a declaration by way of suffrage of their worthiness."*

It has already been shown that the priests do not possess the power of forgiving sin: it will be shown hereafter that they have not the power of consecrating and offering "the unbloody sacrifice of Christ's body and blood," &c. It will only here be necessary to present the protest of the church of England against the Romish doctrine of the sacrament of orders, in the words of Bishop Jewel.

"Now we are to speak of the ministry of the church, which some have called holy orders. Shall we account it a sacrament? There is no

reason so to do. It is a heavenly office, a holy ministry, or service. By such as have this office, God lighteneth our darkness, he declareth his mind to us, he gathereth together his scattered sheep, and publisheth unto the world the glad tidings of salvation."

"This ministry of the church was not ordained to offer sacrifice for forgiveness of sins. Whosoever taketh that office upon him, he doth wrong and injury to the death and passion of Christ. He only is called of God an high priest, after the order of Melchisedec.' He, only by his own blood entered in once into the holy place, and obtained eternal redemption for us.' one offering, hath consecrated for are sanctified.'

He, only by ever them that

* Smith's Errors of Popery, p. 169, 170. Burnet, art. xxv.

"He alone is our High Priest, the Lamb of God, the sacrifice for sins, the altar, the propitiation for sins, and Redeemer of the world; he only hath appeased the wrath of God; he only appeareth in the sight of God to make intercession for our sins. All others whatsoever, apostles, prophets, teachers, and pastors, are not in office to offer any propitiatory sacrifice, but are called to the ministry of the saints, to the edification of the body of Christ, and to the repairing of the church of God."*

5. Matrimony is the last of the superadded sacraments of the church of Rome which remains to be noticed. The Council of Trent decrees concerning matrimony as follows:-" If any one shall say that matrimony is not truly and properly one of the seven sacraments of the evangelic law, instituted by the Lord Christ, but that it was invented in the church by men, and that it does not confer grace; let him be accursed."† There is no one of the superadded sacraments of the Romish church, in support of which so little of argument can be adduced as the one now to be considered. The passage of holy Scripture, adduced in proof of matrimony as a sacrament, is Eph. v. 31, 32,

* Jewel, on the Sacraments.

+ "Siquis dixerit, matrimonium non esse verè et propriè unum ex septem legis Evangelicæ Sacramentis a Christo Domino institutum, sed ab hominibus in Ecclesia inventum; neque gratiam conferre ; anathema sit."-Sess. xxiv. can. i.

"For this cause shall a man leave his father and mother, and shall be joined unto his wife, and they two shall be one flesh. This is a great mystery, but I speak concerning Christ and the church." The Vulgate and English Douay translation render the latter part of this passage thus-" This is a great sacrament," &c., and on grounds so slight the church of Rome exalts matrimony into a sacrament, and says that it was instituted by Christ, and confers grace! That marriage, in the proper

sense of the term, is a sacrament, was not admitted by some of the most able writers of the Romish church. Cardinal Cajetan, remarking on the words of the apostle already quoted, says-" This is a great mystery, but the learned reader cannot infer from thence that marriage is a sacrament, for St. Paul said not, it is a sacrament but a mystery." The church of England protests against this falselynamed sacrament, not only in her 25th Article, but also in the introduction to the office appointed to be used at the celebration of marriage. "Holy matrimony," she says, "is an honourable estate, instituted of God in the time of man's innocency, signifying unto us the mystical union that is betwixt Christ and his church; which holy estate Christ adorned and beautified with his presence, and first miracle that he wrought, in Cana of Galilee; and is commended of St. Paul to be honourable among all men."

The apostle St. Paul, in his remarkable predic

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tion of the apostacy of the church in the latter times, clearly foretold what has happened in the church of Rome. "Now the Spirit," says the apostle, speaketh expressly, that in the latter times some shall depart from the faith, giving heed to seducing spirits, and doctrines of devils; speaking lies in hypocrisy; having their conscience seared with a hot iron; forbidding to marry," &c. (1 Tim. iv. 1-3.) This the church of Rome doesshe forbids marriage to her priesthood. The constrained celibacy of her clergy affixes on her the brand of that apostacy from the faith which the inspired apostle foresaw and foretold. Though St. Paul declares" marriage to be honourable among all men," and the church of Rome declares it to be a sacrament which confers grace, yet she denies this honour, and excludes from this sacramental grace all ecclesiastics in her communion!* The church of Rome forbids marriage to her clergy, under the idea that abstinence from it tends to the increase and maintenance of that purity necessary to those engaged in the discharge of spiritual functions. The constrained celibacy of the clergy of that church, as history abundantly attests, has tended to the increase of licentiousness and uncleanness.† It is unnecessary further to pursue this

*The celibacy of the clergy was not determined as a law till A. D. 1074, by Pope Gregory VII.; this anti-scriptural decision was opposed by multitudes of the clergy.

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point. The church of England protests against this error and anti-scriptural regulation of the church of Rome, in her 32nd Article, in which she declares" Bishops, priests, and deacons, are not commanded by God's law, either to vow the estate of single life, or to abstain from marriage: therefore it is lawful for them, as for all other Christian men, to marry at their own discretion, as they shall judge the same to serve better to godliness."

Bishop Jewel says, speaking of marriage-" This fellowship was first ordained by God himself in paradise. God himself said, 'It is not good that man should be alone; I will make him an help meet for him.' God, which fashioned man, and breathed in him the breath of life, and knoweth his very heart and reins, said, It is not good, it is not fit, that man should be himself alone. Although man were in paradise, although he were in the perfection of virtue, yet saith God he hath need of an helper. Christ disdained not to be at a marriage; he honoured it both by his presence and by the working of a miracle. St. Paul saith, (Heb. xiii.) Marriage is honourable in all men, and the bed undefiled.' In all men, saith he, in the patriarchs, in the prophets, in the apostles, in martyrs, in bishops.

"That all the apostles, St. John only excepted, were married, appeareth by Ignatius, Clemens, and Eusebius. Spiridion was a married bishop,