while we shall be able to hold all that was strong on the Protestant side of the controversy as hitherto carried on, we shall be delivered from every thing that was weak in it, and most effectually turn all the weapons of the Roman Catholics against themselves. Their only hope under these circumstances, will be to unchurch us.

It is well known that our Church agrees with the Church of Rome, with the Greek Church, with the Syrian Church, with the Moravian Church, and I dare say, with others also existing in the present day, that in order to the possession of due ecclesiastical power, it must be derived by due Episcopal succession from the Apostles. If there be such an Episcopal succession in a Church the Roman Catholic authorities acknowledge the Apostolicity of that Church, even though they may think themselves compelled to deny its orthodoxy. This is the case of the Greek Church, and of some of the Eastern Churches. Our Church

"Q. What Scripture have you to prove that the Bishops and Priests of the Church have power to absolve the sinner that confesses his sins with a sincere repentance?

"A. John xx. 22, 23, 'Receive ye the Holy Ghost: whose sins ye remit, they are remitted unto them; and whose sins ye retain, they are retained. Matt. xviii. 18. Verily I say unto you, Whatsoever ye shall bind on earth, shall be bound in heaven; and whatsoever ye shall loose on earth, shall be loosed in heaven.' Which text Protestants seem to understand in the same manner as we, since in their common prayer book, in the order for the visitation of the sick, we find this rubrick. 'Here shall the sick person be moved to make a special confession of his sins, if he feel his conscience troubled with any weighty matter. After which confession the Priest shall absolve him (if he humbly and heartily desire it) after this sort.

'Our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath left power to his Church to absolve all sinners who truly repent and believe in him, of his great mercy forgive thee thine offences: and by his authority, committed to me I absolve thee from all thy sins, in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost. Amen.' " p. 34.

This single quotation will serve in the strongest manner to shew, that the mode in which the controversy has been conducted in past times, has been such as to compel us to abandon our principles, and to resign what might be vantage ground.

claims to have in it such a regular Apostolic succession: and if it have, the Roman Catholics on their own principles cannot deny that it is a Church. In order that my readers may trace the line of Bishops in the English Church up to the very time of the Apostles, I shall here give a list of the Archbishops of Canterbury, reaching from the present time up to Augustine, who was the first of these Archbishops. Though that succession might be traced in a variety of ways, this is the most simple way whereby it can be effected: for all the streams of succession in the Church of England flow through the Archiepiscopate of Canterbury.

CATALOGUE OF ENGLISH BISHOPS FROM THE APOSTLES.

The present Archbishop of Canterbury is the Most Reverend Doctor William Howley, who acceded in 1828, and was preceded by Dr. Sutton, he by Dr. Moore, he by Dr. Fred. Cornwallis, by Dr. Thos. Secker, by Dr. Thos. Herring, by J. Potter, by Wm. Wake, by Thos. Tennison, A.D. 1715 by John Tillotson, by W. Sancroft, by Gil Sheldon, by W. Juxon, by William Laud, by George Abbot, by R. Bancroft, by J. Whitgift, A.D. 1603; by Edmund Grindall, by Matthew Parker, by Reginald Pole, by Thomas Cranmer, by W. Warham, by Henry Dean, A.D. 1502; by J. Morton, by Thos. Bourchier, by John Kemp, by John Stafford, by H. Chichley, by Thos. Arundel, A.D. 1413; by W. Courtney, by Simon Sudbury, by Simon Langham, by Simon Islip, by Thomas Bradwardin, by J. Stratford, by Simon Mepham, by Walter Raynold, by Robert Winchelsea, A.D. 1313, by John Peckham, by Robert Kilwardby, by Boniface, by St. Edmund, by Richard Wethershed, by Stephen Langton, by Hubert Walter, A. D. 1204; by Reginald Fitzjocelin, by Baldwin, by Richard, by Thos. a Beckett, by Theobald, by William Corbeil, by Rodolphus, by Anselm, A.D, 1109; by Lanfranc, by Stigand, by Robt. Gemetic, by Eadsinus, by Agelnoth, by Livingus, by Elphegus, who was massacred by the Danes; by Alphric,

