consecration thereof, by any person whatsoever, and that the invocation or adoration of the Virgin Mary, or any other saint, and the sacrifice of the Mass, as they are now used in the Church of Rome, are superstitious and idolatrous; and I do solemnly, in the presence of God, profess, testify, and declare, that I do make this declaration, and every part thereof, in the plain and ordinary sense of the words read unto me, as they are commonly understood by Protestants, without any evasion, equivocation, or mental reservation whatever, and without any dispensation already granted me for this purpose by the Pope, or any authority or person whatsoever, or without any hope of any such dispensation, from any power or authority whatsoever, or without believing that I am, or can be, acquitted before God or man, or absolved of this declaration, or any part thereof, although the Pope, or any person or persons, or power whatsoever, should dispense with, or annul the same, or declare that it was null and void from the beginning. So help me God."

The first part of the second paragraph in this form is a portion of the Thirty-sixth

Canon, and the third paragraph is "the oath of the Queen's sovereignty," which has to be ministered unto every deacon before admission to orders. The remainder, I believe, has Archbishop Magee for its author.

This form seems to me most unexceptionable as containing truths which every right-minded Protestant can heartily assent to, and if need be subscribe. But in the case of converted Romish priests what is it intended for? It cannot be intended as a substitute for ordination, as laymen also use it and still remain laymen, and reordination, moreover, is said to be unnecessary. Nor can it be considered as a necessary supplement to ordination, for that would be denying the completeness and consequent validity of Romish orders. Nor can it be intended as a substitute for baptism, for that which is essential to baptism is omitted; and it was never meant certainly as a supplement thereto, for two opposing creeds can never beaconfession of "one Lord, one faith, one baptism." The Church of England has never had composed a service for Romanists in particular to elude the proper initiatory sacrament to the Church, neither has it contemplated any evasion of its Ordination Services; so that the form that is used with

Romanists cannot be anything else but what it professes to be, a " Form of Abjuration,” or a renunciation of an "apostate creed;" in other words, a public declaration of having been nurtured in heresy. If this is admitted, as it must be by the upholders of the form, and should they also affirm that no ulterior rites of Baptism and Ordination are required, then do they determine it as a settled doctrine of the Church of England that Baptism, Confirmation, Ordination, &c., &c., are all to be esteemed as valid when ministered or granted by heretics or the adherents of an apostate creed." I deny that it has, either directly or indirectly, upheld in its written laws so inconsistent a doctrine. If, moreover, these rites are valid, they must be completely valid, requiring no additional ceremony to render them so; but if invalid, and a form is absolutely necessary, which it appears to be, then do we charge the Church of England with having been unmindful of the spiritual interests of a large, and I trust a largely increasing, body of converts to its scriptural faith. This I also deny. Neither as regards Baptism or Ordination has it been thus unmindful; but that in both cases it has fully pondered the full bearings of each, and

given ample directions, and that too in as liberal and enlarged a sense as could be well admitted to guide in every possible emergency the most laborious and successful minister and the most earnest and prosperous Church.

There is another manifest incongruity in the present procedure as pointed out by Mr. Scott. He says, "A thorough acquaintance with Divine truth, and with the formularies of our Church, with sufficient time for probation, are considered adequate preparation for our ministry." If allusion were here made to one seeking orders, I would say-granted; but the above quotation refers to one, said to be, in holy orders. It is clearly tantamount to a denial that the "reformed priest" was previously duly ordained. And this is further revealed when we are told, that "when the bishop is convinced that the convert possesses these qualifications (!) he then signs the Articles of the Thirty-sixth English Canon, and is consequently (!) ipso facto, in holy orders in our Church." In other words, the Thirty-sixth Canon, the observance of which ought to be preliminary to Ordination in accordance with its title," Subscription required of such as are to be made ministers,"-is simply converted into an

Ordination Service! When the bishop finds the candidate is adequately prepared and duly qualified for our ministry, subscription to the Thirty-sixth English Canon makes him, ipso facto, a minister of the Church of England! A sad perversion indeed of the use the Canon was intended to subserve.

A bishop, moreover, as is well-known, has no power to admit any one, however prepared or qualified he may consider him to be, into the ministry of the Church of England, without making first an appeal to "the people," to ascertain from them whether any impediment exists to his admission. In short, the whole service of Ordination, with its previous preparation and examination, are necessary, -as enacted in the Book of Common Prayer,-as the only way the Church of England and Ireland has sanctioned for the reception of any one into the sacred office of the ministry. We shall have to discuss this more fully hereafter, but, methinks, even at this glance of the subject it is scarcely premature to say that the practical recognition of Rome's orders is simply absurd.

But the argument, I know, must be further unfolded. The practice is so jealously and tenaciously upheld, that every bold assertion must be