LECTURES ON ROMANISM.

LECTURES ON ROMANISM,

ILLUSTRATIONS AND REFUTATIONS

ERRORS OF ROMANISM AND TRACTARIANISM.

REV. JOHN CUMMING, D.D.
MINISTER OP THE SCOTTISH NATIONAL CHURCH, CROWN COURT, COVENT GARDEN,
LONDON.

*' Beloved, when I gave all diligence to write unto you of the common salvation, it
was needful for me to write unto you, and exhort you that ye should earnestly
contend for the faith which was once delivered unto the saints." — Jude iii.

BOSTON:
PUBLISHED BY JOHN P. JEWETT AND COMPANY.
CLEVELAND, OHIO:
JEWETT, PKOCTOB, AND WOMB
1854.

CAMBRIDGE :
ALLEN AND FARNHAM, STERE0TYPER8 AND PRINTERS.

PREFACE.

Large editions of this Work have been sold in
England. This edition contains much additional
matter. The first two Lectures were deKvered at
the Hanover Rooms in the autumn of 1850. The
other Lectures have been recast by their author, their
positions strengthened, the quotations verified, .'and
the references given. The Lecturer has rewritten
some parts, rendered plainer and more perspicuous
other parts, and, where it appeared desirable, he
has added new explanatory and illustrative notes.
The absorbing controversy of the age will lie
between the principles of the Reformation on the
one side, and the principles of Romanism, whether
openly avowed and embodied in the Canons of the
Council of Trent, and in the Canon Law, or more
dimly shadowed forth and expressed by the Tracta
rian party. The unhappy disputes which have
divided Protestants, both in England and in Scot
land, about mere abstractions or questions of eccle
siastical finance, or forms and ceremonies, or patron-

PREFACE.

age, or popular elections of ministers, are, it is feared,
the too successful attempts of the great enemy to
weaken the side of truth, in order to strengthen the
forces and facilitate the victories of Antichrist. It
is certainly the fact, that great divisions among
Protestants have always preceded Rome's greatest
triumphs. Believing this, every true Christian ought to do
his utmost to repress internal disputes and conten
tions among true believers ; and where it is impossi
ble to secure outward uniformity, to labor to nourish
that forbearance in love — that gentleness and ten
derness of language — that peacemaking and peace-
maintaining course of action, which, if it do not
heal, will at least mitigate the schisms and heart
burnings and strifes of the day. The noblest uni
formity consists in resembling Christ, and the truest
unity in loving Christ.

CONTENTS.

LECTURE I.
PAGES
The Teaching of Cakdinal Wiseman .... 1

LECTURE II.
Cardinal Wiseman, " his Oath, and its Obligations " 38
LECTURE III.
What is Popekt?  84
LECTURE IV.
Is Tkactaeianism Popeky?  98
LECTURE V.
Romish Plausible Pretensions  126
LECTURE VI.
Apostolical Succession  159
LECTURE VII.
The Unity of the Church  193

CONTENTS.
LECTURE VIII.

The Fathers

LECTURE IX.
The Nicene Church .

202

238

LECTURE X.
The Bible, not Tradition .... .264
LECTURE XI.
The Invocation of Saints  295
LECTURE XII.
Transubstantiation  332
LECTURE XIII.
The Sacrifice of the Mass  359
LECTURE XIV.
Purgatory  391

MISCELLANEOUS.

The Barnet Discussion 
Review of Dr. Newman's Lectures .
Romish Miracles 
Romanism not the Patron, but the Persecutor of
Science  ...

421 501 593703

THE GREAT APOSTASY.

LECTURE I.
THE TEACHING OF CARDINAL WISEMAN.*
I rise to express my deep regret that so many are incon
venienced by the pressure, on the one hand ; but, on the
other, to own my gratitude to God that the popularity, or
rather invasion of Dr. Wiseman, has brought together so
large a number to protest against his new and daring assump
tion of power, preeminence, and spiritual jurisdiction in this
land. I cannot, I believe, do better than commence the lec
ture which I am asked to deliver, by reading what appears
to me to be one of the most precious and memorable docu
ments that have proceeded from high official authority at
any period, or under any crisis, in our history since the
Reformation, or from any quarter — I allude to that noble,
Protestant, and faithful letter addressed by Lord John
Russell to the Bishop of Durham, which has just appeared ;
a document which, I confess, I expected from his Lordship,
believing that his principles were as they are there so elo
quently and justly embodied. It is, I think, a document
that gives the crowning blow to the mighty, wide spread,
and, I doubt not, ultimately successful efforts that have been
made by the daily metropolitan press to enable all to appre
ciate the crisis, as well as to arouse the sympathies of Pro
testants against this invasion. It is, perhaps, supererogatory
* Delivered in the Hanover Square Rooms, Thursday, Nov. 7, 1850.
1

2 THE GEEAT AP0STA8T.
to read the letter of his Lordship, as it is, I believe, in all
the morning papers. But there is one part of it which I
cannot but notice with delight : " I confess, however," says
his Lordship, " that my alarm is not equal to my indigna
tion." We feel no alarm. There is no ground for alarm.
We feel just and strong indignation. He then states, " that
the present state of the law shall be carefully examined,
and the propriety of adopting any proceedings with refer
ence to the recent assumptions of power deliberately con
sidered." I have no doubt that this will be done. It is
demanded by the country at large ; and such a sentiment
comes with the greater grace from that distinguished noble
man, who advocated what are called the claims of 1829,
than from those who were despised as prophets at the time,
and who spoke but too near the truth, when they expressed
their fears, that that measure was not so expedient in all
respects as some supposed it to be. Lord John Russell pen
etrates the secret of this unprecedented invasion. There
must have been a previous temptation. I need not tell you
that even the cholera itself does not strike its victim unless
there be a contaminated air to act as its conductor ; and Car
dinal Wiseman, who personates a moral and spiritual pesti
lence, as I am prepared to show, would never have been
pontifically dropped in the midst of us, if it had not been
represented to the Pope — more or less truly, it remains for
each to determine for himself — that our moral and eccle
siastical atmosphere was thoroughly tainted, and that he
might expect to meet not with resistance, but with a cordial
welcome. The Premier says, therefore, " Clergymen of our
own Church, who have subscribed the Thirty-nine Articles,
and acknowledged in explicit terms the Queen's supremacy,
have been the most forward in leading their flocks, ' step by
step to the very verge of the precipice ' " [A slight disturb
ance here took place in some of the most densely crowded
parts of the room.] I beg to make one little request, and it

THE TEACHING OF CARDINAL WISEMAN. 3
is this : I know there are Eoman Catholics present in the
room ; and I know, too, that the friends of the new Arch
bishop of Westminster will be most gratified, if they can only
prevail upon Protestants not acquainted with their tact to call
out, " Quiet," " Order," or to make any noise that will prevent
me from being heard. Having, with my friend Admiral
Harcourt, some practical experience in this matter, I will
promise to manage the Cardinal's friends, if the Protestants
will only take care of themselves and their own interests, and
be quiet. " The honor," says the Premier, " paid to saints,
the claim of infallibility for the Church, the superstitious use
of the sign of the cross, the muttering of the liturgy, so as to
disguise the language in which it is written, the recom
mendation of auricular confession." Perhaps some do not
know what is meant by muttering the language of the liturgy :
I have heard some ministers read it — I do not like that; I
have heard some ministers intone it — I like that still less ; I
have heard other ministers 'pray it — -I like that excessively.
"All these things are pointed out by clergymen of the
Church of England as worthy of adoption, and are now
openly reprehended by the Bishop of London in his Charge
to the clergy of his diocese." I must say, in reference to the
letter of the Bishop of London, to which Lord John alludes,
addressed to the Westminster clergy, and after thorough
examination, that it is a document truly Protestant, and well
fitted to direct the clergy to a healthier tone of preaching.
Having read these extracts from the letter of the Premier,
I beg to state, in addressing you this day,, that I have no
pretensions to greater acumen, or to a juster appreciation
of the crisis in which we are placed, than thousands of my
brethren in London ; but having long and laboriously studied
this subject, I felt that there was a possibility of the tide
which has set in with such strength and force, running in
the wrong direction :— that it was just possible we might, in
our hatred of this gross invasion, fly to the extreme of

4 THE GREAT APOSTASY.
renewing pains and penalties which are not expedient, or
engaging in a proscriptive and persecuting, and merely poli
tical course, which I conceive would be attended with no
great practical advantage.
As you may suppose, I have no personal hostility to his
Eminence, if you will allow me to call him so, or to the
Archbishop, as he assumes to be, of Westminster. Cardinal
Wiseman is a distinguished scholar, a most accomplished sci
entific writer ; and any one acquainted with his work upon
science and religion will be ready to own that he is a scholar
of the very highest order in that particular department ;
but this must not lead you to suppose that being a perfect
scholar, he has therefore a presumption that he must be a
perfect theologian and a true Christian. It is possible to
know every star in the firmament, and yet to be ignorant of
the " Bright and Morning Star ; " it is possible to know all
the stores that are in the golden mines of the earth, and yet
to be as destitute as ignorant of " the unsearchable riches of
Christ;" it is possible to know every flower that beautifies
the garden, and yet not to know the " Rose of Sharon ;" to
have all the knowledge of all the encyclopaedias of the
world, and yet to be ignorant of that which even a Sunday
school child knows — ¦ the answer to the question, which the
Protestant Church alone can give, " What must I do to be
saved ? " — " Believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou
shalt be saved." I have no desire, on the other hand, to
interfere with the rights and the privileges, whatever they
may be, of my Roman Catholic fellow-countrymen. Cardinal
Wiseman has as great liberty to tread the soil, and breathe "
the air of Old England, provided he conform to its laws,
as the Archbishop of Canterbury, the Bishop of London, or
any layman in the arch-diocese of the one or the diocese of
the other. We do not wish to take from him his civil rights
and privileges, but we meet here to protest — while we
acknowledge he is entitled to all the rights of a citizen — that

THE TEACHING OF CARDINAL WISEMAN. 5
he has no right, at the dictation of a foreign potentate, and
that potentate an Italian priest, and that priest notoriously
a mischief-maker, to parcel out Old England into Popish
dioceses, and claim all baptized men as subjects amenable to
his power and jurisdiction. But I do not desire, at least in
this lecture, to regard our visitor in red as a cardinal at all.
He assumes, on the one hand, to be a cardinal — that is, a
temporal prince ; aud if as a temporal prince he meddle with
the rights and the privileges and the jurisdiction of our most
gracious Sovereign, judging from the letter of Lord John
Russell, and no less so from the mettle and temper of our
country, I am satisfied he will meet with that resistance
which will tell him how great a blunder his master has per
petrated in sending him here. As a minister of the Gospel
myself, I treat him on this occasion as an archbishop, pro
fessing to teach certain doctrines, and to inculcate certain
lessons ; and I wish to ascertain by sober analysis— not by
presenting to you the sunshine of rhetoric or of flowers, but
the daylight of plain truth, argument, and fact — whether
Westminster will be very much benefited by getting rid of
or superseding the ministers that now instruct it, and open
ing its ears to the instructions of his Eminence the Cardinal
Archbishop of Westminster. Whatever, let me add, be his
teaching — however obnoxious his presence, we must be
careful not to tread in the least degree upon the verge of
what might be considered or construed as persecution. I
believe that persecution never yet recovered a pervert, and
it never yet made a convert. If the sword is to be
* Unsheathed, let it be unsheathed by the friends of the Car
dinal, not by the friends of the Protestant Church. If the
fagots are to be kindled, let them be kindled by Pius IX.,
not by those who have learned a more excellent lesson. For
if you begin to persecute, depend upon it, men's sympathy
with the suffering victim will make them forget the dead-
liness and darkness of the error which he teaches; and
1*

6 THE GREAT APOSTASY.
instead of advancing the grand design you have in view, you
will materially impede and arrest it.
I do not, in the next place, I confess, sympathize very
much with those who wish to treat the Cardinal on what are
called mere ecclesiastical grounds. You are aware that
there is a class alluded to by the Prime Minister who say :
"We, the Protestant Church, will not send a bishop to
Rome to teach Protestantism there ; and we ask you, in all
courtesy and in all fairness, not to send a Popish bishop to
London to teach Popery there." It is not a question of
orders. I confess, if Protestantism be what the Pope de
signates it — a deadly heresy, and if Popery be what Cardi
nal Wiseman contends it is — a great truth, the Pope has
done or intended an act of great kindness in sending a car
dinal missionary to instruct us. But, on the other hand, if
it be the reverse, I cannot sympathize with that compact
which says to the Pope : " You keep your bishops in Aus
tria, in Italy, and in Spain ; and we will keep our bishops
in England and Ireland, and in the realms of her Majesty.''
Wherever you have free trade, let there be no free trade
with Popery — no compromise, no compact with the repre
sentatives ofthe Pope, or with the Pope himself; we must
protest against him and his principles, as our fathers did,
conceding, indeed, the largest husk of prejudice, but not
compromising the least living seed of vital Christianity.
Again, the Pope having, it is truly said, ignored the Pro
testant Church, and stated that it is no church at all, that its
ministers are not ministers at all, and that it cannot show
the people the way to heaven, I am astonished that any
should have expressed surprise at this phenomenon : it only
shows how important were the remarks of Admiral Har
court — when he stated that we should have learned this
controversy before. Instead of being surprised at what has
occurred we should have expected it. The predecessors ol
Pio Nono thought the same.

THE TEACHING OF CARDINAL WISEMAN. 7
But I may mention one thing that I have noticed, and
frequently thought of before — that if there be something so
excellent in Roman Catholic teaching that it is worth the
Pope's while to send a cardinal to London to supersede or
ignore the Protestant Church and teaching, it may be worth
while inquiring what has been the practical fruits of the
teaching of the Pope himself, the very chief of all, as well
as of the cardinals of Rome, to whose number Cardinal
Wiseman has recently been added in the city itself. In
1848 a great convulsion shook almost the globe — certainly
Europe — to its very centre. It has been found, in look
ing back to 1848, that there was then in Rome an eccle
siastic of some sort for every thirty people, and that there
was a priest for every seventy or eighty people. Now what
I argue is, that if the doctrine of the Church of Rome be so
precious, it has had a most splendid opportunity of develop
ing its effects and bearing fruits in what is called the capital
ofthe Christian world; so that if Popery has failed in
Rome, it has failed, not from want of hands to work it, or of
priests to represent it, but f«pm some inherent vice or defect
in the system itself. On looking to London, it is found that
there is not a minister of any denomination for every ten
thousand people ; and it might justly be argued, that if Pro
testantism has failed in London, it has failed from the simple
fact, that it is not adequately represented, and efficiently
carried out, and so brought home to the hearts, habits, and
consciences of the people. But what are the facts ? When
that revolution shook Europe in 1848, the subjects of the
Pope — of that city which was to be the model city of the
world — whose people, being at head-quarters, might be pre
sumed to be the holiest in the world — whose contiguity to
the Vicar of Christ should insure something far excellence
spiritual, holy, loyal, devoted, and perfect — on feeling the
first vibration of that earthquake, rose en masse — his " be
loved subjects," his own dear metropolitan people, his own

8 THE GREAT APOSTASY.
pet representatives of what Popery makes a people, and
what a people ought to be — rose en masse, and murdered
his prime minister before his face, dismissed him in a foot
man's livery upon a coachman's box ; and, judging by facts
that have since transpired, they are the last people to wish
him back again. But what took place in London ? The
same wave that washed away the Pope, swept the metropo
lis of Old England. A few of the Cardinal's friends, as pio
neers and preparatives, began to disturb our capital with
their crotchets, and to shout for some points which they pro
fessed or tried to believe to be right, but which were known
by all sensible men to be inconsistent with the rights of the
Sovereign and the liberties of the subject. They threatened
a rising, and began to agitate, and what actually occurred ?
Here, where Protestantism is inadequately brought home to
the people, from the want of a sufficient supply of teachers
and ministers — and this should make us cease our internal
quarrels — the whole mass of our population rose, as I saw
myself, and lined every street ; put down, by presenting
themselves, the pretensions and4he crotchets of the trouble
some, and rallied round their hearths and their homes, ready
to live for their Queen, and to die for their religion ; show
ing that Old England's shores are not more proof against
the influx of the sea, than her head and heart against the
tides of revolution. If, then, Protestantism makes us so
loyal, it is worth keeping ; and if the Pope's religion has
utterly failed to make his own dear people loyal, it is
scarcely worth having.
I am most anxious we should stand on firm ground. I
therefore hope there may be nothing personal in our present
movement ; it is a conflict with principles, not with persons.
While we have a deep sorrow that the Cardinal is so falsely
deceived, deep indignation that he should so intrude, with
alien jurisdiction, within the jurisdiction of Her Majesty;
there must at the same time be a deeper commiseration for

THE TEACHING OF CARDINAL WISEMAN. 9
the victims of those deadly errors of which he is the expo
nent. Pity the people — detest rebellion — confute error.
Our controversy must not be person against person ; nor
must it be Church against Church ; it is not the Church of
England against the Church of Rome ; but it is light against
darkness, freedom against slavery ; it is the rights and privi
leges of Old England against the crafts and assaults of Old
Rome ; it is the glory of our Blessed Lord against him who
sits in the temple of God, showing himself as if he were
God. And viewing the controversy in that light, I proceed
to notice what has been designated in the announcement of
the lecture, the teaching of the Cardinal Archbishop of
Westminster. First of all, let me presume, that when the Cardinal was
made an Archbishop, he received the pallium, a robe woven
from the fleece of certain sheep, tended, I believe, by certain
nuns ; ceremoniously spun, ceremoniously woven, and cere
moniously put upon the Archbishop. When he received
the pallium, he repeated a solemn oath, as is required in his
Pontifical, which will be found in the Pontificate Romanum.
I have the book, and have carefully examined all that he
must say : it is the edition of Clement VIII., Antwerp edi
tion, 1627. One clause ofthe oath is as follows: —
" HEereticos, schismaticos, et rebelles, Domino Nostro, vel
successoribus prsedictis, pro posse, persequar et impug-
nabo."
That is, he solemnly swore, on his most solemn oath (I
wish thus to prepare you for his reception) : —
" All heretics [that is, Protestants], schismatics [that
is, members of the Greek Church that separated, as they
say, from Rome], and rebels against our Lord, or foresaid
successors, I will persecute and attack to ihe utmost of
my power," — the correct translation, I believe, of pro posse.
Cardinal Wiseman believes, no doubt, what Cardinal Bel
larmine teaches : " If the heretics are stronger than we, and

10 THE GREAT APOSTASY.
if there is danger that if we attack them (the words of the
oath) in war, more of us may fall than of them, we are to
keep quiet ; " but his obligation remains. I wish to impress
upon you, that you have here a man who will not come into
collision with principles merely, but with persons : he does
not say, " I will attack schism, and persecute heresy," which
he might lawfully do ; but, " I will attack schismatics, and
persecute heretics." But in. looking over the Pontificate
Romanum, in order to find out if there were any canonical
weapons in that arsenal which the Cardinal might probably
use in case he should get the upper hand in Westminster
(and if he get the upper hand there, he will soon get it else
where), I noticed one remarkable weapon which he will no
doubt forthwith employ ; I know there are others, but the
following caught my eye. It seems that while the true
Church is distinguished for blessing, the Cardinal's Church
has an amazing taste for, and sympathy with, cursing. I
find that if the daughter of any parent in this assembly
should fancy that she has what is called " a religious incli
nation," a " mission," and were to go into a nunnery, and
were her parents to try to rescue her, the following curse
would be pronounced upon him, and also upon any one who
should take the property of the monasteries or of the nun
neries — and many in our country actually hold such prop
erty in their possession just now : —
"Auotoritate omnipbtentis Dei et " By the authority of the omnipo-
beatorum Petri Pauli apostolorum tent God, and of S t. Peter and St.
ejus, firmiter et sub interminatione Paul, his apostles, we firmly, and
anathematis inhibemus, ne quis under the threat of anathema, en-
prassentes virgines seu sanctimoni- join that no one carry off these vir-
ales a divino servitio, cui sub vexillo gins or religious persons here present
castitatis subjectte sunt, abducat, from divine service, to which, under
nullus earum bona surripiat, sed ea the standard of chastity, they have
cum quiete possideant. Si quis been dedicated, that no one plunder
autem hoc attentare prsesumpserit, their property, but that they enjoy
maledictus sit in domo et extra do- it in quiet. If any one shall have
mum; maledictus in civitate, et in presumed to attempt this, may he be

THE TEACHING OF CARDINAL WISEMAN.

11

agro; maledictus vigilando et dor-
miendo ; maledictus manducando et
bibendp; maledictus ambulando et
sedendo; maledicta sint caro ejus et
ossa, et a planta pedis usque ad ver-
ticem non habeat sanitatem. Veniat
super ilium maledictio hominis
quam per Moyseu in lege filiis ini-
quitatis Dominus permisit. De-
leatur nomen ejus de libro viven-
tium, et cum justis nou scribatur.
Fiat pars et hereditas ejus cum Cain
fratrieida cum Dathan et Abiron,
cum Anania et Sapphlra, cum Si-
mone Mago et Juda proditore, et
cum eis, qui dixerunt Deo, Recede a
nobis, semitam viarum tuarum nolu-
mus. Pereat in die judicii, devoret
eum ignis perpetuus cum diabolo, et
angelis ejus, nisi restituerit et ad
emendationem venerit. Fiat. Fiat.
[Pont. Rom. Clement VIII. p. 160.
Antv. 1627.]

cursed in his home and: out of his
home; may he be cursed in the
state (or city), and in the field,
cursed in watching and cursed in
sleeping, cursed in eating and drink
ing, cursed in walking. and sitting;
may his flesh and his bones be
cursed, and from the sole' of his
foot to the crown of his head may
he enjoy no health. May there light
upon him the curse which the Lord
sent in the law, by Moses, on the
sons of iniquity. May his name be
erased from the book of the living,
and not be recorded with the right
eous. May his portion and his heri
tage be with Cain the fratricide,
with Dathan and Abiram, with Ana^
nias and Sapphira, with Simon Ma
gus and with Judas the traitor, and
with those who said to God, ' Depart
from us, we will not follow thy
ways.' May eternal fire . devour
him with the devil and his angels,
unless he make restitution, and
come to amendment. So be it. So
be it."
Such is the cursing subscribed to by Cardinal Wiseman,
as pronounced in his own document, and which, when he
has the pro posse, according to his oath, he will pronounce
with all the proper accompaniments.
I wish, in the next place, to show what is the actual
teaching of the Cardinal, by bringing before you the books
that he approves and the principles of the men that he
approves, and has commended, and will commend, to the
study of the priests and others of his diocese.
There is a celebrated personage, named Alphonsus
Liguori,* who was canonized — that is, enrolled among the
* See some valuable extracts from Liguori, by my dear friend and
brother, Mr. Blakeney, who first directed special public attention to the
saint.

12 THE GREAT APOSTASY.
Saints in heaven by the pronunciation of the Pope — so
late as the year 1839. The congregation of Sacred Rites
stated that they had examined his manuscripts and printed
works, and that there was " nothing censurable in any thing
St. Alphonsus Liguori had written." In consequence of
that, there is in Cardinal Wiseman's breviary, and also in
his missal, which every Roman Catholic is bound to use —
and if he will produce it I will be happy to point out the
place — the following prayer for the 2d day of August : —
" Oh God, who, by the blessed Alphonsus, thy Confessoi
and Pontiff, inflamed with the love of souls, hast enriched
thy church with a new offspring, we implore that, taught by
his instructions, and strengthened by his example, we may
be able to come to thee through the Lord."
Every Roman Catholic, then, prays that he may be
strengthened by the example and taught by the instructions
of the blessed Saint Liguori. But this you remark is
general authority, "catholic authority" — if I may please
certain individuals who are fond of that expression. But
in what way do I identify Cardinal Wiseman with this ?
I answer, first of all, I read the following extract from a
sermon preached by Dr. Wiseman on the 2d day of August
last, (the day of St. Alphonsus Liguori,) at the Clapham
Roman Catholic Chapel. It is quoted from the Tablet, the
Roman Catholic Newspaper, of August 16th, 1850: —
" Friday, August 2d, being St. Alphonsus's day, the
Redemptorists had a grand function at Clapham. The
Right Rev. Dr. Wiseman preached in the. evening. The
bishop took for his text the words, ' The first shall be last
and the last first ; ' and said that among the many applica
tions this passage would bear, there was one which particu
larly struck him as he was standing beneath the rising walls
of a church dedicated to the first — the Mother of Saints,
and to the last of the canonized servants of God — St.
Alphonsus [Liguori]  The great St. Alphonsus

THE TEACHING OF CARDINAL WISEMAN. 13
Was raised up when minds were confused with controversies
and heresies, with clear intellect and delicate hand to trace
the thread of traditional truth amid the mazes of error, and
to be a beacon to future ages. St. Alphonsus was necessary
for an age when all things were infected with a Jansenistic
spirit, when confession was made repulsive and difficult,
instead of persons being drawn to it as the balm of a
wounded spirit. Then St. Alphonsus came to systematize
the sweet devotions to the passion and the holy childhood of
Jesus, the blessed sacrament, and our blessed Lady; not
that these devotions are not to be found in St. Bernard and
St. Bonaventure ; but as a language may be fully formed,
and perfect without there being either a grammar or dic
tionary of it, so these devotions were unsystematized, and
therefore difficult to acquire : there was no scientific and
regular way of approach, they were left to personal experi
ence and personal gifts ; but St. Alphonsus has simplified
the way for us, he has provided our grammar and dictionary,.
and the language may now be easily learned, and that not
only by those who are secluded from the world, but also
by lay persons. Again, persons nowadays can happily have
no experience of what confession was before St. Alphonsus ;
what a harsh and bitter thing the spirit of Jansenism had
made it, and how severe were the external penances
enjoined : he has so changed the face of the church that
now there is perhaps not a theological school in ihe world
which would care to give its students any treatise of moral
theology opposed to the spirit of St. Alphonso, gentle to past
sins, severe to the occasion of them. What immense influ
ence has he exercised ! and yet he is in all senses a saint
of modern times, adapted to the wants and to the circum
stances of the age, lived in the time of our fathers, and his
canonization was but yesterday." This is no mean eulogium
of Dr. Wiseman on Liguori.
>* There is a book also which was the first that led me to
2

14 THE GREAT APOSTASY.
follow up the subject of this lecture, and which I regard as
singularly applicable to the present crisis, called the " Life
of St. Alphonsus Liguori," published by Dolman, 1846, by
the Rt. Rev. Dr. Wiseman — that is, Cardinal Wiseman.
This Alphonsus Liguori, and his principles and practices, he
has commended in this work. The Cardinal is so charmed
with this saint of 1839 that he has written his life in 1846,
giving its minutest passages, and amongst other things ex
planatory of his entire sympathy with Liguori, he makes
this remark at page 57 : —
" The lives of extraordinary men are the text-books of all
real study and excellence, the charts which we lay down
for the tract of virtue. The moral instructions which in the
lives of statesmen and philosophers are obscure and tainted,
are in the lives of these holy men deliberate, clear, and
definite." He then begins his life by stating : * —
"The angelic St. Thomas, the seraphic St. Bonaven-
ture, [of whom I also wish to speak if I have time] are
the best models wherein to study and explain that system
of virtue and perfection which they traced in their works ;
while St. Alphonsus Liguori is celebrated throughout the
world for his theological writings, his great virtues, his ex
traordinary sanctity, which proved how close was the con
nection between the wisdom of his understanding, and the
purity of his heart."
Next, to show how excellent this saint was, Cardinal
Wiseman says, that while he preached a discourse upon his
favorite subject, the patronage of the blessed Virgin, from
her countenance a ray of light like the sun was reflected
upon the faces of all present, which shows that the winking
of the Virgin of Rimini is not at all a novelty in the expe
rience or history of the Church of Rome. " On that occa
sion many persons were in tears, many of the women were
* See Dr. Wiseman's Lives of the Canonized of 1839. Dolman, 1846.

THE TEACHING OF CARDINAL WISEMAN. 15
seized with such intense sorrow, that they mounted them
selves upon the platform at the preaching of the saint, and
began to discipline themselves [that is, to scourge them
selves with a rod], and cry aloud for mercy." [p. 12.] He
states in another passage of the same document, that " the
saint's bread was black, and not even leavened, through the
inexperience of his lay brethren. This miserable food,
which he ate kneeling, or stretched upon the ground, they
rendered still more nauseous by sprinkling over it some bit
ter stuff, and many of them, with the saint among them,
licked the floor with their tongues, and disciplined them
selves three times in each week." [p. 15.]
Cardinal Wiseman here gives his new Westminster sub
jects a model of saintly excellence. I might justly say here,
after reading this model, if such are the saints of the Roman
Church, what must their sinners be !
He states in the next place, that whilst he was preaching
on the patronage of the blessed Virgin, and exciting his
hearers to look with confidence to her, again a miracle was
showed, and every one burst into a 'flood of tears. He said
" Be glad, for the Virgin has granted your prayers." Car
dinal Wiseman says, that " his food was of the most inferior
kind, and he sprinkled it with wormwood and bitter herbs.
Such was his severity in scourging himself, that his friends
had to burst open his door, and snatch the discipline (a
beautiful canonical name for the scourge) out of his hands,
fearing he might cause his death." [p. 317.] Here was a
saint almost a suicide.
He then states, in the next place, that St. Alphonsus saw
the Virgin, and adds that " his feelings on the occasion made
him compose the Glories of Mary."
Then he enumerates two among many works of this saint ;
one, the "Moral Theology," dedicated to Benedict XIV.,
and the other the " Glories of Mary." I have the " Moral
Theology," published by Mr. Burns, a bookseller recently

16 THE GREAT APOSTASY.
perverted to the Roman Catholic faith, being once, I be
lieve, a Scottish Protestant, then becoming an English one,
then a Puseyite, and ultimately a Roman Catholic. These
works I have purchased in 9 vols. Being thus applauded
by the Cardinal Archbishop, and his life being thus men
tioned as a model, and his doctrines thus inculcated as true,
I purchased the saint's books, and have spent a great deal of
time, — more perhaps than they deserved, except for the
Cardinal's visit, — in making extracts from them, which
must help to prepare Westminster for its new diocesan.
This " Moral Theology " contains, first of all, the following
statements : —
" Scripturas et libri controversia- " The Scriptures and books of
rum in lingua vernacula non permit- controversies may not be permitted
tantur, sine autem permissione legi in the vernacular tongue ; as also
non possunt." they cannot be read without per
mission."
In other words, says Liguori, or rather Cardinal Wise
man, his echo, the Bible must not be permitted to you in
the vernacular tongue. ' But do not go away, my hearers,
as some Protestants have done, and say that the Roman
Catholic Church denies the Bible to the people. She &oep
not do so. She will allow the laborers and peasants of Eng
land to have it in French, the French to have it in Dutch,
Dutchmen in Russian, and the Russians in Hebrew — in
any language you like except the one you understand. Do
not then say that Cardinal Wiseman denies the Bible to the
people : neither he nor the Church of Rome does any such
thing ; they will allow it, provided it be in a language you
do not understand — that is all.
I proceed, however, to quote illustrations yet more so
cially mischievous from the teaching of Cardinal Wiseman ;
and if he, or any priest or Romish bishop in the room, is
dissatisfied with what I say, let him meet me and settle the
question upon this platform. My charges are either utterly

THE TEACHING OF CARDINAL WISEMAN.

17

damaging to Cardinal Wiseman's teaching, or they are un
true. I am not speaking rashly : I do not present extracts
I have picked up from sources that have not been explored.
I have gone to the original, and I quote page, and chapter,
and verse, of what Cardinal Wiseman holds, and comes to
teach. I will read first Cardinal Wiseman's illustrations of
Lying.

" Interim vero, etsi licitum non est
mentiri, seu simulare quod non est,
licet tamen dissimulare quod est,
sive tegere veritatem verbis, aliisve
signis ambiguis et indifferentibus, ob
justam causam, et cum non est ne-
cessitas fatendi. Est Comm. S.
Thom. Kon. dis. 15. dub. 2. n. 9.
Laym. 1. 2. t. i. c. 11."

" Notwithstanding, indeed, al
though it is not lawful to lie, or to
feign what is not, however it is law
ful to dissemble what is, or to cover
the truth with words, or other ambi
guous and doubtful signs, for a just
cause, and when there is not a ne
cessity of confessing. Est Comm.
S. Thom. Kon. dis. 15. dub. 2. n. 9.
Laym. 1. 2. t. i. c. 11." [Vol. 2. B.
3. ch. 3. p. 116.]

Then he says, in the next place : -

" Cum non rogaris de fide, non
solum licet, sed ssepe melius est ad
Dei honorem, et utilitatem proximi,
tegere fidem quam fateri ; ut si latens
inter hasreticos plus boni facias ; vel
si ex confessione plus maii sequere-
tur, verbi gratia, turbatio, neces, ex-
acerbatio tyranni, periculum de-
fectionis, si torquereris. Unde teme-
rarium plerumque est offerre se ultro.
S. Th. Sanch. Laym. c. 11. n. 2."

" His positis, certum est et com
mune apud omnes, quod ex justa
causa licitum sit uti sequivocatione
modis expositis, et earn juramento
firmare. Ita Less. 1. 2. c. 41. n. 47. 2*

" When you are not asked con
cerning the faith, not only is it law
ful, but it is often more conducive to
the glory of God and the utility of
your neighbor, to cover the faith
than to confess it; for example, if
concealed among' heretics you may
accomplish a greater amount of
good ; or, if from the confession of
the faith more of evil would follow —
for example, disturbance, death, the
irritation of a tyrant, danger of de
fection, if you should be tortured:
whence it is often hazardous to offer
one's self uncalled for. S. Th.
Sane. Laym. c. 11. ij. 2." [Vol. 2.
ch. 3. p. 117.]
" These things being settled, it is
a certain and a common opinion
among all divines, that for a just
cause it is lawful to use equivocation
in the modes propounded, and to

18 THE GREAT APOSTASY.
Card. .diss. 19. n. 35. Salm. tr. 17. confirm it (equivocation) with an,
de Juram. cap. 2. n. 115. ex. S. oath. Less. 1. 2. c. 41. n. 47. Card.
Hieron. c. 22. q. 2." diss. 19. n. 35. Salm. tr. 17. de Ju
ram. cap. 2. n. 115. ex. S. Hieron. c.
22. q. 2." [Vol. 2. B. 4. treat. 2. p.
316.]
There was a recent discussion in the papers about leaving
out the prayer for the Queen in Roman Catholic Missals
and Churches. Dr. Ullathorne, who has lately been en
throned as the bishop of Birmingham, wrote a letter to the
Times, in which he denied every thing that had been
asserted on the subject. He has perplexed and puzzled
you, but not cleared himself. When you read Dr. Ulla-
thorne's letter, just compare what he urges as explanations
with the extracts which I have given from Liguori, authen
ticated by Cardinal Wiseman, stating that among heretics,
when a greater amount of good can be accomplished, it is
perfectly lawful to equivocate, and to conceal the truth,, and
to confirm the equivocation by an oath.
In the next place, it is said by Liguori, whose doctrines
are authenticated by Cardinal Wiseman, and accepted by
every Roman Catholic: —
" Hinc infertur, I. Confessarius " Hence it is inferred, first, that a
affirmare potest etiam juramento se confessor can declare, even upon
nescire peccatum auditum in con- oath, that he does not know a sin
fessione, subinteUigendo ut hominem, heard in confession, by understand
non autem ut ministrum Christi, ing as man, not as the minister of
ut docent S. Th. 2. 2. 9. 70. Art. 1. Christ, as St. Thomas, 2. 2. 9. 70.
ad. 1. Lug. disp. 22." art. 1. ad. 1. Lug. disp. 22 teach.'"
• [Ibid. 319.]
" Et si quis temere petat a confes- "And if any one rashly should
sario, an audierit tale peccatum in inquire of a confessor whether he
confessione, bene potest respondere : may have heard such a sin in con-
Non audivi, scilicet ut homo, vel ad fession, he can rightly answer, I
manifestandum. Card, cum Lug. n. have not heard it, that is to say, as a
66." mare, or for the purpose of making it
known. Card, cum Lug. n. 66."
" Sed satis probabiliter Lugo de " Bat probably enough Lugo do
Just. d. 40. u. 15. Tamb. lib. 3. t. 4. Just. d. 40. n. 15. Tamh. lib. 3. o.

THE TEACHING OF CARDINAL WISEMAN. 19
4 3. n. 5. cum Sanch. Viva q. 7. art. 4. § 3. u. 5. cum Sanch. Viva q. 7.
4. n. 2. Sporer de Prsec. c. 1. num. art. 4. n. 2. Sporer de Pnec. c. 1.
13. item Elbel diet. num. 144. Card. num. 13. item Elbel diet. num. 144.
in Prbpt. Innoc. XI. diss. 19. num. Card, in Propt. Innoc. XI. diss. 19.
78. cum Nav. Less. Sa. et Fill, et num. 78. cum Nav. Less. Sa. et Fill.
aliis pluribus dicunt, posse reum, si with many others, say, that the ac-
sibi immineat paana mortis, vel car- cused, if threatened with death, or
ceris, aut exilii perpetui, amissionis imprisonment, or perpetual exile,
omnium bonorum, triremium, et the loss of all property, the galleys,
similis, negare crimen, etiam cum and such like, can deny the crime,
juramento (saltem sine peccato even with an oath (at least without
gravi), subintelligendo, se non com- great sin), by understanding that he
misisse quaimus teneatur illudfateri, did not commit it, so thai he is bound
modo sit spes vitandi poenam." to confess it, only let there be a hope
of avoiding the punishment." [Vol.
2. p. 34.]
" Qui mutuum accepit, sed postea " He who has accepted a loan, but
satisfecit, potest negare, se accepisse has afterwards returned it, can deny
mutuum, subintelligens, ita ut de.he.al that he received the loan, under-
solvere. Salm. n. 140. et Sporer de standing so as that he ought to pay it.
2. Prsec. c. 1. n. 122. cum Suar. Salm. n. 140. et Sporer de 2. Prffic.
Nav. Az. Laym. Sanch. Cov. et c. 1. n. 122. cum Suar. Nav. Az.
aliis." Laym. Sanch. Cov. and others."
[Ibid. 322. J
" Qui venit de loco falso putato " He who comes from a place
infecto, potest negare se venire ex falsely supposed infectious, can deny
illo, scilicet at pestilenti, quia hase that he came from that place, to wit,
est mens custodum. Salm. n. 141. as from a pestilent place, becav&e
Less. cap. 42. n. 47. Sanch. Dec. this is the mind of the cordon sani-
lib. 3. cap. 6. n. 35, et Sporer, loc. taire. Salm. n. 141. Les. cap. 42.
sit. n. 140. cum Toi. Nav. Suar. n. 47. Sanch. Dec. lib. 3. cap. 6. n.
Henr. Rod. etc." 85. et Sporer, loe. sit. n. 140. cum
Toi. Nav. Suar. Henr. Rod. etc."
" Si quis invitatus interrogetur an "If any one invited to dine, is
sit bonus cibus qui revera sit insipi- asked if the food which is in fact
dus, potest respondere esse bonum, unpalatable be good, he can answer,
scilicet, ad rnortificationem." Ii is good, to wit,/w mortification."
I have noticed that in Ireland criminals who have suffered
the penalty of death for murders perpetrated by them in
their country, have in their last moments stoutly denied
their guilt. This is very frequent. Recollect to place this
fact in juxtaposition with the authorized teaching of Cardi
nal Wiseman. A woman guilty of adultery is asked

20 THE GREAT APOSTASY.
whether she is guilty, and if the sin sacramentally was
taken away, she can answer : " No, I am innocent of this
crime," because it was taken away by confession. [Ibid.
323.] I have heard that in the west end of London, as I suppose
in the west ends of other towns, certain masters who do not
wish to receive certain visitors, instruct their servants to
say, " Not at home." Let me just say, that such is one of
the domestic pioneers of Cardinal Wiseman. It is early
initiation in Popish habits. If you teach Popery to your
domestics, do not be surprised that Cardinal Wiseman comes
to teach it to your parishioners in Westminster.
" Quaritur, 5, An famulus ex " It is asked, 6, — Whether a ser-
jussu domini possit negare ipsum vant, by the order of his master can
esse doini. Card. diss. 19. n. 75. deny that he [the master] is at
admittit ipsum posse fingere pedem home. Card. diss. 19. n. 75. admits
inlapide, et respondere, Non est hie ; that he can feign his master's foot
quia non est restrictio mentalis : sed on the step, and answer, Be is not
huic non assentior, si alter nullo here, because it is not mental restric-
modo possit id advertere. Potius tion ; but to this I do not assent, if
concederem, eum posse dicere, Non the other can by no means under-
est hie, scilicet non in hac janua, vel stand that. Rather I would concede
fenestra; vel (ut ait Tourn. Mor. that he can say, Be is not here, that
torn. i. pag. 689). Non est hie qua- is to say, not in this door or window,
tenus videri possit. Item ait Carden, or, (as Tourn. Mor. torn. i. pag. 689,)
posse eum respondere, Egressus e Be is not here so as that he may be
domo est, intelligendo in prcelerito; seen. Also Carden says that he can
non enim tenemur, ait cum Less, ut answer that he has departed from the
supra, respondere ad mentem inter- house, by understanding a departure
rogantis, si adsit justa causa." which took place in some time past;
for we are not bound, he says, with
Lessius, as above, to answer to the
mind of bim that interrogates, if
there is a just cause." Ibid. 625.
Let me now allude to the subject of oaths, which are the
vincula of our social system; which may be reformed,
which may, as some say (though I doubt it), be done away
with, but which, if perverted, contaminated, and vitiated,
must lead to interminable and incalculable mischief.

THE TEACHING OF CARDINAL WISEMAN.

21

"Illud certum. est quod, si ex eo
guod jurasti, tantummodo parum
aliquid non serves, non sit grave: v.
gr. si jurasti te non bibiturum vi-
num, non peccas mortaliter parvum
bibendo, (Sanch. 1. 1. lib. 4. c. 32. n.
21.) quia tunc excusat parvitas ma
teria; et sic excusantur, qui jurant
servare statuta alicujus capituli, col
legii, universitatis, etc. si postea
parvum aliquod statutum violent.
Et idem dicimus de tabellionibus
juratis et aliis ministris justitiaa; ut
de eo qui ex summa quam alteri se
daturum jurasset, parvum tantum
detraheret. Navar. Suar. Sanch.
Vide Laym. Bon. p. 13.

"It is certain that if you trans
gress only some small part of what
you have sworn, it is not a grievous
sin: for example, if you havesworn
that you would not drink wine, you
did not sin mortally in drinking a
very little, (Sanch. 1. 1. lib. 4. c. 32,
n. 21,) because then the smallness
of the matter excuses; and thus
they are excused who swear to ob
serve the statutes of some chapter,
college, university, etc., if after
wards they violate the statutes in
some small way. And we say the
same concerning sworn public regis
trars and other ministers of justice;
as also concerning him who, from
the sum which he swore that he
would give to another should sub
tract only a little. Navar. Suar.
Sanch. Vide Laym. Bon. p. 13.
" Probably you are obliged by a
promissory oath, although it may be
extorted from you by injury and
fear, as if, forgetting to use equivo
cation, you promised to robbers to
give booty, or usury to usurers."
" Nevertheless, make an exception
if you have sworn to Titias to marry
her; for in that case you can forsake
her, and enter a religious order : be
cause the oath regards the nature of
the act to which it pertains ; but in
the promise of matrimony there is
this tacit condition, unless I enter a.
religious order." See Laym. c. 6.
Bon. d. 4. q. 1. p. 3. [Ibid. p. 337.]
So that any gentleman who has made a vow to marry a
lady, has only to turn monk to escape all the responsibility
of that vow. If he goes into a convent, he has a " dispen
sation," according to the theology of Alphonsus Liguori, for
his dishonesty and lying. Speaking of oath3 it is again
said : —

" Obligaris probabiliter juramento
promissario, etsi extortum a te sit
per injuriam, ac metum : ut si obli-
tus uti equivocatione, jurasti prae-
donibus dare lytrum, usurario usu-
ram." " Excipe tamen, si jurasses Titise
earn ducere : nam eo casu potes, ea
relicta, ingredi religionem ; quia ju-
ramentum sortitur naturam actus,
cui apponitur; promissioni autem
matrimonii haec tacita conditio in-
est, nisi ingrediar religionem. Vide
Laym. c. 6. Bon. d. 4. q. 1. p. 3."

22

THE GREAT APOSTASY.

" Talia juramenta verius relaxa-
tione non indigent, quum de se sint
nulla, juxta dicta a. 177. v. Aliter.
Etsi tamen essent valida, ab ecclesia
relaxari possunt. Salm. ibid. n. 6.
cum Sanch. Pal. L. Guitier. No
mine autem Ecclesise veniunt non
solum Pontifex, sed etiam episcopi,
capituli sedibus vacantibus, et alii
jurisdictionem episcopalem haben
tes, ut Salm. ii. 7. et 8. et etiam con-
fessarii."

"Pontifex irritare potest omnia
juramenta circa beneficia officia ec
clesias tica."

" Such oaths truly do not need
relaxation, since they are of them
selves null and void, in accordance
with what is said in n. 177. v. Aliter.
However, let them be ever so valid,
they can be relaxed by the Church.
Salm. ibid. n. 6. cum Sanch. Pal.
et Guitier. But in the name of the
Church are included not only the
Pope, but also bishops, chapters, the
episcopal seat being vacant, and
others having episcopal jurisdiction,
as Salm. u. 7. and 8. and also con
fessors." "The Pontifex can render null
and void all oaths respecting bene
fices and ecclesiastical offices."

In reference to the Fourth Commandment, Liguori states,
or rather Cardinal Wiseman by his mouth : —
" But a great objection stands in
the way; viz. the command of the
Sabbath was certainly natural and
moral, for on that account it was
numbered amongst the precepts of
the Decalogue ; therefore the Lord's
day, which was substituted for the
Sabbath, is also either of natural
or divine right. It is answered,
that although it be of divine and
natural right, some determinate
time should be allotted for the wor
ship of God; however, the deter
mination of that worship, and of
the days in which it was to be
offered up, have been left to the
an-angement of the Church, so that
the Pope can decree that the ob
servance of the Lord's day should
continue only for a few hours, and
that certain servile works would be
lawful as Salm. diet. n. 38."

" Sed urget magna oppositio, vide
licet: prssceptum Sabbati erat certe
naturale et morale ; nam ideo inter
Decalogi pracepta numeratum fuit;
ergo dominica quse sabbato substi-
tuta fuit, etiam de jure naturali,
sive divino est. Respondetur, quod
licet sit de jure divino et naturali,
ut designetur aliquod tempus deter
minatum ad Deum colendum, deter-
minatio tamen hujus cultus, et die-
rum, quibus conferendus erat, fuerit
a Christo depositioni Ecclesiae re-
licta; ita ut possit tunc Papa decer-
nere ut observantia dominicse dura-
ret tantum per aliquas horas, et quod
licerent aliqua opera servilia, ut
dicit Salm. diet. n. 38."

He says, again : —
" Unde, si filius sentiat se a Deo
vocatum ad religiosum vel clerioa-

" Hence, if a son thinks that he is
called to a religious or clerical state,

THE TEACHING OF CARDINAL WISEMAN.

23

lem statum, et advertat parentes in-
juste impedituros, consultius aget
rem iis celando, divinamque volunt
tatem exequendo."
" Ex his omnibus concluditur, non
solum, non peccare filios religionem
assumentes, parentibus incousultis:
6edj, ordinarie loquendo, valde er-
rare, si participes eos faciant de sua
vocatione, ob periculum cui se ex-
ponunt, quod sint ab ilia avertendi.
Et hoe utique confirmatur ab exem-
plo tot sanctorum, quorum disces-
sus, parentibus insciis, aut invitis,
Deus etiam miraculis approbavit, et
benedixit. Idemque sentit doctus
P. Elbel de Praecept. n. 358. dicens:
' Si Alius sentiat se a Deo voeatum
ad statum religiosum, et advertat
parentes id segre laturos atque ex
affectu carnali ac futilibus motivis
se opposituros, non tenetur iis con-
sulere, quia consultius aget rem eis
celando.' "

and supposes that his parents would
unjustly impede him, he conducts
the business more advisedly, by con
coaling it from them, and by follow
ing the divine will."
"From all these authorities we
conclude, that not only do children
not sin, who enter a religious state
without consulting their parents;
but, generally speaking, they en-
very much, on account of the dan
ger to which they expose themselves
of being averted from it, if they con
sult with them concerning their own
call. And this, verily, is confirmed
by the example of so many saints,
whose departure, the parents being
unconscious or unwilling, God ap
proved and blessed even by mira
cles; and the learned P. Elbel, de
Prascept. n. 538, thinks the same
thing, saying: ' If a son thinks that
he is called to the religious state,
and considers that the parents would
bear it grievously, and that they
would be opposed to it from a car
nal affection and groundless motives,
he is not bound to consult them, be
cause he conducts the matter more
advisedly in concealing it from
them.' "

Then, on the subject of theft, the following sentiments are
taught : —

" Si quis ex occasione tantum fu-
retur, sive uni, sive pluribus, modi
cum, non intendens notabile aliquid
acquirere, nee proximo graviter no-
cere, singulis furtis non peccat gra
viter, neque ea simul sumta unum
mortale constituunt; postquam ta
men ad quantitatem notabilem per-
venerit, earn detinendo mortaliter
peccare potest. -Verum et hoc mor-

" If any one on an occasion should
steal only a moderate sum either
from one or more, not intending to
acquire any notable sum, neither to
injure his neighbor to a great ex
tent, by several thefts, he does not
sin grievously, nor do these, taken
together, constitute a mortal sin;
however, after it may have amounted
to a notable sum by detaining it, he

24

THE GREAT

tale evitabit, si vel tunc restituere
non possit, vel animum habeat paulo
post restitaendi ea saltem quas tunc
accipit." [Vol. 3. p. 256.]

" Quer. II. Si furtula quas simul
ad magnam quantitatem perveniunt,
sint facta diversis dominis certis, an
fur teneatur sub culpi gravi eis res-
titutionem facere, vel an satisfaciat
debita ilia pauperibus distribuendo.
Ex una parte, Videtur dicendum
sub gravi restitutionem faciendam
esse dominis, nisi excuset periculum
famae amittendas vel gravissimum
damnum aut incommodum." [Vol.
3. p. 257.]
" Unde videtur, quod sufticienter
fur satisfaciet suae gravi obligationi
ex prsesumpto consensu reipublicse,
si restituat pauperibus, aut locis
piis, qui sunt egentiores reipublicae
partes." [Ibid. p. 258.]

APOSTASY.
can commit mortal sin, but even
this mortal sin may be avoided, if
either then he be unable to restore,
or have the intention of making res
titution immediately of those things
which he then received."
" Query II. If small thefts which
together amount to a lacge sum, be
made from various known masters,
whether a thief be bound under
great blame to make restitution to
them, or whether he may satisfy by
distributing them to paupers? On
the one hand it appears that a resti
tution should be made to the origi
nal possessors, unless the danger of
losing fame, or very grievous loss, or
inconvenience excuse."
" Whence it appears that a thief
may have rendered sufficient satis
faction to his own weighty oblige
tion from the presumed consent of
the republic, if he make restitution
to paupers, or pious places which
are the more needy parts of the re
public."

Speaking of the examination of parties suspected or ac
cused of crimes (I am now showing what would be the
courts of justice which our new Pontifical governor will set
up in Westminster), he says: —

" Demum si reus fatetur delictum,
proceditur ad sententiam: si non,
proceditur ad eum convincendum,
vel ad torturam." [Vol. 5. p. 144.]
"Quia tortura instituta est ad
subsidium probationis, quando ar
guments, et indicia sunt valde effi-
cacia, ut sic plena probatio elicia-
tur." [Ibid. p. 146.]
" Sed dicendum omnes ad denun-
tiationem teneri ex eadem ratione
Ut supra, quia heresis est pestis ita
noxia, quod difficile habet reme-

" Finally, if the accused confess
his crime, the sentence is to be giv
en: if not, he is to be led to convic
tion or the torture."
"Because torture is a help to
proof, when arguments and signs
are very efficacious, that thus a full
proof may be elicited."
"But all are bound to denounce
for the same reason as above, be
cause heresy is so noxious a, pest
that it may require" a severe remedy,

THE TEACHING QF CARDINAL WISEMAN. 25
dium, et facile in damnum vergit and very easily it may tend to the
commune." [Ibid. p. 84.] common loss."
These are but meagre extracts from a work which con
tains instructions in one volume so revolting that their infa
my is their only, and to the English public, their imperisha
ble, protection.
Are not these doctrines which I have quoted subversive
of all social confidence — of all domestic happiness — of all
national peace ? Yet these are the elements of the teaching
of Liguori, and by fair construction of Cardinal Wiseman.
I will now give you some specimens of the worship taught
by this saint, and recommended by Cardinal Wiseman.
Tou have had the moral doctrines that are to regulate our
social intercourse; here is the sort of worship Cardinal
Wiseman intends, I presume, to set up in the new Cathedral
of Westminster ; it is taken from a document approved by
four Pontiffs, applauded by Cardinal Wiseman, circulated
among Roman Catholics, and well known to every member
of that church, — " the Glories of Mary," * by the same St.
Liguori, from which I will give you the following extracts :
" ' From the moment that Mary consented to become the
Mother of God,' says Saint Bernardine of Sienna, ' why
should not the Mother enjoy conjointly with the Son the
honors of royalty ? ' Mary is then Queen of the Universe,
since Jesus is its King; thus, as Saint Bernardine again
observes, ' As many creatures as obey God, so many obey
the glorious Virgin, every thing in heaven and on earth
which is subject to God is also under the empire of his most
holy Mother.'
" ' Reign, 0 Mary,' says the Abbot of Gueric, ' dispose at
pleasure of the goods .of your Son, power and dominion be
long to the Mother and spouse of the King of kings.'
* This little book is published in various editions, at sixpence and a
shilling each, by the Romish booksellers, and almost on every page these
and worse specimens of idolatry occur. 3

26 THE GREAT APOSTASY.
" She is queen of mercy alone ; she is a sovereign, not to
punish sinners, but to pardon and forgive them. Writing
on those words of the Psalmist, ' I have learned two things,
power belongs to God, and mercy to the Lord,' Gerson ob
serves, that as the kingdom of G9d consists in mercy and
justice, the Lord has, as it were, divided it, reserving to
himself the dominion of justice, and yielding to his Mother
that of mercy.
" Saint Bernard, asking the question, why the church
calls Mary Queen of Mercy ? answers it himself by saying,
it is because she opens at pleasure the abyss of the divine
mercy, so that no sinner, however enormous his crimes may
be, can perish if he is protected by Mary.
" Let us go, then, Christians, let us go to this most gra
cious Queen, and crowd around her throne, without being
deterred by our crimes and abominations. Let us be con
vinced that if Mary has been crowned Queen of mercy, it is
in order that the greatest sinners may be saved by her inter
cession, and form her crown in heaven.
" If to evince the love of God the Father for men, it is
said, that he delivered up his own Son for them, may we
not use the same terms to express the love of Mary? ' Yes,'
says Saint Bonaventure, ' Mary has so loved us, that she has
given us her only Son : ' ' she gave him to us,' says F. Nie-
remberg, ' when, in virtue of her jurisdiction over him as
mother, she permitted him to deliver himself up to the Jews ;
she gave him for us when she silently listened to his accus
ers without saying a word in his defence, though there was
every reason to believe that the advocacy of a mother so
wise and prudent would have made a strong impression,1 at
least on Pilate, who was already conscious of the innocence
of Jesus ; in fine, she has given us this well-beloved Son a
thousand times during the three hours she spent at the foot
of the cross.' SS. Anselm and Antoninus even assert, thai
to accomplish the will of the eternal Father, she would, de-

THE TEACHING OF CARDINAL WISEMAN. 27
spite of natural tenderness, have immolated him with her
own hands. For if Abraham was so obedient, how much
more so was Mary !
" St. Bernardine of Sienna asserts, that if God has not
destroyed man after his"*sin, it was in consideration of the
blessed Virgin, and out of the singular love he bore her ; he
even doubts not, that all the mercies granted to sinners in
the old law have been given in consideration of Mary.
" The glorious St. Bonaventure, to animate our confidence
in Mary, represents to us a raging sea, in which sinners,
already fallen from the vessel of divine grace, are tossed
about by the billows of temptation, torn by the gnawings of
remorse, and horrified by the terrors of divine justice, with
out light or guide, are ready to be swallowed up in the gulf
of despair ; but just then the Lord shows them Mary, the
star of the sea, and seems to say to them, Sinners ! unfortu
nate sinners ! despair not, fix. your eyes on this brilliant
luminary, its lustre will save you from the tempest, and con
duct you to the port of salvation.
"Mary presents herself between God and his offending
creatures : ' and no person is so fit,' says Bonaventure, ' to
avert the sword of divine wrath and indignation.' Richard,
of St. Lawrence, also observes on this subject, that in the
old law, God often complained that there was none to inter
pose between him and sinners, but since Mary, the Media
trix of peace, has appeared on earth, she restrains his arm,
and averts his wrath."
Then I find the following prayer addressed to the Virgin
Mary : —
" O purest of Virgins ! I venerate your most holy heart,
which is the delight of the Lord, the sanctuary of purity and
humility, the abode of divine love. My heart, which I pre
sent to you, is of clay ; sin has therein made most dreadful
wounds: Mother of mercy, cure it, sanctify it, refuse not
your pity to him for whom Jesus has not refused his blood."

28 THE GREAT APOSTASY.
" 0 Mary, our faithful mediatrix ! Virgin full of grace !
Ladder of Jacob ! Gate of heaven ! Treasury of divine
grace ! May all Christians honor you with all their hearts ;
to use the beautiful expression of St. Bernard, and cling to
you with the utmost fidelity. Lefr us implore grace, but let
us do so through you ; in fine, let us present to God through
your sacred hands, all the prayers and good works in our
power, if we desire that this, our incense, may be acceptable
to the Lord."
" Happy are they who know you, O mother of God,"
says Bonaventure, " for to know you is the way to eternal
life, and to celebrate your praise, is the high road to
heaven." Liguori says : —
" We read in the Chronicles of St. Francis, that brother
Leo once saw in a vision, two ladders ; one red, at the sum
mit of which was Jesus Christ ; and the other, white ; at the
top of which presided his blessed mother. He observed,
that many who endeavored to ascend the first ladder, after
mounting a few steps, fell down ; and on trying again, were
equally unsuccessful, so that they never attained the sum
mit; but a voice having told them to make trial of the
white ladder,' they soon gained the top ; the blessed Virgin
having held forth her hands to help them."
" Wherefore all of you who will have life eternal, serve
and honor Mary ; for she is, as it were, the bridge of salva
tion, which God has prepared for us, in order to pass se
curely over the troubled waters of this life."
I ask you, if such sentiments, authorized by Cardinal
Wiseman, do not substantially teach that it is easier to get
to heaven by the Virgin Mary, than by the Lord Jesus
Christ ? I by the Virgin do not say that he, in his creed or
theory, supersedes Christ, but I do hold, that practically in
the worship he authorizes he does so. We Protestants
need not the Virgin, or any of the saints of heaven to assist

THE TEACHING OF CARDINAL WISEMAN. 29
us ; if they were to proffer their services, we could answer,
and answer emphatically, that we can well do without them.
It is recorded of Alexander the Great, the Macedonian
conqueror, that he one day visited Diogenes, the Cynic phi
losopher, who was basking in his tub in the sunshine. It is
stated that Alexander was so impressed with the moderation
and simplicity of the Cynic, that he said to him, " Tell me
what I can give to you. Any thing you want, to the third
of my kingdom, shall be at your service." What was the
answer of the philosopher ? " Please your majesty, stand
aside from between me and the sunbeams. That is the only
favor I have to ask." So I would say, if the Virgin Mary
or the most illustrious saint in glory were to come down in
all the splendor of the beatific vision, and ask, " What is the
greatest favor I can do for you ? " my answer would be,
" Stand aside, that I may bask in the beams of that Sun of
righteousness who has risen with healing under his wings,
and who alone can save those who come to him."
There are frequently quoted in the writings of Liguori,
and in the opening part of his life recommended by Cardi
nal Wiseman, the sayings of St. Bonaventure, a saint, a
cardinal, and doctor. I have by me, what I purchased about
ten years ago, the Psalter of Bonaventure, a very scarce
one written in the black letter. It is extremely valuable,
and supposed to be some three hundred years old. In this
document, of which Cardinal Wiseman approves, Bonaven
ture has expunged from every psalm the name Lord, God,
and substituted for it the name of Mary, or Virgin Mary
or Lady. Thus we have, " Come unto Mary, all ye that
are heavy laden, and she will give you rest." In the 95th
Psalm, wnich is used in the English Liturgy every morning,
it is written, " O come, let us sing unto our Lady, let us
heartily rejoice in the Virgin, who brings us salvation. Let
us come before her presence with thanksgiving and let us
be glad in her with Psalms." In another Psalm we have,
3*

30 THE GREAT APOSTASY.
" Let Mary arise, and let her enemies be scattered." Again
this Bonaventure, for whom there is a collect in Cardinal
Wiseman's Missal, and whose writings the Cardinal recom
mends to us, has taken the magnificent Te Deum, — which
is not the monopoly of the Church of England, for it was
composed before that Church was established, but the
privilege and the possession of all, for it is more ancient
than us all, — he has taken that beautiful anthem, and has
thus translated it : " We praise thee, 0 Mary ! we acknowl
edge thee to be the Virgin. All the earth doth worship
thee, spouse of the Eternal. To thee angels and archangels
cry, Holy, Holy, Holy, art thou, Mary mother of God,"
and so on to the end. Remember, Cardinal Wiseman says
this is a teacher whose lessons you ought to study. And as
if this were not enough, Saint Bonaventure has taken the
Litany and altered it in the following manner : " Be merci
ful to us, spare us, good Lady, from the wrath of God."
" In all time of our tribulation ; in all time of our wealth ;
in the hour of death, and in the day of judgment, and from
the torments of the damned, Deliver us, good Mary.'7 Such
is the Psalter of Saint Bonaventure. And to show that this
Psalter is not an ancient and obsolete document, I quote not
only Cardinal Wiseman's published and emphatic approval
• of its author, not only St. Alphonsus Liguori's frequent
extracts from it, as from an authority, but I have myself
ten editions of the Psalms of Bonaventure, of which I have
given a specimen extracted from it ; the first published in
1834 under the sanction of Gregory XVL, and the last
published in 1 844, only a short time before Gregory XVI.
was taken to his account. In this Psalter, published in the
Italian language, very cheap and plainly for popular use,
the Psalms are thus blasphemously perverted.
I have stated at the commencement of my remarks, that
my object was not to attempt to give you sunshine, but to
submit to you facts. I have now told you what Cardinal

THE TEACHING OF CARDINAL WISEMAN. 31
Wiseman holds, what he is bound to teach, and what he is
not ashamed to avow in his writings. It is not merely
because his tenets are false that I expose them, but because
they are fraught with great social mischief. I trust that
this will lead you not to detest the man, but to shrink with
horror from the principles he teaches. My strong convic
tion, however, is, that the Pope has made a grievous
blunder, infallible as he is, by his recent appointment, a
blunder nevertheless he cannot repair. It must cleave to him
and he to it inseparably. Pope Pius IX. felt the pulse of
the Protestantism of England, and because it was calm he
thought it was weak, because it was quiet he thought it was
indifferent; he imagined or was informed it was so dead
that Old England would bear a Cardinal. He will find in
six weeks that England will not even bear a monk ; and if
I may judge from the manly spirit exhibited in the Prime
Minister's letter, and from the mettle of the people, she will
not long bear even a Puseyite. This appearance of a
cardinal in our capital has been like the appearance of the
French flotilla off Boulogne in former days — the one
aroused, it could not increase, the loyalty of England, the
other has stirred its latent Protestantism to its very depths.
It is plain enough that another result of the Cardinal's
presence will be the utter, though unintended, rout of.
Puseyism and Puseyites in all their shades. We have now
the real thing in the midst of us, and the sham thing will
not be able to hold up its head beside it. If the compara
tive merits of the two Churches are to be tested by splendor
of ritual, by gorgeousness of robes, by sensuous grandeur
of service, the Church of Rome, which has only an exterior
and material glory, will beat us. Saint Barnabas in ;the
West will grow pale and be utterly swallowed up amid the
splendors of Saint George's Cathedral in the Borough. It
is well. The comedy of Oxford is passing into the tragedy

32 THE GREAT APOSTASY.
of Westminster. If we are to have Popery at all, let us
have Italian Popery under the Italian flag, not Italian
Popery under the flag of Old England. This importation,
I solemnly believe, will do much to unite us all. We
needed it. I can speak for my own beloved Church — the
Church of Scotland. She has moved in sympathy with that
Church, Admiral Harcourt, of one of whose noblest prelates
you are a son. I tell the Churchmen in this room, they
cannot afford to do without the sound evangelical Dissenters
in England ; and I tell the Dissenters in this room, (and I
rejoice that Mr. Binney has told them thoroughly so,) that
they cannot afford to part with the sound and evangelical
section of the Church. You may depend upon it, that a
crisis is coming that will demand the combined faithfulness
and efforts of all. Cardinal Wiseman claims Dissenters
and Churchmen both as his " subjects." It is time for both
to look about them.
I may just add, as I pass along, the very remarkable fact,
that the Pope has parcelled out England, but, strange to say,
he has not yet meddled with Scotland. Whether it was that the
Pope thought it was too hot for the Cardinal, I do not know.
I suspect John Knox did more good there than you give him
credit for ; and the time may come when a John Knox will
be wanted in England, to lift up his voice like a trumpet, not
against beautiful churches, which he never assailed, but
against Popish interference and superstition, which he
warred with to the death. God gives martyrs just when
martyrs are required. I expect, every day, however, to
hear of an irruption of the Roman militia into Scotland
also. Let us all unite in righteous resistance. All the sections
of the Protestant Church differ only in ceremonial details,
and agree in all that is vital, permanent, and precious. All
our churches are trees, the planting of the Lord. Each

THE TEACHING OF CARDINAL WISEMAN. 33
grows best in its own native soil ; but their branches wave
in the same unsectarian air, their fruit ripens in the same
catholic sun, and their roots blend with each other in the
soil beneath, invisible but not unknown to us, and all cohere
with the roots ofthe tree of life which is in the midst of the
paradise of God. Let us, then, be brethren in arms, rivals
only in renown ; forget not that part of the Bishop of Lon
don's letter to the Westminster clergy, where the Bishop
states with great force and great truth, that the Pope is not
the centre of unity, but the Lord Jesus Christ. I accept the
Bishop's definition of unity. In the church of Rome they
will forgive you all differences, if you will cleave to the
chair of St. Peter, and look to the Pope. In the Protestant
church we must learn to forgive all minor differences, on
condition that all behold " the Lamb of God that taketh
away the sins of the world." They honor an earthly, we a
heavenly head.
You may depend upon it, and I speak to all parties, uni
formity is not God's will, but unity truly and eternally is.
Uniformity a tailor can produce by cutting all our coats
alike, but unity the living God alone can produce by chang
ing all our hearts alike. So it is in nature. If I were to
take Cardinal Wiseman's plan of making Westminster at
one with Rome, I would go out some fine autumn to a forest,
and take an axe with which I would chop every tree into
the form of a beautiful cone. Then I would invite, like the
Cardinal, all heretics to come and see what a splendid speci
men of sylvan . uniformity I had created in this disorderly
forest. After I had done so, and retired for some six months,
I would go back in the season of " leafy June," taking my
friends with me to show them the perpetuity of my splendid
specimen of sylvan uniformity ; but, to my horror and to
their surprise, everytggQjma__ohjtforth its 'branches at its
own "sweet wijU^tpSsSMy ifljfo^ff^rts of shapes, in all

34 THE GREAT APOSTASY.
directions. The only trees that are as I left them are the
dead ones. Wherever there is life there will be unity but
no uniformity ; wherever there is death there will be perfect
uniformity, but no unity. Let us then melt our common
quarrels and disputes in the coming crisis ; let us, preferring
each our own ecclesiastical communion, all cooperate heartily
in protesting against the daring intrusion of Rome, and in
holding fast Protestant and vital Christianity. I believe this
invasion will do much good in furthering this ; it will coerce
into one those that would scarcely be conciliated; it will re
veal points of unsuspected contact — and render audible too
long latent harmonies. I protest as a loyal subject against
the presence of this chartered representative of the Pope, —
a foreign ruler, neither our monarch, nor the Queen's sub
ject, — against this apportionment of England as of a colony
of the Pope of Rome — against this assumption of preroga
tives that belong to our Queen ; against this resumption of a
jurisdiction long ago forfeited by the crimes of the Papacy,
and repudiated by the constitution of our country; and I
say it becomes every Protestant in England to feel and
shout, " Down with the tiara, and up with the crown, and if
possible, higher still."
I deprecate, as the Prime Minister has said, the senti
ments and example of those gentlemen who, like Mr. Deni
son, whose letter has appeared in the Times, entertain a far
intenser horror of what is so healthy in these days, State
control, but feel so indifferent to the presence of a Cardinal
who carries in his bosom the principles of Liguori or Bona
venture, and in his pocket, perhaps, other ammunition of a
still more combustible kind. If it is to be the mere inter
pretation of a document (I do not speak of defining doctrine)
I would prefer the Privy Council to any General Council
that has sat for the last thousand years ; and if we are to be
under, as we must be, a governor, let us have, in preference

THE TEACHING OF CARDINAL WISEMAN. 35
to the impudent intruder Pius IX. or to any of the infant
Holinesses he is training in England, the sway of our most
gracious, our most Protestant Queen.
I protest, too, let me say, — and it comes with more pro
priety from me, — against the atrocious assumption ofthe
Pope in ignoring the Church of Eugland. He assumes that
England is a heathen country, that we have had no religion
for the last 300 years : and so indoctrinated are his subjects,
that " The Catholic Standard," a Romish weekly newspaper
in London, speaks of the " Protestant Bishop of London, and
the Protestant clergy," and of " his grace the Archbishop and
the clergy of Westminster ; " contrasting most favorably in
another article, " the Heresiarch of Canterbury," with his
" Eminence the Cardinal Archbishop of Westminster." I
say all this is ignoring the Church of England. But if there
be a church under heaven — and I say it, having nothing to
fear and nothing to expect from it — if there be a church
under heaven signalized by the possession of splendid Prot
estant scholarship, and from whose mines we must all dig
and draw up enriching ore, it is the Protestant Church of
this country. It has, I believe, more faithful ministers, if
unfortunately many unfaithful, by its altars in 1850, than I
believe it has had in any previous period. The ignoring
such a church is the ignoring of the first church in Christen
dom, and so the ignoring of us all ; and the indignation we
feel, as the Prime Minister has said, should exceed far any
alarm that we have upon the subject.
But my weightiest protest is not that the Pope has ig
nored the Church of England, but that Rome ignores the
Church of Christ. My most solemn reason of protest is
not that he has insulted by his usurpation our most gracious
Queen, but that the Church of which the Pope is head has
dishonored the Lord Jesus Christ. My main charge against
him and his cardinals and priests, while I do no not forget

36 THE GREAT APOSTASY.
his usurpation of English rights, is that they inculcate doc
trines which must defile the purity of our firesides, disturb
the whole texture of social life, and shed a tarnish on the
glory of Him whose glory it is our first duty to seek, and
ought to be our last effort to defend. I hope this daring,
this insulting attempt, will create, kindle, and deepen still
more throughout England, a flame of sacred and enthusias
tic antipathy to the principles of Rome. I say, enthusiasm, —
I don't mean fanaticism. Fanaticism is never inspired by
hate, enthusiasm is truth inspired by love ; fanaticism would
build an inquisition, enthusiasm built, under God, the
Church of the Apostles : fanaticism is like the rocket,
which ascended yesterday, and died leaving the darkness
denser ; enthusiasm is like those subterranean fires in south
ern lands, to be detected, not by their volcanic explosions,
but by the fertile soil and the golden harvests that appear
above them. Let us have such enthusiasm. By God's
grace we will fan and feed it. Depend upon it, Admiral
Harcourt, the time is come when every man must take his
place — every one is now coming under his true polarity.
All society is splitting into two great sections : those that
are with Christ, and those that are with Antichrist. By-
and-by there will be but two churches — the one the Apos
tasy, the other Christ's. You must learn, as I have told
you, to forget the minor things in which we differ, and to
recollect the mightier things in which we agree ; we must
recollect our differences are small even when magnified,
and that our points of coincidence are many and precious.
Liberality, not latitudinarianism, becomes us all, and is the
demand of the day : and if the worst come to the worst let
there be reproach to our names, — confiscation to our
goods, — martyrdom to our ministers ; but let there be loy
alty to our Queen, and faithfulness to our God. A great
writer, who has so often and so successfully reflected true

THE TEACHING OF CARDINAL WISEMAN. 37
English feeling in his magnificent compositions, — magnifi
cent with all their moral faults, — makes a royal one of old
say to one Cardinal, what the Queen of England need not
hesitate to say to Cardinal Wiseman : —
" Thou canst not, Cardinal, devise a name
So slight, unworthy, and ridiculous,
To charge me to an answer, as the Pope.
Tell him this tale ; and from the mouth of England
Add this much more, — that no Italian priest
Shall tythe or toll in our dominions."

LECTURE II.

CARDINAL WISEMAN, " HIS OATH, AND ITS OBLIGATIONS."

Let me begin this Lecture by presenting the oath taken
by Roman Catholic Bishops and Archbishops, as given in
every edition of the Pontificale Romanum : —

"Ego N. Electus Ecclesiae N. ab
hac hora in antea fidelis et obediens
cro B. Petro Apostolo, Sanctaeque
Romanae Ecclesiae, et Domino nostro,
Domino N. Papas N. suisque suc
cessoribus canonice intrantibus. Non
ero in consilio, aut consensu, vel
facto, ut vitam perdant, aut mem-
brum; seu capiantur mala captione;
aut in eos manus quomodolibet in-
gerantur; vel injurias aliquae infer-
antur, quovis quaesito colore. Con
silium verb quod mihi credituri sunt,
per se, aut Nuncios suos, seu literas,
ad eorem damnum, me sciente nem-
ini pandam. Papatum Romanum et
Regalia Sancti Petri adjutor eis ero
ad defendendum et retinendum, sal
vo meo ordine, contra omnem hom
inem. Legatum Apostolicas Sedis
in eundo et redeundo honorifice
rractabo, et in suis necessitatibus
adjuvabo. Jura, honores, privilegia,
et auctoritatem Sanctae Romanae
Ecclesias, Domini nostri Papas et
Successorum praedictorum conser-
vare, defendere, augere, promovere
curabo. Neque ero in consilio, vel
facto, seu tractatu in quibus contra
ipsum Dominum nostrum, vel ean-

"I. N. Elect of the Church of
N. from henceforward will be faith
ful and obedient to St. Peter the
Apostle, and to the holy Roman
Church, and to our Lord, the Lord
N. Pope N. and to his successors
cauonically coming in. I will nei
ther advise, consent, or do any
thing that may lose life or member,
or that their persons may be seized
or hands anywise laid upon them,
or any injuries offered to them un
der any pretence whatsoever. The
counsel which they shall intrust me
withal, by themselves, their messen
gers, or letters, I will not knowingly
reveal to any to their prejudice. I
will help them to defend and keep
the Roman Papacy, and the Royal
ties of St. Peter, saving my order,
against all men. The Legate of the
Apostolic See, going and coming, I
will honorably treat and help in his
necessities. The rights, honors, priv
ileges, and authority of the holy
Roman Church, of our Lord the
Pope and his foresaid successors, I
will endeavor to preserve, defend,
increase, and advance. I will not
be in any counsel, action, or treaty,

cardinal Wiseman's oath.

39

dem Romanam Ecclesiam aliqua
sinistra vel prasjudicialia person
arum, juris, honoris, status et po-
testatis, eorum machinentur. Et si
talia a quibuscunque tractari vel
procurari novero, impediam hoc pro
posse, et quanto citiiis potero signifi-
cabo eidem Domino nostro, vel alteri
per quem possit ad ipsius notitiam
pervenire. Regulas Sanctorum Pa-
trum, decreta, ordinationes, seu dis-
positiones, reservationes, provisiones
et mandata Apostolica totis viribus
observabo, et faciam ab aliis obser-
vari. Haereticos, Schismaticos et Re
belles eidem Domino nostro vel
successoribus praedictis pro posse
persequar et impugnabo. Vocatus
ad Synodum veniam, nisi praepe-
ditus fuero canonica praspeditione.
Apostolorum limina singulis trien-
niis personaliter per me ipsum vis-
itabo et Domino nostro ac succes
soribus prasfatis rationem reddam de
toto meo pastorali officio ac de rebus
omnibus ad meas Ecclesias statum,
ad cleri, et populi disciplinary, ani-
marum denique quas meae fidei
traditas sunt, salutem qnovismodo
pertinentibus, et vicissim mandata
Apostolica humiliter recipiam et
quam diligentissime exequar. Quod
si legitimo impedimento detentus
fuero praefata omnia adimplebo per
certum Nuntium ad hoc speciale
mandatum habentem de gremio mei
Capituli, aut ahum in dignitate
Ecclesiastica constitutum, seu alias
personarum habentem ; aut, his mihi
deficientibus, per diocesanum Sacer-
dotem; et clero deficiente omnino
per aliquem alium Presbyterum sse-
cularem vel regularem spectatas pro-
bitatis et religionis de supradictis
omnibus plene instructum. De hu-

in which shall be plotted against our
said Lord, and the said Roman
Church, any thing to the hurt or
prejudice of their persons, right,
honor, state, or power; and if I
shall know any such thing to be
treated or agitated by any whatso
ever, I will hinder it to my power ;
and as soon as I can will signify it
to our said Lord, or to some other
by whom it may come to his knowl
edge. The rules of the Holy Fathers,
the Apostolic decrees, ordinances or
disposals, reservations, provisions,
and mandates, I will observe with all
my might, and cause to be observed
by others. Heretics, schismatics,
and rebels to our said Lord or his
foresaid successors, I will to my ut
most power persecute and wage war
with. I will come to a Council when
I am called, unless I be hindered by
a canonical impediment. I will by
myself in person visit the threshold
of the Apostles every three years;
and give an account to our Lord and
his foresaid successors of all my
pastoral office, and of all things any
wise belonging to the state of my
church, to the discipline of my
clergy and people, and lastly to the
salvation of souls committed to my
trust; and will in like manner
humbly receive and diligently exe
cute the Apostolic commands. And
if I be detained by a lawful impedi
ment, I will perform all the things
aforesaid by a certain messenger
hereto specially empowered, a mem
ber of my chapter, or some other in
ecclesiastical dignity or else having
a parsonage; or in default of these,
by a priest of the diocese ; or in de
fault of one of the clergy (of the
diocese) by some other secular or

40 THE GREAT APOSTASY.
jusmodi autem impedimento docebo regular priest of approved integrity
per legitimas probationes ad Sanctae and religion, fully instructed in all
Romanas Ecclesias Cardinalem Pro- things above mentioned. And such
ponentem in Congregatione Sacri impediment I will make out by law-
Concilii per supradictum Nuntium ful proofs to be transmitted by the
transmittendas. Possessiones verb foresaid messenger to the Cardinal
ad mensam meam pertinentes non proponent of the holy Roman Church
vendam, nee donabo neque impig- in the congregation of the Sacred
norabo, nee de novo infeudabo vel Council. The possessions belonging
aliquo modo alienabo, etiam cum to my table I will neither sell nor
consensu Capituli Ecclesias meas, give away, nor mortgage, nor grant
inconsulto Romano Pontifice. Et anew in fee, nor anywise alienate,
si ad aliquam alienationem devene- no not even with the consent of the
ro, pcenas in quadam super hoc chapter of my church, without con-
edita coustitutione contentas eo ipso suiting the Roman Pontiff. And if
incurrere volo. Sic me Deus adju- I shall make any alienation, I will
vet et haec Sancta Dei Evangelia." — thereby incur the penalties con-
[De consecratione Electi in episco- tained in a certain constitution put
pum. Pontificale Romanum, pp. forth about this matter. So help me
59-61. Antverpias, 1627.] [Romas, God and those holy Gospels of
1738, vol. 1. p. 178.] And [page 88, God."
edit. Paris. 1664, at Cardinal Wise
man's episcopal residence, Golden
Square.] Owing to the special importance of the subject on which
I am now to enter, especially as Cardinal Wiseman, who
has not appeared here himself, in answer to my invitation,
has sent a missive which I will read in your hearing by
and by, I have to request that the reporters who are present,
and the auditors who are listening, will notice well, and
weigh wel], the ipsissima verba — the very words I am now
about to use. In the Times newspaper of Monday last, to
which you, Sir, have alluded, I read a report of a sermon
preached by Bishop Doyle in the Roman Catholic Cathedral
in Southwark. In that sermon the following words occur:
" Amongst other things they have spoken of an ' oath,'
which they assert every Cardinal, upon his appointment,
takes before the Sovereign Pontiff."
My remark upon this subject will be best understood by
my reading the precise words that I employed in the speech

cardinal Wiseman's oath. 41
which I delivered here at our last meeting. On that occasion
I said, (p. 9,) " Let me presume, that when the Cardinal was
made an Archbishop, he received the pallium." " When he
received the pallium, he repeated a solemn oath, which will
be found in the Pontificate Romanum," Antwerp, 1 627.
Bishop Doyle says that the statement made by me was
that every Cardinal, upon his appointment, takes a certain
oath. My statement, however, was that every Archbishop on
receiving the pallium takes a certain oath. A Cardinal, as I
explained to you before, is a temporal officer, with temporal
prospects, for whose consecration the Pontifical has no form,
who may be made Pontiff and Sovereign of the States of the
Church as well as chief Bishop of the Roman Catholic Com
munion. An Archbishop is an ecclesiastical officer, and I
stated, not as if I had been a witness, to , the transaction at
Rome, which I was not, but speaking on the documents of
that Church, authorized, accredited, signed, supersigned, of
all dates, that the Archbishop of Westminster, like any other
Archbishop of the Romish Church, on receiving the pallium,
must have repeated the oath which, as a Bishop, when first
consecrated, he had taken before. Bishop Doyle goes on to
say: —
" I will not repeat the words of that terrible oath, for no
doubt you have all read it, and the less said about it the bet
ter ; for from this, sacred spot I declare that the accusation
is a falsehood. No such oath has been taken by his Emi
nence. It has been commented upon at public meetings, and
in newspapers, and the public mind has been thus inflamed
against the. Roman Catholics. I asked the Cardinal all
about it. The very first words I addressed to him were,
' Now, your Eminence, what about this dreadful oath ? '
His answer was, ' No such oath was taken.' "
Then mark what follows : " There is an oath taken by a
Bishop, but there is no such oath taken by a Cardinal. Let
me inform you what the oath taken by a Bishop is. He
4*

42 THE GREAT APOSTASY.
promises in that oath to pursue and combat error, and to up
hold the sacred doctrines of the Church. Surely it is not a
dreadful thing to swear to combat error." He admits here
that there is an oath taken, in which oath he says there is a
clause which I never saw, which never was produced, which
never can be produced, and which is in no standard what
ever of the Roman Catholic Church. His admission, how
ever, is a catchword, which discloses the existence of the
true clause. Then he goes on to state what I wish you
specially to notice : —
" They talk of the edict of Queen Mary, and lay it at the
door of the Catholic clergy. I deny that it is true ; and I
refer our detractors to that history which they so wilfully
pervert. What is the fact with regard to this very edict of
Queen Mary ? And now that I may presume many Prot
estants are present, let me impress upon them the justice of
paying attention to what I am about to state. Now the true
version of Queen Mary's edict, in connection with the
Catholic clergy, is this. On the very day that that Edict
was sent forth, that great, and good, and fearless friar,
Alphonzo de Castro, when he preached before the
Court, in the presence of Her Majesty, denounced it as
most intolerant, unjust, and in every degree opposed to the
glorious principles and spirit of our holy religion. That
fearless man, in the name of the Church, denounced the acts
of- Mary as opposed to the Church. And it is the same
Church now as in the day that De Castro defended it against
the acts of those who were sinning against it."
I will speak of this by and by ; meantime I return to the
oath. First of all, then, I wrote a letter to the Times news
paper, in which I said, "As Bishop Doyle has made so
explicit a disclaimer, I feel it my duty to write to you what
I did say. The words I used were, ' First of all, let me
presume, that when the Cardinal was made an Archbishop,
to which he was appointed before he was made Cardinal, he
received the pallium, and repeated a certain oath.' "

cardinal Wiseman's oath. 43
Now, if you heard that a certain individual had been
made a Bishop according to the rites of the Church of Eng
land, and if you wished to know what he said and pledged,
what would you do ? You would open the Prayerbook,
and read the Form and Order for the Consecration of
Bishops, and you would say that if any Bishop had been
consecrated contrary to, or in the omission of what is there
authoritatively enjoined, there would be wanting in that
Bishop's appointment, or in that Bishop's consecration, some
thing that in the views of a Churchman was essential, and
necessary, and dutiful. I quoted then, first of all, the Pon-
tificale Romanum, published at Antwerp ; and I gave you
the date of it, 1627. To be perfectly sure, though I had
no doubt of it, that every Pontificate Romanum was a fac
simile of this, I procured one with the notes of Catalano.
This volume which I hold in my hand is one of the three
volumes which cost sixteen guineas. It is called the Roman
Pontifical, or that book according to which every Bishop
must be consecrated, every Archbishop receive the pallium,
every Priest be ordained, bless, curse, baptize, and excom
municate. It is the Pontificate Romanum, as revised and
issued on the authority of two Popes, Clement VIII. and
Urban VHI. ; having the valuable illustrative notes of Cat
alano, and dated Rome, 1738. That you may have as clear
an apprehension as possible of the force, weight, and value
of this document called the Roman Pontifical, I will read a
single sentence from the Constitution of Clement VIII. pre
fixed to it : —
"Statuentes Pontificate prsedic- "Determining that the foresaid
tum nullo umquam tempore in toto Pontifical shall not at any time be
vel in parte mutandum, vel ei ah- changed in whole or in part, that
quid addendum, aut omnino detra- nothing shall be added to it, and
hendum esse, ac quoscumque, qui nothing be subtracted from it, and
pontificalia munera exercere, vel that all those who ought to exercise
alia quae in dicto Pontificali con- pontifical functions or other acts
tinentur, facere, aut exequi debent, which are contained in this Pontifi
ad ea peragenda, et prssstanda, cal, are bound to perform them after
ex hujus Pontificalis phescripto, et the prescription and order of this

44

the great apostasy.

ratione teneri, neminemque ex iis Pontifical, and that not one of those
quibus ea exercendi, et faciendi on whom the duty devolves of per-
munus impositum est, nisi formulis, forming these offices can satisfy the
quae hoc ipso Pontificali continentur, requirements unless in the formulas
servatis satisfacere posse. Omni- which are contained in this Pontifi-
bus igitur, et singulis Patriarchis, cal," etc. etc.
Archiepiscopis, Episcopis, "Abbati
bus, et ceteris Ecclesiarum Prelatis,
necnon aliis quibuscumque personis
Ecclesiastieis, seeubiribus, et regu
laribus utriusque sexus, ad quas id
spectat, prascipimus ac mandamus,
ut omissis, quas sic suppressimus, et
abolevimus, ceteris omnibus Pontifi-
calibus, hoc nostrum in suis Eccle
siis, Monasteriis, Conventibus, Or
dinibus, Militis Dioscesibus, et locis
prasdietis recipiant, illoque posthao
perpetuo utantur."
I turn now to the place, (p. 236,) in which an account is
given of the Pallium, as received by the Archbishop. It is
as follows : —

" Cum Pallium a Sede Apostolica
mittitur, Pontifex, cui res ipsa com-
mittitur, statuta die cum Electo con-
venit in Ecclesia sua, si commode
fieri potest ; vel alia Ecclesia suae
dicecesis, vel Provincias magis com-
moda, in qua missarum solemnia
peragantur. Et, facta communione
per celebrantem Pallium reponitur
supra medium Altaris extensum, et
serico, in quo involutum portatum
fuit, coopertum. Deinde peractis
Missarum solemniis, Pontifex in-
dutus Amictu, Stola Pluviali, et
Mitra, sedens ante Altare, super
faldistorio, capit juramentum fi-
delitatis nomine Sedis Apostol
icas, ab ipso Electo, omnibus Pon
tificalibus ornamentis, ac si cele
braturus esset, Mitra tamen et
ohirothecis demptis, induto, ante se
genuflexo, juxta formam, per lit
teras Apostolicas traditam."

" When the Pallium is sent from
the Apostolic See, the Pontiff to
whom the delivery of it is commit
ted, meets with the elect in his own
church, or in some church of his
diocese on a fixed day. Then the
Pallium is spread on the altar cov
ered with the silk in which it was
carried to Rome. Mass being fin
ished, the Pontiff sitting before the
altar on a faldstool, receives the oath
of fidelity from the (Archbishop)
elect, in the name of the Apostolio
See — the elect kneeling before
him in his pontificals, and without
gloves."

cardinal Wiseman's oath. 45
To see that the Archbishop, on receiving the pallium,
takes the oath exactly as it is given in the Consecration of
a Bishop, I turn to page 178, to which I am referred. The
oath is there given at full length ; and in it is the clause
which I quoted : —
" Hasreticos, Schismaticos, et Reb- "All heretics, schismatics, and
elles, eidem Domino Nostro, vel rebels against the same our Lord,
successoribus prasdictis, pro posse or foresaid successors, I will perse-
persequab et impugnabo." cute and attack to the utmost of my
power."
Anxious to know whether I had translated the words
aright, I opened an admirable sermon, preached by a first-
rate man upon this subject — Dr. Wordsworth, Canon of
Westminster. He gives the words of the oath as follow :
" I, Nicholas, [applying it to Archbishop Wiseman, J elect
of the Church of Westminster, to the utmost of my power
will persecute and wage war with heretics, schismatics, &c."
I have been charged with giving too strong a translation,
but Canon Wordsworth, than whom I do not know a more
able scholar on this subject, translates it more strongly than
I do. The only other translation I know of is that of the
Rev. Mr. Burgess, Rector of Chelsea, who said that it ought
to be translated, in order to enable an Englishman to under
stand it, " I will persecute and pitch into." *
This document, this Pontificate Romanum, of which a bull
of Urban VIII. says that nothing is to be added to. it, and
nothing to be subtracted from it, and if any one do either, he
fails in the conditions that are to be observed, — in other
words, there is a flaw in the consecration, or a fault in the
appointment, — this document adds: —
"Juramento praestito, Pontifex " The oath being performed, the
surgit cum mitra, et pallium de Pontiff rises with the mitre, and he
altari accipit, etc." takes the pallium from the altar
and puts it on the Shoulders of the
elect."
*In the Roman Missal I have found the verb " persequar" employed at
least six times, and in every instance implying persecution by violence.

46 THE GREAT APOSTASY.
I read in Cardinal Wiseman's Pastoral : " In that same
Consistory we were enabled ourselves to ask for the archie
piscopal pallium for our new See of Westminster ; and this
day we have been invested, by the hands of the Supreme
Pastor and Pontiff himself, with this badge of metropolitan
jurisdiction." [A Voice: " What is a. pallium f"-] A pal
lium is a sort of robe, which an Archbishop receives, woven
of wool which belongs to lambs, presented for this purpose
by certain nuns of St. Agnes, on the feast-day of the patron
saint. If any Roman Catholic wishes for an explanation of
the pallium he had better not ask for it. He will then save
himself the pain of hearing of the puerility that cleaves to
too many of the ceremonies of his Church.
Have I not shown you from a document to which, as in
fallibly declared, nothing is to be added, and from which
nothing is to be subtracted, that the Archbishop, on receiv
ing the pallium, (as he says he did receive it,) had to make
that oath, a portion of which I have read, and the rest of
which I will come to discuss by and by ?
Now, lest it should be supposed that I had quoted from an
obsolete work, lest also it should be supposed that the
Church may have changed, I set out, only two days ago, and
after search I found and bought the same book, the Pontifi
cate Romanum, in three vols, dated Mechlin, 1845. I opened
this book, and found not only the horrible curse which I
formerly read, but also, as in the others, that the Archbishop
on receiving the pallium is to make the same oath precisely
as I have read it. And I find prefixed to it the Bull of
Urban VIII. and another Bull of Benedict XIV. quoted by
Cardinal Wiseman in his defence in the Times newspaper
of yesterday. Benedict XIV. says in his Bull : —
" This our Pontifical, restored and reformed, we command
[mark the Words], to be observed by all the churches of the
world, (Omnibus universi terrarum orbis ecclesiis,) even in
exempt places. Resolving that the aforesaid Pontifical is

cardinal Wiseman's oath. 47
in no part to be changed, in no part to be added to, in no
part to be subtracted from."
I have shown you the Antwerp edition, also Catalano's
edition of the Pontifical, with the Bull attached to each ;
and I have now shown you the Pontifical of 1845 published
at Mechlin, with almost the same words, only more stringent,
prefixed to it. I find from all these, that when Archbishop
Wiseman received the Pallium, he had to repeat the oath I
have mentioned before he could receive it. Then what
must be our inference from all this ? (The books are open
here, and on the table, for any one's inspection.) That
Cardinal Wiseman, if there be any truth in these documents,
if there be any authority in this Pontifical, did swear:
" Hcereticos, schismaticos et rebelles, Domino Nostro, vel
successoribus prcedictis, pro posse perseqtjar et impug-
nabo." But a new disclosure is now to come. I received to-day
a letter, dated St. George's Cathedral, Southwark, with a
cross prefixed to it, and signed " Francis Searle, Secretary
to Cardinal Wiseman." "+ St. George's, Southwark, Nov. 21, 1850.
" Sir, — The accompanying is the copy of a letter which
I took myself to the Times printing office on Tuesday after
noon. It has not been inserted in the number of either
yesterday or to-day, and as the perusal of it may save
you some trouble this morning, I take this means of bring
ing it before your notice. " I am, Sir,
" Your obedient Servant,
"Francis Searle,
" Secretary to Cardinal Wiseman."

48 THE GREAT APOSTASY.
" To the Editor of the Times.
" St. George's, Southwark, Nov. 19th.
" Sir, — Dr. Cumming, in his letter of your paper of
to-day gives an extract from the oath taken by Bishops and
Archbishops copied from the Pontifical printed at Antwerp
in 1627, and states, 'I presume that Cardinal Wiseman on
receiving the pallium took that oath.' To prevent further
misunderstanding I have the Cardinal's permission to state
to you that by a rescript of Pope Pius VII., dated April 12,
1818, the clause quoted by the Rev. Dr. and so subject to
misunderstanding, is omitted by the Bishops and Arch
bishops who are subject to the British Crown. [This
private indulgence, if true, shows what is the repressive
splendor of that crown, and what is the pressure of the
opinions of the subjects of that crown, even on the habits
and doings and unchangeable laws of Rome itself.]
" The authorized copy now lying before me is headed :
" ' Forma Juramenti.'
" ' Pro Episcopis et Vicariis Apostolicis Episcopali dig-
nitate prteditis qui in locis Magna? Britannia? subjectis
versantur, prsescripta a SS. Pio P. VII. die 12 Aprilis,
1818.' " In the copy of the Pontifical, kept at the Episcopal
residence in Golden Square — the copy perhaps generally
used in the consecration of bishops in England — the
sentence is cancelled."
Is not this strange? Let me read that to you again.
Englishmen are plain matter-of-fact men, honest men,
strangers to shuffling, especially to Popish shuffling; and
we must have plain matter-of-fact downright statements.
The Cardinal states : —
"In the copy of the Pontifical, kept at the Episcopal
residence in Golden Square — the copy perhaps (!) gen-

cardinal Wiseman's oath. 49
ERALLY (!) used in the consecration of bishops in England
— the sentence is cancelled."
Perhaps! Does he not know all about the Romish
bishops of England? What a sleepy archbishop not to
know what his bishops are doing ! What ! an archbishop
to go and consecrate bishops, and not know whether they
have taken the oath or not ! What ! an archbishop,, with a
Pontifical that he dares not subtract from, that he dares not
add to ; and whose conditions, if violated, may render his
consecration null and void for what I know — who is this
archbishop, who does not know whether these things are
done or not? Credat Judseus. Are there no penances for
careless Romish archbishops ?
" Dr. Cumming is at liberty to inspect this if he will
arrange with me for that purpose."
I'll go there. I will probe the matter to its depths. I
want this clearly settled in your minds ; because I will not
let Archbishop Wiseman escape by any Jesuitical sophistry.
[A Voice : " Go to Golden Square with the police with
you."] No, I will go without police. Did you ever hear
of a Scottish Protestant being afraid of anybody? still
less of a Romanist. He adds (for I wish you to know
all): —
" When Cardinal Wiseman was consecrated Bishop in
Rome, he took the English form of oath. On receiving the
pallium, at which ceremony I assisted, his Eminence took
no oath, Cardinals being exempt. (How ?) (where ?)
(why ?) Had he been required to do so, he would no doubt
have repeated the same form."
Do their laws bind these men ? In what authorized doc
ument are Cardinals exempt? Here is a solemn Pontifical,
which Archbishop Wiseman is bound to observe under tho^
most solemn conditions, with the most solemnly prefixed
bulls — a document which all bishops, all priests, all arch
bishops are bound to observe; on which Catalano writes
5

50 THE GREAT APOSTASY.
illustrative notes, which explain that when the archbishop
receives the pallium he must take the oath, and that till he
has taken that oath he cannot receive the pallium — and
here Archbishop Wiseman says he did not take that oath !
Suppose he did not, what follows ? Urban VIH. and Bene
dict XIV. say, — " This is a Pontifical in which nothing is
to be changed, to which nothing is to be added, from which
nothing is to be subtracted." Gregory XVI. and Pius IX.
say, — " Any thing may be added to it that Cardinal Wise
man likes, any thing subtracted from it that will suit it to
the British people." The boast of Romanists is, that the
Church of Rome is a united church, and that we heretics
are all at issue with each other. Here are two Popes say
ing of the Pontifical, — " You must not add to it, you must
not subtract from it ; if any thing is done contrary to it,
your functions are not done at all;" while two other Popes
(Gregory XVI. and Pius IX.) say, — " You may chop it
and change it in any way that you think will least offend
and best deceive the English people;" — and all is right
notwithstanding. I protest, if such be the unity of the
Church of Rome, we are better with the disunion, as it is
called, of Protestantism. If I assume the Cardinal's state
ment as true, what is the fact ? That the Pope is not only
the interpreter of the law, but he is the creator of the law,
and the changer of the law, making the Papacy at present
suit the specific and untoward circumstances in which his
subjects are placed in this gloriously Protestant country.
If this be He fact, what is the unity of the Church of Rome ?
It is this : — that the Pope, whoever he be, keeps all under
him and in order. If this be true, then the bishops for the
time being are the minions and creatures of the Pope, sub
ject to him, sworn to him ; and they must be obedient to
him. Did you ever happen to pass before the National
Gallery? I used to cross Waterloo Bridge, and I often
saw there the same man with a large square cage, with

cardinal Wiseman's oath. 51
open wires in front. One day the man came and asked me
to come and see "the happy family." I looked into the
cage, and certainly I did see what much startled me — cats,
mice, birds, owls, rats, and a hawk ; conflicting animals liv
ing in perfect order. I was so charmed with this type of
the millennium — this foretaste of what will be — that I gave
the man my penny and passed on. I saw the same thing
several days in succession; but one day I was passing on
the other side of the road, and was looking across at my old
millennial type, which I enjoyed very much, when I saw
my friend watching a cat in one corner, that was looking
with most popish-like eyes at a little bird perched on a stick
opposite. The cat was preparing to spring on her prey :
what do you think the man did ? He took a thin lath from
his pocket, put it between the wires of the cage, and hit the
cat a smart stroke on the head, when puss became as peace
able and quiet as a cat could possibly be. I said to myself,
" That is the very type of the Church of Rome." When
ever a bishop begins to be disorderly, whenever it is conve
nient to subdue one, to keep in order a second, to check a
third, to chastise a fourth, the Pope steps in, smites him on
the head ecclesiastical, makes him quiet, and then exclaims,
" What a united family are we ! "
You have heard Dr. Wiseman's disclaimer of that clause
ofthe oath. Public sentiment has been justly shocked by
it. If I were the only person who had quoted it, I should
almost have mistrusted my own eyes, but Canon Words
worth quotes it at full length. Cardinal Wiseman says that
he took the oath, as a bishop, with the exception of that
clause. Is not this odd ? The very clause we have seized,
and shown to be most plainly and most powerfully incompat
ible with loyalty to the Queen, and charity to her subjects^
is the very clause he shuffles out of, and announces he was
lucky enough not to take at all. Fortunate Bishop ! happy
coincidence of circumstances ! tender deferee to the British

52 THE GREAT APOSTASY.
crown ! But has Rome penitently renounced this clause ?
Has she cancelled it for ever ? Is it only in abeyance ? If
it be good, why is Dr. Wiseman denied taking it ? If it be
bad, why are his brother bishops on the Continent forced to
take it ? More than this ; I find that Bishop Doyle, who is
merely the Cardinal's mouth-piece, in his cathedral says, that
bishops do take an oath. I am glad they do. Archbishop
Wiseman says he took that very oath, with this clause
omitted. Bishop Doyle says that bishops do take an oath,
and he explains what that oath is. " He promises in that
oath to pursue and combat error, and to uphold the sacred
doctrines of the Church. Surely it is not a dreadful thing
to swear to combat error." Mark this, he gives you enough
of catchword to enable you to see that this is the clause he
alludes to, and is the form which Bishop Wiseman says he
did not take, — for he says he did not take it in any form at
all. Bishop Doyle says he did take it ! I solemnly declare
that that letter of Cardinal Wiseman, and the sermon
preached by Bishop Doyle, have turned over a new leaf in
that dread chapter which will be unfolded in our country,
with all its terrible results, if Protestants are not true to
their Bible, and Englishmen to our Constitution.
I have now given you all particulars about the oath. I
regret the Cardinal is not here. I think I must next issue
an invitation to the Cardinal to discuss the rest of the prin
ciples of his Church ; and having got him to renounce aiid
repent of one clause, I hope we shall get him to renounce
his creed clause by clause till there will be nothing left.
I now call your attention to the words of Bishop Doyle,
in his sermon in the pulpit of St. George's Cathedral. After
mentioning his conversation with his Eminence, Cardinal
^Wiseman, Bishop Doyle says: —
" They talk of the edict of Queen Mary, and lay it at the
door of the Catholic clergy. Now, the true version of
Queen Mary's edict, in connection with the Catholic clergy,

cardinal Wiseman's oath. 53
is this : On the very day that that edict was sent forth, that
great and good and fearless friar, Alphonzo de
Castro, when he preached before the court, in the presence
of her Majesty, denounced it as most intolerant, unjust, and
in every degree opposed to the glorious principles and spirit
of our holy religion. That fearless man, in the, name ofthe
Church, denounced the acts of Mary as opposed to the
Church ; and it is the same Church now as in the day that
De Castro defended it."
What would you infer from this ? Would not your infer
ence be, that this " great, this good, this courageous friar,"
denounced the persecuting edicts of Queen Mary, as con
trary to the spirit of Romanism ? When the Bishop says
that the principles of the Church are to-day precisely what
they were as exemplified by Alphonzo de Castro, would you
not instantly say, " This Alphonzo de Castro must have been
a grand exception amid the Liguoris and Aquinases. He
surely never persecuted heretics, he ever denounced every
thing like proscription, confiscation of property, destruction
of life, deposition of Queens, release of subjects from the
oaths of their allegiance ? " Would you not suppose that,
praised by a Bishop the mauth-piece of a Cardinal, in the
Cardinal's own Cathedral, in the pulpit which the Cardinal
is by.and by to occupy, and has occupied, in close and famil
iar connection with the Cardinal, having his confidence, able
to speak to him in such a familiar manner as : " Now, your
Eminence, what about this dreadful oath ? " — would you
not suppose that this man, this Alphonzo de Castro, thus
reprobating the deeds of his fathers, thus denouncing the
persecution of Mary, thus declared by Bishop Doyle to be
the true exponent of the charity, the meekness, and the
mildness of the Church of Rome — would you not suppose
that one has only to open his writings to find that all is
charitable, lovely, amiable, beautiful as Christianity can be
depicted, and mild as Rome would wish herself to be exhib-
5*

54 the great apostasy.
ited " under the British Crown," and before the British peo
ple ? The moment I heard that Bishop Doyle had recom
mended Alphonzo de Castro, as an expositor of the gentle
ness and mildness of his Church, I went to Mr. Darling, of
the Clerical Library, Little Queen Street, and said, " You
must get me Alphonzo de Castro, if in London, at any
price." Off he went with others, to beat up the booksellers
of London. A copy was purchased for £2 10s., and added
to his library, and that copy I have on the table. Alphonzo
de Castro was a friar, made an Archbishop just before his
death, and no doubt if he had lived longer, such are his
principles, he would have been made a Cardinal. The title
of his book is " Alfonsi de Castro Zamorensis, ordinis mino-
rum, regularis observantiae provincise sancti Jacobi. In quo
libri tres de justa Hsereticorum punitione, atque libri duo de
Potestate legis poenalis continentur. Madrid, 1773." This
is the gentleman recommended by Bishop Doyle as a true
exponent of his Church. This is the gentleman who, he
says, rebuked the sanguinary edicts of Queen Mary, and
who is in fact, as Bishop Doyle alleges, the true representa
tive of what the Church of Rome is, and what the Church
of Rome should be. In order to save your time, I have sat
up nearly one whole night and translated out of it the fol
lowing extracts. Any one can refer to the volume as I go
along, as it lies here on the table.
This exponent of the Church of Rome, this rebuker of
Queen Mary for her persecution, this man who is what the
Church of Rome wishes to be seen to be by the British
public — this meek and excellent, this " great and good and
courageous friar " says : —
" MultEe et varias sunt poenae, qui- " There are various punishments
bus Ecclesiastical sanctiones, Impe- with which ecclesiastical sanctions
ratorumqus leges haareticos plecti and imperial laws order heretics.to
jubent. Q,ussdam enim sunt spiritu- be punished. Some are spiritual
ales pcenae, quas animam solam re- and affect the soul alone; others are
spiciunt. Alias sunt corporales, quae corporal; and afflict the body, we

cardinal Wiseman's oath.

55

corpus affligunt. De singulis suo
ordine dicemus, et primo de corpo-
ralibus, postea vero de spiritualibus
posnis disseremus. Inter corporales
poenas una et quas non parum,
haereticos vexat, est bonorum, om
nium proscriptio et confiscatio."
"Altera hsereticorum pceha est,
privatio cujuscumque praalationis,
jurisdictionis, et dominii, quod ante
super homines cujuscumque condi-
tionis hiibuissent. Nam qui haereti-
cus est, ipso jure omnibus talibus
rebus privatus est.
"Hoc dominium habent reges,
duces, comites, et reliqui domini qui
populis praesunt. Hi super quos
tale, dominium habetur, non dicuntur
servi, sed subditi, et vocabulo jam
ab Omnibus recepto, dicuntur Vas-
salli. Hoc dominium etiam amitti-
tur per hasresim manifestam, ita
quod Rex factus haereticus, ipso jure
est regno suo privatus, et Dux suo
dneatu, et Comes comitatu, et idem
de aliis populorum dominis quocum-
que nomine censeantur, dicendum
est : Nam de omni dominio generali-
iter loquitur illud cap. fin. de haeret.
Nee mirari debet aliquis, quod Papa
propter hasresis crimen Regem a re
gia dignitate deponat, et regno pri
vet: quoniam in negotio fidei etiam
Reges, sicut et alii inferiores, sub-
duntur Summo Pontifici. Quo fit
ut illos sicut quoslibet alios punire

will speak, of each in its order, and
first of corporal punishments, and
afterward about spiritual. Among
corporal punishments one which
very much annoys heretics is the
proscription and confiscation of their
property." — Cap. v. p. 98.
"Another punishment Of heretics
is the deprival of every sort of pre
eminence, jurisdiction, and govern
ment, which they previously exer
cised over persons of evel-y condi
tion. For he who is a heretic is,
ipso jure, deprived of all such
things." — Gap. vii. p. 105.
" This authority have kings, dukes,
earls, ahd other governors who rule
the people. Those over whom this
authority is exercised are not called
servants but subjects: they are also
called by the universally received
term vassals. This authority is also
lost by manifest heresy; thus a
King having become a heretic, is
ipso jure deprived of his kingdom, a
Duke of his dukedom, an Earl of his
earldom, and so with other governors
of the people by whatever name
they are known. Nor should any
one wonder that the Pope, on ac
count of the crime of heresy, de
prives a King of his royal dignity,
and strips him of his kingdom ; for
in the matter of faith, Kings, like
other subordinates, are the subjects
of the Sovereign Pontiff, who can
punish them as he does others." —
Cap. vii. p. 108.
This is what is recommended from the cathedral pul
pit of St. George's in the Borough, which the Cardinal
regulates who is not to have Westminster with all its glory
subject to him, but only the poor and degraded population
whom he says he is to elevate, whom he is to dignify, and

56

THE great apostasy.

whom he is to make peaceable neighbors, and holy and
happy Christians. Listen further to the instruction given
for the guidance of the newly constituted hierarchy in our
country. "Si Rex fiat haereticus, ad quem "If the King become a heretic,
regni illius dominium, et potestas on whom does the, sovereignty and
j(nro devolvetur? Non quidem ad power devolve? Not on the em-
Imperatorem, prassertim si Rex non peror, especially if the king be riot
erat Imgeratori subjectus, quales subject to the emperor, such as the
sunt Hispanorum, Gallorum, et An- kings of Spain, France, and Eng-
glorum Reges." land." — Cap. vii. p. 108.
" Si Rex haereticus nullum habet " If an heretical king have no
hasredem, aut ille quem habet, est heir, or if the heir be also a heretic,
etiam hasreticus, tunc si regnum non then if the nation be not infected
est etiam haeresi infectum, dicerem with heresy, I should say it has the
Regnum ipsum habere jus et potes- power and right of electing the
tatem eligendi Regem, juxta id, king, as it is said in the 1st Book of
quod in primo lib. Regum dicitur : . Kings, ' The people makes itself a
Populus faeit sibi Regem, Si vero king.' But if the people be infected
regnum est etiam eadem peste infee- with the same pestilence (of heresy)
tum sicut Rex, regnum etiam erit as the king, the people will be de-
ipso jure privatum potestate eli- prived ipso jure of the power of
gendi sibi Regem, et tunc negotium choosing for itself a king, and then
devolvetur ad Summum Pontifi- the business will devolve on the
cem." Sovereign Pontiff." — Cap. vii. p.
108.
Hear again the theology recommended from the pulpit
of St. George's cathedral in the Borough.
"Ultima se jam offert corporis "The last punishment of the
poena: mors scilicet, qua hsereticos, body for heretics is death, with
nisi tempestive resipiscant, juste which we will prove by God's as
puniendos esse apertissime Deo fa- sistance heretics ought to be pun
vente demonstrabimus." ished." — Cap. xii. p. 123.
" Quo fit, ut ad tanti criminis hor- " It hence comes to pass, in order
rorem, et odium aliis ingenerandum, to create a horror of so great a
justum sit hasretico incorrigibili crime, and to produce in others de
mortis pcenam inferre." testation of it, that it is just to
inflict the punishment of death, on
an incorrigible heretic." Cap. xii.
p. 126.
"At nullum est (ut super libra "But there is no greater sin (as
primo docuimus) gravius haeresi we have shown above, in book first),

cardinal Wiseman's oath.

57

peeeatum, nullum est ergo crimen
cujus odium sit Christiano viro
magis incutiendum, et inde per con-
sequens sequitur, ut nullum sit cri
men pro quo justius aliquis possit
occidi, quam pro haeresi fixa et in-
sanabili. Si Martinus Lutherus,
cum primum coepit effundere vene-
num suum, et legitime adroouitus
noluit resipiscere, fuisset (ut deee-
bat) capitis animadversione punitus ;
casteri timorem habuissent, et non
prorupissent tot tantaeque pestiferae
hasreticorum factiones, quales, proh
dolor ! hodie Germania sustinet. Sed
quia impunio evasit Lutherus, ausi
sunt prodire in publicum et euas
effutire haereses (Ecolampadius,
Zuinglius, Carolstadius, et omnium
haereticorum pessimi Anabaptistas."

than that, of heresy, and therefore
there is no crime the hatred of
which is more to be impressed on a
Christian. Whence it follows that
there is no crime for which one may
be more justly put to death than for
fixed and incurable heresy. If Mar
tin Luther, when he first began to
pour out his poison, and after being
lawfully admonished would not re
pent, had been capitally punished as
he deserved, his followers would
have been terrified, and there would
not have burst forth so many and so
great heresies, as alas! Germany
now endures. But because Luther
escaped with impunity, (Ecolampa
dius, Zwingle, Carlstadt, and the
Anabaptists, the worst of all here
tics, dared to go abroad in public
and vent their heresies." — Cap. xii.
p. 126.

He gives an account of the different modes in which
heretics are to be publicly treated : he says : —

" Ostendimus jam satis (ut opi
nor) aperte justum esse, ut hasreti
cus occidatur, quo autem genere
mortis sit occidenduS, parum ad rem
facit. Nam quocumque modo occi
datur, semper consulitur Ecclesias;
quia semper tollitur nocumentum,
quod vivens aliis praastare posset, et
aliis incutitur timor, ne similia do-
cere, aut quomodolibet dicere, au-
deant,"

"In Flandria et aliis inferions
Germanise partibus, quum ego illic
ante annos decern versarer, vidi
haareticos capitis obtruncatione pu-
niri. In Geldria tamen hasretici

" We have shown already, plainly
enough, as I think, that a heretic
may be put to death, but in what
manner he may be put to death is
of very little consequence. For in
whatsoever way a heretic may be
put to death, it is always for the
good of the Church, because a nui
sance is always removed, which, if
alive, he may create ; and terror is
struck on others, so that they shall
not dare to teach, or in any way
speak such things." — Cap. xii. p
128. "In Flanders and other parts of
Lower Germany, when I was there
ten years ago, I saw heretics pun
ished by decapitation. In Guel-
ders, however, heretics, tied by the

58

THE GREAT APOSTASY.

manibus et pedibus, legati jussu
Caroli tunc Geldrise Ducis, in flumen
aliquod mittebantur vivi, ut a flu-
mine, absorberentur. Eodem genere
mortis (ut a multis qui viderunt au-
divi) punitus est Antverpiaa quidam
insignis Lutheranus jussu Domina?
Margaret* Caroli Csesaris Amitaj
qua? tunc ob Csesaris absentiam,
patriam illam gubernat. Audivi
etiam Brugis in Flandria a multis
fide dignis oceulatls testibus consue-
tum esse in ilia civitate, hsereticos
vivos mitti in oleum fervens, ut ab
eo citissime comburerentur."
" In casteris Christiani orbis Reg-
nis, aut Provinciis, nota, perpetua,
et inviolabilis est consuetudo hasreti-
eos igne comburere ; sic vidi fieri in
Francia, praesertim Lutetian. Sic in
Hispania, et credo sic factum fuisse
semper in Italia. Nam beatus Gre-
gorius libro primo Dialogorum, cap.
4, narrat Basilium quemdam Ma-
gum Romae combustum esse, et rem
gestam laudat."

"Ex quibus verbis apertissime
constat non esse recentem inven-
tionem, sed antiquissimam sapien-
tum Christianorum sententiam hae-
reticos esse igne cremandos."
" Quo fit, ut postquam de illius
haeresi post mortem constiterit, cor
pus illius si ab aliis fidefium corpo-
ribus possit discerni, sit. ab ipsa
sepultura, tamquam are injuste pos-
sessa, separandum, et extra Eccle
siam ejiciendum. Sic enim Con
silium Constantiense de corpore
Joannis Wiclef hasretici jam tunc
defuncti, ceusuit esse-faciendum,"

hands and feet, by order of Charles
Duke of Guelders, were cart alive
into a river, there to be swallowed
up by the stream. A Lutheran was
punished in this way at Antwerp, as
I heard from many that saw it, by
order of Lady Margaret, aunt of
Charles Cassar, who, in Cassar's ab
sence, governs that country. I
heard also at Bruges in Flanders,
from many eye-witnesses worthy of
credit, that it was the custom in
that city to cast heretics alive into
boiling oil, that they might thus be
the more speedily burned." — Cap.
xii. p. 128.
" In other kingdoms and provinces
of the Christian world there is a
KNOWS, INVIOLABLE, and PER
PETUAL custom of bobbing here
tics. I have seen it thus done in
France, especially at Paris. So also
in Spain, and I believe it to have
been always thus done in Italy.
For St. Gregory in his first book of
Dialogues, cap. 4, states that a cer
tain magician-was burned at Rome,
and praises the transaction." — Cap.
xii. p. 128.
" From which words it is abun
dantly plain that it is not a modern
invention, but that it is the ancient
opinion of wise Christians, that here
tics should be burned, with fire." —
Ibid. , „
" Wbence it is that whea one has
been convicted of heresy, after
death his body, if it can be distin
guished from the bodies of the faith
ful, is to be separated from burial as
from an unjust privilege, and cast
without the Church. For thus the
Council of Constance decided it to
be done in the case of the. body of
John Wickliffe after, his death.'; j-
Cap.'xix. p. 158.

cardinal Wiseman's oath. 59
Tou recollect their treatment of the buried body of
Wickliffe at Lutterworth, (when I pass by upon the rail
way, I never forget that glorious Morning Star of the
Eeformation) ; they dug up his dust and threw it into the
river; but " The Avon to the Severn runs,
The Severn to the sea;
And Wickliffe's dust did Spread abroad
Wide as the waters be."
And so it has. They thought to extinguish or repress
the glorious truths which that faithful martyr preached, and
preaching and holding which, he died in peace. But what
has been the fact ? That the Avon that carried his dust, to
the Severn, the Severn that carried his dust to the sea, and
the sea that carried that dust to all the shores of the world,
have awakened civilized humanity to a sense of that horri
ble transaction. The wide world has snuffed that deed
upon every shore, and it will continue to stir the emotions
of a righteous, a growing, and a burning indignation ;
nations have felt that the " unchangeable church " will do
again " pro posse" what the "unchangeable church" has
done before. And what we ask you now, in the name of
Him whom you love, and for the sake of that country to
which you belong, is, to protest with all your might against
the setting up of a system which I deliberately assert
combines all the wickedness of the damned with all the
corruption of the dead.
Let me give you two more extracts from the same
theologian, recommended by Bishop Doyle in his sermon in
St. George's cathedral pulpit : —
"Postquam totum hoc opus, de " After I had completed this work
justa haereticorum punitione, absol- about the just punishment of here-
veram,juvenem quemdam in sacra- tics, I happened to hear a young
mentali confessione peccata sua mihi man relating to me all sins in sacra-
referentem, audire contigit, quem mental confession. Whenlhadques-

60

THE GREAT APOSTASY.

cum ,de rebus ad fidem et Chrisr,
tianam religionem spectantibus in-
terrogarem, invenissemque rectam
ilium- et Catholicam fidem tenere;
quaasivi deinde ab illo, an hasreticum
aliquem latentem agnosceret, et an
cum aliquo hujusmodi conversa-
tionem aliquam habuisset. Cui
quaestioni respondens: aperte dixit
se scire patrem suum esse haereti
cum, propterea quod ilium in fide
adeo pertinaciter errare viderat, ut
saepe ab eo admonitus nunquam ille
voluerit errorem suum deserere;
immo potius contra pater, nitebatur
eundem filium in errorem suum
trahere. Hoc ego audiens, hortabar
filium, ut patris crimen quamlibet
occultum Inquisitoribus revelaret, et
quamvis id necessario esse facien
dum multis evidentibus rationibus
convincerem, nunquam tamen ut id
facere vellet, illi persuadere pptui.
Nam hoc scuto se tuebatur, quod
non erat decens, neque ratio natiira-
lis patiebatur ut Alius patrem ad
mortem duceret."
" Ex quibus omnibus apertissime
constat eum, qui secreto novit ali
quem hEereticum, non teneri ad ser-
vandum ordinem ilium correptionis
fraternas a Christo salvatore nostro
prasfixum." You Protestants are not perhaps aware, till you read
this, that the moment one becomes a Roman Catholic, he
must kneel before the priest, and tell him every thing he
believes to be a mortal sin. Diguori's work, recommended
by Dr. Wiseman, contains things connected with the confes
sion of sins so horrible, so atrocious, so pestilential, so offen
sive to every sense of delicacy, and every feeling of religion,
that their horribleness is their only and their impenetrable
shelter. I dare not read them. Before I rearl the extracts.

tioned him concerning the Christian
faith and religion, and found that he
held the true Catholic faith, I asked
him whether -he knew Of any con
cealed heretics, and whether he had
conversed with any such. To this
question he openly replied that he
knew his father to be a heretic, for
he had seen him so pertinaciously
err in the faith, that he had often
admonished him concerning it, but
he would never forsake his errors;
he strove, on the contrary, to lead
his son into them. On hearing this,
I advised the son to reveal the hid
den crime of the father to the In
quisitors ; and although I convinced
him by many evident reasons that
this should of necessity be done, yet
I could not persuade him to do it;
for he shielded himself by saying
that it was not becoming or natural
that a son should lead his father to
death." — Cap. xxvi. p. 185.

" From all these things it is plain
that he who knows any one to be a
heretic is not bound to observe the
order of fraternal correction laid
down by Christ our Saviour." —
Cap. xxvi. p. 182.

CARDINAL WISEMAN'S OATH. 61
I gave from Liguori, as recommended by Dr. Wiseman, I
consulted a number of friends about these portions of his
book. They said : " They are so horrible, that nobody dare
read them ; let them lie in Latin for the direction of the
priests of Cardinal Wiseman, in the Archiepiscopal diocese
of Westminster." More than that : if you are once brought
to kneel before a priest, to tell him all he asks, that priest
will soon know your thoughts, your weak points and your
strong points, the peculiar facts in your family, and every
accessible feature in your connection ; and how he can best
ply the power beneath the scenes most effectually to pro
mote the ecclesiasticam utilitatem. What follows this ? The
man that knows me as well as I know myself is my master,
and I am his slave for life.
I have given you the sentiments of Alphonzo de Castro,
of whom Bishop Doyle in the pulpit of St. George's
cathedral thus speaks : " That great and good and fearless
friar  denounced the acts of Mary as opposed to
the Church ; and it is the same Church now as in the day
that De Castro defended it against the acts of those who
were sinning against it." Let Bishop Doyle con over his
author again.
Mark the result of my evidence up to this moment.
First, I have identified Cardinal Wiseman with St. Alphon
sus Liguori : he has authenticated the antisocial and idola
trous sentiments of that canonized saint as substantially his
own. In his letter he does not attempt to contradict a tittle
of what I have said on this. He found in my speech only
one seemingly vulnerable point ; he dashed at it ; he says
he left out the clause I quoted — the worst clause, as he
thinks — in his oath. His assault indicates what he would,
if he could, and how invulnerable my position is. I have
identified, in the next place, Bishop Doyle with the theology
and sentiments of Alphonzo de Castro. I wish now to
identify the master of them both, Pope Pius IX., to whom
6

62 THE GREAT APOSTASY.
they owe allegiance, and whose subjects they arc, with Pope
Pius V. who has been made a saint, and for whom there is
a collect in the Missal and Breviary, in which collect, it is
said, " O God, who in order to crush the enemiesi of thy
church (ad conterendos hostes), didst deign to elect Blessed
Pius the chief Priest," etc.
In a letter to the Vicomte de Falloux, author of the Life
of Pius V. the present Pope says : —
. "L'ouvrage dans.lequel vous re- "The work in which you have
tracez ia vie du saint Pontife Pie traced the life of the holy Pontiff
V. nous est parvenu, et il a 4t6 tres Pius V. hasbeen received, and has
agreable a nous, qui nous appellons been very agreeable to us, called as
du nom ,de notre si grand pred^ces we are by the name of so great a pre-
seur, bien que nous manquions de decessor, though wanting in" many
ses vertus. Mais de m6me que nous of his virtues. As we have chosen
l'avons choisi pour patron, au pre- him as our patron, on the first day
mier jour de notre souverain pon- of our sovereign pontificate, so we
tificat, de meme nous continuous a continue to address our instant sup-
lui adresser nos instantes supplica- plications to him, that under his
tions, afin que sous ce patronage le patronage we may not lack courage,
courage ne nous fasse jamais deTaut, and that we may be able, like him,
ptr que nous puissons comme lui to defend the flock of Christ, by
servir le troupeau du Christ par la word and by example. — Given at
parole et par l'exemple. — Donne1 a Rome on St. Mary Major, 5th July,
Rome, le 6 Juillet, 1847. Pie IX." 1847, the second year of our Pon
. tiflcate. _ Pius I?."
Notice what Pius IX. says — that the example and the
sentiments of Pius V. are to be his example and sentiments.
Now, what was the history of this Pope Pius V. ? He was
a great supporter of the Inquisition, promoter of the Bull
Ccenas Domini, and the author of an infamous Bull for de
throning Queen Elizabeth. " Christ," says Pius V; whose
example Pius IX. is to follow, and whose teaching he ac
cepts, " has constituted me king over all nations and realms,
to pluck up, destroy, scatter, demolish, and build."' " The
said Queen [Elizabeth]," he adds, "we deprive of her pre
tended right to the kingdom, and of all dominion, dignity,
and privilege whatever; and absolve all nobles, subjects,

cardinal Wiseman's oath. .6-3
and people of the kingdom, and whoever have sworn to her,
from their oath and all duty whatever." — (Mag. Bull. vol.
2. p. 324. Luxembourg, 1727.)
Here you have what Pope Pius V. did to Queen Eliza
beth. His example and teaching Pius IX. says he will
follow. Very well. There is another Queen upon the
¦throne now, the splendor of whose crown eclipses that of
Elizabeth's, and whose love of Protestantism is, if possible,
stronger, and certainly purer than hers. Whether what
Pius V. taught in that Bull, in an unchangeable Church,
and what he did by that Bull, was right, I care not. Pius
IX. holds he does nothing wrong in warning us that he will
imitate the same example, that he will do the same deed —
pro posse — i. e. when he has the power. And therefore I
say, with the profoundest reverence and loyalty for our gra
cious Queen, and with especial and direct reference to what
Pope Pius V. did, mutatis mutandis, " De te fabula nar-
ratur." I have thus identified the three great Romish moving
powers with three great Romish authorities, Are we safe
in their hands ? I ask, what is to be done ? Neutrality is
ruin. But let there be no violence — no "No Popery"
mob cry. Let me warn you. The Jesuits are moving
among Protestants, and are trying to drive you to make
riots and disturbance ; and if they can urge you to plunge
into excesses, to make violent attacks upon chapels or
churches, they will be only too well pleased. This is what
they want ; and if they succeed they will thus do more to
vitiate and destroy that noble, burning feeling which ani
mates you, than by any other course they can urge. What
is it, then, we are to do ? Here is my proposal ; and I hope
it may be taken down in the papers. Let our Queen and
our statesmen and our Parliament (and I think they, will be
pretty united upon this), say to Pope Pius IX. " Take back
your Bull." I have looked into the whole system ; and, in

64 THE GREAT APOSTASY.
proposing this I speak with great caution and from clear
knowledge. Let England's Queen and Parliament and
people say, " You, Pope Pius IX. are a foreign sovereign.
[Roman Catholics admit that.] You have sent into this
country a certain Bull, parcelling it out [I don't care one
fig what you call it, ecclesiastical, or spiritual, or what] ;
you have divided it into districts. You have' sent a Bull
for doing this. You take back that Bull ; we bid you do
so ; or as sure as you are alive, if you do not take it back,
then every Bishop that that Bull constitutes, and who as
sumes its pretensions, shall be put on board a 120 gun ship,
with Admiral Harcourt on the quarter-deck, and delivered
in Italy duty free.'' I am asking and suggesting what is
reasonable. Do not meddle with Cardinal Wiseman ; he is
not worth your notice. Do not meddle with Bishop Doyle ;
he is no more worth noticing. Let this country say to the
Pope : " You take back your Bull. Take it as publicly
down the Thames as you brought it up the Thames. If you
do not do so — you, a foreign Pontiff, a foreign prince, hav
ing thus intruded into our realm — your Bishops made1
under your Bull shall be franked home to their congenial
element in Italy." And it is very proper that the son of
one of our English Archbishops should take charge of them.
Let us kindle and increase while we purify and direct the
public indignation. I have great faith in public sentiment
on this subject. The lightning is strong, Sir ; the thunder
is strong; the earthquake is strong; but there is that in
spired, pure, Protestant, Scriptural, public sentiment which
smites the loftiest cedars, and overturns the strongest for
tresses, which is stronger still, and which the Pope and his
wiles will not be able long to withstand.
All these remarks have arisen from Bishop Doyle's dis
claimer, and from Cardinal Wiseman's letter ; and it has
kept me off the most important part of my statement.
That part, if you will bear with me a little longer, I will
give you.

cardinal Wiseman's oath.

65

If I believe what Cardinal Wiseman says, he repudiates
one clause. It is perfectly possible. I. can only speak of
what is authorized. If I*want to know the form of worship
in the Church of England, I open the Prayerbook. If I
want to know her doctrines, I refer to her Thirty-nine Arti
cles. The Church of England is not afraid of the light.
There are, however, clauses in the oath which the Bishop
does not deny, far worse, as I shall show you, than that
which he does deny. They are as follows : —

"Papatum Romanum et Regalia
Sancti Petri adjutor eis ero ad de-
fendendum et retinendum, salvo meo
ordine, contra omnem hominem."
" Jura honores, privilegia, et auc
toritatem, sanctae Romanae Eccle
siae, Domini nostri Papas et succes-
sorum praedictorum, conservare, de-
fendere, augere, promovere curabo."
" Regulas Sanctorum Patrum, de-
creta, ordinationes, seu dispositiohes,
reservationes, provisiones, et man-
data Apostolica totis viribus obser-
vabo, et faciam ab aliis observari."
" Ego N. Wiseman electus Eccle
sia? Westminster ab hac hora in, an-
tea. fidelis, et obediens ero Beato Pe
tro Apostolo, sanetasque Romana?
Ecclesiae, et Domino nostro Pio No
no, Papae suisque successoribus ca-
nonice intrantibus."

"I will help them to defend the
Roman Papacy and the Royalties
of St. Peter [the sovereign preroga
tives of the Popes], saving my order,
against all men."
" The rights, honors, privileges,
and authority of the holy Roman
Catholic Church of our Lord the
Pope and foresaid successors, I will
endeavor to preserve, defend, in
crease, and advance."
" The rules of the holy fathers,
the apostolical decrees, ordinances
or disposals, reservations, provisions,
and mandates, I will observe with
all my might, and cause to be ob
served by others."
"I, N. Wiseman, elect of the
Church of Westminster,, from hence
forward will be faithful and obedient
to tlie blessed Peter the Apostle, to
the holy Roman Church, and to our
Lord Pius IX., the Pope, and hjs
successors canonically coming in."

The Archbishop thus promises fealty to this Pope ; and
that fealty (fidelitas) is defined by ancient writers as the
allegiance that a good subject owes to a prince.
One thing I find I have omitted, in alluding to Cardinal
Wiseman's statement, that he had left out one clause in his
oath. I found the other day, in " Delahogue's Maynooth
6*

66 the great apostasy.
Class Book," (cap. viii. p. 370,) the following statement :
"The Church commands that, as far as possible the canons
be observed. She indulges, in cases of necessity, that they
be occasionally relaxed. She tolerates whatsoever she can
not punish without much inconvenience." What light does
that throw upon the Cardinal's letter !
Now, this oath, which, it is said, has one clause omitted
when it relates to England, has, nevertheless, one clause re
maining, even for England, that which makes the Cardinal
say that he will defend and support the Pope's regalia;
that is, the sovereign pretensions of the Popes and their suc
cessors. Now, what do these Popes think? What are
these royalties, what do they assume ? Let me quote from
Baronius's Annals : —
" Politicum Principatum sacerdo- " There can be no doubt that the
tali esse subjectum nulla potest esse political power is subject to the sa-
dubitatio." cerdotal."
I have by me on this table the canon law of the Church
of Rome ( Corpus Juris Canonici), in two volumes, contain
ing constitutions, decretals, bulls, and the canons of the
Council of Trent. Also I have had access to the Bullarium
Magnum, and Labbe and Cossart's Sacred Councils. These
works have each an admirable index, which has enabled me
to hunt out what I am going to give you : you have it,
therefore, from the original, and not second hand. In the
bull of Pope Sixtus V. against Henry King of Navarre, it
is said : —
" Ab immensa eterni Regis poten- " The authority given to St. Peter
tiaBeatoPetroejusquesuccessoribus arid his successors by the immense
tradita auctoritas omnes terrenorum power of the eternal King, excels all
Regum et Principum supereminet the powers of earthly kings and
potestates. Dominiis, regnis, nos princes. We deprive them and their
illos, iliorumque posteros privamus posterity forever, of their dominions
inperpetuum. A juramento hujus- and kingdoms. By the authority of
modi ac omni prorsus dominis fidei- these presents we do absolve and set
itatis et obsequii debito, illos omnes free all persons as well jointly as

cardinal Wiseman's oath.

67

tam universe quam singulatim auc-
tpritate praesentium absolvimus et
liberamus; praecipimusque et inter-
dlcimus eis, universis et singulis, ne
illis eorumque mohitis legibus et
mandate- audeant pbedire."

severally, from any such oath, and
from all allegiance whatever, in
regard of dominion, fealty, and obedi
ence ; and do charge and forbid all
and every of them that they do not
dare to obey them, or any of their
admonitions, laws, and commands."
— Bulla Sixti V. contr. Henry Na
varre, &c.

Pope Boniface VIII. has a decree in the Canon Law : —

" Porro subesse Romano Pontifioi
omni humanae creaturavdeclaramas,
dicimus, diffinimus et pronunciamus,
omnino esse de necessitate salutis."

" Moreover, we declare, assert,
define, and pronounce it to be of
necessity to salvation, for every
human creature to be subject to the
Roman Pontiff." — Extrav. Comm.
lib. 1. tit. 8. p. 1160. Pars 2. Leips.
1839.

He says also : —
" Oportet gladium esse sub gla
dio, et temporalem auctoritatem
spirituali subjici potestati. . . .
Ergo, si deviafr terrena, judicabitur
a pot est ate spirituali."

" One sword must be under the
other sword, and temporal authority
must be subject to spiritual power.
. . . Whence, if the earthly au
thority go wrong, it shall be judged
by the spiritual." — Ibid. p. 1159.
There is a dispute in the papers at present as to whether
there is an assumption of civil power in England on the
part of Rome. They that know the Canon Law. now set
up in England by Pius IX. and Cardinal Wiseman, perfectly
understand it. But give me a man's soul, and I will make
you a present of his body ; give me a man's conscience to
regulate, and I will take care to regulate all the rest. Yet
there is plenty of proof of this pretension. I find in a bull
of Leo X., passed in the Lateran Council : —
" Constitutionem ipsam, sacro " We do renew and approve this
prsesenti concilio approbante, inuo- constitution with the approbation
vamus et approbamus." of this present holy Council." —
Concil. Lat. Sess. 11. p. 153. vol.
14 Paris, 1671.

68 THE GREAT APOSTASY.
Recollect, the most infallible thing to a Roman Catholic is
a General Council, with a Pope at its head. The Italians
say the Pope is infallible ; the French say a General Coun
cil is infallible ; Cardinal Wiseman says a Pope at the head
of a General Council, or both together, must be infallible.
Now, both Pope and Council have decided that the civil
power must be subject to the spiritual power. Melchior
Canus, quoting this, says : —
" Quam extravagantem renovavit " The Lateran Council under Leo
et approbavit concilium Lateranense X. did renew and approve that con-
sub Leone X." stitution." — Lib. 6. cap. 4. p. 316.
Colon. 1605.
Again, Baronius, the celebrated Roman Catholic historian,
says : —
" Haec Bonifacius, cui assentiun " This all assent to, so that no one
tur omnes, ut nullus discrepat, nisi dissents who does not by such dis-
qui dissidio ab EcclesUt excidit.". agreement cut himself off from the
Church." — Baron, anno 1053. s. 14.
vol. 11. Rome, 1605.
Nothing can be stronger than this. Either the Church of
Rome, as represented by her Popes and her Councils, has
erred, and proved herself fallible, or Cardinal Wiseman
must hold that Queen Victoria's sceptre is to be subject to
his crosier.* There is no medium. I put him upon either
horn of the dilemma; if he will not stick upon one, I will
pitch him upon the other: he shall either admit that his
Church, as represented by a Pope and General Council, has
failed — has decreed and pronounced what is as inconsistent
with the Catholic faith, as it is injurious to the rights of the
Sovereign, to be repudiated by him and every loyal subject
*A Letter from Lord Beaumont, a, Roman Catholic Peer, states that the
recent procedure of the Pope leaves, him the alternative of disobedience to
.the Pope, or disloyalty to the Queen.
The Duke of Norfolk has nobly repudiated the notorious ultramontanism
of the whole procedure of Pius IX.

cardinal Wiseman's oath. 69
or he shall stand by his principles, and acknowledge himself
prepared to seize the spiritual sword of Rome, and to make
the temporal sword of Queen Victoria subject and obedient
to it.
Innocent IV. (Lab. vol. ii. p. 1. col. 640. Paris, 1671)
deposed the Emperor Frederick II. and enjoined none to
obey or regard him — absolving his subjects from their oath
of allegiance. And Matthew Paris (Ann. 1253) says Inno
cent called kings mancipia Papce, the tools, or puppets made
over to the Pope as his property. Innocent III. deposed
Otho IV. " Imperatorem ab Imperio depositum percussit."
(Naucl. ann. 1212.)
Roman Catholic bishops of Ireland, when examined be
fore the House of Lords, have declared the persecuting
canon of the fourth Council of Lateran to be spurious, and
not to be found in the original copy. I open, however, the
canon law, edit. 1839, and I find that Gregory IX., prede
cessor of Innocent IV., inserted in his decretals the notorious
decree of the fourth Lateran, held by Innocent III.*
" Excommunicamus et anathema- " We excommunicate and anathe
tizamus omnem heresim extollentem matize every heresy exalting itself
se adversus hanc sanctam, ortho- against that holy, orthodox, and
doxam et Catholicam fidem quam su- catholic faith, which we have above
perius exposuimus — - condemnantes set forth — condemning all heretics,
haereticos universos, quibuscumque by whatever names they may be
nominibus censeantur, facies quidem denominated, having indeed different
habentes diversas sed caudas ad faces, but fails tied together, because
invicem colligatas, qui de vanitate they all agree in the same folly. Let
conveniunt in id ipsum. Damnati these persons when condemned, be
vero prasentibus sascularibus poten- abandoned to the secular authorities
tatibus aut eorem ballivis relinquan- being present, or to their officers, in
tar animadversione debita puuiendi, order that they may be duly pun-
clericis prius a suis ordinibus degrit- ished— those who are clergymen
datis, ita quod bona hujusmodi dam- being degraded ; so that the property
natorum, si laici fuerint, confiscen- of persons thus condemned, if lay
*Five successive Popes, (except Celestine IV., who lived only twelve
days,), viz. Innocent HI., Honorius HI., Gregory 'IX., Innocent IV., and
Alexander iV"., decreed the extermination of heretics.'

70

THE GREAT APOSTASY.

tur: si vero clerici, applicentur
ecclesiis, a quibus stipendia recepe
runt. Qui autem inventi fuerint
sola suspicione notabiles, nisi juxta
considerationem suspicionis qualita-
temque personae propriam innocen-
tiam congrua purgatione monstra-
verint, anathematis gladio feriantur,
et usque ad satisfactionem condig-
nam ab omnibus evitentur, ita quod
si per annum in excommunicatione
perstiterint, ex tunc velut haeretici
condemnentur. Moneantur autem
et inducantur, et si necesse fuerit,
per censuram ecclesiasticam com-
pellantur sasculares potestates, qui
buscunque fungantur officiis, ut,
sicut reputari cupiunt et haberi
fideles, ita pro defensione fidei prass-
tant publice juramentum, quod de
terris suae jurisdictioni subjectis
universos haereticos ab ecclesia de-
notatos, bona fide pro viribus exter-
minare studebunt, ita, quodamodo,
quandocunque quis fuerit in potesta
tem sive perpetuam sive temporalem
assumptus, hoc teneatur capitulum
juramento firmare. Si vero domi
nus temporalis satisfacere contemp-
serit, infra annum significetur hoc
summo Pontifici, ut ex tunc ipse
vasallos ab ejus fidelitate denunoiet
absolutos, et terram exponat Catho-
licis occupandam, qui earn exter-
minatis ha?riticis, absque ulla con-
tradietione possideant."
' "Adjicimus insuper ut quilibet
archiepiscopus vel episcopus per se
aut per archidiaconum suum aut
alias honestas idoneasque personas,
bis aut, saltem semel in anno pro
priam parochiam in qua fama fuerit
haereticos habitare, circumeat, et ibi
tres vel plures boni testimonii vi-
ros, vel etiam, si expedire videbitur,

men, shall be confiscated, and in the
case of clergymen applied to the
churches from which they drew their
stipends. But let those who are dis
covered as only notably suspected,
unless according to the nature of
the suspicion and the quality of the
person they show their innocence by
a suitable purgation, be struck with
the sword of anathema.

Let the secular powers, whatever
offices they may hold, be advised
and instructed, and, if need be, com
pelled by ecclesiastical censure, and
as they desire to be reputed and held
faithful, to take a public oath for the
defence of the faith, that they will
study to the utmost to exterminate
from all territories subject to their
jurisdiction all heretics so marked
by the Church.

And if the secular power refuse to
comply, let it be told to the Sove
reign Pontiff, and let him denounce
the subjects as released from their
fealty, and give the country to
Catholics, who, having exterminated
the heretics, may peaceably possess
it." " We add, moreover, that every
archbishop or bishop, by himself or
by his archdeacons, or other honest
and fit persons, should traverse at
least once or twice a year every
parish in which it is rumored that
heretics reside; and there compel
three or four men of good repute,
or if expedient, the whole neighbor

carjeiinal Wiseman's oath. 71
totam viciniam jurare compellat, hood, .to m.ake,.known to him any
quod, si quos ibidem hasreticos heretics, or person holding secret
sciverit, vel aliquos occulta con- conVenticles, or dissenters from the
venticula celebrantes, seu a com- life and manners of the faithful." 
muni conversatione fidelium vita et Decretal headed Innocent III. in
moribus dissidentes, eos episcopo Concilio Generali, vol. 2. p. 758.
studeat indicare."
Cardinal Wiseman, in his defence, (in which I could point
out a hundred holes if I had time,) states that one reason
why he requires a new constitution of the Papal hierarchy
in England, is that the canon law could not be set up under
Vicars Apostolic. It is this canon law out of which I have
been reading. What does this imply ? That the canon law,
commanding the extermination of heretics, is now set up, or
soon will be set up in England by Cardinal Wiseman's own
admission. Let us hear a little more of it.
Pope Urban II. (anno 1088) says : " Subjects are by no
authority constrained to pay the fealty which they have
sworn to a Christian prince who opposeth God and his
saints." (Corp. Jur. Canon a Petro Pittaeo et Francisco,
vol. 1. Paris, 1695.)
Gregory VII. in depriving Henry, son of the Emperor,
said, " It is right that he should be deprived of dignity who
doth endeavor to diminish the majesty of Christ." [Plat.
in Greg. VII.] And in a Synod at Rome, addressing the
holy princes of the Apostles, he says : " If it be your
part to judge angels who govern proud princes, what be-
cometh it you to do towards your servants ? Put forth this
judgment, that all may understand that not casually, but by
your means, this son of iniquity doth fall from his kingdom."
Gregory IL, says Baronius, (anno 730,) " did effectually
cause both the Romans and Italians to recede from obedience
to the Emperor." And Baronius adds : " He did leave to
posterity a worthy example that heretical princes should
not be suffered to reign in the Church of Christ."
In the Pope's own canon law, of which I am now speak-

72

THE GREAT APOSTASY.

ing, and which could not be set up under the Vicars Apos
tolic two years ago, it is said : —

"Juramentum contra utilitatem
ecclesiasticam praestitum non tenet."

" An oath contrary to the utility
of the Church is not to be observed."
— Vol. ii. p. 358. decret. Greg. IX.
lib. 2. tit. 24. cap. 27.
1839.

Again, this canon law says : —

" Non juramenta sed perjuria
potius sunt dicenda quas contra util
itatem ecclesiasticam attentantur."

" These are to be called perjuries
rather than oaths which are at
tempted against ecclesiastical util
ity."— Ibid.
Now, this is from the Canon Law set up by Car
dinal Wiseman on his invasion, or rather to be set up,
for there may be a quibble about that. This is the new and
serious act in the Papalaggression. He says that one rea
son for requiring regular bishops with dioceses is that the
canon law could not be set up while there were Vicars
Apostolic. Vicars Apostolic have now ceased to be, and a
hierarchy is constituted ; and that canon law now set up or
soon to be set up, says that those are not to be called oaths,
but rather perjuries, which are contrary to the good of the
Church. Again : —

"Vos juramento hujusmodi non
tenemini, quin pro juribus et hono-
ribus ipsius ecclesiae, ac etiam spe-
cialibus vestris, legitime defendis
cpntra ipsum principem stare libere
valeatis."

" Fidelitatem quam Christiano
Principi jurarunt, Deo ej usque Sanc
tis adversanti, nulla cohibentur auc-
toritate persolvere."

" You are not bound by an oath
of this kind, but, on the contrary,
you are freely bid God speed in
standing up against kings for the
rights and honors of that very
Church, and even in legislatively
defending your own peculiar privi
leges." — Decret. Greg. IX. lib.* 2.
tit. 24. cap. 31. vol. ii. p. 360.
" The fealty which subjects have
sworn to a Christian King who op
poses God and his saints, they are
not bound by any authority to per
form.," — Vol. i. p. 648.;

cardinal Wiseman's oath. 73
Do not tell me it is not seasonable to bring forward such
statements : this is the canon law set up or to be soon set up
in England : [A Voice, "To be soon set down"] or, as it
is nobly and prophetically said by some one beside me, to
be soon set down. I have thus given you these extracts ex
planatory and illustrative of the royalties of St. Peter
(Regalia Petri), as these are defined in the canon law. But
Archbishop Wiseman says : —
" The royal supremacy is no more admitted by the Scotch
Church, by Baptists, Methodists, Quakers, Independents,
Presbyterians, Unitarians, and other dissenters, than by the
Catholics." This shows, if he has been most infallible in leaving out
a clause of his oath, he is most fallible in stating facts about
a Protestant country, the strength and principles of which
he does not know. He says the Scotch Church does not
admit the Queen's supremacy. Why, the Queen or her rep
resentative always sits on the throne in the General As
sembly of the Church of Scotland. And if the General
Assembly passes any law that trenches on the supremacy of
the Queen, what is done ? They are brought to account, as
was done in 1843, and kept within their own bounds. My
fear in the present day, I own, is not of what is called the
Erastian element, but of the Ecclesiastical and priestly ele
ment. As to Dissenters, if they do not admit the Queen's
supremacy, they do not admit the supremacy of a foreign
prince or potentate. And if the civil power trample on the
rights of Dissenters, what do they do ? Complain, and ask
for redress : and if they cannot get it, they complain and suf
fer. But if the civil power should intrude upon the rights
and liberties of Pope Pius IX. and of Cardinal Wiseman.
what will they do ? Absolve " pro posse " the subjects of
that civil power from their oath, and make them free from
their fealty. There is here a broad, a very broad distinc
tion. Moreover, Dissenters do not preach in a single chapel
7

74 THE GREAT APOSTASY.
in this country, till they have a license under the Queen's
supremacy ; but this Cardinal takes hold of a whole diocese,
and rules it without asking any license but the Pope's, and
in spite of the Queen's supremacy. Archbishop Wiseman
again says : —
" The appointment of a Catholic hierarchy does not in
any way deprive the English Establishment of a single
advantage which it now possesses. Its bishops retain, and
for any thifig that the new bishops will do, may retain for
ever their titles, their rank, their social position, their pre
eminence, their domestic comforts, their palaces, their lands,
their incomes, without diminution or alteration."
Dr. Wiseman is bound by that canon law which he has
set up, to purge his diocese of heretics, whether the heretics
be Deans or Canons. He says, Westminster Abbey may
exist, with all its rights, jurisdiction, and privileges. So it
may, as long as he has not the power to make it otherwise, but
the instant he has the power, he is commanded by the canon
law to purge the abbey and the diocese of all heretics. His
oath is inconsistent with what he states, so that if he leave
out a clause, I do not think he will gain much advantage by
leaving it out. He says, bishops may still retain their privi
leges and lands. I dare say they may; but I hope and
believe that few and far between are the bishops of that
Church or the Ministers of any other Church whatever,
who prefer their titles, their lands, their goods, to those pre
cious souls which this system ruins, or to the glory of that
God, which this system eclipses, and to the interest of this
their great and dear native land, in which alone there is a
home in which Englishmen can live freely and die happily,
and be conscious that they shall do well in leaving their
children, when they are gone, beneath the overshadowing
wings of the public peace ; and know that when these chil
dren shall tread upon their graves, they shall be constrained
to admit (oh ! I beseech you to make it so,) " If our fathers

cardinal Wiseman's oath. 75
did not increase our national privileges, they have not di
minished or destroyed them."
Cardinal Wiseman again says : —
" The act of Emancipation forbids any one from assum
ing or using the style or title of any bishopric or archbish
opric of the Established Church in England or Ireland.
From this it follows that they are allowed to assume any
other titles."
But why did he not assume those titles ? Because he has
not the power : — it was not want of will. What a very
odd archbishop is that who says that he will steer his course
as near as he can to a breach of the law ! It may be found
to be as illegal to take a title out of a diocese as to take the
title of a diocese, and so Jesuitism may prove itself beaten.
But just remove the penalties of that law, and see what
will be the effect. We Protestants are accustomed to love
and observe the law, not because we dread its penalties but
because we love its privileges and excellences : these Roman
Catholic bishops are accustomed to bear the law or rever
ence it, in order that they may escape its penalties. This is
just the distinction between a man who is a Christian and
one who is not. And what, let me ask, as I pass, makes a
true Christian? No priest upon earth can change man's
heart ; no ecclesiastical rite, or sacrament, or ceremony, can
regenerate the soul. The disease is too desperate for that.
If man were merely stunned by Adam's fall, I do not see
why a little water sprinkled on his forehead 'by a priest
might not resuscitate him : but if man be not stunned, but
dead in trespasses and in sins, then that power alone that
can open the sepulchre of the dead, can change our hearts,
and make us Christians indeed. But when a man is a
Christian he does not want to get rid of sin and the viola
tion of God's law, because he then gets rid of hell ; he
shrinks from it, not because he dreads the penalties, but
because he hates the poison of sin. And if this man were

76 the great apostasy.
a right-minded archbishop, he would obey England's law,
not because he dreads its penalties, but because he loves the
freedom it gives and the privileges which it insures.
Dr. Wiseman adds (which is the point I have already
alluded to, and think most vital, and should like the press
to take up :) that " the Canon Law is inapplicable under
Vicars Apostolic." Because it was inapplicable we were
safe ; we shall see by and by how it is to be applied, and
how soon it will be applied.
Looking at the whole of this document, the assumption
of absolute, unqualified jurisdiction appears its plainest and
most perspicuous trait. " We decree," the Pope says, " to
be null and void whatever may happen to be attempted by
any one against these things, on whatever authority, know
ingly or ignorantly." Here is a challenge flung into the
Parliament of England;^ it is flung into the House of
Lords : it is laid down before the throne of Queen Victoria.
The Prime Minister has given an intimation that the chal
lenge will be taken up : I long for the results, and I have no
doubt that they will be what we all heartily desire.
The Tablet, a Roman Catholic newspaper, says, "The
work is done — the Pope has done it ; we must accept it.
He may be a foreign potentate, but if Englishmen choose to
acknowledge his authority, they have a constitutional right
to do so." Who told him that we have a constitutional
right to rebel against the Queen, and to accept the Roman
Pontiff in her stead? He says Englishmen have it. On
what grounds does he say so ? I venture to say, there is
not a Protestant Englishman who does not shrink with hor
ror at the compliment paid to him.
In his Pastoral, Cardinal Wiseman says : " At present,
and till such time as the Holy See shall think fit otherwise
to provide, we govern, and shall, continue to , govern the
counties of Middlesex, Hereford, and Essex, as ordinary
thereof." Mark what he says. If he had been wanting

cardinal Wiseman's oath. 77
spiritual jurisdiction only, he would have said this — " We
teach and shall continue to teach Roman Catholics in the
counties of Middlesex, Hereford, and Essex ; " but he is
not satisfied with that, and he says " we govern ; " not " we
teach persons," but " we govern places " — not as long as
the Queen likes, but as long as the Pope permits.
I may mention one awful sentiment contained in a report
of a sermon by Bishop Gillies in the Dumfries Courier, in
which Dr. Gillies stated, that if the appointments that had
now been made should be reversed, he could point to the
Catholic powers of Europe, who would interfere to prevent
it. I am ashamed that a Scotchman should be found, who
Roman Catholic though he be, should go into a pulpit, and
state that if England did its duty by its Constitution and
Englishmen their duty by their Bibles, Austria and France
and Spain, the Roman Catholic powers, would interfere to
put it down. I should think, what Bishop Gillies has likely
forgotten, the Pope has enough to do to keep himself in his
own see. Let us comprehend the true character of the
jurisdiction of the Roman Catholic Church : (I have re
ceived a note from Lord Ashley asking for evidence on this
subject). Cardinal Wiseman says that he only governs the
faithful, i. e. Roman Catholics. I quote from his own
standard book, Liguori, vol. viii. p. 137.
" Haeretici, apostatae, et schismat- "Heretics, apostates, and schis^
ici, possunt affici censuris, quia per matics may be visited with the cen-
baptismum suntsubj.ecti ecclesias." * sure of the Church, because by bap
tism they are the subjects of the
Church."
" Tenetur Episcopus etiam in lo- " The bishop is bound, in places
eis ubi officium sanctae Inquisitionis where the holy Inquisition flourishes,
viget, sedulo curare ut creditam to purge the diocese committed to
sibi diocesim, ab haeretieis purget." him of heretics." — Vol. 9. p. 345.
" Excommunicationem incurrunt "They incur excommunication
etiam haereticorum credentes, i. v. who show that they assent to the
* I have other documentary proofs of this, which I hope to give in some
remarks on the Cardinal's Manifesto. 7*

78

THE GREAT APOSTASY.

qui eorum erroribus se assentiri, errors of heretics ; as if one .should
externe manifestant — ut g. si quis say, 'I believe what Calvin says,'
dicat, ' Credo quod Calvinus ait or that ' Calvin was a holy man.' "
quod fuit vir sanctus.' " — Vol. 8. p. 321.
The Tablet says, " Rome has spoken. England is par
celled out into dioceses, and in future there will be a bishop
in every diocese, and a parish priest in every parish. The
whole community of baptized persons in the kingdom of
England will owe obedience to the Church of Rome under
pain of eternal damnation." Truly said. According to the
Romish canon law we do owe it ; according to our Bibles
we <do not owe it ; according to our Constitution we do not
owe it. We have but one head in spiritual things, the Lord
of Glory on his throne ; and but one Queen supreme in the
government of all the subjects of this realm, Queen Victoria,
whom God preserve !
I purchased the other day, in the shop of Messrs. Seeley,
a " Catholic History of England." This book shows that
Roman Catholics are not ashamed of their creed. The only
instance I know of any Roman Catholic being ashamed of a
part of his creed is that of Cardinal Wiseman, who is
ashamed of a clause of the oath ; and I should think that
was the only blush that has passed upon the Cardinal's face
for a long time. They are not ashamed, let not us be
ashamed of our religion. If they are not ashamed of these
atrocious, persecuting principles, " God forbid that we should
glory save in the Cross of Christ." Let us say, "lam not
ashamed of the Gospel of Christ, for it is the wisdom of God
and the power of God unto salvation." This " History of
England from the earliest times to the present day " is dedi
cated to " the Catholic children of England who, in their
childhood pursuing a silent course of dependent obedience,
follow the footsteps of Jesus, that like Him also they may,
in their after-life, give themselves, with an entire devotion
and singular love, to the work of God, in winning back our

cardinal Wiseman's oath. 79
country to the ' old paths ' of the Catholic faith." (Lambert
& Burns, 1850.) Hear what is said in this book, published
by a Romish bookseller, A Roman Catholic bookseller is
not at liberty to publish any thing he likes ; for a Roman
bishop has authority over his subject's shop as well as his
conscience : —
" Cranmer wrote the most violent and disgusting papers,
saying that the mass was the invention of Satan, and that
the Catholic Church was full of lies. At last the Queen
and her Council had Cranmer and a great many Protestant
bishops put in prison, and they were burnt for heresy. It
is very difficult to say now what should or should not have
been done. The whole country was unsettled and diseased
with heresy, and it was clearly impossible to stop it by gen
tle means. In this case, you know, when men are deter
mined to destroy not only their own souls, but the souls of
many others, they have to be treated as malefactors, and
are given over by the Church to the law, to be punished.
It was very shocking that people should be burned, but it
was much more shocking that they should be leading so
many people to be burned in the flames of hell for ever ;
and, this was what Bishop Gardiner thought." — p. 254.
Now seeing that the Pope has been so kind as to offer us
his canon law — to present to us this hierarchy — to set up
these dread dogmas, this terrible oath, that horrible curse;
let me ask, Shall we be benefited ? Inquire what has been
the effects of Romanism on those countries over which it has
exercised an unchallenged sway ? I will appeal to Macau-
lay, who, in a fine passage, perhaps known to you all, thus
writes : —
"Throughout Christendom, whatever advance hag been
made in knowledge, in freedom, in wealth, and in the arts
of life, has been in inverse proportion to her power. The
loveliest and most fertile provinces of Europe have, under
her rule, been sunk in poverty, in political servitude, and in

80 the great apostasy.
intellectual torpor, while Protestant countries, once prover
bial for sterOity and barbarism, have been turned by skill
and industry into gardens, and can boast of a long list of
heroes and statesmen, philosophers and poets. Whoever,
knowing what Italy and Scotland naturally are, and what,
four hundred years ago, they actually were, shall now com
pare the country round Rome with the country round Edin
burgh, will be able to form some judgment as to the tendency
of Papal domination. The descent of Spain, once the first
among the monarchies, to the lowest depths of degradation ;
the elevation of Holland, in spite of many natural disadvan
tages, to a position such as no commonwealth so small has
ever reached, teach the same lesson. Whoever passes in
Germany from a Roman Catholic to a Protestant principal
ity ; in Switzerland, from a Roman Catholic to a Protestant
canton ; in Ireland, from a Roman Catholic to a Protestant
county, finds that he has passed from a lower to a higher
grade of civilization."
In drawing my remarks to a close, I beg to state that I
believe that the Roman Catholic laity do not profess to hold
the principles ofthe Canon law, and the documents of the
Papacy as I have laid them down. [A Voice : " Do they
know them ? "] It is impossible that high-minded Roman
Catholic Englishmen can accept, if they know, their canoni
cal atroeities. This aggression is a priest's concern alone.
The laity are bound, however, to accept them when they
are taught by their bishops and priests ; but they do not yet
know them. I believe (just as God tells us in his Word),
that there are men in the Church of Rome, Christians, in
spite of it. I believe there are Roman Catholic laymen in
the servitude and bondage of the priesthood who are Chris
tian and loyal men in spite of that bondage and servitude.
Our charge, then, against Cardinal Wiseman — a charge
that I draw from the whole of what I have now been stat-
ing — is not that he has been teaching, as a VicsCr Apostolic,

cardinal Wiseman's oath. 81
certain spiritual errors, but that he has brought with him a
missive of a foreign prince, assuming power and jurisdiction
in the midst of this land ; and that from Westminster, as
from a Popish fountain, he will spread and diffuse anti-social
principles, which must dilute the loyalty of Roman Catholics
in proportion as they embrace them, and must injure that
reverence and that homage which is due to our Queen as
the head of our country, and which she deserves, as the
noblest, the purest, and the most beloved sovereign that ever
swayed the sceptre in these realms. If we owe spiritual
allegiance to anybody, let it be here to the Primate of Eng
land, who is bounded and limited by the laws, and who does
not contradict them, Justly and rightly so; or in Scotland,
let us give it to the General Assembly, if you like, which is
bounded and limited by the same laws, and neither dares
nor desires to exceed or contradict them. If we are to give
allegiance in spiritual things to any person, let it be to a
person within the realm, and to our Queen, not to a poten
tate without the realm, who is neither her subject nor our
sovereign. I have said, in speaking on this topic, that our
opposition must not be that of violence ; it must be that of
enlightened, religious, Protestant, and holy feeling. I be
lieve, as I have said before, there is great strength and force
in enlightened, Protestant, public opinion. Every minister
ofthe Gospel must try to inspire it; every Christian father
at his fireside must try to teach it ; and to you, mothers, of
whom I see some around me, let me say, no one's influence
exceeds yours. The father teaches, the mother instils ; her
strong influence, like a delicate aromatic perfume, penetrates
where the coarser influence of the father cannot have access.
On the faithful Protestant teaching of the mothers of Eng
land very much depends whether this intrusion shall be re
established for a season, or overthrown finally, and fully,
and for ever.
I have, Sir, no doubt of the ultimate issue; I have no

82 THE GREAT APOSTASY.
fear about what shall be the upshot of all this excitement.
Let us have religious principle ; let us be inspired by pure,
religious, and holy principles, and I am sure that the
dominant excitement, so far from plunging you into excesses,
will lead you to do what is loyal, and what becomes you as
subjects, what is right and worthy of you as professing
Christians. Hate not the error of Popery so much as you
love the truth of Holy Scripture. Do not forget, in your
detestation of a Cardinal's hat, that an immortal soul is under
it, and needs to be saved. Love the poor misguided victim,
but protest against his principles, and yet more against his
procedure. Pray against their spirit ; petition the throne ;
petition the Parliament ; petition God ; speak what you
feel, and speak what you know. Be Britons. Be Chris
tians. We are at the commencement of a great crisis : the thin
edge of the wedge is introduced. Be quiet, be neutral, and
all is gone and lost for ever. I cannot be satisfied with the
protests that we sometimes hear. Let it not be ecclesiasti
cal system against ecclesiastical system, nor Church against
Church, nor orders against orders. This is the collision of
earthen vessels ; this is fighting on Popish ground ; and the
Pope, on his own ground, will be sure to beat you. The
Protestantism which evaporates in empty plaudits, and has
made Exeter Hall to be almost a byword to the public
press — this is not the Protestantism we want, — such is not
the fountain that perpetually plays, it is the accidental jet :
not the deep stream that deepens as it goes, but the moun
tain cataract, fed by the sudden shower, and suddenly dried
up. Let us make that national protest, and have that scrip
tural Protestantism which has all the fixity of an everlasting
principle, and all the fervor of an undying passion. Let us
look not behind to see what numbers follow to encourage us
nor look before to see what numbers may be opposed to u
to frighten us. If we are told, as Martin Luther was told

CARDINAL WISEMAN'S OATH. 83
"Luther, the whole world is against you," let our noble
reply be : " Then England will be against the whole world."
Let yours be- that Protestantism which in little things is
yielding as the osier bough, but in this thing, and all great
things, is like the old British oak that grows on our good
British soil ; its gnarled roots interwoven with the everlast
ing rocks ; evermore lifting its great head, careless whether
the storm cloud burst upon it, or the sunshine cover it with
its noontide splendor ; prepared to overcome the one, and
rejoicing to be refreshed by the other. If such be our Prot
estantism, all the Bulls that Cardinals can bring from the
arsenals of Rome, all the weapons that Jesuits can hurl
against it, shall lie in splinters at its glorious roots, or shall
be hung upon its branches as memorials of Rome's impo
tence, and trophies of England's strength.

