the sentiments of Augustine; but in both he preferred the decisions of Scripture and right reason before the authority and opinions of fallible men."-Mosheim. For further accounts of Luther we refer our readers to all impartial ecclesiastical writers since the Reformation.

"4. Those that were the most busy in promoting the Reformation here at home, were, for the most part, men of most wretched characters, such as King Henry VIII., and the leading men in the government during the minority of Edward VI., not to speak of the ministry of Queen Elizabeth, the most wicked, says a late protestant historian (Short View of Eng. Hist. p. 273) that ever was known in any reign.

"5. The foundations of the Reformation in England were laid in manifold sacrileges, in pulling down monasteries and other houses consecrated to God, rifling and pillaging churches, alienating church-lands, &c., as may be seen in the History of the Reformation by Dr. Heylin.

"6. The Reformation was everywhere introduced by lay authority, and for the most part in direct opposition to, and contempt of the bishops, the church guides of divine appointment. A proceeding manifestly irregular and unjustifiable, that in church matters the laity, with a few. of the inferior clergy, and those under the ecclesiastical censures, should take upon them to direct those whom Christ appointed to be their directors.

"7. England herself, which glories most in the regularity of her Reformation, compared to the tumultuous proceedings of reformers abroad, owes her present establishment of the Church to the lay authority of Queen Elizabeth and her Parliament, in opposition to all the Bishops then sitting, (who were all but one displaced for their non-conformity,) to the whole convocation, and both the Universities: that is, in a word, to the whole clergy of the kingdom; as appears from Fuller, L. 9., and Dr. Heylin, Hist. of the Ref. p. 285, 286. 8. Wheresoever the Reformed Gospel was preached, it brought forth seditions, tumults, rebellions, &c., as appears from all the histories of those times. Insomuch, that in

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France alone the reformed gospellers, besides innumerable other outrages, are said to have destroyed no less than twenty thousand churches. Jerusalem and Babel, p. 158. How little does such a Reformation resemble the first establish ment of the Church of Christ."

Protestant historians never attempt to justify the vices of their Kings, as do Papists those of their Popes: but we think it shows a great lack of judgment to scold the authors of the Reformation, unless the Reformation itself can be proved an evil.

It is the doctrines of Christianity, as professed by Protestants, that the Doctor set out with: those who restored them to their more pristine excellence it is of little moment to condemn, even if Popery be pleased to insist on their being as criminal as Judas Iscariot. The Reformation "must stand," says Maclaine, "by its own intrinsic dignity, and is in no way affected by the views or characters of its instruments." There is no doubt but the BEST act of Henry's life was his forwarding it-an act in which the best of Christian princes might glory. The bloody reign of Queen Mary was succeeded by the most wicked ministry ever known in any reign,' says the Doctor, quoting an apparently anonymous "Short View of English History." If it was really Dr. Challoner's belief that the reign of Elizabeth was the most wicked ever known, his view of historical fact must have been very short indeed.

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We declared against mingling politics with our observations on the work of Pope Pius, and trust we have kept our word; but we must here observe that it ill becomes a British Minister of any Church to instil into the minds of youth that the Reformation, by which England shook off the yoke of Popery, was an act of "wickedness": it was an act which enabled Christians to commune with their God, and which at the same time freed their land for ever from the merciless power of a foreign enemy*.

*When Sir Edward Karne apprized Pope Paul IV., that Elizabeth had succeeded to the throne, the insolent Pontiff expressed his astonishment at her presumption in so doing without his approbation. He declared that England was held in fee of the See of Rome, that Elizabeth was illegitimate, and could not reign! Pius IV. sanctioned

A

It is but natural for Popery to deplore the loss of the treasures she had amassed, with the certainty of being for ever deprived of the same means of creating them. The ready sale of pardons and indulgences was confined when the ecclesiastical property changed hands. But whilst we condemn Henry VIII, for seizing it, was it not quite as usefully employed, we ask, in its distribution among the people from whom it originally came, as in supporting an ignorant and useless host of indolent monks, &c.* It is an idle affectation to sigh over the lay authority of the Protestant Church; the Papist, so injudicious, must be ignorant of our 37th Church Article-"We give not to our Princes the ministering either of God's word or of the Sacraments," &c. The Pope claims a temporal power over the whole Christian world! We may also hint, if history is to be believed, that many of the houses of nuns and friars were consecrated to far less sacred purposes than those assigned by Dr. Challoner. We scarcely know what he means by "a few only of his clergy under ecclesiastical censures," and "one Bishop," who were not "displaced for non-conformity." "Out of nine thousand and four hundred beneficed clergymen in England, there were but one hundred and twenty who refused to comply with the Reformation." Guth. 22d Edit. What the Reformation (not "the re

the acts of hostility of his predecessor, and extended them by his own. He granted a Bull to Francis II. of France (who formed a treaty with Philip II.(a) of Spain, for the extermination of "heretics") declaring Elizabeth illegitimate; and Mary Queen of Scots was to be crowned Queen of England. The successor of Pius IV. was (Saint) Pius V., who excommunicated the lawful Queen, and absolved her subjects from their allegiance to her "as a heretic and favourer of heretics"-(her own Protestant subjects!) when the wicked, heretical Elizabeth passed an act for the preservation of herself and her kingdom, denying a Popish authority for the destruction of both or either of them.

