/? -/ ALUMNI LIBRARY, I THEOLOGICAL SEMINARY, | * . * * PRINCETON, N. J. [ Case, ' A-- Shelf. -_.. - .....|... scB nosx TRAVELS OF AN IRISH GEJTTLEMAX IN SEARCH OF A RELIGION. -£©Q- WITH $,otes mrtf Xllustvatfous, BY THE EDITOR OF " CAPTAIN ROCK'S MEMOIRS.' 5 t^Itflatolplifa: CAREY, L.EA & BLANCHARD. 1833. CONTENTS. CHAPTER I. Soliloquy up two pair of stairs.— Motives forembracing Protestantism. — Providential accident. — Anti-popery Catechism, — Broadside of Epithets.— Final resolution Page 13 CHAPTER II. Sir Godfrey Kneller and St. Peter.— Varieties of Protestantism.— Re- solved to choose the best.— Adieu to Popish abominations - 16 CHAPTER III. Begin with the First Century— Pope St. Clement.— St. Ignatius.— Real Presence.— Heresy of the Docetae. — Tradition.— Relics of Saints 13 CHAPTER IV. Visions of Hermas.— Weekly Fasting.— Good Works.— Rector of Bal- lymudragget.— Rector no Faster.— Comparison between the Rector and Hermas 22 CHAPTER V. Second Century.— St. Justin the Martyr. — Transubstantiation.— St. Irenaeus.— Papal Supremacy.— Sacrifice of the Mass. — Unwritten Tradition.— Old Man of the Sea • -25 CHAPTER VI. Making the sign of the Cross.— Tertullian. — Veneration of Images. — Prayers for the Dead. — Determination to find Protestantism some- where - 30 CHAPTER VII. fireat dearth of Protestantism— Try Third and Fourth Centuries.— St. Cyprian.— Origen.— Primacy of St. Peter and the Pope.— St. Jerome. — List of Popish abominations 33 CHAPTER VIII. Invocation of the Virgin.— Gospel of the Infancy, &c— Louis XL— Bonaventura.— St. Ambrose, St. Basil, and Doctor Doyle - - 41 CHAPTER IX. Prayers for the Dead.— Purgatory.— Penitential Discipline— Confes- sion.— Origen.— St. Ambrose.— Apostrophe to the Shade of Father OH * * 44 CONTENTS. CHAPTER X. The Fucharist.— A glimpse of Protestantism.— Type, Figure, Sign, &c. — (Jlimpse lost again.— St. Cyril of Jerusalem. — St. Cyprian— St. Je- rom.— St. Chrysostom.— Tertullian .... - 48 CHAPTER XI. Discipline of the Secret.— Concealment of the doctrine of the Real Presence.— St. Paul. — St. Clement of Alexandria. — Apostolical Con- stitutions. — System of secrecy, when most observed - • 53 CHAPTER XII. Doctrine of the Trinity. — St. Justin. — Irenseus. — Apparent heterodoxy of the Fathers of the Thirl Century. — Accounted for by the Disci- pline of the Secret.— Tertullian, Origen, Lactantius, &c. ♦ - 56 CHAPTER XIII. Doctrine of the Incarnation.— Importance attached to it by Christ himself.— John vi.— Ignatius.— Connexion between the Incarnation and the Real Presence. — Concealment of the latter doctrine by the Fathers.— Proofs of this concealment 63 CHAPTER XIV. Concealment of the Doctrine of the Eucharist.— Proofs.— Calumnies on the Christians. — Protestant view of this Sacrament — not that taken by the early Christians 68 CHAPTER XV. Concealment of the Eucharist— most strict in Third Century.— St. Cy- prian — his timidity — favourite Saint of the Protestants. — Alleged proofs against Transubstantiation. — Theodoret. — Gelasius. — Belie- vers in the Catholic Doctrine of the Eucharist, Erasmus, Pascal, Sir Thomas More, Fenelon, Leibnitz, &c. 72 CHAPTER XVI. Relaxation of the Discipline of the Secret, on the subject of the Trinity. — Doctrine of the Real Presence still concealed. — The Eucharists of the Heretics.— The Artoturites, Hydroparastalos, &c— St. Au- gustin a strict observer of the Secret. —Similar fate of Transubstan- tiation and the Trinity 78 CHAPTER XVII. Fathers of the Fourth Century.— Proofs of their doctrine respecting the Eucharist.— Ancient Liturgies 84 CHAPTER XVIII. Visit to T d Street Chapel. — Antiquity of the observances of the Mass. — Lights, Incense, Holy Water, &c— Craw-thumpers. — St. Au- gustin a Craw-thumper. — Imitations of Paganism in the early Church . 92 CHAPTER XIX. Ruminations.— Unity of the Catholic Church.— History of St. Peter's Chair. — Means of preserving Unity, — Irenseus.— Hilary. — Indefecti- bility of the one Church , 97 CHAPTER XX. A Dream.— Scene, a Catholic Church— Time, the third Century.— An- gel of Hermas.— High Mass.— Scene shifts to Ballymudragget.— Rec- tor's Sermon.— Amen Chorus . . . . . . .101 VI CONTENTS. CHAPTER XXI. Search after Protestantism suspended. — Despair of finding it sreiong the Orthodox.— Resolve to try the Heretics.— Dead Sea of Learninir- — Balance of Agreeableness between Fathers and Heretics . 106 CHAPTER XXII. The Capharnaites the first Protestants.— Discourse of our Saviour at Capernaum— its true import.— Confirmatory of the Catholic doctrine of the Eucharist 109 CHAPTER XXIII. The Doceta\ the earliest heretics.— Denial of the Real Presence.— Si- mon Magus and his Mistress. — Simon a Protestant. — Delight at the discovery. — The Ebonites. — The Elcesaites .... 114 CHAPTER XXIV. Scriptural learning of the Gnostics— their theories.— Account of the system of the Valentinians. — Celestial Family.— Sophia— her daugh- ter.— Birth of the Demiurge. — Bardesanes 119 CHAPTER XXV. The Gnostics, believers in Two Gods.— The Creator and the Unknown Father.— Their charges against the Jehovah of the Jews.— Marcion — his Antitheses.— Apelles.— Belief in Two Saviours. — Hatred of the Jewish Code.— Ophites. — Marriage of Jesus with Sophia Acha- moth P23 CHAPTER XXVI. Catalogue of Heresies. — The Marcosians, Melchisedecians, Montanists, &c. — Why noticed. — Clemens Alexandrinus inclined to Gnosticism — Tertullian, a Montanist.— St. Augustin, a Manichaean . . 130 CHAPTER XXVII. Discovery, at last, of Protestantism among the Gnostics. — Simon Ma- gus the author of Calvinism.— Calvinistic doctrines held by the Va- lentinians, Basilidians, Manichaeans, &c 134 CHAPTER XXVIII. Another search for Protestantism among the orthodox as unsuccessful as the former.— Fathers the very reverse of Calvinists.— Proofs of St. Ignatius, St. Justin, &c. — Acknowledged by Protestants them- selves . 138 CHAPTER XXIX. Return to Heretics.— Find Protestantism in ab\ndance.— Novatians Agnoetas, Donatists, &c. — Aerius, the first Presbyterian. — Accusa- tions of Idolatry against the Catholics. — Brought forward by the Pagans, as now by the Protestants.— Conclusion of the Chapter 142 CHAPTER XXX. Brief recapitulation. — Secret out, at last.— Love affair. — Walks by the river.— 1 ' Knowing the Lord."— Cupid and Calvin . . .148 CHAPTER XXXI. Rector of Ballymudragget.— New form of shovel.— Tender scene in the shrubbery. — Moment of bewilderment. — Catholic Emancipation Bill carried.— Correspondence with Miss * * 152 CONTENTS. Vli CHAPTER XXXII. Miss * * 's knowledge of the Fathers. — Translation of her Album from St. Basil, St. Chrysostom, St. Gregory, St. Jerome.— Tender love- poem from St. Basil 155 CHAPTER XXXIII. Difficulties of my present position. — Lord Farnham's Protestants. — Ballinasloe Christians.— Pious letter from Miss * *.— Suggests that I should go to Germany.— Resolution to take her advice . . 161 CHAPTER XXXIV. The Apostolic antiquity of the Catholic doctrines allowed by Pro- testants themselves.— Proofs: — from the writings of the Reformers, Luther, Melancthon, &c— from later Protestants, Casaubon, Scaliger, &c. — from Socinus and Gibbon ....*.. J65 CHAPTER XXXV. French Calvinists.— The Fathers held in contempt by the English Oalvinists.— Policy of the Church of EnglandDi vines.— Bishop Jewel. —Dr. Waterland 171 CHAPTER XXXVI. Pretended reverence of the English divines for the Fathers unmasked. — Dr. Whitby's attack on the Fathers: followed by Middleton. — Early Christians proved by Middleton to have been Papists. — Re- flections. — Departure for Hamburgh 175 CHAPTER XXXVII. Hamburgh. — Hagedorn. — Klopstock and his wife Meta. — Miss Anna Maria a Schurman, and her lover Labadie. — Account of them for the Tract Society. — Forwarded through the hands of Miss * * 180 CHAPTER XXXVIII. Blasphemous doctrine of Labadie — held also by Luther, Beza, &c. — Reflections. — Choice of University. — Gottingen : — Introduced to Professor Scratchenbach.— Commence a course of lectures on Pro- testantism . . . . . . . .185 CHAPTER XXXIX. First Lecture of Professor Scratchenbach. — Heathen philosophers. — Rationalism among the Heretics. — Marcion, Arius, Nestorius, &c. all Rationalists.— The Dark Ages. — Revival of Learning.— Luther 191 CHAPTER XL. Reflections on the Professor's Lecture.— Commence Second Lecture. — Luther.— His qualifications for the office of Reformer . . 199 CHAPTER XLI. Lecture continued. — Doctrines of Luther. — Consubstantiation. — Jus- tification by Faith alone.— Slavery of the Will.— Ubiquity of Christ's body OQ3 CHAPTER XLII. Lecture continued.— Doctrines of Calvin and Zwingli compared with those of Luther.— Luther's intolerance— how far entitled to be called a Rationalist.— Summary of his character, as a Reformer . 210 Vlii CONTENTS. CHAPTER XLII1. Lecture continued.— the Reformer Zwingli— superior to all the othefs — his doctrine on the Lord's Supper and Baptism — original author of Rationalism — followed by Socinus — Analogy between Transubstan- tiation and the Trinity . . . . . 217 CHAPTER XLIV, Lecture continued.— Anti-Trinitarian doctrines among the Reform- ers. — Valentinus Gentilis. — Socinianism — its weak points. — Pro- gress of Anti-Trinitarianism— the Holy Spirit, not a Person, but an Attribute ........ 222 CHAPTER XLV. Lecture continued.^-Effects of the rationalizing mode of interpretation as exhibited in Germany.— Contrasts between past and present state of Protestantism. — Inspiration of the Scriptures rejected. — Authenti- city of books of the Old and New Testament questioned, &c. &c. 229 CHAPTER XLVI. Reflections.— Letter from Miss * * .—Marriages of the Reformers. — CEcolampadius. — Bucer.— Calvin and his Ideletta. — Luther and his Catherine de Bore.— Their Marriage Supper.— Hypocrisy of the Refor- mers. — Challenge at the Black Bear.— The War of the Sacrament 239 CHAPTER XLVII. blasphemies of the Rationalists. — Sources of infidelity in Germany.— Absurdity of some of the Lutheran doctrines.— Impiety of those of Calvin.— Contempt for the authority of the Fathers. — Doctor Dam- man.— Decline of Calvinism ..... 249 CHAPTER XLVIII. Rise of infidel opinions in Europe, soon after the Synod of Dort.— Lord Herbert, Hobbes, Spinoza.— Beginnings of Rationalism among Calvinists. — Bekker, Peyrere, Meyer. — Lutheran Church continued free from infidelity much longer than the Calvinist . . 258 CHAPTER XLIX. Return to England.— Inquiry into the history of English Protestant- ism. — Its close similarity to the history of German Protestantism. — Selfishness and hypocrisy of the first Reformers in both countries.— Variations of creed. — Persecutions and burnings. — Recantations of Cranmer, Latimer, &c. — Effects of the Reformation in demoralizing the people.— Proofs from German and English writers . . 203 CHAPTER L. Parallel between the Protestantism of Germany and of England con- tinued. — Infidel writers. — Sceptical English Divines — South, Sher- lock, and Burnett. — Extraordinary work of the latter. — Socinianism of Hoadly, Balguy, Hey, &c— Closing stage of the Parallel.— Tes- timonies to the increasing irreligion of England . . 278 CHAPTER LI. Return to Ireland.— Visit to Townsend Street Chapel.— Uncertainty and unsafety of the Scriptures, as a sole rule of Faith:— Proofs. — Authority of the Church.— Faith or Reason.— Catholic or Deist.— Fi- nal resolution . 289 Notes 299 TRAVELS OF AN IRISH GENTLEMAN IN SEARCH OF A RELIGION. CHAPTER I. Soliloquy up two pair of stairs.— Motives for embracing Protestantism, —Providential accident. — Anti-popery Catechism. — Broadside of Epithets. — Final resolution. It was on the evening of the 16th day of ApriI T 1829, — the very day on which the memorable news reached Dublin of the Royal Assent having been given to the Catholic Relief Bill, — that, as I was sitting alone in my chambers, up two pair of stairs, Trinity College, being myself one of the everlasting "Seven Millions" thus liberated, I started suddenly, after a few moments' reverie, from my chair, and taking a stride across the room, as if to make trial of a pair of emancipated legs, exclaimed, " Thank God ! I may now, if I like, turn Protestant." The reader will see, at once, in this short speech, the entire course of my thoughts at that moment of exulta- tion. I found myself free, not only from the penalties attached to being a Catholic, but from the point of ho- nour which had till then debarred me from being any thing else. Not that I had, indeed, ever much paused to consider in what the faith I professed differed from others. I was as yet young, — but just entered into my twenty- first year. The relations of my creed with this world had been of too stirring a nature to leave me much thought ( 14 ) to bestow on its concernments with the next ; nor was I yet so much of the degenerate Greek in my tastes as to sit discussing what was the precise colour of the light of Mount Thabor when that " light of life," liberty was it- self to be struggled for. I had, therefore, little other notion of Protestants than as a set of gentlemanlike heretics, somewhat scanty in creed, but in all things else rich and prosperous, and governing Ireland, according to their will and pleasure, by right of some certain Thirty-nine Articles, of which I had not yet clearly ascertained whether they were Ar- ticles of War or of Religion. The Roman Catholics, on the other hand, though myself one of them, I could not help regarding as a race of ob- solete and obstinate religionists, robbed of every thing but (what was, perhaps, least worth preserving) their Creed, and justifying the charge brought against them of being unfit for freedom* by having so long and so unre- sistingly submitted to be slaves. In short, I felt — as many other high-spirited young Papists must have felt before me — that I had been not only enslaved, but de- graded by belonging to such a race; and though, had ad- versity still frowned on our faith, I would have clung to it to the last, and died fighting for Transubstantiation and the Pope with the best, I was not sorry to be saved the doubtful glory of such martyrdom; and much as I re- joiced at the release of my fellow-sufferers from thraldom, rejoiced still more at the prospect of my own release from them. While such was the state of my feelings with respect to the political bearings of my creed, I saw no reason, on regarding it in a religious point of view, to feel much more satisfied with it. The dark pictures I had seen so invariably drawn, in Protestant pamphlets and sermons, of the religious tenets of Popery, had sunk mortifyingly into my mind; and when I heard eminent, learned, and, in the repute of the world, estimable men representing the faith which I had had the misfortune to inherit as a system of damnable idolatry, whose doctrines had not merely the tendency, but the prepense design, to en- courage imposture, perjury, assassination, and all other monstrous crimes, I was already prepared, by the opinions which I had myself formed of my brother Papists, to be but too willing a recipient of such accusations against ( 15 ) them from others. Though, as man and as citizen, I rose indignantly against these charges, yet as Catholic I quailed inwardly under the fear that they were but too true. In this state of mind it was that I had long looked for- ward to the great measure of Emancipation, both as the closing of that old, bitter, and hereditary contest in which the spiritual part of the question had been made subordi- nate to the temporal, and, more particularly, as a release for myself from that scrupulous point of honour which had hitherto kept me wedded, " for better, for worse/' to Popery. The reader has now been put in full*possession of the meaning of that abrupt exclamation which, as I have said, burst from me on the evening of the 16th of April, in my room up two pair of stairs, Trinity College, — " Thank God ! I may now, if I like, turn Protestant." No sooner had this pithy sentence broke from my lips, than I re- sumed my seat and plunged again into reverie. The college clock was, I recollect, striking eight, at the time this absorption of my thinking faculties commenced, and the same orthodox clock had tolled the tenth hour before the question shall I, or shall I not, turn Protestant 7" was in any fair train for decision. Even then, it was owing very much to an accident, which some good people would call providential, that Popery did not — for that evening, at least — maintain her ground. On the shelf of the book- case near me lay a few stray pamphlets, towards which, in the midst of my meditations, I, almost unconsciously, put forth my hand, and taking the first that presented it- self, found that I had got hold of a small tract, in the form of a Catechism, against Popery, published near a century ago, and called "A Protestant's Resolution, showing his Reasons why he will not be a Papist, &c. &c" On opening the leaves of this tract, the first sen- tences that met my eyes were as follow : — " Q. — What was there in the Romish Religion that occasioned Protestants to separate themselves from it] " A. — In that it was a superstitious, idolatrous, damn- able, bloody, traitorous, blind, blasphemous religion." This broadside of epithets at once settled the whole matter. What gentleman, indeed, thought I, could abide to remain longer in a faith to which, with any show of justice, such hard and indigestible terms could be applied] ( 16 ) Accordingly, up sprung I, for the second time, from my now uneasy chair, and brandishing aloft my clenched hand, as if in defiance of the Abomination of the Seven Hills, exclaimed, as I again paced about my chamber, — with something of the ascendency strut already per- ceptible, — " I will be a Protestant." *>*$©»*♦"»- CHAPTER II. Sir Godfrey Kneller and St. Peter.