LECTURE III.

WHAT IS POPERY

The prize for which we are exhorted to contend ear
nestly, is called in Titus i. 4, " the common faith ; " Jude 3,
"the common salvation;" Phil. iii. 16, "common hope;"
and, in Ephesians iv. 3, " one Lord, one Spirit, one body,
one faith, one baptism, one hope, one God and Father of
all ; " that is, the sevenfold or perfect unity of the Christian
Church, embosoming within it the principles that lie at the
very roots, and nourish the very substance, flower, and fruit
age of the Gospel — those great and everlasting truths, the
exhaustion of which is the extinction of Christianity itself,
and the corruption of which is the contamination of men's
hearts here, and the perdition of men's sortls hereafter.
It is declared by the Apostle Jude that this faith was
" once delivered to the saints." It was specially delivered
to the Apostles and Evangelists by the Holy Spirit, by
whom it has been infallibly recorded for our instruction. It
was intrusted to believers — or, if it be preferred, to the
Christian Church — of every age, country, and outward for
mula, to be witnesses to its sacredness, to be the guardians
of its integrity, for this end, that ministers and people might
drink from its pure and refreshing streams, " without money
and without price." The Old Testament was intrusted to
the Jews — "to them were committed the Oracles of God;"
the Old and New Testament together have been intrusted to
the Christians. In both cases the Sacred Scriptures are the
only conclusive and binding directory ; " to the law and to

WHAT IS POPERY ? 85
the testimony," is the only legitimate tribunal to which Jew
and Gentile are commanded to appeal in all things sacred.
This faith was " once delivered to the saints." The very
same Greek word which is here translated " once," and ap
plied to the Gospel record, or the Scriptures, as delivered
to the saints, is also used to describe the atonement of our
blessed Lord, which is declared to have been " once for all." *
The original word denotes finality arid completeness. The
full weight and force of the expression is, unquestionably,
Oris : that the doctrines contained within the commencement
?f Genesis and the close of the Apocalypse are the centre
and circumference of saving truth, so complete and so per
fect, that addition must necessarily be corruption, and in
every instance grievous sin. Subtraction from this book is
to incur subtraction of our name from the Book of Life ;
and any addition to it is to draw down the infliction of all
the curses that are written in this book.
The reason which St. Jude assigns for this command to
his converts, " earnestly to contend for this faith,". is declared
to be the fact that there were " certain men crept in una
wares," who au® said to have been inculcating pernicious
principles, and, in addition, abetting certain immoral prac
tices. Now we maintain, that the circumstances of the pre
sent day are, to a great extent, parallel in spirit, if not in
letter, with those of the Apostle Jude's day. Never dirt
superstition seem to menace so powerfully the eclipse of all
we love, the extinction of all we revere. Never did the
Church of Rome, on the one hand, attain a spread so rapid,
and a power so gigantic : even already she is weaving an
ticipatory chaplets for her victories. And never in the
whole history of the Protestant Church, on the other hand,
has there evolved so rapid and so fatal an apostasy, as that
* Thus, in Heb. ix. 26, aval- fad o-ovreKeia t&v alavuv, " once in
the end of the world," contrasted with "often." Heb. ix. 28, 6
Xpunbc anal- Trpoaeve%&elc, " Christ was once offered."
8

86 THE GREAT APOSTASY.
which has carried many into the great apostasy, and is still
overshadowing not a small section of the clergy of the
Church of England. It is time, therefore, to contend for
the faith once delivered to the saints.
There are, in fact, two forms, or rather degrees of
Popery, in the present day : there is Popery in the blossom,
and Popery in the bud. There is Popery in its full-blown,
destructive, and wasting practices ; and there is Popery in
principle, but disclaimed in profession, and only more peril
ous because thus concealed, which waits for the moment
when the pressure of Protestant watchfulness and Protes
tant faithfulness shall be withdrawn, to expand and develop
its bud in that overshadowing despotism which has enslaved
the free, tainted the holy, and made kings and nations to be
prostrate at the foot of an insolent hierarch." *
The principles of the Church of Rome may be very
briefly summed up. The document, specially binding upon
every priest and member of the Roman Catholic Church is
what are called the Canons of the Council of Trent, f It
* The Eev. Mr. Garbett, Professor of Poetry at Oxford, well observes : —
" It will be a fatal day for the Church of England — "%%r glory will be set,
her influence gone, her independent position incapable of maintenance —
when it shall go forth to tlie world at large, and the nation whose soul
she has hitherto been, that we only differ from Eome in words or modes ;
and when our prelates shall plead with her as an intrusive, instead of
warning against her as an heretical and idolatrous Church. All this may
be conclusive to dialecticians, and seem inexpugnable strength to closet
theologians ; but men are governed, and the world is moved, not by the
definitions of logicians, but by the broad tangible differences of things.
The Church of the Eeformation is a power and an energy ; her position
decisive, her attitude commanding, her principles intelligible; with the
Bible in hand she is unconquerable: — the Anglican Church of Tractarian
theology is a poor and emasculated mimicry of Eome, with her wishes
for domination, without her courage ; with the seminal principles of her
corruptions, without her grandeur, mystery, and soul-entrancing magnifi
cence : she has no root in the Bible, no place in the heart of the people ;
and the next storm will overwhelm her. Will she deserve to survive ? I
think not."
t Vide Canones et Decreta Cone. Trid. Komas, 15e4.

WHAT IS POPERY? 87
would be tedious to read these ; but, immediately after that
Council, Pope Pius IV. drew up, with the sanction of the
Council, a summary of its canons and decrees, now univer
sally received by the Papacy ; and on a Protestant aban
doning his own church, and joining the Church of Rome,
he is obliged to repeat this creed, and set his seal to it, as
the profession of his faith. It is usually called the Creed*
of Pope Pius the Fourth; and to it every priest, and
bishop, and cardinal, and pope of the Roman Catholic
Church necessarily subscribes. In reading this document,
I read the principles only of the Church of Rome, without
any reference to the practical development of those princi
ples in her books of devotion : I shall have occasion, in the
course of my lectures, to call attention to the practical de
velopment of those principles, as they exist in the popular
formularies and devotional works, which bear the imprima
tur and the sanction of the Roman Catholic ecclesiastical
authorities ; but, in the mean time, I will lay before you her
summary of articles of faith only.
In the Bull of Pius IV. there is presented . first of all
what is. called ;th*e Nicene Creed, — that is, the creed com
posed by the bishops who met together in the" Council of
Nice, in the year 325 — a creed read in the service of the
Church of England, and to which every orthodox Christian
would most readily subscribe. After the twelve articles of
the Nicene Creed have been presented, there follows what is
strictly called the Creed of the Roman Catholic Church,
and the evidence of the modern origin of the Church of
Rome — the twelve articles of Pope Pius the Fourth's
Creed. The Nicene Creed is divided into twelve orthodox
propositions, to which we all cheerfully assent. But, as if
* Cone. Trid. apud Bullas, p. 311, Romas, 1564. Other authorities are
the Catechismus Eomanus, published by Pius V., 1566 ; the General Coun
oils, recognized as such by the Koman Church ; Papal Bulls ; the Episco
pal Oath.

88 THE GREAT APOSTASY.
to prevent the effects of preadmitted truth, there are ad
ministered immediately afterwards the twelve poisonous and
neutralizing heresies, which are the peculiar articles of the
Papacy; and which contain, compressed in small, space, the
very essence of the Roman Catholic superstition. The
policy of this is obvious : it is just what entitles the Church
of Rome to the epithet bestowed upon it by the distinguished
Cecil — the masterpiece of Satan. If Satan were to urge
at once upon the Christian Church a manifest and foul and
unscriptural superstition, every enlightened man would
revolt and reject it, as plainly not from God ; but this he
carefully avoids, and so far shows how well he combines the
archangel's wisdom with the demon's wickedness. He
makes truth a pioneer to error, and God's word a caterer to
man's lie : — he first of all opens twelves panes, clear, and
transparent, through which the sunbeams of heaven pour
with unbroken and undimmed splendor ; and as soon as he
has tempted his victim, by this display, to come within the
territory which is sacred to himself, he puts on the twelve
shutters, corresponding to the last twelve articles, which
exclude all light, and kindles forthwith the blue lights pecu
liar to Antichrist. In this amalgam of light and darkness,,
truth and error, the human and divine, we have the sub
stance of the Roman Catholic superstition.
The first Popish tenet in this creed is as follows : — "I
most steadfastly admit and embrace apostolic and eccle
siastical traditions, and all other observances and constitu
tions of the same Church." * "I also admit and embrace
the Holy Scripture, according to that sense which our holy
* Apostolicas et ecclesiasticas traditiones reliquasque ejusdem ecclesise
observationes et constitutiones firmissime admitto et amplectbr.
Item sacram scri.pturam juxta eum sensum quem tenuit et tenet sancta
mater ecclesia cujus est judicare de vero sensu et interpretatione sacrarum
scripturarum admitto ; nee earn unquam nisi juxta unanimem oonsensum
patrum accipiam et interpretabor  Concil. Trid. apud Bullas p. 311.
Komas, 1564, et [Parisiis, 1837, p. 416].

WHAT IS POPERY? 89
mother the Church has held and does hold ; to whom it
belongs to judge of the true sense and interpretation of
Scripture ; neither will I ever take and interpret it other
wise than according to the unanimous consent of the
Fathers." These are the first two propositions. I shall have occa
sion to direct your attention to these errors in detail: at
present I ask of you to mark, at the very outset, the deflec
tion of the Papacy from God and truth, to man and tradi
tion. When speaking of traditions, the Roman Catholic is
taught to say, " I most steadfastly admit and embrace it," —
the language of a hearty and cordial recognition ; but when
he comes to speak of Holy Scripture, he is made to say
merely, " I admit," — receiving God's word as an unwel
come visitor, whom he dare not altogether, for the sake of
appearances, cast out, but whonij it would seem, he would
much rather on the whole be rid of. There is a hearty and
unfeigned welcome given to ecclesiastical traditions : there
is a bare nod of toleration of the word of God. This rela
tive recognition is kept up throughout. It is very signifi
cant. »
" I also profess, that there are truly and properly seven sa
craments of the new law, instituted by Jesus Christ our Lord,
and necessary for the salvation of mankind, though not all
for every one ; to wit, baptism, confirmation, the eucharist,
penance, extreme unction, orders, and matrimony ; and that
these sacraments confer grace ; and that of these, baptism,
confirmation, and orders cannot be reiterated without sacri
lege. I also receive and admit the received and approved
ceremonies of the Catholic Church, used in the solemn ad
ministration of the aforesaid sacraments." * Baptism, it is
here stated, cannot be repeated without sacrilege ; that is, if
* This document is also found in English in the Ordo or Eituale Roma
num, published under the authority of the Romish bishops in England.
[Collegiate Press, Prior Park, 1846, p. 57.]
8*

90 THE GREAT APOSTASY.
it has been conferred by a Roman priest, who is supposed
to have the true and apostolical — or, more strictly, mechan
ical — succession, then it is not to be repeated. But if the
Archbishop of Canterbury, the distinguished and amiable
prelate ofthe Church of England, were to baptize any indi
vidual in this assembly, that individual, on joining the
Church of Rome, would be rebaptized, his baptism being
regarded by that Church as utterly null and void. And,
accordingly, when the Rev. Mr. Sibthorp left the Protestant
Church, and joined the Church of Rome, he had, first of all,
to be baptized, as if he had been an absolute heathen ; he
had, secondly, to be ordained as a deacon, after the usual
examination ; and, thirdly, he had to be ordained as a priest,
after he had served the requisite time as a deacon ; all that
he received from the hands of the Church of England being
regarded as null and void, whether as respected his baptism
or his ordination. And it seems to me a melancholy de
scent, that has been more or less characteristic ofthe whole
of the Churches in Christendom, and, in some measure, at
the present moment. The Church of Rome excommuni
cates the Church of England ; the Churchy of England ex
communicates those that are next to her ; and, I fear, these
last have not also been guiltless in excommunicating those
that are next to them. And this will ever be the result,
where any thing is taken to be the essential test of Christian
ministry, save the apostolic requirements laid down in the
Epistles to Timothy and Titus.
" I embrace and receive all and every one of the things
which have been defined and declared in the holy Council
of Trent, concerning original sin and justification." Justifi
cation, I may here explain, according to the Church of
Rome, is partly by Christ's merit, partly by men's merif^
partly by priestly absolution, and partly by Church power,
and practically by and through and in the Church, it is a
very compound and heterogeneous result indeed.

WHAT IS POPERY? 91
• " I profess likewise," continues the Roman Catholic, " that
m the Mass there is offered to God a true, proper, and pro
pitiatory sacrifice for the living and the dead ; and that in
the most holy sacrament of the eucharist there is truly,
really, and substantially the body and blood, together with
the soul and divinity, of our Lord Jesus Christ ; and that
there is a conversion of the whole substance of the bread
into, the body, and of the whole substance ofthe wine into
the blood ; which conversion the Catholic Church calls tran-
substantiation. I also confess, that under either kind alone,
Christ is received whole and entire,- and there is a true sa
crament." I need not add any explanation of this, as I
shall afterwards have occasion more fully to refer to it; I
may merely observe, that it is believed by the Romanist
that the moment the priest has pronounced over the wafer
or bread, flour, and water, " Hoc enim est meum corpus,"
[" For this is my body,"] that moment, the flour and water
cease to be so, and become really and truly flesh and blood,
and our Lord Jesus Christ is believed to be present on the
altar, not only in spirit (as he is in the midst of his own, in
every age), but bodily and substantially ; so that the Roman
Catholic kneels down and adores that piece of flour and
water, as we know and can prove, on the supposition that it
is really the body and blood, the soul and divinity, of the
Son of God ; and then, after this act has been performed,
which is called transubstantiation, the priest, as he believes,
has power to take up that which we call flour and water, but
which <he holds to be the body and blood of the Son of God,
and present it to God the Father as an atonement, proper
and propitiatory, for the sins of the living and the dead. So
that the very same trust which we place in the glorious
atonement of our Lord once for all on the cross, the Roman
Catholic reposes on the sacrifice of the Mass, made and
offered day by day by man. The explanation of the last
clause is this : that in the Church of Rome, the cup is with-

92 THE GREAT APOSTASY.
held from the laity, and allowed only to the officiating priest,
the bread alone being given to the others ; solely, on their
own admission, by a tradition and arrangement of the
church, and not according to primitive and apostolic usage.
In the next place : " I constantly hold that there is a
Purgatory, and that the souls therein detained are helped
by the suffrages or prayers of the faithful." Every Roman
Catholic believes that there are two sorts of sin — mortal
sin, in which if a man die, he goes to hell for ever ; and
venial sin, in which most men die, and which must be expi
ated in Purgatory — that is, a middle place of torment.
According to the language of the Catechism of the Council
of Trent, " there is a purgatorial fire, in which the souls of
the faithful suffer for a season," before they are made pure,
and fit for the kingdom of heaven.
The next article is, " Likewise I believe, that the saints
reigning together with Christ are to be honored and invoked
\invocandos et venerandos~\, and that these saints offer prayer
to God for us, and that their relics are to be had in venera
tion." Hence, in most Roman Catholic churches on the
Continent, the remains of some saint are deposited below
the high altar. When St. Chad's cathedral at Birmingham
was erected, they brought the mouldering bones of a saint,
as they called him, from abroad, and deposited them beneath
the high altar; and from that deposition they believe a
peculiar sanctity and sacredness are communicated to the
place. "I most firmly assert," proceeds the Roman Catholic,
" that the images of Christ, of the mother of God, ever vir
gin, and also of other saints, ought to be had and retained;,
and that due honor and veneration is to be given to them."
The explanation of the qualification "due," is this: — the
Roman Catholic holds that the worship of dovlsla, that is, an
inferior worship, is to be given to the saints ; that the wor
ship of vnapdovksia is to be given to the Virgin Mary ; and

WHAT IS POPERY? 93
then that the loftiest worship, Xatgeta, or supreme religious
worship, is to be given to God. But at the time the bishops
met in the Council of Trent, there were great disputes what
degree of veneration ought to be given to the image or rep
resentation of Christ. Thomas Aquinas, a distinguished
doctor and saint of the Roman Catholic Church, held that
the highest worship, or XectQgla., ought to be given to the pic
ture of Christ, because the worship does not terminate on
the picture, but extends to Christ himself; and that the same
supreme worship, latqua, ought to: be given to the cross of
Christ. And, in fact, on Good Friday, this worship is at
this moment actually given, in every Romish Chapel in
England, when, at a certain' moment, the priest brings for
ward a wooden cross, which the people fall down and adore.
On talking with a Roman Catholic, I was assured that her
priest informed her that Roman Catholics alone glory in the
cross, and that Protestants do not ; and the proof the priest
adduced was, that on Good Friday, in the Romish Church,
the cross is produced, and the people approach and kiss and
adore it, and thereby show that they glory in the cross ;
whereas, in the Protestant Church, no such exhibition takes
place. On Good Friday,* according to the Roman Missal,
the priest calls, out, the moment he produces the cross,
" Come, let us adore " \Ladoremus~\ ; and immediately after
wards he makes another movement, and says, " Come, let us
adore the wood of the cross on which the salvation of the
world hung." The Council of Trent being placed in a diffi
culty, whether to side with Thomas Aquinas, or with the
more moderate party, defined and decreed, in the exercise
of their presumed infallibility, that " due honor and venera
tion," not expressing the kind or amount of veneration that
is due, ought to be given to the images of Christ, of the
mother of God, and of the other saints.
* See the Missale Romanum, or the Missal for the use of the laity. Ser
vice for Good Friday;

94 THE GREAT APOSTASY.
"I also affirm, that the power of Indulgences is left by
Christ in the Church, and that the use of them is most
wholesome to Christian people." Now, many Protestants
have a wrong notion of what is meant by Indulgences in the
Church of Rome. I have heard distinguished Protestant
advocates commit themselves very strangely upon this sub
ject ; and nothing so rejoices a Roman Catholic as to hear a
Protestant make a rash assertion, which cannot be substan
tiated. An Indulgence does not mean liberty to commit sin
for the future, (though Romanists have thus used it,) or par
don for sins that are past ; all that it is theoretically under
stood to mean, is a remission of the temporal punishment
that may be due to the individual, after the sin, whether
mortal or venial, has its guilt forgiven. The Roman Catho
lic Church holds, that after God forgives sin, or after the
priest judicially forgives it in God's place, there remains a
temporal punishment ; which if not endured in this world
must be borne in Purgatory till the sin be completely burnt
out, and the soul thereby made fit for heaven. An indul
gence is a remission of this temporal punishment. It is at
best a wretched caricature of the real forgiveness of God.
Hence, according to Roman Catholic theology, if I have
been guilty of a venial sin, which deserves a century of suf
fering in Purgatory, but if, through my influence with the
Pope, or sarne introduction of a more substantial nature, I
receive a bfill from the Pope of fifty years' indulgence, this
will exempt me from fifty years of suffering in Purgatory :
and if he gives me a full indulgence, it will extend over the
whole period, and I shall not have to go into purgatory at
all for that sin. You readily perceive how tremendous a
prerogative is thus conferred on the priesthood. So vigor
ously did the priests wield this power on the Continent of
Europe, up to a recent period, that a law was lately enacted
in Belgium, now under Leopold, that no money left to a
confessor by a dying layman should be a valid bequest in

WHAT IS POPERY? 95
the estimate of the courts ; the whole property of the dying
having been found to be daily passing into the hands of the
priests, to pay them for saying masses for the soul, and
shortening the torments of Purgatory. In Bath, for in
stance, after Prior College was consumed by fire, circulars
were issued, (one of which I saw, and therefore I can speak
from my own personal knowledge,) promising to every one
who contributed (if I remember the exact sum) five guineas
towards the rebuilding, mass offered up for himself or his
friends in Purgatory once a day ; to every one who contrib
uted one guinea, a mass once a week ; and to every one who
contributed a sum below a guinea, remembrance in the gen
eral prayers ofthe faithful. Now, what is the plain common
sense of this arrangement? It is that if I contribute five
guineas, my friend, presumed to be in Purgatory, will have
seven prayers offered up for the deliverance of his soul, for
one that another's friend will have, who could contribute only
one guinea ; the latter receiving but a seventh portion of
the meritorious appliances that mine will have ; and the ob
vious result must be, that my friend will get out of Purgatory
seven times sooner than his. In other words, the speed with
which the souls of the faithful escape from the regions of
suffering, if I may judge from this instance, is precisely in
the ratio of the golden stimulus that is placed in the " itching
palms " of the priests, by way of hire for masses for the
dead. " I acknowledge the holy apostolic Roman Church, for the
mother and mistress of all churches ; and I promise true
obedience to the Bishop of Rome, successor of St. Peter,
prince of the apostles, and vicar of Jesus Christ." Such is
the next article.
"I. likewise undoubtedly receive and confess all other
things delivered, defined, and decreed by the Sacred Canons
and General Councils, and particularly by the Holy Coun
cil of Trent ; and I condemn, reject, and anathematize all

96 THE GREAT APOSTASY.
things contrary thereto, and all heresies wnich the Church
has condemned, rejected, and anathematized."
You will observe, that the Bishop of Rome is called the
" vicar of Jesus Christ ; " a very awful, and as he shows
himself, a blasphemous assumption. He is also called
" prince of apostles," and " successor of St. Peter." Now it
does so happen, just as it does with what is called apostolical
succession, that the very link that is absolutely vital in this
chain is altogether wanting. In the first place, there is no
indisputable evidence, at least in Scripture, that the apostle
Peter ever was at Rome at all. In the course of a discus
sion which I had with a distinguished advocate of the Roman
Catholic Church, his argument was, that it was perfectly
clear that Peter was at Rome, because at the close of his
First Epistle he says, "The Church that is at Babylon
saluteth you." " What, then," said I, " do you admit that
Babylon is the Scriptural designation of your Church ? "
He replied, " Certainly it is." " Then," I said, " turn with
me to the eighteenth of Revelation, and read the description
of your church as it is stereotyped there ; and I am sure, if
there be a possibility pf shame in your mind, your counte
nance must blush as you hear the enormities by which it is
defiled." Here, however, let me state, that what are called
postscripts at the close of the Epistles, " Written from " so
and so, are no part of the word of God ; they are additions
not of the least value, and occasionally historically inac
curate. At all events, there is no scripture evidence that
Peter ever was at Rome. — But, in the second place, if he
ever was, there is no record of his being Pope, and appoint
ing a successor ; and we know that, in certain points, the
present Pope does not look like his successor. The apostle
Peter was a married man; the Scriptures speak of his
" wife's mother" being ill ; to be a complete successor of St.
Peter, you must have every jot and tittle of St. Peter's char
acter, and circumstances, and position ; but by a law of the

WHAT IS POPERY? 97
Church of Rome, (a law, I admit, belonging to its discipline,)
celibacy is enforced upon its clergy ; and, therefore, in one
point at least, the Pope of Rome cannot be the successor of
Peter. Certainly in one respect the Popes may be called
his successors : Peter denied his Lord and Master, and con
firmed the denial with an oath; and this succession the
Church of Rome has sacredly cherished and fearfully devel
oped, in every age of the existence of that deep and dark
" mystery of iniquity." Would to God that she may one
day succeed Peter in his repentance, and return to Christ,
to faithfulness, to suffering for the truth !
I have thus laid before you what may be called the most
prominent points of Popery — or, if that expression is
objected to, Roman Catholicism — in its articles of faith, as
these are embodied in the Creed of Pope Pius IX.

LECTURE IV.
IS TRACTARIANISM POPERY ?
I now proceed to discharge what I feel to be a far more
painful portion of my duty. I grieve that I should be con
strained to make one single remark upon those we would
otherwise rejoice to hail as Christian brethren ; but I feel
that truth is even more precious than friendship, and that
the purity of our most holy faith is far dearer than even the
most unbroken and uninterrupted peace. If the alternative
be whether we shall sacrifice peace or truth, both precious
and inestimable in their proper places, we must have not
one moment's hesitation in sacrificing peace, rather than let
go truth. Truth is the root or stem ; peace is but the blos
som that waves upon the branch ; let the blossom be torn
off, and the stem will hear the accents of returning spring,
and give forth other and no less beautiful blossoms ; but if
the stem be cut down, and the roots torn up, no revisit of a
quickening spring will make blossom or fruit appear again.
You have heard what Popery is, as stereotyped by the
Roman Catholic Church ; I must now lay before you what
is the Popery disseminated, I grieve to say, by men that
wear the robes and eat the bread of a Protestant Church ;
men distinguished for their talents, and some of them foi
their erudition — and heretofore no less distinguished for the
consistency of their outward walk in the world — but
branded and chargeable, I solemnly believe, with the most
desperate and decided effort ever recorded in the annals of
the Church, to extinguish the principles which have been

IS TRACTARIANISM POPERY? 99
sealed with the blood of martyrs, and to bring in a deluge
of soul-destroying errors, for the designation of which guilt
no language is sufficiently strong. I have carefully selected,
from the writings and other documents of these individuals,
their leading sentiments'; and as you have heard pure
Popery, as it is taught and practised under the auspices of
the Church of Rome, you will see now, by the following
quotations, that the whole difference between what are called
the Tractarians of England and the Papists of the Vatican,
is solely in the matter of consistency. The Roman Catholics
consistently carry out their principles to their full extent ¦
Drs. Pusey, Hook,* and others, keep their principles in
reserve, waiting for the occasion when they may be devel
oped with impunity, and taught beneath the auspices of
authority and influence, at present not fully upon their side.
I will take, first, their views of the Rule of Faith. With
Protestants, the Bible alone is the rule of faith ; and I may
observe, that much of the safety of the Protestant Church
lies, under God, in the unimpaired maintenance of this car
dinal principle. Within the boards of the Bible, you are on
a Protestant and impregnable foundation ; but go beyond
them, for one single article of your creed, and you are on
Popish ground — aye, it may be on an inclined plane, and
you need not be surprised if you soon find yourself in the
gulf of the great Western Apostasy. The rule of faith given
by Dr. Newman while in the Protestant Churchf is in these
words, in his Lectures on Romanism, pp. 327, 343 : " These
two, the Bible and tradition together, make up a joint rule
of faith : " again, " Where the sense of Sacred Scripture, as
interpreted by reason, is contrary to the sense given to it by
Catholic antiquity, we ought to side with the latter," p. 160,
* See his Church Dictionary.
t Mr. Newman has consistently of late passed into the Romish Church.
So too have Messrs. Ward, Faber, and others. Soo too will many of thos«
who hold their views, but are deficient in their courage and consistency? .

100 THE GREAT APOSTASY.
Professor Keble, in his Sermons, third edition, p. 8i«, says,
" The rule of faith is made up of Sacred Scriptare and tra
dition together. The British Critic,* once the great organ
pf the party, speaks thus : " The Bible is in the hands of the
Church, to be dealt with in such a way as the Church shall
consider best for the expression of her own mind at the
time. — (British Critic, No. LX. p. 453.) In other words,
the Bible is a mere nose of wax, to be shaped, and moulded,
and directed, by a convenient phantom that has never yet
been defined or condensed, called the Church, as may be
most palatable to her taste, and best suit the expediency of
the moment. And again says The British Critic, " There
is altogether sufficient evidence, independent of the Sacred
Scriptures, that the apostles taught as divine and neces
sary certain doctrines, and inculcated as essential certain
practices." I say, There is not; and we defy them to
produce evidence, and to prove any such thing.
The following extract of a letter is interesting: "Dur
ing Lent, it is the custom for the best preachers at Rome to
preach every day in the week, except Saturday. On one
occasion, the last season of Lent, the Padre Grossie, who
was remarkable for his eloquence, was preaching in the
Jesuits' Church. His sermon was on the advantages of the
Roman Church, and the danger of schism. After a pas
sionate appeal to the Greeks, urging them without delay to
enter into the sanctuary of the Papal Church, he concluded
with the following appeal to the Puseyites : ' There is yet
a class of persons, very numerous, whom I would wish to
address, although I fear that there may be none here ; still,
perchance should there be any, to them I turn : 0 Pusey
ites ! what shall I say to you ? Tou know that you are not
Protestants, and we know you are not Catholics : you are
much nearer to us than them. Why will you not come
* This Review became so purely Popish, that it was suppressed for the
sake of appearanoes.

IS TRACTARTANISM POPERY? 101
over entirely to us? The Mother Church has been long
waiting, with open arms, to receive you; and the Holy
Virgin, with extended arms, is ready to embrace you.
Why do you longer waver in the declaration of your faith ?
Why do you not make the piccolo pass which separates you
from us?'" The friend who related this, said he could
swear that these were the very words of the Padre, or the
full sense.
Dr. Newman wrote, respecting Scripture, in his Lectures
on Romanism, p. 325, "We have as little warrant for neg
lecting ancient consent, as for neglecting Scripture itself."
" We agree with the Romanist, in appealing to antiquity as
our great teacher." Immediately after these purely Papa]
announcements, and almost in the very language of Popish
Councils, we are favored with Tractarian views of Bible
circulation — " Scripture was never intended to teach doc
trine to the many ! ! "
As if to plunge our population in the gulf of Infidelity,
should they fail in precipitating the Church of England into
the Papacy, this writer — then a Minister of the Church —
then a Fellow of the University of Oxford — stated, " The
Catholic doctrine of the Trinity, Incarnation, and others
similar to them, are the true interpretations of the notices
( ! ! ) contained in Scripture, of these doctrines respectively."
" To accept Revelation at all, we have but probability to
show, at most ; nay, to believe in the existence of an intelli
gent Creator."
These are the painful proofs of the spread of Popery,
The progress of undisguised Popery was as scattered clouds,
either growing and dissolving, or driven by the winds ; but
this progression looks like an evening twilight that deepens
every minute, and threatens to issue in a moonless and star
less night.
I will now refer to the Tractarian views of the Eucharist,
9*

102 THE GREAT APOSTASY.
which go the length of Transubstantiation.* " It is literally
true, the consecrated bread is Christ's body : so that there
is a real super-local presence in the Holy Sacrament."
Tract 90. Keble, in his Preface to Hooker, says, " Anti
quity continually affirms the change of the sacred elements."
Tract 85 says, " If baptism be a cleansing and quickening
of the dead soul, to say nothing of the Lord's Supper,
Christ's ministers work miracles." And Tract 86 contains
these words : " A happy omission it is from the Communion
Service, of a half ambiguous expression against the real
and essential presence of Christ's natural body at the com
munion." Let us now turn to the great doctrine of Justification.
Dr. Newman, in his Lectures on Justification, page 167,
stated, " Christ is our righteousness, by dwelling in us by
the Spirit ; he justifies us by entering into us, he continues
to justify us by remaining in us." I am sure, no well in
structed Christian would commit so unscriptural a blunder.
Justification is Christ's righteousness imputed to us ; sancti-
fication is the Holy Spirit working within us. Justification
is an act, whereby we are made righteous in the sight of
God ; sanctification is a work, whereby we are renewed in
the image of God more and more. Dr. Newman, ignorantly
or designedly, confounds them. Dr. Pusey also agrees with
Dr. Newman, in his Letter to the Bishop of Oxford : " The
Anglican Doctrine conceives Justification to be, not imputa-
* * In his sermon on the Eucharist, Dr. Pusey has furnished a melancholy
proof of the depth to which the Romish taint has sunk in his inmost con
victions. His too notorious Sermon has all the heresy without the honesty
of transubstantiation. While this sermon proves the rapid progress of its
author in " Catholic views," it has at the same time furnished to the heads
of the University of Oxford an opportunity, of which they have availed
themselves, of declaring their disapprobation of the Tractar.an system
See also Dodsworth's Letter to Dr. Pusey. Either it is a libel on the Doo
tor, or the Doctor is a Roman Catholic.

IS TRACTARIANISM POPERY? 103
tion merely, but the act of God's imparting his Divine pres
ence to the soul through baptism."
Let us next hear the Tractators' views of the Atonement.
Tract 80 says, " The prevailing notion of bringing forward
the atonement explicitly and prominently on all occasions,
is evidently quite opposed to what we consider the teaching
of Scripture." How the writer can have made this state
ment, with the full knowledge of Scripture, is to me surpris
ing ; for you will recollect, when the Apostle Paul sums up
the doctrines which he had taught to the Corinthian Church,
he introduces the recapitulation of his theology by the beau
tiful statement — "I delivered unto you first of all, how that
Christ died for our sins." And yet Tract 80 says, that the
Scriptures do not bring forward the atonement " first of all ;"
that is a doctrine to be kept in " reserve," and only to be
taught to the faithful amid the esoteric mysteries of their
(so called) Christian faith.
With respect to the Invocation of Saints, Tract 71 speaks
thus : " When it is said that the saints cannot hear our
prayers, unless God reveals them to them, we are certainly
using an unreal, because an unscriptural argument." We
read in Tract 90, " The practice, not the theory of the invo
cation of saints, should be considered in reference to the
Church of Rome ; meaning, that it is only the grosser ex
cesses of practice that amount to idolatry. Again, says the
writer, " The Tridentine decree declares, that it is good and
useful suppliantly to invoke the saints ; " quoting it, appar
ently, as an example for imitation.
In the sixth place, Worship of Images. " The words of
the Tridentine decree," then wrote Dr. Newman, " that the
images of Christ and the blessed Virgin, and the other
saints, should ' receive due honor and veneration,' go to the
very verge of what could be received by the cautious Chris
tian, though possibly admitting of an honest interpretation.
There was a primitive doctrine on all these points, so widely

104 THE GREAT APOSTASY.
received and so respectably supported, that it may bu well
entertained as a matter of opinion by every theologian
now." Let us turn to the marriage or Celibacy of the Clergy.
" That the Church has power," said Dr. Newman, " to
oblige the clergy either to marriage or to celibacy, would
seem to be involved in the doctrine of the Homilies." " As
far as clerical celibacy is a duty, it is grounded not on God's
law, but on the Church's rule." I believe that their bene
fices and their wives are, with not a few ofthe Tractarians,
the sole obstructions to visible union with Rome.
Again : " The age is moving towards something ; and
most unhappily," according to Dr. Newman, in his Letter to
Dr. Jelf, " the one religious communion which has of late
years been practically in possession of that something, is the
Church of Rome. She alone, amid all the errors and the
evils of her practical system, has given free scope to the
feelings of awe, reverence, tenderness, devoutness, and other
feelings, which may be especially called Catholic." The
British Critic for July, 1841, wrote, " We trust that active
and visible union with the See of Rome is not of the es
sence of a church," — as much as to say, We believe it to
be highly conducive to the well-being of a church, but we
trust it is not absolutely essential ; — "at the same time we
are deeply conscious, that in lacking it, far from asserting a
right, we forego a great privilege. We are estranged from
her in presence, not in heart." This is as true a statement
as Dr. Newman ever uttered. "The great object thus mo
mentous," continues the same British Critic, " is the unprot-
estantizing of the National Church." And again says the
same writer, " We must go backward or forward, and it will
surely be the latter ; as we go, we must recede more and.
more from the principles, if any such there be, of the Eng
lish Reformation." I believe that this is one of the most
sensible, but one of the most ominous remarks, ever made

IS TRACTARIANISM POPERY? 105
by the party. I fear a disastrous number of the clergy of a
Church once distinguished by its scholarship, illustrious for
its martyrs, venerable for its liturgy, and many a day (as I
believe) for its primitive and apostolic piety, are at this mo
ment in such a position, that they must either go onward
and land in the arms of the Roman Catholic Church, or they
must retrace the steps they have taken, eat up the proposi
tions they have announced, and cling to the ancient, scrip
tural, and evangelical religion — the great and truly primi
tive deposit of which is the word of God. " The Reforma
tion, that deplorable schism." " The Reformation, is the
scandalous and crying sinful schism of the sixteenth cen
tury." " As to the Reformers, I think worse and worse of
them." " Jewel was an irreverent Dissenter." Alas !
You have heard how they write of the Church of Rome ;
speaking of her in almost sensual terms, as their dear moth
er; longing for active and visible union and communion
with her, and grieving that they are severed from that centre
of unity. Let us hear how they speak of Dissenters. I
quote from Mr. Palmer, whose zeal for Rome, and antipathy
to Episcopal as well as Presbyterian Protestantism, is per
fectly glowing. " The very breath of the Protestantism of
Dissenters has something sulphureous in it, and is full of
self-assumption and pride." So well have they learned the
spirit of cursing, distinctive of the Church of Rome, that Mr.
Palmer says, " Anathema to Protestantism." " We firmly
believe," says The British Critic, "that the very tone of
thought of Protestantism is essentially antichristian." Again :
" Protestantism is, in all its bearings, the religion of corrupt
human nature."
Let us contrast with this the way in which they speak,
in Tract 71, of "the majesty ofthe chair of St. Peter," and
"Rome's high gifts, and strong claims to our admiration,
love, and gratitude." They say, " We sigh to be one again
with her." They say that she alone has, of late years, been

106 THE GREAT APOSTASY.
practically in possession of the deep and true ; and we must
at present, for want of assimilation to her, speaking of the
Anglican Church, " work in chains." Dr. Pusey says, " We
are a living, though a torn member of the one, true, Catholic,
and Apostolic body." " Already," he observes again, " an
earnest has been given ; and the almost electrical rapidity
with which these principles are confessedly passing from
one breast to another, and from one end of England to
another, the sympathy which they find in the sister or
daughter Churches in Scotland and America, might well
make men suspect that there is more than human agency at
work." I quite agree with him ; I believe there is in it the
agency of Satan, as '' an angel of light," corrupting men's
hearts, perverting men's principles, unhinging men's hopes,
and leading them, while Protestants in name, to be thorough
Papists in principle, the victims and the asserters of a soul-
destroying superstition.
" It ought not to be for nothing," says one of these writers,
in Sermons for the Times, " nor for any thing short of some
vital truth, some truth not to be rejected without fatal error,
that persons of name and influence should venture on the
part of ecclesiastical agitators, intrude upon the peace of the
contented, and raise doubts in the minds of the uncomplain
ing. All this has been done, and all this is worth hazarding
again in a matter of life and death ; and this matter we be
lieve to be (to use an offensive, but forcible expression) the
unprotestanizing of the National Church. As we. go on, we
must recede more and more from the principles of the Eng
lish Reformation."
And now hear what is said of their movements by an indi
vidual one would suppose to be a very fair judge. Cardinal
Wiseman thus writes to the Earl of Shrewsbury, in refer
ence to the Tractarians of Oxford : " It seems to me," says
that wily and able person, " impossible to read the works of
the Oxford divines, and especially to follow them chronologi-

IS TRACTARIANISM POPERY? 107
cally, without discovering a daily approach towards our holy
Church, both in doctrine and in affectionate feeling. Our
saints, our popes, have become dear to them by little and
little ; our rites, aur ceremonies, our offices, yea our rubrics
are precious in their eyes — far, alas ! beyond what many of
us consider them. Our monastic institutions, our charitable
and educational provisions, have become more and more
objects with them of earnest study ; and everything, in fine,
that concerns our religion, deeplylnterests their attention.
I need not ask you, whether they ought to be met with any
other feeling than sympathy, kindness, and offers of coopera
tion. Ought we to sit down coldly while such sentiments
are breathed in our hearing, and not rise up to bid the
mourner have hope? Are we, who sit in the full light, to
see our friends feeling their way towards us through the
gloom that surrounds them, faltering for want of an out
stretched hand, or turning astray for want of a directing
voice ; and sit on and keep silent, amusing ourselves at their
painful efforts ? " Thus Oscott and Oxford pull all in one
direction. Let me quote one or two passages more, illustrative of
their principles, for I desire to make them well known.
a We may be as sure," says one of them in Tract 10, "that
the bishop is Christ's representative, as if we actually saw
upon the bishop's head ' a cloven tongue like as of fire.'
In the act of Confirmation, the bishop is our Lord's figure
and likeness, when he laid his hands on children ; and what
ever we ought to do, had we lived when the apostles were
alive, the same ought we to do for the bishops. He that de
spiseth the bishop, despiseth the apostles. This is faith, to
look at things as not seen, but as unseen." "It is from the
bishop, that the news of redemption and the means of grace
are all come to us."
" Once more," says Professor Sewell, in his Morals, p. 27*

108 THE GREAT APOSTASY.
a book of great talent, but of a truly dangerous description, —
" once more, these powers of the Church are very great ;
they are even awful : if not conferred by God, they are
blasphemously assumed by man. The power of communi
cating to man the Divine nature itself, of bringing down the
Deity from heaven, and infusing his Spirit into the souls of
miserable mortals — this, which is nothing more than the
every-day promise of the Church, proclaimed and adminis
tered by every minister ofthe Church, every time he stands
at the font or ministers at the altar, is so awful and so tre
mendous, that we scarcely dare to read it, except in familiar
words which scarcely touch the ear."
You will find their principles carried, not to the verge,
but beyond the verge, of persecution. In speaking of other
Churches, whether the Dissenting, Reformed, Scotch, or
Continental, Frowde says: "To dispense with episcopal
ordination, is to be regarded as a surrender of the Christian
priesthood ; and the attempt to substitute any other form of
ordination for it, or to seek communion with Christ through
any non-episcopal association, is to be regarded, not as a
schism merely, but as an impossibility." " Christ," says
Tract 51, "appointed the Church as the only way to heaven."
Strange and unscriptural announcement! for the Son of
God has said, "Jam the way, and the truth, and the life ; no
man cometh to the Father, but by Me." Again, Mr. Palmer
says : " We readily admit, or rather most firmly maintain,
that all sects or denominations, even supposing them to hold
what are called fundamental doctrines, are not included in
the Church of Christ; all the temporal enactments and
powers of the whole world could not cure this fault, nor ren
der the Presbyterians of Scotland a portion of the Church
of Christ. It is a most indubitable doctrine, that schismatics,
even though they hold no error of faith, are, by the fact
alone of their schism, out of the Church, and beyond the

IS TRACTARIANISM POPERY? 109
pale of salvation." * By way of showing the nearness of
these views to those of Popery, we quote a Romish Profes
sor's views : " We must, of necessity, hold that no heretics,
whom the Church has rejected from her bosom, belong to
her body ; and for that very reason must hope for no salva
tion." — Delahogue.
Dr. Pusey says: "Thus the power of expounding, de
creeing, ordaining, implies that the Church's children are to
receive her exposition, and obey her decrees, and accept her
authority in controversies of the faith. And the appeal lies
not to their private judgment; they are not the arbiters
whether she pronounce rightly or no ; for what sort of de
cree or authority were that, which every one were first to
judge, and then, if his judgment coincided with the law, to
obey ? " '" If I be a father,' " continues Dr. Pusey — apply
ing the text in Malachi to the Church — " ' if I be a father,
where is mine honor? and if I be a master, where is my
fear?'" Then The British Critic remarks, "'Let every
man abide in the same calling wherein he was called.' We
consider, that when private judgment moves in the direction
of innovation, it may be regarded with suspicion, and treated
with severity. We repeat it : If persons have strong feelings,
they ought to pay for them ; if they think it a duty to unsettle
things established, they should show their earnestness by
being willing to suffer." You see how the spirit of Popery
necessarily generates the spirit of persecution. " Not only
is the Church catholic, she is indefectible in it ; and, there
fore, not only has she authority to enforce it, but is of
authority in declaring it."
I trust — I believe — the Christian people of this Eng-
* ODe of the best proofs of the unchristian and even undignified senti
ments of these doctrines may be seen in " Dr. Hook's Church Dictionary,"
under such heads as " Presbyterians, Independents, Wesleyans," etc. etc.
One wonders at such want of ordinary moderation. I hope it is a true
report that Dr. Hook is retracing his steps.
10

110 THE GREAT APOSTASY.
land of ours are not to be cajoled or frightened into Popery.
The experience of ancient days lifts up its voice, and with
tears adjures them to be faithful to God, loyal to conscience,
obedient to Scripture. History with its thousand tongues,
and Holy Scripture with its one, unite in proclaiming that
no greater curse can light upon our shores than Romish
superstition, and no more dangerous enemies appear in our
ranks than Popish Jesuits. Chartism is open brute force,
and may be avoided or crushed; but Tractarianism, or
Puseyism, is a pestiferous malaria that infects and kills —
a canker-worm at the very root of our Protestant faith — a
dry-rot, devouring England's Church.
It is well known, that when the " Tracts for the Times "
were frowned on by the bishop of the diocese in which they
appeared — not, as far as appeared, because he objected to
their main principles, but because he deprecated the confu
sion and disturbance which they generated, — these Tracta
rian priests showed their long vaunted protest of submission
to their superior by instantly starting the very same series
of works under a new nomenclature, substituting " Sermons "
for " Tracts," and christening them " Sermons for the Times."
From Jesuits this might have been looked for, but certainly
not from those whose professed subjection to superiors
seemed so reverential and entire. In the first of these Ser
mons we read, that the church (that is, the sacred office) is
not for the preaching of the Gospel at all ; that unconverted
men have no business within its four walls ; that it is svlely
for the worship of God, and administration of the sacra
ments and rites of the Church.
" The time was," we read in the first of these, " when the
distorted visages on the outer walls of God's house spoke of
the misery of those who were excluded from saintly privi
leges ; and the unclean beasts" (that is, Roman cement
beasts) " raging without, showed their fruitless attempt to
find a place within. The ancient churches were built up

IS TRACTARIANISM POPERY? HI
from the foundation in the form of a cross, to teach the im
portant lesson, that it was by the way of sorrow and suffer
ing that we could come to that joy which was lasting and
divine. The arched door said, ' I am the way,' pointing
upwards to him. The arched window said, ' I am the light
of life,' pointing also to him; while the painted glass, giving
representations of the saints, subdued, but did not obstruct
the light, and taught the spiritualists to see him in his vari
ously manifested likeness, and to follow them as they fol
lowed Christ, as lights in the way to glory. The baptismal
font in the porch, or at the entrance, reminded the pre
sumptuous sinner, that even the child of days must be
washed before he could be received into the sacred courts ;
and the prominent yet half concealed altar spoke of mercy
and of holiness, of majesty and of condescension, of a cru-
cifie.d Saviour and of a risen and reigning Lord ; inviting
approach, but saying at the same time, ' How sacred is the
banqueting place of his love, and how fearful in holiness is
even the mercy-seat of God! ' The body of the church
was called the nave (from navis, a ship,) as the antitype of
the ark ; tossed about on the sea of this world, and exposed
to many a storm and blast, but still the only place of safety.
The upper part was called the choir, and shadowed forth
the heavenly mansions, where the praises of God are sung
without ceasing ; and the carved work, in stall and canopy,
loft and shrine, window and door, within and without, repre
sented the workmanship of the Holy Ghost in the new
creation, whose hand fashions into varied forms of surpass
ing beauty the rude material of nature. Every ornament
was wrought into the form of a cross ; while the crocketed
spire, pinnacle, and point, great and little, stood like so
many fingers silently pointing out the path to the heaven-
lies, whither Jesus our forerunner has gone before."
One would suppose that all this, no doubt picturesque and
sentimental, was a representation of the Temple of Solo-

112 THE GREAT APOSTASY.
mon, or referred to some typical or shadowy era ; and had
no connection with that perfect and glorious dispensation,
the birthplace of which was the grave of that which pre
ceded it, and whereof the grand and distinguishing charac
teristic was announced by our Lord, when upon the cross he
said of all type, " It is finished." All types have met their
antitype ; all symbols and shadows have been submerged in
the substance ; Levi, Moses, and their ritual, have for ever
passed away ; " God is a spirit, and they that wor
ship him must worship him in spirit and in truth."
This writer goes on to describe " the house of God in the
present day," and to deplore some points which we Protes
tants have hitherto thought praiseworthy. "It is without
defence. By the law of the land, its doors must stand open
as a licensed thoroughfare for the nncircumcised and the
unclean." [I thought this was its beauty — " without money
and without price."] " Who, of this generation, imagines
that clean hands and a pure heart are God's stipulated quali
fications for ascending the hill of the Lord, and standing in
his holy place ? " [Where can these be made clean, if not
in " the fountain " preached and pointed out in the church ?]
"Alas, alas ! the penitent is no longer to be found kneeling
in the porch, conscious of his unworthiness to make a nearer
approach to the place where God's name is recorded, and
where his honor dwelleth ; nor the publican to be seen afar
off, smiting upon his breast and crying, ' God be merciful
to me a sinner.' The wall of the holy place has been trod
den down ; and without a sacrifice, and without a washing,
and without a change of vestment, the Gentiles have entered
in and taken possession, as if it were their proper appointed
court. Who may not come and take a seat in the presence
of the King of kings ? And what is more fearful still,
Who is not invited to take part in a form of worship which
cannot be used without blasphemy by other than a pious
soul and hallowed lips ? The very purpose of God's house

IS TRACTARIANISM POPERY? 113
is perverted, and its proper work can hardly be said to be
done in it. Instead of the fire upon the altar, and the lights
of the sanctuary continually burning, and the ministers
waiting upon their ministry in their courses, and watching
unto prayer as God's elect, crying day and night unto him,
we have a deserted and shut up house, as if it were an
honor little to be desired, to wait upon the Lord. The ser
vice of worship, when it is performed, what is it ? The
reading of a beautiful composition ; the uttering of words
by a congregation of sinners, which they do not understand,
or (with an occasional exception) a lifeless form irreverently
gone through; and to consummate the whole, the sermon
instead of having for its purpose the edification and perfect
ing of God's saints, is an address to sinners, thereby sanc
tioning their unholy intrusion into the house of God."
These lamentations belong to a departed economy. They
are inappropriate, or rather simply heretical, as related to
the Christian.
Such are some of the leading views and sentiments of the
Tractarian party.*
Suffer me now to draw your attention to some proofs of
the' progress of these deadly principles — for deadly they
are — in the age in which we live.
Direct Romanism is unquestionably making rapid and
extensive progress : f partly by Protestants being unable to
* Not a few of those who have been quoted in these pages as Tractarians
are now priests of the Church of Rome. They denounced the first com
ments of the author on their position in 1842, — they have illustrated their
truth by their perversion in 1851.
t The. organ of the Romish party, The Dublin Review, writes, Septem
ber, 1843: —
" There is at this moment hardly a single town in the kingdom in which
the Catholic worship is not publicly exercised : in many we have large
and beautiful churches — witness such towns as Liverpool, Manchester,
Birmingham, Nottingham, Derby, and the metropolis, in all of which are
Catholic churches of great magnitude and magnificence, in whioh tha
10*

114 THE GREAT APOSTASY.
meet the sophisms of confraternity emissaries, or to give a
reason for the faith that is in them ; partly by the peculiar
atmosphere generated by the Tractarianism of Exeter ; and
partly by the prospect (I fear, not far distant) of complete
reunion between the Vatican and Oxford, the Tiber and the
Isis, Pope Pius IX. and a large batch of disguised but
ardent followers. And, with respect to what I have called
Popery in the bud, or in embryo, I conceive (and I say it
with profound reverence for the doctrines, discipline, and
service of the Church of England), that the principles of
the Tractarians are as deadly, and more dangerous, than the
openly avowed Popery of the Council of Trent. Under the
assumption of Protestant names, they are introducing the
worst principles of the Church of Rome ; " the voice is the
voice of Jacob, but the hands are the hands of Esau ; " the
Catholic worship is celebrated with the solemnity even of the Continent;
whilst in our smaller towns we have churches or chapels, which equally
bring our worship, though in a humbler form, before the eyes of our fellow-
countrymen, and enable them to appreciate its sacred doctrines. Nor is
the public exhibition of Catholic rites found now, as on former occasions,
to produce a Protestant reaction to any extent; on the contrary, the Pro
testant feeling of the country becomes weaker every day.
" We might enlarge upon this statement, and we might justly speak of
the Catholic colleges and convents which, we rejoice to say, now abound
in England ; we might speak of the kind estimation in which their inmates
are generally regarded by all classes of the community ; we might glory
in the fact that their reputation is drawing towards them not only mem
bers of our own Church, but many able and pious individuals who join us
from Protestant communions. We might dwell upon the religious edifica
tion given by our various nunneries, or by communities of men ; such as
the magnificent establishments of the Jesuits at Stonyhurst; of the Bene
dictines; of the Cistercians, at St. Bernard's Abbey in Leicestershire; of
the Passionists, at Aston in Staffordshire ; or of the Brothers of Charity,
at Loughborough and Sileby. We might speak of the restoration of
Catholic guilds and pious confraternities, in which multitudes of the laity
are united together for the holy practice of more frequent prayer and a
regular reception of the holy sacraments. In fine, we might dwell upon
the large number of individuals who are daily renouncing the negative
system of Protestantism, in its various forms, to embrace the grand and
positive truths of Catholicism."

IS TRACTARIANISM POPERY? 115
coin is,- in its substance, the base metal of the Vatican, but
upon it they have struck and stamped the superscription of
a Protestant Church, and the image of the Son of God.
Let us now see what indications there are of the progress
they are making.
If I refer to the pulpits of the Protestant Church of
England, I grieve beyond measure to state what I know to
be, in too many of these, the painful and disastrous exhibi
tion which its occupant makes. The Diocese of Exeter
has been corrupted and contaminated to a fearful extent.
Mr. Maskell, lately Chaplain to the Bishop of Exeter, is
simply one of the boldest and most honest of the body.
The name Church, instead of being the lofty hill on which
the cross should shine forth effulgent in all its moral and
majestic glory, has been made the sepulchre in which truth
is almost utterly entombed ; and those members of the
priesthood who subscribe to the Tractarian sentiments have
made their gospel the screen that conceals the Saviour, not
the bright and beautiful apocalypse, that makes known " the
Light of the Gentiles, and the glory of his people Israel."
Endless genealogies, and changes of vestments, and forms
and ceremonies, are preached and paraded instead of quick
ening truth; while souls perish for want of living bread,
and pass to the judgment-seat unrefreshed by those living
streams which alone can satiate the cravings of the thirsty,
and give peace to the troubled, and happiness and hope to
the despondent.
These principles appear, not only in the pulpit, but also
in the desks and services of a large section of the Church.
The Church of England enjoys a beautiful and impressive
service: I say so as an impartial person, not being per
mitted or privileged to use it. Robert Hall said, " Though
a Protestant Dissenter, I am by no means insensible tc its
merits, I believe that the evangelical purity of its senti
ments, the chastised fervor of its devotion, and the majestic

116 THE GREAT APOSTASY.
simplicity of its language, have combined to place it in the
very first rank of uninspired compositions." But I am sure,
if after worshipping with Romaine, or Newton, or Cecil,
you were to come into some of the churches that are per
forming the new ceremonial, — into St. Paul's, Wiltonplace,
where one performs ; or into St. Barnabas, where another
acts, — you would feel yourselves utterly at sea. At one
time the priest is seen turning, like a mufti, to the east, or
like a heliotrope, to the. sun, as if the progress of that
luminary was the regulator of worship ; anon passing from
place to place, making varied genuflections, prostrations,
etc., etc., and seeming to estimate the glory of the sanc
tuary, not by the Saviour's presence, but by candelabras,
and crosses, and other mummeries imported from Babylon
the Great, "the mystery of iniquity."*
These principles also, I have recently discovered, are
taught with an assiduity in schools, and instilled into the
infant mind with a deceptiveness, a subtlety, and a power,
which cannot fail to do terrible havoc. I obtained, the
other day, sixteen shillings' worth of small school-books,
written by Tractarians, and numbering about twenty-four
little volumes, published monthly in London, and a few at
Oxford ; from these I will give you a specimen of the prin
ciples taught to children, that you may see how they are
preoccupying, not only the pulpit and the press — taking
the form, as I shall show, of the novel, the. romance, and
the poem — but preoccupying the school-room also, with an
energy worthy of a better cause, and rapidly infecting the
* A writer in the Roman Catholic Dublin Review for September, 1843,
expresses his "gratitude to Mr. Newman for his volume of University
Sermons, which are indeed a most valuable and almost Catholic produc
tion. Mr. Newman has, indeed, in this volume, rendered a high service to
the Catholic Church; and in saying this we would include in the same
catalogue his admirable Essay in Defence of Ecclesiastical Miracles. No
one can read these volumes, and not see that the trhimph of Catholicism
in England is only a question of time."

IS TRACTARIANISM popery? 117
juvenile population of the land. One of these books is
entitled " Little Mary ; " and this is published at Oxford,
circulated among the young, and meant for schools. The
following conversation occurs at pages 2 and 3 : —
" Mamma, how do you know baby is in heaven ? did you
tell him to go there ?
" No, I did not tell him to go there ; that would not have
answered the purpose ; but do you not recollect, a long
time ago, when your papa and myself took you and baby
in the carriage to church, aiid when the second lesson was
ended, baby's godfathers and godmothers took him to the
font, (that large stone basin which was full of water,) and
God's holy minister took him in his arms, and poured some
of the water upon him, and prayed for him, to ' make him
a member of Christ, a child of God, and an inheritor of the
kingdom of heaven ? '
" Yes, mamma, I remember you told me he was baptized,
and that that was his- birthday ; I know the day — not the
name of it, for you have not taught me more than two or
three of the days.
" It was All Saints' Day.
" Oh ! yes, it was All Saints' Day, which we keep when
the weather is very cold.
" Ah ! mamma, I know God would make the baby happy,
and be kind to him. It was very good of you, mamma,
to take the baby and me to church to make us children
of God ; and I am sure I was baptized, because you told
me. " Yes, Mary, you were baptized ; but it was not only out
of kindness for you, but from obedience to God, who is my
Father as well as yours ; for I was baptized when a baby.
He has promised the baptized, and them alone, that they
shall be saved through his Son's name."
Such is the instruction for the nursery ! Again, at page
15, " Her mother called Mary to her, whispered something

118 THE GREAT APOSTASY.
in her ear, and then took her little finger, and with it made
the sign of the cross on her forehead.
"Does my Mary know why the sign of the cross was
made upon her forehead, when she was baptized ?
" Mary stopped crying, but did not speak. Her mother
continued — Our blessed Saviour bore a heavy cross for our
sakes ; you were baptized in his name, and by the sign of
the cross made his soldier."
I take, next, " Conversations with Cousin Rachel."
" B. — We went, two or three girls and I, to hear that
famous preacher up at Zion Chapel, once or twice in the
evening ; but I can tell you, I would not let it stand in the
way of any thing I liked to do.
" E. — Ann and I do like going to church, and we should
be very sorry to miss it.
" A. — You do not surely mean, Betsy, that you went to
a meeting-house ! " And, in another place it is said, " Go
ing to Dissenters' Meetings is much worse than staying at
home altogether." This is another sentiment inculcated
upon the minds of the young ; and he must be a very high
Churchman indeed, who holds these miserable views.
In another document intended for the tuition of the
young, the name of Jesus is left out ; and one reason ap
parently assigned is, that it is too difficult for children ; but
among the words that do occur in it are — transept, altar,
bishop, cross, choir ; and one would think that these are at
least as difficult as that " Name, which sounds so sweet in a
believer's ear." In another work prepared for the tuition
of the young, and intended, or at least tending to prepare
the rising generation for Popery, we read, "He thought
much, and for his age deeply, on the unconverted state of
poor Perdita, on whom it seemed impossible to make any
favorable impression. Suddenly it darted into his mind,
that Perdita had not been baptized ; and this, he thought,
might be the cause of her impenitency. He tried to remem-

IS TRACTARIANISM POPERY? 119
ber all that Father Aiden had ever told him concerning the
nature and object of baptism. He recollected that when his
little brother had been baptized, the father had spoken of
his being made a child of God, and of his having a new na
ture given him ; and so, though he could not arrange his
ideas on this important subject with the clearness that he
wished, he came to the conclusion that baptism was the
great thing wanting for Perdita, and that if she could obtain
it, some striking change would immediately take place in her
mind and disposition."
And again it is stated, that " such high privileges are only
reserved for the saints ; " and then the question is asked,
" Who are the saints ? " " They are what we call very
advanced Christians, what the Bible calls saints for their
virtues." The Scripture declaration that all true Christians
are saints is repudiated ; and, as in the Church of Rome,
they alone are recognized as saints who have been duly
canonized and registered as such by competent ecclesiastical
authority. But not only are these principles disseminated in the pul
pit, in the desk, and in schools ; they are also disseminated
in tracts. Some of you, who are old enough to recollect the
founding of that noble institution, the Religious Tract Soci
ety, — an institution, I believe, peculiarly precious and im
portant now — will remember how some distinguished di
vines and clergy scoffed at the very idea of tracts ; a tract
distributor was a name selected in order to designate a
Methodist, or a Dissenter, or one who did not conform to
the Established Church. But at last the Tractarians per
ceived, what we rejoice in, that tracts are instruments of
power : they haye, therefore, determined that Popery also
shall issue its tracts, the influence of which shall be exerted
in favor of her fatal and deadly errors. Tracts once were
denounced as pieces of Puritanism. Now, however, espe
cially if published at Oxford, or by " Catholic" booksellers,
they are eminently " Catholic."

120 THE GREAT APOSTASY.
Another very remarkable engine which they have set.in
motion, is novels and romances ; so much so, that there is
not a library at a fashionable watering-place, which has not
the leading works of this type, issued by the Romanizing
party. They used to speak of missionary meetings as the
atrical — as conformities to the world — as altogether in
compatible with the grandeur of Christian bishops and the
dignity of Christian ministers. It is now found, because it
subserves the purpose of these fastidious men, that novels
and romances even are not at all ineligible, as vehicles of
their peculiar principles ; and Parnassus is enlisted in the
service of Oxford and of Rome, and the Muses are charmed
from their celestial choirs, to introduce to the notice of
England's free men the polluting principles that emanate
from the Monks.*
Another method vigorously worked is the periodical press.
The British Critic (now The English Review) is their great
quarterly organ ; The English Churchman, The Guardian,
and The Christian Remembrancer, are minor periodicals :
* " Milford Malvoisins," " Bernard Leslie," " The Wardens of Berken
holt" are among "the last new novels" issued by the Tractarian press.
" While on this subject," remarks a writer of Letters from Oxford, "it is
impossible to pass without special remark the story-books emanating from
the Rev. F. E. Paget, who seems to devote himself to advancing Tracta-
rianism by writing tales of fiction somewhat in the style of the Pickwick
Papers ; and who affixes to them a ywasi-episcopal imprimatur by inform
ing us in his title-page that he is ' Chaplain to the Lord Bishop of Oxford.'
No one can deny that this gentleman possesses a natural vein of broad hu
mor, and a strong sense of the ludicrous, which to some men would be
' a thorn in the flesh to humble them ' rather than a propensity to indulge.
Mr. Paget, however, seems to use them otherwise; for in those of his pub
lications which I have seen, he has risen from one degree of license to
another, until, in the story last named, he has attained a grossness of libel
and personality which might be looked for rather in the columns of the
'Penny Satirist' than in a religious (!) story frqm the pen of a clergy
man. The page purporting to be ' a copy of a placard announcing a meet
ing of the Bible Society ' is a sample of what I allude to. It libels, almost
by name, some of the most influential and efficient clergymen of the
Church of England.

IS TRACTARIANISM POPERY? 121
and I grieve to say, that one part at least of the daily press,
that I looked upon as distinguished for Protestant principle,
and sometimes for explosions of Protestantism that were
more than Protestant, have embraced, or at least defend the
obnoxious principles of the Oxford school. I regret these
desertions, not so much as proofs of the conversion of the
editors, as because they are naturally the expressions and ex
ponents of public opinion, and means of distributing the prin
ciples they teach through the length and breadth of our land.
With respect to the rulers of the Church of England,
some of them — the Archbishop of Canterbury and Arch
bishop of York particularly — have nobly denounced the
whole system ; but some bishops, while they have rebuked
the indiscretions and. excesses of Tractarian zeal, have ex
pressed on the whole too great admiration of many of their
principles ; and some, who ought not to be silent, have
coquetted with them, instead of boldly rebuking their dis
honesty and heresies, or turning them out from the com
munion of a Church whose Articles are truly Protestant.
These are a few, out of many, proofs of the labors and
progress of the party, eminent for zeal and energy and feel
ing. Unhappy men ! They have lost all perception of the
Sun of Righteousness that shines in the firmament above
them ; therefore they now light up the twinkling tapers of a
miserable tradition. They have let go their view of the
polestar of heaven ; and they are therefore now panting
and groping for the guideposts of earth. They have in
volved themselves in a misty atmosphere, in which all truths
and errors are seen in misshapen forms, and by which is
hidden froni, their own view the true glory of the Gospel.
Once I thought that the Church of England (and I think so
still of her doctrine^ and Articles) and the Church of Rome
were like antagonist rocks or confronting battlements, and
that there interposed an impassable chasm between, the one
and the other ; but, by and by, Frowde threw one archway
11

122 THE GREAT APOSTASY.
forward from the Anglican side, Keble added a second, Pu
sey a third, and the crowning arch that was required was
laid by Mr. Newman, in his exposition of the Thirty-nine
Articles in Tract 90, which he has now crossed ; the rails
are being laid down upon the inclined plane across the
chasm which has been supplied ; and the wonder to me is,
not that fifty or sixty clergymen have passed injto the bosom
of the Church of Rome, but that all the Tractarian clergy
do not forthwith join the Roman Catholic communion.
Where they are, they cannot enjoy the full advantage of
'' Catholic Communion."
In continuing this course of Lectures, I beg to state that
I am actuated by no love of controversial preaching or con
troversial discussion. I do not naturally like controversy ;
I have a distaste for it ; circumstances, rather than my own
taste, have made me take so marked a part in it. ' I wish
there were no necessity for controversy at all. The only
ground on which I feel warranted in engaging in it, is the
absolute necessity, not the enjoyment, of it. I would that
there were no more disputes. If I could, I would decree
that henceforth the rose should have no thorn, that the at
mosphere of heaven should have no storm, that the millen
nium should dawn upon us at once, like a sun-burst in all
its beauty, blessedness, and changeless glory. But I know
that the thorn is needful to defend the rose, the storm is
essential to purify the atmosphere, and there never can be,
and never will be, a millennium of peace, till there is first
established a millennium of truth and righteousness over the
whole earth.
In the second place, let me say, that I am actuated by no
feeling of opposition to the Church of England, either as a
Church or as an Establishment. Those who know me best,
can testify this. I have loved and lauded that Church with
a' warmth that has sometimes made my own Scottish predi
lections to be suspected; I have tried to defend her main

IS TRACTARIANISM POPERY? 123
principles, which I love, and her chief position, which I ap
prove, when as I conceived duty required it ; but just as
fearlessly as I defend what I conceive to be her excellences,
as honestly would I rebuke her sins. I have been wont to
look upon her as a noble and heaven built ship, moving with
spread sails and streaming pennants on the bosom of the
deep ; and I. have often thought our Scottish Church might
cast anchor under her shadow, and ride out beside her the
storms of coming ages ; but alas ! the plague seems to have
found a lodgement in the midst of that ocean ark — some of
the crew seem to be in mutiny — a leak has burst here, and
a rent is discovered there, and a portion of her own defend
ers are even trying to scuttle her ; and if that stately vessel
is now doomed, by treachery on board, to be swallowed up
in the fathomless aby/s, — which God forbid ! — we shall be
forced to retire from her company, lest we be sucked into
the absorbing vortex occasioned by her foundering. I re
joice to know, that in such an emergency, however much to
be deprecated, there are smaller vessels — it may be of dif
ferent colors, as of inferior dimensions — floating round us
in every direction, and with these we shall be satisfied to
sail in company; for after all, the same pennant floats at
the masthead ; they steer by the same chart, and note the
same compass ; they act under the same Captain of salva
tion ; and they anticipate, and are bound for, the same
peaceful and everlasting haven.
In the next place, let me observe, these Lectures are
not intended to promote any form of ecclesiastical polity
whatever. I neither advocate, in these Lectures, Episco
pacy, nor Presbyterianism, nor Independency — as such.
My subject is independent of these. The day is done, when
we may battle as .we have done about these things. I be
lieve the contest is speedily to be, between Evangelical
Religion and soul-destroying Superstition. And if "The
Church " is to be the rallying cry upon the one side, let

124 THE GREAT APOSTASY.
" Christ, and him crucified," be the unbroken battle shout
that is heard upon the other.
It may be urged, that there are many defensive apologies
to be made for these men. It is said, for instance, that there
are many good men among the Tractarians. So there are
Satan is no such blunderer as to employ none but bad men
to promote the peculiar principles he has now at heart. Who
more devoted than some of the most distinguished heresiarchs
that have stained the theology of the Church in every age ?
Was not Tertullian eminently good? Was not SocinuS'
singularly moderate ? Who more noble»minded or disinter
ested than Irving ? It is Satan's ablest policy to select or
permit the best, or the least objectionable weapons, to pro
mote by them the worst of purposes.
But it is said further, that they have done much good. It
may be so ; but I think the evil they have done more than
counterbalances, a thousand fold, the supposed or actual
good. The only good I see likely to result from it at all, is
a desire for greater union among all true Christians.
It is urged, however, that they profess a hatred of
Popery. In this lies the "mystery of iniquity:" they
denounce the Roman Catholic Church as a schism in this
country, but not as a heresy ; their recent language on the
Papal aggression is evidence of this ; they tell you that if
you were to go into France or Belgium, you ought to join
in its worship, and become members of its communion ;
and while they denounce the grosser practices of the
Romish Church, they disseminate the more vigorously its
evil principles.
But, it is said, their efforts are calculated to produce
unity. True, but it is the unity of the dead, not of the
living : the unity of the grave, only to be followed by the
corruption of the dead — not the living unity of the sanc
tuary, and of the saints of the Most High.
It is also urged, that the principles the Tractarians hold

IS TRACTARIANISM POPERY? 125
are essential to the successful support of the Established
Church. If an ecclesiastical establishment can only be
sustained at the expense of divine truth, I say of it, with
unrelenting mind, — " Raze it, raze it, even to the ground."
But this is not the case. Much as I love the Established
Churches of England, of Ireland, and of Scotland, and
much as I wish, (I speak my own individual sentiments,)
that they may continue blessings and ornaments to the land,
yet I do say, that if these deadly principles were to gain the
complete ascendency, and to be taught, not merely by indi
vidual priests, but by the authority of the bishops or other
governors, and to be sustained and. fostered beneath the
overshadowing wing of the State, then I should begin to
suspect — I say it most solemnly — that what I thought a
rash and uncharitable remark made by a distinguished
Dissenting minister, in what I thought unhappy moment,
had in it more of the breath of the prophet than the
enmity of the partisan ; — I should begin to think with him,
that the Church in which such principles are taught, and
authoritatively enjoined, is an institution whose ruin cannot
be too speedily accomplished, and whose removal cannot be
too fervently prayed for.
But I hope for better things. I hope all parties will seek
after truth, and that as of old many not in the English
establishment had no light share in reviving the dying glory
on the altars of the Anglican Church, many such will again
be in some degree instrumental in brightening the partially
smouldering flame ; and that the day will come, when the
Church of England will no longer look back idolatrously to
her pedigree, and count superstitiously the links at her
genealogy, but rivet her purged eye upon the Sun of Right
eousness, extending the right-hand of fellowship to all who
love the Lord Jesus. None, then, will pray more fervently
than I, that her glory may burn and spread, till it is lost in
the effulgence of the Millennial morn.
11*

LECTURE V.
ROMISH PLAUSIBLE PRETENSIONS.
I now propose to examine some of the assumptions and
pretensions of the Romish Church and her Tractarian
adherents, reserving for the next Lecture those which I
may not be able to discuss in the present.
The first Romish pretension to which I would turn your
attention, is the boasted splendor and beauty, which are put
forward as the invariable characteristics of the Roman
Catholic ritual. I can speak of this from personal knowl
edge, as I have visited most of the beautiful cathedrals of
Belgium and Germany. I have gone, at all hours, to see
their sublime and gorgeous ritual ; of which, I must confess,
the Tractarian approximations are exceedingly miserable
imitations ; and I do confess, painfully aware as I was of
the fearful principles that lurk beneath, I could scarcely
help being charmed, faspinated, and arrested by the sublim
ity of their music, the impressiveness of their ritual, and
the tout ensemble of a solemn and richly decorated service.
And no doubt, if to fascinate the eye with the most exquisite
paintings — if to charm the ear with the strains that have
emanated from the genius of the most illustrious composers
— if to provide for the smell the ascending incense with its
curling clouds — if these be the main ends of a church, the
Church of Rome has attained those ends in an eminent
degree. But if the true end of a church — if the great
scope of all religion, is to raise men to the likeness of God
— to make the creature feel and realize fellowship with the

ROMISH PLAUSIBLE PRETENSIONS. 127
Creator — • to render the lost and the debased partakers of
the Divine nature — to enable men on earth " to do justly,
and to love mercy, and to walk humbly with their God,"
and hereafter to reap the rewards of grace, — then I assert,
and I am prepared to demonstrate, that the Romish Church,
instead of answering these great and sublime ends, is fitted
to accomplish the very opposite. She has plunged into the
grossest apostasy in principle, and produced the direst
immorality in practice. Her outward glory is the covering
ofthe corruption of the grave. The true description of the
gorgeous splendor of the Romish Church is a very painful
but a very plain one. The Italian bandits construct beau
tiful palaces and halls, but it is out of the robbery of
orphans and the plunder of widows. The syren's music
charmed the unwary traveller, but it was to his destruction.
Both, I venture to assert, meet their most appropriate anti
type in the ritual, the beauty and attractiveness of the
Romish Church. Her music is that of the syren's, that
lures to ruin ; her architectural beauty is that of the Italian
bandit's hall, constructed out of the spoils of a dishonored
God and degraded souls. Her whole structure presents a
moral fac simile of the Egyptian temples of old, in which
was the most imposing architecture without, while the gods
within were the filthy creatures of the Nile, and the vegeta
ble products of its mud.
But does Christianity really stand in need of additional
splendor to its ritual, or of material ornament to its lessons ?
I conceive that there is something in the simple Gospel so
majestic — something so transcending all that the pencil of
the painter or pen of the poet can embody — that Chris
tianity seems to me adorned the most, when it is adorned
the least. Would you ever think of taking a few drops
from a phial of otto of roses, in order to add to the perfume
of the rose just gathered on a May morning, and wet with
the dews of heaven ? If that splendid monument of human

128 THE GREAT APOSTASY.
genius were here, the Apollo Belvidere, unquestionably the
product of the chisel of one of the most illustrious of
ancient statuaries, should we applaud the taste of that man
who would propose that the mercers' and the hatters' and
the shoemakers' shops should furnish ornaments with which
to deck it ? Would you not say — There is something in
the almost living lineaments of the form so noble, something
in the contour and proportions of the marble so beautiful,
that the richest clothing of man would deform, not dignify
— dim, not reveal, its pure and simple glories ? So is it
with the Gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. It is so beau
tiful in itself, that all accessions of material beauty serve
but to conceal or mar it. The Rose of Sharon is so fra
grant, and its tints so lovely, that it needs no sprinkling
from the streams of the Isis, — still less from the filthy
waters of the Tiber — either to augment its perfume or to
heighten its colors.
This rage for adding outward and material ornament to
the Gospel of Jesus is founded on a fact, confirmed and
illustrated by almost universal experience throughout the
history of the Church of Christ — that when the spiritual
glory of a Church begins to depart, she proceeds to heap up
and attach to herself material and worldly ornaments.
When the beauty made up of "mercy and truth meeting
together, righteousness and peace kissing each other," fades
from her altars, the painter, and the poet, and the musician
are summoned to her aid, to present some substitute for the
lost and departed glory. The true explanation of the Trac
tarian and the Romish ornaments which are piled succes
sively upon their ritual, their faith, and their worship, is,
that having ceased to draw their beauty from above, —
having forgotten that " the King's daughter is glorious
within " — not without — they feel constrained to ransack
Aaron's wardrobe and the heathen flamen's vestry, in order
to collect the trappings and the ornaments of an exploded

ROMISH PLAUSIBLE PRETENSIONS. 129
ritual to be substituted for that beautiful worship, the in
scription on the length and breadth of which is — " God is
a Spirit, and they that worship him must worship him in
spirit and in truth."
An apology urged on behalf of the Church of Rome,
rather by her patrons than her priests, is, there are many
good men, the advocates of the principles of both. Unques
tionably there are ; and it would indeed argue that Satan
had lapsed into an unusual blunder, instead of pursuing suc
cessfully the subtle tactics by which he has always been
characterized, if he were to put forward Popery merely by
bad instruments, or to promote the principles of semi-Popery
by men of questionable or blasted reputation. Satan always
selects, where he can, the choicest instruments to accomplish
his iniquitous designs. Reason and Scripture, however,
make it not to be wondered at, that there have been many
good men in the Church of Rome. There has been a Fen-
elon, signalized by the moral glory that reposed on his
temper and irradiated his walk ; there has been a Martin
Boos, distinguished even for the faithfulness with which he
preached the everlasting Gospel in the midst of Rome ; nor
can I omit the celebrated Pascal, a Jansenist it is true, but
still a Romanist, whose writings may be perused with profit
by the most spiritually minded Protestant. But it is to be
observed that these men were Christians, not in consequence
of their creed, but in spite of their creed ; that in the ratio
of their faithfulness they were persecuted ; and they are
only standing proofs that there is a brilliancy and a pene
trating energy in the truths of the Gospel, which the over
shadowing despotism of Rome has not been able entirely to
exclude, and which the proscription of its councils has not
succeeded in utterly extirpating.
This fact, that there are good men in the Church of
Rome, is only one of those analogies which characterize the
whole marred and dismantled world of which we are mem-

130 THE GREAT APOSTASY.
bers. There is not a height on the loftiest Apennine, on
which there is not some blossom which the winter frosts
have not nipped, some floweret which the hurricane has not
blasted. There is no desert without an oasis. And so there
is not a church or a communion under heaven in the bosom
of which there are not here and there some witnesses that
God has not utterly forsaken it; thereby presenting the
very ground on which Protestants can address hundreds in
the Romish Church in the language of the Apocalypse —
" Come out of her, my people, that ye be not partakers of
her sins, and that ye receive not of her plagues."
It has been alleged that there are many truths in the
Roman Catholic system. So doubtless there are. There
are truths in Deism, throughout all its shades ; there are
some truths even in Mahometanism ; and it would be strange
indeed, if there were not here and there some unextin
guished truths in the vast mass of doctrinal corruption by
which the Church of Rome is at this moment oppressed.
But these truths, I allege, are inoperative, if not wholly
subverted as to their practical effects, by the overflowing
corruptions of heresy and error. Were a tumbler of water
now placed in my hand, and were I to let fall into it only
six drops of pure, unadulterated prussic acid, and to request
you to drink the water, would you not reply, " No, I object
to do so ; it is poison ? " Suppose I were to answer,
" There are ninety-nine parts of pure fountain water, and
only one hundreth part prussic acid ; " would you not natu-
. rally say, " Yes, but the deleterious effects of the acid are
. so intense, that all the wholesome properties of the water
are thereby utterly neutralized ? " So it is in the Church
of Rome. Were it proved that there are (as there are not)
ninety-nine parts pure and primitive Christianity in the '
Romish faith ; the additional part, coming from man's cor
rupt heart, and concocted in man's depraved imagination, is
so deleterious, so deadly, that it makes void and valueless to
man the everlasting Gospel.

ROMISH PLAUSIBLE PRETENSIONS. 131
The next assumption of the Roman Catholic Church, put
forward with great plausibility, and constantly on the lips of
Roman Catholics, is that they are the ancient Church, and
that we Protestants form an upstart and modern sect. If
by this statement it is meant that the essential principles of
Popery are ancient, I do not for one moment dispute it. I
believe that in its principles it is coeval with the Fall of
man ; indeed I believe with Luther, that every man is born
with a pope in his heart. Popery, in fact, is a plant indi
genous to human nature ; it luxuriates in the congenial soil
of the corrupt heart; it demands no fostering, no paternal
and nourishing care ; it will bloom, and flourish, and spread,
if just let alone. But truth is an exotic in this world ; it is
a native of a lovelier, even a celestial clime ; it needs to be
daily watered by heaven's pure dews ; it requires to be
touched by the rays of heaven's holy Sun ; and it is only
with the tending cares of a mother, and the watchfulness of
a nurse, strengthened and sustained by the Holy Spirit, that
Christianity is kept alive and growing, in the heart of a
lapsed and God estranged world.
Popery, I have said, is coeval in its principles with the
Fall. By way of illustrating this, I will state what may
appear, at first, in the light of a paradox, but will yet be
found to be a great truth ; it is this : Adam was a Papist
before he became a Protestant. I do not say that Adam
was designed to be a type of a Romish Priest. He was an
instance simply of man fallen and man restored, and just in
so far as Romanism is a provision for the sinner, but not the
provision, it is shadowed forth by Adam. When our first
father fled from the presence of God, and tried to wrap
himself in fig-tree leaves, either to conceal the nakedness he
then first felt, or to constitute a robe that would be a title to
the consciously lost favor of God ; when he ran from the
face of Heaven, and sought shelter amid the parterres, and
the yet undismantled bowers of Paradise; — the man, in all

132 THE GREAT APOSTASY.
this, presented the perfect type of the Roman Catholic
Church. Her safety, she feels and fancies, lies in sheltering
herself from the searching eye of God ; her favorite rai
ment is the " filthy rags " of human righteousness, and much
of her glory, such as it is, is the merit of her canonized
saints. She seems to believe her security very much de
pends on the secrecy with which she can conceal herself
from that God who pronounces the most exalted human
righteousness to be sin — all human wisdom folly — and
human life itself, in its best estate, to be only vanity. But
when after Adam's flight the glorious Gospel sounded amid
the ruins of Paradise, and Adam's heart thrilled with the
soul-inspiring accents, " The seed of the woman shall bruise
the serpent's head ; " when again he turned his face upon
that very God from whom he had fled, and approached him
with bended knee and broken heart, and called him " Father ! "
our great progenitor, in that act, presented the bright typo
of the Protestant Church.
In the very next generation we see the antiquity and
action of Popish principles in practical development; for
the fact is, there are two successions that have never lost a
link, — unquestionably old, — the succession of Papists or
self-righteous sinners on the one hand, and the succession of
Protestants or true believers on the other. Cain was, in
vrinciple, the first Roman Catholic priest ; and Abel, in prin
ciple, was the first Protestant minister and martyr. This
will be seen, if we only bear in mind the definition of the
sacrifice of the Mass in the Church of Rome, that it is an
" unbloody sacrifice," (that is, a sacrifice without shedding
of blood,) and with this, the definition of our great Sacrifice
in the Protestant Church, that " without shedding of blood
there is no remission of sins." When Cain was about to
offer his sacrifice to God, he obviously pursued some such
course as this : he selected the loveliest flowers that bloomed
in his garden ; he gathered the most delicious fruit that grew

ROMISH PLAUSIBLE PRETENSIONS. 133
upon its trees, but faintly blighted by the Fall ; he brought
that fruit and those flowers together, as of the products of an
unfallen world, wove them into an amaranthine garland, laid
it on the altar of his God, and knelt and said, " O Lord ! I
devote these flowers and fruits to thee : thy smiles gave
them all their beauty, thy breath gave them all their fra
grance ; I acknowledge thee, in this act, to be my Creator
and my providing and protecting God." There he stopped:
but when Abel was about to offer his sacrifice, his course as
well as convictions were not the same. He selected a meek,
even a spotless lamb from the fold ; he plunged the knife
into its throat, and shed its blood ; and having laid it on the
altar, he thus prayed by the enveloping flame and ascending
smoke, " O Lord, my God ! with my brother Cain I acknowl
edge that thou art my Creator ; with my brother Cain I
acknowledge that thou art my preserver, and that earth and
all therein were made by thee ; but beyond him, and what
he has fatally lost sight of, I acknowledge, O my God, that
I am guilty ; that as this lamb dies, so ought I to die ; and
that my faith and hope gather all their nutriment, and all
my salvation, from ' the Lamb slain before the foundation of
the world ' — ' the Lamb of God that taketh away the sin
of the world.' " The contrast shows that Cain's was the un
bloody sacrifice — exactly typical of the Mass; and that
Abel's was the sacrifice accompanied with bloodshedding —
as exactly typical of that sacrifice which was made once for
all upon the cross on Calvary. Romish principles, we must
therefore admit, are not wholly novelties ; they date their
birth at the entrance of sin.
If by the statement uvged by the Church of Rome, that
that Church is the ancient Church, and prior to ours, she
means that her principles, and not ours, were taught by the
Apostles, then the very fair and reasonable appeal which I
make to every Roman Catholic is just this : Take the Epistle
of St. Paul to the Romans, (which Roman Catholics are
12

134 THE GREAT APOSTASY.
aware was addressed to their Church while yet in her purity
and untainted glory,) and compare with the principles laid
down in that Epistle the Canons of the Council of Trent,
which can easily be furnished to you — or, if you like, the
Creed of Pope Pius IV. ; and if you can show me that the
principles held by your Church at the present day are coin
cident throughout, or in the main, with the principles
preached by the Apostle Paul in his address to the ancient
Roman Church, I will instantly cease to be a Protestant and
become a Roman Catholic. Or, to bring the matter to a
still more practical issue, listen to the preaching of your
priests for one single year, and then, after you have done
so, listen to the preaching of a minister of the Protestant
Church ; get a shorthand writer, if you can, to report their
respective discourses for you, and compare the preaching of
the Protestant minister and the preaching of your priest
with the Epistle of St. Paul to the Romans ; and if you dis
cover that your priest preaches justification by faith only,
without the works of the law, redemption only through an
atonement once offered by the Saviour, not to be reiterated,
and " being justified by faith, peace with God through our
Lord Jesus Christ," — then remain where you are, and
charge Protestants with most unwarrantable schism in leav
ing a church so pure, and eloquent with principles so apos
tolic ; but if you find that the very reverse is the case —
that the preaching in the one pulpit dovetails with all the
statements of Paul ; and that if the preaching of your priest
be true, Paul's must be heresy ; and if Paul's be true, your
priest's must be false ; if you find that the preaching of your
priest is the opposite of the preaching of St. Paul, then I
implore you by the mercies of God — I implore you by the
prospect of a judgment-day — I implore you as you shall
answer for the statements that are here laid before you — I
implore you by all that is sweet in the Christian privileges
of time, and all that is awful in the prospects of immortality

ROMISH PLAUSIBLE PRETENSIONS. 135
— to leave a Church where the Saviour is practically subor
dinate to Mary ; and hasten, " like doves to their windows,"
to join a communion where " Christ is all, and in all."
And here let me just observe upon this question — Which
is the true and ancient Church — that it is utterly impossible
to defend ourselves as Protestants upon any other ground,
than the broad ground of recognizing all Christians as mem
bers of that church, who " hold the faith in unity of spirit,
in the bond of peace, and in righteousness of life." If you
say the Church of England, or any other Protestant Church,
is alone the true Church, instead of holding each to be a
branch, more or less imperfect, of the visible Church, you
are on Romish ground, and the priest will unquestionably
beat you ; but if you take up the position, that you are not
to go beyond the boards of the Bible for the definition and
the determination of the Church of Christ, you are on im
pregnable ground, and all the principalities and powers in
hell, united with all the priests in the Vatican, cannot pos
sibly scathe you.
But to return : if by the statement that the Romish
Church is the ancient Church and ours the modern, it is
meant to be conveyed that the Church is always visible, and
that during the fourteen centuries that preceded the Refor
mation, the only visible Church was the Romish Church, and
the only communion also that pretended or professed, by her
numbers, her aspect and appearance, to be the true Church ;
then I at once maintain, that it is not necessary to the defi
nition of a scriptural Church, that it should be always and
at all times visible. There was a Church when Elijah stood
alone, and all his compeers were hiding from persecution ;
there was a Church, (according to the statements of some
distinguished advocates of the Romish communion,) and but
one single individual in that Church, when our Lord was
crucified — that Church being comprehended, as they say, ia
the Virgin Mary, and in her alone.

136 THE GREAT APOSTASY.
But if they ask the question, Where was the visible Prot
estant Church prior to the Reformation by Martin Luther ?
I can tell them, to their shame ; for it is too easy to do so.
The valleys of Piedmont and the Cottian Alps still breathe
forth the announcement, amid the mementos of the tears and
blood by which they were stained, — " The persecuted rep
resentatives of the true Church were hid, by thousands, here''
The dungeons of the Inquisition, and the prison of St. An
gelo, if they could find a tongue, and become vocal with
honesty and truth, would tell a kindred tale — and the
recent banishment of the Pope and disclosure of inscriptions
on the walls of the Inquisition at Rome very memorably
declare,* "The persecuted children of the Church were
murdered and starved here" Persecution trod down the
true Church. The visible Protestant Church was in the
grasp of the Romish Church ; and was not created, but only
emancipated and unlocked from that grasp, at the era of the
Reformation.! I will illustrate this by an anecdote, recorded in the
Travels, I think, of Lord Lindsay. That nobleman states,
that on visiting the Pyramids of Egypt, he found in one of
those ancient repositories of the dead a mummy, which indi
cated, according to the mode of interpreting hieroglyphics
adopted by Champollion and by Young, that it was full two
thousand years old. On opening the case, and unrolling tho
mummy, he found in its right hand a bulbous or rather tu
berous root. Lord Lindsay wondered whether vegetable
life could outlast an imprisonment of two thousand years ;
and, in order to put the problem to the test,, he opened the
hand of the mummy, took out the vegetable root, planted it
* See accounts of the bombardment of Rome in " Daily News." Diario
Romano — " Roman Advertiser," etc. for 1848, 1849.
t See in Mr. Elliot's Hora; Apooalyptica; — a work which reflects a light
on prophecy unparalleled — a luminous aud successful history ofthe Two
Witnesses in the Paulikians and Waldenses during the middle ages. Sea
also " Apocalyptic Sketches," voL i.

ROMISH PLAUSIBLE PRETENSIONS. 137
in a fertile and favorable soil, and exposed it to the sunshine
and the dews of heaven ; and, to his amazement and delight,
that lately dry root shot up, and presented a stem, unfolding
a most beautiful dahlia. Now, I say, the Protestant Church,
before the Reformation, was in a position similar to that of
the dahlia root ; it was compressed in the iron grasp of the
most deadly despotism. And all that Calvin, and Luther,
and Knox did, was to unlock the hand that held it — to take
out the concealed epitome of heaven's high principles — to
plant it in the father-lands of Germany, of England, of
Scotland, and of Ireland — and to place it beneath the
beams of the Sun of Righteousness, and the rain drops of
the Spirit of God, till it took root, and grew up, and pre
sented, as it does now, wide spreading boughs crowned with
ten thousand blossoms, destined to wave with immortal fra-
grancy, and to constitute the accumulating glory and the
richest and holiest ornaments of our native land.
In answer, still further, to this pretension of the Church
of Rome, (and let me just say, that the assumption that the
true Church is always a visible Church, lies at the root of
the Tractarian heresies,) I observe, that the Romanist con
stantly proceeds on the supposition, that at the Reformation
we founded a new Church, or started a new concern alto
gether. This we deny; we merely brought out the old
Church. We maintain that the pearl of inestimable price
was overlaid and concealed by accumulated rubbish, and all
we did was to remove the rubbish, and disclose that pearl
with its inherent glories. When Hezekiah purified the rites
of the ancient Church, and our Lord expelled the money
changers from the Temple in his days, the one only re
stored that which was corrupted, while the other purified that
whiGh was defiled. So with our Reformers. What they
did was to detach all that was " of the earth, earthy ; " and
to retain all that was of heaven, heavenly. I may illustrate
this (and it is, perhaps, the best way of impressing on a
12*

138 THE GREAT APOSTASY.
popular assembly, so vast and varied, a great truth) by
another little incident, which I have selected from one of the
newspapers. It appears that a broker in Paris one day
purchased a picture, which seemed to be a painting of the
Virgin Mary, by some very inferior and inartistic hand ; he
gave for it but a few francs. While he was examining it, a
little bit of the exterior paint happened to break off, and to
his amazement he saw something beneath, that indicated the
touches of a master pencil. He resolved, at the risk of the
cost of his purchase, to remove the whole superficies, which
constituted the representation of the Virgin Mary ; and on
doing so, he found, to his astonishment and delight, that
there was beneath it an exquisite picture of our Lord, by
Poussin, if I mistake not, one of the most celebrated paint
ers. . Now, this is exactly what our Reformers did. They
found Christ's body, which is the Church, covered, with
representations of the saints, and of the Virgin Mary, and
of the priesthood ; and all that Luther did was to scale off
fragments of the outward covering, in order that its hidden
beauty might peer forth. Ridley and Cranmer scaled off a
further part of it ; and Knox, though it is true he rubbed
very roughly on the original, took off all the remains and
vestiges of the corrupt and earthly crust that called itself
Christ's Church, and thus proved the Reformation Church
to be merely a new edition of the Apostolic Church. Alas !
after these have been detached, a miserable and misguided
section, in the age in which we live, are busily occupied in
collecting all the scattered fragments of the old layers, and
laboring to glue and paste them on again in order to bring
back the apostasy, under the pretext of restoring apostolic
practices, and to cover and conceal every Protestant; truth
by laying over each a correspondent Popish corruption.
But if the Church of Rome persist in maintaining, upon
the one hand, that Ac is the ancient Church, and we, on the
other, that we are the primitive and the truly ancient

ROMISH PLAUSIBLE PRETENSIONS. 139
Church; we ask of the ^Church of Rome, Who is to decide
which is true? If I propose the Holy Scripture as the
arbiter, the Church of Rome exhausts her vocabulary of
abuse, wherewith to denounce and designate the word :of
God. If I propose contemporaneous churches — the Greek
Church, the Syriac Church, the Coptic Church — the
Roman Catholic advocate tells me that these were and are
schismatics. If I propose the most illustrious divines that
Protestant Christendom has produced, the answer of the
Romish advocate is, that they are heretics, and cannot be
listened to. If I propose a General Council to decide the
question, Which is the ancient and which is the modern
Church, the Roman Catholic will say — "A General Coun
cil by all means, if you please, but the Pope must be at the
head of it ; and if it should decide any thing contrary to his
mind, it must immediately be dissolved, and its. decree neces
sarily go for nothing." Then who is to determine the truth ?
" We are the ancient Church," says Rome, "just because we
assert it ; " and we will shelter ourselves in the olden castle
of infallibility, and maintain that we are right, and all the
wprld are wrong, in spite of Revelation, " in spite of reason,
in spite of divines and doctors," and we may add, "in spite
of common sense itself."
I remember, in the writings of the illustrious poet, meta
physician, and I think I may add, Christian — Coleridge,
there occurs a very apt illustration of the relative antiquity
of the Romish and the Christian Church, which I would
use, but apply to my own purpose, and follow out beyond
even the statements of that beautiful and imaginative poet.
He speaks of a river starting from its fountain, as the most
appropriate picture of the rise and progress of Christianity
The way in which I would apply the figure which Coleridge
originated, is this. The river, let us say, started eighteen
centuries ago ; it flowed through a thousand lands, but, like
every river, it contracted in its course stains and straws, poi-

140 THE GREAT APOSTASY.
lution, and coloring matter, from tributary streams, and
from the very nature of the earthly channels through which
it continually poured* At last, after about fifteen centuries,
and just at the time when its corruption and contamination
were the greatest, there happened to be flung into it five or
six massive rocks, which were invested with the strange
property, peculiar to themselves, of acting as filterers. After
coming to these, one branch of the river rushed onward and
through them, pure and limpid, just as it burst forth from
its primeval fountain ; another branch flowed away to the
left, containing a less portion of the original stream, and all
the contamination — the "wood, hay, stubble," which had
mingled with it in its course. Now, what would you think
if the stream that flowed to the left, corrupted and polluted,
became animated and vocal ; and looking upon the stream
that flowed right on in its purity and beauty, exclaimed —
" I am the ancient and original stream as I came from the
fountain; while you are but an upstart branch, most un
justly and unnecessarily pursuing a novel and erratic
course ? " Would not every impartial judge reply — " The
pure and limpid stream is the original, and you are the
upstart and the new one ; .the former has the primitive
water, and you the subsequent mud ? " Just so with Chris
tianity. It flowed at first from the rock that was riven on
Calvary, in all its untainted and uncontaminated glories;
but after the lapse of centuries, it became mingled with
much that belonged to Csesar, and was gathered from the
earth, earthy ; in the sixteenth century, those rocks, (secottd
only to the Rock of Ages, and second only because laid
upon it,) Luther, and Ridley, and Latimer, and Knox, and
their companions, took their stand in the stream, and be
came, if you will pardon the simile, moral filterers : — the
pure and limpid river rolled onward in beauty and bright
ness, clear as crystal, and divided into the sevenfold streams
of the various Christian communions that constitute the one

ROMISH PLAUSIBLE PRETENSIONS. 141
river (i- that maketh glad the city of our God:" the cor
rupted waters flowed away to the left ; and, standing in the
midst of them, and drinking deep of the poisonous element,
the advocates of the Church of Rome profess that they are
the primitive and untainted emanation from Christ, and that
we Protestants have recently sprung from Luther, non
existent before, and doomed to die with the author of our
existence. " But tell us," says the Roman Catholic advocate; " where
and when the errors began, by which you say we are de
formed ; and then we will believe that they are subsequent
corruptions, and therefore novelties." Now this, we reply,
is trying to merge the character of the doctrines in the chro
nology of the doctrines. The question is not when the doc
trine began ; but the question is, whether it is denounced as
error, or declared as truth, in the oracles of God. If a taint
were found in the River Thames, and were two persons to
go to London Bridge, and find this taint or coloring matter
there, and if one were to maintain that it was part and par
cel of the original water of the river, and the other were to
insist that it had been introduced subsequently in its course ;
what would be; the best way of determining the question?
Surely it would be, to proceed to the fountain out of which
the Thames flows : and if what is called the taint be there,
it is part and parcel of the river; if it be not there, then,
wherever and whenever it began, it is no part or constituent
element of the stream. So it is with those errors that are
disastrously distinctive of the Church of Rome : the true
plan is, not to trace upward their rise, and spread, and de
velopment through darkening ages, and confused centuries,
and generations of heretics, and obscure folios, but to come
to and examine the sacred fountain, which the Church of
Rome must profess to be primary and original. If transub
stantiation be distinctly taught there, it is of God ; if it is not
taught there — it matters not when it began -i— it is not of
God, and is not therefore Christian truth.

142 THE GREAT APOSTASY.
The fact is, the Protestant Church is; alone the primitive
and ancient representative of the truths of God. I rise up
to revere that Protestant Church, as having on her brow
the signature of the maturity of age, radiant with the vigor
and the vitality of youth. And all that we seek to do is, to
detach from that Church the gaudy embroidery, and cum
brous ornaments, wherewith Rome has not adorned but de
formed her ; and to let her look forth in her primeval and
unshorn glory, " fair as the moon, clear as the sun, and ter
rible as an army with banners ; " inclosing in her heart the
love and life of her God, and bearing upon her brow the
superscription and the likeness of her Lord; irradiated by
that light which was kindled at the cross, and is destined to
be merged only in the more brilliant glories ofthe crown.
Another plausible pretension of the Church of Rome is
Sanctity. If I were to ask a Protestant what he means by sanctity,
he' would instantly reply — The work of the Spirit of God
upon a man's heart, melting his will into God's will, and
making his wishes run parallel with the precepts and com
mandments of his holy laws. But if I ask a Roman Catho
lic — if I ask Vicar-apostolic Milner, the ablest advocate oi
the Church of Rome, and author of one of the most subtle
books written in her defence — " The End of Controversy"
in which Roman Catholics are regularly instructed, — he
tells me that he understands by sanctity what his Church
has always understood by this attribute, viz. : her possessing
beatified and canonized saints. Hence, the Romish de
fender, in order to show that the Church of Rome has
sanctity, does not prove that her principles and practice are
coincident with those inculcated in the eighth chapter of the
Epistle to the Romans, or with the fruits of the Spirit as
enumerated in the fifth chapter of that to the Galatians ;
but he shows that the Church of Rome has given birth to a
Dominick, who with rosary and torch, helped to forward

ROMISH PLAUSIBLE PRETENSIONS. 143
the Inquisition, — to a Santa Rosa, or Theresa, who were
illustrious for innumerable wretched and self-righteous aus
terities, — to an Aquinas, the eloquent author of persecuting
dogmas, — and to a Bonaventure, infamously renowned for
his idolatrous psalter. But, in order to give you some in
stances of what she counts sanctity, I will read to you one
or two extracts from the Breviary. I may just explain, as
I proceed, that the Missal in the Church of Rome answers
in ecclesiastical use exactly to the Prayerbook of the Church
of England, but the Breviary is a book sui generis ; exclu
sively for the clergy, a certain portion of which must be read
every day by every priest of the Church of Rome, and if he
fail to do so he is in mortal sin, and cannot say Mass.
Hence, on the Continent, I have seen priests reading this
book in the diligence or on the railway ; and in this country,
when it draws near to twelve o'clock at night, I have known
some of them step aside from the amusements in which they
have been pleased to join, and hasten into a corner to peruse
the requisite quantity of the contents of the Breviary, that
they may thereby escape mortal sin, and be able to say
Mass the next day. Now, an extract or two from this book
will show you the sort of sanctity possessed by the Church
of Rome ; and you will see also that it exactly coincides
with the proofs of sanctity put forth by the Tractarians of
Oxford. Holiness — " doing justly, and loving mercy, and
walking humbly with God" — are, with these men, old-
fashioned, exploded, Protestant doctrine ; but wearing hair
cloth belts and girdles, fasting, and doing penance, are proofs
of sanctity that none but a church with a true succession
c£m manifest.
I will now read from the Roman Breviary, the Antwerp
Edition. I begin with page 591 : — St. Mary Magdalen de
Pazzi : " She tortured her body with haircloth, whippings,
cold, hunger, watchings, nakedness, and all kinds of punish-

144 THE GREAT APOSTASY.
ments." Again, St. Anthony, Bishop and Confessor, page
572 : " He lay down to rest upon the ground, on the naked
boards ; and always wearing haircloth, and sometimes
girded with an iron chain next to his skin, he always com
pletely preserved his purity." The Summer Portion, page
398, St. Juliana : " She was wont to bruise her body with
scourges, knotted little ropes, iron girdles, watchings, and
sleeping on the naked ground ; she partook very sparingly
of food, and that a vile sort, four days of the week ; on
the other two she was content with only angels' food ; the
Sunday was exempted, on which she was nourished on
bread and water only." St. Jerome Emilian, page 483 .
" In a mountain having discovered a cave, he hid himself in
it, where, beating himself with whips, and passing whole
days fasting, prayer being protracted far into the night, and
enjoying a short sleep upon the naked rock, he paid the
penalties- of his own faults and of those of others." St. Ig
natius the Confessor, page 508 : " He passed a year subdu
ing his flesh by a rough chain and haircloth, lying on the
ground, and bloodying himself with iron whips." St. Caje-
tan the Confessor : " He sometimes afflicted his body by
beatings whole nights, and he never would be persuaded to
relax the asperity of his life, witnessing that he desired to
die in ashes and sackcloth." St. Francis Borgia, page 416,
the Autumnal Portion : " In that pursuit of a stricter mode
of life, Francis reduced his body to a state of extreme thin
ness by fastings, by iron chains, by a very rough haircloth,
by bloody and long beatings, and by very short sleep." St.
Theresa, page 345 : " She burned with so anxious a desire
of chastising her body, that although the diseases with which
she was afflicted might have dissuaded her from it, she often
tortured her body with haircloth, chains, handfuls of nettles,
and other very sharp scourges, and sometimes she would
roll among the thorns; being accustomed thug to address

ROMISH PLAUSIBLE PRETENSIONS. 145
God, ' 0 Lord, be it my lot to suffer or to die.' " These are
the children ofthe Church of Rome; these the proofs that
she has sanctity ! *
The next pretension of the Church of Rome is Aposto
licity ; or her assertion that she maintains in all their purity
the doctrine and d;scirjne of the Apostolic or primitive
Church. Instead of entering minutely into the merits of this pre
tension, let me submit the following contrast, and then ask
if it be possible to maintain becoming gravity of feeling or
face while we listen to the claim of the Romish Church to
the characteristic mark of apostolicity? The Apostolic
Church said — " We break one bread ; " the Romish Church
says — We break no bread at all, for the communion ele
ment ceases to be bl_3d, and becomes flesh and blood. The
Apostolic Church said — " Bodily exercise profiteth little;"
the Church of Rome says — It profiteth much, for in the
sacrament of penance, it leads to the forgiveness of sin.
The Apostolic Church said — "Scripture is' profitable for
all ; " the Romish Church says — It is not profitable to the
laity : the fourth rule of the Index of the Council of Trent
containing these words, that "inasmuch as greater evil than
good results from the indiscriminate perusal of the Scrip
tures," the laity are forbidden to have them, except with the
written permission of the bishop or inquisitor. Again : the
Apostolic Church said — "Prove all things;" the Romish
Church says — Prove nothing, but believe every thing.
The Apostolic Church said — "A bishop must be the hus
band of one wife;" the Romish Church says — He must
be the husband of no wife at all. The Apostolic Church
said — "Marriage is honorable in all;" the Romish Church
sayS — Marriage is not honorable in priests. The Apostolic
Church said — "The wages of sin is death;" the Romish
» See also Cardinal Wiseman's Life of Saint Liguori, who flogged him
self almost dead. 13

146 THE GREAT APOSTASY.
Church says, (as every Roman Catholic will find in the well-
known Catechism called the Abridgment of Christian doc
trine) — " Venial sin is a light offence, such as the stealing
of an apple or a pin, which does not break charity between
man and man, much less between man and God." The
illustration here derived from the stealing of an apple, one
cannot help remarking, is a most unfortunate one, for it was
stealing an apple that —
" Brought death into the world, and all our woe ; "
— but let this pass. The Apostolic Church said — "There
is one sacrifice, once for -all, for the sins of all that believe ; "
the Romish Church says — There are many sacrifices, and
many priests, always trying, and never able to take away
sin. Now, with this contrast, which every one possessed of a
Bible and the Canons or Catechism of the Council of Trent
may verify, is there, I ask, or can there be any foundation,
for the pretension that the Romish Church is apostolical ?
Her apostolicity seems like lucus a non lucendo ; that is, she
calls herself apostolic because she is not so. The Spirit of
God gives her her true and appropriate name : she is the
Apostatic Church.
Another pretension of the Roman Catholic Church is her
declaration that within her bosom, and her bosom alone, is
there Certainty, or the dissipation of all doubt, for every
one who embraces her principles and subscribes her creed.
The argument of Romish priests is, "In the Protestant
Church all is uncertainty, every one is at sea ; one believes
one thing and another believes another, and none can be
sure that he is right ; but if you enter the Roman Catholic
Church, you come into the region of sunshine, and into pos
session of a certainty which can neither mislead nor ever
be shaken."
Of all churches under heaven, the Roman Catholic has
the least of the element of certainty in her construction. I

ROMISH PLAUSIBLE PRETENSIONS. 147
give one remarkable proof. There is a Canon of the Coun
cil of Trent which every Roman Catholic priest knows, and
which every Roman Catholic layman ought to know, in
which it is declared, that if the priest " should not intend to
do what the Church intends," in the administration of any
of the seven sacraments, there is no sacrament. There are
seven sacraments in the Church of Rome ; among which
are matrimony, penance, holy orders, confirmation, extreme
unction, baptism, and the eucharist.* Now I know, from no
questionable source, that many of the priests in Ireland, and
not a few on the continent of Europe, are infidels secretly
at heart, and priests only in profession. To give one clear
proof, the Rev. Mr. Nolan, who, having abjured the Roman
Catholic faith, became a clergyman of the Church of Eng
land, has stated that for twelve months before he left the
Church of Rome, he did not believe in the doctrine of tran
substantiation ; and adds, in his pamphlet, which has never
been replied to, that he knew numbers of priests in Ireland
who did not believe in many of the peculiar dogmas of the
Romish faith. In all these cases, according to the law of
the Church of Rome, in which the priest happened to be an
infidel at heart, or where he did not believe in the sacra
ment about which he was conversant, nor hope nor intend
to effectuate what the Church does and defines, there was
no sacrament at all, and thousands of Irish Romanists per
ished because they were unbaptized and without a sacrifice.
If a priest does not believe in transubstantiation, he may
consecrate the wafer, but there is no transubstantiation,
because his intention is wanting ; and the consequence is,
that in such a case every Roman Catholic must adore what,
on his own principles, is only flour and water, and trust for
atonement to a sacrifice which is no sacrifice at all. Let me
refer to another sacrament — Marriage : on Protestant prin
ciples, a man knows whether he be married in the sight of
* Vide Sess. sept. De Saeramentis, can. xi.

148 THE GREAT APOSTASY.
God or not ; on Roman Catholic principles, no Roman Cath
olic husband can be sure that he is a married man. If the
priest who soleninized that sacrament was an infidel, it was
no sacrament at all ; it was a mockery. Not only so ; but
if the bishop who ordained that priest was an infidel, Orders
being a sacrament, it was no ordination ; if the bishop who
consecrated that bishop was an unbeliever, or uncanonical,
or simoniacal, he was no bishop at all : and, in fact, a Roman
Catholic must be able to trace the succession of his bishops
and priests, and — what is less easy — to scrutinize the
thoughts of their hearts, up to the days of Gregory the
Great, and beyond these, before he can be sure that he is
not living in sin, or that he and his wife are lawfully married
in the sight of God, or that he has ever received a single
sacrament. Such is certainty in the Church of Rome in
one particular only.
Another assumption of the Great Apostasy is Catholicity.
The Church of Rome contends that she is the Universal or
the Catholic Church.
Now, I am prepared fully to admit, that no system ever
spread so widely and fearfully through the length and
breadth of the world as the Roman Catholic system, not
excepting Christianity itself. This dread despotism has
made her name to be revered and heard as the name of
destiny. She has struck her superscription upon the litera
ture, the poetry, the painting, of every page of the history
of Europe ; she has laid her polluting grasp upon the altar
and the throne, upon coronets and crowns ; and the marks
of bloodshed alone which she has left in her wake, do indis
putably testify that she has spread her power from the wilds
of the Arab to the steppes of the Cossack. But, while I
admit all this, and deplore it too, I still affirm that there
never was a period in the history of Europe when the
Roman Catholic Church could truly say, that she was
strictly and literally Catholic; that is, that every human

ROMISH PLAUSIBLE PRETENSIONS. 149
being' in Europe, much less in the world, was a Roman
Catholic. She it is who contends for literality in the inter
pretation of every epithet ; we take her own precedent to
guide our construction, and we assert that she never was, as
she never will be, Catholic. Multitudes belong to her:
"The whole world wondered after the Beast." "She
sitteth on many waters — or, multitudes and tongues and
nations." But her greatest spread is only the clearest sign,
to heaven and earth, of her identity with the Apostasy and
her near destruction. I believe, that even the true Church
is not destined to be Catholic until the Jews shall be brought
in, and the fulness of the Gentiles shall arrive ; and " the
mountain of the Lord's house shall be established upon the
top of the hills, and all nations shall flow to it."
Another lofty assumption of the Roman Catholic Church
is that of Infallibility. If infallibility be actual and real,
we must long to have it ; if it be a-,promised thing, we must
pray to possess it.
Perhaps it will be expedient to begin by giving you two
or three specimens (the plainest will be the most effective),
of the practical worth of Romish infallibility in interpreting
Scripture; and thereby we may judge of its importance
by the ascertained results of its application to the word of
God. Pope Nicholas the First, in the exercise of this infalli
bility, with which he professed to be invested, proves his
supremacy from Acts x. 13 : "Arise, Peter, kill and eat;"
therefore, says the fountain of infallibility, the Pope is
supreme. Pope Boniface the Eighth proves it from Gene
sis i. 1 : " In the beginning God created the heaven and
the earth ; " the heaven representing the Pope, the earth
representing the secular power ; therefore, the Pope is king
of kings. The Council of Lateran proves the Pope's su
premacy from the 72d Psalm: "All kings shall bow down
before him." 13*

150 THE GREAT APOSTASY.
Again : the Second Council of Nice professed to prove
th.e worship of images from this text — " God created man
in his own image ; " and from another, — " No man, when
he hath lighted a candle, putteth it under a bushel." Some
members of this Council began to complain, not of the
Council's authority (for that they did not dispute), but of
the Council's logic ; and they said, that building such doc
trines upon so flimsy a foundation was not good. The reply
of the distinguished president of the Council, Pope Adrian
the First, was, " I will maintain these texts to be sufficient
proof, in spite of fate." If infallibility makes no better
comments upon the Scriptures, and deduces no more justi
fiable conclusions from its texts, we Protestants may be con
tent with the exercise of private judgment, and the prom
ised aid of the Spirit of God.
But here Jet me observe, that councils have contradicted
each other, and therefore they could not be each infallible.
The Council of Nice, which met in the year 325, by impli
cation at least repudiated the Pope's supremacy; but the
fourth Council of Lateran pronounced and maintained the
Pope's supremacy. The apocryphal books of Scripture
were not accepted by the Council of Laodicea, nor by any
other Council for fifteen hundred years ; but they were de
clared to be as inspired as the Gospels, by the Council of
Trent, on April 18, 1546. The celibacy of the clergy was
rejected at the Council of Nice ; but it was maintained and
decreed by the first Council of Lateran. The worship of
images and relics was maintained by the second Council of
Nice ; it was condemned by the Council of Constantinople,
in the year 754. The fourth Council of Constantinople
declared, that Scripture was above tradition ; the Council
of Trent declared, that tradition and Scripture are precisely
equak Now, in each of these cases, if the one Council
was infallible, what must the other be, which contradicts
it? Both cannot be infallible. The safe and more than

ROMISH PLAUSIBLE PRETENSIONS. 151
probable inference is, that each and all were very fallible
indeed. But if you ask Roman Catholics, in various parts of the
world, where the seat and fountain of infallibility is, you will
see the absurdity of this claim. It may be good, it may be
true, it may be an attribute of the Christian Church ; but
if the seat, the locus where it exists and develops its inhe
rent energies, cannot be discovered, what is its worth ? Now,
if you ask a Trans- Alpine Romanist, that is, a Roman
Catholic in Italy, where infallibility rests, he instantly
answers, — "In the Pope personally, speaking ex cathe
dra;" that is, speaking from the chair, or from the throne.
But ask a Cisalpine, an English, or a French Roman Catho
lic where infallibility reposes, and he instantly answers, —
" In the Pope, at the head of, or sanctioned by, a General
Council" — as, for instance, the Council of Trent.* Thus,
if I wish to get an infallible interpretation of any one por
tion of Scripture, I am dependent on the spot in which I
was born for my opinions respecting the seat of that infalli
bility, and thereby for the meaning attached to that particu
lar portion of Scripture. It is clear, however, that if infal
libility be only in the Pope at the head of a General
Council, the Italian Romanist must be wrong ; and if it be
in the Pope personally and alone, the French or British
Catholic must be in error, but whether in one or other, or
neither, is not yet settled.
As a practical proof of the utter worthlessness of this
pretension, I will read to you the second clause of Pope
Pius's Creed : " I admit the Holy Scripture, according to
that sense which our Holy Mother the Church has held and
does hold; to whom it belongs to judge of the true sense
and interpretation of Scripture." In other words, the Roman
Catholic asserts, that there is in the Church an infallible tri
bunal; and that he will interpret Scripture only according
* Cone. Trid. Sess. quart. De Cauoniois Scripturis.

152 THE GREAT APOSTASY.
to the judgment of that tribunal. Now, suppose that I am,
or am disposed to become a Roman Catholic, and wish to
get an infallible comment upon a part of the Gospel of
St. John, I go to the nearest Roman Catholic priest and I
ask for it ; his reply is — "I am only a private individual
priest ; I will give you my best exposition of the chapter,
but I cannot give an infallible comment." I go next to the
Roman Catholic Bishop, and I say, — "Your priest has
failed to satisfy me, and I am perplexed and puzzled by the
differences of Protestants ; I come to you for such a com
ment upon this portion of the Word of God as will, without
delay, set all my doubts at rest for ever;" — the bishop
replies — "lam only an individual bishop ; I will give you
my best judgment, but I am not infallible." I next seek an
introduction to the Pope himself, which is probably granted;
and I find Pio Nono at Gaeta, or Portici, or Rome, re
joiced to receive any Anglican, or even. Protestant, inquiring
after truth. He takes me into his private closet, and I state
my difficulty to him : " I have come from Britain to your
Holiness, to get an infallible exposition of this chapter, for
we Protestants are at issue about its meaning in various, it
may be not essential, but still somewhat important points."
The Pope replies, — "Sir, I rejoice to see the spirit of can
dor and inquiry by which you are actuated, and I will be as
candid with you myself; I will give you an explanation of
the chapter, and as long as you keep within the bounds of
Italy or the Roman states, it will be absolutely infallible,
unless heresy should have injured my people since my flight
from my capital ; but if you cross the mountains and go
into France, or appear among the Catholics of England, it
will be just as fallible as the exposition of any other bishop
or priest." I exclaim — "What! is this all the forced
infallibility ? Does truth change with climate, or suffer by
a voyage ? Is not truth eternal, the same in every latitude
and longitude, unvarying in all countries and in all climates,

ROMISH PLAUSIBLE PRETENSIONS. 153
like its Author and its source, — ' the same yesterday, and
to-day, and for ever ? ' " The Pope replies — "I have told
you what I can do, and I am sorry to dismiss you dissatis
fied with me."
Roman Catholics are indeed bitterly deceived. Infalli
bility glistens before their view like a pool of quicksilver —
attractive — brilliant ; but the instant they- try to lay hold
of it, it slips through their fingers, and rushes away. Like
the mirage in the Asiatic desert, it seems like a refreshing
stream in the distance, bubbling forth its living waters ; :but
when you come to drink of it, you are painfully disappointed^
and find it is only arid and parching sand. Were some
fearful disease, something like the plague, ravaging London,
and were it to be announced that a specific had been found
which would cure the disease, I would ask the most likely
person where I might find it, and he tells me it is in London,
in such a street, and at such a shop ; I make inquiry there,
but the answer given is, that it is not to be had in London,
but it is at Manchester ; I go to Manchester, and I find that
I am misinformed, for I am there told that it is in Edin
burgh ; I go to Edinburgh, and they tell me I am wrong
again, for it is in Paris ; and while I am searching for the
cure, the plague gathers power and progress, and its increas
ing victims are carried to their long home. So is it with
infallibility. The Romish Church claims it; but she has
been disputing, for seven hundred years, where it is lodged ;
and souls, meanwhile, are passing deluded to the judgment-
seat of God ; and that decisive day overtakes them trusting
to the priest instead of Jesus, reposing on the vapid preten
sions of an unholy Church, instead of that precious blood
which alone " cleanseth from all sin."
I must now refer to the favorite temporary substitute pro
posed by the Tractarians for the more imposing pretension
of infallibility, or rather the pioneer of their ultimate claim
to infallibility, called the voice ofthe Church. The language

154 THE GREAT APOSTASY.
continually reiterated by them is, that the voice of the
Church is the criterion and standard of all truth, the inter
preter of all Scripture, the final expounder of all perplexi
ties and difficulties. To support this, they quote the aphorism
of Vincentius Lyrinensis, Quod semper, quod ubique,. quod
ab omnibus; that is, literally translated, (but they are
ashamed to translate it, because men of common sense
might be tempted to laugh at their folly,) that which has
been believed by everybody in every place and in every
age. This is Catholic consent, the true interpreter of Scrip-
lure, the vaunted bond that binds together all doctrines.
Now let us just reflect how it can be possible to ascertain
what has been believed by everybody and every day dur
ing eighteen centuries, and in every spot of the habitable
globe. The impossibility and the absurdity are so transparent
that it needs only to be stated in order to be repelled with
derision or merited- contempt. " Ah ! but," say the Tracta
rians, when plied with this, " we are not left to gather it and
condense it for ourselves ; it is embodied in the decisions of
General Councils — as, for instance, in those of the Council
of Nice. That Synod is the exponent of the voice of the
ante-Nicene Church." On hearing this, I ask, " Why must
we believe the Council of Nice to be orthodox ? " " Be
cause it decreed orthodox doctrine," is the answer. " But
why was its doctrine orthodox ? " " Because the Council of
Nice decreed it." If the Oxford tractators would leam
more of Euclid, and a little less of the schoolmen, they would
cease to reason in a circle, and to inculcate with lofty pre
tensions what is so plainly ridiculous.
But I would state upon this subject, what has been well
brought forward, (and I have verified it at great length,) by
the Rev. Mr. Goode,* in his " Divine Rule of Faith : " a
* Another work on this controversy, of great eloquence and conclusive
reasoning, is " Garbett's Bampton Lectures." A short but effective refu
tation of Tractarianism is , contained in the Bishop of Ossory's lato
Charge.

ROMISH PLAUSIBLE PRETENSIONS. 155
book of rare research, unrivalled excellency and scholarship.
The Tractarian says, the voice of the Church, as expressed
by a General Council, is decisive of the truth of a doctrine :
I hold him to this point. Now, in 325, the Council of Nice
met ; and by a majority, (admitted by the Benedictines to
have been brought about a good deal by force, if more, on the
whole, by conviction,) they decreed that Christ is God.
Twenty-five years afterwards, there met two councils, which
were substantially one — the Councils of Ariminum and
Seleucia, which Bishop Stillingfleet pronounces to be the
most general council ever assembled in Christendom ; an%
at these two councils, the one representing the Eastern, the
other the Western Church, there met six hundred bishops ;
and surely if the three hundred bishops at Nice were the
voice of the Church, the six hundred at Ariminum and
Seleucia must be a still more emphatic exponent of its dog
mas. Now, the Council of Nice, with its three hundred
bishops, decided that Christ is God; the Council of Ari
minum and Seleucia, with its six hundred bishops, rejected
the word consubstantial, and substantially decided that Christ
is not God. If councils constitute the voice of the Church,
and if a greater council be a more emphatic and conclusive
utterance of the Church's sentiments than a less, the Tracta
rians will, by and by, be compelled to dele or extinguish the
first half of their name, Tract, and leave the last half, Arians,
as the just designation arising from their. new and consistent
creed. But the Tractarians will reply, that there is one symbol
which is admitted on all sides to be the voice of the Church,
and the exponent of Catholic doctrine ; that usually called
The Apostles' Creed, which they say is at least one proof of
an unbroken tradition from the primitive Church descending
throughout every age. Now I have examined various
fathers, in whose writings this creed is found, and I find
clear evidence that it is no continuous tradition. Irenaeus,

156 THE GREAT APOSTASY.
one father, gives the creed in two different places, but in
totally different words. It is essential to a tradition, that the
words be kept up, as well as the substance ; if the words are
changed, the tradition is mutilated, and we are so far com
pletely at sea. Tertullian, again, gives this creed in three
different places, and in three different forms. Origen gives
the creed four times, and each time differently. And Augus
tine, Cyril of Jerusalem, and Eusebius maintain, that the
creed was originally collected out of Scripture.- Surely, this
is a most complete extinguisher of the Tractarian assump
tion ! Is it not the destruction of their last and loudest
assertion of having an unbroken tradition ? Moreover, the
creed of the first three centuries, in any of its forms, is not
the same with the Apostles' Creed in the Prayerbook. It has
in it, as it now stands, " I believe in the holy Catholic
Church, the communion of saints ; " but there are no such
clauses in anij of the varied forms of the ancient creed. These
words were foisted in at a subsequent period, and are not in
the creed as given by Irenaaus, Tertullian, and Origen.
Here, then, is a tradition, but a failure, for it is mutilated;
here, too, is the omission of Rome's and Oxford's most ser
viceable clauses, and therefore a proof, even to themselves,
that tradition is not to be trusted ; in short, that the voice, of
the Church as embodied in tradition, so far from being a
competent criterion and determiner of all truth, is itself a
fluctuating standard.
What is meant by the voice of the Church, is understood
by its champions to be the conclusion come to by its clergy.
This, I allege, is not so likely to be always truth as they be
lieve. It is top true that the greatest corrupters ofthe Gos
pel have sprung from the clergy, not from the laity. For
one heresy that has originated with a layman, it is historical
fact, that twenty have originated- with a clergyman. We are
forced by experience, as much as principle, to hold no coun
cil or convocation of clergy to be infallible safeguards and

ROMISH PLAUSIBLE PRETENSIONS. 157
guardians of truth. Painful experience has often taught
this lesson. The quod semper, quod ubique, quod ab omnibus
of Vicentius approaches truth-far more nearly when applied
to the Christian laity, though there, too, it has failed fre
quently enough.
Let me, then, call upon you to be more than ever thank
ful for the Gospel, which our Reformers and our Martyrs,
at the expense of their life's blood, rescued, and have be
queathed to you. Let me conjure you to cleave to that holy
faith which is embodied in the Oracfes of God. I rejoice
that there is a creed or confession of faith, by which fie
clergy of my church are bound, — and I speak with the
greatest love and respect for that creed ; but I say — Care
less, if you like, for the creeds of man ; care more for the
Oracles of God. The Gospel, or Christianity, may be ex
pressed in few and short words; it is — no expiatory efficacy
save in Christ, no sanctifying energy save in the Holy
Ghost, no conclusive directory save in Holy Writ ; the cross
without a screen, the Bible without a clasp, and the way
from ruin to God's bosom without any obstruction save in
ourselves. He that holds these truths in his head, and
heart, and life, either is, or is not far from being, a child of
God. What has this Protestantism of ours done for the world,
as the evidence of its divine original ? It has dived into the
cells of the captive, and into the hovels of the poor, and car
ried the freedom of our faith to the one, and the riches of
Christ to the possession and enjoyment of the other. This
Protestant Christianity has made our England what Eng
land is — the nursery of free men, and, with all its faults, the
nursery of holy men. It has transformed almost every land
it has touched into its own celestial likeness. It has made
the Isles of the Pacific Ocean like gems upon the pathless
deep ; it has substituted the songs of Zion for the warwhoop
of the Indian, and the chimes of Sabbath bells for the noise
14

158 THE GREAT APOSTASY,
of battle. It still goes forth the ambassaaress of heaven,
and the benefactress of earth ; it sows on the bosom of every
land the seeds of truth, and love, and holiness, and teaches
us surely to anticipate golden harvests. Italy and Spain are
proofs of the degrading effects -of Romanism, where, as in
the former case, there are more than sufficient priests.
England and Scotland are proofs of what Protestantism, in
adequately applied from the fewness of its teachers, can
effect. My dear Protestant" friends, the age is come when Ro
manists and their pioneers the Tractarians would spoil you
of the pearl of inestimable price — when open assailants
would wrench from you the precious deposit, contained in
your Bibles. I abjure you to be firm; merge all that is
little, and melt all that separates in holy and firm union.
Concede prejudices, but compromise no principle.

[159]

LECTURE VI.

APOSTOLICAL SUCCESSION.

This doctrine, called the Apostolical Succession, may or
may not be a good thing. If those who are its advocates in
the present day, had restricted themselves to the assertion
of the claim that their ministry has to this apostolical suc
cession, we might have assented ; we should at least have
made no objection to their assumption of it ; they might, on
catching it, have laid it up in the Bodleian Library at
Oxford, or they might have exhibited it as antiquarians do
some ancient and curious thing, to be looked at and ad
mired; and they might, in some measure, I allow, have
congratulated themselves upon possessing it. If all that is
meant by it is the necessity of a regular ministry, trans
mitted in ordinary circumstances from minister to minister,
in the line of bishops or presbyters, we should be silent,
because satisfied. But the objection we have is, not that it
may or may not be true in any sense, not that it may or
may not be relatively important, but that it is substantially,
and with most mischievous results, made " the article of a
standing or a falling Church." Let there be no assumed
apostolical succession in the sense which I reprobate, and
then, as we are told, there may be the loftiest spirituality in
the minister, there may be the sublimest piety in the
hearers, there may be the most clear and conclusive evi
dences that the God of the universe bows the heavens to
own the ministrations of his servant, yet all is void ; there
is no genuine Christianity, there are no valid sacraments, no

160 THE GREAT APOSTASY.
ministry, no Church, no heaven, no hope, and uncovenanted
mercies are the only refuge. And vice versa, so greatly is
this doctrine prized, that if this succession be present, then,
according to Tridentine and Tractarian views, it matters
not very much that there may be idolatry in the desk,
superstition in the pulpit, and blasphemy upon the altar;
if the succession be there in its integrity, there must be a
true Church of Christ, a true ministry, and valid sacra
ments. The Church of Rome, because she possesses, or is sup
posed to possess, the apostolical succession, is " our dear sis
ter," and " Christ's holy home ; " the Church of Scotland,
because she is supposed to have it not, is " Samaria," that is,
not far from the promised land, but still out of it ; and the
Dissenters are summarily consigned, without exception, to
" the uncovenanted mercies of God," not because they do
not preach the Saviour, but because they cannot — and, as
I will prove to you by and by, they in the Church of Rome
and England cannot — trace their genealogy, link by link,
until at last they land at the throne of Peter, or the foot
stool, of Paul.
You will observe, further, that in the remarks I may
make upon this occasion, I do not lay any stress on the
assumption, that diocesan Episcopacy is unscriptural, or the
reverse. It may be scriptural, or it may not ; on that point
I state nothing ; my simple position is, that apostolical suc
cession, in the sense in which it is explained by those who
are its advocates, cannot be proved to be a reality, even if
Episcopacy can be shown to be a Divine institution, and
justly deducible from the Sacred Volume.
I may however notice here, that the Tractarian section of
the Church of England is not solely to blame for attaching
so much to apostolical succession ; for many of the Scottish
Covenanters assumed the same thing, and held that Presby
tery was so truly jure divino, that Episcopacy was fatally

THE APOSTOLIC SUCCESSION. 161
wrong upon the one hand, and Independency as much so on
the other. This is just the idolatry of the apostolical suc
cession made to dovetail with a more popular form of Church
polity.* I must, however, express my belief that if the
apostolical succession be a historical fact, the presbyters of
the Church of Scotland have it as truly, and with greater
probability of certainty through presbyters, as the Church
of England has it through bishops. The Tractarian argu
ment against this position is, that presbyters cannot give
what they were never appointed to give ; and that as they
were never appointed to ordain, they cannot ordain, and so
they cannot keep up the succession. This proceeds on an
hypothesis no Scottish Presbyter concedes ; and the argu
ment, besides, proves too much ; and what proves too much,
so far fails to prove the point for which it is quoted. For
instance, a bishop is not authorized, according to any form
of consecration that I have ever read, to consecrate other
bishops ; and, therefore, the very same argument that would
prove presbyters incapable of ordaining other presbyters —
because it is not expressed in their commission and appoint
ment — would prove bishops incapable of consecrating other
bishops. But the truth is, and it is a law laid down by Je
rome, a father of the Latin Church, that what a man has,
that he can give ; and upon this ground, Jerome held that
the laity could baptize and that bishops could consecrate
(for in his day bishops began to consecrate), because they
had themselves been consecrated ; and that in the same way
could presbyters ordain, because they had been ordained
themselves. It may also be discovered that Patristic reference will
* The identifying of the mind of Christ with a majority of the General
Assembly prior to 1843, was a progression in the direction of Eome, which
was only cut short by the Secession of that year, and prevented from
ending in evil by the piety and excellence of the ministers who took a
vart in it. 14*

162 THE GREAT APOSTASY.
prove neither Presbytery nor Episcopacy. If we are to
refer to the ancient fathers, and be guided by the very books
quoted by Tractarians, it will be seen that some of the chief
notions promulgated by Tractarians will not only be wholly
overthrown, but that the opposite views which they hate
will be vindicated, by the very standards to which they ap
peal. They have referred^ for instance, to the ancient
fathers for the doctrine, that the clergy are so completely
elevated above and separate from the people, that they are
invested with awful, and mysterious, and inapproachable
functions ; and that they are (to use the language of an old
Popish schoolman) as " the mountain," and the laity as " the
beasts, that might not touch the mountain lest they be con
sumed." Now, instead of this doctrine being supported by
all the fathers, I am prepared to prove, by extracts from
some of the fathers, that not only were bishops and presby
ters allowed to preach, but the laity also. Not that I ap
prove of disorder, or would sanction irregularity in a duly
constituted Church ; but it is mentioned by some of the an
cient fathers as matter of fact, that the laity were allowed to
preach and baptize, and that these sacred functions were
not restricted to the clergy. It is also a striking fact, care
fully concealed by the Tractarians, that so far from con
demning the discharge of these functions by the laity, the
fathers approved of it. Thus the Bishop of Jerusalem and
the Bishop of Ccesarea allowed Origen to preach * before he
had been ordained at all ; and upon another Bishop writing
to them, and complaining of this, these two bishops replied
as follows : " You write, that you never before heard that
laymen should preach in presence of bishops : in this you
have widely and strangely wandered from the truth ; when
* 'Ev&a koI dia/ieyecr&ai. toq re tfejac kprnnvevuv ypatyuc hni tov koivov
Tf/c kniOunaiac oi ry&e emo/coiroi, na'iToi rijg tov Trpeo/lvTepiov xeiporoviaQ
ovdena TewxiKOTa, abrbv ijl-iovv. — Euseb. lib. vi. c. 19, p. 196. Oxon.
1845.

THE APOSTOLIC SUCCESSION. 163
there are found such as are able to profit the brethren, the
bishops exhort them to preach:' * Now, here is the assertion
of a fact ; and though the fathers as expositors of doctrine
are not to be trusted, they are invaluable as witnesses to
facts. So also Hilary the Deacon, in his Comment on
Ephesians, says, "It was granted to all at first, the laity as
well as the clergy, both to preach the Gospel and to bap
tize." The Tractarians say, Go to the fathers for the lofty
assumptions and claims of the clergy ; I go to the fathers,
and it turns out that they prove the very reverse of that for
which they are quoted. Let us not lay too much stress on
the fathers, lest 'it turn out, that there is in the fathers as
much of Independent church government (though I am no
upholder of it) as there is either of the Tractarian or Romish
views of Episcopacy.
Let me now proceed to show you, by two simple state
ments, what is really understood by apostolical succession.
It is, in the first place, supposed that each bishop has been
consecrated by his contemporary bishops on the death of his
predecessor, and that no one link in the long line of succes
sive consecrators or consecrations is wanting between Dr.
Bird Sumner, the present excellent Archbishop of Canter
bury, and St. Peter, St. Timothy, or St. Paul. The second
position is, that ordination performed by succession bishops
only, is valid ; and that the party obtaining this ordination
thereby receives all the gifts and graces of the Spirit, by
which his act and deed give vitality and virtue to every
sacrament and ordinance he administers. These are the
two great positions of those who advocate what is called the
apostolical succession. The simplest illustration of it that I
can give you, would be a long magnetic, galvanic, or electric
chain, starting at the foot of an apostle, and extending
downwards to the present Primate of all England ; to the
first link of which was imparted a mysterious and subtle
* Vide Euseb. lib. vi. cap. 19, p. 197. Oxon. 1845.

164 THE GREAT APOSTASY.
element or virtue, which has been transmitted by successive
consecrations, from link to link, parallel with the plane of
the earth, until it has reached the bishops of the present
day, on whose heads, as in reservoirs, it is condensed and
ready for use and transmission to their successors.
Now, you will see at once, that if the first link in a long
chain is wanting, the whole falls to the ground. Or if
twenty links in the middle of a chain are wanting, the whole
falls to the ground. Or if in this electric chain of which I
have been speaking, some links in the middle, instead of
being suitable conductors of the mysterious virtue, are inca
pable of transmitting it — or are so vitiated that the current
must fly off by a centrifugal force ; then, again, the trans
mission is arrested and dissipated, and all post et propter hoc
is vitiated. In all these respects I am ready to prove that
the apostolical succession belongs to those things called
^endless genealogies, which minister questions, rather than
godly edifying."
My first statement will, I think, go far to prove that the
apostolical succession never began. If it never began, in
the sense in which they assume it, it can be of no use to
prove that there is the remainder of it for the last two or
three hundred years.' If there were a chain stretching from
one side of the Thames to the other, consisting of a thousand
links, it will be of no avail to prove to me that nine hundred
and ninty-nine links adhere to each other, if the first link be
wanting — the very link that must connect it with the Sur
rey side — as the chain must lie upon the ground and be
worthless as a connection between the south and north sides ;
and it would be of no service, were a person to stand on the
Middlesex side of the river, and hold one end of the chain,
and say, " This is an entire communication ; " and because
it descends into the bed of the river, and is lost in the mud, ,
and you cannot trace it, to endeavor to make you believe
that there is no doubt it reaches to the opposite side, is duly

THE APOSTOLIC SUCCESSION. 165
fixed, and is a real communication with Lambeth. Before
you can trust to it, you must see the whole chain ; and if it
wants one link, it is worth nothing for the purpose for which
it is stretched across. Now I will show you, that in the far
stretching chain of succession to the apostles, the very first
link after the apostles is wanting.
My proof, on this point, is drawn from the recorded state
of the see, (using the word in the ancient sense,) or bishop
ric, or oversight, or by whatever equally suitable name it
may be called, of Alexandria. Eutychius of Alexandria
states, that St. Mark the Evangelist first of all preached the
Gospel at Alexandria : " Moreover," says Eutychius, " Mark
appointed twelve presbyters, with Ananias, on whose head
the other eleven might place their hands, and bless him and
create him patriarch or bishop, and then choose some excel
lent man, and appoint him presbyter with themselves in
place of him. Nor did this custom, that the presbyters
should create their patriarch, cease at Alexandria until
the time of Alexander, who was of the number of three
hundred and eighteen bishops who met together at the
Council of Nice. He forbade the presbyters to create the
patriarch for the future, and decreed, that when the patri
arch was dead, the bishops should meet together and then
ordain a patriarch in his stead." It is here distinctly de
clared, that during the three hundred years that preceded
the Council of Nice — that is, up to 325 — the custom in
Alexandria was, not for other bishops to consecrate the
bishop that was to be the head of the diocese, but for the
twelve presbyters to meet together and choose one of them
selves as chairman, or moderator, or patriarch ; and their
choice and designation, without any consecration by a bishop,
was ipso facto and de jure the appointment of that bishop.
This is utterly opposed to recent views, and even on mod
erate Episcopal principles, it is irregular at least. If all
the presbyters of London were to meet together at the

166 THE GREAT APOSTASY.
death of the present Bishop of London, and to elect one of
themselves as bishop and consecrate him, every Tractarian
would protest against it as a departure from the vital laws
of the Church, and an utter interruption and destruction of
the succession ; and such a person would be pronounced to
be no more bishop than I should be held to be their diocesan
by the same party. But if it be the fact that the presby
ters thus originally constituted their bishops in so great a
see, and if it be the fact also that there is no transmission
of the apostolical succession where there is no consecration
by bishops, then I ask, Can any one of the present bishops
of the English Church prove that his succession and conse
cration may not be derived from some of the elected said
bishops, who were merely non-consecrated presbyters of
Alexandria, and so, after all, be null on Tractarian princi
ples, however sound and admissible on ours? Sure we are,
there is a risk of some non-conducting link being introduced
into the chain, during these three hundred years, when a
custom prevailed in so important and influential a diocese,
so opposite to that which is now thought essential.
This view may be confirmed by another historical state
ment, extracted from Severus : " The presbyters and people
were collected together at Alexandria, and laid their hands
on Peter, a priest, and placed him on the patriarchal throne
of Alexandria, in the tenth year of the Emperor Diocletian."
The words are — "Congregates fuisse Alexandria? sacer-
dotes et plebem, manusque imposuisse super Petrum, eumque
collocasse in sede patriarchali Alexandrino." And Jerome,
a Latin father, who lived in the fourth century, states, —
"At Alexandria, from Mark the Evangelist to the bishops
Heraclas and Dionysius, presbyters always called one elected
from among themselves, and placed him in higher rank as
their bishop ; just as an army may elect its general, or dea
cons elect one of themselves, and call him the archdeacon."
— (Epist. ad Evagr. 146.) These collateral witnesses

THE' APOSTOLIC SUCCESSION. 167
prove, equally, that the custom existed at Alexandria of the
presbyters consecrating, or appointing, pr ordering their
bishops. And if this be the fact, (and we have the best of
all demonstration of it, because it is proved by the very wit
nesses to whom the Tractarians appeal,) then, we repeat it,
as the appointment of presbyters was the only consecration
that was had in that city during three centuries, the element
which, upon Tractarian principles, is essential to the trans
mission of the succession, was altogether wanting, and this
vicious procedure may have infected all parts of the Church.
Still further to confirm this position, and show that Alex
andria was not singular, I will read an extract from St.
Ambrose, in his comment on St. Paul's Epistles, Com. iv.
11: "The apostle sends Timothy, created by him a pres
byter or bishop, (for the chief presbyters were called
bishops,) that when he departed, the one that followed in
rotation might succeed him." Now, it is perfectly clear to
my mindj without trenching upon any argument against
Episcopacy, or for Presbytery, that Timothy was not con
secrated a bishop as a Tractarian holds it requisite for a
bishop to be, but simply ordained a presbyter. My reason
is this : the apostle says, (1 Timothy iv. 14,) that Timothy
was ordained by " laying on of the hands of the presbytery."
But, on Tractarian principles, presbyters cannot make, or
share in making, a bishop : bishops must make a bishop, and
yet Timothy was made a bisliop by presbyters only. The
first link in the long successional chain on which the Trac
tarians rely, is wanting, I fear, in this early instance also.
If Timothy was not consecrated a bishop, it is quite clear
that the apostolical succession never began ; and if it never
began, it does not matter where they may find it in the
middle ages, or what ministers it may be supposed to irra
diate in the present day.
Again: Ambrose, in his comment upon 1 Tim. iii. 8,
says, — "The order of a bishop and a presbyter is one and

168 THE GREAT APOSTASY.
the same thing. Each is a presbyter, but the bishop is
chief; so that every bishop is a presbyter, but not every
presbyter a bishop, for he is a bishop who is chief among
the presbyters ; " in other words, the chief presbyter is, as
such, the bishop. And Irenseus, against Heretics, c. 43, b.
iv. p. 343, says, — " We ought to obey those presbyters who
are in the Church ; those, I mean, who have succession
from the apostles." When Irenseus speaks, you see, of
apostolical succession, it is in a line of presbyters, not in the
line of bishops ; the former being as I believe the only line
on which it can be defended and maintained with any thing
like presumptive evidence. In short, it is the fact, that at
a very early age chief presbyters were bishops ; they had
been ordained presbyters, but they received the superinten
dence, though not the consecration of modern bishops ; and
not being consecrated bishops, they could not, upon Tracta
rian principles, transmit the succession to other bishops ; and
the chain has therefore no beginning, and the claim of apos
tolical succession is an " endless genealogy."
But, suppose I grant that the apostolical succession began,
in the Tractarian sense of it, I allege that there is no evi
dence whatever of its regular transmission, but every pre-.
sumption, nay, certainty, that it was vitiated and broken a
hundred times. Eusebius, the most ancient ecclesiastical
historian, says he could find the successor, not of all the
apostles, but only of some of the most illustrious. " Who
were they," continues he, "that, imitating these apostles,
were thought worthy to govern the churches which they
planted, it is no easy thing to tell, except what may be gath
ered from Paul's own words." And Bishop Jewell, in
speaking of Harding, says, — " Hereby it is clear ; that of
the four first bishops of Rome, Mr. Harding cannot tell us
who in order succeeded the other, and thus talking so much
of succession, they are not well able to blaze their own."
Bishop Stillingfleet, in his Irenicum, Part II. chap. 6, says,

THE APOSTOLIC SUCCESSION. 169
« The succession of Rome is as muddy as the Tiber."
He then shows, that Tertullian puts Clement next to Peter ;
Augustine puts Cletus and Linus next ; and Irenseus puts
Anacletus before Peter : and speaking of the British Church,
the same Bishop says, — "From the loss of records, we
cannot draw down the succession of bishops to our time
from the apostles' time." So much for the earliest records
of the transmission of the succession.
There is one field in which there was demonstrably no
beginning to the Tractarian apostolical succession ; that is,
Scotland. Historical records show, that Christianity was
first introduced into Scotland in the year 203 ; but a dio
cesan bishop was not introduced into it till the year 429,
when Palladius was sent by the then reigning Pope. My
authorities for this are — . Prosper Aquitanus, Bede, and
John of Fordoun. The Breviary of Aberdeen, a Roman
Catholic document, which the priests then read every day,
contains the following statement : " The Scots had for teach
ers of the faith, and ministers of the sacraments, presbyters
and monks, following only the rite and custom of the prim
itive Church." The words are : " Habentes fidei doetores
et sacramentorum ministros, presbyteros et monachos,
primitivse ecclesias solummcido sequentes ritum et consue-
tudinem." John Major, in his " History of Britain," book ii. chap. 2,
(who is declared, by a celebrated critic, to be more dis
tinguished for his love of truth than for his eloquence,) says,
that " the Pope consecrated Palladius in the year 429, and
sent him to Scotland, for the Scots were first taught by pres
byters, without bishops." In Scotland, then, the apostolical
succession, in the Tractarian sense, did not begin till 429.
But how much will the reader be surprised, when I tell him
that some of the bishops of the Anglican Church, at this
moment, have no other apostolical succession than what they
can trace through primitive Scottish presbyters. I reverence
15

170 THE GREAT APOSTASY.
and love these bishops the more fully, not less especially if
like their primate they are distinguished for their love of
Evangelical religion. It is on record, that Scottish presby
ters appointed one of themselves Bishop of York, and
another Bishop in one of the midland districts of England ;
and on this rests a part at least of the present succession of
the bishops in England: and so this result must evolve —
that if ordination by Scottish ministers be invalid, and sacra
ments void which are administered by clergy so ordained,
the whole fabric of the Tractarian apostolical succession in
England is undermined.
Let me give you particulars in proof of this. Aidan was
selected by the presbytery of Iona, and appointed to be
bishop in England ; and the same presbytery of Iona eonse-
fcrated Colman to the archbishopric of York in the seventh
century. Archbishop Usher, who is no slight authority,
says, that " the Scots that professed no subjection to the
Church of Rome were they that sent preachers for the con
version of the counties of England, and ordained bishops to
govern them." Gilbert Murray, a Scotch priest, and subse
quently made a bishop, addressed the Pope's Legate, and
said, " The Scottish Church, before the consecration of its
first bishop, (which was A. d. 429,) did ordain and conse
crate the bishops of England for the period of thirty years."
I, therefore, can stand before his Grace the Archbishop of
Canterbury, and I can, with profound respect, tell him,— T
" If my orders are invalid, your Grace's are invalid too ; if
the sacraments administered by my hands are vitiated, the
sacraments administered by your Grace's hands are vitiated
too." Might I not whisper, not to the primate but to the
Tractarians, " Those that live in glass houses, should be very
careful how they throw stones ? "
But let me show you, that if the said succession in the
Church of England has thus been vitiated, (I am speaking
of it only in the Tractarian sense,) it is equally vitiated in

THE APOSTOLIC SUCCESSION. 171
the Church of Ireland ; and I especially note this, because
some Irish clergymen have maintained, that even if it be
vitiated in England, it has always been kept pure and uncon-
taminated in Ireland. I quote one proof from the many. In
a celebrated work, the Monasticum Hibemicum, I read, that
" Colman, a bishop in England, having orders only which he
received from the presbyters of Iona, was no sooner settled
in Innisbifonde, than that place became a bishopric." So
that, an individual who was consecrated and ordained a chief
presbyter or bishop by presbyters only, was the founder of
one of the dioceses in Ireland : and thus the Irish Church
exactly shares in the calamity, which I do not think a
calamity, of the sister English Church, in having no claim
or pretension whatever to apostolical succession, in the
Tractarian sense.
You have heard of a northern divine of the Church of
England, who preached' and even ventured to print a sermon
from the text, " Hear the Church ; " on which three words,
torn and wrenched from their context, he raised the extrava
gant superstructure after the manner of Romish priests —
" Listen to the archbishops, bishops, and presbyters of a par
ticular branch of the Episcopal Church for the mind of God
in Holy Scripture." Any one who takes the trouble to refer
to his Bible, will find the meaning of that passage to be, that
if a dispute happen among private Christians, they are first
to call in two or three witnesses ; and if it cannot thus be
settled, they are to tell it to " the Church " — the Christians
assembled within four walls ; for though this is not the exclu
sive meaning of the word Church, it is one of its meanings,
and its meaning in this passage. There is nothing about
doctrine here, nothing about archbishops, bishops, or presby
tery ; it is simply making the appeal to a Christian's most
appropriate tribunal — the congregation to which he belongs
— for the final settlement of a personal quarreh
This divine boasts, that he gathered some of his new

172 THE GREAT APOSTASY.
Tractarian infection from the Scottish bishops; and Mr.
Froude, in his first love, which is not his last, used to boast
that the Scotch Episcopal Church is the purest of all com
munions, and that he would prefer having his orders from
the Scotch bishops to any other. When speaking of Scotch
nonjuring bishops, I do not use the word bishop exactly in
the sense conveyed by it in England, for the Scotch bishops
are very poor men, which is not to their discredit, the minis
ters ef little meeting-houses, supported wholly upon the vol
untary system, — the Presbyterial clergy being now of the
Established Church. Now, I maintain, that if there is an
.episcopacy in the universe altogether vitiated, it is the
Scotch; it is worse than the English by far ; and my proofs
are so conclusive, that I am sure they must convince every
one who hears them. In the first place, in the year 1610,
Spottiswoode, Lamb, and Hamilton, three presbyters of the
Scottish Church, ordained by presbyters only, were conse
crated bishops of Glasgow, Brechin, and Galloway. Now
let it be observed, that it is a Tractarian notion, that if a
man is not baptized by an apostolical succession minister, he
is not baptized at all, and is incapable of holy orders ; and if
he is not a valid presbyter, he is incapable of being made a
valid bishop ; but these three men were baptized by Pres
byterian ministers, ordained presbyters by Presbyterian min
isters, and on this footing consecrated bishops by the three
bishops who were sent from England. On Tractarian prin
ciples, they were never baptized, for Presbyterian baptism
is with them no baptism; they were never ordained, for
Presbyterian ordination is with them no ordination; they
were, therefore, incapable of being consecrated, and they
were at last no bishops at all. All the men that they or
dained, were not ordained ; all that they consecrated, were
not consecrated ; and the Episcopal communion in Scotland,
from that moment, became a vitiated and corrupted suc
cession.

THE APOSTOLIC SUCCESSION 173
But suppose this defect remedied : the succession after^
wards became equally vitiated. In 1661, Sharp, Fairfoul,
Leighton, and Hamilton, who had only Presbyterian bap
tism, were ordained and consecrated to be bishops — one of
a diocese whose bishop was living, and his consecration was
therefore invalid. I have said, it is a law in Tractarian
theology, that a person not baptized is incapable of receiving
holy orders, and that baptism administered in a Presbyterian
Church is no baptism ; and, therefore, these bishops, bap
tized by Scottish presbyters, though consecrated; were
incapable of the dignity, and their consecration was, on
Tractarian principles, null and void. But the mischief did
not rest here ; they consecrated Haliburton, a Presbyterian
minister, to be Bishop of Dunkeld ; Mackenzie, who had
taken " the solemn league and covenant " * fourteen times ( ! )
to be Bishop of Moray ; Paterson, Presbyterian minister of
Aberdeen, to be Bishop of Ross ; and Wallace to the bishop
ric of the Isles. All these men were Presbyterian ministers,
and were consecrated bishops on the footing that Presby
terian baptism and Presbyterian orders were valid ; but if
Presbyterian baptism be invalid, and if Presbyterian orders
be invalid too, there is clearly no such thing in the Scottish
Episcopal communion as a valid succession, answering to the
lowest definition of the Tractarians ; and the sooner they
get the succession restored, as well as the Popish Communion
Service purged, the better it will be for the maintenance of
their extreme and exclusive views.
Let us now appeal to a wider field. Supposing the apos
tolical succession to have begun, let us look at the history of
it — not in one province, such as Scotland, but on the broad
surface of Europe. We gather on this field the following
facts, known to every student of history. Cyprian was con-
* The splernn League and Covenant is a fierce document, now happily
obsolete, and justly repudiated by every minister of the Church of Scot
land, an evidence in its way that Presbyter is sometimes Priest writ large.
15*

174 THE GREAT APOSTASY.
secrated a bishop instantly after he was baptized and con
verted from heathenism : one would think he was not very
well qualified for the office. Eucherius, a layman, was made
Bishop, of Lyons. Photius, also a layman, was made a pa
triarch. John the Ninth, from a layman, was made Pope,
and was therefore a, lay Pope : what sort of apostolical suc
cession he could transmit, I leave you to judge. Clement
the Fifth, in 1308, gave the archbishopric of Mentz to his
physician, a layman, on account of a cure which he had
wrought on his holiness. When we ordain a presbyter in
the Church of Scotland, we try to ascertain if his qualifica
tions answer to those stated by the Apostle Paul in his
Epistle to Timothy ; and if we find that they do, we commit
to him the functions we have ourselves received ; but this
Pope acted on far different principles, for the reason he gave
for the appointment was, that he who was so clever in curing
bodily disease, as the physician in question had shown him
self to be, was, of all men, the most fitted for the cure of
souls. Again: from the year 1159 to the year 1182, the^e
were four persons claiming to be Pope at the same time ;
and it is not yet settled which was the true Pope, and there*
fore in which channel the true succession flowed. From
the year 1378 to the year 1409, there were two Popes, one
at Avignon, and the other at Rome : Which was the legiti
mate and true Pope? John the Twelfth, who was made
Bishop of. Rome at eighteen years of age, conferred holy
orders upon boys for money, and consecrated a youth of ten
years old Bishop of Todi : what sort of transmission of apos
tolical succession this lad could present, I leave you to fancy.
In the time of Pope Sergius, bishoprics were put up for sale
— to auction, as we should say ; and when it was proposed
by one of the members of a council, that all bishops and
priests who had received simoniacal consecration or ordina
tion should be expelled, and their orders pronounced null
and void, the objection, on the ground of which this propo-

THE APOSTOLIC SUCCESSION. 175
sition was overruled, was, that if it were carried into effect,
there would be no bishops or priests left in Europe — so
fearful was the extent to which simoniacal practices pre
vailed. Let us see the moral condition of the conductors them
selves. You know well, that if rain drops fall through a
sooty and polluted atmosphere, they cannot be pure ; and
that if a river be made to flow through a tainted soil, it can
not remain uncorrupt. Now I will give you a picture of the
Church of Rome, through which the apostolical succession has
descended — a picture, not from the pen of a Protestant, or an
enemy, but from the pen of the celebrated Cardinal Baronius,
the most distinguished historian and devoted son of the
Church of Rome. Describing the commencement of the
tenth century, he says, " Behold the nine hundredth year of
the Redeemer begins, in which a new age commences, which
by reason of its asperity and barrenness of good has been
wont to be called the iron age, and by the deformity of its
exuberant evil the leaden age, and by its poverty of writers
the dark age. Standing upon the threshold of which, we
have found it expedient, before we proceed further, on ac
count of the crimes which it has been our lot to behold before
the door, to make some preface by way of admonition to the
reader, lest the weak minded should take offence, if he some
times perceives the abomination of desolation standing in the
temple." — (The Ecclesiastical Annals of Baronius: Pope
Stephen Seventh, a.d. 900. Antwerp, 1603.)
" What was then the face of the holy Roman Church ?
How exceeding foul was it, when most powerful, and sordid,
and abandoned women ruled at Rome, at whose will the sees
were changed, bishops were presented, and, what is horrid
to hear and unutterable, false pontiffs* their lovers, were
intruded into the chair of Peter, who were only written in
the catalogue of Roman pontiffs for the sake of marking, the
* If this be true, what becomes ofthe Papal succession from Peter?

176 THE GREAT APOSTASY.
times ! For who can affirm, that men illegally intruded by
wicked women of this sort, were Roman pontiffs ? There
was never any mention of the clergy electing or afterwards
approving. All the canons were closed in silence, the de
crees of the Pontiffs were suppressed, the ancient traditions
were proscribed, and the ancient customs in electing the
Pope, and the sacred ceremonies, and the usages of former
days were wholly extinct. Thus, lust, relying upon the secu
lar power, and mad and stimulated with the rage of domin
ion, claimed every thing for itself. Then, as it seems, Christ
evidently was in a deep sleep in the ship, when these winds
blowing so strongly, the ship itself was covered with the
waves." — (Baronius, a.d. 912.)
" For nearly 150 years, about fifty Popes, namely, from
John Eighth, who succeeded the holy Popes Nicholas and
Adrian Second, to Leo Ninth (who, called by God as an
other Aaron, first brought back from heaven the ancient
integrity of the Popes to the apostolic see), deserted wholly
the virtue of their predecessors, being apostate, rather than
apostolical. Of so many Popes, five only are even slightly
praised." — (Genebrard's Chronicles, a. d. 904.)
" After the death of Sergius, there was a schism in the
Church of Rome, between Benedict Eighth, son of Gregory,
Count of Frescati, and one Gregory, who was elected by
some Romans who ousted Benedict. He fled to Henry,
King of Germany, who immediately raised forces, and
marched into Italy to reestablish him. As soon as the king
arrived, Gregory fled for it, and Benedict was received with
out any opposition." — (An. 1012.)
" Benedict died in 1024. The Count of Frescati, that the
popedom might still be in his family, caused his other son to
be elected in the room of Benedict the Eighth, though he
was not then in orders. He was ordained, and called John
.... It is said, that some time after, this Pope being sen
sible that his election was vicious and simoniacal, withdrew

THE APOSTOLIC SUCCESSION. 177
into a monastery, therein to suffer penance, and that he for
bore performing any part of its functions till such time as he
was chosen again by his clergy." — (a. d. 1024. — Dupin's
Ecclesiastical History of the Eleventh Century of Chris
tianity.) '¦' Let us see what remedy they first had recourse to, in
order to extinguish this three-headed beast who had issued
from the gates of hell. A remedy was devised precisely
similar to that which the poets feigned in destroying the
fabulous Cerberus, — namely, the filling of his jaws with a
pitchy mouthful, by giving them something to eat, so that
they should altogether leave off barking. But let us see
who it was that prepared that remedy, which the unhappi-
ness of the times demanded. Otho faithfully relates it as
follows : A certain pious priest, named Gratian, seeing this
most wretched state of the Church, and his zealous piety
filling him with compassion for his mother, he approached
the above-mentioned men, and prevailed upon them by
money to depart from the holy see, the revenues of England
being made over to Benedict, because he appeared to be of
chief authority. Upon this account, the citizens elected the
aforesaid priest for their Pope, as being the liberator of the
Church, and called him Gregory Sixth." — (Baronius, An-
nal. a.d.,1044.)
These are a few of the descriptions presented, not by a
Protestant, but by a distinguished Roman Catholic historian,
of the medium through which the succession of consecra
tions and ordinations was transmitted.
To show, further, the utter impossibility of any thing like
certainty of the apostolical succession, let me refer to more
modern facts, which you will do well to remember when you
hear a Tractarian or a Romanist boast of the apostolical
succession. In the Hon. and Rev. Arthur Percival's Cata
logue,' thirteen bishops are necessarily left out, because there
is no certain record of their consecration, and therefore no

178 THE GREAT APOSTASY.
sure evidence that a Church exists in England. In the
case of the celebrated Pearson, the author of the " Com
mentary on the Creed," there is no record of his consecra
tion to be found. Now, if a Tractarian insists that apostoli
cal succession is essential to valid sacraments, the onus pro-
bandi, the burden of proof, rests with him ; if I assert that
apostolical succession is not possessed, and he asserts that it
is, it rests not with me to prove a negative, but with him to
prove the whole series of successive consecrations by canoni
cal bishops. Dr. Whately, the present Archbishop of Dub
lin, referring to this difficulty, says : " Even in the memory
of persons living, there existed a bishop concerning whom
there was so much mystery and uncertainty, when, where,
and by whom ordained, that doubts existed in the minds of
many persons whether he was ordained at all:''- thisj of
course, is at a recent period. Birch relates, that " Sydserf,
a Scottish bishop, ordained all of the English clergy that
came to him, without demanding oaths of canonical obe
dience, or subscription to articles, merely for a subsistence
by the fees which he received for the orders that he
granted." A Scotch bishop had no business ordaining in
England at all ; and in this respect alone all was void, and
every ordination for money is held universally to be vitiated.
He ordained the celebrated Tillotson, who had never beer
ordained a deacon, and therefore was incapable of priest's
orders, which were ostensibly conferred upon him.
Bishop Butler, the author of that magnificent specimen
of philosophical reasoning, " The Analogy," was the son of
a Presbyterian minister, and had only such baptism as a
Presbyterian minister could give ; he was never rebaptized,
though he was ordained deacon, then priest, and ultimately
made a bishop : on Tractarian principles, he had no baptism
at all, was therefore incapable of holy orders, and of conse
cration. Archbishop Tillotson was the son of a Baptist
minister ; and it is demonstrable, from the custom of the

THE APOSTOLIC SUCCESSION. 179
Baptist body, that their children are not baptized. There
is no evidence that Tillotson ever was baptized when he
grew up, and the overwhelming presumption is, that he was
not baptized at all : he was thereby incapable of holy orders,
and in Archbishop Tillotson the apostolical succession was
thus entirely vitiated. Archbishop Seeker, who succeeded
him, was the son of a Dissenting minister, by whom he was
baptized ; he was never rebaptized,* but on the footing of
that baptism was made Archbishop of Canterbury. And
thus three of the most illustrious prelates that ever wore
the mitre in England, were, upon Tractarian principles, un
baptized schismatics, incapable of receiving holy orders, and
as incapable of transmitting them ; and every minister of
the Church of England ordained by these men was and is,
upon Tractarian principles, no minister at all.
Mark a few more of the results that follow from Tracta
rian theology. You are aware that there is in the Anglican
Prayerbook a service (which I do not condemn) for Charles
the First ; and the Tractarian party make a great deal of
the unhappy monarch as one of their most distinguished
martyrs; but this audience will be surprised when I tell
them, that Charles the First was baptized by a Presbyte
rian minister at Dunfermline, and on Tractarian principles,
was not even a Christian, much less a Christian martyr.
On the same principles, the King of Prussia, who some
years ago visited this country, and became sponsor for the
then infant Prince of Wales, was no Christian at all ; for
he was a member of a Presbyterian church, and had only
Presbyterian baptism. Prince Albert, the illustrious con
sort of our beloved Queen, was, baptized by a Lutheran, or
what is the same, Presbyterian minister ; and, on Tracta-
* It has been intimated to me, since the appearance of the first edition
of these Lectures, that there is a record of his being rebaptized. I have
not seen it.

