The consecration of Parker is valid, because, though the bishops who consecrated him had no jurisdiction de facto, two of them had it de jure. It was a better consecration than has often been performed by the Romish Church in England, when a single bishop was consecrated on the mere authority of the Pope. The Church of England receives priests ordained by bishops thus consecrated, but it is as a matter of favour and for the sake of unity.

Walter Farquhar Hook, Dean of Chichester, long known as Vicar of Leeds, dissented in many things from the Tractarians. He was the son of James Hook, Dean of Worcester, the advocate of pluralities, and some other things now swept away by what we reckon salutary ecclesiastical reforms. The Dean of Chichester had some reputation as a writer, chiefly in the line of history and biography. He took the Tractarian view of the Church, but he was at the same time a decided Protestant. He boasted of his safety in the via media, but he was so hard pressed on each side that he found it a very narrow way. He wrote few pages which did not bristle with ultra Protestant' 'Romanism' 'heresy' and 'schism.' In a youthful sermon preached when he was in Deacon's orders, at an Episcopal visitation, he set forth the same views of the Church of England, its relation to the Church Catholic and to the sects, which he maintained to the end of his life. As an historical fact, the English Reformation was effected by the whole body of eminent ecclesiastics then existing in the Anglican community. To make this good, neither the efforts of Cranmer in the time of Edward, nor the settlement under Elizabeth were regarded as the Reformation. That had been going on for a century before Elizabeth, and was not completed till the Restoration of King Charles.

This view of the Reformation is followed out in the 'Lives of the Archbishops of Canterbury.' The 'reformed' Archbishops simply carried on the work of their predecessors, who never had made any break with the Catholic Church. Cranmer to the end of his life professed to be a Catholic.1 Matthew Parker prevented the disciples and friends of the foreign Reformers from overturning the Church and founding

'a Protestant sect.' As, however, Cranmer and Parker were friends of Calvin, and as they were both Erastians as to the relations of Church and State, some purification was necessary to make them look good Catholic men. The Dean did his

best to give a like complexion to Grindal and Whitgift and believed he had succeeded, but Abbot he was bound to abandon as a hopeless Archiepiscopal reprobate. It was reserved for Laud to declare 'the necessity of the order of Diocesan bishops' with a 'separation from foreign sects, and a repudiation of the doctrines of their apostle Calvin.'

In a famous sermon before the Queen, on the text, ' Hear the Church,' the Elizabethan bishops were credited with upholding the principles of the English Reformation, on the one side against 'Papists' and on the other against 'ultraProtestants,' who wished to introduce the foreign system,' and revolutionise the Church. The adherence of the Elizabethan bishops to the policy of Elizabeth is taken for proof that they were Anglo-Catholics of the modern style of Anglo-Catholicism, but the Dean seems afterwards to have improved in his knowledge of history, when he wrote 'it required nothing less than the strong will of Elizabeth, to compel the bishops who bore rule in our Church in the first years of her reign to act as bishops ought to act.'' She lived to see a school of divines who approved of her policy, but it was not till the Restoration that the Anglicans or Catholics were recognised by Parliament and Convocation.

As a Protestant, Dean Hook advocated justification by faith, as taught by Luther. Redemption he spoke of as a 'plan,' devised by the 'Sacred Three.' Hell was eternal, in the sense of never ending. He preached the necessity of conversion after the fashion of the Evangelicals, but he shared Bishop Marsh's opinion about modern hymns, which he thought of 'questionable character.' He was even doubtful about metrical psalms, the reason apparently being that they were an innovation from foreign Protestants.2 He acknowledged the supremacy of the Bible as a rule of faith. General Councils had erred. The Church is not infallible, but its teaching helps us to discern the truth of the Scriptures. The

doctrines of the Primitive Church are found in our Prayer Book, Articles and Formulas.1

The Holy Spirit gives us a spiritual understanding in spiritual things. As the Church is the depositary of grace, so the Bible is the depositary of truth.2 Our Reformers separated the two Sacraments from all pretended Sacraments, which shows the importance they attached to the two. 'They are channels for the divine gifts.' Through the elements of bread and wine grace may pass to the souls of the faithful.3 Luther is praised for having been so strong on the side of sacramental grace, but he is blamed for not having seen that this grace could only be conveyed by those who were in the Apostolical succession.

