wards the completion of which the Christian churches, on earth, are only made to contribute as different quarries do towards the raising of some glorious building. The churches on earth partake, in various proportions, of the attributes of the great Church of Christ, 'which is his body, the fulness of him that filleth all in all.' But the Church to which the great privileges and graces belong, has characteristic marks which cannot be claimed by any one of the churches on earth: for it is that church 'which Christ loved, and gave himself for it; that he might sanctify and cleanse it with the washing of water by the word, that he might present it to himself a glorious church, not having spot or wrinkle, or any such thing; but that it should be holy and without blemish.' To become members of that church we should, indeed, 'endeavor to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace; but such unity is proposed as the effect of endeavor, and consequently of choice and judgment, not of blind submission to a silencing authority, which is the Roman bond of union. The true unity of Christians must arise from the 'one hope of our calling.' There is indeed for us, 'one Lord, one faith, one baptism;' but that faith is faith of trust, a 'confidence, which hath great recompense of reward,' 61 not an implicit belief in the assumed infallibility of men who make a monoply of the written word of God, prescribe the sense in which it must be understood, and with a refined tyranny, which tramples equally upon Christian liberty, and the natural rights of the human mind; insult even silent dissent, and threaten bodily punishment to such as, in silence and privacy, may have indulged the freedom of their minds.'

I had better give a translation of this note which so exceedingly terrifies him: yet it is very simple; it only says that the Scripture has only one true meaning, and is not a parcel of contradictions; and that the Church, a great assembly of Christians, has from the beginning testified this meaning, as well as the book itself; and therefore that it is ir religious to put arbitrary meanings upon the sacred volume.

Moreover, in order to restrain petulant minds, the same holy synod decrees, that no person relying upon his own prudence, torturing to his own notions the sacred Scriptures, in those things which concern faith and morals, relating to the edification of Christian doctrine, in contradiction to that sense which our holy mother the Church has held and does hold, to whom it belongs to judge of the true sense and interpretation of the Scriptures, shall dare to interpret these sacred writings, or otherwise than according to the tenacious consent of the Fathers;

“ Heb. x, 35.

although such interpretation should not be at any time published. Let whosoever shall contravene be denounced by the ordinaries, and undergo the penalties legally enacted.

I know not by what ingenuity White converted the spiritual censures legally enacted by the Church into bodily punishment. The council had not, neither did it assume, or pretend to have power to inflict bodily punishment.

"Such is the saving faith of the Council of Trent! How different from that proposed by St. Paul, when he says, 'If thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved.' 'That is the word of faith which we preach,' says St. Paul; and well might that faith be made the bond of union between all the churches which the Apostles saluted, without requiring a previous proof of their implicit submission. 'Grace be with them that love our Lord Jesus Christ in sincerity,' is St. Paul's language. Cursed be they who, whatever be their love of Christ and veneration for the Scriptures, yield not obedience to the Church of Rome, is the spirit of every page which has been published by Popes or Councils.

"Whatever might be the effect of the prejudices which the first reformers brought away from their Roman captivity; whatever the necessity which Protestant churches still acknowledge of preventing internal feuds, by proposing formularies of faith to their members, they have never so misunderstood 'what spirit they are of,' as to deny salvation to those who love their common Lord and Redeemer. Their churches, indeed, may differ on points which the subtilty of metaphysics had unfortunately started long before the Reformation, and even before the publication of Christianity; they may observe different ceremonies, and adopt different views of church hierarchy and discipline; but their spirit is the only one which deserves the name of Catholic, in the genuine sense of that word; the only spirit indeed which can produce, even on earth, an image of the glorious Church which will exist for ever in one fold and under one shepherd."

I shall now proceed to make a few observations on this extraordinary piece of theology, which seems to say what is religious, but really speaks contradiction.

First. In reading the New Testament without or with the impressions of school divinity, we must perceive what common sense teaches, that Christ did not state that contradiction to his doctrine was equally acceptable to him, and useful to man, as a belief and adherence to what he taught: and that the assemblies of men, who are called to obtain sal

vation, were to believe his doctrine, and thus to constitute his Church. The Church, in union with the Roman See, will be easily perceived to have the mark of this unity of faith, to attain which others have long since despaired; and thereupon declared it to be unnecessary.

Secondly. The Saviour did and does manifest his presence in that Church, by the miracles which in every age, even in this our own, and in this our own country, have been wrought therein; as also by the sanctity of the doctrine which she teaches, and by the millions of saints which she has and does produce.

