and none were asked to share it with me. It does, I believe, pretty accurately express the views and the feelings of the dissenters, and of the dissenting ministers of Canterbury; yet as none of them advised or participated in its publication, they must be exonerated from all that blame which it may be supposed to deserve. Obloquy or reproach for me, of course can have no charms, and therefore to court it, I can have no desire; yet obloquy or reproach would not be to me so great a punishment, as the reflection that others had been unjustly exposed to it on my account. That the pretended minister of Christ should indulge in vindictive feelings for what I have done, I can easily imagine; but that the real minister of Christ should do so, I can never believe.

In cases of this kind, it is usual to say that our dispute is not with persons, but with systems; with measures, and not with men ; I can lay full claim to the benefit of this sentiment, because I have not the slightest degree of ill-feeling towards the members of any religious denomination in the world; indeed, I may say that I have scarcely the slightest knowledge of any of those individuals whom I have now the honor to address. But while I disclaim all personalities, I think it only the part of candour to admit, that, between systems and the persons by whom they are upheld, there is an important and inseparable connection, and that the latter and not the former are accountable to God. I know that it is not in man to command success, and that even Paul might plant, and Apollos might water, but God alone could give the increase yet I believe that the present irreligious state of Canterbury is a striking condemnation of Puseyism, and enough to make it a "reproach and a taunt, an instruction, and an astonishment to the nations of the world."

The hour is at hand when we shall have done with controversy; and in prospect of that judgment seat, where the great shall be unenvied, and the wicked shall be abhorred, and whence lies no appeal, I send forth my book with the solemn conviction that the system it is designed to expose will not endure the light and the scrutiny of the judgment seat of Christ. My earnest desire is, "that you may obtain mercy of the Lord in that day." With those sentiments of respect with which I commenced, I now beg leave to conclude this epistle dedicatory, to the clergy of the city and cathedral of Canterbury.

P. CATER.

CHAPTER I.

HISTORY AND CHARACTER OF PUSEYISM.

French Revolution Excitement in England - Ecclesiastical Reform-Alarm of the Clergy-Church and State-Puseyism the same with Popery-Laud-Lord Falkland-Cambridge -Dr. Wiseman-Bishop of Rochester-Council of Nicevia media-No. 90-Progress-Theatre-Ultimate Design —J. D. Dalgairns, Esq.-Apostolic Succession, radical error of the System.

"All ye that bend the bow shoot at her, spare no arrows; for she hath sinned against the Lord."-Jeremiah.

THE French capital, fourteen years ago, was the scene of that mighty conflict which seemed to proclaim, as with the sound of a trumpet, "Be wise now, therefore, O ye kings; be instructed ye judges of the earth," and which will not fail to exert an influence on the kingdoms and nations of the world long after the present generation shall have passed away. The liberty of the press is assailed-all Paris is alarmed-the houses are barricaded--the workshops are closed-the populace and the military rush into fearful collision-the streets of the city flow with blood. After three days the people triumph-the reigning monarch is deposed-his ministers are disgraced, and another dynasty is appointed to respect and to maintain the liberties of France.

с

The shock of this political earthquake is felt throughout the British empire-the spirit of reform, not altogether inactive before, is now stimulated into unwonted energy-national grievances are denounced in no measured terms- many strange events rise up in rapid succession; and almost all men fancy they can see the premonitory signs of a revolutionary storm. For weeks and months the social system is convulsed, -is shaken to its very centre, till at length the reform bill is passed, and the desire for change ceases not to occupy, but ceases to agitate the public mind.

Every one was now anxious to know what would be done with the Church. A venerable statesman, whose name is connected with all the great improvements of the age, had publicly admonished some of its dignitaries "to set their house in order." This wise admonition, concurring with other circumstances, had prepared the public mind for the announcement of some extensive and salutary measure of reform in favour of the religious establishment of this country. Very little, however, was done to satisfy the people; but too much was done to satisfy the clergy: the legislature had, without their consent, suppressed certain bishopricks, had made new arrangements with regard to ecclesiastical revenues, and had even discussed the propriety of appro

priating some of them to other purposes than those for which they were originally designed.

At this state of things, Dr. Pusey,* and other divines in the University of Oxford, took the alarm; and the "Tracts for the Times" were written "as a man might give notice of a fire or inundation to startle all who heard him."a But what were they alarmed about? What was that impending calamity just ready to desolate the country like a fire or an overwhelming flood? No state enactment could alter the road to heaven, or silence its true and faithful guides,-or extinguish the light of truth-or dry up the sources of religious consolation-or endanger the prosperity or existence of that church which is built upon a rock. But this was the cause of alarm: the test act was repealed-the Irish church-rate was repealed-and the Irish bishopricks were repealed, and who could tell but that in the course of a few years the union of church and state itself might be repealed; and then what should the clergy do? Unsupported by this arm of flesh, how should they stand up with their accustomed dignity among the people, and assert or maintain their supremacy over all other denominations of the Christian

* Dr. Pusey, Mr. Newman, and Professor Keble, are the principal writers in the "Tracts for the Times."

a Vol. 3, p. 6, 7.

religion? Then the fascinating doctrine of apostolic succession presented itself in a new and more beautiful form. If it had not been cast aside as useless, it had been very much neglected; but now it was to be considered all important, as affording a more solid and permanent basis on which to rest their exclusive right of being the only ministers of Christ within these realms, than what could be afforded by their connection with the state.*

Puseyism has had an existence ever since the days of Archbishop LAUD; being a new exposition and a new inculcation of the principles of High Churchism, whose doctrines and ceremonial observances are nearly, and in some cases quite identical, with those of the church of Rome. It has, indeed, been called Popery in disguise; but this is scarcely correct for what disguise can there be in the following passages, taken from the accredited

*"Why should we speak so much of an establishment and so little of an apostolic succession."-Dr. Pusey. "The question is, on what are we to rest our authority when the state deserts us? On apostolic descent."-Tract No. 1, p. 2.

+ LAUD. With unceasing industry he studied to exalt the priestly and prelatical character.-Hume.

The following is Lord Falkland's description of some of the clergy of that time, written more than two hundred years ago:-"Some have evidently laboured to bring in an English, not a Roman Popery; I mean not the outside and dress only, but equally absolute; a blind obedience of the people upon the clergy, and of the clergy upon themselves; and have opposed Popery beyond the sea, that they might settle one beyond the water at Lambeth; nay, common fame is more than ordinarily false, if none of them have found a way to reconcile the opinions of Rome to the preferments of England; and to be so absolutely, directly and cordially, Papists, that it is all that £1500 per annum can do to keep them from confessing it."