heretics. by rebelling against it. In short, no other church bu the Catholic can claim to be a religious guide, because evidently she alone is the true church of Christ. This assertion leads me to the proof of what I asserted above, respecting the facility and certainty with which persons of good will may solve that most important question: Which is the true church? * Luther, Calvin,f the church of England, assign as the characteristics, or marks of the true church of Christ, Truth of doctrine, and the right administration of the sacraments. But to follow this method of finding out the true church, would be to throw ourselves back into those endless controversies concerning the true doctrine, and the right discipline, which it is my present object to put an end to, by demonstrating, at once, which is the true church. To show the inconsistency of the Protestant method, let us suppose that some stranger were to inquire, at the levee of his neighbour, which of the personages present is the Prince Regent? and that he was to receive for answer, it is the king's eldest son: would this answer, however true, be of any use to the inquirer? Evidently not. Whereas, if he were told that the prince wore such and such clothes and ornaments, and was seated in such and such a place, these exterior marks would, at once, put him in possession of the information he was in search f. Thus we Catholics, when we are asked, which are the marks of the true church? point out certain exterior, visible marks, such as plain, unlearned persons can discover, if they will take ordinary pains for this purpose, no less than persons of the greatest abilities and literature, at the same time that they are the very marks of this church, which, as I said above, natural reason, the Scriptures, the creeds, and the fathers, assign and demonstrate to be the true marks of it. Yes, my dear sir, these marks of the true church are so plain in themselves, and so evidently point it out, that fools cannot err, as the prophet foretold, Isai. xxxv. 8, in their road to it. They are the flaming beacons, which for ever shine on the mountain at the top of the mountains of the Lord's house, Isai. ii. 2. In short, the particular motives for credibility, which point out the true church of Christ, demonstrate this with no less certitude and evidence, than the general motives of credibility demonstrate the truth of the Chris tian religion. The chief marks of the true church, which I shall here assign, are not only conformable to reason, Scripture, and tradition, but, which is a most fortunate circumstance, they are such as the church of England, and most other respectable denominations of De Concil. Eccles. + Instit. 1. 41. + Art 19 Protestants, acknowledge and profess to believe in, no less than Catholics. Yes, dear sir, they are contained in those Creeds which you recite in your daily prayers, and proclaim in your solemn worship. In fact, what do you say of the church you believe in, when you repeat the Apostles' Creed? You say, 1 BELIEVE IN THE HOLY CATHOLIC CHURCH. Again how is this church more particularly described in the Nicene Creed, which makes part of your public liturgy? In this you. say, I BELIEVE IN ONE CATHOLIC AND APOSTOLIC CHURCH.* Hence it evidently follows that the church which you, no less than we, profess to believe in, is possessed of these four marks: UNITY, SANCTITY, CATHOLICITY, and APOSTOLICITY. It is agreed upon, then, that all we have to do, by way of discovering the true church, is to find out which of the rival churchs, or communions, is peculiarly ONE, HOLY -CATHOLIC—and APOSTOLIC. Thrice happy, dear sir, I deem it, that we agree together, by the terms of our common creeds, in a matter of such infinite importance for the happy termination of all our controversies, as are these qualities, or characters of the true church, which ever that may be found to be! Still, notwithstanding this agreement in our creeds, I shall not omit to illustrate these characters, or marks, as I treat of them, by arguments from reason, Scripture, and the ancient fathers. I am, dear sir, &c. J. M. DEAR SIR, LETTER XIV. To JAMES BROWN, Esq. &c. UNITY OF THE CHURCH. NOTHING is more clear to natural reason, than that God cannot be the author of different religions; for being the Eternal Truth, he cannot reveal contradictory doctrines, and, being at the same time, the Eternal Wisdom, and the God of Peace, he cannot establish a kingdom divided against itself. Hence it follows, that the church of Christ must be strictly ONE; one in doctrine, one in worship, and one in government. This mark of unity in the true church, which is so clear from reason, is still more clear from the following passages of Holy Writ. Our Saviour, then, speaking of himself, in the character of the good shepherd, says, I have other sheep (the Gentiles) which are not of this fold; them also I must bring, and they shall hear my v nice, Order of Administration of the Lord's Supper. and there shall be ONE FOLD, and one shepherd, John 1. 16. To the same effect addressing his heavenly Father, previously to his passion, he says. I pray for all that shall believe in me, that THEY MAY BE ONE, as thou Father, art in me and I in thee, John xvii. 20, 21. In like manner St. Paul emphatically inculcates the unity of the church, where he writes, We, being many, are ONE BODY in Christ, and every one memhers one of another, Rom. xii. 5. Again he writes, There is ONE BODY and one spirit, as you are called in one hope of your calling; one Lord, ONE FAITH, and one baptism. Ephes. iv. 4, 5. Conformably to this doctrine, respecting the necessary unity of the church, this apostle reckons HERESIES among the sins which exclude from the kingdom of God, Gal. v. 20. and he requires that a man who is a heretic, after the first and second admonition, be rejected, Tit. iii. 10. who The apostolical fathers, St. Polycarp and St. Ignatius, in their published Epistles, hold precisely the same language on this subject with St. Paul, as does also their disciple St. Irenæus, who writes thus, "No reformation can be so advantageous as the evil of schism is pernicious.' The great light of the third century, St. Cyprian, has left us a whole book on the unity of the church, in which, among other similar passages, he writes as follows: "There is but one God, and one Christ, and one faith, and a people joined in one solid body with the cement of concord. This unity cannot suffer a division, nor this one body bear to be disjoined.