previously per

Wherein then do we differ? They pretend to be determined by their own sense of Scripture: but you and we by that sense, which THE CHURCH gives it." Next he proceeds to quote the form of those letters missive, which the synod held at Vitre in 1617, had ordered to be sent by the provincial synods, by the hands of their deputies, to the national synod, conceived in these terms, “We promise before God to submit to WHATEVER SHALL BE CONCLUDED and resolved on in your holy assembly (a tout ce qui sera conclu.) to obey and execute it to the utmost of our power, being persuaded that God will preside among you, and will guide you by his Holy Spirit into all truth and eqity, according to his word." Exactly our state, exclaims the prelate. This is an engagement to admit what the next synod should appoint, not if it should appear to YOU agreeable to the word of God: but if it should appear so to the SYNOD. For your parts, you reserve no right of examination. You are suaded the Holy Spirit will preside in the assembly. The doughty champion has not yet done, he gives one push more, a home thrust it is. "The national synod of St. Foi, held in 1578, made an attempt to unite Calvinists and Lutherans in one general confession of faith. The provincial synods were required to authorise deputies to treat of, agree, and decide all points of doctrine, and other articles concerning any union. The national synod empowered four experienced ministers to conduct this business. If it were practicable, the formulary was to be sent to each synod for examination; but if the said confession of faith could not be conveniently sent to be examined by all, then, confiding in the wisdom and prudence of their deputies, they empowered them to agree and conclude all matters under deliberation, both articles of doctrine, and all other things tending to the union of the two Churches. Here now, says the prelate, here are four men furnished with full power to alter a confession of faith, which you offer to the world as a confession perfectly agreeable to the word of God, and for the maintenance of which you tell our kings, when you present it to them, an infinite multitude of you are willing to shed your blood. Pray, what does the Catholic Church

require of her members more than the pretended reformed require of theirs?"—Robinson's" Life of Claude." p. 30-33.

In reference to this argument of Bossuet, which Robinson represents as unanswered on Presbyterian principles, I would remark, that though the principles of the Congregational or Independent system furnish a more direct reply to it, than those of any other modification of Protestantism, it is by no means accurate to represent it as unanswerable by the advocates of other systems. The synods of the Reformed Churches never pretended to claim infallibility. They enacted certain laws and enjoined the adoption of certain principles; and this concurrence in their sentiments and views was formally embodied in resolutions, that were considered binding for the sake of order and unity. But they did not proceed to condemn all who would not subscribe to their decisions. They referred to Scripture as the ultimate principle of appeal. The authority was not considered as originating in their acts and determinations. The business was that of a voluntary compact-a mutual engagement for the great objects of agreement and co-operation among themselves, and was totally unlike the authoritative, dictatorial, and anathematising councils of the Church of Rome.

The pamphlet recommended and prefaced by the Rev. John Lingard, is a compilation very much in the style of the abridged exposition of Bossuet. On the various points of the controversy it takes that graduation of Protestantism that is nearest the Roman Catholic faith, and that modified representation of the Roman Catholic faith which is nearest a certain scheme of Protestant notions, and thus it supports the Roman Church by the "testimonies of Protestants." In one word, it is a support of Popery by means of High-Church Protestantism: and it must be confessed that the lowest degree of one scale and the highest degree of the other, are much about the same point. But the principle of such reasoning is amazingly disingenuous. It does not meet the principal arguments; it is full of equivocation; it is marked by duplicity and deceit; and an unnatural interpretation is often affixed to insulated passages which their

connection would by no means warrant. Thus for instance, the anonymous author of the tract indorsed by Mr. Lingard, entitles his second chapter "on Salvation out of the Church;" and he . quotes the language of the Scotch Confession-of the Belgic Confession, and of several Protestant authors in which they assert that there is no salvation out of the Church. But an examination of the scope of their reasonings leads us to a very different conclusion from that for which they are so forcibly and violently extorted. They mean by the Church, not even their own communion exclusively, much less the Church of Rome; but the whole collective body of the faithful, which according to previous definitions of the term, constitutes the true Catholic or Universal Church. It is therefore the height of sophistry and disingenuousness to wrest these passages from Protestant authors, and call them "testimouies" in support of the Roman Catholic Church. The whole tract is in the same style. Ex uno disce omnes, &c.

