up in Heaven. See how this commerce has been carried on in the Church from the beginning! See the Apostles, the martyrs, the confessors, the virgins, the missionaries, the teachers of the ignorant, the friends of the poor, of the sick, of the captives, even the buriers of the dead, give up the world, renounce their own ease, embrace voluntarily the mortifications of the Cross, and by a perpetual sacrifice of self, become the living, and not unfrequently, the expiring victims of their love for their fellow beings, and of HIM who died for all! The world has always been full of wickedness, and always will be; but notwithstanding this, amidst its social convulsions, and its hereditary corruptions, see, how in every age since the beginning of Christianity, men rose and girded themselves up for CHRIST's sake, to battle in the armor of faith, and with the weapons of holy charity, against the peculiar disorders of the times. The infidel corsair sweeps the sea, carrying Christians into slavery. But the grace of CHRIST has inspired other Christians with the heroism of charity, by which they bind themselves in a solemn vow, to seek the captive in a barbarous land, to redeem him with money, or if need be, to take on their own limbs the chains of bondage which they have stricken from his! Plague and pestilence are desolating the land, and thousands of delicate and tender virgins are ready to rush into the atmosphere of death, and ministering at the bed-side of the sick and dying, occupy the place which the cowardice of mere flesh and blood had caused even relatives to abandon! But all this, again, is through CHRIST, Who inspires this supernatural courage, and crowns as merits in the members of His mystical body, the fruits of His own grace. Now, if such things occur at all times, and in all places of the Catholic Church; and if, on the other hand, the world has yet to witness the first example of them in the Protestant communions, does it not follow, that there is, there must be, some deep and radical cause to account for the difference? Unquestionably, there is. The Protestant dogma of a forensic imputation of the merits of Christ, and of justification by "faith alone," explains it all. No other key is necessary.

It is not pretended that in the ordinary virtues of social and domestic life, Protestants are inferior to any others. Still, even these, it is manifest, derive no support from

their doctrine of justification, and must be accounted for on other grounds. But above the range of every-day duties, performed in a genteel and respectable manner, where is there a name that stands prominent on the page of selfsacrifice for the good of others? We have sometimes heard the names of Howard and Wilberforce mentioned as instances. They, certainly, especially the former, were above the ordinary standard in the reformed ranks; but yet how immeasurably below any corresponding type in the Catholic Church. The one visited the institutions for erring and suffering, or destitute humanity, which had been founded by the spontaneous charity of Catholic lands, or the civil laws of Protestant states-and recorded the reflections of his mind, and the sympathies of his benevolent heart. Even this was much. The other poured out his eloquence, and his gold, if you please, to meliorate the conditions of an afflicted portion of his fellow men. But neither of them showed any thing like a willingness to undergo themselves, for their MASTER's sake, a portion of the sufferings they would mitigate or remove.

The Oxford school is the only one in the history of Protestantism, that seems to have caught a ray of the light and warmth of Catholic faith on the subject of justification. Neither is this so manifest in what are called their principles, as in the tone of a deeper spirituality, piety, meekness, and a desire to foster more the love of GoD, and of man. These feelings appear under the surface of their writings, as if struggling for an issue, and a right direction. Hence the innovations with which they are charged. Fasting, confession, and most of the practical devotions of the Catholic Church, are reported to have found favor in their sight. But, alas! so long as the fundamental error of the Anglican system on justification, remains, what practical progress can they make with the masses of their people? It is said they would establish Protestant monasteries; but who will be the monks?—That they would have daily service in their churches; but who will attend the worship, except a few devout females whose hearts unconsciously obey the instinct of that Catholic faith against which their understandings have been so perversely instructed ?--That they would rid the churches of pews, so that, as in Catholic times, the rich and poor may worship together; but do they imagine that the haughty lords of

