THE BRITISH

PROTESTANT.

No. XVII.-MAY, 1846.

THE PRIEST AT MOODKEE.

Most of our readers will have read, in the accounts of our late Indian victories, that a Roman Catholic

order to perform to the

They will have likewise

Priest followed the troops, in dying the rites of his Church. read, that, in the discharge of these, the duties he voluntarily undertook, he was struck down by a cannon-shot, and buried amid the brave upon the field of battle.

It would be ungenerous, and probably unjust, to cast any aspersion on the designs of the man, or to doubt that they proceeded from sincere and zealous intentions. It is more agreeable to be able to praise his disinterested and devoted heroism-to give him all credit for magnanimity and self-sacrifice,—and, so far as we can, to set up such insensibility to selfish considerations, as a meet model for others that are more enlightened. But when comparisons are drawn between his conduct on this occasion and that of Protestant Ministers, even the most faithful,—and very much to the disadvantage of the latter, it is necessary to furnish a few explanations calculated to modify the contrast. We may condemn the system, while we acknowledge the virtues of some of its adherents. We can also conceive, that the consolations

VOL. II.

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of the Gospel-its promises-its provision-its hopesits springs of peace and wells of salvation, might be whispered into the ears of the dying, and proclaimed in the hearing of the wounded, by a faithful Minister of Jesus, with great and precious results. The presence of a Protestant Minister might do much good, and where it is practicable, such presence should be encouraged to the utmost.

But, with this admission, it must not be concealed, that the presence of the Romish Priest is held to be essential to salvation. He and his rites are presumed to open Heaven, and pass spirits to glory. In short, the presence of a Priest is, on his principles, to be expected as an ordinary fact, arising from the doctrines of the church he belongs to.

The Priest of Moodkee believed, as every Romanist in Christendom believes, what is asserted in the sixth canon of the fourteenth session of the Council of Trent: Si quis negaverit confessionem sacramentalem vel institutam vel ad salutem necessariam esse jure divino, anathema sit-" If any one shall have denied that sacramental confession was instituted at all, or that it is necessary to salvation by divine law, let him be accursed." Absolution and extreme unction are held by the Romish Church to be necessary to salvation.

In the Romish creed, the Priest, and those rites which a Priest alone can perform, are vital, and essential to salvation, except in some special instances; and even in these last, the absence of such rites will aggravate and protract the torments in Purgatory to a great extent.

One therefore wonders, not that one Priest accompanied the Romish soldiers to the field of battle, but that a dozen, at least, did not join him in the discharge of duties which they all feel to be of vital and paramount importance.

Protestants have not the same belief in the efficacy of ceremonial rites, or in the necessity of the presence of any earthly priest whatever. Our Priest ever walks the earth; he is on the deck and in the battle-field-with the dying and the dead-in India and in England; wherever a Christian is, there his Priest is also. "Lo,

I am with you always." "I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee."

He

The Protestant can dispense with the human, for he has the divine. He is one with God, through Jesus Christ, and needs no other Mediator than One. He trusts in a perfect, and finished, and all-sufficient oblation and sacrifice, made once for all; and no earthly rite can augment its virtue or enhance its value. has the anointing of the Spirit of God, and needs no ecclesiastical unction. He is cleansed in the blood of Jesus, and requires therefore no process of material or purgatorial purification. He has, in all time of his wealth, in all time of his tribulation, in the hour of death, and in the day of judgment, the High Priest of Heaven, and needs not, therefore, the Priest of Moodkee.

DR. PUSEY, AND "THE KEYS.”

THE Rev. Doctor some time ago preached a discourse before the University of Oxford, on the power of the Keys. It was his first discourse after the expiry of his suspension, and it proves, beyond all doubt, that punishment has had no salutary effect, either on him or his creed.

Dr. Pusey believes that the Church-that is, the portion of it which he believes to be exclusively divine,— wherever that portion be, by the Isis or by the Tiber, possesses these keys, and opens and shuts at her discretion the doors of Heaven. He professes to prove that these same keys have been handed down from sire to son by uninterrupted transmission from the Apostles' days, and are in daily action every day of the year.

It is quite clear the keys were given to Peter, and as far as we can ascertain, to him alone; so far we are all agreed. But what is the meaning or purpose of a key? A key is given to open a lock or door that is otherwise closed. Let us then inquire, if there was any shut door that Peter was specially and distinctively commissioned to open? There was. In the tenth chapter of the Acts of the Apostles, we find Peter was selected to hear a new lesson, and see a new and eloquent vision from God, respecting the future rights, state and privileges of Gentiles. Prior to this event Peter believed, in common with all his countrymen, that the gospel was to be restricted to the Jews, just as the Levitical formulas of it had been. God however taught him, that Jesus died and rose again, not only for the Jews, but for the Gentiles also. He employed Peter first of all the Apostles, to exemplify this truth, and to preach the gospel of the kingdom, that is, to use the keys, by unlocking its door to admit the Gentiles into the kingdom of Christ; while, therefore, Peter thus preached to the people," and testified that it is Jesus who is ordained of God to be the judge of quick and dead, to whom give all the prophets witness, that through His name whosoever believeth on Him shall receive remission of sins;

the Holy Ghost fell on them, and they of the circumcision which believed were astonished, because that on the Gentiles also was poured out the gift of the Holy Ghost. Acts x. 42-45."

In the next chapter we find the Jews, not yet enlightened, contending with Peter, because he went in to men uncircumcised, and did eat with them." But Peter's explanation thoroughly satisfied them, and they glorified God, saying "then hath God also to the Gentiles granted repentance unto life."

It would thus appear that Peter duly used the keys entrusted to his care, and having opened the door of admission to the Gentiles, we find no record of his shutting it again, in fact we find positive proof, in the present state of the Gentiles, that it is still open, that many are already within, and many more pouring into the kingdom of heaven.

But it is alleged that Peter transmitted the keys to his successors; -the Romanists say his Papal, and the Tractarians say his Episcopal successors, and the Scotch Covenanters of the 17th century said to his Presbyterial successors. We do not find in the original grant any hint that Peter was to keep the keys after he had opened the door of admission to the Gentiles, still less that he was to bequeath these keys to his successors of any name; and it is matter of fact, that these keys are not to be discovered in any parish, or diocese, or synod, in the world.

Surely the Roman Catholic, who gives a literal and carnal meaning to every text which seems figurative to our minds, and builds the doctrine of transubstantiation, for instance, on these very words, "this is my body,' will not be inconsistent enough to put a figurative meaning on "the keys."

Well, then, let Dr. Pusey, or the Pope, produce these keys-let him give us some sign of their virtues, and let him prove, not by tradition, but by sober history and satisfactory evidence, that his are the very keys that Peter made use of. But does not a text in Rev. iii. 7, seem as plain and intelligible, to say the least, as that in Matt. xvi. 19? and does it not shew, that Peter, having used these keys for the purpose prescribed,