—He cannot have God for his father, has not the church for his mother. If any one could escape the deluge out of Noah's ark, he who is out of the church may also escape. To abandon the church is a crime, which blood cannot wash away. Such a one may be killed, but he cannot be crowned." In the fourth century, the illustrious St. John Chrysostom, writes thus: "We know that salvation belongs to the church alone, and that no one can partake of Christ, nor be saved out of the Catholic church and faith." The language of St. Augustin, in the fifth century, is equally strong on this subject, in numerous passages. Among others the Synodical epistle of the council of Zerta, in 412, drawn up by this saint, tells the Donatist. schismatics, "Whoever is separated from this Catholic church, however innocently he may think he lives, for this crime alone, that he is separated from the unity of Christ, will not have life, but the anger of God remains upon him."§ Not less emphatical to the same effect, is the testimony of St. Fulgentius De Hær. 1. i. c. 3 t Hom. 1. in Pasc + Cypr. ue Unit. Oxon, p. 109. and St. Gregory the Great, in the sixth century, in various pas sages of their writings; I shall content myself with citing ons of them. "Out of this church," says the former father, " neither the name of Christian avails, nor does baptism save, nor is a clean sacrifice offered, nor is there forgiveness of sins, nor is the hap piness of eternal life to be found."* In short, such has been the language of the fathers and doctors of the church in all ages, concerning her essential unity, and the indispensable obligation of being united to her. Such also have been the formal declarations of the church herself in those decrees, by which she has condemned and anathematized the several heretics and schismatics that have dogmatized in succession, whatever has been the quality of their errors, or the pretext for their disunion. DEAR SIR, I am, dear Sir, &c. J. M LETTER XV. To JAMES BROWN, Esq. &c. PROTESTANT DISUNION. In the inquiry I am about to make respecting the church or society of Christians, to which this mark of unity belongs, it will be sufficient for my purpose to consider, that of Protestants, on one hand, and that of Catholics on the other. To speak properly, however, it is an absurdity to talk of the church or society of Protestants; for the term PROTESTANT expresses nothing positive, much less any union or association among them: it barely signifies one who protests or declares against some other person or persons, thing or things; and in the present instance it signifies those who protest against the Catholic church. Hence there may be, and there are, numberless sects of Protestants, divided from each other in every thing, except in opposing their true mother, the Catholic church. St. Austin reckons up * Lib. de Remiss. Peccat. c. 23.-N. B. This doctrine concerning the unity of the church, and the necessity of adhering to it, under pain of dam. nation, which appears so rigid to modern Protestants, was almost univer eally taught by their predecessors: as, for example, by Calvin, 1. iv. Instit. 1. and Beza, Confess. Fid. c. v. ; by the Huguenots, in their Catechism; by the Scotch, in their Profession of 1558; by the church of England, Art 18; by the celebrated bishop Pearson, &c. The last named writes thus a "Christ never appointed two ways to heaven; nor did he build a church, to save some, and make another institution for other men's salvation. none were saved from the deluge but such as were within the ark of Noahso none shall ever escape the eternal wrath of God, which belo ig not to the church of God.”~Exposit of Creed, p. 249. Ая ninety heresies which had protested against the church before his time, that is, during the first four hundred years of her existence; and ecclesiastical writers have counted about the same number, who rose up since that period, down to the era of Lu ther's protestation, which took place early in the sixteenth century whereas, from the last montioned era, to the end of the same century, Staphylus and cardinal Hosius enumerated two hundred and seventy different sects of Protestants: and, alas! how have Protestant sects, beyond reckoning and description, multiplied, during the last two hundred years! Thus has the observation of the above cited holy father been verified in modern, no less than it was in former ages, where he exclaims: "Into how many morsels have those sects been broken who have divided themselves from the unity of the church !”* You are not ignorant that the illustrious Bossuet has written two considerable volumes on the Variations of the Protestants; chiefly on those of the Lutheran and the Calvinistic pedigress. Numerous other variations, dissensions, and mutual persecutions, even to the extremity of death, which have taken place among them, I have had occasion to mention in my former letters and other works. I have also quoted the lamentations of Calvin, Dudith, and other heads of the Protestants, on the subjects of these divisions. You will recollect, in particular, what the latter writes concerning those differences; "Our people are carried away by every wind of doctrine. If you know what their belief is today, you cannot tell what it will be to-morrow. Is there one article of religion, in which these churches, who are at war with St. Aug. contra Petolian. + Luther pronounced the Sacramentarians, namely, the Calvinists, Zuing lians, and those Protestants in general, who denied the real presence of Christ in the sacrament, heretics, and damned souls, for whom it is not lawful to pray. Epist. ad Arginten. Catech. Parv. Comment in Gen. His followers persecuted Bucer, Melancthon's nephew, with imprisonment, and Crellius to death, for endeavouring to soften their master's doctrine in this point. Mosheim by Maclaine, vol. iv. p. 341-353. Zuinglius, while he deified Hercules, Theseus, &c. condemned the Anabaptists to be drowned, pronouncing this sentence on Felix Mans: "Qui iterum mergunt mergantur;" which sentence was accordingly executed at Zurich. Limborch. Introd. 71. Not content with anathematizing and imprisoning those reform. ers who dissented from his system, John Calvin caused two of them, Servetus and Gruet, to be put to death. The presbyterians of Holland and New-England were equally intolerant with respect to other denominations of Protestants. The latter hanged four Quakers, one of them a woman, on account of their religion. In England itself, frequent executions of Anabaptists and other Protestants took place, from the reign of Edward VI. till that of Charles I.; and other less sanguinary persecutions till the time of James II + LETTERS TO A PREBENDARY, c. |