180 THE GREAT APOSTASY.
rian principles, is not a Christian ; and Mr. Escott,, the
notorious vicar of Gedney, would refuse him Christian
burial. They say, however, they are not responsible for
consequences. The Tractarian party, in imitation of the Romish priests
who refuse to recognize their orders, refuse to call the
ministers of the Scottish Church, or thpse of the Inde
pendent and other dissenting bodies, by the title of Reverend,
which the law of the land gives the former, and which
common courtesy gives to all, but which really as a mere
epithet is worth nothing : and the reason they allege is, that
none but they have the apostolical succession. I have
shown that they have it not ; and if they claim to be called
by that title because they have the apostolical succession —
as they do — though I should be extremely sorry to be un-
courteous, or to violate the laws of ordinary decorum, yet
as they have failed to prove that they have the succession,
and as I haye demonstrated that they have it not, I must
merge my courtesy in my Christian consistency, and address
my letters, if I have occasion, to " Walter Farquhar Hook,
Esquire," or " William Palmer, Esquire."
Before, however, I leave this subject, I wish to show that
the views of the Tractarians of Oxford have not been the
views of the ancient fathers, to whom they themselves
appeal, or of those who may be called the fathers of the
Anglican Church, and the most distinguished of its divines.
First of all, let us see whether the early fathers attach
importance to the personal succession, or to the doctrinal
succession. Tertullian : " Do we prove the faith by persons, or
persons by the faith ? " (The Tractarian view is, that faith
is proved by the persons.) " Now, if the heretics should
make out personal succession, they will have done nothing;
for their doctrine, compared with the apostolical doctrines,

THE APOSTOLIC SUCCESSION. 181
/fill show, from its difference and its contrariety, that it
has neither an apostle nor a disciple of an apostle for its
author." *
Iren-seus, adv. Hceres. book iv. c. 48. — " Those pres
byters who serve their own pleasures, and do not make the
fear of God their rule, but persecute others with reproaches,
from all such presbyters it behoves us to stand aloof, and
cleave to those presbyters who both retain the doctrine of
the Gospel, and exhibit soundness in word, and a blameless
conversation." t
Ambrose, on Luke, book vi. § 8. — " Christ is the only
one, whom no one ought to forsake. If there is any Church
which rejects the faith, and does not possess the fundamen
tals of the doctrine of the apostles, it is to be deserted."
Again, Augustine against the Donatists, vol. ix. c. 19.
col. 372. — "We ought to find the Church where we find
the Head of the Church — namely, in the canonical Scrip
tures ; not to inquire for it in the various reports and deeds
and opinions of men. The Holy Scriptures are the proofs,
these the foundation, these the support of the Church."
Chrysostom, 49th Homily: on Matthew. — "When ye
shall see the impious heresy, which is the army of antichrist,
standing in the holy places of the Church, then let them
which are in Judea flee to the mountain ; that is, let Chris
tians take themselves to the Holy Scriptures."
But what say the fathers, on the other hand, of succession
of doctrine ? With the following fathers this is every thing,
and the other nothing : —
* Sed etsi confinxerint nil promovebunt. Ipsa enim doctrina eorum
cum apostolica comparata ex diversitate et oontrarietate pronuntiabit
neque apostoli alicujus auctoris esse neque apostolici. Tertull. de Pre
script. Hseret. p. 22. Lipsise, 1841.
t Ab illis ecclesiis quae, licet nullam ex apostolis vel apostolicis aucto-
rem suum proferant, ut multo posteriores tamen in eadem fide conspi-
rantes, non minus apostolicae deputantur pro consanguinitate doctrinoe.
Tertull. de Prescript. Hseret. p. 22, K. 3. Lipsise, 1841.
16

182 THE GREAT APOSTASY.
Chrysostom says, — "Where pure faith is, there the
Church is ; but where pure faith is not, there the Church is
not." Again, he says, — " He does not go out of the Church
who goes out of it bodily, but he who spiritually deserts the
foundations of ecclesiastical truth. We have gone out from
the heretics in body, but they have gone out from us in
mind ; we have gone out from them in respect of place,«but
they have gone out from us in respect to faith ; we have left
with them the foundations of the walls, but they have left
with us the foundations of the Holy Scriptures."
Ambrose, on Luke, book vi. § 98. — "The rock is faith;
the foundation of the Church is faith : if thou hast found
faith, thou shalt be in ifie Church."
Gregory Nazianzen, Oration Twenty-first, (Paris, 1778,
p. 390): " He is elevated to the chair of St. Mark, not
more in the succession of his piety, than of his seat; in
point of time very distant from him, but in true relig
ion, WHICH IS PROPERLY CALLED APOSTOLIC SUCCES
SION, directly after him. For he that holdeth the same
doctrine is of the same chair; but he who is an enemy to
the doctrine, is an enemy to the chair."
Let us now turn to some of the most illustrious of Eng
lish Churchmen; and we shall see, that if they represent
the Church of England,, Drs. Hookj Pusey, and others, mis
represent it.
Hooker says, "The whole Church visible being the true
original subject of all power, it hath not ordinarily allowed
any other than bishops alone to ordain: howbeit, as the
ordinary course in all things is ordinarily to be observed, so
it may be in some cases not unnecessary that we decline
from the ordinary ways." — Book vii. vol. iii. p. 285. Ox
ford, 1836.
Again : " To change those things that are not essential to
salvation, as forms of Church government, is no otherwise
to change the plan of salvation than a path is changed by

THE APOSTOLIC SUCCESSION. 183
altering only the uppermost face of it, which, be it laid with
gravel or with grass, or paved with stones, remaineth still
the same path. Doctrine is like garments, that cover the
body ofthe Church — the other like rings, bracelets, and
jewels, which only adorn it. The one is like the food,
which the Church doth live by ; the other like that which
maketh her diet liberal, dainty, and more delicious."
Again : " He which affirmeth speech to be necessary
amongst all men throughout the world, doth not thereby
import that all men must necessarily speak one and the
same language ; even so the necessity of polity and regimen
may be held, without holding any one certain form to be
necessary in them all."
" " Let the' bishops continually bear in mind, that it is rather
the force of custom — whereby the Church, having so long
found it good to continue under the regimen of her virtuous
bishops, doth still uphold, maintain, and honor them in that
respect — than that any such true and heavenly law can be
showed, by the evidence whereof it may of a truth appear,
that the Lord himself hath appointed presbyters for ever to
be under the regimen of bishops. Their authority is a
nword, which the Church hath power to take from them." —
(Eccl. Pol. vi. 8.)
On Hooker's views, Warburton, a no less learned divine,
remarks, " The great Hooker was not only against, but laid
down principles that have entirely subverted all pretences
to a divine, unalterable right in any form of Church govern
ment whatever."
Bishop Cosins, who, upon the continent of Europe, took
the Lord's supper repeatedly in Presbyterial Churches, says,
" Are all the Churches of Denmark, Sweden, Poland, Ger
many, France, Scotland, in all points, either of substance or
circumstance, disciplinated alike? Nay, they neither are
nor can be ; nor yet need be, since it cannot be proved that
any set and exact particular form is recommended to us by
the word of God." — (Ans. to Abstract, sect. 18. p. 58.)

184 THE GREAT APOSTASY.
Lord Bacon writes : "For the second point, that there
should be but one form of discipline in all churches, and
that imposed by necessity of a commandment and pre
script out of the word of God, I, for my part, do confess,
that on revolving the Scriptures, I could never find any
such thing; but that God hath left the like liberty to the
Church government that he hath done to the Civil govern
ment, to be varied according to time and place and accidents,
which, nevertheless, his high and Divine Providence doth
order and dispose. So, likewise, in church matters, the sub
stance of doctrine is immutable, and so are the general rules
of government ; but for rites and ceremonies, and for the
particular hierarchies, policies, and disciplines of churches,
they be left at large ; and therefore it is good we return to
the ancient bounds of unity in the church of God, which
was one faith, one baptism, and not one hierarchy, one dis
cipline." — (Works, vol. iii. p. 150. Lond. 1778.)
Dr. Fulke, regarded in his day as a very high Church
man, writes : " Although in Scripture a bishop and presby
ter is one authority in preaching and in the sacraments, yet
in government, by ancient use of speech,- he is only bishop
who in Scripture is called Proistamenos, to whom the ordi
nation or consecration by imposition of hands belonged ; for
the rest of the presbyters did lay on their hands, or eke the
bishop did lay on his hands in the name of the rest." —
(Ans. to Rh. Test, on Titus i. 8, fol. 391, p. 2. Lond.
1589.) Field says, " Who, then, dare condemn all those worthy
ministers of God, who were ordained by presbyters in sun
dry churches, at such times as bishops, in those parts where
they lived, opposed themselves against the truth of God ? "
— (Bppk iii. c. 37, p. 157. Oxf. 1635.)
Francis Mason, an enthusiastic defender of the Anglican
Church, says, " If you mean by Divine right, that which is
according to Scripture, then the preeminence of bishops is

THE APOSTOLIC SUCCESSION. 185
jure divino. Secondly, if by Divine right you mean the
ordinance of God, in this sense also it is jure divino. But
if hjjure divino, you understand a law or commandment of
God binding all Christian Churches perpetually, unchange
ably, and with such absolute necessity that no other order
of regimen may in any case be admitted, in this sense nei
ther may we grant it, nor yet can you prove it to be jure
divino." — (Def. of Foreign Ord. p; 163. Oxf. 1641.)
Mason says also, p. 160 : " Seeing a presbyter is equal to
a bishop in the power of order, he hath equally inirinsical
power to give orders." — (Ibid. p. 161.)
Downham, Bishop of Derry, writes, " Though, in respect-
of the institution, there is small difference between an apos
tolical and divine ordinance, yet in respect of perpetuity,
difference by some is made between those things which be
of divini and those which be of apostolici juris ; the former
in their understanding being perpetually, generally, and im
mutably necessary ; the latter not so. So that the meaning
of my defence plainly is, that the episcopal government hath
this commendation above other forms of ecclesiastical gov
ernment, that in respect of the first institution it is a Divine
ordinance. But that it should be such a Divine ordinance
as should be generally, perpetually, immutably, necessarily
observed, so as no other form of government may in no case
be admitted, I did not take upon me to maintain." — (Def.
of Ser. p. 139.)
Bishop Sanderson says, "The Papist groundeth the
Pope's oecumenical supremacy upon Christ's command to
Peter to execute it, and to all the flock of Christ to submit
to him as their universal pastor. The Presbyterian crieth
up his model of government and discipline as the very
sceptre of Christ's kingdom, whereunto all kings are bound
to submit theirs, making it as unalterably and universally
necessary to the being of a Church, as the word and sacra
ments are. The Independent Separatist says, that nothing
16*

186 THE GREAT APOSTASY.
is to be ordered in Church matters otherwise than Christ
hath appointed in his word ; holdeth that any company of
people gathered together by mutual consent in a Church
way, is, jure divino, free and absolute within itself to govern
itself by such rules as it shall judge agreeable to God's
word, without dependence upon any but Christ alone, or
subjection to any prince, prelate, or person, or consistory
whatsoever. All these do not only claim a jus divinum, and
that of a very high nature, but in setting down their opin
ions seem in some expressly tending to the diminution of
the ecclesiastical supremacy of princes. Whereas the epis
copal party neither meddle with the power of princes, nor
are ordinarily very forward to press the jus divinum ; but
rather purposely decline the mentioning of it, as a term
subject to misconstruction, or else to interpret it as not of
necessity to import any more than an apostolical institu
tion." — P. 40.
Whitgift says, " We see manifestly that in sundry points
the government of the Church used in the apostles' time is,
and has been of necessity altered ; whereby it is plain that
any one certain form or kind of external government, per
petually to be observed, is nowhere in the Scriptures pre
scribed in the churches, but the charge thereof is left to the
Christian magistrate, so that nothing be done contrary to the
word of God ; neither do I know any learned man of a con
trary judgment."
Again : " I deny that the Scripture doth set down any
one certain form and kind of government in the Church."
— (Def. p. 659.)
Stillingfleet says, " Though one form of government Tie
agreeable to the word of God, it doth not follow that another
is not ; or, because one is lawful, another is unlawful. But
one form may be more agreeable to some places and times
than others are. I doubt not but to make it evident, that
before these late .unhappy times, the main ground for settling

THE APOSTOLIC SUCCESSION. 187
episcopal government in this nation was not any pretence of
Divine right, but the conveniency of that form to the state and
condition of this Church at the times of its reformation." —
(Irenicum, p. 10.)
Bishop Hall, who is found in Dr. Pusey's Catena, says, —
" Blessed be God, there is no difference in any essential
matter betwixt the Church of England and her sisters of the
Reformation. We accord in every point of Christian doc
trine, without the least variation. Their public confessions
and ours, are sufficient convictions to the world of our full
and absolute agreement. The only difference is in the form
of outward administration, wherein also we are so far agreed
as that we all profess this form not to be essential to the be
ing of a Church, though much importing the well or better
being of it according to our several apprehensions thereof;
and that we do all retain a reverent and loving opinion of
each other in our several ways, not seeing any reason why
so poor a diversity should work any alienation or affection
in us one towards another. But, withal, nothing hinders but
that we may come yet closer to one another, if both may
resolve to meet in that primitive government whereby it is
meet we should both be regulated, universally agreed on by
all antiquity, wherein all things were ordered and transacted
by the consent of the Presbytery, moderated by one constant
president thereof. But if there must be a difference of judg
ment on these matters of outward policy,, why should not
our hearts be one ? Why should suet a diversity be of
power to endanger the dissolving of the bond of brotherhood ?
May we have the grace but to follow the truth in love ; we
shall in these several tracks overtake her happily in the end,
and find -her embracing of peace, and crowning us with bless
edness." — (Peacemaker, sect. 6, vol. vii. p. 59. Oxon.
1837.) Archbishop Bramhall writes of the Presbyterial Churches,
— " Because I esteem them churches not completely formed,

188 THE GREAT APOSTASY.
do I therefore exclude them from all hope of salvation? or
esteem them aliens and strangers, or account them formal
schismatics? No such thing. It is not at all material,
whether episcopacy and priesthood be two distinct orders, or
distinct degrees of the same order." — (Bramhall's Works,
fol. 164. Dublin, 1677.)
Archbishop Usher writes, — " For the testifying of my
communion with these churches, which I do love and honor
as true members of the church universal, I do profess that
with like affection I would receive the blessed sacrament at
the hands of the Dutch (i. e. presbyterial) ministers in Hol
land, as I would do at the hands of the French ministers."
Archbishop Wake writes, — "I bless God that I was born
and have been bred in our Episcopal Church, which I am
convinced has been the government established in the
Church from the very time of the apostles ; but I should be
unwilling to affirm, that where the ministry is not episcopal,
there is no church, nor any true administration of the sacra
ments ; and very many there are among us, who are zeal
ous for episcopacy, yet dare not go so far as to annul the
ordinances of God performed by any other ministry."
Bishop Tomline says, — "I readily admit that there is no
precept in the New Testament which commands that every
church should be governed by bishops. The Scriptures do
not prescribe any definite form of church government."
I need not multiply extracts from Cranmer, Ridley, and
the early Reformers. They were Episcopalians by prefer
ence, but held communion with all the regularly ordained
presbyters of foreign churches.
Cranmer said, " Bishops and priests were not two things,
but both one office, in the beginning of Christ's religion."
<<And of these two orders only — viz. priests and deacons —
Scripture maketh express mention." " For the said fathers,
considering the great and infinite multitude of Christian
men so largely increased through the world, and taking ex-

THE APOSTOLIC SUCCESSION. 189
amples of the Old Testament, thought it expedient to make
an order of degrees to be among the spiritual governors of
the church, and so ordained some to be patriarchs, some to
be primates, some to be metropolitans, some to be arch
bishops, and some to be bishops."
One extract from Bishop Jewel: ".Is it so horrible a
heresy, to say that by the Scriptures of God a bishop and
a priest are all one ? Verily, Chrysostom saith, ' Inter epis-
copum et presbyterum interest ferme nihil.' Augustine
saith, ' Quid est episcopus, nisi primus presbyter ? '" —
(Jewel's Works : Defence, 202.)
Dean Sherlock says, " A church may- be a truly catholic
church, and such as we may and ought to communicate with,
without bishops;" — (Gibson's Preservative, Lond. 1848.)
Dr. Claget says, " Some things are necessary to the being
of a churqh. ; and they are the acknowledgment of the one
Lord, the profession of the one faith, and admission into the
state of Christian duties and privileges by one baptism.
And this is all that I can find absolutely necessary, to the
being of a church."
" The Church of England does not unchurch those parts
of Christendom that hold the unity of the faith. Hence the
folly of that conceit, that in this divided state of Christen
dom there must be one church, which is the only church of
Christ, exclusive of all the rest that are not in communion
with her." — (Gibson's Preservative, vol. iii. pp. 332-334.
Lond. 1848.)
Many other quotations might be made, all leading to the
same conclusion, that episcopal ordination is not to be
regarded as essential to a true church. And I am sure, when
we appeal to the only standard of error and of truth, if
there be one danger against which Christians are warned in
every page, it is that of trusting to those who claim to have
apastolical succession. With a few of the passages to which
I allude, I will conclude my remarks upon this topic.

190 THE GREAT APOSTASY.
Isaiah viii. 20 : " To the law and to the testimony ; if
they speak not according to this word, it is beeause there is
no light in them." When this appeal was made, there were
prophets commissioned from above, and chief priests who
had a real and demonstrable succession ; and yet the people
were commanded not to believe them absolutely, but to bring
their doctrine to God's word. Again: Matthew xvi. 6, 12:
" Then Jesus said unto them, Take heed, and beware of the
leaven of the Pharisees and of the Sadducees. Then under
stood they how that he bade them, not beware of the leaven
of bread, but of the doctrine of the Pharisees and of the Sad
ducees." And yet the Pharisees " sat in Moses' seat," and
had the true ecclesiastical succession of their age. Galatians
i. 8 : " But though we, or an angel from heaven, preach any
other gospel unto you than that which we have preached
unto you, let him be accursed." If we are to try an
apostle's doctrine by the Sacred Volume, much more the
doctrine of a professed successor of the apostles. If an
angel were to come from the realms of glory, and, with the
radiance and splendor of heaven, were to preach to us doc
trines opposed to God's word, and plainly contrary to its ex
press and reiterated statements, it would be the duty of every
Christian to say, " Let a brand be fixed upon that angel's
brow, and let his wing be blasted ; he is not a messenger
from God, but a messenger from Satan only, and to be
cursed." Again : 1 Thessalonians v. 21 : " Prove all
things ; hold fast that which is good." 1 John iv. 1 :
" Beloved, believe not every spirit, but try the spirits," (that
is, the ministers,) " whether they are of God ; " — and on
what ground? — "Because many false prophets are gone
out into the world." Aaron was the high-priest, and pos
sessed a valid and legitimate succession ; but Aaron made a
golden calf: Were the people justified in worshipping it?
Urijah was a high-priest, of legitimate succession from
Aaron, but Urijah introduced idolatry into the temple : the

THE APOSTOLIC SUCCESSION. 191
people, in that day, were under the solemn duty of becoming
dissenters ftem it — not conformists to it. Caiaphas, the
chief priest by a legitimate succession, gave sentence against
Christ, denouncing him as a blasphemer; and if 1 had
listened to the teaching of the church in the days of our
Lord, I should have joined in the cry, "Away with him,
away with him! Crucify him, crucify him!" but if I had
listened to the teaching of the Spirit of God, in the oracles
he had given, I should have said, " Hosanna ! blessed be he
that cometh in the name of the Lord ! " And lastly, we
read that the sheep of Christ are not to follow " ravening
wolves," some of whom, the apostle said, were to rise up
among their own selves ; but they were to watch, and to
adhere to the doctrine they had learned of God.
Let me add a simple illustration of the worth- and value
of apostolical succession, founded upon that beautiful an
nouncement in the Gospel of John : " As Moses lifted up
the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of man
be lifted up, that whosoever believeth in him should not
perish, but have everlasting life." The Israelites, you re
member, were dying in the wilderness by the sting of fiery
serpents ; and Moses raised a brazen serpent upon the top
of a pole, and bade the dying look ; and the instant that they
looked, they were cured. We are told that this is an exact
type of the blessed Gospel of Jesus Christ ; and, if I address
Roman Catholics, or Tractarian Romanists, I implore them
to look through the misty and glittering medium they live
in, at its glorious announcements ; and while they look, I
pray that they may live. Suppose now, when Moses went
round to the Israelites, as they were dying by thousands,
and said to them, " Behold the brazen serpent on the pole,
and live," that some dying Jew had lifted up his eye, and
said, " Moses, before I look to the serpent, tell me, on what
is it elevated ? " Moses would surely have replied, (if we
can suppose such a conversation to have occurred,) " That

192 THE GREAT APOSTASY.
is no concern of yours : this must be the simple question
with you, Is the serpent visible ? And if it be, you are to
look." But suppose the dying Israelite to reply, " If you
will tell me the composition of the pole — whether it be
brass, or iron, or oak — I will look; but if you will not tell
me, or if you say it is only wood, I will not look, but I will
lie down and rather die." Or suppose him to say, " If it is
wood, at all events I will not look until I know the botanical
succession of that pole; that it was cut from a tree that
sprung up a hundred years ago, which again grew from
another which grew before the Flood, which again sprang
from another which grew before Adam fell : I must have its
succession demonstrated, from the creation to the day when
it was cut by the carpenter, before I will look and be cured."
Infatuation as it seems, it is just the essence of the Tracta
rian gospel. I maintain, that the best pole must have been
that which lifted highest the brazen serpent before the peo
ple ; and the best church, have it or have it not the apostoli
cal succession, is that which holds Christ aloft and alone
prominent, and clothed in his own majestic glory, that the
dying may look, and the living rejoice.

[193]

LECTURE VII.
THE UNITY OF THE CHURCH.
Eph. iv. 5.
The Romish Church arrogates a monopoly of unity. I
deny that the Church of Rome has unity. Even on so vital
a doctrine as infallibility, her divines differ. One party in
that church, the Trans- Alpines, say that the Pope is person
ally infallible when speaking ex cathedra ; the other party,
the Cis-Alpines, say, that a decree is infallible only when it
issues from a General Council, with the Pope at its head ;
and no Council has yet declared the Roman Church infalli
ble, and thus there is a want of unity upon one of the cardi
nal doctrines of the Roman Catholic Church. If, again, I
refer to the fifth Council of Lateran, which consisted of one
hundred and fourteen bishops, with the Pope at their head,
I find that one party in the Church of Rome asserts that it
was a General Council, and therefore that all its decrees are
to be received: and another party maintains that it was not
a General Council, and that its decrees have no authority.
Respecting penance, the Church of Rome is divided : a large
party, including Delahogue, P. Lombard Bona, and Gabriel,
assert that absolution by a priest is simply declarative ; but
the Council of Trent, backed by Estius and Vasquez, main
tain that absolution is judicial, and equivalent to God's.
Again : the Church of Rome is not agreed whether love to
God is necessary to salvation : a large section of its theolo
gians, approved by Benedict the Fourteenth, in his Treatise
Syn. Dioec. lib. 7, c. 13, hold that all which is required for
17 '

194 THE GREAT APOSTASY.
absolution by the priest, and for salvation, is to have that
fear of God which has only the fear of hell ; and but a small
portion of theologians of the Church of Rome hold, that the
love of God is an essential element in this fear. Awful
apostasy! to hold that souls may be borne to glory, and
realize the forgiveness, of sins, without " loving God with all
their heart, and mind, and strength ! " But the Church of
Rome has not even unity in point of discipline ; for she has
Dominicans, Franciscans, Carmelites, Jesuits, blue friars,
grey friars, black friars, begging and mendicant monks of
every description. And I am sure, if the Apostle Peter
could behold them, assembled in a motley crowd, all pro
fessing to be successors of the apostles, and to belong to
the one Catholic Church, -surprised at the spectacle, he
would exclaim — " Paul I know, and John I know, but who
are ye ?",-'
But mere unity is no necessary proof of possessing truth.
Aaron, and the vast multitude that surrounded him, were
united in the worship of the golden calf: were they, there-i
fore, right? :The ten tribes that met at Bethel were
united, as much as the two that met at Jerusalem. Satan
and his angels are just as united as the angels in heaven
are; only, the union of the angels in glory is the concord
of the holy, while the union of Satan and his host is the
conspiracy »f the damned. It is not mere union, but the
principles and grounds of, it, that entitle: ii- to respect or
reverence. Unity, let it be remembered, is, not the concord
of any one contemporaneous generation, but of the nine
teenth century with' the eighteenth,: and with every pre
ceding one.
Uniformity is the just expression of the sort of union. in
the Church of Rome, rather than unity ; and it is produced
by two causes — ignorance and compression. The first
cause is ignorance. The Greeks and Romans were united
in the worship of idols before they became Christians, the

THE UNITY OF THE CHURCH. 195
Ephesians were united in the worship of Diana, and the
Jews were perfectly agreed in crying, with simultaneous
accents, " Crucify him, crucify him : " but the moment that
light shone amid the Ephesians, they were disunited, a
party following Christ, and a party following Diana ; the
moment that the Gospel sounded upon the banks of the
Tiber, and in the groves of Ilissus, that moment Greek and
Roman were divided on the worship of their idols. Light
dissolves the union that is produced in ignorance ; as in the
gigantic iceberg, a collection of all heterogeneous elements,
which is dissolved when the sunbeams of heaven rest upon
it, and its waters flow in one way, and its chaff and hay and
stubble are driven in another by the winds of heaven.
And, secondly, the uniformity in the Church of Rome is
produced by compression. In Spain, all are perfectly
united, but it is the union of the dead ; the people that live
upon the earth above, being scarcely better than those who
slumber in the graves below. And, if mere compression or
compulsion be all that is required to complete unity, Botany
Bay must be the fairest colony appended to the British
dominions, for there it exists in perfection ; and, on this
ground, thirty-nine bayonets would be a more powerful
guarantee for union than Thirty-nine Articles, and Newgate
more renowned for it than a Christian church. But this is
not the unity for which we contend. We seek the unity of
minds enlightened by the truth, the unity of hearts im
pressed by the truth ; but the unity of the Church of Rome
is the unity of " unclean birds," kept together by a force ab
extra, and not by internal attraction. The hands are united,
but the hearts are at antipodes. The fear of Purgatory, and
the penalties of the Church, guarantee a semblance of
unity ; but it is not real. On the contrary, it is a place, to
use the language of Milton, —
" Where all life dies, death lives, and nature breeds
Perverse all monstrous, all prodigious things,

196 THE GREAT APOSTASY.
Abominable, unutterable, and worse
Than fables yet have feign' d, or fear conceived;
Gorgons, and Hydras, and Chimeras dire."
Mine be the rolling waves of the ocean, rather than the
putrefying Dead Sea ! Mine be the roaring cataract, rather
than the stagnant marsh ! Mine be all the excitement of
living truth, rather than the quiescence of pestilential error !
"A living dog is better than a dead lion."
And here I must state, that I do not think it was ever
the mind of God that there should be perfect uniformity in
the visible Church of Christ. I am attached to my own
Church, and (I will use the expression) most enthusiasti
cally ; but I should deplore the day when all England's
Christians should become converts to its polity; and I
should equally deplore the day when they should all become
Episcopalians. I believe it «to be God's ordinance, that
while there is only one ark, there should be different cham
bers in it ; that there should be branches differing in out
ward peculiarity, while there is only one living Vine, and
one pervading sap. There is one living Catholic Church,
but there may be many outward manifestations and devel
opments of it, in its contact with the world. And it is by
this very process that the whole catholic truth of God is
preserved. You will always find, that one communion holds
in solution a truth overlooked by its neighbor, and that
neighbor a truth overlooked by another ; and it is by these
diversities of outward constitution, that all the truths of
Christianity are held prominent and distinct. If all men
were advocates of an Establishment, voluntary liberality
would be repressed ; if all men were advocates of the volun
tary system, the duties and responsibilities of nations would
be overlooked. In Presbytery, we have retained the pres
byter, but lost the oversight of the bishop ; in Episcopacy
they have retained the bishop's superintendence, but lost
the presbyter; in Independency, they have retained the

THE UNITY OF THE CHURCH. 197
power of the people, but have lost what I conceive to be
necessary for the unity and government of the church —
the superintendence of the bishop or presbytery. But thus
it happens, that one party preserves that which the other
has lost sight of; and thus if we take in the whole Catholic
Church of Christ, we see all the truths of the Gospel
therein developed, manifested, and maintained. But I allege,
that it is not God's ordinance that there should be uniformity
in nature, and that this is indicative of his mind with regard
to the Church. Look to the firmament above : you cannot
count its thousands of stars, and " one star differeth from
another star in glory : " God might have made them alike,
but he has not done so. View the whole earth in the
season of spring or of summer : one flower is a rose, and
another is a violet, another a lily ; there is the same generic
law for the whole vegetable creation, but the specific de
velopments of it are distinct and diversified. Search into
the bowels of the earth : the minerals are essentially the
same, but their crystallization varied and diversified, though
all under one law. Look upon this vast assembly; each
face is a human face, and yet there are not two counte
nances alike. Uniformity would be a blemish ; diversity is
a beauty. And I allege, that to seek uniformity in the
Church of Christ, is to seek a violation of the laws of God.
To advocate unity at heart, amidst diversity of manifesta
tion, is to join in the prayer of our blessed Lord, " That
they all may be one."
We have, in the fourth chapter of the Epistle to the
Ephesians, a perfect specimen of the unity of the Protestant
Church : " one body, one spirit, one hope, one Lord, one
faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all." In once
arguing with a Roman Catholic, I put the question to the
whole assembly, if these were not the characteristics of
their Church. I asked the Baptists, and they answered,
"Yes;" I asked the Independent, and they answered,
17*

198 THE GREAT APOSTASY.
"Yes;" I asked the Episcopalians, and they answered,
"Yes." We have, then, in our only rule of faith — the
Bible — the sevenfold unity which is characteristic of the
true Church ; and therefore Protestants, however different
in name, are essentially one in truth. In the Church of
Rome, they will forgive you every error if you will only
cling to the chair of St. Peter ; in the Protestant Church,
we forgive you every circumstantial difference if you only
cleave to Christ. The points of diversity are, Christ and
Antichrist. In the Church of Rome, they pardon all, if all
only look to the Pope ; in the Protestant Church, we for
give all circumstantial diversities, on condition that all
rejoice in " beholding the Lamb of God, that taketh away
the sin of the world."
Let me now draw my remarks to a close on this head, by
giving some practical advice to Protestants.
And first, let our common faith be written as with a dia
mond's point upon the living rock ; let our diversities in
regimen and ecclesiastical discipline be inscribed as upon
the shifting sand. Cast away Satan's microscope, which
magnifies the points of divergence ; use God's telescope,
which brings within the horizon of your view the manifold
and mingling glories, in the magnificence of which all our
contrarieties and shades of sentiment are merged and lost.
The things in which we agree are majestic as the attributes
of God, and enduring as the eternity to which they point ;
the things in which we differ are trivial, and it needs an un
charitable microscope to magnify and discover them. The
points in which we differ are like chaff in comparison with
the wheat ; the doctrines in which we agree are precious
and weighty as the virgin gold. Our Lord's constant in
junction is, " A new commandment give I unto you, that ye
love one another;" "Let brotherly love continue." And
all this I will sum up in that beautiful sentiment — "In
.essential things unity, in doubtful things liberty, in all things
charity."

THE UNITY OF THE CHURCH. 199
Again : Let me urge union and communion among all
true Christians, on the ground of our near and dear rela
tionship. We are fellow-soldiers, fellow-travellers, fellow-
voyagers. " Let there be no strife, I pray thee, between
thy herdmen and my herdmen ; for we be brethren." It is
our solemn duty to cultivate this union. We are only in
superable, whilst we are inseparable. Remember the bundle
of arrows: united, incapable of being broken; disunited,
severed easily into pieces.
To enforce and illustrate this advice, let me call upon all
true Christians to look less at the defects by which their
brethren are deformed, and more intensely at the beauties
by which they are distinguished. When I look at the Inde
pendent Dissenters, I will forget any that have exceeded the
bounds of charity, and think of a Moffat, of a Williams, and
other kindred spirits. When we look at the Church of
Scotland, let us forget its recent fierce and headstrong spirits,
who have reflected no honor upon it, and think of its many
peaceful and holy ministers. And when we look at the-
Church of England, let us forget its Newmans, its Puseys,
and its Hooks, and think of its Noels, its M'Neiles, its Bick-
ersteths, its Sumners, and its devoted bishops, who in past
ages have shed a halo and a glory upon Christendom. Act
the part of the painter, who was called upon to sketch Alex
ander the Great. Alexander had a scar upon his forehead,
which he had received in the course of his Macedonian bat
tles; and the painter was perplexed to find a way by which
to escape showing this deformity on the portrait: at last he
hit upon the happy expedient of representing the monarch
sitting in his chair, his head leaning upon his right arm, and
the forefinger covering the scar upon his brow. When I
sketch the Independent communion, I would put my finger
upon the scar by which it may be deformed ; when you
sketch the Church of Scotland, lay the finger of charity upon
the scar by which she has been defaced ; when we sketch

200 THE GREAT APOSTASY.
the Church of England, let us put our finger over the scar
which I fear is growing in breadth and deformity upon her ;
and I would say the same of the Church of Rome, only she
is all scar — there is no soundness in her at all.
This is God's way of treating us, and it ought to be our
way of treating one another. When Rahab is referred to
in Scripture, Rahab's lie is not mentioned, but Rahab's faith
is spoken of. When Job is referred to, his fretfulness. is for
gotten, and his patience is canonized. When David is men
tioned, David's sin is not spoken of, but David's grace is re
membered. And if we had only love in our hearts, depend
upon it, there would be greater charity in our sketches of
one another. Love is the Ten Commandments kept in a
monosyllable, just as sin is the Ten Commandments broken
in a monosyllable. If we could only believe it, we are really
and truly one. I do not ask any one to break down his
ecclesiastical polity ; I do not ask any one to violate the laws
he has subscribed ; but I ask you, in every holy and Chris
tian work, to feel, that whatever the color of the robes in
which your ministers preach, or the forms in which you wor
ship, you are, if God's children, essentially and truly one.
Take a quantity of quicksilver, and throw it upon the earth,
and it breaks into a thousand globules : Why ? Because of
the unevenness of the earth's surface. But the affinities of
the quicksilver are not destroyed : use a little care, a little
gentleness — collect the globules, and they will unite into a
bright mass, reflecting your countenance as you behold it.
So with Christians : it is earth that originates the contra
rieties ; it is sin that severs : a little charity might soon
collect them into one common mass, reflecting the glory
of their common God, the righteousness of their common
Saviour, and the splendor of their everlasting home.
Finally : to maintain the unity of the Protestant Church,
let us live nearer to Christ, that we may live nearer to one
another. You know, that in a circumference or hoop, if

THE UNITY OF THE CHURCH. 201
there are a number of radii or lines proceeding from the
circumference towards the centre, as each line approaches
the centre it comes nearer to its neighbor. So in the Gos
pel : Christ is the great centre ; we are converts from the
circumference of the wide world ; and the nearer we come
to Christ, the nearer we come to one another. And it is
when we are absorbed, and meet in Christ, that " Ephraim
shall not envy Judah, and Judah shall not vex Ephraim."
And now, if there be in this assembly any Roman Cath
olic, (and I know that on the past occasions there have been
many,) let me adjure him to burst the withes of that church
and priesthood by which he is bound, and to come forth into
the liberty wherewith Christ makes his people free. Let
me tell you of the true Purgatory — the blood of Jesus
Christ that " cleanseth from all sin ; " let me tell you of the
only Saviour — Jesus Christ and him crucified. Belong
you to the Romish Church, or belong you to the Protestant,
if you look away from Mary, and from saints and angels,
and look by faith to the Son of God alone, you shall never
come into condemnation.
May apostolical succession be felt less and less valuable
in our estimation ! may apostolical doctrine be more ! May
the uniformity of Rome be scattered and broken, as by a
thunder-peal ! may the unity of the church of the living
God reign and spread on earth, till it is lost in the glory of
the church triumphant in heaven !

f 202 1

LECTURE VIII.

THE FATHERS.

The Fathers are not safe expositors of Holy Scripture,
nor is the Nicene Church the right model of the Christian
Church. I shall have to tax your patience to its very
utmost, and to draw upon your indulgence to no ordinary
extent; because what I shall adduce will be less of argu
ment or illustration, and more of dry but important and
authentic documents, proving, by bare and stern facts, the
principles I am anxious to inculcate.
The two topics before us this evening for discussion are —
the Fathers, and the Nicene Church. It will require some
preliminary explanation to make you clearly understand
what these are. I can conceive that " Nicene Church," and
" Fathers," and other terms to which modern controversy
has been obliged to have recourse, must sound as something
approaching an unknown tongue in the ears of merely Bible
taught and evangelical Christians. But these words, I
assure you, play a most conspicuous part in the present day ;
and it is most important — nay, I hold it, under God, almost
essential to your protection from poisonous and deleterious
tenets — that you should fairly understand them, and be
able fully and firmly to repel the deductions that are too
frequently made from them.
By the Fathers is meant certain divines who flourished
during the<first five centuries, though some say twelve cen
turies, in order to include St. Bernard, of the Christian
Church. Some of these were distinguished for their genius,

THE FATHERS. 203
some for their eloquence, a few for their piety, and too many
for their fanaticism and superstition. It is recorded by Dr
Delahogue, (who was professor in the Roman Catholic Col
lege of Maynooth,) on the authority of Eusebius, that the
fathers who were really most fitted to be the luminaries of the
age in which they lived, were too busy in preparing their
flocks for martyrdom, to commit any thing to writing ; and,
therefore, by the admission of this Roman Catholic divine,
we have not the full and fair exponent of the views of all
the fathers of the earlier centuries, but only of those who
were most ambitious of literary distinction, and least atten
tive to their charges. It is generally true in the present
day, that the minister who has a large congregation, and
much to do in it, has very little time for writing elaborate
treatises upon: any of the controversies of the age, or even
for publishing sermons. It was so then : the most devoted
and pious of the fathers were busy teaching their flocks ;
the more vain and ambitious occupied their time in prepar
ing treatises. If all the fathers who signalized the age had
committed their sentiments to writing, we might then have
had a fair representation ; of the theology of the Church of
the fathers ; but as only a few have done so (many even of
their writings being mutilated or lost), and these not the
most devoted and spiritually minded, I contend, that it is as
unjust to judge of the theology of the early centuries by
the writings of the few fathers who are its only surviving
representatives, as iti would be to judge of the theology of
the nineteenth century by the sermons of Mr. Newman, the
speeches pf Dr. Candlish, or the various productions of the
late Edward Irving. It , is admitted, moreover, by Roman
Catholic divines, that some of the fathers have- erred, that
not a few pf them have broached heresies,1 and that they
must be read in the light of "the Church," in order to their
being read safely.
But.let me observe, -that those, called the fathers are not

204 THE GREAT APOSTASY.
strictly and properly the fathers at all. The advantage
taken by the advocates of their writings, as exponents of
primitive theology, is this — that these are the men who
lived near the apostles, and are covered with the hoar of a
thousand years ; and that it becomes us, the mere youths
and striplings of a day, to defer to the grey hairs, and rev
erence the experience, of a remote and' venerable age.
Now, I contend that the gifted divines of the present age
are the true fathers of the Christian Church; and that
Augustine, and Jerome, and Chrysostom, were, in compari
son, but the beardless boys of the Christian dispensation.
My reason for this strange, and apparently to a Roman
Catholic, extravagant assertion, is, I think, a very just one.
The great majority of the fathers, probably nine tenths of
them, never saw an apostle. Twenty or two hundred years
after the death of an apostle, are about equal, in as far as
the knowledge of his views is concerned. What do we
know of Martin Luther, after the lapse of three hundred
years, except what we gather from his written and accredited
biography? What more did our fathers know of him a
hundred years ago ? How much do we know of John Wes
ley, except from his writings ? Scarcely any thing ; and a
person living a thousand years hence, will be just as likely
to understand and estimate properly the character of that
remarkable man, as a person living only a« hundred years
after his death. The length of the intervening period
makes little difference, if there is no personal contact with
the individual. The fathers had the same Bible that we
have, the same eyes, tlie same judgments, the same promise
of the Holy Spirit to guide them ; up to this point we are
perfectly on a par. What, then, is the point of difference
between them and: us ? It is this : we have, in addition, all
tjie biblical criticism, the physical illustrations, the philo
sophical facts, the historical evidence, which have been accu
mulated by an induction of seventeen centuries. All the

THE FATHERS. 205
advantage, therefore, is on our side, as interpreters of the
. Bible ; and I contend that a, priori^ Matthew Henry and
Scott are more likely to be sound expositors of Scripture,
than the most illustrious of the fathers. And I am prepared
to demonstrate, by reference to the documentary evidence,
that in the Commentaries of Henry and Scott, in the ser
mons of Robert Hall and Bradley, Hare, Chalmers, the
Bishop of Chester, and other divines in the present age, we
have more luminous expositions of Christian theology, than
in the splendid orations of the golden-mouthed Chrysostom,
or in the evangelical comments of Augustine, or in the more
acrimonious and voluminous discussions of Jerome. I do
not mean to say that there is nothing good in the fathers ;
quite the reverse : I allow, that in the Homilies of Chrysos
tom there are some of the most exquisite gems of Christian
theology, an eloquence the most fervid, the impress of a
genius the most glowing, feelings the most earnest and
intense, and powers of reasoning which would do credit to
the most gifted divine of the age in which we live ; in
Augustine, also, the most orthodox of the fathers, there is
much evangelical and vital religion, much that may refresh
and edify the mind of any reader ; whilst in Jerome, though
too notorious for controversial bitterness, there is no little
powerful and eloquent writing. But when I have made all
these admissions, I contend, without being guilty of a foolish
and rather popular idolatry of the nineteenth century, that
they are no more to be compared with the leading divines
of the age in which we live, than the schoolmen of the
dark ages with Lord Bacon, Sir Isaac Newton, and othei
philosophers who flourished since the era of inductive
philosophy. I fear I must draw upon the reader's patience ; but I am
quite sure that the importance of the extracts I have to
adduce,- will make up for the apparent tedium. A few have
appeared in print ; the great mass has not : they have been
18

206 THE GREAT APOSTASY^
taken carefully from the original documents, faithfully trans«
lated, and the Greek and Latin originals are at hand ; the
reader, may, therefore, depend upon them as authentic.
What I wish to show is, first, that the fathers are contra
dictory expositors of Scripture ; and next, that they are
superstitious and fanatical commentators upon Scripture.
And the inference I wish to draw from all this is, that they
are not trustworthy commentators ; and next, that the posi
tion of the Roman Catholic Church, as announced in the
Creed of Pope Pius IV., is wholly untenable : " Nor will I
ever take and interpret the Holy Scriptures otherwise than
according to the unanimous consent of the fathers."
The first passage to which I will entreat attention, as illus
trative of this, is one of the best known in the whole word
of God ; it is what is called the-Lord's Prayer. One would
suppose, that if there be a -part of Scripture on which all
interpreters would be unanimous, and to which the Romish
prerequisite of patristic unanimity is applicable, it would be
this ; in short, that one meaning would pervade the com
mentaries upon every clause. I will give you, however, the
opinions of the different fathers upon it, as quoted by Bel
larmine. 1. The first clause is, " Our Father, who art in heaven."
Every one knows ¦ perfectly what that means. But Cyril,
Ambrose, and Augustine, understand "heaven" to mean the
souls of all believers ; Gregory Nyssen, Chrysostom, and
the monk Bernard, hold that " heaven " means literally
heaven. Now here are three fathers against three, on the
interpretation of the very first clause of the Lord's Prayer.
2. I take the next clause, " Hallowed be thy name." Ter
tullian and Cyprian say this means, " May we persevere in
holiness ; " and Cyril, Chrysostom, and Jerome say it means,
"May God's name be glorified." Here so many fathers
take one opinion, and so many precisely the opposite.
3. "Thy kingdom come." Ambrose says, this means

THE FATHERS. 207
exclusively and only the kingdom of grace. Tertullian,
Cyprian, and Augustine say, it means the kingdom of glory,
and not the kingdom of grace at all.
4. " Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven." Ter
tullian and Augustine say, "heaven" means the spirit,
and " earth " means the flesh : Cyprian says, " heaven "
means the faithful, and "earth" means unbelievers; and the
other fathers say, that "heaven" means just heaven, and
"earth" means just earth. Now observe here, again^ so
many fathers for the first, one for the second, and the rest
for a third and totally distinct ;6pihion. Are these " unani
mous " interpreters of the meaning of God's word ?
5. " Give us this day our daily bread." Chrysostom
says, this means our bodily nourishment. Jerome, Am
brose, and Cyril say, that it means only our spiritual nour
ishment. 6. " Forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive them that
trespass against us." Tertullian, Cyprian, Gregory Nyssen,
understood this to be, that all, both sinners and saints, need
forgiveness. Augustine holds that it means, Forgive us our
venial sins only, but not our mortal sins. Chrysostom holds,
that even after baptism, it denotes that there is- a place for
penance and for indulgence. Now, observe, here are three
different interpretations of the same passage, and each main
tained by equally illustrious fathers of the Christian Church.
7. "Lead "us not into temptation." Hilary and Jerome
differ a little from Tertullian, Cyprian, and Chrysostom,
with respect to this clause.
8. " Deliver us from evil." Gregory Nyssen, Cyril,
Chrysostom, Theophylact, and all the Greek fathers, hold
that this means, Deliver us from Satan ; but Cyprian and
Augustine, and all the Latin fathers, hold that it means,
Deliver us from evil in general.
Such is the exposition of the Lord's Prayer, excavated
from the writings of the fathers ; and it proves, that if you

208 THE GREAT APOSTASY.
expect unanimity in the interpretation of the plainest por
tions of Scripture by the fathers, you expect that which is
not to be found.
I take another passage — Genesis iv. 23, " I have slain a
man to my wounding, and a young man to my hurt." Upon
this text, in the Douay Bible, there is the following note :
" It is the tradition of the Hebrews, that Lamech, in hunt
ing, slew Cain, mistaking him for a wild beast; and that,
having discovered what he had done; he beat so unmer
cifully the youth by whom he was led into the mistake, that
he died of the blows." In the fourth century, Pope Dama
sus wrote to Jerome, requesting him to impart to him the
meaning of certain passages of Holy Writ, and of the above
passage among the rest. Pope Damasus's letter is published
with Jerome's works. Jerome in his reply says,"Methusael
begat Lamech, who being theiseventh from Adam, not spon
taneously, as it is written in a certain Hebrew book, slew
Cain, as he afterwards confesses, ' For I have slain a man
to my wounding,' etc." Thus, Jerome adopts the Hebrew
tradition, and believes that Lamech slew Cain ; and the
Douay expositors record the same tradition. When we refer,
however, to Chrysostom, we find that he evidently took a
very different view of the matter; for he thus interprets the
meaning of God's declaration to Cain (in cap. iv. Gen. Horn.
xix.) — " Have you feared lest you should fbe, killed ? Be
of good courage, that shall not happen. For "he who does
this shall expose himself to a sevenfold penalty." When,
again, we refer to Augustine, we find him quite at variance
with Jerome ; for he compares the mark set upon the Jews,
and their preservation, with the mark set upon Cain, and his
preservation ; and the comparison could not have been justly
instituted, if Cain had been slain by Lamech. Augustine's
words are as follows: (Enarr. in Psalm 39.) "For Cain,
the elder brother, who slew the younger brother, received a
mark, ' lest any man should slay him,' as it is written in

THE FATHERS. 209
Genesis, God placed a mark upon Cain, that nobody should
slay him. Therefore, the Jewish nation itself remains. Cain
has not been slain, he has not been slain, he has his mark."
If we consult Basil (Epist. 260, class 2), we find that he
expressly refers to the tradition that Lamech slew Cain, and
affirms that it was not true : " Some think that Cain was
slain by Lamech, as if he had lived until that time in order
that he might yield a longer punishment; but it is not true."
Here are authorities against authorities among the fathers :
and yet the Roman Catholic is never to interpret Scripture
" except according to the unanimous consent of the fathers."
As that unanimity does not exist upon the two passages of
Scripture which I have read to you, every Roman Catholic
is bound, on his own principles, to attach no meaning to
them at all, and every Protestant to pause before he receives
implicitly patristic expositions.
There is another passage, which the Roman Catholic
Church has made very much of, as defensive of the doctrine
of Purgatory, but which, upon the same principle, must be
discarded altogether, as utterly incapable of any interpreta
tion at all. 1 Corinthians iii. -s£" According to the grace of
God that is given to me, as a wise master-builder, I have
laid the foundation, and another buildeth thereon. But let
every man take heed how he buildeth thereupon. For other
foundation canino man lay than that is laid, which is Jesus
Christ. Now if any man build upon this foundation, gold,
silver, precious stones, wood, hay, stubble, every man's work
shall be manifest ;- for the day shall declare it, because it
shall be revealed by fire, and the fire shall try every man's
work, of what sort it-is. If any man's work abide, which he
hath built thereupon, he shall receive a reward : if any
man's work shall be burned, he shall suffer loss ; but he
himself shall be saved, yet so as by fire." Now I will ex
tract the epitome which Cardinal Bellarmine gives of the
difficulties of this passage, and the differences of the fathers :
18*

210 THE GREAT APOSTASY.
"The difficulties of this passage are five, in number. 1.
What is to be understood by the builders? 2. What is;to
be understood by gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay,
stubble1 ? 3. What is to be understood by the day of the
Lord ? 4. What is to be understood by the fire, of which
it is said, that in the day of the Lord it shall prove every
man's work? 5. What is to be understood by the fire,. of
which it is said, he shall be saved, yet so as by fire ? When
these things are explained, the passage will be clear.
" The first difficulty, therefore, is, Who are the architects
who build upon the foundation ? The blessed Augustine, in
his book on Faith and Works, c. 16, and in his ' Enchirid
ion,' c. 6, and elsewhere, thinks that all Christians are here
called by the apostle architects, and that all build upon the
foundation of the faith either good or bad works. Chrysos
tom, Theodoret, Theophylact, and (Ecumenius, appear to
me to teach the same upon this passage. Many others
teach that only the doctors and preachers of the Gospel are
here called architects by the apostle. Jerome insinuates
this in his second book against Jovinianus. The blessed
Anselm and the blessed Thomas hold the same opinion on
this passage, although they do not reject the former opinion.
Many more moderns think the same, as Dionysius the Car
thusian, Lyra, Cajetan, and others.
" The other difficulty is rather more serious, for there are
six opinions. Some, by the name of foundation, understand
a true but an ill digested faith ; by the name of gold, silver,
and precious stones, good works ; by the names of wood,
hay, and stubble, mortal sins. Thus Chrysostom upon this
place, who is followed by Theophylact.. The second opinion
is, that Christ, or the preaching of the faith, is to be under
stood by the name of foundation ; that by the names of gold,
silver, precious stones, are to be understood Catholic exposi
tions, as the commentary of Ambrose and even Jerome seem
to teach. The third opinion, by the name foundation, un-

THE FATHERS 211
derstands living faith ; and by the name of gold, silver, and
precious stones, understands works of supererogation, etc.
Thus the blessed Augustine, in his book on Faith and
Works, lib. 6. The fourth opinion is that of those who ex
plain by gold, silver, etc., to be meant good works ; by hay,
stubble, etc., venial sins. Thus the blessed Gregory, in the
fourth book of his Dialogues, c. 39; and others. , The fifth
is the opinion of those who understand by gold, silver etc.,
good ' hearers ; and by stubble etc., bad hearers. Thus
Theodoret and CEcumenius. The sixth opinion, which we
prefer to all, is, that by the name of foundation is to be un
derstood Christ as preached, :by the first preachers ; by the
name of gold, silver, etc. is to be understood the useful doc
trine of the other preachers, who teach those who now re
ceived the faith ; but by the name of wood, hay, etc. is to be
understood the doctrine, not indeed heretical, or bad, but
singular, of those preachers who preach cathplically to the
Catholic people, without the fruit and usefulness which God
requires. " The third difficulty regards the day of the Lord. Some
understand by the name of day, the present life or the time
of tribulation. Thus Augustine, in his book of Faith and
Works, c. 16, and Gregory, in the fourth book of his Dia
logues, c. 39. .... But all the ancients seem to have under
stood by that day, the day of the last judgment, as Theodo
ret, Theophylact, Anselm, and others.
" The fourth difficulty is, What is the fire, which in the
day of the Lord shall prove every man's work ? Some, un
derstand the tribulations of this life, as Augustine and Greg
ory, in the places noted; but these we have already re
jected. Some understand-' eternal fire ; but that cannot be,
for fire shall not try the building of gold and silver 
Some understand it to be the pains of purgatory ; but that
cannot be truly said. First, because the ; fire of purgatory
does not prove the works pf those who build gold and silver;

212 THE GREAT APOSTASY.
but the fire of which we are speaking shall prove every
man's work what it is. Secondly, the apostle clearly makes
a distinction between the works and the workmen, and says,
concerning the fire, that it shall burn the works, but not the
workers ; for he says, ' if any one's work shall remain, and
if any work shall burn ; ' but the fire of purgatory, which is
a real fire, cannot burn works, which are transitory actions,
and have already passed. Lastly, it would follow that all
men, even the most holy, would pass through the fire of
purgatory, and be saved by fire, for all are to pass through
the fire of which we are speaking. But that all are to pass
through the fire of purgatory, and be saved by fire, is clearly
false ; for the apostle here openly says, that only those who
build wood and hay are to be saved as if by fire : the Church,
also, has always been persuaded, that holy martyrs, and in
fants dying after baptism, are presently received into heaven
without any passage through fire, as the Council of Florence
teaches in its last session. It remains, therefore, that we
should say, that the apostle here speaks of the fire of the
severe and just judgment of God, which is not a purging or
punishing fire, but one that probes and examines. Thus
Ambrose explains it on Psalm cxviii- and also Sedulius.
" The fifth and last difficulty is, What is to be understood
by the fire, when he says, ' But he shall be saved, yet so as
by fire ? ' Some understand the tribulations of this life ; but
this cannot be properly said, because then even lie who built
gold and silver would be saved by fire. Wherefore Augus
tine and Gregory, who are the authors of this opinion, when
they were not satisfied with it, proposed another, of which
we shall speak by and by. Some understand it to be eternal
fire, as Chrysostom and Theophylact. But this we have
already refuted. Others understand the fire of the confla
gration of the world. It is therefore the common opinion
of theologians, that by the name of this fire is to be under
stood some purgatorial and temporal fire, to which, after

THE FATHERS. 213
death, those are adjudged who are found in their trial to
have built wood, hay, and stubble."
This is another illustration of the worthlessness of the
comments of the fathers as infallible expositors, and the
utter absurdity of that vow which every Roman Catholic
makes in principle, while his priests make it in Words —
that they will not interpret Scripture unless " according to
the unanimous consent of the fathers." And if ever a
Roman Catholic should urge upon you the doctrine of Pur
gatory, building it upon this passage, ask him if he is not
bound by the laws of his Church, first to ascertain that the
fathers are unanimous upon it ; and if it be the fact that
the fathers are all at issue upon the meaning of every clause,
tell him he must put a padlock upon his mouth, instead of
daring to determine and declare the meaning of a passage,
so contradictorily explained by the ancient authorities.
Let us take another passage, a very favorite text with the
Church of Rome. If you discuss with a Roman Catholic,
Who is the chief bishop, and what is the true Church, he
will tell you, Peter is the rock and the foundation on which
the Church rests; and he will quote the words — "Thou
art Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church." Now
the question at present is, not what is the true meaning of
this passage, but whether the ' fathers shed light on it, and
whether a Roman' Catholic is warranted to interpret it. If
the fathers are unanimous in the interpretation of it, then
the Roman Catholic is bound to take that interpretation ;
but if they are not unanimous, he is bound to put no inter
pretation on it at all. Then hear what the fathers say.
Some of them say, that the rock is Peter's faith ; as Cyril
of Alexandria, (Dial. 4, on Holy Trin.). "He called
nothing but the firm and immovable faith of the disciple
the rock upon which the Church was founded, without the
possibility of falling : " and thus also Chrysostom (Serm. de
Pent.) — " He did not say, upon Peter, for he did not found

214 THE GREAT APOSTASY.
his Church upon a man, but upon faith. What, therefore,
is meant by ' upon this rock ? ' Upon the confession con-.
tained in his words." Also (Chrys. Serm. 54, on Matt.)
"And I say unto thee, Thou art Peter, and upon this rock I
will build my church ; that is to say, upon the faith of the
confession." Augustine sometimes interprets the rock to
mean Peter, and sometimes to mean Christ ; and referring
to his contradictions in his Book of Retractations, he leaves
the reader to choose for himself whichever of the interpre
tations he prefers. His words are the following : (Retract.
lib. 1,) " I have said, in a certain passage respecting the
Apostle Peter, that the Church is founded upon him as upon
a rock  But I know that I have frequently after
wards so expressed myself that the phrase, ' upon this rock,
should be understood to be the rock which Peter confessed.
For it was not said to him, Thou art Petra, but Thou art
Petrus ; for the rock was Christ. Let the reader select
which of these two opinions he deems the most probable."
On the same passage Roman Catholics build the position,
that Peter had an absolute supremacy among the apostles,
and, therefore, that he was first Pope of Rome, the present
Pope being his lineal and legitimate successor. But Cyprian
denies that Peter had any successor. He says (De Unit.
Eccles.), " The other apostles were the same as Peter,
endowed with an equal fellowship both of honor and power,
(pari consortio prsediti et honoris et potestatis,) but the be
ginning proceeded from unity, that the Church of Christ
might be shown to be one."
Again, take the passage, " Whose sins ye remit, they are
remitted; and whose sins ye retain, they are retained."
Protestants maintain that this is a ministerial and declarative
absolution; Roman Catholics, that it is judicial; and so do
the Tractarians. I grieve that there is retained, in that
magnificent compendium of pure devotion, the Prayerbook
of the Church of England, a form of absolution in the Ser-

THE FATHERS. 215
.vice for^ the Visitation ofthe Sick, devoutly used by Tracta
rians, but which I believe a clergyman is not bound to use,
and whiph I 'admit is capable of some explanation; but the
expla^gtio|t,is not satisfactory to a plain unbiassed mind, and
I would that it were wholly expunged ; it is an unhappy
service, whieh is now being revived by the Tractarians, after
considerable desuetude : but Protestants hold, that even in
such cases the minister forgives ministerially; that is, he
merely declares forgiveness to you, provided you are pen
itent and believe. The Roman Catholic holds that it is a
judicial act, and that the priest forgives exactly as if he were
God, and the penitent seated in his presence. Upon this
passage of Scripture, however, Chrysostom expresses him
self in terms which agree with the decree of the Council of
Trent ; while Augustine, in opposition to the Donatists, who
claimed this priestly power, maintains that the act is merely
ministerial. For he says, (Contra Epist. Parmeniani, lib. 2,)
" That passage in the Gospel, ' As my Father hath sent me,
so also do I send you ; when he had said this he breathed
upon them, and said, Receive ye the Holy Ghost; if you
forgive any one's sins, they shall be forgiven ; and if you
retain any one's sins, they shall be retained,' — would be
against us, so that we should be compelled to confess that
this w.as done by men, and not through men, if after he had
said, 'And I also send you,' he had immediately added,
' Whose sins ye remit, they are remitted ; and whose sins ye
retain, they shall be retained.' But since the words are
introduced, ' When he had said this, he breathed upon them,
and said, Receive ye the Holy Ghost,' and then was conferred
through them either the remission or retention of sins, it is
sufficiently shown, that they themselves did not act, but the
Holy Spirit through them; as he says in another place,
' It is not ye that speak, but the Holy Spirit who is in you.' "
In opposition to this interpretation of Augustine's, the
Council of Trent decree, that the priest forgives sins judi.

216 HE GREAT APOSTASY.
cially, and not ministerially ; and therefore the GJ
Rome, in this instance, interprets Scripture inconsistently
with the opinion of one of the most distingjiisheK of the
fathers. *¦¦ *'-
Again: John v. 39, — "Search the Scriptures^" In the
Roman Catholic version it is — '¦' Ye search the Scriptures ; "
and as the Greek verb is the same in the indicative as in the
imperative mood, they may be warranted in this translation ;
although I conceive it makes no difference, for the passage,
even in the indicative, implies divine acquiescence in the pro
priety of the practice; either way it proves the duty of
searching the Scriptures. Cyril of Alexandria agrees with
the Church of Rome, in considering that the passage is de
clarative and does not contain a command to search the
Scriptures ; but Chrysostom maintains that it does. Chry
sostom says, in his 40th Homily on St. John's Gospel —
" He did not say, read the Scriptures, but search the Scrip
tures, since the things that are said of him require much
research. For this reason he commands (y.e'/.svet) them to
search with diligence, that they may discover the things that
lie deep."
One more passage: Matthew v. 25, — "Agree with thine
adversary quickly." Jerome is of opinion that the adver
sary is the brother who is offended, but he mentions that
others held that the devil was the adversary, (alii juxta epis-
tolam Petri dicentis "adversarius vester diabolus," etc.)
Bellarmine informs us (c. iv. De Purgatorio, lib. 1), that
'¦'some by the adversary understand 'the devil,' as Origen
(Horn. 35, on Luke), Ambrose, Enthymius, and Theophylact
(in cap. 12 Luca;), and Jerome (in Epist. 8 ad Demet.).
Others understand by the adversary < the flesh,' but these are
justly refuted by Augustine. Others by the .adversary
understand the Spirit, which the flesh is commanded to
obey; but Jerome refutes this. Others by the adversary
understand sin ; thus Ambrose : this is not probable. Other*

THE FATHERS. 217
Jpy, thSfllversary understand another man that has injured
us, or whom we have injured; thus Hilary, Anselm, and
Jerom'efjjj|ppiMatt. v.). The truest exposition is, that the
advers'Jij^s the law of God, or God himself. Thus Am
brose, "Anselm, and Augustine, Gregory, and Bernard.
These instances will suffice to show, that the vow of the
Roman Catholic, " never to interpret Holy Scripture other
wise than according to the unanimous consent of the fathers,'"
is precisely equivalent to removing the Scriptures from the
use of clergy and laity together, or making them a dead
letter, capable of bearing any meaning, or justifying any
interpretation. I know that distinguished Roman Catholic
divines have accused the advocates of the Protestant Church
of making false or disingenuous statements, when it has
been alleged that the Scriptures are practically withheld:
from the perusal of the people ; and I admit, that in the
nineteenth century, amid the light and the privileges of Eng
land, the Scriptures are, with certain limitations, allowed by
priests to the laity ; but it is giving them a book with a pad
lock upon it, of which the priest holds the key ; it is like
telling them to drink of a fountain, over the mouth of which
is a stone they are unable to roll away ; it is giving the
Scriptures to the eye, but withholding the Scriptures from
the heart. Suppose a Roman Catholic laborer, just arrived
from the bogs of Ireland, is told and taught not to interpret
a chapter of God's blessed book, till he has found "the
unanimous consent of the fathers " upon it. I refer him to
the passage — "Search the Scriptures;" he says to me,
" That passage may have a meaning which you and I know-
nothing of; • I must ascertain ' the unanimous consent of the
fathers,' before I put any meaning upon it at all." He goe3
to the British Museum, tells the Librarian his vow, and
requests to be furnished with the writings of the fathers. To
his surprise and horror, some hundred folio volumes are
brought to him — say, the Benedictine edition ofthe ancient
19

218 THE GREAT APOSTASY.
fathers. He opens a velume, and is amazea to find it writ
ten in Latin er Greek; ef either of which languages he
never learned a word in his life. But supposing (what is
very improbable) he masters the Greek and Latin languages,
or is satisfied to take an unauthorized translation, such as is
given forth by the Oxford writers in their edition, — and a
Roman Catholic may, on the whole, trust an Oxford divine
in this matter, — suppose, then, that by the aid of an elab
orate index, he ascertains all the recorded views of the
fathers respecting the passage in question ; — he finds, that
one father says the text in question is not a command to
search the Scriptures ; another father says it is a command,
and means, you are to search them ; another says it means
something else ; and at the close of his laborious and perse
vering researches, he finds that there is no unanimity on this
and innumerable other passages, and he must return to his
home wholly at a loss, shut up his Bible, and wait for its
meaning till the fathers have become unanimous (which will
be at " the Greek calends,") or till Infallibihty lays them on
its Procrustes' bed and makes them so, before he puts any
meaning upon it at all.
Having shown you that the opinions of the fathers are
contradictory, I wish to point out, in the next place, how
fanatical and superstitious are many of the interpretations
of the fathers. The Oxford divines assert, that the fathers
are the truest exponents of the primitive theology ; and I
wish to show you the consequences of this assertion.
I quote now from the Preface of the Benedictine edition
of St. Basil, dated Paris, 1721. The writer remarks upon
the six days' creation. "Among those," say the Benedic
tines, " who thought that things were created at once, and
not by degrees^ Philo may be first enumerated. It is not
wonderful that Origen, whe loved allegories more than all
men, should have run into the same opinion. With these
may be reckoned that most valiant defender of the Catholic

THE FATHERS. 219
. faith, Athanasius. Gregory Nyssen speaks so plainly, that
one cannot doubt that he embraced the same opinion. It
(this opinion) appeared to Basil more probable than the
other; but this most prudent man would not assert any
thing positively in a doubtful matter." The fathers, you
observe, were divided on the question, Whether the record
of the creation in the book of Genesis was an historical
fact, or a myth.
Again : on the Spirit moving on the waters, I quote from
the Benedictine edition of Chrysostom, in c. 1, Genesis,
Horn. iii. " The Spirit of God," he says, " was borne upon
the water. This appears to me to signify, that some vital
energy was present in the waters, and that the water was
not simply standing and unmoved, but moved as having
some vital power. For that which is unmoved is altogether
useless ; but that which is moved is serviceable for many
things." Again : Genesis vi. — " The sons of God saw the daugh
ters of men." Chrysostom, in his 22d Homily on Genesis,
observes — " Your lore should so apprehend the true mean
ing of the Scripture, as not to lend your ears to those who
speak these blasphemies, and dare to say things against their
own understanding : for they say that this , is not said of
men, but of angels, for that God called these ' the sons of
God.' Let them show, first, where angels are called the
sons of God." And Augustine, in his Questions on Gene
sis, concludes — " Whence is it more credible, that just men,
who were called' either angels or the sons of God, through
lust sinned with women, than that angels, who were not
.flesh, could have descended to this sin?" This opinion,
however, which Chrysostom terms " blasphemous," is stated
to have been "the opinion of many of the ancients," includ
ing Justin, Athenagoras, and Clemens of Alexandria.
In the interpretation of the portion of Scripture that
relates to Rebecca, Jerome writes to Pope Damasus —

220 THE GREAT APOSTASY.
" Isaac represents God the Father, Rebecca the Holy Spirit,
Esau the former people multiplied by the devil, Jacob the
Church of Christ. Isaac's growing old signifies the con
summation of the world; that he grew blind, shows that
faith before him perished from the world, and that the
light of religion had been neglected." The most fanciful
commentator upon Scripture in the present day, never
approached such an exposition as this in puerility and ab
surdity. Turn next to doctrine. Jerome says, (Question X. p.
238-3,) — " The vessels of mercy, which he prepared for
glory, which he called, that is to say, us who are not from
the Jews, but also from the Gentiles, he does not save irra
tionally, or without a true judgment, but for preceding causes,
because some have not received the Son of God, and others
of their own accord have received him." So that Jerome
was what we should call a very low Arminian. But, says
Augustine, (Epist. contra Julianum Pelagianum, lib. v.) —
" Those whom he predestined, them he also called. These
are the called according to his purpose. These are there
fore elect, and this before the constitution of the world, by
Him who calleth those things that be not as though they
were ; but elect by the election of grace. Whence he says
also of Israel, a remnant was made by the election of grace ;
and lest by chance they should be thought to be elect before
the foundation of the world by reason of their foreknown
works, he proceeded and added, But if by grace, then it is
not of works ; else grace is no more grace." So that Au
gustine, in opposition to Jerome, was what we call a Calvin-
ist. Again, on works of supererogation, Chrysostom, on
Hebrews x., Homily xix., thus speaks — "And besides,
Christ enjoins nothing which is impossible, since many have
surpassed his commandments.
Abraham, according to Chrysostom, actually fixed the
knife in his son's throat. He says, (Epist. 2 ad Cor. Horn.

THE FATHERS. 221
iii.) — "For the hand of the just man fixed it (the sword)
in the boy's throat;. but the hand of God did not permit
it, though fixed in it, to be contaminated by the boy's
blood." Ambrose holds, that we must all pass through fire to
heaven. In his exposition of Psalm 118, (Benedictine edi
tion, Paris, 1686,) he says — "It is necessary, that all who
desire to return to Paradise should be proved by fire ; for it
is not written unconcernedly, that Adam and Eve being
driven out of the seat of Paradise, God placed a fiery sword
which turned every way at their exit from Paradise. It is
necessary that all should pass through flames. Whether
he be John the Evangelist, whom the Lord so loved that he
said of him to Peter, ' If I will that he remain, what is that
to thee ? do you follow me : ' some have doubted respecting
his death, we cannot doubt respecting his passage through
the fire, because he is in Paradise, and is not separated from
Christ. Or whether it be Peter who received the keys of
the kingdom of heaven, and walked on the sea, it is needful
that he should say, ' Thou hast laid affliction upon our loins,
thou hast caused men to ride over our heads; we have
passed through fire and water, and thou hast brought us into
refrigerium.' "
Concerning Cain and Abel, Ambrose thus writes (Lib. ii.
c. 3.) — " Wherefore we do not unconcernedly wonder in
the Gospel, that the Lord Jesus sat upon the foal of an ass,
because the Gentile people, which according to the Law was
accounted unclean, began to be the sacrifice of Christ."
And in his book De Elia et Jejunio, he says of Paradise,
that " God established the first law about fasting there when
he said, 'Ye shall not eat of the tree of knowledge of good
and evil.' "
In his fifth Homily on Matthew, Chrysostom writes as
follows : " They say that John practised such austerity, that
all Ms limbs became dead, and from continual prayer and
19*

222 THE GREAT APOSTASY.
perpetual intercourse with the pavement, his forenead was
so hard as to be nothing better than the knee of a camel."
" That he would grant to me, to be encircled with the body
of Paul, to be fastened to his soul, and to see the dust of
his body." " To see the dust of those hands by which all
were charmed, through the imposition of which the Spirit
was supplied." And in the 54th Homily — " If we are to
be regenerated, the cross is present ; if to be nourished with
the food, if to be ordained, if to do any thing else, that
symbol is present. We inscribe it on our houses, walls,
windows, forehead."
On the subject of the veneration of relics, Chrysostom,
in his Homily " delivered after the relics of the Martyrs,
etc.," torn. 12, p. 468, speaks thus:- "When the Empress
had gone, in the middle of the night, into the great Church,
and borne thence the relics of the Martyr, and followed
them through the middle of the forum, when the church to
which the relics belonged was distant nine miles from the
city, this sermon was preached in the Martyr's Church, the
Empress being present with the magistrates and all the city."
" For when the devils see the rays of the sun, they suffer
nothing ; but unable to bear the splendor which proceeds
from these, being blinded, they fly, and go to a great dis
tance ; so great is the power in the ashes of the saints, not
only residing in their relics, but proceeding beyond them,
and driving away unclean spirits, and sanctifying with much
abundance those who approach them in faith. Wherefore
she (the Empress) loving Christ, followed the relics, con
tinually touching them, and drawing to herself a blessing,
and becoming an instructress to all, of this beautiful and
spiritual gain, and teaching all to draw from this fountain,
which is always drawn from and never emptier ; for as the
springing streams of the fountains are not contained within
their own bosoms, but run over and flow forth, so the grace
of the Spirit, which reclines in the bones and dwells in the

THE FATHERS. 223
saint, also goes forth to those who follow it, and runs forth
from the souls to the bodies, and from the bodies to the gar
ments, and from the garments to the sandals, and from the
sandals to the shadows. For this reason, not only do the
bodies of the holy apostles work, but also the handkerchiefs
and aprons ; and not only these, but also the shadow of
Peter wrought greater things than the living. Thus it hap
pens also at this day ; for whilst the relics were carried,
there was the burning of the devils, and howlings and lamen
tations were raised on every side, the rays issuing forth from
the bones, and burning the phalanx of hostile powers."
" All will call you blessed, the hostess of the saints, the
pattern of churches, equal in zeal to the apostles ; for though
you have had allotted to you a woman's nature, it is permitted
to you to rival the acts of the apostles."
Hear also Jerome against Vigilantius, who, it appears,
was opposed to the worship of relics. Jerome begins by
punning upon his name. " Vigilantius, or rather Dormi-
tantius," [the sleepy headed, not the wakeful,] " has sud
denly arisen, who, with an unclean spirit, fights against
Christ, and denies that the sepulchres of the martyrs are to
be venerated." " Does the Roman Bishop act wrongly, who
offers sacrifices to the Lord, over the (according to us) to be
venerated bones (but, according to you, the vile dust) of
dead men, Peter and Paul, and regards their graves as
altars ? And not only does the bishop of one city, but do
the bishops of the whole world, err, who, despising the
huckster Vigilantius, enter the temples of the dead ? " " Ter
tullian, a most learned man, wrote a celebrated volume
against your heresy." " You laugh at the relics of the mar
tyrs, and with Eunonimous, the author of this heresy, calum
niate the Church of Christ." " Was the Emperor Constan
tine sacrilegious, who translated the relics of Andrew, Luke,
and Timothy, at which the devils roar, to Constantinople ?
and those who dwell in Vigilantius confess that they per-

224 THE GREAT APOSTASY.
ceive their presence? Is Augustus Arcadius now to be
called sacrilegious, who transferred the bones of the blessed
Samuel, after a long period, from Judea into Thrace ? Are
all the bishops to be deemed, not only sacrilegious, but fools,
who carried a mest vile thing and mouldering ashes in silk
and a golden vessel ? Are the people ef all the Churches
foolish, who met the sacred relics, and with such joy received
them, as if they beheld the prophet present and living, so
that swarms of people were united from Palestine to Chal-
cedon, and with one voice resounded the praise of Christ ? "
" They follow the Lamb wherever he goes ; if the Lamb is
everywhere, these also, who are with the Lamb, are to be
believed to be everywhere."
Ambrose has the following passage, on the burying of the
bodies of the martyrs, Gervasius and Protasius. I quote
from Epistle xxii. chap. 1, Benedictine Edition, Paris, 1690,
p. 875. "The heavens," he says, "declare the glory of
God. At his day, by this fortuitous reading, it has been
made known what heavens declare the glory of God. Be
hold at my right hand, behold at my left hand the sacred
relics ; behold the men of heavenly conversation ; behold
the trophies of a sublime mind: these are 'the heavens,'
which ' declare the glory of God.' And now you hear the
devils crying out, and confessing to the martyrs that they
cannot bear their pains, and saying, Why have you come to
torment us so grievously ? "
Chrysostom, (torn. xii. p. 177, in Epist. ad Hebr. c. vii.
Horn, xii.) — " Wherefore, I said, so that he should not hurt
our freewill. It rests with us, therefore, and with him.
For it is needful that we should first elect good things ; and
when we have elected, he also adds what are his. He does
not go before our will, lest he should destroy our freewill ;
but when we have elected, then he brings to us much help."
Let me give an instance or two from Augustine's Retrac
tations. C. xxiii. : " When I was still a priest, it happened

THE FATHERS. 225
that at Carthage, among us who were together, the apostle's
letter to the Romans was read — ' I know that the law is
spiritual, but I am carnal : ' which I was npt willing to re
ceive of the person of the apostle, who was already spiritual,
but of a man under the law, and not yet under grace, for
thus formerly I understood those words. Which afterwards,
having read some commentators on the Divine Word, whose
authority moved me, I more diligently considered, and saw
that that which he says might even be understood of the
apostle himself, viz. ' We know that the law is spiritual, but
I am carnal.' Which I showed, as well as I could, in the
books which I lately wrote against the Pelagians." Again,
torn. i. book 2, c. v. : " Now, there are two books of mine,
of which the title is, ' Against the Party of Donatus ; ' in the
first of which books I have said, that it did not please me,
that schismatics should be violently driven to communion by
the force of any secular power ; and truly it did not please
me, since I had not yet experienced how much evil their
impunity dared, or how much a diligent discipline could
confer upon them in changing them for the better." Lib. 2,
c. xvii. : " When I said in the Fourth Book, that suffering
might be substituted for baptism, I adduced the example of
that thief, which was not sufficiently apposite, since it is un
certain whether he was not baptized." Chap. Iv. p. 117 :
" Concerning also the thief, to whom it was said, ' To-day
thou shalt be with me in Paradise,' I have laid it down as
nearly certain, that he was npt visibly baptized ; whereas it
is uncertain, and it is rather to be believed that he was bap
tized, as I have also afterward elsewhere contended."
I proceed next to show you, how the fathers themselves
condemn one another's errors and absurdities. Chrysostom
gays _s_ « Who can tolerate Origen, when he says that the
souls were angels in heaven, and that after they sinned
above, they were cast down into the world, and were con
fined in these bodies as in graves and sepulchres, in order

226 THE GREAT APOSTASY.
that they might pay the penalty of their former sins ? and
that the bodies of believers are not the temples of Christ, but
prisons of the condemned ? " "I pass over his frivolous ex
position of the garments of skins ; with what effort and argu
ments has he striven to make us believe, that the coats of
skins were human bodies ! " " And who can bear Origen
with patience, when he denies, with specious arguments, the
resurrection of this flesh, as he most clearly declares in the
book of his Explanation of the First Psalm, and in many
other places ? And who can bear Origen giving to us a
paradise in the third heaven, and transferring to heavenly
places that paradise which the Scripture describes as belong
ing to the earth ; and so allegorically understanding all the
trees, which are described in Genesis, as that the trees were
angelic powers ? And who will not instantly cast away and
despise those fallacies, when Origen said of the waters which
are above the firmament, that they were not waters, but
certain forces of heavenly power ; and that the waters, again,
which are over the earth, that is to say, under the firma
ment, were contrary powers, that is to say, demons ? " " The
words of Origen are adverse and hateful, and repugnant to
God and his saints ; and not those only which I have re
peated, but numberless others also." Jerome, also, writing
to Pammachius, exclaims — " Depart, O most beloved, from
Origen's heresy, and from all other heresies." "Origen
teaches, that rational creatures gradually descend by Jacob's
ladder to the last step, that is to say, to flesh and blood ;
and that it is impossible that any one should at once be pre
cipitated from the hundredth to the first number, but by
single numbers, as by the steps of a ladder, until he reach
the last ; and that they changed their bodies as often as they
changed mansions [in their way] from heaven to earth."
And against Vigilantius, letter 79, Jerome says again —
" Origen is a heretic : what is that to me, who do not deny
that he is a heretic in most things ? He erred concerning

THE FATHERS. 227
the resurrection of the body, concerning the state of souls,
concerning the repentance of the devil ; and what is more,
in his Commentaries on Isaiah, he testified that the Son of
God, and the Holy Spirit, are seraphim."
Of Tertullian, Jerome writes (to Pammachius and Ocea-
nus) — " The blessed Cyprian uses Tertullian as a master,
as his writings prove : and although he is delighted with the
genius of that erudite and ardent man, he does not, with
him, follow Montanus and Maximilla." Of Lactantius and
Origen — " Lactantius in his books, and chiefly in his Let
ters to Demetrian, altogether denies the substance of the
Holy Spirit, and with the Jewish error says, that he is to be
referred either to the Father or the Son, and that the sanc-
tification of each of these persons is exhibited under his
name." " And confess also, that Origen errs in some things ;
acknowledge that he thought wrongly concerning the Son,
and worse concerning the Holy Spirit ; that he impiously
brought forward the [doctrine of the] ruin of the souls from
heaven ; that he only verbally confesses the resurrection of
the flesh, but virtually destroys it ; and that he holds, that
after many ages and the final restitution of all things, Ga
briel would be the same as the devil, Paul as Caiaphas, vir
gins as harlots." " Others, as well Greeks as Latins, have
erred in the faith."
A few extracts from Dupin's History of the Fourth and
Fifth Centuries will show you the estimate of the fathers
formed by that distinguished and generally impartial Roman
Catholic historian. Concerning Eusebius of Ca?sarea : " He
seems to insinuate, in some places, and chiefly book ii. c. 7,
that the person of the Son is not equal to the person of the
Father, and that the same adoration is not due to him ; and
it is not only in these books that he speaks after this man
ner, for he does the like in all his other writings." Of St.
Hilary : " St. Hilary had not very clear notions concerning
spiritual beings, for in the Fifth Canon of his Commentary

228 THE GREAT APOSTASY.
upon St. Matthew, he says, that all creatures are corporeal,
and that the souls which are in bodies are corporeal sub
stances. He held also an intolerable error concerning the
last judgment. I do not insist upon some smaller errors ; as
when in Canon 31 and 32 on St. Matthew, he excuses the
sin of St. Peter; when he says, in Canon 16, that the
words of Jesus Christ, ' Get thee behind me, Satan,' were
not addressed to this apostle; upon Psalm 119, that the
Virgin should be purged by fire at the day of judgment ; in
Canon 20, that Moses did not die, and that he shall come
again at the day of judgment." Of Gregory Nyssen : " He
is always abstruse, either by allegories or abstracted reason
ings ; he mingles philosophy with divinity, and makes use
of the principles of philosophers, both in his explications of
mysteries and in his discourses of morality : upon which
account his works are more like the treatises of Plato and
Aristotle, than those of other Christians." " It may be said
also, that St. Gregory Nyssen, having his head full of the
books and principles of Origen, could not always be so care
ful, but some of his errors would slip unawares into his
reasonings, though he was not really of his opinion, and he
rejected them at other times when he was more attentive."
Of Epiphanius, Dupin says — " The style of St. Epipha-
nius is neither beautiful nor lofty ; on the contrary, it is
plain, low, and mean. He had much reading and learning,
but no faculty of discerning, nor exactness of judgment.
He often uses reasons for refuting the heretics, which are
false. He was very credulous, and not very accurate."
And of Jerome : " In St. Jerome's Commentaries, there are
also several opinions that savor of Jewish superstitions, or
the too great credulity of the first Christians ; as when he
asserts, in the Commentaries on the Prophets Daniel and
Micah, that the world shall' last but a thousand years. He
sometimes gives allegorical senses to things which are to be
understood literally ; as when, in the Commentary on the

THE FATHERS. 229
Epistle to the Hebrews, he says, that Jacob's wrestling with
the angel is not to be understood of a corporeal and visible
combat, but mystically of the invisible fight." " When he
disputes with Helodius, he commends virginity to that
excess, that it was thought he designed to condemn matri
mony ; and he so exalts the dignity of priests in abating the
pride of deacons, that he seems not to think them inferior
to bishops."
Let us hear Erasmus also upon this topic. I quote from?
Jacobo Sadoleto, lib. 28. Erasmus says — "Tertullian,
whilst he too sharply contends with threats against those
who ascribe too much to matrimony, was carried into the
other fit, condemning what Christ approved of, and exacting
what Christ did not require, but only counselled. Jerome
fights with so much ardor against those who exalted matri
mony to the injury of virginity, that he could not have-
defended his cause against an unfavorable judge, if he had
been deemed guilty of having treated marriage, and second
marriage, with too little respect. Augustine, fighting with
all his energy against Pelagius, sometimes attributes less to
freewill than the theologians who now reign in the schools.
think right." " If these things are to be wrested against
him who sometimes errs, what shall we do to the same
Hilary (besides so many other distinguished doetors of the
Church), who, in so many places, seems to feel that Christ
had a body which was not susceptible of pain, and that
hunger, thirst, weariness, and -other affections of this kind,,
were not natural in him, but pretended? For this he'
plainly wrote in expounding the 68th Psalm." Again::
Erasmus writes^ (26th book of Letters,) — "Jerome differed
from Ambrose and Cyprian; there was not a slight skir
mishing between him and Augustine ; and who is there of
the ancients from whom the more recent theologians do not
differ in many places ? "
The corruptions of the writings of the fathers is »
20

230 THE GREAT APOSTASY.
topie I must not pass over. Erasmus writes, in his Epis
tles, (In Sanct. Basilii librum de Spiritu Sancto,) "I ap
peared to myself to have detected, in this work, what we
behold with indignation to have been done in certain of the
most celebrated and extolled writers, as in Athanasius,
Chrysostom, and Jerome. You ask, What is this ? After
I had gone through half of the work without weariness, the
phraseology appeared to me to belong to another parent,
and to breathe a different genius; sometimes, the diction
swelled out to the tragic style, and it subsided again into
common discourse; sometimes it appeared to me to have
something flowing softly  From these circumstances
a suspicion entered my mind, that some student, in order to
render the volume more copious, had interwoven some
things, either grafts culled from other authors (for this sub
ject has been accurately handled by many of the Greeks),
or devised by himself; for some of these are erudite, but
differing from Basil's style  Moreover, it is a most
wicked species of contamination to interweave one's own
cloth with most distinguished purple of celebrated men ; or,
to express myself more correctly, to corrupt their generous
wine with one's own dead stuff; which has been done, with
intolerable sacrilege, in the divine Jerome's Commentaries
on the Psahns, so evidently that it cannot be denied." And
again, quoting still from Erasmus, (In Hilarium Epist. lib.
28,). — "What is this temerity with other people's books,
especially those of the ancients, whose memory is or ought
tp be sacred te us  th,at every ene, accerding to his
fancy, should shave, expunge, add, take away, change, suf>
stitute ? " And once more, (In Athan. Epist. ad Serapionem
de Spiritu Sancto,) — "We have given some fragments of this
sort. For what purpose ? you will say. That it may hence
appear with what impiety the Greek scribes have raged
against the monuments of such men, in which even to
change, a syllable is sacrilege. And what has npt the same

THE FATHERS. 231
temerity dared to do among the Latins, in substituting;
mutilating,' increasing, and contaminating the commentaries
of the orthodox ? "
A multitude of works, it seems, have been falsely ascribed
to Chrysostom. In the Benedictine edition of that father,
torn. v. p. 672, (Paris, 1836,) in the admonition to the
Homily on the Fifteenth Psalm, we read — " John Chry
sostom was so highly esteemed by the Greeks, that his
works and small treatises were sought with the greatest
eagerness ; and whatever bore the name of Chrysostom was
held as genuine by men not endowed with critical knowl
edge, such as were almost all those of the later ages. There
were persons who rashly embellished with the name of
Chrysostom sermons and homilies written by themselves.
Transcribers of books also, for the sake of gain, sold homi
lies patched together by themselves or others, with the
name of Chrysostom in the title-page. Hence proceeded
innumerable spurious works ; of which some immediately
supply the evidences of spuriousness, others require a fuller
investigation." Doubts, also, are felt about Basil's works, as may be seen
by the Benedictine Preface (Paris, 1721). "It remained
that I should separate the true works of Basil from the false
ones ; which separation revealed a labor of the most exten
sive kind, since there are not a few of his writings that are
called in question, but all of them. The learned, indeed,
differ among themselves respecting the number of the hom
ilies on 'the six days' work,' and the Psalms. These
one-and-thirty Orations are not all ascribed to one and the
same writer. The two books which we have on baptism
are held to be doubtful by some persons. The book on true
virginity is controverted. That most ample book on the first
sixteen chapters of Isaiah is not exempt from all suspicion.
The opinion of all persons is not one respecting the five
books against Eunomius. There are those who have not

232 THE GREAT APOSTASY.
been ashamed to place among the false and supposititious
the last fifteen chapters, and those the principal chapters, of
the book on the Holy Spirit. The opinions of the ancients
and more modern concerning his ascetic writings do not
agree. Hardly any thing certain can be defined respecting
the liturgy. His epistles contain, as it were, a sort of sem
inary of quarrels and discords. For in what year, in what
month, from whom to whom, respecting what subject, they
were written, is daily, vehemently, and sharply, disputed.
All must perceive, I think, how easy it is to err in this so
great variety of things and opinions, as in a moonless night."
Again, p. 48 : "I have in a certain place admonished you,
that that commentary on the first sixteen chapters of Isaiah,
although it is held by almost all to be the genuine offspring
of Basil, is not exempt from all suspicion : you will find,
indeed, very few who deny, it, if you compare them with
those who affirm the commentary to be truly Basil's. For,
among the latter, you may reckon Maximus the Confessor,
John of Damascus, Marasius, Patriarch of Constantinople,
etc. Nor is it wonderful if the more modern, after the
example of the ancients, have embraced the same opinion.
The most celebrated of these, Taliman, DuCas, Cambeficius,
Natalis Alexander, Dupin, Tillemont, and Lequier, to whose
opinion, unless most serious reasons hindered me, I should
always be proud to accede. It is more easy to enumerate
the patrons of the other opinion, since we find only three or
four ; John Drungar, Erasmus, Rivetus, Petavius. But I
am so far, therefore, from ascribing that imperfect com
mentary to St. Basil, that I deem it to be most unworthy of
him. I have perused and reperused the work, nor have 1
ever found any thing Basilian. Every thing has a foreign
odor ; whatever all the most erudite admire in the writings
of Basil — perspicuity of speech, eloquence, a certain won
derful facility in interpreting Scripture, the selection of the
best words,. weighty opinions — of these not even a vestige
exists in these commentaries."

THE FATHERS. 233.
Of the falsifications of the works of the fathers generally,
we read in the same preface — " It is difficult to say how
great diligence must be applied by him, who wishes cer
tainly and safely to decide respecting the spuriousness or
genuineness of any work : for it is wonderful, since truth
and falsehood so greatly differ, yet one very frequently
so much resembles the other, that in distinguishing be
tween them, we can scarcely avoid error, unless we take
great care." And, again : " Perhaps there is no class of
men who have more injured good study, than those who
have mixed up the true writings of the fathers with false
ones. For how many evils have, both formerly and in the
present day, sprung up from hence, nobody who is not alto
gether inexperienced in ecclesiastical matters, is ignorant ;
doctrines are obscured, morals are polluted, history falters,
tradition is disturbed ; and to express my meaning in a word,
if once the genuine writings of the holy fathers are con
founded with the adulterous ones, all things must necessarily
be confounded together. The examples of what I have
stated are too frequent for it to be necessary for me to men
tion any of them. I will only call to mind the imprudence
of the Apollinarists and the Eutychians, who, when they
had promulgated their own for the sincere and true writings
of the holy fathers, so infected the whole Church, that eyen
until this present day, it has been impossible to close and
cure this kind of wound. For, at the present day, so great
is the disagreement among the erudite respecting the author
ship of certain writers, that if any one adduces any evidence
either of that great Athanasius, Bishop of Alexandria, or of
Julius, the high Pontiff, or of Gregory, the wonder-worker,
immediately you will hear some say that Athanasius, Julius,
Gregory, did not say these things, but Apollinarius, some of
whose works were formerly deceitfully attributed to these
great men, in order that the more simple might be led
astray. But, to be now silent respecting the Apollinarists
20*

234 THE GREAT APOSTASY.
and Eutychians, I will generally observe, that innumerable
inconveniences flowed from the same fountain."
So difficult, or rather impossible, is it, to ascertain the true
works pf the fathers. When we do reach them, then, frem
the specimens and examples I have laid before you, I ven
ture to^ assert, that every dispassionate judge must come to
the conclusion, that they are not competent expounders of
Holy Writ, but contradict one another, and propose com
ments so superstitious and fanatical, that, in some instances,
we might as well go to Johanna Southcote, or to the wildest
interpreters of the last or the present age.
I do not mean to deny, that there are some beautiful and
scriptural, and truly Protestant statements to be found in the
fathers, or the. good cannot be separated from the bad. It
is but fair that I should present some evidence of this.
Three or four extracts will illustrate my meaning; and
with them I will conclude this part ofthe subject.
Gregory Nazianzen, Oratio 42. vii. — " But you contained
Walls, and tablets, and elegantly cut stones, and long circuit
ous passages ; and you were resplendent on every side with
gold, and you scattered it as water, and treasured it up as
the sand ; being ignorant that faith in the open air is better
than sumptuous impiety, and that a few gathered together
in the name of the Lord are more in the estimation of God
than many thousands who deny the godhead. Whether truly
will you prefer all the Canaanites to one Abraham ; or the
inhabitants of Sodom to one Lot; or the Midianites to
Moses — to those who were sojourners and foreigners ?
Will you prefer to the three hundred who nobly drank with
Gideon, the thousands who turned away ; or to those born
in the house of Abraham, who were scarcely more in num
ber than these, many kings, and the ten thousands of the
army, whom, though they were few, they pursued and put-
to flight? But how do you understand this passage —
'Although .the number ofthe children of Israel were as the

THE FATHERS. 235
sand of the sea, a remnant should be saved ? ' And how the
following — 'I have left to myself seven thousand men who
have not bowed the knee to Baal?' Is it not, God is not
well pleased with the many ? You reckon up the tens of
thousands, but God reckons the saved ; you indeed [reckon]
the innumerable dust, but I [reckon] the vessels of election.
For nothing is so magnificent to God as pure language
and a soul perfect in the doctrines of truth."
Basil. " But whether the bishops are ejected from their
churches, let not this at all move you ; or whether any be
trayers have proceeded from the clergy themselves, let not
this weaken your faith in God. For they are not names
which save us, but our purpose, and a true love towards
him who created us. Consider, that in the conspiracy
against our Lord the chief priests and scribes and elders
prepared the deceit, but there were found a few among the
people who truly received the word ; and that it is not the
multitude which is saved, but the elect of Gad. Let not,
therefore, the multitude of the people terrify you, who are
carried about like the water of the sea by the winds ; for if
ever one be saved, like Lot in Sodom, he ought to remain in
a right judgment, having an immovable hope in Christ,
because the Lord will not desert his saints."
Augustine to Jerome, torn, ii. p. 551. " For I confess to
your charity, that I have learned to ascribe only to the
books of the Scriptures, which are now called canonical,
such fear and honor as to believe that not one of their
authors erred in any thing ; and if I should stumble at any
thing in them which appears to be opposed to truth, I should
not doubt, either that the manuscript was fallacious, or that
the interpreter had not followed what was said, or that I
had not at all understood it. But I read the others in such
wise, that, however they may excel in sanctity and doctrine, .
I do not think a thing true because they have been of that
opinion, but because they have been able to persuade me,

236 THE GREAT APOSTASY.
oither by those canonical authors, or by a probable reason
which is not abhorrent from the truth. Nor do I think that
you, 0 my brother, think at all otherwise ; I do not believe
that you desire at all that your books should be read like
those of the prophets and apostles concerning whose writ
ings it is wicked to doubt that they are exempt from error.
Far be this from your pious humility and your correct
thoughts of yourself."
Jerome. (Letter to Pammachius and Oceanus on Ori-
gen's errors.) " For what folly it is, so to praise any one's
doctrine, as to follow his blasphemy ! Even the blessed
Cyprian uses Tertullian as his master, as his writings prove;
and although he is pleased with the understanding of that
erudite and ardent man, he does not follow with him Mon-
tanus and Maximilla. Apollinarius wrote very strong
books against Porphyry ; Eusebius ably composed an eccle
siastical history: one of them introduced a divided Chris
tian system, the other was a most open defender of the
impiety of Arius."
Jerome on Lactantius's heresy. "An apostle teaches,
'reading all things, holding fast those things which are
good.' Lactantius in his books, and especially in his Epis
tles to Demetrian, altogether denies the substance of the
Holy Spirit, and with the Jewish error, says, that he is to
be referred either to the Father or to the Son, and that the
sanctification of each person is shown under his name.
Who can forbid me to read his books of Institutions, in
which he wrote most forcibly against the Gentiles, because
his former opinion is worthy of detestation ? "
Jerome. (Apology against Ruffinus.) " Forasmuch as
you are fickle, you have argued with wonderful acuteness in
my praise and dispraise ; and [you hold] that you have as
much right to speak favorably or unfavorably of me, as 1
had to censure Origen and Didymus, whom I formerly had
praised. Learn, therefore, 0 most learned man, and the

THE FATHERS. 237
head of the Reman art of logic, that it is no fault to praise
the same man in some things and to accuse him in others,
but to praise and condemn the same thing. In Tertullian,
we praise his genius, but we condemn his heresy ; in Origen
we admire his knowledge of the Scriptures, and yet we do
not receive the fallacy of his doctrines; in Didymus, we
acknowledge both his memory and his purity on the faith of
the Trinity, but in other things, in which he wrongly trusted
to Origen, we withdraw from him. For not the vices, but
the virtues of masters are to be imitated."

[238]

LECTURE IX.

THE NICENE CHURCH.

The Nicene Church is the Tractarian ideal of a Church.
The importance of our considering this subject will
appear at once from the following fact. The Reformers — -
Luther, and Ridley, and Cranmer, and Knox, and all that
followed them — took the Apostolic Church, as embodied iD
the apostolic writings, as the only model and the perfect
standard of a visible church : but the Tractarian writers,
and those that follow them, hold that this is not the proper
model of a Christian church, — that the Reformers did
wrong in this respect, that the true exemplar of a Church
is that embodied in the first three or four centuries of the
Christian era, and that those who wish to bring the Church
of England up to the standard of perfection, should seek to
make her approximate to the Church of Chrysostom, of
Augustine, of Jerome, or, in other words, of the fourth
century, the period of the Council of Nice, who met A. d.
325. Now I maintain, that in the Nicene Church there
was more of open error, of intolerance, violence, and dis
order — its bishops being mailed barons rather than mitred
ministers of the Gospel, and its temples scenes of outrage
rather than sanctuaries of peace — than in the worst state
of the Protestant Church, from the days of Luther to the
present hour ; and that the Nicene Church instead of pre
senting a model for our imitation, appears rather as a
beacon to warn us off the rocks and shoals on which ita
pilots made shipwreck. If you- listen to Mr. Palmer, Dr

THE NICENE CHURCH. 239
Pusey, or Dr. Hook, you would suppose that the Nicene
Church — that is, the Church that existed about the year
325 — was a perfect millennium ; that it was an epoch of
harmony and beauty ; and that nothing is requisite for a
jarring and discordant world, but to stereotype the Nicene
Church, and fix it by Act of Parliament and sentence of
Convocation in England for ever. I maintain, that the
greatest calamity that could overtake our father-land, would
be the expulsion of the Church embodied in. the writings of
the apostles, and the introduction of the Church repre
sented in the writings and polity of the Nicene age. I will
give you a few proofs and illustrations of my statement.
I take, first of all, from Dupin's Ecclesiastical History, an
account of Councils that met at this period. He states, that
in the year 322, Alexander, Bishop of Alexandria, held a
council of nearly a hundred Egyptian bishops, who con
demned Arius — the head of the Arian heresy. In the
next year, Eusebius of Nicomedia, and the other bishops
who protected Arius, held a council in Bithynia, wherein
they declared Arius orthodox. In 324, Hosius held a coun
cil at Alexandria ; he did what he could to reconcile men's
minds, and not being able to compass his designs, would
decide nothing. . In 325, the Council of Nice was held, and
decided in favor of orthodoxy. In 335, the Council of Tyre
was held, at which there were sixty eastern bishops ; Athan
asius,. the author of the Athanasian Creed, came with forty
Egyptian bishops,. but he was forced to appear as a criminal,
and the synod pronounced against him a sentence of depo
sition. In 335 the Council of Jerusalem received Arius
and his party, and were satisfied of his orthodoxy. In 338,
Eusebius of Nicomedia, (who had a mind to usurp the see
of Alexandria,) and the bishops of his party, being enemies
to Paul because he was a defender of Athanasius, stirred
up against him his priest Macedonius, who accused him of
leading a life unbecoming. the priesthood; and theypres-

240 THE GREAT APOSTASY.
ently assembled a synod at Constantinople, wherein they
deposed him, and chose in his room Eusebius of Nicomedia.
In 340, a council at Alexandria decided in favor of Athan
asius. In 341, a council at Rome, under Pope Julius, acquit
ted Athanasius ; but the Eusebians, without waiting for this
synod, assembled oftentimes at Antioch, where they ordained
one Gregory to fill the see of Alexandria, and sent him to
seize upon it by main force ; and Athanasius, understanding
what they had done, retired to Rome. In 341-2, a council
of ninety eastern bishops was held at Antioch, who declared
that they were not followers of Arius, but restored him, as
they found his doctrines orthodox ; and they made a confes
sion of faith, which omitted the statement that Christ was
" consubstantial " with the Father. In 341, another council
was held at Antioch, partly made up of the same bishops ;
and they complained, that Pope Julius had taken into his
communion Athanasius and Marcellus. In 345, came the
Council of Antioch, which was orthodox. In 346, a council
was held at Cologne against Euphrates ; of which the acts
are forged. In 347, the Council of Sardica was attended
by a hundred bishops from the west, and seventy-three from
the east ; those of the east declared they would not be pres
ent, unless St. Athanasius, Marcellus, and other bishops, who
were condemned, were excluded from ecclesiastical commun
ion; and the western bishops refusing to accept of this
condition, the council was divided, and the eastern bishops
withdrew. The eastern bishops then assembled at Philip-
popolis, and wrote a letter, which they dated from Sardica,
addressed to all the bishops of the world, crying out against
St. Athanasius and Marcellus of Ancyra, and making them
pass for wicked rogues. In 341, the First Council of Sir-
mium was held against the heretic Photinus : this council
was orthodox. So also was the Second Council of Sirmiumy
held in 357, and consisting of eastern bishops. In 353,
came the Council of Aries, consisting of western bishops,

THE NICENE CHURCH. 241
who were constrained by Valens, as well as the Pope's
legates, to subscribe the condemnation of St. Athanasius ;
only a very few continued obstinate, and were banished. In
355, the Council of Milan met, consisting of nearly three
hundred western bishops, but few of them resisted the solici
tations of the Emperor Valens to condemn Athanasius. In
356, Saturninus, Bishop of Aries, assembled a council at
Beziers, and used all his endeavors to make it receive the
followers of Arius; St. Hilary opposed him stoutly, for
which he and Rhodanius, Bishop of Toulouse, were ban
ished. After he was forced away, the bishops of this
council, being devoted to the interests of Saturninus, did
whatever he desired; but the other bishops of France
would not communicate with him. In 357, the Second
Council of Sirmium was held, and in this year the second
creed of Sirmium was made in that city by Potamius^
Bishop of Lisbon, in the presence of Valens, Ursacius, Ger-
manius, and some other bishops : this creed was Arian, and
in it they rejected the word consubstantial, and declared that
the Father was greater than the Son. In 358, the Council
of Antioch, under Eudoxius, Bishop of Antioch, con
demned the term consubstantial. In the same year the
Council of Ancyra condemned the heresy of Hosius ; yet,
at the end of their anathemas against his historical dogmas,
there is an anathema against those who say that the Father
and Son are consubstantial or equal. In 359, the Third
Council of Sirmium assembled, and appears to have been
orthodox. In the same year, at the iCouneil of Ariminum,
three hundred of the four hundred bishops who attended at
first, were orthodox, but were induced to subscribe a semi-
Arian confession. At the Council of Seleucia, still in the
same year, there were a hundred and sixty bishops, of whom
forty were Arians, and a hundred and five semi-Arians. In
360, in the. Council of Constantinople, consisting of fifty
bishops, the Creed of Ariminum was adopted, which rejected
21

242 THE GREAT APOSTASY.
the term substance, as applied to Christ. In 361, the Synod
of Antioch declared, that the Son of God was not at all
like his Father in substance, and that he was created of
nothing. The next six councils appear to have been ortho
dox; they were those of Alexandria, in 362; of Italy, in
362 ; of Egypt, in 363 ; of Antioch, in the same year; and
of Lampsacus, in 365. In 366, the Council of Sinyedanum
consisted of Arian bishops. The bishops who were called
semi-Arians, assembled -many councils after the Synod of
Lampsacus — one at Smyrna, composed of the bishops of
Asia, one in the province of Pamphylia, another in Isauria,
another in Lycia ; and the result seems to have been a rec
onciliation with the Church, though their letters are not
extant. In 368, a council was held through the Emperor
Valens : the term consubstantial was rejected. Next came
the Council of Rome under Damasus; when a synodical
letter was written against the Arians. And in 381, the
Council of Constantinople decreed orthodox doctrine.
The result is, that in the fourth century nineteen councils
of the Church were orthodox, and nineteen heretical; in one
nothing was settled on account of divisions, and in two,
Athanasius (the orthodox) was condemned by imperial con
straint. At Ariminum, though there were three hundred
professedly orthodox to one hundred Arian members^ the
council was constrained to adopt a heterodox creed ; which
subsequently, through fear of banishment, was subscribed
by almost all the bishops, both in the east and west, until
afterwards the same power which caused Arianism to tri
umph, adopted orthodoxy. Now, is this a model for a Chris
tian Church in the nineteenth century ? Is this a millennial
picture which we ought to transfer to our own days? I
affirm, after all the discussions which have taken place in
the Protestant Church between Churchmen and Dissenters,
and notwithstanding occasional expressions of bitterness,
which are to be deplored and ought to be retracted, that all

THE NICENE CHURCH. 243
has been gentleness and quiet, and might be called peace
itself, in comparison with the disorders and violence of an
tagonist councils in the Nicene age. Of this, however, we
shall see a little more as we proceed.
That the faith and morals of the Church in the Nicene
age were at a very low ebb, is confirmed by the testimony
of unexceptionable witnesses. Cyril of Jerusalem writes,
(Cat. 15, p. 209,» Oxon. 1703,) " Formerly, indeed, there
were open heretics, but now the Church is filled with, con
cealed heretics." Augustine (Enarr. in 41 Ps. Ben. edit.
Par. 1691), "When we see those who are the strength of
the Church yielding for the most part to offences, does not
the body of Christ say, An enemy is breaking my bones ? "
Gregory Nazianzen (Orat. Sec. sect. 82, Ben. ed. Par. 1778)
says, " Nor do the people behave in one way, and the priest
in another ; but rather, that saying seems to be wholly ful
filled, which was formerly uttered in reproach, The priest is
become as the people." In his 43d Oration, the same
ancient father speaks thus of the clergy : " But now there is
a danger lest the order which is the holiest of all, should
become the most ridiculous of all. For authority is not
more obtained by virtue, than by malice and wickedness ;
and the chairs belong, not to the most worthy, but to the
most powerful." Eusebius (Lib. 8, Hist. c. 1,) recites, that
" on account of the too great laxity of discipline, men fell
into effeminacy and slothfulness, envying and abusing one
another, and only not making war upon each other with
arms and spears in the place of words ; the rulers opposing
rulers, and the people disputing with the people." Basil
says, (Sophron. Epist. 172,) " Because iniquity is multiplied,
the love of many has waxed cold. For now nothing is so
rare as to meet with a spiritual brother." Chrysostom
(Advers. Oppugn. Vit. Mon. lib. iii. Ben. edit. Par. 1839)
gives the most appalling description of the wide spread de
pravity of the Greek Church, and truly remarks that it was

244 THE GREAT APOSTASY.
wonderful that they had not experienced the fate of Sodom.
We cannot pollute eyes or ears with his narrative. Those,
too, who should have checked these abominations, he de
scribes as being too callous and corrupt to interpose ; and he
builds his defence of the solitary hfe of the recluses in the
mountains, upon the impossibility of a young man's living
like a Christian in the midst of the general depravity.
"The tribunals," he says, " and the laws are of no use ; nor
are instructors, fathers, or teachers ; some are corrupted by
money, others only think of being paid what is due to them,"
etc. ; and after describing the horrible wickedness which
prevailed, he says, " If any have avoided these snares, they
with difficulty avoid sharing the bad reputation, through
those who reproach them with these things -¦— first, because
they are very few, and for this reason may easily be hidden
in the multitude of the wicked; secondly, because those
wicked and detestable demons, when they cannot avenge
themselves upon those who despise them in any other way,
seek to injure them in that manner. . . . Wherefore, I have
heard many say that they wondered that another shower of
fire had not come down at this day, and that our city (Con
stantinople) had not suffered the fate of Sodom." Chrysos
tom complains of the general misconduct of the people, even
during Divine Service: (Chrys. in Epist. 1 ad Cor. Horn.
36.) "If any one would attempt or wishes to corrupt a
woman, no place seems fitter to such a one than the church ;
and if any thing is to be bought or sold, the church seems
to be fitter for it than the market-place."
The lamentable character of the Nicene age is confessed
in many of the writings of the Fathers. Thus Gregory
Nazianzen (Oratio ii. 80) speaks as follows : <?We observe
the sins of others, not that we may grieve, but that we may
reproach ; not that we may heal, but that we may strike
afreshy and that the wounds of our neighbors may be an ex
cuse for our own sins. And the things which we praise to-

THE NICENE CHURCH. 245
day we condemn to-morrow. For it is not manners, but
enmity or friendship, which is the characteristic of good and
evil. And the things which are deemed guilty by others
are admired by us ; and all things are readily pardoned to
the impious, so magnanimous are we with respect to evil.
But all things are become like the beginning, when as yet
order was not, nor the good arrangement and form which
now exist ; but when every thing, confused and anomalous,
required the hand of power that should give them form. Or,
if you will, as in a night engagement, and with the obscure
rays of the moon, not distinguishing the faces of enemies or
friends ; or as in a sea-fight and tempest, and in gusts of
wind and in the boiling current, and the dashing of the
waves and collision of ships, and the pushing of boat-hooks,
and the voices of the commanders, and the groans of the
falling, are uttering faint sounds, and perplexed, and having
an opportunity for the- display of bravery (alas ! for the
calamity), they fall upon each other, and are destroyed by
each other. Nor do the people behave thus, and the priest
differently; but now that appears clearly to be fulfilled
which was formerly said in the curse — ' The priest has be
come like the people.'" And again (Orat. 21, 24): "For
in truth the pastors have been foolish, according to what is
written, 'And many pastors have laid waste my vineyard,
they have brought disgrace upon my desired portion.' I
mean the Church of God, which was collected with many
labors and slaughters, both before and after Christ, and with
the great sufferings themselves of God for us. For, with
the exception of a few, and those such as were overlooked on
account of their insignificance, or who resisted through their
virtue, w^holt was needful should be left as a seed and root
to Israel, that he should flourish again and revive through
the influences ofthe Spirit, all yielded to the times; in this
differing from each, that some did it sooner and some later,
and that some were the champions and leaders of impiety,
21*

246 THE GREAT APOSTASY.
and others rank second, either shaken by fear, or led captive
by profit, or ensnared by flattery, or circumvented by igno
rance, which is the least of all."
To the same effect writes Basil (de Spiritu Sancto, c.
xxx.) : " But than what sea storm is not this tempest of
the churches more fierce ; in which every boundary of the
fathers has been moved, and every foundation and fortifica
tion of doctrines has been unsettled, all things are agitated
and overthrown, having been raised upon a rotten founda
tion ? Falling upon each other, we are overthrown by each
other; and if your enemy does not first strike you, your
friend wounds you ; and if he should fall, being stricken,
your fellow-soldier rises against you. We are in fellowship.
so far as to hate our adversaries in common ; but when our
enemies have disappeared, we immediately regard each other
as enemies. On this account, who can enumerate the num
ber of shipwrecks, either of those who sink from the attack
of enemies, or of those who go down from the hidden snares
of their companions, or of others who perish from the un-
skilfulness of their leaders ; since the Churches, with the
men themselves, are destroyed by heretical snares, as it
were by hidden rocks, and others of the enemies of the
Lord's passion who have taken the helm, have made ship
wreck as to their faith ? A certain harsh clamor of those
who are in collision, through contention, and a confused
shouting, and an indistinct sound from the never silent up
roar of these about the true doctrine of righteousness, by
enlarging or contracting it, has now filled almost the whole
Church. For some are carried into Judaism, on account of
the confusion of the persons ; and others to Gentilism, on
account of the contraction of the natures ; neither the di
vinely inspired Scriptures are sufficient to mediate between
them, nor the apostolical traditions to decide their respective
differences." And again (Epist. 92. 2, An. 372) : " For
neither is one Church endangered, nor are two or three

THE NICENE CHURCH. 247
fallen into this dreadful storm. For the evil of this heresy
feeds almost from the boundaries of Illyricum unto Thebais ;
and being deeply rooted by many who meanwhile have cul
tivated sedulously impiety, now it has sprouted forth those
destructive fruits. For the doctrines of piety have been
overthrown ; the laws of the Churches have been confound
ed ; the ambition of those who fear not the Lord has leaped
into the highest stations ; and the first seat henceforth is
openly proposed as the reward of impiety ; so that he who
has most shockingly blasphemed is preferred as the people's
bishop. Priestly gravity has departed ; those who should
feed the flock of the Lord with knowledge are wanting ; the
ambitious always consuming the money of the poor on their
own enjoyment, or in the distribution of gifts. The accu
racy of the canons is obscured ; there is great liberty of sin
ning ; for those who have attained power through human
favor, make a return for the grace of their favor in granting
to those who sin all things that are pleasurable to them.
The just judgment has perished ; every one walks according
to the desire of his own heart ; wickedness is boundless ; the
people reject all advice ; their rulers have no freedom of
speech. On account of these things, unbelievers laugh, the
weak in faith fluctuate. Faith is doubtful, ignorance over
spreads souls, on account of those who craftily pervert the
word, imitating the truth. The mouths of the pious are
silent; every blasphemous tongue is loosened : sacred things
are profaned ; the healthy among the people fly from the
houses of prayer as the schools of impiety, and in the deserts
raise their hands with groans and tears to the Lord in
heaven. . . . This is the most pitiable of all, that that part
which appears to be healthy is divided in itself; and similar
misfortunes apparently surround us with those which hap
pened at Jerusalem at Vespasian's siege. For they were
pressed at once with external war, and were consumed at
the same time with the internal sedition of their own coun-

'^48 THE GREAT APOSTASY.
trymen. But with us, in addition to the open war of tha
heretics, that also which has arisen among those who appear,
to be orthodox has brought the Churches to the extremity
of weakness." And again (Letter 164, An. 374) : " Scarcely
any part of the world has escaped the conflagration of
heresy." Respecting the heresies of this period, we read in the
Preface to the Council of Nice, translated from Arabian
manuscripts, by Abrahamo Exchellenti — " Now such dis
sensions and discords had arisen among the faithful, that the
perverse heretics were more numerous than the orthodox,
(ut plures essent perversi hasretici quam orthodoxi,) and the
adversaries daily increased, whilst the faithful diminished,
so that they almost resembled corn in a most ample and fer
tile field of darnel. Nor did these abstain from persecuting
the Church of God ; but rather were worse than heretics.,
for in some places they altered the Scriptures, and some
places they added to them ; in some places they expunged
those passages which were least favorable tp their doctrines,
and substituted for the apostolical traditions and rejected
decretals, other things of their own invention." Such things
as these are not perpetrated in the nineteenth century : and
therefore the transference of the state of the Nicene Church
to the present age, would surely be a calamity and a curse,
and not a blessing.
You may be aware also that when one reasons with Ro
man Catholics, or Tractarians, they cite what they call the
long list of sects, by which Protestant Christianity is disfig
ured ; they tell you of Episcopalians, and Presbyterians,
and Independents, and Wesleyans, and Huntingtonians, and
Southcotians, and Ranters, and Jumpers, and others, whom
they conjure up, for the excesses of one half of whom Prot
estantism is not responsible. But for every one of the sects
that have existed in the nineteenth century, I will produce
two at least as rampant in the Nicene age. I will just run

THE NICENE CHURCH. 249
over a list of a few of them. There were — 1. The Sabba-
tians ; a sect so called from keeping the Jewish, in prefer
ence to the Christian Sabbath. 2. Simonites ; from Simon
Magus. 3. Marcionists ; who held three gods. 4. Sophists ;
who held the transmigration of souls into beasts. 5. Mani-
chseans ; who held two principles, one good, and one evil.
6. Paulianists ; who held one god, in substance and person,
with three names. 7. Photinians ; who held, that the three
Divine Persons were compounded, and, by their composi
tion, united in one : if any one laughed, he was turned out.
8. Barbari ; who were given to all sorts of iniquity. 9.
Phocalites ; who held all things to be unclean, and denied
the Resurrection and Judgment to come. 1\'. Disanites;
who held two gods, one good, one bad, and that neither good
nor bad works were in a man's power ; they opposed the
Resurrection and Last Judgment. 11. Arians. 12. Euno-
mians ; who were semi-Arians. 13. Macedonians ; who de
nied the Deity of the Holy Spirit. 14. Montanists ; who
gave a divine honor to the Virgin, and held many other
errors. 15. Timotheists ; who only rejected the rich. 16.
Novatians, or Cathari ; who maintained that no repentance
was accepted, after sin committed, whether great or small.
And, besides these sects, there were many others, of seventy
of whom Clemens has made mention in his Second Epistle.
Such was the unity of the Nicene age.
The description of some of the Councils held at this pe
riod is on record, and must not be forgotten here. Of the
Councils of Seleucia and Constantinople, Gregory Nazianzen
(Orat. xxi. 22), says — "The Council which was first held
at Seleucia, a city of the holy and beautiful virgin Hecla,
and afterwards at this great city, being the work of this
power, caused them to be celebrated for the vilest things,
who hitherto were distinguished by the most honorable ;
whether we are to call that council the Tower of Babel,
which rightly divided the tongues, (would that theirs had

250

THE GREAT APOSTASY.

been divided, for there was a symphony in evil !) or whether
we are to call it the Council of Caiaphas, in which Christ
was condemned, or by whatever other name it is to be
called, which overturned and confounded all things.' The
Council of Constantinople, and the state of the Church in
general, are also fully described in the Benedictine Preface
to the Works of Gregory Nazianzen, in a passage which I
proceed to quote. " Let us now relate who and what were
the , bishops whom Gregory disquiets in his verses, and
what was the face of the whole Church. Theodosius the
Great, having been purified in the sacred font by Ascholius,
Bishop of Thessalonica, in the year 380, issued his golden
edict to the people of the city of Constantinople, in which he
enacted, that the heretics who should not embrace the faith
which Pope Damasus and Peter Bishop of Alexandria fol
lowed, should be judged and punished. Hence, then, were
many bishops, of whom Gregory Nazianzen says, 'As to
what regards the faith, they were prepared for either part,
not observing the laws of God, but of the times.' Such
bishops, who being middle men between the Arians and
Catholics, set themselves to sale [se venditabant] to either
party according to the times, being received by the Church
with the honor and rank of the episcopal order and dignity
which they had obtained, now so augmented the number of
wicked bishops, that sometimes even in councils they pre
vailed over the good bishops. Hence those just .complaints
of Gregory, who could not restrain his zeal and indignation.
Baronius, An. 381, speaking of the First General Council
of Constantinople, says — 'There were at hand many of
those, who formerly in time of Valens, through the favor of
the Arians, the orthodox being expelled, had accepted the
vacant sees ; for these, yielding to the times, under a Cath
olic emperor, presented themselves equally as the defenders
ofthe Catholic Faith  You understand, I think, of what
sort, with: the exception of a few, the bishops of the Eastern

THE NICENE CHURCH. 251
Church were then wont to be ; how they were wont to have
their faith changeable according to the fashion of the times,
and only accommodated to private advantage ; of which
thing not only Gregory, but Basil in his writings is an
abundant witness, as has been shown before in its place.'
Baronius might. have added many other witnesses, chiefly
Chrysostom and Jerome. There were many also of the
orthodox bishops laboring under serious vices, of which the
least was ignorance (which is itself indeed an evil), who,
scarcely purged by baptism of their former sins, brought no
virtues to the episcopal office. Cpncerning these Gregory
thus speaks : ' I am ashamed indeed to say in what manner
our affairs are provided, but I will sing notwithstanding.
Whereas we have been ordained and constituted the teach
ers of virtue, we are the workshop of all evil. A ruler is
found in a moment, who has never governed any thing be
fore, and who comes as a novice to the dignity. Divine
things are now like the cast of dice  Yesterday dis
charging the office of an orator, you held law and right to
be venal ; but now you are suddenly made a judge and a
Daniel  No one can change his garment as easily as
you change your morals  Yesterday you were a Simon
Magus ; to-day, a Simon Peter  Alas ! too great celer
ity ! ... . Alas ! instead of a little fox, thou hast come forth
a lion.'" -
With regard to the Council of Ephesus, hear what Dupin,
a Roman Catholic, says, in his Ecclesiastical History :
" There are several objections made against the nature of
this council,- and the management of it. Some say it ought
to be accounted no better than a tumultuous and rash assem
bly, where all things were carried by passion and noise, and
not for an oecumenical assembly. .... The proceedings, in
my judgment, seem to prove more clearly that St. Cyril and
the bishops of his party were hurried by passion ; that they
greatly aimed at the condemnation of Nestorius, and were

252 THE GREAT APOSTASY.
afraid of nothing more than of the coming of the eastern
bishops, for fear they should not be able to do what they
pleased. For in their first session they cited Nestorius
twice, read the testimonies of the fathers, St. Cyril's letters^
and the twelve chapters, Nestorius's writings ; and all gave
their judgments. Was ever any business concluded with so
much haste ? The least matter of this nature required a
whole session  The sentence which they caused to be
delivered to Nestorius was made up of such words as dis
cover the passion they were in : 'To Nestorius, another Ju
das.' .... Was it not enough to condemn and depose him,
but they insult over him with abusive words ? Lastly, this
council was so far from bringing peace, that it brought
nothing but trouble, divisions, and scandals into the Church
of Christ. So that that may be said of this council with a
great deal more truth, which. Gregory Nazianzen said ofthe
councils of his time, — ' That he never saw an assembly of
bishops that had a good and happy conclusion ; that they
always increased the distemper rather than cured it ; that
the obstinate contests, and the ambition of overcoming and
domineering, which ordinarily reigns among them, are pre
judicial ; and ordinarily those who are concerned to judge
others are moved thereto by ill-will, rather than by a de
sign to restrain the faults of others.' This seems to agree
with the Council of Ephesus, better than any other assembly
of bishops."
The following is Dupin's account of the discord after the
Council of Ephesus : " The conclusion of the council did
not at all conduce to the peace of the Church ; but, on the
contrary, the minds of men appeared more discontented
than ever, and the eastern bishops, who had the worst of it,
sought to revenge themselves. In their return they wrote
to Theodotus, bishop of Aneyra, against the letters of the
bishops of the council ; at Tarsus they confirmed what they
had. done, and deposed, not only Cyril and Memnon, but

THE NICENE CHURCH. 253-
also six of the deputies of the Council of Ephesus ; Juve-
nales, bishop of Jerusalem; Flavian, bishop of Philippi;
Ferinus, bishop of Csesarea ; Theodotus, bishop of Ancyra ;
Acacius, bishop of Meletene; and Enoptius, bishop of
Ptolemais. Afterwards, having come into the east, they
met again at Antioch, confirmed what they had done a sec
ond time, and from thence wrote to the Emperor. . . . ;
But as the party of Cyril was ill used in the east, so those
of the Nestorian party of the eastern bishops met no better
usage in Asia, Cappadocia, and Thracia. Maximian, chosen
bishop of Constantinople, Who began already to exercise his
jurisdiction over the churches of those dioceses, would have
himself acknowledged by all the bishops, and deprived those
who would not communicate with him. Ferinus, bishop of
Cassarea, came to Tyana, and ordained a bishop in the place
of Eutherius ; but he, getting some help, forced him whom
Ferinus had ordained to renounce his ordination. They
also attempted to depose Dorotheus, metropolitan of Mar-
tianople, and ordain Saturninus in his place. They also
strove to deprive Halladus, bishop of Tarsus. Finally, all
places were full of deposed and exiled bishops, and the
Church was in terrible trouble and confusion."
In Fleuri's Ecclesiastical History, liv. 27, is an account of
the false Council of Ephesus, as follows, — " The bishops
embrace the feet of Dioscorus, bishop of Alexandria, sup
plicating him not to depose Flavian, bishop of Constantino
ple. He caused the proconsul to enter with a great multi
tude of soldiers, armed with swords, sticks, and chains.
The bishops, constrained by force, for the most part signed
a blank paper; Flavian was banished, but died a few days
after, of the kicks' and other ill treatment which he had re
ceived, chiefly from Barsymas and his monks  The
one hundred and thirty bishops seemed to have been
opposed, but not of a very meek spirit. .... When they
came to the last session, in the place when Eusebius. of
22

254 THE GREAT APOSTASY.
Doylee pressed Eutyches to confess two natures after the
incarnation, and that Jesus Christ is consubstantial with us
according to the flesh, the Council of Ephesus cried out —
" Take away and burn Eusebius ; let him be, burned alive ;
let him be cut in two ; as he has divided, let him be divided "
And again : " In his place [Flavian's], and apparently after
his death, they ordained Anatolius, deacon of Alexandria,
bishop of Constantinople. Thus there was a schism in the
Church ; the bishops of Egypt, of Thrace, and Palestine,
followed Dioscorus; those of Pontus and Asia followed
those of the communion of Flavian ; and this schism lasted
till the death of the Emperor Theodosius."
The following letter of Athanasius and the Egyptian
bishops, detailing Arian outrages, is from Manse's Councils,
ii. p. 1164, An. 336 : " We do not doubt that the news has
reached you, of how many and what things we daily suffer
from the heretics, and principally from the Arians, since we
are persecuted by them to such a degree, that we are even
tired of our existence. For, at the present time, when they
suddenly and unexpectedly rushed in upon us and could not
seize us, — who, according to the precept of the Lord, who
says, ' If they persecute you in one city, fly unto another,'
had avoided them by flying lest the people should suffer, —
they have laid waste every thing. For they have so devas
tated our property, that they neither have left us books, or
clerical vestments, or any other utensils. Burning, more
over, our books, even to the very least, on account of the
faithful representation of truth, and not leaving an iota of
them, in contempt of ourselves and all Christians; they
even burned the Nicene Synod, with which the clergy and
the people were principally imbued." And the Synodical
Letter of the Council of Alexandria, held in the year 339,
is to the like effect : " We think that the things which they
have dared to perpetrate at Alexandria cannot be unknown
tp you, since their report is spread throughout all lands.

THE NICENE CHURCH. 255
Swords were drawn against the sacred virgins and the
brethren : whips were applied to those bodies which were
precious to God : the feet of those who meditated chastity
and all good works were lamed by the violence of stripes.
Hence the crimes committed against them ; the Gentile peo
ple stripped them, beat them, treated them contumeliously,
threatened them with the altars and sacrifices of idols, etc.
Among these things the virgins [were seen] to fly, the Gen
tiles to insult the Church, bishops walking about in the vefy
houses where these things were perpetrated, to please whom
[in quorum gratiam] wretched virgins were compelled to
meet drawn swords, all kinds of dangers, and every insult
and injury. And they suffered these things, at the very
time of the fast, from the guests of the bishops [ccepulonibus
episcoporum], with whom they feasted within [cum quibus
convivium intus agitabant]." At the Council of Sardica
also, it appears from Hilary's account of the deposition of
the bishops, (Fragm. Op. Hist. 11, c. 4,) that "some showed
the marks of swords, blows, and scars ; others complained,
that they had been tortured by them by hunger ; to these
were added the stripping of virgins, the burning of churches
and prisons for the ministers of God." The Arians retorted
the same accusations upon the orthodox ; and the seceding
bishops protested — "By force, by slaughter, by wars, hav
ing' ravaged the churches of the Alexandrians, and this by
battles and Gentile slaughters, an immense multitude of all
sorts of wicked and abandoned men, coming from Constanti
nople and Alexandria, had assembled at Sardica ; men guilty
of homicides, blood, slaughter, thefts, spoiling, and all sorts
of wicked and sacrilegious crimes, who had broken the altars,
set fire to the churches, etc., and had atrociously slain the
wisest elders, deacons, and priests of God."
To take from a more modern writer an account of out
rages at Constantinople, Milman, in his History of Chris
tianity (vol. iii. p. 12), writes thus: "At the death of

256 THE GREAT APOSTASY.
Eusebius, the Athanasian party revived the claims of Paul,
whom they asserted to have been eanonically elected, and
unjustly deprived of the see ; the Arians supported Macae-
doriius. The dispute spread from the church into the streets,
from the clergy to the populace ; blood was shed ; the whole
city was in arms, on one part or the other. The Emperor
was at Antioch; he commanded Hermogenes, who was
appointed to the command of the cavalry in Thrace, to pass
through Constantinople, and expel the intruder Paul. Her
mogenes, at the head of his soldiery, advanced to force
Paul from the church ; the populace arose ; the soldiers
were repelled. The general took refuge in a house, which
was instantly set on fire. The mangled body of Hermo
genes was dragged through the street, and at length cast
into the sea."
There were similar outrages at Rome, as we are informed
in Platina's Life of Damasus — "But Damasus, when he
was elected to assume the Pontificate, had the Deacon Uri-
cinus for a rival in the Church, when many were killed on
both sides in the church itself, since the matter was not
only discussed by votes, but by force of arms."
Then, as to persecution, I find it stated in Manse's Coun
cils, vol. iii. p. 527, — "But the Emperor [Theodosius] pro
vided, by the most severe laws, that whoever dissented from
the Nicene and "Constantinople Symbol [of faith], should
be deprived of their bishoprics, and not only should not
be promoted by others, but should be driven from the
church, from the walls of the cities, and from the company
of men."
Would it be a blessing to our father-land, that the scenes
and circumstances, the laws and practices of the Nicene
Church, should be revived as models, and enjoined for ob
servance and imitation in the Protestant Church in this
nineteenth century ? I think not.
It is clear that no system of ecclesiastical polity is per-

THE NICENE CHURCH. 257
feet. We have seen how, in that age, bishops fought with
bishops, and decided their claims, not by texts and argu
ments, but by hard blows.
Presbyteries, synods, and general assemblies, seem to
have exhibited no better characteristics. The one anathe
matized the other; and that which was most packed by
artifice, and frequently by force, decided what was ortho
doxy and what was error.
Popular election has proved itself no better than either.
The people frequently chose bishops stained with crime,
and fought for bishops who preached heterodox doctrine.
It is altogether a mistaken controversy, whether the
Voluntary principle, or the Established Church System,
was the true source of all the mischiefs that prevailed in
the Church of the first five centuries. The fact is, that
when there was the Voluntary system, errors the most
grievous, and principles the most deleterious prevailed ; and
when the Established Church System began, and the wing
of the State was thrown over the Nicene Church, those
errors and corruptions seem simply to have shot forth, and
spread their pernicious and devastating influence more
widely. We are driven from all systems of ecclesiastical polity,
from all prescriptions of patronage or popular election,
simply " to the law and to the testimony." It alone is the
standard of truth; its testimony alone is our protection
against error. Whatever is according to this Book, is truth ;
but if all the bishops, and fathers, and doctors of the Uni
versal Church were to assert something not according to it,
their consentaneous asseverations would weigh but as a
feather against one single text taken from the Oracles of
God. Let me now, in contrast to the picture I have had to
..ilace before you, endeavor briefly to sketch the Apostolic
, itiurch of Christ, as she is described in his word.
22*

258

THE GREAT APOSTASY.

Her first grand characteristic is Christ's presence with.
her : " Lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the
world." I know the Roman Catholic misquotes that text :
" Lo, I am with you alway," — he infers, immediately,
therefore the Church is infallible. He takes care to omit
the former part of the verse — " Teaching them to observe
all things whatsoever I have commanded you." As long as
the Church teaches the people to observe whatsoever Christ
has commanded, so long Christ is with her j but the moment
she ceases so to teach, she forfeits the promise. A second
characteristic is, Christ is its head ; and just as my head
transmits to my little finger all its nervous vitality and
vigor, so Christ, as the Head of the Church, transmits to
the meanest member of it all his spiritual vitality and
strength. Again, the Church of Christ is described as the
object of his love : " He loved us, and gave himself for us ; "
" Unto him that loved us." She is described as redeemed
by Christ : " Ye were not redeemed with corruptible things,
as silver and gold, but with the precious blood of Christ."
She is described as chosen in Christ : " chosen in him before
the foundation of the world." She is by him provided with
ministers : " He gave some apostles ; and some, prophets ;
and some, evangelists ; and some, pastors and teachers ; for
the perfecting of the saints, for the work of the ministry."
She is described as one — " one fold under one Shepherd ; "
" We being many, are one body ; " " In Christ Jesus there
is neither Greek nor Jew, circumcision nor uncircumcision,
but all are one in Christ ; " — outward diversity, but real
and substantial unity. And lastly, she is to extend over the
whole earth : the " stone cut out without hands " is to " be
come a great mountain and fill the whole earth ; " " all
nations shall serve him ; " " the mountain of the Lord's
house shall be established on the top of the mountains, and
shall be exalted above the hills, and all nations shall flow
unto it." Or, as it is beautifully expressed in a few lines — ¦

THE NICENE CHURCH. 259
Arabia's desert ranger
To him shall bow the knee,
And Ethiopian stranger
His glory come and see :
With anthems of devotion
Ships from the isles shall greet,
And pour the wealth of ocean
In tribute at his feet.
" Kings shall fall down before him,
And gold and incense bring ;
All nations shall adore him,
His praise all people sing.
For he shall have dominion
O'er river, sea, and shore ;
Far as the eagle's pinion
Or dove's light wing can soar."
Let me notice some of the epithets bestowed upon the
Church. She is called the Lamb's wife ; and what , does
this imply? The moment that a woman . is married, she
loses her own name, and assumes her husband's ; she loses
her legal responsibility, and he becomes responsible for all
her debts, contracted either before or subsequent to her
marriage. It is so with Christ the husband, and the Church
his spouse. We submerge our name, which is Marah (bit
terness), in Christ's name, which is Naomi (beautiful) ; we
lose our name, which is Sin, and clothed in the righteous
ness of Christ; his name becomes ours, so that, as is said in
Jeremiah, " This is the name wherewith she shall be called,
The Lord our righteousness." And — bright and beautiful
thought! — .he becomes responsible for all our debts: not a
sin I have committed remains unexpiated by his blood, not
a stain upon my soul uncovered by his righteousness ; so
that, sheltered in the glorious robe,: I can stand before the
throne of God and of the Lamb, and feel that in him there
is no blemish nor imperfection in my title, — that his title is
my indefeasible title also. The Church of Christ is de
scribed in Scripture as his body; clothed, protected, and

260 THE GREAT APOSTASY.
nourished by him. It is described also as the city of God :
" We have a strong city ; " " Glorious things are spoken of
thee, 0 city of God." A city is not an emanation from the
earth — as a tree, or a plant, or a flower — but an artificial
thing, constructed by man's skill, and executed by man's
power; and the Church of Christ is not an earthborn
thing, like a flower, or a plant, or an earthly production,
destined to crumble into its original elements of earth ; but
she is a supercelestial thing, in plan, and principle, and
pattern, let down from heaven, and destined to survive the
ruin and desolation of the world, and, like Hope described
by the poet —
 " It shall o'er the ruin smile,
And light its torch at Nature's funeral pile."
" Glorious things," indeed, are spoken of this city ; its
walls are not like walls of stone, nor even like the ships,
"the wooden walls of England," but "salvation will God
appoint for walls and bulwarks." It is described as the
"vineyard of the Lord," as the "pillar of truth," as the
"heritage of God," as "the fold of Christ," as "the vision
of peace," as " the daughter of the King."
The Church of Christ is described in its members, under
various beautiful similitudes. Every believer in that
Church is described by one most expressive symbol — the
apple of God's eye ; and in Scripture, remember, there are
no such things as hyperboles ; on the contrary, all language
sinks beneath the weight and magnificence of the truth
which the Holy Spirit of God would convey. Instead of
deducting, as the mere worldling says, fifty per cent, from
its statements, you are to recollect, that when God has ex
hausted all the treasures of earthly metaphor, they never
over express, but always under express, the great truths of
the Gospel. Now God says, he will " keep us as the apple
of his eye." If a mote in the sunbeam, or a single particle

THE NICENE CHURCH. 261
of straw borne upon the light wings of the wind, were ap
proaching my eye, the eyelid, by an instinctive movement
without any volition of mine, instantly closes, and protects
the eyeball ; and just so do the great attributes of the ever
lasting ' God close around each believer ; and you must
dethrone the Eternal,: and destroy the Omnipotent, and out
wit the Omniscient, before you can touch a hair of the
head of one redeemed child of the Most High, or injure the
spirit of one whose trust is in the Lamb of Gpd who was
slain for us.
Another representation of the. Christian is the olive-tree
— the emblem of fruitfulness and. of peace; a, branch of
which, in the mouth of the dove, is everywhere the emblem
of peace. Another symbol ofthe believer ig the palm-tree j
which, the more it is cut and crushed, buds and shoots the
more vigorously. Another is the branch of the vine, — not
tied to it, but part and parcel of the stem ; and just as the
sap from the parent trunk permeates the braneb.es and
makes them bear fruit, so does the Spirit of Christ animate
all believers, and make them bear "the peaceable fruit of
righteousness." Believers, again, are compared to the
cedars of Lebanon, to denote stability, for the cedar outlives
many a hurricane ; to denote fragrance, the well-known prop
erty of its wood ; to denote perpetuity, for it is also the most
durable. Believers are termed jewels: "They shall be
mine, saith God, in that day when I make up my jewels."
A jewel is a rough unseemly lump, when found in its parent
matrix ; but it is extracted from the earth, undergoes a pro
cess of purification, is subjected to the polisher, and then-
reflects the rays of the sun in the heavens. So with the
believer : at first " of the earth, earthy," and undistinguisha
ble from others, but selected by the wisdom, and chosen by
the good pleasure of God, he is subjected to the discipline r—
it may be of sickness, it may be of affliction, but all under
the Spirit of God — and at last, is made to reflect the beams,

262

THE GREAT APOSTASY.

not of a sun whose fountain shall be dried up, but of that
Sun whose beams are healing, and whose rays are destined
to illumine all creation. We have a mountain in Scotland,
called Cairngorm — literally the blue mountain — on which
are found valuable rock crystals ; and the way in which the
Highlanders gather the stones, called Cairngorms, is this :
when there is a sun-burst after a violent shower, they go
and look along the whole brow of the mountain, for certain
sparkling spots ; the shower having washed away the loose
earth, the sunbeams light upon and are reflected from the
precious stones, and thus they are detected. It is just God's
way of bringing forth his own — his "jewels." Affliction
lays them bare ; but while it washes from them all that is
of the earth, it brings them in contact with the Sun of
Righteousness, and prepares them to reflect the glories of
redemption in time, and in eternity to be set, as gems he
has selected and made brilliant, in his amaranthine and fade
less crown.
One single text, which describes the whole Church of
Christ, is fatal, in my judgment, to all Tractarian and all
Romish pretensions : " Where two or three are gathered
together in my Name, there am I in the midst of them." It
is not multitude that makes the Christian assembly ; Christ
meets a few in the " upper room," as well as the thousands
that crowd the spacious edifice : the essential requirement is
— " in my Name." Whether you meet in a garret or in a
cathedral, in a chapel or in a church, if it be in the name of
Jesus, you constitute a section of the Church of Christ, and
may expect his blessing. Not that I discountenance places
set apart for sacred purposes ; not that I am opposed to reg
ularity in a duly constituted church ; not that I disapprove
of an order of ministers, for I hold this to be God's ap
pointment ; but this, I do notwithstanding maintain, is the
essential of a church — " two or three gathered together in
Christ's name." If those who are thus met are looking to

THE NICENE CHURCH. 263
him as a Priest to plead for them, as a Prophet to teach
them, as a King to rule them, there is substantially, and in
the sight of God, a true portion of the Church of the living
God. In this text, also, we see the true safety of the Church.
It is not the fathers in her bosom, it is not the Nicene linea
ments transferred to her ; it is Christ in the midst of her.
If all the laws that establish the Church pf England, or
the Church of Scotland, were abolished to-morrow, these
churches would not fall, for Christ is in the midst of them :
nay, if the days of persecution, and proscription; and blood
shed, were to return, the lofty hills and the tangled forests
would become Zion's defence, and the steep rocks her pali
sadoes, because the living God is her strength and her ally.
And in this, too, behold the true unity of the church:
wherever souls rally round Christ as their Prophet, Priest,
and King, there they are one. They may differ in circum
stantials, they may be divided in non-essentials ; but in the
sight of God, and by the standard of the sanctuary, they are
truly one. And lastly, in this, see the true glory of the
Church. It is not the eloquence that speaks from the pul
pit; it. is not the coronets that' sparkle in the pew; it is not
the riches that are poured into the plate ; it is not the em
broidery that is heaped upon her shrines ; nor is it the gold
that is piled upon her altars. It is Christ in the midst,
that is the ground of her unity, the element of her endur
ance,, her glory in time, and her portion in eternity.

[264]

LECTURE X.
THE BIBLE, NOT TRADITION.
In the Roman Catholic Church, the rule of faith — that
is, the standard by which all doctrines are to be tested, and
all opinions determined — is not the Bible alone, but the
" Bible and tradition : and both these, propounded and ex
pounded by what is called the Church." Among the Trac
tarians, or Romanizing Protestants, (if the name Protestant
may at all be applied to them,) the Rule of Faith is the Bi
ble, and the universal voice of Catholic antiquity ; and both
set before you and taught on the authority of the Church.
There is a difference in words, there is substantially no dif
ference in principle, between the rule of faith laid down in
the Canons of the Council of Trent, and that laid down by
the Tractarian divines ; and it will be obvious, that in dis
cussing the merits of the one, I am really canvassing those
of the other also ; and that whatever tends to overthrow the
foundations of the former, must of necessity sap and under
mine the pretensions of the latter.
On the other hand, the Protestant Rule of Faith is — not
as Protestants frequently express it, and as Roman Catho
lics generally urge it, the Bible explained by every man's
private judgment, but — the Bible alone, without note
or comment, or any thing extrinsic to itself. This is the
only standard of appeal which a Protestant can recognize ;
and as long as he keeps within the circumference of the Bi
ble, he is on impregnable ground, but the instant that he
goes beyond the Bible, and allows that the opinion of Scott

THE BIBLE, NOT TRADITION. 265
or Henry, or the comments of the AngKcan or the Scottish
or any other church, form part and parcel of the Rule of
Faith, he has left " the munition of rocks," where no power
can dislodge him, and he has placed himself upon Roman
Catholic ground, and must, if consistent, terminate his
downward course in the full reception of Roman Catholic
dogmas. And whether, on the one side, the term used be the voice
of antiquity, or the opinion of the Catholic Church, or tra
dition, or the consent of the fathers, they all substantially
resolve themselves into a continuous tradition, circulated and
transmitted from age to age, until the present moment.
Now, it is a remarkable fact, that from the very com
mencement of Scripture to its close, we are never taught
that there is any value in oral tradition ; on the contrary,
we are incessantly warned to beware of it. Now, this is an
a priori presumption, that it is not to be trusted — at least
to the extent to which the Tractarians and the Roman Cath
olics rely on it. We are continually warned in Scripture,
to be on our guard against the traditions of men ; we are
not directed to revere and pay equal deference to Scripture
and unwritten traditions.
Oral tradition, let me here observe, presupposes a number
of things which never have existed, do not now exist, and
are never likely to exist. It presupposes perfect memories,
adequate to retain what is intrusted to them ; perfect faith
fulness, to transmit, without subtraction or addition, what has
been received ; and a perfect and pure moral character, not
to bias or distort in the least the sacred truths which are to
be conveyed to others. In no age in the history of man,
since the Fall, has a perfect memory existed ; — in no age
have men been so immaculate, so untainted, and undefiled,
that we could believe without doubt that they would trans
mit uncontaminated to others the sacred truths which un
veiled their sins and condemned them; and during whole
23

266 THE GREAT APOSTASY.
centuries, we know the corruption of the Church has been
so entire, as it is recorded in the Annals of Baronius, and
in the History of Dupin, that its priests, so far from being
fit and suitable conductors of sacred truths, were the most
unsuitable and unfit that could possibly be selected. If
water cannot be transmitted pure and untainted through a
defiled and corrupted channel, we must equally believe that
the pure and living streams of truth, which come originally
from the fulness of God, cannot (even if committed to them)
have been conveyed pure and untainted through imperfect
memories, damaged consciences, immoral conduct — through
men, in short, whom Baronius, one of themselves, pro
nounces to have been worthy of the name of Apostate, rather
than of Apostolicals.
There is in Scripture a very early record of an instance
of the distorting nature and tendency of tradition ; and at
the same time an exemplification of the corrective power of
the word of God. In the Gospel of St. John, at the close
of that most beautiful and interesting, because inspired
biography, we read, that " Peter, seeing John, saith to Jesus,
Lord, and what shall this man do ? Jesus saith unto him,
If I will that he tarry till I come, what is that to thee ? fol
low thou me. Then went this saying abroad (a tradition)
among the brethren, that that disciple should not die." Our
Lord, as is evident, made no promise, he merely stated an
hypothesis : but tradition, with its natural tendency to mag
nify, distort, and misstate, altered the hypothetical statement
into a positive prediction. But mark the corrective power
pf "the law and the testimony," by which tradition was
nipped in its bud; for it is beautifully added — "Yet Jesus
said npt unto him, He shall not die ; but, If I will that he
tarry till I come, what is that to thee ? "
A strong presumption against tradition being any part of
the channel of truth to us, is found in the fact, that there is
no divine appointment of an order of men for the express

THE BIBLE, NOT TRADITION. 267
purpose of transmitting tradition. Under the ancient Leviti-
cal economy, an order of men was expressly instituted for
continuing the morning and evening and yearly sacrifices ;
and under the New Testament economy, there is presented
an order of men whose function it is to " preach the Gospel
to every creature," and to minister the sacraments. But
there is not the least intimation of an order or class of men
to whom were to be intrusted certain isoteric or secret com
munications, which they were to transmit to their successors,
as the necessary lights that are to illuminate the sacred page,
and amid the unerring rays of which we should see and
comprehend all truth.
It has, too, been found to be an invariable result, that
ever as man has admitted tradition to a level with Scripture,
the balance has not been long maintained : by and by Scrip
ture has been depressed, and tradition exalted far above it.
Admit a human element into connection and coequality with
that which is divine, and by and by the divine element shriv
els or dies by the contact, and the human alone survives.
Here especially it seems to be true, that " no man can serve
two masters." You cannot bow to the Scriptures on the
right hand, and recognize tradition on the left as equal ; you
must keep the one and dismiss the other ; and it needs no
seer's or prophet's eye to tell which will be retained and
which dismissed. Tradition, full of all that chimes in with
man's fallen and corrupt propensities, ever ready to min
ister apologies for his sins, and occasions for the indulgence
of his appetites, will gain the mastery : Scripture, on the
contrary, rebuking our sins in the tones of a judge, and pro
claiming our duties in the accents of an authoritative master,
becomes hateful to the natural man. It is clear that the
natural heart will prefer that which tells it smooth things,
and will shrink from that which speaks what it calls evil
concerning it. Scripture, which is God's word, is soon tram
pled under foot, and tradition, which is man's word (as in

268 THE GREAT APOSTASY.
the Church of Rome), becomes practically and substantially
the only and conclusive rule of faith.
In order now to present some specimens of the mind of
God on the subject of tradition, I will quote a few texts.
Ezekiel xx. 18, 19 : " Walk ye not in the statutes of your
fathers, neither observe their judgments, nor defile your
selves with their idols : I am the Lord your God ; walk in
my statutes, and keep my judgments, and do them." That
is so say, Do not follow the fathers in their devious courses,
guided by the flickering taper of tradition : but come afresh
" to the law and to the testimony," just as if a previous gen
eration had never existed, and take thence the tone of your
character and the direction of your career. Matthew xv.
1,2: " Then came to Jesus scribes and Pharisees, which
were of Jerusalem, saying, Why do thy disciples transgress
the tradition of the elders ? " For at the close of the Jew
ish economy, tradition, by its necessary tendency, had come
to be all ; and Scripture, being uncongenial to man's de
praved heart, had come to be depressed. This was a purely
Roman Catholic question ; and the reply of our Lord was a
purely Protestant reply — "Why do you also transgress the
commandment of God by your tradition ? " Mark vii. 5—7 :
'? The Pharisees and scribes, asked him, Why walk not thy
disciples according to the tradition of the elders, but eat
bread with unwashen hands ? He answered and said unto
them, Well hath Esaias prophesied of you, hypocrites, as it
is written, This people honoreth me with their lips, but their
heart is far from me ; howbeit, in vain do they worship me,
teaching for doctrines the commandments of men ; " — ¦
another very express and decisive rebuke for deferring to
tradition, and departing from the precepts and doctrines of
God. Again : 1 Peter i. 18 : " Ye were not redeemed with
corruptible things, as silver and gold, from your vain con
versation received by tradition from your fathers, but with
the precious blood of Christ." We associate this beautiful

THE BIBLE, NOT TRADITION. 269
announcement with redemption from sin — and we do well ;
but one great result of the atoning blood of the Son of God
was redemption, not merely from the condemnation of sin,
but from the bondage of the traditions and commandments
of men : and that man, in one respect, sins against the re
deeming blood of the Son of God, who elevates the tradi
tions and commandments of men to a level with the precepts
and doctrines of God, just as that man sins against the
cleansing blood of Christ, who continues in the practice of
sin because grace hath abounded.
In the next place, the Scriptures invariably declare and
urge their own sufficiency as a rule of faith. There can
therefore be no necessity for any traditions. If the sun, as
he shines in the firmament, is sufficient to direct the foot
steps of the traveller, it is altogether unnecessary to intro
duce the glowworm, or to light up the evening tapers at
noonday ; and if Scripture assert itself to be perfectly suffi
cient as a rule of faith to men, and to ministers too, it
is clear that nothing beside, oral or written, is necessary to
guide us to heaven. "The Holy Scriptures are able to
make thee wise unto salvation, through faith which is in
Christ Jesus," 2 Tim. iii. 15 ; and if this be so, we Protest
ants must be right, because the Bible is sufficient " to make
us wise unto salvation," while Roman Catholics may be
wrong (to go no further) in mixing up alien elements with
that which is sufficient. In the next verse, — "All Scrip
ture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for
doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in right
eousness." And what is the result ? " That the man of
God may be perfect, thoroughly furnished unto all good
works." What necessity, then, can there be for tradi
tion? Cardinal Wiseman, I know, asserts, that "man of
God " means, not a private Christian, but a priest, a minis
ter of the Gospel ; I think he is right, and that his is the
true interpretation of this text. But his deduction, that
23*

270 THE GREAT APOSTASY.
therefore the laity should not read the Scriptures, is npt
therefore right also. If the Scriptures are adequate to
make a minister " perfect," which is the greater result, they
are, a fortiori, adequate to make a layman perfect, who has
no need of such extensive erudition ; and therefore, taking
the construction which the Roman Catholic bishop puts
upon the text, it proves the Scripture sufficient to make
perfect the greater, and, consequently, the less also. Again :
Psalm xix. 7, " The law of the Lord is perfect, converting
the soul," — the great object we are all anxious to attain :
" the testimony of the Lord is sure, making wise the sim
ple ; " and if alone adequate to this blessed result, I cannot
see what need we have of tradition also. John xvii. 3,
"This is life •eternal, that they might know thee, the only
true God, and Jesus Christ whom thou hast sent ; " and
John xx. 31, "These are written, that ye might believe that
Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God ; and that believing, ye
might have, hfe through his name:" and if this could be
said of the Gospel of St. John alone, it must be still more
true, that, the whole New Testament is able to accomplish
these results. Romans xv. 4, " Whatsoever things were
written aforetime, were written for our learning, that we,
through patience and comfort of the Scriptures, might have
hope." I contend, that these texts fairly and clearly make
out the selfrasserted sufficiency of Scripture to make the
Christian wise to everlasting life.
I will now endeavor to prove, by a few texts, that the
Scriptures alone are the decisive standard of appeal in all
questions respecting truth and error. The very first proof
I adduce ,is the text ; for if the statements of a prophet,
commissioned from the throne of God, were to be tested
and tried by " the law and the testimony," much more must
those of an ordinary minister of the Gospel, who claims no
supernal inspiration, and no personal infallibility. Joshua
xxiii. 6, " Be ye therefore very courageous, to keep and do

THE BIBLE, NOT TRADITION. 271
all that is written in the Book of the law of Moses, that ye
turn not aside therefrom, to the right hand or to the left ; "
they were to bring all religious questions and perplexities,
neither to tradition on the right nor to the Church on the
left, but only to the statutes and the laws of their God.
Mark xii. 24, " Do ye not therefore err, because ye know
not the Scriptures, neither the power of God ? " — so that
the cause of error and wrong judgment is ignorance of the
Scriptures. Luke xvi. 29, " They have Moses and the
Prophets ; let them hear them." The rich man had said,
" I have brothers and sisters upon earth, and. if some spirit
were to go from the realms of glory, fragrant with the per-
ftimes and robed with the light of the blessed land, and
were to speak with angel's tongue of its harmonies, its joys,
its happiness, and its deep peace, my brothers would be so
impressed that they would believe and live ; or if a spirit .
were to rise from the depths of hell, and to tell forth, in the
hearing of mortality, the secrets of its awful prisonhouse,
they would surely hear and believe ; " but our Lord replies,
that this would be of no service (as far as instruction and
direction are involved) to those who ought to appeal to the
word of God, and that if granted, it would fail to convince
and convert them ; and if this was true of the Old Testa
ment, much more surely is it true of the Old and New com
bined. Acts xvii. 11, "These were more noble than those
in Thessalonica, in that they received the word with all
readiness of mind, and searched the Scriptures daily,
whether those things were so; they recognized only one
standard pf appeal, and to it they brought even an apostle's
preaching. If a Roman Catholic were to go home and test
his priest's preaching by the Douay Bible, he would be told
that he was becoming a heretic, or had already ceased to be
a Catholic ; but the Bereans, instead of being told that by
searching the Scriptures they would become more deeply
rooted Jews or idolaters, are commended as " more noble "

272

THE GREAT APOSTASY.

in doing so. If you mark the conduct of our Lord, on
various occasions, you will find him constantly appealing t<?
the word of God for an answer to every question ; for
instead of saying, " My word is law, and I tell you this is
truth, and that is error," his answer ever was, " How read-
est thou ? " " What saith the Scriptures ? " " Have ye not
read ? " " Search the Scriptures." And even after he had
risen from the dead, instead of saying, ' I will lay before
you the secrets of heaven, and divulge new mysteries,'
"beginning at Moses and all the Prophets, he expounded
unto them in all the Scriptures the things concerning him
self." When Satan tempted him in the wilderness, (and
Satan knew who he was, for he has never lapsed into
heresy, he has never denied the deity of our blessed Lord,
he " believes and trembles,") he was not thrust aside by the
arm of Omnipotence, or " I say," or blasted with the light
ning's flash of penetrating Omniscience; he was repelled
with a simple — "It is written — it is written." Words
cannot express the honor that the Lord of Glory poured
upon the Sacred Volume throughout his pilgrimage of
tears ; to this standard he ever appealed for his replies, and
to this tribunal he submitted all his teachings.
It is the people's duty and privilege to read the Scrip
tures. The fourth rule of the Index of the Council of
Trent says, that " forasmuch as the reading of the Scrip
tures in the vulgar tongue," (the language of the country in
which they are circulated,) " has been productive of more
evil than good, it is expedient that they be not translated
into the vulgate, or read or possessed by any one without a
written license from the inquisitor or the bishop of the dio
cese." This is the law now binding in the Church of Rome ;
and in the celebrated bull Unigenitus, containing one hun
dred and one propositions extracted from the writings of
Quesnel, which are therein denounced as heterodox and
heretical, it is said in one of these propositions, quoted in

THE BIBLE, NOT TRADITION. 273
the bull from Quesnel, " The reading of the Holy Scrip
tures is for all men," and " to forbid Christians the reading
of the Holy Scriptures is to interdict the use of light to the
sons of light ; " again, " It is necessary and Useful at all
times and in every place, and for all sorts of people, to
study and know the spirit, piety, and mysteries of the Holy
Scriptures." On these the following judgment is pronounced
by Clement in the bull Unigenitus ; and this bull, by the
admission of Doyle and Murray, Irish Roman Catholic
Bishops, is obligatory in Ireland : " We declare and con
demn, and reprobate these as false, captious, ill-sounding,
offensive to pious ears ; impious, blasphemous, suspected of
heresy and savoring of heresy (suspectas de hseresi ac hsere-
sim ipsam sapientes)." In 1842, the Bishop of Bruges, in
Belgium, issued an episcopal or circular letter, condemning
the circulation of the Scriptures in the language of Bel
gium,* and among the poor people.
The text most frequently quoted by Roman Catholics, as
a proof that the people ought not to read the Scriptures, is,
2 Peter iii. 16: "As also in ah his epistles, speaking in
them of these things ; in which are some things hard to be
understood, which they that are unlearned and unstable
wrest, as they do also the other Scriptures, unto their own
destruction." Now, in the first place, the " things hard to
be understood " are not said to be in " the epistles " gener
ally, or the Scriptures, but among those things which the
Apostle Paul had written respecting the coming of the Lord :
it is not in the feminine gender iv uTg, but the neuter iv oTg :
* Nothing, let me here- remark, in passing, gave me greater delight, while
wandering through that country some time ago, than to find a colporteur,
employed by the Bible Society, walking among the cafes and stalls, press
ing on the people the value of the Bible ; he came to me, and supposing
me a Eoman Catholic, began to speak to me of the New Testament, which
he wished me to purchase ; I did purchase it, but explained to him, that
that Bible was in my heart Before I took, it from his hand, and I wished
him God speed in his truly sublime work.

274

THE GREAT APOSTASY.

" among which subjects are some hard to be understood."
In the next place, the Roman Catholic acts inconsistently
and absurdly in concluding that because some " wrest these
things to their own destruction," therefore we are to take
the Scriptures from the people. The incendiary abuses fire,
but we are not therefore to abjure its warmth : fire con
sumed the Tower, and the Exchange, and the Houses of
Parliament, and annually destroys much valuable property,
but this arises from careless neglect, and not from the legiti
mate use of it ; but it never can be seriously alleged, that
the abuse of the blessings of Providence is a fair argument
for rejecting the use of them altogether. But this text, in
stead of proving the apostolic refusal of the Scriptures to the
laity, proves the very reverse ; for how could the people
have " wrested the Scriptures to their own destruction," in
the days of Paul and Peter, if they had not been in the
habit of then reading them ? and if they read them in the
apostolic age, I cannot see why we are not to read them
now. But after his admission of a practical abuse, what
prescription does the apostle propose ? Does he say, " Cast
them aside, do not read them any more, put your judgment
in the hands of the priest, and believe nothing beyond what
he says ? " No ; he virtually counsels, Read the Scriptures
more, and you will " wrest them " less : " but grow in grace
and in the knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ."
It is ignorance of Scripture that leads to the perversion
of it. It is not therefore proved from this scripture that the
Scriptures are to be the exclusive property of the priest, and
not the privilege of the people also.* " Prove all things ;
hold fast that which is good."
Our blessed Lord's express commandment is, — " Search
the Scriptures." I recollect the use which an Irish Scrip
ture reader made of this beautiful injunction. He was read-
* We Protestants of course condemn "wresting" the Scriptures, and
never give them to be thus treated, but to be read prayerfully and humbly.

