never die, and that he will never desert them that shall believe in him."(*) The Catholic rule of faith witnesses, the same command to faithful men, who shall be fit to teach others also.' (2 Tim. ii. 1, 2.) 'Continue then in the things thou hast learned, and which have been committed to thee, knowing of whom thou hast learned.' (Ibid. iii. 14.) "Far, then, from being authorized to pervert, by any peculiar interpretations, the doctrine of Christ, Timothy was charged by the apostle, to continue in things which he had learned, and which had been confided to his care. "In his instructions to Titus, after pointing out to him the several duties which it was incumbent on him to discharge, he concludes by reminding him of that authority which was transferred to him by virtue of his succession to the ministry. 'These things speak, and exhort, and rebuke, with all authority.' (Tit. ii. 15.) If then, he was authorized to speak and exhort with the fulness of the power which the apostle had conferred on him, it follows that the Christians of Crete were bound to receive his instructions, with a confidence fearless of being led astray. In short, we find the uniform exercise of this authority pervade the whole tenor of the lives of the apostles, accompanied by a correlative obedience, on the part of the faithful, to their instructions. In the communication of this power to others, to whom the last words of Christ were not addressed in person, it is clear that the apostles understood, that the virtue of his promises equally extended to their successors. It is, therefore, by the existence of the same power, residing to this day in their hereditary suc(*) Comment. in Matt. L. iv. T. iii. p. 734. therefore is, and always has been, that we are bound steadfastly to believe that which, the Almighty having revealed, the Church has proposed to our belief. We hold that the Church is the sole depository of the revelations of heaven, and that she alone has authority to promulgate them upon earth: and, consequently, that the same truths have been delivered down to us by the same channel, namely, by the teaching of the Apostles and their successors to the present time. We receive the doctrines of the successors of the Apostles, with the same credit as if we received them from the Apostles themselves. "The difference lies in this only;-that the interval between us and Jesus Christ, the fountain of every Christian truth, is measured by eighteen centuries; whereas, the communication between that fountain and the Apostles, and between these Apostles and the next to them in succession, was immediate. But truth is not lost, nor altered, nor weakened, by descent, when an unbroken chain cessors, that the Catholic is guided; still as secure in his faith, as those who heard the apostles. For the past, he is secure, since the words 'all days' leave not a moment's interval, during which Christ could be supposed to have deserted his Church; and, for the future, she feels no anxiety, since he is assured of the same divine aid 'until the consummation of the world."—(Dr. Machale's Evidences and Doctrines of the Catholic Church. Vol. i. pp. 350-356. of living witnesses, provided with all necessary documents, proclaims its identity; and the promised assistance of the Holy Spirit gives security to their words: I am with you all days, even tò the consummation of the world." I have preferred beginning with this point, rather than with the more systematical line of argument which follows, because it afforded me an opportunity of stating the rule of faith amongst Catholics, a rule which ought always to be borne in mind in every discussion, and to which every article of our belief is deducible. In the Second place, I cannot conform to Protestantism, because no Protestant Church possesses any of those characteristic marks of the true Church, so clearly and incontrovertibly pointed out in the sacred writings, and attested as such by the universal consent of Christendom-Protestantism is neither ONE," HOLY,(*) CATHOLIC, APOSTOLICAL.) (a) nor First, No Protestant Church is one, because none of them have ever succeeded in preserving, even for a single moment, any unity of faith.") They began with variations, and have continued in a constant succession of variations ever since. (y) St. John, x. 16, and Ephes. iv. 3, 4, 5. (*) Ephes. v. 26, 27. (a) Acts, i. 8. Romans, x. 17, 18. All the Apostles of the Reformation differed in their creed and doctrines: the Church of England differs from them; the divines of the Church of England differ among themselves, and hardly any two members of any Protestant Church agree in their belief; they have not even, like the Greeks, the limited uniformity of a separate Church. If Protestantism were true, Protestantism would be one, because truth is essentially one. The common rules by which the reasoning faculty of man is usually regulated, appear to be strangers to Protestantism. It would appear to be forgotten, that opposite conclusions, drawn from the same authority, cannot both be true-that there cannot be many truths, all in contradiction to each other. Truth disdains to be made subservient to circumstances, and to the necessities of the times; she scorns to be the sport of the passions, and of the pride of man; she is always uniform and consistent-always open and undisguised-always sublime and unchangeable, like the Deity, from which she emanates. No Protestant church can be one, because, though Protestants acknowledge an authority to decide upon matters of faith, yet they lay no pretensions (d) See Bossuet's Histoire des Variations des Eglises Protestantes. (e) See the thirty-fifth of the Articles of Religion. to infallibility; they have no infallible tribunal to appeal to, for the interpretation of those parts (f) Our definition of the Church is the same as yours (See the 20th of the Thirty-nine Articles), but with this difference between us, that you will not acknowledge it as a guide, whereas we do. You claim for your church the same powers that we do for ours, namely, authority in controversies of faith; but then you will not submit to that authority. "For what cause, or by what authority, do you condemn the Arian, the Socinian, or the Unitarian, because he understands those texts, and such others as prove the eternity and divinity of the Son of God, in a sense different from what you assign to them? Are the Socinians not men of sound judgment? Have they not, according to your rule, a right; nay, are they not obliged to follow, the dictate of that judgment, in preference to all authority on earth? and yet you exclude them from the kingdom of God, because, in the exercise of their judgment, or in what you consider the discharge of their duty, they differ in opinion from yourself. Your opinion of them, if judged of by your own principles, is unjust, uncharitable, unreasonable; you have divested yourself of all right to repute any man a heretic, to censure any man for being a schismatic; you have erased heresy and schism from the catalogue of vices, and said with the false prophet, Peace, peace, when there was no peace." You have established a system" which sanctions heresy and condemns it; which invites to schism and punishes it; which tells the believer to hear the church, and teaches him to prefer his own opinion, however monstrous |