Pope's supremacy. He denied his infallibility. He denied the doctrine of transubstantiation. He denied that the Pope, or any other prelate, ought to have prisons for the punishment of offenders against the discipline of the Church. The Pope himself he denounced as "Antichrist,-the proud worldly priest of Rome, -the most cursed of all clippers and purse-cutters."

Was this to be endured? The monks drew up charges of heresies, extracted from his writings, and sent them to Rome. The Pope issued his bulls to the Archbishop of Canterbury,-to the King, to the University, calling for Wickliffe's blood. All was in commotion. I need not detail the means by which Divine Providence defended the life of the Reformer: till hunted, harassed, and still continuing his labors for many years, he came at last, in spite of all his enemies, to a peaceful end. After his return from Rome, Wickliffe descended from public life into the retiracy of a country parson; and in this work which, above all others, his soul loved, he spent the remainder of his days.

The secret of Wickliffe's power lay in his appeals to_the_Bi-\ ble. Mighty as he was in his powers of logic and his stores of learning, he still found that "The sword of the Spirit is the Word of God." This was his theme; this was his authority; this was his argument. He translated it into the English tongue and after all other claims have been discussed, it is now conceded, that Wickliffe's version was the first English copy of the entire Word of God. Men saw now not only the corruptions of popery, but of their own hearts. It was not long before Wickliffe had many of like faith and spirit whom he sent forth "with their staff in their hands, and the Word of God in their bosoms," that they might make known everywhere the way of life, and preach every where that men should repent. Such was their success, that the "ancient chronicles inform us, that one half the kingdom in a short time became Lollards, or Wickliffites."*

It is not consistent with the work in hand to pursue the për sonal history of Wickliffe to any considerable extent. Our business is with his principles, and with the result of his labors, as bearing upon the history and principles of the Puritans. It is sufficient to say, that Wickliffe appears to have been a very devout and holy man ;-ardent, bold,-living in dark and dangerous times, and but a man. It is not wonderful, therefore, if he was not always so moderate and discreet as would be required if he were to be judged according to the standard of more peaceful and polished times. With less boldness and fire, he could not have done the work of a reformer. Self-denying, humble, prayerful, full of love for souls, and faithful to the cause of Christ,

* Punchard.

he unquestionably was. Geoffrey Chaucer, the father of English poetry, who had been the friend and fellow student of Wickliffe, has drawn his picture, and paid a tribute to his memory in the following description of a parish priest:

"A good man there was of religion,

He was a poor parson of a town,

But rich he was of holy thought and werk,

He was also a learned man, a clerk,

That Christe's Gospel trewely wolde preche ;
His parishens devoutly wolde tech,

Benign he was, and wonder diligent,
And in adversitie full patient.

“Wide was his parish and houses far asunder,
But he ne left nought for no rain ne thunder,
In sickness and in mischeefe to visite,

The ferrest in his parish, moche and lite,
Upon his fete, and in his hand a staff.

But if were any person obstinat,

What so he were of high or low estat,

Him would he snibben sharply for the nones."

He traced cor

Wickliffe was, in the true sense, a Reformer. ruptions to their sources: he pursued abuses back to the principle from which they sprung. He aimed not at lopping off now and then a branch, but at tearing up the tree of evil by the roots. He aimed at laying down such principles, and at basing his reform upon such grounds, that when these principles were once established and brought into successful operation, other things would follow of course, and the work of reform be done. Of his work it might be said as of that of John the Baptist; "And now the axe is laid at the foot of the tree." The plan of Wickliffe resembled that of Luther, rather than that of Erasmus. Both these men were learned; both saw the abuses of popery; both aimed at reformation. But Erasmus looked not beyond the present abuses; he saw not the principle from which they sprung. Hence he began to wield his shafts of resistless satire against the superstitions of the people, and the vices of the monks. Did he accomplish anything? Certainly he did: these vices and superstitions received a momentary check. But the sources remained; and the stream of evil flowed on. Like an unskilful physician, he mistook the symptoms for the disease; and applying his remedies to the symptoms, he allowed the disease to fasten itself irrecoverably upon the constitution. Luther's plan was different. He saw the vices and superstitions that prevailed, in all their enormity. But he saw also the source from which these disorders sprung. He struck at the source. Justification by faith alone; no purchased indulgences; no priestly interventions and absolutions; no reliance on works of merit or of penance :— this was with him "THE ARTICLE OF A STANDING OR FALLING CHURCH" and this doctrine shakes the very pillars of popery.

Superstitions, vices, abuses, the despotism of ghostly powergive way before it. The work is done; there is a reformation.

Such was the plan of Wickliffe. The senseless superstitions, the idolatrous forms which Popery had substituted for Christianity, Wickliffe saw; but he spent not his strength to war upon inferior things. Singling out the fundamentals of the Popish scheme, he laid the axe at its colossal pillars. It was not simply to purify a system, in its very foundation and principles corrupt and antichristian, but to clear away its very foundations; and to build up true religion in its room. There was no great principle of the Reformation which Wickliffe did not see and adopt. With the Bible in his hand, and taking that alone for his guide, he advanced further into the field of Apostolic truth and order, than Luther and his immediate coadjutors. Wickliffe traced up his principles to their springs. He reached hold on the results, which after a lapse of centuries, and after an age of suffering and research, the Providence of God unfolded once more to the eyes of the Puritans.

And what were these principles? THE BIBLE ALONE, irrespective of the decrees, or traditions, or interpretations of the Church, whether by prelates, councils or fathers, Wickliffe maintained to be the SOLE RULE OF FAITH AND DUTY. "To the law and to the testimony" as to the ultimate rule and arbiter, he directed the mind of every man. No man might allow the priest or the Church to interpose an authoritative interpretation: PRIVATE JUDGMENT was more than a right: it was an indispensable duty.