THE BIBLE, NOT TRADITION. 275
htg the Scriptures in a cabin to some poor Roman Catholics,
who were hearing with delight of " the wonderful works of
God," when the priest of the district came in, and asked
him, in a most dictatorial tone — " How dare you read the
Scriptures to any of my flock ? " " Please your reverence,"
said the man, with the readiness for which an Irishman is
always distinguished, " I have got a search warrant to do it."
" Produce it," said the priest ; " I am sure it cannot be from
the bishop, or from his Holiness the Pope." " No," said the
Scripture reader, " it is from God, and here it is — John v.
39 : ' Search the Scriptures.' "
Let us see how God commanded his ancient people to
keep the Scriptures continually before them. Deuteronomy
vi. 7, " These words, which Icommand this day, shall be in
thine heart, and thou shalt teach them diligently unto thy
children, and shalt talk of them when thou sittest in thine
house, and when thou walkest by the^way, and when thou
liest down, and when thou risest up : and thou shalt bind
them for a sign upon thine hand, and they shall be as front
lets between thine eyes, and thou shalt write them upon
the posts of thy house, and on thy gates." Isaiah xxxiv. 16,
" Seek ye out of the book of the Lord, and read." Luke xi.
28, " Blessed are they that hear the word of God and keep
it." 2 Peter i. 19, "We have also a more sure word of
prophecy, whereunto ye do well that ye take heed." I find
that the king on his throne, and amidst his council, is to read
the Scriptures: Deuteronomy xvii. 18, "It shall be, when
he sitteth upon the throne of his kingdom, that the copy of
this law shall be with him, and he shall read therein all the
days of his life." I find, that the commander of an army is
not exempted from the duty of reading the Scriptures ; for
it was said to Joshua (i.y 8.) — " This book of the law shall
not depart out of thy mouth, but thou shalt meditate therein
day and night." A prime minister, with all his toils and
cares, is not to neglect the Scriptures, — and probably, if

276 THE GREAT APOSTASY.
prime ministers of all parties studied God's word as much
as the mere rules and laws of human expediency, they might
rule and govern more justly and successfully. We read
(Acts viii. 28), " that a man of Ethiopia, of great authority
under Candace, queen of the Ethiopians, who had the charge
of all her treasure," travelling in his chariot, " read Esaias
the prophet." And this is the attribute of true nobility, as
we have seen in the case of the Bereans ; it is not a crown
that makes a king, nor a coronet that makes a noble, nor a
cassock or a surplice that consecrates a priest. True roy
alty reposes in being kings and priests unto God ; true no
bility, in searching and treasuring up a knowledge of God's
word ; and a true ministry, whatever be its shape, in the
faithful study, appreciation, and utterance of God's truth.
So again, 2 Timothy iii. 15 : " From a child thou hast known
the Holy Scriptures." St. James addresses his Epistle, not
to the clergy only, but to the Twelve Tribes which are scat
tered abroad. St. Peter wrote, not to the ministers only,
but to " the strangers scattered throughout Pontus, Galatia,
Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia ; " St. John, to " fathers,"
" young men," and " children," and he addressed an Epistle
" to the elect lady and her children." In Colossians iv. 1,6,
also, we find it said, " When this Epistle is read amongst
you, cause that it be read also in the Church of the Laodi-
ceans, and that ye likewise read the Epistle from Laodicea."
These texts triumphantly prove, that it is our duty and
our privilege to read the Scriptures. Permission to read
the Scriptures, as Rome speaks, is insult. How dares that
Church talk of " permission '' to read the Scriptures ! " Per
mit " me to enjoy the rays of the sun in the firmament !
" Permit " me to breathe the atmosphere of heaven ! " Per
mit" me to drink from earth's pure and exhaustless foun
tains ! The very word is wrongdoing to man, treason and
blasphemy against God. This book is an epistle from my
Father to me, an exile in a distant land ; and the very fact,

THE BIBLE, NOT TRADITION. 277
tnat it is a letter addressed to me from that Father whom I
love, and in whose bosom I have reposed my hope, my hap
piness, my soul, is warrant enough to me for treasuring it
up with all the care and affection of a son, reading it when
I lie down, and studying it when I rise up.
I now proceed to a part of the subject which Roman
Catholics make a great deal of. Haying listened to all these
passages of Scripture, and unable to vindicate their false
faith, they turn upon us and say — "Ah! you forget that
you are indebted to us for the Bible ; and if we have been
the guardians of the Bible in every age, and have transmit
ted it to you, how can you dare to say that we are not the
true Church, and thereby not the only authorized interpre
ters of it?"
Now, if the Church of Rome has been the transmitter of
the Bible to us, we praise that God, who was pleased to
make so treacherous a body the instrument of conveying so
sacred a deposit. But when she alleges that the supposed
fact, that she gave us the Scriptures, is a ground why we
should bow to her interpretation of them, I must answer,
The Jews transmitted the Old Testament to our Lord and
his Apostles, but this was not admitted as a reason for re
garding the Jews as infallible or authoritative interpreters
of the Scripture ; their actual interpretation was that Christ
should be crucified. But we deny that the Church of Rome
alone transmitted the Scriptures to us. We have no objec
tion to admit, that the Roman, with other contemporaneous
Churches, intentionally or otherwise, preserved and handed
down copies of them ; but if she says, " You shall not have
them from my hand, unless you will take my interpretation
of them," I answer, " Then I will appeal to the Greek
Church for the gift which you refuse, or offer on conditions
which I cannot accept, or to the old Saxon Church, or to
the Syriac Church, or to any contemporaneous Church that
will give me the Scriptures without so fatal a restriction.
24

278 THE GREAT APOSTASY.
Suppose a water company in one of the London districts
sent their agent to me, and said, "We will supply your
house with water from our corporation, but on this condition,
that you shall use the conduit pipes we have laid down,
which, it is but just and candid not to conceal from you,
have a slight coating of arsenic ; and also that you employ
our buckets, which, it would be equally unfair to disguise,
have acquired a peculiar, but we think not very deleterious
taint ; and unless you consent to this, we will not supply you
with water at all ; " — my instant answer would be — "I am
happy to learn there are half a dozen other water compa
nies in London ; I will apply to one of them, that will give
me water without any admixture or taint." Even so, if the
Church of Rome will not supply me with the living waters
which come from the Oracles of God, except I make use of
her corrupted conduit pipes and buckets, then I will turn to
one of those churches which will give me life's untainted
streams first hand and pure from their glorious and inex
haustible fountain, without any admixture of deleterious ele
ments infused by Roman or any other hands.
"But," says the Church of Rome, when silenced upon
this point, " are you aware that you have not the Bible in
its integrity — that certain books have been long lost, and
that, therefore, you have not a sufficient or complete rule of
faith in the Bible alone ? " Is it true, I exclaim, that cer
tain books have been lost, and is it also true, as you inces
santly tell us, that you have been the watcher over the
Bible in every age? What a sleepy guardian the Church
of Rome must be to have allowed some books to disappear,
and what matchless effrontery at the same time to boast of
being the keeper of the Bible, and of our being indebted to
her for the precious deposit ! If one book be lost, who is to
blame ? Rome proclaims her crimes in trying to assail our
Protestant faith. Surely, in trying to beat down our for
tress, she is taking stones from her own fabric.

THE BIBLE, NOT TRADITION. 279
There is no evidence, however, that any books of the
Bible have been lost ; and in this respect I do not blame the
Church of Rome. When I ask what books have been lost,
it is true she answers, that two books of the Old Testament,
" the book of Jasher," and " the book of the wars of the
Lord," are wanting. These, she says, must have been in
spired books now lost. I reply, There is no evidence what
ever that those were inspired books. To say that the allu
sion to a book in the Bible proves it to be one of the
inspired books, is to prove too much ; for the Apostle Paul
quotes from Aretas, a Greek poet, and from Epimenides,
another Greek writer ; and if, because Moses refers to the
book of Jasher, that book is therefore inspired, then because
Paul refers to Aretas and Epimenides, those Greek authors
are also therefore inspired. The fact that an inspired pen
man alludes to extraneous and contemporaneous works, is
no evidence whatever that he held or recognized them as
inspired. There is not the slightest proof, or approximation
to proof, that one single inspired book has been lost.
" But," says the Church of Rome, " compare our Bible
with your Protestant Bible, and you will find there are
certain books in ours which are not in yours ; the books of
Maccabees, the books of Esdras, Ecclesiasticus, Tobit, and
various others, are all contained in the Douay Bible, but are
wanting in the Protestant." There is unquestionably a dif
ference here, and a very marked one ; the books of the
Apocrypha, it is true, are not in our Bible, and are not rec
ognized by any Protestant Church as inspired, whereas by
an express canon of the Council of Trent, they are declared
to be inspired, as truly so as the Gospels of Matthew, Mark,
Luke, or John. I fear there is a reason for that decision :
the apocryphal books are the only books that have ever
received for any time the name of Scripture, which contain
the least " shadow of a shade " of argument for the peculiar
heresies of the Church of Rome ; and she has, therefore, a

280 THE GREAT APOSTASY.
deep interest in the maintenance of their claims to inspira
tion; and hence, her recent doctors and councils have
wielded their most powerful but unsuccessful arguments in
defence of them. But it may be very easily shown that
they are not inspired. In the first place, they were not
written in Hebrew, as are the other books of the Old Tes
tament, but in Greek. In the second place, they were never
once quoted by our blessed Lord or his apostles. Thirdly,
the Old Testament Scriptures were committed to the Jews,
as to their legitimate guardians ; " to them were committed
the Oracles of God." Our Lord accused them of " making
void the word of God by their traditions," and of neglecting
the Scripture, but never of omitting' any book really- in
spired. If they had omitted the apocryphal books (and
they never did receive them into the sacred canon), while
these were really inspired, unquestionably our Lord would
have charged them with this deadly crime. Fourthly, the
Apocrypha contains doctrines totally destructive of moral
ity. For instance, in the Second Book of Maccabees (xiv.
42) we read thus — " Now as the multitude sought to rush
into his house and break open the door, and to set fire to it,
when he was ready to be taken, he struck himself with the
sword, choosing to die nobly, rather than to fall into the
hands of the wicked, and to suffer abuses unbecoming his
noble birth." In this, we observe, there is a distinct eulo-
gium upon suicide ; it is declared, that the man who rushed
unbidden and unsent into the presence of his God "died
nobly.'' To such morality as this, we find no parallel or
counterpart in the rest of the Sacred Volume. In the same
Second Book of Maccabees, we read that " it is a holy and
wholesome thought to pray for the dead, that they may be
loosed from their sins." In another portion of the Apocry
pha, the book of Tobias (which has been received by the
Romish Church as inspired), it is written, that " to depart
from injustice is to offer a propitiatory sacrifice, and te the

THE BIBLE, NOT TRADITION. 281
obtaining of pardon for sins. These, and other doctrines
that might be quoted from the Apocrypha, show distinctly
that it is not inspired, nor in character to be identified with
the Sacred Volume. But further, we have decisive evidence
that the Apocrypha is not part of the Word of God, from
the simple fact, that the writers of the Apocrypha disclaim
for themselves all pretensions to inspiration whatever. For
instance, at the end of the Second Book of Maccabees,
which is received by the Church of Rome as part of the
Sacred Scriptures, it is stated — " So these things being by
Nicanor, etc., I also here will make an end of my narrative,
which if I have done well, it is what I desired ; but if not
so perfectly, it must be pardoned me." Can we conceive an
inspired penman begging pardon for the manner or matter
of his narrative ? Certainly there is no parallel apology in
Sacred Writ ; and this statement of the writer of the Books
of Maccabees, is alone sufficient to disprove all ascription of
inspiration to his work.
Perhaps to a Roman Gatholic the most decisive evidence
upon this subject, if any evidence be to him decisive, is the
voice of the fathers; and though the fathers are rarely
unanimous in the interpretation of the plainest passages of
Scripture, yet, strange to say, in the rejection of the apocry
phal books, they all nearly agree. Pope Gregory the Great,
who lived in the sixth century, declared the apocryphal
books of the Maccabees to be uninspired ; Pope Pius IX.,
who lives in the nineteenth century, affirms them to be in
spired : so much, en passant, for the unity of the Roman
Catholic Church. But to refer for a moment to the fathers.
Origen, who lived A. d. 200, gives a catalogue of the books
of Scripture, but does not include the Apocrypha. Eusebius,
speaking of Melito's Catalogue, rejects the Apocrypha.
Athanasius, who lived a. d. 340, rejects the whole of the
Apocrypha, except one book, which he thinks may be in
spired, called the Book of Baruch. Hilary, who lived a. Di
24*

282 THE GREAT APOSTASY.
354, rejects all the Apocrypha. Epiphanius, who lived A. d.
368, rejects it all. The fathers in the Council of Laodicea,
a.d. 367, reject all the Apocrypha. Gregory of Nazian
zen, who lived in 370, rejects it. Amphilochius, who lived in
370, also rejects it. Jerome, who lived in 322, rejects it all.
Now, as a Roman Catholic is bound by the Creed of Pius
IV. to interpret according to the unanimous consent of the
fathers, let him accept their unanimity in this instance, where
it does seem to exist, and then admit that infallibility has
proved itself signally fallible, and unity its concord truly
discordant, in proclaiming the apocryphal books to be
inspired. But, driven from this point, and unable to show that any
part of the word of God has been lost, the Roman Catholic
turns upon us again and says — " You cannot prove the
Bible to be the Bible at all, unless by the Church." In
the course of a diseussion with a Roman Catholic, and after
I had replied to his objections, he said to me, " What book
is that in your hand, with black morocco binding and a sil
ver clasp ? " " The Bible," I answered. He said, " I deny
it." I bade him look at it, but still he said it was not
the Bible. I felt, that as he was accustomed to believe
flour and water to be flesh and blood every Sunday, and
therefore was received once a week, I must not be surprised
if he believed my Bible to be a novel, or one of the fathers.
He said, " I deny that this volume is the Bible. I call upoD
you to demonstrate it to be the Bible : we Catholics alone
are able to prove what is the Bible." " Indeed," I said ;
" and pray how do you prove it ? " " By the Church."
" But how do you prove the Church ? " His answer, after
some hesitation, was, " By the Bible." That, you see, is
reasoning in a circle ; and, by this play upon words, this
vicious logic, some people are led to believe that you cannot
prove the Bible to be God's word, unless you admit the
assumptions and claims of the Roman Catholic Church

THE BIBLE, NOT TRADITION. 283
A Roman Catholic never fails to urge this point ; and
hence every Protestant ought to have the evidences of
Christianity in an epitome, so that he can give an idea of
the mode in which he proves the Bible to be - God's Word ;
and I did prove it on that occasion, on so conclusive evi
dences, that no jury in England would refuse to give in a
verdict of "proved." Of this proof I may give a very
brief synopsis, as a specimen, and no more.
First, I appeal to miracles. We have, historical evidence,
or attesting and credible witnesses, that miracles were
wrought at the first preaching of the Gospel. But what is
a miracle ? It is just the superscription of Heaven, struck
upon the saered page — the seal, and (if you will allow the
expression) the crest of God impressed upon the sacred
document, stamping it his, and therefore proving it divine.
This alone furnishes irresistible evidence, that a book which
Omnipotence interposed to commend, has for its all-pervad
ing element the inspiration, as it bears luminous upon its
brow the shechinah, of God.
My second proof is prophecy. I can select a thousand
prophecies of the Old Testament Scriptures, and show
their complete and indisputable fulfilment; and from this
alone I must infer that the men who predicted . events so
remote and so unlikely, were inspired. .. I said to my
antagonist, on the occasion I have just referred <to, "I
appeal, for one proof of the prescience of the sacred wri
ters, to the Second of Thessalonians, where the man of sin
was described eighteen centuries ago : that description, and
the embodiment of it in the existing Church of Rome, are
perfectly parallel, the one answering the other 'as face
answers to face,' insomuch that he who gave the picture
must have foreseen the reality in after ages." I take the
patriarchal bud, and find it unfolds itself in the blossom of
the Gospel ; I take the ancient, symbols and types, and see
them all merging and melting into their substance, Christ.

284 THE GREAT APOSTASY.
Let me recall the scenes and awful transactions of memora
ble Calvary ; let me look at the witnesses of that solemn
hour. I see gathered round the cross the hoary patriarchs
of far back generations, the venerable prophets and seers of
a distant day ; I behold types and symbols become animate
and vocal, coalescing and concentrating their majestic testi
mony, and uttering forth the inspiration they embosom in
the words of John, " Behold the Lamb of God, that taketh
away the sin of the world."
Another branch of this argument is effectively brought
out, in Keith's Fulfilment of Prophecy. Tyre from its
ruins, Sodom from its ashes, Rome in her apostasy, Jerusar
lem in her degradation, the Arab in his tent, the Jew upon
our streets, all living and lasting, even if unconscious, wit
nesses, proclaim that this book has God for its author, truth
for its matter, as it has immortality and glory for its issues.
Let me suppose, for a moment, that a number of. persons in
different ages and places had been engaged in making vari
ous parts of a marble statue; suppose a person in Peters-
burgh made a finger, a second in Rome a hand, a third in
Edinburgh an ear, a fourth in Athens the body, and so on
till the whole was completed, but all without communication
with one another, and in different ages as in different lands.
Suppose, that when all the fragments were brought together
they formed that magnificent statue, called the Apollo
Belvedere ; would you not say, that some superintending
statuary must have guided and given an impulse to every
chisel; that some beau ideal, some great archetype, must
have been placed before each of them, after the form of
which they were inspired constantly to work? in other
words, that they composed the parts, not as their own fancy
prescribed, but as the presiding power directed ? This is
the fact in reference to the Scriptures. Let us take the
portrait of our blessed Lord. Isaiah describes his sorrows,
Malachi his triumphs; the dying Patriarch proclaims his

THE BIBLE, NOT TRADITION. 285
empire, and the sweet Psalmist of Israel the extension of
his kingdom ; one prophet gives one feature, and another
gives another ; and looking at the parts in detail, irrespec
tive of the original^ and comparing one with another, we
should Say they are so contradictory, that they can never
belong to the same being. At last Bethlehem and Geth-
semane rise above the horizon — Calvary lifts its awful
head — the Son of God appears upon the cross — what
prophets said is compared with what Christ is ; and lo ! all
the parts delineated by the pens of prophets in distant and
different centuries, and under different circumstances, at
first apparently contradictory, come to be put together, and
they constitute the " brightness of the Father's glory, and
the express image of his person." By this alone it is
proved that the prophets " wrote as they were moved and
guided by the Holy Spirit," and that Jesus of Nazareth is
the Messiah.
My next proof consists of experimental evidence. In
order to appreciate it, I would bid the objector come with
me to some sequestered glen amid the hills and valleys of
Scotland, — I will take him to the patriarchal occupant of a
lonely cabin, where you may behold the gray-headed man,
amid intermingling smiles and tears, bending, morning,
noon, and night, over one book — " the big ha' Bible." Let
us ask him, " How do you know that that book called the
Bible is the book of God? You never read the writings of
a Paley, the Analogy of a Butler ; you never studied the
Credibility of a Lardner, nor the eloquent demonstrations
of a Chalmers ; how came you to believe it ? " " Come to
believe it ? " would the peasant say ; " I have felt it in my
heart and conscience to be the Book of God ; it has taught
me the truths I never knew before, it has given me a peace
the world could not give ; it has calmed my beating heart,
it has stanched my bleeding wounds, it has kindled within
me the love of God and the hopes of glory. Not the Book

286 THE GREAT APOSTASY.
of God! I am as convinced of it, as that I am here a
living, breathing man." Such is the experimental evi
dence. I will briefly show, by one illustration, the three kinds of
evidence, by which we may prove to a Roman Catholic that
the Bible is the word of God. Suppose an individual has
been an invalid, and after six weeks' illness has been re
stored to perfect health and strength by means of a tonic
prescribed by some physician ; suppose the tonic to be port
wine. A stranger comes to this recovered man and says,
" It is not port wine which you have been taking, it is
merely water from the ditch." What would be his reply ?
He might say, "I will convince you from three distinct
sources, that that which I am taking is port wine." First,
he brings the wine merchant ; and the wine merchant states,
that he saw the grapes in the vineyard, he saw them pre
pared in the wine-press, he saw the wine put into the cask —
drawn off into bottles — placed in the chamber of the invalid.
This is external evidence. He next calls the chemist ; and
the chemist states that he lias subjected the wine to the
usual and appropriate tests, and he is sure it is port wine.
That is internal evidence. But the third witness is the re
covered patient ; and he says, " I can add the experimental
to these evidences ; I was reduced to the verge of the grave
by debility, and this has raised me up, renewed my vigor,
imparted strength to my constitution : I am persuaded that
it is not water, but an efficacious tonic that I have taken."
It is so with this Book. All three evidences rest on it as
the glory on the mercy-seat ; but to a Christian taught by
the Spirit of God, his heart-felt experience is the strongest
evidence : " I have felt the glorious Gospel in the inmost
recesses of my heart," and " I know in whom I have ber
lieved ; " no sophistries or subtleties of man can disprove
this to be " the wisdom of God, and the grace of God unto
salvation."

THE BIBLE, NOT TRADITION. 287
There is, however, another argument, frequently over
looked, which I would adduce — the miraculous preservation
of the Bible. The fact that this book is in my hand, is one
of the most stupendous miracles that has ever occurred ; for
it has been more proscribed, and persecuted, and trodden
underfoot, than all the books of ancient and modern times
together. Were there to come into the midst of this assem
bly a man who had outlived eighteen centuries, — who had
been cast into the sea, and not drowned, — thrown to the
wild beasts, and not devoured, — made to drink deadly poi
sons, and not killed, — shot at and stabbed, and not injured —
would you not believe, that the broad shield of Omnipotence
must have been over and with him, and that he " lived and
moved and had his being " in the heart of a perpetual mira
cle ? This is that man. The Bible has been cast into the
fires, but not consumed ; it has been thrown into the waves,
but not overwhelmed ; the deadly and deleterious notes of
the Douay and Rhemish translators have been forced upon
it, but it has not been tainted ; it stands before us still, in
unshorn and untarnished glory, reflecting, the love of our
heavenly Father, and the destinies of his believing and
happy family. That must be the Book of God, which has
been enshrined in perpetual miracle. The productions of
the Greek and Latin Muses, which men have been anxious
to preserve because they ministered to their corrupt taste,
have been lost : but the book that protests against men's
sins, and rebukes men's lusts — which man hated — has been
preserved by man, and in spite of man.
But when, by these simple evidences, I have proved to a
Roman Catholic that the Bible is the word of God, he will
say, " When you Protestants have got the Bible, you cannot
agree about the interpretation of it ; and therefore it is much
better to leave the matter to the Church, and be guided
solely by her." My answer to this is simple : There are
certain points so essential, that there is no Church and no

288 THE GREAT APOSTASY.
Gospel without them ; and on these vital truths all sections
ofthe Protestant Church are agreed, except Socinians, who
are scarcely Christians at all ; while the points abont which
we differ are circumstantial and non-essential. Moreover,
if we differ about the interpretation of certain .passages, it is
not the fault of our rule of faith, but the fault of our own
hearts. Blame man, not the Bible. I will explain my
meaning by a very simple illustration. Suppose an Act of
Parliament is to be passed upon some subject affecting prop
erty : first of all, it as placed in the hands of skilful solicitors
or law agents, and who most carefully draw it up ; it is, then
clearly written out, introduced, and read a first time before
the House of Commons ; one member proposes one correc
tion, another a second, and another a third; and after it has
been canvassed and altered, and remodelled and recon
structed, it is read a third time and passed, it is ushered into
the House of Lords, and undergoes a process of curtailment
and addition and alteration there ; and after being three
times read and canvassed in the House of Lords, it is passed.
It is next submitted to the Queen : the Queen reads it in
Council, and gives her seal and approval to it, and it be
comes the law of the country. Now if it be possible to have
a, document not liable to misapprehension or mistake, desti
tute of a loophole through which guilty ingenuity can
escape, it must surely be this. It has been submitted to the
most learned — it has been examined by those who were
anxious to find flaws in it — in short, one would say, This
must be as perfect as human wisdom can make it. We
Wait twelve months, and what do we find it ? A dispute has
come before a court of law arising on the construction of
that Act of Parliament. A. says -^- " It gives such property
to me: under Act Victoria ; " B, says — " No, it makes it
mine ; " C. says — " Half belongs to you and half to me ; "
and D. s&ys — " It belongs to none of you, but wholly to
me;" and each of them quotes the same Act, and each has

THE BIBLE, NOT TRADITION. 289
a certain amount of plausible pretext for the interpretation
which he puts upon it. How is this ? Is the Act imper-:
feet ? Not at all ; it is because each person has a greater
desire to get hold of the property that is in question, than to
get at the real meaning of the Act of Parliament ; each
reads it in the light of his Covetousness, and therefore puts
his owfl interpretation upon it. This is just the secret pf
half our differences about the interpretation of the Bible.
The Episcopalian reads it too often in the light of Episco
pacy, the Dissenter in the light of Dissent, the Free Seceder
in the light of the Free Secession : and that each goes too
much to the Bible, not to cause it to pass as a ploughshare
through all his preconceived notions, but with a hankering
after his own system, and a determination to turn every text
to its supports Professing to be Protestants, each neverthe
less reads and interprets after some favorite tradition. But
the remedy is, not to go to the Pope for a new rule of
faith, but to pray to God for a new heart; not to seek a
new Bible, but to ask for fresh inward and celestial sun
shine, amid the' brilliancy of which to read the Bible we
have. -We need an infallible interpreter, no doubt ; the Roman
Catholic is right in that; But where and who is that inter
preter? The Popes and Councils have proved themselves
most- fallible ; Protestant ministers have proved themselves
fallible ; we need the Spirit of God to open up the Book he
himself has inspired, and then we shall not err. If I had
written a book upon philosophy, ahd if, in the course of
reading it, one came to a passage which he eOuld not under
stand, he would apply probably to a friend, or minister, and
ask for his explanation of it; and he would receive, no
doubt, his best interpretation. Still he thinks the. meaning
obscure. But suppose the inquirer Were to hear that the
author of the book is to be in the vestry of a certain church
on a certain' night, and that he can have access to him there,
25

290 THE GREAT APOSTASY.
— would he not naturally apply to him, as his interpretation
is more likely to be correct than that of any other, however
learned or ingenious ? Would he not ask him to explain
his own meaning ? The Author of the Bible lives, and is
near, every hour and in every place, to every one of us.
Let us go to him, and say, " Oh ! send out thy light and thy
truth ; let them lead me ; " and in that clearest light of God
we shall see all things clear.
The difference between reading God's Book in the light
of God's Spirit, and in any other light, is immense. Were
I to go forth and look upon one of the lovely landscapes of
our father-land, when the moon at midnight shines upon it in
her calm and silver beauty, I might, indeed, comprehend the
general outline of the scene, but I should fail to distinguish
flowers and plants, and their many-tinted colorings : a misty
haze would hang on the whole panorama. But if I go and
contemplate it at noonday, I should distinguish the tint of
every flower, the nature of every tree — trace the meander
ing of every stream ; and the whole landscape in its length
and breadth would be presented with a beauty and a perspi
cuity undistinguishable before. So with the Bible. Read
it in the misty moonlight of the fathers, and it is very inex
plicable indeed : read it under the mistier starlight of the
Church, and it is more unintelligible still ; but in the exer
cise of chastened and sanctified judgments, let us bring the
sacred page beneath the beams of the Sun of Righteousness,
implore the presence of the Holy Spirit, and forthwith it
will be flooded with a glory that will make every perplexity
plain, every difficulty vanish, and each text grow radiant
with life, simplicity, and beauty.
It was the rule of faith held by the Roman Catholic
divines, and by the Oxford Tractarians, that plunged Europe
in all the murky darkness of the middle ages ; and it was
the Protestant rule of faith rescued from their grasp,' that
had folded within itself and sent forth all the blessings; eivil

THE BIBLE, NOT TRADITION. 291
and religious, which Britons now enjoy. The moment
Luther brought the Bible, the Protestant rule of faith, from
its prisonhouse, the Augean stable began to be swept — the
idols fell from their niches like Dagon before the ark of the
Lord — the trumpet of another Jubilee sounded through the
length and breadth of Christendom, 'filling men's hearts with
the enthusiasm of truth, and startling all Europe with the
thunders of 16ng dormant and oppressed Christianity. It is
owing to the noble efforts of the Reformers of the sixteenth
century, under the blessing of God, that we are what and
where we are. They planted the tree of life in the midst
of our native land ; they watered it with the tears of weep
ing eyes, and with the blood of warm hearts ; and all the
reward they coveted on earth was, that we, their children,
and their children's children, might sit down beneath its
shadow, and eat its fruit, so pleasant to our taste ; whilst
their ashes moulder at its root, and their happy spirits look
down from their seats of glory, and rejoice that " they la
bored, and we have entered into their labors."
What was it that brought wreck upon Jerusalem, and
occasioned the extirpation of all its grandeur ? Its people
preferred the traditions of man to the commandments of
God ; and from the moment they began to do so, corruption
grew in strength, and spread its contagion to the utmost
limits of the Jewish race. Let it be a warning to us in the
present day. The Jews had ecclesiastical authority, out
ward sanctity, a succession most legitimate, a gorgeous ritual,
the Law and the promises, and almsgivings and fastings
such as the Eremites and Cenobites of Oxford have never
attempted to rival ; their whole economy was instituted
amidst stupendous miracles, and cradled amid glorious mer
ties ; they had prophets commissioned from heaven to guide
and teach them ; they had a temple, the glory and the admi
ration of the whole earth ; they had a real historical succes
sion in the priesthood — but, in an evil and disastrous hour,

292 THE GREAT APOSTASY.
they, preferred the traditions of man to the commandments
of God, and from that moment they felt and proved the
great truth,, that the church which tries to steal a ray from
the glory of God, takes a consuming curse into its own
bosom. When the Son of God came to Jerusalem, how did
they receive him ? They who boasted of being " the temple
of the Lord," the only Church, the occupants of Moses'
chair, exclaimed — "Away with him, away with him; " and
at last he was condemned to be. crucified between two thieves,
by a people that declared themselves the children of Abra
ham, and the chosen of the Most High. What consuming
and crushing judgments followed ! Thirty years afterwards,
the Roman armies are seen concentrated in hostile array
around foredoomed, because guilty, Jerusalem; the fire
brands soon blazed amid the carved work of the sanctuary ;
the shouts of the Roman soldiers are heard in those cloisters
where the accents of prayer and thanksgiving had been
uttered by venerable priests and prostrate auditories; the
Roman eagle spreads its wings where the cherubim were ;
and Josephus, a spared priest, sits amid the ruins of his
father-land, the weeping chronicler of its faded glories.
Every stone that now remains cries out, in dumb but awful
eloquence, Ichabod ! Ichabod ! the glory is departed ! And
why? "My people have committed two great evils: they
forsook the fountain of living waters, and hewed out to
themselves cisterns, broken cisterns, that could hold no
water." My dear friends, if you wish to arrest a scarcely less
dreadful national ruin — if you would stem, under God, the
tide and torrent of superstition that now threatens to inun
date the land of our fathers — if you would support the
great principles you love, and disperse the overshadowing
heresies you hate — cleave more closely to your Bibles.
clasp to your hearts your Bibles, read and study and com
prehend your Bibles. The Bible, taught you by the H0I3

THE BIBLE, NOT TRADITION. 293
Ghost, is your bulwark and your glory. If God, in judg
ment, were to take the stars from the firmament, the tides
from the ocean, the verdure from the green earth, he would
not inflict by half so tremendous a catastrophe as to permit
the removal of his Book from its supremacy, and to suffer
the traditions and commandments of men to supersede or be
a substitute for it. To the Bible we are indebted for our
brightest hopes, for our most substantial peace, for our deep
and holy faith, for the knowledge of our God and Saviour
Jesus Christ. It alone, of all the monitors of our universe,
teaches me that I am not an orphan : trumpet-tongued, and
with the solemnity of a judge, and the certainty of a prophet,
it declares that eternity is the measure of my lifetime, infini
tude the boundary of my home, and God, " even our own
God," my portion.
I have great faith in the promises of God, and in the
inborn grandeur of real Christianity. S00ner may the
stars be wiped from the firmament, than it perish. Its
ministers may be made martyrs, its true-hearted ones may
be sorely tried and persecuted, but a seed shall be left in
the worst proscription to serve their God. Crushed they
may be for a season, but conquer they eventually must.
The ark in which the Gospel is, is perishable even when
fairest ; but however often it may be shipwrecked, the Gos
pel always comes safe to shore. Of its doctrines the Angel
of the Everlasting Covenant has said, "there shall be no
loss of any one." Should Popery, and its subordinate
drudge, Tractarianism, rise to a still more gigantic and over
shadowing influence, the sacred truths of the Gospel will
not be extinguished ; the persecuted Church will become
purer and intenser as her outward oppression accumulates,
and speak forth a more free and faithful testimony. The
most stirring notes of the trumpet of the everlasting Gospel
have been uttered amid dreary glens and tangled deserts,
25 *

294 THE GREAT APOSTASY.
and the brightest glory has arisen from the asnes of
the martyrs. When the number of martyrs shall be the
greatest, the holy splendors of the millennium will be the
nearest.

LECTURE XI.

THE INVOCATION OF SAINTS.

Otjr blessed Lord repelled the temptations of Satanj not
by an appeal to his own omniscience as God, but by an
appeal '^to the law and to the testimony," as a decisive rever
lation of the duty of man, and the doctrines of truth. On
three several occasions Satan plied him with temptations ;
and on each of those occasions our Lord repelled him with
the simple, but to us satisfactory announcement — "It is
written." On one of these he said : " It is written, Thou
shalt worship the Lord thy God, and him only shalt thou
serve." " But," asks some one in this assembly, " is it needful to
address such a text to any section of Christendom what
ever ? It may be most appropriate amid the idolatrous isles
of the Pacific, it may be a most important prescription tp
inculcate on some savage and unenlightened shores ; but do
you mean to say, that there is any portion of the professing
visible church that needs to have it impressed upon its priests,
or inculcated on its people — ' Thou shalt worship the Lord
thy God, and him only shalt thou serve ?,' "
There, is : a portion ofthe visible church that needs tp
have this inculcated. In the Church ef Rome, I contend,
that however subtle and delicate her theoretical .distinctions
on the worship of saints may be, the practical effect is, that
Mary has assumed the place and prerogatives that belong to
Christ ; and that angels and spirits, who are, or are supposed
to be; before the Throne, are made to receive, and absorb to

296 THE GREAT APOSTASY.
themselves, the adorations and the praises that ought to as
cend, exclusive and undiluted, to our God and Father,
through Jesus Christ, the only Mediator.
The title selected for this Lecture is — The Invocation of
Saints. Some Protestant may perhaps ask, What is meant
by this ? I will explain. , We believe, in common with the
apostles, that all true Christians are saints — that every man
whose heart is changed is a saint; but Roman Catholics
attach a different meaning to the word saint — they call
those who belong to her visible communion " the faithful ; "
and those " saints," who are canonized and beatified, and
supposed to be in heaven before the Throne — the objects
of their invocation, and intercessors between Christ and
them, just as Christ is the intercessor between God and us.
The Tractarians give the same restricted meaning to the
word saint. Perhaps there is a little Popery in our ordi
nary phraseology, for we speak of Saint Matthew, Saint
Peter, Saint John, Saint Paul, as if they alone of all Chris
tians were saints ; whereas the humblest orphan who is
clothed in the glorious righteousness of Christ, and has
" washed his robes and made them white in the blood of the
Lamb," is just as much entitled to all the glories of the ce
lestial residence, as is the loftiest hierarch that stands near
the Throne, or the most illuminated evangelist that ever
brought the tidings of mercy and of peace to the lost and
the ruined of the human family.
I have this evening to adduce strange and startling illus
trations of what I venture, faithfully but in no offensive
spirit, and duly comprehending the full force and meaning
of the expression, to call the idolatry of the Church of Rome.
In order to explain the subject to you more clearly, and to
present authentic information, I will begin by reading to you
the definitions of the Creed of Pope Pius IV., and of the
Council of Trent, on this subject.
In the Creed of Pope Pius IV., it "is said — "I believe

THE INVOCATION OF SAINTS. 297
likewise that the saints, reigning together with Christ, are
to be honored and invocated," — honorandos et invocandos.
And in the decree of the Council of Trent on the invocation
and veneration of saints — " The holy synod commands the
bishops, and others who have the office and care of instruc
tion, that according to the custom of the Catholic and Apos
tolic Church, which has been received from the first ages of
the Christian religion, the consent of the holy fathers, and
the decrees ofthe sacred councils, they make it a chief
point " — to do what ? to preach Christ and him crucified ?
to beckon sinners to the cross ? No, but — " diligently to
instruct the faithful concerning. the intercession and the invo
cation of saints, the honor of relics, and the lawful use of
images ; teaching them that the saints, reigning together
with Christ, Offer to God their prayers for men ; and that it
is good and useful to invoke them with supplications, and on
account of the benefits obtained from God through his Son
Jesus Christ our Lord (who alone is our Redeemer and
Saviour,) to have recourse to the prayers, aid, and assistance
of the saints ; but that they who deny that the saints,: enjoy
ing eternal happiness in heaven, are to be invoked, — or
who assert, either that they do not pray for men, or that the
invoking them that they may pray for each of us is idolatry,
or that it is contrary to the honor of God, and opposed to
the honor of the one Mediator between God and man, or
that it is folly either in word or thought to supplicate them,
are to be accursed."
The distinctions drawn by the Church of Rome are
these: they say, that the supreme worship that is to be
given to God is lurnria, [latria] — a Greek word signifying
worship ; that the worship whieh is to be given to the Vir
gin Mary is vnsqSavisla [hyper-doulia] — a very lofty form
of worship, but not so high as that .given to God ; and that
the worship to be given to the saints in general, is dovteia
Xdoulia] — an inferior kind of worship.

298 THE GREAT APOSTASY.
The Roman Catholics, however, will deny that they
worship the Virgin Mary with the same worship as God ;
and I fully concede, that, in the Canons of the Council of
Trent, and in the Creed of Pope Pius IV., the distinction
is clearly and definitely kept up. But what I allege is, that
in the books of a Church that professes to be infallible, and
under the expressed sanction of illustrious Popes and dis
tinguished Councils, a worship (as I shall now proceed to
show) is given to the saints and to the Virgin Mary, which
can be characterized by no softer epithet than that of abso
lute and fearful idolatry.
The first document which I shall produce, in order to
make good my assertion, is one with which most Roman
Catholics are perfectly familiar : it is called The glories of
Mary — a strange expression, certainly, to a Protestant's
ear. He can understand well the glories of Christ, but the
glories of Mary is a language that seems to grate upon a
heart to which Christ has long been all, and Mary compara
tively nothing. To show you the authority of this docu
ment, I may mention that the illustrious author, Alphonso
Liguori, was canonized and beatified so lately as the year
1839, by the last Pope, Gregory XVI. Four Popes, it is
stated in the title-page, have expressed their approbation of
the life and writings of this illustrious saint ; and we are
informed in the preface, that the Council at Rome, the
sacred Congregation of Rites, having made the most rigor
ous examination of the writings of the saint, to the number
of a hundred or more, pronounced that there was nothing in
them deserving of censure ; and this sentence was approved
by Pope Pius VII. in 1803, by his successor Leo X., and
also by Pope Urban VIII. ; and in 1839, St. Liguori was
canonized by Pope Gregory XVI. To crown all, Cardinal
Wiseman has written Liguori's life, and commended his
writings to the study of the faithful. His intercession and
teaching are also supplicated on August 2, in every Romish

THE INVOCATION OF SAINTS. 299
church and chapel. It is thus asserted in the preface, that
it contains nothing but what is consistent with the doctrines
of the Catholic Church, and that it may be used by the
faithful for the edification and instruction of their souls.
Now, in order to give you some idea of the worship ren
dered to the Virgin Mary, (for I shall chiefly restrict myself
to that, because she is the most illustrious saint in the
Roman Calendar, and the object of most fervent worship to
Roman Catholic devotees,) I take the following extracts
from this volume : —
Page 35: "Queen of heaven and of earth! Mother of
God ! my sovereign mistress ! I present myself before you,
as a poor mendicant before a mighty queen. From the
height of your throne, deign to cast your eyes upon a
miserable sinner, and lose not sight of him till you render
him truly holy. O illustrious Virgin ! you are the queen of
the universe, and consequently mine. I desire to consecrate
myself more particularly to thy service; dispose of me
according to your good pleasure. Direct me ; I abandon
myself wholly to your conduct. Chastise me, if I disobey
you. I am, then, no longer mine; I am all yours. Save
me, O powerful queen, save me." It is added, I admit, " by
the intercession of your Son."
Page 88 : " God commanded Moses to make the propitia
tory of the most pure gold, because it was from thence He
wished to speak to him. A learned writer states, that Mary
is the propitiatory of the Christian people, whence our
Lord gives them answers of pardon and forgiveness, and
dispenses to them his gifts and his graces."
Page 136 : " Blessed Virgin, who, in your double quality
of queen and mother, dispense your favors with such
munificence and love ! I, who am so poor in merit and vir
tue, and greatly indebted to the Divine justice, humbly
recommend myself to you. You, O Mary, have the keys
of the Divina mercy ; draw on thine inexhaustible treasure*

300 THE GREAT APOSTASY.
and; dispense its riches to this poor sinner, in proportion to
his immense wants. All who trust in Mary will see heaven's
gates ppen to receive them. She is the gate of heaven,
since the Church styles her Janua Cceli. The Holy Church
styles her ajso the Star of the Sea."
.. In page 177, we read that " Brother Leo once saw in a
vision two, ladders reaching to heaven ; one red, at the sum
mit of which was Jesus Christ ; and the other white, at the
top of which presided his blessed mether. He observed
that many who endeavored to ascend to heaven by the red
ladder, at the top of which was Christ, after mounting a few
steps, feU. down, and on trying again were equally unsuc
cessful; but a voice having told them to make trial of the
white ladder, at the top of which was his mother, they im
mediately got up to heaven, the blessed Virgin having held
out her hands to receive them." It is thus taught to Roman
Catholics ;-T- six millions in Ireland, and two millions in
England— that if the poor and desponding sinner attempts
to enter heaven by that blessed Redeemer, who is " the way
and the truth and the life," he will be rejected; but that if
he; make the effort to ascend by the Virgin Mary from the
depths ; of ruin to the very, heights of glory, he will find
abundant access. The creature is thus raised above God,
and the name of a saint above that of the Saviour.
The next document from which I shall read is another of
the popular books pf devotion circulated among the Roman
Catholics. It is called Salvation mads easy to .Sinners by
Demotion to, the most Sacred Heart of Mary ; dated 1840.
At page 32 we read, "¦ God has decreed in his infinite wis
dom to grant us every: thing by Mary, by whom he has
given to us Jesus. Oh ! who could ever appreciate that
treasure as much as Mary? . Who lpves us more tenderly?
The charity, of , Mary for us had reached its- most sublime
degree, :since-'; she loved us so far as to give us her own
dearest treasure, even to consent, to the bloody immolation

THE INVOCATION OF SAINTS. 301
of Jesus." Thus language goes beyond idolatry, and ap
proaches the very skirts of blasphemy itself.
I take next, A Portrait of the admirable Joseph, dated
Dublin, 1838, and stated on the title-page to be composed by
" a Catholic priest." At page 35 I read, " O most desirable
Jesus, O most amiable Mary, 0 most dear Joseph ! O holy
Trinity ! " — calling these three " Holy Trinity." Again :
" O Jesus, Mary, and Joseph, who can express the sanctity
of your lives and of your conversation?" Page 36: "0
Jesus, Mary, and Joseph, most blessed Trinity, bless me
with the triple benediction of the most holy Lord." And
this expression "Trinity" is frequently applied to Jesus,
Mary, and Joseph.
The next document from which I quote is The Sacred
Heart — a very popular book of devotion among Roman
Catholics. I find the following passage at page 171 :
" Come, poor and hardened sinners, how great soever your
crimes may be, come and behold ! Mary stretches out her
hand, opens her breast to receive you. Though insensible
to the great concerns of your salvation, though unfortunately
proof against the most engaging invitations and inspirations
of the Holy Ghost, fling yourselves at the feet of Mary, this
powerful advocate. Her heart is all love, all tenderness."
The amount of this is, that those whom the Holy Spirit fails
or refuses to convince and convert, the Virgin Mary has
love and power to convince and convert.
The next extract I take is from the encyclical letter of
the last Pope, Gregory XVI., addressed by him in 1832 to
all the bishops and priests of the Roman Catholic Church,
scattered throughout the whole of Great Britain and Ireland.
After alluding to the various difficulties with which the
Church was surrounded; he closes the letter by saying —
" And that all may have a successful and happy issue, let us
raise our eyes to the most blessed Virgin Mary, who alone
destroys heresies, who is our greatest hope, yea, the entire
26

302 THE GREAT APOSTASY.
ground of our hope." This I have taken from the Laity's
Directory for the year 1832 ; and this language ofthe last
Pope was then read from every Roman Catholic altar
throughout this kingdom.
Bonald, Cardinal Archbishop of Lyons, thus addresses his
clergy in his Charge in 1842 : " Catholic families, let Mary
be in the midst of you as a model in all the situations of life,
as the mother of your children, the mistress of your dwell
ing. Poor sufferers from sickness, turn your dying eyes to
the image of the mother of compassion. May our last sigh
be breathed out, with the last words of St. Thomas of Can
terbury falling under the iron of his assassins, ' to God and
to Mary.' "
On a church at Mons, in Belgium, a printed paper is hung
up, with these words : " I salute you, my divine queen.
Amiable mediatrix, it is particularly in this holy place you
exercise your glorious office, and open to poor mortals the
treasures of divine favors, which, without your aid, heaven
would refuse."
The following is a copy of a card sold by the booksellers
in Brussels, and illuminated in various colors : —
"A Marie.
" Notre Mere, qui etes aux cieux ; 0 Marie ! que votre
nom soit beni a jamais ; que votre amour vienne a, tous les
cceurs ; que vos desirs s'accomplissent en la terre comme au
ciel. Donnez-nous aujourd'hui la grace et la misericor.de ;
donnez-nous le pardon de nos fautes, comme nous l'esperons
de votre bonte sans bornes ; et ne nous laissez plus suc-
comber a la tentation, mais delivrez-nous du mal. Ainsi,
spit il."
"To Mary.
" Our Mother, who art in heaven ; hallowed be thy name.
Let thy love come to all our hearts ; let thy will be done
on earth as in heaven. Give us this day grace and mercy ;

THE INVOCATION OF SAINTS. 303
give us the pardon of our sins, as we hope from thy un
bounded goodness. Let us not sink under temptation, but
deliver us from evil. Amen."
But perhaps the most extraordinary specimen of Roman
Catholic idolatry which has ever been presented to the
Christian public, is that which I am now about to lay before
you. I searched for two or three years for what is called
The Psalter of the blessed Bonaventure, and after much in
quiry I found an extremely ancient edition ; and the book is
so valuable, though seemingly not so, that it is probably
worth five or six pounds. It has no title-page, and thus it
gives proof of being printed at a very distant date. St.
Bonaventure is a distinguished saint in the Roman Catholic
Calendar, and on Bonaventure's day every Roman Catholic
in England prays in the following words — " O Lord, who
didst give blessed Bonaventure to thy people for a minister
of eternal salvation, grant that he, who was the instructor of
our life here on earth, may become our intercessor in heav
en." Every Roman Catholic, therefore, must feel obliged
to any one who brings before him the doctrines which Bo
naventure taught : and I am sure, if Roman Catholics have
aught of the light of Scripture in their minds, and the grace
of God in their hearts, they will cease to repeat this prayer ;
as soon as they learn Bonaventure's sentiments, they will
cast from them his writings and his name, as a disgrace
even to the Roman communion.
This book, which is written in the old Saxon character,
begins by quoting certain passages from the Gospels, by
way of illustrating the honor and the glory of Mary. It
commences — " Come unto Mary, all ye that labor and are
heavy laden, and she will give you rest." The nineteenth
Psalm, according to this Roman Catholic doctor and saint,
runs thus : " The heavens declare the glory of ihe Virgin,
and the firmament showeth forth her handywork." In the
ninety-fifth Psalm, which is used every Sunday in the Morn-

304 THE GKEAT APOSTASY.
ing Service of the Church of England, we read — " Oh !
come, let us sing unto our lady ; let us heartily rejoice in
the Virgin, that brings us salvation ; let us come before her
presence with singing, let us praise her together ; come let
us adore and fall down before her ; let us confess our sins to
her with mourning, that she may obtain for us a full indul
gence." The 110th Psalm, one would suppose, might (if
any) escape this dreadful corruption, because it so expressly
applies tp our blessed Lprd ; but in this version it is —
" The Lord said unto Mary, Stand thou at my right hand,
until I have made thine enemies thy footstool." And the
whole Psalter has thus in every psalm the name of God ex
punged, and the name of Mary substituted for it. At the
close of the Psalms there are certain other pieces of devo
tion, extracted from ancient liturgies and rituals ; and one of
them is, perhaps, in its pure and scriptural form, the most
sublime and exquisite hymn in the whole compass of Christian
theology ; and I admire and envy the Church whose assem
bled people are taught to surround the Everlasting Throne,
and say, with one heart and voice — " We praise thee, O
God, we acknowledge thee to be the Lord ; all the earth
doth worship thee, the Father everlasting." But conceive
how every Christian feeling must be shocked, how every
holy and scriptural sensibility must recoil, when in every
sentence of this sublime hymn the name of God is expunged,
and the name of Mary put in its place. This has been done
by Bonaventure in the edition I now hold in my hand.
According to that seraphic doctor, for whose instruction
every Roman Catholic is bound to pray, it runs thus —
" We praise thee, O Mary ; we acknowledge thee to be a
virgin. All the earth doth worship thee, the spouse of the
Eternal. To thee angels and archangels, to thee thrones
and principalities, to thee choirs and cherubim and seraphim,
continually cry, Holy, holy, holy, art thou, 0 Mary, mother
of God. Heaven and earth are full of the glory of the fruit

THE INVOCATION OF SAINTS. 305
of thy womb. The glorious company of the apostles praise
thee, the goodly fellowship of the prophets praise thee, the
noble army of martyrs praise thee, 0 Virgin ; " and so on to
the close of the Te Deum.
After this document there is another, which is called The
Litany of the Blessed Virgin. It begins, like the Litany in
the Prayerbook, with a scriptural and proper aspiration ;
for all that the Reformers did, in compiling the Book of
Common Prayer, was just to weed out the idolatry, and
leave the pure theology behind, retaining all that was scrip
tural in the Roman books of devotion, and expunging all
that was not. Accordingly this Litany begins — " O God,
the Father of heaven, have mercy upon us, miserable sin
ners; 0 God the Son, Redeemer ofthe world, have mercy
upon us, miserable sinners ; O God the Holy Ghost, pro
ceeding from the Father and the Son, have, mercy upon us,
miserable sinners." But then comes — " Holy , Mary, who
exaltest thy people, pray for us ; holy Mother, pray for us
sinners ; " and under various epithets they pray for Mary's
intercession. And so it goes on, repeating about fifty times,
" Holy Mary," and adding some prayer ; and then comes —
" Be merciful unto us, and spare us, O Lady ; from all evil
and mischief, from the temptation of Satan and the wrath of
God, from presumption and despair, deliver us, (j) Mary.
By thy joy and satisfaction at the incarnation of Christ, by
thy grief and anguish at his crucifixion, by thy joy at his
resurrection, by thy belief of his sending the Holy Spirit,
deliver us and save us, 0 Mary. By thy joy at thine own
coronation, deliver us, O Mary." And then comes one sen
tence, which is to me extremely painful ; for I remember,
when first I entered a parochial church in England, and lis
tened to the liturgy, read with great beauty and power,
there was one clause that seemed to me so rich in all that is
spiritual, so replete with all that is expressive in human lan
guage, and so instinct with all that is truly worthy of the
26*

306

THE GREAT APOSTASY.

God>whom saints rejoice to worship, that it made an impres
sion on my mind too deep to be ever effaced — " In all time
of our tribulation, in all time of our wealth, in the hour of
death, and in the day of judgment, good Lord, deliver us."
How beautiful, how scriptural, how apposite to a truly Prot
estant Church ! But " how is the gold become dim, how is
the most fine gold changed," in the following perversion of
this sublime petition — " In all time of our tribulation, in all
time of our wealth, in the hour of death, and in the day of
judgment, from the torments of the damned, deliver us, 0
Virgin Mary ! " Contrast these prayers, and decide which
is the true church — the church that lifts up its petitions to
God, or the church that addresses them to the Virgin. I am
sure that the most decided Presbyterian, Independent, Mo
ravian, or Wesleyan, will overlook all that he believes to be
faulty in the constitution and communion of the Church of
England ; and, as far as its Liturgy and its Articles are the
embodiment of its everlasting principles, will say with me to
that Church, as a noble national representative of truth,
"Where thou goest I will go, where thou lodgest I will
lodge : thy people shall be my people, and thy God my
God." Some one will probably say, " You have admitted that it
is an ancient and scarce document from which you have
now been reading : is it altogether fair to ransack the muse
ums of the country for the obsolete productions of a dark
and forgotten age, and to adduce these as proofs of the pres
ent feeling and the present worship of the Roman Catholic
Church ? " Now I say, that as the Church of Rome claims
to be semper eadem [always the same], what was truth with
her in the tenth century, is truth with her in the nineteenth ;
and if the Psalter of Bonaventure was recognized by her
prelates three hundred years ago, they cannot cease to rec
ognize it now, unless they will cease to claim infallibility as
their prerogative, and admit that by the lapse of years and

THE INVOCATION OF SAINTS. 307
the light of Protestantism, that Church has become improved.
But let me state, that I have now ten successive editions of
Bonaventure's Psalter, which were purchased, one or two
of them by a lady at Rome, and one of them at the doors
of St. Peter's. One of these, which is at this moment be
fore me, is called by St. Bonaventure The Psalter of the
Blessed Virgin, published at Rome in the year 1839, having
the imprimatur and reimprimatur of the present ecclesiasti
cal authorities of the Holy See ; it is published in the Italian
or vulgar tongue, sold for twopence, and possessed and
perused and prayed by the most devout of the existing
Roman population. In this book there are the Psalms
and Te Deum, precisely as I have quoted them from the
ancient copy. I give the Te Deum in Italian, as now used
in Rome. ' ' > ,
" A Te, Madre di Dio, innalziamo 1c nostre lodi : * Te
Maria Vergine predichiamo.
Te Sposa dell' Eterno Padre * venera tutta la terra.
A Te gli Angeli tutti e gli Arcangeli : * a Te i Troni e i
Principati umili si inchinano.
A Te le Podesta tutte e le Virtu superne dei cieli * e
tutte le Dominazioni prestano ubbidienza.
A Te i Cori tutti, a Te i Cherubini e i Serafini * assistono
intorno esultanti.
A Te le angeliche creature tutte * con incessante voce di
lode cantano :
Santa, Santa, Santa Maria, * Genitrice di Dio, Vergine
insieme e Madre.
Pieni sono i ' cieli e la terra * della maestk gloriosa del
frutto del tuo grembo.
Te il glorioso coro degli Apostoli * Te Madre del loro
Creatore collaudano.
Te il puro ceto dei Martiri beati * Te Genitrice di Crista
concelebra. •¦- ¦--<'
Te il glorioso esercito dei Confessori * tempio della Trin
ity sacrosanta ti appella.

308 THE GREAT APOSTASY.
Te 1' amabil coro delle sante Vergini festanti, * esempio
di umilta ti encomia, e di virginale candore.
Te la corte celestiale tutta * onora come Regina.
A Te per tutto 1' universo * la Chiesa ineggia, e ti in-
voca. Madre * della divina Maestk.
Te veneranda, te vera puerpera del Re del cielo, * santa,
amorosa e pia.
Tu se' Signora degli Angeli : * Tu se' la porta del para-
diso. Tu scala al regno * ed alia gloria del cielo.
Tu talamo, * tu area di pieta e di grazia.
Tu se' sorgente e vena di misericordia : * Tu Sposa e
Madre del Re de' secoli eterni.
Tu tempio e sacrario dello Spirito Santo, * e della Trinita
santissima nobile triclinio. .
Tu mediatrice fra gli uomini e Dio, * amorevole a noi
mortali, e luce di cielo.
Tu fortezza ai combattenti, avvocata ai peccatori : * Tu
ai miseri pietoso rifugio.
Tu dispensiera dei celesti doni, * sterminatrice dei demoni
e dei superbi.
Tu Signora del mondo, * Regina del Cielo, e dopo Dio
nostra unica speranza.
Tu salute a chi ti invoca, porto ai naufraganti, * sollievo
ai miseri, e ai pericolanti rifugio.
Tu Madre di tutti i Beati, e dopo Dio lor gaudio pieno,
* gioja di tutti i cittadini del cielo.
Tu promotrice dei giusti, * accoglitriee dei traviati, Tu
promessa gia ai Patriarchi.
Tu luce di verita ai Profeti, * Tu preconizzata dagh
Apostoli, e sapienza di quelli : Tu ammaestratice degli Evan-
gelisti. Tu fortezza ai Martiri, esempio ai Confessori, * vanto,
gloria e giubbilo delle Vergini.

THE INVOCATION OF SAINTS. 309
Tu per liberare 1' uomo dall' esilio di morte * aceogliesti
nel tuo grembo il Figliuolo di Dio.
Per Te debellato 1' avversario nostro antico, * fu riaperto
ai Fedeli il regno dei cieli.
Tu col Figliuolo tuo * siedi alia destra del Padre.
A Lui Tu supplica per noi, o Vergine Maria, * il quale
crediamo, che ci abbia un giorno a giudicare.
Te dunque noi preghiamo, perche tu voglia venire in
soccorso ai servi tuoi : * a noi redenti col prezioso sangue
del tuo Figliuolo.
O pia Vergine Maria, * deh ! fa che insieme eoi Santi
tuoi siamo della eterna gloria rimunerati.
Salvo sia per te, o Signora, il popolo tuo, * si che siamo
fatti partecipi della eredita del tuo Figliuolo.
Sii nostra guida, * sii sostegno e difesa nostra in eterno.
In ciascun giorno, o Maria Signora nostra, * ti salutiamo.
E bramiamo cantare le lodi tue * colla mente e colla voce
in sempiterno.
Degnati, dolcissima Maria, ora e sempre * conservarci
illesi da peccato.
Abbi, o Pia, di noi misericordia : * abbi misericordia di
noi. Fa misericordia ai figliuoli tuoi : * che in Te, o Vergine
Maria, abbiamo riposta tutta la fiducia nostra.
In te, dolcissima Maria, noi tutti speriamo : * difendici in
eterno. A Te le lodi, a Te 1' impero, * a Te virtu e gloria pei
secoli dei secoli Cosi sia."
And to show you the popularity of this formulary of
devotion, sanctioned as it is by the present Pope, and ap
proved by the appointed censors, I may mention, that in
the course of the five years which have elapsed from 1834
to the end of 1839, it went through ten editions ; and I hold
in my hand at this moment the tenth edition, dated Rome,
1839, which is an exact reprint of that of 1834. I have

310 THE GREAT APOSTASY. -.
also recently seen a gentleman, to whom a friend at Rome
has sent a copy of the eleventh edition, dated 1840, and
another 1844. So that, on an average, this Psalter of
Bonaventure is so popular, as to require at least two edi
tions every year ; and in order that every Roman Catholic
may possess it, it is sold at the very smallest possible price
at which it can be printed. Now, if streams be the purest
near to the fountain, and if light is the more unsullied and
clear the nearer we approach to the sun from which it ema
nates, may we not presume, that the theology of the Romish
Church is most unalloyed under the very wing and superin
tendence of his holiness the Pope ; and that if we are to
find the pure and unquestionable exponent of Roman Catho
lic theology in any part of the universe, it will be where
censors of books are appointed, as at Rome, to see that
nothing erroneous passes through the press, and where the
Pope, armed with the tremendous attribute of infallibility,
inspects the publication, adds to it his signature, and pro
nounces it calculated to edify and instruct the faithful ? I
therefore contend, that I have made out a charge of pure
and undiluted idolatry against the Church of Rome ; and
either she must renounce these books as unscriptural and
abominable, and herself as fallible and guilty, or we Prot
estants must continue to bless that God, who has emanc'
pated our Service from her pollutions ; and labor by every
scriptural and Christian effort to bring the victims of that
dreadful superstition to the knowledge of those truths,
which would fall like sunbeams amid the darkness of the
Vatican, — " God is a Spirit ; " " There is one Mediator
between God and men, the Man Christ Jesus ; " " Thou
shalt worship the Lord thy God, and him only shalt thou

* Pope Pius VII., hy a rescript dated March 21, 1815, grants three hun
dred days of indulgence, for every day in the month of May on which any
one offers a special service to the Virgin.

4^ THE INVOCATION OF SAINTS. 311
But some one will ask — " How can the Church of Rome
justify this monstrous idolatry, either as it refers to saints
and the Virgin Mary, or as it applies to images of them?"
For you are aware, that on the Continent of Europe, (and I
can speak from personal inspection, so far as Belgium is con
cerned,) in almost every church, and in the most beautiful
cathedrals, surrounded by exquisite paintings, the master
pieces of a Rubens and a Vandyck, you will find in the
middle a huge and hideous image of the Virgin Mary,
sometimes nearly six feet high, dressed out in blue satin,
trimmed with the finest Brussels and Valenciennes lace ;
and in the morning the poor women, as they corne to the
market with their eggs and butter, leave their baskets in the
porch, hurry into the cathedral, fall down upon their knees
There is inscribed under a fresco painting of the Madonna, in the Via
del Vaccaro, near the Church of the SS. Apostoli at Eome —
Se da te si sospira,
Ecco la Madre che placa 1' ira del Eterno Padre,
E col materno zelo chiude l'Averno,
E ti conduce al Cielo.
(If by thyself thou sighest, behold the Mother, who soothes the wrath of
the Eternal Father, and with maternal zeal, closes the door of hell, and
leads thee up to heaven.)
Not far from the same place, (in the Corso, near the Piazza di Venezia,)
is an oil picture of the Madonna, with these words underneath : "Amiamo
Gesu e Maria, e le loro chiamate, perche1 ci liberino dall' inferno."
(Let us love Jesus and Mary, and call ye on them both, for they deliver
us from hell.)
Under a similar portrait, near the Chiesa Nuova, are the words —
Piegha, 0 mortal che passi, umil la fronte,
Or del Rosario ajlagran Vergine pia!
Si tu brami le grazie, eccotti il fonte ;
E salvo tu sarai, s' ami Maria.
(Bend low, 0 mortal passenger, thy head
To the great Virgin of the Bosary;
If thou desirest graces, here 's their fount;
And if thou lovest Mary, thou art safe.)
See also numerous instances in Seymour's Pilgrimage to Eome.

312 THE GREAT APOSTASY. r'
before the image, repeat a few prayers, and then retire to
the ordinary business of the day; and. again in the after
noon, when vespers commence, the poor people are crowd
ing round the image, and offering up their petitions to it.
And even in this country there are some pictures extremely
repulsive to a Protestant. I recollect in a Romish chapel at
Wigan, I saw over the pulpit a picture of God the Father
on one side, of God the Son on the other side, and the Vir
gin Mary enthroned between the two, with a crown upon
her head, as if she were the most illustrious personage of
all. Now you naturally ask, How, can Roman Catholics
put up with these practices, when there are such express
prohibitions of them in the word of God ?
My first answer is, that practically the word of God is to
Roman Catholics a sealed book, and a dead letter. They
are permitted to read it with certain restrictions ; but the
conditions are so complex and so strict, that they amount to
an actual prohibition of perusing it with any profitable or
valuable result. And the books which in Ireland and on
the Continent are practically substituted for the Bible, are
what are called the Catechisms of the Roman Catholic
Church. I have now before me three of these Catechisms
bound together — one of them published by the four Roman
Catholic Archbishops of Ireland, another by the most
reverend archbishop Reilly, and the other the Abridgment
of Christian Doctrine. I will now read you an account of
the Ten Commandments, as they are put forth in these
books, circulated under such high auspices. I take up the
first — " Q. How many commandments hath God given
us ? " "A. Ten." " Q. Say them." "A. First, ' I am the
Lord thy God; thou shalt have no other God but me.'
Second, 'Thou shalt not take the name of God in vain.'"
Every Protestant perceives a chasm; and that which is
wanting, is the Second Commandment, that prohibits the
worshipping and bowing down to any graven image, or to

THE INVOCATION OF SAINTS. 313
the likeness of any thing in heaven, or earth, or sea. Next
I take the Abridgment of Christian Doctrine: "Q. Say
the Ten Commandments." "A. ' I am the Lord thy God :
thou shalt have no strange gods ; thou shalt not have an
idol or any figure to adore.' Second, ' Thou shalt not take
the name of the Lord thy God in vain.' " I take the third
Catechism: "Q. Say the Ten Commandments." "A. 'lam
the Lord thy God : thou shalt have no strange gods before
me.' Second, ' Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord
thy God in vain.' " And if you ask how they make out ten
commandments, they do as the dishonest servant did with
his master's goods ; having ten parcels to deliver, and wish
ing to keep one back, he took the largest of the other nine,
and divided it into two, so as to keep up the number ten.
In the Church of Rome, they take the last Commandment
and split it into two, giving the wife the Ninth Command
ment — " Thou shalt not covet thy neighbor's wife " — and
giving the goods the Tenth ; showing their courtesy, as a
priest of the Church of Rome expressed it, (but which
seems to exceed their Christianity,) by their anxiety to
separate the wife from the goods, and to assign her the
honor of a distinct and whole Commandment.
This is the case in Ireland ; and on the Continent the
very same thing takes place. In an Italian Catechism now
before me, called Dottrina Christiana, commanded by Pope
Clement VIII., and drawn up by the celebrated Cardinal
Bellarmine, and revised and approved by the Congregation
of Sacred Rites, and appointed for the use of the faithful,
dated Rome, 1836, printed with the license and the privilege
of the superiors, I find the Ten Commandments begin thus :
" First, I am the Lord thy God, thou shalt have none other
gods before me. Second, Thou shalt not take the name of
God in vain." And I cannot but observe in passing, that
as in Italy the light is darker than in Ireland, they take
leave not only to exclude the Second Commandment, but to
27

314 THE GREAT APOSTASY.
tamper with the Fourth ; and this accounts for the painful
and universal fact, that throughout the whole Continent of
Europe the Sabbath day is almost extinguished, and the
chimes of its bells convey no sacredness to the ear. The
Fourth Commandment stands — not " Remember the Sabbath
day to keep it holy ; six days shalt thou labor," and so on —
but " Remember to keep holy the festivals (le feste)." This
is indeed " teaching for doctrines the commandments of
men." The reason of all this cannot be misunderstood. The
alternative was before the Church of Rome, either to bring
her practices up to God's word, which was her duty, or to
bring down God's word to the level of her practices. She,
worthy of the name and the principles of a corrupt and
apostate communion, has brought down God's most holy
word to the level of her most unholy practices ; and since
she felt that it rebuked her, and prophesied evil concern
ing her, while she continued in her sins, she has extin
guished the testimony of the prophet, lest her misguided
people should catch a gleam of celestial and holy day, and
come forth from that fearful superstition, in which all that
is pure has evaporated, all that is true has been crushed, and
all that is holy has been desecrated and defiled.
To show you that the Church of Rome does not scruple
at making God's word speak what will favor her practices,
I will quote a passage from a celebrated Catechism, to which
I have already referred — the "Abridgment of Christian
Doctrine," p. 119. "Q. Is it lawful to honor the angels and
saints?" "A. Yes." " Q. How prove you that?" "A.
Revelation xix. 10: 'And I fell down, said he, to worship
before the feet of the angel which showed me these things ;'"
— with fearful tact, you observe, vindicating her dreadful
practice by leaving out the remainder of the text, which con
tains all the meaning — " And he said unto me, See thou do
it not ; I am thy fellow-servant : worship God."

THE INVOCATION OF SAINTS. 315
The Church of Rome appeals, indeed, to several portions
pf Scripture in vindication of these idolatrous practices, and
alleges that she is warranted in invocating and worshipping
the saints by express passages of Holy Writ. To these I
must now call your attention.
When we tell a Roman Catholic what seems to us plain
and obvious common sense, that we cannot conceive how, if
a saint be a creature — the Virgin Mary, for instance, (glo
rified and beatified, as we believe her to be, saved by the
Redeemer's blood, and npt in virtue of her own merit) —
being, by the very definition of a creature, restricted to one
locality, she can hear the prayers offered to her at the same
moment in London, in Paris, in Brussels, in Rome, in Peters-
burgh, and attend to the wants of all her suppliants ; and
when we add, that we see no reason to believe that the saints
in heaven are directly cognizant of prayers offered up on
earth (not disputing .that they may be informed of them),
or that they are able to respond to them, the Roman Cath
olic instantly lays his finger on the fifteenth chapter of the
Gospel of Luke, and says, there is evidence that the angels
in heaven do hear and know what is doing upon earth, for
he reads — "I say unto you, there is joy in the presence of
the angels of God over one sinner that repenteth." There
fore, he says, the saints around the Throne know what is
transacting in our world, and it is not in vain to pray to
them ; they know, it is here expressly declared, when a
sinner repents. Now let me call your attention to the whole
passage ; for I conceive, that instead of vindicating the
Romish practice, it distinctly supports the Protestant doc
trine "Then drew near unto him all the publicans and
sinners, for to hear hjm. And the Pharisees and scribes,,
murmured, saying, This man reeeiveth sinners, and eateth
with them. And he spake this parable unto them, saying,
What man of you, having an hundred sheep, if he lose one
of them, doth not leave the ninety-and-nine in the wilder-

316 THE GREAT APOSTASY.
ness, and go after that which is lost until he find it? And
when he hath found it, he layeth it on his shoulders, rejoic
ing. And when he cometh home, he calleth together his
friends and neighbors, saying unto them, Rejoice with me ;
for I have found my sheep which was lost. I say unto you,
that likewise joy shall be in heaven over one sinner that
repenteth, more than over ninety-and-nine just persons,
which need no repentance." That is to say, as the man
who has found his sheep which was lost calls together his
friends, and tells them of the fact, that they may rejoice
with him, so God proclaims, amid the choirs of angels and
of saints in heaven, what they are ignorant of, that some
poor sinner has repented ; and then they rejoice, not because
they see what is done upon earth, but because they are told
by him, who has no pleasure in the death, but only in the
repentance of his people.
Another passage quoted by Roman Catholics in favor of
this tenet of theirs, is in Genesis xlviii. 15 : "And he blessed
Joseph, and said, God, before whom my fathers Abraham
and Isaac did walk, the God which fed me all my life long
unto this day, the angel which redeemed me from all evil,
bless the lads." The Roman Catholic disputant quotes the
latter clause — " The angel which redeemed me from all
evil, bless the lads ; " but he omits the preceding part of the
sentence, which in fact determines the meaning of it. For
it is evidently the same personage, who in the first limb ot
the sentence is called " God before whom my fathers Abra
ham and Isaac did walk ; " in the second limb, " the God
which fed me all my life long unto this day ; " and in the
third limb, " the angel which redeemed me from all evil."
When we take this in connection with the fact, that Christ
is called in the Old Testament Scriptures " the Angel of the
Covenant," and that in the third of Exodus, " the Angel of.
the Lord " appeared in the burning bush, and assumed and
appropriated the name peculiar to Deity, — viz. Jehovah, —

THE INVOCATION OF SAINTS. 317
we see at once, that " the angel " spoken of by Jacob is the
Angel Jehovah, "the brightness of the Father's glory, and
the express image of his person." Let me just explain to
you, as I am at this point, that the expression, " the angel
of the Lord," in our version, is not the literal translation of
the original ; the exact phrase is " the Angel Jehovah," or,
more literally, " the sent Jehovah," or, still more appropri
ately, " Shiloh Jehovah ; " implying at once, that the Angel
Lord was Jesus Christ, who, it would seem, so loved the
lost, and so intensely thirsted after the redemption of the
world, that before he was incarnate, he paid visits — even if
" like angel visits, few and far between " — to our dismantled
and marred land, as if experimentally to know and gauge
the height and depth of that sympathy which he should
have to feel, before the lost sheep should be brought home
to the fold.
Another passage quoted by Roman Catholics, in defence
of the worship of saints, is Hosea xii. 4 : " Yea, he [Jacob]
had power over the angel, and prevailed ; he wept, and made
supplication unto him ; he found him in Bethel, and there
he spake with us '' — and the Roman Catholic stops there,
instead of adding the words that follow — " even the Lord
God of Hosts ; the Lord is his memorial." It was no cre
ated angel, but " the Lord God of Hosts ; " and nothing but
mutilation of Sacred Scripture makes any other meaning.
I have found it to be an invariable result, that the very pas
sages which a Roman Catholic quotes to substantiate his
position, may, when fully and fairly quoted, be most legiti
mately appealed to for the overthrow of the doctrines he
professes to build on them.
In order further to satisfy you upon this subject, I will now
proceed to adduce some passages of Scripture that bear more
directly upon it. Let me first show you that there is reeog- .
nized in Scripture but ohe Mediator between God and us.
1 Timothy ii. 5 : "There is one God, and one Mediator be-
27*

318 THE GREAT APOSTASY.
tween God and men, the man Christ Jesus:" just as it is a
cardinal doctrine of natural religion, that there is one God,
so it is a cardinal doctrine of Christianity, or revealed reli
gion, that there is one Mediator. John vi. 68 : " Lord, to
whom shall we go ? " to saints, to angels, to seraphim, to
cherubim ? No ; " thou hast the words of eternal life." John
xiv. 6 : " Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, and the truth,
and the life ; no man cometh unto the Father but by me : "
neither by saint, nor angel, nor cherubim, but "by me."
Acts iv. 12: "Neither is there salvation in any other, for
there is none other name under heaven given among men,
whereby we must be saved, but the name of Jesus Christ."
Would that these words were written upon the altars, and
upon the doors and lintels and garments and whole ritual of
Rome ! would they were inscribed by the Holy Ghost on
the people's hearts ! Ephesians ii. 18 : " For through him
we both have access by one Spirit unto the Father." We
Protestants, therefore, must be safe, while Roman Catholics
(to take the most favorable view) may be wrong ; for they
are trying to find admission to the Father by doors that we
dare not attempt, and which I believe never have been
opened, or at least are nailed up from the Fall. 1 John ii.
1 : "If any man sin, we have" — what? ten thousand saints
and mediators ? No ; but — " an advocate with the Father,
Jesus Christ the righteous ; " and he is our advocate on the
only basis — viz. his atonement — on which intercession can
have any virtue ; for " he is the propitiation for our sins, and
not for ours only, but also for the sins of the whole world."
Hebrews vii. 25 : " He is able to save them to the uttermost,
that come unto God by him ; " and I appeal to every Roman
Catholic in this assembly, Are not Protestants safe? for
they " come unto God by Christ " only, and he is " able to
.save such to the uttermost." What is the limit of " utter
most ? " Infinitude itself. And if Protestants are " saved
to the uttermost by Christ," what need of the intercession

THE INVOCATION OF SAINTS. 319
and assistance of the Virgin Mary and other saints ? Again,
Hebrews xii. 24 : " Ye are come," at once, without interven
tion, "to Jesus, the' Mediator of the new covenant, and to
the blood of sprinkling."
In the next place, I shall show that we have no warrant
whatever in Scripture, to pray to saints that are in glory.
Christ's command is (Matthew xi. 28), not, " Come unto
Mary," or " Come unto angels or to saints," but " Come unto
me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give
you rest." Again (John xiv. 13), "Whatsoever ye shall
ask in my name, that will I do." And again, " Whosoever
shall call on the name of the Lord shall be saved." And
again, " Ye have not received the spirit of bondage again to
fear, but ye have received the spirit of adoption, whereby
we cry " — what ! " Hail, Mary ? " "0 blessed Joseph, hear
us ? " " O queen of heaven, deliver us ? " No, but — " where
by we cry, Abba, Father ; " at once, directly, and without
the intervention of any but Christ the Mediator: "And be
cause ye are sons, God hath sent forth the Spirit of his Son
into your hearts, crying, Abba, Father."
Again : What is prayer ? Prayer is a sacrifice, just as
praise is a sacrifice. Not a propitiatory sacrifice : there is
but one propitiatory sacrifice ; but praise and prayer and
almsgiving are all sacrifices. Now, Where only must sacri
fices be offered ? On the altar. But what altar have we ?
Not the miserable mimicry of altars raised within the pale
of the Roman Catholic communion ; not the still more lame
and contemptible mimicry of Rome's altars raised by Trac
tarian doctors ; these are altars that a mouse may under
mine, that a hammer may destroy, that time will overthrow :
but we have an Altar whose base is the circumference of
the earth, or rather whose centre or apex is everywhere,
and whose circumference is nowhere ; and on this altar we
are to lay our praises and our prayers and our thanksgiv
ings, knowing that it is " the altar that sanctifies the gift,"

320 THE GREAT APOSTASY.
and makes our praises and prayers acceptable to God. And
as it is to God that all sacrifice must be offered even on Ro
man Catholic principles, we see at once, that as praise and
prayer are spiritual sacrifices, we are to lift them up to God
only, upon Christ the only Altar, and rejoice to know that
there they meet a glorious acceptance.
When the high-priest had offered sacrifice without, he
went alone unto the Holy of Holies, to intercede. So Christ,
having offered himself without spot unto God without, went
into the true holy place, that is, the heavenly, alone, to pour
down, by his intercession in heaven, what he procured by
his sacrifice on earth. With him there are no other media
tors : he is alone.
In the next place, I assert that there is no evidence what
ever that the saints in heaven have any cognizance directly
of what is doing upon earth. Ecclesiastes ix. 5 : " The liv
ing know that they shall die, but the dead know not any
thing, neither have they any more a reward, for the memory
of them is forgotten ; also their love, and their hatred, and
their envy is now perished, neither have they any more a
portion for ever in any thing that is done under the sun." 2
Kings ii. 9 : " And Elijah said unto Elisha, Ask what I shall
do for thee before I shall be taken away from thee ; " im
plying that when admitted into heaven he could do nothing
for him, and all that he did for him must be done before he
was taken from earth. God speaks thus to the good king
Josiah (2 Kings xxii. 20) : " Behold, I will gather thee unto
thy fathers, and thou shalt be gathered into thy grave in
peace, and thine eyes shall not see all the evil which I will
bring upon this place." Job xiv. 20 : " His sons come to
honor, and he knoweth it not." Isaiah lxiii. 16 : " Thou art
our Father, though Abraham be ignorant of us."
Let me now turn your attention more especially to pas
sages that expressly repudiate all worshipping of saints or
angels. Colossians ii. 18: "Let no man beguile you of

THE INVOCATION OF SAINTS. 321
your reward, in a voluntary humility and worshipping of
angels, intruding into those things which he hath not seen."
Hebrews i. 14 : " Are they not all ministering spirits, sent
forth to minister for them who shall be heirs of salvation ? "
— not to receive their prayers, but to minister for them ac
cording to the bidding of God. " I fell down," says John,
" before the feet of the angel which showed me these things ; "
then saith he unto me, See thou do it not, for I am thy fel
low-servant : worship God."
With respect to the Virgin Mary, the great object of Ro
man Catholic idolatry, to show that all worship to her is
interdicted and forbidden in Scripture, I will refer to a dis
cussion with a priest of the Roman Catholic Church — the
Rev. Mr. Sisk, then priest of the chapel at Chelsea, in the
town of Reading — on the subject of the worship which
ought to be given to the Virgin Mary, in which he endeav
ored to prove that it was lawful to give to her all the worship
rendered to her in the Romish Church ; and that the Church
of Rome was not only warranted by tradition (in which I
did not profess to follow him), but by Scripture, in venerat
ing the Virgin. He quoted the text — " All generations
shall call me blessed ; " and argued that she was therefore
entitled to a homage and a veneration altogether peculiar
and sui generis ; such, in short, I may add, as that of which
I have given you some specimens. My reply was, that what
proves too much, fails to prove the point for which it is
quoted ; we read " Blessed are the meek," " Blessed are they
that mourn," " Blessed are they that hear the word of God'
and keep it ; " but do we therefore fall down and worship
them ? If a person, because pronounced blessed, is to be
worshipped, every Christian must fall down and worship his
neighbor, in the strains in which the Roman Catholic adores
the Virgin Mary. " But," said he, " you forget that there is
a peculiar blessedness ascribed to the Virgin Mary ; for it
is written of her, ' Blessed art thou among women : ' Mary

322 THE GREAT APOSTASY.
being obviously selected as the object of peculiar and distin
guishing blessedness." I replied that, if this was the princi
ple on which he acted, I would prove it the duty of the Ro
man Church to take down every statue and picture of the
Virgin, and put up the picture of another in its place ; for I
read in Judges v. 24 : " Blessed above women shall Jael, the
wife of Heber the Kenite, be." If Mary is to be worship
ped, because she is pronounced " blessed among women," a
fortiori should Jael be worshipped, for she is blessed above
women ; and the Roman Catholic Church would therefore
take a step towards a more scriptural worship, if she were
to expunge the name of Mary from every Litany, and to
substitute the name of Jael, the wife of Heber the Kenite.
But in the word of God there are passages so expressly
and distinctly bearing against the invocation of Mary, that
there can scarcely be a doubt that our blessed Lord not only
foresaw the awful idolatry which would obtain upon this very
subject, but made special provision in the Scriptures against
it ; and to me this is a most remarkable evidence of the
truth and inspiration of the Scriptures. On every occasion
in which the Virgin Mary is introduced in the Bible, our
Lord says something calculated to repress any disposition to
worship, or to attach supernatural claims to her person.
Mary herself proves that she felt she was saved, not because
she was the mother of the Saviour's flesh, but because she
had " washed her robes and made them white in the blood
of the Lamb." She sings, with the faith, humility, and joy
of a true believer, " My soul doth magnify the Lord, and my
spirit hath rejoiced in God my Saviour." But who needs a
'' Saviour ? " A sinner. Mary, notwithstanding the epithet
immaculate, which the Church of Rome bestows upon her,
owned herself a sinner, and a sinner that sought mercy and
acceptance at the feet of the Saviour of sinners. On one
occasion we read, (Luke ii. 27,) that " a certain woman of
the company lift up her voice and said unto him, Blessed is

THE INVOCATION OF SAINTS. 323
the womb that bare thee, and the paps which thou hast
sucked ; " that is, she was an embryo Roman Catholic ; the
principle and germ of the Marian worship was in that wo
man's heart. What did our Lord reply ? Did he say, " Let
her be the empress of the earth, let her be the queen of
heaven ; by all means come to me through her ? " No : but
he said, "Yea, rather blessed, are they that hear the word
of God and keep it." What a sublime and magnificent re
buke ! yet like Christ's severest rebukes, bearing a blessing
in the heart of it. And how should we pray, that every
Roman Catholic should feel this blessed truth, that the man
who hears God's word in the depths of his heart, and does
it, is more blessed in so doing, than the Virgin Mary was in
being selected to be the mother of our Lord according to the
flesh ! On another occasion, (Matthew xii. 47,) we find the
same disposition to check and crush the first approach to
Marian worship : " One said unto him, Behold, thy mother
and thy brethren stand without, desiring to speak with thee.
But he answered and said unto him that told him, Who is
my mother, and who are my brethren ? And he stretched
forth his hand towards his disciples, and said, Behold my
mother and my brethren ; for whosoever shall do the will
of my Father which is in heaven, the same is my brother,
and sister, and mother." A clear and decisive intimation, is
this, that all the affinities which had been generated between
the Son of God and his virgin mother, were, in the estimate
of Heaven, and for the purposes of our salvation, as practi
cally extinguished for ever ; and that the only bond which
can knit the sinner to the Saviour, is faith in his blood, and
cordial repose in his perfect righteousness — Christ within
our hearts as the hope of glory. And, says the apostle, to
confirm this, " Neither is there salvation in any other ; for
there is none other name under heaven given amongst men,
whereby we must be saved."
Mary made no atonement for the sins of the world, and

324

THE GREAT APOSTASY.

therefore is destitute of every thing like a valid plea on
which to raise a superstructure of an effectual intercession.
But there is no room for the interposing mediation of the
Virgin Mary, if we consider what Christ is. He is God-
Man. As such he is a perfect pathway to glory. Sin
made a yawning chasm between the absolutely holy God
and the guilty and ruined creature ; and the Lord Jesus
Christ, by his death, removed sin, which is the separating
element between God and us, and introduced himself as the
uniting element, the bridge, the glorious ladder, connecting
heaven and earth. Christ is God, on the one hand, and can
hold communion with God ; and he is man, on the other, and
can hold communion with man. There is, then, no room for
the Virgin Mary between Christ and God, for he is God, and
in close contact with God ; and there is no room for the Vir
gin Mary between Christ and man, for he is very man, in
close contact with man, entering into the depths of our sym
pathies, conversant with the sources of our tears, and able
to call the orphan his brother, and the widow his sister.
Therefore, from the throne of God, enshrined amid glory
unutterable, down to the lowest depths of human ruin, there
is no room for the Virgin Mary ; for Christ spans the
whole chasm, and forms a pathway so wide that the greatest
sinner may walk in it, and yet so holy that the least sin is
not tolerated in it.
Our blessed Lord's recorded rebuke to Mary herself,
teaches us his own mind on this solemn subject. In the
second chapter of the Gospel of St. John, we find Mary, at
the wedding feast, exhibiting those sinful feelings of pride
by which many a Mary is still characterized. On seeing
that her relatives had not wine enough to supply all the
guests that had been invited, and fearing lest the poverty of
a relative's feast should be exposed, she said, in delicate but
intelligible terms, " They have no wine : " meaning thereby
that Christ should work a miracle to gratify her pride.

THE INVOCATION OF SAINTS. 325
What did our Lord reply? "Woman," (the language of
respect,) " what have I to do with thee ?" — as much as to
say, " I must ' tread the wine-press alone ; ' even a mother's
tears must not mingle with the expiatory blood of redemp
tion ; of the people there must be ' none with me ; * in the
great work of atonement I have nothing to do with thee ;
thou neither hast, nor art able to have, any share here."
Mary's privilege it was to listen to his gracious words, and
Mary's exemplary advice it was, " What he saith unto you,
do." One would suppose that such a rebuke as this would
extinguish all pretexts and apologies for the Marian wor
ship on the part of Roman Catholics. How do they meet
it? They present, in connection with this, a very awful
specimen of tampering with God's word. The very same
Greek words which we here translate " What have I to do
with thee ? " occur again in Mark v. 7, when the demon
said to our Lord, " What have I to do with thee, Jesus, thou
Son of the Most High God ? " Now, in this latter passage
the Church of Rome translates these words just as we do ;
but in the former (John ii.), where a clear rebuke of their
idolatry is implied, they have translated the words in a way
that destroys their rebuke, by destroying their meaning —
" Woman, what is it to thee and to me ? " How is it, that
in the one passage, where a mere historical incident is con
cerned, the Church of Rome translates the words one way,
and this way full of obvious meaning — and in the other
passage, where the Virgin Mary is reproved, that church
translates the words in another way, which renders them
utterly unintelligible ? The reason is obvious ; the worship
of the Virgin Mary is just that point on which the Church
of Rome seems, like the idolaters of old, " mad upon their
idols ;" and because God's word rebukes it, she will rather
abandon and corrupt the truths of that word, than abandon
her own corrupt and idolatrous worship.
But throughout the whole of Seriptilre, we find our
28

326 THE GREAT APOSTASY.
blessed Lord exhibited as the Savieur of the people, and in
no one instance is the Virgin Mary thus set forth. Heaven
and earth, and all between, witness constantly to Jesus
Christ. If I ask the Apostle Paul who is to be the great
object of our hope and faith, he answers, " God forbid that I
should glory, save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ."
If I appeal to the dying martyr Stephen, in the immediate
prospect of a judgment-seat, his departing cry was, (for he
died a Protestant, not a Roman Catholic,) — not " Mary,"
but "Lord Jesus, receive my spirit." And here let me
mention a little incident, illustrative of the intensity of
Romish idolatry. A Roman Catholic layman, distinguished
for' his talent and his scholarship, with whom I had a dis
cussion, was laid upon a sick-bed; a clergyman of the
Church of England and myself resolved to call upon him.
I said, when we were admitted, " My dear friend, we have
discussed the points at issue between us long enough ; now
let us have done with controversy, and do just listen to me,
while I try to tell you what the blessed Gospel is, in which
I place all my trust." He consented ; and I tried to preach
to him the true Atonement, and the true Purgatory, and the
only Sacrifice ; and I asked, " Cannot you take up the lan
guage of dying Stephen, and if called to leave this bed, and
stand before God, would not your last words be, ' Lord
Jesus, receive my spirit?' Surely, I said, in the prospect
of eternity, Mary won't do." After a deliberate pause, he
spoke : " If I had but three minutes to live," he said, " my
last words would be — Holy Mary, blessed art thou among
women ; blessed is the fruit of thy womb ; pray for me now,
and in the hour of death." He lived ; and I trust what I
said may not be forgotten, though on that occasion all
seemed of no avail.
If I address the Patriarch Job, " What are thy hope and
glory ? " the broken-hearted patriarch replies, " I know that
my Redeemer liveth." If I ask the saints around the

TnE INVOCATION OF SAINTS. 327
Throne, who is the burden- of their song, I hear the anthem
peal borne from the celestial choirs, and significant of their
faith and joy — - " Unto Him that loved us, and washed us
from our sins in his blood, be glory and dominion for ever
and ever." If I ask the Everlasting Father, Who is Christ ?
— I hear the responding voice from heaven — " This is my
beloved Son : hear ye him." If I ask the Lord Jesus him
self — " I am the way." If I ask the Holy Spirit, he de
scends like a dove to bear witness to him and to seal him as
Messiah. If I inquire of angels, what is the theme of their
admiration, they exclaim — " Unto you is born a Saviour,
which is Christ the Lord ; " " Into these things we desire
to look ; " " And let all the angels of God worship him." If
I refer to the Prophets, " to him give all the Prophets wit
ness." If I turn to the Baptist, he gathers up all that had
been symbolized and shadowed in the ancient economy, and
compresses it into one golden and magnificent ascription,
" Behold the Lamb of God, that taketh away the sin of the
world." If I ask the apostles who it 'is that they preach —
-' Whom we preach" — " We are witnesses." If I ask the
whole Church of Christ the ground of their hope — " To
whom shall we go but unto Thee ? Thou hast the words of
eternal life." If I ask, What mean the sacraments ? — they
are voices in the wilderness, " We are not that Christ ! we
bear witness of- him : He must increase, we must decrease."
If I appeal to creation around me, every rock bears in
scribed upon its brow, The Rock of Ages — every vine
announces the true and living Vine ; the sun in the firma
ment tells me of the Sun of Righteousness ; the stars set
forth the bright and morning Star ; and the rose that blooms
in the field and garden, carries by its fragrance to my heart
the loveliness of Jesus, the Rose of Sharon. All creation,
all revelation — prophets, saints, and martyrs — turn away
from Mary and from angels, and concentrate their regard,
and converge tlieir attention, upon Jesus, and glorify him

328

THE GREAT APOSTASY.

crucified, him crowned. Nay, more : if the Virgin Mary
could speak to her Roman Catholic worshippers upon earth,
I am sure she would give them different advice from that
which they now follow. You may recollect, when Diogenes
the Cynic was seated in his tub, basking in the sunshine ac
cording to his practice, that Alexander the Great, smitten
with admiration of the strange man, and wondering at his
self-sacrifice, one day asked him if there was any favor in
Macedon which he could bestow, and which Diogenes could
select. After a pause, the old Cynic answered, "This is
my only request, that your majesty would stand aside from
between me and the sun." And if the Virgin or the most
illustrious saint or angel were to come from the happy land,
and to ask me at this moment what is the greatest favor he
could confer upon me on earth or secure for me in heaven,
I would tell him, even if he were one of the bright cherubim
radiant from God's presence, that it is, and ever will be, to
stand aside from between me and the Sun of righteousness,
that his beams may "illumine me, his warmth quicken me,
his blood cleanse me, his righteousness clothe me, and his
life and death, and love and peace, be all in all to my soul.
One beautiful relationship to his church, under which
Christ is set forth in Scripture, is that of her Everlasting
Husband ; and just mark what this implies. Would you
suppose, that that wife was living in harmony with her hus
band, who, when anxious to obtain money for the supply of
the family for the week, should call upon her next door
neighbor, and say, " Will you go up to my husband, and ask
him to give me five pounds to provide for us during the
next week ? " Would not every one suspect that such a
wife did not live on good terms with her husband, and that
the husband could have none of the feelings of a husband
towards her whom he called his wife ? When husband and
wife live in concord and reciprocal affection, the wife would
not hesitate herself to tell him what is needed for the wants

THE INVOCATION OF SAINTS. 329
of the common circle. Now Christ is our loving and en
throned Husband, with ten thousand times a husband's
power, and ten thousand times ten thousand times a hus
band's heart, for his is the heart of hearts ; and you that are
the members of his body, you that constitute " the Lamb's
wife," have only to say, " Jesus, give," and he has infinitely
more joy in giving, than you have in asking.
Preach the law, and you will drive men to destruction ;
preach, " Do and live," and despair will be the close, as a
mercenary spirit must be the commencement ; preach the
terrors of hell, and you may scare, but you will not reclaim
men ; preach the commandment or the curse of Sinai, and
you will not reach man's heart, the secret source of his alien
ation ; but preach the love and devotedness of Christ — dis
close the ever open and unfolded arms of the everlasting
Father — and, under the blessing of the Spirit of God, there
will be found that in the exhibition of a Father's love, in
the gift and atonement of his dear Son, which will melt the
hard heart, and thaw the frozen soul, and enable the hearer
to know what this means. " We love God because God first
loved us." I once tried to convince a dying man by the
Law ; I tried to convince him by various other lessons ; I
failed: but when I told him of the prodigal's return, and
reception, and recovery, it reached his heart. That poor
youth, you remember, had gone to a strange land, wasted
his substance in riotous living, and lay in the very depth of
distress and despair ; but he said to himself, " I will arise
and go" — where ? to his father's butler, or his father's
friend, to intercede for him and introduce him ? or to lie
down at his father's door, and do some painful and agoniz
ing penance to conciliate his father's feelings towards him ?
No ; he knew what was in his father's heart, and that his
appeal to it would touch a string that would vibrate with
affection and sympathy. He said, " I will arise and go to
my father." The father, it is evident, was looking out for
28*

330 THE GREAT APOSTASY.
his son ; and " when he was yet a great way off, he saw
him." He was probably standing on the highest turret of
his house ; and as he saw in the far distant horizon a speck,
he thought within himself as it dilated, " Can it be my poor
stray boy ? " He looked again, and it grew to a ragged and
barefooted youth ; and soon a father's fond eye detected the
well-known gait and features of his long lost son. Now did
the father say, " I will allow him to taste the fruits of his
own folly ; I will keep him at bay, till he has made every
one about me his friend, and then he shall be introduced to
myself; I will make him do some penance before I receive
him ? " No ! he ran and fell on his son's neck, and bade all
the household rejoice at his return ; and when the son began
to appeal for an humble place in the family, the father over
whelmed him with caresses, and silenced him with the over
flowings of paternal kindness, and said, " Nay, nay, bring
forth and kill for him the fatted calf, and let us eat and be
merry." So is it, my dear Roman Cathohc friends, my dear
Protestant fellow-Christians, — so is it with God ; and the
greatest wrong that we do that gracious God is the hard
thoughts we have of him. You look at him as an Egyptian
taskmaster ; you think of the great and good God as a Pha
raoh. My dear friends, he hangs over you with more than
parental tenderness ; your first movement to him is met by
a forward movement on his part from heaven to earth ; and
there is joy amid the angels over one soul that repenteth
and turneth to God.
Once more : Christ Jesus is the true ladder of Jacob's
vision — one end of it touching the earth, and the other
reaching the uttermost heaven. By it you may climb from
grace to glory, looking neither to the right nor to the left,
but trusting only in him who is " the way." Oh ! what
deep dishonor you do to that Saviour, when you go to other
ways, to other names, to other introductions to heaven '
For what has Christ, the offended God, done to bring you

THE INVOCATION OF SAINTS. 331
to heaven ? He has made himself " the way." He lies
down, that you, the guilty, may walk on that way, and
reach the bosom of God. I regard it as one of the most
stupendous proofs of the love and humiliation of Christ,
that not satisfied with dying for us, he has made himself
the way for us, on which to walk to heaven and to happi
ness. How unlike is this love to man's! I remember
reading of two Highland chiefs, bitter enemies and antago
nists of each other, who met in a very narrew pathway,
crossing a deep ravine between two hills, and along which
only one person could pass at a time. It was the rule, that
if two persons met there, one should lie down and the other
step over him ; but the one proud chief said, " Shall I allow
this coward to walk over me ? " and the other, " Shall I
allow my foe to tread upon me ? " They at last entered
into desperate and mortal combat, every feeling stirred and
every sinew stretched to its utmost, both knowing that one
or other must perish. At length, one was thrown over the
precipice ; and the other walked on, triumphing in the re
sult. That was man. -But it is not thus with God. He,
the offended, who might have stood upon terms, is the party
that has become the Way, along which the guilty offender
may walk to God, and thus find " glory, honor, and immor
tality." Truly, " his thoughts are not our thoughts, neither
are his ways our ways ; for as the heavens are higher than
the earth, so ar.e his ways higher than our ways, and his
thoughts than our thoughts."

LECTURE XII.

TRANSUBSTANTIATION.

" This is my body, which is broken for you," is assumed
by Romanists as the basis of transubstantiation. Protes
tants understand, that by these words, so solemnly uttered
by our blessed Lord as the dying precept which he enjoined,
and therefore the more imperative upon our observance, he
meant to convey — " This bread, which is broken upon the
table, is the seal and symbol of that body which is about to
be broken for you ; it is the simple but expressive epitome
of all the benefits and blessings that accrue to God's
redeemed and living people, from the incarnation and sor
rows, the agony and the expiatory death, of the Redeemer.-"
And when we approach the Communion table, whatever be
the form in which we celebrate that holy rite, we feel that
it points backward to the past, and proclaims the height and
depth, the length and breadth, of that love which Christ
manifested to man ; and that it points forward to the future
also, and declares the certainty of that glorious advent
which the Redeemer himself predicted, when he said — "I
will not leave you comfortless ; I will come again, and
receive you unto myself, that where I am, there ye may be
also." One may well ask, By what strange hallucination has it
come to pass, that a large section of the visible and pro
fessing church attaches to these words so different, so repul
sive, a meaning as that of transubstantiation ? — - alleging
that they ought to be taken, not in that figurative and sym-

transubstantiation. 333
bolie sense in which they have been accustomed to receive
them, but that it was literally true, that when our blessed
Lord uttered these words, the bread and wine that were
placed before him on the table instantly were changed or
transubstantiated into the literal body and the literal blood,
together with the soul and divinity, of our Lord and Saviour
Jesus Christ ; and this change still takes place when these
words are uttered by the priest. So truly is this believed
by every member of the Church of Rome, that he holds,
that the moment the priest has pronounced the words Hoc
est enim meum corpus (for this is my body), that moment
the flour and water, in the shape of a wafer, which has
been laid on the altar, become literally and truly and sub
stantially the very flesh and blood and soul aiid deity of the
Son of God. If you should protest to the Roman Catho
lic — " It looks like a wafer — it tastes like a wafer — it
smells like a wafer — it crumbles like a wafer of flour and
water — and if I leave it long enough, it corrupts . and
moulders like a wafer " — his answer is — " Your senses
are all betrayed, it is no such thing ; your five senses . tell
you it is flour and water, but you are told in the Inspired
Volume by our Lord himself that it is his body ; and in
spite of all your senses proclaiming it to be flour and water,
you are bound to believe it is literally and truly "flesh and
blood." You will easily conceive that this is a demand upon our
belief, of a very severe and extraordinary description ; and
that it will need, upon the part of the Church of Rome,
neither few nor frail arguments to prove that they are right
and that we are wrong. You will also perceive the vast
importance of t'.e truth or falsehood of this doctrine, from
the necessary sequences or consequences of it. Li the
Church of Rome, they believe, that as soon as the flour and
water have been transubstantiated into the body and blood
of our blessed Lord, and the priest holds it up, or " elevates

334 the great apostasy.
the host," in the midst of the congregation, they may and
do justly fall down and adore it, as truly the Lord Jesus
Christ. If they are right in the previous supposition, that
this transubstantiation takes place, their adoration is cer
tainly proper ; but if they are wrong in the assumption that
the flour and water are turned into flesh and blood, then
their adoration, upon their own principles, must be revolting
idolatry. But this is not the only consequence of their doc
trine : as soon as it has been thus changed and adored, the
priest in every Roman Catholic chapel instantly offers up
this — which he believes to be the body and blood, the soul
and divinity, of our blessed Lord — a sacrifice propitiatory
for the sins of the living and the dead, possessing exactly
the efficacy of the atonement on Calvary; a sacrifice, in
short, adequate to cancel and remit the sins of the living
and the dead, just as if it were the literal and true sacrifice
offered upon the cross every Sunday. I shall not be able,
in this Lecture, to enter upon a consideration of the doc
trine of the sacrifice of the Mass, which may be viewed
quite distinctly from the doctrine of transubstantiation ; for
I may remark in passing, that if I were to grant to the
Roman Catholic that transubstantiation is true, I should yet
be prepared to repudiate as false the propitiatory sacrifice
of the Mass ; being prepared to prove and to demonstrate
that there is but one glorious and perfect expiatory Sacri
fice — a sacrifice of such spotless excellency, such glorious
perfection, that nothing that is in heaven itself can add to
it, and nothing that is in hell can detract from it or de
stroy it.
In order that we may proceed fairly and logically to the
consideration of this topic, I will first read to you a brief
extract from the Creed of Pope Pius the Fourth — the
Creed of the Church of Rome, and which every member of
that Church subscribes. "I profess likewise, that in the
Mass there is offered to God a true, proper, and propitiatory

transubstantiation. 335
sacrifice for the living and the dead ; that in the most holy
sacrament of the Eucharist, there is truly, really, and sub
stantially the body and blood, together with the soul and
divinity, of our Lord Jesus Christ ; and that there is a con
version of the whole substance of the bread into the body,
and of the whole substance of the wine into the blood ;
which conversion the Catholic Church calls transubstantia
tion. I also confess, that under either kind alone Christ is
received whole and entire, and there is a true sacrament."
I will also read the following extracts from the Decrees
and Canons of the Council of Trent. Chapter IV. on the
Eucharist : " Since Christ our Redeemer truly said that that
which he offered under the appearance of bread was his
body, therefore the Church of Christ has ever been per
suaded, and this holy Synod declares it anew, that by the
consecration of the bread and wine, a conversion takes
place of the whole substance of the bread into the substance
of the body of Christ our Lord, and of the whole substance
of the wine into the substance of his blood ; which conver
sion the holy Catholic Church properly calls transubstantia
tion." Again : the First Canon of the Council of Trent on
the Eucharist is, " If any man shall deny, that in the sacra
ment of the most holy Eucharist there is contained, truly,
really, and substantially, the body and blood, together with
the soul and divinity, of our Lord Jesus Christ, and so a whole
Christ — but shall say that he is only in it in sign, or figure,
or power — let him be accursed." Also Canon VI. : " If
any shall say, that in the holy sacrament of the Eucharist,
Christ, the only begotten Son of God, is not to be adored,
and that outwardly with the worship of latria [the chiefest
worship], and therefore that he ought neither to be vener
ated by any especial celebration, nor carried solemnly about
in procession, according to the laudable and universal cus
tom of the Church, or that he ought not to be exhibited to
the people, and that the worshippers of him are idolaters,

336

THE GREAT APOSTASY.

let him be accursed." This is Transubstantiation, as it is
defined and embodied in the authoritative documents of the
Church of Rome.
To show yon how very near the Tractarians of Oxford
approach to the Canons of the Council of Trent, and how
true and just is the statement I have made, that the Oxford
Tracts, especially the last, ought to be appended to those
Canons as commentaries upon them, I will read one or two
extracts from some of the most notorious works of the Trac
tarian school. In Tract LXXXVI. it is stated, that " there
is the real and essential presence of Christ's natural body
and blood in the Eucharist." I will read also from Mr.
Palmer's Letter to The Oxford Herald: "With regard to
the blessed sacraments, I protest against nothing ; it seems
to me a question of no moment, whether the natural sub
stance of bread and wine remains, or not ; I do not, I say,
protest at all, nor am I a Protestant on the point of transub
stantiation." Then comes Mr. Newman in Tract XC. :
" Let them but believe and act on the truth, that the conse
crated bread is Christ's body, as he says, and no officious
comment on his words will be attempted by any well-judging
mind. But when they say, ' This cannot be literally true,
because it is impossible,' then they force those who think it
is literally true, to explain how, according to their notions, it
is not impossible. And those who ask hard questions, must
put up with hard answers." And then he goes on to say,
that there is a literal and true presence of the body and
blood of Christ in the Eucharist.
Such, then, is the doctrine we are now to consider.
The great argument of the Roman Catholic Church is,
that you are to take the words — " This is my body," liter
ally and strictly ; and that thus taking them, you must con
clude that transubstantiation is scriptural and true. Now if
they insist upon our taking these words literally, let us, first of
all inquire whether they themselves take the words literally.

TRANSUBSTANTIATION. 337
You cannot fail to observe, that if the words are to be inter
preted literally, they merely imply — This bread is Christ's
body. But you will recollect, that in the first Canon of the
Council of Trent on the Eucharist, they say that there is a
transubstantiation, by virtue of which there is present, not
only the body, but " the soul and divinity of our Lord Jesus
Christ." If we take the words literally, we must conclude
that there is present only the body of Christ, and not the
soul and divinity ; for these are not included in the words..
They themselves, therefore, whilst they contend for a literal
interpretation, set the example of departing from the literal
import, and practically attach to the words a figurative^
meaning. But, if they insist upon taking these words literally in.
reference to the bread, we call upon them to carry through
their principle, and to take also the words literally that refer
to the wine. Our Lord says, " This cup is the New Testa
ment in my blood." Now if " This is my body " means that
the bread is transubstantiated into flesh, then, consecutively,.
and by parity of reasoning, " This cup is the New Testa
ment " must import that the cup is literally transubstantiated!
into a New Testament. But they take the first half literally,,
because it suits their own purposes ; and they take the sec
ond half figuratively, just for the very same reason. This.
is strange interpretation.
But, if we are to attach a literal interpretation to this;
passage, and to this petniliar form of phraseology, I contend.
that we are bound, by all the principles of fair and consist
ent interpretation, to attach a literal meaning to about thirty-
seven passages of a homogeneous character, which occur in-
various portions of the Sacred Volume. " I am the door : "'
must we not take that literally? "I am the vine:" must
we not take that literally ? " The seven ears of corn ore-
seven years:" "the seven candlesticks are seven churches : "*
"the- field is the World:" "that rock was Christ:" "the
29

338

THE GREAT APOSTASY.

seven heads are seven mountains : " " their thioat is an open
sepulchre:" "thou art that head of gold:" and so on. If
we are bound to take the words — " This is my bedy " in
their literal sense, then we must take similar phraseology in
other passages in the literal sense ; we must believe, that our
Lord was changed into a vine — that he was transformed
into a door — that seven candlesticks became literally tran
substantiated into seven churches — that the throat of the
wicked becomes literally a sepulchre — that seven ears pf
corn were literally transmuted into seven years — and thus
the whole word of God is irrational and absurd. If, on the
other hand, we take the Protestant principle of interpreta
tion — that of attaching a figurative interpretation where a
figurative is obviously required — then beauty, consistency,
and harmony pervade the Sacred Volume. I can then un
derstand how the rock is the symbol of the Rock of Ages;
that the vine is the symbol of Christ — the parent root and
stem and source of all the vitality that is found in his people,
its branches ; that the throat of the wicked is likened to a
sepulchre, because of the words of malice and the thoughts
of evil of which it is the channel : that the seven ears rep
resent seven years, and the seven candlesticks are the meet
and expressive symbols of seven churches ; and in accord
ance with this, that the bread jis not literally transubstan
tiated into flesh, but is the expressive and apposite symbol
of the incarnation of God, " God manifest in the flesh, justi
fied in the Spirit, seen of angels, preached unto the Gentiles,
believed on in the world, received up into glpry."
We have a ppwerful argument for this mode of interpre
tation, in the language applied to the ancient sacrament,
under the Levitical economy. One is , extremely appropri
ate. When the lamb was slain and placed upon the table,
and the families of Israel gathered round to eat of it, the
officiating priest (for the patriarch of the home is the priest
pf the church assembling in that heme), peinting to the

TRANSUBSTANTIATION. 339
lamb, said — " This is the Lord's passover." Now, if you
take these words in their literal meaning, as the Romanists
take the words " This is my body," you must understand by
them that the patriarch meant to convey — This lamb, on
which you are feeding as still animal flesh, is now transub
stantiated into an angel spreading his wings upon the air,
and sweeping through the length and the breadth of the land
of Egypt ; leaving mourning in the habitations of Rahab,
and songs of joy in the homes of the children of Israel.
But heie would evidently be a stretch of interpretation so
extravagant and absurd,- that even a Roman Catholic cannot
receive it. And in like manner, when circumcision is re
ferred to, under the Old Testament economy, it is said of it
— " This is the Lord's covenant." We understand by these
expressions, that circumcision was a symbol or a seal of the
covenant of God, in the one rite ; and that the lamb was the
sign or memorial of that memorable night, in which God
spared the first-born of Israel, through the sprinkling of
blood, while he smote with a high hand and an outstretched
arm the first-born of guilty and disobedient Egypt.
Not only are we borne out in this principle of interpreta
tion by the obvious usage of Scripture, but it is in accord
ance with the usages of man, in every language, and under
all circumstances. If I walk into the British Museum, and
take you through the gallery that contains those busts and
statues that came from the chisels of ancient and distin
guished statuaries, and if, as you enter, I point to the left
hand, and say, " That is Homer," do you understand, when
you look upon that exquisite specimen of sculpture, that it
is Homer' alive and risen from the dead, and that you may
now listen to the strains of the hoary bard again ? You
attach no such meaning to the phrase. Or, if I take you
into the school-room, and pointing to a map on the wall, say,
" This is England," " That is Scotland," " That is Europe,"
you never suppose that the canvas and the paint are tran*

340 THE GREAT APOSTASY.
substantiated into England, Scotland, or Europe. You at
once understand, that I use a figure of speech, familiar in
every language in every part of the world; and that all I
mean is, that the sculptured marble is the representation of
the ancient poet, and that the map projected on the paper
or the canvas, is the representative epitome of the districts,
the counties, and the parishes of Europe, of England, and
of Scotland.
The Roman sCatholic, however, will appeal to other parts
of Scripture, which he contends will prove this doctrine.
There is one chapter which every Roman Catholic has com
mitted to memory, if no other portion of the Bible, namely,
the sixth chapter of the Gospel according to St. John. He
contends, that we have in that chapter, such a clear and
incontrovertible exposition of the doctrine of transubstantia
tion, that no one can resist it; ,and> hence, in almost every
Roman Catholic controversial document, you will find the
last half of that chapter quoted ; and it is taken for granted
in every instance, that it refers to the Lord's Supper, and to
that alone. But this is not its reference. You will recol
lect the circumstances originating the conversation in that
chapter. Our Lord had fed the five thousand miraculously
with a few loaves and fishes ; and the Capernaites, unbap
tized and unconverted, charmed with the greatness of the
miracle, and attracted by the prospect of leading liyes of
indolence and -being, fed without trouble, followed him
wherever he went. Qur Lord told them, that they sought
him not because of the works he had done, but because of
the loaves and fishes; and then he preached to them in the
following wprds : " I am the bread ef Life ; " " This is the
bread which cometh down from heaven, that a man may eat
thereof and not die ; " " Except ye eat of the flesh of the
Son of man, and drink his blood, ye have no life in you."
The Roman Catholic contends, that all these passages, refer
so directly and so explicitly to the doctrine of transubstan-

TRANSUBSTANTIATION. 34t
tiation, that no Protestant can resist their force. Let us
look at them. In the first place, is it probable, or at all in
accordance with the wonted teaching of our Lord, that he
should begin first of all to proclaim to the untutored and
heathen Capernaites, not salvation freely through his blood,
but the mystery of the Eucharist? In the second place,
is it probable that our blessed Lord explained the sacra
ment of the Supper to the people, to whom neither he nor
any other had ever preached the very elements of Chris
tianity ?, And, in the last place, you will find, that through
out the- whole chapter, there is no mention whatever either
of the cup or of the bread, or of the words of consecration,
or of any thing that could lead you to suppose that there is
the least allusion to the Lord's Supper. The truth is, as you
will find by an analysis of the chapter, that our blessed
Lord sets forth faith under the similitude of hungering and
thirsting, and of eating and drinking ; and you are aware
that it is a very common usage on the part of our Saviour,
to represent himself under a variety of figures, and faith as
taking its tone from each of those figures. Thus, if Christ
is represented as the everlasting rock, faith reposes upon
that rock, and feels secure amid the convulsions of an agi
tated world ; if Christ is set forth as a fountain of living
waters, faith comes and drinks of the refreshing streams
" without money and without price ; " if Christ is repre
sented as bread, faith, eats of it, and is recruited and
strengthened ; if Christ is represented as " the way," faith
walks- in the way; if as "the truth," faith receives the
truth ; if as " the life," faith lays hold upon that life ; if as
an anchor, faith grasps the anchor ; if as an ark, faith leaves
the shattered and the sinking wreck of nature, and goes into
that ark, which will waft its happy and its holy ones across
the turmoils and the troubles of the world, and land them
in that better place, where faith is lost in fruition, and hope
merged in enjoyment. Now this is precisely the process
29*

342

THE GREAT APOSTASY.

adopted by our blessed Lord throughout this chapter ; and
you will see, by referring to some of the passages, that, he
regards believing and hungering as perfectly identical;
Observe: "Then said they unto him, Lord, evermore give
us this bread. And Jesus said unto them, I am the bread
of life ;' he that cometh to me shall never hunger, and he
that believeth on me shall never thirst:"' showing that
coming to -Christ and believing on him are equivalent to
eating1 that bread. And again : " This is the: will of him
that sent me, that every one which seeth the Son, and be
lieveth on him, may have everlasting life ; " and in a paral
lel passage, " Whoso eateth my flesh, and drinketh my
blood, hath eternal life : " showing that to eat of that living
bread, and to come to him in the exercise of faith, are
exactly the same thing, and are both followed by the Mess
ing of everlasting life.
Were we to suppose that this chapter refers to the
Eucharist, and to grant (for the sake of argument) : that
transubstantiation is here clearly indicated, it would prove
what no Roman Catholic can conscientiously admit. For
instance, in one verse it is said, "Except ye eat the flesh of
the Son of Man, and drink his blood, ye have no life in
you." If the Eucharist, or the Lord's Supper, is here
intended, it follows, that every one who does not partake of
the Lord's Supper, has not eternal life. But the thief upon
the cross passed from his shame to his glory, and never
tasted of the Lord's Supper. The infant that dies like un
timely fruit in its mother's bosom passes to the bosom of the
everlasting Father, and' the possession of an eternal home;
and yet that infant has never received the Lord's Supper
But if this refers to the Lord's Supper, it proves, that
unless you partake of that sacrament, it is impossible that
you can have Hfe in you. And then the converse of this is
also made out ; for it is said, " He that eateth my flesh, and
drinketh my blood, hath' eternal life." If this refers, to the

TRANSUBSTANTIATION. 343
Lord's Supper, every man that partakes of that sacrament
has eternal life. But I venture to assert, that no Roman
Catholic will agree to this. Luther frequently partook of
the Lord's Supper in the Church of Rome ; but Roman
Catholics do not believe, that this " arch-heresiarch " has
eternal life. Judas, there is reason to suppose, partook of
the Lord's Supper ; and yet Judas did not obtain everlasting
life. And there; have been thousands in the bosom of the
Roman Cathohc communion who have repeatedly partaken
ofthe Lord's Supper, and; yet there has not been one
shadow of a shade of evidence satisfactory to a Roman
Catholic priest, or bishop, or council, that they were even
probable inheritors of everlasting life, or did not die in mor
tal sin.
But the close of that chapter is, in fact, the clearest expo
sition of it. . When the Capernaites wondered " how this
man could give them his flesh to eat," what did our Lord
say ? He added, " It is the Spirit that quickeneth ; the
flesh profiteth nothing : the words that I speak unto you,
they are spirit, and they are life." Now, with the, Roman
Catholic, "the flesh profiteth" so much, that unless you
" eat the flesh " in the Lord?s Supper, you have npt eternal
life ; but in the estimate of our Lord the flesh profiteth so
little, that you are not. to consider it at all. f The words
that I speak unto you " are full of spiritual meaning, illus
trative of spiritual truths, to be apprehended by spiritual
minds, and to be made the germs of grace and .glory in
renovated and spiritual hearts.
Notwithstanding all this, the Roman Catholic alleges, that
the flour and water pn the Communion Table (or, as he calls
it, the altar), are really and truly changed ; and we are to
believe it, though all our senses protest against it. If so, I
must add, that of all the weapons ever placed in the hands
of the infidel; the- Church of Rome has in this instance fur
nished .the most effective and the most plausible. Nor is it

344 THE GREAT APOSTASY.
at all to me matter of surprise, that France, Popish the one
year, is infidel the next ; for I believe, that the most sure
precursor of universal scepticism would be the extensive
and universal spread of Roman Catholic superstition ; and
that in those countries where the Church of Rome has at
tained her most rapid victories, and put forth her most
gigantic powers, the reaction which has followed has proved
how true it is, that from the one extreme of superstition
and credulity to the other extreme of infidelity and scepti
cism, is but a short way. And to show that if we repudiate
the testimony of the senses, we put weapons in the hand of
the infidel, I would refer to the resurrection of Christ from
the dead. How do we prove this ? The answer of Scrip
ture is, that " he was seen of the Twelve," and afterwards of
" above five hundred brethren at once ; " Thomas handled
him, and the rest of the apostles held converse with him.
But the Church of Rome contends, that man's senses are
deceived every Sunday, when he looks at the sacrament
upon the altar ; and the infidel will consistently reply, " If
man's senses are deceived every Sunday, in the nineteenth
century, may they not have been deceived in the first? may
not the apostles' senses have been all deceived, when they
said they saw Christ risen ? may not the senses of the five
hundred have been deceived, when they said they saw Christ
all at one and the same moment? and may it not therefore
be true, according to your own principles, that Christ is not
risen; that 'you are yet in your sins; your preaching vain,
and the people's faith also vain ?'" In like manner, again,
we prove the miracles of our blessed Lord by the testimony
of the senses. What is a miracle ? An appeal . to man's
senses ; a suspension of the laws of nature, visible to man's
senses. But if the senses may be deceived, miracles may
never have been wrought ; a fascination only of the senses
may have been produced ; and what we regard as the seals
and the everlasting credentials of the truth and inspiration

TRANSUBStTANTIATION. 345'
pf the Gpspel, may, on Roman Cathohc principles, have,
been only a delusio visus — a; deception of the sight. And
thus it is, that the transition from superstition to infidelity is,
very easy, and every way very rapid. I know that Roman
Catholic disputants quote several references from Scripture,
to prove that-the senses may be deceived. They quote the
instance of the disciples journeying to Emmaus, when our
blessed. Lord drew near to them and walked with them, and
yet: they did not know it was Christ. But there was a
reason for it; for it is added, "Their eyes -were holden, that,
they should not know him." The Roman Catholic disputant
quotes another instance — that of Mary in the igarden, when
Christ appeared after his resurrection from the dead ; she
" supposed him to have been the gardener." But there it is
obvious, that though her eyes were unable to recognize her
Master, yet when our blessed Lord uttered the word
"Mary," her ear faithfully corrected the short-coming of
her eye, and instantly she recognized her Lord and Saviour
Christ. Again, the Roman Catholic, quotes the passage,
where it, is stated that Christ appeared in the midst of the.
disciples, "the doors being shut; " and he quietly infers, that,
our Lord's body must have passed, through the closed doors,
and consequently cannot.be regarded as subjectto the same
natural laws to which our bodies are liahle. But there is
not one particle of evidence for this ; on the contrary, I cpn-
ceive that the expression, "the .doors .being shut," js an ex
pressive phrase, used in ancient times, to denote evening,
just as we say, "the candles were lighted," pr "the, shutters
were closed," when we mean that it was night, and the day
light was gone. All that seems to be implied in tihis.passage
is, that evening was come, and the: sun ,had set, when our
blessed Lord on. that occasion made his appearance in the
midst of his disciples. , ,
, In order to show the utter falsity of the- .doctrine of tran
substantiation, I will.now prove from Scripture— first of all,

346 THE GREAT APOSTASY.
that the body of our blessed Lord is contained in heaven
until the appointed period of his second advent ; and being
contained in heaven literally, as far as his humanity is con
cerned, cannot be bodily on earth at the same time. Acts
iii. 21 : " Whom the heaven must receive until the time of
restitution of' all things." 2 Corinthians v. 16 : " Hence
forth know we no man after the flesh ; yea, though We have
known Christ after the flesh, yet now henceforth know we him
no more," — that is, literally, corporeally, and physically.
Colossians iii. 1 : "If ye then be risen with Christ, seek
those things which are above, where Christ sitteth at the
right hand of God." Further : there are passages of Scrip
ture, which show that our blessed Lord, having a true body
cannot (as far as is revealed) be in several places in that
body at the same time. That his was a true body, we prove
from Hebrews ii. 17, "In all things it behoved him to be
made like unto his brethren." It is the characteristic of
every human body, that it can only be in one place at a
time ; and as our Lord had true and proper humanity, and
all that is characteristic of humanity, sin excepted, he could
only be bodily in one place at a time. Matthew xxviii. 5,
6 : " Ye seek Jesus which was crucified ; he is not here, for
he is risen :" implying that he could not be. bodily there in
the grave, and risen from the dead, at one and the same
time. The way in which the Roman Catholic explains that
statement of the angel is, that it was meant simply to convey
— " Christ is not visible here." But would not this be utter
ing a direct untruth ? If you and I were together in a room,
and if I hid myself in a corner of it, would it be truth, if
you were to say to a third person, inquiring for me, " He is
not here, he is gone out ? " Unless, therefore, we can sup
pose an angel, sent upon the message of his God, to have told
a direct and deliberate untruth, (which we cannot,) we must
infer, that our Lord's body could hot be at the same moment
in the graved and enshrined amid the glories of the Father's
right hand.

TRANSUBSTANTIATION. 347
Again : when our Lord had risen from the dead, we find
him appealing to the senses, and saying, (Luke xxiv. 39, 40,)
" Behold my hands and my feet, that it is I myself; handle
me, and see, for a spirit hath not flesh and bones, as ye see
me have. And when he had thus spoken, he showed them
his hands and his feet." What does this teach us ? That
the senses are to judge of the bodily presence of Christ ;
that handling him, beholding his feet and his hands, was the
evidence of his bodily and corporeal presence; and that
where there is no such evidence afforded, (and there is none
in the Mass,) there we must infer, that he is not bodily and
corporeally present. On this, Scripture is peculiarly full.
John xx. 27 : " Then saith he to Thomas, Reach hither thy
finger, and behold my hand ; and reach hither thy hand, and
thrust it into my side: and be not faithless, but believing:"
implying that his bodily presence was to be appreciated by
the senses, and that where the senses could not detect him,
there his bodily presence was not.
In the next place, I will show, that there is direct scrip
tural proof, that the elements of bread and wine are not,
after consecration, transubstantiated into the body and blood
of our blessed Lord. After he had pronounced the words
of consecration, on which transubstantiation takes place, or
" given thanks," you will find that our Lord adds, (Matthew
xxvi. 29,) "I will not drink henceforth of this fruit of the
vine, until that day when I drink it new with you in my
Father's: kingdom : " our Lord shows by these words, that
after what the Roman Catholic believes to be the words of
transubstantiation, the wine remains substantially what it
was before. Again : -1 Corinthians x. 16 : " The bread which
we break, is it not the communion of the body of Christ ? "
This is uttered after the consecration of the elements, when,
therefore, there is no literal bread left. The Roman Cath
olic believes, however, that while the wafer may be broken,
Christfs true body cannot be broken ; and yet the apostle

148 THE GREAT APOSTASY.
distinctly declares, that he breaks that which has been con
secrated, and that the breaking of it is the communion of
the body of Christ. Let me next refer to the passage from
which my text is taken — " For I have received of the Lord
that which also I delivered unto you ; that the Lord Jesus,
the same night in which he was betrayed, took bread: and
when he had given thanks, he brake it, and said, Take, eat;
this is my body, which is broken for you : this do in remem
brance of me. After the same manner- also he took the
cup, when he had supped, saying, This cup is the New Tes
tament in my blood : this do ye, as oft as ye drink it, in re
membrance of me. For as often as ye eat this bread, and
drink this cup, ye do show the Lord's death till he come."
Here, you observe, the apostle distinctly calls it " this bread "
after it has been consecrated, and speaks in the same way of
" this cup."
In the next place, I maintain, that the very nature of the
ordinance itself shows that there is no transubstantiation. It
it is said, " Do this in remembrance of me." Now, memory
refers to a thing that is absent, not to a thing that is present ;
and, therefore, the end of this command proves, that Christ
is not bodily present, but is, as Scripture asserts, at his
Father's right hand in heaven. Again : " Ye do show
the Lord's death till he come : " this implies, that he is not
yet personally come — that his advent is future — and that
he is yet absent in bodily presence, and not, as the Roman
Catholic says, bodily arid literally present, on the altar;
Perhaps this also is the appropriate place for introducing
a very beautiful extract from one of the ancient fathers,
Which shows that the doctrine of transubstantiation had no
place in their views of the Sacrament of the Eucharist. I
do not say that the fathers are to be regarded as authorities
in the exposition of Scripture, but as witnesses to fact their
testimony is of considerable value ; and at all events, as the
Roman Cathohc is bound to interpret Scripture "only ao

TRANSUBSTANTIATION. 349.
cording to the unanimous consent of the fathers," it is of the
utmost importance for him to learn, that some of them hold
the Protestant view of the Lord's Supper. Hear, then,
Augustine, the most evangelical of all the . fathers : " If a
passage is preceptive, and either forbids a crime, or wicked
ness, it is not figurative ; but, if it seem to command a, crime,
or to forbid usefulness or kindness, it is fignrative. . ' Unless;
ye shah eat the flesh of the Son of man, and drink his blood,.
ye have no hfe in you : ' he appears to enjoin wickedness
and a crime; it is a figure,, therefore, teaching us that we-
partake of the benefit of the Lord's -passion, and that we
must sweetly and profitably treasure up in. our memories,,
that his flesh was crucified, and wounded for us." (Bene
dictine edition, Paris,. 1685, vol. iii. p. 52..) And, again
the same author says — " How shall I put forth my hand
to heaven, and lay hold of him who sitteth there? Put;
forth 1 your faith, and you will have laid hold on Christ."'
Again, from the same author: "'Jesus answered, and said,.
This is the work of God, that ye believe in him whom he
hath sent ; ' to do this,, is to eat the meat which perishes not,
but endures to eternal hfe. Why do you prepare your teeth.
and your stomach ? Believe only, and you will have eaten."'
"¦ This,i therefore, is to eat that food, and to drink that cup —
namely, to abide in Christ, and, to have Christ abiding in
you ;, and for this reason, he who does not abide in Christ,.
and iri whom Christ does not abide, beyond all doubt, does-
not spiritually eat his flesh, or drink his blood, although he-
carnally presses with his, teeth the sacrament pf the body
and blood of Christ." Such are the words, of, Augustine, a.
father much relied on by Roman Catholic divines, and fre
quently quoted to prove the doctrine of transubstantiation.
Take another ancient father — Isidore, a bishop who-
lived in . the seventh century ; and we shall see that our
interpretation of the words in question as figurative wa*
held in that day also :.— r- Wherefore Scripture calls it the-
30

350

THE GREAT APOSTASY.

spirit of Samuel, because images are wont to be called by
the names of those things of whom they are images ; thus
all things painted or sculptured are called by the names of
those things of which they are resemblances, and the proper
name is unhesitatingly given. It is said, ' That is Cicero,'
* that is Sallust,' ' that is Achilles,' ' that is Hector,' ' that is
the river Simois ; ' although they are nothing else than the
painted images. The representations of the sacred cher
ubim, though celestial powers, being made of metal, were
also called ' cherubim.' So when one has a dream, he does
not say, ' I saw the picture of Augustine,' but ' I saw Au
gustine,' though at the moment of this sight Augustine was
ignorant of any thing of the kind ; so obvious is it, that the
images of the men, and not the men themselves, are seen.
Thus Pharoah said he saw ears of corn and kine in his
dream, not a representation of ears and of kine." The
explanation, you observe, furnished in the seventh century
exactly agrees with the interpretation adopted by Protesr
tants. But let me now show you the awful results to which the
doctrine of transubstantiation must necessarily lead. Every
Roman Catholic fully and conscientiously believes, that if
the piece of flour and water which the priest has consecrated
on the altar were broken into ten thousand particles, and
those particles scattered to the remotest confines pf the
habitable glpbe, the whole body and blood of our blessed
Lord would be in each of the ten thousand particles, and in
each a whole body complete and entire. He believes, that
every Sunday morning, in the six hundred Roman Cathohc
chapels in Britain, and in the thousands of chapels on the
continent, if each priest pronounce the words, " This is my
body," at or nearly at the same moment of time, on each
and every altar, though thousands of miles apart from each
other, there will be, not a fragment of the body, but the
whole of the body and blood of our Lord and Saviour Jesus

TRANSUBSTANTIATION. 351
Christ; so that he holds it possible for our Lord's literal
body to be in ten thousand different places at one and the
same instant. Now, if this be true of our Lord's body, it
may he true of the body of any person ; for he was " in all
things made like unto his brethren," and took our very
nature upon him, sin only excepted. Hence, therefore, ac
cording to the Roman Catholic principle, this is possible in
the case of Peter, or John, or Thomas, or any one else ;
and by a strange, inexplicable, and, to any but a Roman
Catholic, incredible absurdity, it may be asserted, that Peter
is fasting in London, feasting in Paris, and asleep in Edin
burgh, at one and the same moment ; because a true body,
according to this doctrine, may at the same moment be in
different places, in different states and conditions, and under
the action of different circumstances.
I know the Roman Catholic will reply — " All things are
possible with God ; God is omnipotent." It is perfectly
true ; but it is not God's omnipotence, it is God's written
word, that is the rule of our faith. And in one direction,
at least, we must restrict omnipotence ; for it is expressly
said by the inspired penman, that God " cannot lie." " But,"
rejoins the Roman Catholic, " Christ's body is now a spirit
ual body ; and though it might be perfectly true of a mortal
body upon earth, that it could not be in ten thousand places
at the same moment, it may be true of his now glorified and
exalted humanity. Here, however, he forgets that the sup
per was instituted before our Lord had died, risen from the
dead, and been glorified ; and there is no reason for believ
ing that what was not true then is true now. But the Ro
man Catholic disputant will say — " It is a mystery, and are
we to deny mysteries ? do we not believe the doctrine of the
Trinity, which is equally a mystery ? " Many an able Pro
testant divine has involved himself in inextricable confusion
here, by setting out with the postulate, or the hypothesis,
that he is not bound to believe any thing that is above hi?

352 THE GREAT APOSTASY.
senses. We assert, on the contrary, that we must believe
many things that are above our senses, but none that are
contrary to th£m. We deny that the doctrine of the Holy
Trinity is to be placed in the same category with the doc
trine of Transubstantiation. The doctrine of the Trinity is
a sublime and spiritual mystery, confessedly far. beyond the
range or grasp of man's finite intellect; but the doctrine of
transubstantiation is a thing conversant with material ele
ments, by its very nature coming within the cognizance of
man's senses ; and being tried by man's senses, its legitimate
jury, is found to be an absurdity, a deception,1 and an un
truth. - ' ¦•'
To show you further the necessary and revolting results
to which the doctrine of transubstantiation leads, let me
briefly refer to the prefix to the large Latin Missal from
which Roman Catholic priests usually read in the celebra
tion of this sacrament. In that volume (not the laity's
edition, for that omits it), there is a treatise de Defectibus
Missce, that is, on the defects which may occur in the cele
bration of the Mass or the Eucharist. I will read one or
two of its statements, to show the absurd as well as painful
and revolting results of the doctrine of transubstantiation, of
which the priests themselves must be thus made perfectly
conscious. " Defects in the celebration of the Mass. A
defect may happen, either as to the matter to be consecra
ted, the form to be used, or the' officiating minister ; in
whatever of these there be any defect, there is no sacra
ment made." If the officiating minister, therefore, should
be one to whom a- single link is wanting in the long chain
of succession, that stretches through eighteen centuries to
the days of the apostles, the deficiency is such that there is
no sacrament at all ; arid in that case, the Roman Catholic,
on his own principles, worships flour and water instead of
Godj and trusts to the semblance of a sacrifice instead of the
reality.' Again: " Defects that may occur in reference to

TRANSUBSTANTIATION. 353
the bread. If the bread be not ©f wheat, or if, being of
wheat, it be mixed with such a quantity of other grain that
it doth not remain wheaten bread, or if it be in any other
way corrupted, the sacrament is not made ; " that is to say,
the transubstantiation does not take place. Again : " If the
wine be quite spur, or quite putrid, or be t made of sour
grapes, the sacrament ig.not made." Just mark the fearful
casualties to which every Roman Catholic is necessarily
subject. If the flour, merchant should have, mixed the
wheaten flour with grain of an inferior description, or if the
baker should have introduced flour of a lower quality, in
vain does the priest pronounce the magic words of consecra
tion; they worship, what, upon their own theory, is then
flour and water still. Or if the wine merchant has cor
rupted the wine, by an admixture of water, or of wine pro
duced, from sour grapes, or by any other vitiating elements,
the priest's blessing is in vain, and the wine remains
wine, and is not transubstantiated into the Saviour's
blood. Am I not justified in saying, that the Roman Cath
olic is dependent on his flour merchant and his wine mer
chant for the sacrifice for his sins — for the God that he
adores ? I omit many other equally gross defects : one is,
provision against an animal running away with what the
Romanist believes to be the body of Christ.
Nor is this the whole extent of the casualties to which the
Roman Catholic is liable. , Defects may occur on the part
of the officiating minister; and the first is in " intention,"
the next in " vestments," and " disposition in the service
itself as to those matters which can occur in it." Popery,
you perceive, attaches a sacramental and mysterious virtue
to the vestments that the priest Wears ; and, accordingly, a
Roman Cathohc looks upon the priest in those robes as
altogether a different being from what he is on the highway;
so much so, that I have heard from Irish clergymen, upon
whose word I could place implicit credence, that the very
30 *

354 THE GREAT APOSTASY.
persons who would maltreat a priest upon the highway, and
show him no respect whatever, would fall down before him
in the chapel, as possessed of something of the attributes.
and robed in the authority of God. Now it is here asserted,
that if the priest is in wrong vestments, the sacrament is not
made. But above all, there is no sacrament if thetpriest's
" intention " is wanting ; as if, for instance, he should not
believe in transubstantiation ; and many priests have disbe
lieved it, and one of them (Mr. Nolan) declares that he did
not believe it for at least two years before he left the Ro
man Catholic Church. Many priests on the Continent and
in Ireland are sceptics at heart ; and in all such cases, there
is no transubstantiation of the material elements into the
body and blood of our blessed Lord ; and the assembled
•congregation bow down to that, which, on their own princi
ples, must be confessed to remain flour and water still, and
rest upon that which is no propitiatory sacrifice at all. And
therefore, when the Roman Catholic uses all plausible pre
texts to withdraw you from a Church, which he describes
as all discord, and division, and uncertainty, you have a
right to tell him, that there is no church under heaven,
where all is so uncertain, so precarious, so unsettled, as that
which professes to save you from the doubts of Protestant
ism, and guarantee you, without any anxiety, all the glories
¦of heaven.
I have thus shown you some of the extravagant results to
which this doctrine must necessarily lead ; I have laid
before you Some of the consequences of asserting that the
.'senses may be deceived; I have stated what a weapon is
thus- put into the hands of the infidel ; I have proved, by
express passages of Scripture, that what was bread before
consecration is bread afterwards ; I have pointed out the
consequences of the 'defects, admitted by the Roman Catho
hc himself as not unlikely to occur ; and I think, that what
I have said will impress upon you, that the Protestant doe-

TRANSUBSTANTIATION. 355
trine of the Eucharist is the- true one, which teaches you to
take that bread at the Lord's Table, in remembrance of that
Saviour Who died upon the cross to atone for our sins, and
in joyful anticipation of his second advent,' when he shall
come and reign " from sea to sea, and from the rivers unto
the ends of the earth."
Suffer me now, in conclusion, to show you that our
blessed Lord, in speaking in these passages of " bread," has
chosen a symbol, as beautiful as it is expressive, ofthe
blessings of- his incarnation; and the benefits of his meritori
ous passion. And it does seem 'to me one ofthe most inter
esting proofs of the divinity of Scripture, as well as the
wisdom of our blessed Lord, that- when he instituted this
permanent symbol of his death — this perfect epitome of
his love — he did not ransack the caves of ocean for their
Concealed gems,1 nor the bowels of the earth for its hidden
gold ; nor did he command those who would observe the
ceremony to slay their first-born, or to bring costly offerings
to heap upon the shrine, and to decorate the altar ; but he
took the simplest element-^ which is forind in every coun
try, which the poor have, and the rich cannot do without —
and he made that the eloquent seal of truths so sublime that
angels cannot grasp them, of blessings so vast that eternity
cannot exhaust them, and of a Gospel so glorious that the
poorest and the richest have it Equally within their reach.
¦ Our Lord, in the sixth 'chapter of the Gospel of St. John,
likens himself to thie manna which the children of Israel ate
as their heaven-sent bread in the wilderness : let us look
for a moment at this symbol, as descriptive of him and his
benefits. < In the first place, the manna came from heaven
direct ; it was not the product of earth, like the flower that
blooms upon its surface, or the ore that is treasured in .its
bowels, or the waters that spring from its 'fountains. In all
this it shadows forth the Lord Jesus. He " came down
from heaven/' 'Heaveri?s high gift to man's lost and ruined

356 THE GREAT APOSTASY.
race ; as it is, written, " God so loved the world that he gave
his, only begotten Spn, that whosoever believeth in him
should not perish, but have everlasting life." When the
manna fell down from heaven, the Israelites were so sur
prised at it that they exclaimed, Manhu — What is this?
They could hardly believe it was really nutriment for their
perishing bodies. So when the Redeemer came from
heaven to redeem the lost, the world " saw no beauty in
him ; " he appeared as " a root out of a dry ground," he was
" despised and rejected of men ; " " they esteemed him
not." The manna was the unsought,, unmerited gift of
Gpd. So was our blessed Redeemer; not one soul cried
from its ruin for the interposition of Heaven's mercy ; " all
flesh had corrupted its way," and the simultaneous expres
sion of every man's real feehngs was, " No God : " but God
"remembered us in our low estate ; ," "not that we loved
God, but that he loved us, and sent his Son to be a propitia
tion for us." Further ; the manna descended equally upon
the rich and the poor, the priests and the people, the learned
and the unlearned. So Christ comes, and is offered to
every creature under heaven ; the richest man that lives
cannot spend eternity in happiness without Christ, and the
poorest beggar by the way-side need not live and need not
die without Christ. Again : the manna spread itself over
the length and breadth pf the desert; and if any man per
ished for lack ef food, it was not because there was no
manna wherewith to nourish him, but because he had no
desire or disposition to gather it. So now, if one soul is
lost in that eternity which is to come, it is not because
there is no efficacy in the Saviour's blood, it is. not because
there is no lpve in God's heart ; it is because it has leved
sin mere than it has leved its ewn high interest, and pre
ferred the world to Jesus Christ, " the Lamb of God that
taketh away the sin of the world." The Israelites, however,
had to go out of their tents in order to gather the manna

TRANSUBSTANTIATION. 357
as if to show that God will not work a miracle, where ordi
nary means are perfectly sufficient. So is the preaching of
the Gospel : you must come and hear, — and the very fact
of coming to hear involves some sacrifice ; and our blessed
Lord's words, whilst they imply no merit on the part of
man, yet compel a vigorous use of means — " Ye will not
come unto me that ye might have life." We read, again,
that when the manna fell, it was so wisely and so beau
tifully arranged, that " he that gathered much had nothing
over, and he that gathered little had no lack." So is
it with faith in Christ ; it is not that the man who has
great faith, thereby receives a great saviour, and the man
who has little faith, a little saviour ; the man who has
strong faith, that " can remove mountains," and the man
who has a faith that trembles on the very verge of extinc
tion, receive equal righteousness, an equal Saviour, equal
pardon, equal happiness, and an equal home. It is also
related; that when the manna fell, it adapted itself to every
man's taste. . So is it with our blessed Redeemer; he is so
fitted to supply the wants, and suit all the varied tastes of
the children of men, that they who, have known most of his
grace, find it sweetest ; and they who can perceive sweet
ness in nought beside, are constrained to admit that his
word is sweeter than honey from the honey-comb, and his
truth more precious than fine gold. Such is Christ, as he is
set before us in the Scriptures; and such the free welcome
of all, to receive the benefits and blessings of his glorious
salvation. When the Israelites collected the manna, we find the time
but not the manner of gathering it prescribed. It is not
stated that they were all obliged to- use only one kind of
basket, and that only that one kind of basket sufficed to
contain it. This teaches us a very beautiful and catholic
lesson : what the basket was to the manna, the visible min
istry is to the bread of life, the true bread that cometh down

358 THE GREAT APOSTASY.
from heaven. It is God's ordinance that there shall be a
visible church, but it is not God's ordinance that it shall be
the same in all circumstances, the same in all its rites, in its
discipline, in its formularies, in its laws, and internal ar
rangements. The color, and shape, and size of the baskets
vary, but the contents are all the same. We do not read, in
the simple record of the Israelites collecting the manna in the
wilderness, that one collected it with a golden basket, another
with a silver, and a third with a wicker ; and that he who
had but a wicker basket did not receive true manna, and
that it was collected by, and nourished and refreshed, only
by those who had golden baskets. Nor is it so with the
hving bread. I will grant, if you please, that in the Church
of England they have , a golden basket wherewith to collect
the manna, and that in the Church of Scotland they have
but a wicker basket ; but in the hour of death, and in the
day, of judgment, the question will not be, by what process
or with what vessel you collected, but whether you have
really gathered and been nourished with the bread of life.
Living nutriment for the soul is the main thing ; secure this,
and all besides is subordinate. The existing distinctions by
which the visible church is now characterized will all be
abolished. The question at the judgment-morn will not be
what is made so much of now. Attendant angels will in
quire, " What are these, and whence came they ? " — and
the answer, in reference to those who are about to enter the
kingdom of glory, will not be, " These are worshippers from
St. Paul's," "These are worshippers from St. George's,"
"These are from the English, and these from the Scotch
Church,", "These are from Surrey Chapel," "These are
Dissenters, and those are Churchmen;" but the response
that will come from the Judge upon the throne, and from
the redeemed myriads around him, Will be simply this —
" These are they that have washed their robes, and made
them. white in the blood of the Lamb; therefore are they'
before the throne of God."

LECTURE XIII.
THE SACRIFICE OF THE MASS.
In last Lecture I discussed the dectrine cf Transubstan
tiation ; and on that occasion I proved to you, that this doc
trine involves so many extravagant consequences, implies so
many absurd and improbable demands, and contradicts so
plainly and expressly the whole analogy of Scripture, that
we are bound to reject it as a superstitious dogma, — as
either no part of Sacred Writ, or directly condemned in it.
I also observed upon that occasion, that the doctrine of the
Propitiatory Sacrifice of the Mass is based upon the previous
doctrine of tija-nsubstantiation ; and that if transubstantiation
has been proved to be false, it- is utterly impossible that the
dpctrine of the mass can be proved to be true ; the latter
resting for. its strength, and existence upon the former. But
such is the. power, and so vast and varied are the resources
of Christian truth, that we can afford, for the sake of argu
ment, to grant to the Roman Catholics that transubstantia
tion: is true, and yet we can demonstrate from Scripture
that the so-called propitiatory sacrifice of the mass is
untenable. The propitiatory sacrifice of the mass, I may observe, is
the great and distinguishing pecuharity of Roman Catholic
worship. Ask the Roman Catholic on a Sunday morning
where he is going, and his answer will immediately be —
" To Mass." It is the substance and body of worship in the
Roman Cathohc service, constituting, on the one hand, the
great distinction of the Church of Rome, in contrast to all

360 THE GREAT APOSTASY.
the churches of the Reformation ; and forming, on the other,
the great basis of the faith and hopes of the Roman Cath
ohc worshipper. If it be false, all Popery is an awful su
perstition; if it be true, we Protestants are in extreme
and instant jeopardy.
The meaning of the expression — " the Mass," may be
briefly stated. Some ancient Roman Catholic doctors have
tried to deduce this word from the Hebrew ; but as it is
quite clear that the mass was unknown to the Hebrews,
even by Roman Cathohc admission, we cannot suppose that
it is derived from any part of their service, or probably
from any expression in their language. The true origin- ef
it would seem to be this : At the clese of the service in the
Latin or Western Church, when the Hely Communion was
to be celebrated, and the ordinary ritual pf the day was
done, the priest addressed the people from the pulpit, and
said — "Missa est;" that is, " The congregation is dis
missed ; " and then followed the Communion, immediately
after the dismission of the congregation — that is, of those
who were not strictly what we call members or communi
cants. From this expression, " Missa est," being thus an
ciently used previously to the celebration of the Communion,
the Communion came to be called, in very early times,
" Missa," and hence, in English, " the Mass."
Let me now explain to you, from Roman Catholic docu
ments of authority, what the doctrine of the Mass really is.
The following declaration is contained in the Creed of
Pope Pius TV., which is a summary of the faith held by
every Roman Catholic. The words are solemn, and the
doctrine they imply pecuharly awful: "I profess,- that in
the mass there is offered to God a true, proper, and propi
tiatory sacrifice for the living and the dead."
In the chapters en the Sacrifice ef the Mass, frem the
twenty-secend sessien pf the Ceuncil of Trent, held in the
year 1562, there are various definitiens and explanations

THE SACRIFICE OF THE MASS. 361
given of this doctrine. The first chapter is to the following
effect : *' Since, as the Apostle Paul witnesseth, under the
former testament there was no perfection, by reason of the
imperfection of the Levitical priesthood, it was necessary,
according to the ordinance of God, the Father of mercies,
that another priest should arise ; he, therefore, our Lord and
God, although he was able to offer himself once for all upon
the altar of the cross, by the intervention of death, that there
he might work eternal redemption, yet, because his priest
hood was not to be extinguished by death, in his last Sup
per, ' the • night in which he was betrayed,' that he might
leave to his beloved spouse the Church a visible sacrifice,
according to the exigencies of man's nature, by which that
bloody one, once for all performed on the cross, might be
represented, and the memory of it remain even unto the
end of the world, and its saving virtue be applied for the
remission of those sins which are daily committed by us,
declaring himself to be ordained ' a priest forever, after the
order of Melchisedec,' offered to God the Father his body
and blood, under the species of bread and wine; and under
the symbols of the same things delivered them to the
apostles, whom he then appointed priests of the New Tes
tament, that they might receive them ; and in these words —
' Do this in remembrance of me,' he charged them and their
successors in the priesthood that they should offer him, as
the Cathohc Church has always understood and taught.
For after the celebration of the old Passover, he instituted a
new Passover, even himself, to be sacrificed by the Church,
through the priests, under visible signs, in memory of his
departure from this world to the Father, while by the shed
ding of his blood he redeemed us, and snatched us from the
power of darkness, and translated us into the kingdom of
God." Let me next refer to the Tridentine Canons on the Mass.
The first is — "If any man shall say, that in the mass there
31

362 THE GREAT APOSTASY.
is not offered to God a true and proper sacrifice, let him be
accursed." The second — " If any man shall say, that in
these words 'Do this in remembrance of me,' Christ did
not appoint the apostles to be priests, or did not ordain that
they and other priests should offer his body and blood, let
him be accursed." And the third — " If any man shall say,
that the sacrifice of the mass is only a sacrifice of praise and
thanksgiving, or a bare commemoration of the sacrifice made
on the cross, and that it is not propitiatory, or that it profits
only the receiver, and that it ought not to be offered for the
living and the dead, for their sins, etc., let him be accursed."
And again — " If- any shall say, that by the sacrifice of the
mass, blasphemy is offered to the most holy sacrifice of
Christ accomplished on the cross, or that it is dishonored, let
him be accursed." Such is the doctrine of the Church of
Rome upon this subject.
Now, as I have endeavored throughout to expose the ac
cordance that subsists between the doctrine of the Church
of Rome and those held by the Tractarians of England, I
will show you, by one or two brief extracts, that these latter
ought, to be consistent, to find their congenial home and their
appropriate locality in the domains of the Pope, and in
communion with the Roman Catholic Church.
I quote, first, from Tract 38. " Laicus. For instance,
in King Edward's first book, the dead in Christ were prayed
for ; in the second, the commemoration was omitted. Again,
in the first book, the elements of the Lord's Supper were
more distinctly offered up to God, and more formally conse
crated, than in the second edition, or at present. Had Queen
Mary not succeeded, perhaps the men who effected this
would have gone further." " Clericus. I believe they
Would ; nay, indeed they did at a subsequent period ; they
took away the liturgy altogether, and substituted a direc
tory." The Tractarian, you observe, expresses his great
satisfaction that Mary came to the throne, and prevented

THE SACRIFICE OF THE MASS. * 363
Protestantism expanding any further — and his great regret,
that after the days of Mary, and notwithstanding all her
very -pious efforts, a Protestant ritual or liturgy has been
preserved for the Anglican branch of the Protestant Church.
Mr. Froude, another of these divines, remarks — f'l am
more and more indignant at the Protestant doctrine of the
Eucharist, and think that the principle on which it is
founded is irrational, proud, and foolish as any heresy, even
Socinianism. When we find that the Church has always
considered the holy sacrament to be not only a feast, but a
sacrifice, we must look upon our present condition as a judg
ment upon us for what our Reformers did."
I quote also from Tract 81. " It may be well in these
days, before going further, to state what the doctrine of the
Eucharist is. The doctrine, then, of the: early Church is
this : that in the Eucharist an oblation or sacrifice is made
by the Church to God, under the form of bread and wine,
according to our blessed Lord's holy institution, in memory
of his cross and passion; and this they believed to be the
' pure offering' or sacrifice, which the prophet Malachi fore
told that the Gentiles should offer ; and that it was enjoined
by our Lord in these words, ' Do this for a memorial of me ;'
and that it was alluded to when our Lord, or St. Paul, spake
of a Christian altar, and was typified by the Passover, which
was both a sacrifice, and a feast upon a sacrifice."
In- this tract the very language of the most strenuous de
fenders ofthe Roman Catholic doctrine of the mass, is liter
ally and almost verbatim used. And to show you that the
Tractarians are not only resuscitating Roman Catholic doc
trine, but are even proud to borrow or steal Roman Catholic
language when they can lay hold of it, I will read you an
extract from Dr. Delahogue, professor in the Roman Cath
olic College of Maynooth. He says — "The holy fathers
require altars for celebration of the Eucharist ; they call
the ministers of the Eucharist priests, and their office priest-

364 THE GREAT APOSTASY.
hood,- and expressly say that they sacrifice for the Emperor,
for Bishops, for the Church, for the whole world." Much
of the language, you perceive, is identical, and the ideas are
perfectly so ; in fact, there is nothing to prevent the author
of Tract 81, as far as I can estimate his views upon the
doctrine of transubstantiation and the Eucharist, from in
stantly joining the Roman Catholic communion.
One more extract from the same 'tract ; and it is so very
decidedly Roman Catholic language, as well as Roman
Catholic doctrine, that you can have no question about it at
all. " This commemorative oblation or sacrifice they doubted
not to be acceptable to God, who had appointed it, and to
be a means of bringing down God's favor upon the whole
Church ; and how should it be otherwise, when they pre
sented to the Almighty Father the symbols and the memo
rials of the meritorious death and passion of his only begot
ten and beloved Son, and besought him, by that precious
sacrifice, to look graciously upon the Church, which he had
purchased by his own blood ? It is, then, to use our techni
cal phraseology, a commemorative impetratory sacrifice ; that
is, a sacrifice that deserves and obtains blessings. The
Eucharist, then, according to them, consists of two parts —
a commemorative sacrifice, and a communion ; the sacrifice,
obtaining remission of sins for the Church, — the com
munion, the strengthening and refreshing of the soul. As
being; moreover, appointed by the Lord, they believed that
the continued oblation of this sacrifice, like the daily sacri
fice appointed in the elder Church, was a benefit to the
whole Church, independently and over and above the benefit
to the individual communicants ; that the sacrifices in each
branch of the Christian Church were mutually of benefit to
every other branch, God for its sake diffusing unseen and
inestimable blessings throughout the whole body. Lastly" —
(observe how the Tractarian follows in the wake of the
Church of Rome, which, as we have seen, holds the mass to

THE SACRIFICE OF THE MASS. 365
be a sacrifice propitiatory for the sins, not only of the living,
but also of the dead,) — " lastly, since they knew not of our
chill separation between those who, being dead in Christ,
live to Christ and with Christ, and those who are yet in the
flesh, they " (the great fathers of the Church) " felt assured
this sacrifice, offered by the Church on earth for the whole
Church, conveyed to that portion of it which had passed
into the unseen world, such benefits of Christ's death as,
their conflicts over, and they at rest, were still applicable to
them — namely, to those that were dead, additional refresh
ment, additional joys and satisfactions."
The language and the sentiments of the Romish and
Tractarian doctors, are perfectly identical ; and there can
be no doubt, from these extracts, that the Tractarian divines
plainly and distinctly hold the Roman Catholic doctrine, that
in the Eucharist there is a propitiatory sacrifice for the sins
of the living and the dead. And how they can reconcile it
to their superiors^ how they can reconcile it to their con
sciences, how they can reconcile it to their God, to announce
such sentiments, and yet sign the Article, that the Mass is
" a blasphemous fable and a dangerous deceit," I leave them
to consider — the Judgment morning to determine.
Now, in calling your attention to this doctrine, let us
clearly understand what we are about to discuss. We do
not deny there are sacrifices in the Christian Church.
Praise is a sacrifice ; prayer is a sacrifice ; almsgiving is a
sacrifice ; our own bodies are offered as sacrifices. " Pre
sent your bodies living sacrifices ; " " To do good and to
communicate forget not, for with such sacrifices God is well
pleased." But the distinction is this : we contend, that
whilst there are a thousand spiritual sacrifices in the Chris
tian Church, offered to God by believers every day, there
is, and has been, and will be, but one propitiatory sacrifice
offered once for all upon the cross by our blessed Lord.
The whole distinction lies in the word propitiatory — impe-
31 *

366 THE GREAT APOSTASY.
tratory, or atoning ; there being but one propitiatory sacri.
fice, and that Christ's — there being many spiritual sacri
fices offered up by believers in the church every day.
The first argument of Roman Catholic divines is taken
from the antiquity of the doctrine. They say, the solemn
services of the mass have resounded in the cathedrals and
the churches of Europe for fifteen centuries, undisturbed
and uninterrupted till the days of Luther. Now, if it were
so, this would be no evidence of the truth of the doctrine ;
antiquity is not a test of truth : if antiquity were a proof
of truth, .ZEsop's Fables would be truer than St. Paul's
Epistles, for they are some years older. But show us, they
say, the period in the history of the Christian Church when
this so-called new dogma was introduced, if it be a novelty,
and form no part of the apostolic revelation ; and they tell
you, that unless you can show the precise day and hour
when it was first preached, you are bound to believe that it
is a true and primitive doctrine, and receive it as such. We
answer, This is to make chronology, instead of Scripture,
the criterion of truth. It matters not when the tares may
have been sown, if they are proved to be tares by compar
ing them with the wheat. Suppose, on some morning in
May, a husband and wife walk forth into the garden, and
the wife notices upon the loveliest rose tree two or three
caterpillars crawling up the stem ; she calls to her husband,
" Do you see these new and unexpected rose-buds that have
started into birth and beauty?" The husband naturally
replies — "Rose-buds! they are caterpillars: how can you
declare them to be rose-buds ? " Suppose the wife to reply —
" Unless you can show the precise hour of the night when
these so-called caterpillars crept upon the tree, I feel bound
to believe that they are rose-buds, and not caterpillars : but
if you can show that they crept on at a given hour and
minute, then I will believe that they are what you call
them, and not what I have expressed them to be, buds from

THE SACRIFICE OF THE MASS. 367
the parent stem." It needs but to be stated,, to create a
smile at the absurdity of saying — "I will hold darkness to
be hght, error to be truth, delusion to be precious gospel,
unless you can specify the hour in the midnight of Europe,
when, Christianity being overpowered by superstition, and
the human intellect stagnant, this doctrine crept into the
church." The next proof of this doctrine quoted by the Roman
Catholic Church is found in certain ancient liturgies, in
which they declare it is clearly revealed ; and which litur
gies they assert to have been composed by the men whose
names they respectively bear. There are three of them,
bearing the names of Peter, Mark, and James, which the
Roman Catholic controversialist asserts to have been com
posed by the Evangelist Mark and the Apostles Peter and
James ; and I admit, that in these liturgies there unques
tionably is language that approaches that of the Roman
Catholic doctrine of the mass; and, if it can be demon
strated that the liturgies were composed by the sainted men
whose names they claim, the Roman Cathohc will have a
very strong presumption, though by no means a Scripture
proof, in . favor of the doctrine of the mass. But I allege,
in opposition to these pretensions, that there is evidence
upon the face of the documents in question, that they are
impudent and flagitious forgeries. They bear internal and
unquestionable proofs of being the composition of the fourth
or fifth century, and it may be found that there are incor
porated with them doctrines and tenets and delusions even
of a later century than that. In the first place, in one of
these liturgies, we find the names of persons introduced,
who lived two hundred years after the apostles were dead.
Secondly,, in these liturgies we find the expression " Mother
of God" applied to the blessed Virgin; an epithet not
known until the discussions in the time of the Nestorian
heresy in the fifth century. In the next place, we find in

368 THE GREAT APOSTASY.
them prayers expressly offered for "the Patriarch;" a
name which, it is admitted, was not employed in the Chris
tian Church till the end of the fourth century. We find in
them, also, the Trisagion, as it is called — the Doxology,
"Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy
Ghost, as it was in the beginnings is now,, and ever shall be,
world without end ; " and though the doctrine involved in
this is unquestionably contained in Holy Scripture, the
peculiar formula or mode in which it is expressed was not
introduced into the public service of the Christian Church
until a much later era. We find, likewise, frequent, allu
sions to an order of men not known in the Christian Church
in the early centuries, namely, Confessors. From all these
internal evidences, we conclude that these liturgies are
forgeries ; and even Cardinal Bona, and the celebrated
Cardinal Bellarmine, admit that . they were greatly cor
rupted in the later editions; while the historian Dupin,
whose candor has made him to be suspected in the Roman
Catholic communion, declares, that after the most careful
analysis, he must hold them to be arrogant and contemptible
forgeries. Suppose a book were produced in the present
day, declared to have been written by the celebrated John
Wesley, and suppose that book contained an account of the
passing of the Roman Catholic Emancipation Act (as it is
called) in 1829, and the Reform Act in 1832, and other bills
subsequently passed in the British Parliament ; if any one
maintained that this book was the veritable composition of
Mr. Wesley, would you not instantly say — " That is. impos
sible, for it contains allusions to transactions that occurred
long after Wesley was dead ? Either the whole must be a
forgery, or it must be so interpolated with the additions
of another, that I cannot receive it as the genuine pro
duction of that distinguished and devoted Christian." So
with these liturgies; they must be either so interpolated
that no superstructure of Christian truth can be based upon

THE SACRIFICE OF THE MASS. 369
•them, or (as admitted by Dupin) forgeries altogether, and
unworthy of the credit so long and so extensively assigned
to them.
There is one more reason, independently of Scripture,
adduced by the Roman Catholic controversialist in defence
of the doctrine of the mass ; and that is, the statements of
the fathers of the Christian Church. I need not now enter
upon this subject, because we have already discussed it. It
is sufficient to add, that if you allow the Roman Catholic to
drag you into the complicated writings of the fathers upon
any one point of the Protestant faith, you will find that the
discussion, instead of being closed with triumph, will be end
lessly protracted — the one quoting on one side, and the
other on the contrary — even to the Greek Kalends. The
fact is, that the fathers present to the Roman Catholic dis
putant a most admirable and appropriate means of defence;
and he quotes their writings in something of the same way in
which the American sharpshooters used their forests in the late
war. Our soldiers relate, that when a sharpshooter got behind
one immense trunk, they were obliged to destroy the tree be
fore they could dislodge him ; but no sooner had they done
this, than he was behind another, and they found they must
sweep America of its forests, before they could sweep Amer
ica of its rebels. Just so in this controversy; you must, at
the outset, clear the fields of all the claims and pretensions
of the fathers, or bring the Romish disputant to the clear
light of inspired Scripture — to " the law and the testi
mony " — in order to close with triumph this vital contro
versy. Sometimes it is worth while to follow the Roman Catholic
to the fathers, not for the sake of quoting from them to
prove your point, but for the sake of disproving his. TIip
plan which I pursued in the course of a recent discussion
(and which I think is the only safe one) was this : my oppo
nent said, that he would produce from the fathers the most

370 THE GREAT APOSTASY.
overwhelming extinction of all the pretensions of the Prot
estant Church; knowing well, that if he seduced me into
that endless forest, he could protract the discussion ad infin
itum. I told him — As sure as you bring an extract from a
father apparently in favor of the doctrine of the mass, so
sure I will bring an extract from the same father in opposi
tion to it ; and when I have placed my extract by the side
of yours, the inference I shall insist upon your deducing is,
that as the fathers contradict one the other, and each himself,
it must be our duty to discard all secondary testimony, to
pass by the fathers, and appeal to the grandfathers — the
Apostles and Evangelists of the New Testament Scriptures.
One extraet from a father I will adduce on this subject,
and I am sure you will be pleased to hear it, because it is
so beautifully descriptive of the practice of the early Church,
in the celebration of the Eucharist. It is from Justin
Martyr, one of the most sainted of the fathers. If the sac
rifice of the mass had been known in his day, a.d. 140, no
doubt he would have given a detailed and circumstantial
account- of its whole ceremonial ; for in this passage of his
celebrated Apology for the Christians, (vol. ii. p. 97, Paris
edition, 1615,) he gives a full description ofthe Sabbath ser
vice of a Christian congregation. I extract that part which
treats of the celebration of the Eucharist; and I must say,
though I admire the ceremonial of the Anglican Church,
though I love the more simple ceremonial of the Scottish
Church ; yet I do think that the service described by Justin
Martyr is neither the English nor the Scotch; I do not
attach much to the form, or think it of any great value, but
such is the fact. Let me read the extract.
" Then the bread and the cup of the water and of the
wine mixed with it, is offered to the president of the breth
ren, and he, taking it, offers up praise and glory to the Father
of all, in the name of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and
at some length he performs a thanksgiving, for having been

THE SACRIFICE OF THE MASS. 371
honored with these things by him. When he has finished
the prayers and the thanksgiving, all the people present joy
fully cry out, Amen. Amen signifies, in the Hebrew tongue,
So be it. But the president having returned thanks, and
all the people having joyfully cried out, those who are called
by us deacons, give to each of those who are present, a por
tion of the bread and the wine and the water, over which a
thanksgiving has been performed, and they carry away some
for those who are not present. And this food . is called by
us the Eucharist, of which no one is permitted to partake,
but he who believes that the things taught to us are true, and
who has been washed for the remission of sins and for re
generation, and who lives as Christ has enjoined. For we
do not receive these things as common bread, or common
drink ; but as thei incarnate Jesus became, by the word of
God, Christ our Saviour, and received flesh and blood for
our salvation, so also we have been taught that the food
which is made the Eucharist by the prayer, according to his
word, by which our flesh and blood are nourished, is both
the flesh and blood of that incarnate Jesus. For the apos
tles, in the histories which they have written, which are
called Gospels, have thus recorded that Jesus commanded
them ; that he, taking bread and giving thanks, said, ' Do
this in remembrance of me ; This is my body ; ' and that
he, in like manner, taking the cup and giving thanks, said,
' This is my blood.' And, in all that we offer, we bless the
Maker of all things by his Son Jesus Christ, and by the
Holy Spirit. And on the day that is called Sunday, there
is an assembly in the same place, of those who dwell in
towns or in the country ; and the histories of the apostles
and the writings of the prophets are read, whilst the time
permits: then, the reader ceasing, the president verbally
admonishes and exhorts to the imitation of those good things.
Then we all rise in common and offer prayers, and, as we
have already said, when we have finished our prayers, bread

372 THE GREAT APOSTASY.
and wine and water are offered, and the president, in like
manner, offers prayers and thanksgivings as far as it. is in
his power to do so, and the people joyfully cry out, saying,
Amen. And the distribution and communication is to each
of those who have returned thanks, and it is sent by the
deacons to those who are not present. Those who are rich
and willing, each according to his own pleasure contributes
what he pleases ; and what is thus collected is put away by
the president, and he assists the orphans, and widows, and
those who, through sickness or any other cause, are desti
tute, and also those who are in bondage, and those who are
strangers journeying, and in short, he aids all those who are
in want. But we all meet in common on Sunday, because
it is the first day in the which God, who produced the dark
ness and matter, made the world ; and Jesus Christ our
Saviour on the same day arose from the dead." *
I will add to this the apostolic description in 1 Corinthi
ans xi. 23-27 : " For I have received of the Lord that which
also I delivered unto you, that the Lord Jesus, the same
night in which he was betrayed, took bread ; and when he
had given thanks, he brake it, and said, Take, eat ; this is
my body, which is broken for you : this do in remembrance
of me. After the same manner also he took the cup, when
he had supped, saying, This cup is the New Testament in
my blood : this do ye, as oft as ye drink it, in remembrance
of me. For as often as ye eat this bread, and drink this
cup, ye do show the Lord's death till he come. Where
fore, whosoever shall eat this bread, and drink this cup of
the Lord, unworthily, shall be guilty of the body and blood
of the Lord."
In order to show you the complete contrast between the
simple description of the celebration of the Eucharist, as
related in the pages of Justin, or as it is embodied in the
* Apol. I. s. 65, p. 155, Jena;, 1847.