— Varieties of Protestantism.— Re- solved to choose the best.— Adieu to Popish abominations. I was now pretty much in the situation of Sir Godfrey Kneller, in the strange dream attributed to him, when having arrived, as he thought, at the entrance of heaven, he found St. Peter there, in his capacity of gate-keeper, inquiring the name and the religion of the different can- didates for admission that presented themselves, and, still as each gave his answer, directing them to the seats al- lotted to their respective creeds. " And pray, sir," said the Saint, addressing Sir Godfrey in his turn, "what religion may you be of!" — " Why, truly, sir," said Sir Godfrey, " I am of no religion." — " Oh, then, sir," replied St. Peter, " you will be so good as to go in and take your seat where you please." In much the same independent state of creed did I find myself at this crisis, — having before me the whole varie- gated field of Protestantism, with power to choose on what part of its wide surface I should settle. But though thus free, and with " a charter like the wind, to blow where'er I pleased," — my position on, the whole, was hardly what could be called comfortable. It was like that of a transmigrating spirit in the critical interval be- tween its leaving one body and taking possession of an- other ; or rathe/ like a certain ill-translated work, of which some wit has remarked that it had been taken out of one language without being put into any other. Though as ignorant, at that time of my life, on all matters of religion, as any young gentleman brought up ( 17 ) at a University — even when meant for holy orders — could well be, I had, by nature, very strong devotional feelings, and from childhood had knelt nightly to my prayers with a degree of trust in God's mercy and grace at which a professor of the Five Points would have been not a little scandalized. It was, therefore, with perfect conscientiousness and sincerity that I now addressed my- self to the task of choosing a new religion; and having made up my mind that Protestantism was to be the creed of my choice, resolved also that it should be Pro- testantism of the best and most approved description. But how was this to be managed 1 In a sermon which I once heard preached by a Fellow of our University, there was an observation put strongly by the preacher which I now called to mind for my guidance in the inquiry I was about to institute. k< In like manner (said the preacher) as streams are always clearest near their source, so the first ages of Christianity will be found to have been the purest." Taking this obvious position for granted, the deduction was of course evident that to the doctrines and practice of the early ages of the Church I must have re- course to find the true doctrines and practice of Protes- tantism: — the changes which afterwards took place, as well in the tenets as the observances of Christians, having been, as the preacher told us, the cause of " that corrupt system of religion which has been entailed on the world under the odious name of Popery." To ascend, therefore, at once to that Aurora of our faith, and imbue myself thoroughly with the opinions and doctrines of those upon whom its light first shone, was, I could not doubt, the sole effectual mode of attaining the great object I had in view, — that of making myself a Protestant according to the purest and most orthodox pattern. To the classical branch of the course taught in our University, I had devoted a good deal of attention. My acquaintance, therefore, with Latin and Greek, was suf- ficiently familiar to imbolden me to enter on the study of the Fathers in their own languages; while, besides the access which I was allowed, as graduate, to the library of our College, I had, also, through another channel, all the best editions of those holy writers placed at my com- mand. Of the Scriptures, my knowledge had, hitherto, been scanty ; but the plan I now adopted was, to make 2* ( 18 ) my study of the sacred volume concurrent with this in- quiry into the writings of its first expounders; so that the text and the comment might, by such juxta-position, shed light on each other. Behold me, then, with a zeal, whose sincerity, at least, deserved some success, sitting down, dictionary in hand, to my task of self conversion ; having secured one great step towards the adoption of a new creed in the feeling little short of contempt with which I looked back upon the old one. Bidding a glad, and, as I trusted, eternal adieu to the long catalogue of Popish abominations, to wit: Transubstantiation, Relics, Fasting, Purgatory, In- vocation of Saints, &c., &c, — I opened my mind, a wil- ling initiate, to those enlightening truths, which were now, from a purer quarter of the heavens, to dawn upon me. CHAPTER III. Begin with the First Century— Pope St. Clement.— St. Ignatius.— Ileal Presence.— Heresy of the Doceta?.— Tradition.— Relics of Saints. There is among those who consider the Catholic Church to have, in the course of time, fallen from its first purity, a considerable difference of opinion as to the period at which this apostacy commenced ; some writers having been disposed to extend the golden period of the Church to as late a period as the seventh or eighth cen- tury,* while, by others, her virgin era is confined within * One of those who allow the "beaux jours de l'Egliee" (as he calls them) to have extended so far, was the celebrated Huguenot mi- nister, Claude,— celebrated, among other things, for the signal defeat which he sustained from the learned authors of the Perpetuity de la Foi. Of this great champion of Protestantism, so lauded in his day, it is curious to see what was the private opinion entertained by one who lived in his society, and is known not to have been unfriendly to his sect or its cause :— M Cet homme-la (says Longuerue) etoit bon a gouverner chez Madame la Marechale de Schomberg, ou il reL'noit souverainement ; mais il n'etoit point savant. Parlez-moi, pour lo savoir, d'Aubertin, de Daille, de Blondel." According to the Book of Homilies, "the Christian Religion was, nnto thfj time of Constantine (A. D. 3524) most puie and indeed golden." ( io ) Far less liberal limits.* My great object, however, being, as much as possible, " integras accedere fontes," I saw that the higher up, near the very source, I began my re- searches, the better, and, accordingly, with the writings of those five holy men who are distinguished by the title of Apostolical Fathers, as having all of them conversed with the Apostles or their disciples, I now commenced my studies. Great, then, w r as my surprise, — not unaccompanied, I own, by a slight twinge of remorse, — when, in the per- son of one of these simple, apostolical writers, I found that I had popped upon a Pope — an actual Pope ! — being the third Bishop, after St. Peter, of that very Church of Rome which I was now about to desert for her modern rival. This primitive occupant of the See of Rome was St. Clement, one of those fellow -labourers of St. Paul, whose " names are written in the Book of Life ;" and it was by St. Peter himself, as Tertullian tells us, that he had been ordained to be his successor. This proof of the antiquity and apostolical source of the Papal authority startled me not a little. " A Pope ! and ordained by St. Peter 1" exclaimed I, as I commenced reading the vo- lume : " now, l by St. Peter's Church, and Peter too,' this much surpriseth me." There was, however, still enough of the Papist lingering in my heart to make me turn over the pages of Pope St. Clement with peculiar respect ; and I could not but see that, even in those sim- ple, unpolemic times, when the actual exercise of autho- rity could be so little called for, the jurisdiction of the See of Peter was fully acknowledged. A schism, or, as St. Clement himself describes it, " a foul and unholy sedition,"! having broken out in the Church of Corinth, an appeal was made to the Church of Rome for its interference and advice, and the Epistle which this Holy Father addressed to the Corinthians in answer, is confessedly one of the most interesting monu- ments of Ecclesiastical Literature that have descended to us. The next of these primitive followers of the Apostles * Priestley, for instance, to suit his purpose, considers the period till the death of Adrian (A. D. 138) as comprising the pure and virgin a,ge of the Church. ( 20 ) wliose writings engaged my attention, was St. Ignatius, the immediate successor of the Apostle Peter in the See of Antioch. This holy man was, by his contemporaries, called Theophorus, or the God-borne, from a general no- tion that he was the child mentioned by Matthew and Mark, as having been taken up by our Saviour in his arms, and set in the midst of his disciples. It was, therefore, with a feeling of reverent curiosity that I ap- proached his volume ; and, much as I had been, in my ignorance, astonished, to find a Pope, or Bishop of Rome, presiding,* at such a period, over the whole Christian world, I was now infinitely more astounded and puzzled by what met my eyes in the pages of Ignatius, a writer, nursed, as it were, in the very cradle of our faith, and who, as one of the first that followed in the footsteps of the Divine Guide, was among the last from whom I could have expected a doctrine so essentially Popish, — the invention, as I had always been led to suppose, of the darkest ages, and maintained in mockery, as well of rea- son, as of the senses, — the doctrine, in short, of a real, corporal Presence in the Eucharist ! In speaking of the Docetse, or Phantasticks, a sect of heretics who held that Christ was but, in appearance, Man, — a mere semblance or phantasm of humani- ty, — Ignatius says, "They stay away from the Eucha- rist and from prayer, because they will not acknow- ledge the Eucharist to be the flesh of our Saviour Jesus Christ, that flesh which suffered for our sins." Now, when it is considered that the leading doctrine of the Docetae was, that the body assumed by Christ was but apparent, there cannot be a doubt that the particular opinion of the orthodox to which they opposed them- selves, was that which held the presence of Christ's body in the Eucharist to be real. It is evident that a figurative or unsubstantial presence, such as Protestants maintain, would in no degree have offended their anti- corporeal notions ; but, on the contrary, indeed, would have fallen in with that wholly spiritual view of Christ's nature which had led these heretics to deny the possibi- lity of his incarnation. This perplexing and irresistible proof, on the very * The Epistle of St. Ignatius to the Romans, which was written in the first century, is addressed " to the Church that presides (7r£0K&$niv<7m; Trmrtv iviyju^yw. — ^P- Const. § Shakspeare's Lear. ( 25 ) ther, — as far, at least, as a world to come is concerned, — it might not be safer to fast with the friend of St, Paul, than to feast with the Rector of Ballymudragget. -~»»e i CHAPTER V. Second Century.— St. Justin the Martyr.— Transubstantiation.— St. Irenceus. — Papal Supremacy. — Sacrifice of the Mass. — Unwritten Tradition.— Old Man of the Sea. Thus far my progress in Protestantism had not been very rapid. I was determined, however, not to be lightly turned aside from my purpose; so,. taking leave of the simple writers of the apostolic age, I launched boldly into the sacred literature of the Second Century, hoping to find, on my way, somewhat more of the Thirty-nine Arti- cles, and somewhat less of Popery. I had but a short way, however, descended the stream, when I found my sails taken aback by the following passage in St. Justin the Martyr, — a man described by an ancient bishop a3 being near to the Apostles both in time and in virtue : " Nor do we take these gifts (in the Eucharist) as com- mon bread and common drink; but as Jesus Christ, our Saviour, made man by the word of God, took flesh and blood for our salvation, so in the same manner we have been taught that the food which has been blessed by prayer, and by which our blood and flesh, in the change, are nourished, is the fiesh and blood of that Jesus incar- nate." — Apol. 1. The assertion of a real, corporal Presence by St. Igna- tius had more than sufficiently startled me ; but here was a still stronger case, a belief in the change of the ele- ments, in actual Transubstantiation, — and this on the part of a Saint so illustrious as St. Justin ! Verily, they who could send a Christian youth to learn Protestant doc- trine of teachers like these, must plead guilty to the charge either of grossly deceiving him or being ignorant themselves. ( 20 ) We have already seen that the Primacy of the Roman See was, in the only case that called for an appeal to it, acknowledged in the first age of the Church ; and I now found, in the second age, the same claim practically and universally recognised, both in the acts of the Church and in the writings of her chief pastors. How little could I have anticipated such a discovery! — the "Great Har- lot," the " Mother of the fornications and abominations of the earth" (as so often I had heard our college preacher style the Papacy,) standing, in the pure morning of Christianity, supreme and unrivalled ! Accustomed, indeed, as I had long been to consider the papal jurisdiction as a usurpation of the dark ages, the clear proofs I now saw of the chain of succession by which its title is carried up and fixed fast in that " Rock " on which the Church itself is built, convinced and confound- ed me; nor, though myself but an "embryon immature" of Protestantism, could I help sympathizing most heartily with all that a full-fledged follower of that faith must feel, on reading the following strong attestation of the Papal Primacy in St. Irenseus, — a writer, be it recollected, so near to the apostolical times as to have had for his in- structor in Christianity a disciple of St. John the Evan- gelist. " We can enumerate those bishops who were appointed by the Apostles and their successors down to ourselves, none of whom taught or even knew the wild opinions of these men (heretics) . . . However, as it would be te- dious to enumerate the whole list of successions, I shall confine myself to that of Rojne, the greatest and most ancient and most illustrious Church, founded by the glorious x\postles Peter and Paul ; receiving from them her doctrine, which was announced to all men, and which, through the succession of her bishops, is come down to us. Thus we confound all those who, through evil designs, or vain-glory, or perverseness, teach what they ought not ; for, to this Church, on account of its Superior Headship, every other must have recourse, that is, the faithful of all countries; in which Church has been preserved the doctrine delivered by the Apostles." — Adv. Hares. Lib. 3. Of Irenseus it must be, in truth, acknowledged that, though so apostolically educated, and graced by Photius ( 27 ) With the title of u the Divine Irenseus," * he would have made but a faithless subscriber to the Thirty-nine Arti- cles. For only hear how this Saint speaks