William Wilberforce was regarded by Evangelical interpreters of prophecy, as one who was in the mind of the ancient prophets when they spoke of the latter days, but Archdeacon Daubeny doubted if he was even a genuine member of the Church of England. His sons came under the influence of the Tractarian movement, and atoned for their father's deficiencies. Two of them betook themselves to the Church of Rome, and the third became Bishop of Oxford, and afterwards of Winchester. Samuel Wilberforce is better known as an eloquent preacher, and an active working bishop, than as a theologian. At the University he was a member of an Evangelical club, which had the name of the Bethel reunion. The members were religious young men who avoided Sunday parties. In the Hampden controversy; Wilberforce was among the protesters: but he had only read Newman's 'Extracts' from the lectures, and afterwards wrote to Hampden that he could see no heresy in them, and that Newman's imputations were 'most false.' He passed from the Evangelicals, but he never entirely agreed with the Tractarians, though the favour he showed them in one of his Charges earned him the title of their apologist. He was one of the contributors to the British Critic when Newman was editor, but when he expressed his dissent from Pusey, Newman dispensed with his help. Of the Tracts he wrote, 'With them, you know, I have never agreed. The views on 1 Discourses on Controversies of the day, 1853, p. 11.

He

many points especially in the Tract on Reserve, have appeared to me so dangerous that at all risks, I felt I must bear my feeble testimony against them in my Oxford services.'' pointed out as Newman's essential error, that he directed penitents to the Church and not to Christ. Newman had said 'there is no second laver, but do not despair, you are still in the Church, go on using her ordinances.' Wilberforce adds, 'not a word of the Healer.' Of Pusey's letter in defence of Newman, he wrote 'that it was deeply, painfully, utterly sophistical and false.' He says for instance 'that he does not think himself, as an English Churchman, at liberty to hold Roman doctrine, but he does not censure any Roman doctrine, 'whilst he holds his Canonry at Christ Church, and his position amongst us on condition of signing articles, one half of which are taken up in declaring different figments of Rome to be dangerous deceits and blasphemous fables.' Pusey's language about the Church of England is called 'patronising' 'fault finding,' and 'apologetic.' The two brothers were reckoned among Newman's victims to the Church of Rome, while Samuel was regarded as a brand plucked from the burning with the smell of the burning still upon him.3

Robert Wilberforce was best known by his treatise on the Incarnation. The argument is that while what is called Rationalism finds in man himself the commencement of all renewal, the Church attributes it to the entrance into humanity of a supernatural Being. The new or restored man comes not through the natural perfection of individuals, but through Christ who became man that He might ennoble the race of man. His influence is diffused through the Church. By the sacramental system all men are bound to the second Adam. The incarnation is extended to them in the sacraments. Through these God incarnates Himself.

Christ's earthly body is the medium through which life and health are conveyed to other bodies. It was so in the days of His flesh, the multitudes sought to touch Him. The humanity of Christ was real. He was perfectly man. He

1 Life, vol. i, 205.

2 Ibid 232.

3 See Mozley's Reminiscences, vol. i, 99.

The Doctrine of our Lord Jesus Christ and its relation to

participated in human ignorance, in the weakness of man's understanding. He wept, He sympathised—yet he was God as well as man. How divine Omniscience is compatible with human ignorance is not for us to understand. Because Jesus was divine as well as human His death was an atonement, effecting a real change in the condition of man. His body natural has a real connection with the body mysticalthat is, the Church, so that union with the mystical body is union with His natural body; and this union is through the outward ordinance which has been much neglected, because of the tendency to prefer natural to revealed religion. This is shown by putting inward acts such as faith and love in the place of the Sacraments through which Christ vouchsafes to join men to His manhood. The humanity of the Incarnate Word was slain. That offering to God is repeated by Christ's ministers in the Sacrament of the Communion. What the Great High Priest does in Heaven, the earthly priest does on earth. The Eucharistic offering is a constituent part of His work. 'Through the intervention of his heavenly Head the earthly sacrificer exhibits to the Father the body of Christ which is the one only sacrifice for sin' (p. 371).

George Anthony Denison, Archdeacon of Frome, identified himself with the Tractarian party and never departed from its greatest extremes during the many revolutions of thought which have since taken place. He has condemned everything which is called progress in the history of England. The reception of William of Orange was a fatal departure from national rectitude. This direful event was the fount and source of England's present woes. A Presbyterian not belonging to any branch of the Church Catholic became the head of the Church, while a Catholic king was driven into 'exile. One of the first results was the overthrow of the Church of Scotland. Then Convocation was suppressed because the Lower House suspended a Socinian bishop.1 In our day we have the repeal of the Test and Corporation Acts, and the passing of an Act for Roman Catholic emancipation, giving freedom respectively to Nonconformists and to Roman Catholics. We have bishoprics suppressed in Ireland, and in