us. May it, above all, strengthen us in the resolution to be ready at all times to defend the EVANGELICAL CREED, and with it liberty of conscience and religious toleration. The strength and essence of PROTESTANTISM do not rest upon any stiff form of written words, but in the striving after the knowledge of Christian truth. May LUTHER'S anniversary help to strengthen Pro-· testant feeling, preserve the German Evangelical Church from disunion, and lay for her the foundation of lasting peace."

10th November, 1883.

C. H. C.

PREFACE TO PART I.

THE

"En vérité, mes Pères, voilà le moyen de vous faire croire, jusqu'à ce qu'on vous réponde; mais c'est aussi le moyen de faire qu'on ne vous croye jamais plus, après qu'on vous aura répondu."-PASCAL.

the

HE Rev. Dr. Littledale, in his now notorious Lecture Lecture against the Anglican Reformers, entitled "Ritualistic Innovations," fairly puts his hearers on their guard. He said :-" I am not here to-night in a judicial capacity, to sum up impartially for plaintiff and defendant alike, and to leave you, as the jury, to draw your own conclusions. I discharge the functions of Counsel,-bound, indeed, to allege no falsehood for my clients nor against their opponent, but in no way responsible for stating the case against myself." While we admit the candour of the lecturer, we cannot commend the morality of Ritualists, taking the Rev. Doctor as a fair type of the school. In secular matters we,—at least, such of us laymen as have a reputation to maintain, consider it a duty to tell not only the truth, but the whole truth and nothing but the truth; more especially when we are dealing with the character of the departed. The Rev. S. Baring-Gould, however, by his Lectures on "Luther and Justification,” if I understand him rightly, professes to tell the whole truth and nothing but the truth; whereas, truth, as far as I can judge, appears to be the very last object sought

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to be conveyed by his Lectures. If, in the products of genius, art is displayed in concealing art, taking these Lectures as a sample of Ritualistic morality, the art displayed by Ritualists is in endeavouring to conceal truth. The affected candour exhibited by the rev. gentleman is somewhat amusing. In answer to one of my letters, requesting explanations of some of his quotations, he writes:-"I have made a mistake in one passage I have quoted on the authority of Möhler, which I intend to correct when I have an opportunity. Far be it from me to wish to do an injustice to Luther or any man, and to misrepresent him"!!

The simplicity of this passage is truly charming! A mistake in one passage, indeed, when the entire pamphlet is made up of a continuous series of misquotations, mistranslations, misrepresentations, as well of Luther's text as of his doctrinal teaching. I have successively replied to three leading works, which I believe have hitherto been unsurpassed for the mass of misquotations and historical and literary misrepresentations which they contain; I allude to Dr. Wiseman's lectures on "The Catholic Church," Dr. Milner's "End of Religious Controversy," and Cobbett's "History of the Protestant Reformation." Taking into consideration the relative bulk of these three volumes, compared with the Rev. S. BaringGould's pamphlet on "Luther and Justification," I unhesitatingly give the palm to the latter as far surpassing the three others named in the above specialities.

Alluding to the author of these Lectures, the Romish paper, The Weekly Register, in their issue of August 11, 1883, in a series of articles against

Luther, calls attention to the Rev. S. Baring-Gould, as "this fair-minded Protestant, who had already made inquiries on the field over which we (the Editor) are again called to travel." A Protestant, forsooth! The rev. gentlemen of his school disclaim the title. of Protestant. These Lectures, on the score of misquotations and virulence, equal the productions of any of the numerous libellers of Luther and his writings.

It would weary the reader were I to take each quotation and assertion, and reply to them seriatim. I have, therefore, selected some of the more striking passages, which the reader will please to accept as fair samples of the charges brought against Luther; and then to form his own judgment and conclusions as to the want, or otherwise, of fair dealing and truthfulness exhibited in these Lectures by the Rev. S. BaringGould.