of the Sacri- fice of the Mass,f — that "blasphemous fable," as the Thirty-First of those Articles terms it: — u Likewise, he declared the cup to be his blood, and taught the new Ob- lation of the New Testament, which oblation the Church receiving from the Apostles offers it to God over all the earth." Again: — " Therefore, the offering of the Church which the Lord directed to be made over all the world was deemed a pure sacrifice before God and received by Him."J Consistently with his belief of a Sacrifice in the Eu- charist, this Father maintained also, with Justin and Ig- natius, the Real Presence of Christ's body and blood in that Sacrament; pronouncing it a miracle such as could not be supposed to exist, without admitting the Divinity of Him who had instituted it. " How," he asks, " can these heretics (those who denied that Christ was the Son of God) prove that the bread over which the words of thanksgiving have been pronounced is the body of their Lord and the cup his blood, while they do not admit that he is the Son, that is, the Word of the Creator of the World!" To the same heretics, who, from their views of the corruption of matter, could not reconcile to themselves the doctrine of a resurrection of the body, he makes use of an argument founded, in like manner, on his belief of the reality of Christ's Presence and the transubstantia- tion of the elements: — "When (says he) the mingled chalice and the broken bread receive the word of God, * Tot/ §i?7r&rtov JLi^vniou. f Anciently called the Sacrifice of the New Testament, or Catholic Sacrifice (QvcrtA kclQoXikh. Chrysos'om Serm. de Cruce et Latrone,) the word Mass not having been introduced till about the time of St. Ambrose. % See also Justin. Dial, cum Tryphon. " The Centuriators of Magdeburgh, — whose zeal and acuteness dis- played in the Protestant cause are well known — have been con- strained reluctantly to own that the existence of the Sacrifice of the New Law stands recorded in the early monuments of Christianity; and on the passage of St. [renjeus here referred to, they express their acknowledgment in terms of indignation." — Coombes's Essence of Rb~ ligioua Controversy. ( 2S ) they become the Eucharist of the body and blood of Christ,* by which the substance of our flesh is increased and strengthened. How then can they pretend, that this flesh is not susceptible of eternal life which is nourished by the body and blood of the Lord, and is his member )" On the subject of Unwritten Tradition, — that con- tested source of so much of the doctrine, practice, and power of Rome, this Father's testimony brings with it double weight, inasmuch as he not only asserts, in all his writings, the high authority of Tradition, but was him- self one of the earliest and brightest links in that chain of oral delivery which has descended to the Church of Rome from the apostolic age. Referring to his own master, Polycarp, who had been the disciple of St. John the Evangelist. t he says — " Polycarp always taught these things, which he had learned from the Apostles, which he delivered to the Church, and which alone are true." In a fragment of another of his writings there occurs a most impressive and interesting passage to the same effect. — Addressing a heretic, named Florinus, who had adopted the errors of the Yalentinians, he says — " Those opinions the Presbyters before us, who also conversed with the Apostles, have not delivered to you. For T saw you, when I was very young, in the Lower Asia with Poly- carp. ... I better remember the affairs of that time than those which have lately happened; the things which we learn in our childhood growing up with the soul and uniting themselves to it. Insomuch that I can tell the place in which the Blessed Polycarp sat and taught, and his going out and coming in; and the manner of his life and the form of his person ; and the discourses he made to the people, and how he related his conversation with St. John, and others who had seen the * There is yet a stronger passage to this purpose in one of those Fragments attributed to Ireneeus, which were published in 1715 by Dr. PfarF. from manuscripts in the Kin? of Sardinia's library:— wh-re, in describing the ceiernonies of the Sacrifice, it is said that the Holy Spirit is invoked that he may make the bread the body of Christ and the cup the blood of Christ. Much doubt, however, has been thrown upon the genuineness of these Fragments, both by MafTei, who ob- jected to them on their first appearance, and by the remarks of the ever judicious Lardner afterwards. t By many also supposed to have been the Angel of the Church of Smyrna, to whom the Epistle in the second chapter of the Book of Revelation was directed to be sent. ( 20 ) Lord ; and how he related their sayings, and what he had heard from them concerning the Lord ; hoth concerning his miracles and his doctrine, as he had received them from the eye-witnesses of the Word of Life : all which Polycarp related agreeably to the Scriptures. These things I then, through the mercy of God toward me, di- ligently heard and attended to, recording them not on paper, but upon my heart; and, through the grace of God, I continually renew my remembrance of them." Could we now summon to earth the shade of this holy Father, — this Saint, so " nourished up in the words of faith and of good doctrine," — with what face can we ima- gine a Protestant, an upstart of the Reformation, to stand forth, in contradiction to so orthodox a spirit, and pro- nounce the Unwritten Word of the Catholic Church to •be but an inheritance of imposture, the jurisdiction of the See of St. Peter a rank usurpation, and a sacrifice of the Holy Mass "a blasphemous fable]" If any thing more were wanting to show the deep sense which this Father entertained of the reverence duo to tke authority and traditions of the Church, we should find it in the few following passages from his writings: — " In explaining the Scriptures, Christians are to attend to the Pastors of the Church, who, by the ordinance of God, have received the inheritance of truth, with the succession of their Sees." " The tongues of nations vary, but the virtue of tradition is one and the same every where ; nor do the churches in Germany believe or teach differently from those in Spain, Gaul, the East, Egypt or Lybia." " Supposing the Apostles had not left us the Scriptures, ought we not still to have followed the ordinance of Tradition, which they consigned to those to whom they committed the Churches? It is this ordinance of Tradition which many nations of barbari- ans, believing in Christ, follow without the use of letters or inky — Adv. Hser. Lib. 4. It w T ill easily be believed that, at the close of this long day's studies, I felt utterly disheartened and wearied with my pursuit. I had now found sanctioned by the authority of the Church's earliest champions, — some of them men who " had the preaching of the Apostles still sounding in their ears," — six no less Popish points of faith and observance than— 1. The acknowledgment of a 3* ( 30 ) Sovereign Pontiff; * 2. A Reverence due to Relics ; 3. Satisfaction to God by fasting, alms-deeds, &c. ; 4. The authority of Tradition ; 5. A Corporeal Presence in the Eucharist; and 6. The Sacrifice of the Mass. Who can wonder if, after all this, I despaired of ridding my- self of Popery] Heaving a heavy sigh, as I closed my ponderous folios, and with a sort of oppressed sensation as if the Pope were himself bodily on my back, I went to bed feeling much as Sinbad the sailor would have done, if, after having shaken off, as he thought, the troublesome little old Man of the Sea, he felt the legs of the creature again fastening round his neck. — "»•»►>$ © ©<<««•— CHAPTER VI. Making the sign of the Cross.— Tertullian.— Veneration of [mages.— Prayers for the Dead. — Determination to find Protestantism some- where. On the following morning I rose, — thanks to the re- cruiting power of sleep, — somewhat recovered from the rebuffs of the few preceding days, and feeling, on the whole, as well and Protestant as could be expected. At least, my horror of returning to Popery was as strong as ever ; though my chances of becoming a good Protestant, — or, indeed, finding out what a good Protestant was, — had become all but desperate. I was, therefore, pretty much in the " unhoused condition" of that sect of here- tics, called Basilidians, who described themselves as being no longer Jews, but still not yet Christians. Of the disagreeable, but apostolic, practice of weekly fasting I have already spoken ; but there was another Popish custom, against which, as a badge of anile super- stition, I still more indignantly rebelled ; — and this was the practice of making the sign of the Cross on the fore- head, after grace, at meals. The feeling of shame with which, in my youth, I used to perform this overt act of Po- * We find this very title of " Sovereign Pontiff" given to the Bishop of Rome by no less high and ancient an. authority than Ter- tullian, ( 31 ) pery, in the presence of Protestants, I shall never forget. * Nor do I appear to have been, in this feeling-, at all sin- gular among' my fellow Catholics, as I have observed that, ever since the two Religions have come to be on dining terms with each other, the practice has been al- most wholly discontinued ; insomuch that he must be a primitive Catholic, indeed, who, in the present times, would venture to bless himself (as the operation is called) in good company. " This, at least," said I to myself, pettishly, as I open- ed a huge volume of Tertullian, — "this monk's trick, at least, can assuredly never have received any sanction from the orthodox Christians of the early Church." The words had scarcely passed my lips, when, on turning to this Father's account of the modes and customs of his fellow Christians, I read, to my astoundment, as follows: — "We siom ourselves with the sign of the cross in the forehead, whenever we go from home or return, when we put on our clothes or our shoes, when we go to the bath, or sit down to meat, when we light our candles, when we lie down and when we sit." Here was crossing enough, God knows, — crossing enough, in a single day of Tertullian's, to serve the most particular old Catholic lady in all Ireland for a week. There now remained little else to fill up the measure of what are called Popish superstitions but Veneration of Images and Prayers for the Dead ; and to both these I found the same eminent Father lending his sanction. In speaking of the wife who survivesher husband, he desires that she should "pray for her husband's soul, solicit for him refreshment, and offer on the anniversaries of his death." In another place, too, we find him tracing this practice to apostolical traditions, not enforced, as he says, by the positive words of Scripture, but delivered down from his predecessors; — thus not only upholding the pa- pistical usage of praying for the Dead, but deriving his authority for it through that equally papistical channel, Tradition ! * It appears from occasional rebukes, in the Fathers, on this sub- ject, that a similar shame of being seen to make the sign of the cross was not unknown even among ancient Catholics. — " Let us not be ashamed ("says St. Cyril) to confess Him who was crucified ; let the vQgxyis (the si 2 n of the cross) be. confidently made upon the fore- head with the finger," ( 32 ) With respect to Images, the use of which, as memo- rials, was derived also by the early Christians from tradi- tion, a passing sentence of Tertullian, in which he men- tions as though it were of common occurrence, the pic- tures of Christ upon the communion-cups,* is a suffi- cient proof that the use of images had been, at the time he wrote, long prevalent. There appears little doubt, indeed, that Reformed eyes would have been shocked by such "idolatrous" representations, not only in the second century of Christianity, but most probably from its very earliest periods, f From the same fondness for religious memorials, we find St. Clement of Alexandria, in the same century, recommending to Christians to wear the figure of a fish engraved on their rings, — the fish being a symbol of the name of Christ.}: I had now, in addition to the six "plague spots of Po- pery," which I had already, in this her virgin period, counted on the fair face of the Church, to number also the three following, — viz. 7, Prayers for the Dead. — 8. Veneration of Images. And 9. Crossing, without end! Assuredly, any one less determined than myself to find Protestantism somewhere, would have given up the chase in despair. But I was still resolved to persevere. I had bid too solemn a farewell to Popery to allow of my re- voking the step now with a good grace. Besides, it is but fair to confess, — what I ought perhaps to have con- fessed somewhat sooner, — that, in addition to a very con- scientious desire of exchanging my religion for a better, I had also some motives of a more mundane, and, I may add, tender nature, which had considerable weight in deter- mining me to become a Protestant as soon as possible ; — motives which, though of that class usually styled pri- vate and delicate, I shall, in some future chapter, venture to communicate to the reader. * In a curious work on the Eucharistic Cups of the ancient Chris- tians (by Doughty), the author has collected, with much industry, an account of the" different materials of which these vessels were formed, from wood up to crystal, onyx, &c. and among the images upon them be particularly specifies that of the Crucified Saviour, and the good Shepherd carrying the lamb on his shoulders. t In the year 814, when Leo, the Armenian, assembled several bish- ops in order'to induce them to break images, Euthymius, metropolitan of Sardis, thus addressed him:— "Know, sire, that for 800 years, and more since Christ came into the world, he has been painted and adored in his image. Who will be bold enough to abolish so ancient a tra- dition ?" t Clem. Alexand, Opera cura Potteri, p. 286. '■> ( 33 ) CHAPTER VII. Great dearth of Protestantism.— Try Third and Fourth Centuries.— St. Cyprian.— Origen.— Primacy of St. Peter and the Pope.— St. Jerome. —List of Popiih abominations. Though 1 had now pretty well convinced myself that if, as Protestants assure us, the pure original of their Creed is to be found in the first ages, it must be found there in some such modest and unobtrusive shape as that of a cer- tain tragic author's "moon behind a cloud," I did not, even yet, allow myself to despair of catching, at least, a glimpse of this retired luminary. I therefore continued my inquest; and, summoning the Fathers of the two fol- lowing centuries before me, resolved to try whether, by dint of close cross-questioning, I should be able to detect a single Protestant among them. But no: the answer of all was the same, — they belonged to the one Catholic Church; to that Church, says St. Cyprian, "which, im- brued with the light of the Lord, sends forth her rays over the whole earth." When asked to name the cen- tre from which this Catholic light radiates, the same Saint points to Rome, to the chair of Peter, and " the principal Church (as he says emphatically) whence the Sacerdotal Unity took its rise." — Ep. 55. Thus foiled, I flew to Origen, with somewhat, perhaps, of a hope that, being but a questionable Saint, he might prove a good Protestant. But my success was no better ; I found him as eager for the Primacy of St. Peter and the Pope as his brethren, and, on the subject of exclu- sive salvation, as Catholic as need be : " Let no one," he says, "persuade, let no one deceive himself; out of this house, that is, out of the Church, there is no salvation." — Horn. 3. in Josue. By St. Jerome this monopoly of heaven was, I saw, asserted with no less vigour: — I know that the Church is founded upon Peter, that is, on a Rock. Whoever eateth the Lamb out of that house, is a profane man. Whoever is not in the Ark shall pe- rish by the flood." — Ep. 14. ad Dam. To a wight, like me, just tottering upon the edge of said Ark, — if not al- ready off, — this metaphoric hint was comfortable ! ( 34 ) On all those Popish points of belief and practice which, as I have shown, were sanctioned by the Fathers of the two First Centuries, I found the doctrine of those of the Third and Fourth precisely the same ; only put forth more copiously in detail, and enforced by richer stores of ingenuity and learning. To bring forward, indeed, all the testimonies that might, but too triumphantly, be cited to prove that, in those times, Christianity and Popery were convertible terms, would be to transcribe the greater part of the writings of the four first ages, from the simple Hermas down to the learned and rhetorical St. Chrysostom. I shall therefore content myself with adding to what I have already said of the Primitive times, a few specimens of the doctrine held by the leading Fathers of the third and fourth centuries, on some of the principal points at issue between the Church of Rome and her opponents. AUTHORITY OP THE CHURCH. — TRADITION. Tertullian* — " To know what the Apostles taught, that is, what Christ revealed to them, recourse must be had to the Churches which they founded, and which they instructed by word of mouth and by their Epistles." — De Prce scrip, c. 21. " Of these (certain practices in the administration of Baptism) and other usages, if you ask for the written authority of the Scriptures, none will be found. They spring from Tradition, ivhich practice has confirmed and obedience ratified." — De Corona Militis, c. 3, 4. " To the Scriptures, therefore, an appeal must not be made the question is, to whom was that doctrine committed by which we are made Christians? for where this doctrine and this faith shall be found, there will be the truth of the Scriptures and their expositions, and of all Chris- tian Traditions." — De Prcescrip. c. 19. Orige?i.