of God; because the formal motive by which we are moved to give assent to what is contained in the revelation of God, is the infinite veracity of him from whom revelation proceeds.

3. What is contained in the revelation of God, and to be believed on divine authority, is proposed to us by the ministry of the Church of Christ, which is "the pillar and foundation of truth," namely, by the body of her pastors; for to them Christ committed the deposit of his sacred doctrines, to be proposed to the people, and preserved in its purity, through his assistance and the light of his Holy Spirit, even to the end of the world. Hence, what constitutes any point of doctrine an article of faith, is the fact of the same being revealed by God; and we know what is revealed by God through the ministry of his Church.

4. The Church of Christ proposes to us the holy scripture and divine tradition as the revelation of God, which has been partly written by some of her children, directed by supernatural light, and partly transmitted down, by oral tradition, from age to age. Hence, whatever is contained in the holy scripture, and divine tradition, is to be regarded as matter of faith, and to be believed on the authority of God, who was pleased to reveal it to man.

5. It sometimes happens that the faithful, through their own fault, and not that of the Church (which cannot deviate from truth), misunderstand what she proposes to them. The Church, then, conformably to the injunction received from Christ of teaching, explains to the faithful that very doctrine which she had previously proposed to them.

6. If the explanations of the Church, touching sacred scripture and divine tradition, become themselves a subject of controversy, and of conflicting opinions amongst the faithful, she then explains her own explanations, because she is, and will be until the end of the world, a living and speaking authority.

7. Should there be amongst the faithful some who' wilfully refuse to hear the Church, and to follow her direction, either when she proposes what is contained in the revelation of God, or when she explains it, or expounds such explanations, they cease from that moment being members of her body, and, according to the injunction of Christ, are to be regarded by her children as heathens and publicans.

From these points, which you will find held invariably by Catholics as so many principles of their Church, the following assertions, uttered and believed by many Protestants, will most manifestly appear gross, palpable, flagrant calumny.

1. "Catholics attribute to their Church an authority injurious to God." How can that be injurious to God, which he himself has appointed to be the means adopted for announcing his doctrine to the people, and preserving it uncontaminated, spotless, and holy until the end of the world? The source more calculated to prove injurious to the Lord, would be, I presume, the principle of private interpretation held by Protestants; which, delivering the word of God to individuals of every class, for the purpose of allowing them to draw thence a regular system of faith and morality, generates endless controversies, which must necessarily extinguish the light of truth, spread darkness around, and substitute in lieu of pure unchange

eyes.

able truth, the devices of human ingenuity, or the absurdity of caprice. For a satisfactory proof of this assertion, I refer you to the events which have marked the progress of Protestantism in every country where it has prevailed, and to the transactions which have been daily passing before our To what cause are we to ascribe the marked diversity of thinking on every point, which distinguished the first reformers? How are we to account for the consequent extravagance of religious sentiments, and the general corruption of morals, which excited horror even in the breast of Luther? To what source are we to trace the unparalleled excesses of the Anabaptists of Germany-the violence of the Calvanists of Francethe phrenzy of the Presbyterians of Scotland-the fury of the Puritans of England, but to the unlimited licence of rejecting all religious subordination, and of sanctioning their excesses by their own interpretation of the written word? The countless variety of sects, exhibiting a dark catalogue of the most extravagant opinions, from the era termed the Reformation to the present period, can be traced, in the estimation of thinking men, only to this fatal

cause.

When questions arise amongst Catholics concerning points of faith, the pastors of the Church fail not to examine them by the received rule of faith, and to pronounce, if expedient, an authoritative decision upon them. The dispute is thus terminated; for if any one refuse to hear the Church, he is of course considered " as a heathen and a publican." But dissentions amongst Protestants must be irremediable and perpetual, from the fundamental law of private judgment. Hence, while Catholics have no apprehensions on their faith, which is clear to them, other christians, who follow their own fluctuating opinions, are carried away by every wind

of doctrine, and not unfrequently disturbed by dreadful misgivings concerning the safety of the path they tread.

Tell me not that every Bible-reader knows the truth, provided he read it in a proper manner; because it is groundless, and contrary to what experience continually teaches us, in the case of so many Protestants, who all desire to know the truth; all read incessantly the sacred records, all pray for the teaching of the spirit, and still they do not agree in the most essential points of faith. Thus, after a long perusal of the holy scripture, the doctrine of the Holy Trinity is an error according to the conscientious Socinian; so is Baptism and the Lord's Supper to the scrupulous mind of the Quaker.

2. "Catholics entertain higher veneration for the doctrine of their Church than for the holy scripture." How can this be reconciled; scripture itself being, according to Catholics, the doctrine of their Church, which she proposes to them as containing the divine word?

3. "The Catholic Church, in her councils, forms new articles of faith." The Catholic Church makes no innovation in matters of faith, but only explains to the faithful what she has already proposed to them as doctrine of faith, and which they misunderstand, owing to their fallibility. Those points of faith, which have been declared in several general councils, are as ancient as the Church of Christ, who delivered them to the apostles, and through them to their successors; and which successors will continue so to do until the end of the world. Merely a declaration of them was repeated by the Church, which, assisted by the Holy Ghost, agreeably to the

of God; because the formal motive by which we are moved to give assent to what is contained in the revelation of God, is the infinite veracity of him from whom revelation proceeds.

3. What is contained in the revelation of God, and to be believed on divine authority, is proposed to us by the ministry of the Church of Christ, which is "the pillar and foundation of truth," namely, by the body of her pastors; for to them Christ committed the deposit of his sacred doctrines, to be proposed to the people, and preserved in its purity, through his assistance and the light of his Holy Spirit, even to the end of the world. Hence, what constitutes any point of doctrine an article of faith, is the fact of the same being revealed by God; and we know what is revealed by God through the ministry of his Church.

4. The Church of Christ proposes to us the holy scripture and divine tradition as the revelation of God, which has been partly written by some of her children, directed by supernatural light, and partly transmitted down, by oral tradition, from age to age. Hence, whatever is contained in the holy scripture, and divine tradition, is to be regarded as matter of faith, and to be believed on the authority of God, who was pleased to reveal it to man.

5. It sometimes happens that the faithful, through their own fault, and not that of the Church (which cannot deviate from truth), misunderstand what she proposes to them. The Church, then, conformably to the injunction received from Christ of teaching, explains to the faithful that very doctrine which she had previously proposed to them.