CHRIST ALONE, he acknowledged THE SOLE HEAD AND LAWGIVER OF THE CHURCH; affirming that "No true man will ever dare to put two heads, lest the Church be monstrous." To im

pose mystical or significant ceremonies of human invention as. parts of religious worship was sinful: to restrict men to prescribed rituals and forms of prayer, was "contrary to the liberty granted by God."

THE CHURCH OF CHRIST he defined to be "The Congregation of just men, for whom Christ shed his blood;" a definition which, instead of sweeping a parish or a nation into one indiscriminate society falsely called "The Church," requires the Church to be limited to those who, professedly and apparently, are disciples of the Lord Jesus Christ.

Of the RITE OF CONFIRMATION, not finding it in the Bible, and seeing its baneful results in augmenting the power of the bishops, and in deluding the souls of the people, Wickliffe hesitated not to declare his sentiments in the following terms: "The short and trifling confirmation, performed by the Cæsarean prelates, together with its pompous mummery, was probably introduced by the instigation of the Devil, for deluding people, and advancing the importance and dignity of the Episcopal order."

As to THE ORDERS OF THE CHRISTIAN MINISTRY, said Wickliffe, "there were BUT TWO species of orders, namely, that of deacons and of priests." "The Church militant," said he, "ought not to be burdened with three; nor is there any ground for it." "One thing," says he, "I boldly affirm: that in the primitive Church, or in the time of the Apostle Paul, two orders of clergy were thought sufficient;-and I say also that in the time of Paul, a Presbyter and a Bishop were one and the same; for in those times the distinct orders of Pope, Cardinals, Patriarchs, Archbishops, Bishops, Archdeacons, officials and deans, were not invented." "By the ordinance of Christ," said Wickliffe, "priests and bishops were all one; but afterwards the Emperor made bishops lords, and priests their servants." "From the faith of Scripture, it seems sufficient that there should be presbyters and deacons, holding the state which Christ assigned them; since it appears that all other orders and degrees have their origin in the pride of Cæsar."

Such was the scheme of Church polity which this great and good and most learned man drew from the Word of God. A better summary of the principles for which the Puritans contended can scarcely be given. Justification by faith alone, the fundamental principle of the Reformation; The Bible alone the rule of faith and duty: Christ alone, the sole lawgiver of his Church; no human traditions to be received in proof for matters of faith; no human inventions to be imposed as essential parts of divine worship; these were the original principles for which the Puritans contended. The wrath and power of the Hierarchy coming down upon their heads for these, the Puritans were at length, like Wickliffe, led to inquire into the foundations of the Hierarchy itself, and to reject it as unscriptural; a usurpation of Christ's prerogatives and of his people's rights.

The contest on the first part of these principles has now become the great theological debate of the present day; the Oxford Tractarians and their followers taking the ground of old Rome, in favor of Tradition, denying the right of private judgment, and teaching the efficacy of priestly interventions in opposition to justification by faith alone; and the evangelical party in the Episcopal Church fighting over again the battles of Wickliffe, of the early British reformers, and of the Puritans. The Bishops of Maryland, New Jersey and Connecticut, have flung their banners boldly to the wind. On the banner of the Bishop of Maryland, as it floats in the breeze, you shall see inscribed in words written by the Bishop's own finger :

“Ministerial intervention,”—“THAT SINS MAY BE Forgiven, is the essence of priesthood."

"Truth has been obscured, in the discussions concerning a

"All

Christian priesthood, by stopping short of that definition." the forms of priesthood that the world has ever known have propitiation for their end." "Why should the administrator of water by which sins are washed away, be less a priest than the sprinkler of blood, by which atonement was effected?" *

Again, as the waving breeze opens another fold of that banner, you shall see inscribed there, "Rightly interpreted the Bible can only be in and by the Church. Not a word of the text justifies an individual in setting up his private interpretation of Scripture, as the rule by which to judge his preacher's teaching." "The people judges!" "But of what? Whether he" [the priest]

"is to teach? Whether he teaches the truth? of neither."

On the standard of Connecticut Episcopacy you shall see it written by the hand of the Bishop in the solemn word of his charge; The Holy Scriptures, as they were interpreted by the Church;"" Our book of Common Prayer," "a standard of faith and worship." "Notions of the right of private judgment!"

66

"erroneous."

As the waving breeze displays other folds of that banner, your eye shall catch, at various glimpses, the words "Dissenters". Dissenting Press"-"Incongruous Sects;"-" Numerous bodies of intelligent, humble and devoted Christians, but without any sufficient bond of union and stability; the Bible alone, to the exclusion of all church authority; the Bible alone, without note or comment, their only standard of faith!" "Surrounded by all this desolation the Protestant Episcopal Church in this country appears as an oasis in the desert."

"The church the great medium of communicating divine grace," "The Revelation of God offers salvation only through the Church." "The true church of God is our only ark of safety." "The true economy of the Christian religion regards men as by nature the children of wrath;" "it takes them from this state," "and transfers them BY BAPTISM, into the family, household, and kingdom of the Saviour." "Let them be assured, that those who are sacramentally baptized," * "become BY THAT ACT" (not in name only, but in deed and in truth) "members of Christ," "children of God," "and heirs of the kingdom of heaven."

*

*

*

*

*

*

"They are restored to a state of favor with God." "And this is not to be regarded as a mere temporary act, but as the initiation into an abiding state." "The first sentiment impressed upon their youthful hearts should be, that they ARE IN VERY DEED, the children of God; * that in the sacrament of Baptism they received the spirit of adoption," by which they are enabled to "The Priesthood in the Church," by W. R. Whittingham, Bishop of Maryland,

1843.