Ministerial Congratulations and Counsels; being an Address to the Churches of 244 New Testament of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. Published in 1526. Being the first. Translation from the Greek, by William Tyndale. With a Memoir of O'Croly's Inquiry into the principal Points of Difference, real or imaginary, be tween the two Churches, with a view to Religious Harmony or Forbearance On Mutual Tolerance, and on the Ultimate Test of Truth; occasioned by a recent Selection of Parochial Examinations relative to the Destitute Classes in Ireland Smith's (Dr. Pye) Protestant Dissent further vindicated, in a Rejoinder to the of Christian Doctrine, extracted from the Writings of Dr. Hampden 308 Steedman's Wanderings and Adventures in the Interior of Africa -Tales and Sketches, such as they are Thomson's Claims of Dissenters on the Government of the Country. Vaughan's Causes of the Corruption of Christianity Watts's Cabinet of Modern Art and Literary Souvenir Whewell's Newton and Flamsteed; Remarks on an Article in the Quarterly Review THE ECLECTIC REVIEW, FOR JANUARY, 1836. 6 Art. I.-An Inquiry into the principal Points of Difference, real or imaginary, between the two Churches, with a View to religious Harmony or Forbearance. Together with some Remarks relative to the present extraordinary Times. By the Rev. David O'Croly, Author of "the Essay on Ecclesiastical Finance," &c., &c. 8vo. pp. 268. Price 6s. Dublin, 1835. THAT HAT the Catholic religion,' purified from spurious additions,' would come very near to the Protestantism of the Church of England, might seem to be a truism which it needs no laborious inquiry to establish. 'With respect to the Romish 'Church,' said the Archbishop of Canterbury in the House of Lords, last July*, ' it is in many respects the same as our own: 'it holds many of the orthodox doctrines which the Church of England holds, although in many respects it has corrupted the 'Christian truth, and the policy by which it has promoted its own power was at one time detestable in the highest degree.' In the same debate, the Bishop of Exeter, referring to Dr. Murray, the Roman Catholic prelate of Dublin, described him as an in'dividual who, though he was not a bishop of the Established Church, was as much a bishop as he (the Bishop of Exeter) 'was.' Many of our readers will have in recollection the Rev. Mr. Wix's pamphlet recommending a Union of the two Churches, which made considerable noise about sixteen years ago. In that pamphlet we meet with similar language: The Church of England professes the same faith with the Church of Rome in all 'the essential doctrines of Christianity; and she believes, con 6 * In the debate relating to the sanction given by Dr. Murray to the republication of Dens's Theology, July 10, 1835; as reported in the Standard of July 17. VOL. XV.N.S. B 6 sistently with the constitution of the Church of Rome, that there is no Church without a Bishop. She, therefore, and the 'Church of Rome may meet together in Christian love.'* The late Alexander Knox, Bishop Jebb's Guide, Philosopher, and 'Friend,' deemed that the Episcopal Church had receded too far from the Roman Catholic faith, and that she required to retrace her steps. "Of all Protestant churches,' says a learned Roman Catholic civilian, (the late Charles Butler,) the National Church ' of England most nearly resembles the Church of Rome. It has ' retained much of the dogma, and much of the discipline of 'Roman Catholics. Down to the sub-deacon, it has retained the whole of their hierarchy, and, like them, has its deans, rural deans, chapters, prebends, arch-deacons, rectors, and vicars; a liturgy taken, in great measure, from the Roman Catholic liturgy, and composed, like that, of Psalms, Canticles, the Three Creeds, liturgies, gospels, epistles, prayers, and responses. Both Churches have the sacraments of Baptism and the Eu'charist, the absolution of the sick, the burial service, the sign of the Cross in Baptism, the reservation of confirmation and order to bishops, the difference of episcopal and sacerdotal dress, 'feasts and fasts. Without adopting all the general councils of the Church of Rome, the Church of England has adopted the first four of them; and without acknowledging the authority of the other councils, and the authority of the early Fathers, the Eng'lish divines of the Established Church allow them to be entitled 6. to a high degree of respect.' + The latter part of this statement is fully borne out by the representation which Prebendary Le Bas gives of the peculiar genius of the Church of England.' 'Most other Protestant communities,' he says, ' send every in'dividual to the Bible alone, there to exercise his own private 'judgement, without reference to the judgement of primitive and catholic antiquity;'. . whereas the Church of England, 6 on the one hand, acknowledges no authority as co-ordinate with the authority of the Bible; but, on the other hand, in determining the sense of the Bible, she listens with respect to the voice of the most ancient Fathers and Doctors; and not only 'with respect, but even with submission, where that voice is all ' but unanimous.' + The Author of the present essay 'has been condemned for asserting,' he says, that the Catholic and Protestant religions do not 'differ so widely from one another as some people imagine, and that between the enlightened of both classes there are not many 'shades of difference.' r 6 Undoubtedly,' he continues, we should make a distinction in the Catholic body; who are by no means to be viewed, even as religionists, all in the same light; but, on the contrary, should be separated at least into two classes-the enlightened and the ignorant; the creed of the former being much less extensive than that of the latter, and by consequence approximating