Fol. 60.-" These be the fifteen O's* which the holy Virgin Saint Brigett was wont to say daily before the holy rod in St. Paul's church at Rome: whoso says this a whole year, he shall deliver fifteen souls out of purgatory of his next kindred, and convert other fifteen sinners to good life, and other fifteen righteous men of his kind shall persevere in good life. And what ye desire of God ye shall have it, if it be the salvation of your soul."

Fol. 62.-"To all them that before this imaget of pity devoutly say five Pater Nosters, and five Aves and a Credo, piteously beholding these arms of Christ's passion, are granted thirty-two thousand seven hundred and fifty-five years of pardon, and Sixtus IV., Pope of Rome, hath made the fourth and fifth prayers, and hath doubled his foresaid pardon."

THE RULE OF FAITH.

The Romish rule of Faith is, "the whole word of God, both written and unwritten;" in other words, "Scripture and tradition, and these propounded and expounded by the Catholic Church." (End of Religious Controversy, by Milner, 1827.)

Roman Catholics begin by giving a wrong definition of the Church. The Church is not confined to the clergy, and much less is it confined to the Pope, or to a General Council of bishops, or to a Pope and a General Council combined. If the infallible guidance of the Spirit is promised to the Church, this promise includes the laity as well as the clergy. The Church is EKKλnoia, or the assembly; the visible Church is the assembly of professing Christians; the Church of Christ is the assembly of true believers, who are the body of Christ. It is true that both the perpetual presence of Christ and the perpetual teaching of the Holy Spirit are promised to the Church of Christ, for they are promised to true believers, and these constitute Christ's Church. "Wherever two or three are gathered together in my name," &c. And, again, "No man can say that Jesus is the Christ but by the Holy

* Each of the fifteen prayers begins with the letter 0, as O Lord, or O Jesus. These prayers are unexceptionable. All the prayers are in Latin. The indulgences are given in English, and are printed in red ink. Bishop Stillingfleet has made honourable mention of this book in his controversial works, from which Protestants may derive much profit.

An image of Christ.

Ghost;" and, "If any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of his."

Hence, we do not deny, but, on the contrary, we maintain, that the Church of Christ, that is to say, true believers, are entitled to, and must obtain, if they are to be saved, the teaching and guidance of the infallible Spirit of God, who will savingly instruct them in the Gospel, which is the power of God unto salvation to all them that believe; who will remove the veil from their hearts; who will teach them that they are sinners: who will take of the things of Christ and shew them unto them; who will enlighten their eyes, and prepare their hearts for the reception of the truth: and who will give them a saving knowledge of the truth. The guilt of the Romish hierarchy consists in this, that as they have placed the Pope as a visible head and centre of union between the laity and Christ; and as they have thrust the Virgin Mary as a mediatrix between professing believers and Christ, so they have also set up the Pope and his Councils as infallible guides to the great body of professing believers in the place of that Holy Spirit, whose teaching every member of the Church, and thus the whole Church, is not only entitled to, but so much needs, that without it he cannot make a true and spiritual confession of Christ. Under the pretence that the Church (i. e. the Pope and General Councils, or the Pope speaking ex cathedra, when his doctrinal decrees have been ratified by the assent of the Universal Church,) is infallible; the Popes and Romish bishops have either deprived the laity of the Bible, or when they permit them to read it, they compel them to pledge themselves to interpret it only in that sense which the Church holds, and according to the unanimous opinion of the Fathers: the Church not having given her interpretation of a single chapter of the Bible, and the Fathers not being unanimous in their interpretation of it. Hence the Romish laity, if they read the Bible, cannot, consistently with their Creed, venture to interpret a single chapter of it.

Roman Catholic divines say that the infallible guidance of the Holy Spirit was promised to the Apostles, and through them to the Church of Christ to the end of time. They next affirm that the Church of Rome is the Church of Christ; and, lastly, they infer from these premises that

The difficulty of savingly believing consists not in the obscurity of God's word, for the things which are essential to salvation are clear and intelligible to the unlearned as well as to the learned, but in the depravity of the human heart.

the promised infallible guidance of the Holy Spirit belongs to the Church of Rome. Dr. Milner, however, who was one of the Roman Catholic Vicars Apostolic for England, admits, that it is necessary to prove that the Church of Rome is the Church of Christ; and as the proof of this involves the whole controversy, and calls for an unlimited exercise of the private judgment of every Roman Catholic layman upon every article of his Creed, the Romish rule of faith is no practical rule of faith at all. Dr. Milner, in his "End of Controversy," informs us, that the chief marks of the Church of Christ are four, viz. 1. Unity; 2. Sanctity; 3. Catholicity; 4. Apostolicity. "All that we have to shew, therefore," he says, "is, that the Church of Rome possesses these marks, and then her claim to the promised infallible guidance of the Holy Spirit will be incontrovertibly established." But the proof of the first mark, Unity, requires every Roman Catholic, by the exercise of his private judgment, to arrive at an infallible certainty that all the articles of his Creed, and all the doctrines of his Church, are one and the same with those of the Apostles; and the proof of the second mark, Sanctity, requires him, by the exercise of his private judgment, to prove by the Apostolic standard the sanctity of the doctrines, precepts, sacraments, ceremonies, and conduct of his Church; and the fourth mark, Apostolicity, requires him, by the exercise of his private judgment, to prove the Apostolicity of his Church in her Creed, doctrines, sacraments, rites, and constitution; so that, even upon the supposition that by the exercise of his private judgment he can indisputably prove that his Church is the Church of Christ, and is thus entitled to the infallible guidance of the Holy Spirit, he cannot attain his rule of faith till it is utterly useless. For what is the use of a rule which can only be used to prove that which has already been indubitably proved by a previous process of proof and reasoning. We say indubitably proved; for if a Roman Catholic entertains any doubt respecting the Apostolicity of any article of his Creed, he must entertain the same doubt respecting the identity of the Church of Rome with the Church of Christ. Dr. Milner seemed to be aware of the inconclusiveness of his reasoning; for instead of at once proceeding to prove that his Church possessed the mark of Unity, he diverted the attention of the inquiring Roman Catholic by a description of a great many Protestant fanatics and extravagances. Having thus perplexed the question with irrelevant matter, he contented himself with appealing

