such, or who gives God's honor to them, or to any creature whatsoever."

Cursed is he who worships any bread as God, or believes that the substance of bread and wine may be changed into the soul or divinity of Jesus Christ.

"Cursed is he who believes that priests can forgive sins, whether the sinner repent or not, or that there is any power on earth or in heaven that can forgive sins, without a hearty repentance and serious purpose of amendment.

"Cursed is he who believes that, independent of the merits and passion of Christ, he can obtain salvation by his own good works, or make condign satisfaction for the guilt of his sins, or the eternal pains due to them.

"Cursed is he who contemns the word of God, or who hides it from the people in order to keep them from the knowledge of their duty, and to preserve them in ignorance and error.

"Cursed is he who leaves the commandments of God to observe the constitutions of men.

"Cursed is he who omits any of the ten commandments, or keeps the people from the knowledge of any one of them, to the end that they may not discover the truth.

"Cursed is he who preaches to the people in an unknown tongue, such as they understand not, or uses any other means to keep them in ignorance.

"Cursed is he who believes that the Pope can give to any one, upon any occasion whatever, dispensations to lie or swear falsely, or that it is lawful for any one at the last hour to protest himself innocent if he be guilty.

"Cursed is he who encourages sin, or teaches men to defer the amendment of their lives, on presumption of a death-bed repentance.

"Cursed is he who places religion in nothing

but pompous shows and ceremonies, and who teaches not the people to serve God in spirit and in truth.

"Cursed is he who loves or promotes cruelty, who teaches people to be bloody-minded and to lay aside the meekness of Jesus Christ.

"Cursed is he who teaches it to be lawful to do any wicked thing, though it be for the interest and good of Mother Church, or that any evil action may be done that good may ensue.

Do you wonder that Catholics can seriously, and without any qualms of conscience utter all these curses? "Yes, they can, and are ready to do so whenever, and as often as it may be required of them. When Protestants, therefore, find that Catholics utterly reject the doctrines imputed to them, and this too in the most solemn manner, ought they not to bring forward some documents equally solemn against them? And can they do so? No, they cannot." (Geraldine, vol. ii. chap. 6.)

Before we finally conclude this subject, respecting the charge which Protestants bring against the Catholic Church of following impious doctrines, it may not be amiss to observe, that this charge is unquestionably applicable to the Protestant religion, because the principle of private judgment, adopted by the leaders of the reformation, opens an extensive field for novelties and absurdities of every kind, which must infallibly prove injurious to God, and destructive to all true genuine christian piety.

PROTESTANT.-Protestants receive all that is contained in the holy scripture; therefore, it is impossible that they broach any doctrine injurious to God, and detrimental to piety.

CATHOLIC.-If Protestants receive whatever is

contained in the holy scripture, whence comes it that they observe many points as necessary which are not warranted by any text of scripture, and neglect others which are clearly supported by it? Protestants are to keep as holy the Sunday, or the first day of the week, and this duty is universally regarded as a matter of conscientious obligation; yet this practice, so far from being warranted by scripture, is expressely repugnant to the letter of divine law, which directs the Jewish sabbath, or the Saturday, to be sanctified. Protestants generally believe the validity of baptism administered to children before they reach the age of reason; yet this belief, far from being supported by scripture, is apparently opposed to it, since those words. of our Lord, in St. Mark: "He that believeth and is baptized, shall be saved; but he that believeth not, shall be condemned" (xvi. 16), seem to require faith from all those who are to be baptized, as an absolute and indispensable condition for receiving that sacrament. By a decree dictated by the Holy Ghost, it is enjoined to all christians to abstain from blood; and still Protestants make no difficulty of violating, in their ordinary repasts, a law thus solemnly published.

If Protestants receive whatever is contained in holy scripture, why do they not agree among themselves respecting the number of the sacred books? Luther, the great patriarch of the reformation, exploded the epistle of St. James, in terms of indignant contempt. (Præf. in Epist.) The manner in which he spoke of the book of Ecclesiastes was so extremely childish, and so marked with ribaldry, that even his intimate friends were disgusted. Still both these books are held as sacred and canonical by other Protestants. How then is it possible that they receive all that is contained in scripture, since they differ amongst themselves

concerning the number of the sacred writings? If Protestants receive whatever is contained in the holy scripture, what reasons can be alleged for the great discrepancy existing in their belief, since what is rejected by some as error is believed by others as truth? How can they assert that they receive all that is contained in the scriptures, since upon the most substantial points of christian doctrine they contradict each other? How can the Socinians, for instance, and the Methodists, the Quakers and the Calvinists, receive all that is contained in the scripture, since they contradict each other in the momentous points of doctrine concerning the trinity and baptism? Does the holy scripture contradict itself? Can the God of truth teach contradictory doctrines?

Protestants, therefore, far from receiving all that is really contained in the holy scripture, receive the words of that venerable document, but overlook, however, their meaning. In a similar manner, the English Protestant calendar exhibits a long catalogue of vigils, fasts and days of abstinence, with as much rigour as is observed in the Catholic Church but all this totally disappears in their practice. Even their writers frequently ridicule these ancient observances as idle and superstitious. With equal consistency, the Jews carefully preserve the letter of the prophecies, and leave to the christians the task of making the application. Certainly, to admit the words of an instrument, and to deny or overlook the natural and obvious meaning, is to build with one hand and to destroy with another.

PROTESTANT.-Whatever be the case concerning the doctrines of the dissenting sects, certain it is, that the tenets of the Church of England are those of the holy scripture and of the ancient Church; and that they were approved in the four

first councils, which are the only general councils that were ever assembled in the Church of Christ.

CATHOLIC.-As you speak in particular of the doctrines of the English Church, stating that they are conformable to those of holy writ and of the ancient Church, I most willingly turn my attention to this interesting point. Previously, however, to entering on this subject, there are some questions I would ask.

1. Why do Protestants recur to the particular testimony of the ancient Church, and not to the general testimony of the Church of Christ, for supporting the doctrines of their religion? Has not Jesus Christ built his Church upon a rock, and promised that the gates of hell should never prevail against her? Why, then, do Protestants recur only to the testimony of the ancient Church? Would not their acting in this manner lead one to suppose that their object is the better to conceal their errors? This is a strange mode of proceeding, indeed!

"If stubborn Greek refuse to be his friend,
Hebrew or Syriac shall be forced to bend :
If languages, and copies, all cry: No!
Somebody proved it centuries ago."-Cowper.

2. I would know, in the second place, whether Protestants look on the ancient Church as fallible or infallible. What is your opinion on this subjeet? Was the ancient Church infallible in framing those venerable documents, to which, in support of their doctrines, Protestants apply?

If you answer that she was fallible, then all authority of the ancient Church vanishes, and, consequently, all appeal to the same is of little or no avail.