A.D. 1006; by Siricius, by Ethelgar, by Dunstan, by Odo, by Wilf helm, by Athelm, by Plegmund, A.D. 917; by Athelred, by Celnoth, by Theogild, by Wulfred, by Athelard, A D. 806; by Lambert, by Bregwin, by Cuthbert, by Nothelm, by Tatwin, by Britwald, A.D. 731'; by Theodore, by Adeodatus, by Honorius, by Justus, by Mellitus, by Laurence, by Augustine, who was first nominated to the high office with the consent of Ethelbert, King of Canterbury, in 611, and ordained to his Ecclesiastical dignity by Gregory I., Bishop of Rome, who himself was preceded by Pelagius II., and he by Benedict I., who by John III., by Pelagius I., by Vigilius, by Sylverius, by Agapetus I., by John II., by Boniface II., by Felix IV., by John I., by Hormisdas, by Symmachus, A.D. 514; by Anastasius, by Gelasius, by Felix III., by Simplicius, by Hilarius, by Leo the Great, by Sixtus III., by Celestine I., by Boniface I., by Zosimus, by Innocent, by Anastasius, A.D. 402; by Syricius, by Damasus, by Felix II. by Liberius, by Julius, by Mark, by Sylvester, by Melchiades, by Eusebius, by Marcellus, by Marcellinus, A.D. 304; by Cains, by Eutychianus, by Felix, by Dionysius, by Sixtus II., by Stephen, by Lucius, by Cornelius, by Fabianus, by Anterus, by Pontianus, by Urban, by Callistus, by Zephyrinus, A.D. 219; by Victor, by Eleutherius, by Soter, by Anicetus, by Pius I., by Hyginus, by Telesphorus, by Xystus, A.D. 127; by Alexander, by Evaris.. tus, by Clemens, mentioned in Philippians, iv. 3; by Anacletus, by Linus, mentioned in 2 Timothy, iv. 21; by Peter and Paul.*

It will be proper to make a few observations on the above list.

1. As we learn, from the judicious work of Dr. Mason, who wrote in the reign of James I. there is a

* I have taken this list from Tables appended to Mosheim's Ecc. Hist. The merely English part of it, however, may be found at the commencement of the history of every Session of Parliament, in Cobbett's Parliamentary Reports, continued by Hansard.

register of the Bishops kept in each see, stating by whom each Bishop was ordained. But since all the dioceses were constituted subsequently to that of Canterbury, it is pretty plain that the first Bishop in each will have derived his functions from that metropolitan, so that the exhibition of succession in that alone is all that is required for perfect satisfaction.

2. I would remark, also, that the Apostolic derivation of authority is much clearer in the Church of England, than in the Church of Rome itself. Previously to the ordination of Augustine, the first Archbishop of Canterbury, things were tolerably orderly at Rome. But the increase of power and authority arising from the decree of Phocas, which proclaimed the Bishop of Rome" Universal Bishop," and which ultimately led to his becoming a temporal prince, brought about the results which usually accompany great wealth, honour, and eminence, to wit,-ambitious strugglings, wars, and strivings, in order to obtain the valuable prize. Whilst the Bishops of Canterbury, therefore, quietly succeeded each other during the course of centuries, grievous schisms, occasionally accompanied by bloody wars, prevailed at Rome. There were Popes and Antipopes. Sometimes two, and sometimes three, asserted their claim to the honour. We find one residing at Rome, and another at Avignon, in France, so that to the present day there ought to be a doubt with the Priests of the Roman Church, as to how Apostolicity has been continued to them. All this while, as I said before, things went on quietly and soberly (that we may speak by comparison) in England, the Bishops being usually ordained in this country. So that, sunk in Apostasy, in point of doctrine, as our Church certainly was, it was at least a vast deal more orderly and regular than the Roman Church, and the succession in it much more clearly marked.

As it is by the single fact of supposed unquestionable Apostolical succession in it, that the Roman Church maintains its authority over its votaries, it is no wonder that it

sets a very high store by that abused privilege. And we need not feel much surprise that it should entertain a great jealousy towards the English Church in this respect. That a Church which it counts schismatic and heretical, should be able to claim Apostolic authority, grounded upon that sort of succession in which Rome herself glories (in our part of the world (e. e.) at least) exclusively, is to Romanists a matter of a very grievous character, and consequently it has ever been their anxious desire to invalidate our orders. But this, as I said before, even on their own principles they could not do, if we could demonstrate a due succession in our Bishops: such, for example, as is apparent in the list given above. There is, however, one thing in our Church on which they hang an objection, and it is this:-After the death of Queen Mary, of bloody memory, when Elizabeth succeeded to the throne, all the existing Bishops of England, I believe without exception, refused to recant the errors of Popery. New Bishops, consequently, had to be appointed; but there was a difficulty found in procuring Bishops to ordain them. Dr. Matthew Parker was nominated to the Primacy, that is, he was nominated by the Queen to be Archbishop of Canterbury; but, I repeat, there was some difficulty found in obtaining Bishops to ordain him. But this was only a difficulty. There were found, duly consecrated, Miles Coverdale, who, in King Edward's time, was Bishop of Exeter; William Barlow, who was, in King Edward's days, Bishop of Bath and Wells, and, at the time of Dr. Parker's ordination, elect of Chichester; John Scorey, in King Edward's time Bishop of Chichester, and, at the time of the said ordination, elect of Hereford; and John Hodgeskin, suffragan of Bedford, not to mention others. These four, however, as we are told, were engaged in the ordination of Archbishop Parker, and Bishop Scorey preached the ordination sermon. * I say, then, the

* See Bishop Bedell's Letter to Wadsworth, a Spanish Roman Catholic Priest, in Burnett's Life of Bedell, p. 459. London, 1692.