Reformation and Restoration. By Prof. W. M. Blackburn, D. D. [pp. 348-369]

Reformation and Restoration.
found among the Reformers no one man of preponderant
force, no Luthler or Calvin: we might have been Cranmerites
or Parkerists; we are the Churchll of England as our fathers
were."* One must be hard-hearted to deprive such boasters of
their exquisite satisfaction.
Unity with the catholicismn, which is inmagined to live in the
Romnan Church, is more fondly cherished than union with
Protestantism. The latter meets with the aversion of Mr.
Blunt, who roundly asserts that "Protestantism has, in fact,
been the great hindrance to reformation from the sixteenth
century downwards, just as Roiinanism was the great hindrance to reformation in preceditig, centuries. It has dealt
ostentatiously with mere surface evils, but left untouched
those whilch were deeply rooted; it has diverted men's minds
from essential principles and fixed them upon comparative
trifles; and it has tended as Romianiismn itself to the substitution of foreign for native elements in the Church of England"
(p. 41). Verily this is vigorous talk. Think of Ballinger
and Calvin, and their Englishl sympatlhizers and correspondents
dealing with mere surface evils, and diverting men's minds
from essential principles! They liight have laughed at the
charge, and then turned afresh to tlhe study and proclamation
of those deep things which angels desire to look into. If tlhe
writer, in dealing with the abuses and errors that needed to be
corrected, does not limit himself mlainly to surface evils, our
notion of depth has not been sufficiently profound.
The organic or constitutional al)uses named by Mr. Blunt
are these: the non-residence of the clergy, "perhaps the real
foundation of most evils in the Clhurch of England: " pluralities, many clergymnen holding as manmy as twenty benefices by
means of papal provisions, with licenise to hold as mtnany more
as they could get; appropriations of tythes to colleges and
monasteries: the consequent poverty of the lower clergy, and
of the people; and the alienation of a large portion of the
laity fromn the clergy, Church, and religion. The Church had
a weak hold upon the world of people, while the world of
maymmon held the Church by the tlhroat.
The doctrinal abuses mentioned are ranged under the words
* "The Church and the Age:" London Quarterly, July, 187 0, p. 24.
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