Supper, there is not any Transubstantiation of the Elements of Bread and Wine into the Body and Blood of Christ, at or after the Consecration thereof, by any person whatsoever; and that the Invocation or Adoration of the Virgin Mary, or any other Saint, and the Sacrifice of the Mass, as they are now used in the Church of Rome, are superstitious and idolatrous. And I do solemnly, in the presence of God, profess, testify, and declare, That I do make this Declaration, and every Part thereof, in the plain and ordinary Sense of the Words read unto me, as they are commonly understood by English Protestants."

I will observe, in passing, that we are hereby called upon not only to renounce Catholicity, but to swear to a belief in doctrines, in the sense in which they are commonly understood by English Protestants; hence the necessity of not only shewing-Why we cannot renounce our own Faith, but also Why we cannot renounce it in favour of other tenets, which we are called upon to embrace in its stead.

I. In the first place, therefore, I cannot either conform to Protestantism, or take the Oaths in question, inasmuch as both call upon me to declare, that no Foreign Prelate hath, or ought to have, any Spiritual Jurisdiction or Pre-eminence, within this Realm: Whereas, I do solemnly and sincerely profess, and am ready to attest it with an

oath, that I firmly and truly believe in the Primacy of the successor of St. Peter, as regulated by the usages and Canons of the Catholic Church.

The spiritual supremacy over the Christian world was conferred upon St. Peter, by these words of our Saviour:-Thou art Peter [a rock], and upon this rock I will build my church; and the gates of Hell shall not prevail against it; and I will give to thee the keys of the kingdom of Heaven") and again: Feed my lambs, feed my sheep." There is scarcely any instance in which St. Peter is mentioned in the sacred writings without a marked pre-eminence being shown to him over the other apostles; and consequently over the church of Christ, which they then constituted, or at least represented. He is the only one to whom the keys, the emblems of authority and jurisdiction, were given, the only one for whom Christ prayed singly, that being stedfast in his faith, he might confirm his brethren, as if upon him the whole fabric of Christianity reposed;-he alone is designated a Rock, the foundation, as it were, of a great edifice; he alone, by special and divine appointment, is entrusted with the duties

(a) St. Matt. xvi. 18, 19.—N. B. The texts and references from Scripture will be found to correspond with the Douay version of the Bible.

(b) St. John, xxi. 16, 17.

of a shepherd, commanded to feed the lambs and the sheep of Christ, and to guide both the priesthood and the people. This supreme dominion, this spiritual superiority (and I beg the reader to bear in mind that it is only spiritual, since the kingdom of God is not of this world,)) to which St. Peter and his successors were regularly inducted by so many titles, consists in a right of general superintendence over all orders of the hierarchy; it is an authority to see that the faith which is preached, is that which was revealed by the Almighty and delivered to us by his Church: it is a commission to guard the purity of religion, the morality of its pastors, and the integrity of its discipline. "The visible head is for the preservation of a visible unity,"-to continue and connect the chain of faith, for the discovery and condemnation of heresy, and for the due observance of canonical discipline. This, and this alone, is the spiritual supremacy by divine institution, and that only to be exercised in the manner prescribed by the acts of general councils and the canons and usages of the church. To the bishop of Rome we owe a spiritual obedience as to the successor

(c) St. John, xviii. 36.

(d) On this head of the primacy of the Roman bishop, the Council of Trent issued no ordinance; but because in the general Council of Florence, convened in 1439, in order

of St. Peter, not an allegiance as to a temporal sovereign; and that spiritual obedience is limited to the points just mentioned. Our temporal obedience to magistrates and rulers is commanded and regulated by the same authority") which imposes

to unite the Greek and Latin churches, the point was fully decided, I shall here insert the decree of that council.

"Moreover we define, that the holy apostolic see, and the Roman bishop, has the primacy over all the earth; and that he is the successor of the blessed Peter, the prince of the apostles, the true vicar of Christ, the head of the whole church, and the father and teacher of all Christians; and that to him, in the person of the blessed Peter, was committed by our Lord Jesus Christ, the full power of feeding, directing, and governing the universal church in such manner as it is contained in the Acts of general councils, and in the holy canons."* Definitio S. Ecumen. Synod. Florent. Conc. Gen. T. xiii. p. 515.

(e) "Let every soul be subject to higher powers; for there is no power but from God:....And they that resist, purchase to themselves damnation." Rom. xiii. 1, 2. "Be ye subject to every human creature for God's sake; whether it be to the king as excelling, or to governors as sent by him." 1 Peter, ii. 13, 14. "Render to Cæsar the things that are Cæsar's, and to God the things that are God's." St. Matt. xxii. 21.

So strongly is the duty of civil obedience enjoined by the law of God, and by the same law which commands

* Καθ' όν τρόπον και ἐν τοῖς πρακτικοις των οικεμενικών συνοδών, και ἐν τοῖς ἱεροις κανοσι διαλαμβανεται.

a spiritual obedience to spiritual superiors; to both we owe a like submission, but both are separate and independent of each other. As the church was built to endure for ever, even to the consummation of the world, so, unquestionably, the government which Christ appointed for it, was to be co-existent with it. A supreme head, a centre of unity, is indeed much more necessary now to preserve one faith and one baptism," in the midst of heresy and schism, than when the world was filled with inspired teachers in the persons of the apostles. It is the exercise of this supreme spiritual authority, which has handed down to us both the faith and morality of these disciples of our Saviour, pure and untainted through a course of more than 1800 years; and it is the want of this power, lawfully obtained and authoritatively administered, that has produced all those mad and foolish heresies, the prolific growth of protestantism, which, like so many poisonous plants, have banished almost every wholesome fruit from those portions of the garden of Christianity in which they have taken root. There is no blasphemy however

our spiritual obedience to the church: "He that will not hear the Church, let him be to thee as a heathen and a publican." St. Matt. xviii. 17.

(f) See APPENDIX, No. IX. for some excellent observations on the Spiritual Supremacy.

(8) St. Matt. xxviii. 20.

(h) Ephes. iv. 5.