cular, candidly acknowledge: but you ask me, on the part of some of your friends, as well as yourself, why, in case you must rely on authority,' as Bishop Porteus confesses the unlearned 'must,' that is to say, the great bulk of mankind, why, I say, you should not, as he advises you, 'rely on the authority of that Church, which 'God's providence hath placed you under, rather 'than on that of another which you have nothing to do with,' (1) and why you may not trust to the Church of England, in particular, to guide you in your road to heaven, with equal security as to the Church of Rome?- -Before I answer you, Sir, permit me to congratulate with you on your advance towards the clear sight of the whole truth of revelation. As long as you professed to hunt out the several articles of divine revelation, one by one, through the several books of Scripture, and under all the difficulties and uncertainties, which, as I have clearly shown, attend this study, your task was interminable, and your success hopeless: whereas, now, by taking the Church of God for your guide, you have but one simple inquiry to make, Which is this Church? a question that admits of being solved by men of good will, with equal certainty and facility. say, there is but one inquiry to be made, namely, Which is the true Church? because if there is any one religious truth more evident than the others from reason, from the Scriptures, both Old (2) and New, (3) from the Apostles'

(1) Confutation of Errors of Popery, p. 20.

(2) Speaking of the future Church of the Gentiles, the Almighty thus promises, by Isaiah: Sing, O barren, thou that didst not bear, &c.: as I have sworn that the waters of Noah should no more go over the earth, so I have sworn that I would not be wroth with thee nor rebuke thee. For the mountains shall depart, and the hills be removed, but my kindness shall not depart from thee, &c. liv. See also lix. Ix. Ixiii. Jerem, xxxiii. Ezech. xxxvii. Dan, ii. Psalm lxxxix.

(3) Upon this rock I will build my Church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it. Mat. xvi. 18. I am with you all days, even until THE END OF THE WORLD. Mat. xxviii, 20. I will pray the Father, and fee will give you another Comforter, that homay abide with you FOR EVER,

Creed, (1) and from constant tradition, it is this, that 'the Catholic Church preserves the true wor'ship of the Deity; she being the fountain of truth, 'the house of faith, and the temple of God,' as an ancient Father of the Church expresses it. (2) Hence it is as clear as the noon-day light, that by solving this one question, Which is the true Church? you will at once solve every question of religious controversy that ever has been, or that ever can be agitated. You will not need to spend your life in studying the sacred Scriptures in their original languages, and their authentic copies, and in confronting passages with each other, from Genesis to Revelations-a task by no means calculated, as is evident, for the bulk of mankind-you will only have to hear what the Church teaches upon the several articles of her faith, in order to know with certainty what God has revealed concerning them. Neither need you hearken to contending sects, and doctors of the present, or of the past times: you will need only to hear the Church, which indeed Christ commands you to hear, under pain of being treated as a heathen or a publican. Mat. xviii. 17.

I now proceed, Dear Sir, to your question, Why, admitting the necessity of being guided by the Church, you and your friends may not submit to be guided by the Church of England, or any other Protestant Church to which you respectively belong?My answer is, because no such Church professes, or, consistently with the fundamental Protestant Rule of private judgment, can profess to be a guide in matters of Religion. If you admit, but

even the Spirit of Truth-he will teach you ALL TRUTH. John xiv. 16, &c. The House of God, which is the Church of the living God, THE PILLAR AND GROUND OF TRUTH. 1 Tim. iii. 14.

(1) I BELIEVE THE HOLY CATHOLIC CHURCH; or, I BE LIEVE IN THE HOLY CATHOLIC CHURCH. Art. ix. The article is read differently by different Holy Fathers; but either way it means the same thing.

(2) Lactan. De Divin. Inst. I. 4.

for an instant, Church-authority, then Luther, Calvin and Cranmer, with all the other founders of Protestantism, were evidently heritics in rebelling against it. the Catholic can claim to be a religious Guide, In short, no other Church but because evidently she alone is the True Church of Christ. This assertion leads me to the proof of what I asserted above, respecting the facility and certainty with which persons of good will may solve that most important question, Which is the true Church ?