THE- SACRIFICE OF THE MASS. 373
inspired language of the First Epistle to the Corinthians,
and the description of the mass »s it is celebrated in the
Church of Rome, I will give you the rubrics from the Roman
Catholic Missal, or mass-book. In Justin Martyr, we read
nothing about a i'SQevg [hiereus] or priest, but merely of "the
president " and the congregation ; nothing about an altar, on
which sacrifice is offered ; nothing about the elevation of
the host ; nothing about its being propitiatory for the living
and the dead. But in the Roman Catholic Church we read
— first, that the priest is to approach the foot of the altar,
saying — "In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and
of the Holy Ghost : " the congregation are then to utter the
following confession -^ " I confess to Almighty God, to
blessed Mary ever virgin, to blessed Michael the archangel,
to blessed John the Baptist, to the holy Apostles Peter and
Paul, to all the saints, and to you, father, that I have sinned
exceedingly in thought, word, and deed ; therefore, I beseech
the blessed Mary, ever virgin, the blessed Michael the arch
angel, the blessed John the Baptist, the holy Apostles Peter
and Paul, ar^d all the saints, and you, O father, to pray for
me ; " then the priest goes to the altar, and prays ; then he
comes back ; then follows the Eyrie eleison ; then Gloria in
excelsis ; then he is to turn towards the people and salute
them ; then he is to offer up the following collect — " Pre
serve us, O Lord, we beseech thee, from all dangers of body
and soul, and by the intercession of glorious and blessed
Mary, the ever Virgin mother of God, of the blessed Apos
tles Peter and Paul," etc. etc. ; then he is to repeat the
Nicene Creed; here follows the Offertory; then the priest is
to put wine and water into the chalice ; then there is the
oblation of the chalice ; then the priest bows ; then he
incenses the altar ; then he gives the censer to the deacon :
then he washes his hands ; then he bows before the middle
of the altar ; then he reads the secret, etc. etc. ; then follows
the Canon of the Mass, strictly so called, and at this point,
32

374 THE GREAT APOSTASY.
kneeling down, he adores and elevates the chalice ; then he
presents special sacrifice in commemoration of the dead;
then special mention is made of the dead ; then he strikes
his breast, and confesses; then he prays; then again he
bows and confesses ; then a prayer is said for the dead ;
then he takes 'the chalice, and prays ; then he receives rev
erently both parts of the host, etc. etc. etc.
The contrast between the majestic announcement of Paul,
followed by the simple and beautiful narrative of Justin
Martyr, and the perplexed collection of rubrics in the
Roman Catholic ritual, necessary to the celebration ofthe
mass, is so marked and so complete, that if St. Paul's is the
inspired description of the Lord's Supper, and Justin Mar
tyr's a record of the celebration of the Eucharist in the
second century, the ceremonial in the Missal must be a
celebration of something totally and altogether different
from it. The record in Justin Martyr is a simple narrative
of a scriptural Communion Sabbath ; but the narrative in
the Missal looks like the exposition of "a blasphemous
fable, and dangerous deceit," as the Church of England
justly denominates the sacrifice of the mass.
Let me now consider several passages of Scripture, usu
ally quoted by Roman Catholics in defence of this doctrine.
They quote the passage in Malachi : " My name shall be
great among the Gentiles, and in every place incense shall
be offered unto my name, and a pure offering." This
promise, or prophecy, they say, refers expressly to the sac
rifice of the mass. Now, I might easily prove, that it
describes the offering up of the prayers and praises of
Christian people ; I might also show, that the original
Hebrew words mincha and miktar are expressly applied to
the Gentiles, who shall be made a pure offering to the
Lord. But it is sufficient that I call upon the Roman Cath
olic to prove that the passage refers at all to the mass ; we
have nothing at present but his assertion for it. Unless,

THE SACRIFICE OF THE MASS. 875
therefore, he can show us that an application of it has been
made by the Evangelists or Apostles expressly to the doc
trine of the mass, we are not bound to believe it because lie
asserts- it.
The Roman Catholic quotes also, in favor of this doc
trine, a statement in the 13th of the Acts, where it is
said of the apostles — "As they ministered to the Lord."
The original is XsirovQyouvrwv 8i avttuv ; literally, going
through the Liturgy, or performing the service or worship
of the Lord. The Roman Catholic disputant contends that
this denotes, while they were offering up the sacrifice of the
mass ; and, in a New Testament printed at Bordeaux with
the approbation and examination of the superiors, and
dated 1786, the passage is actually translated — "While
they were offering to the Lord the mass" [la messe]. But
if the Roman Catholic -will assert that such is the meaning
of the original word lEizovQyiw here used, ke will find that
his quotation proves so much, that he will be obliged, -in
self-defence, to shrink from it. The same word is used
when angels are called " ministering spirits " — Xsnov^yixa
nvsvjiaxcx. ; which, therefore, ought to be translated " spirits
that offer up the sacrifice of the mass " obviously an absurd
rendering. Kings, again, are described by the same word,
when they are called " ministers of God for good " —
).uzovQyol 0sov ; and, accordingly, we ought to believe that
kings, or laymen, offer up the mass — which again is
absurd. The passage in the Acts has, therefore, no refer
ence to the Mass.
There is yet another passage quoted by Roman Catholics
in favor of this doctrine — Genesis xiv. 18, where it is said,
that when Abraham returned from battle, Melchisedec met
him, and brought forth bread and wine ; " and he was the
priest of the Most High God." The Roman Catholic ver
sion is r— " For he was the priest of the Most High God."
I say nothing on that point, though I am perfectly satisfied

376 THE GREAT APOSTASY.
that the Protestant translation is the correct one ; but,
allowing the version proposed by the Roman Catholic
Church, we find that the word in the original vulgate, cor
responding to our translation — " He brought forth bread
and wine," is "protulit;" whereas, if it had been meant
that he offered them up in sacrifice, it would have been
" obtulit." Jerome saw that it only meant, that bread and
wine were brought forth to refresh the weary patriarch.
Again: throughout the. Epistles to Timothy and Titus,
we have all the details of Christian worship, and in the Acts
of the Apostles we have an express description of primitive
Christian Sabbaths ; now, if the mass had been known to
the apostles, or practised by the early Christians, or recog
nized as a doctrine of the word of God taught in the apos
tolic age, is it at all probable, that these books would have
been silent upon so great a peculiarity of Christian worship,
that there should be no allusion to those elaborate and com
plicated rites, which I have read to you from the Roman
Catholic Missal ?
But, of all disproofs of the mass, the most triumphant are
contained in the Epistle to the Hebrews. It seems to me as
if that subhme epistle had been written prospectively, to
crush this corrupt doctrine of the Church of Rome. The
great truth that pervades the whole Epistle to the Hebrews,
and gives to it its tone, is, that there is but one propitiatory
sacrifice, once for all, for all the sins that are past, and for
all the sins of the generations that are yet to come ; a sac
rifice so complete, that to profess to offer up any other, is .
not only to make it void with respect to the offering, but to
offer dishonor to God. The apostle says — " They truly
were many priests, because they were not suffered to con
tinue by reason of death ; but this Man, because he continu-
eth ever, hath an unchangeable priesthood." In order to
offer up a propitiatory sacrifice, there must be a sacrificing
priest — IsQEvg (hiereus), as it is in the original; but the

THE SACRIFICE OF THE MASS. 377
apostle says, that Jesus Christ has " an unchangeable priest
hood," — literally, a priesthood that does not pass from one
to another. The original word, which we translate " un
changeable," is omaqaftarov ; a word compounded of a, neg
ative ; Ttagd, beside or beyond ; and (Salvw, to pass. In the
Lexicon of Stephanus, it is defined thus : " sacerdotium
quod ad alium transire acquit " — a priesthood which can
not pass over to any other person. In the Lexicon of Con
stantinus, it is " sacerdotium quod ad alium prseterire non
potest " — a priesthood which cannot pass over to any other
persons. The priests of the Roman Catholic Church, and
the priests of the Tractarian section of the Church of Eng
land, declare that they are strictly and properly sacrificing
priests, and that they have inherited as a vested right the
essential' and peculiar priesthood of the Lord Jesus Christ ;
but the apostle says, that Christ has an intransferable priest
hood, that does not pass from him ; and it seems to me sis
blasphemous to claim the inheritance of the priesthood of
Christ, as it would be to claim the inheritance of his omni
science, his omnipresence, his omnipotence, or any other
essentially Divine attribute. Again : in the Epistle to the
Hebrews, the words ecpdna^ or «rta|, " once for all," are
repeated nine different times in connection with the sacrifide
of the Lord Jesus Christ. Thus he says (vii. 27) : " He
needeth not daily, as those high-priests, to offer up sacrifice,
first for his own sins, and then for the people's ; for this he
did once, when he offered up himself." Again (ix. 12) :
" By his own blood he entered in once into the holy place."
Again (ix. 25, 26) : "Nor yet that he should offer himself
often, as the high-priest entereth into the holy place every
year with the blood of others ; for then must he often have
suffered since the foundation of the world." In other words,
where there is propitiatory offering, there, argues St. Paul,
must be painful suffering ; the two are linked together by
the apostle. If, therefore, the priests of Rome offer up
32*

378 THE GREAT APOSTASY.
Christ a propitiatory sacrifice, they must crucify the Lord
of Glory afresh, and subject him again to all his pangs, his
agony and woe. If they maintain that there, is no such
devotion of Christ to corporeal suffering, then must I infer
that there is no offering. On either horn of this dilemma, I
place the Tractarian and Romish priesthood : if there be
now a propitiatory sacrifice, Christ must suffer ; if there be
no suffering, there is no propitiatory sacrifice. In like man
ner, the apostle says — " Without shedding of blood is no re
mission." In the Canons of the Council of Trent, the mass
is called "the unbloody sacrifice," as it is also called in the
celebrated " Abridgment of Christian Doctrine," by Dr.
Doyle ; meaning, that it is a propitiatory sacrifice without
shedding of blood. But if there be no shedding of blood, it
is not propitiatory for sin ; and the sacrifice of the mass is,
on this admission, vox et 'prmterea nihil — a sound, and
nothing more. Again: we read (Hebrews ix. 27), " As it
is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the judg
ment, so Christ was once offered to bear the sins of
many : " as a man can only die once, so Christ can be
offered only once. In the passage connected with my text :
" By the which will we are sanctified through the offering
of the body of Jesus Christ once for all." And in a pre
ceding verse : " The law can never, with those sacrifices,
which they offered year by year continually, make the com
ers thereunto perfect ; for then would they not have ceased
to be offered, because that the worshippers once purged
should have had no more conscience of sins : " -•— implying,
that where there are many sacrifices day after day, there
can be no permanent purging from sin ; but where there is
one sacrifice once for all, we are by one offering completely
sanctified. It was also a grand peculiarity in the ancient economy,
that when the high-priest was within the holy of holies,
pleading and interceding before God, there was no sacrifice

THE SACRIFICE OF THE MASS. 379
going on without. First, the sacrifices were offered, and then
the high-priest proceeded into the holy place and there made
intercession ; and while he was interceding there, no sacri
fice was offered without. Now Christ, the everlasting Priest,
has entered into the holy place not made with hands ; and,
in order that the antitype may completely correspond to the
type, there must now, while he is in the true " holy," be no
propitiatory sacrifice going on in the outer court of the
visible and professing Church.
There is not a single particle of evidence, throughout the
whole of Scripture, for the assertion of the Roman Catholic
and Tractarian party, that there are any officially sacrificing
priests in the Church. All Christians, are called priests :
" Ye are a royal priesthood ; " " He hath made us kings
and priests unto God ; " and as we are priests, so we offer
up spiritual sacrifices of praise and prayer, acceptable to
God through Jesus Christ ; but the expression priest is not
once applied to a Christian minister as distinguished from
the laity, throughout the whole of the New Testament
Scriptures. And what is very remarkable, so guarded were
the original Reformers of the Church of England, that in
the Rubrics they have used, not the Greek word iBgevg
(hiereus,) or the Latin sacerdos, both of which properly
signify priest, but they have used the Greek word presbu
teros, which .signifies an elder or minister ; and it is this latter
word which they use in every place where the Rubric in the
Anglican Prayerbook now has the word priest. This last
word however is not derived from hqsvg (sacrificing priest),
but from n-QEa^vrsgog (minister) ; in the German, prester ;
and in the English, priest. It does not therefore mean, in
the Anglican Prayerbook, a priest in the sense in which
the Tractarians and Roman Catholics use that term.
To sum up the argument : Roman Catholic divines main
tain, that the sacrifice of the Mass is the very same sacrifice
that was offered on the cross, perpetuated and prolonged in

380 THE GREAT APOSTASY.
the Christian Church. Now, let me show you, that there
are the most insuperable difficulties in any such position. I
defy the Roman Catholic divine, with the word of God in
his hands, to prove that the sacrifice of the mass is in any
respect the same as the sacrifice that was offered up upon
the cross. In the first place, the sacrifice completed on the
cross was the death of the Son of God ; but in the sacrifice
of the mass the Son of God does not die, for Scripture de
clares — " He dieth no more ; death hath no more dominion
over him." In the second place, the sacrifice on the cross
was painful ; and the agony of the Redeemer's heart, the
intensity of that sorrow which wrung from his grieved and
wounded soul the awful and mysterious accents, "My God,
my God, why hast thou forsaken me ? " were so dreadful,
that language fails to embody them, and human imagination
to conceive them ; but in the sacrifice of the mass, offered
upon the altars of Rome every day, there palpably is no
such pain — the Son of God is obviously subjected to no
such suffering, and therefore it cannot be the same sacrifice.
Thirdly, the sacrifice on the cross was visible; the eye
beheld the Redeemer's tears, and saw the drops of his
blood ; the ear heard him express his agonies, and all the
senses testified that he died: but in the Roman Catholic
sacrifice of1 the mass, the eye sees no Saviour present; the
ear hears not the accents of his voice ; and the mass cannot
therefore be the same with the sacrifice made by the Son of
God upon the cross. Fourthly, the sacrifice of Christ upon
the cross, according to the declaration of St. Paul,. was
offered up " once for all" — repetition being declared incom
patible with its nature ; but the sacrifice of the mass is
offered up every Sunday ; arid on a moderate calculation,
the body and blood, the soul and divinity of our blessed
Lord (according to Roman Catholic definition), have been
offered up, a propitiatory sacrifice for the living and the
dead, about 400,000,000 of times since the commencement

THE SACRIFICE OE THE MASS. 381
of the present century. In the next place, the sacrifice of
our blessed Lord was so complete, and glorious, and perfect,
that it was adequate to the redemption of. the whole world ;
every suffering was possessed of infinite virtue, every tear
was the extinction of a curse, every agony was the ex
haustion of our guilt, every pain of his spotless soul and
holy body was adequate to the quenching of our eternal hell,
and to the opening of the gates of an everlasting and glori
ous heaven ; but the sacrifice of the mass is; so feeble and
inefficacious, that it needs to be offered up thousands and
thousands of times before ,it can bring one single soul out
of the sufferings of purgatory. To illustrate this statement
by a fact: nothing is more common, it is well. known, than
for Roman Catholics on their death-bed to leave large sums
of money wherewith to pay the officiating priests for offering
up sacrifices for the repose of their departed souls. An in
stance of this was quoted by the Rev. Mr. Stoney, .in the
course of a discussion with the Rev. Mr. Hughes,, a Roman
Catholic priest. Mr. Stoney stated, that masses were sold
regularly in Ireland for half a crown. Mr. Hughes replied in
words involving a distinction, but not a denial : " Not at all ¦
the half-crown is received by the priest, and a mass is offered
up, but masses are not sold for half a crown." It was stated
(and to this I wish to direct your attention), that a Mr. Bolger
left on his death-bed his jewellery, silver plate# and 6001. to
the Rev. John Roach, to pay him for saying masses for his
soul; altogether, equivalent to about 700k Adopting the
estimate suggested by- Mr. Hughes, viz. 2s. Qd. per mass,
5,600 masses must be offered up before the soul of Mr.
Bolger could escape from its . torment in purgatory. How
dreadful ! Christ's body and blood must be sacrificed 5,600
. times, in order that one soul may cease to suffer. But we
believe that the atonement of Christ is so efficacious, that
once for all, it is adequate to the redemption of the whole
world, and needs not to be repeated ; whereas the sacrifice

382 THE GREAT APOSTASY.
of the mass is so utterly inefficacious, that for the deliverance
of a single soul, and that not from hell, but from purgatory,
it must be offered up 5,600 times. It cannot, therefore, be
the same as the sacrifice of Christ upon the cross.
But some Roman Catholic divines, in order to defend this
doctrine, assert, that the mass — if not the same continued
oblation — is the repetition of Christ's sacrifice on the cross.
Now, I answer, that it cannot be the repetition of that sacri
fice, because a thing once done cannot be repeated. If I
strike a blow upon this book, I may strike a second blow ;
but I cannot strike the same blow over again : once struck
it is done. When a battle is once fought, the same battle
cannot be repeated ; you may fight another under very
similar circumstances, with many of the same men, upon
somewhat of the same scale, and accompanied with the
same stratagems, but it is not a repetition of the same
battle. The assertion, therefore, that the sacrifice of the
mass is a repetition of the sacrifice on the cross, carries in
its bosom its own clear and explicit refutation.
But the Roman Catholic priesthood tell you, it is the
repetition of the sacrifice upon Calvary, but confessedly
without certain original concomitants of that awful sacrifice
— for instance, without the concomitant of the shedding of
the blood. Now, this seems to me nothing more or less
than the sacrifice of Calvary without its essential and
distinguishing peculiarity. What would you say, if I were
to collect some few thousand soldiers in some extensive plain
in England, and make them go through all the evolutions
which the soldiers under the illustrious Wellington went
through upon the plains of Waterloo ; and if I were then
gravely to assure you, that " this is truly and really the
battle of Waterloo, only without the shedding of blood that
accompanied it?" you would tell me, that it might be a
good pantomime of that battle, a pretty mimicry of it, but
that it no more resembled it than theatrical thunder re-

THE SACRIFICE OF THE MASS. 383
sembles the thunder of the sky. It is not the same thing,
you would say, and- it can in no sense be called the battle of
Waterloo. I contend, also, that the sacrifice of the mass cannot be a
sacrament and a sacrifice at the same time. What is a
sacrament ? It is something which we receive from God.
What is a sacrifice ? It is something which we offer to God.
If, then, it be a sacrament received from God, it cannot be
a sacrifice offered to God ; and thus the mass is proved not
to be a propitiatory sacrifice. Or, on the other hand, if it
be a sacrifice, it cannot be a sacrament ; and then the Ro
man Catholic Church is destitute of the sacrament of the
Lord's Supper. Both it cannot be. Let the Romish Church
take i her choice.
But suppose we grant for a moment, that, notwithstanding
all these difficulties, there is presented every day upon the
altars of Rome a sacrificial ceremonial, propitiatory for the
sins of the living and the dead. The first question I feel
bound to ask is, Wherein does the sacrificial- act lie?: Of old
it lay in the death or destruction of the offering. Does the
sacrifice lie in the breaking of the wafer or bread ? They
answer, No. Bread is not broken on the Roman Catholic
altar, for it has ceased to be bread, and has become Christ's
body ; and Christ's body is not broken, for, on Roman
Catholic principles, it cannot be broken. Then what is
broken ? The Roman Catholic priest answers, Accidents ;
that is, color, form, shape, size. But what they break is
that which they sacrifice ; and since, on their own showing,
they break accidents, they must have a sacrifice of acci
dents, a salvation of accidents, a heaven of accidents —
which is a hell of terrible reahties.
By referring to the practice of the Corinthian Church, so
forcibly rebuked, by the Apostle Paul, we see that this rite
was not viewed as a sacrifice. In that Church some of the
communicants drank of the wine to excess, and were re-

384 THE GREAT APOSTASY.
proved by the apostle for this gross profanation of so solemn
an ordinance. Now, if the ordinance of the Lord's Supper
had been a propitiatory sacrifice, offered up with all the
Roman Catholic solemnities, and only by the officiating
priest, it is perfectly clear that no such abuse could possibly
have occurred. The very fact, therefore, that the Corin
thians abused the sacrament by partaking of its wine to
excess, is, to my mind, a clear and decisive evidence that
they looked upon it as a feast, and not as a sacrifice.
A just estimate of the ancient Passover, that beautiful
and expressive type, shows that it is a supper, and not a
sacrifice. The ancient people of. God were called upon
first, to sacrifice the lamb, which was the painful part of the
solemnity ; they were next called upon to sit down together
and feast upon the roasted lamb, which was the pleasant
part of the ceremonial. ¦ Now our blessed Lord, the great
Antitype, illustrated and exhausted in himself the painful
part, which was the sacrifice of himself, an atoning victim
amid the burning wrath of God due to the sins of mankind ;
and we, believing in him, enjoy in every age the pleasant
part of the ceremonial, which is partaking of the feast upon
or after the sacrifice, commemorating that perfect atonement
which was accomplished by our Lord, as the central fact of
the past, and looking forward to the day when he shall come
again to be admired of all them that believe, as the great
glory of the future.
It has been objected by the Roman Catholic Church, that
if the arguments which I have adduced are all true, we
Protestants are destitute of the grand distinguishing pecu
liarity of Christian worship — a perpetual sacrifice ; and the
Roman Catholic priest will twit you with the remark, " You
are no Church, because you have no sacrifice." Our reply
to this is, We have a sacrifice more glorious than yours, as
the infinite is more magnificent than the finite. The sacri
fice which we have, stretched back -to the ruins and the

THE SACRIFICE OF THE MASS. 385
wreck of Paradise, and, reflecting redemption glories upon
dismantled Eden, spoke peace to Adam's broken heart. It
awoke and nourished the hopes of the patriarch Abraham —
and through its prospective efficacy the world's grey fathers
anticipated in peace the joys and pleasures that are at God's
right hand ; while it extends so surely to the future, and
remains for that future so ample, that its efficacy shall not
be terminated, or its virtue exhausted, until the last man
has been gathered to his home, and the mighty purpose for
which it was made achieved and consummated. We are
not a church without a sacrifice. We have a Propitiatory
Sacrifice so replete with virtue, that the guiltiest is not be
yond its reach — that the greatest sin is not beyond its
efficacy. In it there is atonement ever ample — ever
near — ever free for all. We have in that Sacrifice a
righteousness so perfect, that all the beauties of earth would
tarnish it — all the glories of heaven would not add to it ;
an angel's tear would stain it, and a martyr's blood would
only defile it. We have a righteousness so perfect, that,
robed and arrayed in it, we shall sit down with Abraham,
and Isaac, and Jacob, at the marriage supper of the Lamb.
It is as incapable of increase by our merits as is the ocean
by a tear, or the noonday glory by a glowworm.
The Roman Catholic again will tell you, that we are no
Church because we have no priest. Let your answer be,
that earthly sacrificing priests have no more business in the
midst of the Christian Church, than a regiment of soldiers
or a company of dragoons. These officers died when the
economy of Levi died ; and the only priests that are now to
enter the Christian pulpit are the faithful preachers of the
everlasting Gospel. But, in another sense, a Protestant can
reply — We have a Priest: not a priest "who cannot be
touched with the feeling of our infirmities," but a priest who
" ever liveth to make intercession for us." We have a High-
Priest who is present in every sanctuary, in every closet, in
33

386 THE GREAT APOSTASY.
every believing heart. We have "a great High-Priest
which has passed into the heavens, Jesus the Son of God."
And though I be in the depths of the sea, even there he
can hear me, as he heard the prayer of Jonah from the fish's
belly. Though I be driven to the most barbarous clime,
even there he listens to my petition. Though I be buried
in the bowels of the earth, in one of the deepest coal-mines,
even there I can see my Altar and my Priest, and there, for
his sake, my cry is heard. My altar is God ; my sacrifice
the propitiation of Christ. Christ's divinity is the altar, his
humanity the sacrifice offered upon it, and he himself is the
Priest who presents it before: God.
But the Roman Cathohc will say, that we Protestants
have no altar, and therefore are no church. Our answer to
this must be ; — We have an altar. True, we have not the
golden shrines and the gilded altars of the Roman Catholic
apostasy ; true, we have not the candelabras, and the lights,
and all the drapery of a miserable and a material ceremony ;
we have an altar in the Protestant Church, but unquestiona
bly it is not such as yours, — which a mouse may under
mine, — which the hammer may break in pieces, — which
the invaders may remove, and time must destroy ; but an
Altar, " of which they have no right to eat that serve the
tabernacle," viz. «' Jesus Christ, the same yesterday, and to
day, and for ever." The foundations of our altar are .the
attributes of Deity; its cement is everlasting and living
love ; its superstructure is God manifest in the flesh ; and
the glory that burns and glows upon it is made up of the
intermingling beams of " mercy and truth that have met
together, righteousness and peace that have kissed each
other." Herein is the glory of our altar : the Roman Catho
lic priest can only offer his sacrifice where there is a conse
crated and material structure ; but our .altar descends to the
caves of ocean, and reaches to the loftiest crags of the
Alpine range; it may be found by the miner in the, bowels

THE SACRIFICE OF THE MASS. 387
of the earth, by the sailor on the bosom of the boundless
deep, by the pilgrim in Arabian deserts, or amid African
sands. Wherever there is a sinner, there is a Saviour ;
wherever there is a Christian prayer, there is the ever
present Priest ; wheresoever there is a Christian sacrifice,
there is an Altar on which can be offered gifts, the altar
sanctifying the sacrifice.
What, then, is the use of a so-called propitiatory sacrifice
of the mass in a Christian Church ? Is it to satisfy the
Law ? The Law has been " magnified and made honora
ble." Is it to satisfy God ? God's justice is satisfied ; God's
truth is satisfied; God's holiness is satisfied.- There is,
therefore, no necessity for any more propitiatory sacrifice
now ; there is no obstruction to our salvation on God's part.
The secret of the Roman Catholic doctrine of the propitiatory
sacrifice of the mass lies in the circumstance, that he be
lieves God still to be an estranged and an angry God, who
needs to be made placable by a succession of propitiatory
sacrifices. This idea revolts against the great first princi
ples of the everlasting Gospel. All Christianity breathes
forth the blessed fact, that we did not require Christ's death
to make God lov* us: Christ's death was the expression, riot
the cause of that love which God bore to us ; and all that
was requisite, and what the atonement achieved, was a path
way, broad, full, and stable, from the bosom of God down to
the depths of our ruin, along which God's deep love might
travel in perfect consistence with the demands of his holi
ness and truth. That golden pathway has been provided
by the death and the atonement of Christ ; and that justice
which protested against the outgushings of love without a
sacrifice, and that holiness which would not receive the
guilty to his bosom without an atonement, now, in conse
quence of what Christ has done once for all, form themselves
into a channel, no longer to repress God's love, but to convey
it to the heart, amid the rejoicing acquiescence of the minds
and consciences of all that believe.

388

THE GREAT APOSTASY.

Suppose, to illustrate this truth, an inclosure in some
part of our world, many miles in circumference, filled with
the diseased, the dying, and the dead. Love, like an angel
of mercy, comes down from the upper sanctuary, and looks
upon the gigantic inclosure, weeping at the painful spectacle
of the dying in all their stages of disease, and the dead
sleeping beneath the shadow of despair. Approaching one
of the gates, Love finds a sentinel stationed to guard it, and
asks his name ; he answers, " I am Truth." Love asks,
" Is it possible I may enter here to heal the dying, and bid
the dead arise ? " Truth replies, " I have written, The
soul that sinneth, it shall die ; and I cannot cancel it." Love
hastens to another gate, and finds another sentinel, and asks
his name ; and his answer is, " I am Holiness." Love says
" Cannot the dying be restored, and the dead be made to
live?" Holiness replies, "I can permit none that are
impure to escape from their congenial residence, and hold
communion with the holy." Love goes to a third gate, and
finds there a sentinel whose name is Justice ; Love asks the
question, " Can the dying be healed ? can the dead be
quickened ? may I enter to redeem the one, and to restore
the other?" Justice replies, " I have weighed them in the
scales, and it is written upon them all, Altogether wanting."
Love asks, " Then what is to be done ? I would recover
the dying, I would quicken the dead. How is it possible to
accomplish it?" Justice, and Truth, and Holiness reply,
" If an atonement can be made adequate to our demands,
we will surrender the keys intrusted to our care ; .and not
only may the dying be recovered, and the dead live, but we
wiU assjst to accomplish it." Love returns to that residence
from whence it came, and announces the solemn and faithful
fact, that either all living creatures in our lost world must
sink into hell for ever, or some glorious atonement must be
made, so efficacious that all the attributes of God shall be
glorified, and Love enabled to reach and reclaim the perish-

THE SACRIFICE OF THE MASS. 389
ing guilty. The question is asked, amid the millions of
heaven — "Who will go for us? Who is prepared to bear
the curse and exhaust it, to magnify the law and make it
honorable ? " All heaven is dumb ; angels are dumb, arch
angels are dumb, the seraphim that burn and glow around
the everlasting Throne are dumb. At last, " a still small
voice " proceeds from the Throne, as of a Lamb that had
been slain, saying, "Here am I, send me; lo, I come!"
That Saviour descends to our world — assumes our nature
— for us endures the curse — for us obeys the law — for us
takes its sting from death, and its triumph from the grave ;
and as the mingled tones of agony and triumph — "It is
finished" — reverberate through the earth and reach the
heavens, Justice resigns its keys, Holiness flings open its
gates, Truth declares all threatenings met and satisfied,
Mercy enters the inclosure with more than Gilead's balm ;
the dying are restored, the departed are quickened, the
tombs of the dead become the tabernacles of the living, the
wilderness rejoices, and Zion's courts resound " Glory to
God in the highest, on earth peace, good-will toward men."
Here, then, every obstruction is removed to the outgushing
of God's love, and there is nothing between the bosom of
God and the very guiltiest sinner on this side of hell, but
that sinner's own love of sin and unbelief of God's love ;
and there is nothing to prevent the chief of sinners from
approaching God in the name of Jesus, and calling him
" Abba, Father ! " God loves you. God sent his son to die
for you, to express that love ; and all that is required now
is, that you will consent to be saved in the way* which
God has appointed — a way that humbles the sinner in the
dust while it elevates his soul to heaven, and which sur
rounds God with the highest glory when the greatest num
bers of the guilty are reclaimed and made heirs of Paradise.
Let me commend to you the argument; let me press
upon you to value more and more your own blessed Protes-
33*

390 THE GREAT APOSTASY
tant Christianity. Let it devolve upon you as a sacred
duty, to make known your glorious High-Priest, your all-
sufficient and never-to-be-repeated Sacrifice, your ever pre
sent Altar, to those who are under the bondage of super
stition, weltering in Papal darkness, practically "without
Christ" in the world. Those who have tasted the sweetness
of the Gospel, will ever feel it their privilege to extend it.
God makes us saints, that we may be his servants. We
are made Christians in order that we may be missionaries ;
and this is the feeling of every man who possesses " the
unsearchable riches of Christ," not only in reference to the
heathen, but in reference to all ignorant of the Gospel.
The mass, and all the fictions of the Romish Apostasy,
are doomed. They are the relic rays of a superstition
which melts away beneath the intensity of that celestial
splendor from which it cannot be concealed. The Romish
priest may chant its beauty, and the Tractarian prepare
its fringes and phylacteries ; but God has weighed them in
the scales of truth, and proclaimed in no equivocal accents
their demerit and destruction. But the great truths of
Christianity have come down to our world like the rays of
a distant star, neither dimmed nor spent by their transit
through time and space. Already they are translated into
almost every speech of civilized and barbarous nations.
They are sounded from ten thousand times ten thousand
tongues, from the pine forests of the North to the palm
groves of Eastern Ind. They mingle with the hum of the
crowded city, and with the chimes of the desert sea. They
are the thoughts of the wise, the hopes of the just.
"Salvation! — oh! salvation!
The joyful sound proclaim,
Till earth's remotest nation
Has heard Messiah's name ;
Till o'er our ransomed nature
The Lamp for sinners slain —
Redeemer, King, Creator —
In hliss returns to reign! "

LECTURE XIV.
PURGATORY.
I cannot find, in the whole compass of Scripture, a
more decided refutation of the unscriptural heresy that has
been recently broached by the Tractarians of Oxford — that
sins before baptism are cancelled by the blood of Christ, but
that sins after baptism must be expiated by various peni
tential processes, — than these words, "The blood of Jesus
Christ, his Son, cleanseth us from all sin," 1 John i. 7,
which I now read in your hearing. You will observe, that
they are declared to apply, not merely to those who are
unbaptized, but to those who are baptized ; nay, it presup
poses, that the parties to whom it is specially applicable, are
parties " walking in the light," — making a profession of the
Gospel — members of the visible church. The commence
ment of the verse is — " If we walk in the light, as he is in
the light, we have fellowship one with another ; " and under
such circumstances, (though not restricted to such circum
stances,) " the blood of Jesus Christ cleanseth us from all
sin." This great truth needs to be impressed upon the
whole visible church in the present age — that there is no
purgatory for the infant that has opened its eyes upon a
marred and dismantled world, but the blood of Jesus ; that
there is no purgatory for the youth amid all the buoyancy
of unfolding years, stirred by strong passions and surrounded
by syren temptations, but the blood of Jesus ; and that in
the hour of death, and at the day of judgment, there is no
plea that the guilty can present before God, no foundation

392

THE GREAT APOSTASY.

on which faith and hope can lean, but this precious and all-
sufficient announcement — " The blood of Jesus Christ,
God's Son, cleanseth us from all sin."
You are aware, that the doctrine on which I have to com
ment this evening, is that which is commonly known by the
name — Purgatory. There is, I take leave to observe, not
only a Roman Catholic, but a Protestant purgatory also.
The Roman Catholic purgatory I shall proceed to define,
and to illustrate from their own undoubted and authorized
documents ; the Protestant purgatory is announced in my
text — " The blood of Jesus Christ, God's Son, cleanseth,"
or purgeth, or acts as a purgatory " from all sin." Luther,
before he was enlightened in the knowledge of the Gospel,
looked forward with fear to the purgatory which is defined
by the Council of Trent, and illustrated in the histories of
the Church of Rome ; but the moment that great-hearted
man came to be acquainted with the truths of the Gospel,
the Spirit of God shining into his understanding, and
enabling him savingly to comprehend those truths — that
moment Luther abandoned the Popish purgatory, and kept
fast by the precious provision of the everlasting Gospel —
" The blood of Jesus Christ, God's Son, cleanseth from all
sin." In the conversations of Luther, which are in some meas
ure a posthumous publication, we read, that on one occasion,
when the monk was beginning to awaken from the stupor
and the superstitions of the Roman Catholic communion,
and to feel, or rather to grope his way, amid the truths of
the Gospel and the revelations of Scripture, to the knowl
edge of Christ as the only Saviour, Satan, either in reality
or in a dream, appeared in the depth of the night, and
addressed him in the following terms : " Luther, how dare
you pretend to be a reformer of the Church ? Luther, let
your memory do its duty — let your conscience do its duty :
you have committed this sin — you have been guilty of that

PURGATORY. 393
sin ; you have omitted tliis duty, and you have neglected
that duty : let your reform begin in your own bosom. How
dare you attempt to be a reformer of the Church ? " Luther,
with the self-possession and magnanimity by which he was
characterized, (whether it was a dream or a reality, he him
self professes not to decide,) said to Satan — " Take up the
slate that lies on the table, and write down all the sins with
which you have now charged me; and, if there be any
additional, append them too." Satan, rejoiced to have the
opportunity of accusing, just as our blessed Lord is rejoiced
to have the opportunity of advocating, took up a pencil, and
wrote a long and painful roll of the real or imputed sins of
Luther. Luther said, " Have you written the whole ? "
Satan answered, " Yes, and a black and dark catalogue it
is, and sufficient to deter you from making any attempt to
reform others, till you have first purified and reformed
yourself." Luther replied, "Take up the slate, and write
as I shall .dictate to you. My sins are many ; my trans
gressions in the sight of an infinitely holy God, are count
less as the hairs of my head : in me there dwelleth no good
thing; but, Satan, after the last sin you have recorded,
write the announcement which I shall repeat from 1 John,
i. 7 ; ' The blood of Jesus Christ, God's Son, cleanseth from
all sin.' " Luther in that text had peace ; and Satan,
knowing the source of his peace, had no advantage against
him. Without entering more fully on the vast and varied range
of Christian truth that seems to me to be comprehended in
my text, I will endeavor, first of all, to lay before you the
definition and description of Purgatory, as it is embodied in
the standards of the Roman Catholic Church. In the creed
of Pope Pius IV. the following definition is given : " I con
stantly hold that there is a purgatory, and that the souls
therein detained are helped by the suffrages of the faithful."
In the twenty-fifth session of the Council of Trent, there is

394 THE GREAT APOSTASY.
this decree on purgatory: "There is a purgatory, and the
souls therein detained are helped by the suffrages of the
faithful, but most chiefly by the acceptable sacrifice of the
altar," : — that is, the propitiatory sacrifice of the mass.
And in the Catechism of the Council of Trent, which every
priest is' instructed to teach his flock, the following words
occur : " Besides, there is a purgatorial fire, in which the
souls of the pious being tormented [cruciatoe] for a definite
period, are expiated, in order that an entrance may be
opened for them into the eternal country, into which nothing
polluted enters."
Such is the definition of Purgatory ; it is a place of suffering
and of purification between death and the day of Judgment,
wherein souls that die with the guilt of venial sin not yet
fully expiated, are detained and tormented in fire until they
are purified and made meet for the abodes of the redeemed
and the glorified. It is not for those who die (as we should
say) unbelievers and enemies1 to God; it is for the faithful
and the pious — those whom we should call saints ; those
that the Romish Church has reason to believe are really and
truly Christians. And thus the painful thought must flash
upon the mind of every Roman Catholic, that, however
his past and present conduct may be characterized by all
the " fruits of the Spirit," yet when he dies, he does not
pass immediately to the presence of God, but goes to a
place of purgatorial suffering, in which he is tormented and
purified, until he is made meet for the mansions of heaven.
Let this, therefore, be clearly understood, — that purgatory
is not for sinners, who die in what the Roman Catholic
Church calls mortal sin ; it is not for those who die rejecting
and despising the Gospel : but it is for those who have been
the most faithful, the most devoted, the most signalized, in
the estimate ofthe Romish Church, by the distinctive graces
of Christianity, and applauded by the most competent
judges- of those who are in close communion with God.

PURGATORY. 395
The origin and necessity of purgatory arise from the dis
tinction that subsists in the judgment of the Roman Catholic
Church between venial and mortal sin. A venial, sin, ac
cording to Dr. Doyle, in the Catechism taught to Roman
Catholics in Ireland, " is a sin which does not break charity
between man and man, much less between man and God, —
such as the stealing of an apple, a, pin," etc. Or, as it is in
the " Abridgment of Christian Doctrine : " " Q. Whither go
such as die in mortal sin ? " — " A. To hell for all eternity,
as you have heard in the Creed." " Q. Whither go such as
die in venial sin, or not having fully satisfied for the tempo
ral punishments due to their mortal sins, which are forgiven
them ? " — "A. To purgatory, till they have made full satis
faction for them, and then to heaven." " Q. By what kind
of sins are the commandments broken?" — "A. By mortal
sins only : for venial sins are not, strictly speaking, contrary
to 'the end of the commandments, which is charity.'" " Q.
When is a theft a mortal sin ? " — " A. When the thing
stolen is of considerable value, or causeth a considerable hurt
to our neighbor." " Q. When is a lie a mortal sin ? " -t- " A.
When it, is any great dishonor to God, or notable prejudice
to our neighbor." -
Strange questions, and strange replies, in the judgment of
an enlightened and Bible-taught Christian. But to show
you still further the distinction between venial and mortal
sins in the Church of Rome, I will read an extract from a
celebrated work of Dr. Bailly, which is taught to the priests
who are trained in the Roman Catholic college of St. Patrick
in Maynooth, and prepared for the discharge of their duty
in the Romish parishes in which they may be placed as
priests. We have, in this extract, the doctrines that are in
culcated upon the minds of the rising priesthood ; and we
may regard this as an exposition of the principles acted on
in the confessional by. every Roman Catholic priest in Ire
land. I quote from chapter vii. p. 232, where a question is

396 THE GREAT APOSTASY.
asked, strangely at variance with our ideas ; for we are all
taught, that whether a farthing or a pound be stolen, it is
equally a violation of God's commandment ; nay, that the
theft of a small thing may be a greater sin in the sight of
God, because the temptation is less. " Q. How great must
be the quantity of the thing stolen, in order to constitute the
theft a mortal sin ? " — " A. The quantity cannot easily be
determined " — [such is the reply of a Church in which all
things are represented to be certain, stereotyped, and fixed ;
where all is lucid as the light of meridian day, and certain
as the landmarks of creation] — " the quantity cannot easily
be determined, since nothing has been decided on this point,
either in natural, divine, or human law. Some are of opinion
that a quantity necessary for the maintenance of an individ
ual for one day, in a manner suitable to his station in this
world, is sufficient to make the theft a mortal sin ; others
think that it requires a quantity which, every thing con
sidered, inflicts a grievous injury on our neighbor, and de
prives him of something particularly useful. A loss, how
ever, which, in respect of one — a rich man, for instance is
slight, in respect of a poor man may be considered heavy.
Hence, theologians are accustomed to distinguish men into
four ranks. The first rank consists of the illustrious, who
live in splendor ; the second, of those who live on their own
estates, but not so splendidly — such as are moderately
rich ; the third, of artificers, who support themselves by
their own handicraft and labor ; and the fourth, of the poor,
who provide for themselves by begging. It is. generally laid
down, and you (the priests) may lay it down as determined,
that in order that a theft should be a mortal sin, when com
mitted on persons of the first rank, fifty or sixty pence are
sufficient." So that, if from the Queen, or any of our illus
trious nobility, you should steal sixty pence, if you die with
that sin unforgiven, you go to hell to all eternity ; but if you
so manage matters as to steal only fifty-nine pence and three

PURGATORY. 397
larthings, then you can only be sent to purgatory, for puri
fication in its fires, until the Day of Judgment. He goes on
to say, that with respect to persons in the second class, forty
pence are enough to constitute a mortal sin ; and with re
spect to persons in the third rank, twenty pence, " if their
trade be a very lucrative one ; if less lucrative, ten pence."
So that servants are to be encouraged to find out whether
their master's trade is a lucrative one, and to get rich and
escape the punishment of hell by stealing thirty-nine pence
per day, which is only a venial sin, and dooming the trans
gressor only to purgatory.
Again : at page 237, the question is discussed, " Whether
wives commit a mortal sin of theft, if, contrary to the
reasonable wishes of their husbands, they secretly take any
thing considerable from the property which is under the
power of their husbands." And the answer is — "They
commit a mortal sin of theft, because they greatly injure
the just right of the husband. But what quantity ought to
be accounted considerable in these thefts, cannot easily be
determined ; this one thing is certain, — that a greater quan
tity is required in thefts committed by a wife, or a son, than
in thefts committed by strangers, because a husband, or the
father of a family, is more unwilling that money should be
taken by a stranger than by a wife or a son."
At page 239, we read — " What is to be thought of ser
vants who pilfer any thing from their masters ? " "A. That
they sin mortally, if they pilfer a considerable quantity;
venially, if they pilfer a small quantity. But if they steal
money, furniture, or such things, the same quantity is re
quired to constitute a mortal sin as if they were strangers."
And then follows a very remarkable provision, which must
have been specially applicable in the dark ages, when the
Church of Rome had wide spread and unbounded wealth
and possession : " Servants sin mortally, if they plunder for
the purpose of carousing, or in order to sell, or give away
34

398 THE GREAT APOSTASY.
to others, or if they should make use of dainties and choice
wines, which the master wishes to reserve for himself, and
Which are not usually allowed to servants."
You ask, How does this bear upon the question that is
immediately before us ? It bears most vitally upon it.
Purgatory is only for venial sins ; hell is for mortal sins :
every Roman Catholic, therefore, is interested — on his- own
principles everlastingly interested — in the question, whether
the sins of which he is guilty are to be regarded as venial
sins, to be expiated in purgatory — for emancipation from
which a legacy will provide masses — or as mortal sins, to
be visited with the wrath of Heaven through all eternity.
And not only the people, but the priests are interested in
the solution of this question ; for they have to sit in a box,
called the confessional, and every person, from ten or twelve
years upwards, must approach that spot at least once a year,
and breathe into the priest's ear every thought that has
passed through his heart, every sentiment that has been
entertained in his mind, every word he has spoken since he
last confessed, of a sinful or a questionable kind. Every
action which he can at all suspect to have been tainted with
iniquity, he must fully and faithfully confess, under the
menaced guilt of sinning against the Holy Ghost — the un
pardonable sin ; and when the priest has heard the confes
sion, it is most important that he should be able to deter
mine whether a sin is mortal or venial, that he may appor
tion the proper expiatory process, and minister, on the one
hand, the consolation that belongs to a venial transgressor,
and point out, on the other, the means of forgiveness and
expiation for a mortal sinner. You will also see, that if the
distinction of venial and mortal sin is an untenable doc
trine, the pretensions of Purgatory are dissipated, and,
being shorn of its foundation, it must necessarily fall to the
ground. Before, however, I proceed further, I shall endeavor to

PURGATORY. 399
give you some illustrations of the belief of the Church of
Rome, respecting the nature of the sufferings of those who
are confined in purgatory. With, this view, I shall quote
from the celebrated Cardinal Bellarmine — the most distin
guished champion of the Roman Catholic faith ; from whose
large and massive and learned folios, all the controversial
arguments of modern Roman Catholic priests are usually
derived. Cardinal Bellarmine, in his work De Gemitu
Columbce, book ii. chapter 9, gives the following account of
persons whom he knew to be in purgatory, and whose suffer
ings, therefore, he is fully competent to narrate ; and it is
important that Roman Catholics, if I address any to-night,
should know what is before them in purgatory, if they still
cleave to their superstition ; whilst it is important also, that
Protestants should understand what are the prospects of a
Church, which tramples upon the blood of the Everlasting
Covenant, and puts in its place the devices of man.
" Since many persons," says Bellarmine, " will not believe
what they have never^ seen, it has pleased Almighty God
sometimes to raise his servants from the dead, and to send
them to announce to the living what they have really be
held. A pious father of a family in Northumberland died,
after a long illness, in the early part of one night, but, to
the great terror of those who watched by his body, came to
life again at the dawn of the following day. All but his
faithful and affectionate wife fled at the sight of him, and to
her he communicated, in the most soothing terms, the pecu
liar circumstances of his case ; that he had indeed been dead,
but was permitted to live again upon earth, though by no
mean3 in the same manner as before. In short, he sold all
his property — divided the produce equally between his
wife, his children, and the poor ¦ — and then retired to the
Abbey of Melrose ; lie there lived in such a state of unex
ampled mortification, as made it quite evident, even if he
had not said a Word on the subject, that he had seen things,

400 THE GREAT APOSTASY.
whatever was the nature of them, which no one else had
been permitted to behold. ' One,' said the old man, ' whose
aspect was as of light, and his garment ghstening, conducted
me to a valley of great depth and width, but of immeasu
rable length ; one side of which was dreadful beyond expres
sion for its burning heat, and the other as horrible for its no
less intolerable cold. Both were filled with souls of men,
which seemed to be tossed, as by the fury of the tempest,
from one side to the other ; for, being quite unable to endure
the heat on the right hand, the miserable wretches kept
throwing themselves to the opposite side into the equal tor
ment of cold, and thence back again into the raging flames.
This, thought I to myself, must be hell ; but my guide
answered to my thought, that it was not so. This valley,
says he, is the place of torment for the souls of those who,
after delaying to confess and expiate their sins, have at
length, in articulo mortis, had recourse to penance, and so
have died ; these, at the Day of Judgment, will be admitted
into the kingdom of heaven, by reason of their confession
and penance, late as it was ; but, meanwhile, many of them
may be assisted and liberated before that day, by the
prayers, alms, and fastings of the hving, particularly by the
sacrifice of the mass.' "
This is the first instance which the Cardinal gives ; he
then quotes another extraordinary story, narrated of St.
Christina, whose life was published by " an author of high
repute, Thomas Cantepratensis, who was contemporary with
the sairit; confirmed, too, by the testimony of the learned
Cardinal James de Vitriaco, in the preface to his book of the
Life and Acts of St. Mary de Oegnies." St. Christina has
her place in the Roman Calendar, and a festival is appointed
to her honor on the 23d of July. The following are stated
to be the words spoken by her, immediately after her return
to life, in the presence of many witnesses : " Immediately as
I departed from the body, my soul was received by minis-

PURGATORY. 401
ters of light and angels of God, and conducted to a dark and
horrid place, filled with the souls of men. The torments
which I there witnessed are so dreadful, that to attempt to
describe them would be utterly in vain ; and there I beheld
not a few, who had been known to me while they were
alive. Greatly concerned for their hapless state, I asked
what place it was, thinking it was hell ; but I was told that
it was purgatory, where are kept those who in their life had
repented indeed of their sins, but had not paid the punish
ment due for them. I was next taken to see the torments
of hell, where also I reeognized some of my former ac
quaintances upon earth. Afterwards I was translated to
paradise, even to the throne of- the Divine Majesty^ and
when I saw the Lord congratulating me, I was beyond
measure rejoiced, concluding, of course, that I should hence
forward dwell with him for evermore. But he presently
said to me — 'In very deed, my sweetest daughter, here
you shall be with me ; but, for the present, I offer you your
choice. Will you stay for ever with me now ? or will you
return to the earth, and there in your mortal body, but with
out any detriment to it, endure punishments, by which you
may deliver out of purgatory all those souls whom you so
much pitied, and may also, by the sight of your penance and
the example of your life, be a means of converting to me
some who are yet alive in the body ; and so come again to
me at last, with a great increase of your merits ? ' I ac
cepted, without hesitation, the return to life, on the condition
proposed ; and the Lord, congratulating me on the prompti
tude of my obedience, ordered that my body should be
restored to me. And here I had an opportunity of admiring
the incredible celerity of the blessed spirits ; for in that
very hour, having been placed before the throne of God at
the first recital of the Agnus Dei in the mass which was
said for me, at the third my body was restored. This is an
account of my death, and return to life." The author of
34*

402 THE GREAT APOSTASY.
her Life then narrates, that " she walked into burning ovens,
and though she was so tortured by the flames that her
angjish extorted from her the most horrible cries, yet,
when she came out, there was not a trace of any burning to
be detected on her body. Again, during a hard frost, she
would go and place herself under the frozen ,surface of a
river, for six days and more at a time. Sometimes, she
would be carried round by the wheel of a water-mill with
the water of the river, and having been whirled round in a
horrible manner, she was as whole in body as if nothing had
happened to her — not a limb was hurt. At other times
she would make all the dogs in the town fall upon her, and
would run before them like a hunted beast ; and yet, in
spite of being torn by thorns and brambles, and worried and
lacerated by the dogs, to such a degree that no part of hgr
body escaped without wounds, there was not a weal nor scar
to be seen." " Such," says the illustrious and learned Cardi
nal Bellarmine, of whose genius and erudition (apart from
his moral and religious principles) any church might be
glad — "such is the narrative of Thomas Cantepratensis :
and that he said nothing but the truth is evident, not only
from the confirmation given to his testimony by the Bishop
and Cardinal De Vitriaco, and from his only telling what
happened in the very province in which he was a bishop,
but because the thing spoke for itself. It was quite plain
that the body must have been endued with a divine virtue,
which could endure all that hers endured, without being
damaged; and this, not for a few days, but for forty-two
years, during which she continued alive after her resurrec
tion. But still more manifest does this become, from the
many sinners whom she brought to penitence, and from the
miracles, after her death, by which she was distinguished,;
for God determined to stop the mouth of unbelievers."
One more instance is given by the Cardinal, as a proof
of the possible duration of the pains of purgatory, even to

PURGATORY. 403
the Day of Judgment. He quotes from the life of St. Lud-
gardis, written by the same author as that of St. Chris
tina : "About this time, Pope Innocent HI., after having
held the Lateran Council, departed out of this hfe, and
shortly afterwards appeared to Ludgardis. She, as soon as
she beheld him encircled with a vast flame, demanded who
he was ; and on his answering that he was Pope Innocent,
exclaimed with a groan, ' What can this be ? how is it that
the common father of us all is thus tormented?' 'The
reasons of my suffering thus,' he answered, ' are three hi
number ; and they would have consigned me to eternal pun
ishments, had I not, through the intercession of the most
pious mother of God, to whom I founded a monastery, re
pented, when in extremis. As it is, though I am spared
eternal suffering, yet I shall be tortured in the most horrible
manner to the Day of Judgment ; and that I am now per
mitted to come and pray for your suffrages, is a boon, which
the mother of mercies has obtained for me from her Son.'
With these words he disappeared. Ludgardis not only com
municated to her holy sisters the sad necessity to which the
Pope was reduced in order to obtain their succor, but she
also, herself, submitted to astonishing torments on his ac
count." And the author adds, "The reader must under
stand, that Ludgardis herself revealed to me the three
causes of the Pope's sufferings ; but I forbear to disclose
them, out of reverence to so great a pontiff." "This
instance," says Cardinal Bellarmine, "always affects me
with the greatest terror. For if a pontiff entitled to so
much praise, one who to all human observation was not
merely a man of integrity and prudence, but of eminent,
nay, most exemplary sanctity — if even he so narrowly
escaped hell, and, as it is, must suffer the most excruciating
torments till the Day of Judgment — what prelate is there,
who does not tremble? Who does not scrutinize the secrets
of his own conscience with the most unsparing rigor ? For

404 THE GREAT APOSTASY.
I cannot easily persuade myself, that so great a pontiff
could have been capable of committing deadly sins, unless
he were deceived, under some semblance of good, by flat
terers and relatives, of whom the Gospel says, ' a man's
foes shall be of his own household.'"
I have thus given you instances illustrative of the nature
and duration of the torments of purgatory, drawn from
sources so grave and weighty that no Roman Catholic can
possibly doubt them. And now, as I have good reason to
know that I enjoy the satisfaction of addressing many of my
Roman Catholic fellow-countrymen on this occasion, I place
before them the prospects that must overshadow their de
parting moments, and the horrible doom which the best and
most faithful of their communion are destined to experience
— if their creed be not a fable — if their faith be not delu
sion—before the Day of Judgment overtakes the world. I
ask you, How can you, with so horrible a prospect, ifepart
in peace ? How can you feel that the Gospel preached to
you is good tidings at all ? My dear hearers, contrast the
dying saint in the communion of the Protestant Church, and
the words his minister can address to him, with the dying
faithful in the bosom of the Roman Catholic Church, and
the words that the priest must, if honest and consistent,
address to him. Iri your Church, if you were one of the
most faithful and consistent on whom the sun ever shone,
when your last moment draws near, and the manifested con
solations of the Gospel ought to be richest and fullest, your
priest must tell you, if he speak what he believes, in that
awful crisis, " Unhappy are the dying and the dead ; for
they enter into purgatory, and endure its torments, until
masses have been offered up adequate to the redemption of
the soul from its apportioned sorrow." But when the Pro
testant minister goes to the death-bed of a departing believer,
he, in Heaven's tones of exquisite melody, because of ex-
haustless eomfort, can lift up his voice in the ear of the

PURGATORY. 405
departing saint, and testify, even in the agony of death,
" Blessed are the dead that die in the Lord, yea, saith the
Spirit, that they may rest from their labors." The former
is a gospel, which is " another " or no gospel ; the latter is
worthy of the name, for it is " good news " indeed.
By way of illustrating the practical effects of this doc
trine, I will mention an interesting fact, which occurred in
my own experience. I was asked to deliver a lecture at
Poplar, on the errors of the Roman Catholic Church, in the
Infant School-room, granted for the occasion by an eminent
Christian gentleman, Mr. Green. I spoke to the people
that were assembled, upon the uncomfortableness (to say
the least of it) of the doctrine of purgatory, and showed
them the contradiction between the peculiar principles of
Popery and the express and declared mind of the Spirit of
God. Some hundreds of Roman Catholics were present ;
some«of them listening with evident anxiety, and others
interrupting with contemptuous sneers. One lady, I ob
served, who had a pencil in her hand, noted down the texts
I adduced, and some of the arguments I urged ; and I
noticed sometimes a sneer, and sometimes a smile, but now
and then the pencil stopped, and her eyes were fixed upon
the ground. I was to deliver a second lecture, and on that
occasion I recognized many of the same faces, and among
them this lady ; and after I had spoken a little, her pencil
was laid down, her eye was fixed upon me, and her ear
drank in every word I uttered. At the close of the meet
ing, she handed me a slip of paper, containing a request to
have an interview with me. We met, and she said — "I
have been a devoted member of the Roman Catholic chapel
at Poplar ; the priest is my intimate friend, and the god
father of my boy ; I was to play the new organ when it was
put up ; I have gone regularly to mass and to confes
sion, and have been regarded as one of the elite of the
communion; — but, after considering carefully and prayer-

406 THE GREAT APOSTASY.
fully what I have heard in your two lectures, I dare no
longer remain a Roman Catholic." She told me, that when
she saw the placard announcing the meeting, she informed
the priest that a notorious firebrand was coming to Poplar.
The priest did not wish to take any notice of the matter ;
but on her urging the expediency of being made acquainted
with what was said, he agreed that she had better go and
take notes of the lecture. She did so ; and wrote him a let
ter immediately after the close of it, telling him there was to
be another lecture, and he must come and answer it, or the
Roman Catholics in Poplar would all turn Protestants.
The priest returned no answer tp this suggestion ; and she
wrote to another priest then in the neighborhood, Dr. But
ler ; but he also took no notice of her communication. I
knew the reason of their silence : the moment a Roman
Catholic's judgment 'begins;. to be stumbled, his conscience
stirred, and his heart impressed, the priest feels that he is
gone, and lets go his hope of detaining him. The second
lecture confirmed the impression of the first, and she resolved
to renounce the Roman Catholic communion for ever. I
asked her what points struck her most forcibly in my state
ments, and alienated her affections so rapidly from the
Roman Catholic Church. She said, it was not so much the
arguments I brought forward as the texts I quoted — a very
striking and precious testimony. One of these texts, she
said, fell upon her like a sunbeam from heaven, and unveiled
to her hopes and prospects to which she was an utter stran
ger before ; — and that text was, " Blessed are the dead that
die in the Lord from henceforth : Yea, saith the Spirit, that
they may " — not suffer in purgatory, but — " rest from
their labors." She told me, that she felt this most acutely,
because she had been formerly laid upon a sick-bed, and her
medical attendant had given up all hope, and told her there
was no chance of her recovery ; she sent for an aged priest
from a neighboring place, to administer the sacrament of

PURGATORY. 407
Extreme Unction. On receiving it, she asked him, " Am I
now safe ? " to which, according to her testimony, he replied,
" I can pledge my own safety that you are." " But," added
she, " have I not to pass through purgatory ? " " Unques
tionably," said the priest. "Then tell me, as a dying
woman, what is the nature of the purgatory that I have to
experience ? " The priest, with great solemnity, and, if his
creed be right, with great truth, replied, '< Purgatory, my
dear child, is a place where you will have to suffer the tor
ments of the damned, only of shorter duration." She said
every nerve tingled with agony at the announcement. But
when the text I illustrated came upon her ear, and reached
her heart, declaring that the dead in Christ " rest from their
labors," and again, " to be absent from the body is to be
present with the Lord," she felt that either the priest must
be wrong and the Bible true, or the Bible must be false if
purgatory be true.
I may illustrate these statements still further. On the
continent of Europe, purgatory is obtruded on the notice of
the people in every possible shape and form, as I had an
opportunity of witnessing last summer. One place I shall
not soon forget; it was in the city of Antwerp, and the
name of it is La Calvaire. There is an ascent rising at an
angle of about twentyjfive degrees, and on each side of the
path are pictures and images of saints ; at the top of it is a
picture of our blessed Lord stretched upon the cross (prob
ably about ten feet in length), and out of his wounded side
there hangs a red wire, to imitate a stream of blood flowing
into a cup held by the Virgin Mary, who is believed, in the
Romish theology, to be the great dispensatrix of the virtues
of her Son Jesus Christ. Below this crucifix there is rep
resented a purgatory ; I noticed twelve or fourteen heads
cut out in oak, surrounded by flames that rise in every
direction ; and over this is a text from Isaiah, but perverted
and misquoted — "The spirit of the Lord hath sent me to

408 THE GREAT APOSTASY.
preach indulgences to the captives." Immediately below
the text there is a box for receiving money to remunerate
the priests, who offer up masses for the repose of those
whose pictures are exhibited struggling in the flames of
purgatory. Another illustration of the same thing I saw in the ex
quisite Cathedral Church of Malines, in the very heart of
Belgium, where the railways meet and converge. On going
into that beautiful church I found the funeral ceremony for
one of the departed faithful going on. The coffin was
placed in the body of the cathedral, and a priest in his robes
stood at each corner of it; two priests went through the
duty peculiar to the altar, and other two came to the coffin,
sprinkled it with holy water, incensed it with burning per
fume, and chanted some prayers. After the ceremony, two
men with wands, preceded by the official with the staff of
authority, came to each person in the cathedral with a box,
in which they collected money; the box was extremely
large, probably a foot and a half in length, and half the lid
was raised and stood at right angles with the box, so that a
surface of about half a foot square was presented to the in
dividual before whom it was placed. I waited to give a
small coin, not for the sake of the value of the masses to be
said, but because I wished to see more distinctly a picture,
of which I had just caught a glimpse, on the box; and I
found that it represented seven or eight human bodies
writhing and struggling amid the flames of purgatory ; and,
on the bottom of the lid, there was inscribed — " Priez pour
les fideles trepassds " [Pray for the faithful who are dead].
It was a picture of purgatorial torment, on the strength of
which the collectors appealed to the feelings of the faithful,
in order to raise funds to pay the priests for offering up
masses for the relief of the departed man, presumed to be
suffering the burning torments of purgatory.
But, of all the painful spectacles to be witnessed on the

PURGATORST. 409
Continent, in connection with this subject, the most heart
rending is that of weeping mothers and weeping sons. Al
most every day you may see, as you pass the beautiful and
tasteful churchyards, on one grave a mother weeping and
praying, with a fervor worthy of a purer and holier cause,
that the soul of her departed son or daughter may have
repose from the torments of purgatory ; and, on another
grave, the son or the daughter praying for the soul of the-
mother, or the widow praying for the repose of her hus
band's spirit. Thus Christianity, instead of being a faith of
joyful hope and unutterable 'peace, seems to be the harbinger-
of woe, the source of tears, and the messenger of sadness-
Sad, not glad,, tidings seem thus to be its burden. The:
practical effects of the doctrine of purgatory are found to be-
subjection to the priest, and aggrandizement of the Church.
It is only where the glorious Gospel is preached in its.
purity, and realized in its power, that we can leave the
graves of departed Christians, and feel that they suffer not.
in the regions of the sorrowful, nor expiate the sins of life-
after death, but stand before the throne of God, "having
washed their robes, and made them white in the blood of
the Lamb."
I have already remarked, that the doctrine of purgatory
proceeds upon the assumption, that some sins are mortal and.
others venial. If this distinction be unfounded, the doctrine
is untenable. Now I will show you, from the plainest an
nouncement of Scripture, that the distinction is unscriptural..
Romans vi. 23, " The wages of sin is death ; '' it is not;
limited to mortal sin, but spoken of sin generally — all sin.
Ezekiel xviii. 20, — " The soul that sinneth, it shall die.""
Galatians iii. 10, — " Cursed -is every one that continueth
not in all things which are written in the book of the law to-
do them." Still more conclusive is James ii. 10, — " Who
soever shall keep the whole law, and yet offend in one point,,
he is guilty of all : " there is no individual who does not
35

410 THE GREAT APOSTASY.
" offend in one peint," and, therefore, there is no soul, from
the rising of the sun to the going down thereof, who is not
guilty of mortal sin. In other words, there is no distinction
of venial sin and mortal sin, in fixing the destinies of
eternity ; but the wages of all sin, if visited upon us, are
equally everlasting destruction. I admit that one sin is
more heinous than another ; but I contend that the wages of
all sin is death, and that while the greatest sin is not so
great that the blood of Jesus cannot cancel it, the least sin
is not so little that it will not sink you, like an ocean load,
to the depths of perdition, unless expiated by the sin for
giving cross of the Lamb of God.
Another postulate that purgatory impiously involves and
assumes, is, that we may, by suffering, satisfy for sin.
Against this idea, the whole scope and tenor of the ever
lasting Gospel militate. Job xxxv. 5-7, " Look unto the
heavens, and see; and behold the clouds, which are
higher than thou. If thou sinnest, what dost thou against
him ? or if thy transgression be multiplied, what dost thou
unto him ? If thou be righteous, what givest thou him ? or
what receiveth he of thine hand ? " This implies, that our
sins cannot injure God, nor our suffering profit him. Psalm
xvi. 2, " Thou art my Lord : my goodness extendeth not to
thee." Nothing that we can do can profit God, or deserve
reward from hifu. Micah vi. 6, 7, " Wherewith shall I
come before the Lord, and bow myself before the high God ?
shall I come before him with burnt efferings, with calves ef
a year old? will the Lord be pleased with thousands of
rams, or with ten thousands of rivers of oil ? shall I give
my first-born for my transgression, the fruit of my body for
the sin of my soul ? " No, by none of these means can we
appease the just judgment of God, or expiate the sins of
which we have been guilty. Luke xvii. 10, "When ye
shall have done all those things which are cemmanded you,
say, We are unprofitable servants ; we have dene that which

PURGATORY. 411
was our duty to do." 1 Corinthians iv. 7, " What hast thou
that thou didst not receive ? " All this shows, that no suffer
ings we can endure, no actions we can achieve, are possessed
of any meritorious efficacy, either to atone for the sins of the
past, or to advantage God in the way of securing a right
eousness which may be a title to the glories of the future.
There remain three or four texts quoted by Roman Cath
olics in defence pf Purgatory, which it is my duty briefly to
examine. One is in Matthew xii. 32, "Whosoever speaketh
against the Holy Ghost, it shall not be forgiven him, neither
in this world, neither in the world to come ; " from which
the Roman Catholic infers, that there is forgiveness for
some sins in the world to come, and therefore that there is
Scripture warrant for a place where they may be expiated.
The words seem to have been spoken by our Lord to over
throw the superstitious notions of the Jews, that there was
forgiveness for sin in some undefined and indescribable state
in eternity. In the first place, purgatory cannot be referred
to in this text, because purgatory is not in " the world to
come," for it is before, and not after the judgment. In the
next place, this text cannot refer to purgatory, because it
speaks of " forgiveness " of sins ; but purgatory is not for
giveness, but paying the last farthing; it is suffering so
much, and thereby deserving so much ; " forgiveness," which
is of grace, cannot have any connection with expiatory suf
fering, which is merit in the sight of God. And in the last
place, the text is satisfactorily explained by a reference to
the parallel passage, (Mark iii. 29,) which runs — ."He
that shall blaspheme against the Holy Ghost, hath nevei
forgiveness." The passage, therefore, does not prove pur
gatory. Another text quoted by the Roman Catholic, is 1 Corin
thians iii. 13-15: "Every man's work shall be made
manifest: for the day shall declare it, because it shall be
revealed by fire ; and the fire shall try every man's work, of

412 THE GREAT APOSTASY.
what sort it is. If any man's work abide, which he hath
built thereupon, he shall receive a reward. If any man's
work shall be burned, he shall suffer loss : but he himself
shall be saved, yet so as by fire." Here, exclaims the Ro
man Catholic disputant, is the doctrine of purgatory clearly
revealed. Now we can at once shut his mouth upon this
text ; for we have seen that it is a law of the Roman Cath
olic Church, that where the fathers are not unanimous upon
the meaning of a text, the Roman Catholic has no right or
power to interpret ; and I have shown you in a previous
Lecture, that the fathers differ in relation to this passage
about the " fire," about the " work," about the " day," about
the " reward," and about the " loss." The Roman Catholic,
therefore, on his own principles, has no right to adduce this
text at all. But, suppose that he had, it would not prove
purgatory. In the first place, the great function of the pur
gatorial fire is to purify, whereas the process here described
is, to " try every man's work, of what sort it is." To " try "
a piece of metal, is to ascertain whether it be gold or brass ;
but to purify it, is to remove what is dross, and preserve
only what is valuable : as purgatory is not for " trying," but
for purging, this text cannot describe purgatory. In the
next place, the passage states that " every man's work " shall
be tried ; but purgatory is not for every man ; it is only for
those who die in venial sin : -the Virgin Mary, we are told,
did not go to purgatory, nor the apostles (I think) ; and, on
the other hand, none go there who die in mortal sin ; but, as
the text speaks of a fire that is for " every man," it proves
too much. Further, the fire spoken of by the apostle, is to
try every man's " work ; " but purgatory is for purifying
men's souls : a work is not the soul, and, therefore, again
we infer, the passage cannot refer to purgatory. It is here
stated, that some shall " suffer loss ; " but in purgatory
none "suffer loss" — they all eventually get out, and re
ceive much gain. .Lastly, the expression, " saved so as by

PURGATORY. 413
fire," is simply a proverbial phrase for denoting difficulty of
escape : we have an expression parallel to it in the words - —
"Is not this a brand plucked out ofthe fire?" Anyone
Acquainted with the Greek poets knows that this form of ex
pression is common with them, to denote the greatest diffi
culty in escaping from danger and attaining a place of safety.
Another passage quoted by Roman Catholic divines, is
in 1 Peter iii. 19-: "By which [Spirit] also Christ went
and preached unto the spirits in prison, which sometime
were disobedient, when once the longsuffering of God
waited in the days of Noah." Here, says the Roman
Catholic, is clearly the statement, that there are spirits in
prison, to whom Christ went and preached the Gospel. All
this, however, proceeds upon the supposition, that the
preaching was by Christ personally, and that the last half
of the text is to be disjointed and disconnected from the
first. The meaning of it is obviously this : to those souls
that were disobedient in the days of Noah, Christ preached,
but without effect, for they are now in prison. ' But how did
he preach in the days of Noah ? Christ preached directly
and personally in the days of his flesh, and he preached
indirectly by his ministering servants. Noah, as one of
these, is called "a preacher of righteousness," and by him,
Christ preached to the antediluvian world; but they re
jected the patriarch's proclamations of the Gospel, and
despised his invitations to come into the ark ; and the spirits
of these antediluvian sceptics are now in the prison of hell.
But to settle all pretensions of the Romanist to prove pur
gatory by this passage, I must observe, that according to the
Roman Cathohc Church, idolatry, unbelief, and rejection of
the truth, are mortal sins; the antediluvians denied the
existence, despised the mercies, and rejected the invitations
of God, and therefore they died in mortal sin ; but purgatory
is only fo? those who die in venial sin, since those who die
in mortal, go to hell for ever ; consequently, the antedilu-
35*

414 THE GREAT APOSTASY
nans cannot have gone to purgatory, but must [on Roman
Catholic principles] be in the prison of hell for ever.
Another passage quoted by Roman Catholics, is in Mat
thew v. 25 : ." Agree with thine adversary quickly, while
thou art in the way with him, lest at any time the adversary
deliver thee to the judge, and the judge deliver thee to the
officer, and thou be cast into prison : " they say, this means
the prison of purgatory. The simple reply to this is, that
unjust anger, of which Christ is speaking, is one of the
seven mortal sins enumerated by the Roman Catholic
¦Church ; and a person guilty of it, therefore, does not go to
-purgatory, but is consigned to hell. Hence, this passage
cannot prove purgatory.
How many beautiful and impressive texts prove the
reverse ! The announcement of Isaiah, descriptive of the
'destiny of the just, ought to fall like, the sunbeams of
heaven on the hearts of those that mourn : " He shall enter
into peace ; they shall rest in their beds, each one walking
in his uprightness." Of the rich man it is recorded, that
when he died, his soul passed at once into the regipns of the
damned ; and of Lazarus, that his soul was borne instantly
to the bosom of Abraham. The thief upon the cross
Jbeheld the majesty that peered forth amid the sorrow of the
Son of God ; and, recognizing in that lone sufferer no ordi
nary child of mortality, he lifted up his earnest petition,
¦" Lord, remember me when thou comest into thy kingdom."
Our blessed Redeemer, if the Roman Catholic tenet had
been true, would have replied, "Thou shalt, a thousand
years hence, be with me in Paradise, but, for years and
years to come, thou must be purified in purgatory ; " and,
if any one needed to go to purgatory for purity, it was
surely he. But our Lord proclaimed the great hope of the
Gospel, fraught with consolation to the mourner, and with
peace to the troubled — "Verily, I say unto thee, to*day
thpu shalt be with me in Paradise." •

PURGATORY. 415
Again : the Apostle Paul said, " I have a desire to depart
and to be with Christ j " " We are willing to be absent from
the body, and to be present with the Lord." The dying
martyr Stephen beheld Jesus at the right hand of God, and
exclaimed, " Lord Jesus, receive my spirit." We read
(Romans viii. 1) " There is no condemnation," in the pres
ent or in the future, " to them that^are in Christ Jesus." In
John v. 2, 4, "He that believeth hath everlasting life."
" Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the law." " He
hath borne our griefs and carried our sorrows; he was
wounded for our transgressions; he was bruised for our
iniquities ; the chastisement of our peace was upon him,
and with his stripes we are healed : " would it be just in
God to exact payment twice ? If Christ has paid the
debt — ' if Christ has borne the responsibility — we stand
free and acquitted in the sight of God. " Who, his own
self," it is said in another passage, " bare our sins in his own
body on the tree." And again : " Who shall lay any thing
to the charge of God's elect?" Will God do it? . "It is
God that justifieth. Who is he that condemneth ? " Will
Christ do it ? " It is Christ that died ; yea, rather, that has
risen again." And in the prospect of a judgment-morn, the
apostle could triumpantly declare — "I am persuaded, that
neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor
powers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor height,
nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate
us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord."
Let me next show you, that beside the blood of Christ
we have no intimation of any purgatory. My text de
scribes the true purgatory ; and immediately afterwards we
read, " If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just " —
faithful to his promise, and just because Christ has died —
" to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unright
eousness." "Though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be
as white as snow; though they be red -like crimson, they

416 THE GREAT APOSTASY.
shall be as wool." If we are made spotless as the -driven
snow — if our transgressions are so far removed that only
the purity of wool remains behind — then there is no sin for
purgatory to expiate, there is no stain for its torments to
efface. Again : " Neither is there salvation in any other ; "
but if purgatory be true, there is a process of salvation
going on there. "Behold the Lamb of God, that taketh
away the sin of the world." " I have blotted out as a thick
cloud thy transgressions, and as a cloud thy sins." "And
one of the elders answered, saying unto me, What are these
which are arrayed in white robes, and whence came they ?
And I said unto him, Sir, thou knowest. And he said unto
me, These are they " — which have escaped the purgatorial
torments of the middle state ? which have purified them
selves by an expiatory process, dreadful as that which Pope
Innocent was doomed to endure ? which have come from a
region where they were driven, in terrible and endless suc
cession, from intense cold to intense heat ? No : that would
be Popery. The Bible is eloquent with the most glorious
truths of evangelical Protestantism; and therefore it pro
claims, in its own majestic tones — which I pray that the
Spirit of God may make to be music and melody in the
heart of every one that hears me ! — " These are they
which came out of great tribulation, and have washed their
robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb;
therefore are they before the throne of God."
Once more : There is no evidence whatever in Scripture,
that the saints suffer after death. " Blessed are the dead
that die in the Lord ; yea, saith the Spirit, that they may
rest from their labors." " Whether we live, therefore, or
die, we are the Lord's." "He shall enter," not into purga
tory, but — "into peace; they shall" — not suffer in fire,
but -r- " rest in their beds, each one walking in his upright
ness." Ecclesiastes xi. 3: "If the tree fall toward the
south or toward the north, in the place where the trea

PURGATORY. 417
faileth, there shall it be." The moment a man dies, his
character is- (if I may use the expression) stereotyped ; it is
made a fixture for eternity. The man that dies an unfor-
given sinner, spends eternity an unforgiven and a suffering
sinner ; and the man that dies having his sins expiated in
the blood of Jesus, spends eternity a rejoicing and a glori
fied saint. Where death leaves you, judgment will find
you. The decision of the judgment-morn is, " He that is
unjust, let him be unjust still ; and he that is filthy, let him
be filthy still ; and he that is righteous, let him be righteous
still ; and he that is holy, let him be holy still." Again : it
is beautifully said, " He forgiveth all thine iniquities ; for as
the heaven is high above the earth, so great is his mercy
toward them that fear him ; as far as the east is from the
west, so far hath he removed our transgressions from us." I
ask, Is purgatory consistent with these glorious truths?
What is the great object of the death and atonement of
Christ ? Not to make God love us, but to render it possi
ble for God to save us in full harmony with his justice and
holiness. And to suppose that after Jesus has suffered that
the world might be redeemed — after heaven heard the tri
umphant accents, "It is finished," and hell became blank
with dismay as the words reverberated there — after salva
tion has been completed, and a channel opened from heaven
to earth, so glorious that heaven's full tide of love may roll
down and visit and refresh the guiltiest — to expect, after
Gethsemane and Calvary, that God will still demand the
punishment and penalty for sin, as if Christ had never
borne it — is to caricature the Eternal, and to invert the
whole drift and scope of the truth of God.
Again: "We know that if our earthly house of this
tabernacle were dissolved, we have " — a purgatory to go
to? No — "a building of God, a house not made with
hands, eternal in the heavens." Simeon said, "Lord, now
lettest thou thy servant depart in peace." Abraham spake

418 THE GREA-T APOSTASY.
in this manner to the rich man : " Son, remember that thou
in thy lifetime receivedst thy good things, and likewise
Lazarus evil things : but now he is comforted, and thou art
tormented;" implying that Lazarus instantly entered on
the enjoyments of heaven when he left the world.
I protest also against the doctrine of purgatory, because
it presents a picture of the forgiveness of God, miserable,
meagre, and contemptible. I cannot find the least founda
tion for such a view in the word of God. It seems to me
as if God exhausted the resources of human language, and
the figures and the metaphors of human rhetoric, to set
forth the fulness and perfection of his forgiveness in Christ.
He says, that our sins " He will remember no more." He
represents his forgiveness by non-imputation : "not imputing
their trespasses unto them." He represents it by covering :
" Blessed is the man whose sin is covered." He represents
it by taking away : " the Lamb of God that taketh away the
sin of the world," lifteth it away as a burden. He repre
sents it by blotting out : " I am he that blotteth out thine
iniquities." He represents it as casting behind : " Thou
hast cast all my sins behind thy back." He represents it as
removing: "As far as the east is from the west, so far hath
he removed our transgressions from us." And in a beauti
ful passage it is asked, " Who is a God like unto thee, that
pardoneth iniquity, and passeth by the transgression of the
remnant of his heritage, because he delighteth in mercy ? "
But some one may say, " These are descriptions of sin's
annihilation ; but are we not all conscious of sin, and have
we not still a lingering feeling that all is not right in the
sight of God ? My dear friends, if we are the children of
God, we ought now to rejoice in the forgiveness of sin. God
means that Christians should not be miserable, but happy :
God destines you for joy, not for sorrow and doubt ; and if :
you are possessed with despondency or distrust, it is you
that are straitened, not God. I believe the reason of

PURGATORY. 419
much of the sadness of Christians is, that they keep looking
at the sin which is blotted out, not remembered, and for
given ; instead of looking at the Saviour, who has borne it
away. Suppose that I have owed an individual 100Z., I
have not his receipt for it ; suppose I come to his place of
business, and looking over his ledger, I see the account
against me of items making up the 100/. I feel the uneasy
impression flash across my mind, that I may not be able to
prove I have paid it ; and I confess it to him. " True," he
says, " you read your name in my ledger, with the account of
the goods, and the sums appended ; but do you not notice a
diagonal line, in red ink, extending from one corner to an
other ? That means that all is paid, and I have no demand
against you." My dear friends, we keep looking at the sin
and the penalty, and therefore we despond. Look, again at
that precious red line which crosses out the whole — " the
blood of Christ, which cleanseth from all sin."
The doctrine of purgatory interferes with the effect of the
expiatory blood of the Lord Jesus Christ, and therefore I
protest against it. By the blood of Christ, we read in
Scripture, every needed blessing is reahzed. Is peace de
sired ? He hath " made peace by the blood of his cross."
Is boldness of approach to the mercy-seat a blessing ? " We
have boldness and access with confidence by the faith of
him." Is nearness to God heaven itself? Those who were
afar off " are made nigh by the blood of Christ." Is re
demption a blessing ? " We have redemption through his
blood." Is victory over sin, and Satan, and the world, a
blessing ? " They overcame by the blood of the Lamb." Is
cleansing a blessing ? " The blood of Jesus Christ cleanseth
us from all sin."
One thought more, and I shall express it in the words of
a beautiful French poem, which has been placed in my
hands, and which will teach Protestants and Roman Cath
olics what is the true purgatory on which they can rely.

420 THE GREAT APOSTASY.
"Great God! thy ways are true, thy judgments right;
It ever is thy pleasure to be kind;
But I so long to grace have done despite,
Thy justice fails if I should pardon find.
Yea, Holy One ! a life of guilt like mine
Leaves thee no power my punishment to waive;
Thine honor and my peace can never join,
Nor can thy mercy plead with thee to save.
Then do thy will; for this thy glory cries;
Ev'n at thy Cross let thy just anger rise;
Let lightnings flash, in thunder strike thy foe ;
In sinking, I adore my righteous God.
But on what part can vengeance deal the blow.
That is not cover'd with a Saviour's blood ? "
" Grand Dieu! tes jugemens sontremplis d'equit^;
Toujours tu»prends plaisir a nous etre propice;
Mais j'ai tant fait de mal que jamais ta bont£,
Ne me pardonnera sans choquer ta justice.
Oui, mon Dieu ! la grandeur de mon impiete'
Ne laisse a ton pouvoir que le choix du supplice ;
Ton interet s'oppose a ma felicity,
Et ta clemence m§me attend que je perisse.
Content ton d&ir, puisqu'il t'est glorieux;
Offense toi des pleurs qui ooulent de mes yeux;
Tonne, frappe, il est tems ; rends moi guerre pour guerre ;
J'adore en perissant la raison qui t'aigrit.
Mais dessris quel endroit tomber a ton tonnerre,
Qui ne soit tout couvert du sang de Je"sus-Christ ? "

THE BARNET DISCUSSION.

At the request of Captain Trotter, of Dirom Park, Dri
Cumming agreed to give a Lecture, contrasting the errors;
of the Romish Church with the doctrines of Scripture..
The Rev. Dr. Faa di Bruno, the resident' priest, appeared'
at the meeting and was heard, — and each speech occupied
thirty minutes. The discussion began at twelve o'clock and"
ended at four ; and again at seven, and ended at ten. After'
the meeting, the priest circulated a tract, apparently a reply
to Dr. Cumming's speech, and additional to the priest's oral'
speeches, but really a previously written and printed tract,,
to which the following two Lectures are replies. Soon after:
the discussion the priest disappeared.

LECTURE I.
In the same spirit, and with the same great and blessedJ
objects in view, which have been so clearly and so affection--
ately stated by our Chairman, I beg to address you on the-
document which has been extensively circulated amongsti
* A Eeply to Rev. Dr. Faa Di Bruno, Priest of Barnet; being a Solution!
of the various passages of Scripture quoted in defence of Romanism ; iai
two Lectures, delivered at Barnet, in 1850 — Capt. Trotter, of Dirom Park*.
oeing in the chair.
36

422 THE BARNET DISCUSSION.
you, and placed in my hands. I would wish you to bear in
mind, before I make a single remark upon the subject, what
the real subject before us is, and what the question, as
treated and discussed in this pamphlet also. is. It is not
whether Church or Dissent be the best, ¦?- it is not a dispute
whether the Established Church or the various bodies of
Dissenters have the greatest claim to be the Church of
Christ ; or to purity of discipline ; — this is a question we
have nothing to do with on this platform — a question which
I have not been invited to discuss, and which, for many
reasons, irrespective of the impropriety of it here, I desire
to dechne. The discussion of such subjects, I believe, is
only calculated to do damage to precious vital truth. JNor
is the question, on the other hand, whether Episcopacy, or
Presbytery, or Independency be right. I believe there is
no more Popery in Episcopacy than there is in Indepen
dency ; connected, essentially, with either, there is none. A
man may be an Episcopalian, and not a Christian ; he may
be an Independent, and not a Christian ; he may be one or
other, and a child of God, accepted in Christ, and made
meet by His Spirit for the kingdom of heaven. I decline,
too, Sir, discussing all such questions upon other grounds : I
believe the time is short, and that aU our controversies are
converging more and more upon that which is soul saving
or soul ruining. If the times into which we are plunging
shall come upon us engaged in discussions about Church and
Dissent — about robes and vestments — about forms and
ceremonies — and such like — depend upon it, they who are
the children of God will suffer severely for their dereliction
Of a higher duty, and they who are not so, but give them
selves wholly to such questions, will be overtaken by the
storm when it is too late to escape from it.
In the next place, I would beg of you all to recollect
what our Chairman has also endeavored so earnestly to im
press — that it is a question affecting the soul. I am not

THE BARNET DISCUSSION. 423
arre to argue with Dr. Faa di Bruno, or Dr. anybody else,
for victory? What prize can it be to Captain Trotter, or
what gain can it be to me, that we are able to reply to the
very puerile arguments that are advanced against those
precious truths with which we have identified our present
happiness and our future peace ? There is nothing to be
gained by that. My motive, in obedience to his personal
request, in coming down to address you here is to be the
means of enlightening you on the knowledge of a subject
which has been thrust upon you, and which you have not
courted, yourselves, by the appearance and zealous labors of
a Roman Catholic Priest in your parish; and, in the next
place, to prepare you against the efforts confessedly and
avowedly made by that sincere, but misguided teacher, to
seduce you from the good ancient Church of Bible Chris
tianity to the comparatively modern communion called the
Church of Rome. I beg of you to look upon the discussion
of the question, as a matter of solemn and serious import.
If we be right, our Roman Catholic friends and fellow-
countrymen are painfully, disastrously, fatally wrong. There
can be no compromise whatever. We cannot go to them,
for we dare not enter upon their ground ; and they refuse to
come to us. The controversy is between Christ and Anti
christ ; it is apostolical religion or the apostasy : there can
be no concession, there can be no compromise ; it is life or
death; happiness or woe ; and in that solemn light, and with
these deep convictions, we ought to address ourselves to this
momentous subject. Let me state, too, that all the signs
of the times indicate that this is to be the coining contro
versy. I believe that all society is splitting into two great
sections : those who will rally round Antichrist — call it the
Church, call it the priest, call it any thing you like — as their
Saviour, and their hope, and their God ; and those who
rally round and cleave to Christ as " the only name given
among men whereby we can be saved."

424 THE BARNET DISCUSSION.
The reason, however, more immediately, of my appear
ance here is the very extraordinary fact, which* I did not
discover at the time, that at the doors of the last meeting
held in this place, before the discussion could have been
even reported by the cleverest shorthand writer that ever
wrote, there was circulated among the people as they retired,
a pamphlet called " Popery and Protestantism : an Anti
dote to two Anti- Cathohc Lectures delivered by the Rev.
Dr. Gumming, at the Hall, Barnet, printed by Henry Lucas,
No. 3 Burleigh Street, Strand." Now, how they should
have gone to "No. 3 Burleigh Street, Strand," to "Mr.
Henry Lucas, Printer," as the title-page indicates, and
could have answered my lectures before these lectures were
actually delivered, is one of those miracles that the Church
of Rome alone can claim credit for, and such a miracle as I
dp , submit even the Rev. Dr. Faa di Bruno, " the Catholic
Parish Priest in Barnet," alone would identify himself with.
It seems, therefore, that Dr. Faa, who professed on this
platform that he had no time for preparation, — that he had
not been able to give attention to the subject, as he said, it
came suddenly upon him — had, notwithstanding, for the
last three months at least, been laboriously concocting a
reply to Dr. Cumming's lectures. He had seen these lec
tures through some infallible telescope of his own ; he had
heard them in the echo before they were delivered ; and
with that foresight and sagacity which he exhibited, he had
prepared the corresponding antidote before the poison ap
peared : an act, I say, enough to place Dr. Faa di Bruno
amongst the most distinguished saints in the Roman Cath
olic calendar, as well as to make him, indeed, to be far more
valued and promoted in the Church to which he belongs.
This " antidote " endeavors " to compare the errors (as he
supposes) of Popery with the truths of the Bible : against
which are here compared the errors of Protestantism with
the truths of the Bible. By the Rev. Dr. Faa di Bruno,

THE BARNET DISCUSSION. 425
the Cathohc Parish Priest in Barnet " — the parish priest,
you observe ; he does not disguise his ecclesiastical pre-
tensions. When I read his title-page, I sent a person
at once to Mr. Henry Lucas, printer, No. 3, Burleigh
Street, Strand. He went, and knocked at the door for
about five minutes, but there was no printer there. The
door was shut, and there was no access ; and every effort
that I made to get information respecting Mr. " Henry
Lucas, printer, No. 3 Burleigh Street, Strand," the printer
of this document, utterly failed. I wanted to know if it
was a fact that this is a regular tract circulated by Roman
Catholics, kept always in readiness — like a pistol loaded,
ready to be fired off on all appropriate occasions ; and
whether a blank leaf was left to be filled up, so that if the
Rev. Dr. Faa di Bruno should remove from Barnet, and
leave it to some other priest, he could cancel his own name,
and put in Dr. somebody else, who is to be his successor, if
successor he is to have, and so fire off the tract at every
meeting held to discuss these important subjects. I could
get no information on this matter ; and I therefore leave the
history of the tract and its succession — I leave this for
your own imaginations to supply ; and address myself to its
contents, which profess to be associated with my name, and
with the discussion held in this place.
Now I want plainly and simply to speak to you as unto
reasonable men; and I ask you to judge for yourselves.
For recollect, the essence of Popery is to take what the
minister says, and, because he says it, to believe it: the
essence of Protestantism is to bring not my statement only,
but were it the statement of the venerable and evangelical
Archbishop of Canterbury, to the law and the testimony.
If an Archbishop or curate, presbyter or priest speak against
it — nay, more, " if we, or an angel from heaven, preach to
you any other Gospel, let him be anathema." I therefore
ask you, as reasenable men, to listen to the analysis that I
36*

426 THE BARNET DISCUSSION.
give of the texts quoted by the " Rev. Dr. Faa di Bruno,
•Catholic parish priest in Barnet," against the doctrines of
Protestant Christianity, and in favor, as he says, of the doc-
strines of Rome.
If Dr. Faa had been present, however, I should have
(first congratulated him upon the privilege which he enjoys
iin this country, and to which the last Pope, Gregory XVI.
was very much opposed, namely, the liberty of the press.
Por, no sooner has the meeting been closed, than Dr. Faa
-avails himself of the liberty of the press, and prints and
'Circulates the tract now lying before me. It is very strange
'that whilst Dr. Faa was availing himself of this liberty, his
great master, who preceded Pius IX., Gregory XVL, had
¦heartily denounced it ; for in 1832 this Pope wrote: "Hither
tends that worst, and never sufficiently to be execrated and
detested liberty of the press, for the diffusion of all manner of
Writings, which some so loudly contend for." And he adds
top : " Frpm this same fountain of indifference flows that
absurd and erroneous doctrine, or rather raving, in favor,
>and in defence of liberty of conscience, for which most pesti
lential error the course is open by that entire and wild
liberty of opinion, etc." Here, then, is a Pope, in 1832,
denouncing the liberty of the press, as well as liberty of
¦conscience; which Dr. Faa has made use of in 1850.
.Here is a Pope denouncing it ; here is a priest making use
*of it ; and I have no doubt that Dr. Faa feels that, however
.admirable the Pope's doctrine may be at Rome, where the
Pope has all the power, our Protestant doctrine is best
-where he has not the power ; and he has accordingly turned
iit to account in the circulation of this pamphlet.
He impugns first of all the statement that " Protestants
'hold, that the Holy Scriptures are clear and easy to be un-
•derstood in all things necessary to salvation." Well, we
lave certainly been in the habit, the unfortunate habit, if
Dr. Faa chooses to call it so, of believing this. We have

THE BARNET DISCUSSION. 427
believed so upon such grounds as this, that he that reads
may "run while he reads." And we find, too, that when
the apostles preached, there were certain parties who
searched the Scriptures, if these things were so ; and there
fore many of them believed. The Scriptures were thought
so plain in the days of Paul and Timothy, that the apostle,
in bis Epistle to Timothy, reminds him of the fact that he
had known the Scriptures from a child, and that he had
been taught them by his mother, and by his grandmother.
Now either Timothy must have been a very extraordinary
child, with an extraordinary intellect to understand the
Scriptures in his day ; or, on the supposition that he was
like others, our children may understand the Scriptures too,
and their mothers and grandmothers should teach them as
of old. It is part of the apostolical succession to do so.
All these passages would inchne me to think that the
Scriptures, in all essential truths, cannot be very difficult.
At all events, if it be very difficult to understand them, we
ask Dr. Faa what he proposes to substitute for them ? He
will tell you at once : " The bulls of Popes, the canons of
Councils, the traditions of the Church." Well, some of
these are in Greek, some of them are in Latin, and some of
them in very crabbed Latin, most of them very misty and
obscure ; and I do venture to assert, (and I would tell Dr.
Faa so if he were here, but he has not honored us with his
presence to-day,) that if the Bible be very difficult to under
stand, it is not at all, in this respect, to be compared with
the difficulty of understanding Pope's bulls, and decrees of
Synods, and canons of General Councils. So that to take
the most fair view, to take his rule of faith, and to take
ours, I do venture to assert that the plain agricultural la<
borer in the neighborhood of Barnet will pick out of the
Bible the way to heaven, and hold it so fast that all the
Popes and prelates in the world will not take it from him ;
while I defy Captain Trotter, with all his knowledge, or my

428 THE BARNET DISCUSSION.
friend the Rev. Mr. Parker beside me, with all his learning,
to find' out very easily the way to heaven in any of the bulls
that Popes ever wrote, or in the canons that Councils ever
composed. But he gives a reason for his belief; and I am always
thankful when a priest gives a reason. I know they are not
accustomed to it. They like to appeal to authority, or to
the Church; they never like to deal With reasons; but
when you can get them to reason, I am always thankful,
because we have then something to grapple with. He says :
" Contrary to the express werds of Scripture : ' Even as
eur beloved brother Paul also, according to the wisdom
given unto him, hath written unto you. As also in all his
epistles, speaking in them of those things ; in which are
some things hard to be understood, which they that are
unlearned and unstable wrest, as they do also the other
Scriptures, unto their own destruction.' 2 Pet. iii. 15, 16."
Now his first reason is, that the Scriptures are not a plain
book, but, on the contrary, a dangerous book, for certain par
ties, unlearned and unstable, did " Wrest them to their own
destruction." We reply that when we give you the Bible,
we give it you not to wrest it, but to read it, to study it, and
pray over it ; and if you wrest the Bible to your own de
struction, surely to make that an argument against the right
use of the Bible is as bad as to say, " Your child put its
hand into the fire, and burned it ; therefore, no fire shall be
in the kitchen or in the drawing-room for ever and ever : "
or to say that some person, by his carelessness, set fire to a
house, and made that fire an instrument of desolation, and
therefore, fire, instead of being a blessing, is to be abhorred
as a calamity. Would you admit that reasoning ? Would
any sober-minded man, except Dr. Faa di Bruno, allow that
the use of a thing is to be condemned because certain par
ties wrest that thing to their own destruction ?
But there is more than this. It is said that these parties*

THE BARNET DISCUSSION. 429
in the days of Peter, wrested the Scriptures to their own
destruction. What does this imply ? Why, that they read
them, or how could they wrest them? But Dr. Faa di
Bruno will not admit that this is according to the laws of
his Church ; for, according to those laws, the Bible, even the
Romish authorized version, is only to be given by special
license ; it is not to be allowed for promiscuous reading
among the people.
But there is another blunder which the Dr. makes. You
will recollect that he quoted the Latin version when he
referred to the " original ; " never dreaming that the Greek
was the original language. Had he known Greek, he would
have known that the " in which are some things hard to be
understood" does not mean in which Epistles. The "in
which" is not in the feminine gender, referring to Epis
tles — the apostle does not say that there are some things
in the Epistles hard to be understood — the word is in the
neuter gender, i v oTg, " in which (subjects) are things hard
to be understood." The subjects are the subjects of proph
ecy which the apostle is specially referring to. For Dr.
Faa di Bruno, therefore, to quote this as evidence that there
are some things in the Epistles of the apostle hard to be
understood, is to show that happy knack of misquoting the
Bible in which Roman Catholics, beyond all men, have ex
celled, and do excel at the present moment.
But suppose it were what Dr. Faa alleges ; and that the
passage meant that the epistles of Paul were hard to be
understood; I ask are Popes' epistles easy? Can Popes
write plainer than Paul? Are they more easily under
stood ? But taking his own translation (which I do not)
what is the cure which the apostle prescribes ? Let us see
what he says in this chapter; for Roman Catholics have
another awkward habit : they always stop short at the pas
sage they quote just where it seems to serve their purpose,
and rarely go on to the part which would really enlighten

430 THE BARNET DISCUSSION.
them on the true meaning of the writer. The apostle says;
" Which they that are unlearned and unstable." Unlearned
in what? Not in Greek and Latin, but unlearned in the
knowledge of the Bible. And " unstable : " people that are
unsettled. They " wrest," which they have no right to do,
for that is the abuse of it, " as they do also the other Scrip
tures, to their own destruction." What cure does he pre
scribe ? " Ye, therefore, beloved, [speaking to Christians;]
" seeing that ye know these things before, beware lest ye
also, being led away with the error of the wicked, fall from
your own steadfastness." Hear the cure, or the preventive
of wresting the Scriptures to their own destruction : " Grow
in grace, and in the knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus
Christ." In other words, make yourselves more acquainted
with the Scriptures, and then you will not run the risk of
wresting them. And this is 'my prescription for Dr. Faa di
Bruno. Let him acquaint himself more with the Bible, and
he will not blunder so much when he quotes' it; or "wrest"
it to the service of the Church of Rome, as he has done on
this platform.
This is the only argument he assigns against the easiness
of the Scriptures to be understood. Has he proved his
point? Has he not rather given me an opportunity of
showing how little the Church of Rome has to say for her
self against the Bible, and how much the Bible has to say
against the Church of Rome ? ,
The next " point" is No. 2. " Protestants maintain," he
says, " that the doctrine of our Saviour and the apostles, as
to all necessary points, is fully contained in the written
Word." This is just what I want to prove. You will re
collect that I asked Dr. Faa: "If you have a tradition
which you can prove to be divine, present it; prove it to be
so, and I accept it as divine. If you can show me a sentence
uttered by an inspired apostle, and prove it to have been so
uttered, I accept it as just as authoritative as a verse from

THE BARNET DISCUSSION. 431
the Bible." But he presented none ; he proved nothing.
He quoted the Creed; but I showed him that the Creed
was given in different words by different Fathers ; that it
was not composed by the apostles, and was not, therefore, an
apostolic tradition, nor a continuous aud unvarying tra
dition ; and that unless he could show me some one thing,
some one doctrine which he could prove to have been
uttered by an inspired apostle, I must still say that the writ
ten Word contains all.
But he says : " Contrary to the written Word, which
clearly testifies that all is not written which is to be be
lieved." He then quotes 2 Thess. ii. 15. "Therefore,
brethren, stand fast, and hold the traditions which ye have
been taught, whether by word or by our Epistle." Of
course, the Apostle Paul first preached to the Thessalonians,
and then he wrote to them ; and he bids them hold fast the
traditions which they had been taught, either when he viva
voce addressed them, or when he afterwards committed what
he so taught to writing, and embodied it in his epistles.
Reading the passage, therefore, I infer at once that what
the apottle said orally he communicated to writing.' At all
events 'there are two Epistles to the Thessalonians ; and we
presume that if there was any thing important, the apostle
embodied it in them — that he left out nothing that was of
any real importance to our salvation. First, then, there is
no tradition that ever I could lay my hand on that could be
proved to be apostolic ; and, secondly, there is no evidence
that the apostle excluded from his Epistle what he stated
vivd voce, when he preached to the Thessalonians, and if he
did, we ask Dr. Faa to produce Paul's vivd voce teaching as
distinct from his written teaching, Dr. Faa's reasoning is a
perfect non sequitur : it does not prove the point for which
he quotes it.
The Dr. next lays down "point" 3. " Protestants hold
that every private man and woman among the laity, has a

432 THE BARNET DISCUSSION.
right which no authority on earth can deprive them of, to
judge of the sense of Scripture, and interpret it for them
selves." The phraseology of this I demur to. Every man
has a right which God has given him to have the Bible.
For what is the Bible ? A letter from my Father to me, his
child; and no man has a right to say: "Your Father's
letter to you his child you shall not read." No man has a
right to come and say : " You shall look at that letter, but
you shall put on my green, blue, or dim spectacles through
which to read it." I assert that I have a right to read it
with my own eyes, because God has given it me ; and,
therefore, if angel or saint, as I told you before, were to
offer me their services in reading God's word, I would de^
cline them. I must, as the Patriarch of old told his ser
vants, tell father, and doctor, and Pope, and priest to stand
at the bottom of the mount, whilst I go up alone to its sunlit
pinnacle, and there speak and hear face to face with my
Father and my God as he has permitted. I will not consent
to look at the Bible second hand. No farthing candle for
me, when the big sun shines from the sky ! No canonized
urns and cups for me, when the open fountains of the earth
are accessible, and the great ocean rolls at my feet ! I want
no crutch to walk with when I can walk alone in the way
that God has pointed out, seeking direction from that blessed
Spirit who has promised to lead me unto all truth.
But the Dr. adds this passage: "Knowing this first, that
no prophecy of the Scripture is of any private interpre
tation." The whole dispute about that has arisen about the
meaning of the word emlvaswg, which is rendered (I think
erroneously) "interpretation." It means, of no private
loosing, unfolding, I think fairly " application : " " is of no
private application." So the reason assigned proves, " For
the holy men of God spake as they were moved by the
Holy Ghost." The meaning is, that no prophecy describes
specific individual circumstances applicable only to the

THE BARNET DISCUSSION. 433
prophet that uttered it, as if he were speaking of Ms own
matters, in his own spirit, for his own purposes ; but, being
inspired by the Holy Spirit of God, it is for catholic, gen
eral, universal use. But I take the words just as he quoted
them : " No prophecy of Scripture is of any private inter
pretation." The apostle, you observe, is not speaking of
the Scriptures generally, but of prophecy. We Protestants
agree that there are great difficulties in the interpretation of
prophecies relating to the future, and I think the Roman
Catholics do not disagree with us ; and all that that text
would prove, if it meant that we were not privately to read,
and that we could not personally understand, would do so as
far as it applies to unfulfilled prophecy. But we are not
discussing unfulfilled prophecy, but the reading and the
understanding of God's plain written Word ; and, on this
ground alone I meet the objection. But the reason assigned
by the sacred penman shows the nature of it : " For the holy
men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost."
That is, the Lord of the universe inspired them to utter
these prophecies, not for any private purposes, or to be ap
plied to the Prophet's circumstances, case, or condition, but
for the universal good and use and well-being of the Church
Universal. The next point mentioned by Dr. Faa is, " Protestants
deny that in controversies and disputes of religion, we are
bound to submit to the judgment of the Pastors pf the
Church ; but they hold that the contending parties ought to
consult the Scriptures, and, that each party has a right to
decide the controversy by the written Word, as each one
shaU expound it to the best of his judgment." All that is
language put into our mouths. We do not say we are to
interpret Scripture for ourselves. We say it is our right to
have it, and it is our duty to read it in reliance on the Spirit
of God, answerable to Him alone for the conclusions to
which we come. We say, the rule of faith is not the Bible
37

434 THE BARNET DISCUSSION.
expounded by A, or expounded by B, or the Bible as held
by the Church of England, or as held by the Scotch Church,
or any other body, but it is the Bible alone that is the rule
of faith. Do not forget this. It is not the Bible held by
me, or the Bible held by you ; but it is the Bible and the
Bible alone which is to be our rule of faith.
Then he says : " Contrary to many texts of the written
Word of God, such as ' As my Father sent me, even so
send I you.' ' He that heareth you heareth me, and he that
despiseth you despiseth me, and he that despiseth me de
spiseth him that sent me.' ' But if he neglect to hear the
Church let him be unto thee as a heathen man and a pub
lican.' ' Which is the Church of the living God, the pillar
and ground of the truth' "
First, we do at once say, that we do object to be bound
to submit to the judgment of the Pastors of the Church, as
if they were our rule of faith and the infallible guides to the
kingdom of heaven. And we do so on the following grounds.
In the first place, we are not sure that all the Pastors of
the Church are what they ought to be, and for the very
obvious reason that the apostle himself tells us : " After my
departing shall grievous wolves enter in among you." How
do I know that a pastor — how do I know that Dr. Faa di
Bruno (I do not say that he is, very far from it) is not one
of those wolves the apostle speaks of. " After my depart
ing shall grievous wolves enter in among you, not sparing
the flock. Also of your own selves " [the clergy] "shall
many arise and speak perverse things to draw away dis
ciples," Now then, knowing this, that ministers should
become corrupt, depraved, and ignorant, it cannot be meant
' and designed by God in his holy Word, that I am to accept
their dicta as the means of my salvation. If I have His
word in my hand repeating to me this remarkable language :
" If we, or any angel from heaven, preach to you any other
gospel, let him be anathema ; " am I then to take any pas-

THE BARNET DISCUSSION. 435
tor's opinion as my creed when I have ringing in my ears
these words? "If we," that is, the apostle, if that were
possible, — "oran angel from heaven " — not a bad angel
that you might suspect, but one clothed with the radiance of
heaven, and holy as the inhabitants are ; — if that angel
should preach any ether Gospel, let him be anathema."
What does all this imply ? That laymen, Christian laymen,
do know what the Gospel is. How could the apostle say to
the Galatian laity, "If an angel preach to you any other
Gospel, let him be anathema," if he did not mean by that
that the laity were capable of saying: "This is the Gospel,
preached by A ; that is not the Gospel preached by B ? '
How could he say, " Judge if it be so," if it did not imply
that they had some means of determining what was the
Gospel, and what was not — namely, the Bible ; and that
the Bible was an intelligible book : for how could they de
termine from the Bible what was the Gospel, and what was
not, if that Bible was unintelligible ? I hold, then, that as
long as this text remains in the Bible, I cannot submit to
the pastors of any church as infallible guides to heaven,
however much I value them. You know there was a Judas
among the twelve apostles ; and was he fit to teach me the
way to heaven ?
Then he quotes the text : " If he neglect to hear the
Church let him be unto thee as a heathen man and a publi
can." I am amazed at the great ignorance Roman Catho
lics show of the Bible. They may know canons and Coun
cils very well ; but when they come to open the Bible, they
constantly blunder. This is another specimen of the blun
ders made by Dr. Faa on this very subject. He says that
one reason for our hearing the Church is, that " If he neg
lect to hear the Church [that is, on matters of controversy,
for as such he quotes it] let him be unto thee as a heathen
man and a publican." Now let me read the whcle of the
passage; and I ask you to notice, in analyzing it, if it

436 THE BARNET DISCUSSION.
speaks ef doctrine at all. Recollect, Dr. Faa quotes the
passage to prove that in matters of doctrine we are to hear
and abide by the decisions of the pastors of the Church.
" If thy brother shall trespass against thee " — trespass :
a quarrel, — if he smite you, if he steal from you, if he say
any thing bad about you — " go and tell him his fault be
tween thee and him alone : if he shall hear thee, thou hast
gained thy brother. But if he will not hear thee, then take
with thee one or two more, that in the mouth of two or
three witnesses every word may be established. And if he
shall neglect to hear them, tell it unto the Church." What
is to be told to the Church ? A doctrinal dispute ? Not a
word about it; but a quarrel between two private Chris
tians. " But if he neglect to hear the Church, let him be
to thee as a heathen man and a publican."
But suppose I were to say that, in any one sense that
Dr. Faa likes, I am to go to the Church, what does he
mean by the Church ? He will answer, the whole company
of the faithful, with the Pope at its head, and cardinals, and
bishops, and priests, governing it. Now this Roman Catho
lic Church is spread far and wide ; for the apostasy " sits
upon many waters ; " and " tongues and multitudes " follow
her : Christ's flock is the few ; it is the " little flock " as
long as this dispensation lasts. How, then, am I to hear the
Roman Catholic Church ? I cannot hear all the bishops at
once. How could I summon them ? If I and my dear
brother and friend here were to quarrel (as we never do)
how could we settle our dispute by hearing the Church ? I
cannot call the Popes and all the bishops together to settle
my quarrel ; and they would very much laugh at me, if I
were to ask them. How, then, am I to hear the Church ?
Does he say I am to go to the priest ? He is a fallible indi
vidual, and not the Church. Am I to go to the bishop ?
He is fallible too, and only a bishop of the Church. To the
Pope? He is only infallible in Italy — he won't do in

THE BARNET DISCUSSION. 437
England; he is out of his latitude and longitude here.
There is something in the fine air, something in the sun
shine, something in the waters of the Tiber, something in
the mesmeric chair in which he sits that makes all he emits
there to be absolutely infallible ; but the instant he comes
upon this old, heretical, dogged soil, every thing he utters is
as fallible as that which I or any other minister may utter.
Now, there has not been a General Council since 1564.
The Church has been dead three hundred years, and will
not live again until another General Council is called. How,
then, can I hear the Church ? Dr. Faa was silent when I
put the question to him ; and his successor may be silent
still when the question is put again: if either, however,
should give an answer I shall be happy to reply- to it.
The next passage quoted by the Doctor is 1 Timothy hi.
14, 15. "Which is the Church of the living God, the
pillar and ground of the truth." Now, where does this pas
sage occur? In St. Paul's Epistle to Timothy. He says
the Church is the pillar of the truth. The query is, which
Church ? This query is all quietly concealed. If you will
read through the tract, you will see that Dr. Faa, with
inimitable modesty, assumes that the Church, whenever it is
mentioned in the Bible, means the Church of Rome. But
this is just the matter in dispute. We deny that the Church
of Rome is the Church ; and we deny it on the plain ground
which I have assigned before — that Christ says : " Go,
teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father,
and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost ; teaching to ob
serve all things whatsoever I commanded you, and lo, I am
with you alway, to the end of the world." Does not that
promise mean that if we ministers teach all that Christ
commanded, then we shall have Christ's presence to support
us ? But if we do not teach what Christ commanded, then
we lose Christ's presence ; and where Christ is not, there is
no Church. An architect can build a cathedral ; a builder
37*

438 THE BARNET DISCUSSION.
can raise a large house : but 1t is only the Queen coming
into that house that can make it a palace ; it is only Christ
coming into that cathedral that can make it a church. It is
not the stones and mortar that make the church ; but it is :
" Wheresoever two or three are gathered together in my
name." If we would look more at the Bible, and less at
succession, and Catholic antiquity, and Fathers, and Coun
cils, and all this miserable twaddling, which is outside all
that is vital, and essential, and decisive — if we would look
much more at our Bible, many of our thoughts about the
Church would be reduced to a very little compass. I be
lieve the normal idea of a Church is (while to this may be
added what is necessary for decency, for order, for disci
pline ; these things being most proper :) " wheresoever two
or three are gathered together in my name, there am I in
the midst of them." Dr. Faa assumes that the Church spo
ken of throughout all these passages is the Church of Rome.
But then we show you that she has lost the promise of
Christ's presence, and therefore lost the very character of a
Church; because she does not teach all that Christ com
manded, and his Church is therefore at once excluded.
Christ said that the people were all of them to drink of the
cup ; Dr. Faa dares not give the cup to any lay person in
his congregation. Christ said that a bishop may be the hus
band of one wife ; no bishop, nor Dr. Faa himself, does
marry one wife, any more than he dares marry half a dozen.
Therefore, they are not teaching what Christ commanded ;
but teaching, as I might show you at length, the very re
verse. Hence the Church of Rome has forfeited her claim
to be a Church at all : she is the apostasy ; and the longer I
live the more I am convinced she is really and truly so.
But there is more than this, " the Church in this passage
quoted from Timothy is not yet determined." What Church
was Paul speaking of? The Church of Ephesus, where
Timothy was bishop. " How thou oughtest to behave thy-

THE BARNET DISCUSSION. 439
self (Timothy) in the house of God which is the Church of
the living God" — that is, the Church of which he was the
head, or chief minister. This Church, the Church of Ephe
sus, is extinct. To apply this to the Church of Rome is
manifestly to misapply it. These passages, then, which he
quotes, do not prove his fourth point ; and we dispose of it
as " not proven," as we call it in Scotland.
The Dr.'s next argument is point 5. " Protestants hold
that the Church of Rome, though once the true. Church of
Christ, was become so impure and corrupt in her doctrine,
when the Reformation set out, that she is rightly judged to
be the whore of Babylon, mentioned by St. John in the
Revelation, ' who hath made all the kings of the earth and
all people drunk with the wine of her fornication.' "
So we do. I do not hesitate to say, if the picture of that
woman given in the Apocalypse — and I am quite ready.
whenever Dr. Faa will meet me, to prove it — of all her
sorceries, idolatries, wickednesses, and superstitions, were
printed in the Hue and Cry, there is not an informer in
England, acquainted with the Romish Church, who would
not pounce upon the Church of Rome as the very personage
that answers exactly to the picture.
He says this is contrary to the words of the Bible, and
quotes Eph. v. 24, " As the Church is subject unto Christ,
so let wives be to their own husbands in every thing. Hus
bands, love your wives, even as Christ loved the Church,
and gave himself for it : that he might sanctify and cleanse
it by the washing of water by the word. That he might
present it to himself a glorious Church, not having spot or
wrinkle, or any such thing, but that it should be holy and
without blemish.' Observe first, how he again quietly as
sumes that the Church here spoken of is the Church of
Rome ; but any Protestant has as good a right to say, it is
the Church of England; and any other might say it is
the Independent, the Baptist, or the Wesleyan Church;

440 THE BARNET DISCUSSION.
another might say, it is the Greek Church, and another; the
Syriac Church ; and the Church of Rome cannot say why
it-should not be applied to any one of these just as much as
to herself. But Dr. Faa assumes the very thing which we
dispute — that it is the Church of Rome here that is spoken
of. Then again, he is ignorant (for he does not assume
here) of a mighty distinction which exists. They are "not
all Israel who are of Israel. The Church visible compre
hends " sheep and goats," " tares and wheat," " good fishes
and bad ; " but the true Church, chosen in Christ before the
foundation of the world, washed in his blood, the bride of
the Lamb, the election according to grace, the "living
stones," the " holy nation," the " chosen generation," the
" peculiar people " — that is, the inner Church for which
the outer Church exists ; and of that body it is said that
Christ loved it, and washed it in his blood, and will present
it to himself. But if this means the visible Church, then
Dr. Faa must conclude that every member of the Church
must be saved ; but no Roman Catholic, even in his wildest
enthusiasm, will admit that. He must admit, if he apply
these words to his Church, that Judas, who partook of the
communion, was saved ; he must admit that bad priests who
have lived and died in it — that bad popes, notoriously bad
and wicked, who have lived and died in it — that all will be
cleansed, and presented to Christ " without spot or wrinkle
or any such thing." But by assuming here that this is the
Church of Rome ; he, of course, believes that that Church
is without spot or wrinkle. Those of you who were present
when the discussion took place will remember that I gave
you some descriptive particulars of the Church of Rome.
Now, the Church described by the apostle is a Church
" without spot or wrinkle, or any such thing." Let me give
you a picture of the Church of Rome in the 10th century,
not sketched by a Protestant, but a Roman Catholic histo
rian — the standard historian of the Church of Rome —

THE BARNET DISCUSSION. 441
namely, Baronius. What does he say ? " What was the
face of the whole Church in this century ? How foul was it
when sordid women ruled at Rome, at whose will the sees
were changed, and bishops were presented; and, What is
horrible to hear, false pontiffs, their lovers, were intruded
into the chair of St. Peter : for who can affirm that men
illegally intruded by wicked women of this sort were Roman
Pontiffs ? " And he goes on to describe that such was the
picture of the Church in that age that it was more like the
apostasy than any thing else ; and he adds : " Let not, there
fore, men be astonished if they perceive the abomination of
desolation standing in the temple ; whereas we ought rather
to wonder, and recognize the divine power, since the deso
lation of the temple did not directly follow that abomination,
as was the case formerly." You have the picture here by
themselves ; and you have the picture of the Church by an
apostle. Is there any identity between them ? The two
need but to be compared to convince us that if the Church
of the apostle be the Church, the Church of Barpnius, pf
Pius IX., and of Dr. Faa, must be thU Apostasy.
But he argues from St. Paul's description of the Church,
that it should be " holy, without spot, without blemish ; "
that the Church of Rome, once pure, could not be expected
to have become impure. Let me give you the following
text from Romans xi. 20. The Apostle Paul wrote an
Epistle to the Church of Rome when she was pure ; and,
notice, what he seems to imply might possibly be the case.
He says (speaking to the Church of Rome) : " Be not high-
minded, but fear ; for if God spared not the natural branches,
take heed lest he also spare not thee. Behold, therefore,
the goodness and severity of God: on them which fell,
severity; but toward thee, goodness, if thou continue in his
goodness ; otherwise, thou also shalt be cut off." Dr. Faa
says, it is impossible that the Roman Church, once pure,
should become impure; but the apostle assumes that she

442 THE BARNET DISCUSSION.
will so change, warns her of that change, and tells her pn
what footing she stands.
In the sixth point, he says, the Pope is not Antichrist,
because there are many clear texts of the Bible to the con
trary. 2 Thess. ii. 4. " Who opposeth and exalteth himself
above all that is called God, or that is worshipped ; so that
he as God sitteth in the temple of God, showing himself
that he is God." Then he remarks : " Let Protestants say,
which of the Popes, for the last thousand years or up
wards, did declare himself to be God ? " There is a very
clever ruse here ; he has acted skilfully indeed ; if as
honestly and truly, as skilfully, it would have done him
credit. The apostle does not say that any Pope " declared
himself to be God ; " but that he " shows himself that he is
God " — that is, doing deeds which imply the assumption of
the power and prerogatives of Deity. But the Doctor turns
round, and says, " Show me the Pope that ever declarea
himself to be God." We never said that any Pope declared
himself to be so ; although there are strange expressions
Popes have used, and many pretensions Popes have made,
very much in this direction, which I could quote if time per
mitted. But we do not here say that any Pope declared
himself to be God (whether true or not, that is not my
charge) ; but we say that the Pope sits in the temple of
God, showing himself as if he were God. When Pius IX
was elected, where was he placed ? Before I answer that,
let me explain what the high altar is in the Church of Rome.
It is that holy place on which the priest pretends to bring
down, by the words which he utters, the Lord Jesus — soul
and body, divinity and humanity, God-man — to be laid upon
the altar, to be sacrificed, as an atonement made for the" sins
of the people. Now, when Pope Pius IX. was consecrated
he was carried on the shoulders of the Cardinals (according
to the L' Univers newspaper, and the description of the
ceremonies which are of authority upon that subject), and

THE BARNET DISCUSSION. 443
was placed on the high altar just where Christ comes down,
according to their view, and is sacrificed ; the fumes of the
incense arose around him, and all the choristers instantly
sang the " Te Deum," and " Behold the Lamb of God,"
and the Cardinals fell down and " adored him " — I give
you the authorized words. The Cardinals adored the Pope
enthroned upon the high altar, said to be, in their theology,
the very seat of God. Well now, this does not say, that
the Pope says, " I am God ; " but when he is so seated, and
so adored, and so incensed, and so celebrated, certainly he
shows himself as if he were God; and that is just what
Paul asserts.
But he quotes another passage, 1 John ii. 22. " Who is
a liar but he that denieth that Jesus is Christ ? He is the
Antichrist that denieth the Father and the Son." There
were many Antichrists ; but aU that we argue is that there
is one distinctive permanent one, specified, according to my
view, in the Second Epistle to the Thessalonians. If the
Church of Rome denied the Father and the Son, she would
then be infidel : we do not assert that of her ; but what
we do say is, that by implication, she does so. You recollect,
an infidel denies the Bible, denies the Saviour, denies God
— we understand that : if the Church of Rome did that,
there would be no mystery about the matter ; but the
mystery of Romanism is that she admits every truth, and
then, in deeds, displaces, dislodges, and destroys itself: so
she admits the Father and the Son in theory, but indeed
she denies them ; and the denial by deeds is far more
eloquent than any denial by words. Then, as to denying
the Son, I might show that there have been unbelieving
Popes. Dr, Faa di Bruno himself will admit that Pope
Liberius was an Arian — what we call a Socinian — and
denied the deity of our Blessed Lord. But it is unneces
sary to discuss this here.
I now pass on to ppint 7. " Prptestants held that no

444 THE BARNET DISCUSSION.
privilege or power was granted by our Saviour Christ to
St. Peter above the rest of the apostles, but that they were
all equal in power and authority ; and that the Scriptures
reveal no such things as St. Peter's supremacy, nor conse
quently the supremacy of his successors, the Bishops of
Rome." We do say so ; and he states that very distinctly.
Dr. Faa quotes texts from the Bible to show that Peter was
at the head of the apostles : John xxi. 15. " So when they
had dined Jesus said to Simon Peter, Simon, Son of Jonas,
lovest thou me more than these ? He saith unto him, Yea,
Lord, thou knowest that I love thee. He saith unto him,
Feed my lambs. He saith unto him again the second time,
Simon, son of Jonas, lovest thou me ? He saith unto him,
Yea, Lord, thou knowest that I love thee. He saith unto
him, Feed my sheep." Ergo, reasons Dr. Faa, Peter is the
head of the apostles, and Pontiff of Rome. It is not clever
to quote such a text, and then instantly to jump from it to
the conclusion that Pius IX. is the great Pontiff who is the
head of the Church Universal or Catholic. Now, first let
me notice what is immediately added to this text, but which
the Dr. so quietly puts his thumb upon; he quotes two
verses that seem to satisfy him, but says nothing about the
next verse. And why ? Because it is said, " Peter was
grieved." Would Peter have been grieved at being made
Pope and head of the apostles ? He would have felt hon
ored and rejoiced : he would have had a sense of great
responsibility, but still he would have felt honored. But it
is said he was grieved. Did you ever hear of a Pope being
grieved that he was made Pppe? Is there not a scramble
for the office, quarrelling, management, diplomacy, in deter
mining which cardinal shall be pope ? If they rejoice now,
and Peter was grieved then, they show very little of that
specific feature of the succession, whatever else they have
got. Our argument, therefore, is that there was no such
appointment made here. But, in the next place, how can it

THE BARNET DISCUSSION. 445
mean that Peter was to root up, and puU down, as Popes
assume, — that he was to be the head of the Universal
Church — to be infallible — how can that be proved by the
commission, "Feed my sheep?" What has "feed my
sheep," or " govern my sheep," to do with being the supreme
ecclesiastical despot of all the churches of the whole world ?
Are the sheep the clergy? No; nobody says so. The
sheep are the laity. Then the Pope only gets the rule over
the laity, and not over bishops and priests, for the commis
sion is only " feed my sheep." Who is the chief shepherd ?
The apostle says, " When the Chief Shepherd shall appear,"
" I am the Good Shepherd," " The Shepherd gives his life
for the sheep." Therefore, in this passage I cannot see the
least shadow of a reason for constituting Peter supreme, or
Pope, or head of the Church.
The next verse he quotes is a more formidable one. "And
I say unto thee, that thou art Peter (or rock), [Here I must
tell the Doctor that if he had read the original he would
not so far have committed himself as to have put within a
parenthesis this word "rock,"] and upon this rock I will
build my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail
against it." On that basis he founds the superstructure of
the Papal supremacy. In the first place, I may mention
that there are two words here deserving notice : Thou art
Peter, and upon this rock will I build my church. The words
in the original are on au il TLirgog, xai ml tavtr; ry mtqq.
oixodofitjaai rrp> exxlijGiuv jiov. Thou art Hitgog, and upon
this nezQix I will build my church. It is quite plain, there
fore, that whatever be the meaning of these words, there is
a distinction between them. I have been at the trouble the
last two or three years of reading through every Greek
classic authority I could lay my hands on, to ascertain what
the real distinction is between ¦ntxgpg and nstqa, a stone (Dr.
Faa calls it a rock). Here is the "esult of my search : In
the Iliad of Homer I find these words, (Book 16, line 734)
38

446

THE BARNET DISCUSSION.

Aa&ro nexgov oxgioivra, "He seized a sharp, stone."
Again, at the 7th Book, line 270, ()u\wv fivloti,Sei iiiigm,
" striking with a stone — like a mill-stone." -ZEschylus speaks
of vtqag nirgcav, shower of stones. Sophocles has, mrgowi
?.6vo&t]vai, to be stoned with stones.
In all these extracts, the word nergog is used. It is used
for a shower of stones, meaning little stones not larger
than one's hand ; to be stoned with stones, meaning stones
that could be thrown from a man's hand ; to seize a sharp
stone and fling it ; laying hold of a stone (the largest one
mentioned), and taking it in his hand — a stone as large as
a mill-stone, which is clearly a poetic figure. In all these
passages, movable stones are denoted, lleiga is the next
word. We find it in Homer, ^uWnv vijag ngog nagag, "to
drive the ships upon the rocks," — that must be in the bot
tom of the sea. Again naga aiyilip, "a steep rock:"
%u>gog ketog nergawv, "a country free from rocks." Again.
in. the Iliad, neiga ylaq-vgrj, "a hollow rock." All tho
translations of m tga mean a rock. What, therefore, is the
distinction in this passage? av fig Ilitgog — "Thou art a
little stone ; and on thee, Peter, if I were to build my
church, it would fall." Therefore he adds xai itu zavtrj iri
ncrga otxodoft?]ow rtrv exxXijaiav [tov — "It is upon this
great, imbedded, immovable, eternal rock (pointing to him
self) that I will build my church, and the gates of hell shall
not prevail against it." If I wanted a passage, then, to
prove the fallacy of the doctrine of Peter's supremacy, I
should take this very passage. Compare it with parallel
passages : " Behold, I build in Zion a foundation stone."
" To whom coming as unto a living stone, disallowed indeed
of men." " Ye also are built up, living stones," referring in
all these passages to Christ. He says : " I will build my
church.'' Dr. Faa here assumes that the church in this
passage means the Church of Rome, which, of course, we
dispute. The word rendered church is ixxXtjoiuv. 'Ihe

THE BARNET DISCUSSION. 447
same word is used in the Acts of the Apostles, xix. 32,
where it says "the whole assembly was confused." The
word is used by classic writers in the sense of " assembly."
Thucydides has noiuv ixxh-jatav "to constitute a house;"
just as we say it needs so many members of the House of
Commons to " make a house." All it means is " company."
You have, then, Christ, the living stone ; and, raised upon
it, living stones, or believers, and the Church of Christ as
the whole company of justified, regenerated, sanctified, be
lieving people, built upon Christ, the chief corner and
foundation stone, against which the gates of hell (that is,
extinction) never shall prevail. The passage, therefore,
does not prove the point for which the Doctor quoted it.
The Doctor's eighth point is : " Protestants hold that the
saints deceased know not what passes here on earth, and
that they cannot hear the petitions which we address to
them when we implore their intercessions." Whether they
hear or not, is not the question. Should we pray to them ?
Our position is, that we have no business praying to them.
The passage he quotes to prove that they do hear petitions
is Luke xv. 7. " I say unto you that likewise joy shall be
in heaven over one sinner that repenteth, more than over
ninety and nine just persons, which need no repentance."
" Likewise I say unto you, there is joy in the presence of
the angels of God over one sinner that repenteth." And he
adds : " The angels in heaven, therefore, know when a sin
ner repents." The best way to confute a Roman Catholic
is to refer to the passage he quotes. Let me ask you to
refer to this very passage ; and mark what the argument is.
It is argued by my opponent, that there is joy among the
angels over a sinner that repenteth, and therefore the angels
know what is done upon the earth, or how could they rejoice
when the fact transpires. The passage says : (ver. 4.)
" What man of you having an hundred sheep, if he lose
one of them, doth not leave the ninety and nine in the wil-

448 THE BARNET DISCUSSION.
derness, and go after that Which was lost, until he find it ?
And when he hath found it, he layeth it on his shoulders
rejoicing, and when he cometh home he calleth together his
friends and neighbors, saying unto them, Rejoice with me ;
for I have found my sheep which was lost. I say unto you
that likewise joy shall be in heaven over one sinner that
repenteth more than over ninety and nine just persons which
need no repentance." The other passage is : " Either what
woman having ten pieces of silver, if she lose one piece
doth not light a candle, and sweep the house, and seek dili
gently till she find it? And when she. hath found it, she
calleth her friends and her neighbors together, saying,
Rejoice with me ; for I have found the piece which I had
lost. Likewise I say unto you, there is joy in the presence
of the angels of God over one sinner that repenteth." You
will notice that when the shepherd has lost his sheep, he
goes after it and finds it ; but how do his friends know that
he has found it ? He " calls them together and tells them."
Exactly in the same way, it is added, there is joy among the
angels ; that is, as the man who recovers his lost sheep, calls
his friends together and tells them of the fact: so the great
and good Shepherd, when he has recovered a lost sinner,
tells the angels so, and then they rejoice : the very passage
proving that instead of knowing it, they know nothing at all
about it till they are told. This is another specimen of Dr.
Faa Di Bruno's misquoting Scripture and misapplying it in
order to prove his point.
The next, passage he quotes is, "And four and twenty
elders fell down before the Lamb, having every one of them
harps and golden phials full of odors, which are the prayers
of saints." He says " Saints in heaven," but it is not said
so. This is an apocalyptic vision. We have here the
prayers of those who are saints. Look at the words in the
original, " Having every one of them harps and golden
phials full of pdors, which are the prayers of [themselves,

THE BARNET DISCUSSION. 449
their own prayers] the holy ones." Dr. Faa assumes that
a saint is a person canonized by the Pope. The Bible
teaches, if a man is a Christian he is a saint. If he is not
a saint he is no Christian at all. There is a gross idea that
I have heard stated, I think, in one of Dr. Pusey's papers.
He complains, with several other divines of his school, that
it is a pity that there are not the saints in the English
Church that the Church of Rome has. He means by that
expression the saints that are put in the Romish calendar.
I could give you instances of Romish saints — Santa Rosa,
e. g. who used to wear a girdle of hair, and spikes of iron ;
and because of her atrocious cruelty to herself she was
made a saint ; and Dominick, who helped to raise the in
quisition, which burned, slaughtered, and persecuted God's
people : this man also was made a saint. If these be the
saints of the Church of Rome, what must their sinners be !
No language surely can describe them. There is nothing
to show that persons canonized by Popes are saints at all.
The Protestant idea is that all true believers are the saints
of God ; they are so through the operation and regeneration
of the Spirit of God.
The other passage he quotes is : " And the smoke of the
incense which came with the prayers of the saints ascended
up before God out of the angel's hand." You will see from
this passage that no created saint at all is alluded to. It says,
" And another angel came and stood at the altar having a
golden censer ; and there was given unto him much incense
that he should offer it with the prayers of aU saints which
was upon the golden altar which was before the throne."
The Doctor says that was a created angel, and therefore he
says angels hear the prayers of Christians upon earth. In
the first place the imagery employed is borrowed from the
temple ; it is the ancient levitical imagery describing a great
fact. The personage who here appeared was the high-
priest ; for this angel had a golden censer, the other priests
38*

450 THE BARNET DISCUSSION.
had silver censers, the high-priest alone having the golden
one. Now who was the high-priest the type of? The type
of Christ our High-Priest. We read, "There was given
unto him much incense that he should offer it with the
prayers of all saints ; " — that is, all believers since Adam
fell, onwards to the close of this dispensation, which no
created angel could do. In the next place he did it upon
the golden altar, which the high-priest alone approached, as
the altar of incense. The conclusion therefore is here plain,
that this personage is our blessed Lord and Saviour Jesus
Christ, the high-priest interceding within the veil ; and not
any created angel whatever.
The next passage is Genesis xlviii. 16. " The angel which
redeemed me from all evil bless the lads and let my name
be named on them, and the names of my fathers Abraham
and Isaac, and let them grow unto a multitude in the midst
of the earth." I will refer to the passage, and show you
how the Doctor excels in the happy talent I have alluded to,
of quoting the bit that suits himself, and leaving out the bit
that directly refutes his argument. I will read the passage
in its connection. " And he blessed Joseph and said, God
before whom my fathers Abraham and Isaac did walk, the
God which fed me all my life long unto this day, the Angel
which redeemed me from all evil " [is not that term angel
applied to God, the God that fed him, the angel, the mes
senger, Christ, the " Angel of the Covenant," which re
deemed him from all evil ?] '' bless " [singular number]
" the lads." There are not two persons, but one ; but what
will prove this satisfactorily is a reference to the prophecy
of Hosea, xii. 4, where he is describing the very aiagel of
whom Jacob speaks. What does he say ? " Yea, he had
power over the angel and prevailed : he wept, and made
supplication unto him : he found him in Beth-el, and there
he spake with us ; even the Lord God of Hosts, the Lord is
his memorial." Hence is the name of the angel, " the Lord

THE BARNET DISCUSSION. 451
of Hosts." If Dr. Faa had only read these two passages
(and any Bible with parallel texts will ¦ show them) he
would at once have seen what a sad misquoter of Scripture
he is, and how ill off he must be for proofs to have recourse
to such passages as these in order to make good his points.
Then he says : " Contrary to the doctrine of the holy
Scripture, where we are expressly taught to have recourse
to the prayers and intercessions of holy persons. As Abim-
elech had recourse to Abraham, and the three friends of
Job to that holy patriarch, to pray for them : and St. Paul
for his flock." Surely it is a different thing my asking a
brother upon earth to pray for me, and my petitioning an
imaginary saint, who, after all, may not be in heaven at all,
to pray for me. I showed you that some saints in the Ro
man Cathohc Calendar were such notorious roues, so un
christian and unholy in all that they did that it requires a
charity beyond what I can possibly feel to suppose they are
in heaven at all. And therefore I may be asking those
who may not be there. But then there is another great
fact that settles it. All he has quoted is a sort of evidence
that saints in heaven pray for us. Suppose it were so : this
does not prove that we are to pray to them : that is quite a
different thing. But do you not recollect that when the
high-priest was in the holy of holies where he went to inter
cede for the people he was alone. The sacrifice was offered
without, and after that the priest went alone into the holy
place, and alone interceded for the people, and then came
out and blessed them. Now Christ has entered into the true
holy place to appear in heaven for us. As the high-priest,
the type, was in the holy of holies alone, so Christ, alone,
intercedes in heaven for those who are here on earth.
Therefore it is most conclusively evident that there is no
intercession going on for us in heaven except that of Christ.
That beautiful idea of the high-priest in the holy place is
most interesting. It teaches what ought to be our attitude

452 THE BARNET DISCUSSION.
at this moment. Christ, without, (that is on Calvary,) has
finished transgression by offering up one complete sacrifice
and oblation for the sins of all that believe. The second
stage in the high-priest's course was to go into the holy
place alone, and there make intercession for us. Christ has
gone into the holy place, and he is now making intercession.
And what is the third feature ? The priest came forth and
blessed the people. And what were the people doing in
the interval? Waiting with anxious expectancy till the
priest came to bless them. This should be our position.
Christ has come and suffered. He is now within the veil,
interceding. We ought to be waiting ; and if we are the
children of God we are waiting till he come forth in all his
glory and pronounce that grand benediction which will rise
to creation's heights and descend to creation's depths, on
which this groaning world shall lay aside the ashen garments
it has so long worn, and, in the words of Martin Luther,
put on its Easter robes, and the world shall close, as the
world began, with Paradise. Never lose hold of that
blessed idea, that the position of every true Christian at
this moment should be that of waiting till the High-Priest
come forth from his holy place to bless the people.
O ! bear in mind these sublime and precious thoughts.
How poor does Popery look, how does it shrivel into meagre
insignificance beside the grandeur of the blessed truths that
tell us we need no intermediate being between Christ and
us. The Roman Catholic Church has got the idea that God
is still a furious and avenging Being, that he is still ready
to consume us, that he has pleasure in doing so, and that he
watches for occasions to do so. Hence she calls upon the
priest to offer a sacrifice and to pray to the Virgin to depre
cate his wrath, and to angels and saints to step in between
us and the Father and Christ to keep back their vengeance.
The whole idea that runs through the Roman Catholic the
ology is that God and the Saviour are offended beings, and

THE BARNET DISCUSSION. 453
that we need everybody we can get to come between us
and God to keep back his wrath. If I understand the Bible
aright it is that God is in Christ a Father; that I may
go to him With all the filial joy, and rejoicing, and confi
dence, with which a son goes to a father ; and that neither
angel, nor saint, nor cherubim, nor seraphim, are so great
that they may dare to stand between me and my Father
who has made me his son. Our idea is that there is nothing
to be done to reconcile God to us, but that we are to be
reconciled to him. He invites us to come to him and be at
peace at once. This idea is to me delightful. I begin
every prayer with " My Father," " Our Father." What a
beautiful thought is that, " Our Father." We can go to
God in Christ as believers, and really say so. How does
that alter every thing in me ! As long as I do not know
that God is my father, so long I look upon God in the light
of every thing that happens to me. If affliction and sick
ness, loss of property, loss of friends, happen to me, looking
at God in the light of the trouble, I think he is an angry
being just as the Roman Catholic does ; but by planting my
foot in the fatherhood of God — by realizing this blessed
thought that he is my Father, then I do not look at God in
the light of his dispensations, but I look at the dispensations
in the light of God. I do not appeal to the dispensation to
see what God is ; but I first see what God is (my Father),
and then I know what the dispensation is — the manifesta
tion of his love, the expression of his reconciliation to me.
Let us endeavor to teach the Roman Catholics this idea, that
God so loved the world that he gave Christ for us. That
he gave ! I have often thought of that word. It is not
said, that he permitted ; that would have been immense
love ; but it is said, He gave Christ, " that whosoever be
lieveth on him might not perish."
I do not infer from that text that God loves us because
Christ died for us. I am afraid that is the popular theology;

454 THE BARNET DISCUSSION.
I have found it in villages in the North, and I dare say it
may exist in villages here. Christ is not the cause of God's
love to us, but the evidence and the expression of it. But
then you say, if he loved us, why was it necessary Christ
should die ? I answer, because God is just, and holy, and
true ; and the only channel for the egress of his love must
be a channel that would show him to be just, and holy, and
true, while he loved us, and justifies them that believe in
Jesus. Hence, I have always thought, that our blessed
Saviour's sacrifice, as a channel for God's love to reach me,
is not one whit more important than our blessed Lord as the
evidence that God loves me. If Christ be merely a pro
vision for God's love to come to me, then I may be pardoned,
and when I enter heaven I may be admitted and tolerated
there as a pardoned sinner, but no more. If a convict is
sent abroad to the Colonies, and 'afterwards gets a free par
don from the Queen, he comes back to his own country ;
but you do not very much like him shoulder to shoulder —
you do not wish to meet him in society ; he is still a par
doned convict — tolerated, and legally so. If Christ's death
were only a channel of God's love to us — only the means
of God's pardon reaching us, we should be admitted into
heaven, and tolerated there, as legally there, but no more ;
but when I find that Christ is not only the channel of God's
love to me, but the evidence that God loves me, then I shall
enter heaven, not a tolerated and forgiven convict, but a
pardoned, beloved, and adopted son, having all heaven for
my range, and all the attributes of my God and my Father
allied to my happiness.
It is thus that I see in these views grand essential truths,
that rend Romanism, with all its beggarly elements, into
shreds and fragments, and leave not that system one foot to
stand upon. If you deal with Romanists upon their own
ground — upon succession, upon the authority ofthe Church,
upon its antiquity, upcn its prders — upon any ef these

THE BARNET DISCUSSION. 455
grounds, depend upon it, Rome will beat you ; you are on
her own ground, and she will master you. Every man who
has set out to fight her on these grounds has retreated, or
gone on, and landed where so many are landing at the pres
ent moment. But if you will stand upon the old ground
upon which the apostle stood — the glorious Gospel, in all
its fulness, purity, and power, there is not the least fear
that any Roman Catholic can ever dislodge you. So in
finite are the inexhaustible resources of this blessed Book,
that, if you know what Rome says, and know your Bible
well, not only in your head, but in your heart — knowing
what the Gospel is, by having felt its power, no Roman
Catholic, whatever be his skill or talent, can be a match for
you. But I revert to my point. We do not need saints to
deprecate God's wrath ; we need no creature to come be
tween us and our Father, but may go to him at once. What
did the prodigal son say ? "I will arise and go to my
father." Dr. Faa di Bruno would have met him half way,
and said, " Stop, my dear Sir, you must not go there. First
kneel down and confess to me, and then I will absolve you ;
then I will introduce you to the steward, and then to the
head butler ; he will introduce you to the father, and he no
doubt will welcome you." But the prodigal knew better the
mighty fulcrum and the mighty lever of a father's love in a
father's heart ; and no priest could have stopped him. He
came, therefore, with the speed of the lightning, and flung
himself into his father's bosom, and said, " Father, I have
sinned against heaven, and in thy sight ; " and the father
made him instantly welcome. Nay, more ; I have not
stated the full fact. The father " saw him a great way off."
How touching is this ! The father was on the top of his
house (one of the flat-roofed houses of the East) looking
out to catch a glimpse of his returning prodigal. He saw a
speck in the distance ; he saw it increasing and enlarging, and

456 THE BARNET DISCUSSION.
at last exclaimed, " It is like the walk, the gait, the move
ments of my son." As the sun shone brighter, and the features
ofthe poor prodigal became more developed, he was convinced
it was his .son, and he ran out and met him, and fell upon
his neck, needing no other atonement, no other intercessor ;
he welcomed him home, put shoes on his feet, and a ring on
his finger ; bidding all rejoice, " for my son was dead, and is
alive ; was lost, and is found." So, my dear friends, there
is not one in this assembly who may not at once rise and
say, "I will go to my Father." And I assert, with all
solemnity, and with all consciousness of its weight, that
God is infinitely more willing to accept you than you are to
go to him. It is this, in my humble judgment, that makes
the sin of the Gospel-refusing man, or the Gospel-despising
man, so terrible — that it is not a judge's sentence, or a
legislator's law, but a Father's1 love, that he is rebelling
against. Until you feel that great idea of the fatherhood of
God, and begin your prayers with it, and take it with you
through your life, as the golden thread, you will never know
what perfect peace is.
Two years ago, I was wandering in the neighborhood of
Balmoral and Bremar, where our Queen goes to enjoy the
fresh air. I have stood on one of the highest pinnacles of
Loch na Gar — one of the loftiest hills of Dee side. " I
saw mountains all around me, like gigantic thrones ; and
the grandeur and the magnificence of the panorama made
me feel what an insignificant being I am." I felt I was a
grain amici the sands, a leaf of the forest, a drop of the
mighty waters. But then I recollect : " The God that
made these grand mountains, and stretched out that bright
sky, and gave their music and their impulse to these rushing
streams, is my Father ; and I am dearer and nearer to him
— every hair of my head, every beating of my heart, every
thought in my mind, and every wrong and suffering in my
experience ; and he is more interested in them than in all

THE BARNET DISCUSSION. 457
these great mountains, and that bright sky, and these silver
streams." In that thought there is joy. Have you not
seen a mother carrying a babe in her bosom ; and on a
stranger coming into its presence, have you not seen the
babe, frightened at the strange face, turn round and bury its
face in its mother's bosom ? I have myself seen it. What
did it mean ? "The babe was applying to the fountain of
love to refresh and strengthen itself, that it might gaze upon
the stranger's face." So I feel amid these hills. Like that
poor babe, I fall back upon my Father's bosom, draw from
him strength and peace that enable me to look upon storm,
on cloud, and earthquake, and to feel that if these great hills
were cast into the mighty sea, I should not be afraid, for
God is not only my Refuge, but my Father.

LECTURE II.
I rise to continue the remarks which I began on a
former part of this day — no longer upon Dr. Faa, who is
not present, but upon Dr. Faa's representative, which is
embodied in print and paper in the pamphlet which lies
before me. I need not recapitulate the. extraordinary cir
cumstances under which the pamphlet appeared ; that the
" antidote," as he calls it, to my statements, or which he
pronounced to be error, was prepared before the statements
were heard. I endeavored to show you the absurdity of this
arrangement ; but, however, making every allowance for the
circumstances out of which it arose, we have the best de
fence of the Roman Catholic system put forward by a priest,
who defended it first in person, and has now left this docu
ment as a bequest to the people of Barnet (having himself
disappeared, but whether permanently, or for a season, I
39

458

THE barnet discussion.

cannot say), and it will be but right in me, and dutiful to
you, and to the cause of truth, to analyze, examine, and ex
plain it. I proceeded this morning through eight of Dr.
Faa's " points," in each of which he gives certain texts in
defence of the Roman Catholic faith, as opposed, in his
judgment, to Protestant tenets.
Point 9 is as follows : " Protestants hold that the holy
relics of our Saviour, as the cross whereon he died, etc. or
the bodies and relics of the saints ought not to be honored;
and that God does not work miracles by them." > I take the
proposition just as he gives it. He says that we allege that
the relics of our Saviour, as the cross whereon ho died, or
the bodies and relics of saints ought not to be honored, and
that God does not work miracles by them. If he means
that there is inherent in these relics a mysterious virtue,
then the best way to show that they have that virtue is to
prove it by the effects which they produce. Roman Cath
olics have as many fragments of the true cross as would
build a firstrate ship of war — that is a matter of fact. If
there be any virtue in any of these fragments, the best
course is to put a fragment to the test ; and if it will heal
disease, or raise the dead, or operate any other supernatural
result, we shall believe there is virtue in it, and act accord
ingly ; but if we find that all these fragments are as des
titute of medicinal, as they are of moral virtue, and that
there is no efficacy whatever in them, we think it is honor
ing the Lord, to whom they say that they belong, to burn
them, or bury them out of sight. He says that Protestants
deny that God works miracles by them. A miracle is an
appeal to the senses. If the senses see a.miracle wrought
by one of these relics, of course we accept it as a fact. We
ask Dr. Faa to show the miracle, and then we will believe ;
but if he tells us that these rehcs can work miracles, but
never shows us that they do, we must continue to say " show
us the miracle, and we will believe it ; until you 6how it, we

THE BARNET DISCUSSION. 459
deny that there is any such virtue in the relics as you
impute to them." -
Then the difficulty is to ascertain whether they are the
very relics they are called or not. I once saw an exhibi
tion of relics at Aix-la-Chapelle, and I saw some also in one
of the leading cities in Belgium. At one time I saw what
they called a piece of the true cross ; at another, a portion
of the veil said to have been worn by the Virgin Mary ; at
another, a part of the robe of our blessed Saviour. But, I
find that there are five or six robes throughout the world,
all of which are declared to have belonged to our blessed
Saviour ; but none of them ever worked one miracle, and
they seem as little likely to work one in time to come. It
seems, therefore, that what they call relics cannot be proved
to be any such remains as they say, and that whether they
be, or be not, they are incapable of doing any miraculous
work ; and until we see some reason for venerating them,
we must pronounce their history to be a deception, the
worship they give them to be a delusion, and the whole sub
ject to be a nursery and source of superstition, will-worship;
and folly.
He quotes, however, the following text: "And Elisha
died, and they buried him, and the bands of the Moabites
invaded the land at the coming in of the year. And it came
to pass as they were burying a man, that behold, they spied
a band of men. And they cast the man into the sepulchre
of Elisha, and when the man was let down, and touched the
bones of Elisha, he revived, and stood upon his feet." This
is evidence that a relic worked a miracle. You might as
well say that because Dr. A. cures a patient, therefore Dr.
B. can cure him — that does not follow. Or you might as
well say that because one medicine cures a given disease,
another medicine can cure the same. Elisha's bones, by
some mysterious power, did cause the man that touched
them to revive. It was proved, and therefore we believe;

460 THE BARNET DISCUSSION.
Well, if the priest can bring forward some bones which he
can prove to be Elisha's, and will only put the matter to the
test by burying a dead man beside them, and show us that
the dead man revives, then will we believe that they are
relics, and that they are possessed of miraculous and mys
terious virtue. But he has no such bones as Elisha's in
reserve ; and as to the bones that the Catholics have beneath
their altars, nobody knows to whom they belong, and I have
never yet seen it proved that they ever worked a single
miracle ; nor do I see any reason to believe they can do so
in time to come.
He then states, that " God wrought special miracles by
the hands of Paul, so that from his body were brought unto
the sick, handkerchiefs and aprons ; and the diseases de
parted from them, and the evil spirits went out of them."
(Acts xix. 11, 12.) This is asserted of the Apostle Paul;
but the Apostle Paul is dead ; his body is buried, and his
soul is in glory. If Dr. Faa will produce the apostle's re
mains, and show that they have the power, when dead, to
do what they did when alive, then we will believe that they
have this virtue. But he has not proved that the bones he
has are the apostle's or Elisha's, nor has he proved any
mysterious or miraculous virtue in them ; and until he does
so, we are bound, as I have said, to reject the whole pre
tension as absurdity and superstition. A miracle is some
thing done that convinces the eye, the ear, the senses, that a
power is present greater than man's. Whenever the Church
of Rome will do a miracle that will answer to all these con
ditions, we will of course believe it ; but as long as she tells
us that she has certain dead men's bones,- and dead men's
coats, and fragments of the cross, and fragments of the spear
and other relics, which need only to be touched to produce
the most marvellous effects, but never shows that when
touched they do produce these effects ; we must look upon
the whole thing as just as apocryphal as her constant as-

THE BARNET DISCUSSION. 461
sertion that she has infallibility, while it is a constant fact
that that infallibility has never been discovered, or brought
to any practical issue.
Point 10 is, "Many Protestants hold that it is not lawful
to keep graven images, or pictures of Christ, or of the saints
and angels, in our churches : all Protestants maintain that
to have a veneration for such holy images for the sake of
the prototypes, or parties who are thereby represented, is
absolutely unlawful — nay, that such veneration of holy
images is idolatry." We do say so. I am one of those
who believe that the fewer pictures we have of any sort in
our churches, the more apostolical these ehurches will look.
I exceedingly like to see the ten commandments printed on
church walls, and as many texts of the Bible as you please ;
but I doubt if it is right to paint images of our blessed Lord
in places of worship, as long as there is written on the walls
of those places of worship : " Thou shalt not make to thyself
any graven image, nor the likeness of any thing that is in
heaven above, or in the earth beneath, or in the water under
the earth. Thou shalt not bow down to them, nor worship
them." At all events images crept in first out of veneration
to the prototypes, and gradually they came to be worshipped
until all the will-worship, and superstition, and idolatry of
the Church of Rome was fully matured. But when they
speak of pictures of our Lord, I ask where is the painting,
or image, in the whole world, that is really and truly a por
trait or an image of our Lord ? You might as well call the
picture of Shakspeare the picture of me; or you might
carve an image out of a block of wood, and say it is a statue
or image of me 4 you may call it so, but if it be not exactly
copied from me, it is not so. Now, there is no evidence in
all ecclesiastical history that there ever was a picture of our
Lord, except a poor, paltry tradition which will not bear
examination. There is no one picture in the universe that
39*

462 THE BARNET DISCUSSION.
can be proved to be, in any sense or shape, a pi'-" are of our
Lordv It is as incapable of proof as tradition.
Therefore, we dispute the very first part of the statement,
that they have a picture of our Lord, that can reasonably be
called so, in any sense, or by any evidence that can be
adduced. I deny that man can make a picture of our Lord.
They may represent a man crucified: but the thief was
crucified who hung on one side of the Saviour. They can
represent a man suffering ; but the martyrs have suffered in
every age in the history of the world. They may represent
a sufferer ; they may represent the accursed tree ; but they
cannot represent the curse of the law. They may represent
Him bearing the cross ; but they cannot represent Him
bearing the curse of a broken law, or bearing our sins
away into a land of forgetfulness. Besides, Christ was not
merely man : He was God as well as man. All that they
can represent, therefore, when they represent a suffering
man, is merely a suffering human being: that which is
really and essentially a portion of our Blessed Lord they
cannot represent by the painter's pencil or carve out by the
chisel of the statuary. If you have a picture of a man's
lip, or his hair, or his hand, you do not call that a picture
of the man: so, if they had a picture of the true outward
visage of our Saviour, that cannot really be called a portrait
of Him. Then have we a portrait: of Christ at all? I
answer, we have. There is a divine portrait of Him. Isaiah
gives one feature, Malachi gives another, Moses gives an
other, Daniel, gives another ; and when all the features come
to be joined together, on Calvary, in the garden of Geth-
semane, and in Jerusalem, you find that all combined, con
stitute " the brightness of the Father's glory," " the Lamb
of God that taketh away the sins of the world." The
picture of Christ, then, is given in the Word of God, there
alone; and; it is complete, because it gives the picture of
His deity, as well as of His humanity — the picture pf His

THE BARNET DISCUSSION. 463
sufferings, as well as of His glory. If I wish, therefore, a
portrait of Jesus, I will not take what man has painted, but
that which God has sketched, as it is exhibited and por
trayed in every page of His own inspired and blessed Word.
But even there, if I find Christ Himself, I worship and
adore, but the picture of Him in the Bible I do not worship
and adore. It has often seemed to me wonderful (I do not
know if the thought has ever struck you) that in the Church
of Rome they have worshipped almost every thing, but they
have never yet dreamed of worshipping the Bible. Is it
not strange that that which is the likest picture of God they
have never thought of worshipping, and the pictures they
have made of Him by human hands they have bowed down
to and worshipped ? Why is this ? Because, if they had
bowed down to worship the inspired portrait of Deity, God's
blessed Word, it would have opened its twin lips, and would
have thundered in their hearings " Thou shalt worship the
Lord, and Him only shalt thou serve." We have no picture
of Christ, but the Bible one ; and even that picture we are
not to worship. But what is the effect of image-worship ?
It degrades man. If I understand Christianity, it is to raise
man above the region of the senses, to bring him into close
communion with God : if I understand Popery, it is to
bring down God within the region of the senses, -till the
worship and the object of worship become alike debased
and degraded together.
The passage Dr. Faa quotes in defence of this, is Exo
dus xxv. 18, "And thou shalt make two cherubims of gold;
of beaten work shalt thou make them, in the two ends of
the mercy-seat." In other words,- he reasons that because
God, under the ancient figurative economy, commanded
these things to be made, as representative truths to man
kind ; and because God created types in the Old Testament
dispensation, illustrative of the great truths in the new ; we
are also to make images of Christ, which God has not com-

464 THE BARNET DISCUSSION.
manded, in order to be worshipped in the Christian Church.
In other words, the argument of Dr. Faa is this (and it is
very odd logic) ; God commanded types to be instituted
under the Old Testament; and, therefore, we may make
images of Christ, under the New Testament. There is no
connection between the two things. In the first case, God
gave the commandment, and He gave the reason of it — a
type, illustrative of a truth ; in the second case, Dr. Faa, or
his copriests, give the commandment — not to be illustrative
of a truth, as a type, but to be an image, which God has
directly forbidden. In the Old Testament He gave the
command that these things should be made ; and the Jew
dare not make any thing out of his own fancy : the high-
priest dare not make an image ; the instant he had done so,
God's law would have said : " Thou shalt not make to thy
self any graven image." If the Romish priest can show that
God has commanded such images to be made, then we obey,
and accept them ; but if I show that He has forbidden all
images to be made, except those he Himself commanded for
special typical purposes, and which are not now required,
because the ends for which they were instituted have
arrived — this being the case, Dr. Faa's reasoning is alto
gether beside the mark. All his quotations are of the same
stamp — not bearing on the point for which he quotes them.
Point 11, is: "Protestants hold that there is no purga
tory, or third place, no middle state of suffering souls in the
other world ; and that it is a vain and superstitious custom
to pray for the dead." Now, we do not believe that there
is no purgatory : I believe there is a purgatory ; but it is
this : " The blood of Jesus Christ [purgeth or] cleanseth
from all sin ; " and we say, because we have so effective a
purgatory upon earth, we do not need a purgatory hereafter.
The Roman Catholic Church has so imperfect a sacrifice, so
imperfect an atonement, that there is a great deal left to be
cleansed or burned away in the next world ; but we Prot-

THE BARNET DISCUSSION. 465
estants hold that we have in the precious blood of our
Saviour so complete an atonement, so perfect an ablution,
that it cleanseth from all sin ; and therefore there is nothing
to be cleansed from in the world that is to come.
But the best way is to hear Dr.: Faa's. texts. He first
quotes Matth. xii. 32. "And whosoever shall, speak a word
against the Son of Man it shall be remitted unto him ; but
he that shall speak against the Holy Ghost, it shall not be
forgiven him, neither in this world, nor in the world to
come." Then adds Dr. Faa : " These words of our Saviour
leave no room to doubt but some sins are remitted in the
other world." Now, the best answer will be to quote the
parallel passage to this, which is Mark iii. 39": "He that
shall blaspheme against the Holy Ghost hath never forgive
ness." The passage quoted by Dr. Faa says : " It shall not
be forgiven him, neither in this world, nor in that which is
to come." You ask what is the meaning of that ? and you
turn to the parallel passage, and find its equivalent: "Hath
never forgiveness." But suppose it meant literally the
world to come, we ask Dr: Faa, or his Church, what is pur
gatory for ? The answer will be : " for punishing sin." But
this text that he quotes speaks only of forgiving sin ; and
therefore, to quote it, to prove that there is a place for pun
ishing sin, is altogether to misquote and misapply the Word
of God.
The next passage is, 1 Cor. iii. 10 to 15.: "Now, if any
man build upon this foundation, gold, silver, precious stones,
wood, hay, stubble ; every man's work shall be made mani
fest. For the day shall declare it, because it shall be
revealed by fire ; and the fire shall try every man's work,
of what sort it is. If any man's work abide, which he has
built thereupon, he shall receive a reward. If any man's
work be burned, he shall suffer loss, but he himself shall be
saved, yet, so as by fire." Therefore, says Dr. Faa, there
is a place where this fire goes on, and where certain parties

466 THE BARNET DISCUSSION.
are to be saved by fire. I may explain tp ypu that the
Church of Rome defines purgatory to be "purgatoris ignis
in quo animce piorum cruciantur : " " a purgatory fire in
which the souls of the faithful are tortured, or punished."
But Dr. Faa quotes the passage from 1 Cor. to prove that
there is such a torturing place where persons are purified or
saved so as by fire. I want you to see how utterly inappli
cable this is. First, purgatory is for purifying and punish
ing men's souls : this passage speaks of. trying man's works :
it cannot, therefore, be the same fire. Secondly, purgatory
is for purifying : the apostle speaks of trying : therefore, it
cannot be the same thing. Again, it is here said : " If any
man's works abide," which supposes that some will not; but
in purgatory every man's work abides, for every man comes
out of purgatory, and is ultimately admitted into heaven.
Lastly, the expression here is " saved so as by fire " (in
other words, he shall be saved with the utmost difficulty) :
but if it meant purgatorial fire, it would have said " shall be
saved by fire." Here it is said figuratively, " So as by fire."
The expression here employed, eng Sid nvgog, is used by
classic writers to denote " with great difficulty," or " a nar
row escape." I submit, therefore, that if purgatory is for
purifying souls, it cannot be alluded to here ; for this is for
trying works : if it be for purifying, it cannot be alluded to
here ; for this is for trying or testing: Therefore, to quote
a passage which describes another object, another process,
another work, in order to prove the existence of a place in
which there is nothing at all similar to it, is, I say again, to
misquote and misapply the Word of God. I may state
another fact. Bellarmine says that all the Fathers are at
issue on this passage ; but every member of the Church of
Rome is bound by his creed to interpret the Scripture
according to the unanimous sense of the Fathers ; and
where the Fathers are not unanimous, the Roman Catholic
is bound to shut his mouth, and not dare to interpret at all.

