ruins of Paganism, and encompassed by the splendour of the Eternal City; we find her preached to the poor and the ignorant, under the canopy of heaven, in many a distant and unfrequented clime; we find her in the palaces of kings, and in the cities of the great; we find her among the idolators of the Old, and the savages of the New World; we find her in the east and in the west, in the north and in the south; and we find her every where with the same image and likeness, always in possession of the same pure and holy doctrine. We find her to be that great and various multitude....like the stars of heaven, or the sands

Amongst all the Revolutions recorded in history, the most remarkable, certainly, is the establishment of the temporal sovereignty of the Popes. That the successor of St. Peter, who was crucified by order of a Roman emperor, as a mean and contemptible impostor, should now possess the capital of that empire, for the seat of his dominion, and the temples of their gods, for the rites of his religion and that the individual who now represents the proud senate of Rome, should hold his station at the will and appointment of that same successor of St. Peter, are circumstances which appear to point out a peculiar providence, and afford matter of contemplation to the Christian philosopher.

(*) On the missionary labours of the Catholic church, see Milner's End of Controversy, Lett. xxx.

of the sea,"....which no man could number, of all nations, and tribes, and people, and tongues." The very name of Catholic, which no other Church ever has assumed, or can assume, and which by universal consent is inseparably attached to her, is alone sufficient to prove her Catholicity.")

(Gen. xxii. 17.

(m) Apoc. vii. 9.

(n) "The followers of Luther or Calvin are precisely the same, in his eyes, [the eyes of a Catholic] as those of Kant, or Knox, or Wesley, or any other of the numberless tribes who wander about the desert and attack the people of God, as they journey, under the divine protection, to the promised land. He may see some senate, or stadtholder, or prince, or potentate, associate himself with one or other of those sects, and bestow upon it all the wealth and dignity, which law, or rapine, or conquest placed in his hands he may see one of them preserve much of the form, order, dignity, rites, and liturgies of the church, whilst another strips its members in the market-place, and presents itself to the world as a sad image of human fatuity, or divine wrath; but as to the unity, sanctity, catholicity, and apostolicity of the Church, all these sects, whether assembled in palaces, in the conventicle, on the moor, or on the mountain, are equally removed from

them."

The following beautiful simile will be found illustrative of the subject: "Like the material world, the Church is continually vivified by a central and divine fire, enlightened by an eternal sun, watered by a miraculous dew, by which, like nature herself, she is at once embellished and

Fourthly,-No Protestant Church is Apostolical, because, instead of originating with the Apostles, instead of being founded by any teacher, deputed and commissioned by authority from the apostolic college, instead of being established by men who were sent, as the Father had sent the Saviour of mankind; as my Father has sent me, I also send you; and again, how shall they preach, unless they be sent; they all grew out of the angry spirit, the pride, and the presumption of Luther, who, in the arrogance of his mind, set himself up in oppo

refreshed, and endowed with a fertility which makes her bud, and bring forth fruit both for time and eternity."(Ganganelli's Letters.) In another place, speaking of the Church, both militant and triumphant, he says: “I figure her to myself as a tree, whose top reaches the summit of the heavens, whose roots pierce to the deepest abyss, and against which all the storms let loose their rage, without being able to wither or overthrow it."-" If we consider the church in her outward appearance, nothing can be more weak; her head and her members are men of flesh and blood, subject to all the passions; she has no other arms, no other strength than those words of Jesus Christ: Go preach the Gospel to all nations-Lo! I am with you all days, even to the end of the world. But, take a view of her internally, and nothing is stronger; for being unceasingly guided and enlightened by the Holy Spirit, God himself is her impregnable rampart."

(0) St John, xx. 21.

(P) Rom. x. 15.

sition to the received opinions of every nation, of every age, and of every Church; and who virtually confessed, that it was impossible he himself should be right, and every body else wrong. (9)

The Protestant Churches are not Apostolical, because their Hierarchies have no links to connect them with the æra of the Apostles, because they know not how they have received the Holy Ghost;(") because some of them cannot even demonstrate that their spiritual functions emanate from any other than a lay authority. They are not Apostolical, because their founders bore none of the characteristics of Apostolical men. It is a notorious fact, that, instead of being eminent for their humility, their piety, and their morals, the first reformers, equally with their patrons, were renowned for their profaneness, their pride, and their public irregularity of life: instead of preaching by example, as well as by word, they bore testimony to the falsehood of their mission by the licentiousness of their manners.

No Protestant Church is Apostolical, because we

(9) "How often," says he, "did my trembling heart ask me; Art thou alone right? Is all the world, except thee, involved in error?" (Præf. de abrog. Miss. Priv.) For the extravagances, contradictions, and turbulence of this Prince of Reformers, see Letters to a Prebendary, Lett. v. (r) St John, xx. 22.

know from history that, in the infancy of the Reformation, instead of following the Apostolical writings and Apostolical traditions, its abettors did not scruple to torture and pervert the Sacred Text, to their own innovations, favouring their new creed by falsely pretending it to be conformable to the will of the Almighty; propagating their religion by adulterating the word of God, and veiling the light of the Gospel, instead of exhibiting the manifestation of the truth: thus impugning the known faith by fiction and deceit, and fabricating ordinances for the God of truth and holiness, in the cause of falsehood and impiety." Well may we say, with St. Paul, to the deluded victims of such iniquity: Who hath hindered you, that you should not obey the truth?") and well might they answer; They who changed the word of God into a lie; the adulterators of the Sacred Text, the Protestant Reformers.

(8) 2 Cor. iv. 2.

(See Ward's Errata of the Protestant Bible, and Dr. Milner's Inquiry into certain vulgar Opinions concerning the Catholic Inhabitants and Antiquities of Ireland, pp. 271, &c. (u) Gal. v. 7. (x) Rom. i. 1. 25.

"Henry VIII., in his first essay at reformation, allowed the free use of the Bible in an authorised version, not absolutely without comment, but, as his majesty afterwards discovered, disfigured by unfaithful renderings, and contaminated with notes calculated to mislead the