— u As there are many who think they be- lieve what Christ taught, and some of these differ from others, it becomes necessary that all should profess that doctrine which came down from the Apostles, and now * This Father, having embraced Christianity about the year 1?5, and died in 216. ie usually claimed as belonging alike'to both Cen- turies. ( a* ) continues in the Church. That alone is truth which in nothing differs from ecclesiastical and apostolical tra- dition." — Prgef. lib. 1. de Princip. " As often as the he- retics produce the Canonical Scriptures, in which every Christian agrees and believes, they seem to say, Lo! with us is the word of truth. But to them (the heretics) we cannot give credit, nor depart from the first and ec- clesiastical tradition. We can believe only as the suc- ceeding Churches of God have delivered." — Tract. 29 in Mat. Lactantius. — " The Catholic Church alone retains the true worship. This is the source of truth, tliis is the dwelling of faith."— Jaw*. I. 4. c. 30. Cyprian. — " It is easy to minds that are religious and simple to lay aside error, and to discover truth : for if we turn to the source of Divine Tradition, error ceases."* — Ep. 63. Eusebius. — " Which truths, though they be consigned to the Sacred Writings, are still, in a fuller manner, confirmed by the Traditions of the Catholic Church, which Church is diffused over all the earth. This un- written Tradition confirms and seals the testimonies of the Holy Scriptures." — Dem. Evang. lib. 1. Basil. — " Among the dog-mas of the Church there are some contained in the Scriptures and some come from Tradition ; but both have an equal efficacy in the promo- tion of piety." — De Spirit. Sanct. c. 27. " In my opi- nion, it is apostolical to adhere to unwritten Traditions." — Ibid c. 29. " It is the common aim of all the enemies of sound doctrine, to shake the solidity of our faith in Christ by annulling apostolical Tradition .... they dis- miss the unwritten testimony of the Fathers as a thing of no value." — lb. c. 10. Epiphanius. — " We must look also to Tradition ; for all things cannot be learned from the Scriptures." Chrysostom. — " Hence it is manifest that they (the Apostles) did not deliver all things by means of Epistles, but that they made many communications without * On this passage St. Augustin remarks :— The advice which St. Cyprian gives to recur to the Tradition of the Apostles, and thenre to bring down the series to our own times, is excellent, and manifestly to be followed."— De Bapt. contra Donatist. I. 5. «. 26. ( 3G ) writing; and that both are equally entitled to credence. It is a tradition, ask no farther." — Horn. 4. in 2 Thess.* PRIMACY OF THE SUCCESSORS OF ST. PETER. Some of the strong* testimonies, on this point, of St. Irenseus, St. Cyprian, &c have already been laid before the reader. Cyprian. — Nevertheless that he (Christ) might clearly establish unity, he formed one See, and by his authority fixed the origin of this same unity by beginning from one. The other apostles were accordingly, like Peter, invested with an equal participation of honour and power; but the beginning is built on unity. The Primacy is given to Peter, that there might be exhibited one Church of Christ and one See." — De Unitat. Eccles. Jerom. — (In a letter to Pope Damasus.) " I am follow- ing no other than Christ, united to the communion of your Holiness, that is, to the Chair of Peter. I knew that the Church is founded upon that Rock." — Ep. 14. ad Damasum. " I cease not to proclaim, He is mine who remains united to the Chair of Peter." Chrysostom. — " For what reason did Christ shed his blood I Certainly, to gain those sheep the care of which he committed to Peter and his successors." SATISFACTION TO GOD BY PENITENTIAL WORKS. Cyprian. — " The Lord must be invoked ; must be ap- peased by our satisfaction." — De Lapsis. Before Him let the soul bow down : to Him let our sorrow make satisfaction : .... By fasting, by tears, and by moaning, let us appease, as he himself admonishes, his indignation. 1 ' lb. " Purge away your sins by works of justice, and by alms-deeds which may save the soul. God can pardon : he can turn away his judgment. He can pardon the penitent who implores forgiveness; he can accept for him the supplications of others ; or should he move him more by his own works of satisfaction, and thus disarm his *On the passage of St. Paul :— " Therefore, brethren, stand fast and hold the traditions which ye have leeu taught, whether by word, or our epistle. M ( 37 ) anger, the Lord' will repair his strength, whereby he shall be invigorated anew."* — lb. Ambrose. — " Let Christ see thee weeping, that he may say, ■ Blessed are they that mourn, for they shall be comforted.' (Mat. v. 4.) Therefore, did he immediately pardon Peter, because he wept bitterly ; and if thou weep in like manner, Christ will look on thee, and thy sin will be cancelled Let no consideration then with- hold thee from doing penance. In this imitate the Saints, and let their tears be the measure of thy own." — De Poznit. c. 10. PRAYERS FOR THE DEAD. Cyril of Jerusalem. — " Then (in the Sacrifice of the Mass) we pray for the Holy Fathers and the Bishops that are dead; and, in short, for all those who are de- parted this life in our communion ; believing that the souls of those, for whom the prayers are offered, receive very great relief, while this holy and tremendous victim lies upon the altar." — Catech. My stag. 5. Ambrose. — (In his Funeral Oration on the two Empe- rors, Valentinians.) " Blessed shall you both be if my prayers can avail any thing. No day shall pass, in which I will not mention you with honour ; no night in which you shall not partake of my prayers. In all my oblations I will remember you." Epiphanius. — " There is nothing more opportune, nothing more to be admired, than the rite which directs the names of the Dead to be mentioned. They are aided * See Bossuet's defence of the language of St. Cyprian, on this sub- ject, in answer to M. Jurieu. '• II faut, dit-il (Saint Cyprien,) satisfaire a Dieu pour ses peches ; mais il faut aussi que la satisfaction soit recue par notre Seigneur. II faut croire que tout ce qu'on fait n'a rien de parfait ni de sufnsant en soi-meme puisqu'apres tout, quoique nous fassions, nous ne sorames que de serviteurs inutiles et que nous nVavons pas raerae a nous glorifier du pu que nous faisons, puisque, comme nous Tavons deja rapporte tout nous vient de Dieu par Jesus Christ, en qui seul nous avons acces aupres du Pere." — flvertissemens aux Protestants. Such is the much misrepresented doctrine of Catholics on this point. The language of St. Augustin respecting this doctrine is fully as Popish as that of St. Cyprian : — " It is not enough," he says, " that the sinner change his ways, and depart from his evil works, unless by penitential sorrow, by bumble tears, by the sacrifice of a contrite heart, and by alms-deeds, he make satisfaction to God for what he has committed."— HomiL 1. T.x. 4 ( 38 ) by the Prayer which is offered for them, though it may not cancel all their faults. — We mention both the just and sinners, in order that for the latter we may obtain mercy." — Hair. 55. Chrysostom. — " It is not in vain that oblations and prayers are offered and alms given for the dead. So has the Divine Spirit ordained that we might mutually assist one another." — Homil. 21. " Not without reason was it ordained by the Apostles, that in celebrating the Sa- cred Mysteries, the Dead should be remembered; for they well knew what advantage would thence be derived to them." — Homil. 3. in Epist. ad Philip. * INVOCATION OF SAINTS AND OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN. Origen. — " We may be allowed to say of all the holy men who have quitted this life, retaining their charity towards those whom they left behind, that they are anx- ious for their salvation, and that they assist them by their prayers and their meditation with God. For it is written in the books of the Maccabees, * This is Jeremiah, the prophet of God, who always prays for the people.' — Lib. 3. in Cant. Cantic. 4 1 will fall down on my knees, and, not presuming, on account of my crimes, to present my prayer to God, I will invoke all the saints to my assis- tance. O ye saints of Heaven, I beseech you with a sor- row full of sighs and tears, fall at the feet of the Lord of Mercies for me, a miserable sinner.' " — Lib. 2. de Job. Cyprian. — " Let us be mindful of one another in our prayers; with one mind, and with one heart, in this world, and in the next, let us always pray, with mutual charity relieving our sufferings and afflictions. And may *On the subject of Prayers for the Dead there occurs an interesting passage in St. Ephrem of Edessa, which appears to have escaped the notice of my friend. In a work entitled his Testament, this pious Father thus speaks :— My brethren, come to me, and prepare me for my departure, for my strength is wholly gone. Go along with me in psalms and in your prayers, and please constantly to make oblations forme. When the thirtieth day shall be completed, then remember me ; for the dead are helped by the offerings of the living. — Now listen with patience to what I shall mention from the Scriptures. Moses bestowed blessings on Reuben after the third generation (Deut. xxxiii. 6.;) but, if the Dead are not aided, why was he blessed? Again, if they be insensible, hear what the Apostle says : — * If the dead rise not again at all, why are they then baptized far them V (I Cor, xv. 29."; ( 39 ) the charity of him who, by the divine favour, shall first depart hence, still persevere before the Lord ; may his prayer, for our brethren and sisters, be unceasing'." — De Habitu Virg. Athanasius. — " Hear now, oh daughter of David ; in- cline thine ear to our prayers. — We raise our cry to thee. Remember us, oh! most Holy Virgin, and for the feeble eulogiums we give thee, grant us great gifts from the treasures of thy graces, thou, who art full of grace. — Hail, Mary, full of grace, the Lord is with thee. Queen and Mother of God, intercede for us." — Serm. in Annunt. Hilary. — " According to Raphael, speaking to Tobias, there are Angels who serve before the face of God, and who convey to him the prayers of the suppliant. — It is not the character of the Deity that stands in need of this intercession, but our infirmity does. — God is not ignorant of any thing that we do: but the weakness of man, to sup- plicate and to obtain, calls for the ministry of the spiri- tual intercession."— In Psalm 129. Basil. — (In celebrating the Feast of the Forty Martyrs) " O ye common guardians of the human race, co-opera- tors in our prayers, most powerful messengers, stars of the world and flowers of Churches, let us join our prayers with yours." — Horn. 19. Ephrem of Edessa. — " I entreat you, oh ! Holy Mar- tyrs, who have suffered so much for the Lord, that you would intercede for us with Him that he bestow his grace on us." — Encom. in SS. Mart. " We fly to thy patronage, Holy mother of God: protect and guard us, under the wings of thy mercy and kindness. — Most merciful God, through the intercession of the most Blessed Virgin Mary, and of all the Angels, and of all the Saints, show pity to thy creature." — Serm. de Laud. B. Mar. Virg. RELICS AND IMAGES. Hilary. — " The holy blood of the Martyrs is every where received, and their venerable bones daily bear witness." — L. contra Constant. Basil. — " If any one suffer for the name of Christ, his remains are deemed precious : and, if any one touch the bones of a martyr, he becomes partaker, in some degree, ( 40 ) of his holiness, on account of the grace residing in them. Wherefore, " precious in the sight of God is the death of his Saints.' " — Serm. in Psalm 115. " I receive the Apostles, the Prophets and the Martyrs. I invoke them to pray for me, and that by their interces- sion God may be merciful to me and forgive my trans- gressions. For this reason I revere and honour their images, especially since we are taught to do so by the tradition of the holy Apostles; and so far from these being forbidden us, they appear in our Churches." — Ep. nd Julian* Ephrem. — "The grace of the divine spirit, which works miracles in them, ever resides in the Relics of the Saints." — In Encom. omnium Mart. Ambrose. — "I honour, therefore, in the body of the Mar- tyr, the wounds that he received in the name of Christ ; I honour the memory of that virtue which shall never die; I honour those ashes which the confession of Faith has consecrated ; I honour in them the seeds of eternity : I honour that body which has taught me to love the Lord, and not to fear death for his sake." — Serm. 55. Chrysostom. — " Next to the power of speech, the mo- numents of Saints are best adapted, when we look on them, to excite us to the imitation of their virtues. Here when any one stands, he feels himself seized by a certain force ; the view of the shrine strikes on his heart ; he is affected, as if he that there lies were present, and offered up prayers for him. Thus does a certain alacrity come over him, and, changed almost to another man, he quits the place. For this reason, then, has God left us the Remains of the Saints." — Lib. contra Gent. "That which neither riches nor gold can effect, the Relics of Martyrs can. Gold never dispelled diseases nor warded off death; but the bones of Martyrs have done both. In the days of our forefathers, the former happened; the latter in our own." — Homil. 67. de St. Drosid. Mart. Gregory of Nyssa. — (In his Oration on the Feast of the Martyr Theodorus) " when any one enters such a * In quoting tbis Epistle to Julian, as from the pen of St. Basil, my young friend has not shown his usual accuracy. The fragment from which the above passage is taken, though extant among the Acts of the Second Nicene Council, is given up, I believe, as spurious, by the most judicious Catholic writers; and even the zealous Baronius, though he produces the fragment, forbears cautiously from laying any Btreii upon it, as authority. ( 41 ) place as this, where the memory of this just man and his relics are preserved, his mind is first struck, while he views the structure and all its ornaments, with the gene- ral magnificence that breaks upon him. The artist has here shown his skill in the figures of animals and the airy sculpture of the stone, while the painter s hand is most conspicuous in delineating the high achievements of the Martyr The figure of Christ is also beheld looking down upon the scene" Nilus. — " In the chancel of the most sacred temple, towards the east, let there be one and only one Cross . . Let the sacred temple be filled with pictures well exe- cuted by tfie most celebrated artists, representing the most remarkable events of the Old and New Testaments; that the unlettered and those who are incapable of reading the di- vine Scriptures may, by the sight of the picture, be in- structed in the virtuous deeds of those who have served the true God, according to his own will and command." Lib. 4. Ep. 61. CHAPTER VIII. Invocation of the Virgin. — Gospel of the Infancy, &c— Louis XL— Bonaventura.