England, who fenced round in their exclusive boxes, will hardly kneel before their MAKER, albeit they are tempted by soft and velvet cushions to do so,-will mingle in any direct contact of equality with the poor? No, no! such results cannot be anticipated, so long as both are taught to believe that justification is by "faith alone." But going beyond the precincts of the temple, how will the Oxford Divines be able to infuse into the Anglican system any principle of spiritual fruitfulness, whilst this tenet prevails? How will they go forth to their rich and proud contrymen, preaching, like St. Paul, the "chastisement of the body," and the "crucifixion of the flesh ?" How will they meet the dark, sour discontent of religious, as well as civil chartism, in the millions of their countrymen, with the words of the SAVIOUR Himself, Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of GOD." How will they reduce to the simplicity of faith, and obedience of CHRIST. the spiritual haughtiness and double-dealing of their middle classes? How, in a word, can they renovate their Church, or distil a healing balm into any of the wounds, religious, moral, social, or physical, of their suffering land, so long as they and their countrymen remain alike paralyzed by the frozen grasp of the fundamental error of their system to which we have alluded? They may, indeed, preach and write with the force and eloquence, and even unction of a Chrysostom or a Paul, but yet so long as the present system of the Anglican Church remains, their words will return on them as feathers cast against the wind. Still, however, all these things are in the hands of GOD-who can employ the things that are not, to confound the things that are.

In the mean time, we have great pleasure in presenting and recommending the following pages, on this great question, to the good favor of the public. They are the fruits of the leisure hours of a learned and amiable lay-gentleman, who has himself been brought to the communion of the Church through the Oxford writings. His experimental knowledge of the two systems has enabled him to appreciate the importance of each, and his familiarity with the best lights and highest authorities of the Anglican Church, has enabled him to weave a chain of testimony from their writings, of which the first link is Tyndale, and the last, (proh! dolor!) Rev. Mr. Newman. The reader

will easily perceive the slippery nature of the error, in marking the discrepancies of views, in the successive dignitaries who upheld it; and the tremendous labor, finesse of speech, and wrenching of terms, with which alone it could be explained (?) or defended. The author has accompanied these testimonies with his own reflections, interspersed with occasional testimonies of Catholic writers and Councils, setting forth or witnessing the uniform teaching of the Church. He does not present his little work as a synopsis of Catholic doctrine, even on the subject of which it treats; but rather, as its title implies, an inquiry into the subject as held by the Church of England. But his intimate knowledge of the Anglican system, in which he was educated, enabled him to bring out and connect together, the best arguments of the most distinguished divines in that communion; and to show their utter deficiency, when tested by Scripture, the teaching of the primitive church, and the ordinary rules of right reasoning.

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We shall add farther, (and this at the request of the respected author himself,) that he has not, on the one side, hesitated to employ many of those terms which in the Protestant writings and discussions on Imputation," "Justification," &c., have acquired a kind of technical meaning with which Catholics are not familiar; nor, on the other hand, has he deemed it essential to adhere to that strictness and precision of language which would be expected in a formal theological treatise. It is believed, however, that with the brief" statement of the question," in a preceding page of this Introduction, the subject will be found at once intelligible and interesting even to those who are not accustomed to metaphysical investigations. The effort of the author to aid, however feebly, those who (and at this time, their number is not small,) are engaged in that struggle, through which his own mind has passed, of a transition from the uncertainties of human speculations, to the simplicity of positive and unchanging faith,— will be well received, and kindly appreciated by all who can estimate, at their proper value, the sublime dignity, the immortal destiny, and the true interests of the human soul.

AN INQUIRY

INTO THE

MERITS OF The reformed DOCTRINE

OF

"IMPUTATION,"

&c., &c., &c.

As the articles of the Church of England maintain so strict a reserve on the doctrine of Imputation, notwithstanding it forms the cardinal feature and basis of the Protestant reformation, we propose to notice the system as held and explained, first, in the writings of some of the early English reformers, and, afterwards, in the works of some of the most distinguished divines in the abovenamed establishment.

We commence, then, with an extract from a work on Justification, published in 1530, by Tyndale, who is styled by Fox, "the Apostle of England." "For as the Apostles," says Fox, "in the primitive age first planted the Church in truth of the Gospel; so, the same truth being again decayed and defaced by enemies in this our latter time, there was none that travailed more earnestly in restoring the same in this realm of England, than did William Tyndale."

TYNDALE.

The substance of his views is sufficiently expressed in the following passage, from a work which he published on the reformed doctrine of Justification, in answer to Sir Thomas Moore :†

"When Paul saith faith only justifieth,' and James,

As if Truth were capable of decay or susceptible of corruption. + Fathers of the English Church, pp. 285-292.