Q. Why do you say that God is the Sovereign Lord of all things? A. Because all things depend on Him, and He disposes of all as He pleases, ruling and governing all with wisdom, goodness, and justice.

"Q. What do you mean by infinitely powerful? A. I mean, that God can do all whatsoever He will; even make things out of nothing, as He made the world.

“Q. What do you mean when you say, God is eternal? A. I mean that God ever was, is, and will be for ever.

"Q. Does God know all things? A. Yes; God knows all things, past, present, and to come, even our most secret thoughts.

64

"Q. Where is God? A. God is in heaven, in earth, and in all places.

64

Q. Is He also in hell? A. Yes; to punish the devils and wicked men.

Q. Is God here? A. Yes, God is here.

Q. Why, then, cannot we see Him? A. Because God is a Spirit, which cannot

be seen by the eyes of our body. So we cannot see a soul.

Q. Why, then, are there not three Gods? A. Because, though they are three Persons really distinct, yet these three Persons have but One and the same Divine Nature.

"Q. Is One of these Persons better, wiser, or more powerful than Another? A. No: They have all Three the same goodness, the same wisdom, the same power, and are equal in all things.

"Q. Is not God the Father, at least, elder than God the Son? A. No: All and Every one of These Three Divine Persons have been from all eternity, and therefore One cannot have been before the Other.

Q. Why, then, is the Father called the First Person? A. The Father is called the First Person because He proceeds from no other, and the Son and the Holy Ghost proceed from Him.

"Q. Why is the Son called the Second Person? A. The Son is called the Second Person because He proceeds from the Father only.

"Q. Why is the Holy Ghost called the Third Person? A. The Holy Ghost is called the Third Person because He proceeds from the Father and the Son."Questions and Answers, pp. 1—3; Suppressed "Short Catechism," pp. 4, 5.)

We shall now give a few specimens, and place in an opposite column the identical passages of the Popish "Abridgement of Christian Doctrine" and the "Dottrina Cristiana," which are adopted by the anonymous Tractarian compiler of the "Questions and Answers" and of the "Short Catechism,' for the perversion of the unwary or uninformed readers of these publications :

TRACTARIAN DOCTRINE.

"Q. How many ways may a man be made partaker and guilty of another's sin? A. Nine ways.

"Q. Which are they? A. 1. By advising him to do it. 2. By commanding him to do it. 3. By consenting to his doing it. 4. By provoking him to do it. 5. By praising him for intending to do it. 6. By not objecting to it, when it is a duty to object to it. 7. By concealing it, when it is a duty to expose it. 8. By

POPISH DOCTRINE.

"Q. How is a man made guilty, or said to co-operate in other men's sins? A. As often as he is an actual cause of sin in others by any of these nine means: 1. By counsel. 2. By command. 3. By consent. 4. By provocation. 5. By praise of flattery. 6. By silence. 7. By connivance. 8. By participation; or, 9. By defence of the ill done."(Abridgement of Christian Doctrine, p. 114.)

helping him to do it. 9. By defending it when done."—(Questions and Answers, p. 14; Suppressed "Short Catechism," pp. 13, 14.)

"Q. How many kinds of sin are there? A. Two; original and actual.

"Q. What is actual sin? A. Actual sin is every sin which we ourselves commit.

66

Q. How is actual sin divided? A. Into deadly sin, and sin not deadly.' (Questions and Answers, p. 15; Suppressed "Short Catechism," p. 10, excepting that "venial sin" is here printed, instead of "not deadly sin.")

"Q. How many kinds of sin are there? A. Two; namely, original and actual."— (Abridgement of Christian Doctrine, p. 111.)

"Q. How is actual sin divided? A. Into mortal and venial."-(Ibid, pp. 111, 112.)

"Q. We come now to sins: how many sorts of sins are there? A. Two; original and actual: the latter of which is subdivided into mortal and venial."*(Dottrina Cristiana, pp. 38, 39.)

In the preceding extract from the Tractarian "Questions and Answers," it will be observed that "sin not deadly" is substituted for the plain Popish word, "venial," in the suppressed catechism, which agrees verbatim with the doctrine of the Romish section of the Universal Church. In the following question and answer (p. 15), the Romish distinction of mortal (or "deadly") sin and of venial (or "not deadly") sin is not only retained, but is falsely and unblushingly asserted to be the doctrine of the Church of England :—

"Q. Has our Church sanctioned such a distinction? A. Yes; in two different places she uses the word 'deadly sin,' which plainly implies that all sin is not deadly."

The Church of England recognises no such sentiment. On the contrary, she disclaims and rejects every idea of the kind. She allows, indeed, that a difference exists in the activity or enormity of crimes: but she acknowledges no sin to be pardonable without repentance towards God, and faith towards our Lord Jesus Christ. "He" (Almighty God) "pardoneth and absolveth all that truly repent and unfeignedly believe his holy Gospel." (Declaration of Absolution.) "Under the title of 'deadly sins," " says Dean Comber, in his judicious illustration of the Litany, "are to be reckoned all sorts of public, actual, heinous crimes; which, being too many to be named particu larly, are comprehended under this general appellation, to humble the bold committers of them, by minding them that they will (if not speedily repented of) end in their damnation. But let none take encouragement from hence to be unconcerned for lesser sins; for the least sin is deadly in itself, and, without repentance, will be so to him that doth commit it. Nor must we exempt those sins which the custom of an evil age, or the multitude of offenders, makes to be

*We subjoin the original Italian :—

"Q. Ora venendo a peccati: quante sorte si trovano di peccati? A. Due; originale ed attuale: il quale poi si divide in mortale, e veniale."

generally accounted small: nor yet may any man except his own darling sin out of this catalogue of deadly sins' (meaning those enumerated in the Litany), for, though every one makes excuses for the vice to which he is inclined, and great iniquities are counted nothing by their impure actors, yet no sins are so mortal in their event as those which are beloved and indulged, often acted and seldom repented of, and a little wound neglected may easily prove deadly: so that, under this head of 'deadly sins,' we should think of all the grosser acts of wickedness, and of all those sins which may be deadly to us, though of themselves they seem to be inconsiderable, and pray to be delivered from them all."*

TRACTARIAN Doctrine.

