Q. 36. You said above that it is only of late that that loose way of thinking and speaking about the necessity of true faith, and of being in communion with the Church of Christ, which we have been examining, had appeared among the members of the Church; was not the same language held by Christians in all former ages?

A. Far from it; and this is one of the greatest grounds of its condemnation. It is a novelty, it is a new doctrine; it was unheard of from the beginning; nay, it is directly opposite to the uniform doctrine of all the great lights of the Church in all former ages. These great and holy men, the most unexceptionable witnesses of the Christian Faith in their days, knew no other language on this subject, but what they saw spoken before them by Christ and his apostles; they knew their divine Master, and declared, "He that believeth not shall be damned;" they heard his apostle thundering out a dreadful anathema on any one, though an angel from heaven, who should dare to alter the gospel he had preached, Gal. i. 8.; they heard him affirming, in express terms, that " without faith it is impossible to please God;" and they constantly held the same language. And, as they saw not the smallest surmise in Scripture to make them think those who were out of the Church could be saved by invincible ignorance, that deceptious evasion is not so much as once to be met with in all their writings.

Q. 37. In what manner then do these holy saints express themselves on this subject?

A. It would be endless to collect all their testimonies; the few that follow may suffice as a sample of the whole. St. Ignatius, bishop of Antioch, and disciple of the apostles, in his epistles to the Philadelpians, says, "Those who make a separation, shall not inherit the kingdom of God.' St. Irenæus,

bishop of Lyons, and martyr in the second age, says, "The Church is the gate of life, but all the rest are thieves and robbers, and therefore to be avoided," Lib. i. de Hær. c. 3. St. Cyprian, bishop of Carthage, and martyr, about the middle of the third age, says, "The house of God is but one, and no one can have salvation but in the Church," Epist. 62, alias 4. And in his book on the unity of the Church, he says, "He cannot have God for his Father, who has not the Church for his mother. If any one could escape who was out of the ark of Noah, then he who is out of the Church may also escape." ." So much for these most primitive Fathers.

In the fourth century, St. Chrysostom speaks 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 the Catholic Faith." Hom. i. in Pasch.

St. Augustine, in the same age: "The Catholic Church alone," says he," is the body of Christ; the Holy Ghost gives life to no one who is out of this body," Epist. 185. § 50. Edit. Bened. And, in another place, he says, "Salvation no one can

have but in the Catholic Church. Out of the Catholic Church he may have any thing but salvation. He may have honour, he may have baptism, he may have the gospel, he may both believe and preach in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost; but he can find salvation no where but in the Catholic Church," Serm. ad Cæsariens. de Emerit. Again, "In the Catholic Church," says he, " there are both good and bad. But those that are separated from her, as long as their opinions are opposite to hers, cannot be good. For though the conversation of some of them appears commendable, yet their very

separation from the Church makes them bad, according to that of our Saviour, Luke, xi. 23. "He that is not with me is against me; and he that gathers not with me scattereth," Epist. 209, ad Feliciam.

Lactantius, another great light of the fourth age, says, "It is the Catholic Church only which retains the true worship. This Church is the fountain of truth, it is the house of faith, it is the temple of God. If any one either comes not into this Church, or departs from it, his eternal salvation is desperate. No one must flatter himself obstinately, for his soul and salvation is at stake,” Lib. iv. Divin. Instit. c. 30.

St. Fulgentius, in the sixth century, speaks thus; "Hold most firmly, and without any doubt, that no one who is baptized out of the Catholic Church can partake of eternal life, if, before the end of this life, he be not restored to the Catholic Church and incorporated therein," Lib.de Fid. c. 37. These are sufficient to shew the faith of the Christian world in all preceding ages; for all the holy writers of Christianity, in every age, speak on this subject in the same strain.

Q. 38. These testimonies are strong, and speak plain to the purpose; but, after such proofs, is it not a matter of surprise that any body should call this point in question?

A. Indeed this can only be accounted for from the general spirit of dissipation and disregard for all religion, which so universally prevails now-a-days; for the first Fathers and Apostles of the reformation, and some of their most candid followers, seeing the strong proofs from Scripture for this point, and not finding the smallest foundation in these sacred writings to support the contrary, have fairly acknowledged it, however much it made against

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themselves. We have seen how the divines at Westminster speak on this matter, in the confession of faith, used to this day by the Church of Scotland, and which was ratified and adopted by the General Assembly in the year 1647, as the standard of their religion. But their predecessors, in the preceding century, when the Presbyterian religion first began in Scotland, speak no less clearly on the same subject; for, in their confession of faith, authorized by parliament in the year 1560, "as a doctrine grounded upon the infallible word of God," they speak thus, Article xvi.: "As we believe in one God, Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, so we do most constantly believe, that, from the beginning, there hath been, and now is, and to the end of the world shall be, one Kirk; that is to say, one company and multitude of men, chosen by God, who rightly worship and embrace him by true faith in Jesus Christ;....which Kirk is Catholic, that is, universal, because it containeth the elect of all ages, &c. Out of which Kirk there is neither life nor eternal felicity; and, therefore, we utterly abhor the blasphemy of them that affirm, that men, which live according to equity and justice, shall be saved, what religion soever they have professed." This confession of the original Kirk of Scotland, was reprinted, and published at Glasgow, in the year 1771, from which this passage is taken. Calvin himself confesses the same truth, in these words, speaking of the visible Church, "Out of its bosom," says he, 66 no remission of sins, no salvation is to be hoped for, according to Isaiah, Joel, and Ezekiel......So that it is always highly pernicious to depart from the Church;" and this he affirms in his institutions themselves, B. iv. c. 1. § 4.

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We shall add one testimony more, which is particularly strong; it is of Dr. Pearson, a bishop of the Church of England, in his exposition of the Creed, Edit. 1669, where he says, "The necessity of believing the Catholic Church appeared, first, in this, that Christ hath appointed it as the only way to eternal life. We read at the first, Acts ii. 47., That the Lord added to the Church daily such as should be saved;' and what was then daily done, hath been done since continually. 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, Acts iv. 12. "There is no other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved, but the name of Jesus; and that name is no otherwise given under heaven than in the Church. As none were saved from the deluge but such as were within the Ark of Noah, framed for their reception by the command of God; as none of the first-born of Egypt lived but such as were within those habitations whose doorposts were sprinkled with blood, by the appointment of God, for their preservation; as none of the inhabitants of Jerico could escape the fire or sword, but such as were within the house of Rahab, for whose protection a covenant was made; so NONE shall ever escape the eternal wrath of God, which belong not to the Church of God." Behold how far the force of truth prevailed, among the most eminent members of the reformation, before latitudinarian principles crept in among them. What a reproach must this be before the judgmentseat of God to those members of the Church of Christ, who call in question, or seek to invalidate this great and fundamental truth, the very fence and barrier of the true religion; which is so repeatedly revealed by God in his holy Scriptures,