not retract it-my object and that of my friends is to "UNPROTESTANTIZE THE NATIONAL CHURCH.* I use an offensive, but forcible word," to describe our great and noble design. "We cannot stand where we are; we must go backwards or forwards; and it will surely be the latter. It is absolutely necessary towards the consistency of the system, which certain parties are labouring to restore, that truths should be clearly stated, which as yet have been but intimated; and others developed which are now but in germ. AND, AS WE GO ON, we must RECEDE MORE AND MORE FROM THE PRINCIPLES, IF ANY SUCH THERE BE, of the English Reformation." But if we unprotestantize the nation, we romanize, or papalize the nation : and our object, therefore, is, in other words, I will not deny it, though others may—our object is, to "restore the Antient Religion” — which Bonner professed and encouraged; for which he used so much severity against the Ultra-Protestants; and for which he died in prison. The sad circumstances, however, in which we are placed render it necessary to restore it by degrees. "Medicine is never so unpalatable as when sipped. Besides, it is in its * British Critic, No. 59, page 45. + Ibid. integrity only, and not in its isolated portions that Catholicism has promise of subduing the intellects, and engrossing the hearts of men, to the discomfiture of all rival claimants, and the preclusion of all inferior influences. At the present time any suggestion seems worth hazarding, which, in minds to which it may chance to commend itself, may operate towards a considerate estimate of the difficulties and temptations of those who differ from us."* Neither am I jealous only of the honor of the University of which Edmund Bonner was an illustrious member: I am anxious to prove that his holy zeal, Anti-Protestant opinions, animated severity, and uniform regard of the ordinances of the Catholic Church, render Bonner as certainly worthy of the sacred title of Saint, as those whom I have already called by that desirable name. He is undoubtedly as much a Saint, as Thomas Beckett. I have called this holy man a "blessed Saint and Martyr of the Most High," and I have expressed "my indignation, at hearing this blessed Saint slandered" by Bishop Jewell, an Ultra-Protestant "Teacher of yesterday;"† when he affirms, * British Critic, No. 59, page 45. + British Critic, No. 59, page 42. with his prejudiced party, that "the true cause of Beckett's death was his ambition, vanity, and wilful maintenance of manifest wickedness in the Clergy." I have also in the same page of my favorite Review boldly called the firm and zealous Hildebrand the "Predecessor of St. Thomas of Canterbury in the same holy cause, another Saint of the Most High." No censure has been passed upon me for so doing. No Ultra-Protestant has raised his voice, or drawn his pen, against this bold step in our progress towards “UNPROTESTANTIZING" the National Church. Whether this silence proceeds from astonishment at our just decidedness, or from affected contempt, or from incipient approbation, or from deep and loathing anger and indignation, I neither know nor care. This only I know, that I am resolved to proceed, till the Church of England adopts our principles, or excludes us from its communion. I and my friends are determined to go on till the "SIN OF 1688"* is removed-till the "un *The Revolution of 1688 is thus denominated by my dear friend, Dr Pusey, in his Sermon preached at St Mary's, Oxford. The effects of that sin, though it brought the Hanover Family to the throne, must be removed at all hazards. It is as I have said, the "Rebellion of 1688, when the Church sustained the great '* churching" of "the Anglicans by the Protestantism which has mixed itself up with their ecclesiastical proceedings,” is done away—till the union of the Church and State, as an establishment, is no longer the subject of boasting. We are intent upon convincing the people that "to be a mere establishment is unworthy of the Catholic Church, and to be shut out from the rest of Christendom is not a subject of boasting." The Ultra-Protestant may believe that England is the Canaan of God in the latter times; and that the union of the Churches of the Holy Catholic Church of Christ, of which the prophets seem to speak, may be effected by the coming in of the nations to the Light, Liberty, Church, and Religion of England. We believe that such union will take place by the going down of England, back again, to many of the opinions, and to much of the discipline of Rome, which England has rejected. The Ultra-Protestant may absurdly make the real or the supposed faults of the Apostolical Succession a cause for a Christian's depending loss of Christian principle; and when she threw, as it were, out of her pale, Christ crucified (together with Kenn and Kettlewell). A low tone of morals has ever since pervaded her teaching." See my Tract No. 80, page 95. * British Critic, No. 59. on his reason, his private judgment, and his own interpretation of the Scripture; whatever be the decisions of the Church. He may believe nothing, unless he is convinced of its truth; whatever be the authority which appeals to him. But we, the Tractarian British Critics, teach the world-that, whatever be the past, real, or supposed faults of the Apostolical Succession, the present rulers of the Church may justly require the people, implicitly, to submit their reason, judgment, and scriptural conclusions, to their own divinely granted authority. Both of us acknowledge that the authority of the Church, like that of a parent, proceeds from Heaven: but the Ultra-Protestant considers himself "as an adult and reasoning child, who is permitted to examine the truth of the teaching of his parents, while he confesses the parent's authority."* We consider both him and the people to be as infant children only, incapable of distinguishing between the truth or falsehood, of the teaching of the parent; and as guilty, therefore, of great presumption, and crime, and blasphemy, if they dare to reject the parent's conclusions. Both * See Mr Townsend's Sermon at Birmingham, and the Notes, |