several centuries, owing to the errors of the Roman Church.

CATHOLIC.-You cannot surely be serious in venturing this most unaccountable assertion, which is directly at variance with holy writ! Has not Christ clearly declared in scripture, the existence, the visibility, the extent, the dignity, the indefectibility, and the unerring authority of his spiritual kingdom, his Church? Has he not pronounced that she should stand unshaken on a rock, in defiance of the gates of hell; that he would protect her even to the consummation of the world; that she is the pillar and foundation of truth; that we are bound to obey her under pain of being considered as heathens and publicans? What, I ask, became of these promises of Christ, if his Church had lost her primitive form prior to the days of the reformers? Can the true Church of God, which must be essentially holy and pure, exist without her real form, or be infected with various corruptions? These interrogatories are unanswerable. The real difference in fact between the Catholic and the Protestant is, that the former places an unlimited reliance on the words and promises of our Redeemer; whereas the latter depends on the supposed failure of these promises. The Catholic believes that the gates of hell will never prevail against the Church, because Jesus Christ has given a solemn assurance to this effect: the Protestant, notwithstanding this assurance, unhesitatingly declares that the gates of hell have actually prevailed against the Church, which is fallen into every species of error and corruption. Hence, it is apparent that the Catholic honors Christ by admitting the truth of his assurance, while the Protestant refuses him that homage which is due to his infinite power and veracity.

But let us examine somewhat more distinctly this subject regarding the greatly celebrated reformers.

You are fully aware, I presume, that it is incontestably clear, both from scripture and reason, that a true and authorized mission is essential to all who undertake the great charge of preaching, and teaching others the doctrine of Christ. Christ being the Lord of his vineyard, it belongs to him to send labourers to cultivate it. Whoever presumptuously assumes this charge of himself, without being chosen by our Lord, is to be regarded as a robber and a thief (John x. 1), and nothing can ensue from such intrusion but mischief and ruin. Hence we read, that the apostles never ventured to preach until they had received an ample commission to perform that sacred office: "As the Father," says Jesus Christ to them, "hath sent me, even so I send you" (John xx. 21); and again: "All power is given unto me in heaven and on earth. Going therefore, teach ye all nations." (Matth. xxviii. 18-19.) Hence St. Paul, who assuredly understood the intention of Christ, mentioning the preachers of the word, asks-"Now, how shall they preach except they be sent." (Rom. x. 15.) Hence we are advised by Christ to ask of him to send labourers into his Church, by those words: "The harvest indeed is great, but the labourers are few. Pray ye, therefore, the Lord of the harvest, that he send labourers into his harvest." (Luke x. 2.)

This mission, requisite for undertaking in the Church of Christ the sacred office of preaching his divine word, consists in a special commission given by the legitimate pastors of the Church, or immediately by God himself, to preach his gospel and feed his sheep. If it be derived from the regular pastors of his Church, it is called ordinary

mission; but if it be immediately received from God, it is called extraordinary mission. On this ground, Tertullian asks the heretics of his age"Who are you? When and whence did you come?" (De Præscr. c. 37.) And St. Cyprian, speaking of Novatian, says" He is not in the Church, nor can he be accounted a bishop; because, despising apostolical tradition, he came of himself." (Epist. 76.)

What mission, of any description whatever, I would triumphantly ask, could the reformers ever produce, to justify their extraordinary proceedings? If Jesus Christ himself did not come without being sent; if the apostles did not plant the gospel without a peculiar commission to engage in that holy enterprise; what could justify those personages, not only in preaching without authority, but in changing, innovating and destroying, under the specious pretext of reformation? St. Paul assures the Galatians, that if an angel from heaven should preach a doctrine different from what he had delivered to them, he was to be considered as accursed. (Gal. i. 8.) But these self-commissioned reformation-men did not justify themselves, it appears, on such high authority. If we are to believe the admission of Luther and Zuinglius, a prompter from the infernal abyss had a great share in their proceedings. (Luth. epist. ad Elect. Sax.)

PROTESTANT.-The reformers required no mission whatever, because every man is entitled to protest against error. Seeing the Roman Catholic Church contaminated with error, they separated from her, and prevailed on others to follow their example. Is there anything culpable in this proceeding? Is not every man strictly bound to secure himself against evil?

CATHOLIC.-That every man is entitled to protest against error is true. But how are we to discover whether any doctrine in matters of faith be erroneous? Are we to follow our private opinion? Decidedly not; otherwise, by mistaking truth for error, we should involve christian doctrine in confusion and darkness. On this subject, we must depend on those whom Christ has appointed to be the teachers of truth, and to whom he has promised the assistance of the Holy Spirit until the end of the world. Why did our Redeemer command the Church to be heard, under the severest penalties? What was Christ's object in the appointment of apostles, prophets, teachers, pastors, but that we might not be carried away with every wind of doctrine, and follow our own judgment and caprice, instead of adhering to the faith of Christ? Why are we told that no prophecy of scripture is of private interpretation, and that the unlearned and unstable wrest the scripture to their own perdition, but that we may not adopt the dangerous expedient of private judgment in determining the doctrine of Christ?

We must never forget that Christ entrusted the sacred deposit of his doctrine to the pastors of his Church, that he charged them to teach it to all nations, that he promised them his assistance and the light of the Holy Spirit until the end of the world: consequently it belongs to them to judge and decide in matters of faith. Hence, whoever raises his head, presuming to denounce them as holding erroneous doctrines and corrupting the purity of faith, is to be looked upon as an accursed, were he even an angel from heaven. (Gal. i. 8.)

PROTESTANT.The reformers had most probab

ly their mission from the Church of Rome, in whose communion they passed their early years.

CATHOLIC.-If the reformers received their mission from the Catholic Church, as you suppose, then the Catholic Church possessed, until the period of the Reformation, a legitimate authority for preaching the word of God; and consequently, down to that time she was assisted by the Holy Ghost, and the faithful were obliged to obey her, under pain of being considered as heathens and publicans. Why, then, did the reformers disobey her? Is there any point clearer in scripture, than the obligation, under which all the faithful are bound, of obeying the pastors of the Church invested with legitimate authority? Why, then, did the reformers disobey them? Did they receive from Christ a counter-commission? If they received such commission, let them prove it; but if they cannot prove it, the original commission stands in its full-unqualified force against them, and they are absolutely to be regarded as heathens and publicans.

Moreover, how can it be proved that the Catholic Church ever delivered to the reformers such mission? No; she never authorized them to alter the faith and discipline, and to dissolve the whole frame of ecclesiastical government. The Catholic Church never allowed her own children to stigmatize the religion of the whole Catholic world as superstitious, idolatrous, damnable, bloody, traitorous, blind, blasphemous, and thus to load her with the severest terms of reproach which language can supply.

PROTESTANT.-It may be that the reformers received their mission immediately from God himself.