"Let them (the Protestants) I say, looke with the eye of "charity upon them (the Catholics) as well as severity, and they "shall finde some excellent orders of government, some singular "helpes for increase of godlinesse and devotion, for the conquering "of sinne, for the profiting of virtue; and contrariwise, in them"selues, looking with a lesse indulgent eye than they doe, they “shall finde, there is no such absolute perfection in their doctrine "and reformation." (a)

This is enough, without adding to these testimonies, those of Capito, Bucer, and Melanchton, who may find place in the following letter, and without transcribing here upon England what is told us by Strype, Camden, Dugdale and even by Henry VIII in a deelaration to his parliament. (b)

Such then were the first fruits of the reformation! and such we learn them to have been from its authors themselves, from its promoters and its first witnesses. (c) Their confessions, their lamentations, wrung from them by the extent and notoriety of the scandal, will eternally proclaim to the world, that with the reform were propagated vices and disorders: that in the countries where it was adopted, and in proportion as it gained ground, devotion was

(a) A Relation of the state of Religion and with what Hopes and Pollicies it hath beene framed and is maintained in the severall states of the Westerne parts of the world. Sec. 48. By Sir Edwin Sandes, Printed London, 1605.—(b)See Letters of Atticus, p. 64, 65, 3rd edition, London, 1811.-(c)I beg the reader to make also the following remarks: It is a fact that, before the reformation, infidels were scarcely known in the world: it is a fact that they are come forth in swarms from its bosom. It was from the writings of Herbert, Hobbes, Bloum, Shaftesbury, Bolingbroke and Boyle, that Voltaire and his party drew the objections and errors, which they have brought so generally into fashion in the world. According to Diderot and d'Alembert, the first step that the untractable Catholic takes is to adopt the protestant principle of private judgment. He establishes himself judge of his religion, leaves it and joins the reform. Dissatisfied with the incoherent doctrines he then discovers, he passes on to the Socinians, whose inconsequences soon drive him into Deism; still pursued by unexpected difficulties, he throws himself into universal doubt, where still experiencing uneasiness, he at last resolves to take the last step and proceeds to terminate the long chain of his errors in Atheism. Let us not forget that the first link of his fatal chain is attached to the fundamental maxim of private judgment. It is therefore historically correct, that the same principle that created protestantism three centuries ago, has never ceased since that time to spin it out into a thousand different sects, and has concluded by covering Europe with that multitude of free thinkers, who place it now on the verge of ruin.

When sects beget infidelity and by infidelity revolutions, it is plain that the political safety of the states will only be secured by a return to religious unity.

seen to be weakened, piety extinguished, morals deteriorated, faith gradually lost in the multitude, and even among the ministers themselves; so much so that to this day, in the cradle and centre of Calvinism, at Geneva, where they abound, you will scarcely find four or five (I know it for certain) who will consent to preach the divinity of our Saviour and teach it in their catechetical instructions. And yet there have been persons bold enough to hold out the progress of such a reform as a proof of the divine protection: as if we could acknowledge as its apostles such men as they have reciprocally described themselves to be; as if it could take part in disorders, smile upon the propagation of vice and favour the decaying of faith and christianity!

LETTER III.

On the Infallibility of the Church.

We have just seen that unity in faith and government is an absolutely essential dogma, taught by Jesus Christ, by the apostles and their successors from age to age, recognized and set forth in all the Churches and in all the communions of the Christian world. When we are all of us, without exception, once agreed upon admitting the principle, we must of necessity be agreed upon admitting its immediate and necessary consequence, which is, that Jesus Christ has supplied us with some means of preserving and maintaining this unity. For, to oblige us all, under pain of damnation, to have but one baptism and one faith, to form of ourselves but one only body, one only Church, and to leave us without the means or the possibility of arriving at this, would be inconsistent with his providence and justice. Now we all know and we loudly profess that his providence and justice have never been wanting and never will be wanting to man. We are therefore all convinced that Jesus Christ has not left us without the means of being able to fulfil his great commandment. We have only therefore to examine what are the means appointed by him, in order that, following his direction and his wish, we may all with one consent have recourse to them, that we may adopt them with sincerity and attach ourselves exclusively to them.

If each one of us were directed by an immediate revelation, a particular inspiration, there is no doubt that we never should depart from unity. But that this is not the means that providence grants us, no person, how enthusiastic or fanatic soever, can reasonably doubt. Every one sufficiently feels within himself that he is not supplied with this miraculous assistance.

But perhaps Jesus Christ may have left his doctrine to our private interpretation; perhaps it was his wish, that for the explanation of his dogmas and the understanding of his law we should have no other guide but ourselves, no other judge to attend to but our private opinion. If he had come to establish upon earth a variation in the belief and a plurality in the government of his Church, well and good: for we have already seen and soon shall still more plainly see, that the liberty of interpreting just according to our fancy and of prefering and following our own conceits, is the infallible means of introducing disputes, quarrels, and discords, and of multiplying sects ad infinitum: it is diametrically opposed to unity, and is therefore proscribed. We are under the necessity of looking out for another mean, and we shall never find it except in a supreme authority, that speaks with a tone of authority, which presses equally upon all, which has the right to declare what is revealed and what is not, what we must believe, what we must reject; and which consequently, itself being secured from error, shall protect us from it, by subjecting us to her decisions. This is the powerful, the efficacious, the only means we can conceive capable of holding us together, circumstanced as we are. Without it, it is impossible we should ever be united;

with it, impossible we should not always be so: it has therefore been established; we cannot doubt of it. It necessarily follows from the principle of unity as an effect belongs to its cause, and a consequence flows, from its principles. Were there no scripture in the world, were there no monument of primitive tradition, we should not on that account be less certain of the institution of this eminent and infallible authority, when once the necessity of being but one in belief and in communion is demonstrated to us.

But, thank God, we have the holy Scripture, we have the unbroken tradition of all centuries, since the preaching of the gospel, from age to age, down to our days; both attesting in the most authentic manner the positive institution of this authority.

1° 'Jesus Christ, after his resurrection, appeared again at different times during forty days in the midst of his apostles and disciples to console them and give them his last instructions, speaking to them of the kingdom of God, which without doubt means his Church, and of its progress and its obstacles, of its combats and its triumphs, of the forms essentially necessary in its hierarchy and government, and of its unavoidable connection with the powers of the world. It was in his last appearances to them, that he announced to his apostles the termination of his mission and the commencement of theirs, when he solemnly addressed them in these important words: "All

power is given me in heaven and in earth. Going "therefore teach ye all nations .... teaching "them to observe all things whatsoever I have "commanded you: and behold I am with you all "days, even to the consummation of the world."

The Holy Scripture.-St. Matth. XXVIII. v. 18.