Occasioned by the publication of the "Tracts for the Times," &c.

Abstract

I must refer the reader back to the last Tract for the commencement of the subject I am about to continue. In that tract I examined, by the light of antiquity, the claims advanced by the Oxford Divines in favour of apostolical succession in their Church. In order to simplify the controversy, I made concessions till I almost feared I might have scandalized my brethren. I wished to take up the controversy upon the lowest imaginable grounds, and for this purpose I made the following liberal allowances.

First, I put aside all question respecting the validity or invalidity, of ordination and consecration in the Anglican Church.

Secondly, I entirely considered the case of this Church as one to be investigated by canonical enactments, overlooking the great point of ecclesiastical and doctrinal union with the universal Church, which is essential, jure divino, for the legitimate existence and exercise of hierarchical authority.

Thirdly, I limited the rights of the holy see, to be a party to the lawful appointment of bishops in England, to those of the patriarchate, instead of considering those of its supremacy.

Fourthly, I even imagined the hypothesis, that the rights exercised by the pope, as patriarch of England, had no better foundation than usurpation at the outset.

After making all these abatements in our just assumptions, I proved that the advocates of the Anglican Church could not sustain any claim , on her part to a share in apostolical succession. But it was not by any means my intention to leave the investigation there. On the contrary, I promised to raise the question to a higher level, and discuss our adversaries' pretensions, or rather repel them, upon considerations inolving more serious consequences...[Excerpt]