or inclining to Protestantism. If, then, it be proposed to compare or assimilate the two religions, which class should we exclude, or which should we press into our service? answer is obvious.' p. 27. The Mr. O'Croly proceeds to cite, in support of his position, a remarkable passage from the late celebrated Dr. Doyle's letter to Mr. Robertson, on the practicability of a union between the two churches. "" This union," (says Dr. Doyle,) "is not so difficult as appears to many. It is not difficult, for, in the discussions which were held, and the correspondence which occurred on this subject early in the last century, as well that in which Archbishop Tillotson was engaged, as the others which were carried on between Bossuet and Leibnitz, it appeared that the points of agreement between the churches were numerous; those in which the parties hesitated, few and apparently not the most important. The effort which was then made was not attended with success, but its failure was owing more to princes than to priests, more to state policy than a difference of belief. I would (continues he) presume to state, that if Protestant and Catholic divines, of learning and a conciliatory character, were. summoned by the Crown to ascertain the points of agreement and difference between the churches, and that the result of their conferences were made the basis of a project to be treated on between the heads of the churches of Rome and of England, the result might be more favourable than at present would be anticipated. The chief points to be discussed are, the canon of the sacred scripture, faith, justification, the mass, the sacraments, the authority of tradition, of councils, of the pope, the celibacy of the clergy, language of the liturgy, invocation of saints, respect for images, prayers for the dead. "" On most of these, it appears to me that there is no essential difference between the Catholics and Protestants. The existing diversity of opinion arises in most cases from certain forms of words which admit of satisfactory explanation, or from the ignorance or misconceptions which ancient prejudices and ill-will produce and strengthen, but which could be removed." pp. 28, 9. Thus, then, we find Anglican and Roman prelates, of high authority, concurring in the opinion, that their respective churches are allied by so close an affinity, that a union between them would seem to be by no means impracticable. Bishop Philpotts recognizes the legitimate episcopal character in his Romish brother of Dublin; and his Grace of Canterbury appears to agree with Mr. Wix, that, as there is no church without a bishop, so, where there are bishops, there must be a true church; and that, accordingly, the two churches may meet together in Christian love. All this sounds rather strange when taken in connexion with the furious denouncements and invectives against this same Roman Catholic religion, which we have recently heard from the champions of the Irish Church, who are willing to find, in the idolatrous and damnable character of Popery, a justification of their inveterate scorn and hatred of the Irish people. Who would suppose, judging from the language of the M'Ghees and O'Sullivans, echoed in the columns of the Standard, the Times, and the Record, that the two churches could have any thing in common ?-much less that they were in many respects, as his Grace of Canterbury said, the same; and that the policy of the Establishment, ever since the accession of Elizabeth, has been to conciliate the Romanists, and to render the ritual more conformable to the spirit of the Romish theology? Who would imagine that the spirit of Popery still lurked in the high places and dark places of an Establishment, from which is heard the indignant outcry against the tenets of Father Dens, and the idolatry of the Romish service? It cannot, however, escape observation, that, while all this specious Protestant zeal is manifested chiefly by salaried agents, itinerant orators, or clerical politicians in the lower ranks of the Church, the language of fraternal recognition is heard from the rulers and dignitaries of the Establishment, who must be regarded as the most authoritative expounders of the real sentiments and settled policy of their order. It must also be observed, that this abhorrence and dread of Popery, as professed by Protestant partisans, has hitherto led to no corresponding efforts to purify the English Church from its Popish leaven, or to draw closer the ties which bind together the several denominations of Orthodox Protestantism? 'No concession,' is still the angry motto of the Anglican Church towards all who presume to carry the principle of the Protestant Reformation further than herself, or who dissent upon grounds which would have compelled Wiclif and Cobham, Tyndal and Coverdale, Latimer and Fox, had they lived in our day, to be Nonconformists. There still exists the same disposition which Bishop Burnet complains of in the close of his History, as prevailing so fatally among the clergy and gentry of his day, and which he ascribes to Romish influence, making us despise the foreign churches, and hate the Dissenters at home.' The account which that honest and impartial chronicler gives of the Tory aristocracy of the reign of Queen Anne, would still describe, with little qualification, the majority of those whom Eton and Harrow send to swallow the Thirty-nine Articles at Oxford. The gentry,' says the Bishop, are not early acquainted with the principles of religion; so that, after they have forgot their catechism, they acquire no more new knowledge but what they learn in plays ❝ and romances.... If they have taken a wrong tincture at the University, THAT too often disposes them to hate and despise all 'those who separate from the Church, though they can give no 6 6 6 6 6 |