blished by Christ, or whether he may innocently follow the devices and irregular mazes of private judgement? If he should deem this alternative optional, he has yet much to learn, notwithstanding his apparent familiarity with controversial discussion.-In fact, Sir, the enquirer has only to consider the terms of the Apostles' Creed, in order to ascertain the practical conduct he has to pursue. He there professes to believe "The Holy Catholic Church." This is evidently the church founded by Christ, against which the gates of hell were never to prevail; the church of which the prophets had predicted, that it was to last as long as the moon endureth; that it was a kingdom not to be destroyed; the church of which our Redeemer had declared, that the Divine Spirit would teach it all truth for ever; the church, which was to last from his first to his second coming. Now can your enquiring friend, rationally and truly apply these sublime prophecies exclusively to the church in communion with the See of Rome, and still propose a question, whether he may not safely and innocently live and die out of its pale? If he can reconcile his mind to this conduct, the act of faith, which he makes in reciting his creed, is rather of a singular description. For it amounts to this declaration: "I believe the holy Catholic church in theory; but I utterly reject its authority in practice; I believe that Christ said of his church, that he would be with it to the end of the world, and that he would send down his divine spirit to teach it all truth; yet somehow or other I believe that this same identical church has fallen into every species of error; and I consequently associate myself with some class of reformers, who have appeared in these latter times, to amend her faults, and reform her corrupted doctrines.' Such is the practical conduct of a man, who recites his creed, and still refuses to join the communion of that church, which alone can establish an uninterrupted succession from the apostles.-Let not your correspondent deceive himself; without faith he will never attain eternal salvation. For it is written, Without faith it is impossible to please God. Heb. xi. 6. Now true faith evidently requires at once an internal assent, and an external profession of what we believe; as we learn from the authority of the same great apostle, With the heart man believeth unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made to salvation. Rom. x. 10. The illustrious St. Augustine, referring to these words, says most distinctly, “That we are to be mindful of justice and salvation: since we, who expect to' reign clothed with the robes of eternal justice, cannot secure our salvation from the malignant arts of the present world, unless with

a view to promote the salvation of our neighbours, we profess with our lips the faith which we bear in our heart." (Oportet nos et justitiæ esse memores et salutes : quandoquidem in justitiâ sempiternâ reguaturi a præsenti sæculo malo salvi esse non possumus, nisi et nos ad salutem proximorum nitentes, etiam ore profiteamur fidem quam corde gestamus. St. Aug. de Fide et symbolo circa init.) Such an authority ought surely to possess a decided influence over the mind of any rational man; especially when he finds the language of so eminent a doctor of the church to be in perfect unison with the practice of the apostolic age. For of that period it is recorded by St. Luke, that the Lord added to his church daily such as should be saved. Acts, ii. 47. It appears then an undoubted truth, that in order to secure eternal salvation it becomes necessary to belong to the church, to be associated with the external body of the faithful. -But your correspondent asks, whether every Protestant may not by his baptism consider himself a member of the church of Christ ? My answer is, that baptism duly conferred, undoubtedly makes the person baptised a member of the church of Christ: but when such a one attains the use of reason, he is not to lose his faith by any voluntary known errors, opposed to that divine virtue; otherwise he would cease to be a member of the church. The baptism conferred by the Arians, the Macedonians, the Nestorians, the Eutychians, or by any sect whatever, may be good and valid, when the matter and form can be proved to have been observed; but if persons thus baptized sanction errors opposed to faith, or if, when opportunities of instruction present themselves, they shut their eyes to the light, and thus preclude the plea of invincible ignorance, they forfeit the dignity of being members of the church of Christ. Then, says he, is there not a sufficient portion of saving faith, among all denominations of Christians, on which to found a hope of gaining heaven. I will enable your correspondent to answer this question himself, by proposing to him the nature of true and saving faith. To believe is to admit with an undoubted assent, what God has revealed, and what is proposed as such by a competent anthority. Now by what authority can the Protestant, who makes private judgment his sole guide in determining articles of faith, discover any point to be revealed by God? If he replies, by the authority of the scripture, it is obvious to remark, that the sacred oracles interpreted by private judgment, may give birth to as many systems, as there are men who pursue that mode of deciding matters of faith. The faith of Protestants, therefore, as St. Thomas of Aquin remarks of all those leaving the

authority of the church, is reduced to a mere matter of opinion, and inevitably loses the resplendent qualities of that heavenly virtue. Again, he says, may not a man belong to the soul of the church, without being under the absolute necessity of uniting himself to the external body. My answer is, that this distinction is made in favour of those only, who use their best exertions to embrace the faith of Christ to the utmost extent; but who are prevented by some invincible necessity from accomplishing their laudable purpose. It cannot favour such as profess knowledge of the subject, but who, from human motives, make no use of the light with which they are favoured. On the whole, I am afraid that your correspondent belongs to this latter class of persons, who are too numerous in the world to excite any surprise at the questions here proposed. Let me, however, exhort him to weigh well the awful difference between temporal and eterual, to remember, that the decision which he now forms will influence his future lot for ever; and let me entreat him to address his most fervent supplications to the throne of grace, in order to be directed in this most important concern. For thus only can we entertain a well-grounded hope, that his perplexities will be removed, and that his future happiness will be finally secured.

