: should believe, to be a member of the church of Christ:-let these articles be divested of all foreign matter, and expressed in perspicuous, exact, and unequivocal terms;-and, above all, let each distinction of christians earnestly wish to find an agreement between themselves and their fellow christians the result of a discussion, conducted on this plan, would most assuredly be, to convince all christians that the essential articles of religious credence, in which there is a real difference among christians, are not so numerous as the verbal disputes and extraneous matter, in which controversy is too often involved, make them generally thought. Of all protestant churches, the national church of England most nearly resembles the church of Rome. It has retained much of the dogma, and much of the discipline of roman-catholics; it preserves down to the subdeacon, the whole of their hierarchy; and, like them, has its deans, rural deans, chapters, prebends, archdeacons, rectors and vicars; a liturgy, taken in a great measure from the roman-catholic liturgy; and composed, like that, of psalms, canticles, the three creeds, litanies, epistles, gospels, prayers and responses. Both churches have the sacraments of baptism and the eucharist, the absolution of the sick, the burial service, the sign of the cross in baptism, the reservation of confirmation and order to bishops, the difference of episcopal and sacerdotal dress, feasts and fasts. Without adopting all the general councils of the church of Rome, the church of England has adopted the VOL. III. first four of them; and, without acknowledging the authority of the other councils, or the authority of the early fathers, the English divines of the established church allow them to be entitled to a high degree of respect. On the important article of the eucharist, the language of the thirty-nine articles sounds very like the doctrine of the church of Rome. Add to this, that of all protestant churches, the church of England alone is, in the true sense of the word, episcopal. - At the time of which we are speaking, the doctrines of the high church, which are generally considered to incline to those of the roman-catholics more than the doctrines of the low church, were in favour with several great dignitaries of the established church of England; and in France, where the ultramontane principles on the power of the pope had always been discountenanced, the disputes of jansenism were supposed to reduce it very low.. On each side, therefore, the time was thought favourable to the project of the re-union. It was also favourable to it, that, a few years before this period, an event had taken place, which naturally tended to put both sides into good humour. On the occasion of the marriage of the princess Christina of Wolfenbottle, a lutheran, with the archduke of Austria, her court consulted the faculty of theology of the university of Helmstadt on the question, "whether a protestant princess,-des"tined to marry a catholic prince, could, without wounding her conscience, embrace the roman "catholic religion?" The faculty replied, "that, "it could not answer the proposed question in a "solid manner, without having previously decided, "whether the catholics were or were not engaged "in errors that were fundamental, and opposed to "salvation; or, (which was the same thing), whe"ther the state of the catholic church was such, "that persons might practise in it the true worship "of God, and arrive at salvation." The divines of Helmstadt discussed this question at length; and concluded in these terms: "After having "shown, that the foundation of religion subsists "in the roman-catholic religion, so that a person may be orthodox in it, live well in it, die well in 66 it, and obtain salvation in it, the discussion of "the proposed question is easy. We are, there fore, of opinion, that the most serene princess of "Wolfenbottle, may, in favour of her marriage, "embrace the catholic religion." This opinion iş dated the 28th of April 1707, and was printed in the same year at Cologne.. The journalists of Trevoux inserted both the original and a French translation of it in their journal of May 1708. Under these circumstances, the correspondence in question took place. It began in 1718, through Dr. Beauvoir, chaplain to lord Stair, his Britannic majesty's ambassador at Paris. Some conversation on the re-union of the two churches having taken place between Dr. Dupin and him, he acquainted the archbishop of Canterbury with the subject of them. This communication produced some compliments from the archbishop to Dr. 2 Dupin, and these led the latter to address to his grace a letter, in which he mentioned generally, that, on some points in dispute, the supposed difference between the two communions was reconcileable. The correspondence getting wind, Dr. Piers pronounced a discourse in the Sorbonne, in which he earnestly exhorted his colleagues to promote the re-union, by revising those articles of doctrine and discipline, which protestants branded with the name of papal tyranny; and contended, that by proscribing the ultramontane doctrines, the first step to the re-union would be made. The discourse was communicated to Dr. Wake: in his answer, he pressed Dr. Dupin for a more explicit declaration on the leading points in controversy. In compliance with this requisition, Dr. Dupin drew up his "Commonitorium," and communicated it to several persons of distinction, both in the state and church of France. He discussed in it the thirty-nine articles, as they regarded doctrine, morality and discipline. He insisted on the necessity of tradition, to interpret the scriptures, and to establish the canonicity of the books of the Old and New Testament. He insisted on the infallibility of the church in faith and morals; he contended that the sacrifice of the mass was not a simple sacrament, but a continuation of the sacrifice of the cross. The word "transubstantiation," he seemed willing to give up, if the roman-catholic doctrine, intended to be expressed by it, were retained. He proposed, that communion under both kinds, or under bread alone, should be left to the discretion of the different churches; he consented that persons in holy orders should retain their state, with such provisions as would place the validity of their ordination beyond exception. The marriage of priests in the countries, in which such marriages were allowed, and the recitation of the divine service in the vulgar tongue, he allowed; and intimated that no difficulty would be found in the ultimate settlement of the doctrine respecting purgatory, indulgences, the veneration of saints, relics or images. He seems to have thought that the pope can exercise no immediate jurisdiction within the dioceses of bishops, and that his primacy invested him with no more than a general conservation of the deposit of the faith, a right to enforce the observance of the sacred canons, and the general maintenance of discipline. He allowed, in general terms, that there was little substantially wrong in the discipline of the church of England; he deprecated all discussion on the original merit of the reformation, and professed to see no use in the pope's intervention, till the basis of the negotiation should be settled. The answer of the archbishop was not very explicit it is evident from it, that he thought the quarrels on jansenism had alienated the jansenists and their adherents from the pope, much more than they had done in reality. He was willing to concede to the pope a primacy of rank and honour, but would by no means allow him a primacy of jurisdiction, or any primacy by divine right. On the other points, he seemed to have thought that |