NOTE G. (Page 34.)

THE miracles wrought by Jesus Christ and his disciples are strikingly different in their circumstances, and in all the proofs of their genuineness, from the wonders related in the legendary tales of the Roman Church. They were performed before enemies as well as friends; and by enemies whose inclination and interest would naturally lead them to the strictest investigation of every alleged and reported miracle. They were performed, not by a dominant party, possessing all the means and resources which a scheme of imposture might demand: but by persons in the most abject and dependent circumstances. They were not insulated and extraordinary_occurrences, but performed so constantly, during the lives of the Apostles, that the right exercise and regulation of miraculous powers formed the frequent subject of admonition and exhortation. The fact of their reality

was never questioned by their enemies; but on the contrary, they attempted to account for them on the principle of magical influence. And it is still further worthy of notice, that no personal interests, and no ecclesiastical confederacies were promoted by these miracles. The agents gained nothing by their achievements. The only and the avowed object of their performance, was the confirmation of the claims of truth-the establishment on the ground of well-attested facts, of the divine authority of the Christian religion.

How directly contrasted with this statement, are all the accounts of Romish miracles! As proofs of the divinity of the gospel, they were unnecessary, if they were genuine; and if they were necessary, they are altogether insufficient. "It will

66

be impossible," says the learned author of The Criterion, "to assign any particular instance of a Popish miracle, the accounts "of which do not labour under one or other of the following "defects, which we think warrant our disbelieving them.

"First, we suspect miracles to be false when the accounts of them are not published to the world till long after the time when they are said to have been performed.

Secondly, we suspect them to be false, when the accounts are not published in the place where it is pretended they were performed, but are propagated only at a great distance from the supposed scene of action.

"Thirdly, supposing the accounts to have the two foregoing qualifications, we still may suspect them to be false, if in the time when, and at the place where they took their rise, they might be suffered to pass without examination."

By these criteria or tests, the learned prelate proceeds to examine the accounts of Pagan and Popish miracles; and with complete success employs them for the purpose of exposing the artifices of imposture and enthusiasm. The work abounds in curious and interesting information, blended with most convincing arguments in defence of Christian miracles, and in confutation of the pretended miracles of the Church of Rome. As the miracles of Ignatius Loyola, and Francis Xavier, are pre

eminent, and in the estimation of the Roman Catholics, most decisive in the vindication of their exclusive claims to be considered the Church of Christ, I shall introduce Bishop Douglas' admirable disclosure of the inadequate evidence by which they are supported.

"Ignatius, according to Bouhours, Maffei, and several other writers of the order of Jesus, (for above twenty of them have been his biographers,) was not inferior to any of the saints, either for the number or the strangeness of his miracles. But that these miracles were impudently forged, long after he was dead, by an order of men remarkable for their forgeries, and with the obvious intention of extending their own power, by exalting the reputation of their founder, will, I think, be pretty evident from the following particulars :

"Ribadeneira, a Spanish jesuit, was the first who undertook to give the world a life of this saint; and that he undertook it with a view to exalt the character of the head of his order, we might have supposed, even although he had not told us so himself, when he says that he was well qualified to write the history of Ignatius, having, from his youth, been an eye witness and admirer of his most holy life. As, therefore, we cannot but suppose that Ribadeneira, a cotemporary, must have heard of Ignatius's miracles, if any had been pretended to, so it cannot be doubted, that such a biographer would have gladly laid hold of an opportunity of relating them; as the ascribing of miracles to his hero, would have advanced his reputation more than any thing else that could be related of him.

"Does then Ribadeneira ascribe any miracles to Ignatius? So far is he from doing this, that we are certain, from his own declaration, not only that he himself did not believe his saint had ever performed miracles, but, farther, that this was a point universally known and agreed upon. For he enters upon an inquiry,* in his book, whence it could happen, that so holy a

* L. 5. C. xiii. p. 539. Sed dicat aliquis. si vera hæc sunt, ut profecto sunt, quid causæ est quamobrem illius sanctitas minus est testata miraculis? & ut multorum sanctorum vita, signis declarata, virtutumque operationibus insignita?