Shepton Mallet, Nov. 18, 1827.

W. H. C., D.D.

INCREDULITY; A FRAGMENT.

A HOLY and a good man, but too much troubled with doubts, Father Dennis, was awoke in the middle of a dark December night by a great noise outside his window. He got up, threw open the shutters, and looking out, he saw two men, one of them striving to kill the other with a hatchet, and the other endeavouring to save himself as well as he could. Just as the priest was going to cry out a thousand murders, he heard a heavy crash and a groan, and then a great fall; and then there was a silence, so he knew all was over. He held his tongue, and waited to see what would become of the murderer. I shall now know to a certainty,' said the priest, whether there is a Providence or no.' Opposite to the priest's house was a sweet cottage tenanted by a young couple who had been married only a few months, and were the admiration of the whole village for their fondness. To this house he saw the murderer drag the body; he laid it near the cottage door, and, placing the bloody hat

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chet on his breast, he went his way. The priest never returned to his bed that night, but stood at the window waiting for the daylight, to see what would become of the murdered and the murderer. lf there be a Providence,' says the the priest, the murderer surely shall not be suffered to escape.'

Day broke-there was very little light, scarce so much as might serve to guide a man upon his road; for the moon and the stars had gone down, and it was long, long before sun rise. He saw the cottage door open, and the man of the house-a young, hale, handsome man, come out. He stumbled over the dead body, and fell. Not knowing the cause, he was greatly surprised, on rising, to find himself dabbled with blood. He startled and trembled from head to foot-stooped and touched the corpse-took the hatchet in his hand; and, after making certain that the man was dead indeed, he ran towards the high road, scarcely knowing what he was about to do. At the gate he was met and hailed by a neighbour.

Ho! you're early rising this morning, sir,' said the strange man; 'where to, now?' 'I'm going-I don't know-I want help→ there's murder has been done.'

By whom? Not by you, I hope! What brings the blood upon your vest and face-and what brings you (Lord save us!) with the bloody hatchet in your hands. Show me the body. What, at your own door too! In the name of the great Lord, and of the king of the land, I take you a prisoner for this deed.'

"Surely,' says the priest, if there be a Providence, this innocent man won't suffer for the deed he never shared in.' The young inan was sent to gaol, and the priest stayed all that day praying in his own room, that if there was a Providence, it might be made known to him in that business.

"The next morning he was roused from his knees by a wild shrieking and clapping of hands in the street. He went again to the window, and he saw a young woman, fair and well formed, standing on the road side, crying bitterly, wringing her hands, and now and then looking, like one that is crazed, along the road, then giving a loud cry, and clapping her hands, and shaking her hair over her shoulders. Father Dennis looked along the road in the same direction, and he saw red coats, and horses prancing, and guns, and swords glittering, and a crowd of people pressing round a car, in which, after the whole procession came a little nearer, he saw sitting very pale, and looking now and then at the straw that covered the hangman near him, the young man of the cottage, his neighbour. ~

Then the priest started, and determined, before matters went farther, to put an end to the matter, by telling all he knew. He got up, and was about to leave his room, when he was struck senseless in a fit.

“When he came to himself, he saw one through the curtain of the bed sitting by him, and watching for him to wake. Supposing that it was his clerk, he asked if the execution had passed?

"Then,' said the priest, starting up in the bed, I have cast away half life in my that were never prayers ever heard for there is no

Providence!'

"Take care how you say that too speedily,' said the man, drawing back the curtain, and looking him straight in the face. It was the murderer himself.

*** Father Dennis felt his heart faint away within him; but he could not speak, neither was he able to deny the man, when he walked towards the door and bade him follow. He got up, put on his old hat, took his stick and his breviary in his hand, and away with him into the fields, the murderer still going before, and now and then beckoning him on, until they came to a lonely quiet place, where there was a bunch of loghero growing in the middle of the fields.

"Do you remember,' says the murderer, a young man of your parish that was spirited away into these wild places, and never heard

of after?'

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“‹‹ The man was going to be married,' said Father Dennis, to the same young woman that is now a widow, mourning for the innocent man that was hanged yesterday.'

“Did you mark how he started and trembled when he felt the blood upon his hands, and saw the bloody weapon? Take this spade and dig there'

"The priest put the spade into the earth, and turning up some loose sods, there he saw the body of the young man they were speaking of, as fresh as ever, with a deep gash on one side of the head. "Take the hatchet that is on the breast,' said the murderer. "Father Dennis took the rusty hatchet, and there, sure enough, he found cut upon the handle the name of the man that had been hanged that morning.

"There is a God then,' said a voice above his head, and a just and a good one!'

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Father Dennis looked round for the murderer; but he was no C. M. VOL. VIII. NO. 72.

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