is the bounden duty of all consistent Protestants, instead of palliating her erroneous doctrines and idolatrous practices, instead of lulling her members into a false repose by studiously suppressing the prophetic characters by which she is described, and the predicted vengeance which awaits her, if she does not repent, to sound the alarm, and affectionately exhort them to flee from her impending ruin. But the general tenor of prophecy forbids the expectation of her ever being reformed in the aggregate. The arrogant assumption of infallibility seems at once to preclude any such hope, and to seal her for ultimate destruction.

The following comment of Bishop Jewel on 2 Thess. ii. 8., clearly evinces that he did not look forward to any general reformation of the Church of Rome. "And here mark the Apostle's speech. He saith not God shall convert Antichrist, or change his heart that he may be saved: but he saith, whom the Lord shall consume. God's word is almighty. By his word he can do whatsoever pleaseth him: he can make the deaf to hear and the blind to see. He was able to call the thief upon the cross unto repentance. He was able to raise up Lazarus out of his grave. He is able of stones to raise up children to Abraham. He can throw down every high thing, that is exalted against the glory of God, and will bring kings and princes, and the rulers of the earth to the obedience of Christ. But of Antichrist it is said, The Lord shall consume him. Such is the hardness and blindness of his heart, he will not receive the love of the truth, he will not believe the truth of God, that he might be saved. Therefore destruction shall come upon him. Hereby we are taught what to think or hope of reformation of the abuses and errors of the Church of Rome. They have been advertised of them not only by the professors of the gospel: but also many of themselves have spoken for reformation of sundry abuses. They have kept many councils and assemblies. They have promised redress. They

H

have sat in consultation many years. What one thing have they reformed? See and look over their acts and sessions: they be abroad in print. Hitherto they have reformed nothing: they have hardened their hearts, and set themselves against the highest. Therefore shall the glory of the Lord shew itself in their destruction. With the breath of his lips they shall be consumed and brought to nothing, And shall abolish with the brightness of his coming: the Lord shall come and shall make his enemies his footstool. Then the sun shall be black as a sackcloth, and the moon shall be like blood. There shall be an earthquake: kings, and great men, and rich men, and every bond man and free man shall hide themselves in dens. They shall say to the hills, and mountains, and rocks, fall upon us and hide us from the presence of him that sitteth upon the throne, and from the wrath of the Lamb. Then shall Antichrist be quite overthrown, then his kingdom shall be utterly abolished and have an end. Then it shall appear who hath sought the glory of Christ, who hath followed the doctrine of the gospel, and who hath done the true endeavour of a faithful Shepherd. Then it shall appear who is the wolf, who scattereth and spoileth the flock."-An Exposition of the two Epistles of St. Paul to the Thessalonians, by Bishop Jewel, in loco.

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The opinion here pronounced by this distinguished prelate will shew how little ground there is for supposing that the Church of England will ever be the means of reclaiming the Church of Rome, as intimated in the last sentence of the following passage taken from vol. ii. No. 166. p. 16. of the Oxford Tracts. Fasting is popish.' If this means, that it has been preserved amid the errors of Romanism, is not this true of most of the truths of the gospel? Our charge against the Romanists, generally, is not that they have not preserved the truth, but that, like the Pharisees, they have made it of none effect by their traditions, at least, in great measure, to so many of their members. And does not the objection imply

that we have forgotten the peculiar character of our Church, which is not a mere Protestant, but a Primitive Church? And if we are to prevail in our approaching conflict with Romanism, OR TO BE (AS WE SEEM MARKED OUT TO BE) A MEANS OF RECLAIMING THAT CHURCH, must we not reconsider the character of our own Church, and take our stand in its principles, not in the Protestantism of other Churches, or of the day?"

No. 2.

THAT the reader may be enabled to judge whether the sentiments of the author of the 71st. Tract, relative to the doctrine of transubstantiation, have been fairly stated in the Charge, I will here insert the entire paragraph-" It has been already said that our arguments must also keep clear, as much as possible, of the subjects more especially sacred. This is our privilege in these latter days, if we understand it, that with all that is painful in our controversies, we are spared that distressing necessity which lay upon the early Church, of discussing questions relative to the Divine nature. The doctrines of the Trinity and Incarnation, form a most distressing subject of discussion, for two reasons: first, as involving the direct contemplation of heavenly things, when one should wish to bow the head and be silent; next as leading to arguments about things possible and impossible with God, that is (practically) to a rationalistic line of thought. How He is Three and yet One, how He could become man, what were the peculiarities of that union, how He could be every where as God, yet locally present as man, in what sense God could be said to suffer, die, and rise again,-all these questions were endured as a burden by the early Christians for our sake, who come after; and with the benefit of their victories over error, as if we had borne the burden and heat of the day, it were perverse indeed in us, to plunge into needless discussions of