THE BARNET DISCUSSION. 467
The only other text of any value which he quotes is,
" God will render to every man according to his deeds,"
(Rom. ii. 6). Let me refer to the whole passage : " Who
will render to every man according to his deeds : to them
who by patient continuance in well-doing seek for glory, and
honor, and immortality, eternal hfe : but unto them that are
contentious, and do not obey the truth, but obey unrighteous
ness, indignation and wrath, tribulation and anguish, upon
every soul of man that doeth evil, of the Jew first, and also
of the Gentile ; but glory, honor, and peace, to every man
that worketh good." Does not this passage speak of only
two places ? It speaks of one place where there is glory,
and honor, and eternal life, to them that do good ; and it
speaks of another place where there is indignation, and
wrath, to them that do evil. Dr. Faa quotes the passage to
prove that there is an intermediate place; but it proves,
instead, that there are but two places. In that world to
which you and I are rapidly approaching, there are but two
great extremes, into one of which we must enter : one
where there is "joy unutterable, and full of glory," the way
to which is a crucified Saviour, and the other in which there
is sorrow, and despair, and gnashing of teeth, prepared for
them who reject and refuse that Saviour. When I say pre
pared, however, perhaps I overstate the matter; for it is
remarkable that when Christ speaks to the righteous, he
says : " Come, ye blessed of my Father ; inherit the king
dom prepared for you ; " but when addressing the lost, he
says : " Depart from me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire,
prepared [not 'for you,' but] for the devil and his angels;"
showing that if any man go to eternal ruin, he goes where
he was never meant to go, in spite of warnings, protests,
remonstrances; so much so, that while every saint that is in
heaven will recollect for ever, " I was saved by God's grace
alone; I did not contribute one atom to my salvation;"
every man that perishes will recollect that he is in the

468 THE BARNET DISCUSSION.
regions pf the lest as a suicide, that he did it all himself,
that np one sent him there but his own sins and wicked
nesses. Point 12 is: " Protestants hold, that in the sacrament of
the holy Eucharist, or Lord's Supper, the elements of the
bread and wine, after consecration, remain still in their very
natural substances ; and that the body and blood of our Lord
Jesus Christ are not truly, really, and substantially present
in that sacrament." So we do. The Roman Catholic holds,
that the instant the priest has said over the bread and wine
"hoc enim est meum corpus" that moment it becomes literally
the Son of God, body and soul, divinity and humanity : so
much so, that when the priest holds up the wafer, composed
of flour and water, with the image of the Saviour. on it, all
the people fall down and worship it as the living and true
God ; they believe it to be so, and as such, they worship it.
After this the priest offers it upon the altar, a propitiatory
sacrifice for the- sins of the living and the dead.
The text he quotes is Matt. xxvi. 26, " Jesus took bread,
and blessed it, and brake it, and gave it to the disciples, and
said, Take, eat ; this is my body. And he took the cup,
and gave thanks, and gave it to them, saying, Drink ye all
of it ; for ;this is my blood of the new testament, which is
shed for many for the remission of sins." He says, Prot
estants say that this passage is only parallel to such pas
sages as " I am the door," " I am the true vine," etc. He
has no doubt that there are certain passages that are to be
used in this figurative sense, but he says it is evident that
this passage is not to be so used. Let me state that there
are thirty-seven passages in the Bible exactly analogous to
this. In thirty-six of these the Roman Catholic interprets
figuratively, as we do. As for instance, " The seven candle
sticks are the seven churches ; " that does not mean that
they were transubstantiated into the seven churches, but
that they are the representatives of them. Again, over the

THE BARNET DISCUSSION. 469
•ancient passover of the Jews, the officiating person said of
the lamb that was slaughtered and roasted, and partaken of
by the family, " This is the Lord's passover." When the
officiating Jew said that, he did not mean that the lamb,
roasted and placed upon the table, was transubstantiated
into an angel flying through Egypt, killing the first-born of
the Egyptians, and. sparing the first-born of Israel; but it
meant that that was the memorial ,of the event. Now, our
Lord used the very same language, and said of the bread
and wine, when placed upon the table, " This is my body ; "
and every Jew (and the apostles were Jews at that moment)
understood that it was interpreted in the same manner as
the analogous expression at the analogous rite, and that it
meant, " This is the symbol of my body." His body was
there at the table ; how could it be dead, and slain, and par
taken ofj as well as be at the table ? But I may mention,
that the Roman Catholics who insist upon construing this
passage literally do not do so. The words are, " This is
my body:" but the Roman Catholics say it means,. "This
is transubstantiated into my soul and body, and blood and
divinity ; " therefore they do not take it literally.
Then as to the other text. One of the Evangelists says,
" This cup is the new testament in ;my bipod." If the Ro
man Catholic says that the words, " This is my body," must
be understood literally, then, of necessity, the next words,
"This cup is the new testament in my blood," must be
understood literally too ; and he must suppose the cup to be
actually turned into the book called the New Testament. If
he interpret the first literally, he must interpret the last
literally too ; and he must hold a transubstantiation so mon
strous and extravagant, that he would be excommunicated
by his own Church for believing it to be real.
At a discussion I once held with a distinguished Roman
Catholic barrister (at which my friend on my left, the Rev.
Mr. Parkinson was present), who was a far cleverer advo-
40

470 THE BARNET DISCUSSION.
eate of the Church of Rome than our friend Dr. Faa, I was
saying that all these expressions, " This is my body," " I
am the door," " I am the rock," and so on, were figurative,
and as such to be construed ; and that the expressions in
the Fathers which he quoted were also figurative, and as
such to be construed. But Mr. French, at one part, turned
round with great gravity upon me, and said, " Now, Sir,
you have driven me from the Fathers, or insisted that I
should leave them, and go to the Bible ; I go to your Bible,
and take it just as I find it." Then, looking to me, he
continued, " Now, Sir, none of your figures of speech, none
of your Orientalisms, none of your metaphors ; here are the
words, ' This is my body ; ' to these words I keep you, and
these words prove the doctrine of transubstantiation." When
he had done, I had to reply. I opened a chapter in Isaiah,
in which it was written, " All flesh is grass ; yea, verily,
[mark how strong is the expression] the people are grass."
I then turned to him, and said, " You have brought me to
the Bible, at which I rejoice. To the Bible I go, and I find
these words, ' All flesh is grass ; yea, verily, the people are
grass.' Now, Sir, none of your figures of speech, none of
your Orientalisms, none of your metaphors ; you have
brought me to the literal Scriptures, and to the literal Scrip
tures I go ; and I assert, Sir, upon your own principle of
interpretation, that you are not a man of the earth, or a fish
of the sea, or a beast of the field, or a fowl of the air, or
Mr. French the barrister — but a bundle of grass. If, now
I were to smite you, you would not feel ; if I were to tickle
you, you would not laugh ; if I were to prick you " — and,
as I was suiting the action to the word, he shrunk back, and
showed that he was not grass, but flesh and blood as sensi
tive as I was.
If you take this literal method of interpreting any book,
it ends in absolute nonsense ; it will not bear to be applied
to any other portion of Scripture. You will observe, our

THE BARNET DISCUSSION., 471
blessed Lord had a true body, just as yours and mine is (sin
excepted) ; but if you can show that that body differs from
ours, you take away all the precious comfort in his glorious
and blessed incarnation ; because if he was not a true man,
with a true body and reasonable soul, God has not been
manifest in the flesh, seen of angels, believed in the world ;
and our faith is vain, and our hope also is vain.
But in the course of the discussion, I said, " After the
priest has turned the flour and water into flesh and blood, I
go to the altar. Before he touched the wafer, I tasted it —
it was flour and water ; I smelt it — it was flour and water ;
I broke it — it was flour and water. But I wait until the
priest turns it into flesh ; and I smell it — it is flour and
water still ; I taste it — it is flour and water ; I break it —
it is flour and water ; and if I leave it long enough, it cor
rupts like flour and water still." He said, " But your senses
are deceived." I said, " My senses deceived ! Will you
then show me a text that proves transubstantiation ? " He
put his finger on Matth. xxvi. 26 (the verse I have quoted).
I looked at the words, and said, I do not read it as you do :
I read it, " These are the bricks with which Babylon was
built." He turned round and said, " What do you mean ? "
I replied, " My senses tell me the verse reads thus, ' These
are the bricks with which Babylon was built ; ' your senses
tell you it reads, ' This is my body.' Which of our senses
are right ? My senses are as much to be believed as yours ;
if you say the senses are often deceived, why may not my
senses be right, and your senses wrong ? " Of course, this
was too much for him ; it showed the absurdity of the prin
ciple he had laid down. I said, " More than this, if you say
the senses may be deceived, as the Roman Catholic says
every Sunday, mark what a powerful weapon you cast into
the hand of the Mormon, the infidel, the sceptic. They will
turn round and say, ' You allege that the apostles saw
Christ rise from the dead. Your senses are deceived every

472 THE BARNET DISCUSSION.
Sunday ; may not the senses ef the apostles have been de
ceived likewise ? The five hundred brethren who said they
saw Him after He was risen, their senses may have been
deceived too.' " Thus, it will come to pass, that whenever
Roman Catholicism gains the ascendency one year in a
country, if you wait, and watch, you will see scepticism,
like a dark shadow in its train, gain the ascendency the very
year that follows. Hence I believe, with respeet to Voltaire,
D'Alembert, Diderot, and all the sceptics that arose, like
exhalations from below, at the close of the eighteenth cen
tury — that the blood of their souls stains the garments of
the Church of Rome ; and that she, with her sanguinary
crimes and dreadful superstitions, is answerable for much of
the awful state into which France has been plunged in the
present day. You know not, my dear friends, how much
you owe to an open Bible in the midst of Old England.
You know not how much you owe to the fact, that your
minister dare not assert from the pulpit what contradicts
the Bible ; and that he is called upon, and that he feels you
expect it at his hands, to prove what he says by an appeal
to the Bible. And depend upon it, the instant you let go
your Bible, your blessed privilege — the Bible without a
clasp, the cross without a screen, with no atoning efficacy in
tears or penances, but in the blood of Jesus, no justifying
righteousness anywhere but in the righteousnesc of Jesus,
no regenerative power but in^the Holy Spirit of God, no
directory but in God's own Word — the instant you let go
these cardinal truths of Christianity, that moment you will
see another finger, as mysterious as those which wrote upon
the plaster of old, writing upon the churches, and chapels,
and halls, and palaces of England : " Ichabod, Ichabod, the
glory is departed ; our sun is set, and we are indeed deso
late." Thus, wherever Romanism in one day, or in one
century, is rampant, you will find the next day, or the next
century, infidelity rampant also. A French pastor once

THE BARNET DISCUSSION. 473
told me of a tour which he took in the interior of France,
where he saw an image of our blessed Lord cut out beauti
fully in stone, and clothed in the robes of a Jesuit. He
wrote underneath it : " Thus, my blessed Lord, have they
disfigured thee, lest any one should love thee." I believe
that is what Romanism has done to Christianity. "Thus,
blessed Gospel, has that church disfigured thee, lest any one
should love thee." I am not surprised that men rejected
Christianity in the form of Romanism, and preferred scepti
cism, with all its gross and palpable absurdities, to that dark
and deadly superstition.
I pass on to the words which are immediately before us, in
order to show how untenable the doctrine of transubstantia-r
tion is, which is here advocated by the priest. First, I have
shown you that the words quoted are to be interpreted
according to the way in which other similar passages are
interpreted in the Bible, and must be, to make common
sense. I have shown you that the analogous expression,
"This is the Lord's passover," was applied to that rite
which, under the. ancient economy, corresponded to the Lord's
Supper here. Now, I notice one other point — and I think it
is a most important one. When the Lord's Supper was
instituted by our blessed Lord, he said, " Do this in remem
brance of me." But does not memory relate exclusively to
the absent, not to the present ? Therefore, when you take
that bread, and hold that cup, in remembrance of Christ, it
implies that Christ is bodily absent, and not bodily present.
If a Roman Catholic say that Christ may be in two places at
once, — that he may be in heaven, and upon the altars of the
Roman Catholic Church, — then, if next Sunday morning, at
eleven o'clock, ten thousand Roman Catholic priests shall con
secrate at ten thousand different altars, according to their the
ology, on each altar there will be the complete Saviour, soul
and body, ten thousand times repeated, or multiplied, all over
the world. If we say to a Roman Catholic, " This is so absurd
40*

474

THE BARNET DISCUSSION.

that we cannot believe it," his answer is : " The body of Christ
may be in more places than one at a time." Have we any
reason to believe that it is so ? I give you one fact to show
that it is not so. When the angel referred to his resurrec
tion, he said, " He is not here, but is risen : '' implying that
he could not, as a body, be here, and risen, at one and the
same moment. Whilst it is true, as to his divinity, that he
fills the universe with his presence and his glory, it is no
less true, as to his body, that the heavens must contain it
until the restitution of all things. Therefore, for the
Roman Catholics to assert that that body is present on all
these altars at once is to contradict the clear passages of the
word of God.
But this is not all. By this doctrine our Lord is literally
crucified afresh, and put to an open shame. I will give you
some evidence that it is so. There is prefixed to every copy
of the Missal in Latin, (the Roman Catholic Prayerbook,)
a series of directions enabling the priest to perform the mass
correctly : it is called " De defectibus Missce." It is said in
tliis, that " if the bread that is put upon the altar be not of
wheat, or if, being of wheat, it be mixed with some other
grain, that it doth not remain wheaten bread, or be in any
other way corrupted, no sacrament is made." That is to
say, the sacrament is not made, if the flour merchant who
supplies the Roman Catholic priest with the flour out of
which this wafer is made should be a cheat, and should send
him a larger portion of some other meal instead of flour.
Then the Roman Catholic priest may say as often as he
likes, " it is changed into the body and blood of the
Saviour ; " by his own showing, the object the people
worship is an idol, and the sacrifice the priest makes is a
nonentity and a deception. I ask, is that a safe or certain
creed, that makes the God you worship depend upon the
honesty of your flour merchant, miller, or corn grower ?
But more than that ; if the wine used by the priest, (and

THE BARNET DISCUSSION. 475
remember, the words I am quoting are not Protestant words,
but the words ordered by the Church to be prefixed to every
Missal for the direction of the priest,) " if the wine be quite
sour, or quite putrid, or be made of bitter or unripe grapes,
or if so much water be mixed with it as spoils the wine, the
sacrament is not made." Thus, in other words, the priest
may say the words over the wine : " This is the new testa
ment in my blood," but if the wine be made of sour or
unripe grapes, he may say them as often as he likes, the
wine is not changed, and that which the people worship is
only a little wine and water, and not the God on whom they
trust for salvation. I said the Roman Catholic's worship
depends upon the honesty of his flour merchant ; it is also
dependent upon the integrity of his wine merchant. I
submit, then, that you are not called upon to leave a church
in which you depend only upon the word of the living God,
and go to a church where you depend upon the honesty of
every tradesman and the intention of every priest, both
of whom have cheated, and both of whom may cheat again,
whether you perpetrate idolatry or not.
Now, what if this consecrated host should disappear —
I am saying this to expose a dreadful error, and I say it
under a deep sense of reverence for that blessed body which
is in heaven, and which will be manifested again in glory —
what if this host, which Roman Catholics believe to be the
soul, body, and divinity of our blessed Saviour, should
disappear by any accident, or by wind, or be swallowed by
some animal ? a supposition contemplated in this document
as possible. Just think of this : the Roman Catholic believes
that flour and water can be turned into the body arid blood
of our blessed Lord, and he supposes it possible that a rat
or a mouse may come and swallow that blessed body, and
carry it away ! I ask, is this Christianity ? Is it not rather
the desecration and the degradation of it ! And if there be
a church that commits the awful sin of crucifying the Lord

476 THE BARNET DISCUSSION.
afresh, and putting Him to an open shame, it is that church
that brings Him down to her altars, and connects Him with
all these degradations and abominations. I submit, then,
that on these grounds (and I might mention many others)
transubstantiation is an absurdity — nay, more, an awful
and unholy blasphemy. But it may be argued by the
Roman Catholic, that God's power can do all that we have
supposed to be impossible. I answer, God's power is
certainly omnipotent ; but when we want to know what is
truth, we do not appeal to the power of God, but we appeal
to the written Word of God. Our rule of faith is not what
God can do : it is what God has said. And He has said so
plainly, and shown so clearly that transubstantiation is
impossible, is absurd, is unscriptural, is blasphemous, and
derogatory to His honor, that we may reject it, in the
language of the Church of England, as "a blasphemous
fable and a dangerous deceit."
I turn then to the next doctrine, which is brought forward
in Point 13. " Protestants hold that communion in one
kind is only half of the sacrament, nor sufficient for salva
tion ; and that the laity are bound, by our Saviour's institu
tion and command, to receive in both kinds." We do assert
this. The Roman Cathohc Church, you are aware, allows
the officiating priest to partake of the cup ; and if there be
any number of priests present, or any number of the laity,
they are not allowed to touch it. But you who are plain
Bible Christians, and are accustomed to appeal to that
Blessed Book, which, I assure you, is a perfect storehouse
of arguments destructive of the Church of Rome, and out
of which she can be proved distinctly not to be the Church
of Christ, will recollect that our blessed Lord, when He
gave the bread to His disciples, said simply, "Eat;" but
when He gave them the cup, He said — as if with a pro
phetic intimation of what would be done, " Drink ye all of
it," If you are to withdraw one of the elements, the one

THE BARNET DISCUSSION. 477
you might withdraw with the greatest plausibility, would be
the bread, for He said only, "Eat of it;" while the cup you
can scarcely dare to withdraw, because he said, " Drink ye
all of it." The Church of Rome, however, has withdrawn
the cup from her laity, and gives them only the bread.
We shall see what defence she makes in order to justify
this. He quotes John vi. 50. " This is the bread which com
eth down from heaven, that a man may eat thereof and not
die." Before replying to these texts out of John vi. I may
mention that it is here assumed the chapter is used as being
descriptive of the Lord's Supper. My reply to that is, that
it is descriptive, directly, of no such thing. Just recollect
the history of this chapter. Jesus wrought a miracle of
multiplying the loaves and fishes ; there followed Him
hungry, carnal, sensual Capernaites,: who had not been
instructed in the very elements of the Gospel. And why
did they follow Him ? " Because they did eat of the loaves
and fishes, and were filled." Now, is it probable — - is it
accordant with our blessed Lord's mind and manner, that to
a people uninstructed in the very elements of Christianity, he
would enter upon a discussion of one of the sacraments ?
Moreover, is it probable that when the Lord's Supper was
not yet instituted at all, He should give a description : of it
to these Capernaites? It was instituted just before His
crucifixion : but this chapter relates to a period at least two
years before that event ; therefore, the presumption is, that
it does not refer to the Lord's Supper at all. It is the same
with that passage, " Except a man be born of water and of
the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of heaven." I
hear learned men, and even divines and bishops, applying
that to baptism. I do not believe that it refers to baptism
at all; and for this simple reason — baptism was not then
instituted. It was instituted after our Lord rose from the
dead, when He said, " Go and baptize;" it was not institu-

478 THE BARNET DISCUSSION.
ted when he preached to Nicodemus, in John iii. There
was then only the Jews' baptism, or John's baptism — not
our Saviour's. To quote the passage, therefore, as referring
to baptism, is like the Cathohcs quoting John vi. to prove
transubstantiation. If this John vi. refers to transubstantiation, mark what it
proves. It says : " He that eateth my flesh and drinketh
my blood, hath eternal life." If that refers to the Lord's
Supper, then every person who goes to the Lord's Supper
hath eternal life. I must tell Dr. Faa that Martin Luther
often took the Lord's Supper in the Church of Rome, and
therefore that wicked heretic hath eternal life. Judas was
admitted to the Lord's table, and he also has eternal life.
Many others who have been admitted to the Lord's table in
the Church of Rome — all its members, in short, have it.
If this chapter referred to the Lord's Supper, then the
words, " Except ye eat the flesh and drink the blood of the
Son of Man, ye cannot have eternal life," imply that nobody
can be saved without the Lord's Supper. The thief upon
the cross never partook of the Lord's Supper, and yet he
was saved ; infants die who have never partaken of the
Lord's Supper, and yet they are saved. These consequences
so crowd, that it is impossible to apply this chapter with
any propriety to the Lord's Supper at all. At the 63d
verse, however, Jesus says : " It is the Spirit that quicken-
eth ; the flesh profiteth nothing : the words that I speak
unto you, they are spirit, and they are life." Our Lord
foresaw that some of them — embryo Roman Catholics — ¦
were beginning to sensualize, and to understand his words
in a carnal sense; he instantly checked them, and said:
" Do not take my words literally ; I am speaking spiritual
words, to be spiritually understood, not carnal words to be
carnally interpreted."
But to take Dr. Faa's divisions. He first quotes : " This
is the living bread which cometh down from heaven, that a

THE BARNET DISCUSSION. 479
man may eat thereof, and not die." He says this describes
the bread upon the table; but according to the Roman
Catholic, it has ceased to be bread ; it has become flesh and
blood; and to take this text, and to say it means bread,
when, by their own declaration, it has become flesh ; is the
most absurd application of Scripture I ever heard. More
over, it is said, " This is the bread which cometh down from
heaven." Did our Lord's body come down from heaven?
No. He was born of the Virgin Mary, as the Creed tells
you : this, therefore, cannot refer to the Lord's body ; it is a
figure, describing the blessings of a belief in Jesus, and
resting upon Him alone for salvation and acceptance.
The only other passage where the Doctor seems to have
got a happy hit, and where he, has made the most of it, is
that remarkable passage, 1 Cor. ix. 27. "Whosoever shall
eat this bread and drink this cup of the Lord unworthily,
shall be guilty of the body and blood of the Lord." Here
the Doctor says that Protestants have wilfully corrupted the
text, and substituted the word "and" for "or." I have
looked at the original ; and unquestionably, the word ren
dered "and" is not xai, but q, which means properly "or ;"
and in this instance the Roman Catholic renders the verse
correctly, "Whosoever shall eat this bread, or drink this
cup of the Lord unworthily, shall be guilty of the body and
blood of the Lord." And he says that this proves that they
were in the habit only of eating the bread, or only of drink
ing the cup. If they were in the habit of doing pnly the
one, still it is more plain they were in the habit of doing the
one and the other. " Eat of the bread or drink of the
cup;" then the Corinthians might drink the cup. The
passage proves that they had taken the bread alone, or wine
alone, if this interpretation be correct. They were known
to have taken the cup of the Lord, and to have taken the
communion wine to excess ; and the apostle tehs them so —
"Have ye not houses to drink in?" showing that there was

480 THE BARNET DISCUSSION.
no change of wine into bloody for it intoxicated, having
been drunk to excess by deluded Corinthian proselytes.
The apostle says : " Whosoever shall eat the bread un
worthily, or drink the wine unworthily, as the Corinthians
have done, shall, in either case, be guilty of the body and
blood of the Lord." The passages that immediately follow,
show what was meant. The apostle adds: " But let a man
examine himself, and so let him eat of that bread, and
[there is no doubt about this translation] drink of that cup ;
for he that eateth and drinketh unworthily, eateth and
drinketh damnation to himself." So that while the apostle
uses the word " or," in one verse, in the passages that im
mediately follow " and " is used ; which proves that eating
and drinking both was the practice of the Corinthian Church.
I need not repeat to you — what settles it all — the express
commandment of our Lord "to drink ye all of it." One
priest replied to me that those who were at the table of the
Lord were priests, being the twelve apostles. But suppose
twelve priests were all to communicate with Dr. Faa next
Sunday, in Paris, where he now is, he knows as well as I
do that he would not give the cup to these twelve priests:
he would only take it himself, as being the officiating priest.
Therefore, if the apostles were all priests, that would not
prove the propriety of the practice of the Church of Rome.
But if the cup were only given to the priests, the bread was
only given to the priests ; and what proves too much will
not serve the purpose for which it was quoted ; for, accord
ing to this reasoning, we should have no sacrament at all,
and the priests alone would have the monopoly of the bread
and the monopoly of the wine. My dear friends, the great
tendency of the Church of Rome, and all who coincide
with her, is to steal from the laity their blood-bought privi
leges'; it is to take from you the Bible, and shut it ; it is to
take from you the communion cup, and degrade you ; it is to
treat you as those who are to be kept outside, and must not

THE BARNET DISCUSSION. 481
touch the mountain on which the holy priesthood sit, and
buy, and sell, and barter your precious privileges as they
please. My dear friends, as long as you have God's blessed
book in your hands, you must not surrender its glorious
privileges ; and as long as you can open that book in your
old Saxon mother tongue, and can read these words :
" Search the Scriptures," " Drink ye all of it," " Let no
man preach to you another Gospel," so long you must not
suffer the loftiest Pope, or Prelate, or Council, or General
Assembly, to deprive you of that which God, in His great
love, your Father, has given to you, his children.
In Point 14, we are told that " Protestants hold that the
holy eucharist was ordained by Christ to be partaken of by
us as a sacrament ; nor can it be offered to God on the altar
as a propitiatory sacrifice, without injury done to Christ's
atonement on the cross."
This is the next phase of the doctrine.
The Roman Catholic alleges that the Lord's Supper is
not only a sacrament to be partaken of, but a propitiatory
sacrifice : he believes it is just as necessary for the forgive
ness of sins as the sacrifice of Christ upon the cross ; and
he argues that it is so, because when Christ instituted the
Lord's Supper, he said: "This is my blood of the New
Testament which is shed for many for the remission of
sins," my reply is, that if our Lord, when He instituted the
Communion Supper, offered Himself a propitiatory sacrifice
for the sins of the living and the dead, He twice offered
Himself — once upon the table, as the Roman Catholic
declares, and once upon the cross, as the Roman Cathohc
admits. How am I to reconcile this twice offering Himself
with the express declaration that " He was once offered to
bear the sins of many." I argue, therefore, that if Christ
was once offered, He could not have been offered on the
communion table, and also on the cross at Calvary. But
more than that, the expression which in our version is ren-
41

482 THE BARNET DISCUSSION.
dered "which is shed for many," is rendered in the Roman
Catholic version " which shall he shed : " and according to
their own version, therefore, He could not be offered a sacri
fice or propitiation at the table.
The next passage he quotes is : " The Lord hath sworn,
and will not repent, thou art a priest for ever after the
order of Melchizedek.'1 " Melchizedek's sacrifice," adds
Dr. Faa, " according to the book of Genesis, as all the
ancient Fathers expound it, was an offering of bread and
wine. 'And Melchizedek, King of Salem, brought forth
bread and wine ; and he was the priest of the most high
God.' Therefore it must be either granted that our Saviour
sacrificed at his Last Supper, under the forms of bread and
wine, or he never sacrificed at all after the order and rite
of Melchizedek." My answer is, Melchizedek, when he
met Abraham, brought forth, it is said, bread and wine. In
the Latin vulgate the word is not obtulit, but protulit, —
brought forth bread and, wine, what a person would carry in
his hand, in order to refresh Abraham, when he returned,
weary, from the slaughter of ,the kings. Must not the
Roman Catholic Church be hard pushed for texts when
they find the Lord's Supper in the days of Melchizedek,
and when they find Melchizedek bringing forth bread and
wine as a propitiatory sacrifice ? But he omits the last
clause: "And Melchizedek, King of Salem, brought forth
bread and wine, and he was the priest of the most high
God. And he blessed Abraham." As a king, he brought
forth the bread and wine, and, therefore, there was no
sacrifice ; as a priest he blessed Abraham, and that was the
only priestly act Melchizedek did. It is so of Christ. As
Melchizedek blessed Abraham, so Christ, who is the true
High-Priest, blesses us. It is by thus disjoining the words
of Scripture, and quoting just as much as suits him, that he
makes it appear : that Melchizedek offered up a sacrifice,
where be really offered none at all, I think this sacrifice

THE BARNET DISCUSSION. 483
of the mass the most deadly heresy of the Roman Catholic
Church. In the Epistle to the Hebrews, the words «««§,
e<paria% are applied to our Lord's death nine times ; they
mean, perfectly, once for all, never to be repeated. It is
said Christ was offered icpoaiot£, completely, never again to
be repeated. But, according to Roman Catholic theology,
Christ, soul, body, and divinity, is offered every Sunday
upon every altar a propitiatory sacrifice for the sins of the
living and the dead. Ahd what follows from this ? The
apostle says: "If Christ has been often offered, then must
he have often suffered ; " teaching us that wherever Christ
is offered, there Christ must suffer. Then; if the Roman
Catholics offer Christ every Sunday, Christ must suffer
every Sunday, and they must be guilty of the awful sin
with which I have already charged them, of crucifying the
Lord afresh, and putting him to an open shame. But if
there be a sacrifice, I ask, where is the priest to offer it?
If there be a propitiatory sacrifice, there must be a sacri
ficing priest. The Church of England does not recognize
an order of sacrificing priests, nor does the Church of Scot
land ; nor do any of the bodies of Dissenters ; but the
Church of Rome says her ministers are priests. Show me
in the whole Bible, and I will give you five hundred pounds
for the discovery, that the word " priest " is applied to the
minister of the gospel, as a distinction of his office ; — there
is no such thing. We have ministers, bishops, presbyters,
elders, deacons, evangelists, apostles, but we have no such
officer in the New Testament as a sacrificing priest ; and
Dr. Faa has no more business in any chapel in that char
acter than a colonel of dragoons has, or the admiral of the
fleet. We have no use for such an officer. He has no
commission from Christ : he may have a commission from
the Pope ; but we cannot recognize that. But there is one
passage very fatal to that doctrine. The apostle says of
Christ, " This man hath an unchangeable priesthood." In

484 THE BARNET DISCUSSION.
the original the words are: Isgatevua dnaguffiatov — liter
ally an intransferable priesthood, a priesthood that does not
pass from him to any other person. Under Aaron the
priesthood passed from one priest to another, but Christ's
priesthood is intransferable ; and therefore, for any man to
assume to be a priest, as Christ is, is as great a sin as if he
should assume to be omnipotent, omnipresent, or omniscient ;
he arrays himself with blasphemous pretensions, and he will
soon discover that whoever steals a ray from the glory of
Christ takes a curse immediately into his own bosom. In
the next place, you will find no mention, throughout the
whole of the Acts of the Apostles, of sacrificing priests of
any sort whatever.
Besides, in the Christian Church we have no altar.
Some of you in this country make a very great blunder
(and I notice it sometimes in the newspapers) when you
say that such a gentleman led such a lady to the altar. I
am sorry to hear this, because it would seem to indicate that
there are many altars in this country. I have looked into
the Church of England Prayerbook, and do' not find the
word from the beginning to the end. It contains, however,
a most excellent Protestant sentiment, which I wish the
Bishop of Exeter and his friends would "mark, learn, and
inwardly digest," (I mean no disrespect to that eminent pre
late) : " That the Lord's table is to be placed in the middle
of the congregation, or in some other convenient place " — it
does not say in the east end : if there be a table there, keep
it there, but not as a matter of necessity. I recollect that
in Dr. M'Neile's former church, in Liverpool, the table is in
front of the pulpit. If I were in the Church of England, I
would be a high churchman in this matter ; I would not take
the low church plan, but would follow the first part of the
Rubric which says, the table is to be placed in the body of
the Church ; this would be a testimony against these sacri
ficing altars which some of these imitators of the Church of

THE BARNET DISCUSSION. 485
Rome are trying to bring in. It is clear, then, that the
Lord's fable we may have, but there is no such thing as an
altar. An intimate friend and fellow-student of mine, who
took orders in the Church of England, went over to Amster
dam. He met there a reverend gentleman of the Church
of England, who had got bitten by this new mania. I dare
say you hear but little of it in Barnet ; but we have plenty
of it in London, and it is known very well in Exeter —
called Tractarianism ; and you have no idea how unman
ageable people become who are affected with it. He found
this gentleman at Amsterdam at his communion table,
planting upon it a mariner's compass. " What are you
about ? " said my friend. " Why your altar is two points
too much to the north : it ought to be right east." " I
should never have thought of it," said my friend, " if it had
been half a dozen points out." " Oh, but it is inconsistent
with such a council, or such a usage ; it ought to be duly in
the east, as near as the mariner's compass can put it."
Just think of that glorious Gospel which is pronounced,
in the New Testament, not to be meat or drink, east pr
west, north or south, ceremony, or surplice, or silk gown,
feasting or fasting — think of that glorious Gospel which has
none of these, but is " righteousness, peace, and joy, in the
Holy Ghost," thus degraded, thus debased ! We have now,
then, no altars. My friend Mr. Myers, or Mr. Dudding,
dare not have stone altars if they wished — it would be
contrary to law. Some people complain perhaps of the
State, but it keeps them all in good order, and checks some
of those tendencies which we are all so prone to by nature.
They dare not have an altar. What use have they for a
propitiatory sacrifice ? If we need a propitiatory sacrifice,
Christ's sacrifice cannot have been sufficient : then the
words, " It is finished," is a mockery ; then the words, " The
blood of Christ cleanseth from all sin," are untrue ; then
Christ's sacrifice was incomplete, Christ's merits inadequate,
41*

486 THE BARNET DISCUSSION.
Christ's righteousness imperfect, and it needs to be eked out
by the incessant sacrifices of man. But is this the case ?
I explained in the morning that God does not need to be
propitiated, made placable to His people, for He is our
Father in Christ, so loving us that he gave Christ to die for
us. What is needed is that we should be reconciled to Him,
not that He should be reconciled to us. If this be so, why
offer up sacrifice to make God placable ? He is already so ;
He is "in Christ, reconciling the world unto himself." I
have read somewhere of a beautiful incident respecting the
atonement, which will illustrate what I mean. It seems
that a vision passed before a person descriptive of the
atonement. He found a great inclosure, in the midst of
which he saw millions of the dying and the dead. An angel
came down from heaven, and longed to deliver them. He
saw three gates : he went to the first — at it was Justice —
he said, " Will you let these living ones come out, and
these dead ones live?" The watch said, "My name is
Justice: the soul that sins shall die; they have been weighed
in the scales, and found wanting ; and the gate cannot be
opened." He went to the next gate, and the watch said,
" My name is Holiness : the soul that sins shall die ; without
holiness they cannot see the Lord." He went to the next
gate, where was Truth; and Truth said, "I have said the
words : the soul that sins shall die ; and cannot reverse
them." He asked what was to be done ? All three said,
"If some one will take the place of these — bear their
curse, and obey their law — we will take the substitute for
the sufferer, if sufficient, and will open the gates, and let
them out." The angel winged his way back to heaven
The great question, on which your and my destiny hung,
was asked : " Whom shall I send ? " And amid the awful,
suspensive silence of all heaven, a voice came from the
Throne, as of a Lamb that had been slain, saying, " Lo, I
come : in the volume of thy book it is written of me, I come

„, THE BARNET DISCUSSION. 487
to do thy will, O my God." He came from a height to
which angel's wing never soared, and came down to expe
rience an agony and a sorrow that human heart never
imagined — bore our curse, obeyed our law, and exclaimed
at the close : " It is finished." Instantly Justice opened her
gate ; Holiness, her gate ; and Truth, her gate ; the living
walked out free, and healed, and the dead arose and mingled
with the living ; and there was peace on earth, for Mercy
and Truth had met together, and Righteousness and Peace
had kissed each other. Man was saved, and God was satis
fied, and therefore there was freedom. So it is with that
blessed Gospel. The gates are opened — come forth; the
sacrifice has been made — believe on it : the price has been
paid — rest upon the fact that it is so ; and go to God, and
say : " Because Jesus opened these gates, therefore do I
come unto Thee ; and because Jesus has made it possible
for Thee to be just while thou justifiest me, I ask Thee to
forgive me." To bring another sacrifice — to bring another
price, is to suppose that God is not satisfied, that Christ's
sacrifice is not complete ; and it is to dishonor every attri
bute of God, as well as to ruin and destroy men's precious
souls. We have, my dear friends, a righteousness in which
we may be robed, so perfect that an angel's tear would stain
it, and a martyr's holiest blood would defile it. We have
that precious blood which so cleanseth from all sin that he
that is cleansed in it, is entitled to everlasting happiness.
When the soul doubts — when I have felt the sense and the
recollection of sin, I have always fallen back upon this pre
cious truth — this blood cleanseth from all sin. Have you
not dealt with tradesmen who have entered their accounts
with you into their ledgers ? I have noticed, myself, when
paying my bookseller, that he draws a line across his ledger,
as well as gives me a receipt. When I pay him again, I
see my last account in his book ; I see the books I pur
chased, the price of them, and the whole amount, five, ten^

488 THE BARNET DISCUSSION. .
or twenty pounds, against me. I say to him, " But I paid
you this ampunt last Christmas." " Quite so," he replies,
and you see this red line drawn from corner to corner —
this means that it is all settled. Whenever I think of sin, I
always recollect that precious red line, the blood of Jesus,
Which cleanseth from all sin ; and while I recollect my sins,
I feel there is no condemnation to them that are in Christ
Jesus. There is one text, my dear friends, worth carrying
home with you : " He that knew no sin was made sin for us
that we might be made the righteousness of God in him."
In what sense was Christ made sin for us ? Not personally
so, for He was the Lamb of God. In what sense then ?
He bore our iniquities ; our sins were laid upon Him.
Well, then, says the apostle, in the same sense in which
Christ was made sin for us, we are made righteousness by
Him. If it was just in God to punish the substitute for the
imputed sin, it is but faithful and just in God to acquit the
sinner because of imputed righteousness. When Jesus died
there was nothing in Him worthy of death ; when we are
saved there will be nothing in us worthy of heaven. He
was the spotless Lamb, wearing our tainted fleece ; and we
are the stray sheep wearing the robe of His perfect right
eousness. When Christ laid down in the grave there was
not one thing in Him that could deserve to die ; and when
we shall be admitted into heaven there will not be one
thing in us that will deserve admission there. He suffered,
because of our sins laid upon Him ; we are justified, be
cause of His righteousness laid upon us. And I declare
and protest before heaven and earth, I am satisfied with a
Saviour's blood, satisfied with a Saviour's righteousness,
satisfied with the completeness of a Saviour's sacrifice ; and
I call upon you not to elaborate a salvation, but to aecept
one — not to contribute, but to receive — not to suffer or to
do — in order to be saved, but to believe on Jesus, and thou
shalt be saved. If this be true, away with all the rubbish

„ THE BARNET DISCUSSION. 489
of altars, and priests, and sacrifices, and all the nonsense
and superstitions of Rome ! We are complete in Christ, a
glorious Saviour, a glorious Gospel, a blessed faith, a holy
hope, a happy and a certain home. We need not, then,
such altars, we need not such sacrifices as those of the
Church of Rome. The altar of St. Peter's age will de
stroy, a hammer upset, a mouse will undermine ; but we
have an altar under which is the Rock of Ages, even Jesus
Christ, the same yesterday, to-day, and for ever.
So much, then, for that sacrifice. I cannot leave it,
without asking you, are you resting upon that precious
truth ? I believe the worst of all Puseyism, and Popery,
and Tractarianism, is letting go that great truth. What was
the doctrine with which Martin Luther smote Rome ? Jus
tification by faith alone in the righteousness of Christ. As
long as you feel that you are justified by that alone, so long
you can say to the priest, " We do not want your sacrifices
or indulgences, or your merits, or your works of superero
gation, we have no need of them." What would be the use
of lighting a taper at noonday ? What would be the use of
an infant puffing with his mouth to add to the force of a
hurricane ? What would be the contribution of a tear to
the mighty ocean ? What would be the contribution of all
the merits of all the saints that ever suffered, or died, or
labored, to add to those merits which are infinite, to that
righteousness which is perfect, to that sacrifice in which we
are complete, without a spot, or wrinkle, or any such thing?
Point 15, as given by Dr. Faa, is : " Protestants maintain
that neither the apostles nor those who succeed to their
office, power, and jurisdiction, the bishops and priests of the
Church, have any power given them from our Saviour
Christ to remit sin, and that the power of forgiving sins is
so far the proper and peculiar attribute of God, that it can
not be by him given and communicated to men." Then he
quotes John xx. 21, etc. " Then said Jesus to him again,

490 THE BARNET DISCUSSION.
Peace be unto you. As my Father hath sent me, even so I
send you. And when he had said this, he breathed on
them, and said unto them, Receive ye the Holy Ghost.
Whosesoever sins ye remit they are remitted unto them,
and whosesoever sins ye retain they are retained." There
fore, argues Dr. Faa, the priest is to hear your confession,
and then absolve you : " I absolve thee in the name of the
Father, and the Son, and the Holy Ghost." The question
is, Is this absolution of the priest the fulfilment of the func
tion, " Whosesoever sins ye remit ? " Let me explain my
self in, this way. Leprosy of old was to be submitted
always to the priest ; and it is said in the book of Leviticus
(and my friend, Mr. Myers, will be able to convince you
that I am right), that when the person came to the priest
(according to our translation), the priest " shall pronounce
him clean." In the original the words are : " Shall cleanse
him ; " but the translators have properly rendered it : " Shall
pronounce him clean." I apply to sin exactly what was
applied to the leprosy. " Whosesoever sins ye remit," that
is, whosesoever sins ye pronounce to be remitted. And how
pronounce to be remitted ? Those who truly repent, and
unfeignedly believe — the sins of these persons are remit
ted ; and all the minister can do is to declare that they are
really and truly so, if those persons thus repent and believe
But the best way, perhaps, to settle this is to refer to the
Acts of the Apostles, in which the functions with which
Christ invested the apostles were put into exercise by them.
This book presents a few chapters to show how they carried
into practice the prerogatives with which they were armed.
The gaoler at Philippi exclaimed in the presence of two
apostles : " What must I do to be saved ? " How did the
apostles meet that ? Did they say, " Kneel down and con
fess your sins to us here," and then say, " I absolve thee
from all thy sin, in the name of the Father, and the Son,
and the Holy Ghost?" No, but they said: "Believe on

THE BARNET DISCUSSION. 491
the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou slialt be saved:" and the
gaoler believed, and was baptized, with all his house. You
have, therefore, an instance of the apostles forgiving sins 
that is, declaring sins to be forgiven, on condition of faith in
the atonement of Christ; and you have thus a commen
tary on the text, " Whosesoever sins ye remit they are
remitted." In Point 1 6, it is said, " Protestants hold that we are to
confess our sins to none but God, and that it is needless to
confess to men ; nor are we under any obligation to confess
to the priest." Then he quotes, " Then went to him Jeru
salem and all Judea, and were baptized of him in Jordan,
confessing their sins." Now, what is the position of the
Church of Rome ? In each chapel there is a little box, to
which you are to kneel down, and put your mouth at a hole
on one side of it, and whisper in the priest's ear every
thought that has passed through your heart, every fact in
your life, every thing which you think to be a mortal sin, or
which you conceive to be above what they call " venial sin."
I ask the priest, where is his authority for that ? On what
text of Scripture can he show that a man is to confess his
sins to the priest? What you. have done against a fellow
man, confess to that man; but what you have done against
God, confess to God. If you steal from your neighbor, and
if you repent, go and restore to him what you tookt —
acknowledge your sin to him — that is right. But beyond
the injury done to your neighbor, there is in the act the sin
against God. Now, the injury you do your neighbor, your
neighbor can forgive you ; but the sin you commit : against
God, God alone can forgive. Hence, I believe that the text
of David, "Against thee only have I sinned," does not mean
"Against thee chiefly have I sinned," but that sin is commit
ted exclusively against God, and to God alone we are to
confess it, and that God alone can forgive it. The practice
of auricular confession, I need not tell you, has. been said to

492 THE BARNET DISCUSSION.
be one of the most powerful engines of tyranny and perse
cution in the Roman Catholic communion. Besides, why
should I bow before the priest and confess my sins, when I
am welcome to go to my Father and confess them to him,
who waits, and rejoices to forgive! I do not want the
priest's forgiveness — I have forgiveness from God. David
said, ' I will confess my sin unto the Lord ; " and, " Thou
forgavest the iniquity of my sin." But more than that. If
I tell the priest every thought of my heart, and every fact
in my history, what is the result ? The man who knows me
just as well as I know myself, is my master for life, and I
am his slave. I do not wonder at the tenacity with which
the priest holds his victim; because (I warn you) the
instant you have gone to the priest, and told him every
thing, he has only to look at you, and he will make you
wince. When I notice Protestants in the presence of their
ministers, they seem as in the presence of brethren, of
friends, and fellow-worshippers ; but when I notice Roman
Catholics in the presence of a priest, they seem to shrink
from him, the very scowl of a priest's eye makes them
shrink into insignificance. Why ? Because the priest knows
and has read their hearts, and has it in his power to blast
them, if needs be when he pleases. You answer, " Is it not
true, that a priest dares not make known what he hears in
the confessional ? " Perfectly so ; but there are many ways
of doing this without committing the ecclesiastical sin. Sup
pose, now, A. and B., two persons, have had some dishonest
transactions. Both are Roman Catholics, and they go to
the same place, and separately confess their common sin. It
happens that A. becomes a Protestant, and leaves the
Church of Rome. Well, the priest dares not say any
thing to A., but he goes to B., and says, " You confessed to
me that dishonest transaction you had with A. A. has left
tlie Church, and is bringing shame and scandal on it. I
dare not reveal what I heard from him in the confessional,

THE BARNET DISCUSSION. 493
but you tell him, if he does not return to the Church, you
will let him hear something of himself, and this may com
pel him to come back again." Thus the priest sits behind
the scenes, and pulls the strings that make the puppets of
Popedom caper, or dance, or stand up, or sit down, and act
in any way he pleases.
Dr. Faa says, in point 17, " Protestants hold that the use
of indulgences was not in the days of the apostles, nor has
any foundation in Scripture." Then he explains that the
apostle excommunicated a person, " and takes upon him to
release the same man in the person of Christ, that is, by the
authority of Christ, from doing any further penance on ac
count of that sin." That is the priest's explanation. Indul
gence in the Roman Cathohc Catechism is defined to be
" the remission of the temporal penalty due for sin after the
eternal penalty has been forgiven." In other words, the
Roman Catholic says that God forgives you the eternal
punishment, but he does not forgive you the temporal pun
ishment due to sin. This seems to me a most lame expo
sition of God's glorious attribute. If He forgives the
greater, surely He forgives the less; if He forgive you
eternal suffering, surely He will forgive you freely and fully
the temporal suffering. Do not suppose, therefore, that you
need any indulgence — or that your doing something, such
as giving alms, doing penance of some sort remits the tem
poral punishment due to your sin, or mitigates the sufferings
you will have to undergo in purgatory. The texts the
priest quotes are so beside the question, and have so little
to do with proving that for which he quotes them, that I
need not dwell upon them.
The next point is that of confirmation. This may be a
proper ecclesiastical rite, but certainly it is not a sacrament.
It is only upon that point we dispute.
Extreme unction, he says, in his next point, is one of the
new sacraments ; and he quotes James v. 14. " Is any sick
42

494 THE BARNET DISCUSSION.
among you? Let him call for the elders of the Church
and let them pray over him ; anointing him with oil in the
name of the Lord : and the prayer pf faith shall save him."
Look at the boldness of Dr. Faa in quoting such a text for
such a purpose, Extreme unction in the Church of Rome
is only administered when a person is. dying — never when
there is a likelihood , that he will recover; but the unction
James speaks of is for the purpose of recovering the person;
they are two distinct things. Then the unction of the Ro
man Catholic Church is followed by no effect ; the unction
St. James speaks of was followed by the miraculous cure of
the man : " And the prayer of faith shall save the sick ; and
the Lord shall raise him up : and if he have committed sins
they shall be forgiven him." Whether we should have any
rite in a Christian Church corresponding to that of St.
James is another question. I say no, because it was a
special rite for a special miraculous cure. But extreme
unction is : not this. rite. Miracles have ceased; and the
outward signs of them have ceased to be necessary also.
Point 20 is : " Protestants hold that holy orders is not
one of the sacraments of the new law ordained by Christ to
confer grace." Ordination we perfectly approve of, and
think right : his calling it a sacrament is a strong expression,
and for which there is no evidence. I may add that the
word sacrament is not a New Testament word at all, but is
derived from the Roman languages and Roman usages, and
is generally, confined to those two great Sacraments —
Baptism and the Lord's Supper.
The next point which he takes up, on which I partly com
mented this morning, and must not dwell much longer, is :
" Protestants maintain that the honor which is given to
angels and saints in the Church of Rome is no better than
idolatry." We do say so. In Bonaventure's Psalter, the
name of the Virgin is substituted in some of the Psalms for
the name of God. Thus: "Bless, 0 my soul, the Virgin

THE BARNET DISCUSSION. 495
Mary ; all that is within me be stirred up to bless and mag
nify her holy name." The Te Deum is given : " We praise
thee, 0 Mary, we acknowledge thee to be our Lady : all the
earth doth worship thee, spouse of the Eternal : to thee
Angels cry, Holy, Holy, Holy art thou, O Mary, Mother of
God." This is in a work which has. gone through eight
separate editions in the course of six years — from 1836 to
1844, under the sanction of the Pope : and the Roman Cath
olic has a Missal in which he prays that he may be benefited
by the intercession of the blessed Bonaventure. I say, then,
(though Dr. Faa says No,) that such language is blasphemy
and idolatry in the highest possible degree. What text does
he quote to prove it? He says we ought to worship saints
because the apostle says (Rom. ii. 10), "Glory, honor, and
peace to every man that worketh good." Who ever, in his
senses, thinks that meant " Glory, honor, and worship to
saints ? " The apostle says that to them that do evil tribu
lation and anguish shall be their punishment ; but to them
that do good, honor, as their reward — -that is, admission
into glory and honor. The next passage he quotes is :
" And when the sons ofthe Prophets which were to view at
Jericho, saw him, they said, The spirit of Elijah doth rest
on Elisha ; " and they1 came to meet him, and bowed them
selves to the ground before him — .that is, civil respect due
to dignity. The next passage is : " And as Obadiah was in
the way, behold Elijah met him, and he knew him, and fell
on his face, and said, Art thou my lord Elijah ? " that was
merely the civil respect due to him. The next passage is
from Joshua v. 14: "And he said, Nay, but as captain of
the host of the Lord am I now come. And Joshua fell on
his face to the earth, and did worship." ¦ That is a strong
expression, and is, therefore, worth examining. I turn to
the passage quoted, and I find it is said : "And Joshua fell
on his face to the earth, and said unto him, What saith my
Lord unto his servant. And the captain of the Lord's hosts

496 THE BARNET DISCUSSION.
said unto Joshua, [here is the language which God used
when he appeared in the burning bush,] Loose thy shoe
from off thy foot, for the place whereon thou standest is
holy,"- showing that the Angel of the Covenant was the
angel that here spoke to Joshua, the same that appeared in
the burning bush to Moses. It was not, therefore; a created,
but a divine being.
Dr. Faa adds : " Protestants reply that when St. John
fell down at the angel's feet, and would have worshipped
him, ' See thou do it not, says the angel, I am thy fellow-
servant — worship God.' Is not this a plain argument that
whatever worship is paid in a religious way, is due to God
alone." How he can make out this lucus a non lucendo —
this strange conclusion from strange premises — I know not.
If you should see an individual bow down to worship an
other, and that other said, " Do it not, but worship God,"
you would understand that no religious worship was due to
him to whom it was offered, but only and exclusively to the
true and living God. I need not give you an illustration of
the awful extent to which Roman Catholics carry their
idolatry in this matter. This I have brought before you on
former occasions. I charge the Church of Rome with the
grossest idolatry in this practice. I know she deals with
it, in a very strange way in some of her Catechisms, which
I think I showed you. In three Catechisms which I have
bound up here — one by Archbishop Riley, another, " An
Abridgment of Christian Doctrine," and the other, by four
archbishops of Ireland — the second commandment in every
instance is omitted : the first commandment reading, " I am
the Lord thy God, etc." and the second, " Thou shalt not
take the name of the Lord thy God in vain." I have
also an Italian catechism, picked up by a lady at Rome,
sanctioned by two Popes, and used in Rome at this moment.
The second commandment is left out ; and instead of " Re
member to keep holy the sabbath day," the commandment is
given, " Remember to keep holy the festivals."

THE BARNET DISCUSSION. 497
The last point which, I shall notice, is point 25. " Prot
estants hold that abstinence and fasting from certain meats
in Lent, and upon other fasts commanded by the Church is
folly and superstition, not grounded in the written Word of
God." He quotes from Daniel, the Psalms, Jonah, Joel,
etc. But what do these texts say ? Abstinence from food
was an outward sign of an inward feeling ; and in these
texts it is connected with supphcation, and sackcloth and
ashes. Now, if the priest quotes it for fasting in Lent (and
it may be proper to fast at Lent, for all that I am contending
for), why does he not wear sackcloth also, and sprinkle ashes
on his head ? I say of all fasting that it is an outward sign
of. an inward state. If I feel that fasting enables me to
read and study my Bible better, and hold communion with
God more closely, I feel it a duty to fast ; if I feel that it
would have the opposite effect, it is then as much my duty
not to fast. God tells us the Sabbath was made' for man,
not man for the Sabbath ; a fortiori, therefore, fasting must
be for the convenience of man, not man for the doing of the
fasting. If men would feast less, there would then be less
need of fasting. The greatest feasters in Carnival are the
greatest fosters in Lent: it is with them a sort of see-saw-
eating too much one day, and too little the next,. instead of
the common sense plan of doing that which is good and
sufficient, neither eating nor drinking more than they actu
ally want. I apply to fasting what Paul applies to holy
days : " One man esteemeth one day above another : another
esteemeth every day alike." " Meat commendeth us not to
God, for neither if we eat are we better, neither if we eat
not are we worse." " For the kingdom of God is not meat
and drink, but righteousness, and peace, and joy in the Holy
Ghost." What beautiful common sense, what sound reason
ing in that blessed book ! What evidence does it give of
the signature of God, and of the presence and inspiration
of Him who is all love and all wisdom !
42*

498

THE BARNET DISCUSSION.

And now, my dear friends, I have run through these
passages as quickly as I possibly could, in order to do the
most work in the least possible time. Let me ask you
in conclusion, are you not satisfied that these texts do not
prove the doctrines of the Church of Rome ? Are you not
satisfied that they prove clearly, by implication, the blessed
truths of the Gospel of the Son of God ? My dear friends,
the days are coming when our faith will be subjected to the
severest ordeal. I believe that all men are becoming more
and more earnest, and that every one of you will soon have
to take your place either with the Lord on his side, or on
the side of His enemies. We are all passing to the burial-
place of the dead, and to the judgment-seat of the living. We
know not what a week, a day, an hour, may bring forth. I
ask you then, do you. accept the truth as it is in Jesus ? Do
you accept, not what the priest thinks, or what the Council
has decreed, but simply what GocThas inspired in his own
blessed Word ? And in these days when you hear so much
about Churches, never forget this, that the true Church isi
that which presents with the greatest clearness, distinctness,
and permanence, the everlasting Gospel of the Son of God.
Do you remember the beautiful saying, (John iii.,) " Aa
Moses lifted up the serpent in the Wilderness, even so must
the Son of Man be hfted up, that whosoever believeth on
him might not perish, but have everlasting life ? " What
was the case with the Israelites who had sinned ? They
were bitten by the fiery flying serpent ; they were dying.
The brazen serpent was raised at the top of a pole in the
Wilderness, and Moses was instructed to tell the people that
all they had to do in order to obtain life was to look at it.
If some dying Israelite was in the agonies of death, if he
could only open his eye, and catch one glimpse of that ser
pent, it was instant health and restoration to him. You
may have weak faith, but you have a strong Saviour; you
may have great faith, but you have a great Saviour. Your

THE BARNET DISCUSSION. 499
salvation is not in the ratio of your faiths you have a com
plete Saviour, seen and accepted by the least as well as by
the greatest. Suppose Moses had said to the people, " You
must first look at me, and then at the pole, and then at the
serpent," they would perhaps have died before they had got
through the prescribed steps : but he told them to look at
once at the serpent. Suppose some dying Israelite had
said, as some moderns would say, " Moses, I will look at
that serpent, and be healed, if you will tell me what is the
composition of the pole on which it stands. Can you show
me that it is a branch of a tree a hundred years old, which
tree is a shp from one that grew before the flood, which last
is a slip from one that grew in Paradise before Adam fell ?
If you will trace the genealogical succession of the pole that
holds up the serpent, I will look at the serpent, and be
cured ; if not, I would rather lie down and die." Moses
would have said, " It is of* no consequence to you whether
the pole grew on an oak, or an ash, or a fir-tree : that is
best that holds the serpent steadiest and highest, most easily
seen by all the people." So is it with Churches. That
Church is not the best whose minister tells you of his long
genealogy, of his apostolical succession, which is, I fear, in
many cases, apostolical nonsense ; for you may depend upon
it, the man that preaches apostolical truth has apostolical
succession, and the man that preaches not apostolical truth,
may trace his genealogy as he likes, it will end in a quagmire
as it began with one. That Church you are to rest on that
holds Christ the highest ; and that minister of the Gos
pel who sinks himself in the shade, and makes his Saviour
all in all, is the minister whose labors God will honor, and
to whose ministry souls will be given as precious seals. I
ask you if you are resting on that Saviour — if you are
renewed by His Spirit — if you can go home to-night and
pray (as I beseech you, as the only reward I ask for the
little service I have done) — fathers in your families, each

500 THE BARNET DISCUSSION.
of you in your rooms — that God would change the heart
of the author of this pamphlet, that He would enlighten his
mind ; and, whoever may come to take his place, that it
may please God to change his heart, and give him his Holy
Spirit, and, through the precious blood of the Saviour, bring
him, and you, and all into the kingdom of heaven.

EEVIEW

DR. NEWMAN'S LECTURES.*

LECTURE I.
I rejoice in a second, and in some degree unexpected,
opportunity of addressing you upon those momentous ques
tions which are occupying a place, and exerting an influence,
in the history of our country, unparalleled since the era of
the Reformation. I have selected the work of Dr. Newman,
called " Lectures on the Present Position of Catholics in
England : addressed to the Brothers of the Oratory," sold
for twelve shillings, and, as it appears, exceedingly popular
with his party, because, in the first place, he is the most
strenuous and untiring champion of the creed he has so
recently adopted ; and secondly, because he complains, and
complains in reiterated terms, that free discussion is neither
the practice nor any part of the glory of English Protestants,
and that his creed never yet has had a fair reflection or a
candid investigation into its merits : and especially does he
insist that we British Protestants have no idea whatever of
what Roman Catholicism really is ; that we have a mere
* Two Lectures Delivered at the Town Hall, Tunbridge Wells, on Thurs
day, November 6, 1851. Rev. Thos. Ward Franklyn, M. A., Incumbent
of Christchurch, in the chair.

502 REVIEW OF
traditional recollection of its wrong doing, and a sort of tra
ditional idea of its endless demerits, but nothing beyond. In
fact, of Romanism, or as he calls it, Catholicism, he declares
that Englishmen, even the most learned, have no just or
even approximately just idea. I was so amazed at the
extravagance of these statements, that I was induced to
read the book on this account alone. On doing so, I was so
struck with the subtlety, the evasive Subtlety, that run
through ' his statements, the occasional splendor and brill
iancy that break forth from the midst of his discussions, and
at the same time the strong charges that he makes against
every section of the Protestant communion, that I felt a
better text-book for a basis of elucidation and discussion of
the principles at issue, I could scarcely adopt than the Lec
tures ofthe Rev. Dr. Newman.
Deeply do I grieve to see an intellect so splendid sinking
into an evening twilight so dark and ominous. It seems to
me, as if his mind emitted at intervals that unearthly brill
iancy that indicates its approaching extinction : at all events
if it be not so, he appears to have drunk of that cup which
has been placed in his hands by Cardinal Wiseman and Pio
Nono, till he is intellectually and morally intoxicated with
its poison. I present Dr. Newman as a specimen of the
awful effects of that system upon a man of great learning, a
mind of rare brilliancy, an intellect of great acuteness. And
just as the ancient Greeks were in the habit — a habit I do
not justify, though I quote it — of presenting their slaves
intoxicated before their sons, that their sons might see what
intoxication was, by the conduct of the helots under its
power, and who thus became the unhappy victims and ex
ponents of it, so I present Dr. Newman now, compared with
what Dr. Newman was, as a specimen of the dreadful effects
of that deadly superstition, — and I use the language ad
visedly, and cautiously, — which is now spreading from a
thousand fountains, and by a thousand laborers, through the

DR. NEWMAN'S LECTURES. 503
length and breadth of the land : so that, seeing what it has
made him, you may shrink from it, and ever celebrate, as
you did in Christchurch, (the Rev. J. W. Franklyn's,)
yesterday, the 5 th of November, and ever think of the de
liverance of our fathers from the deadly designs of the
Romish church, with feelings of gratitude to God, and
increased devotedness to our Protestant Christianity.
This volume is called " Lectures on the Present Position
of Catholics in England : addressed to the Brothers of the
Oratory, by John Henry Newman, D. D., Priest of the
Congregation of St. Philip. Neri." And, first of all, to show
the intensity and earnestness of his attachment to the com
munion he has joined, I will read the dedication of it : —
" To the Most Reverend Paul, Lord Archbishop of Armagh
and Primate of all Ireland." And with that exceedingly
distinctive non-naturalness, in which he indulged before he
left nature for the artificial principles of Romanism, he pro
ceeds : " My dear Lord Primate, It is the infelicity of the
moment at which I write, that it is not allowed me to place
the following pages under the patronage of the successor of
St. Patrick, with the ceremony and observance due to so
great a name, without appearing to show disrespect to an
Act of Parliament." He professes not to violate it, and yet
in the same breath he does so. Now this " Archbishop of
Armagh and Primate of all Ireland " is not known to the
people of England in this capacity. Dr. CuUen is entitled
to the same toleration and privileges that we have, but he is
not Archbishop of Armagh : he has no right to take for his
glory a part of the queen's sovereignty, and appropriate it,
and Pio Nono had no power, though he may assume or pre
tend to it, to constitute Paul Cullen Archbishop of Armagh
and Primate of all Ireland. Yet Dr. Newman, professing
to revere the Acts of the imperial realm under which he
lives, and deprecating the appearance of violating them,
does not hesitate, while disclaiming it, to do so. And does

504 REVIEW OE
not this indicate a great deal? It shows that, a law of
England and a law of Rome coming into antagonism, Dr.
Newman selected obedience to the Pope in preference to
obedience to the laws of his country.
I now turn to the preface of these Lectures. They were
addressed to " the Brothers of the Oratory." I should be
sorry to say any thing that might be misconstrued; but
some parts of them look to me, from their extravagance, as
if they were addressed by a bedlamite to brothers of a bed
lam, instead of by a father of the Oratory to brothers of the
Oratory, — so extravagantly unjust and so unfair are some
of their statements. He says, that what he will do will be
" to remove some of the moral and intellectual impediments
which prevent Protestants from perceiving the divine origin
of Catholicism." He says the whole country of England
is so "overrun with prejudices," that until they are re
moved, " it is as premature to attempt to prove that to be
true which is the object of them," (Roman Catholicism,)
" as it would be to think of building in the aboriginal forest
till you had felled the trees." And he says, " He claims,
and surely with justice, that it should not be urged, against
his proof that Protestant views of Catholics are wrong, that
he has not thereby proved that Catholicism is right." His
object, therefore, he states in this preface, is to proceed to
remove the prejudices that Protestants have against his
church, and to show that these are prejudices, and not good
and substantial reasons for repudiating it.
In this attempt he first throws himself on the defensive ;
and we know that, when one person is on the defensive, and
another can be presented as an aggressor, the person on the
defensive conciliates more sympathy and forbearance than
the person who is presented as the unauthorized and rude
aggressor. He therefore very surprisingly says, "We
Catholics are so despised and hated by our own country
men, with whom we have hyed all our hves, that they are

dr. Newman's lectures. 505
prompt to believe any story, however extravagant, that is
told to our disadvantage ; as if beyond a doubt we were,
every one of us, either brutishly deluded, or preternaturally
hypocritical, and they themselves, on the contrary, were, in
comparison of us, absolute specimens of sagacity, wisdom,
uprightness, manly integrity, and enlightened Christianity.-,
I am not inquiring why they are not Catholics themselves,.
but why they are so angry with those who are." Now, I do.
submit that this is not a fair statement. I see no proof of'
it anywhere. We do not hate Roman Catholics; we do-
not hate Dr. Newman. I would go to Birmingham and.
back again in order to do him a service ; and I am quite ¦
Bure that there is not one of you, however much you may-
deplore the errors of which he is the victim, who would not
sacrifice and suffer in order to emancipate him ; and we all
feel, what is so true, that any man's creed, however erro
neous it maybe, does not authorize us to treat him wh»j
adopts it with contempt, or visit him with proscription, or
persecution, or bad usage of any kind. It is untrue in Dr..
Newman to assert that we hate Roman Catholics. We pity
the men; we do hate their principles. We distinguish be
tween men who are the unhappy victims, and those deadly
principles of which they are industrious and active expo
nents. Because Dr. Newman is sincerely attached to his^
new creed, I respect him. Because he is unhappily and:
fatally wrong, I will endeavor to undeceive him ; but I will.
not and do not hate him, or any one associated with him ;:
nor would I deny him any privilege or right to which he is^
entitled, because he differs so widely from me in those great
truths which concern our present enjoyment, and our ever
lasting well-being. He then goes on to state, " Nor, again,,
»m I proposing to prove to you or to myself, that knaves
and fools we are not, not idolaters, not blasphemers, not
men of blood, not profligates, not steeped in sin and seared?
hi conscience ; for we know each other and ourselves."'
43

506 REVIEW OP
Now, I do not say that they are what he here specifies ; but
I do say, and I am prepared to prove, that his church is
idolatrous, that his church is sanguinary and persecut
ing in principle and in practice, that his church is blas
phemous in her worship. I am very happy to hear that
Dr. Newman shrinks from the charge, and shah rejoice if he
can show that, whatever his church can be, or has done, he
is neither idolatrous, nor blaspheming, nor sanguinary, nor
persecuting. It is this separation of him from his church I
desire. In another part he says, in language that seems to
us very strange, at least very new, — "Protestantism is
jealous of being questioned ; it resents argument." Why,
its advocates have discussed its claims with Roman Catho
lics on every platform. You cannot enter a Protestant
church without hearing it broadly brought forward ; and we
Protestants have all imagined, until Dr. Newman unde
ceived us, that, instead of being jealous of being questioned,
we loved to be so, knowing well, that the church that
shrinks from discussion is a church that hates the light,
because its dogmas are evil. But, alas ! I fear he is not
here ingenuous. It is a principle of the Jesuits, — and it
is remarkable how it runs through this volume, — to take
the offences that are justly charged on themselves, and to
attribute them to their opponents. " Protestantism resents
argument," says he ; " it flies to state protection ; it is afraid
pf the sun ; it forbids competition. How can you detect
the sham, but by comparing it with the true ? Your artifi
cial flowers," (those are, Protestant doctrines,) " have the
softness and brilliancy of nature, till you bring in the living
article fresh from the garden." You may remember I
gave you a " living article fresh from the garden " of Dr.
Newman, in the beautiful and moral sentiments of Alpbonsq
de Castro. I gave you another " living article fresh from
the garden " of Cardinal Wiseman, in the oath that Romish
archbishops take, — "I will attack and persecute heretics to

dr. newman's lectures. 507
the utmost of my power." And I will give you one or
two more choice bouquets from the Canon Law, and you
will see that, if we have not flowers very fragrant to his
sensitive taste, there are some flowers in his garden which
we think of very equivocal aroma, and which we regard as
weeds rather than fragrant flowers. For instance, in Dr.
Newman's Canon Law, which he dare not repudiate, which
his primate has come to select, we find such flowers as
these — " Let the secular powers, whatever office they may
hold, be advised and instructed, and if need be, compelled
by ecclesiastical censure ; and as they desired to be reputed
and held faithful, to take a pubhc oath for the defence of the
faith, that they will study to the utmost to exterminate from
all territories subject, to their jurisdiction, all heretics so
marked by the church." That is not a very fragrant
flower. "And if the secular power refuse to comply, let it
be told to the sovereign pontiff, and let him denounce the
subjects as released from their fealty, and give the country
to Catholics, who, having exterminated the heretics, may
peaceably possess it." (This decretal is headed, Innocent
IH. in Concilio Generali, vol. ii. p. 758, Corp. Jur. Can.
Leipsic, 1839.) The aroma of that, too, is not very fra
grant. Gregory IX. inserted this decretal , of the Fourth
Lateran in his decretals : "An oath contrary to the utility
of the church is not to be observed." — Vol. ii. p. 358,
Decret. Greg. IX. lib. ii. tit. 24, cap. 27, Leipsic, 1839.
" These are to be called perjuries rather than oaths, which
are attempted against ecclesiastical utility." — Ibid. "You
are not bound by an oath of this kind, but, on the contrary,
you are freely bid God speed in standing up against kings
for the rights and honors of that very church, and even in
legislatively defending your own peculiar privileges." —
Decret. Greg. IX. lib. ii. tit. 24, cap. 31, vol. ii. p. 360.
" The fealty which subjects have sworn to a Christian king,
who opposes God and his saints, they are not bound by any

508 REVIEW OF
authority to perform." — Vol. i. p. 648. "Moreover, we
declare, assert, define, and pronounce it to be of necessity
to salvation, for every human creature to be subject to the
Roman Pontiff." — Extrav. Comm. lib. i. tit. 8, 1160. Pars.
2. Leips. 1839. Now, these extracts I am not quoting
second hand. I have got the Canon Law (the Leipsic edi
tion, 1839,) which I procured from Belgium, and I have
examined it from beginning to end, and any one that wishes
to do so, may ascertain the correctness of my quotations, by
going and looking at the references. " No one shall judge
the first see," (the see of Rome) " when it desires to admin
ister justice; for neither by the emperor, nor by all the
clergy, nor by kings, nor by the people, can the judge be
judged." — Innoc. Decret. Grat. 2, p. c. 93, cap. 13, col.
522. Leips. 1839. " The Roman pontiff has all laws in
the casket of his own bosom." — Ibid. cap. 15. Now,
these are some of his natural flowers. I think, if you con
trast them with what he calls " artificial flowers," you will
pronounce those artificial he thinks natural, while he mis
takes for natural those that are the composition of popes,
that still smell of perjury, proscription, persecution, and
death, and indicate the air of the dungeon, not the day.
I turn to another passage, in which he says, " The simple
notion of most people is, that Christianity was very pure in
its beginning, very corrupt in the middle age, and very
pure in England now, though still corrupt everywhere else ;
that in the middle age, a tyrannical institution, called the
Church, arose and swallowed up Christianity ; that that
Church is alive still, and has not yet disgorged its prey,
except, as aforesaid, in our own favored country : but in the
middle age, there was no Christianity anywhere at all, but
all was dark, and horrible, as bad as Paganism, or rather,
much worse. No one knew any thing about God, or
whether there was a God or no, nor Christ or his atone
ment ; for the blessed Virgin, and saints, and the Pope, and

dr. Newman's lectures. 509
images, were worshipped instead: and thus, so far from
religion benefiting the generations of mankind who lived in
that dreary time, it did them indefinitely more harm than
good. Thus the Homilies of the Church of England say,
that ' In the pit of damnable idolatry all the world, as it
were drowned, continued until our age' (that is, the Ref
ormation,) 'by the space of above eight hundred years
 so that laity and clergy, learned and unlearned, all
ages, sects, and degrees of men, women, and children, of
whole Christendom (an horrible and most dreadful thing to
think), have been at once drowned in abominable idolatry,
of all other vices most detested of God, and most damnable
to man.' Accordingly, it is usual to identify this period
with that time of apostasy which is predicted in Scripture,
the Pope being the man of sin, and the Church being the
mother of abominations, mentioned in the Apocalypse."
Now all this, he says, is the popular misapprehension of
what Catholicism is, and is not true. I assert, it is exact
truth. Now, if I were making the charge myself, of course
it would be merely Dr. Cumming against Dr. Newman, and
I might be suspected in getting up a charge, as criticism
upon his work. But I will quote from one of his own
authorities as to the state of the Romish Church in the mid
dle ages. He says that the Homilies are calumnious, that
Protestants are misinformed, that the middle ages are not
what they are described, and he quotes some authors to
show that they are not. I will give one extract from Baro
nius, the most celebrated Roman historian, to whom, as Dr.
Newman requires, I give references. He says, "Behold,
the nine hundredth year of our Redeemer begins, in which
a new age commences, which, by reason of its asperity and
barrenness of good, is wont to be called the iron age; and
by the deformity of its abounding evil, the leaden age ; and
by its poverty of writers, the dark age : standing upon the
threshold of which, we have thought it expedient, before we
43*

510' REVIEW OP
proceed further, on account of the crimes which it has been
our lot- to behold before the door, to make some preface by
way of admonition to the reader, lest the weak-minded should
take offence, if he sometimes perceives the abomination of
idesolation standing in the temple, whereas he ought rather
ito wonder and to recognize the divine power watching over
its safety, since the desolation of the temple did not directly
follow that abomination as was the case formerly, and should
•understand that it rests upon more solid foundations, namely,
on the promises of Christ, which are stronger than heaven
and earth, even as he himself testifies, saying, ' Heaven and
'earth shall pass away, but my words shall not pass away.'
But you will ask, What are these evils, and whence did
these so great and most violent tempests arise ? The case
is such, that scarcely any one can believe or ever will be
lieve it, except he sees it with his eyes, and handles it with
his hands, viz., what unworthy, vile, unsightly, yea,, what
¦execrable and hateful things, the sacred apostolic see, upon
whose hinges the universal Apostolic Church turns, has
ibeen compelled to suffer, when the secular princes, although
'Christians, yet in this respect to be deemed most cruel ty
rants, oppressively arrogated to themselves the election of
the Roman pontiffs ! To our shame and grief be it spoken,
how many monsters, horrible to behold, were intruded by
ihem into that seat, which is reverenced by angels ! How
anany evils originated from them, how many tragedies were
perpetrated ! With what filth it was her fate to be besprin
kled who was without spot or wrinkle, with what stench to
Ibe infected, with what impurities to be defiled, and by these
(things to be blackened with perpetual infamy 
" Thus, indeed, at Rome all things, as well sacred as pro
fane, were mixed up with factions ; so that the promotion to
the apostolic see was in the hands of that party which was
in appearance the most powerful, so that at one time the
Homan nobles, at another time the Prince of Tuscany, in-

DR. NEWMAN'S LECTURES. 511
truded by their secular power whatever Roman pontiff they
wished, and cast out, whenever they could, him who was
elevated by the contrary faction ; which things were in
agitation during almost the whole of this century, until the
Othos, the emperors of Germany, who opposed both parties,
' interfered between them, arrogating .to themselves equally
the election ofthe pope and the deposition ofthe elected.
" When he (that is Christopher) was again cast out, that
wicked Sergius again, who, as you have heard, proceeded
such lengths against Formosus, being powerful by the arms
of Adelbert, Marquis of Tuscany, and being the slave of
every vice, what did he leave unattempted ? He invaded
the seat of Christopher, not of Formosus, as Luitprand re
lates, through forgetfulness, who, it appears, indeed after a
bad entry, and a worse course, attained a worse departure.
" These were most unhappy times, when each pope, thus
intruded, abolished the acts of his predecessor." — Baronii
Annales Ecclesiastica, torn. x. A. d. 900. Stephani. P. vii.
Antwerpise, 1603.
No Protestant ever spoke so severely of that age as Ba
ronius ; surely, then, we are not to be charged as stating
what is untrue, when we take the sentiments of his own
recognized historians, and' become their mere echoes and
exponents throughout the length and breadth of our country.
And I could give you, if the time permitted, a picture of the
middle ages from Roman Catholic writers alone, without
quoting Protestant testimony at all — that would shock and
horrify you, and show that, instead of being, as Dr. Newman
has stated, exaggerators, we have never yet described, in
terms sufficiently strong, offences perpetrated and sanctioned
by popes and prelates in the middle ages : in short, the ex
cellent Homily of the Church of England states exact and
literal truth. Genebrand also says, " For nearly one hun
dred and fifty years, from John 8th to Leo 9th, about piptt
popes desisted wholly the virtues of their predecessors,

512

REVIEW OP

being apostate rather than apostolical." —r Genebrandi
Chron. An. Ch. 204. Paris, 1585.
He says, another gross misrepresentation is, the practice
of railing against the Jesuits. " It is vain," says he, " to
ask their slanderers what they know of them ; did they ever
see a Jesuit ? Can they say whether they are many or few ?
what do they " (the Protestants of England) " know of
their teaching ? " Well, then, since we seem to know very
little of it, and fest it might be possible that you should be
Protestants who know very little of it, I was at the trouble
of making a few extracts from the writings of the most
celebrated of them ; and I may add, that they are only
flowers culled from a very large garden, containing others
of a less aromatic description. I have made quotations
from the following Jesuit fathers — Escobar, Emanuel Sa,
Sanchez, Tambourin, Lesshis, and others, very celebrated
and very well known to those who have looked into the sub
ject. Dr. Newman says, we have a wrong popular appre
hension of the Jesuits ; that we do not know what their
sentiments are, and that therefore, using the word " Jesuit "
as the proverbial exponent of what is bad, is unjust to the
Jesuits ; and he quotes from Blanco White, and also from
Neander, to show the orthodoxy, and. excellence of the
Jesuits., I quote, then, first from "Escobar, Theol. Moral,"
vol. i. book 8, problem 86 : " Query, if it be lawful to sell
the obligation of administering the sacraments?" "Yes:
Ifa man undertake to administer the sacraments with bodily
pain and labour, which do accidentally accompany it, as to
administer in a place far distant, and in such sort as gives
him particular trouble." Then, you see, he may charge for
the administration of the sacraments. Emanuel Sa, says,
" He who receives a sum of money for saying masses can
engage others at a less sum, who may help him, while he
retains the rest for himselfi" — De Verbo Missaa, n. 45,
p. 516.

DR. NEWMAN S LECTURES. 513
And again, you will- recollect that I quoted from Dr.
Wiseman's own manual — " Liguori " — the way of avoid
ing the question, "Is your master at home?" When it is
put by a visitor to a servant, the servant is instructed in
some Protestant, — not true Protestant families, — to say
that his master is not at home. Dr. Wiseman's protege,
Saint Liguori, states, that his servant may assert, "My
master is not here ; " — meaning in his own mind, " Not
within the twelve inches of ground on which my foot stands."
Now, on looking through Suares, as quoted by Filliutius,
(99 Mor. torn. 2, tract 25, c. 11, n. 327,) an eminent Jesuit
writer, I found another explanation of it : " If the servant
be asked, ' Is the master at home ? ' he may say, ' Non est
domi ;' which may appear to the mind of the interrogated to
mean, He is not in the house; but as 'est' is the third
person of the verb edo, to eat, he means that he does not eat
at home." This is a specimen of their moral teaching.
Sanchez says, " A person having made a promise, and being
called before a judge, may swear he did not make the prom
ise, meaning, that he did not make it so as to be obliged to
keep it." (Op : Moral, 1. 3, c. 26, n. 32, p. 29.) Now Dr.
Newman says, we malign the Jesuits ; but here is one of
their own doctrines which avowed, by any Englishman,
would utterly disgrace him. Caramuel says, (Theol. fund.
p. 139,) " A man hears the clock strike twelve on Saturday
night. Rising from table, after having filled himself with
meat, he hears another clock strike twelve also. The fol
lowing day, being desirous to communicate," — You are
aware that a Roman Catholic must communicate fasting ; so
that, in this case, since he could not receive the consecratea
host after twelve o'clock the next day, he must not have
eaten since twelve o'clock the night before, — " The follow
ing day, being desirous to communicate, he reasons thus :
Clocks are probable opinions. I have eaten before the last
clock struck : it is therefore probable I ate before midnight

514

REVIEW OP

on Saturday, and, therefore, that I am fasting on Sunday."
Escobar says, "Excepting in the case of scandal, ecclesi
astics sin not mortally in violating the laws of secular
princes, because they are not directly bound by such laws."
Theol. Mor. vol. i. 1. 5, s. 2, c. 19, prob. 19, p. 162. Es
cobar says, (Tract 6, Exam. 7, n. 132, p. 769,) "I know it
is not a great offence to get up a fable, if it be done with the
intention of exciting the piety of the hearers ; and also, to
preach chiefly for personal glory, or even for money, I
affirm, is not a mortal sin." Another extract I give from
these writings. Tambourin, (b. 5, Dec. c. 1, sec. 3, nn. 28,
30,) says, " If you desire the death of your father, upon
some conditions you may lawfully ; that is, if I should say
to myself, If my father should die, I should enjoy his estate :
in this case, I should not rejoice in my father's death, but in
my inheritance. Again, I desire the death of my father,
not because it is an evil to him, but the cause of good to me,
and because by his death I enter on my inheritance." And
then, Lessius, quoting Amicus, another very celebrated
Jesuit, says, (p. 84, n. 41,) " It is lawful for churchmen and
monks to kill for the security of their lives ; and they may
use this liberty against their superiors — a monk against an
abbot, a son against a father, a vassal against his prince."
And Lessius adds, " If a priest be assailed while he is at
the altar saying mass, he may defend himself, and even kill
the assailant, if it be needful, and afterwards go on with the
mass." Lessius says, (De Justitia et Jure, lib. 2, dub. 12,
n. 77,) " If you endeavor to deprive me of my honor, before
a prince, or .judge, or persons of quality, by accusing me of
feigned crimes, as I have no other way to divert that loss of
reputation than by killing you secretly, I may. The same
is to be said if the crime be true, only it must be hid and
secret." Amicus says, (vol. i. Dispu. 36, sect. 4, p. 557,)
" The right of defending life belongs not only to one private
person against another, but to a private against a public per-

dr. newman's lectures. 515
son — a subject, for instance, against a sovereign. The
authors of whom I speak agree on this point, that to defend
ourselves against an affront which might be given us, it is
lawful to anticipate the aggressor by killing him. The
clergy and religieux may defend their honor, and in doing
so, do all that is necessary thereto : they may even kill him
who would deprive them of it. It will be lawful for a priest
or monk to kill a slanderer who threatens to publish some
great crimes against him or his order, if he have no other
means to defend himself. " * Now Dr. Newman's assertion
is, that we never saw a Jesuit, that we know nothing of
their teaching ; and yet we say, that " It is notorious that
the Jesuits are a crafty, intriguing, unscrupulous, desperate,
murderous, and exceedingly able body of men." I say that
the popular opinion is the true one ; and I could quote a
thousand extracts of the same spirit as those I have now
quoted, to show that the Jesuits are all that popular belief
says they are. Dr. Newman's tactics are transparent. He
writes to annihilate a sound and healthy Protestant feeling,
in order to get on. And I think that Dr. Newman, when
he characterizes genuine charges as popular prejudices, and
tries to turn them aside with a laugh, instead of directly and
logically refuting them, does not much diminish the evidence
that those quotations contain of what desperate tricks Jesuits
are the patrons. I may also mention that, only the other
day, I found this statement delivered by Dr. Macbride, at a
recent meeting of the Church Missionary Society at Oxford ;
and I think it is so true, that it will constitute a very good
Protestant's denial of Dr. Newman's assertion respecting
our knowledge of the Jesuits : " The conduct of the Jesuits
in Southern India we should have been slow to believe on
less authority than their own : but, strange as it may seem,
their published narratives show that they gloried in their
* These editions are in the Library of Sion College.

516 REVIEW OP
shame, for they boasted that they deceived the Hindoos by
representing themselves as a Brahminical caste from the
north, assuming their peculiarities of diet and dress, even
to the strings and other marks of idolatry, and actually
forging a document in the native tongue to prove this false
hood. Such was their appearance ; and if we inquire after
their doctrine, we are told that they allowed their converts
to bow to their former idols, mentally transferring then- wor
ship to the crucifix hid within their clothes ; and in countries
where, to adore a crucified god would be deemed insanity,
they suppressed the scandal of the cross, preaching not a
suffering, but a glorified Messiah. Robert di Nobili, founder
of the Madura mission, by besmearing his countenance
(with heathen marks), and imitating the painful method
of hving of the Hindoo devotees, at length persuaded the
natives that he was himself a Brahmin from the north, and
thus gained over twelve eminent members of that high caste,
whose example and influence led to many conversions.
Father Jouvenci, historian of the order, tells us that, when
the authenticity of his parchment was called in question, he
declared upon oath that he sprang from the god Brahma,
and mentions it as redounding to his credit. Justice to the
memory of Pope Benedict XIV. requires me to add, that
he solemnly condemned all fraudulent methods of conver
sion. The testimony of Paschal might be regarded as
suspicious ; but he fortifies it by an appeal to the decree
of the Propaganda ; and so little are in our times Roman
Catholic converts trained to respect truth, that the Abbe
Dubois informs us that, having in a sermon described our
Lord as the reputed son of a carpenter, and his apostles as
fishermen, his congregation begged that if he had again
occasion to allude to their birth, he would describe them as
of the noble military caste. . See Abb6 Dubois' 'Letters on
the State of Christianity in India,' in which the conversion
of the Hindoos is considered as impracticable. London, 1823.

dr. newman's lectures. 517
He confesses that in a degree he acted upon their views ;
for, knowing that the Hindoos regarded any use of intoxi
cating liquors as sinful, he was cautious, in speaking of the ;
elements of the Eucharist, to call the wine by a periphrasis
more palatable to their taste. Now, I do say, then, that
the popular idea of the Jesuits is the true one : that they
are " a crafty, intriguing, unscrupulous, desperate, murder
ous, and exceedingly able body of. men ; a secret society,
ever plotting against liberty, and government, and progress."-
I turn to another passage in Dr. Newman's volume. He
says, "This broad fact of Catholicism, as real as the conti
nent of America, or the Milky Way, which they cannot.
deny, Englishmen will not entertain. They shut their eyesr
they thrust their heads into the sand, and try to get rid , of
a great vision, a great reality, under the name of Popery.""
Now, we admit it is a broad fact, an historical fact, a palpa- i
pie fact. We met it in Smithfield ; it stared us in the face-
at the Reformation ; and we should feel it again, were the-
fact to become as broad and dominant as the principles yet
unabjured, and the passions yet unmortified, held and nour
ished in the bosom of the Roman Catholic priesthood. But
he goes on to say, that " Catholicism is for fifteen hundred-
years as much a fact, and as great a one {to put it on the
lowest ground) as the imperial sway of Great Britian for a-
hundred : how can it then be imbecile or extravagant to be
heve in it and to join it, even granting it were an error ? "'
Now mark his argument. He says this, " Catholicism is a.
great fact, fifteen hundred years old: how can it then be*
imbecile or extravagant to beheve in it and to join it, ever*
granting it were an error ? " Now, instead of afguing againsfc
such trash soberly, I will just reply almost in his own words :¦-
— Hindooism is a gigantic fact ;¦ a fact as broad as the ex
istence ofthe British Empire itself: how can it then be im
becile or extravagant to believe in.it and to join it, even.
granting it were an error ? Mahometanism is a vast fact, —
44

518 REVIEW OP
as great a one (to put it on the lowest ground) as the vast
sway of Great Britain : how can it then be imbecile or ex
travagant to believe in it and to join it, even granting it
were an error ? I have only to go round the cycles of the
chief of the religions of the world, and apply the reasoning
of Dr. Newman, in order to show that when he has become
tired of Roman Catholicism, he may adopt Brahminism or
Mahometanism, or any other great religious system, for pre
cisely the same reason as he here adduces.
He states, that such is the peculiarity of Englishmen, that
" a saint in rags would be despised ; in broadcloth, or in silk,
he would be thought something more than ordinary." Now,
there is no church upon earth in which silk and broadcloth
play so conspicuous a part as in the church of Rome ; and
in contrast to that, there is no country upon earth where a
man is more valued for what he is, and less respected for
what he wears, than our own. I respect the good man and
the true man, if he swept a crossing and is clothed in rags ;
and our country is still high enough in moral tone to disre
spect the noblest title, if it is only the appendage of an in
famous or immoral man. And when Dr. Newman says, that
it is the characteristic of our nation to despise " a saint in
rags," and to think " something more than ordinary " of- one
"in. broadcloth, or in silk," he is Englishman enough, and
has lived amongst us long enough to know that what he says
is not true. He adds in the next place, ?' St. Francis of
Assisi, bareheaded and barefooted, would be hooted; St.
Francis Xavier, dressed up like a Mandarin, with an um
brella over his head, would inspire wonder and delight."
Well, now, Father Ignatius, I think I told you, visited me
bareheaded and barefooted, and he admitted that I treated
him with Christian courtesy. Here is one fact which goes
to disprove Dr. Newman's statement. But I should not be
surprised at Englishmen hissing and hooting a fanatic hke
St. Erancis, whose history and exploits are described in the

de. Newman's lectures. . 519
allowing terms. In an important work sanctioned by the
Church of Rome, called "Elogia Sti. Francisci," (Eulogies
of St. Francis,) it is said, in reference to that passage of the
Revelation, vii. 2, " I saw another angel ascending from the
east, having the seal of the living God," that Bonaven-
tura, and also Pope Leo, believed that this angel was none
other than the blessed St. Francis. And when you know
his history as well as I do, you will say that, if he were to
appear among men of good sense and real piety, they might,
perhaps, if they did not help him to a lunatic asylum, at
least laugh at him. For instance, this book which I have
in my hand, is adorned with engravings descriptive ofthe
history and acts of this saint. The first shows that a nohle-
man meets St. Francis, as a boy, and instinctively spreads
his cloak before him. The second, that St. Francis meets
a man, a leper, and cures him with a kiss. The third, that
St. Francis hears a voice coming from the cross. Mind you,
this is a saint in the Breviary, and Dr. Newman prays that
he may be benefited by his intercession. I do not know
that it would be courteous, but I am sure the more we know
this St. Francis, the less we shall appreciate his excellence.
He hears a voice coming from Christ upon the cross, calling
upon him to arise and defend the church. And then St.
Francis strips himself, in the height of 'his piety, and the
picture represents him doing so, not leaving one stitch or
rag upon himself, and handing his clothes to his father. In
the next place, St. Francis receives from Christ the rules of
his order. And then, the Pope is represented as sleeping, as
he sometimes does, in his easy chair, and sees St. Francis
supporting the church about to fall to pieces.
St. Francis next appears, with his hand on the earth,
supplicating Mary to prevent Christ from destroying it.
And here is the type of the Roman Catholic Church : —
Christ is regarded as incensed with mankind, and St. Fran
cis pleads with the blessed Virgin to plead with Christ, in

520 . REVIEW OP
order to prevent him from destroying the world. The
Romish idea is, that the Saviour is an angry and wrathful
Judge, lifted far above us, and that we need the blessed
Virgin to deprecate his wrath ; and St. Francis is repre
sented, with a crowd around him, pleading to the Virgin
Mary, who is represented as interceding with the Saviour.
who is represented armed with thunderbolts, ready to de
stroy the^ world. In this engraving, St. Francis invites
birds and beasts and other creatures to his presence, and
preaches to them. Here is an elephant standing and listen
ing with great sobriety; next an interested sheep; and
here is an owl — a very £t symbol of the church he repre
sents — hstening; with other animals — in short, a mena
gerie for a congregation. And all this is told of one of Dr.
Newman's favorite saints. He says, we should hiss him and
hoot him. I do not know that we should do so ; but I am
quite sure we do not admire the anile fables' related of a
poor fanatic, who has passed to his account, still less a
church that feeds on such rubbish. And if the book were
a mere Protestant squib, I would not quote it ; but it is a
book of authority. Two or three popes authorize its pub
lication; different archbishops and cardinals applaud it;
and he is spoken of by them all in the highest terms of rap
ture. And then, -for St. Francis is reserved the" highest •
seat in heaven, and a picture is given of his being elevated
to it. In this engraving I here exhibit, St. Francis is
represented as dragging souls from purgatory, where they
were undergoing, amid flames, the torture due to their sins.
And it is stated that Pope Gregory IX., being doubtful as
to the stigmata or wounds of St. Francis, St. Francis
appears to him, and convinces him of their reality. You
are aware that St. Francis is said to have received the five
stigmata, transferred from the hands, side, and feet of
Jesus. St. Francis is here represented as lying down,
having the five' stigmata in the shape of "nes coming down,

dr. Newman's lectures. 521
one upon his breast, two upon his hands, and two upon his
feet, directly from a crucifix ; and thus St. Francis is con
sidered a sort of vicerChrist, if not equal to the Saviour.
Well, Pope Gregory IX. doubted whether he was wounded,
or had the stigmata ; as he well might. St. Francis appear
ed to him, and showed the blood pouring out from his heart
into a cup, and the pope then recognized him as having
them. Such, then, is an authentic Roman Catholic history
of the exploits of St. Francis, whom Dr. Newman says that
Protestants would hoot and hiss. But surely, if they did so,
it would be, not for the rags that he wore, but for the wretch
ed misapprehension of the gospe]§ ahd of the excellence of
a Christian, of which he seems to have been the unhappy
and fanatical victim. -
I now state my conviction, that the grand feature in this
book of Dr. Newman's is apparently a collection of the
speeches that have been made by Protestants on various
platforms, and by changing the word " pope" into " queen,"
and " popery" into " protestantism," to lay to our charge what
Roman Catholics have been proved guilty of. Now I will
just strike out certain words, and put certain other words
in their places, and you will see that the following is a Prot
estant speech, manufactured and made up by Dx. Newman.
He says, —
Dk. Newman. Du. Cusimihg.
"Another way was to be pursued "Another way was to 'be pursued
with our countrymen to make Prot- with our countrymen to make Po-
estantism live ; and that was to em- pery live ; and that was to embody
body it in the person of its sovereign, it in the person of its Pope. English
English Protestantism is the religion Popery is the religion of the Vati-
of the throne: it is represented, re- can: , it is .represented, realized,
alized, taught, transmitted in the taught, transmitted in the sucees-
succession of monarchs and an he- sion of Popes and an hereditary
reditary aristocracy. It is a religion priesthood. It is a religion grafted
grafted upon loyalty; and its strength upon blind submission; and its
is not in argument, not in fact, not strength is not in argument, not in
in the unanswerable controversialist, fact, not in the unanswerable contro
44*

522

REVIEW OP

not in an apostolical succession, not versialist, not in an apostolical sue-
in sanction of Scripture, but in a cession, not in sanction of Scripture,

royal road to faith, in backing up a
iing whom men see., against a pope
they do, not see. The devolution of
its crown is the tradition of its
creed ; and to doubt its truth is to be
disloyal towards its sovereign. Kings
are an Englishman's saints and doc
tors; he likes somebody or some
thing at which he can cry ' huzzah ! '
and throw up his hat. Bluff King
Hal,- glorious Bess, the royal martyr,

but in a papal road to faith, in back
ing up a Pope at Eome whom men
see not, against a Queen in England
whom they do see. The devolution
of the papacy is the tradition of its
creed ; and to doubt its truth is to
be disobedient towards its Pope.
Popes are a Komanist's saints and
doctors ; he likes somebody or some
thing whose great toe he can kiss.
Hildebrand, Pope Joan,, the rebel ii

-the merry monarch, the , pious and .Becket, GregoryXIH., the idolatrous

¦immortal William, the good King
¦George, royal personages very" dif
ferent from each other, — neverthe
less, as being royal, none of them
-come amiss,.but all are the objects
¦of his devotion, and the resolution
of his Christianity. It was plain,
then, what had to be done in order
to perpetuate Protestantism in a

Gregory XV., the runaway footman,
Pio Nono, papal personages, very
different from each other, — never
theless, as being Popes, none of them
come amiss, but all are the objects
of his devotion, ,and the resolution
of his Christianity. It was plain,
then, what had to be done in order
to perpetuate Popery in a country

•country such aa this. Convoke the1 such as Italy. Convoke the Bishops,

Legislature, pass some sweeping ec
clesiastical enactments, exalt the
crown above the law and the gospel,
•down with the cross and up with the
lion and dog, toss all priests out of
"the country as traitors; let Protes
tantism be the passport to office'and
authority, force the king to be a
Protestant, make his court Prot-

pass some sweeping ecclesiastical
enactments, exalt the tiara above
the Bible, down with the cross and
up with the crucifix, toss ah Prot
estants out of the country as trai
tors ; let Pdpery be the passport to
office and authority, force every
king to be a Papist, make his court
Papist, bind Houses of Parliament
to be Papist, clap a Popish oath on

•estant, bind Houses of Parliament
to be Protestant, clap a Protestant judges, barristers-at-law, officers in
¦oath on judges, barristers-at-law, offi- army and navy, members of the
•cers in army and navy, members of universities, national clergy; estab-
the universities, national clergy; es- lish this stringent tradition in every
-tablish this stringent tradition in function and department of the
every function and department of state — surround it with the lustre
the state — surround it with the lus- of rank, wealth, station, name, and
tre of rank, wealth, station, name, talent, and this people, so impatient
and talent, and this people, so im- of inquiry, so careless of abstract
/patient of inquiry, so careless of ab- truth, so apathetic to historical fact,
¦stract -truth, so apothetic to histori- so contemptuous of foreign ideas.

dr. Newman's lectures.

523

cal fact, so contemptuous of foreign
ideas, will, ex animo, swear to the
truth of a religion which indulges
their natural turn of mind, and in
volves no severe thought or tedious
'application. The sovereign is the
source and the centre, as of civil, so
of ecclesiastical arrangements ; truth
shall be synonymous with order and
good government; — what can be
simpler than such a teaching ? Pu
ritans may struggle against it, and
temporarily prevail; sceptics may
ridicule it, object, expose, and re
fute; readers of the fathers may
strive to soften and embellish it
with the colors of antiquity; but,
strong in the constitution of the
law, and congenial to the heart of
the people, the royal tradition will
be a match for all its rivals, and in
the long run will extinguish the
very hope of competition."

will, ex animo, swear to the truth
of a religion which indulges their
natural tum of mind, and involves
no severe -thought, or tedious appli
cation. The Pope is the source and
centre, as of civil, so of ecclesiasti
cal arrangements; truth shall be
synonymous with order and good
government; — what can be simpler
than such a teaching? Jansenists
may struggle against it, and tempo
rarily prevail; sceptics may ridi
cule it, object, expose, and refute ;
readers of the fathers may strive to
soften and embellish it with the
colors of antiquity; but, strong in
the canon law, and congenial to the
heart of the priests, the papal tradi
tion will be a match for all its rivals,
and in the long run will extinguish
the very hope of competition."

You see, then, you have only to alter a few words, in
order to detect the truth, amid the vast mass of rubbish
under which Dr. Newman has. unhappily buried if.
One more instance of this kind is remarkable, containing,
however, a little spice of disloyalty, which I regret to see
in Dr. Newman. Now, I merely alter a very few words,
and -you will see how he has picked up a Protestant speech
of mine, and applied it to his own purposes.

Dk. Newman.
"This," he says, "is the special
charge laid upon the Establish
ment." You see, he only calls
it the " Establishment," not the
" Church." " Unitarians, Sabel-
lians, Utilitarians, Methodists, Cal
vinists, Swedenborgians, Irvingites,
Freethinkers — all these it can tol
erate in its very bosom; but Rome

Dk. Cumming.
"This," I say, "is the special
charge laid upon Popery. Francis
cans, Dominicans, Puseyites, Se-
demptionists, Jesuits, Gallicans, Or
atorians, Grey Friars, Black Friars,
White Friars — all these it can tole
rate in its very bosom : no form of
opinion comes amiss ; but the Word
of God it cannot abide. It agrees

524

REVIEW OP

it cannot abide. It agrees to differ
with its children on a thousand
points : one is sacred — that her
Majesty the Queen is 'the mother
and mistress of all churches;' on
one dogma it may rest without any
mistake, that ' the Bishop of Eome
hath no jurisdiction in this realm.'
Here is sunshine amid the darkness,
sense amid confusion, an intelligible
strain amid a Babel of sounds;
Whatever befalls, here is sure foot
ing; it is, ' No peace with Eome ! ' —
' Down with the Pope ! ' and ' The
Church in danger ! ' Never has the
Establishment failed in the use of
these important and effective watch
words; many are its shortcomings,
but it is without reproach in the
execution of its charge. Heresy
and scepticism, and infidelity and
fanaticism, may challenge it in vain ;
but fling upon the gale the faintest
whisper of Catholicism, and it recog
nizes by instinct the presence of its
connatural foe. Forthwith, as dur
ing the last year, the atmosphere is
tremulous with agitation, and dis
charges its vibration far and wide.
A movement is in birth, which has
no natural crisis or resolution. Spon
taneously the bells of the steeples
begin to sound. Not by an act of
volition, but by a sort of mechani
cal impulse, bishop and dean, arch
deacon and canon, rector and curate,
one after another, each on his high
tGiver, off they set, swinging and
booming, tolling and chiming, with
nervous intenseness, and thickening
emotion, and deepening volume, —
the old ding-dong which has scared
town and country this weary time;
tolling and chiming away, jingling
and clamoring, and ringing the

to differ with its children on a thou.
sand points : one is sacred — that the
Pope is the infallible head, and
Borne the mother and mistress of
all churches ; on one dogma it may
rest without any mistake, that ' the
Word of God hath no countenance
in her, realm.' Here is sunshine
amid the darkness, sense amid con
fusion, an intelligible strain amid a
Babel of sounds ; whatever befalls,
here is sure footing; it is, 'No
toleration to heretics ! ' ' Down with
the Bible ! ' and ' The Pope in dam-:
ger!' Never has the Popedom
failed in the use of these important
and effective watchwords; many
are its shortcomings, but it is with
out reproach in the execution of its
charge. Immorality and licentious
ness, and infidelity and fanaticism,
may challenge it in vain ; but fling
upon the gale the faintest whisper
of Protestantism, and it recognizes
by instinct the presence of its con
natural foe. Forthwith, as during
the massacre of St. Bartholomew,
the atmosphere is tremulous with
agitation, and discharges its vibra
tion far and wide. A movement is
in birth, which has no natural crisis
or resolution. Spontaneously, the
bells of the steeples of St. Germain
de 1' Auxerrois sound. Not by an
act of volition, but by a sort of me
chanical impulse, bishop and dean,
archdeacon and canon, rector and
curate, one after another, each on
his high tower, off they set, swing
ing and booming, tolling and chim
ing, with nerving intenseness, and
thickening emotion, and deepening
volume — the old ding-dong which
has scared town and country this
weary time; tolling and chiming

DR. NEWMAN'S LECTURES. 525
Changes on their poor half-dozen away, jingling and clamoring, and
notes, all about ' the Popish aggres- ringing the changes on their poor
sion,' 'insolent and insidious,' 'in- half-dozen notes, all about 'the
sidious and insolent,' 'insolent and Protestant heresy,' ' offensive to
atrocious,' ' atrocious and inso- princes,' ' savoring of heresy,' ' sus-
lent,' " etc. pected of heresy,' " and so on.

When you have made this alteration, you find that it
reads exactly in the way that it ought to be read ; and that,
had he not been looking through wrong glasses, and made
some changes that he wished, it would have been all per
fectly right.
And he closes this remarkable chapter by proceeding to
dispose of what he calls popular prejudices. " The Papists
not worship the Virgin Mary ! Why, they call her ' Deipara,'
which means ' equal to God.' " Now, I did not produce, the
last time I was here, a document which I can now produce,
which will show that the popular prejudice is a just and true
charge against the Roman Catholic religion. Dr, Newman
sees its value, and feels he must annihilate it in order to
succeed. You have all heard of the celebrated Psalter
called "The Psalter of the blessed Virgin." The simple
history of it is this : — Bonaventura lived in the fourteenth
century, and was canonized a hundred years after his death,
that is, enrolled among the saints in heaven, and once a
year every Roman Catholic uses a collect especially relating
to Bonaventura, and praying that he may learn what blessed
Bonaventura taught, and be benefited by this holy inter
cession. This Bonaventura took the Psalms of David, and
expunged from every Psalm the words " God " and " Lord,"
and substituted in the vacant niche the " Queen of heaven,"
"Our Lady," "Blessed Mary." Now, this document is
worth, I am told, some eight or nine pounds; it is in the
black letter, and is one of the most ancient specimens of
typography. When I produced it first,, a priest denied its
authenticity, and said it was a forgery. Well, I went and

526 REVIEW OP
consulted the Vatican edition of Bonaventura's work, and
found it in the original Vatican edition, word for word, as I
have it here. After I had stated this, another priest met
me in public, and said, " No, it is not a forgery ; it is a true
production ; but it was put in the Index Prohibitorius,"
Well, I secured the indexes, and looked through them care
fully from beginning to end, but did not find it there. You
will notice, however, that it follows from this priest's state
ment, that while one pope may be so charmed with a man
that he commands the people to pray to him, another pope
may be so shocked with the same man, that he is ready to
put his productions in the Index Prohibitorius, and thus
forbid any one to read them, under pain of mortal sin ; and
this, strange to say, without in the least affecting the doc
trine of papal infallibility ! But I can say in this case, to
do justice to the canonizer of Bonaventura, that his great
work is not in the Index. After this I resolved never to
relax my search after St. Bonaventura: and this autumn,
being on the Continent, I went to every book shop from
Amiens to Antwerp, seeking for a psalter of the blessed
Bonaventura. In some cases the bookwoman — for it was
generally a woman — looked at me with an eye of great
suspicion, and then said that they had no such work.
Another person, however, to whom I applied, after having
almost given up the pursuit in despair, said, " Yes, we have
it; and this that I have in my hand is the copy that I
so purchased at Lisle, last September. It is called " Psau-
tier de la Sainte Vierge, composee par S. Bonaventura.
Lyons, 1849/
The person I purchased it from said, " It is one of the
most popular books in the diocese ; " and it happened to be
then the week of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin
Mary : and that week is a great week there. The cathe
dral at Amiens was crowded on the day of the Assumption,
and a statue of the Virgin was carried around the aisles,

dr. Newman's lectures. 527
and the people seemed for that day to entertain some sense
of religion. But on the Sunday following, the places of
amusement were open, the streets full, and every one in
the highest state of worldly jollity and excitement ; and we
had a striking proof how completely the traditions of the
church had superseded the truths of the Word of God.
After I had got this volume, published in 1849, 1 found a
friend going to Paris, and I asked him to see if he could
find me another copy of the same work. He bought four
copies, and out of those copies two were dated 1850 ; and
now I have got one copy printed at Lyons ; one printed at
Paris; one at Rouen: one dated 1845, one 1849, two
1850, and one 1835 ; and I may add, that the book may be
purchased at thirteen-pence-halfpenny. Now, having given
you the history of the book, I will present you with a few
extracts from it, to show that what Dr. Newman charges,
and toils to dissipate for obvious reasons, as a popular
prejudice, namely, that the Church of Rome worships the
Virgin Mary, is a sober and truthful statement, capable of
being word for word established. First of all, this book
begins with an invitation, " Come unto Mary, all ye who
are heavy laden, and she will give you rest." That is the
beginning of it. Then I take some of the Psalms. Here
is the 95th Psalm, " O come, let us sing unto our Lady :
let us heartily rejoice in the strength of our salvation. Let
us come before her presence with thanksgiving :' and show
ourselves glad in her with psalms. Let us adore, and fall
down before her." Now, one would have thought that
the 51st Psalm would have been spared, but it is not: here
it is, " Have mercy upon me, O Lady, who art named the
Mother of mercy, and according tox thy bowels of compas
sion cleanse me from all my transgressions." And the 84th
Psalm is thus rendered, " How amiable are thy tabernacles,
O Mother of our redemption ! " And then the 103d Psalm
is, " 0 bless our Lady; and all that is within us bless her
holy name."

528 REVIEW OP
I dare say you are all acquainted with a document called
the Athanasian Creed. Some think that it is objectionable:
it may or may not be so ; but I am quite sure you would
dislike ten times more the Church of Rome's type of it :
" Whosoever desires to be saved, it is necessary, before all
things, that he have a right faith concerning Mary. First
of all, he must believe that she, a Virgin, conceived," etc.,
etc. There is another excessively beautiful document,
familiar to you all — one of the sublimest things, probably,
in any tongue — older than the Church of Rome or the
Church of England as corporate bodies — containing the
purest sentiments, — - a meet channel for a Christian's praises,
and worthy of God to accept as such. It is, " We praise
thee, O God : we acknowledge thee to be the Lord. AU
the earth doth worship thee, the Father everlasting: To
thee all angels cry aloud, the heavens, and all the powers
therein. To thee Cherubim and Seraphim continually do
cry, Holy, Holy, Holy, art thou : 0 Lord God of Sabaoth,
the heavens and earth are full of the majesty of thy
glory. The glorious company of the -apostles praise thee."
Well, here it is according to Bonaventura : " We praise
thee, O Mary ; we acknowledge thee to be the Mother of
God. All the earth doth worship thee, the_spouse of the
Eternal. To thee all angels cry aloud, the heavens, and all
the powers therein. To thee archangels, to thee thrones
and principalities, to thee all powers in heaven and earth,
continually do cry, Holy, Holy, Holy, art thou, O Mary,
ever a Virgin. The glorious company of the apostles praise
thee. The goodly fellowship of the prophets praise thee.
The noble army of martyrs praise thee. The holy Church
throughout all the world doth acknowledge thee. Hear
our prayers, 0 Mary ; make us to be numbered with thine
own in glory everlasting." Then, there is added to "this
what is called a Litany; and this Litany begins: "0 God
the Father of heaveD, have mercy upon us. O God the

dr. newman's lectures. 52-9
Son, Redeemer of the world, have mercy upon us. O God
the Holy Ghost, proceeding from the. Father and the Son,
have mercy upon us." And then, "Be merciful to us,
and spare us, O Lady. From all evil and mischief deliver
us, O Lady." And then the last words, which are here
cancelled, I think the most exquisite in their original form,
are these : " In all time of our tribulation ; in all time of
our wealth ; in the hour of death, and in the day of judg
ment, Good Lord, deliver us." I remember, that when I
heard them first in an English parish church on this side
of the Tweed, I thought them the most comprehensive
words of prayer that I had ever heard. The clergyman
who uttered them was not one who intoned them after the
new style, nor yet one who read them after the old high
and dry style, but one who prayed them ; and when he did
so, I thought them very beautiful. But how shocked was
I when I found that sentence thus caricatured by Bona
ventura : " In all time of our tribulation ; in all time of our
wealth ; in the hour of death, in the day of judgment, and
from the torments of the damned, Deliver us, Blessed
Mary." Such, then, is our answer to Dr. Newman's state
ment, that our charge against the Church of Rome that she
worships the Virgin Mary, is merely a popular prejudice.
I say it is a charge that can be substantiated by docu
mentary evidence ; and either he must admit it to be
strictly true, or he must renounce the communion to which
he belongs, and declare or admit that she has grievously
and fatally erred.
He says another of the popular prejudices is, that the
Pope is the Man of sin. " The Pope not the Man of sin !
Why, it is a fact that the Romanists distinctly maintain that
' the Pope is God, and God is the Pope. ' " And again he
says, " The Pope's teaching not a doctrine of devils ! Here
is a plain proof of it : Cardinal Bellarmine expressly main
tains, that if the Pope commanded us to practice vice or
45

530 REVIEW OP
shun virtue, we are obliged to do so under pain of eternal
damnation.'" And again, "Not a Pope Joan! Why, she
was ' John VIII. : her real name was Gilberta ; she took
the name of John English, delivered public lectures at
Rome, and was at length unanimously elected Pope.'"
The most distinguished writers of his church, I may say, in
answer to this, have allowed that such was the case. Ro-
dolphus Flaviacensis, a Benedictine Monk, a. d. 930, says
that a woman was Pope. Marianus Scotus says she held
the papal chair two years and five months. Martin, one of
the order of Minorites, makes the same assertion in his
" Flores Temporum." Francis Petrarch, and Anthony,
Archbishop of Florence, and Platina, one of the most credi
ble historians, and Trithemius, all members of Dr. New
man's church, assert that such a female was the Pope of
Rome. And, therefore, it is very unjust in Dr. Newman to
assert, that what is Papal testimony is a mere popular pre
judice. It will not be so easy for Dr. Newman to remove
these popular feelings.
And then he says, '' What ! Councils infallible ! Open
your eyes, my brother, and judge for yourself: ' fifteen hun
dred public women followed the train of the Fathers of
Constance.' " Such a retinue is not improbable, judging of
it by the character of some of the fathers. I do not know
whether they be infallible or not ; but it is a question which
Dr. Newman has not been able to settle, whether infallibility
is lodged in the Pope or in a general council ; and it is a
very serious question too. For instance, if I wish to know
the meaning of a passage of the Word of God, if I were to
ask the Pope, and obtain his decision, his interpretation
would be regarded as infallible in Italy, but as fallible in
France. And again, if I were to ask the same question of
a general council, its decision would be held to be infallible
in France, but fallible in Italy; and many Popes would
repudiate it as fallible. The Council of Pisa deposed Bene

dr. Newman's lectures. 531
diet Xin. and Gregory XIII. as heretics in the fifteenth
century ; and the Council of Basil deposed Eugenius IV. as
a heretic, and he turned round and excommunicated the
Council of Basil, calling it a den of thieves and robbers.
And I might give you other instances where councils have
excommunicated popes, and where popes have excommuni
cated councils; and it is yet an unsettled controversy,
whether infallibility be lodged in a pope or in a general
council; and yet Dr. Newman, in that off-hand manner
which characterizes the whole of his remarkable volume,
treats the sentiments on the subject as popular prejudices,
not sober facts. It is much easier to fling off a charge by
branding it than by answering it.
And again he says, " The Papists are not corrupters of
the Scriptures ! Look into their Bibles, and you will find
they read the prophecy in Genesis, ' She shall crush thy
head, and thou shalt lie in wait for her heel.' " And so he
insinuates the "charge is to be regarded with scorn. Now, I
hold in my hand a Roman Catholic Bible, and the verse is
correctly quoted by Dr. Newman, " She shall crush thy
head, and thou shalt lie in wait for her heel." But he forgot
to add that there is the following note attached, " ipsa, the
woman ; so divers of the fathers read this place, conform
able to the Latin : others read it ipsum, viz., the seed. The
sense is the same ; for it is by her seed, Jesus Christ, that
the woman crushes the serpent's head." And I do assert
the language which Dr. Newman calls popular prejudice to
be descriptive of fact. Protestants do charge the Church
of Rome with corrupting the Scriptures ; and I am pre
pared, in the presence of any Roman Catholic priest, to
prove that this is literal and strict fact, and that Dr. New
man's flourish is simply a Romish ruse. In the second
chapter of the Gospel of St. John, it is said, at the third
verse, *' And the wine failing, the mother of Jesus saith to
him, They have no wine. And Jesus saith to her, Woman "

532 review oi
— as in the Greek, Tl tfiot xal col ; as in our Protestant
version, " What have I to do with thee ? " or as some emi
nent Greek scholars interpret it, "What hast thou to do
with me?" but in the Roman Catholic version it stands
thus, " Woman, what is to me and to thee ? ' Now, there
is no meaning in this ; there is no sense in the expression,
" What is to me and to thee ? " But a Roman Catholic will
argue, " It is the literal translation of the words." But any
body who knows French or Italian, knows that the most
rigid literal rendering is often the most untrue to the original.
Every language has its idiomatic phrases, and each of these
must be rendered accordingly. Now here it is translated,
" What is to me and to thee ? " But suppose the rendering
of these words to be just, and the translation to be unexcep
tionable, let me say that the words, Ti e/iol xal aoi, either in
the singular form or the plural form, occur about eleven times
in the whole Scriptures ; that is, I think, about five or six
times in the Greek Septuagint version of the Old Testament,
and five or six times in the New Testament Scriptures.
Now, ten times, or in every instance elsewhere, the Church
of Rome renders them as we do, " What have I to do with
thee?" but the eleventh or remaining time she adopts a
strange translation, which has no meaning at all. Now, is it
an uncharitable suspicion that one is compelled to give utter
ance to, that she saw a true translation before her, but,
having a Bonaventura's Psalter also before her, she felt she
must either bring up her worship to the height of God's
Word, or must bring down God's Word to the level of her
worship ; and that in an evil and a fatal hour, she has mis
translated the Word of God in order to make it speak what
it refuses except by torture to speak, — the dogmas of Ro
man Catholic superstition ? Now, I will give you another
instance of it, to show that what he designates popular preju
dice, is true and warrantable conviction. In the eleventh
chapter of the Epistle to the Hebrews, there occurs the fol-

dr. Newman's lectures. 533
lowing passage, "By faith Jacob, when he was a dying,
blessed both the sons of Joseph ; and worshipped leaning
upon the top of his staff." Well, that is our translation ;
but the Roman Catholic one, which you may have heard, is,
" By faith Jacob, dying, blessed each of the sons of Joseph,
and adored the top of his rod." Well, I say, this translation
may be just, or it may not ; upon the critical argument I do
not now enter ; but I refer to a note on it, which shows that
the Church of Rome sometimes, like Homer of old, takes a
nap, and forgets what she said in the Old Testament notes,
in her manufacture of New Testament illustration. The
note referring to this text is as follows : " Some translators,
who are no friends to this relative honor, have corrupted the
text by translating it, He worshipped leaning upon the top of
his staff, as if this circumstance of leaning upon his staff
were any argument of Jacob's faith, or worthy the being
thus particularly taken notice of by the Holy Ghost." You
observe that the argument of the note is, that it is so trivial
a thing that the Holy Ghost would not have taken notice of
it, although we should think otherwise ; for it is a character
istic of God, that while he upholds the archangel in his
flight, he ministers to the ephemeral insect upon its wing ;
and while nothing is so great as to be above his power, noth
ing is so minute as to be beneath his loving inspection.
But, allowing that argument to pass, I turn to the book of
Tobias (xi. 9), which the Church of Rome regards as an
inspired book, where I find the following text : " Then the dog
which had been with them in the way ran before, and coming
as if he had brought the news, showed his joy by his fawning
and wagging his tail." Upon this text, which is the only
text in the whole chapter selected for notation, there is the
following note (chap. ix. ver. 9) : " The dog, etc. — This may
seem a very minute circumstance to be recorded in sacred
history ; but, as we learn from our Saviour, St. Matt. v. 18,
there are iotas and tittles in the Word of God ; that is to
45*

534 REVIEW OP
say, things that appear minute, but which have indeed a
deep and mysterious meaning in them." Now observe,
when the patriarch leaned upon the top of his staff and
prayed, it seems we could not suppose that the Holy Ghost
would take notice of it ; but when the dog of Tobias comes
in wagging his tail, then, the mention of so little a thing is
an evidence that minute things are full of precious and in
structive meaning.
Now, I might give other specimens of the same sort; and
the proof would be irresistible, that the popular apprehensions
of Rome are too true to be convenient to the Romish hie
rarchy ; and Dr. Newman must fail, wherever the stratagem
is seen through, to render suspected and renounced, popular
charges and popular convictions that are the echoes of truth.
And you may observe, that the Roman Catholic Bible has
what are called " the Apocrypha " added to it. The Church
of Rome asserts that the apocryphal books are just as truly
inspired as the Gospel according to St. John or St. Matthew.
Now the answer to that is, — These books, called the Apoc
rypha, were never written in the Hebrew tongue, in which
the rest of the Old Testament, with the exception of part of
the Book of Daniel, was written. Secondly, these books
were never accepted by the Jews, to whom were committed
the oracles of God ; and it may be remarked, that whatever
they failed in, they never failed in keeping God's Word in
its integrity. And another peculiarity is, that their very
superstitions were overruled to the preservation of the Word
of God. The Jews could tell what was the middle para
graph of a book, what was the middle sentence, what was
the middle word, and even the middle letter ; also, how many
words or letters it contained. And by this accurate count
ing of the Word of God, it was preserved and handed down
to the ^apostles. In the next place, the apostles and our
Blessed Lord never once quote from the Apocrypha. And
in the next place, what is very remarkable, and especially

de. Newman's lectures. 535
so in regard to the. Church of Rome, there is not one of the
fathers that accepts* ah the books of the Apocrypha as in
spired. There is one who recognizes Baruch, but all the
rest discard the whole. Gregory the Great says, the books
of Maccabees are not inspired. Pius IX. signs a solemn
creed, professing that they are inspired. If both Popes are
infallible, it is difficult to state how both can be right.
Dr. Newman adds what he calls another popular preju
dice. "Popery preach Christ! No! 'Popery,' as has
been well said, ' is the religion of priestcraft ; from the be
ginning to the end it is nothing but priest, priest, priest.'"
Well now, I assert, that for all great and practical results,
Christ is not preached in the Church of Rome ; i but that
Popery is what the popular apprehension proclaims it to
be, — a grand caricature and perversion of the distinctive
peculiarities of the Gospel of Christ. Take any one doc
trine ; for instance, the church. What is the church ? The
normal idea of Christ's church is, " Wheresoever two or
three are met together in my name, there am I in the midst
of them." And we need in these days often to learn that
form, ceremony, modes of worship, may be, one preferable to
another, one more beautiful or one more spiritual than
another ; and the same may be said of modes of discipline
and government ; one may be more ancient and more con
formed to Scripture than another; but the original idea of
Scripture as to the church — its root and norm — is this,
" Wheresoever two or three are met together in my name,
there am I in the midst of them." We shall need to learn,
in days that are coming, that an orator may collect a crowd,
but Christ in the midst of it can alone constitute it a church.
An architect may raise a beautiful cathedral, in which, the
very stone shall seem to burst into blossom, and to be itself
a beautiful poem — a living thought, a sublime epic ; but
unless the Lord of glory descend into the cathedral, it re
mains a beautiful device ; but a church of the living God it

536 REVIEW OP
is not and it cannot be. If our Queen take up her residence
in the humblest hut, that hut becomes a palace ; if she re
fuse to enter the most magnificent creation of architectural
genius, that creation remains a grand building. And so it
is, — the Saviour alone in the midst of two or three, is the
essential and the vital element of a Christian church ; in the
absence of which, all the rest, however orderly and beauti
ful, is vain ; — and the presence of Jesus is so precious, that
one can forgive much that may be irregular, in order to
rejoice and bless God for this. But in the creed of Rome,
the church is a gigantic ecclesiastical corporation, overshad
owing the Saviour — not proclaiming him — putting, the
Virgin practically in his place — superseding some ofthe
distinctive peculiarities of his sacrifice, and teaching for
doctrines the commandments of men. Again, in the Prot
estant Church the minister of the Gospel is an ambassador,
a deacon, a presbyter, a bishop, an evangelist, a preacher, or
if there be any other name ; but in the Church of Rome he
is an hgsvg, a sacrificing priest. A Roman Catholic priest
is not ordained to preach the Gospel at all ; he is ordained,
when the Romish bishop puts into his hands a patina and a
cup, to offer up a sacrifice for the living and the dead — but
the preaching of the Gospel is not his function ; he is not
ordained to do so. In the Protestant Church the minister
who does not preach the Gospel may trace the hnks of his
lineage to Paul, but he is not a true minister still. He may
be the most learned and illustrious divine in the length and
breadth of the land ; but if he is dumb where he ought to
be eloquent, and preaches another Gospel where he ought
to preach the Gospel of Christ, he is not a true minister
still. And days are coming, my dear friends, when we must
rally round those who love and uphold the Gospel. Bread
we must have, and the preaching of the Gospel is God's
great ordinance for giving us that bread ; and if we cannot
have bread in church A., we must seek bread in church B,

dr. newman's .lectures. 537
The church exists' for distributing living bread, and without
it we cannot live happy - — without it we cannot die safe.
But in the Church of Rome the minister of the Gospel is
lost in the priest.
In the Church of England there is no such officer as a
sacrificing priest, nor in any other section of the Protestant
Church. The word "priest'' in the English Church is de
rived from "presbyter," which is the origin of our English
word " priest." The Church of England has not an altar ;
if the Church of England had an altar, it would be so
said; but on looking into the Prayer book I find only "the
Lord's table" mentioned; and it states, that that table
ought to be placed in the middle of the congregation. The
highest English Churchman ought to have his communion
table in the middle of the congregation, instead of having it
placed in the east. I would not change it where it happens
to be; but if I were to build a church, I think, in these
days, I would just place the communion table where the
Rubric orders it to be placed — in the middle of the con
gregation. And again, no section of the Protestant Church
has any propitiatory sacrifices, and therefore we have no use
for a priest. The Lord's Supper commemorates a sacrifice
that is finished, but it is not itself a sacrifice. If it be a
sacrifice, it is no sacrament ; if it be a sacrament, it is no
sacrifice. A sacrifice is something we offer to God ; a sa
crament is something God gives to us. If the Lord's Sup
per be a sacrament, it is not a sacrifice ; if it be a sacrifice,
it is not a sacrament. But While the Protestant Church has
no sacrifice, no priest, no altar, we have, material and visible
to the eye, all three merged' and perfected in one Christ,
our High-Priest ; the altar that sanctifies the gift, the sacri
fice once for all, never to be repeated, for the sins of all
that believe. We have not a priest who dies and needs a
successor ; for Christ lives for ever. We have not a sacri
fice so incomplete that it needs to be repeated, for this He

538 review op
did once for all. And we have not an altar that a mouse can
undermine, that a stroke of a hammer can overturn ; but an
altar whose base is the Everlasting Rock, whose cement is
living love, and on which there burns and glows a glory
that never shall be quenched, — mercy and truth that have
met together, and righteousness and peace that have kissed
and embraced each other. And if I take a view of other
peculiarities of the Church of Rome, I find the same gross
perversion of every thing. I find Christ is practically
superseded by the Virgin — the cross by the crucifix —
Christ's priesthood by a human priesthood — Christ's Word
by the decisions of councils, the decrees of Popes, the tradi
tions of man. •
But I turn, in the last place, to the charges which Dr.
Newman brings against Protestants for persecution. He
says, " Whatever theoretical differences it " (Protestant
ism) " has had on this subject with the Catholic religion,
it has, in matter of fact, ever shown itself a persecuting
power. It has persecuted in England, in Scotland, in Ire
land, in Holland, in France, in Germany, in Geneva.
Calvin burnt a Socinian, Cranmer an Anabaptist, Luther
advised the wholesale murder of the fanatical peasants,
and Knox was party to bloody enactments and bloody
deeds." And then he goes on to say, quoting from another
writer, " It is true, that the Popes have not preached, like
the Protestants, universal toleration ; but the facts show
the difference between the Protestants, and the Popes. The
Popes, armed with a tribunal of intolerance, have scarce
spilt a drop of blood ; Protestants and philosophers have
shed it in torrents." Now, can you conceive any man
standing up and publishing such a statement as that in the
English tongue, in a book that is now sold, and extensively
read by others than members of the Church of Rome ? But
first let us hear about Calvin. " Calvin," he says, " burnt a
Socinian." I do not justify the conduct of Calvin on that

dr. Newman's lectures. 539-
occasion ; but what Calvin did ought to be truly and fairly
known. In the first place, I may state, that poor Servetus
had just escaped from the fangs of the Church of Rome,
by whom he had been imprisoned for heresy; and the
Church of Rome has ever since been angry that Calvin
should have had the privilege of acquiescing in a death
which they wished to have the joy of executing themselves.
And, in the next place, when Servetus came to Geneva,
he was imprisoned by the civil law, then proscriptive and
intolerant, not by any ecclesiastical decision. And, in the
next place, Calvin, it has been proved, acquiesced in his
imprisonment, but not, I conceive, in his burning. But I
wfll admit Dr. Newman's charge that he did so. " Cranmer,"
he says, " burnt an Anabaptist." The Parker Society have
lately, and perhaps successfully, tried to vindicate Cranmer
from this aspersion ; but let me grant that he did so. John
Knox certainly frequently proclaimed that idolaters — and
by that he meant Roman Catholic priests — ought to be put
to death ; though it is not true that his hands were stained
by the blood of a single victim. But what does all this
prove ? These men were once priests in the Church of
Rome; they had been drilled in proscription from their
earliest infancy, and taught from the page# of canonists,
from the decisions of the Fourth Lateran, and Innocent III.,
from the ever growing canon law, from the episcopal oath,
that to put a man to death because of the tenets that he held,
was a sacred and solemn duty. This was the creed of Rom
ish Christendom before the Reformation. And if Cranmer,
and Calvin, and Knox in many instances persecuted, my
amazement is, that, coming out of the Church of Rome,
where persecution was taught as a duty, they indulged in it
so little, and can be historically charged with so faint a sym
pathy with it as that which Dr. Newman alleges in the
course of this volume. If they were persecutors, the church
that educated them bears the guilt of it. And I admit, that

540 REVIEW OB
the Reformers and the early Christian ministers for a hun
dred years after the Reformation still cherished the senti
ment, that a person should be persecuted or punished
corporally for the religious principles or errors that he held;
the last dogma that the Reformers got rid of, was that very
popular dogma of the Church of Rome. But if they
accepted it, it is the mother who taught it them, who ought
to be blamed as well as the children who learned the lessons.
But then, granting they did all this, if the Church of
England retain in her articles, or if any section of the Prot
estant Church hold in its creed, that heretics ought to be
put to death, then it is quite fair that the bad deeds of
Calvin, and the sins of Cranmer, and the iniquity of John
Knox, should be thrown in our face as effects of what we
are and hold ; but what is the fact ? The Church of Rome
retains persecution in her laws and authorized works ; the
Protestant Church repudiates it ; and if we admit that we
were both wrong two hundred years ago, we ask, Who con'
tinues in the wrong ? one has refused to be reformed, and
the other has reformed herself, and abjured alike the wrong
principle and wrong doing. If Dr. Newman's church will
come forward in the face of England and say, "I grieve
for the crimtes of the past ; I admit that the Church of
Rome has had her hands stained with blood ; but tho
Church of Rome, in the year 1851, repudiates the decree of
the 4th Lateran, the Canon Law, the persecuting clauses in
the Episcopal Oath, Liguori, De Castro, etc., and will have
nothing to do with the patronage of Alphonso de Castro,
or with the Jesuits, but is prepared to do as Clement
XIV., — to disband them altogether ;" — if he will say this,
we will forget and forgive the past, and we shall run a new
career, conforming to the example of our blessed Lord, and
both be rivals in renown, and sisters in aim and in progress.
But the Church of Rome will not do so, — she cannot
do so. She retains persecution as a principle, while the

DR. NEWMAN'S LECTURES. 541
Protestant Church has, without exception and univer
sally, repudiated it. But to show you how truly the
Church of Rome holds it, and how reasonably I am amazed
at Dr. Newman's strange assertion about his church not
persecuting, and about Protestants being the greater perse
cutors, I copy a passage from the " Rambler," a publication
conducted, I beheve, by Mr. Faber, — but I may be mis
taken in that, — but conducted certainly by new perverts
from Protestant churches to the Church of Rome. Now
what does this modern periodical, being published only in
the course of last summer, say ? " We are children of a
church which has ever avowed the deepest hostility to the
principles of ' religious liberty,' and which has never given
the shadow of a sanction to the theory that ' civil liberty,' as
such, is necessarily a blessing to all. How intolerable it
is to see this miserable device for deceiving the Protestant
world, still so widely popular among us ! We say, 'for
deceiving the Protestant world ; ' though we are far enough
from implying that there is not many a Catholic who really
imagines himself to be a votary of ' religious liberty,' and
is confident that, if the tables were turned, and the Catho
lics were uppermost in the land, he would in all circum
stances grant others the same unlimited tolteration he now
demands for himself. Still, let our Catholic tolerationist
be ever so sincere, he is only sincere because he does not
take the trouble to look very closely into his own convic
tions. His great object is to silence Protestants, or to
persuade them to let him alone ; and as he certainly feels
no personal malice against them, and laughs at their creed
quite as cordially as he hates it, he persuades himself that
he is telling the exact truth, when he professes to be an ad
vocate of ' religious liberty,' and declares that no man ought
to be coerced on account of his conscientious convictions.
The practical result is that, now and then, but very seldom,
Protestants are blinded, and are ready to clasp their unex-
46

542 REVIEW OP
pected ally in a fraternal embrace. They are deceived, we
repeat,, nevertheless. Believe us not, Protestants - of Eng
land and Ireland ! for an instant, when you hear us pour
ing forth our liberalisms. When you hear a Catholic
orator at some public assemblage declaring that 'this is
the most humiliating day of his life, when he is called upon
to defend once more the glorious principle of religious
freedom,' -n- be not too simple in your credulity. These .are
brave words, but they mean nothing, no, — nothing more
than the promises of a parliamentary candidate tq his con
stituents on the hustings. He is not talking Catholicism,
but Protestantism and nonsense ; and he will no more act,
on these notions, in different circumstances,, than you now
act upon them yourselves in your treatment of him. You
ask, If he were lord in: the land, and you were in a minority,
if not in numbers, yet in, power, what would he do to
you? That, we say, would .depend entirely upon circum
stances. If it would benefit the cause of Catholicism, he
would tolerate you ; if expedient, he would imprison, you,
banish you, fine you, and possibly, even hang you ! But be
assured of one thing,: he would never tolerate you for the
sake, of 'the glorious principles of civil and religious liberty.'
Religious liberty, in the sense, of a liberty possessed by every
man to choose his own religion, is one of the most wicked
delusions ever foisted upon this age by the father of all
deceit. The very name of liberty,— except in the sense of
a permission to do certain definite acts — ought to be ban
ished from the domain of religion. It is neither more nor
less, than a falsehood. No man has a right to choose his
religion. None but an Atheist can uphold the principles of
religious liberty. Shall I, therefore, fall in with this abom
inable delusion? Shall I foster that damnable doctrine,
that Socinianism, and Calvinism, and Anglicanism, and
Judaism, are not, every one of them, mortal sins, like mur
der and adultery? Shall I hold out hopes to my erring

dr. Newman's lectures. 543
Protestant brother, that I will not meddle with his creed, if
if he will not meddle With mine ? Shall I tempt him to forget
that he has no more right to his religious views than he has
to my purse, or my house, or my life blood ? No ! Catholi
cism is the most intolerant of creeds. It is intolerance itself,
for it is the truth itself. We might as rationally maintain
that a sane man has a right to believe that two and two do
not make four,' as this theory of religious liberty. Its impiety
is only equalled by its absurdity." Now, such is the lan
guage of a Roman Cathohc periodical conducted by some
ofthe most distinguished perverts from the Protestant church.
It is most manly and most honest, and just what one would
expect from an honest man. It is the echo of the encyclical
Bull of Gregory XVL in the year 1832, which speaks of
" liberty of conscience, that execrable and detestable error."
Such writers as this in the " Rambler," simply echo the
sentiments of their great head, the Pope. - 1 have another
extract frohi " L'Univers," the organ of the Roman Cath
olic Church, in France ; and you may be aware that a very
celebrated bishop in France has forbidden every newspaper
but this to the priesthood of his diocese, and they obediently
comply with his commands. Now, there appeared in
"L'Univers," only a few months ago, the» following: "A
heretic, examined and convicted by the church, used to be
delivered over to the secular power, and punished with
death. Nothing has ever appeared to us more natural, or
more necessary. More than one hundred thousand persons
perished, in consequence of the heresy of Wicliff ; a still
greater number by that of John IIuss ; it would not be
possible to calculate the bloodshed caused by the heresy of
Luther, and it is not yet over. After three centuries we
are at the eve of a recommencement. The prompt repres
sion of the disciples of Luther, and a crusade against Prot
estantism, would have spared Europe three centuries of
discord and of catastrophes, in which France and civilization

544 REVIEW OP
may perish. It was under the influence of such reflections,
that I wrote the phrase which has so excited the virtuous
indignation of the Red Journals. Here it is " — (He writes
in this manner, because in France every writer appends his
name to his article). " ' For my part, I avow frankly, my
regret is, not only that they did not sooner burn John Huss,
but that they did not equally burn Luther ; and I regret
further, that there had not been at the time some prince
sufficiently pious and politic to have made a crusade against
the Protestants.' Well, this paragraph might have been
better penned : but as I have the happiness to belong to
those who care little about mere forms of expression, I
will not revoke it. I accept it as it is, and with a certain
satisfaction at finding myself faithful to my opinions. That
which I wrote in 1838 I still believe. Let the red philan
thropists print their declaration in any sort of type they
please, and as often as they please. Let them add their
commentaries, and place all to my account. The day that
I cancel it, they will be justified in holding the opinion of
me which I hold of them. (Signed), Louis Venillot." So
that you have here modern documents, all preaching and
vindicating the persecution pursued in the early ages. Dr.
Newman's allegation that the Popes set up a tribunal of
persecution, for the purpose of showing that they had the
power, but never used it or meant to use it, is wonderfully
innocent logic.
Now, the last passage that I will treat of in the evening
of this day, is that relating to the relics and miracles of the
Church of Rome, real or assumed, and concerning which
Dr. Newman has some decided notions. In closing my
morning's notes upon his Lectures, I must say, that the
popular prejudices quoted by him against the Roman Cath
olic Church are scripturally true ; they are historical facts ;
and I am sure that those of you who have read his Lectures,
will not be driven from the propositions which you have

dr. Newman's lectures. 545
cherished year after year, by the mere badinage, and silly
and sarcastic remarks made by the Rev. Dr. Newman. He
knows that his church is a desperate concern, that can only
be maintained by desperate means. And it is to my mind
one of the most humiliating evidences of the deteriorating
effect of the Roman heresy, that those clergymen who have
gone over to it recently, are so unscrupulous, as to what is
true and what is not, in the statements that they bring
against the Protestant Church at large. Dr. Newman
indulges in charges, that he must have known are not facts :
he has brought accusations against us, which he must have
known are repudiated by us ; and he tries to screen the
worst characteristics of his church, by placing them in the
list of popular Protestant prejudices, stating that, as such,
they ought to be treated with indifference wherever they
appear. And let us learn another lesson. The Church of Rome,
however screened by Dr. Newman, is in the present day
avowing her ruling sentiments with an energy, a manliness,
and an honesty unprecedented in her past history. She is
now ready to allow, in spite of Dr. Newman's apologetic
appeals, that she is prepared to persecute, in order to spread
her sentiments. The history of England she has just issued,
published by Burns and Lambert, instils these principles in
the minds of the rising generation. And you may depend
upon it, we are coming into a crisis so solemn and so momen
tous in its issues, that it becomes every man and woman in this
assembly to prepare themselves with a thorough, heartfelt
grasp of what living, evangelical, Protestant Christianity is ;
and with a correct and well founded apprehension of the
errors and superstitions of the Roman Cathohc Church. I
have no fear for the ultimate issue : I am satisfied that truth
will obtain the supremacy; that with spiritual weapons
alone Romanism must go down. I think that the hour of her
doom is at our doors. Next year may very probably show
46*

546 REVIEW OP
how precarious is the footing she now possesses ; and lights,
not far distant, now coming into the horizon, will reveal
which is truth, and which, by being truth, has immunity and
immortality, and how truly the patroness and the exponent
of a lie is doomed to everlasting destruction from the pres
ence of God. I do not mean to say that every Roman
Catholic layman holds the proscriptive principles of these
writers. I do not mean to say that every Roman Catholic
layman knows the errors and corruptions of his church as
we know them. But I do say that the Roman Catholic
priesthood, who are educated men, do know these things ;
and I can only explain the course that Dr. Newman has
taken by that awful passage, that one ought not lightly to
apply, " God shall send them strong delusion, that they
should believe a lie." In looking into this great controversy,
and in conducting it, let us boldly avow our readiness, as
ministers of the gospel, and others who take a public part
in these matters, to give a reason for the faith that is in us,
wherever we are placed in the Providence of God. The
Roman Catholic priests are coming forward in the present
day with a boldness and a heroism unprecedented, I believe,
for many years. Things are coming rapidly to an issue ;
the signs of our struggle are multiplying every day ; and in
a very short time it will be determined in the midst of this
land, whether the old, fixed, Protestant and Bible Christian
ity, with freedom in our nation, purity in our homes, pros
perity in ©ur land, in its train, and as its children : or that
system which is drunk with the blood of saints, which pol
lutes wherever it is present, and crushes wherever it cannot
conciliate, is to reign and lord it over the destinies of this
great country. I believe that God's truth will triumph ;
but I believe that, as God works by means, on us devolves
the responsibility of a diligent, faithful, untiring use of the
means that He has placed within our power. Whatever
those means be, that we conscientiously prefer, let us use

dr. newman's lectures. 547
them ; but let no man become a pervert to the Roman Cath
ohc superstition, because he has been ignorant of what it is,
or whither it tends ; and we ask no man to retain his attach
ment to the Protestant faith, except on the grounds of en
lightened, scriptural, personal conviction. Let parents in
their homes teach Protestant truth ; and let me remind you
especially, mothers that are before me, to do so. They
have great power ; and I am convinced of this, that if all
the mothers of England be thoroughly Christian and Prot
estant and do their duty to those little Missionary establish
ments, of which they are the presiding spirits, although the
Pope were to send cartloads of Cardinal Wisemans to our
shores, they would be for ever powerless. A mother's influ
ence in her house is mighty. And the reason is just this: —
A father teaches, but a mother instils. A mother's influence,
when sanctified, like a delicate, aromatic perfume, penetrates
the infant heart, where a father's coarse and rough influence
has no access at all. On the mothers, therefore, in Tun
bridge Wells, and everywhere throughout England, devolves
a responsibility which no language of mine can express, and
which no arithmetic can possibly exaggerate. And cleave,
my dear friends, wherever you are, to evangelical preaching,
which is that of truth. Love the form you belong to, prefer
the church of which you are the members ; but prefer above
the church, above the minister, and above all the accompani
ments of worship, living, vital, evangelical, Protestant Chris
tianity. Give me a man with a weak mind, who proclaims
the glorious gospel, and give me a man with a master mind,
who does not preach it, and I will go to hear the weak
mind, because he preaches it, in preference to the strong
mind, because he does not preach it. And we are coming
into a day, when it will be uttered from the skies, and it
must be echoed from the earth, more and more distinctly,
« If the Lord be God, follow him : if Baal be God, follow
him." Your Tractarianisms and Puseyisms, and all such

548 REVIEW OP
isms, are sham and evasive shifts to get rid of a solemn
responsibility. I am quite sure, if you were to see the
genuine Church of Rome, you would recognize a splendid
exterior vision, vile and hateful as it is beneath ; but Pusey
ism is contemptible, because it is without outward beauty,
and is replete with inward unscriptural, unprotestant de
lusions. Let us, then, ally ourselves to all that love the
Lord Jesus Christ ; and if we be found faithful, even though
it should be the faithful few, ours will be that happy destiny
that awaits such in that day.
But with all this, I state it as encouragement I gather
from facts and prophecy together, that this land of ours is
reserved yet, I believe, for a splendid destiny. I see in the
past history of it, notwithstanding its failings and its sins,
such tokens of the providential interposition of God, that I
am sure it is not God's purpose to give up this great coun
try to sink, when Babylon, like a mill-stone, shall perish in
the depths of the sea. We shah be punished, — nay, I will
not say punished, — we shall be chastened : a judge pun
ishes a criminal ; a father chastens his child. We shall be
chastened, too, in the direction in which we have sinned.
When a nation sins, God makes a scourge out of its sins to
chasten it with. We have sinned from 1829 up to now.
You may not, perhaps, agree with me ; but I say, since that
period, explain it as you like, and attribute it to the course
you like, we have sinned in reference to Romanism ; and
we have crowned our sins by endowing, at a vast national
annual expense, the College of Maynooth. I say, we have
sinned in these things ; and the right way is, to begin to re
pent first, and to abjure what we see to be sin. And do not
speak as if you would sweep away, at one fell swoop, all
the bad acts of past years, but just unwind. Begin at the
last national sin, unwind it, and we shall afterwards con
sider whether we ought to go further or not. But we have
sinned in these respects ; and in these respects, I believe,

dr. newslan's lectures. 549
God will chasten us : but I do not believe that God will
give up our land. Why has it been preserved during the
last few years ? Why has it been like a central peaceful
column, around which exiles fleeing from other nations have
felt that they could cluster and cling ? Why has it been the
wide spreading tree, under the shadow of which they have
found a shelter and a defence, when the rest of the nations
of Europe have been uprooted and shaken by the storm ?
Why is it that this great land of ours has been so success
ful, fiscally, politically, nationally, religiously, in extending
its missions, adding to their funds, apparently rising re
freshed from temporary disasters, rather than put down?
Why have our ships been beating white the waves of every
sea, our anchors dropped upon every strand, and our guns
assuring the oppressed that he shall find in us an assistance
and a protector ? It is because the light of God's truth has
shone in the midst of us ; it is because England's anchor
age ground has been the Bible ; and so long as that Divine
Book stands like a light-house on the capital of our national
column, so long will England stand. Shut that book, and
you will not remain long free : keep it open, and no foot, be
it that of priest, or king, or tyrant, shall be able to press
upon your neck ; and so long as that light remains, so long
we shall not only be free ourselves, but a pattern and an
example to the nations of the earth. The great waves may
beat against that glorious light-house ; the great winds may
rush on it ; and cardinals, and popes, and monks, like the
sea-gulls, envying its light, and attracted by its splendor,
and hoping to quench it, may fly at it ; but it will only be to
dash themselves against it, and lie dead at its base. It will
stand the light of England, and the light of nations. And,
having received from our forefathers so glorious a deposit,
by God's grace, in spite of Cardinal Wiseman and the Pope
of Rome, we will keep it, and hand it down to our children :
so that, when they receive it, and stand upon the green sod

550 REVIEW OP
that covers our ashes, they shall be constrained to say, Our
fathers, if they did not increase, did not at least dimmish the
glorious heritage which they received.

