Si me conjectura non fallit, totius reformationis pars integerima est in Anglia: ubi, cum studio veritatis, viget studium antiquitatis.

CASAUBON. Epist. 709. ad Salmasium.

Quisquis, quantusquisque alioqui sit, veteris eccelsiæ Catholicæ auctoritatem contempserit, eatenus nullam ipse apud nos fidem aut auctoritatem merebitur. BULL. Fid. Nic. def.

APPENDIX.

Ar the present day, it is by no means sufficiently considered, that the Church of England occupies a very peculiar station in the Christian world: constituting, as it were, a species in herself.

Her specific temperament, indeed, has, during the last century, been most inadequately recognised at home. But it has not failed to attract the notice of foreign observers. The sagacious Mosheim, for example, and he is not singular in his statement, describes the English Church as "that correction of the old religion, which separates the Britons equally from the Roman Catholics, and from the other communities who have renounced the domination of the Pope." *

We can feel no difficulty, either in adopting, or in justifying, this acute and compendious definition. The Church of Rome fetters the judgment, by implicit submission to authority. Foreign branches of the Reformation give unbounded licence to the fancy, by the unrestricted exercise of private interpretation. But our national Church inculcates a liberal, discriminative, yet undeviating reverence for pious antiquity: a reverence, alike sanctioned by reason, in

* "Illa religionis veteris correctio, quæ Britannos æque a pontificiis, atque a reliquis familiis, quæ pontificis dominationi renuntiarunt, sejungit." MOSHEIM. Instit. Hist. Eccl. Sæc. XVI. Sect. III. Pars II. Cap. ii. § 17. Pag. 676. Edit. Helmstad. 1764. The reader who consults Maclaine's translation, will at once perceive, why the original has been cited.

spired by feeling, and recommended by authority. This principle is, in truth, our special characteristic: a principle, which has ever enabled our Church to combine discursiveness with consistency; freedom of enquiry with orthodoxy of belief; and vigorous good sense with primitive and elevated piety.

This happy temperament is guarded by the most safe and sober limitations. The Church of England, in the first instance, and as her grand foundation, derives all obligatory matter of faith, that is, to use her own expression, all "that is to be believed for necessity of salvation," from the Scripture alone: and herein she differs from the Church of Rome. But she systematically resorts to the concurrent sense of the Church Catholic, both for assistance in the interpretation of the sacred text, and for guidance in those matters of religion, which the text has left at large: and herein she differs from every other reformed communion.

The unrivalled authority ascribed by the Church of England to the written word, is a fact of such notoriety, as to supersede the necessity of express evidence. Her subordinate reverence for pious antiquity may be less obvious to the superficial observer: but it admits of no less irrefragable proof.

The liturgy of our Church is a permanent and substantial witness. Regard for ancient faith and piety is manifest in every page, and almost every paragraph, of that incomparable work; derived, as it is, for the most part, from the actual forms, and accordant, as it is, in all parts, with the spirit and feeling, of Christian antiquity. Nor was this derivation and accordance the mere growth of circumstances; it was the deliber

"to

ate result of free choice, and discriminative wisdom. In the preface to the Common Prayer, "concerning the service of the Church," we are directed 66 search out by the ancient Fathers, for the original and ground of divine service." And, in the same preface," the godly and decent order of the ancient Fathers" is referred to, as the standard of our worship. But the standard of our worship is, in truth, the standard of our faith. For, we may boldly challenge our adversaries, to produce any one article of our faith which is not contained in the formularies of our worship; or any one sentence in the formularies of our worship, which is not, in letter, or in spirit, contained in the writings of the ancient Church.

The same principle stands recorded, in that memorable act of the first of Elizabeth, which declares the sovereign to be the sole earthly head of the national church. In this capacity, the King or Queen for the time being is empowered to appoint commissioners for restraining heretical pravity: which commissioners, in their judgment of heresies, were enjoined to adhere, in the first place, to the authority of the canonical Scriptures; secondly, to the decisions of the first four general councils; and, thirdly, to the decision of any other general council, founded on the express and plain words of Holy Scripture.*

*It is a gratifying coincidence, that, in paramount reverence for the first four general councils, the father of our liturgy fully accords with the authors of our Reformation. "Sicut sancti evangelii quatuor libros, sic quatuor concilia, suscipere et venerari, me fateor: totâ devotione complector, integerrimâ approbatione custodio: quia in his, velut in quadrato lapide, sanctæ fidei structura consurgit, et cujuslibet vitæ atque

In this act, one particular deserves, and demands, very special attention; namely, the unqualified deference paid to the first four general councils. The latest of these councils sat and deliberated, in the year 451. A point of time, therefore, is fixed, previously to which, the Church of England unreservedly recognises the guidance of the Catholic Church, in the interpretation of Christian verities. If it be ob-. jected, that this enactment has become obsolete by the suppression of the high commission court, it may fairly be replied, that the Church of England, in ceasing publicly to denounce heresies, has not revoked her condemnation of them; but has merely confined herself to pure ecclesiastical censures: for the justification of which censures, she, of course, refers herself to the same rules, on which severer measures had been founded.

The

A further evidence is afforded, in the canon passed by the convocation of 1571, respecting the rule of doctrine to be observed by public preachers. The words I do not here transcribe; they will be found in a subsequent quotation from BISHOP BULL. import is, that not the text of Scripture alone, but also the doctrine deduced therefrom by the Catholic Fathers, and ancient bishops, shall not be departed from, in any discourse delivered to the people for their guidance in religious belief and practice.

Thus far, we are supported by public, authoritative documents. Nor shall we be at any loss for individual

actionis existat, quisquis eorum soliditatem non tenet, etiam si lapis esse cernitur, tamen extra ædificium jacet."

ST. GREGOR. MAG. Epist. Lib. I. Ep. 25. p. 515. Vol. ii. Ed. Ben. Vide etiam pagg. 632. 718.