— St. Ambrose, St. Basil, and Doctor Doyle. In the foregoing list, containing a few of those " abomi- nations " of Popery, which I found sanctioned by the highest authorities of the Christian Church, there is one placed under the head of "Invocation of Saints," to which I had not before adverted, namely, the devotion (or, as Protestants will have it,) idolatry paid by Papists to the Blessed Virgin. There appears no doubt that this worship, within the due bounds to which all rational Catholics would confine it, formed a part of the devotions of Christians, from the very first ages of the Church. In the Second Century we find Irenaeus, the great light of that age, attributing such power to the intercession of the Virgin with God, as to suppose her the advocate, in heaven, for the fallen mother of mankind, Eve. The Gospel of the Infancy of Jesus, a work referred to the same 4* ( 43 ) period, and which, though manifestly an imposture,* may, at least, be depended upon, as an echo of the tone prevalent among the orthodox of its times, in relating the circumstances which took place previously to our Lord's nativity, gives to the Virgin simply the name of " Mary," but immediately after that event, styles her the " Divine Mary," and adds that Churches were, in those times, de- dicated to her honour.f In the irritation which, I own, I could not help feeling at the discovery of this fresh proof of Popery, in the ear- ly ages of the Church, I found myself secretly wishing that it might also be in my power to detect, in those times, the same extravagant follies respecting the wor- ship of the Virgin, which, in after ages, brought such discredit upon the religion that was made responsible for them, and by which alone, indeed, most Protestants form their judgment of the Catholic faith on this subject.]: I allude not so much to the gross extravagances of those who have installed the Virgin as a Fourth Person of the Godhead, or to such superstitious follies as that of Louis XL, who, by a formal contract, made over to the Mother of God all right and title in the fee and privileges of the Comte de Boulogne, — not so much to these blasphemous absurdities do I allude,, as to that injudicious excess of zeal which led Bonaventura and other distinguished Ca- tholics to claim for the Virgin a rank in the scale of su- * With this Gospel another apocryphal work, of the game high antiquity, is usually joined, to wit, the Gospel of the Birth of Mary, in which it is declared that the object of her espousals with Joseph was, not that he might make her his wife, but that he might be the guardian of her perpetual Virginity ; the High Priest having said to him, *'Thou nrt the person chosen totake the" Virgin of the Lord, to keep her for him." • t The minister, Jurieu, contended that the claims of the Virgin to invocation or worship were not admitted till after that decision of the Council of Ephesus, which, in opposition to Nestorius, pronounced Mary to be the mother of God. It is well answered, however, by Bos- suet, that the very Church in which that Council was held bore testi- mony to the honours already paid to the Virgin by its having been dedicated to her name. He refers also to a circumstance which, long before the sitting of that Council, St. Gregory of Nazianzum had re- lated of a female martyr in the third century, who prayed to the Blessed Mary " to aid a virgin who was in peril." X The Lutheran Goetzius~ assuming charitably that female saints, — Mary, Anne, Catherine, Manraret, &c. (as he enumerates them,)— form the principal object of worship with the Catholics, calls their faith a womanish Religion."— rcligio muliebris. See his Meletemata Annaebergensia. ( 43 ) perior beings much higher than either reason or true pie- ty would assign to her.* So far from finding, however, in the first ages, any sanction for such pretensions, I soon discovered that though, even then, some abuses of this worship had in- truded themselves, the great teachers of Christian doc- trine rebuked and denounced them as idolatrous: nor could there be given, perhaps, a more faithful exposition of all that the Catholics of the present day think and feel on this subject, than is to be found in the following re- marks, which the great antagonist of heresies, Epiphanius, directed against some female heretics of his time, by whom a more than due share of honour was paid to the Vir- gin: — " Her body (he says) was, I own, holy, but she was no God. She continued a Virgin, but she is not proposed for our adoration; — she herself adoring him who, having descended from heaven and the bosom of his Father, was born of her flesh Though, therefore, .she was a chosen vessel, and endowed with eminent sanctity, still she is a woman, partaking of our common nature, but de- serving of the highest honours shown to the Saints of God. — She stands before them all on account of the hea- venly mystery accomplished in her. But we adore no saint: and as this worship is not given to angels, much less can it be allowed to the daughter of Ann. — Let Mary, therefore, be honoured; but the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost alone be adored: let no one adore Mary." — Adv. Collyridianos\ Hcer. 59. * The absurdity of ths learned Tripsins (one of those many literati, whose whole due of fame is, as it were, discounted to them while living) in bequeathing his best fur cloak to the Virgin on his death- bed, drew down from the Netherland wits a burst of ridicule upon his memory, which the defence of the bequest by his friend Wowerius (Assertio Lipsiani Don an) was but ill calculated to extinguish. Of the lengths to which some pious enthusiasts in the cause of the Virgin have gone, many curious instances might be collected. For example, the following thesis, put forth by the Recollets of Liege, in 1076. — " Frequens confessio et communio, et cultns B. Virginia etiam in iis, qui gentiliter vivunt, sunt signum predestinationis ;" and, still more absurd, the assertion of a Portuguese Jesuit, Francis Mendoza, ** impossibile esse ut B. Virginis cuitor in sternum damnetur." These are, to be sure, wretched extravagances; but if the excess or per ver- sion of a religious belief is to be assumed as an argument against the belief itself, far more vital points of faith than the intercessorial power of the Virgin may suffer by such logic. t These heretics, who were chiefly women, used to offer up to the Virgin a particular kind of cake, or bun, called in Greek, Collyris. The«r grand offering, however, was a loaf, which, at a stated seasofi ( 44 ) Precisely such, as I conceive, is the wide and essential distinction which a Catholic divine of our own days would draw between adoration and honour; — between the worship due only to God, and that devout veneration which, in common with all Christian antiquity, we should offer to her whom an inspired voice pronounced "blessed among women," and "the Mother of the Lord." In short, looking- back from the point where I had now arrived to the whole course and results of my search through those ages, I found myself forced to confess, that the Popery of the nineteenth century differs in no respect from the Christianity of the third and fourth ; and that if St. Ambrose, St. Basil, and a few more such " flowers of Churches," had been able to borrow the magic night- caps of their cotemporaries, the Seven Sleepers, and were now, after a nap of about fifteen centuries, just opening their eyes in the town of Carlow, they would find in the person of Dr. Doyle, the learned Bishop of Leighlin and Ferns, not only an Irishman whose acquaintance even they might be proud to make, but a fellow Catholic every iota of whose creed would be found to correspond exactly with thtur own. m , > J**, fflfc ^44ti t» ■ CHAPTER IX. Prayers for the Dead. — Purgatory.— Penitential Discipline. — Confes- sion.— Origen.— St. Ambrose.— Apostrophe to the Shade of Father O'H * *. Among those articles of Popery which I have enume- rated as pre-existing in the creed of the Primitive Church, there are two, rather implied than mentioned, namely, a belief in Purgatory and auricular Confession, concerning which I have to offer a few brief remarks. The solemn usage of praying for the Dead, can be found- ed only on the belief that there exists a middle state of puri- cf the year, they presented to her with much solemnity, and then each of them partook of the oblation. In this ceremony, the wo- icaen performed tfie office of Priesthood. ( 45 ) fication and suffering through which souls pass after death, and from which the prayers of the faithful may aid in delivering them. The antiquity, therefore, of the use of Prayers for the Dead (and we trace them through all the most ancient Liturgies) sufficiently prove to us how ancient was the belief on which they are founded. From the Second Book of the Maccabees (taking these Books merely in the Protestant view of them, as an uncanonical but authentic record) we learn that the ancient Jews, on this point, held the same faith as the Catholics: — "It is, therefore, a holy and a wholesome thought to pray for the dead, that they may be loosed from their sins." We cannot wonder that such a belief should be thus ancient, for assuredly none can be more natural ; nor, on the other hand, can any thing be less consistent either with our knowledge of human nature, or our notions of the divine, than such an absence of all gradation, both in reward and punishment, as the w T ant of an intermediate state between heaven and hell must imply. What the Protestant divine, Paley, has said on the subject of Pur- gatory appears to me to be founded on such sentiments as both reason and nature approve: "Who can bear," he asks, " the thought of dwelling in everlasting torments 1 Yet who can say that a God everlastingly just will not inflict them] The mind of man seeks for some resource: it finds one only in conceiving that some temporary pu- nishment, after death, may purify the soul from its moral pollutions, and make it at last acceptable even to a Deir ty infinitely pure." Fully agreeing with Paley on this point, it was with some pleasure I now discovered that, from Justin Martyr down to Basil and Ambrose, all the Fathers of the first four ages concur in opinion as to the existence of such an intermediate state ; — the greater number of them inter- preting a remarkable passage of St Paul (1 Cor. iii. 13, 14, 15,) as denoting expressly some region of purgation for the soul, where " the fire shall try every man's work of what sort it is," and where, as Origen explains the passage, " each crime shall, in proportion to its charac- ter, experience a just degree of punishment." Referring to the same passage of the Apostle, St. Ambrose says, " From hence it may be collected, that the same man is saved in part, and is condemned in part;" and, again, in a Commentary on this Epistle, he remarks: — " The Apos- ( 46 ) tie said, 'He shall be saved, yet so as by fire,' in order that his salvation be not understood to be without pain. He shows that he shall be saved indeed, but that he shall undergo the pain of fire, and be thus purified ; not like the unbelieving and wicked man who shall be punished in everlasting fire.*' — Comment, in 1 Ep. ad Cor. With similar views it was maintained by St. Hilary (and Ori- gen seems to have been of the same opinion) that, after the day of Judgment, all — even the Blessed Virgin her- self—must alike pass through this fire, to purify them from their sins. The system of Penitential Discipline,* of which Con- fession forms one of the most important parts, was, as we learn from the ecclesiastical historian, Socrates, observed by the Bishops of Rome from the very earliest times; and the public penance of the Emperor Theodosius, in the great Church of Milan, proves what deference continued to be paid to the same spiritual ordinance, after Christi- anity had become the established religion of the Empire. Far different, however, were the notions of Repentance prevailing among the early Christians from those that have since been taught by the Apostles of the Reforma- tion, who, in abolishing Confession, Penitential Fasting, &c. and getting rid of all that slow, humbling process of self-accusation and penance, by which the Catholic Church has, through all ages, disciplined her erring children, seem to have thought of little else than consulting the comfort of the sinner, and rendering his road to salvation short and easy. " There is yet," says Origen, " a more severe and arduous pardon of sin by penance, when the sinner washes his couch with his tears, and when he blushes not to disclose his sin to the Priest of the Lord, * As, in this world, the abuse of all good gifts follows as naturally on their use as shadows do on lights, it can little surprise us to rind that the Sacrament of Penance was as much perverted from its true in- tention and spirit by the weak Catholics of other days, as it is, and will be, perverted by the same description of Catholics "to the end of time. The existence of such false notions of Penance, in his own days, is thus noticed and reprehended by St. Ambrose: — "There are some who ask for penance, that they may be at once restored to communion. These do not so much desire to be loosed as to bind the Priest, for they do not unburden their own consciences, but they burden his. * * * Thus you may see persons walking about in white garments, who ought to be in tears for having defiled that colour of grace and innocence. Others there are, who, provided they abstain frornthe Holy Sacraments, fancy they are doing penance. Others, while they have this in view, conclude they are licensed to sin, not aware that" penance is the re- medy, not the provocative of sin."— De Pcenit.I. 2. c. 9. ( 47 ) and to ask a remedy.* Thus is fulfilled what the Apos- tle says,. 'Is any man sick among you, let him bring in the Priest^ of the Church.' (James v. 14.") Of St. Ambrose it is said, by his secretary and biogra- pher, that " as often as any one, in doing penance, con- fessed his faults to him, he wept so as to draw tears from the sinner. He seemed to take part in every act of sor- row. But, as to the occasions or causes of the crimes which they confessed, these he revealed to no one but God, with whom he interceded ; leaving this good example to his successors in the Priesthood, that they should be in- tercessors with God, not accusers before men." — Paulin. in Vita Ambros. The writings, indeed, of that age abound with affecting remarks upon the sacred and deli- cate duty which a Confessor has to perform, and the con- soling balm he may apply to wounded and repentant spi- rits. * Show me bitter tears (says St. Gregory of Nyssa) that I may mingle mine with yours. Impart your trouble to the Priest, as to your Father; he will be touched with a sense of your misery. Show to him what is concealed, without blushing ; — open the secrets of your soul, as if you were showing to a physician a hidden disorder ; he will take care of your honour and of your cure." — Serm. de Pcenit. How often, in reading such passages, did I call to mind my own innocent and Popery-believing days, when, aa the regular season for Confession returned, I used to set off, early in the morning, to — — Street Chapel, trem- bling all over with awe at the task that was before me, but still firmly resolved to tell the worst, without dis- guise. How vividly do I, even at this moment, remember kneeling down by the Confessional, and feeling my heart beat quicker, as the sliding-panel in the side opened, and I saw the meek and venerable head of the kind Father O'H stooping down to hear my whispered list of sins. The paternal look of the old man, — the gentleness of hia voice, even in rebuke, — the encouraging hopes he gave of mercy as the sure reward of contrition and reforma- tion, — all these recollections came freshly over my mind, as I now read the touching language employed by some of the Fathers on this subject; language such as the fol- lowing, from the Homilies of Origen, which, though writ- * St. Augustin also writes : " Our merciful God wills us to confess in this world that we may not be confounded in the other."