affection, by dissenters themselves. Even in these I observe a respect for patristic authority, such as would now expose the party who entertained it to reproach.

Thus, let us take the case of Philpot, the friend of Bradford'; the approver of the Church of Geneva, and the doctrine of the same; the admirer of Calvin and of his Institutes; one, therefore, we may be sure, who was no type of the HighChurch party of his time. What, then, are the sentiments that we find him advocating with respect to the reverence due to antiquity, and to the Fathers its expositors? I give some of them in the order in which they occur in the publication itself.

'Why, do you not think that we have now the true faith?" is one of Bonner's questions to him. "I desire your Lordship to hold me excused for answering at this time—I am sure that God's Word thoroughly, with the Primitive Church, and all the ancient writings do agree with this faith I am of” -is Philpot's reply.*

"Take the book" (a copy of Irenæus) "Master Philpot, and look upon that place, and there may you see how the Church of Rome is to be followed of all men;" saith to him the Bishop of Gloucester.

5

Philpot takes the book, and sifts the passage and then concludes, "but the Church of Rome hath swerved from that truth and simplicity of the Gospel, which it maintained in Irenæus's time, and was then uncorrupted from that which it is now wherefore your Lordships cannot justly apply the authority of Irenæus to the Church of Rome now, which is so manifestly corrupted from the Primitive Church."

"I pray you," says the Bishop of Gloucester once more, "by whom will you be judged in matters of controversy which happen daily?"

Philpot. By the Word of God. For Christ saith in St. John, the Word that He spake shall be judge in the latter day."

"Gloucester. What if you take the Word one way, and I another way? who shall be judge then?"

"Philpot. The Primitive Church."

LECT. I.]

PHILPOT,

11

"Gloucester. I know you mean the Doctors that wrote thereof."

"Philpot. I mean verily so."

"I pray you," saith the Bishop of Coventry, "can you tell what this word 'Catholic' doth signify? Shew, if you can." "Philpot. Yes, that I can, I thank GOD. . . . I esteem the Catholic Church to be as St. Augustine defineth the same: 'We judge,' saith he, 'the Catholic faith, of that which hath been, is, and shall be.' So that, if you can be able to prove that your faith and Church hath been from the beginning taught, and is, and shall be, then may you count yourselves Catholic, otherwise not." 2

"All the Catholic Church (until these few years)," saith the Bishop of St. Asaph, "have taken him" (the Bishop of Rome) "to be the supreme head of the Church, besides this good man Irenæus."

"Philpot. That is not likely, that Irenæus so took him, or the Primitive Church: for I am able to shew seven general Councils after Irenæus's time, wherein he was hever so taken; which may be a sufficient proof, that the Catholic Primitive Church never took him for supreme head." 3

"Bishop of Coventry. Why will you not admit the Church of Rome to be the Catholic Church?"

Philpot. Because it followeth not the Primitive Catholic Church, neither agreeth with the same, no more than an apple is like a nut."

"Coventry. Wherein doth it dissent?"

"Philpot. It were too long to recite all; but two things. I will name, the Supremacy, and Transubstantiation. . . . Transubstantiation is but a late plantation of the Bishop of Rome; and you are not able to shew any ancient writer, that the Primitive Church did believe any such thing."

"Coventry. How prove you that the Church of Rome now dissenteth in doctrine and use of the Sacraments from the Primitive Church?"

"Philpot. Compare the one with the other, and it shall soon appear; as you may see both in Eusebius and other ecclesiastical and ancient writers."*

"London. How long hath your Church stood, I pray

Philpot. Even from the beginning; from Christ, and from his Apostles, and from their immediate successors."

"Chancellor. He will prove his Church to be before Christ!"

"Philpot. If I did so, I go not amiss: for there was a Church before the coming of Christ, which maketh one Catholic Church."

"Chancellor. It is so indeed."

Philpot. I will desire no better rule than the same which is oftentimes brought in of your side, to prove both my faith and Church Catholic; that is, antiquity, universality and unity."

"London. Do you not see what a bragging foolish fellow this is? He would seem to be very well seen in the doctors, and he is but a fool. By what doctor art thou able to prove thy Church? Name him, and thou shalt have him."