Luther, (1) Calvin, (2) and the Church of England, (3) assign as the characteristics, or marks of the true Church of Christ, Truth of Doctrine, and the right Administration of the Sacraments. But to follow this method of finding_out the true Church, would be to throw ourselves back into those endless controversies concerning the true doctrine, and the right discipline, which it is my present object to put an end to, by demonstrating at once, Which is the true Church. To show the inconsistency of the Protestant method, let us suppose that, at the levee, some person were to inquire of his neighbour, Which of the personages present is the Prince Regent ? and that he was to receive for answer, It is the King's eldest son: would this answer, however true, be of any use to the inquirer? Evidently not. Whereas, if he were told that the Prince wore such and such clothes and ornaments, and was seated in such or such a place, these exterior marks would, at once, put him in possession of the information he was in search of. Thus we Catholics, when we are asked, which are the marks of the true Church? point out certain exterior, visible marks, such as plain, unlearned persons can discover, if they will take ordinary pains for this purpose, no less than persons of the greatest

(1) De Concil. Eccles.

(2) Instit. 1. 41.

(3) Art. 19.

abilities and literature: at the same time that they are the very marks of this Church, which, as I said above, natural Reason, the Scriptures, the Creeds, and the Fathers, assign and demonstrate to be the true marks by which it is to be distinguished. Yes, my Dear Sir, these marks of the True Church are so plain in themselves, and so evidently point it out, that, as the prophet Isaiah has foretold, xxxv. 8, fools cannot err in the road to it. They are the flaming beacons which for ever shine on the mountain, at the top of the mountains of the Lord's house. Isa. ii. 2. In short, the particular motives for credibility, which point out the True Church of Christ, demonstrate this with no less certitude and evidence, than the general motives of credibility demonstrate the Truth of the Christian Religion.

The chief marks of the True Church, which I shall here assign, are not only conformable to Reason, Scripture, and Tradition, but [which is a most fortunate circumstance] they are such as the Church of England, and most other respectable denominations of Protestants, acknowledge and profess to believe in, no less than Catholics. Yes, Dear Sir, they are contained in those Creeds which you recite in your daily prayers, and proclaim in your solemn worship. In fact, what do you say of the Church you believe in, when you repeat the Apostle's Creed? You say, I BELIEVE IN THE HOLY CATHOLIC CHURCH. Again, how is this Church more particularly described in the Nicene Creed, which makes part of your public liturgy? In this you say, I BELIEVE IN ONE CATHOLIC AND APOSTOLIC CHURCH. (1) Hence it evidently follows that the Church which you, no less than we, profess to believe in, is possessed of these four marks: UNITY, SANCTITY, CATHO

(1) Order of Administration of the Lord's Supper.

LICITY, and APOSTOLICITY.-It is agreed upon, then, that all we have to do, by way of discovering the True Church, is to find out which of the rival Churches, or communions, is peculiarly ONE-HOLY-CATHOLIC-and APOSTOLIC. -Thrice happy, Dear Sir, I deem it, that we agree together, by the terms of our common Creeds, in a matter of such infinite importance, for the happy termination of all controversies, as are these qualities, or characters of the True Church, whichever that may be found to be! Still, notwithstanding this agreement in our Creeds, I shall not omit to illustrate these characters, or marks, as I treat them, by arguments from Reason, Scripture, and the ancient Fathers. I am, Dear Sir, &c.

J M.

LETTER XIV.

To JAMES BROWN, Esq., &c.

UNITY OF THE CHURCH.

DEAR SIR,

NOTHING is more clear to natural reason, than that God cannot be the author of different Religions: for being the Eternal Truth, he cannot reveal contradictory doctrines; and being at the same time, the Eternal Wisdom, and the God of Peace, he cannot establish a kingdom divided against itself. Hence it follows, that the Church of Christ must be strictly ONE; one in doctrine, one in worship, and one in government. This mark of Unity in the True Church, which is so clear from reason, is still more clear from the following passages of Holy Writ. Our Saviour, then, speaking of himself, in the character of the good Shepherd, says, I have other sheep (the Gentiles) which