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method of making it. Hence, I entered upon the present important search after the truths of the Christian revelation, with a discussion of the rules or methods followed, for this purpose, by different classes of Christians. Having taken for granted the following maxims:-that Christ has appointed some rule or method of learning his revelation; that this rule must be an unerring one; and that it must be adapted to the capacities and situations of mankind in general: I proceeded to show, that a supposed private spirit, or particular inspiration, is not that rule; because this persuasion has led numberless fanatics, in every age since that of Christ, into the depths of error, folly, and wickedness of every kind. I proved, in the second place, that the written word, or Scripture, according to each one's conception of its meaning, is not that rule; because it is not adapted to the capacities and situations of the bulk of mankind—a great proportion of them not being able to read the Scripture, and much less to form a connected sense of a single chapter of it; and because innumerable Christians have, at all times, by following this presumptuous method, given into heresies, impieties, contradictions, and crimes, almost as numerous and flagrant as those of the above-mentioned fanatics. Finally, I demonstrated that there is a two-fold word of God-the unwritten and the written: that the former was appointed by Christ, and made use of by the apostles, for converting nations; and that it was not made void by the inspired epistles and gospels which some of the apostles and the evangelists addressed, for the most part, to particular churches or individuals: that the Catholic Church is the divinely-commissioned guardian and interpreter of the word of God in both its parts; and that, therefore, the method appointed by Christ for learning what he has taught on the various articles of his religion, is to HEAR THE CHURCH propounding them to us from the whole of his rule. This method, I have shown, continued to be pointed out by the fathers and doctors of the church in constant succession, and that it is the only one which is adapted to the circumstances of mankind in general; the only one which leads to the peace and unity of the Christian church; and the only one which affords tranquillity and security to individual Christians during life, and at the trying hour of their dissolution.

At this point, my labors might have ended; as the Catholic Church alone follows the right rule, and the right rule infallibly leads to the Catholic Church. But, since Bishop Porteus, and other Protestant controvertists, raise cavils, as to which is the true church; and whereas, this is a question that admits of a still more easy and more triumphant answer, than that concerning the right rule of faith, I have made it the subject of a second

series of letters, with which, I flatter myself, the greater part of you are acquainted. In fact, no inquiry is so easy, to an attentive and upright Christian, as that which leads to the discovery of the true church of Christ; because, on one hand, all Christians agree in their common creeds, concerning the characters, or marks, which she bears; and because, on the other hand, these marks are of an exterior ana splendid kind, such as require no extensive learning or abilities, and little more than the use of our senses and common reason, to discern them. In short, among the numerous and jarring societies of Christians, (all pretending to have found out the truths of revelation,) to ascertain which is the true church of Christ, that infallibly possesses them, we have only to observe, which among them is distinctively, ONE, HOLY, CATHOLIC, and APOSTOLICAL and the discovery is made. In treating of these characters, or marks, I said it was obvious to every beholder, that there is no bond of union whatever among the different societies of Protestants; and that no articles, canons, oaths, or laws, have the force of confining the members of any one of them, as experience shows, to a uniformity of belief, or even profession, in a single kingdom or island, while the great Catholic Church, spread, as it is, over the face of the globe, and consisting as it does, of all nations, and tribes, and peoples, and tongues, is strictly united in the same faith, the same sacraments, and the same church-government; in short, that it demonstratively exhibits the first mark of the true church, unity. With respect to the second mark, sanctity, I showed that she alone teaches and enforces the whole doctrine of the Gospel; that she is the mother of all the saints, acknowledged as such by Protestants themselves; that she possesses many means of attaining to sanctity, which the latter disclaim; and that God himself attests the truth of this church, by the miracles with which, from time to time, he illustrates her exclusively. And, whereas many eminent Protestant writers have charged the Catholics with deception and forgery on this head, I have unanswerably retorted the charge upon themselves. No words were wanting to show, that the Catholic Church bears the glorious name of CATHOLIC, and very few to demonstrate, that she is catholic or universal, with respect both to place and time, and that she is also apostolical. The latter point, however, I exhibited in a more evident and sensible manner, by means of a sketch of an apostolical tree, a genealogical table of the church, which I sent you, showing the succession of her pontiffs, her most eminent bishops, doctors, and saints, as also, that of the most notorious heretics and schismatics, who have been lopped off from this tree, in every age, from that of the apostles down to the present. "No church,

out the Catholic, can exhibit any thing of this kind,” as Tertullian reproached the seceders of his time. Under this head, you must have observed, in particular, the want of an apostolical succession of ministry, under which I showed that all the Protestant societies labor; and their want of success in attempting the work of the apostles, the conversion of pagan nations.