to the present unity of the Church of Rome. But a present unity proves nothing to the purpose. It may be a unity of life or a unity of death. Before the flood, when all but one family had apostatized from God, the unity of apostasy provoked the wrath of heaven. There was an apparent unity of idolatry in Israel, when to God only were known the seven thousand who had not bowed the knee to Baal. When our blessed Saviour's disciples fled and were silenced, there was an apparent unity among the Jews, when the priests and people cried out, "Crucify him, crucify him." 120,000,000 of Mohammedans believe in Mahomet. Of what value is such an unity? If the whole of mankind were to unite in the worship of Satan, such an unity would only render the situation of mankind more desperate; and if the invocation of the Virgin Mary as the Queen of heaven be anti-apostolic and anti-Christian; and if it can be shewn, that of 160,000,000 of Roman Catholics, every, man, woman, and child invoke the Virgin Mary as the Queen of heaven, and the great Mediatrix between Christ and sinners; so much the worse. Such an unity must be an unity of idolatry, apostasy, and spiritual death. It has been already shewn that if a Roman advocate does not prove that the creeds, doctrines, sacraments and precepts of his Church are one and the same as those taught by the Apostles, he cannot pretend to have a rule of faith; and that if he can do this, he only finds his rule of faith when he does not want it. Here, then, as far as the Roman Catholic rule of faith is in question, we might let the matter rest. But as Roman Catholics will proceed to the examination of the marks of the Church of Christ: it may be well to consider what marks the true Church of Christ does possess; and also, briefly to shew that the Church of Rome does not possess those marks.

The Church of Christ, at the present day, and from the days of the Apostles, possesses and has possessed three out of the four* above enumerated marks; and the fourth of them she will possess at some future time known only to God. The Church of Christ possesses the marks of unity, sanctity, and apostolicity. She has in fact the sevenfold+ unity which is set forth by the Apostle Paul in his Epistle to the Ephesians.

* Unity, sanctity, catholicity, apostolicity.

+ One body, one Spirit, one faith, one baptism, one Lord, one hope, one God and Father. (Eph. iv. 4.)

The Church of Christ, which is the body of true believers, receives the doctrines and precepts which the Apostles taught, and which are recorded in the Scriptures. Every member of the body of Christ, and thus the whole Church of Christ, is taught by the Holy Spirit savingly to believe all truths needful for salvation; and thus the Church of Christ has in her faith and sacraments unity and apostolicity. Again, every true believer is born from above, is a temple of the Holy Ghost, has the Spirit of Christ, and is a new creature in Christ; and thus, as the whole is made up of its parts, the Church of Christ, which is the body of true believers, has the mark of sanctity. With respect to catholicity, no Church can pretend to this at the present day, when 700,000,000 of human beings are Mahommedans, and infidels, and idolaters; whilst there are barely 300,000,000 of professing Christians of all denominations upon the face of the earth Catholicity is a future sign of the Church of Christ, and will be exhibited when "the knowledge of the Lord shall cover the earth, as the waters cover the sea." The word of prophecy seems to indicate that as the Apostolic preaching which was designed savingly to convert a remnant only of the Jews and Gentiles, commenced from Jerusalem; so, also, that that preaching, which at the appointed time shall universally convert the world, shall issue forth from Jerusalem, (see Isaiah ii.) the Jews having been previously converted and restored to their native land. It is evident that though the preaching of the Apostles was ordered to be universal, the conversions were not expected to be universal. The Gospel was to be the savour of life unto some, and the savour of death unto others; some cities, it was foretold, would receive them, and some would reject them; some of the Churches which the Apostles established would stand, but of others the candlesticks would be removed; it was predicted that few only, comparatively speaking, would be saved; and that when Christ came upon the earth he would hardly find faith, &c. It is equally evident that no visible Church, in its corporate capacity, can boast of the unity of Christ's Church. Visible Churches may have holy creeds and doctrines, and many holy ministers, and many true believers but under the present dispensation Scripture leads us to believe that the false professors will, almost invariably, greatly outnumber the true professors. By her creeds, articles, and discipline a visible Church may maintain uniformity of faith and worship; and it is most right and