nocturnal spirit of ambiguous complexion. The practical commentary of his life and death, may best illustrate the nature of the mysterious apparition from whence he derived his inspiration. From the Gospel, which was taught by Zuinglius, the charms of virginity utterly disappeared; and, in fighting against the enemies of the faith, he relied more on the arms of the flesh than on those of the spirit. Perhaps he may deserve a place among those who, by dying on the field, have obtained military fame; but, to call such a fanatic by the name of a reformer of the meek religion of Jesus, is an abuse of propriety of thought and language which nothing can justify. From his veneration for the ancient pagans, one might consider Zuinglius better fitted for ministering at their worship, than at the altars of the Christian religion. Nay, his blasphemy extends so far as to confound our Redeemer with some of the Pagan deities, in one indiscriminate apotheosis.(")

Such were the principal heroes of the Reformation. Of the subordinate agents it is sufficient to observe, that they emulously endeavoured to imitate the conduct of their leaders.

(s) "He proclaimed that, as far as depended on himself, he had rather take his chance for eternity with Socrates and Seneca, than with the Bishops of Rome, or the Emperors and Princes of Christendom. And, in his Exposition of the Christian faith,' presented to Francis the First, the heresiarch assures that monarch, that in heaven, his majesty should meet Socrates, Aristides, Numa, Camillus, the Catos, the Scipios, nay, even Theseus and Hercules, enjoying the bliss of eternal life, of which their piety and valour rendered them far more worthy, than the Dominicans and Cordeliers! The author of these sentiments was declared, by Luther, (in Gen. c. 47,) to be a Gentile and a Pagan." ... "Indeed, his general opinion of the discoveries of this fanatic, as well as of his followers, was not very flattering." Sacramentarii hæretici, blasphemi, infideles, ethnici, larvati diaboli, &c. Oper. tom. vii. fol. 379.

"For every class of mankind they had a peculiar engine of persecution. The tepid and disorderly ecclesiastics were loosed from the restraints of discipline and obedience; the ambitious were allured by the hope of distinction, and the avaricious by the hope of ecclesiastical spoliation. The arch reformer found fit engines for his purpose in the passions of mankind. Our Redeemer's prediction attests the perpetual recurrence of heresies and scandals. (Matt. xviii. 7.) At the time of the appearance of Luther the materials were highly inflammable; he had but to fling the torch and they were instantly in a blaze.

“But where can we discover the pacific influence of religion amidst a scene in which avarice, ambition, lust, revenge, and every passion of the human heart, struggled for the ascendancy? Nor let it be said, (and it is an apology that imposes upon numbers) that the crimes of that period were the natural effects of this struggle. It was, we are told, an era in which society was convulsed, and hence it is no wonder if the foulest disorders that lay at the bottom of the human heart were cast up by the violence of the agitation. Yes, it was a disastrous period, during which religious warfare had awakened the strife of contending passions. But where was the mild spirit of religion to be found, striving to appease the tumult? Was it among the reformers, who pretended to restore the ancient purity of the Christian religion? Instead of sending forth its meek and hallowed influence to lay the troubled elements, were they not found tearing up the deep with their ecclesiastical tridents, and having on its surface the accumulated crimes of ages?" Vol. ii. pp. 174

-179.

APPENDIX-No. XV.

ON THE DIVINE COMMISSION.

From Dr. FLETCHER'S " Comparative View of the Grounds of the Catholic and Protestant Churches."

"As my Father hath sent me, even so do I send you. These are words too plain to stand in need of any commentary. They very manifestly imply, and express, the conveyance of a divine commission from the hands of Christ to those of his apostles, giving authority to these holy men to govern his spiritual kingdom, and to perform all the functions of their sacred ministry; and founding, at the same time, their right to do this, upon the grounds of that very same sanction from which the great pontiff himself had derived his own pastoral delegation; As my Father hath sent me, even so do I send you....All power is given to me in heaven and on earth; Go, therefore, and teach all men, and behold I am with you all days, even to the consummation of the world.

"The import of the above passage, as well as that of several others similar to it, is so plain, that there are few Protestant writers, either ancient or modern, who have not assented to it. Thus Dr. Daubeny says: "the commission by which the apostles and their successors became governors of the Church, originally proceeded from the head of the Church. It consequently conveyed an investiture of authority from that holy fountain, from whence all authority in spiritual matters is to be derived. As my Father hath sent me, said Christ to his apostles, so I send you. And from the circumstance of the original delivery of the apostolic commission being accompanied

with a declaration which plainly imported the continuance of it to the end of the world, the Church has reasonably and universally concluded, as might be proved from unanswerable evidence, that it was the divine intention, that this same commission, for the accomplishment of the same divine object, should accompany the Church through every stage of its progress."()

"Should it be objected," says the Bampton lecturer of 1817, "that this commission was merely personal; and that it ceased with the lives of those on whom it was bestowed, it may be answered, that we have the same evidence to prove the continuance of the commission to the successors of the apostles, as to substantiate the fact of its having been originally granted to them. For he, who is the source of all power, and from whom alone, whatever is done by the governors of the Church, derives its sanction, expressly declared, that the authority with which the ministers of his word were invested, was not temporary, but permanent; that it was granted, not to

(t) "If, in the series of these pages, I am observed to cite the authority of Dr. Daubeny, more frequently than I do that of any other Protestant divine,-I will here remark, that my motive for doing so, is this,—not that I entertain any peculiar esteem, either for the learning, the talents, or the character, of the man; (I, in fact, entertain no opinion of any of these qualities that could in any degree flatter his vanity) my motive is this, that he is now considered, by what is called "the orthodox" portion of the established clergy, as their leading oracle, and as the best champion, and defender of their Church. Whence he is so loudly praised by the reviewers of this party;-honoured by them with every flattering term of praise; denominated sometimes from his age and wisdom,-"another Nestor;" sometimes, from his strength and valour,-" another Hercules," &c. So that thus, by citing the authority of this redoubtable theologian, I consider myself as citing that of the great body of the established clergy. Such is my sole motive for introducing so often as I shall do, the words of Dr. Daubeny."

the apostles only, to enable them to build the Church; but to their successors also, throughout all ages."

Having, therefore ascertained these two important facts, -first, that the great Founder of the Church has established in it a divine commission, as the real basis of all pastoral power, and secondly, that he has ordained that this sacred charter should always, through the medium of succession, be perpetuated, and preserved;-having done this, it cannot appear necessary for me to describe, what the precise nature of this order of succession ought to be. The reader, if once impressed with the foregoing truths, will easily comprehend this: for, feeling that since every thing here is sacred, so, of course, every thing must be conformable to the character of the holy institution: "No one can build upon any other foundation, but that which Christ Jesus hath laid." Hence, he will feel, that the line of succession ought essentially, in order to correspond with this great design, to be lawful, regular, and direct. It should be lawful; that is, it should be a succession not founded upon violence and usurpation; not upon fraud and injustice, but upon the strictest claims of right. It should be regular, and direct; that is, it should be, not a broken, interrupted lineage, but a series of inheritance, immediate and unimpaired, presenting a chain of pastors, in which not a single link is wanting, and reaching from the hands of the apostles, down to the hands of the present priesthood. Without this, the consequence would be, that neither could the divine charter be preserved, nor could the faithful ascertain, who, in reality, their true pastors are. So that even this, too, is again admitted by a multitude of Protestant writers; and particularly by the members of the Established Church. These, all allow, that the right to exercise any of the pastoral functions, is founded essen