* Whilst we contend for the necessity of the Reformation of Popish doctrines, and acknowledge the universal benefit of its happy results, let us not be understood as the advocates of a single atrocity committed by any individual whatsoever, whether sovereign or subject. Henry VIII. was not the only evil instrument, nor the first, whom Providence has made use of to effect his own wise and inscrutable purposes; but whilst we condemn the excesses of those who disgraced the cause they espoused, we ask, with Mr. Townsend, if the religion of those who threw bones, rags, and wood, into the flames, was not quite as pure as that which not only taught it to be essential to salvation to adore them, but which actually condemned the wretch to a similar fate who denied it?

(a) This was the Papal bigot who had been the husband of " bloody Mary," the predecessor and sister of Elizabeth, and who, with the approbation of the Pope, sought to marry the latter. Elizabeth declining the honour of his hand, he, in proof of his love to herself and subjects, equipped his Armada, which the Pope "blessed," and which British seamen blew out of the water.

formed," but the "Gospel" of Christ) has produced, every reader can judge. It has produced that which is best calculated to exalt our nature-the knowledge of divine truth; it has produced liberty of conscience and of expression, blessings of which the Doctor has amply availed himself in the publication before us. In what country, we ask, subject to Papal authority, though Massacre had gauntly stalked forth in open day, would he have dared to assert that its CONSTITUTION Was WICKED, founded in SACRILEGE, and upheld by ROBBERY? Further comment we deem unnecessary; the above paragraphs are, we repeat, cut out of the printed text, and therefore stand as the Doctor himself corrected them. Those referring to Heylin and Fuller are not correctly quoted; but we would not have quarrelled with the Doctor had he confined his expressions of disapprobation to any specific acts of injustice which accompanied the great national change in question, and which are too often attendant on great national changes; but we must ever condemn the Englishman who, under the guise of religion, would seek to instil into the minds of his fellow-subjects, that the "lay authority," which protects his person and property, is " unjustifiable," because it restored* that independence to a groaning kingdom which Popery too long had trampled under foot, by assisting in the work of what he, in the meekness of Priestly hope, may be pleased to distinguish as a "pretended Reformation." The vulgarity of some of Dr. Challoner's expressions we shall not stop to notice; we deem it unworthy of a "Gospeller," and a gentleman.

"9. The fruits of the Reformation were such as could not

spring from a good tree. 1. An innumerable spawn of heresies. 2. Endless dissensions. 3. A perpetual itch of changing, and inconstancy in their doctrine. 4. Atheism,

Our William I. denied the right of Papal authority in England, permitting Pope Gregory VII's. Legate to sit in Council, acting, at the same time, according to his own will; he exerted the right of investiture, and actually decided on all matters relating to the Church. His successor (William II.) also maintained his preroga tives to which Popery was forced to submit. Henry I. was joined by all his Bishops and Nobles in opposing the encroachments of Pope Urban II. whose Legate (Anselm) he told, that he would not permit any persons to enjoy estates in his kingdom, who refused him the securities of a subject. He gave up the right of investiture, and the Pope consented that the Bishops shouid do him homage.-See Rapin, or any other

credible Historian.

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Deism, Latitudinarianism, and bare-faced impiety in fine, a visible change in manners for the worse, as many of their own writers freely acknowledge, and old Erasmus long ago objected to them, Ep. ad Vultur., where he defies them to show him one who had been reclaimed from vice by going over to their religion; and declares he never yet met with one who did not seem changed for the worse.

"10. That religion is the best to live in which is the safest to die in, and that in the judgment of dying men, who are not like to be biassed at that time by interest, humour, or passion. Now it is certain, that thousands, who have lived Protestants, have desired to die Catholics, and never yet one that had lived a Catholic desired to die a Protestant; therefore it must be safest for us to stay where we are.

"11. That religion is preferable to all others, the doctrine and preaching of which is, and always has been, more forcible and efficacious in order to the taking off men's minds from the perishable goods of this world, and fixing them wholly on the great business of eternity; but such is the doctrine and preaching of the Catholic Church, as appears from those multitudes of holy solitaries in our Church that have retired themselves from all the advantages to which their birth or fortune entitled them, and abandoned all earthly hopes for the love of heaven. Whereas the Reformation has never yet produced any such fruits.

12. There was a true saving faith in the days of our forefathers before the pretended Reformation, by which great numbers are certainly arrived at the happy port of eternal felicity. Our histories are full of instances of the charity, piety, and devotion, of kings, bishops, &c. of the old religion. Therefore it is safer to follow their faith than venture our souls in a new raised communion.”

We are content to let the fruits of the Reformation decide the virtue of the tree itself, even though the hand that planted it had been as deeply soiled as the Doctor has declared it to be. But we are not quite sure that he is correct in stating who it was that first most forcibly attacked Popery in her strong hold of superstition, by which it was caused;