Thirdly. The pretty figure of a quarry might be poetical, but is not applicable; for Christ's Church is not composed of error and contradiction. Its members should endeavor to have not only that unity of faith which they do possess, but the unity of spiritual charity which they do not always preserve, but which the Apostle exhorts them not to lose. White is disingenuous, when he confounds things which are distinct, that he might bewilder by the similiarity of names, and the misapplication of the text.

Fourthly. His assumption of unity consisting in "one hope of calling" is gratuitous, and contradicts not only the testimony of all nations and ages of the Church, but several passages of the sacred vol

and amongst others, that very text which he quotes and misinterprets, by making faith mean trust or hope. This is, indeed, a miserable mode of denying the necessity of faith, without which it is impossible to please God.

Fifthly. It is untrue that the saving faith of the Council of Trent is an implicit belief in the assumed infallibility of men who make a monopoly of the written word of God. As well might he charge courts. of justice with a monopoly of the statute law, because they prescribe the sense in which it must be understood, and declare that it must always have the same meaning, and not be tortured and made ridiculous by the contradictory ravings of partial litigants. Neither is this infallibility assumed: for it has been established by Christ, and was demanded by reason, by religion, and by the exigencies of society. It is required for the perfection of faith, that we believe all those things. which God has revealed; and amongst the facts of revelation, he taught us that he insured to his Church infallible correctness in judging and testifying what he taught. But yet the Council of Trent does not call this faith "saving" unless it be accompanied by hope and charity: it declares faith to be necessary, but not sufficient for salvation. In the sixth session, chap. viii, it declares:

"When the Apostle saith that a man is justified by faith and gratis,

those words are to be understood in that sense which the perpetual consent if the Catholic Church hath held and expressed: to wit, we are thus said to be justified by faith, because faith is the origin of human salvation, the foundation and root of all justification, without which it is impossible to please God, and to come to the fellowship of his children," and so forth.

And in the preceding chapter of the same session, we read:

"No person can be just, except he to whom the merits of our Lord Jesus Christ are communicated; but this takes place in the justification of the sinner, whilst by the merit of the same most holy passion, the charity of God is poured out into the hearts of those who are justified by the Holy Ghost, and it dwelleth in them; whence, in the very justification itself, the man receives through Jesus Christ into whom he is engrafted, together with the remission of sins, all those infused with graces, faith, hope, and charity; because, unless hope and charity were added thereto, faith doth neither perfectly unite him in Christ, nor make him a living member of his body. For which reason it is most truly said, that faith without works is dead; and, in Christ Jesus, neither doth circumcision avail aught nor the foreskin, but faith which worketh by charity."

Thus White and his abettors have grossly misrepresented the Council of Trent.

Seventhly. Surely if White and the junta require no farther faith or belief than what he here lays down, they cannot accuse the Unitarians of destroying faith, and yet they do, upon their own principles, treat this division of Christians most unceremoniously, for no other cause than that they use the good Protestant prerogative of interpreting the Scriptures, not according to that sense which our holy mother the Church hath held and does hold, nor according to the unanimous consent of the Fathers, but against their consent and judgment. Unitarians do believe in their hearts that God raised the Lord Jesus from the dead, and with their mouths they confess the Lord Jesus. Why, then, do other Protestants dare to say they will not be saved? Why exclude them from "the bond of union?" They say that they love the Lord Jesus in sincerity; why will other Protestants assume and assert what they do not?

Eighthly. The Church makes no such curse; but she says, that no person who wilfully rejects the truth and testimony of God can love Christ; that no person can venerate the Scriptures, and despise the tribunal from which the Scriptures have been received; and, therefore,

the Church in communion with the See of Rome denies that she condemns those who love the Saviour.

Ninthly. If Catholic faith means the approval of every error, nothing can be more degrading to man, or more offensive to truth than Catholic faith. God forbid that I should say that Catholic faith is the collection of all folly, fanaticism, and contradiction which the world has witnessed and religion has wept over, from the days of Simon Magus to those of Johanna Southcote or General Smyth: for, indeed, such would not be one fold, and we would be at a loss to know who was their shepherd! I have done with White's doctrinal misrepresentations, calumnies, and ignorance, in his first four letters. I have not yet determined as to whether I ought to take up the abomination and blasphemy of his other two. I shall take a few days to reflect.

Yours, and so forth,

B. C.

[The series of letters here terminates; the Bishop having been determined by his reflections, or by the pressure of some other engagements, to let White's two remaining letters be answered by silence, and pass into that oblivion which would soon cover up the memory of all his crimes, blasphemies, and signal misfortunes, were it not for their accidental connection with the spotless name and reputation of the one who has here chastised him, and with those of others like him remarkable for their fidelity to the holy faith which this wretched man betrayed.]