"Q. What is the first Article of the Apostles' Creed? A. I believe in God the Father Almighty, Maker of heaven and earth.

"Q. What is meant by 'I believe in God? A. It means, that I must firmly hold there is one only God; that I believe all that He teaches; that I ought to place all my hopes in Him, and to love and seek Him as my chiefest good."(Questions and Answers, pp. 19, 20; Suppressed Catechism, p. 16.)

*

*

*

*

*

"Q. Why is He called Maker of heaven and earth?' A. Because He made heaven and earth, with all things in them, out of nothing, by His word only. Gen. i." (Questions and Answers, p. 21; Suppressed Catechism, p. 17.)

"Q. Why did God make the angels? A. God made the angels to be partakers of His glory. They are also our guardians. Christ, speaking of the little ones that believe in Him, says, 'Their angels in heaven do always see the face of My Father, which is in heaven.' Matt. xviii. 10."-(Questions and Answers, p. 21; Suppressed Catechism, p. 18.)

In this last answer, our readers will observe that the Tractarian compiler of the Papistical "Questions and Answers illustrative of the Church Catechism" has copied the Romish " Abridgement of Christian Doctrine" so closely, as to adopt the Anglo-Romish (or Douay) version of Matt. xviii. 10, instead of our admirable authorised version, except with the substitution of "which" for "who."

* Comber's Companion to the Temple, Part II., pp. 54, 55. London, 1679. 8vo.

66 "Q. What is the seventh Article? A. From thence He shall come to judge the quick and the dead.

Q. What do you understand by this? A. I understand, that Christ will come from Heaven at the Last Day, to judge all men according to their works.

members under the same Head, Jesus Christ; who feel for us, and assist us in all holy and kind offices through their prayers.

"Q. Is it any disrespect to God to remember the saints with reverence and honour? A. Quite the reverse; inasmuch as we glorify and adore God in and through them; for even the greatest saints are indebted for all goodness to Him alone." (Questions and Answers, pp. 30, 31; Suppressed Catechism, p. 29.)

"Q. Is it no dishonour to God, for us to pray to saints to pray for us? A. No, it is not; nor yet to beg it of men, for St. Paul did it: We hope (saith he) that God will deliver us, you also helping in prayer for us.' 2 Cor. i. 11."—(Ibid, p. 26.)

The identity as to doctrine with the Romish Church, in these extracts, will yet further appear, if we compare them with her doctrine as expressed in the seventh Article of the so-called Creed of Pope Pius IV., and with extracts from other Tractarian publications :

"Similiter et Sanctos unà cum Christo regnantes, venerandos atque invocandos esse, eosque orationes Deo pro nobis offerre, atque eorum reliquias esse venerandas.

"Likewise, that the saints reigning together with Christ are to be honoured and invocated, that they offer prayers to God for us, and that their relics are to be venerated.

"The Tridentine decree declares that it is good and useful suppliantly to invoke the saints, and that images of Christ, and the blessed Virgin, and the other saints, should receive due honour and veneration, words which themselves go to the very verge of what could be received by the cautious Christian, THOUGH POSSIBLY ADMITTING OF AN HONEST INTERPRETATION.' Tract 71, p. 17.-'I think people are injudicious who talk against Roman Catholics for worshipping saints, and honouring the Virgin and Images, &c. These things may perhaps be idolatrous. I cannot make up my mind about it.' Froude, vol. i., p. 294.- It has been already shown that not all invocation is wrong.' Tract 90, p. 40.- Grant, O Lord, we beseech thee, that we thy servants may enjoy perpetual health of mind and body, and by the glorious intercession of the Ever-virgin Mary, be delivered from present sorrow, and have the fruition of everlasting joy.' Tract 75, p. 80.- When it is said that the saints cannot hear our prayers unless God reveal them to them, so that Almighty God, upon the Roman theory, conveys from us to them those requests which they are to ask back again of Him for us, we are certainly using an unreal, because an unscriptural, argument; Moses on the Mount having the sin of his people first revealed to him by God, that he in turn might intercede with God for them. Indeed, it is through Him in whom we live, and move, and have our being,' that we are able in this life to hear the requests of each other, and to present them to Him in prayer. Such an argument, then, while shocking and profane to the feelings of a Romanist, is shallow even in the judgement of a philosopher.' Tract 71, p. 7.- Invocation of saints. Here, again, the practice should be considered, not the theory.' Ib., p. 13.— 'It may be acknowledged that it is a very difficult and trying task to offer to the blessed saints that veneration which is their due, without encroaching on the worship we owe to God alone. The blessed Virgin, for instance, is an object of contemplation so full of that which will naturally engage and engross our affections, that, under all circumstances, there is a certain danger; and, if she be looked upon as the sole channel of grace, then there is the most imminent danger, lest men allow their thoughts to rest finally on her, rather than through her on God.' British Critic for October, 1841, p. 356.-' There was a primitive doctrine on all these points,' 'so widely received and so respectably supported, that it may well be entertained as a matter of opinion by a theologian now.' Tract 90, p. 23. That saints may be invoked.' Ib., p. 25."-(Identity of Popery and Tractarianism, pp. 8, 9.)