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course by shewing that the Bishops of the British churches require unwarrantable terms of communion. Let them do this if they can, let them show that our Bishops require anything which their own Bishops do not require, and which was not required by the Councils of Ephesus and Chalcedon. If they can do this, well; if not, this special charge of schism, like the general one, will remain unrefuted and unshaken.

Let them not affect to question the validity of our orders that ground which had been set aside on our part, by the production of our records, was effectually annihilated on theirs when the French divines in 1718, sought to effect a union of the English and Gallican churches, without any hesitation on that score'. And their famous Bossuet is known to have acknowledged that if a difficulty, which, through want of information occurred to him respecting the succession during Cromwell's time (which is undisputed) could be removed, he saw no other, "the ordination of their bishops and priests is as valid as that of our own 2."

Neither will it avail them to urge, as some of them have attempted, the marriage of our clergy as

Twice before, during the 17th century, the point of our orders came before the doctors of the Sorbonne, as we are informed by Courayer, and on both occasions they recognized the validity of them.

* See Courayer's Defense de la Dissertation, &c.; Bruxelles, 1726. iv. Preuves Justificatives, p. iii—vi.

a bar to communion, for when on various occasions the Roman section of Christendom has sought a re-union with the Greeks, among whom the clergy have always retained their wives, we do not find that the relinquishing them formed any part of the terms on which the re-union was to be effected, as for instance, at the second Council of Lyons, and at Florence and at the present time they are in full communion with the Maronites of Syria, where all the clergy are married.

The position of these Roman Bishops in the British dioceses is the more inexcusable because they can trace no descent, nor do they pretend to be descended from the ancient churches in these islands. The Bishops of England, Scotland, and Ireland, who in the sixteenth century were deprived for their adherence to the uncanonical and usurped foreign jurisdiction of the Bishop of Rome, which he exercised here in violation of the decrees of the General Councils of Nice and Ephesus, did not preserve any succession in these kingdoms. The orthodox, or as they are commonly called, the Protestant Bishops of the three kingdoms, (with those who have proceeded from them in North America,) are the only representatives by Episcopal succession of the Bishops of the Celtic and Anglo-Saxon churches. The Bishops in adherence to the Roman pontiff, who have intruded into our dioceses, are of a foreign stock, and have derived their orders, since the Reformation, from Spain and Italy.

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As our opponents are very difficult to please in the terms by which they are to be designated, I have confined myself, throughout this work, to one which is sanctioned by their own Pope Pius IV. in his new profession of faith, which has been the chief cause of the separation between us. He there speaks of the body of Christians to which he belonged as "the holy Roman Church." I have therefore called them Romans, or Roman Christians. The term Catholic, which they affect, seems, in strictness of speech, to be inapplicable to a body of men who have put forth new and unheard of terms of communion, and have separated themselves from the rest of the faithful on account of them.

It will, perhaps, be expected that I should say something of the present work. But indeed I have few observations to make concerning it. Only first, I desire to refer to those, to whom it is due, the credit, if any, arising from the extracts with which the different points have been illustrated. It is but the old story, "Other men laboured, and ye are entered into their labours." Bishops, Taylor, in his "Dissuasive from Popery;" Bull, in his "Corruptions of the Church of Rome;" Stillingfleet, in his "Council of Trent disproved by Catholic Tradition;" Wake, in his "Discourse on the Eucharist;" Beveridge, in his Notes on the Councils; and the anonymous author of "Veteres Vindicati," London, 1687; and the learned Routh, in his "Scriptorum Ecclesiasticorum Opuscula," have left little to be added.

2. I desire to disclaim a familiar acquaintance with many of the authors whose works I have cited; some of whose names, and many of their works, were unknown to me before engaging in this task. 3. I desire to disclaim all pretence to learning or scholarship, which should make any of my readers hesitate to point out any inaccuracies in translation or otherwise, which they may detect, or fancy that they detect. Some few have been pointed out by a friendly hand since the sheets were struck off, and have been noticed; I make no doubt there are others, and shall esteem the pointing them out to be an act of friendship, let it come from what quarter it may. The caution I have thought it right to use, of rarely citing a translation, without subjoining the original, will make such errors, even if they should be more numerous than I hope they will prove, of comparatively small consequence. 4. If any think the work less complete than they may have desired, I can only beg them to make some allowance for it, as having been undertaken and pursued amidst the constant interruptions of parochial and domestic duties, apart from books, except the few that my own collection furnished.

Such as it is, I send it into the world, with the hope that, under God's blessing, it may be instrumental, not to party triumph, not to vain boasting, not to insulting reproach; but to the vindication and illustration of the Truth, and so may eventually promote the cause of that Peace and Union for which

our Master prayed, and of that Charity which He appointed to be the distinguishing feature of His followers. Let me entreat all who may derive, or fancy they derive assistance from this volume, to offer up their prayers to God for these ends.

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