6
word was to be of more weight than even the Holy Scriptures themselves. But about three hundred years ago, the Bishops of the Church of England saw these errors in their true light; they saw that the Pope's authority was not founded on Scripture, and they consequently refused to acknowledge it, while they at the same time corrected, upon scriptural principles, the other errors and evil practices which I have alluded to. These changes did not make the Church of England a new church, nor prevent that body which was Christ's true and original Church before, from being Christ's true and original Church still. Some Bishops of that day, it is true, disapproved of these changes, and refused to accede to them; but as, when they died, they providentially appointed no successors, there has never since been any real ground for doubt which was the true Church of Christ in this favoured land. The Bishops of the Church of England, and they only, are the representatives by succession of those who, more than a thousand years ago, planted the Gospel on our shores[1].
J.—But there are persons whom the Papists call their Bishops—whence do they come?
Dr.—They derive what they call their right from their appointment by foreign Bishops in an unauthorized manner. The Pope and his followers would by no means acknowledge the changes which had taken place in England; they declared that our Church had apostatized from the faith, and refused to communicate with us, till we should return to all our ancient errors. They have since, upon the alleged ground that our line of Bishops was extinct, given commission from time to time to different persons to exercise episcopal authority here; but as the ground was false, the commission was of course void. We acknowledge the Pope and his Bishops in foreign countries to be, by station, ministers of the Church, though we admit and lament the fact, that they have led the branches of it over which they preside into apostasy and shame; yet we feel that in sending their representatives hither, to act in defiance of the Church already established, they are exceeding the limits of their authority. We feel that God, who is not the author of confusion, but of peace, in all churches of the
- ↑ In the same manner it may be shown, that the established Church of Ireland alone represents that Church which the labours of St. Patrick, in the fifth century, planted in the island. Those who preside over the Romanists have received consecration from Rome at a very recent period. And the corruptions which prevail in their religion, and which distinguish it from ours, became prevalent long after the Saint's death. Our doctrines, therefore, approach more nearly to his than theirs do; and our Church is the true and original Church of Christ in Ireland, in every sense which the words will bear.
