Origin and developments of Anglicanism

Front matter

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Preface

In a former Volume, I have traced the spiritual connexion of England and the Holy See, from the times of Lever Maur, who applied to Rome in the second century for instructers in the faith, down to the sixteenth century, when Henry the Eight dissolved the ancient union, and attached to the English Crown the rights and prerogatives which had till then been unhesitatingly, and on principle, conceded to the Roman Pontiffs.

To describe the grounds on which this transfer of power was based ; to trace the origin of the liturgical, symbolical, and other authoritative works which appeared in the reigns of Henry, and of his two children, Edward and Elizabeth ; and to examine in detail every important circumstance connected with the Bible, which after the separation of England from Rome had been effected, was proclaimed to be, what it has ever since been believed to be, the only rule of faith of Anglicanism, are the objects which I propose to myself in the following pages.

The subjects referred to are obviously of great importance ; for on them turns the whole question of the divine or human origin of the English Reformation. If it can be shown that passion and not revelation ; that arbitrary power and not divine right, were considered in the establishment of the Church of England ; if further it can be demonstrated that the symbolical and doctrinal works of

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the Reformers were characterized by inconsistency and contradictions, it will be readily conceded that the new religion was simply a human institution — a kingdom of this world, and nothing better.

Now, it appears to me, that all this, and much more indeed, can easily be established by facts as patent as the history of Henry's divorce from Queen Catherine, of Henry's parliaments, and of the innovations connected with religion, which marked the three score and eight years which intervened between the apostacy of Henry the Eighth and the death of Elizabeth.

These facts will be fully and accurately stated in the sequel of this volume; and further, such inferences as logically flow from the historical premises will be briefly laid before the reader, in order that a correct estimate may be formed of that system of belief, which has been guarded for the last three hundred years, by the twoedged sword of penal statutes and state-patronage.

Though the questions discussed in this volume may have frequently been laid before the English public in former publications, they have not, it is believed, been ever treated in the manner here adopted. Several writers, for example, have ably developed the Solibiblical principle ; they have, too, when engaged on the delineation of Protestantism, referred to those frequent changes both in doctrine and practice, which were the natural results of Erastianism ; but no one has, I think, sifted the sixth Article in relation to the Deutero-canonical writings, or reduced the whole of Anglicanism to its original elements, and thus tested its nature and its origin.

To me this analytical process seems highly satisfactory and conclusive. It enables the reader to see things as

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they really are; whilst it removes the earthy mound beneath which truth has been too long buried.

No pains have been spared to render this work both interesting and useful ; and with this conviction I submit my endeavour's to the discriminating judgment of the friends of truth. Partizans — men who adhere to systems and opinions not from a conviction of their being true, but on account of their agreement with religious or political prepossessions — will not approve of what I have recorded in relation to Anglicanism. They would have me and others forget the origin of the establishment ; and instead of stating with Macauley that " the Church of England sprang frorn a compromise, huddled up between the eager zeal of Reformers and the selfishness of greedy, ambitious, and time-serving politicians," they would wish me to describe it as venerable and Heaven-sent. But this I could not do. My object in writing is to teach; and all instruction should be truth. Truth is above and beyond party feeling or individualism : it admits not of deflections : it goes straightforward : —

To sacrifice truth to party, or not to declare it openly where revelation and man's eternal interests are at stake, must ever be looked upon as an unworthy compromise, and the very worst species of religious treachery.

Instit. Just

ESBATA.

Pag-e 47, note, for Gebet, read Gerbet. „ 220, line 5, dele and third. „ 246, line I, for Hiliarv, read Hilary.