The third series of my letters has been employed in tearing off the hideous mask, with which calumny and misrepresentation had disfigured the fair face of Christ's true spouse, the Catholic Church. In this endeavor, I trust, I have been completely successful, and that there is not one of your society, who will any more reproach Catholics with being idolaters, on account of their respect for the memorials of Christ and his saints, or of their desiring the prayers of the latter; or on account of the adoration they pay to the divine Jesus, hidden under the sacramental veils. Nor will they hereafter accuse us of purchasing, or otherwise procuring leave to commit sin, or the previous pardon of sins, to be committed; or, in short, of perfidy, sedition, cruelty, or systematic wickedness of any kind. So far from this, I have reason to hope, that the view of the church herself, which I have exhibited to your society, instead of the caricature of her, which Dr. Porteus, and other bigoted controvertists, have held up to the public, has produced a desire in several of them to return to the communion of this original church; bearing, as she clearly does, all the marks of the true church; gifted, as she manifestly is, with so many peculiar helps for salvation; and possessing the only safe and practicable rule for ascertaining the truths of revelation. The consideration which, I understand, has struck some of them, in the most forcible manner, is that which I suggested from my own knowledge and experience, as well as from the observation of the eminent writers whom I have named: that no Catholic, at the near approach of death, is ever found desirous of dying in any other religion, while numbers of Protestants, in that situation, seek to be reconciled to the Catholic Church.

Some of your number have said, that though they are of opinion that the Catholic religion is the true one, yet they have not that evidence of the fact, which they think sufficient to justify a change in so important a point as that of religion. God forbid, that I should advise any person to embrace the Catholic religion, without having sufficient evidence of its truth; but I must remind the persons in question, that they have not a metaphysical evidence, nor a mathematical certainty of the truth of Christianity in general. In fact, they have only a high moral evidence and certainty of this truth: for with all the miracles and other arguments, by which Christ and his apostles proved

this divine system, it was still a stumbling-block to the Jews and folly to the Gentiles, 1 Cor. i. 23. In short, according to the observation of St. Augustin, there is light enough in it, to guide the sincere faithful, and obscurity enough to mislead perverse unbelievers; because, after all, faith is not merely a divine illustration of the understanding, but also, a divine, and yet voluntary motion of the will. Hence, if, in travelling through this darksome vale, as Locke, I think, observes, with respect to revelation in general, God is pleased to give us the light of the moon or of the stars, we are not to stand still on our journey, because he does not afford us the light of the sun. The same is to be said, with respect to the evidence in favor of the Catholic religion it is moral evidence of the first quality; far superior to that on which we manage our temporal affairs, and guard our lives; and not, in the least, below that which exists for the truth of Christianity at large. At all events, it is wise to choose the safer part; and it would be madness to act otherwise, when eternity is at stake. The great advocates of Christianity, St. Augustin, Pascal, Abbadie, and others, argue thus, in recommending it to us, in preference to infidelity now the same argument evidently holds good, for preferring the Catholic religion to every Protestant system. The most eminent Protestant divines, such as Luther, Melancthon, Hooker, Chillingworth; with the bishops, Laud, Taylor, Sheldon, Blandford, and the modern prelates, Marsh, and Porteus himself, all acknowledge, that salvation may be found in the communion of the original Catholic Church: but no divine of this church, consistently with her characteristical unity, and the constant doctrine of the holy fathers, and of the Scripture itself, as I have elsewhere demonstrated, can allow, that salvation is to be found out of this communion; except in the case of invincible ignorance.

It remains, my dear friends and brethren, for each of you to take his and her part; but, remember, that the part you severally take, is taken for ETERNITY! On this occasion, therefore, if ever you ought to do so, reflect and decide seriously and conscientiously, dismissing all worldly respects, of whatever kind, from your minds; for what exchange shall a man receive for his soul?* and what will the prejudiced opinion of your fellow-mortals avail you at that tribunal, where we are all so soon to appear! and in the vast abyss of eternity, in which we shall quickly be all engulfed! Will any of them plead your cause at the bar? Or will your punishment be more tolerable from their sharing in it? Finally, with all the fervor and sincerity

*Matt xvi. 20.

of your souls, beseech your future Judge, who is now your merciful Saviour, to bestow upon you that light to see your way, and that strength to follow it, which he merited for you, when he hung for three hours, your agonizing victim, on the

.cross.

Adieu, my dear friends and brethren: we shall soon meet together at the tribunal I have mentioned; and be assured, that I look forward to that meeting with a perfect confidence, that you and I, and the Great Judge himself, shall all concur, in approbation of the advice I now give you.

Wolverhampton, May 29, 1802.

I am, yours, &c.

JOHN MILNER.

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"Thou art Peter; and upon this rock I will build my Church, and the gates
of hell shall not prevail against it."

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