Philpot. My Lord, let me have all your ancient writers, with pen, and ink, and paper, and I will prove both my faith and my Church out of every one of them." 1

I had transcribed a good many passages from the writings of Philpot, as published by the Parker Society, to the same effect; and meant to have produced them all, but I fear it may weary you-possibly indeed you may think I have quoted more than enough already; but I have laid these before you, because in the first place I bear in mind, when composing these Lectures, that some of my hearers are young, and have not yet had time to make themselves masters of points in theology which are very familiar to older heads; and I would rather be too copious than too concise, for the sake of those to whose use these Lectures are chiefly dedicated -and furthermore I have so done, because I could not otherwise adequately possess any of you with the conviction, how entirely the Church of the Reformation, so far from abandoning or contemning the early Fathers, claimed them for her own, and argued from them not incidentally and by the bye, but systematically and perseveringly, producing them in her controversies without stint or reserve; and not only the higher Churchmen, but the very lowest and most latitudinarian, adopting this practice.

Take the case of another of the divines of that day, whose 1 Philpot's Examinations, p. 73.

LECT. I.]

GRINDAL,

13

remains have been also edited by the same Society, Archbishop Grindal; and whom I select for the same reason as I did Philpot, his strong anti-high-church bias; though, to say the truth, his letters on the one hand, and his injunctions or articles of inquiry to his clergy and others on the other, often leave us a little at a loss to discover by what steady principle of conduct he was governed. Without, however, entering into these particulars, suffice it to say in a word, for it conveys much in little, that he, like Philpot, was an admirer of Calvin. "Accedit etiam, uti ais," he writes to Zanchius, "Domini Calvini calculus, qui subscriptionem tuam cum illis conditionibus et exceptionibus approbavit : quod me multum confirmat: nam illius judicio multum soleo tribuere." "The opinion of Master Calvin, moreover, as you say, is with you; who approved of your subscription under those conditions and exceptions; which much confirms me: for I am wont to pay much deference to his opinion." "1 Yet even he, in his "fruitful dialogue between Custom and Verity," on the sense of the words, "This is my body," one of the few things he left in print, deals in language from time to time such as the following.

"Wherefore first," says Verity, "I will declare the meaning of these words, 'This is my body;' and next in what sense the Church and the old Fathers have evermore taken them."

Again. "But you will say, these are worldly reasons. What, then, if the old Fathers record the same? Irenæus saith, 'Quando mixtus calix et fractus panis percipit verbum Dei, fit Eucharistia corporis et sanguinis Domini, ex quibus augetur et consistit carnis nostræ substantia."" 3

Again. "Tush," says Custom, "what speak you of the Word of God? There be many dark sayings therein, which every man cannot attain to.”

Verity. I grant you, there be certain obscure places in the Scripture; yet not so obscure, but that a man with the grace of God may perceive: for it was written not for angels, but for men. But, as I understand, Custom meddleth but little with Scripture. How say you by St. Augustine, St. Jerome, St. Ambrose? What, if they stand on our side?"

1 Grindal's Remains, pp. 276, 277.

2 p. 40.

3

p. 47.

"Custom. No, no; I know them well enough." "Verity. So well as you know them, for all old acquaintance, if they be called to witness, they will give evidence against you.'

"1

Again. "Custom. The doctors and old writers, men inspired with the Holy Ghost, have evermore been against your doctrine yea, and in these days, the wisest men and best learned call you heretics and your learning heresy."

Verity. As touching the old writers, I remember well they speak reverently of the Sacraments, like as every man ought to do; but whereas they deliver their mind with their right hand, you, Custom, receive it with the left. For whereas they say, that it is the body of Christ, and that it must be verily eaten, meaning that it doth effectually lay before the eyes Christ's body, and that it is to the faithful man no less than if it were Christ himself, and that Christ must be eaten in faith, not torn nor rent with the teeth; you say that, howsoever it be taken, it is Christ's body, and that there is none other eating but with the mouth. And that the Fathers meant no other thing than I have said, it shall appear by their words." 2

And again, after a while: "What is so heinous in these days, as to call the Sacrament the token, or the remembrance of Christ's body? Yet did the old writers in manner never call it other. Tertullian, in the fourth book against the Marcionites," &c.

And, after many authorities cited in proof of this proposition, it is added: "Hereby you may understand how and in what sort the old Fathers, how the Primitive and beginning Church, how the Apostles, how Christ himself, took these words, 'This is my body.' Now, to withstand, and stoutly to go against, not only ancient writers, or the congregation of Christian people, which at that time was not overgrown, no, neither spotted with covetousness and worldly honour, but the Apostles also, and God himself, no doubt it is great fond

And the whole Dialogue is summed up in these terms following: "Thus, so shortly, and in so few words as I could, I

1 Grindal's Remains, p. 52.

2 p. 63.

3 p. 64.

4

p. 72.