LECTURE II.
In those remarks I had the opportunity of submitting
to you in the former part of this day, I showed that Dr.
Newman, the most distinguished advocate of the Church
of Rome in the age in which we live, acquainted in his
earlier days with the principles of a purer church, but now
inveterately attached to the very worst superstitions of the
church of his adoption, has written a work which he calls,
" Lectures on the Present Position of Catholics in England:
addressed to the Brothers of the Oratory ; " and another
volume, previously written, equally large, and in some
respects not less eloquent, called "Discourses to Mixed
Congregations. By John Henry Newman, D. D., Priest
of the Congregation of St. Philip Neri." I showed that
he begins by breaking an Act of Parliament, and continues
and ends by omitting the Scriptures from his investigation
altogether. It is most remarkable, that from the commence
ment of the book to its close, he scarcely quotes a text.
He appeals to what he calls the reason ; he speaks of pre
judices, and endeavors to disabuse us of our misconceptions,
as he calls them, of the Roman Cathohc faith ; but he
scarcely decides a single difficulty by an appeal to Scrip
ture, or quotes a single passage to determine the ccntro-
versy one way or the other.
Before proceeding, however, to analyze at still greater
length the statements in this extraordinary farrago, — this
mixture of the beautiful and the bad, the sublime and tho

DR. NEWMAN'S LECTURES. 551
nonsensical, the logical and the illogical, more than ever it
was my lot to peruse before,— -I should like to disabuse
your minds of possible, and frequently repeated misconcep
tions as to the course which we pursue, and the ends which
we have now in view. . ,
First, let me again repeat, that the severity with which
we brand the errors of the Church of Rome, is the measure
of the unaffected love which we feel to those who are the
victims of them. It is quite possible to love the sinner,
and to detest the sin in the ratio of the love, that we bear
him. Our blessed Master so loved the sinner, that he
came from the highest height of glory to deliver him ; and
he so detested the sin, that he shed his most precious
blood that its guilt m%ht be for ever washed away. And
just in proportion as we imitate the spirit of our blessed
Master, are we qualified to enter into a discussion, which
sometimes irritates, which occasionally has made men speak
in exaggerated language, ahd now and then has made us
forget our love to man in our antipathy to a system which
has been fatal to our country's history in. the past, and is.
ruinous to souls wherever it is embraced. Now, my posi
tion is this : that a Roman Catholic error is so great a mis
fortune, that the very sincerity with which a. man cleaves to
it is a reason why I. should respect him as a man, but no
reason why I should spare the error that ruins his soul,
and that is separating us into factions among our fellow-
countrymen. And, in the next place, we use spiritual weapons alone.
We are quite satisfied that the gospel needs neither the
bribe pf the treasury to make men accept it, nor the
bayonet of the army to support and to perpetuate it. If
the fagots are to be kindled, let them be so by the enemies,
not by the friends of the gospel. If the sword is to
be unsheathed, let it be by the advocates of Rome, not
the advocates of a pure and scriptural religion. "The

552 REVIEW OP
weapons of our warfare," says the apostle, *'are not
carnal, but mighty;" and he implies in that sentiment,
that just because they are not carnal, therefore they are
mighty. And, in the next place, while we deal with a Roman
Catholic, it is not our simple idea to disabuse his mind of
the errors that he holds. A heart emptied of ah error is
not a step nearer heaven than a heart filled with all error.
We are sanctified, not by a negation, but through the
truth that is in Christ Jesus. And if, therefore, I should
induce a man to cease to be a Roman Catholic, but should,
under God, be blessed to make him nothing more, it
would be but a poor triumph : the room, swept and gar
nished, would most likely tempt seven other spirits worse
than the first to enter in ; and so, the last state of that
man would be worse than the first. No; we think we
take a better plan, and that is, to dislodge the error that is
cherished by the corresponding truth that is fitted to neu
tralize it, and to lead the Roman Catholic to abjure the
worse way, by showing him in our creed, in our expressions,
in our life, a more excellent way. I would not break the
canonized urn filled with waters from the Tiber, unless I
could point him out the fountain of living waters, from
which he may drink, without money and without price. I
would not take from him the twinkling taper light, unless I
could point him out the big bright Sun, under whose wings
there is healing, and in whose presence there is the light of
life. I will not be satisfied, therefore, with making a Roman
Catholic cease to be so, until, by the grace of God, we are
instrumental in turning him from darkness unto light, from
the knowledge and power of Satan unto the knowledge and
kingdom of God, and his own dear Son.
Now, in dealing with this controversy, let me notice, as
another preliminary and important remark, that some excel
lent Protestants, some, I beheve, in this place, say, and say

dr. Newman's lectures. 553
very plausibly, " What business have you to meddle with
another man's creed ? it is his own business, and not yours."
So far it seems very good sense; but when you come to
look at it in the light of Scripture, it is very bad divinity.
Suppose our Lord had let us alone eighteen centuries ago :
suppose Paul had let the Athenians alone, and not told them
of their superstitions, and of the God that they ignorantly
worshipped. Suppose that the first missionaries had said
of us, " Let those Saxons alone ; what right have we to
meddle with their creed ? " Then, we should have been in
a very different state to what we are now. My own creed
is my business, and my brother's creed is my business ; and
if I have a right heart, I shall never suffer sin in my
brother's hfe without trying to rebuke it, nor an error in my
brother's intellect without trying to dislodge it. It seems to
me that this spirit I am now animadverting upon partakes
very much of that of Cain, "Am I my brother's keeper? "
Every man has an interest in the well-being of his neigh
bor ; and in proportion as a man becomes Christian, he can
not rest, under an impulse stronger than time, until the
whole mass that is around him is leavened with the light and
freedom of the gospel of Christ, and all society reflects the
blessings and the happiness which it is his own unmerited
privilege to enjoy.
Again, in dealing with the Roman Catholic system, it
may be said, " Why not let them take their own way to
heaven ? " or, according to what is called in modern times
the very liberal Christian, " Let the Roman Catholics take
their way ; let the Socinians take their way ; let Protes
tants take their way : we shall all land in the right place,
but by different roads, at the last." There is a great fallacy
lurking beneath such a statement as this. If there be dif
ferent roads to heaven, and if everybody be in one of these,
then I do not see that we ought to meddle with any man's
religion; but is the geography of heaven exactly the
47

554 REVIEW OF
reflection of the geography of time ? If I wish to go to
London to-morrow from Tunbridge Wells, I may go by
express, or by the first, second, or third class, or by a goods
train. I may go on horseback, by coach, or on foot, or I
might find a canal by which I might go. And therefore, if
I said, " I am going to London to-morrow," my excellent
friend, Mr. Franklyn, might say, " I think you must go by
this way, or that way ; " or he might say, " Why not let Dr.
Cumming take his own way, and, being a Scotchman, he is
sure to take the cheapest route to London." Now, this
seems very plausible, when applied to the affairs of this
world : but is it the same in reference to those of a higher
world ? Not at all, my friends. There are not many ways
to heaven ; there is but one, and it is important that that
one should be known. And what as it? It is not true that
the way to heaven extends through a church, to the exclu
sion of the chapel ; or through a chapel to the exclusion of
the cathedral. In short, we are not saved by a church at
all, nor can we be guided to heaven by a shibboleth at all.
The way to heaven was pronounced upon the banks of the
Jordan, and is reverberated in ever-multiplying echoes
from the increasing pulpits of our land, — "I am the way,
the truth, and the life. No man cometh unto the Father
but by me." And thus, the Lord Jesus Christ is the only
way to heaven ; and the man who pursues another way,
however near, however plausible, however picturesque and
beautiful, is in a way that will not lead to heaven, because
there is but one, and that one, the Lord Jesus Christ, the
only name given among men, whereby we can be saved. It
is thus, then, that I meet the difficulty, that there are many
ways to heaven, and that every man should take his own,
and that the Roman Catholic should take his.
But then, others will say, " Is it not true that the Roman
Catholic Church holds the great truths that we hold ? "
And it may be argued that, if we be right, the Roman

dr. newman's lectures. 555
Catholic Church cannot be wrong ; because, for instance,
she holds the Nicene Creed, a very beautiful compendium
of Scriptural Christianity; but she adds to that Nicene
Creed other twelve articles, which constitute the distinctive
peculiarities of the Roman Catholic religion. This is so
marked, that, if a Roman Catholic were to clip his creed in
twain, the first half would be the exponent of Protestant
Christianity, and the other half of pure and unmixed Roman
Catholic superstition. Well, you say, if a Roman Catholic
hold what we hold, and only a little more, — if we be saved,
you argue, he cannot be in danger. Now, this might be
true, if the little more that he held were perfectly innocuous ;
but the little more that he holds is not only something addi
tional to the truth, but it is something in itself intensely sub
versive of the truth. And here is the mystery. If the
Roman Catholic religion were the denial of all truth, then it
would be simply infidelity ; but it is the " mystery of
iniquity," and therefore it admits all the truths that we
admit, but then it applies the correlative errors that neutral
ize every truth, subvert every precious announcement, and
under the appearance of marching to immortality and glory,
it leads you directly to distance and alienation from God.
So that the Roman Catholic Church not only holds a little
more, but it holds that httle more of the most pernicious
description ; — although, I might add, it is possible to be
lieve too much, as well as to believe too httle. We find in
this world, that if you add up your ledger in this manner,
two and two make five, you will find next Christmas that
you are just as much wrong as if you had added it up in
this manner, two and two make three. And you will find
that, if a person eats too much, he will do himself as much
physical damage as by eating too little. And it may be true
in religious matters, that it is just as dangerous to believe
too much, as too little. But when that too much is adding
to what is sufficient that which is deleterious, then it may

556

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destroy the good that is in it. Thus, if we add to bread,
not more bread, but arsenic, and to the water we are drink
ing, not more water, but prussic acid, then all the virtue of
the bread is gone, all the preciousness of the water is neu
tralized ; and although these may seem to be bread and
water, because those elements are the largest, still they are
tainted with deleterious poison, which poisons the unhappy
man who wilfully or ignorantly accepts them. It is thus,
then, that it is no defence of the Roman Catholic Church, to
say, it is only the belief of a little more : it is the acceptance
of a little more of a dangerous description.
But then, you must admit that there are many good
people in the Church of Rome. I beheve that there are
saints in the midst of the Roman Catholic superstition, who at
this moment are the subjects of the grace of God, but not in
consequence of that system in which they are, but rather in
spite of it. And it would be strange if it were not so. On
the bleakest crags of the Alps there are some flowers that
the frosts have not nipped, and that the storms have not
blasted. In the wildest deserts of Africa and Asia there is
an oasis here and there, to show that God has not utterly
forsaken them. And in the Church of Rome there is a
Christian here and a Christian there ; and the whole of that
gigantic hierarchy will stand until the last Christian has
escaped, like Lot from Sodom ; and then the judgments of
heaven will descend upon it, and utterly consume it. I do
not believe that the Roman Catholic Church is to be con
verted ; I have no hope of its conversion in the age in which
we live. I believe it will be destroyed only when this dis
pensation shall come to its close. I believe it will be plunged
into ruin by the instant judgments of God ; and that will
take place when the last of God's saints has escaped : then
it will go down like a mill-stone into the sea, and " the voice
of harpers, and of the bridegroom and the bride," shall be
heard in it no more at all. I have, therefore, no hope of

dr. newman's lectures. 557
converting the Church of Rome at all ; but then I have a
strong conviction that God has a people in the midst of it,
and that now, at this very moment, is the great crisis, when
there should sound from every pulpit, and be heard from
every platform, " Come out of her, my people, that ye par
take not of her sins, and receive not of her plagues." It is
thus, then, that God has a people in the Church of Rome :
in it, but not of it.
Others, again, have said, " But, in attacking Roman
Catholicism, do you not help the sceptic, and injure the
religion that you yourselves hold ? " If the Protestant
religion were dependent upon a Roman Catholic foundation,
it would be true ; but we deny that the Church of Rome is
the foundation of the Protestant Church. On the contrary,
we allege that the Romish Church is grafted on the Prot
estant Church ; we allege that it is a parasite plant — a
poisonous parasite plant — that grows upon the church of
Christ, exhausting its vitality, deforming its beauty, and con
cealing it from those that would gaze upon it, and look and
live. And therefore to meet the Church of Rome, and to
show its errors and its sins, is not to shake, still less to
undermine that church which we belong to. If the spider
has woven its web amid the branches of a precious apple
tree, or if the caterpillar is gnawing its leaves, to remove
the spider's web, and to detach the caterpillar, is not to de
stroy the tree, but rather to give it a chance of development
it had not before, and to add to its future fruitfulness when
the harvest draws near. So, in defending the Protestant
Church from all unity with the Roman Cathohc Church
and in showing the errors of the Roman Cathohc religion,
we strengthen, not sap, that creed to which it is our privi
lege, under God, to belong.
Others, again, have said, " We do not like this contro
versy at all ; " and, as I have heard persons say before
coming here, " We do not like discussions and debates." I
47*

558

JK.JSVIEYY OP

have tried to show you, they are neither uncharitable nor
uncalled for. But I admit that controversy is not an agree
able thing ; but the real question before us in this world is
not, whether we like a thing, but whether it be duty ; nor
whether it is palatable, but whether it be necessary. What
are all the Epistles in the New Testament ? Controversy,
— discussions with those who undermined, or subverted the
truth. If controversy means losing one's temper, which I
never did in my hfe, or calling men names, which I hope I
never do, then it would be an objectionable weapon for a
Christian minister to use. But if it be to contend in the
spirit of love, and to say the bitterest things against error,
and the kindest things against the victims of that error, then
it is controversy by which Christianity was spread in ancient
days ; it was the weapon by which Luther, and Knox, and
Cranmer, and Ridley gained their victories ; it is that
weapon which Dr. Newman is wielding with consummate
skill, and with persevering tactics; and it is that weapon
with which we must meet him, or be mastered by him in
the collision that is speedily approaching. Certainly, the
thing itself is not pleasant. No one likes the storm ; and if
one had one's will, I should wish that there should be a
perpetual and a beautiful calm. No one likes whatever dis
turbs the peace and order of society ; but still, war is often
a necessity and a duty. If I had my will, too, I would wish
that every rose-tree around Tunbridge Wells should not have
a thorn upon it ; that there should never come a gale of wind
to disturb your common ; and I should move that the mil
lennium should come in with all its beauty and bliss to
morrow. But then, I know that in the arrangements of
Heaven, that thorn is needful to protect that rose ; I know
that the storm that does partial damage purifies and dis
infects the air through which it passes ; and I am assured,
from the Word of God, that there never can be a millennium
of peace until there has been first established a millennium

DR. NEWMAN'S LECTURES. 559
of truth, from the rising of the sun even unto the going
down of the same. Besides, I am told that the wisdom that
is from above is first pure, and then peaceable. And if I
were asked, Which will you part with — truth or peace ?
I would say, Let me have both, if I can ; but if I must
part with one, then let it be peace. You say, Why ? Be
cause, if I let go peace, peace may come again, for I have
still truth ; but if I let go truth, there can be no peace again.
Truth is the stem ; peace is the blossom. If the blossom
be nipped by the winter winds, that stem will give birth to
other and more beauteous blossoms. But, if the tree itself
be removed from the soil in which it grows, then you have
neither tree, nor leaf, nor blossom in the summer. Have
peace in connection with truth, if you can ; but support the
maintenance of God's truth, and God will not leave you
without peace in the world. And in that controversy in
which we are engaged, it is not the arena that one loves,
but the golden apple that can be picked up from it. It is
not the discussion that we like, but the results that that .dis
cussion leads to. And you will find that our best blessings
have been secured by discussion, and those blessings can
only be maintained by being ever able and ever ready to
defend, protect, and perpetuate them.
Now, having made these remarks, I would turn your at
tention to one or two more of the assertions of the Rev. Dr.
Newman, a portion of which I reviewed in the former part
of this day. At page 52, he asserts that King Henry VIII.
" began a new religion," namely, the Protestant : and that
Queen Elizabeth " brought it into shape,'' and her successors
only " completed and confirmed it." Now, first of all, he
asserts that King Henry VIII. began our religion. This is
a favorite statement on the part of our Roman Catholic
friends ; but the truth is, that King Henry VIII. was no
more the cause of the Protestant religion, than Hildebrand
and the woman Pope Joan, were the framers of the Roman

560 REVIEW OP
Catholic religion. King Henry VIII. lived a Papist, only
with inconsistencies that few Papists showed. He burned
men one day for believing in transubstantiation, and he
burned them the next day for denying it ; and he closed hi?
career one of the most devout Roman Catholics that ever
attended mass : for he had an altar erected at his bedside,
and received the last offices of the Church of Rome. And
therefore it is wrong to assert that Henry VHI. was the
first Protestant. But, it is said, was he not the means of its
being permanently estabhshed in England? I say, God
uses means that he does not approve of to promote his own
great purposes. Cyrus was his battle-axe of old, but the
character of Cyrus was not such as God approved. And it
might be argued, if God would not have used such a man
as Henry VHI. for promoting the Protestant religion, would
he have used such a man as Hildebrand, as Innocent HI.,
as John XXII., and others, to uphold the Romish religion ?
If bad men helping a religion is a proof that that religion is
wrong, then confessedly vile men maintaining the Roman
Catholic religion, is demonstration that the Roman Catholic
religion is wrong. God uses such means as the lightning
and the earthquake to work his ends. There was a great
hill erected between mankind and the Saviour, — there was
a great cloud concealing his glory ; and whether God
employed the earthquake, or the lightning, or Henry VETI.,
or John Knox, or Cranmer, or Martin Luther, we bless him
that he employed men, not because they were the best, but
in spite of their faults, and that the great hill is removed,
and that the cloud is dispersed, and that thereby the Sun of
Righteousness is revealed, and that in his light we can see
clearly. But he alleges that King Henry VIII. began a new
religion, implying by that that Protestantism is a new
religion. Now this we do not admit. I allege that the
Protestant religion is the old religion, and that the Roman

dr. newman's lectures. 561
Catholic religion is the new one ; and my evidence is this :
Which of the religions appeals to the New Testament
Scriptures ? Alike Pope Pius IX., and Dr. Newman, and
myself, admit that the New Testament is the first and foun
dation document. Why is it that the Church of Rome will
not peril the issue upon this inquiry, — Which church is
most conformed to the New Testament Scriptures ? If the
Church of Rome can show that the Church to whom St.
Paul addressed ; his Epistle to the Romans is the very
church of which Pio Nono is the head now, then she will
have shown that she is the oldest and the first church. But
if she" cannot do so, then she must be satisfied to take her
place as a secondary Communion, and not as the first church
founded by the apostles, and proclaimed from heaven in the
essentials of its constitution by the Holy Spirit of God.
Now, it is a remarkable fact, if you argue with Dr. New
man, he will come up to the second or third century, but
the instant that you touch the first century, he* seems to
recoil, or to fly off at a tangent into some other quarter.
How is this ? Because there is a consciousness there that
he cannot prove the dogmas of the Church of Rome from
the New Testament Scriptures. And it seems to me the
best way, not to attempt to trace our genealogy through
others up to the days of the apostles, but to come at once to
the New Testament Scriptures. What is there is truth;
and if all men should deny that what is condemned there is
false, that denial would not alter the case ; and if all men
should uphold and maintain that what is commended there
is to be condemned, that again would not make the New
Testament less true. But when he says, however, that the
Protestant religion is the new one, and that the Roman
Cathohc religion is the old one, I do not deny that the
Roman Catholic Church is an old church. It is in one
respect old, but it is not old enough to be true. We hold
that we are the first church, and that the Roman Catholic

562 REVIEW OP
Church is an old church. The synagogue of Satan is old,
but the church of "Christ was first. Sin is old, but holiness
was first. Satan is old, but God was first. And unless the
Church of Rome can prove that she is the first church, it is
in vain to prove that she is the same as the Nicene church,
or that she can be traced in her dogmas to the writers of the
second century. But when she asks the question, as Dr.
Newman does by implication here, Where, then, was your
church previous to Martin Luther, or, as he calls it, Henry
VIII. ? I answer, first of all, The Church of Rome ought
to be ashamed to ask the question ; for she knows where the
professors of the truth were, and how they were treated, when
she had absolute and unquestioned jurisdiction over the great
mass of the nations of Europe. : If she means by that ques
tion, Where was our religion before the days of Martin Lu
ther ? I reply, where it is now, in the Old and New Testa
ments. If she asks, however, Where was our church, as a
church so called, prior to the Reformation ? arguing that be
cause the name Protestant is new, the thing — Protestantism
— : must be new also, I reply, If the novelty of a name is proof
of the novelty of the thing, then transubstantiation cannot be
older than the ninth century, because the name "transub
stantiation " was not known till the ninth century ; and as
the Church of Rome asserts that the novelty of a name is
the evidence of the novelty of the thing, then transubstan
tiation cannot be primitive ; it was a novelty of the ninth
century, and is therefore not an apostolic doctrine. But
this she will not allow, and consequently, she must admit
that the novelty of a name is not necessarily a proof of the
novelty of a thing, and that therefore, although the name
" Protestant" is not older than the days of Luther, the thing
of which it is the exponent may be as old as the days of the
apostles. But if she argue in this way, Where were the
professors of Protestantism before Martin Luther? I
answer, It is remarkable that Reinerus, a Romanist, admits,

DR. NEWJIAN'S : LECTURES. 563
when investigating the claims of the Waldenses, that they
had existed since the days of the apostles,, maintaining the
great doctrines of Protestant Christianity down to the,
eleventh, twelfth, and thirteenth centuries; and you will
find that in the middle ages they formed a bright silver
thread running from the days of the apostles, and so were
then the true church. In the middle , ages the Church of
Rome was the great incorporate apostasy, and the Church
of Christ was a handful of faithful men — a faithful few,
whose symbol, like the symbol of the Waldenses, Lux
lucet in tenebris — .the light shines in darkness — was its
great standing feature and memorial from year to year,
And if the Church of Rome asks, Where were we, then,
prior to the days of Martin Luther ? I answer, As a creed,
we were in the Bible ; as a name, our name was not yet
introduced ; as professors of the truth, we were in bondage
to the Church of Rome : as the, Jews were in Babylon, so
the Protestants were before the Reformation. And it seems
to me a strange thing in Roman: Catholics to ask, where we
were, when she has only to have recourse to the annals of
the Inquisition to find the names of our forefathers in the
list of .those whom she has persecuted. I do npt know if
you ever read, in the interesting writings of Lprd Lindsay
on Egypt, that once, on visiting one of the Pyramids, he
discovered a tuberous root in the hands of a mummy. He
was anxious to know whether vegetable vitality could exist
for the time (which must have been at least two thousand
years) that it had been in that situation ; and in order to
ascertain this, he took the root out of the mummy's hand,
and exposed it to the rain drops and, the influences of nature,:
in his garden, and it grew up into a beautiful dahlia. Now,
if Roman Cathphcs ask, where Protestantism was before
the Reformation, I answer, It was in the cold and iron grasp
of the Papacy ; and.all that Martin Luther did was to un
clench that iron grasp, tp; extract the precious deposit, and

564

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to plant it in the lands of Germany, and England, and
Scotland, and, I now add, of Leland, and to leave it to the
influence of a better Sun, and to the dews of that grace that
is never exhausted ; and it is springing up in all these land's
into overshadowing branches of the church universal, that
bear the truths, which are alike the glory, the strength, and
the perpetuity of our own beloved and father-land. So
much, then, for Dr. Newman's statement that our religion is
a new religion, and that his alone is the old one.
The next thing to which I will refer occurs at page 63,
where he makes the very strange allegation, that such is the
unhappy state of Roman Catholics in this country, no one
can be one " without apologizing for it." Now I do not
know that it is thought to be a shame to be a Roman Cath
olic. It is certainly a misfortune ; but I do not know that
any man in this country is proscribed because he is a Ro
man Catholic. Do you ask your baker, before you deal
with. him, "Are you a Roman Catholic?" Do you ask
your grocer, before you deal with him, " Are you a Roman
Catholic ? " Are Romish Catholics excluded from our po
lice ? Are they not soldiers in our army ? Are they not
in the House of Commons ? and I am sure you cannot mis
take their presence there, especially under their recent form
of " the Pope's Brass Band." Are they not found in every
place ? and is it thought in this country any shame to be a
Roman Catholic? We know it is not; and therefore it
seems to me a severe and an unwarranted reflection for Dr.
Newman to make, when he asserts that no one can be a
Roman Catholic without apologizing for it. But we may
turn round, and say with far greater truth, Can I be a Prot
estant in Rome without suffering for it ? Can I be a Prot
estant in Florence without suffering for it ? What is the
history of poor Count Guicciardini ? I have here an extract
from the records of the British and Foreign Bible Society,
dated August, 1851, in which the treatment that Count

dr. newman's lectures. 565
Guicciardini has met with from the Roman Catholics of
Florence, is alluded to, and from which it appears that the
Hon. and Rev. Samuel Waldegrave, in a speech delivered
at Bedford, June 9, 1851, said: "When at Florence, I
had the privilege of visiting Count Guicciardini. He was
in prison. He is a man of rank, a man of property, a
man of blameless reputation. He is a loyal subject. He
has carefully abstained from all interference in politics.
While waiting with the friend who accompanied me to see
him, I asked the gaoler whether he was a man free from all
suspicion on political grounds. His answer was, ' Yes ; he is
parfaitement.pure.' Yet was he now a prisoner in the com
mon prison. What was his fault? He had been found
sitting round a small table, with six others, reading the
Bible ; that was his one, his only crime ; " and it appears that
only by subsequent interference on the part of the British
authority was his punishment relaxed. So true is it, as
Lord Palmerston remarked in a most able speech the other
day at Tiverton, that in Rome, and Tuscany, and Florence,
to be a Protestant is to be a criminal ; and to have a Bible
is the evidence that you are a Protestant, and consequently
a criminal. If, then, Dr. Newman says that no man can be
a Roman Catholic in this country without apologizing for it,
we can reply, with far greater truth, that no man can be a
Protestant in his favorite lands without suffering for it in
the most painful manner.
Again, I turn to page 122, and I find there the following
statement : " Protestants are obliged to cut their ninth
commandment out of their Decalogue. ' Thou shalt not
bear false witness against thy neighbor,' must go, must dis
appear ; their position requires the sacrifice." Now, whether
Dr. Newman says this in joke, as some of his saints said
equally merry things, or whether he means it as a real and
grave1 charge against our Protestant Christianity, I do not
know. I have looked into our Scotch Catechisms, and I
48

566 REVIEW OP
find the ninth commandment there ; and one cannot enter
an English church without finding it written conspicuously
upon the walls, thus giving unequivocal evidence that the
Church of England has not expunged it. from the Deca
logue. But Dr. Newman says we have expunged it ; he
must have made a mistake, for the fact is, that we. retain the
ninth, and he has expunged the second. In the Catechisms
of his church — at least, those upon the table dated 1845 —
the second commandment, as we count, is expunged, and the
fourth very much modified. Here is a Catechism by the
most Rev. Dr. Reilly, published at Dublin in the year 1845,;
I open it at page twenty, and find the following : " Q.
How many commandments hath God given us? A. Ten.
— Say them. A. I. I am the Lord thy God; thou shalt
have no other gods but me. II. Thou shalt not take the
name of God in vain." Now, to every one who reads that,
there seems a whole commandment omitted. : I turn to an
other Catechism used, " revised, corrected, and enlarged, by
the four Roman Catholic Archbishops of Ireland," and there
I find the following : " Q. Say the ten commandments of
God. A. I. I am the Lord thy God ; thou shalt not have
strange gods before me. II. Thou shalt not take the name
of the Lord thy God in vain." And, in short, four Irish
Catechisms that I have bound up in this volume, all omit
what we Protestants call the second commandment. But
you must be very cautious in making this charge, because
Roman Catholics divide the commandments differently from
us : they attach sometimes the second commandment to the
first. And therefore, in making this charge you must say,
" You omit what we call the second commandment, or what
you call the largest share of the first commandment." , But,
you ask, how do they make ten? Why, they divide the
tenth commandment into two parts, thus : ';' IX. Thou
shalt not covet thy neighbor's wife. X. Thou shalt not
covet thy neighbor's goods." And the only reason that I

dr. newman's lectures. 567
ever heard for such a division, is one given by Father Ma-
guire, a celebrated priest in Ireland, who says, that Roman
Catholics display far higher courtesy than we do, since they
give a man's wife a whole commandment for herself, instead
of classifying together his wife and his goods, as we do, in
one commandment. I leave you to judge the validity of
this reason. But I hold another Catechism in my hand, an
Italian Catechism, -which was picked' np by a lady walking
along the streets of Rome. She saw a child drop it on the
pavement, — the cover is at this moment soiled with the mud
of Rome, — and she ran after the child with the Catechism,
to restore it, but she could not reach him before he was out
of sight, and so it was not in her power ; and she was kind
enough to make me a present of it. This Catechism is
sanctioned by two Popes ; and the first four commandments
are given thus : " De' Comandamenti di Dio. M. Veniamo
ora a quello, Che si ha da operare per amare Iddio, edil
Prossimo : dite i dieci Comandamenti. D. I. Io sono il
Signore Iddio tuo ; non avrai altro Dio avanti di Me." — I
am the Lord thy God; thou shalt have none other godbut
me. — " H. Non pigliare il Nome di Dio in vano." — Thou
shalt not take the name of God in vain. — And then, instead
of our fourth commandment, their third commandment is
given thus : " ni. Rieordati di sanctificare le Feste." —
Recollect to keep holy the festivals. Now, when Dr. New
man tells us that we omit the ninth commandment, he needs
to be told how much his own church has erred in this very
particular. But, you say, why should the Church of Rome
sanction these omissions ? Go into a Roman Catholic church,
or come with me to Belgium, every one of whose churches
I have minutely examined, and you will find standing
in the naves of most of them a large statue of the Virgin
Mary, and the people in groups lifting up their prayers to
that statue; and you will find that each person has his
favorite saint also, before whose image he offers incense, and

568

REVIEW OP

to whom he makes vows, in the hope and the desire of some
immediate deliverance. And the Church of Rome feels
that she dare not write the second commandment on the
walls of her churches, and at the same time keep their
niches filled with saints, reputed and real. Either she must
take down the saints, or she must curtail the Decalogue in
order to keep up the evil practice of idolatry in which she
so sadly indulges. And then as to the fourth commandment,
one can see a reason for the mutilation of that precious
requirement. As I told you this morning — at Amiens, on
the Festival of the Assumption, the cathedral was crowded,
the shops shut, the streets empty ; it seems to be a day of
real, though, of course, unscriptural devotion. But on the ensu
ing Sunday when it was only God who was to be worshipped,
and not the Virgin, the shops were open, scenes of amuse
ment were in full force ; and it seemed to be the most dis
sipated and most merry-making day of the seven — yet it is
that day which God claims especially as his own. The
Church of Rome, then, sees that the defence of a holy Sab
bath would be the degradation of her beloved traditions ;
and that if God were more worshipped in simplicity and in
truth, the saints, the angels, and the Virgin would occupy a
very inferior place in the worship and the adoration of her
people. It is the whole character of this communion, that
it supersedes the commandments of God by the traditions
of man ; it seems to be more anxious that the creature
should be worshipped, than God the Creator, who is God
over all, and blessed for ever. So much, then, for Dr. New
man's charge, that we mutilate the ten commandments. It
does appear to me that it is no light sin in Romanism thus
to omit the fourth commandment, or thus to modify it.
Many of you, I dare say, being near the Continent, have
visited various countries on the continent of Europe, ana
can testify that they have no Sabbath there. I have seen
no such thing as a Sabbath on the continent of Europe.

dr. newman's lectures. 569
And I generally regard a nation's Sabbaths as the expo
nents of a nation's religion. What the Sabbath is, the nation
is generally found to be. I am quite sure of this, that you
ought rather to part with your beautiful churches — rather
to surrender the noblest cathedrals that England has, than
surrender that holy day, the most beautiful of the seven, on
which the noble and the peasant feel that they are peers,
and on which the rich and the poor, as in the grave, and
around the judgment-seat, may meet together, and feel that
God is the Maker of them all. Popery would snatch that
precious day from you : but so long as you have that blessed
Book that tells you that it is not God's exaction so much as
the people's privilege, — that it is not the rich man's prop
erty so much as the poor man's right — nay, more than his
right, a vital portion of his actual existence upon earth —
so long you must hold it fast. It seems to me that the Sab
bath is like a fair island flung down from heaven, and cast
into the roaring torrent of this world's traffic, standing upon
which I can see the Sun of Righteousness shine, and hear
the harmonies of the better land, and feel that the world in
which I am is not an orphan world, — that I am indeed a
stranger and a pilgrim on it, but yet a candidate for that
everlasting Sabbath, that true rest that remaineth for the
people of God.
Dr. Newman goes on in his book to notice, at page 128,
a subject of which I allege he is not a competent judge.
He says that the law of celibacy, in the case of the clergy.
is better than that of matrimony ; and he denies that we
" succeed with our rule of matrimony better than the Roman
Catholics with their rule of celibacy." Now, I deny that
Dr. Newman is a competent judge in this matter ; and I
protest that I am. He is a bachelor — his pope is an old
bachelor. I was a bachelor for some years, and I have
been married for some years too ; and therefore I think I
am competent to say which of the two states is the most
48*

570 REVIEW OP
suitable for the highest efficiency of a Christian minister ;
and I allege, on the strength of an experience to which Dr.
Newman is a stranger, that the latter is the best. He main
tains, having experienced only one, that the former is the
most advantageous. Now, I would counsel him to go and
marry, and then he would be able to pronounce which is
better for the ministers of the gospel. I do not, however,
put it upon experience ; I do not base it on history. The
frightful abuses that have taken place in the Church of
Rome are legitimate weapons that we may wield: but I
decline doing so here. I content myself with opening a
book which Dr. Newman seems to shrink from ; and I find
there, that a bishop must be the husband of one wife ; and
I read that, if Peter were the first of the popes, which I am
not at present about to dispute, Peter's wife's mother was ill;
and, if he had a wife's mother ill, he must have had a wife ;
and therefore the present pope, Pio Nono, being an aged
and most respectable bachelor, presents a contrast with the
first pope, Peter, who, according to the testimony of the
Evangelist, was a married man. And I consider, therefore,
that I have more of the apostolical succession in this particu
lar than the present Pope ; and that I am more like what
ministers should be than Dr. Newman, or my friend Father
Ignatius, or any other father of any other caste or class of
the Papacy.
He then states, that wherever the Roman Catholic religion
has flourished, it has been, in a national sense, a great bless
ing. In answer to that, I quote a passage from Macaulay's
very splendid History of England, and in which remarka
ble History he gives a picture' of the comparative effects of
Romanism and Protestantism in different realms and parts
of the world. Mr. Macaulay was one who was called lati-
tudinarian, extremely partial to Roman Catholicism; and
when he could have a fling at Protestantism, he indulged his
taste without any restraint. He voted in favor of the annual

DR. newman's lectures. 571
grant of £30,000 to the College of Maynooth ; and he was
always first to speak in favor of the so-called rights of
Roman Catholics. And therefore, his testimony is a most
unexceptionable one. But when he was in the House of
Commons, he was voting as a politician ; when he was in
his study, he was writing simply as an historian. Well,
what does the historian say ? HI had read it first, without
mentioning the authorship, some would have said, " Oh, it
is Dr. Neile, or Mr. Franklyn of Christ Church, or some
other enthusiastic Protestant; it cannot be said by an
impartial and disinterested historian ! " It is Babington
Macaulay, in his first volume, pp. 47, 48, sixth edition : —
" From the time when the barbarians overran the Western
Empire, to the time of the revival of letters, the influence
of the Church of Rome had been generally favorable to
science, to civilization, and to good government. But, dur
ing the last three centuries, to stunt the growth of the human
mind has been her chief object. Throughout Christendom,
whatever advance has been made in knowledge, in freedom,
in wealth, and in the arts of life, has been made in spite of
her, and has everywhere been in inverse proportion to her
power. The loveliest and most fertile provinces of Europe
have, under her rule, been sunk in poverty, in political ser
vitude, and in intellectual torpor ; while protestant countries,
once proverbial for sterility and barbarism, have been turned,
by skill and industry, into gardens ; and can boast of a long
list of heroes and statesmen, philosophers and poets. Who
ever, knowing what Italy and Scotland naturally are, and
what, four hundred years ago, they actually were, shall now
compare the country round Rome with the country round
Edinburgh, will be able to form some judgment as to the
tendency of Papal domination. The descent of Spain, once
the first among monarchies, to the lowest depths of degrada
tion — the elevation of Holland, in spite of many natural
disadvantages, to a position such as no commonwealth so

572 review op
small has ever reached, teach the same lesson. Whoever
passes in Gel-many, from a Roman Catholic to a Protestant
principality ; in Switzerland, from a Roman Catholic to a
Protestant canton ; in Ireland, from a Roman Catholic to a
Protestant county, — finds that he has passed from a lower
to a higher grade of civilization. On the other side of the
Atlantic, the same law prevails. The Protestants of the
United States have left far behind them the Roman Catholics
of Mexico, Peru, and Brazil. The Roman Catholics of
Lower Canada remain inert ; while the whole continent
round them is in a ferment with Protestant activity and
enterprise. The French have, doubtless, shown an energy
and an intelligence which, even when misdirected, have
justly entitled them to be called a great people. But this
apparent exception, when examined, will be. found to con
firm the rule ; for, in no country that is called Roman
Catholic, has the Roman Catholic Church, during several
generations, possessed so little authority as in France."
Well now, here is the testimony, not of a heated ecclesiasti
cal partisan, but of a very sober historian, biassed more in
favor of the body whom he thus severely handles, than in
favor of those who are likely to quote his testimony against
that body.
I turn to another passage that follows in Dr. Newman's
work, almost in connection with this, and which he means
to be partially illustrative of it. You have all heard of the
attempt that has been made to build a Protestant church
in Rome. You may recollect that Pope Pius IX. has
appointed collections to be made in all the churches of
Italy for the following purpose (I quote his very few
words) : " To erect an Italian Catholic church in a cen
tral street in London, for the use of Italians, and such of
the natives as may attend." The word " natives " is not a
very complimentary one. It is a sort of Billingsgate term,
I am told, especially descriptive of oysters : and, therefore,

dr. newman's lectures. 573
for his Holiness to speak of " Italians " — that is, Italian
subjects of Rome — "and such of the natives who may
attend," is not very complimentary to us, though it may be
very Roman Catholic. Well, then, when I read this state
ment, I wrote to one of the morning newpapers, proposing
that we should raise money to build a Protestant church in
Rome, in a conspicuous part of the city, for the use of resi
dent English subjects, and such of the natives as should
attend. When this suggestion was made, I received from
here and there, and day after day, letters offering money to
carry it out. Mr. Burgess called upon me, and said that
the Bishop of Gibraltar had offered to raise £1,000 himself.
When I saw this, I wrote to my old correspondent and my
much respected friend, Cardinal Wiseman, stating the prop
osition I had made, and begging to know, first of all,
whether there was any law, municipal, political, or other
wise, which would prevent us Protestants from having a
church in Rome ; and, secondly, if any such law existed,
whether he would help me and Mr. Burgess to get that; law
modified in our favor, so that we might, enjoy in Rome,
precisely, and no more, the same toleration which he and
his communion enjoyed here. His Eminence, after taking
three days to consider, sent me a reply through his secre
tary, in which he tells me, that our previous correspondence
was so unsatisfactory to his Eminence, that he declined any
more on the same subject. I therefore could extract nothing
more ; but I should advise any of you — for I am told he is
an occasional visitor here — just to go up to him, and ask
him if he will give you, who have never given him any
offence, an answer to my questions. At present there is a
positive law prohibiting such a thing as a Protestant church
within the walls of Rome; but, outside the walls, Prot
estants have been allowed a room over a pigsty, which was
thought to be a great condescension on the part of his
Holiness, and much more than we English heretics at any
time deserved.

574 REVIEW op
But here is a remarkable contrast. If I go to Rome, or
to Florence, to have a Bible is the evidence that I am a
criminal ; and to read it, is the prelude to my being given
in charge to the police,, or to the'sbirri, as they call them.
If I were to attempt to hold a meeting like this, we should
be immediately consigned to the charge of the Roman police ;
and if you were to open a chapel, in order to read the Scrip
tures alone, it would instantly be prohibited, and you
would be ordered in twenty-four hours to make yourself a
stranger , in Rome. In short, you do not know what privi
leges you have in this great land. It ought to be riveted in
the minds of the English people, that Romanism cannot
afford to be generous — that we can. We so little dread it
in the fair field of open discussion, that we give it full and
perfect toleration, satisfied that we have weapons in God's
holy Word more than able to match it. But so much does
Roman Catholicism dread the word of God ; so conscious is
she that the introduction of light would be her instant
destruction, that all her efforts, her work, and her machinery,
are meant to keep out light at all hazards, and to retain her
dear and congenial darkness. Ah ! but she will not have it
long,!, In 1848, when the Pope was out of the way, six
thousand Italian Testaments were scattered over the length
and breadth of Italy. And the Roman Catholics are read
ing, these documents at this moment; and it needs only the
withdrawal of that vast inconsistency — Republican bayo
nets to keep up priestly tyranny, — for the Pope to find his
throne and , his dwelling-place elsewhere. A lady, whose
son is the correspondent of the Daily News, whose Roman
intelligence was the most admirable and the most full of any
that was given in the papers, told me that she was in the
city of Rome during the convulsion of 1848, and that she
actually saw the Roman Catholics reading the Scriptures,
and selecting passages out of these Italian Scriptures to
show that they should, not let the Pope come back again.

DR. NEWMAN'S LECTURES. 575
She said' she heard this text cited : " I am the' good shep
herd-: the good shepherd giveth his life for the sheep. But
he that is an hireling, and not the shepherd, whose own the
sheep are not, seeth the wolf coming, and leaveth the sheep,
and fleeth : and the wolf catcheth them, and scattereth the
sheep ;." and they said, He has left us; how can he be the
good shepherd ? I may mention, that a celebrated instru
ment, called a "bull" — from bulla, the wax on it — begins
with the phrase, Pastor bonus, a title of the Pope ; and the
Roman people naturally argued, If he be the good shepherd,
he would surely have stopped to give his life for the sheep ;
but he is an hireling, seeing that he has left the sheep.
While the French Republic's cannon balls were, bounding
in the streets in all directions, she saw a Roman citizen take
up a large ball, and presenting it to the people, he said,
Can these be the arms belonging to the Church of Him who
said, " My kingdom is not of this world, else would, my ser
vants fight." And they said, Here are the bullets whistling
in the ear, and the cannon balls bounding in the streets.
Pio Nono's kingdom seems to be of this world. Can he be
the representative of Jesus Christ ? And this lady saw a
person take the large ball, the only one, as I understood
her, that came through the dome of St. Peter's^ and write
this label upon it, "A present to his flock, from Pio Nono,"
and laid it in a nook by itself. These were symptoms
merely of what was working in the minds of the people ;
and, as I said, there are true Christians in Rome — a peo
ple who long to be rescued from the Papal tyranny. And
I do deeply deplore the day when France, becoming a pup
pet in the hands of the Jesuits, sent her six thousand bayo
nets to keep up a system decayed to the very core, the
ruin, of which will be a vast benefit to the continent of
Europe. Now, what does Dr. Newman say of this prohibition of a
Protestant church of Rome? He admits it at once. I

576 review op
told you that the Roman Catholics are more bold and less
concealed now than they used to be ; therefore hear with
what naivete he states the reason of this prohibition : " The
Government of Rome hinders them there, because it is
able ; Protestants do not hinder us here, because they are
not able." Now, that is all the thanks you get for your
concessions. We Roman Catholics will not let you erect a
church, because we are able to prevent it; but you Protes
tants are not able to prevent us from doing the same thing,
and therefore we will build our churches in spite of you.
That is all the thanks you receive for your delightful con
cessions. Now, liberal men, put that in your pockets, and
remember it always. I tell you that the Church of Rome
laughs at all your fine concessions, and uses the ground you
have given her as the platform on which to batter down the
liberties and the privileges of your native land.
The next thing that Dr. Newman does is to devote a great
many pages to Dr. Achilli, who has lately occupied a very con
spicuous part in counection with the Church of Rome. Now,
I do not know the merits or the demerits of the case at all.
Certainly, the charges of Dr. Newman, in the course of
twelve or sixteen pages, are so flagrant, and so scandalous,
that either Achilli must be the worst of men, or he must be
the most misrepresented and ill-treated of men. They are
so bad, that Achilli has commenced an action against the
publishers of this book, some of the accounts of which you
must have seen. Dr. Newman's charges are all given,
specifying dates ; and I have read all that he says against
Achilli, but I have not heard Achilli's defence. But I take
Dr. Newman's own statement ; and it turns out to be the
case, that, after these great sins had been committed, Achilli
was still advanced in the Roman Catholic Church ; but the
instant he left the Church of Rome, he is described as Dr.
Newman has described him. Now, it seems to me something
in favor of Achilli, that, so long as he was in the Church of

DR. NEWMAN'S LECTURES. 577
Rome, his very offences would seem to have been reasons
for his promotion; but the instant he comes out of the
Church of Rome, that instant he is blackened, and the long
hidden tissue is brought out against him. Another thing
strikes me still more forcibly. Achilli commences his action
against Burns and Lambert, the printers, and his solicitor
writes to Dr. Newman, to say, " Are you the author of this
book ? because a man's printed name on the title-page is no
legal evidence of the authorship." Now, I think, if I had
been Dr. Newman, I should have replied, " I am the author
of the book ; my name, you perceive, is on it — ' By John
Henry Newman, D. D., Priest of the Congregation of St.
Philip Neri.' " And if this is not Dr. Newman's book, I am
sadly misrepresenting him ; but, instead of doing this, with
consummate Jesuitism he refuses to acknowledge the book.
Now, who knows but that he will prosecute me for libelling
him, by ascribing this book to him ? and yet, here it is,
" Lectures on the Present Position of Catholics in England :
addressed to the Brothers of the Oratory. By John Henry
Newman, D. D., Priest of the Congregation of St. Philip
Neri." And he uses as a motto, which is very applicable to
this very subject, " Tempus tacendi, et tempus loquendi." —
There is a time to be silent, and a time to speak. — He has
chosen the time to be silent just now, and therefore nothing
can be extracted from Dr. Newman in the way pf defending
this book. I know nothing about the merits of the case. I
know nothing against Achilli ; but I only know this, that he
is sharing the lot of every man who sees the necessity of
quitting the Church of Rome. The Duke of Norfolk, after
reading works that I could specify, felt it necessary to re
nounce the Church of Rome, . in obedience to the most
enlightened convictions. I know that he has renounced the
Romish creed, and has taken the communion in the Church
of England. The instant this was done, I was furnished
with a printed circular — extensively circulated, it appears,
49

578 review op
for I found it at the episcopal palace last week, where I had
the honor of seeing the Bishop of Peterborough — blacken
ing his Grace's character in the worst manner. Now, there
is no signature to it, no author's name, not even a printer's
pr a publisher's that you can lay hold of. But here is the
Church of Rome just at her old tricks. The inquisitors
always blackened the victim before they burned him ; and
though they cannot burn the Duke of Norfolk, they can at
least blacken him. All who come out of the Church of
Rome must consent to be, like»the saints of old, " clothed in
sheepskins and goatskins " — despised, calumniated, and
spitefully intreated. I have often felt surprised that so
many come out of the Church of Rome ; and I am not sur
prised to see so few come out of it ; for, if you should join
_ it, what is the fact ? You must tell the priest every thing
in your conscience, — every association, domestic, personal,
social, moral, — every thing about you; and the priest,
therefore, knows every member of his flock just as thor
oughly as any member knows himself; and I need not tell
you, that the man who knows me as well as I know myself,
is my master, and I am his slave. And if you notice a
Protestant minister, like Mr. Franklyn or Mr. Lyon, meet
any of his flock, they do so as brethren, exchanging the
smile of recognition and of friendship; but just notice a
priest do the same thing, and you will see on his lip the lofty
sneer, and in his eye the keen glance that seems to say,
"Ah! I know you better than you know yourself;" and
you will see in the member of his flock the cringing de
meanor that seems to wince before the eye of that thorough
priestly tactician. And hence it has appeared to me amaz
ing, that so many have the courage to leave a system where
they have been so thoroughly sifted and analyzed, and by
which they have every reason to believe, in case of their
secession, every thing will be turned to the best account, in
order to do them damage. Such is that system with which

dr. newman's lectures. 579
we have to deal, and such is the course which Dr. Newman
pursues with reference to poor Achilli.
The next passages I refer to are Dr. Newman's remarks
on miracles, on which I have been for some weeks preparing
a lecture, which I am going down to Birmingham to deliver
in December ; and I shall be most happy to meet Dr. New
man, and hear any explanations he may wish to make ; for
I am perfectly sure that no priest upon earth can stand
before one who knows the Romish system as well as the
priest knows it, and who knows what the priest does not
know — the Word of God from Genesis to Revelation. Dr.
Newman here avows his belief in the following words. He
says, " The Cathohc Church, from east to west, from north
to south, is, according to our conceptions, hung with mira
cles ; the store of relics is inexhaustible." I shall show
you that that is perfectly true. " At Rome," he says, " there
is the true cross, the crib of Bethlehem, and the chair of
St. Peter ; portions of the crown of thorns are kept at Paris ;
the holy coat is shown at Treves : the winding-sheet at
Turin ; at Monza, the iron crown is formed out of a nail of
the cross ; and another nail is claimed for the Duomo of
Milan ; and pieces of our lady's habit are to be seen in the
Escurial. The Agnvlk Dei, blest medals, the scapular, the
cord of St. Francis, all are the medium of divine manifes
tations and graces. Crucifixes have bowed the head to the
suppliant, and Madonnas have bent their eyes upon assem
bled crowds. St. Januarius's blood liquefies periodically at
Naples, and St. Winifred's well is the scene of wonders,
even in an unbelieving country. Women are marked with
the sacred stigmata ; blood has flowed on Fridays from their
five wounds, and their heads are crowned with a circle of
lacerations. Relics are ever touching the sick, the diseased,
the wounded, sometimes with no result at all, at other times
with marked and undeniable efficacy. Who has not heard
of the abundant favors gained by the intercession of the

58.0

REVIEW OP

Blessed Virgin, and of the marvellous consequences which
have attended the invocation of St. Anthony of Padua?
T,hese phenomena are sometimes reported of saints in their
lifetime, as well as after death, especially if they were
evangelists or martyrs. The wild beasts crouched before
their victims in the Roman amphitheatre ; the axe-man was
not able to sever St. Cecilia's head from her body ; and St.
Peter elicited a spring of water for his jailor's baptism in
the Mamertine. St. Francis Xavier turned salt water into
fresh for five hundred travellers. St. Raymond was trans
ported over the sea on his cloak ; St. Andrew shone brightly
in the dark ; St. Scholastica gained by her prayers a pour
ing rain ; St. Paul was fed by ravens ; and St. Frances saw
her guardian angel." And I may add, that one saint walked
with his head in his hand after it was cut off. Dr. Newman
believes all that. And then he says, that these miracles are
as antecedently probable, that is, as credible and as likely,
as the miracles of the New Testament. Now, I think just
the very reverse. It seems to me, that the miracles done
by our blessed Lord have a majesty, a dignity, a reason for
them in the foundation of a glorious and a new dispensation ;
but that these miracles — saints sailing upon their cloaks,
saints carrying their heads in their ^hands, St. Januarius's
blood liquefying once a year, the crib of Bethlehem, and the
true cross, are really some of them such extravagances, and
others such puerilities, that I can see no great end to be
answered, no cause that necessitated them, and therefore no
claim. What a rebuke to them all is this text of Scripture that
I read the other day, and which struck me exceedingly,
" John did no miracle ! " John x. 41. Now, there is not a
Roman Catholic saint who does not positively weep and
perspire miracles. He seems like an electric jar, for they
burst from him in brilliant corruscations at every pore. A
Romish saint unsurrounded by miracles would be a non-

dr. newman's lectures. 581
entity, an absurdity. And he speaks of the " true cross "
being "at Rome." Now, Dr. Newman must know that
there have been as many " true crosses " in the world as
would build a ship of war. And it is a fact, that as early
as in the fifth century, portions of the " true cross " were
manufactured ; and the demand for them was so great, that
there was no supplying it. I myself saw a bit of the
" true cross " in a church at Belgium. One day I saw a
crowd of persons walking up the aisle of the church. I
did not know what it was, but I joined in the current and
marched on. I then saw a person go up to the altar and
a female presented a piece of glass about the size of a candle
stick, with something in it, and after wiping it with a towel,
which I thought indicated great tidiness, she handed it to
him and to others to kiss ; and then the person Who kissed _
it put a piece of money in a box close by. At last she came
to me ; I told her in French that I should not kiss it ; and
she asked me why, since it was a piece of the " true cross,"
and r she looked at me in utter amazement. I said, "Are
you sure ? " She said, " Quite sure, perfectly sure, no doubt
about it ; without doubt the ' true cross ! ' " I said that I
would put a double coin in the box, which I did, and she
seemed perfectly satisfied. There are so many fragments
of the " true cross," that Paulinus, who writes in the fifth
century, says, " The cross, possessing a living power in its
senseless material substance, has continued daily to afford
its wood to the innumerable cravings of men, in such a
manner as not to have sustained any loss." Now this is the
account of the " true cross." And yet Dr. Newman is so
besotted by the superstitions of which he is the unhappy
victim, that he proclaims, before listening, wondering Eng
land, that "at Rome there is the true cross, the crib of
Bethlehem, and the chair of St. Peter." Why, the last is
known to be an old Saracenic chair; and if any of you
have read the discussions in the Times newspaper, you must
49*

58,2, REVIEW OP
have felt hpw, they completely prove that it is a Saracenic
or Mahometan chair. And the probability is, that Peter
never was at Rome ; and there is proof that he never made
use of that chair at Rome.
And he says, that " St Januarius's blood liquefies periodi
cally at Naples." Now after tracing out the whole history
of this saint's blood, I would ask Dr. Newman, Are you
satisfied that it is blood at all ? and, if so, what are your
proofs ? And, secondly, are you satisfied that it is St.
Januarius's blood ? and, if so, what are your proofs ? And,
thirdly, are you quite sure that it liquefies miraculously?
Are you satisfied that it is not the warmth of the priest's
hand that causes it ? because, being hard at one degree of
Fahrenheit, it might liquefy at a higher degree. And,
in the fourth place, Cui bono1} — What is the use of it? —
We never find a profusion of miracles in Scripture. How
beautiful was it when He fed the five thousand, " Gather
up the fragments that remain, that nothing be lost." No
excessive expenditure of power, but using means wherever
means were adequate ; interposing omnipotence when there
was an end and an occasion that required it. But in this
Romish Church there seems to be a perfect excess of power,
and miracles are the ordinary things, not the extraordinary.
I can see no end to be answered by the periodical liquefac
tion of St. Januarius's blood. And then I have heard or
read of this incident — I wish any one could give me the
document that relates to it — that one of Napoleon's marshals
was at Naples, and there was a great commotion among the
inhabitants because the saint's blood had not liquefied at the
proper time ; and this marshal threatened to blow up the
saint's relics if the liquefaction did not take place within a
certain time. Well, as tradition tells, in due time the saint's
blood did liquefy under the fear of the marshal's cannon,
but not certainly in the way of miraculous manifestation.
Then there are, "the holy coat shown at Treves; the

DE. NEWMAN'S LECTURES. 583
winding-sheet at Turin ; at Monza, the iron crown is formed
out of a nail of the cross ; and another nail is claimed for
the Duomo of Madrid ; and pieces of our Lady's habit are
to be seen in the Escurial. The Agnus Dei, blest medals,
the scapular, the cord of St. Francis," and many others.
In short, Dr. Newman says, " The store of relics is inex
haustible." He is perfectly right ; they are inexhaustible ;
and some of the evidence that I have given you is proof that
they are so. I myself was at Cologne, and at Aix-la-
Chapelle; and at one of the churches at Cologne the
whole of the wall is built of bones, which they say are
those of eleven thousand virgins who were killed whilst
escaping from the persecuting Romans. And at Aix-la-
Chapelle the following relics are regularly exhibited : —
1. Une chemise de notre Dame qu'elle a portee. 2. Les linges
ou bandelettes dans lesquelles le petit Jesus a 6t6 enveloppe.
3. Les singe dans lequel fut enveloppt±e la tete de St. Jean
Batiste, apres qu'il eut 6t6 coupe par ordre du Roi Herode,
Ton y voit encore les marques de son sang. Read Bishop
Burnet's " History of the Reformation," in order to see that
Romish relics are inexhaustible. The bishop tells us, that
a duck's blood was used for a saint's, and was reputed a very
great miracle worked. Now this is exactly St. Januarius's
blood, according to Bishop Burnet. The bishop says it
even is really true blood, only that it was the blood of a
duck. Other relics he mentions which are most grotesque
and extravagant. You will also find a list of relics in Mr.
Seymour's book, called " A Pilgrimage to Rome.'' You
will also find in the Hon. Mr. Percy's Travels to Rome, an
account of the relics. *He says, " Over various altars in
Rome are lists of relics." In one list which Mr. Percy saw,
and copied down, is, " Part of the Chain of John the Baptist."
Speaking of John the Baptist : when I visited Amiens the
other day, I watched an old man stepping across that beau
tiful cathedral, and, after ascending three or four steps,

584 REVIEW OP
kneeling down and kissing something, and then dropping
some money into a box beside. I resolved to follow the
man, and I found that it was the skull of St. John the
Baptist, kept in Amiens Cathedral, and which the people
revered and kissed. I went to the sexton, and bought a
small book in French, giving an account of the miraculous
transport of the skull to Amiens, and explaining the intense
devotion of the people to such a precious relic.
There is one very extraordinary miracle: the body of
St. Andrew is worshipped and seen at three different places ,
Now observe you, just conceive the day on which St. Andrew
will rise from the dead. His body at Rome will meet his
body at the other places, wondering and disputing which is
St. Andrew. In fact, the thing is absurd ; and the only
answer that can be given is, Dr. Newman's relics are inex
haustible — so numerous and so prolific, that really there is
no end or limit to them at all. But the whole thing is a
most melancholy testimony to the credulity of a great
mind, not in its dotage, but in its moral intoxication, admit
ting the extravagant absurdities and anile fables that are
recorded in this volume. And it shows, that when once one
has slipped off the platform of truth on the side of error,
there is no telling how far one may go, or where one will
stop. Truth is the narrow apex of a pyramid, and on all
sides there is an inclined plane ; and a person must either
lie where Dr. Newman is, or he must stand where Mr.
Franklyn now does. There is no resting-place midway
between thorough Protestantism and thorough Roman Ca
tholicism ; there is nothing between. And you will see, by
and by, how true this is. One halt, I fear, of those who
have long approximated to Rome will go there ; and another
half — I pray the largest half — will come back to that Prot
estantism which, by their own folly, or by the means of
others, they unhappily left.
But the great miracle which Dr. Newman considers to

dr. newman's lectures. 585
be -the miracle of miracles, that beats them all, is what is
called Transubstantiation. You are aware that in the
Church of Rome they soberly believe that the piece of bread
that is placed upon .the altar, as they call it, every Sunday,
is turned — literally turned — into the body and blood, the
soul and divinity, of the Son of God. Now recollect, this
is what the Church of Rome calls its standing miracle, being
a miracle repeated every Sunday, and the great evidence
that the Church of Rome is the true Church of the Lord
Jesus Christ. I may state to you, as a specimen of the
arguments by which it is defended, that one day, along with
Admiral Harcourt, we were holding a meeting at Bermond-
sey ; the room in which it was held would not hold more
than six hundred people : it was an old temperance hall.
About four hundred Roman Catholics rushed into this room,
so that they had the majority. Well, Admiral Harcourt
spoke about half an hour; after which I addressed them.
They listened to me very quietly for about ten minutes ; after
that, something that I said seemed to them too severe,
though it was not really so, and they made a very great dis
turbance ; in fact, it sounded just as if a mine of gunpowder
had been blown up. I remained perfectly still, and I noticed
just from a glance, that they were chiefly Irish. And here
I may state, that whenever I have an English congregation,
I find that they are such matter-of-fact people, that you
never can touch their feelings, or their imagination; and,
consequently, they make the best jurymen in the world. As
to the Scotch, too, there is no getting at a Scotchman's heart
without a great deal of reasoning with the head ; and then,
when you have got at his heart, you are not a bit nearer his
pocket. But when one has got an Irish congregation, one
can turn them any way one likes. They are a fine race,
and need but the bright light of Protestant Christianity, to
be the noblest people under the sun. And, let me tell you,
there is a probability that Ireland will be Protestant. The

586

REVIEW OF

cholera has thinned its population, which I deeply deplore ;
famine has thinned it still more; and now emigration is
carrying away vast numbers ; so much so, that the time has
been called " the Irish Exodus." And the American Am
bassador told me the other day, that invariably the children
of the Irish who go out to America never continue Roman
Catholics. Now what is the case in Ireland ? — that the
Protestant and Popish congregations are nearly equal.
There are about three millions and a half of Roman Cath
olics, and three millions of Protestants. And such are the
conversions that are going on now, that the Bishop of Tuam
— and I felt much honored by it — invited me, through Dr.
Smith, T. C. D., to go round with him and see him confirm
ing the people who had been converted from Popery.
I had just returned from the Continent, or I should most
certainly have gone to see the blessed spectacle. It seems
to me at this moment like a second Pentecost in Ireland ;
and I think every one ought to support the Irish Church
Missions. But, to return to our meeting, I said my audience was
almost entirely Irish. Well, when the noise had subsided a
little, I said, " I know you Irishmen so well, that you are
the best men in the world for fair play. Will you four
hundred Irishmen see me put down ? " And they said,
" Hear him, boys ! ," till at last they said that they would see
fair play. I knew they had some priest, or confraternity
schoolmaster, in the place, — I dare say there are a couple
of Jesuits in this room ; and if I make any mistake, you
will hear of it soon, but if not, you may be sure that they
have no refutation to make, — so I said, " Choose one of
- your number, and he shall speak for five minutes on any
subject he likes, and I will reply fpr the same time, and so,
alternately, as long as you like." They immediately pointed
out a confraternity schoolmaster, and the topic he introduced
was transubstantiation. He spoke for five minutes, and

dr. newman's lectures. 587
whilst he was speaking, I kept, the Protestants quiet, so that
when it came to my turn I had an attentive audience. One
of his arguments was this: "You said, sir, if transubstan-
tia|;ipn be a miracle, and as a miracle is true, we know of
nothing like it, because the senses are not affected by it.
Now," he said, " have you had your dinner to-day ? " I
replied in the affirmative. " Well," he continued, " do not
you know, that instead of transubstantiation being an out of
the way miracle, it is a miracle that has its likeness in every
being ? for, if you eat no bread, you would have no flesh,
and if you were to cease drinking, you would have no blood.
In short, transubstantiation goes on in every one." They
thought they had completely answered me. Of course, I
got my five minutes, to reply. I merely quote this to show
you the ingenious arguments which are adduced in support
of this miracle ; and I dare say there are people before me
who would not be able to answer it. It is indeed most in
genious, but, you will notice, there is a defect in it ; and
accordingly, I answered it thus : " I take my bread before I
eat it ;. and show it, to you. It feels like bread, it weighs
like bread, it looks like bread, it tastes hke bread. I eat it ;
and next day, I cut out a bit of my flesh and show it to you.
It feels like flesh, it weighs like flesh, it looks like flesh, it
tastes like flesh ; and you are sure that it is flesh, and that
it was bread yesterday. I go to your priest's altar, and he
shows me the bread before it is transubstantiated ; and it
feels like bread, it weighs hke bread, it looks like bread, it
tastes like bread. He then pronounces the words Hoc est
meum corpus. I take it up again, but instead of tasting,
weighing, looking, or feeling like flesh, it tastes, weighs,
looks, and feels still like bread. In the one case, the tran
substantiation was complete ; in the other, there is no tran
substantiation at all." And again, to quote another instance
of the arguments in support of that miracle, I refer to the
discussion called the "Hammersmith Discussion," which took

588 review op
place between Mr. French, a barrister, supported by three
or four Roman Catholic priests, with two chairmen — one
Roman Catholic, and the other Protestant, and myself. All
the speeches were taken down in shorthand, by the Roman
ist's own reporter, and published, and they took all the profits
and we bought two hundred copies. The printed copies
were all sold, and I was anxious to have it republished at a
reduced price, and so wrote to Mr. French's friends, and the
publishers, to tell them so, and that they should see that I
did not alter Mr. French's speeches. They sent an answer
strictly refusing to allow us. We then consulted a barrister,
who said that, as there was no property in the book, he did
not think the Chancellor would give a judgment against us ;
but, he said, " If the worst came to the worst, you would
have to move to dissolve the injunction, which would cost a
hundred pounds." Well, I went to Messrs. Hall and Virtue,
of Paternoster Row, and said, "Now, here are the facts of
the case. I will make you a present of my part of it ; but,
mind you, the Roman Catholics will take out an injunction,
and you will have to dissolve it, which will cost a hundred
pounds." And Mr. Hall said, " I will publish it at once,
and at the very cheapest rate at which it can be done ; and
I only hope that the Roman Catholics will take out an in
junction : for I should have spent a hundred pounds in ad
vertising, and their doing so will be the most splendid adver
tisement I could have." Singular enough, he has published
the book, and has sold already about nine thousand copies of
it, and made, I should think, a good profit, cheap as the book
is : and he is longing for the Roman Catholics to take out
the injunction, and to pay the hundred pounds to dissolve it.
Well, in carrying on this discussion, the subject it turned on
first was Transubstantiation ; and Mr. French quoted to me
the text, " This is my body ; " and he turned round to me
With very great tact, — there were some four hundred Ro
man Catholics present, and said, — "Now, sir, none of your

dr. newman's lectures. 589
orientalisms, none of your explanations, none of your figures
of speech. Here are the words. To the Scripture I go.
' This is my body ! ' That proves it." When I had to
reply, I just opened Isaiah, and read these words (xl. 6) —
" All flesh is grass, and all the goodliness thereof is as the
flower of the field." " Now, sir," I said,. " none of your
orientalisms, none of your explanations, none of your figures
of speech. To the Scripture I go. You are neither a man,
nor Mr. French, the barrister, but a bundle of grass. If I
were to prick you, like Shakspeare's Jew, you would not feci
it. In short, I have been under a mistake, and have been
arguing with a bundle of grass all this time." At this, the
poor man quite lost his confidence, and both he and the
priests at his side could not help laughing. And another
thing I may mention, too, when he quoted this text, " This
is my body," I told him that when I looked at the wafer
after it has been transubstantiated, it looked like a wafer
still. " O but," said he, " your senses are deceived : that is
the miracle. Most miracles are visible to the senses, but
this is sui generis, since the senses are deceived." I said
that, if the senses were deceived then, they may be deceived
every weekday, and even on that platform. But he still
cited, " This is my body." So I asked him to show it me.
Looking at the text I read, "These are the bricks with
which Babylon was built." He said, " No ; you are joking,"
I said, " No ; I am perfectly sincere. You say, the senses
are deceived ; how do you know, then, that it is not thus
said, 'These are the bricks. with which Babylon was built;'
if my senses choose to read them thus, and your senses
otherwise, who is to decide ? " This miracle, by which the
senses are said to be deceived, is the most successful and
ready pathway to scepticism ; for, if the senses are deceived
as they gaze upon the altar, the senses of the apostles might
have been deceived when they saw Jesus risen from the
dead, and your religion may thus be vain, and. our preaching
50

590 review op
vain. And by denying the evidence of the nenses, all the
miracles of Scripture are gone, all the proofs of the resur
rection are gone. And therefore do not be surprised if a
century of Popish superstition has, as its reaction, a century
of infidelity afterwards ; and do not be startled if I say,
that Voltaire, and Diderot, and D'Alembert, and other
of the infidels of the last century, were the creations of
the Roman Catholic religion ; and that that religion has
the blood of souls and the guilt of infidelity upon its
present robes. So much, then, for Dr. Newman's belief in
these miracles.
I have brought another volume of Dr. Newman's " Dis
courses, delivered at Charing Cross," on which I do not
enter, but which give evidence of the awful depth of super
stition into which that gifted mind has now unhappily fallen.
Let us then, my dear friends, as we review the whole, see
that Romanism degrades the intellect, cramps the heart,
destroys the best and noblest feelings in the human bosom.
Let us see, from what it has made Dr. Newman, what it
must have made less gifted spirits on the continent of
Europe. Poor Mr. Sibthorp saw by bitter experience
what a terrible deception it is : he has come out of it. Let
us pray that Dr. Newman may yet be spared to learn truly
what it is, and to come out of it, and to join with others who
shall batter down that dreadful and gigantic superstition,
having seen himself the secrets of the prisonhouse, and
able therefore to deal with them as they deserve to be dealt
with. Ahd let us try, my dear friends, wherever we have
the means, by such Societies as that* for which your chair
man appealed so powerfully in the morning, to spread these
truths. And I am very glad that, if there be any thing
worth publishing in what I have said, a shorthand writer has

* British Society for Promoting the ReUgiou's Principles of the Glorious
Eeformation, 8, Exeter Hall.

DR. NEWMAN'S LECTURES. 591
reported these Lectures, ahd they will soon be published by
a bookseller in this town. And if any one contradict these
things,- 1 hope you will only let me know, and I shall always
hold myself in readiness to come here and support them, as
the words of reason, of truth, and of Scripture. And let
us therefore say, that, if Pio Nono has sent his Cardinal
and his hierarchy to displace and to dislodge that of others,
we are better without the best tidings they have to bring ;
and that, we know enough of our own precious faith, and
feel it in our hearts dearly and deeply enough, to be pre
pared at all hazards to maintain it, and to shrink with dis
dain and scorn from a superstition so vile, so unscriptural, so
unholy, so absurd, and anile, — for such I must call it, — as
that of which Dr. Newman is the infatuated exponent.
Let us, on the other hand, be thankful for the blessings of
our reformed faith. Let us aid, above all, the circulation
of God's holy Word. That is the Book that Romanism
dreads ; that is the Book that Dr. Newman does not meddle
with at all; that is the Book that he dare not deal with.
He will bring his wares to candlelight, but not to the sun
light of the Word of God, for there he knows their fallacies
would be detected — there he knows they would be seen to
be shams, not to be substantial facts. And, my dear friends,
learn to love one another ; and, as I told you when I last
addressed you, in all good works that you can, cooperate
with each other. We have a real unity : we only need to
develop it. Rome has a false unity, and the more it is
known the less it will be seen to be real. And let us all
have a strong pull — I hope it will not be a long pull —
together ; and by God's blessing, a thousand promises will
converge, and unite their echoes in that anthem in which
angels and martyrs around the throne will join, "Babylon
the great is fallen, is fallen ! " And if there should be any
one in this assembly so ill informed as to sympathize with
her in the day of her destruction, such sympathies will rush

592 REVIEW OP DR. NEWMAN'S LECTURES.
back to Bartholomew, to Smithfield, to the Marian martyrs
and they will return armed with indignation, and rejoice t<
join in the cry, "Reward her as she has rewarded you
Hallelujah!. Babylon is fallen, and the Lord God Omnipo
tent reigneth."

ROMISH MIRACLES.

[In the collection of the facta in the following Lecture, Dr. Cnmmings
acknowledges great indebtedness to George Finch, Escj., of Burly-on-the-
Hill.] Before I commence the important lecture — important
I mean from its subject-matter — which I am announced to
deliver, I wish to state, that in any thing I say I desire to
regard and to express myself respecting Dr. Newman him
self in terms of real and unfeigned respect. I have no
quarrel with him, I have no desire to depreciate his talents
or to suspect his motives ; but I have a quarrel, a solemn
quarrel, with that church of which I beheve him to be the
unhappy victim: whatever I feel it my duty to say, is
meant to tell against the claims and pretensions of what I
believe to be the great Western apostasy. In no respect do
I deshe to speak against any individual priest or layman
who has the sad unhappiness to belong to it.
I wish also to observe, that Dr. Newman, in those extra
ordinary, and subtle, and deceptive, but brilliant lectures
which he delivered, " on the present position of Catholics
in England," has made a remark which, in some degree,
suggested my delivering this lecture in Birmingham. He
says, at page 363, " Think a moment : what is it to me what
people think of me a hundred miles off, compared with
* Delivered in the Town Hall, Birmingham, December 16, 1851, — tha
Eight Hon. Lord Calthorpe in the chair.
50*

594 ROMISH MIRACLES.
what they think of me at home ? It is nothing to me what
the four ends of the world think of me ; I care nought for
the British empire more than for the celestial, in this mat
ter, provided I can be sure what Birmingham thinks of me.
The question, I say, is, What does Birmingham think of
me ? And if I have a satisfactory answer to that, I can
bear to be without a satisfactory answer about any other
town or district in England." ¦ Now, I am come to en
deavor, not to make Birmingham think worse of Dr. New
man's moral character, but much worse of his judgment,
and common sense, and sanity, in accepting the miracles of
which he is the advocate — the bold and unabashed advo
cate. I am come here, if I may presume to try to enlighten
so highly instructed and privileged a town, to give Bir
mingham some idea of the nature and credibility of those
miracles, concerning which Dr. Newman in this volume
says, that he feels no impossibility in believing them, or
rather that he finds it impossible to doubt them ; while on
the other hand, he complains bitterly that we Protestants
are all one-sided, and that we refuse to go into the evidence
of innumerable miracles, which he holds to be clearly and
conclusively demonstrated. In order that you may have
some idea what these are, for in number they are legion, I
will read another passage from his book. At page 284, he
says, " I will take, then, one of those subjects of which I
spoke in the opening of this lecture as offensive to Protes
tants, viz., our belief in the miracles wrought by the relics
and the prayers of the saints, which .has given both occasion
and scope to so many reports and narratives to their honor,
true, doubtful, or unfounded, in the Catholic Church. 1
suppose there is nothing which prejudices us more in the
minds of Protestants of all classes than this belief. They
inspect our churches, or they attend to our devotions, or
they hear our sermons, or they open our books, or they read
paragraphs in the newspapers ; and it is one and the same

ROMISH MIRACLES. 595
story — relics and miracles. Such a belief, such a claim,
they consider a self-evident absurdity ; they are too indig
nant even to laugh ; they toss the book from them in the
fulness of anger and contempt, and they think it superfluous
to make one remark in order to convict us of audacious im
posture, and to fix upon us the brand of indelible shame. I
shall show, then, that this strong feehng arises simply from
their assumption of a first principle, which ought to be
proved, if they would be honest reasoners, before it is used
to our disadvantage. You observe, my brothers, we are
now upon a question of controversy, in which the argument
is not directly about fact. This is what I noticed in the
opening of this lecture. We accuse our enemies of untruth
in most cases ; we do not accuse them, on the whole, of
untruth here. I know it is very difficult for prejudice such
as this to open its mouth at all without some misstatement
or exaggeration ; still, on the whole, they do bear true, not
false witness in the matter of miracles. We do certainly
abound, we are exuberant, we overflow with stories which
cause our enemies, from no fault of ours, the keenest irrita
tion, and kindle in them the most lively resentment against
us. Certainly, the Catholic Church, from east to west, from
north to south, is, according to our conceptions, hung with
miracles. The store of relics is inexhaustible ; they are
multiplied through all lands, and each particle of each has
in it at least a dormant, perhaps, an energetic virtue of
supernatural operation. At Rome there is the True Cross,
the Crib of Bethlehem, and the Chair of St. Peter ; por
tions of the Crown of Thorns are kept at Paris ; the Holy
Coat is shown at Treves ; the Windingsheet at Turin : at
Monza, the iron Crown is formed out of a nail of the cross ;
and another nail is claimed for the Duomo of Milan ; and
pieces of our Lady's habit are to be seen in the Escurial.
The Agnus Dei, blest medals, the Scapula, the cord of St.
Francis, all are the medium of divine manifestations and

596 ROMISH MIRACLES
graces. Crucifixes have bowed the head to the suppliant,
and Madonnas have bent their eyes upon assembled crowds.
St. Januarius's blood liquefies periodically at Naples, and
St. Winifred's well is the scene of wonders even in an un
believing country. Women are marked: with the sacred
stigmata; blood has flowed on Fridays from their five
wounds, and their heads are crowned with a circle of lacera
tions. Relics are ever touching the sick, the diseased, the
wounded, sometimes with no result at all, at other times
with marked and undeniable efficacy., Who has not heard
of the abundant favors gained by the intercession of the
blessed Virgin, and of the marvellous consequences which
have attended the invocation of St. Anthony of Padua?
These phenomena are sometimes reported of saints in their
lifetime, as well as after death, especially if they were evan
gelists or martyrs. The wild beasts crouched before their
victims in the Roman amphitheatre ; the axe-man was una
ble to sever St. Cecilia's head from her body, and St. Peter
elicited a spring of water for his jailor's baptism in the
Mamertine. Sir Francis Xavier turned salt water into
fresh for five hundred travellers ; St. Raymond was trans
ported over the sea on his cloak ; St. Andrew shone brightly
in the dark ; St. Scholastica gained by her prayers a pour
ing rain ; St. Paul was fed by ravens ; and St. Frances saw
her guardian angel. I need not continue the catalogue ; it
is agreed on both sides : the two parties join issue over a
fact ; that fact is the claim of miracles on the part of the
Catholic Church ; it is the Protestants' charge, and it is our
glory." Then, at page 298, he says, "I think it impossible to
withstand the evidence which is brought for the liquefaction
of the blood of St. Januarius at Naples, and for the motion
of the eyes of the pictures of the Madonna in the Roman
States. I see no reason to doubt the material of the Lom
bard Crown at Monza; and I do not see why the Holy

ROMISH MIRACLES. 597
Coat at Treves may not have been what it professes to be.
I firmly believe that portions of the True Cross are at
Rome and elsewhere, that the Crib of Bethlehem is at
Rome, and the bodies of St. Peter and St. Paul also. I
believe that at Rome too lies St. Stephen, that St. Matthew
lies at Salerno, and St. Andrew at Amalfi. I firmly believe
that the relics of the saints are doing innumerable miracles
and graces daily, and that it needs only for a Catholic to
show devotion to any saint in order to receive special bene
fits from his intercession. I firmly believe that saints in
their lifetime have before now raised the dead to life, crossed
the sea without vessels, multiplied grain and bread, cured
incurable diseases, and stopped the operations of the laws
of the universe in a multitude of ways. Many men, when
they hear an educated man so speak, will at once impute the
avowal to insanity, or to an idiosyncrasy, or to imbecility of
mind, or to decrepitude of powers, or to fanaticism, or to
hypocrisy. They have a right to say so, if they will ; and
we have a right to ask them why they do not say it of those
who bow doWn before the mystery of mysteries, the Divine
Incarnation. If they do not believe this, they are not yet
Protestants ; if they 'do, let them grant that He who has
done the greater may do the less." Such is Dr. Newman's
statement on the subject of miracles.
After this, I refer to his correspondence with the Bishop
of Norwich, which correspondence is contained in a Roman
Cathohc periodical called the " Rambler," Part xlviii. for
December, 1851, With remarks upon it by the Editor of the
publication. I shall read from page 448 : " First, let us
suppose you " (the Bishop of Norwich) " to mean by ' credi
ble,' antecedently probable, or likely (verisimile) ; and you
will then accuse me of saying that the ecclesiastical mira
cles are as likely as those of Scripture. What is there ex
treme or disgusting in such a statement, whether you agree
with it or not ? I certainly do think that the ecclesiastical

598 ROMISH MIRACLES.
miracles are as credible, in this sense, as the Scripture mira
cles'; nay, more so, because they come after Scripture ; and
Scripture breaks (as it were) the ice." Now, I may shortly
state;in connection with this point, before proceeding further,
that if the Scripture miracles be true, and if they be the
credentials of definite and divine doctrines that we know
therefore to be true, the miracles alleged to have been per
formed by the priests and others of the Church of Rome
are the credentials of doctrines totally apposed to those of
Scripture. Both categories of doctrines cannot be true.
If, therefore, the miracles of Scripture be by God, and the
doctrines they substantiate be from Him, then the alleged
miracles of Rome must be impostures, deceptions, or mis
takes, and the doctrines that they are adduced to authenti
cate must be false and spurious. Both cannot be true —
either the Scripture miracles or the Romish miracles must
be false; because they authenticate: doctrines which are
antagonistic altogether to each other. Omnipotence has be
come in Scripture the pedestal of truth, it cannot be in
ecclesiastical history a pedestal of error. Dr. Newman pro
ceeds to say, "Ecclesiastical miracles are probable, because
Scripture miracles are true. As to the former of the two,T
say, that if Protestants are surprised at my having no diffi
culty in believing ecclesiastical miracles," — I shall show
you what the miracles are that he believes, and appeal to
your inherent common sense, your innermost intuitive per
ceptions, if there be not at least some difficulty in accepting
those miracles as the works of God. He says : " If Prot
estants are surprised at my having no difficulty in believing
ecclesiastical miracles, I have a right to ask them why they
have no difficulty in believing the Incarnation." I am sur
prised at Dr. Newman's want of logical consistency here.
He himself asserts that he believes the Incarnation to be
true,: because it is asserted on the infallible authority of an
infallible historian.; but he admits that the miracles of his

ROMISH MIRACLES. 599
church are asserted, not upon the infallible, testimony of
infallible men, but upon the fallible testimony of -fallible
men : and, therefore, the Scripture miracles, on his own
showing, must be true ; the Romish miracles, even at this
stage, may be false. The Incarnation is worthy of God —
it is the assertion of God ; Dr. Newman's miracles, are un
worthy of man. He says again, in another part of the
page, " Do you understand me to say that the ecclesiastical
miracles come to us on as good.proof or grounds as those of
Scripture? If so, I answer distinctly, I have said no such
thing anywhere  the whole of what I have said in my
recent lecture comes to this — that Protestants are most
inconsistent and one-sided in refusing to go into the evidence
for ecclesiastical- miracles, which, on the first blush of the
matter, are not stranger than those miracles of Scripture
which they happily profess to admit." Why, I have offered
before, and I offer again, to go into the evidence of one of
the miracles that he cites, namely, the liquefaction of the
blood of St. Januarius. I engage to go to Naples at my
own expense, if he will allow me to take a chemist with
me, and if he will get permission from the priests to submit
to our analysis the substance in the glass that liquefies, as
alleged, periodically — and then, if the chemist testifies that
it is what Dr. Newman asserts, and that it liquefies by no
human process, by no skilful manipulation, but that, purely
by a miraculous influence, it changes its consistency *. I will
accept it. Dr. Newman complains that we will not go into
evidence, whereas I am waiting to go into evidence : it is
Dr. Newman who will not let me go into evidence.
I observe, that in these assertions which I have read
from Dr. Newman's lectures and correspondence, he states
certain miracles which must be facts, or they must be
impositions, deceptions, and falsehoods, — one or other
they must be. If not miracles, they are delusions or
impostures. A miracle must be' clear,' unequivocal, and

600 ROMISH MIRACLES.
unmistakable, or it is worthless. It is adduced, not
as a truth, but as a witness to truth. The miracles
of Jesus are admitted by all ; the fact that they were
done is admitted by friend and foe. The Pharisees tried to
show that his miracles were done by Satanic power, but the
•fact of the miracles themselves they scarcely ever doubted,
disputed, or questioned ; but most of the Romish miracles
are not admitted as such. They are singularly equivocal.
I do not think that God designs that the power of working
miracles should continue as a permanent possession and pre
rogative in his Church. But in this Dr. Newman may dif
fer from me. In the Old Testament miracles occur in
clusters. Some great epoch, crisis, or central era, becomes
the pillar, as it were, around which the miracles cluster, and
at which they are specially displayed as proofs of the power,
the presence, and the mission of God. Miracles in Scrip
ture appear, therefore, on momentous occasions, sparingly,
not profusely, clearly rare and ultimate appeals. They
proclaim the advent of a king, the birth of Christ, the dawn
of Christianity, the ministry of the Messiah, the mission of
an apostle or a prophet. But in the Roman Catholic
Church miracles come like showers of every-day fireworks ;
they are off-hand exhibitions, ceaseless coruscations, contin
ually displaying themselves, and making the credulous stare,
not sceptics believe. It is said of John the Baptist, (John
x. 41,) that he did no miracle ; but a Roman candidate for
canonization could not be canonized unless he had done at
least four miracles. Now, since it is stated that John -the
Baptist did no miracles, he would have some difficulty as a
candidate for canonization. He at least presents a very
remarkable and very suggestive contrast to the innumerable
miracle workers of every order of the Church of Rome who
have been canonized. In fact, Roman Catholic saints radiate
miracles ; they speak miracles ; they cannot stand up or sit
down without miracles exploding in all directions ; — won-

ROMISH MIRACLES. 601
ders are their every-day doings. These saints seem, when
one reads the process of canonization — and I say it not as a-
piece of mere amusement, but as a conclusion' fairly drawn-
from documentary evidence, which I shall submit to you,..
— hke highly-charged jars of electricity: contact with the-
world at any point of time was the signal for, an explosion
of sparks and flashes, and wonderful miracles. In I Corin-*-
thians xiv. 22, it is said, " Signs are for them that believe
not." They are a new phasis or development of the presence*-
of God. Being convinced of the truth of the document, we»-
need no more credentials. But now, " if they believe not~
Moses and the prophets, neither would they be persuaded if
one rose from the dead." We have overpowering proofs ; -.
scepticism now is of the heart, not the head, and no miracle-
can cure it. I say sufficient and satisfactory evidence has-
been given of the truths of God's holy word. It is the-
clearest of all conclusions. Unbelief is the result of crimv ¦
nal ignorance, or of a lodgement in the heart, not of insufn-i
ciency of evidence submitted to the judgment; and therefore-
it would not be removed by any force or splendor of mirac
ulous power, but only by the operation of the Holy Spirit-
of God influencing the human heart through his revealed?
truth. Jesus demonstrated his Deity and his mission by
showing irresistible supernatural proofs ; they were conclu*-
sive.. Miracles at such a crisis were to be expected, and.
the extant documentary and historic evidence of them iss-
sufficient ; in fact, both friend and foe are adducible as wit
nesses to them. But now that the Sun of Righteousness-
has emerged from below the horizon, it seems natural to our
minds that miracles should be withdrawn, and that our-
attention, instead of being engaged in studying the creden
tials, the mere proofs, and witnesses who are outside, and;
whose testimony has been embodied in the verdict of all"
humanity, should be henceforth fixed upon the inner glory-
We need not the ceaseless repetition or accumulation, ands
51

602 ROMISH MIRACLES.
study of what is now beyond disproof. We need not addi
tional evidence that the Bible is true ; we need now to with
draw from the. outer court and to enter the inner. We
long to look within and be satisfied. We desire not any
more diverting discussions outside ; we are satisfied with
the divine origin and inspiration of Christianity ; we would
now enter into the holy place, gaze on the heavenly glory,
and feed upon the living bread, whieh we know, and which
we have seen demonstrated to be within. Hence, continu
ous miracles, were such the case, would seem to me to tend
to detain us constantly at the porch of the sacred temple,
where we do not wish to tarry. We have found it; the
temple rises before us in its grandeur ; we have no doubt
about it; we now desire. to, enter and walk amid its cham
bers, and listen to its eternal harmonies, and share in its
bountiful provision. I have found the Book ; miracles have
proved it ; omnipotent power is the pillar that upholds it.
I cannot spend any longer time gathering additional creden
tials to prove that which is sufficiently proved ; I want
to open the Book, to read it, mark, learn, and inwardly
digest it, and thus to grow -thereby. The only still cumula
tive and ceaseless evidence of the Bible is within it. Its
promises and prophecies,- which are as lights in a dark
place, before they are fulfilled, are daily passing into
history, and in their brilliant transit reveal the inner
inspiration. It seems to me also impossible to compare the Scrip
ture miracles with the . Romish without an intuitive percep
tion of the gross imposture and absurdity of the latter.
They are often ludicrous, occasionally jesting, sometimes
grotesque ; whereas the Scripture miracles, in every
instance, are solemn, awfully solemn. Trench, who has
written upon this subject, and upon whose authority I
state this part, has referred to Tholuck's account of the
two great pillars of Jesuitism, — Ignatius Loyola and

ROMISH MIRACLES. 603
Francis Xavier. Loyola was canonized after two hundred
miracles were believed to have been done by him ; and so
stupendous were the miracles of Ignatius JLoyola, that he
seems to have aspired to eclipse the miracles of our blessed
Lord and Saviour. For instance, it is stated by Tholuck,
as quoted by Trench, that Christ expelled demons by a
word, Ignatius by a letter ; Christ Walked upon the sea
once, Ignatius frequently in the atmosphere ; Christ's coun
tenance when upon Mount Tabor shone with supernatural
lustre once, but Ignatius had only to enter a dark room, and
it was instantly lighted up ; Jesus raised three persons from
the dead, but Ignatius raised hundreds from the dead. But
go to the proof, says Tholuck, and what is the result?
Ribadeneira, his companion and scholar, published a hfe of
Ignatius in 1572, that is, fifteen years after his death, and a
new edition, enriched with every available testimony, in
1587, that is, fifteen years after his death. Now, neither in
the first nor second edition is there the record of any mira
cle performed by him. On the contrary, this biographer
enters into an explanation of the reasons why it pleased
God that so eminent a saint should , have done no miracle.
Is not this a strong presumptive proof that the miracles
ascribed to him afterwards were invented for a purpose ?
They were, in short, pious frauds, "lying signs and won
ders." But as soon as a rumor spread that, for the, glory
of the Jesuits, it was desirable to canonize Ignatius, Ribade
neira sent forth a subsequent life, in which he gives an
account of innumerable miracles done by Loyola.
Now, Dr. Newman says, that Romish miracles are ante
cedently as probable as the Scripture miracles ; " nay, more
so ; because," he says, " they come after Scripture ; and
Scripture breaks (as it were) the ice." He says, " that the
history of the ark at the deluge is as difficult to reason as a
saint floating on his cloak." Now, Hume, the sceptic, says,
that miracles antecedently are improbable. Dr. Newman

604 ROMISH MIRACLES.
seems to me practically to concur with him ; for he says,
that the antecedent probability* of Romish miracles depends
upon the previous facts of the Scripture miracles " breaking
the ice." But what previous miracles render those of Scrip
ture antecedently probable ? He makes the probability of
one miracle depend on the fact of a previous miracle ; he
hangs Romish miracles upon Scripture miracles ; but on
what does he hang the Scripture miracles ? what " broke the
ice " for them ? This is perilous, not to say sceptical .logic ;
let Dr. Newman take care lest he be found rowing uncon
sciously and unintentionally in the same boat with Hume
and his followers.
Now, the great miracles of Scripture, we allege first, are
possible to God ; secondly, they were necessitated, as we can
see, by the peculiar crises at which they occurred; thirdly, they
were the subject of distinct prophecy, and they accomplished
great and beneficent ends, which justified the suspension for
a season of what are called the ordinary laws of nature.
Let me give an instance. The floating of the ark upon the
waters was justified by the necessity of 'the occasion. A
seed was to be preserved from the universal Deluge ; and
as far as human means could go, God used them, and only
at the point where such were useless, did he interpose
miraculous power ; and not only so, but this fact is recorded
by an infallible pen. It is thus placed beyond cavil or sus
picion. But what reason equal to this does Dr. Newman
allege for the story of a saint floating on his cloak ? What
adequate occasion was there for such a fact ? What crisis
justified it ? What necessity was there for so extraordinary
and so hasty a transit ? And besides these objections, when
comparing it with the Scripture miracles, there is another,
arising from the fallibility of the narrator. It is singularly-
legendary — ¦ if not monkish. An ark floating with a crew
in it is perfectly natural, easily understood, very credible
and reasonable ; a saint sailing on his cloak is barely con-

ROMISH MIRACLES. 605
ceivable ; at least, without some strong justifying crisis. The
one seems to commend itself to one's mind the moment one
reads it; the mind is instantly startled, if not armjsed, by the
alleged occurrence of the other. But however improbable
this exploit of Dr. Newman's water-proof saint may be, if
there be competent and satisfactory evidence of it, if, as in
the case of the ark, there is the , testimony of God for it,
then there is an end of all dispute. But Dr. Newman says,
" Protestants are most inconsistent and one-sided in refusing
to go into the evidence for ecclesiastical miracles." Really it
would require a lifetime to go into a tithe of the miracles
reputed real in Rome. Yet it is he who will not let us go
into the evidence of one I have proposed. Dr. Newman
asks, Why should a saint floating on his cloak be incredible ?
I answer, by saying, Why should it be credible ? It is
prima facie, absurd ; we cannot discover a cause, an end, an
occasion, a dignus vindice nodus. The onus of justification
lies on him. But Dr. Newman must excuse us if we' are
very suspicious, for we are warned in God's holy word,
against '^lyingsigns and wonders," as a characteristic ofthe
" Man of Sin ; " we are told . that if we should hear an
angel from heaven preach any other Gospel than that which
we have received, we are to let him be anathema ; we are
told that Satan may be transformed into an angel of light.
This makes us suspicious ; and Dr. Newman must forgive
us if we hesitate before we receive as the credentials of God's
truth, or the achievements of Omnipotence, the. sort of mira
cles which he quotes. But still, let me add, notwithstand
ing this prima facie incredibility, we are willing to go into
the evidence of two or three of those he believes in. The
more I study the miracles of Scripture the more natural,
credible, and necessary they seem. The more I investigate
the ecclesiastical or Romish miracles, the less credible, neces
sary, and antecedently probable they seem. If I go into
the proofs of the Scripture mhacles, I find the friends and
51*

606

ROMISH MIRACLES.

foes of Jesus bearing witness to them. If I go into the
.proofs of the Romish miracles, I find that some monk, who
had fasted fend scourged himself to a skeleton, thought that
he saw some remarkable vision, or tells us that he did some
such exploit as the saints Dr. Newman alludes to ; and,
.perhaps, a grandson of a monk relates his grandfather's
.secret. Besides, I am prepared with extracts from the
highest Roman Catholic authorities, admitting the frauds
¦and falsehoods put forward as prodigies and miracles. Dr.
.Newman is not ignorant that some of the most eminent
¦members of his church, who justify his belief in the Romish
^miracles, admit that they were got up to increase the piety
-of the faithful, and not bond fide done. The great Bishop
Butler, from whom quotations have been made so very
¦freely on this subject, says most justly in his "Analogy,"
Part ii. c. 7 : " For simple things of this sort are easy to
be accounted for after parties are formed, and have power in
their hands ; but before any thing of this, kind, for a few
.persons, and those of the lowest rank, all at once to bring
-over such great numbers to a new religion, and get it to be
a-eceived upon the particular evidence of miracles — this is
.quite another thing. Let us see miracles where Romanism
is not dominant, that is, just where they are required. Yet,
.strahge enough, Romish miracles occur where Romauism is
in the exclusive ascendant, rarely where an argus-eyed hos
tile Protestant Church is supreme. Let Dr. Wiseman and
Dr. Newman transport the Oratory from Birmingham to
London, and let us see it on its journey as peasants saw the
.chapel of Loretto. Celsus, Porphyry, and Julian, the
ideadly foes of Christianity, living near the era of the
.apostles, admit that our Lord and the Twelve did miracles.
¦I need not say that all the ancient fathers testify to the same
•thing. These miracles, thus recorded on unimpeachable
itestimony, were wrought to establish the divine mission of
¦those who did them, as in the case of Moses before Pharaoh,
Elijah before the people halting between two opinions : and

ROMISH MIRACLES.

607

Jesus himself said, " The works that I do, they bear witness
of me, that I came from God."
But I said that certain Romish divines give a very ques
tionable support to the sentiments of Dr. Newman with
regard to these alleged miracles. I will give you a few
extracts from their writings, which extracts I have verified
at the British Museum. Tostatus, Bishop of Avila, a dis
tinguished Roman Catholic writer, says : —

"A principio autem quando Aaron
ministrare incepit nondum fuerit ali
quis summus sacerdos, nee minor,
qui sacrificiafeoisset: ideo ut videre
tur ministerhun istud a Deo appro-
batum, debuit in sua origine aliquo
miraoulo eonfirmari, quod fuit, veni-
ente igne a Domino ad cremandum
saerifieia, consecrato et ministrante
Aaron. Cum autem alii sacerdotes
^onsecrabantur, erat jam connrma-
tnm sacerdotale ministerium a prin
cipio in Aaron: ideo non oportebat,
nt iterum approbaretur, in eis facto
aliquo miraeulo. Sie autem est de
miraculis factis in lege nova; nam a
principio in Ecclesia primitiva, ipsi
qui convertebantur faciebant mirac-
ula, et in ipsa sua conversione ap
parebant aliqua signa, et super ip-
sos qui baptizabantur apparebat
Spiritus Sanctus descendens in co-
lumbae specie ..... Nunc autem
miracula non fiunt in conversis, nee
Spiritus Sanctus descendere videtur
super baptizatos, sicut tunc videba-
tur  Causa enim est quoniam
in principio non erat fides evangel-
ica consolidata in mentibus creden-
tium. Sicut nunc, et pauci in
Christum credebant. Ut ergo ha-
beretur aliquid,, per quod converte-
retur gens ad Christum." . . . — Alph.
Tostat. Comment Levit. fol. 78, Ve-
net. 1596.

"But from the beginning when
Aaron began to minister there was
no chief priest or inferior priest Who
could have performed sacrifices,
therefore in order that that ministry
might appear approved of God, it
ought at its origin to have been
confirmed by some miracle, which
took place by fire coming from the
Lord to burn the sacrifices, Aaron
being consecrated aud officiating.
But when other priests were conse
crated the sacerdotal office was al
ready confirmed from the beginning
in Aaron, therefore it was not nec
essary that it should be again con
firmed- by any miracle. So it is
with miracles in the new law." . . .

" Now, however, miracles are not
done among the converted, nor is
the Holy Spirit seen to descend upon
the baptized, as he was once seen."

608

ROMISH MIRACLES.

And again, upon Matthew, ch. iii. 912, he says : —

" In nobis autem nullum miracu-
lum petendum est ad credendum, et
quipeteret incredulus diceretur, eo
quod nos habemus jam causas man-
ifestissimas ad credendum, etiam
nullo miraculo apparente . . . illi-
citum esset petere plura miraoula !
Cum unum miracuhim ita probet
sicut decern millia.1 ' —  Id.
Com. in Matt, fol. 164, Venet. 1596.
" Quseretur quare nunc praedica-
tores nostri, et prselati ecclesia, qui
gerunt vicem Apostolorum, non fa-
ciunt talia rniracula  ideo,
Christus non dat ilia dona, nisi quan
do sunt ecclesise necessaria, vel mul-
tum utilia: nunc vero potestas fa-
ciendi rniracula in prasdieatoribus
fidei non est necessaria, nee eccle
sias utilis, ideo non confertur ....
Si autem sint pagani, possent rnirac
ula ad eorum conversionem profi-
cere, non tamen, concedit Christus
omnibus prajdicantibus infer infi-
deles rniracula facere; quod forte
accidit ex djemeritjs eorum, vclnos
tris, qui indigni sumus ut tempori-
bus nostris Deus tanta bona ecclesisE
concedat  Sed verius dicen
dum est hoc accidere, quia non est
nunc necessaria conversio infidelium
sicut in ecclesia primitiva, quando
pauoi erant ... Si tamen Deus in
terdum judicat bonum esse aliquam
gentem converti ad fidem, donat
pradicatoribus virtutem faciendi
miracula .... regulariter tamen
non fit, quia non est. Nunc tam
necessaria conversio infidelium, si
cut ohm." — Id. fol. 224, 225.

" Now the gift of miracles is nei
ther profitable nor useful, because
we have arguments enough to per
suade us to believe without it. It
would be unlawful to ask for addi
tional miracles. Since one miracle
proves as conclusively as ten thou
sand."

"It may be asked, why our
preachers and prelates, who are the
successors of • the apostles, do no
such miracles? .... Christ does
not give those gifts unless when
necessary to the Church, and very
useful." ....

. "If God judges it good that some
nations should be converted to the
faith, he gives to the preachers the
power of doing miracles, but ordi
narily it does not happen because it
is not."

Fisher, Bishop of Rochester,
Luther, c. 10, s. 4 : —

in his answer to

ROMISH MIRACLES.

609

" Ceterum ut confirmetur illud
quod dicimus . . . adjiciam exem-
plum aliud . . . Ego vero jam alia
verba Christi producam, in quibus
prseter factum et mandatum, adjici-
tur et tertius, nempe promissio, nee
tunc his diebus ullus ex eis eflfectus
sequitur .... Convocatis autem
Jesus duodecim dedit illis potesta
tem et auctoritatem super, omnia
demonia, et ut morbos sanarent.
Ecce jussum. Jubetur enim apos-
tolis, ut similia faciant, v. Marcum,
c. xvi. . . . promissiones videlicet,
quam certe nullus his diebus eflfec
tus sortiri dilucide cemimus ....
Sed aiet forte quispiam, Inanis igi
tur erit promissio Christi? Nequa-
quam. Non enim voluit Christus
promissionem hanc efficaciam ha
bere perpetuam sed pro tempore
nascentis et adolescentis Ecclesias
. . . enim in ipsis ecclesiae primor-
diis, vere credentibus hase facta sunt
ad corroborandam Evangelii fidem.
At postquam fuerat evangelica doc
trina per totum orbem usquequaque
diffusa, nihil demceps opus fuit ejus-
modi miraculis." — Defensio Regiae
Assertionis contra Babylon. Capt.,
per Rev. Patr. Johan. Roff. Episcop.
fol. 105, 106. Colon. 1525.

"For in the beginning of the
Church these miracles were done
by believers to confirm the faith of
the Gospel. But after the evangeUc
doctrine was diffused all over the
world there was no more need of
such miracles."

Stillingfleet, in his able work on Popery, has adduced
numerous proofs of miraculous frauds and impostures, sanc
tioned by high authority in the Romish Church, to some of
which I wiU by and by allude.
Many of the Romish miracles need not to be attributed to
fraud, they were many of them facts which seemed super
natural to ignorant monks and fanatics, but which, in the
progress of education and under the influence of pure relig
ion, are easily explicable phenomena. A dreamy imagina-

610 ROMISH MIRACLES.
tion feeding on the fables of a superstitious era, and seeing
things through its own hazy and distorting medium, magni
fied unusual into supernatural occurrences, and facts unac
countable to it into interpositions of a supernatural power.
A somewhat parallel case is found in the unknown tongues
professed by some of the followers of the late Edward
Irving. I do not believe that these persons, professing to
speak strange tongues, were wilful impostors. They lived
in an atmosphere of fanaticism. Like Dr. Newman, they
held there should be miracles in the Church, and so imposed
upon their own minds, that they believed their attempts suc
ceeded in making the possible actual, and what should be,
actually to be ; and ultimately they imagined that the gib
berish of an extreme excitement was the gift of speaking
in unknown and miraculous tongues. We may thus, in the
exercise of Christian charity, attribute many of the Romish
miracles to guiltless delusion, ignorance, or mistake. And
when the saintly exploits of one century were handed down
to the monks of the next, or when the report of the won
derful occurrence in Rome passed over to France, Dr. New
man knows too well the expansive and cumulative force of
tradition, not to be aware that supposed supernatural deeds
grow in portentousness by travelling, and would appear the
more miraculous from the descriptions of the narrators.
Thus, the ordinary was magnified into the extraordinary,
the strange into the miraculous, and the appetite grew as it
was fed. We feel disposed to pity the blind credulity of
mediaeval monks, but we can scarcely extend the same in
dulgence to so well-read and talented a man as Dr. New
man. But we cannot allow that all the narrators of Romish
miracles were ignorant or deceived. Dr. Newman must
know, because high authorities in his Church confess it, that
not a few were pious frauds, wilful impositions on the cre
dulity ofthe people, in order, as pretended, to increase their

ROMISH MIRACLES.

611

piety. This is asserted by Ludovicus Vives, and, as Dr.
Newman requires it, I have verified the extract I now give.
It is high Roman Catholic testimony : —

"Nam quae de iis sunt scripta
praeter pauca quasdam, multis sunt
commentis fcedata, dum qui scribit
affectui suo indulget et non quae egit
divus, sed quae ille egisse eum vel-
let, exponitur; ut vitam dictet ani
mus scribentis non veritatis. Fuere
qui magnae pietatis loco ducerent
mendacia pro religione confingere,
quod et periculosum est ne veris
adimatur fides propter falsa, et
minime necessaria." — Lud. Vives.
Opera, torn. i. p. 511. Basil, 1555.

" The lives of the saints are for
the most part corrupted with abun
dance of lies, while the writer in
dulges his own passion, and sets
down, not what the saint did, but
what he would have him to do ; so
that in their Uves we see the mind
of the writer, and not the truth.
For there were those who thought
it a piece of piety to tell lies for
religion, which is a very dangerous
thing, lest the true be rejected on
account of the false."

Now this is the testimony of one of Dr. Newman's own
friends. Melchior Canus, another Roman Catholic writer,
well known to Dr. Newman, and to all who have attended
to this controversy, says : —

" Dolenter hoc dico potius quam
contumeliose : multo a Laertio seve-
rius vitas Philosophorum scriptas
quam a Chrislianis vitas sanctorum :
longeque incorruptius et integrius
Suetonium res Caesarum exposuisse
quam exposuerint Catholici, non res
dico imperatorum, sed martyrum,
virginum, et confessorum. '. . -. to-
tamque eorum narrationem inven-
tam esse, aut ad quaestum, aut ad
errorem, quorum alterum foedum
est, alterum perniciosum. . . . Men-
daci quippe homini, ne verum qui
dem credere solemus. . . . Nee ego
hie libri illius auctorem excuso, qui
Speculum Exemplorum inscribitur:
nee historiae etiam ejus, quae Le-
genda Aurea nominator. . . . Nam
et indulgent ingeniorum suorum vo-
luptati, vulgoque interdum indul-

"I grieve to state that the Uves
of the philosophers are more ex
actly written by Laertdus than the
lives of the saints by Christians;
and Suetonius has narrated the acts
of the Caesars with greater honesty
and integrity than the ¦ Catholics
have done the acts of the martyrs ;
and that all their narratives were
got up for gain -or out of mistake;
iri the one case disgraceful, in the
other injurious.

They took great liberty to them
selves, or yielded often to the de
sires of the people,- whom they

612

ROMISH MIRACLES.

gent. . . . quod vulgus sentiebant
non tantum ea facile rniracula cre
dere, sed impense etiam flagitare."
— Melch. Can. Oper. torn. ii. pp.
104-112. Madrid, 1764.

" Quae ego eadem de Beda atque
Gregorio jure fortasse ac vere dicere
possum. Quorum ille in historia
Anglorum, hie in dialogis, quaedam
miracula scribunt vulgo j aetata et
credita, quas hujus praesertim saeculi
Aristarchi incerta esse censebunt."
—Id. pp. 112, 113.
"Fratrem Franciscum Victoria,
Lector optime .... solitum dicere
audivi, postquam ab ilhus schola
discessi, se ingenio meo quidem
egregie delectari." — Id. p. 125,,
Again, Peter Damian says :
"NonnuUi enim Deo se deferre
existimant, si in extoUendis sancto
rum virtutibus mendacium fingant.
Hi nirnirum ignorantes Deum nostro
non egere mendacio, relicta veri-
tate." — Op. omn. P. Damiani Card.
torn. ii. p. 206. Paris. 1743.
"NonnulU enim Deo se deferre
existimant, si ad deferenda laudis
ejus insignia, falsitatis argumenta
componant, qui nirnirum si egregii
praedicatqris verba diligenter at-
tenderent, talia non sentirent." [1
Cor. iii.] — Id. p. 202, (Vit. S.
Mauri.) " Quoniam qui vel Deum, vel Dei
servum mirabile quid fecisse confin-
git, non modo fkbricati prajconii
prsemium non meretur, verum etiam
adversus eum quem laudaverat fal-
sum testimonium protulisse convin-
citur.— Id. p. 235, (Vit.;Dom.)

found not only ready to believe
these miracles, but fond and greedy
of them. Therefore, they reported
some signs and miracles, not be
cause they deUberately believed
them themselves, but because they
would not be wanting to the pious
desire of the people."

"There were some who thought
they honored God by making lies,
to extol the virtues of his saints.' '

"Some thought they honored
God, if, in order to give him praise,
they drew up lying legends."

ROMISH MIRACLES.

613

John Gerson says : —

"... Respicit autem iste gradus,
legendas, et miracula sanctorum, vi
tas patrum, visiones devotarum per
sonarum, recitationes, et opiniones
sacrorum doctorum ; quae omnia sus-
cipit ecclesia et legi permittit; non
quod determinet talia de necessitate
salutis esse credenda, sed quia pro-
ficiunt ad commovendos affectus
pios fidelium, et in asdificationibus
ipsorum: dum in talibus nihil de
certitudine scitur esse falsum, quam-
vis etiam nesciatur iUud certitudi-
naliter esse verum quod oportet, nee
ut tale credendum proponitur, ita,
quod magis hie attenditur, id quam
pia recognitione fieri potuit, quam
iUud quod factum est." — I. Ger-
sonii -Opera, torn. i. pars i. p. 416.
Paris. 1606.
"... Porro domus ilia,- in qua
de Verbi incarnatione sanctissima
Virgo ccelestem accepit nuntium,
adhuc magno miraculo non tantum
Integra perseverat, sed Angelorum
ministerio ab infidelium manibus
vindicate, in Dalmatiam primum,
inde in Italiam translata est,' in
agrum Lauretanum Piceni provin-
ciae; quod perinsigne ac nobiUssi-
mum vetustatis monumentum totus
Christianus Catholicus orbis vene-
ratur ao colit. Nee est quod quis
de re gesta dubitet, qui memoria
repetat illic dictum esse ab Angelo,
non esse impossibile apud Deum
omne verbum." — Baron, p. 33.
Lucse, 1738.

" These miracles are not proposed,
by the Church to be beUeved as
necessary to salvation, but because
they help to stir up the pious feel
ings of the faithful, and are for their-
edification, as things that might be ¦
done, than things that were done.
And it is no matter if some things
that are really false are piously be
Ueved, so that they be not believed.'
as false, or known to be so at the--
time."

" Besides, that house in which the ¦
most holy Virgin received the heav
enly messenger of the incarnation
is not only preserved whole by a .
great miracle, but was saved from.
the hands of the unbelieving by the -
ministry of angels, and was borne
by them first to Dalmatia, then to-
Italy, at Loretto, which illustrious ¦
and noble monument of antiquity -
the whole CathoUc world venerates ;
and worships. Nor can there be any
doubt in the mind of any that be--
Ueve the angelic saying, that nothing-;
is impossible with God."

Lyra, quoted by Stillingfleet, complains " of the frauds*
used by the priests in the churches, to make the people be
lieve that miracles were wrought." — In c. 14, Dan.
52

614

ROMISH MIRACLES.

Cajetan also says : " The argument drawn from modern
miracles is only fit for old women." — Opusc. Tract. 10, de
Concept. B. V. ad Leon. 10, c. 5.
Such is Roman Catholic testimony. John Launois, a
Doctor of the Sorbonne, says : " Instead of receiving
thanks from many for laying open the fables and impostures
of the monks, he was referred to Polybius, who determines
that all allowance should be made for those writers who
invent miracles and stories to keep up the devotion of the
people. This I have been told by all sorts of men who
pretended hereby to secure Christian piety."
"Nam ut quae facta sunt, sic et
quae non facta, omnia divini numinis
potestate metiuntur. Et quia quae
facta non sunt, fieri absolute pos
sunt, perinde habent ac si facta es-
sent, et qui non habent, eos cahimni-
antur, et omnia sanctorum acta reji-
cere splendide mentiuntur. Cete-
rum quae falsa est religio, Polybii
documentis fueo et fallaciis indiget
ad sui conservationem : quae vera
est religio, horum nihil exigit ut re-
tineatur : quo simplicior est, purior
ae sincerior ilUus apparatus, eo mag-
nificentior et augustior. Corrumpi-
tur, Cum habet in se quicquam ad-
mistum dispar sui ao dissimile; cu-
jusmodi sunt -ilia quae saneti Patres,
Concilia, veri Theologi admitti no-
lunt, admissa rescindi volunt. Qui
de Christiana religione aliter sen-
tiunt, earn ignorant. Ex vera et falsa
reUgione tertmm hescio quid con-
flare instituunt." — Joann. Laun.
Opusc. pp. 482-483. Paris. 1660.
Launois was called the " Banisher of saints." " He has
expelled," says Rose, "a greater number of saints from
Paradise than ten Popes have canonized ! "
Guibert, Abbot of Nogent in France, who lived in the

"They judge of all things by the
absoluteness of God's power, and
regard not the things, whether done
or no, as long as they might be
done. A false religion stands in
need of such cheats and tricks to
support it; hut true reUgion wants
no such helps; the more simple,
pure, and innocent it is, so much
the greater and more glorious : it is
corrupted when it has any thing un
like itself mixed up with it." ....

ROMISH MIRACLES. 615
beginning of the twelfth century, gives numerous instances
of flagrant frauds. St. Piron, who, he says, got drunk and
was drowned in a well, was worshipped, and great miracles
ascribed to him. (Guibert, Abbas de Pignoribus Sanctorum,
lib. i. c. 1 ; also Stillingfl. 2d Disc, on Popery, p. 600.) Now
these, recollect, are testimonies taken from the writings of
Roman Catholic divines, to which I might add many others,
going directly in the teeth of the statements made by Dr.
Newman, and proving, or at least alleging, that many of
those miracles which he believes to be so precious, and con
siders it impossible to withstand the evidence of,, were got up,
as things that might be, not as things that were, not to prove
the truth, but to promote the piety of the common people.
Let me turn now to one of these alleged miracles, a very
celebrated one, called the miracle of St. Januarius, which is
one of Dr. Newman's strong points ; and I wish you to look
at i't, and to hear the whole history of it as I will now give
it you. Dr. Newman says, " Bring before the Protestant
the largest mass of evidence and testimony in, proof of the
miraculous liquefaction of St. Januarius's blood at Naples ;
let him be urged by witnesses of the highest character,
chemists of the first fame, circumstances the most favorable
for the detection of imposture, coincidences and confirmations
the most close and minute, and indirect, he will not believe
it." (Leet. on Cath. p. 288.) Dr. Newman has not stated
what chemist has analyzed the blood, nor has he given any
reference to any document containing the results of that
analysis ; but he does insinuate, what I should be very glad
to see, that there has been such an analysis. Let me extract
first Canon Townsend's account of this miracle : " St. Janu
arius is said to have been a native of this city of Naples,
and to have been Bishop of Beneventum. Three persons
of influence in the Church having been arrested and im
prisoned in Puzzuoli, by order of the Governor of Cam-
pania^ in the year 305, were visited in their prison by the

616 ROMISH MIRACLES.
Bishop of Beneventum. For this offence, St. Januarius
with his companions, after having been exposed to the wild
beasts, which refused to touch them, were beheaded at Puz-
zuoli. His relics, his head, and some of his blood, were
removed about a century afterwards to Naples. The inter
cession of the saint is reputed to have saved his native city
from being destroyed by fire from Vesuvius. I desire, in
those instances where the anti-papal writers impute wilful
falsehood to the historians who relate the wonderful deeds
of the saints, to quote only, or chiefly, from the Papal
authors themselves, that my impartiality and freedom from
prejudice may be known and evident. The blood of St.
Januarius is preserved in a rich chapel, called the Treasury.
Mr. Butler, in his ' Lives of the Saints, ' imputes the preser
vation of Naples to the intercession of St. Januarius ; and
Baronius, the distinguished Papal historian, assures us that
when the blood approaches the head, though at some distance
from it, as if impatient of the delay of the resurrection, and
conscious that it is near the fount from whence it sprung,
and to which it is desirous to return, it ceases to remain in
a solid state, and dissolves and bubbles up, to the great ad
miration of the spectators. Such is the testimony of Ba
ronius, a cardinal, though not a saint, who is deemed by
many to be deserving of every credit. Mr. Newmann, of
Berlin, on the contrary, an eminent chemist, is said to have
performed the miracle of the liquefaction of indurated blood
with all the circumstances of the Neapolitan experiment.
In the following extract ' the P — ' is understood to be the
Prince of Salerno, a member of the royal family of Naples.
The ceremony began with the mass. The P — was not at
the altar during this service. He keeps the key of the
relics. It seemed to me to be a large golden key, richly
adorned with emeralds and other jewels. The phial in
which was the hardened blood was placed on the altar ; the
jewelled bust of St. Januarius, adorned with a most valuable

ROMISH MIRACLES. 617
diamond cross, the gift, I was told, of Christina, queen of
Spain, was placed next it. We distinctly saw a hard, solid,
round, dark red ball, as if of coagulated blood, move from
side to side of a vessel which the archbishop held up to the
people. The hardness continued. The prayers continued.
The blood did not melt. A Litany was begun, in which the
names of saints Were repeated, and the people took up the
chorus, ' Ora pro nobis.' ' The blood remained solid. The
accounts given by so many writers I found to be correct.
The people began to scream, to shout, arid to raise their
voices angrily louder and louder. A French lady, belonging
to the P — 's party, was kneeling close to us, overpowered
with emotion, and bathed in tears. She turned to Mrs. T.
and said, ' Tell me, tell me, is the good God angry with us
still ? ' She trembled with agitation. She impatiently called
to her husband, who was at a distance, to come nearer. ' Ve-
nez ici, Henri ; vous ne pouvez pas voir la ; ' but he did not
move. The people still vociferated. The blood did not
dissolve. It was nearly nine o'clock. The P-~ took out
his watch. He looked at the archbishop. Whether I am
righfrin my opinion or conviction that he looked very sig
nificantly, and that the look was returned with equal sig
nificance, I cannot so positively say that I could affirm it
upon my oath ; but the watch was taken out ahd a look
given ; and by the most marvellous Coincidence — which
renders it uncertain whether the sympathy of the blood
towards the head, mentioned by Cardinal Baronius, or the
chemical solution of Mr. Newmann of Berlin, was the cause
of the liquefaction — the red solid mass did at that moment
begin to melt. I had up to this instant seen the hard sub
stance move from side to side, and I now saw the same sub
stance gradually become liquid, and flow from side to side.
The lady near us was mute with solemn delight. The
screaming of the people ceased. The archbishop passed
the glass phial, in which was the dissolved substance, to the
52*

618 ROMISH MIRACLES.
privileged persons who had been .admitted within the rails of
the altar. The lady near us, with many others, kissed it
with enthusiasm. It was presented to Mrs. Townsend; who
jrat it from her, saying, ' No, no ! Sono Protestante ! ' She
?could not believe as her neighbor evidently believed. The
chemist Newmann would have been credited more than the
theologian Baronius. It was taken from before her with a
gesticulation which implied displeasure. It was placed before
me. I could not kiss the phial. I looked at it steadfastly
and earnestly. It was removed, I think, with another ges
ticulation, after a short pause, of surprise and anger. It
was handed round to others, and I believe it was devoutly
kissed by them all. When it was taken quite round the
: space within the rails, we found with the P — of S — , that
it was time to breakfast ; and the same early performance
of the miracle permitted- us both to proceed to our meal.
We left the church with feelings which I am sure are, and
must be, common to many who declare themselves to be
members of the Church of Rome. I will indulge in no excla
mations on the impossibility of believing the act we had
witnessed to be indeed miraculous. I pass by all the thoughts
that breathed my horror, and all the words that burned with
indignation at the system which, taking away the Bible,
and still claiming to be pure in its teaching, and Divine in its
.authority, affirms that the Almighty upholds, by useless, yet
by ceaseless miracles, its unscriptural doctrines, and all its
insupportable pretensions. I quote the words of the author
of the ' Lives of the Saints,' the zealous defender and
admirer of the Church of Rome : ' That the reputed mira-
•cles demand no other assent than that which is due to evi
dence on which they rest.' If the liquefaction of the blood
of St. Januarius can be resolved into a chemical process,
:there can be no justification, as there is no necessity for the
miracle.'' I will read also a letter I received from Sir Culling Eard-

ROMISH MIRACLES. 619
ley, who was recently at Naples, in which he says, " When
I was in Naples in 1844, 1 witnessed the ' miracle ' of the
liquefaction of St. Januarius's blood. I expressed to the
Marchese di Santa Capita, Intendente of the Royal Palace
of the Caserta, and Royal Commissioner appointed to wit
ness the miracle, and to report the result to the King of
Naples, my persuasion that the miracle was a fraud. He
introduced me to the Principe Monte Robini, who had in
some way or other the management of the ceremony, and
the Prince asked me what experiment would satisfy me. I
appointed the next day to give an answer (the miracle is
repeated several days running). The Prince met me ac
cordingly in the vestry, and again asked me what would
satisfy me. I said, ' To dispense with the candle, and not
to move the phial.' He replied, ' that the Queen was there
that day in state, but that probably he would be able to do
it to-morrow.' I waited in the vestry till the ceremony was
over, to know if the test would be applied the next day.
The Prince came to me when the Queen was gone (the
miracle having been performed), and I asked him if I was
to come. ' No,' he said, ' he had consulted the priests, and
the experiment, if it gave satisfaction to me, would not sat
isfy the people,' (se la contenta lei, non contenterebbe el
'popolo). I am certain of the words, and I have not the
slightest doubt that he and the priests knew that the ' mira
cle' would be a failure. For any other particulars I refer
you to my MS. Journal."
First, then, as far as I am able to collect, St. Januarius
was martyred in the Amphitheatre at Pozzuoli. Secondly,
a portion of his reputed blood is presented in a glass vial
kept in the cathedral, under the altar of which his body is
buried, his skull being contained in a glass case. Thirdly,
on the glass containing the blood being brought near to the
skull, the blood that was indurated before, begins sooner or
later to liquefy. One would expect that the eyes of the

620

ROMISH MIRACLES.

skull would- wink, and the mouth open, because the skull is
the natural seat of intelligence; but the miracle is the
greater, inasmuch as the material blood melts, and the skull
is- utterly unaffected. Many of the families in Naples, too,
are supposed to be relatives of the saint, and to have the
blood of Januarius in their veins, and are called " Janua-
rides ; " and on any of them being introduced, the miracle
is- more speedily accomplished. In a work printed at Naples,
containing a calendar of the saints whose offices are to be
said in the City and Diocese of Naples, I find the following
record of St. Januarius. It is entitled, — "Officia sanc
torum patronum quaa recitanda sunt in civitate et dicecesi
Neapolitana. Neapoli, 1721. Ex typographia AbatianS,."

"Beatus Januarius Praesul et
Martyr inclytus extinxit impetum
ignis," obturavit ora ferarum, et in
occisiohe gladdii pro Christo mor
tuus legitimi certaminis coronam
accepit." — P. 24.

" Okatio :
" Deus, qui in translatione B. Jan-
uarii Martyris tui atque Pontificis,
pretioso nos presidii tui pignore lo-
cupletasti, quajsumus ut ipso inter-
cedente, populmn tuum ab omnibus
periculis eruas, ac de thesauris tuis
divitias in nos ineffabilis misericor-
dias benignus efFundas. Per Chris
tum."

, "Sexta Lectio.
"Vidit huno sanguinem horruit-
que diabolus, recordatus est quippe
alterius sanguinis Dominici. Prop
ter iUum sanguinem hie efnuxit.
Ex quo enim Domini latus apertum
est, sexcenta deinde latera efibssa
contueris."

" St. Januarius, an iUustrious
Bishop and Martyr, extinguished
the violence of fire, stopped the
mouths of wild beasts, and being
slain -by the sword for Christ, re
ceived the crown of his lawful con
flict." "Peayek:
" 0 God, who in the translation
of thy Martyr and Pontiff St. Jan
uarius, hast enriched us with the
precious pledge of thine aid, we be
seech thee through his intercession
to deliver thy people from all dan
gers, and' that out of thy treasures
thou wouldst. graciously -pour upon
us the treasures of ineffable mercy.
Through Christ."
" Sixth- Lesson.
" The devil saw that blood and
trembled with horror, for he remem
bered that other blood of the Lord.
 For from the time that the
Lord's side was opened you beheld
six hundred sides laid open."

ROMISH MIRACLES. 621
Bishop Douglas also gives an. account of the liquefaction
of this blood, and proceeds to speculate upon it, saying,
" The liquefaction of St. Januarius's blood, performed an
nually at Naples on the festival of that saint, as it is the
most celebrated of all such miracles said to subsist in the
Church, deserves to be taken notice of by me. Now, that a
substance visibly dry and solid, having the appearance of
coagulated blood, inclosed in a glass hermetically sealed,
actually does melt while held by the priest in his hands, and
brought near to the saint's head, which is placed on the
altar, is a fact which thousands of spectators are eye-wit
nesses of every year. But, however extraordinary this
may seem, to suppose, as the Neapohtans do, that there is
any miracle in the case, would be to make the experiments
of the natural philosopher, and the transmutations of the
chemist deserve this name, as some of them are far more
surprising than the liquefaction of this saint's pretended
blood." — Criterion (Marsh's edition), pp. 133-138. Addi
son, also, saw this alleged miracle, and calls it " a bungling
imposture." Before I proceed further with the analysis of this mira
cle, I will allude to the effigy of St. Januarius, and show
that not only is his blood said to act miraculously, but that
his wooden effigy, as alleged, is inspired with, and has ex
hibited some of the virtues of the original miraculous effi
cacy. The following account is taken from "Acta Sti Jan-
uarii Episcopi, etc., martyrum, Puteolis in Campania felice
commentario et notationibus illustrata a Joanne Stiltingo, e
societate Jesu, presbytero theologo. Antwerpise, 1757 ; "
p. 148.
"Yenerandaestatuae quam ibidem "I present an effigy of the ven
haberi jam dixi, effigiem scalpro erable statue, which I have said is
Neapolitano expressam exhibeo. found there, carved by a Neapolitan.
Eruditi collectores, qui earn sub- Learned coUectors, who have in-
miserunt, existimant antiquiorem spected it, think it is older than
esse geminS, aha Sancti effigie, infe- another twin effigy of the holy man,

622

ROMISH MIRACLES.

rius similiter exhibenda. Obser
vant autem hanc Puteolis summit
religione coli in coenobib PP. Ca-
puchinorum 
CMira sunt qua de naso PP.
Capuchini nobis narraverunt, prout
ea ab aliquot scriptoribus recentiori-
bus conscripta sunt, sed nihil de his
invenio apud antiquiores, nee apud
praecipuores scriptores praeteriti sae-
culi. Eorum sane silentium imitari
mallem, si id bona omnium pace li-
ceret, quam de popularibus. ejus-
modi traditionibns plura dicere. Ne
quis tamen conqueratur de mirabili-
bus istis, quas in apologia quadam
anni 1714 operose defenduntur, nolle
me curiosos lectores instruere, ex
vita, Hieronymi a S. Anna Ub. iii. u.
4, transcribo verba tabellae, quae
olim fuit appensa; ,' De qua, scilicet
statua iUud admirandum antiquis-
• sima patrum traditione accepimus,
quod reciso olim atque in mare pro-
jeoto naso, alterum subinde substi-
tuentibus piis ac devotis viris, nulla
pqtuit unquam mixtura adhasrere,
donee interjecto tempore intus pis-
oatornm retia semel et iterum re-
perto naso, nee agnito, tertio demum
pueri voce (an yaticinio) observatus,
ubi primum capiti est applicatus,
sine temperatura, sine ligamine, sine
ferro ant alia quopiam artis instru-
mento, itacommissus' [qu. commix-
tus] ' est, ut non attractum vi, non
aetate longa fatiscat.' "

likewise exhibited below. They ob
serve that this one is worshipped
with the highest veneration at Pute-
oli in tho convent of the Capuchin
fathers. " The Capuchin fathers have re
lated some miraculous things con
cerning his nose, according as they
have been related by some recent
writers ; but I do not find any thing
concerning these among more an
cient authors, nor among the princi
pal writers of past times. Cer
tainly I should prefer rather to imi
tate their silence, were it lawful con
sistent with the pacification of all par
ties, than to say more about these
popular traditions. But that no one
may complain that I am unwilling
to teach the curious about these
wonders, which in a certain apology
of the year 1714 are laboriously de
fended, I transcribe from the life of
Jerome, a S. Anna, book iii. chap.
4, the words of the tablet which
was once hung up," (in a church
of the Coenobites,) " ' Concerning
which statue we have received this
wonderful thing from the most an
cient traditions of the Fathers, that
the nose of the saint having been
cut off and cast into the sea, on
the pious and devout substituting
another nose, they were unable by
any mixture to make it adhere; till
after an interval, the original nose,
being once and again discovered in
the fishermen's nets, and not recog
nized, but being-noticed a third time
by the voice of a boy, probably in
spired, it was applied to the head,
and without cement, or Ugature, or
iron, or any other artificial instru
ment, it was so consoUdated to it
that it yielded neither to force, not
length of time.' "

ROMISH MIRACLES. 623
Robinson's patent glue cannot have been discovered about
the time of the fishing up of this original and truly miracu
lous nose.
Now, I may surely say, if the Jesuit doubts the alleged
fact concerning St. Januarius's nose, as he does, it cannot be
a very great offence in us, Protestants, to doubt the miracle
of St. Januarius's blood. Both rest on the same evidence,
and belong to the same category ; and one wonders how Dr.
Newman, being unable to resist the evidence of the miracu
lous liquefaction of the blood, should be able to resist the
evidence of so miraculous a nose — evidence which testifies
that the artificial nose, made expressly for the statue of the
saint, failed to adhere, as if very unsatisfactory to him, till
the original nose was discovered, which miraculously, and as
if conscious of having found, its lawful owner, clung to the
face, and resisted all endeavors to tear it away. Medical
men, will thus learn that the Tallicotian operation was antici
pated many centuries ago. This is not a Protestant, but a
serious Roman Catholic narrative.
But I revert to the saint's blood, and in doing so, I
would ask the following questions : Is the substance in the
glass blood at all ? To ascertain which I would propose to
Dr. Newman, who desires us to go into evidence, to submit
it to chemical analysis. This is a sure test. It is easy of
application. If blood, is it the blood of a human being ?
Bishop Burnett says, that the blood of a duck was used at
the Reformation for a similar purpose, and with similar pre
tensions, in England. In the third place, if human blood, is
it the blood of the said St. Januarius, and of no one else ?
Prove it. Fourthly, does if liquefy by a miracle ? or by
the apphcation of heat ? or by a chemical process ? or by
other priestly manipulation ? And, lastly, I observe, the
exploit is so easily done, that strong proof seems to me
to be required to lead one to accept it as miraculous. In
order to show that this is so, I will attempt to perform this

624 ROMISH MIRACLES.
alleged miracle in your presence. I have had a glass bottle
made as nearly like the original as possible. The mass
of substance in the top bulb is perfectly solid ; on applying
the hand, you see, it very soon begins to melt. (Dr. Cum-
ming here displayed the fac-simile of the Neapolitan mira
cle.) Now, I will tell you what this miracle is. It is a
little otto of roses colored with dragon's blood. I found that
otto of roses became solid at about 40° or 42° ; and there
fore, after it has been reduced to that temperature, or lower,
and thus becomes solid, on applying the heat of the hand to
it for a minute it liquefies. You thus see how easily this
supposed miraculous feat can be imitated, and how necessary
it is, therefore, that Dr. Newman should, not only show a
red liquid passing from a solid into a liquid state in a glass,
but that he should also prove that that liquid is blood, and
that it does not- melt by any hand touching it, or other natural
process, but by a special interposition of miraculous power.
I find in Scripture that the miracles wrought there are
most of them the pedestals of glorious truths, or the signs
and seals of a divine mission, needing from its novelty the
force of such credentials ; but, I ask Dr. Newman, what
truth does the liquefaction of the blood of St. Januarius
attest ? What holy or confiding emotions does it awaken ?
Does he mean to say it is intended to prove that we ought
to invocate St. Januarius as a saint, and give him such wor
ship as is given to Romish saints ? If so, I answer, showers
of miracles, far more stupendous in aspect than any thing of
this kind, would never convince me that a man is to be
invocated as a Saifjiwv, so long as one recorded text in its own
majestic accents proclaims, " It is written, Thou shalt wor
ship the Lord thy God, and him only shalt thou serve."
No manifestation of power is equal to upset a declaration of
God's truth. Deeds of the greatest power must fall before
the testimony of a single inspired declaration — " Thus saith
the Lord." Were an angel from heaven to appear in this

ROMISH MIRACLES. 625
Hall, radiant with all the ineffable splendors of the blessed,
and were he to raise a dead man by his word, and tell me
that he did so in order to induce me to believe in purgatory,
transubstantiation, or the propitiatory sacrifice of the mass,
I would instantly recollect, while I beheld the miracle, that
"" some shall do such wonders, that if it were possible, they
should deceive the very elect ; " and I would also recollect
that " Satan himself is transformed into an angel of light ; "
and I would say to such a miracle worker come to earth to
corroborate such a doctrine, " Get thee behind me, Satan ;
thou savourest not of the things that be of God." The
Whole story of St. Januarius is not an innocent device, or a
credulous behef; it is a priestly fraud, a " lying wonder ; "
it is an attempt to stamp on the currency of Antichrist the
awful Name and Image and Superscription of Jesus.
Having looked, then, at this miracle, I now proceed to
present, what the real force and the main point in my Lec
ture hinge on, — extracts from documents which I have
no doubt are found in the library at Oscott, namely, the
Breviary, and the Acta Sanctorum, -r- documents with which
Dr. Newman is, I am sure, familiar. I will, therefore, sub
mit to you the following ecclesiastical or Romish miracles,
related on what Dr. Newman holds as the highest ecclesias
tical authority, and I will ask you to question yourselves at
the close of each, — Is this as credible in any sense as the
miracles recorded in the word of God ? The first list that
I will give you, is that of the. miracles performed by Sta.
Rosa of Lima, who was canonized by Pope Clement X. in
the year 1761. We are informed, in the Romish Breviary,
Pars ^Estiva, Festa Augusti, August 30th, that she owed,
her name to her face when an infant having been wonder
fully transfigured into the appearance of a rose. " Nam
vultus infantis mirabiliter in rosse effigiem transfiguratus,
huic nomini occasionem dedit, cui Virgo Deipara cognomen
adjecit, jubens vocari deinceps Rosam a Sancta Maria, '
53

626

ROMISH MIRACLES.

The document from which I quote them is the " Codex
constitutionum quas Summi Pontifices ediderunt in solemni
Canonizatione Sanctorum a Johanne XV. ad Benedictum
XIII., sive ab a.d. 993 ad a.d. 1729, accurante Justo
Fontanino, Archiepiscopo Ancyrano. Romse, 1729. Ex
typographia ReverendDS Camerse Apostolicee. — Imprimatur
si videbitur Reverendissimo Patri Sacri Palatii magistro.
N. Baccarius Episc. Pojan. Vicesg. — Imprimatur. Fr. Jo.
Benedictus Zuanelli ordinis prsedicatorum, Sacri Palatii
Apostolici Magister."

, , '¦'. Clemens Episcopus, servus ser-
vqrum Dei, ad perpetuam rei me
moriam. ' P. 402, an. 1671.
" Coelestis paterfamilias, etc."
" Hinc si deprehenderet de virtu-
tibus se tantillum commendari, cru-
ciabatur misera, expallescebat dif-
fluebat laorymis, dehiscebat illico,
se mergere in abyssum humilitatis.
Aocidit. quod e vicino aedium con-
clavi obiter audiret personas graves
de Rosae, tanquam absentis, imrabili
vita honorifioe ac secrete confabu-
lantes. Expavit et contremuit ex-
sanguis virgo, angore, fletu, et mce-
rore contabuit, ac seipsam duris-
sime objurgans, ter quater illisit
pugnum aculeatae capitis sui coronaa.
Fluxerunt sub velo sanguinis rivi,
ut acrimonia doloris ingratissimum
aUenae laudis obtunderet auditum."
— P, 405.

"Erga imagines beatissimse Vir-

" Clement, Bishop, servant of ser;
vants, in perpetual memory of the
thing." "Hence, if she detected any one
praising her ever so little for her
virtue, she being grieved at it,
would torment herself, become very
pale, overflow with tears, and would
on the very spot almost split with
misery, and cast herself into the
very depths of humility. As she
was on her way one day, she ap
proached the vicinity of the build
ings of the conclave, and she heard
some grave persons talking to tliem
selves in praise of the wonderful
life of Rosa, supposing she was not
within hearing. The virgin was
exeeedingly frightened, and trem
bled with horror; she pined away
with, terror, weeping, with grief, and
rebuking herself very severely, she
struck three or four times with her
fist the crown of thorns on her
head. Streams of blood flowed un
der her veil, so that the force of her
sorrow might weaken the unwel
come sound, hearing another's praise
of herself." — P. 405.
" She was burning with wonderful

ROMISH MIRACLES.

627

ginis miro fervebat devotionis af-
fectu, et maxime circa earn, quae
augustissimam Rosarii Reginam ex-
primit, in cujus sacello habitum. sui
ordinis suscipiens, ploranti Matri
visa fuit blando favore Deiparae in
eoeelum elevari." — P. 415.

love in her devotions before: the
images of the blessed Virgin, and
chiefly around that which repre
sents the most august queen of the
Rosary, in whose chapel, wearing
the dress of her order, she appeared
to the weeping mother, by the kind
favor of the mother of God, raised
toward the sky." — P. 415. -i, .
" The Queen of Heaven often also
stood near to her right hand, so that
from the twelfth year of her age to
her last moment she never wanted
this precious familiar companionship.
Also, on account of her laborious
services, she conversed with her in
the Chapel of the Rosary, and she
deemed tliis her servant so worthy
of this honor, that she exhibited her
services to the chamber attendant
herself, whilst she was animating
Rosa with these words : ' Arise to
prayer, my daughter, arise, for the
time is at hand.' And the Virgin
showed herself to St. Rosa, on rising
face to face, beautiful in majesty,
and a Paradise of heavenly glory,
and, St. Rosa exclaimed, hke another
Elizabeth, ' Whence does this hapr
pen to me, that the mother of my
Lord should come to me I ' "
Her intercourse with the Saviour was frequent, and on
one occasion, we are told in the Roman Breviary, that she
deserved to hear from Christ the words, " Rose of my heart,
be thou my bride." (Brev. Pars .ZEstiva ; Festa Augusti,
30th August.) " A Christo has voces audire meruit, ' Rosa
cordis" mei, tu mihi sponsa esto.' " In her Bull of Canon
ization, p. 409, we learn ;
" Inde enim amoris ignes in corde " Afterwards, too, she felt the fires
sentiebat, ut ipse Jesu saepe amanti of love were so powerfully in her
Rosae in paginas planitie apparuit, heart, that Jesus himself often ap-
eique suavi obtutu blandiebatur, ut peared to the loving Rosa in tho

" Adstitit etiam saepe Reginse coeU
a dexteris ejus, ita ut ab undecimo
astatis sua3 anno usque ad extremum
non defuerit ei hoc pretiosum famil-
iaritatis contubernium. In Rosari-
ano enim SaceUo ex sedulo minis-
terio mutua cum iUa erat ei conver-
satio, eoque honore hanc suam fa-
mulam dignata est, ut cubicularise
ipsi exhibuerit ministeria, excitando
earn illis vocibus ; — ' Surge ad ora-
tionem, fiha, surge, nam instat hora.
Illique experrectae se praebebat vi-
dendam facie ad faciem, majestate
decoram, et gloriae ccelestis Para-
disum, exclamanti cum altera Eliz
abeth, ' Unde hoc mihi, ut veniat
Mater Domini mei ad me.' " — Ibid.

628

ROMISH MIRACLES.

verbum attenta lectione taUs animae
dignissimum, in quo sunt omnes the
sauri sapientiae et scientiss Dei; -sic
etiam cum occuparetur in telae con-
sutara, pulvillo ipsius saepe quietis-
sime insidebat, et ad cor hujus di-
lectx tacitis nutubus loquebatur, om
nique gestu divinum protestabatur
amorem."

page of her book, and encour
aged her with such a sweet look,
that the word of such a soul is
most worthy of- attentive perusal, in
which are all the treasures of the
wisdom and knowledge of God; so
also when she was occupied at her
needle-work, Christ often quietly sat
upon the cushion, and spoke to the
heart of this beloved one with silent
nods, and with every gesture openly
declared his divine love."
" She was also seen by innocent
virgins to tarry with Jesus himself,
and sometimes even to walk about
with him, and to hold secret conver
sation with him with such majesty,
that wherever he placed his foot the
pavement shone with a splendid
Ught, so that such a Rose clang to
no other plant, but to him ' who is
the flower of the field, and the lily
ofthe valley.'"
Recollect, these are Romish miracles, not described by
Protestants, or by individual and obscure monks, but by the
highest Roman Catholic authority, which Dr. Newman has
in his possession, and to which I refer him. I ask of this
vast audience — I ask of Dr. Newman, Are they as credible
as the miracles recorded in the Word of God ? Are they
possible ? ' No ; for blasphemy cannot have the sanction of
God. Here is another part of her miraculous history : —

"Ab innocentibus virginibus visa
est cum ipso Jesu sistere, quandoque
etiam deambulare, et secretissima
miscere colloquia tali cum majestate,
ut quocunque pedem fixisset ille,
pavimentum fulgenti lumine splen-
deret, utque tabs Rosa nulli alteri
plantae adhaereret, quantum ei, ' qui
estfloscampi, etliliumconvaUium.' "
— P. 411.

" Languens et aastuans divini amo
ris ignibus, in nocte orans visa fuit
ab alia virgine magnis luminibus
coruscans veluti igniculis per os ocu-
losque evibratis, protestantibus quan-

" Languishing and burning with
the fires of divine love, she was
seen, whilst praying in the night
time, by one of the other virgins, glit
tering with great lights, like small

tum incendium intus ferveret, quod 'sparkles of fire, vibrating over her

alias pluries ea inscia coram diversis
contigisse innotuit." — P. 413.

mouth and eyes, showing forth with
what force the internal fire burned,
which was publicly known to have
happened to many others, who were
at the time unconscious of it, in the
presence of different persons."

ROMlgH MIRACLES.

629

Dr. Newman's authorities say, you see, that such was the
intensity of her inner divine love, that it exploded in sparks
of light from her eyes and mouth.
How can Dr. Newman accept such puerilities as proofs
of Divine power ?

'* Alias in mentis excessu adfuit
illi parvulus Jesus, purissimae gene-
tricis ulnis innixus, eamque blandc
alloquens, jussit sparsas per solum
Rosas in sinuosae vestis laciniam
coUigere. Inde divinus infans una
petita et gratanter accepta subin-
tulit, ' Haec Rosa tu es, hujus provi-
dam curam mihi assumo, tu de reli
quis, ut magis volueris, disponito.'
His agnovit se teneri in dextera
Salvatoris velut Rosam eleotam,
quam non raperet quisquam de
manu ejus. De reliquis rosis subi-
taneum serturn contexens, tremendo
Jesu capiti imposuit, qui Virgini
arridens eamque benedicens dispa-
ruit. Caeteris rosis indicari novit
pias Virgines Limenses, quas post
suum obitum in novellum Sanctae
Catharinae Sen-insis monasterium
colligi oportebat" — P. 418.

" At another time, when her mind
was abstracted, Jesus, as a little
child, leaning upon his most pure
mother's arms, came to her, and
softly addressing her, ordered her to
coUect into the folds of her garments
the roses which were scattered on
the ground. Thence the Divine
infant havipg sought and graciously
accepted one of them, he added,
'Thou art this rose. I take upon
myself the care of this ; dispose of
the rest as you win.' She learnt
from these words that she was held
in the right hand of the Saviour as
an elect Rose, which no one should
ever pluck from his hand. Twisting
a hasty wreath with the rest of the
roses, she placed it on the tremen
dous head of Jesus, who, smiling on
the Virgin, and blessing her, disap
peared. She knew that by the other
roses were indicated the pious Vir
gins of Lima, whom it was necessary
to gather after her death into the
new convent of St. Catharine of
Sienna."
In the lext place, she frequently strove with devils, as
will appear from the following : —

" Luctabatur enim quam frequen-
tissime cnm daemonibus, multisque
illorum molestiis vexabatur, ex qui-
bns sub terra specie molossi unus
Mm orantem latratu horrisono ter-
stre, et rabido morsu per solum li
tem raptans tentavit discerpere, do-
Wtc clamavit ad sponsum, ' Ne tra-
53*

" She frequently strove with devils,
being much annoyed by them, of
whom one in the form of a black
mastiff tried to terrify her, when she
was praying, by his horrisonous
barking; and he tried to tear her in
pieces with his savage teeth, as he
dragged her along the floor, until she

630

ROMISH MIRACLES.

das besths animas confitentes tibi.' cried to the Bridegroom, .' Deliver
Alias colaphum impegit, quandoque not the souls of those who confess

saxum rude in earn libravit, quod
solo tenus Rosam nee laesam nee
territam prostravit. Libros ejus
spirituales laceravit," etc. — P. 412.

thee, to the ffeast.' At another time
the devil gave her a box on the ear,
and once he hurled a great stone at
her, which nearly threw her, neither
hurt nor terrified, to the ground. He
also tore her spiritual books," etc.
These are ecclesiastical miracles which Dr. Newman
says are antecedently as credible as the miracles in the
Word of God. Is the reverend father serious ? or was he
ignorant of these things ? It is said, in the next place : — ¦
" Prope obitum per Quadragesi- " Rosa daily sang throughout Lent
mam cum avicula mire canora, quae the praises of God for a whole hour,

sole occiduo ante suum cubiculum
advolabat, alternavit Rosa cantica
et laudes Dei quotidie per horam
integram tanto ordine, ut canente
aviculst virgo sileret, et virgine
modulante, avicula attentissima nee
pipiret. Quin et ipsas insensibiles
plantas exemplo prorsus singulari
ad laudes et ad orationem Dei, eo
versiculo prolato, 'Benedicite uni-
versa germinantia in terra Domino, '-
invitavit, et visibiliter sic inclinavit,
ut arborum summitates terram at-
tingerent veluti solemni venerationis
ritu Creatorem suum adorarent ;
usque adeo verum est, quod is, qui
adhaeret Domino, unus Spiritus est,
et ei quod obediant omnia." — P.
410. '' Interea Limam pervenere hujus
Sanctae sedis Apostolicae, ut ex
formula, a congregatione Rituum
praescripta, examinarentur testes de
vita et gestis hujus ancillaa Dei:
quod cceptum anno Domini miUe-
simo sexcentesimo tricesimo, ob
multitudinem testium, qui fuere nu-
mero centum octoginta trei, non po-

alternately with a most tuneful bird,
which flew before her chamber at
sunset; and with such regularity
that the virgin was silent whilst the
bird sang, and whilst she was mak
ing melody, the very attentive bird
did not interrupt her. And when
she invoked the insensible plants to
praise God, when she uttered the
verse, ' Let aU things budding upon
the earth praise the Lord,' they bent
so visibly, that the tops of the trees
touched the earth, as if they adored
their Creator with solemn veneration ;
so true is it, that he who keeps close
to the Lord, is one Spirit, and aU
things obey him."

" In the mean time, they of the
holy Apostolical see came to Lima,
in order that, according to the form
of the Ritual prescribed by the con
gregation, witnesses might be ex
amined as to the life and acts of this
handmaid of God: which began in
the year of the Lord 1630, and on
account of the great number of wit-

tuit absolvi, nisi in mense Maio, nesses, who were one hundred and
anno millesimo sexcentesimo triceo- eighty-three in number, could not

ROMISH MIRACLES.

631

imo secundo. Fuere pro visitatione
reliquiarum Rosae de more deputati
inspectores, qui aperta firea lignea,
repererunt virgineum corpusculum
post quintum dceimum expletum ab
obitu annum, consumptis indumen-
ris, ossibus integris, et adhuc sicca
hie inde carne obductis, quae odo-
rem rosarum exhalabant."

be finished until the month of May,,
1632. Inspectors were appointed to
visit the remains of Rosa, who on
the wooden tomb being opened,
found the small body of the virgin
wasted away, it being fifteen years
after her death, the coverings de
cayed, the bones entire, and on their
being brought to this place on that
occasion, witli the dry flesh, they
exhaled the odor of roses."

This saint was no obscure one ; for we are informed : —

"Cum igitur jam nihil deesset
eorum, quae sacrosanctae functioni
canonizationis hujus dilecta? Christi
Domini Sponsae Rosae necessaria
erant ex sanctorum Patrum auctori-
tate, sacrorum canonum decretis, et
Sanctae Romanae Ecclesiae antiqua
consuetudine, ac novorum decreto-
rum praBscripto ; rogantibus carissi-
mis in Christo filiis nostris Regina
Marianna Regente, ac etiam Carolo
II. itidem Hispaniarum rege, toto
ordine fratrum praedicatorum Sancti
Dominici, regno Peruano, et omni
bus provinciis Americas, accedenti-
bus etiam precious venerabilium
fratrum nostrorum Archiepiscopo
rum et Episcoporum regnorum His
pania! et Indiarum, justum et debi-
tum esse censuimus, ut praedictam
beatam, quam ipse Dominus de die
in diem magis clarificat e coelis, nos
quoque venerationis officio laudemus
et glorificemus in terris," etc.

"When, therefore, now nothing
remained to be done but those things
which, according to the authority of
the holy Fathers, the decrees of the
sacred canons, the ancient custom
of the holy Roman Church, and the
prescription of the new decrees,
were necessary for the purpose of
the holy function of canonization of
this dearly beloved bride of the
Lord Christ, Rosa ; the same having
been requested by our d ear children
in Christ, Queen Marianne the Re
gent, and Charles II. King of Spain,
the whole order of the preaching
brothers of St. Dominick, the king
dom of Peru, and all the provinces
of America, to which were added
the prayers of our venerable bro
thers the Archbishops and Bishops
of Spain and of tlie Indies, we have
thought it just and right, that tho
aforesaid blessed one, whom the
Lord himself from heaven makes
daily more celebrated, we should
praise and glorify in an office of
worship upon earth."
And the Pope decreed her canonization as follows : —
"Ad honorem sanctae et individuae " To the honor of the Holy and
Triuitatis, et fidei catholica? exalta- undivided Trinity, and the exalta-

6"32

ROMISH MIRACLES.

tionem, auctoritate Omnipotentis
Dei, Patris, Filii, et Spiritus Saneti,
beatoi-um Apostolorum, ac nostra,
de venerabilium fratrum nostrorum
Sanctae Romanae Ecclesiae Cardina-
lium, Patriarcharum, Archiepiscopo
rum et Episcoporum in Romana
curia existentium consUio ac unan-
imi consensu, beatam Rosam de
Sancta Maria, Virginem Limanam,
de cujus vitae sanctitate, fidei su-
ceritate, ac miraculorum excellentia
plane constat, Sanctam esse defin-
ivimus ac Sanctarum Virginum
catalogo adscribendam decrevimus,
prout praBsentium tenore decerni-
mus, definimus et adscribimus, stat-
uentes ab ecclesia universal quolibet
anno die tricesima, mensis Augusti
memoriam ejus inter sanctas Vir-
gines recoli debere, in nomine Pa
tris, Filii, et Spiritus Sancti. Amen.

Eadem auctoritate omnibus et
singuUs vere poenitentibus et con-
fessis, qui annis singulis in die festo
ipsius Sanctae Rosae ad sepulchrum,
in quo ejus corpus requiescit, visi-
tandum accesserint, septem annos et
totidem quadragenas de injunctis
eis aut ahis quomodo libet deb i tis
pcenitentiis, misericorditer in Domi
no relaxavimus in forma, Ecclesiae
consueta." etc. etc.
" Datum Roma? apud Sm. Petrum
anno incarnationis Dominica? mil-
lesimo sexcentesimo septuagesimo
primo, pridie Idus Aprilis, pontifica-
tus nostri anno primo."
" f Ego Clemens Catholicse Ec
clesiae Episcopus."
Also the signatures of thirty five
cardinals are appended to the bull.

tion of the Catholic faith, by ths
authority of Almighty God, Father,
Son, and H&y Ghost, of the blessed
apostles, and by our own, with the
advice and unanimous consent of
our Venerable brethren the Cardi
nals, Patriarchs, Archbishops, and
Bishops ofthe Holy Roman Church,
who are now in the Roman court,
we have determined that the
blessed Rosa of Sancta Maria, a
Virgin of Lima, whose sanctity of
life, sincerity of faith, and excellency
in miracles, is fully evident, is a
Saint; and we have decreed that
she shall be inscribed in the cata
logue of Holy Virgins, as we decree,
determine, and inscribe, by the ten
or of these presents, appointing that
her memory be venerated by the
universal Church among the Holy
Virgins on the 30 th day of August,
in every year; in the name of the
Father, the Son, and the Holy
Ghost. Amen.
"By the same authority, to all
and singular, truly penitent and
confessing, who in every year on the
festival of St. Rosa, shall go to visit
the sepulchre in which her body
rests, we grant indulgence merci
fully in the Lord, according to the
usual form of the Church, seven
years, and so many of quadregenas
from the penances enjoined upon
them as otherwise due."
"Given at Rome before St. Pe
ter's day, in the year of our Lord's
Incarnation, 1671, on the day before
the Ide of April, in the first year of
our pontificate."
" f I Clement, Bishop of tho
Catholic Church."

ROMISH MIRACLES. 633
The following prayer is offered up by all Roman Catho
lics, and by Dr. ,Newman himself, on every 30th of
August : —
St. Rosa of Lima, Virgin. (Roman Missal. London,
1840, p. 684.) " O Almighty God, the giver of all good
gifts, who wert pleased that blessed Rosa, abundantly fa
vored by the precious dew of heavenly grace, should beau
tify the Indies with her purity and patience ; grant that we
thy servants, following the perfume of her virtues, may be
come an agreeable odor to Christ."
Now, the next batch of Romish miracles I give you is
the most interesting of all. Dr. Newman, you are aware,
belongs to the Oratory, the founder of which is St. Philip
Neri. His children in the Oratory will be refreshed by my
extracts here. I have made a list of the remarkable mira
cles alleged to have been done by this saint ; and of all the
miracles which Dr. Newman accepts, and finds it impossible
to resist, he certainly accepts those of his illustrious founder;
and must read my catalogue with great devoutness. In his
book, he states that his lectures were delivered in the home
and under the shadow of St. Philip Neri, The miracles of
St. Philip Neri are those he especially refers to ; and I am
sure it must be gratifying to Dr. Newman to be reminded
of what were some of the illustrious miracles done by his
own distinguished founder. But whether they are credible
or consonant to reason is a very different question. I quote
the history of them from " Bollandi Acta Sanctorum. Acta
Sanctorum, Maii; collecta, digesta, illustrata a Godefrido
Henschenio et Danieie Papebrochio, e Societate Jesu.
Tom. vi., quo continentur dies 25, 26, 27, 28, operam et
studium conferentibus Francisco Baertio et Conrado Jan-
ningo ejusdem Societatis. Antwerpias, 1688. — Vita S.
Philippi Nerii, auctore Antonio Gallonio, Oratorii Presby-
tero, Romse edita, quinto post mortem Sancti anno."
Hieronymus Bernabaeus (Congregationis Oratorii S. Ma-

634

ROMISH MIRACLES.

riae in Vallicella dum viveret propositus,) in his Life ' of
St. Philip Neri, says: —

" Quinquennio post beati patris
excessum, quae de ilUus vita morl-
busque sanctissimis, tum Latine
etiam ItaUce scripserat Antonius
Gallonius, in lucem edita sunt, ipso
summo Pontifice approbante, eaque
omnia saepius magna cum animi
jueunditate perlegente; multis eti
am CardinaUbus in ipsa Ubri fronte
sic subscribentibus omnia quae de
Beato PhiUppo Nerio conscripta
sunt, partim propriis oculis me vi-
disse, partim certo gravissimorum
vivorum sermone cognovisse, attes
tor ego." — Tom. vi. p. 623.

"Five years after the departure
of the blessed Father, those things
which relate to his morals and life,
Antonius Gallonius wrote in Italian
and Latin, and published, with the
approbation, of the' most high Pontiff
himself, who often read' them with
great delight. Many Cardinals also
have thus written in the beginning
of the book itself, ' I certify concern
ing aU the things which are related
of the Blessed Philip Neri, that
some of them I have seen with my
own eyes, and the rest I know to be
true on the positive testimony of the
most credible Uving witnesses.' "
Now hear some of those things which the Pope read
with great delight, and which are said to have been done
by Dr. Newman's father and founder; and in believing
which, of course, he can see no difficulty whatever, or any
doubt of credibility. "Acta Sanctorum, Maii, torn. vi.
p. 467, caput 11. Acta vitae usque ad ordines sacros,
annum setatis 36."

"Nam Iaicus cum esset, annum
vitas trigesimum non attingens,
Christi scilicet anno millesimo quin-
gentesimo quadragesimo quarto, ea
repente spiritus vi repleri se sensit
divinitus, eoque impetu, ut cor il-
lico sibi intra corpus saltitare coe-
perit, eoque ardore inflammari, ut
eum natura, inusitata quadam cordis
palpitatione, omnino se ferre non
posse significaret. Quamobrem be-
nignus Dominus, quo ilium ad pluri-
morum salutem diutius conservaret,
confractis atque in pugiUi eoque
majorem amplitudmem elatis dua-
bus sinistri lateris cpstulis, quarts

" For when he was a layman, not
yet thirty years of age, to wit, in
the year 1544, he felt himself re
plenished with such power of the
Divine Spirit, and with so great
force, that he felt his heart leap
within his body, and burn with so
great heat, that nature gave notice
during this unwonted palpitation of
his heart, that she could not bear it.
Wherefore, the gracious Lord, in
order to spare him for the salvation
of many, having broken two of his
ribs, and increased the space above
a handbreadth. by Ufting them up,
of his left side, namely the fourth

ROMISH MIRACLES.

635

scilicet et quints, ejusdem cordis si-
num, quo id liberius ageretur, mi
rum in modum ampliavit. Erat is-
tiusmodi fractura in anteriore parte
pectoris, ubi costse in cartilaginem
desinunt. Quo ex tempore, adeo ve-
hementer amplius quinquaginta to-
tos annos agitari concutique ccepit
assidue plus , minusve, mox atque
mentc rapiebatur in Deum, ut non
modo, toto corpore contremisceret,
verum etiam tectums ipse, aUaque
omnia quibus ille insidebat, quasi
terra? motu acta?, eo orante quate-
rentur." — Ann. aetatis 29; Christi,
1544.

and fifth, wonderfully enlarged the
sphere of the heart, for the purposo
of its freer action. A fracture was
made in this manner in the anterior
part of the breast where the ribs
terminate in cartilage. From which
time his heart began to be so veher
mently shaken and agitated for up
wards of fifty years, more or less ;
soon after he was so mentally car
ried away toward God, that he not
only kept quaking all .over;, but his
very bed, and all other things on
which he usually sat, were shaken
as by an earthquake while he
prayed!! "

These extravagancies, which Dr. Newman thinks mirac
ulous, recollect, are stated in one of the highest Roman
Catholic authorities that I can submit to Dr. Newman. But;
indeed, he needs not my special references. He is not
ashamed of them.

" Ccepit in suo cubiculo, singulis a
prandio diebus, confluentes, lectulo
frequenter insidens, (quod Dei amore
langueret,) de rebus coelestibus eru-
dire. In his colloquiis (quod m ha
bile dictum est) earn divini amoris
vim sentiebat, ut modo toto corpore
contremisceret,' modo e lectulo in al-
tum attolleretur, (crederes eum ab
aliquo sic mirabiliter retineri,) modo
demum lectulus ipse, vel quandoque
etiam ipsum cubiculum motu nutare
ct concuti videretur, terraemotum
ibi factum esse putares." — Ib. p.
471. " Initio Sacerdotii, cum in ecclesia
S. Hieronymi sacrum ageret, tanta
repente divini Spiritrls abundantiji,
replebatur, ut aquam vinumque in
calicem de more infundere vix pos
set; adeo enim ejus manus in altum
attollebantur,.ut exsiUre quodammo-

' Every day, after dinner, he began
to teach those who came to him,
frequently seated on his bed, because
he was sick with the love of God.
What is wonderful to be told, during
these conferences he felt that power
of divine 'love, that at one time he
shook violently all over his body, at
another he was lifted into the air, so
that you would beUeve he was there
held by some one: and at other
times the bed itself seemed so to nod
and vibrate, that you would have
supposed it was an earthquake."
"In the beginning of the priest
hood, when he was engaged in sacred
duties in St. Jerome's Church, he
was suddenly , filled with so great
abundance of the Divine Spirit, that
he could not pour the wine and
water into the chalice as usual, for

636

ROMISH MIRACLES.

do et saltitare viderentur; atque ille,
nisi brachio ad altare tanquam ad-
minieulo maximo annixus studio,
cceptum opus prosecutum esset, ni
hil egisset- unquam. ... Quo tem
pore salutarem hostiam de more at-
tollebat, ita mens rapiebatur in De
um, ut manus sublime erectas de-
ponere non posset. RetuUt iUe pos-
tea, videri sibi se ab aUquo appre-
hendi, atque alte a terra, per vim
mirabuiter sustoUi." — Ib. p. 470.

" Anno Domini circiter-mUlesimo
quingentesimo quinquagesimo primo,
cum iter PhiUppo esset, quem multi
sequebantur, eum in locum, ubi ex-
stant Thermae, quas Diocletianas
appellamus; vidit in quodam pari-
ete vetustate collapso stantem daemo-
nem hominis specie, quem cum at-
tentius inspiceret, observabat eum
nunc juvenem, nunc senem apparere.
Quibus rebus daemonis insidias ag-
noscens, Christi nomine imperat ut
qui sit aperiat. His ille victus cel-
eri fuga sese proripuit, odoreque
teterrimo, quo absens locum ilium
implevit, quem ne bestia? quidem
ferre possent, ecquis tondem esset
Philippo caeterisque qui aderant spec-

his hands were so lifted up on high,
that sometimes they seemed to leap
up and dance vigorously; and he
never could do any thiug, unless, in
order to enable him to finish what
he began, he leant with his hand
upon the altar, and was propped up
with the greatest care. . . . At the
time of his lifting up the salutary
host, his mind was so carried away
toward God, that he could not draw
down his hands lifted on high. He
related afterwards, that he seemed to
himself to have been seized by some
one, and miraculously and forcibly
lifted on high from the earth."
" About the year 1551, when PhiUp
was on a journey, and many follow
ing him, toward the place where are
the Baths of Diocletian, he saw on an
' old and ruinous wall the devil stand
ing in the likeness of a man, and on
attentiveexamination he saw him at,
one time appear as » young man,
and again as an old man. Knowing
the devil's tricks from these things,
he orderedhim in the Name of Christ
to disclose himself. Overcome by
this, the devil took to his heels, and
he discovered himself to Phfiip and
the other spectators by the most of
fensive smell which he left behind —
a smell which not even the beasts of
the field were able to bear."
tatoribus patefecit." — Ib. p. 473.
Now, Dr. Newman says that such miracles are ante
cedently as credible as the mhacles of Scripture. Again —
" Francisco, ex ejus discipulis uni, " To Francis, one of his disciples,

Ferrariensi cognomento, dasmon noc-
tu sanctissimae Virginis instar appa-
ruit; id autem eo consiUo ut vel sic
hominem ea specie facilins deciperet.

,whose cognomen was Ferrariensis,
the devil appeared by night like the
most holy Virgin Mary, with the
purpose of more easily deceiving him

Idque cum is mane adPhilippum under that form. When he told

ROMISH MIRACLES.

637

detulisset; Non tibi, inquit iUe, sanc-
tissima Dei mater, ut putas, sed
daemon ejus in forma sese videndum
obtulitf itaque cum primum eadem
visio tibi se denuo objiciet, faciem
ejus qui apparet conspuas jubeo.
Insequenti nocte, Ferrariensi magno
animi ardore precanti, daemon ea
dem specie atque eodem fulgore mi-
cans praesto est; qui praecepti beati
Patris hand immemor, diaboli mox
faciem sputo fcedat, qua re confusus
daemon turpiterque snperatus evan-
uit. Vixque iUe aufagerat, cum
sacratissima Virgo ei sese palam os-
tendit; eum ut faciem ejus conspuat
modo id possit, movet; demum rec-

Philip of it in the morning, ho said,
' Not the most holy mother of God,
but the devil presented himself
in that form; therefore, when he
again presents himself to you, spit
in his face.' The following night,
while Francis was praying with
great devotion, the devil appeared in
the same form, and shining with the
same splendor; he, mindful of the
advice of the blessed Father, spat
aU over the devil's face, who, con
founded by this occurrence, basely
ran away. Scarcely had he run
away, when the most holy Virgin
showed herself openly to him, and
advised him to spit in the devil's

reatum mirifice reUnquens abut." — face, provided it can be done, and
Ib. p. 476. then, leaving him wonderfully re
freshed, she departed."
This is another miracle which Dr. Newman regards as
being as credible as the miracles of Scripture. Again, this
author tells us —

" Eo ipso anno miUesimo quingen-
tesimo quinquagesimo octavo, Persi-
anus Rosa, sacerdos, qui PhiUppo a
sacerdotibus erat, a?grotabat gravis-
shne, cumque ad ultimum periculi
venisset, a diabolo nigerrimi canis
specie vexari ccepit acerrime. His
in angustiis divinum magna animi
demissione implorabat auxiUum, il-
lud Psalmi frequenter inclamans,
' Judica me, Deus, et discerne cau-
sam meam.' Cumque hunc in mo-
dum cum communi hoste decertaret,
venit improviso Philippus. Quem
ubi ille vidit, clamare continuo cce
pit, 'Adjuva me, sancte Philippe:
est hie canis colore nigerrimus, qui
me lacerare nititur, succurre, quaeso,
sucourre quod potcs, ne devorer.'
Quibus verbis motus beatus Pater,
numi illico, adstantibus primum ut
54

" In that same year 1558, Persi-
anus Rosa, a priest, who was ap
pointed to PhiUp from the priests,
was very ill, and when he had reached
his greatest danger, he began to be
bitterly vexed by the devil, in the
shape of a jet-black dog. In this
perplexity he implored the Divine
help, with great dejection of mind,
often uttering that part of the Psalm,
' Judge me, 0 God, and decide my
cause.' While he was battling with
the enemy in this style, Philip un
expectedly came to him, on seeing
whom he began to ory incessantly,
' Help me, ' holy Philip, for there is
here a dog of very black color, who
tries to tear me in pieces. Save me,
I beseech thee, for thou art able;
save me from being devoured.' The
blessed Father, moved by these

638

ROMISH MIRACLES.

pro aegfb vel semel orationem Domini-
cam recitent jussis, sese prostravit.1
Quod cum faceret, ' Ecce tibi,' ille
derepente magna voce dicere ccepit.
Canis recedit ; fugit canis ; et in lim
ine ostii stat. Turn surgens ab ora-
tione Philippus piacularis aquae as-
persione daemonem ab eo etiam loco
fugavit, magno cum solatio mori-
entis."— Id. p. 478.

words, and having commanded those
who stood by to offer up the Lord's
Prayer once, at least, for the sick
man, fell prostrate on the ground-
When he had done so. ' Here is, fbi
you ! ', he began to say, suddenly,
with a loud voice. The dog recedes;
the dog flies.; and stands on the
threshold. Then, rising from prayer,
Philip routed the devil entirely from
that place, by the sprinkling of. holy
water, to the great comfort of the
dying man."
The same author gives another instance of the saint's
miraculous expulsion of the devil, from which it appears
that Dr. Newman's founder had some very strange tricks
and propensities. about him; but, as they are all miraculous,
they are, of course, most edifying to the fathers and brothers
of the Oratory.
" Quodam autem die, beato viro " One day, whUe the holy man was
Catharinam ferreis catenatis immise- flogging a lady named Catharine
ricorditer verberaute," with small iron chains, in the most
mercUess manner," :"
( — not a very saintly act, one would suppose — )

" daemon alta voce clamare ccepit,
<Ca?de jam, percute, occide.' . . .
Cum quondam die ea ipsa, de qua,
diximus Catharina Philippi jussa
flagcllis cjesa fuit; insequenti nocte
eidem Philippo, suo clauso cubieulo,
apparuit Satan, qui minacibus ocu
lis ilium intuitus in has prorupit
voces ; ' Heus, heus, bone vir, hodie
pro tuae voluntatis arbitrio auctori
tate mea? illusisti, at ego injuriarum
non obliviscar.' Et his dictis con-
festim evanuit." — Ibid. p. 491.

" Eodem, opinor, anno, cum
Philippus in ecclesia, dedit sese ei
in conspectuin diaboluspuerilifonaa

" the devil began to bellow with a
loud voice, ' Beat now, strike,! kill!'
.... When on the very day we have
mentioned Catharine was beaten
with whips, Satan appeared to Philip
at night, his chamber being closed,
and, beholding him with threatening
eyes, broke forth into these expres
sions, ' Ho, ho, good fellow, at your
pleasure you have to-day mocked
my authority, but I will take care
not to forget the injuries you have
done.' Having said these words he
disappeared." " The same year, I think, when
Philip was at church, the devil
presented himself to him in the form

ROMISH MIRACLES.

639

ut eum insideret. At iUe subodo- of a little boy, in order to, laugh at
ratus confestim qui esset, qui aliena him; but Philip, smelling. out who
specie ad se illudendum venerat, eum he was who had come to mock him
advocat, contemnit, demumque ¦ ab under another form, cites him, de-
ecclesia ejicit." — Ibid. p. 499. spises him, and at last thrusts him
out of , the church."
Next, I give a very antecedently credible miracle to the
Oratorian Fathers : —
" Media vero hieme, quo tempore " About the middle of winter,
maximum in urbe frigus esse solet, when the cold is usually greatest in
ad postremum usque diem (quis ere- the city, at the close of the day
deret?)" (who could believe it? )"
( — the Roman Catholic historian, the Bollandist, says,
" Who can beheve it ? " The answer, in Dr. Newman's
Lectures, is, " I see no difficulty in believing it " — )
"ita derepente eo orante ipsius cor "while he was praying, his heart
corpusque divino aestuabat igne, ut and body so burned with divine fire,
validissima, ne aestu necaretur, re- that he stood in need of the greatest
frigeratione indigeret." cooling, lest he should be killed by
the heat."
Now, conceive his divine love being so hot within as to
cause the risk of St. Philip Neri disappearing by sponta
neous combustion.

•' Hinc ille octbgenarius, modicis-
simo cibo contentus, omni propemo-
dum nativo calore destitutus, ut
earn amoris flammam aliquo modo
restingueret, pectus nudare, fenes
tras fosesque cubicull media nocte
pandere, Unteisque ac flabellis, ali-
ave opportuniore aeris agitatione
uti, ad se refrigerandum necesse
habebat; et quidem ni cordi, intero
ac divino consumpto calore, hisce
rebus fastinanter subvenisset, re-
pentino certe interiisset." — Ibid. p.
467.

" Hence he, an old man of eighty,
very sparing in his diet, and desti
tute of all natural heat, that he
might quench in any way such a
flame of love, felt it necessary, in
order to cool himself, to bare his
bosom, to throw open the windows
and, doors of. his bedchamber at
midnight, and to use linen cloths,
and fans, and any other way of agi
tating the air; and, indeed, unless
he had come speedily to tlie relief
of his heart by these means, con
sumed as it was by divine heat,
he would certainly have suddenly
died."

640

ROMISH MIRACLES.

Such is another credible miracle recorded of Dr. New
man's founder. We are told at another part, —

"Tum motans subinde manus
laorymarum plenus, quasi beatissi-
mam Virginem obviis ulnis amplec-
teretur, hisce vocibus assidue clama-
bat; '0 Sanctissima Dei mater; 0
omnium creaturarum ut optima, ita
et puloherrima ! ' et ha?c cum effa-
retur, toto corpore, nullo fultus ad-
miniculo, cubito circiter vel etiam
plus eo sublimis, mirandum in mo-
dam attollebatur." Ibid. p. 510.
" Mulier quaedam erat clarissimis
natalibus, abundans pietate magis
quam divitiis, una ex his quae tem-
plum nostrum frequentant ; haec ubi
inter initia obitus Philippi propter
ejus sepulchrum oraret, odorem inde
confestim suaviter jucundeque spi-
rantem sensit ; quo mirifice recreata,
cum secum ipsa cogitaret, unde is
manare posset, comperit tandem stu-
pore attonita (quod nullus ibi flos
erat, nullaque res qua? tanto halaret
odore,) e Philippi corpore, nullis un-
guentis delibuto aut balsamo condi-
to efHuere. Erat suavitas odorum
qui afnantur e floribus, rosis, viofis,
et id genus aliis." — Ibid. p. 516.

" Then moving his hands, and full
of tears, as if he embraeed the most
blessed Virgin in his arms, he con
tinually exclaimed in these words,
' 0 most holy mother of God ! 0
most exceUent and beautiful of aU
creatures ! ' and when he had ut
tered these words, he was raised
from the ground with his whole
body, leaning on no support, about
a cubit, or even more, in the most
wonderful manner."
"A certain woman of very high
rank, more rich in piety than
wealth, one of those who frequent
our church, prayed amongst the first
after the death of Philip near his
tomb, and she smelt immediately a
most sweet and agreeable smeU pro
ceeding therefrom, by which she
was wonderfully refreshed; and
after thinking to herself whence it
could proceed, and wondering at it
(because there was not a flower
there, nor any thing which could
exhale such a smell,) she discovered
that it proceeded from the body of
Philip itself, since there were no
balms nor perfumes from which it
could rise. The smell partook of
the sweetness of the odors which
proceed from roses and violets, and
others of that genus."
In " Vita S. Philippi Neri per R. P. Hieronymum Ber-
nabseum, Congregationis Oratorii S. Marias in VallicellS,
dum viveret prsepositum," we are told —

" Cum enim obsessae cuidam " For when he placed his hand
manum imposuisset, tam gravi o- upon a certain possessed woman, it
dore ex eo contactu imbutam sensit, was tainted with such a strong
ut per plures dies iUum abstergere odor, that he was not able to get rid

ROMISH MIRACLES.

641

nequiverit: quamvis saponem atque of it for many days, although he
alia hujusmodi smegmata adhjbuer used soap and other washes, of that
rife. Itaque multis suorum manum kind. Therefore he stretched "out
ipsam porrigebat, ut scilicet graveo- his hand to many of his people, so
lentiam iUam percipientes, peccato- that they perceiving the unpleasant
rum contagia longissime devitarent." smell, might take care always to
— P. 692. avoid it."

And then another antecedently credible miracle is stated
by the same credible historian as follows : -—

" Lastly, the devil followed him
with so much hatred, that if he was
engaged in any pious work, the
devil always thwarted him in a most
troublesome manner. Thus, whilst
PhiUp was praying in the night, the
devil presented himself before him,
putting on a most savage and terri
ble look; but by imploring the as
sistance of the mother of God, he
immediately drove away his exces
sively troublesome enemy. Some-
limes, when he retired to the upper
part of his bedchamber to pray, the
malignant devil not being able to
bear it, threw dirt upon his clothes.
At other times, moreover, he seized
Philip's large table, and threw it at
him; often he put out his candle;
and very often loud noises were
heard in his bedroom, by which
Gallonius, who lived in the room
below, was frequently awoke out of
his sleep, and compelled to run up
stairs to Philip, to see what was the
matter; but on looking all round his
room, nothing whatever could be
seen, and he was then perfectly sat
isfied these were some of the devil's
tricks."
Again, we have in "Bollandi Acta Sanctorum, Maii,
Appendix, Relatio de Sudore Imaginis Patavinss, auctore
54*

"Denique tanto eum odio diabo-
lus insequebatur, ut ille si pium
quidpiam aggressus esset, molestius
semper adversaretur. Igitur noctu
oranti sese obtulit truculento et ter-
ribili aspectu : at ille, implorato Dei
matris auxilio, importunissimum
hostem extemplo fugavit. Secesse-
rat aliquando ad orandum in supe-
riorem partem cubiculi, quod qui
dem malignus com ferre non posset,
injectis sordibus vestem foedavit.
Alias insuper grandiori tabula iUum
opprimere tentavit; saepe aegrotanti
lucernam extinxit; saepissime vero
ingentes strepitus in ejus cubiculo
audiebantur, quare Gallonius, qui
inferius habitabat, frequenter som-
num abrumpere et ad Philippum
provolare cogebatur; sed huo il-
lucque sollicitis oculis circumspi-
ciens, cum nihil quidquam viderat,
daemonum ludibria haec esse satis
aperte intelligebat." — Ibid. p. 692.