— Horn. 20. ( 48 ) ten when Christianity was little more than 200 years old, is as applicable to many a Catholic Confessor of our owa times, as if indited but yesterday. " Only let the sinner carefully consider to whom he should confess his sin, what is the character of the physician; — if he be one who will be weak with the weak, who will weep with the sor- rowful, and who understands the discipline of condolence and fellow-feeling: so that when his skill shall be known, and his pity felt, you may follow what he shall advise. 1 ' — HomiL 2. in Psalm 27. " If we discover our sins, not only to God, but to those who may thus apply a remedy to our wounds and iniquities, our sins will be effaced by him who said, ■ I have blotted out thy iniquities as a cloud, and thy sins as a mist' " — HomiL 17. in Lucayn. Shade of my reverend Pastor, could st thou have looked down upon me, in the midst of my folios, how it would have grieved thy meek spirit to see the humble little vi- siter of thy confessional, — him whom sometimes thou hast doomed, for his sins, to read the Seven Penitential Psalms daily, — to- see him forgetting so soon the docility of those undoubting days, and setting himself up, God help him, as controvertist and Protestant 1 "• Ml)£ x^ ©t^** — CHAPTER X. The Eucharist.— A glimpse of Protestantism.— Type, Figure, Sisrn, tee. —Glimpse lost again.— St. Cyril of Jerusalem.— St. Cyprian— St. Je- rom.— St. Chrysostom.— Tertullian. In tracing the doctrines of Popery through the third and fourth ages, I have reserved, as may have been re- marked, one of the most important of them all, — that re- lating to the Eucharist, — for separate consideration; and this I have done not merely on account of the great im- portance of the doctrine itself, but because on this point alone could I at all flatter myself with having discovered any little glimmerings of that Protestant Christianity of which I was in search. The two first centuries, I saw clearly, must be given up as desperate ; the language employed upon this sub- ( 49 ) ject by Ignatius, Justin Martyr, and Irenaeus, having abundantly convinced me that, in those apostolic times* the literal or Popish interpretation of the words "This is my body " was the accepted doctrine ; and that the Chris- tians of the Primitive Church believed not only in the Real, corporal Presence, but in the miraculous change of substance after consecration. In the present depressed state of my hopes, however, — lowered as they were to the freezing temperature, — I would have compounded gladly for a sample of Protestantism even of a much less ancient date ; and it was therefore with considerable satisfaction I had discovered in some writers of the third century the use of such expressions, in speaking of the Eucharist, as " Type," " Antitype," " Figure," &c, which seemed to afford a sort of escape from the difficulties of a Real Pre- sence into the vague and figurative substitute for that mi- racle which, on the principle of believing "made easy," has been adopted by Protestants. My self-gratulation, however, on this discovery was but of very short duration. In the first place, I soon found that this use of the words " Type," " Antitype," " Sign," &c. is not confined to those few Fathers to whom the Protestants look up as authority, but that the same terms 5 have been also applied to the Eucharist by several of those writers whose real opinions respecting the nature of that Sacrament are known to have been as transubstantiatory as Popish heart could desire. Thus the great Catechist, Cyril of Jerusalem, who, in his doctrine concerning the Real Presence, goes the full lengths of all that Rome has ever asserted on the subject, yet applies to the Eucharist the word " Type," and that in a manner which seems to bear out the opinions of those who think that the term, as thus employed by the Fathers, denoted but the external appearance, or accidents, of the Eucharistic elements. "In the type of bread (says Cyril) is given to thee the body, and in the type of wine is given to thee the blood."* In the same manner, in one of those Liturgies which go un- der the name of St. Basil, we find the bread and wine of- fered under the name of Antitypes, while in the prayer that follows, the Holy Spirit is invoked to come down and * Ev ruffa X*g x^rou JJotm gu vm^'A xxt iv tuna) ctvou .tfg UTTi VtVTC VTTl cu/u&o.cv, aw' Tcvro ITTl CCS/AX J/ftT/jta?, /v* fxa rqt i>i ns rvuroi uvsu. \ Ovk strrtv Ev^acgjpriac rosrg twi c&y.zrcc y-xt t. Basil, " the dogmas transmitted to us by writing, and those which have descended to us from the Apostles, be- neath the veil and mystery of oral tradition The Apostles and Fathers who prescribed from the be- ginning certain rites to the Church, knew how to pre- serve the dignity of the Mysteries by the secrecy and si- lence in which they enveloped them. For what is open to the ear and the eye is no longer mysterious. For this reason several things have been handed down to us with- out writing, lest the vulgar, too familiar with our dogmas, should pass from being accustomed to them to the con- tempt of them." — De Spirit. Sanct. c. 27. Upon the controversy which is known to have been maintained among the learned as to the precise time when the Discipline of the Secret was first introduced into the Church, it is not my intention here to dwell. — Some, as we have seen, trace its origin as far back as the time of jthe Apostles,* while others suppose it to have been first practised towards the close of the second cen- tury, and others, again, contrary to all authority, date its commencement so low down as the fourth. The truth seems to be that the principle of this policy was acted * Among moderns, Schelstrate has contended most strenuously for the apostolic origin of the Secret, while, in opposition to him, Tent- zeiius and others refer its rise to about the close of the second century, ( 56 ) upon, in the Christian Church, from its very beginning. So strongly has not only St. Paul, but our Saviour him- self, inculcated a sacred reserve in promulgating the Mysteries of the Faith, that there can be no doubt the succeeding teachers of the Church would, in this, as in all things else, follow their Divine Master's precept. But though, as a principle, this reverential guard over the Mysteries was observed, doubtless, from the very first rise of Christianity, it does not appear to have been strictly enforced, as a rule of discipline, till about the close of the second century. The curiosity, and, still more, the bitter enmity excited by the rapid spread of a religion founded wholly, as it appeared, on mysteries, but whose progress was, in unbelieving eyes, the greatest mystery of all, rendered increased caution necessary on the part of its ministers; and the divine precept by which they were enjoined to hide the " holy things " of the Faith from unbelievers, began, about this time, to be acted upon by them with a degree of jealous strictness proportionate to the prying insolence and violence by which they were encompassed. "■* M *f © ^^ ©4^*^"** CHAPTER XII. Doctrine of the Trinity.— St. Justin.— Irenxus.— Apparent heterodoxy of the Fathers of the Third Century. — Accounted for by the Disci- pline of the Secret. — Tertullian, Origen, Lactantius, &c. It has been asserted by more than one learned writer, that the doctrine of the Trinity was not included among the mysteries to which the protection of this rule of se- crecy was extended.* But such an assumption is not * In defiance, as it appears to me, of all evidence, it has been main- tained by Tentzelius, Casaubon and others, that it was neither the Trinity, nor any of the other dogmas of the Faith, but merely the rites and ceremonies of the two Sacraments of Baptism and the Eucharist that were intended to be concealed from the non-initiated by the ob- servance of this Discipline. ( 57 ) only inconsistent with the main objects for which such a rule was established, but is also, as it will not be difficult to show, at variance with fact. It was, indeed, the pious horror of exposing* such high mysteries as that of the Trinity to the scoffs and, what was still worse, the mis- representations of the Gentiles, that formed the chief mo- tive of the Christian Pastors for the policy which they adopted, — a policy which, on some points (such as that of the Seven Sacraments,*) is supposed to have led them to preserve an unbroken silence, but which, for the most part, consisted in holding such language respecting any mys- tery they had to mention before unbelievers, as was, at the same time, transparent enough to allow the truth to shine out to the initiated, and yet too obscure to betray either the teacher or his doctrines to the profane. In this reserved and ambiguous manner do Tertullian and some of the succeeding Fathers speak of the Eucharist ; and still more evasively, from the same cause, have al- most all the Fathers of the first three centuries and a half spoken of the Trinity. This latter fact I am, in a peculiar degree, anxious to impress on the reader ; seeing that it is of importance to my subject to show that by an almost exactly similar fate has the progress of these two mysteries, the Trinity and the Real Presence, been all along marked ; and that the same cause which produced, in some of the early Fathers, that ambiguity of language, on the subject of the Eucha- rist, of which the Protestants have availed themselves for the support of their schism, produced also that still greater ambiguity and inconsistency in the language of the same Fathers, respecting the Trinity, which has, with a similar degree of dexterity, been employed, in fa- vour of their own heresy, by the Arians. I have already remarked how much more free from * It is to the operation of the Discipline of the Secret that Catholic writers attribute the entire silence which they acknowledge has been preserved, on the subject of the Seven Sacraments, in all the authen- tic monuments of antiquity that remain to us. According to Schel- strate, — one of those by whom the circumstance is thus accounted for,— it is not till the seventh century that any mention of the Seven Sacraments occurs ; — " Si pervolvamus omnia antiquitatismonumen- ta, s,i perscrutemur cuncta antiquissimorum Patrum scripta, si inves- tigemus ipsa Synodorum decreta, nullum librum, nullum decretum reperiri, quod ante septimum sseculum egerit de Septem Sacramentis, £Drumque ritus exposuerit."— Schclstraten. J?e Disciplin, 4rca$, ( 68 ) the restraints of this singular Discipline were those wri- ters who flourished previously to the close of the second century than were any of their successors for the next hundred and fifty years; and I need but mention, in proof of this fact, that the same illustrious Father, St. Justin, who, as I have shown, ventured, in his Address to the Sovereign and Princes of the Empire, to promulgate the doctrine of Transubstantiation, proclaimed also, in the same public document, the mystic dogma of the Trinity. How far the circumstance of his not being an ecclesi- astic may have rendered this Father somewhat less guarded in his public writings, I will not pretend to de- termine; but it is plain that even he thought it prudent so far to disguise or soften down some of the more sa- lient points of the doctrine of the Trinity as to present it to the minds of unbelievers in its least startling shape, knowing well that the charge of Polytheism was lying in wait for him, as well from Jews as from Gentiles, he refrains most cautiously, in his Apology, from asserting the co-eternity of the Son with the Father, and even, in some passages, expressly declares the inferior nature of the former ; — " Next after God, we adore and love that Word which is derived from the ineffable and unbegotten God." And again, in speaking of the Logos, "Than whom a more Royal and just Ruler, after God the Fa~ ther, we know not one." The charge of heterodoxy which such language has drawn down upon St. Justin w T ould appear not to be with- out some foundation, had we not the Discipline of the Se- cret to account for it satisfactorily, and did there not oc- cur other passages, in the very same document, where this veil of reserve is withdrawn and the true doctrine dis- closed to the Initiate. Of this nature is the following, showing clearly that the pure, orthodox belief, — that which holds the Son to have been generated, not created, and to have been with the Father from all eternity, — w T as the belief delivered to St. Justin, and by him taught to the baptized: — "But his Son, who alone is properly called his Son, the Word, who was with him and was be- gotten by him before the Creatures." Another writer of the same age, Irenseus, may be cited as yet more remarkable for the extent to which he has ventured to unveil both the Sacrifice in the Eucharist, ( 59 ) and, still more fully, the great mystery of the Eternal Generation of the Son. With so much bolder a hand than any of his successors has he laid open the depths of this latter doctrine, that in him alone does Whiston allow that there can be found any sanction for that high view of the Trinity, to which Whiston himself was opposed; but which, however apparently, at times, " shorn of its beams," has been, throughout every age of the Church, her unchanging doctrine. It was from want of attention to the operation of the Discipline of the Secret that Whiston and others have been led into exactly the same error, respecting the Trinity, that other Protestant di- vines have fallen into, on the subject of the Real corporal Presence. Far different, indeed, from the language of Justin and Irenseus was that held, on both these dogmas, by the Fathers of the following age, when the system of secrecy had begun strictly to be acted upon, and when, amidst the storms of persecution that gathered round their heads, the ministers of the Faith found in this holy Silence a protection both for their doctrines and themselves. No- thing, in truth, can show more strongly the difference that, in this respect, distinguished the two periods, than a comparison of the conduct of St. Justin with that of St. Cyprian, in situations very nearly similar. The former, as we have seen in his Defence of Christianity, addressed to the Princes of the Empire, did not hesitate so far to throw open the sanctuary of the Faith as to place before them its two great Arcana, the Trinity and the Real Presence ; whereas St. Cyprian, when, in like manner, called upon to stand forth in vindication of his religion, ventured no farther, in his public Epistle on the occa- sion, than to assert the doctrine of the Unity of God, leaving the Trinity and the mystic Sacraments of the Church wholly unmentioned. So cautiously, indeed, are the Christians of Cyprian's age known to have shrunk from all mention of the Tri- nity before the uninitiated, that* in reviewing the Acts of the Martyr, St. Pontius, the chief point on which the learned Schelstrate rests his conviction of their spurious- ness is their representing this Martyr as speaking openly of the Trinity before the emperors Philip, while still Gentiles, — a violation of the law of secrecy, on this sub- ( 60 ) ject of which no Christian would, at that time,* have been likely to be guilty. Were we to form our judgment solely on some de- tached passages of Tertullian, Origen, and Lactantius, we must either come to Winston's conclusion, that the pre- sent accepted doctrine of the Trinity was not that of the primitive Church; or else suppose that the truth of this divine mystery, having broken out brightly and genuine- ly in the writings of St. Justin and Irenseus, was again, for an interval of a hundred and fifty years, eclipsed and lost. To give but an instance or two of the imperfect views, respecting the relation between Christ and God, which the Fathers of the third century suffered to glim- mer through their writings, we find the following unor- thodox passage in Tertullian on the subject : — " God was not always a Father or Judge, since he could not be a Father before he had a Son, nor a Judge before there was any sin ; and there was a time when both sin and the Son were not." The fear of drawing upon themselves the imputation of Polytheism from the Gentiles appears to have been one of the chief motives with these holy men for their reserve respecting the Trinity ; and how readily disposed were not only the Pagans, but some of the heretics, to found such an accusation on this doctrine appears from the account given by Tertullian of the Sabellians of his day, whose first question, as he tells us, in meeting any of the orthodox, was, " Well, my friends, do we believe in one God or three P 1 It was evidently to counteract such an impression that St. Cyprian, as we have seen, in his Letter to the Proconsul of Africa, contented himself with solely establishing the Unity of God ; and that ano- ther learned Father, Lactantius, about half a century later, thought it prudent to put forth the following decla- ration : — " Our Saviour taught that there is but one God, and that he alone is to be worshipped; nor did he ever say once himself that he was God. For, he had not been * There occur also some instances of the same strict observance of secrecy, in the second century. Thus, we find. Alexander, the Martyr, when preaching to the prisoners, made no mention of the Holy Spirit, nor of the mystery of the Trinity; and when ordered by Aurelius to explain all the dogmai of his faith, answered that he was not permit- ted by Christ to place holy things before dogs. ( 61 ) faithful to his trust, if, when he was sent to take away Polytheism, and assert the Unity of God, he had intro- duced another besides the one God. This had been not to preach the doctrine of one God, nor to do the business of him that sent him, but his own." — De vera Sapient. In a similar manner, with the view of removing those prejudices which were known to exist against Christi- anity, from a notion that, like Paganism, it sanctioned the worship of many Gods, we find Origen, in his Trea- tise on Prayer, going so far as almost to deny that Christ is to be considered an object of supplication or thanks- giving: — "But if we understand (says this Father) what Prayer is, care must be taken that no derivative Being be the object of Prayer, — no, not Christ himself, but only the God and Father of the Universe, to whom also our Saviour himself prayed, as we have before expounded, and as he teaches us to pray. For, when one said to him, Teach us to pray, he does not teach us to pray to himself, but to his Father, saying, ■ Our Father which art in hea- ven.' " It is from attending solely to passages such as these that not only calumniators of the Fathers, like Daille and Jurieu, but even Catholics of distinguished character, such as Petau and Huet,* have been led into the error of accusing the teachers of the early Church of Arianism ; whereas, a little more fairness in some of the theologians just named, and a little more industry in the others, would have enabled them to cite from writings of the very same Fathers, — writings produced under circum- stances that led them more freely to unfold the mysteries of their Faith, — passages fully asserting the dogma of the Tri-une Deity, in all its primitive, orthodox, and in- scrutable grandeur. Thus Tertullian, who, as we have seen, in addressing the Stoic Hermogenes, could so far shrink from the true exposition of this doctrine as to de- clare that there was a time when God was not a Father, and had not a Son, has yet, in his Defence of the Trinity against Praxeas, given conclusive evidence of his belief * This learned Catholic, in referring to the heretical opinions which are to be found in such passages as I have above cited from the Fa- thers, doubts whether to impute them to impiety or unskilfulness. But the self-imposed restraint, under which they, at times wrote, af- fords the true clew to all such difficulties. 6 ( 62 ) in the in-dwelling of the Word with God from all eternity ; and has, moreover, in one sentence, defined the consub- stantial union of the Three Persons as strictly as was af- terwards done by Athanasius himself, — calling" it " Una substantia in tribus cohffirentibus." In a like manner, too, Origen, notwithstanding passages such as I have above cited from him, which lower our Saviour in the scale of Being to a rank secondary and derivative, has asserted so orthodoxly, in other parts of his writings, the co-equality of the Son, in Godship, with the Father, as to have drawn from Bishop Bull, the defender of the Nicene Anathema, the praise of perfect orthodoxy. The natural working, indeed, of the wary policy which gave to these writers such an appearance of inconsistency, may be traced visibly through the course of the writings of St. Clement of Alexandria, in some of the earlier of which the equality of the Son to the Father is expressly maintained ;* while, in his subsequent works, whether yielding to prudence, or to that admiration of the occult wisdom of the Greeks which he so warmly avows, f he withdraws this bolder view of the nature of the Re- deemer, and represents him, almost invariably, as a sub- ordinate and created Being. That this reserve and ambiguity on the subject of the Trinity continued to be practised to as late a period as the middle of the fourth century appears from the follow- ing remarkable passage, in one of the Catechesses of St. Cyril of Jerusalem, which is in itself confirmatory of my view of the whole system : — " ^Ye do not declare the Mysteries concerning the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost to a Heathen; nor do we speak plainly to the Catechu- mens about those Mysteries. But we may say many things often in an occult way, that the Faithful who know them may understand them; and that those who do not understand them may not be hurt thereby." * His words are, if I recollect right. t£ir*Shtc ra 7r±rgi. * f In citing the words of St. Paul, "We speak the wisdom of God in a mystery, even the hidden mystery/' Clement remarks that the Holy Apostle here observes " the prophetic and really ancient concealment, from whence the excellent doctrines of the Grecian philosophers were- derived to them."' ( 63 ) CHAPTER XIII Doctrine of the Incarnation. — Importance attached to it by Christ himself. — John vi.— Ignatius. — Connexion between the Incarnation and the Real Presence. — Concealment of the latter doctrine by the Fathers. — Proofs of this concealment. Having dwelt thus long- upon the influence which that rule of policy, called the Discipline of the Secret, exer- cised so manifestly over the writings of the Fathers on the subject of the Trinity, I shall now proceed to show that the same influence, — though certainly, in many in- stances, to a much less considerable degree — affected the public writings of these same Fathers, on the no less vi- tal and mysterious doctrine of the Eucharist. It may be observed to have been chiefly round those points of belief on which the Christians felt themselves most exposed to the charge of borrowing from the theo- logy of the Heathens that they took the most especial care to throw the protection of this sacred silence. Of this description was, as I have already shown, the Trini- ty ; arid in the same predicament, as doctrines liable to be misrepresented, were the great mysteries of the Son- ship and the Incarnation; the former of which the philo- sophic Gentiles exclaimed against, as originating in the same gross notions which had dictated the genealogy of the Heathen Gods; while, by such scoffers as Celsus, the Incarnation of the EternaJ Word was compared to those transformations which Jupiter underwent in his multifari- ous love-adventures. In truth, the very first great point of the Christian scheme of Redemption which Christians themselves, in the presumptuous exercise of their judg- ment, dared to call into question, was the Incarnation of the Redeemer. Under the very eyes of our Lord himself there arose, as we have seen, a sect of heretics,* who, refusing to believe that Spirit so pure could clothe itself in corrupt flesh, chose rather to deny his humanity, and thus, in fact, nullify his mission as a Redeemer by re- * The Docette. See page 20, ( 64 ) moving that only link between the divine and human na- ture through which a mediation, implying sympathies with both, could be effected. To obviate the mischiefs of this heresy, — coeval, as it would seem, with Christianity itself, and confirm the truth of the manifestation of God in the Flesh, was, it is evident, one of the most anxious objects, as well of our Saviour himself, as of those who acted under his autho- rity. Had we no other proof, indeed, of the prevalence of such an error, respecting his nature, the solicitude he showed, in his interview with the Apostles after his re- surrection, to convince them of his corporeality, by making them handle his limbs and by eating in their presence, w 7 ould be sufficient to prove" both the doubts, as to his humanity, that prevailed, and the immense importance which he himself attached to their removal : * Handle me (he says) and see ; for a Spirit hath not flesh and bones, as ye see me have :" or, as he is made to say, in an apo- cryphal work, cited by Origen,* " I am not an incorpo- real Demon." In the First Epistle of St. John, we find those heretics who denied the reality of Christ's body thus denounced : — " Every spirit that confesseth that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is of God ; and every spirit that confesseth not that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is not of God ; and this is that spirit of Antichrist whereof ye have heard that it should come ; and even now already is it in the world." It is, indeed, supposed to have been principally with the view of obviating so dangerous an error that the same Apostle wrote his Gospel ; and not only the earnest- ness with which he anathematizes this heresy in his Epis- tle, but also the pains taken by him, as Evangelist, to as- sure the world of the real death of Christ and of the issuing of real blood and water from his wounded side, render such a view of his design, in writing this sacred narrative, both natural and rational. It is, in fact, the 6th chapter of his Gospel, — that re- markable chapter, whose testimony to the marvellous na- ture and virtues of the Eucharist the ingenuity of Pro- testant Divines so vainly labours to explain away, — that we find the very strongest proof of the vital importance * The Doctrine of Peter.— Origin, de Princip. ( 65 ) attached, in the Christian scheme, to the establishment of the verity of Christ's flesh and blood. Nor can it be doubted that, as St. John's main object, in this Gospel, was to refute and extinguish that pernicious heresy which, by denying the reality of the flesh of Christ, would deprive mankind of the benefits of his Incarnation, so the stress which he here represents our Saviour as laying upon the ever blessed and life-giving effects of the Eu- charist has evidently the same most momentous object in view, — showing emphatically that this miraculous Sacra- ment was, as it were, a sequel to the mystery of the In- carnation ; and that the mighty privileges and benefits which the latter had procured for mankind, were, by the former, to be perpetuated and commemorated through all time. That such* was the light in which our Saviour himself represented this Sacrament, in that memorable discourse uttered by him in the Synagogue, at Capernaum, none but those who perversely wrest the word of God to their own rash judgments, will venture to deny. " One princi- pal motive," says a learned Protestant writer, " that mo- dem Divines have to deny that John vi. is to be taken of the Eucharist is this, viz, that the effects and conse- quences there attributed to the eating and drinking Christ's flesh and blood (especially that of eternal life and all evangelical blessings annexed to it) are too great and valuable to be applied to the Communion."* Nothing can be more just or candid than this remark. Hence, in truth, all the wretched shifts resorted to by Church of England divinesf for the purpose of robbing the * Johnson's Unbloody Sacrifice. t Thus, Dr. Whitby, adopting, in matter-of-fact seriousness, that allegorical and analogical mode of interpretation, which Clement of Alexandria and Origen employed to mystify their hearers, had the conscience to maintain that by the phrases " eating his flesh" and " drinking his blood," in John vi., Christ meant nothing more than ,; believing his doctrines!" On this opinion Johnson remarks,— " It must be owned that if our Saviour, by men's eating his flesh and drinking his blood, meant nothing but so obvious a thing as receiving him and his doctrine by faith and obedience, he clothed his thoughts in most unnatural language." and again, "We may as properly be said to eat and drink the Trinity by believing in it as to eat the body of Christ by bare faith." Next came Bishop Hoadley, who, rejecting all application of John vi. to the Eucharist whatever, described the discourse of our Saviour in the Synagogue as " only a very high figurative representation to 6* ( 66 ) Catholic doctrine of the support of th's chapter, and ena- bling the Protestant to sink the mir: culous character ot the Eucharist down to the " low" view * taken of it by the Socinians and Hoadleyites. But the sense of all the great teachers of Christianity is against them ; and, above all, of those earliest in the field of the Faith. The apostoli- cal Ignatius, who had been the disciple of him ' ; who wrote these things," and had doubtless heard, from the holy Penman's own lips, their true import and spirit, un- derstood, manifestly, by the promise of Eternal Life con- veyed on that occasion, no vaguely allegorical lesson of faith or doctrine, but a clear assurance of a happy resur- rection and immortality, to be derived from that commu- nion with the body of Christ which is enjoyed by eating his flesh and drinking his blood in the Eucharist. Hence it is that the holy Ignatius speaks of this Sacrament, in language which no other part of Scripture, but this Chap- ter of John, justifies; — calling it, on the strength of the privileges and virtues there annexed to it, the Medicine of Immortality and Antidote against Death. How perfectly the view taken of the Eucharist by the Catholics, namely, that it was part and parcel of the mys- tery of the Incarnation, — was understood by the Gnostic Christians themselves, is evident from their conduct. For this reason was it that the Docetse absented themselves, the Jews then about him of their duty and obligation to receive to their hearts and digest his whole doctrine as the food and life of their souls." Dr. Waterland, who disapproved alike of Whitby's doctrinal interpretation and Hoadley's reduction of the Sacrament to a mere communicative Feast, is of opinion that the Chapter in question may be applied to the Eucharist, but not interpreted of it ; and brings for- ward a theory of his own respecting " Spiritual Eating and Drink- ing,' 1 of the merits of which some judgment may be formed from the fact that, though disapproving of Whitby's notion of eating doctrines, he himself interprets a passage of St. Paul (Heb. xiii. 10.) to mean, eat- ing the atonement! — (Review of the Doctrine of the Eucharist, p. 145.) In order to get rid, too, of the testimony of St. Ignatius to the true meaning of John vi., Dr. Waterland contends that this holy man, in speaking of his enjoyment of " the Bread of Life," had no reference whatever to the Eucharist in his thoughts, but, being then about to suffer martyrdom, was merely looking forward to the prospect of eat- ing of Christ's Flesh, in the other world! p. 153. Such are the straits to which men are always sure to be driven who endeavour to make out a case where there is no case to be made. * " If any person think this a low character of such a rite instituted by our Lord himself, upon so great and remarkable occasion," &c. &c— Bishop Hoadley, Plain Account of the Mature and End of the Sacra- mint of the Loxd's Supper. ( 67 ) as we have seen, from public worship, — not that the sect, in genera], entertained any objection to the Eucharist, according" to their own fantastic and spiritualizing view of it, but because they were unwilling to sanction, by joining in communion with the orthodox, that belief in the reality of the flesh present which the latter, it was known, maintained. That the Fathers regarded this Sacrament in the same light, — viewing it not only as a continuance, but as an ^extension of the Incarnation,* — a great abundance of pas- sages might be adduced to prove. Thus, for instance, St. Gregory of Nyssa, draws a comparison between the two JYlysteries : — " The body of Christ (says this Father) was by the inhabitation of the Word of God transmuted into •a divine dignity, and so I now believe, that the bread sanctified by the Word of God is transmuted into the body of the Word of God. This bread, as the Apostle says, is sanctified by the Word of God and Prayer, not that, as food, it passes into the body, but that it is instantly changed into the body of Christ, agreeably to what he said, This is my Body. And therefore does the Divine Word commix itself with the weak nature of man, that, by partaking of the divinity, our humanity may be exalted." In like manner, we find St. Ambrose pointing out the same analogy between the deified flesh and the deified bread. Af- ter asserting the dogma of Transubstantiation in its highest Catholic sense, he proceeds, — " We will now examine the truth of the mystery from the example itself of the Incarna tion. Was the order of nature followed, when Jesus was born of a virgin] Plainly not. Then why is that order to be looked for here V 9 Many other passages, to the same pur- port, might be adduced from the Fathers: but it is need- jess to multiply citations. The very view taken by the early Christians of the miraculous change of the elements implies that they considered the Eucharist as a kindred mystery with that of the Incarnation; — as the wonderful * By calling the Eucharist an extension of the Incarnation, they meant that while, in the latter mystery, Christ but joined himself to one individual nature, and to no one person, in the former he joins him- self not only to all individual natures, but also to their very persons. 