642

ROMISH MIRACLES.

Jacobo Philippo Thomasino, Civitatis-Novee Episcopo," the
following account of Philip's image : —
" On the 22d of April, in the
morning, the image of St. Philip
Neri began to perspire, two large
drops being particularly noticed, one
under the left eye, and the other on
the same side of • the mouth. AU
the priests of the Oratory ran im
mediately to see so wonderful a
thing," etc.
A variety of other instances of this miraculous perspira
tion are given in this narrative, which occupies five folio
pages. The Bishop in his preface favors us with the fol
lowing remarks : —

" Die post quarto, id est, xxii
Aprilis, mane iterum sudare ccepit
eadem imago, signanterque notaban-
tur majores gutta? duae, una sub
oculo sinistro, altera ex eadem parte
qua os desinit. Accurrerunt omnes
Oratorii presbyteri ad intuendam
rem adeo miram," etc. — P. 650.

" Sudare et lacrymari imagines
ominosum semper antiquitati fuit.
Unde S. Augustinus, libro de Civit.
Dei, u. 12, refert statuam Apollinis
Cumani per quatuor dies plorasse:
supra quem locum Coqueens addu-
cit locum T. Livii, lib. xliii. eumque
confirmat auctoritate Ciceronis, lib.
i. de Divinatione, et Julii Obsequen-
tis, lib. de Prodigiis, asserentium,
rem a divinatoribus sic acceptam,
quasi proxima Graecorum ruina et
Romanorum felicitas eo ploratu sig-
nificata? fuerint. Similiter Lucanus
inter belli civilis pra?sagia numerat,
" Indigetes flevisse Deos, urbisque
laborem
Testatos sudore Lares.

" Nos contra sudorem ab imagine
S. Philippi Nerii expressum, puta-
mus fuisse effectum viseeralis erga
Deum amoris." — Ibid. p. 549. Pres-
fatio.

" In ancient times it was always
an ominous thing for images to weep
and perspire. Whence St. Augus
tine, in his book de Civit. Dei, c. 12,
tells us, that the statue of Apollo
Cumanus wept four days; to which
instance Coqueens adds a passage
from Livy, lib. xliii. and confirms
him by the authority of Cicero, lib.
i. de Divinatione and Julius Obse-
quens, in his book on Miracles, as
serting it as a thing accepted by all
seers, that the approaching ruin of
the Grecians and the prosperity of
the Romans were prognosticated by
the weeping of that statue. In like
manner Lucan ennmerates amongst
the foretokens of the civil war, the
fact that the images of the gods had
wept, and that the household gods
had given notice of the approaching
distress of the city by perspiring.
" We, on the other hand, think
that the perspiration that came out
of the image of St. Philip Neri was
the effect of his visceral love toward
God."

ROMISH MIRACLES.

643

In the " Magnum Bullarium Romanum," etc. torn. v. p. 1,
Luxemburgi, 1727, " Urbanus VIII. 1623. Obiit Philip
pus, 26 Maii, 1595;" after stating, "Urbanus Episcopus,
Servus Servorum Dei, ad perpetuam rei memoriam, Ra-
tioni congruit," etc., we have some further accounts of St.
Philip Neri, as follows : —

"Ac vix annum aetatis suae vicesi-
mum nonum attigerat, cum inter
alia divinitus accepta dona, plane
mirabUis cordis palpitatio fuit ac
fracturae costarunr; quae pubUco
medicorum testimonio praeter na
tura? ordinem obtigit, quasi mentis
dilatato sinu, etiam caro dilataretur,
et exsultaretin Deum vivum."

"And he had hardly attained his
twenty-ninth year, when, amongst
other divine gifts, he had most cer
tainly a wonderful palpitation of the
heart and fractures of his ribs;
which thing happened to him con
trary to the order of nature, accord
ing to the pubUc testimony of medi
cal men, as if by the enlargement
of his mind, his flesh was enlarged
also, and rejoiced in the Uving
God."

Now,' I say, it was a very remarkable soul that could not
get room to think, and it must have been very intense love
which necessitated the fracture of two of Philip's ribs, in
order that it might have room to develop itself. But still
these miracles are so popular, and so antecedently credible
in the minds of the Roman Catholic historians, that there
are duplicates of the narrative from which I give you the
account of them : —

" Non est omittendum quod is fuit
in primis caritate in Deum admira-
bili, ut interus ille ignis nonnun-
quam, cum attenderet ad divina, re-
dundaret in corpus, et facies atque
oculi scintillulis micarent."

" It must not be forgotten that in
his early years, such was his won
derful love to God, that when he
was occupied about divine things
the internal fire overabounded in
his body, and his face and eyes
emitted sparks of fire."

I said that some of the Roman Catholic saints seemed like
electric jars: this last saint was more than a jar — we
might almost call him a living volcano, his eyes and whole

644

ROMISH MIRACLES.

face being the crater, and often emitting sparks of -fire.
Again, —

"Caritati virginitatis donum ad-
junctum habuit, quo multi qui cum
ipso versabantur, vel vultus atque
oculorum intuitu, vel suavi fragran-
tia, qu9, iUius corpus redolere con-
sueverat, recreabantur."

" He possessed together with tho
gift of love, that of virginity, on
account of which many who con
versed with, him were refreshed,
either by the aspect of his counte
nance and eyes, or by the sweet
smeU which usually proceeded from
his body."
From this it is plain that St. Philip Neri was also a kind
of bottle of eau de Cologne, or lavender water. Again, we
are told, —

" Ilhid etiam Philippo collatum a
Deo fuit, ut dum uno inesset in loco,
in alio longe distante, uno eodemque
prorsus tempore nonnuUis apparu-
erit." " Quamplurium insuper confiten-
tium atque amicorum animas in coe
lum intueri, atque angelos concin-
entes interim audire soUtus erat,
quinetiam interiorem eorum pulchri-
tudinem, qui essent in statu gratiae,
divinitus agnoscebat."
" Post hase, ubi selectione in loco
corpus reconditum est, ad ipsum
venerandum populi concursus fieri,
votiva? deferri tabulae, donaria multa
appendi, ac suavissimus quidam odor
a multis inde percipi ccepit,"

"Philip also was so favored by
God, that whilst he was in one place
he visibly appeared at that same
time to some who were in another
place far distant."
"Furthermore, he often saw the
souls of many who confessed to him,
and of his friends in heaven, and
sometimes he heard the angels sing
ing, and he also divinely recognized
the interior beauty of those who
were in a state of grace."
" After these things, crowds of
people came to the place where by
selection his body was buried, to
venerate him, votive tablet* were
brought, and many offerings append
ed, and a most sweet odor began to
be perceived there by many."
In the " Breviarum Romanum ex Decreto SS. Concilii
Tridentini restitutum S. Pii V. Pont. Max. jussu editum, et
Clementis VIII. primum, nunc denuo Urbani P.P. VIII. auc
toritate recognitum. Antwerpite, 1823." " Pars Verna, festa
Maii, die'xxvi. Maii. Philippus Nerius, etc. Lee. v.," we
are told, —
" Charitate Dei vulneratus Ian- " He languished inconsequence of
guebat jugiter; tautoque cor ejus being continuaUy in pain from the

ROMISH MIRACLES.

645

aestuabat ardore, ut cum intra fines
suos contineri non posset, illius si-
num, confractis atque elatis duabus
costulisj mirabiliter Dominus ampli-
averit. Sacrum vero faciens, aut
forventius orans, in aere quandoque.
sublatus, mir& undique luce fulgere
visus fuit."

love of God ; and his heart so burned
with heat, that it could not be kept
within its boundaries ; but the Lord
wonderfully enlarged his thorax by-
breaking and raising two of his
ribs. Whilst saying mass, or pray
ing fervently, he was raised into the
air and appeared luminous."

This Breviary, you see, exceeds the Bull of Canonization ;
since it not only states inward heat and sparks of fire, but
informs us that he was elevated and carried into the air,
where he appeared luminous, something like a rocket, or an
aurora borealis, I should suppose. Yet it is all " antece
dently credible." Again, Lectio vi. —

" In animorum sensibus penetran-
dis mirifiee enituit. Virginitatem
perpetuo iflibatam servavit; idque
assecutus est, ut eos, qui puritatem
colerent, ex odore, qui vero secus
ex fcetore dignosceret: absentibus
interdum apparuit; usque pericli-
tantibus opem tulit. , . . Cpelestium
Spirituum et ipsius Deiparae fre
quenter fuit apparitione dignatus;
ac plurimorum animas splendore
circumfusas in coelum consoendere
vidit."

" He was wonderfully famous for
his powers of seeing into men's
souls. He Uved in perpetual virgin
ity ; and he so acquired the sense of
smeU, that he could discern by the
sweet odor which proceeded from
them, those who lived in purity, and
by their bad smell, those who were
the reverse: sometimes he appeared
to those who were absent from him,
and he gave assistance to those who
were in peril everywhere 
He frequently was thought worthy
to enjoy visions of the heavenly
spirits, and of the mother of God
herself; and he saw the souls of
many ascend into heaven in a halo
of glory."
It is said in the Breviary that Gregory XV. placed St.
Philip Neri among the saints ; but Gregory XV. died before
he could issue the Bull of the Canonization, which was ac
cordingly issued by his successor, Urban VIII.
Now, concerning the whole of these miracles, I must say,
that there is a revolting materialism about them all. Every
spiritual and moral feature is carnalized, till miraculous

646 ROMISH MIRACLES.
devotion explodes in sparks, and ardent affection breaks the
ribs, and heavenly desires lift men off their feet. Conceive
what a power Dr. Newman's father and founder must have
had, to have been able to detect a bad man by the very
smell, and a good man equally by the very same faculty.
Now, if Dr. Newman, as an Oratorian, has the extraordi
nary talent of his distinguished founder, I bid the people of
Birmingham beware : he will be able at a single whiff to
determine who are the pure and the impure among you ;
and, without the aid of the confessional, to know all that
relates to you. But, soberly, I would ask, does Dr. New
man mean to say, that these miracles are antecedently as
probable as the miracles of Jesus and his apostles ? Is not
the divinity of the latter, proof of the earthly origin of the
former ? I have given you these miracles from the highest
Roman Catholic authorities, not to be smiled at, nor for the
sake of exciting your merriment, as Dr. Newman may
probably allege, but solemnly and sorrowfully as speci
mens — authentic specimens — of the miracles said to have
been wrought by the distinguished saints of the Church of
Rome, and among the rest, by Dr. Newman's own founder,
St. Philip Neri ; and I appeal to the common sense, the
intuitive and broad intelligence of all who hear me, are
these miracles to be spoken of in the same breath, or to be
placed in the same category with the majestic and glorious
miracles which are the credentials of the Word of God —
the miracles of the Lord Jesus Christ?
The next batch of " credible " miracles I wiU present are
the miracles of a Neapolitan saint, Sister Maria Francisca,
of the Wounds of our Lord Jesus Christ, of the order of
the barefooted Minors of St. Peter of Alcantara.
Her canonization was petitioned for by Charles Emmanuel
IV. King of Sardinia, by Francis Bourbon, Prince of Naples,
by the Senate of the city of Naples, by the Most Eminent
and Reverend Cardinal -Archbishop of Naples, by the Most

ROMISH MIRACLES-. 647
Reverend Chapter and. Canons of the Metropolitan Church
of Naples, by the Congregation of the Servant of God,
Maria Francisca, of the Wounds of. Jesus Christ. All
these letters, addressed to Pope Pius VH.,. 180.0, are given
at full length at the end of the volume I quote ; and we are
informed that thirty-two other letters, with the same petition,
were written by Roman Catholic Archbishops, Chapters,
Abbots, etc., whose names and titles are fully given.
The book which contains the summary of the evidence of
the seventy-eight witnesses who were examined respecting
her life, faith, virtues, and miracles, is entitled,. " Sacra
Rituum Congregatione Eifio. et Rmo. Domino Card. Pigna-
tello Neapolitana, Beatificationis et Canonizationis ServaB
Dei Sor. Maria? Francises? a Vulneribus D. N.J. C, Terti-
arise professa? Ordinis Minorum Excalceatorum S. Petri de
Alcantara Urbis Neapolis. Summarium super, introductione
Causas. Romae, 1803, apud Lazarinum R. C. A. typo-
graphum." At the end of the volume, we find, — " Revisa.
A Gardellini, Subpromotor Fidei."
It is perhaps unnecessary to observe that Sister Maria
Francisca is reported to have, had a great reverence for the
Pope and the Priests. In a vision (p. 243), she is said to
have seen Pope Pius VI. in his pontificals, attended by two
angels. She is related, moreover, to have entertained a
peculiar devotion to the Virgin Mary ; to the Sacrament of
the Eucharist ; to have venerated sacred images ; and to
have practised the discipline, that is, self-flagellation, with a
most awful severity. Such is the Romish system. Whilst
the New Testament, which relates the life, conduct, and
miracles of Christ and the apostles, is withheld from /the
Italian people, the exemplars of Romish saints recommend
the worst superstitions, fanaticism, idolatry, and priestcraft
of the Church of Rome to the admiration, imitation,, and
veneration of the people.
At present I shall only instance some of the miracles.

648 ROMISH MIRACLES.
which are reported by various witnesses, the summary of
whose evidence is contained in these volumes. " The work
consists of two volumes, one of them is written in Latin, and
the other, from which I have copied these extracts, is in
Italian. I shall only briefly mention some of the miracles,
referring to the pages which contain the account of them ;
but if the Rev. Dr. Newman or Cardinal Wiseman desire
to inspect the work in my presence, or in the presence of
George Finch, Esq., in whose library, at Burly-on-the-Hill,
it now is, they shall be most welcome.
1. Miraculous Ecstasies.
The first miracle I shall refer to is her wonderful ecstasies.
It is related of her that she was seen on one occasion to be
raised several palms high from the ground, and that she had
been seen to fly to the. church without touching the ground
with her feet : " Fu veduta sollevata piu palmi dal suolo e
colle bracchie aperte, quando portavasi alia nostra chiesa,
volava senza toccar piedi in terra." — P. 263.
2. The ardor of her Love to the Eucharist.
Her love to the Sacrament of the Altar was so fiery
(ignitus), that on one occasion she cried out, " Water !
water ! " and her companion was obliged to dip handker
chiefs into the holy water, and to apply them to her breast :
" Si accesa detta serva di Dio talmente d' amore verso detto
Augustissimo Sagramente, che cominci6 a chiadere, ' Acqua !
acqua!' onde fu costretta detta compagna ad inzuppare
fazzoletti nella fonte dell' acqua benedetta, ed applicarceli
sui petto. — P. 220.
3. Blinded by the rays from a holy Bambino.
When placing a holy Bambino (i. e. image of the infant
Jesus) into the manger (nel presepio), such brilliant rays of
light proceeded from the Bambino, as to blind her for three
days ; and she recovered her sight through the prayers,
obedience, and blessings of Padre Salvadore, her director :
~- " Altra volta, nel fare la detta funzione, furono, per essa si

ROMISH MIRACLES. 64ty
penetrant^ e resplendenti i raggi che uscirono, dal S. Bam
bino, che la fecero, restare cieca nell' intutto per tre giorni,.
che poi all' orazione, ubbidienza e benedizione datala dal P. .
Salvadore, dal quale mi fu raccontato, ricuper& la vista." —
P. 213.
4. She possessed a holy Bambino, which emitted a super
natural sweet odor, and which on one occasion stretched out*
its feet and hands, (p. 213,) when it was dressed by Sister r
Francisca, at her bidding.
" Teneva ancora dentro di una gran Teca di fiori di essa-j
lavorati un bellissimo Bambino di relievo di un palmo di>
grandezza, pulito e graziosamente vestito di calza, e scarpe,..
con corona in testa e con un Anello al dito, che spi--
rava un odore soavissimo e straordinario, quale lo con--
serva amore al presente, ma non tanto quanto prima, e-
tantora, quanto per lo passato fu stimato da tutti sopra-
naturale Questo Bambino s' era la cosa piu preziosa dai
Suor Maria Francesca, per cui lo teneva come un Santtia-
rio, e solamenta l'aprivo ne maggiori bisogni, ma prima v'
accendeva le Candeli avanti, siccome fa ancora il Rev. D.;.
Giovanni Pessivi, in poter del quale e restato ancora per le-~
supradette * relazioni un ammirabile avvenimento, cioe, che-
quando Suor Maria Francesca fece al detto Bambino le-
vesti, le calze, e le scarpe, non potendo metterle,' disse,;.
' Mino mio, se non stench i piedi, non posso calzarci,' ed ih
Bambino puntualmente li stendeva. Cosi fece ancora collet
manine per mettergli il vestito, che ancora tiene." " Whens
Sister Maria Francesca made for the said Bambino its
robes, and stockings, and shoes, not being able to put them .
on, she said to it, ' My little child, if you do not stretch oufc
your feet I cannot put on your shoes and stockings/ and ther
Bambino instantly stretched them out. It did the same-
* The relation of Padre Felice, her Confessor, confirmed by Sister.-
Maria Felicia and Sister Theodora Tipaldi.
55

650 ROMISH MIRACLES.
with its little hands, in order to put on the robe which it
now has." Such were the miraculous doings of a wooden
image of the Saviour.
4. The devil throws a great stone at her, which strikes
the window, and nearly kills a poor man in the street.
" Un * altra volta mentre stava secondo il solito inchiodata
nel letto, e che io, e molti altri, sacerdoti le facevamo com-
pagnia seduti d' intorno, aspergendo da tempo in tempo il
letto, e la stanza con l'acqua santa ; tutto ad un tempo ci
disse. ' Levatemi da dirimpetto la finestra, perche, peru-
chella (cosi soleva chiamare il demonio) .minaccia volermi
menare una pietra.' Non tanto ci fummo scostati da detto
luogo, che fu lanciata con impeto straordinario da mano in-
visibile una grossa pietra, che colpendo su la crociera di
della finestra," cadde abbasso la strada, e poco manc6 che
non restasse ucciso un pover' uomo, che vendeva frutti giusto
sotto d' essa."
" Once when she was, as usual, confined to her bed, and
when I and many other priests kept her company sitting
round her, sprinkling the bed and the apartment from time
to time with holy water, all at once she said to us, " Take-me
away from before the window, because Peruchella (thus she
was accustomed to call the devil) threatens to throw a stone
at me.' We had hardly removed from the place, when a
great stone was hurled by an invisible hand, which, striking
against the casement of the window, fell down into the street,
and very nearly left for dead a poor man, who sold fruit
just underneath."
5. She inflicts upon herself the most dreadful scourgings,
which she offered to the Lord for the souls in purgatory,
and chiefly for dead priests ! ! !
" Rapporto alle discipline, che faceva nascostamente, So,t
* This is the testimony of the PeriUustris et Adm. Bev. Dominus D.
Joannes Pessiri, Presbyter.
t Eev. Dominus D. Joannes Pessiri, Presbyter.

ROMISH MIRACLES. 651
che se ne faceva a sangue la settimana, delle quali una
Fofferiva al Signore per le anime nel purgatorio, e special-
mente de' sacerdoti defunti," etc. — P. 228.
5. On one occasion her scourging was so severe that the
bleeding continued for several days, and was at last stopped
by applying to it, by the advice of her dhector, a picture of
the Virgin Mary, which emitted an odor of Paradise, which
it retained for a whole year.
The evidence is given by Adm. Rev. P. F. Aloysius,
Maria a Jesu, SaGerdos professus ordinis Minor S. Petri
de Alcantara, Lector, Definitor, Visitator, ac Missionarius
Apostol. (oculatus 34 circ. postremis servse Dei vitse annis),
folio, 1602, ter. sup. 76 arti. (p. 278) : "Mi fu referito dal
P. Salvadore, che una volta la serva di Dio non so per qua!'
appresa, ma non commessa colpa, si flagell6 talmente,, che
non poteva in verun conto ristagnare il sangue, ma come il
detto direttore la vedeva patire, la precetto con S. Ubbi-
dienza a manifestarle il tutto, indi le ordin6, che ci avesse
applicata una figurina della divina, Pastoretta, sebbene da
Suor Maria Francesca vi si trovava repugnanza, e solo
effetto della poca riverenza, che avrebbe usata alia Virgine
Ssma., ma finalmente ubbidl, e la mattina d' appresso si trov6
sana prodigiosamente, senza che detta figurina in carta si
fusse in menoma parte macchiata di sangue, e che traman-
dava un odore di Paradiso, per cui la volte il detto direttore,
et la tenne presso di se conservata per un anno in circa,
senza mai perdere detto gratissimo odora quale usciva solo
dalla parte dell' imagine."
The nature of her scourgings may be presumed, from the
fact that she is said to have had an iron scourge, and to have
put in it iron stars and sharp spurs.
Witness, Soror Maria Felix, apassione Tertiaria ord. S.
Petri de Alcantara : " E mi ricordo di piu, che in tempo di
detti S. Esercizi tenendo' neile sue mani una disciphna di
-ferro, colla medesima disciplinando se stessa, insegniva

652 ROMISH MIRACLES.
aviche il demonio di notte tempo, quando procurava tentarla.
Si batteva con una disciplina armata di stelle di ferro, ed
acuti speroni." — P. 378.
6. She obtained permission from the Saviour to undergo,
for a time, instead of certain persons who are named, and
among the rest is one of her confessors, called II P. Maestro
Giuseppe Gricco Antonio, for whom she suffered, for the
space of a month, the dreadful pains of purgatory. Her
sufferings are described as follows, by the illustrious and
Rev. John Pessiri, a priest : " After having offered herself
to the Lord, she remained for hours, days, and weeks, and
sometimes for a month, confined to and immovable in a bed,
transfixed in all the senses of her body, with inexpressible
pains, sometimes with the total loss of all sense and strength.
In fact, she was reduced to a very skeleton, so that the bare
sight of her excited compassion."
"Dopo essersi offerta al Signore, restava per ore, per
giorni, e per settimane, e certe volte per un mese inchiodata
ed immobile in un letto trafitta da inesprimabili dolor in tutti
li sensi del corpo colla perdita intera talvolta di tutti li sensi
e le forze in somma si riduceva come in vero cadavere che
recava compassione al solo vederla — siccome e note anche
ad altri testimoni." — P. 282.
7. The Saviour often appeared to her in the Sacrament,
in the form of a little child.
Witness, Soror Maria Felix, a passione Tertiarii, ord. S.
Petri de Alcantara : " Mi costa (constat) ancora di certa
scienza, che il Signore piu volte se le fece vedere nella S.
Comunione in forma di Bambino." — P. 249.
8. The Saviour appeared to her as the Divine Saviour,
and placed a diamond ring upon her finger in the form of a
heart, in token of her being his spouse, which had a paradi
siacal splendor, and contained five diamonds, as a sign of the
five wounds of Christ.
Witness, Adm. Rev. P, F. Aloysius, Maria a Jesu Sacer-

ROMISH MIRACLES. 653
dos, professus ordinis Minor S. Petri de Alcantara, Lector,
Definitor, Visitator, ac Missionarius Apostolicus. "Final-
mente soggiungo due singolarissime finezze racconte dalla
serva di Dio in occasione del Santo Presepio per traduzione
del Padre Felice suo confessore al Padre Salvadore, confer-
matomi poi Da Suor Maria Felice,* e da Suor Teodora
Tipaldi, che ne stavano intese (averli). La prima fu 1'
aver avuto nella notte di S. Natale avanti detto Presepio
dal divin Salvatore visibilmente apparsole, 1' anello, celeste
in segno dello sposalizio fatto con Jesu Christo, quale anello
mostrato venne allora dalla Serva di Dio a detta sua Com-
pagna ; ma questa non lo vidde affatto, dicendole con la sua
solita semp'licita, che tramandava uno splendore di Paradiso,
ed era formato a cuore con 5 diamanti in segno delle 5 piaghe
di Jesu Christo, raccontandole ancora il grazioso colloquio
tenuto con D. Salvadore, che visibilmente apparsole le disse,
' Eccomi sposa mia, gia son venuto, che mi vuoi dare ? ' Ed
ella rispose, Signore io sono una povera di corpo e di anima,
voi potete darmi tutto e farmi vostra sposa. Ed allora il
divin Salvadore le pose in dito il detto anello, seco sposan-
dola con amor singolarissimo. II detto anello fu portato
dalla serva di Dio per lo spazio di 8 giorni, cioe per tutta 1'
ottava del S. Natale." — P. 208.
9. She is blasphemously said to have had imparted to her
the sufferings of Christ, his bloody sweat, the anguish of the
crown of thorns, his scourging and his agonies on the cross,
and to have had his wounds visibly impressed upon her. It
is stated that whilst enduring the agonies of the cross (p.
215), she was in contortions, with her arms stretched out ;
that her limbs trembled ; that small streaks of blood dropped
from her hair ; that her head was languid, turning first on
one side and then on the other side, and sometimes falling
* Her Director. Thus we find three priests and two nuns giving circu
lation to and evidencing this fable. 55*.

654 ROMISH MIRACLES.
on her chest ; that her eyes were darkened and without mean
ing, and that her face was pallid, and with a deathlike sweat.
Witness, Adm. Rev. P. F. Aloysius, Maria a Jesu Sacer-
dos ordinis Minor S. Petri de Alcantara, Lector, Definitor,
Visitator, ac Missionarius Apostolicus.
After describing how she was loaded by the Saviour with
-an invisible cross, and describing her tortures in her feet,
the above witness proceeds to state how, on every Friday,
she partook of the most holy wounds, and all the mysteries
¦ of Christ's passion. " In questo luogo mi costa quanto ersica
e sublime sia stata la fede e la divozione della serva di Dio
verso la passione di Gesu Christo da\ singolari doni e
-privilegi che ne riportd mentre in tutti i Venerdi dell' anno,
e specialmente in tempo di Quaresima il Signore le parte-
cip6 le sue sagratissime Piaghe, e tutti i misteri della sua
passione, come si ave per tradizione del P. Felice di lei con-
fessore, del P. Salvadore di lei direttore, oltre di che mi e
-stato contestato ancora dalla piil volte nominata una Com-
-pagna Suor Maria Felice, e da Suor Teodora Tipaldi, che
ne sono testimoni oculari e Cominciavano le dette Piaghe a
comparire neile di lei mani sui dal Giovedl dopo vespro
¦come una rosetta, o un carbonco, seebndo, la loro espressione,
le quali poi o poco apoco, si dilotavano finestre nel Venerdi
sequente comparivano neile piante della mani di sotto, e di
¦sopra come fossero squarciate da un grosso perno, o sia chiodo.
'Da una sua commandre per noma Giovanna Peccerillo,
¦donna Scaltra, pia, e divota confidente della serva di Dio, ora
"decrepita, mi fu ancora raccontato d' aver' ella verduto co'
propri occhi in un Venerdi di Marzo, come pativa la croci-
^Qssione, avendola osservata distesa sui letto coUe braccia
--aperte contorcersi, e dimenarsi, tremando in tutte le membre,
de dita delle mani aggrinzersi in maniera come se fossero
realmente inchiodate ; dalli capelli grondare strisce di sangue,
dl capo languido, girandolo ora destra, ora a sinistra ed or
.abandonarlo sui petto, gli occhi eclissati e stupidi, la faccia
iimpallidita, e con un sudor di morte." — P. 215.

ROMISH MIRACLES. 655
Afterwards he relates that she had a copious sweating of
blood, (p. 216,) and that the Saviour communicated to her
the wound in the side of his breast.
Such are the miracles related in support of priestcraft,
purgatory, the veneration of images, and the sanctity of one
of the veriest of fanatics, and such are a few more of those
miracles which Dr. Newman alleges to be antecedently as
credible as the miracles recorded in the New Testament,
and which of course Dr. Newman receives as miracles on
the highest possible ecclesiastical authority. In fact, as he
says, he finds it impossible to resist the evidence of them.
The next interesting miracles I shall quote are those of
St. Dominick, another distinguished saint of the Church of
Rome, taken from " Bollandi Acta Sanctorum. Augusti,
torn. i. p. 401. De S. Dominico confessore die quarta Augusti."
" Firmioribus testimoniis robora- " A prodigy performed about this
tur prodigium circa ha?c tempora time is confirmed by stronger testi-
patratum, quod venerabilis Hum- monies, which the venerable Hum-
bertus in vita S. Dominici, c. 44, bert, in his life of St. Dominick, a.
distincte narrat, et quod apud nos in 44, clearly relates, and which is thus
TJltrajectino ejusdem vitae apogra- given in the Utrecht memoir of his
pho sic sonat. ' Cum aliquando ap- life. ' When the same blessed Dom-
ud castrum, quod dicitur Fanum- inick, in proving the Catholic faith,
Jovis, in praedicatione' quadam idem had attacked the perfidy of the her-
beatus Dominicus, fidem probans etics in various'ways near the castle
Catholicam, hsereticorum perfidiam called the Temple of Jupiter, he re-
multipliciter improbasset, post prae- mained as usual in the church in
dicationem more soUto in ecclesia ad prayer after preaching. Behold,
orationem remansit. Et ecce novem nine noble ladies entering the
matrona? nobiles ex eodem castro in- church from the same castle, threw
trantes ecclesiam, ad pedes ejus themselves at his feet, saying, " Ser-
prociderunt • dicentes, " Serve Dei, vant of God, help us. If those things
adjuva nos. Si vera sunt, quae ho- be true which you have this day
die praedicasti, jam diumentes nos- preached, the spirit of error has
tras erroris spiritus excaecavit; nam long enough blinded our eyes, for
istis, quos tu haereticos vooas, nos those whom you caU heretics, we
autem bonos homines appellamus, call good men, and to this day have
usque in hodiernum diem credidi- beUeved and followed heartily.
mus, et adha?simus toto corde. Now, however, we are perplexed.
Nunc autem in medio fluctuamus. Servant of God, help us, and pray to

656

ROMISH MIRACLES.

Serve Dei, adjuva nos, et ora Domi
num Deum tuum, ut notam nobis.
faciat fidem suam, in quS, vivamus,
moriamur, et salvemur." ' — P. 228.
" Tunc vir Dei stans aUquandiu,
et intra semetipsum orans, post aU-
quantulum dixit eis, ' Constantes es
tate et exspectate intrepide; confido
in Domino Deo meo, quod ipse, qui
neminem vult perire, jam ostendet
vobis, quali domino hactenus adhae-
sistis.' Statimque viderunt de me
dio sui catum (al. cattum in mar
gin) unum teterrimum prosilire, qui
magni canis prseferens quantitatem,
habebat grossos oculos et fiammantes,
Knguam longam latamque atque san-
guinolentam protractam usque ad
umbilicum; caudam vero habens
curtam sursumque protensam, pos-
teriorum turpitudinem, quoeumque
se verteret, ostendebat, de quibus
fcetor intolerabilis exhalabat. Cum
que circa matronas illas se per ali
quam horam hue illucque vertisset,
ad chordamj ex qu& campana pen-
debat, exsiUens, et per earn usque
ad superiora conscendens, tandem
per campanile lapsus disparuit, fee-
da post se vestigia derelinquens.
Conversus autem ad matronas iUas
vir Dei Dominicus, et consolans eas,
' Ecce,' inquit, ' per hoc, quod coram
oculis vestris, faciente Deo, figura
tive comparuit, potestis advertere,
qualis est ille, eui hactenus, sequen-
tes haereticos servivistis.' Illae vero
gratias Deo referentes ab iUa horl
ad fidem CathoUcam sunt conversae,
quarum etiam auqus? apud Sorores
de Pruliano religionis habitum as-
sumpserunt. Vero simiUter Hum-
bertus istud miraculum diligenter
examiuavit, quandoquidem iUud dis-
tinctiori modo, quam aUi scriptores,
uosteritati reUquit."

the Lord your God that he would
reveal to us his faith, in which we
may Uve, die, and be saved." '
" Then the man of God, standing
some time, and praying within him
self, after a Uttle, said to them, ' Be
steadfast and expect with confi
dence; I believe in the Lord my
God, who desires none to perish, that
he will show you what a master you
have fbUowed.' Instantly they saw
leap from the midst of them a very
black cat, as big as a large dog, with
huge and flashing eyes, with a ,long,
broad, and bloody tongue thrust out
and extending to the middle of his
body (umbiUcum), but with a short
tail turned upwards, so that what
ever way he turned he showed pos
teriorum turpidinem, from which
proceeded a most intolerable smeU.
And after showing himself to these
ladies for an hour, he leaped up
along the bell rope, and climbing by
it he ascended to the roof of the
house, and disappeared as if he had
fallen from the belfry, leaving foul
traces behind him. Dominick, the
man of God, turning to these ladies
and comforting them said, ' Behold,
by this Which has typically ap
peared before yonr eyes, God doing
it, you may see what he is whom
you have obeyed in foUowing the
heretics.' These noble ladies, after
giving thanks to God, turned to the
Catholic faith, and some of them
took the habit of religion among the
Sisters de Prulianno. In Uke man
ner also Humbert diligently investi
gated the miracle, and at the same
time has handed ft down to posterity
in a clearer manner than other
writers."

ROMISH MIRACLES.

657

" Hinc facile fidem adhibemus iis,
qua? Echardus tomo i. bibU pra?di-
cat, pp. 6. et 1, ex monumentis ejus
dem monasterii ita profert, ' Novem
nobUes matrones, Fani-Jovis incolae,
praedicatione et exemplis Sancti
Patris ab haeresi conversa? sunt per
miraculum, quod viderunt, daemonis,
sub forma, bestiae egredientis, in tem
pore quo vir Dei concionem finivit:,
quarum una, nomine Berengaria, in
inquisitione facta pro sancti. viri ca-
nonizatione, dictum miraculum, a se
visum, cum juramento testata est.' "

' Hence we readily give credit to
those things which Echard in hifl
first volume, pages 6 and 7, adduces
from the monuments of the same
Church, saying, ' Nine noble ladies,
inhabitants of the Temple of Jupi
ter, were converted by the preach
ing and examples of the holy father,
by means of a miraole which they
saw of the devil escaping in the like
ness of a beast, after the man of God
had finished his sermon; one of
whom, named Berengaria, at the in
quisition summoned for the canoni
zation of the holy man, testified on
oath that she saw it,' "
"Moreover, Echard gives the
names of these converted women
from the same monuments, thus:
' These are the names of the nine,
taken from the same sources: Sis
ters Audacia, Raymunda Passarina,
Berengaria, Richarda, Barbairana
Jordana, GuUlelmina de Belloponte,
Gurtolana, Raymunda Claretta, Gen-
tiana; all of whom entered the
building,, which was constructed as
the PruUan, Chapel pf the blessed
Virgin, on St, CeciUa's day,Novem-
ber the 22d; and on St. John the
Evangelist's day following, Decem
ber the 27th, 1206, they were irrevo
cably confined under lock and key.
Shortly after these things, two -of
them, Manenta and Guillelmina of
Jupiter's Temple, joined this society
and the blessed Dominick made tha
latter the Prioress.' "
From "Acta Sanctorum Bollandi, mensis Augusti," torn.
i. die quarta, I copy additional facts.
. . . "Alia nonnulla, quae Sanctus in hac commoratione
Romana gessisse dicitur."
" Geraidus de Fracheto in Vitis " Gerard de Fracheto, in his Lives

" Dein Echardus ex iisdem monas
terii monumentis has fceminas con-
versas ita nominat: ' Harum novem
nomina haec sunt ex iisdem actis.
Sorores Audacia, Raymunda Passa
rina, Berengaria, Richarda, Barbaira
na Jordana, Guillelmina de Bellopon
te, Curtolana, Raymunda Claretta,
Gentiana,quae domum qualemcunque
ad sacellum beatae Virginis Prulian-
um constractum intrarunt die Sanc
ta? CasciUae, -xxii, Novembris, et die S.
Johannis evaugeUsta? sequenti, xxyti
Decembris, 1206, sub clave deinccps
non egressurae clausa? fuerunt, Hip
paulo post duae se adjunxere Manen
ta et GuiUelmina de Fano-Jovis,
quam ultimam beatus Dominicus
Priorissam constituit.' " — P. 230.

658

ROMISH MIRACLES.

Fratrum, par. 2. e. 14, de sancto suo
fundatore refert sequential ' Cum
quadam nocte vir sanctus in oratione
prostratus jaceret, diabolus invidens
ei, de tecto ecclesia? lapidem mag
num projecit tam fortiter juxta eum,
ut per totam ecclesiam sonitum fa-
ceret, ut scilicet earn ab orationis
instantia deturbaret. Venit autem
lapis tam prope, ut etiam tangeret
caputium cappa? ejus. Cumque vir
sanctus immobilis in oratione per-
sisteret, diabolus mox voce terribili
ejulans confusus abscessit' " — § 565.
" Theodoricus de Appaldia apud
nos, num. 171. baud dubie ex hoc
spioilegio Gerardi eamdem rem ex-
cerpsit, et quamvis locus non expri
matur, tamen scriptores Dominicarii
communiter tradunt, id Romae in
ecclesia S. Sabina accidisse."
" Quapropter Malvenda in Annal-
ibus ad annum Christi 1218, c. 35,
opportune nos ita monet, ' Pompeius
Ugonius libro de Stationibus Urbis,
statione prima auctor est, marmor
iHud pavimenti, ictu saxi a daemone
jacti, in diversas partes scissum -et
conquassatum, ad annum 1586 man-
sisse omnibus conspicuum, signum
miraculi retinens. Sed eo anno, de-
jecto mediano pari'ete, qui ecclesiam
intersecabat, uti superms diximus,
et instaurato pavimento, jussu Xisti
Pontificis Maximi, qui eam eccle
siam illustrandam curabat, merce-
narii opera? nihil minus curantes,
marmor iUud fractum amoverunt,
veteremque iUam miraculi memo
riam dissiparunt.' " — § 567.
" Deinde laudatus Pompeius, fol.
15, suggerit Italice posteriorem
memorati saxi notitiam, quam Mal
venda in AnnaUbus loco prox-mne

of the Brethren, par. 2. c. 14, relates
the following concerning his foun
der: ' When the holy man lay pros
trate in prayer one night, the devil,
envying him, threw at him a great
stone, so violently that it reverbe
rated throughout the whole church,
evidently in order to disturb the
earnestness of his devotion. The
stone came so near that it hit the
top of his cowl. And when the
holy man remained immovable in
prayer, the confounded devil fled
howling fearfully.' "
" Theodore of Appaldia, num. 171,
without expressing a doubt about it,
selects the same account from Ge
rard's coUection; and although the
spot where it took place is not spe
cified, still the Dominican writers
generally state, that it occurred in
St. Sabine's Church at Rome."
"Accordingly, Malvenda, in his
Annals of the year 1218, c. 35,
seasonably advises us, 'Pompeius
Ugonius, in his book concerning the
Stations of the City, in his first sta
tion tells us, that the marble pave
ment was split and shattered into
fragments by the blow of the devil's
stone, and remained visible to all,
and retained the evidence of the
miracle till 1586. But the middle
wall of the church having been
thrown down that year, as we have
related above, and the pavement
having been repaired by order of
Pope Xistus, the careless mercenary-
workmen rempved the broken, mar
ble, and thus destroyed the ancient
record of the miracle."
"Afterwards the illustrious Pom
peius gives in Italian the latest. no
tice of the memorable stone, which
Malvenda, in the last-cited place

ROMISH MIRACLES.

659

citato sicfereLatinamreddit:,'Nunc
saxum ipsum, quod cjaemon in sanc
tum Dominicum jecit, in medio ec
clesiae supra columneUam bicubita-
lem positum revinctumque catena
ferrea, ne quis auferat, visitur, quod
nos saepe conspeximus. Est nigri
coloris, rotundum, et,ut remur, pon-
deris quinquaginta librarum .exisjji-
mamus esse ex vetustis, Rornanorum
ponderibus ; nam multos hujus usus
consimiles lapides Roma? vidimus. ' "
— 4 568.

thus translates into Latin : ' Now is
seen the very stone which the devil
threw at Dominic, placed above a
column two cubits high in the midst
of the church, and fastened with an
iron chain to prevent its removal,
which we have often seen. It is of
a black color, round, and as we cal
culate, about fifty pounds weight,
according to the old Roman meas
ure ; for we have seen many similar
stones at Rome.' "

" Bollandi Acta Sanctorum, Augusti, torn. i.
Dominico confessore, die quarta Augusti."

De S.

" Adest igitur dies Celebris ut
translatio eximii doctoris celebretur,
etc. accedit pia episeoporum devo-
tio, accedunt et alii .... Ablato si-
quidem lapide, ccepit odor quidam
mii-ificus ex foramine exhalare, cu
jus fragrantiS, adstantes attoniti
mirabantur, quid esset. Removeri
jubent capsa? tabulam; et ecce
apotheca unguentorum, paradisus
aromatum, hortus rosarum, campus
liliorum et violarum, ac omnium
florum suavitas viota perhibetur.
Bononia quondam quod plaustra in-
gredientia tetrum odorem fundant
adveniente rota foetore perfunditur;
dum gloriosi Dominici sepulchrum
panditur, odore omnium aromatum
suavitate vincente, purificata exhi-
laratur. Stupentqui aderant et stu-
pore perterriti cadunt. Hinc ruunt
dulces flatus, miscentur et gaudia;
timor et spes in campo animae con-
surgunt, moventque beUa mirifica,
mirifici odoris suavitatem sentientes.
Sensimus et nos hujus odoris dulce-
dinem, et quae vidimus et sensimus,
haec testamur; nunquam enim, Ucet

" Therefore, forasmuch as the day
has come for celebrating the depart
ure of the excellent doctor, etc., the
bishops and others came ... On
removing the stone a wonderful
odor was emitted from the entrance,
the fragrance of which excited the
wonder and admiration of the by
standers, as to what it was. They
ordered the top of the coffin to be
removed, and lo! an apothecary's
shop of ointments, a paradise of
aromatics, a garden of roses, a field
of liUes and violets, and the sweet
ness of every flower, is emitted and
excelled. Once Boulogne was in-
Undated with a bad smell, owing to
the arrival of wagons which gave it
out ; but while the grave of the glo
rious Dominick was opened, the
odor of all. his aromatics gained the
upper hand by their sweetness.
Those that are present are aston
ished, and faU to the ground. From
this place sweet gales proceed, and
pleasures are communicated; hope
and fear of soul arise in this field,
and extraordinary contests of feel-

660 ROMISH MIRACLES.
diutius juxta corpus eloquii porti- ing are excited in those who are
toris sancti Dominici studiose steter- sensible of the sweetness of the
inms, poteramus tanto dulcore Sati- wonderful odor. And these things
ari. Dulcor ille fastidium expeUe- which we testify, we saw and were
bat, devotionem ingerebat, miracula sensible of. . . . The sweetness it-
suscitabat. Si manu, si cingulo, si self cast out pride, produced devo-
aliqua re tangebatur corpus, per tion, provoked marvels. If the body
tempus proUxum odor ille permane- were touched with the hand, with
bat. Delatum est corpus ad monu- the girdle, or with any other thing,
mentum marmoreum, cum propriis such thing retained the odor for
aromatibus ibidem reeondendum. some time. The body was con
Spirabat odor mirificus ex corpore veyed to a marble monument, with
sancto, ostendens cunctis dilucide, proper spices. A wonderful odor
quam bonus Christi odor hie esset." arose from the sacred body, showing
evidently in every way that he was
the good odor of Christ."
Now, I ask, are these signs and wonders, so solemnly and
so authentically given, from the same mint as the miracles
of Jesus ? Are they, in any sense Dr. Newman may attach
to the word, credible ? Is not the narrative alone disproof
of their truth — demonstration of imposture, not inspira
tion — of lying wonders, not holy miracles ? We might
expect them as antecedently credible respecting the " man
of sin," but in no respect credible as credentials or acts of
the Son of God. Yet, they are accepted by the Church of
Rome as elements of her resolution to canonize the workers
of them. What a saint was the ruthless savage Dominick,
inciting the foundation of the Inquisition ! What a saint
was Gregory "VTL, an ambitious priest attempting at any
cost to subject Europe to the See of Rome ! What a saint
was Thomas k Becket, a rebel to his king, and a traitor to
his country ! What a saint was Pius V., who burned more
heretics than most of his predecessors, excommunicated
Queen Elizabeth, and incited her subjects to rebellion!
Some of those saints whose miracles I have quoted, were
fanatics, some were fools, and others, I fear, were knaves.
Their so-called mhacles are lying legends, not miracles to
be received as the works of the omnipotence of God.

ROMISH MIRACLES.

661

The next story I quote is one respecting St. Laurentius,
taken from " Historia? Ecclesiastics gentis Anglorum, lib. v.',
a venerabili Beda, presbytero scriptee, etc. CantabrigiEe,
1644."

" Cum vero Laurentius, MeUitum
Justumque secuturus, ac Britanniam
esset relieturus, jussit ipsa sibi nocte
in Ecclesia beatorum Apostolorum
Petri et Pauli, de qua frequenter
jam diximus, stratum parari: in
quo cum post multas preces ac lac
rymas ad Deum pro statu Ecclesiae
fusas, ad quiescendum membra pos-
nisset, atque obdormisset, apparuit
ei beatissimus Apostolorum princeps,
et multo ilium tempore secretae noc-
tis flagellis acrioribus afEciens, scis-
citabatur Apostolica districtione,
quare gregem, quem sibi ipse credi-
derat, reiinqueret, vel cui oves Chris
ti in medio luporum positas fugiens
ipse demitteret? "

" When Laurentius, being about
to foUow MeUitum and Justus, was
going to leave Britain, he ordered a
bed to be prepared for him in the
Church of the blessed Apostles Pe
ter and Paul, of which we have
already spoken. In which, after
pouring out many prayers and tears
before God for the state of the
Church, when he had composed:
himself to rest and fallen asleep, tlie
most blessed Peter, Prince of the
Apostles, appeared to him, and
scourged him with sharp whips fre
quently in the secret night, and
asked him with apostolic severity,
why he left the flock committed to
him, or why, abandoning the sheep
of Christ amidst wolves, he should
himself run away."

In other words, this credible miracle is the record that the
Apostle Peter came down to a saint in the midst of the
night, f~ized a whip, and scourged him so severely, that the
bruise? were visible the next day. "Are you not forgetful, said he,
of my example, who for Christ's,
tender lambs, which he commended
to me in token of his love, endured
patiently bonds, stripes, imprison
ments, afflictions, and lastly even
death itself; but the cross to which
I was nailed by infidels and enemies
of Christ, was to me only the prep
aration to my being crowned with
Christ ? The servant of God, stirred
up by these exhortations and scourg-

"An cei, inquit, oblitus es exem-
ph qui pro parvulis Christi, quos
mihi in indicium suae dilectionis
comni'Sidaverat, vincula, verbera,
carcfces, afflictiones, ipsam postre-
mo mortem autem crucis, ab infi-
delibus et inimicis Christi, ipse cum
Christo coronandus pertuU? His
beati Petri flagelUs simul et ex-
hortationibus animatus famulus
Christi Laurentius mox mane facto
venit ad regem, et relicto vestimen- 56

662

ROMISH MIRACLES.

to, quantis esset verberibus lacera
tes ostendit. Qui multum miratus
et inquirens, quis tanto viro tales
ausus esset plagas infligere, ut audi-
vit quia causa sua? salutis Episco
pus ab apostolo Christi tanta esset
tormenta plagasque perpessus, exti-
muit multum, atque anathematizato
omni idololatria? cultu, abdicate con-
nubio non legitimo, suscepit fidem
Christi, et baptizatus ecclesia? rebus
quantum valui in omnibus consulere
ac favere curavit."

ings, went to the king in the morn
ing, and taking off his shirt showed
him with what heavy scourgings he
had been torn. The astonished king
demanded who had dared to ad
minister such stripes on so great a
man; but as soon as he learned that
it was for his salvation that the
Bishop was so beaten and scourged
by the Apostle of Christ, he was
afraid, and abandoning all idolatry,
and giving up an improper connu
bial relationship, he embraced the
faith of Christ, and being baptized,
made himself useful in the things of
the church, and always took care tc
study its welfare, and to befriend
it."

And this miracle of the Apostle Peter coming down in the
night, and exercising a whip upon the shoulders of a saint,
is thought by Dr. Newman to be as credible as the miracles
of the New Testament !
The next miracles I quote are those of St. Teresias, who
died owing to the intolerable fire of divine love which con
sumed her.
The Bull of Canonization of Teresias, who died a.d.
1580, and was canonized in the year 1620 by Gregory XV,
I take from the " Bullarium Magnum Romanum." " Gre-
gorius Episcopus, servus servorum Dei, etc. Omnipotens,
sermo Dei, etc."

"Aliquando etiam Angehim vidit
ignito jaculo sibi praecordia trans-
verberantem, ex quibus ccelestibus
donis divini amoris flamma in ejus
corde adeo exa?stuabat, ut maxime
arduum votum a Deo edocta emiser-
it, efficiendi semper quicquid per-
fectius esse et ad majorem Dei glo
riam pertinere inteUigeret. Quine-
tiam post mortem cuidam moniaU

" Sometimes, "also, she saw an
angel piercing her entrails with a
burning dart, from which divine
gifts she so burned with the flame
of divine love, that she emitted the
most arduous vow to do always
whatever she might understand to
be more perfect, and to the greater
glory of God. Also after her death
she revealed in a vision, to a certain

ROMISH MIRACLES.

663

per visum manifestavit, se non vi monk, that she died not by the vio-
morbi, sed ex intolerabiU divini lence of disease, but by the insuffer-
amoris incendio vita excessisse." able burning of divine love."
St. Maria Magdalena de Pazzi bathed her hands and
arms in cold water, and drank most copiously of it under
the influence of divine love to cool the -ZEtna within her, as
will appear from her Bull of Canonization. "Bullarium
Magnum Romanum." She died a.d. 1607, and was canon
ized by Clement X., a.d. 1670.

" Pra?terea cum aeterno Patre eo-
dem anno admirandum habuit col
loquium, de modo adornandi animam
ante sumptionem sanctissima? Eu-
charistiae; atque his profusoe in se
divini tatis muneribus ad iUud amoris
incendium evasit, ut interdum ex-
clamaret, ' 0 amor, te ampUus ferre
non possum. Amor in te revertere ;
tanti amoris incapax ego sum.' Ex-
inde ad geUdum fontem vel ad putei
crepidinem manus et brachia undis
mergebat, easdem potabat avidis-
sime, marium opiosa aspergine pec
toris jEtnam refrigerabat."

"Moreover, she had with the
eternal Father in the same year a
valuable discourse as to the manner
of preparing the' soul before partak
ing ofthe most holy Eucharist; and
from these gifts of a profuse divinity
in herself, she rose to that heat of
love that she exclaimed, ' 0 love, I
cannot bear it longer. 0 love, retire
into thyself, I am not capable of so
great love.' Then she went to a
fountain or well, and dipt her arms
and hands in water, and drank most
greedily, and cooled the .Etna of her
soul with copious ablutions."

Conceive now a person having such love in the heart,
that, love within being capable of being cooled by water
applied without, she is obliged to bathe in cold water, and
drink copiously of it, in order to cool that love ; and yet
this is one of Dr. Newman's saints and miracle workers.

" Continuavit etiam suayissimi
odoris ex singulis membris, sed
pra?cipue et acutius ex stomacho,
fragrantia tam mira suaveolentia, ut
ei nee liquorum, nee florum, aut
aromatum odores comparari queant;
adeo ut plurium medicorum asser-
tione et testimonio constet, non nisi
divinitus prodire ex iUo virgineo cor-

" There continued, also the fra
grance of the sweetest scent from all
herUmbs; but most perceptibly and
acutely from her stomach such a
sweetness of scent, that neither the
odors of Uqueurs, nor flowers, nor
aromatics could be compared toitj
so much so, that it is evident, from.
the assertion and testimony of medi-

664

ROMISH MIRACLES.

pusculo talem fragrantiam, quae ad
huc longe suavius emanavit cum
anno Domini miUesimo sexcentesi
mo sexagesimo tertio pro solemni
canonizatione exaratus fuit proces
sus." — Ibid.

cal men, that such an odor could
not emanate from hei- virgin body,
unless by divfne power, which only
the more sweetly issued in 1663,
when the process for her solemn
canonization was begun."

This scent thus lasted fifty-six years.
Lewis of Claremont, who had lost his sense of smelling
from the time he was sixteen years old, recovered it through
the sweet odor which emanated from the corpse of St. Ray
mond of Pennafort, as will appear from the following
extract from the " Bullarium Magnum Romanum." This
saint died a.d. 1275. He was canonized by Clement
VIII. A.D. 1601.

" Clemens Episcopus, servus ser-
vorum Dei, etc. Romana CathoUca
Ecclesia, etc. .
" Anno itidem miUesimo quingen-
tesimo nonagesimo sexto, cum ju-
dices constituti ad explorandas bea
ti hujus viri reliquias, arcam ubi
erant recondita? aperuissent, tantus
illico odor ex ejus corpore, qui,viv-
ens in odorem suavitatis Deo se con-
secraverat, exhalavit, ut multi qui
eo confluxerant, nihil eo percipi
posse jucundius affirmarent; quini-
mo egregius vir Ludovicus de
Claremont ex gravi morbo sensu
odoratus a sexdecim annis orbatus,
cum in ea hominum multitudine
videndi desiderio incitatus, propius
accessisset, eum etiam odorem sua-
vissimum sensit; quo repente ita
recreatus est, ut lacrymas pra? gau-
dio continere, nee uUam vooem
' emittere ullo modo posset ; verum
tacittts apud se cogitans dubitabat,
cum istius soiummodo odoris olfac-
tum rcCuperasset, au etiam rerum
aliarum. Sed dohium re'versus, ubi

" Clement Bishop, servant of the
servants of God, etc.
" Likewise in the year 1659,
when the judges who were appoint
ed to examine the remains, of this
blessed man, opened the tomb where
they were buried, immediately so
great an odor was exhaled from the
body of him, who whilst living had
.consecrated himself as a sweet savor
unto God, that many who flocked to
the place declared that nothing
sweeter could be conceived; and,
what is more, when that eminent
man, Lewis of Claremont, who had
been deprived by a severe disease of
his sense of smell from the age of
sixteen, attracted by curiosity, ap
proached the place with the multi
tude, he also smelt the delightful
odor; by which he was so suddenly
cured, that he shed tears of joy, and
was unable to speak; but wondered
in silent thought whether he had
only recovered his sense of smeU as
far as this odor was concerned, or

ROMISH MIRACLES. 665
ee varios odores percipero. animadr whether it was completely restored
vertit, miraculum subito evulgavit." to him. But on returning to his
home, and discovering that he
could perceive various odors, he
immediately proclaimed the mira
cle."
This scent lasted, therefore, three hundred and twenty-one
years. Another of those " lying wonders " that Dr. New
man considers to be antecedently credible.
Cardinal Wiseman — [Some one in the body of tho
Town Hall here objected to the title "-Cardinal," upon
which Dr. Cumming said :] A cardinal is a temporal officer
of the Church of Rome. He may be a layman, he is not
necessarily a priest. Dr. Wiseman is not Archbishop of
Westminster. I say, the Pope can make him an arch
bishop, but only the Queen of England can constitute him
Archbishop of Westminster, which has been refused. But
I do not think I commit myself in the least when I call him
a cardinal, because he is an officer of the Pope, known by
that name. Whether a cardinal ought to be here or not, is
quite another thing. But, if it will be more consonant with
the feelings of the evidently rightminded gentleman who
has just interrupted me, I will call him " Dr. Wiseman."
Dr. Wiseman has edited a book called " Lives of St. Al
phonsus Liguori, St. Francis de Girolamo, St. John Joseph
of the Cross, St. Pacificus of San Severino, and St. Veron
ica Giuhani, whose canonization took place on Trinity Sun
day, May 26th, 1839."
In the life of St. Joseph of the Cross, he gives us the
furniture of his cell, (p. 144,) — "A rough seat and a table,
a bed, consisting of two narrow planks, with two sheepskins
and a wretched woollen coverlet, a stool to rest his wounded
legs upon ; these, with his Breviary, formed the whole furni
ture of his cell." There . is no mention, you see, of that
book which you would haye thought would certainly have
been in a minister's cell, known by the name of the Bible.
56*

666 ROMISH MIRACLES.
" In reward for his virginal purity, which he preserved ur*-
spotted from his baptism, as his confessor afterwards attested,
God caused his person," says Dr. Wiseman, "in spite of his
age, infirmities, and constant sores, to diffuse a sweet and
delicious perfume." Again, he says this saint had the
" custom of frequently kissing the hands of priests." And
here is a very remarkable instance of his want of sincerity,
— " Not unfrequently he desired those whom he restored to
health, to take some certain medicine, that the cure might be
attributed to a mere natural remedy." In other words, he
concealed his miracles by lies. He was so modest, that- he
lied rather than expose himself to praise. If it was a
miracle, he should have said so ; if it was not a miracle, he
should have admitted it; but to have it here recorded as a
miracle, and the saint, knowing it was a miracle, out of
humility desiring the recipient to say the cure resulted from
medicine, is to invest the saint with the faculty of telling
lies as well as the power of doing miracles.
Next he describes St. Veronica Giuliani, ¦ — and really I
am surprised that Dr. Wiseman ever could have committed
himself to his almost blasphemous descriptions of what she
was. At p. 247, he tells us, " God recompensed her readi
ness to drink the chalice of sufferings, by making her a par
taker of the torments of his passion. On the 4th of Aprilj
1649, as near as can be ascertained, he appeared to her, and
presented her with his crown of thorns. In obedience to her
confessor, she thus describes her vision : ' On the 4th of
April, whilst I was in prayer during the night, I fell into a
reverie, and in it had an intellectual vision, wherein our
Lord appeared to me, with a large crown of thorns upon his
head. Immediately I cried out, " My Spouse, give me a
part of these thorns ; I deserve them, not thou, my Sove
reign Good." I heard him reply, " I am now come to crown
thee, my beloved ; " and then he took the crown off his head)
and placed it upon mine. The pain I suffered; at that

ROMISH MIRACLES. 667
instant, was so excessive, that I have never, as far as I can
understand, suffered any thing like it. It is true, that at
that time it was made known to me, that this crowning was
a manifest sign that I was to be espoused to the Lord "; and
that, for this reason, he wished me to share in all his tor
ments, so that I might be called the spouse of God crucified,
and therefore I also was to be crucified with my divine
spouse.'" This is Dr. Wiseman's record of what she said,
and he gives it- as a model of what you are to imitate,
instead of the saints in the New Testament, who are to be
followed as they followed Christ. She proceeds, as stated by
Dr. Wiseman, to say, " Every thorn that I felt in my head
was a fresh invitation to me. On the same day, I was prom
ised all the renewals of this crowning. But it seemed to me
that such suffering was a great joy to me ; I felt as if I
should die, if I had not some torment to undergo."
In another part of this volume, (p. 251,) Dr. Wiseman
records her sayings as follows : " ' While I was one morning
at mass, suddenly an application came upon me. During
the course of it, I felt certain touches in my heart, which
excited me to a strong desire of uniting myself wholly to
God. On a sudden it seems to me that God took me out of
my senses, and, by communication, gave me to know, ab
intra, that he wished to be espoused to me. This news
made my heart leap anew, and I felt it burning within me.
With this excitement was displayed to me all that I was to
do, in order to make due preparations for it ; and in this
interval I received light to know that all this preparation
was to be of pure suffering.' She protests," says Dr. Wise
man, " that after this vision, the_ simple words, ' My Divine
Jesus, spouse of my soul,' filled her heart with indescribable
joy, and that she went on repeating them, like a rosary, the
same number of times that the angelical salutation is therein
repeated. She adds," says Dr. Wiseman, " that, in inviting
her to His marriage, Jesus frequently appeared in the form

668 ROMISH MIRACLES.
of a beautiful infant ; and on the Feast of the Circumcision,
1694, intimated to her that her preparation for it was to be
by all kinds of sufferings. During the month of March,
she was troubled with great desolation and spiritual dryness.
But on the twenty-seventh of that month, our Lord com
forted her by showing her with what delight He looked upon
a beautiful jewel, fixed in the wound of His sacred side ; and
telling her that it had been formed of all the sufferings she
had undergone for His sake. She offered herself," says Dr.
Wiseman, " anew to be crucified with Him, and He seemed
to stoop down and embrace her soul, giving it a kiss of love.
' When we return to ourselves,' she concludes, ' after these
communications, we understand, in the most lively manner,
the value of suffering, and the treasure which lies concealed
amid contempt, disgrace, and humiliations. These are the
lessons to be learned in this school of divine love.' Two
days previous," says Dr. Wiseman, " on the Feast of the
Annunciation, our blessed Lady was pleased to prepare her
for her espousals. This was by an intellectual vision, as she
calls such in her writings, wherein she beheld the great
Queen of Angels upon a magnificent throne, accompanied
by St. Catharine of Sienna, and St. Rose of Lima," of
whom I have given you some specimens. " To their prayer,
that she would consent to the espousal of her servant with
her divine Son, our Lady sweetly replied, that they should
be brought about. Veronica," says Dr. Wiseman, " saw in
her hands a beautiful ring, intended, she was told, for her.
' And then, turning to these saints,' she adds, ' it seemed to
me that our Lady told me that I must imitate them in the
most heroic virtues, especially in humility, charity, and
knowledge of myself. As she said this, it seemed to me
that she communicated these virtues to me ab intra, and the
precious treasure that lies hid in them. . . . From that day
till now, I have been, as it were, out of myself and I have
ever had this intimate presence of God.' During Lent,"

ROMISH MIRACLES. 669
says Dr. Wiseman, " she practised the most cruel mortifi
cations and austerities ; and on Holy Saturday — which in
that year feU upon the tenth of April — our Lord appeared
to her ; and showing her the nuptial ring, invited her to His
marriage on the following day. As a proof of the reality
of these supernatural visions, let the reader," says. Dr. Wise
man, " observe their effects. ' Here it was again made
known to me,' she writes, ' that for this purpose a complete
renewal of my soul was required. It seemed to me that
our Lord gave me a new rule of living with greater aus
terity ; of greater silence ; of working with greater fervor
and love ; of doing all things with purity of intention, and
in His honor of refusing to gratify any natural inchnation,
and embracing quite the opposite ; of flying human praises,
and loving contempt and mortification ; of being in all things
a lover of the cross, and to hold it in my hand as a strong
shield of defence ; of being crucified in every thing, and of
laboring to attain all that is of the highest perfection.'
During the night," says Dr. Wiseman, " she had three
visions; in the first of which Jesus seemed to enter her
heart, and to cast out of it what the saint, in her humility,
calls ' earthly things, begrimed with self-love, and disgusting
to the smell, — such as human respects, and all imperfections
that could impede my advancement.' In the two following
visions," says Dr. Wiseman, " He seemed to adorn her soul
with rich furniture, which He told her were His own divine
merits, given to her as her dowry. When the time of com
munion arrived, she felt herself more than ever inflamed
with heavenly love. As she approached the altar, she heard
the angels singing in sweetest melody, Veni Sponsa Christi ;
then, being rapt out of her senses, she beheld two magnifi
cent thrones ; that on the right hand, of gold, decorated
with the most splendid jewels, whereupon was seated our
blessed Lord, with his wounds shining brighter than the
sun ; the other formed of alabaster of purest whiteness,

670 ROMISH MIRACLES.
and brilliant with gems, and thereupon was seated our
blessed Lady, in a white mantle of surpassing richness,
who besought her son to hasten His marriage. Innumer
able were the multitudes of the heavenly court, in the
midst whereof were the holy virgins, St. Catharine and St.
Rose, the former of whom intimated to Veronica what
she was to do in that most august solemnity. They con
ducted her slowly to the thrones, and at the foot thereof put
upon her, over her religious habit, various robes, each sur
passing the other in splendor. As she approached the throne
of Christ, whose garments she knows not, she says, how to
describe, she beheld in each of His wounds a beautiful gem,
but from that in his side, which was open, rays more bright,
than the sun darted on every side. In it she seemed to
perceive the nuptial ring. When He raised up His hand
to bless her, He entoned the words, Veni Sponsa Christi,
and our Lady with the whole court, taking them up, con
tinued, Accipe coronam, quam tibi Dominus prceparavit in
cetemum. St. Catharine then took off her rich attire, leav
ing only her religious habit, to show, the saint intimates, its
value in the eyes of God, being allowed to appear in that
glorious assembly. After remaining in this dress for a
short time, our Lord made a sign to His blessed mother to
clothe her with the nuptial garment. It was a magnificent
mantle, covered with gems, and appeared of different colors.
Our Lady gave it to St. Catharine, who put it upon Veron
ica, and placed her between the two thrones. Then, feeling
herself more than ever pierced with love, she saw our Lord
take the ring out of His side, and give it to the mother.
' This ring,' she writes, ' shone with splendor. It appeared
to me to be made of gold, but all wrought in enamel, which
formed in the stone the name ofthe good Jesus. . . . .From,
time to time I gave looks of love towards my Lord, and,
seemed to address Him, urging Him to come to the..:
espousals.' The heavenly queen," says Dr. Wiseman,

ROMISH MIRACLES. 571
" commanded her to stretch out her hand to St. Catharine,
which Jesus took, ' and at that moment,' she writes, ' I felt
myself united more closely than ever with Him. Together
with Mary ever blessed, He placed the ring upon my finger,
and then blessed it.' In that instant," says Dr. Wiseman,
"heaven again resounded with the songs of the angelic
choir, after which her Divine Spouse gave her new rules of
perfection, which were, she tells us, to remain wholly dead
to her own will, and to live as if there were nothing else in
the world but himself and her own soul ; that she should
increase her fasting and be more rigorous in her mortifica
tions, and crucified in every thing. During this he told her
he would be entirely hers. Thus ended," continues Dr.
Wiseman, " this mystic ceremony of her espousals ; all of
which she saw, she informs us, with the eyes of the soul, not
of the body. She adds, that nearly at every communion, the
same marriage was renewed ; and that the ring remained
upon her finger, and on communion days seemed to be
pressed tighter round it. It was seen also by the nuns
several times ; and sister Mary Spaciani attests that she
saw it once, during her noviciate, distinctly with her own
eyes. ' It was like a circle all round the ring finger,' to use
her own words, ' at the very spot on which the ring is
usually worn. Above, it was like a raised gem, of about
the size of a pea, of a vermilion color  When I
addressed her, on such occasions, she never gave me an
answer to the point ; but the most wonderful circumstance
is, that when I looked at her hand, a few hours afterwards,
the mark was gone, and the gem, in like manner, had dis
appeared : and then she answered every question I put to
her correctly.' In the processes," says Dr. Wiseman, " two
other rings are mentioned as having been given to her at
the espousals, and the renewals of them, — the ring of love,
and the ring of the cross. She received likewise another
when they were renewed on Easter Day, 1697, which was

672 ROMISH MIRACLES.
enriched, according to her own account, with three gems, on
one of which were engraven two hearts, joined so as to appear
but one ; on the other, the figure of the cross ; on the third,
the instruments of the Passion. The first of them, Jesus
told her, indicated the union of his heart with hers ; the
second, his dowry of union with her soul; and the third,
the remembrance she was to have of his sufferings."
Again, I will give you another extract (p. 261): "On
Christmas eve she made an incision upon her heart in the
form of a cross with a penknife. With the blood, which
issued from it, she wrote a fervent protestation of love, and
a dedication of her will to her infant Saviour. Four other
writings, of the same kind, made during the course of that
and the following year, (1697,) all breathe the same feelings
of consecration of her will to Jesus, and especially of ardent
charity and zeal for the salvation of her neighbors, whose
mediatrix she had promised to be. In one of them, she
writes, ' I intend at this moment to confirm all the protesta
tions which I have made with my own blood, and anew I
make myself the mediatrix between you and sinners. Lo !
I am ready to give my life and blood for the conversion of
sinners, and the confirmation of the Holy Faith. O my
God ! with your heart, with your love, I make this invita
tion. O souls redeemed with the blood of Jesus, I speak
to you ; 0 sinners, come ah to the heart of Jesus, to the
fountain, to the boundless sea of his love. Come, all of
you, men and women, come all, leave sin ; come to Jesus ! '
Her loving spouse," continues Dr. Wiseman, "rewarded
her constancy and love, by the wound which he made in
her heart, on the feast of his blessed nativity in that year
(1696). 'I seemed to see,' she writes, 'in the hand of the
Holy Infant, a rod of gold, at the point of which was, as it
were, a flame of fire, and at the foot, a small piece of iron,
like a little lance ; and he placed this rod against his own
heart, and the point of the lance in my heart, and it seemed

ROMISH MIRACLES. 673
that I felt my heart pierced through and through. In an
instant, I saw nothing in his hand ; but full of grace and
beauty he invited me to love him, and by way of communi
cation, he made me understand that he had bound me to
himself by a closer tie. I understood many things, but at
present I do not remember them distinctly, and therefore I
do not write them.' Through modesty," says Dr. Wiseman,
" she abstained from looking at the wound, but she put a
linen cloth upon it, which was immediately covered with
blood. Her confessor ordered her to examine it,, and she
found it open, and observed that it was large enough to
admit the blade of a good sized knife. It was also examined
by several of her companions, and confessors, as it is attested
in the processes. On Good Friday, the 5th, of April, 1697,
she received those rich pledges of love, which were vouch
safed to the seraphic St. Francis," of whom I shall give you
an account presently, " St. Catharine, and other saints ; for
our Lord, after having previously foretold these graces, and
after displaying his mercies in other ways to her, was
pleased to imprint upon her hands and feet the stigmata or
wounds of his most sacred passion. These wounds were
afterwards renewed upon several other occasions, and their
reality was made known to many persons. For the Tribu
nal of the Holy Office at Rome, having received informa
tion thereof, ordered the bishop of the city to make an
inquiry into the truth of the report. He repaired to the
gate of the convent with several other ecclesiastics, who
severally saw the wounds which her blessed Spouse had
made. Those in the hands and feet, as Florida Cceli and
other sisters attest, were on the upper side round, and about
the size of a farthing, but less on the under-side, deep and
red when open, and covered with a thin cicatrix or crust,
when closed. The wound in the left side, above the left
breast, was between four and five fingers in length, and
about one finger broad in the middle, growing thinner
57

674 ROMISH MIRACLES.
towards the two extremities, exactly like the wound of a
lance." Dr. Wiseman further tells us, (at p. 265,) that
" besides the chalice, and thorny crown, and five principal
wounds, Jesus imparted to her, as a signal mark of his
affection, a participation in all the other sufferings of his
passion." Afterwards, (at p. 269,) Dr. Wiseman informs
us, "Veronica foretold that twenty-four marks would be
found engraven upon her heart ; and, by the order of her
confessor, she described the exact form and disposition of
them, by cutting them out in red and white paper ; and,
after her death, they were found to correspond in every
particular with the account and picture which she had made
of them. They were as follows : a Latin cross with a G in
the top of the upright piece ; the centre of the transverse an
F ; in the right point of the transverse a V ; and in the
left an O. Above the cross was, on one side, a crown of
thorns ; on the left of which was a banner upon a staff,
which passed transversely over the cross, and the flag of
the' banner was divided into two tongues, on the upper of
which was a large I, and on the lower an m in running
hand. At the top of the banner was a flame, and, lower
down, a hammer, a pair of pincers, a lance, and a reed with a
sponge represented upon the top. On the right of the cross,
beginning from above, was a small garment, to represent
the seamless vest of our Lord, another flame, a chalice, two
wounds, a column, three nails, a scourge, and seven swords ;
with the letters P. P. V. on other parts of the heart. All
these marks were exactly described by her upon paper,
which being compared with her heart soon after death, were
found to agree in every particular. Her confessor attests
that the meaning of the above letters and emblems is — the
seven swords are the seven dolors of Mary ; the banner,"
the ensign of her victories over the devil, the world, and
herself; the two letters, I (J) and m, Jesus and Mary ; C,
Charity ; F, Faith and Fidelity to God ; 0, Obedience ; the

ROMISH MIRACLES. 675
two W, Humility and the Will of God , (Umiltil, and
Volonta di Dio) ; PP, Patience and Suffering (Patire) ;
the two flames, the love of God and her neighbor."
The next miraculous stories I shall refer to are those
told concerning blessed St. Francis. This little book whieh
I have in my hand, called " Elogia in S. Patrem Francis-
cum," and published at Antwerp in 1646, contains about
fifty engravings, representing different miraculous acts in
the life of St. Francis. In one, for instance, he is described
as a little boy, whom a nobleman recognized as an infant
saint, and therefore spread his mantle before him to walk
upon. At another time St. Francis kissed a leper, and thus
instantly cured him of his leprosy. We have another en
graving, representing him kneeling before a crucifix,, from
which a voice proceeds, directing him de reparanda ecclesia,
to restore the church. He is then represented as stripping
himself of his clothes, and giving them to his father. Then
we have a:picture representing Christ giving to St. Francis,
who is kneeling before him, a book, the foot note being to
the following effect : Orat et accipit a Christo regulam. The
Pope, according to the next engraving, approves of the
book which he had received, and St. Francis is represented
in the background, supporting with his hands a tottering
edifice, that is, the Roman Catholic Church. We then have
St. Francis appearing to the brothers of his order in a
vision, in a chariot of fire drawn by two horses, the foot
note to the engraving being, S. Franciscus apparet fratribus
in curru igneo. The next picture shows us St. Francis in
his hermitage, kneeling before a wooden cross, with a
death's head at his feet, and an angel advancing with a
bottle and a loaf, and offering them to him. At the foot of
this engraving we are told, S. Franciscus reficitur ab an-
geh in eremo; St. Francis refreshed by an angel in a
desert. In another engraving Christ is represented armed
With thunderbolts, about to destroy the world, but through

676 ROMISH MIRACLES.
the prayers of the Virgin, St. Francis, and St. Dominick,
his anger is appeased. The foot note to this engraving,
which is very characteristic of the whole Romish system, is
as follows: — B. virgo Christum mundo insensum placat per
S. Franciscumet S. Dominicum. The next engraving shows
us St. Francis lying naked in the snow, with some roses in
his hand, which he is offering to the devil, who is drawn as
a lioness on its hind legs, in order to vex him ; the foot note
being, S. Franciscus insultat dcemoni proferens in hyeme
rosas. At another time, according to this book, St. Francis
preached so eloquently that the beasts of the earth, the birds
of the air, and the fishes of the sea came to hear him. The
foot note informs us, S. Franciscus invitat aves, bestias, et
creaturas alias ad laudem Creatoris ; and the engraving
represents an owl — the bird of night — listening most at
tentively and appropriately to, a preacher of the night like
Francis. Again, there is an elephant, looking most saga
cious and devout ; and also a httle lamb, looking up most
intellectually, even more so than the saint, and evidently
smitten with admiration at his eloquence; there is also a
bear in the company, also a cainel, a stag, and a rabbit ; and
out of some water at the saint's feet two fishes are peering
and raising their heads, and apparently swallowing in his
words with great avidity. He is then represented being
beaten by demons. Next, he is refreshed in his cell by the
melody proceeding from an angel's harp. Next, we are
shown his central seat in heaven. In another engraving we
have St. Francis and St. Clara, represented in a flame of
fire, and on the ground there appear to be the remnants of
a repast. By the foot note we are informed that St. Fran
cis and St. Clara, whilst refreshing themselves, were carried
away in ecstasy, and the convent seemed on fire (S. Fran
ciscus et S: Clara se refidentes in extasin repiuntur, et con
ventus ardere visus). Next, he is represented in the act of
restoring a dead child to life, and casting an evil spirit out

ROMISH MIRACLES. 677
of a woman. (Infantem mortuum ad vitam revocat. Ener-
gumenum liberat.) Another engraving represents the saint
with the infant Jesus in his arms, the blessed Virgin having
just presented him to him — the foot note being, Beata
Virgo puerum Jesum Francisco offert. Next, he is repre
sented as receiving a plenary indulgence from Christ
through the mediation , of the blessed Virgin. Another
engraving shows us the saint in the act of receiving the
stigmata, or the five wounds of Christ. There is suspended
in the air a crucifix, and from the wounds of the image are
drawn five lines, each of which impresses a corresponding
woundj one on the side, and the other four on the hands and
feet respectively of the saint. The foot note is as follows:
Biennio ante mortem insignitur a Christo stigmatibus sacris.
He is next represented in the act of dying, his soul having
been raised to heaven in the form of a star. His dead body
is next represented working miraculous cures, and the foot
note informs us, Innumeris uti in vita, sic post obitum mi-
raeulis claret, triginta etiam mortuis resuscitatis. In the
next picture St. Francis is represented pouring blood from
his side into a cup, to satisfy the incredulity of Pope
Gregory IX., who- is seen lying on a bed at the side of the
saint, who is standing before a table filling the cup from his
side, from which the blood is flowing most copiously. The
foot note tells us, Gregorio Nono de vulnere lateris dubitanti
phiala replere visus est sanguine de latere profluente. From
the next picture it would appear that his dead body stood
miraculously erect, and whilst in that position was seen and
worshipped by Pope Nicolaus V., the foot note being to the
following effect : Corpus ejus mortuum viventi simile per tot
ceva stans in pedes erectum sola dwina vi sustentata vidit et
veneratus est Nicolaus V. Pon. Max. In another picture
we see St. Francis pulling souls out of purgatory — the
foot note being, Quotannis in purgatorium descendens suos
ac ordini deisotos inde liberat privilegio singulari. This
57*

678 ROMISH MIRACLES.
saint, I may say, seems to be a favorite of Dr. Newman's,
for he often refers to him in his book, and says in one place,
'<'St. Francis of Assisi, bareheaded and barefooted} would
be hooted " by Protestants. I do not know that we should
do that ; Jbut, since Dr. Newman says that these are credi
ble miracles, and that he has no difficulty in receiving them,
I appeal to the intelligence and common sense of mankind,—
and I know I have a response from its deepest depth, —
whether these are not the delusions of Satan, the deceptions
of fanatics, and not the miracles of the Omnipotent God.
I must now make a few observations upon Dr. Newman's
statement as to the True Cross. He says, " I firmly believe
that- portions of the True Cross are at Rome and elsewhere."
The " Tablet" of September 23, 1848, contains the follow
ing paragraph : —
St. George's Church — r Veneration of the Holy Cross. —
On Thursday last, the Feast of the Exaltation of the Holy
Cross, the devout worshippers of St. George's were gratified,
through the kindness of the Coadjutor Bishop of the District,
by the opportunity of paying their veneration to a portion of
the True Cross belonging to his Lordship, and by his favor
exposed during the morning in front of the screen. A tem
porary altar was erected under the rood, at which mass was
said at eleven. In front of it, raised on a beautiful throne,
and surrounded by lights, the precious relic was from an
early hour exposed to the veneration of the faithful, and
after each of the masses it was given by the several priests
to the people to kiss. It was delightful to see with what
joy the opportunity was embraced by a crowd of worship
pers. After the eleven o'clock mass the relic was borne in
procession under a canopy round the church. Many hun
dred persons assisted at the solemn mass at eleven, and,
after the procession, kissed the relic presented by the Rev.
Dr. Doyle. The worshippers were chiefly poor, including
the children of the schools. To see Dr. Doyle, surrounded

ROMISH MIRACLES. 679
by his clergy, in that beautiful church, which, but? for his
persevering zeal, might never have been reared, offering the
blessed wood of redemption to the homage of the lame, the
blind, the ragged, and the little ones of the flock, with lights
blazing all around, and the glorious sun shining through the
painted windows, was a sight, the like to which has not been
seen in London for many a long day." Upon which para
graph, the Rev. Mr. Powell, in a letter to his Roman Cath
olic parishioners, dated September 26, 1848, and first pub
lished in the " Coventry Standard," makes the following
useful remarks : " So early as in the time of Paulinus, in
the fifth century, portions of the true Cross had increased to
such an extent, that it was necessary to account for their
increase by a miracle. ' The cross,' says he, 'possessing a
living power in its senseless material substance, from the time
cf its discovery has continued daily to . afford its wood to
the almost innumerable cravings of men to possess some por
tion of it ; and that in such a manner, that it seems not to
have sustained any loss ; but, on the contrary, still to remain
entire ; while the worshippers, in taking to themselves apart,
venerate it as a whole.' (Epist. ,ii. to Severus.) If we
beheve that this miracle is still going on, then there is no
wonder in Dr. Doyle's possessing a bit of the true Cross.
The wonder rather is, that any faithful Roman Catholic
should be without a bit ; for we are expressly told in the
Paris Breviary, that it is permitted that little splinters of this
sacred wood may be had, to confer the grace of faith and other
blessings." I would only suggest that it would be a great
confirmation of our belief in the above miracle, supposing
we were to put it to the test. No doubt Dr. Doyle's portion
of the true Cross possesses the same multiplying power with
every other portion. It would, therefore, be no great favor
to ask him to cut off a little bit to be kept at the Oratory in
Birmingham, and it would be seen that the remainder would
grow one day as big as it was before. " It is possible," and

680'

ROMISH MIRACLES.

I quote from Mr. Powell's excellent letters, " however, that
you may be rather sceptical respecting this miracle. In
that case you will be the more anxious to ascertain whether
the relic exhibited at St. George's be really a portion of the
true Cross or no. If you turn to the Romish Prayerbook:
(or Breviary) and look to the service for the 3d May, you
will there find the whole story about the first discovery of
the cross on which Christ suffered. It is said to have been
discovered by the Empress Helen, in the year 326. It is
there recorded that three crosses were found buried a great
depth underground, and, apart from them all, was also
found the title which had been affixed to the cross of Christ.
' There was nothing which could make it appear to which of
the three crosses the title of the Lord's cross had been affixed ;
but a miracle removed all doubt. Macarius, the bishop of
Jerusalem, after he had offered up prayers to ¦ God, applied
each of these crosses to a woman who was afflicted with a
severe sickness. The two first had no effect upon her ; but as
soon as the third was applied, it immediately cured her.' The
story in the Paris Breviary is hardly to be reconciled with
this ; but still it asserts that there were three crosses found,
and that the cross of Christ was distinguished from the other
two by its possessing a miraculous power. The discovery
was made in the following manner : — lA dead body was
brought and laid on the spot. First, one of the crosses was
applied to it, then another ; but death spurned at the wood on
which the criminals had suffered. Lastly, a resurrection
evidenced which was the Lord's cross, for no sooner did the
wood of salvation touch the dead body, but immediately death
took its flight, — the work of death disappeared, — the body
which had been dead arose, and to the terror of those who
beheld it, the dead man stood upon his feet, and then, in the
presence of all the spectators, being perfectly restored to life;
(like Lazarus of old, when liberated from his grave-clothes,)
he walked before them all. Thus was the cross diseovered^and

ROMISH MIRACLES. 681
proved to be the very cross of Christ by such an evidence as
well became the occasion, by the evidence of a resurrection."
Now, whichever of these two stories you believe, it is evi
dent that, according to the doctrine of the Roman Church, a
miraculous power is inherent in the genuine wood of the
true Cross. There is therefore, no difficulty in ascertaining
whether the bit of wood exposed by Dr. Doyle at St.
George's, is a genuine portion of the true Cross, or a coun
terfeit. If it be genuine, it possesses the power of working
miracles ;¦ if it be only a counterfeit, of course it has no
more power than any other piece of wood. Had Dr.
Doyle's precious relic," continues Mr. Powell, " possessed
the healing power which the Roman Church asserts to be
the distinguishing characteristic of the genuine wood of the
true Cross, he would not have allowed the imposing cere
mony of Thursday last to have been deficient in that which
would have been its most prevailing attraction. The blind
and the lame, who so devoutly paid their, homage as they
supposed to the blessed wood of redemption, would not, have
returned from their devotions as blind and lame as when
they set out. Try the genuineness of Dr. Doyle's boasted
relic by the very test which the Church of Rome proposes
as the sure proof of its genuineness ; and if by this means
you are convinced that it is all a cheat and an imposture, do
be prevailed upon to, seek some better guide , in the way of
salvation. That which has been described is not merely an
attempt to play upon your credulity, in a matter of highest
concernment ; but it is more than this, — it is a device for
leading you into the grievous sin of idolatry, by means of a
very gross and wicked fraud." I saw myself, in Belgium, a
portion of the true Cross. And a Protestant writer, whc
has looked fully into the subject, says that as much wood of
the true Cross might be collected throughout Romish Chris
tendom, as would build a ship of war. But this would only
make the miracle more remarkable, and to Dr. Newman's
prepared appetite the more credible.

682 ROMISH MIRACLES.
The next miraculous accounts I refer to are those re«
spectimg a medal, the origin of which is thus told in a book
published in Paris in 1842, called, "An historical Account
of the Origin and Effects of the -new Medal struck in honor
of the Immaculate Conception of the most holy Virgin, and
generally known by the name of the Miraculous Medal, by
M . . ., PrStre de la Congregation D. L. M. de Saint-
Lazare," approved by the late Archbishop of Paris, and
Gregory XVI. ; at p. 26: "In the course of the month of
September, in the year 1830, a young novice ofthe Daugh
ters of Charity saw, during prayer, a tableau representing
the holy Virgin, as she is commonly painted under the title of
the Immaculate, standing, clothed in a white robe and a blue
mantle, with her arms opened and stretched towards the
earth. Her hands were covered with diamonds, from which
proceeded rays of resplendent light towards the globe, and in
great abundance upon a certain point. She heard at the
same time a voice saying to her, ' These rays are the sym
bol of the graces which Mary obtains for men; and the
point of the globe upon which she sheds them most abun
dantly is France.' Around this tableau she read the fol
lowing invocation : — ' O, Mary ! conceived without sin,
pray for us, who have recourse to you.' ;< In a few moments
the tableau turned round ; and upon the reverse, she saw
the letter M surmounted by a little cross, and beneath, the
holy hearts of Jesus and of Mary. After considering this
attentively, the novice heard again the same voice say, 'A
medal must be struck after this model, and they who shall
carry it, and utter with piety that short prayer, shall enjoy
the special protection of the mother of God.' " Now, I
have one of these blessed medals in my pocket, which I
now show, but, except that it has worn a little hole in the
lining, it has worked no miracle. This volume contains the
account of about three hundred miracles, which have been
worked by this medal. I will give you one or two as speci*

ROMISH MIRACLES. 683
mens. At ps 110, we are told, that an anchor of a vessel
once became so fixed, that the crew could not, although try
ing for three hours, move it. Upon this, the apostolical
missionary of the congregation of Saint-Lazare, who hap
pened to be on board, bethought himself of a miraculous
medal which he had in his possession, and threw it into the
sea, and immediately the anchor became loose. Another? I
give you is the miraculous conversion of a Turk, recorded
at p. 258. " One day when M. Calvi was taking a walk
with his children, they met a Turk, and conversed on relig
ious matters on their way. Through the medium of one
of his children, who understood French and spoke Arabic
fluently, M. Calvi asked the Turk why he did not embrace
Christianity. He answered, that his parents being Turks,
he was of their religion. In the course of conversation our
brother offered him a medal, which he willingly, accepted,
and left them ; but two .days- after, the good Turk returned,
saying, that he wished to be baptized, and that from the
moment he received the medal he had felt that he could not
be saved in his religion, and that the Catholic religion was
alone true. . His wife, to whom he spoke of the medal, but
who had shown herself indifferent to it, at length asked for
one, which she carried, and she too came and wished also to
be baptized." All these wonderful conversions and results
you see, proceeded from • the efficacy of this miraculous
medal. In a paragraph in L' Univers, we have another
miracle ascribed to it. It is headed, -- Miraculous escape. —
M. de B '  , who was in the second train at the time the
late> accident on the Versailles railway occurred, states that
he cannot account for his wonderful escape. All he knows
is, that, on recovering his senses, he found himself in a vine
yard some distance from the road. On his arrival at his
own house he immediately prostrated himself before a cru
cifix. After a minute or two his mother, overpowered with
joy on finding him safe and sound, raised him up, when he

684 R0MK3H MIRACLES.
exclaimed with fervor, ' Oh, mother, it is only through a
miracle that I now behold you again ! ' Saying this, he
raised to his lips the miraculous medal, which had been
placed near his heart." I ask, are these miracles as credi
ble as the miracles of the New Testament ? Are they not
instinctively felt by you to be delusions or deceptions, the
offspring of fanaticism, ignorance, and folly ?
After this narrative of authentic miracles, and after Dr.
Newman's implied acceptance of them, I will quote Mr.
Butler's extraordinary statement as to the obligation of
believing them, contained in his " Book of the Roman Cath
olic Church, etc." published in 1825, (p. 46). "But . . .
while the Roman Catholics assert that it has pleased Al
mighty God to work in every age, from the first preaching
of the Gospel to the present time, many and incontestable
miracles in favor of his Church and her doctrines, [such, I
presume, as those authentic ones I have narrated,] they
admit, without qualification, that no miracles except those
which are related in the Old or in the New Testament, are
articles of faith, [i. e. of vital importance,] that a person
may disbelieve every other miracle, [if a miracle, it is a
fact, and necessarily believed,] and may even disbelieve
the existence of the persons through whose intercession they
are related to have been wrought, [whose intercession Dr.
Newman every day implores,] without ceasing to be a
Roman Catholic. This is equally agreeable to religion and
common sense, [how delightful to find a Romanist recog
nizing common sense !] for all miracles which are not re
corded in holy writ, depend on human reasoning. Now,
human reasoning being always fallible, all miracles depend
ing on it rest on fallible proof, and, consequently, may be
untrue. [Why then does Dr. Newman blame our disbelief?]
Hence, the divines of the Roman Catholic Church never
impose the belief of particular miracles either upon the
body of' the faithful, or upon individuals ; they only recom-

ROMISH MIRACLES. 685
mend the belief of them [recommend belief of frauds, follies,
lying legends]. They never recommend the belief of any,
the credibility of which does not appear to them to be sup
ported by evidence of the highest nature ; [if true, we believe
on evidence, not recommendation ;] and, while they contend
that the evidence is of this description, and cannot, there
fore, be rationally disbelieved, [see the specimens I have
given,] they admit that it is still no more than human [is it
not ecclesiastical and papal?] testimony, and, therefore,
liable to error. Dr.. Milner [End of Controversy, Letter
xxiv.] rejects, in the wholesale, the miracles related in ' the
Golden Legend ' of Jacobus de Voragine, those related in
the ' Speculum' of Vincentius Belluacensis, and those re
lated in the ' Saints' Lives ' of the patrician Metapluas, etc.
No Roman Catholic gives credit to those which rest on Su-
vius, or Moubritius. Dr. Lingard .calls Osbert, the biog
rapher of St. Dunstan, and the writer of his life, ' an in
judicious biographer, whose dull credulity collected and
embellished every fable.' Dr. Lingard, also, while he asserts
that there are many miracles in the Anglo-Saxon times,
which it would require, no small ingenuity to disprove, and
incredulity to discredit, admits that there are also many
which must shrink from the frown of criticism, some which
may have been the effect of accident or imagination, some
that are more calculated to excite the smile than the wonder
of the hearers, and some which, on whatever ground they
were originally admitted, depend at present, on the testimony
of writers not remarkable for sagacity or discrimination. ' It
was their misfortune,,' says the same excellent writer, ' that
the knowledge of these writers of miracles was not equal to
their piety* Of their censors it may sometimes be said,
that their piety was not equal to their knowledge.'- This
exposition of the Roman Catholic doctrine respecting mira
cles has been often given."
These extracts are worth Dr- Newman's study. They
58

686 ROMISH MIRACLES.
justify Protestant caution, and show how much beyond
Butler and Milner the very rev. father has gone. But I
must draw to a close. Far would it be from me to say one
word disrespectful of Dr. Newman, or even to seem jocose
on such a matter as this ; but when one reads these miracles
one is astonished that Dr. Newman should seem so bereft of
his wonted perception, and heretofore acute powers of mind,
as to accept any of them as credible. One saint seems to
have been an iEtna, a Vesuvius, or a burning mountain.
Such saints seem to be those who required to have water
constantly by them, in order to cool their divine love by
hydropathic baths. What combustible personages they
must have been ! How dangerous must the Oratorians be
to contiguous houses if these fathers are as combustible as
their predecessors ! Is the Oratory in Birmingham insured?
what is the premium ? If it be not, it may one day ignite
or explode, and ruin be the consequence ; and if it be, I am
sure it must have paid a very high premium. I hope Dr.
Newman is not as combustible as his founder was before
him. If we only had a column of such saints^ coals would
not be required. St. Philip Neri alone would warm all the
monks of all the Oratories in England. I do not wonder at
the fervent warmth of Dr. Newman's Lectures, delivered
to the brothers of the Oratory in the home of his celebrated
founder, where I suppose Fahrenheit stands all the winter
at 212°. And aS to perfume, why, some of the saints were
perfect Rowlands and Macassars. One saint did perfume
all Boulogne ; half-a-dozen would perfume London. Then
the Commissioners of Sewers would be superseded ; then
the Board of Health would have only to apply to Dr.
Newman. St Philip Neri, Dr. Newman's founder, was a
wonderful genius besides. He could smell out holiness and
sin. Now we have heard that the camel has a keen scent
of water, and that the fox-hound and the bloodhound have
an acute smell ; but the nose of St. Philip Neri was vastly

ROMISH MIRACLES. 687
more susceptible than the snouts of these : he could discern
moral qualities by the smell ; the pure by their sweet odor,
and the impure by their bad odor. All this is stated in the
Bull of Canonization,, and also in Dr. Newman's»Breviary ;
and I shall be happy to show Dr. Newman the place, in the
same way as I ascertained for Dr. Wiseman, in his own
Pontifical, what he thought was not then the archieopiscopal
oath. The apostles discerned spirits, but St. Philip's suc
cession is far superior to apostolical succession ; he smelt
virtues and vices, right and wrong. If Dr. Newman has
the wonderful gift, as well as the mantle of his founder, I
again bid the people of Birmingham beware. Dr. Newman
will smell you out with infallible precision. What a quick
business would it be, were we to let loose an Oratorian
father among our parishes and flocks : he could separate the
bad fishes from the good at a whiff.! What a useful thing
would an Oratorian be at a parliamentary election ! Why,
St. Philip Neri, or any one with St. Philip's virtues, could
smell out a Whig or a Tory ; and at the next election, if
you can only get an Oratorian, he will be able to smell out a
pro-Maynoothian and an anti-Maynoothian candidate at once.
What a capital detective police officer would an Oratorian
make ! In St. Francis, again, we have a preacher who pre
ferred beasts and birds and fishes for his congregation. He
was the great menagerie-preacher of Christendom. What
a treat would he be in the Zoological gardens ! On a late
occasion the boa-constrictor in London swallowed his blanket,
and the keeper had terrible work to get him to disgorge it ;
but if he had applied to Dr. Wiseman for one of his best
Franciscan monks, the reptile would have made him a
cheerful present of this blanket at one bidding. How com
posedly would the owl listen to a Franciscan monk — : the
bird of night feeling perfectly at home beside a missionary
of the night ! Some of the saints were small volcanoes.
whose only chance of existence was being near plenty of

688 ROMISH MIRACLES.
cold water. Others of the saints were positively wags and
wits. They were incessantly playing tricks with the devil.
One pulls his nose, another spits in his face, another whips
a lady, and all of them do the most unsaintly and the most
grotesque exploits. We are told to resist the devil ; but
then, our weapons are not carnal : but these Romish saints
resisted him by striking and kicking him, and spitting in his
face, and exhibiting regular pugilistic encounters. Dr.
Newman is busy pouring contempt on Protestantism in his
lectures to the Oratorians. The true, faithful, and authentic
facts, every atom of which I can verify by reference to the
page of the documents in which they are stated — these
authentic facts, which I have disclosed, show where contempt
is deserved, or at least where pity becomes us ; and that Dr.
Newman, who supposed, as appears from the motto on his
title-page, that it was the tempus loquendi, would have done
better if he had regarded it as the tempus tacendi.
But there is one miracle which Dr. Newman classifies
with Scripture miracles, which he receives as heartily .as he
receives the doctrine that Jesus Christ is the Saviour of sin
ners, and that miracle is the miracle of transubstantiation,
the great standing miracle of the Church of Rome. Now, I
am ready, any day that Dr. Newman will meet me in this
Hall, to go into the evidence of that miracle. He complains
that we Protestants will not go into proof. We have gone
into proof, and are ready to go into proof again : we
complain that he will not meet us to submit the proofs.
The moment that he does so, we are prepared to meet him,
and impartially, honestly, and fairly examine them. The
miracle of transubstantiation, for instance, he alleges, is a
miracle and article of faith : I allege it is a delusion ; and
if he can accept it, as he does, I can prove to him that he
must accept a thousand very grotesque things. I met once
an eloquent and acute defender of Dr. Newman's church,
who discussed that topic with me ; and when I had shown

ROMISH MIRACLES. 689
®at eloquent and gifted defender of the Church of Rome
that the Fathers contradicted each other in the dogmas that
they believed, I wanted him to leave the Fathers, and to
come withme to the grandfathers — the Apostles and the
Evangelists of the New Testament Scriptures. Well, my
friend said^ that as Dr. Cumming seemed to have a patro-
phobia, he would come to that book called the Bible, and he
turned to me and said, "Now," — as he read these- words,
"This is my body," — " Dr. Cumming, none of your figures
of speech, none of your orientalisms, none of your explain
ing away. I have gone to your own book ; here is the text
that proves transubstantiation, ' This is my body.'"
I turned round to him, and said in reply, " I also go to
the Bible and read, 'All flesh is grass.' Mr. French, none
of your figures of speech, none of your orientalisms, none
of your explaining away : you have brought me to the
Scriptures ; I follow you step by step ; and now, sir, I assert
that you are not the distinguished barrister I thought you
were, but that if I were to tickle you, like Shakspeare's
Jew, you would not laugh — if I were to prick you, you
would not wince, — you are a bundle of grass, and I assert
that you are so by the very interpretation that you take up
to support transubstantiation, for ' All flesh is grass.' " I
said to him, in the next place, " But show me the passage
on which you build so much — where is it?" I argued
this way : " It cannot be a miracle, because the senses do
not perceive it. If I take the wafer after the priest has
consecrated it, it tastes like a wafer, and feels like a wafer ;
and all the senses, at least four of them, testify that it is a
wafer, or flour and water." To which he said, " Oh, but
the senses are deceived." To which I answered, "In that
case, it may be something else, but a miracle it cannot be ;
for a miracle is something in which the senses are not de
ceived. In the mean time, will you point out to me the text
oh which you fbund the doctrine?" He turned to the pas-
58*

690 ROMISH MIRACLES.
sage, and said, " This is my body." I took the book from
his hand, and said, "I read it, 'These are the bricks with
which Babylon is built.' " He asked what I meant. -I re
plied, " You say, every Sunday your senses are deceived.
Your senses may be deceived while you read, ' This is my
body ; ' my senses may inform me rightly when I am read
ing, ' These are the bricks with which Babylon is built.' If
the senses are deceived, one man may see what another man
cannot ; and if the senses be deceived, who is to judge what
are the words before us : I may be right, and you may be
wrong ; for there is no way of determining which is right,
except by a criterion which you say may be deceived, and
that upon your own showing."
Another mode by which I endeavored to demonstrate the
difficulty of his position, was by showing him that, on his
supposition, we must believe that Jesus held his own body
in his hand, and while he sat visibly before the twelve, they
held each his whole body in his hand. And how is it pos
sible, too, I would ask, if our blessed Lord's body was in all
respects like ours, sin excepted, that a Roman Catholic can
believe that on each of a hundred thousand altars, if there
be so many, at one moment, there is the , whole body of
Christ present? And if Dr. Newman believes that next
Sunday, should he break the consecrated host into twenty
pieces, in each of those twenty pieces will be the whole body
of Christ, I ask him, how can this be ? He answers, " It is
a miracle." It is, I reply, wanting in the very essence of a
miracle. It is a monstrosity, not a miracle, and it is in the
face of Scripture, which says, that his body, sin excepted,
was in all points like ours. According to transubstantiation,
a body may be in several places at one and the same mo
ment. Thus, when the Resurrection comes, Henry, Thomas,
Peter, or William, may have his body in two different
places whole and entire, perfect and complete. And if Wil
liam on rising, should be coming from one place, and meet

ROMISH MIRACLES. 691
William having risen, and coming from another, how startled
would he be ; but how easily could he plead the miracle of
transubstantiation, to show that a body could be in two or
twenty places at once. If I were to assert that Pio Nono
was seated in this chair, instead of the nobleman who now
occupies it, and you were to say, No ; that miracle would
be four times more rational than transubstantiation, because
when I assert that Pio Nono is in that chair, your eyes
alone will tell you that he is not there.; but the miracle of
transubstantiation contradicts four of the senses, — touch,
taste, sight, and smell, — and is therefore four times more
irrational and incredible than the assertion that Pio Nono
occupies the chair instead of Lord Calthorpe at this mo
ment. But this subject is long, and I do not go into it, but
merely state that it is one of the miracles which Dr. New
man does accept.
Dr. Newman talks as if the popular belief in the genuine
ness of certain relics in the Tower, of narratives about our
belovgd Queen, of legends about King Alfred, were in all
respects parallel with his belief in Romish miracles. In
answer to this we state, that we sift the testimony of every
historian ; we accept facts, while we repudiate mere tradi
tions and legends. But I ask, dare Dr. Newman dispute
the actual occurrence and miraculous nature of those facts
attested in the processes for canonization, and accepted by
the Pope as actual, and on the strength of the occurrence of
which canonization followed? Two miracles must take
place before beatification, and two before canonization,
according to Dr. Wiseman. If these are not miracles,
surely all is vitiated, — a sufferer in purgatory, not a saint
in glory, may be henceforth invocated by the faithful. Dare
Dr. Newman sift, and doubt, and reject those miracles, on
the reality and alleged historical certainty of which canoni
zation proceeded ? Dare he ascertain which are equivocal ?
which doubtful? and which are in no sense to be accepted

692 ROMISH MIRACLES. •
as miracles, but rejected as pretences ? If so, I would ask
him, which are settled, which are not ?
Now, both Protestants ¦ and Romanists agree that the
miracles wrought by our Lord and his apostles abundantly
prove 'that they were teaehers sent from God. 'The mission
and character of Christ and the apostles being thus irre-
fragably established, and historically and demonstrably evi
denced to us, as if done before us, by testimony, it seems
unnecessary to interpose again for the same end, and for the
same object. The original signature is not effaced; the
Divine seal is not destroyed. The less the necessity, and
the greater the pretence to miraculous powers, the more
reason We have for suspicion ; and our reasons for suspicion
are increased by the fact, that some of the miracle workers
of the Church of Rome are detected impostors, some have
been proved to be fanatics, and lastly, most learned and
respectable authorities and divines in the Romish communion
admit that many of the miracles accredited by the Church
of Rome were simply got up to increase the piety of the
faithful. In the next place, those miracles which we have
quoted, alleged to have been done by saints now canonized,
and not a few by the founder of Dr. Newman's order, St.
Philip Neri, under whose shadow and in whose home he
delivered his Lectures, are, some so ludicrously grotesque,
some so palpably absurd, others so meaningless, pointless,
and objectless, and others so anile, that not to laugh at, or
deplore, and certainly scout them as the proofs of lunacy, or
fanaticism, Or wild delusion, is to do injustice and discredit
to the sublime and solemn miracles of Christianity. There
is such a similarity, almost 'identity, between heathen and
Romish miracles, — both about equally authenticated, —
that 6ne cartnot help thinking that Satan is doing for the
Popedom what he did for heathendom, and no more.
Pythagoras tamed the Daunian bear ; St. Francis, a wolf.
Pythagoras whispered intelligibly into a bull's ear; and St.

ROMISH MIRACLES. 693
Francis preached to oxen. Pythagoras's golden thigh has
its match at Saragossa. Do images wink, speak, perspire ?
So the image of Juno Moneta spoke to a soldier at Veii.
The Roman emperors, according to Tacitus and Suetonius,
did miracles as good as those recorded of the saints of the
Church of Rome. Miracles as good, and scarcely so mon
strous, are attributed to the Arians in the fourth century,
the Novatians, and the Eutychians. Chrysostom, in one
passage at least, in defending the true Church, says that she
pretends to no miracles, and asserts that miracles had
ceased ; and, taking this passage as a fair exponent of his
views, although others may be quoted which seem to show
the reverse, Chrysostom occupied precisely the same posi
tion against the Arians and the Donatists that the Arch*
bishop of Canterbury does against the Romanists. Dr.
Newman and his saints in this matter look like the succes»
sors of such heretics as the Arians and the Donatists, whilst
our Protestant ministers look like the successors of Chrys*
ostom and Augustine, who in the passages I refer to did not
pretend that the Church had miraculous powers. ,.;..:
In the next place, those are not miracles proceeding '.from
God that authenticate a false doctrine. Jesus has authenti
cated the Holy Scriptures as God's will and word. What
ever contradicts the Bible cannot be from God, or come
with credentials by God. "If we, or an angel from
heaven," which assumes a miraculous manifestion, "were
to preach to you any other doctrine, let him be anathema."
Let us never forget, too, that we are warned to expect men
doing wonders, such as could deceive, if possible, the very
elect. Let us remember, too, that " lying signs and won
ders," not so much false ones as xigaai ipevdovg, " signs or
wonders authenticating a lie," are part of the features of the
Church of Rome, as given by the apostle in his portrait of
the " man of sin." In the next place, the historians of the
Scripture miraeles are infallible — confessedly, admittedly

694 R0M1SH: MIRACLES.
so — and Dr. Newman subscribes to this. The historians
of Romish miracles are fallible. This Dr. Newman must
admit; and the statement by Mr. Butler, a very distin
guished defender of the Church of Rome, which I have
already quoted;- and which I hope Dr. Newman will study,
shows that this is the doctrine of that Church. We do well
to hesitate to accept Romish miracles.
Before I conclude, I must give you. another specimen of
the miracles which Dr. Newman and Dr. Wiseman both
expressly believe — the translation of the holy house of
Loretto ; the evidence of which is a fair specimen of the
evidence of most. I have, as Dr. Newman desires, gone
into the evidence of it ; and the evidence is most triumph
antly against its being any thing 'else than a delusion or de
ception. I will give you the account which is stated in the
tablet on the Chapel of Loretto itself, as translated by Stil-
lingfleet, which is as follows: "The Church of our blessed
Lady of Loretto was a chamber of the house of the Blessed
Virgin Mary, mother of our Lord Jesus Christ, which house
stood in the country of Judea, in a city of Galilee, whose
name was Nazareth; in which chamber the blessed Virgin
Mary was born, and bred up, and afterwards there received
the salutation of the angel Gabriel, and in the same cham
ber she educated her Son Jesus Christ to the age of twelve
years. After the ascension of Christ to heaven, the Virgin
Mary remained upon earth with the apostles and other dis
ciples of Christ, who, seeing many divine mysteries per
formed in the said chamber, did, by the common consent of
them all, decree to make a church of that chamber, to the
honor and memory of the Blessed Virgin Mary, which they
did, andthe apostles and disciples consecrated that chamber
to be a church, and there celebrated divine offices, and St.
Luke the Evangelist, with his own hands, made an image to
the likeness of the Blessed Virgin, which is there to this
day. Afterwards that ehurch was inhabited and honored

ROMISH MIRACLES. 69(5
with much devotion by the Christian people in those parts
in which it stood; as long as the people remained Christian,
But after they renounced the Christian faith and embraced
Mahometanism, the angels of God took away the said church,
and carried it into the parts of Sclavonia, and there placed it
by a certain castle called Fiume, where it met not with that
honor which the Blessed Virgin desired. Therefore, the
angels came and took it from thence, and carried it, clear
over the sea into the parts of the territory of Recanati, and
there placed it in a wood which belonged to a noble lady
who had the command of the city of Recanati, and was
owner of the wood, whose name was Loreta,. and from her
the church took its name of S. Maria de Loreto, In that
time, by reason of the great concourse of aU people to that
wood in which the church remained, abundance of robberies
and mischiefs were committed there ; and, therefore, the
angels again took up the chapel and carried it to a hill
belonging to two brothers, where the angels set it down-,
Those brothers getting a vast revenue by the resort of pil
grims thither, and the oblations by them made, fell to a
great discord. Upon which, the angels, came again and
took away the chapel from that place, and carried it into the
highway ; and there placed it where it is now, with many
signs and innumerable gifts and miracles. Then all the
people of Recanati went to see the church which stood upon
the earth without any foundation : and, being astonished at
such a miracle, and fearing lest it should come to ruin, they
compassed it about with a good thick wall and a strong foun
dation, as it is seen at this day ; and yet no one knew from
whence that church came into those parts, until,, in a- d.
1290, the Blessed Virgin appeared in a dream to a certain
man much devoted to her, to whom she revealed the fore
going things, and he presently divulged them to, certain
honest men of that country ; who immediately resolved to
know the truth of these ¦matters, and therefore determined

696

ROMISH MIRACLES.

to send sixteen notable good men to Nazareth to find out the
truth of them. These carried with them the size of the
said church, and there they found exactly the foundations of
it and the just measure ; and, to make all sure, they found
it written upon a wall that such a church had been there
and was gone from thence ; and those persons upon their
return certified the truth of all these things ; and from that
time it was known that that chapel was the chamber of the
Blessed Virgin Mary, and the Christian people showed great
devotion towards it : for the Blessed Virgin there every day
doth infinite miracles, as experience shows. There was a
eertain eremite that was called Brother Paul of the Wood,
who dwelt in a small cottage in that wood, and every morn
ing went to divine offices in that chapel, and was a man of a
great abstinence and a holy life,, who said, that ten years
before, or thereabouts, on the day of the Nativity of the
Blessed Virgin, being the 8th of September, two hours
before day, in a clear air going out of his cottage towards
the church, he saw a light descend from heaven upon the
Church, twelve feet long and six broad, and when it was
upon the church it vanished ; upon which he said it was the
Blessed Virgin, which there appeared on the day of her
nativity, and came to see her feast observed ; but no man
saw her besides this -holy man. To confirm the truth and
certainty of all these things, two honest men of this village
reported them several times to me, Teremanus, the overseer
and governor of the said church ; one of them was called
Paulus Renaldatii, the other, Francis Prior. The said Paul
told me that his grandfather's grandfather saw when the
angels carried the said chapel over the sea and placed it in
the wood, and that he and other persons ofttimes went to the
said chapel. And the said Francis ofttimes said to me, that
his grandfather being one hundred and twenty years old,
said that he went often to the said church in the wood.
Moreover, the said Francis averred that his grandfather's

ROMISH MIRACLES. 697
grandfather had a house and dwelt there ; and that in his
time the chapel was removed by angels from the. Hill of the
Two Brothers to, the highway." Now, Baronius (Annal.
torn. i. c. 9, n. 1,) accepts this miracle, and refers to Can-
isius, Hist. Deiparce, lib. v. c. 25, for a fuller account of it,
and both rest it on the omnipotence of God. Our faith,
however, is not what God can do,, but what He has said and
done, and is recorded to have done. Raynaldus (a. d. 1291,
n. 68, 69), Bzovius (Annal. ad A. d. 1296, n. 14), Sponda-
nus (a.d. 1291, n. a2), and Benedictus Gononus (Chronic.
Deip, a.d. 1298), all refer to Horatius Tursellinus (Hist.
Lauret. lib. i. a 6) as the most authentic historian of the
miracle. His story is the same as that of the tablet, only
that he states some additional wonders, as that the trees
bowed to it as it passed, and that the image of the Saviour,
being taken out to be placed in a more conspicuous niche,
returned to the chapel of its own accord. No witnesses: are
produced to attest to having personally seen a chapel sailing
through the air, or having seen it pitched upon the ground.
Then what is the evidence upon which Drs. Newman and
Wiseman rely ? Why just this : two plain countrymen give
testimony, not that they saw it moving through the air, but
one that his grandfather saw it, and the other that his great-
great-grandfather saw it. Tursellinus says that they swore
to it ; but still, it is upon the strength of these two testimo
nies that this miracle of the translation of the ancient habi
tation of the Blessed Virgin is believed. Now, supposing
that we take it that the great-great-grandfather, not upon
his own testimony, but upon that of his great-great-grandson,
did see something in the air while he was cutting wood, let
us ask, Was this great-greatrgrandfather sure that this some
thing was the chapel of Loretto ? Did he see angels carry
ing it? or are angels visible ? How did he know they were
angels, not having seen such before!?. Was he quite sure
that what he saw was not a ship with all its sails set, on the
59

698

ROMISH MIRAGLES.

Adriatic ? Did such a phenomenon excite so little attention,
that only two men are found, who testify, not that they saw
it, but the one that his grandfather, and the other that his
great-great-grandfather saw it a hundred- years ago ? And
besides this, St. Vincentius Ferrerius, who lived after A. d.
1440, says (Serm. de Assump. B. V.), that the chamber of
our Lady was still in Nazareth. St. Antonin of Florence,
who lived some time after this alleged miraculous translation,
writing on miracles, is silent about it. Blondus, in 1450,
says (Italia illustr. im, Piceno, p. 339) there was a chapel
of our Lady at Loretto, but nothing of the miraculous
translation. And how remarkable, too, that this house
should have escaped being destroyed, when the plough
shares of Titus and Vespasian tore up all the foundations of
ancient Jerusalem. It may be asked also, How was it that
this house «did not suffer decay during thirteen hundred
years ? And how could it be removed to Italy, and yet, as
the Greeks testify, be still at Nazareth ? Tursellinus (Hist.
Lauret. lib. ii. c. 18) gives a miracle in proof of this prior
miracle, which would certainly be, in Dr. Newman's mind,
a very conclusive evidence : "A priest of Dalmatia, being
devoted to the blessed Virgin of Loretto, was taken- prisoner
by the Turks, who would have forced him to renounce his
religion, which he would not do, but still called upon Christ
and Mary ; they being enraged, asked what he meant by
using those names so often ; he told them that these clave to
his very heart ; on which they threatened they would pull
out his heart and lungs if he did not curse Jesus and Mary.
On their resolving to do so, the poor priest made a vow to
the blessed Virgin of Loretto, that if he lived, he would go
there on a pilgrimage. They then cut open his breast, and
pulled out his heart and lungs, and gave them into his hand,
and bade him go to the Lady of Loretto. The priest set out,
carrying his heart and lungs in his hand, and arrived safe at
Loretto, and to our Lady's- servants there he showed his

ROMISH MIRACLES. 699
breast, and his entrails taken out." Now, if one asks, How
can one breathe without lungs ? the answer is, It is a mira
cle. If you ask, How can the blood circulate without the
heart ? the answer again is, It is a miracle. If you ask
questions' about the miraculous translation of the house of
Loretto, the answer still is, A miracle ! a miracle ! In short,
the Church of Rome draws on the omnipotence of God for
sanctions to the impostures of her priesthood. There is no
evidence of any of these miracles that it is worthy of sanity
to receive. We go into proof of Dr. Newman's miracles,
and we find his proofs are no proofs, his witnesses mere tra-
ditionists, and the facts attested the fantastic tricks of jug
glers. The result of the whole matter is, that they are not
miracles, but the tricks of impostors, or the delusions of
fanatics. I leave you to decide between the two.
In conclusion, I would say, the Scripture miracles must
be true. They are beyond doubt or dispute among Protes
tants or Romanists. These legendary miracles may be
false — some have been proved to be so, and all are per
formed in favor of false doctrines, in reference to which, I
repeat, that if the greatest miracle were actually done in
favor of such doctrine, I would not accept the miracle Or
the doctrine. The Bible is closed ; its testimony is clear ; I
am sure that if God has wrought a miracle to authenticate
a truth there, he never will work a miracle to authenticate a
lie that directly contradicts it. Therefore, miracles worked
in defence of Romanism, if wrought by God, would be
Omnipotence attesting that which would be opposite to what
Omnipotence attested before — it would be literally Gad
contradicting himself — it would be, in short, the reversal of
that beautiful and precious announcement, " God cannot
lie." I am satisfied, therefore, not only on this ground, but
from the evidence, — satisfied from the very perusal of the
miracles ascribed to the saints of Rome, that they are delu
sions ; and therefore, I repudiate them all. We honor the

700 ROMISH MIRACLES.
Scriptures, we honor God, we vindicate Christianity from
the assaults of infidels, when we deplore some of these pre
tended miracles as the offspring of ignorance anddelusion,
and denounce others as frauds and wicked impostures.
I feel deeply for Dr. Newman. I cannot doubt his sin
cerity ; it would be folly to dispute his keen and his splendid
talent. But I would beseech him, if my poor voice could
reach him, to weigh well his position, and to think solemnly
of that day when the secrets of all hearts shall be opened,
and when these desperate efforts of his to sap the founda
tions of Christianity by plunging into scepticism those who
will not be precipitated into superstition, shall be laid bare
in the searching light of the countenance of God. Dr.
Newman's once brilliant mind has led him astray from truth
to error, and from error to error, till now he walks wildly
amid the sparks of his own kindling. He has lost sight — I
pity him, I pray for him — of the lode-stars in the sky, and
he now gropes by the frail and fallible guideposts of earth.
Shorn of his ancient strength, and having parted with much
of his former genius, he is now — unhappy man — a blind
captive grinding at the mill of the papacy, and doing its
worst and most degrading drudgery. But let the papacy
beware. He is a dangerous victim. He may regain his
lost powers. His hair, like that of the strong man of an
cient days, may grow again ; he may yet awake from his
torpor, and shake himself as before, and lay hold of the
pillars and the props on which that gigantic imposture rests,
and bring down the whole in one crashing and irretrievable
ruin. If my voice could reach that gifted, but misguided
man, — and I hope our prayers will be fervently offered up
for him, — Father Ignatius is praying for our perversion,
let us pray for theirs ; and let us look upon Romanism less
as a political system, less as one of the tricks of politicians,
and more as a deep and awful delusion raining souls ; and
so pray for their deliverance and escape — if my voice

ROMISH MIRACLES. 701
could reach Dr. Newman, I would implore him to cease
from mocking, as he does most wickedly, most unjustifiably,
without any right, reason, or real necessity, at living and
evangelical religion; and to lay aside that self-confidence
which he displays, and humble his soul as a little child ; and
turn from fables and polluted cisterns, to the Fountain of
living waters. And if I have said any thing that can hurt
his feelings personally, I desire to retract it ; if I have said
any thing that may convey conviction to his soul, may God
rivet it. And when the last day comes, may Dr. Newman
and I find ourselves among the saved, having washed our
robes in the blood of Jesus only, justified by the righteous
ness of Jesus only, and regenerated by the Spirit of Jesus
only.

ROMANISM NOT THE PATRON

PERSECUTOR OF SCIENCE.*

I am not about to discuss, in this reply, the patronage
extended to the Bible or to civil freedom by the Roman
Catholic Church, — topics on which I have elsewhere
spoken at length, — but to meet an assertion made by Dr.
Wiseman on this very platform, and within these walls, that
the Roman Catholic religion has been the great patroness
of learning and science. There are no doubt some things
which she does patronize, and it is but fair and candid to
admit it. She has been a great patroness of painting,
music, and splendid architecture during a long period of her
history; but mark the reason of it. Painting, and archi
tecture, and music have nothing in them essentially and
inevitably either Protestant or Popish. They may decorate
the one or other with equal facility of application. The
Church of Rome is an institution adorned to the very
utmost, and for a very natural and obvious reason, inas
much as ornament is necessary in order to conceal from
ordinary eyes the radical and abhorrent defects of a corrupt
* Delivered in the Music Hall in Leeds, in June, 1853, in reply to a lec
ture delivered a short time before in the same place by Cardinal Wiseman.

704

ROMANISM NOT THE PATRON

and anti-Christian system. But all the painting that can be
applied will never conceal from the Christian mind the
dense darkness and errors of her creed, though it may con
ceal it from those who do not value or estimate religion by
its inherent and real elements. To paint the rose, or to
adorn the lily, or to gild refined gold, or to add fresh per
fume to the violet, seem an excess of works of supereroga
tion. Pure religion needs no ornaments or art to adorn it
— the least adorned, it is adorned the most. It is always a
suspicions sign when we see a church, whether Protestant
or Romish, beginning to add to the splendor of her com
munion table or to the gorgeous colors of her windows ; for,
although it may seem uncharitable, it is natural to suspect
that the minister is conscious of the inner glory making its
exodus> and is now trying to lay on the outer glory in order
to fill up the wide chasm it has left behind.
There is no question that the Church of Rome has been
a great patroness of music in every age, and in her churches
upon the continent I have been almost electrified by hearing
the performance of some of the most magnificent composi
tions, though my conviction still remains, that the Psalmist's
strain upon a people's lips has something in its mighty
mass more thrilling and significant, nobler, and richer, than
organs, and flutes, and sackbuts, and psalteries.
The Church of Rome has been a great patroness of
architecture, but it has been at the expense of many another
more precious acquisition. From the ninth to the twelfth
centuries of the Christian era, the noblest cathedrals in
Europe were raised, while the great mass of the people
were sunk into the deepest degradation, and when Hilde-
brand. was putting his foot upon the necks of kings, and
kindling a war of devastation and rapine throughout Europe.
After all, it does not require a man to be a very great
Christian in order to build a cathedral. It is possible to be
a very magnificent architect, and yet a very indifferent

BUT THE PERSECUTOR OP SCIENCE. 705
Christian. It is possible to build a gorgeous temple as
Herod did, and yet to hve and die as Herod also did. The
whole earth is one vast Cathedral; ruined cities are its
broken tablets, and the histories of ancient nations, the in
scriptions still legible, and grass, and sand, and rock are its
tessellated pavements, wind and wave, and thunder its ever
lasting anthem, and its high altar is the Son of God ; every
stone in it is eloquent with praise, and every thing contained
in it preaches a sermon to the listening and consecrated ear.
But whatever the Church of Rome has done for archi
tecture, painting, and music, I am prepared to show from
facts which I have collected together at considerable
trouble, that the church of Cardinal Wiseman has never
been a patroness of science at any era of her history, or in
any part of the world under her dominion. But before I
introduce this subject, I would warn the public that Cardi
nal Wiseman is not so accurate in his facts as to entitle him
to implicit confidence, or to spare us the trouble of exami
nation. I must prove this. On the 28th of April, Cardinal
Wiseman, at Manchester, delivered a lecture " On the Rela
tion of the Arts of Design to the Arts of Production," and
among other things he said that Bernard Palissy, '" after
sixteen years' perseverance, produced the first specimens of
colored and beautiful pottery, such as are to this day sought
after by the curious, and he received a situation in the
King's household, and ended his days in comfort and
respectability." But what were the actual facts of the case.
In " Morley's Life of Palissy, the Potter," it is stated that
" Palissy, the great potter, died in 1589 in the Bastile, where
he had been confined for four years as a Huguenot (that
is, because he was a Protestant) ; the King and his other
friends could defer his trial, but dared not grant him lib
erty." The assertion of Dr. Wiseman is rather suspicious,
when we recollect that Feller and Henrion, both Jesuit
Priests, assert in the Dictionnaire Historique: "Pahssy

706 ROMANISM NOT THE PATRON
(Bernard de), n£ dans le diocese d'Agen, potier de terre,
cStait au-dessus de son 6tat par son esprit et ses connais-
sances. B naquit au commencement du 16me siecle, et
mourut, vers 1589, en prison, pour avoir embrasse et
repandu le calvinisme. Ayant appris de lui-meme l'ar-
pentage, qui fut sa premiere profession, il s'appliqua ensuite
au dessin, voyagea pour 6tudier l'histoire naturelle et sur-
tout la chimie, fort peu connue de son temps. II fit plu-
sieurs experiences, dont quelques-unes rdussirent. En 1543,
il fut charge' de lever la carte des marais salants de la
Saintonge. Apres 16 ans de peines et d'exp6riences, il
parvint a d^couvrir la composition d'email, ce qui lui merita
d'etre appete" a, Paris et d'avoir un logement au Louvre, oil
il fit onvrir, en 1575, un cours d'histoire naturelle. B
4chappa a la Saint-Barthelemy; mais, quelque temps apres,
les ligneurs le firent mettre en prison comme calviniste."
Trusting to his own arts and designs the cardinal has
selected this accomplished author of beautiful designs, and
told the Manchester people that he lived a hfe of compe
tency and ease, and died under the patronage of that church
which always had fostered science and art ; but on this state
ment being sifted and investigated it turned out that about
99 1-2 per cent, of what a cardinal's infallibility had enabled
him to say was perfectly untrue, and that Palissy died a
prisoner in the Bastile, where he had been confined for his
Protestant opinions, and his love of his Bible. ^
I must give another memorable specimen of the arts and
designs of the cardinal, which came out in carrying on a
controversy with Dr. Turton, the Bishop of Ely, which is
not -v-ery much to his credit. Dr. Wiseman in his lecture
on the Eucharist said, " I have adduced the authority of
the learned Tittman, that our Saviour if not speaking of
the real presence spoke not according to the received usages
and language among his hearers." Now, Dr. Turton, the
accomphshed Bishop of Ely, in his reply said — " The

BUT THE PERSECUTOR OF SCIENCE. 707
learned Tittman thus in his commentary on St. John is cited
by Dr. Wiseman to prove that which he does not prove."
To this reply Dr. Wiseman issued a rejoinder, in which he
said in triumph, "I quoted 'Tittman's Mehtemata Sacra,'
but I suppose the learned Professor Turton was unac
quainted with this work, so like a good controversialist — .
certainly not like a good soldier — he goes to consider
another work of Tittman's, and from that attempts to refute
me. This is his commentary on St. John. The words
from the Meletemata are as clear as those from the commen
tary, nor will any quotation from the latter obscure or in
validate the former." To this Dr. Turton replied, " There
are readers, who, without any intimation from me, will be
aware of my astonishment at the sight of this passage from
Dr. Wiseman's reply; and every reader will ,be enabled to
form such judgment on the subject^ when I state that the
Meletemata Sacra and ' Commentary; on St. John' are one
and the same work. The title of Dr. Tittman's work was
Meletemata Sacra; sive Commentarius in Evangeiium Jo-
annis — a title which declared as distinctly as words can
declare, that the work is a commentary on the gospel of
St. John. I quoted a passage in the Meletemata Sacra;
but having a dislike to hard words, and not imagining that
any one who had even heard of the name of Tittman — to
say nothing of the person who wrote as if he were quite at
home with ' the learned Tittman ' — could be at a loss in the
case, I employed the following terms — 'I have. carefully
examined Tittman's commentary on St. John,' the volume
denominated Meletemata Sacra being declared on the very
title-page to be 'a Commentary on St. John.' No other
¦commentary by Tittman I ever heard of, I will venture
to say, except in Dr. Wiseman's reply, and therefore he
(Dr. Wiseman) never in the whole course of his life had
read or even once consulted the volume called Mehtemata
Sacra ! " I do not quote this piece of tergiversation in

708 ROMANISM NOT THE PATRON
order to cast reproach on Dr. Wiseman, but to justify a
careful canvass of all he says.
Dr. Wiseman is in the habit of asserting in his controver
sial works precisely the opposite of what most people think
ascertained facts. The contradictory spirit is so intense
within him that he cannot help it. He smites and contra
dicts everybody and every thing that either keeps aloof
from or finds fault with the, Romish religion. He is essen
tially, and, as a Romish priest, consistently intolerant. He
treats facts as the Inquisitors, his friends, treat heretics. He
dresses them up in his own colors, and sends them to the
press in this country as he would send their author to the
auto-da-fe in Spain, excommunicated, cursed, and cari
catured. But the great boast of Dr. Wiseman is in the following
sentence : " That science has nowhere flourished more, or
originated more sublime and useful discoveries, than where
it has been pursued under the influence of the Roman Cath
olic religion." After this, one has a right to expect great
scientific productiveness in Spain, in Italy, in Austria, in
Ireland, and among the Romish population of England.
One would expect to find that the two Sicilies had exceeded
the two Saxonies, that Spain had eclipsed Holland, and
that Italy. outshines England. Are these Roman Catholic
countries very productive of Newtons, of Keplers, and of
Davys, or are they so modest as to "blush unseen, and
waste their sweetness on the desert air ; " so that even an
inquisitive cardinal could not find them, notwithstanding the
facility with which, on a late occasion, he had ransacked the
world for witnesses on a very memorable trial, and brought
them out for the glory of mother church by mere word of
mouth. What a pity that he could summon so few scientific
prodigies from the same quarter ! He might have named a
few, or devoutly invented another Palissy, the potter. The
fact is the cardinal must have built his conclusion on the

BUT THE PERSECUTOR OP SCIENCE. 709
instances given in his breviary. There, I admit, we are
beaten. Such were the scientific attainments of Roman
Catholic saints, that one genius, some hundred years ago,
crossed the Mediterranean on his cloak. Where has Prot*
estantism such acquaintance with hydraulics and hydrostat
ics as this ? Hide your heads, ye Wattses and Ericcsons,
and ye Atlantic steamers, in the presence of the talented,
the economical, and the scientific geniuses of the Romish
Church. Another Roman Catholic savant, recorded in Dr.
Wiseman's breviary, had his head cut off in battle. He did
not stick it on again, that would have been an ordinary ex
ploit, but he took his head under his arm, and marched
home with a countenance as composed as if nothing had
happened. The Church of Rome has two heads of John the
Baptist, one in Rome and the other at Amiens, but this is
scientifically explained, — one was the head of John the
Baptist when he was a boy, and the other when he was of
middle age! Such are the scientific attainments of that
church that she possesses as many fragments of the true
cross as, if collected together, would build one of Her
Majesty's 120 gun ships. I need not say that the eyes of
Madonnas are constantly winking and shedding tears, and
that the blood of St. Januarius liquefies on the day dedicated
to his service. In such scientific accomphshments as these
Protestants confess their inferiority, and acknowledge that
Romanists have the preeminence. But these are ancient
things and recorded in the Romish breviary.
Well, I will come to modern things, not yet recorded
in the philosophical transactions of the Royal Society,
and as yet unconnected with the breviary. Dr. Cullen,
chief bishop of the Roman Catholic Church in Ireland, is so
profound and scientific a scholar, that in the year 1851 he
stated his belief that the earth stands still, and the sun,
moon, and stars are so courteous that they make a daily
march round the earth instead of giving the earth the trouble
60

710 ROMANISM NOT THE BATRON
to march round them. This is scientific progress as well as
gallantry. A French priest the other day enunciated the
wonderful discovery, that railroads have been sent as a spe
cial judgment on hotel keepers for providing tlieir guests
with flesh-meat during Lent. This is another specimen of
profound Popish science. In the great metropolis of Chris
tendom — in Rome, where there are no heretics to disturb
the happy and peaceful serenity of the mother church, as
the fountain of all accomplished and scientific discoveries,
gas-lights have not yet been introduced, and when railroads
were proposed to be carried into the holy city, the Pope
sank into his sacred slippers in perfect horror at the very
idea of it, and only at last consented to it provided the pro
ject was carried out with English money. It is very curi
ous that if the Church, of Rome is so great a patroness of
science, its city should continue so little indebted to its pro
ducts, or so superior to its discoveries. The one great
metropolis of the world which is in all the comforts and
conveniences resulting from science a century behind all, is
Rome. But I must investigate the Doctor's deductions in
order to estimate the due force of the strong and unhesitat
ing assertion made by Cardinal Wiseman, that the Church
of Rome is the patroness of science. I will take the
instances adduced by the cardinal. Spectacles, he said,
were invented by Armati, an Italian banker, whereas the
truth is, they were only improved by Armati, and were long
before invented by a foreigner. The discovery of the
barometer he attributes to Torricelli. Let Torricelli have
the credit of it ; but was that discovery made under the
auspices of the Roman hierarchy or with their approbation ?
Did his genius expand under the fostering influence of the
Romish priesthood ? Quite the reverse. It was stated in
the life of that illustrious man, that no sooner did the priest
hood hear of his discovery, and the just and scientific
grounds on which he. explained it, than they fell foul of him

BUT THE PERSECUTOR OP SCIENCE. 711
and furiously attacked him for daring to contradict an infalli
ble, and as they said, a Catholic truth, that " Nature abhors a
vacuum ; " and that the reason why air rushes into an ex
hausted lung, why water rises in the tube of the pump, and
why mercury rises and sinks in the barometer, is that
Nature had an abhorrence of a vacuum. Nature must thus
have appeared to these monastic patrons of science sensi
tively squeamish, fond of a crowd, and averse to quiet. But
Torricelli explained the principle of his barometer on very
different grounds, and Cardinal Wiseman should have stated
that when he did so, he met with the violent opposition of
the priests of the Romish Church. But when Cardinal
Wiseman ascribes electricity to Galvani and Volta, he
eclipses himself in the Turton controversy about Tittman.
He said Galvani and Volta were the great discoverers of
electricity. Volta and Galvani discovered some peculiar
manifestations of the action of electricity ; but as a science,
it had no formal and real shape, until Davy, Oersted, Biot,
and Faraday, took it in hand, and before their day Franklin
and a few others. He might as well have ascribed steam
boats and locomotives to Tubal Cain. But when Cardinal
Wiseman touched astronomy he went beyond all besides.
When he referred to Galileo he seemed to soar beyond him
self and to rise to the third heaven ; but it was on waxen
wings, and his fall was the more terrible in the ratio of the
height to which he so indiscreetly rose. He has transub
stantiated a sufferer at the hands of the Vatican into one
of the indigenous products of the holy Catholic Church.
In short he reads history backwards — he pronounced a
fact, as familiar as was his presence in Leeds when he did
so, to be a fiction ; and really it made him look more like a
cardinal prince of St. im-Pudentia than of St. Pudentia.
His intrusion on the rights and privileges of our Queen and
our Established Church was tolerably bold, but this experi
ment on our patience, this attempt to obhterate history or to

712 ROMANISM NOT THE PATRON.
adapt it to pious uses, looks hke an effort to set up in Eng
land a new Procustes' bed, on which patients are laid and
cut shorter or stretched longer as may be required — not a
bed fitted to the patient, but the patient to the bed. In
short, in the hands of Dr. Wiseman all facts in history, all
laws, all languages, and all arguments must be chopped and
squared to meet the wishes of the Romish Church.
Galileo's history was a ceaseless conflict with a bigoted,
intolerant, and superstitious priesthood. His discovery of
the absurdity of the Aristotelian philosophy, the founder of
which occupied a place second only to the Pope's, led him
to attack that inveterate system ; and for doing that very
thing, as an essential preliminary to sound scientific inquiry,
Nizzoli, who flourished nearly fifty years before, was perse
cuted; and Geordane Bruno, nearly a contemporary, was
burned at Rome for doing what Galileo once more ventured
to attempt. It was the republic at Venice — not the college
of cardinals — who first provided Galileo with a situation as
professor in Padua and a suitable stipend. Such informa
tion on magnetism as Galileo possessed he owned to have
derived from Dr. Gilbert, an Englishman, whose work De
Magnete he exceedingly admired. It was on a visit to a
friend at Venice, in 1609, that he heard that a Dutchman,
Hans Lippersheim, had invented an optical instrument which
had the singular property of causing distant objects to appear
near. This Dutchman had a telescope made by himself in
October, 1 608. Fucarius stated that one of these telescopes
had been brought to Florence long before Galileo's was
made, and Sirturus states that a Frenchman, a partner of
the Dutch inventor, came to Milan in May, 1609, and offered
a telescope for sale to the Count de Fuentes. It was stated
by Sir David Brewster that Galileo was not the inventor of
the telescope, and a more competent scientific judge could
not be quoted than Sir David. Telescopes were invented
in the Protestant country of Holland, and thus one of the

BUT THE PERSECUTOR OP SCIENCE. 713
cardinal's claims, that Galileo invented the telescope, was
disposed of. So unpopular were Galileo's discoveries of the
satelhtes of Jupiter, that the principal professor in Padua
resisted Galileo's entreaties to look through his telescope,
and argued from analogy that what Galileo saw was im
possible. When Galileo brought his telescope to Rome,
some of the cardinals were alarmed, but being the wonder
of the age, out of curiosity alone to see so talented a man,
they did not resist his arrival. Sir David Brewster said,
" the Aristotelian philosophers, the temporizing Jesuits, the
political churchmen, entered into an alliance against Galileo,
and threatened him with the penalties of his scientific dis
covery." In 1613, Galileo having addressed a letter to the
Popish Abb4 Costelli, stating that the Bible was not de
signed to teach science and philosophy, and that the lan
guage of the Scriptures was to be interpreted in its common
interpretation, Caccini, a Dominican friar,, ascended the
pulpit and took for his text what he thought in itself a
splendid argument against Galileo, " Ye men of Galilee,
why stand ye here looking up into heaven ? " It is but fair
to state, however, that Maraffi, the general of the Domini
cans, expressed his regret, while he indicated the extent of
the opposition, by saying he could not be responsible for the
conduct of forty thousand brutal monks.
How was Galileo further treated under the auspices of a
church which was the gracious patroness of science ? He
was summoned to appear at Rome in the year 1615, and
cited before the Inquisition to answer for the heretical doc
trines which he. had published. He was charged with
maintaining the motion of the earth and the stabihty of the
sun. On the 25th of February, 1615, it was decreed that
Galileo should be enjoined by Cardinal Bellarmine to re
nounce his obnoxious doctrines, and to pledge himself neither
to teach them in public nor to defend them in future. In
60*

714 ROMANISM NOT THE PATRON
the event of his refusal to acquiesce in this sentence, it was
decreed that he should be thrown into prison.
Professor Playfair has observed, "The church itself, was
roused into action by reflecting that it had staked the in
fallibility of its judgment on the truth of the very opinions
which were now in danger of being overthrown. Thus was
formed a vast combination of men, not very scrupulous
about the means which they used to annoy their adversaries;
the power was entirely in their hands, and there was nothing
but truth and reason to be opposed to it. . . . It was de
termined to silence by force an adversary who could not be
put down by argument.
" His dialogues contained a full exposition ofthe evidence
of the earth's motion, and set forth the errors of the old, as
well as the discoveries of the new philosophy, with great
force of reasoning, and with the charms of the most lively
eloquence. They are written, indeed, with such singular
felicity, that one reads them at the present .day* when the
truths contained in them are known and admitted, with all
the delight of novelty, and feels one's self carried back to the
period when the telescope was first directed to the heavens,
and when the earth's motion, with ah its train of conse
quences, was proved for the first time. The author of such
a work could not be forgiven. — Galileo, accordingly, was
twice brought before the Inquisition.
" The first time, a council of seven cardinals pronounced
a sentence which, for the sake of those disposed to beheve
that power can subdue truth, ought never to be forgotten :
' That to maintain the sun to be immovable, and without
local motion, in the centre of the world, is an absurd propo
sition, false in philosophy, heretical in religion, and contrary
to the testimony of Scripture. That it is equally absurd
and false in philosophy to assert that the earth is not
immovable in the centre of the world, and, considered theo
logically, equally erroneous and heretical.

BUT THE PERSECUTOR OE SCIENCE. 715
" These seven theologians might think themselves officially
entitled to decide on what was heretical or orthodox in faith,
but that they should determine what was true or false in
philosophy, was an insolent invasion of a territory into
which they had no right to enter, and is a proof how ready
men are to suppose themselves wise, merely because they
happen to be powerful.
" At this time a promise was extorted from Galileo, that
he would not teach the doctrine of the earth's motion, either
by speaking or by writing. To this promise he did not
conform. His third dialogue, published, though not till long
afterwards, contained such a full display of the beauty and
simplicity of the new system, and such an exposure of the
inconsistencies of Ptolemy and Tycho, as completed the
triumph of Copernicus.
"In the year 1663, Galileo, now seventy years old, being
brought before the Inquisition, was forced solemnly to dis
avow his belief in the earth's motion ; and condemned to
perpetual imprisonment, though the sentence was afterwards
mitigated, and he was allowed to return to Florence. The
court of Rome was very careful to publish this second
recantation all over Europe, thinking, no doubt, that it was
administering a complete antidote to the belief of the Coper-
nican system. The sentence, indeed, appears to have
pressed very heavily on Galileo's mind, and he never after
wards either talked or wrote on the subject of astronomy.
Such was the triumph of his enemies, on whom ample ven
geance would have long ago been executed, if the indigna
tion and contempt of posterity could reach the mansions of
the dead."
His libel, as given by Limborch, is : —
"Whereas, you Galileus, of Florence, aged 70, were
informed against in the year 1615, in this holy office, for
maintaining as true a certain false doctrine, held by many,
viz.  that the sun is the centre of the world, and immov

716 ROMANISM NOT THE PATRON
able, and that the earth moves round it with a daily motion.
Likewise; that you: have certain scholars to whom you have
taught the same doctrine. Likewise, that you have kept up
a correspondence with certain German mathematicians con
cerning the same. Likewise, that you have published cer
tain letters concerning the solar spots, in which you have
explained the same doctrine as true, and that you have
answered the objections which, in several places were made
against you, from the authority of the Holy Scriptures, by
construing or glossing over the said Scriptures, according to
your own opinions. And, finally, whereas the copy of a
writing, under the form of a letter, reported to have been
Written by you to one who was formerly your scholar, has
been shown to us, in which you have followed the hypothe
sis of Copernicus, which contains, certain propositions con
trary to the true sense and authority of the Holy Scriptures.
"Now, this holy tribunal, being desirous to provide
against the inconveniences and dangers which this state
ment may occasion, to the detriment of the holy faith, by
the command of the most eminent lords, cardinals, etc. of
this supreme and universal Inquisition, have caused the two
following propositions concerning the immovability of the
sun, and the motion of the earth, to be thus qualified by
the divines, viz. —
" That the sun is the centre of the world and immovable,
with a local motion, is an absurd proposition, false in philos
ophy, and absolutely heretical, because it is expressly con
trary to the holy Scriptures.
" That the earth is neither the centre of the world nor
immovable, but that it possesses a daily motion, is hkewise
an absurd proposition, false in philosophy, and, theologically
considered, at least erroneous in point of faith.
" But, as it pleased us in the first instance to proceed
kindly with you, it was decreed in the said congregation,
held before our lord N. Feb. 25, anno 1616, that the most

BUT THE PERSECUTOR OP SCIENCE. 717
eminent lord cardinal Bellarmine should command you, that
you should entirely depart from the said false doctrine, and
in case you should refuse to obey him, that you should b,e
commanded by the commissary of the holy office, to aban
don the same, and that you should neither teach it to others,
defend it, nor say any thing concerning it, and that, if you
should not submit to this order, you should be put in gaol,"
etc., etc.
After a long account of the errors of Galileo's writings,
their condemnation of the same, and their dealings with the
unhappy author in order to his recantation, the holy fathers
proceed as follows : —
" Invoking, therefore, the most holy name of our Lord
Jesus Christ, and of his most glorious mother, Mary, ever a
virgin, we do, by this our definitive sentence, which, sitting
in our tribunal, we pronounce in these writings, with the
advice and judgment of the reverend masters, doctors of
divinity, and both laws, with whom we have consulted con
cerning the cause and causes now depending before us,
between the magnificent Carolus Sincerus, doctor of both
laws, and procurator of the exchequer of this holy office,
of the one part, and you Galileus Galilei, a criminal here,
under the power of the Inquisition, by this present written
process, examined and confessed as above, ofthe other part;
We do say, judge, and declare, that you, the aforesaid Gali
leus, have, upon account of those things, which are pro
duced in the written process, and which you have confessed
as above, subjected yourself to a strong suspicion of heresy
in this holy office, by believing and holding to be true a doc
trine which is false and contrary to the sacred and divine
Scripture; viz. — that the sun is the centre of the orb of
the earth, and does not move from the east to the west ; and
that the earth moves, and is not the centre of the world;
and that these things may be considered and defended as
probable opinions, although they have been declared and

718 ROMANISM NOT THE PATRON
determined to be contrary to the sacred Scripture; and,
consequently, that you have incurred all the censures and
penalties appointed and promulgated by the sacred canons,
and other general and particular acts against such offenders ;
from which it is our pleasure that you should be absolved,
provided that you do first, with a sincere heart, and a true
faith, abjure, curse, and detest, before us, the aforesaid
errors and heresies, and every other error and heresy con
trary to the Catholic and apostolic Roman Church, in the
form which shall be prescribed to you by us."
In order to arrest the " progress of science and the dis
coveries it was introducing, and in order to do so effectually,
they inserted in the Index Galileo's letters to Castelli, and
to the Grand Duchess of Tuscany, Kepler's epitome of the
Copernican theory, and the work of Copernicus on the revo
lution of the heavenly 'bodies. That the conduct of Galileo
was otherwise correct, and his orthodoxy otherwise pure
was attested by Pope Urban VIII., in a letter to the Grand
Duke of Tuscany, containing the following words — " We
find in him the love of piety ; we have willed to give him
this honorable testimony °f virtue and piety." Galileo not
ceasing to teach the new theory, Urban VHI. referred his
work to the Inquisition. Old and sick, the philosopher was
dragged to Rome, again condemned to be imprisoned by the
holy tribunal of the Inquisition during its pleasure. To
escape being burned, which would have been his doom, he
laid his hand on the holy gospels — he did that which noth
ing could justify — and abjured and detested his deliberate
convictions, and vowed never again to teach the doctrine of
the earth's motion and of the sun's stability.
I ask from these facts, is it true that Galileo either dis
covered his problems, or was able to elucidate or institute
his discoveries under the fostering patronage of a Pope, the
Inquisition, the cardinals, bishops, or priests of that day ?
Such is the love of science in the bosom of Dr. Wiseman's

BUT THE PERSECUTOR OP SCIENCE. 719
church that, ecclesiastically considered, Galileo died as a
prisoner of the Inquisition, and that horrible tribunal
doubted his right to make a will, and whether he could be
buried in consecrated ground ; and though a large sum was
subscribed for erecting a monument to him in the church
Santa Croce, the Pope would not allow the design to be
carried out, and his remains were buried in an obscure nook
of the church, and Were thirty years without a tablet.
Cardinal Wiseman says, Galileo suffered for his religion,
and not for his scientific opinions. Were that the fact, it
would only more deeply and darkly brand the Romish
Church ; for by the mouth of one of her prominent bishops
she is charged with inflicting penal judgments, imprison
ment, and deprivation of Christian burial on men for hold
ing certain religious sentiments, and even after renunciation
for the error of reading God's Word and inferring its mean
ing. The cardinal thus relieves his church from the charge
of proscribing science, by branding her with the more terri
ble crime of crushing liberty and conscience and true reli
gion. Both charges can be substantiated against her, but in
this case — the case of Galileo — it was not Protestantism,
but science ; not a religious truth, but a scientific fact that
Rome denounced, and by the mouth of some of her sons
denounces even to this day. The monks and inquisitors
were perfectly indifferent to science and religion too. Only
any fact disclosed by the one, or doctrine educed from the
great formularies of the other that threatened, or could be
construed to disturb, the domination and supremacy of the
Vatican, Pope, and prelate, and inquisitor, and monk hunted
down without mercy, and at any risk. Statuary and paint
ing Rome always encouraged. These are parts of her
service, the decorations of her system ; essential, in order to
conceal its errors, and to add to its alien but attractive glo
ries. In these there is scarcely any possibility of embody
ing heresy. Protestants do not require for their sanctuaries

720 ROMANISM NOT THE PATRON
painters and statuaries of a scripture character, or a tradi
tional martyr ; the one is not necessarily hostile to Roman
ism, and the other positively allied. Destitute of the inner
spiritual and moral glory; exhausted of vital and growing
strength; dependent on earthly and material resources,
Romanism gathers round her all that could charm the vul
gar, propitiate the tasteful, and awaken admiration, even if
at the expense of holy, and saving, and sanctifying feeling.
Like the ancient Egyptian temples, the creeping things of
the Nile may be the gods within, but all the resources of
artistic genius are combined in giving grandeur and magnifi
cence without. Italy, in spite of Popery, is beautiful ; and
were it not for the repressive power of the Popedom, its
modern would eclipse its ancient glory. Its soil and its sun
are splendid; its antecedents and traditional glories are
sufficient to stir colder hearts than those that beat in Italian
bosoms. But it is rather singular that the cardinal scarcely alluded
to the poets of his beloved Rome and scientific Italy. Why
did he not mention Dante, Petrarch, Ariosto, Tasso ? It
might have reminded his hearers that in the fourteenth cen
tury Rome had not a single copy of Homer, and that Pe
trarch was overwhelmed with joy on receiving one from the
Greeks. It might have reminded his audience of Petrarch's
sonnet — Fontana di dolore, albergo d' ira,
Scola d' errori, e tempio d' heresia,
Gia Roma, hor Babilonia, falsa e ria,
Per cui tanto piange e si sopira ;
0 fucina d' inganni, o prigion d' ira
Ovi a buon muore et i mal si nutre e criaj
Di vivi inferno! un gran miracolo sia
Se Christo teco al fine non s' adira.
" Fountain of grief, abode of anger, school of errors, and
temple of heresy ; formerly Rome, now Babylon, false and

BUT THE PERSECUTOR OP SCIENCE. 721
guilty, through whom there are so many tears and sighs ;
mistress of deceit, of prisons of wrath, where the good
perish and the bad are cherished and engendered ; hell of
the living ! it will be a great marvel if Christ is not angry
with thee at last." * We cannot rest upon painting and
music when the great struggle comes ; we must fall back
upon the press, and poetry lived by the press, therefore
poetry and the Church of Rome have never been very good
friends. No wonder that Cardinal Wiseman did not in his
lecture speak of the poets : they were too outspoken for
him. Even the celebrated Pope, a Romanist, had been
obliged to write —
" See Rome, proud mistress of the world no more,
But loudly thundering against heathen lore ;
Her gray-haired synods damning books unread,
And Bacon trembling for his brazen head ;
See graceless Venus to a virgin turned,
And Phidias broken, and Apollos burned;
A second deluge learning thus o'erran,
And the monks finished what the Goths began."
But it must not be forgotten, that almost all the discov
eries in science quoted by Cardinal Wiseman as the growth
of Italy under Romish patronage, occurred subsequent to
the glorious Reformation. Is not this suggestive evidence ?
M. Biot, in his announcement of the third volume of the
great work of Laplace confirms all I have said, and seems
to regard the Reformation as the true parent of progress
in scientific knowledge. He says, "About two hundred
years ago a man of genius, for having discovered and col
lected the incontestable proofs of the motion of the earth,
was condemned as a heretic to perpetual imprisonment by a
court of the Inquisition. Now, a complete treatise on the
celestial motions is published without restraint. Its illus-
* Petr. Part. I., Son. 108, p. 149, vol. 4. Basil. 1581.
61

722 ROMANISM NOT THE PATRON
trious author beholds the sciences honored in his person by
the first dignitaries of the state — how much progress in so
short a time, and how vast a space gone over since the days
of Galileo ! " This admission by an illustrious man of
science implies that ascendant Romanism is hostile to
science, and that the same glorious event that opened the
Bible led forth imprisoned science also. It was under
the protecting wings of the Reformation that the Keplers,
the Newtons, the Laplaces, the Faradays, and others had
been able to pursue tlieir investigations. Wherever the
Eeformation has spread, the apparatus of censures, the
indices, and the Inquisition have disappeared. Reason has
taken the place of force ; discussion has dislodged inqui
sition ; and men think and study, and give forth the
result, satisfied with the patronage of a fair, full, and ample
opportunity. Before Cardinal Wiseman can prove the ex
travagant position he has laid down, he must extinguish
three hundred years, and after he has done so it will be to
introduce the world to science, breaking forth in irrepressible
might in spite of the repressive presence, not in consequence
of the fostering patronage of the Popedom.
Thus we have seen how many of the discoveries in
science claimed for Italian Romanists by Cardinal Wiseman,
disappear and dissolve in clearer light, and how very de
fective must be the scientific triumphs of Rome, since such
are her chiefest, if not her only proofs. But the truth is,
Italy never received from Romanism any thing but degra
dation, imprisonment, proscription, and misery. To ascribe
to the influence of Romanism whatever genius has struck
out or research disclosed, in the Italian Peninsula, is as
absurd as to attribute to the influence of Protestantism the
Papal aggression. There is sunshine and balmy air in
Italy,and vineyards and hills clothed with lovely vegetation
to their summits, but Italy, not Romanism, is the parent of
all this beauty. There are magnificent remains of statuary

• BUT THE PERSECUTOR OP SCIENCE. 723
and architecture and ancient art, yet not the Popes but the
Cassars have any credit for them. The few scientific men
that dared to show themselves in Italy arose like .scattered
tall trees amid swamps and an undergrowth of noxious vege
tation, indicating that inherent, indomitable vitality and force
which . no hostile elements could repress. Fevrier and
Jacques, I ought to have added, two French commentators
on Sir Isaac Newton, even so late as 1742, prefixed to his
Principia this declaration — "Newton assumed in this book
the hypothesis of the earth's motion. The proposition of
that author could not be explained otherwise than by making
the same hypothesis. Hence we have been forced to .admit
a character not our own. But we declare our submission to
the decrees directed by the Romish pontiffs against the
motion of the earth." But I will carry the .cardinal to an
epoch and a social condition when Rome had it all her own
way. From the sixth to the sixteenth century Romanism was
in the ascendant, its power was absolute, heresy of any kind
barely disturbed it. Surely, then, these ages, all moving
under the influence of the Tiara, were ages of unrivalled
glory, and Europe was a garden of wondrous and beautiful
creations ? Alas ! human nature never sunk lower ; as to ig
norance, religion, and scientific and literary pursuits the at
mosphere was never so thick. " The dark ages " is a feeble
description of that state of things. Hildebrand, in a letter
to the Abbot of Cluny, says, " The Romans among whom I
dwell are worse than Jews and Pagans." King Alfred
complained that there was not a priest from the Humber to
the Thames who understood the liturgy in his mother
tongue, or who could translate the easiest piece of Lath>!
and that from the Thames to the sea ecclesiastics were, if
possible, more ignorant. Hallam says that contracts were
verbal, because no one could be found learned enough to ,
draw up charters. Leo X. issued the most severe prohibi-

724 ROMANISM NOT THE PATRON
tions against books translated from Greek, Hebrew, or
Arabic. Learning was all but quenched in places coexten
sive with the jurisdiction of Popedom, and the spread and
influence of the Romish faith. It was the Greek monks, —
schismatics in the judgment of Dr. Wiseman, — who repu
diated the pretensions of the Popedom, who transcribed
Homer and Plato in their cells; and it was schismatic
Greek scholars that fled towards Italy on the fall of Con
stantinople, who rekindled the lights of literature in dark,
degenerate, and priestridden Italy. The last retreats of
knowledge and literature were not in Italy, nor in Spain,
nor within the limits of the Western Church, but amid the
heights of Athos, the peaks of Meteora, the caves of Arca
dia ; and if the schismatic Greek Church had not nursed the
learning that this barbarous priesthood of Rome trod out,
Italy, and Spain, and England, had probably sunk as low as
Egypt and Babylon and Nineveh. Most assuredly a New
ton, a Franklin, a Locke, a Shakspeare, a Milton, never
would have emerged out of the stagnant swamps, and from
under the priest infected air of the religion of Hildebrand.
During these dark ages, the Mahomedan in the East was
far more enlightened than the Romanists were ; Caliphs
could have instructed Cardinals, and Arabs, Romans. Ma-
homedanism sheltered what the church of Cardinal Wise
man persecuted and proscribed. Dante and Petrarch com
posed their works in exile ; Bocaccio bitterly complains of
the persecution of which he was the victim ; Machiavelli
was persecuted by the Medici ; Guicciardini wrote his his
tory in voluntary, yet in inevitable banishment; Ariosto
lived in beggary ; Tasso died in despair and want. Yet
these celebrated men were so treated under the fostering
care of Romanism. The Inquisition of Cologne obtained
an imperial edict to burn all Hebrew books; and one of
them, Hochshaten, wanted to prove, in reference to the
Romish Church, that the study of Greek as well as Hebrew

BUT THE PERSECUTOR OP SCIENCE. 725
was pernicious to its faith. Even the faculty of Theology
at Paris declared that religion was ruined if the study of
Greek and Hebrew was permitted. The words of a men
dicant monk, as given by Conrad, of Heresbach, are:
"They have invented a new language, which they call
Greek. You must be carefully on your guard against it ;
it is the mother of all heresy. I see in the hands of men a
book written in that language, which they called the New
Testament ; it is full of daggers and poison. As to the
Hebrew, it is certain that all those who learn it become
Jews." Further, the Church of Rome has drawn up indices, and
has put in the Index Prohibitorius almost every noble work
which has proceeded from the pen of man. All the religious
writings of Protestants we may, of course, expect to be there.
But not merely the religious, but the ethical and literary
productions of Protestant authors are proscribed. Among
those are all the modern authors of eminence. In theology
— Wycliffe, Luther, Calvin, Sherlock, ' Tillotson, Fisher,
Whitby, Prideaux, and Michaelis ; in scholarship — Scali-
ger, Campanella, Savanarola, Fleury, Lightfoot, Dupin,
Bayle, Cudworth ; among the historians — Hallam, Robert
son, Hume, Burnett, Maimebourg, Mosheim, Merle D'Au-
bigne. The only historian she has left out is the infidel, Gib
bon. Why is not Gibbon there ? Because infidelity and
Romanism — like sin and death, as seen by the poet, Milton
— at first thought they were the most distant, hostile per
sons ; but when they came together to compare notes, they
found they were intimately, and almost closely related to
each other. Thus we may expect that while infidelity was
at the bottom of the excesses which were committed in 1793,
it will be discovered at the last day that Voltaire, Rousseau,
and others of that stamp, were the guilty but unfortunate
victims of a teaching with which the Jesuits had imbued the
mind from its earliest and most susceptible moments. In

726 ROMANISM NOT THE PATRON
this index are also included the philosophers — Bacon,
Bentham, Malebranche, Leibnitz, Condorcet, Hobbes, Locke,
Kant, Reid. Among the defenders of Christianity are
Addison and Grotius ; Newton, and all the astronomers ;
Dean Swift, of course; Dante, Milton, and Beranger
amongst the poets; there was not a celebrated poet or
literary character which they could not find here. Grant
an old priest at Rome — not always the wisest — the power
of prohibiting the circulation of any work that crosses his
prejudices, his preferences, and his passions ; and it is im
possible that science can flourish under the influence of the
Roman Cathohc religion. It is recorded that a printer,
who had once printed a heretical book, had all the books he
printed condemned. In a work of Ignatius Loyola, edited
by Cardinal Wiseman, we read : " If the church decree to
be black what you see white, you are bound to believe it
black." This Dr. Wiseman has sanctioned and published.
This prostration of the intellect ; this extinction of all per
sonality, and absorption in Rome, is fatal to all intellectual
and scientific progress. The celebrated Niebuhr, a compe
tent and impartial judge, writing from Rome, Sept. 24,
1816, says: "I have been acquainted with two or three lit
erary men, of real ability ; but they are old men, who have
only a few years to live ; and when they are gone, Italy
will be, as they say themselves, in a state of barbarism."
On the 30th October, 1818, he wrote: "Rome is a terrible
place for any one who is melancholy, because it contains no
living person present to relieve the sense of sadness. The
present is revolting ; there are not even any remains of the
cloud of the Middle Ages. There is only one man of talent
and mental activity here - — an old ex-Jesuit, on the borders
of the grave ; and he repeats the verdict which I have
already heard — Italia e spenta e un corpo morto ; which
means, 'My Italy is exhausted, and has become a dead
corpse.'" In May, 1819, he wrote: "Learning and lit-

BUT THE PERSECUTOR OP SCIENCE. 727
erature are at a lower ebb than, perhaps, in any other
country." But, were the Church of Rome the most illustrious patron
of science, this would be no proof of its apostolic and scrip
tural character. JfThe Hindoos are distinguished for scien
tific attainments ; but Hindooism is still wrong. The Chinese
make such attainments a passport to office ; yet the doctrines
of Confucius are not, therefore, to be considered right.
Fallen angels know more than Faraday and other scientific
men ; but they are fallen angels still. Let it never be for
gotten that knowledge, science, and literature are mere
power ; but the knowledge of God and of his Son is everlast
ing peace. The boy that knows of no other curve than that
generated by trundling his hoop, may be a better Christian
than he who is profoundly versed in the laws and nature of
cycloidal curves.
Where civil freedom is swallowed up by ecclesiastical
despotism ; where the Pope is also prince, and a camarilla
of cardinals his only parliament; where infallibility pro
nounces its decisions ; where there is a religion that crushes
free inquiry, and fears the light ; where discussion is sup
pressed ; and, above all, where free conclusions of the in
tellect may be punished with confiscation of goods, imprison
ment, and death — there science must perish, and literature
wither, and the Middle Ages become the normal condition
of mankind. In one of the very recent encyclical letters of
the Pope, liberty of conscience and freedom of the press are
denounced as detestable errors. In this great land, and
under the auspices of our Queen — our constitutional sove
reign — opinion is free as air; talent is not only allowed
but welcomed into the field of competition; there is an
audience for any one who has aught to say ; there is a pat
ronage for literature and science far more precious than
Popes ever gave — even the patronage of a fair opportunity
to all.

728 ROMANISM NOT THE PATRON, ETC.
If I may venture to unfold the venerable auspices of my
native land, or to cast its great horoscope in that sky in .
which so many nations have waxed and waned ; if I may
inquire whether its streets shall be trod, and its fields sown,
and its looms worked, and its arts and sciences, and literature
upheld by a people worthy to speak the tongue of Milton,
and to inherit the renown of Newton ; whether we shall
continue the loyal supporters of a throne still rooted as the
granite rock, and the loving subjects of a Queen beautiful
as the flower that blooms on it — I must first ascertain the.
depth, and fervor, and spring of its Protestant Christianity.
Is'i it drawn pure from the Bible ? Thanks be to God for
that blessed Book. Let no Romanist darken its glorious
light ; let not a shadow come between it and us. I enter
the sanctuary a prodigal, but a penitent prodigal, seeking
my Father's face ; and there, in its sacred pages, instead of
reading preparations to punish me, I find a joyous festival ;
and, instead of rebukes, I hear ringing from the skies,
" This my son was lost and is found, was dead and is alive
again." This blessed Book tells me that the fires of Sinai
are quenched, and the sword returned to the scabbard ; and
the cherubim, that once bade me off from the gates of Eden,
are now ministering spirits to the heirs of salvation.