41 Earn quam idcirco Patres Incarnationis extensionem appellarunt. In illaenim uni individual naturae sese adjunxit, nulli persons; at in ista se singulis individuis, imoetiam personis adjunxit." — DeLingin> des Condones de Sanctissimo Eucharistia Sacramento, ( 68 ) means, in short, by which Christ perpetually renews his incarnate presence upon earth, and continues to feed hi3 creatures with the same flesh by which he redeemed them. — »»©@©<4««— CHAPTER XIV. Concealment of the Doctrine of the Eucharist. — Proofs.— Calumnies on the Christians.— Protestant view of this Sacrament— not that taken by the early Christians. When so great, as we have seen, was the solicitude and watchfulness with which the Church screened from the eyes of the profane all her other great dogmas, with no less jealous care would she conceal, or, at least, soften down, through the medium of enigmatic language, a doc- trine so mysterious and astounding as that of the Real Presence, — the test most trying of all (next, perhaps, to the Trinity) of that implicit faith, by which, as by its sheet-anchor, the -whole Christian scheme of salvation holds. Accordingly, we are not only expressly told that this dogma was among the most hidden deposites of the Secret, but the language employed by the few Fathers, who, in the third age, ventured to allude to it, shows with what sensitive caution they shrunk from any disclosure of its true nature. Thus Origen talks mysteriously and vaguely of " eating the offered breads, which by prayers are made a certain holy body" St. Cyprian, too, in relating, with an awe that betrays his real belief, the miraculous cir- cumstance of a warning having been given to some pro- faner of the Sacrament by a flame bursting forth from the box that held the consecrated bread, describes the box thus signalized, as " containing the Holy Thing of the Lord." Nothing, indeed, could show more strikingly both how awful were the associations with which they invested this mystery themselves, and how jealous was their fear lest it should become known to the infidel, than the lan- guage of another Father of this time, Tertullian, who, in ( 69 ) representing to his wife the consequences of her marry- ing a Pagan after his death, says, — " You would, by mar- rying an infidel, thereby fall into this fault, that the Pa- gans would come to the knowledge of our mysteries. Will not your husband know what you taste in secret, before any other food; and, if he perceives bread, will he not image that it is what is so much spoken of!" — Ad Uxorum, lib. ii. c. 5. In the following century we find St. Basil alluding covertly to the Eucharist as " the Com- munion of the Good Thing;" and Epiphanius, when obliged to describe before uninitiated hearers, the Insti- tution of this Sacrament, thus slurs over the particulars of that astounding event: " We see that our Lord took a thing in his hands, as we read in the Gospel, that he rose from table, that he resumed the things, and having given thanks, he said, this is my somewhat." Even St. Gregory of Nyssa, by whom the great mira- cle of the Metastoicheiosis, or Transubstantiation, is put forth more boldly and definitely than by almost any of his predecessors, yet, in one of his most explicit passages on the subject, and in a writing too, intended expressly for the initiated, stops short, as if awe-struck, when about to men- tion the word " body," and leaves to the minds of his hear- ers to fill up the blank. — " These things he gives us by virtue of the blessing, changing the nature of the visible things into — that." There can hardly, perhaps, be a better proof of the ex- treme secrecy with which this mystery was guarded than that Arnobius, who was but a Catechumen when he wrote upon Christianity, had been kept in such ignorance of the use made of wine in this rite, that in a passage where he reproaches, if I recollect right, the Pagans, with their libations to the Deities, he tauntingly demands of them, "What has God to do with wineTf Still enough, notwithstanding this system of reserve and secrecy, had transpired respecting the Christian doc- trine of the Eucharist, to set the imagination and male- volence of unbelievers at work. Indistinct notions of dark, forbidden Feasts, where, it was said, flesh and blood were served up to the guests, became magnified by the fancies of the credulous into the most monstrous fictions. * " Quid Deo cum vino est?" ( ™ ) Stories were told and believed of the dreadful rites prac- tised by the Christians in their Initiations ; — of an infant covered with paste, being set before the new comer, on which he was required to inflict the first murderous stab, and then partake of its flesh and blood with the rest, as their common pledge of secrecy. It is not difficult, of course, to see, through all this disfigurement of calumny, the true doctrine of which the profane had caught these perverting glimpses. By such monstrous imputations was it that some of the most cruel persecutions of the Christians were provoked and justified ; and yet no power of cruelty, not the ago- nies of death itself, could wrest their secret from them. Had they seen nothing more in this sacrament than a simple type or memorial, such as the Arminian and Soci- nian consider it, they had but to say so, and not only per- secution would have been thus foiled of its prey, but, what was of still dearer import to them, their creed would have won more ready acceptance. But no: — far more "hard to be understood" was the secret object of their worship ; and, when asked, as they were frequently by the Pagans, " Why conceal what you adore ?" their answer might have been, with truth, " Because we adore it." They saw, as the Catholics see to this day, what in- sulting profanation such doctrine is, in the hands of the incredulous, exposed to; in what mire of ridicule and blasphemy their "holy things" would be rolled; and, ac- cordingly, even when threatened with torments to extort from them their secret, they saw but one duty before them — to be silent, and die. Had Christian antiquity bequeathed to us, on the sub- ject of the Eucharist, no other evidence than this solemn and significant silence, — had we not also the ancient Li- turgies of the Church, and the catechetical writings of her Fathers, to bear ample testimony to the Catholic doc- trine, on this point, — there still would have been, in this very mystery and silence, abundant evidence to convince any reasoning mind, that the Protestant notion of the Eu- charist could not have been that entertained by the Pri- mitive Christians. The simple history, in short, of this doctrine's reception and progress, through all its earlier stages, would be more than sufficient for such a pur- pose. For, to maintain that a mystery which, on its first ( 71 ) promulgation, startled our Lord's disciples themselves,— which the Gnostic heretics of the first age shrunk from, as involving the doctrine of the Incarnation, — which the Pa- gans, from some indistinct glimpses of its real nature, re- presented as a murderous repast, a feast of " abominable meats," — which by the Priests themselves who admi- nistered it was seldom spoken of but as a " tremendous mystery," one to be guarded from the eyes of the infidel, at the price of life itself, — to assert, that the dread object of all this concealment and worship, this amazement, hor- ror, adoration, alarm, was nothing more than a simple sign or memorial, a mere representation of our Saviour's body and blood under the symbols of bread and wine, a sacramental food in which Christ's presence is figurative, not real, and to which, therefore, consisting as it does of mere bread and wine, to offer up any adoration is an act of idolatry, — to expect to have it believed, for a moment, by any one who has at all inquired into the subject, that such and no more was the sense attached to this divine ordinance by the first Christians, is, on the part of the Protestants, I must say, a most gross and wholesale de- mand of that implicit faith, from others, of which they are so perilously sparing themselves. When again, too, after contemplating all those awful circumstances which marked the reception and obser- vance of this rite among mankind, we look back to the stupendous occasion on which it was first instituted; when we recollect the dreadful denunciations of the Apos- tle against such as, by irreverence to this Sacrament, are "guilty of the body and blood of the Lord," and remem- ber that some, among the Corinthians, who " discerned not the Lord's body," were smitten by God with diseases and death,* — we cannot but marvel at the responsibility those Christians take upon themselves, who venture to cast off the ancient Faith, upon this most vital of its doc- trines; who, first, refining away our Saviour's solemn declaration on the subject,! dispose, in the same manner, * 1 Corinth, xi. 30. t As the Reformer, Zuinglius, took the liberty of altering Christ's language, and reads, " This signifies my body," so Bishop Hoadley, in like manner, presumes to supply a word which he thinks wanting, and makes it '-This / call my body." It is remarkable enough, indeed, that Protestants who are so much for referring to the language of Scripture, on every occasion, should yet, in this important instanee, ( « ) of the Apostle's comment upon that text; and, in the very face of his denouncements against those who " dis- cern not the Lord's body" in this Sacrament, venture de- liberately to deny that the Lord's body is there ! -~*>>e©®«« CHAPTER XV. Concealment of the Eucharist— most strict in Third Century.— St. Cy^ prian — his timidity— favourite Saint of the Protestants. — Alleged proofs- against Transubstantiation. — Theodoret. — Gelasius. — Belie' vers in the Catholic Doctrine of the Eucharist, Erasmus, Pascal, Sir Thomas More, Fenelon, Leibnitz, Sec. From what I have said, in the preceding Chapter, of the system of mystery and restraint which the Fathers of the third and fourth centuries, hut more particularly of the former, thought it politic to impose upon themselves in speaking of the Eucharist, it will not be deemed won- derful that there should occur passages in their public writings and discourses, which, being intended by them to be ambiguous, have fully attained that object ; and that, designed originally as such passages were to veil the truth from the unbeliever and the heretic, they should, to eyes wilfully blind, still perform the same office. The only wonder, indeed, is, taking all the circumstances we have here reviewed into consideration, that the number of passages affording this sort of handle to misapprehen- sion should have been so inconsiderable; and that, not- withstanding all the fastidious caution of the Fathers, on this subject, such a mass of explicit evidence should still be found in their writings ; — evidence so abundant and convincing as, w 7 ith any unbiassed mind, to place the truth question its most express and simple declaration,— a declaration re- peated, in almost exactly the same words by three of the Evangelists, as well as by St. Paul, and explained, exactly in the same sense, by our Saviour, in the discourse reported by St. John. " Unam perpetuo says an obscure, but sensible writer) Scripturam clamitant ; set ubi- ventum est ad earn, auditis quomodo legant. Tarn aperta sunt verba; in omnibus Evangelistis sunt eadem. Omnia tamen perrertunt, om- nia ad haeresim suum trahunt." ( 73 ) of the Catholic doctrine, respecting the Eucharist, beyond all question. It was in the third century, when the followers of Christ were most severely tried by the fires of persecu- tion, that the discipline of secrecy, with respect to this and the other mysteries, was most strictly observed. " A faithful concealment," says Tertullian, " is due to all mysteries from the very nature and constitution of them, How much more must it be due to such mysteries as, if they were once discovered, could not escape immediate punishment from the hand of man" — (Ad Nation. L. 1.) It may be conceived with what peculiar force such a mo- tive to secrecy would be likely to act upon minds natu- rally timid, — such as that of St. Cyprian, for instance, whose indisposition to martyrdom, however firmly he at last met it, when inevitable, was evinced on more than one occasion when he prudently withdrew himself from its grasp. We find, accordingly, in conformity with this timidity of character, that, among the observers of the Discipline of the Secret, he is allowed to have been one of the most circumspect and close. It is, indeed, curious, not only as illustrative of the cha- racter of the individual, but as part of that kindred desti- ny which seems to have attended, throughout, the two Catholic dogmas of the Trinity and the Real Presence, that the same cautious St. Cyprian who, in his public let- ter to the Proconsul of Africa, thought it prudent to keep the Trinity entirely out of sight, should have been also the individual who, by his evasive language, concerning the Eucharist, has been the means of furnishing the op- ponents of a real, corporal Presence with almost the only semblance of plausible authority by which they support their heresy.* Little did he think, good Saint, that a day would come, when this prudence or timidity, would be made to pass for orthodoxy, and when, — sturdy a stick- ler as he was for the supremacy of the Roman See, — he should attain the eminence, such as it is, of being the prime Saint of Protestants I * Even St. Cyprian, however, couTd not help, on occasion, letting the doctrine escape. Thus he says that, in the Eucharist, " we touch Christ's body and drink his blood;" and, in an Epistle to Pope Corne- lius, speaking of the victims of persecution, he says, " How shall we teach them to shed their blood for Christ, if, before they go to battle, we do not give them his blood ?" 7 ( *4 ) It would be amusing, — were not so awful a point of faith the subject of such trifling. — to observe the self- complacent triumph with which a Protestant controvert- ist sits brooding over one of these intentionally unmean- ing passages of the Fathers, hatching it into an argu- ment. It matters not that the holy writer from whom the passage is extracted has, in a hundred others, preg- nant both with meaning and with truth, borne testimony to the belief of his Church in that mighty miracle, — that fulfilment of a God's express promise which takes place under the veil of the Eucharist. It matters not : — the one convenient passage is alone brought forward again and again ; the professional controvertist must still show him- self in the lists, however "falsified "* his armour; and though se//*-deception is not always practicable in such cases, the great point is still gained of deceiving others. The argument drawn from the occasional application of the words "type," "sign," " figure,"